Kenneth Copeland - Choose God's System
Let's go now to the Book of Revelation. It is not Revelations, one revelation. First chapter. The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, that's what it is. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ, "which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand". Well, it's a whole lot closer at hand now than it was then.
Let's go to the 18th chapter. Now, pay careful attention to the words and what they say. "And after these things I saw another angel..." Say, "Angel". "I saw another angel come down from heaven having great power and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations", you see it? "All nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven," this is God, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double".
Now let's go back to the Book of Beginnings in Genesis Chapter 11, and we have record here of in Chapter nine, where God bless Noah and his sons. Everything started over. "The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime or asphalt had they for morter," all just alike, not stone. Did you notice God's people built with stone, fine wood, not brick.
"Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; or confusion because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: he confound the language of all the earth".
Confusion. Babylon, come out of her, come out of there. I want to remind you now, God is not the author of confusion, First Corinthian 14:33. He is not the author of confusion. Now there are people that have the idea where all of a sudden it was just somebody was speaking Spanish. No, no, no, no, no. Because had that been the case, all you had to do is just learn the other language. All of a sudden they couldn't understand one another. What do you mean by that? I don't understand that. What's the matter with you, anyway? You crazy? Something wrong with you? I'm getting out of here. It's a strife system. It's based on fear. So let's begin studying the truth about this. Babylon, 50 miles south of Baghdad in Iraq. Those spirits are still there. And you can follow it.
I'm thinking about Second Chronicles 20. This huge army was headed toward Jehoshaphat, so he called a solemn fast and the prophet stood up and gave them exact directions where the enemy was coming from, where you will find them. And the battle is not yours, but mine. And then Jehoshaphat discussed with the people and they decided, I thought for a long time that God told them to do that. But go back and read Second Chronicles 20. He didn't. They decided to do so. They put singers up in front of the army and they began to sing, God is good and his mercy endures forever. God is good, and his mercy, his Hesed endures forever. And when they began to sing that, God set ambushments against the enemy and they turned on one another and killed one another and there wasn't one of them left. And it took days to gather up the spoils.
I always wondered why they hauled all that money with them to battle with them anyway. I guess because of what they gathered up, you know, by running over everybody else. That's the Babylonian system in operation. So it is a system. It is a system of commerce. Now Revelation 18:12. Go back over there with me, we've established where this came from. Let's begin this again.
"Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come. The merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more".
I want to read this from the Classic Amplified right there in that... the 12th verse. "Their merchandise is of gold, and silver..." This is commerce now. So that's money, currency, "gold and silver, precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet. stuffs, all kinds of scented wood, all sorts of articles of ivory, varieties of objects of costly woods, bronze, iron and marble, of cinnamon, spices, incense, ointment and perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses, conveyances and of slaves".
Now, you know where slavery came from. Oh, look at that. Verse 15. "The dealers who handled these articles, who grew wealthy through their business with her, will stand a long way off, in terror of her doom and torment, weeping and grieving aloud, and saying, Alas, alas for the great city that was robed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, bedecked and glittering with gold, with precious stones, and with pearls! Because in one single hour all the vast wealth has been destroyed, wiped out. And all ship captains and pilots, navigators and all who live by seafaring, the crews and all who ply their trade on the sea, stood a long way off, And exclaimed as they watched the smoke of her burning, What city could be compared to the great city! Woe and alas, for the great city, where all who had ships on the sea grew rich through her extravagance from her great wealth! In one single hour she has been destroyed".
Now think about all the things that have happened over the years and all the war and the war equipment that was built. Praise God. Gold, silver, wine, slaves, fruits of lust. All nations. But let's now turn to Galatians three and look at the eight verse. "And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed". Two different systems, that Babylonian system will kill you. Now it has developed over the years. There's no way under heaven that God intended for this nation to get over trillions of dollars in debt. That is the Babylonian system, that is not the Abrahamic system. Under the Abrahamic system, debt is a curse, but this Babylonian system is full of fear.
You can hear it in the discussions of people, "You're going to church tonight"? "No, I'm afraid not". "What"? "Well, you see, I have this thing that I need to do, and I really need to stay home tonight". You're lying. You wanted to watch TV. Why didn't you just say, "No, my favorite programs coming on television, now I'm going to stay home and watch it". "So you want to come over and watch it with me"? "No. You go to church with me". That's the system at work. 98.999 of all chronic diseases are self inflicted. Heart trouble is not hereditary. Ask me how I know, I disobeyed God. I had the Lord tell me years ago, "Start walking and don't stop". Well, I didn't do it. And I got so big I could hardly get in and out of the car.
There was a time in my life I weighed 100 pounds more than I do now. Well, it came time for me to go to Oral Roberts University. I weighed about 225, and that came up in my spirit. You get that fat off. He didn't say weight. He said, "You get that fat off of you right now". Well, I argued around about it and he said, "Well, the decision is your not mine". He said, "I've already made my decision". Well, you know, thank You, Lord. Some of you look at me like... what... See when I get to meddling with you over in that department. So let's go over to the Book of Deuteronomy. That's pretty close to right at the front, isn't it. When you begin at the 27th chapter, when the people of God had come out of Egypt, they had a covenant with God, but they didn't understand it. They'd been living in Egypt. I mean, they had to eat whatever they could get their hands on just to survive. So God was demonstrating to them.
In the 27th, "And Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken", listen, "This day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day. And Moses charged the people the same day, saying, These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when ye are come over Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin". So Jesus tribe and the Apostle Paul's tribe were over here on the blessing mountain. "And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali". A lot of people out here, so one of these mountains is green. The other one, they stand side by side and Shechem is right there in the center in that valley. And Ebal is alkali. Wouldn't anything grow on it.
So he is demonstrating to them the difference... They came out of that Babylonian system of Egypt, liked to died over there. So now God called on Moses to demonstrate and come out here on these two mountains and shout at one another. Then you come to the 28th chapter and you begin then with the blessing of Abraham. Then you come over here to the curse. If you don't read that 17th chapter, you don't understand the 28th. So now let's go over. You follow it and you don't quit till you get over to the 30th chapter verse 15. "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it".
Now look at this, this is the conclusion. "I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore..." You is the understood subject of the sentence. "You choose live that both you and your seed may live. That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them". I put it before you. So it's your decision.