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Be Not Deceived Prophecy pt 1
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Welcome to Be Not Deceived. This is the podcast, about getting into the bible and seeing what, the bible has to say about the truth of many different topics and subjects. I have pastor Rick Beaudry here with us, Calvary Chapel Bremerton's pastor and from Bremerton, Washington. So welcome. And I would like to, to, dive in today with the topic of prophecy and how, the Bible is packed full of prophecy, 27% of the Bible is prophecy. And, I'd like to touch a lot of different points of the Bible about prophecy and prophets, and, and just have the opportunity to discuss what what is prophecy, what is who are the prophets, who are the false prophets in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and maybe even in today's vernacular in our our world today. Also, I would like to to really find out what why is it important that prophecy is taught in the churches today. So, I know a lot of people out there will really be excited about maybe, hearing about prophecy because this is I believe you say many times that only 2% of the churches out there are teaching prophecy, or is that the correct percentage? A recent poll indicated that less than about 2% of churches teach prophecy. Wow. Yeah. And so we'd like to know why is it important to teach prophecy? If so many churches aren't doing it, why aren't they doing it? And only 6% of the church believe in a pre trib rapture. Right? 6%. Right. And we talked about rap the rapture Last week. In last week's podcast episode. So if you haven't seen that one, make sure you take take the time out to look at part one and part two. That is on our YouTube channel, which is [email protected]. If you would like to look that up and follow us as there's more and more coming. So we're very excited for today. Yeah. So I think we should start maybe in Matthew 24. Okay. And I was gonna read a little bit about what Jesus says in Matthew 24 about one of the prophecies that he proclaims in I'm gonna just start at the very chapter 24 verse one. It says, Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him and called his attention to its buildings. Do you see all these things? He asked, truly, I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down. So that's a prophecy right there, straight from Jesus. Yep. So what is he talking about there? He's asking three questions. When, what, and and where, or or no. When, what, and what. And so they're looking at the temple. They're seeing not all these things, verily I send you, there shall not be one stone upon another to all be thrown down. And he sat upon the Mount Of Olives. The disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when shall these things be? And we know that the temple began to be built in twenty BC. This is second temple period, Zerubbabel's Temple. King Herod the Great was busy building it. Jesus spoke this in about thirty AD. And then in sixty four AD, the temple was complete. And in seventy AD, Titus surrounded the city of Jerusalem, put a siege upon it, and destroyed it. So Jesus speaking of that's the when is the seventy AD. Not one stone would remain upon another. And so historically, a fire broke out and they pride barred all the all the stones because the gold melted, you know, down in. Right. And so upon the Mount Of Olives, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming? And that's found in verse 30 verse 30 of chapter 24. Mhmm. And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven. There's your sign. Mhmm. And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And so the second coming, so you're at seventy AD, and now he's letting them know, you know, that what should be the sign and and the end of the age. So you're coming and the end of the age. So when, what, and what? And he answers it in in the last two in verse 30. And that that's not exactly what what the disciples were looking for. They were like, wow, Jesus. Look at this. It's such a beautiful temple. Look what we've got. Look we've here. And and so they were probably pretty shocked about what his his answer was to them. Mhmm. So they're like, what? Wait a second. You're you're telling us that it's gonna be totally destroyed? Mhmm. Why would how could that possibly ever happen? Because it was so magnificent. Right? And he hadn't been crucified yet. He'd been telling them he was gonna be crucified, and it wasn't getting through to him. They'd kept fighting over who was gonna be the greatest. Right. James and John's mother Salome went to Jesus privately and said, hey, when you're in your kingdom, can one of my sons sit on your left hand and one on the right hand? Right. Yeah. So they kept jockeying over who was gonna be the greatest and what position they would have in this kingdom. And they were thinking that their mindset was that he was gonna overthrow the Romans. The kingdom was right now. Right then. Right now. Yeah. Yeah. And they didn't see him being cut off. They didn't see Daniel nine twenty seven that Messiah would be cut off. Right. And so they he rode into Jerusalem on on, you know, on a Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna on Palm Sunday on the very day prophesied that he would be four hundred and eighty three years after the command to go and restore and rebuild Jerusalem. And but he was rejected by the nation. The nation didn't receive him as Messiah. So on March fourteenth four forty five BC, the command went out on April six thirty two AD. He rode in according to Zechariah on a donkey, and on this thy very day, he says in Luke, you didn't know the time of your visitation, so the cities left you desolate. And he's weeping over the city, and he could see that Titus would destroy it. But the disciples, it wasn't penetrating, wasn't getting through to him. They just They didn't have to understand understand how Messiah could be cut off. And then it wasn't until the resurrection that because Mary Magdalene came back, they thought it was just idle tales. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Sure. He's resurrected. Yeah. Yeah. He's not there. And he chided them all, you know Uh-huh. Slow of heart to believe, you know, the two on the road to Emmaus and the angels, you know, all of it. So it took a while for it to register. It took a while for it to come in. And then even Peter, after he saw the resurrected Lord, went back to fishing. Right. And several of the other, I think seven of them went back to fishing with him at the Sea Of Nazareth Of Galilee. And then he's alongside the shore and children, you caught any fish? That's sort of a deja vu when he first called Call them. Yep. On the day So that was fell to the other side, right? Yeah. Their nest were full of fishes. So he and then even after that, Peter was reticent. He was like, I failed. I denied you three, you know They weren't really grasping the whole the whole Well, he was he was, I denied you. He knew he's resurrected, but now Peter felt left out. He felt like I failed. You can't I'm use not good enough. But the Lord was restoring him. Now as as he breathed on them, said receive you the Holy Spirit, and then he told them to wait for the promise of the father. Right? And so after the resurrection and after Pentecost, now they were charged because he told in Acts one eight, he said, receive power Power. And the Holy Ghost comes upon you. So now they're they're getting it. Yeah. Now they're getting it that alright, he's coming back. We don't know when he's come back. No man knows the day or the hour, but we know our mission now. We know that we're to go and make disciples. And that makes sense because we need the Holy Spirit. You and I need the Holy Spirit. Believers today, beyond ourselves, we cannot do it. And that's a great example of of Jesus himself living with them for so long, teaching them one on one, and they still didn't get it. Right. But the Holy Spirit who is our comforter, he's the one who reminds us of the word, of God, his truth, power, we get power to do what God's called us to do beyond our own self, which is so amazing. Right? Even as a pastor, when you go up there and you've done your due diligence and your study and your and but then when you walk up there and you deliver the word that God has put on your heart, I'm sure you know that the Holy Spirit takes over, and he is leading and guiding you sometimes in a direction that you maybe did not even plan. Yeah. There's there's there's a dynamic of the Holy Spirit coming upon you. There's times where the Lord, you know, lets you try to do it, you know, in your own strength, and there's like a struggle that's taken place. Yeah. And then and then all of a sudden, you know, you're kinda taken taken along. You're the holy spirit carries you carries you along. And my experience is that when Jesus told the disciples, take no thought of what you're gonna say, you know, that I'll give you what to say. I have notes and I've studied and I have structure. I'm not just speaking extemporaneously first thing off my head. But as we're as the anointing or the empowering during study time is similar to actual deliverer of the message. So he he's reaching people through the foolishness of preaching, the foolishness of the message preached. Interesting. He can my wife reminds me he can use a donkey. I was gonna say even a donkey spoke Yeah. Proclaimed God's God's word and And in the tribulation period, he's gonna use an angel to overhead with everlasting gospel. But we're privileged as Christians to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the indwelling, and also the api, the upon experience, the power, the dunamis dynamic power Mhmm. For all of our ministry. So we can study to show ourselves approved on the God and workmen that need not to be shamed, rightly dividing the word truth. So we're we're sowing the word in our heart Mhmm. And then the Holy Spirit brings the word to remembrance. And so for me, what happens is my mind starts to flood with scriptures and they connect. And I have a hard time keeping up with it. His own brothers don't believe in him. Yeah. Right? Not until after he was rose from the dead? Yeah. They think he's beside himself. Yeah. And so he said prophet criticized him. He said a prophet is not without honor except, you know, in his own community and his own family. Right. You know? But the false prophet Paul told the church of Corinth, you love these false prophets. These false prophets come in here and they steal from you. They take your money. They wear fancy clothes and fancy and they have doctrines and they have they have doctorates and letters proven how you know, trying to show how important they are. Yeah. And and the more I love you, the less you love in return. But they're falling over themselves to try to appease the false prophets who are demanding of them. Right. And Paul's Paul's well abused. Abusive to them. Abusive to them. Really abusive. Just love it. Merchandise. Love it. You know? But the people love it so, Jeremiah said. In Jeremiah five Jeremiah five thirty one, you know, God says that these these prophets are speaking on their own. I didn't send them and I didn't give them that message Yeah. But the people love it so. Yeah. And that funny our flesh is so crazy. We love we love to to we love sugar, and we love we love to hear what we wanna hear, what makes us feel good right now. Candy. Yeah. You know, and it's therapeutic feel good messages. Nobody wants to hear that America is going down. Nobody wants to hear that America's not mentioned in prophecy. What sells, if I want a big church, is we're gonna make America great. Right. You know, we're gonna we're gonna God loves America. God's a jazzed up. God's American, God is and he loves this country. We are exceptional, and that's the what the false prophets do. Right. And where the word of God is calling the nations under repentance. Right. And Like Jonah. And the Lord can put a mirror up for us. The mirror for us to know where we're at is a type of leaders we have. When you see the type of leaders we have, that's where God's saying, I see your hearts. I see who you really are, and this is who you really are. This is the type of country you are. You're pedophiles. Right. You're greedy. You're covetous. You're well among your mercenaries. 10 commandments down in our in our capitals. We're okay with Yeah. With kicking God out of the schools. We're okay with murdering babies. Right. We're okay with all these things. Right. And how long does the Lord wait and watch and be appalled by the prostitution of our hearts? Mhmm. Allow you know, allowing these things to just continue without standing up and saying, these are wrong. These are wrong things. We need we need to honor God and His and His love for children, His love for His commandments, His established ways because He doesn't do it because He's selfish and He wants His own way, He does it because He knows those 10 commandments will keep us safe. Those those not killing babies is is us deciding that murder is wrong, you know, but we are motivated by our selfishness. Right? Yep. And Jesus said that he would give the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not of me, of righteousness, God's righteous standard, because I ascend up to the father, and of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. So the problem in America is the pulpits. The pulpits are not calling the so called professing church Yeah. Under repentance. Instead, the pulpits are filled with people telling the people what they wanna hear. What they wanna hear. And because of that, you have a lot of false believers, false professions of faith that one day they're gonna hear the Lord say away from me. I never knew you. You that practice iniquity. So if if you look at an immune system in The United States, a country, a culture, a church, all of us, we have an immune system. Mhmm. And in that immune system, the body will attack that which is cancerous, that which is going to destroy the body. Yeah. And so that's part of the job of the prophet, the job of the who's going to speak forth God's word. It's God's word that identifies and exposes lies and error and sin. Mhmm. And then the Holy Spirit convicts. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. So the Holy Spirit shows the world the need for Jesus. You need Jesus. Jesus died for your sins. Right. And for the the Christian who's sinning, the Holy Spirit will when I'm in church or listen to message or reading, the Holy Spirit will say, Rick, you're guilty. And Rick, I'm convicting you. Not condemning, I'm convicting you. Mhmm. And so for the Christian, as Chuck Minster used to say, we have the Christians bar of soap, first John one nine. Mhmm. If we confess our sin Right. Which means I'm gonna agree with the Holy Spirit. Mhmm. If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So what happens, the dynamic when a pastor is teaching the word, he's able to address every single person in the room because it's the Holy Spirit speaking through God's word. Right? Yeah. And the Holy Spirit's able to take God's word, which Hebrews four, you know, tells us God's word is living and powerful and sharper than intuitive Dividing us under of soul and spirit and joint marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Wow. So the word of God reaches in to the deep recesses. Remember when we're in Jeremiah seventeen nine, the heart's deceitful above all things desperately wicked. Who can know it? Yeah. God's word knows the heart, and God's word reveals to me where I've sinned, where I'm wrong, where I need an attitude adjustment. Right. It's not my wife's fault. Yeah. It's my fault. You know, it's I need to look in the mirror. And then now vertically, I can align myself, realign myself with God, get back in fellowship with him. And then now on the horizontal plane, it doesn't seem to be that big of an issue anymore. Right. As soon as we get this correct Yeah. The vertical he pierced to myself and I'm being lied to by the so called experts in the pulpits who are teaching psychology and feel good messages. And apparently, now, the the vogue, the in the in trending the trending theme is mental illness, mental I'm hurt. I I I feel bad. Mhmm. And so how do we come to there? How do we get to that point? How did we as a church in America come to the point that we're the victims that we're we can't cope, we can't deal with reality? What happened? What happened? Shut us everybody shut us down or or tried to. Tried to tell everybody they need to isolate themselves. And and God created us to be human connected people. We need each other. We need fellowship. We need we need to worship God and we need to More than we need God. We need to work yeah. We need to go to church and How do we connect people to God? Isn't that our job to connect people to God? Yeah. Through the word of God, through the teaching of the word. Yep. But if we don't give them the word of God, they're not connecting with God. Yeah. Yeah. They're already in need. God's word really diagnosing what's going on in my heart because I don't even know my own heart. Yeah. And then cutting out that stuff or identify it or, you know, as you look into the mirror of God's word, you see yourself. You see who I am in relationship to who God is, and I can make adjustments. I can say, Lord, I confess, Lord, I'm I'm blowing it. And, I don't have the strength in and of myself to deal with these things. Lord, I can't make the pain go away. I can't make the hurt go away. Lord Can do it? Yeah. Can you Can I do it myself? Can you do something greater than the pain I'm feeling? Yeah. You know? Yeah. And he's the only solution for that. He is the only solution for that. And if we're not even offering that, we're not offering the true message of, like you just said, that he looks at the heart, he goes deep into our hearts and exposes our sin and our motivations and the things that we're doing wrong. People don't want necessarily, those are uncomfortable things, you know, so they'd rather hear the false prophets because here's a teddy bear, you know, find a safe space and hug that teddy bear, which does not help us at all. It's a false security. It's a false psychobabble message. It's a great idea you have. I'm gonna try and build the church by giving everybody a teddy bear to Everyone, the when they come through, I'm gonna give them a teddy bear. Something tight. And say just and next time you feel anxious, just hold this teddy bear tight. Right. We just hand them out as they come in at church. We do? Are we making fun of it? What are we doing? You know? Well, I mean, I think in schools too, they're they're doing that. You know? Everybody needs needs to have a a comfort teddy bear. And and I see it even in the workplace, know, people you're not supposed to offend them or tell them call them out on things that they're doing wrong because they're not used to having themselves exposed to the truth in our society. So, you know, they'd rather have that teddy bear comfort, you know, I need to take time out. I need a time out so I can so I can feel better about myself instead of hearing what the correction that is needed and make an adjustment and then go down the right way. Past generations, your parents, grandparents, my grandma wouldn't tolerate at all any kind of whining or complaining. Right? Negativity. Yeah. The message from my family would be, it's time to grow up, Rick. How old are you? That's right. So here you have adults, adults acting like children. Oh, know. Obsessed with themselves. Obsessed. And all these malaise sicknesses and all this victimization and entitlement. And that's the problem. My parents. Problem self. Yeah. And Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself and take his cross up daily and follow me. The problem is self. The problem is The false prophets built a self through the senses. Yes. Yes. There you go. Feeling. Touch eyes. The feeling. Mhmm. The appeal is not to the spirit. Mhmm. It's on the human level, the human plane. It's a therapy. It's a pseudo, you know, theology. It's not it's not true theology. It's not getting to know God. It's a search of self. I wanna get to know myself, and I just don't love myself enough. Everything's self. Yeah. Well, there was a lot of years I remember Oprah on TV just teaching the whole country, know, or the world maybe of how self is so important, know, that we need to abuse ourselves or let anybody abuse you and it was all about self. Time to grow up. And now you know people love that. They were very excited about that whole way of thinking and then that leads to a lot of the counselors using Freud and all their philosophies of how to how to get into your tap into your real self, you know Right. So that you can be more than who you are or whatever, however they play it out. But I know a lot of friends of mine who were very addicted to counselors and just wanted to tell their story because they had to say it over and over again and couldn't get enough couldn't get enough Right. When it never fixed them and never helped them as far as, you know, you need to deny yourself and take up his cross and follow him instead of looking always within. But what I like is in first Peter, because the the guys try to act like, you know, they found some new knowledge, something new that Jesus didn't know. Revelation? Yeah. Peter, let's see. Is that first Peter? Let's see here. I think it's first Peter one verse seven or second Peter one verse seven. No. No. Second Peter. He's given us everything we need for life and godliness. Here it is. Verse three of second Peter one verse three. According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. How? Through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue, by which are given unto us exceedingly great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And so it's talk as he continues going, it's talking about growth, talk about growing in the grace knowledge. And so the problem is is that people that don't read the Bible, people that are not taught the Bible, they need something. And so what the false prophets do is they present a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel. A different gospel. Paul said in second Corinthians 11, I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy because I've espoused you and not one husband, even Christ. But I fear, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve Mhmm. So to the false prophets would, you know, seduce you Yeah. And present to you a different Jesus. Yes. A different gospel, you know, a different spirit. So don't tolerate that. What happens is in the churches, these guys, these false prophets of today, they don't use the word of God to minister to the person. They use they use self help, feel good messages that are a part of humanism, existential humanistic where man's at the center. And it's rooted in what we call today the science of human behavior, psychology, psychotherapy. And and so not just, you know, through talks, but also medications. We're identifying aberrant behavior as a disease now. It's not sin. It's a disease. It's something that needs So needed now we've got a pill for that rage of anger you have, which the bible says if you're angry with your brother, you're already a murderer. Yeah. See what mean? Your heart is So they've taken they've taken the simplicity of the gospel, the simplicity of what God's saying. The problem is man. Man has fallen in nature. And God's a solution for man is not to rehab man, not to make him a better sinner, not to put him through any steps to make you a better person. His solution is death. Right. You gotta die. Right. And then I'm gonna make a new you. You gotta be born again. Right. So when you're born again, now it's not just body and soul. The soul is the seed of the mind, the will, the emotions. Now it's body, soul, and spirit. Now you have a connection with God. Yeah. Now he can help you forgetting those things that are what you're behind and pressing forth those things that are before. If any man be in Christ in Christ, he's a new creation. Yeah. New creation. See? Yeah. The the obsession with the old things. I'm sorry. You didn't just do that, did you? Oh, so call her. We can just a a timer. Question for us. I forgot. I was gonna put on that. Forty five minutes? Okay. Okay. The the person's with the therapist's help trying to find the root of the problem Mhmm. And they're saying, tell me about your mom. Yeah. Me about your dad. Tell me about your childhood. So then we come to the place of they the job of the therapist is remove the guilt. It's not your fault. Right. Somehow we've gotta take guilt, which comes from being sinners, and the way guilt's removed for the Christian is the cross. Yeah. Right? Jesus died for my sins. Mhmm. And he set me free. But for a person that doesn't have that truth in their heart and doesn't look at at their life in that way, for them, they're still trying to be good enough. They're still trying to make up for things. And if they have any hang ups, and they talk to the therapist and the therapist takes them through, now we're gonna play what's called the and you said it early, the blame game. Yeah. So if I'm Adam and I'm confronted by God with my guilt, my sin, I'm gonna blame the woman. It's the woman you gave me. And then if I'm the woman, and I'm not, but if I were, I know who I am. Okay. I'm gonna blame the serpent. Yeah. I'm gonna blame the devil. I won't take ownership or responsibility From the beginning. For my own actions. Right? Yeah. But for the Christian, we take ownership. We take responsibility for our actions, and we lay them at the foot of the cross. And so for us, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. Mhmm. Now God gives me the capacity to not be a victim, but to forgive those who abuse me. Right. I'm set free. Yep. I'm set free because now I have the capacity to not be their dog on a leash the rest of my life, the victim. Through Never able to quit thinking about how to victimize. Yeah. Instead Through unforgiveness. Instead, I see my own wretchedness Yeah. My own worthiness, and that Jesus chose me to be his child. Right? A humble a humble heart before him. Lord, why would you choose me? You know? And then now, it's like those things pale in comparison to his love for me. Right. You see what I mean? Mhmm. Absolutely. But that's only if you understand who you are in Christ and you're spending time in his word. And so the word of God sets me free. Jesus said, if you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed? And you'll know the truth. Yeah. And the truth will set you free. Right? Amen. Amen. I thought I was reading Titus. Where in Titus, I was reading where Paul was talking in Titus one about this is so amazing. You know, we're we're such you know, like we're talking about the psychology of our society and and breaking down the the be nice to everybody. Don't don't don't offend anybody. But, in Titus one ten, where he's talking about, for there are many rebellious people full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach. And that for the sake of dishonest gain, once the Cretes own own the Cretes own prophets, he said it. Cree creature cre Cretans Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons. This saying is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply so they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the mere to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and conscious consciousness are corrupted. They claim to know God, but by their actions, they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good. Well, wait a second. That's not very nice. Right? That's not very nice. None of those words are very nice. They're not loving. Yeah. But but it's the truth. Right? The Cretans the Cretans you're a Cretan. You're a Cretan. And he says, and it's true. And it's true. Well, the old philosopher says that Cretans are lazy gluttons, you know, and it's true. I love that. Yeah. I was reading that. It's true. And I was like, hold hurt my feelings. But, you know, as we're talking about prophets and false prophets and but there's so many that that are are way off base. They're not they're not doing they're not proclaiming God's word. So he's identifying these guys the circumcision. So they're holding people to that letter of the law. Mhmm. So they corrupt the gospel and the salvation is by grace through faith alone. They come along and they say, that's fine, but now you gotta keep the law. We need some work. So the letter of the law kills, the spirit gives life, so he identifies him in that way. He also identifies the false prophet by being greedy. He's doing it for filthy lucre's sake. Yep. For gain. Money is the key ingredient to identifying a false prophet today. Right? And there's a lot of those. Stop talking about money. Yeah. I don't go to other churches, but I'm told every service is spent telling them their needs. It could be even good needs, but it's one infomercial after the other Yeah. Trying to get money out Always of money, money, money, money. And Peter says this in second Peter, he says, but there were false prophets, chapter two, also among the people, even there shall be false teachers among you who secretly shall bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And notice it says, and through covetousness shall they with feign, which is deceptive words, make merchandise of you, whose judgment now for a long time lingers not and their destruction slumbers not. For if God spared not the angels that sin Yes. Cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved under judgment, and spared not the old world. You know, he's saying he's going through and he's saying, eventually, they're gonna be judged too. This is what God does with the false prophets. Yes. And so just because they haven't been judged yet Yeah. Doesn't mean they're not. But if you want an identifier, if I go into a church, I wanna know freely we've received, freely we give, you know, what is it that they're after? What is it they're doing here? So I look at the job description of a pastor is to feed the sheep, not fleece the sheep. Right. I wanna feed them. What's the food? It's not psychology. It's the word of God. Word of God. And Jesus said, greater love has no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15. Jesus differentiated between the true shepherd and a false shepherd in John 10. A hireling, as soon as it's tough or difficult, he bails. He takes off. Exactly. But the shepherd is willing to sacrifice. He lays need be. Lays across that that sheep gate. Yes. That gate that keeps the keeps the sheep in there safe and secure. If he's hireling, soon as that wolf comes, he's up and out. Soon as there's any difficulty, they take their resume. They say I'm out of here. They look for a church that'll pay him more. Right. And it's a celebrity. It's a Christian celebrity mentality, and it's to be served, not to serve. And it's covetousness. It's making merchandise. So many of the pastors today, when they go to so called training, they take marketing classes. Absolutely. And one of my friends told me it's like multilevel marketing where they get other people involved and then they're they're it's extending out and they get a piece of the pie, you know, with each different level. Yep. And and and it's just it's it's sickening. It's just sickening. But the people continue to let let's look at some of the huge churches, the the Joel Olsteens and these guys and Benny Hensnoll. I mean, they're on television constantly making appeals for money. Yep. And the people you don't give, you won't gain. If you if you the the philosophy, you know, the the formula Yeah. Formula behind it is if you give, god will give back. Yeah. So you can't negate your giving because you wanna gain. How'd that how'd that work for Jesus? How'd that work for the apostles? Mhmm. Mhmm. Jesus was homeless. I guess he didn't give enough. Right? Yeah. He didn't take the marketing class. Yeah. And, you know, and I I know for sure that a lot of the churches will look at a pastor who is not involved in marketing, that you are dropping the ball in your ministry. You are not doing the right thing because if you're not marketing, you're not reaching enough people. If you're not if you're not learning the marketing skills needed for ministry, are you truly in ministry? Well, Jesus spoke more about money, you know, one of the greatest topics that he spoke of, but he where your treasure is, there where your heart be also. God wants your heart Mhmm. And he loves a cheerful giver, but the emphasis is not how much. It's not he he took the widow and her might her little mites that she had. Yeah. And he brought attention to what she gave in contrast to the religious leaders and their enormous amounts of money that they put into the offering. And it and it makes all And that everybody Attention. Yeah. Attention under them. And but heaven measures our gifts of what it cost us, not the amount. And so when we give, don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing. You do it secretly. Yeah. And you do it as under the Lord. It's an act of worship. Right. And so we don't want to cheapen this worship of the Lord by making God out to be broke and he can't build his church. His church is not a business. Yeah. There are business aspects there's bills to be paid and all that, but it's not church inc and we're gonna run this, you know, as a as a business with the objective to build profits, nickels and noses, and and make it, you know, successful in the world's eyes. Jesus said that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination unto God. You can't serve God and money. Yeah. It's one or the other. That's it. So it's it's really a situation where where you're denying people the sweetness of worship because now becomes a, you know, like a bad taste in your mouth of you you want so many people, the unbelievers that we try to witness and minister unto, they they they don't wanna go near church because they smell it. They see it. All they want is your money. You want is some money. You want is So, your you know, Jesus paid it all. It is finished. He paid it in full. So we we walk by faith and trust the Lord. So we're not treating this as, you know, a means of building our empire, building our business. Yes. But that's what the false prophets do. The false prophets are about self. And so anyway, one of the best ways to recognize a false prophet is an inordinate inordinate effort or emphasis upon money. I've heard over and over again in certain churches that I've gone to in the past that they have to well what they say is the main pastor would say, want we must have a 100% participation in this commitment, this financial commitment. A 100%, not one. If you walk in that door just to visit even, we need a 100%. So they're really, really putting on the pressure of, you know, and then if you stay, you know, you are committed to that 100% participation in whatever goal, financial goal of building stockpile of money that they need or they think they want. I I heard it just recently as I was cruising around to see what other ministries are teaching in our community, and I was like, there it is again. 100%. Need a 100% participation. There's no no negating it. That's how they phrase it. Oh, yeah. 100%. Well, I'm I'm it it breaks my heart because it it keeps a lot of people out of the kingdom. And I've gone broke before as a pastor and trying to get buildings and build the church and get all the amenities that people need. And in that crucible, in that trial, I still could not degrade or diminish worshiping Jesus by, you know, getting up in front of people and begging for money. Yeah. Making god out to be poor. Yeah. We prayed and we asked the Lord, you know, to provide. And and he wound up not providing, and we lost everything. So that would be a huge point that these false prophets would make. Well, see, he lost everything. He needed to emphasize money more. Mhmm. He needed to make put more emphasis upon getting money a 100% out these people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm I'm wanting to trust in the holy spirit. And if the holy spirit is moving to work in the hearts of god's people, they'll give. They'll want to give. Yeah. If they don't wanna give, Holy Spirit doesn't want their money. Yeah. God doesn't want a grumpy giver. You know? He wants a hilarious, a cheerful giver. Right? Yeah. Yeah. So giving needs to be from the heart or it's or it's not worth anything. Yeah. If if it's out of guilt. It's not it's not a cheerful giver. Worship. So we we we cut it off there. We don't want to degrade Mhmm. The beauty of of people coming and freely worshiping the Lord, you know. So I made mistakes in that way, and I would in in hindsight, I would just wait upon the lord. If if if a church needs a building, then, you know, they're gonna have to they they gotta want it. You know? Exactly. And so you wait till the but I I just can't my pastor, he never spent he never spent time asking for money. We received an offering. That was it. It was over. Yeah. A building project or any anything going on? No. Yeah. Just teach them the word. Love on them. Yeah. Let them know what And then the Lord provided for whatever was needed or or or Or you hold back. Or or or you just do without. Yeah. The things that you think you gotta have, you do without, and you you bring the word of God out to them. And so the I grew up in the the Pentecostal movement, and it was very much the prosperity gospel. So, you know, that was like second nature always being taught over and over again is to give so that you can get. It was very much a part of the so called gospel of what was delivered, the message that was delivered. So it's wonderful to actually know what the Bible says and not that he desires a cheerful giver. And, of course, they they would emphasize you need to be a cheerful giver while you're giving because you better be cheerful because you're gonna get. So They know all the stuff, don't they? They know every verse, every the whole thing. Yeah. But I just wanted to teach the word, feed the sheep. Jesus said to Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Yeah. Just feed them the word of God. Right. You know? So so now, you know, we've we've talked about Old Testament prophets. And so 27% of the Bible is prophecy. So what in the Old Testament that was prophesied has come true? What have we seen up to right now that actually have played out that that we can say, God said this was gonna happen and we see it right before our eyes. Okay. So in the book of beginnings in Genesis, Genesis three fifteen, Adam and Eve sinned. They fell, and they're leaving the garden, you know, in coats of skins. And they couldn't cover their sin by being religious religious with fig leaves. Right? Mhmm. Mhmm. So they they are leaving the garden and God sends an angel to guard them to keep them from getting to the tree of life, lest they live in their sin forever. Right? Yep. That sword angels there And they're playing the blame game and they're blaming, you know, the serpent this that the other. So God gives a prophecy in Genesis three fifteen that the seed of the woman and woman doesn't have the seed. So speaking of the virgin born son of God the seed of the woman that her his heel the seed of the woman his heel would be bruised but that he would crush the serpent's head So right there in Genesis three fifteen God is describing prophesying of the Messiah. That the Messiah would be a man not an angel. That it'd be the seed of the woman, the virgin born son of God. So then we take that and that he would be his heel will be bruised, he'd be crucified, but he'd raise himself from the dead and crush the serpent's head. Right? Yep. Now we go to Isaiah written seven hundred years before Christ is, you know, born. And Isaiah seven fourteen says, the virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel. God with us. Isaiah seven fourteen. Right? Mhmm. Mhmm. Isaiah nine verse six, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Mhmm. And the government shall be upon his shoulder. Right? Mhmm. His name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and of his peace and government, there shall be no end, right? Yep. So that's seven hundred years before Jesus is born, and he's letting us know that back at Genesis three fifteen that he he intends to fulfill this. Yep. So then we get in the New Testament. We celebrate Christmas. Right? Yeah. We see Mary and Joseph and Mary, the virgin born son of God. Mary hasn't had any relationship with Joseph. Mhmm. Mhmm. And the immaculate conception. Right? Yep. And Virgin virgin birth. Virgin birth. And that's that's that's the son of man. That's Jesus. That's the promised Messiah way back from Genesis, the book of beginnings, fulfilled in his first coming. And then we say, well, you know, we ask the question where Herod asked the prophets, the wise men from Babylon came and said, hey. We wanna see the king of the Jews. We saw his star. Yeah. So how did all the way in Babylon these guys know of the king of the Jews? That's when Daniel was there. Right? Right? Was telling them. Meshach and Abednego. Right? Interesting. So then Herod doesn't know the bible. He's I do man. He's not a real Jew, but he's Herod the Great. He's the king. Mhmm. And the Jews, you know, don't like him. And so the prophets the the religious leaders tell him, you know, well, Bethlehem, house of bread, Micah five verse two. Mhmm. Yep. They reached they reached back into the Old Testament. Five hundred years before god god let him know where he was gonna be born. Mhmm. So in the year that Caesar Augustus, right, we're told he put a tax out there. The most powerful leader upon the planet brings an edict of attacks that every person needs to go to their hometown to be taxed. Right? Imagine that. God's moving the heart of the king Yeah. To fulfill his prophecy of Micah five verse two. And Mary and Joseph gonna go 80 miles with his wife Pregnant. Great with child. Mhmm. Right? And there's no place for them, you know, whatever, in the house of bread, the house of Bethlehem. And so we see that he's born, you know, in Bethlehem. And then we look at his lineage in Matthew chapter one and Luke three. We have a record of his his birth lineage. And so we see the royal line that comes through his stepfather, you know, Joseph in Matthew's account. And then we see the account of all the way back to Adam, you know, through Mary. And there's a there's a curse upon the line of Jeconiah or Koniah. And so we see it it goes from Solomon to Nathan rather than through Jeconiah. So we have the lineage of Jesus. The temple, when it caught fire in seventy AD, destroyed all of the records lineage. Yeah. But we have the New Testament preserving the lineage that any Jew, anybody could take and look at this lineage and go all the way back that he would be from the tribe of Judah. Right? Yep. In Genesis 39. Right? In the tribe of Judah, and so the kingly tribe. And then what house would he come out of? So we see Ruth and Boaz, and Boaz begets Obed, and Obed Jesse, and then Jesse, David. Yeah. Jesus is the root and the offspring of David. Right? The Davidic line and the promise, the Davidic dynasty. David, I'll build you a house. So the Messiah is gonna be from David's house. Right? Kingly tribe. The kingly tribe. Right. And and so we see that in in Matthew's account. So we know what tribe, we know what family, we know that he's a man, and Hebrews says that he was made a little bit lower than the angels, and so he's the son of man 81 times, he calls himself the son of man, and the ancient of days in Daniel seven. And so we look at that and we say, alright. How would he die? A thousand years before he's gonna die, we see in Psalm 22 a description of what he even says upon the cross. Right. Seven hundred years before he dies, we see that in Isaiah 50 that his beard would be pulled out. We see there'd be deep furrows in his back. We see in Isaiah fifty two and fifty three another description of the cross, you know. Yeah. Intercession on behalf of the two thieves and has been beaten beyond the recognition of a man. And so And that spoke about in Isaiah. That's in Isaiah chapter 50 and then fifty two fifty three. And what else? We he he said, the wicked adulterous generation seeks after a sign. The only sign is gonna be given the sign of the prophet Jonah. Mhmm. And Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great face shall shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So he's authenticating the book of Jonah. He's also saying destroy this temple in three days. I'll raise it up. Right? Yeah. So he's prophesying right there and letting them know That he's gonna rise again on the third day. Yeah. And that's the proof. That's the proof. And so And sure enough, he did. And sure enough, he did. He's raising Lazarus from the dead in in John 11. Yeah. And then he's describing himself as I am the resurrection and the life, and then he proves it. You know? Yeah. So over 300 prophecies, Philip Stoner said computed over 300 prophecies were fulfilled in this first coming. And Peter says in second Peter, he said second Peter verse 15 of chapter one. Mhmm. He says, moreover and I will endeavor that we may be able after my deceased to have these things always in remembrance. So we're proving Christ that he's the one number one through eyewitness testimony. He says, for we have not followed cuddly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Mhmm. So from a standpoint of apologetics, how do we know that Jesus is the right person in a courtroom of law? It would be based upon the eyewitness testimony of at least two people. Yep. First Corinthians 15 says he was seen of over 500 at one time Mhmm. In his resurrected body. Right? Yep. Still bearing the scars. Yep. Peter saw him on the Mount Of Transfiguration. He goes on to describe that. For he received from God the father honor and glory when there came a voice to him, Matthew 17, from the excellent glory, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And this whole voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount. So here you have the disciples testifying that we saw him in his glory and his clothes were brighter than any fuller could make brighter, know, in this kind of glory. And that testimony is such as so powerful in their lives that they're now willing to go die as martyrs. Yep. Exactly. It was false, they wouldn't be willing to die. But because they knew it to be true, they didn't fear death. Yep. And so it it It connected all the dots. It authenticated it, made it made it true that nobody's willing to go to martyrdom for a known lie. Yep. A lot of people are martyred for a lie. They think they're gonna have 70 virgins waiting for them. Yeah. There's a lot If you know if you have the body and you buried it, you'd be unwilling to go die for him. Exactly. But if you know that he transfigured and that later he was crucified, buried, raised himself from the dead and seen of you for forty days, you're emboldened because you don't fear death anymore. Yeah. Right? Mhmm. So that's the number one or that's one of the proof texts, the proofs that he's the Messiah, that he's the Christ, that he's God, that the Bible's true. The second one, the second proof text he says here, he says, we have also, in addition to our eyewitness testimony, a more sure word of prophecy. Mhmm. Exactly. So prophecy is a greater proof Yep. Prophetic than even eyewitness testimony. Wow. It's a greater proof because Because you're foretelling what's gonna happen and then it happens. Well, it's only God could do that. Yeah. Only God could tell you what's gonna happen before it happens He's outside of time. Percent accuracy. Amen. So Philip Stoner illustrated it this way. If one person came along and fulfilled just eight of those 300 prophecies Mhmm. Mhmm. The compound probability mathematically for one person to fill eight, and we went through a few of them. Right? Yeah. To fulfill eight would be 10 to the seventeenth power. So then he illustrates 10 to the seventeenth power is putting the state of Texas where everybody that's afraid of the blue states are moving. Right? Uh-huh. You fill the state of Texas big. Which is big, two and a half feet of silver dollars. The whole you take 1 silver dollar and you mark it and you put it somewhere in the state of Texas. You blindfold somebody, spin them around, pin the tail on the donkey, put them in the state of Texas. The compound probability of a person going in there and reach down and grabbing that one mark is 10 to the seventeenth power. And that's just eight. 27% of the Bible's prophecy. Yep. Over 300 prophecies he fulfilled. Right? He's got So why wouldn't we wanna be students of Right? Right. Yep. And and he says we have the more sure word of prophecy, unto which you do well that you take heed Mhmm. As unto a light that shines in a dark place. So he's saying, hey, you churches, only 2% of you teach prophecy. The other 98%, you would do well to take heed. Yeah. As a light that shines in you're living in a dark time. Your people have no hope. Yeah. They don't have the hope of the blessed hope anymore. You've stolen it. You've taken away the doctrine of the rapture. You've taken away the doctrine of the second coming. Mhmm. People have no hope as in the light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star rise in your heart. When the light goes on, Jesus is risen in your heart. Right? Yeah. All of sudden it clicks. Yeah. It clicks. You know? Knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. So now he tells us how the transmission, how the prophecy came. For the prophets prophecy came not at any time by the will of men Right. But holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit. Exactly. So and then he gives a contrast of the false prophets from chapter two there. Yeah. And so the holy men of God, as God inspired them, they wrote down what God was instructing them to write down. In some cases This is this is God. Yeah. His his his movement, his his driving of of the of the prophetic, the the prophecies that are gonna happen, the the the things that are gonna happen. He's forewarning us ahead of time. So not just to let us know what's gonna happen, but to prove that he is God. The testimony of Jesus is spirit of prophecy. Exactly. Book of Revelation is the apocalypse or the unveiling Mhmm. Of Jesus Christ. The volume of the book is written of him. Yep. You see? So how could you not teach the book of Revelation? How could you not teach there's a blessing for just reading it. Yeah. It's awesome. I love that. And so we're students of prophecy. We're students of the Bible. We go from Genesis to Revelation, and we we're disciples. He said, go and make disciples. Why would I why would I negate and leave prophecy out? Yeah. It's it's not a wise it's not a wise choice. It's not a wise choice. And I don't know if it's because well, maybe I do. I've heard some pastors say that they don't understand it, that they're not they're not they're not good at at they haven't studied it so that they don't feel feel equipped. There lies the problem. Yeah. Yeah. We were instructed Paul told Timothy, young pastor, study to show yourself approved Yeah. Unto god. So so they're just not going there. Just they're not wanting to do it. Desire to study. Yeah. Teachers study. Exactly. They're The best way to know god is to study his word. Yeah. And as a as a as a Sunday school teacher, a bible home bible study teacher, I've gotta study 10 times more than I give out. So I'm getting to know the Lord far more than if I'm simply a student being taught. Yeah. So Just taking it in. Yeah. All of us are teachers in in one way or another. And so we we have his word. It's his love letter, you know, unto us. The way we get to know him is a study of his word. And so why would I wanna leave anything out? Yeah. There's just no way I would wanna what? I wanna leave out the doctrine of the rapture? I wanna leave out the nation of Israel? Yeah. I wanna I wanna leave out the the one world currency that's coming? Revelation 13 how do you teach a church that's watching the demise of the dollar Mhmm. And they're bringing in a currency that's a digital currency where everyone's gonna have to receive a mark on the right hand of their forehead or a digital ID? How do you leave that out? How do you act like that's not happening right before your eyes? It's it's How do you do that? It's irresponsible. It's it's mind boggling. It's just it's mind boggling. So where are you gonna take them? Where are gonna take them in your cognitive dissonance, in your denial of the truth? Mhmm. What is the content of your service? Where are you taking them? Mhmm. What are you gonna fill the hour with? Yeah. I know. We're gonna we're gonna sing for forty five minutes Mhmm. And then we're gonna make twenty minutes appeals for money Yeah. And then we're gonna jump off at a verse, you know, and tell stories, fables, and doctrines of demons. Yeah. What? Why would the people put up with that? Why? I don't know. Week after week after week. I don't know. And being in arrested state of development, I was there. Mine boggling to me. I would I would say the Bible prophesied of this in that there would be an apostasy, which is a falling away from the truth, a departure from the truth Yeah. Is what we're watching Yeah. As Paul warned to Timothy and to us. And and in Revelation talking about the Laodicean church. Yes. So Yeah. So that's where I wanna continue in part two. Okay. I would like to dive into the the prophecies that are in Revelation and And really look at each one. Maybe start with start with Laodicea and see do an examination of where we're at compared to the church of Laodicea and examine what is coming that hasn't been played out yet. And what what is does Jesus say about the end times and really go into the book of Revelation and and reach to Daniel and and the different prophets of the Old Testament that speak to the book of Revelation so we can have a clean picture of what's going to be happening in this world because there's quite a bit quite a bit that's going to be going on. It's yes, it's being fulfilled. So thank you for letting us dive into really kind of understanding what the Old Testament prophets were about and what they gave us as far as prophecies of Jesus that they have already been fulfilled. And then I really would like to go deep into the book of Revelation for the prophecies that we're looking as we watch it form, we're feeling it, we're seeing it unlike we ever had it. We've never seen it like it is today in our world, in our generation or in history like we see it now. And I want to see what see what God is saying is going to happen in our world today. And, you know, we have a lot going on as far as new things even with Israel being bombed and I kinda wanna touch base on that too. See, you know, we can talk about what the hot topic is right now and see what the Bible tells us about that and maybe what spiritual discernment might be leading us towards. I wanna thank you so much for being a part of this first part of prophecy, and we will continue in part two. Amen. And dive right into Revelation. Love it. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yes.
About This Podcast
Be Not Deceived Podcast with Vicki Wiederrich
Be Not Deceived is a podcast dedicated to looking at Biblical truth and comparing it to the lies the world and the devil is telling to cause deception in the church and in our society at large in the present day. The devil is trying to deceive as many as possible, but God always wins!
