Take Heed

We live in very difficult times, brethren. But one of the things that do worry me about many things is that there's going to be a lot of people giving or proclaiming different ideas about Christ's coming and will deceive many people. That really worries me. I have come across people with weird ideas. And they even have wonderful books that they want to share with me with wonderful, colorful pictures. But it's also confusing, and it just doesn't fit. And when I read, and if you turn with me to Matthew 24, Matthew 24, and we're going to read verse 23 and 24, where it says there will be so many people saying, YHRA is Christ, there is Christ, and don't believe it. So Matthew 24 verse 23, it says, And then if anyone says to you, Look, YHRA is the Christ, or they do not believe it. One thing similar to that that is happening a lot in many religions out there is, well, Christ is coming, or he's already come. You've heard that before, but or his coming is going to be in this, and this is going to happen, and this nation is going to be the beast. Like, for instance, the United States is going to be the beast, and whatever it is, and it's everything so mixed up. And then following that in verse 24, Matthew 24, 24, says, Then if anyone says to you, bigger part of 24, for false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive. So they will have different things that they'll say, Hey, maybe it'll be miracles. And yes, I'm sure there'll be miracles. But some of them will come and say, I have had a vision, and I saw this thing, and this is from God, and they'll be so convincing and with an intent to deceive. And if possible, deceive the elect. In other words, you and I, there will be some of us that could be deceived. We have to be careful that we are not going to be deceived. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, 2 Corinthians chapter 11, and we read there, our Paul was concerned, and he's talking about how I brought you to Christ as I've betrothed you to one husband, Christ, in verse 2. And then in verse 3, he says, But I fear, I'm really concerned, Lists somehow, as the serpent, in our sight and through the serpent, deceived Eve by his craftiness. You know, some of these things are so subtle. You know, brethren, it starts with a little thing that is just so subtle. It's so quote unquote innocent. It appears, yeah, it could be that. And then a little later, it deviates a little further. And a little later, oh, there's another little idea, another little new truth, or whatever it is. And you know, after a while, you're on another planet. You know, it just goes so wrong. So he says, it's so subtle, he says, by his craftiness. This is very crafty. Now, I'm not saying that some of these people are doing it deliberately to deceive you. Some are, but some might not, because they themselves are just deceived. But you and I have to be careful. So your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity, from the easy, simple, practical points of the truth, through that God gives us through Christ, because it really is something simple. And he says, for if somebody comes to you and preaches whatever it is, any deviation from the truth, could it be another Jesus, or a different spirit, or a different good news, then what? It has been delivered to the science. In other words, something different.

You may well put up with it. In other words, but I fear, in verse 3, you know, remember, verse 3 starts, but I fear lest whatever deception comes about, then you, then, at the end of verse 4, says, you may well put up with it. So I fear that whatever deception may come up, that you could be deceived. Now, regrettably, some in the Church will be deceived. The question is, will you and I be deceived? And so today, brethren, I want to focus on three simple points. On three simple points, I'm not going to delve into any in-depth technical stuff, but I just want to show you three simple points that helps you to keep in mind the true meaning of biblical prophecy and where it's going. Three simple points. And the first point that I want to mention is that you and I need to fully understand God's vision for mankind. Do we really grasp what God has in mind for you and I, and in fact, for the whole of mankind? It's not that you and I are any better. It's that he's just calling us first and working through us first. But is it clear in our minds why we're reborn? Why? What is the outcome? What is the purpose of why we're living? What is that end outcome? And let me tell you very simply, is that we are to be born as spirit beings in God's eternal family, the family of God, to be His children, sons and daughters, in glory, and to reign as kings and priests under Christ. That is very simple. It's very simple. God is building a spiritual family, and He wants you and I, and in fact, the whole of mankind, to be part of His family. And you may think, oh, the whole of mankind? Yeah, God thinks big. God thinks big. When He thinks big, He's talking about a big family. Big family. So, and you can go into many scriptures, you know, 1 John 3 verse 1 and 2, and it says, we are the children of God and we're not yet what we'll be. And it is so many scriptures that it says, we are the children of God, we are begotten again. There's so many scriptures about that. But we have to understand that prophecy must fit into that vision of God. Because what is prophecy? It's actually a declaration of saying, this is the way to get there. But if you go wrong, you are gonna get a few little smacks till you wake up to go the right way. In loving concern. And if you and I, after so many smacks, after that, our, that sand, you know, like that hour gloss that's got sand, and you and I, each one of our lives has got so much sand in that hour gloss. And those little grains of sand day by day are coming down. And one day, it's over. If we don't make use of that time we got in the right way, we may come to a point where we just have not made it. Now it depends. God, some people, is working with them much later. With us, He's working with us now. So we've got it. Now we are responsible to work with ourselves so that we don't miss the boat. So prophecy must fit that vision of God for mankind. Again, so that we are Spirit-born children of ease into a family, the ease family of children, our glorious children, and it'll be an eternal family.

It's like you forensics give some children something small, like a dinky toy. Do you know what I mean? A dinky toy. It's a little toy, like a small thing. And they've got to learn and use that dinky toy properly. That dinky toy is our physical life. It's just a dinky toy to God. It's just a temporary working training ground. When we finish that physical life now, or when He opens our minds at the Second Resurrection, or if it's people that have not been called today, they will then have the chance, which they've never had, of changing, of repenting.

At the end of that period, of let's call it judgment period or probation period, He's judging us in the church now. Those others will be judged then later. But at the end of that period of evaluation of how He used that time with that dinky toy, which is our physical then, our physical bodies, then He's going to give us a real Rolls-Royce. I'm just using a simple analogy of saying He's going to give us a real spiritual body, which is life. This dinky toy is not life. It's a kind of a fortize to what it could be, but it's nothing. It's just a training ground. So that's what God's doing with us. He's giving us a little dinky toy of a life, which is perishable, which is nothing. And how we use it, how we change, our areas, because the outcome, the prophecy, is for us to have eternal life in that family, which let's just call it that Rolls-Royce of God, in glory. So I'm sorry, the example of dinky toy and Rolls-Royce is just a simple example to make it maybe hopefully clearer in our minds. But any prophetic speculation that does not fit into that big purpose of God for mankind, then you and I have to discard it. We have to discard it.

You see, because this little dinky toy of life that we have is just a training ground. Till we all come to the unity of the faith. Turn with me to Ephesians 4, verse 13. Ephesians 4, verse 13. And where it says that God starts in verse 11, and God gave ministers and others to help one another to grow in serving so that we are building up the body of Christ, which obviously is the Church of God, which is the spiritual body of Christ. And verse 13. Till we all come to the unity of faith. Of the faith. Of the faith. The faith, the trust that we can trust in God. And what he says is faithful, and he's got a plan for us. And we trust that 100%, even though we don't see it. So it's more than trust, because trust, we can trust somebody, but we see. Faith is we trust, and even though we don't see everything. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.

Till we come to the knowledge of the Son of God. You know, it reads also in Peter, you know, growing grace and knowledge of the Son of God. You see, what is the knowledge of the Son of God? It's understanding what our goal is. Our goal is to be like Christ, because Christ is the image of the Father. And that means our goal is to understand, obviously, what Christ is, and fully apply it. So it says, and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to what? To a perfect man. Our goal is to be to achieve that perfection. Perfection. Now, none of us in this life will achieve that perfection.

But our intent, our desire, our motivation is to achieve that perfection. And whatever in this physical life we cannot achieve, when God gives us that Rolls-Royce, you will then change that and make up the difference. But the point is, He has tested and proven our hearts that we are really striving for that perfection. And that we are doing our best as far as we can, notwithstanding our weak failings, which we all have. We're all humans. We're all imperfect. But man, we are trying. And God sees the heart. And that's what's important. And so, till we all come to that perfect man that we are striving, we're trying to become better, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That is our standard. Till we become like Christ. And therefore, we're not going to be tossed around to and fro with every window of doctrine and every prophetic thing and whatever it is. Hey, we're going to focus on what? On that vision to conduct ourselves like Christ. How did Christ conduct Himself? Because we don't want to be under this trickery of man or this cunning craftiness, which is like Satan did with Eve. Satan did with Eve. But we need to speak to be truth.

How easy it is for us to compromise. We can't compromise. We've got to always speak to truth. But you know, sometimes you talk to somebody and you want to tell them it's not quite that way. And how many times can we say that without hurting the other person? You know, we can say, well, it's not that. We lift our voice. We change the tone. And we're not doing it or saying it in a kind way. I have seen so many times brethren in the church getting into petty arguments, which then explode into big arguments for something that was petty, which one saw it this way, the other one saw it that way, but they could have just talked to one another in a kind of way and actually resolved the issue. But then it exploded into a nuclear explosion unnecessarily. So the question I have is, is we need to get better. We all probably do it or we have done it. We need to get better. We need to analyze ourselves. You know, the scripture says, examine yourselves. It doesn't say examine the other person. Examine yourselves. I have to examine myself. And I have to admit, I have failed many times. We all have to admit we all fail many times. But God looks at the heart. Are we trying? And that's what's important. Because the outcome is to be a family that God wants us to be, a godly family. That's what we're going to be.

What has that got to do with prophecy? A lot. Turn with me to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3.

And there is a section where it talks about, you know, people start scoffing and says, where's the promise of Christ's coming? That's verse 3 and verse 4. And then people forget that that God is patient. God is patient. And then it says, you know, God's got plenty of time. It says there in verse 8 and this is verse 9. And it says, God is not slack concerning his promise.

2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9. Some counting slackness. But God is long suffering towards us. You know, how many times do we see somebody doing something and he says, when does he or she going to stop doing it? And we kind of lose patience. But you know what? God has not lost patience with that person yet. Why? It says here, because he wants old, old to live eternally. He doesn't want anybody to perish. And therefore he wants them through his patience, through his forbearance, to come to repentance.

So he gives us time. And some of us think because God's giving time, think, well, God doesn't care. Well, he does care. But we have to understand that God is giving us time because he wants us to repent. But there will be a day where that hourglass will say, that is it. And that's what it says in verse 10. It'll come like a thief in the night. For those people, they're not expecting it. Bang! It will come. And then look at verse 11. Therefore, therefore, since all this, all these dinky toys are going to be destroyed, all this is just temporary, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.

That is the whole purpose of prophecy, that you and I see that God is says, this is going to happen. We repent. And that maybe that prophecy will become like Jonah's prophecy that it didn't happen because the people repented. But you and I know the train has left the station and the nation is not repenting. The nation is becoming more and more sinful and they're not interested. Therefore, regrettably, that prophecy is going to come true.

But for you and I, as we see this, it says we ought to become more and more holy in conduct and in godliness. In other words, in being like God is godliness. There is a difference between godliness and goodness. You know, there's a lot of people that are good people. They do a lot of good things. But it's talking about holy conduct and godliness, which is something different. I was just talking to my wife that I gave a sermon long ago, maybe 10, 12 years ago, about godliness. And maybe it's time for me to do another sermon on godliness again, because people get confused.

Oh, there's so many good people. There is a difference between goodness and godliness. Granted, they do good. They'll be rewarded for their good. Well done. Good and faithful servant. But it's more than goodness. It's godliness. So what has that got to do with prophecy? It's got everything to do with prophecy, because God wants us to repent.

That's why he gives us prophecy. Prophecy is saying, this is going to be the end result if you don't repent. And that's why he says, I give you life and death. Choose life. God wants us to repent. That's what prophecy is all about, telling us if you keep going this way, if you keep hitting your head against the wall, it's not the wall that's going to give way. It's going to be your head that's going to be broken. So repent, change. And therefore that's what he says, what manner of persons we ought to be in holy conduct and godliness. You see, God is working with mankind.

In fact, God is working with mankind through families. The first family was Adam and Eve. And you and I know they did not trust God. When God says, don't eat the fruit of the street, did they believe God? Did they trust God? No. So God then is finally now working through a family that trusted God. Abram, the father of that family, he absolutely trusted God. And to a point, he was prepared to give his only son through Sarah. And to him God had promised that through him, through that son, and he was prepared to do whatever God told him in absolute trust. And because of that, he received an unconditional promise that it will be through his descendants, through a seed that would be the word that would become Christ, that the promise will ultimately be fulfilled.

But it will be through his family, through that seed which was Christ. And so through that family, Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, because it was a family of people that trusted God. Oh yeah, they had many things wrong. Oh yeah, you can go back and look at the street and he says, how did they do that? And how did they do the other? But they did trust God, and as they learned, they repented and became better people. So and then you get to the point, you know, that Jacob changed his name, was changed to Israel, and then they even ended up, Jacob, going to Egypt, and he was trusting God in a number of situations.

He said, no, I'm not going to do that. That's a sin towards God. I'm not going to do that. I trust God. And then you know the story. But that family grew, and because of the promise to Abram, to that family, the descendants of that family, which became a nation, Israel, they did not trust God. And as you know, even in the wilderness, they didn't believe, they didn't trust, and they said, well, for 40 days you went to spy the land, you will be in the wilderness for 40 years.

You know the story. So that nation, even though God blessed them, gave them a promised land, they kept us obeying. What happened? They ended up being split into two nations, the kingdom of the North and the kingdom of the South.

North being Israel and South being Judah. And they still disobeyed God, so the North got dispersed all over the world. Over a period of 11 years, from 733 BC to 722, they were dispersed. And then some 125 years later, Judah still didn't repent. And then over a period of 18 years, they went into captivity, and they were there for 70 years, and some of them returned. But you see, a second key to understand prophecy is to understand who that nation is. You see, the first key to understand prophecy is to understand that God has a vision for you and I.

But a second key to understand prophecy is that we need to understand who Israel is.

You see, God is going to work through that family because He promised that to Abraham. He made an unconditional promise to Abraham.

And through that family, through a seed that will come out of that family, Christ, He would bless the whole world because His plan is that the whole world will repent, and the whole world, well, at least all that want to repent, would be in that eternal family. And so you and I need to understand who Israel is and who Judah is. And then we know through the story that was Joseph. You remember the story of Joseph. He had two children, he from Manasseh. And now Jacob, you know, they had hands crossed. And then he says, no, this is correct. And then I will give my name upon your children. So they will become children of Israel. And so there is an enormous meaning onto that. And that ties in to the very point that God promised that those nations, one will be a great nation, the other one will be a multitude of nations. And that promise has been fulfilled.

How? By nations like England and English-speaking nations and the United States of America. And if you don't understand that, that they were part of the blessings to Israel because of the promise to Abraham, you don't understand prophecy.

There are many prophetic events addressed to Israel and Judah. And if you don't know who those are, you're going to miss the whole meaning of prophecy. But there is a time gap between when those nations, the North was dispersed and the South went into captivity. And then there's going to be a time where they're going to be scattered, but God will fulfill the promise that one will be a great nation, that one will be a multitude of nations in the world. But then there will be a time, a prophetic time, which says something interesting to those two entities, Israel and Judah. And that is in Ezekiel 37. Now, in Ezekiel 37, I am not talking about the value of dry bones. You see, after the value of dry bones, there's another prophecy in Ezekiel 37, which is very, very interesting. So let's turn to Ezekiel 37. And it says, starting in verse 16, it says, This is for you, Son of Man, take a stick for yourself and write on it, Judah. This stick is for Judah. And for the children of Israel, his companions, and for those that are his companions in Judah. Then take another stick for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the houses of Israel. And so, yeah, we have one stick and his companions, which you and I know, if you know, it's basically Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, and a few others that stayed with them. And then we have the house of Israel, which we're scattered with, which is the stick of Ephraim, and for all houses of Israel, which was the other 10 tribes, and his companions. And look at verse 17. Then join them one, Echad, one, to another, for yourself, into one stick, Echad, which is one. And they will become one, Echad, in your hand. Now, it doesn't mean that all those people now are just one person. It just means that those nations will now become one nation. And look a little bit later in verse 19. And say to them, thus says the Lord God, surely I'll take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel, his companions, and I'll join them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick. And they shall be one in my hand. And then you read in verse 21 and 22, then say to them, thus says the Lord God, surely I'll take the children of Israel from among the nations, wherever they're gone, and I'll gather them from every side and bring them into their own land, and I'll make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king of them all, and they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they ever be divided into two kingdoms again. You see, if we don't understand the identity of these nations, we don't get this prophecy. And I mean, that's just one example of many others. But what do we have here? We have a time period where they break God's laws, the north is dispersed, the south, which is Israel, the south, which is Judah, goes into captivity and comes back, or some of them come back, but they're still not an independent nation until very recently, since 1948. But then there'll be a time where these nations of Joseph, of Israel, will get with the nations of Judah, and they'll become one nation again.

So what happens in between? In between, when they went into captivity was the time of Babylon, and when they get together, and finally the independent nation together, back, is when Christ is ruling in the world tomorrow, at the beginning of the millennium. So what happens in the middle? In the middle, we have a time period of rains, of nations, just called the Gentile nations, which fall into an amazing prophetic framework. And we have to understand that as one of the third key points of understanding prophecy. See, again, the first one is we've got to have the vision that God wants the whole of mankind as an eternal family. Two, we have to have the vision and the stand that God is working through families, and particularly, therefore, first through the families of Abraham, and the nations that came from there, and through that seed which is Christ. And therefore, we have to understand, identify, who's Israel and who's Judah. And then third, we have to understand what's happening in between, which is that time of the reign of Gentile kingdoms. You all have a handout that I've given to you, which I'm not going to go into any detail because at the moment, today, in this message, I just want to give you a big picture. Because these three principles, let me call them three important keys to Bible prophecy, are vital for us not to get confused with Bible prophecy. We're going to understand that God, as a plan for mankind, God is working through a family, and through that family that was faithful, he's working through his children, and one of the descendants will be, which is the seed which is Christ, will be the one that will give us salvation and will be our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and is our high priest and our soon-coming King. And thirdly, we need to understand what's happening in the middle is through a prophetic vision. To understand that prophetic vision of the reign of the Gentile kingdoms, we got to understand that, let's call it the basic skeleton, the basic figure of that is Daniel 2. Daniel 2 is, let's call it, the framework where all the other prophecies fit into as far as those kingdoms. Because as you read in Daniel 2, and let's just quickly go there to Daniel 2, but in Daniel 2 we read in verse 31, Daniel 2, verse 31 through 35. He says, you know, when King Nebuchadnezzar got this dream, then Daniel, inspired by God, explains to Nebuchadnezzar what was the stream of this image, and he says, oh King, you saw a great image in verse 31 of Daniel 2. And this great image, whose splendor was excellent, stood before you in its form, was awesome. This image, Ed, was of fine gold. So now we have an image of gold, chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet partly iron and partly clay. And you watched while a stone that was cut out without ends struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them, the whole image, into pieces. So now we have the whole time period from when Judah was in captivity, and until when Christ comes back, which is that stone which is not cut by human hands, which is Christ. And that shows a basic, very simple, but key prophecy of nations that will have major impact and that they form part of one image that is a logical succession from one to another.

And those nations will have the most impact with Israel and Judah. Not saying they are not, other nations that are important, but those nations in that chain of events will play a key role from the head, which is Babylon. And then from there, it came as it says the chest and arms of silver, which is the Persian Empire. And then from there, because you can see the sequence, one follows the other. And there it came Greece, which is the belly and thighs of bronze. And then goes into two legs, which basically goes into things like you read in, and this is explained further in Daniel 7 and even Daniel 11, when he talks about north and south, two legs to that kingdom. And then from there, it gets the, and also those two legs also impact the east and west. One needs to look at that and understand how this all fits in. And again, I don't want to go into details today, but what I want to emphasize is that those, that sequence, right to the feet, it is the same statue. It is one statue. It's the head and the chest and the belly and the thighs and the legs and the feet are all part of one statue, which then, when Christ comes, will destroy it. So when people say, oh well, the beast is this nation or the other nation, it has to fit this sequence. It has to be in this image from the head all the way to toe. It's one continuous image, which things have gone from one to another. And even to the point that when the Roman Empire fell, and we read of that for instance, which it had a deadly wound, right, and when that Roman Empire fell, it then later, it was healed. And all that is explained into scriptures when you tie in Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Revelation 13, and Revelation 17. They got all fit together. But Daniel 2 is, let's call it, the foundational one where it all begins from, and everything's got to hang into that. So what do we have? What do we have, brethren, is that as we put these things together, as we understand God's plan for mankind, as we understand that God is working through a family, but that family has been punished, and yes, is that some blessings? Why has America been blessed? Oh, because we're so good. No. Well, America has been blessed as a nation to the world because God is fulfilling a promise to Abraham.

And we, English-speaking nations, we have sinned. God is going to take that hedge as we read in Isaiah at the beginning of Isaiah. He says, He's put a hedge around us. He's going to take that hedge. And he says, look, I planted a vine and it's supposed, I gave it the best, whatever, and it gave me wild grapes. What am I going to do? I'm going to punish them, well unto him that calls evil good and good evil. You read that in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 2 and Isaiah chapter 5. We are going to be punished.

It's going to be a terrible time.

It's going to be a terrible time. And we have to trust God. We have to trust God. In the latest perspective from Mr. Jim Tuck, which you had in your sent-out last night, he clearly shows there as well that we are on the verge of a third world war. All this is just adding extra fuel onto the fire. It's going to burst. It's going to burst. But what do we have? It's nations, because of this, starting to arm themselves more and more. You see, as we read in Matthew 24, we can't set up dates. We don't know when everything will happen. Exactly. We don't know when things will explode, because that will come as a thief in the night. But we know when it explodes, time will be very short, because Daniel, right at the end of Daniel, it will be 13, 35 days, and then 12, 90 days, and then 12, 60 days. Then I counted. But when it explodes, we'll catch people unawares. And so turn with me to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. Matthew 24, verse 45. Who is then a faithful and wise servant? Note the word wise. Who is it a faithful and wise servant? I'm not saying servant. Servant, beg your pardon. Who is a faithful and wise servant? Again, faithful is one that is trusts, that he's got faith, that trusts, and is going to do what he's told to do. And secondly, wise. Whom is master made ruler of his household to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom is master, when he comes, will find so doing. When things explode, he is so doing. He's a wise one. And that ties in to Matthew 25, where it says, you know, it's like ten versions. Some are wise and some are foolish. The wise are the ones so doing.

And those wise are close to God because they've got plenty of oil.

And then at the end, verse 13 of Matthew 25, it says, watch therefore for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. We don't know when these things are going to explode. And then Christ comes. We don't know.

So, let's just read in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 2. And you know what 1 Corinthians chapter 13 is all about? It's the left chapter, right? It's the left chapter. So 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 2. It says, and though I have the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries and knowledge, and I have all fife that I could remove mountains, but I have no godly love. I am nothing. You see, we're going to keep the right perspective of prophecy in our minds. Prophecy is God telling us that he's got a vision for you and I. He's got a vision for mankind to be in his eternal family and to reign as kings and priests for eternity. Yes, initially for a thousand years, but ultimately for eternity. Part of that we got to understand in the interim who is Israel and who is not, who is Ephraim, who is Manasseh, who are those nations. And we got to understand that the beast and the false prophet will come through that image, not something outside of that image of Daniel 2. You see, we have a great promise to be children of God in his kingdom, but God wants all to repent and therefore is allowing times and more time and more time for people to repent. But then a day will come when things will explode. And then time is very short. The days will then be numbered. Let's therefore be motivated and encouraged with the hope of God's vision so that we may reach the desired outcome, which is that we may have the unity of faith to be like Christ so that we ultimately become God's family and that we are part of that family.