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The Stranger's Voice

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The Stranger's Voice

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The Stranger's Voice

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In an age of endless media outlets, voices come at us from all directions. Most purport to be “experts” trying to lure us into sharing their opinions. But for every expert opinion supported by studies, there are opposite viewpoints with “experts” and studies that substantiate the opposite viewpoint. In an age of so many disparate voices, each of which urges us to believe and follow it, what do we do? How do we discern the good, right voice from the confusing voices—"the stranger’s voice?” Let’s look at three common “voices” in today’s world and see where they may be leading us.

Transcript

[Rick Shabi]: We live in a world where we have all sorts of opportunity to have people talk at us. We have countless cable TV stations, countless news sources that we can tune into. We can tune into the Internet, and we can have voices talk at us there, and we can find any opinion about anything in the world that we want to hear, and we can find differing opinions on just about everything in the world that we want to hear. If you want to believe one thing about what’s going on in the world today, you can find ample sources that are going to support your opinion. If you have another opinion, you can go and you can find any number of sources that have the same credentials that call themselves experts, just like the others, and you can have your view supported – whether it’s masks and the validity of them – and I’m not going to get into that at all, because I know some have some opinions, others have other opinions. That’s okay. We learn to live together, whatever you want to do. As many studies that you can present in favor of masks, the other side can produce as many studies that show masks don’t make any difference. Some support lockdowns and say they make all the difference in the world, others say they have no difference at all. You can look around and look at the country and you can draw your own conclusions. We live in a time – through this Covid period of time – that is unlike any time that you and I have ever lived before. You can talk about politics, you can talk about health, you can talk about medicine, you can find every voice to support anything you want. We live in an age where there are voices after voices, after voices, after voices.

What do we believe? What do we follow? Where is the truth? That’s an age-old question that everyone asks: Where’s the truth in all these voices, because they all sound good, they all have some support in what they say. What do we do? It’s a very, very, very confusing age in every single area that we can look at. Of course, here in America, add to this Covid pandemic, and all the issues that surround that, we can add politics to it, and everyone’s got their opinion on that as well. And every single one can be supported and every single one we can find what it is, but where is the truth?

Let’s go back and let’s look at these voices that we have that just absolutely overwhelm us in this day and age and that we all listen to – we all listen to, because those voices do help us form opinions. And we’re probably all making some decisions based on those opinions that we hear and those voices that we hear. What do we need to do? Back in Isaiah 3 – Isaiah 3, and verse 10, God is speaking to His people Israel. And of course, He’s talking about the physical people here in Isaiah 3. We know that Isaiah is a prophetic book with a dual prophecy. He was speaking to the physical people of Israel back then, but he’s also talking about people today that are modern day Israel, and to an extent, physical Israel. But when we look at Isaiah 3:10-12 – we’ll look at here – it’s more the physical people – the modern-day nations of Israel he’s speaking to. In verse 10 he says:

“‘Say to the righteous that it will be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.’” You reap what you sow, God is saying. “‘Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands shall be given him.’” You reap what you sow. “‘As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O My people! Those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths’” (Isaiah 3:10-12).

Now we could go through many passages in Isaiah. We talked, not last week when I wasn’t here, but the week before, Isaiah 6 – the whole head is sick. Everything is falling apart as people depart further and further from God. And when you read these verses, and you read about leaders in our nations leading us astray, leading us to err. Are those voices that we want to put our trust in? Do we want to listen to those voices and say, “That’s where all the answers are.” There are voices out there. We certainly have to make decisions in this land, in this time that we live in. What do we do? How do we make it happen?

In John 10, Jesus Christ talks about a voice, and it’s pretty clear about a voice that we should listen to. In John 10, and verse 1, He’s talking about the Shepherd, the sheep – the sheepfold that you and I are all in – that He calls us into. And in these verses, He talks about a voice that’s out there – a voice that leads us to truth and a voice that His sheep follow. Chapter 10 of John, and verse 1: “And most assuredly, I say to you, he who doesn’t enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. He doesn’t find himself by accident in there. He is the one that the sheep will listen to. He should be there. He will lead them. To him the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Now when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice” (John 10:1-4).

Well, we might ask, “How well do we know our Shepherd’s voice?” In a land, and in a country, and in a time where we have all these voices that are just surrounding us, and absolutely catapulting us in day and night, no matter what news we listen to, no matter what station we listen to. and we could get a different view on every single station that we listen to, or news outlet that we listen to, or anything else that we listen to or people we talk to. Do we know the voice that we should be following? Do we pay attention to that voice above the other voices? Do we recognize that voice? His sheep – His people – know His voice. They’re able to determine that voice out of all the confusing voices in the world. It’s a trait that you and I have to have. Going forward, it’s not going to get less confusing. It’s not that the voices are going to get clearer and clearer, and we know exactly what to do. We’re going to have discern out of all those voices we hear, what is the correct voice? And there’s only one way to learn what that correct voice is, because as it says here in verse 5, “the true sheep will know that voice, yet by no means will those sheep” – those true sheep – “follow a stranger. They’ll run from him, for they don’t know the voice of strangers” (John 10:5).

So, if we look at the voices, if we listen to some of the voices out there, some of them would seem foreign to us. Is that what we would do? Our Shepherd’s voice says this, but this voice says to do this. Which do we choose? Which do we follow? And so, it can be a confusing time.

Let’s go over to 1 John – one of his epistles here in 1 John. Of course, John walked with Jesus Christ for the three and a half years that they were on earth. He was with Him daily during that time. He lived some sixty or more years past the time that Jesus Christ was resurrected and then ascended into heaven. He remained true all that time, and near the end of his life he wrote the three epistles that we call first, second, and third John. In 1 John 4, and in verse 1, he talks about the same thing that Jesus Christ is talking about – maybe in different terms. He says: “Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1)

He says, you’re going to hear a lot of voices, going to hear a lot of opinions. You may hear it from people who say they are religious leaders, people who are national leaders, people who call them experts in whatever field they determine they are experts in. You’re going to hear a lot of different things, but test the spirits, whether they’re of God. What He’s saying is, know your Shepherd’s voice. Is this what your Shepherd would say? Is this the voice that He would have you follow? Test the spirits, whether they’re of God,

“...because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God... [every spirit that leads you to God, that leads you to Jesus Christ and His voice, that’s of God] ...and every spirit that doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world” (1 John 4:1-3). And was in the world back then, in A.D. 90, is still here today, even more – even more – strongly and fervently than it was a few years ago. Voices that are out there, that will lead you away from Jesus Christ, lead you away from what He says, and make you think what they’re saying is the right thing and that’s what we should follow. Oh, more than ever!

Between now and the return of Jesus Christ, it is so important we know the Shepherd’s voice and we know what to do – that we don’t get led astray, or that we don’t get confused, or that we don’t make decisions and choices that could lead us away from God, because that’s what a lot of the voices of the world are. They’re either of God and lead us to God... But we know, in Satan’s world, there are no voices that are leading us to God, That’s not Satan’s way. Satan’s way is always, the voices will lead you away from God.

Today I want to look at some of the voices we’ve heard. There are three statements, if you will, that I’ve heard on the news a lot in the last few weeks. You’ve heard the same things. And look at those voices. Look at what those messages are. How do we relate to those messages? Because they’re out there in the world today. We turn them on, and we hear. The first one we hear literally every time, I think, we turn the TV on anymore – probably will hear more about it in the years ahead. I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon.

First one is – and you’ve heard it – Follow the science. We’re going to follow the science. That’s what the country will do. That’s what the community will do. That’s what we want to do. We want to follow the science. Follow the science sounds pretty innocent when you look at it. I mean, we all know science. When we were in school, science was always an interesting thing. It was kind of fun to learn about the plants, the vegetables, how living organisms work, learn about astronomy. You get into college, you do more of the chemistry, the physics, the geology. And how the world works is a fascinating thing. And that should lead us to God, right? I mean, as we learned those things, and as we see how plants just live in the earth, and how they just multiply, and how they grow, and how they produce fruit, it’s fascinating. The only logical conclusion is, God created this plant. It’s not just by accident it happened. When we look at stars up in the heavens – even the people of old – we might remember David laying on his back and looking up at the stars in heaven. What did that lead him to? Did he think about man – how great man is? “I should be doing this?” No! It led him to God. He glorified God, and as he glorified God in looking at the heavens and realizing, “This is not of man. There is a God up there that is orchestrating all of this.”

We look at David. He even would look and analyze his body, and think, “My body – my physical body – is perfectly situated for life on earth. It’s great that I can see. It’s great that I can hear. It’s great that I have hands that I can do things, legs that I can walk. I can do everything I need to do to tend the earth, to make it do what I want it to do, because God gave me this body.” And when he would think of it, he said, “We’re fearfully and wonderfully made.”

When Job was feeling a little self-righteous and thinking that he did everything right, and who was God to punish him, how did God remind him and humble him again? You read about it back in chapters 38 to 40 of Job. He reminded Job, where were you – where were you – when the earth was formed? Where were you? How does the earth just hang there in space? Where were you when the angels sang about creation? What about ice? What about snow? How do all those things work, Job? How do those things happen? What about the east winds? Where do they come from? How do the waters just stay in their valley? Just by accident? Just something that happened? Job heard God talk, and he remembered everything about creation. And he was humbled, and he realized he had repented.

Science – the study of our creation, the study of the universe that we live in – it’s a good thing to do. We should appreciate it. We should do it. But it should lead us to God. That’s the only logical conclusion. If we go back – go forward, I guess – no, go back – we’re in 1 John – back to Romans 1. This is what God is talking about when He talks to the gentile world and the early Christian world, back in the first century, that was going astray, that was coming into a time of decadence. And as people were coming in the church, they had to learn what the way of the world is – how God works versus how the way of the world works. In Romans 1, we begin in verse 18. It says: “For the wrath of God [the wrath of God] is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppressed the truth in unrighteousness...” (Romans 1:18).

God isn’t happy with the people who suppress His truth, who lead people away from God – because what may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it to them. Any logical, rational human being who looks at the world, looks at how everything works, all the systems that are in place, the only conclusion is, there is a great God who made all this, who sustains all this and who is over it all. There is no other logical conclusion. And if you don’t come to that conclusion, then you are trying to eliminate God from your consciousness. The only way that it can be. So, he says, just look around. Look at what David did. Look at what Abraham did. Look what all people who should look at the world and come to a conclusion. But there are some out there who want to suppress that truth. We don’t want to believe there is a God who does this. We’re against that God and we don’t want to follow Him.

Verse 20, “For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20). We can look at this planet and say, “The God who made this planet, He loved mankind. Look how perfect everything is. Look how beautiful everything is. Look how perfectly it works together. His invisible attributes, His love, His care, His attention, how important man and His plan is, that’s manifested in physical man and on this physical earth. Look at the attention and care that He had for what He did here.” His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and God-head, so they are without excuse. No excuse. Can’t defend anyone who would say, “There isn’t a God.” They are simply willfully standing against God, if they can look at this universe and say, “There is no God.”

“Because, although they knew God, they didn’t glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Romans 1:21).

So, if we reject God as Creator of the universe, if we say, “No, it had to happen by some other thing, some other way,” God says they become as fools. But that’s not where science should lead us to. Science should lead us to the truth about God. So, when we hear something like, “Follow the science,” we might stop and think, “Where is this science leading us to? Is it leading us to God? Or is this science that we hear about all the time on the news, is it leading us away from God? Is it leading us to God or is it leading us away from God? Science should be good. But we can look at the same science that we might have looked at when we were even in elementary school, and we have studied all those things that we studied. And where does science lead people today? Where do our children go when they have science in school today? Those who have parents, do they come home and say, “Mom, Dad, we learned about this. Isn’t God great?” Or do they come home, and they say, “You know, my teacher told me about all these things, but evolution is the answer, the big bang theory is the answer, some other goofy theory that’s out there is the answer. All these things came about because somewhere along the line there was a spark in the universe and from that spark in the universe that no one can explain where, all life occurred.” And you might shake your head and think, “Really, that’s what you learned in school today? Really? Evolution? That’s what you came up with?” That’s where science today leads our kids to believe – that even in schools, God is nowhere part of it? Parents protest if they hear that a teacher is teaching intelligent design, or whatever other way they want to do it to keep away from using the word God.

So, science today doesn’t really lead us or our children to God, does it? Those of us who have been in college, science doesn’t lead us to God. So, when I hear the words, “Follow the science,” my ears might perk up and think, “Is this a science that I should follow? Is this a science that I should put my stock in? Is this the Shepherd’s voice that’s talking to me? Follow the science, knowing where the world, and what they talk about in science today, is all about, is this spirit of God? Does it lead us to God or does it lead us away from God? And I think, if you’re thinking, and you’re awake, you realize it’s leading us away from God. It leads us to silly, foolish principles. When God says that when they choose to not honor God, they become fools. And He tells it like it is. They come up with foolish, goofy things.

Verse 22, “Professing to be wise,” these are the experts of the world, who can sit there in Harvard, sit there in Yale, sit there in every university, and tell you there is no God. Evolution is it. Big bang theory is it. Deep sea vents are it – whatever the theory is. These are the people who say they are wise. What does God say they are? “...fools” (Romans 1:22). The scientists of the world are fools.

Unless the voices that we hear on TV, that say, “Follow the science,” are something different. Maybe you hear something different than I do, because we can look at, we can look at a lot of things that science does. Medicine is part of science, right? That’s one of the things that we look at and medicine is science. The Bible doesn’t say bad things about medicine. There are a lot of things that are good on this earth, but it’s what we do with them, where we put our trust and where we put our hopes. And so those things that are good…because God does talk about medicine. Let’s turn – we were back in Isaiah. Let’s look at Isaiah 1 – just a few chapters back from where we began today. Isaiah 1, and verse 6, actually this is the verse I was referring to earlier. It says: “From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it” – he’s talking about the nation – “from the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have them enclosed or bound up, or soothed with ointment” (Isaiah 1:6). Nothing wrong if you have a wound or a bruise or a sore to put some ointment on it. God doesn’t condemn it. He says, “You know, you’re just sort of sitting there doing nothing with it. You could put some ointment on it. It might help it a little bit.”

So, He doesn’t condemn that. If we go back to Ezekiel – or forward to – Ezekiel 47, we find that even in millennial times, medicine is mentioned. Of course, this is speaking spiritually, but I think there’s a physical part of it as well. because he talks about, as the waters come from the temple of God – when the source is of God, and the voices are from God, and it leads us to God – it recognizes Him as our Healer, our Sustainer, our Provider, our Creator, our Savior and all the things that we could say of God. In verse 11, as it talks about these waters that flow from the millennial temple, it says: “But its swamp and marshes will not be healed – we’ll talk about that more another time – they will be given over to salt” (Ezekiel 47:11). Verse 12 is what I want, “Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, their fruit will not fail, they will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine” (Ezekiel 47:12).

I don’t know exactly what God has in mind, but as you look at nutritional science, and look at some of the studies that are out there on that, you find that there are some leaves on trees today that are actually more beneficial nutritionally than the fruit on them. The olive tree is one of those. Nutritional science will tell you the olive oil and the olive leaf are actually more nutritious than the olive itself. And so, we use olive oil in cooking, and you can buy, on the internet, olive leaf extract to take. There are other leaves as well. There are trees out there that they say are highly nutritious in areas. But God says these trees will be used for medicine.

Now, I know that He’s talking about spiritually there, because there is a spiritual healing that comes from eating of the tree of God. But He doesn’t say anything negative. Medicine isn’t mentioned negatively there. But where medicine has a problem is when people begin to trust in it more than God. That’s kind of always the case, right? Back in ancient Israel, you remember the stake with the serpent around it. God said, “If you look on that, you’ll be healed.” But what happened over time? People looked at that as an idol. God gave it to them as a reminder and, all of a sudden, they were worshipping the stake, and He said, “Get rid of this! The people are looking at it as an idol. They’re forgetting that I’m the one doing it. They think this little stake with the snake wrapped around it is healing them.” So, medicine can be good. We should be watching what we’re eating, and we eat the things that we’re supposed to be eating, and God promises we’ll be healthy. But from time to time, we might need some help in this or that area and God does provide for medicine. It’s okay. But what happens when we begin to trust in medicine?

So today, does the medicine lead us to look to God, and say, “He’s our Healer. And I need to do this just for a temporary time to get my body back up to where it needs to be, because I’ve made some mistake nutritionally somewhere along the line?” Or, do we look at it as our savior? So, when I look at the world today and I see and I hear, “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine,” is that leading people to God? Where is God in any of the things we hear about today? The vaccine is the savior. Science is the savior. Science is the god we’re looking to. Follow the science. We’ll determine what to do. We’ll conquer this. We don’t need to have God involved in it. We will simply do it ourselves and we will create our gods.

We go back to Psalms – Psalm 135 – we see it’s always the way of man. The way of man – except for God’s Spirit – doesn’t lead him to God. It leads him to trust in himself. In Psalm 135, and verse 15, David talks about this. He talks about the idols, and he looks at the futility, and he looks at the foolishness of the idols that people build for themselves. Here in verses 15 through 18 of Psalm 135, he’s talking about:

“...idols of gold and silver, they are the work of men’s hands” – he says in verse 15 – “They have mouths but they don’t speak. They have eyes but they don’t see. They have ears but they don’t hear. There is no breath in their mouths” (Psalm 135:15-17). So, he looks at that and says, “How silly is it? People are bowing down to this! They think this idol can do something for them.” So, we might look at the 21st century, and we don’t have little statues of Baal running around America that people are bowing down to, but they are bowing down to plenty, aren’t they? We have our gods – we’ve talked about in this country before – our economy, our military, our history. You know, we cannot fail. And there are other idols that are out there – very clear as well. Healthcare would be one of them for sure – medicine out there, used in the wrong way, that people count on and think this little substance, this is going to take care of all of it. It’s all over the world, but this is going to take care of it. Those who make them – verse 18, it says: “are like them. And so is everyone who trusts in them” (Psalm 135:18).

Where do we trust? Where do we put our trust? In God? Or in that vaccine? Or in that medicine? Or in what science says – science as defined by the world today. Where do we put our trust? Where is the Shepherd’s voice? What does He say in the midst of trouble? What does He say in the time of calamity? Does He say, “Follow the science?”

Psalm 33 – a hundred Psalms back – Psalm 33, and verse 16 – David sets the voice, or sets the record, straight. He says: “No king is saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety. Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength” (Psalm 33:16).

Nice to have. Nice to have an army. Nice to have great strength. Nice to have a horse. That’s not the thing that saves us. That’s not the thing that delivers us. Behold – verse 18 – “the eye of the Eternal is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine” (Psalm 33:18-19).

Look to science? Follow the science? Or fear God? Do what science says first? Or, do what God says first? Those who fear the Lord obey Him. They have more reverence and respect for Him and look at Him as salvation and savior more than the voices of the stranger who says, “Trust me. Trust me. Don’t trust Him. Trust me.” As people of God, we might hear “follow the science” and we might have our ears tuned and asked, Is that the voice that I will follow? Nothing wrong with listening to it. Nothing wrong with paying attention and reading studies. Nothing wrong with anything. And I’m not taking one side or another in this. What I’m saying is, “Is that the voice we follow more than the voice of the Shepherd,” and “Do we know what the Shepherd’s voice would tell us?” What do we follow?

Well, that’s one. I’ll tell you another one – and I actually heard it a couple weeks ago and I’ve heard it this week a few more times. It goes back to this vaccine – vaccine, vaccine, vaccine. And you would think, if the vaccine is the answer to all of our problems – the vaccine is the savior – , that really by April, May – whenever they say that the majority of population who wants the vaccine can have it – life should go back to normal. We should be looking at that. So, by summertime, we don’t have to worry about masks. We don’t have to worry about lockdowns. Life should go back to the way it was – pre-Covid – everything should go back the way it was. That should be the answer. That should be the goal of a savior, right? He’s going to deliver us – it’s going to deliver us. All this stuff we have gone through in the last year is going to disappear.

But a week or so ago – I’m not going to name any names – but there was a billionaire who came out, and he had an interesting statement that’s been followed up by some of the leading medical doctors whose names that you hear, that said, “People shouldn’t think that this is going to go away soon, I don’t see life getting back to normal before mid-2022.” So, my ears perked up and I thought, “Mid-2022? That’s a whole year and a half! Why would that be? Because if the vaccine is the answer to everything, and that’s what everyone’s been holding their breath to have happen, I would think by mid-2021, it’s all over.”

So, what does that voice that says – that’s been supported by other voices – tell us? Is there something else going on than just a pandemic? Is there something else that’s happening in the world than just a pandemic and trying to outlive Covid-19? You’d think the voices around the world would be saying, “Our long global nightmare is over. It’s over. Just get the vaccine and everything’s going to go back to normal.” But that’s not what you hear. You hear it’s going to go on a little longer than we think. What about that voice? What does that tell us? Well, I don’t have the answer. I can give some suppositions, because I can listen to other voices and read other voices coming from other places coming in the world, and think, “Well, if I put that and that and that comment together, maybe there’s something more than just the disaster that we’re in right now.”

If we go back to Ezekiel 7, we can look at what the Shepherd’s voice tells us about the end of the age, the modern day nations of Israel that depart from God, and how things will be. In Ezekiel 7, and verse 2 God instructs Ezekiel: “...say this to the land of Israel.” You remember the land of Israel had already gone into captivity at the time Ezekiel wrote this, so he’s talking – this is a prophecy for today. Verse 2: “An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. Now the end has come upon you and I will send My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and I will repay you for all your abominations” (Ezekiel 7:2-3). Time to pay the piper. You’ve departed from God. You’ve made decisions. And now, what you have reaped, you have sown. You made the decisions. You made the choices and those choices have consequences. And God says the end will come. Drop down to verse 5: “Thus says the LORD: a disaster, a singular disaster. Behold, it has come” (Ezekiel 7:5)! One big disaster – maybe unlike any other disaster in your and my lifetime. It has encompassed the entire world. It has revealed things that we’ve never seen before. It’s made us think things never before. We’ve seen people say things, do things, command things that we’ve never seen before – in our lifetimes. Verse 6, “An end has come, the end has come. It has dawned for you” – it’s beginning – “behold it has come! Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land. The time has come, a day of trouble is near, and not of rejoicing in the mountains. Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury and spend My anger on you. I will judge you, according to your ways” – you did it. You made the choice. When you make the choice, you reap the consequences. God’s not doing it to us. We’ve done it to ourselves – “...and I will repay you for your abominations” (Ezekiel 7:6-8).

Verse 12, “The time has come, the day draws near.” Well, we all know the day of Jesus Christ is drawing near. With every day that passes, the time draws nearer. And we all knew the day would come. If the Bible is true, and we believe it is, we know Jesus Christ will return. We know the things that are prophesied are going to happen. And we know, from the prophecies in the Bible and looking at the way the world is, this is the time that fits the definitions of the end time – not making any claims on when, where or how, but God says these things in verse 12. If we drop down to verse 23, He says: “Make a chain. The land is filled with crimes of blood. The city is full of violence.”

And we look around the world that we live in, we see violence, that we haven’t seen the likes of which before. We’ve had riots in the past. We’ve had protests in the past, but nothing like we’ve seen that has blossomed out of this Covid-19 crisis, and has nothing to do with it – more the political atmosphere that we live in.

“Therefore, I will bring the worst of the gentiles. I will possess their houses, I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease, their holy places will be defiled” (Ezekiel 7:24). Let’s look at verse 25, “Destruction comes; they will seek peace, but there will be none. Disaster will come upon disaster and rumor will be upon rumor” (Ezekiel 7:25-26). They’ll look to see where they’re going, but they’re not going to find their way. Disaster upon disaster. One disaster may pass, but another one comes right on the heels of it.

And so, we hear voices – not from the one major person who said that – who seems to have found himself in quite a position globally – has no medical background and no background that would even qualify him to be making these statements – but he says, “Don’t be thinking that this is all passing. It’s going to go until mid-2022.” Well, whether that happens or not, you know that will remain to be seen. But that’s a voice that people pay attention to.

What’s going on? Well, we can look at the situation that we live in. Now, here in Florida, we happen to be blessed in the fact that we don’t have the lockdowns that we read about in some of the other states in the country. We certainly have Corona Virus cases that occur here in Florida, but we don’t have to be subject to everyone stay at home, every business has to be shut down. We’re free to go about the way that we are. We are free to assemble here in church and the other places that we go to. But other places aren’t so blessed as we are. You hear about what’s going on in the news and think, “That would be a difficult place to live.” In some places of the country, they don’t even want church going on. We don’t want the assemblies – and the Supreme Court has gotten involved in that in a few cases – but there are some areas where church services can’t happen as freely as we have them here. And if they are, they can’t be singing – no singing, no choirs, nothing – and other restrictions.

So, we look at the world around us, and we see all these things that are happening, and all of a sudden, we see out of this Covid crisis – it is a health crisis – but we do see an awfully lot of government control we haven’t seen before. We do see an awfully lot of people telling us exactly what we need to do. And they’re backed by some science, with some reports over here, and other reports over here – none of which agree, but we’re told follow the science. But the science is all over the map. The statistics and the data are all over the map. So, there are figures in our lives now that tell us what to do, and the American public willingly follows, and the global public willingly follows. It’s not just America. You listen to the news and you see it’s happening all over the world. So, all of a sudden, I saw a headline earlier this week about governors – governors who have become dictators. And I thought, “Yeah, that’s governors who have become dictators.” Never happened before in America. Probably fifty percent of the people who live in the state couldn’t even name their governor, but now we can name the governor of several states, right? It’s kind of common news. We hear what they do, we hear what they say, and they’re on there, and they’re giving these edicts. And out of this Covid crisis, we have, all of a sudden, government controls that want to tell us everything to do, and the voice that says, “Don’t think this is going back to normal. This is happening for another year and a half,” if he’s right. Is that voice the voice of freedom or is that a voice of oppression? Where is the world going?

If we go to Romans 6, where would the Shepherd’s voice lead us? Is the Shepherd’s voice one of oppression – hold down, lock down, “Do everything I say,” lord it over. And when we look at the direction of where the world is going, is it leading us to a time of freedom, liberty and peace – the way Jesus Christ defines it – or is it leading us more toward what the government of Revelation 13 – the beast power – is? The governments that have been extant on earth for the 6,000 years of mankind – up until the last few hundred years when liberty, democracy rule the earth – is it a dictatorial voice that we’re hearing, or is it a voice of liberty? Is it a voice that enslaves, or is it a voice that leads us from oppression?

Romans 6:16-18 – “Don’t you know – our Shepherd’s voice says – that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness.” Only two choices – obey a voice that leads to sin and death, or obey the voice that leads to righteousness and eternal life. The choice is up to every single one of us. It’s a matter of what voice we choose to listen to. What voice do we choose to follow? “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin” – that’s you and me – “though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”

You presented yourself to follow the Shepherd’s voice that we have heard, that we are taught and that we read in the Bible. That’s the voice that we believe. So, when we hear some of the voices in the world, are they leading us to follow that Shepherd’s voice, and what He stands for, and what He will bring to earth, or is it leading us to a time that’s far different? A time that – I’m not going to take the time to read Revelation 13 – but the time of government control – people telling you every move you make, where you will live, how you will live, what you will do, what God you will worship and how you will worship him? It’s all there in Revelation 13. That’s where the world is going. That’s the way of Satan’s world, not the way of God. Jesus Christ will return to eliminate that world. But we have to pay attention to the voices. What are they leading us to? Who are we listening to? How is it affecting us?

If we go to Matthew 20, Jesus Christ talked about the contrast between His voice and the voice of the world. In Matthew 20, verse 25, Jesus, as He was speaking to His disciples, He makes this comment in the face of a couple of the disciples who really want that position of being one on His right hand and one on His left hand. And He responds in verse 25 by saying:

“You know that the rulers of the gentiles” – what did they do? – “they lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them” (Matthew 20:25)

That’s what the world’s way is. That’s the way Satan’s way is. They will lord it over you. They will tell you what to do. They will dictate your every move, what you can’t do, what you can do, when you can do it, the whole nine yards. And what does Jesus Christ’s voice say?

“Yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first, let him be your slave. Just as the Son of man didn’t come to be served...” (Matthew 20:25-28) – He didn’t come to lord it over people. We’re all free moral agents. He shows us the way to go, but He doesn’t make us do it. He doesn’t have the hammer over our head, and say, “If you don’t do this, you get thrown in jail.” There are benefits that come from obedience in the choices that we make.

“Just as the Son of man didn’t come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Mark down 2 Corinthians 3:17 – we read it a few weeks ago – “Where there is Christ, there is liberty.” When Jesus Christ came, the very first thing we read in Luke 4, when He stood up in the temple that day and He was handed the book of Isaiah, He said, “I have come to set the oppressed free. I have come to proclaim liberty among the captives.” When He returns, the world will be held captive by a government and a time that will absolutely have people just tied up in knots – not doing anything – and He will come to bring the freedom to them, and bring freedom to the world, and true peace that the world or Satan’s government can never do. His voice will never lead to what the world is looking to, because his voice is the voice of oppression, hold people down and dictate to them what to do, and he will always – his voice – lead people away from God – always. That’s just who he is.

We better know where God’s voice is – our Shepherd’s voice and follow it. So, when you hear things that don’t make sense, like, “This could go on for another several months,” you have to think, “Really? Well the virus should be over. What else is in play there?” And I… again, some people call them conspiracy theories. There’s some truth, maybe, out there to some of those things – I’m certainly not going to support any of them or talk about any of them, but look to the voices. Do they lead toward God or do they lead to the time coming that Revelation talks about?

So, there’s a couple voices. Another voice – and I’ll tell you exactly where I heard it. We were up in Cincinnati, as you know, a few weeks ago, and when we were coming back, we left on Thursday. We got away from Cincinnati a little late. We ran into traffic and we had to stop south of Atlanta. We were just worn out by the time 9:30 or 10:00 got there, so we had to stop and finish the trip back here on Friday morning. But before we left, I hadn’t heard, really, any news in the two weeks that we’d been gone away. So, I flipped on the TV, and thought, “Well, what’s going on in the world?” I generally knew what was going on. I get tired of hearing about all the number of cases of this and all the number of deaths about this. I thought, “Maybe there is something else out there. I turned on the TV – it was on a station, and there was a man talking – there was a governor, actually, talking – and he had a soft voice, and it was kind of an engaging voice. But the words that he was saying caught my attention right away. He was talking about worshipping God, and he said, “Do you need to worship God in a building? Can’t you worship God just as well online, as you can with a group of people? Can’t you worship God wherever you are – on any day of the week?” And the way he said it was, it just struck me, so I stopped, and I went back later to see where – what the context of what he was talking about – and of course, he was talking about a new lockdown that he was introducing in his state. The restaurants were closing. Everything else was closed up and whatever. But he had prefaced it with saying the Supreme Court had recently made some rules about churches, and that it would be a violation of the First Amendment for a state to say that they were limiting the number of people that could attend in a congregation. And so, with that as a preface, he began asking his questions. “Isn’t it okay to just worship anywhere? Can’t you do it just as well online? Do you really need to be with other people? And the way he said it was just very cunning and very crafty. And it made me think about Adam and Eve and what Satan must have done to them to get them to turn against God. “Did God really say that you’ll die if you do this?” You know, Satan has to be really crafty. He has to be really clever. He has to be really looking like your best friend on earth. He’s not sitting there coming at you with the hammer and gavel demanding that Adam and Eve – or Eve – take the fruit of the forbidden tree. And this governor had that same tone about him. That just struck me. And I thought, “How clever is that? And how are people, perhaps, perceiving that? And could, probably, some of us, who are God’s people, listen to those words and say, “Yeah, what’s the difference? Yeah, what’s the difference? Do we really need to be in a building with each other to worship God? Can’t we just do that anywhere we are? Isn’t that okay?

You’ve all heard of the Abomination of Desolation. Back at the first abomination of desolation, it was Antiochus Epiphanes who came in and everyone knows what he did. He went into the temple, and he sacrificed unclean meats at the temple – an affront to God – just an affront to God – an absolute slap in God’s face. But along with the abomination of desolation, Antiochus Epiphanes just wasn’t looking to desecrate the temple. He wanted to dismantle the Jewish religion. He hated it. And so, he gave commands about to the Jewish people. He wanted them dead. He didn’t want that religion anywhere. And part of the commands he gave was, no more assembling together! “I don’t want you together. I don’t even want this talked about. I don’t want anyone out there talking about the Jewish religion.” It’s part of history.

In more recent church history, as in A.D. 325, at the time of the Nicene Council, when the church that claimed to be the true church was leading people away from God and doing away with holy days and Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, and replacing them with Easter, and where they were sanctioning Christmas to satisfy the pagan converts that they had – to have their festival and Christmas – and when they were sanctioning Sunday, and moving people away from the seventh-day Sabbath. They also had a decree that came out. Let me read it to you. It’s in your church history thing that we’ve talked about a few times at the local Bible Studies.

But this comes from the Emperor Constantine. It was issued in A.D. 325. I’m just going to read it verbatim, as it’s written in the Book on the Life of Constantine. The author was Eusebius, an ancient historian. He says this: “For as much then as is no longer possible to bear with you... [speaking to true Christians who want to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, keep God’s holy days, hang on to the truth and cling to the truth that God had opened them to] ...For as much then as it no longer possible to bear with your pernicious errors, we give warning by this present statute that none of you, henceforth, presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed accordingly that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies, and we forbid the holding of your superstitious and senseless meetings – not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever. Take the far better course – he says – of entering the Catholic Church. We have commanded that you be positively deprived of every gathering point for your superstitious meanings. I mean all the houses of prayer, and that these be made over, without delay, to the Catholic Church, that any other places be confiscated to public service and that no facility whatever be left for any future gathering in order that, from this day forward, none of your unlawful assemblies may presume to appear in any public or private place.”

I think he left no doubt what his intent was, right? You will never meet together again, and it is against the law for you to meet. Sounds foreign to our ears. Ten years ago, when we read that, we knew that could not happen in America. We have all these protections in the Bill of Rights.

But today I hear voices that lead me to think that somewhere down the road, what Antiochus Epiphanes commanded of the Jews, what Constantine said in A.D. 325, could well be the very same thing that you and I are hearing somewhere in our future.

That’s where the voices that we hear in news, on the internet, if we’re listening and we think, “Where is this going? Is this leading us to God? Or, is this leading us away from God?” I heard that and more than ever. I thought, “How important is it to God that we are assembled together? Because if Satan is going to such extent and such voices out there that say, “Don’t! It’s scary to be together. It’s scary to be with other people of like mind.” You know, even some of the news commentators said that same thing. What is this governor saying? They even knew – and they weren’t, of course, in our church - it’s important for people to meet together. That’s part of what the gospel message is.

Do the voices we hear; do they lead us to God or do they lead us away from God? Pay attention to the voices. Pay attention to the voices, because they are leading to something that the Bible says is going to happen – something that you and I need to pay attention to, something that the voices that we’re listening to and that are maybe influencing our choices, we need to pay attention to.

In Leviticus 23 – you don’t need to turn there – you can be turning to Hebrews 10 – a verse that some would say, “He turns to this verse way too often,” but I’m going to turn to it anyway. In Leviticus 23, twelve times, as God is talking about the weekly Sabbath and He’s talking about His holy days, twelve times He talks about holy convocation, and He talks about assembly. Twelve times! Never gives reasons why we shouldn’t do that. Now of course, in this age, I’m not advocating that if we’re sick, if we have any of the symptoms they’re talking about, if we’ve been exposed… I’m not talking about any of those things. We all know how to be stewards and take care of each other as well in what we do. I’m talking about what the Shepherd’s voice says versus, what the voices of the world would say. But in Hebrews 10:24 – you’ve heard me say this in the Bible Study as well – as we’ve been going through the book of Hebrews, and we look at the doctrine, as soon as we come out of doctrine, one of the first things that God tells us in the application of our Christian life, and the doctrines, and everything that we’re reading in Hebrews 5-10, up to this point is, Hebrews 10:24, “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” We can’t do that if we’re all independent, if we’re never seeing each other. And he says, in verse 25, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Brethren, if we don’t see the Day approaching, wake up! Wake up. It may not happen next year. It may not happen five years from now. The Day is approaching. And what God says to do, as we see the Day is approaching, that’s what your Shepherd’s voice says to do – one of the many things. Even though the voices of the experts out there may tell you something different, what do we do? What voice do we follow? Well, Jesus Christ told us what voice to follow. You know I could go on. I could give a series of sermons with a number of other comments that you’ve heard, a number of other statements that you’ve heard in the news. And maybe we will do that again in a month or two, as the voices become louder and louder. But today, I just want to caution all of us, and to warn all of us, keep your eyes open. Christ says, “Don’t be deceived.”

Let me finish in John 10, right where we started today. Christ says, “Keep your ears in tune to Me.” The way we do that is by studying His word, because this Bible is His word – He’s speaking to us – by learning it, by studying it, by being together, by discussing it, by engaging God in our daily lives, by drawing closer to Him and recognizing the times that we live in.

John 10, verse 10, “The thief [that’s Satan. That’s those other voices out there that only want to take you away from God] the thief doesn’t come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they [that’s you and me] that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.”

Know His voice and follow His voice.

Comments

  • Jennifer T
    One additional comment regarding the outside voices telling us to "follow the science"... Science has also been working on a plan to block out a portion of the sun's rays using a steerable balloon to release particles into the atmosphere, which would ideally help with "climate change". At last look, a test flight was to take place in mid-2021. This work has been partially funded by a certain philanthropist who also believes the entire world needs to be vaccinated before things can return to normal. Let us consider this: a portion of the sun will be dimmed. Where have we been warned of this before? We really need to wake up, as Mr. Shabi stated.
  • Jennifer T
    Fantastic message! It says so much without having to go into every detail regarding those voices that are saturating us with information. Thank you, Mr. Shabi, for giving this sermon. Everything we're seeing right now is pushing us speedily closer to that global beast power. I know we still have it better in the U.S. than others around the world do, but oppression is increasing everywhere, and God is being shut down for the sake of science and man-made logic. This is how it begins. It starts off sounding like something that benefits everyone, but when people start to 'lord it over' others, they rarely ever give back the freedoms that they took. And it's not just about keeping freedom. We need to have the eyes to see what is behind all the strange information that we've been fed. It's obvious that end-time events are moving along much quicker than we may realize. May we have the eyes to see what is happening at this time. Ask, seek, knock.
  • ewe5737
    I don't believe I can worship in a reckless manner and ask God for His Psalm 91 protection (Mat 4:6-7). I am also stricken in conscience when I assemble with folks who willfully break the laws of men that don't violate God's laws. As a US American who's lived in an actual dictatorship, I apologize for the lack of perspective and entitled sound of this message. We will not disappear to a work camp for singing praises to God outside on a Saturday afternoon. I do not feel stripped of my freedoms. I have been given the wonderful opportunity to ask myself, what does my God require of me, and how do I do that in a way that represents Him well at this time? How do I serve Him at this time in a way that is a service to my brethren and truly a light to my community?
  • ewe5737
    We're in the middle of a pandemic and are asked to make some temporary sacrifices. As Christians we should be leading the charge on sacrificing for the good of one another and as lights to our communities. More biblical scriptures speak of sacrificing for one another than of exactly how God wants us to assemble together. Jesus said “greater love has no one than this...” and died for us. Wearing masks for one another is a far lesser sacrifice, as is assembling under a tent (the Israelites did it for 40 years), at a drive-in, or in a pod (Mt 18:20). The Philippians in Acts 16 met down by the river. If you choose not to make these sacrifices, please don't shame people who choose not to assemble together with you at this time in the sacrosanct Protestant manner of worship you may prefer. Also, please do not misrepresent restrictions. My community has been on lockdown with tent church allowed all year. My minister didn’t want to meet under a tent, so our group didn’t meet all summer and was told “we couldn’t”, which is not true. Where people have been told not to sing indoors, they can sing outdoors, setting a great community example. Many great songs in the bible were sung outside.
  • tnatresdev@yahoo.com
    excellent! A Biblically based sermon using Godly discernment and reason.
  • ewinb
    This is an excellent, well structured and timely sermon. I would comment that in the beginning, the statement about mask studies detracted from the otherwise sound advice. We must be wise consumers of information and facts. Part of that wisdom is knowing that facts can be presented mainly to advance a broader lie. Satan displayed his skill in this when he told Eve a lie in the form of the famous question in Genesis 3:1. However, using the topic of masks in the introduction, and saying that we can find studies either way, implies that the truth about their efficacy is not that important. But the weight of the full sermon is to inform us that this topic must be approached like all other topics. Where do the voices on this topic seek to take us? To move us more towards truth or more towards an ideologically motivated policy goal? The Spirit of the World beckons us by appealing to our fears and our emotions to obey, submit and conform.
  • tomandjodyadams
    Excellent admonition to keep our eyes open and know the true shepherd's voice. So important!
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