R E V IV A L M IN IS T R IE S

Transcription

1 THE SEVEN SEALS b ypas t orst e v e nl.she l l e y Ne whope R E V IV A L M IN IS T R IE S

2 THE REVELATION OF THE SECOND SEAL (PART 1) by Pastor Steven L. Shelley You are worthy above all things. Above all things You are worthy, Lord. Hallelujah. (Tongues) How we glorify Your holy, holy Name. We bless You. We bless You... Lord. Glory, glory, hallelujah. Amen. Hallelujah. Reach over and get your Bibles tonight, if you will, and let s turn to the Book of the Revelation, chapter 6. We welcome all the saints of God who are listening in on the telephone hookup this evening. May the Lord just richly bless all of you. Revelation, chapter 6, verse 1. Before we read... Isn t it wonderful? Did you notice how the brick have come along now? The columns are finished. The window sills are finished. And now, tomorrow they ll just finish the gable end. And the Lord willing, the insulation is going to go in... start going in tomorrow. And, perhaps, be finished the next day. And, hopefully, Friday or Monday, the sheet rock will start. And so, when the sheet rock starts going in and you go in there, I think you ll get a real idea of a church building then. 1 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

3 I m tired of seeing them old wood stud walls, aren t you? I m ready to see something else. So we re just praising the Lord for how things have moved along. And we are praying that God will give Brother Greeley special grace for the meetings in New Brunswick, and the Lord will have His wonderful way and bless them with safety as they travel. And those who may be coming in for the meetings for Pesach, may the Lord just bless them and help them to come in safe. And I ve had several people ask me today how the symphony was. That s not very spiritual, is it? But it was absolutely unbelievable. I ve never seen anything like it in all my life. I ve been to several symphonies over the years. I m not a frequent symphony goer. But I loved this symphony before I ever got there because they were the Israeli symphony. That made them special. We had to go through metal detectors. They had armed guards positioned at every door in the auditorium because of the threat of terror against the symphony as they travel here in the United States. They re normally only here every decade. They... it s been thirteen years since they ve played in the state of Georgia. And it was because of the conservative rabbi who had connections who brought them to the city. It was almost sold out. 2 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

4 And we, my wife and I, we really felt like big wigs. We were sitting with doctors and lawyers and judges and all around us. And you know what? My wife didn t have to paint her face, or paint her lips, or swanky up like all those women to be beautiful. She just shined with the love of the Lord. And we met a young Jewish young man with kippa from Russia who is studying here in Columbus at the... is it called the Schwab? Is that the name of it? The Schwab School of Music? And he s here studying. He was just such a nice young man. And the first person that we saw when we walked in was the little Jewish lady who works for my doctor. And she was very happy to see me. And the Lord... You know, I ve told you about all the conversations we ve had with her. So the Lord just makes these divine connections that one day we may see some great fruit and results. But it surely was a blessing to be there. Chapter 6 of the Book of the Revelation, verse 1, said, And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. 3 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

5 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. (Revelation 6:1-2) Father, we thank You tonight for the study of Your Word. We thank You, Lord, for the way Your Spirit was with us on Sunday and how You added to our revelation. We thank You for it. And we pray, God, that You will continue to break Your Word down to us because we want to be serious students of the message that You re delivering to us, oh God, for deliverance. And we receive our deliverance tonight in the wonderful Name of Yeshua. We ask that You would come now and have Your way among us during this time in the Word. And we ll be careful to give You the glory and the honor and the praise for it all. For, again, it s in the Name of Yeshua HaMashiach, we pray. Amen. And the Church said, Amen. You may be seated together tonight. Now, on Sunday evening, we covered a lot. But I want to take you back now for just a moment to a thought that I want to prove to you in the Scripture. I was reading today several different renditions of Revelation, chapter 6. And I found out that there are still a lot of major denominations and theology schools, etc., who teach that Revelation 6:2 is the coming of Christ. And I thought that perhaps over the years, they might have stopped teaching it that way and come to the reality that this is 4 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

6 not the Christ, this is the anti-christ. But I found out today that still many of them are teaching in their Bible seminaries and schools that this is the coming of Christ. And I want to show you a scriptural reason why this is the anti-christ and not the Christ. First of all, we mentioned that he came forth with a bow, but he had no arrows, which means he has no power to carry out his threats. The only power that is given to the enemy, or even to the anti-christ, is the power that God releases into his hands. We heard a prophet of God say that Satan is no more than a tool in the hand of God to perfect the saints. You know, that is enough to make you shout when you realize that your enemy, though he be wicked and though he have power and though he be evil, he s still in the hand of God. Satan is still in the hand of God. God is... Somebody testified tonight, God is still in control. And He can use the enemy for His purposes. And one of those purposes is to perfect us. Amen. And we feel that hammer sometime, don t we? Amen. We know what that chipping away is all about. So this horse rider, this one who was riding this white horse, was just a bluff because he had the bow to threaten with, but he had no arrows to shoot. And the Bible said that he came forth conquering and to conquer. And we know immediately that this was not the nature of the coming of the Messiah to conquer. 5 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

7 And so, those are two good clues right there. But I want you to notice, he has no name. Neither is there any identification of his person. When John saw the Lord Jesus, Yeshua, in His glorified form in Revelation, chapter 1, he described Him, as we mentioned Sunday morning He had eyes of fire and feet like brass and hair like wool. And so, John was able, even though He was changed by the transfiguring power of God... he was able to recognize Him as the same Yeshua that he knew in the flesh. There was no indication given by John that he knew who this white horse rider was. But if you ll turn a few chapters over with me in study tonight to Revelation chapter also to a very familiar portion of the Book of the Revelation that we re mostly all familiar with... would be Revelation, chapter 19. Verse 11 said... This is John speaking again under the inspiration of the Spirit. Let s read. Well, we ll go with 11. And he said, And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire (Revelation 19:11-12) Now we know by hearing that that this Revelation, chapter 19, the vision that John had of this white horse rider in Revelation, chapter 19, 6 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

8 is the same individual that John saw in Revelation, chapter 1, because here again are these eyes that appear as flames of fire. and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. (Revelation 19:12-13) What did John say in John, chapter 1? He said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So I don t know about you, but I m thoroughly convinced that this is the Lord Jesus Christ. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. I want you to notice this. God wanted John to know who He was. Yeshua wanted John to leave this vision without a doubt knowing, This 7 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

9 is Me. And the reason why we know that is look at what the Scripture said. First of all, it said, He that sat on the horse was called Faithful and True... That s two names. And then the Bible said, He had a name written, that no man knew... (Revelation 19:12) That s at least a third name. And then it goes down and it said, His name is called The Word of God. (Revelation 19:13) That s a fourth name. And then a little bit later it said, on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS (that s the fifth) AND LORD OF LORDS. (the sixth) (Revelation 19:16) Jesus, Yeshua, was not going to take any chances on John not knowing who it was that was appearing to him. He came with the same eyes. He came with the vesture dipped in what? In blood which identified Him as the Lamb, this bloody Lamb that John had seen in an earlier portion of Scripture. And so, another reason why we look at Revelation, chapter 6 there, and know that this is the anti-christ is because Jesus has already been represented in symbol form. He is the Lamb that took the Book out of the 8 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

10 hand of Him that sat on the Throne. He is the Lamb that loosed the Seals thereof. And when the Seal was loosed... I was reading today an interesting thought that said that this phrase, Come and see, was speaking to the white horse rider... that the voice was calling to the white horse rider, Come. Your time has come. And I don t see it that way. That s not what I m seeing at all. I m seeing that the beast was calling out to John, Come and see what is about to unfold in the earth. And then I read in the Revelation of Jesus Christ series this afternoon, I read where... and I also went back... because when the prophet of God was teaching about these Endtime events, he used a very nice study book that was written by a man whose name was Clarence Larkin. Now every time I mention that, people get offended because they want to think that everything Brother Branham preached, he got it right from the Angel of the Lord and that he never had to study or research or dig. And they say he was uneducated, and therefore he didn t like to read. And so he just opened his mouth, and all of these wonderful revelations flowed out. Well, that s not what he told us. He said he liked to study and read. He read after Joseph Smith who was a false prophet, it proved out to be in the end. He read after many other writers. And he said, I can see where 9 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

11 they have it right so far, and then they get off. I can see how God gives them just a piece of the puzzle, and then they go off to the left or off to the right. He said, It s going to take the Holy Ghost to come and help us stay right in the middle of the road, right with the Word of God. How many of you have a desire to do that? I don t even want to be off here in an interpretation. I want to be able to take everything right back to the Word of God. And if we re giving an interpretation that cannot be backed up by the Scripture, we need to make it known. We need to say, This is how I see it, could perhaps be this way, this might be how it was, instead of making the mistake of preaching for Gospel Truth the things that we think and feel. The day for that is over. Amen? We re too close to the end now to take our thoughts and feelings and make them Thus Saith the Lord if the Holy Ghost is not in them. But I found an interesting thing both in Mr. Larkin s book and also in the Revelation of Jesus Christ Series, something that I had missed before that I thought was worth mentioning. And that was concerning those four beasts that we started preaching about a little bit on Sunday morning. And both of these men of God said that these beasts were ordained by God for a specific purpose. And that purpose was they were to guard the Ark. They were the guards of the Ark. And that word Ark is sometimes translated Throne. 10 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

12 And the thing that really stood out in my mind was this. We talked Sunday morning about the difference between how Ezekiel perceived these creatures and how John perceived them. And the main difference is Ezekiel saw them with wheels. And both men, both Clarence Larkin and Brother Branham, said that the wheels represented the fact that their ministry was a traveling ministry. And I said, What in the world is that? That s so strange. What do you mean a traveling ministry? And they both explained it by saying that these guards, these Cherubim, are... sometimes they re referred to as the Seraphim... these guards were sent by God to guard the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of the Covenant. And both of these men of God said that when the Ark was journeying through the wilderness, these four living creatures journeyed with it. Now, I had never thought of anything like that. They weren t necessarily seen. But somebody said, Where in the world would you even get an idea like that? Well, Exodus gives us an idea. And also, there s a reference in the Book of Leviticus that I could take you to in a future service where it talks about how God gave specific instruction that Cherubim were to be molded of gold and placed on the Ark of the Covenant itself. Remember, their wings were to be touching wings. And both of these men of God said that this... what God had revealed to Moses was He was letting him see the heavenly host these four living 11 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

13 creatures that were sent by God to guard this holy Ark of the Covenant. And by letting him see them, he was given the instruction to craft two of them as a guard, a physical sign of that invisible guard that was taking place. I found something interesting also in both of these men s studies. And that was, they spoke about... and I ve mentioned this kind of thing before... about how that when the Ark of the Covenant was in the Tabernacle in the wilderness, how God gave specific instruction about which tribe was to be camped in which position around the Tabernacle in the wilderness. And by a little bit of a careful examination, you ll find that there were three tribes that camped together. And they were called the camp of Judah. And the three tribes were the tribe of Issachar, the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Zebulun. And these three tribes shared a banner. They had a banner. They had an ensign. And do you know what that banner was? It was the lion representing the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. So there were three tribes the tribe of Issachar, the tribe of Judah, and the tribe of Zebulon that camped underneath the banner of a lion. And the Bible gives us that information. And then three of the tribes were a part of what was called the camp of Ephraim. And they were the tribes of Manasseh, of Ephraim and of Benjamin. And they all three camped under an ensign, or a banner, similar 12 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

14 to what you see hanging here except it would have been on a pole, and it was used to show them where they were camping and what camp you were in. And it was also taken before the men of war to the battlefield. They camped, and their banner, their... what do they call it today mascot was an ox. And then there were another three tribes. The camp of Reuben... they camped on the south. Judah was on the east, Ephraim was on the west and Reuben was on the south. And in the camp of Reuben was Gad, Reuben and Simeon. And guess what their ensign was? It was a man. And then there were three other tribes. And they camped on, of course, on the north. And that was Asher, Dan and Naphtali. And guess what their standard was? An eagle. Now isn t that unusual that these four creatures were used as ensigns to divide the twelve tribes of Israel? Here was the lion, the ox, the man and the eagle the very same thing that Ezekiel saw, the very same thing that John saw. I don t know if you realize this or not, but the Jewish people believe that these Cherubim and Seraphim are very holy things that God has made. In fact, these men of God, Mr. Larkin and Brother Branham, they went on to say that these four beasts were neither angels nor men. He 13 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

15 said, They were neither angelic, as angels, nor were they men. He said, They were living creatures that God created. And so, when we read about those four beasts, we automatically think they re another form or another kind of angels. But these men perceived in the Spirit that they were not just another division of angelic beings, but they were created as living creatures. And they gave us... I ll get off of this in a moment... They gave us an explanation by using the Greek words. Both of these men used the same... I can show you in both of their writings where they both used the same Greek word. And the Greek word was Zoon, Z-o-o-n. And that is the Greek word that s used in Revelation, chapter 5, where we read about these living creatures. And it s translated living creature. Beast is translated living creature. But in Revelation, chapter 11, chapter 13 and chapter 17, the word beast appears. This time it s talking about a part of the anti-christ spirit beast same English word beast. But in Revelation, chapter 11, 13 and 17, I think maybe one reference in 19, the Greek word is Theron. And it means a wild, untamed, savage creature. So these men wanted us to know that though the word beast is used, we re not to think of them as hideous, wild, untamed, creatures of the 14 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

16 field. We re to see them as holy living creatures created by God for the purpose of guarding the Ark of the Covenant. And this is what s so fascinating to me for those of you who are listening. And that is Ezekiel saw them moving in the wheels. And both Clarence Larkin and Brother Branham said that this was a symbol that the Ark was still in transition. How many of you know that when they got up in the wilderness and moved the camp, guess what went with them? The Ark of the Covenant. And if the Ark of the Covenant went with them, guess what else went with them? The guards. These heavenly creatures that God had created to guard the Ark, they went with them. And everywhere it moved... I d like to do a study with you sometime on all the different... I ve been doing it for myself... of all the different locations that the Ark of the Covenant rested. And if it rested among people who loved the Living God, it brought blessing in their life. But if it rested among the heathen, it brought curses upon them. And remember, the old Philistine god whose name was Dagon... When they set the Ark of the Covenant in this temple that was set up for the worship of Dagon, the power of God in the Ark caused this ferocious looking... if you ve ever seen a picture... this ferocious looking idol to fall over on his face and be broken off at the stump. And so the Ark journeyed many places. And notice what the Scripture said about them in Ezekiel. It said, They went... wherever the wheels 15 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

17 went, they went. And they moved in straight motion. They turned neither to the right or to the left. But they moved forward. And this also indicated they had a very specific commission. They were to guard the Ark of the Covenant. Now the question is, Why then did Ezekiel see them with wheels and John see them without wheels? And the answer is this. The Ark of the Covenant spiritually had been transferred. We don t know about physical. I m not an expert, and I can t tell you if physically. Many theologians believe that perhaps the Ark of the Covenant was physically transported. As far as I can see, I can only say that spiritually it was moved into the heavenlies and from that moment on referred to as the Throne. When John saw the four creatures, where did he see them? Before the Throne. They were moving, but they were moving in synchronization and worship around the Throne. But no longer did they travel across the earth. And therefore, he didn t see them with wheels. You that are looking at me so strange, have you ever read the Seal Book? Well, it s there. I didn t just pull that out of my hat. I was curious, though, because I wanted to know if this was one of those divine revelations that Brother Branham received from the Lord or if, perhaps, he had read it from Clarence Larkin. And I was amazed to open up the book of Clarence Larkin and find it word for word just exactly like it appears 16 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

18 in the Revelation of Jesus Christ and in the Seal book almost word for word. This doesn t upset me. It helps me to know that what we need is a prophetic... we need that prophetic gift in office to be able to take the Truth... That s what we need. There s no harm in reading. There s no harm in studying. There s no harm in trying to digest and learn. But we still come down to the hour where we know we need that prophetic gift to be able to discern Truth from junk. Say, Amen. Thank God. I remember standing in Tucson some years ago. I don t remember if any of you were with me or not... can t remember right now. But I was standing in the den in Tucson, Arizona, with Brother George Smith and Sister Rebekkah. And I was looking through some of... they were permitting me to look through some of the study books that Brother Branham had studied out of. And there he handed me this dispensational chart of Clarence Larkin. And I began to look through it. And it was all highlighted and marked up. And there were notes in it and everything. And Brother George said, You see, Brother Branham was not a tremendous reader. He didn t enjoy reading all of that because of his education. He felt hindered. And so he just wouldn t read and read and read. But what he would do is he would give it to people who were intelligent and who liked to read. And he would ask them to highlight the important parts. And then give him 17 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

19 the book back. And he would take the book and read the highlighted parts. And from that he would pray. He would seek the mind of God, and he would find out what he wanted to bring what was Thus Saith the Lord what God had given to other people and, perhaps also, what came by divine inspiration. Amen. Thank you for explaining that, Brother Shelley. Hallelujah. Oh, it always gets quiet when you point out the fact that other people have labored and prayed and God... But you know this is the whole foundation of what we believe as a Message. It started with men like Martin Luther. He only got a portion of the Truth. And maybe you ve never read where the prophet told us that the last Church Age messenger would have no message of his own. In fact, he said it more clearly. And he said he would bring no new revelation of his own. But he said it would be his job to come and tie together all of the loose ends of all the other ages and lay the Truth out. Aren t you glad that God is faithful to help tie together all of those missing pieces, put all the pieces of the puzzle together so that we can see and recognize the hour we re living in? Amen. So I believe without a shadow of a doubt that this is not Christ. This is the anti-christ. And he came forth conquering and to conquer. But one of the beasts is the one who raised up and said, OK, come and see. 18 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

20 And we know that the beast that was used to do that is the lion. It was the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Now we ve been taught that what this represents is that even in the Early Church Age, the anti-christ was already on the scene in spirit form. Not as a... not as an incarnate man. But the spirit of the anti-christ was already at work even at the end of the ministry of Christ. We read that. If you didn t write it down on Sunday, maybe you d want to write it down now. It s found in 2 Thessalonians. Just to make sure that this is really Bible, look at 2 Thessalonians for just a moment chapter 2, I believe it is, 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. And we won t read it all. But just this verse 7 said, For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. (2 Thessalonians 2:7) And it goes on to say, And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. (2 Thessalonians 2:8-9) This is the introduction of the anti-christ. We know that one day there s going to be an individual that s filled with this satanic power who will rise up as the anti-christ. But the spirit of the anti-christ, the spirit of 19 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

21 iniquity, is already at work in the world tonight. And it has been at work ever since the Early Church. And the prophet was teaching us that at the very early stages, this white horse rider begins to ride out across the world, so to speak, sowing his discord. Does anybody know? Does anybody remember what he said was the first spirit that the anti-christ brought to do damage to the Early Church and how that spirit has increased over the ages until the hour that we re living in? Can anybody remember the name? I ll say it to you this way. Instead of saying spirit I ll say, The name of the doctrine. Can anybody remember the name of the doctrine that was mentioned? What is that doctrine? He said it s the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes. And that word nico in Greek means to conquer. To conquer. And laitan comes from the word laity. Nicolaitan. We find that in the first few chapters of the Book of the Revelation. He said they have the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes which means that there was a spirit being unleashed against the Church causing the leadership of the Church to conquer the laity. It was very subtle in the beginning very, very subtle. A bow with no arrows. A bow, but no arrows. But eventually the spirit strengthened itself, and it became more and more pronounced until the day we re 20 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

22 living in now. The day we re living in now, the largest church organization in the world believes that all of God is in one man. The largest religion in the world, the Roman Catholic Church, they believe that all of God has visited the earth in one man, the Pope. And when he dies, the God that lives in him will be transferred to his successor. And that this next pope will sit as the prior pope, the previous pope, in the stead of God. Over the ages this spirit has become so strong that the general population of the Catholic Church for many years were not allowed to possess a Bible. Did you know that it s very few nuns that have a Bible, have access to a Bible? They re not allowed to have a Bible. It s a forbidden... It s called contraband. And they re not allowed to have contraband. They re not allowed to have the Bible. They re only to receive the Bible from the reading of the priest in Latin. And many of these little girls who have given their life to serve the priest and the church don t even know Latin. And yet, they go to mass. And they hear a mass given in a language that they don t even understand, and they don t even have access to their own Bible. And that s the way this spirit is able to keep... Listen, when I m in Jerusalem and I see many of those little nuns shuffling up and down the street... And almost every order of nuns in the world is represented in Jerusalem. We have the Russian Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox, the Roman Catholic and about five or six variations of 21 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

23 the Catholic. We have Mother Theresa s order recognized there and about fifteen or twenty other orders of Roman Catholic nuns. And they re all identified by the way they dress and the different way their hats are worn, and so forth. And I see them. In fact, recently I saw some Russian Orthodox nuns. Do you know what? They look like our daughters. They look like they were no more than twelve years old maybe thirteen. And they were standing on the corner near where they believe... some of them believe... Mary is buried. And they were about to walk up into the Old City up through St. Stephen s Gate. And I looked at them and I thought, Oh, God. Somebody needs to rescue them. Because I m not a fool. I read. Don t you? I know what life is ahead for them if God doesn t undertake. They re not only going to serve the church and sweep the floor. They re going to be the concubines of the perverted priest. And if they can t get the girls, they re going to get the boys. We re standing in the Church of the Nativity. We re standing in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the church that s built to mark the spot where Jesus was born. A Roman Catholic nun is our guide. And she takes us through. And she says... she shows us a picture, an icon there, that has wept tears. Now, you know how I think about all these things. But anyway, I m just telling you how she said it. She said, This is the icon that everybody 22 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

24 came to see some time ago because there was liquid running down the face of this picture of Mary, or Jesus, or whoever it was. There was liquid running down the face tears running down the face and everybody came to see it. And I said, Well, you know, I don t know that all times that s from God. Sometimes Satan can manifest signs and wonders and so forth. I just wanted her to know where I stand. But do you know what she said? She said, I have to believe, Brother Shelley, that this time it was God. And I said, Why? And she said, Because they investigated and found out that the priests were taking the boys down into the grotto underneath where the picture was and molesting them. And they caught them and found out it was going on. And I said, OK, maybe this was God. I don t know. But whatever it took for this kind of filth to be brought out... And the church, the church has become that. This Roman system has become a hotbed of filth and perversion. And one of the reasons why is because the laity has been conquered by the priesthood, by the leadership. And they don t even know what the Bible said. If they could see. You ve heard those great testimonies like Sister Charlotte and many others who had opportunity to read the Bible. And when they read the Bible, they fell in love with Jesus. And they wanted to get out of that stuff. 23 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

25 But I want you know, that spirit is not exclusive to the Catholic Church. That spirit of leaders wanting to conquer the laity, it is spilled over into Protestantism. And we ve got the Catholic spirit in almost all the major Protestant denominations. You see, the Bible teaches us in the Book of the Revelation that there is a great whore. And we know that that whore is a religious thing. It s not talking about promiscuousness in the natural. It s spiritual. It s talking about a spiritual thing. And we won t go into the detail of that except the Bible said she has daughters. And her daughters are harlots. And it doesn t take much examination to know who those daughters are. They re these denominations that have swallowed the lies of the Mother Church and keep people from knowing Jesus in reality. Somebody said, We know all that. We sure do. But I want you to know there s a world outside of this plastic tabernacle that s caught up in the lies and dogmas and doctrines and creeds of man s idea who have never one time begin to taste the manna that we ve tasted by the Holy Ghost. And that s what behooves me to sound the alarm. And I d do it even when it s not... Don t you remember I was preaching in Jerusalem one time and a big black Catholic woman who was a big bishop in a big branch off of the Catholic Church was there? And she was dressed all up in her habit. And she was sitting on the front row. 24 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

26 And I was preaching right against that system. She was amen-ing and amen-ing, until we got to that part. And then she got real quiet. I didn t do that to hurt her or to embarrass her. I knew before God when I got to the service what I had to preach. And only God knew who He was going to bring into that service. And if God loved her enough to bring her there, He wanted her to know the Truth for some reason. Some reason God loved her and wanted her to know the Truth. So this white horse rider that went forth, first of all he went forth in doctrine and influence. I could go into many details of history, but it s not important for what we re doing right now. But every time, error was introduced into this little baby church born on the Day of Pentecost, you know. These Jews, little Jewish men, that had come to faith in Yeshua... and they began to spread this little message of love among the Gentiles. And, oh, they began to fight among themselves. Read the New Testament. Oh, some said you ve got to be circumcised. Some said you don t have to be circumcised. And some said you have to keep the Sabbath. And others said it s not important to keep the Sabbath. And they got into these little fights, and error was beginning to be introduced by this spirit of the anti-christ. Remember what the anti-christ 25 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

27 spirit is? He s not presenting himself as against Christ. He s presenting himself as another Christ as the true way, as the true answer. And so, this deceptive spirit was preying upon little baby believers. But I want you to know every time the enemy would catch a few little lambs away, the anointing of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, that roaring anointing, would manifest in the earth. And God would call those little believers back. Why would He do such a thing? Because Faith and Truth had to be protected. It had to be protected. Why? Because there was going to come a generation that you were going to be born into, hallelujah, and your children were going to be born into, and God had to keep a remnant holy. You see, it wasn t very long before people changed the baptism in 325 AD. They started changing the baptism. No one had ever been baptized in any other way than in the Name of Jesus Christ. No other way, but the Name of Jesus Christ. And there had never been any doctrine of three Gods. There had only been the doctrine that Messiah was God, and God was One. But, you see, pagans and heathens from all kinds of different religions were converting to the faith of Yeshua, to Christianity. And when they were doing that, they were confused about... because they had been used to serving many gods instead of one God. And so all the elders, the Nicolaitanes, all the bosses and the leadership of the church, the fathers, they met together, and they started deciding 26 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

28 what doctrine was going to be. And in doing so, they decided that perhaps God was not one but that He was three, that there were three distinct Persons in God. And then they decided if that be the case, it was no longer sufficient to take somebody down to the water and baptize them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ or in the Name of Yeshua HaMashiach. But instead, you were to use a title that said, I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. They took that from the very words of Yeshua in the last chapter there in the Book of Matthew. But they twisted its meaning in such a way that it would fool people. Listen to me. There s a reason why God would want you to hear something like this. They were trying to fool and deceive. And so, from that moment on, the Church, the Orthodox Church, has been baptizing ever since in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. It was a compromise from the beginning. When it started, it was a compromise. And it s a compromise today. But that s how the enemy first started attacking the Church when the anti-christ spirit came riding on a white horse. That s how he started attacking the Church by trying to twist and pervert the doctrine. But I want you to look here before we close tonight. And I want you to see what is said in the next verse. Verse 3. And when he had opened... (Revelation 6:3) 27 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

29 But the point... let me stop here and say... But the point I want to leave you with is this. Every time that white horse rider would introduce an error, a false faith, a false teaching, a false doctrine, that beast, that anointing of the Lion, would raise up in somebody and they would declare the Truth no matter what the cost because no matter what the devil does, there s always an anointing from God to combat that thing. I want you to know... That s not important for us right now when we think about those folk. You know, they re gone. They ve been dead and dusty for years except those who go in the Presence of God. It s hard to relate to somebody who lived in AD 30, all right? But what I want you to understand is there are some uncertainties about our future. We also face some uncertainty. I wished that I could tell you that I can explain everything to you. I wished I could tell you that I ve got all the answers and all the pieces and I m going to tell you everything that s going to happen in the future, and we ll just rest in that and be at peace. But I m not that kind of a person. I don t have that revelation. There are things in the Book of the Revelation, things in the Book of Daniel that I still wonder about and pray about and desire to understand and know. Somebody said, What about the Message? Well, I study it, and I dig. But when I hit those little things that I don t understand, I just have to 28 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

30 leave them where they are and pray about them. I don t pretend to have all the answers. So what I need to tell you is this. There are some things facing the Bride of Christ that I may not know about in time to tell you and warn you, and so forth. But I want you to know that whatever the enemy does, whatever his tricks will be, the anointing of God that came first as a lion and then as an ox and then as a man, He will come again as a flying eagle. And it doesn t matter what the devil tries to do to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ, there s going to be a remnant. There s going to be a Bride. There s going to be a protected people in the last day that will inherit the promises of God. So whatever the devil does, the anointing of God is there to raise up a standard against him. And I appreciate that. But I hear it, and I appreciate it, but it helps me more when I m able to go back through history and see that God did it every time. Every time. Every time the Church came under persecution, the anointing of God raised up and took care of it whipped the devil. Then a new persecution would come. And what would the anointing of God do? It would raise up just the right time, just the right anointing, just the right... and take care of that. And then here would come another. So I can just boldly declare that no matter what comes our way, no matter what the devil tries to do, no matter how he hinders or how he moves, I m persuaded that the same God who has brought His people 29 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

31 out and through everything that they have ever faced in the history of the world, I believe the same God will bring us through. Let s praise God for that. Lord, we thank You. We thank You. Hallelujah. No matter what. You re going to take care of us. It s a wonderful promise. I think it s a great, glorious promise. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. (Revelation 6:3) What was the second beast? The second beast was this calf or this ox. We know that because we see it in the camping of the Tabernacle. We see it in Ezekiel s vision. We see it in the standards that were raised up around the Tabernacle. We see it in John s revelation. The second beast was the beast represented by the face of an ox, or one writer said the face of a calf. He said, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. (Revelation 6:4) I won t go much farther tonight, but I want to certainly let you know things have heated up a little bit. Do you see? 30 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

32 The first Seal, what we had was a man on a white horse with a bow but no arrows. He was going forth with the desire to conquer. But it doesn t tell that he did much conquering. It just said that he was going forth to do such as that. That seems okay because he roared, and the lion roared against him. But now, the second Seal is opened. The ox has come. This Cherubim, this living creature that is represented by the face of an ox... he comes to John, and he says, Come. I want you to see what s under this Seal. And when John moves over to see what s under that Seal, here come a horse rider. How many of you understood that the rider is the same. It s the same devil. It s the same anti-christ. There is not three or four or five devils. There may be thousands of demons, but there is one devil. And there s one anti-christ. And this was a spirit. The man here is representing a spirit, the same spirit. We explained that on Sunday by mentioning the mask. He just changed masks. Same filthy devil was riding a white horse. Now he s riding a red horse. But it s been moved up a notch or two. Things are being intensified because this rider has... as he comes forth riding this red horse, it says, power was given to him (Revelation 6:4) 31 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

33 Now this rider comes forth with granted power. He s got some power. He s not just a bluff. He s not just a man with a bow and no arrows. He s got some power that was given to him. And the power that was given to him was that he should be able to take peace from the earth. And that would be bad enough because the absence of peace is trouble and anarchy. But that s not all power that was given to him. The rest of the power that was given to him then, it said, (was) that they should kill one another... (Revelation 6:4) And to make sure that took place, the Bible said, unto him was given a great sword. (Revelation 6:4) It says, power was given to him to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. (Revelation 6:4) Now you don t need a bow. And you don t need arrows for your bow when you ve got a sword. So this is certainly a more serious attack against the Church. And if you ll examine church history, you ll find out that things greatly intensified in this next season of time because now men and women of 32 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

34 God who held a different opinion than the organized church, they persecuted them. And when they got through persecuting them, what did they do? They killed them with the sword. Now, this was a time that we don t like to talk about because this was the beginning of Inquisition. This is not the fullness of Inquisition, it was the beginning of Inquisition. And during the time of Inquisition, history records that sixty-eight... get this right... sixty-eight million people were killed. You know, I can t fathom sixty-eight million people. And the majority of those sixty-eight million people were killed for their faith. Let me tell you something else. The majority of those sixty-eight million people were not killed by pagan armies and tyrant kings. They weren t killed by wild dictators. The majority of that sixty-eight million people were killed by the organized church. No wonder that time... by the time Laodicea came around, which was the last of the church ages... no wonder Jesus was standing on the outside knocking to get in His own church because He d been pushed out. And you know all the stories go on and on. And maybe I ll have an anointing to share some of them with you sometime that you haven t heard because I ve read hour after hour some of the stories of those who lost their lives during the time of Inquisition. Some of the stories are too horrible to talk about. But we know a little story like Joan of Arc. How many of you know a little bit about the famous story of Joan of Arc? 33 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

35 Perhaps you ve seen the older film with Ingrid Bergman. And you know it s an interesting film because she began to hear voices. And somebody said, Well, I don t believe that was from God. Well, I don t believe it could have been from anybody but God. It caused her to lead the armies in the French Revolution. And don t limit God to how He can talk. And remember, we hear God talking in the way that we perceive God anyway. Oh, it s going to get quiet when I say this next thing. When somebody said... Years ago, if somebody would have said to me, I had a vision of a lady, and she told me such-and-such, and would have indicated to me that it was Mary, I would have said, You ve lost your rockers. Mary isn t talking to nobody. That s an anti-christ spirit. That is not of God. And I wouldn t pay any attention to it. But you know what? I ve learned something in my years of dealing with varied folks. And I have found out that people often perceive a visitation in the way they believe, in what they believe. They filter it through their belief system. And that s what happened. I can give you another example, but I can t think of the name of it. So I ll have to think of it another time. Bernadette. How many of you know the story of Bernadette? I... There was a time that I would have said, Hogwash. That can t be God. The virgin Mary talking to this young girl? There could be no truth in that. 34 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

36 But when you examine things, what you understand is the message could have perhaps been coming from God. But the way she perceived the messenger was based on her faith, her thought patterns, her religion. And this is what caused great confusion to Joan. God was speaking to Joan. The prophet said so, by the way. And she received some of these messages from a woman who she described as one who looked like the virgin Mary. I don t know if you realize that or not, but Mark Twain wrote a tremendous book about Joan of Arc that you should examine sometime if you doubt these kind of things. She received these messages. She led an army into great victory. You know how God used her to choose the leader? She didn t know who was going to be the next leader. She picked him out of the crowd, and so forth. But then she got in trouble. And she didn t get in trouble by the armies, she got in trouble by the church. The church called her in. And they said, This is of the devil. And you ve got to deny that you re hearing from God. And so she said, I can t do that. And she went to God. She was in prison. And she went to God, and she wanted to hear from God. And guess what? God was silent. She couldn t hear any more. Here she is facing death. Well, you know the rest of the story. And she was persecuted. And she went through a lot of things and eventually burned at the stake. And years later, the Catholic Church realized they d made a mistake. And they dug up her bones and made her a saint 35 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org

37 in a great ceremony and re-buried her with a Catholic Christian baptism. And not only that. They dug up the bones of the priests who had presided over her judgment and burned them and cast them into the sea as though this is going to rectify their foolishness. This is a terrible thing. We could go on. Why, here God raised up a little man who was going to translate the Bible. He just wanted people to be able to read the Bible that couldn t speak in its original language. And the church murdered him. He wasn t killed by atheists and agnostics. He was killed by the church because he wanted to put the Truth in people s hands. You know, revelation doesn t come to be treasured by a few and only a few understand it. God sent revelation because He wants everybody who loves Him to be able to understand His Word. This isn t for pastors only or prophets only or teachers only or five-fold ministry only. God wants to give you a glorious revelation of Jesus Christ. He wants you to be able to answer for the faith that lies within you. He wants you to be able to answer whatever question is thrown at you. I m disappointed sometime when I hear people stuttering around about their faith. Let God make your faith real to you. Dig and study and read and listen and get enough of it in you that you re able to tell about it and witness about it because there may come a time you re put on the... not only put on the spot... There may come a time you re put on the 36 Ó 2016 New Hope Revival Ministries. All Rights Reserved Revival.org