Today on Answers with Bayless Conley:
This world, all of the joys, all of the splendors, all of the good things in this world, they're
just a shadow of the world to come.
And when a believer dies in the Lord, my friend, they are in a place that is beyond description.
Words cannot truly describe what that place is like.
There are many questions you are faced with every day.
We are all searching for answers that will make a real difference in our lives.
It's hard to imagine that these answers might be right in front of us.
Get ready to discover answers in the Bible with Bayless Conley.
Hello friend, welcome to the broadcast today.
We're going to be talking about some end time events.
Some things that are very clearly taught in the Scripture.
As well as we're going to reach in and pull out some things that were actually kept secret
for generations that God eventually revealed to His church.
You're going to find this interesting and impactful.
Get a Bible.
Stay tuned at the end of the program today for a special inspirational thought from Bayless.
I want to speak to today about two major prophetic events.
One has already occurred.
The other one is yet to occur.
And in between these two major events, God has inserted two secrets, two mysteries.
So we've got two major prophetic events, and in between them, God, He's placed in two secrets,
two mysteries.
Two events, two secrets.
Can you handle that today?
All right.
The first major prophetic event was the first coming of Christ to the earth.
His coming was prophesied throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, that He would be the
seed of Abraham, the One through whom the nations of the earth would be blessed, the
Jewish Messiah, the offspring of David.
But there's something interesting in connection with many, many of these Old Testament prophecies.
They speak of His coming and the setting up of His earthly kingdom together.
They speak of Christ's coming, of the Messiah coming, but they also speak of an earthly
kingdom being set up.
We could look at many places throughout the Old Testament and see that.
But I just want to pull a few of the prophecies from the Book of Isaiah that most of us are
familiar with, to demonstrate what I'm talking about.
And Isaiah spoke these things.
They were prophesied 700 years before Christ was born.
Isaiah 7:14,
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and
bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
That is God with us.
We all know that one.
We know this one as well.
Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7
For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon
His shoulder.
And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of
Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David
and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time
forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
Unto us a child is born.
A Son is given and the government will be upon His shoulders.
It places the two things together.
Of the increase of His government there will be no end.
He will administer judgment and justice.
It paints the picture of the Messiah coming, of the Savior coming, but also of setting
up this earthly government and administering justice and judgment.
In Isaiah 11, you're probably familiar with these prophecies as well, verses 1 through
4.
There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his
roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
nor decide by the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness, He shall judge the poor,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the
rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Listen, every Jew in every generation, every prophet, every scholar, every Jewish boy,
every Jewish girl, knew the prophecies about the coming Messiah, but they always associated
with a government being set up, with Him administering judgment, justice, slaying the wicked, defeating
and overturning the rule of His enemies and God's people having a season and a life of
blessed prosperity.
They always put those things together.
Even Jesus, if you think about this, when He was in the synagogue in Luke chapter 4
and He was handed the scroll of Isaiah, and He began to look through the scroll until
He found the place where it was written about Himself.
He began to quote these prophecies from what we know as Isaiah chapter 61.
He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel
to the poor.
He sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord."
Then the Bible said He stopped, He closed the book and He sat down.
The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were on Him.
Everyone knew the prophecy and they were all thinking, "Wait, you didn't finish.
You didn't say the next thing.
We all know what comes next."
Because the next part of that it says to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day
of vengeance of our God.
They always associated those things.
They always put them together.
But when Jesus began to quote the prophecy, He stopped, because He knew the day of vengeance
was for a later time.
But it was hidden from everyone else.
In every generation, no one knew.
Even in Acts chapter 1, after the resurrection, Jesus has spent many days with the disciples,
and they're gathered with Him.
In Acts 1, in verse 6, they turn to Him and they say, "Lord, will You, at this time, restore
the kingdom to Israel?"
They fully expected, His own disciples, fully expected Jesus to set up an earthly kingdom,
to put down the Roman rule, to destroy the oppressors and to set up an earthly kingdom
and administer justice and judgment upon the wicked.
And He said, "Hey, it's not for you to know the times and seasons the Father's put in
His own power.
Right now, you need to go into all the world and preach.
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth.
God has given you His Spirit for this purpose, to be My witnesses."
But it was even hidden from them.
They didn't understand it.
You see, this great major prophetic event, the coming of Christ, they associated with
something that was going to come later.
But in between these two events, God inserts two mysteries, two secrets.
And the first secret that God inserted after this major event of the coming of Christ,
you ready?
The first secret was us, the church, the age of grace that we are living in.
A period of time where God's grace and reconciliation is available to all people.
It was a mystery hidden from the foundation of the world.
Christ's own disciples didn't know what was coming.
The angels didn't know what was coming.
It was a secret that God alone knew.
Paul talks about it in Romans 16.
Listen to this.
Verses 25 and 26.
Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now
made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the
commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—
It's spoken of extensively throughout the book of Colossians as well, it uses this term
mystery.
It means a secret that God has hidden from every generation until the time that He wanted
that secret revealed.
Listen to this from Ephesians 3.
In fact, follow along if you've got your Bible.
I'm going to begin in verse 2 of Ephesians 3.
If indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me
for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (the secret) (as I have
briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the
mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has
now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
We come down to verse 9,
And to make all see what is the fellowship (or their part) of the mystery (or in this
secret), which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things
through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known
by (or through) the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (speaking
of angelic beings), according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
This church age that we're living in, this dispensation of grace where men and women
can be born again by the Spirit of God, it is not just for the Jews, it's for the gentile
world.
It's for the whole world as well.
This season where men and women can be empowered by the Spirit to lay hands on the sick, to
drive out demons and have been authorized to share the good news of God's grace and
God's mercy to a sighing, dying world.
It was a mystery.
Peter said angels desire to look into these things.
They didn't even know it was coming.
It was a secret that was hidden in God.
So now in this season in which we're privileged to live, God is extending grace and mercy
to all of humanity.
And God is working through His church.
Jesus called us the salt of the earth.
And among other things, salt is a preservative.
I'm convinced that the only thing that's preserving this world from complete decay and corruption
is the church of Jesus Christ that is in the world.
God working through His church is holding back evil from having full sway, God working
through His praying church, through His preaching church and through His church doing good works.
But it was a mystery hidden in God.
And there's a second secret that God has hidden between this first event of Christ's coming
and this second event we're going to speak about.
The first secret was the establishment of His church, the body of Christ in the earth.
The second secret is the removal of His church from the earth, or what some people refer
to as the rapture.
Probably a better Biblical term would be the catching away of the church.
Look with me at 1 Thessalonians if you would, the 4th chapter, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4.
We'll start in verse 13.
It says,
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest
you sorrow as others who have no hope.
Now when he talks about those who have fallen asleep, it's a term the Bible uses for death.
When Lazarus died, Jesus referred to him as being asleep.
He said, "Listen, don't sorrow like people in the world that don't have the Savior would
sorrow when a loved one dies."
When a loved one dies in the Lord friend, they graduate.
The apostle Paul said, "To live is Christ, to die is gain."
To depart and be with Christ is far better.
So you shouldn't feel sorry for someone that's died in the Lord.
My friend, they're in paradise.
They're in the presence of the Lord.
They wouldn't come back if they could.
Now, on our part, there's an emptiness.
We miss them.
There's a natural grieving process that we go through.
But that's for us.
That's not for them.
But on the other side of that coin, those that die without hope, it's a different story.
But those that die in the Lord, friend, they gain.
Right now, there's more to me than meets the eye.
In fact, you can't even really see me.
I'm a spirit being created in the image of God.
I happen to live in this body.
This is my house.
This body is animated because I'm in it.
But one day if Jesus tarries, I'll lay this body down in death.
It's just my house.
That's all it is.
I mean, right now, this coat, it's animated, but it's only animated because I'm in it.
So you take the coat off and it's like, "Oh, no.
Bayless' coat.
The poor thing.
Oh no."
Wait, wait, wait, it's just not animated anymore because I'm no longer in it.
And friend, the day will come that I will step out of my body and step into eternity.
I just leave the house behind.
I will be very much alive.
So don't grieve for me if you're around when I go to heaven.
That's going to be a glorious day.
Well you know, this world, all of the joys, all of the splendors, all of the good things
in this world, they're just a shadow of the world to come.
When a believer dies in the Lord, my friend, they are in a place that is beyond description.
Words cannot truly describe what that place is like.
He said, "Don't be ignorant.
Don't sorrow as others that have no hope."
Then he goes on, in verse 14, look at it with me if you would.
He says,
"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those
who sleep in Jesus.
For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until
the coming of the Lord will by no means precede or go before those who are asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from the heaven with a shout and with a voice of an
archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first, then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord, therefore comfort one another
with these words."
Friend the day is coming when there will be a shout and the sound of a trumpet.
And those that have already died, that have laid their bodies down in the earth, they'll
be reunited with their bodies, but it won't be the same body, friend, it will be a resurrected
body, a glorified body like unto His glorious body.
The moment after that we will be caught up together with them, to meet them and the Lord
in the air so we will ever be with the Lord.
Woman VO: Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley.
Bayless will continue with part two of his message next week.
Oh my, I wish we would have had time to finish the whole message in today's program so
you're just going to have to tune in again next time to get the rest of it.
But right now I'd like to actually sort of segway into a little video that I made
about knowing God.
I think you're going to find this very interesting and important.
Let's watch it.
Hi there, you know there's something that I think all of us share in common.
In fact, I don't think we do, I know we do.
There's this empty place inside that we're always trying to fill.
You know as far back as I can remember, I was looking for God.
In fact my mother tells me she was certain I was going to become a priest when I grew
up because I was asking questions about God.
I didn't know that God was who or what I was looking for, but I do recall back to my earliest
memories that it's like something was missing and I was always trying to fill this empty
place inside.
I tried with drugs and alcohol.
I tried with sex.
I tried with so many things and you know I think intuitively people realize something
is missing.
There's this crazy piece to the puzzle that they can't seem to find so they will try to
fill that empty place with drugs with alcohol or with sex or with, you know accumulating
more things or even doing good works to help people which is a noble thing but it doesn't
fill the empty place.
I believe that that empty place inside is a God shaped hole, if you would.
I believe we were meant to walk and talk with our Creator.
You know God's not just a concept or an idea.
He is a person.
The Bible says that we've been made in God's likeness and in His image.
The problem though is a thing called sin.
Because of sin people have been separated from God.
God is a holy and a just God and there's no way that God can come into intimate relationship
with sinful men and sinful women because His righteous nature demands that that sin be
judged.
But God is also love and because of His love nature He would not overlook us.
He couldn't overlook our sin, but He wouldn't overlook us.
And when we could not in our lost state, our state of separation, reach up to Him, He reached
down to us.
He sent His Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life.
And wasn't born in a wealthy families home, He wasn't born to a powerful politician, He
was born to a poor carpenter and his teen aged wife.
He sort of lived in obscurity until about 30 years of age and then He entered into ministry
and He began to tell people what God was like.
When Jesus spoke about God it wasn't as if God was distant, aloof and uncaring but He
was near.
He referred to Him as a loving Father that wanted to be involved in the affairs of our
life.
It was something that people had never heard, and people hung on every word.
And He worked miracles.
He raised the dead, He healed the sick, He showed that God was loving and He was interested
in helping people.
In their hurts and in their problems and in their distresses.
And you know the crowds grew so large as so many followed Jesus some of the religious
leaders became insanely jealous and they took Jesus and put Him through a mock trial.
He was beaten without mercy and eventually crucified.
But all of that was part of the plan of God.
For as Jesus Christ, the Son of God was suspended upon that cross between heaven and earth,
literally God laid the penalty for your sin and for my sin upon Jesus Christ and He died
under the weight of our sins.
He became the perfect substitute, the innocent for the guilty.
The righteous for the unrighteous.
The holy for the unholy.
And He willingly went to that cross and He willingly paid the price for our sin.
And do you know, I think it's really more than the heart can take in.
In the book of Isaiah, it says that His very soul was made an offering for sin.
I think we will never understand even through all eternity the depths to which Christ went
to redeem mankind.
The claims of God's eternal justice were forever satisfied and on the third day Jesus
was raised from the dead.
And here's what the Bible says, if you believe that, and you confess Him as Lord, now that
word Lord is not some magic Christian word or some buzzword.
It means boss.
It means I am willing to die to my rights of independent living and come under Your
authority and when I put my trust in a risen Jesus and I call Him Lord, and I say, "Jesus,
I am willing to submit my life, my heart to You, my future to You, give You my past, my
present and my future."
That He brings us into a relationship with God that the Bible calls salvation.
Yes, I'm telling you, you can know God.
You are meant to walk and talk with God.
And listen, no amount of money will fill that empty place you feel in your heart.
No amount of extreme sports or life adventures will fill that empty place in your heart.
You can run from man to man, get yourself a new wife, get yourself a new husband, get
a new girlfriend, it will never fill the empty place.
You were meant to walk with God and I believe He's reaching out to you even right now.
Now, you know my own life, I was hopelessly messed up on drugs.
I had major league drug addictions and problems with alcoholism.
In fact for many years I was not sober at all and I ended up in a little street mission.
And in that street mission they talked about Jesus Christ and I gave my life to the Lord.
The night that I did people laid their hands on me and prayed for me and I was set free
from my addictions and God changed my life.
I invited Jesus Christ into my life.
Not just sort of an appendage, okay, now I'm going to start going to church on Sunday because
I made this like Jesus commitment.
No, it was all in and that's what God's looking for.
He's looking for an all in commitment.
Not just something that you add on to your busy week or your busy schedule.
Literally it's, "God I submit my schedule, my life to You, You've paid everything for
me, You've done it all and now I give my all to You."
And do you know that's when the adventure starts.
It's an amazing thing walking and talking with God.
And you may be watching me right now, and thinking that's what I need to do, but I don't
have a story like yours, I wasn't on drugs.
You know.
I didn't do this or that, you know, that's alright we all have the same need.
I married a farm girl from the central part of the United States.
She was always the teacher's favorite student.
She never smoked a cigarette in her life.
She was the exact opposite from somebody like me.
But one day she realized she needed salvation.
She needed a Savior just like I needed a Savior.
She embraced Jesus Christ as her Lord and her life changed.
And you may be on the spectrum, more toward where my wife was, you're sort of that upstanding
citizen you're trying to do things right, you don't try and cheat people, you don't
want to cheat on your taxes but that ... our good works don't save us.
Salvation is by grace, through faith, not of works lest any man should boast.
No amount of good works can make us right with God.
If they could Jesus died in vain.
And so whether you're at my end of the spectrum, you've done a lot of bad things and lived
a pretty wild life or more toward the spectrum of where my wife was, you tried to live right
and do it right, we all need a Savior.
I'd like to invite you to pray with me right now.
Wherever you are, whatever you're doing you should take moment and to give me your undivided
attention, this is important.
I don't think you would have listened to me this long or you'd be watching me right now
if God wasn't somehow dealing with your heart and friend He is just a prayer away.
I'm going to give you some words to say to God, now the words themselves without a sincere
heart behind them they mean zero.
But if you'll put a sincere heart behind these words and if you'll speak them from your heart
to God I believe that He will meet you.
Maybe you've never done a thing like this before, let's go to God, let's talk to God.
If you're a backslider that's had an encounter with Jesus at some point in your life, I want
to invite you to pray with me, to come back to Him.
Might even help you to put your hand on your heart right now.
Let's talk to God.
I want you to say this out loud after me if you would.
You say, "Oh God," go ahead and say it out loud, let your ears hear the words.
Say, "Oh God, I come to You right now with all of my heart I believe.
I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son, I believe He died on the cross to take away my sin.
Jesus thank You for going to the cross for me.
Thank You for paying my debt in full.
I believe You were raised from the dead and I ask You now to come into my life Lord Jesus.
Wherever You lead me I will go.
All I am and all I have I place in Your hands Jesus and from this day forward, You are my
Lord."
You know, we always go through different things in life.
We always have besetting circumstances.
The storms of life come to everyone.
But in the midst of those storms there is hope.
God always has an answer for us.
He always has a pathway for us to walk and I have a special bundle of messages that will
be a blessing to you.
In whatever circumstance you are going through, they will bring you hope.
I hope that you get it.
God wants to get your hopes up . . . way up!
Or maybe the hopes of a loved one.
Along with 2 hope-inspiring CD messages, this bundle includes a booklet with Bayless'
amazing story of how God completely turned his life around, setting him free from years
of addiction and confusion.
Call or order online now.
Just use the information on your screen.
And be encouraged: There is always hope!
Thank you for watching Answers with Bayless Conley.
For more information and inspiration visit AnswersBC.org.
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