Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / JB Hixson: Christmas Hope and the Promise of His Return
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
- 0:10defending biblical Christianity.
- 0:13No topic off limits.
- 0:16And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
- 0:20Hello friends, and Merry Christmas season.
- 0:23Thank you guys so much for sharing the show, for your prayers.
- 0:27And I hope you're doing well, I hope you're remembering the reason for the season.
- 0:31And when someone wishes you a happy holiday, ask them what holiday they are referring
- 0:35to specifically.
- 0:36Be a troublemaker for the Kingdom of God.
- 0:37All right, we're so blessed today to have a Christmas conversation with Pastor JB Hicks
- 0:43and Speaker Teacher, Pastor of Plum Creek Chapel, Sidelia Colorado, and not by Works Ministries.
- 0:51JB, good to see you again, brother.
- 0:53Hey David, great to see you, thanks so much for having me on.
- 0:56You're welcome, Merry Christmas, we just talked last week.
- 0:59Thank you for having me on your podcast about my brand new book, The First Interview for
- 1:05the Assault on the Image of God, and that was the day the paperback was released.
- 1:10So fantastic.
- 1:11Yeah, how are the sales going?
- 1:12I hope they're flying off the shelf.
- 1:14Well, so far so good, and it's in part thanks to you and to World View Matters people,
- 1:20but I want to plug this one for a Christmas gift.
- 1:22You can get a three pack because it's now a series of three at notbyworks.org, Spirit
- 1:28of the False Profit.
- 1:29Of course, it's Spirit of the Antichrist series, JB, what's the best place to get it?
- 1:33Is it right on your website?
- 1:34Yep, right there on the screen, Spirit of the False Profit.org, and that will also link
- 1:39you to our Spirit of the Antichrist books, there are three of them there.
- 1:43And it's a great way to wake people up to the reality of what's going on from a spiritual
- 1:48perspective.
- 1:50And of course, it gets the gospel.
- 1:51And so that's always great to share the good news.
- 1:54Great.
- 1:55So I'm excited today because I feel a little bit more relaxed, don't have to talk about
- 1:59current events and some of the insanity that we're seeing, some of the evil being called
- 2:04good, the good being called evil, the globalist craziness that's happening, the power grabbers,
- 2:11the elites and power elites that are just taken advantage of this time of chaos and confusion,
- 2:19not only in America, but around the world.
- 2:20But we're talking about Christmas, the reason we celebrate Jesus Christ, the word that
- 2:26became flesh.
- 2:28And I'm excited to hear what you have to share because you get to preach, of course,
- 2:33this season every time a year, you come across this, I'm sure you've never given the
- 2:37same sermon twice.
- 2:38So what do you want to focus on today, JB?
- 2:41Yeah.
- 2:42So last week at our home church, I spoke about a better day is coming, part one, and I'm
- 2:46doing part two of that this coming Sunday.
- 2:49And you know, it just occurs to me, I love Christmas, you know, who doesn't write, but
- 2:52especially I just love it.
- 2:53I love the sights, the sounds, the family gatherings, everything about it.
- 2:59But it just occurs to me that at Christmas, people tend to fixate on the birth of Christ,
- 3:05you know, the first advent of Christ.
- 3:09But we tend to forget the second advent.
- 3:14To me, I love it, I love the end times, I love Bible prophecy.
- 3:16As you well know, I know you do too.
- 3:18And I love Christmas.
- 3:19It's a perfect match because so many passages of Scripture really relate the two.
- 3:25And I think even the songs that we sing at Christmas, the beloved Christmas carols
- 3:31often focus on the first and second advance, but we don't really, you know, pay close attention
- 3:37to it.
- 3:38Yeah, that's a good point.
- 3:39So let's talk about, because this was all laid out by God in advance, his plan for ordained,
- 3:47he knew exactly when Christ was going to come.
- 3:50At Galatians says in the fullness of time, at the perfect time, I think that's Galatians
- 3:56for, for that Jesus became man.
- 4:00And of course our Savior, God had it all worked out.
- 4:05Go ahead and take it wherever you want, JB, why then?
- 4:08And what do we have to look forward to because of Christ's coming to earth as God as a man?
- 4:14Yeah.
- 4:15I mean, I think Hebrews 1 is a perfect, you know, passage about that where it says God
- 4:21who at various times and in various ways spoken times past to the fathers by the prophets
- 4:27has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed Arab all things through
- 4:33whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image
- 4:38of his person.
- 4:39And you know, that, that's really says it all that, you know, Jesus Christ is the, the
- 4:46ultimate gift.
- 4:48It's Paul calls it the indescribable gift.
- 4:51And it's impossible to think about Christmas without thinking about that gift.
- 4:56And we think of songs like Joy to the World, you know, one of many people's favorite Christmas
- 5:00carols.
- 5:02And yet people don't understand that when the king comes to reign, that's actually a second
- 5:07coming event, not a first coming event.
- 5:11And so the Christmas season is, is such a powerful opportunity to talk about so many
- 5:16biblical truths.
- 5:17You can talk about grace, the incredible gift of salvation, paid for by the blood of Christ.
- 5:24But you can also talk about a better day is coming and that things will not always
- 5:27be as they are today.
- 5:29And that someday Christ is going to come back, like consider Isaiah 9, 6 and 7, widely known
- 5:36as a Christmas prophecy, right, for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given.
- 5:44How many times do you hear that preached and taught and recited around Christmas?
- 5:48But the whole rest of verse 6 and all of verse 7, after those first two phrases relate
- 5:53to the coming kingdom of our Lord.
- 5:56When Jesus Christ comes back and rules with a perfect justice and righteousness and peace.
- 6:02And listen to what it says, the government will be upon his shoulder.
- 6:06Well, certainly it doesn't take a rocket scientist to look around and see that hasn't
- 6:10happened yet.
- 6:11His name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace,
- 6:18of the increase of his government and peace.
- 6:20There will be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to restore it and order
- 6:26it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even for ever more.
- 6:32I mean, David, what a day that will be Zachariah the prophet said, the Lord shall be king
- 6:38over the whole earth in that day.
- 6:41Amen.
- 6:42We've never needed a righteous world leader.
- 6:46It's today.
- 6:47I mean, we, we, it's hard to find one.
- 6:49I mean, there are some world leaders that we like better than others.
- 6:52They're more conservative.
- 6:53They, they have a, tend to have some sense of morality at least, but none of them are perfect.
- 6:59None of them.
- 7:00And we need one today, don't we?
- 7:01We do.
- 7:02I love that verse seven on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and uphold
- 7:08it with justice and righteousness from then on and forever more.
- 7:13That's what we have to look forward to forever more eternity.
- 7:17And it says the zeal of the Lord of hosts and the Lord of armies will accomplish this.
- 7:21JB, I want to just ask you briefly about on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
- 7:27because before we got on the air, we talked about Revelation 22, 16.
- 7:31I've always been fascinated that Jesus was the prophetic root and the fruit of the line
- 7:38of David.
- 7:39And it says, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you of these things for the
- 7:43churches.
- 7:44I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright and morning star.
- 7:50Just share your thoughts on that.
- 7:51That's all I love that when you pointed that out just a few moments ago, right before
- 7:56you went on the air, I thought, wow, what a powerful passage that comes at the end
- 7:59of God's revelation at the end of the story.
- 8:02And remember, when Christ takes the throne, he's not just going to reign for a thousand
- 8:06years as people often assume that study Bible prophecy.
- 8:10It is quite clear from many passages in scripture that he's going to reign forever.
- 8:14For example, when you look at Luke chapter one, and this is when the angel comes to Mary
- 8:22and basically explains what's happening with the virgin birth.
- 8:28And he says, behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son.
- 8:32And she'll call his name Jesus.
- 8:34He will be great and will be called the son of the highest.
- 8:37And now listen, the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David.
- 8:42And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom.
- 8:48There will be no end.
- 8:50And of course, this all points back, including that passage that you just cited in Revelation
- 8:55226, the root and offspring of David, to the famous covenant, the unconditional promise
- 9:01that God made with King David in 2 Samuel chapter 7.
- 9:06When he said, your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you.
- 9:11Your throne shall be established forever.
- 9:14Now, we know, you know, world history, we know that the nation of Israel was destroyed
- 9:20in 70 AD and disappeared from our maps up until a 14th, 1948.
- 9:25And so, you know, God's word is never wrong.
- 9:30It's perfect.
- 9:31He has a 100% track record, you know.
- 9:35God makes no stradamas look like a path, path, you know, pathogenic liar, right, path
- 9:41liar, right?
- 9:44So, I mean, God is so faithful and so true.
- 9:47And here we see, indeed, the promise to David coming true and the angel told it to marry.
- 9:53We read about it in Isaiah and we see it here all through the New Testament.
- 9:59Hebrews chapter 2, people miss this one too.
- 10:02I wonder if you've ever thought about this, David, but in Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews
- 10:07who are struggling with persecution, very applicable for Christians in the world today.
- 10:12And he's talking about the supremacy of Christ.
- 10:15We started out the program talking about Hebrews one a moment ago.
- 10:18And when God in these last days has spoken to us through his son and the present age is the last days.
- 10:24But in verse 5, he's always jumped off the page at me because God's word says
- 10:28for he has not put the world to come of which we speak in subjection to angels.
- 10:34In other words, the whole book of Hebrews is about the world to come.
- 10:38What world?
- 10:38The kingdom.
- 10:40And so I just encourage folks as we think about, you know, the Christmas and what an exciting time that is
- 10:47always at auto, fill us with joy and hope and thankfulness for our salvation.
- 10:53Always take a look ahead too at the rest of the story as Paul Harvey and remember that Christ is coming back.
- 11:01Yeah, when you focus on the kingdom, we are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
- 11:09And all these things will be added to us.
- 11:11And we are also to pray.
- 11:13Thy kingdom come.
- 11:15Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
- 11:20We're talking with JB Hickson and I'm just thankful to be able to talk about Christmas scriptures about Jesus,
- 11:26about the incarnation, about the word that became fresh and that God declares Jesus as we read from revelation,
- 11:35the source or the root of David's life, which establishes the deity of Jesus.
- 11:41But Jesus also is a descendant of David, which establishes his humanity.
- 11:47That's one of the mysteries, right, JB, the word that became flesh, perfect God, perfect man.
- 11:55Yeah, absolutely.
- 11:56It's the hypostatic union, you know, we could go to Philippians 2, what an amazing passage to let this mind be in you,
- 12:04which also was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
- 12:10but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bot servant and coming in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man,
- 12:18he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.
- 12:24Now, we love that passage.
- 12:25It speaks to Christ's unbelievable sacrifice, his humility, his grace, but the very next verse says, therefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name,
- 12:36which is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow of those in heaven and of those on the earth and those under the earth.
- 12:44And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the Father.
- 12:49Now, that hasn't happened yet, David, you, you know, culture more than anybody, you're, you're great new book assault on the image of God and other books like canceling Christianity, you talk about the problems in our culture,
- 13:01but as you look around the world, do you see every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus is Lord?
- 13:08No, absolutely not.
- 13:10So excited for that day, though, me too, we too, I mean, I don't know if we have time before the break,
- 13:17but I'd love to just take a look at joy to the world and just point out some of the beautiful promises and that him actually will come back right after our quick break,
- 13:26thanking Harbinger's daily and we'll talk about joy to the world with Pastor JB Hickson.
- 13:31Today's show is brought to you by Harbinger's Daily.
- 13:34World News Biblically Understood.
- 13:37Stay informed at Harbinger's Daily dot com.
- 13:48Joy to the world before we talk about that, that is absolutely one of my favorite Christmas songs.
- 13:55But that verse that you shared JB from Philippians, it's so powerful because it says not only are we going to gladly every, it says every knee and every tongue.
- 14:07It means everyone, every means every all means all.
- 14:10So we are going to gladly worship our king in reverence, but the whole world, even non-believers, they will unwillingly, some defiantly, they will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
- 14:26They will not put their faith in him, but they will bow the knee, your quick thoughts before we talk about joy to the world.
- 14:32Yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a sobering thought when you think about every knee because that means those who haven't received the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
- 14:41You know, it's a simple matter of faith. It's, it's a gift.
- 14:44If we know anything about Christmas, we know the concept of gifts and we know that a gift by definition must be freely offered and freely received.
- 14:53On the one hand, it's freely offered, you know, anyone can have it come one, come all whosoever will take and drink from the water of life freely, the Bible says.
- 15:02But it's also got to be freely received, you know, which is not forced upon us. And so if somebody dies without receiving the gift, that's, that's on them. They had the opportunity.
- 15:11They just never trusted in Christ. And I was thinking about the sobering aspect of the great white throne judgment where all unbelievers will one day bow before the Lord.
- 15:21And I was thinking about this recently when we got the news that Henry Kissinger had passed away. Now let me be clear. I don't know the man's heart. I don't know if he was a believer or not, but I've studied him extensively for the last 20 years cited him often.
- 15:33He was a leading member of the Luciferian elite. We have no indication from his own testimony anyway that he ever trusted in Christ.
- 15:41But so if we, if we assume that he died without Christ, just that very thought when you put a face to it, there are going to be people.
- 15:50And we know who someday stand before Almighty God without the blood of Christ covering their sins and they're going to have to face a Christless eternity in a literal place of torment called hell.
- 16:01So yeah, that passage in Philippians too is really filled with some pretty powerful theology.
- 16:08Amen, brother. So you want to talk a little bit about joy to the world. Let heaven and nature sing. Go for it.
- 16:16Isaac Watts. Well, I will spare your audience the terror of my singing the song. I assure you nobody wants that. But you know, it's a great song by Isaac Watts.
- 16:26Joy to the world. And you know, it starts out joy to the world. The Lord is calm. And we think of Christmas, right? We think, oh, praise God, you know, the announcement to the shepherds out in the fields and then the whole town. And then, of course, Christ, earthly ministry.
- 16:41The magi calm when he's a little bit as a younger baby and so forth. But then the rest of it says, let earth receive her king.
- 16:51Well, when will heaven and nature sing? When will the earth receive her king? When will men that their songs employ in fields and floods and rocks and hills and plains repeat the sounding joy? What about this?
- 17:06No more let sins and sorrows grow nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found. When will that happen? When will the curse of sin be removed from planet earth?
- 17:21Not when the globally elite institute all of their, you know, climate change regulations and carbon taxes and finish their geoengineering projects. No way.
- 17:31When will the thorns no longer infest the ground and the curse be removed when Christ comes back the second coming. And then it ends with he rules the world with truth and grace.
- 17:42And makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love. So I mean, I just get chills even thinking about what an amazing day that will be. And, you know, all tells us in first Corinthians 15 that he must rain till he has put all enemies under his feet.
- 18:02And David, we just haven't seen that yet. And, you know, you mentioned in Revelation 22, we talked about a moment ago, but earlier in Revelation that that very powerful passage in chapter 12, it talks about how she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron.
- 18:20Again, the end of the age you see a reference to the beginning and the prophecy that has yet to come to pass. But it will come to pass. Amen.
- 18:31Yes. Amen. The government will rest on his shoulders and he will rule with the rod of iron. I want to go back to something from joy to the world. He will also rule the world with truth and grace.
- 18:43Is it an interesting JB from the gospel of John chapter one, Jesus is and was the perfect balance of truth and grace is when and when the word became flesh, full of grace and full of truth, your thoughts on that.
- 19:00Yeah, John one, what a powerful passage, you know, in him was life and that life was the light of man, the light shines in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it, you know, skipping down to verse 10, he came to his own, verse 11, he came to his own and his own did not receive him. That's Israel.
- 19:17But as many as received him to them, he gave the light, the right to become the children of God to those who believe in his name. There you have it. I mean, God's John's often called the gospel of belief because so often it conditions eternal life as does the whole Bible again and again on faith alone. Jesus said in John 647.
- 19:35Very, very, I say unto you, ever believes in me has everlasting father and then John 114, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, a glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. And you know, we need more grace and truth today. We need more grace because people are just convinced that they could earn their way into heaven that somehow they can be good enough, do enough, give enough.
- 20:02And one of the things always like to point out, especially at Christmas, David is that getting saved is not about giving something to the Lord. I know we use that phrase, but when we stop and think about it, there's not a single passage in all of scripture that says to get to heaven, you've got to give something to Jesus, you get something from Jesus, God's the giver, we're the receiver for God, so love the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting light and as life. And as we just read in John 1, we have to receive him, John 112.
- 20:31So that's the nature of a gift. Somebody gives somebody gets and God's the giver, we're the receiver. And so to quote another old him, we have to come nothing in our hands. We bring simply to the cross we cling and that's that's grace. And we need more of that because right now Satan is blinding men's hearts to the gospel. He's trying to convince people that the one thing mankind needs more than anything else, which is forgiveness of sin and eternal life can be earned and it can't.
- 21:00But we also need more truth, grace and truth and you know guys like you and me and so many other Bible teachers are out there, hopefully with fidelity proclaiming the truth of God's word.
- 21:13And Satan is hard at work on the other side with his minions trying to deceive the world and indeed deception is getting worse and worse.
- 21:24JB, let's talk briefly about the idea just about what we have to look forward to our inheritance. The Bible talks an awful lot about that we are co-airs with Christ.
- 21:36And I think of and maybe the timing, whatever you want to talk about, I know we're running out of time, but I come coming back to Galatians 4, 4, which I paraphrase the beginning of this show.
- 21:47But when the fullness of the time came, God sent his son born of a woman, born under the law so that he might redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons and daughters.
- 22:03And we are adopted spiritually into a brand new family, we are new creations in Christ, just share your thoughts on that JB.
- 22:12And so at the moment of conversion, there are Louis Perry Chaper lists 33 things that happen instantly, they're all invisible, they're all spiritual.
- 22:24So adoption adopted in the family of God is one of them regenerated born again, reconciled to a holy God, justified and declared rights for a holy God, positionally sanctified, sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
- 22:37I can't name them all, but all of those are incredible blessings of grace that come the moment faith meets the gospel. And so that is a great inheritance, but you know the word inheritance, excuse me, in scripture,
- 22:52is used, you know, both of the possession itself of eternal life, but also in a qualitative sense of what we get when we get there. So you remember when the disciples asked Jesus, this was after he told, had the interaction with the rich young ruler and Peter, always usually the first one to speak up says, you know, what shall we have in the kingdom?
- 23:15What are we going to get when we get there? And he says, you're going to get to reign with me on 12th wrongs. And there is a sense that our faithfulness here and now will result in positions of authority. Paul says in the last letter that he wrote second Timothy chapter 2 verse 12, he says, if we endure, we shall reign with him.
- 23:36In other words, enduring, persevering, remaining faithful, even at great cost, physically, will result in special positions. You mentioned co-raining. That's a key word in the book of Hebrews. It's the Greek word medicoid. It means to co-rain with Christ. And one of the challenges that the writer of Hebrews is making is that if you'll hold steadfast to the faith.
- 23:57You know, do not cast away your faith as he says in Hebrews chapter 10, then you'll have the right to reign with me. And one more passage that bears on this subject in Luke chapter 11, Jesus on the eve of entering.
- 24:13I think it's Luke, I'm sorry, Luke chapter 19 on the eve of entering Jerusalem for that fateful a passion week. He tells this parable of the meaners in which he challenges believers. Look, I'm going to go away and receive a kingdom. And I'll be gone for a while while I'm gone, be faithful with what I've given you on me, you're life of service.
- 24:33And when I come back, I will reward you, you know, for based on your faithfulness. And in that in that parable, remember, there's one one Christian who does nothing with the meaner. He still gets into the kingdom, but he doesn't have a great reward there. So I think there's great motivation as we think about this Christmas, the coming kingdom to live today in light of the coming kingdom.
- 24:57That's such a good thought as we get ready to wrap up this show. And maybe we'll have some other Christmas themed programs. I think it's important because JB, we can, we can get so distracted by the things of the world and sometimes overwhelmed by what's going on. So this is good, just to focus on the blessings that we have in Christ, we are rich in Christ. And what we have to look forward to that is the hope.
- 25:23And the Roman 1513 may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. And may you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- 25:33You're closing thoughts to encourage believers as we go through this Christmas season.
- 25:39I love it, David. You said it well, Paul says in Colossians three, set your mind on things above, not on things on earth. A lot of things on earth, this Christmas that that I love. I love the green and red lights. I love the Christmas carols. I love the decorations. I love the cheer that's in the air.
- 25:55This also set our mind on things above knowing that Christ is there sitting at the right hand of God, what I call the throne and waiting.
- 26:03And he's coming back someday to take that throne where he will rule the world. And then we will truly have joy to the world. Amen.
- 26:11Amen. Amen. Brother, you're a blessing. Thank you so much for your time for your ministry, JB Hicks and not by works.org. And just this reminder, books make great Christmas gifts.
- 26:23Amen. I second that motion. Thanks, JB. We'll talk to you soon. All right. God bless. All right. Friends, I forgot to mention the mug here. You can have this mug.
- 26:33You could have this now if you would like to support if you're able financially to donate to world view matters. We've got our fundraiser going between now and Christmas to raise money for production costs.
- 26:45This is a brand new show as you are fully aware. And I love the people I get to talk to. So if you can make a one time gift of anything $200 or more, you can get this mug or a $25 a month gift.
- 27:00So on one side, it says world view matters. And on the other side, that's my tagline. You'll know what I'm going to say it in a minute, but you'll know what that says. So you get this mug.
- 27:11And that's just our way of saying thank you. I know you don't give to get, especially during Christmas, but we want to bless you like you bless us. So thanks again for watching for sharing the show. And God bless you.
- 27:23Keep speaking the truth about things that matter.