Seven Proofs of God #4

Law & Prophecy

Fred R. Coulter—September 8, 2012

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Greetings, brethren! Welcome to Sabbath Services! Today there is a growing atheism in America. If you were watching the Democratic Convention, they had a dispute over whether the words God and Jerusalem and some other words they took out too, should remain in the overall plank. The plank is the definition of the beliefs of the Democrat Party. So they took God out, they took Jerusalem out and there was a big uproar. So then, supposedly, the President said, 'Put it back in.' They've never found out who said to take it out.

But nevertheless, the master of ceremonies for the convention was the mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa. He said, 'All right, we have an amendment that we need to take a vote on.' The amendment was to put the wording back in. So, he said, 'We'll take a voice vote on it. All those in favor say aye.' So, they said aye. 'All those opposed, say no!' So, all those opposed said no!

They are supposed to have a 2/3 majority by sound. The first time the no's actually had it by a bit, because Dolores and I were watching. So then, he got all frustrated and said, 'Let's do this again.' So, he did it again, 'All the ayes say aye. All the no's say No!' And it was just about evenly divided. He didn't know what to do. So a woman came out there and told him to do it a third time. He did it a third time and obviously there was no 2/3-majority. So, he said, 'In the opinion of the chair, 2/3s are yea and the motion has passed.' Some people were talking about it. Afterwards there was an Arab man there and he was one of the most vocal against having God and Jerusalem as the capital city. Nothing like stirring up some Islamic hatred there!

So anyway, it was put back into the plank. One of the commentators later said when Sarah Palin she saw it, it kind of reminded her of Peter denying Christ three times. When you have a party that caters to those who believe in no God and those who believe in the perverted sex that God says you are not to do, they don't want God around any place. So, it will be interesting. Afterwards Dolores and I were commenting: we wonder what it's going to be like after this, what's going to happen.

Forgot to mention that after he said it passed, a lot of people out there booed. Then the camera came around to the backside and looked up at the big teleprompter. I didn't know the big teleprompter, they have very large letters. Where it said, 'In the opinion of the chair...' it was on the teleprompter for him to say that. How's that for a democracy?

Let's see how there a lot of people who do that today. One of the delegates to the Democratic Convention was a Methodist minister. He said, 'We wanted the wording in there because we are a nation under God.' Here we have something very interesting concerning the people of Israel and how they viewed God. A couple more facts needed to be added in there. Cardinal Dolan gave the closing invocation. He prayed in that, that all abortion would be stopped. I wonder how those dissidents felt about that after that. That's why atheists and evolutionists like to have everything created from nothing.

Here is what the children of Israel did, 1-Kings 18:19, Elijah said: "Now therefore, send and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and four hundred and fifty of the prophets of Baal..." Baal is the sun-god and the day of worship for the sun-god is what day? Sunday! What's the day of worship for the moon god? Monday, etc!

"'...and four hundred of the prophets of Asherah... [Asherah is the female goddess or the queen of heaven.] ...who eat at Jezebel's table'" (v 19). Jezebel was the wife of Ahab and Jezebel was the daughter of the high priest of Baal in Sidon. There was a drought for three and a half years, because the people were rejecting God. You can draw any parallels you want to draw with modern day, because God is 'the same yesterday, today, and forever.' So they all came (v 20).

Verse 21: "And Elijah came to all the people and said, 'How long will you vacillate between two different opinions?.… [the Hebrew means to jump back and forth] ...If the LORD is God, follow Him, But if Baal is God, then follow him.' And the people did not answer him a word." So, you know what he did then. Had a little competition in offerings.

He said, 'You're many, you go first.' All the prophets of Baal and all the prophets of Asherah they went first. They built an altar, they put the bullocks on there, they cried all morning long and Elijah came and taunted them a little bit.

Verse 27: "Now, it came to pass at noon Elijah mocked them and said, 'Cry aloud with a great voice, for he is a god. Either he is meditating, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened!' And they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves with knives and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. So it came to pass when midday was past, and when they prophesied until the offering of Elijah's oblation, there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor anyone who paid attention" (vs 27-29). This is exactly what's happening in the world today. Is there a God or is there no God? When Christ returns, He's going to settle the issue.
So then, Elijah said, 'Repair the altar, pour water on it.' Did it three times. Then Elijah prayed this very short prayer. This is actually 21-seconds long, compared to eight hours of prayer by the priests of Baal and the priests of Asherah.

Verse 36: "Now it came to pass at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, 'LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their heart back again.' Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the burnt sacrifice and the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw, they fell on their faces. And they said, 'The LORD, He is the God! The LORD, He is the God!'" (vs 36-39).

So then, there was an elimination of the prophets of Baal. Today you can't go out and slay those who are the false prophets, but nevertheless the same principle applies. You are either for God or against Him. Some people say, 'I'm agnostic, I don't know.' You're against Him.

That's why God has sent His Word. People say, 'How will I know that there's a God?' Everything that He wanted us to have, He's preserved and we now have it in the Bible! The entire Bible itself has been translated into 450-plus languages, which covers 90% of the languages in the world, as far as the complete Bible is concerned. English is now the universal language and when you consider that there are about 8-billion people in the world and there are about 8-9-billion Bibles in the world.

• How did that happen when there are so many people that don't want to have the Bible around?
• Did God make it happen so there would be a witness?
• Did He make that happen so that people would have something to turn to, to find out who is God? Yes, indeed!

Let's review the first of the first four of the proofs of God:

• Creator—order

Nothing comes out of chaos. What happens when there's a flood, a tornado, an earthquake, a hurricane? Chaos! Destruction! Everything God has created and there is such an abundance of life that it is incredible.

I was thinking the other day, because our tomatoes are late, but they're coming on. Jonathan's tomatoes are coming on, our squash is going like this, and all of that is coming on. We had a whole bunch of lemons picked, a whole punch of oranges picked. I was thinking, as you look at the seed from the tomato and then when I was making lemon juice, looked at the seed from the lemon. The grapefruit juice, looked at the seed from the grapefruit. Here's this little seed, regardless of what it is. It could be a flower, a weed, whatever. You plant it and it grows.

Why does it grow? How does it grow? Men are real smart. They know you need sunshine and water so that's what they give it, but how does it grow? Remember in about sixth-grade Biology they had this see-through little planter. To show how things grow the teacher would put a bean seed in there. They'd water it a little bit everyday and the students would come along and say, 'The roots came down.' A few days later here comes the sprout of a bean coming up.

How did it know what to do? You plant alongside of that whatever other seed you want, watermelon, squash, grapes, apples. You take a seed and you plant it and how does it know to become what that plant is when you can't even figure out what's inside the seed? Would you not say that something greater than you had to do this?

Let's take the greatest minds in the world, put them together. Can they tell us why it does it? You can put different seeds into the same plot of soil and they will come up with all different plants according to what God has put in the seed. They still can't answer that. God is Creator/Maker.

• Designer

There's design to everything. You look at the smallest thing that there is. Look at the flowers how beautiful they are.

• Life

Look at all the life everywhere, some good, some you don't like: mosquitoes, hornets, same way with the animals. The other night we had a possum get into the yard and the dogs were barking. Possums generally come out at night. They don't like the daytime. There was a ruckus out there and I happened to get up and Steven was out there. He said, 'Dad, come here, take a look.'

I went out on the deck and he was down on the ground. He shined up on this big latticework that we have separating the property between us and the neighbor's. Right at the top here was this big possum looking with his eyes wide open not knowing what to do or where to go. God created that animal to be a night stalker to get different things, like mice and rats. Of course, those are night animals, too.

You look at every animal that is made, every plant. Every plant is absolutely amazing! Though every leaf looks alike, they are each one individually different.

Look at human beings; we've already covered that—made in the image of God. How is God able to put the inheritance within the father and the mother to create a new unique human being whose genetic code is different from anyone else of the 8-billion people that are alive today and different than anyone else's genetic code all the way down through history? God did it!

• Sustainer

With the sustainer that means there has to be power. With all of this then the proofs of God come down to the purpose of God.

• Law

In order for there to be law there has to be a lawgiver. Even the Bible says two things:

• The wages of sin is death
• Where there is no law there is no sin

Let's come to the book of James and let's see what it says about law. What is the first section of the Bible called? The first five books of the Bible? It's called the Law! How did the law come about?

The evolutionists deal in law all the time but they deal in lawless law because they say that genes mutate and therefore, they improve. But in their own scientific laboratories that they have, every time there is a mutant gene it is a degradation and not an improvement. How do you explain all of the different varieties of life? How can that come from nothing? Same way with law!

James 4:11: "Brethren, do not talk against one another other. The one who talks against a brother, and judges his brother, is speaking against the law, and is judging the law…." That is the #1 sin of human beings.

The other day there was a man from our Fairfield group and he's a bus driver. He takes people to the medical appointments and things like this, and they have discussions about God. He asked them, 'What day do you go to church on?' Oh, I go to church on Sunday? 'Oh, really, what does the Bible say?' Every single one said they know the Bible says the Sabbath, but they keep Sunday. So, through their actions what have they done? They have judged God and have judged the law! That's the greatest sin of human beings, whether they are atheist, whether they are agnostics, whether they are religious, they judge God.

Now let's see what happens here: "...But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law; rather, you are a judge. But there is only one Lawgiver..." (vs 11-12). Why did He give the laws? Because He wanted His creation to enjoy life! That's why. He wanted it to go well with them.

You should all know the Ten Commandments by heart, so I won't go through that, but let's eliminate some of the objections. Those in the sexual revolution said, 'We chose to have meaninglessness to life because we objected to the morality imposed upon us, especially the sexual laws.' Look what has happened today. That's happened before down through history.

Here's why God gave it. Traditional explanation is by Protestantism that 'these are the harsh laws of God and Jesus came to release us from the law.' They've ended up judging the law and they actually then show their disbelief in God while they profess belief in God because they're unwilling to accept the laws of God.

Deuteronomy 4:1: "And now, O Israel, hearken to the statutes and to the judgments which I teach you, in order to do them, so that you may live..." What is the fifth commandment say? Honor your father and mother so that your days on the earth may be long! What happens to teenagers who reject the things that mothers and fathers have tried to teach them when they were trying to teach them? Look at the state of the youth today. Sad documentary—isn't it?

"...in order to do them, so that you may live and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers gives to you. You shall not add to the word which I command you; neither shall you take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you" (vs 1-2).

Isn't that interesting. All of those on this bus where he was taking these people to get their medicines and get their doctor's appointments, they all agreed that the traditions of men superseded the Law of God. God wanted it to be good for them.

Verse 5: "Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you should do so in the land where you go to possess it. And you shall keep and do them, for this is your wisdom..." (vs 5-6).

What's happened when they've taken God out of the schools? What's happened to the I.Q. of the students? It goes down!

• they don't have wisdom
• they don't have judgment
• they don't have understanding
• they don't have morality

"...for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes and say, 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'" What happened when they were keeping most of the laws of God? We'll set aside Sunday-keeping for the time being, but when they were keeping most of the laws of God? When it was taught to be honest?

They ran a survey of children. Those who studied from the McGuffey Readers in home schooling and who believed in God had a higher I.Q. and were smarter. There have been several occasions where the spelling bee was won by a home-schooler. What did they do? They studied the Bible, they studied their lessons! When they get to employment, they are dependable, honest, and they know how to work. They know how to think, they have individual initiative. Guess who gets hired first? Home schoolers!

Verse 7: "For what nation is so great whose God is so near to them, as the LORD our God is, whenever we call upon Him?" Isn't that something? Then He gives a warning. There are lots of warnings here.

Verse 9: "Only take heed to yourself and diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. But teach them to your children, and your children's children, To remember the day that you stood before the LORD your God in Horeb, when the LORD said to me, 'Gather the people to Me, and I will make them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and they may teach their children'" (vs 9-10).

Can you find perfection in the creation of God? Yes, you can! Why? Because God is perfect! When you see the mantra of the evolutionists starting with ape and ending with man, here you have things that are changing. God never changes. Here you have that they have not too much intelligence. Here you have perfect intelligence by God Who made and created everything. Every single thing that He has created operates by law: the physical things, such as this desk, the creation of animals, the creation of human beings, the creation of insects, the oceans, the land, everything, all of those God created.

Let's see what it says about God's law. Here is a great way of understanding the laws of God, that is the universe. I forgot to bring it, but I have a picture of the sun in full blazing orange color. Remember, that is one star in one galaxy of millions of stars, and this is one galaxy out of an estimated 360-trillion galaxies in the universe. That's mind-boggling! I guess the Federal government wants to try and outdo God with debt. Now notice what the heavens do.

Psalm 19:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims His handiwork"—everything that we've been covering on the proofs of God. It's out there perpetually. Think about all the millions and billions and trillions of years that they talk about in evolution. They never stop to figure that in order for that to happen, in order for it all to be sustained there had to be someone out there to sustain it all these trillions of years. If it's been sustained those trillions of years, what does that mean? You've got to have an eternal, living God to do so!

From the earth looking up, v 2: "Day after day they pour forth speech, and night after night they reveal knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard…. [the message from it; there are sounds from space] …Their line has gone out through all the earth... [you can't miss it] ...and their words to the ends of the world. In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices as a strong man set to run a race, Its going forth is from one end of heaven, and its circuit is to the other end. And there is nothing hidden from its heat" (vs 2-6).

That's to bring understanding and fear of God to people. Today we could have it greater than virtually any other generation in the history of mankind. You can go online and you can download fabulous photos of unbelievable beauty and magnitude of the stars and galaxies right from your own computer.

What do we have in this age? Let's just project forward just a little bit here. Not only is a prophecy being fulfilled that 'knowledge shall increase,' which it is; 'many are going to and fro,' which they are; but we also have that God has made the witness of His being, His creation, and His Word attainable by every single person in this world. So they are going to have a witness before Christ returns. They are going to have no excuse!

Let's talk about the Law of God, v 7: "The law of the LORD is perfect... [If you had some perfect beautiful diamond, would you want to throw it away? Ruby? Sapphire? Gold? Silver? Whatever? Perfect! Here's what it does. It's meant to help people.] ...restoring the soul..." It makes you better! God made us to be improved. God made us so we can grow in knowledge, understanding, wisdom, increase our abilities. He wants us to and He has something greater than that beyond us. He wants us to become like Him. That's why we're made in His image. His law is perfect.

"...the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple... [The testimonies are like the Proverbs. Proverbs are fantastic for teaching young people so they can know the things they need to know.] ...The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandments of the LORD are pure, enlightening the eyes" (vs 7-8). Giving you:

• understanding
• wisdom
• a clear mind
• a clear heart

Verse 9: "The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever, the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether, More to be desired than gold, yea, much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned; in keeping them is great reward" (vs 9-11). That's why God gave it. Stop and think!

• Do you know someone who doesn't believe in God?
• How is their life?
• Do you know someone who lives a very rebellious life?
• How is their mental attitude?
• How is their health?

Here's another thing it does, it teaches you right and wrong, v 12: "Who can understand his errors? Oh, cleanse me from my secret faults." The laws of God are good.

Let me suggest this: If anyone has any questions about whether the laws, statutes, judgments, commandments, precepts, testimonies of God are for us, and if you have any question that the doctrine of the Protestants is correct—that Jesus did away with the laws of God, that we don't need to keep them because they're not good for us—then what I want you to do, I want you to read and study all of Psa. 119.

Let's read just a few verses here to show why God has given His law. How are you going to get out of this? I will give the agnostics and atheists and the Protestant non-believers, I will give you a challenge: You look in the Scriptures and you tell me where there is one law of God that is not good. In case you start out with complicated verses in Galatians and a couple of other places in the writings of the Apostle Paul, you better educate yourself with Judaism because if you don't, you don't understand what Paul is writing about.

Psalm 119:1: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way..." Doesn't everyone want blessings? Do you want curses? How are they blessed? How are they undefiled and what are they doing? They are in the way, which then has to be the way of the Lord!

"...who walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep His testimonies and who seek Him with the whole heart. They also do not iniquity; they walk in His ways" (vs 1-3). Therefore, they are not transgressing the Law. How do you quit being a sinner?

• you quit breaking the laws and commandments of God
• you cry out to God for His Spirit in repentance
• you receive the Spirit of God and He begins with His Spirit to convert you inside
• all the evil in all of your mind will be cleansed through the process of conversion

Another thing, another challenge: Do you really know how evil the human mind is? Jer. 17—here is something that has been proven over and over and over again in every survey, every test, everything that they want to do in trying to find out why people lie.

There are some people that lie when the truth would really be better. Here is the basic problem when you get rid of God. Here's what they do. They say, 'All people are good.' If all people are good, why is there so much crime and sin? If all people are good, we wouldn't have problems—would we? We just read if you're walking in the Law of God, which is good, they you're doing no iniquity. But without the Spirit of God, without the Word of God to let you know—though you're created in the image of God—you've got a fatal flaw in you mind and you don't know it. You will know it when you admit it, but not until.

You find this contrast all through the Bible. You want your life blessed, here's a key, Jeremiah 17:7: "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters; it sends out its roots by the river, and it shall not fear when the heat comes, but its foliage shall be green; and he is not worried in the year of drought, now will it cease from yielding fruit" (vs 7-8).

Now contrast with this, v 9: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Now then, that being the case, how can those who don't believe in God solve the problems of the world? They can't!

(go to the next track)

The hardest thing for a human being to do is admit that they are deceitful by nature and have other internal sins in the mind! We will look at some of those.

How do those who believe in evolution account for the fact that they say 'man is good, but he produces evil'? Something had to happen to human beings, or their behavior, or evolution is not what they think it is. Why are human beings deceitful and sinners, automatically? Because after the sin of Adam and Eve they inherited genetically—all of us have it genetically—the nature that is called human nature which is a mixture of good and evil!

Sometimes the good in people will predominate, but that doesn't mean that they are inherently good all the way through. It just means they have learned how to 'do good' and they have been disciplined or taught what not to do. There are many people in the category that are like that. Then there are a lot who are not.

Let's go to the New Testament, and let's see a summary of human behavior. The Bible tells us 'all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.' There has to be a standard.

• How do you know what's right?
• How do you know what's wrong?
• How do you know what's good?
• How do you know what's evil?

Have you ever been surprised at someone who you thought was such a wonderful person, turned out to be a real scoundrel?

I occasionally watch two programs on MSNBC and CNBC. One on MSNBC they have a program where they track down men—I suppose women as well, but I haven't seen it concerning women, but men—who go online soliciting sex with minors, text messaging, all kinds of things.

Never fails, when they come in—and it's a sting operation—expecting that they're coming into a house where a 13-15-year-old girl is there, they don't expect to meet a man. He is the one who conducts the survey. They have all the texts of the messages that they've sent online back and forth. So, they have everything down there. When they're cornered, everyone says, 'I know it's wrong.' Every single one and yet they are there doing it. That's because we all have inborn sin. If you don't believe me, watch a couple of little children, say between one and two-years old, and watch them play. Watch what happens when one of them steals a toy from the other kid. There's a fight—right?

That's why there has to be training. That's why there has to be discipline. It's no wonder that in this world where there's no training, or very little discipline, that things don't turn out well, that we are producing criminals and sex deviants.

Galatians 5:19: "Now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these..." Notice where it starts out. Why don't you take vs 19-22 and just have it right handy next to your television set. Jesus said, 'Out of the hearts of men go forth evil thoughts, adultery, fornications and murders.' Do this, take a little notebook, monitor your thoughts and compare them with Gal. 5:19-22.

Someone does something to you, what do you say? What do you think? Monitor it. What about when you see something evil on television? I know Dolores and I were talking about that one of the best channels to watch is the western channel because the good guys, the bad guys, there's good/there's evil, there's right/there's wrong. Generally the evil ones are taken care of. But in today's modern movies the heroes are the evil ones in many cases.
Monitor your thoughts! What thoughts do you have going through your mind? Write it down. Then do this, because they've run tests on human beings concerning lying and they found that the average person lies within ten minutes three times!

That's 'covetousness, wickedness, guile, licentiousness and evil eye, blasphemy, pride and foolishness; all these evils go forth from within and defile the man.'

What happens when people give themselves over to evil? Dedicated to evil, whatever it may be? Look at the movies that they've had recently. What was one of them? Vampire movie! There are a lot of teens out there trying to be vampires. So, they go to kiss their girlfriends, instead of kissing they girlfriend, they bite the neck so they can get some blood. Really! Can people be led astray very easily? Yes, indeed!

What happens when you dedicate yourself to evil? What does that do to the human mind? This is what evolution and the atheists cannot account for. They don't even understand their own deceptions and their own rejections of the facts that God has put out there that He is the Lawgiver. They want everyone to be nice to them.

Here's what happens to them, Jeremiah 17:1: "The sin of Judah..." That could be anyone dedicated to evil. Watch some of these prisoner programs of the incorrigible evil ones sometime. That's really an eye-opener. They are set to kill; they are set for mayhem; they have made up their minds. One man even said, 'Don't ever let me out of here; I will kill again.'

"...is engraved with a pen of iron... [becomes part of your very being] ...with the point of a diamond; it is carved upon the tablet of their heart and upon the horns of your altars" (v 1).

What does that mean? Your mind records everything that you ever do. It is all there. Some people have even said when they've gone through an operation and the doctor is doing something and it affects a certain part of the mind of their past experience, that they even smelled their mother's cooking again. Everything you've ever done is there. That's why with conversion you need to have your mind changed, your mind cleansed with the Word and Spirit of God. Tablet of their heart and 'as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.' And "…upon the horns of your altars…." What does that mean? They have a sinful religious system!

• look at all the idols
• look at the demons
• look at the witchcraft

It's engraved there. People are so brought up in this, especially in Latin America, many of them. They are so into it that they are petrified to stay with it and petrified to leave it. That's a terrible situation.

I saw a special on Tijuana on underage girls. They have forged documents that they are 16. They have hundreds in sex slavery. Terrible situations.

Verse 5: "Thus says the LORD, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD." It's automatic. All of those things are automatic. If you ever deal in the rehab of those who have been addicted or alcoholics, kleptomaniacs, thieves. How about obsessive shopping by women? They can't stay out of the department stores. They get their credit cards and they walk into the department store and the smell is the department store is just like euphoria. 'Hooray, I am here!'

Psalm 119—here's the law on how to make it right. That's why God always grants repentance. Whenever anyone is sorry, God acknowledges it. Whenever anyone repents to God and say, 'Oh, God, I've been doing foolish things. I have sinned against you,' God acknowledges it. He will forgive it.

Let's see the good part of the laws of God. Just like everything we do in the world. It has to be according to law. That's why you have to build in a certain way. That's why in making anything you have to make it to whatever dimensions of what it is that you are making. Same way with human conduct, and human conduct is far more important than the things that they make.

Psalm 119:1: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD." They have found this: when they had Alcoholics Anonymous and they had God in it they had an 85% success rate. Now, with Alcoholics Anonymous you cannot have God in it, you can have a 'Higher Power.' Their success rate is 50% or less, I believe, I forget, so don't hold me to that. But it's not successful as it should be. Notice, those who are in trouble want v 2. They want to get out of it.

• they want to overcome their addiction
• they want to overcome their alcoholism
• they want to overcome their thievery
• they want to overcome their hatred

Verse 2: "Blessed are they who keep His testimonies and who seek Him with the whole heart…. [That's what they need to be taught. Then they will understand the value of law.] …They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently.... [notice this admission]: ...O that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!" (vs 2-5)—recognized his human nature and his sins!

Verse 6: "Then I shall not be ashamed when I have respect unto all Your commandments. I will praise You with uprightness of heart when I have learned Your righteous judgments" (vs 6-7). This is what needs to happen with all the atheists and those who don't believe in God. They first have to come to understand their own shortcomings and sins.

Verse 9: "With what shall a young man... [or young woman] ...cleanse his... [or her] ...way? By taking heed according to Your word. With all my heart I have sought You; O let me not wander from Your commandments. Your word I have laid up in my heart, so that I might not sin against You" (vs 9-11).

Here's the solution. 'The heart is deceitful above all things.' How do you get rid of the deceitfulness? Right there, v 11: "Your word I have laid up in my heart, so that I might not sin against You." Put the Word of God in to remove the sin.

Let's look at some other things concerning the laws of God, judgments of God. Improving these points that there is a God, this also helps them to be able to realize what God can do for them.

Psalm 78:1: "Give ear, O my people, to My Law..." They need to be taught the laws of God. Everyone here memorize the Ten Commandments, the long form? Start with the short form and then go with the long form.

"...incline your ears to the words of My mouth… [they are all recorded here] …I will open my mouth in a parable; I will speak dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generations to come the praises of the LORD, and His strength, and His wonderful works that He has done, for He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel..." (vs 1-5).

That helps answer the question as to why we have four Bibles for every person in America. God made sure that we had it. How can the atheists explain why there are so many Bibles here? They can't unless they recognize that it's the Law of God.

6.  Prophecy

Let's come to the book of Isaiah. God lays out some challenges for those who don't believe in Him. God lays out challenges for those who think they know everything.

Isaiah 41:21: "'Draw near with your cause,' says the LORD; 'Bring out your strong reasons,' says the King of Jacob. 'Let them bring them out, and declare to us the things that shall happen; let them reveal the former things, what they are, that we may consider them and know the final end of them; or declare to us things to come'" (vs 21-22). God has done this in very detailed ways, going back thousands of years.

Verse 23: "Reveal the things that are to come after this, so that we may know that you are gods... [Because if you declare there is no God and you set yourself up as the center of intelligence for this, or other people, you are declaring yourself to be a god.] ...Yea, do good, or do evil, so that we may be dismayed and see together."

Here's a challenge. Here's what God thinks of all the talking out there by those who don't believe in God, v 24: "Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination."

Let's see how the challenge continues. If you think there is no God and if you don't believe that the Word of God is the Word of God, then go ahead and study the Word of God and find out something in there that you can disprove. Don't look at the churches of the world and be angry at their stupid practices, because they also have turned their backs on God.

'Yeah, but, the Catholics believe this. Yeah, but the Hindus believe this. The Buddhists believe this and the Protestants believe that.' They never stop and ask: What did God say? The One Who purports to be God?

Here's what He says, Isaiah 42:8: "I am the LORD; that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to graven images.... [Isn't going to happen. Any church that calls itself Christian that has any image in it, God is not there. Just consider that.] ...Behold, the former things have come to pass. And new things I declare; before they happen, I tell you of them" (vs 8-9)—so you would know it. There are a lot of challenges here in the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 46:8: "Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, O you transgressors. Remember the former things of old... [That's why we can study the things in the past.] ...for I am God, and there is none else, I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which were not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure'" (vs 8-10).

Let's look at one of the most important prophecies in the book of Daniel. This is particularly important for several reasons. The Jews because of their sins were carried off into exile. There were those who were seeking God. God said, 'If you go, I'll be with you.' Daniel and Shadrach and Meshach and Abed-Nego were with Daniel. God blessed them with understanding.

God also deals with the leaders of the world. Here's King Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon; he has a dream. He doesn't know what to make of this dream so he calls all of his counselors, all of the mighty men, all of the ones who were supposed to be able to interpret dreams.

You've probably seen some things like that on television. Have you seen where some of them look to the future by slaughtering an animal and looking at its liver? Nebuchadnezzar had some counselors that he didn't trust. He came to them and asked an impossible thing. He said, 'Gather you all here.' The astrologers, the magicians, the wise men came in:

Daniel 2:3: "And the king said to them, 'I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.'…. [The Chaldeans, who were supposed to be the smartest people in the world, spoke to the king in Aramaic]: …'O king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will reveal the meaning.' The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, 'The command from me is certain. If you will not make known to me the dream, with its meaning, you will be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill'" (vs 3-5). He was the emperor and he could do it.

To make a long story short, this shows God is dealing with a Gentile leader, gives him a dream for a purpose. Then Daniel told the captain of the guard, asked for a little more time from the king and 'we will pray and see if God will answer our prayer.' The long and short of the story is, God answered the prayer. God revealed the secret of the dream and its interpretation. This is recorded in the Bible and the Word of God is true so this literally happened. It's within the timeframe of history that we know there are written records.

So, Daniel came and told him that there's a God in heaven Who reveals secrets and He has made known to it. Not that we are anything, he told the king. Here is what Daniel answered.

Verse 26: "The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, 'Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?'" Now, keep this in mind also, if someone says, 'I had a dream, but I forgot it, tell me what the dream was. Help me remember my dream.' Well, I was home sleeping that night myself and I didn't have a dream.

So, here comes in Daniel and says God has made known the dream. The king said, 'Are you able to do it?' Notice how he answered, v 27: "Daniel answered before the king and said, 'The secret which the king has demanded cannot be shown to the king by the wise men, the enchanters, the astrologers or the magicians.'"
How many people go to these same kinds of people today? Palm reading, astrology charts and everything? Know the future?

Verse 28: "But there is a God in heaven..." This is where a lot of the atheists need to start, with the Word of God, not arguments of men. This proves there is a Creator God Who knows the end from the beginning as He said and can make it come to pass.

"...Who reveals secrets and makes known to King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days…." (v 28). Here we are 2500 years later and we're seeing this dream, the fulfillment of it taking place in our day.

"…Your dream and the visions of your head upon your bed are these" (v 28). How could he know that? Daniel wasn't in his bedroom. Daniel didn't see, like you do in television, they simulate a dream and they put the picture so you can see what's going on.

Verse 29: "As for you, O king, while upon your bed your thoughts came to you of what should come to pass hereafter. And He Who reveals secrets makes known to you what shall come to pass. But as for me... [notice the humility that Daniel had] ...this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living man, but so that the interpretation may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart" (vs 29-30). So then, he explained the dream:

Verse 31: "You, O king, looked—and behold, a great image! That great image whose brightness was surpassing, stood before you. And its form was awesome. This image's head was of fine gold; his breast and his arms were of silver; his belly and his thighs were of bronze; His legs were of iron; his feet were part of iron and part of clay. You watched until a stone was cut out without hands... [human hands] ...that struck the image upon its feet which were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken in pieces together. And they became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors. And the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them was found. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth'" (vs 31-35).

Other parts of the Bible give more interpretations of this as well, telling us about this. But let's see the interpretation, because we can look back from here and see, yes, these things happened. We can look at what's happening in today's world and we can say, yes, the final parts of this vision are taking place in our day.

All of these are proofs of God. You can't have anything harder to do than this one prophecy right here. God says He is the One Who gave it, Who made it, Who gave the interpretation, and He's going to bring it to pass. All you atheists, line up here on this side, and you tell us what you're going to do. All of those of you over here on this side who claim to be prophets, tell us what you're going to do. Because has already done it.

Verse 36: "This is the dream. And we will tell the interpretation before the king." Here comes the interpretation. Great lesson. You want to understand things in the Bible, let the Bible interpret itself. Back then they didn't have the Bible to do it, so God gave the interpretation. And to make sure that we have it for today, Daniel wrote all of this down and God preserved it for us to this day.

Verse 37: "You, O king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory…. [We find in Dan. 4 that God works in the kingdoms of men.] …And wherever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold'" (vs 37-38). This was done in Babylon. Isn't it interesting that in the last days it talks about Babylon the Great, which fills the whole world? Interesting—isn't it? Yes!

Verse 39: "And after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you..." They know in history that was the Persian Empire. The prophecy of that is contained right here in the book of Daniel. Do they know about the Persian Empire today? Do they know about the Babylonian Empire today? Yes, they do!

"...and another third kingdom of brass, which shall rule over all the earth" (v 39). We know by other prophecies this is the prophecy of Greece, in particularly Alexander the Great. Did that happen? Today we're here and we can look back and say, 'Yeah, that happened.' Greece is still there—isn't it? What's happened to their history? Look at the Parthenon, all in a shambles.

Verse 40: "And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaks in pieces and beats down all things, and as the iron that crushes all these, shall it break in pieces and crush. And whereas you saw the feet and toes, part of potters' clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. But there shall be in it the strength of the iron, because you saw the iron mixed with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken.... [this is the last kingdom] ...And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mix themselves with seed of men. But they shall not cling to one another, even as iron does not combine with clay. And in the days of these kings..." (vs 40-44). This is future and we have the answer of that in the book of Revelation. But it starts right here. These kings pictured by the five toes on each of the feet.

"...the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed" (v 44). That's why we can depend on the fact that Christ is going to return, set up the Kingdom of God. What is the Gospel that Jesus preached? The Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the Gospel of His return!

The meaning of the clay and iron with the toes is that it is an amalgamation of different nations of the world, some strong and some weak. When they make this grand Babylon the Great alliance at the end, it's not going to hold together. That's the meaning of it. It has nothing to do with the commandments of God. It has nothing to do with the commandments of men. It has to do with the strength and the weakness of the nations that are the ten kings.

Noticed what's going to happen, v 44: "…And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. Because you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and its interpretation is sure" (vs 44-45).

That's one of the great prophecies that you can check with history, you can see the dates of the rise and fall of these empires and know that God said this before it occurred.

Next time with prophecy and then number seven will be answered prayer.

Scriptural References:

• 1-Kings 18:19, 21, 27-29, 36-39
• James 4:11-12
• Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 5-7, 9-10
• Psalm 19:1-12
• Psalm 119:1-3
• Jeremiah 17:7-9
• Galatians 5:19
• Jeremiah 17:1, 5
• Psalm 119:1-7, 9-11
• Psalm 78:1-5
• Isaiah 41:21-24
• Isaiah 42:8-9
• Isaiah 46:8-10
• Daniel 2:3-5, 26-45

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• 1-Kings 18:20
• Galatians 5:20-22
• Daniel 4

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 9-16-12
Formatted: 9-18-12

Copyright 2012—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.