towards the end. I didn't give you a paper today because I don't know if you keep your papers. I've said this many times. I don't know if you keep your papers and bring them with you or what, but we're just going to go back onto the sheet from last week. We're going to really springboard off of an idea we left off with last week, and it has to do with one of the passages, the last verse in the passage of actual, of Genesis 47, but I'm not gonna start there. I'm gonna just backtrack a little bit and I'll read from verse 27 to 31. Genesis 47, 27, it says, And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they had possessions therein, and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, So the whole age of Jacob was 147 years, and the time drew nigh that Israel must die. And he called his son Joseph and said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, I pray thee, put I pray thee thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me, and bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt. Now we talked about all that last week. where Jacob had a promise from God that he would have the land and have the blessing of Abraham and Isaac. I don't know what his motive was for not wanting to be buried there, but I know he didn't want to be buried in a pagan land for sure. And he didn't want his family to stay there. He knew that they were considered abominations in the eyes of the Egyptians. And we covered all that last week, I believe. But it says in verse 30, but I will lie with my fathers and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do as thou has said. And he said, swear unto me. And he swear unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head. And that's where we're going to pick up there in verse. Well, let me just go back to verse twenty nine and just reiterate one more time. I got thinking about this idea of these young girls being here and you never know who's coming from time to time. And honestly, we never know who's truly saved or not. And people come in and it's amazing to me. I've had conversations and I'm not I'm not going to give any examples, but I've had conversations with the congregation over the years. And it's amazing when you just assume that, well, you're here, you're singing, you're praising the Lord and you seem to love God and you always come. So you must be saved. And you hear us preach from time to time, you'll hear us preach about was there ever a day and a time in your life that you ever remember bowing the knee to Jesus Christ and calling upon His name as the Bible prescribes us to do and asking Him to be your personal Savior. And the reason why we do that is because so many people come and sit in churches just like this one. In fact, this one. And you sit down and you have a conversation when we're having a hot dog Sunday, and you grab a hot dog and you sit down and you ask them their testimony, and lo and behold, they say things like, well, you know, I don't know when that happened. I just know I've always been saved. And I've heard that. Pastors heard that. I don't know if you've heard that. You might do well to talk to your fellow believers, your family members, your friends who claim to be saved, and just say, hey, I would like to know when you got saved. Just tell me. That's always a great story. I love hearing how people got saved and what led them to Christ and how it came. Go ahead and tell me. And you might be surprised to find out that they might say, well, you know, I was in a car accident and, you know, I shouldn't have survived. And the police even had the report. They showed the mangled car. And I know a friend like this, this guy, I know he was almost 400 pounds. And that's a big guy. And you can imagine someone like that size driving a car. And he got in a car accident, flipped that car over, smashed it against a tree. And when the police arrived, you know where he was? He was not in the car. He was way over there. And he was totally fine. You say, well, what was that? Now, he wasn't saved at that time. So just because something like that happens, people will say, I should have never lived. God must be with me. Well, I'll tell you something that's even better than that. You shouldn't even have another breath unless God is with you. So that means everybody in the world, God is with them because they're breathing right now in their heart and they're thinking right now and they're coherent. That doesn't mean God has saved you and taking you to heaven. That just means God is blessing you to give you a chance. As the Bible says, he's long suffering to us. We're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so God is not necessarily, you're not saved because you were a preemie baby, as one gentleman told me. I was a preemie baby, and I was real preemie, and I should have never lived, and if it wasn't, and God was with me from that moment, I've always been saved, he said. And I will just get a little closer to home. I've had conversations in this congregation, not necessarily this present group, but in this church, and people have told me the same exact thing. I had this happen to me one day and I felt the presence of God and it's been with me ever since. Do you understand why I'm skeptical about that? You understand the reason why I'm bringing this up is because that is not what the Bible says. I would rather take that person and say, okay, well then let me just, let's take this to one next level. If you believe God is with you, then you should have no problem. Let's go over to Romans chapter 10. Not all of you, but let's go to Romans chapter 10. And you know the chapter, right? That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Verse 13, I believe it is. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Did you ever do that? Well, I mean, I do that every day. I've heard people say that. I do that every day. Well, do you know that's not the Bible prescription? Say, well, they must be saved. They do it every day. No, because they don't believe that God is true to his word because they do it every day. They're not trusting in God. They're trusting in their next prayer that my next prayer will save me. And that's not Bible. You see, you got to do it the Bible way. You know what you want to believe in? You want to believe in the God of the Bible. You know what you want? You want to believe in the Jesus of the Bible. You know what you want? You want to believe in salvation according to the Bible. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, we looked at it last week, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. You know, you're born again by the word of God. You go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 where the gospel is given, verses 1 through 4, and what does it say? According to the scriptures, not according to your miracle, not according to your experience, not according to your heart, your good heart and your good nature, not according to your works, according to the scriptures. So it would behoove every one of us to know what the scriptures say about that matter, right? Well, in the Old Testament, now I'll get into a little bit extra. Now in the Old Testament, the scriptures say to do one thing for that. But in the New Testament, the Bible says do something else for that. We rely on the righteousness of someone else now. We don't rely on our righteousness and following the law and being a good person and having a good heart towards people and bringing sacrifices. We trust in another person's righteousness and the work that he accomplished. And so it matters to talk to people about that because you might just be surprised one day that when you get up to heaven and start looking around for so-and-so and they're not there. And this is what bothers me. What bothers me is that, and I think about it now, it won't bother me in eternity. I'm sure of it. Because if it doesn't bother Jesus Christ, it isn't going to bother me. You know why? Because I'm going to be Him. There will be people in hell. This is what I think about today. There will be people in hell that were, well, I thought I was saved. I believed in Jesus. I mean, I was saved from the car accident. I was a preemie baby and I lived. I mean, I had that healing to my body and no one who else could have done that except Jesus. I mean, how come I'm burning in hell? Well, the Catholics must be right. We're going to talk about Catholics today. I just must be in purgatory. And they never really read their Bible. They never really went to church. They never really investigated the most important matter of all of the reason why they were here in the first place, to be alive at all, is to know not what you're going to do next tomorrow, it's to know what you're going to do for eternity. It's to know where you're destined to be for eternity after you die. And that gets back to this time here, verse 29, and that's why I got off on that whole tangent, is the time to deny that Israel must die. And I said it last week, and we're gonna move on from this, but last week, you must die. You know, frankly, I look forward to it. I'm old enough, and I've been old enough for a while now, to know that I should look forward to that. There's nothing left in this life that I'm looking forward to. I want people to be saved, sure. I want to witness to people, I want that. For whatever the Lord wants is what I would want. But whatever John Albrecht wants, who cares? It doesn't matter what I want. But tomorrow, the Bible tells you, it said Israel must die. We must die. You understand that is appointed unto men, we looked at that verse too, is appointed unto men once to die. Hebrews tells us that. Is appointed unto men once to die. But after this, the judgment. So we're gonna stand before God. And the Bible tells me also that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So whether you acknowledge him down here or not, whether you ever read his Bible or not, whatever you think about God or Jesus Christ, one day, you're not gonna have a choice. You are going to, even the devil himself, Lucifer, is gonna bow the knee and acknowledge Jesus is Lord. And so I would rather just voluntarily do it now, because who am I to fight against God? And I've had this conversation with people so many times, I don't, I got a lot to cover today, but I really feel like I'm on this for a reason. You know, I've had this conversation a lot with people, and you know, they have these arguments against God. And I'm thinking, are you that dumb? Are you that foolish? Are you really gonna sit here and argue with me as if I'm God? And if you beat me in the argument, then you've satisfied the, you know, what God would ever say to you, and you're never going to face him someday. Well, you can beat me to a pulp. I don't, you know, I mean, you could outwit me, I'm sure, no problem. But when you stand before God and the Bible says every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess, I mean, you're not going to think about, well, I, but I, but Lord, I told John Albrecht, you know, and he, and I beat him. He's going to say, who's that? You're not, we're not talking to him. Where's he at? He's, he's back there. And so, you know, it doesn't do us any good to rationalize. I mean, I just don't understand. I do understand because I fought against God for many, many, many years. I fought against the idea. But once you get the idea that, you know, the Bible's true and you just submit to that, you realize there's no point in fighting against God. But the Bible says not only is there that we must die, it says that after this, the judgment, it also says there's a second death. And that's found in Revelation where they were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. You know, everybody must die. We all know that. You know, there's two things in life you'll never escape. You all know the joke, right? Death and taxes. And so you're going to die, but you don't have to face the second death. The second death is for all of eternity. The second death is to be cast into a lake of fire with the devil and his angels that you and I were never supposed to be a part of. You understand that that was prepared for them? It was never prepared for you. Don't get mad at God for preparing hell for you. He never did that. He prepared it for the devil and his angels. And you know what you and I decide? Well, if there's a God, then this or that. Well, if there's a God, then he must accept me for who, he must know my heart. If there's a, you're not the judge. And so you know what that is? That's you fighting against God. And you know what that is? You choosing, you say, I didn't do this. No, yes, you did. That's you choosing the devil. And making him, as Jesus said to the Pharisees, okay, you are of your father, the devil. You don't want me as your father. You don't want to hear me. You don't want to hear my reasoning. My reasoning is better than yours. My ways are not like your ways. My thoughts are not like your thoughts. They're far superior. And if you don't like that, if you don't want that, and I know according to your flesh you don't like that, but then what you've done is you've chosen yourself. And yourself, the way you are, you are not in the likeness of God right now. You're in the likeness of Adam. You have a dead spirit that doesn't communicate with God, but it does communicate with Satan. Because Satan is the God of this world. And Satan is the one who communicated with Adam and Eve, and they listened to him. And you are born that way. And so when you choose yourself over God's ways, over the Word of God, you've chosen the destiny that was prepared for the devil and his angels. And there will be no one in hell. Ferdie and I had a conversation the other day, went out to dinner, and he brought up a great point. And he said, John, you were talking about the guy in Luke 16 who went to hell. And I'm like, yeah, I remember that. And he said, and you know one thing that I never said? He talked about this and he talked about that. But you know what he never said? He never said, I don't belong here. Why am I here? What am I doing here? He never argued with Father Abraham about what am I doing here? I shouldn't be here. Because he knew. And you know what I believe too? I believe everyone in hell will have the understanding of, I know why I'm here. And you know what? The regret. I hate regret. That's one thing about me. I just don't like regret. I can't live with regret. And you know, can you imagine being like that in hell? Knowing that you're never going to get out. And sitting in church and hearing about a place called heaven, and we just sang about this place that's made out of gold. Oh, come on. Yeah, a fairytale land. And Cinderella, and she lived in a house made of gold for the rest of her life. And that's what we think. But that's heaven. And you'll be in hell, and you'll be saying, boy, I wonder what they're doing up there. And they're living or walking on streets of gold. They're not hungry, but they're eating everything they want, whenever they want. They're doing whatever they want. I know about Jesus Christ. I know about his body. I know about his powers and his abilities. I know what the Bible... I sat in church, and all I'm... I'm going to be done here. All I'm telling you is that people There's something about us that we constantly resist God. It's just part of who you are as a person, as a person in the flesh. And resisting God will send you to hell. And it's just not worth it. All right, so he must die. But moving on from that, in verse 31, let's get into this. And he said, swear unto me, and he swore unto him, and Israel bowed himself on the bed's head. So this brings up a controversy amongst, not a controversy, it should bring up a controversy for you, but in the Catholic Church, they will use this right here and they will also take you over to Hebrews 11, go to Hebrews 11 verse 21. And we're going to divert from the topic of Genesis for a little while, maybe I'm sure for the rest of the hour, and talk about false doctrine. And it's important that you recognize false doctrine because of what I said. False doctrine is, well, God has always been with me. I've always been saved. That's false doctrine. And false doctrine is, I can have a statue on the dashboard of my car and pray to Jesus through the statue, or I can have a set of beads around my neck and pull them off anytime I want and start counting so many of them. And God will hear me then. Or I can bury a statue in my backyard to bless my house. Or I can hang a crucifix on the wall. Or I can have the Holy Blessed Virgin Mother Mary over every door of my house. And I can have all these things. And that is how I reach God. And that is doctrine for almost 2 billion people in the world. That's a lot of people. That's more than the Christians. I'm sure of it. And they get it from here. And so Hebrews 11, verse 21, it's a complementary verse, or we'd say a cross-reference. But it's not the right cross-reference. But the Catholics will use this. from Genesis 47-31, and they'll cross-reference over to Hebrews 11-21. It says, by faith Jacob, when he was dying... Now, did you read, first of all, did you read back that he was dying, right? Okay, but when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. He didn't bless the sons there. He was just talking to Joseph about, don't bury me in Egypt, right? If you go to the next chapter, see what I'm doing? I hope you're doing this. Keep your hand in there. Go back to Genesis 48 and look at verse 2. And one told Jacob and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee, and Israel strengthened himself and sat upon the bed. And Jacob said unto Joseph, and he starts talking, if you read through the chapter, he's going to bless Manasseh and Ephraim. chapter 48 verse 2 is what Hebrews 1121 is talking about. But the reasons the Catholics... they get everything wrong. And the reason why they mess up the cross-reference is because you don't read your Bible anyway. And you would never study this out anyway unless you came to Bible Believers Baptist Church in Port St. Lucie on July 17th or 16th. I looked at my watch and I gave you the wrong date. You would never know this. But in verse 31 of Genesis 47, it says, And he swore unto me, and he swore unto him, and Israel bowed himself upon the bed's head. Now, they want you to believe that the bed's head was the staff that he's talking about in Hebrews 11. And it's not. The staff he used in chapter 48, verse 2, he strengthened himself and sat upon the bed. He picked himself up. It doesn't say in 48, 2, that he had a staff, but you know by cross-referencing Hebrews 11, 21, that he did have a staff. And the only reason they want you to know about the staff is because in verse 31 of 47, I hope I'm not confusing you, is he bowed himself as if an act of worship. And this is what the Catholic Bible reads. And in Genesis 47, this is what it will read. Get your Catholic Bible out. It should be in the back of every chair. We should do that. I don't know why we don't do that. I mean, after all, whatever is easier for you to understand, right? You get this understanding, and you're going to be into idolatry. So their Bible says, and he said, swear then to me And as he was swearing, Israel adored God. I hope you're looking at your Bible right now, Genesis 47, 31. And he said, I'll read it again. He said, swear it then to me. And as he was swearing, Israel adored God. Does your Bible say that? But it says he bowed. He bowed. So they say, well, he's adoring God. No, he's just leaning back. He's old, he's tired, he's on his bed, he's saying, don't bury me in Egypt, and he's just leaning back on the bed. But it says he adored God, turning to the bed's head. Now what they say in their understanding of that scripture, because they have 2,000 years of understanding, whereas you don't have any. And let me just read this to you. I have it here somewhere. The Bible, Catholic's Church on the topic of the Bible. We should never put our own personal interpretation on scripture, like they do, unless it agrees with the tradition of the Catholic Church. So you don't have an opinion unless it agrees with us. How would you like if I said that to you? You'd throw me out, but billions of people listen to them. The great scholars of the Bible, like St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas, which, by the way, your Baptist seminaries tell you are the church fathers. Well, according to the church father, don't give me the church father business. I can read the Bible. I don't care what they thought. Now, I wouldn't mind knowing what they thought, but I'll judge them if they're heretics or if they're true. Well, their church fathers, where do you get the idea? Someone kind of help me. Let's do a sword drill. Find church fathers in the Bible where I'm supposed to listen to them. It's according to the scriptures, right? So anyway, the great scholars like St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas have already got everything figured out for you. That's what they say. I'm quoting. I'm reading a quote. Believing that our small 21st century minds can figure out 4,000 year old verses that were written in a very different language and culture. I told you throw your culture out the window. I tell you that all the time. I don't care what their culture was. I don't care what my culture is. I can read. Anyway, because 4,000 years ago were written in a very different language and culture, in a very different time, with very different idiomatic expressions and meanings, is the height of pride. So you reading your Bible and being like John Albrecht this morning, that's the epitome of pride, they say. The height of pride. You might as well say that you can understand physics on your own. without first reading the writings of Einstein and Newton. That is why the magisterium, that's who they, I want like a badge, please, the magisterium. I'd like to wear that every Sunday, the magisterium. That is why the magisterium is needed to interpret the scripture. Without the magisterium interpreting scripture for us, through the lens of sacred tradition, There are all kinds of ways to misinterpret what the original authors had in mind. Well, pray tell, Pope John Paul, did you meet the original authors? And you talked to them, and you met Peter, and you met Paul, and you met Luke, and you met all those guys, right? And you know what they meant. Well, yeah, but the church fathers, see, you can go back, and that's oral tradition. That's all that stuff that got passed. And there's billions of people in pagan idolatry that are going to hell. You are twofold more children of hell. You make them twofold more children of hell than yourselves, the Bible says. Say, well, it's not that serious. Let me just go back. I went off on that. Let me go back to this. So they say that that staff, at the top of that staff, there was an image. Now, how do they know that? Jacob's staff had an image on it. So when he bowed himself, he was adoring God. See, that's the word they use. He is adoring God in their Bible. And he was bowing. And so therefore, he is not in idolatry. He is. It's OK if you have a statue on your dashboard or on your neck or at your house or a picture or whatever, and then you bow and do all these things. So they claim that Jacob worshiped God bowing to Joseph and facing the staff. The Catholic Bible in, let me see here, in Hebrews 11, 21, if you're still there, you don't have to go back, but in the Hebrews 11, 20, the Catholic Bible reads, by faith Jacob dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph and adored, there's that word again, the top of his rod. That's not what your Bible says. Now, which one is easier to understand? I don't know. They both aren't easier to understand, but they're very different, aren't they? So it has nothing to do with easier to understand. It has with me interpreting the Bible for you because you are too stupid to possibly ever know you would have talked to the magisterium. Go over, let me show you what the, let me show you, this can be, go to 2 Thessalonians chapter two. This is a little off topic. But let me show you what your Baptist friends do. 2 Thessalonians chapter two. Let me talk, I just, this is just subject of easier to understand, okay? 2 Thessalonians chapter two, in verse seven, You've got a pretty interesting verse in your Bible. You've got a pretty interesting passage in 2 Thessalonians 2, period. Let's start in verse 2. Be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. I think the pastor is going to be getting to that real soon. The day of Christ, what is that? Let no man deceive you by any means, verse 3, for that day shall not come, except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. That's Satan incarnate. That's when Satan shows up and gets in a body like he did to Judas, and he sits in the temple in Jerusalem. And if you don't understand what's going on in the world, Israel is a nation again. For the first time in 2,000 plus years, they're a nation again. And when they build that temple, look up for your redemption draweth nigh. All right, and so that's what this is talking about. Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. Capital G there, he's going to claim to be God the Father. Verse five, remember not that when I was with you, yet I told you these things? I always look at that and I say, man, I wish I was there. I'm reading it, but Paul, you must have filled in a lot of blanks when you were there and you told him these things. Thanks God, you know? When Paul was there, he told them, but I have to just wonder what he said. Verse six, and now you know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. Now that's a hard verse to understand. I'm gonna tell you what, that's a hard verse to understand. There are many people that don't understand that verse. He who now letteth, now listen, your Bible's not archaic. He who now letteth, you know what the word letteth means? No. It's not here. You know what it means? He who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. Somebody's hindering something. Somebody's holding something back, right? Now listen, I'm archaic then because whenever I play tennis and I serve the ball, I'm not going to do it for you, when I serve the ball and I hit the net before it lands into the service box, if you know tennis, The other guy on the other side who is not saved, who just cussed at me from the last point, who doesn't know God at all, he says, let. Never read this Bible, never used the word. He uses archaic English, he says, let. Let, what does that mean? Your ball hit the net, it was hindered. So, he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. So, if you have a new King James Bible, you know the new King James Bible is better. because it doesn't have all those the's and thou's and those archaic words in it. But you know what happens? They're like the Catholics. They use the opportunity to insert their beliefs into the Bible. You know what they say? You know what some people think? He who not letteth will let until he be... You understand that's an important verse because once he's taken out of the way, BAM! All hell breaks loose and Satan comes, sits in a temple and we get raptured. But something's hindering that right now. He is hindering that. He who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. So who is that? Well, the new King James Bible people said, we know who that is. That's the Holy Spirit. Now, that sounds, oh yeah, when the Holy Spirit's taken out, no one else can be saved. Right? When the Holy Spirit's taken out, the convicting factor of the world, because what does the Bible say in John? He's here to judge the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment to come. So the Holy Spirit's taken out of the way? Well, I could go into that this morning and tell you why that's not true. But if you have a New King James Bible, you agree with it because you bought that Bible. Because you know what it does there? It says, now look at your Bible. Verse seven, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work, only he, is he small letter H or capital? Small. You know, if you have your New King James Bible, it's capitalized. Why would it be capitalized? That's a proper name. Who is he? They're talking about the Holy Spirit. Only he who now letteth will let until he... Is it capitalized in your Bible? It is in theirs. So what I'm telling you is, just like the Catholic Church puts the word adore, and he worshipped, and he looked at the top of his staff as if there was an idol there, Your New King James Bible does the same thing to you. It puts its ideas into the Bible and says, see, it's the Holy Spirit. You have to believe us. And so anyway, that's just an illustration. Go to Hosea chapter four and look at verse 12. Hosea 4.12, it says, My people ask at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them. For the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a-whoring from under their God. Say, what is that? That's talking about they're taking their staffs, like the Catholic Church just said was okay to do. They're taking their staffs and they're asking counsel at their stocks. You know, a piece of wood. And they're saying, oh, Saint so-and-so, is this going to be my future? Could this happen for me? Could you get in touch with God for me? And that's what they're doing here. And so it's a direct violation of scripture to inquire at a staff. The Bible calls it the spirit of whoredoms. You know why it's called whoredoms, right? Because anytime you go away from the bride, well, in the Old Testament, he's married to them too. The Godfather's married to Israel. But then you're going away from that person, you're in whoredoms. And so if you're inquiring at an idol, you're going... And the Second Commandment clearly tells you that, right? You should have no other gods before me. But let me just give you what the Catholic Church talks about aids to worship. This is taken from Catholic.com. The Catholic Church does not believe any statue or image has any power in and of itself. The beauty of statues and icons moves us to the contemplation of the Word of God as he is himself or as he works in his saints. Why do I need that? Understand the beauty of that icon, they call it, or the beauty of the statue, it's to give me to contemplate on the Word of God. Well, I have the Word of God. Well, let's just push that out of the way then and let me just go straight to the thing, right? Straight to the Bible. But this is how they talk. The key to a proper understanding of the first commandment is found at the very end of the same commandment in verse five of Exodus 20. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. See, if you serve your staff, you're wrong. You're in Hosea now. But if you just use it as a means to adore God or to, you know, think and contemplate on God, well, then it's OK. So that's their explanation. The Lord does not prohibit statues, it says. He prohibited the adoration of them. It is Jesus Christ himself who gives us the ultimate example of the value of statues and icons. Indeed, Christ in his humanity has opened up an entirely new economy of iconography and statuary. Christ becomes for us the ultimate reason and the representation of the angels and the saints. Why do we say this? Colossians 115 tells us, Christ is the image of the invisible God. So they take your Bible and they say where Christ is the image of God and they say, see, he's an image. Christ is the ultimate icon, they say. And what does the icon reveal to us? He reveals God the Father. When Jesus said, he who has seen me has seen the Father, he does not mean that he is the Father. Well, he is the Father. And that's why he said that. But they say, He isn't. He is the Son. Hebrews 1.3 tells us that Christ reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature. This is the essence of what statues and icons are. I could go on, but I'm not going to on this. I've got this. I showed you this last week. This is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's boring to read, but it's fun to read. And it says in here, in Exodus 20, about the commandment to have no other gods before me. The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment, which prescribes idols. Indeed, the honor rendered to an image passes over to its prototype. meaning the image, what it represents. You're not worshiping the image, you're worshiping the person behind the image. Well, to that I would say, why not just worship the person behind the image? The only person behind the image that is appropriate to worship is Jesus Christ, but they worship other things. And whosoever venerates an image, and whoever venerates an image, venerates the person portrayed in it. The honor paid to the sacred images is a respectful veneration, not the adoration due to God alone. What they're saying is you can venerate the image, you can lift it up, you can honor it, you can give it, you know, not worship it, you venerate it. And that's okay according to them. And that's straight out of their writings. So let's see here. If you look over at Let's see, I got a lot of notes here. Let me just see what order I want to give you this, because I'm running out of time. Let me just show you what they say also, as long as I'm on the topic. Let me just show you what they say about this idea of the day of Christ coming. I mentioned that in 2 Thessalonians, the day of Christ is coming. By the way, that's the rapture of the church. That's going to be a seven-year period, actually, where it's not just you getting raptured that day. It's going to be a period of time where you're going to have a marriage supper of the Lamb, a judgment seat of Christ taking place, and while that's going on in heaven, you're going to have a great tribulation going on here on earth. Now, turn over your Bible. Let's see here, where's the reference? Psalm 118, 24. David makes a statement here about the day of the Lord. And pastor gonna show you when he gets on it. I don't know if it's tonight or whenever he's gonna get to it. He's going to show you how every other Bible changes, 2 Thessalonians, to not the day of Christ, but to the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord is something that most people don't understand. They don't understand the difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven. They don't understand the difference between the day of the Lord and the day of Christ. And they don't understand the idea of a millennium versus a new heaven and a new earth. Now, these are maybe advanced subjects for some of us, and I don't have time to teach any of those things today, but I'm gonna try to show you what the Catholic Church says about this very day that we're in today is Sunday. And they call that the day of the Lord, based on what you're looking at in Psalm 118, verse 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. Now, have you ever been to church in your lifetime? And here, finally, here's my coffee. Have you ever been in church in your lifetime and had anybody say, isn't it great to be in the house of the Lord on the Lord's day? Well, they made two giant mistakes there. Number one, this is not the house of the Lord. This is a rented building in a plaza on Leonard Road, between Leonard Road and US 1. This is not the house of the Lord. This is not a temple. This is not a synagogue. All right, you, the Bible tells you, you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. The Bible tells you that God dwells inside of you and that there is no more temple like that anymore. But, so they say, this is the house of God. Welcome to the house of God. Isn't it great to be here on the day of the Lord? This is not the day of the Lord. Sunday is not the day of the Lord. You say, well, that's what I've always been told. Yeah, that's the problem, see? That's what you've always been told. And you go by what you've always been told or what you always think. And you don't read the Bible. And you know what the Bible says? I love it because Jesus said it and it's true. He said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Don't you want to be free from the bonds of the Roman Catholic interpretation of your Bible, or what the New King translators told you who the Holy Spirit is letting and He's not letting? Don't you want to be free from all that and really truly know God, the One who made all things, the One who made you, the One who prepared a place that He wants you to go to, and not the place He prepared for the devil and his angels, but the place that He prepared for you in John chapter 14, is it? That's what He has waiting for you. Don't you want to know that? And so he says, this is the day which the Lord hath made we all rejoicing. And the Catholic Church quotes that. And that says that on this idea of Sunday, they say Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week. Now we know that, that's why we meet on Sunday. That's actually why we meet on Sunday. We don't have to meet on Sunday. We could meet tomorrow and it would be just the same. But because it's the first day, the day of Christ's resurrection recalls the first creation because it is the eighth day. The eighth day. I don't know about you, but if you look back in your history, I was going to say, I don't know about you, but I don't have eight days in my week. The Beatles know about eight days in a week, you know. Eight days a week. Never mind. But if you look on that wall over there and you look up there, you're going to see an eighth day. And that's what they're talking about. See, you don't know what they're talking about. But if you know the Bible, you know what they're talking about. So they say that there's this eighth day because it is the eighth day following the Sabbath. The Sabbath was the seventh day of the week, right? And that's why there are Seventh-day Adventists. In fact, the Catholic Church says if you don't acknowledge Sunday as the day of the Lord, you might as well be a Seventh-day Adventist. That's what they say. And because they're doing it according to what the Bible told you to do. But we, this is what they say, we as the official church of Jesus Christ tell you that the day of the Lord is Sunday and therefore, and I got so many quotes here and I'm looking at the clock, I just can't do it. Therefore, if you go to church on Sunday, you are following the prescription of the Roman Catholic Church. You are doing that because we told you to do it. And the only way you even know about Sunday and having church on Sunday is because of us. But the problem with you is you're doing it outside the authority of scripture because you're not doing it with us. You're doing it on your own. You're Protestant. So they say here it's the eighth day following the Sabbath. It symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's resurrection. For the Christian, it has become the first day of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's day. The Lord's day. The Lord's day is going to be when he comes down and crushes everybody and the blood raises to the horse's bridle, and then that ushers in what we call a millennium. A thousand-year reign of Christ is the Lord's day. Now, they say that that is Sunday. And they say this, we all gather on the day of the sun. The day of the sun? S-U-N? Well, that might explain why Mary has a halo around her head. And that Jesus has a little one around his head. And some of the saints that they've canonized have a little halo around their heads. because they worship the sun. Now you go back in Roman history and you're gonna find out that in Rome that there were eight days. They celebrated eight days until, I forget what year it was, then they started going to seven days like the rest of the world. You know what the Bible says? Go to Genesis chapter one. You know the Bible never tells you what day of the week it is? It never says Sunday, it never says Monday, it never says Tuesday, it never says Wednesday, Thursday. What does it say? It says in Genesis chapter one, you know where I'm going, I don't need to find the verses for you, on the first day, on the second day, on the third day, on the fourth day, et cetera, right? And on the seventh day, God rested. So the Bible talks about the days of the week in terms of numbers. and the only one that's ever named in the Bible is Sabbath day. It's the seventh day. It's the day of rest. See now, ultimately what you're going to find out here is that the Sabbath, the eighth day to the Roman Catholic Church, the day of the Lord, is what they think of as the new heaven and a new earth, which the Bible does talk about new heaven and a new earth, that God's going to destroy it with fire, right? And he's going to make a new heavens and a new earth. So they totally discount the idea that there's a millennial kingdom at all. In fact, I watched a video this week about somebody called into a radio show of the Catholic Church and they said, do you believe in a millennial reign of Christ? And they're like, well, you know, the Bible doesn't even really talk about that. I mean, one of the things that you have to understand is just Don't major on the minors, they said. Don't major on the few verses that you find in Revelation maybe one time about this thing, but the overwhelming other verses about the liturgy they say and the mass. That's all through the Bible. Well, I got news for you, radio host. I wish I had called in, but this was years ago. The millennial reign of Christ is mentioned at least 500 times in the Bible. But the dumb Christian who was told, don't read your Bible, because you're a Catholic and let us read it for you, says, and you know what the guy said at the end of the explanation? He said, oh, wow, thank you very much. So anyway, they don't believe in a millennium. They believe that they are the ones, now listen, this gets important. They believe they are the ones who are bringing in the kingdom. So it's important that you understand the difference between the kingdoms that are listed in the Bible, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Now, we've told you many times the kingdom of heaven is something that, in fact, I got some verses for you. I'll just read them to you just because I don't want to have to think about it. It says Matthew 11, 12, from the days of John the Baptist until the kingdom of heaven, until now, the kingdom of heaven suffered violence. and the violent take it by force. You know what that is? And we could go into a deeper study. That's just one verse to show you. That's Matthew 11, 12. That could tell you that the kingdom of heaven is something down here on this earth. It's something physical. It's something literal. And so what you have is you have Jehovah's Witnesses who meet in what? Where do they meet? In a kingdom hall. That's a weird name for a church. A kingdom hall. What do they mean by that? Just a name, it doesn't mean anything. No, it means that they're bringing in a kingdom. That when they knock on your door and bug you again this Saturday, and say, hey, you know, can we give you a Bible study? You know why they're doing that? Because they're earning the right to go into the kingdom. And they say that Jesus Christ is already ruling spiritually, spiritually ruling on a throne, and that we're His people, and if you don't become one of us, you're not going to be in the kingdom. And they're trying to usher in and bring peace on earth, goodwill toward men. And that's what the whole world is doing. See, that's why the Pope can show up at the United Nations and talk about peace on earth, goodwill toward men. But never one time does he say, you must be born again. When Jesus showed up, you know what his number one message was? You must be born again. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. When the Pope shows up and steps foot on the ground and walks into the United Nations, he says, well, we need renewable energy sources. We need sustainable this and sustainable that. We need equality amongst the genders, and we need equality amongst people, and we need to lower the people who are rich and raise those who are poor, and we need peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Why does he say that? Because they believe Sunday, the day of sun, the eighth day, is the day of the Lord, and they are the ones ushering in the kingdom. Now let me just read and prove that to you right out of their writings. Let's see here. The Sabbath, which represented the completion of the first creation, has been replaced by Sunday, which recalls the new creation inaugurated by the resurrection of Christ. The church celebrates the day of Christ's resurrection on the eighth day, Sunday, which is rightly called the Lord's Day. Now, if I go over to page 174, I have a note for myself on the millennial reign. It says this, the very first sentence, Christ already reigns through the church. So if you are not in the Roman Catholic Church, you're making a big mistake by being here today and not there, because you are not in the right place. Christ is already reigning through the church. As the Lord says, as Lord, Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. They got that part right. And it says, taken up into heaven and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on earth in his church. It says the kingdom of Christ is already present in mystery on earth, the seed and the beginning of the kingdom. So we run around and we use Catholic lingo and we say, well, this is the Lord's day, you know, let us rejoice and be glad in it. It's probably above a lot of in churches, probably right in front of their door. You know, this is the Lord's day. Let's rejoice. It's not the Lord's day. This is Sunday and it's the first day of the week and has nothing to do with the Sabbath at all. We're not observing anything carried over from the old Testament into the new Testament. In fact, if we get back to when we get next week, I didn't, I missed everything I wanted to tell you just about everything. Can you believe it? Go over to Revelation chapter 7. Revelation chapter 7, we'll be done here. You know nothing, pretty much nothing is carried over from the Old Testament till today. There is no Lord's Day today. There is no priesthood today. I want to go back to 2 Thessalonians so bad I spent another hour with you. Because I can show you that it's gonna be through the Roman Catholic Church, and I can show you, I'll show you next week. I can show you that it's gonna be through the Roman Catholic Church that the Antichrist is gonna have his way and come into this world. And so when you get to, back to the subject matter of things not being carried over from the Old Testament. When you read, we don't have to read it now, but Romans, Revelation chapter seven, it's talking about the 144,000. And you read, because we'll get into it next week, where Jacob is about to bless his sons. And he tells them that he is, you know, that, and what is it, Reuben and Simeon are the ones who had that massacre back in Shechem. And they're going to get pushed aside by Jacob, but they're not getting pushed aside. They're actually in the list in Revelation chapter 7 of the tribes that produced 12,000 men. And we'll talk about that next week. But someone who is not, someone also that is included in the list, I'm not talking about who's not included, I'll talk about that next week, but someone who also is included in the list, let's see, what verse is it in? Look at verse seven of chapter seven. Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed 12,000, of the tribe of Levi were sealed 12,000. Well, wait a minute. Levi, that's the priests. Why are the priests not still doing their priestly duties? Why are they just part of the rest of the bunch of their brothers? Because in the New Testament there are no priests. The only priest there are, believe it or not, is you as a Christian and the High Priest is Jesus Christ. That's New Testament doctrine. So why, pray tell again then, why are there priests in the Roman Catholic Church? And why would you accept that? Well, my priest, your priest, you understand when you believe that, you're rejecting the Bible. And you're just accepting the tradition of your fathers, and of your friends, and what you were raised with, and all that stuff, and you are not reading the Bible at all, and you are being carried about with false doctrine. And I had a whole different plan today. My mind just kept going to different directions. I'm sorry if I was somewhat incoherent, maybe. But I just want to show you, from time to time, it really makes sense because I really want to get into some things that the average Christian just doesn't understand their Bible. And the shame of it, the shame of it is it's the pastors and the teachers who don't think that you, they're just like the Catholics. The quote I read from the Catholic, they don't think you can handle it. And they think if you hear this and if you don't hear some psychology or some way to cope and get through your life and have a better working situation and a better job and a better life and a better marriage and all these things that you come to church for, which is not why you should come to church, they think if you don't hear that, well, then you'll never come back. And if you never come back, how am I gonna pay the rent on this building? And so they don't teach you. And so what happens is you get to you and I have to stop. But what happens is people read books like this. Look how thick this book is. I mean, it's not in its tiny print. They get into books like that, they're like, wow, I have never read this before. I have never heard this before. Not once did my pastor ever tell me these things. And they convert. And so we need, and my intention today, and I didn't do a very good job of it, but my intention today was to expose some false teachings and show you some true teachings, some truth. And we couldn't go into it in depth and we should at some point, we should maybe take a Sunday school lesson and go into some of these things like the day of the Lord and the day of Christ and the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven and the millennial reign and the new heavens and the new earth and the things that because these are the things that false religions try to bring in their own kingdoms and they try to get you underneath their authority so that you're safe in that. And how you're saved and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, I'll stop right there.