Participants: Phillip Sizemore (Host)
Series Code: LOE
Program Code: LOE000026
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00:01 The harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few.
00:03 Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest 00:06 that He will.. He will send forth laborers into His harvest. 00:10 Also, I heard the voice of the Lord say: 00:13 "Who shall I send? " "And who will go for us? " 00:17 Then said I: "Here am I... send me, send me. " 00:23 Life on the Edge will enable you to be an effective harvester 00:26 for the Lord. We now invite you into our classroom 00:30 to Come Experience Life. 00:43 Hello, welcome back to the Lay Institute for Evangelism. 00:46 You're joining us here today actually in our class 00:48 at Pine Lake Retreat in sunny Florida. 00:51 Today we're going to be going over a study 00:52 on the Spirit of Prophecy. 00:54 We're going to be looking at how God throughout history 00:57 has guided His church with 00:58 prophets. And actually the... 00:59 that gift of prophecy actually comes down into the last days 01:03 of earth's history to God's remnant church. 01:05 His last day people also will experience that... 01:07 that gift of prophecy. That's what we're going to be 01:09 studying today. As we get into our study... 01:12 Before we get into our study I should say... 01:13 we're going to have a word of prayer. 01:15 So let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. 01:16 Father, I just want to ask right now that as we open up 01:19 Your Word and we study this important subject 01:22 as we teach others how to give Bible studies using 01:25 actually on the Spirit of Prophecy as well as our other 01:29 subjects that you will give us understanding ourselves. 01:32 So Lord, please bless our time together 01:34 both for those of us here and those that are watching 01:36 at home. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. 01:38 Amen! As you look at the screen here... 01:40 automatically we go to the screen and we find out 01:42 that the Spirit of Prophecy is the title of the study. 01:44 And you'll abbreviate that. Now you remember, as you're 01:46 going through marking up your Bibles, you'll abbreviate 01:48 the Spirit of Prophecy with SP. 01:51 And so once we get into the study you'll see how that works 01:54 out again for those of you that may be seeing this 01:56 for the first time. The purpose of the study 01:58 now is on the screen: 02:04 And that it's also given to us here today in the last days 02:08 as well... through all ages. 02:10 And as we go to the Center It part of the study: 02:17 That's the purpose of the Spirit of Prophecy. 02:19 He gives it to us because He loves us. 02:22 The gift of prophecy as you have looked in your Bibles 02:25 and you've studied your Bibles I'm sure you've read 02:27 that the whole Bible is given to us because of prophets, 02:29 right? And God has guided His people throughout history. 02:32 His church, His people through- out history He would raise up 02:34 prophets at just the right time in order to point the people 02:37 in just the right direction. 02:38 And He hasn't left us here in these last days 02:40 to wonder which way we should go. 02:41 He also gives us a prophet in the last days. 02:44 And that's what we're going to be going through in this study: 02:46 exactly what has God done - even in the last days - 02:49 with this gift of prophecy. 02:51 Now the list of texts that we're going to be going through 02:53 is on the screen now. 02:55 Here's the whole list of texts we're going to be using. 02:56 There's 16 of them plus or minus or actually, plus a couple 03:00 I guess. We'll throw a couple of texts extra 03:02 so you want to have a pencil and paper handy. 03:05 For those of you that are joining us at home 03:06 and maybe this is the first time... maybe you've joined us 03:09 before... I feel like I need to remind you. 03:11 What you need to be doing is you want to have some paper handy... 03:14 just something to write notes on or whatever like that. 03:17 But also, if you would like a copy of the study guides 03:20 that we're using... what the students are using... 03:23 you might not see them have them on their desk 03:24 because they're on their computers... 03:25 but I have a hard copy printed out here. 03:27 And it's the entire study guide for this particular study 03:31 printed out. And you can get it in a Word document 03:33 or a Pages document if you're a Mac user like all of us here. 03:36 And you can find that on our website: 03:38 at www. ComeExperienceLife. com 03:41 So if you go to ComeExperienceLife. com 03:44 you can actually download the study guide. 03:45 You can also watch the video clips. 03:49 Actually the videos... you can download them and watch those 03:51 for all the rest of the studies leading up to this. 03:53 So if you have questions, if I reference something 03:55 during the study and you say: "now wait a minute... 03:57 I don't know how you get that, " 03:59 it's probably something we've covered in an earlier study. 04:01 So if you haven't watched it, you may need to go back 04:03 to pick that up. Again, you can go to our website 04:05 ComeExperienceLife. com to find that. 04:08 So now we're going to get into the bulk, the meat of the study 04:10 you might say, and we're going to begin in Genesis chapter 5. 04:13 Genesis chapter 5 and verses 21 through 29. 04:17 Now as we're turning there, I'm going to share something 04:21 with you... a little personal story. 04:23 Usually whenever we say the word prophet, 04:26 when the word prophet comes up, 04:28 all kinds of things come to mind, don't they? 04:30 You know, I can remember when I was a heathen out in the world 04:33 and I first heard about the idea of a prophet in modern times 04:38 automatically what would come to my mind was not really what 04:41 the Bible refers to as a prophet. But I thought more 04:43 of what you may call a spiritualist. 04:45 You know, when I think of prophet... I used to think of, 04:47 anyway, I used to think of palm reading 04:49 or you know the Tarot card and things like that. 04:51 But when someone said prophet that's just like what came 04:52 to mind automatically. But as I found out from the Bible 04:56 in a Bible perspective that's not what the description 04:59 of a prophet is in the Bible. As a matter of fact, 05:01 those things like that that come to mind actually God condemns. 05:03 Now the reason I'm starting off like this here 05:07 is because this is teaching you how to give a Bible study, 05:10 you know. And we're going to be dealing with different people 05:12 as we give Bible studies. And if you've been raised 05:14 like say in a church setting or something like that 05:17 and you say the word prophet, what comes to mind 05:20 when you say prophet, Mike, is like what we think of 05:23 as a Biblical prophet. Because we're in the church 05:25 we're understanding that. But I want you to understand 05:27 that when you're dealing with someone like in a home 05:29 in a Bible study or something like that 05:30 and you say the word prophet, what comes to mind 05:33 is like Nostradamus 05:35 or you know one of these modern-day spiritualists. 05:38 What are some of the names? 05:40 Is there one by the name of Jean Simpson or something like 05:42 that? Patty... what is it? Duke. Duke? Yeah, anyway 05:45 you see these people like on Oprah or whatever 05:47 and they're like basically fortune tellers. 05:49 But the Bible doesn't talk about those people when it's 05:51 talking about prophets. It actually condemns that. 05:53 But it condones and it has people that, as we're going to 05:56 find out as we go through this study, God has 05:57 a description of what a true Biblical prophet... 06:00 standards that they would meet 06:01 and we're going to find as we go through the study. 06:03 You know, I met... I met a prophet once 06:05 or somebody at least claiming to be that. 06:06 I've met many people that kind of claimed that, 06:08 but one particular story stands out. 06:10 I was a literature evangelist. That's where you go door to door 06:13 you knock on doors. You've seen the blue Bible Story books 06:15 that you find in doctors' offices and things like that? 06:17 And I used to sell those. And usually we'd run on 06:21 lead cards... you know, where people would fill out the card 06:23 at the doctor's office and they would send it in 06:24 and we'd go to the doors. But one day up in Kentucky 06:27 I was in a sub-holler. A sub-holler is where... 06:30 Well a holler is where two hills come together 06:32 and it's in between there that's the holler where you go 06:34 up the middle of a hill: that's what they call a holler 06:36 in Kentucky. Well, I was up in a holler working 06:38 just knocking on doors, and I went into a sub-holler. 06:40 That's a holler that's off of a holler, right? 06:42 And I go in there and it's just a whole bunch of little trailers 06:45 and stuff down through there. And I'm going to the doors 06:47 knocking on them. And I come to this one door 06:49 and the lady comes to the door - we're in the middle of nowhere 06:53 in Kentucky, like I said in a sub-holler - 06:55 and it's in eastern Kentucky area. 06:57 Yeah, that's where I was, towards eastern Kentucky, 06:59 I guess. And the lady comes to the door 07:02 and she invites me right on in. And we sat down in her 07:06 living room. And as soon as I sat down and started showing her 07:08 the book - you know, that I was selling - 07:10 the phone rings. And so she said "excuse me. " 07:13 She answered the phone and she said; "Oh, yeah, just... 07:15 I'll tell you what. Just call me back here in a few minutes. " 07:17 So she hung up the phone and we get right back into it. 07:20 And I open up the stuff again and start showing it to her 07:22 and her phone rings. And by the way, all the time that her 07:25 phone is ringing she has these three little boys like this big, 07:26 this big, and this big. I mean they're real close together... 07:28 maybe a year apart. 07:30 And they're just wrestling and making all kinds of racket. 07:33 They're getting in my case pulling my stuff out. 07:35 They're pulling on my shirt; they're trying to get my 07:36 attention. I mean it's just chaotic in the house. 07:39 And the phone just rang again the second time. 07:41 She says: "Oh yeah, just call me back here 07:42 in just a little bit. " So she hangs up the phone 07:44 and a few minutes later... I mean, it wasn't... 07:46 I just got like one sentence out. Now you know 07:48 as fast as I talk if I got one sentence out 07:50 that wasn't very much time. 07:51 And so I started speaking again to show her the books 07:54 and the phone rings again. 07:55 Now this happened something like 4, maybe 5 times 07:58 within a 5-minute span. 07:59 And I said: "Look, ma'am, I don't mean to be nosy 08:02 but we're in the middle of nowhere. Does the same person 08:05 keep calling you? " She said: "No, no, 08:07 it's different people. " 08:08 I said: "Wow, you must be really popular 'cause, you know, 08:10 there's not a whole lot of people around here anyway. " 08:12 She said: "Well, I'm a prophet. " 08:14 I said: "Oh, really? 08:15 Well what's that have to do with your phone ringing, 08:17 you know? " And she said: "Well, my church members 08:19 and stuff they call and they ask me you know like 08:21 if it's OK for them to go... if it's safe for them to go 08:23 to the store today and this kind of thing. " 08:24 I said: "Really? 08:26 They call you to find out if it's safe to go places? " 08:28 She said: "Yeah, God reveals that to me and I tell them. " 08:31 And I said: "Oh, so you're like a spiritualist, like, not a 08:34 prophet but a fortune teller. " She said: "No, no. 08:36 I go to such and such church and I'm a prophet there 08:38 in the church. " "Oh! " So I'm getting really 08:41 a little nervous, especially with the boys pulling on me 08:43 and acting wild too. Just an uncomfortable situation. 08:45 So I show her the books, and she had no money or anything 08:48 to give me any money for the books. I gave her 08:51 a free book and I said: "Well, you know, I'd like to 08:53 have prayer with you before I go. " 08:54 And so I bowed my head to pray 08:56 and all of a sudden she said to the boys: 08:59 "Hey, we're going to pray. " The noise level went up about 09:01 two octaves... you know, it just went up that much louder 09:04 and they just got that much more rowdy. 09:05 They're doing this thing. I remember when I played 09:07 pee-wee football we had this thing... one of the exercises 09:09 called the monkey roll. You know, we had three guys 09:11 line up and one would jump over him and hit the ground 09:13 and start rolling and another guy would jump over him 09:14 you know and start rolling. They just kept doing this... 09:17 You know what I'm talking about? Just over one another? 09:19 That's like what they were doing in the middle of the floor while 09:21 I was praying. So my prayer in my mind... 09:23 so I knew no one could hear me... I was kind of praying 09:25 that the Lord would just get me out of there. 09:26 And He did. And so that was my experience 09:30 with a prophet. Not much, I know. 09:31 But my idea of a prophet growing up was something like that. 09:36 Like someone would call the fortune teller kind of thing. 09:39 And the reason I went through that whole long story 09:42 and everything was to give you an idea. 09:43 Maybe from your perspective... maybe you're growing up 09:45 in the church or something like that. 09:46 When someone says prophet, many people out in the world - 09:48 the secular world like where I came from - 09:50 that's what they think of. 09:52 So when you start talking about in a study, a Bible study, 09:54 the Spirit of Prophecy, you have to be very explanatory. 09:56 You have to explain very clearly 09:58 that you're not talking about a fortune teller. 10:00 You understand there is a difference, right? 10:02 And so this study here what it's going to do... 10:04 and I love the way this study is laid out... 10:06 is it actually shows how the Bible, 10:08 how God would raise up a prophet and you would have 10:11 a time line. Then He would raise up another prophet. 10:13 And He did that all through the Bible. There's a consistency 10:15 among certain prophets. Now not all prophets were 10:17 raised up the way we're looking at. 10:18 But there was a consistency among like what we would call 10:21 major prophets and that kind of thing. 10:23 So let us begin here now in Genesis chapter 5. 10:26 It may sound a little confusing in the beginning. 10:28 A little confusing. And the reason so? 10:30 Because you're going to say: "Why in the world 10:32 is he worrying about how old Methuselah was 10:34 and how old Lamech was and how old these other guys 10:36 were in the Bible. But it makes sense. 10:38 So, if you'll just follow along. 10:40 I hope you at home will follow along too in the same way 10:43 and not get bored and turn the channel or just stop. 10:46 All right. Let's pick it up in Genesis chapter 5 and verse 21. 10:50 You see on the screen there: Genesis 5:21-29. 10:53 And we're going to find out something about a time line 10:56 prophecy that Enoch gave us. 10:58 Verse 21. I'm going to start reading here 11:01 and then I'll let somebody else pick up as we go along. OK? 11:03 "Enoch lived 65 years and begat Methuselah. 11:06 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 11:10 300 years and begat sons and daughters. " 11:12 Now before I got any farther I want you to think 11:13 about something. Who was the oldest guy that ever lived? 11:18 Enoch. Enoch... because Enoch never died. 11:21 The oldest guy that ever died was Enoch's son Methuselah. 11:25 So the guy that was the oldest guy that ever died 11:28 was the son of the oldest guy that ever lived. 11:30 So Methuselah was the oldest guy that ever died 11:33 and his dad was Enoch... and Enoch was the oldest guy 11:35 that ever lived. He's still alive; he was just taken off 11:36 to heaven. We'll know that as we read through here. 11:39 So it's interesting how it starts off. 11:40 Here we have Enoch having a son by the name of Methuselah. 11:43 And it says Methuselah... 300 years... verse 22 still... 11:49 "and begat sons and daughters. 11:50 And all the days of Enoch were 365 years. " 11:54 So Enoch lived 365 years and then: 11:56 "Enoch walked with God and he was not for God took him. " 11:59 So Enoch was taken away; God just took him into heaven. 12:01 "And Methuselah lived 187 years and begat Lamech. 12:06 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech 782 years 12:09 and begat sons and daughters. 12:11 And all the days of Methuselah were 969 years 12:16 and he died. " 12:17 How old was Methuselah when he died? 12:20 969 years old. 12:22 This is going to be important here in just a few minutes. 12:24 "And Lamech lived 182 years and begat a son 12:27 and called his name Noah. " 12:29 An interesting line of families there, isn't that. 12:31 You have Enoch who was that man that walked with God 12:34 and God took him to heaven. Methuselah... the oldest guy 12:36 that ever lived. You have kind of a no-name guy, 12:38 a fellow that you never really heard much of: Lamech. 12:41 And then you have Noah. So the family tree there 12:43 is pretty interesting. 12:44 Now what we're going to do here: I'm going to show you something 12:46 from the Bible. The first guy here: 12:48 Methuselah. His daddy was who? 12:51 Who was Methuselah's daddy? 12:52 Enoch. 12:53 Did you know Enoch was 12:55 a prophet? 12:56 How do we know Enoch was a 12:57 prophet? Somebody open their Bible and go to the book of Jude 12:59 chapter 1 and verse 14. 13:01 Jude chapter 1 and verse 14. 13:03 We're going to find out that Enoch was a prophet. 13:05 We're going to find that out from the Bible. 13:07 Jude is... go all the way to the book of Revelation 13:10 and back up one book. 13:11 And it's one chapter long, so when it says Jude chapter 1 13:14 it's not really chapter 1 because it's only one chapter. 13:16 You just say "Jude 14. " 13:18 So it's Jude verse 14. 13:19 So go to the book of Revelation and back up one book 13:22 to get to the book of Jude. 13:23 Everybody there? 13:25 Mike, you want to read that for us? 13:26 Jude chapter 1 and verse 14. 13:33 "And Enoch also the seventh from Adam 13:37 prophesied of these things saying: 'Behold, 13:39 the Lord cometh with 10,000 of His saints. " 13:42 OK. This text is not one you have to use in your Bible study. 13:45 If you make the mention that Enoch was a prophet 13:50 and they say: "Oh, how do you know that? It doesn't say 13:51 Enoch was a prophet, " you can take them to Jude 13:53 verse 14 and it says that he "prophesied of these things 13:56 saying: 'The Lord comes with 10,000 of His saints. ' " 13:58 So if Enoch prophesied that would make him a? 14:02 Prophet. A prophet. Perfect... yeah. 14:03 No problem, right? So we can say Enoch was a prophet. 14:06 And he named his first son... now this is fascinating to me. 14:08 He named his first son Methuselah 14:11 and his name means something. 14:12 You know, many people in the Bible their name 14:14 means something, right? 14:15 You can just go through and like every name 14:18 basically means something. All the sons of the children 14:20 of Israel... As he went through naming his sons 14:23 you know, this guy is named this because I... 14:25 he brought me through my sufferings and different things 14:27 like that. It was just... Noah's name meant... 14:30 and it says it here actually in the Bible... 14:31 comfort I guess. Because it says his name was Noah. 14:34 And let me see, I have it marked in my Bible. 14:36 His name means comfort or rest. 14:38 So people's names mean something. 14:40 Methuselah: his name meant something in the Bible too. 14:43 It's interesting what Methuselah's name meant. 14:45 And we're going to look at that right now. We're going to go 14:47 to the slide here. Methuselah is a kind of a two-part name. 14:50 It means: 14:53 So his name means: he dies, it comes. 14:55 So he would walk around and people would look at Methuselah 14:58 and they would recognize well something was going to happen 15:00 when he dies. Right? 15:02 When Methuselah dies, something was going to happen. 15:04 And what was that something that was going to take place? 15:08 The flood. We know it was going to be the flood. 15:09 It was... judgment that comes actually is another way 15:11 of saying that. When he dies judgment comes or "it comes. " 15:15 And so Methuselah... 15:17 When Enoch named his son Methuselah he was giving 15:20 a time prophecy. 15:22 That's the point we make with this as we give the study. 15:24 When Enoch named his son Methuselah 15:27 he was actually giving a time prophecy. 15:28 And we're going to look at that as we go along right now. 15:31 Now we're going to have to get some... do some math. 15:33 And I'm not very good at math so I put it on the screen 15:35 to make it a lot easier for me. 15:36 Um, if you notice here on the screen it says: 15:40 Methuselah lived 187 years. 15:41 That's what it says in the Bible: Methuselah lived 15:43 187 years and begat a son. And his son's name was Lamech. 15:48 And Lamech lived 182 years... 15:50 We just read it there in Genesis chapter 5. 15:52 Lamech lived 182 years and he begat a son 15:55 and his name was? Noah. 15:58 Right? His name was Noah. 15:59 So if you take 187 years, which is how old Methuselah was 16:02 when he had Lamech. You add 182 years 16:04 you get the age of Methuselah when who was born? 16:07 Noah. Is that pretty clear? Pretty simple? 16:10 Like if I'm 35 years old and I have a son 16:13 and my son is 35 years old and has a son, 16:16 how old am I going to be when my grandson is born? 16:18 Seventy. So it's pretty simple. 16:20 So if you look at Methuselah was 187 when he has Lamech. 16:22 Lamech was 182 when he has Noah. 16:24 You add those together: 369 years. 16:27 369 years. 16:28 Now we're going to go to our next text 16:30 in our Bible study here. 16:32 And I'm going to remind the person... I'm going to remind 16:34 the person, Jessica, when I'm having a study with them, 16:36 I'm going to remind them... I'm going to ask them - 16:38 like if you're in a study I'm going to ask you - 16:39 "How old was Methuselah when he died? " 16:42 Pick up the microphone and answer me. 16:44 Come on, you remember it. We looked at it already. 16:45 He's the oldest guy that ever died. 16:47 Is it 696? Oh, 969. You were close, yeah. 16:50 969 years. That's exactly right. 16:51 I don't mean to put you on the spot like that. 16:53 But 969 years old. 16:55 And the person you're studying with probably won't get it right 16:58 either... so that makes it more realistic. 16:59 You know, but often times you want... you want to remind them 17:02 that he was 969 years old when he died. 17:05 And how old was he whenever Noah was born? 17:09 369, right. 17:11 Now notice something here... what did his name mean? 17:15 When he dies... it comes. That's what his name meant. 17:18 OK now, go to our next text. It will be on the screen 17:21 as well. Our next text will be on the screen: 17:23 Genesis chapter 7 and verse 6. 17:25 Genesis 7:6... and you'll notice here 17:28 you have 2SP which means 2 Spirit of Prophecy. 17:32 That's where you're at now. 17:33 And you put a line out from it. On the top line 17:35 you're going to put Genesis 5:21-29 because that's 17:38 where you just came from. 17:40 And then on the bottom line you'll put Genesis 15:13-14 17:44 because that's the next text we're going to. 17:46 And so we're at Genesis 7:6 17:49 and what we're going to find out here is how old Noah was 17:51 when the flood came. And Bill, you want to read that for us? 17:55 "Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters 17:59 were on the earth. " So how old was Noah when the flood came? 18:02 600. Now we're going back to the screen here. 18:04 Interesting. Enoch was 182; he begat Methuselah. 18:09 And then he's 187... he begat or has a son named Noah. 18:13 Methuselah was 369 years old when Noah was born. 18:18 And once again, the text you just read, Bill. 18:20 From the text you just read, how old was Noah 18:23 when the flood came? 600. Noah was 600 years old. 18:26 Is everybody keeping up with this OK? 18:27 Look on the screen here. 18:29 Noah was 600 years old at the flood. 18:31 And so you add 600 to 369... how old do you come up with? 18:34 969. So how old was Methuselah when the flood came? 18:38 969. So what happens? Methuselah dies 18:41 and the flood comes. You want to know what his basic message was? 18:45 "Papaw's going to die! Hey everybody, 18:48 get ready... Papaw's going to die! " 18:49 "Papaw's dying soon. Hey everybody, get on the ark 18:51 because Papaw's going to die soon. " Right? 18:53 His Papaw. Do they say Papaw in the north? 18:56 South and east and west... they say that all over the place? 18:58 Papaw means like grandfather, right? 19:00 "Grandpa or Papaw's going to die; he's going to die soon. " 19:03 And when grandpa dies - when Noah's Papaw dies - 19:05 guess what happens: the flood came. 19:07 And so that was Noah's basic message. 19:09 And so one day, I can just picture it right now, 19:12 Methuselah dies. And everybody's like: "Oh, did you hear 19:13 the story? Did you hear the news? The old man died. " 19:16 "Did he really? He died? Nothing's happening. " 19:19 "Well, you know, that crazy old man - his grandson down there, 19:21 Noah, that's been building that big boat on dry land - 19:24 something strange happened just the other day. 19:26 The animals all went onto the ark. 19:28 A bunch of animals went on the ark. 19:30 They all just on their own went on there. 19:31 Filled the thing up! 19:33 And then now today... the old man dies. 19:37 Noah? 19:38 He got on there with the animals 19:40 and the door shut. " Right? 19:42 "The door closed. Strange things are happening. 19:44 The old man is dead. " 19:46 And you know what happened when the old man died, right? 19:49 The flood waters came... because look at this. 19:51 Enoch gives a time prophecy. 19:53 He says - through his son Methuselah he says - 19:56 "It will be a certain amount of time. When this guy dies 19:59 then judgment will come... the flood will come. " 20:01 And then before... before God allowed the flood to come... 20:05 Oh, man, there's just something too. I always like to bring 20:07 this out when I give this study. Don't miss this. 20:10 Do you know what Enoch... I mean Methuselah shows about God? 20:14 It shows God's love and mercy. 20:16 The oldest one that ever lived... 20:18 Why was he the oldest man that ever lived? 20:21 No, no, no... Methuselah. The reason he was the oldest man 20:23 that ever lived was because God knew that whenever he died 20:27 He was going to bring judgment, 20:28 and He put it off as long as He could. 20:30 He was showing His... that's one of the things that shows 20:32 His grace and His mercy like... almost like nothing else. 20:35 You know, you think about it. He could have said: "OK, 20:36 I've had enough of these people" and cut Methuselah off 20:38 at like... at 500 years old, you know? 20:41 But He gave them a complete... every opportunity. 20:43 He let him live longer than anybody else 20:45 because when he died God was going to bring judgment. 20:47 So God had him live 969 years and then he died. 20:50 And so his name meant that when he dies 20:53 judgment will come or the flood would come. 20:54 And so Enoch gives a time line prophecy. 20:56 At the end of the time line prophecy, notice this: 20:58 this is very important to pick up. 20:59 At the end of the time line prophecy, God did not leave 21:02 His people or the world to wonder 21:05 about what we going to happen. 21:06 For 120 years before that prophecy came to an end 21:09 God had Noah faithfully warning the people. 21:12 So He raised up a prophet at the end of that time line prophecy 21:15 to warn the people and let them know: "Hey, the flood's 21:17 getting ready to come. Papaw's going to die. 21:19 Get ready; be ready. It's for going to happen. 21:21 It's for sure going to happen. I know you don't believe it. 21:23 It's never rained before but it's going to happen. 21:25 The prophecy's going to come to an end. " 21:26 God did not leave His people in darkness. 21:29 So He gives a time line prophecy through a prophet. 21:32 At the end of the time line prophecy He raises up 21:33 another prophet to say "Be ready. " 21:36 He doesn't leave in darkness. God could have said 21:38 "I'm not going to raise up Noah; they can just figure it out 21:40 on their own, " couldn't He? 21:41 "Just let them figure it out on their own. " 21:42 Then what would have happened? They all would have been 21:44 destroyed because they were wicked, right? 21:45 But God did not let it go that way. 21:47 He raised up another prophet to give them an opportunity. 21:50 And now we're going to go to our next part of the study. 21:52 We're going to go to the third text in the Spirit of Prophecy. 21:56 Genesis chapter 15 is what we're turning to. 21:58 Genesis chapter 15. And Tom, I think, is going to read that 22:02 for us. Genesis chapter 15. While you're turning there 22:05 verses 13 and 14. And now also, just one more time 22:09 for people marking their Bibles, we want to make sure 22:10 they understand how to do this. 22:12 We're not... we're not doing this as an evangelistic meeting 22:14 you understand, right? 22:15 We want everybody to understand how to mark their Bibles 22:17 at home. We want them to mark their Bibles up 22:18 so you can give these studies yourself. 22:20 The whole purpose of these classes, 22:22 the whole purpose of all this 22:23 is so that you at home can also give this Bible study. 22:25 And so if you'll notice here: you write 3SP. 22:28 You'll circle it and then you put a line. 22:30 You don't have to put the line straight across. 22:31 Remember how we talked about that the other day here? 22:34 If you put the line straight out, you might not have room 22:35 to write on the top and the bottom, so you might 22:37 have to put it in there at an angle. 22:39 And on the top you put the text you just came from 22:40 which was Genesis 7:6. 22:42 And the next verse we're going to be going to will be 22:44 Exodus chapter 3 verses 7-10. 22:46 Now Tom is going to read for us Genesis 15:13-14. 22:50 Everybody there besides me? 22:52 OK. Genesis chapter 15. Tom, go ahead. 22:54 OK. "Then He said to Abram: 'know certainly that your 23:00 descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs 23:04 and will serve them and they will afflict them 23:07 400 years. And also, the nation whom they serve 23:11 I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out 23:14 with great possessions. ' " 23:16 So who was given a time line prophecy here? 23:18 Who was it given a time line prophecy, Tom? 23:19 This is to Abram. This is Abram, right? 23:21 And now that's before his name became Abraham. 23:24 And what is the time line prophecy? For how long is it? 23:26 400 years. And then it says at the 400 years 23:29 or after the 400 years? 23:30 It says they shall come out after 400 years. 23:33 After 400 years. So some time thereafter... right after 23:36 400 years or so it looks like in the Bible 23:38 that they will come out of Egypt. 23:39 Now the reason I'm bringing this up right here... 23:41 um, this is kind of a little bit of a difficult part of the study 23:45 and it depends on who I'm 23:46 studying with or if I'm preaching or whatever 23:48 I bring up a pretty interesting 23:49 point right here because the 23:51 Bible says that the children of 23:52 Israel were there for how long? 23:55 How long did they go in bondage? 23:56 Remember the prophecy here that the children of Israel 23:59 or his descendants would be in bondage for how long? 24:01 400 years. Were they there for 400 years? 24:04 No. They were actually there for 430 years. 24:08 And so now I'm going to bring this up right here just 24:11 to answer an objection that may come up. 24:13 If it doesn't come up, don't deal with it. 24:16 When you can't answer the objection... 24:17 The sort way of answering this objection 24:19 is to simply say: "Hey, were they... it says that" 24:23 Tom read there that "it would be after 400 years 24:25 they would come out. " 430 years after 400? 24:28 Sure it is. It's after 400 years. 24:30 But I like to bring up another point. And let's go to Exodus. 24:34 Now this is separate from what you would normally give 24:37 in the study. But this is just extra in case... 24:39 in case the objections come up and that kind of thing. 24:41 Let's go to Exodus chapter 12 for a minute. 24:46 This is not on your study guide, you know. It's not on the slide 24:48 or on your study guide, so this is one of those places 24:50 you'd have to take an extra note if you want to keep track 24:52 of this. I'm going to read verse 40. It says... 24:56 Exodus chapter 12 and verse 40: 24:58 "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel 25:00 who dwelt in Egypt was 430 years. " 25:03 Isn't that fascinating? It says: "And it came to pass 25:05 at the end of the 430 years - even the self-same day - 25:08 it came to pass that all the host of the Lord went out from 25:10 the land of Egypt. " Now I've had people tell me... 25:12 "Well, well wait a minute. It was 430 years 25:14 from the time they got there till they were delivered 25:16 but it was 400 years in bondage. " 25:20 Not true. It's not true because 25:22 I went and did a little research and I can give you the 25:24 information on this either at a different time or 25:26 a different study because it takes a little while. 25:28 But basically, when Joseph became prime minister of Egypt 25:31 he was 30 years old. The Bible tells us so. 25:34 He was 30 years old. And so if you add 14 to that 25:37 because you remember they had 7 years of good and 7 years 25:40 of famine... so let's just take a full 14 years 25:43 and that makes him how old? 44. 25:45 At the end of that time... somewhere in that last 7 years 25:49 between him being 30 and 44- 25:51 actually between 37 and 44- 25:53 somewhere in that time frame the children of Israel 25:55 came down to Egypt. 25:56 Remember his family came down when the famine got so bad 25:58 toward the end of the 7 years? Remember that taking place? 26:00 And then he dies... Joseph dies at like 100 and I don't remember 26:04 the exact time. It was like 130 years old when he died... 26:06 or something like that. 26:07 Anyway, it turned out to be like 60 years that the children 26:10 of Israel would have been down there 26:12 before Joseph died. OK? 26:14 So there were 60 years that they were actually in Egypt 26:16 before Joseph died. And then it says after Joseph died 26:19 another king arises that does not know Joseph 26:22 or appreciate what he's done, and he puts them in bondage. 26:24 So there had to be a time frame even after Joseph died 26:27 before someone even forgot the good things Joseph had done 26:30 and took the children of Israel into bondage. 26:31 So to say it was 430 years 26:33 because 30 years was the time they were just in Egypt 26:35 doesn't fit. It just doesn't fit that. 26:38 But I think there's an answer that's actually better 26:41 than to say... to try to answer all that that way, 26:44 you know. The bottom line - and Tom picked it up 26:47 when he read his study there - it says there in Genesis 26:50 that after 400 years they'll be delivered. 26:52 And 430 is after 400, right? It definitely fits that. 26:56 But there's another answer that's found in Acts chapter 7. 26:59 And I'm going to take a little time to show that. 27:01 You guys want to see that? 27:02 I mean, to me it kind of makes sense. 27:04 Because here's what I want to say: how long did Abraham 27:06 say they'd be in bondage? 400 years. 27:09 How long were they there? 430 years. OK, so 27:12 Abram's a false prophet. 27:15 Do you feel comfortable with that? 27:16 Abraham's a false prophet? He's not a Biblical prophet, 27:19 is he... because he's a false prophet. 27:20 If he gives a prophecy and it's in the Bible it says 400 years 27:23 and they actually were 430 years in bondage 27:25 that makes him a false prophet, doesn't it? 27:27 I know, stirs us up, doesn't it? 27:29 Pick your thing up there and talk. 27:32 But after 400 years... He raised up a prophet, right? 27:37 Yeah, that's... that's sort of true but now think about this. 27:41 Today if we're going to measure a prophet 27:44 we've got to use the same standards with the old prophets 27:47 as we do with the new prophets. 27:49 If you have a new prophet come along and give a prophecy 27:52 and they say "after 20 years this is going to happen, " 27:54 and it doesn't happen... are you going to reject them? 27:57 Sure. You're going to say they're not a prophet. 27:59 But we look at Abraham and he says 400 years 28:01 and it was 430, and you say... do you want to reject him? 28:05 Obviously there's something wrong with 28:06 our understanding of the prophecy, isn't there? 28:08 Because we know that Abraham's not a false prophet. 28:10 And we're going to look at a couple of things here 28:12 that I think will help clarify this. 28:14 But I want to ask you this: if the Internet was around 28:16 in the days of Abraham, after he passed on, you know, 28:19 and the children of Israel there in Egypt, right? 28:21 And they look at the prophecy and it says 400 years we'll be 28:23 in bondage and it gets to 410 years... 28:25 What do you suppose the Internet and the church folk would be 28:28 saying about Abraham and that time frame? The contemporaries. 28:32 "He's a false prophet. " Right? Wouldn't they be saying that? 28:34 Because it's 410 years into this whole thing 28:37 and we're not delivered yet. And the prophecy he gave was 28:39 400 years. Can you imagine what they'd have been thinking? 28:41 Fascinating, isn't it, to think about. 28:43 Go with me to the book of Acts now... Acts chapter 7. 28:46 Yeah. And all this stuff is extra. 28:48 If the objection comes up, you know, here's the answer 28:51 to the objection. It's a little more time consuming 28:53 I realize to do this, 28:55 but I think if we kind of work through this a little bit 28:58 we can... we can get the good answers... even for ourselves. 29:01 Don't you want to know what God's doing? I mean, 29:04 it almost... when I first saw this, it troubled me. 29:07 Does it trouble you a little bit to think that maybe Abraham 29:09 was a false prophet if he said 400 years and it's 430? 29:11 Don't feel comfortable saying that, do you? 29:14 And I think... I think we've got the answer here in Acts 29:16 chapter 7. Um, this is Stephen's... 29:21 this is Stephen's sermon and it's like the best sermon 29:26 he ever preached, right? 29:28 You know it's the best sermon he ever preached. 29:29 How do you know that? 29:31 Because they killed him at the end, that's exactly right. 29:32 When they kill you at the end of the sermon, it must have been 29:34 a good one, right? And so Stephen here is preaching 29:36 to the leaders of Israel. 29:38 And Jessica's going to do some reading here for us. 29:40 And I'm going to give you a verse to read 29:42 then we're going to stop you. And go to another verse... 29:43 that kind of thing, OK? 29:44 So first of all, read verse 6 for me. 29:47 Acts chapter 7 verse 6. 29:53 "But God also told him that his descendants 29:56 would live in a foreign country where they would be mistreated 30:00 as slaves for 400 years. " 30:02 So he's bringing up the whole... he's going through the history 30:04 of Israel and he's coming up to the point of Joseph here 30:07 and he says that God told Abraham that they would be 30:10 400 years in bondage. And he's leading on up through 30:12 and he goes through some more of the history. 30:14 Now pick it up in verse 16. 30:15 Actually verse 15 would be good. 30:18 15 and 16... start reading there. 30:23 "So Jacob went to Egypt. He died there as did all 30:28 his sons. All of them were taken to Shechem 30:34 and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought 30:38 from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. " 30:42 OK, verse 17: 30:44 "As the time drew near when God would fulfill His promise" 30:48 OK. There you go. "As the time drew near for 30:50 when God would fulfill His promise 30:53 that He promised to Abraham. " 30:56 OK. What promise would that be talking about? 30:58 The 400-year prophecy, right? 31:00 So as that time drew near, Stephen says, 31:02 as that time drew near God did something. 31:04 What did He do, Jessica? 31:06 "The number of our people in Egypt greatly increased" - 31:11 keep going - "but then a new king came to the throne 31:15 of Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. 31:18 This king plotted against our people and forced parents 31:22 to abandon their newborn babies so they would die. " 31:25 One more verse. 31:27 "At that time, Moses was born. " OK, at what time? 31:30 At that 400 years? Right. At the end... the promise is 31:34 drawing nigh, it's getting close. He says the promise 31:35 is getting close, and in that time - when it's getting close 31:37 to that time of their deliverance - 31:39 you know, that's what the context is here: in that time - 31:41 Moses was born. 31:42 So Moses was coming along right at the right time. 31:45 Right? He's coming up at the time, right? 31:47 I'm going to go ahead and read some more of this myself 31:49 because I want to emphasize a few things, OK? 31:51 "In which time Moses was born and was exceedingly fair 31:55 and nourished up in his father's house for three months. " 31:57 And then it goes on talking about Moses a little bit. 31:59 I'll just go ahead and keep reading. Verse 21: 32:02 "And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up 32:04 and nourished him as her own son. 32:05 And when Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians 32:09 and was mighty in words and in deeds 32:12 and when he was a full 40 years old 32:14 it came into his heart to visit his brethren, 32:17 the children of Israel. " 32:19 Who do you suppose put it into his heart? 32:20 Why would it come into Moses' heart? 32:22 Because God is putting it there, right? 32:24 I mean, you think about it. You're living in the palace; 32:26 you're the king's son... you've got it made. 32:28 Why would you want to go visit those... you know, those slaves? 32:31 But God is putting it on his heart, right? 32:33 And so he goes out... verse 24: "He saw one of them 32:36 suffered wrong. He defended him, avenged him that was oppressed, 32:40 and smote the Egyptian 32:42 for he supposed that his brethren would understand 32:44 how that God by his hand" - Moses' hand - 32:48 "would deliver them. But they understood not. " 32:50 You know what happens here? 32:52 The children of Israel as God is putting it in Moses' heart 32:55 to go start delivering them - to start that process - 32:58 Moses goes out. He messes up. I've got to tell you, I think 33:00 he messed up there when he killed the Egyptian. 33:01 But God was going to use Moses to start delivering the 33:04 children of Israel on time. 33:06 But they did not understand. 33:08 And you know what the children of Israel did? 33:10 They rejected the prophet that God was raising up. 33:13 They rejected him! 33:15 Right? Did they reject Moses? 33:16 Remember, God was bringing Moses and he said here 33:18 God would put it in Moses' heart to come and deliver them 33:21 because the time was drawing near. 33:23 That's what Stephen is saying in this sermon. 33:26 He says the time was drawing near. It was getting close 33:28 to that time. God had put it in Moses' heart 33:30 to come and deliver your 33:32 ancestors but they rejected 33:34 Moses. They didn't understand. 33:35 And so it ended up costing them, 33:37 I believe, an extra 30 years in bondage 33:40 because they rejected the prophet. 33:42 Now this is very significant, especially as we get into 33:44 later on in the Spirit of Prophecy study 33:46 and look at the latter-day prophet. 33:49 There's some significance to this. 33:50 So are you understanding this? 33:52 We're not willing to object to... we're not willing to call 33:56 Abraham a false prophet. Are you? 33:58 I'm not willing to do that because he's Biblical. 34:00 Everything makes perfect sense. 34:01 And when you look at what happened here, if the children - 34:04 God's people, the church - rejects the prophet, 34:07 it costs them more time. 34:09 But still, still in the same way, as we go back to Genesis 34:12 chapter 15 now... Genesis chapter... Oh, actually 34:16 we're going to the next text. I'm sorry. 34:17 Genesis 15 was the prophecy, the timeline prophecy given... 34:20 that was given for the 400 years, 34:23 Now we're going to go to Exodus chapter 3 verses 7-10 34:25 and we're going to see that God did raise somebody up. 34:28 It being Moses - as we have already discovered 34:29 and that He raised him up to deliver the children of Israel. 34:32 Now, everything we've done from the time I had Tom read 34:36 this text there in Genesis chapter 15- 34:38 after he got through reading his text, everything I've done 34:40 from there till now, you don't normally have to share 34:43 in a Bible study. OK? What's the short answer? 34:47 If somebody says: "But wait, they were there for 430 years, " 34:49 what's the short answer to that question if you don't want to 34:51 go into full detail? It said after 400 years. 34:53 It says: "After 400 years. " 430 is after 400. 34:56 But now if you want to go into a little more detail 34:58 to make the point, you go to the book of Acts 34:59 and Acts chapter answers that question. 35:02 You know, it's very interesting that Stephen says 35:04 "In which time... " in this time you know, he's raised up. 35:08 So they rejected him. If you reject a prophet, 35:10 it costs you more time, see? God wanted to deliver them 35:12 at the end of a 400-year period. 35:13 Absolutely. But if you're not ready, 35:15 is He going to deliver you anyway? 35:17 No. If you notice the history of the children of Israel 35:20 as they're going into the Promised Land 35:22 why didn't they go directly into the Promised Land? 35:23 'Cause God had to take a certain amount of time 35:26 to prepare them to get ready to go to the Promised Land. 35:27 They finally got there and didn't go in because of 35:29 their rebellion. Ended up being another 40 years 35:31 before they went. Now did God want to wait 35:33 another 40 years to take them to the Promised Land? 35:35 No. But why did He have to wait? 35:37 Because of them. So the prophecy was conditional, wasn't it? 35:40 The prophecy was conditional. 35:42 He wanted to take them right in but their hearts were hard. 35:45 He wanted to deliver them, I believe, through Moses 35:47 pretty quickly... but their hearts were hard 35:50 and they weren't ready to accept the prophet. 35:52 So now let's go to Exodus chapter 3. 35:54 Did that make sense? OK. 35:56 Exodus chapter 3. If it doesn't make sense to you, 35:58 then it's not going to make sense to them at home. 36:00 So you can say: "No, it doesn't make sense. " 36:01 I won't pin you down on a... like, well what doesn't make 36:04 sense about it... too much. 36:06 So you give me just a general idea and I'll try to explain it. 36:07 Because you know if it's not making sense here 36:09 then it's not making sense there, right? 36:10 OK. Exodus chapter 3. 36:12 And who would like to read that? Verses 7 through 10. 36:15 Do I have a volunteer? OK, Mrs. Gloria. 36:19 Exodus chapter 3 verses 7 through 10. 36:27 "And the Lord said: 'I have surely seen the oppression 36:31 of My people who are in Egypt 36:34 and have heard their cry because of their task masters 36:38 for I know their sorrows. 36:41 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand 36:44 of the Egyptians and to bring them up from the land 36:49 to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk 36:53 and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites 36:57 and the Amorites and the Perizzites 37:00 and the Hivites and Jebu... " Jebusites, right. 37:05 Go ahead. "Now therefore, behold the cry 37:09 of the children of Israel has come to Me 37:12 and I have also seen the oppression with which 37:16 the Egyptians oppress them. 37:18 Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh 37:23 that you may bring My people - the children of Israel - 37:28 out of Egypt. ' " So God now is coming down to Moses. 37:31 Moses has been in the wilderness for quite a while now... 37:34 about 40 years. 37:35 Remember, it was 40 years prior to this that He'd put it on 37:39 Moses' heart to visit the children of Israel. 37:41 And then this is 40 years later. 37:43 And God is calling... God is calling Moses now. 37:45 Says: "OK, we're going to go deliver the people now, 37:47 the children of Israel. The timeline prophecy has 37:49 come to an end. It's well past. 37:50 Now we're going to... I've heard the cry of them. 37:52 They're crying and they're whining and complaining 37:54 because of all the affliction that's going on with them 37:56 in Egypt. They're in bondage. 37:57 They don't want to be in bondage any more. " 37:58 You can kind of imagine the scenario, right? 38:00 So He raises up a prophet at the end of this timeline prophecy 38:03 to go back and fulfill the timeline prophecy that 38:06 had been given. Right? Let's look at it on the screen. 38:09 He first of all had Enoch. 38:12 Enoch gave a timeline prophecy. 38:13 At the end of the timeline prophecy Noah raised up 38:16 and a deliverer at the end of that timeline prophecy. 38:20 And then you find Abram... who eventually became Abraham 38:23 after he had the son. 38:26 So Abram... he gives a timeline prophecy. 38:28 God gives him a message and He says: "400 years. 38:30 Four hundred years they're going to be in bondage. 38:32 At the end of the 400 years they're going to come out... 38:34 or AFTER actually the 400 years they're going to come out. " 38:37 And so does God leave the children of Israel to wonder? 38:39 Like, OK, the 400 years is up 38:40 and all of a sudden God is just going to make all the Egyptians 38:42 fall down dead and the children of Israel march out? 38:44 Is that what happened? No. He raised up another prophet 38:46 at the end of that timeline. He comes back and he says 38:48 to the people: "You need to prepare yourself. " 38:50 And you remember through the plagues how God used that 38:52 to prepare them to leave. Especially the last plague 38:55 where the first-born was killed. It had to be such a total thing 38:58 of faith for the children of Israel. 38:59 Moses said: "You've got to go and put blood from a lamb 39:02 over your doorpost and that will keep your son from dying. " 39:04 Doesn't that sound weird? 39:06 But you know what? If he didn't do it, do you want me to tell 39:08 you what would happen? Your first-born would die. 39:10 So it's really interesting to me that God would raise up 39:14 a prophet at the end of that timeline 39:15 and say: "OK, it's time to be delivered. 39:17 I've got to prepare you for deliverance. " 39:18 Once again... so you have two timeline prophecies 39:21 in the Bible given by a prophet. 39:22 And at the end of that timeline prophecy 39:24 another prophet raising up to announce the deliverance. 39:28 Is everybody seeing a pattern develop here? 39:30 Yeah? You see what's going on with the pattern? 39:32 Now think about it in the days of Noah... 39:34 Let's suppose that we had Google in the days of Noah. 39:37 What do you think Google would have been saying about Noah? 39:40 A crazy cult, right? Crazy old man building a boat 39:44 in the middle of dry land. It's just never happened before. 39:46 Nothing's going to happen. He would have been slammed. 39:48 You know what turns out? Noah was right! 39:50 Google would have been wrong, yeah. 39:52 Now you all know Google... I'm not talking about 39:54 Google being a person. It's just anybody can go on the 39:56 Internet, put anything out on the Internet. 39:58 Making that point, right? 39:59 Same way with Abraham and Moses. 40:01 But now we're going to look at another timeline prophecy: 40:02 Jeremiah. Now Jeremiah's one of my all-time favorites. 40:05 Because with Jeremiah... You know what you find with him? 40:08 Not one person... you can read the whole book of Jeremiah 40:10 you don't find any time where one person listened to even 40:13 one thing that Jeremiah had to say. 40:15 Nobody! Would you be discouraged? 40:17 Like every time you preach a sermon in a church 40:20 every time you hold an evangelistic series 40:22 every time you go to anything and preach a message 40:25 no one pays any attention to you. 40:26 They say you're wrong; they make fun of you. 40:28 Can you imagine? That's Jeremiah. 40:30 So let's go to Jeremiah now... chapter 29. 40:32 Jeremiah 29. 40:35 And we're going to read verses 4 through 10. 40:38 And I think that Roberto is going to read that for us. 40:41 And if it gets a little too laborious for you, Roberto, 40:43 reading all those texts, I'll pick up and help you out 40:45 with them, OK? And so he's going to read 40:46 Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 4 through 10. 40:50 "Thus says the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel 40:54 to all who were carried away captive 40:58 whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem 41:03 to Babylon: 'build houses and dwell in them; 41:06 plant gardens and eat their fruit. 41:10 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; 41:15 and take wives for your sons and give your daughters 41:19 to husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters. 41:24 That you may be increased there and not diminished. ' " 41:30 OK. Hold it just there for a second. 41:32 So what... basically what's going on here is Jeremiah 41:34 is giving a prophecy. God told Jeremiah 41:36 "Tell the people... tell the people that they're going away 41:39 to Babylon. They're going to be captives in Babylon. 41:41 Get used to the idea. Go ahead and marry wives. 41:43 Go ahead and have sons and daughters. 41:45 Go ahead and build houses because that's where you're 41:46 going. You're going to go there. " 41:48 Now all the modern-day preachers 41:52 the ones with the big mega churches and all the local 41:55 churches - everybody. And all the pastors and the elders 41:57 and everybody. Every religious person basically in the whole 42:00 town of Jerusalem was making fun of Jeremiah. 42:03 And you'll pick that up as you read through the rest of this. 42:05 You'll see that. I want to kind of lay the ground work. 42:07 So right now as you hear it read it'll kind of make sense. 42:09 They're saying... all the so-called prophets were saying 42:12 "Jeremiah's nuts. 42:13 God is with us; He's going to protect us. 42:15 Everything's going to be just fine. " 42:16 As a matter of fact, they would say: "I've had this vision, 42:18 I've had this dream and I'm going to prophesy 42:20 over you and I'm going to tell you that we're God's chosen 42:23 people and nothing's going to happen to us. " 42:25 OK? That's what the prophets were saying; 42:27 that's what the leaders were saying. And if you read Jeremiah 42:29 chapter 1, one of the things I really appreciate about 42:31 Jeremiah was he was really young - very young - 42:34 and very intimated about when God put the call on him 42:36 he's like: "I can't go... I'm just but a child. " 42:39 And God says: "Don't say you're but a child. " 42:41 Jeremiah chapter 1... "Don't say you're but a child. 42:43 I have sent you... go. " 42:44 Kind of the same thing He did with Moses. 42:46 Moses said: "I can't speak to Pharaoh. 42:47 I have uncircumcised lips. " 42:48 And God said: "Don't say that! Go. " 42:50 And these guys eventually obeyed. 42:52 But they were very intimidated - very shy - about delivering 42:56 the message that God had them to deliver. 42:58 OK. So Jeremiah here... he really didn't want to deliver 43:00 the message but he faithfully did it. 43:02 And he said: "Don't listen... " You'll read it here in just 43:04 a minute. Don't listen to your prophets that dream false dreams 43:07 and your sorcerers and these other guys that are 43:09 saying things that aren't true... 43:10 but here's what God has to say. " Now read it to us. 43:12 Now that we have an idea what it's going to be saying. 43:14 "And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you 43:20 to be carried away captive. 43:22 And pray to the Lord for it, 43:25 for in its cities you will have peace. 43:29 For thus saith the Lord of Hosts 43:33 God of Israel... says the Lord of Hosts, God of Israel 43:38 'Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are 43:42 in your midst deceive you 43:44 nor listen to your dreams... 43:48 which you have caused to be dreamed. ' " 43:50 Fascinating. I'm going to stop you right there for a second. 43:52 See what he says there? "Don't listen to the prophets 43:55 and the diviners in the midst of you. 43:57 And don't listen to the dreams which you have called 43:59 to be dreams. " In other words, it's like 44:01 we want this to happen, so a prophet would come along 44:04 and say "Oh, this is going to happen. " 44:05 And we would all say: "We love this prophet because 44:07 he tells us what we want to hear. " 44:08 You understand what's happening here? 44:10 Jeremiah was telling the people not what they wanted to hear. 44:13 And so Jeremiah said: "Now you've got these other prophets 44:16 here... you have these other prophets that are telling you 44:18 what you want to hear. " In other words, they're having 44:20 dreams that you've caused them to dream 44:22 because of the very fact that you want this to happen 44:25 and they said: "Oh, I had a dream and that's exactly 44:26 what's going to happen. " And they're say: "Oh, you must be a 44:27 true prophet. " Isn't that funny how they're willing to embrace, 44:30 all of us too, we are willing to embrace prophets 44:33 if they're going to tell us something good about us. 44:35 You know I've been around a lot of people that... 44:36 that's in different religious movements and they'll say: 44:39 "Yeah, I was prophesied over at church. " 44:41 And they would say: "And in the prophecy he told me I was going 44:43 to be rich. I was going to marry a good looking girl or guy, 44:46 whatever the case may be, you know. 44:47 And the prophesies always come always as pleasing things, 44:50 right? I never had anybody come up to me and say: 44:52 "Yeah, I was prophesied over at church. They told me 44:54 I was going to die in a car wreck tomorrow. " 44:55 You know? Nothing like that. You never hear those kind of things. 44:58 It's always the pleasing things that we want to hear. 44:59 And the Bible says it will be the same way in the last days. 45:02 But go ahead. This is what's happening right now. 45:03 "For they prophesy falsely to you in My name. 45:09 I have not sent them says the Lord. 45:13 For thus saith the Lord: 'after 70 years... ' 45:16 How long? 70. Seventy years. 45:18 "years are complete at Babylon I will visit you and perform 45:24 a good word toward you and cause you to return to this place. " 45:29 Perfect. So how long are they going to be in Babylon 45:31 according to Jeremiah the prophet? 45:33 Seventy years. 45:35 Now this is another what we would call timeline prophecy. 45:38 Right? He's giving a timeline prophecy. 45:39 For 70 years you're going to be in bondage in Babylon. 45:42 And then after the 70 years 45:43 "I'm going to perform My good word toward you 45:45 and I'm going to deliver you. " 45:46 So that's what He's promised them. 45:48 It's a guaranteed thing, right? 45:50 You know, if the Internet was around in Jeremiah's day 45:53 you can imagine what you could have Googled about him. 45:55 None of us would have followed Jeremiah. 45:57 I'm convinced of that. Not one of us would have liked 45:59 to listen to Jeremiah what he had to say. 46:00 As a matter of fact, one of the people who we hold 46:03 in high regard as a prophet even today... 46:05 His name is Daniel. 46:07 Um, I think there's strong 46:09 Biblical evidence that we're going to look at 46:10 here in just a minute that Daniel also 46:12 did not follow Jeremiah 46:15 as a prophet until later on in life. 46:17 Like Daniel was in Jerusalem... 46:20 He was in the city while Jeremiah was saying these things 46:23 right here. He would have been living right here. 46:25 Jeremiah was a contemporary of his. 46:27 OK. So as Jeremiah is saying "you're going to go away 46:29 in bondage for 70 years" Daniel would have been 46:31 one of the young people in the city that would have heard 46:33 that prophecy. But he likely - like many of us - 46:36 would have said: "The majority is not following Jeremiah 46:38 the prophet. The majority is not going along with what 46:41 Jeremiah the prophet is saying. " 46:42 So who do you think we would follow? 46:44 Jeremiah? We would like to think so, wouldn't we? 46:47 But my guess is many of us - probably every one of us - 46:49 would have said: "Well no. The prophets, the priests, 46:52 the leaders in the church... they can't all be wrong. 46:55 Jeremiah must be wrong. " 46:58 Are you following that idea? 47:00 And we know that's the case because as we go to our next 47:02 text - it's going to be on the screen here - Daniel chapter 9. 47:04 Daniel chapter 9 and verse 2 is where we're going to next. 47:07 This is the sixth Spirit of Prophecy text we're going 47:10 to be turning to in the study: 6SP. 47:12 And we just came from Jeremiah 29; 47:13 we're going to Daniel chapter 9. That's to the right of Jeremiah. 47:16 So you have Jeremiah. And then you go to... 47:19 after Jeremiah you've got Lamentations and Ezekiel 47:21 and then you go to the book of Daniel. 47:24 Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel. 47:26 The latter part of Daniel... Daniel chapter 9 47:28 and we're going to start in verse 2. And I'm going to stop 47:32 whoever reads and make quite a bit of commenting. 47:35 And Danielle's going to read for us; she's all ready to read. 47:37 Daniel chapter 9 verse 2, go ahead: 47:40 "In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood 47:43 by books the number of the years whereof the Word of the Lord 47:47 came to Jeremiah the prophet that He would accomplish 47:50 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. " 47:53 So at the end of the 70-year time frame, Daniel is still 47:56 alive! He's an old man by now... 47:58 probably in his early 90's or whatever. 48:00 And he starts thinking back... I can just picture Daniel now. 48:02 He's thinking about like, um, the old days 48:05 and what was going on back in Jerusalem when he was young. 48:08 And perhaps he just gets out the book of Jeremiah the prophet - 48:11 notice that Daniel calls "a contemporary of himself. " 48:13 In other words, living in the same time frame. 48:14 He calls him a prophet and he's calling his writings - 48:17 Jeremiah's writings - prophetic, right? 48:19 And so he's reading the prophecy of Jeremiah. He said: "Oh, 48:21 he said 70 years. " Now why is it Daniel had faith 48:24 in the belief that the 70 years would come to pass? 48:28 It's because that everything that Jeremiah the prophet had 48:30 said had taken place. 48:32 So Jeremiah gives a 70-year time prophecy. 48:35 Daniel realizes 70 years is coming to an end. 48:37 And notice what he says when he begins this prayer. 48:40 I think it's very fascinating. Remember I told you 48:41 I think that Daniel was one of the young people that didn't 48:44 listen to Jeremiah? Daniel confesses that himself. 48:47 He starts this prayer in Daniel chapter 9 48:49 He said: "I set my face... " In verse 3: "I set my face 48:51 to the Lord in prayer, to seek by prayer 48:54 and supplications and fasting and sack cloth and ashes. 48:56 I prayed unto the Lord my God and I made confession 48:59 and said: 'O Lord, great and dreadful God, 49:01 keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love Him 49:04 and them that keep His commandments. ' " 49:06 Who does God keep His covenant with? 49:07 Those that keep His commandments right? 49:09 Love Him and keep His commandments. 49:10 "We have sinned... " We would include who? 49:14 Daniel. We... "We have sinned. 49:17 We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. 49:19 We have rebelled in departing from Your precepts 49:22 and Your judgments. " Now look what it says next. 49:23 "Neither have we listened to Your servants the prophets 49:27 which spake in Your name to our kings, 49:31 our princes, our fathers, and to all the people of the land. " 49:35 So Daniel's putting himself with all the rest of them. 49:37 Said: "You know what? We didn't listen to Your prophets. " 49:41 So he just reads the book of Jeremiah. 49:44 He realizes "we should have listened! 49:46 If we would have listened to Jeremiah we would have caused 49:48 ourselves a whole lot less headaches. " Right? 49:50 "If our people, if our princes, if myself would have listened 49:52 to Jeremiah maybe all this wouldn't have happened 49:54 the way it did. " Because he was prophesying that these things 49:56 would happen... we didn't listen to him. 49:58 You notice prior to Jeremiah the 29th chapter 50:02 where we just came from - prior to that - 50:04 Jeremiah's prophecy was along the lines of trying to get 50:06 the people to repent... turn back to God. 50:08 And because they refused to do what God has asked them to do 50:11 he said: "OK, God's had enough of you. You're now going to go 50:14 into bondage for 70 years. " 50:16 Daniel recognizes that. 50:18 So God gives a timeline prophecy through Enoch. 50:21 At the end of that timeline prophecy God raises up Noah. 50:24 Then He gives a timeline prophecy through Abram. 50:26 And at the end of that timeline prophecy God raises up Moses. 50:30 And then God gives another timeline prophecy 50:33 through Jeremiah the prophet. 50:35 And at the end of that timeline prophecy 50:37 God raises up another prophet by the name of Daniel. 50:40 And Daniel says: "Hey, you know what? 50:42 This 70 years is coming to an end. We need to get ready. " 50:45 And he delivers a message to the people. 50:47 Do you see a Biblical pattern here what God does? 50:49 When God gives a timeline prophecy 50:52 he never leaves His people in the dark about the end 50:54 of the timeline prophecy. 50:56 It wouldn't seem fair, would it? 50:57 That He would do that? 50:58 Like to tell them that this was going to happen at the end 51:01 of the timeline prophecy and it's a long time... 51:03 70 years is a long time. Everybody had forgotten 51:05 what was said. They're all in darkness and they're wondering 51:07 what's going to happen. For God just to leave it to go 51:09 to go blank and no one 51:10 understands He was getting ready 51:11 to be delivered and then deliver 51:12 them all of a sudden. I mean that would be a nice thing 51:14 to have a present like that, 51:15 wouldn't it? But God wants to prepare His people 51:18 for their deliverance. 51:20 When these time-line prophecies come to an end 51:21 God wants to have His people prepared. 51:23 He wants us to be ready. 51:24 He doesn't want to just blind-side us 51:26 and us not know what's going to happen. 51:27 Are you seeing the Biblical pattern here? 51:30 It continues. It continues. 51:33 Let's look at the next one. 51:34 On the screen the next one we're going to is Daniel chapter 9 51:37 and verse 25. Daniel 9:25. 51:39 Did you know that Daniel gave another timeline prophecy 51:42 himself? He gives a timeline prophecy... Daniel does here. 51:46 Now you've already studied this timeline prophecy here 51:49 with Pastor Scott when he did the 70-week prophecy 51:52 or Daniel chapter 9 in the study. He did Daniel chapter 9 51:55 with you, so we've already seen this one before. 51:58 And what we're looking at now is that this timeline prophecy 52:01 when he gives it, God is going to raise up another prophet 52:03 at the end of it to announce it's coming to an end. 52:05 So let us look at Daniel 9 verse 25 52:07 and Tom is going to read that for us. 52:08 Daniel chapter 9 and verse 25. 52:12 "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth 52:15 of the command to restore and build Jerusalem 52:19 until Messiah the Prince 52:23 there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. 52:26 The street shall be built again and the wall... 52:29 even in troublesome times. " 52:31 So you remember that prophecy? You remember what took place? 52:32 It was 69 weeks he just read there. At the end of 69 weeks 52:35 what was going to happen? 52:38 Well, the Messiah would come. 52:40 Remember? It says from the commandment that goes forth 52:42 to rebuild and restore Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince 52:44 would be sixty-nine weeks. 52:46 So we're looking for the Messiah to come at the end of 69 weeks. 52:50 Now, as a timeline prophecy. 52:53 Does God raise up another prophet at the end of the 52:55 69 weeks to let him know that "Hey, you know what? 52:58 Better get ready 'cause the Messiah's here. " 53:01 Who would it be? John the Baptist. 53:03 John the Baptist. Let us look at it. 53:04 Mark... it's on the slide here. We'll go to the next slide 53:07 as we go to the 8th Spirit of Prophecy study here. 53:09 Mark chapter 1 verses 1-3 and verse 15. 53:12 So Mark. We're going to the right. We're in the 53:14 Old Testament book of Daniel. We're going to the right. 53:16 We'll go find the book of Matthew in the New Testament 53:18 and then the next book will be the book of Mark. 53:20 Mark chapter 1. And God did exactly what He said He would 53:25 do: He raises up another prophet. 53:28 Now Mike is going to read Mark. Mark chapter 1 53:31 and read verses 1 through... actually just do 1 through 4. 53:35 1 through 3 is fine but let's just pick up 1 through 4 here. 53:39 "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. 53:42 As it is written in the prophets: 53:43 Behold, I send My messenger 53:45 before Thy face which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 53:48 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare ye the way 53:51 of the Lord. Make His paths straight. ' 53:54 John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the 53:56 baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. " 54:00 So it's getting close to the Messiah to be here, right? 54:03 John the Baptist is coming along... he's preaching. 54:05 It says... how it's worded there in Mark chapter 1 54:08 "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ... " 54:10 So John here is preaching about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 54:13 He says: "As it is written in the prophets 54:15 I'm sending My messenger before Thy face. " 54:17 And this messenger was? It was John the Baptist. 54:19 And he comes preaching the baptism of repentance 54:21 for the remission of sins. 54:22 I think it's very interesting when Mike reads our next text 54:25 here in Mark chapter 1 and verse 15... 54:27 When he gets to that text you're going to find it's 54:29 very interesting what Jesus says as He begins the 54:33 explanation of John basically. John had just baptized Jesus 54:38 and Jesus comes along with another message, Mike. 54:40 And what is that message that Jesus comes along with? 54:42 "And saying: 'the time is fulfilled... ' " What time? 54:46 The time prophecy. What time prophecy is that? 54:48 The coming of the Messiah... The 69 weeks, right? 54:50 He said it's fulfilled. 54:51 Carry on. "And the kingdom of God is at hand. 54:54 Repent ye and believe the gospel. " 54:56 Isn't that fascinating? 54:58 It's just right on time. 54:59 Jesus comes along after John comes along 55:01 announcing the end of the 69 weeks, Mike. 55:03 He comes along announcing the end of the 69 weeks. 55:05 And then Jesus comes and says what? 55:07 "The time is fulfilled. " 55:08 What time? You know, it's the 69 weeks. 55:11 Powerful isn't it? 55:13 So God is establishing this pattern 55:14 and this pattern continues through the Bible. 55:16 It starts off with Enoch giving a timeline prophecy 55:19 and then it goes on from there to... after the timeline 55:23 prophecy Noah comes along. Then Abram and then Moses. 55:25 And then Jeremiah and Daniel. 55:27 Daniel gives a timeline prophecy, and at the end 55:29 of Daniel's timeline prophecy God does not leave His people 55:32 in the dark. He comes with this powerful message. 55:34 Now by the way, it's getting more into modern times 55:37 and I want you to think about John. 55:39 John wore strange clothes. 55:42 John ate strange food. 55:44 And John had a strange message that was different than 55:47 anybody else was wearing, eating, and preaching 55:50 in that day. Isn't that interesting? 55:53 And so John's message here as he comes along preaching 55:56 is basically: "Repent, turn back. The Messiah is coming. " 56:01 He's preparing the way for the Messiah 56:03 and he's fulfilling the end of the timeline prophecy. 56:06 He's coming to the end of this timeline prophecy 56:08 and he says: "You need to get ready... 56:10 You need to get ready; the Messiah is coming. " 56:12 And so he announces that Jesus is going to come. 56:14 He announces the end of the 69 weeks. 56:16 And I suppose - I just suppose - I can imagine 56:19 if the Internet was around in the day of John the Baptist 56:21 what they would have been saying about him. 56:23 This strange guy living out in the wilderness 56:26 wearing this odd clothing, you know. 56:28 Unlike what everybody else was wearing in the day. 56:31 Preaching this strange message unlike what everybody else 56:33 was preaching... he must be the leader of a cult. 56:36 No one go listen. As a matter of fact, 56:38 you can remember what the leaders said about Jesus. 56:41 "We're not following Him, " right? 56:44 And after John the Baptist points to Jesus 56:46 no one else wanted to follow because... well... 56:48 the leaders weren't doing it. 56:50 Now Daniel gives another timeline prophecy. 56:54 John the Baptist was raised up to announce the end of 56:57 the timeline prophecy. 56:58 Daniel gives another timeline prophecy 57:00 and oh... I'm so sorry... you've got to wait until our next study 57:06 to find out what his next timeline prophecy is 57:08 and who announces the end of that. 57:10 It's a perfect time to end 57:11 right here. So we've got about 57:13 a half a minute left to go here 57:14 on the video and then we're 57:16 going to go to take a little break here 57:17 I'll let you guys get a water break; I'll take one myself. 57:19 And I want to encourage the people at home 57:21 to continue to follow along. 57:23 You want to come back and catch the rest of this study. 57:25 You don't want to miss it because you get to find out 57:26 how God finishes the next timeline prophecy 57:29 and who the following prophet was that He raised up 57:31 at the end of that. So Daniel gives another timeline 57:32 prophecy. That's where we're going to next. 57:34 So you can go onto our website; continue to follow along 57:37 at www.ComeExperienceLife.com 57:40 and we'll see you back here in just a few minutes. |
Revised 2014-12-17