texasjq2

John 14:16-21 NKJV And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— (17) the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (18) I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (19) “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. (20) At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (21) He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” it is the Spirit who gives us words to say, gives us the ability to discern the truth about what is going on in the world, we have that which God has given us through His Spirit, to stand for the truth of Christ. Paraclete, the Greek is Paracletos, it means a comforter, an advocate, an intercessor. In other words, one who walks with you. There they were, Jesus had gone back to His throne, Jesus God in the flesh, was now back in His rightful place in Heaven. His disciples, were left on earth to fend for themselves, at least that is what we might think. However, looking at the verses in John 14, we see that Jesus had promised them one who would be with them forever. The Holy Spirit, the third PERSON of the Trinity, is a person just as Jesus was and is a person, just as God is a person.

We find in the book of Acts the appearance of the Holy Spirit in the 2^nd Chapter of Acts we read this: Act 2:1-4 NKJV When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. (2) And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (3) Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. (4) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Spirit is God and so God now is with His people and is a part of all that happens in our lives. men and women who were his loyal followers, the Spirit appears as tongues like fire, which settle on each of them, then they begin to speak in other languages, so that all in Jerusalem that day could hear and understand.

So, what has this to do with us today? Everything! We are to be the witnesses to Christ in the world, we who claim to follow Christ, are the ones who can discern what is going on in our world and it is our task to tell the world about their need for redemption. If we do not speak, the blood of the lost in hell will be upon those who do not sound the alarm. Eze 33:2-6 NKJV “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, (3) when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, (4) then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. (5) He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. (6) But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’ You and I have the truth and the Spirit with us, we are able to see and understand what is happening, we must speak.

In our Sunday morning Bible Study we are studying the book of Daniel and in the 9^th chapter of that book is a chilling prophecy. It deals with centuries of time, and yet it deals with us today.

Dan 9:23-27 NKJV At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly beloved; therefore consider the matter, and understand the vision: (24) “Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy. (25) “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times. (26) “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined. (27) Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

Daniel had realized that it had been prophesied by Jeremiah that 70 years were to pass while the people were in captivity in Babylon, he realized that the 70 years were almost accomplished and he began to pray for deliverance, and as he prayed Gabriel showed up to give him the information he needed.

In the delivery of the information we read of a time span of 70 weeks, those are not in reality weeks, but rather weeks of years, each day is a year of time. The time for the 7 weeks was when the people would be allowed to return and build the city and the temple. The first period of 7 weeks began with Artaxerxes in 445 BC. That is found in Nehemiah 2:1-8, and it took 49 years to build the city and the temple. Of course that was a mere shadow of the glory of the temple of Solomon, but they had a place to worship and make offering to the Lord again.

Then 62 weeks until the time of Messiah and his death on the Cross at Calvary. 434 years would go by and Jesus would have been teaching for 3 years, then enter Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey and be declared King of the Jews. Just 5 days after that he would be arrested and then crucified. Next will come a time of the Gentiles, that is you and I and we will be the witnesses to the glory of the Kingdom and of the salvation offered by the spilling of the Blood of Christ. During this time the people of Rome, in the person of the various emperors will have completely destroyed the city and Temple one more time, Jews will be exiled into the world and only a remnant will remain. Jerusalem will be rebuilt but not with a temple, that will remain a ruin except for one wall that is known as the wailing wall where Jewish people come to pray. Now of course prophecy about the return of the people to their homeland has been fulfilled. That is for another time, but suffice it to say that the return was prophesied and fulfilled in 1947.

However we are still waiting for the coming of the 70^th week of Daniel. We can see that there is much turmoil in our world, there is much hatred of Jews and in some parts of the world Christians.

We can see also that only a few of our Christian leaders are speaking out trying to change the direction of our nation, many though are the voices of those who want to sell the feel good gospel. Jesus said: Mat 24:23-25 NKJV “Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There!’ do not believe it. (24) For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (25) See, I have told you beforehand.

We also see that many will be led the way they want to be led, they have itching ears, wanting to hear what they want to hear. 2Ti 4:3-4 NKJV For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; (4) and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Just turn on any of those TV preachers and you will hear the lies. Not only that but there are many denominations today that teach false doctrine, even those who teach that fornication, homosexuality and other forms of sexual sin is OK and sanctioned by God, because they say, God is love. These are just alternative ways of living our lives. Jesus also taught that: Mat 24:6-9 NKJV And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (7) For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. (8) All these are the beginning of sorrows. (9) “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

There are many wars being fought today, and there are many Christians being killed and tortured across our world. In this country we are still free to worship as we will, but there is coming a time when that will not be so. Already we see that our government is trying to remove any mention of God or Jesus from the public square. In many cities the government says that they want to open with prayer, the name of Jesus may not be used in the prayer, and of course they also invite Imams to pray so as not to offend any Muslims. Have you noticed that it is also just fine that Christians are castigated, are told that they cannot hold meetings in public places, but Muslims can close down a street so that the Mosque which is not able to hold them can practice their prayers at the appointed times.

It used to be that you had to have your face shown on your state ID, driver license or state ID card. However in some states today that is no longer the case. If a woman wears a Burqa which hides everything except her eyes, she may have that as her picture on her State ID. How do you identify someone whose face is covered? There are even some cities were certain areas are off limits to non-Muslim persons. Even the police cannot enter without an OK from the local sharia court.

We are the witnesses, we are the ones that God has given the task of standing for the truth, for the gospel. We have the Holy Spirit, we are the watchmen on the wall, and we are to warn our fellow countrymen of what we know is coming. We need to offer the salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ.

We are empowered to servanthood, empowered to speak out and help our neighbors and friends to see the truth. Only Jesus Christ can bring you to heaven, only Jesus Christ is the way to God, he and he alone is the way, the truth and the life. The spirit of God will give us the words, we need only ask, a moment of silent prayer when you encounter a situation will suffice. Jesus said that if you ask anything in his name, it will be granted. Of course that pre-supposes that you are one who is a true follower of Christ. Joh 16:23 “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.”

We are the ones who must speak against injustice and hatred, we must stand for the truth even in the face of persecution. If we do not stand, then those who are caught up in sin, will die in their sin, and we will be the ones who are guilty. We cannot lose our salvation, but we will hear condemnation not praise from our Lord and Savior. We are the ones who should be introducing others to Jesus Christ, if we do our part he will do his, that some might be saved. If we do our part then we will hear, well done good and faithful servant.