The Fifth Column

In every mainline denomination the facts are in and well-known. Abortion is as commonplace inside the church as outside. Fornication is as expected between single adults inside the church as outside. Pornography is as rampant inside the church as outside. Divorce as commonplace. Greed as rampant. Gossip as unbridled. Homosexuality as condoned and even encouraged.

Adulters are moving unrepentantly and unchallenged among the assembly. That's apostate behavior. Sometimes the best way to defeat an enemy is to defeat it from within.

Infiltrating the enemy and trying to undermine its effectiveness is a powerful tool. Satan doesn't want to destroy religion. He's fine with religion as long as it's empty and devoid of the truth. During the tribulation, as Satan brings the world together under one world leader, he'll also bring the world together under one world religion.

A false religion that leads to destruction. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. On today's broadcast, Stephen's continuing through his series from Revelation called Antichrist and the Many Faces of Evil. Today's lesson is called The Fifth Column. Now in light of our study of the Antichrist, I found it especially interesting that John will follow up that phrase with a phrase a few verses later where he will say this, I have not written to you, church, because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it. And because no lie is of the truth. So who is the liar but the one who denies Christ, that Jesus is the Christ that is the Messiah, God in the flesh. This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. So John writes about those who've left the church. He writes about those apostates who deny the truth of Christ. He writes about those who say eventually, you know, we never did buy into all that stuff and we're out of here and they deny the Lord with their lies from that point forward.

Even worse, if there's something worse than somebody leaving as an apostate, are those apostates who deny the truth but remain in the church. They provide this fifth column that they're masquerading, they're actually on the enemy's side, they're in league with him, they're preparing the way for falsehood and deception. They vote in church meetings, they serve on deacon boards, they may even be in the pulpit. They are the fifth column. They are shepherds and those would be the worst of all then, those in leadership who lead the sheep astray. This was Paul's warning to the Ephesian elders when he said to them, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock.

Why? Because from among your own selves, that is within the assembly, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. Now the word for perverse, you might think of as some kind of immoral thing, it isn't. Diastrefo can be translated to simply twist or distort. They say distorted things, they say twisted things, they sound right, they sound true until you think about it five or ten seconds later, but they are actually twisting the truth and distorting its meaning.

As we've said before, they use the same terminology that we use, but they use a different dictionary. I agree with one author who wrote that it doesn't take much effort to see we live in a generation of surging apostasy. Paul wrote to Titus, these are they who've turned away from the truth, that is they're defiled and unbelieving, they profess to know God but by their deeds they deny him.

See these are the ones that Paul is warning the church of in every generation, this fifth column from within, they collaborate with the enemy, they are watering down perhaps the gospel, maybe that's their shtick or they denigrate the mission of the church into nothing more than let's just be an offensive in our presentation, which means we never present the gospel because the gospel does offend. In fact, we'll just let everybody have the God of their own choice and you get to have it in whichever way you want to get there. The world will finally, according to what John will reveal to us, finally be unified in one global government, in one global economy, and as we're about to see in one global religion. It will begin with the acceptance of every God and every religion. In fact, the inclusive religion will be the state of the art way and anybody that doesn't believe that would be some exclusive prude who really isn't very tolerant and who might that be?

Well, we gather today in this room, that's who we are, that's who they are. Everyone will have a God in this day and every God will be validated. However, halfway through the tribulation we're going to see the happy days of every God will do, will morph into only one God and that God will be the antichrist and you will either worship him or die. Those who, of course, have been raptured won't go through this. Those who've come to faith in Christ after the rapture will have to make that significant decision of whether or not they'll wear the mark of the beast and we'll get there in our next session.

This is the challenging day which I believe may very well be setting up for the emergence of the antichrist. What we have to do is observe the distinction or the lack of among professing believers. Sin is condoned.

Sin is endorsed. Whatever lifestyle you want to have, whatever behavior you want to act out, whatever doctrine you want to believe, whatever you want to toss out, whatever you want to do, whatever you think that God may want you to believe in the Bible, all of that, the church doesn't seem to be disturbed. One of our Shepherd Seminary graduates told me some time ago that he arrived at his new church, beautiful building, congregation waiting for him, first weekend. He got a phone call on Friday night before he was to preach his first sermon at this now his first church. The phone call was from a man outside the church that was trying to reconcile with his wife who was inside the church and he was in the midst of writing a letter that he hoped would appeal to her heart and he wanted the pastor to meet with him. He felt he was close and he wanted to get the words right and so he asked if the pastor would meet with him and he was so excited he told me because my first weekend I'm going to get to be involved in the reconciliation of a marriage. When he met with a man later that night he realized that it wasn't quite what he thought. In fact, he realized how deeply troubling the situation was.

Evidently, his wife wasn't interested in reconciling with him at all. In fact, she had already moved in and was living with another man who was also attending that same church and everybody evidently in the church knew about it, small church. The pastor also came to find out that the man she was involved in was actually a leader in that church.

In fact, he would discover that this man was the chairman of the pastoral search committee that had called him to pastor and that was his first weekend. I didn't ask him if he changed his text but in every mainline denomination the facts are in and well known. Whether we want to deny it or not, the facts of the evangelical church are in. It doesn't seem troubled that abortion is as commonplace inside the church as outside. That fornication is as expected between single adults inside the church as outside. That pornography is as rampant inside the church as outside. Divorce as commonplace. Greed as rampant. Gossip as unbridled. Homosexuality as condoned and even encouraged.

Adulters are moving unrepentantly and unchallenged among the assembly. They who profess to know God deny him with their deeds. That's apostate behavior. There is apostate belief which is the second of course characteristic the church at large comparing itself to apostate belief would have to admit it is throwing overboard historic biblical pre and post reformation doctrine which is biblical. It is now considered intolerant and out of date doctrine is not overtly denied as much as it is discreetly distorted twisted ever so slightly at times redefined. No apostate would ever probably I don't think get up in an evangelical church and announce I deny Jesus Christ from here on out. No but what he will do is deny that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. That the resurrection doesn't have to be literal. The apostate will not deny that Christ exists but he will deny that Christ is exclusively God our savior. If ever we needed to be alerted is today. This is heavy on my heart. In fact I wanted to get to the entire paragraph in Revelation 13 but let me just say a few more words because I'm not done yet. I think this is so needed today the closer we move to the end of the church age the more the plethora of false teachers there will be Christ warned but he said there are going to be many false teachers many antichrists many people against Christ and it will lead to the introduction of the antichrist and the final deceiving prophet spiritual leader preacher who will endorse the antichrist I'll introduce him to you in a minute and and in a matter of 42 months the world will be worshiping the antichrist you say how in the world could that happen so quickly because there's a fifth column already at work and the true church is raptured and all that's left are people that think there are many gods anyway and they're ready for him verse 11 where we left off at revelation chapter 13 then I saw it's John's way of saying I have a new vision this is a new vision from God then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth now you might notice if you look up at verse one there is a beast mentioned here the first beast that's the antichrist we've studied that section already and he came up out of the sea you look in verse one then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea probably a reference to the mediterranean since the antichrist will come from the revived roman empire surrounding the mediterranean sea the second beast now down in verse 11 is called later in revelation 19 the false prophet or the false preacher and and he John says I saw him coming up out of the the earth interesting to me the word translated earth can be simply translated land in Matthew's gospel chapter 2 verse 10 we read of the land of Judah in verse 20 of Matthew chapter 2 we read of the land of Israel this has led some bible teachers evangelical scholars to propose that the false prophet will be jewish he's going to come up out of the land now you might say oh no and and you know we're not going to go to the wall on this but you might immediately say there's no way a jewish man would ever promote a one-world religion that would accept buddhists and muslims and christians well I happen to have in my study a copy of an interview somebody sent me last month with a leading rabbi in Israel the chief rabbi who said and I quote him it is my dream to create a united religious nation and I couldn't help but think of revelation chapter 13 he went on to explain that since Abraham is the father of of all three major monotheistic religions embraced by the majority of the human population that's islam judaism and christianity that that connection the fact that we all go back to abraham well let's use abraham then let's not worry about christ let's talk about abraham and let our connection to abraham be the foundation for dialogue and a united world religion that's a jewish man speaking a rabbi but you're probably thinking there's no way in the world a muslim is ever going to follow a jew well I just happened to get this week a journal I subscribed to called the friends of Israel and in this month's edition they had a big splash one page a picture of the king of Saudi Arabia and then the article which I couldn't help but believe fit well within this movement which may be setting the stage who knows even in our generation for the coming one world religion this king of Saudi Arabia of course he's a devout muslim and that that nation is I guess you could call them the most intolerant nation on the earth you're either muslim or or or you don't breathe you're dead well he had a conference in Spain he convened that conference was claimed to be an historic conference historic for one thing because it was a conference on religious inclusivism and muslims normally aren't at those conferences right well they were here it was led off by this king who got up and spoke on the need to connect and to be in unity there at this meeting were were Hindus Buddhists Sikhs Zoroastrians by the way those are not people who follow zorro in case you were wondering they are they're a smaller sect of monotheists who believe who believe in an uncreated god named Mazda that's right those of you that drive a Mazda are in deep trouble just thought you'd like to know well 300 religious leaders convened in Spain and this muslim king got up and said this and I quote we all believe in one god who sent messengers for the good of humanity in this world and the hereafter end quote in other words we ought to find common ground in our monotheism and in the name of monotheistic unity let's just kind of combine and get along john records here in chapter 13 the rise of a powerful demonically inspired preacher prophet who will rise with pseudo-spiritual leadership notice john's further vision and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon a reference to two animals the metaphor here it could be the lamb a reference to him counterfeiting christ the lamb I'm not so sure that's it we know the antichrist will pull that off he will be the pseudo-lamb the anti-lamb the antichrist I think this is probably language that takes the reader back to Matthew 7 where Jesus Christ alerted his audience saying listen there are going to be many false teachers who are going to come to you and they're going to be dressed in lamb's wool or lamb's clothing so to speak they're going to be dressed in wool that that's part of their disguise they're dressed as harmless sheep but underneath he says they are ravenous wolves and they are going to rip you apart now think of it this is part of the deception nobody's afraid of a lamb lambs don't scare people they're innocent they're they're they're harmless they're gentle they're gentle and throughout scripture they are ceremonially clean this man is going to have all the religious boxes checked he's going to be the perfect gentleman but then note john adds here that he he spoke as a dragon that ties him to the language of satan throughout this expose satan is called the dragon so he looks like a like a lamb he's innocent he's harmless he's smooth he's eloquent but when he speaks he reveals his partnership with the enemy satan he'll work like no fifth column ever worked behind the scenes ultimately aiding the one who will destroy billions of people who surrender to this false messiah and I thought you know false prophets are like that aren't they they often appear meek and mild and harmless and positive and kind they are the perfect gentleman they offer hope and solutions to the problems troubling men and women yet they are the voices of hell whether they realize it or not in fact matthew seven tells us some are not even going to realize it until they stand before christ and he says i really never knew you when they speak they speak the words of satan the false prophet under his power will come like a lamb speaking false deceptive words of comfort he's going to promise the suffering tormented human race experiencing the wrath of god that all will be well one scholar f f bruce called him the minister of propaganda in reality he is in partnership with the devil himself i want you to underscore not only his partnership but his passion look at verse 12 this is the anti-spirits passion he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence now there are some believe that he is the antichrist the text flirting indicates he's exercising the authority of the antichrist in the presence of the antichrist these are two separate individuals others believe that this false prophet is is not really a man he's just an ideology he's maybe he's a false religion of some sort or or maybe he's an institution the trouble with that is that you don't have institutions you don't have ideologies cast into hell revelation chapter 19 verse 20 reveals the terrifying finality that the beast and this prophet will have let me read you what he says the beast is seized along with a false prophet who performs signs in his presence and these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone so this is their end but for a short space of time the false prophet will act with great passion he's going to act with this primary objective to accomplish what look at verse 12 again and he makes the earth and those who dwell in it that is the earth dwellers is a consistent reference to unbelievers he will make the earth dwellers worship the first beast whose fatal wound was healed a reference to the antichrist simply put then his passion is to to preach to prophesy about a one-world religion and why that makes sense and he will then coalesce the voice of humanity that will ultimately exalt the antichrist and worship him he will literally function as one who seeks to glorify the son of perdition you see the false trinity in here you see the anti-trinity represented in these three the dragon the antichrist and the false prophet listen to these contrasting descriptions were given in the bible the holy spirit exalts jesus christ john 15 the anti-spirit or the false prophet exalts the antichrist the holy spirit reveals divine revelation gives us illumines divine revelation john 16 13 the anti-spirit is an instrument of satanic revelation the antichrist exalts the antichrist is an instrument of satanic revelation the holy spirit seals the believer to god forever first john 3 the anti-spirit will also seal their followers forever bringing about their doom the holy spirit builds up the body of christ john 737 the anti-spirit will build up those who follow after antichrist the holy spirit enlightens mankind with god's truth john 14 17 the anti-spirit will deceive mankind with satan's lie so just as satan will counterfeit god the father the antichrist will counterfeit god the son the false prophet will counterfeit the holy spirit you have this anti-counterfeit trinity satan the first person acts as god the father so to speak in in having this plan and scheme the second person the son of perdition which carries out as it were his father's scheme and the third person the anti-spirit who seeks to glorify the son of perdition bringing worship sealing those followers forever and listen the anti-trinity is going to sound a lot like the deceivers of every generation and they are in our generation and i've quoted from some of them already rob bell another emergent church leader interviewed in a supposed evangelical magazine and that interview bell said listen to this and i quote him the church has preached horrible messages about being left behind and that this place is going to burn these are toxic messages that are against the teaching of scripture i wondered how long it had been since he read second peter three about the earth being burned and and those apart from christ being doomed but he said this these messages are against the teaching of scripture which states we are connected to god we are connected to the earth we are connected to each other your relationship with god is tied into your relationship with the soil and then he says go back to genesis so i did in genesis we discover the original sin so that man is no longer connected to god but in deep trouble we we saw mankind's spiritual death through disobedience connection is broken but we saw god's initiative as he took the lives of tunas and animals and robed adam and eve with their skins thus picturing blood atonement and the fulfillment of the coming final sacrifice for us the seed of the woman promised in genesis the suffering messiah who will crush the serpent's head in final victory that's what you find in genesis go back to genesis and you have the introduction of satan and sin and atonement and grace and the promise of a coming messiah listen your relationship to god today my friend if you have one is not tied to the soil it is tied to a savior and he's your only hope and anybody who tells you otherwise is a false teacher who speaks the dragon's language of lies the fifth column unbelievers within the church who promote unity at the expense of truth who cast their vote to make the church you know more tolerant of those who disbelieve the scriptures what they're clamoring after according to revelation as we will even see further in another study it will be trivial it will be superficial it will be self-explanatory it will it will be trivial it will be superficial it will be self-promoting it will it will be flawed and most importantly it will be temporary it'll last 42 months and then lead straight to the gates of hell forever but an assembly committed to the truth of god's word the truth of god's person revealed in the scriptures can can be that body of people that enjoy the unity of heart and the unit the unity of purpose and the unity of true passion and love not only in this assembly but between assemblies of like faith who also believe in the singular atoning work of jesus christ and this infallible book and the record of scripture which gives to us even the end of the age this lesson is an important reminder for us isn't it i'm glad you joined us today here on wisdom 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