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ABC Prayer Crusade

Lovely Lord of the Lord's Day

Glenn Coon

1 - Significance of Sabbath Worship

2 - Our Generous Lord

3 - Our Gracious Harmonizer

5 - Are Sunday-Keepers Second-Class Christians?

6 - May’s New Heart

7 - The Mark of the Beast Principle

8 - Seal of Love

9 - Our Impartial Christ

10 - The New Covenant Christ

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Shall we pray?

Dear Lord, make me a nail upon the wall, fasten securely in its place.

Then from this thing so common and so small, hang a bright picture, bright face.

The topic of this hour's study is the Mark of the Beast principle.

And I would like you to notice 7 great Bible facts.

The first of which is we are living in the days when there will be a great religious pressure brought upon humanity.

And this is found in Revelation, the 13th chapter, verses 13 to 17.

It says that this power will seek to pressure people to such an extent that they can neither buy nor sell, except they have the mark of the beast or the number of his name.

Number 2 revolves around the word warning.

In Revelation, the 14th chapter, verses 9 to 12, there is a blistering warning from the Lord against those who conform to this Mark of the Beast principle and all that it stands for.

The third point revolves around the word love.

The service of God must be a service of love.

He will not accept any other service, no matter how it is performed, no matter what process we pass through, unless it is motivated by love, it is unacceptable to the Lord.

The fourth point revolves around the words, like him, And our text of Scripture is 1 John 3, 1 to 3.

It says, when Jesus comes again, we shall be like him.

Think of the character that God's children will have who are ready to meet Jesus Christ.

Now, that brings us immediately to 0.5, and this point revolves around the word choice.

Philippians 2 verse 5, it says, Let, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

In other words, in order for us to develop a character like Jesus Christ, God does not apply pressure.

He comes to us and he said, look, would you let me in?

Will you let me have control of your life?

Unless you freely let me in, I cannot do it.

And it revolves around the words Christ's methods and the text is Luke chapter 2 verse 46.

It is the story of Jesus while he was only 12 years of age.

You may recall that his parents had left him in Jerusalem thinking that he was in the crowd.

After they had traveled quite a distance from Jerusalem, they started hunting for Jesus and searching and they couldn't find him.

So they made the trip back to Jerusalem and finally learned that he was in the temple.

Back in the temple they found him sitting there before the great leaders of the nation.

And it tells us in verse 46 that he was listening and he was asking them questions.

Now, the way to instruct an individual is to have him ask of us.

Jesus picked up this marvelous art at the age of 12 years.

There he was, a 12-year-old boy, asking these great leaders questions, leading questions to be sure, questions that drew on their intellect and caused them to think.

In turn, they recognized that he had some tremendous light for them, so they posed as individuals who are tutoring him, testing him, and they ask him questions.

Jesus said, all things that you would that men should do to you, do even so to them.

If I want people to ask me questions, let me ask them questions.

If I would like people to respect my religious views, let me respect their religious views.

If I want people to believe in my sincerity, let me believe in their sincerity and leave to the judge of the whole universe the final verdict, you see.

You don't force instruction on an unready and unreceptive mind.

And 0.7 revolves around the words true education.

And I draw on the wonderful statements from my favorite author for this, because my favorite author had studied very much into the life of Christ, and the text of Scripture that undergirded the life that he lived and revealed the principles by which he would have us abide.

I Quote, true education is not forcing instruction on an unready and unreceptive mind.

My friends, this is diametrically opposed to the pressure method that is going to be brought to bear on the religious world in the days just ahead of us, according to points 1 and 2, which we presented just a few moments ago.

I would like to share with you a few examples of how the pressure method will work in a counterproductive way, and how Christ's love method works.

My wife and I were driving from Daytona, Florida, to St.

Augustine several years ago, and we did what we don't often do.

The reason why we picked him up was he was very well dressed and he looked like a reputable individual.

So as we opened the door and welcomed him in, we at once engaged him in conversation, a pleasant conversation.

Instead of our deciding that we would instruct him, which so many of our dear people think we have to do, we decided we would use Christ's methods.

We would take an interest in him as an individual.

It came out that he was dabbling in hypnotism.

In fact, he had considered hypnotism as a science.

Well, those of you who know us Sabbath keepers know that we have done quite a bit of research into the subject of hypnotism, and we do not believe in 1 mind controlling another.

We do not believe this fits into the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We do not believe it fits into the methods of Jesus Christ.

And we believe that hypnotism, therefore, is not of God.

And when he began to share with us how he had dealt in hypnotism, you know what I wanted to do?

I wanted to say, brother, you're on dangerous ground.

But having learned something of Christ's methods that do not impose instruction on an individual who hasn't even asked, I was able to restrain myself and listen attentively.

As the man continued his relating of his experience in hypnotism, I could see that he truly was a very sincere individual.

He was also a very intellectual individual.

But as he continued his little experience, He said, but I have decided that the science of hypnotism is too deep for me.

He said, I find that I can bring the mind of an individual out into the woods, as he called it.

But he said, I do not have the ability to bring him back home again.

So he said, I've decided to drop all interest in hypnotism.

I wanted to say, brother, it's about time that you learn that.

And I thought, that isn't Christ's method.

He neither belittles, neither does he impose education and instruction on an individual who hasn't asked.

So instead of my saying, brother, I'm so glad that you finally learned." Very calmly I said, well, you know, I agree with you.

This way I was agreeing with that which he had already learned instead of imposing additional instruction on him.

Having asked him several questions and having learned something concerning his past and his life's experience, I was pleased to find that what happened to Jesus in the temple happened to us.

As he asked them questions, they in turn came back and asked him questions.

Right away he said, and what line of work are you engaged in?

I said, well, I'm a minister of the gospel.

Oh, he said, may I ask you some questions?

He said, over in the book of Daniel, it speaks of the King of the North.

Could you shed some light on the King of the North?

You know, there was no question that he could have asked me that I would rather he wouldn't have asked.

So I turned and I said, well friend, to be perfectly frank, I have studied what the Bible says about the King of the North in the book of Daniel, but to be real honest, I can't say that I fully understand this subject.

Let me interrupt myself, friends, by saying this.

None of us need to feel that anybody's going to belittle us for frankly admitting what we don't understand.

The man's respect grew instead of decreasing.

Series

Lovely Lord of the Lord's Day

7 - The Mark of the Beast Principle

Transcript

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