Today on Real Life Radio. Watch out, every one of you. Watch. He's saying, every one of you who have a Bible and you're listening, Jesus is saying, I'm gonna hold you accountable to know the truth. This is real life.
Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's Word, the Bible. Did you know there's an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com.
Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It's a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today's headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening now. It's not just about information. It's about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what's happening around you.
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Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Parables of Jesus and a message today called The Parable of the Fig Tree, Part 3. A parable is a picture story painted by Jesus that makes the truth of the Bible crystal clear. But with this parable, it's important that we take our time by laying down a firm foundation for its message. You see, this is one parable that God really wants us to understand. There's a real spirit of apathy that's been growing in the world about the gospel of Christ.
And if we miss this parable, we stand the chance of missing out on our eternal life in heaven with our Lord.
So today Pastor Jack teaches that we really need to be careful of our own apathy, as we've been talking about Christ's return now for years. And because that's true, our faith should become even stronger, knowing that his return for us is ever closer.
Now with his message called Parable of the Fig Tree, Part 3. Here's Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs. Father, we pray right now. For the anointing of your word, I am excited about tonight. And I hope, Lord God, that it comes across really cool because I love this stuff.
So, Lord, give us understanding now. We pray in Jesus' name, and all God's people said. Amen. Grab your Bibles tonight and turn, if you would, to Matthew, Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24. And as you're turning there, you guys, I know that you, it's possible that you were not here for the previous studies in this particular parable, the parable of the fig tree.
And we're really getting a lot of mileage out of this particular parable for a good reason. It's this parable that Jesus, and you'll hear about it tonight, Jesus stresses beyond all other parables, he announces that we need to know this parable. He issues an edict. He lays down an order. He's going to say to us, know this parable.
It's so vitally important. Above all parables, know this parable. And we're going to see tonight why that's so important. The parable of the fig tree. And so, listen, I don't want to go.
Backing up and spending time in where we've already been. If you missed those studies, then you can catch them online and you can learn more about the foundations that we've laid thus far. But listen, tragedy is this: the parable of the fig tree deals with future events. And if tonight we were hosting a prophecy conference, Uh a lot of young people wouldn't have come tonight here. People don't want to hear about The future.
From the Bible. They'd rather hear future stuff from, I don't know what, but the Bible, people don't want to hear about that regarding future stuff. Listen, there are people who attend churches who do not want to hear what the Bible says about the future. They say things like, it scares them. They say things like I don't want to know what's coming or whatever it might be.
And there's this tendency on top of the fact that the Bible warns us that in the last days before Christ returns, there'll be an overall atmosphere of apathy. And how will you know? The Bible tells us that people will not care about end-time events. And so, if we were hosting a prophecy conference tonight, here's the sad reality: most people in the room tonight would have been gray-haired people. That's a fact.
I speak at prophecy conferences all over North America. And when I go to speak, The room is full of gray-haired people.
Now, I love gray-haired people. My hair is turning grayer by the day. The thing is, this, though, why is that the case? If we're closer to end times and we are, if we're seeing more end time stuff happening, and we are, then don't you think that more and more people would be flocking to the teaching of God's prophetic word to know what they ought to be doing? And yet that's not happening.
Why? Apathy. Apathy. And it's also very cool, it's very vogue in young churches to not teach on Bible prophecy. And the reason why people say that, I'm going to make enemies tonight.
But this is the truth. The reason why many young ministries today do not teach on it is because. The pastors are completely ignorant of end-time scriptures or the doctrine of what is called eschatology of the Bible. They're not taught it in seminary, they're not taught it maybe in their denominations, they don't know. The futuristic Portions of God's Word.
And you cannot be like that. As a church, you cannot Do that. Why? Because look. The Bible warns us over and over again.
2 Peter 3, verse 1. 2 Peter 3:1 says, Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets. Prophets. And of the commandments Of us The apostles of the Lord Jesus, or the Lord and Savior, referring to Jesus, verse 3, knowing this.
So you're you're gonna know this. that scoffers That first of all, scoffers will come. In the last days, Walking according to their own lusts, that's an amazing word because it means that in their lifestyles, off the stage, they live to satisfy their own pleasures. And this is what they say. Where is the promise of his coming?
Jesus isn't coming back. My grandmother said that stuff. Be careful of that attitude. Revelation 19, verse 10. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of what?
Prophecy. Isaiah 42 verse 9, Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Again, Isaiah 46 verse 10. It is God who declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done. This is what sets the biblical God apart from all of man's fabricated gods.
The biblical God can tell the future in advance. It's called prophecy. And then, of course, John 14:29. Jesus said, and now I have told you before it comes to pass. That's prophecy.
That when it comes to pass, you might believe. All of a sudden, we are told by Jesus Christ that one of the great keys to having great faith and believing is knowing that the Word of God can speak to you about future events, and you can know them in advance that when it happens, what happens? Your faith is increased. Jesus said that is imperative regarding your belief. Your faith will be stronger if you know what the Word of God says, and when things begin to happen, you can increase your faith.
I pray that tonight, by the time this message comes to an end, you will have a greater commitment to the exactness of the Bible. You'll have a greater appreciation to how reliable your Bible is, and I absolutely love it. And so listen, Matthew 24, verse 1 and 2 is where it starts, and then it goes down to verse 4, which is, I want to stress this, look at it, the whole chapter. On the All of it discourse. It says then Jesus went out and departed from the temple.
And his disciples came to him to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said to them, Do you not see all of these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down. And that was fulfilled in 70 AD. And I'm not just saying so.
We not only showed you pictures a couple of studies ago, but it is a fact of world history. Verse 3.
Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, first question, when will these things be? Second question, what will be the sign of your coming? Third question, and the end of the age, or the end of the world as we know it, the end of the age. And Jesus in verse 4 answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you. And that's the thrust of this parable for me tonight.
Take heed that nobody deceives you. Jesus says to the listener, watch out, every one of you. Watch. He's saying, every one of you who have a Bible and you're listening, Jesus is saying, I'm going to hold you accountable to know the truth. God says, I gave you a brain, want you to use it.
The data is there, use your head, engage your mind and know. What's coming? Tremendous. You guys, I want to put this slide back up on the screen. We gave this to you a couple weeks ago, and I want you to understand that this parable deals with six profound realities.
And this parable is so important because why? Number one, it's the issue of preparedness. Preparedness. You need this. I need this because we need to be prepared.
This parable teaches us to be prepared. Secondly, that we would be vigilant. We would say on guard. Thirdly, it's the issue of doctrine, Bible doctrine. Don't let anyone ever rob you of your Bible doctrine.
What does the Bible teach? No matter what you hear from anybody. Match what you hear against the Bible. Fourth, the issue of deception. The Bible warns us that we're the ones responsible to not being deceived.
Number five is the issue of biblical authority. Did you know that Jesus says that the Old Testament is in fact the very Word of God? We'll hit this again tonight in our study. But remember that in your margins of your Bible or in your note-taking, mark that down. Jesus.
declared that the Old Testament Is God's word. It doesn't contain God's word. It is God's word. This is vitally important. You're listening to real life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And for now, let's get back to our teaching. Once again, here's Pastor Jack. Number six, it's the issue of.
Verse 33, the it is. Is the second coming of Jesus Christ? Second coming, not the rapture, second coming. Vitally important.
So church, as we get into this, This might be very boring for some of you.
Some of you, as we get into this, you're going to, I hope, get excited about it. But I'm going to ask you to take some notes because it's going to get, I think, pretty, I think, fun. If you look at Matthew chapter 24, focus on verse 15 and circle verse 15. This is key. Because right in the middle of this chapter, Jesus says something.
that will that will set off immediately the Bible students. And this is cool. Because every one of us are to know this. We live in an amazing age, mind you. We can have Our Bibles on our phones, we have them on our iPad.
pads or we have the Bible is everywhere. And there's no excuse why we're not reading it. And that includes the book of Daniel. Do you remember your homework was to read the book, or specifically Daniel chapter 9? Why?
Matthew 24, 15. Listen to what Jesus says. Therefore, when you see, when that generation of people, When those reading this portion of Scripture see The abomination of desolation. Bracket that in your Bible. Spoken of by who?
Daniel the prophet. Standing in the holy place. You have to have a temple. To stand in the holy place. Whoever reads, let him understand.
Look at your Bible. This is absolutely, Jesus is saying, I'm gonna give you guys a key, Bible students. To understand what I'm talking about, Know the book of Daniel.
Now, his audience knew the book of Daniel. Those disciples, they were raised as Jewish boys. Growing up in the Hebrew scriptures, they knew the book of Daniel. But so do we. Jesus is saying: hey, in the future, 2,000 years down the road.
Make sure you know the book of Daniel. Regarding the abomination of desolation. There's going to be a time, Jesus is saying. that the prophets spoke about. When a temple will be rebuilt in Israel, Daniel 9 talks about Jerusalem.
and the Jewish people. This is fun. Why? Because here you are, 2,000 years removed from the time of Christ, nearly 3,000 years removed from the time of Daniel, and the Bible says, and gee, did this come true? Hmm, that in the 21st century there would be a Jewish nation, and Jews would have escaped.
Holocaust after Holocaust and still survive. even to the 21st century. And Jesus said, watch this. There'll be a day So everyone's attention goes up. What's he referring to?
I'm so glad you asked. Turn to Daniel chapter 9. Go to Daniel chapter 9 in your Bibles. and get your highlighter ready. Jesus sets the key interpretive Setting for Matthew 24 in the parable of the fig tree.
Daniel chapter 9, beginning to verse 21. Daniel is speaking. Yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel. The angel Gabriel looks like a man. Whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning being caused to fly swiftly reached me about the time of the evening offering.
That's three o'clock in the afternoon for a Jew. And he informed me and talked with me and said to me, Are you guys there? I can hear Bibles turning still. Are you there? Oh, Daniel.
I have now come forth to give you skill to understand. 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. Verse 24. Get your highlighter ready.
70 weeks Or 77s. are determined Preset. For your people Daniel was a Jew. Hebrew, right? Who's his people?
The Jewish people, and for your holy city, what would that be? If you're Jewish, what's your holy city? Jerusalem. And here's the key. Number one, To finish transgressions.
Two to make an end of sins. Three, make reconciliation for iniquity. Four. To bring in everlasting righteousness. Five, to seal up vision and prophecy.
6. To anoint the most holy. Verse 25. No, therefore, do you hear any wiggle room on that? It's a command.
Know, therefore, and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. Until Messiah the Prince. There shall be seven weeks. Or 7 times 7. In 62 weeks That would be 7 times 62.
The street shall be built ag again. and the wall, even in troublesome times or under difficult Circumstances. Verse 26. And or but After the 62 weeks The Messiah shall be cut off. Killed.
Are you Jew? Listen, don't raise your hand, but are you Jewish tonight? Daniel prophesied. That the Messiah of Israel would be killed. That goes against everything that a Jew is taught today.
And yet that's exactly what the Hebrew scriptures Say. He shall be Cut off or killed, but not for himself. And the people of the prince who is to come. This is the one who commits The abomination of desolation. Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, and the end shall be with a flood.
The word is army, not flood with water, will be with. A war, an army. Till the end. Of the war, desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm, that is the prince that's to come, not the Messiah, but the prince, he shall confirm a covenant with many for What?
One week.
Now don't let the word weak mess you up. It's hepstad in Hebrew. It simply means. One seven. Seven, seven minutes, seven hours, seven days, seven weeks, seven what?
It's. We know now from prophecy being fulfilled. That one week The word means One seven-year period of time. You'll see this in a moment. And I hope your hair just Stands up.
In a good way. But he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week. But in the middle of the week, And the five. Of a seven. He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering, and on the wing of abomination shall be, listen, one who makes.
Desolate. Translation, what does that mean? The abomination of desolation. Matthew 24, verse 15. You said, Pastor Jack, what in the world did I just read?
This is what you just read. I'm going to, in fact, In a moment, I'm going to put this up on the screen for you in simplicity. Watch this. And I'm gonna wrote this down. Paraphrasing it.
Watch this. Imagine God is now speaking to you or to Daniel. I will deal with you, Israel. regarding a special period of time totaling 490 years, the 70 weeks of Daniel. This is the tremendous.
Holy of holies of Bible prophecy. 77s turns out to be 490 years. Those years will come to you clearly. And In exact way. You won't have to guess.
But I will require of you to pay close attention to the age and to the time, to the culture of your day. Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, with his message called Parable of the Fig Tree, Part 3. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Parables of Jesus. It's a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was ministering right here on this earth.
And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Hey everybody, you know everybody here on the team thought it'd be kind of fun if you actually kind of saw or heard what goes on behind the scenes. After all, it's called real life and this is what we do. Take a listen. I have a good friend in Shiwasam.
She was in that movie, Twister. Oh, yeah. Remember that? I love that. Both of them.
She was a good friend. Her name was Rusty. And Rusty was in the very first opening scene when the tornado was coming through. And they had to get down into the shelter. Remember this?
There was a small family, and they had to get down into the shelter. The wind and the rain was amazing. And I said, I asked her, I said, I said, you look so scared. in those shots. And she said, Do you know why?
I said, Why? She says, I was scared. She said, They had a jet engine on the back of a tractor trailer. And they fired the jet engine up and sprayed water through the jet engine. This is really what they did.
And apparently, That's kind of the real deal. You know, 100 miles an hour winds, 150 mile-an-hour winds. It scares people. Yeah, I got to tell you, you know what? My respect goes out to those who live in Tornado Alley and Hurricane Land.
I'd rather have an earthquake any day.
Now, maybe that's conditioning. Maybe people in Florida are saying, Are you nuts? Give me a hurricane any day. No, you know what I like about earthquakes? In 60 seconds, you know exactly how it's going to turn out.
It was nothing or it was quite substantial. You don't have to. I mean, you don't have to worry about it. In fact, You don't have time to worry about it. It hits you.
You fall down. You get up. It's over. But yeah, absolutely crazy. But I got to tell you, storms, when you read the book of Job, you just got to get inside of a storm because God says that he is moving those things and he's cut a path for the lightning bolt, he says.
And I just love that. The grandeur of God in many ways for me is seen in a storm or a stormy sky. Love it. How do you prep when you look out and you see that stormy sky? We're being a picture painting here.
You look out in your life and you see the stormy sky and you go, oh, here it comes. How do you prepare for that? I think you should prepare for the stormy day every day. Oh, that's a good point. I just wish I practiced that regarding earthquakes.
I mean, my water heater is strapped down. I've got a lot of water to drink. We have, you know, like a year worth of food, that kind of stuff. But you just kind of have to be prepared in such a way that. You actually don't have to think about it because you've done that.
It's part of the routine.
So it kind of goes like this: I was recently back east. And I love humidity and I love hot weather. I love hot, humid weather. Everybody around me. They were like dropping like flies.
And part of the problem was they kept complaining about how hot it was. Oh, it's so sticky. And I told them, you know what? Can you guys just be quiet? And take on this little bit of counseling.
Embrace the sweat. Determine now, I'm gonna sweat today. I'm just going to sweat today. My clothes are going to be wet, but so is everybody else. We're going to be wet.
We're going to sweat. It's 99 degrees and it's raining outside. Love it. I mean, just love it. And so I think the same is true in life.
Life is going to throw its curveballs at us, but as believers, we know that nothing can come our way without God's permission and God's oversight. And so, whatever's going on, we can be still and just realize, you know what, this hurts right now. Or, this is expensive right now, or this is painful right now. But the Lord knows where I'm at, He's with me here. And we're going to get through this.
The season's going to change. And I know it doesn't feel like we're going to get on the other side of it. But, lo and behold, we can all attest to the fact. Guess what? We always get over onto the other side of it because God's faithful.
This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
