Sabbath School Study Hour

Noble Prince of Peace

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants:

Series Code: SSH

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00:35 Jean Ross: Good morning, friends.
00:36 We'd like to welcome you to Sabbath School Study Hour,
00:38 coming to you here from the Granite Bay
00:39 Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sacramento, California.
00:42 We'd like to welcome those who are joining us online
00:44 across the country and around the world.
00:47 We're meeting under some strange circumstances with
00:49 the coronavirus and still needing to limit
00:52 our actual contact, person to person,
00:55 interacting in corporate worship, but we are glad
00:58 you're joining us to study.
01:00 We know the Spirit of God is not limited to a place or a time,
01:03 but He is everywhere and He is willing to dwell in the hearts
01:06 of those who are seeking His presence.
01:08 So we'd like to welcome all of you to our
01:11 Sabbath School program.
01:13 As many of you know, those who have been tuning in regularly,
01:15 we've been studying through the book of Isaiah.
01:18 Today we have a very important lesson.
01:20 If you don't have a "Lesson Quarterly,"
01:22 we want to encourage you to go to--
01:24 you can actually find it at the Amazing Facts website,
01:26 the lesson for today.
01:28 Or you can contact your neighborhood Seventh-day
01:30 Adventist church and ask them for a "Lesson Quarterly" so that
01:33 you can study along with us.
01:35 We have a free offer we'd like to tell you about.
01:37 It's a book entitled "From Stress to Joy,"
01:39 and this is our free offer.
01:41 We'll be happy to send this to anyone who calls and asks.
01:44 The number is 866-788-3966 and ask for offer number 705.
01:53 We'll be happy to get that in the mail and send it to you in
01:55 North America or you can request a digital copy of the book
01:59 by texting the code "SH031" to the number 40544.
02:06 You'll be able to get a digital download of the book,
02:08 "From Stress to Joy," and what a timely book
02:11 for everything that's happening in our world today.
02:14 Well, before we get to our lesson,
02:15 we do have a special musical item.
02:17 We want to encourage you to sing along with us as we look at one
02:20 of these great hymns of comfort and encouragement
02:23 that we find in Jesus.
02:25 female: We invite you to join us in singing hymn number 189,
02:29 "All That Thrills My Soul."
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05:47 Jean: Let's begin with a word of prayer.
05:48 Dear Father, once again how grateful we are to be able to
05:51 gather in Your presence wherever we might be, recognizing that
05:54 where two or three are gathered together in Your name,
05:56 that's where You are.
05:57 And so Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit, come and speak to
06:00 us through Your Word, as we look at a very inspiring passage of
06:04 Scripture found in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah.
06:06 For we ask this in Jesus's name, amen.
06:10 As mentioned earlier, our lesson study this entire quarter is
06:13 on the book of Isaiah.
06:15 Today, we're on lesson number five that's entitled,
06:17 "Noble Prince of Peace."
06:19 And I think you know who that is referencing, so we invite
06:22 Pastor Doug to lead us in our study today.
06:25 Doug Batchelor: Good morning.
06:27 Want to welcome everybody that is watching us online.
06:30 We know we've got folks that are watching us on a variety of
06:33 satellite networks as well as watching it live on the
06:37 Internet, and we're just so thankful that you're able to
06:39 study with us here at the Granite Bay Hilltop Church.
06:42 I have a few people that are part of our online production
06:45 crew that are here with us today.
06:47 And I'm really excited to get into our lesson today.
06:50 We've got a big assignment.
06:52 We're going to be studying Isaiah chapter 9, 10, 11,
06:57 and 12, and there's a lot of material in there.
07:01 I don't know that we're going to get through it all, so I hope
07:04 you'll extend some grace and mercy.
07:06 Sometimes people write us letters that say, "You didn't
07:08 get through the lesson," but you've got to know
07:11 we tried our best.
07:13 Now, today, I'm using this microphone because my other
07:15 microphone was having some technical problems, so I just
07:18 wanted to explain that.
07:20 Also I've got some notes spread out here that I'm going
07:21 to need to use.
07:23 You know, I think it would be a good place to start to get the
07:25 background for the time in which Isaiah is writing.
07:29 If you have your Bibles handy, turn to the second book
07:33 of Kings chapter 16.
07:37 Now, you know, in the very beginning of Isaiah, it tells us
07:39 that he was a prophet during the reign of many kings.
07:44 And it's in particular during the time of Ahaz that I think
07:49 some of the events we're going to study today are transpiring.
07:52 So if you turn to Isaiah chapter 16 and--
07:55 I'm sorry, 2 Kings 16, and I'll start with verse 1:
08:02 "In the 17th year of Pekah the son of Remaliah,
08:06 Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign.
08:10 Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned 16
08:14 years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the
08:18 sight of the Lord his God, as David his father had done.
08:22 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel."
08:25 The kings of Israel had turned to idolatry and they had a
08:28 golden calf at Dan and they also had one in Samaria.
08:35 And he had begun to get involved in the idolatry of these--
08:39 of the northern kingdom.
08:41 "He made his son pass through the fire."
08:45 And it also says later Manasseh did that.
08:46 He became involved in some of the child sacrifice.
08:50 Now, you can tell God didn't bless Ahaz very much because he
08:53 started reigning when he was 20, and he was done in 16 years.
08:56 Makes him how old?
08:58 Thirty-six.
09:00 So it was a time of great apostasy
09:02 in the southern kingdom.
09:05 "According to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had
09:08 cast out before the children of Israel.
09:10 And he sacrificed, and he burned incense on the high places,
09:13 and on the hills," and they had idols in these different places,
09:16 "and under every green tree.
09:18 Then Rezin, the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah,
09:22 king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they
09:25 besieged Ahaz but they could not overcome him."
09:29 All right, now, let me give you just a little geography lesson
09:33 here and a little history.
09:37 Israel, when they first inhabited the Promised Land the
09:39 12 tribes were all one nation and they stayed one nation
09:44 through the time of the judges.
09:46 They stayed one nation through the time of King Saul, David,
09:51 and Solomon.
09:53 After Solomon had a son, and Solomon's son, Rehoboam, did not
09:59 make some good decisions, and he ended up losing the kingdom,
10:02 broke off into a civil war.
10:05 They didn't want to pay the high taxes they had paid to Solomon,
10:07 and so you had roughly ten tribes in the north
10:10 and they were called Israel.
10:13 The southern kingdom was called Judah.
10:15 Sometimes they called the north Ephraim, because it was the
10:18 biggest tribe and they would call the southern tribe, they'd
10:22 say Jerusalem, Samaria, so there are several terms, but Israel,
10:25 for the rest of their history, was north and south
10:28 because of this terrible civil war.
10:30 North of Israel, the ten tribes, you have Syria,
10:35 their capital is Damascus there on the Mediterranean coast.
10:40 And of course, Damascus is still there today.
10:43 Then inland was a great empire called Assyria.
10:46 I know when I first started reading the Bible, I got
10:48 confused by Syria, Assyria.
10:50 I said, "Are they the same thing?"
10:52 Assyria is a different kingdom and even though they finally
10:55 conquered Syria and they ended up owning some of that same
10:57 territory, their capital was in Nineveh.
11:00 You remember Jonah went to preach to the Ninevites.
11:03 And so you need to understand that as we read now what
11:07 happened and this all plays into Isaiah and his prophecies
11:10 that he makes.
11:12 So the king of Israel, Rezin, he got together with Pekahlia,
11:16 the son--Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Syria.
11:20 They attacked. They got a confederacy.
11:22 They attacked Judea and Jerusalem.
11:24 They tried to conquer Jerusalem.
11:26 They couldn't conquer the city because it was a great fortress,
11:29 but they did take several cities of Judah.
11:32 And it says that "they went to make war;
11:34 they besieged Ahaz but they could not overcome him.
11:37 And at that time Rezin king of Syria captured Elath and Syria,
11:41 and drove away the men of Judah from Elath.
11:44 Then the Edomites went to Elath, and they dwell there
11:47 to this day."
11:48 So a lot of territory was lost and changed hands.
11:51 "So Ahaz," instead of turning to the Lord and repenting, he sends
11:55 "messengers to Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria, saying,
12:00 'I am your servant and your son.
12:02 Come and save me from the hand of the king of Syria
12:05 and from the hand of the king of Israel,'"
12:07 who is Pekah, the son of Remaliah,
12:10 "'who rise up against me.'
12:12 And Ahaz took the silver, and the gold that was found in the
12:14 house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house,
12:18 and he sent it as a present," he sent millions of dollars to help
12:22 fund or subsidize a war so that they would fight against his
12:26 enemy, "So the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king
12:31 of Assyria went up against Damascus,"
12:34 that's the capital of Syria, "and he took it, and he carried
12:39 its people captive to Kir, and he killed Rezin."
12:42 That was the king of Syria.
12:45 All right, and then it says: "Now King Ahaz,"
12:47 to thank the king of Assyria for fighting for him,
12:50 he goes up to Assyria to thank him, he goes to Damascus,
12:52 he sees an altar there.
12:54 He thinks, "What a beautiful altar."
12:55 He then begins to model the altar in the house of the Lord
12:58 after the altar in Nineveh, or Damascus, rather.
13:03 And so you just see that they're really losing their identity.
13:07 Ahaz was not a good king.
13:09 They're being attacked from the north, and Israel lost--
13:13 or Judah lost territory.
13:15 Now, before I go any farther, history repeats itself.
13:22 What you had is you had one nation of Israel,
13:27 but part of the nation turned to idolatry in the north.
13:31 They began to make idols at Bethel and Dan in Samaria
13:37 and Dan up in the north.
13:39 That happened under the time of Jeroboam.
13:42 His nickname was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat who did cause
13:45 Israel to sin.
13:47 Then for a while, the southern kingdom was faithful,
13:50 the sons of David.
13:52 But gradually, they began to compromise until the whole
13:55 nation compromised.
13:57 That history is repeated after the time of Christ in what
14:01 happened to the church.
14:03 The church gave itself over to idolatry.
14:06 You had the faithful, those who protested that, starting with
14:09 the Waldenses, and the Hussites, all the way through Huss
14:12 and Luther, and they were resisting that.
14:15 They were trying to bring about revival, but finally, the
14:18 daughters of Babylon ended up copying the mother
14:21 and then judgment came.
14:23 That's what's happening to the church today.
14:25 The protestants are losing their identity just like Judah lost
14:30 its identity and everybody's just saying, you know,
14:33 "Hey, what they're doing looks pretty good.
14:34 Let's model our worship after theirs.
14:36 See what he has then?"
14:38 Say "Oh yeah, I kind of like the way they worship--
14:40 the worship of the north."
14:42 He's worshiping like the people in the northern kingdom.
14:44 Then he's going to worship like the Syrians.
14:48 And there's great religious compromise.
14:50 So these judgments begin to come.
14:52 That gives us a backdrop for what Isaiah is talking about.
14:55 So let's go to Isaiah chapter 9, and we have a memory verse.
15:00 And the memory verse comes to us from Isaiah 9.
15:02 This is lesson 5, it's called "Noble Prince of Peace."
15:06 And again, our mission is to study Isaiah 9 all the way
15:09 through Isaiah 12.
15:11 So I'll be hopping around a little bit.
15:14 In Isaiah 9:6, our memory verse: "For unto us a Child is born,
15:17 and unto us a Son is given; and the government
15:20 shall be upon His shoulder.
15:22 And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty
15:26 God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
15:31 Now, when it says Wonderful, Counselor,
15:34 some people think that Wonderful,
15:36 then you see in the King James it says comma
15:38 Counselor.
15:41 Probably in the original, you've got four titles here:
15:42 Wonderful Counselor is one.
15:45 What kind of Counselor? A wonderful counselor.
15:47 Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
15:51 Those four titles sort of represent something universal:
15:53 north, south, east, west, that God is King of all.
15:57 And so and that's our memory verse.
16:00 And then it talks about these wars in these chapters
16:03 that we're dealing with.
16:05 In the Sabbath School lesson it makes an interesting note that
16:08 in all the time of recorded history there's only about 8%
16:13 of the time that the world has not been at war in one way
16:16 or the other.
16:18 Now, in chapter 9, our section here says:
16:22 "The end of gloom for the Gentiles."
16:25 And these are the Gentiles that are living north of Judah around
16:27 the Sea of Galilee that used to be the territory of Israel,
16:30 the ten tribes.
16:32 And it's--keep in mind, as we're talking about the gloom, the
16:36 chapters that you find in your Bible, a man did that.
16:40 They're not necessarily divinely picked where they put
16:43 a chapter line.
16:46 And so to understand about the gloom in Isaiah 9:1
16:48 you've got to go back one verse.
16:51 Look at Isaiah 8:22.
16:53 It says: "Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and
16:56 darkness, gloom and anguish; and they'll be driven
17:00 into darkness."
17:02 Next verse, Isaiah 9:1: "Nevertheless the gloom will not
17:05 be upon her who is distressed, as when at first He lightly
17:09 esteemed the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and
17:13 afterward more heavily oppressed her, by the way of the sea,
17:16 in the Jordan, in the Galilee of the Gentiles."
17:20 So he's saying that I know that the land of Israel
17:24 has suffered a terrible judgment.
17:26 You know, it was during the time of Isaiah that the king of
17:30 Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser, who had temporarily joined Ahaz
17:35 to fight against Syria, he later got down, and he says,
17:38 "Yeah, Jerusalem's got a lot of money.
17:40 I think I'll just take them too."
17:42 And so he thought, "Hey, will you be my friend and fight
17:45 against my enemies," and what ended up happening
17:48 is that king came down, he said,
17:50 "I'm powerful enough to take the whole thing."
17:51 So he became their enemy.
17:53 He conquered the northern tribes of Israel at first.
17:56 He took them away captive.
17:58 Now, don't forget this, friends.
18:00 You're talking about over 500 years before Jesus.
18:03 The ten tribes in the northern kingdom, southern kingdom had
18:07 Judah, Benjamin, and the Levites were the priests so they didn't
18:10 count so much as a tribe.
18:12 They were really for everybody, but you really had Benjamin,
18:15 Judah, and Levy.
18:17 The ten tribes, Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun, Naphtali,
18:20 who lived around the Galilee, they're carried off to Assyria.
18:26 He conquered the land of the northern empire,
18:28 carried them to Assyria.
18:30 The people of Judah, after Babylon conquered them,
18:33 they came back.
18:35 The ones who were conquered by Syria never came back.
18:37 So when you read in Revelation chapter 7, and it says that
18:42 God's going to get 12,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel, 12,000
18:45 from Naphtali, Ephraim, Zebulun, are they literal Israelites?
18:51 They can't be.
18:53 Long before Jesus was born, you'd be hard-pressed to find
18:56 ten people that were purebred, pure blood from Issachar
19:00 or from Zebulun.
19:02 So to say you've got 12,000 of them now in the last days,
19:06 it's obviously there's a spiritual meaning there.
19:08 See what I'm saying?
19:10 The ten tribes never came back.
19:12 The southern kingdom, when they were conquered,
19:14 they did come back then because Jesus came
19:17 from the southern kingdom, through Judah.
19:19 They not only came back after the Babylonian captivity,
19:21 the southern kingdom came back in 1948, and now we talk about
19:25 the Jews, we're not talking about Israelites.
19:29 The Jews are really from the tribe of Judah.
19:31 That's the name that was used.
19:33 So, it ends up that the king of Assyria ended up attacking them.
19:36 They went through great judgments, and Isaiah's saying,
19:39 "Look, the darkness that you suffered, the land being taken
19:43 over," he said, "God is going to show you mercy."
19:47 And if you can read in 2 Kings 15:29: "In the days of Pekah the
19:54 king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came, and he
19:59 took Ijon, Abel Beth Maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead,
20:06 Galilee, and the land of Naphtali;
20:08 and he carried them captive to Assyria."
20:11 Now, they never came back.
20:13 They intermarried with the Assyrians, they did not maintain
20:16 their distinct identity.
20:18 Do you know why the Jews maintained
20:19 the distinct identity?
20:21 The Bible.
20:23 They still had the Scriptures.
20:25 They were going by the Scriptures.
20:27 It told them who they were.
20:28 It told them their heritage.
20:30 It gave them their language.
20:32 A Jew today who's educated can read some of the Dead Sea
20:34 Scrolls, even though the text is very difficult.
20:36 It's like you and I reading the original King James.
20:39 You can kind of fight through it, but they're still
20:42 the same people.
20:44 The ten tribes in the north had given up the Scriptures.
20:46 They did not have the temple.
20:47 They lost their identity.
20:49 They intermarried with the Assyrians, and if you do a DNA
20:52 test, many of the Assyrians, they're all Semitic people,
20:55 they'll have some Jewish blood.
20:57 It came back from the ten tribes.
21:00 But what happened then is after Tiglath-Pileser carried the ten
21:04 tribes north, you know what the people of Judah did during
21:08 the time of Hezekiah, and the king just before him?
21:12 They began to move north.
21:15 So when Jesus is living, who is it that when Jesus
21:19 is ministering around Galilee, are they the ten tribes,
21:22 or are they Judah?
21:24 The people of Judah had come and inhabited some of the northern
21:27 kingdom at that time.
21:29 All right, hope that all makes sense.
21:31 So with that, you've got--it says: "Zebulun, Naphtali, and
21:37 Manasseh, that is the country of Galilee all around Gennesaret,
21:41 was part of that principal that suffered under the Assyrian
21:44 invasion under Tiglath-Pileser," that we just read about.
21:48 Now what is the promise Isaiah makes in verse 2?
21:51 Isaiah 9, verse 2: "People who walked in darkness have seen
21:55 a great light; and those who dwelt in the land of the shadow
21:59 of death, upon them light has shined."
22:02 Now, Matthew applies this to the ministry of Jesus.
22:06 Did Jesus begin his ministry in Bethlehem, or did he begin his
22:10 ministry in the country of Zebulun, Naphtali, Manasseh,
22:13 around Galilee?
22:15 And that was the great light that had shined.
22:18 Yes, they'd been through some time of gloom and darkness,
22:20 but God said a light is going to come to this territory.
22:24 And you can look in John 1:43-44.
22:28 Says: "The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee,
22:31 and He found Philip and He said, 'Follow Me.'
22:33 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter."
22:36 All of the early--not all.
22:39 Most of the early apostles came from the regions around Galilee.
22:42 You remember when Peter was denying Christ at his trial,
22:46 the girl said, "You're a Galilean.
22:48 You've got an accent of a Galilean.
22:50 Your speech betrays you.
22:52 We know the followers of Jesus are largely from Galilee."
22:54 And so that prophecy was fulfilled that a lot of Jesus's
22:58 ministry was in the land of Galilee.
23:00 He knew He'd have so much resistance from the priests
23:03 in Jerusalem in the temple to His teaching.
23:06 And so He went to where the poor people were working
23:09 up around the sea.
23:11 You look in Isaiah 60, verse 2, talking about darkness and gloom
23:15 and light: "For behold, the darkness will cover the land
23:18 and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over
23:21 you, and His glory will be seen on you."
23:25 All right, let's go to Isaiah 9, verse 4:
23:28 "For You have broken the yoke of his burden,
23:30 and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of the oppressor,
23:33 as in the day of Midian."
23:35 He's saying that God is going to set them free from the land
23:38 of the oppressor.
23:39 Now, the liberation that Isaiah's talking about from
23:43 the enemy, is he talking about the Syrians, or the Assyrians,
23:48 or the Romans, or the Babylonians?
23:50 Or is he now when Jesus preaches, is he talking about
23:53 a different kind of liberation?
23:55 It's a liberation from the devil who was the real enemy.
24:00 And he describes in the days of--he says:
24:03 "As in the days of Midian."
24:05 He's talking about Gideon, and the Judges,
24:07 the Midianites were oppressing the people of Israel.
24:11 And just a handful of Israelites,
24:15 Gideon had how many men?
24:17 Three hundred men.
24:19 They went against an army of, like, you know, 800,000
24:21 and they won.
24:24 And what they used, they used a trumpet which is a symbol
24:28 for the Bible.
24:30 "Lift up your voice like a trumpet."
24:31 They used a lamp.
24:33 "The Word is a lamp unto my feet," a symbol of the Bible.
24:36 They used a sword.
24:38 They said, "The sword of the Lord in Gideon," so they had
24:40 swords, a symbol of the Bible.
24:42 So how did they overcome the enemy?
24:43 With the Word.
24:45 And so that's why he said, "As in the days of Midian,
24:47 it is going to be God that will give you the victory,
24:49 and free you from the oppressor."
24:51 So this is what Isaiah is referring to here.
24:54 And then he goes on, and he says,
24:58 "You've broken the yoke of the burden."
25:02 Well, what is that talking about?
25:03 Jesus says in Matthew 11:29: "Take My yoke upon you."
25:07 So it's talking of breaking free from the yoke of the devil.
25:10 The light of Jesus's teaching sets them free.
25:13 "Learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
25:16 and you will find rest for your souls."
25:18 Now go to Isaiah 5, verse 9: "For every warrior's sandal
25:22 from the noisy battle, and the garments rolled in blood,
25:25 will be used for burning and fuel of fire."
25:28 I know that may seem a little difficult when you first read it
25:31 but you look other places, and Isaiah talks about things
25:34 that were made for war being used for peace.
25:37 He said they'll take their spears and they'll shape them
25:40 into pruning hooks for the garden.
25:43 And they'll beat their swords and turn them into plows.
25:46 In other words, they won't use the iron for weapons, they'll
25:49 use the iron for farming because it's a time of peace.
25:52 And so here these garments are going to just be used for fuel;
25:55 they're not going to be used for fighting anymore.
25:57 And so he's saying this land of Naphtali you're going to have,
26:01 the yoke of the oppressor is removed, great light is going
26:04 to shine in your gloom, and you're going to find peace.
26:07 That's talking about the ministry of Christ that would
26:09 come to that area.
26:11 Isaiah's--he's called--Isaiah's called the Old Testament
26:14 messianic prophet.
26:16 So much what of Isaiah says talks about Jesus.
26:19 All right, let's move on here.
26:21 In--then he goes on, and he says, let's see here.
26:26 Start with Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6:
26:29 "For unto us a Child is born."
26:32 Who is that talking about? That's Jesus, right?
26:35 "Unto us a Son is given."
26:37 "For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son,"
26:42 that's Jesus, "that we might not perish."
26:46 And it says, and now, just so you know, some of the Jews
26:51 when they read this, they say, "Well, yeah,
26:53 that was talking about Hezekiah."
26:55 Hezekiah became a very godly king and when the Assyrians
26:58 attacked the northern kingdom, they tried to attack Hezekiah,
27:00 but Isaiah said, "God is not going to let them
27:02 even fire an arrow here."
27:04 God delivered that little kingdom of Jerusalem and Judea
27:08 from the great Assyrian empire.
27:10 God fought for them, 185,000 Assyrians died
27:13 in one night.
27:16 Now, I'm getting ahead; that's later in Isaiah.
27:18 But some people say, "Well, Hezekiah was the promised Son."
27:21 Not so.
27:23 When this prophecy is written, Hezekiah's already born.
27:25 And so it's not talking about Hezekiah.
27:27 Hezekiah was a type of Christ, but it's ultimately talking
27:30 about Jesus.
27:32 "And the government will be on His shoulder."
27:35 Now, I think it's talking about more than an earthly king.
27:38 What does it mean, "The government will be
27:40 on His shoulder"?
27:42 Doesn't say shoulders, like He's holding it up.
27:43 Kings back then often carried--they wore a banner that
27:48 would go across and on the shoulder hung a badge
27:51 or a key showing their authority, their signet.
27:54 And that was representing that he would have the authority.
27:57 Let me give you an example from Isaiah that shows that.
27:59 Go to Isaiah 22:22, if you can find that.
28:02 Isaiah 22:22.
28:05 It says: "The key of the house of David I will lay
28:08 upon His shoulder."
28:10 Does that make it clear?
28:12 Saying that this person would have that key.
28:14 Now go to Revelation chapter 3, verse 7.
28:18 "He has the key of David.
28:21 He who opens and no one can shut."
28:23 So there both it talks about the key of David in Revelation and
28:26 Isaiah, and if you read in this prophecy it's saying that He's
28:29 got--it says a child, the son of David that is going to have
28:33 the authority of the kingdom.
28:35 So do we need to guess who it is that lifts the gloom that's
28:38 talked about in Isaiah 9?
28:40 It's talking about the ministry of Christ, and you compare
28:43 Scripture with Scripture.
28:45 It goes on to say that it says: "He's got the key and He opens
28:48 and no one can shut.
28:50 And He shuts and no one can open."
28:52 Now, does Jesus say something in His teaching about sharing
28:56 those keys with believers?
28:59 He does.
29:01 He says, "I give you the keys to the kingdom."
29:03 He wasn't talking about Peter;
29:05 He's talking about every believer.
29:06 And what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
29:08 How do you and I have the key?
29:11 We don't really own the key.
29:13 Christ is the key, the truth is the key, but in knowing Christ
29:15 we get to share it.
29:19 Does Jesus say you are the light of the world?
29:22 He does.
29:24 But doesn't Jesus say, "I am the light of the world"?
29:26 So do we have any light of our own, or do we really glow
29:28 because of Christ?
29:30 So as we share Christ, we also are the light of the world.
29:32 See what I'm saying?
29:34 And so it's His key.
29:37 I remember a funny story a friend told me.
29:40 I think I may have shared this in church before.
29:43 He flew to see his brother, I won't tell you his name,
29:47 in Montana.
29:50 And he had a nightmare of a travel experience, so the next
29:52 day he was exhausted but his brother had to go
29:55 to the dentist, and the dentist office was at this--
29:57 the biggest mall in Montana.
30:00 And my friend, he walked around for a minute in the mall, and he
30:03 just got so tired, and he went to his brother and said,
30:05 "Look, give me the key to the car.
30:06 I've got to get a nap. I'm exhausted.
30:08 I'm going to lay down in the car until you're done
30:10 with your dentist appointment."
30:11 He went to the parking lot and have you ever done this before
30:13 where you weren't paying real close attention to where you
30:15 parked when you went into the parking lot?
30:18 And he knew his brother had a white Subaru.
30:22 You have no idea how many Subarus there are up in Montana.
30:25 You'd think they'd be more loyal Americans but they drive
30:27 a lot of Japanese cars there.
30:30 And I guess a lot of them are made in America.
30:33 So he says, "Oh man."
30:35 He doesn't want to bother his brother and this is a huge mall.
30:37 It is surrounded by parking, thousands of cars.
30:41 He starts to walk around, hitting the panic button.
30:45 Have you ever done that, yeah, in trying to find
30:47 where's your car?
30:49 And he said, finally, beep, beep, a light went off,
30:52 and he went and--but the key would not open it.
30:56 He said, "Well, this isn't the right car.
30:58 It just had the right signal for the panic button."
31:00 So, then he commences to walk a little further.
31:02 Keeps pressing, keeps pressing.
31:04 Another one went off.
31:05 He went to open it up.
31:07 It didn't open.
31:09 And he's becoming suspicious because there's cameras in the
31:11 parking lot, and he's thinking, "They're going to watch me.
31:13 Some security somewhere is going to see me just going
31:14 from car to car, trying to get into a car."
31:16 And he was a little self-conscious about that,
31:18 but he said, "I've got to go to sleep."
31:20 And he just kept going.
31:21 Pretty soon, he got one that went "beep, beep."
31:23 White Subaru.
31:25 Went, and he--the key worked.
31:27 He laid down, took a nap.
31:30 Woke up pretty soon.
31:32 He thought, "Well, I probably ought to take the car over where
31:34 my brother is going to be waiting for me,"
31:36 and he stuck the key in the ignition.
31:37 It didn't work.
31:40 He had taken a nap in someone else's car.
31:44 Eventually, he found his brother,
31:45 and he found the right car.
31:47 But it does make a difference having the right key, and are
31:51 there some churches out there that have counterfeit keys?
31:55 You think they work, but when you really go to use them
31:58 to get the car started, it doesn't work.
32:01 And only Jesus has that key.
32:03 And it says, "His name will be called," and we talked about
32:05 this, "Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God,
32:09 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."
32:11 Now, who is this speaking of?
32:16 Got a few people here. You can answer me.
32:18 Who's this talking about?
32:20 Jesus.
32:22 It's not a trick question.
32:24 When you think of Jesus, we always think about Him
32:25 as the Son of God.
32:27 Do we sometimes think about Him as the Everlasting Father?
32:29 You know, Christ goes by many names, but all things that were
32:32 made were made by Him.
32:34 So is He our creator?
32:36 Then in that sense He is our Everlasting Father.
32:39 But He also is called the Son.
32:41 He's also says, "I am your Brother," and He says,
32:44 "I am your friend."
32:46 And He's our husband.
32:48 So Jesus has many familial titles, and one of them
32:53 is the Everlasting Father.
32:55 But is it true that Christ, and the Father are one also?
32:58 Yeah, so anyway, that's just one of His titles.
33:01 And why is He called Wonderful?
33:03 How many of you remember the story where Samson's parents,
33:07 they spoke to the angel and finally they said--
33:10 they made an offering, they said, "Tell us Your name
33:12 so that we can worship You."
33:14 He said, "Why do you ask after My name?
33:16 It is Wonderful."
33:20 And so actually, He says that is one of His names.
33:22 And then He ascended in the offering that they made.
33:26 All right, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.
33:29 Go to Isaiah 9:7: "Of the increase of His government
33:32 and peace there will be no end."
33:34 Now if you had doubts before, hopefully you have no longer
33:37 any doubts that this is talking about Jesus.
33:41 "Whose kingdom will have no end."
33:44 If you look in Daniel 7:27, like the airplane, "His kingdom is
33:49 an everlasting kingdom and all dominions will serve Him."
33:55 And then you read on here in Isaiah in the next verse and
33:58 it's still going with verse 7: "Upon the throne of David and
34:01 over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment
34:05 and justice from that time forward, even forever.
34:09 The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this."
34:11 So we're still in Isaiah 9.
34:14 He's making it very clear, the light that was brought
34:16 to the north of Israel, Galilee, the freedom from the yoke,
34:23 the Son of David, the keys of truth, the Everlasting kingdom.
34:28 Where did Jesus first say, "Repent for the kingdom of
34:31 heaven is at hand"?
34:33 Was it in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, or around Galilee?
34:36 Galilee.
34:38 So Isaiah is predicting this is where the ministry of truth
34:40 is going to begin.
34:42 Yeah, Jesus was baptized down by the Jordan, but He began
34:45 His ministry up around Galilee and He was preaching
34:49 through their cities.
34:51 And it says that He's going to have the throne of David.
34:53 You read in Luke 1 one of the prophecies about Jesus
34:57 that was given.
34:59 It says: "He will be great and He will be called the Son of the
35:01 Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne
35:04 of David--his father David.
35:07 And He will reign over the house of Jacob," not just Judah.
35:10 Jacob is all 12 tribes.
35:12 "He'll reign over the house of Jacob and His kingdom there
35:15 will be--of His kingdom there will be no end."
35:18 Now, I talked to you a little bit ago about the history of the
35:22 12 tribes and how 10 of the tribes fell into apostasy.
35:25 They were conquered by the king of Assyria,
35:28 carried to the north, replaced.
35:30 And the king of Assyria later brought some Assyrians down
35:34 to live in that area and they were called Samaritans.
35:38 Why did Jesus choose 12 apostles?
35:40 Were the 12 apostles of Jesus from 12 different tribes?
35:44 Or were many of them from the same tribe?
35:48 The number 12 now for the people of Judah still was important
35:52 because when Judas killed himself, Peter said,
35:55 "We need to replace that one to get back to the number 12."
35:59 That's Acts chapter 1.
36:01 The number 12 was important to Jesus.
36:05 It no longer mattered that they were all from the same tribe.
36:08 Jesus was saying, "My 12 are going to be 12
36:11 that are spiritual Jews.
36:14 If you're real children of Abraham you will worship Me."
36:17 Jesus said to the religious leaders who had a lot of Jewish
36:20 DNA in their blood, He said, "You are children
36:23 of your father, the devil, because you're rejecting Me.
36:26 If you don't follow what Moses and Abraham followed,
36:29 you are not a Jew."
36:31 That's what He said, isn't it?
36:33 So now when it talks about Him being over the tribe of Jacob,
36:36 is it talking about the literal 12 tribes?
36:39 I think God still has a special work for the Jews, don't
36:42 misunderstand, but I think sometimes we put so much
36:45 attention on the literal nation, and the politics over there in
36:49 the Middle East we forget that Israel today, he is not a Jew
36:53 which is one outwardly, he is a Jew which is one inwardly.
36:56 Circumcision is not which is in the flesh,
36:58 it is that which is in the heart.
37:00 If you're Christ, you are Abraham's seed.
37:03 That's when Jesus said, "Many will come from the east
37:06 and the west and sit down in the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac,
37:09 and Jacob."
37:10 They're in that kingdom because they're adopted in the family,
37:13 but it's some of the natural children will be
37:15 in outer darkness.
37:17 It's like the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
37:20 The rich man who's feasting on the bread, he's supposed to be
37:23 like the Israelites, but he doesn't care about the baker
37:25 at his gate, the Gentiles.
37:27 In the judgment, the baker's with Abraham.
37:31 That was the Jewish place of rejoicing, and the rich man
37:34 is in the pagan place of torment, Hades.
37:38 Jesus is saying you can't say, well, you know, God is a--
37:41 God is no respecter of persons.
37:43 He's made of one blood all nations, right?
37:45 God does not say, "I'm going to like these people because of
37:48 their blood type or their race more than other people."
37:50 Whoever accepts Him becomes part of that nation of Israel,
37:55 if you worship Him.
37:57 All right, going now to Isaiah 9,
37:59 verse 8 through 17.
38:01 I've got to hasten along.
38:02 The Lord sent a word against Jacob,
38:04 and it has fallen on Israel.
38:06 All the people will know-- Ephraim, and the inhabitants
38:08 of Samaria--who say in pride and arrogance of heart:
38:12 'The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn
38:14 stones; the sycamores are cut down,
38:17 but we will replace them.'"
38:18 So when they were attacked by the Assyrians, they said,
38:20 "Oh, it's okay, we're going to rebuild, rebuild."
38:23 Instead of humbling themselves, they hardened their hearts
38:26 and said, "We're going to come back.
38:28 We're going to make a big comeback."
38:29 And God said, "No, you're not because you're not repenting."
38:32 And they had reason to be alarmed by what was happening.
38:35 And then you read again in verse 11, Isaiah 9:
38:38 "Therefore the Lord will set up the adversaries of Rezin
38:41 against him," that was a king of the northern kingdom.
38:43 His adversaries would come.
38:45 "And spur his enemies on, the Syrians before,
38:48 and the Philistines behind; and they'll devour Israel
38:51 with an open mouth."
38:53 In other words, he's saying a terrible judgment will come from
38:55 the north and from the south, from the Philistines because
38:57 you're not repenting and turning from your idolatry.
39:01 And it says: "For all this," now, if you have your Bible,
39:03 you might make a little star next to this verse.
39:06 "For all this His anger is not turned away,
39:09 but His hand is stretched out still."
39:12 You find that phrase several times.
39:15 For instance, if you've got your Bible open, you look.
39:17 I just read in Isaiah 9, verse 12, "For all this His anger is
39:23 not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still."
39:25 You go to Isaiah 9, verse 21: "For all this His anger is not
39:29 turned away, but His hand is stretched out still."
39:33 You go to Isaiah 10: "For all this His anger is not turned
39:36 away, but His hand is stretched out still."
39:39 Six times, mostly in this sequence that we're reading now,
39:43 He's pronouncing judgments on Israel.
39:45 You realize, friends, this was as serious as it gets.
39:48 He was basically saying, "Look, I brought you out of Egypt.
39:51 I saved you from slavery.
39:53 I made you My people.
39:54 You kept turning from Me, turning from Me,
39:56 turning from Me.
39:58 I've been so patient with you.
39:59 Other kingdoms oppressed you, but then I gave you victory
40:01 because you turned back to Me.
40:03 But now, you're not turning back, and I am going
40:05 to utterly cast you off."
40:07 That's what He did to the ten northern tribes.
40:09 Says, "Yes, even though you think,
40:11 'Well, this is a terrible judgment, we'll just repent,'"
40:13 He said, "No, I'm not done yet."
40:15 "His hand is stretched out still."
40:17 And so it's telling us that there's more to come
40:21 because they would not repent.
40:24 So we'll go to chapter 10.
40:27 Oh, let me see here. Did I get that?
40:29 So they were being chastened.
40:32 He's striking them but they're not seeking the Lord.
40:34 It's a--you read in verse 13: "For the people do not turn to
40:37 Him who strikes them, nor do they seek the Lord of hosts."
40:41 You know, if we're smitten by the Lord,
40:42 we should humble ourselves.
40:44 Listen to Hebrews 12, verse 5: "And have you forgotten the
40:48 exhortation that speaks to you as sons: 'My son, do not despise
40:51 the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you're
40:54 rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens,
40:58 and He scourges every son whom He receives.'
41:00 Therefore," and this, I'm going back to Isaiah,
41:03 because they would not repent.
41:05 "Therefore the Lord will cut off the head and the tail from
41:07 Israel, palm branch, and the bulrush in one day."
41:11 The top of the tree, the bottom of the brush,
41:14 the head, the tail.
41:16 "The elder, and the honorable, he is the head,"
41:19 and the bulrush in one day.
41:21 And it says: "The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail."
41:25 Now, if you go up to a rattlesnake,
41:27 you know how you hear you're near a rattlesnake?
41:29 Does the head tell you or does the tail tell you?
41:32 You often find out with a snake, even non-rattlesnakes,
41:35 take their tail and they flick their tail in the leaves.
41:37 I've seen that before where bull snakes will imitate a rattler
41:40 and they vibrate their tail.
41:41 I said, "Oh," and I thought, "That's a bull snake.
41:43 He's fooling me."
41:45 And so the tail speaks.
41:47 And so He's using that language to say your false prophets in
41:50 Israel, these prophets of Baal, they're not the sons of Aaron,
41:53 they're not from the sons of the prophets.
41:55 These are the false prophets that were set up by Ahab and
41:58 Jezebel and others after them.
42:01 They're saying, "We're going to win,
42:03 we're going to beat the Syrians."
42:06 And they wouldn't repent when the judgments came.
42:08 He said, "I'm going to take away the head and the tail.
42:12 They'll be destroyed."
42:13 "Therefore the Lord will have no joy in the young men, nor have
42:16 mercy on the fatherless, and the widows; for everyone is
42:18 a hypocrite and an evildoer, every mouth speaks folly.
42:22 For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is
42:25 stretched out still."
42:27 It's not like--you've probably seen these offers
42:29 that they have on TV.
42:31 It's an infomercial and they'll tell you about this wonderful
42:33 product and you think, "Ah, I'm almost sold,"
42:36 and then they say, "But wait, there's more."
42:38 And God is saying, "But wait, there's more."
42:41 And He's letting them know that, you know, the heavy judgments
42:44 were coming.
42:45 All right, Isaiah 10: "Woe to those who decree unrighteous
42:49 decrees, who write misfortune, which they have prescribed to
42:54 rob the needy of justice, to take away what is right from
42:57 the poor of My people, that the widows may be their prey,
43:01 and they might rob the fatherless."
43:03 Now, He's basically saying those in position of leadership that
43:06 are making laws, they're oppressing the poor.
43:10 And in the time of Christ, let me give you one example.
43:14 God said, "Honor your father and mother," and--
43:17 but they had made a law that said you don't have
43:19 to honor your father and mother if you pronounce corban
43:21 over your estate, you can spend it
43:24 the way you want.
43:25 You can tell your father and mother, "I don't have to help
43:27 you in your old age," even though your mother
43:29 might be a widow.
43:30 You don't have to help your siblings or family.
43:32 Say "Look, I've willed it all to the church," and so they've got
43:35 this law they wrote that once it's willed to the church,
43:37 I pronounce corban over all of my property,
43:40 and I get to use it as long as I want, but I can't share it
43:42 with you 'cause I've willed it to the church.
43:44 They just made this law where Jesus said, "You made the law of
43:47 God of honoring your father and mother of null effect
43:49 because you've prescribed the law that the priests
43:52 came up with to get more money from the people."
43:55 And so they had all these evil laws in the northern kingdom
43:58 that were oppressing the poor.
44:01 And let me see here, yeah, "'Woe to those who
44:05 decree unrighteous decrees.
44:06 To whom do you flee for help?
44:08 And where will you leave your glory?
44:10 Without Me they will bow down among the prisoners,
44:12 and they will fall among the slain.'
44:14 For all this His anger is not turned away,
44:16 but His hand is stretched out still."
44:18 We'll go to Isaiah 11 and this is a great part.
44:23 "There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,"
44:26 this is Isaiah 11:1, "and a Branch will grow
44:29 out of his roots."
44:31 Who is this talking about?
44:34 The stem, now who is Jesse?
44:37 Jesse was the father of David.
44:39 Jesse is the son of Obed who is the son of Ruth and Boaz,
44:44 and the Messiah was going to come through this line.
44:46 So it says, "A stem shall come from Jesse."
44:48 Jesse had seven or eight sons.
44:50 You know, there's some mystery.
44:52 One place it says he has eight sons, one place it says
44:54 he has seven sons.
44:56 Did you ever spot that?
44:57 They think it's because one of his sons died young
44:59 and so they didn't know whether to count him in the other sons.
45:02 But from those sons, one, the youngest, would spring.
45:07 And he uses the picture of a tree that is cut down,
45:10 and it looks like that tree is dead and gone.
45:12 The branches are rotten, it's weak,
45:14 it's got moss and you think it's got no glory
45:17 and from that humble stump, all of a sudden
45:20 a shoot comes up.
45:22 Now, I know something about trees.
45:24 I've spent a lot of time cutting trees, working trees.
45:25 You don't know, I used to do tree service,
45:27 climb trees, prune trees.
45:29 And trees were different.
45:31 If you cut down a Douglas fir tree, it's dead.
45:35 You ain't going to see no suckers coming up off the roots.
45:39 You cut down a Douglas fir tree above branches,
45:42 one of the branches will turn into the main trunk again,
45:45 go straight up, and start putting off side branches again.
45:49 If you cut down a madrone, it's hard to kill.
45:51 It is coming back.
45:53 It will send shoots back up again.
45:56 You cut down an oak, a black oak, very likely if it's still
45:59 got moisture, next year you're going to see these shoots
46:02 start coming up.
46:04 You think you're mowing grass, it wrecks your lawnmower
46:05 because they're tough.
46:07 And so different trees act differently.
46:09 So this is a tree that a sucker comes off, and from that
46:12 a great tree grows.
46:13 Now, do we have a prophecy in Daniel that talks about
46:16 a tree that is cut down, it looks like it's over with,
46:18 but it comes back?
46:20 Remember in Daniel chapter 4, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar.
46:23 And so that's the language that's being used here,
46:26 that from this stem.
46:28 When Jesus came, did the tribe of Judah look glorious?
46:33 Did Jesus spring from one of the royal sons that were sitting on
46:36 the throne, or did it look like the tree of Judah was down?
46:40 When Jesus came, said it looked like that--the monarchy of David
46:43 is gone, but it wasn't gone, was it?
46:47 From that root, a shoot came from the line of David,
46:52 and it tells us that he would end up being the great king.
46:56 He will grow out of his roots.
46:59 The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him.
47:01 The spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel,
47:04 and might, the spirit of knowledge,
47:07 and the fear of the Lord.
47:09 Have you read in Revelation where it talks about the seven
47:11 spirits of God?
47:13 You look here in Revelation 5, verse 6: "I looked, and behold,
47:18 in the midst of the throne, and the four living creatures,
47:20 and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had
47:23 been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes,
47:26 which are the seven Spirits of God."
47:28 Does that mean that the Holy Spirit's seven persons?
47:32 No, it's talking about the seven facets or characteristics
47:36 of the Holy Spirit.
47:37 Where do you find them?
47:39 We just read it: Isaiah 11:2.
47:41 Follow with me.
47:42 Count with me if you want.
47:44 Isaiah 11:2: "Spirit of the Lord," that's one,
47:47 "shall rest upon them," spirit of wisdom, understanding,
47:51 counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord.
47:56 And so some scholars, you might say,
47:58 "Ah, I don't know if that all adds up,
48:00 Pastor Doug, but I'll look--
48:02 I'll expect you to give me a better answer."
48:04 I think that's a pretty good one.
48:06 What are the seven spirits of God?
48:07 They're seven facets or characteristics
48:09 of the Spirit of the Lord.
48:11 And so this--all of God's Spirit is going to dwell upon this
48:14 stem, this shoot, this branch, that comes from
48:18 the tribe of David.
48:20 And this is Jesus, of course.
48:22 "His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and His eyes shall not
48:25 judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His
48:29 ears; but with righteousness He will see and judge the poor."
48:33 "Blessed are the poor in spirit," Jesus said.
48:35 "And He'll decide with equity for the meek of the earth."
48:38 Jesus said, "I am meek and lowly."
48:40 "He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth."
48:43 The Bible says that her Son goes up to heaven
48:47 and He rules all nations with a rod of iron.
48:49 That's Revelation 12.
48:51 "And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked."
48:53 Thessalonians says He will come, Jesus, and He'll destroy
48:56 the wicked with the brightness of His Coming."
48:58 "Righteousness will be the belt of His loins, and faithfulness
49:02 the belt of His waist."
49:04 He's described with this belt again in Revelation chapter 1.
49:06 "The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie
49:09 down with the young goat, the calf, and the young lion,
49:12 and the fatling together; and a little child will lead them."
49:15 So the ultimate goal of this finished kingdom is going
49:18 to be Jesus reigning on the earth with peace.
49:23 First, the literal--spiritual kingdom comes, 2,000 years ago,
49:27 but in the very near future, Jesus is coming and He will
49:30 ultimately establish a literal kingdom in this world, amen?
49:34 Chapter 12 is only six verses, and it's largely
49:37 a Psalm of praise.
49:39 It's a song of encouragement and praise, and it quotes from many
49:44 other Psalms because of the Son of David.
49:46 I want to remind our friends if you missed this at the
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50:05 God bless you, friends. We are out of time.
50:07 I hope you learned something and Lord willing,
50:09 we'll study His Word together again next week.
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50:50 announcer: "Amazing Facts" Changed Lives.
50:58 male: One night, we were out late.
51:01 We--there was this young persons' club.
51:04 It was no alcohol so anybody could go in.
51:07 And it was a kind of a midnight cafe, but they played
51:09 heavy metal music, so we were there.
51:11 On our way there, as we pulled into the garage,
51:14 all of a sudden, the cop lights start flashing and so we--
51:19 all of us were high, drugs all over the car, paraphernalia,
51:22 pipes, and you know, rolling papers.
51:27 All these are in the car, and so we jumped out.
51:30 We ran.
51:32 We run as fast as we could to get into--to get away from that.
51:35 I ran into the club and tried to mingle with everybody.
51:38 I mean, my heart is pounding.
51:41 I'm--to me, I'm just--
51:43 I'm afraid I'm going to get caught, you know?
51:45 I've been arrested so many times I don't know what they're going
51:46 to do this time.
51:48 So I sit down across from this man.
51:49 He's dressed in a long black trench coat.
51:51 He doesn't--he doesn't seem to be interested at first,
51:54 and then he begins to engage me in conversation.
51:56 He says, "So, you know, what's going on?
51:58 What's wrong?"
52:00 And I just kind of dismiss it.
52:02 And--but then he kind of insists.
52:04 "No, I can see something's going on.
52:06 What's going on with you?"
52:07 And I could tell the guy's not a insider or a cop or a, you know,
52:10 so I said, you know, I just started telling my story
52:12 a little bit.
52:14 And so he just nonchalantly asks me,
52:15 "Have you ever heard of Satanism?"
52:17 So I said, "Yeah."
52:19 He said, "Well, have you ever looked into it,
52:21 what it's about?"
52:23 I said, "Well, not really."
52:24 He started asking me a few questions about it and which
52:26 kind of prompted me to ask him some questions.
52:28 So we get in this conversation.
52:30 He starts describing what Satanism is, and so one of the
52:32 first things I did, is I went out to the bookstore and bought
52:35 my own satanic Bible, and I began to read the satanic Bible
52:37 and study with it with a friend.
52:39 And get to know it and starting to understand
52:43 the philosophies behind it.
52:45 And we pursued that heartily.
52:47 My friend, and I, we went out, and we gave each other
52:49 a satanic tattoo to just give us a sign of Satan.
52:53 Well, even with the power of Satan in my life now and just
52:57 weird things happening all around, I kept getting arrested.
53:01 I got arrested for running away from home, not once,
53:03 not twice, three times.
53:05 Maybe even a fourth time.
53:07 And they took--always brought me back home.
53:09 Every time I was-- I had a dirty urine.
53:11 That's what they called it.
53:13 I tested positive for marijuana.
53:16 And you know what happened?
53:18 They had the--I think it was the third or fourth time, I think it
53:21 was the fourth time I got arrested for habitual absence,
53:25 they called it, they said, "We're done.
53:27 You know, you obviously have a drug problem,
53:29 and we have a way to help.
53:32 And so we're going to send you to a drug treatment center,"
53:33 and that's where they sent me.
53:35 And they sent me off to drug treatment.
53:37 So one night, I get caught smoking a cigarette.
53:39 The man who catches me is the drug counselor, and he,
53:42 in my eyes, is the worst person in the whole world.
53:46 They took my satanic Bible from me.
53:47 They wouldn't let me have it there.
53:49 In fact, it was him that did that and so all this animosity,
53:54 all this hatred, all this wrath that I had built up,
53:57 I took out on him.
53:59 I attacked the man with a knife.
54:01 They locked me up and put me in juvenile.
54:03 So here I am, sitting in this lonely cell.
54:05 All I can think about is death. I want to die.
54:07 I hate everybody. I hate the world.
54:09 I hate God. I just want to die.
54:12 But my mom was going to call me later that week,
54:14 and so I just looked forward to that.
54:16 And finally, she did call.
54:18 And during that 15-minute conversation she put this
54:20 thought in my head: "Do you have a Bible in there?"
54:23 My mind starts to work, and I start to think to myself,
54:26 "You know, this cell's really, really boring.
54:30 I could do to read some stuff."
54:32 And then I was--I was getting a few books here and there
54:34 to read, but this Bible was different.
54:35 Finally, I came to me.
54:37 I said, "You know what I'm going to do?
54:39 I am going to grab that Bible.
54:40 I'm going to take it back to my cell.
54:42 I'm going to begin to read it, and I'm going to prove all those
54:44 Christians wrong."
54:45 So I'm reading the story of King David,
54:47 and I realized for the first time that there is a God
54:49 out there, but this is a God of love.
54:51 And from that point forward, I just kept reading through
54:53 the Bible, and I finally come to the New Testament,
54:55 and I get to read about this man named Jesus.
54:58 I've heard of Jesus.
55:00 I've used His name in swear words so many times.
55:02 I didn't know who He was.
55:03 But now I read in the book of Matthew this incredible person
55:06 named Jesus, and He lived this perfect life.
55:11 His compassion, His love, His mercy that He showed to people,
55:15 it was incredible.
55:16 In complete desperation, said, "God, I don't know why
55:19 You want me, but here I am.
55:22 You have my heart."
55:24 And I gave my life to God.
55:26 Providentially, my dad, he sent me a Walkman radio.
55:29 My mom's gift was a new Bible
55:32 and a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance.
55:34 And together with those, I was able to hear the most profound
55:37 truths I've ever heard before, testing them by the Bible,
55:40 and seeing whether or not for myself if they're true.
55:43 In a miraculous way, for 14 years, while I was incarcerated,
55:46 God turned the penitentiary into a seminary.
55:51 I studied, and I studied, and I studied.
55:53 I had a insatiable desire to learn and grow and to get to
55:56 know this God that I'm--this God of the universe.
55:59 So week after week, I'd have this little radio up in the
56:02 corner of the windowsill in my small cell,
56:05 listening to "Bible Answers" live, listening to a message
56:10 that it was really transformational for me.
56:13 I began to grow and learn and study more and more.
56:16 I began to do Bible studies with people.
56:18 In fact, here comes "Amazing Facts" again because I get these
56:21 Bible study guides through the mail and as I've done them and
56:24 completed and sent them back, getting the new ones,
56:27 now I have all these lessons.
56:28 What am I going to do with them?
56:30 Well, I sit down on the yard, in the prison yard, with fellow
56:33 inmates, fellow convicts, and we open the Bible together.
56:37 And we study.
56:39 We study God's Word together, using these Bible study guides
56:41 as a way to go through the Bible.
56:43 So they let me out six years early for good behavior
56:45 and as I walked out to a free world, I didn't know what to do.
56:49 Everything was-- everything changed.
56:52 Praise God for those in prison ministry that adopted me,
56:54 took me in, helped me to get established.
56:57 Many people began to encourage me, said, "Why, you really need
57:00 to go to Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism, AFCOE."
57:04 Amazing Facts Center of Evangelism has been
57:06 life-changing for me.
57:08 And not just for me, but for many people who have come.
57:11 It's been more than a decade and a half ago, I was sitting
57:13 in a cell, listening to Doug Batchelor on a radio
57:16 with my Walkman way up in the corner of this window.
57:18 And now I'm sitting in the audience, listening
57:21 to Doug Batchelor live at the Amazing Facts Landmarks
57:24 of Prophecy series, working with many of those in the audience
57:28 and bringing people to the meetings.
57:30 What a--what a contrast.
57:33 God has led me so far.
57:35 God has brought me to where I'm at today, and I know that God
57:37 is continuing to lead me into my future.
57:41 ♪♪♪
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Revised 2021-01-21