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: 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.

Epstein files and pedophilia are rampant amongst the powerful. We're trying to figure out who is on the list doing bad things. It's just crazy deception. Anti-Semitism is abounding around the world again, especially within the church. That's the last place any kind of anti-anything should be happening, especially being anti-Israel and God's still-chosen people. This doesn't mean they're all saved, but God is not finished with them yet.

AI continues to explode on the world, leading to even more deception. It's hard to know if a video is real or fake, or if news is real or fake. 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. You could see two or three hands at one point during the video, so it was clearly fake, but a lot of people thought it was real.

China and other places are pitching in, trying to pit us against each other. A lot of your protesters are professionally paid—those that are protesting against ICE. It's just wickedness because that's another thing we could talk about—not just the AI deception about ICE and the borders, but voting and if we should have IDs to vote.

Isn't it interesting that the same people who are against having IDs to vote were the same people that wanted you to have an ID if you went out during COVID? For those two or three years, it was, "Yes, have a COVID ID, have your papers, please," but not when it comes to voting.

Against all these protests against ICE and against lawfulness, there are Christians, and I think some real Christians get caught up in this without reading their Bibles. They are celebrating lawlessness, just as Jesus warned would happen in the last days—that lawlessness would increase.

So many within the church take scriptures out of context. They'll point to a Bible verse, but you have to take the whole thing in context. They say it's as if they could just come in and it didn't matter if they obeyed the laws of God that Israel had been given. No, they had to obey the laws of the land.

People don't say it that way today, even in the name of Christ. I've heard politicians, other Christians, and even some pastors get this so dead wrong. I was contacted by a fellow that does ministry with a lot of illegal immigrants. Lord bless them to a point. We don't hate them.

As I've said many times, I've been an immigrant in a country legally working, and I knew that if I got caught, that was my ticket out of there. I knew that it wasn't their fault—the country's fault—for enforcing the laws. Light is being called darkness and evil is being called good. That's what's happening here.

God himself set up borders for Israel. God's the one who set up the boundaries of every nation. There are even going to be walls in heaven. The new heavens, the new earth, the new Jerusalem will have walls in Revelation 21. Verse 27 says 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.

I just got off the phone with an old friend of mine, Jim Cottrell, with Freedom House Ministries. We were 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, we see throughout the word of God, Old Testament and New Testament, this pouring out of knowledge in the last days.

Traveling to and fro is when these prophecies that Daniel had been given are opened up. We see Israel becoming a nation again, just as prophesied in many places. We also see what Paul warned against in Romans—that this pride has come into many within the church. Sadly, they all come back to Christians ignoring the word of God and turning away from the word of God.

We're basing our lives and our churches and the decisions that we make on 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 people are taking scriptures out of context. 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 or gal you see a video of, test it. Be a Berean that we read in the book of Acts and test it to the word of God. I don't mean just parts of it. What's the context? What's the whole picture look like? Be careful in these days that we're living because one of the main things that Jesus warned against was deception abounding.

On this Sunday, we're talking about 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 we are laying. That's how Jesus closes his sermon. He gives four sets of twos at the end.

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. 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 their fruit, especially with deceivers.

Jesus warns of the goats amongst the sheep as he talks about the different things that we will 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. Basically, are we saved or are we not saved? We have to be those who take this.

At the end, Jesus is talking about two different foundations. The person who has a foundation of building on the word of God, but not just hearing the word of God. Jesus said, "Those who hear my word and obey it, apply it." 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.

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. We need to test ourselves. 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. How 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 and we are kept by grace. But that same grace works in us. Paul even says 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.

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."

They did all these things in the name of Jesus, saying, "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, but you know, it's all covered under grace.

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. That's what we have in much of the church today. It's so sad, it's so grievous. 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. 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.

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. If we have a faith and we're not changing, we're not growing, we're not being conformed to the image of Christ, and we don't care about reading God's word, we don't care about spending time in a prayer closet, why should I fast? Why should I give? Why should I serve?

Because that's a Christian. These aren't a whole big list of dos 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. 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. 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.

It takes sacrifice. Remember, Jesus said that's the narrow way. How do we do that in these days? 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've been reminded of this the 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? 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. I'm part of Calvary Chapel. I've been at Calvary Chapel ever since I was on staff. I was blessed to be part of that with Pastor Chuck Smith. I came out of the Catholic Church. I was 26 when I came out of the Catholic Church.

I was really a Catholic. I mean, I'd say 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 and I had to have a couple knee surgeries—reconstructive—and I started reading my Catholic Bible. I started realizing there were all kinds of things within the Catholic Church that weren't in the Bible.

I was freaking out. This isn't a bash on Catholicism. I know some Catholics that love Jesus and I've heard people compare Catholicism and say 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.

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. 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.

Even within Calvary Chapels, we had a split 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. I'm not going in that direction. I refuse to. That was one of the greatest things when I started reading my Bible.

I'm not going back to a place where, in these days, it just seems right for a woman to teach over a man because men have done all these things over the years. 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 and the gospels and the letters exactly how his church is to be.

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. It gets very defeating. It's hard for some of you to find 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.

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. 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 and the love of many will wax cold. I think even with that 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.

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. To me again, fear is the chief enemy of love. It's the chief enemy of joy. 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."

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, and the beginning of the book of Revelation as well. We're not appointed to that wrath. 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.

As we see in Corinthians and in Thessalonians, 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 taking us up to him to be where he is. 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. Remember, and that's what Paul is saying to the Philippian people, "Look, rejoice, always be full 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." Don't fall into where the warnings of Peter were. He was warning and some will say, they'll mock in the last days, "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 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. He said he's going to come and I don't know about you, but I believe Jesus. I take him at his word. What a blessing it is to go forth in joy. Again, think about this and all of a sudden we stop, turn off the news, 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 songs and 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—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. As we're getting ready to close here once again, let me 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. Don't let anybody tell you, "Oh, it's just the same as it always has been." You're blinded, buddy. You're blinded.

Praise God Jesus will never leave us, he'll never forsake us. His word is ever true and let me 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. 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.

May the Lord bless you and keep you, make his face shine upon you. 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 1place.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. If you'd like to contact us, just click the contact tab at our website again at simplefaith.org. There's a tab at the top of the homepage where you can also send in a prayer request.

If you'd like to call us, our phone number is area code 833-BY-GRACE. That's 833-294-7223. 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. For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org. You can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington.