Storm Tossed Christians — Jacob Prasch

Minister, and I lecture in Hebrew, Old Testament literary criticism, and Judaism in the Full Gospel Bible College in England, where we train our missionaries and full gospel pastors in Britain. I lecture there, and I'm a member of the executive sort of executive committee we have in England, the Full Gospel Church, and it's always good to be in another full gospel church.

But if you're a Baptist, or if you're a Reformed, or if you're Assemblies of God, or if you're whatever, I don't love you any less. There's no such thing as denominations in heaven. Praise the Lord. Wish we didn't have any now.

As it was announced, I have a newsletter, if you'd like it, it's a free subscription. And also, if you'd like to come on a study tour to the Holy Land, Israel, led by a Hebrew speaker. It's different when you come with somebody who speaks Hebrew than when you go with someone who doesn't.

All the tour guides are Israeli believers in Jesus, and I speak Hebrew, and I lead the tour. And it's two weeks' intensive Bible studies on-site. We study the Scriptures in their original Jewish context on-site where the events happened.

And there's also the option of an additional week in Egypt and Jordan, if you'd like that as well. It'll be in October of 1996, Lord willing. If you'd like to come, you can put your name on the list. It's different than other tours.

It's not a holiday or a vacation. It's not a pilgrimage. It's a study tour. And we do things other tours don't do. We have joint meetings together with Israeli Hebrew-speaking congregations. You get to meet Jewish believers, you get to meet Arab believers.

Too much of what you hear about Israel is some other foreign or expatriate telling you. We want our people to see the real body of Christ, the indigenous Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking body of Christ.

That's who we have with us, if you'd like to join us in October. In any event, we have a meeting tomorrow night at Brin Eden School. We'll be studying the Golden Calf. We'll be showing videos of Toronto, what it is.

You can see the videos for yourself of what happens in Toronto, and make up your own mind. You hear so much about it, the best thing is to come and see for yourself. Come with an open mind, make up your own mind.

Now, my position concerning Toronto is neither here nor there. What's important is to go to the Word of God, and you judge for yourself if the things in these videos are scriptural or not. That's tomorrow at the Brin Eden School.

Jesus Calms the Storm and Reveals His Messianic Authority

Tonight, please open with me to the Gospel according to St. Mark chapter 4. Mark chapter 4, commencing in verse 35. Heavenly Father, we just ask you to be with us now, opening our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to the glory and meaning of your Word.

As always, Father, we ask that we be not simply hearers of your Word, but in your grace and in your strength, do us also. In Jesus' name, for Jesus' sake, Amen. The Gospel of St. Mark chapter 4, verse 35.

And on that day, when evening had come, he said to them, Let's go to the other side. And leaving the multitude, they took him along with them, just as he was in the boat, and other boats were with him.

And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they awoke him and said, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And being aroused, he rebuked the wind, and he said to the sea, Hush, be still. And the wind died down and became perfectly calm. And he said to them, Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?

And they became very much afraid, and said to one another, Whose end is this, that even the wind and sea obey him? Now, turning the page to Mark chapter 6, we read another story of Jesus taking dominion over the sea.

Mark chapter 6, commencing in verse 47. Once again, it's evening, but in verse 46, it says, After bidding them farewell, he departed to the mountains to pray. And when it was evening, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and he was alone on the land.

And seeing them straining at the oars, for the wind was against them, at about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and he intended to pass them by. But when they saw him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost and cried out, for they all saw him and were frightened.

But immediately he spoke with them, and he said, Take care what you divide, and not be afraid. He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped, and they were greatly astonished. For they had not gained any insight from the incident of the lobe, but their heart was hardened.

And when they crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret, and moored at the shore. And when they had come out of the boat, immediately the people recognized We have two stories of Jesus calming a raging sea, but the second account of him calming a storm on the Sea of Galilee is sandwiched in between two stories of him feeding thousands of people supernaturally.

You go from a storm to a famine, from a storm to a famine. Now when I went to theological cemetery, I mean seminary, we had to study both liberal higher critical theology and conservative evangelical theology.

In other words, we would study what the liberal theologians, unbelievers, nominal Christians said, and then we would read Christian theologians like S .F. Bruce and learn how to refute them. I was taught this is what the liberals say, this is how you refute it.

What the liberals say is the reason we have two accounts is because these things are stories invented by the church, and you have two different sources. You either have two different versions of the same story of him feeding thousands of people, or two different stories of him calming a storm on sea.

That's absolute rubbish. He fed the people twice, and he calmed the storm twice, and the Holy Spirit put it in the Bible for a reason. In fact, for more than one reason. The first reason has to do with messianic typology and messianic prophecy.

Psalm 65 and Jonah as Messianic Prophecy

Open with me please to Psalm 65, verse 7. King David writes, centuries before Jesus was born, who does still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of the waves, and the tumult of the people? It is a messianic prophecy about Jesus.

It's a prediction the We see this further in the typology or the symbolism of Jonah. All of the Old Testament prophets are symbols or types of Jesus in some way. They all give us a picture or a foreshadow of him, what he would be and what he would do.

We think of Jonah also asleep in the boat, don't we? Throwing a thorn. And Jesus himself in Luke's gospel identifies himself as the antitype or the fulfillment of what Jonah represented. As Jonah was three days in the stomach of the whale, or the great fish rather, so would Jesus be three days in the grave.

So the first meaning of this story is messianic typology. The Jews would recognize the Messiah because he would fulfill these kinds of prophecies. Both direct prophecies like Psalm 65, but also the ones concealed in type or figure as with Jonah.

That's the first reason. But the second reason is different. It's eschatological, something about the last day. And both accounts of Jesus coming a storm. The storm takes place at night. As I mentioned this morning in Johannesburg, the night is the most common figure in the Bible of the Great Tribulation.

He's coming like a thief in the night. Watchman, watchman, how far is the night? Is he coming in the second watch of the night or the third? The wise virgins needed oil in their lamps to see in the night.

Work while you have the light, for night will come when no man can work. It happens at night. Now we have to go further with this. Midrashically, understanding the midrash is the way the Jewish people interpreted the Bible in the days of Jesus.

Jesus was a rabbi. His real name was Rabbi Yeshua Bar and the graves are a picture of the tumult of the people. The Hebrew word for people or nations is the same word, goi, goi, the Greek word ethnon.

In the last days, the Bible says the nations will be in an uproar. The people will be in the uproar. There'll be political, social and economic chaos in the world. Fear and anxiety among the nations, none of them knowing the way out.

So a raging sea, midrashically, it's a picture of the tumult of the people. When the Lord Jesus takes dominion over the storm, it is a picture of what he's doing spiritually, if you understand. Every miracle Jesus does, when understood from the Jewish perspective, reflects something spiritual.

Take his healing, for instance. He healed the paralytic, a man who's on a pallet. He tells this man, when he heals him, pick up your pallet and go your way, sin no more. Why, when this man has been healed, does he still need the pallet, this piece of wood to which his flesh was confined?

Why? It's sort of like someone being healed from polio and still keeping their wheelchair. Why? Because the pallet was a piece of wood to which his flesh was confined. When Jesus heals the man, he heals him spiritually.

When he says, pick up that piece of wood, midrashically, in Jewish metaphor, he's telling him, pick up your cross and follow me, live a crucified life, do you understand? His physical miracles always reflect something spiritual, most frequently salvation, when he's talking about healing.

We're all blind until he opens our eyes, we're all lame until he empowers us to walk in the spirit. But here it's no different. When he takes dominion over the elements, it's a picture of something spiritual.

And on last days, this increases anxiety among the nations. In Hebrew poetry, the book of Psalms continually refers to the anarchy and chaos on the last days as a storm at sea. Why are the nations in an uproar, this kind of thing.

One of the pictures of the church in stipulation is Acts 27. Remember when Paul was on the boat and the sun and moon don't give their life? We're told in Matthew 24 and Luke 21 and this kind of stuff in the last days, the sun and moon won't give their life.

Acts 27, when they begin to throw the grain overboard. Remember when the boat's being thrown forth, they had to throw the grain overboard. What does it say in Ecclesiastes? Cast much bread upon the water, we will reap in this new season.

The gospel being preached in the last days of tribulation increases. It's a metaphor. So we have the first meaning is Messianic typology, Messianic prophecy. That's the first meaning of Mark four and Mark six.

The second meaning has to do with eschatology, something specific of the last days. We have to understand the nature of a boat. Boats are always figures of churches in the Bible that begins with Noah's Ark, the first boat.

The Church as a Storm-Tossed Boat

Even its dimensions, 300 cubits, 30 cubits, 550 cubits. 30 is the number of spiritual maturity in the Bible. Jesus begins in public ministry at the age of 30, thereabout. King David begins to reign as king when he's 30.

Now, spiritual maturity is different than the world's maturity. The world's definition of maturity is conformity to the world. When they say, why don't you grow up? It means, why don't you become like me?

God's definition of maturity is, why don't you become like Jesus? Totally different than the world's. The world's definition of maturity is a phony word. That's the 30. 50 is the number of the Holy Spirit, isn't it?

The day of Pentecost. Hamashim in Hebrew. 300 is the number of the electives of Gideon's army, isn't it? So it's a picture of the church. Those who have the maturity of Christ, an elite company, who are filled with the Spirit.

It begins with Noah's Ark. Pitched within and without, we can't go into all of it. That's the first. Those who are on the Ark were saved. Jesus tells the apostles, I'll make you fishers of men. Again, in Midrash, whenever you see fishing, it teaches something about evangelism.

Now, witnessing should be a normal part of our Christian life. The same as praying and reading the Bible. But when you're talking about campaigns and outreaches, it's different. Those things must be directed by the Holy Spirit.

The apostles fished and fished and fished all night, but caught nothing until they got Jesus in their boat. When they got Jesus in their boat and he told them where to cast their nets, they caught so many fish, one boat couldn't contain it.

In other words, hey, Baptist, come and help us. Hey, Pentecostals, come and help us. You can have one evangelistic program after another, but until it's directed by the Lord and he tells us where to cast our nets, we're not going to get many fish.

Now, that's not to be confused with personal evangelism and witnessing day to day. I'm talking about programs and projects. He must tell us where to cast our nets. So you have a boat. Boats are always types of churches.

And here, when a boat gets storm-tossed, it's a church in tribulation. You understand? And in the last days, it becomes more specific. Psalm 65, the tomb of the people, the boat gets storm-tossed, the church will be storm-tossed in tribulation before Jesus comes.

Again, the main type of it is Acts 27, separate subject. Now, let's look further. There is yet a third meaning, not just messianic prophecy and typology, not just eschatology of the last days, but something more.

What does it mean for you and for me in our lives as sisters? What does it mean for your church and my church? What does it mean for our families, day to day, week to week? Why are there two famines? Why are there two storms?

That's the way life's troubles come. It's never one thing, then another. It's one thing after another, isn't it? You're almost afraid to answer the telephone. What's the next bit of bad news going to be?

That's the way life's tribulations are. It's all at once, when we live in a fallen world. Let's focus on this third meaning, being storm-tossed. Our boats in tribulation. What happens to us? Look carefully, once again, at Mark 4.

It was evening. It begins to get dark. Now, ultimately, that hints at or alludes to the great tribulation at the end. That's true. But there are intermittent periods of darkness in all of our lives. And there always will be, until Jesus comes.

Look what happens here. In verse 35, He said to them, let's go to the other side. Jesus takes the initiative to bring them into a situation where they will experience tribulation. In your life and in my life as Christians, the Lord Himself will bring us into situations where we will experience tribulation.

Forget about these lies of Copeland and Hagen and all this rein of garbage. It's a lot of rubbish. That's not the Christian life. This is the Christian life. There will be tribulation in the world. It's a guarantee.

But we have three kinds of problems that are okay and one kind that's wrong. The first kind of problem Christians are going to have, as I always point out, is those that are common to man. We live in a fallen world and we're members of a fallen race.

Everybody, saved and unsaved, is going to have a certain amount of trouble in the world just because we're human. But secondly, there's the kind of trouble that we will have because of Satan. We are God's children, we are His servants, His messengers, and Satan will specifically attack Christians.

But then there's the third kind of trouble at this time. The kind that the Lord Himself will lead us into for our molding and breaking to make us more like Jesus. He who began a good work in you in Philippians 1 6 will bring it to completion in the days of Christ Jesus.

One of the ways God deals with our old nature to bring forth a new creation is through tribulation. The Lord Himself brings them into times of difficulty. Those three you can't do anything about. But then there's the fourth kind of trouble.

The kind of trouble that the Lord would otherwise spare us from but we get ourselves into anyway. Now praise God He can even deliver us from those things better than He does. But from being human and having an enemy of the devil, plus the things God is going to do in our lives, that's more than enough trouble.

We don't need any more trouble. I don't know about you, but sometimes I can be quite clever at bringing the fourth kind of trouble on myself. The kind of things that the Lord would otherwise choose to spare me from, but I'm rather sick.

Nonetheless, let's look. He says let's go to the other side. Once again, there will be times in your life as a Christian, in your family, in your marriage, in your church, when Jesus Himself will lead you into situations where you will experience trouble.

Don't let anybody tell you different. And a fear scale of wind. The Hebrew word for wind is Ruach. It's the same word for spirit. The Greek word is Pneuma. These wind storms represent spiritual opposition.

You have favorable and unfavorable winds in Biblical typology. The worst is the Eraklio, the east wind that almost destroyed the boat in Acts 27. I lived in Israel for years. My family are Israeli. My children are born in Galilee.

At certain times of the year, you have this northeast wind that blows in off the Mediterranean, into Galilee, and it goes through the Mount Carmel mountain shades, the ravines and valleys of Mount Carmel.

If you come to Israel with me, I'll show you and explain it to you. And it focuses the velocity of the wind and concentrates it like a piston effect, causing a rather medium-sized lake, the Sea of Galilee, which we call HaKenedet in Hebrew, to look like the South Atlantic in wintertime, tumultuous waves and all this.

But it's a picture of spiritual opposition. It's the same word in Hebrew, same word in Greek. Let's look. The boat was filling up. He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they awoke him and said, Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

There will be times in your life as a Christian when not only will the Lord bring you into tribulation, there will be times in your life as a Christian where you will think he doesn't care about it. Jesus, Jesus, we're being stormed towards.

Please help us. Jesus, the boat's filling with water. Jesus, the boat's going to sink. Can't you help us? He doesn't seem to care. You pray and plead, and you're in a time of crisis, and it seems like the Lord doesn't care.

He's led you into the situation, and once he gets you into it, he doesn't seem like he's going to help you. That's going to happen. If this has never happened to you as a Christian, you haven't been one very long.

But let's look further. Again, he's typified here by Jonah, isn't he? Sleeping in the boat. And being aroused, he rebuked the wind, and he said, Hush, be still. And he tells them, Why are you so timid?

How is it that you have no faith? The main problem you have with the rain of garbage you have pumped in this country is that they're not teaching people faith in Jesus. They're teaching people faith in faith.

You hear what I said? They're not teaching faith in Jesus. They're teaching faith in faith. If you want to know about real faith, read Hebrews 11, not Kenneth Hagin's book that only fit for firewood. That's my faith.

To this he expects them to do something. They fail the test, but then we turn the page to Mark 6. Once again, it's night. Once again, they're in a boat in the storm at sea. Why? Because they failed the test the first time.

I guarantee if you fail a test or I fail a test in our lives as Christians, we will go through the same test again and again and again until God uses it to get us right. Not until we learn the things that he has for us to learn will we stop going through it.

If you fail the test the first time, I guarantee you will go through it again. Let's look. There's a difference, however. The second time Jesus is not in the boat. The first time he was in the boat. The second time he wasn't.

The second time you go through the test, you fail. It's always more difficult than the first time. Much of the detail will be the same, but there'll be some crucial differences. He's not in the boat. You think that the Lord has abandoned you.

The first time it happened, he was in the boat. Lord, you brought me into this mess. He didn't seem to care what was happening to me or to any of us when it was happening, but at least you were in the boat.

Now where are you? Now you get me into the mess and you take off. It appears to us that the Lord has abandoned us. He withdraws the sense of his presence. You hear what I said? He withdraws the sense of his presence.

So he didn't abandon them. On the northwest coast of the Sea of Galilee, we can pinpoint from where the warm springs are, where the apostles would have been fishing. You can see these boats, these hills.

On one of these hills, Jesus would have had a perfect view of the Sea of Galilee on a clear night. You can easily see a fishing boat. Would have been called a doogie about as long as this road fused from here to here, from there to there, being storm-crossed.

It says he was on a mountain and from that mountain he could easily see the doogies being storm-crossed. They thought he abandoned them, but in fact he was on the mountain and he wasn't missing a move.

He saw them straining at the oars. He saw them being storm-crossed. He saw their fear. He saw their sense of abandonment. He wasn't missing anything, but the sense of his presence was something they didn't know about.

He didn't abandon them. Where was he? Look at verse 46. He was on a mountain. What was he doing on the mountain when the apostles were being storm-crossed and felt abandoned? He was praying. Who do you think he was praying for?

He was praying for them. He was praying for Peter and John and you and me. That's who he was praying for. It's the sense of his presence that's withdrawn. But he's not missing a move. He sees it all. But they don't get it right this time.

It follows a famine. Look what it says in verse 52. They've not gained any insight from the miracle of the loaves. We'll come back to that one in a minute. You have the loaves in Mark 6 and then in Mark 8 another one.

Peter Walks on Water and the Necessity of Faithfulness

But before that, let's look at the synoptic accounts. We always have to read the gospel accounts synoptically. Let's look at Matthew's version of this. In Matthew 14. Turn with me please to Matthew 14.

After he sent the multitude away, he went up to the mountain himself to pray. And it was evening and he was there alone. But the boat was many stadia from the land battered by the waves, for the wind, the spirit, was contrary.

And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea. The Jews had three watches. The Romans had four. This was anywhere somewhere between three in the morning and six in the morning.

And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were frightened, saying it is a ghost. And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Take courage in his eyes. Do not be afraid.

And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it is you can man meet to come to you on the water? And he said, Come. Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came towards Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became afraid and beginning to sink.

He cried out, saying, Lord, save me. Hosham Ali. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him and said, Once again, all you have little faith. Why did you doubt that when they got into the boat, the wind stopped?

And those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying you were certainly God's son. They worshiped him and he received worship. Matthew 14 verse 33 is a very important verse for marking your Bible for witnessing to Jehovah's Witnesses who say he was not God.

If he was not God, why did he receive worship in Matthew 14 33? When they knock on your door, that's one verse you'd want to have handy. Now, let's look. We read something curious when we compare Mark version in Mark 6 with Matthew version of Matthew 14.

In Mark 6, it says he intended to pass them by, doesn't it? They're begging God to save them. They're in trouble. Finally, Jesus shows up and he intends to pass them by. He's going to walk past them. You're in a time of crisis in your church, in your family, in your marriage, your business is going to the wall, your health, your finances, your academic studies, whatever it is, some combination of things, you're in trouble.

Everything seems lost and it seems like the Lord himself has abandoned you. Oh, Jesus, where are you? Finally, he shows up and he does nothing. You're desperate. You come to a prayer meeting. You come to a meeting at the church and you think there's going to be a breakthrough.

The spirit is really moving. And you know the pastor is going to have a message just for you. And he has a message. And it seems to speak to everybody else except you. And you really believe that because God is so obviously in this meeting, that somebody is going to come up to you and give you a prophecy or the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom.

And that's going to be it. But instead, you walk out of the meeting with nothing. It says the Lord intended to pass them by. Finally, he shows up. Finally, Jesus shows up in your crisis. After you think he's abandoned you, after bringing you into a crisis that he brought you into, that you're in by his will, not because you're out of his will, you're in the crisis.

You're in the crisis because you're in his will. Again, forget this Hagen-Kosten stuff. It's a pack of lies. It's not reality. This is reality. The people who talk that false kind of faith are the first ones who are going to lose their faith when a crisis comes.

It's the people who believe this that won't lose their faith. You know where the Bible says many will fall away and betray one another? Well, the ones who are going to fall away and betray you are the people who believe Lima doctrine.

It's the ones who believe this that are going to stand firm. Why does he intend to pass them by? Because they were straining at the oars. The natural propensity of human nature, of the old man and the old woman, is that when we think the Lord has abandoned us, to try to cope with the crisis in our own strength.

Give me those oars. I don't care if you're Samson. I don't care if you're Hercules. If you've seen these kinds of waves from the Northeasterner on the Sea of Galilee, you're not going to roll against it.

You see, I knew some Christian coastguards in America, and they were taught all kinds of things about rescuing people. And apparently one of the most important things about rescuing people that lifeguards and coastguards are taught is that you can't save somebody who's trying to save themselves.

When somebody's caught in a rip current and they're panicking, they're given five seconds to calm the person down by speaking to them. Otherwise, they're taught how to apply blows to the carotid, carotid.

They're taught to have these tranquilizer injections and so on, because you can't save somebody who's trying to save themselves. When we feel the Lord has abandoned us, we strain at the oars. We try to cope with the crisis and our own human strength.

The natural man or the natural woman will try to take over because they think God doesn't care. As long as we're straining at the oars, He'll intend to pass us by. But then in Matthew's version, it's different.

What happens in Matthew's version? Peter is told to get out of the boat. Now, you have to understand something. What the text of Matthew is doing is trying to paint Jesus in light of the prophecy about Him in Deuteronomy 18, 18, that the Messiah would be a prophet like Moses.

The way that Moses let the children of Israel out of a crisis through the water, by faith, supernaturally, it's trying to show that Jesus is what Deuteronomy 18, 18 said. The theological term is corporate solidarity.

Peter represents the Jewish people and as Moses let them out of tribulation through the water, walking by faith, so Jesus is trying to paint Jesus as a Moses figure, a mosaic figure. You understand? It has that dimension to it.

But he tells Peter, get out of the boat and come walk. In the last days, tribulation will increase. And the Lord is preparing people now in the storms we go through to walk by faith in the storm, so others will see it and believe.

He wants to make you and me people who can walk by faith in a storm. But look what happens to Peter in Matthew 14, 30, but seeing the wind, seeing the spirit, he became afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.

When he takes his eyes off Jesus and puts it on the storm, he becomes intimidated. When we take our eyes off of Jesus and put it on the storm, we will become spiritually intimidated. Do you understand?

When we keep our eyes on Jesus, we walk. When we take our eyes off Jesus, we sink. That's what happened to Peter. That's what happens with us. Now this story is situated between two narratives of Jesus feeding thousands of people, isn't it?

Jesus Feeds the Multitude and Uses What We Give Him

Let's look at one of them. Let's look at the first one. Turn with me again, please. Back to Mark 6, beginning in verse 34. Mark 6, 34. He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd and began to teach them many things.

When other people, through no fault or choice of their own, have no shepherd, Jesus himself will shepherd them and he'll teach them many things. One of the great privileges I've had as a Christian, working among the Jews, is to know so many Russian Jewish believers who were saved in underground Pentecostal and Baptist churches under the Communists before the Iron Curtain came down in the old Soviet Empire.

And many of these people were, of course, persecuted terribly and imprisoned for their faith. And I never had any Bibles until they came to Israel. And I just love going there and I speak Hebrew and I'm translating from Hebrew into Russian.

And they love the Bible study. And you begin to teach them the Word of God and they say, Oh, I knew that. I knew that. Look at this. The Lord showed that to me when I was in prison. Oh, look at that. That's right.

I knew that. When I was in prison in the Gulag, when they were torturing me, the Lord showed me that very thing. Now when they see it in the Word of God in print and it comes alive to them, they marvel.

You see, those people, through no fault or choice of their own, they didn't have the book of the Lord, but they sure did have the Lord of the book. He himself will intervene where there's no shepherd and teach them many things.

And today in this country and in many other countries, because of the backsliding of the church, make no mistake about it. All this deception with ecumenism is a prelude to the road to Babylon and Revelation.

Make no mistake about it. The false peace you see in the Middle East is a prelude to the false peace predicted in the Word of God before Jesus comes. And make no mistake about it. Toronto and all this garbage is a prelude to the apostasia and great falling away in.

And a lot of people are having to come out of churches. Through no fault of their own, they have no shepherd in their medium small groups in homes, but the Lord himself will be their shepherd and teach them many things.

Now again, as I always point out, the solution to bad church is not no church, but good church. And the solution to false doctrine is not no doctrine, but true doctrine. And the solution to a bad shepherd is not no shepherd, but a good shepherd.

What these people need to do is speak the Lord about forming new congregations and asking God to give them shepherds who will be true shepherds after their, after his own heart. But when people through no fault of choice of their own have no shepherd, the Lord himself will shepherd them every time.

Now be careful. There's no such thing as a perfect church. You'll find people who go from one church to another always finding false. You're never going to find the perfect church. I'm talking about leaving a church because of major heresy and false doctrine.

I'm not talking about this leaving church because you don't like the worship or you don't like this. You don't like that. You don't like the other thing. You feel this or that. I'm talking about what people have a solid, clear, definite biblical basis because the church is departed from the word of God.