Locked and Loaded

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful today that we

were born again into Jesus and that through the miracle

of the Word of God, we can live forever. Lord,

we don't want to be mush-mush Christians. We want to

be Bible-believing Christians. So help us to know the way.

Help us to follow you, to be found in Christ

with no righteousness of our own based on law. but

law obeying nonetheless. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, the title

of the message today is called Locked and Loaded. It's

a military term. When you're locked and loaded, you're ready

for war, you're ready for battle, you're prepared to engage

the enemy and to protect. As Christians, we are told

to put on the whole armor of God, not part

of it, all of it. And what does that mean?

It means we are to be locked and loaded for God,

fully prepared... And fully ready to act at any time

faithfully in behalf of the church. Locked and loaded. Now

most Christians today are neither locked nor loaded. We live

in a lukewarm Laodicean era where Christians are not Bible

prepared for the challenges ahead of them. They neglect the

essential disciplines of maintaining a living and daily relationship with

God through Jesus Christ and his word. Now I'm very

grateful for the window you had this morning where you

emphasized how we can overcome depression through the Word of God.

And I lost my brother to suicide. I know what

it feels like, and I've struggled with feelings in my

life at very low times, like some of you may have.

The Word of God is a fortress in our life.

That's why children here are taught to love the Word

of God. So what are the essentials that we need

in our lives to be locked and loaded? Here are

seven concrete essentials. I'm going to put them on the screen.

Read them with me. Number one, daily Bible study. Not

every week, daily. That's why we have a Sabbath school quarterly.

It helps your devotions. The spirit of prophecy helps us

to get into the Bible. Pastors, teachers, preachers, if they

have trouble with the spirit of prophecy, they're going to

have trouble with the Bible because it points to the Bible.

Number two, what does it say next? Continual prayer. Look,

pray all day, but pray in the morning. You consecrate

yourself to the Lord in the morning. But you end

the day with prayer and you pray through the day.

Number two, Christian fellowship and worship. By the way, continual

prayer would include a prayer meeting experience in a small

group setting, Wednesday night prayer group, any chance you get

at it. Number two, Christian fellowship and worship. People say, well,

I just stay online. I'll listen to the pastor online. Well,

that works if you can't get here. But if you

can get here, it's like your way of saying, I

don't need to show up and meet the people of God.

In Hebrews 10, it says if we fail to meet

together when we can, that we're actually, in a way,

setting aside the sacrifice of Christ. Why? Because Christ died

to bring us together, not to keep us apart. The

gospel has a social dimension. And we are strengthened by

Christian fellowship and worship. Number three, witnessing. Witnessing. This idea

that you can be a Christian and not share your faith,

incompatible with apostolic Christianity. When you share, you grow. Number four,

service in the church. Now, is it fun cleaning the church? Well,

it could be. Who said yeah? Amen. Now, Barbara, you

were part of the cleaning crew. You're in your 90s now. Whoops,

I hope I didn't let it out. You look younger, though.

You look like you're in your 70s or 80s, maybe.

We'll take a vote. But you were part of our

cleaning crew. Lydia? She just had her 93rd birthday. And

that was in late Jason? Tell me. She looks younger

than she is. No, that's what I said. I agree

with you. So we'll take a vote. Is she younger

than she actually is? Raise your hand high. Barbara? Now,

Moses lived to be 120. You start thinking about that, okay? No, no, no, no, no.

You never know. But we've had a number of people

live to be almost 100 at RHI. We need some

who break the boundary. Go for 120. We'll see what

the Lord does there. But look, serving in the church

means taking care of the church. Now, I do my part.

I do. I help out in cleaning the church. I

do mechanical repairs with Mike and others at times. But

this is where the men of the church can help

out a lot more. The women do, I would say,

more than men in this area. And it's kind of

tipped wrong. Men need to rise to manhood. And there's

nothing masculine about a lazy man. Am I right? Oops,

I got in trouble there. There's nothing masculine about a

lazy man. So men, let's... Number five, sharing. Sharing doesn't

mean just our faith. Just being people who share. Who

think of others. When they see a need, they give.

They give. Number six, caring. Not just sharing to look good,

but caring because you truly care about the other person

more than you. And number seven, giving. Giving, in a sense,

means returning the tithe, but that doesn't sustain the church.

Giving to support the church. Giving in other ways, time, energy.

And if these seven disciplines are in your life, do

you realize that you have Jesus in your heart? That's

what it means. I mean, this is a way you

can get a good gauge of whether or not you're

walking with Christ. So write those down. You can take

a snapshot. Get your cell phones out. Take a picture

of that and go home on your knees and do

a spiritual assessment. Locked and loaded, seven key points. Dear heart,

if these essential seven points are present in your life,

I'm going to make a statement. You will be saved. Why?

Because these seven essentials represent the obedience of faith. They

are an evidence of righteousness by faith. When you are

transformed by faith in Jesus Christ, dear heart, these seven

disciplines pop up naturally because the Holy Spirit is working

in you. You are locked and loaded as a Christian

for God. Friend, Christ came into this world to both

save us and to change us. Did you hear me?

An unhealthy Christian is a complaining Christian who is quick

to point out the deficiencies in others, when he or

she is failing in those seven points I just mentioned here.

You cannot grow up into Jesus Christ if you're not

locked and loaded, fully prepared and ready to act in faith.

And when you are locked and loaded, friend, you experience

what Paul calls the obedience of faith, which is the

obedience that is faith, grammatically speaking. Faith and obedience are

one if Christ is the focus. Faith in Christ, obedience

in Christ, the obedience of faith. And this active faith

is perfected and revealed to be true faith. How? By

your obedience and good works. We are not saved by

good works. Not at all. But we are not saved

without them either. Turn to Romans 16, 27. Now Romans

is the book that talks about the gospel of God.

In the book of Romans, it's God's gospel. It's God's

good news that comes to us in Jesus. And Paul

tells you why God gave us the gospel. Verse 26.

But now made manifest by the prophetic scriptures made known

to all nations. Now you see the Bible there in

verse 26, which says the prophetic scriptures. According to the

commandment of the everlasting God. In other words, it comes

from God. Why is the gospel? For obedience to the faith,

or literally faith. the obedience of the faith. And so

when the gospel comes into our life, it is to

bring about obedience that is faith. That's Paul's thesis, Romans 1, 5.

Through whom, Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship to

bring about what? The obedience of faith for the sake

of his name among all the nations, or Gentiles. Friends,

God raised up the church. God brought us to Jesus.

Not so we can just get into heaven. That we

can have the inward working of the Holy Spirit in

our lives so people can come into a state of

existence where their worship experience, their life experience mirrors heaven,

the obedience of faith. In the Bible, the gospel of

God's forgiveness bears good fruit in a changed life. Fruit-bearing

Christians are faithful Christians. Fruit-bearing Christians are obedient Christians. They

are not necessarily perfect. Do you hear me? Do you

hear what I said? They're not necessarily perfect, but they're

getting there. And they're accepted in the journey as they

grow and mature. Why? Because they value the cross of

Jesus Christ. Because they have lost themselves in Christ. They've

been justified by faith in Jesus. And thus the Holy

Spirit begins to change their lives and they live out

the seven essentials I talked about. They are locked and

loaded by the power of the Holy Spirit. So the

purpose of the gospel is to bring us into alignment

with the will of God. The Apostle Paul was a

Bible-believing Christian, but I have to qualify that a little bit.

The early church grew because they believed, they shared, and

they honored the Scriptures, plural. They called the Scriptures, they

called their Bible, they didn't have a Bible as we

have it, they called it the Scriptures or the Holy Scriptures, plural,

because the Bible had not yet coalesced into a book,

a single book that we have today. The Bible we

hold in our hand every Sabbath, crystallized in its final form,

you can write this date down, in 1826. when the

Apocrypha was rightly removed by the Scottish Bible Society. And

Bible societies all over the world began to print the

Bible in its present form, which is the Bible for

the last days. The time of the end in the

books of Daniel and Revelation occurred in the year 1798,

at the end of the 1260-year prophecy of papal supremacy

and papal persecution. The book of Daniel says that the

book of Daniel itself will be unsealed in that year.

In Revelation 11, it tells us the word of God

will be exalted after that year. And so we are

living in the time in which God has exalted his

word in such a way that we hold the Bible

in its final form for the last days. In Revelation 11,

the two witnesses are called really the Old and New Testament,

the two lampstands. The lamp stands from the old covenant,

from the new covenant, which becomes our Bible today. And

Jesus is in all of it. The early church had

the scriptures plural. After 1798, we have the Bible singular

with the scriptures that God has chosen that are the

Bible for the last days. And it is perfect for us. Now,

when someone comes along and they tell you, well, the

Bible is full of all these errors. I can show

you this, that, and so on. ignore that person. That

person has nothing to do to help you to get

to heaven. If someone comes to you in sincerity and says,

I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible

I hold in my hand is the sweet and precious

word of God given to save me and my family,

that's someone you can listen to. In our time, the

two witnesses of the Old and New Testaments are called

the Bible and We are Bible-believing Christians, and only Bible-believing

Christians will endure and prevail in the last days in

the Mark of the Beast test. I mean, if you

want to fail the final test coming on the whole world,

just treat your Bible like it's a so-so book in

your life. But if you want to pass the test

at the time of the end, reverence your Bible, read it,

study it, share it, grow in it, submit your will

to it, and obey it, and you and your family

will be saved, just like Noah and his family were

saved in the ark. It's that basic. We must be

Bible-believing Christians, or we're not Christians. Dear heart, if you're

not a Bible-believing Christian, if you're not a Bible-reading, Bible-obeying Christian,

you're not locked and loaded for the last days. Now,

Paul knew that the only way to advance the faith

effectively was to share the Holy Scriptures. Friends, I'm going

to make a statement to you. I want you to

hear this from me. I would rather be in a

small church sharing the Bible than in a large one

that has a crowd dancing around a golden calf. Do

you hear me? I would rather be where two or

three are with this book than where 3,000 could care

less about this book. Acts 17.1. Now when they had

passed through Amphipolis, or Amphipolis, no matter how you say it,

In Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a

synagogue of the Jews. So I want to shift into

Acts 17.1 and look at how Paul engaged the Scriptures

in his evangelism and how the Scriptures became so important

for the church at Berea. Amphipolis, which is probably the

best way of saying this in Greek, means around the city.

A river flowed around it. Apollyona in Greek means of Apollo.

who was the Greek god of music, prophecy, and healing,

and the arts. Apollyona can also mean destruction, like Apollyon

in the book of Revelation. So destruction, music, prophecy, healing,

artistic stuff, like Hollywood. All around, huge crowds. Now what happens,

I'm going to ask you this question, what happens when

the truth comes to the big round cities today, full

of crowds, where people preoccupy themselves with destructive worldly rock music,

Hollywood and entertainment kind of arts, counterfeit teachings of prophecy

that cannot heal the life like Nostradamus and everything you

can imagine from the ancient Greeks and the Nephilim, who knows.

When they're into that stuff but not into the Bible.

Paul brought the scriptures to these doomed cities. He took

his Bible and he walked into those cities and they

were transformed by the word of God. Paul came to

Thessalonica where there was a Jewish synagogue in the middle

of the city with all kinds of bad elements in

it and the word of God began to work in

that city. Two books that are better in our New Testament,

two books that are letters in our New Testament are

named after the city of Thessalonica. What are they called?

Do you know? First and second Thessalonians. That's right. Acts 17,

2 and 3. Now when you read those books, first

and second Thessalonians, you realize that they're books that are

not just about letters to the churches. They engage the

book of Daniel. They're prophetic books and engage Isaiah and

some other prophecies. Now Paul raised up the church in

Thessalonica with Bible prophecy. Now we're living in a time

where people say, you know, well, you know. That's what

the old Adventist pioneers used to do. They would teach

the prophecies and, you know, this, that. Uriah Smith isn't

right all the time. Well, the way to grow the

church today is to bring in a Christian rock group. Well,

you know what we need to do in the church?

We need to have less of the Bible and just

have some simple points on the screen about how you

can have a happy life. Well, that's not the kind

of preaching and teaching that Paul did. And that's not

the kind of preaching and teaching that raised up this movement.

We are Bible-believing, prophetically empowered believers, or we're wasting our

time in church. Now, we've had generations in our own

church that have left the church. Why? I'm going to

tell you why. Because they have not been strengthened enough.

They've not been rooted in the Word of God and

our prophetic message and own it for themselves. They got

mush in their growth here and growth in other places.

God forbid we should raise a generation that is ignorant

of the Scriptures, that does not integrate the Bible into

their personal life, that cannot articulate prophetic truth, that goes

for silly mishmash instead of deep, profound truth. There will

be a generation in the last days of young people,

and there will be a generation of children who will

own the Word of God with godly mentors, and they're

going to heaven. But God's not taking compromised Christians who

don't want any of this and who complain about it.

They'll have no place. So let's align with the kind

of thinking that really gets us there. Friends, Paul drew

from texts like Psalms 2-7, Psalms 110, 1-4. And Leviticus

23 to prove the resurrection of the things. So Paul

brought the scriptures to these doomed cities. He came to

Thessalonica and the word of God transformed them. Acts 17,

2 and 3. When Paul went in, as was his custom,

and for three weeks he argued with them from the what?

Now we call that an evangelistic series or small group

setting in the synagogue. We opened up the Bible. Now

we do that on Mondays and Tuesday nights at Reaching Hearts.

We do it through online means. I open up the Bible.

Mervyn opens up the Bible Monday night. And Debbie, you

kind of lead out in that part of it. You

make sure we all pray. It's like a little mini

prayer meeting. And there's people who are Adventist and not

Adventist there. And we study the Word of God. And

the same thing happens on Tuesday night. And Mark, you

have a study as well. Yes, and then I know

that Sherilyn has a study, and I may have messed

someone here. I know we have the studies that occur

in the prison where people are gone to the prison systems.

So we're sharing the Word of God. Now I'm going

to tell you something. More sharing of the Word of

God occurs in this church than when I pastored a 3,000-member

church that didn't do hardly any of that. So it's

not about crowds. It's about faithfulness. It's about making a difference,

digging in, and sharing the Word of God. Paul drew

from Psalms 2-7, Psalms 110, 1-4, great prophecies of the

coming of Christ in the Psalms. Leviticus 23, he proved

the resurrection from the sanctuary and the feasts. He used

Isaiah 53 with Daniel 9, the mare, the appearance, to

show Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, that he would appear.

And that becomes the word for New Testament eschatology. He

has appeared once and for all at the end of

the ages. I could go on. He used the first

fruits of Leviticus 23 to say that Christ is the

first fruits from the dead to show that he rose

on the third day, the feast of first fruits, after

the crucifixion. Friends, if you value and study Bible prophecy

like the early church that points to Jesus, if you

do it at the time of the end, you're locked

and loaded for the last days just like Paul. was

locked and loaded in his day for the gospel now

there are two key verbs in verse 3 number 1

Luke records that Paul was explaining and proving Jesus from

the scriptures now when you explain something what happens do

you complain or explain What? You explain. When you're explaining something,

what are you doing? You're expanding on it. You're making

it clear. You're filling in the gaps. But when you

prove it, you marshal logic and evidence to demonstrate the truth.

I mean, who wants to believe something that's nonsense? Anybody here?

I mean, there are people who will try to present truth,

and it's nonsense the way they present it. Or they're theologians.

I've heard theologians who go, when they don't like the

clear statements of the Bible, they come up with these theologies. Well,

we really, when it says that the Lord is not

willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance,

he really doesn't mean it. Now, if you do that

too much, you know what you do? You run out

of common sense. Because God doesn't break with our common

sense to make statements like that if he doesn't mean them.

And so Paul had to explain and he had to

prove Now, we don't see a touchy-feely religion here at Thessalonica.

We see an evidence-based religion in the early church. Paul

said this to the Jews. This Jesus, whom I proclaim

to you, is the Christ, which means the anointed one,

if he'd used Hebrew, the Messiah. He just says, look,

I'm opening the scriptures. I'm proving to you that Jesus

is the Messiah. So let's open the Scriptures. Daniel 9, 24.

He was going right to Daniel 9. He was working

off the book of Daniel to win those people to Jesus.

Seventy weeks are determined. Now the Hebrew word is cut off.

Cut off of what? The longer time prophecy of the

2300 years of Daniel 8. So the first part of

that big huge prophecy that reaches the time of the

end is cut off for your people and your holy city. Why?

To finish the transgression of the Jewish people. to make

an end of sins, that's all of us, to make

reconciliation for iniquity, there's no definite article in the Hebrew,

it just means all iniquity. While he was saving the

Jewish nation, he'd saved the world. And then, to bring

in everlasting righteousness, Jesus is the new Melchizedek, the new

king of righteousness. To seal up Chodzon, the 2300 year

prophecy of Daniel 8, and literally envision actually seal up

vision and nabi. It's chadzon and nabi and prophet and

prophecy or the prophet. And to anoint, I'm working off

the Hebrew in my head, the most holy. Now, you

see that word most holy? How many of you see it?

Are you looking on the screen? Look in your Bible. Now,

if something is most holy, is it about God or angels?

It's always about God. I mean, that's a loaded word there.

Let's go to the next word. Now, know therefore. Now,

God doesn't tell us to know something if we can't

know it. Know therefore and understand that from the going

forth of the command, the Hebrew is davar, the word.

The command is a decree, the word, and the word

is Jesus. Now, this is the road that leads us

to Jesus, a decree that is Jesus-bound to restore and

build Jerusalem until, now look at, what does it say next?

Help me with it. Messiah, Mashiach Nagid in Hebrew, Messiah

the Prince. In other words, here's a time prophecy of

490 years, 70 times 7, 70 weeks, that from a

decree to restore and build Jerusalem, gets Jesus online. The

Mashiach Nagid, the Messiah Prince shows up. And look, then

he breaks it down. There should be 7 weeks and

62 weeks. First part, 7 times 7, 49 years. Second part,

434 years, 62 times 7. And then you have the

Messiah shows up. I mean, this is math. Sir Isaac

Newton said the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 is the

cornerstone of the Christian religion. Why? Because, friends, this is

evidence that passes the science test. He is the father

of modern science. And so Paul used this science kind

of evidence to win these Christians. He goes on. The

street should be built again. The wall even troubles times.

It starts out with trouble, ends with Jesus. Next verse.

And after the 62 weeks, which is 7 times 7,

62 times 7, Messiah shall be what? He dies. You

have the prophecy predicting the death of Jesus. But not

for himself. Jesus didn't die for himself. Who did he

die for? Help me. He died for us. Not for himself.

And the people of the prince who is to come

shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. People have argued

about that for so many years. Some people say, well,

it's the people of Jesus, the Messiah Prince, the Jewish

people that destroys the city and the sanctuary. Others have said, no, no, no, no.

The prince here at Naguid is Titus, the Roman prince.

They destroyed the city and the sanctuary. Do you know

how the Gospel of John applies this verse in John 14?

It doesn't do it either way. Jesus says, the prince

of this world is coming, and he has no power

over me. The prince that destroyed the Jewish nation, the

prince that destroyed the people of God, that attacked the

true sanctuary, who was Jesus, was Satan. He showed up

to tackle him out and bring him out. And two

centuries before Christ, that's exactly how that verse was interpreted

in the Dead Sea Scrolls when they engaged Daniel 9

in the Dead Sea Scrolls in 11Q, which is the

Melchizedek document, cave 11. So sometimes we have to grow

as Seventh-day Adventists. We don't have all the answers. We

need to recognize that the text can lead us in

great directions. Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. You

know how Jesus interpreted that in the Gospel of John?

Destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up again.

Not just the Jewish temple, which is destroyed after the

70 weeks. They get him in the middle of the

70 weeks. The end of it shall be with a flood,

like Noah's flood, until the end. Now, the end of it,

the Hebrew can be read, his end. shall be with

a flood. Christ is swept away by the flood of

human sin and evil. It's the bigger flood. Noah's flood

was nothing like what he experienced on the cross. Until

the end of the war, desolations are decreed. It goes

on to say Messiah will be cut off in the

middle of the week. I put the chart up there.

If you want to see it all, go to the

next slide. Here it is. The decree occurred in the

spring of 457 B.C., Seven weeks, 49 years, brings us

to 48 B.C., Israel's restored. 62 more weeks, no year zero,

brings us to A.D. 27. The middle of the last week, A.D. 31,

Messiah's cut off, it'll say in verse 27, the new

covenant will be established. And then the stoning of Stephen

leads us to the apostolic expansion. Paul used this. He

taught this. I can show you many examples in the

New Testament where he engages the book of Daniel to

raise up churches. So when people come along and they say, well,

we don't need prophecy to have church growth. Is that

apostolic Christianity? Is it? It's nonsense. It's not. So let's

stick with the Bible. Now, I'm so proud of the

Angels in the Glen website. Are you? Now, Jim, you

just had a prayer meeting here, talk this Wednesday, where

you went into angelsintheglen.org, and you focused on the 70 weeks,

and one thing you focused on was we are almost

to the 2,000th anniversary of the baptism of Jesus in

AD 27. That's next year. And so wouldn't it be

great to have a soul winning emphasis on the world church?

And the world church is focusing on soul winning baptisms, evangelism,

based on the 70 weeks day and night. I really

like that. I think it's cool. Now I want to

draw your attention to something. In verse 24, it said

the 70 weeks would come to anoint, or The holy

of holies. Kodesh kodeshim, the most holy one. Now, is

that talking about angels or God? That's right. You can't

be most holy unless you're God. And so the Messiah,

now think about this. At the council of Nicaea, just

like Paul, Athanasius, the great student of the Bible prophecy,

when he was arguing against the satanic area of sin,

not sin, but sin, error of Arianism that would rob

Jesus of his divinity. He argued from the Bible that

Jesus is the anointed one of Daniel 9. He went

to the 70 weeks. And the Messiah, he argued, who

is called the most holy, cannot be a created being

because when you're Kodeshim, when you're most holy, you are God.

So to bring in everlasting righteousness, he argued, to be

the holy of holies that is anointed at his baptism.

Christ has to be God. And he met the error

of the doctrine that Christ was a created being from

the 70 weeks of Daniel 9. And he did a

little bit more than that. See, Paul did the same thing.

Paul preached Christ as God from the 70 weeks. But

Athanasius in 325, when he combated Arianism, this false anti-Trinitarian

theology that had come into the church there from Egypt

where they would mishmash the scriptures away. Athanasius, who would

later be persecuted by Constantine, he was a forerunner of

the Seventh-day Adventist church. Most people don't know it. Because

he actually, in his treatise on the incarnation, tells us

that the 70 weeks were cut off. He understood they

were part of the longer time prophecy of the 2,300 days.

And years later, when Desmond Ford would come upon the

scene and say, well, cut off doesn't mean cut off,

katak in Daniel 9.24, you have an early 4th century

witness to how that text would have been read that

gave rise to our understanding of that the 70 weeks

is part of the 23-year prophecy that brings us to

the year 1844, when God starts to fix things in

heaven and earth to prepare the world for the coming

of Christ. And so don't negate those early Christians' ability

to study the Bible. So what was the result in

Thessalonica of preaching Jesus with Bible prophecy from Isaiah, Daniel, Moses,

and Psalms? Look at verse 4. And some of them,

that is the Jews, were persuaded. And a great multitude

of the devout Greeks, so some Jews and a lot

of Greeks, and not a few of the leading women

joined Paul and Silas. Now most of the new converts

came from the Greeks. They turned their backs on Apollo

and the gods for Jesus. And godly leading women of

the city joined the church to follow Jesus. Can I

hear an amen from the ladies at least? Men, you

can join in that. The church needs godly women who

are workers for God and not complainers for the devil.

And you know, God will bring consecrated women in the

church if we don't rise. And those women transformed those churches.

They built up those churches. They put their effort in

those churches. Friends, the labor and love as a godly

woman is much needed today in the church for the

salvation of souls. Luke is drawing from the language of

Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, the verse that follows.

Just like Sodom and Gomorrah, these unconverted Jewish non-believers got

jealous of Paul's teaching of Jesus, the Bible prophecy and teaching,

so they connived and they moved on the mob to

attack the house of Jason, to drag him and other

new Christians out and to molest them. Acts 17.5. Notice

the similarity of the Sodom and Gomorrah story, but the Jews...

who were not persuaded, becoming envious to some of the

evil men. Now that's the word used in Genesis 19.

From the marketplace and gathering a mob, just like this

surrounded Lot's house, set all the city in an uproar

and attacked the house of Jason, just like they attacked

Lot's house, and sought to bring them out to the people. See,

if you don't accept Christ in the Bible, you can

find yourself in a mob. That's what's happening here. Certain

key words are used in the Greek language. The word

jealous is zealous in Greek. Suggesting the idea of terrorists.

The zealots in Paul's day were Jewish terrorists. And they

would take a dagger. Josephus calls them the men of

the dagger. In a crowd, they would stick it in

a Roman. Luke also uses the Greek word for agitators

and the mob. Dear heart, I want to make a

clear statement here. God is not in the backbiting business.

The terrorism business. God does not work in mobs, agitators,

or social justice warriors. Or Christian nationalists. You hear me?

Left or right. In the church and for the church.

God changes individual hearts not by crowds, not by force,

not by intimidation. God changes them by Jesus. You can't

take a majority vote to kill people and just because

it's a majority vote make it noble and right. Poor Jason.

They couldn't find Paul so they dragged Jason and his

friends out of his house. Look at verse 6. But

when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and

some of the brethren, the rulers of the city, crying,

These who have turned the world upside down have come

here too. That's an amazing statement. Paul and Silas and

Luke and the others were reaching hearts international for Jesus.

They had turned the world upside down. The whole world

was changed by the preaching of Christ and the prophecies,

and they knew it. In verse 7, they accused them

of undermining the government by preaching another king, King Jesus

instead of Caesar. Acts 17, verse 7. Verse 7, next slide.

Acts 17:7

I'll wait till you get it. Take your time. Acts 17, 7. Well,

I'll read it to you. And Jason has received them

and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar,

saying that there is another king, Jesus. That's what verse

7 says. You see it there. Jason has hardened them,

and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar,

saying there is another king, Jesus. That was an offense

punished by death in Roman times, usually death on a cross.

On Jesus' cross, Pilate wrote the inscription over his head

with a crown of thorns, Jesus, king of the Jews. Jesus.

Jesus is always another king, the true king. And I

ask you the question today, is Jesus your king? Are

you proud of saying, I'm a Christian, Christ is king?

It could cost you your life at the time of

the end if you're faithful to Jesus. The rulers of

the city sized it up pretty quick as they took

some money, some bail money from Jason as security, like

a payment, and then they let him go. The brethren

didn't fool around. They realized that the clock was ticking.

They quickly sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea,

where they entered the synagogue in that city also. Look

at verse 10, Acts 17, 10. The brethren immediately sent

Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when

they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. It was

a common practice for Paul to take the gospel first

to the Jews, then to the Gentiles, so he would

spend his time initially in the synagogue of a city.

The diaspora... The spreading out of the Jewish people that

had occurred had put synagogues all over the world. Romans 1,

16 and 17. Paul makes reference of this. He says,

for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the

power of God for, and what's the key word? Help me.

Salvation to the elect. What did it say? Now here's

an example. Does Paul mean what he means? To everyone.

but who has faith. So God provides salvation for everyone,

but those who have faith receive it. To the Jew

first and also to the Greek. So he agrees with Paul.

Peter does. God is not willing that any should perish.

But who are those who will be saved? Those who

have faith. Verse 17. For in it the righteousness of

God is revealed through faith for faith. If God doesn't

provide an opportunity for people to be saved, if he's

just holding it back stingy like, for a few. What

kind of God is that? See, Paul says the righteousness

of God is revealed through faith to faith. God himself

is declared to be righteous in Romans 3 because Jesus

died for everyone. As it is written, he through faith

is righteous shall live. And Paul is very clear about

works of the law shall no flesh be justified in

sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin,

Romans 3. But now a righteousness has been manifested apart

from the law In Romans 3, he quotes Daniel 9, 24.

The righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. For

all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore,

we're justified freely as a gift. Christ died for the world.

He wasn't stingy on the cross. The love of God

was not limited on the cross. If the love of

God is limited, he's Satan, really. Because he's stingy with love,

God poured a flood of love upon this world that

would never be withdrawn to the end of time. And

when people stand before the judgment bar of God at

the end, and they claim that somehow God had chosen

for them to be lost, it won't work in the

judgment day. They will see Jesus in their own mind,

hanging on that cross, saying, Father, forgive them. They know

not what they do. And who is he praying for?

He was praying for Caiaphas. He was praying for the

people that were crucifying him. And Revelation 1.7 says they're lost. Behold,

he's coming with clouds and every eye will see him

and those that pierced him. He was praying for people

who'd be lost. Father, forgive them. They know not what

they do. There is not a limited atonement. There is

unlimited love at the cross of Calvary. And you can't

connect the dots and be true to the Bible without

Unless you realize that. And so what does the gospel do?

In it, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith.

For faith is written, he through faith is righteous to live.

I don't want to worship a mean God. I want

to worship a loving God. The gospel reveals Jesus as God. Now,

the brilliant Jewish converts valued the Holy Scriptures just like

we should today. They tested everything with the Scriptures. Every

single day, every idea. They welcomed Bible-based preaching and teaching.

They checked it out for themselves every day. They didn't

get tired of it. They didn't ask for naive mush

and simpleton spiritual food. The Berean Christians wanted Bible meat

so they could grow up and go deep into God

and the Word of God. Now my translation says they

were more noble than the Thessalonians who were already noble.

The Greek literally says they were well-born and It's an idiom, open-minded.

I've met scholars who are closed-minded to the love of

God based on the evidence of the Bible. They need

to study the prophecies to bring in everlasting righteousness. To

atone for iniquity without the definite article, all iniquity. It's

possible to be a traditionalist and let tradition prevent you

from opening your eyes so you can see Jesus. Let

me ask you a question. If God is sovereign, does

it take more power To forgive someone who will never

be saved in your heart or just to forgive the

people that will respond? Which is the greater God? You see,

the forgiveness of the king in Matthew 18 is a

universal forgiveness for all sin. On the cross of Christ,

Paul says, God in Christ has forgiven us. And the

tragedy is there'll be people who'll be lost that Jesus

pled for in the garden. that he pled for on

the cross, who will never accept him, but not because

of the love of God, because of their own stubborn hearts.

2 Corinthians 3, 14-7, But their minds were hardened. For

to this day, when they read the old covenant, that

same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ it is

taken away. Yet to this day, whenever Moses has read,

a veil lies over their minds. But when a man

turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the

Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the

Lord is, there is freedom. The Jewish leaders in those

synagogues that did not accept Christ were not able to

understand because Christ is the key that unlocks the door

to Bible prophecy. The Bible is a liberating book for

those who are seeking truth from God. Take your Bibles

out and hold them in your hand. Could you do

that real quick? Take your Bible out and hold it

in your hand. Now, doesn't it feel real good to

have a Bible in your hand? Does it? Man, imagine

what your life would be like without this Bible. It

opens the mind. It opens the heart. It opens the

life to new possibility. It educates and transforms a person.

If you're ignorant, you can become intelligent and wise through

the Bible. It elevates the character and refines the person.

It converts hearts to God. It makes a person noble

so that they are more noble, open-minded. It gave birth

to modern science. Sir Isaac Newton, the great monotheist, was

the student of the Bible. It gave us the scientific method.

And when he wrote his book, Physica, he quotes Daniel 2,

Bible prophecy. I had a person recently who I love

mock me. Really, I'm serious here. Mock me because I

spend time with children in the Bible. Kids don't need

the Bible. The Bible mocked me. And I'm praying for

that dear blind person. God loves them. We are all

assaulted with junk every day. The kids need the Bible.

Let's spend our precious spare time in the Bible alone

with God, together in small groups, teaching children, encouraging them, pathfinders.

And what was the result of good Bible preaching and

teaching in the church of Berea? Look at verses 12

to 14. Many of them, therefore, what does it say?

Believed with not a few Greek women of high standing

as well as men. The women were more likely than

the men to believe, but the men believed too. Verses

13 and 14. But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned

that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at

Berea also, guess what they did? They came there too,

stirring up and inciting the crowds. Then the brethren immediately

sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but

Silas and Timothy remained there. I have found in my

personal life as a pastor that when I commit myself

to the study of the Bible, to sharing the Bible

as a pastor through small groups... mentoring, publications, radio, and

the like. Satan stirs up unconverted church members to say

we don't need all that Bible. There's nothing special about

this building that we're in today in and of itself.

Do you realize that? Now, we have a wonderful church building.

We have 250 membership in our church, and give or

take maybe 120 or so on a Saturday morning. COVID,

we have an online church that fills it out. We

were never a megachurch. Why did God give us this building?

Not so that we can glory in a crowd, but

that we would have an opportunity to share the word

of God with people who have never heard it before.

You know, we are coming to the end of our

lease with the, not lease, but the renters are leaving

here November 29. They've been here almost eight years. They've

purchased a synagogue that they've transformed into a church. I

had a chance to have the committal for Pastor Oscar's

brother when he died in COVID. I met the leadership

of the denomination he represents. I've studied with him at

times the Word of God and the Bible. We had

a chance to encourage his mother through the teaching of

the resurrection. I gave her a copy of The Desire

of Ages in Spanish. And we're inviting those people before

they leave to come here to a worship service at

RHI and to testify a little bit and for us

to pray for them. Because that relationship matters when they

move on. See, this church is not just about us.

This church is about sharing and caring for people who

need the prophecies, the three angels' messages for the time

of the end. And I've learned something from them. We're

not better people than them. They were here earlier this

morning to pray than we were. Did you know that?

They came in greater numbers to pray than we do.

They are consistent. I've seen the senior pastor of that

church on his knees in the office area praying for me,

praying for our church. See, just because they don't have

certain key things like the Sabbath and prophecy correct doesn't

mean they aren't the children of God. These are godly

people who have come to us. They could learn a

thing or two from us, but we could learn a

thing or two from them too, and we have. And

so I would exhort you to be an open-minded Berean

kind of Christian where you're concerned more about somebody else

than proving a point. When I was at my church

up in Oakwood, I'm almost done here, but I've got

to share this with you. We brought a group of

people into the church from the Armstrong group, the Seventh-day

Church of God, and we were studying with them. And

they had this problem with Christmas trees in their theology.

So I asked the church that year, please, let's not

put a Christmas tree up this year. Let's just work

with these dear people. They've made so many changes. They've

come into the church. They're getting it. And there were

two rebellious women in that church who defied my leadership

as a pastor. And they stuck a Christmas tree up

to make a point like they were something special. And

these dear people who were trying to process and figure

things out, we never saw them again. In the judgment day,

if those two Adventists are still unconverted, they'll have to

answer for that. Because God was bringing the Greeks to us.

He was bringing people who needed to grow to us.

And we needed humility and love in our church, not browbeating,

virtue signaling, and this kind of thing. So truth without

love doesn't do us any good. When God brings people

into our church, they need to find a Bible-believing church

that is a loving, spiritual church. Not a rock and

roll church. Not a social club church. Not a righteous, right,

arrogant church gloating in perfection. It's full of itself. Friends,

We need to be locked and loaded Christians who study

the Bible, who love Jesus, who is our most holy Messiah. Look,

if Christ doesn't have God credentials, the salvation doesn't work.

There is nothing compelling about a Savior who does not

have the God credentials we need. So I challenge you today,

in love, to be like the Bereans. You want to

be like the Bereans? Raise your hand high. Berean Christians,

you want to be like Bereans? locked and loaded to

make a difference, then study your Bible, learn Bible prophecy,

let the love of God revealed in the Bible work

for you so your life will matter. Almighty God would

have it so. Dear Heavenly Father, one day this world

will be in a mess, much more than now. Make

us people of the Bible. Lord, not to show off,

but to be right. Thank you, Lord, for Paul, who

used prophecy to build up the Christian church. Help us, Father,

to let prophecy use us to prepare the world for

the coming of Christ. May there be no compromise in

our lives, but Lord, may we be Christians with love,

who share the truth in love, never browbeating someone who

differs with us, but growing in the love of God

that's beyond power. In Jesus' name, bless everyone. In Jesus' name, amen.