Spiritual Gifts part 339. The darkening of foolish hearts.

Spiritual Gifts Part 339:

The darkening of foolish hearts.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

Point 4.
Developing the capacity you need to function effectively in your spiritual gift.

When you have doctrine in your soul that has been tested, you can discern evil trends in Christianity.

Apostate Christianity in the last days of the church age will morph into the worldwide ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation called Babylon the great, the mother of harlots in Rev 17.

So there are
two Babylons: religious Babylon [the tower] and political Babylon
[the city].

They wanted to reach out into the heavens. The purpose of this tower was to practice astrology or the signs of the zodiac.

This act marks the beginnings of false religion and idolatry.

Babylon is the mother of all false religion.

What a great picture of religion: the city of man trying to reach heaven.

The total opposite of the city of Babylon is the New Jerusalem which will come down from the heavens: God freely giving to His people.

The New Jerusalem coming down from heaven is a mighty picture of the grace of God.

JOH 3:13

“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.”

It is no accident that Isaiah’s account of the fall of satan is addressed to the “king of Babylon” (ISA 14:4).

Babylon is more ancient. She has been around a lot longer than the Roman Catholic church. She is the mother of harlots.

Babylon in Scripture is the name for a great system of religious apostasy. It is counterfeit religion that plagued Israel in the Old Testament times and has infected the church in ours.

She has sat on the “mountain” of each of the great pagan empires in history.

She sat on ancient Egypt with her wise men and sorcerers and magicians with their secret arts (Exo 7).

She rode bestride Assyria with her abominations and fire sacrifices and incense on every green hill (2Ki 16, esp 17:7-18 “for themselves”).

She dominated ancient Babylon with her magicians, conjurers, and sorcerers and golden images (Dan 2).

Idolatry is man’s placing a visible object of worship before his eyes to protect him from God, thus silencing his conscience that he may indulge his lusts. [William Newell ]

As soon as you move away from God, the kingdom of darkness will supply an idol for you.

LORD’s Supper
 

The Lord wants your heart to be enlightened as to the true meaning and nature of Christ as expressed in His Body the Church!

1CO 10:14

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

The Lord’s Supper is an opportunity to bring to mind the doctrines that we have previously metabolized concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.

The bread broken is the body of Christ.

The cup shared is the blood of Christ.

the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross: salvation, redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, eternal security

who Jesus Christ is:
His deity, His hypostatic union, our position in Him, the Creator and Sustainer, Savior and Lord.

GAL 5:25

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

1CO 10:14

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

The cup of blessing is a SHARING in the blood of Christ.

The bread is a SHARING in the body of Christ.

1CO 10:17

Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.

1CO 10:21
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord [the cross] and the cup of demons [the idols we make to excuse our flesh]; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.