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Amen. Revelation 22 in verse number 16, the Bible reads, I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. The title of my sermon this morning is Jesus, the Morning Star, Jesus, the Morning Star. Flip back if you would to Revelation chapter 2. The term morning star is used a few times in the New Testament and then one time the term day star is used which is referring to the same thing. Go if you would to Revelation chapter 2 verse 26, the Bible reads, he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my father and I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches and then flip back just a few pages to the left to 2 Peter chapter 1, 2 Peter chapter number 1. So we have Jesus Christ in Revelation 22 saying, I am the bright and morning star. This statement is significant because of the fact that it's one of the last things that is said in the New Testament. Obviously when you put something at the very end or the very beginning of something, you're putting it in a place of emphasis. These are some of the most read scriptures in the whole Bible. I think that's why the prohibition on adding to or taking from God's word is found right at the end of the Bible, Revelation 22, 18 and 19 because let's face it, even people who don't read the whole Bible, they start reading at the beginning and in many cases they jump to the last page and just go, how does this end? You know, they jump to the very end. We've all done it even before we had read the whole Bible cover to cover. We jump to that ending and see how does this end? So that's a place of preeminence. So Jesus Christ is making this profound I am statement just like he made statements of I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the true vine. Here he says, I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. Then in Revelation chapter 2, we have this statement to those believers who are faithful and keep his works unto the end. He says, I will give him the morning star. And then look down if you would at 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 19, it says, we have also a more sure word of prophecy, talking about the Bible itself, the word of God, where unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. So what is the Bible talking about here when it talks about the morning star or the day star? Well, I submit to you that it is actually referring to the sun. It is comparing Jesus Christ to the sun, okay? Now, Jesus Christ is likened to the sun multiple times in scripture. Go if you would to Malachi chapter number 4. Malachi chapter number 4, I'm going to prove this to you this morning, you might want to Malachi chapter number 4, I'm going to prove this to you this morning, you might want to be a little skeptical when I tell you that the morning star or the day star is the sun, but it actually is the sun, and I'm going to prove that to you. You see, the sun is actually a star, and this is once again the Bible being scientifically accurate before its time because scientists were not sure that the sun was a star until around the 1700s. Now that theory has been out there all the way since I think 450 BC is the earliest record of anybody postulating that the sun could be a star, but in modern times this theory came up again in the 1500s, 1600s, and then it wasn't really for sure until the 1700s that the sun is a star. But the Bible actually had this right by referring to the sun as the day star or the morning star. Look if you would at Malachi chapter 4 verse 2, this is for sure a reference to Jesus Christ. The Bible says, but unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness, notice that's not S-O-N, that's S-U-N, the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. This is a prophecy of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is like the sun rising, Jesus Christ will rise. Look at Psalm 19 for another reference to Jesus Christ as the sun. The sun pictures Jesus Christ. What's interesting is that a lot of people used to think that the earth was the center of the universe. This is known as a geocentric model and of course that has been disproven six ways to Sunday. It's obvious that the earth now with what we know now revolves around the sun. And this actually makes perfect sense that God did not create our solar system in such a way where everything revolves around us. But rather if the sun represents Jesus, if it's a picture of Jesus, then in all things he must have the preeminence, so is heliocentric. That actually makes more sense. Now obviously we don't want to worship the sun. There are people in the Bible who worship the sun, they worship the moon, they worship the stars. Look, the sun is just a physical object and worshiping the sun would just be as ridiculous as worshiping a literal lamb and say, oh, lamb of God. Some lambs are like, baa, and you're just like, oh, lamb of God. Obviously you don't worship a lamb. You're not going to worship a lion and say, oh, lion of the tribe of Judah. We don't ever want to worship the picture. We worship the Lord himself and we should not bow to any image or worship any physical object. But does God use physical objects to represent Jesus? Of course. He said, I'm the true vine. So we're not going to go worship a vineyard, but yet Jesus Christ is the true vine. He's the bread of life. We're not going to worship bread like the Catholics and say, hey, you know, this is Jesus. We're not going to worship bread. We're not going to worship the sun. But these are things that picture Jesus because they show us his attributes. Just as the sun rises in the morning, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Just as the sun gives light, Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Just as the sun rules by day, Jesus is going to rule and reign for a thousand years. And so there are many, many parallels between Jesus Christ and the sun. Look at Psalm 19, verse 1. The Bible reads, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of heaven and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. The law of the Lord is perfect. And then he goes into the word of God. So Psalm 19 starts out talking about nature, talking about the natural world, saying the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament, the earth, the things that are created show us his majesty, his greatness. The Bible says the same thing in Romans chapter 1 about how the things of him are clearly seen from the creation of the world, even his eternal power and Godhead. The natural world shows us something about God because it's created by God. The creation tells us something about the creator. But then there's another way that we learn about God, not just from looking up at the sky or something to learn about who God is, but then there's the word of God. The word of God is God's revelation to mankind. So God is revealed through nature and God is revealed through his word, which is called the more sure word of prophecy. It's the thing that you can really take to the bank is the written word of God. But here when he talks about the heavens declaring the glory of God, he talks about the son as being part of that declaration. And he says that the son is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber. And of course, what is Jesus Christ referred to as in the New Testament? He's the bridegroom, right? We're all familiar with the concept of the bride of Christ. And so Jesus Christ is that great bridegroom. And also it says that he rejoices as a strong man to run a race. We're told to look unto Jesus and run the race that is set before us. He gave us the example that we should walk in his steps. And so we see multiple places where Jesus Christ is likened unto the son, the most powerful being Malachi chapter 4 verse 2. We've also got this instance in Psalm 19. But not only that, it tells us in Ephesians 3.17, you don't have to turn there. If you would turn to Isaiah chapter 14. In Ephesians chapter 3 verse 17, the Bible says this, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all saints and so forth. He says there that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Okay, what did the Bible say in 2 Peter 1.19? We have also a more sure word of prophecy, talking about the written word if you get the context. We have a more sure word of prophecy where unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. So this word of God, the written word, is like a light that shines in a dark place. The world is a dark place. The Bible says we're holding forth the word of life in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we shine as lights in the world. We hold up the word of God. We preach the word of God. We're like a light shining in a dark place because this word is like a light shining in a dark place. He says we're unto you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. Watch this. Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. So basically this light is something that we take heed unto until meaning that it leads us unto having the actual day star arise in our hearts. So this is something external to the unsaved, right? You've got the unsaved man and then you've got the word of God and he needs to listen to the word of God. He needs to take heed unto the word of God. But then once he gets saved, not only is there the external word of God, but now he has what? He has the day star arising in his heart. He actually has the sun rising in his heart, as it were, because what did the Bible say? Until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts. Basically being unsaved is like being in the night. You're in darkness. Okay. Then you take heed unto the word of God and what's the result of taking heed to the word of God? You hear the gospel preached. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the day dawns and the day star arises in your hearts. So now only, not only do you have the light of the world right here in a book on the shelf, you also have the light of the world inside you. That's why Jesus said, you are the light of the world. He said, I'm the light of the world, but then he said, you're the light of the world. Let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. So we have a light, you know, this little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. We have the light inside of us, right? Why? Because we believe on Jesus and because Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, the day star has arisen in our heart. We have the light of being in the daytime, all right? Not the night. The Bible says we are of the day in 1 Thessalonians 5. It says we're not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us put on the armor of light and walk as children of the day because we are of the day. So this all makes perfect sense when we look at this and see, okay, the morning star, the sun is a star. And by the way, this is not some radical wild-eyed interpretation of referring to the morning star or the day star as the sun because not only do we see that it's compatible with what scripture is teaching everywhere else, not only that, all the way back to the very beginnings of Christianity when the Bible began to be translated into other languages, okay, one of the earliest translations was a translation into Syriac or Aramaic known as the Peshitta. Who's ever heard of that translation before, the Peshitta? Well, Aramaic is one of the three biblical languages, right? And if you remember in the book of Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and he doesn't know what the dream means and by the way, he forgot the dream and he wants them to tell him the dream and the interpretation, the Bible says, then answered they the king in Syriac, okay? So when the king's men are talking to the king over in Babylon, they're using the Syriac language. Now we know that Greek was the main language of the Roman Empire. Yes, they spoke Latin but Greek was more important, bigger language which is why the New Testament was written in Greek, okay? But in the east, that's in the west, Europe, Roman Empire, Greek. In the east though, the main big language is Syriac. So obviously when the New Testament was written, what do you think one of the first languages is going to be translated into is? It's got to be translated into Syriac if you're going to do missions all over the eastern part of the world. We focus on the apostle Paul because the book of Acts focused on the apostle Paul and he headed west, didn't he? You know, he's heading into Greece and Macedonia and Italy but what about all the other apostles? Eventually they got with the program. They did missions. They took the gospel all over the world and several of them headed east. So they've got to take the word of God into not the Greek speaking world but the Syriac speaking world, one of the hugest languages of the ancient world. So right away at the very beginning, all the way back to just right after the time of Christ, you have the New Testament translated into Syriac, okay? And by the way, that Syriac New Testament backs up what the King James does in many places where they try to say, oh, you know, our oldest Greek manuscripts, you know, but if you go to the Syriac, it's like the King James in many cases and they don't want to bring that fact up, okay? The fact that the Peshitta would line up more with the King James than these bogus modern versions, okay. Well, what's interesting is that the Syriac Peshitta translates in 2 Peter 1.19 when it says the day star rise in your hearts, it says the sun arise in your hearts because that is what it's referring to. So this is an interpretation that's been around all the way back to the beginning of Christianity. It's what the Bible is teaching and it all matches up and fits together. Now, now that we understand the true story, now let's talk about the imposter, okay? We got the real morning star, who's the real morning star? Jesus, right? And he's represented by the sun, which is the day star, the star, what other star can you see in the daytime? There's only one star that you can see in the daytime, folks, and it's the sun. You cannot see any stars in the daytime ever for any, once the sun comes out, that stuff's gone. Even the brightest star in the sky cannot even begin to appear in the presence of the sun. There's an old myth that people, if they went down in the bottom of a well, they could look up at the sky and see the stars in the daytime. It's a myth. It doesn't work. It can't happen. It's impossible, okay. But the devil is the great imposter, isn't he? He's the great deceiver. He's the great counterfeiter. And so in Isaiah chapter 14, we have a scripture about the king of Babylon, but it actually is talking about Satan. It's using the king of Babylon as a picture of Satan, or using Satan as a picture of the king of Babylon. And the Bible does the same thing in Ezekiel 28, where it used the king of Tyre to represent the devil. So he's talking to the king of Tyre, but then he says, oh, you were in the Garden of Eden. Obviously, the king of Tyre wasn't in the Garden of Eden, but the devil was. And when he talks about these kings who want to be like God and who think that they're God, he compares them to the devil because what was the devil's great sin? Pride. I will be like the Most High, right? So the devil wanted to be like the Most High God, and he's cast down. And these kings that wanted to be God or thought of themselves as God, the Lord compares them to Satan. That's like the spirit of Satan. So look at Isaiah 14, and let's look at this famous passage about the devil being cast out of heaven. It says in verse 12, how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast set in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High, yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Okay, so this clearly has a parallel in the devil, right, wanting to be like the Most High, being cast down from heaven, falling from heaven. And this is why we often refer to the devil as Lucifer. And in fact, if we were to go up and down the streets of America with a microphone and ask people, who is Lucifer, they would all, 100% of them, tell us that it's the devil. And the reason we know that is because we did that. In 2013, when we were making our film, New World Art of Bible Versions, we went around with a microphone, and we interviewed person after person and asked them what different words meant to them. And everyone told us the same thing. Lucifer is Satan. Lucifer is the devil. That's what they all said. What if we look up Lucifer in the dictionary? If we were to look up Lucifer in the dictionary, definition number one says, and this is using dictionary.com, which is my favorite dictionary, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds or I'm sorry, dictionary.com isn't that biblical. Dictionary.com definition number one says, a proud rebellious archangel identified with Satan who fell from heaven. That's definition number one. But what about definition number two? And this is what we want to talk about this morning, definition number two. What does the word Lucifer actually mean? Because the word Lucifer existed before 1611 when the King James is putting in Lucifer here. The word Lucifer existed even before the Latin Bible put in Lucifer in Isaiah 14. What does the word Lucifer actually mean if we trace it back as far as we can? What does it mean? I'm going to come back to that. Let me just leave you hanging on that for a minute. But let me say this. The modern versions here, the NIV, the ESV, the New American Standard, they change this. They all remove Lucifer, which is a pretty commonly known fact. And what they will often do, like the NIV will say, how art thou fallen from heaven, O morning star? Now here's the problem with that. Jesus Christ said, I'm the morning star. The day star is something that arises in our hearts. So why would the morning star be fallen from heaven? Now this is a very scary thing when you see that the modern versions are calling the devil by the exact name that they're calling Jesus Christ. That isn't normal. That is wrong for them to do that. It does not make sense to sit there and say, oh, you've fallen from heaven, O morning star, especially because why is it that the devil is being cast down? Why does he fall from heaven in Isaiah 14? Because he wants to be like the most high. That makes it seem like, oh, Jesus is being cast out of heaven because he wants to be the most high. Hey, he is the most high. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ is the most high God. And so Jesus Christ is not an imposter. He is the real deal. He's the genuine article. So this is nefarious to have the morning star here in Isaiah 14, 12, when we know for a fact that Jesus said, I'm the morning star. So why have the modern versions done this? Why would they put that there? What's going on? I'm going to explain to you why. Now the thing about this, okay, calling Satan the morning star in Isaiah 14, 12, this is what the modern versions will say, oh, this has nothing to do with Satan, it's just the king of Babylon. Why are you calling the king of Babylon the morning star? You know, Jesus is the morning star. But why did they translate this this way? Is that what the Hebrew says? Does the Hebrew say morning star? Is that what they're translating? No. In the original Hebrew, there's no star, the word for star isn't there, it doesn't exist there. The word for the morning only exists because he says, how art thou fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning. But they'll translate it as, oh morning star, son of the dawn. So they're like repeating morning twice, only one word for morning there. Okay, so this is not, it's not that they're more accurate, you know, the King James had it wrong, they're more, no, wrong, friend, the King James is accurate, okay. And the King James translates it Lucifer, it's a Hebrew word that only occurs one time. And the King James used a word that only occurs one time, Lucifer. And actually, Lucifer matches up with the meaning of the Hebrew, it's right. Now I've seen so many bozos just making things up, I saw somebody said, oh well it's because the King James isn't translated from Hebrew, it's translated from Latin. Come on, are you serious? If you just took five seconds to research the King James Bible, you'd understand they translated the Old Testament 100% from the Hebrew and the New Testament 100% from the Greek, they didn't use the Latin to translate. I might have looked at the Latin just to get ideas, they even said, hey, we looked at every Bible that's ever been published to get ideas. They said, we looked at the Bishop's Bible, we looked at the Geneva Bible, we looked at all these different things. Okay, now let me explain to you where all this is coming from, let me put it all together for you. The word Lucifer is referring to the planet Venus, okay. Definition number one, a proud rebellious archangel identified with Satan who fell from heaven. Number two, the planet Venus when appearing as, quote, the morning star. Venus is Lucifer, okay, actually you could even go back into ancient times into Latin literature and find the planet Venus being referred to as Lucifer, that's where that word comes from, the King James translators did not invent that word, Jerome did not invent that word when he translated the Latin Vulgate, no, that word already existed in reference to the planet Venus. So let me explain this, the planet Venus represents the devil or the antichrist, whereas the sun represents the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me explain this and prove this to you, but first of all I showed you that the dictionary definition of Lucifer is the planet Venus, okay. If you look up ancient Latin literature you're going to find it referring to the planet Venus and not only that, if you go to Wikipedia and just type in the word Lucifer and don't scoff at Wikipedia, Wikipedia has all the sources down at the bottom of the page for you to check it out if you don't like it. The Wikipedia entry Lucifer, just type in Lucifer, here's how it starts, Lucifer is a Latin name for the planet Venus in its morning appearances and is often used for mythological and religious figures associated with the planet. Now let me ask you this, is Venus a star? Venus is not a star, Venus is an imposter, it is not a star, it is a planet. Now what is a planet? Go if you would to Jude, go to Jude and let me tell you where the word planet comes from, the word planet, the English word planet literally means wanderer, wanderer is what planet means and here's why and I know that this is kind of deep this morning, but I want you to pay attention and get this because this is important truth from the word of God. So perk up and listen to this, when you look up in the sky you are seeing the same constellations of stars that your parents and grandparents saw and that people thousands of years saw, am I right? You look up in the sky and next year you're still going to see the Big Dipper, you're still going to see Pleiades and Orion, you're still going to see the same constellations, they don't just dramatically change, they're in the same familiar position, you could buy a book that was printed 40 years ago to tell you which stars to look for in the night sky and if you go to the right date and the right location and get out your chart and look up you're going to see what's on that chart. The stars are predictable, the stars are in a certain place and they're fixed in that position. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? But the planets on the other hand, they're all over the place. The planets are different this year than they were last year, they're going to be different a hundred years from now, a hundred years ago they were in different places. This is why they were originally referred to as wandering stars. Wandering stars because they look like a star, don't they? To the untrained eye you could point it out as a star and people would think it was a star but is it really a star? Planets are not stars, they look a little different but only someone who's trained and understands the difference between a star and a planet can tell the difference, am I right? Most people just look up, oh look at that bright star and then you're like, excuse me that's not a star, that's a planet, that's Jupiter or whatever. If you want to be a know-it-all, but anyway the point is planets are called wandering stars and then basically in our English language it's just shortened to just wanderers. Planet literally means wander and not only does it mean to wander in the sense of just like going around aimlessly, it also comes from the word which means to lead astray or to deceive or to be deceived or to be led astray. That is what a planet represents. Look what the Bible says in Jude verse 12, Jude verse 12 says this, these are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. Watch this, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. So God when he's trying to find illustrations to describe the worst reprobates and when he's talking about the devil's minions being reserved in chains of darkness in 2 Peter 2 and then in Jude he talks about the devil's human instruments, reprobates, false teachers, false prophets and he's comparing them to all these things. He compares them to trees whose fruit withereth. He compares them to raging waves of the sea and he compares them to wandering stars. So what is a planet an illustration of? Something good? No. A deceiver. Something evil, okay. The sun in the Bible is being used to represent Jesus Christ, the light of the world, giving warmth and light, causing things to grow. The devil is likened unto the planet Venus, okay. That's why he's called Lucifer which is the name of that planet and has been the name of that planet for a very long time. Now what does this have to do with the morning star? And occultists throughout history have referred to Venus as the morning star. Why? Because if it's early in the morning and you see a bright light in the sky that looks like a star but it's actually a planet, that is the planet Venus. If you've ever been driving in the morning or walking in the morning and you saw very low in the sky a very bright light, you were looking at the planet Venus there. Who's ever seen that and knows what I'm talking about? Okay, oh look, one of the stars is still visible. It's actually the planet Venus that you're looking at. You're actually looking at the planet Lucifer, you could call it, if you're going by an ancient name for it. And what happens as soon as the sun comes up? It's smoked. I mean you're not going to see it in the sun because the sun is so much brighter, okay. Now stop and think about this. If the sun represents Jesus and the devil is Lucifer, the devil is represented by the planet Venus, think about this now. First of all, he's fake. He's not a real star. People think he's a star but he's not a real star, he's an imposter. He's actually a wandering star, a planet, he's actually a deceiver, he's someone wicked. Now think about this. Not only that, but when Jesus Christ returns someday, go through it to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. When Jesus Christ returns one day, who's coming first? Who's going to show up before Jesus comes? The Antichrist's going to show up first. Okay, well let's see what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 1. Now we beseech you brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. So what do we see here? And if you would flip back to Daniel chapter 8, but we see here that the day of Christ will not come until the man of sin is first revealed, right? Before you have Jesus Christ, you have first coming the Antichrist. Now of course it would make no sense for the Antichrist to come second. Nobody's going to fall for him because of the fact that we already have the genuine article here. We already have the real deal. Obviously the Antichrist has to show up first and then say that he's Jesus, then the real Jesus shows up. Okay, now think about this. What happens in the morning when Venus is on the horizon? First you have the imposter show up. Hey everybody, look at me, I'm the morning star. And then what happens? The real morning star comes. The real day star comes and it just psssh. Now think about this as well. Anyone who's ever actually seen the sun before is not going to look at the planet Venus and think that it's the sun, are they? If you actually know the sun, if you actually are familiar with the sun, then when you saw Venus you'd say, that's not the sun. Yeah, but look how that whole part of the sky is glowing. The day is dawning. It's glowing. And then you see this little speck, folks, that illumination is not coming from that little speck of light. It's actually the sun that's providing all that illumination. And then as soon as the sun comes up, it's like, oh man, how could I have ever thought that this was the real morning star or day star? See, it's the fake imposter. Just like the Antichrist, anybody who knows Jesus is not going to be deceived by the Antichrist. Because what did the Bible say in Matthew 24? That if it were possible, he would deceive the very light. It's not possible. Anyone who is of the day, anyone who is a child of the day, when the Antichrist shows up, it'd be as foolish as looking at the planet Venus and saying, oh, see, look, that's the morning star. That's the day star arising. That's giving light and illumination and warmth. It's providing none of those things. Only the sun provides those things in the physical realm, Jesus Christ, spiritually. Where did I have you turn? Daniel chapter 8? Look at Daniel chapter 8. The Bible says in verse 9, and one of them, out of one of them, came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great toward the south and toward the east and toward the pleasant land, and it waxed great even to the host of heaven, and it cast down some of the host of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them, yea, he magnified himself even to the prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down, and a host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground, and it practiced and prospered. Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, another word for the abomination of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden underfoot. Now look, explaining all this, this is a complicated passage, and explaining all this is outside the scope of this sermon, but the main thing I want to just point out briefly in this passage that has to do with the antichrist is the part where it talks about him exalting himself, magnifying himself even to the prince of the host, and how he cast down some of the host of the stars to the ground, and how he cast the truth to the ground, and practiced and prospered. Now go to Revelation chapter 12, Revelation chapter number 12. So what have we, while you're turning to Revelation 12, let me just review what have we learned so far. It's really not complicated, the sun pictures Jesus. He's the one who brings true light and warmth and illumination. He's the real light of the world, as the sun physically is, he is spiritually. Okay, Malachi chapter 4 had that passage about the sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings. Psalm 19 likened Jesus Christ and the word of God to the sun, bringing light and so forth. The day star rising in our heart is when the day dawns, that's when we get saved and we have that illumination that comes from being saved. And then we talked about how Lucifer is an imposter. The devil is an imposter where he basically comes before the second coming of Christ pretending to be the morning star, pretending to be Christ. Now look, these modern versions, what are they doing? They're basically giving him what he wants and calling him the morning star. You see what I'm saying? But is he really a star? No. Now literally the planet Venus is not a star. And literally Satan is not the morning star, Jesus is the morning star. Okay. That's why it's wrong and blasphemous to put the morning star in Isaiah 14, 12, call him what he is, Lucifer, the wandering star, quote unquote, the fake planet, the imposter, the wicked one, not the genuine article. Now I had you turn to Revelation 12, it says in verse 3, and there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and it cast them to the earth. Now this is the same thing we saw back in Daniel chapter 8 and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. Now of course anybody who's studied Revelation or grown up in church and learned about the Bible knows that when it talks about his tail grabbing the third part of the stars and casting them to the earth, we're talking about basically a third of the angels falling after Satan, a third of the angels falling after Lucifer and becoming demons or fallen angels. Okay. And then we know that of course the child who's going to rule all nations with a rod of iron is Jesus and the dragon's trying to devour the child. That's like when King Herod is trying to kill baby Jesus as soon as he's born. So this is picturing the devil and Jesus and all these different things. Again, too much to explain in one sermon. But the angels are often referred to as stars. Okay. Go if you would to Job chapter 38. I'm almost done with the heavy part of the sermon and I'll get into the application but I hope you're keeping up with what I'm saying. The sun pictures Jesus, Lucifer or the planet Venus, pictures Satan, Lucifer is an imposter, not actually a star but he's a wandering star, quote unquote, a planet. Like the anti-Christ, Venus shows up first before the real sun shows up and blows him out of the water. Anyone who's actually seen the sun or knows the sun is not going to be fooled by the imposter just like no Christian will believe in the anti-Christ when he shows up. And if you would look here in Job 38, okay, this is where someone would bring up an objection maybe to what I've explained so far. They'd say, what about Job 38? Well let's read Job 38 starting in verse 4. Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who laid the measures thereof if thou knowest or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened or who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? This is an often misunderstood passage because what people will try to make this say is they'll try to say that at the creation of the earth, they'll try to say that at the creation of the earth, like Genesis 1.1, God created the heaven and the earth, that at the creation of the earth, that's when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy. Now this is false. This is not true because of the fact that when God created the earth, he created the earth out of nothing. It was an out of nothing creation. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. Now when it says God created the heaven and the earth in verse 1, it's not talking about the sky. When it says the heaven and the earth, it's talking about the place where God lives heaven, the third heaven. The place where God lives was created in verse 1 and the place where we live was created in verse 1, the heaven and the earth. You say, well, how do you know that, Pastor Anderson? That's why I don't like how the modern versions say in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth because that makes it sound like he just created the sky, right? But stop and think about it, friend. God creates the sky on day 2. So how did he create the sky in verse 1 and what did he create it again? Because what does he create on the second day? Creates the firmament, which is the sky. And he says God called the firmament heaven. God called the firmament heaven. So that heaven, there are three heavens in the Bible. There's the sky, the atmosphere, then there's outer space where the stars are and then there's the place where God lives, the third most distant heaven. So you have three levels of heaven there. You have the sky, outer space, and the place where God lives. So what did God create in verse 1? He created the heaven and the earth, the place where he lives, and the earth where we live. And of course, the earth was without form and void. And then he says let there be light and he creates the light, he creates the sky, he creates the dry land and the seas, he creates the plants, the animals, and so forth. Now, here's why that matters. The Bible says that in six days, God created the heaven, the earth, and everything in them. So guess what? Before Genesis 1-1, there were no angels. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. In the beginning, you have God creating everything else out of nothing. The angels are created beings. They don't go all the way back with God like before Genesis 1-1 or something, no, no. You have God creating everything out of nothing. Only God in existence. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? He created heaven and the angels, the cherubims, the seraphims, those are all created beings. Satan himself is a created being. We're all created beings. None of us is eternal as far as going all the way back with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. God has that distinction of being the one who is eternal. So therefore, no, it's not like God created the earth and the angels are all going, hooray, wrong. In fact, if you study, what does the Bible actually say? Look at what the Bible actually says in verse 6, whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened. And look at this. Who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? In fact, the sons of God shouted for joy and the morning stars sang together when the cornerstone was laid, which is not the creation of the earth. Consistently study your Bible. Look up every time cornerstone is mentioned. Jesus is the cornerstone. Over and over again, Jesus is the cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone. You know, the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner, and you have verse after verse after verse, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Now what did the Bible say in the book of John when Jesus confronted with the Pharisees? He said, Abraham, rejoice to see my day and was glad. So that shows, you know, Abraham's in heaven, and when he saw Jesus Christ come on the scene, he saw it and he rejoiced. So it makes sense that when the cornerstone is laid, at the coming of Christ, you have the sons of God, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and every other saved believer, because the children of God are those who believe on Jesus Christ. You have the sons of God, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob rejoicing and being glad, and then you have the morning stars singing together. The morning stars are the angels. Why? Because I showed you some scriptures where stars represent angels, okay? The morning stars sang together. Now do we have any scripture to back up the fact that when Jesus Christ came into this world, the angels sang? Do we have any evidence of that? Yeah, because what happened when the shepherds get the message about Christ? All of a sudden, there's a whole host of the heavenly host praising God. Okay, now do we have any scriptures about the angels cheering and rejoicing when God created the heaven and the earth in Genesis 1-1? There's nothing to support that. Read Genesis 1, and there's no mention of the angels playing a part in creation or being a cheerleading section during creation, but when Christ is born, what do we see? We see the angels praising God, rejoicing, the whole heavenly host. The morning stars are singing together, and the sons of God are shouting for joy. That's the proper interpretation of this verse, okay? So here's the thing. The morning stars, plural, the morning stars, that's just referring to stars that you would see in the morning. You know, before the dawn, before the sun comes up, you could see the stars in the morning, and then they're all fading out of view, and then the morning star shows up. And not just the morning, the day star shows up, and you have the sun that outshines them all. Is the sun a star? Yes, but from our perspective on earth, the sun blows every star out of the water so bad that you can't even see them, right, because the sun rules the day. And so don't let that objection say, oh, well, you know, the morning stars are angels, and so that makes, you know, since the devil's a fallen angel, he's the morning, he's not the morning star, okay? Jesus is the morning star, and if you're not sure about that, then flip back to Revelation 22, and who does it say is the morning star? The day star. Now what does this all mean? Let me give you the application now that we've seen all that. And by the way, we just sang the song this morning in our song service, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and here's one of the lyrics that we just sang. Oh morning stars together, proclaim the holy birth. So the author of Little Town of Bethlehem is interpreting Job 38 verse 7 exactly the way I'm interpreting it. It's so funny, I preach just these basic truths, and people act like I'm making these things up, like I'm the first person who's ever thought of this stuff. Folks, nothing I preach is original. Nothing I preach is original. Everybody thinks like, oh, Pastor Anderson made that up, or people will repeat something I said, you've been listening to Pastor Anderson, haven't you? Folks, I'm not the one who translated the Bible into Syriac 1900 years ago. I didn't write Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, I didn't write Leviticus 2013, I didn't write Romans 1. People act like I've just come up with these wild new things. No, friend, the wild new doctrine is dispensationalism. That's a wild new doctrine from less than 200 years ago, friend. Okay, we're getting back, you know, when I get up here and preach on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, I'm re-digging the old wells is what I'm doing. I'm getting us off the NIV's junk, the ESV's junk, dispensationalism's junk, modernism's junk, and you know what we're doing? We're digging the old wells, and we're getting back to the truths of what the Word of God actually teaches. I'm not some pioneer, you know, preaching new things. No, friend, I'm re-digging the old wells. We're getting back to what the Bible teaches and says. Hey, the Bible has always said Lucifer there in Isaiah 14, 12. That's the new versions that have got us off on this thing of calling the devil the morning star. He's fake. He thinks he's the morning star. He wants you to think he's the morning star. He's not. He's the planet. He's the deceiver, the wanderer, and not the genuine article. But what does this all mean? The final point I want to make is this, because we talked about how, you know, the Venus showing up before the sun is like the anti-Christ showing up before Jesus. We talked about all those parallels. I'm not going to repeat those, but let me say this. The devil promises illumination. He promises enlightenment. But it's Jesus who brings the real illumination and the real enlightenment. Go back if you went to 2 Peter 1.19. Oh, and by the way, if you think that the NIV is bad for saying, how art thou fallen from heaven, oh morning star, in Isaiah 14, 12, in the Catholic Latin Vulgate, in Isaiah 14, 12, they put Lucifer there. People will say, yeah, well, you know, the Vulgate says Lucifer in 14, 12. Yeah, but here's what's funny. If you're reading the Catholic Latin Vulgate in 2 Peter 1.19, you have Lucifer in your heart. How do you like that? It literally says, instead of saying until the day star arise in your heart, and remember, and then remember, you know, we're interpreting that as the sun, the day star, the only star you can see in the daytime. And then instead of what the pashita said, which is, you know, until the sun arise in your heart, likening Jesus unto the sun, which is what it means there when it says day star, they said until Lucifer arises in your heart. Yeah, I don't want Lucifer to arise in my heart, all right? So wow. All right, now, where did I have your turn? Second Peter 1.19. This is such a powerful verse. It says, sorry, I got to get there myself, my notes here. We have also a more sure word of prophecy, talking about the written word of God, where until you do well that you take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart. So getting saved is like the lights coming on, right? It's like an illumination, an enlightenment, and you say, well, I don't know, that's kind of scary wording you're using there, Pastor Anderson, you sound like a new ager. Folks, the new age is copying the language of the Bible. The new age is counterfeiting something real. Let me prove it to you. Listen to this scripture in Ephesians 1.18. It says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of his glory of his inheritance in the saints. How about this? Hebrews 6.4. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened. So enlightenment has to do with God revealing the truth to you. Now it's not Buddha under the lotus tree getting enlightenment. What it is is when you hear the word of God and you understand it, it's like the old cartoon with the light bulb coming on. That's an enlightening thing, like, oh, now I get it. Being in the dark represents ignorance. The light represents awareness, understanding. And folks, study all the Buddhism you want and meditate and chant with Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama and all that. Folks, you're never going to achieve real enlightenment. You know what you're going to get? You're going to get this little speck of light, oh, look, there's Venus, tiny little light that probably 99% of people will not see when it's in the sky. When Venus is in the sky in the morning, 99% of people miss it. I mean, how many times have you really made a note of Venus in the sky personally? Who's never seen it? Put up your hand. I've never seen it. Yeah. Okay. But you've all seen the sun. Why? Because Venus is a joke in comparison with the sun as far as providing enlightenment. Well, guess what? The devil's a joke. Buddhism's a joke. Hinduism's a joke. That enlightenment that you get from the new age, oh, you might learn a little something here and there. A broken clock is even right twice per day. But let me tell you something. It's a joke compared to when you actually learn the Bible. And, you know, those of you that are saved and you know the Bible, I guarantee you that you probably look back at your past. Maybe you used to be into new age stuff or maybe you used to be an agnostic or even an atheist and you thought you were so smart, didn't you, at times. But now you look back and you're like, whoa, that was so stupid. The Bible is so much smarter than I was. Why? Oh, man. Why? Because you're comparing Venus to the sun. Okay. You're comparing Lucifer to the sun. So the Bible used that term enlightenment. Not only that, the Bible used the term illumination. In Hebrews 10 32, it says, but call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions. So when you get saved, you are enlightened. You are illuminated. Now some people get enlightened without getting saved. That's a scary thing. That means they totally fully understand the Gospel and then they reject it. And that's what Hebrews 6 is talking about. That's a whole other sermon. What did Jesus say? I'm the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life. John 9 5. As long as I'm in the world, I am the light of the world. He said, look, if you walk in darkness, you're going to stumble. If you walk in the light, there's no occasion of stumbling in you. Why? The sun lights everything up. And you say, well, I'm just not convinced about Jesus being represented by the sun. How about this? And they have no need of the sun in the New Jerusalem. Why? Because the lamb is the light thereof. No need of the sun because the lamb is the light thereof. Folks, we could go on and on and on this morning. The Bible is crystal clear. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. The sun is the most bright, powerful light. Folks, if we look directly into the sun, it will damage our eyes permanently. That's why we constantly tell our children, don't look directly into the sun. You can damage your eyes permanently. The sun is that bright. Well, that's a picture of Jesus' glory being so bright that, you know, there were people in the Bible, when they saw Christ, they said it is countenances as the sun. Revelation 1, you know, the face of Jesus shined like the sun. And so Jesus Christ is the one who brings real knowledge, illumination, enlightenment. Folks, you go down to the university, and yeah, they'll enlighten you about this much. They'll give you illumination about this much because what they know is just a speck of light in the sky compared to the Bible's like the sun coming up and just, just shuts everything else down. And that's why when Jesus Christ shows up, he puts an end to the devil's kingdom. You know, back to the book of Daniel, you know, you have all these kingdoms. You've got the head of gold and the chest of silver and the belly and thighs of brass and the feet of iron, and they represent these different kingdoms, these different empires, and then there's the stone that's cut out without hands that just smashes them all and then fills the whole earth, just replaces everything, replaces every kingdom. Why? Because the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. So the devil's the great counterfeiter. He's got counterfeit Bibles. He's got counterfeit enlightenment, counterfeit illumination, counterfeit religion, counterfeit everything. Jesus Christ is the genuine article. He is the bright and morning star. And when he says, I will give him the morning star, right? This is very similar to what he said to another church when he said, I'll give him the hidden manna. What did he mean when he said, I'll give him the hidden manna? The manna represents the word of God. The hidden manna would represent marvelous truths from God's word that are hidden to other people. You want to understand the Bible, you know, God is the one who teaches us the Bible. The Holy Spirit is the one who opens up our understanding that we might understand the scriptures. Okay. And so God giving us the hidden manna is like when David prayed and said, open now mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Give me the hidden manna. And when he says, I'll give him the morning star, what he's basically saying is I'm going to give him light. I'm going to give him illumination. I'm going to give him knowledge. I'm going to give him enlightenment. Not this stupid Buddha under the Lotus tree stuff. Every time I say enlightenment or illumination, don't let your mind go there. Go to what God is saying. Go to the scriptures for illumination and enlightenment. God gives wisdom to the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, understanding, wisdom. It comes from God. And so when the day star arises in our hearts, now we have a source of truth within us. The Holy Spirit. Now obviously we still need the written word of God. There's no question about that, but the light within us shines light on the word of God. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit will not speak of himself. He'll take of Christ and show it unto us. So he'll take this, the word of God, and he'll show it to us. Having the Holy Spirit inside us enables us to understand the Bible. So that's what he means when he says, I'll give him the morning star. He's saying, hey, I'm going to give him basically sunlight to illuminate the truths of God's word and to illuminate life itself. And then in 2 Peter 1-19, what does it mean when it says, hey, until the day star arises in your heart? It's talking about having Jesus in your heart and having the understanding that goes along with that. And when Jesus says, I'm the bright and morning star, he's again being compared to the sun. Isaiah 14, 12 in the modern versions, it's wrong. They're 100%. See, they miss all this. Everything I just preached to you for the last hour is just gone. Just with confusing this. And people are confused today. They don't know what the, folks, this is one of the most commonly asked questions I get. What's with the morning star? What's going on with the morning star? Part of the reason for that confusion is what the modern versions have done. They create confusion. You know, before they came along, everybody understood, hey, Lucifer pictures Satan. Now all of a sudden, it's like, I don't know, I mean, they don't even have Lucifer even in their Bible. So they miss these great truths. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for dwelling in our hearts by faith. Thank you for the illumination and enlightenment that we get through the scriptures, through the Holy Ghost, Lord, showing us your word and the word of Christ dwelling in us richly in all faith, Lord. Help us to open our Bibles every day and read it so that we can get real knowledge and walk in the light as you're in the light. And help us never to be fooled by the devil's little LED light or his little flashlight. Lord, help us to walk in the sunlight of daytime and not try to walk through the night with the devil's flashlight. Help us to rather walk in the daytime with the sun high in the sky of our hearts. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.