All right, we're here in Luke chapter 12 and yesterday was our anniversary in Pampanga
And normally what I do is I preach the same sermons in Pampanga as Manila on
Anniversaries which I'll do the same thing here Manila only be preaching one sermon
And so what I traditionally do is the second sermon
you know from yesterday was a sermon or the sermon here today since I'm preaching to is against a false religion and
So the name of this sermon and because I've been doing this for a few years and I started to get mixed up in my head
What have I preached against so I just started to just start to alphabetize it to make it easier
So it's the alphabet of false religions, which is like a 13 year sermon series or whatever
And I'm preaching against cow die here today cow die now cow dies religion of 4 million followers. It is primarily in
Vietnam
And just to let you know, I don't have anything against Vietnam personally. I brought a Vietnamese meal for lunch today
It's probably my second favorite type of food
I love Vietnamese food, but this is without question the strangest religion I've ever learned about
I mean it is a bizarre religion
I'm gonna show you a lot of Bible here today because even in false religions we can learn a lot about the Word of God
And so we're gonna see that the devil has the same devices the same patterns. He does the same thing
He just kind of mixes it up a little bit and changes the name. It's in a different location
But it's really kind of the same false religion
That's just kind of repackaged in a different way and let me just read you to start here about this religion of cow die
And this is from their website
The noble effort of cow die is to unite all of humanity through a common vision of the supreme being
Whatever our minor differences in order to promote peace and understanding throughout the world
So right on their website right at the beginning they say our goal is to unite everybody together
We have kind of minor differences about whether or not Jesus is the only way to heaven
Whether or not you know these rules are true or these but let's just you know
Avoid them and just say we all believe in God. So it's okay. And isn't that true?
That's what a lot of religions around the world are trying to do. Let's just all unite forget about doctrine forget about our differences
Let's just focus on love and peace and kindness, right? That's what they say right at the beginning of their website
It says cow die does not seek to create a great world
Where all religions are exactly the same only to create a more tolerant world
We're all can see each other as sisters and brothers from a common divine source reaching out to a common divine destiny
Realizing peace within and without so the goal of this religion is to create tolerance where hey, it's okay
That you're not a Muslim, but just love them anyway and just accept their false religion be tolerant of other religions
And look, this is a wicked philosophy. That's spreading all over the place
I mean there are certain things that you cannot just agree to disagree
Whether or not Jesus is the only way to heaven is not a minor difference that we can agree to disagree on
Right, you know a minor disagreement would be like who do you think are the two witnesses during the end times?
It's like it's not that big of a deal if you have a different opinion than me
But whether or not Jesus is the only way to heaven
Whether or not Jesus was lying when he said I am the way the truth and the life
No, man cometh unto the Father but by me that is not a minor difference that we can just agree to disagree on
And it says here
Caledon is a universal faith with the principle that all religions have the same divine origin, which is God or Allah
or the Dow
Or the nothingness one same ethic based on love and justice and are just different
manifestations of
One same truth. Well, let's just see what the Bible says about this idea
Let's just unite and have peace with one another
Just world peace unite and agree to disagree on things notice what it says here in Luke 12 verse 51
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth. I
Tell you nay
but rather division
For from henceforth there should be five in one house divided three against two and two against three
The father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father
the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and
The daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and what the Bible says is hey, you know what?
Jesus did not come here to just unite everybody together and in today's world if you were to ask people
Why did Jesus come here? It's probably a lot of people that would say to unite everybody together
Just so we could just show more love toward one another and yet what Jesus said in his own mouth was I came to divide
Now it's not like we go out intentionally trying to divide but isn't it true that we go soul-winning and sometimes people get mad
People get upset with we have to say they disagree with us
Now I am all for uniting as long as everybody agrees to believe what I believe
About salvation, but that's just not going to happen
They're gonna disagree you talk to most people and they reject the gospel
It's like well, how can you really be that closely united with someone that has completely different beliefs?
You can't this world is based on very shallow
Friendships on nothing that has real value, you know when you understand salvation it is your
Obligation to do everything you can to try to get people saved
Imagine that you had the magic cure for cancer
something very simple and
You had the answer and there was other people that you knew that had cancer and you said, you know what?
I just want to get along with them and I'm not going to tell them because I don't want to offend them
I want to be close to them and you just let them die of this disease when you had the answer
It's like that blood is on your hands and even how much more when it comes to spiritual salvation go to John 8 John chapter 8
John chapter 8
Now Vietnam is a country with slightly less than a hundred million people and
When it comes to four million people following this religion primarily
They're Vietnamese because it's basically a homegrown religion
And one thing you see in this world is that as everything is becoming more global
And you have people from all over the world living everywhere
There's sort of this rising up in countries to have their own religion based on their own
Principles and the own values of their own nation and you see this all over the world. I mean here in the Philippines
INC has become very big in a hundred years
Right. It was formed and I think
1914 and there's three or four million people that are INC in this country and all over the world
You're seeing new religions that are forming and basically countries want to have their own homegrown
Religion where it's all about their country and in Vietnam cow. Die is the religion they have. Here's what Jesus said in John chapter 8
verse 24
John 8 verse 24
I said therefore on to you that you shall die in your sins for if you believe not that I am he
He shall die in your sins every single person that does not believe Jesus is the Messiah is going to die in their sins
every Muslim
every Hindu
Every Buddhist everyone following cow die or whatever religion if they do not believe on Jesus Christ
They will die in their sins according to Jesus
That is not something we can agree to disagree on
Now look, I believe we should try to be nice and respectful to people that we meet
But if you have someone who's an acquaintance or a friend or a family member
You better try to do everything you can to give them the gospel and get them saved and you can't get everybody saved
But you can at least give them a chance
Right. I mean imagine that somebody that you know
Dies they go to hell and you were their hope
Look, if you're the only saved person in your family and your entire family is Catholic. It is your job
To get them saved because I'm probably never going to talk to your brother
Other people this church are probably never going to talk to them
But you have that opportunity at Christmas time you have that opportunity at family gatherings
You are the one that has that connection in that relationship and it is your job to try to get them saved and
Yes, that might mean they get mad at you and you're never that close anymore
But if you don't try they're gonna die and go to hell
I would rather give it a shot and be separated from them on this earth than be separated from all eternity
From that person that I care about in love go to verse number 37
verse 37
And
It says in verse 37
I know that you're Abraham seed but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you
I speak that which I've seen with my father and you do that which you have seen with your father
They answered and said unto him Abraham is our father
Jesus saith unto them if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham
But now you seek to kill me a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham
By the way, I'm not really preaching on this here today
But you know what you see when the Bible ties in Old Testament characters to the New Testament you're seeing it's the same religion
Right, you know here in the Philippines. There's a lot of Baptist churches that would say there's a lot of different
Dispensations and in this dispensation you get saved by doing this and in this dispensation you get saved by doing this and yet
What the Bible shows us is salvation has always been the same by grace through faith. It says here in
Verse 41
Ye do the deeds of your father then said they to him we be not born of fornication
We have one father even God
Jesus said unto them if God were your father you would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God
Neither came I of myself, but he sent me
Why do you not understand my speech even because he cannot hear my word?
Year of your father the devil and the lust of your father he will do
He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lot
He speaketh of his own for he's a liar and the father of it and because I tell you the truth ye believe me not
Now what he says here in verse 44 is year of your father the devil and what the Bible teaches is there are basically
three groups of people in this world
Now a young baby or a young child is sort of like their own group where if they die
They go to heaven, but once you reach an age of comprehension and understanding
You've got to make a choice to believe on Jesus and you have people that are children of God
You have people that are just normal unsaved people and then you have children of the devil
And when he says here of your father the devil, he's not just saying that they're a normal unsaved person
He's saying that you are of your father the devil. You are a reprobate. You have no chance to be saved
Because look when you become a child of God, how long is that for?
Forever I given to them eternal life and they shall never perish and
When you open up the door to be in a reprobate it is forever
There are people that are essentially walking zombies on this planet
They are walking dead men and quite honestly in the Philippines in
2024 they don't even really try to hide it
You can just kind of see people that are walking dead men from a long ways away
verse 56
Verse
56 your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it was glad then said the Jews on to him thou art
Not yet 50 years old and hast thou seen Abraham
Jesus said unto them verily verily I say in you before Abraham was I am
Then took they have stones to cast at him
But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by now when Jesus said before
Abraham was I am you notice he uses present tense
I am right and he's saying that before
Abraham existed I am and what that's showing you is that Jesus is eternal
There was no creation of Jesus. He is eternal
I mean the Trinity is eternal God the Father God the Son God the Holy Ghost one God that exists in three person
It's it has always been that way. It always will be that way in the beginning was the word the Bible says
And they take up stones to cast at him. Why are they doing that?
Because he's claiming to be deity
Now it goes deeper than this because you could read this in John 8 and get the fact he's saying before Abraham was I am
But he's actually quoting from Exodus chapter 3. So go to Exodus 3
Exodus chapter 3 I
Was
Going so any in the u.s. One time and
I was talking to a Jehovah's Witness and
I was talking to this Jehovah's Witness and
I remember I was trying to convince him that Jesus is God because when I talked to Jehovah's Witnesses
I usually start on just talking about eternal life and salvation because they don't really know much about that
Jehovah's Witnesses, they don't really have a lot of Bible knowledge
But they're experts at like a few things like the name of God
So they'll kind of ask you kind of bizarre random things that usually Christians haven't really studied
So they're kind of caught off guard
You know
How do I answer this and I was talking to this person and trying to convince him that Jesus is God and he ended up
Getting saved and this is the scripture that made him turn over and say you know what? You're right
That's what the Bible teaches. It was kind of like my last effort
I showed him John 8 and then I went to Exodus chapter 3 and this guy did get saved after I showed this to him
Here's what it says in Exodus 3 verse 10
Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt
And Moses said unto God
Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt
And he said certainly I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee
When thou has brought forth the people out of Egypt
He shall serve God upon this mountain and Moses said unto God behold
When I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you and they
Shall say to me what is his name?
What shall I say unto them? And so Moses says what is the name that I am going to give them?
Here's what it says in verse 14 and God said unto Moses
I am that I am and he said thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel I am
Hath sent me on to you. So we're seeing that the name of God is I am
God is proclaiming himself to be the I am so when Jesus said before Abraham was I am
He's not just saying I'm eternal
He's quoting from Exodus chapter 3 and what was the reaction of the Jews?
They took up stones to kill him you say why because they clearly understood that Jesus was claiming to be God I
for the life of me do not understand how anyone can read the Bible and
Proclaim that Jesus did not say that he was God because all throughout the Bible you're seeing they're trying to kill him because he's blaspheming
He's accepting worship here. He's saying I am the I am
Meaning I'm eternal but also quoting for the name of God being I am from Exodus chapter 3 go to Genesis chapter 3
Genesis 3
And what Jesus said in John 8 is if you do not believe that I am he
Ye shall die in your sins
It doesn't really sound like Jesus would have had close fellowship with someone whose cow died
He would have tried to give them the gospel and if they rejected it
It's like well, you just shake off your feet and just move on to the next person
Right now sometimes we go soul winning and especially if you're a newer soul winner
You might kind of get down on yourself if you give the gospel to someone and they don't get saved
But you know the reality is that if you give them the gospel and they don't get saved
They probably wouldn't have gotten saved if Jesus gave them the gospel
They either accept the truth or they reject it
It doesn't really matter the word like the person who's who's explaining it because here's the thing our gospel presentations are like 99% the same
Right. It's not like we're explaining something completely different than one another at least
I hope you're not if you're just explaining salvation is a free gift and it's eternal. It's like we're explaining the same thing
So if they do not receive your words
They would not have received the words of Jesus Paul the Apostle or anybody else either
Point number one with the religion of cow died. It's about peace and unity which the Bible teaches the opposite. I
Remember when I was a kid and you know, my mom would watch, you know, the the beauty pageants like
Miss America and Miss Universe and they'd always have like that questionnaire at the end for the women or the ladies
Like they'd ask them a question and see what their reaction is and even when I was a kid
I was thinking isn't this just like a beauty pageant. So like what's the point of asking them questions?
But it's like I remember so many times where it's like what's the biggest thing missing from this world and every single time?
world peace
Why can't we just get along world? Peace and you know, it sounds good, doesn't it? I
Would love to get along with everyone
but last I checked when you're actually preaching the truth and doing what God says it causes a lot of people to get mad at you and
Look, you know if somebody believes a different religion
I'm gonna try to get him saved and you know, what's the result if they don't get saved they often get mad at you
They often don't like you. I mean it just is what it is. I mean, it sounds great world
Peace we will never have world peace until Jesus is ruling and reigning and his laws are instituted
During the millennial reign of Christ. It is going to be a great time of peace when God's laws are actually being applied and
Judgments actually going forth but until that time we're not going to be able to have world peace
Now I do believe that as Christians we should strive to try to get along with people if everybody hates you
There's probably something wrong with you
But the reality is some people are just going to dislike us because what we believe just is what it is
So point number one with his religion of cow died. They're about peace and unity
Another big aspect of this religion is snakes and dragons
snakes and dragons and as I said, I
Have studied a lot of different religions
This is the most bizarre religion I've ever studied it passes Hinduism by a good bit if you were actually in a cow died temple
All of the pillars would have snakes and dragons wrapped around it
There'd be like it's it's very you know
My cool I lots of colors and you'll have snakes and dragons like everywhere you look at every single pillar snakes and dragons
everywhere
Those are their animals of choice for their religion. Here's what it says. The purpose of cow dyism is to unite the three religions
Buddhism Taoism and Confucianism. So basically the three primary religions from China
And they want to unite them together
That's why the dignitaries of the religion wear different culture robes the yellow represents Buddhism
The blue represents Taoism and the red Confucianism and my understanding is that basically if you're more
Buddhist than Taoist you would kind of go to the side of the Buddhists and if you're so they basically are just accepting multiple
Religions in their church at one time or their their temple and it says
These were the first disciples of God the Father and through spirit messages
They got the mission from God to establish the religion as you can see there is a snake with
seven heads
Which represent the different human emotions?
For them represent negative emotions like hate and desire the others at the back are the positive emotions now
I don't know about you, but when we're talking about a snake with seven heads
That kind of reminds me of the book of Revelation, doesn't it?
It's like why did you pick seven like why did you put why did you pick snakes and dragons but by coincidence?
They pick a snake with seven heads
Here's what the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3 verse 1
Genesis 3 verse 1 now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and
He said unto the woman yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden
And the woman said unto the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden
But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden
God hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall you touch it lest ye die and
The serpent said unto the woman he shall not surely die for God doth know that in the day
He eat thereof then your eyes shall be open and he shall be as gods knowing good and evil
And we're seeing here in Genesis 3 that the devil is depicted as a serpent the devil is depicted as a snake
You know when when we first bought this church lot here
You know there's other men that were here that they can attest that this is true
The owners had like this giant snake in this cage. That was here now. I personally I don't like snakes I
Think it's weird. I didn't I will never understand no offense, but if you have a snake as a pet. I do not understand
What the purpose is?
Especially if it's like a poisonous or a constrictor. I don't get it. I don't think it's cool
I've had friends before like hey you want to hold my snake. It's like no. I think I'm gonna pass okay
I think it's strange. There's just something weird about an animal that slithers on the ground isn't there
You know I've killed snakes back where my parents lived before because they live by the woods
And you know there'll be a lot of snakes that come in and everything and they're they're like usually non poisonous
Every once while you have rattlesnakes, but there's just something about it
You're trying to kill it and slithering around and you keep missing it when you're trying to hit it and everything
There's just something weird about it, and you know the Bible says that the devil was
Depicted as a serpent here and notice what the punishment is of the serpent in verse 14 and the Lord
God said unto the serpent because thou hast done this thou are cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field
Upon thy belly shalt thou go and dost shalt thou eat all the days of thy life
According to God the punishment on the devil is to be on its belly slithering around
What does that tell you it tells you that in the garden the serpent was not slithering around on the ground?
That is a punishment from God as a result of deceiving Eve according to the Word of God
And that's why you know with evolution
They can't understand it because they look at snakes and they seem to have the parts in their body
Where they should be able to actually stand up and walk and yet they can't and they can't really answer
You know why is this the case well I can tell you why?
Because in Genesis chapter 3 that was the curse of God that caused them to be on their belly slithering around verse 15
And I'll put enmity between thee and the woman in between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise
His heel now there's an interesting symbolism here
It says it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel and what the Bible is saying is the seed of the woman
Is going to crush or destroy?
The the seed of the serpent
But the seed of the serpent is going to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman
Now it mentions the heel and I would say the primary reason why
Is that the heel is a very painful injury and it is something that you can recover from but it takes a very long time
So for example in sports you would much rather tear your ACL
Than tear your Achilles. I tore my ACL and I was running after surgery less than six months later
I mean I was still you know recovering but I was able to start running and yet if somebody tears their Achilles
They're gonna be out for a very long time
Before sports, you know medicine became better and sports surgeries in the past if you tear your Achilles you're retired you're done
You're never gonna recover. I mean I could be wrong but didn't isn't that what Kobe Bryant got he tore his Achilles
Kevin Durant tore his Achilles. He's gone for a super long amount of time because when you tear your Achilles
It's a major injury, but you do recover
Over enough time. Here's the thing though. If you get a good bruise to the head you might never recover
You might die and it's like yeah, you know what the serpent is gonna hurt the scene of the woman
But eventually the the head of the serpent is going to be completely crushed and completely destroyed
Forever and he's going to be thrown in hell for all eternity. Go to Isaiah 27 Isaiah 27
Isaiah chapter 27
Isaiah 27
Isaiah chapter 27 and you see this throughout the Bible that snakes and dragons are used symbolically to represent the serpent or to represent
The to represent the devil I should say
Isaiah 27 verse 1 in that day the Lord with his sword and great and strong sword shall punish
Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea
Now you don't have to turn there
But if you remember from the book of Job
Leviathan is essentially like the toughest and scariest animal that God has ever created and the Bible is using Leviathan
Which is basically a type of serpent or dragon a water dragon as a depiction of the devil
Go to Revelation chapter 12
revelation 12
I
Mean I'm just saying if I walked into a church and they had snakes and dragons wrapped around every pillar I
Think I would just walk out. I mean, that would be a little bit weird. It would be a little bit creepy
It wouldn't really make a lot of sense and yet in their religion. That's a big thing
You can I mean I encourage you you can go to Google type in cow dye
Temple and you can see inside pictures of the temple and it's crazy
There's like a million colors and it gets even crazier than than just the the serpents and the dragons at their temple
Here's what it says in Revelation 12 verse 9 and the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan which
Deceived the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him now
There are different animals that represent bad things in the Bible
But nothing's worse than a serpent or a dragon according to the Word of God as it represents
The devil go in your Bible to first Kings 3 first Kings 3
first Kings chapter 3
And
It's interesting to me because it's not like these religions really hide the fact that they're worse being the devil
Like they don't realize they're worse being the devil, but it's just like it's pretty obvious when you look at these religions
I mean the snake and the dragon is what you're you know
Reverencing and worshiping and loving it's like you're not really hiding the fact that you're worse being the devil because there's a multitude of animals
Out there. I mean they could put blue jays on it's on a pillar, right?
They could put you know, whatever but they choose a serpent and a dragon you say why is that because they're just openly
Worshipping the devil. I mean isn't the Antichrist gonna create a one-world religion and when you've got this religion that's claiming well all
Manifestations of God are the same we worship the same God what you're seeing is they are preparing people for the end times and everybody
In this religion is just going to buy in hook line and sinker with the Antichrist in the one-world religion because that's what they're teaching now
Point number three point number one was peace and unity point two snakes and dragons point three a big part of their religion
They will talk about the high tower the high tower. Here's what it says from their website
The term cow die literally means high tower or palace that is the place where God reigns over the universe
Cow die refers to God the Father
parentheses the supreme being the creator the ultimate reality of the universe the followers of
Cow dire thus called cow diast the cow dies religion official name is is and look I don't speak Vietnamese
So if I mispronounce this and somebody can tell me after the service
Dow
Die Dow Tom K photo. Okay or something like that. All right, my Vietnamese
I love Vietnamese food, but I just give like the American pronunciation, right?
I know pho is not pronounced foe, but that's still how I say it because that's the easy way to say it. But anyways
Translated directly. It means the great faith of the third universal amnesty
The third amnesty establishes a new great faith for mankind's salvation
It is a period of intense religious activities that see God and humanity united in ways not yet imagined. Why do we need a new salvation?
I'm okay with just sticking with the salvation that's worked for over 6,000 years
Salvation by grace through faith
But they say well in this time in this location in this place and in this time
We need a new religion and a new way of salvation to reach people
Here's what it says though because their religion literally means high tower
Cowell died and here's what the Bible says about high towers in 1st Kings 3 verse 1 and
Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt and he took Pharaoh's daughter and
Brought her into the city of David until he had made an end of building his own house and the house of the Lord and
The wall of Jerusalem roundabout only the people sacrificed in high places
Because there was no house built on to the name of the Lord until those days and Solomon loved the Lord walking the statutes of
David his father only sacrificed and burnt incense in high places
And this is something you see throughout the Old Testament that it talks about with false religions worshiping and sacrificing in high places
High tower high places. That's literally what the name of the religion means is high tower in
English go to 1st Kings chapter 12 1st Kings 12
Because you know some people might ask us well
There's there's a million different religions
How do you know that your religion is correct?
I'd say probably all of us have been asked that question before right and
They want you to think and the devil wants you to think because you have to realize when the devil creates all of these religions
All it does is confuse people. I mean if there was only two
religions because you know
There literally are two religions salvation by grace through faith versus salvation by your own works, right?
But if there was really only two religions and there was not all these different denominations
And different new religions popping up then it'd be very easy to for people. They got to make a choice between a or B
Right it would make soul winning a lot easier because if they believe religion B. We try to convince them of religion a believe on Jesus
But there's religion a B C D E I mean they go through the alphabet a million times
All of these different religions and you know, there's a lot of different religions today that did not exist in the past
I mean, you know, this religion is a hundred years old. It started in 1926
It's got four million followers, but you know what?
I'm sure there's gonna be a new religion that starts in the next couple years and
New religions are popping up new denominations are popping up
You know what it does it confuses people because people in today's world are thinking I don't know what to believe I
Mean, I've talked to Jehovah's Witnesses. I've talked to Mormons. I hear what the Catholics say
I've got co-workers that are born again. I mean, I believe in God I believe in Jesus
But I don't know, you know with all these different religions maybe in an Arabic country Islam is acceptable to get to heaven
Maybe over in China Buddhism is the way to go
It's like I don't know
All these religions are doing is just confusing people from the truth
Here's what it says in first King
But what what I'm saying is this there's really not this multitude of different religions that are out there
It's basically the same
Religions that are being repackaged because as we're going back to first Kings and we're seeing the false religions in the days of Solomon
It's not that much different than cow die is today
It's pretty much the same thing with some small changes here and there first Kings 12 verse 26 and
Jeroboam said in his heart now show the kingdom return to the house of David if this people go up to do sacrifice in the
House of the Lord at Jerusalem then show the heart of this people turn again on to their Lord even on to Rehoboam king of
Judah and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah now
Jeroboam and Rehoboam. It's easy to get the names confused
Solomon's son was Rehoboam and Rehoboam, you know, obviously Solomon got you know
into major sin and
God said I'm going to take the kingdom when your your son's the one ruling and then Jeroboam and his men are gonna take
Over but what you see is that Jeroboam basically gets ten tribes and Rehoboam gets one tribe
The tribe of Judah, but also the tribe of Benjamin
It says ten and one because the dominant tribe is Judah, but Benjamin pretty much goes along
And if you're looking at those twelve tribes, though, which of those tribes was the godliest?
the tribe of Judah it
Is the dominant tribe and what Jeroboam is saying is well
Wait a minute if these people if my men want to get religious they've got to go to the enemy to worship God
So what I'm gonna do is set up all these places where they can worship God over here
So they don't have to travel to Judah that's what's going on here in this story
then it says this in verse 28 where upon the king took counsel and
Made two calves of gold and said unto them it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem
Behold thy gods, O Israel which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt
Why is it they always worship
Golden calves, right? It's like why is the cow the obsession and yet in today's world in India
The cow is the obsession, right? It's just like worship a cow
That's what you do in Egypt the most the biggest animal they worship was also the cow
And so he says, you know what it's too far to go to Jerusalem
Let me just set up some golden calves that are nearby
So you can just bow down to this golden calf instead of going all the way to Jerusalem to worship God
It says here in verse 29 and he set the one in Bethel and the other put he and Dan now my opinion
Why chooses Bethel and Dan because the Bible says that he got counsel is that because Bethel was you know known as the house of God
So that's an area. We're gonna put it but with Dan Dan was just wicked
Right. The tribe of Dan is so wicked and he's thinking I got a lot of people that are gonna worship this golden calf over here
So he chooses Bethel and Dan as his two areas of worship
and it says and this thing and
This thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even unto Dan and he made in house
Notice this of high places. I mean, it's the same thing with cow diet
It literally means high tower or high place and we're seeing it's the same thing going back thousands of years ago
To the world that we live in today today go to chapter 14 chapter 14
Chapter 14
And notice what it says here in chapter 14 because you know
There's gonna be a response from ray of bone because now all of a sudden the people in Israel are not going to Judah to
Worship and they're losing followers and you know, we kind of see the same thing in today's world
You know with Baptist churches a lot of Baptist churches are changing because non-denominational churches are skyrocketing in growth
Is that not true the CCF the JIL the born-again?
Whatever these churches are getting bigger. So what are the Baptist churches doing?
They're trying to change so they can meet young meet the youth and get young people invested in their church
And you know, it's funny that they do this because it's not like we have a small crowd here today
We have plenty of people that are happy just to worship God and hear what the Bible says
But Baptist churches are changing to try to reach the world
Well, this is the same technique that ray of bone had he's like, oh, wait a minute. We're losing people
We want to bring them over so notice the reaction here in verse 21 and ray of bone the son of Solomon reigned in Judah
Ray of bone was 41 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem
The city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there and his mother's name was Nama
Ammonitis and
Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins
Which they committed above all that their fathers had done for they also built them
High places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. So basically you've got
Jeroboam and his men and they're building all these high places to worship false gods and then ray of bones like well
Wait a minute. We don't have as many people worshiping in Judah
Let me also build a high place where you can worship some idol the same thing that churches do in today's world as well
Then it says in verse 24 and there are also sodomites in the land and they did according to all the abominations of the nations
Which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel and as we can see God looked at sodomites as being discussed in
Disgusting and filthy and sinful back then and there's nothing new under the Sun
Now what I would say is kind of the difference is that when you read verse 24 and there are also sodomites in the land
The way that's written. It's almost kind of like it's unusual
Right. It's like there's all this wickedness. You know what? They also had sodomites living there now in today's world
It's like we've got a multitude of sodomites walking around right and they don't hide it at all
But here you see that became a big problem as they ended up getting into sin now go in your Bible
to Hebrews chapter 1
Hebrews 1
Hebrews chapter 1 so point number 1 we saw peace and unity. That's a big part of this religion
Caledon number 2 we see snakes and dragons. They have snakes and dragons everywhere in their temples point 3
It says high tower specifically the Bible mentions worshiping false gods in the high places in the high towers
That is what their religion actually means. Point number 4 is magic. Magic is a big part of their religion now
Let me just read you about this religion a little bit and it says
Cal Di
syncretist modern Vietnamese religious movement with a strongly nationalistic political character
Cal Di draws upon ethical precepts from Confucianism occult practices from Taoism
theories of karma and rebirth from Buddhism and a
Hierarchical
Organization including a pope from Roman Catholicism. It's pantheon of saints includes such diverse figures as
It's going to name these different characters that they worship in their religion. Okay now usually in religions you got
You know
Jesus if they're really trying to just reach everybody
Muhammad and Buddha are kind of like the three and they'll name other famous religious characters
But listen to the different names that they worship it says
Buddha Confucius Jesus Muhammad Pericles
Julius Caesar
It's like Julius Caesar, I mean if you've ever read anything about Julius Caesar, I read a really long book about Julius Caesar
I mean the guy was a complete reprobate. He was a
Very wicked person just whoring around with like every man's wife
He would just be like hey, you know what I'm the leader
So I want to sleep with your wife and it just kind of happened. I mean he was a horrible and horrible person
I have never heard of anybody
Worshipping Julius Caesar, but in their religion they worship Julius Caesar
Joan of Arc, you know, why why not worship Joan of Arc, you know go for another political character
Victor Hugo
Right the one who wrote lace miserables and it's like yeah, I get it. It's it's a famous book
That's kind of an odd person to decide to randomly worship
Victor Hugo and Sun Yat-sen, which was like an old Chinese leader in
Caodai God is
represented as an eye in a triangle a symbol that appears on the facades of the the sex or
Denominations temples if you see a picture of a Caodai temple
You've got the snakes and the dragons on all the pillars and then right above the front
There is a giant all-seeing eye
Just like in free masonry
Now, I don't know about you
I mean if the snakes and the dragons don't creep you out if I mean if you walked into this church and there was a
Giant all-seeing eye above me you'd be like
What is that?
That's what they literally use in free masonry and they have a giant all-seeing eye inside their temple to me
This is the strangest religion I've ever heard of. It's like a random thing. Let's worship Julius Caesar
Let's worship Muhammad. Let's just kind of randomly worship just different characters. They have a giant all-seeing eye
The religion's organization is patterned after that of Roman Catholicism with a pope, cardinals, archbishops
Worship involves elaborate rituals and festivals
Today the eye of Providence is often associated with free masonry
So they're talking about the all-seeing eye the eye of Providence that they have
inside of their buildings
By the way, you also see that I think it's on the $1 bill in the US
But it's like they've got that in the back of the $1 bill and it's like the founding father
You say why would they have that in the United States because most of the founding fathers in the US were actually Masons
And so you see I mean even though it has a Christian pattern to the nation
A lot of them were Masons and that's like the big symbol of free masonry and it says here
That it first appeared as a symbol in
1797 with the publication of Thomas Smith Webb's the free Masons monitor in this use the eye
Representing the all-seeing eye of God serves as a reminder that humanities thoughts and deeds are always observed by God
Who is referred to in masonry as the great architect of the universe?
Typically the Masonic eye of Providence has a semi-circular glory below it and is sometimes
enclosed by a triangle now
Let me read you though about the magic aspect of this religion because the way this religion started was this person was having a seance
And all of a sudden they started seeing visions and you know
They talked to some devil and the devil told them worship Julius Caesar
Right worship Jesus and Julius Caesar right the two great Jaycees
Julius Caesar and Jesus Christ worship both of them worship Muhammad worship Buddha and
Here's what it says a
Core core Bay a back is a spiritual device that is used to communicate with spirits
The device is made up of a basket and a pen at the end during a seance an attempt to communicate with spirits
The spirits enter through the basket and direct the pen into writing messages
It is significant because it was used during the seance no von chu
Performed we received many revelations from God which formed this religion cow dies. Holy scripture
Fon known hype to Ian is
Composed of all the messages received using the core Bay a back without this religious artifact cow die would not have been formed
So the religion started because this man is going through some sort of sorcery going through a seance and all of a sudden he
Communicated with spirits and they gave him revelation and visions and said start this religion
Now this is bizarre
But it's not really that much different than the formation of a lot of false religions, right?
Think of like Ellen G white with the Seventh-day Adventists. I
Don't know if you've ever seen like, you know
They have like a documentary from the Seventh-day Adventists where they talk about first
There was the Millerites and talking about the coming of you know Christ and it didn't happen the great disappointment
And you know this woman would just like get possessed by Devils and all of a sudden she'd come out of her
Trans and all of a sudden she'd just be like this is what we should do and you know
That's pretty much where she determined because she was a merit
She was married and I and during one of her times she's like in a spell she comes out. We should not eat meat
Now look if I was the husband of this woman, I would get very angry at this one was like what do you mean?
It's like no, it's like you've gone too far now. It's like you're not gonna take away my meat, right?
But it's not really any different than all of these religions and you know, you have religions like Joseph Smith comes
He says he talked to these angels or whomever it may be they have all these revelations you say well, how do you know it's false?
Because there's people today that will say that they went to heaven they went to hell they saw these revelations
They talked to an angel. Well, how do you know it's false?
Notice what it says in Hebrews 1 verse 1
Hebrews 1 verse 1
God who had sundry times in in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things
By whom also he made the worlds now, I'm not going to go into for sake of time
But in the Old Testament God did speak to prophets in just different ways. It says here in diverse manners
Different ways or different manners and you know, if you remember when King Saul gets really backslidden
King Saul is trying every single method to get God to speak to him and God's not speaking to him
That's when he ends up going to the witch at indoor saying well
Let me just try this because I cannot get God to speak to me. I want to talk to Samuel
I want to know what's going on. And you know in the past God did talk to his people in
Different ways but you know after the resurrection of Jesus Christ
There's not going to be this new prophet that comes and starts some new religion
It's like well, you know the Book of Mormon it's another testament of Jesus Christ. It's like no
We don't need another testament
We've got the Word of God right here. It's finished and yeah in the past, you know different ways
He would come and he would speak we've got the Word of God right here
So when anyone comes and says hey, I've got this new religion. I've got this new book an angel told it to me
It's like yeah an angel might have told that to you, but it was not a good angel
It's a false angel it was a devil and you have all these religions
I mean the formation of Islam is basically the same where basically these angels visited Muhammad and you've got this new religion
The same thing and you know, what's interesting about this when you see all of these false religions and find out actually how they start
It's pretty amazing how they have pretty similar stories
Now I personally I don't really think these so-called prophets are really lying
Now maybe in some cases they are but considering they all kind of have the same stories
you know what it tells me I think some devil visited them and
They're a wicked and evil person and they get possessed by Devils and then that those Devils lead them to start this new religion
This guy says he's going through a seance Joseph Smith, you know
He used to practice sorcery and all these occult practices and magic and all these things and that was the formation of this religion as
Well, yet the Bible says in the past before Jesus. Yeah, God's speaking different ways
But now he's spoken on to us by his son
And so look, you know, you don't have to be an expert at this religion, you know, honestly here in the Philippines
you're probably not going to
Run into too many people that are a part of cow die and quite honestly
They're not going to be receptive anyway and I'll just give you my opinion because this is not a religion
I have much experience with talking one-on-one to people
But you know, I've kind of wondered before what religions would actually be receptive to the gospel now in America
You kind of get to test this out because you run into people that are Muslims Hindus Buddhists. I mean I've run into
Zoroastrian in the u.s. Before and you know when it comes to this religion
I would say this is probably one of the least receptive religions
Because if I think of a religion that I ran into a lot in the u.s. It's kind of similar
I would say it's Sikhism which is a religion in India and the whole purpose of Sikhism is to unite everybody together
There are a lot of Indians in Sacramento and from our experience going soul-winning
The Sikhs are the least receptive we would much rather run into a Hindu at the door
Much rather run into a Muslim at the door, but the Sikhs just want to join everybody together
Let's just agree to disagree and that's exactly what this false religion is about as well as closing word of prayer your Heavenly Father
Thank you for allowing us to be here today and ask you to help us just to meditate in these scriptures and help us just
Learn from the Word of God that there are the same false religions
Just repackage and given in a different way God and ask you to help us to reach people with the gospel
That are part of just you know, whatever religion that there is out there God
Help us to reach people here in the Philippines with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen