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Middletown NY SDA Church

Spiritualism: The Serpents Appeal

Eric Walsh

The End in Sight

We're going to tonight do a little bit of a prophecy overview that I do.

It's really important that we look at prophecy.

But sometimes the problem with looking at prophecy for some folk is they look at prophecy without leaving Jesus at the center of it.

And our prophecies are amazing, our study of prophecies is amazing, but if Christ is not at the center of it, bad things begin to happen.

There are ministries that thrive on fearing, scaring people.

As a doctor, I can tell you, fear is a poor long-term motivator.

You can scare, we used to try and scare people to stop smoking cigarettes, show them black lungs and or alcoholics, or pictures of destroyed livers, And it worked for a little while, but long term that's not going to be enough to really motivate you to change.

And so we want to actually show through prophecy God's providence, his love, the connection we ought to have with him.

Even when we talk about spiritualism, we have to understand it is a… spiritualism at its core is a counterfeit relationship with the supernatural.

In other words, it's a false love relationship.

Satan wants you to believe he cares for you, but he's lying.

And so spiritualism grabs people because they feel protected and safe, but in fact, spiritualism is really just tricking them into believing that which isn't actually true.

So as we talk about this today and tomorrow, and tomorrow, I'll give my testimony on my own spiritual growth in the realm of 1 part of life.

And then show you how Satan is leveraging these things, really trying to leverage these things to get us.

So our scripture reading was taken from Matthew 24, 33, and 34.

It says, so likewise ye, when you see all these things, Know that it is near, even at the doors.

Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled." Very important verse of Scripture.

So our message tonight, the end in sight.

And this is a 2024 look, overview of prophecy.

Father God, we ask now, Lord, that you just make me a nail on the wall, hammer me in with your Holy Spirit, and then hang a portrait of Christ upon that nail.

I ask tonight, Lord, that your Holy Spirit lead us into truth, into peace, to understanding your wonderful, loving character.

So I'll start in Matthew 24, as you all remember.

In Matthew chapter 23 is the last time, right before really the crucifixion, basically.

But it's the last time he's in the temple before he's crucified.

He turns over the tables, and as Jesus is leaving, what does he say?

How could he say that the temple is left desolate?

And so they come out and the Bible says, they show him all of the stones.

You see how you can see the lines in the stone here?

The stones in the temple were large stones.

They were so precisely cut that when you laid them 1 on top of the other, you couldn't even see.

And here's the thing, if Jesus is supposed to be the Messiah, the king to replace David, how could he say that about the temple?

Verse 3, Matthew 24, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, The disciples came unto him privately, saying, tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world?

What Jesus told them is that not, you see, he said, you see these stones, not 1 stone is gonna be left upon another.

And it blew again their minds were blown.

So they said, well Jesus you gotta explain this to us.

And if that's the case what is the sign of your coming?

In other words when will you come as king?

And then they take it a step further, and when does the world end?

These are questions that the world expects you to answer as a Seventh-day Adventist Christian.

We ought to be able to give the world the hope that we have in Christ Jesus of his soon return.

I just, last weekend I buried my cousin, I love very much, buried him in my, we had his funeral service, and all of our friends from high school came, mobs of them, some of the dudes that used to do major dirt showed up.

I mean, some of the guys that spent years in state penitentiaries showed up to the funeral.

And it was just a wonderful thing to be able to remind them because many of them grew up with us in church.

To remind them that not only is Jesus coming soon, he's coming back because he loves you.

It will be the greatest rescue mission the universe has ever seen.

Now if you look at America, about 4 in 10 US adults believe humanity is living in the end times.

And so there's 1 aspect, that 4 in 10 are predominantly religious people in America who believe that we're living in the end times but if you go to the environmental movement the environmentalists also believe that we could be living in the end times have you ever heard AOC or or Veta Greta I forget her last name though Thunberg you ever hear her them talk they're like listen it could be next week right I mean, it could be next year.

I mean, there's a movie, The Day After Tomorrow.

The former Vice President Al Gore had a documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

And that was like, what, 14, 15 years ago he made that.

So if you're ever struggling to sleep, put it on.

But he expected the world to come to end, like all these major climate change things that already have happened that didn't actually happen yet.

They believe the world is coming to an end.

Revelation 12, 12 says, Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you, having what?

The Bible says because he knows he has what?

Interesting piece of a Bible truth is that the devil actually got kicked out of heaven in a sense 2 times.

The first time Jesus says, I saw Satan like lightning fall from heaven.

It's the first time is when he rebelled in heaven and got booted in, his angels got booted out.

But the second time, the first time he was thrown out of heaven, the second time he was cast down to earth.

Meaning at the cross, he was locked out of heaven forever.

When Jesus died and rose again, that was it for Satan.

After Jesus' resurrection and ascension, the devil realized, it's a wrap.

He proved me a liar by in human flesh, living a sinless life.

Christ or Revolution?

The title of this message is Christ or Revolution and it is the death of politics part 1.

We'll do part 2 this afternoon and what I've learned is that Satan wants to divide us.

When God's church is divided, it becomes spiritually powerless.

This is why at Pentecost, the Bible says, they were in 1 accord.

Because you have to be in 1 accord for the spirit of God to fully be able to work.

Division allows Satan and his spirit to work.

And so what happens sometimes, of course, is everybody wants to be right.

And if everybody wants to be right you often won't have unity.

And so humility is really the glue of the church because it's humility that allows us to get along, to understand 1 another, and to not get trapped in the ways that we often do.

So I'm gonna start with our first scripture reading while he gets that set up.

It's found in Ephesians Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians chapter 6, and we're gonna read from verse 12.

And it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to come before you and worship.

Lord, the devil is angry and he's trying to mess things up, but right now we rebuke Satan.

And Lord, right now we ask for an outpouring of your Holy Spirit, that you would send angels to be given charge over this place.

Father God, we pray now that you would work through all of these technical issues so that someone might hear a word from you today.

And Lord I ask that you just humble me and allow me Lord to be used by your spirit so that Lord when we leave this place we leave closer to Jesus Christ.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

All right, we're gonna go to Matthew chapter 27.

If you have your Bible, turn to your Bible there, and we'll begin our sermon there.

So this is an interesting part of the Bible.

And if you're going through the Sabbath school lesson, it plugs in right to where Brother Victor Mills left off this morning.

This leads us to the part of the story of the passion of Christ where Jesus is now about to go before Pilate.

And As Jesus is going before Pilate, there are hordes of people who want to see him killed.

As Christ is going before them, the disciples disappear.

Only John stays at a distance with his mother Mary.

And Jesus as he's moving towards, as Jesus is going before Pilate, The people are in a frenzy.

The Sadducees and Pharisees who were mortal enemies unite for the destruction of Christ.

And here in the story we see Jesus going before the governor of Judea, Caesar's representative.

The Bible says in Matthew 27 11, And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews?

And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.

Pilate is used to criminals coming before him and the criminals always have a defense that man I didn't do it it wasn't me you know that's the the old serious line what had happened was everybody has a defense for themselves but not this man Jesus comes in silence before Pilate and stands there.

Then said Pilate unto him, Don't you hear how many things they witness against you?

Jesus, Don't you hear all of the things they're saying you've done?

The Bible says in verse 14, and Jesus answered him to never a word.

In other words, Jesus emphatically stayed quiet.

Verse 14, And he answered him to never a word, insomuch, watch this, that Pilate marveled greatly.

Pilate couldn't believe that someone in this much trouble said so little.

Verse 15, now at the feast of the governor was want to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would.

And so it was time for a prisoner to be released.

Verse 16, and they had then a notable prisoner.

Now, what's interesting about the story is Pilate's wife told him that she had a dream and not to do anything contrary to Jesus.

Pilate went into this having had a supernatural warning about not messing with Jesus.

So Pilate's threshold to send Jesus to death was actually very high and hence this piece comes in about the notable prisoner Barabbas because it was Pilate's job to keep the Roman emperor's interests in Judea safe.

So which of the 2 prisoners Would it have made more sense for Pilate to want to have died?

Therefore, when they gathered together, Pilate said unto them, whom will ye that I release unto you Barabbas, or Jesus, which is called Christ?

Pilate went and got the worst criminal he could find, pulling him out because he did not want to believe that the Jewish leaders would want Barabbas over Christ.

Luke says it like this in Luke 23, 13, and Pilate when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people said unto them, you have brought this man unto me as 1 that perverts the people you brought Jesus as someone who is corrupting the people, perverting the people as if Jesus was the cause or the threat against the Roman Empire.

And he says in verse 14, But behold, I have examined him before you.

Touching those things which you are aware of, you accuse him.

He said, Pilate said, listen, I've looked him over.

Now what Jewish holiday was about to begin or had already begun.

Now what is it that the Passover lamb, if you go back to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, what was it that the Passover lamb had to have before it could be killed as a sacrifice on Passover?

Someone had to look at the lamb and verify that the lamb was without spot or blemish.

Here's the thing, it was the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the religious leaders who were saying Jesus had spots and blemishes.

It was pagan Pilate who declares right here that Jesus was in fact the innocent Lamb of God.

And then he says not even Herod saw anything wrong with him.

I sent him to Herod, and lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.

I will therefore, this is Pilate's solution, I'm going to chastise him, meaning I'm going to beat him up.

For of necessity, he must release 1 unto them at the feast.

We're just gonna beat Jesus up a little bit and then we're gonna let him go.

Then you'll get your 1 prisoner released and we'll move on from there.

Look at verse 18 church, and they cried out all at once saying, away with this man and release unto us Barabbas.

The Political Devil

So this is part 2 from this morning, and we'll get right into it.

A lot to cover, and we'll get into a little heavier stuff, I think, this afternoon.

I kind of gave you a bit of my story this morning, but I want to show you where this is all going and where it's heading.

Prophetically, this is important information.

Scripture reading Daniel 221, and he changes the times and seasons.

He gives wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding.

My Bible tells me, even when there is an election like this year, ultimately, who sets up kings and takes them down?

The book of Ezekiel, I'm getting ahead of myself because I haven't prayed yet, but the book of Ezekiel, when you start to read the first few chapters and you're looking at the wheel and the wheel and all of these incredible visions, when you read the Bible commentary and the spirit of prophecy on it, Ezekiel was shown those visions in a time of captivity, same as Daniel was in the same captivity, to remind Ezekiel that God is in control.

Our message for this evening is entitled, The Political Devil.

I ask now for your Holy Spirit, bind Satan, cast him far away from here, Lord.

Be it a technology, be it each of us that we'd stay focused to hear these words, Lord, especially the words of Scripture.

The story is very involved, but number 16, 1.

Now Korah the son of Izar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abram, the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men.

And they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown.

When Satan wants to start a revolution inside the church, he picks men of renown.

Verse 3, And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every 1 of them, and the Lord is among them.

Wherefore then lift up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord." Verse 4, the Bible says, And when Moses heard it, he fell on his face.

A rebellion springs up among the children of Israel.

The Red Sea had parted and all the miracles that would follow all the way up to Jericho, all the way to the manna falling from the sky, and yet Moses constantly had to deal with the issue that the people, there were always people who believed that they should not trust Moses and Aaron.

They should not trust those that God had put in control.

Aaron was so imperfect, he was the 1 who forged the golden calf.

It is going to be rebellion from within and persecution from without.

Here's what Education, page 228 says about the times in which we live.

At the same time, anarchy is seeking to sweep away all law, not only divine but human.

She says, the centralizing of wealth and power, the vast combinations for the enriching of the few at the expense of the many, the combinations of the poor classes for the defense of their interest and claims, the spirit of unrest, of riot and bloodshed, the worldwide dissemination of the same teachings that led to the French Revolution are all tending to involve the whole world in a struggle similar to that which convulsed France.

She says that in these last days, there would be a look to sweep away all law.

Did you go to, I know if you go to Portland, Oregon, it is legal to go in and steal up to I think it's $900 and they won't do anything to you?

Listen, I grew up with some real sticky finger brothers down in Miami.

If they had that law, every store would be empty.

We talk about the 1% and how rich they are.

Ellen White is not taking anybody's side.

She's saying that the centralizing of wealth and power, the greed of what I call the hypercapitalists fuels the drive for labor unions to get more power and ultimately beyond labor unions, which this is different from labor unions, is the rise of Marxism and socialism in society.

Because there are true inequities and injustices in society.

The enriching of the few at the expense of the many.

Did you know that when you visit places like Jamaica and Haiti and parts of Africa, Zimbabwe, Ghana, much of Central and South America, even big countries like Brazil, did you know that they're not poor by accident?

Did you know that if you go back there's a great documentary called Life and Debt done about Jamaica back in the early 2000s where they literally, the producers show you that in fact It was the work of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, these incredible debts that they laid on poor countries all over the world, like the Dominican Republic, like Haiti.

Haiti had to pay back the money Slave owners lost when they had their slave rebellion.

And that was just settled not that long ago.

The debt that they pile on Jamaica makes it so the government has to decide whether or not to put medication in the hospital or pay the debts back to the IMF and the World Bank.

It's not an accident when you go to these countries and they're poor.

This is something that has been designed and Satan wants there to be an economic divide between certain parts of the world and certain peoples in the world because that division, that friction that's created, he can use to his advantage.

Education, page 228, she says, such are the influences to be met by the youth of when?

To stand amidst such upheavals, they are now to lay the foundations of what?

In other words, you are going to see the world convulse.

I mentioned this morning that Biden was thinking about allowing long-range missiles to be launched by Ukraine deep into Russia.

I found out just looking at my phone that now NATO or some of the European countries have now joined in and said that should be allowed.

We are living in a time where if they start to shoot long-range missiles into Russia, what do you think Russia might do back?

And as the world begins to seemingly convulse, if you do not have the character of Christ, fear will drive you to make decisions that will not be good for your eternity.

1 of the things that they've done, they sweep you into identity politics.

You know, for me, you're a black cis male and these are your pronouns and they try and tell you all this kind of stuff.

They divide you, divide you, divide you up.

I read a quote last week at my church from 1 of the evolutionists who said, or 1 of the communists who said, Christianity is the enemy of communism, in a sense, because Christianity teaches that all men are brothers.

People say they're peaceful, but billions of dollars of damage, lives lost, spray painting, vandalizing, as these protests sweep through, And it's not just people on the left, it's people on the right.

There's an idea that lawlessness can come in, that we can just kind of do whatever we want, that we can change the way the world functions.

All of these things are happening at rapid pace and rapid tick.

And if we are not ready for what is coming, if we don't have the character of Christ, like they did during the time of the Civil Rights Movement where they stood up, I mentioned it this morning, it was a Christian movement and they behaved as Christ would want you to behave and it changed the world.

This is the Stanford Freedom Project and he's talking about a Christian movement to civil rights in America.

A powerful thing, I didn't mention this this morning, but what I mentioned, what they teach our children is that Christianity is the reason for all oppression and racism and all of this stuff.

But you know, if you study world history, slavery has always existed on the planet.

Did you know there are countries that just made slavery illegal in the last century?

And even to this day, there are millions of people basically enslaved around the world.

The slavery that happened in the West, in Central, South America, North America, the Caribbean, was a horrible, depending on where you were, it was worse and better, but definitely here in the United States, it was an incredibly terrible institution.

But what's unique about American slavery is that the slave owners fought a civil war to end slavery.

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Series

Spiritualism: The Serpents Appeal

The Political Devil

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Parent Series

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Parts

The End in Sight

49m

Christ or Revolution?

47m

The Political Devil

55m

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