Simple Faith

Guest (Male): Hello and welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, coming to you from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we bring you Pastor Bill's weekly prophecy update.

He'll be taking a look at current events and he's going to share how they relate to end times prophecy we read in the Bible. Obviously, there's a lot going on in the world, so let's get right to it. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: Well hello and welcome once again to Simple Faith Radio. This is Bill Henry with Simple Faith Calvary Chapel here in Vancouver, Washington. What a blessing it is to be here with you again this weekend. So many things happening within the news, in our culture, around the world.

What's the list? I mean we could go down a little list before we came on here: Epstein files and pedophilia just rampant amongst the powerful. And yet then again, trying to figure out who is on the list doing bad things and doing other things. It's just crazy deception.

Anti-Semitism abounding around the world but again, especially within the church, where that's the last place any kind of anti-anything should be happening, especially being anti-Israel and God's still chosen people. Again, it doesn't mean they're all saved, but God is not finished with them yet.

Then we could talk about AI continuing to explode on the nation, on the world, leading to even more deception. It's hard to know: is this a real video? Is this a fake video? Is this real news? Is this fake news? A lot of stuff came in with ICE, where there was a fake AI thing that had been made up about ICE attacking some guy.

And yet you could see two or three hands at one point during the video and oh, this is fake, but a lot of people thought it was real. This is wicked stuff. And then you read China and other places are pitching in, trying to pit us against each other.

A lot of your protesters, we're finding out, are professionally paid, those that are protesting against ICE. It's just wickedness, because that's another thing we could talk about is not just the AI deception about ICE and the borders and voting, if we should have IDs to vote.

Isn't it interesting, by the way? I just saw somebody point out yesterday how interesting the same people that are against having IDs to vote were the same people that wanted you to have an ID if you went out during COVID. So for those two or three years, oh yes, have a COVID ID, have COVID this or that. Have your papers, please, but not when it comes to voting.

And even against all these protests against ICE and basically against lawfulness, there are Christians even, professing Christians—and I think some real Christians get caught up in this without reading their Bibles—into the whole protesting and they are celebrating lawlessness.

Just as Jesus warned would happen in the last days, that lawlessness would increase. Again, even so many within the church as they take scriptures out of context and oh, well, sojourners in the Old Testament were welcomed to Israel. And that's all they say. They'll point to a Bible verse, but you have to take the whole thing in context.

Because the way they're saying it, it's as if they didn't—they could just come in and it didn't matter if they obeyed the laws of God that Israel had been given. No, no, no, they had to obey the laws of the land. And yet that's not how people say it today, even in the name of Christ.

I've heard politicians, I've heard other Christians, and even some pastors that get this so dead wrong. I was contacted by a fellow that does ministry with a lot of illegal immigrants. And Lord bless them, to a point. Look, we don't hate them, but as I've said many times, I've been an illegal immigrant.

I wasn't an immigrant, but I was in a country legally working illegally. And I knew that if I got caught, guess what? That was my ticket out of there. I knew that it wasn't their fault, the country's fault, for enforcing the laws. But that's how light is being called darkness and evil is being called good. That's what's happening here and so many are so deceived.

God himself set up borders for Israel. I mean I could just go scripture after scripture. I'll just give a few real quick: Exodus 23:31, Acts 17:26. God's the one who set up the boundaries of every nation. There's even going to be walls in heaven. The new heavens, the new earth, the new Jerusalem will have walls in Revelation chapter 21, verses 12 through 21.

In verse 27 it actually says this: "Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." And yet so much deception. And we could talk about all these things, we could talk about any one of those subjects and so many more things. People are just all the craziness that is happening.

I just got off the phone with an old friend of mine, Jim, Pastor Jim Cottrell with Freedom House Ministries. He used to be with Teen Challenge many years ago, and just a sweet man of the Lord. And we were just talking about the days and how you look around. Unless you're willfully trying not to see, all the things that God said were going to happen, Jesus said to look for throughout the Word of God, Old Testament, New Testament.

We see as in Daniel this pouring out of knowledge in the last days, traveling to and fro. That's when basically these prophecies that Daniel had been given, that's when they're opened up. We see Israel becoming a nation again, just as prophesied so many places throughout the Old and New Testaments.

And then we also see, as Paul warned against in Romans, that this pride has come into many within the church. We see all these different things. And sadly, they all come back to Christians ignoring the Word of God and turning away from the Word of God and basing their lives and their churches and the decisions that we make, the things that we believe upon the Word of God.

We get so caught up in some of these YouTube videos or TikTok videos where these people are taking scriptures out of context and they get all the scriptures that they want and then they say, "Well now don't look at this scripture, don't look at that scripture." And they build their case. And sadly, without realizing it, you go down this rabbit hole with them. Be careful.

Any guy like me here on the radio, any guy you see a video or a gal on the radio or in a video, any of those things, test it. Be a Berean that we read in the book of Acts and test it to the Word of God. And I don't mean just parts of the, "Oh yeah, it does say that right there." No, what's the context? What's the whole picture look like?

And be careful in these days that we're living, because that's one of the main things that Jesus warned against was deception abounding. So it's interesting on this Sunday, we're actually talking about there at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters five, six, and seven. This Sunday we're covering the end of that sermon.

And we're looking at what foundation are we laying? And that's how Jesus closes his sermon. And it's interesting how he gives four sets of twos at the ends. Basically we have the wide path and the easy gate and we have the narrow gate and the narrow path that's difficult that leads to heaven. The wide path and gate lead to hell, to destruction.

And then we have good fruit and bad fruit. Those who are truly saved will have good fruit in their lives. Those who aren't, it'll show in our fruit, especially with deceivers that come. And then Jesus warns the goats amongst the sheep as he talks about the different things that we'll be facing and why we come to these times and to take his word and what he taught us there in the Sermon on the Mount.

And basically look, are we saved, are we not saved? And we have to be those who take this. And then at the end, Jesus is talking about two different foundations. The person basically who has a foundation of building on the Word of God, but not just hearing the Word of God.

But Jesus said those who hear my word and obey it, apply it. And again just previously to that, not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my father in heaven.

And he goes on to talk about those who do stuff in their own name. They do it in the name of Jesus, but it's their own stuff. They want to do their own stuff. So again, I just love that we need to test ourselves and that's what Jesus closes the Sermon on the Mount with. How are we doing in our faith?

Don't just take it because I grew up in this church or that church and oh, I'm just doing wonderful. No, what does it compare to the Word of God? Are we living our lives in loving obedience to the Lord? Again, not to get saved because we're saved by grace, we are kept by grace.

But that same grace—and again we talked about this last Sunday—works in us. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 9 and 10 specifically. Other places where Paul even says, "Look, it's not me at work, and I'm working harder than the rest of the apostles, but it's the grace of God at work in me."

So God's grace saves us, God's grace keeps us, but God's grace also leads to good work. Now a lot of Christians don't want to hear that today. And a lot of them are just professing Christians. They're going to say "Lord, Lord" to him one day.

And he's going to say, "Away from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you." You see, they did all these things in the name of Jesus. "Hey, we cast out demons in your name, we prophesied in your name, we did great works in your name." But we didn't obey your commandments. We didn't seek to read your Bible.

We didn't seek to obey your commands that we find in the Bible. I know that we're supposed to do these things or I'm not supposed to do these other, but you know, it's all covered under grace. And so what happens is you slip into that place that Jude warned about, where God's people would start to use—or professing people would start to use—God's grace as an excuse for sin.

And that's what we have in much of the church today. It's so sad, it's so grievous. And so as we see this great falling away, first of all, let me warn you if that's you today. You profess to love Jesus but you don't care anything about obeying his word. Danger, Will Robinson.

Danger because that is not biblical Christianity. Look, you don't do these things again, I have to reiterate this, to be saved. We don't do these things to keep our salvation. We do these things because we are saved. You see, we're not saved by works, we're saved by grace. But grace is always accompanied by the works of God. James makes this very clear as well.

And so if we have a faith and we're not changing, we're not growing, we're not being conformed into the image of Christ—we don't care about reading God's word, I don't care about spending time in a prayer closet, I've never fast, why should I fast? I don't give really, why should I give? Why should I serve? Because that's a Christian.

These aren't a whole big list of do's and don'ts, these are just a description of who the Christian is after we are born again of the Spirit of God. If that is not you, then repent today. Praise God you can hear these words, his word.

And repent and truly become born again of the Spirit of God. Believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. Believe that he rose from the dead three days later. Believe in him to be the Lord and Savior of your life and be born again of the Spirit of God.

And die to the old man, die to the old woman. Crucify the old flesh, pick up your cross daily, deny yourself, and follow after Jesus. And it takes sacrifice. Remember Jesus said that's the narrow way. But again, how do we do that in these days?

How do we do that? Well first of all we just do it by the grace of God. Remember that, it's always about God's grace. But it's also something else. I just was—I've been reminded of this the last several days, actually last couple weeks really, that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Do you remember that in Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 10? "For the joy of the Lord is your strength." Is God's joy your strength lately? Dude, as we look around and we see so much wickedness, the darkness that is continuing to grow and as we said earlier, those that are calling this darkness light.

And those that are calling the light darkness, those that are calling good evil and evil good. We see this growing, we see it even growing within the church as so many churches are walking away from the plain teachings of the Word of God.

And I'm part of Calvary Chapel. We've been—I've been at Calvary Chapel ever since I was on staff. I was blessed to be part of that with Pastor Chuck Smith. And I came out of the Catholic Church. I was 26 when I came out of the Catholic Church, 26, 27.

And I was really, really a Catholic. I mean I said the Rosary at least once or twice a day, I'd go to mass many times a week and all these other things. But then I had some knee problems where I had to have a couple knee surgeries, reconstructive, and I started reading my Catholic Bible.

And I started realizing there was all kinds of things within the Catholic Church that weren't in the Bible. I was freaking out. And so this isn't a bash on Catholicism. I know some Catholics that love Jesus. And I've heard people compare Catholicism: "Oh it's the same thing as Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormons." No, that's not an honest portrayal. It is a faith that is 2,000 years old that has a lot of mistakes in it.

And extra-biblical things that don't go along with what the Bible says. And some they've added to, some they've taken away from, just like the Orthodox Church has done, the Lutheran Church has done, Baptist Church has done. And again I think a lot more the older you are, sadly, the more men and women we can put our two cents in and mess it all up.

But and even within Calvary Chapels, we had a split what, 14 years ago, 13 years ago, as some just wanted to get away from what the Bible clearly teaches about women teaching in the pulpit over men and other areas. And it's just like no, we're not—I'm not going in that direction. I refuse to.

That's one of the greatest things when I started reading my Bible and I'm not going back to a place, well, in these days it just seems right for a woman to teach over a man because that's, you know, all these things of over the years men have done this. No, no, no.

God set up his church, Jesus set up his church, he gave us his word to tell us. And he also gave us the example throughout the book of Acts, the Gospels, and the letters exactly how his church is to be. And it is not to have women teaching over men within a church on a Sunday morning, a Wednesday night, only over women, only over children.

That's just one thing. You go beyond that and all these other things are coming into the church and it gets very defeating. It's hard, some of you you're having a hard time finding a good church that's teaching verse by verse through the Bible that you can go to and be loved and love, that you can serve at.

And I do by the way remind you to be serving at your church, to be tithing, giving at least 10% of your income to your church. And then give above that to the church or to other ministries, to the poor, to the needy. Be Jesus with skin on to other people and remember to let the joy of the Lord be our strength.

It's interesting because we're going to heaven. Yes it's dark right now, yes it can be hard right now, yes we're living in lawlessness. Remember what Jesus said, beware basically because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will wax cold. And I think even with that, with the cooling of love cools our joy.

Habakkuk 3:18 says, "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Romans 15:13: "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." I love this, to be those who are just continually walking in the joy of the Holy Spirit, in the joy of our salvation.

You see, there's a scripture in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7. I'm going to read this out of the Amplified. It says this: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or fear... of cowardice, of craven, of cringing and fawning fear, but he has given us a spirit of power and of love and a calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control."

God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, guys and gals, and to me again fear is the chief enemy of love, it's the chief enemy of joy. And I love how in Philippians chapter 4, verse 4 it says, "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice." In the New Living it says, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again, rejoice."

And he points to why: "Let everyone see that you're considerate in all you do. Remember the Lord is coming soon." Look, we are almost 2,000 years closer than when this letter was written to the return of Christ. So we are the closest any generation of Christians has ever been to the return of Jesus.

I believe in the pre-tribulation rapture of the church, that we're not destined unto wrath as we're told in Thessalonians and other places, the beginning of the book of Revelation as well. That we're not appointed to that wrath, that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us as he said in John.

And that he will come and take us to be where he is. And as we see in Corinthians, we see in Thessalonians that we will be caught up to him. And that'll be another sign for the world. That's not the second coming of Christ, that's him getting taking us up to him to be where he is.

And then after that will come the tribulation for seven years at one point and then the return of Jesus Christ to rule and reign upon the earth for a thousand years and then a new heavens and a new earth. Just so glorious. So remember—and that's what Paul is saying to the Philippian people—look, rejoice, always be full of in the joy of the Lord.

Don't get your eyes so much on the things of the world that we forget Jesus is coming soon. And don't fall into where the warnings of Peter were. He was warning and it's like some will say, they'll mock in the last days say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For the fathers since the beginning of time."

Look, if that's you today, you make fun of others, "Oh look at this Pastor Bill's even just talking about the second coming again, just escapist." No, we're doing what we're told to throughout the scriptures to look for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And why?

So we can escape, so let's go build a bunker? No. So we can rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Always be full of joy in the Lord because Jesus is going to come for us. Look, he said he's going to come and I don't know about you, but I believe Jesus. I take him at his word.

And what a blessing it is to go forth in joy. Again think about this. All of a sudden we're stop, turn off the news, by the way, turn off your televisions, turn off everything else. Open up your Bible, start to lift your hands in praise and start to sing.

I rejoice in the Lord always, rejoice in the Lord always, again I say rejoice. Clap, clap. Amen. We sing some of those songs in church still sometimes. "Oh those are silly children's songs. I'm not going to clap, clap, I'm not going to do this." Rejoice in Jesus.

You have been saved from hell for all eternity. You have been adopted, you've been married into the—you are the bride of Christ. You are a son, you are a daughter of the King. And coming soon, we will be forever with him in eternity in heaven, the new heavens, the new earth.

Rejoice, oh my soul. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Hope thou in God. So as we're getting ready to close here once again, may I remind you that even in the midst of all this craziness—and you're not going crazy, it is crazy. It's wicked, it's sinful, it's demonic, it's dark.

And don't let anybody tell you, "Oh it's just the same as it always has been." No, you're blinded, buddy. You're blinded. But praise God Jesus will never leave us, he'll never forsake us. His word is ever true.

And may I remind you, beloved in Christ, that if you are a Christian, be filled afresh with the Holy Spirit continually. Be ye continually filled with the Holy Spirit, walking in the spirit, not fulfilling the desires of the flesh. And have a joy knowing that you are his and he is yours no matter what's happening in this world.

Our hope is not in the words of Pastor Bill, not in the words of Calvary Chapel or the Baptist Church or the Catholic Church or the Lutheran Church, go on through. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. And we find it written down in his word, these 66 books we call the Bible.

And as we read those living words, he gives us strength, he gives us encouragement. But also remember as we obey them, we are now setting up our house with a firm foundation in Jesus Christ.

Oh may the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face shine upon you and I just pray that you have a week of being filled with the Spirit, choosing joy over all the other things that are happening in this world because we have Jesus Christ and he has us. God bless you. We'll see you here, there, or in the air.

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.

If you'd like to hear today's message again, go to oneplace.com and search for Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. We also have a large number of Pastor Bill's Sunday and Wednesday messages archived at simplefaith.org. That's our website. Just go there and click the media tab and you'll find a huge archive of Pastor Bill's past messages.

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And if you'd like to write us, we love hearing from you that way as well. Our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, 98604. Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have three services on Sunday morning at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30. We also have a great time of studying God's word on Wednesday night at 7:00.

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