Jack Sterling Ward's Sermons

We know that there will be another Jewish holocaust coming in the second half of the tribulation. When two thirds of the Jewish people will be killed by the Beast, the man of sin, the Anti-Christ in his attempt to destroy the Jews so that Jesus Christ cannot rule over His people Israel during the millennium. Zechariah 13:8-9 8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. I believe the events in Revelation chapter six are a summation of events in world history that happen after the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven up to and including the tribulation. But no matter how you believe about Revelation chapter six either way we know that there will be a holocaust of believers up coming.

We know that there will be another Jewish holocaust coming in the second half of the tribulation. When two thirds of the Jewish people will be killed by the Beast, the man of sin, the Anti-Christ in his attempt to destroy the Jews so that Jesus Christ cannot rule over His people Israel during the millennium. Zechariah 13:8-9 8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God. I believe the events in Revelation chapter six are a summation of events in world history that happen after the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven up to and including the tribulation. But no matter how you believe about Revelation chapter six either way we know that there will be a holocaust of believers up coming.

Leviticus chapter 18 God tells the Israelites how to get kicked out of this new land….If you as a people group do things against nature itself or approve of them…..things against all common decency you will get kicked out. Here are the four things….If you don’t like these things….get mad at God not at me. I’m just the messenger….

So many people start out well and fizzle at the finish. In sports how many times has a team jumped out to a big lead only to be beaten in the last few minutes of the game. A fire starts roaring but if it is not stirred and kept up it will fizzile out quickly. That’s life you don’t want to flame out from over heating the engine. You want a good start of course but a stronger finish. It’s not all about how you start but it’s always how you finish.

Leviticus chapter 18 God tells the Israelites how to get kicked out of this new land….If you as a people group do things against nature itself or approve of them…..things against all common decency you will get kicked out. Here are the four things….If you don’t like these things….get mad at God not at me. I’m just the messenger….

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We are in a war. The kingdom of God vs the kingdom of darkness. There are rulers in the kingdom of darkness. There is only wickedness there. Nothing good…all horrible. Spritual warfare is real. And you are in the battle whether you like it or not. But we can win and we only will win if we are following Jesus Christ! This kingdom of darkness is real and really powerful. We need to understand our enemy.

Now let’s switch gears a little bit. Last time we talked about things Jesus would never say. Well here are some examples of things in the Christian world that Jesus would not endorse…..This is not an all encompassing list. Just a few things that we all know about and have heard about and wondered about. We have a problem today in the church….lack of discernment. We are so Biblically weak that we fall for emotional and psychological ploys. We make excuses for Biblical teachers giving us 95 percent Biblical truth and we ignore their 5 percent error. What if the Bible was only 95 percent true? What if your preacher only told 95 percent truth? What if your spouse was only 95 percent faithful? What if your boat was only 95 percent water proof? What if your mail was delivered correctly 95 percent of the time? What if your bank was 95 percent accurate? What if that vaccine is only 95 percent safe? AHA! Got cha!! Could you endorse that? Pray for wisdom and discernment!

We used to tolerate people who believe in the Bible and Biblical standards. But not any more. The enemies of truth call for tolerance but actually try to silence and destroy the truth. They call for tolerance for what they believe but try to silence all criticism of it. And they can’t take any criticism at all! They fall apart and or get raging mad! They are indeed snowflakes that melt with the least bit of heat. The Bible talks about Leaven or yeast that makes the dough rise. It doesn’t take much leaven to make the batter rise when baked. People will tolerate a little sin but don’t realize it soon turns into a big problem. COPD is due to a little cigarette. Sudden deaths happening all over the world due to a little jab. A little leaven leaveneth the whole loaf.

Psalm 118:8

This is what people want. They want it all…The trouble is they don’t know what ALL is? And they don’t know when they have it. Some people seem to have it all. Nice home, beautiful wife, great kids, nice car, great career. But is that what having it all means? There is so much more than this. God want us have it all and He has given us All things richly to enjoy. How do we know when we have is all and What is it when we have it ALL?

Let’s Make A Deal and old game show that had contestants choose between Three doors of which one had a booby prize, one had a nominal prize and one had the grand prize. There was no way of knowing, no hint as to which door was which. It was a blind choice. The World gives us doors also. We can take the door of unbelief, the door of indifference and the door of salvation. It is not a blind choice. WE choose the door we want based on what we know is behind each door. No one in their right mind would chose the door that has the booby prize or the door that has the nominal prize if they knew the grand prize was behind door number one! Yet people are doing that all day every day when they choose any door but Jesus!

No person has had more and then lost more than Job. Job was having a great life until Satan intervened and made….. with God’s permission his life a living hell with death and destruction and disaster. But God turned Job’s disaster into victory in the end. The world was in a disaster. Creation, the fall, the flood, the tower of Babel dispersion. It was a mess. Then God re-introduced Himself through a people called the Hebrews and sent them to a land called Israel. Then Israel rebelled. God moved and in the fullness of time brought a Savior who was born of a virgin. The God-man. The Lamb of God who died to pay our sin debt to a holy God. Sinful man can be born again. Job experienced the new birth. Christmas is a new birth. Christmas is a celebration of peace with God and the joy it brings us. You could say that in chapter 42 Job had a Great Christmas.

Some of us remember the show “to tell the truth.” Contestants had to guess which person was telling the truth about their occupation. It was difficult most of the time because people did a good job of lying and deceiving the contestants. You couldn’t tell who was real and who was fake. At the end the real person was asked to stand. Well It’s pretty easy to tell the real Jesus from any fakes and the Bible tells us how simple it is.

Some of us remember the show “to tell the truth.” Contestants had to guess which person was telling the truth about their occupation. It was difficult most of the time because people did a good job of lying and deceiving the contestants. You couldn’t tell who was real and who was fake. At the end the real person was asked to stand. Well It’s pretty easy to tell the real Jesus from any fakes and the Bible tells us how simple it is.

Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. This verse tells us how we should live. We deny our authority over our own lives , take up our cross to bear knowing life is tough in this fallen, sinful world and follow Jesus exclusively by forsaking all others. That leads us to this….Jesus said a lot of things. We say a lot of things that we try to tie to Jesus. We say a lot of things that we think are helpful to people in times of crisis. We say a lot of things that we think are going to be helpful and wise but are actually very anti-Biblical. Here are nine things that Jesus never said, and never would say…… that we say all of the time.

We give glory to ball teams, entertainers and even some politicians. We glorify the rich and the famous. We glorify ourselves and lift up ourselves so that we might have glory and praise. We seek out praise and honor and glory for ourselves. But that puts us out of balance. The glory belongs to only one and that is God. The glory is deserved by only ONE. The Lord Jesus Christ. The glory that He in His great goodness and love wants to share with us. God is not on an egotistical trip in seeking glory. NO. He wants to share His glory with His children! What He gets we get. The praise He gets He allows us to be blessed in it. The glory He gets He shares with His own.

For now, all those involved obeyed all the Lord had commanded. Their ordination was complete; their priesthood was valid. God would accept their service and their intercession for the people. The eighth day has a lot of meaning. The seventh day is the last day of the week. Saturday. The eighth day was actually the first day of the new week or Sunday. Why didn’t they say the first day of the week? It was called that in the New Testament in a couple of places. But in the OT it is called the eighth day in fulfillment of the seventh day of rest to the eighth day of a new beginning. The end of the law to the beginning of Grace.

Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy) to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. People prepare for family visits. People prepare for dinner. People prepare to go to work. People prepare to take a trip. People prepare to go to a show. People prepare to go on vacation. People prepare for a job interview. People prepare for Christmas and Thanksgiving. That’s what humans do. We prepare for the future all the time. We prepare for emergencies. We have food to last for a few days. We have money set aside. We maintain our automobiles and our homes. We have fire escapes and we have flood evacuation plans. We are always preparing for the unknown or at least we should always be prepared. But in terms of Bible prophecy we don’t prepare ourselves. We aren’t ready as a church for Jesus to come for us. We aren’t looking for Jesus. We are not prepared for the times we live in and for what is coming upon this world. How can we be prepared?

Thanksgiving is already here. Wow! How time flies. We will hear this a thousand times this week…things to be thankful for. We already know we should be thankful and hopefully are thankful for Jesus Christ and His birth death and resurrection. We are thankful for our families, our home, our income, our church and on and on. But I have some things to tell you some things you may have never thought about to be thankful for

Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy) to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. People prepare for family visits. People prepare for dinner. People prepare to go to work. People prepare to take a trip. People prepare to go to a show. People prepare to go on vacation. People prepare for a job interview. People prepare for Christmas and Thanksgiving. That’s what humans do. We prepare for the future all the time. We prepare for emergencies. We have food to last for a few days. We have money set aside. We maintain our automobiles and our homes. We have fire escapes and we have flood evacuation plans. We are always preparing for the unknown or at least we should always be prepared. But in terms of Bible prophecy we don’t prepare ourselves. We aren’t ready as a church for Jesus to come for us. We aren’t looking for Jesus. We are not prepared for the times we live in and for what is coming upon this world. How can we be prepared?

The prophecy is Amos’s great burden from the Lord concerning the national sin of God’s chosen people, as well as the judgment that must fall upon them unless they repent. No better testimony could be given concerning Amos than his own (7:14-15): “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son. But I was a herdsman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel.” From his testimony we learn that Amos was not a graduate of the school of the prophets, nor had he any formal religious training or academic preparation for the mission to which God called him. Rather, he was a simple shepherd who also gathered sycamore fruit, and who in obedience to God was used mightily to deliver God’s message of judgment against Israel, the northern kingdom.

Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy) to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. People prepare for family visits. People prepare for dinner. People prepare to go to work. People prepare to take a trip. People prepare to go to a show. People prepare to go on vacation. People prepare for a job interview. People prepare for Christmas and Thanksgiving. That’s what humans do. We prepare for the future all the time. We prepare for emergencies. We have food to last for a few days. We have money set aside. We maintain our automobiles and our homes. We have fire escapes and we have flood evacuation plans. We are always preparing for the unknown or at least we should always be prepared. But in terms of Bible prophecy we don’t prepare ourselves. We aren’t ready as a church for Jesus to come for us. We aren’t looking for Jesus. We are not prepared for the times we live in and for what is coming upon this world. How can we be prepared?

God answers Habakkuk’s questions, resulting in continuing faith in God’s wisdom, sovereignty, and salvation. The Book of Habakkuk begins with Habakkuk crying out to God for an answer to why God’s chosen people are allowed to suffer in their captivity. The Lord gives His answer to Habakkuk, essentially stating, “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you” Habakkuk theme is that it is permissible to question what God is doing, although with respect and reverence. Sometimes it is not evident to us what is going on, especially if we are thrown into suffering for a time or if it seems our enemies are prospering while we are just barely getting by.

Eye to Eye is Bill Koenig's 576 page ‘expanded’ in depth study of the consequences to those who attempt to divide God's covenant land from the Perfect Storm in 1993 to Hurricane Ian this year. We cannot mess with God’s chosen land and His chosen people. Who are the apple of His eye and the land of promise. The city of God is Jerusalem. The only eternal city is Jerusalem. No other people, no other place, no other city has God claimed as His own. The church is the bride of Christ, Israel is His chosen, His elect, His heritage, His people, and His vessel of blessing to this sin filled world. Israel is the physical representative of God. Israel is the billboard of God’s existence. Israel is the physical proof of God. The church is the spiritual evidence and proof of God. The Church operates in the spiritual. Faith and trust in what we cannot see with our eyes…the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel is the physical manifestation of God’s working upon this world. Israel and Jerusalem. The church is the spiritual working of God in this world. Faith and trust. So the bottom line is that dividing Israel will get you in big trouble with God.

In Ezra 10 The list of those who had taken pagan wives included 113 men: 17 priests, 10 Levites, and 86 others. It had become a widespread problem. But why was it a problem?