Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
For the time will come when they will not endorse sound doctrine, but after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves teachers. having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. And friends, I've got Dr. Greg Hennant here today with me, and my favorite book.
That he wrote is called Overcoming A Spiritual Truths for Overcoming Adversity by Dr. Greg Hennett. And I tell you what, Dr. Greg, there's times in life where it's pretty easy to be a Christian and we go to church and we're praying and we're reading our Bible and everything seems well. And then there's other times where we try to stand for the truth of God's word and it seems as if the world is standing against us.
And so one of those issues for me, and it's near and dear to my heart, Dr. Greg, is the issue of abortion.
Now, the Bible says, I knew you before I formed you. And people know that verse. It's from. from Psalm 139. But but I actually have a personal experience with this as well.
My dad, who passed away, and I love my dad, and so this isn't anything against him, but he wanted to have an abortion. Uh, when my mom was pregnant, and my mom said no, and so the reason I'm here is because the Lord helped my mom stand for the truth, right? But my mom also said no in the face of opposition, and she says, I'm gonna have this baby. I remember back in 2019, I went with my mom on a trip to Hawaii, and she said, Mike, she says, You've never thanked me for choosing life. And I looked at her and I said, I'm sorry, mom.
I said, Thank you for choosing life. And there are some people who say, You know, hey, the Bible, we need to stick to telling people about Jesus and sharing the gospel of Jesus and all of that. But these other issues, like abortion, we need to stay away from them. But I don't believe that to be the case at all. And, Dr.
Greg, you just left. And you were praying somewhere in Winston-Salem, is that right? Yes, across the street from the abortion clinic, there were a number of people who are on a 40-day walk for life. And we hold we held up signs, pray for the end of abortion. And we were praying as we walk back and forth, you know, for God in His mercy to convict women who are on their way to commit Murder.
to turn back even at the last minute. Yeah, because it's never too late. You can always, and we have been praying for years against abortion. And I think it was 2021 or so, the decision came down, it was Dobbs, where they actually overturned Roe versus Wade. But I'll also say this: is that just because they overturned it, there are still a lot of people getting abortions, so the fight is not over.
No, it's not over because it just took the issue back to the states instead of trying to federalize it and it removed that legal precedent.
So these issues now determine state by state. And there are many states, obviously, where abortion is still going on. It's still going on here in North Carolina. And so the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing. Right.
And so we need to continue. to pray against abortion and we need to continue to pray. That these women choose life. But what I like about a lot of these local pregnancy centers. is that not only do they encourage the women to choose life, But they help a lot of these women.
After they've decided to choose life, they help them with diapers, they try to help them financially how they can, and they do these other things as well. But here's the real kicker, and this is where Jesus comes in. Even if a woman decides to have an abortion, they will still minister to those women even after they have that abortion. And to me, that's what Jesus taught us. That's the love of God because abortion, while it is murder, is forgivable upon repentance.
And so it's really important for Mike, for your listeners to know that abortion can be forgiven. But if any Christian is thinking about having an abortion and planning to be forgiven, that's trying to game God and that's not wise and it's not walking in the fear of the Lord. And so. But it is important that we understand that God still loves people, though He hates. what they're doing when they Commit or support abortion.
And so it's just something we need to be aware of because it is a clear violation of his command: thou shalt do no murder. And one thing I would bring up to your viewers also, and is that there's a spiritual perspective of abortion. There is such a thing as spiritual abortion.
So we Christians tend to look at the pagan public and we think that Their sin of physical natural abortion is so horrible. And it is horrific, especially if you know the procedure by which an abortion is conducted, a medical abortion. It is horrific murder. And that's one issue. But I brought up at a meeting this morning what spiritual abortion is.
Spiritual abortion is when the Christian who has received the life and nature of God into his or her heart is then entrusted, like a woman who is pregnant with a child, we are entrusted with that divine life. What are we going to do with it? Will we stunt that life or will we grow that life by nurture and care Or will we turn back?
So to abort a natural birth is to cut it short. It never comes into this world. But to abort the life of Jesus is far more terrible. And horrific because we are preventing the life of Jesus from re-entering this world in our life and not only entering the world in us, Mike, but growing to maturity.
Now, as a teacher, that's my passion. I want to see Christians who have come into the kingdom grow up into Christ in all things.
So rather than having that life aborted by living carnally after you are saved, that is, and I mean by that, just living a natural life, not trying to grow in the Lord and in your knowledge of Him, or getting offended in the testing process and turning back, and you stop seeking the Lord and you become a discouraged Christian. When these things happen, that nature of Christ, that new life, is aborted, cut short. And its maturation is prevented. And that grieves Jesus terribly because he didn't die on the cross just for us to be saved, but for us to grow up into the bride of Christ as a corporate body and as individual members. of that body.
Absolutely. And so one of the things that I thought about is that what the world does is that if somebody is pro-choice, as they call it, or we call it pro-abortion, if somebody is pro-life. They want to commit violence against that person. Think Charlie Kirk. Right.
Think of, you can see what's going on in this country right now with the ICE agents. Oh, yeah. Yeah, out in Chicago, out in places like Portland. And there's going to be other cities as well, I'm sure, because I don't think President Trump is going to back down. But the difference between them and us is this.
In Matthew chapter 5, verses 38, Jesus said, This is the words of Jesus. He says, You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you that you resist not evil, but whosoever slaps you on one cheek, Turn the other also. And if any man sues you and takes away your coat, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go a mile, go with him too.
Give to him that asks you. And then it goes on to say, it says, you have heard that it had been said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven. For he makes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust as well. But if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Do not even the publicans do the same. And if you salute your brethren only, how are you any different than any others? Do not even the publicans do so. He says, Be ye therefore perfect. even as your father in heaven is perfect and so what i hear jesus saying there is this yes the world if you disagree with the world the world may hate you the more the world may want to be violent against you but we as christians dr greg yes we're pro-life yes we're pro-israel yes we're pro-marriage between one man and one woman yes we're pro-morality you're not supposed to have sex outside of marriage all that stuff but that that we deal with people who disagree with us in a different way instead of hating people instead of wanting to be violent against the people who disagree with us right and let me be honest disagree with us these are some pretty big issues these people say it's okay to murder a child in the womb yeah at any point many of them say huge issues huge issues but at the same time we have to stand for truth But we also have to love our enemies as well.
Sometimes it can be a little difficult. Yeah, and I think it will help your listeners and your viewers if we remember first that there go I before the grace of God. In other words, if had God not shown His mercy to me 50 years ago, I don't know where I would be, what sins I would have committed, even more egregious than I have since I had known the Lord. I've fallen and slipped and sinned at times in one way or another. And so we need to keep that in mind, and that sort of tones down our righteous indignation.
And so we hate the sin. But we still have mercy for the sinner. And God's love is an enduring love. In that text you just read, His love is so great, He can't satisfy it by loving His own only. It overflows, and He has love for those who do not know Him.
In that, he shows them mercy and kindness. He invites them into a relationship with him. And Unamaki ends that passage by saying, Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. And I think it shows something that when we're saved, the progression from when we come into Christ, and at that point, we still are largely carnal in the sense that we haven't learned spiritual living yet. And so, our tendency is to love our friends and hate those who hate us.
But the more we grow and grow in God's love, and His love grows in us, we can actually love our enemies, and that is the perfection that. And Jesus spoke of, it means a full growth. It means to be fully developed, to be Christ-like. Uh and and uh you know and to be Mature.
So that's what he meant by perfect. Yeah, and one of the things that I think of, and especially it's in the Old Testament, in the book of Proverbs, it says that a righteous man falls down seven times, but he says, but seven times he rises up. And so what most people... Spiritual resilience. Spiritual resilience, most people aren't like that.
Most people take a few blows and say, hey, I've had enough. I don't want to deal with this anymore. And there were even people in Jesus' ministry, Greg, who were following Jesus. They loved his miracles. They liked everything that he had to say until the hard stuff.
I mean, there was a point where Jesus said, anybody who loves me or anybody who wants to come after me must. Eat my flesh and drink my blood. And he was talking about spiritually. But after that, he gave that he gave a hard teaching. And after that, they said, We're not going to follow you anymore.
I've got a quote right here. It's one of my favorite quotes by Michael Jordan. He says, I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot, and I've missed.
I failed over and over and over again in my life. And he says, And that is why I succeed. You know, another quote that I love. Is by Theodore Roosevelt. And Theodore Roosevelt dealt with some tough times.
He was president, he had some great times, but he had some very difficult times as well. He actually lost his eyesight. He got into a boxing match. This guy was tough. He was a man's man.
But this is what he said. He said, it is not the critic. who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, Excuse me, who points out where the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better? He said the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes up short. Again and again, and the Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. Let me tell you, you may be out there praying for people and you want to see people healed. And, you know, there was a guy named Todd White. I don't know if you've heard of him or not, but he prayed this guy, I mean, he has really the gift of healing, goes out, pray, I mean, just sees some amazing stuff. What a lot of people don't know about Todd White is that the first thousand people that he prayed for, nobody got healed.
Yeah, that sounds like. The founder of the Vineyard Church, and I can't think of his name right now. John John John Wimber. John Wimber, yeah. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
He had the same experience. He was praying for a long time, and then he. Finally said to the Lord, you know, why is it that you're not hearing us? But he really called on the Lord, and then God began to really give them amazing miracles. He humbled himself, yes.
He did. And that was one of the things that Dr. Carson talked about this morning at Wednesday in the Word: He said, You have to humble yourself. Right. And, you know, there heard a story, it's from a book.
It's a fictional story, but it was about a violin player. And this violin player was the best in all of England. And he, I mean, the way that he could play the violin was just flawless. And everybody wanted to hear him, they wanted to see him, but he was scared to death. Of getting on the stage and performing in front of an audience.
And so finally, they put enough pressure on this kid, and he went out and he performed in front of the audience. And for an hour and a half, he just played flawlessly. And the crowd, even his critics, started cheering and going wild. And all he did was he was just looking around in the crowd and he was searching the crowd. He didn't even respond to their applause.
And finally, in the balcony, he saw his music teacher. He saw his master. And when he saw his music teacher smiling and applauding, he relaxed and he started to respond to the applause. And so that's kind of to me, that's the Christian life. We're not, we don't have a fear of men, we don't have a fear of men, we have a fear of God.
Reverence of God, and if we're more worried about what men have to think than what God thinks, then we've got a problem. And our last, uh, last. A show that we did, we referenced Proverbs 29:25, where it says that the fear of man is a snare. And just like all of us, with that little kid who was looking for his master, if we only seek the approval from our master. Then, what everybody else has to say, it's not going to matter as much.
It's like water off a duck's back. Then you're going to live a joyful life, a peaceful life, a life of true contentment, because Jesus is really easy to please when you want to please him. When you, as Paul said, do whatever you do. Every day As unto the Lord, as an offering unto Him. He will receive it, He will accept it.
And when you have His smile of approval and His well done, thou good and faithful servant, either verbally or by the smile of His favor on your life and the peace of His presence when you seek Him in the morning, you know, I don't care about anything else. That's it. You could have a thousand people curse me and try to verbally send me to the abyss. But if Jesus is pleased with me, I know I've done his will that day. I have his peace.
His word is open to me. The Spirit is speaking to me, and I know it's accurate. I'm praying in secret and I'm seeing answers openly. I mean, man, that's the rich life. Yeah, and so we love other people.
Yes. But at the same time, we also stand for truth. And we talked about this a little bit in the last show, or a lot in the last show, that one of the issues that, or to me, the issue of the day right now is standing for Israel. And there was a study that was done, and it said that support for Israel is down. And you say, well, that's among the Democrats.
Yes, amongst Democrats, the support for Israel is down. But it's not just the Democrats. That's right. It's the Republicans as well.
So we stand for Israel. But you said as well that just because we stand for Israel does not mean that Israel is perfect. That's right. Because they're not perfect. Remember, they're still in the fallen state.
They're a pluralistic nation. They only have about 14 to 15 percent who are what we call religious Jews. We call them Orthodox. And they, of course, have not received Yeshua HaMashiach. They've not received Jesus.
So the whole country really is in spiritual darkness except for the Christian churches there. And there are many Christian churches there in Israel. You just don't hear about them. But the nation is in darkness. And so while we recognize them as a fulfillment of prophecy and God's divine plan is being fulfilled, that doesn't mean their day-to-day decisions are always holy or righteous.
So, you know, we can support the state of Israel unswervingly and yet say, well, on a particular day, I don't believe that they did the right thing here or there. But that should not change the fact that we wholly support Israel and we never condemn Israel even if we have to criticize a decision or action they take. Yeah, I was actually praying not too long ago, and I was asking the Lord to show me something in the Bible, and I opened up, and it might have been Psalm 122, I'm not sure, 122.2.6, but it said. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Right, that is.
Right. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And so, yes, we do stand for Israel. And it's getting harder and harder now. And so there is something called covenant theology, or some people call it supersessionism or replacement theology or fulfillment theology.
I just want to be able to ask you this. Why would they say that the church replaces Israel? What are their reasons for saying that?
Well, it goes back to the early days of church history during the Jewish persecution. The Jews were first to persecute the church, and so a natural animosity arose within the church for the Jews. That's very understandable. Also, you know, Paul made a statement, and the exact reference escapes me right now, where he talked about the bad behavior of the Jews. He said they don't understand the scriptures that are read to them every day.
And he said, and they've stoned their prophets, you know, and he goes on and on. But he also wrote how God still loved Israel and they were enemies of the gospel, but they were still beloved of God and still in a covenant. The covenant abides for them, not a covenant of salvation. But he keeps his promises for them, and he's still fulfilling prophecies for them.
So, but to your point there, covenant theology, as one of the parts of covenant theology, is the doctrine called supersessionism. And this teaches that the church supersedes or takes the place of, literally, that term means to take the chair of another.
So it's teaching that the church has replaced Israel. And that is false. We have actually temporarily taken their place in the Olive tree of God, Romans 11 talks about that 9 through 11. But Paul is very clear that after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, Then the Redeemer comes to Zion and to all who turn from iniquity in Israel, and yea, all Israel shall be saved. And he goes on to explain, Because the gifts and covenants of God are without repentance, and during that time whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
So, Paul is very clear in explaining that yes, the Jews are under the wrath of God now, but because of rejecting Jesus, but they're still in the covenant. And so, we should love them because God loves them, though they are enemies of the Christian gospel. And as I said to you during the break, the Old Testament in the book of Micah, chapter 5, sees the ruler of Israel being smitten by the Jews, and later they receive him in a time of travail. And Hosea chapter 5, 4 and 5 speaks of the Jews rejecting their Lord and in a time of affliction. They receive him.
Jesus said in Matthew 23 to the Jews, as he left, having castigated the Jews for the final time, he said, You will not see my face until You say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And then in Romans 11, Paul said that after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then. At that time, The Redeemer will come to Zion, and all Israel shall be saved.
So, and because they're going to receive Jesus at that time.
So, these are two texts from the Old Testament, two from the New. Which plainly predicts two things: one that has happened, one that's yet to happen. It predicts the rejection of the Jewish Messiah by the Jewish people. That has occurred historically, we know that. And it also predicts the coming Repentance of the Jews coming under conviction for rejecting their Messiah and receiving him in the last days.
And we believe. that that will occur in the tribulation period. uh partly because of the tremendous impact of the rapture of the church. which would be the most stupendous miracle in the history of the world to date except for creation, And so the shock waves that are sent first to Israel will be. off the charts.
Because they know what we will have said. They will know that we have believed in Jesus and we have said, Look, Jesus is your Messiah. We've received him. He's coming back. But he's going to take us to heaven, to the place he has prepared for us.
And when we go, they're going to be shocked. That'll be a big factor in converting many of the Jews during that period. And then that will continue through the seven years of tribulation. And when Jesus returns, Zechariah sees a fountain opened. And the Jews are wailing.
and fasting. In grief, and they're ready now to receive their Lord. And so we have some exciting things that are coming. God still loves the Jewish people, they are in the covenant. with God, the covenant holds, it's not been abrogated or canceled, but they're under the curse of the law because they have rejected the Lord.
And when they turn, they will come into the same new covenant which we are in now, We received that new covenant when the Jews rejected Jesus. We as Gentiles have entered into that new covenant where we have a new heart and a new spirit from the Lord, and His law is now written in our hearts. They will receive that same covenant in these last days. Yeah, that's right. And so, one of the things that I've heard, Dr.
Greg, and I'll let you point out this in a second, but what Jewish people, if a Jew goes to his rabbi and asks his rabbi about Isaiah 53, they will not want to say, they don't even want to talk about it. Because Isaiah 53 very clearly points to Jesus, and this is what it says: Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, but when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes were upon him. We are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
And if you'll just in that same text, Mike, read the last three or four verses there where it talks about the extreme beating of chapter 52, the last verses of 52 that lead up to that. First statement where you began. Sure. And it describes the terrible beating that Jesus took, which left him in an inhumane position. Form or appearance.
Yeah, and it says in Isaiah 52, verse 13, it says, Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. As many. And that refers to the glory of his earthly ministry. And now it swiftly turns.
As many were astonished at thee, that his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. If I can add something there, that means his face was so beaten and swollen through the terrible beating, he didn't even look like a man, and his body was so brutally lashed. Those who. who are listening to may not know what the scourge actually does, but it rips your flesh out, parts of the bone and the muscle. It is a brutal beating.
And so he didn't even look humane. And so that's why he's saying that. But if you look to Jesus, if you surrender your life to him, He will love you. He will save you. Yes, he will.
And I ask you to do that today. We're out of time, but Dr. Greg, I want to thank you for coming on, if not for God. All right, for my YouTube channel. If not for God with mighty wick Just like subscribe and hit that notification bell.
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