Mark of the beast, put on the 'spot'

Jude says, [22] And of some have compassion, making a difference: [23] And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

“Exactly what God has done all through Israel’s history is what He’ll do in that tribulation when the man of sin, that personification of the Lie Program, is there and God brings them out of the fire,” explains Richard Jordan.

“When He takes them into that kingdom they’ll be a brand plucked out of the burning, fit for wrath, fit for burning, and yet redeemed because God has another purpose for them.

"Revelation 16: [1] And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
[2] And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

“There’s this spot that develops in these people as a curse; it’s leprosy back in Leviticus 13. They take 'the mark of the beast' and then God marks them.

“Revelation 3: [4] Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
[5] He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

“Go back to Jude 12: [12] These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

“Over and over (II Peter 2 is another place) this issue about the spots and the garments spotted is talking about participation in the Antichrist religious system and the program involved in the worship and the submission to the Antichrist. They have a whole tapestry of religion. By the way, the garments are called 'vestments'.

“In Mark 12 they’re called 'long robes'. You know anybody that goes around in a certain kind of dress that involves long black robes of religious distinction? People who call their priest ‘father’ as in Judges 17?

“People get mad at me sometime over Revelation 17. They like to say it’s the Roman Catholic Church. It’s not; it’s Baal worship and you don’t find Baal worship just in the Roman Catholic Church. For sure you find it there, but it’s not only there.

“When it says in Revelation 17:5, [5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH, she isn’t the only harlot on the block.

“All of the religious system is a harlotry system; it’s a sell-out system: Sell out the truth and go and get involved in that.

“Jude 1:22 is saying, ‘Judgment’s coming on that thing, so some you’re going to meet with compassion, and with others it’s the fear of that judgment coming that will get them, and you’re going to have to have discernment to understand where the brethren are in order to minister to them in an effective way.’

"All of this stuff is the functioning of what will go on in the Trib and every verse in the Book of Jude takes you back to the Old Testament--you could teach the book forever and just about teach all the Old Testament prophetic scripture because it draws on them so much.

“They’re going to fear the wrath of that fire. Zachariah, when it says ‘as a brand plucked from the burning,’ is looking prophetically at the nation Israel being restored from the Babylonian captivity back into the land. Zachariah is there with the return remnant.

“In Amos 4 you get the same kind of situation. Beginning in verse six, it goes through the history of Israel and what’s happened to them. In verse 12: [12] Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

“That’s talking about the fact that the fifth course of judgment is coming on the nation and God’s going to come and take them away into captivity. This is before the captivity; Zachariah is after.

“Notice what’s said about them in verse 11: [11] I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning: yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD.

“Every time God would rescue Israel from one of those courses of judgment it was like, ‘Here comes the fire, the judgment, the consuming wrath,’ and He pulls them out like a firebrand plucked out of the burning.

“All of that is a picture prophetically of the last installment of that judgment, which is the 70^th Week of Daniel in the tribulation period.

“Deuteronomy 4: [19] And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven.
[20] But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

“When God formed the nation He took them out of what He calls an iron furnace. That goes back to Genesis 15 when Abraham saw that vision. Israel is under satanic captivity.

“Remember that in the Exodus all 10 of those plagues were aimed at the gods of Egypt. When God brought Israel out of Egypt that was a religious contest, not a military contest. That was not a ‘who is the biggest guy on the block?’ contest.

“Listen, the Adversary has always said, ‘He might be the most powerful, but I’m the one who ought to exercise the power. I’m the one who ought to tell Him what to do with the power.’ The issue has never been a contest between God and Satan over power. It’s always been an issue about wisdom.

“If you’re the most powerful guy on the block you can be a bully. That doesn’t qualify you to properly exercise the power and the argument with the Adversary’s been, ‘Are you smart enough to do it? Are you really the one who has the best plan?’ ”

(new post tomorrow)