Independence, Dependence and Inter-Dependence

Independent, dependent, interdependent, the title of the sermon. Independent, independence, dependent, interdependence. On July the 4th, 1776, 56 bold, freedom-loving men signed the famous Declaration of Independence. Have you ever wondered what happened to those men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ramshacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or other hardships in the Revolutionary War. The United States has been known as the land of the free and the home of the brave. Our soldiers have gone to war for decades under the mantra of securing freedom for the peoples of the world. Remember the title of today's sermon, Independence, Dependent, Interdependence. So let's define our terms, independence. The state of not having to rely on outside sources for sustenance, self-sustaining, freedom from control, freedom from dependence on or controlled by another person, organization, or state. Dependent, the state of relying on someone or something to meet certain needs, as in the case of family member who is supported financially by another, especially one living in the same house, a nation, state, organization, institution that must rely on resources outside their boundaries and systems to sustain itself. Interdependent, relying on mutual assistance, support, cooperation, or interaction among constituent parts or members, in the vernacular we say we depend on each other.

God and Jesus Christ are the only two beings that have inherent immortality abiding within them. Inherit immortality. You look at John 5.26, of course John 5.24 says, if God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Brethren, what we have to say here today, you will not hear. This may be the only time you will hear it. I've given versions of this in the past, and I'm sure it's forgotten by most, and even those who may have heard some parts of this, that, or the other.

In John 5 and verse 26, once again, God and Jesus Christ are the only two beings that have inherent immortality abiding within them. Inherit means it's ever-present, it's been there from the beginning. Now, of course, Jesus Christ was crucified. He died. He was in the tomb three days and three nights. He was resurrected from the dead as a glorious, radiant spirit being, a life-giving spirit, became the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead, Romans 5, verse 3.

And when that resurrection took place, of course, he was restored to the glory he had with the Father before the world began. He prayed in John 17, verse 5, that upon being crucified, that he would be restored to the glory that he had with the Father before the world began. In John 5, verse 26, for as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. So they're the only two beings that have this spirit life of immortality abiding within.

You say, well, what about the angels? The angels were created beings at a certain period in time, whereas God the Father and the one who became Jesus Christ exist in eternity, having neither Father nor Mother beginning or end of days. On the other hand, the whole creation and living creatures depend upon God for their sustenance.

Let's look at Acts 17. In Acts 17, remember all the way through the title, Independence, Dependent, Interdependence. In Acts 17, verse 24, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwells on in temples made by hands, neither is worship with men's hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he gives to all life and breath and all things, and hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

I'll say more about that later. God divided the sons of Noah, the families of Noah, into their various inheritance, told them to go out, multiply, be fruitful, and replenish the earth, that they should seek the Lord if happily they might feel after him and find him, though he be not far from everyone. For in him we live and move and have our being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring.

So the only two totally independent beings, God the Father and Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 1, we note further along these lines with regard to being independent and dependent. Hebrews 1, verse 1, God, who at sundry times, in different ways, spoke in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by a son whom he of the appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, wouldn't exist, apart from God the Father and Jesus Christ, the material world, the spiritual world, or the world of flesh, as we might call it, who, being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

Human beings can experience some degree of independence, but all human beings are dependent and interdependent. In order for a nation to be independent, it must possess all the resources necessary to sustain life for its people. Many areas of the world possess the necessary resources to sustain life with food, clothing, shelter, and water being absolute necessities. This also means cultivatable land, a favorable climate, or a food supply from the seas, as in the case of Eskmos and a few other ethnic groups.

But the United States possesses more of the necessities for a high standard of living than any nation on the face of the earth. Thus, we could say that the United States is the most independent nation on the face of the earth. Of course, this independence was gained as we observed this day, July 4, as Independence Day, at great sacrifice on the part of a lot of people.

Yet, with each passing day, we become more and more dependent and interdependent. We lost our independence a long time ago as a nation. Now we have lost many of our freedoms, and big brothers watching and listening to everything we do, everything we say. And I might add, we have lost our innocence and self-respect. It took five years of bloody battles against the British forces of King George III, before Washington's army attained America's independence at great battle at Yorktown. And that was the aid of the French. The U.S. borrowed some $75 million from the French, and the French also supplied troops as well.

The Founding Fathers left one very negative legacy, not celebrated on Independence Day, but which affects us all. It's the national debt, as I've already referred to. The United States went into debt the first time in 1790, when it assumed $75 million in war debts of the Continental Congress. Alexander Hamilton, listen to what Hamilton said, he was the first Secretary of the Treasury. A national debt, if not excessive, will be to us a national blessing. Some blessing. Now, there's really no way to put a figure on national debt.

They have put it officially somewhere between $18 and $19 trillion, but it's really much more than that. Since then, the nation has only been free of debt once. From 1834 to 1835, it was during the presidency of that man they called Old Hickory, Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. After the war, Washington and his aide Alexander Hamilton knew that the 13 states, while politically independent, were dependent to some degree upon Europe for the necessities of their national life.

He didn't yet have the text on meals and producing clothing, and farmland was scarce, and they were beginning to clear the land and be able to cultivate crops and to live in communities and eventually towns. Whereas, of course, the Indians lived off the land and were, in a sense, nomadic kind of people, and were able, having done this for decades, maybe centuries, were able to live off the land, but not the Europeans who came to the U.S.

They were still, to a large degree, dependent upon Europe for many necessities. And, as we noted earlier, without French ships and guns, French muskets and troops, the Americans could have not forced Cornwallis to surrender at Yorktown. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, both Washington and Hamilton were determined to make America's political independence permanent and to begin to cut the umbilical cord to Europe. In the Constitution that came out of that convention, the states were prohibited from imposing any tariffs on the products of other states. And you had what is called an interstate commerce, that is, trade between the states without tariffs, without any kind of barriers.

Thus creating, up to that time in history, the greatest common market in history up to that time, the 13 colonies, became the United States of America. Secondly, the U.S. government was empowered to raise revenue by imposing tariffs on foreign goods, but explicitly denied the power to impose taxes on the incomes of American citizens. There were no income tax for decades in the U.S. Now the president and politicians cry, free trade, free market systems, supply and demand economics. There's really no such thing as free trade, and perhaps you've taken a course in economics, I doubt it, but anyhow.

There's really no such thing as free trade or the total economy being controlled by supply and demand. Those who espouse that claim that self-regulating markets are ways to economic prosperity. Just let it float out there, supply and demand will control it. Well, guess what happens?

The big folks swallow up the small folks. When we moved to Big Sandy in 1891, actually it was 1969. In fact, it was July of 1969, 46 years ago. There was a movie theater downtown, there was a drugstore, there was a doctor who had an office in Big Sandy. There were other things, even probably a Dairy Queen. Now, eventually, Big Sandy became known as the liquor capital of East Texas.

Now it's known as the crawfish capital. Anywhere I go, like I went into a store yesterday in Longview, and eventually, it's, where are you from? I said, Big Sandy, have you ever been to that crawfish place up there? I always get that ask. But the small towns, and the mom and pop stores and all of that, disappeared.

Now, when Sam Walton came on the scene up in Arkansas, and he began the discount stores, small first of all, in northern Arkansas, and then eventually spreading around the world, we thought that was a great thing. We didn't have to pay the price of the mom and pop stores. But what did we give up? So the president and politicians cry, free trade, free market systems, supply and demand economics, claiming that the markets will regulate themselves.

That foolishness has resulted in a very few corporations controlling the wealth of the world. The wealth of the world is 75% or so, is basically controlled by a few corporations, and then if you put it down to individuals, about 90% of the wealth of the world is controlled by, say, 5 or 10% of the peoples of the world.

Almost every day you hear of another merger or buyout as the big boys swallow up their competitors. Globalization and world community are the watchwords of the day. The nations of the world have returned to the Tower of Babel. English is the language of Babylon, today's Babylon, with over 70% of the world's business conducted in English. You see the diplomats, the world leaders, interviewed from those in the Middle East to those in China, Japan, around the world.

They're speaking English, pretty good English in most cases. Most of the leaders there in the Middle East, the various, quote, royal families, and schooled at Ivy League schools, or places like Stanford and University of Chicago, and places like that. Most Americans are not aware, and if aware, have not accepted the reality of globalization. In simplest terms, globalization means that the world's economies are linked together. Satan and his minions, sometimes called the elite, have created a system in which the nations are dependent, and dependent, they're dependent, and interdependent on each other.

A lot of nations are almost totally dependent on imported goods coming in. If Greece is not able to pay for the imports that come into the country that provide many of the necessities for life for them, they're in deep trouble. Globalization is the name for the increasing of the world's businesses through interdependent kind of relationships. This process has speeded up dramatically in the last three decades or so, as technology made it easier to communicate and to do business internationally, and especially through the internet. In the meantime, Americans are taxed and controlled more and more with each passing day.

Now, of course, with this, there have developed these powerful lobbyists who represent the corporations in so many things. Let's say that a refinery down on the Gulf Coast is polluting the Gulf. You have lobbyists there who are pressuring Congress not to pass laws that would impede their ability to do business and dump their waste products into the rivers and streams. The hog farmers in North Carolina spoiling those beautiful little creeks and rivers that ran through North Carolina, they finally got a little bit of action taking place there to control somewhat the waste from the hog farms.

We have become a dependent nation. We have borrowed from China and Japan to the point that we're awash and ready with a government talking about defaulting on its debts. The truth is, and we all know it, a national debt will never be paid off. We borrow from China to buy Chinese goods, go to Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, you name it, department store, and see if you can find a way to get the money. Or see if you can find goods that say, made in the U.S. Of course there are some. Japan and China are holding billions in U.S. reserve currencies. According to the Treasury Department, which updates the number to the penny every few days, the national debt is, we've already mentioned, somewhere around $18 trillion.

Technically, we're at the mercy of foreign lenders, so why doesn't the U.S. collapse in on itself? Well, that's where interdependence comes in. The $64,000 question. The answer lies in this story. There is an old monkey tail from Africa that is very pertinent to the world's financial system. It goes like this. The native hunters there use a special jar to catch wild monkeys.

When a monkey sees a hunter approaching, the monkey instinctively climbs up the nearest tree. The hunter then places an earthen jar at the base of the tree, a very heavy pottery kind of thing jar, with a hole at the top just big enough for the monkey to get its hand or paw, whatever you want to call it into. So the hunter then places the earthen jar at the base of the tree along with a handful of rice inside the jar.

Then he walks away and hides nearby. Eventually, the monkey climbs down from the tree. Curiosity takes over. He just has to reach into that jar. The monkey smells the rice inside the jar and instinctively shoves his hand inside to grab a handful of rice. The hunter who is watching this scene immediately walks toward the monkey. The monkey sees the hunter coming, but soon discovers that he cannot pull his hand out of the jar while holding a fistful of rice.

The monkey can't put the two facts together. As the hunter gets closer and closer, the monkey struggles frantically trying to escape, but in vain. It cannot, because the monkey won't let go of the handful of rice. In the end, the result is quite predictable. All is lost. The monkey is caught along with the original handful of rice in the jar. And so, the nations of the world are many of them in that position today. Greece goes to the polls tomorrow to decide if they are going to hold on to the rice or let it go. For the nations, corporations, and individuals struggling to survive, the rice is the credit or money that is loaned to them by the government banks.

I doubt Greece is going to say, no, they are going to hold on to the rice. And as it gets more loans, it will become more deeply entrenched, more deeply enslaved, more deeply in debt. The system is designed by Satan and the devil in his poems, the so-called elite, to use that system. The world is basically enslaved. Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Italy, and there are other nations as well, are basically in the same position.

If Greece votes no tomorrow and lets go of the symbolic rice, they will have no cash to purchase the necessities of life. So it's the IOUs and eventually their own currency, and that currency won't be worth much of anything. What will it do on the world scene? It will probably be laughed at. It will be a hard road home. And Greece has an economy equal to that of South Carolina, one state out of the 50 in the U.S. But at the same time, that debt, if not paid, will send shockwaves through the world's economic system. So the peoples of the world have basically been enslaved without the bankers firing a shot. Yes, we have asymmetrical warfare going on in the world today. It's not the regular warfare that you used to hear about, like World War I. They dug trenches. Have you ever heard of anything as stupid as World War I? They dug ditches across trenches, imagined no line, got in the trenches, and the rain in the slop, and here one side would charge the other side, and finally they would kill each other back in two.

Similar thing happened in the Civil War, the uncivil war between the states. There is no independent nation today, no not one, and the nations of the world make up one giant common market. There are trading units within the world's common market, the European Union, or this North American Trade Union, CITO, Southeastern Asian Treaty Organization. Now they're trying to develop a Euro-Asian cooperation, and basically they're doing it being led by Russia, extending from Belarus, former Russian satellite, all the way back into the courageous stands and Turkmena stands and all that in Western Asia. And yes, there are so-called underground economies, and yes, the Chinese and Russians are trying to replace the dollar as a world's reserve currency. But if China could not trade with the US and Europe, millions of Chinese would face starvation within a few months. Now the same resources are there. I mean, the same resources will be in Greece Monday morning, regardless of the way the election goes, and the same resources will be here in Big Sandy Monday morning. But if you're broke, if you don't have any money, you can't buy anything. The means of trade, that's to a large degree what the bankers did in the Great Depression. The means of trade were taken away, and you could not buy and sell. So they would be facing what Greece is facing right now. Most people did not even begin to understand how complex and fragile the world's economic system really is. I mean, there are all kinds of voices. Even now, almost every webpage I go to has this guy, Ron Paul, giving an infomercial on the world's economy is about to collapse, and you better prepare now. You know Ron Paul ran for president, the famous libertarian from South Texas, and his son now, Rand Paul, is running for the presidency of the Republican nomination, and he holds some of the same views as his father, but not as radical as his father. So there are wars and rumors of war. People are dying, but the real battles as to who will control the world's gold is being waged every day in the world's great financial centers. Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, London, Frankfurt, Paris. Really no great financial centers in the Middle East, per se. Some great ones in Asia. You also have the Dax in Germany. You have the one in Hong Kong and Singapore, Shanghai.

But most people don't understand how complex and fragile the world's system is. The age-old adage of he who controls the gold makes the rules as true today as it ever was. So who is the author of this system? Let's go to Revelation 18. In Revelation 18, there's a warning to us that Revelation is a book of events that are to occur at the end of this age, basically speaking. Most of it is yet to take place. Obviously, some of it is historical. In Revelation 18.1, And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon, the great has fallen, has fallen, has become the habitation of devils, in the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk the wine of the fornication, the wrath of her fornication. I mean, do you read over that? All nations, that's what I'm talking about, globalization, dependent, interdependent, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Barrier major corporations, 75% of the world's wealth, via so-called elite, control 90% or more of the world's wealth, and wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another boy from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached unto heaven, and that God hath remembered her iniquities.

And it goes on talking about what all this system has done, and what's going to happen, and it's going to be destroyed. So as we look at our world today, we must never forget that spiritual warfare is being waged in high places. Look at Ephesians 6, verses 10 and 12, 10 through 12. Ephesians 6. In Ephesians 6, verse 10, there are no more wars than the warfares being waged in heavenly places in the invisible world. As we note in Daniel, chapters 9, 10 and 11, where Daniel prayed that he would understand the 70 weeks prophecy. One was sent to reveal to him the answer, but he was delayed by the prince one of the powerful demons, 21 days before he could get there. Then after finally shaking loose and coming to Daniel, he tells Daniel, Well, I've got to go now because now I've got to go fight the prince of Persia. So great warfare is being waged. Satan has not been deterred from his insatiable quest to thwart the plan of God, become the object of worship. And ultimately, the goal of destroying humankind, his plan continues to move along seemingly unabated. And there are so many who are willing to jump in and help him. Ironically, their mantra, their scare cry is, we must do this to save the earth. Oh, we have this climate change. We have these terrorists. We've got to do this or we're not going to be here. And so you're willing to give up your freedom. We must save the planet. The planet is being destroyed. I mean, the Black Sea is practically dead. A lot of bodies of water are practically dead. And one of the reasons for God and Christ to come and take control of the government of the earth is to stop those who are destroying the earth. So there is destruction going on of the earth and the environment. Now, the federal government is regulations. We can talk about that, and some of them are ridiculous and unbelievable. But at the same time, the earth is being destroyed according to the Bible. Now, let's look at it. Look at Revelation 11. No, I'm not a tree hugger. I don't love Mother Gaia, the earth. I'm not a part of the green movement. But I mean, you'd have to be stupid not to realize, understand what is happening to the environment and to the quality of life of so many people around the world.

In Revelation 11, verse 15, in the seventh angel sounded, there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. The twenty-four elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and was and are to come, because you have taken to you your great power and have reigned. What's it going to do? And the nations were angry.

And your wrath has come in the time of the dead that they should be judged. The time of the dead that they should be judged.

And that you should give reward unto your servants, the prophets, to the saints. And then that fear your name, small and great, and should destroy them which destroy the earth.

And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His Testament, and there were lightnings and thunderings and an earthquake and great hail.

Now theposted, the lone wolf terrorists. The past few days I've heard so much about the lone wolf terrorists, and they are lone wolf terrorists. Law enforcement agencies and the military say they are more concerned about the lone wolf terrorists than organized groups or ethnic groups or national groups that involve several individuals such as ISIS. The lone wolf terrorism is certainly a threat to the safety of individuals. As witnessed recently, Charleston, South Carolina, a guy comes in, sits about an hour with a congregation Bible study, and then gets up, kills the pastor, and virtually everybody there. I think one child escaped.

And then, from the church house to the beachfront in Tunisia, in Tunis, Tunisia, where some 39 were gunned down by a lone gunman as they were out on the beach. So it's from the church house to the beachfront all over the world. But the government-controlled media focuses more on micro-terrorism in creating fear in an effort to create fear in the minds of people everywhere. But macro-terrorism, groups such as ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, is a parent of micro-terrorism. ISIS is using social media to recruit lone wolves from all over the world. They say that they send out 100,000 tweets a day. 100,000 tweets a day around the world trying to recruit lone wolves, people who will join in, in the nonsensical killing of people. What is that going to solve? They're doing it in the name of we're going to establish Sharia law all over the world. They recently decapitated five women because they refused to convert. So as the media focuses more and more on terrorism, by doing so, people are more and more willing to give up their freedom for protection. But never forget that Satan can only do what God allows him to do. Now let's look at Colossians 1 beginning in verse 13.

We, of course, we're going to need to pray for God's protection in every sense of the word and every facet of our lives. But God is fully capable of protecting us, and you have to exercise common sense. You can't just stand out in front of an 18-wheeler and say, if his Lord's will is to hit me, even his body will go around me. I mean, use common sense in Colossians 1 in verse 13. Who hath delivered us in the power of darkness hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. As was read from Philippians 3.20, our citizenship is in heaven. We are pilgrims and strangers upon this earth. We are God's holy nation. We are ambassadors for Christ. In whom we have redemption, buying back power through his blood, even to the forgiveness of sins, Colossians 1.15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn, prototichos, of every creation. Jesus Christ is the first to be born into the family of God as a Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. Revelation 1.5, Far by him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible, invisible. Whether they be thronged or deminued, or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. So Satan the devil cannot do anything without God allowing it.

And I do believe that God is going to protect us. It seemed that God had placed a hedgerow around the U.S. for several decades, while the U.S. enjoyed a modicum of independence. But greed, jealousy, and the lust for power is a powerful seductress. Look at 1 Timothy.

1 Timothy, in the few words that we'll read here, account for so much of what is going on in the world today, the stock market, the outsourcing, and all of the things that go with it.

One of the great tragedies is, of course, this sort of off-the-subject pops into my mind as we talk about this, the refugee children in the Middle East that have been driven from Syria and those areas in there, Iraq, that now they're putting these little children 10 and 11 years old, it showed them crawling under barbed wire fences and that kind of thing, doing military training. So they're putting children on the front line, actually going into combat, and putting them to work in various facets of the so-called economy, those little refugee children. There are millions of them now across the world. In 1 Timothy 6, verse 6, But godliness with contentment is great gain, For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. I mean, they'll dress you up, put you in a coffin, that's it. That's all you're going to have. Oh, they may put some gold or whatever else in there. Some cultures put all kind of strange things in the coffin. But as far as what you really have, there's no consciousness in the grave. God will resurrect you as a spirit being if you die in the faith. If you've never had your opportunity, you'll be resurrected to flesh, given your opportunity. We brought nothing into this world, it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us, therewith, be content. Oh, no, we can't do that. You know, I see the people, and I say a good word here about the people who do come to this country from other places. I see them at Walmart in different places. They seem to be much happier than we are. They don't know where the next meal is coming from. And thereby, there are few little necessities, and they see the generally always pay in cash. That's all they have. But they seem happier than we are. Why is that?

But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Because there's just never enough, and you're always afraid you're going to lose it. Verse 13, I give charge in the sight of God, who quickens all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontus Pilate witnessed a good witness, that you keep the commandment without spot, unrebucible, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 20. Oh, Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust. And that's basically what the word commit means. It means to place in sacred trust. God has entrusted you and me with the truth.

Keep that which is committed, placed in sacred trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science, falsely so-called, which some professing have heard concerning the faith.

The Bible makes it clear that in the last days, the rich will be oppressing the poor, and the cries of the oppressed is one of the elements that moves God to intervene. Look at James, chapter 5.

James, chapter 5.

Go to now, you rich men, James 5.1. Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth-eaten, your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were afire. You have heaped up treasure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down the fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries and the cries of them which have reaped or entered into the ears of the Lord of Sibboleth.

God is not going to allow this system to continue. He's not going to allow this misery, this suffering, this pain, this agony, this tragedy, this injustice to continue forever.

You have lived in pleasure on the earth and have been wantin'. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just, and he does not resist you.

Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husband waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it until he received the early and the latter rain. Be you also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draws nigh. To a large degree, that's where we are today. Satan appeals to the greed, to the jealousy, to the lust, to the power that is inherent in human nature to seduce the sons of men. Many of the men who set out to make the world a better place are driven by good intentions, but apart from God, all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. Satan hates sovereign and independent nations and individuals. The greatest drive, motivation, and need in the human psyche is that of survival. What will you do to survive? Humans will do almost anything to survive, including killing and eating their children. And it has happened. And it is said that it happened at Masada, where the Jews were holed up somewhere around the 130s, as the Romans moved in. When people get hungry enough and desperate enough, they will rise up and revolt. The great control factor that the beast will employ will be the control of human necessities. We look now at Revelation 13, forward a few pages. In Revelation 13, you see very clearly where the world is headed. More and more you're seeing about ways to make the credit cards foolproof, to try to stop identity theft by the eyes of the eyes, by fingerprints, all kinds of different methods, and to go cashless. I mean, I checked out at a place yesterday, a small purchase, wrote a check, and by the time they were through, I wanted to give them a credit card, because the address, the driver's license number, the phone number, the name, the on and on, the running it through the system, it just...forever.

And that's where it's headed, to the cashless society. It's already basically there. The $100 you got in the bank ain't really there. It's an entry.

In Revelation 13.16, he caused all both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in their foreheads, that no man might buy or sell. See, this is absolute control of the money and the food supply. If you don't have the money, you don't get the food. You don't get the basic necessities of life.

Over the millennia and centuries, we have seen and we hear a war, rumors of war, kingdom against kingdom, nation against nation, but all of these wars did little to return the peoples of the world to the Tarababum.

They were not worldwide. The infrastructure to control the world's trade, commerce and banking had not been developed. It had not been even developed 30 years ago. And we were talking about 1975 and prophecy back in the late 60s. Sort of one of the motivating forces got me to come to Texas. Oh boy, it's all going to come to an end. And so I sort of plated it up, we did, sort of to the last minute of, boy, we'd better get out of here and go make our move. We've been reading and studying for about eight years.

75 and prophecy. We're a long way off in 1975.

In some ways, the wars and rumors of war fanned the flames of nationalism and patriotism.

How many prayers were sent out during World War II? I remember in the little local Baptist church where we attended, they had what is called the altar prayer.

Seeing some songs, the preacher would get out and make a few announcements, and then the altar prayer. And most of the men would come up around the front rows and they'd kneel down, and they would go around, and some eight or ten of them would do a chain prayer for the war effort.

So how does the devil deceive and force the peoples of the earth to return to the Tower of Babel? Perhaps some insight can be gleaned from the motivation of the people to build the first Tower of Babel. They were fearful that they would be scattered and not be able to make it on their own.

See, God had in the table of nations given in chapter 10 of Genesis the various descendants of Noah were listed and their inheritances. They were told to go out to these inheritances. But then Nimrod led them in rebellion and they built the Tower of Babel. He promised them security, protection, if they would give their allegiance to him. And so they did. And the world was of one language.

And God said, nothing will be restrained from what they imagined to do. So let's go down and confound the language and they were driven to their various inheritances.

So God made them, in a sense, choose independence at that juncture. See, God is the author of sovereign nations, as we read from Acts 17 earlier. In order to bring the peoples of the world back to the Tower of Babel, Satan has to make the peoples of the world dependent and interdependent. And so he has. We read a few verses there in Revelation 18. The whole chapter talks about it. So how do you make them dependent, interdependent, simple, through economic globalization, dependency on fossil fuels? If the power grid goes down, we will be plunged into the Dark Ages, figuratively and literally.

Control the world's money supply, food supply, and you become totally dependent. Of course, to say that is simple, but many factors have to come to bear in making the world into a so-called global community. And this infrastructure had to be laid in the banking system, especially in the trade system, where billions of transactions go through that system every day, Wall Street in New York, to those financial centers around the world. Once again, from the human perspective, the great motivating factors are greed, power. The great motivating power for Satan is revenge to thwart the plan of God to destroy the potential sons and daughters of God. Why have so many U.S. corporations outsourced their manufacturing to foreign nations? Why have they even outsourced service and technical support to countries abroad? Consumer support for many of the computer-related products? India. I've called several times. I've called George in India. How are you doing today, George? One of them began to talk to me about what we're going to do for Christmas.

So I've called several times through the years and gotten George in a heavy Indian accent.

What is the great motivating factor in outsourcing? Profit. The profit margin and control of the labor force. At present, some 95 million people in the U.S. are not in the workforce. That's about 30 percent of the population. The message that is going out to the nations is you will buckle under and do what we say, or you will starve to death. And yet we have those so gullible as to think that there is a free lunch. They will blindly go to the ballot box and vote for the politician that promises them the most free lunches.

And free lunches have always led to serviting. I'm not saying that we shouldn't help the poor. We should. I've been there, done that. What we're talking about here is a system that is designed to enslave people and keep them there.

Today I'm trying to make all of us understand what we're dealing with. The world is not the way it seems. As it talks about in Ezekiel 13, the fences have been whitewashed. They've been daubed with untempered mortar.

Who are the movers and the shakers promoting global government, you ask? Obviously it is the international bankers, the corporate leaders, foundations, think tank people posing as pseudo-intellectuals. Who are the heavyweights behind the push for global government? You've got this little 25-year-old guy, and in a lot of cases females, too. They've got their Ivy League degree. They have a master's degree in political science or whatever. They go to work with one of the think tanks, and they are now experts on such-and-such happening in Asia or Russia. Russia is in Asia part of it. They're no more an expert than I am. But you cannot have a global economy without a global government to manage, oversee, and control it.

In a letter written to Colonel Mandel House, who was really a Trojan horse himself, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, and Roosevelt was, too, the real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the day of Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson did his best to rid the United States from the death grip that the international bankers were beginning to exert on the country. He may have been the last president to actually oppose the bankers in discussing the bank renewal bill with the delegation of bankers in 1832. Jackson said the following, quote, Gentlemen, I've been watching you for a long time, and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you. When you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin 10,000 families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin. Should I let you go on, you will ruin 50,000 families, and that would be my sin. You are again a vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by eternal God, I will rout you out. Unfortunately, the international bankers proved themselves to be too formidable for Andrew Jackson, and in 1913, with the collaboration of President Woodrow Wilson, the Federal Reserve was developed. There is nothing federal about the Federal Reserve. It is a private institution. Why and how did they create an independent central banking system to control the financial system of the U.S., and have the audacity to call it the Federal Reserve? How could they get away with it? How could they do it? How can they get away with what they are doing now? Well, Isaiah gives you the answer. Look at Isaiah 10. Isaiah 10. This prophecy is as alive today as it was the day that Isaiah uttered it. In Isaiah 10.1, woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees and that right grievousness which they are prescribed, to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless. And what will they do in the day of visitation and in the destruction which shall come from afar? To whom will you flee for help, and where will you leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation. I will send you against. I will send him against a hypocritical nation. Then we'll pick it up again in verse 10.

And that brings it to our day and beyond.

And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth, and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped. Donald Trump tried peeping when he announced his candidacy for president. And now they have jumped on him. Several major corporations have withdrawn support, his products not sold in their stores. The emphasis on tacky. The epithets of New York, who is running for president, has urged the other candidates, the Republican candidates, to condemn Trump. Trump basically, there were some things he could have said it differently, he could have said it in a lot of different ways, but basically what he said was the truth. And he's number two in a lot of the polls right now. So the American people, to some degree, are waking up. My brother and I have come to the end of my time. I'm halfway through.

So my plan will be to pick this up, a little review from this, and continue, because there's a lot more here that needs to be said that we need to be aware of. I am trying to make you the best educated, informed people that we possibly can with resources that we have, and with the interest, time, and whatever you have. And I hope you are digging on your own. As I have mentioned several times, you know, if you're in my shoes at the present time, or in any minister's shoes, you wonder about all this gloom and doom that has dumped on people. You have it dumped on you with the news sources. You have it dumped on you with the news items. We have some of our ministers who, and I had people in Houston who would say, we really don't want these news items. We would rather...they didn't say this, but we would just like nothing to be said on the Sabbath about the way the world really is. And maybe we say too much, or I say too much. But on the other hand, it is a time to sigh and cry. It is a time to be watchful, and it is a time to really be on guard. Spiritually on guard, more than anything else. I don't live in fear, and I don't think you do either. But at the same time, we need to be aware, and we need to take the precautions that we can, and we need to use common sense, and we need to exercise the faculties that God has given us of a sound mind and sound reasoning. If you're in doubt about things, I mean, we are available, the elders here are available, for counsel. And I believe we have some wise men in this congregation who can provide some of that counsel. So let us continue to go on, lift up our heads high, knowing that, of course, we are going to come out victorious if we remain faithful.