Simple Faith

Guest (Male): How should Christians react to the sin and lawlessness we see all around us? Here's Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: We've mistaken meekness for weakness. We've decided that we want to appease everybody else in the name of trying to reach them for the gospel. Sadly, most of the people that say that, by the way, never even share the gospel.

We need to stand up. Now again, not to stand up and be jerks for Jesus. It doesn't mean we stand up and be mean, but we stand up and declare the truth. We stand up for what is right and against what is wrong. Now we're going to be hated anyway. Jesus promised us that we're going to have persecution, especially in these last days.

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. It's time once again for our weekly news and prophecy update as Pastor Bill takes a look at the headlines and urges us to take a biblical worldview at what's happening.

As you might guess, this week Pastor Bill will have a lot to say about the situations surrounding the attacks on ICE agents. Let's join Pastor Bill Henry now for our weekly prophecy update.

Bill Henry: Well hello, welcome once again to Simple Faith Radio. What a blessing it is to be here with you today. So many things happening within the news. I'm sitting here in the studio in Battle Ground, Washington, and across the street we have Battle Ground High School. A lot of the kids played hooky today to protest against ICE and they're on the streets right now, basically celebrating lawlessness. This is where we've come to.

It was interesting, though. It's supposed to be a student-led thing, but I saw at least two different adults there watching them, making sure they're not going out on the street, which I'm glad they're doing. But just that they're so deceived is what's so heartbreaking. They're so lied to about celebrating lawlessness. Sadly, so many even within the Christian church today get caught up in not just this lawlessness, but the lawlessness of having people here illegally, illegally using the benefits here for our citizens, and illegally doing so many other things.

And then on top of that, you have the criminals. Everybody here that's here illegally is already breaking the law. We understand this. Again, this doesn't mean we hate them. We have to be careful with that too, but it's also okay to stand up and say, "Hey, you're breaking our laws. You need to leave." I was an illegal worker in Australia when I lived there for six months back in the 80s, but I knew that if I got caught, I'd get deported. I wasn't going to be mad at the Australian government. But that's the opposite today.

In Isaiah we read, "Woe unto those who call good evil and evil good, light darkness and darkness light." Be careful if you're a Christian. I've had people contact me even on this radio program. "Oh, how dare you speak out against the illegal immigrants?" What do you mean? They're here illegally. We don't celebrate that. Now again, we don't hate them, but let's give them some food, let's put some clothes on their back, and send them back home to where their country is and have them come here legally if they want to come.

Again, to celebrate the lawlessness, the lies that are happening against ICE and that ICE officer who was hit and then shot, that lady. I'm not going into all that too much, that's why I'm not even saying her name right now on purpose. It was a total lawful shooting. He was defending himself, yet so many choose to lie. That's the bottom line. There are so many lies and so much deception. This has led, even this whole ICE thing, into many other things.

It's interesting, Jesus said in the last days lawlessness would increase. We are seeing it happening all around the world. Here's a story that just came out yesterday I read and it was about Canada and Justin Trudeau there. Basically, one of their federal courts just said that it was illegal for Trudeau to freeze the accounts of all those truckers back in 2020, 21, and 22 that were protesting peacefully. It was illegal for them to do that. And yet nobody's being held accountable. The government comes out and says, "Well, we just will make sure we won't do that again," instead of saying they need to go to jail because they broke the law.

It's interesting because even so many Christians today, you stand up and say, "Hey, this person broke the law," and they go against you. What do you mean, don't tell these people that are here illegally that they're breaking the law and they have to leave? What do you mean, don't tell Justin Trudeau what he's doing is wrong and illegal? You're the one who's being mean. It's topsy-turvy. And again, if this is you listening, you need to get your head on straight. I mean this with all love and sincerity. Get your head on biblically.

Heaven has borders. One of the first things that's described in the new heaven and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, is the walls and the gate and who's outside. It's so sad. And again, we have to be careful though, and this part I do agree with some of those people on: We don't hate the people. I'll be honest with you, if I was an illegal immigrant and I was a citizen of Mexico—I've been to Mexico on missions trips—I would fight to come here to provide for my family. I'd be here illegally and if they caught me, I'd send my money home to provide for my family or bring them here, whatever I could do.

I'm saying I get that, but at the same time, if I got caught, I wouldn't blame ICE for catching me. If I'm going to go in and steal something at a store, I shouldn't say, "How dare you catch me for stealing something? That's so mean and criminal and hateful." No, it's called upholding the law. By the way, if you don't know this, for those of you again who support the illegal immigrants here, once you're here illegally, even, you can go to a lawyer, pay them $7,000 to $12,000 depending on the lawyer, and it'll take you two or three years, but they can get you legal citizenship or at least to be here with the green card and be here legally.

Most of the people know that. They just don't want to spend the money. I know guys that were working for years here illegally. I had one of my friends offer to pay for him to become a legal citizen and he wouldn't do it. Again, it's sad all the way around. But when we start to twist scripture and how Israel was told to welcome the sojourner, of course they were told that, but that didn't mean that they became a citizen of Israel. They were treated humanely and they were treated with respect, which we should do. And if they say, "Is arresting people by ICE wrong?" No, it's not. That's what they're supposed to do. They're upholding the laws. Again, remember lawlessness is going to increase in these last days.

Remember this too in 2 Timothy 3, "But understand this then that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal..." Now notice this one in verse 3 of chapter 3, 2 Timothy: "not loving good."

We see that happening today. It goes on: "treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having an appearance of godliness but denying its power thereof. Avoid such people." We have to be careful, guys and gals, not to get caught up in the lawlessness and not to say because that's where everybody else is going, "Oh, that's right, let's stand against ICE." No, let's stand for ICE because they are doing a job of upholding the laws of our Constitution and of the land.

When you have people out there actively trying to hurt them and actively trying to get in their way, I think they should all be arrested personally. Those aren't peaceful protests when you're taking a whistle and blowing it in a police officer's ear that can damage their hearing, when you're throwing things at them, or when you're blocking their cars. That's impeding an investigation and impeding them at their work. They should be arrested, all of them. I don't care if it's a governor or a congressperson.

That's not a mean thing to say. I guess that's what I'm trying to get back to. Look, this has all led now... if you didn't see just over this last weekend where in a church in Minneapolis, you had Don Lemon come in with all these anti-ICE protesters into the middle of a Baptist church service and start yelling and screaming. They scared children. I have pictures here that I'm looking at now of children crying because they were so afraid. I watched the video with Don Lemon talking to the pastor there.

The pastor was trying to be nice and again it's a tough thing but he was trying to be nice saying, "Look, we're here to talk about Jesus," because that's what this city needs, that's what this country needs, that's what this world needs: the gospel of Jesus Christ. And yet Don Lemon, again, in a celebration of lawlessness goes into a church and decries some First Amendment rights that they don't have. Your First Amendment right to protest doesn't trump or even equal our right to meet and assemble and worship God together.

There are other laws and I do pray and I do hope and I will encourage our President and our Justice Department federally to indict under federal crimes. I would have called 911 if the state or the city didn't show up. I would have sued the city. Look, guys and gals, we are still a nation of laws. We are a citizen-driven country. We are a people of the people, by the people, and for the people. We're not a dictatorship. I don't think Trump is going in that direction. Will he ever go? Who knows. I don't think so. We are led by the Constitution. We're a constitutional republic and I believe that God gave us that.

Within those boundaries, we have so many rights that are recognized from God. That's what our forefathers said. We recognize that human beings were endowed with certain inalienable rights. That's what they sought to recognize. When you take God out of the picture like so many are doing today, they lie about our forefathers and they lie about the history of our country. Again, it goes right into what Jesus said would happen: lawlessness. And it goes right into those in Isaiah again: those calling good evil, evil good, light darkness, and darkness light.

That's what's happening. These are those who don't love good. They're swollen with conceit as we see here. These are times of difficulty and we need to be careful. Even with this whole thing with the church, one of the state representatives—he's a transgender, he dresses like a woman—called for more of this. You again cannot make this up. His name is Leigh and he basically said that we need to keep doing this, this is the way to do this. It's such a wicked, wicked thing.

This is by the way, if you didn't know, this is what the KKK used to do in Black churches in the South. They actually made another federal law to make it illegal to interrupt church services like that. Again, I do hope that they go in and they prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. We'll still love them and we'll still share the gospel with them, but it's okay to stand up against them. What is wrong with us today?

Sadly we've mistaken meekness for weakness. We've decided that we want to appease everybody else in the name of trying to reach them for the gospel and sadly most of the people that say that, by the way, never even share the gospel. Yet we need to stand up. Now again, not to stand up and be jerks for Jesus. It doesn't mean we stand up and be mean, but we stand up and declare the truth. We stand up for what is right and against what is wrong. Now we're going to be hated anyway. Jesus promised us that we're going to have persecution, especially in these last days.

So what do we do if this happens in our church? I'll be honest with you, I'm still praying about this. I've been talking to my wife, some of our elders, and other pastors at the church here and I've been reading all these different things online and in news stories: What should we do? It's a tough thing. First of all, we, as always, have the blessed power of prayer, to be men and women praying. Again it's interesting, too, isn't it, that a lot of people I'm sure even listening to this program, you never go to church anymore, or maybe you hardly have. Or you say, "Oh, my church is my home, my church is the wilderness." No, church is coming together as the bride of Christ, as the body of Christ. We're told in Hebrews to stir each other up to love and to good works, to edify, and to build each other up, especially as the writer says there, as you see that day approaching: the day of the return of Christ. And that's these days.

We should all be in church. We should all be serving. We should all be tithing, at least giving 10% or more to the fellowship and other ministries and to the poor. We should all be fasting regularly. We should all be reading our Bibles every day and walking in loving obedience to them. We should all have time in our prayer closet every day, a special place designed. Some people tell me it's their shower, they sit down in their shower. Other people go sit in their car for half an hour. Other people sit in their bedroom. It's just a place where we go to be alone with the Lord. We should do that every day. We should seek to walk in loving obedience.

Now we don't do these things to be saved. We don't do these things to keep our salvation. We don't do these things to gain favor with God or to be more religious and say, "Oh, you're such a great Christian." No, we do them because we are now saved by grace through faith. We are now kept by grace through faith. And the result of that, in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10, is that God has prepared for us good works to do. He's explained all throughout his word, these 66 books that we call the Bible—the New Testament, the Old Testament, from Genesis to Revelation. He's told us, "Hey, this pleases me, this doesn't please me. This isn't sin, that is sin."

We need to be careful to be lovingly walking. It's funny, on Sunday we were just talking about the narrow road. So many professing Christians... I'll give you an example. One of the numbers that I found with the studies is 20% of Christians who go to church do 100% of the work. That means 80% of professing Christians are not serving. Another number said 10 to 20% of people who attend church tithe, actually give 10% or more to the fellowship to help support the work of the ministry, and then 80 to 90% do not do that.

Then it went on to say that most Christians, especially evangelicals, do not fast. Most Christians do not read their Bibles every day. Most Christians do not seek to obey the word of God every day. It goes on to say that most Christians don't have a prayer closet. All these studies are so interesting. But what I was pointing out is I was telling our church: Look, if you're in that 20% serving, praise God. Lord bless you. You are on the narrow path. If you're that 10 to 20% that's tithing, at least tithing as an example that we have in the Old Testament and giving with hilarious hearts to the church you attend and then giving on top of that to other ministries and giving to the poor and the needy, God bless you. You are walking the narrow road.

If you're spending time every day in your prayer closet, Lord bless you. You're on that narrow path, you're going through the narrow gate. If you're doing fasting on a regular basis, whatever that means to you, weekly or monthly, you're walking that narrow road, a difficult way. But then I had to turn it around and be honest and I'm going to tell you this today too, guys and gals: If you're that 80% that goes to church and doesn't serve, you're on the wide path. If you're one going to church and you're not at least tithing, and you're that 80 to 90% that isn't at least tithing and then giving on top of that to other ministries and to the poor and the needy, you are on the wide path.

If you're not every day having time in your prayer closet, if you're not reading the Bible every day and seeking to lovingly obey the Lord, if you're not doing the things that God tells us to do in his word or you're doing the things he tells us not to do, or if you think like a lot of people, "Oh, I'm the exception to that rule. I can't afford to tithe, so I'm not going to tithe. God doesn't mind because of grace. I don't have time, I'm too tired to serve when I go to church. I've been working all week or I've been watching the kids all week or I've been teaching the kids all week. I'm too tired." Well, you're on the wide road.

It's interesting because it's only the narrow road that leads to life. It is the wide road, Jesus said, that leads to destruction. When you read that there in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus is giving that as a warning to people who profess to be his disciples. Are you on the wide road today? Or are you on the narrow path? What are you on? Are you going through the narrow gate, which few find, or are you on that path that is wide and many will go through it? Most go through that path. I believe those two paths, by the way, are people who profess to be Christians because you see the other illustrations that Jesus gives even after that.

Look, guys and gals, you can say, "Oh, that's legalism. You're telling me that I have to do these things." No, I'm not telling you you have to. But if you're a Christian, you understand what I'm going to say right now: You get to do those things now. We get to do these things. How awesome is that? I get to read my Bible. I get to pray. I get to tithe and give. I get to fast. And I can come boldly, you can come boldly, before the throne room of grace of God. If the commandments of God are burdensome to you, then you do not love him. That's what the Bible says.

We have to stop. These days are too serious, guys and gals. Here's the blessing, here's the radical blessing as we seek to walk with God in this manner, in these manners, again in love, not out of legalism, not out of, "Well, I have to do this now. I heard Pastor Bill on the radio." No, it's because, Lord, you know what? I love you because you first loved me. You died for me, Jesus. I am yours, you are my Lord, and I'm so grateful. Yes, you're my savior, but you're also my Lord. I will walk in loving gratitude for the rest of eternity. I will study your word and I will do my best, even though I'll fall every day and I'll have to confess sin to you every day, I know you're faithful and just to forgive me of that sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

Which path are you on today? Are you on the path of lawlessness that's going on? Are you on a path of self-righteousness? Are you deceiving yourself? Or are you truly on that narrow path? Because Jesus did say, by the way, it's a difficult path. It is hard when you're tired to serve. It is hard when finances are tight to tithe. It is hard to make time during the day and to pray every day in a time set apart specially for God. It is hard to do the rest of the things but because we still have our flesh. Look, I want to encourage you as we're closing to not take anything I say as gospel. You go back to the word of God and you read it yourself. Find one place where grace is used as an excuse not to obey the commands of God. Maybe especially read Romans 6 and 7, but don't forget chapter 8.

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. If you haven't been walking in this way, just confess your sins, turn around, repent, and just start walking afresh in Christ. Maybe for the first time. Just know as we're closing that if you hear these words, you've been prayed for and will continue to be prayed for. May the Lord bless you and keep you, and make his face shine upon you. Remember in these days, even as lawlessness is increasing, don't let your love for Jesus Christ, for others, for the lost, and for your brothers and sisters in Christ wax cold. We'll see you here, there, or in the air. God bless you.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you Pastor Bill's weekend prophecy update. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today.

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