Mark, chapter 9, verse 1, the Bible reads,
and he said unto them, verily I say unto you
that there be some of them that stand here which shall not
taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God
come with power.
Now keep your finger here and go to Matthew, chapter number 16,
the very end of Matthew, chapter 16.
And we'll see the same statement from the book of Matthew
in chapter 16, verse 28, where the Bible reads,
verily I say unto you, there be some standing here,
this is Matthew 16, 28, which shall not taste of death,
till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Now what's interesting is that the way it's broken out
in Matthew, chapter 16, it's at the very end of a chapter.
And when we look at it in Mark, chapter 9,
it's the first verse in the chapter
when that exact same statement is made.
But if you notice in Mark 9, 1, it
starts with the word and.
And he said unto them.
Well, who are the them?
So you have to get the context back in chapter 8.
And if you look at verse 34 of chapter 8 in Mark, it says,
and when he had called the people unto him
with his disciples also, he said unto them,
whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me.
And he's talking to the people at large,
not just talking to the disciples,
but he's talking to all the people.
And he makes this statement that there
be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death
till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.
Now if you were in that crowd of people
that were standing there hearing that,
the way you're probably going to interpret that
is that the second coming of Christ
is going to happen in our lifetime.
Isn't that what you'd probably think?
If you're standing there and Jesus says,
some people that are standing here in this group
will not taste death till they've seen the Son of Man
coming in his kingdom, you would probably
think that that were a reference to the fact
that some people are older than others.
And maybe the older people in the crowd,
they're not going to see it in their lifetime.
But you know, some of the people there,
maybe some of the younger people,
would see it in their lifetime.
Also in Matthew 24, Mark 13, there's
the statement about this generation shall not
pass away till all these things be fulfilled.
And some people will look at this scripture
and look at that scripture and point this out
as one of the greatest contradictions in the Bible.
A lot of atheists will turn to this and say, hey, you know,
Jesus promised that the second coming would
happen in their lifetime and in their generation
and it just didn't happen.
So there you go.
It proves that it was false.
But actually, that's not what this is saying at all.
Because of the fact that remember,
when Jesus is talking to the big crowds,
he never really tells them exactly what he means.
He'll give them the parable of the sower
and they all walk away scratching their heads.
Then he would take the disciples aside and explain to them
what the parable of the sower meant.
And you might look at that and say, why would Jesus do that?
Why did Jesus not just clearly preach the word
unto the crowds?
But the disciples thought the same thing.
And that's why the disciples even came to him and said,
why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Why do you tell us everything?
Why do you explain everything unto us?
But then unto the crowds of multitudes,
you speak in parables.
Why?
And he said, unto you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,
but to them it is not given.
That hearing they might hear and not understand.
Jesus knew that many of the people
in these great multitudes and crowds were very insincere.
They were not really on board with the Lord Jesus.
They did not really even believe in him.
They are just there because people
do things that are trendy.
You know, when there's a big crowd of people going,
a lot of people will just kind of jump on that bandwagon.
It doesn't mean that in their heart
they actually believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because some of the same people that are yelling,
blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord on Palm Sunday
are going to be a few days later yelling, crucify him.
Because that's how crowds and masses of people are.
They're manipulated by other people.
And so Jesus, for some reason, and we may not even
fully understand why, but when Jesus
is talking to the crowds, when he's talking to the multitudes,
when he talks to unsaved people, he often
would talk to them in a cryptic way using
parables and dark sayings that would cause them to not
understand and to be misled.
Just like the rich young ruler.
He talks to the rich young ruler.
And the rich young ruler goes away confused
and doesn't understand it.
And I think part of what that shows
us is God is showing us that the word of God
can only be understood by those who believe,
by those who are saved.
People that believe, people that are saved,
are going to be able to understand the Bible.
An unsaved man, think about it, run into unsaved people
at soul wedding.
And they're like, oh man, when I was in prison,
I read through the Bible cover to cover five times.
But do you know for sure you're going to heaven?
No.
And they don't understand it.
They don't understand the gospel.
Because if you're not saved, you could read the Bible over
and over again.
You're never going to understand it.
Because the natural man receiveth not the things
of the spirit of God, for their foolishness unto him,
neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
That's why we have to go out and preach the gospel to people
and explain it to people and expound to them
a clear presentation of the gospel.
Because them just reading the Bible on their own,
they're not going to get it.
But Jesus, for some reason when he was on this earth,
whether we fully understand it or not,
it's a fact that many of the things
that he says in the gospels are cryptic, are parables,
and do not give a clear statement to the people that
are listening.
But to his disciples, he would speak clearly and explain
all things to them.
Now, just to show you what's actually being said here,
he makes this statement to the crowd.
Hey, there be some standing here which will not taste death,
till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Here, it's worded a little different.
It says in verse 1 there at the end,
till they've seen the kingdom of God coming with power.
But remember, it's the same thing
as when he said in Matthew, they'll
see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.
Look at the next verse.
And after six days, Jesus taketh with him Peter and James
and John, and leadeth them up into a high mountain
apart by themselves.
And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow,
so as no fuller on earth can white them.
And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses,
and they were talking with Jesus.
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, master,
it is good for us to be here.
Let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses,
and one for Elias.
For he wished not what to say, for they were sore afraid.
And there was a cloud that overshadowed them,
and a voice came out of the cloud saying,
this is my beloved son.
Hear him.
Now, this event is known as the transfiguration,
because in the other gospel where it shows it,
it says he was transfigured before them.
And his raiment became white and bright.
It was such an amazing sight that Peter is scared and afraid
and saying things that don't really
make sense because he's just so terrified by what he sees.
So when Jesus said, there be some standing here
which shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming
in his kingdom, this is what he's referring to.
He's not saying, oh, those of you that are young enough
will still be alive when it happens.
What he's actually saying is that only some of them
are going to see that sight.
And the some that he was referring to
are Peter, James, and John.
And it's like this in all the gospels, where
he makes the statement, there be some of them standing here
that will not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming
in his kingdom, or something similar,
always in the next breath it's the transfiguration.
Why?
Because that's what he's talking about.
He's saying that they're going to basically see Jesus
Christ coming in his kingdom.
So what they see is a foreshadowing, or a sneak
preview, of Jesus Christ coming in his glorified state.
Because when he's transfigured, they
get to see what he's going to look like at the second coming.
Because at the second coming, the Bible
tells us that his face is going to be bright white,
like the sun, and people are going to be terrified,
and so forth.
And so they got to see that image of Jesus Christ coming
in his kingdom.
But can't you see how the multitude
would have misunderstood that?
And even today, atheists are misunderstanding it
and saying, oh, there you go.
That proves the Bible isn't true.
But once you realize that and you read it,
it's obvious that that's what he's actually referring to,
that they're going to see the coming Christ glowing
like the sun, and so forth.
Now another thing that's interesting about this
is that when he's coming, he has Moses and Elijah with him.
And this is where the doctrine comes
from that says that the two witnesses of Revelation
are Moses and Elijah.
And I personally believe that the two witnesses of Revelation
are Moses and Elijah.
They're not named as such in Revelation,
but this is a pretty strong evidence right here
that if they see Christ coming in his kingdom,
and who does he have with them, Moses and Elijah,
it makes sense that Moses and Elijah would be the two
witnesses of Revelation.
Also, the two witnesses in Revelation 11
do a lot of the same miracles that Moses and Elijah did.
They call down fire from heaven.
They stop it from raining.
They turn water into blood.
It's the same miracles that Moses and Elijah
did in the Old Testament.
So that's what this is actually referring to here.
Now while we're on the subject of Elijah,
they ask a question in verse 11.
They asked him saying, and this is the disciples,
why say the scribes that Elias must first come?
So they see Elijah and Moses with Jesus,
and that makes them think about the fact
that before the day of the Lord comes, Elijah must first come.
And so they say, why say the scribes
that Elias must first come?
And he answered and told them, Elias verily cometh first,
and restoreth all things, and how
it is written of the Son of Man that he must suffer many things
and beset it not.
But I say unto you that Elias is indeed come,
and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed
as it is written of him.
Now here it doesn't explain it, but in other places
like in Matthew, it says that they then
understood that he spake of John the Baptist.
When he said that Elijah was already come,
he was talking about John the Baptist.
Now flip over to Malachi chapter 4.
Stay in Mark 9, but the last book of the Old Testament
is Malachi.
Malachi chapter 4.
Because of course, Jesus Christ said of John the Baptist,
there have not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
And he said, and if you will receive it,
this is Elias which was for to come.
Now there's a place where it says that Jesus,
or I'm sorry, that John the Baptist would come
in the spirit and power of Elijah.
He would come in the spirit of Elijah.
Now people came to him and asked him, art thou Elias?
And he answered, I am not, in John chapter 1.
Jesus said, this is Elias which was for to come.
Here he says, Elias truly cometh first and restoreth
all things, but I say unto you that Elias has come already.
And they understood that he spake of John the Baptist.
Now let's look at the passage in Malachi chapter 4, verse 5.
And it's interesting that these are the last two
verses in the Old Testament.
That's not a coincidence.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest they come and smite the earth with a curse.
So interestingly, the Old Testament
concludes with a prophecy of John the Baptist.
And then you turn the page into Matthew, and what do you see?
Right away in chapter 3, you see John the Baptist
coming on the scene.
And there's nothing in between Malachi and the New Testament.
There aren't any other prophets that came and spake
of the word of the Lord.
There was a period of silence, where there was not
a prophet that is preaching God's word, being directly
divinely inspired during that time.
And so it's fitting that it would end Malachi,
the last prophet of the Old Testament,
not just the way that it is in your Bible,
but chronologically, Malachi is the latest book.
OK.
So then after Malachi, and by the way,
let me just explain this to you, because a lot of people,
for some reason, don't understand this.
And in fact, a lot of people will teach something contrary
to this, but the prophecy books in the Old Testament
are in chronological order, just so you know.
Now, the major prophets are in chronological order
within that group, which is Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
Those books are in chronological order.
But also, the 12 minor prophets are in chronological order.
Hosea, Joel, Amos, those are the earliest prophets,
and it does go in a chronological order
through the 12 prophets.
So Malachi is rightfully the last book, the last prophet
of the Old Testament, prophesying
the coming of John the Baptist.
Now, people will sometimes debate or discuss,
was John the Baptist literally Elijah,
or did he just come in the spirit of Elijah?
Is he just representative of Elijah?
Does he symbolize Elijah?
And honestly, I think that both viewpoints
are valid viewpoints.
I think it's hard to dogmatically say one or the other,
but I think that there's a lot of evidence for both.
The evidence on the side of him literally being Elijah
is the fact that he was filled with the Holy Ghost,
even from his mother's womb, which is interesting.
Not only that, but Jesus said, this is Elijah,
so if you're gonna take that literally.
And then the evidence against would be,
well, John the Baptist himself said,
when they asked him, art thou Elias, I'm not.
But honestly, that's not necessarily conclusive
because that's just John the Baptist saying, I'm not.
That doesn't necessarily, maybe he just doesn't know
that he is, you know, we don't know.
So either way, I don't think it's really important.
Either way, this scripture was fulfilled
with John the Baptist.
I mean, that's the important thing that the Bible teaches,
is that this prophecy at the end of Malachi
is a prophecy of John the Baptist.
Whether he was literally John the Baptist,
or Elias come back, or whether it was just symbolic
and that he symbolized and was in the spirit of Elias,
I think either one is valid.
It's hard to say for sure.
We'll find out when we get to heaven.
But what's interesting is that if Elias first comes
before the coming of Christ, and Jesus says,
well, he's come already because of the fact
that we have John the Baptist,
the forerunner of Jesus Christ,
it would be interesting then,
if one of the two witnesses is Elijah,
if it is Moses and Elijah,
then that would be an Elijah coming also
right before the second coming of Christ as well.
Which makes sense because there are a lot of parallels
between the first coming of Christ
and the second coming of Christ,
and a ton of parallels.
A lot of things are very similar in both cases.
So it would make sense that there's a John the Baptist
that comes just shortly before Jesus Christ
comes on the scene,
and then that there would be a John the Baptist
that would come, an Elijah that would come
right before the second coming of Christ.
And in fact, if you look at the timeline,
see if you're pre-trib, this kind of falls apart for you.
Because if you think about it,
it says in Malachi four, five, and six,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming
of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
Now, the great and dreadful day of the Lord
is something that we would associate
with the second coming of Christ, would we not?
I mean, if we read the great and dreadful day of the Lord,
we're not thinking of Jesus Christ coming the first time,
we'd be thinking of the second time
when the sun and moon will be darkened,
and when Jesus Christ will come in the clouds
and the trumpet will sound.
That's referred to as the day of the Lord.
It also says that the sun shall be turning to darkness
and the moon into blood
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come,
Joel chapter two.
That's quoted in Acts chapter two.
Also, we have that again in 2 Peter chapter three,
talking about the day of the Lord.
1 Thessalonians five talks about the day of the Lord
in connection with the rapture, okay?
So it makes sense that Elijah would come
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
So if we're going with our theory of Moses and Elijah
being the two witnesses of Revelation 11,
which I believe, if you get the timeline,
they come on the scene right at the time
of the abomination of desolation.
They come right in the middle of Daniel's 70th week,
and they prophesy 1,203 score days clothed in sackcloth.
That would be the second half of Daniel's 70th week,
which according to the chart that I've put together
based on scripture,
and when I preached the whole thing through Revelation
and proved it all scripturally,
why I believe that that is the accurate timeline.
If you look at the chart that we have of Daniel's 70th week
that brother Richard Miller helped me put together,
if you look at that chart,
you'll see that Moses and Elijah basically
would come on the scene two and a half months
before the second coming of Christ,
before Jesus Christ would come in the clouds
and the trumpet would sound,
which would make sense because that's very similar
to what happened the first time, right?
A few months before Jesus' ministry,
John the Baptist begins preaching.
So you'd see a parallel there of what's gonna be happening.
So that's just some things to think about.
I don't wanna go too deeply into that
just because Mark chapter nine is such a big chapter
and there's so many other things to talk about.
I don't wanna make a big Bible prophecy sermon out of this.
Plus, I've preached so much on Bible prophecy
when I did that Revelation series.
I'm like, I never wanna preach on it again.
Here, just watch this DVD.
I already preached it.
I preached the whole book of Revelation, verse by verse.
So I went through all that, but it's interesting.
But this is just a good thing to understand though
because you will have atheists
and people try to throw this at you as a contradiction.
I mean, I've definitely had people come at me with this.
Hey, it didn't happen in a lifetime.
And then when you go to Matthew 24
and he talks about this generation not passing away,
he's talking about the generation
that sees these things begin to come to pass,
that generation will not pass away
until all of the things have been fulfilled.
And the reason that statement is important
is to show us that the events of Matthew 24
are not stretching out over hundreds of years
and thousands of years.
They're actually events that will all happen
in one generation of the end times, of the last days.
It's all gonna play out.
Boom, boom, boom, you know, in sequence.
Because some people will try to stretch Revelation out
over thousands of years and say it's symbolic.
Or, you know, the 1,260 days are really 1,260 years,
you know, and they'll drag things out.
And that's not an accurate interpretation.
It is all going to happen in succession in one generation
that will see all these.
And we might be living in that generation.
The way we see technology, I mean,
it definitely is like it was in the days of Lot,
you know, today in the United States of America,
with all the sodomy and all the garbage that's going on.
We see the technology of a cashless society.
We could be living in the last days.
We could be living in the final generation.
And I do wanna just quickly say this
before I get off Bible prophecy,
is that a lot of people are always asking like,
you know, do you think that we're in the tribulation
right now or has it already started
or have any of the seals been opened
or have we even gotten into it?
But let me tell you something.
Because I wanna set people's mind at ease
and I also want people to understand things
if they do happen in our lifetime
or to understand that it's not happening.
And so many people are confused and in the dark.
It's really not that complicated,
but you have to, you know, study the Bible
and read Revelation.
And obviously the first thing that happens
are the seven seals are open.
I mean, that's the first thing that comes at you
in Revelation when you start seeing the end time stuff.
And if you look at the seals being open,
okay, the first seal that's open.
And also Matthew 24 follows this exact order.
Mark 13 follows the exact order of Revelation 6.
When you look at the seals being opened in Matthew 24,
and I want you to pay close attention
to what I say right now.
In Revelation 6 when the seals are open,
the first seal, it talks about a guy on a white horse
who has a crown given unto him
and he goes forth conquering and to conquer,
which that is the anti-Christ.
But then the second seal, it says there went on
another horse that was red and power was given to him
that sat there on to take peace from the earth.
And there was given unto him a great sword.
So if we actually look at what the Bible says,
just right there in front of our face,
the first thing that we see is a guy going out to conquer
and then when the second seal is open,
peace is taken from the earth
and everybody's killing each other.
So what does that mean?
The first thing you're gonna see is world war.
There's gonna be a world,
now we could say world war three,
hopefully there aren't a few more world wars in between.
And hopefully it's not world war four
or world war five or world war six.
But let's say this is the next thing to happen,
it would be world war three.
So unless you see a world war taking place,
we're not into Daniel's 70th week.
We can't be into the end time.
We can't be into the tribulation at all
because that's the first step.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
The first thing you see is not gonna be an Ebola outbreak.
It's not gonna be like, oh Ebola breaks out
and we know it's starting.
Now look, I'm not saying that Ebola
is not gonna break out in America.
I don't know, maybe it will, maybe it won't.
There have been great plagues
that have wiped out huge populations.
The Black Plague, also known as the Bubonic Plague,
in the 13th, 14th century wiped out
one third of the population in Europe.
I mean one out of three people, dead in Europe.
Wiped out huge portions of China's population.
But was that the end times?
No, it wasn't.
So there can be great catastrophes and horrific events
that take place on this earth.
But unless you see the world at war,
then it cannot be the end.
Because the first thing he says is wars and rumors of wars
and then he talks about in Revelation
that peace is going to be taken from the earth
and there's gonna be a great sword
and people are gonna be killed.
And then that's what leads us into the other events.
Because if you think about it,
where did the League of Nations come from?
World War I.
Where did the United Nations come from?
Result of World War II.
So what's gonna be the result of World War III?
Well we know the United Nations has a lot more power
than the League of Nations had.
And so what's gonna come out of World War III?
An even stronger world government, world governing body.
And there have been all kinds of predictions
about three world wars going back to the 1800s.
Albert Pike and different people that talked about
the fact that there are gonna be three world wars
and how it's gonna play out.
And they even said in 1871, a document that says
exactly what World War I was gonna be fought over,
World War II is gonna be fought over,
and they were right.
And you know what they said?
World War III was gonna be fought
between Islam and the West.
So it sounds pretty believable to me.
It sounds pretty realistic.
So we don't know how it's all gonna play out.
We shouldn't pretend to know.
But I will say this, unless you see World War,
we're not into it.
So no, it has not started.
We're not already into it right now.
Just to set your mind at ease.
Okay, and then what do you see next?
You know, after the warfare, you're gonna see
people having food shortages, which makes sense
because look at World War II,
all the people who had food shortages because of war.
You know, cutting off all the supply lines and things.
So you see great high prices of food.
Then the fourth seal, you see people dying
of all manner of other things.
That's where you'd probably see a lot of pestilence
and disease and other ways that people are dying.
And then the fifth seal is the persecution of believers,
where basically Christians are being slaughtered
and killed for the cause of Christ.
And then the sixth seal, you know,
is where we are rescued because the Lord Jesus Christ
comes in the clouds, et cetera, et cetera.
Don't have time to preach all that tonight,
but I just thought it'd be worthwhile
to take the time to explain to you
that until you see World War,
you can't even think this might be it.
Now if World War III happens,
that still doesn't mean for sure
that it's the end of the world,
because it wasn't the end of the world
when World War II happened.
So when World War III happens,
then you watch for the other signs.
And the major signs that you're going to watch for
are of course going to be the temple
to be rebuilt in Jerusalem.
And then of course ultimately the abomination of desolation,
the Antichrist being revealed, the man of sin revealed,
where a man basically is claiming to be the Messiah.
When you see the Jews embracing someone as their Messiah,
and then you see Islam accepting that same person,
and he's going to be coming in the name of Jesus
so that the Christians that are not saved,
the apostate Christians, the fake Christians,
are going to be proclaiming him
as the second coming of Jesus Christ.
When you see that man on the scene,
and you see the temple,
and then you see the two witnesses show up,
that's when you know for sure this is about to happen.
You're at the very end at that point.
But what's the first step?
What's the first thing?
And if you don't see that, you're not there.
You say, well, there's war all the time.
There's constant war.
Yeah, but I wouldn't say that peace is just totally taken
from the earth right now.
When you see that, it's World War.
It's World War III, or IV, or V, or VI, or VII.
But hopefully it's number three.
Even so, come Lord Jesus.
So anyway, I got to get off that.
Spending too much time on that.
So we covered.
I'll set aside another night to cover this.
Or I'll just hand you the DVD and call it good.
Just kidding.
So let's just jump into this in verse 14.
It says, and when he came to his disciples,
he saw a great multitude about them,
and the scribes questioning with them.
And straightway, all the people, when they beheld him,
were greatly amazed, and running to him, saluted him.
And he asked the scribes, what questioned you with them?
And one of the multitude answered and said, Master,
I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit.
And wheresoever he taketh him, he tareth him.
And he fometh, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away.
And I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out,
and they could not.
He answered him, and saith, O faithless generation,
how long shall I be with you?
How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me.
And they brought him unto him.
And when he saw him straightway, the spirit tear him.
And he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming.
Now this is the first Pentecostal service
in the Bible.
The charismatic church, you know where they roll on the ground?
They're foaming and everything.
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, I will say this, that I
believe that the so-called charismatic movement today,
much of it is demonic.
It is demonic.
You know, when you see people falling on the ground
and rolling around and, ugh, you know,
the only time you see that in the Bible is when it's demonic.
I don't see Jesus Christ laying hands on people and them
going like, ugh.
I mean, when do you read that in the Bible?
Peter, James, and John laying hands on people,
and they're slain in the spirit, falling over,
and you know, ugh, or the autistic.
You know, and isn't it funny that the Jews do
that weird autistic thing, right, ugh,
you know, at the Wailing Wall?
And then notice, charismatics do that same thing.
It's of Satan.
This is not normal.
Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh.
You know what?
And it gives Christianity a bad name,
because the world sees that and says, you know,
these people are freaks.
These people are nuts, because they are nuts.
And people like Todd Bentley, people like Benny Hinn
that do this kind of stuff, where they're slapping people
on the forehead, and they're falling over and flopping
around, and look, it's weird.
And you say, oh, well, it's all fake.
It's all a show.
I've been to one tongue speaking, quote, unquote.
And again, this needs a whole sermon, too, right?
Just on the tongues and the charismatic movement.
But I've been to one service where they did this,
and it freaked me out.
And I'd never seen it before in real life,
and I didn't know that this church was like that.
And I saw a girl doing it, and it didn't look fake to me.
This girl looked like she was not in the driver's seat.
And I'm not joking.
I'm dead serious.
I was ready to call 911, because I didn't
know that this is what they do, because she was the first one
who started doing it.
The service had been going on for over an hour.
No one was doing this.
All of a sudden, this girl starts going, uh, uh, uh.
And I thought she was having a seizure.
I thought it was epilepsy, because literally,
like less than a week or two before,
a girl had come into the roundtable pizza
where I worked and fell on the ground
and had an epileptic fit.
And so I thought, oh, this is the same thing.
And I called 911 at roundtable when that girl did that.
I don't know what to do.
So I was ready to call 911 at this service.
And I'm looking at this girl.
I'm like, is she OK?
And somebody else came over and put their arm around her.
It was like patting her.
And they're like, uh, uh, uh.
I was like, what in the world is going on?
But then, OK, so she's the only one doing it,
and there were hundreds of people there.
And I kept waiting for the sermon to start,
because I'm sitting in this service.
This is when I was a teenager.
I'm waiting for the preaching.
It's just song after song after song after song.
So the preaching never came.
Now, they would talk for like 60 to 90 seconds between songs,
but I still thought we were in the song service.
I still thought there was going to be
a sermon that would happen.
The sermon never happened.
So finally, we went straight from all the music
to the invitation.
And this girl was the only one doing that.
But then the guy that was running the show,
he got up and said, a few minutes after she
started doing that, and I figured, I guess she's OK.
Somebody else is taking care of it.
He comes up and he says, listen, the altars are open.
We're going to have an altar call.
And he said, if you need to get right with God,
come on down the aisle.
And he said, maybe there are some of you
here that just haven't spoken in tongues in a while.
Come up here and speak in tongues.
And when he said that, it was like the floodgates opened.
Now, there were just scores of people, just whoa.
It was like, whoa.
So then I figured out that that was what
was going on with that girl.
But I did not know what was going on with that girl
until the guy said, hey, if you haven't spoken
in tongues in a while, come on up to the front here.
And then I was like, oh man, that's what this is.
And then it was just like everywhere.
Everybody was just freaking out.
So then I just got up and just left.
I just walked out.
And I sat outside the building waiting for my ride.
And I just kept just hearing all the madness going on.
I could hear it from outside.
I was like, what kind of a church did I go to?
Because somebody had told me, oh, you
need to go check out this church and blah, blah.
And they told me that it was something completely different.
And then I got there.
And it wasn't what I expected it to be at all.
So anyway, that was my experience.
That girl did not look like she was in the driver's seat.
She didn't look like she was playing games.
I mean, I think that people are literally demon possessed
when they start doing stuff like that, where they just.
And I talked to a guy.
One time I was giving the gospel to this guy at my work
when I worked for an alarm company.
And I'm talking to the guy.
And he was at first kind of resistant to the gospel.
I was trying to tell him that you cannot lose your salvation
because Jesus Christ died for all of our sins.
And all we have to do is believe in him.
And he gives us eternal life.
And he'll never leave us nor forsake us.
And we're sealed unto the day of redemption and all this.
And he was just kind of resisting me.
Like, oh, no, no, no, you can lose it.
And trying to explain to me all the reasons
why you could lose it.
But then after I kept talking to him about it,
he started to soften up to the gospel a little bit.
And he started to be receptive and interested in it.
And he told me that he used to be a youth pastor
at a Pentecostal church, the charismatic, the holy roller
church, or whatever you want to call it.
And he told me, he said, I went down there
and spoke in tongues before.
But he said, you know, that's part of why I got out of it
is because there was a lot of stuff
that seemed weird about it.
And that's why I'm out of church right now and everything.
And he was starting to think that maybe he
was starting to understand that they were wrong
and that what I was saying was true about how
salvation is just a gift, just believe in Christ,
it's eternal life.
And I said, well, what happened when you spoke in tongues?
What was it like?
And he said, I went down there.
And he said, literally, that it was like he just blanked out.
And I'm not saying this is authoritative.
This is just one guy's experience that told me this.
He said, he basically just blanked out
and didn't remember anything.
And when he came back to consciousness,
they were like, oh, you spoke in tongues.
You did all this.
And you said all this.
And he was just kind of like, OK.
But he had no recollection.
That's pretty weird.
And that's not what you see in the Bible.
Because even in 1 Corinthians, what is it, chapter 14,
where he's talking about this subject,
he says flat out that people shouldn't
be interrupting each other and talking at the same time
during church.
One person should be speaking at a time, the Bible says.
And you shouldn't have multiple people speaking at the same
time.
You shouldn't be speaking in a foreign language
that other people don't understand.
He's explaining how to have all things be done decently
and in order in 1 Corinthians 14.
And he flat out says there that if one person's talking,
the other person should hold their peace.
He says, because the spirit of the prophets
is subject unto the prophets.
Now think about that statement.
Because the spirit of the prophets
is subject unto the prophets.
You know what that means is that the prophets have
control over themselves.
It's not just God taking over, and they just
are talking, and they can't stop.
And everybody, 20 people are doing it at the same time.
And they're all just out of control.
No, you're never just out of control.
See, being filled with the Holy Spirit
is different than being demon possessed.
Because when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you know what?
You still have control over your mouth and your body
and what you're saying.
Yes, you do.
Because being filled with the Holy Spirit is a voluntary act.
It's not that the Holy Spirit just takes over your body
and just talks for you.
And sometimes people almost make it sound that way,
because they get real dramatic when they're talking
about being filled with the Spirit.
Just take me out of the way, Lord.
Just take control, Lord.
Just control me.
But sorry, not going to happen, not biblical.
The spirit of the prophets is subject unto the prophets.
And the men of God who spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost, look,
the Holy Ghost moved them, they spake.
He did not just take over their body
and speak using their mouth and body,
literally controlling them like a puppet or a robot.
But here's the thing.
With people that are demon possessed, though,
it is a situation where the devil
will take over their body.
And that's why they'll speak with other voices that are not
even their own voice.
Or they'll speak in another language that's
not their own language.
Oh, they're speaking with other tongues.
No.
It's deception, because the devil counterfeits everything
that's real.
So yes, there is a real miracle in the Bible
where people would speak a foreign language
that they did not know.
But when they did that miracle in Acts chapter 2,
they actually spoke it to people that
needed to hear the word of God in that language.
So it was a soul winning tool.
It was like you have people that are from a foreign country,
and they're hearing the word of God in their own tongue,
because God miraculously allowed someone
to be able to speak that foreign language.
But when you see this counterfeit charismatic movement
of the Todd Bentleys, the Benny Hands, the Holy Rollers,
the Foursquare Church, the whatever,
the charismatic church, when you see them doing it,
it's confusion.
It's people that are out of control.
Their spirit is not subject unto them.
And they are not in the driver's seat.
And they're speaking in languages
to people that already speak English.
And then they're just busting out in some,
doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.
And there's no point.
It's nothing like what you see in the Bible.
So the reason that it's good to point it out at this point
is because Mark is the gospel that
talks the most about people being demon possessed.
Almost every chapter of the book of Mark covers this.
And what do we see when we see people demon possessed?
Well, here we see a guy that falls on the ground,
and he's wallowing.
You know, what does it mean to wallow?
Think about it.
Pigs wallow in the mire, right?
What are they doing?
They're rolling around.
They're flopping around.
And what are these people doing at the charismatic church
and at the Benny Hinn Crusade and at the Todd Bentley Crusade?
What are they doing?
They fall on the ground?
Check.
Wallowing?
Check.
OK.
And then it says foaming.
Yeah, they're probably doing that too.
There's probably some foaming.
What's foaming mean?
Foaming is when basically spit would
begin to accumulate on the outside of your mouth
and kind of bubbling, you know, that little white bubbling
situation on the outside of your mouth.
That would be foaming.
And sometimes when you talk about somebody being really mad,
you say, oh, man, he was really foaming at the mouth, right?
Like a dog would foam at the mouth
because they get all this like, rawr, rawr, rawr, rawr.
You know, there's this foam and spit flying and everything
when people get angry or a dog gets angry.
That's what's going on in this story.
And so if you see people, you know,
if somebody has to take a tissue and wipe
the corner of their mouth when it's over, that is three
strikes and you're out.
You know, fell on the ground, strike one.
Wallowing, strike two.
Foam, you're out.
You know, you're demon-possessed, buddy.
And look, that's what the Bible teaches here.
Funny when people are filled with despair.
Where are people falling on the ground
when they're filled with the spirit in the Bible?
Does anybody not know what I'm talking about, where they
do this slain in the spirit thing?
Come on up here, Brother Matt.
I have to demonstrate this just in case.
I don't like to take anything for granted in church, OK?
Basically, what happens is a Benny Hinn
will come up to people.
And usually, there will be a whole line of people.
And he'll either speak in tongues or say,
you know, haka la gandola.
You know, and he'll go like, wham.
And basically, OK, if we were doing this for real,
he would fall over.
So I'd just go like, pow.
And then go ahead and fall over.
Pow.
No, I'm just saying, yeah, exactly.
But what we forgot, go ahead and sit down.
What we forgot, though, is we've got
to have the people to catch them, right?
Don't they have the people to catch them?
Yeah.
So by the way, Brother Garrett's the expert on this,
if you want to find out more about this at the service.
But anyway, people will fall over.
They'll catch them.
And you know, it's on YouTube, folks.
There's a lot of it on YouTube, unfortunately.
But basically, that's what they do.
But here's what's funny.
Did you know that the Roman Catholic Church actually
does that, too?
They do it, because nowadays, they're
kind of getting away from it as they're more modern.
But my wife, when she was a kid, the priest
slapped her in the face and said, receive the Holy Ghost,
and slapped her in the face.
And she said, now that they're kind of getting more liberal,
kind of watering down, it's just kind of like a light pat.
But she said, back in the day, they'd really just,
receive the Holy Ghost, slap you down.
And they would slap you in the face and tell you to receive.
Now, Jesus just breathed on them,
instead of receive the Holy Ghost.
But you know, it's just funny how
Satan's religions will have similarities like that.
This whole slapping you, and you fall over,
and you're slain in the spirit, and you're wallowing.
It's garbage.
It's unbiblical.
And they'll try to find some obscure verse to back it up.
Oh, well, when Daniel was visited by the angel,
he fell over, or whatever, because he was just so
terrified by this giant angel.
But that's a big stretch, my friend.
We have all this New Testament scripture
about the Holy Spirit's workings,
and we don't see anything like that at all.
So yeah, you're just misinterpreting
some Old Testament passage that was
unique to a certain person.
And the angel didn't slap him on the forehead,
and it wasn't a preacher.
He was confronted with some gigantic angelic creed,
and he just fell over.
Because people pass out when they're scared.
Or people just get nervous, and they get weak,
and they fall over.
Sorry, that was just one isolated incident with Daniel.
And you're just going to line up 1,000 people,
and let's just recreate that.
And I'm telling you, I don't see how any sane person could
watch that and say, this is just like the Book of Acts.
This is the power of God.
This is the New Testament, and so forth.
But there are tens of thousands of people.
I mean, if Benny Hinn came to Phoenix,
he could pack out a stadium easily.
I'm not preaching it's some obscure thing
that a few weird people follow.
No, lots of otherwise ordinary people
tens of thousands of them are following this stuff.
And if Benny Hinn came to town, he could pack out a massive.
I mean, he'd probably pack out the sports arena.
I mean, he has huge crusades, huge crowds.
I mean, probably a lot of people are just showing up just
to see the show.
I'm not saying everybody who shows up believes in it,
but honestly, there are a lot of people who do believe in it.
And so it needs to be exposed for what it is.
It is demonic.
And people say, oh, you're blaspheming the Holy Ghost
if you say that it's demonic.
No, because guess what?
Some things are demonic.
And you say, prove that it's all demonic.
OK, no one who does it, no one teaches the eternal security
of the believer.
Show me one faith healer, slap you down,
wallowing, foaming preacher that will teach you
the eternal security of the believer.
They all teach a false gospel.
So if their gospel doesn't line up with the word of God,
what does that tell you about their miracles,
that they're lying signs and wonders?
Because it has to jive with the Bible, folks.
Yeah, Jesus did miracles.
The apostles did miracles.
But they also stayed with the word of God.
They didn't teach all this false doctrine and heresy.
So we see this guy who's demon possessed.
He falls on the ground.
He wallows.
He's foaming.
And watch this.
This is pretty chilling when you look at verse 21.
They asked his father, how long is it
to go since this came unto him?
And he said, of a child.
Now what does that tell you, that people can be demon
possessed even as a child?
And you could say, oh man, I would never want my child
to be demon possessed.
I mean, isn't that a horrible thought,
to think that your child be demon possessed?
And that's why this father is so distraught.
And he says, of a child, in verse 21,
and oft times it hath cast him into the fire
and into the waters to destroy him.
But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us
and help us.
You know, this shows also that some suicide could
be a result of demonic activity, when
you see people throwing themselves in the water,
throwing themselves in the fire.
Now obviously, there are a lot of suicides
that have nothing to do with this.
But some suicides are obviously caused by this,
if this is what these spirits are doing.
Just like in the earlier chapter 5,
when we saw the demonic spirits cause the swine
to commit suicide.
They all ran off the cliff violently down a steep place
and perished in the waters.
What a waste of a lot of bacon, you know?
Hopefully, the salt water kind of cured it
into the right bacon, but probably not.
So we see this suicidal tendency of those
that are possessed with devils.
And this guy, obviously, he loves his son,
and he's upset about it.
And he says, if thou canst do anything,
halfway through verse 22, if thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us and help us.
Now by saying that, isn't he kind
of doubting Jesus' ability a little bit by saying that?
But you know, if you can do anything.
So that's why Jesus turns it around on him,
and basically is saying, you know,
it's not my ability that's in question here,
because I have all power.
So that's why the guy says, well, if thou canst
do anything, have compassion on us and help us.
Jesus said to him, if thou canst believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth.
So he turns it around and says, well, no, it's actually,
you know, can you believe?
And I love what this guy answers.
This is one of the greatest verses in the Bible.
And straightway, which means immediately,
the father of the child cried out and said with tears,
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief.
And can't you relate to that statement?
I mean, I think everybody can relate to that statement
of having faith, but you know what?
No one's faith is perfect.
We're human.
And a lot of times, people ask the question, well, you know,
how much do I have to believe?
A lot of people doubt their salvation.
And they say, well, you know, I just
don't know if I believed enough.
But honestly, you know what?
God just expects you to just whatever little, measly,
puny faith you have, if you just put it all on Jesus,
you're saved.
Just put it all on Jesus and be saved.
He said you have to believe with all your heart, which
means that you can't believe in Jesus and something else.
Well, you know, I believe in Jesus,
but I kind of believe in Buddhism, too.
And I figure either way, I'm covered.
You know, I'm kind of trying to live up to the Buddhist ideals
just in case so that I can get reincarnated
as the right thing.
You know, or just in case.
Or I'm going to cover myself with just Islam
and Christianity or whatever.
You know, or I'm Judeo-Christian.
You know, I'm going to kind of follow the Torah
and try to do that, go to some synagogues,
call some people rabbi.
But I'm also a messianic.
So I'm believing in Jesus also, and I'm
trying to synthesize the two.
No, you have to put all your faith and trust in Jesus.
Not on your works, not on another religion.
But you say, well, but how much do I have to believe?
I mean, do I just have to just have the perfect faith, just
faith that could move mountains?
No, you don't.
Because if you just believe.
And you know what I've often said,
too, is to the question, how much do you have to believe?
You have to believe it enough to confess it with your mouth.
And I mean, how much faith does that really take?
To just bow your head and just say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner.
I know I deserve to go to hell, but I
believe that you died on the cross for me and rose again.
Please save me.
You know, if you say that and you're sincere about it
and you mean it from your heart, even if you have doubt,
as long as you're putting what faith you do have on Jesus,
he'll save you.
You know, he wants to save you.
And I like the fact that this guy said, Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine unbelief.
So this guy is saying that he believes,
but he does have some doubt.
But what happens?
Jesus heals.
He gets what he wanted.
So apparently, that was enough for Jesus.
Because he says, Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine unbelief.
Jesus doesn't say, well, that's not good enough.
Because you need to have total mountain-moving, perfect faith
in what I'm about to do, or I can't do it.
Is that what he said?
No.
Just look, if you believe enough to show up and say,
I believe, help thou mine unbelief, that's good enough.
He says in verse 25, that's why the disciples said,
Lord, increase our faith.
Did the disciples have the ultimate perfect faith?
No.
He said, if you had faith as a grain of a mustard seed,
he's kind of saying to them, your faith
is less than a grain of mustard seed.
And they're like, increase our faith.
But we all need to increase our faith,
because we all have very little faith.
And none of us have a perfect faith that never doubts,
that always is without doubt.
Look what the Bible says in verse 25.
When Jesus saw that the people came running together,
he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him,
thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him
and enter no more into him.
And the spirit cried and rent him sore, and came out of him.
And he was as one dead, insomuch that many said, he is dead.
So when this demon is cast out of this guy,
it's like one last blaze of glory.
This demon just causes the guy to just writhe and foam
and whatever.
And then the guy stops the writhing and stops moving.
They think that he's dead.
This is it.
He's done.
But of course, he wasn't.
The demon had just left him.
And it says, in verse 27, Jesus took him by the hand
and lifted him up, and he rose.
And when he was coming to the house,
his disciples asked him privately,
why could not we cast him out?
And he said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing
but by prayer and fasting.
So the apostles had been given power to cast out devils.
And everywhere they went, they cast out devils.
And they said, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us.
And they were amazed by the fact that they
had the power as apostles to cast out devils.
In this case, they tried to cast out the devil,
and they could not.
And that's why Jesus stepped in and did it.
Because while Jesus is up on the Mount of Transfiguration
with Peter, James, and John, this
is going on with the disciples trying to cast out this demon
and won't be cast out.
And he explains why.
He says, this kind, meaning this kind of devil,
can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting.
So the Bible is talking about a certain type of devil
that prayer and fasting is the only way for a person
to be delivered from that devil.
So that's pretty interesting to read that in the Bible.
Now, here's the thing.
The modern Bible versions are changing this.
This verse is completely removed from Matthew 17.
Because remember, Matthew 17 is a parallel passage with Mark 9.
Matthew 17, 21 is one of the verses
that the NIV, the ESV, these new versions completely remove.
How be it this kind coming forth by nothing but by prayer
and fasting.
Not only that, though, the new versions
will actually just remove the word fasting
from a lot of verses.
Not just where they take the whole verse out
in Matthew 17, 21.
But a lot of them will change a statement like this to just,
oh, well, this kind can come forth by nothing but by prayer
and just leave out the fasting.
Another notorious example, I want to look this up.
Who stole all my false Bibles?
Here they are.
I thought all my false Bibles had been stolen from me.
But whoever steals these things, that
would be its own punishment to have to read this thing
if you steal it.
But there are a lot of verses that
will remove fasting in the New Testament.
And you say, well, what's the big deal about that?
Why does that matter?
Well, if God's talking about fasting,
then we need to hear about fasting.
We need to learn about it, and we
need to get the teaching on it.
But not only that, one place where it actually
affects doctrine and affects practice,
aside from just basically causing people to not think
about fasting because of the fact
that it's hardly mentioned in the new versions,
it's taken out so many times, that people
would be less likely to fast.
I mean, think about it.
If you're reading a King James and you're
reading a lot about fasting, you're
probably going to think more about, hey,
this is something that I should be doing,
or this is something that I can do.
But if you're reading one of the new versions,
it's just not really in your mind
because there are so many places where it's removed.
But it actually really changes the meaning in 1 Corinthians 7.
And you don't have to turn there,
but this is where it's talking about husbands and wives
and the physical relationship that husbands and wives are
supposed to have within marriage.
And he says in the King James, defraud ye not one the other,
except it be with consent for a time,
that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer
and come together again, lest Satan tempt you not
for your incontinency.
So what's he telling them?
That they should never defraud one
another of the physical relationship in marriage,
except if it's with consent for a time,
that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.
Because obviously it makes sense that if you're fasting, which
is basically depriving yourself of food,
it would make sense to also be deprived
of the physical pleasure associated
with the relationship within marriage.
But in the NIV and these new versions,
because they are so zealous to remove fasting
from so many verses, listen to how the NIV says.
Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent
and for a time.
That part's similar to what the King James says,
that you may devote yourselves to prayer, period.
So now it's just like, oh, just abstain from it
just for periods of being devoted to prayer.
Now think about how you could misinterpret that,
where you just say, we're just going to pray extra this month.
In 2015, we're going to devote ourselves to prayer.
Now it's like, whoa, that's not good for your marriage.
But here's the thing.
If it's for fasting and prayer, well, how long
are you going to go without food?
Right?
So it's not some super long abstinence
where it's just like, oh, we're just really going to be devoted
to prayer in the month of December or whatever,
or just in the year of 2015.
And listen to me.
There are people out there, believe it or not,
who do not engage in a physical relationship
with their spouse for very long periods of time.
And the Bible says that you're opening yourself up
to temptation for Satan to tempt you for your incontinence.
And it's funny, because it says it has to be with consent.
So if one spouse were to say to the other,
hey, I'm embarking upon this period of three days of fasting,
or I'm fasting tomorrow, or I'm fasting for the next seven
days or whatever.
It's not just a statement.
It's actually, it might be like, well, hey, I'm fasting tomorrow.
It's like, well, no, I had plans for you tomorrow night, honey.
So it's with consent.
And what's funny is that you know what people in America
today teach, and even Christians teach this stupidity,
that you have to get consent from your spouse every time,
within marriage, to have a physical relationship
with your spouse.
But you know what I believe?
Is that when I said I do, and when my wife said I do,
that was consenting for the rest of our lives.
And the only consent that I need is not to do it.
I'll get consent to not do it, or she'll
get consent to not do it.
But we're not going to get consent to do it.
Because guess when you consented,
when you said to have and to hold from this day forward,
for better or for worse.
And it'd be like, oh, my husband raped me.
What in the world?
How can that even exist?
That's stupid.
And you say, oh, Pastor Anderson, you're nuts.
No, you're nuts.
Anyone who comes up with rape within marriage is an idiot.
It's your wife.
It's your husband.
What's the matter, Pastor Anderson?
Why are you so shook up?
Oh, my wife violated me.
It's like, what in the world?
It's my wife.
You know, oh, I need counseling now.
I've been violated by my wife.
What in the world?
But that's the kind of stupidity that we,
I mean, what do you expect from the people who
have to make a third bathroom?
Because a men's room and a lady's room isn't enough.
You know, you need a third bathroom for mixed people.
You know, for trans whatever they are.
Trans queer, transgender, transsexual, whatever garbage.
Look, we live in a day of stupidity.
And you know, the Bible is right.
And I don't care what anybody, if anybody walks away
from the sermon and says, Pastor Anderson is the Taliban,
and he's Islamic, and he's crazy, and he's wild,
and what, you know what?
Put it in your pipe and smoke it, OK?
Or put it in your pope and smack it, whatever.
So what I'm saying is that, you know, the consent is not
to do it, but do you see how if you remove fasting,
you completely destroy the passage?
The passage doesn't even make sense anymore.
Why would you?
Look, don't we pray every day?
I mean, who prays every day?
Every day you pray, yeah, exactly.
OK, but who fasts every day?
Yeah, nobody.
You'd be dead.
So fasting is the thing where it's like, OK, you know,
there's going to be a consent, where we go a time,
where we go without the physical relationship for fasting.
Because look, the Bible actually condemns,
and you can actually cross reference this with Isaiah 58,
where the Bible condemns.
He says, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure.
And he says that's a bad thing, that when you're fasting,
you're not supposed to be enjoying pleasure.
It's a day to afflict your soul.
So it's not compatible to fast and say, oh, I'm fasting today,
and then have an intimate relationship with your spouse
on the day that you're fasting, because you're not
supposed to find pleasure on the day of your fast.
Everybody understand that?
So then it makes sense.
But when you have the NIV, it's just, oh,
you need to pray?
Well, abstain.
But you know why?
It's because the NIV is from these Catholic manuscripts.
And what do the Catholics teach?
Oh, even within marriage, it's still a sin,
and you've got to be cleansed from all this stupidity.
So that's why you get that teaching in the NIV.
But honestly, any time you start taking out words,
you're going to affect doctrine.
Even if you say, well, fasting is not that important.
Well, who are you to say what's important and what's not?
And it definitely changed the meaning of 1 Corinthians 7,
and it definitely changes the meaning in Mark 9,
where we are, and in Matthew 17.
When you take out the fasting, then you
don't understand that the reason why this devil could not
be cast out is because it comes out only by prayer and fasting.
Which, to me, that tells me, I guess,
Jesus was doing the prayer and fasting necessary.
And we see evidence of Jesus fasting, of course,
and that's a whole other sermon in and of itself.
I got to hurry up and just quickly give you
a few highlights from the rest of the chapter,
because we're out of time tonight.
But basically, once we finish up with the story of the one who
is demon-possessed, ending in verse 29, in verse 30,
he talks about how he's going to be killed.
And he says in verse 31, for he taught his disciples
and said unto them, the Son of Man
is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him.
And after that he is killed, he shall rise the third day.
But they understood not that saying,
and were afraid to ask him.
So they didn't quite understand the fact
that Jesus is going to die, be buried, and rise again,
which is interesting.
Then right after that, the disciples
are arguing about who is the greatest among them.
Which disciples are the greatest?
And Jesus rebukes them for that, and he puts a little child
in their midst and tells them, in verse 37,
whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name
receiveth me.
And whoever shall receive me receiveth not me,
but him that sent me.
And he basically says, he sends a little child
in the midst of them, and he says,
the greatest among you is the one
that is as humble as this little child,
is basically what he's saying.
And he's telling them, if you desire to be first,
you'll be last.
And whoever desires to be greatest
will be the servant of all, the Bible says.
Then after that, this is significant, in verse 38,
John answered him, saying, master,
we saw one casting out devils in thy name.
And he followeth not us, and we forbade him,
because he followeth not us.
And Jesus said, forbid him not, for there
is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that
can speak evil of me.
For he that is not against us is on our part.
Now a lot of people will quote this verse where Jesus said,
hey, if they're not against me, they're for me.
And people will quote this, but what they forget
is the part where it says, if you're not with me,
you're against me.
Because Jesus said it both ways.
Jesus said, he that is not with me is against me,
and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
So to just sit there and say, well,
as long as they're not anti-Jesus,
then they're for Jesus.
Well, no, no, it goes both ways.
You're either with him or you're against him.
And Jesus is saying that if people are doing things
in his name, and if they believe in him,
just because they're not following with the disciples,
they shouldn't be rebuked.
It's the same way if we said, Pastor Anderson,
we saw people out soul winning, but they
weren't from Faithful Word.
What's going on with that?
Well, great.
I mean, we rejoice to see other people,
as long as it's the same gospel, as long
as it's the same salvation by faith in Christ.
Not this thing of, well, they have to be with us.
But Protestant religion, that's what Protestant religion
teaches is like, you have to be a part of the one true church.
The Roman Catholics will say, you
have to be a part of the one true church,
the Catholic church.
You know, the Mormons, you've got
to be a part of the one true church, the Latter-day Saint.
We have the priesthood or whatever.
And then Protestants will say that they
are the one true church.
If you talk to hardcore Protestants,
and they'll tell you it's the invisible universal church,
and that that's the true church, and that we're all apostates
because we're not part of their baby baptizing one true church
following Luther and Calvin and them.
But the bottom line is that there
are all kinds of different people in this world that
are believing in Christ, all kinds of independent churches
that are independent from one another.
And it should be that way.
It shouldn't all just be necessarily one group.
It's good that we're independent.
It's good that there are lots of different churches.
And you know what?
We as Baptists, we're not saying that we're the only true
church.
Now I'm saying the gospel we preach is the only true gospel.
And I'm saying the Bible we preach is the only true Bible.
But you'll run into non-denominational people
that preach the same gospel and have the same King James
Bible.
You'll run into people of other denominations sometimes.
Now I don't believe you're going to run in to save Catholics.
Catholicism is so different.
And there's so much of a difference in their gospel.
But when you run into people that
are of denominations that are closer to Baptists,
more similar to a Bible-believing Christianity,
especially amongst the non-denominational
and the big fun center type churches,
you'll run into people that are saved that are not Baptists.
So Baptists are not saying, hey, you
have to be Baptists to be saved.
No, we're just saying you have to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ to be saved with all your heart.
That's it.
You don't have to be Baptists.
But there are religions out there
that teach that unless you're part of their organization,
you're not part of the true church.
They'll say, if you're not Catholic
or if you're not Mormon or if you're not Protestant,
you're not part of the true church.
Whereas we just say that any Bible-believing church
is a true church, no matter what it's called,
as long as it's following the Bible
and believing that salvation is by faith.
Now on the other side of that, though,
when you step outside of churches
that have Baptists in the name, it's a jungle out there.
Let me just warn you.
If I were looking for a church, I
would try every Baptist church before I tried something
that wasn't Baptist.
Because honestly, even within Baptists, there's such variety
and there's such a wide spectrum.
When you go outside of the world of Baptists,
it's a jungle out there.
And you're going to find that it's
hard to find people that are doctrinally sound.
And your best bet is to go to an independent Baptist church.
And that's where you know.
Now, are there exceptions to that?
I'm sure that there are.
I'm sure there are churches in this world that
have nothing to do with being a Baptist that
are good Bible-believing, Bible-preaching,
gospel-preaching churches.
But the majority of them are called Baptists
in the English-speaking world.
And so just save the trouble of looking
at all the other churches that aren't Baptists.
Because chances are, they're off the deep end.
But anyway, just one last thing in this chapter is at the end,
there's this great passage on hellfire.
And this is a great passage to turn to with people
that they don't believe that hell is fire.
They believe it's a state of mind.
Because very clearly at the end of verse 47,
that's a great place where it just
says it right there at the end of verse 47, into hellfire.
Just that phrase is a great phrase
to show somebody who says, well, I'm
not sure hell is really fire.
Well, into hellfire.
I mean, there you go.
And the Bible's just talking about the horrors of hell,
where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched.
One thing I would just point you to is that that quote
of where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched
is from Isaiah chapter 66.
It's actually the last verse of the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 66, 24.
It says, and they shall go forth and look
upon the carcasses of the men that
have transgressed against me.
For their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire
be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
So the reason I point that out is
because it's worded slightly differently in Isaiah 66.
It says, their worm and their fire.
Whereas here it just says, their worm and the fire.
But I think it helps you to understand it when you read it
from Isaiah.
Because a lot of people think, what does it mean, their worm?
I didn't even know I had a worm, people will say.
But when it says their worm, if we compare that to their fire,
what does it mean by their fire?
The fire that's tormenting them.
So it makes sense that their worm would be the worm that's
tormenting them.
I've heard people come up with all these crazy things that
when people go to hell, they're going to become a worm.
I've heard people say that.
If you go to hell, you actually become a worm in hell.
And you're tormenting in hell as a worm.
Now that's obviously not true.
Or they'll say, oh, your worm is your soul.
That's another word for your soul, your worm.
Well, I guess your soul mate, your worm mate.
Our worms are just really in tune.
Sorry, worm is not a word for your soul, ever.
So when it says their worm, I think
it makes more sense that if it's the fire that torments them,
be the worms that torment them.
Because the Bible does talk about people being tormented
in hell, eaten of worms.
It does use that wording in Isaiah 14.
And a lot of times, the answer to your spiritual questions
will be found in the same book.
So in Isaiah 66, their worm, you back up to chapter 14
and read about the worms feasting on people in hell
in Isaiah 14.
So then it makes sense.
Because usually, when you read chapter 66,
you already read chapter 14.
Let's borrow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord,
and for the great things that we could learn from it, Lord,
and just help us to stay away from that which is demonic,
Lord.
Because you even said in this passage
that even a child could be possessed, Lord.
And so help us not to bring things
that are satanic into our home, Ouija boards, magic spells,
and other things that are just blatantly satanic.
Lord, help us to keep our children away
from these charismatic holy roller churches, Lord,
where they could be exposed to these kind of foul spirits,
Lord, even from a child.
And help us to live a life that would
be honoring and pleasing to you.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.