today just a little bit of a lesson about prophecy about some general concepts and things that I think would be good for us to know and we're going to use the timeline. Ephesians 5, 8, 9, and 10. I know you're a little off, Ephesians 8 and 9, so let's just ask. Think about along these lines by grace you have been saved through the name of faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. Not of worship, but the image of God. So he's making a concept for us here. How am I saved? It's by grace. Who's grace? God's grace. Okay, so that's uncarried favor. So through no fault of my own, through no purpose of my own, God has undertaken to do something. And He's undertaken to save me. And He's saving me through It's a gracious thing. He's saying, okay kid, I'm putting you in a special place here. I'm giving you a special honor. I'm telling you about the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm believing that, and by grace I have to stay in faith. is something I didn't know before, is something I didn't understand before, but God, by His unmerited favor toward me, gave me that grace, and then gave me the faith. He's actually enlivening the faith, because this is how He says it. For by grace are you saved through faith, listen to this, and that not of yourselves. So, obviously grace is not of myself. I can't give myself grace by His creation. It doesn't matter to me. By God's grace it's happening. Obviously that's not of me. And faith, he's saying that these two things are not of you. You didn't create them. They were a gift of God. Everybody understand what I'm saying? Yes, it's just to accept the gift. So, by grace you have been saved through faith, and you have found yourselves a gift of God, not a purse to sit and manage your clothes. So now I'm going to ask you to go to, if we're okay with that concept, grace and faith. Two big things there, right? And they are adequate enough to save you. Is everybody okay with that? Alright, let's go. Romans chapter 1. Here's what it says. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Now stop just a minute. What's the gospel of Christ? What do we mean by the gospel of Christ? All right. Fair enough. Christ died first before he came to us. So when he resurrected, we must respect him. OK, so that's about his death. Why does his death bear a resurrection? Because we can't deny his glory. All right. Why does his death bear a resurrection? Is he the first person to be crucified? No. But he did raise and give us the dead, right? But that makes it something, maybe. satisfies God's righteous wrath against the sin? Okay, it does do that. But this is not the gospel of Jesus, this is the gospel of Christ. Now watch. The Christ is not just a moment in time. The Christ starts back here. Genesis 3.15. So the gospel of Christ is the good news that that Messiah did come. Now Messiah's got some work. Work that he's doing. So what he's saying, he is happy. He is not ashamed. gospel of Christ that's more than just the death, burial, resurrection. Jewish people can die all the time. Why is he resurrected? Because he had a perfect life. He's the son of God. Everybody with me? That's all part of the gospel of Christ. So it's because he is a righteous perfect sacrifice that a death, burial, resurrection the Gospel of Christ is this. Why? Because it's the power of God on the salvation. To the Jew first, but also to the Greek. So this thing, this Gospel message, this Gospel of Christ, by grace and through faith, is so powerful that it can save my soul. It can justify me before Almighty God. Everybody see where we're coming from? That's a big deal. Now look what verse 17 says. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as is written, the just shall live by faith. Now, let's go back here. We're going to speak in just a minute about our good buddy, Abraham. Now, in time, Paul is way out there, right? Abraham had faith. Does he have faith in the Christ? He doesn't even know the Christ yet, but that's out there. matter of fact, the Christ is going to not only start to prophesy through writing there, but there is something that was back here of deliverer, right? There was something, I'll go back there to Genesis 3 15, of deliverer. And here, Abraham is being told that he gets land, he gets promise, he's blessed, and if anybody blesses him, they'll be blessed, if anybody curses him, they'll be cursed, and he's going to have a seed that will deliver the nations. Is that the gospel of Christ? It doesn't have to be. Watch. This is faith. Right? Now, all kinds of things are added to it along the way here. And now, if you recall, I'm told that by faith, through faith, the church will live by faith. Right? So? I'm taking what Abraham believed. I'm taking what Jacob believed. I'm taking what Moses believed. And then David. And boy, there's just drops of messages coming all out of here. So I believe in more each time. I start just by believing this. Back here with land, promise, blessing, seed. And now, I get a little more specific when I get up here, and a little more specific when I get up here, and a little more specific, but it's all accumulative. I'm believing more and more. So I'm going from faith, to faith, to faith, to faith. Why? Because the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by faith. I'll tell you why that's important in just a second. I know that that's something we've gone through a lot, but let me just talk to you about it. Let's do some other work here in Romans while we're here. Let's go to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Now let's pick up at verse 21. Well, let's do 20 and then 21, okay? Romans 3, 3-20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in its sight. But by the law, it is not. So, here's what I mean. Here comes the law of Moses. Now, Moses knows how to be saved. All you have to do is keep the law, right? No, it's not Moses. If you want to live in the land, you got to keep the law. You don't want to live in the land? Break the law. I'll push you out. I'll push you to Babylon. I'll push you to Assyria. I'll push you to Europe. I'll push you to all kinds of places. You won't be in that land because you broke my law. Everybody follow that? Now, most of the students who teach should be saved by keeping the law. So anybody that tells you that, tell them that's not what you're doing. He was telling them, if you want to stay in the land, you need to keep the law. And that's part of what the judge said, live by faith. You want to live in the land? Live by faith. Live in the land? Live by faith. And that's all that. You're not justified by keeping the law. You get to live in the land. Now, what's what he was going to say? Therefore, by the works of the law, nobody can be saved. No flesh can be justified before Almighty God. Now, look at verse 21. Here we are. But now, the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed. Righteousness of God, apart from the law. Now watch what he'll say. Does this mean that until the law, nobody was ever righteous? No. No. Well, if there was a law, how could they possibly be righteous? Because righteousness is apart from the law. Is Abraham a righteous man? Why? Is Noah a righteous man? Was Enoch a righteous man? So if they were all righteous before there was even a law, is the law adding righteousness to us? No. It's telling us what we're doing wrong, but it's not adding any righteousness to us. So he says, therefore, But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all, believe. Believe. Believe. For there's no difference. Now he's going to tell us about everybody's a sinner. That one I think you can get ahold of. Let's go to verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Right? This is real basic stuff. Yes it is. I don't want to set the ground for what we're trying to do. Let's go to Romans 4 verse 3. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So Abraham hadn't done anything. He believed what God said. That's what faith is. Everybody with me so far? Faith is trusting what God says and living in it. Abraham did not have what you have. But Abraham is just as righteous as you are. Because he believed what God told him. And he lived it. I mean, God tells you he's going to have a child. Doesn't have a child, doesn't have a child, doesn't have a child. So is Abraham saying, I must have had some pepperoni pizza and just had a bad dream. Maybe he had some, maybe I was wrong about that. No. He comes right back. Excuse me. You said it the night you did. All I got is this servant thing here. He's going to inherit all I've got. No. No, he won't inherit all I've got. That's the plan. Could we work on that? Because I'm getting old. And I'm looking at Sarah, and she's no spring chicken. She's pretty, but really not a gal. But some of the plumbing is not working like it needs to work anymore, and I'm not sure she can do this. Okay. Sit around a few years later. Now, why do you still gotta wait a few years to do this? It's about faith. It's about faith. When do you trust me when you don't know what's going on? When do you trust me when you don't understand? I get it if you trust me when I understand. If you don't believe me, say, I think you know, but if I can't, Where's your faith? Because if I tell you I'm going to do something and I wait a couple of days to do it, you have to believe me. Do you give up after day one? Day ten? Year six? When are you going to give up? Why don't I just give up? You said it, right? Alright. That's faith, and that's what faith in a righteous man. Everybody with me or not? So it's trusting what God says. Look at Romans 4, 13-24. I know it's a long one, but here's what it said. For the promise that he would be heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed, through the law. So he's telling us he's going to have an heir that's going to completely clean out the world and be a blessing to the world. Actually, back here, Moses is a Peter. So back here, before there's any law, Abraham is believing God that he's going to be the heir of the world. He's going to be the heir of the whole world. Alright, now, let's go on. That was not through law, but through the righteousness of faith. For those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made is of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. But where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that might be according to grace. so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, that's human honor, who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations, in the presence of him who He believes. God, who gives life to the dead, calls those things which do not exist, though they did, who contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken. Shosha, your descendants. Now I'm going to stop this for a minute. He became the father of many nations. He's not saying that he was only the father of Isaac. He wasn't only the father of Isaac, he was the father of Ishmael also. Then after Sarah died, he married again, and he had four sons from that. And each of those sons became a family, a clan, a tribe, and ultimately a nation. So he's the father of many nations. Now of those many nations, only one can be called Israel. Only one. And even at that, only one Israel. I'll not say that yet. He's the father of many nations. It is not unusual that you, because you are also of faith, are one of the nations he's a part of. Now watch what we're going to say. Some people will say then, Because we're of our father Abraham, we are Israel. It's not that. He had other children besides Israel. You understand what I'm saying? And they're all said to be his family. He says everybody who believes is in his family. That doesn't make us of the same nation. Everybody follow where I'm coming from? When we get to heaven, you're going to see the family of God. Guess what's in that family? You think so? Whoa, whoa, many Canadians are going to be there? Yeah? Some Americans? Yes! Some from all of those. They are all in the family of God, but they're distinct in that family. By the same token, you have that group that's the church. You have that group that is Israel, saved Israel. You have that group that's called angels. Can I tell you, these are not the same thing. And just because they're in the same family doesn't make them identical. They are not identical. So when people talk about them, they talk about the elect. They are all one family, but they're not the same thing. I'm noting this in Revelation chapter 5, when the seals are broken. It says, or when the seals are, or at least Jesus is found to be the one who broke the seals. It says that all the nations All the people who were gathered around the throne, and it says, every nation, every tongue, every tribe, every... It goes through naming all these different things. How, if they are the same thing, would you know they were all those things? If they're all speaking exactly the same language, how would you know that the various tongues have been saved? And why would He say that you first and then the Gentiles? If He wasn't separating them? Yes, He's kind of separated. That's all I want to get at. They're not the same thing. But they do have the same Savior. They do have the same King. They do have the same God. It's all the same. And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead, since he was about 100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform, and therefore was accountable for righteousness. So even though he's past the age, and she's past the age, there's still not much necessary to have a child. Why? Because they're not counting that weakness as meaning anything. Why? Because God said something was true. And they're living on that. That's why we can say, the just shall live by faith. It's a continuing thing. So, faith is trust that goes on forever. You're going to keep on doing it. Keep on believing, okay? Let's go on further. Now, it was not written for his sake alone, but it was imputed in him. Notice, that's imputed righteousness. It's not something he earned. It's imputed righteousness, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Now, I want you to get the picture. You're believing in the one who raised Jesus from the dead. This gospel's a huge thing, okay? You're believing that he was raised from the dead, but you're also believing the one who raised him from the dead. So you're believing the whole package. You're believing what God said. That's the gospel of Christ. Are you with me on this? Alright. Let's go all the way back here to the garden just a minute. Let's ask this question. What is it that could dare Adam and Eve? that sent them out of the garden. Unbelieved. It was unbelieved. That's what started the whole mess. They would not have eaten from that if they had believed what God said. It's because they refused to believe what God said that they went ahead and ate. You see, all our belief system has a work to it. You will do what you believe. If they had believed God, they would not have eaten. But since they didn't believe God, they did eat. That's the word that comes from unbelief. So that's what put them out of the garden. What is it that saves an individual? That's not a trick question. We've been through it all so far. that they do, those works follow what they have believed. Everybody with me on this? So it's the faith that saves a person. Now, swan fruit. You say, what's this got to do with prophecy? Well, thank you, glad you asked. Let's go to 1 Peter 1. And we're going to be looking at verses 10 to 12. Verse here 1, 10 to 12. I'll step outside for a minute. Be right back. That Sunday afternoon, when we got home from church, I started getting a sore throat. My head just kept going. It got pretty intense. My wife has been working with homeopathy for quite some time. And she said I had just the thing for it. And she brought me six little pellets. And I put the pellets in. And my sore throat started going away almost immediately. It wasn't immediate by any stretch of the imagination, but it started going away. So that by about eight, nine o'clock, I just had remnants of it. But my nose was a different story. I don't know if she didn't have any pellets for that. It didn't do the same thing. So this week I have been infected. And my silence is always long. If I can just say it this way without being too picturesque, it's just gross. Let's go. 1 Peter 1, 10-12. Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired, searched carefully, who prophesied the grace that would come to All right, notice, let me read it again. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. Now, let's just get a time and a little on this one. So here you've got some prophets back here. I'm just gonna start back at this area here. You've got some prophets. And they're starting to say marvelous things. I mean, goodness, Isaiah's just a neat book. Isaiah 7, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 11. Wow! There's some really good stuff in there. And they're talking about a grace, a time ahead of them, in which some branch of David, some root coming out of that root of Jesse, somewhere or other, somebody is coming. A son, a child born to us, the government's going to be on his shoulders. He's going to reign forever with righteousness. He's gonna be the mighty, the wonderful counselor, the mighty God, what? Prince of Peace, somebody of even more. That's wonderful stuff. But it wasn't gonna be in Isaiah's day, as far as Isaiah knew. But it might be in Isaiah's day. Maybe it's 30 years from now. Maybe it's 40 years from now. But Isaiah's telling us all about that, all right? He's beginning to speak to us this wonderful thing that says that the prophets searched. They want to know, what do you mean, Lord? I'm understanding what you're saying, but when is this going to be? What are you talking about? And they're recognizing it may not be for them. He's talking about a grace that's out there someplace. Right? Right? This is exactly what we want to hear. We've got more to say. They searched that. They inquired. They want to try to find out what was going on with that. And, verse 11 says, "...searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ, who was in them, was indicating, when He testified beforehand, the suffering of Christ and the glories that would follow. To them it was revealed that to themselves, or not to themselves, but to us. They were ministering the things which now have been reported to you from those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. All right? Now, get the picture. They did not know to whom they were saying these things, yet they prophesied them, and they are reliable prophecies. Notice this. They were men of faith who believed what they were saying, even though they did not understand its implications. They did not understand to whom it was being said. They simply knew they're speaking it. Why is it? Hopefully you'll see that in a minute. Let's go to 2 Peter chapter 1. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of scripture is a private interpretation that for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke and they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Now I've got an illustration, I believe it was from Barnard, but I may be incorrect about that, so don't quote me on that. Barnard said, inspiration works this way, there are times when it's just practically mechanical dictation. The Lord says, write this, and tells them what to write. So, that's kind of like being a secretary. You're just simply writing down what He says. But there are times when it came by dream. And times when it's clear, they're using their own verse to describe what they're seeing. Ezekiel's great at that. Ezekiel's seeing something really wonderful, but he doesn't have anything to compare it to except, well, calves. It kind of looks like calves' feet. But, well, it shines like brass. So it's like brass. He's not saying it was brass, he's just saying it shines like that. And he says it's got wings, it's got this kind of head, it's got that kind of head. So he's doing the best he can to describe what he's seeing. Everybody with me? So he had several types of light. Barnhart said this, inspiration works this way. It's like a man getting into a sailboat. And he's going to go across whatever waters he's going to go across. And he puts his sail up. He puts that sail where it is. He's got a, what do you call it, a bow cutter? A bore cutter? And he's got his sail open. If you've never been sailing, that was more fun. I really enjoyed that. I always wanted to sail, but I've never been sailing. And this guy had a sailboat, and he took me out, just the two of us in this very small sailboat. I was amazed at the power the wind has to move you in all kinds of directions. Well, as it moves like that, this man could, by just moving the sail just slightly, he could pick up, boom, he cut through the water. Totally silent. All you could hear is the water lapping up against there, and occasionally the sail would Because we're not exactly in the right place to win. You got the right place to win. So he kept moving until he got the right place. Oh, there we go. Cut through that water. That's the way inspiration works. You have an author that is sitting down to write something. But he has to catch the wind, the Holy Spirit's wind. And it's the wind that moves him along as he writes. So that's how inspiration is working for us. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. So these guys are not creating their own thoughts and writing them down and calling them inspired thoughts. They're moved by the Holy Spirit. This is actually God guiding them in what they're going to say. God's choosing people of a certain vocabulary, a certain... The prophets are not the same. They all have different vocabularies. And they use those vocabularies to teach something. So He's choosing people with a certain vocabulary that He can teach what to say. And that is being guided along by the Holy Spirit. Everybody follow that? So that's how prophecy works. And it's not a private interpretation. It's not something anybody can just say, well, I'm giving this. This is my prophecy. No, they're all connected. They are connected from here. Jeremiah is connected to Isaiah. Daniel is reading Jeremiah, and is connecting his prophecy to Jeremiah's prophecy. So they're not the private interpretation. They're not some singular thing. They are the prophets speaking the same thing, different ways. speaking more and more of it. Why is it that God is dribbling his prophecy out a little bit at a time? Why don't I just come back here with good old Abraham and say, okay, here's the story, and tell the whole gospel? Well, I don't know if Abraham would have grasped what he was talking about, but I do know this. Abraham believed. He told Isaac. And Isaac believed. And he told Jacob. And there's a blessing being passed on there. God's blessing being passed along, okay? So God's giving understanding in these things all along. And each one of them are giving just a little bit more information. And each generation then is gaining a little bit more. Guess what? Each generation gets enough information for it to have faith. But not complete information. All they were required to do was believe what they heard God say. They're not knowing all that you know out there. They don't have to. Because all we have to believe is what God has told them. And they're going to accumulate, and this next one's going to believe what God told him. And Moses is going to take down and cultivate this thing for us. He's going to take all the paths that we need to know about, all the way back down to creation, and he's going to put that in a single teaching called Torah. Genesis is going to be in that, Exodus is going to be in that, Leviticus is going to be in that, Numbers is going to be in that, Deuteronomy is going to be in that. It's going to take us right up to the time of Abraham and all the children of Israel. He's telling us the whole story. Now, it's not because, I'm just going to say this, the Bible did not introduce creation to the world. There are much older creation stories. that are given by the Babylonians, that were given by the Akkadians, that were given by the Ubariths. So there's much older ones given. The Bible isn't trying to introduce the fact that God created the world. It's trying to correct the fact that this is the God who created the world. Because they already had creation stories. That was not anything new. All of them had creation stories. What was new But that God did it in six days. They knew they'd done it. And they knew there was some way to expand it. There were other readings involved in it. Genesis chapter 1 is the corrective. It is saying, this is the correct way things work. So it took away the stories of the Babylonians. It took away the stories of the Akkadians. It corrected all that. So Israel has a correct statement. All they had to do was believe the corrected statement. Does that make any sense? Yes. That faith justified them. That faith justified them. So when you talk about being justified, it's that you are having to deal with the fact that so much more information has been given than these had, that you're required to believe all the story that's been given at this point. They're required to believe what had been given to them. Does that make any sense? Yes. So, people are justified for what they believe God has told them. Now, they prove that belief by acting on that belief. Okay? I believe that God is the creator of heavens and earth, therefore I'm going to sacrifice the baby. What? No. If they believe that God created the world, that should save them, right? No, that should not save them. Because they're not acting on that, they're acting on as if Bagel was the one who created the world. If Bagel was the one that preserved it all. Does that make sense to you? So they've got to believe what God has told them and take the accumulated story and keep on believing that. All right, let's take a look at some others here. I want to show you something. Let's go to Matthew, chapter 11. Matthew, chapter 11. Now, let's do this. Let's get back here to the flood. In the flood, everybody in the world was killed except Aang, right? So that means those angels knew God, and they knew the history, they knew what happened, they knew what the flood was, they knew, because they'd all been told that. 120 years they had to work on this whole argument. They didn't know that. What was going on? They were righteous people because they believed God. How, then, did we ever get to the Tower of Havoc? How do you make sense of that? But the whole world knew who God was, knew Him personally. Yet you can have just about four generations later and you've got Tower of Babel being built. How? Well, let's go see what we can find out. You've got a lot more people. You have a lot of people. Yes, you have a lot more people. You see, faith requires me to believe the story, the whole story. the story that God gave. Why? I should say, they're not moving any. They knew there was a God, but they didn't want anything to do with Him. Now, were they bitter because He had destroyed all the people before? Because He destroyed the world before? I don't know. What changes your mind about that? I want to get to that. I want to get to God their way. Matthew 11. Pick up with me at verse 24. He's been in all kinds of cities, he's been telling the gospel, and they're not believing it. He's been showing them the good works, casting out demons, healing people, doing all kinds of things, and they're not believing him. They're accepting the fact that he's there, and they really like his good things. Man, he's a cool guy, he heals us all the time. Anytime he gets sick, first aid. That's the guy to go to, alright? So here's what he says. At that time, well, let's back up to verse 23. Right. And you could burn him. That became Jesus' headquarters when he moved north. You could burn him, for it was all to the heaven, will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it should be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you." That's pretty bad news. At that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to me. Even so, Father, for it seemed good in your sight. What seems good in the sight of God? Hiding things. You see that? It seemed good in the sight of God to hide them from people who thought they knew everything. They couldn't be taught anything. They didn't want to have to learn anything about the Lord Jesus Christ. They thought they knew it all. So God hid from them the things that they were seeing plainly before their face. This was stuff that was sitting right out there, and they can't figure it out. And it's not just because they were stupid people. It's because they were refusing to believe what they saw. They were refusing to reach the conclusion that what they were seeing had to bring them out. Who could do these things but a god? Who could do these things but somebody who had great power and authority? Obviously He's greater than us, right? But instead of believing it, they're taking it for granted. We're sick, He takes care of us. That's kind of the way children of Israel did God in the wilderness. Now Jesus is seeing that same thing being done to Him right here. So He got hiding things from the Lord. Matthew 13. There's a couple of chapters up, Matthew 13. And here we're going to verse 10, and we're going to work our way down to 17. And the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in perils? And he answered and said, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Guys, you hear that? To the disciples it had been given... Who's given it? God has given it this. To the disciples it had been given to understand something. It's not been given to anybody else. Wow! God's not very fair, is he? If he was fair, wouldn't he give everybody the same shot? No. He's not giving everybody the same shot. His disciples, He's given a great shot at. But those that are not believing Him, they're not getting a good shot. All right? Let me go on further. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. That is a principle that you get a hold of. If you have faith, more will be given. But if you refuse faith, even what you have will be taken away. He shows that's what he does in parables of the man with five talents, two talents, and one talent. One with five makes five more. One with two makes two more. One with one, there is it. And when it comes time to dole out who it goes to, he gives it to the one with five talents, not to the one with two. Equity seems to say, give it to the guy that had four talents now, because he made two more of it, and he'll have five. But instead, God gave it to the guy who had ten talents. That's what he's saying. Whoever has, more will be given. And, whoever doesn't have anything, it's going to be taken away from you. If you're not going to believe, it's going to be really hard for you to believe. Why? God is going to hide it from you. You don't want to believe? You're not going to get a chance to believe. That's what heaven and hell are about. You follow me? You don't want to be with God? He'll grant your wish. Forever. You will never have to worry about being with God again. Don't just say, then depart from me. I never knew you. Alright? Go on further. Therefore, I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Then the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand. See, you will see, and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. Thus they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears. Thus they should understand with their hearts in turn, so that I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes when they see, and your ears when they hear. For you have assuredly, I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. So let me just take you back here. He said, a lot of prophets. Here's Isaiah. He'd like to know what he's talking about. He'd like to know what the whole story is and when this is going to happen. This is great news. What's going to happen? When? So you're not telling? Right. Okay? Now, these guys are getting to hear the thing put together. They're getting to hear what Isaiah said, what Michael said, what Jeremiah said, what Daniel said. They're getting to hear all those things now coming together in a congealed package. They're hearing the whole story. So he said, blessed are your ears for what they're hearing. Blessed are your eyes for what they're seeing. Go on with it. Let's look at John 6, 60-65. John 6, 60-65. Therefore, being a disciple, we may learn this, that this is a hard saying. This is an understanding. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, in other words, what Jesus was saying was too hard to understand. Does this opinion What then if you should see the Son of Man as sin where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. Flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life, but there are some who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that did not believe and who would betray Him. And He said, Therefore I have said to you, no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by the Father. Does that make sense to you? When you put all the things we've looked at together today, are you seeing what's going on? That God has given prophecy so that each generation would have to respond to the information they've got. They're trusting what God said. And they're getting hope. And each generation more was added. So that by the generation of Jesus, you had a lot of information given. A lot of things could have been understood. But because they weren't even trying, what they did have was taken away. But the ones who were trying to put it together and couldn't figure out what it was were hearing from Jesus and finally getting this thing put back together again. They're understanding what all those prophecies had meant. So when you're looking at prophecy, understand You've got a lot of stuff to look back on. And you have been granted by God the gift of understanding those things. You have been given by God an anointing that lets you understand how Jesus is in those things. Don't sell that short. It is a gift to you. And he's letting you see some things that the prophets wanted us to see. Do you remember what he said? Let's go then to John chapter 8. Well, John 8, 13-20. John 8, 13-20. And the Pharisee said to him, you bear witness of yourself, your witness is not true. Jesus answered and said to him, even if I bear witness of myself, my witness is true. For I know where I came from and where I'm going, but you do not know where I came from, where I am going. You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one. And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true, for I'm not alone. But I am with the Father who sent me. It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me. And they said to him, Where is your father? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. Because they refused to see Jesus for who he was, what they did have was taken away from them. It's now hidden from them. And they can't see Jesus who he is now because of their own foolish way of doing things. Is that clear? Because of their own foolish unrelief, they couldn't get anything else. Let's go to John 10. John 10. Here, we're looking at verses 22-30. John 10, 22-30. Now, it was a feast of dedication in Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, we're right in the middle of that right now. This is Hanukkah, and we're in the middle of that. And Jesus walked through the temple and saw his porch. Then the Jews around him said to him, How long do you keep us in doubt? If you're the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and you do not believe. So I already know something that's true about me. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. As I said to you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. I'm going to stop right there in this minute. Because they wouldn't believe, they gave that up, they were not his sheep. Because they were not His sheep, they couldn't even understand plain English. I've already told you plainly, I'm Christ. But because you refuse to believe, you're not going to receive that. Fair enough? We could go to 1 Corinthians 2 that tells us pretty plainly that it is God that opens the heart of man to understand things. The natural man cannot receive the things of God. So if you're going to be a natural man that doesn't have faith, you're not going to get much. So, if I can say this, if you're trying to argue a person that is a natural person, that has no belief, trying to show them who Jesus is, may I say, you're speaking to a rock wall. They don't have anything to grasp on. They don't have any circumstances. Now, if you talk to an actual searcher, who actually is saying, help me have faith. I don't know what I'm supposed to believe. And now you can have a conversation with them. God's opened their heart. You can speak to them. But unless God opens the heart of that natural man, you're not going to get your message across to them. You're speaking to a brick wall. All right. And then I'll read down Daniel 12, 4 to 10, where Daniel is saying, wow, I've read some pretty great stuff. When is this going to happen? And the angel says to him, seal it up now. That's the first time he asks, the second time he says, yeah, I get it. But what I'm saying is, when is this going to happen? And he said, shut up the book. Seal it up. That's not for you to know. It's for those at the last day. Don't be surprised that throughout church history, the church history couldn't grasp what you know today about the end times. Here's several reasons why. Number one, they were anti-Semitic. Because they were anti-Semitic, they could not see how Israel could have anything to do with it. But Daniel said the elite can't be fulfilled without Israel being in the land. It can't be fulfilled without Israel having a place of worship. Those two things have to be fulfilled. Well, if you're going to say, nope, can't be fulfilled, okay, then you just shut off all of prophecy. You couldn't know squat. And I don't care how much of a Pope or Bishop or Cardinal or whatever you are. You don't know squat. You're crazy. You lost out. You're foolish. Now, by the same token, there were others who had determined that the church was Israel. Guess what? You're not going to understand prophecy. So for you to point your finger at anybody and say, you guys are wrong. You think crazy things about prophecy. You're wrong because you thought crazy things about the church. You missed out on what the scriptures say because you chose not to believe. Does that make any sense? So it's going to be very hard for them to believe something, to receive more information about the tribulation, about the rapture, because they've already put themselves in unbelief Those things can't happen because we already know the church replaced Israel and Israel is done for, so all those scriptures don't count for anything anymore. Friends, let me just say this. Keep yourself as open to things as you possibly can. Be careful about limiting what God can do prophetically. Make sure that you're always listening and saying, what can this do? and be viperians and lift the stuff over. Make sure that you're seeing what the scriptures say. Knowing full well, God can hide things from those who don't believe. And God can open things for those who will. Fair enough? I went to a church, and I got saved, and they taught that, that there's a little number for it. I didn't even know how to read it in the Bible yet, I was a new Christian, but that taught me so. It was like the spirit of God said, would you dare believe that? get out of it, you know what I mean? And afterwards, I sat there and I realized, man, it's false teaching. Like I said, I wasn't well-read in my life. I didn't even know I had to rely on the Spirit to guide me or give me righteousness. I didn't know what to do. You see, a church can be very right about salvation and very wrong about eschatology. It depends on what they have allowed themselves to believe or not believe. Remember this, when your doctrines tell you what the Bible says, instead of the Bible saying what your doctrines are, you're already in trouble. Already in trouble. Father, thank you so much for the gift of this morning. Thank you so much for the kindness you show to us all the time, day in and day out. And thank you for opening our hearts so we can get to understand the gospel. Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and all he means to us. Thank you now for what you're going to do in us today. We ask you to open our hearts fully and completely in Christ's name.