Jesus Christ Show | Hour 3 - Is the antichrist a man or something else [04/28]

The Bread and wine on the Lords table
How does the devil know how to tempt me
Is the antichrist a man or something else
Can God hear prayers if I sinned

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to KFI A six ondemand. Mark, Welcome to the Jesus
Christ Show. Hello, I amMark. Good, how are you today?
I am swell? How can Ihelp you? Fantastic? Okay?
You know I had a question aboutthe two elements at the Lord table.

(00:22):
Yes, sir, the bread uhand the wine. Now we all know
that the wine is represents the bloodof Jesus for the cleansing of our sins.
What the wine? I mean thebread? What the representation of the
bread? Well? I believe thatthe Oh are you going to are you

(00:42):
going to answer your own question orare you asking it? Well? You
know, after being on hold fora while, yes, as it is
a custom around this joint indeed,and considering my question, I thought,
well I have another question. Wellwhat what we tackle the first question?
Are you asking what the what theelement of the bread is and why that's

(01:04):
on the table? Well, yes, I am okay, because the clock
is tiken away and it goes byvery quick. Mark, and I know
that you are very patient to waiton hold, as are others, which
is why I want to get tothis bread in scripture is very important and
it pops up in different places.You know even the Manna from heaven is

(01:26):
the type of bread. Bread symbolizesessentially life because of its substanative power and
its nourishment. It is kind ofthat the basic building blocks of food,
and through that it becomes a verypowerful illustration that's used in scripture. If

(01:49):
you remember, I said in Johnsix thirty five, I am the bread
of life. He who comes tome will never go hungry. So that
kind of substantive, kind of attributeof bread is something that you see over
and over in scripture, and thereforeit represents in this particular case, my

(02:09):
physical body. So at the LastSupper which you're speaking about, it's really
talking about my body. And thatwhen I broke the bread, what did
I say? This is my bodygiven to you, And that becomes a
very powerful statement of the nourishing propertiesthat sustains life, spiritual life through my

(02:31):
death on the cross. John,Welcome to Jesus Christ show mor than Jesus.
Thank you for taking my call,my pleasure. How can I help
you. I've been listening to yousharp for about two months now and it's
been very very helpful to me.Oh, we're happy to have you.
My question is I'll try to articulateit properly. I understand that the Lord

(02:57):
knows everything that is you know,in my home art in my mind.
You know my thoughts and my deeds, you know, as I struggle through
life, And the same goes withall the all the rest of us that
live here on on this on thisplanet. My question is is, how
is how is it that Satan devilLucifer? How how is it that he

(03:21):
is knows exactly my weaknesses, howto tempt me, when to tempt me,
and everybody else all the same time, it seems that the Lord has
bestowed an awful lot of power,almost border borderline omniscience upon Satan. Uh,
you know, to to be ableto pull this this kind of thing
off if I, you know,may say it simply, can you help

(03:42):
me out with the understanding on thisexcellent question? And it's the appearance,
it's the illusion that he has it. It's if you've been in the argument
with somebody who's manipulative, they theywill argue with you until you react right
and then once you react to goown. That's a hot button issue with
them. Have you ever seen thathappen? John, Maybe you've done it

(04:02):
yourself, where once well, oncesomething is mentioned, then you jump on
that you can see. And ifyou've been in a long term relationship,
that ends up being a problem.Sometimes if people use it in a negative
fashion, you end up playing oneach other's weaknesses. Now here's something that
a lot of people don't know aboutthe devil. There's the devil can't read

(04:24):
your thoughts. Scripture is very clearon that the devil cannot read your thoughts.
The devil merely can see how youreact to the things around you,
and when you react to pain andwhat bothers you. And it's the old
analogy is like poking at somebody untilthey say ow. And once they say

(04:45):
ow, he makes mental note that'swhere you want to press. That's the
soft spot, that's the sore spot. And the enemy will continue to poke
at you that way. Yet,Scripture says in First Corinthians, chapter ten,
verse thirteen, there's never going tobe any temptation to overcome you that
is above that of what God canprotect you from. So God will not

(05:09):
allow you to be tempted beyond thatwhich you are able, so says Scripture.
So the devil that old saying,you know, speak of the devil
and he shall appear is because thedevil only knows when he's talking about there's
not The devil can't read your thoughtsand interact with you in that way,

(05:30):
but he can make it appear thatway by the tells that you give.
Just like you know, you seethese poker guys and they talk about the
tells. The tells that they haveare little things, whether they're very slight,
and you know, people that workfor law enforcement know these. There's
certain tells as well when someone's lying. Certain things that you do that you

(05:53):
react to, that show others,including the enemy, what you like and
don't like, and what hurts youdoesn't and what makes you angry and what
doesn't and all of these things.And by doing that, he makes a
list of these things, knows howto make you jump when doing it.
And that's why in scripture it saysresist the devil and he shall flee.

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Do not give into those things,do not give into the temptation, do
not bow to the those things,and don't make them know. Don't make
your weaknesses known to the enemy allthe time. React always when you feel
that point of weakness, you react, and you you say John, you
say that you give it to God, and that the power is in God,

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and that God is your strength,and you don't give it into the
hands of the enemy because the enemyis not ammugniient, is not omnipotent,
and has none of the omni attributes. That's why when people refer to the
devil as God's arch enemy, it'sincorrect. Arch means opposite and equal,
but that is not true of theenemy, not equal by any stretch of

(07:01):
the imagination. Chris, Welcome tothe Jesus Christ Show. Hey, thanks
for taking my call, my pleasure. I'm it's really starting to enjoy the
show since I gave it some time. Oh, I appreciate that. I
know it takes a little getting usedto, but I appreciate it. Hey,
I had a conversation with someone whois of the Seventh day Adventist faith,

(07:25):
and apparently they are the church thatshe goes to. They believe that
the Antichrist is not a man,but a system, maybe like a godless
form of government, maybe like whatsome people call the New World Order.
And I've always been raised that it'sa man, So I assume maybe I
can get you to, yeah,shed some light on that. Well,

(07:46):
the Seventh Day Adventists, and wedon't. This program mostly focuses on those
things that unify the body of Christ. But in this case, I do
want to point out that that concept, although it does permeate other parts of
Christianity, and there is some controversyto some about Seventh Day Adventists and l

(08:07):
g Why and their beliefs. Soputting that aside for a moment, to
look at the heart of your question, I will say that there are two
major focuses when it comes to theanti Christ, and if you hang tight,
I'll explain what they are, whatthe difference between the spirit of the
Antichrist is and the anti Christ himselfin just a second. So a question

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about the Antichrist. Is the antiChrist a man or is the anti Christ
a spirit or an attitude well,or maybe an organization or something like that.
It's good to always be on alertfor those things that are anti God,
and I think that that's important asa general rule. The spirit of

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the anti Christ is a term thatis used to describe essentially a condition,
a spiritual condition about an attitude ofpeople that don't believe in God. So
really that's like the spirit of theAntichrist is an attitude reference on John two

(09:16):
eighteen and twenty two one John fourthree that it talks about the spirit of
the Antichrist, this attitude of thosethat won't confess Christ as Lord. And
in that case, when these arepeople that reject me, that don't love
me, don't want to know me, don't care about me, and that
attitude permeates. Some people will goas far as to say that that false

(09:41):
belief systems, those that would fallinto the non Christian cult category would be
part of the spirit of the Antichrist. So that's one thing. However,
when you look at the references inscripture about the actual anti Christ, it
seems to be talking about an individual, and there's no way to really get

(10:07):
around that, and that specific specificnessof the terms used points to that it
is a man. Even the OldTestament references in Daniel seven, verse eight

(10:28):
and verse twenty two, and Zachariahchapter eleven, verse seventeen talks about this
concept but refers to one as theone with horns, and then in zach
Riat refers to the worthless shepherd,so all using terms that are talking about

(10:50):
a man. Second, Thessalonians twothree describes an evil person who will stand
in opposition to God and God's people, And so all of these different references
tend to point towards an individual,so that the Antichrist is an individual,

(11:15):
a person who has power both politicallyand spiritually. So those things need to
be separated. The concept of thatit's going to be an organization really doesn't
show up truly in scripture in thatsense that would fall more into the spirit
of the Antichrist than it would theanti Christ himself spoken about in scripture.

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So those two things have to bedifferentiated. And there is some specifics about
what's going to take place and whatto look for, but really it's a
general attitude of rebellion towards God andthe things of God and moving people away
from God. There are some thattalk about trickery, that it may come

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via via an instrument or someone whoappears to be the instrument of God,
but they would have to have greatpower as well, and that gets Christians,
you know, running around and lookingfor the anti Christ under every rock
and looking at every shadow, andI don't know that that's appropriate either,
nor is that productive. It's bestto understand that there will be some very

(12:22):
obvious signs that is swaying people awayfrom the concepts and the ideas of God,
swaying people away from the notion ofsalvation, swaying people away from those
things is when I think that thebeliever would absolutely perk up and take note.

(12:48):
Kimberly, Welcome to the Jesus ChristShow. Hi, good morning,
Thanks for taking my call, mypleasure. How can help you? I
have a question about you and myprayer because I've gotten some conflicting information and
I'm not really sure what's true.Oh that every time I commit a sin

(13:11):
that God cannot hear me because heturns his back on sin, and so
that every time I pray, Ihave to confess every one of my sins
before God hears my prayers. AndI'm wondering if that's true, because there's
sometimes spontaneous moments when you know,we just cry out to God, but

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I haven't confessed all my sins firstbefore saying help me, and does he
hear me then? And this isone of those things where it's humans putting
too much humanity in the process,as if God doesn't know your heart,
you don't need to say a wordto pray, you don't need to get

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on your knees. You don't evenneed to clasp your hands. It's not
like you're making an antenna so thatGod can hear you. God hears your
every thought, and God hears yourheart. If you are in a state
of rebellion, yes, that thatturns you from God, not God from
you. That turns you from Godbecause you're in a state of rebellion.
God is a pillar. God doesnot move. God is unchangeable. So

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if you don't see God in frontof you like he's been, it's because
you've turned your back on God,not God turning his back on you.
Having said that, there are peoplethat get it caught up in oh,
well, you've got to do this. You got to do that. Prayers
should not be a contortion. Prayershould be an honest bearing of your soul
to God, a communication with theFather. And although in Matthew you read

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about when I say prayer like thisand they people refer to it as the
Lord's prayer, that's kind of atemplate for prayer. If you go through
it and you start reading in Matthewand you look at the structure of it,
it gives you a basic structure ofyou should pray, and you know,
and that's why I say pray likethis. It's not saying, you

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know, say this prayer over andover again. It's saying pray like this
because it's giving. It's giving itsstructure to prayer, and if you listen
to it, it's it goes kindof like this, our Father who art
in heaven, Hello be thy name. You're recognizing God as God, and

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that he is holy, Thy kingdomcome, Thy will be done on earth,
as it isn't in heaven. You'rerecognizing that God is not only the
God of heaven, but the Godof earth, and that the promise that
he said the his kingdom will comein heaven is a promise that he will
keep. Then he goes on tosay, give us this day our daily

(15:48):
bread. And this was my wayin this prayer of saying to remind you
that you should ask for those thingsthat you need, not just those things
that you want. Give us thisday our daily bread, and then goes
on to say, and forgive usour debts, as we also forgive our
debtors. So teach us to forgivethose who have wronged us, and please
wrong me. So at that pointyou're kind of asking for forgiveness. That's

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you know, that's not a confessionper se. But this is showing you
kind of the building blocks of agood prayer. It doesn't mean God won't
hear you. So like if youforget, that's the old the old joke
about you know, dear Lord,protect my house, protect my family.
We live at thirteen thirteen Mockingbird Lane. Oh, I mean thirteen twelve Mockingbird

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Lane, And like God's going,oh okay, well I already sent the
blessing over to thirteen thirteen, SoI guess, I guess you're just you're
out of luck there. That's notthe way it works God, That's it's
not the way God interacts with hiscreation. It's more about you being aware
and not trying to hide your sin, because as you'll read throughout scripture,

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it says that he who thinks hedoesn't sin is ignorant. You're lost in
that. And if you're lost inthat, then yes, you will be
disconnected from God. But it's notlike it's a key to opening up God's
ear by confessing, like there's somesort of mechanical process you have to go
through. As we read the prayerthat I said, and pray this way

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in Matthew six. Really, I'mpointing at a structure of prayer. To
remember to put God above all things, remember that there's hope in heaven.
To remember that God gives you thethings that you need, to remember to
ask for forgiveness, to push thosethings from you into the hands of God,
and to be willing to do thatfor others. Those are the things

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that are our important parts of theprayer. But don't feel like, oh
I forgot to say, you know, Lord hear my prayer, or Lord
forgive me, or I confess mysin or something in that that somehow you're
going to get booted out of theprayer. Cue on a technicality, you
understand the difference there, I do. Yeah, thank you so much everything

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you just said. It has beena great comfort. Oh wonderful, And
then you go in peace, Kimberly, and prayer is such a wonderful and
romantic and spiritual and lovely communication tobe connected with your God that sometimes I
think the structure that's attached to ittakes away from its beauty. It's spontaneity,

(18:26):
the reality of it, and itbecomes like this potion where you're kind
of trying to concoct something or somehowwoo God or get his attention, like
the flowery speech, Oh God sopowerful. There's a monty Python skit that
you love them or hate them isquite brilliant where it talks about prayer,

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and really it's not mocking God atall. It just mocks Christians or believers
that get wrapped up in certain thingsand make make it about something altogether different.
Again, man always tries to injecthimself into the equation. You are
always trying to say, Oh,what is my part in here to make
God? God? God doesn't needyou in that sense. I will tell

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you this one of the most beautifulanalogies I've heard about why God allows people
to interact in the salvation process andall of these things. The analogy is
given about about baking a cake orworking in the garage. Now, it
could be don't get on the analogy. Well is it a man making the

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cake or a woman making a cake? Doesn't matter. A parent is making
the cake and a parent is workingin the garage and the child wants to
help. Now, the parent knowsgood and well that if the child interacts

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in this situation that there will beflower all over the place, WD forty
all over the place. It'll bea mess, it'll be harder to clean
up, it'll take longer to accomplish. But it's the beauty is not just
about the task at hand. It'sabout the interaction with the child. It's
about connecting with the child. Soman tries to like the child, keep

(20:18):
interjecting themselves as if somehow they're neededin the process of it all, and
you're not. God can do itall without you. God asks you to
participate. God wants you to participatebecause I love you and I want to
spend time with you. I wantyou to be a part of the process.
I want you to experience it.But like in prayer, where the

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assumption is, oh, well,I got to do this, or I
got to contort, I've got tomake my magical prayer antenna and praying on
your knees is a wonderful, lovelysign of humility. It's not for God,
it's for you to remind you.Putting your hands together is not just
an antennae. It's to remind you. Nothing is in my hands. I'm

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not even doing anything right now.There's no wrench, I'm not working,
I don't have my iPhone, I'mnot texting, I'm not doing anything.
My hands are closed together, showingGod that it's only about him right now,
that all my life is on holdto be with Him. Those are
symbols of ways to get you inthat mindset that you're focused upon your God,

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not somehow to get God's attention andgo, oh, look at that
one. They really are in theirprayer closet. Look at that. They
must love me so much. It'snot about wooing God. It's about getting
you in the right mindset to receivewhat God has for you. And these
churches that make it about a certainway of saying it or these types of
things. No, you do itin the name of God. You do

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it in My name, in theauthority given to you to even speak to
God. And you do it witha loving, open, pure and honest
heart. And God will hear you. Dean, Welcome to Jesus Christ.
Show hi, Jesus. I haveforgive my ignorance. I'm just now building

(22:12):
my relationship with you. Well,I had no religious if you will,
upbringing in my life at all.And now I'm forty four years old,
and and uh, I'm just nowyou know, like I said, building
my relationship with you and reading andtrying to learn as much as I can

(22:33):
excellent. And I have two questions, really, and i'd like you to,
uh if you will answer which one, whichever one you think is more
important. Okay. I was curiouswhy, you know the angels interacted with
humans in your time and before asmuch as they did, and why they

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don't now. And that was alsowondering who wrote scripture because you speak of
it so much, and is thereany chance that it was manipulated by man
in his own way? Wow?Okay, that's that's a lot to answer.
Let's let's see what we can getto here, Dean, because I

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think they're both very important questions.First, that the term for angel is
it actually means messenger, and sothink of it this way that prior and
they kind of both questions actually intertwinedwith each other a little bit more than
you might think. And that's becausethe messengers of God, angels, anglios,

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they they come to to give theword of God, to explain things,
to teach, to motivate at times, and all those things. It's
not first let me say, it'snot that angels don't interact with humans.
Today, that of course can takeplace, But is it different. Absolutely,
Why is it different. It's differentbecause as messengers, they were primarily

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focused on bringing the message that wasthat was where there was still oral tradition.
The Bible had not been finished inits current state, and it hadn't
been written down in its current state, so the message still had to be
brought to the people in ways thatwere powerful and that would solidify and verify

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the message as well. And that'sby angels. Nothing more, you know,
confirming than a super human or otherthan human being coming and interacting and
saying this is what God wants.So it was purposeful towards the creation and
execution of scripture. Now that scriptureis finalized, there isn't the necessity to

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have messengers back and forth. Soimagine it this way. If there was
a book being written and the messengerbeing like a bike messenger or something going
back and forth during the process ofthe book being written. Is for the
purpose of that book. Now,that's not angels the only purpose. There's
many other purposes to angels. Butin scripture, the reason why you see

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them and hear about them so muchis because of the interaction and the necessity
of special revelation that you have Godwanting to connect with people and to talk
with his creation and the Bible.His love letter had not been written yet,
not in totality. Second part ofyour question dealing with is man tampered

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with it? If man were totamper with scripture, they would remove things
that are in that are left in. Why would man rebel against the very
thing that he left in scripture?So if they were to manipulate scripture,
well, where did they manipulate it? What did they do? And why
would they write a book and builda book that's the very thing they don't

(25:59):
want to participate in. That argumenthas always been so strange. Well,
men wrote scripture, Well why wouldman write rules that they don't want to
follow? If a child put itto you this way, if you said,
okay to your seven year old,honey, here's a piece of paper
and a crayan, go ahead andwrite the grocery list, the child's not

(26:21):
going to go, okay. Let'ssee, we're gonna want some fiber.
Fiber is going to be important,that's for sure. I gotta put that
down a new chocolate write out,I do not want chocolate on that list.
That would be bad for me.Brussels sprouts check, broccoli check excellent.
Okay, looks like we've got everything. We're good. No, a

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child wouldn't do that. A childwould go, let's see chocolate hole hose,
gummy bears, and they would justkeep going, chocolate milk, and
keep going and keep going, keepgoing. Well likewise, man, I
know man is not a child,but man, if they were to write
scripture, would write it like achild would write their grocery list. It

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would be about everything that the childwants. It'd be about everything that man
wants. And scripture is not aboutthat. It's everything that God wants for
you. And that's what differentiates itand that's what solidifies it and makes it
stand out from every other work inhistory, every other religion, everything that
it sets itself apart and has powerin those statements, and that it isn't

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just done by man. Excellent questions. I know that our time goes by
very quickly, it really does onthe program. And I know that each
show carries its own weight of newtopics and ideas and things to think about.
And I want you, if you'renew to the program to continue to
give it an opportunity to show itself. It really is what it says it

(27:56):
is, and it's not about tryingto pull the wool over anybody's eyes.
It's really to talk about the truthin a way that's unique and hopefully engaging.
That's it. There's nothing hidden here, And as this week weighs down
on you, remember, more importantlythan all the craziness in the world,
are these words. I Am withyou Always. KFI AM six forty on demand