WWUTT 1205 Q&A What's That Sound, Why Are You Worried, What is Prophecy, How Science Should Humble?

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May 8, 2020

Responding to questions from listeners about our concerns and being at peace with Christ, what a biblical understanding of prophecy is, and how scientific discovery should humble us. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!

00:01: What should be our concern from one day to the next? What would be a
00:06: Biblical definition of prophecy? And how should our scientific discoveries be humbling us?
00:12: The answers to these questions, when we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, a daily
00:27: Bible study in the word of Christ, who was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the
00:32: Spirit, seen by the angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
00:40: Visit our website, www .utt .com. And once again, it's Pastor Gabe. Thank you,
00:45: Becky. You're welcome. Did you see we're getting some sort of polar cold front or something like that coming down from Canada?
00:52: So the weather this weekend, all over the U .S. is going to be colder. Oh, I didn't know that, but I feel that.
01:00: It is colder. Our joints were kind of aching. Yeah. Was that yours on Friday?
01:06: Thursday and Friday? Yeah. It gets my back. Well, I heard that creak right there.
01:12: Yeah, creak. Creak. That's my chair. Speaking of. I'm not that old. Speaking of funny noises.
01:19: You know when you get up and you're like, oh. Yeah. Yeah. The old people sounds. You do that. I do. But you've been doing that for a lot of our marriage.
01:25: I have. I have a very bad back. I think that's just because I keep you up so long.
01:31: It could be. And then when it's time for you to go to bed and. It could be. Just groaning when you got to get up.
01:37: Anyway, speaking of funny noises that our microphones pick up. I wasn't planning on starting with this.
01:43: Okay. But remember last week. Yes, I do. You know exactly where I'm going. Okay. I do.
01:48: I knew it before you even said last week. As we were closing. Oh, it was so creepy.
01:54: Our podcast episode. There was a sound that our microphones. Yeah. Like a child.
01:59: Like a screaming child. A child screaming. Now, you would not have heard it. You, the listener, did not hear it because the music bed was playing over it.
02:08: But what happened there at the end of the episode is we quick hit stop. And I'm like, what was that?
02:14: And we're listening and. We're waiting for a child to come bursting in the room. Yeah. There was this. There was this scream.
02:20: We're just waiting. But our kids weren't here. See, maybe I have to add that into the story. Right. So you. But we were still under the, you know, like habits die hard.
02:28: Yeah. So we're like, okay. So that wasn't a child. Right. Check. That off the list. Our children were with Becky's parents, so they weren't in the house.
02:36: But we heard this scream that was like a child crying. And it was like, what was that? Yeah. So it was haunting.
02:42: I walked around the house. Yeah. I walked behind him, making sure he checked every room first before I went to bed.
02:50: To not make my wife panic. I didn't grab my gun, but I wanted to. I saw you look for it.
02:55: I did. I looked. I saw you look at it. I did. I looked in the direction of where it was, but I don't want to freak
03:04: Becky out. It might just be fine, because we know there's not anybody in the house. So whatever that was, well, we didn't know that.
03:11: We didn't know it. And we left the door unlocked, too. So that was a little. Then we found out. Yep. That was a little unnerving.
03:17: I tried it. When we come downstairs to record the podcast, the house is already locked up. Yep. There's not any chance.
03:23: Yeah. That's right. We're locked down. And yet we heard this scream. I'm going to play for you the audio from the end of the podcast.
03:31: Oh, you got it. Yes, I do. I still have it. So you're going to hear it, and then I'm going to tell you what it was. Okay. Okay. Because I did find out what this sound was.
03:40: Here we go. This is the creepy noise. Oh, it's so creepy. You might have to crank up the volume a little bit so you can hear what it sounded like at the end of the broadcast last week.
03:50: Okay, here we go. Thank you for sustaining us in the midst of this. Let us never take our eyes off of Christ.
03:57: We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Was that my stomach?
04:06: Man, that was way more faint than I remember that being. It was really loud in our ears.
04:12: It was way in the background. But yeah, it was super creepy in our ears. Hang on. I can isolate the sound.
04:17: Okay. Okay. I'm going to play it again. I'm going to amplify it out. Hang on a second. All right. For the record, my stomach is that loud sometimes.
04:28: You could hear the sound when we were praying. And then right after she said, was that my stomach?
04:34: Then you heard it again. Right. And it's really haunting. It's kind of a creepy sound. So here, I'm going to play it again.
04:39: Right. Hang on. Be real quiet. I'm amplifying it out now. Okay. Here it is.
04:47: Okay. Did you hear it that time? Yeah. But it sounds so different. It does sound different on the recording.
04:53: It does. Because it sounded like somebody was screaming at first. Yeah. It sounded like a child getting beat or something.
05:01: Yeah. It was really scary. And then I thought about all the crows that live in our neighborhood.
05:07: But I'm like, crows are only active during the day. Yeah. Around here anyway. They don't quite sound like that either.
05:13: No. But here's what that sounds - Kind of just a screaming. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a caw.
05:20: Yeah. I think a crow's caw is pretty evident. Yeah. But it's -
05:25: No, I mean this was - This was more like a scream. Right. Okay. So here's what it was. Here's the animal.
05:31: Okay. Hang on. Let me hit play on this video here. Okay. That's it.
05:39: How creepy is that? Okay. Can you tell what that is?
05:47: Yeah. I can't because I can see the picture. You can see the video. Okay. I'll give everybody else a hint. What does the fox say?
05:53: Oh, dear. Apparently the fox screams. The fox screams like a child in your neighborhood getting beat.
06:03: Yes. That's a fox. That's a red fox. That is crazy. Or swift fox would sound that way too.
06:14: Yep. There you go. There's your fox. So that's what we heard.
06:19: Yep. There was a fox in our backyard and he was screaming like that. Oh, my goodness. And giving us the willies at the end of the broadcast last week.
06:28: So loud. It took me a little bit because this actually happened before.
06:34: Yes. There was another night that that happened a couple of years ago and then it was somewhere in there
06:40: I figured out what it was, what the sound was, but then just forgot. We had a fox family somewhere in our backyard of neighbors, in the neighborhood backyard.
06:53: No, I know where they are. Oh, yeah? Yes. Right across the street from us is a line of houses and right behind that house is the largest graveyard in town.
07:02: This is true. And that's where the foxes are making their burrows because you have that slope before you go into the graveyard.
07:09: So that whole sloped area is where they'll dig into the side of the hill and that's where the fox burrows will be.
07:15: Everybody has seen foxes coming in and out of those graveyards. Yeah. So that's where they are.
07:20: Yeah. They just sound really, really creepy. They may be cute, but they sound creepy.
07:27: Fortunately, we don't believe in ghosts. So we didn't think it was that. Praise the Lord. Oh my goodness.
07:33: But it was still really, really creepy. Yes. It was still quite unnerving.
07:40: Yes. To say the least. To hear that in our headphones and be as loud as it was when we were coming to the end of the broadcast last week.
07:46: Anyway, thank you for praying for us. Yes. And that we would maintain sanity, even though you, the listener, didn't even hear that until we just played it back for you.
07:56: Right. Okay. So another thing that we ended with last week, the last question that we talked about was regard to conspiracy theories.
08:03: Okay. Remember that? A little bit. So Timothy sent in an email and he asked our thoughts about Christians believing conspiracy theories.
08:10: He narrowed down a couple of them, things like Flat Earth Theory, which I've done a what video on that.
08:15: Right. I've even done a what video on conspiracy theories. Did I play that? I don't remember if I played that video.
08:21: I don't remember. Here, I'll go ahead and play it now. Okay. Is the
08:29: Earth truly round? Or maybe it's a big conspiracy by NASA and every other space agency in dozens of countries hiding for some reason that the
08:37: Earth is flat. Did man really walk on the moon? Or maybe that's also a NASA conspiracy and the moon landing was staged.
08:44: Was 9 -11 a terrorist attack? Or maybe it was a government conspiracy and the collapse of the World Trade Center was as the result of controlled demolitions.
08:51: Maybe Area 51 is hiding aliens. Maybe Sandy Hook didn't happen. Maybe fluoride is a communist plot.
08:57: Maybe JFK was killed by the CIA, LBJ, the KGB, maybe HAARP, Kim Trails, the
09:03: Illuminati. What should we believe is true and what is conspiracy? Well, in Isaiah chapter eight,
09:08: God was about to send the Assyrians to conquer Israel for their rebellious ways. Everyone would be sent into confusion.
09:15: Who's in league with whom? What side should we join? Should we fight or flee? To those who were faithful,
09:20: God said, do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy and do not fear what they fear nor be in dread.
09:27: But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear and your dread.
09:33: Peter would later reference these words when he said, suffer for righteousness sake and you will be blessed. Have no fear of them nor be troubled, but in your hearts, honor
09:41: Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
09:49: Yet do it with gentleness and respect. Do not obsess over manmade conspiracies. The fear of the
09:54: Lord is the beginning of knowledge when we understand the text. There you go, I think that summarized that all right.
10:00: Yeah, pretty good job. It was funny, I did that video right before I went and preached at a church in, well, it was here in Kansas.
10:09: And when I got there, they said, hey, we saw the video that you just published this past week on conspiracy theories.
10:17: They said, we just had to ask a family to leave because they were really into conspiracy theories and trying to get people in on their conspiracies.
10:28: And also like coming down on the elders of the church and saying, if you aren't warning people about this, then you're not actually devoted to the truth and stuff like, so they had to, they just politely asked the family to go.
10:41: They didn't bring up church discipline or anything like that. They may not have even been members,
10:46: I don't know. But yeah, so we were coming in right on the end of that. Well, there you go.
10:51: They said it was just really interesting, providential that you would do that video right when all of that had been going on.
10:57: Anyway, related to the flat earth thing, that's one of those conspiracies where, what would even be the benefit of that?
11:05: I don't know. Why would anyone even go to the trouble of convincing you that the earth is.
11:13: I mean, what difference does it really make? Round if it's really flat. I know, it doesn't change a thing.
11:20: I'm not a flat earther, just in case I have to clarify that. But yeah, that's just one of those.
11:26: It's like, why? Why would that be? Why would all of these space agencies all over the world, what could they possibly have to benefit from convincing us that the world is round when it's actually flat?
11:36: So you don't fall off? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know either. I don't understand what the point of that one is supposed to be.
11:41: But now the one that's going on, is really kind of taking hold on social media is that Bill Gates has, it's a conspiracy from Bill Gates to create
11:52: COVID -19 and he's got this vaccine that he's coming out with now and it's gonna be the mark of the beast. Oh my goodness.
11:58: Yeah, seriously, there's people that are latching onto this. Really? I remember when I was in grade school, there were theories out there about, is
12:06: Bill Gates the antichrist? Wow. When I was in grade school, yeah, I know it.
12:13: Because they would calculate his name, if we put his name in this code, it comes out 666. Can you imagine?
12:20: How many years ago was that? Oh, he's not losing any sleep over it whatsoever. But still.
12:27: He is laying comfy on his $10 ,000 pillow. He has no concerns over our little conspiracy nonsense.
12:37: I don't know. That's a long time to be considered, you know. Well, he kind of fell out of the news after that.
12:45: You know, he was Time Magazine's Man of the Year. Right. And fell out of the news.
12:51: He's always been among the richest in the world ever since then, but he's never had like the platform that he did back in the 90s when
12:59: Microsoft had the explosion that they had. Ever since they've kind of been on top and nobody's really thrown those conspiracy theories around with Bill Gates.
13:07: He's just a really, really rich guy who sits in his mansion up in Washington somewhere. Right. But now with COVID -19 and him saying that he's putting together this vaccine that he's gonna release, now it's got the conspiracy theories rolling again.
13:20: Oh dear. On this is it. This is the new world order that this virus has been manufactured to bring in and Bill Gates is going to force everybody to take his vaccine and it's gonna be the mark of the beast.
13:32: Oh my goodness. We'll probably have to take it through our forehead or our hand. Oh my goodness. Anyway, that's the thing that's going on right now.
13:41: Here's the thing though about Christians and conspiracy theories. You have enough going on with the
13:47: Satan tempting you and the lusts and the passions of your flesh to be concerned about theories this grandiose.
13:55: Yeah. And thinking that this is the end of the world that we need to be warning people about. You need to heed the words of James chapter four, where it says that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
14:11: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
14:17: Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double -minded.
14:26: Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.
14:31: Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Jesus saying, if anyone would be my disciple, he must take up his cross daily and follow after me.
14:43: You've got enough to be concerned with there. Yeah. You don't need to be obsessing over these crazy conspiracy theories sitting on your computer.
14:52: It's just extra to worry about. That's all and that's what it's gonna develop in you. It's just gonna be this worry and concern and anxiety.
14:59: And Jesus said. I mean, nothing good is gonna come. Unwarranted anger. Right. Nothing good is gonna come out of that.
15:06: Yeah. I just don't meet anybody who believes in some,
15:13: I won't say completely off the wall, but I've heard some interesting conversation. I've had some interesting conversations a couple of times and they've always been so paranoid.
15:25: There's like no peace about them. Right. They don't have any peace of God, like just it's, who is in control?
15:35: Is it, I don't know. It's that temperance thing that we had talked about.
15:40: Having a soundness of mind. Yeah. Not being given over to wild ideas. In fact, that's one of the qualifications for a pastor.
15:47: Right. He must be sound in his judgment and sound in his thinking. Not being shifted to and fro by all the crazy stuff that gets thrown around in the world.
15:56: In the news. Yeah. You're just talking about all the worldly conspiracy theories and stuff like that that comes about, let alone the protector of the sheep that a pastor is supposed to be in watching out for those false teachers and the wolves who wanna come in and devour the sheep.
16:14: That shepherd has gotta be focused on the false teaching that's being thrown around, that's trying to get a foot in the door to lead astray some of your members.
16:24: Yeah. I think a pastor has enough to be concerned about there. At least I know I do. Yes. To not be following around and tracking with all these conspiracy theories.
16:33: I've not read one article on any of this stuff related to Bill Gates. I just know that's kind of the murmurings and the whisperings that's going on.
16:40: It's so sad. Feel bad for the guy. For Bill Gates? Yeah. I hope that he repents of his sin and he comes to Christ.
16:48: I do too. That's my only concern about Bill Gates. This is a man who is not a
16:53: Christian. He is not a believer at all. And how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
16:59: Very, yeah. As Jesus said in Mark chapter 10. So we do pray for this man that he would repent. He's a philanthropist.
17:05: He's done a lot of great things with his money. And I'm glad that he's investing in hopefully finding a vaccine for COVID -19.
17:14: That would be awesome. That'd be great if he finds one. Yeah. Can't say I'm gonna take it. But I'm not an anti -vaxxer, but I'm just not the kind of person that's like, we come up with a vaccine.
17:23: I really need to get this in my body. It's just not the first thing I'm jumping on. I've never had a flu shot.
17:31: Never taken a flu shot. Yeah. And I think I've had the flu maybe twice as long as we've been married.
17:38: Yeah. Probably about that. Yeah. It's such a, it's hit or miss anyway.
17:44: I mean, from one year to the next, they're kind of taking a guess as to what the strain is gonna be. Sometimes they get it right.
17:49: Oh, it was 2017, 2018, I think it was. Most deaths from the flu since like the 1950s, in the last 50 years.
17:59: More people died of the flu in the flu season that went from, it might've been 2016, 16 to 17.
18:05: It was either 16 to 17 or 17 to 18. And of course, this is in an age where we've got the flu shot.
18:11: You can go down to Kroger and get a flu shot at the pharmacy. And yet even with the flu shot, there were still so many deaths from the flu two or three years ago.
18:20: It's gonna happen. There is any number of things that will kill you when you walk out your door.
18:26: Yeah. We don't need to be obsessing over and have anxiety over COVID -19 when the numbers are showing us that it's something like five or six people out of 100 ,000 that have died of this disease.
18:41: That's really low. That's flu numbers. Yeah, thankfully. And we're thankful to God for that, right?
18:48: We're thankful that it was not the numbers that we thought it was going to be. Right, it was very scary there at first.
18:54: That's right. And I'm just very grateful that the numbers did not show what we were scared of. No kidding. No kidding to that.
19:00: But we started this by saying, hey, we're gonna do 15 days of quarantining, of isolation.
19:06: Right. Whatever happened to that? Shelter in place for 15 days. And then 15 more. Yeah, now it's draconian.
19:13: If you're gonna go to work, we're gonna arrest you. We're gonna sue. And throw you in a jail cell that had previously been occupied by a murderer or rapist, but we've let them all out because of the
19:23: COVID -19 pandemic. Yeah, we've kind of turned upside on our heads, upside down.
19:29: It's gotten a little crazy. So we're back to church this Sunday. Yeah. We're back on.
19:34: Praise the Lord. Everything's fine. Of course, we never did stop having services, but everybody else kind of has to trickle in.
19:41: There's a lot of areas that have to be slower with that. Right. I understand being cautious with that, but we're ready to go.
19:48: And I don't think, since we're next to a military post, they have different restrictions.
19:54: They do, right. Than what our town does. They have to follow their CO. They do. And what he says, yeah. Yeah, so even though we say we're back to church, we're not all back to church.
20:05: Yeah. So we're still open. And some with pre -existing conditions need to play it cautiously. Definitely, yes.
20:12: So, but I am grateful that we are able to call it, at least getting back to normal.
20:18: That's. Whatever, yeah. Whatever this is. Whatever we call that. Whatever we're gonna call this thing, post COVID -19 apocalypse or something.
20:25: Give it 10 years, we'll figure out a name. The historians will give us a name for this. This next question, this comes from Michael in Toledo, Ohio.
20:34: Wait, next question? Well, yeah, because I kind of referenced back to the question we had from Timothy last week.
20:40: Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. Got it. By the way, this is Friday. And on the Friday edition of the broadcast, we take questions from the listeners.
20:49: When we understand the text at gmail .com is the email address. Sometimes I'll see a comment on Twitter or on Facebook and I'll grab it, but don't depend on that.
21:00: Yeah, email's the best way. Email's probably the best way to get it to us. When we understand the text at gmail .com,
21:06: all run together, this is Michael in Toledo, Ohio. Every time I see
21:11: Toledo, I think of holy Toledo. Anyway, dear Pastor Gabe, thank you for your article on the coronavirus exposing false prophets.
21:20: Oh, yeah, this was that blog I did about two weeks ago. And it was in response to an article that Michael Brown wrote, where he was trying to, he was basically running damage control for the charismatic movement.
21:33: Why is it that none of the prophets saw this pandemic coming? And he said, well, it's because some of the prophets well, his thing was, our primary calling is supposed to be preaching the gospel, not being seers and projectors and stuff like that.
21:49: But the funny thing about that is his answer revealed that the charismatic and Pentecostal movement is full of false prophets.
21:54: Right. He didn't want to acknowledge that, but that's basically what his answer meant. So anyway, Michael goes on,
21:59: I have shared the article with several members of my family,
22:05: I'll get my words here eventually, who desperately need to be one out of the Pentecostal movement.
22:11: I like how you said in the article that souls are at stake, including those who are being fooled by these false teachers.
22:18: I don't doubt the salvation of my relatives. Many of them are very devout. In fact, some of them seem like they love
22:25: Jesus more than I do. But then I also have members that make me wonder if they really believe in Jesus, or do they just love the benefits they think he gives them, or like the benefits you would get from having faith, or what the charismatic movement tells you you should be receiving for having faith.
22:44: Because if you sow a seed. That's right. Give us this money, you're gonna receive this. Believe hard enough and God will give you this.
22:51: Have that much faith. There was an article I remember reading from a guy who had gotten caught up in the prosperity movement, and he even talked about when he was in seminary, he would drive down through neighborhoods where he really wanted to live, and he would name it and claim it.
23:06: Like drive through the neighborhood, that house, I want that house, I want that car. And he talked about how poisonous all of that was.
23:13: This was when he was in seminary training to become a pastor. Ooh, that's interesting. And that's the kind of stuff that was infecting his mind at that time.
23:21: But yeah, praise the Lord winning him out of that mindset. That's idol worship.
23:27: It is. And I mean, there is a time that I went through kind of the same thing, not really, but I went through the idol.
23:38: They encouraged you to go out and figure out what exactly you wanted, and then to work towards that goal.
23:46: And I mean, sure, goals are great, but not the way I was going about it. That was all wrong. Yeah, and they'll tell you, name it in your prayer.
23:55: Because if you're not actually saying it, then God's not gonna give it to you. It's like, really?
24:00: I didn't really go that route with it, thankfully. But at the same time, it was still idol worship because I wasn't saved yet.
24:10: That was. Yeah, you wanted the benefits, but you did not want the benefitor. No, no, no, it was from a business model.
24:18: So not from a religious, but it had the same underlying. Oh, you're just thinking like a mind over matter sort of a thing, is it?
24:26: It's still name it and claim it, but you weren't really expecting God to give it to you? Yeah, because I was gonna work for it.
24:33: Yeah, right. And earn it. So the positive mindset. Right, yeah, it was more of the positive mindset.
24:39: Have the right attitude, then I'm gonna get all the things I want. So it was all of this, but without the faith and having a faith you could do it.
24:49: It wasn't about God, it was about what I can do. It was about me. I met a guy one time who actually acted in several movies.
24:58: The last film that he did had Bruce Willis in it. Oh, okay, wow. And so he lived in Hollywood for a little while and never had like a big starring role or anything like that.
25:07: It was just kind of in a few films. And he said he was awakened to the reality of what he was pursuing when he was sitting at a table with a bunch of guys one time and a guy leaned over to him and said, anybody can make a million bucks.
25:21: You just have to love money more than anything else. And then he turned back around to the conversation and it was almost like he never even said it.
25:27: And he said, it was like the Lord put a spirit in that man to wake me up to what it was that I was doing.
25:33: Praise the Lord. Yeah, right. Because he was saying I was loving money more than anything else. Yeah, and I didn't think about that at all until well after I was saved and I'm looking back and I'm like, man,
25:43: I really was in love with the idea of money. Like, okay,
25:50: I can have all of these things and be well off and I'll be happy then. You know, like those kind of aspirations.
25:57: Yeah. But anyway, keep going. Well, I was, since I still have my Bible, I still have my
26:02: Bible open to James here. Oh, okay, yeah. At the end of chapter four, which
26:07: I was just reading from, it says, come now you who say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit.
26:16: Yeah, yep. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life?
26:22: For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, if the
26:28: Lord wills, we will live and do this or that. As it is you boast in your arrogance, all such boasting is evil.
26:36: So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. All right, so going back to the email here.
26:44: Yeah. So let's see, Michael goes on, it's so hard to tell when they follow false teachers who are not preaching the gospel.
26:53: I'm sorry, I might have to back up a little bit here. So he's talking about members of his family that they look like they believe, but he's not sure if they really believe in the giver or they just want the gifts that he gives.
27:10: Right. So he goes on to say, it's so hard to tell when they follow false teachers who are not preaching the gospel, and yet my family can articulate the gospel better than the false teachers they are following.
27:21: Does that make sense? Yes. I used to listen to your podcast a long time ago, but my regular listening dropped off.
27:28: I seem to remember there being an episode where you talked about prophecy being not just a revelation of the future, but even a revelation of the past.
27:37: Would you be able to direct me to that episode? Thank you again for your ministry. I want to be a regular listener again.
27:42: Michael in Toledo. Yay. Well, thank you for that email, Michael, and I hope that you have been tuning in more regularly because of course this is, we don't just do the
27:51: Friday podcast. We've got New Testament Study, which I'm going through Romans right now on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and then the
27:58: Psalms on, well, Old Testament on Thursday, which has been the Psalms, and we're in the middle of Psalm 119.
28:04: So yeah, I please invite you to come and join me for the
28:09: Bible teaching that we do every other day of the week. And then Saturday is Bible reading. Thanks to literal word, yeah.
28:16: And Sunday is the Sunday sermon. That's right. So yeah, we've - Every day of the week, there's something. We've finally managed to work this into every single day of the week.
28:24: There is something on this broadcast. Okay, so the episode that you're asking about, Michael, this,
28:30: I had to do a little bit of digging, but I think it's episode 484. And it was when I was teaching in 1
28:36: Kings chapters 21 and 22, and I have it marked in my Bible. We're going to go ahead and come to this here today.
28:42: So in 1 Kings chapter 22, this is where Ahab was consulting with his prophets to find out if he were to go to war, would he win this battle?
28:53: Okay. Let me hear from the prophets of God. Whatever they tell me, I'm going to believe that.
28:59: If the battle is going to be successful, then we're going to go into battle. And of course, he's partnering here with Jehoshaphat.
29:05: So here we are, 1 Kings chapter 22, verse one. For three years, Syria and Israel continued without war.
29:13: But in the third year, Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, came down to the King of Israel. Ahab is the King of Israel, Jehoshaphat, the
29:19: King of Judah. And the King of Israel said to his servants, do you know that Ramoth -Gilead belongs to us, and we keep quiet, and do not take it out of the hand of the
29:29: King of Syria? And he said to Jehoshaphat, will you go with me to battle at Ramoth -Gilead?
29:35: And Jehoshaphat said to the King of Israel, I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.
29:43: And Jehoshaphat said to the King of Israel, inquire first for the word of the Lord. Of course, so it's
29:49: Jehoshaphat that was asking for this, not Ahab. Then the King of Israel gathered the prophets together, about 400 men, and said to them, shall
29:58: I go to battle against Ramoth -Gilead, or shall I refrain? And they said, go up, for the
30:05: Lord will give it into the hand of the King. But Jehoshaphat said, is there not here another prophet of the
30:11: Lord, of whom we can inquire? And the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the
30:19: Lord, Micaiah, the son of Imla. But I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.
30:28: Imagine that. That's really the charismatic Pentecostal movement now, because they tell you not to prophesy anything negative.
30:37: You're only supposed to be prophesying good things. Positive, positive thoughts. Positive and encouraging.
30:45: Yeah, so. Positive vibes or whatever. That's right. They'll just straight up tell you, don't prophesy anything negative.
30:50: They're like Ahab, I don't wanna hear anything negative. So I'm not gonna call Micaiah. Jehoshaphat said, let not the
30:58: King say so. Then the King of Israel summoned an officer and said, bring quickly Micaiah, the son of Imla.
31:05: Now the King of Israel and Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah, were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes at the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria.
31:15: And all the prophets were prophesying before them. And Zedekiah, the son of Chenaena, made for himself horns of iron and said, thus says the
31:27: Lord, with these you shall push the Syrians until they are destroyed.
31:33: And all the prophets prophesied so and said, go up to Ramoth Gilead and triumph. The Lord will give it into the hand of the
31:40: King. Again, just positive and encouraging thoughts. They're just making up stuff and saying the
31:46: Lord has given me this vision. Clearly Jehoshaphat thought there was something off with this. Because every prophet's saying the same thing.
31:52: And he's like, is there someone else we can talk to? Yeah, something's a little fishy. Yeah, there's gotta be somebody else that we can ask this of.
32:01: So verse 13, and the messengers who went to summon Micaiah said to him, behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the
32:09: King. Let your word be like the word of one of them and speak favorably. But Micaiah -
32:15: So telling him what to say. That's right. You say what all these guys have said. But Micaiah said, as the
32:20: Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak. And when he had come to the
32:26: King, the King said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth Gilead to battle or shall we refrain?
32:32: And he answered him, go up and triumph. The Lord will give it into the hand of the
32:38: King. So he's doing just like what he was told to say. All right. But he's doing it in a mocking way.
32:44: Okay. He's mocking the other guys who were saying the same thing.
32:50: And Ahab said to Micaiah, how many times shall I make you swear that you speak to be nothing but the truth in the name of the
32:58: Lord? And Micaiah said, I saw Israel scattered on the mountains as sheep that have no shepherd.
33:05: And the Lord said, these have no master. Let each return to his home in peace.
33:11: And the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?
33:19: And Micaiah said, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left.
33:32: And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead?
33:39: And one said one thing and another said another. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the
33:45: Lord saying, I will entice him. And the Lord said to him, by what means?
33:51: And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.
33:56: And he said, you are to entice him and you shall succeed. Go out and do so.
34:03: Now, therefore, behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these, your prophets, the
34:11: Lord has declared disaster for you. Even telling him outright what's going on.
34:18: Exactly, has told him you're gonna go to battle and you will die. That is what the Lord is prophesying for you.
34:25: Then Zedekiah, the son of Chanaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, how did the spirit of the
34:32: Lord go from me to speak to you? And Micaiah said, behold, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide yourself.
34:42: And the king of Israel said, seize Micaiah and take him back to Ammon the governor of the city and to Joash the king's son.
34:49: And say, thus says the king, put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water until I come in peace.
34:58: And Micaiah said, if you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, hear all you peoples.
35:07: If Ahab comes back, then it was not the word of the Lord that Micaiah was saying. But if Ahab dies, then it was indeed the word of the
35:17: Lord. And of course we know, now it wasn't that Micaiah was qualifying his prophecy that way. He knew exactly where his prophecy came from.
35:24: He didn't have any doubt in what it was that he was saying. But that Ahab and the rest of the people and even those false prophets that were prophesying, they would come to know whether or not
35:34: Micaiah's prophecy was true when they see it come true. Now, the thing about what
35:41: Micaiah saw, when I was teaching on this back in episode 484, one of the things that I mentioned, and this is what
35:48: Michael was inquiring about. I said that we have this idea of prophecy as it being a revelation of the future.
35:55: That every time we think of that word, prophecy, it's God is revealing future events that have yet to happen.
36:04: And we certainly see that here. But we need to recognize that prophecy is not like what pagans think of prophecy.
36:12: Pagans think of prophecy as being able to look down the tunnel of time and see the future. And when you see the prophecy, the way that it's revealed here in 1
36:21: Kings 22, that's not what's happening. Micaiah is actually not looking into the future to see what's going to happen.
36:28: He is having revealed to him something that's already been decided.
36:34: So prophecy is a revelation of things already determined pertaining to people, places, or events as seen from a heavenly vantage point.
36:46: Think about what John the apostle saw and then wrote down in the book of Revelation.
36:52: What he saw was not just the future, he also saw the past. Because some of the things that he saw were things that we had read about previously in the
37:00: Bible, but he's looking at it from a different vantage point. He's looking at it from a heavenly vantage point, like a spiritual vantage point, then seeing it from the eyes that we see it on a linear timeline here on planet
37:14: Earth. That's what John had the privilege to be able to see. And Micaiah here, likewise, is seeing a holy council being gathered in heaven.
37:24: Well, I say a holy council, a spiritual council would be more accurate because we definitely have evil spirits that are within this council that's been gathered here.
37:33: So it's a heavenly council. Who's gonna go antagonizing. Exactly. Who's gonna go be a lying spirit in the tongues of these false prophets.
37:45: This is just like Satan being able to come before God at the beginning of Job. Right. And saying, let me go afflict
37:52: Job, he's gonna curse you to your face, I'll show you. And God let Satan do it because God will test whom he wants to test.
37:58: Right. And he knew that Job was not going to curse him. Right. And anyway, so he told
38:04: Satan, you may afflict Job, but you can't touch him. And then Satan asks the question again, said, well, now let me touch him and then he'll curse you to your face.
38:13: God let him do that too and he still didn't do it. Such is the same with this kind of council that was gathered with the
38:20: Lord in heaven and Micaiah was privileged to see it.
38:26: Right. And then report to Ahab, here's what's been decided concerning you. This event has not taken place yet, at least as far as we're concerned, but it's already been decided exactly what it is that's gonna happen.
38:38: And I'm revealing to you. To everybody. Yep, from that heavenly vantage point that we don't get.
38:44: Yep. But a prophet of God was privileged to be able to see it and report on what it was that the
38:49: Lord had shown to him. That's the way that we need to understand prophecy, not necessarily as a looking into the future.
38:57: It's not soothsaying, it's not fortune telling, it is God revealing to us what he's determined.
39:05: Yeah. And doing so through his prophets. He's not doing that with, when you listen to the charismatic prophets, they sound like pagan soothsayers and fortune tellers.
39:16: Yeah. And we're not supposed to do as the pagans do. Well, yes, exactly.
39:22: It says in the Bible, we're not supposed to do like, believe things that they believe and do things that they do and so.
39:31: Yeah, these are among the abominable practices that the Lord detests according to Deuteronomy 18, verse nine.
39:37: When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a pagan land. Right. You shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations.
39:46: Right. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead.
40:03: For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the
40:10: Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your
40:15: God for these nations, which you are about to dispossess. Listen to fortune tellers and to diviners.
40:20: But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. So don't listen to these people.
40:27: Right. Know clearly the statement we have at the beginning of Hebrews, Hebrews 1 .1. Long ago at many times and in many ways,
40:34: God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he's spoken to us by his son.
40:40: Right. Whom the Lord has made the heir of all things. It is through Jesus Christ that we know the truth of what
40:48: God has done through redemptive history and even what his plan is for the future when we see revelations concerning the return of Christ and the judgment of the living and the dead.
40:58: Those are the things that we need to be reading about. And we have that reverent fear of the
41:04: Lord concerning because it is the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of knowledge as we talked about.
41:11: Right. We in our hearts, we concern ourselves with these things, not trying to know the future.
41:17: You don't know what tomorrow will bring. That's James here in James four. That's Jesus in Matthew six.
41:23: Who of you by worrying. All over the place. Exactly. Jesus says that, yeah. Who of you by worrying has added a single hour to his day?
41:31: Right. And I catch myself all the time. Right. I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry,
41:37: Lord. You've got enough trouble you got to deal with today. You've got to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ today.
41:44: Right. You've got a spouse to love, kids to love. You got to die to yourself today for somebody else's benefit.
41:51: You've got a gospel to preach. You may have a friend that you need to rebuke and bring back to the path of righteousness.
41:57: There's so much going on. Why are we concerning ourselves with all of these frivolous little things, whether that be future events.
42:05: The future is gonna happen exactly the way that God has determined it. That's what we need to know.
42:10: Yeah. And we trust in the Lord, our God. He is going to accomplish everything that he has said he's going to accomplish.
42:17: And we have peace in that. Absolutely. There's a peace that surpasses all understanding.
42:22: Yeah, there's a comfort in that, knowing that it's gonna be how God has determined.
42:28: Right. So. Yeah, what would knowing a future event actually do for you as far as peace is concerned?
42:36: Oh man, okay. So like going back to Moses, if he knew what all he was gonna go through and what he was gonna have to do, if he knew that ahead of time,
42:48: I think he would have ran away. Oh, sure. That's why the Lord said to him from the burning bush in Exodus three, said, you'll know that I was with you when you come back here and worship me on this mountain.
42:58: Right. He's not laying out the plan for Moses right now. Right. He's telling him, you're gonna go tell Pharaoh to let my people go and Pharaoh is gonna harden his heart.
43:05: We're gonna show all my wonders. The Lord told him that much, but not exactly everything until Moses would come back to that place on the mountain where God was speaking to him through the burning bush.
43:17: And then he would be able to look back over those events and see how the Lord had been with him.
43:22: The Lord was working in all of this stuff ultimately for his glory and for the rescue of his people.
43:29: Right. You have in first Corinthians 13, I think it's verse 12, where it begins, now we see as though through a glass darkly, but soon we shall see face to face.
43:40: And then we will know just as we are fully known. Right. The Lord fully knows us.
43:47: He even knows how sanctified we're gonna turn out being when Christ returns and gathers his elect for the wedding feast of the lamb and glory.
43:56: Amen. He knows us fully from beginning to end. He placed his affections on us before the foundation of the world.
44:05: The foreknowledge that he had is him having placed his affections on us before we were even born.
44:12: Yeah. Those who were going to be his elect whom he was going to save through the hearing of the gospel and we would turn from our sin and believe in the
44:19: Lord Jesus Christ by faith. We have salvation in faith in Jesus Christ.
44:25: The only way we're ever saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Nobody has ever been saved any other way except by grace through faith.
44:33: Right. In our Lord God and what it is that he's doing. Yeah. If the peace that we have in Christ surpasses all understanding, according to the way that Paul puts that in Philippians 4, then how would understanding the future give you any more peace than you already have right now trusting in Christ?
44:55: You have no more peace in knowing about the future than you have now in Christ Jesus.
45:01: So stop trying to look at the necromancers and diviners and soothsayers and mediums.
45:08: They're never going to tell you anything that is going to give you peace. In fact, you're going to be doing something.
45:13: They're going to keep lying to you. Exactly. Giving you positive vibes. Just like all these false prophets that were prophesying to Ahab.
45:21: Exactly. The only true peace. Don't say anything negative. Yep. The only true peace you're going to have, the only truth that you need to know is
45:29: Christ. So put your faith and your trust in Christ and you have peace.
45:34: In these moments now, in the craziness of the times and everything that's going on, which can get worse by the way.
45:40: This isn't even the tip of the iceberg. We're just really, really spoiled in America. It can get way worse.
45:46: Put your faith and your trust in Christ. Trust in Jesus. There's all kinds of bad news stories that are going to hit you too.
45:54: And I mean, the media just tries to control America's thought life. The more afraid they can make you, the more you're going to come back to the news to be outraged by the next thing that's going to happen.
46:04: There's going to be another news story that'll be out tomorrow that they're going to try to attract your outrage to it.
46:13: Don't concern yourself with it. Don't be a moth to the flame. Yeah. You'll get burned.
46:20: Trust in the Lord Christ. He is our peace. He is our understanding. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
46:26: Let's see if I have enough time for one more question. This comes from John. Dear Pastor Gabe, I was totally fascinated by the
46:34: Wednesday podcast, specifically how you were talking about how our knowledge of the world in the universe has changed over the years.
46:43: So I was reading from Psalm 8, and the main text was Romans chapter three, but I was reading from Psalm 8 where David says,
46:51: Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. Your glory is above the heavens. Now, David probably knew something about that because the
47:00: Lord had revealed it to him. He's writing the word of God. Right. But our knowledge of the universe has grown immensely just even over the last two or three centuries.
47:12: Right. Very true. If not a little bit more. The invention of the telescope. We've come to a knowledge of the vastness of space, and that keeps changing.
47:21: Because like I said, I think I said this on Wednesday, there was, I didn't even look this article up to find out which article it was, but I noticed that there was an article circulating around where scientists were changing their minds now about the age of the universe and the distance across.
47:37: Oh. So they believe that they got it wrong. They actually believe it's younger than they thought the universe was.
47:43: Really? So they don't think the universe is older. They believe the universe is younger. Jason Lyle, Dr.
47:49: Jason Lyle was on with James White a couple of weeks ago on the dividing line. One of the things he talked about is, you know, the whole secular humanist theory that exists out there regarding the universe kind of like in a constant flux.
48:05: Sometimes it's ordered, and then it'll collapse down and be disordered, and then it kind of expands out and it's order again, and it's just over and over again throughout the eternity of time, this has been happening.
48:16: Sometimes it's in chaos, sometimes it's order. But he says, we know now that will never be the case because the universe is expanding.
48:24: It's getting further and further apart, and the further apart it gets from each other, it never goes back into order.
48:29: It will just be disorder. It's never close enough again to be order. That would be, anyway, he was saying that even among the secular humanists, they're losing that idea now.
48:42: They're losing that theory of everything is kind of like, you know, the universe exists, then it doesn't, then it does, then it, you know.
48:49: Okay. What we have now is what we have, and once it expands out, then it isn't gonna be there anymore.
48:54: Okay. That's just from the secular perspective. Okay. He's a young earth creationist, Jason Lyle is.
49:00: Oh, okay. So he's not saying, you know, the universe is billions of years old or whatever. Anyway. Interesting. So John goes on, he says, it reminded me of this short sermon
49:09: I'm sending you now by Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, who's with Ligonier, a Ligonier teaching fellow.
49:14: Within the first five minutes of this teaching session, he will say some things that reminded me exactly of what you were saying on your
49:21: Wednesday podcast. As a science fiction fan, I'm out, I am fascinated by things like this.
49:28: God bless you guys. I pray that we are all as fellow Christ followers standing firm during all of this
49:35: COVID mess. Amen to that, John. Here is the clip from Dr.
49:41: Godfrey. I've actually heard him say this before because it's from his church history series. And I've watched most of that series, not every single episode, but I remember him talking about this.
49:50: Here he is talking about a conflict that began between the scientists and the
49:56: Christians back in the 19th century. All right. But as the 19th century wore on, explorations in science seemed to be developing in ways that conflicted with traditional
50:10: Christian understandings of the Bible. And that's where tension between natural science and Christians began to emerge.
50:22: Although recent studies of the war between religion and science in the 19th century have revealed something very interesting, that the war was initiated from the side of the scientists, not from the side of the theologians.
50:38: By and large in the 19th century, Christian theologians continued to believe that they could have friendship with science and that science would not develop in ways that fundamentally undermine
50:51: Christianity. But increasingly there were scientific leaders and thinkers who were themselves anti -Christian and began to use their scientific convictions in opposition to Christianity.
51:06: So when your friends tell you there's a war between Christianity and science, depending on how antagonistic you wanna be and obnoxious, you can smile and say, yes, there is a war and science started it.
51:23: Christians should still to this day believe in science and believe that ultimately, science can never come to any conclusions at fundamental odds with what
51:34: God has revealed. All truth is one. All truth is God's truth. We are not opposed as Christians to science.
51:42: We are opposed to the claims of scientists that they have reached a final truth that finally disproves the truthfulness of the
51:51: Bible. Because if you study science in the last 400 years and you study theology in the last 400 years, who's changed most do you think?
52:06: Not the theologians. It's the scientists who keep changing. And each time they change, they assure us that they know absolutely what is true.
52:16: There was a time when scientists knew absolutely that the atom was the smallest component of material reality.
52:24: And then you found things inside the atom. Those were the smallest things.
52:30: And now there are things inside those things. I don't know what they're called, I'm sure some of you do.
52:37: I have a theory. It's only a theory. It's a speculation. God has created this universe and he's made it finite.
52:47: But he's also made it finite in a way that finite creatures can never reach the edges.
52:55: No matter how far out we look, we'll never reach the edges of the universe.
53:01: No matter how far back we look, we'll never find the beginning of history.
53:07: No matter how far in to the atom we look, we'll never find the smallest material.
53:15: I think God's playing games with us. Not mean -spirited games, but a game that reminds us we are finite and we're part of a finite creation and there's no getting out.
53:29: And it should lead us to humility it should lead us to investigation, it should lead us to a fascination with the world that God has made.
53:38: It's right to be fascinated with the stars and learn all that we can learn, but it's
53:43: God's universe. It's finite, but we're not getting out. Ephesians 3 .11
53:49: says that God has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what
53:56: God has done from the beginning to the end. We have parameters and limits that God has set around us.
54:03: We can't go outside those limits and it's to humble us that we may look to the Lord.
54:08: And so the point that I was making in the lesson that John was highlighting there is that as we have explored space and we've discovered that it's way bigger than we thought it was, it just makes
54:20: God all the bigger to us and should make us recognize our insignificance.
54:27: And yet that God is mindful of us, which is what Psalm 8 says. What is man that you are mindful of him?
54:34: Right. He loved us so much that he sent his son to die on the cross for us so that everyone who believes in Jesus will not perish in our sin and our pride, our attempts to ascend to the place of God, thinking that we could be as good as God who sits enthroned over all of this universe so large that we can't ever see to the end of it.
54:53: And we're changing our minds now as to where the edges of it are and how old it is. Yep. God is way bigger than any of that.
55:02: And we are so small yet. And vapors. Yeah, we're a mist that appears for a moment and then we're gone.
55:10: And yet the Lord has shown us grace and mercy through his son.
55:15: Turn from your sin, believe in Jesus and you will have forgiveness and everlasting life and peace that surpasses all understanding.
55:24: Amen. For the days that are ahead. Let's conclude with prayer. Yes, let's. Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time.
55:31: It is always a blessing to be able to do this together and talk about your word and hear questions that come in from others.
55:38: And I pray whatever questions that we have, we're not too prideful about those things that we ponder about.
55:44: We don't claim to know answers we don't know, but we seek your word. We're diligent to look into the word of God for all things.
55:51: For you guide us and you have given us answers. And you are drawing our attention to you through the spirit that you have given to us.
56:01: And I pray that we would listen intently to your word, not trying to divine things or presuppose things that are outside of what
56:09: God's word is already revealed to us. There's such wonderful treasure here. And we've barely combed the depths of God's word from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.
56:18: Why are we trying to find answers outside of this when the answer is given to us in Christ Jesus, our
56:24: Lord, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge as Paul wrote to the
56:31: Colossians. So let us be content with this and praising of our Lord and Savior who has forgiven us of sins and leads us in paths of righteousness to eternal life in Christ's name we pray.
56:44: Amen. Amen. You can use this coaster if you don't spill.
57:55: Yeah, I don't want to.
58:01: I would just rather not. I would rather you not to, but you're my wife. I trust you. You're a graceful person.
58:09: You're not clumsy. Most of the time. There have been a handful.
58:15: There's moments. Today, in fact, this morning I was making tea, sweet tea, and everything was going every which direction no matter how hard I held on to it.
58:29: It was just, it was everywhere. I don't remember you ever messing anything up again after that white chili fiasco that one time.
58:37: So angry. But I mean, it's been 10 years. You've never done anything like that again.
58:43: And that was even the hot sauce. Yeah, and you just didn't notice that there was mold in the hot sauce.
58:49: Oh, I was so angry. So angry. Yeah, no, this time. And it was totally, wasn't it still within the date even?
58:56: It wasn't expired. Yeah. It was just moldy lid that. Yeah. Anyway.
59:02: So like I said, I trust you with, you know. Well, I appreciate your trust. I will not jeopardize that by.
59:09: Shut up. Yeah. Because I mean, even your cup is clear over there.
59:16: Yes, because I don't trust myself. Well, you know, there's that. That's why my cup is way over there.
59:23: Next to the bills. And when I go for it, it's not gonna come this way. It'll go that way because it's the length of my arm away.
59:31: And I have to get over Optimus Prime to get to it too. Yes, this is true. He's standing guard and he's.
59:39: Standing guard. He's not standing. He's in truck mode, but. He's in truck mode. Zeej left him there to. To guard your stuff.