And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast that I just showed you, he can make these robots, these artificial intelligent robots, look just like him, see? And as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And 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." You see, though, you may not understand the scripture at some point in your life or as we go along through the years. Well, what is that talking? These funny-looking creatures? That can't be. And I've heard people allegorize these things for years. Haven't you? Oh, that's just an allegoration of something else that's going to take place. See, it's just that the man of sin, the man of perdition is just going to punish people some way, not by these locusts or these grasshopper looking robots. Not true. The scripture is always right. So if it's always right, what did we talk about last Sunday? Does anybody remember what our major emphasis was last Sunday? If you're like me, I can't remember from one Sunday to the next what the pastor preached on, what took place in Sunday school. I think about it maybe that day and maybe the next day, but by Wednesday or Thursday, what was that about? I can't remember. But I want you to remember this time because it's critical for your salvation. Okay, let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you again for being the great God that you are. Lord, so full of mercy, so full of truth. Lord, and your word comes alive each passing day now as knowledge is increased on the face of the earth. And we realize, Lord, again, that you haven't lied. Man lies, but you don't. So Lord, as we come before you today, we just hope and pray that our families Lord, that if anybody here or in the morning worship service does not know you, they will come to a realization of the truth that the Bible is true. Your words are true and that they would come to salvation as you has have outlined the way to salvation. God, we're just poor people that need you in every way. We thank you for being the great God that you are, so full of love and mercy, grace. Forgive us for where we failed your Lord. Pray again for our church that it would grow in the fear and admonition of the Lord and Lord that our families would be taught your words. And again, in the fear and admonition of the war of the Lord, Lord, there's so much unbelief in these last days. So help us and help me this morning, Lord, as I try to teach these things. Thank you for being the great God that you are. We love you this morning, Lord, and we long for that day. We ask these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. What I taught about last week, primary emphasis was on repentance. Would you remember what we talked about repentance was? Do you have any idea? It's critical to your salvation. And one of the critical things that has happened in this day and time is that great men of God, far better than I'll ever be, have led some people astray because they have defined repentance incorrectly. And I'm going to give you some examples this morning. I'm not going to tell you their names. You want to know why? Because some of them we know. And I'm not going to send it out over the internet because, again, they are far better people than I and believers than I'll ever be. But they got the definition of repentance wrong. And as I said, I'm going to read that to you in just a minute, some of those definitions that they got wrong. So what is repentance? Metanoia, meta, change, noia, mind. A change in the mind. Catch that now, that's very important. A change in the mind toward God. And let me add another phrase this week that precipitates a change in your actions toward God. Did you catch that now? That's repentance. Many, many people have prayed the sinner's prayer and they were no more saved than the man in the moon. No such thing as a man in the moon, is there? Can't get saved unless you repent. Jesus said, unless you repent, you shall also likewise, what? Perish. Perish. Be destroyed continually in a pretty hot place. It's called hell. People forget, in this day and time particularly, they think, well, once we die, it's all over. There's just no existence after we die. Just not true. Not true at all. As a human being, you have an existence after this old body dies that's going to go on forever. Forever, the Bible says, and you have a choice where it will be. Let me give you another example. We talked about Stephen Hawking's last week, did we not? Those of you that were here and remember the great intellectual that had MS and just died. Very brilliant man, but an atheist. I want to read to you what he said. concerning all these pictures and the things I've been telling you this morning. He died at the age of 76, though it's amazing that he lived that long. And before he departed this world, he left us with warnings that earth is headed for a catastrophic ending in the near future. What do we know that as? Catastrophic ending in the near future. He got that right. That's the wrath of God. It's coming in the 70th week of Daniel. The great tribulation is the second half. First half is where you see the four horsemen of the apocalypse and other things happening. And the Antichrist is making deals with Israel. Isn't it strange? Israel is such a little small country, yet there's so much emphasis on it because God put His name there. But he went on to say, listen to what he said. He left us with warnings that Earth is headed for catastrophic ending in the near future. This doom will not come from a fiery asteroid or even global warming, which is not true, as we know, but from rising inequality fueled by increasingly smart robots. And one of the smartest men in the world has said that, And he doesn't believe in the Bible. He hasn't been reading the Bible, but you have. And I've just shown you pictures here. Hawking said, intelligent future, artificial intelligence will probably develop a drive to survive and acquire more resources as a step towards accomplishing whatever goal it has. Well, what is the goal it has? The Antichrist will be controlling these things. because surviving and having more resources to reproduce. They are now developing robots that can reproduce and also robots that satisfy the lust of man. They're here. Get that. Get that. And so what did he recommend? This is funny since you know the scriptures. We should all leave the planet. He said, and find new lives in outer space. Okay. All right. We laugh because we know the truth, don't we? Now, since, since we dealt with first Thessalonians, did any of you see where Paul, and of course, Paul says repentance is necessary too. And I'm going to come back to some of those definitions in just a moment. But did you see in 1 Thessalonians where Paul said the Thessalonians repented? The word repent is not there, but a word that's used almost 600 times in the scripture is there, and a lot of people probably don't realize what it refers to. Repentance. Turn in your Bibles to 1 Thessalonians. Look at chapter 1. And I was listening to Adrian Rogers earlier this morning. Again, love worth finding. Some of you have found love worth finding. Adrian's a great preacher. He was a preacher in my hometown. I knew Adrian. He didn't know me, but I knew him. And he, of course, became pastor of that great church in Memphis, Tennessee. But Adrian read these very verses this morning. He, before he died, he died of cancer. By the way, when he went into the emergency room, his family, as he was dying, his family said, oh, they were so hurt and upset. And he was smiling. He said, no, this is a win-win situation. If I die, I know where I'm going. If I get well and come back home, that's a win. Do you see that? Anyway, Adrian read these verses this morning. Let's read them together. 1 Thessalonians again, chapter 1, starting in verse 7. So that ye were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God were to spread abroad, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves show of us, what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned." Do you see that? You know what that is? That's repentance. How they repented and turned to God. What did we say the definition was? A change of mind towards God that leads to a change of action. You remember that. Okay, don't forget that. I'd love to be able to give you exams like we had in Bible school. But anyway, to God, from idols to serve the living and true God. And to wait, here it is, for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from what? The wrath to come. There it is, folks. Even Stephen Hawkins, though he wasn't a believer, knew something was coming. He sensed it. Do you sense it? Are you right with God this morning? Are you? 90% of people, as I mentioned last week, sitting in the pews in church are not saved. Why? Because they never took that first step that the scripture cautions us over and over to make. That first step of repentance, that change in mind towards God, not sorrow of the world, but what is it? Godly sorrow. Why? Because you finally realize how putrid, how rotten you really are and how much you need the Savior. Boy, if we could only get that. Not only as a church, but as a nation, as churches around the world who have gone so far off of the doctrine taught in this book. It's just not taught anymore, and it just breaks my heart. You know what I heard recently? And I've mentioned them before. Westcott and Hort, who are members of the Broad Church, do you recall, in England? who were the most responsible guys. I'd hate to be in their shoes now, because they're dead. And they had to go before. Well, they won't go before, because I don't think they were really believers. They'll be at the old great white throne judgment. Anyway, they were members of the broad church. You know what they taught the coming of the Lord was? When you die, Christ comes. So when you die, that's the coming of the Lord. That's false doctrine. He is physically returning to this earth. One of these days, the sign of the Lord Jesus Christ will be in the heavens, and you're going to see it. Everybody's going to see it. It's coming. And again, all these pictures, very, very soon. Are you right with the Lord? The one world government, do you think Trump and his policies are going to succeed? No. Why? Because the Bible tells us. All these attacks on Trump, it's all because of what they call the deep state, but it's really being controlled by whom? By the man of perdition, the man of sin, the son of perdition. He's engineering all this towards a one world government, one world religion, one world economy. Can't you see it? So whatever happens in Washington right now is not going to succeed under Trump. But as some people have said, it's just a little bit of a reprieve for some of you, those listening by the internet, live streaming. Just a little bit of reprieve to get right with God. So many think, well, my mom and dad were Christians and believers, so I'm all right. Why do I keep harping on this? Because we know, probably sitting in this church today, right here, right now, there are people who truly have not repented, viewed their sin as putrefaction. Rotten, garbage. Towards a holy God, thrice holy God. Okay. Give you one more example. I thought I had it up there, but I didn't. I've told you about this before. This, remember I said there's the population has been steady, growing, growing, growing, and all of a sudden it's going up like that. That is a population curve that you see. It's going like this. What does that mean? It's another indication that we're close to the end because the population is expanding so rapidly now. Farmers are decreasing, as you know. Pastor Nix sent out an email here recently concerning the number of farmers that have left farming. And it's just a small fraction now of men left farming. We won't be able to keep up with the population explosion. What's that going to precipitate? Crime. Who's going to try to control that? The Antichrist. There will be wars and famines. Matter of fact, there's tremendous famine now already on the face of the earth. It's here. People are starving all over the world. Why would that need to be? If we put our engineers and scientists to work doing what they should be doing instead of making bombs and weapons and so on, we'd have enough food to feed the world. But we're so busy destroying one another, hating one another instead of loving one another that that's what's coming about. There's another thing that's been tweaking me a little bit, turning your Bibles to Hebrews. if you would. Chapter 12 is where I'm taking you. I thought that's where it was. Hold on a minute. I put it in my notes because it is tweaking me, and I should know where it is. Give me just a moment. My old age is causing my memory to fail more and more and more. Well, I'll just tell you, I've lost it. I'm sorry about that. Let me flip back one more page here. Well, I'll just tell you. The book of Hebrews, probably written by Paul, indicates that you should be teachers now rather than still being on the milk of the word. Now, if I look at Hebrews, many of them say it was written sometime in the 60s. I'm not sure that's right, 60 AD. I think probably Hebrews was written shortly after Paul began his ministry because And it certainly was before 70 A.D. because Hebrews doesn't mention the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. So we know it was written before that. But where was Paul sent as he was sent? I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and then the Gentiles. And as he went from city to city establishing churches, who did he go to first? The Jews. Who were converted first? The Jews. And so I believe that as the Judaizers, that's talked about in the book of Galatians, begin to give out that heretical false gospel, another gospel, As we're hearing everywhere today, a false gospel everywhere. Paul became concerned, he wrote Hebrews to the Jews. Hebrews means Jew, does it not? And whereas some of you should be teachers, you're still on the milk of the Word. Thank you. 512. I was looking at 12.5. Hebrews 5.12. Thank you, Brother Jack. Hebrews 5.12, For when for the time you ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again, which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become what such as have need of milk, not of strong milk. And he goes on to say, look at verse 6, chapter 6, verse 1. Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again." What? The foundation of repentance. But here's the problem. They haven't been teaching repentance. It's a foundation of your salvation from dead works and of faith towards God. And I showed you last week from the Scripture, what comes first? Repentance. And then what happens? God helps you then believe. He helps you with all the rest of the things. Sanctification, and in that day, glorification. You recall all that? All this is very important, but what I want to show you in 5.12, for when for the time ye ought to be. That's present tense. It's a participle. That literally means right now. Right now. You ought to be teachers. Ye have need that one teach you again. That's present tense two, right now. Which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such. That's perfect tense. What does that mean? That means we've been sitting in our pews all this time, and from the past extending to now, we've just been sitting there kind of letting somebody teach us. And we only get you, what, an hour a week, two hours, three hours a week at the most to teach? What happens to all the rest of the time, you see? What are you doing? This is what Paul's saying. That's the perfect tense. Something that was started in the past, you're just sitting there not learning at home and studying. picking up a Strong's Concordance or your computer and looking things up. And so you're still as babes on milk, not realizing what's coming. I mean, it may be before we get out of church this morning. And how fast does it come? Really fast. A twinkling of an eye. Brother Jack has talked about that. I've talked about that. That's not a second, folks. That's less than a second. Brother Jack says 150 thousandths of a second. And that's probably about right. Not even the blink of an eye, just a twinkle of an eye and we are out of here. Our bodies are going to be changed so that we can be in the presence of God. Praise the Lord for that. Get rid of this old vile body and get a new body that then can just be transported anywhere around the universe. Now, I want to go back to II Thessalonians, if you would. Turn back to II Thessalonians. And again, we're still really finishing up the idea of obtaining the glory of the Lord. How do you obtain it? Well, I've just indicated some of the things to you. Remember in the verse before we had the four S's? Do you see it? Let's look at it again. Four S's in verse number 13. Salvation, sanctification, spirit, and truth is scripture. Four S's there that help you become be able to obtain the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we covered repentance fairly thoroughly, and I've emphasized it again this morning, but there are other R words that I've been trying to get to now for some weeks, but all this other has been so important getting up to this. What do you know about regeneration? What do you know about redemption? What do you know about remission? What do you know about the resurrection? Why is the resurrection so important? Why did Paul say, without the resurrection, it's over. We have no hope. Why did he say that? Would you be able to tell a child that? Well, turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. Keep your finger at 2 Thessalonians. Run over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Let's start in verse 12. As you remember, the summary of the gospel is in the first few verses in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, starting in verse 12. Okay. Now, if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? We know that Christ was raised from the dead. The Bible tells us that. So it's true. Just like all these things we had, just like the atomic bomb, the hydrogen bomb, melting the flesh, the Bible is true. So, we go on. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ be not risen, verse 14, 1 Corinthians 15, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, or empty, not worthwhile? And your faith is also not worthwhile? Yea, verse 15, yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ. Why? Because Paul saw Christ on the road to Damascus, if you recall, and the apostles certainly saw Christ, and they preached and testified of those things. Verse 15, last phrase, "...whom he raise not up, if so be that the dead rise not up. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised." And verse 17, "...and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins." Why is the resurrection so important? Would anybody here this morning have an idea? Turn to Romans chapter 4. And it tells you why. Romans chapter 4. It's something that is missed about the resurrection of Christ. It's the very last verse in Romans chapter 4. In reading this, you'll need a little explanation, but we'll give that to you. "...who was delivered for our offenses," our sins, "...and was raised again for our," what? "...justification." Well, what does resurrection have to do with justification? Here's what it is. Listen carefully now. Because God was satisfied with Christ's sacrifice, dying for our sins, shedding His blood on the cross, and because of that satisfaction, He was raised. It satisfied the justice of God. That's why the resurrection is so critical. Without the resurrection, we have no hope. But we have hope because God was satisfied by our Savior, our Redeemer. What is redemption? There's another R word. What does redemption mean? I'll let you think on it. Okay? Let me give you... I've done this before. We're going to do it again. here, ex agorizo. Y'all remember that? And I'll give you the verses in just a minute. An agorizo, you know what he did for you by what he did here on the face of the earth and the shedding of blood? He bought you out of the marketplace. That's what Christ did. The marketplace of the world. So many today think they're saved, but they're still in the marketplace of the world. They're still living their lives, not changed, haven't repented and changed their actions towards God. Ex agorizo. Agorizo means to buy. How did he buy? By his death, he paid the penalty for our sins. And therefore he bought us out of the marketplace. And that's X. X means from. Agorizo means bought. Bought out of or from the marketplace. Let me give you a verse if you'd like. Look at Galatians 3, verse 13. I never have enough time. Galatians 3, verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. The redeemed there is ex agorizo. There are other verses, Galatians 4 and 5. Look at Galatians 4, verse 4. But when the fullness of the time was come, that's in this dispensation, right? Everything is set up just perfect. So God sent His Son. God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. A body was made for Him to dwell in, made under the law. You see, your body is just a dwelling place for your soul and spirit. That's all it is. I got a question this week, by the way, on the internet. Can your body survive without your soul? No, it can't. It may temporarily survive. And by the way, I'll tell you this, the United States Armed Forces have practiced some of this. It's called out-of-the-body experiences that you've heard me mention before, where they practice soul migration. They can actually put someone in a drug-induced state, and their soul can actually be transmitted around the world. They can actually see things, places, and come back and report on that. I'll tell you this, though. Those who have done that have wound up in institutions. They go crazy, in other words. I just want you to know that. Spirit, soul, and body is the way God made you. This is a temple, though, where you don't practice or mess around with witchcraft, which is what the United States government was doing. That is a fact. I shouldn't probably be telling this. I had a lot of FBI guys who were patients of mine. Most of them are very good guys. True. But I'll also tell you that I had one man who came in, and every time he came into my office, he was like this. He was just like this. So nervous and upset because of some of those experiences, okay? And some of the things that he knew that were going on in the FBI. All right. I don't know how I got off on that rabbit trail. Well, look at Galatians 4, verse 4. We did that. Fullest time must come, God sent forth a son made of woman, made under the law, to what? To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." Redeem, ex agorizo. That's what that is. What about ransom? Have you been ransomed? That's your question this morning. Have you really repented? Remember what repentance is now. and therefore been ransomed and set free." See, ransom is lutron, to set free. Remember, y'all remember my bird thing? Okay. Bought out of the marketplace like you're in a cage. Burdened, trapped with sin. God provided for you to be bought out of the marketplace and Set free. Okay? Fly away just free like a bird. What a gift that is. Now, I want to take you to another place in the Bible. I know we do a lot of walking, but this is very important. A lot of people don't understand this scripture. And I want you to understand it. Turn to 1 Corinthians again, if you're not there. excuse me, 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5. And this is another R word that we're dealing with, all part of this whole process of one of the S's in the other verse in 2nd Thessalonians. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Why? Because of the new birth, being born again, which God said unto Nicodemus, I say unto thee, Nicodemus, ye must be born again. And verse 18, and all these things are of God who reconciled us to himself. There's the first reconcile. Know that that is a different word from the next reconciliation that we're going to read here. "...reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation." Now, just throw the words out. You don't have to know these. We would if we were in Bible school. Catalago and catalase. Catalago, who hath reconciled us, means Jesus Christ removed the differences that we had with God. Or God had with us might be a better way of saying it. That's the first reconcile. The second one is the ministry of reconciliation. That's Catalogue A. The ministry of satisfying God's desire for you. Do you see the difference? And then in the next verse, it's the same thing. "...to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world," removing the differences between God and the world, "...unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses." What did He impute to you if you're saved? Righteousness. It's not your righteousness. That's Romans 4, again. By the way, let's go on. I'm almost through. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 19, "...reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." See, it's defining the reconciliation in the last phrase above in verse 18. The last phrase in verse 19 is defining that, the word of satisfying a holy God. And how is that? Preaching Jesus, that He saves, and what you need to do to get saved, okay? That's what it's all about. All right, I'm out of time. I'd like to keep going because there's a lot more that we could cover concerning this. And what I didn't get to, and I told you I would, is chapter 3 of 2 Thessalonians that talks about separation. Now I'm just going to throw it out real fast, okay? Because I may not get back up here for a while, there's so much going on in April and other things. But, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, it talks about separation. It's primarily talking about secondary separation. Which when you're saved, you need to separate from brothers and sisters in Christ who are doing all those things the scripture warns about so carefully. adultery, fornication, drugs, being associated with the world. Are there Christians doing that? Oh yes, there sure are. That's secondary separation. Let me just, and that's what chapter 3 is about. Separate from a brother who's not being obedient to the scripture. Primary separation It's separation from the world. Okay. I can't hear you. Second Thessalonians chapter three. You can read that at home and I'm going to have to quit. All right. I've enjoyed being here this morning. I love each and every one of you. I just pray that you've done what we've talked about now for several Sundays. You've repented towards a holy God. Okay. Ray, would you close for us, brother?