I'm having the loudspeaker control a lot of trouble, so I have to speak rather softly today. We come to the fourth in this series of messages about the person of the Antichrist, this fearful, this dreadful figure of the Antichrist. I want you to see that this subject is a very practical one, because the spirit of Antichrist is working already in the churches today. And I earnestly hope that the spirit of Antichrist is not working in the life of anyone here. Of this we can't be sure. But I earnestly pray that the Antichrist is not working in any one of your hearts. Because if he is, you will not have any share in eternal life.
Even if you call yourself a Christian. Even if you have been baptized. Even if you have gone to church for so many years that nobody can even remember. Even if you were brought up in a Christian family. No, I would say something more. From the scriptural teaching, the Antichrist is going to be a Christian. Indeed, a super spiritual type of Christian. And I'm going to show you from scripture today that this is the case. A frightening thing. A frightening thing to think about. And if you are not a Christian and you have been put off by the behavior of many Christians, then think on what I have just said. There are a lot of antichrists in the church today. A lot of false Christians in the church today. And if you don't find yourself impressed by the kind of Christians you know, it may well be that the Christians you know are the Christians of the Antichrist type. This is something, whether we like it or not, we have to come to understand very, very clearly.
So in this fourth message on the Antichrist, I want to take you back to the Bible, back to the scriptures, so that I am not talking to you my own ideas. You haven't come here to listen to my ideas, I hope. But that you have come to listen to the word of God. And the word of God is very surprising. It is very unpredictable. That is, it always goes against what we expect. The good Christian that you think you know sometime — very active in church, doing this and that, he sings in the choir, he leads this activity and that activity — could one day well turn out to be an antichrist. Not necessarily the Antichrist, but an antichrist.
I speak from experience. I know a lot of Christians. I have worked in the church for a long time. And many a person who seemed very promising finally turns out to be an antichrist. In Hong Kong today, the churches — many of them are very full. Lots of people in church. Just like the days in Shanghai when I went to church as a non-Christian. Oh, the church was full. And there were all kinds of people in the churches in those days. When the communists came, it's strange how empty the churches became. And you ask the question: where were all those people who filled the churches every Sunday before the communists came? Some were phony Christians, of course, by that time we know. And some were anti-Christians who even accused us. I knew one sister in our church in Shanghai who seemed to be a very active Christian. And one day she wrote to us and accused us all of being imperialists, being spies, of being this and that — all kinds of things. The same Christian that we thought was an active Christian, one who loved the Lord, as we imagined — she was very active in the church — became our accuser. It's hard to tell. On that day we will know.
Now everything is going fine in Hong Kong, isn't it? It's very peaceful. Nobody is giving us much trouble right now, at least not to you. But one of these days, what you really are, or what the people really are around us, will become very evident to us all.
Let us go back to scripture. The word "Antichrist" — the word "Antichrist" is used by only one writer in the New Testament. And this writer is the apostle John, the writer of the First, Second, and Third Letters of John. And he mentions the word "Antichrist" a few times. And so let us turn to the First Letter of John and we will look at it together in these few references, so we have a very precise idea in our minds what "Antichrist" means in the New Testament.
Now I have already expounded in the previous few messages that there are two possible meanings to the word "Antichrist." One meaning is that it is a contra-Christ — anti in the sense of being against. And the other meaning is a pseudo-Christ — anti in the sense of being a pretender Christ, a replacement Christ. And we are left to choose between one of these two meanings.
Now the remarkable thing — and maybe when you listen to my teaching, you are not aware of the fact that my teaching, in fact, as I have been expounding it to you from scripture, is different from most of the teachers on this subject today. Because most of the Bible teachers today maintain that the Antichrist means a contra-Christ, somebody who is a "deji du" — "fan dui jidu" — someone who is opposed to Christ. But I have been trying to show you that scripture is telling us that the biblical meaning of Antichrist is primarily "jia jidu," or "dai ti jidu" — somebody who tries to replace Christ. To say, "I am the real Christ. That Christ is the false one. I am the real one." Of course, he is still "deji du." He is an antichrist. But he is an antichrist not by speaking directly against Jesus, necessarily. He will do that when he has to show that Jesus is the false one, he is the real one, because he wants to replace Jesus.
There are Christians in the church today who behave as though they too want to replace Jesus. There are pastors in the church today who behave as though they are the one who should be honored and adored and worshipped in the church. They want to control all the power. They want everybody to respect them and honor them. They don't say so, but the way they conduct themselves seems to imply that they want to be the real thing.
Let me give you a name so that I am not talking too vaguely. Let's take Pastor Sun Yong Moon. You know who said Pastor Sun Yong Moon — a well-known Korean pastor. He is the originator of the Moonies. A few months ago, when I was preaching in Montreal, somebody came to me and talked to me in a very nice way, asked me if I would like to join a meeting, a meeting of pastors. I said, "Well, could you identify yourself? Which church do you come from?" She didn't want to identify herself. I pressed the point a little further. I said, "Look, I am not going to attend a meeting of pastors unless you kindly tell me who is sponsoring this meeting." So finally she said, "Oh, I go to a church that is headed by Pastor Moon." I said, "Moon? You mean Sun Yong Moon?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Now, I would like to ask you one straight question. Do you, or do you not, believe that Pastor Moon is the Messiah?" She gulped. I said, "Well, are you going to answer my question?" She said, "I would rather not answer the question." I said, "Why not? Is he, or is he not, your Messiah? Do you believe in him as the Messiah?" She said, "That is a difficult question to answer. I don't think I can answer it right now." I said, "In this case, I also don't think I can accept your invitation right now."
The truth of the matter, as you may know, is here was a man who began as a pastor and who finally decided that he himself was the Christ. And yet he wants to do this in a secret way. You see, the reason why she didn't want to answer the question is this: this is supposed to be a messianic secret that is shared only to the inner circle of people within the Moonie church. So don't think, when I'm talking about the Antichrist and the spirit of Antichrist, I'm talking about something that has not yet happened. It is happening now. We have people in the churches who already want to exalt themselves to the place of Christ in the church. It's terrifying, isn't it?
And what is puzzling to one's mind is: why would anybody want to believe this? Why? As far as I know, Moonie has never performed a miracle. He has not done any mighty works that I know of. His teaching is not outstanding. Why do people follow someone like this? Paul, in the scriptures, speaks of this as the mystery of ungodliness. There is, Paul says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 11, a strong delusion that has come. And you know that many people who join the Moonie churches are members of other churches. That is, they were Christians in the first place. Many Christians are going to be deceived in this generation. And I hope that you are not one of them.
And this is the reason for this series of messages. I want to look into what is the root of deception. What causes people to fall for a lie rather than the truth? The people who follow these things seem to be reasonably intelligent, and they don't seem to be entirely insane. Then how is it that they can be deceived to believe that this man walking around on the earth, somebody from Korea called Moon, this pastor, is the Messiah? Now, if they can believe this today — and there are tens of thousands who believe that — when the great Antichrist comes, the world will be swept away by him, as the Bible warns us, and as I am warning you today.
I wonder why people are deceived. And what will the Antichrist teach? What will he teach? Does the Bible give us any hint? What attracts people? And what are the conditions in a person's heart that make him liable to be deceived? There must be something that the Antichrist can get hold of in your heart that draws you to him. Well, it is not difficult to find out what draws people. Not difficult.
In a world in which most people have no direction in life, most people are very weak. Business people — they know how weak human beings are. There is a very unflattering statement that most business people make. I have heard many of them say that to me: "There is a fool born every minute. There is a fool born every minute." That's how they get rich, because people are fools. Why are they fools? Because they are subject to their passions. Their passions, their lusts, their desires. And the skillful businessman knows how to exploit this thing.
I heard in the news the other day about a transaction that was made here in Hong Kong. They — you know, it said that "shi tu cun jing" — it says a yard of earth is worth an inch of gold. I'm not sure whether sometimes the other way around — a foot of earth is worth an inch of gold. So investment — you have to invest in property, in land, because land is what it's all about, to get rich. And so everybody wants to buy houses, buy land, buy this. This is the show. The money will go down one day, but land holds its value. I mean, if you've been around a little while, you know, property always goes up, of course.
And so this guy was looking for a nice big piece of property in the New Territories. They know everybody is moving to the New Territories, right? You see all these new apartments going up. So where do you buy property? Well, if you're clever, you buy it in the New Territories, because as it keeps expanding out and people want to build these blocks... You see, all these farmers — they used to have one small plot of land, trying to grow some watermelons and some bok choy and stuff like this. Ah, now, what do they do? Before they were sweating away in their rags, and now — oh, they own blocks of apartments. You sell that little plot of land and they are wealthy. They are millionaires.
So that's where it is. This dirt is worth a lot of money. And so this man decided that he too was going to be clever. Not all the other people — just he too. It's his turn to be clever. So having scraped a lot of money together, he goes out to the New Territories looking. "Ah, where is this place? Where are they going to build the next apartment here?" And so he comes in, he sees in this village place, "Oh, this looks like very promising ground." And believe it or not, there is always some guy there, most helpful. "Ah, you want to buy this land?" "Ah, yes," he said. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, about 50 people have looked at this land already. This land is really hot at the moment. But you see, you are a nice guy. I mean, I like your face. Yes. So I tell you what — ignore those other 50 guys. Do you want this piece of land? I sell it to you. How about that?"
Oh, good fortune! That morning he was burning incense, and really it did it. Who said that burning incense doesn't work? No, it really did it. Really did it. So he says, "Well." And he says, "Well, I give you this price for this piece of land." Okay. So he gets it all worked out, and all the forms are written out. And he said, "Well, you got to put down some deposit money, of course. I mean, this piece of land — a few tens of thousands of deposit will be fine. I don't ask much. I mean, other people — I mean, but you — let's just say a few tens of thousands will do it." Wow. He said, "This is marvelous. What a wonderful bargain." And he said, "Where's the boundary?" Well, he shows it. "Okay, it goes along here, and then all marked out there. Oh, this piece here." And he looked at it and he thought, "Wow, I could build a whole big apartment on this. I mean, I'm just going to be rich. This is really going to be it."
So he goes back, he scrapes up his money, puts down the deposit. He gets a nice diploma-looking thing here, all signed, seals all over the place. Oh, very nice. He's so happy. He rolls up this thing, he goes away. There was some guy who looked like a lawyer there who was doing this whole business for him. He is, in fact — I mean, this is a true story. I'm not fabricating this. This is in the news in Hong Kong, you know, early last year sometime.
Oh, it's fine. He comes back. And so he comes back after some days to claim his piece of land. He goes there, struts around on the piece of land. And then the next time he goes there — a farmer. He said, "What are you doing here? Is this my piece of land?" "Are you kidding?" "No, I got the whole paper to prove it." "What paper?" "This is my piece of land here." "You must have got it in your dreams, because this piece of land happens to be my piece of land." "No, not anymore, it's mine. I got a whole piece of paper to show it. I even got a lawyer to show it." So he goes back to this place, this apartment, looking for the lawyer. Funny enough, the lawyer disappeared. Even the piece of thing in front of the door is gone. No lawyer anywhere. Now what about this piece of paper? Well, it turns out the whole thing was phony. I don't know how many of you know this story. It's very, very interesting. So he got a piece of paper for his several tens of thousands — I don't exactly remember now how much he paid for this — and all he got was a very expensive piece of paper. He never had a piece of land.
Why are people deceived? Greed, of course. And that's why I say the businessmen say there is a fool born every moment. Sometimes, have you ever looked at your room and looked at your drawers and wondered, why did you buy this piece of junk in the first place? This was so nice at the time. But then you're scratching your head and you're wondering, why did I buy this? I got no use for it. Have you looked at how many pens you have? There's a silver one, there's a gold one, there's an enameled one. There are all kinds of pens. And you would have to write with all ten fingers at the same time if you're going to use the pens. But you're wondering, since you already have two pens, why did you buy another eight more? The same thing goes with clothes, isn't it? When we're looking at the wardrobe — what do you do with all these clothes? Well, we need one for spring and we need one for winter. We need one for summer. Okay, that's fair enough. Then what about the 20 others?
So here's the situation. We wonder, why did we buy this? I go around in Hong Kong and it's amazing. Have you seen one block where there are no shops? That must be the block that hasn't been built yet. But every block there are shops. And I'm just wondering, how do they manage to make business? There seem to be about as many shops in Hong Kong as there are people. Now if they depended on me, I think they'd all die of starvation. But somebody must be buying these things, is it not? Why is it that these shops are doing quite well? And sometimes there are three pharmacies within the same block. Five eyeglass companies in the same shopping center. And you wonder, how do you need five eyeglass companies? They must be — I mean, we all wear glasses, but we don't change our glasses every day, not even every month. But somehow they must be doing business, is it not? And they seem to be doing very well. It must be this desire to acquire things all the time. More, more, more. Always buying, buying. If you look at your money, you don't know what to do with it. So buy this and buy that every day. You go out shopping and you come back empty-handed. You feel you wasted your time, right? So you've got to come back at least with something in your hands to make that trip worthwhile. It is the desire to acquire things.
Now, these may be small matters. Maybe these are small matters when it comes to material things. But somewhere along this line, Satan is able to catch us. Now think of fishing. See, our Brother Isaac — he loves to fish. He can sit there patiently with his rod. Think on this: there are times, of course, that you can sit there with your bait all day and the fish don't bite. And that is the most frustrating thing. Why? Because they are all full, right? The whole point of being able to catch a fish is because you know that the fish likes to eat, just like we all do.
I mean, just look at the number of restaurants in Hong Kong. Just for the fun of it, the other day I checked in the yellow pages under restaurants in Hong Kong. Do you have an idea how many restaurants there are in Hong Kong? I mean, only the ones registered in the yellow pages. Because most of the others are not even in the yellow pages. Do you know how many restaurants there are? I counted 40 pages full. 40 pages of restaurants. I mean, Montreal, if you can look through one page, it's not too bad. But in Hong Kong, there are 40 pages. And then all the little places and the noodle shops and all the wonton shops and all the others — they are not even listed in the yellow pages, not to say those on the street side stalls. They're not listed at all. 40 pages of restaurants. I mean, next time don't laugh at the fish that they like to go for this squiggly worm. I mean, our stomachs get us into all these kinds of restaurants. And they are doing beautiful business. I mean, there's some of them in Newtown Plaza — they're so full you have to sit on the seats outside and queue up in order to get in. Do they ever get our stomachs!
Why are we deceived? Why will the Antichrist be able to get at us? Let's look at John. We'll understand this picture and see what is happening here. Let us look at these references. They occur only in the letters of John. 1 John 2 and verse 18: "Children, it is the last hour. And just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. From this we know that this is the last hour." Now notice carefully what he's saying in this verse. He is saying first that the Christians have heard that the Antichrist is coming. Then he also goes on to say that even now, right now, at this moment, many antichrists have already arisen. So when we talk about the Antichrist, we must not think that there's just one Antichrist in the future. John is saying that right now, there are many antichrists.
And we say, where are they? Look at the next verse, verse 19: "They went out from us." Us where? Us Christians. Us, the church. "But they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. But they went out in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us." This sentence terrifies me. John is telling us where the antichrists are coming from. From where? From us. The church. Did you think the Antichrist is going to be a non-Christian coming from outside there? Not what the Bible tells us. The antichrists come from within the church. The church is the breeding ground, in other words, of the Antichrist. Doesn't that make you feel sick inside? Doesn't that make you feel something is not right? It is from inside the church that they will come out. But before they come out, before they reveal themselves, before they detach themselves and manifest themselves, at which point we have to drive them out — before that, they are already in the church. This is the thing that is so painful and so frightening.
Look at all the many churches. In every church today, believe me, there are Christians who really love the Lord. Every church, there are genuine Christians who really love the Lord Jesus. Every church — I think there is hardly a church in this world that there isn't somebody there who really loves the Lord Jesus. But also, alongside the wheat, as the Lord Jesus said in His parable, there are the tares. And those are the majority, unfortunately. And inside every church, there are already many who function with the spirit of Antichrist. And what that spirit is, we shall see in a moment.
In case you are sitting back and congratulating yourself that you are not one of the tares, you are not one of those people in whom the Antichrist has been able to get his hook — you have not bitten his bait, you have not swallowed his bait — don't be so sure. Let's check about this. Let's look a little bit further down in this chapter and look at verses 22 and 23: "Who is the liar? But the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son."
What does this mean? Let's put it in plainer language. The Antichrist is going to teach two different things. Two things are related, but they are different things. The first is, he is going to deny, as it says here, that Jesus is the Christ. Ah, you say, "That's not me. I don't deny Jesus Christ." Not so fast. Not so fast. We always think that by denying, we mean we deny with the mouth. "I didn't deny with the mouth." The point of the Antichrist is not necessarily that he would deny with the mouth, first and foremost — that in due time. But as we read in Titus chapter 1, that there are Christians who deny their Lord and Master by their lives, by the way they live. Does your life acknowledge or deny the Christ?
Now he says, it will deny that Jesus is the Christ. You know what Christ means? The Messiah is the Hebrew form of the word for Christ. Messiah and Christ is the same thing. Acts chapter 2 and verse 36, as Peter sums up his message in chapter 2, he says that "this Jesus God has appointed to be both Lord and Christ whom you crucified." Both Lord and Christ. In other words, Christ and Lord are basically the same meaning. Christ means the Savior King, the Lord of our lives.
Now, look at your own life for a moment. Do you deny Christ with the kind of life you live? The Antichrist will come from inside the church. And you and I, we both know very well — even if you are a non-Christian, you know — that the church is full of people who are phony Christians, pseudo-Christians, whose conduct is shameful by the standards of Scripture, who are a disgrace to their Lord and their Master. They deny Jesus as their Lord and as their Christ, as their King. Not with their mouth. Oh, not necessarily. But their lives tell it all. They don't have to open their mouths. Their lives speak louder than their words.
Indeed, when the Antichrist comes, he will also deny that Jesus is the Christ because he wants to make himself the Christ. But he will not say it quite so bluntly. Just like I mentioned about Pastor Moon. You see, when I asked this girl, "Tell me, do you believe that Moon is the Messiah?" — she didn't want to answer me. You see? It's done very subtly. It's very secretly. If they did not believe that Moon is the Messiah, she could have said so frankly. "No, we don't believe that he's the Messiah." That settles the question. But she didn't want to say so. The truth is that they do believe he is the Messiah. But you see, they don't want to say so with their mouths. That is the true tragedy of the matter.
Our time is running out fast and let's turn to chapter 4, verse 3, of this same letter. Chapter 4, verse 3, to look at another aspect about the Antichrist. And in this passage, the apostle John says, "Do not believe every teaching. Don't believe the spirit of every teaching." Verse 1: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." You see? These false prophets have gone out from the church. And some of them haven't gone out yet. Some have already gone out. Some are still hiding in the church waiting for the right time.
"But this — by this you know," verse 2, "by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you heard that he is coming, and now it is already in the world." It is now already in the world. When I'm talking about the Antichrist, I'm not just talking about something in the future. I'm talking about the spirit of Antichrist present now.
And here adds one more element. Do you notice that here is a slightly different teaching about the Antichrist? In this case, this Antichrist does not deny that Jesus is the Christ, at least not with his mouth. You see? It says in verse 2 that Jesus Christ — did he or did he not come in the flesh. Let's read this again very carefully. "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh." Notice that this time: Jesus Christ. He doesn't just say Jesus. This false teacher acknowledges Jesus as the Christ, as the Messiah. But he denies something. He denies that this Messiah came in the flesh. That is, in the body.
You say, what's the significance of that? What's the importance of that? Very, very significant. Well, if Jesus Christ, according to these false teachers, did not come in the flesh and He only came in the spirit — if He only came in the spirit, He never was truly a human being. Now, if He did not come as a human being without any flesh and blood, He couldn't die for you and for me, could He? You see the point? Because the Bible says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. That means that this Christ that they are preaching — this dehumanized Christ, this Christ that did not come in the flesh — could not save you, could not save me, because without shedding of blood there is no remission, and a Christ without flesh has no blood to shed.
Now, notice carefully that at first this teaching sounds super spiritual. They want to talk about a Jesus who is high and mighty above the angels, a glorious spiritual being who never got entangled with human flesh and nothing to do with flesh — with this lowly, dirty earth, this dirty human flesh. No, He was too pure, too holy for such things. He was spiritual, high, and above. Sounds good, isn't it? I want to warn you that when the false teachers come, when the false Messiah comes, he's going to teach a doctrine that's going to sound super spiritual and it's going to deceive those people who are not well taught in the word of God.
Listen to many of these false teachings that go around today and they all sound super spiritual. They emphasize a lot of things that sound right. The sovereignty of God. Sounds good, doesn't it? God is sovereign over all. I like that phrase. I love this phrase. It sounds beautiful to me. Except it's not what they say that is the problem. It's what they don't say that is the problem. Do you understand? They say this time that, "Okay, those other teachers, they are no good. They deny that Jesus is the Christ. But I say that Jesus is the Christ. Oh yes, I accept Him as the Christ. But this Christ is too pure to set His eyes upon human flesh. Too pure to be entangled in human flesh. He is holy, high, and glorious."
Don't you like the doctrine of holiness? Didn't this pastor there keep talking about holiness? That without holiness nobody shall see God? Well, I'm telling you the same thing. I agree with that pastor. Oh yeah, he's a good guy. You know, we've got to stress holiness. And when you stress holiness, it's got nothing to do with the flesh. Never touch the flesh. Never look upon the flesh. Never look upon these degraded things. This Christ is holy — too pure to touch the things that pertain to the body.
That's not my teaching, brothers and sisters. The holiness of the Bible is not true holiness until it affects our flesh. What does the scripture say? That we may be holy, Paul says, in body and spirit and soul. This body has to be holy. And with this part, I have to come to the close of the portion of our teaching today.
I want you to clearly understand, and let me refresh your memory before we close, on these two points. First, the false Messiah is going to deny that Jesus is King and Savior and Lord. That is to say, he is going to say that Jesus is a great teacher, He is the Son of God. Oh yes, even the sects declare that Jesus is the Son of God. Until you ask them, what do you mean by that phrase? Don't be deceived by words. You are to safeguard your eternal well-being.
I feel so sorry for the average Christian today. They are like sheep without a shepherd. They have no way to tell who is speaking the truth and who is speaking falsehood. You don't have enough spiritual discernment and training in the word of God to know. This is why our church provides training after training to equip you to survive in this world, to survive in the midst of the confusion. And if you are in this church and you don't grab the chance to get the basic training and the intermediate training and so on, you have really missed an opportunity that very few churches in this world provide. We are providing you with all this training so that you can discern the truth, that you will know how to understand the Bible, that you will be able to tell what is true and what is false.
Ask a Jehovah's Witness today, "Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?" He will say, "Yes, certainly I believe." But then you say, "Oh, so there is no difference between you and me. I also believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Oh, praise the Lord, my brother." Not so fast. Not so fast. First, ask him, what do you mean by the term "Son of God"? And you are going to discover that he means something totally different from what you mean. They use the same words, but the content is different.
Are you going to meet somebody and ask him, "Do you believe in the resurrection of Jesus?" Because it says in Romans 10, if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that God raised Jesus from the dead, you are saved. So you say, "Do you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by God?" He says, "Yes, certainly, certainly." Not so fast, my friend. Ask him what he means.
# Antichrist and the Spirit of Deception (Part 2)
In a theological seminary, a liberal theological seminary, what does he mean by the resurrection? And you'd be shocked to discover that he means something totally different from what you mean. You see, the liberal theologian believes the word resurrection too, but by resurrection he does not mean, as you and I believe, as the Bible teaches, that God raised Jesus physically from the dead. No, he doesn't mean that. He just means Jesus is living today in the sense that He lives in your heart. He died like everybody else, but He is alive in your heart. That's what he means by the resurrection. He never rose from the dead. He uses the word "resurrection" in a different sense. Oh, you say, no, this is getting very complicated. That's right. That's right. That's what I'm trying to warn you. How can we avoid being deceived? How?
Let's sum up quickly. In North China, I'm told, they use the donkey to grind the millet, they grind whatever needs grinding. They have a stone, and the donkey walks round and round, and they grind the things with the donkey. But that's quite a mystery. Why is it a mystery? Because you should know the nature of a donkey. How do you make a donkey walk round and round and round? Are you going to stand there and whack the donkey and make it work hard? I have seen donkeys. They're very stubborn creatures. You can whack it and whack it, and it just flaps its ears. That's how sensitive it is. And if you whack it some more, it'll start jumping to kick you. Oh, a very rebellious creature. And the mystery is that you watch this donkey very patiently and eagerly, walking round and round and round and round for hours. And you say, what is the secret? There's nobody even there to smack it.
And then one day I heard the mystery — the solution to this mystery, rather. Apparently it's quite simple. What the farmer does is that he takes a bit of "zhima," sesame paste. Of course, if they are out of sesame paste, they can use a bit of peanut paste. And what do they do? They take this peanut paste and dab it on the nose of the donkey. And the donkey smells it. Mmm. Ah. Nice flavor. But first, of course, you have to blindfold the donkey. Have you ever noticed? The donkey is blindfolded. It doesn't see. So all it can do is smell. And it smells the fragrance of the "zhima," the sesame. And so it is led to believe that right in front of his nose, maybe just inches away, there is this delicious sesame that it's going to eat. And so it is walking on and on eagerly to get hold of this "zhima." And the amazing thing is they can make this donkey walk for hours and hours. If it walks a bit too slow, then you put another dab on the nose. And so it's smelling this "zhima," and the whole concentration and mind of this donkey is focused on this delicious, marvelous "zhima," this sesame that it's going to get soon. Soon. One of these days. And so it goes round and round and round and round.
And when I look on this picture, I find that isn't this exactly the pitiful picture of man? The Antichrist wants to promise you something. He wants to promise you something that you really want. In this case, of course, what do you want? Do you want the things that pertain to eternal life? Plus, plus a lot of other things that go along with it.
To be a Christian in North America today — I mean, better than that, you cannot get. You go to North America, you turn on the television in your hotel or wherever you are, and the message of the, shall I call it gospel? I'm not sure. Yeah, gospel. The "word gospel" comes in through the television. You switch on one television channel and what do you see? You see a preacher there standing in front of a vast crowd of people. And what does he do? Oh, very interesting. Your attention is immediately caught. Why? Because there are greenbacks floating down from his hands. U.S. dollars coming down like this. And then what do you do — the camera focuses down and in front of his pulpit, there is a big basket of U.S. dollars. That is the "zhima" that's being put on your nose. Mmm.
You say, ah, this is very interesting. What has this got to do with the gospel? Oh, lots to do with the gospel. What it has to do with the gospel is this: God is so good. God is a God of grace. And you are His children. And you are the sons and daughters of the King. Oh, I like this message, you say to yourself. This is sounding real good. Keep going. Keep going. So you turn the TV now louder. Mmm. This is sounding good to me. And the "zhima" is getting thick on your nose. "You are sons of the King. And who is the King? God, our Father." Oh, I can preach this kind of gospel too. Oh, I can preach this kind of gospel too. And what is your Father? Creator of heaven and earth. True. Every statement is true. Amen. Amen. And no wonder the crowd is saying, "Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah." Me too, as far as that goes.
And now, since He is the Creator, what does the Bible say? The Bible says that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Oh, yes. Amen. All the cattle you see, all the trees, all the oil in the ground — did you make it? Of course not. Did the scientists make it? Of course not. Did the geologists make it? Of course not. Who made it? God made it. Our Father in heaven. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. All we got to do is dig it up. The gold, the silver, everything is God's. Our God. Our Father. It all belongs to us because we are His children. Right? Now, plain from God. What are these U.S. dollars? Where did they come from? From the oil, from the gold, from the food that God creates. I mean, did the farmer create the food? Of course not. It was God who caused these things to grow.
And so then, are you poor? Shame on you. What? You are the son of Him who possesses heaven and earth and you are poor? Shame on you. You know why you are poor? Because you don't have faith. That's the problem. You don't have faith. Now, stand up and say, "Hallelujah! Have faith in God!"
Now, I am not kidding. I am not kidding. You go to North America, turn on that television and you tell me whether I am exaggerating or not. That's the truth. What kind of a gospel is being preached? The gospel of the sesame paste. The sesame paste that is being put on your nose. That the reason for becoming saved is dual purpose. One, you have eternal life — that we can forget about because that comes much later and we don't worry about the future. We live here and now. We are practical people, brothers and sisters. And Christians are practical people. I mean, what's the use of worrying about eternal life when we might live another 30, 50 years to go. I mean, some people who are near the grave, they can think about eternal life, but look at us — strong, healthy young people that we are. Who worries about eternal life? We've got to talk about today. And today is the day — this is the day that the Lord has made, and we shall rejoice and be glad in it. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, I'm giving you an illustration of how the Antichrist will preach. I am not kidding. I am not doing this as entertainment. I am telling you how the Antichrist will preach, and this kind of preaching will sweep away tens of thousands of people. If it were not for the grace and mercy of God, I tell you, I can preach as good as any of these people on this particular point, this kind of story. I don't preach this way. I cannot. My conscience doesn't allow me. What do I preach? I preach the cross. And that's not the way to get tens of thousands of people to contribute money to your cause.
People who preach this kind of gospel — you know how much are their assets? Do you know how much money they have in their banks? This particular station that I was just now imitating — I was just imitating this person. It's not my original. I have nothing original. I was just imitating. That particular broadcasting station in North America owns several satellites lying up there. You know how much a satellite costs? They cost tens of millions of U.S. dollars. They own the satellites up there. They own their own transmitting stations which cost another tens of millions of dollars. Indeed, they own a whole complex of areas of hotels, and if you wonder what hotels have got to do with Christianity, I don't know the answer to that either. But they own a whole city, virtually a town that they have built. This is the kind of preaching that will bring in the money and bring in the crowds.
And if you think that when the Antichrist comes, that this is going to be something unusual — no, my friends. It's happening now. The Antichrist will promise you what you want. And what do you want? You want money. You want good job prospects. You want good health. And the Antichrist will promise it all to you.
Let me say one last thing. The only way you're not going to be deceived by the Antichrist is first that Jesus is Lord and Messiah King of your life, and secondly, in connection with the second point I mentioned, He is Lord and King of your body. The body is very, very important in the Bible. Don't think that the teaching is spiritual because it just rules out the body. I just made a quick count the other day in the concordance. How many times does the apostle Paul speak about the body? Do you know how many times? At a quick count, I saw him mention the word "body" — not counting the word "flesh," just "body" — 88 times. Did you know that?
He says this, and with this I'd like to close. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, I'd like to read this to you. 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 13. And this goes all the way to the end of the chapter, but I should not read it all. This verse begins like this: "Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them." Now notice carefully this: "Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body." Think carefully of this remarkable statement. The body — your body, my body — is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. What does this mean?
I'll put it very simply because our time is gone. Either we can live the Christian life victoriously in this physical body, or we don't live it at all. Don't think that being a Christian is simply a matter of believing in your head that Jesus came, that He died, and so on, but how you live in your everyday life doesn't matter because that has to do with the body. It is surprising today how many Christians in the churches commit immorality. Not one, not two, not three, but there are so many Christians who commit immorality in the churches today and yet think they are going to be saved.
Our churches are full of young people, and in my work, having to care for the young people in the church, people come to me constantly to repent of their sins, to confess their sins because they can't live with it anymore. Again and again they confess, "I have been guilty of immorality. Immorality." I want you to understand carefully what Paul says here. He says the body is not for immorality. The body is for the Lord. If you are a Christian, this body right here belongs to the Lord. And "the Lord is for the body" — what does that mean? Well, we cannot live victoriously. We cannot live a life that glorifies our God and our King. Our body is our weakness, isn't it? Our body is what drags us into sin all the time. But take comfort: the Lord is for the body. He doesn't reject the body. He is for the body. That is, He will give you His strength, His power, to live for His glory in the body.
I also bear this carefully in mind: if Jesus is not Lord of your body, He is not Lord in your life at all. He is either Lord of your body, or He is not Lord at all. Because the human being cannot be separated into two departments: one is spiritual and one is physical. No. In the Bible, the spiritual and the physical are one. Your body and your spirit are one. To say that the Lord is Lord of your spirit but not Lord of your body is complete nonsense as far as the Bible is concerned.
Are you already caught by the spirit of Antichrist or not? I ask you honestly to answer this question. I said at the beginning, the Antichrist, according to the Bible, comes from the church — from inside the church. And he will come from those people who are living even now in sin and immorality. They are already defeated. And if Christ is not Lord of your body — even if you have been baptized, even if you profess you believe that Jesus died for you and this and that — I can say categorically, if Jesus is not Lord of your body, you are not going to be saved. Let it sink into your mind, because then you are living in the spirit of Antichrist. Let us pray.