All right, well, my message tonight is called, Do We Have Prophets Today? I'm going to read from Acts chapter 2, verse 16 says, But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy." Father God, Lord, I just pray that you would be with me as I deliver this message, God, that you would keep me from error, Father. Thank you, Lord, for your protection on Donald Trump, God, and just pray, God, that you would continue to protect him, Lord. that you would just cause him to fear you, Lord, and that he would know that it is of you that he was saved, God. And Lord, we just pray that you would bless this country again, and bless my preaching tonight, God. Be with it, in Jesus' name, amen. So the Bible is a book of prophecy, from the beginning to the end. It has multitudes of prophecies, starting in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 3, verse 14, it says, And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. This is a general curse in one sense. We know that the seed of the woman, being the human race, has a dislike of snakes. We kill snakes that we don't want around our children, or that eat eggs out of our chicken coops. I had a man out to my house to work on our air conditioner the other day, and his wife was with him, and they encountered a small snake that had taken up residence under the condenser unit beside the house. It was a garter snake, I think, nothing to fear. But the man had his wife standing guard with a pole to whack the snake if he stuck his head out too far. But in a prophetic sense, we know that this foretold is Jesus Christ, who would be born of a virgin and will be the ultimate victor over Satan, crushing his head, though he would be bruised on the cross for our sins. Prophecy is the hallmark of God, who alone can tell the end from the beginning. God sent prophets to Israel to warn them of judgment and call them to repentance. Often, the children of Israel would despise the prophets and seek to kill them. In Jeremiah 26, it says, In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word from the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Stand in the court of the Lord's house and speak unto all the cities of Judah which come to worship in the Lord's house all the words that I command thee to speak unto them. Diminish not a word. If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil which I purposed to do unto them, because of the evil of their doings. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened, Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.' So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord. Now it came to pass when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking, all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die. Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the king's house unto the house of the Lord, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the Lord's house. Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die, for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears. This is what the prophets often had to contend with, being threatened with death for speaking the word of God to the rebellious children and evil kings. To be a prophet meant speaking boldly to people who were set against God, trusting him to protect them from their foolish wrath. Verse 12 says, then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people saying, the Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard. Therefore now amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he has pronounced against you. As for me, behold, I am in your hand. Do with me as seemeth good and meet unto you. But know ye for certain that if you put me to death, you shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon the inhabitants thereof. For of a truth, the Lord hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears. Jeremiah submitted his life to God's hands and to the will of the people, with a warning that if they killed him, it wouldn't go well for them. Thankfully, God allowed some sober men to prevail upon the people. Then said the princes and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets, this man is not worthy to die, for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God. Then rose up certain of the elders of the land and spake to all the assembly of the people saying, Micah, the Morasthite, prophesied in the days of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest. Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus might we procure great evil against our souls. immediately we see in the next verse that not all the prophets escaped with their lives. It says, And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjeth-Jerom, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah. And when Jehoiakim the king with all his mighty men and all the princes heard his words, the king sought to put him to death. But when Uriah heard it, he was afraid and fled and went to Egypt. And Jehoiakim, the king, sent men into Egypt, namely El Nathan, the son of Akbor, and certain men with him unto Egypt. And they fetched forth Uriah out of Egypt and brought him unto Jehoiakim, the king, who slew him with a sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people. Nevertheless, the hand of Ahicham, the son of Shaphan, was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death. I can't say for sure, possibly it is because this Uriah feared and fled when he should have stood his ground that he died. But Jesus himself lamented the tendency of the Jews to kill the people that were sent to them by God. Matthew 23, verse 37, he says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. So being a prophet was a serious business. You wouldn't think that people would want to be prophets when you read what they went through, but there are always unscrupulous people who would use the office for their own purposes. Perhaps personal enrichment or the desire to be esteemed by men, but false prophets are not hard to find even today, when we seem to be in a time where God has ceased speaking to his people through prophets. God gave some guidelines for judging whether or not a prophet was truly sent by God. Deuteronomy chapter 13 verse 1 says, If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them. Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he hath spoken to turn you away from the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put evil away from the midst of thee. So God says that there may be prophets that can give you a sign that will come to pass. But that prophet may tell you to follow some other god, in which case it is a test. Don't follow after other gods just because some sign or wonder comes to pass. And the prophet that tries to turn you away from the Lord is supposed to be put to death. Of course, I'm not advocating that we kill false prophets. This was the civil law of Israel. But we can test the prophets of our day with the same criteria. If a man stands up and gives you a sign to indicate that he is a prophet, but he's a prophet for Baal or Vishnu or Buddha, he isn't a prophet, he's a deceiver. Deuteronomy 18 verse 15 says, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren like unto me, this is Moses, unto him ye shall hearken. According to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, they have well spoken that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth. And he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, That is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously. Thou shalt not be afraid of him." Here we have a similar commandment to put a false prophet to death. This time, he may not be obviously calling for the people to go after another god. Instead, it says he is presumptuously speaking in God's name rather than speaking what God has commanded him. And the way to know this is that the thing he, the way to know this is that the thing he speaks does not come to pass. God says, don't be afraid of that guy. Put him to death. I'm bringing this topic up tonight because of something that my wife brought to my attention. I had seen some thumbnails and posts online talking about this and hadn't paid it any mind, but Christy was insisting that I should look at it. I was trying to write my message for tonight, and I told her I would look at it when I had time, but then my curiosity got the better of me, and I did some Googling to find out who this guy was that people were saying had predicted the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. I don't know if any of you saw this. I was able to easily locate the source of the prediction. It was a man named Brandon Biggs, and he was speaking on a video with Steve, Ciccolanti, who I believe is a pastor in Australia of Discover Church. I don't know much about either of these men. I'm just now looking at this myself. From what I've seen, watching the video, they appear to be sincere Christians with a charismatic theology that includes speaking in tongues, although I did not hear them do this, and prophecies and dreams. The prophecy in question comes fairly early in a two-hour video, I'll read what he said. He says, I saw Trump rising up and then I saw an attempt on his life that this bullet flew by his ear and it came so close to his head that it busted his eardrum. And I saw he was, he fell to his knees during this timeframe and he started worshiping the Lord. He got radically born again during this timeframe. I'm talking, people say he's saved now, but he becomes really on fire for Jesus for what I saw coming. Now on its surface, this seems to be an eerily precise prediction of what happened when that young man tried to take Donald Trump's life. We saw the video. The bullet grazed his ear and he just narrowly avoided death by turning his head at just the right moment. He did drop to his knees. I pray that he does get born again if he isn't saved. I think having this type of wake-up call could be what he needs to get him to trust in Jesus. Maybe he is saved and this will wake him up and get him stirred up to follow God. Did this man Brandon Biggs really get this vision from God? I kind of wanted to believe after seeing the video, but I have to test this like God commanded. My skeptical side immediately told me that this could have just been a lucky guess. Half of the country hates Donald Trump, and it's not really a stretch to believe that someone hated him enough to attempt to kill him. Presidential assassinations are nothing new. If you're going to kill a presidential candidate with Secret Service protection, you're going to have to do it with a gun and from a distance. If you want to ensure that the man dies, you're going to aim for his head. And if you miss, the bullet is going to whiz past his ear. But still, the prediction was so specific. Couldn't it be true prophecy? He did say that Trump's eardrum was going to bust, which doesn't appear to be the case. And the bullet actually hit his ear, not just pass by it. But are these details really important in the big picture? I don't know. We could set them aside. What about Brandon Biggs' historical record of prophecies? If he is a prophet, then he must have a list of prophecies somewhere that came true. I can't find one. Although admittedly, I haven't had enough time to deeply research the man. But I have found others refuting his prophetic ministry. I'll read a bit from this article on Protestia.com. There is a video going around of a man prophesying in great detail about the assassination attempt on Trump's life. But this is not something we should marvel at. Instead, this whole video is nonsense. So who is this prophet? Brandon Biggs has a YouTube channel where he spends much of his time recounting visions and prophetic dreams the Lord is giving him, sharing hundreds of prophecies that he believes he is being shown. most involving the destruction of the United States and upcoming doom and pestilence. These include the Lord showing him an upcoming massive EMP attack on America from Oriental people using missiles from the USSR to take out half the Midwest, that Italy will have a massive volcano eruption that will cause major devastation, that there will soon be another plague that will kill 350 million people, that there will be a major earthquake that results in helicopters having to fly in food for hundreds of cities across America because all the bridges will collapse across the country. He's described in vivid detail the upcoming start of World War III, regaling his audience of all the details of how that will begin, and notably, has previously falsely prophesied a major crash of the economy in 2013, urging everyone to buy rations and supplies, which resulted in anyone who believed him suffering financial hardships In fact, he had to personally call up everyone he falsely prophesied to and say sorry, and was subsequently forbidden by one pastor from ever prophesying in their church again. He also falsely prophesied around this time that silver would go up to $100 an ounce and that the Iraqi dinar would skyrocket, also urging everyone to invest in it, even though it tanked and they again all lost their shirts. Furthermore, 28-second sound clips are fun, but let's look at the whole conversation to see what else he's saying. Immediately prior to the prophecy, Biggs says that the upcoming Passover will accelerate politics, war, etc., and there will be record-breaking temperatures, including the largest tornadoes we have ever seen in history, 150 mph microburst winds lasting into the fall season. We'll be looking for these. As it pertains to prophecies about assassination attempts on the president, the bar is really low. The prediction that someone might try to take out one of the most hated men in America, one who gets compared to Hitler on a regular basis and has the entire forces of the mainstream media against him, driving the narrative that he must be stopped at all costs, is basically par for the course. Notably, this quote from Tucker Carlson in 2023 is also obviously prophetic. If you begin with criticism, then you go to protest, then you go to impeachment, Now you go to indictment and none of them work. What's next? Graph it out, man. We're speeding towards assassination, obviously. They have decided, Permanent Washington, both parties have decided that there's something about Trump that's so threatening to them, they just can't have him." So he made some other predictions in the video, and also since the assassination attempt happened. in a follow-up video with Steve Cicillante, including another assassination attempt on Trump, this time by a woman. He's predicting a market crash after Trump gets elected, and the giant earthquake mentioned in that article that he says will be centered on the New Madrid Fault, which has worried geologists since the great earthquakes that were recorded in 1811 and 1812. So I believe, at this time, that Mr. Biggs is not a true prophet in any real sense, If he has made prophetic statements that did not come to pass, the Bible is clear that he is a false prophet and not to be feared. His message that Christians need to be ready and wake up because time is short is true, but we all got that notice from God in the scriptures. But I think we need to keep an open mind when someone claims to be a prophet as we read at the beginning of this message in Acts that there will be an outpouring of the Spirit in the last days. Again, it said, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and they shall prophesy. Peter applied the prophecy to what was occurring at Pentecost. But we know that oftentimes prophecies in the Bible have more than one fulfillment. I believe that we are in the end times now, and we will see this prophecy fulfilled literally again. We know some people who have claimed to dream dreams that have not come to pass. I'm not afraid of their dreams, and you shouldn't be afraid of them either. But I know that God still operates in the affairs of men, and I believe God can give people dreams even today. But I'd be very careful about calling myself a prophet if I thought God had delivered something to me in a dream. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 8 says, Charity never faileth. But whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. I believe that these gifts of the Spirit that operated in the early church, tongues and prophecy, they ceased. And outside of special circumstances that God may still use these things in, we do not have these gifts operating in our churches in a genuine capacity. I think the charismatic movement is promoting a counterfeit Holy Spirit movement that God did not ordain. That doesn't mean we should not hear someone when they claim to have a prophecy, because I do believe it will return, but we have to test the spirits. In Luke 7, verse 19, it says, Calling unto him, two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits, and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then Jesus answering said unto them, go your way and tell John what things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, what went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled and live delicately are in kings' courts. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he." Jesus says that the least in the kingdom of God is greater than the greatest prophet, and we are told to seek first the kingdom of God, not to seek signs and prophecies. Let's be busy doing what we know we should be doing, knowing that the time is short, not because a prophet told us this, but because the Bible, which has proven itself already through prophecy, has told us this, and we can see the signs of the soon return of Jesus already beginning to occur. Father God, Lord, I thank you, God, for your word that you preserved for us, God, that we can know the things that are to come on this world. We know that the time is short, God, and I pray, Father, you would help us, Lord, to be busy about your business, Lord, And God, I do pray, Father, that we would have ears to hear, Lord, when you are speaking to us, God, and help us to have discernment, Lord, to know when you are not speaking to us. I wanna thank you so much for this church, and thank you for this opportunity to speak. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.