Matt 24 Pt 6: Betrayal, False Prophets, Lawlessness, Gospel preached to the world

Okay, as you know, we're still in the Olivet Discourse. This week we're going to go over what

Jesus talks about with the apostles and the disciples being betrayed. We're going to talk about false prophets, lawlessness, and the fact that the gospel has to be preached in all the world in order for Jesus to come back.

So let's begin our study. And again, we've gone through this several times.

So we've read the whole passage, we summarized it, we went through each verse individually, we used the hermeneutic called the analogy of faith, and now we're going to address the larger key points of the context.

So like I said, tonight we're going to go through betrayal, false prophets, lawlessness, and the gospel preached in the whole world.

Again, if these events that Jesus spoke about took place within that generation, the generation that Jesus was talking to, then

Jesus' words will have proved true, and we shouldn't be looking for another fulfillment of them.

Okay, so when Jesus says these things will take place within this generation, and that they take place, we should assume at that point that they were complete.

So let's see. Let's talk about betrayal. And Jesus said in Matthew 24 9, they will deliver you, meaning the disciples and the apostles, to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.

Once again, Jesus clearly identified his audience. He says, then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated.

So does anyone believe that those in Jesus' audience would have thought that he did not have them in mind or in view?

If Jesus had a distant or future audience in mind, then what other pronoun could

Jesus have used to ensure that those in his presence audience would know that he was addressing them if you didn't mean you or them?

I know that gets a little crazy starting talking to all the pronouns, but if Jesus was talking to his disciples and wanted them to know that it wasn't them that were going to be killed, but it would be a future or a far -off generation, he would have said they will be killed, and they will be hated.

But he was addressing them specifically, saying that you will be the ones that will be killed, and you will be the ones that will be hated.

No one can doubt that tribulation followed the church soon after Pentecost in Acts 2.

From its very inception, the church underwent relentless tribulation by Jewish religious and civil officials, and later by the

Romans under Nero, who reigned from AD 54 until his suicide in 68. When you read the history,

Nero was brutal to the early Christians to the point of dipping them in tar and lighting them up as torches on his porch at night for light.

He would feed them to the lions. He would pour hot lead into holes in the side of their heads in order to kill them.

He was brutal, so this certainly would be considered tribulation. So were the disciples and apostles hated by the nations?

I think we know the answer immediately, but yes, Peter and John were arrested and put in jail for preaching in the name of Jesus.

They were warned not to speak to any man in the name of Jesus. Again, this is persecution against the followers of Christ.

They were flogged after their second arrest. The tribulation worsened with the death of Stephen, who was stoned in the presence of what would become the apostle

Paul. He was Saul at the time. A great tribulation began against the church in Jerusalem, and the

Jewish Christian converts were scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, all except the apostles.

So the book of Acts actually uses the term great tribulation. So again, we see an internal evidence within the scriptures testifying to what

Jesus said, that there would be a tribulation. The apostle John wrote that he was a fellow partaker in the tribulation in Revelation 1 .9.

And Paul described the tribulation endured by Christians in Thessalonica. He said, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions, and that word is the same word as tribulations, which you endure.

So yes, the apostles were hated by the nations. They were flogged, put in jail, and partakers in the tribulation.

Peter said it like this in 1 Peter 4 .12, and I think this is really telling. He said, beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share in Christ's sufferings, that you also may rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a

Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name, for it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

So here Peter is preparing the people who he's writing this letter to, to not be surprised when trials and tribulations come upon you.

In fact, he says these trials and tribulations are a test. So when the early disciples and the apostles went through that test, they shared in Christ's sufferings.

They knew that this was a part of being a Christian at that time. It doesn't mean that future generations wouldn't come under trial and have tribulations.

Many people have been martyred for the cause of Christ. In fact, we see people in Iraq and India throughout the world being martyred for the sake of Christ.

But again, he was addressing these early Christians that were in his immediate presence.

So the disciples heard Jesus' words, recognized that he was talking to them, were actually beaten, jailed, and flogged, and didn't think it was something to be surprising.

So let me ask you, if this were you, would you think that Jesus' words were being fulfilled?

I say absolutely, of course, you heard Jesus' words, you heard him talking directly to you, and then these things take place.

You would absolutely understand that this was a fulfillment of what Jesus said.

So let's move on, we'll go to false prophets. Jesus said in Matthew 24, 11,

Many false prophets will arise and mislead many. So, did this happen?

Yes. Jesus' warning against false prophets proved true. The Apostle John wrote that many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Past tense, they have gone out into the world. He also wrote that many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge

Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist.

So, early on in John's first epistle, he says that many false prophets have gone out into the world, not just one, but many, which again, lines up with what

Jesus said. In his first epistle, John told his readers that it was the last hour, and just as they had heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many

Antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. And when he says the last hour, again, he's talking about a time period, the time period of the

Old Covenant coming to an end, and the inauguration of the

New Covenant. So, in this last hour, as the Old Covenant is winding down, the

New Covenant is now instituted, and they are walking in that. Now, John indicated that the deceivers rose up in the midst of the church in his day.

So, the deceivers actually originated from inside the church, because he would say they went out from us, which means that they were in the congregation with him.

So, he said these false prophets went out from us, but they were not really of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us, but they went out in order that they might be shown that they are all not of us.

So, sometimes there are people, at that time anyway, there were people inside the church who were not believers, who may have professed the name of Christ, but at some point in time decided that this is not for them.

Maybe when they came under persecution, or they just made a false profession of faith.

Anyway, these false prophets and antichrists rose up from within the church, which actually lines up with what

Paul said also. So, Paul described the Judaizing teachers as false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

And he instructed Timothy to stop certain men from teaching strange doctrines. So again,

Paul is addressing people who claim to be apostles, who were within the congregation, such that Timothy, who was the elder of a congregation, was commanded to tell these guys to stop teaching certain false, strange doctrines.

So again, this was an internal problem within the church. The problem of false teachers was common enough even for Peter.

So he would write, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the

Master, Jesus, who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words.

Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. So here we see

Peter talking about false apostles and false prophets, we have

Paul talking about false apostles, deceitful workers, and we have John saying that false prophets have already gone out from among them.

So again, we see Jesus' words ringing true to the people he spoke them to.

Paul calls out the false brethren, who were spying out their liberty in order to bring them into bondage.

This is out of Galatians, and also in Philippians 1 .15. And then Paul writes the following to Titus, For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, which are

Jewish people, those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of assorted gain.

So again, here we have another witness to false brethren coming out of the congregations.

John describes evil men who call themselves apostles, but are not. These passages give us solid scriptural evidence that the words of Jesus were fulfilled in the days leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem at the end of the age that closed the old covenant era.

So again, the disciples heard Jesus' words about false prophets, witnessed them themselves, and wrote and warned them about them to the other people.

So again, if this were you, would you think that Jesus' words were being fulfilled in your generation?

Absolutely. I don't see how you could possibly think that this was for a future generation as you see it happening, unfolding right before your very eyes.

Okay, the next thing that Jesus talked about, lawlessness. Jesus said in Matthew 24 .12,

Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. Love of God.

Okay? So the last warning Jesus gave in Matthew 24 .9 was that there would be increased lawlessness.

Jesus indicated the religious leaders of his day because they were lawless while claiming the covering of their religious offices and special status as leaders in Israel.

He says it like this. And this rings true in the book of James where he talks about faith in works.

He says, There are many people, especially the

Pharisees and the scribes, who said that they had faith. And they would do things, these traditions of men they would follow, but inwardly they were not keeping the law.

They would do outward deeds, but inwardly their hearts were far from Christ. So this was evidence of lawlessness in Jesus' time and the disciples' days.

They neglected, Jesus says, As a result, they became experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep their man -made traditions.

Again, this is very, very important because these were supposedly the religious leaders and teachers of the day.

And they were teaching part of the religious law, but again, adding to it.

They were adding to the law things that God never told them to do, such as washing the inside of cups three times and washing your hands three times before you ate.

That was something that they made up and pointed to Jesus' disciples and said, They asked

Jesus, why are your disciples not doing this? And this is when Jesus rebuked them and answered them and said,

You're creating traditions that men need to keep, but those are neglecting the law of God.

Those have nothing to do with what you've been commanded to do. Okay, keeping in with lawlessness.

The New Testament writers repeatedly addressed the sensual living that was prevalent in their time. Their worldliness destroyed relationships within the church and tore down the body of Christ.

Paul was shocked at the behavior of some in the Corinthian church. He says, it is actually reported that there is immorality among you, an immorality of such a kind as does not even exist among the

Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife and you have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, in order that the one who had done this deed might be removed from your midst.

Now, if you read the book of Corinthians, there was, in addition to this, there was lots of other sinful activities going on.

It was a difficult church that Paul had to rebuke many times. And if you read it, you'll see why.

So there certainly was plenty of lawlessness going on in the early church in Corinth.

And we often think that our day is the epitome of lawlessness. And when you turn on the

TV and you look at what's going on outside, you can see why people think today is the epitome of lawlessness.

And in addition to that, because of the adultery and homosexuality that's prevalent in our society today.

Paul was dealing with these sins in his day, same as us. In fact, he was also dealing with slavery, which included kidnapping or man stealing.

And that was also widespread and condemned by the early church. Slavery was very common back in the days of the

Romans. You could try to buy your way out or have one of your relatives buy you out of slavery.

So again, the church had to deal with that. And we're to a point now where obviously we don't agree with slavery.

It was much different than a chattel slavery that we see in the South. But it was an issue that Paul had to deal with.

Okay. Again, with lawlessness. Some of the churches in Asia Minor were called out by Jesus for their toleration of immorality.

And they were told to repent or judgment would come. Now this is addressed. John addresses this in the book of Revelation.

In Revelation 2 .5, he says, remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the works that you did at first.

If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. So he's recalling, writing down the words of Jesus who's warning the churches that they've forgotten their first love.

And if they don't repent and turn back, he will come. Jesus will come and remove their lampstand.

He says, therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Another warning, remember that what you received and heard, keep it and repent. If you do not wake up,

I will come like a thief and you will not know what hour I will come against you. Again, he says, those whom

I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come to him and eat with him and he with me.

So there's more, but there's four quick warnings of Jesus telling the churches to repent, to turn from their whatever misdeeds they were doing, to turn to him, have faith in him, or he would come back and judge them.

He would remove their lampstand. Removing their lampstand means that they would no longer become a church.

They would no longer be considered a church. So this is in the New Testament. This is early on.

And Jesus is warning them if they don't do this, he will come back. Now, does he mean he's going to come back physically?

Or does it mean that he's going to come back spiritually in judgment upon them? Obviously, he's talking about him coming back in judgment upon them in a spiritual sense, not in a physical sense.

Notice how Jesus threatens these local churches. He says, I am coming to you. I am coming to you quickly.

I will come like a thief. These comings are not described as a distant future, personal, physical coming of Jesus.

They're judgment, comings reminiscent of the judgment comings found in the Old Testament.

Okay, so again, here's my question to you at the end of each one of these. The disciples heard Jesus' words about lawlessness.

They witnessed it and wrote and warned about it themselves. So again, if this were you, would you think that Jesus' words were being fulfilled in your generation?

Again, this is the third time, the third topic. Yes, absolutely. If you heard this, you would recognize that this is to them for them.

So let's go on to the next topic, the gospel preached on in the whole world. And this one is really important because a lot of people get stuck and say, well, the gospel hasn't been preached to every person on the planet.

The gospel has to go globally. Everyone in the world needs to hear the gospel in order for Jesus to come back.

So what we're going to do is we're going to look at the words that Jesus uses in the book of Matthew and see what it really means.

So in Matthew 24, 14, the gospel of the kingdom, Jesus says the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

So it seems obvious, right? Jesus uses that word whole world.

Many who read Matthew 24, 14 conclude that there is no way the gospel could have been preached in the whole world before the destruction of the temple in AD 70.

Now, remember, my point of view is that the gospel was preached in the world and Jesus came back in destruction of the temple in 70

AD. So the people who oppose that view are going to say there's no way the gospel could have been preached in the entire world.

In fact, the whole world, there was nobody in the Americas, North and South America. There was nobody in Australia that was part of the early church that went there to preach the gospel.

So let's explore this. We need to remember that Matthew 24, 34, in Matthew 24, 34,

Jesus says this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. So one of the all these things is the gospel being preached on in the whole world to all the nations.

So what does this mean? The word translated world in Matthew 24, 14 is the

Greek word, and we've spoken about this before, oikoumeni, rather than the more common word for world, cosmos.

Now, if Matthew would have used the word cosmos, you could see maybe that might include the whole world, but he didn't.

He used the word oikoumeni, and this is the only time Matthew uses oikoumeni. So it's not like he uses it over and over.

So this is a specific word in a specific context with a specific reason. Oikoumeni is translated as inhabited earth or known world.

Political boundary is what Gary DeMar says, and it's sometimes translated as the

Roman Empire. In Acts 11, 28 and 17, 6, the word oikoumeni is translated in the

ESV and NASV as Roman Empire, which is more of an interpretation rather than a translation, because the translators understand what the author of Acts is trying to say.

So let's see. The same Greek word is used in Luke 2, 1, and it says, now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

It's the word oikoumeni. Rome could only take a census of its own subjects, those who lived within the political boundaries of the empire.

Caesar Augustus was not telling his guys to take a census of people who didn't belong to the

Roman Empire. He wasn't asking them to take a census of the people in Canada, North America, South America, or Australia.

He was telling them to take a census of everyone within the Roman Empire, that political boundary.

That is a clearer translation which helps us understand that Jesus was saying that the gospel of the kingdom would be preached throughout the whole world or the whole

Roman Empire, the known world at that time, before judgment would be poured out on Jerusalem.

Look at the reaction of the Jews to the preaching of the gospel by Paul in a synagogue of the

Jews in Thessalonica and how it had an impact on this term we're going to use called the world.

In Acts 17, 5, Luke writes, The Jews, becoming jealous and taking along some wicked men from the marketplace, formed a mob and set the city in an uproar and attacking the house of Jason.

They were seeking to bring them out to the people. When they did not find them, they began dragging Jason and some brethren before the city authorities, shouting,

These men who have upset the world have come here also. And Jason has welcomed them.

And they all act contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,

Jesus. So now the Jews, with the proclamation of the gospel and the apostles going from city to city, the

Jews are seeing this and saying, These men upset the world. Now, did the

Jews mean the entire inhabited planet, the entire globe? Or did they mean that the

Christians, the disciples, were affecting that area or that political boundary?

In context, this is the political boundary that they're talking about. They're not talking about the entire inhabited world.

So you can see when Jesus says that the gospel will be preached on in the whole world, in context,

Jesus is talking about the known world at that time or the Roman Empire. Let's take another look.

In Acts 17 .5, we just looked at this. The Greek word translated world is, again, oikoumeni.

The NASB translation notes in the margin that it's literally the inhabited earth and references

Matthew 24 .14 where it's translated world and Luke 21 where it's translated as inhabited earth.

See, the translation could be either of these. It's unfortunate that while many modern translations translate oikoumeni in Luke 21 as inhabited earth, still some translate oikoumeni in Matthew 24 .14

as world. So that translation is going to lead people to believe that the gospel has to be preached in the entire world before Jesus comes back.

Unfortunately, that word, I shouldn't say unfortunately, contextually, that word is used in several other places to mean inhabited earth.

In fact, in the appendix of the Companion Bible, it offers a clear definition of the word oikoumeni as compared to cosmos.

It says oikoumeni is used of the habitable world as distinct from the cosmos.

Hence, it is used in a more limited and special sense of the Roman Empire, which was then dominant.

So this term, which was common at the time, meant, again, the inhabited earth or the political boundary of the

Roman Empire. When ministers preach on Luke 21, they must explain that the word world refers to the world of Jesus' day or the known world at that time.

But this would be unnecessary if oikoumeni had been translated literally. The NASB is also inconsistent.

In Matthew 24 14, oikoumeni is translated world, but in Luke 2 1, it's translated as inhabited earth.

And in the marginal note, it adds that it refers to the Roman Empire. When we get to Acts 11 28, the

NASB goes back to using the word world for oikoumeni as a translation and adds in a marginal note that it literally means inhabited earth.

Now, if it literally means inhabited earth, why not translate it that way? It just adds confusion to the mix.

So if you don't read Greek, you're not going to pick this up. And many people today in the church don't read Greek, and we rely on translations.

So this is a big deal when we're looking to find out when did

Jesus come back? And if he did, why does this say world?

So as you can see, the word oikoumeni in context does not mean the entire globe or the entire planet.

It means the inhabited earth or the political boundary of the Roman Empire. I think

I just did that. Yeah, that's a duplicate. Okay. Paul wrote that the gospel has come to you, the

Colossian Christians, just as in all the world. So Paul recognizes that the gospel was preached on in the entire

Roman Empire. He calls it the world. That is, those living in other parts of the empire.

Interestingly, Paul uses the Greek word cosmos. So even if Jesus had used the word cosmos in Matthew 24, 14,

Colossians 1, 6 would be evidence that Jesus' words were still being fulfilled. And the same is true for Romans 1, 8.

Paul says, first, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

That is the world of Paul's day. Now, Paul uses the word world, meaning, again, the inhabited political boundary of the

Roman Empire. Otherwise, if Paul really did mean the entire planet, he is affirming that the gospel has come to the entire planet.

That's not what he means. But just for the people who would oppose this particular view that I'm taking, that still would have fulfilled

Jesus' words. Again, I think contextually, the word means the inhabited

Roman Empire. The Bible often uses the word world, cosmos, similar to the way we use it.

Paul goes so far as to state that the gospel was proclaimed in all creation under heaven. And now here,

Norman Geisler, who is not a partial preterist, he offers the following commentary on Colossians 1, 23.

He says, to every creature under heaven, that's what Paul was saying. This is obviously a figure of speech indicating the universality of the gospel and its proclamation.

Not that every person on the globe heard Paul preach. In Acts 2 .5,

this phrase describes countries without including, for example, anyone from North or South America.

So here's a person, Norman Geisler, who I believe is premillennial. He doesn't believe that Jesus came back in judgment upon Jerusalem and fulfilled the

Olivet Discourse. He's noting that the words that Paul used do not mean every single person on the planet.

Because Paul says the gospel has come to every creature under heaven.

Paul quotes Psalm 19 .4 to confirm that the gospel had gone worldwide. He says, but I say, surely they have never heard, have they?

Indeed they have. Their voice has gone out into all the earth or the land and their words to the end of the world.

Again, there's that word oikomeni. Even the use of all the nations is confirmed by Paul when he declared that the gospel had been made known to all the nations.

A direct fulfillment of Matthew 24 .14. Notice the verb tense, having been made known.

In other words, this was something that had been done already by the time Paul was writing the letter to the church at Rome.

Then in 1 Timothy 3 .16, he says, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.

He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, the cosmos, and taken up in glory.

All the requirements of a pre -AD 70 fulfillment are met when we let the

Bible interpret itself. All nations is not always a reference to every nation in the entire world.

All nations meant all the nations that would come to the temple to make their sacrifices during the

Passover. And Jews would come from all areas of the Roman Empire, every nation in the Roman Empire, to come and make their sacrifices.

So, the disciples understood Jesus, and that the gospel would be preached throughout the world, and to all the nations, as the

Roman Empire. This was accomplished before 70 AD. And again, my question to you would be, if this were you, would you believe that Jesus' words were being fulfilled?

Okay? So now we're just about wrapping up. A quick little recap. Jesus told the disciples that they would be betrayed, hated, and killed, all of which happened before 70

AD. As per the Apostle John, they were fellow partakers in the tribulation, so they experienced the trials that Jesus said that they would experience.

Jesus said that false prophets will arise and mislead many, which did happen before 70

AD. In fact, the Apostle John wrote that many false prophets have already gone out into the world.

Jesus said that because lawlessness has increased, most people's love will grow cold, which the

New Testament continually described as happening, and warns us against. The book of Revelation, at least five times, warns the churches to turn back to their first love, or else

Jesus would come back and judgment upon them. That's what we see. The book of Revelation sees and warns the churches to change their behavior, or he would come and remove their lampstand.

Jesus then says the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

And all the nations did hear the gospel, as per Paul. And since the word oikoumeni is translated inhabited earth, the geographic region

Jesus was talking about did hear the gospel proclaimed. So that's a quick recap.

I know this was a quick lesson, which is okay because it's my anniversary and I want to celebrate with my wife tonight.

So next week, which next week is the near future, just a little pun for you.

We're going to learn more about the abomination of desolation, which is obviously very important. So many people have misconceptions about that.

Jesus also says to flee to the mountains and leave everything behind. We're going to explore all three of those different topics for next week.

But for now, that's the end. Not the end of the world, but just the end of the study in case you thought this was a sign that the end was way out in the distant future.

So that's that. Let me... You there, Jerry? Yes, sir.

Any questions, concerns? Excellent. No, I just wanted to add that this is this question with the world and the issues that some have with it is the same type of issue that many had when we looked in the book of John.

And when we talked about the many different ways that the world could be, you know, the many words that could be used for world.

Yes. This is the same the same issue. You did a very good job pointing out the different, you know, perspectives on that.

It's again, it's it's got to be taken in context, like you said. Everything has to be looked at in context.

You know, I'm glad that you brought that up about the world because, you know, we have verses like John 3 .16,

right? The most popular verse, God so loved the world. And then later on, you have John saying, do not love the world or the things in the world.

It's like, well, which is it, God? Am I supposed to love the world the way you told me to love the world? Or am

I not supposed to love the world? And within the book of John alone, there's 10 different ways to translate that word world.

And if you if you misunderstand what the context, you're going to you're going to make some major blunders and come to a different conclusion than than what he wants you to come to.

So, yeah, thank you for pointing pointing that out, because it's not just in the

Olivet discourse that the word world can be misunderstood. It's throughout the

New Testament. That's correct. So when does does God love the world in one sense?

Sure, he loves the world. But you look at Psalm 7, Psalm 5, Psalm 7, Psalm 11.

There are people that God hates. God hates the wicked. So, again, which is it?

Does God love the entire world or does he hate the wicked? And it's only until you start grappling with these things and start digging a little bit deeper that you you understand what's actually going on.

But thank you for bringing that up. You bet. Okay, let me see. Mr. Joe, you out there,

Joe? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Joe, I can't hear you.

Unmute. Can you turn your microphone on, Joe? There you go.

Michelle, all the best, all the best to you guys. Oh, thank you.

Thank you. I do have a question in the book of Revelation. There was a warning to the churches.

If they didn't change their behavior, he would take away their lampstand. Yes. Yes. The Catholics have been not behaving the way

God would like them to behave. Yes. How come their lampstand is still?

That's my question. I mean, how many hundreds of years have they been in existence?

I mean, since 2000 years, right? I mean, yes or no?

I'm confused about that, though. Yeah, no, no, no. It's understandable. I would say that there would be people who would argue that their lampstand has been removed.

They are not a true church. But there are millions and millions of people that are in that institution.

And they still believe what they believe. And the church is still vibrant.

Well, are they vibrant, Joe? I mean, are they teaching the gospel? Well, the churches are open.

Well, not now with the virus. But I'm just saying that the church is open for business. The lampstand hasn't been taken away.

Okay, what do you understand the lampstand to be? Church. The church. Their physical church.

No? Okay, well, does everybody who puts a sign out in front of their building that says church on it, does that make them a church?

No. No. So you can start off as a legitimate church, preach the true gospel, and turn from that.

And because your sign says church, look at the Mormon, the Church of Latter -day

Saints. Look at the Jehovah's Witnesses. You got that church. You got all these different kind of churches that aren't churches.

They're not preaching the gospel. So it doesn't mean that God's going to disband their assemblies or destroy their buildings.

But the influence that they have as far as the gospel goes and the rewards that they're going to receive for preaching the gospel will not be there.

They're not going to be vibrant. I don't see the Catholic churches being vibrant.

I see the Catholic churches being dead. Well, that church is deceiving a lot of people, man.

Sure, certainly. And I think it feeds right into the heart of mankind. In Romans 1, we see

Paul talks about the suppression of truth and unrighteousness. There's three ways that human beings can suppress the truth.

Number one, you could just be an outright atheist. You can deny God's existence, even though you're going to be held accountable for that.

You could just deny God's existence. That's one option. The second option is agnosticism.

Well, I don't have enough evidence. I don't know. God could exist. He may. He may not. That's the second option.

The third option in suppressing the truth and unrighteousness is to create a religion, to create a man -made religion that you can set the standard for, hit the standard, and say,

I've hit the standard in order to be made right with God. Right?

So human beings have been creating religion since the dawn of time. Just because they create a religion doesn't mean it's a right one.

It's a man -made religion. The only religion that's going to save you is not a religion that you create a list of rules to do, accomplish those, and now you're right in God's sight.

In essence, there's only two religions in the world. One is human accomplishment.

The other one is divine achievement. One is made by man and says you need to do this, this, this, and this, and then you can get to heaven.

The Christian religion, different than every other religion on the planet, says there's nothing that you can do.

There's no work good enough that you can do to earn your way to heaven. In fact, the situation is so bad that God in heaven has to come down here and rescue you.

Your job is to place your faith and trust in Jesus as the payment for your sins.

Nothing to the cross I bring, simply to the cross I claim. So any church that's preaching a works -based righteousness, such as the

Roman Catholic Church, is not a church. That's not a true church, unfortunately.

What I won't say is that there are some people within the

Catholic Church who truly do have faith. They might just be stuck in tradition.

They might be stuck there for different reasons. I believe that God will eventually move them out.

It doesn't mean that every single person, that there are no people in the Catholic Church that truly know

God. I think the vast majority don't. They like to pacify themselves and say,

I'm a good person. That's why I'm going to heaven. But then when you line them up to the law, have you lied?

Have you stolen anything? Have you committed murder in your heart? Have you committed adultery in your heart? You've broken all 10 commandments.

You're not good in God's sight. And when you read Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36, one of the promises of the new covenant is that God is going to write his laws upon your heart.

You will remember your sins and you will loathe yourselves. I could never, ever stand before God or my fellow man and say,

I was good enough. That's why I'm going to heaven. Never. No true

Christian says, I'm good enough to get to heaven. Yet, most people in the

Catholic Church, and not just the Catholic Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, so many different types of churches.

They're taught that if you get baptized a certain way, if you speak in tongues, if you knock on doors, if you do this, this, this, this is accomplishing

God's will and that's what makes you righteous. And that's wrong. There's nothing that you can do in this world that makes you righteous.

If you could do something in this world that could make you righteous enough to get into heaven, why did

God have to send his son into the earth to die on a cross? Either it's his payment and his payment alone, or it's something that we do.

And if it's something that we do, then it's man -centered, not God -centered. Anthony, could

I just make a simple comment here? We often forget there's church with a capital

C and church with a small c. There's the visible church, those who call themselves church, and like you said, not all of them are the church.

And there's the invisible church, which is the church. Now, that might sound even more confusing, but then the other thing, though, that I want to make a point of is

Jesus calls his church the light of the world. And that the church that is the light of the world are those who are proclaiming his word of truth in the true fashion.

So that's how you would measure a church as to whether their lampstand, the light of the world, is still present and not present.

Yeah, thank you. That's a good point. And one of the things I would piggyback on what you said, Jerry, is

Jesus says that there's going to be wheat and tares in the church. The wheat are those who are

God's people. The tares are those who intermingle with God's people. They may make a profession of faith, but they lack possession of faith.

And that's the difference. Everybody in the church professes faith. Not everybody in the church possesses faith.

So you have the visible church and the invisible church. The visible church is everybody in the congregation.

The invisible church is those in the congregation that truly have faith. Does that make sense,

Joe? It does. It does. I was thinking more physical than spiritual.

And listen. We're down the doors, so to speak. And I could totally understand why you would say that.

For me, it was a big hurdle because I grew up going to Catholic school.

I grew up attending the Catholic church, although I was a nominal church goer. I would go on Christmas and Easter, and sometimes

I would have a spurt where I'd go for a little while. But it was never real for me.

So when the gospel was presented to me and then God did something in my heart and I started to see things differently, the first thing

I had to do is go back and say, wait a second. How could the

Roman Catholic church be wrong? They've been teaching this stuff for 2 ,000 years. How is that possible? And then as I began to research it, it became evident to me that there was a point in time where they strayed from the gospel.

They started in with indulgences. They started in with purgatory. They started in with almsgiving.

They came up with the treasury of merit where the excess merit of Jesus, Mary, and the saints would go into kind of like a heavenly bank account so that when

Anthony Eugenio died, their merit would be applied to my account to get me into heaven. I mean that's nowhere in the scriptures.

And how much merit did Jesus' death on the cross earn?

What was it worth? Everything.

Everything, right? So we learned two weeks ago when

Jesus was on the cross, one of the things he said on the cross is to telestai.

It means paid in full. It is finished. Jesus at that point, his death on the cross, was enough to pay for our debt.

So if Jesus' merit and Mary's merit and the merit of all the saints is in this treasury, how much merit do

I need? I shouldn't need any merit of my own if Jesus' merit is infinite and paid the price.

If I die as a Roman Catholic and I have some merit in my account and I need more, shouldn't

Jesus' merit be enough to get me to heaven? Yet they say it's not.

I go to purgatory. Again, this is just clouding the issue of the gospel, which is very, very simple.

The gospel is the easiest thing to understand and the hardest thing to do at the same time because our hearts are hardened.

Our hearts are dead to the things of the spirit. Paul says if you confess with your mouth

Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

So how difficult is it to place your faith and trust in Jesus? Very simple.

It's a very simple thing on the face of it to do. The problem comes from internally our hearts are hardened.

They're sin stained. We don't want to submit fully to Jesus because then we can't live our lives the way we want.

So it has to be an act of God that changes the heart first, which is what happened to me. My heart was changed.

Then I submitted myself to God and the process of sanctification began.

So I'm not saying that there aren't people in the Catholic Church who that's happened to.

It's possible. But I don't hear that. I've never heard the gospel preached in the

Catholic Church. So I hope. Okay. All right.

And remember I showed you that video with Ben Shapiro talking to the Catholic Cardinal.

And Ben Shapiro, who's Jewish, who rejects Jesus as Messiah, the

Cardinal says, no, you can get into heaven. In fact, the atheist can get into heaven. So what is the sense of becoming a

Christian if everybody goes to heaven no matter what they believe? Universalism.

That's a perversion. That's dangerous. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. There's no need for Jesus at that point.

Yes. I just wanted to add one other thing with the parable of the wheat and the tares.

It's important we remember that when Jesus taught that he said not to pull the tares out. Yes. Lest we might pull up some of the wheat.

So you had mentioned before that in some of these churches that the lampstand has perhaps been taken.

There still may be believers there. So that's, you know, and even like you said, even in the

Catholic Church. So that's why those churches, in a sense, are allowed to still exist.

Correct. Not only that, but it also strengthens our own faith and builds us up.

Now I'll be quiet. No, no, no. That was a good point. That's a good point. That's a good point.

In fact, I want to ask Aunt Trish here. Where's Aunt Trish? Here we go. Aunt Trish, turn your mic on.

There you are. How are you doing? I'm doing good. Did you have any questions or anything to add?

Because I know your dad, you would consider your dad to be a believer, correct?

Yes, he sure is. He sure is. And what church does he go to? Roman Catholic. See? So Trish's dad is a bona fide believer.

Yes, he really is. He's in the Word every day. Yeah. But why he goes to that church,

I'll never get it. No, I mean, how do you believe in that nonsense?

Yeah. No, I know. I know. That's, you know, Mary and every other thing. It's just,

I don't know. Yeah. I don't get it. Yeah. It's tough. It's tough to see some of the things you teach.

It is. I mean, I have a book where they actually say, speaking to Mary, into your hands,

I commit my salvation. Yep. So, you know, if your salvation is in the hands of anybody but Jesus, you have a problem.

Exactly. A big problem. Yep. Because, you know, contrary to what they teach,

Mary was a sinner. Yep. Same as us. There was only one person who walked the earth stain free, which is

Jesus. Exactly. So, all righty. Thank you, Aunt Trish.

Okay. Let me see my buddy, Gene. You out there, Gene? You got to unmute your microphone.

There we go. I'm here, Anthony. I am here. How you doing? Good, good.

No questions. Thank you, as always, for your work, your hard work in bringing that to us.

Also, congratulations to you and Melissa. Thank you. Thank you very much.

I hope you have a great celebration. Thank you. I appreciate that. So, let me ask you a question.

Does what I'm saying about the gospel preached on in the world make sense to you?

Oh, for sure. I've heard that previously. Okay. It wasn't a new idea that I've heard.

So, yeah, certainly made all the sense in the world. Okay, good. No pun intended.

You didn't get that. That's good. That's good. You must know Jerry somewhere along the lines you've been speaking to Jerry.

Jerry's my favorite pun guy. Thank you, Anthony. Thank you,

Gene. Okay, hold on one second. Where is Mr. Arada? Mr.

Arada, how are you? I'm up. How you doing? You're up now? Yeah, I'm up. Happy anniversary to you and Michelle.

Thank you very much. Thank you. A couple of weeks ago, this may not be exactly what we were talking about, but I read the other accounts in Luke 21 and Mark 13.

Yeah. And in Luke 21, 15, well, first, let me go to Mark 13, 11.

Okay. On Mark 13, 11, it says, and when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand about what you want to say, but say whatever is given to you at that hour, for it is not you who speak, but it is the

Holy Spirit. Okay. And then I went to Luke 21, 15, and it says, now

Jesus is talking and he says, for I will give you utterance and wisdom, which none of your opponents will be able to resist or refuse.

So in one instance, you have Jesus talking, and in the same incidence, in the other narrative, it has the

Holy Spirit talking. So I just figured it was a good analogy for the Trinity somewhat.

Absolutely. You know, when Jesus is talking to the disciples, he says, if they hear you, they hear me.

Right? So again, the apostles had certain authority that others didn't have.

So when they spoke, they spoke with authority as if it were the words of God himself.

So again, that was based on the power of the Holy Spirit. And yes, God filled the apostles with the

Spirit of God, such that when they spoke, they were given what to say. And that's what they said to the kings and the people who arrested them.

Think about it this way. If you read the Bible, let's say, let's just take, for instance, the book of Romans.

Who wrote the book of Romans? Paul. Is that it? Well, God wrote it.

There you go. So although it was Paul writing, Peter says he was carried along by the

Holy Spirit. So although it's Paul's words, it's also God's words. God filled

Paul with the Spirit to write down exactly what God wanted to convey to his people. And this is why, and I'm going to use a word, it's called compatibilism.

So our will and what we do and what God does and what he decrees are compatible, such that we do what we want to do, and God does what he wants to do, and his decree is fulfilled.

Okay? So some people will say, well, could Paul have done otherwise? And my answer is no.

He had what's called categorical freedom, but not conditional freedom.

So given the same set of circumstances, Paul would have wrote exactly what God wanted him to write.

But given a different set of circumstances, he could have wrote something differently. And that would make his words and the things that he did not arbitrary.

They would have meaning and purpose because God put him in that situation conditionally. So our wills are compatible with God's will.

Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. Any other questions, buddy? No, I'm good.

Thank you. Yeah. And don't forget next week you're coming over with the beer. Okay. We got

Miss Michelle. Hold on a second. You got to turn your microphone on,

Michelle. Hey, how you doing? All right. It was great. Thank you.

Okay. Does it make sense? Yeah. Everything was great. Going back to the lamb stand when he said it would be removed as a spiritual thing.

So it's not the Holy Spirit because you can't take that away. Well, yeah.

Again, there are people in the church who make professions of faith but don't have the possession of faith.

Now, a true believer will never lose the Holy Spirit. But the congregation as a whole, if that particular congregation is filled more with unbelievers than believers,

God will take their lamp stand away. The lamp stand, remember, is the light shining.

They will not shine to the people around them. They will not attract true believers. So the lamp stand is symbolic, so to speak, of the light that the spirit would give off.

Okay. All right. Thank you. Yeah. No problem. Hi, girls. Hi. All right.

Let's see. Hold on a second. Where we got here. What about my brother?

You got to turn your microphone on, Mike. Hey, buddy. How'd it go? Did a great job.

Okay. I don't have any questions, but once again, did a great job.