This is the Truth Network. When the tongues of fire fell at Pentecost, they obviously brought the fire of devotion and the gospel spreading throughout the world. But there was another kind of fire that was started. What was it?
Well, stay with us, listen, and learn. You're listening to Until He Comes, a blend of prophetic and practical biblical studies with Dr. Greg Hinnant, author of The Second Coming of Christ, His Appearing, His Return, Our Preparation. And now, author and teacher Greg Hinnant. Welcome to the program, my friend.
Today we're continuing our talk about tons of fire. Here we're going to learn that the fires of faith, when they are lit and they're spreading around the world, Satan tries to douse them. And he lights other fires, ironically, to douse them, fires of persecution.
Now they can't put out the fire of God. unless we let them.
So let's get into this and see. What's going to happen every time? that the Spirit of God creates fiery passion in the hearts of God's people and they begin to spread the fire of the gospel.
Well, Jesus predicted this in Matthew 13. In verse twenty he said, But He that receives the seed in stony places, the same as he that hears the word. and soon with joy receives it Yet he does not have roots in himself, but endureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth, Because of the word, By and by. He is offended.
Now this is in Jesus' seed sower parable. It's also recorded in Mark 4 and Luke 8. Matthew's version is what we've just read. And Jesus in this apparently passing statement was revealing something that happens every time the gospel spreads and creates the fire of faith. in the hearts of men to women.
He said When tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, he didn't say if. He said when.
So, every time the Word of God has been received effectively, positively, in faith, Every time some form of tribulation or some form of persecution. will arise. What is tribulation?
Well, it's persisting, often compounding troubles. What is persecution?
Well, it's relentless opposition by implacable enemies. They just can't be placated, they won't stop. they're obsessed with stopping your faith or your work. They may use slander Social ostrzation Repression or even legal judgments. or physical violence as a last resort.
To try to do away with you? But what's happening here is Satan is using men and women who are subject to his manipulation or control. to move against those upon whom the hand of God is resting in their spreading the fiery faith of Christ. The Holy Spirit is moving through them to bring people to faith and to make disciples.
so they in turn can go out and change the world. When Satan sees this he does not sit down, he rises up to try to douse that fire by sending his own fiery persecution or tribulation into the life. of those And God is using.
Now, friends, don't ever fear this because God will be closer to you in the fire. than out of it. We have the three friends of Daniel. In the book of Daniel, chapter three, The closest we know they were to Jesus was in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, not. outside of it in normal times.
No. It was when the fire was hottest. that they were nearest to Christ, The form of the fourth, whom Nebuchadnezzar said, looked like a son of the gods. It was Jesus. Manifested in the fire, not outside of it.
So never fear when Some form of trouble and persecution comes into your life because you You're studying the Word of God. You're living the Word of God. Or you're sharing the Word of God. or you're helping Ministers in churches that are sharing the word of God, or missionaries. It is normal for this to happen.
In other words, it's always going to happen. This is a law of the spiritual world. that when the Word of God is being preached or taught When it's having its way in an individual's life, some form of resistance must come. Satan will send his own. fiercely put out the fire of devotion in the life of the Serious Christian disciple.
Now Acts 20, 29 also speaks about this here. Paul said when he left The churches, Evasion. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock also of your own selves. Men shall arise. Speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
What's he talking about? Paul understood how the spiritual world operates. Nothing surprised him. Here He was trying to explain to these leaders of the churches in Asia. What was going to happen after he left?
Satan would try to come in and disrupt. A brute. Or, to put it differently, Quench the fire Of the work God had done through Paul. And it was a significant work. Paul's greatest work was done.
in Asia Minor. when for at least two years, perhaps more, he spread The gospel in the entire region out of his headquarters And Ephesus.
So he understood how things work, and he was trying to alert. The elders Under his leadership, as to what was going to happen. Satan was going to come through tribulation or persecution, or, as Paul said, through false leaders. Or leaders who had turned away from whole commitment to Christ and had gone after their own egos. You know, every time that the fire of God burns Satan's servants are going to try to extinguish it.
Yet, ironically, and this is the point I want to make and make strongly in your minds to day, They only grow hotter. And wider. In other words, that's like a firefighting crew coming to a house, and the house is just. burning up. And so they pour water on it from every direction, but the more water they pour on it, the hotter the fire gets.
and spreads to other houses. They would be obviously baffled. By such a thing. But that's exactly what happens. When Satan comes and sends his Evil fireman.
the rulers of the darkness of this world, to try to quench The glowing Ardor Passion. devotion, zeal. In the hearts and lives A committed disciples? Just like you, my friend. If you are committed to spreading the word of God, You're on fire for God.
Then Satan will come after you. And like I said just a moment ago, you need not fear. Christ will become closer to you in the fire. You've become closer to you in the flood. closer to you under attack.
than he ever was. Before God is our refuge and strength. Psalm 46:1. A very present help in trouble. In other words, he's our refuge and strength at all times, but he's very present.
in trouble, and remember you don't need a refuge unless you've got a storm. You don't need a war bunker unless you've got a war. You don't need armor unless Fiery darts are being shot at you.
So, you know, we have to kind of put on our big boy pants and big girl pants and realize If we do this Christianity thing. Or if we commit to ministry. We are placing a big Fat. target. right over our hearts.
Oh, hallelujah. Because you know, One day, You will be rewarded because you were willing. To be a target so that others might be saved? and others who were saved might be discipled. Of course, that's my passion.
I'm a teacher. Oh, I want to see people saved. But I really want a seat. The Saved Grow up. That's my calling.
That's why I live and breathe and have my movement in this world.
Now, so we see from these two texts that Paul expected opposition to his work, and Jesus warned, that every time the word was sown effectively in someone's life, Tribulation. relentless trouble, or persecution people coming after you, harassing you, literally setting the dogs on you, that's what the term means. And nothing you could do could change their mind. They still hate you if you're kind and gracious. They'll hate you that much more.
This is going to happen every time. But fear not, my friends here's the good news. Every time God turns it around and He causes the work of God in you or through you to increase dynamically. Every time. We see this when the great Pharaoh tried to quash What God was doing in the Hebrew people.
in their slavery in Egypt. Oh, they were oppressed. And then Satan had the idea and spread it to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh implemented it: that they should kill all the babies. All the male babies. of the Hebrews in Egypt.
But Exodus 1, verse 12 says, But the more they afflicted them. that is struck them with pain. The more they multiplied and grew, And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. What a wonderful thing. The more Satan comes after you, the more he forwards the work of God through you.
Praise God. What a wonderful truth. How Comforting it is. Maybe you're being comforted right now by what I'm talking about. You're being true to the Lord, you're in the ministry.
Or you're not in the ministry, but you're helping those who are. You're a supporter. You have the Ministry of Helps. Perhaps you're an evangelist? Perhaps you're a young Christian, it's just been saved, and you're digging into the Word of God, and all of a sudden.
Your life has been turned upside down. Satan has come after you. He wants to uproot the Word of God, He wants to quench the fire. And he can do it. If you let him, so don't let him.
So the first step to strengthening you under the attack is to realize that if you'll just hold steady God will make this thing that's coming against you work for you in an amazing way. Again, listen to the text. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. That, my friend, is a prophecy to you. Right now, yes you.
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Now, again, Dr. Hinnant. Yes, you. God is going to make your faith grow because someone is against it. God is going to make your ministry grow because someone is against it.
God's going to make your church grow because it's against it. A group of people in your city are determined To tear it down, maybe a group Who were once in your church and have turned against you. Yes, that happens all too often. What are you to do? Stay the course.
And watch for God. And he's going to turn it around. and make that thing work for you. The very forces and people who wanted to bring you down will raise you up and cause you to be powerful in Christ. Let me give you some examples here.
In Acts chapter 8. Verse 1. Listen to what happened to the early church. In an earlier segment, I quoted from Acts five, where the Jewish priests said to the Christian leaders The Apostles. You have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.
Oh, they were just Furious Because the center of Judaism was about to become the center of Christianity. And they would have none of it.
So they prosecuted him.
Well, a little later the persecution got very serious, even deadly. X one. and Saul was consenting unto his death, that is, the death of Stephen. It was a faithful witness and miracle worker in Jerusalem. And at that time there was a great persecution against the Church there are the words a great persecution against the Church, which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles And verse 4 says this.
Now note. After what happened here, and the Christians being scattered, I'm sure the Jewish leaders sat down and they said. They clap their hands.
Well, that's it. It's That's That's going to take care of these followers of that false Messiah. Yeshua. How wrong they were Verse 4 says, Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere. Preaching the word.
This is just hilarious, really. I mean, I see a lot of humor in the Bible. These wicked Jewish leaders at that time We're determined to put out the fire of faith. in the budding church. And so the Holy Spirit.
just used what they did to spread that fire all the much more. May they go further. Absolutely. What a wonderful thing. Now, we will read again.
What followed? in Acts eleven, nineteen to twenty one.
Now they that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia. and Cyprus. And Antioch. preaching the word to none but to Jews only. Remember at this time The Christians were only Jews, and they thought that this was a Jewish thing, that Jesus had come to create a Jewish church.
They were about to be. Surprised. And some of them, verse 20, were men of Cyprus and Serena. That is, they were Gentiles, which, when they came to Antioch, and Antioch was the third largest city in the ancient world. behind Rome and Alexandria.
spoke unto the Grecians preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them. The hand of the Lord is a figurative. expression for the power of God. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned.
To the Lord. Oh, my goodness. This was significant because this was the first. primarily Gentile church. in church history.
So the Jews were trying to stop this movement, but they just. Pushed it along in the very path that Jesus said it would go. He had said the gospel would spread from Jerusalem to Judea. and to Samaria, and that had already happened and then it was spread to the uttermost parts of the earth. That was beginning here with the beginning of the Gentile church in Antioch.
We have another example I want to share with you, and that's of William Tyndall. William Tyndall was an amazing man. He could speak about six languages. beside his own English.
so fluently that you could not tell which was his native tongue. He lived in the 1500s during the Outbreak of the Great Reformation led by Martin Luther. He had great ad uh uh admiration for Luther and what he was doing. And so Tyndall's passion was To make the Word of God available to the public. Remember, at that time, the church, the Roman Catholic Church, had.
hidden the word in the vernacular from the people, and it was only read in the mass. In Latin. the people could not understand what was being said. Tyndall and others Realized how terrible this was, and so he set about. to create the first printed English Bible, the Bible in the vernacular, the language of the people.
You know, Jesus spoke to the people of his day in Aramaic because that was the language of the day. He can also speak Greek and Hebrew. And some Latin. But and so it was ridiculous to think that God wanted to speak to the people today in a language that was not their native tongue.
So Tyndall wanted to make the Bible so In Availability, so Ever-present. That a plough boy would know more of the word of God Than one of the Catholic priests of his day, many of whom, by the way, had never studied the Bible. They just they just read Catholic doctrine And they read the mass to the people. and knew nothing of the actual Bible itself.
So Tyndall came along and set himself to translate the New Testament. into the English language and to print it.
Now, to do that, he was driven out of the country because the religious authorities did not want him to do this work, and he went to Antwerp in Belgium. and that's where he produced the first Printed New Testament in the English language in 1526.
Now, when this was known, The Roman Catholic authorities were furious. Tyndall shipped several thousand of his books to England. He smuggled them in, And the cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church offered to buy them.
Well, so He sold it to them.
Now the Cardinal obviously Did not. did not like what was going on, he was going to take those Bibles and burn them. And he did. What he did not know. Is that the money that he gave Tyndall?
in Bagdam. Tendle took that. and printed many more times. The books. That had been.
Destroyed. Many Bibles were burned, but more Bibles were printed. Think about that, my friend. Maybe Satan's trying to burn down your work. Figuratively, Hold on.
Stay steady. Stay close. Keep listening to God, keep following His guidance. Keep pursuing the call of God on your life. Keep using faithfully the gift He has given you to preach or teach.
To prophesy, whatever your ministry is. In truth, And in the spirit of Christ. And instead of destroying your ministry, your adversaries will just increase it, or your church, or your mission. or whatever parachurch ministry you may be a part of. Here's something you need to get hold of: Satan can't stop the Word of God.
Only we can stop the work of God. The Christians, that's right. That's right. I've studied church history. Movements were never stopped by Satan.
Of course, he opposed them. Yes. But he can never stop them. Then what stopped them? God's own people stopped the work of God.
Repeatedly. By their own disobedience, Something happened. broke out and it was not Identified and checked. by the leadership, and so it grew and it consumed. the revival, the awakening, the renewal.
like a cancer. We have in Revelation 2, 13 and 2. Fourteen, a very Wonderful text here. When Jesus is speaking to the church at Pergamon, and he says, To the angel of the church in Pergamos, Write, These things says he that has the sharp sword with two edges: I know your works and where you dwell. even where Satan's seat is.
You hold fast to my name. You have not denied my faith, even those days when Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against thee.
Now he's going to tell us what it is. Because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. In short, Balaam. Told Balak. To have the women of Moab come entice the men of Israel.
To Into sexual relations, and the worship of their idols. And then he goes on and says that you have there also those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. And he told them then to repent, or he would shut them down. He would bring his judgment against them. He said, I will fight against you quickly with the sword of my mouth.
So he was saying, Look, if you don't get the sin and the heresy out of your church, I'm going to stop that fire. I'm going to quit you.
Now, the sin of the Nicolaitans was similar to what I just described about the sin of Balaam. Nic the Nicolaitans were the followers of Nicholas, who is one of the original. Deacons in the church in Acts chapter 6, and he was an antidominion. That is, he believed that we did not have to keep the moral law of the Bible. And so he lived licentiously and taught his people to do so.
Jesus said, I hated that.
Now, we also see in 1 Corinthians 3 another problem that can arise in the church. Paul says this. Down in verse Two. I have fed you milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. for you are yet carnal.
For whereas there is among you envying and strife and division, are ye not carnal, and walk as men that is, walk as men who have never been redeemed? For one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos? But ministers by whom you believe, even as the Lord gave to every man, I planted. Apollos watered.
But God gave the increase. He was saying, this isn't of Apollos or me. We just planted the word and watered it. God gave the increase in your hearts and in this church. He says, So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he that watereth, but God who gives the increase.
Now he that plants and he that waters are one. And every man shall receive his own reward according to his labor. What was he saying? Look, he's saying, You Corinthians were all divided. insects because One of you will follow Peter, one will follow Apollos, one will follow me.
He says, Who are we? We're just ministers. He says, You guys are carnal. You're not spiritual at all. That is, you don't have the mind of Christ in you, the mind of Scripture.
To be spiritually minded is to be scripturally minded. They were thinking as people who had never been born again.
So he said, You're yet carnal. You're still carnal when you ought to be spiritual.
So, no one can stop the work of God but the people of God. No one can stop your ministry, Pastor, but you don't react wrongly. To the tribulation and persecution. Don't resist it. Don't fight back and resist evil for evil, or you'll go down.
Call on the Lord to give you strength, grace, and wisdom. Ending carefully. Submit yourself to him and do what he tells you to do in the midst of the persecution. Or tribulation. And instead of destroying your work, it will just make it that much larger and more effective.
And the fire, instead of being doused, will be increased and become much hotter and wider. Believe that and be inspired today. If this message has blessed you, tell your friends and please consider helping us stay on the air by sending your tax-deductible donation to Greg Hennett Ministries. Also, remember, you may download the Until He Comes podcast from your preferred podcast app. May you walk closely with Christ and trust and obey Him in your daily tests of faith and patience until He Comes.
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