I am going to read the first twelve verses of 2 Thessalonians 3. It says in 2 Thessalonians 3:1-12:
Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us. For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; neither did we eat any man’s bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you: not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
I will stop reading there. I thought it would be good for us to take a look at some of the verses in this passage. It is pretty straightforward. It is pretty direct as God is giving us these statements, especially in 2 Thessalonians 3:1, where the Lord is writing through the Apostle Paul:
Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
Notice that this is addressing the “brethren.” The “brethren” is language that is pointing to believers. Do those other than true believers pray? Yes, but is God going to hear their prayers? And what are they going to be praying for? Would it be for the sake of the Gospel, in praying that the Word of the Lord might be glorified? No, they might pray, but their prayers will not be in this direction. They would probably be more selfish or self-centered. If someone is not saved, this is really the interest of their heart. They care mostly about themselves and their own situation.
But a child of God knows that he or she is here for a purpose, and that purpose is to get the Gospel out to the world. This is the only reason why God has left us on the earth after He saved us. At the moment of salvation, He gave us a new resurrected soul, but He left us in our old body so that we could fit in with the people all around us, all of those who are not saved. There would not be any difference really between a true child of God and a person out in the world. You can not tell them apart.
So we can continue to work and to exist in this world, and yet we have a whole different focus, a whole different direction for our lives, which is different than the people of the world because we want to bring the Gospel to them. The same Gospel that saved us, we desire that they hear and might become saved.
So the “brethren” are encouraged to pray. They are encouraged to pray, “Pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may have free course.” So God is, in this verse, giving us direction. We can pray for anything. God tells us, “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” So we can pray about our troubles. We can pray about our fears or our money worries. We can pray about our jobs. We can pray about our families—anything and everything—but let us not forget that God also commands, “Pray for us, that the Word of the Lord may have free course.”
God has determined, He has a prescribed way of sending out the Word, of sending out the Gospel into the world. He uses His people. He uses believers: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!”
But you know what? The Gospel goes out as we send forth the Word, right? Is that the whole Gospel, when we send out the Word? If we hand out a tract, have we sent the whole Gospel? If the Gospel goes out over radio or Internet, or whatever means through the electronic medium, and the Word is read and the Word is taught, is that the complete package of the Gospel?
No, no it is not. The Gospel always goes hand-in-hand or side-by-side with prayer—always. So if we are doing the one part and failing to do the other part, we have not sent out the complete Gospel. Now I mean, that it is good; do not misunderstand. It is excellent if people are taking their money and they are using their money to support the giving or the sending forth of the Gospel to the world. That is good and in obedience to God’s command, and we should be doing this as much as we are able, “as much as lieth in you,” as God has provided for us whatever we can do in that area.
That is good, and it is also good if we go on a tract trip or if we are locally handing out tracts. If we are going into our neighborhood and standing on the street corner, that is in obedience to God’s command. There is nothing wrong with that. That is a very good thing, but what we sometimes, I think, overlook is prayer—prayer that has to accompany the sending forth of the Gospel, wherever it goes. Jesus ministered on the earth, and yet we read, again and again, He went “apart to pray.” It always goes hand-in-hand with the Word of God.
For instance, and we have to look at this in a certain way, but if we go to Matthew 17:21, we read about the man whose son was lunatic. The disciples could not cast out the devil, and then Jesus came and cast him out. The disciples were wondering, “Why could not we cast him out?” So in Matthew 17:21, Jesus explains:
Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
We know that when someone would be healed in the Bible that it was a picture of salvation. Whenever someone was physically healed, it was a picture of them being spiritually healed, as God saves a sinner’s soul, the sin-sick soul, and here, too.
God is using this language:
…this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.
And people have wondered about this, down through the ages. The theologians, and of course, today, in the churches many people take God’s Word at face value, on the surface. So they think that they have to set aside a day where they do not eat, that they have to set aside a time of fasting where they are just going to drink water, and they are going to pray during that time, and this will be beneficial and a blessing to others.
Well maybe through the prayer, there can be some benefit, but through abstaining from food, there is not going to be any benefit. No one is going to be blessed in any way from that because God has a spiritual meaning to the word “fasting.”
If we go back to Isaiah 58:6-7, and you can read the previous verses and the following verses, but Isaiah 58:6-7 says:
Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
The “fast” that God has chosen has to do with loosing the “bands of wickedness,” which can only be done through salvation, undoing the “heavy burdens,” which can only happen through salvation, letting the “oppressed go free,” which can only happen through salvation, and so on. It all has to do with ministering the Word that will spiritually accomplish these things in the life of a sinner, where now we “stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” because we have been made “free indeed” by the Gospel.
So this is the “fast.” Wherever we read about “fasting” in the Bible, this is the definition. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen?” This is how we have to understand it.
Now it makes better sense with this boy who was lunatic. The disciples could not cast him out, but Christ casts out the devil, making the boy well. Yet this is all a picture of salvation, and salvation comes through “prayer and fasting” together—not just prayer and not just fasting, but together, through “prayer and fasting.”
Or look at 1 Corinthians 7:3-5, where it says:
Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other,…
This means “to not go apart.”
…except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
You see, the only allowance that God gives for a husband to separate from his wife for any length of time is to give themselves to “prayer and fasting.” A good way of looking at that is when this question comes up. Is it right for a man to leave his family, with children, to go to South America on a tract trip for two weeks?
Is this correct? Is this allowable? Yes, God says that you can “defraud” one another, you can part from one another, for a time, but you have to make sure that it is not too long. I remember knowing a man from Kenya who came over here for Bible school for three years; he left his family behind, and that is too long of a time. But for a period of time, you can part from one another to give yourselves to the sending out of the Gospel, which is defined as “fasting and prayer” here in Corinthians 7. God does permit this. This is something that God allows in the marriage relationship, even though it is not a good idea to separate, really, for any other reason. For any other reason, the husband and wife should remain together and not separate. So this prayer accompanies fasting, or prayer accompanies the work of sending out the Gospel to the world.
Go to Ephesians 6:17-18 and look at this. This is the “amour of God.” We are breaking into the passage:
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
So, you see, here is the Word of God, the “sword of the Spirit.” Carry it with you, but what follows immediately after? Praying, “praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”
You have the Word. You have prayer. They can not be separated. Well, they can be, and we will actually look at something later that does separate the Word from prayer. But in order to expect the blessing of God upon ministry, and that is sharing His Word to the world, they should go together.
Ephesians 6:19 is a continuation:
And for me,…
That is, “Pray for me, brethren. Pray for me.” Ephesians 6:19:
And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,
This is the Apostle Paul. He had a task to do that God had given him: to bring the Gospel to the nations around him, the Gentiles. And it was a tough job, was it not? I mean, when we read about everything that he went through: the stonings and the whippings and the imprisonments and all of the afflictions and the persecutions. Well, what could help? What could the brethren do to help him? Yes, they could provide some of his needs. But what was the greatest thing that he really needed? What was the most important thing that the Apostle Paul needed from the brethren? Prayer. Prayer. This, I think, is what God is getting across to us, what God is saying to us. He is commanding us, “Finally, brethren, pray for us.”
You know, I am as guilty, probably, as anyone here, if not more so, when it comes to not obeying this command—with the potential possibilities of when we could obey God’s command to pray for the work of the Gospel. I mean, there is no lack of objectives that we can pray for.
We hear about tract trips all of the time. We can pray for them. We can remember an individual on the trip and pray that “the Word of the Lord may have free course.” Pray that the one person, or those two who are God’s elect in that city, will be brought into the path of the tract, as a missionary is walking down the street. This happens all of the time, and a lot of times we think that God is going to do it anyway, but remember that God has established a methodology, one of which is that the Word has to get there. We have to take the time, others maybe provide the funds, but the Word has to first get there, and yet we think, “Well, God will work it out.” Well, yes, God did work it out, but the people had to be moved to get there. They had to be put into place.
The second part is that then God’s people have to pray. Missionaries on the trip, I am sure, are praying, and God’s people do pray. I know that, because God will make it so. But, perhaps, we have to pray with more focus. Perhaps we have to pray with a more direct goal in mind, which is that God’s people become saved, that God’s Word be blessed and glorified through the sending out of His Word. So God here is joining prayer with the Word.
Let us go to Colossians 4. I will read the first four verses, where it says in Colossians 4:1-4:
Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven. Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
Again, this is just giving us more information that we should pray for an open door. Pray for a “door of utterance,” an open door. We can pray for our neighbors. We can pray for our family that the Lord might open up a “door of utterance” and give us an opportunity to share His Word. But also, specifically, we can pray that the “door of utterance” go forth in a larger scale to that “great multitude” that is out there whom God is going to save. We can be partakers. We can enter in by sharing in the ministry of the Gospel through prayer.
Now some people, physically, they can not handle the physical work that is necessary in going on a tract trip or standing up, maybe they have bad legs or bad knees or a bad back. Some people, also, can not handle the financial burden or responsibility of sending forth the Gospel, to much of a degree. They can help out a little bit, but I do not think that there is one person, one believer, who can not pray. Even children can pray. Is that not true? Can not everyone pray? You do not even have to talk. If someone has a problem where they can not speak, they can think a prayer in their mind. Anyone can pray, at any time, in any place. Every one of us can pray.
So this is not a little thing. This is not a little thing, because God has determined that it must go with the Word. So maybe there is a shut-in somewhere or maybe there is someone who is discouraged because they can not think how they can be a part of this wonderful climax to God’s whole salvation plan. Throughout the many generations, the thousands of years, it is coming down to the final end, the very last days, and “Oh, I would love to go on a trip, but I can not. I would love to give thousands, but I do not have the money.” Well, God has something that you can do. God has something that anyone can do: pray. “Brethren, brethren, pray for us; pray for us.” This is God’s encouragement, I think, to us today.
Let us go to 1 Kings 8. This is Solomon’s prayer, and he is praying in 1 Kings 8:30:
And hearken thou to the supplication of thy servant, and of thy people Israel,…
Solomon is a type of Christ, so we would expect God to hearken to him, picturing the Lord Jesus, but also to the servants, to “thy people Israel,” which is language pointing to true believers.
…when they shall pray toward this place: and hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place: and when thou hearest, forgive.
You see? Where is the Word? Where is the Word in view here? It is prayer. It is prayer, but, of course, the Word has to be there also. No one is going to be saved apart from the Word. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,” but no one is going to be saved apart from prayer. You can have the Word, but without prayer, will it have any effect? I mean, if nobody prays? If the Lord Jesus prays, then someone will be saved. But God has developed a salvation plan that is two-fold, or has two prongs, two spearheads, however you want to look at it. The Word goes forth, and prayer goes along. It accompanies. It is hand-in-hand.
In 1 Kings 8:31-36:
If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers. When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance.
You see, God is really encouraging us: pray, pray, pray. It is through prayer and the ministry of the Word that people can have forgiveness of sins, that they can experience God’s salvation and He can bestow His grace upon them.
I said that there is one example that God gives where they have the Word but no prayer. Remember in the book of Jeremiah, God says regarding the Jews, the people of Judah, who we know are a picture of the churches of our day during the Great Tribulation, “Pray not for this people.” “Pray not for this people.”
Let us go to Jeremiah 7. This is about the most terrible statement that you could read in the Bible, “Pray not.” We are supposed to pray for everyone. We pray for our “enemies.” We are to “pray for them which despitefully use you.” We pray for friends, family. You name it; we pray for them. But in Jeremiah 7:14-16, we read:
Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
Solomon’s prayer was “hear Thou in heaven, and forgive.” If God does not hear prayer, there is no forgiveness of sins. So God is telling us that in Judah of that day, as a corporate entity, as the outward representation of the Kingdom of God upon earth, “Pray not thou for this people.” It will not do any good; there is not going to be any salvation.
We know that the book of Jeremiah, spiritually, is pointing to the churches of our day, this time of Great Tribulation, and He says, “Pray not thou for this people.” Do not pray for the work of the church. Remember that “prayer and fasting” has to do with sending forth the Gospel. Do not pray for the sending out of the Gospel of the churches. It is not going to have any effect. It is not going to save a soul—not one, anywhere in any place—“for I will not hear thee.”
But they still have the Bible. They still have the Bible in the churches. Some of them have the faithful King James Version even, and yet they do not have the prayer of Christ, and because Christ is not praying for them and because He commands His people “pray not thou for this people,” it is terrible. It is terrible! No one in the churches today is being saved because there is not “prayer and fasting.”
They only have the Gospel, and they are working hard at it, preaching the gospel, whatever gospel it is that they have, and it could be close to the true Gospel, but there is no blessing. There is no forgiveness of sins, in any way, because there is no accompanying prayer of the Lord Jesus.
So that is the bad news, but what is the good news? During this time of Great Tribulation, the bad news is that there are hundreds of millions of people in churches and there is no salvation taking place. The good news is that God intends to save “a great multitude” out there in the world, out there outside of the corporate church.
In addition to this, we have been recently learning that amongst that “great multitude,” or a large part of that “great multitude,” will be many Muslims. There are going to be many Muslims.
If we go to Genesis 16, this is the account of when Hagar ran away after “Sarai dealt hardly with her.” That word “hardly” means “afflicted.” And it says in Genesis 16:10-11:
And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude. And the angel of JEHOVAH said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because JEHOVAH hath heard thy affliction.
“Ishmael” means “God will hear.” God will hear, and God says that this is the reason that she is to call him “Ishmael,” “call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction,” and that was Solomon’s prayer, “Hear Thou in heaven, and forgive.” “Hear Thou in heaven, and forgive,” and we know that there is other information in Isaiah and other places in the Bible where it says that God is going to gather “the sons of Ishmael” and that He “will multiply thy seed exceedingly.” They are going to be numerous, as part of this “great multitude,” because God is going to hear the prayer of His people. The prayer of the Lord Jesus, of course, but also His people are going to be praying and praying that God open up the “door of utterance,” that God send forth His Word gloriously and that God be glorified.
We have these discussions with the Muslims, and here is a wonderful opportunity to put it into practice. Let us pray, brethren. Let us pray. There is going to be about 1,000 Muslims this afternoon gathered into a room where they set the parameters, they set the boundaries, which is that we can only use the Bible. That is a hardship, is it not? We can only use the Bible? We can not go to the Koran. We can not use any outside source, only the Bible. And every verse that is brought up, they post it into the text and they translate it into, at least, a half dozen languages, accurately. They are encouraged to accurately translate everything that is being said.
So there is a wonderful opportunity for us to pray, to pray, “Lord, You said that You will call his name ‘Ishmael,’ that You will hear.” So let us see if any of these people are some of God’s elect, that if they are some of God’s “chosen ones.”
Okay, let us go back to 2 Thessalonians 3:1:
Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified,…
The word “course” is only translated here as “course.” It is normally translated as “run,” like, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all.” That is this word, “that the Word of the Lord may run.”
This reminds us of Psalm 147:15:
He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
In days of old, how would God’s Word run “swiftly”? People had to pack their bags and take ship. They had to go to other nations and, basically, give up their whole lives to bring the Word.
But today, God has opened up the electronic medium, and instantaneously, in a matter of moments, God’s Word goes out to the whole world and covers the earth—it basically does cover the earth.
So God now has multiplied the possibilities of salvation ten thousand fold, or even more than that. Before, there had to be an individual believer in that city, with the Word, who would come in contact with another individual. Now, believers can be far away—and there does not even have to be too many of them—and the Word can go out. Someone can have a radio, a shortwave radio, or a computer, or someone could have whatever gadgets they have today, and God can reach them. God can reach them and accomplish His purposes.
By the way, I think that I have referred to this a few times, but let us go to Isaiah 55. This goes along with the idea that the Word of the Lord has “free course.” In Isaiah 55:10-11:
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void,…
That word “void” means “empty.” It is the word “empty.” Remember in Exodus when God says, “Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD” and “None shall appear before Me empty.” Because those three times—the Passover and Pentecost and the Feast of Harvest or Tabernacles [note: the speaker here inadvertently referred to the Feast of Tabernacles as the “Feast of Harvest” when he intended to call it the “Feast of Ingathering”]—have to do with bringing forth fruit, bringing forth fruit, and, spiritually, fruit points to individuals whom God saves. So you can not appear before God empty when it is the time to fulfill one of those harvests. So on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 were saved.
Now here, we are in the final Feast, this Feast of Ingathering that comes at the end of the year, and do not “appear before Me empty.” The Word “shall not return unto Me void,” so let us keep reading in Isaiah 55:11:
…but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
You see, God’s Word is going to prosper. It is a “prosperity Gospel” after all. It is a “prosperity Gospel,” only not in the way that many think, not that I prosper or you prosper. We are not going to have big houses and fancy cars. Well, some do, some do. Ministers, they do, and they are prospering financially but they are not prospering in the least bit spiritually. They are indicating that they are under the wrath of God, and there is no true prosperity in that.
But the Word of the Lord, the Gospel of the Bible, will get the job done and will not be void; it will not be empty; it will prosper. This is guaranteed. It is definite; it is absolute; there is no question about it. God’s Word will prosper, but not in the church. There is no blessing upon the Word in the church. But out in the world, God will hear the prayer of His people; God will save His elect people.
Well, I had a bunch more, but we will stop here and close with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You for prayer, and, Father, we thank You for Your Word. It is a wonderful thing that we have Bibles and we can read them, and yet it is equally as wonderful that we can pray to you, that we have access, that we can boldly come unto the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need, that we can cast our cares upon You and our burdens and be anxious for nothing, and yet, Father, we would do well, I think—many of us who always have anxieties, we always have troubles, we always have burdens—to not forget them, but do as you say and cast them upon You. So we ask that You would help us to pray that we can give these things to you, which can free us up to pray more for the Word of the Lord going forth, to pray more for this Gospel that is going all over the world, that souls might be saved. And Father, we do not have to have prayer meetings. We do not need to get together and encourage each other in this way. Your Word will encourage us. You will encourage us. You will put it upon our hearts to pray, and we know that you have already, but we pray that You would help us, help us to be obedient in this area. Father, we pray for the rest of this day. We ask for Your blessing upon everything that we do; may it be faithful and in accordance with Your Word. And we pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.
We will have some questions, if anyone has any questions; then we will maybe close with a hymn after that. If anyone has anything about what was just said, if you have a question or a comment that you would like to make, or about anything else, you are welcome to raise your hand, especially if you on Paltalk. You can also participate by raising your hand and taking the mic, if possible, or you can type it out.
1st Question: In John 17:9, Christ is praying specifically for the believers. He says, “I pray not for the world, but for them,” and He is talking about praying for His children. Is this indicative of the fact that He prays continuously for the elect as they walk through the earth, as they live their life out on earth? I mean, I am confused about this. When He says that He is not praying for the world but for His children, is this indicative of the fact that Christ is praying continuously for His children as they walk through the earth doing His will? I am confused about this because you were talking about prayer and I missed part of it because I came late.
Chris: Let us read this verse in John 17:9:
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
So the biggest part that we have to keep in mind is that without prayer, there is no salvation. Actually, our prayer, and this is a good point that you brought up, our prayer, in order to be heard by God, would have to accompany the will of God. So we can pray and we can pray, “Oh Lord, save my Father.” We can pray and pray and pray, and yet if Christ has not prayed for him, and the only ones whom Christ prays for are His elect, then that person would not be saved. This is the number one thing: Jesus prays only for His people, and that prayer is heard.
When we pray, we do not know who His people are. So we pray for everyone, and continue to pray. As God puts something on our heart, we keep praying that they might be saved, and we leave who the elect are in God’s hands.
Does Christ pray continually? He is the High Priest. He has offered Himself on behalf of His people. He is seated “at the right hand of God,” and it does say, “Christ…who also maketh intercession for us.” I do not know exactly what this means, but we do know that Christ is praying for His people.
2nd Question: Hebrews 7:25:
Chris: Yes, this is a good verse. We read in Hebrews 7:25:
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
So this is indicating, of course, the eternal nature of the Lord Jesus, and He is interceding on the behalf of His people, again and again. But I do not know how this actually works out.
3rd Question: Revelation 15:2…(note: unable to hear all of this question)…Brother Camping has been working on. It mentions that we would be “on the sea of glass,” but it also mentions that this “seal of glass” is “mingled with fire.” What does this “fire” represent?
Chris: This is a passage that I have done a series of Bible studies on and I have been wrong. So I am listening to Mr. Camping right now, and then I hope to check it out. Lord willing, we will have an answer some day.
4th Question: We have been hearing a lot of teaching about the Muslin people and how specifically, for that nation, God is working His salvation there, which is amazing. Do we have enough evidence to see this, because the Bible is also a spiritual Book and also a physical…with the “flocks of Kedar” as Ishmael?
Chris: Right, that is our evidence, and also that “Ishmael…was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised.” God makes a point of spelling out that the same day Abraham was circumcised, Ishmael was circumcised. And circumcision in the Bible has everything to do with being a picture of salvation. The number 13 points to 13,000 years of history, indicating that after 13,000 years—not during the first part, we know, but during this period of the latter part of the Great Tribulation—Ishmael will be circumcised. That is, the “sons of Ishmael” will be brought in and God will save them.
So putting that together with the Isaiah 60 passage…let me turn there and I will read that. In Isaiah 60:7:
All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.
This whole passage, the whole context, has language that we are familiar with from other places in the Bible. It does not come right out and say, “I will save all Muslim people after 13,000 years of history.” But when we put the pieces together, we can gather that this is what God is teaching.
5th Question: The Egyptians coming out of Egypt, did they have any special privileges, like the strangers who came along with the Israelites…not to mention the Ethiopian eunuch. Ethiopians are kind of used as well for salvation. Do we need more information in order to say that God is using specific nations, or is He just giving us a general picture?
Chris: As far as the “mixed multitude” that came out of Egypt, that deliverance was a picture of salvation; you know, the Red Sea is opening. It was not only the Jews who followed Moses across the Red Sea, but God says that it was a “mixed multitude.”
I think with that language, He is just letting us know that He had plans to bring in the Gentiles as well. “And so all Israel shall be saved,” as there are Jews and Gentiles amongst those whom God intends to save. Once the last of His elect are saved, then He has completed His overall plan.
6th Question: I wonder whether or not it is correct to say, “the Muslim people”? I hear that Harold Camping does this also. As I understand it, “Muslim” is a name of a religious sect that is worldwide that was started by Mohammed 700 or so years after Christ. I am not a history major, so I am not sure about that.
What I also understand from the Bible is that Abraham was the father of Ishmael by Hagar, an Egyptian. He also had a son by Keturah, who was his wife after Sarah died. I think that she came from Midian, or at least Midian was one of those children; that is right…that is what it is. Now, the Egyptians had a language but that language was obliterated by Muslim hordes, under the Ottoman Empire. They have no native language. Arabic is the language that was imposed by the Ottomans.
Anyway, I think that it would be more correct to call them “Arab” peoples. The Arab peoples are those who speak Arabic, just like the English peoples are the ones who speak English. As I understand, the largest country of Arabic-speaking people is Indonesia, which is over in the Far East.
Chris: Okay, I have not really checked too deeply into that, as far as the use of Muslim vs. Arab-speaking people. But that is a good point, and I will take a look at that.
7th Question: You were speaking on the subject of prayer. I was wondering if prayer could change a Muslim’s life as well as a Jewish person’s life?
Chris: Oh, yes. First of all, and I am glad that this came up. A person that we are praying for, no matter who they are, in order for God to save, they have to be one of His elect. But we are still praying. For example, when the Gospel goes out via Family Radio, we do not have any faces really. We do not have any particular individuals in mind. We are praying that God’s Word find one of His elect. It could be a Jew, it could be an Arab, it could be a person from any nation, any race, any age, any sex; it does not matter. “God is no respecter of persons.” And we do not care; we just want God to save His people, and that is what we are praying. We would never want to say, “God save all of this particular people.” No, we just pray that He saves anyone whom He determines that He will save.
8th Question: Is prayer more like a constant-like thing where we are to pray constantly?
Chris: God encourages us to do that. In 1 Thessalonians 5, He says, “Pray without ceasing.” So the Lord will work that out in the lives of His people. But we can know that there is never a wrong time to pray. It is never just in the morning. It is never just in the evening. But anytime, anyplace, we can pray.
9th Question: If you want to pray for world peace, God can probably have you pray for peace?
Chris: That is a good question, Lester, because God does tell us to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Do you remember that Psalm? I think it is on a billboard on 95. Do you ever notice that? “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” Some people think, “Well, we will pray for the nation of Israel.” But actually, the “Jerusalem” in view, again, are the spiritual Jews whom God will save, and they are out there in the world. So we just pray that God’s Word find them and accomplish the purpose that God sent it forth to do.
We will stop here and have a hymn.