Ten Keys to Your Salvation - Part 2 - Avoid Idolatry

In this series, we want to examine the second vital key to one's salvation. It's found in Exodus 20, verse 4. God said in the Ten Commandments, You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that's in the earth beneath, or that's in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. Did anyone wake up this morning thinking, You know, I really need to quit bowing down to carved images.

Avoid idolatry. Yet, as we're about to see today, breaking the second commandment is a big, big deal in our society and in your and my life, in fact. And in fact, it's only growing stronger every day. Whenever humans hear about God, first they begin to construct a mental image of God. And that image is added to by various notions or things they might pick out of Scripture or that others might tell them. They might end up with an old God the Father that's mean and harsh and ancient. They might end up with a young Jesus Christ who is a baby.

And He's always a baby in His mother's arms. Or He ends up as a very effeminate man who's so tender and so kind of loving and wimpy that they can tolerate that. But usually it's either baby Jesus or dead Jesus, one or the other. One hanging on a cross, one who is inanimate, one who is dead, one who is out of the way, claiming that now I can do anything I want because He died. And I'm good to go. When you think of religion today or people with artwork, paintings, engravings, what are those things typically about?

Typically about another human being, be it some religious leader, some religious icon, something that goes all the way back often to Nimrod, Semiramis, their son. Those icons and images have been figurines, drawings, paintings, carvings down through time. Sometimes those are represented by an item like a cross or a sun or a moon or various things like that. But all of that, of course, is fantasy. The result of Christianity has been to lead people away from truth, away from the Bible, away to some types of fantasies. One song that I actually enjoy listening to just because it shows it so clearly is a song that was sung by Abba years ago. It's, I have a dream.

You know, dreams aren't real. I have a fantasy. It helps me through reality. But this dream is, I'm gonna, when I die, I'm gonna go to heaven. And I know it's a dream and I know it's a fantasy, but it's what I hang on to. And it helps me through reality. I have a dream. And that's what people have at the end of religion, is some sort of a fantastic dream built on some sort of a mental or physical imagery that they have created in their mind. You need to understand that Christianity, and really all religion, but Christianity especially, is a business.

It's always been about business. Christianity is a business like any other business. In order to start a church, anybody can do it, you develop a business plan. That business plan involves getting a loan, getting some property, unless you're going to go on the road and do a kind of a roadie show. But you craft music. You craft messages. You begin to set up your structure. These engineered messages that you can go on the internet and purchase.

And the songs that are crafted and engineered for a response, you go on the internet, you purchase that, and then you get individuals to come in with your various icons, be the individuals or other things.

You ramp up the music. You raise emotions that open wallets. It's all prescribed. It's all done. It's timed and the wallets open at a certain place where people are emotionally feeling connected to hired performers. That is the marketing, not of God, the marketing of me. Because all that engineering is developing the individual, not God. The focus is on the person.

The key of the return on vestiment is the more it's about my troubles, my success, my health, my wealth, while doing my way, the bigger the profits, guaranteed. They just roll right out. And some people fine-tune that into mega churches that really begin to pull in the money. And yet, there's hardly any mention of God, hardly any use of scriptures. It's just a message about me. Grace and peace to you and heaven when you die. Cha-ching works every time. The commandments we've seen so far are put God first, not self, put God first, and then no idolatry. And these come with a warning. If we look right here in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 22. Exodus 20 and verse 22. Notice what God says.

You shall say to the children of Israel, you have seen that I talk with you from heaven when he gave the Ten Commandments. And he said, don't have any images. In verse 23, you shall not make anything to be with me.

Gods of silver, gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.

Absolutely, shall not do that. And just to back that up, notice in verse 5, the warning that comes with them. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to third and fourth generations of those who hate me. So you see, putting God first and not having any images is something that has God on our side. But if we twist this, then he's going to visit the iniquities. He's going to bring the penalties, even to the fourth generation. He says, verse 6, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. So what we're supposed to be doing here is keeping these 10 principles God gave us, these 10 keys to our salvation, not throwing them aside. Humans, however, like to also worship other humans. You know, it's not just some God being. It's not even just a human, say, Caesar, or say, a pope or somebody that they do. In Jesus's day, people idolized the temple and the things that went on with it. The temple system and the leaders of the temple and the high priest who purchased his position. And the people who were there, from the Roman leadership. And then people began to look at and to follow. And then traditions were followed, Jesus said, and not God's law. To the point where people eventually chose between physical leaders and the Messiah. And they decided to kill the Messiah and keep the physical leaders. Herod wanted to be a God. The Caesars declared themselves God. Coming down through time, we've had just a plethora of various idols and icons and crucifixes, things called angels. You can see how far out people get. Angels, nothing but women, usually depicted. They'll look at horoscopes instead of God. That'll become their idol. They'll follow what the passage through the planets, supposedly that they worked out before they were born, they'll follow that instead of God.

We have some semi-Christian blended ideas that masquerade as God's way of life. Because it quotes some scriptures once in a while. If we go to Jude chapter, well Jude is one chapter, but verse 12 and 13. Notice this comes right into the church. Jude verse 12. These are spots in your love feast, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. Sometimes music comes in from pre-engineered because everybody likes it. People have this serving-themselves idea. You grab the prayer of J.Bes or something that's kind of a prayer about me for me, and you can begin to look at things in the Bible and make it about me. Guess what? They feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They're clouds without water, carried about by the winds, laid autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots. There's nothing here, except a whole lot of stuff. Winds and waters and trees and pulling up and raging waves. Sounds exciting, doesn't it? But all those things are about death. It's a way of death, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So these individuals are detached, in other words, from the body of Christ. I'm not speaking of anybody who, you know, gets material from somewhere else. I'm just saying that what he's talking about here are wandering stars, not attached to Christ, for whom is the blackness of darkness forever. No light. They're not going to be there. They won't exist. They'll have been burnt up. And while God and Christ provide the light in the kingdom forever, they simply won't be there. As Revelation 21 and verse 8 says. Now this is something that Jesus warned is always present in God's church. A tendency towards idolatry. And yet, didn't we just say, idols? What does that have to do with me? Letting the harlot of Babylon in the door. Let's hear him speak to the church, right at the end time. Let's go to Revelation chapter 2 and verse 18. See what he says to the church right at the end time, just before he returns. Revelation chapter 2 and verse 18. To the angel of the church of Thyatira right. This isn't some historical document back for the second or third century. This is to the church. These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. I know your works, your love, your service, your faith, your patience. As far as your works go, they're more than the last. Maybe that speaks to you and to me. I hope so. Nevertheless, he says, verse 20, I have this against you. A few things because you allow that woman Jezebel, the great harlot of Revelation. Babylon the Great. Any other name you want. From Semiramis, Jezebel in the church of Israel, right through to the church of God, as we already read in Jude. You have that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet, is to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. There's idolatry in the church. Notice in verse 25, just to show that this is not some historical church. But hold fast what you have till I come. Okay, this is the church that exists when Jesus Christ returns as well. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I'll give power over the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron, as I have also received from my father.

Verse 29, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. If we want to reign with Christ and be given rulership with Him, he's saying, you need to overcome and keep my works to the end and get rid of this woman Jezebel. False religion. We're married. We're betrothed to Jesus Christ. We're not to be messing around with other ideals. That would be idolatry, putting something else before God.

What was the conclusion of the Acts 15 ministers conference? Many times people will talk about this. Oh, they had this great conference. What was the conclusion? Let's go to Acts 15 and verse 19. Acts 15 verse 19. Let's see what was going on in the church back then.

Here Paul was explaining to them that God was calling Gentiles.

And in verse 19, we see here a statement made by Peter. Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those who are among the Gentiles who are turning to God to be circumcised or try to become, you know, religious as far as any previous covenant, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, idolatry, and sexual immorality. Have you ever heard of sexual immorality, by the way? Does it exist anywhere? Have you ever heard of it? Anywhere you're going to hear of that, you're going to find idolatry is the coefficient of it. It's putting something else before God. It's putting something else before God. It's putting someone else before marriage. It's putting someone else. It's worshiping someone else. Usually the self in combination with some idea that's put forth, as we'll see in a minute, some form of a religion, and it is idolatry.

God commands humans to worship the living God, not an idol. God commands and directs humans, Jesus Christ did, to have direct contact with God, not to go through some layers of mystic and mysteries, and somehow be subordinate to someone else and their ideas, and also doing some things that are sinful in order to pay one's dues. In Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 23, just before reciting the Ten Commandments, notice what Moses says here.

Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 23, Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you. How many times did Jesus Christ tell us, take heed to yourselves? It's the word watch. It just means take heed to yourselves. Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with you. It applies to all the covenants. Most people didn't continue in their covenants. Jesus, in fact, said, when he returns, will he even find faith on the earth? So take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you.

Anything. What is that? Well, let's look at all the things that could be images that supplant God today. How much time have you spent with God's Word any day this week? How much time did you spend with a television, computer, social media? What is the thing that we put before God? There are many things, in fact. There are other types of things that this society leads us into. Through the advertisements, through the lusts that we have. Things that really can't be ours unless you can get alone and somehow leverage the little bit that you have into getting everything you want.

Then there's things like anything from pornography to romances, romance shows, romance novels. You spend hours, endless hours and hours, one after the other, with false idols and images for oneself. Idolatry and immorality are very closely linked. They are focused on the desires of men, which are, I'll just summarize in three, prosperity, superiority, and fornication. Three very powerful things. Prosperity, superiority, and fornication. When we look at those three elements, you see why men devise religions. For prosperity, for control, for power, superiority, and for fornication. Often you don't tend to sense the last, but they're all there. You look at Egypt, you look at Babylon, you look at Greece, Rome, all of the other things. Rome, all the way down to today. You look at even religion today. It's all there.

Various gods and goddesses were invented and supposedly they controlled your destiny, your harvests, the fruit of your body, etc. etc. And so then people began to have to interact with these religions and their priests and their representatives.

Of course, fornication became a big part of that. Immorality became a focus of the worship. It's interesting how men have a propensity for desiring to see and be with and have relationships with a certain image that God planted in our mind. That's our challenge. It's also our blessing. Once you find that individual that God gives you as a maid and you focus on that individual, it's a fabulous thing. But humans don't want that. So people down through time have created other means and other ways and other entities in order to abase themselves, to do whatever they want with anyone at any time. It's always happened. And the most powerful beings have always been the most, you know, lawless in that sense. There were times in the past when many of those religions, invented by men, convinced the young girls growing up that in order for them to be prepared for marriage, they had to fornicate with all the men in the faith. And that's just been something down through time that's taken place. And you may know of religions even today, very popular even with the name Christianity, where that has flown under the radar with tunnels between the men's and women's thing. And lots of lawsuits have popped up with all types of immorality. This is nothing new. But this immorality and degeneracy has been dressed in religious garb, and it's idolatry. And it filled Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome and down through time the extensions of Rome and the religions. And idolatry and immorality are frequently linked in Scripture. In Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5, the Apostle Paul says this to the church in the New Testament. Colossians chapter 3 and verse 5, Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. He's talking about body parts. That's what a member is. Put to death your body parts which are on the earth. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. Notice the last one, which are idolatry. See, this is the second commandment. And all of these things are idolatry. It's making an idol out of your fantasies, your ideas, and all the other things that go with the dreamy fantasies that humans have. In 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 1, Peter shows us that sin really is idolatry. It's taking the God that we're supposed to love with our heart, soul, and might, and our neighbor that we're to love as ourself, and putting something else as the object of worship there, which is, of course, self-serving. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 1, Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourself also with the same mind. For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. Talk about baptism. We die. We're buried with Christ. Now we're no longer going to be serving the rest of our time for the lusts of men. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelry, drinking parties, abominable idolatries. Now, when was Peter worshiping idols? Peter was a Jew. He was a fisherman. He wasn't worshiping idols, not that we know of. But notice what he says here. He's speaking here to individuals and saying, you know, sin, all these things, that's idolatry.

You and I need to come far, far from that. When we think of religion, oftentimes people are bamboozled by Christianity. They think that, you know, Christianity and us, and you know, we're all Christians and some have a little bit different flavor. On October 28th in the year 312, Constantine was in a battle and he was winning this battle. And at noon that day, according to his record, he saw, when he looked up at the sun, he saw the sun with a trophy, cross, for winning this battle. And he heard the words, conquer by this, in Latin, conquer by this, the sun with a cross. Now, he was not a Christian. Even in the false sense of the word, his God was sole invictus. And one of his favorite gods, in fact, you know, Rome had just a pantheon of gods. In fact, the pantheon is a big building in Rome you can go to today that just represented all the gods. There were so many of them. But he loved and worshiped some of these gods, but he was a strong worshipper of the sun god. On that day, Constantine renamed his sun god Jesus Christ.

He renamed his sun god Jesus Christ. And he linked Rome and its religion to the cross and the sun. Now, if you ever walk into or see or study into or even glance, you will see the sun and that cross has been the symbol of the Roman Empire since Constantine and a symbol of its church and religion down since. The woman of revelation and her daughters, the whore and her daughters who came out of her in rebellion, they represent lawlessness according to this word and immorality. And you see it big time everywhere. And that symbol is the sign, the mark, as it were, that identifies lawlessness. Now, that's religion. And today, people are prescribing and ascribing to an even bigger religion than that. This one is most popular. It is called evolution. The god of evolution is yourself. You see, you're the creator. You created yourself. You evolved. You're so smart. You really created everything. And you're so brainy and smart. You can decide right and wrong, it turns out, because you're also the lawgiver. And guess what that lets you do? That lets you seek prosperity. That lets you seek control. That lets you seek fornication. And look at our world. That's what everybody's after. Prosperity, some form of control and domination of others, whether it's themselves, their country, their company, and fornication. You know, as a father of daughters, it just boils me that girls today are raised up and expected to be the objects providing fornication to boys and men throughout their lifetime. Even though they dream of marriage and all these things, instead, they just are expected to provide fornication for anyone, anytime.

Coming is a false prophet, a revival of a religion of Rome. Let's go back to Revelation 13 and verse 4.

Revelation 13 and verse 4. We live in a society now that requires acceptance by law, requires acceptance of all types of sexual perversion. That is by law. That is where this society has taken us so far. Revelation 13 and verse 4. So they worship the dragon. See, here's the real image. Here's the real icon behind it all. They worship the dragon who gave authority to the beast and they worship the beast, saying, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? So here you have the control that people want, right? And now you have the icon worshiping the beast, the image of the beast. And he was giving a mouth, speaking great things and blasphemies. Notice verse 14. And he deceives those who dwells on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast, who was wounded by the sword and lived. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, to the image of the beast, that it should both speak and cause as many as who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. See where this is going. Second commandment is not only alive, it is gaining strength, gaining momentum as people break it more and more and more. As God said, he's not going to forget those who do that, but it does have a massive appeal. Verse 16, he causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads. What's the mark? Remember the mark Constantine saw? The mark that's always been fought under? The mark that the religion has always progressed by? The one who has fornicated immensely? The one that has also persecuted, killed, tortured to death, with inquisitions, all manner of evil. And right here we're reading, as it plays out now, anybody who doesn't comply will be killed. What else do we know about this? Back up in verse 6 of chapter 13.

Then he opened his mouth and blasphemed against God, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. If that's not idolatry, when you speak against God and blaspheme him and then come after the bride of Christ, the children of God, I don't know what is. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 19. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 19.

What am I saying, then? That as idol is anything, or what is offered to idol is anything? You know, to you and me, we understand that a graven image and somebody who is sacrificing over here to some false god, we understand that's not reality. Rather, he says in verse 20, that the things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they sacrificed to demons and not to God. The point is, this religion, this not just religion religion, but these ideas that promote something other than God are of demons and not of God. I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. So the Second Commandment is a really big deal. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and keep and drink the cup of demons, he says. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons. Verse 22, notice this, or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Remember, in combination with the first two commandments, God says, I am a jealous God and I will be provoked. We need to really come out of this world. We really need to have a direct relationship with God. We need to really be, not only studying His Word, but living it, applying it, and not going out and getting other ideas from other places. To most people, what does the cross and religion symbolize? Grace. Right? Grace. Grace is essentially licensed to do whatever you want. Grace, in most people's mind, just means forgiveness. I'm under grace. I'm under forgiveness. So, I can kind of do whatever I want because I'm under forgiveness. Let's do a little test. Let's try to find forgiveness in grace. Okay? I'm going to read you some definitions. You find forgiveness in grace. All right? Let's do this. Strong's Concordance. Here's the definition, strong's of the word translated grace in the New Testament. Find forgiveness in this definition.

Grace means graciousness of manner or act, especially the divine influence upon the heart, the acceptable benefit or favor or gift, gracious, joy, liberality, pleasure, and thanks. That's what the word grace means in the Bible. Did you see forgiveness in there? It wasn't there, was it? Well, let's go to Oxford Language's dictionary. Grace in English means simple elegance or refinement of movement, courteous goodwill, or to honor someone by one's presence.

Didn't hear about forgiveness there. Dictionary.com. The noun, grace means elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action, a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment, a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior. The verb is to lend or add grace, to adorn or grace an occasion with one's presence. So what's everybody, you know, waving this cross and thinking that grace does for them? You know, everybody's so sure that grace means, oh, I'm forgiven, I'm uncovered, I've got the magic umbrella. Even in the church, when I hear people talk about grace, it's automatically forgiveness. Jesus died, and therefore I'm saved. I'm saved because I'm forgiven. Where did you find forgiven? You actually have to go into a religion to find that application. You have to go back to the war, the revolution that took place within the Catholic Church, and one arm is trying to disavow the need for a pope and pulling out a scripture and saying, hey, by grace only, see, we don't have to keep the laws of the Catholic Church. We can just do what we want, do it ourselves. And yet, the true definition of grace is in every one of those. The word favor. See, it was there, and the favors of God, the gifts of God, as I've told you so many times, are, you can almost say them with me, right, calling, faith, repentance, baptism, forgiveness of sin. Yes, it's there. Holy Spirit, and being led by God to produce holy righteous character. All those things are what God does for us. None of those do we do for Him. He does those. Those are His gifts to us. Now, if we don't reciprocate with our part of the covenant to die to our sins, to overcome our sins, to develop righteousness, to do good works, and to do right in God's eyes, all you have to do is look at Revelation 21 and verse 8, and you'll find what happens to any of us. Those who sin, those who sin, die.

So, the religious world is actually teaching lawlessness. And all those little icons, and all that symbolism, and all this all about me, all this music about myself. You want to hear a little piece? It goes something like this. I'll change the words a little bit. First of all, music that is used in business, the business of religion. The first rule is, and there's a rule, it's called Christian worship music. The first rule is, take God's name out. We take God's name totally out. Never mention it. We replace it with you. That's all God gets. Now, the second element is, you do hyperbole. Over the top, this gets the emotions going. Things that are bigger than ever. And it comes out something like this. You make me rise to sit on mountains. Not on wheelchairs. On mountains. You make me fly. And I visit the stars. You make me ride on eagles. Who are we talking about here? We're talking about me with a little bit of you.

That is false religion. And we find that God calls us to a different way of life that's about Him. He is to be our God, our icon, the one we worship, the one we focus on, the one we strive to become like. In Romans 5, verse 21, it says, So that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Can you even think of that word without it being forgiveness? Well, let's try. So that sin reigned in causing death, even so the word grace favor the Lord. Those favors of God—remember all those favors? Those favors of calling, faith, repentance, baptism, forgiveness, Holy Spirit being led by the Spirit of God producing— notice—might reign through righteousness, through doing right to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That's what we're called to. That's what we're supposed to be about. You could look through all of chapter 6, verse 2. Certainly not, how shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? You drop down to verse 11. Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God and Christ. Therefore, verse 12, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey it in its lusts. Do not present your members' body parts as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. That's a wonderful, wonderful life filled with God's support, filled with His blessings, filled with wonderful relationships. But it's not about me. It's about loving God, loving neighbor as self. False gods, false religions, devise how to sin. They require sin. They imagine a God that requires it. Isn't that interesting? How you always come up, if you want to sin, you come up with an idea or something that really requires sin. Exodus 32, verse 3, is a good example. Let's look at it through this lens. Exodus 32, verse 3. So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. Moses is up on the mountain with God. He's just given them the Ten Commandments. He received the gold, verse 4, from their hand. He fashioned it with an engraving tool, and he made a molded calf. Then they said, This is your God, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And so when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, made a proclamation, Tomorrow is the Feast of the Lord. Okay, so far, so good. What about the fornication? Verse 6. Then they rose up early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. In Genesis chapter 35, verse 2.

And Jacob said to his household, and all who are with him. Now here's Jacob, Israel, saying to his household, he's got all of his 12 sons, families, etc. And at this point in time, he says to his household, and all who are with him, put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your garments.

We can see that this type of thing was rampant, even within people who had long been associating with God. Now again, this probably all seems archaic and quaint, but when we look at what Jesus said to the church, you have that woman. The main god has always been this Venus, or Ash-tiroth. And what does he say? Right up to his coming, you know? He says, you have this situation.

Prosperity, superiority, fornication, as I said, they're ramping up. Let's just look for a moment. The old China. Remember China? Big, huge empire over in the east, ancient. Well, right now, China is positioning itself as the global superpower. The global superpower. And it's making merchandise its icon. It's idle. That people are lining up to worship. You might say, China has a new theme. MCGA. Make China great again. That's what China wants. We have an old empire, Great Britain. We've seen it just go through Brexit. It's exited the European Union. Why is that? Because it has a theme. Make Great Britain great again. It wants to get back to its greatness. And it can't do that while it's under ties with Europe. We have the United States Empire, the biggest empire that's existed in all time. It has a theme. Make America great again. Where the person that people worship, die for, willing to kill for. Its theme? Prosperity, superiority, and fornication. That's what we push out through all the things that we do, and required even, to accept all manner of deviancy. I'll give you a tip.

We church members should compare our focus on politics and politicians and the time and the energy we spend on that with our focus on God's word and the time and energy we spend with God and Jesus Christ pursuing the kingdom of God. Just a tip. We also have another re-emerging empire. Make Islam great again. One of the world's great empires is struggling and striving now to resurge itself and will become a king of the south as we understand it. That will eventually try to push out a reunited state in Europe, a beast power, a ten nation conglomerate, and try to make itself greater than that. Soon the king of the south is going to push against the king of the north, who will then re-emerge with its Roman empire and religion. Make Babylon great again. You know, making Babylon great again. That is what the end time prophecy reveals. Let's go to chapter 18 in verse 3 of Revelation.

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. See how the two are always inexorably linked? Physical fornication. Spiritual fornication. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. So we have the prosperity, the luxury, we have the control, and we have the fornication. And what is the mark? Once again, the Son and the cross. That's the symbolism so far. We'll wait and see what exactly it is. More than anything, here's the thoughts, the thought center. We're to have the name of God written on our foreheads and in our minds. The Word of God, Jesus Christ. This Word implanted in our minds. That's what it should be. They're not some other ideal, and our right hand should be doing good works, acts of righteousness, not acts of sin, Satan's way. But society today has immersed itself in prosperity, superiority, and fornication. It's called lawlessness in Scripture. It's all about me, me. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 7.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 7.

For the mystery of lawlessness. Want to know about mystery? Just watch some things coming out on Sundays and especially out of Rome, and you'll hear this word used often. The mystery, the mysteries, the mysteries that went back to Babel, to Babylon, the mysteries that came down through so many religions who had idolatry and fornication as part of them. The mystery of lawlessness, breaking God's law, is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed. See, the great icon, the great religion, the great one who will be worshipped is the lawless one. That's how you're going to know it. It's not because of some little magic sign or some implant or chip. It's lawless. It's against God's law. He will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. He'll be thrown in the lake of fire.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish. Remember the deception? It lures you in. It feels good. It feels right if you're about me.

Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. In verse 12, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. That's the key. Pleasure in unrighteousness.

But not for much longer. Revelation 12 and verse 9 shows that there's a time limit on all of this.

So that great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called Satan the devil, who had deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth. His angels were cast out with him. Verse 10, Now then I heard a loud voice saying, In heaven now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by sacrifice, personal sacrifice, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives to the death. Christ sacrificed himself. God the Father sacrificed his only begotten Son. We sacrifice ourselves in baptism, our old person. And we don't love our lives to the death. Not about me. You know, interestingly, God created an image, a likeness of himself. You know what that image is? Go back to Genesis chapter 1 and verse 27.

Genesis chapter 1 and verse 27. He told you and me not to make any image that is like him, but he made one that was like him. Genesis 1 verse 27. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them. He wanted an image of God. Look in the mirror. Look at your fellow man. And there's even a greater image of God than that. Let's go to Matthew. Let's go to John chapter 14 and verse 6.

John chapter 14 and verse 6.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also, and from now on you know him and have seen him. Jesus Christ is the image of God. And we need to know and we need to see him. Not literally, but we need to see the Father and Jesus Christ through their righteousness, through their description, through their Holy Spirit, through the relationship that we have. Not coming up with any mental thing that the Bible doesn't give us. The goal of God is for you to be the exact representation of him. Let's find that in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 48. Here's what Jesus said. You want a perfect image of God. Here's where you can start working to find that. Matthew chapter 5 and verse 48. Therefore, you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

None of us are perfect. None of us reflect God totally. But Jesus said, we're the light of the world. We should reflect him. We should be one that individuals can see God in a little bit and relate to God in that way. Jesus was the likeness of God. He was God. And God the Father and Jesus Christ are one. And they ask us to be one with them. So let's be about that. Let's be busy about that. Let's worship God in spirit and in truth. In conclusion, we have an image that we're actually to be joined to. If you think about that, an image, I say an image, but the Bible uses this term back in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 44. Daniel chapter 2 and verse 44.

In the end times, in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in people and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. So all these false, self-devised, satanic orders and institutions will be crushed. And it'll break those into pieces. Now verse 45. In so much as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, Jesus Christ is the rock. You don't carve an image of Him. You don't make an idol of Him. He was cut without hands. It's not something that any human has devised or invented, created, or has some deity. He is cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces, the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. The great God is made known to the king what will come after this. Jesus Christ, our Savior, is not some religious icon, not some story made up by humans like all these other fake religions are. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 4 and 3.

This is our final scripture, 2 Corinthians 4 and 3. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. We are living because we actually are joined to Jesus Christ. We are joined through the whole we are joined through the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus Christ lives in us. We are in His body. We are to be one with Christ.

Verse 4, "...whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them." Jesus Christ is the image. He is the image carved without hands. He is the image of God.

And that is not something that you and I fantasize about. Imagine, create, but rather He is the direct representative of the God family. And He asks you and me to also be Christ-like, to be representatives of the God family, to reflect the mind, the nature of God and His family. Next time, we will look at part three, and that is, Respect God's Family Name.

Thank you very much, Mr. Elliot.

For we have one last hymn, after which we'll have the closing prayer, and we can fellowship afterwards. The last hymn will be page 191, When Christ Shall Come, and then we'll have the closing prayer by Mr. Tim Jameson.

When Christ shall come, all heaven shall join us long. Salvation, glory, God to God be gone. Hallelujah, the Lord Almighty reigns. Hallelujah, the Christ as all the land of the mighty God. Hallelujah, the Lord Almighty reigns.