Welcome to Bible Believers Fellowship and the ministry of bbfohio.com. I'm Pastor Greg and I welcome you to our final study in the Gospel of Luke covering Luke chapter 24 verses 44 through 53 titled, The End of the Beginning. Part 2 of this message can be found on our website, bbfohio.com, where you will also find all 399 30-minute studies covering the entire Gospel of Luke, verse by verse, as taught at Bible Believers Fellowship in Worthington, Ohio. So we now begin with the current events update and then get into our study of Luke 24 verse 44 through 53 titled the end of the beginning. This is part one of two. Our current events update. Number one the great falling away in full gear. A lot of what we look at when it comes to current events has to do with Bible prophecy. We see Bible prophecy being fulfilled, the stage being set. And some of it's ugly and some of it's just not pleasant. We're not happy to see a great falling away. but it is what it is. We need to be informed and always, again, I was talking to Brian this morning and it's a reminder, always think of this, that when you see these things, even when they're ugly or whatever, it's fulfilling Bible prophecy. It should really thrill your soul to see God's word being fulfilled without fail, 100%, right before your eyes. But these Baptist churches are rebelling against male leadership. Once you decide you're going to pick and choose what to follow in the Bible, you're on your way to apostasy. This is a Southern Baptist church, Fern Creek. This is the headline from the Southern Baptist paper who's reporting on it. Fern Creek, more Southern Baptist than most female pastor says of appeal. Well, if you've got a female pastor, you're not more Southern Baptist than most, right off the bat. First Timothy 2.12, yes, the Baptist faith and message of the Southern Baptist Church says that there shouldn't be female pastors. But the more important thing is that the Bible says there shouldn't be. First Timothy 2.12, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. Now, that means as a pastor or teacher, they're not to stand up and take authority over the congregation. It's that simple. You know what's funny is, as I've looked on social media, do you know the unsaved world is more real and honest about this than the church is today? I can take you right now, and I won't do it for the sake of time, but we could afterwards. I can show you, where a whole thread of women all telling you that there shouldn't be women as president. I'm saying the world has more sense than the churches. Now, it's nothing against the women in this room. You all know, I think my wife's one of the smartest people I know. It has nothing to do with it. It is the fact that God has given us the model, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. He has given us the model in the home. The man is to be the head of the home. Male headship in the church. And these women all admit that PMS could start a world war or a nuclear war. And if you women in the room don't want to admit that, you're a liar. And I can line up women who'll say you're a liar. Now, there are exceptions to the rule that some women don't have the troubles that other women do. But most women that I've known, and freely admit it, they pick fights, they start, they hide things, they get weird whenever that PMS thing comes around. And then, certain time of your life, the change. Yeah. And all that goes on. And also, you're different from men. You are more nurturing, maternal. That's where that word comes from. And when it comes to being president of the United States, we need somebody who is either, not only has to be male, because we have a male in there now who's in dementia or whatever. His mind is gone. So you need to have your senses about you. And you need to be a moral, if not a Christian man. Donald Trump, you can say one thing about him is that the things he did when he was in office saved the lives of babies, did not promote Sodom and Gomorrah, didn't promote gun control and so forth. The president we have now promotes killing of babies, promotes Sodom and Gomorrah, and wants to confiscate the guns so that you can become slaves. So we need male and Judeo-Christian, if not purely biblical, leadership if this country is to survive. And so the churches should be a picture of that. We should be setting the example, and they're failing. And the other denominations, it's even worse, but this is something the Southern Baptists always said, they'd never do this. Rick Warren did it, and to their credit, they removed their church from the Southern Baptist denomination. But he's appealing it. And then Spurgeon College, that's affiliated with the Southern Baptist over in London, they made him honorary chancellor to show where they stand on the issue. And that's turning out preachers for the future. So, then you have John Wesley's churches filled with sodomites. John Wesley was alive today, he'd burn them down. This is a good thing, though. 141 Pennsylvania churches left the apostate United Methodist Church denomination over the homosexuality debate. People say, well, I'm a Methodist. Well, you can be a Methodist and not belong to the apostate denomination. And there's free Methodists and independent Methodists, other groups. I don't know all the names of them. You can be a Methodist if you don't have to belong to an apostate denomination. So it says, largely because of the ongoing debate over sexual ethics in the mainline Protestant denomination, that's putting it lightly. And they have homosexual men and women, transvestites, transgender, whatever you want to call them, as pastors in their churches. And that's why these churches are leaving the denomination. This happened. A United Methodist Church hosted a family-friendly drag show in a church building. The fact God didn't strike them all dead shows his long-suffering. And that's the posters they put out advertising it. Romans 1.27 says, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another. They lose me right there. I'm glad you women have an attraction to your man, but I've never been attracted to a man. I know that there are some who say they are. I would never understand that. And I think there's always been abuse or sexual or other types of abuse or drugs involved to make a man attracted to another man like that. And every homosexual I know, that's their background. Every single one of them were sexually abused as children or severely abused physically and verbally and or drugs because that's not natural. It says so right there. Men with men working that which is unseemly, that's putting it lightly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was me. But then look what it says, verse 32, about anyone who supports that stuff, including these apostate churches, who knowing the judgment of God, this verse 32, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. So he's saying that the people supporting this are involved in the same sin, or at least having pleasure in their involvement with that sin. That's what you call allies today. And they're all under the condemnation and judgment of God for rebelling against him. And as goes the churches, so goes the nation. Why are we seeing what we're seeing today? Had some nut come on there on Twitter yesterday saying that all you people coming out against the transgenders ought to be ashamed of yourself. If you're true Americans, you'd believe in freedom. I said, man, go read history. Americans have never accommodated transvestites, as they used to be called. Americans have never allowed transgenders in the military. Americans would never allow a transgender or out-of-the-closet homosexual to teach their children. To be an American is to stand against it. And to be a Christian, for certain, is to stand against it. The percentage of U.S. adults with a biblical worldview drops to 4%. Listen, that's why I've told you over and over, you hear this number, there's supposed to be 40 million born-again Christians in America. Okay, that's just because they call themselves that. Then ask them to answer the questions to which a born-again Christian would answer yes and they answer no. Is the Bible the final authority in all things and do you submit to it? No. They'll say no. Must you believe in Jesus Christ to go to heaven? Are there other ways to heaven? Let me say it, word it correctly. Do you believe that there's no other way to heaven than through Jesus Christ? They'll say no. Do you believe in a literal hell? No. Most of them like to believe in heaven. So this number is a bit shocking, but the fact that it's low isn't shocking at all. And a biblical worldview is that God created everything, that we are accountable to him, we're sinners, we need to be saved. Jesus died, shed his blood in death, on the cross, was buried and rose again, conquering sin and death, and by that alone we're saved. All who do so go to heaven, all who don't go to a literal hell with fire. And only 4% of us. That tells you why America's going where it's going. So that comes down to about 13 and a half million. 13 and a half million, yeah. A lot less than the 40 million. Meanwhile, the nation of my ancestors is going to hell. God save the king. People living in the UK among the least religious in the world. And when they use the word religious, they're talking about believing the Bible. As belief in God has died away, so too has belief in heaven. So they don't even believe in heaven over there anymore. London, the natives of London, as you'd call, are a minority. And that's a picture of what's going on around the world. Because white people have gone liberal, and so they kill their babies, or they only have one or two apiece, and so the white population has dwindled. Well, why does that matter? Well, it just so happens in England, the white population was the Christian population. It's not a race thing, but it's a fact that that is who they bring it in. When they bring in what they call minorities, they're bringing in Muslims, Hindus, and other sort of atheists and agnostics. So that's where it's going. And it's true about America, it's true about the UK, it's true about any nation. Psalm 917, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. And that's the nations that are going to line up with the Antichrist any day now. In a moment, we're taken out. And the next moment, we talked about this Wednesday night, the next moment after the rapture will be the darkest moment in human history since the fall of Adam. There won't be a single believer left on the planet at that moment. And all the nations will begin to line up as a part of the beast system. So ignore what you're hearing and seeing. Even among most Christians, professing Christians, you have a personal revival with God. You be on fire for the Lord. And I'm not saying this with any bitterness or anything. I'm just telling you this is my attitude, because I'm not going to go down with this world to hell with this world. If this world wants to go to hell, then to hell with it. I'm not going with it. And real quick, number two, just as a warning. You just saw only 4%. Well, there's a lot more than 4% who claim to be conservative in this country. And the right can be so wrong. You better be very careful. You listen to a lot of unsaved right-wingers and conservatives, you'll hear a lot of garbage. I just want to show you this because to me it's just an example of how scary it can be. How many of you remember I played the video of Barack Obama saying that we needed to not let people vote anymore, and we didn't need... It was edited to make it sound like he said that. He wasn't really saying it. Now we got this deep fake stuff coming out. And people, instead of questioning, they just believe what they see. This was out there all over the place in the last couple of days, that Barack Obama said, quote, we need full-blown government censorship to eradicate independent media, end quote. He never said that. You know I'm not a fan. But I don't like being lied to. I don't like lies. And the right so-called conservatives spewing lies like this should be ashamed of themselves. They should be shunned. They should be turned off. Once they start lying to you like that, turn them off. What he says is bad enough. You don't have to make up stuff. So, he never said this. Well, I want to show you, just real quick, I think I put a link there. This is, I just want you to see, this is the website where it comes from. And you can read that whole article, and you can see that he said some things where he does believe in censorship to a degree. He wants the news media to all be MSNBC and CNN. I'll give you that. But he never called for the government to totally take over media and so forth, which is what they're saying he said. And that's what should be important to anybody who cares about the truth. You better question, you're supposed to question me, Acts 17.11, the brilliance of Werner Noble, because they searched the scriptures to see if what the apostle Paul was teaching them was so. Well, I'm no Apostle Paul, so you better be checking me. They're certainly not the Apostle Paul. You better be checking them. And of course, it's not always about the Bible, but it's just about known fact. Anybody can read this article, and anybody can go out and find the original article and see if he said that, and you'll see he didn't say it. And shame on anybody, call themselves especially a Christian conservative, who has that attitude, where they just go with the lies. It's dangerous, folks. and then posted on Twitter, thousands of people sharing it and commenting under it. And they just swallowed the story. It's a mixture of not caring enough to check it out or not caring even if it was a lie. And that's where it really gets dangerous. And there's times where I didn't do it this time because I was low on time. Well, in that video I talked about, I posted a link to the original video and said, he didn't say this. This is a totally false edited video of Obama. I posted the link where anybody could go watch the speech. They didn't, but they did attack me. And they started accusing me like I was a plant or something. I said, I am telling you that he didn't say what the video says he said. And I gave you the link where you can go back and watch it. And if you don't care about that, then you got something wrong with you. And God help us if you're the so-called right wing and conservatives in this country. Because it's a pack of wolves who love lies. This is the kind of thing that is posted. They just would post that like he said it. Like he, like it's a quote from him. Yeah. And then, well-known, I'm not, this might go on radio, I try not to offend people, but you see the user there, and he says, translation, real citizen journalists have exposed my corruption, lies, and treason, so we must shut them up. I'll grant that that's his attitude, really. That's beside the point. He didn't say that. And if you go to, that was on Twitter, and you can go and go all through, I gotta be careful, some of these are kinda, but you go all through there and go on and on and on. Sorry about that. John's like, I won't get that image out of my mind the rest of the day. None of them are saying, wait a minute, he didn't say that. So as your pastor, I have to warn you, that even those who call themselves conservatives, a lot of them aren't even... Not only aren't Christians, I've met a lot of them that... Well, just yesterday, I didn't post it on here, but just yesterday, one of the posts was how wonderful it was that there were so many LGBT among the conservatives. And I got news for you. There's an exception for the rule, yes, but a lot of those, they are plants. And they may want your tax cuts, but as soon as they can support Sodom and Gomorrah and abortion and things like that. They're fiscal conservatives, but they're social liberals. And if the Republican Party becomes such a big tent that you bring them in, burn it down. So when the whole discussion is based upon lies, truth dies. Be informed. Pray accordingly. Amen. It's the beginning of this dispensation. After his resurrection, we begin then moving into the book of Acts, where there'll be a transition from Mosaic law to a dispensation of the gospel of grace, or the gospel of the grace of God. And so it's the end of Luke, but it's the end of the beginning. We're gonna read from verse 44 through 53, and I'll ask you to join me in the odds. So I'll begin in verse 44. And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen and amen. So these are the final moments and then the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Verse 44, and he said unto them, these are the words which I speak unto you. We've already went through those previously a couple of studies back. We talked about how he showed them Moses. and the other prophets, and throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, how that the Messiah was predicted. and he fulfilled those prophecies. We have a chart behind Doug there next to Nick with 100 prophecies fulfilled by Jesus. And we also pointed out not only was it one in 100 quadrillion odds that any man could fulfill those prophecies, but we also talked about the fact that if it wasn't done by Jesus, it'll never be done. If Jesus is the Messiah, there will never be one. He is. So you can relax. Jesus is the Messiah. It goes on to say that all things must be fulfilled. And now look what Jesus says here, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. People have often asked, how do we know the books of the Old Testament are the books that God intended for us to have? Jesus just told you. The law of Moses is called the Torah or the Pentateuch, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. And then he says, and in the prophets and in the Psalms, where we kind of put it, we usually say the law, the Psalms, and the prophets in that order in our King James Old Testament. And the writings of the prophets would include the history books. You can break that down further for memorization purposes. But after Deuteronomy came Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. Those are the history books. And then we have the wisdom books that are called by the Jews, the Psalms. But that would be Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon. Then we have the prophets that we break down to major and minor prophets. The major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel. And then you have the minor prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos, which we've studied verse by verse through all those. Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Now, I'm not wanting to embarrass anybody here, but if you've been saved very long, you ought to know those books by heart, in order. And there are tens of thousands of little five and six year olds who do. So let that motivate you. And a careful reading of the Old Testament according to what Jesus says here reveals who? The Old Testament is important to understand the history, the archaeology that demonstrates the veracity of the text, get to know the geography, look at maps and get kind of a picture in your mind of what you're dealing with, and all those other things. The characters or the actual list of people, like I said, a lot of people can tell you everybody in the Lord of the Rings, but they can't tell you anybody in the Old Testament. and they don't have time to read the Bible, although they had time to practically memorize Tolkien. And so it's all about priorities, amen? And so you can get to know these characters, these people who are listed, because most of them, at least the good ones, the guys who believed in God, you're going to meet them one day.