Are You Sleeping Through Prophecy?

00:00 - Speaker 1 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 00:09 - Speaker 2 Hey, have you fallen asleep? It almost sounds like a commercial right. Are you sleeping well, or have you fallen asleep? Have you fallen and you can't get up? Hey, listen, we're going to be getting into a topic right now regarding Jesus Christ, future events that are unfolding before us, but do you even care anymore? Have you fallen asleep? With all that's going on in the world, let's make sure we know how, and figure out how, to stay alert in these trying times, in these days of deception. Quite honestly, let's get into it. In these days of deception, quite honestly, let's get into it. 00:47 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to https://jackhibbs.com slash podcast Today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five-star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs hey everybody Listen. 01:18 - Speaker 2 We need to dial down and refocus again on the issue of Bible prophecy and what's going on in the world. Let's be honest. I'm going to read you a moment of what Peter had to say, but the fact is this so for decades, if not longer, there have been great Bible prophecy professors. These are disciplines of biblical eschatology, and there'd be those like Dwight Pentecost, there'd be those like Chafer, there would be those like John Wolvred, there'd be great scholars Dr Ed Heinsohn, thomas Ice, that I think of my own pastor Chuck Smith in the day, that I think of my own Pastor Chuck Smith in the day where, in fact, let me throw in a guy who turned out to be rather remarkable as time went on, and that was the man, hal Lindsey, where he wrote that book, the Late Great Planet Earth, which a lot of people laughed at at the time, but it turned out to be a remarkably what's the word? Prescient book because of the topics that he brought up. 02:34 My point is this there was a time when people in the Christian community was so focused on the possibility of this global situation taking place. How does it relate to Bible prophecy? And I have to tell you that, being a believer in the 70s and 80s and even the 90s, it was just an expected discipline that you looked at all of the things that were going on in the world and the breaking news of the world and geopolitical things. You looked at them through a biblical world lens, a biblical worldview lens, meaning wow, my God is futuristic, my God is prophetic. And this is what separates the Bible out from all of the religious books. It's what separates out the Christian who understands his or her theology correctly, which is a pre-millennial, pre-tribulational, futuristic or futurist view understanding of scripture. Now, those are words I just rattled off. I'm not going to take the time to get into them, but if you do take the time to get into them on your own, you will find that I'm talking about what is wrapped up with the bow on top of literal interpretation. Having said that, we live in an age right now, and I'm sitting here right now behind this microphone with you right now, at a time where these really great Bible scholars I'm going to throw in there also Chuck Swindoll, and I'm going to throw in there the premillennial, pre-tribulational understanding of Scripture, such as John MacArthur, that HA Ironside my goodness, I could just keep going on this Erwin Lutzer of our day, warren Wiersbe I could just go on and on. 04:38 In 1978 or nine, or 1982 or 1985, 1986, where there were global wars or events taking place, things happening, and the pastors that I knew and many of the gentlemen are not all of the gentlemen I just mentioned a moment ago they would actually address it and they would, they would look at it. What are we seeing? Could this be of scripture? Where do we go to analyze the news that's happening regarding Israel or Egypt or Turkey or the European Union, these kinds of things, I have to say, I think and this is a warning, I'm afraid that we might have gotten away from that when the exact opposite should be happening. We're further down the prophetic road than ever. We've never been this late in Bible prophecy before everybody. We are living the days, but watch, this is what's happened. By the way, I do believe this. We've become so accustomed to watching news and hearing words like the word Israel, jew, nuclear war, iran, russia, iran, russia. We have failed, I think, to notice because we've been inundated, and then we grow a little lazy, because we get brought into a sense of yeah, yeah, I mean, that's going on. I got to tell you, friends, what's happening in the world right now. My pastor, chuck Smith, back in the day, he would have paid anything he would have given his right arm to see the stuff we're seeing on a daily basis. It's really amazing what's going on. 06:33 Look, I remember back in those days when there wasn't a Russia but a Soviet Union. I remember in the days where Turkey had no ability whatsoever to attack Israel. Now that's all changed. In fact, I'm so old that I remember when Ronald Reagan said, mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall. And it led to. Just from the Soviet Union, just from the Soviet Union, the first wave of 600,000 Russian-born Jews got up and made Aliyah and moved to Israel. When Mr Gorbachev tore down the wall and Russia then, or Soviet Union, became Russia, rosh in Ezekiel, chapter 38. 07:30 And we began to see the fulfillment of Isaiah, chapter 43. When God says in the last days, when he gets ready to go back to work with Israel, in the fulfillment of the seven year tribulation period, also known as the seven years that are found in Daniel, chapter nine, verses 24 to 27, it is this that in Isaiah 43, god would say my people are gonna come back to their land, a land that they had never been to before. It's in the last days. There'll be a generation of Jews that will start making their way back to Israel, even though they, he says, there. They were in the south, they were in the east of the world, they were in the west of the world, they were in the north of the world, they were all over the globe. They had been scattered because of their disobedience, promised in Deuteronomy 28, among other passages, because of their rebellion against God, he would drive them out to the ends of the earth. But in the last days before God goes to work again, we see God spooling up or can I put it this way? Setting the stage. He's positioning. He's positioning countries here and there, and over here he's changing some of their names. Right, think of this. May 14th 1948, israel becomes a nation in one day. That's from Isaiah 66. 08:55 All these things starting to move around. God is moving. The chess pieces, the cameras, the lighting is put in place for God to set the prophetic movement going Like an orchestrated play. You've gathered around in the theater, you've sat down, you've got your program we would say it's our Bible and we see behind the veiled curtain just enough light that we can peek through that screen that you see at a theater or a play or a musical, and they're re or they're staging the set, getting it all ready, and then they open scene one and it unfolds right, and then there's the screen that comes back and you see movement behind the screen and then scene two Friends, this is what's happening right now in the world that you and I are living in, and here's the grave danger which is the thrust of this podcast. 09:52 Be careful, you're not asleep. I got to tell you it's my passion and it is my calling to keep my eye on the pulse. And I got to tell you I'm so overwhelmed that I have, at times, began to be a little bit sloppy with the world news and a little bit overstimulated about what's going on now, where we've got to live our lives. But, friends, we need to be careful. And isn't this just how Satan works? Think about this Now Satan will either take the believer and freakishly deceive him by overstating the fact that Jesus is coming back. 10:29 Jesus is coming back, of course he's coming back, but Satan will push it onto people to where they begin to view scriptures or events and they'll say it's going to be on June 9th, it's going to be on October 4th, it's going to be whatever. And he deceives them because he'll use the scripture against them. But how did Satan do that? He took a truth and he pimped it and he polluted it and then he pushed it. And then there are those who, so to speak, want Jesus to come back so bad that they're willing to bend things and make things fit. That's never the way you're supposed to interpret Bible, the scriptures of the Bible Never, never, never. But Satan will do that, and my argument to you is because he does that. 11:18 It's also a strange way of Satan proving to us that he's very fearful and concerned about the return of Christ. So if there are people who are overactive about it, then how does Satan work in our lives? Then he also throws, so to speak, right a sparkly toy in that direction, and those people who are excited by that all run over there and they're all giving dates and setting times. And I saw Jesus. I said I saw Jesus in the cloud and he told me this, or whatever, and um, you know it's, it's going to happen on such and such a date. I had this dream, all this kind of stuff that has misled people forever, right, or he'll move the pendulum all the way over to the other side, where people are overstimulated by the news and their response is he's not coming at all, it's just, it's metaphorical. There's no actual physical return of Jesus. What does Satan care, as long as he can get people off the real target. He's going to be deceiving people and he's going to be winning that argument in that particular person's life or in that church, or in that denomination, or in that particular culture. 12:41 Listen to what Peter has to say about this in 2 Peter 3. It says verse 3, chapter 3, verse 3, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lust. And this is what they say. Where is the promise of his coming? It's an insult, by the way. They are being sarcastic. They are mocking his return. Do you know anybody who's mocking his return? I do, For since the fathers fell asleep, that is, they've died all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. That's the close quote, right there. In other words, news, russia, turkey, middle East, peace treaties, a global economy, cashless society, all of this stuff. 13:36 I was a Christian when I was 19 years, 20, 21, 22,. Back in those days, listen, we thought that the credit card with the magnetic strip was one step closer. This could be the cashless system and we were just looking for everything. Okay, right or wrong. We were looking for everything because we were just looking for Jesus and you had to mitigate that. You had to be careful about that. Then you know, we were introduced early on. I remember exactly where I was at. 14:08 I was actually speaking in San Diego. This was in the 90s, early 90s, and I spoke to a bunch of military personnel and I got to meet a couple of US military special ops individuals and they had microchips in their right hand and I thought, oh my gosh, this is the mark of the beast. Of course, I had to calm down and figure out, especially when they told me, what that was all about. I'm not going to say anything about it right now, except that, regarding their deployment and their secret opt thing, it was essential for them to be monitored back home in Langley and location, body temperature, heart rate, all that stuff. It was important. But you see what I'm saying, something happened. 14:59 Now we don't even think that's special anymore and this warning to all of us today is we need to be careful that we don't fall asleep in the sun. Fall asleep in the volume of light. We could fall asleep because Peter's warning us in the last days. People are going to make fun of the end time events. They're going to take it and spin it. But why would they do this? How do you and I prevent ourselves from becoming like these scoffers? 15:35 They fail to take the Bible literally. John, chapter 14, verses 1, 2, and 3, is a literal coming fulfillment that Jesus said is going to happen. It hasn't happened yet. It's going to happen. Jesus said so. The Bible says that there's going to be a dramatic increase of false prophets and false teachers. Now we have that now. It's nothing compared to what's coming, and this is one reporter's opinion on that. We've seen false prophets and false teachers in the rise of the cults and aberrant Christian groups increase, and I think it's going to continue. The trajectory of that is going to continue, but the fulfillment is going to happen after the rapture takes place. There's going to be a plethora of false teachers and false prophets because we know from 2 Thessalonians 2, the Holy Spirit will step aside. He's not leaving the world. Of course it's impossible. After the church is raptured he steps aside and lets evil go and there's going to be mass deception. And you know I'm going to insert this shameless plug. Watch this, this book. Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord. 17:06 This quickly became a national bestseller. Why? The people who told us why they bought it see the word days Living in the days of deception. This book is understood to have a evergreen title. For those of you who don't know, evergreen title, in other words, there's been hundreds and thousands of volumes of this book sold in just over a year. Okay, but it's going to continue to sell more and more. Why? How do we know? Because we're living in the days of deception and it can also be taken in our podcast D-A-Y-S. The more deception, the more this cover is appreciated by people. 18:01 It wasn't the genius idea to play with you and fool you. No, it's deliberately done like this, where the word D-A-Z-E is skewed and blurred, because that's how you feel like when you're confused or slapped in the face. Satan is going to see to it that believers are slapped in the face, not always with the sense of violence, but equal type of violence when it comes to confusing the days so that they are a D-A-Z-E time in your life, to where you're overstimulated. And that's what this book, by the way, addresses. And if you don't own a copy, you ought to get a copy. And why? Yes, I wrote the book, but I believe in everything. That's what this book, by the way, addresses. And if you don't own a copy, you ought to get a copy. And why? Yes, I wrote the book, but I believe in everything that's in the book. That's why it's passionately and accurately written To do what? 18:52 To prevent you from being deceived, so that you do not wake up one day and say where's the promise of his coming? I'm tired of waiting. I have a little joke, kind of I've told our pastors on staff. I said hey, man, let's be honest With all that's going on in the world around us. If you stop and take a look at everything that's going on, if Jesus doesn't come back soon, it's not going to be a surprise, right? 19:22 Well, the Bible also says Paul said it Concerning the times and the seasons. My brethren, you'll have no need that I should ride unto you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, notice the contrast. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that that day should overtake you as a thief, for you are sons of the light, sons of the day, so that that day will not overtake you, For when they say peace and safety, the destruction will come upon them, but not you, because you are children of the light. 20:07 Translation Paul says in another place, as I quoted a moment ago, you will have no need that I should write to you concerning the times and the seasons, regarding Bible prophecy, there are the days and the hours, or the day and the hour, and then there are the times and the seasons. The Bible says no man knows the day or the hour, but the believer who's carefully walking through the word and carefully walking through life, through the word and carefully walking through life, will know absolutely, based upon the Bible, will absolutely know the times and the seasons. And this is where I want to just draw this together. I believe, based on global evidence, based on biblical prophecy, that you and I are living at a time that we are so inundated with news that deals with Israel and or the last day's events, and there is over 300 topics of the last day's events, from wars to rumors of wars again to a cashless society, the mark of the beast, all of these things. We're living at a time right now that, let's be honest, when was the last time you were pretty concerned about the cashless system we live in? And yet the Bible says in Revelation 13, in the last days there's going to be a cashless system we live in, and yet the Bible says in Revelation 13, in the last days, there's going to be a cashless system, a society without cash. 21:50 I was at LAX not too long ago, getting on a flight heading to the East Coast, and there's a store there for those of you who know maybe it's true in Chicago, where you're at, or in Tokyo, where, if you go to the store, initially to save you in the system, but initially you tap your American Express card, it takes your card information, takes a picture of your face and then the door to the store opens up and you go in there and you shop. There's nobody in there except other shoppers. You grab the item, you grab the water and you go in there and you shop. There's nobody in there except other shoppers. You grab the item, you grab the water and you grab the pretzels and you walk out of the store and 30 days later you get charged on your credit card for those items. How to do that? From that time on, I just walk into that store at LA, at Bradley Terminal International Terminal. I just walk into that. I walk into it. It sees my face, it remembers me, it sees my eyes, all that facial recognition Door opens up. I walk in, I grab my stuff, I walk out. No cash, nothing. All based on me. It. 22:59 Knowing me, man, if I were to have told Pastor Chuck Smith at Calvary Chapel, costa Mesa, in 1985, hey, this is what I'm doing, this is what just happened to me, he would say what in the world? What? Look, we've become accustomed to it and it's just so subtle. We pay things online. We buy it through Amazon. When's the last time you moved with cash? Hey, I just got back from a quick trip. 23:28 And how many locations I went to. They would not accept cash. They had a sign we don't accept cash. We're getting groomed. Watch out. All that's fine. It's all fine. 23:43 By the way, it's a great way to curve a crime in some areas, right? How can you rob people if they don't have any cash? Great idea. But watch out, don't become so complacent that you begin to say oh, by the way, how long has that news been around For crying out loud? Israel's been a nation since 1948. Tell me something I don't know. Watch out, because that is a huge, huge deal Israel being a nation a second time. No other nation on earth has ever had that. No other nation will ever have that, but the Bible. But Bible prophecy said that's exactly what God would do to show us that we're in the last days. Israel is, by the way, the timepiece by which we recognize the last days events. Now the global scene is moving about and so much is going on, and I'll end with this. 24:36 I was going through yes, again, here comes another airport analogy. I was walking through an airport store analogy. I was walking through an airport store and, by the way, I was in. I was in. I don't know the name of Philadelphia's airport, but I was in the at Philly getting my flight connecting, and I'm just standing there and I'm looking at the titles of magazines at the, at the store. You know the airport stores and I was looking at everything from Flying Magazine to GQ Magazine, to Better Homes and Gardens and Cottage Country, cottage Kitchens. 25:16 You know what I'm talking about and it's got all these things. And then it's the American Rifleman and it's the American Scientific and it's the Economist. And I'm looking at all these things and I'm looking at what was important enough for those publishers to have this as the topic for that month's publication of that particular magazine. And as I was looking, I'm looking at this stuff and it had to do with should you buy gold, the explosion of gold, economist, what will the markets do? Another thing was moving toward oh, I'm going to flub the word an automated, but that's not the word autonomous, robotic world. How will it affect you? 26:02 There was a cover from Science Digest or something that talked about that we will be wired in our brains by 2045. So I'm looking at the covers of these magazines, going, wow, I could pick out. A scripture applies to that cover, that cover and that cover. But one of them got me and I took a picture of it, by the way. President Trump was on the cover and it said it said something to the effect could this be the end of globalism, right? Could this be the downfall, or could this be the dismantling of the global system? And it was one man, it was the silhouette of one man by the name of Donald Trump. It was unmistakable. And what's being said? It's this Trump is so American that he's got America back to where she used to be like and it's put in a major crimp in global unification one-worldness. 27:15 Why should I care? Why should you care? Because the Bible talks about a one-world governing empire in Revelation, chapter 17 and 18. A one-world governing empire in Revelation, chapter 17 and 18. This is the takeaway. Be very careful you don't get bored with Bible prophecy. Be very careful you don't get overstimulated and bored so that you start yawning and become complacent regarding news. You got to process it maturely, biblically based. Don't get deceived. Don't be deceived. We are living in the D-A-Z-E of deception. Don't let it happen to you. 27:57 Very important, so be looking up, because he could come back at any moment. He could appear at any time. Are you ready to meet him? Do you know that Jesus Christ is the Jesus Christ of Bible prophecy? That's not true about the Muslim Jesus. It's not true about the Jehovah Witness Jesus. It's not true about the Mormon Jesus. It's not true about the Hindu Jesus. It's only true about the Hindu Jesus. It's only true about the biblical Jesus. He could come back at any moment for the church, without any warning, to capture us up into the atmosphere John 14, 1, 2, and 3. 1 Thessalonians 4, 13 through 18. And then the prophetic clock fuse ignites and it will be all about Israel for seven years. For seven years, the Bible says we're living in amazing days. Friends, don't fall asleep at the wheel. It's very dangerous. 29:00 Watch out and stay tuned, because this is important stuff. Wouldn't it be awesome? Because this is important stuff. Wouldn't it be awesome if this is our last podcast, because we'll be gone? Wouldn't it be great if he would come and catch us up to receive us unto himself? It'd be great. 29:21 By the way, you know about these, right? They're everywhere. They're popping up, these little rubber Jesuses. They're all over the White House. People are posting them over Congress, popping up in places all around the world Eiffel Tower, grand Canyon, my kitchen. He's all over our house. We grab them, we move them. 29:38 You got to find them, people, it's great, be looking for Jesus. He could show up at any time. So listen, as always, please, please, help us out. We're pleading, I'm begging with you. Can you just click the information, give us a thumbs up, give us a star, give us a happy face notification, all that kind of stuff, and by that you'll be encouraging us, because as the numbers bump up, it tells us that we're hitting the nerve. We are ministering to you, at least we're making you think. If this is helping you at all, just give us, give us that thumbs up, connect with us, let us know. And then, friends, stay tuned. There's so much more going on on the other platforms that we have as well. And then, friends, stay tuned. There's so much more going on on the other platforms that we have as well. We can't keep up with Jesus right now. It's incredible what's happening. So, god bless you guys, until next time. 30:36 - Speaker 1 This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported? Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to https://jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected? Are listener supported? Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to https://jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.