And Then the End Shall Come, Pt 1: Ignore It At Your Peril - Derek Prince

this is the first of a series of four consecutive messages the general title of the whole series is and then the end shall come which is taken from the last few words of Matthew chapter 24 verse 14 a scripture that we will be turning to in due course the title of this first part of this series is ignore it at your peril what is it that you ignore at your peril Biblical prophecy when I talk about Biblical prophecy I'm not talking about the gift of prophecy which I believe in and thank God for but I'm talking about the actual prophecies that are recorded in the scripture I think there is a sad tendency today among many have God's people not to give sufficient attention to the prophecies of the Bible basically Christians are more or less divided into two camps there's the little camp of people who are fanatical about prophecy and are busy calculating dates and telling us what's going to happen next and invariably they are wrong I cannot think of one situation where such a person has been proved right and I can think of dozens where they've been proved wrong but the strange thing is they still go on doing it and people still go on listening to them that's remarkable then there's the general body of God's people who think prophecy is too difficult I don't understand it and I'm tired of all these people who keep telling us things are going to happen then they don't happen so I'm going to keep away from the subject I'll be safe without it I don't think you will be safe without it I think it's part of God's total provision for a child of God and as I've said if you ignore it you ignore it at your own peril I'd like to begin this study of this theme in the second epistle of Peter chapter 1 verse 16 now Peter here is talking about the promise of the Lord's coming that is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in person in power and in glory to set up his kingdom on earth this is perhaps the major theme of the whole Bible someone not me counted on that for every prophecy of the first coming of Jesus there are about five prophecies of his second coming and those of us who are familiar with this theme will agree I believe that all the prophecies of his first coming were exactly fulfilled to me and I was a logician before I came of became a preacher which does help sometimes to me it's simply logic to believe that the prophecies of his second coming will be fulfilled in precisely the same way as I say the theme of this passage is the coming of the Lord now there is a special Greek word in the New Testament parousia which is almost exclusively not completely but nearly exclusively reserved for the coming of the Lord to establish his kingdom what Peter is saying is that he and two other of the Apostles had a brief preview of what it would be like when Jesus comes back in glory and so he says we're not telling you something we made up a nice idea or a story that we concocted but he says we were eyewitnesses and he's speaking about what happened Mount of Transfiguration where he and two other of the disciples witnessed the Transfiguration the transformation of Jesus and saw him as he will be in glory his face like the Sun his clothing like the light so he says when we're talking about his coming and power and glory we've had just a brief preview it's not something we've just imagined then he goes on to say but what we've witnessed with our eyes is not the main reason for believing the greatest single authority in everything that we believe is the scripture never depart from that as an example in 1st Corinthians 15 when Paul is speaking about the resurrection he says Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures was buried and was raised again the third day according to the scriptures the primary Authority for the resurrection is the prophetic scriptures after that he lists a number of people who were eyewitnesses ultimately including himself but the evidence of eyewitnesses is not on the same level as the authority of God's written word God's prophetic word that is the supreme authority and in the same way here Peter says we've had this preview we were witnesses we saw we heard but he says the most significant Authority the one you must give heed to is the prophetic scriptures now having given that little introduction I'll read his words without the introduction and without and being familiar with this theme you might find it a little difficult to follow what he's saying so I'm beginning now 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 16 and I'm going to read through verse 19 for we did not follow cunningly devised fables we didn't make nice stories is saying when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ known as the word coming borussia is coming again in power and glory but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty we had this preview we saw him glorified and then he describes what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration for he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the excellent glory and this is the voice of God the Father and the excellent glory is the supernatural cloud that came down over them and this is what the voice say this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain the holy mountain is the Mount of Transfiguration now he comes to the real ultimate authority for believing in the coming of the Lord we also have the prophetic word made more sure which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts notice he says apart from our testimony as eyewitnesses we have the prophetic word that's the prophetic scriptures made more sure and then he says to us as believers you do well to give heed to it so you're depriving yourself of something very important if you do not give heed to the prophetic scriptures I would have to say there's a tremendous amount of error and confusion in the church today and much of it is simply due to the fact that people are ignorant of the simple basic truths predicted in the scripture concerning the return of the Lord now why does he say prophetic word made more sure I believe it's because he and the other apostles had witnessed with their own eyes a great number of instances in the life and Ministry of Jesus where the prophetic scriptures of the Old Testament had been exactly fulfilled so as believing Jews they already believed in the scriptures of the Old Testament but after they've been with Jesus for three-and-a-half years and seen Scripture after scripture after scripture being acts exactly fulfilled the prophetic word had been made short more sure to them what made it more sure was the examples of it being fulfilled in the ministry and life of Jesus now I'm going to return to this theme and go into it in some detail in a little while because in the New Testament we have a pattern of how Old Testament prophecies are to be fulfilled it's the only authorized pattern there is no other then Peter says about this prophetic word you do well to give heed to it as a light or a lamp that shines in a dark place I wonder if you'd agree with me that in the world today we're in a dark place the world is confused tumultuously people really don't know what to expect net next there's a great uneasiness and real lack of any real confidence so we're in a dark place but for us as believers in Jesus God has provided a lamp or a light in the dark place what is the light it's the prophetic word now if we're in a dark place God has provided a light or a lamp and we don't use the lamp we have nothing to complain about if we remain in the dark we remain in the dark through our own fault it's not God's purpose that we be in the dark God has provided a light but we will still be in the dark unless we have veil ourselves of the light which is the prophetic scriptures of God and then Peter gives a very vivid picture of what will happen in us if we follow his injunction and give heed to the prophetic scriptures he says you do well to give heed as to a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts now I have to thank the British Army for an understanding of that scripture which I would never have had if the army hadn't sent me in 1941 to the Middle East and I hadn't spent the next three years in the deserts of Egypt and Libya and the Sudan and for two years in those deserts we more or less lived by natural light the Sun by day the moon and the stars by night we frequently had no covering at night we had no artificial light so when it got dark we lay down on the sand and went to sleep and when it was getting light we woke up no I don't live that way today I have to admit I tell people I'm an owl and not a lark by nature so I tend to go to bed somewhere around midnight now but in those days I didn't have that option and so in those years I observed something which explains this scripture until the morning star rises in your hearts now the Morningstar is not the Sun I've checked this very carefully with the best Greek dictionaries the Morningstar is what we would call if you want to use the name Aurora it's actually a planet I am no astronomer but I understand that it's the same planet that's also called the evening star or Venus at certain seasons of the year it sets in the west just after the Sun and you can see it there poet keet Keats called it Eve's one star it's very distinctive being a planet it's brighter than most of the stars but at other seasons of the year it rises in the east just before the Sun and that's when it's called the morning star so the same stars the evening star and the morning star no I can see this in my mind's eye so vividly around about the time that the Sun is due to rise in the east the horizon will get unnaturally bright almost luminous and you said yourself the sun's about to rise but it isn't what Rises the morning star but just at that particular time it's so bright that you think it's going to be the Sun but when the morning star has risen you know one thing for sure what's going to happen next the Sun is going to rise well this is the explanation of what Peter says he says if you give heed to the prophetic word the morning star will rise in your hearts not in the world but in your heart and when the morning star rises in your heart you know for sure that the Sun is going to rise now it's not just a matter of doctrine or theology it's an inner confidence and inner expectation and inner excitement the Sun is going to rise and that's one of the great practical purposes of Biblical prophecy it's to give us an assurance that Jesus is coming back in power and glory to reign it's not now just something you read in the Bible it's a truth that's in your heart that illuminates your heart just like the morning star illuminates the horizon and I think if you objectively study the New Testament you find that all the Apostles and the early believers had the morning star in their hearts they were all excited about the fact that Jesus was coming back there's scarcely an epistle that doesn't in some way or other mention the return of the Lord also I think if you study it you'll see that most of the appeals to holy living in the New Testament are tied in with the anticipation of the Lord's return come up for a moment there's a scripture that Ruth and I repeat I think we've done it once here it's first Thessalonians 5:23 and 24 it's quite a simple one but it's a good example of what I'm saying about the impact of the anticipation of the Lord's coming now may the God of peace himself sanctify us completely and may our whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ he calls us is faithful who also will do it do what preserve a spirit soul and body blameless when at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ see the appeal the holiness is based on the anticipation of the Lord's return now I would say they're probably a dozen other passages in the New Testament where the appeal to holiness is based on the anticipation of the Lord's return and a great deal of Paul's ministry is is motivated for instance he writes to the Thessalonians who is my joy and Crown and rejoicing and the presence of thought you are you're what I'm going to present to Jesus when he comes that was the results of his ministry in Thessalonica my corollary if you want that word in other words an Associated truth is that where Christians are not excitedly anticipating the Lord's return the level of holiness in the church is below that demanded by the New Testament I don't think anybody can challenge that statement the early Christians needed this motivation we need it just as much now I can hear some of you thinking but they expected the Lord to come very quickly and he didn't come so they were wrong let me say to you in the line of the results I'd rather be wrong though the way they were and have their results than be right the way some people think they're right and have their results if you're the judge by the fruit but I want to suggest to you that it's a misunderstanding to think that they were wrong and I'm going to try to explain to you briefly why because as I understand it and this is an area that I don't within philosophy the time is one of the mysteries that we are involved in philosophers and physicists spend a lot of time trying to understand the nature of time but as I understand it when I believe a Dynes he falls asleep that's the biblical word his body is put in the ground spirit and his soul depart to be with the Lord and with the redeemed people of the Lord and he moves out of time into eternity now eternity is not a very long time it's a totally different mode of existence in which past present and future don't have the same significance that they have for us here God lives in eternity the scripture says he inhabits eternity for God past present and future all one at the same time now our natural minds can't comprehend that fully but we can accept it as a fact so if I understand this right lay when a committed believer dies his conscious part of him his spirit and his soul move out of time into eternity and there is no more time for him until what until the resurrection when the Lord comes back so if you like to think of it this way picture me is the person these physical eyes of mine will unless the Lord returns before that one day close in death they'll see nothing more until what they're recreated by the resurrection and I get a pair of new beautiful eyes that will never need glasses or medication or anything and when I open those eyes what's the first thing I'm going to see tell me Jesus that's right so the coming of the Lord for any believer is no further away than the time of your death after that there'll be no more time until your eyes open and I believe the eyes of every believer when they're opened in resurrection the first thing they'll all see will be the one they've been longing to see Jesus so you see if I'm right the New Testament believers were not wrong they had this excited anticipation and they were right and I believe it's God's will for believers in every generation to have the same excited anticipation of the Lord's return I find when Ruth and I travel when we come together with people who are usually a bit far out I mean they're a little different and they may have some of their some peculiarities but they're excited about the Lord's return I find when we've been with them 10 minutes it's like we've known them all our lives there's something that unites people who have this confident anticipation it makes us excited after all why should we expect other people to be excited about the gospel if we're not I don't see we have any right to expect more excitement from unbelievers than they see in believers at any rate so I stand here right now as sincerely as I know how I want to tell you I'm excited because I believe Jesus is coming back in power and glory to establish his kingdom I believe that's the only solution to Earth's problems we can do good we can help the sick we can help the poor we can try to correct in Justices so far as it lies in our power but our efforts are very puny right now at this time every week a quarter of a million children between the age of 1 and 5 die of starvation that's a larger number than has ever been true in Earth's history of tuna it really does not look as though the earth is getting better after the church has been here 19 centuries is that right I would say the problems are greater more serious more acute generally than at any time and the strange thing is where as Christians are often unaware this unbelievers are very frequently acutely aware of the problems it's a strange thing but unbelievers talk more about Armageddon than Christians no I'm not talking about Armageddon because for the unbeliever Armageddon means something terrible is going to happen to the end of the age now I'd like to deal with a with a theory again I have to say part of this is connected with my background in philosophy it so happened that in the days when I was at Cambridge the fashionable philosophy was called linguistic philosophy I don't suppose any of you familiar with on that but the great father of it all was Ludwig Wittgenstein who was a Jew from Austria and I was a pupil of his I sat at his feet for two years he used to say if you will listen to me for two years you'll give up philosophizing well I listened him for two years I gave up philosophizing but for a different reason I met the Lord I found something that made a lot more sense than philosophy that answered the questions that philosophy never had answered for me but there are some useful things about philosophy and I have to say that being disciplined in that way about the correct use of words and the incorrect use of words has helped me as a preacher whether you observe it or not it it could be worse I'll tell you that and we have this question will the prophecies of the Bible be literally fulfilled and a great many people today are taking the line they won't be literally fulfilled they'll be spiritually fulfilled or metaphorically fulfilled we can't take them seriously as meaning what they really say to me that's a misuse of language it's misusing words and creating confusion you see if I talk about something being literal I give the impression or the impression that there's another way it could be rather than theorize I'll take an example or two suppose I say to Brent here are you literally married what would save me why do you say literally why don't you just say are you married if I say to him I you literally married I I introduce a very dangerous possibility that you could be married without being literally married you know which is the teaching that's sweeping through society this time oh I say to my brother Ray here do you literally pay your taxes of course he's gonna say I pay my taxes why don't you put in the word Latrun when you see when I put in the word literally I create a dangerous suggestion that you might claim to be paying your taxes without paying them in other words it's a misuse of language and it leads to confusion I don't know whether you've ever noticed this too about the word literally most often when people use the word literally it isn't literal for instance people say he was literally green with envy he wasn't really agreeing with him our people might say I wouldn't say it I literally died laughing but you didn't see what I'm trying to bring out is that there's an element of confusion introduced by this concept of things being other than literal we don't use it in other areas why should we use it with regard to Biblical prophecy now rather than speculate I want to take about ten examples of Old Testament prophecy that we know from the New Testament were fulfilled in the life and Ministry of Jesus and as I go through them briefly I want you to ask yourself were they literally fulfilled and I want to suggest you there's never one suggestion that any of them were fulfilled in any other way than literal and we have no other pattern in scripture for how prophecy is to be fulfilled if that's not the pattern then the scripture leaves us without a pattern let's go through some of the main events in the life of Jesus if you study the Ministry of Jesus you'll find one phrase that recurs our gaeng and again I forget how many times I think it's 18 times when it says that it might be fulfilled and most of the things the significant things that happened in the life of Jesus happened that it might be fulfilled what was to be fulfilled in every case a prophecy of the Old Testament you could say in a way not only did Jesus absolutely believe in the veracity of the Old Testament and endorse it in his teaching more important than that he demonstrated it in his life his whole life from birth to death and resurrection was the outworking of prophecies of the Old Testament and in every case if you want to use the word literal they were literally fulfilled let's begin with his birth he was born of a virgin Matthew chapter 1 verses 22 and 23 Matthew 1:22 and 23 this describes the supernatural birth of Jesus of the Virgin Mary and having given the account of what happened Matthew says in verses 22 and 23 of chapter 1 now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the Prophet the Prophet is Isaiah saying behold a virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel which is translated God with us what I want to say very simply is Mary was literally a virgin she was not a spiritual virgin had that been the case our whole plan of salvation would have been canceled right at the start it's extremely important that Jesus was not conceived of a human father the whole plan of salvation would be rendered ineffective so it's it's very important that we don't speak about a spiritual virgin doesn't say a literal virgin because the Bible is down to earth book it doesn't mean he'll make much room for spiritual virgins on the other hand the phrase is used so it could have been in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 Paul says to the Corinthian church I've espoused you to Christ as a chaste virgin to one husband now that is a spiritual use of virgin because if you study the careers and the lives of the Chris of the church in Corinth they were anything but literal virgins what I'm saying is even if there is a possibility of the spiritual use it's not found in the New Testament see what I'm saying alright let's look in concerning his Beth his birth Luke chapter 2 tells us that Joseph was of the lineage of David so when the enrollment came under Caesar Augustus he had to go up to Bethlehem and while he was in Bethlehem Mary was delivered of the child now in Matthew chapter 2 we read how the wise men came to Jerusalem and upset the whole city because they said we've seen the star of the King of the Jews and we want to worship Him because this upset Herod because it threatened his position as king so it says in Matthew chapter 2 when Herod the King heard these things he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him that's verse 3 and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together he inquired of them where the Christ I'm going to say Messiah from now on because it makes it plainer where the Messiah wants to be born so they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea there's not the faintest doubt about this notice there were also several Bethlehem's so that they had to put in in Bethlehem of Judea to be specific for thus it is written by the prophets Micah chapter 5 verse 2 but thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the rulers of judah for out of you shall come a ruler who shall Shepherd my people Israel all this the scribes and the teachers of the scripture knew where the Messiah was to be born and he was born precisely where it said he was not born in a spiritual bathroom he was born in the Bethlehem of Judea there was no way of spiritualizing that prophecy and then a very remarkable prophecy I think in Matthew 2 verses 14 and 15 we read how Joseph was warned that Herod would try to kill Jesus and so he was warned to take the child and his mother down to Egypt and stay there until it was safe for him to return and it says Matthew 2 14 and 15 when Joseph arose he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the Prophet saying out of Egypt I called my son now that prophecy is found in Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 and will turn there Hosea 11:1 when Israel was a child the Lord is speaking I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son now if it weren't for Matthew I don't know that I would really have necessarily seemed that prophecy fulfilled in the ministry and life of Jesus but the Matthew the writer of the gospel takes it very literally Jesus went literally down to Egypt and God literally called him out of Egypt now if you ever wanted to spiritualize anything Egypt is a wonderful place to begin because in many passages of the scripture Egypt is a picture of the world but no Matthew does not give a spiritual interpretation to Egypt he gives a literal interpretation out of the very literal country of Egypt God called his son then in Matthew 13 and it's interesting how many of these passages come from Matthew because Matthew is the gospel that was written primarily for the Jews and primarily to demonstrate that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel and is the king so Matthew 13 but excuse me this is 34 and 35 after Jesus had been teaching in parables it says all these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables and without a parable he did not speak to them that it might be fulfilled noticed that phrase which was spoken by the Prophet saying I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world now that is taken from Psalm 78 the first two verses on here again it would have been very easy to spiritualize these verses but Matthew doesn't do that he makes it very literal he literally taught in literal parables here is what says of Psalm 78 1 & 2 give ear o my people to my law incline your ears to the words of my mouth I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old just reading that as we read through the Psalms many of us would have never thought about applying it to Jesus but Matthew applies it very specifically to the fact that Jesus actually taught in parables and he says in his gospel that it might be fulfilled if you're interested in making a word study and you have a concordance some time or other just look through the places where it says about Jesus that it might be fulfilled I think you come to the same conclusion that I did that the outworking of Biblical prophecy was the directive power in the course of Jesus life and then in healing the sick in Matthew 11 this is 2 through 6 we have an incident when John the Baptist now in prison began to doubt whether Jesus really was the Messiah because he wasn't doing the things that the Jews expected the Messiah to do he wasn't establishing an earthly Kingdom he was just teaching and ministering to people's needs and so John and I can really identify with him left alone they in prison sends an urgent message message Jesus are you really the one we're looking for or should we be looking for another although John was the very one who'd proclaimed him as the Messiah so we read Matthew 11 verses 2 and following when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ he sent two of his disciples and said to him are you the coming one or do we look for another now Jesus reply was go and tell John what you see happening in my ministry jesus answered and said to them go and tell John the things which you hear and see the blind receive their sight and the lame walk the lepers are cleansed and the Deaf hear the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them and blessed is he who is not offended because of me what he was saying was in my ministry to the sick I am fulfilling that which was predicted about the Messiah so it's alright I am the Messiah I'm doing what I ought to be doing now if you look in the Old Testament to find the prophesies of healing it would be very easy to spiritualize them let me show you them in Isaiah 29 interestingly nearly all of them are taken from Isaiah Isaiah 29 verses 18 and 19 in that day the Deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness the humble or the poor also shall increase they join the Lord and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel you could read that and think that's a beautiful spiritual picture but Jesus said on the contrary it's exactly what's happening the deaf are hearing the blind are seeing and the poor and oppressed are having the gospel preached to them it's being fulfilled how tell me literally that's right and then in Isaiah 35 verses 4 & 6 4 through 6 now this is such a beautiful passage but it isn't by any means obvious that it applies to Jesus ministry let's begin at the beginning of the chapter the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing the glory of Lebanon shall be given to it the excellence of Carmel and Sharon they shall see the glory of the Lord the excellence of our gone strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble needs say to those who are fearful hearted be strong and do not fear behold your God will come with vengeance with the recompense of God he will come and save you that last word salvation what's the result of salvation verses five and six then the eyes of the blind shall be opened the ears of the Deaf shall be unstopped then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing for water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert again it would be very easy to say well that's all spiritual but Jesus said on the contrary it's happening exactly the way it's written in my ministry this is the evidence that I am the promised Savior and then one other scripture very familiar one Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1 these are the words that Jesus read out in the synagogue in Nazareth Isaiah chapter 61 verse 1 the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim Liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound so jesus said there you are I'm preaching the gospel to the poor that's the fulfillment my point which I trust you can follow is that all those prophecies of healing could easily be Spiritualized but in actual fact Jesus did not spiritualize any of them they were all fulfilled literally in his ministry then we come to the actual sufferings of Jesus his atonement and we know from the New Testament we don't need to look particularly at any one passage that they took him mistreated him spat in his face hit him on the cheeks and then he was flogged across the back just as part of it now a picture this is predicted in Isaiah chapter 50 verses five and six Isaiah 55 or 6 the Lord gone has opened my ear and I was not rebellious nor did I turn away I gave my back to those who struck me and my cheeks to those who plucked out the beard I did not hide my face from shame and spitting notice that Jesus gave his back to those who flogged him he didn't resist he could have but he didn't that was exactly and literally fulfilled they literally flogged him they literally struck him on the face they literally pulled the beard from his cheeks they literally spat on him horribly literal I think you'd agree nothing spiritual about any of them and then we come to the crucifixion and I think we all can picture his hands and his feet being pierced and we have two prophecies from Psalm 22 both of which go very closely together Psalm 22 and verses 16 and 18 you need to know something which we don't have time to go into detail but Peter says in his first epistle the spirit of the Messiah was in the Old Testament prophets this means that many times they spoke in the first person about things that never happened to them but we're fulfilled in the Messiah so that Holy Spirit in spoken the person of the Messiah out of the prophets and this the says puzzle the prophets because they couldn't understand what they were saying I mean think even if the passage we read from Isaiah Isaiah says I gave my back to the smiles of my cheeks to those who plucked out the hat never happened to Isaiah but it happened to Jesus this was the spirit of the Messiah in the prophets speaking in the first person of things that were to happen to the Messiah but never happened to the Prophet and so in Psalm 22 it's David and he says all sorts of things in Psalm 22 you need to read the whole read the whole Sun which never happened to David but they all happen to Jesus well this is what technically we call a messianic Sun in other words it's a revelation of the Messiah in the sons you see the interesting thing is if you read the New Testament it doesn't give you any insight into the inner experiences of Jesus in fact it is extraordinarily brief all they on it says is they crucified Him it doesn't tell you what went on in his heart and mind but if you can read the Old Testament with understanding and turn to these messianic passages there's a great revelation of what actually went on inside in Jesus while he was suffering so let's just look at two passages in Psalm 22 verse 16 for dogs have surrounded me the Assembly of the wicked has enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet was that literal tell me very literal one did horribly literal and then it says in verse 18 they divided my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots did that really happen was it literally so it's interesting because according to the culture of the day a man normally had four basic diamonds there were four soldiers at the foot of the cross so each soldier took one gun but then Jesus had the seamless robe and they said it's a pity to tear this up into four pieces let's cause lots for him so you see how exact that scripture is they divided his clothing but they cast lots for his seamless room the more you study Old Testament prophecy the more exact you found it to be and then in Isaiah 53 which is the great picture of the atonement of Jesus the suffering servant of the Lord it says in Isaiah 53 verses 8 and 9 he was taken from prison and from judgment and who should declare his generation for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people he was stricken cut off out of the land of living means he was put to death was that fulfilled was and notice the next this is a remarkable example they made his grave with the wicked but with the rich in his death now you can't get it in the English but wicked in the Hebrew is in the plural rich is in the singular so he was taken out to burial with the two criminals but he was actually buried in the tomb of one rich man Joseph anima Thea see how totally exact I'd have to say in a sense just from the artistic point of view we ruin the thing if we ever try to make it spiritual apart from the spiritual significance my whole inner aesthetic sense of literature revolts at changing one is so beautiful and so perfect and making it effect meaningless because once you start to spiritualize things there's really no limit to what you can do I mean I'm good at that I could I could make ten spiritual applications to some of these prophecies and if I talk long enough I'd sound very convincing but God forbid that I should do it all right what about the fact that he rose on the third day Paul says he rose on the third day according to the scriptures now the scriptures at that time were not the New Testament but simply the old where does it say the Old Testament he was going to rise on the third day a lot of you don't know well let me show you hosea chapter 6 verses wanted to come and let us return to the Lord for he is torn but he will heal us he has straight him but he will bind us up after two days he will revive us bring us back to life and on the third day he will raise us up notice it's us not just him why because in the purpose of God we are to be identified with Jesus he died our death and when he rose we rose with him we are identified with him in death burial and resurrection so you see the perfection of Old Testament prophecy not merely does it reveal he rose on the third day but it reveals the real essence of the gospel is that we rose in him can you see that if you can because if you do you get excited so I want to say to you on the basis of this brief analysis there is absolutely no authority or pattern in the New Testament for interpreting Old Testament prophecies in any but a literal sense so if that's not the way they be interpreted we have no scriptural pattern at all for how to interpret prophecy personally I believe the New Testament is the scriptural pattern and it's testimony is absolutely totally in favor of interpreting prophecy the way it's written now let me just take a few other thoughts about the nature of New Testament prophecy turning to Deuteronomy 18 for a moment here is a promise given through Moses of the coming of Jesus as the ultimate prophet we need to bear in mind that Jesus is not merely a savior and a shepherd and a king and a redeemer but is also a prophet and we don't have a complete picture of Jesus if we don't see him as a prophet in fact he wants the greatest of all the Hebrew prophets and this is what Moses saying God said through Moses Deuteronomy 18 verses 18 and 19 I will raise up for them that's Israel a prophet like you that's Moses a prophet like you Moses from among their brethren and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him he was a unique prophet because everything he said was from the Lord the other prophets were fallible some of what they said was from the Lord some was just their own words and it shall be that whoever will not hear my words which he speaks in my name I will require it on him so for those who refuse to listen to the prophetic Ministry of Jesus God says I'm going to require it I'm going to demand an explanation of why they slighted my prophet why they ignored his words and Peter quote assists in Acts chapter 3 speaking to the Jewish people in his language is even more severe in Acts chapter 3 verses 22 and 23 he's speaking and quoting Deuteronomy 18 for Moses truly said to the fathers the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren him you shall hear in all things whatever he says to you now listen and it shall come to pass that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people brothers and sisters if we refuse to hear the prophetic Ministry of Jesus we are in serious trouble God says on that account we can be utterly destroyed from among the people you see if God sends a prophet and we ignore him what are we doing we're ignoring God well brothers and sisters we ignore God peril it's not safe to ignore God now another fact about old has about prophecies the Bible is it's a unique characteristic of the Word of God it's a unique mark of the one true God that he accurately predicts the future and no other world religion has anything that compares with Biblical prophecy if we don't understand Biblical prophecy and affirm its truth we've lost one of the strongest arguments in favor of the Bible Islam has nothing Buddhism has nothing Hinduism has nothing Shintoism has nothing only the Bible contains predictions made thousands of years before they happened that were exactly fulfilled let me quickly read to you some passages from Amazon Isaiah chapter 41 Isaiah 41 verses 21 through 24 the Lord is speaking to people who worship idols he says present your case says the Lord bring forth your strong reason since the king of Jabin jacob let them bring forth and show us what will happen let them show the former things what they were that we may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare to us things to come tell us either the past or the future and we listen to you show us things that are to come here after that we may know that you are gone yes do good or do evil that we may be dismayed and see it all together what God is saying is that they can't predict the future and they can't tell you the past ignore them they're contemptible and then in Isaiah 42 verse 9 behold the former things have come to pass and new things I declare before they spring forth I tell you on that's a mark of the God of the Bible he tells us what's going to happen before it happens and then in Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10 remember the former things of old for I am God and there is no other I am God and there is none like me in what way declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure so it's a unique feature of the God of the Bible that he declares both the past and the future and he says if I can accurately declare the future hundreds of years before it happens that's sufficient evidence that what I say is going to happen see we are totally depriving ourselves for one of the strongest arguments for our faith if we ignore Biblical prophecy and then in Deuteronomy 29 verse 29 there's a little comment where Moses says the secret things belong to the Lord our God but the things that are revealed belong to and to our children that we may do them shall I tell you the problem with many people that make a mess of interpreting prophecy their meddling with the secret things they're trying to find out things God hasn't revealed and they are not obeying the things that God has revealed I don't want to pry into God's secrets but I want to

Channel: Derek Prince

Views: 70,426

Rating: 4.8681316 out of 5

Keywords: and the end shall come, and then the end shall come derek prince, and then the end shall come, derek prince sermons, bible study about end times, bible study about prophetic times, bible study on prophecies, bible study on prophetic times, how to face the last days without fear, perilous times will come, prophetic preaching sermons, sermon about end times, sermon about prophetic times, sermon on biblical prophecy, sermon on the day of the lord, Sermon on the day of the lord is near

Id: DlZsVLUN6TY

Length: 58min 41sec (3521 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 05 2012