Anchors of Truth

A Prophetic Sweep of History

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: James Rafferty

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000111


00:13 Welcome to Anchors of Truth live from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:23 Well, this is a beautiful cold night here in southern Illinois.
00:30 And we just welcome every single one of you,
00:33 because it is warm here in this auditorium.
00:36 And we're mostly warmed by the gracious people that
00:40 have come to be with us tonight.
00:42 And by Pastor James Rafferty, who's going to be our speaker
00:46 in this very important series entitled,
00:50 Prophetic Insights Into Current Events.
00:54 Now this is important, because you know, I've heard a lot of
00:57 people say you can take the newspaper and your Bible
01:00 and sit down and just see things being fulfilled.
01:05 I want to tell you something.
01:06 I think that has probably never been truer than today.
01:12 And we are seeing so many things fulfilled in prophecy
01:19 right in our day and in our time.
01:22 And so we're going to look at those tonight.
01:23 We're going to look at some that may be and some that may not be.
01:26 And we're going to have what Pastor James is referring to
01:30 as a prophetic sweep of history.
01:35 Now James Rafferty is the co-director and speaker
01:39 with Light Bearers Ministry.
01:40 He and Ty Gibson are the primary founders and movers and shakers
01:47 of that wonderful ministry that is working around the world.
01:52 Both of them are favorites here at 3ABN.
01:56 And we know that you have enjoyed the ministry of
01:59 both of these men.
02:01 David Asscherick has also worked with them
02:03 and continues to evangelize around the world.
02:08 David is part of that three young men who I believe
02:13 God is using in a very powerful way.
02:17 So we're very happy that James could be with us tonight.
02:22 Before he comes, we're going to have some music.
02:26 And then also I want to offer a word of prayer.
02:31 Shall we bow our heads together.
02:33 Father in heaven, we Thank You tonight for Jesus.
02:37 We thank You for the assurance of salvation
02:40 that comes only through Him and not through anything
02:46 that we can do ourselves, but what He has done for us.
02:50 And by our claiming it and allowing Him to live out
02:54 His life within us, "I'm crucified with Christ,"
02:58 the apostle Paul said.
02:59 "Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
03:04 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
03:10 faith of the Son of God, who loved me
03:15 and gave Himself for me."
03:17 Father, we thank You for that experience
03:22 of salvation through Your Son, Jesus.
03:25 And tonight as we look at the Word and we look at the
03:28 prophecies of the Word, we pray that You will send
03:31 Your Holy Spirit to speak to each of our hearts.
03:36 And we thank You in the name of our
03:39 Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
03:42 Amen.
03:43 Just before James Rafferty comes, Celestine Berry
03:49 is going to sing for us, Make My Life A Prayer To You.
04:20 Make my life a prayer to You;
04:24 I want to do what You want me to.
04:28 No empty words and no white lies;
04:32 no token prayers, no compromise.
04:37 I want to shine the light You gave
04:41 through Your Son You sent to save us
04:45 from ourselves and our despair.
04:49 It comforts me to know You're really there.
04:57 But I want to thank You now for being patient with me.
05:05 Oh it's so hard to see when my eyes are on me.
05:14 I guess I'll have to trust and just believe what You say.
05:21 Oh You're coming again,
05:25 coming to take me away.
05:34 I want to die and let You give Your life to me
05:40 so I might live and share the hope You gave to me;
05:46 the love that set me free.
05:49 I want to tell the world out there
05:54 You're not some fable or fairy tale
05:58 that I've made up inside my head.
06:02 You're God the Son; You've risen from the dead.
06:09 Oh I want to thank You now for being patient with me.
06:17 Oh it's so hard to see when my eyes are on me.
06:26 I guess I'll have to trust and just believe what You say.
06:34 Oh You're coming again,
06:38 coming to take me away.
07:00 I want to die and let You give Your life to me
07:06 so I might live and share the hope You gave to me.
07:13 I want to share the love that set me free.
07:35 Amen.
07:37 That was a blessing.
07:40 Well we are going to be studying Bible prophecy this evening.
07:44 And I'd like you to open your Bibles to
07:46 the gospel of John chapter 14.
07:49 We're going to look at a couple of verses
07:50 as we get started tonight.
07:53 And we're going to go over this series.
07:55 It's going to be a five part series.
07:57 You know that, right?
07:59 And by the way, thank you for venturing out
08:02 into the cold this evening.
08:04 It's a blessing to be here with you.
08:05 I left 80 degrees southern California to be here with you
08:11 here in Illinois in February in sub zero weather.
08:19 But praise God.
08:21 It's warm in here. My heart is warm.
08:23 The Word of God is powerful.
08:25 And no matter what our environment is around us,
08:28 we can have hope and courage because we have Jesus,
08:32 who is the center of Bible prophecy.
08:35 John chapter 14 and verse 29, Christ explains to us here
08:40 what Bible prophecy is really all about.
08:43 In John 14 and verse 29, He says, "And now I have told you
08:49 before it come to pass, that when it come to pass
08:55 you might believe."
08:59 Bible prophecy is a revelation of events
09:03 that are going to happen before they come to pass.
09:06 In other words, it's a revelation of future events.
09:09 Things that Jesus is telling us before they actually happen.
09:12 Jesus says, "I'm telling you about things before they happen
09:16 so that when they actually happen you might believe."
09:22 Now we don't have much choice but to believe
09:26 in an event once it happens.
09:28 I mean, we see around us events taking place
09:32 and we can't really deny that they've actually happened.
09:34 But there's more to it than this.
09:36 If you just go back one page...
09:38 Well one page in my Bible.
09:39 I don't know how many pages that is in yours.
09:41 It might just be half a page.
09:42 If you back to John chapter 13 and verse 19,
09:47 Jesus here gives the same idea, but a little bit more detail.
09:54 Notice what it says here, John chapter 13 and verse 19,
09:57 "Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass,
10:03 you might believe..."
10:05 That's where we left off in John 14 verse 29.
10:07 "...you might believe that I am He."
10:12 I want to suggest to you this evening that Bible prophecy
10:15 is really all about Jesus.
10:21 I thought about this when I was preparing for these meetings,
10:27 I thought about this question.
10:29 What if we removed the cross from the Bible?
10:34 What if Calvary was actually taken out of the Old Testament
10:38 and out of the New Testament?
10:40 What if there was no Jesus in the Bible?
10:45 Would it make a difference?
10:49 Is it possible that in some preaching and in some sermons
10:53 nothing would change?
10:58 This might be especially true when we think of Bible prophecy.
11:01 There is, perhaps, no other avenue of Bible study
11:06 that seems to contain so much absence of Jesus than prophecy.
11:13 Especially eschatological or end time prophecy.
11:18 Think about that.
11:20 When you watch programs that talk about Revelation,
11:23 talk about prophecy, and talk about the end of time
11:26 and what's going to happen, how much of that focuses on,
11:29 how much of that centers around Jesus?
11:32 You talk about the antichrist
11:33 and the beast and the mark of the beast.
11:35 You talk about the calamities that are taking place,
11:37 the economic situation that's taking place.
11:39 And indeed, we're going to cover all of these things.
11:41 We're looking tonight at a sweep of prophetic history.
11:45 Just a broad picture of what prophetic history
11:48 looks like in the context of the Bible.
11:49 Tomorrow we're going to be looking at,
11:51 The Prophetic Rise of America in Prophecy.
11:54 And then, The Transformation of America,
11:58 according to Bible prophecy.
11:59 And then, The Coming Economic Control.
12:02 And finally, How to Prepare for Final Events.
12:07 So all of this is part of what God is opening to us
12:14 in Bible prophecy.
12:17 Well I want to say, that last meeting is probably
12:19 going to be the most important;
12:20 How to Prepare for Coming Events.
12:22 And we're going to weave that through the entire series.
12:26 Because I think it is vital for us, as we open Bible prophecy,
12:31 to recognize that, primarily, Bible prophecy is
12:36 a development, a revelation, of truth that helps our hearts
12:43 and our minds to understand the true identity of who God is.
12:50 The person of Jesus Christ came to this earth
12:56 to reveal to us the heart of the Father.
12:58 That's why Jesus said to His disciples at one point, He said,
13:00 "You know, if you've seen Me..."
13:02 Because Thomas was saying, "Show us the Father, that'll be good."
13:04 "If you've seen Me, you've seen..." Who?
13:06 "...the Father."
13:08 And in another place, Jesus says, "You know, no one has
13:10 actually seen the Father."
13:11 And we struggle with that at times, because we know
13:13 there have been individuals who have met the Father,
13:16 or at least have met God, or have gone to heaven.
13:19 But Jesus says, "No one has really seen the Father."
13:21 What He means by that primarily is, "No one truly understands
13:26 the heart and character of the Father like I do.
13:30 I'm the only one that has come from the Father.
13:32 I'm the only one that can actually disclose
13:34 what God is like."
13:37 Now I believe that Bible prophecy is God's effort,
13:42 and Satan's counter effort to obscure the Father.
13:48 The character of the Father, the character of God.
13:51 Who He really is.
13:52 What this world is really all about, why we're here.
13:56 I mean, we talk about beasts, and dragons, and judgments,
14:00 and antichrist, and impending doom.
14:02 And yet, in all this talk many times we mention
14:05 little about Jesus, or God's great love.
14:10 This is really not a mystery.
14:13 I mean, the whole idea of being afraid of prophecy, for example,
14:19 or feeling that prophecy is something that is scary,
14:25 all of that actually comes to us from the enemy.
14:31 Someone who doesn't really want us to know what's going on,
14:33 what's going to happen, and the events that are coming upon
14:36 the world like an overwhelming surprise.
14:39 And it's not a mystery, it's not a mystery at all.
14:41 You see, it has always been Satan's effort
14:46 to misrepresent and obscure God,
14:52 so that we would be confused about what He is.
14:56 From Genesis to Revelation we see this taking place.
14:59 And as we look at this broad sweep of prophecy,
15:03 we need to think about it as history.
15:06 Bible prophecy is really history.
15:08 But it's more than just history like man's history.
15:10 Bible prophecy is His story.
15:13 H- i-s, His story.
15:15 It's God's story of history.
15:18 It's an accurate account of history.
15:21 Something that we don't really find in the world today.
15:25 That's why the Bible is so raw sometimes, you know, so real.
15:29 Sometimes we think, "Well, why did God put that in the Bible?"
15:32 Because God is real.
15:33 God is wanting to be real with us.
15:36 And He wants us to recognize that we can be real with Him.
15:40 And so He reveals us as we are.
15:42 He reveals actions that we don't always understand.
15:46 Things that He's doing that we don't always get.
15:48 But as we discover more and more of the heart of God
15:51 and we see Him in Bible prophecy and in the Bible,
15:55 we see Him working out a will that is always
15:58 intending to be good toward us.
16:00 We get more and more of the big picture,
16:02 and all the other pieces come into place.
16:05 Now in order to understand this broad sweep,
16:09 we've got to all the way back to the very beginning.
16:10 And that's what I want to do this evening.
16:11 I want to go all the way back to the very beginning.
16:13 Because Bible prophecy is really about uncovering
16:18 the lie about God.
16:21 The deception about God.
16:23 And in the end of time that deception, that lie,
16:25 is going to become so overwhelming that we're not
16:29 going to know which way to go or what to do.
16:33 It was 1984 when I first started studying Bible prophecy.
16:36 I was, well I was a few years out of high school.
16:39 I did a lot of pre-college before and during high school,
16:44 but I never actually ended up going to college.
16:47 1980 is when I graduated.
16:48 And by 1984, my life was in pretty much a spiral
16:52 going downward.
16:54 You remember those years as the years when,
16:58 well communism was a major threat in the world.
17:01 Remember that?
17:02 I was recently at the Reagan Museum/Library
17:07 last week in Simi Valley.
17:08 They had the 103rd anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birthday.
17:13 And I'd never been to this library museum before.
17:16 It's actually really something that was intriguing.
17:20 And I'm encouraging, if you get the chance
17:21 to go there, if you have opportunity.
17:23 They have Air Force One parked in there and the helicopter.
17:26 And they all kinds of video footage from back in the days
17:30 when I was in high school and moving toward my 20's.
17:36 I was still a teenager when all of that was going down.
17:39 I accepted Christ and got serious about God
17:42 when I was 21 years of age.
17:44 But before that time, I was uncertain about
17:46 anything and everything.
17:47 I just figured that we were all going to get nuked, you know.
17:50 And as I went through this museum, this library,
17:53 as I went through and looked at the video footage,
17:54 I just remembered reading and watching
17:57 all of this stuff unfold.
17:59 It was just like going back in memory's lane.
18:02 There it was.
18:04 And there were some things that they had in there
18:06 that I didn't quite remember and didn't know about at the time.
18:09 But here, it was coming out now, you know.
18:11 All of the different talks and negotiations that
18:13 were taking place.
18:14 And how Ronald Reagan said, "Take this wall down."
18:18 "Tear this wall down," you know.
18:20 And his writers, the editors, took that piece
18:23 out of his speech.
18:24 And then he put it back in again.
18:25 And then they took it out again, and he put it back in again.
18:29 And what a difference it made, what an impact it made.
18:31 But I do remember thinking when he was elected
18:35 that there was no way we were going to survive for very long.
18:39 He was challenging the status quo.
18:43 Placing nukes in western Europe pointed at Russia.
18:47 He was challenging the power that then was
18:52 controlling much of the world.
18:54 Out numbering us two to one.
18:56 And in that context I just thought, "Well, what's the use,
19:00 what's the use, what's the use of even going to college?
19:05 What's the use of getting an education?
19:06 This whole world is just going to be blown to bits.
19:09 One false move and it's over.
19:12 Push too far and it's going to end."
19:14 So that was really a lot of my motivation.
19:16 I didn't have an understanding of the Bible at that point.
19:18 And I remember when I first began to study Bible prophecy.
19:23 And I was, you know, shown this outline of history
19:30 that specifically directed us in a completely different channel
19:36 than the one that I was thinking of,
19:39 and identified end time powers that were different than the
19:47 ones that were now in place.
19:49 At least in the 1980's.
19:52 I was challenged to the core.
19:55 And it was only as I understood some of the principles and
19:57 truths that I want us to look at tonight
20:01 that I had confidence to believe.
20:05 "Okay, alright.
20:07 If this is accurate, if this is really the way it's laid out,
20:11 if the Bible can be trusted, then I believe,
20:15 I have to believe, that communism is going to fall.
20:21 Communism is going to be vanquished."
20:22 That was 1984.
20:27 I accepted the Bible and Bible prophecy as true.
20:31 I gave my heart to Jesus.
20:33 I followed His word.
20:34 I'm making a long story short now.
20:36 And four years later in 1989, well five years later in 1989,
20:43 we all were shocked...
20:45 I wouldn't say every single person,
20:47 but a lot of us were shocked.
20:48 ...by the sudden collapse of the communist power.
20:51 It just happened like overnight. You remember that?
20:55 I talk to young people today who weren't even
20:58 alive when that happened.
20:59 And I just think, "Wow, they missed it all."
21:02 In a sense, we lived through amazing prophetic history.
21:07 We really did.
21:09 And to think back, as I went through this library,
21:12 this museum, to think back that I was living during those days
21:16 when all of this was coming down, and my faith
21:20 in 1984 took a complete about turn, about face,
21:24 and started planting itself on the Word of God.
21:27 And believing, not because of Reaganomics,
21:31 not because of the challenge that we were, Americans,
21:34 putting against communism, but because of Bible prophecy
21:37 that this system was going to come down.
21:39 That it couldn't last much longer.
21:42 And then to see that faith rewarded in 1989.
21:46 It just shot through the roof.
21:48 And this is the point of Bible prophecy.
21:51 The point of Bible prophecy is to help us to understand
21:54 events that are coming before they happen.
22:00 So that when they happen our faith can be strengthened.
22:05 Now we can't understand everything.
22:06 And there are some events that we won't really know in detail
22:10 until they actually happen.
22:11 But there are, according to the Bible, there are
22:13 a lot of things that God can reveal to us, that He is
22:17 revealing to us, before they happen
22:19 so that we won't be caught by surprise.
22:21 So that when they happen, we will be prepared
22:24 rather than scared.
22:26 Now can Bible prophecy be scary?
22:28 Yeah, absolutely. It can be scary.
22:30 But I don't think it can be one bit scarier than what's
22:34 going on in the world today.
22:36 And I was confused back then.
22:37 I didn't know what my future was going to be.
22:39 I wasn't even motivated to participate in anything
22:44 that had me living on this earth more than 10 or 20 years.
22:48 But today, I'm very motivated.
22:51 Because I know that I have a Savior,
22:54 and His Word is sure, and there's a future,
22:56 and there is a hope.
22:58 There is something that we can look forward to,
23:00 and there is something that we can do to prepare
23:01 for that future, and there's something we can do to help
23:04 others prepare for that future and have that same hope.
23:07 And that's really the bottom line of what this is all about.
23:11 We go all the way back now to the book of Genesis,
23:14 and we look here at the very beginning of creation.
23:18 And everything God created at the beginning was good.
23:20 And by the way, Genesis chapter 3 is bookmarked
23:24 by Revelation, specifically Revelation 21 and 22.
23:28 In Genesis chapters 1 and 2 we begin with creation,
23:32 we're in the garden.
23:33 In Revelation 21 and 22, we're back in the garden.
23:37 In Genesis 1 and 2, everything God made was good.
23:40 There was no pain, there was no suffering,
23:42 there was no death, there was no sorrow.
23:44 In Revelation 21 and 22, we've been returned
23:47 to that state of being.
23:48 There's a new heaven, there's a earth.
23:50 There's no more pain, there's no more sorrow,
23:51 there's no more crying.
23:55 In Genesis chapter 3, a change took place because...
24:00 Well let's just read the verses.
24:01 Genesis chapter 3, beginning with verse 1.
24:02 "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field
24:07 which the Lord God had made.
24:08 And he said unto the woman, 'Yea, hath God said,
24:11 "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"'
24:15 And the woman said unto the serpent," verse 2,
24:16 "'We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden.
24:19 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
24:22 of the garden, God hath said, "You shall not eat of it,
24:25 neither shall you touch it, lest you die."'
24:28 And the serpent said unto the woman," listen closely to this,
24:32 "You shall not surely die."
24:37 Now what did God say?
24:40 "You will die."
24:41 What did the serpent say?
24:43 The serpent said, "God is a liar."
24:47 That's what the serpent said.
24:48 "God is a liar."
24:51 And that is why Jesus, in John chapter 8 and verse 44,
24:55 called the devil the father of lies.
25:01 Personal question tonight.
25:04 When was the last time you told a lie?
25:10 Oh I know, we call them white lies.
25:12 But it's a lie, none the less.
25:16 I remember the first time that I was ever devastated
25:20 by a white lie.
25:22 I was 9 or 10 years old.
25:26 It was...
25:29 I'm going to give it away now.
25:31 ...December 25.
25:35 Do you know where I'm going?
25:37 It was December 25, and I learned for the first time
25:41 in my life...
25:43 Remember, I'm 9 or 10 years old.
25:45 I learned for the first time in my life
25:47 that there is no such person...
25:49 I hope there's no young children watching tonight
25:54 who have never heard this.
25:56 But if there is, I apologize.
26:01 I know it devastated me.
26:03 ...there is no such person as Santa Clause
26:09 living in the north pole delivering gifts,
26:11 knows who is naughty and nice.
26:13 All counterfeits of the truth, if you ask me.
26:14 But here's the point.
26:16 My confidence, my faith, in my mother
26:24 was shaken to the core.
26:27 You might think, "Well, that's so ridiculous.
26:29 I mean, you know, you're just a little kid
26:31 and it's no big deal.
26:32 And, you know, everyone... Nobody..."
26:34 No, my confidence was shaken to the core.
26:39 I wondered if I could or should ever trust my mom again.
26:43 In my little kid brain, that's the way I thought.
26:46 Because I believed it.
26:48 And it wasn't true.
26:50 It was a lie.
26:52 There's no such thing as a white lie.
26:56 I don't think there is.
26:58 That's my opinion.
26:59 But I want you to know how serious this is.
27:03 Because when we go to Genesis chapter 3, we find
27:06 that the whole problem begins with a lie about God.
27:12 And when we get to Revelation chapter 22...
27:17 Which by the way, again, is the answer.
27:22 Or chapter 21, we read about this beautiful picture of
27:26 the new heaven and the new earth.
27:27 We read about how pain and sorrow and death
27:30 is going to be done away with.
27:31 And God is going to wipe away every tear.
27:33 And then John continues to describe, in verse 8,
27:39 those who aren't going to be in the kingdom of God,
27:42 in the city of God.
27:43 And he says, "But the fearful, and the unbelieving,
27:46 and the abominable, and the murderers,
27:48 and the whoremongers, and the sorcerers,
27:49 and the idolaters, and all liars..."
27:55 Wow.
27:58 Lying is a serious thing.
28:00 Now there are a number of reasons why we do it.
28:03 And we're going to look at that as we move through prophecy.
28:06 The number one reason, I think, for all of us
28:09 is insecurity.
28:11 We're just insecure.
28:12 We are naturally, in our fallen state, insecure.
28:17 And so we find ourselves in situations where it's difficult
28:20 for us to take the onus, the responsibility,
28:22 for whatever it is in our situation that we need to
28:24 take responsibility for.
28:25 I know that's why I lie.
28:32 And therefore, we go into default mode.
28:34 And default mode is, "Umm, yeah, I said that."
28:40 "No, no. No, I didn't do that."
28:42 "Oh, I didn't mean that."
28:44 "Well, that was an accident."
28:46 "Did I really say that?"
28:52 "Yeah, I have it recorded here."
28:54 You know, living in the world we live in today,
28:56 you have to be careful.
28:57 Because...
29:02 But you really don't have to be careful
29:04 if you relax and recognize your fallenness.
29:08 And then put your trust in Jesus.
29:11 We're getting off track just a little bit here,
29:12 but this is important.
29:13 We're preparing for the end of time.
29:16 How important is this?
29:17 When we get into the midst of current events,
29:23 into Bible prophecy, we're going to find
29:28 that deception is at the center of the game plan
29:32 for our ruin.
29:34 Deception.
29:36 And I believe that the only way that we're going to recognize
29:40 that deception, we're going to be able to identify that
29:43 deception completely and totally, is if we ourselves
29:46 are genuinely connected with the truth.
29:51 And that we will shed every fiber of dishonesty,
29:56 falsehood, and lying from our being.
29:59 If we would be 100% honest with ourselves and with others
30:02 and just shed that, we'll recognize deception
30:04 as soon as it pulls its head around the corner.
30:07 "Whoop, no, no."
30:11 And that is one of the ways God longs for us to prepare.
30:15 Now, here's the devil coming to us, Eve specifically,
30:20 in the garden of Eden.
30:21 "You won't surely die."
30:22 Lie.
30:23 "For God knows that in the day you eat thereof,
30:27 your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods,
30:30 knowing good and evil."
30:32 Okay, so first of all, he lies.
30:35 And then the second thing he says basically is,
30:37 "God is withholding something from you."
30:40 Now think about this.
30:41 "God is withholding something from you."
30:42 So that means that God is what?
30:46 Selfish.
30:48 Self-centered.
30:50 "God knows that if you..."
30:56 And then he goes on to say, "You'll be like Him.
30:59 And obviously, God doesn't want you to be like Him."
31:03 Ehnk.
31:04 We were made in His image.
31:06 We were made in the image of God.
31:07 He wants, He longs for us to be like Him.
31:11 So you've got lies, you've got deception, you've got self...
31:14 You've got God being misrepresented.
31:17 Completely misrepresented.
31:18 Now why have we gone all the way back to the book of Genesis?
31:23 Well the reason is because it's really important for us to
31:26 recognize a principle that God has allowed in the context
31:31 of the story, history, that plays into Bible history.
31:35 And that principle is... Or prophetic history.
31:38 And that principle is the principle that's based on love.
31:40 And that is the principle of freedom.
31:42 We could ask the question, well why did God allow
31:45 Adam and Eve to be deceived?
31:46 Why did He allow Satan to go in there and just...
31:48 Why didn't He just pop in there and say, "Hey, wait a minute.
31:50 Don't listen to him.
31:51 Stop right there."
31:54 Because God is love.
31:56 And love requires freedom.
32:00 Which comes with risk.
32:03 God has to allow freedom as the very foundation
32:06 of His government of love.
32:10 If God jumped in, jumped in, jumped in,
32:12 every moment of every time in our lives whenever we were
32:16 faced with a choice or decision, we wouldn't be free.
32:19 If God said, "Don't do this," "Don't do this,"
32:20 "Don't do this," "Don't do this..."
32:21 I'm sure you've had people like that in your lives, right?
32:24 They're just control freaks and they just want to make sure...
32:27 Well, I have to be honest with you.
32:30 As a parent of two, one of them is still a teenager now,
32:32 16 and a girl, and the other who is 21,
32:36 I can relate to being a control freak.
32:39 Okay.
32:41 And it is very difficult to love somebody, to love people,
32:46 and not want to step in and control.
32:49 And you know, God is perfect.
32:50 He knows exactly what is the best thing to do and
32:52 what options aren't good.
32:53 I'm an erring parent.
32:55 And I don't always have the best options.
32:57 And yet I want to control.
32:59 And yet, I know the loving thing to do is to leave room
33:03 for that freedom, for that choice.
33:06 That's what God did.
33:07 Now, we believed the lie about God.
33:13 And we still believe the lie about God.
33:15 We've concluded that God cannot be trusted,
33:17 that He's selfish, that He's looking out for
33:18 His own best interest.
33:20 And the fact that we think this way is evident
33:22 in our reaction to Him.
33:23 History records us as hiding from God, being afraid of God.
33:29 And when God comes to us, when we disobey His voice
33:33 and He comes to us, history shows what our response is
33:37 we've developed this tendency to point the finger.
33:40 You know, God came to Adam and He said,
33:42 "Hey Adam, what happened?"
33:43 And Adam said, "It was her."
33:45 And God went to Eve and said, "Eve, what's your take on this?"
33:48 "It was the serpent."
33:50 And we've been pointing the finger ever since.
33:52 That's our tendency, that's our natural inclination,
33:56 if you will.
33:57 We want to avoid blame and responsibility.
34:02 Now this reveals our insecurity.
34:04 We're insecure.
34:06 Our very natures have been shaken to the core.
34:10 We now stand before each other as emotional insecure creatures
34:15 who have lost the sense of our origins in the image of God.
34:19 What does that origin look like?
34:21 What does the image of God look like?
34:24 The image of God is the image of love.
34:26 Love, 1 Corinthians 13, that suffers long and is kind,
34:33 that does not envy, that does not parade itself,
34:37 is not puffed up, does not behave rudely,
34:43 seeks not its own, is not easily provoked, thinks zero evil;
34:53 rejoice not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.
34:56 Bears how many things? All things.
34:59 Believes how many things? All things.
35:01 And here's the big one.
35:04 Hopes all things.
35:06 Endures all things.
35:08 A love that never fails.
35:14 This love is our lost identity.
35:18 And by the grace of God, it will be our recovered destiny.
35:24 If you just want to take a one liner home tonight,
35:26 this is the one liner.
35:28 Our lost identity is our recovered destiny.
35:32 Our lost identity is our recovered destiny
35:35 in Jesus Christ.
35:37 And that, basically, is the essence of Bible prophecy.
35:43 That's what Bible prophecy is all about.
35:44 Look now, fast forward with me to...
35:47 Well before we go there, just one quick look at
35:51 Genesis 3:15.
35:52 What does God do?
35:53 What is the remedy to our fallenness?
35:55 God says in Genesis 3:15, "I will put enmity between
35:59 thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed;
36:03 it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."
36:05 God here is speaking to us and to the serpent, to Satan.
36:10 And He's saying, "I'm going to put hatred between the serpent
36:13 and humankind.
36:15 I'm going to separate you from them.
36:19 I'm going to allow them to develop hatred for you.
36:23 Yes, you're going to bruise the heel,
36:26 but He's going to crush," pointing forward to the Messiah,
36:31 to Jesus, to the Son of God, "He's going to crush your head."
36:35 Friends, this is the first prophecy of the Bible.
36:40 And I want you to notice something really powerful.
36:43 The first prophecy of the Bible centers in Jesus Christ.
36:48 Bible prophecy centers in Jesus Christ.
36:52 Everything that we find in the Old and New Testament
36:57 that we label, "Bible prophecy," centers in Jesus Christ.
37:00 Because Genesis lays the foundation for this.
37:02 Genesis lays the foundation for all Bible truth.
37:06 And this particular Bible prophecy is directing us
37:11 to put our hope in Jesus.
37:13 That's what all Bible prophecy does.
37:15 Fast forward with me to the book of Daniel.
37:17 Daniel chapter 1.
37:19 Now this is a strange prophecy in a sense.
37:22 But I want you to look at a couple things with me here
37:25 that I hope will help us to understand the heart of God.
37:30 Now that's the picture we want to find as
37:31 we look at Bible prophecy.
37:32 We want to look for the heart of God in all of this.
37:37 Daniel chapter 1, and let's just read here a couple of verses
37:42 in Daniel 1.
37:44 "In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah
37:47 came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem,
37:50 and besieged it."
37:51 Alright, so basically we've got God's people, Jerusalem.
37:55 Judah and I think Benjamin are the last two tribes.
37:58 Israel has already gone into captivity.
38:00 And they're holding out, but their apostasy gets worse
38:02 and worse and worse and worse.
38:04 And Jeremiah predicted this,
38:06 and Isaiah predicted this, and Ezekiel.
38:07 So you've got a lot of warning that God has given.
38:11 And finally, it comes down to the place where
38:13 Jerusalem is being besieged by Nebuchadnezzar.
38:16 The armies of the north, the king of the north.
38:18 Not that he's in the north.
38:19 He's actually east, but he comes down from the north
38:22 as he seeks to invade Jerusalem.
38:24 Now, notice verse 2.
38:27 This is the unusual part.
38:30 "And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand,
38:36 with part of the vessels of the house of God,
38:39 which he carried into the land of Shinar
38:42 into the house of his god.
38:43 And he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god."
38:49 What?
38:52 This is Jerusalem.
38:54 These are God's people.
38:56 The chosen ones.
38:59 The enemy comes, surrounds them.
39:03 Isn't God suppose to deliver them?
39:06 It says God gave them.
39:09 Maybe God could at least just ignore the situation.
39:11 He could just step out of it and say, "Well, you know,
39:13 I'm going to let you..."
39:14 God gave them.
39:16 And not only that, but it says that there were the very things
39:20 that were part of His worship, His Sanctuary.
39:24 The vessels of the house of God.
39:28 Not only were they given over to Nebuchadnezzar,
39:30 but God allowed them to carry it into Shinar,
39:33 to be carried into Babylon, to be carried into the
39:35 house of his gods and paraded there.
39:39 This idea is this.
39:42 "Our gods are better than your God."
39:45 "Our gods are stronger than your God."
39:48 I mean, really when you think about it,
39:52 from a purely secular, non-religious perhaps...
39:57 There was a lot of religion here on both sides.
39:59 ...mindset, you realize that God has just been
40:03 humbled in the dust.
40:05 God has.
40:07 Sometimes when we read this, we think,
40:08 "Oh, God's people have been humbled in the dust."
40:10 No, God has been humbled in the dust.
40:11 Because if you read carefully the rest of Daniel,
40:14 especially Daniel chapter 9, and you look at the
40:15 history of God's people, specifically Moses delivering
40:19 his people through God's power out of Egypt,
40:21 the whole focus is God.
40:23 What happens to God's people happens to God.
40:27 How God's people fail or are victorious is a
40:30 direct reflection upon God.
40:32 And it's the same today, isn't it?
40:34 You're a Christian, you're a follower of God.
40:36 So explain this, explain that.
40:40 Explain why it is that you are the way you are,
40:42 that these things are happening to you.
40:46 You've been defeated.
40:48 The vessels have been taken.
40:49 "Is your God really such a great God?
40:52 Maybe you've been mistaken about your God.
40:55 Maybe He's not so great after all."
40:59 Could I suggest that this intentional humbling
41:05 of God through His people is the way of the cross?
41:13 That right at the very onset of the book of Daniel
41:17 we have a picture of the self sacrificing humility of God.
41:25 And that He does this primarily to reach the hearts
41:33 of fallen humanity.
41:36 It's not His number one choice to do it this particular way.
41:40 But according to Jeremiah chapter 24 and verse 6,
41:43 this was for His people's good.
41:46 That's what we're told primarily.
41:48 And He also wanted to reach somebody else,
41:51 or a few other people.
41:53 You see, the Bible teaches us that God is not
41:58 exclusive, He's inclusive.
42:00 "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son."
42:04 And His people sometimes too often fail to reveal
42:11 that attitude of inclusiveness.
42:14 Sometimes we get very exclusive.
42:15 We're in our own little click, we're in our own little church,
42:17 we're in our own little group,
42:18 we're in our own little sub-group.
42:20 And we think we're better than other people.
42:22 And we forget that God loves the whole entire human race.
42:27 He loves them with an everlasting love.
42:29 And His ideal, His longing, His desire, is that we
42:33 would be vessels through which that love could flow out
42:35 to the entire world.
42:38 I forget this much more often than I would like to admit.
42:48 But I think it's good for all of us to recognize that we've
42:52 fallen short of the glory of God.
42:54 We fail to be the instruments that God wants us to be.
42:59 Daniel saw this and God used him in a mighty powerful way.
43:04 In fact, it's so beautiful when you look at the picture here.
43:06 Because it opens up with this picture of captivity,
43:10 this humbling of God in the sight of the nations.
43:12 And then there's this dream.
43:15 I mean, God could have accomplished His purpose
43:17 in so many different ways.
43:18 And He gives this king, this heathen king,
43:20 this terror of a king, a dream...
43:24 ...that he can't remember.
43:28 A dream.
43:30 That's how God is going to work.
43:33 He's going to humble Himself and He's going to be exalted.
43:35 It's all about Philippians chapter 2.
43:37 You know, it talks there, it outlines there
43:38 if you want to read those verses sometime.
43:40 Not right now.
43:41 Philippians verses 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10
43:44 about how Jesus was equal with God and yet He didn't consider
43:48 it something to be held onto, equal with God.
43:50 But He humbled Himself.
43:51 He became a man and He became a servant.
43:54 And there are these seven steps that He takes
43:56 all the way down to death, even the death of the cross.
43:58 And then it says God highly exalts Him.
44:01 And that's what we see taking place here in Daniel.
44:03 The essence of the cross, the essence of the love of Christ
44:06 is revealed here in Daniel chapter 2.
44:09 When this dream comes to a heathen king
44:12 and he can't remember it.
44:13 And Daniel, of course, is put on the chopping block
44:16 along with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
44:18 And it's interesting how Daniel prays.
44:20 How Daniel responds.
44:23 He basically says, "Could you give me some time?"
44:26 He says this to the king's guard, Arioch.
44:32 "Could you give me some time to pray about this?"
44:40 Prayer is so powerful, isn't it?
44:45 "Could you give me some time to pray about this?"
44:47 And he goes in to his friends and he says to them,
44:51 in verse 17 of Daniel 2, he says to his companions,
44:55 "We need to desire," verse 18, "mercies of the God of heaven
44:58 concerning this secret, so that we would not perish with
45:01 the rest of the wise men of Babylon."
45:02 And then he goes into this prayer time and
45:04 the secret is revealed to him.
45:06 And he starts praising the Lord and thanking God.
45:08 And then he comes out.
45:09 And as he comes out of that prayer session,
45:11 he says, "I have..."
45:15 Let me just read the verse to you right here.
45:17 Daniel chapter 2 and verse 24.
45:20 "Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch, whom the king had
45:24 ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon.
45:26 And he went and he said unto him,
45:28 'Destroy not the wise men of Babylon.'"
45:34 I love that.
45:35 That is so beautiful, it is so powerful.
45:37 He doesn't say, "I've figured it out.
45:39 I've got the answer.
45:40 Bring me into the king.
45:42 Who cares about the rest of those guys.
45:44 Just me and my friends, we're going to..."
45:46 No, he says, "Don't destroy them."
45:48 You know, prayer changes us.
45:50 Powerfully changes us.
45:53 I wonder if when Daniel was in that dream
45:55 if he saw the whole picture.
45:56 If he saw how God had led, you know, with His desire
45:59 for them to do captive evangelism.
46:01 And this was it, this was what God was purposing.
46:05 God wanted His people to bring the message of His love
46:08 to Babylon.
46:10 God has people in Babylon.
46:12 He's always had people in Babylon.
46:14 And Nebuchadnezzar was one of those people.
46:16 And he sat on the front row that night
46:19 in that Daniel seminar.
46:22 He was the first one to attend a Daniel seminar.
46:25 And he sat on the front row and Daniel explained the
46:27 whole dream and what it meant.
46:30 "You are this head of gold."
46:31 He saw an image all of gold.
46:33 Well, he saw an image with a golden head.
46:34 Excuse me, I almost transitioned to chapter 3 there.
46:39 He saw an image of four different types of metal;
46:42 gold, silver, brass, iron, and clay and iron in the feet.
46:48 And these four different types of metal through this image
46:51 represented four kingdoms, successive kingdoms.
46:54 Babylon being the first, the head of gold.
46:56 Then Medo-Persia, the silver.
46:58 Then brass, Greece.
46:59 And then Rome, the iron.
47:03 And then the iron and clay mingled in the feet,
47:05 the ten kingdoms that came out of Europe.
47:08 And then a stone taken out of the mountain without hands
47:11 hits the image at the feet and crushes it to powder.
47:14 And that stone fills the whole earth.
47:15 Daniel was shown, Nebuchadnezzar was given,
47:18 an overview, a sweep, of prophetic history
47:21 from beginning to end.
47:23 When I say beginning to end, I mean from his time.
47:25 From Babylonian time.
47:28 From the time of Nebuchadnezzar all the way down to the
47:30 return of Jesus Christ.
47:32 This is what the king was given.
47:33 He believed it. It was just overwhelming to him.
47:35 He fell off his chair and said, "Daniel, this is fantastic.
47:41 This is amazing.
47:43 Your God is the God of gods.
47:45 I want to join your church."
47:47 Didn't last long, he was out by chapter 3.
47:49 But he came back in at chapter 4.
47:55 The point is that Daniel's book powerfully reveals
48:02 prophetic history before it takes place.
48:05 We look back now and we say, "Wait, wait.
48:07 There was Babylon, and then there was Medo-Persia,
48:09 and then there was Greece, and then there was Rome."
48:10 We remember, we know about all of these kingdoms.
48:15 Alexander the Great, then his four generals.
48:19 We know about Rome and the Caesars.
48:21 And Augustus Caesar.
48:22 But here's the point.
48:24 All these kingdoms reveal God's plan to us.
48:29 He's the center of all this.
48:31 Now, there's a lot of history, there's a lot of detail history,
48:34 that isn't covered in the Bible.
48:37 If God was to cover all of it, I don't know that I'd
48:40 be able to carry it around under my arm.
48:43 There'd be a lot.
48:46 But it also reminds us of something else that
48:48 I think is very significant.
48:49 And that is, sometimes when we look at Bible prophecy,
48:53 we conclude that God is in control of everything
48:57 that happens on planet earth.
49:02 But we need to recognize that doesn't mean that
49:05 everything that happens on planet earth is God's will.
49:09 You understand what I'm saying?
49:12 The Bible tells us that God overrules,
49:15 that He brings good out of evil.
49:17 Praise God.
49:19 All things work together for good.
49:22 And that's why Bible prophecy is so significant.
49:24 Because Bible prophecy tells us that as kingdoms rise and fall
49:28 in this world, God has a plan.
49:29 And here is God's plan.
49:30 And in the center of that plan is the Messiah.
49:32 That's when you come down through Bible prophecy
49:34 you see these elements that are predictive.
49:38 For example, in Daniel chapter 9 you have the prediction
49:47 of a Messiah that's going to come.
49:51 It says in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24,
49:53 "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people
49:55 and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
49:57 to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation
49:59 for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
50:01 to seal up the vision and prophecy,
50:03 and to anoint the most Holy."
50:08 Seventy weeks; four hundred and ninety years.
50:10 And sin and iniquity and transgression were to be
50:13 done away with.
50:15 You might think at first, "Well wow, that's really something.
50:18 How are they going to do that?"
50:19 Well, they aren't going to do that.
50:21 That's why in the very next verse it says,
50:23 in verse 25 it says, "Know therefore and understand,
50:25 that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and
50:28 rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince..."
50:32 That's talking about Jesus.
50:33 The anointed One, Messiah, the Prince.
50:35 "...shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks."
50:40 "Seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks."
50:42 A score is 20, so threescore is 60.
50:44 Seven weeks is 67, and two weeks is 69.
50:49 The people of God in this prophecy were given
50:53 70 weeks to do away with sin, iniquity, and transgression.
50:58 But the fact of the matter is that it doesn't matter
51:00 how much time we're given.
51:03 We could be given eternity and we will never be able
51:06 to do away with sin, iniquity, and transgression.
51:08 That's just a fact.
51:10 We are lost, lost, lost.
51:12 And so the next verse explains.
51:13 Now wait a minute, before you get yourselves
51:16 all in a conniption or think that you're going to accomplish
51:20 this somehow by yourselves, before you do that,
51:22 hold on just a second.
51:23 Know and understand that in 69 weeks...
51:27 You've got 70 weeks.
51:28 ...in 69 weeks, Messiah is going to come.
51:33 See, the prophecy is not just about a date that starts here
51:37 and ends here.
51:38 The prophecy centers in a Person who is a Deliverer,
51:41 who is the Messiah, who is the Savior.
51:43 The One who can take care of sin and iniquity and transgression.
51:49 The whole book of Daniel brings us to this beautiful conclusion,
51:53 this picture, this unveiling of the Messiah.
51:57 And He's going to come. He's going to come.
51:59 When the decree goes forth, from that time
52:01 there's going to be 483 years.
52:03 Because you've only got 490.
52:04 So in 483 years, He's going to come.
52:05 And Jesus Christ Himself is going to do away with sin
52:08 and transgression and iniquity.
52:10 He's going to live a perfect life.
52:13 He's going to die the death of the cross
52:15 for your sins and mine.
52:19 He's going to save His people from their sins.
52:22 And that salvation, that good news, is to be given
52:25 to the entire world.
52:27 See, this is the center of Bible prophecy.
52:29 Nothing else will do.
52:32 And of course Satan understands that, he knows that.
52:34 He's still trying to obscure, he's still trying to stop,
52:36 he's still trying to hinder.
52:38 And so in Daniel chapter 10, Daniel is praying.
52:41 He wants to understand this prophecy and
52:43 he's praying earnestly, "Please Lord, help me."
52:44 He's fasting for three weeks.
52:46 "Help me to understand this prophecy, I don't get it."
52:48 And Gabriel comes to him three weeks later.
52:49 It's not that his prayer wasn't heard.
52:51 It was heard immediately.
52:52 But there's a conflict taking place.
52:54 Friends, there are times when we pray
52:57 and we wonder, "Why isn't God hearing?
52:59 Why isn't God answering?"
53:00 God hears our prayers.
53:02 But working out the answer to those prayers
53:04 sometimes takes time.
53:05 Why? Because of the prince of the powers of this world.
53:08 See, Satan has studied Bible prophecy.
53:11 We're going to look at that in more detail
53:13 as we continue this series.
53:15 And he knows what has been predicted.
53:18 And he's going to do everything he can to obscure it.
53:20 So right here in Daniel chapter 10, you have
53:24 the kings of Medo-Persia that are, according to
53:28 Bible prophecy, needing to put forth a decree
53:31 that begins at a certain time and ends with
53:35 the coming of the Messiah.
53:37 And you know what Satan's trying to do?
53:39 He's trying to stop that decree from going forth.
53:44 And so Gabriel is explaining that he was having a
53:47 difficult time prevailing.
53:48 Because we're free human agents.
53:50 And that king of Persia, Medo-Persia, these people
53:53 can be influenced by good and bad.
53:55 So he's having a hard time influencing him
53:57 to make this decree, to go in the right direction,
53:59 until Michael comes.
54:01 You know who Michael is?
54:04 He's that great Prince which stands for the
54:05 children of thy people.
54:07 Michael is another name for Jesus, the Deliverer.
54:12 Don't be confused about that.
54:15 Jesus became a Man, doesn't mean He's a created being.
54:17 He's God.
54:18 Always will be, always has been.
54:19 God came, the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove.
54:22 That doesn't mean He's a dove.
54:23 He's a creature.
54:25 God is God.
54:26 He showed up to talk to Moses in the form of a burning bush.
54:30 That doesn't mean He's a burning bush.
54:31 God is God.
54:32 And He can come in that form and this form, and He does.
54:35 But notice this, when Michael comes to Gabriel,
54:40 He comes to help persuade the kings of this world
54:46 to initiate a decree that will end in His death.
54:54 That's the point.
54:55 That's the point of Bible prophecy.
54:58 It's to point us to who God really is,
55:00 to what He's really like.
55:02 To His heart that has been obscured and misrepresented
55:06 from the beginning to the end.
55:08 To uncover the lie, to uncover the deception, about God.
55:14 Think about it, just think about it as we close here.
55:16 Just think about this for a second.
55:20 The last book of the Bible, the last message of the Word of God,
55:25 the last part of the canon that was placed in there,
55:29 is a prophetic book.
55:31 We're agreed with that, right?
55:32 It's called, The Revelation of...
55:39 ...of Jesus Christ.
55:41 Now, I just would throw it out just for an estimate.
55:43 I've travelled the world preaching on Daniel and
55:45 Revelation, preaching on prophecy.
55:47 How many people do you think in this world,
55:49 Christian people, have never read the book of Revelation?
55:54 I had a class recently, an ARISE class.
55:56 One third of the students never read the book of Revelation.
55:58 Do you know why?
56:01 Because Satan has represented that book
56:05 as a book that is scary.
56:07 A book of doom and gloom.
56:10 A book that is to be feared.
56:11 God has placed a three-fold blessing on that book.
56:14 Are we still believing the lie?
56:19 Are our hearts still believing Satan instead of God?
56:24 I believe through this series we're going to find that there's
56:27 something powerful in Bible prophecy,
56:30 something powerful in the book of Revelation.
56:32 Not something in the sense of events.
56:33 Because there's definitely events, definitely.
56:36 But something in the sense of a revelation of Jesus,
56:42 of the person of God, that is going to change our lives
56:46 and our hearts...
56:49 ...so that our lost identity will be our recovered destiny;
56:56 the image of God.
56:57 Let's pray together.
56:58 Father in heaven, I just want to thank You this evening
57:00 for Your Word, and especially for the prophetic word
57:04 that has guided and directed so may of the events of history
57:09 and has given us hope amidst all of the deceptions, the lies.
57:13 Father, as we move into this series and look at the
57:17 prophetic sweep of history, we want to recognize that
57:20 the center of that is Jesus.
57:22 And that this is where our hope centers.
57:25 Father, lead and guide our minds throughout this series.
57:30 Help us to unveil Christ.


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Revised 2014-12-17