Looking Back on a Marketplace MIRACLE!

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. How could a Wall Street-trained financial wizard become a preacher, a talk show host, an author, a powerful speaker, an entrepreneur? He's all those things and so much more with his own national radio show. He's a renaissance man. He's on with me right now. His name is Dr. Richard Hamlet. God bless you, sir.

How do you handle a setup like that? You've got some big things to live up to, brother. Well, we have a big God. My only calling is to run errands for Jesus all around the world, and in our great country. The gospel is real, it's alive, and I know Jesus, I want other people to know him also.

That's great. America is on fire in so many bad ways, so many folks frustrated, so many folks scared to death of being sick. You've got people protesting, you've got buildings burning, you've got all kinds of racial tension, but the answer comes down to one thing.

This is what Richard Hamlet is passionate about and what I'm so glad to have him on. How would you bottom line this whole thing, the need for our country right now, sir? Well, you know, America is way through puberty and adolescence, and we're in full maturity after 200, almost 240 years, and we have now polarized from the original founders Judeo Christian principles and emphasis, and we have become a post-Christian country, sadly, Stu, based on the culture and what is going on within the populace. It's a sad time, but it's an optimistic time. It's a sad time because those of us who are baby boomers like yourself and me, actually, you're the next generation probably, but even, you know, in our lifetime we have, you know, early on we saw the wonderful influences of the gospel and Christianity and the blessing among all people, righteous and unrighteous, and now we are faced with anti-gospel, really anti-Christ assaults by people who no doubt in their own minds mean well for their mission and passion, but it's misdirected. And the gospel needs to be proclaimed like never before, so that's what I'm all about, ministering in the marketplace, outside the church walls.

I love it, and everyone, you got to find this guy, he's got an awesome show, he's had some phenomenal guests, I'm not going to drop any names here, you know, but he's got great guests, he's got a great show, he's on all over the country on a lot of stations, and I tell you, Dr. Hamlet, can you give us a little bit of your background, your journey to coming to know Christ? You have a fascinating story. Not many people's resumes are as bespeckled as yours is, with all kinds of life experience, education, training, connected with Dr. Alford, one of those powerful preachers.

I'll tell you, man. Yes, well, I'll try to be brief here. Yeah, I was born into a Christian family, and my great grandfather actually was a Presbyterian minister, I grew up in a Presbyterian church, I learned the catechism and the scripture at six years old, I was, you know, going to church, and I went to a Billy Graham associate crusade, and when I was 10 years old in North Alabama, one of the associate evangelists on his team, and that night the Holy Spirit prepared me, I heard the gospel clearly, and I saw I was a sinner, and I needed a savior, and wow, I repented and believed, and ran down the stadium steps, and went out into the field, and had the counseling, still had the little booklets that Billy Graham, BGA sent me on the follow-up, because they did it right, and then from that point on, you know, it's been an incredible journey, you know, I was trained as a financier, I was a deacon, Bible study teacher in the church for many years, and then when I was 36, God specifically set me aside for this New Kingdom business, 23 years now, since I was ordained for pastor, a pastor in two churches, but then 18 years ago, my wife and I founded Global Ministries Foundation, with my desire to have a businesses missions type model, with an operating foundation, and gospel proclamation, training of pastors, and what having actually businesses where we can reach people with the gospel directly outside the church walls, and so we've been doing that for 18 years, in almost 100 countries now, preaching the gospel to the nations, my wife teaches chronological Bible studies, effective with so many ethnicities, and even in our country now, so you know, I'm the businesses missions guy, and you know, that's where I came from, but you know what, Stephen Alford was my mentor, he was on the ordination council, he had his training center here in Memphis, that now our ministry purchased five years ago, after he went to heaven, and we now train pastors all around the world, come, and Angelus, his son David Alford, is my chief teacher there on the campus, still biblical proclamation, but Dr. Stephen said this, and this is very important for our listeners to hear, he said there's no dichotomy between what the world, or even the church calls sacred, and then secular, and he took some heat from that by people saying, oh he's watering things down, you know, we have the church, and then we have the other church, and then we have the other worlds, like you know, Sunday we go to church, and in the next six days we, you know, we act like we're in another world, like we have some kind of spiritual bipolar posture, and he said no, no, no, he said out in the secular mode, that's all of God's general mercy, that's all God, God is the creator of all that, his common grace, and we as Christ's church need to take that gospel, and integrate it like, you know, weave it like a thread within whatever we're doing, whatever our calling, being salt and light, and so it made quite an impact on me early on as I was training, coming from a Wall Street guy, a trained guy in investment real estate, over into, you know, the pastorate, and and then as now as a pastor evangelist all around the world, so that's the purpose of Ministering the Marketplace, our program is really to bring that out, we're in our sixth year, and the thing I like about it is I have someone in the program like you, I mean, when you were on a few weeks ago, a month ago, we had some of our highest ratings, now that may be a ministerial exaggeration, but you know, you're one of the big hitters we had. Well, it's not the first time I've heard that kind of compliment, sir, I've got to be honest.

Anyway, so I took a little more time probably than I needed to in five minutes there. No, that's powerful, yeah, I love it, and your program, what's that? Yeah, yeah, it's a diversified, I have a diversified type bio, and I've been blessed to have good education, both at high levels, both in ministry and theology, and then of course in finance, and as a financial professional, so you know, but it's all about doing the Father's business, which I love the term kingdom business, that's what I am, I'm like Amos, God called me in midlife, and he was, I called him the Ben Cartwright of Israel, then he was a landowner, a real estate owner, had flocks, agriculture, God said, I want you to go preach the word of God to the world and into my people, the other tribe, 12 tribes that have left, have left the essentials of worshipping me and following me as my chosen people, and so it was midlife, and then he took off, and you know, that's kind of what happened to me. And there's this, there's a groundswell of revival and movement in the marketplace, this kingdom business concept, talk about that, talk about ministry in the marketplace, your program with Richard Hamlet, which I've been on, so many amazing guests you've had on over the years, but talk about the need for people out there that we see our job so often is divorced from our walk with God, as Dr. Alford set you on this biblical path, track of sacred, secular, no divide, challenge us in that area, how do we need to wake up, how do we need to take, you know, we exaggerate saying things like, well, I'm on the company's clock, so I'm not going to stand on my cubicle and preach Hellfire and Brimstone, but Dr. Hamlet, there's a way to do this, and you're training people in this as a Wall Street guy, as a financial, as a guy who's run mega businesses and pastored churches, I mean, you're living this reality all the time, right?

Right, and so I think it comes down to this. For too long, there's been this differentiation in the church between, you know, what the clergy is supposed to do, who are the professional ministers, you know, within a church structure, ecclesiastical structure, and then what the laity should do, and there's been this divide that really has moved in a perverted way to where the laity, the regular members of Christ's church, confessional church, they, you know, they love God, and most of them are, you know, hopefully are born again, the ones are not, maybe they will become regenerate church members while the gospel one day, but, you know, they all see their pastor and their elder, the bishops, you know, and they're, you know, preaching and doing the church ministry, and they give maybe their tithes, and they think, well, you know, they'll do all the sharing of the gospel. The great commissions for them, I mean, that's, you know, the initial 11, obviously, they were apostles, 12 honest Judas, and that's the model of the day. There couldn't be anything more unscriptural, because when Jesus said in Acts 1 that we are witnesses, he was talking about anybody who is a follower of Christ, that we are to be witnesses in our marketplaces, we are to be witnesses wherever we are, and we are to reach people that the, quote, clergy would never reach, because they're in a different platform and a different service, which is important. You know, I'm a pastor evangelist, but I, you know, I call myself a kingdom businessman, because in my role, I've had them come together with them in my special colony. Not everyone's like that, but on my program, I'll have doctors, attorneys, teachers, sports figures, media magnets like you and, you know, and your father are, and others who come on, and then I'll have pastors, I'll have the ordinary Joe Blow who you never hear of, you'll never know of, but on that interview, you will hear, the audience will hear how God is uniquely using every Christian, and it starts this, every morning we get up and you should pray to God today, prayer divine appointment, God today, I'm open, I'm willing to share Christ, the tract, gospel nugget, something that is encouraging, pointing somebody to the scripture, and yes, we need to be faithful to our employers, we never know Christian employees should ever steal time from their employer, and I say that as an employer myself, but it is a matter of being able to interweave that gospel conversation as God, the Holy Spirit, opens their hearts, and there's a conversation, they started the Q&A, they just say, asking somebody, how you doing, I want to pray for you, but it needs to be intentional, Stu, it will not happen.

There's two types of evangelism, personal evangelism, one is personal evangelism, or intentional evangelism, I say, the other is no evangelism. We will never share Christ or be witnesses unless in our mind we're prayerfully asking God to lead us to others, and preparing the way, and being ready to activate whenever that time comes. So it's exciting times, I pray that God would, during this crisis time of COVID-19, may God show every confessional fall of Christ, every holy committed fall of Jesus. Amen.

There are people now considering their mortality like never before, and the disease is horrible, the disease only kills the body. Sin infected us with the fall from Adam, original sin, and actual sin, we are all separated from God with that fatal disease of sin, and only Jesus Christ has the remedy, and He is the remedy, and so He is the way, the truth, and the life, and we need to just point people to Him. Amen, and we're going to point you some more to Him when we come back with Dr. Richard Hamlet.

You won't want to touch that dial, we'll be right back. Stu Epperson Truth Talk. This is the Truth Network. Why do so many Christians hate their jobs?

Maybe because they don't see the compelling command of Christ to go into that workplace and be a light. Well, this man does. His name is Dr. Richard Hamlet. He is a talk show host of a wonderful show called Ministry in the Marketplace. He's got a ministry called Global Missions Foundation. He is the director of the International balancing committee here in DC, a Jsey Academy organization.

Maybe because they don't see the compelling command of Christ to go into that workplace and be a light. Well, this man does. His name is Dr. Richard Hamlet. He is a talk show host of a wonderful show called Ministry in the Marketplace. He's got a ministry called Global Missions Foundation. He is planting businesses, churches, all over the world. He's been in over 100 countries. He's written books.

He was mentored by one of my favorite preachers, Dr. Stephen Alford, and he's with me right now. It's like we give up so much ground, and we complain about our job and our boss and how he's such a pagan culture. But Dr. Hamlet, talk to us about the opportunity every one of us has. If we're getting a paycheck, we're getting paid by that secular company to lead those people to Jesus. That's why we're there.

Time is running out. Hell is hot. Heaven is real.

Jesus is coming back. Can you tell us why this is your passion and why, when they listen to your awesome program, they're going to hear about Ministry in the Marketplace? Yeah, let me start by saying that I believe it was Billy Graham that said that he believed the most unreached people group or affinity group in the world was the Marketplace. And so what we're looking at now is a situation where we have multi-ethnicities, multi-demographics, multi-linguistic people diversified within our country, America now. We've become a melting pot, and yet we're the largest economy in the world.

We are the superpower engine with the greatest experiment in the history of the world's civilization in terms of free markets and capital flows and so many things as far as private ownership or incentives to work. And so here we're in a time where so many Christians or confessional Christians, those who profess faith in Christ, they de-comportmentalize, or they compartmentalize, they say, hey, the church and activities and serving is one thing, but then when I go to work, that's just a different world. And it's almost like a taboo for me to even mention the name of Jesus or to even talk about quote, religion and all those things. And you know, although there should be always a great respect in the workplace and with employers and there should be never be discrimination, of course, that didn't come from a government agency that came from the Bible, that came from Jesus. We're all to be, we're all, listen, we all came from one blood.

We all are safely one blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. And so when we're, when we're in a workplace as Christians, we have a great opportunity to be a missionary for God, to be an ambassador of the gospel, and it is not going in and taking a Bible and beating it on the head of somebody and trying to use the Bible as a weapon. The Bible is a tool. The gospel is the power of God and salvation, but it is the message of the gospel as it's shared in conversations, in testimonies, in different platforms. It's so different from preaching in a pulpit or teaching even behind a podium.

There are places for that within, of course, the church and preaching and taking the supremacy of preaching is what the apostolic doctrine teaches us in the gospel or in Jesus. But when we're in the marketplace, when we're at our workplace, we need to respect our employers and not steal time from them, of course, and taking 10 minutes off and saying, hey, I want to go through the spiritual walls with you. That's a good way to get fired.

And you should. If I was your boss, I would fire somebody for doing that. Maybe there's a lunch break. Maybe there's a coffee break.

Maybe there's a catch up outside of the workplace and employers. You know, maybe there's that time where there can be that conversation about Jesus. You know, a gospel conversation is very simple.

People make a complaint. It's about Jesus. It's a conversation about Jesus. And in two or three minutes, you're not going to cover the whole book of systematic theology.

In two or three minutes, you're not going to go through all the scripture references for the Great Commission. But there's a start. The conversation must begin. It's a relationship.

It's a relationship. Hey, that's so powerful. You've got pastors out there trying to harness the alpha males in their church. What do you say to preachers out there about, first of all, going deeper in the Word, because we're starved, and we want to hear the Word, expositional preaching, which you're a part of Alford's old thing there in Memphis. Goodness gracious, he's the standard bearer for that.

Yes, sir. What's the importance of that, and how can a pastor get these guys, get these people in his church fired up, men and women in the marketplace, get them going to win souls and make disciples outside the walls? Well, I have a unique perspective on that, Stu, because on one hand, I was a Wall Street guy and a real estate investment professional for 15 years as a Christian, quote, lay person. So reaching out to business people in that perspective was a very natural thing for me. On the other hand, now for 23 years, I've been ordained pastor, a pastor of churches, and I'm a pastor of pastors around the world, training many here at our center and all around the world. I can see the pastoral side, and you know, I'm unique. Will you call it, somebody could call it bi-vocational, I mean, Paul had multi-vocational.

He didn't just make tents, he basically owned the tent companies, if you did the research on him, where he'd come with his wealth in multiplication. So we have an ignorance out there about somehow not, first of all, pastors are concerned that maybe these business people who have money and who are control-type guys because they've been successful in their entrepreneurial business or whatever, that if you give them too much slack, they're going to take over the church. Well, that's just a teaching function.

I mean, that's just a teaching function. The pastor needs to teach what it means to be under biblical authority. In that context, business people, they're under the authority of Christ, but the undershepher and the elders are there.

So that's something that is a teaching, it's an ignorance problem. The other thing is when you look at, when sometimes you look at pastors, they get threatened by business people, and you know, whereas business people hold pastors up at a level and sometimes want to control them or think that they're, you know, they work for them because they pay their tithes, you know, that's voodoo, that is an anti-Christ message. The laborer's worthy to hire, I know I'm spewing here, but this is incarnation on the main.

I mean, you know, the laborer's worthy to hire. Pastors are called to be pastors, businessmen are called to be businessmen, but sometimes in certain people's lives within platforms, those can interact, they can connect. It's biblical, but it must be God's calling, and if God's called you to be a businessman and not a pastor, well, maybe you don't preach, but you know, you still are a witness and you need to learn to be able to communicate the gospel effectively because you can reach people the pastor will never be able to meet, nor they know. And if you're a pastor out there, you need to know, open up to learning some business skills, understand that you can chew gum and walk at the same time. God's calling you to be a pastor, not a CEO, but you need to be open to what these business people are going through so you can identify with them, so you can teach them, you can disciple them that they are ministers in the marketplace. Little m, not big m, the way some people look at it with clergy and laity, but we are all ministers in the marketplace according to Ephesians 4.

That's the text. You go Christ gave to his church, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, and evangelists to do the work of ministry, to equip the body of Christ to go out and to proclaim the gospel is what really comes under that envelope. Okay, we're going to hear some miracle stories about that when we come right back with Dr. Richard Hamlet. How can you minister in the marketplace, and how are we set free by Christ to ultimately serve him and to bring others to him when we come back on Truth Talk with Stu Epperson?

Hang on. Stu Epperson Truth Talk. This is the Truth Network.

This is David Jeremiah with Turning Point, and you're listening to Truth Talk with Stu Epperson. Happy Independence Day, and I love that verse in Galatians. It is for freedom that we have been set free, and the good thing is, like Jesus said, whom the Son sets free is free indeed. So if you've been set free by Christ, you're always free.

The message of the gospel is always true. As pertains to our country, we're a free country. We're a fallen country. We've got all kinds of problems, and our country needs Christ desperately. But there's a whole lot of parallels with the freedom we have in America, and the price paid for us for that freedom by our founders and by so many that are faithfully fighting for us right now, parallels between that and the parallels of the price paid for our salvation, which, by the way, is incomparable.

What Jesus paid, the greatest price for great sinners like me and like our guest, Dr. Richard Hamlet, is unbelievable. Dr. Hamlet, does it not break your heart the thought of someone growing up in a free country like America? Free to work, free to worship, free to come and go, free to get an education, free to learn a language, learn any language you want, but free to hear the gospel. No one's being thrown in prison for their faith yet in America, but someone could grow up in this fine, wonderful country that's got a lot of biblical founding. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue is the theme of our whole Supreme Court, etc. Someone could grow up in a free country like this but spend eternity in hell, because they never met the Son, Jesus Christ, and this concerns me, a lot of friends of mine. They've got it right on the marriage issue and on abortion, they're pro-life, they've got it right, they're solid on the Judeo-Christian ethic, the conservative values, but they don't know Christ, and they're going to be just like those moralistic Pharisees in the Bible that rejected Jesus, and Jesus said, look, I'm right here. He says, you search the Scriptures in them, you think you can find the life, but they're talking about me! So we're here freely, and this is why, Dr. Richard Hamlet, you're doing this awesome radio program, Ministry in the Marketplace, with Richard Hamlet.

We're going to give you the website, by the way, before we close today, it's an awesome program. Just Google Dr. Hamlet, Ministry in the Marketplace, and if you want to write this down, if you have a place to write, it's literally the abbreviation, the name is Ministry, M-I-T-M Radio dot O-R-G, which stands for Ministry in the Marketplace, Radio, and then Radio dot org. But Dr. Hamlet, talk about that, we're in a free country, but just because you're American doesn't make you a Christian, and we need to get the gospel out there. Talk about that tragedy, that dichotomy. Yeah, I remember D. James Kennedy said, I was a teenage Christian, I remember watching his program, which I love Dr. Kennedy, now in heaven, but he said, just because you're in a garage doesn't make you a car, just because you're in church doesn't make you a Christian.

Wow. And then he formed Evangelism Explosion from that, a Presbyterian minister through which a platformer sharing the gospel in the marketplace continues today through churches that equip using that tool. It's an amazing thing, we live in a free country, Acts 17, Paul Morris Hill said, it's God who's the one that determines, he predetermines the generation and the country, the sovereignty and the culture that we all are born into. Isn't that something? God never makes mistakes. It's a beautiful thing, the sovereignty of God, providence. So we're in America, and in our generation now, we've had over 200 years, we've had a first awakening, a second great awakening, I mean, I call the 1850 Jeremiah Lamphere prayer awakening right on Wall Street, Fulton Street, like another third awakening, which was a businessman awakening by how many people say the businessman praying and sharing the gospel in the marketplace. So that's what we're at. And now we're in this generation.

So the freedom we have is unbelievable, Stu. And you know, God does all things well. And you know, just like churches have a life, I mean, you won't find the seven churches that Paul wrote to anywhere around, I mean, they died. Churches live and die over generations. That's why we have church planting. That's why every gospel generation must continue to plant churches, but nations are the same way. And, you know, I don't find America in the Bible. So that's kind of may shock some listeners, but it's about the kingdom of God is from everlasting and everlasting. And the USA has a time that God's given us, and we as Christians are going to be accountable for the stewardship that God has given us as confessional Christians in Christ's church. What do we do with the gospel in earth and the vessels, what we are? What did we do with Mondays through Saturday, not just Sunday, more Sunday, where we gather? Did we scatter out during the week with an intentional message of the gospel and reaching others? It's an amazing time.

I'd love to share a couple stories. Please do. That would be awesome. And to piggyback on what you said, we want to be very careful with these God and country rallies. And it's very important, by the way, to recognize our veterans, our active duty, to raise the colors, to salute the different branch of the military, but we want to be very careful not to communicate the message that just because you're born an American, which is the greatest country on God's green earth, like we say, doesn't make you a Christian. So we've got to be careful that it doesn't turn into a worship America service, but rather we are giving great gratitude to Almighty God, but we're also praying, you know, 2 Chronicles, that if we're called by his name, we're going to repent.

We need to repent. Our Supreme Court just thumbed their nose to the court of Almighty God, and Psalms 2 verse 4 says God laughs at the nations. Well, God's laughing at our Supreme Court, because the Supreme Court of Heaven is always right. Our Supreme Court just passed a lie.

They just blew it. They just royally messed up redefining marriage, redefining sexuality, in direct violation of the Creator who said, you know, male and female, he created they, them, and he defined sexuality. So there's an example of our freedoms are slipping away. This country needs a call back to God, but you're also calling individuals back to God. The Church needs to be called back to God. Peter said judgment begins in the house of the Lord, right, Dr. Hamlet?

That's exactly right. I mean, we need to be thankful that within America, during this time of freedom and a republic, we're not a democracy, we're a republic, that we speak out and use these wonderful, you know, rights that we have as believers, as Christians, as believers, as believers who are, you know, who are Americans. You know, America has over 300 million people and only God knows how many people living today are under the blood of Christ, born again, with an inheritance in heaven to the righteousness of Christ given to them received by faith, or those who are outside of Christ.

Those are even church members, religious people who are trusting their own dead works, yet surrounded by the affinities of the gospel and gospel proclamation. Oh, I tell you, we must go forward now as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be on the offensive, regardless what happens in this culture, which, again, we can only be salt and light. This is a wonderful republic, excuse me, I caught myself, it's a wonderful republic and everyone has the equal rights, and, you know, regardless if you believe in Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad or someone else, you're welcome in this country if it's lawful, and you have a freedom of worship, you have a freedom to speak, you have a freedom to gather, and many Christians around the world do not have that today. The countries that I have been to, many around the world, are culturally closed, even though it's legal to be a Christian, there's great persecution.

There's a lot of persecution, yeah, more Christians are persecuted today than ever before. Now tell a story about what God's done through your gospel witness, brother, real quick as we wrap up. Well, I tell you, it's amazing, but I want to share a story here. You know, we have Businesses Missions as our model, and he's a real estate guy for Wall Street guy, and so in our ministry, we were approved by the IRS to actually set up companies that are under our charitable purpose for affordable housing, for low modern income housing, to reach out to them with that, not as a religious organization primarily, but because of that special work of helping those who are low at modern income with rents and you know, affordable rents and social services for the rents, and so we took advantage of that with my background, and we have been involved in that space and had close to $500 million in value of assets at one time, over 11,000 apartment units that we had years ago. We've sold many of them now on a new plan, but I want to use an example. We had a property in Miami, Florida. It was an elderly property, and it was a high rise there, and it's called Little Havana because, I mean, English is the second language there.

It was Spanish being the main language, which by the way, we love Hispanics. We have a ministry for that now, proclamation and training, but there was a church that was planted there, voluntary church planting. People don't have to tend, but they started going to Bible study, and you know, somebody wants to, you know, at those properties, if they want to have some place on Friday to pray to, you know, their God on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, they're welcome to do it. It's America, but we had, we started with a Bible study with a chaplain, local chaplain came into that apartment community that we owned, and within a year, there were 50 residents and others that came to worship, many followed Jesus, committed their lives to Christ, but there was a lady, well listen to this, she was a 75 year old lady, and she was a prostitute. She was in drugs, and she was involved, and lived in the housing property, and one day when that pastor there proclaimed the gospel, and called for the response, listen to this lady, this lady came up and walked down and confessed Christ, and repented of her sins, and that lady became a flaming evangelist, sharing the good news of the gospel.

Not only that, but all around Miami, does that not get you fired up? That's what it's about, and that's what you're doing with your marketplace ministry, you're in business, and you got the memo from God in spite of all the confusion in the Christian culture that, hey, you need to be sharing Christ and let your light shine, you don't stop being a witness based on your geography, or the topography, or where you're located at the church or not. So I appreciate that, he's also a pastor, learn more about this Renaissance man, he's a Wall Street guy, loves Jesus, he loves business, but he's using that as a tool. Everything you do, Paul said, I'll be all things to all men. Can't seem to reach my neighbor, I noticed him carrying a tennis racket out the door, that I'm gonna pick up tennis, I'm gonna go hit some balls, get a lesson, gonna play tennis with my neighbor, I'm gonna lead him to Jesus.

I love playing basketball, I can hardly get up the court anymore, I'm so banged up I still put my trick shots, if you go to my Instagram or my Facebook, I put a few up, but just to try to share Jesus. Richard, God bless you, thank you for being on the show, give us the best way to reach you, I want people to really support your ministry too. Yeah, it's Global Ministries Foundation, GMF, and it's GMFonline.org, and then Ministry in the Marketplace is of course what I host in the radio program, that's national on many Salem stations and all of Bot stations now, and we live stream around the world, and that website is MITMradio.org, I thank you for it. Thank you so much, what a blessing, thanks for being on Truth Talk, Dr. Richard Hammond. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Experience Truth, the last segment of Truth Talk Weekend, where we journey through the Word of God with Stu Epperson, and special guests from their weekly men's group, Wednesday in the Word. Check out the entire message on Stu's Facebook page, and be sure to follow Stu on Twitter and Instagram. And now, open your Bible and join us as we continue our study of the Gospel of Luke, and Experience Truth.

Robbie Dilmore is with me, it's always good to have the Christian car guy, the legend himself, in the hot seat. Robbie, read the Scripture for us, and we're going to jump right into these questions, okay? All right, Luke 21, 7-9. So they ask him, Teacher, but when will all these things be, and what sign will there be when these things are about to take place? And he said, Take heed that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, I am me, and the time is drawn near.

Therefore, do not go after them. But when you hear of wars and commotions, do not be terrified, for these things must come to pass first, but the end will not come immediately. Then he said to them, Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences, and there will be fearful signs and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. Therefore, settle in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. You will be betrayed, even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. And you'll be hated by all for my name's sake. But not a hair on your head shall be lost. By your patience, possess your souls. That's the Word of God.

Powerful. Robbie, read the first question. We're going to jump right into this. So the context. What's going on in Luke's Gospel that you would be led to this discussion in the last day?

Well, that's a great question. And if you read Luke's Gospel, if you've journeyed with us on this awesome journey through the Gospel of Luke, the longest book, by the way, in the New Testament, nearly one-fifth of all of the Bible deals with the last days and the second return of Christ. There are giant chunks, giant passages, like Matthew 24, Mark 13, that deal with the end times, and I encourage you to check those passages out up and against what we're studying here in Luke chapter 24. We could spend so much time on this, we're just going to go verse by verse, maybe touch on it more a little bit next time.

But you've got to see the context. It's Wednesday of Holy Week. Christ has moved from his teaching in the temple during the day to teaching and spending time in prayer with the disciples in the evenings in the Mount of Olives. This scripture is considered his famous Olivet Discourse, where he is literally intimately ... his disciples are like, Lord, when's this all going to happen? You're talking about a king and a kingdom and coming back, and you're also talking about us facing some pretty tough times. How is this all going to happen?

When's it going to happen? They've seen him come in mightily in Jerusalem on that little donkey as the king coming in to bring peace, not a sword. They've seen him stand down, the Herodians and the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They've seen him go toe to toe with the greatest religious minds on the planet right there in God's capital of God's city, the holy city of Jerusalem, the city of peace. They've also seen him say, hey, this temple's going to go down, and they've heard him talk about all this, this whole ministry, not just here in Holy Week. So a lot has precipitated these disciples' questions, so they want to know when. They're going to ask the same thing, by the way, after his resurrection, when we get into the book of Acts. Hey, when are you coming into your kingdom?

When is all this going to happen? And Jesus says, it's not for you to know the times and seasons, but you will receive power. Some of these things, by the way, happened right away in Acts because the disciples were actually arrested in Acts chapter 4. After these great miracles, after 5,000 folks got saved, boom, these same people that were combated with Jesus in his final week of life, that tried him, that mercilessly had him murdered and crucified, they would be on the attack against the disciples there early in the book of Acts.

Man, it gets rough. So Robbie, great question. That's what's going on. And here's a good question here that follows that up, and really related to the temple. Because when the greatest religious place of worship in the world is the temple, read this question here, and let's jump in. So why would the disciples want to know when the temple would be destroyed?

Wow. And that's the question. When will these things be, and what sign will there be when these things are about to take place? And Jesus says, take heed that you do not be deceived, verse 8, for many will come in my name saying, I am he, the time is drawn near, therefore do not go after them. Which is fascinating because at the temple is where all these rising religious false prophets and others would come to make their claim, to claim their stake on truth, to say, I am the Messiah, I am the Messiah. So here Jesus Christ is in the temple in Solomon's colony and other places preaching and sharing and talking about the end times and saying that this temple will be destroyed.

Not one stone will be left uncovered. So naturally, they want to know when this is going to happen. And of course, we know it's going to happen in AD 70, and Christ's prophecy will be fulfilled then. But we also know there's some more apocalyptic destruction coming, which the book of Revelation talks about. So it's really a twofold thing because we know Christ in his first coming came to bring salvation. But in his second coming, he's coming to bring judgment. So here we go, whenever there's judgment, there's a lot of bad people that come in under the guise of goodness.

And here's that question. So why would such a large proliferation of false prophets come in the last days? And this is the call Jesus says, do not be deceived.

And one of the signs that we're getting closer to the end times is all the deception. And so you have, what did he say in verse 8? He said, Many will come in my name, saying, I am he, and the time is drawn near. Lots of attached verses, lots of scripture throughout the Bible talk about these false prophets. Jesus is harder, by the way, on false prophets than anyone. He is the most direct and the most emphatically judicially condemning of false prophets, as are the, read the book of Jude, read 1 and 2 Peter. And the biggest problem with the false prophets, one of their largest avenues of deceit is in the end times.

Saying, oh, he's going to come back here. There's an entire false religion. The abbreviation is the JW's. Their whole belief is bankrupt, because their religious authority, the Watchtower, which is equal to God and speaks on behalf of God, even though it contradicts Deuteronomy 24, because they've had about 40 different prophecies that never came true. So the prophets should have been stoned according to the Deuteronomy standards. But false prophets come, the first thing they do is they pick some dates. Whoever the false prophet was that said, 88 reasons why Jesus is coming back in 1988.

Robbie, I don't think that happened. That they'll come, but they'll be dressed in sheep's clothing. So they'll be wolves dressed in sheep's clothing. So who wore sheep's clothing, by the way?

This is a great point here that I didn't learn until later on as a believer. Shepherds. What did shepherds wear?

Well what did they do? They had the sheep shorn, and then they made coats, and they made jackets, sweaters, vests, you know, wool, whatever. I don't know if they had sweater vests back then, Robbie, but who knows, maybe there's a bright pick of litter that figures that out. My wife does not like it when I wear sweater vests, she just thinks it's just too old. Yeah, but you know me, I'm a sweater vest guy.

Especially when there's the Truth Network logo on it. So shepherds wore sheep's clothing. So when Jesus said, beware of wolves that come in sheep's clothing, wolves, they weren't disguised as sheep, they were there to lead the sheep over the cliff.

They were there to devour and shed the blood of sheeps, they were disguised as shepherds. False prophets. So they will be more and more proliferated and available and spreading their evil in the dark last days, and pointing people away from the true Jesus.

Saying things like, well, there's a bunch of different ways that lead. Which is why Jesus is trying to bolster the disciples' belief in him and build them stronger, because they always attack, they always are focused on the dates, false dates, and they always attack the person and nature of Jesus. And then, thirdly, they attack the source of salvation, saying, well, it's not grace alone, you've got to do some things to add.

So let's keep moving here through these questions. So are things going to get better or worse for believers before Christ's return? Well, when you read Christ's words here, it looks like they're going to get worse. I mean, this idea being dragged in front of the synagogue, being tried.

This language here is pretty stark. Nation will rise against nation. There's this idea of warfare, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes in various places, famines, pestilences.

Wow, we're hearing a lot about that, widespread diseases, new viruses taking place, fearful sights, great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you, and personally, the Greek lay their hands on you literally means grab you or seize you. This is not a lay your hands on, hey, little buddy, and tap on the shoulder like we would pray over someone put our hands on their shoulder or on their head or whatnot. This is an aggressive, almost militant move of someone reaching out and grabbing someone, persecuting you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons. Here you're Jewish, you're in a synagogue, you're in the temple, and yet the very people that you're a part of, heritage-wise, ethnically, are trying to kill you and put you in prison, and it gets worse. You'll be brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.

And that's a very important distinction. When you're suffering and you're having a rough time, ask yourself, are you suffering for his name's sake? Are you getting a lot of grief, are you getting mocked, are you getting laughed at because of his name?

Or because of the stupid things you're doing, the stupid things you're saying, being too politically active and not spiritually active? That's a very important thing. So you want to ask yourself if you're facing persecution, hallelujah, especially if it's for his name's sake.

So things look like they're going to get a lot worse, but also the power of God and the grace of the Holy Spirit, He will show you, He says, I will give you a mouth and a wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict or resist. Isn't that something? What a powerful statement. And He's got it?

He has got it. Let's keep going. So why are believers hated by the words, excuse me, why are believers hated by the word, even by family, as the end times approach? Yeah, so the world's going to hate us. There's a verse in— That's a good word. Yeah, that's a good word.

Let's just edit that, because I said it wrong three times. Why are believers hated by the world, right, is the actual question, why are believers hated by the world, even by family, as the end times approach? So believers, there is a hate, and Jesus says it many times different ways, but He says, look, they hate you, but they really hate Me. And what a badge of honor for a Christian.

And to also understand is, the person that's hating on you because you're a Christian, that may have fired you from your job because you love Christ because you were trying to do devotions at work, or because you were illegally trying to do things to be a blessing and to lift up Him, they're not the enemy. They're under the control. They have been captured. They're in bondage to the enemy. And so we're praying that their soul will be saved, and we're not angry at targeting them. When the disciples were arrested, they didn't pull out swords and try to fight. They went, they took their beating, and they proclaimed Christ, and people got saved.

The Philippian jailer got saved when Paul and Silas were there singing in the dungeon. And so it's really interesting, the direction or the misdirection of the hate, how we think about it, and what's truly the case. And this goes back to my name's sake. Verse 13 is a great verse, but it will turn out for you as an occasion for testimony. What a powerful statement. Now we're out of time for this segment, Robbie. When we come back next time, we're going to wrap up the end times of Jesus.

We're going to answer the question, when is He coming back? We are, in fact, going to deal with that more. And we're going to talk about, what is it like to be a Christian when things get darker, more oppressive, more intense against the faith? Right here next time on Experience Truth, this is the Truth Network. One of our generous sponsors here at the Truth Network has come under fire.

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