Welcome to the Kingdom Crossroads podcast with Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

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Now here is your host with today's interview, Pastor Bob Thibodeau.

Hello, everyone everywhere.

Pastor Bob Thibodeau here.

Welcome to the Kingdom Crossroads podcast.

Today we're so blessed you're joining us.

Today we're joined again by our good friend Scott Wright, author of the God Centered Concept Journal, host of the God Centered Concept podcast.

Scott's a respected teacher on biblical prophecy and the end times.

And his insights into the end times provides us critical keys to understanding the days and times and events that we see happening all around us right now.

And drawing from scripture, Scott sheds light on this central theme that just unites God's word with humanity and gives us clear instructions and the hope that better things are coming.

Amen.

Help me.

Welcome to the program Scott Rice.

Scott, it's a blessing to talk to you again, brother.

Hey, it's great to be here and look forward to another fun, fruitful discussion.

Amen.

Hey, we're ready to roll, man.

I'm.

We've been.

Amen.

You know, we've been working on a launch on the YouTube channel and we're gonna be, we're gonna be doing this.

So I've been doing lots of recordings and getting everything arranged.

And here we go.

2025 is going to be the one.

Amen.

Amen.

We got a lot of stuff planned as well.

Praise God.

Today though, we're going to focus on Genesis chapter three and how all of this helps relate to the end times.

And can you walk us through, like, the key events of Genesis 3 and explain the significance in the contest of humanity's fall and relationship with God?

So always find Genesis 3 interesting.

Obviously the, the first part of this is he really has to do with the serpent and Eve and their interaction.

And really this is the devil and her having a conference, sort of how the devil confronts us.

And it's a confrontation.

The problem is she doesn't realize it's a confrontation.

And that's really the first piece of this.

And so you have that piece, obviously, then they do eat the fruit.

And then once that happens, then God basically questions them.

And then from there, God has to start making decisions on how he's going to deal with them.

And so judgments fall upon all of them.

Obviously, the serpent is given his.

Basically, you know, you'll strike at the heel, but they're going to crush your head.

So he's given his judgment, Eve is giving her judgment, and then Adam is given her judgment.

And then from there, they.

Eventually God helps them, but then he ushers them out of the Garden of Eden and then to never again enter at that point.

So they're.

Their days of being in the Garden of Eden are over.

And it all started back with the fact that Eve entertained the devil.

She just did.

She entertained him, she entertained his thoughts, and eventually that got to the flesh.

And then from the flesh, it went from there.

So you can just kind of see the chain of events and how that happens.

Well, how does the serpent strategy in Genesis 3 reflect, say, the broader theme of temptation that we experience today?

Well, I mean, think about it.

What does he do?

It's.

It's really no different than Jesus in the wilderness.

You know, it's the first thing he does is he tempts you with fleshly need or makes you think you need something that you really don't.

You and I were talking about Christmas eating, so.

Amen.

Amen.

No temptation there.

Exactly.

None.

You know, so the flesh, you know, it.

It starts.

He'll, you know, prick you a little bit with the fleshly thing and make a desire seem like a need.

That's really a critical thing to understand, you know, Then he'll try to get you to be rebellious and put God to the test.

And then, of course, then pride enters, you know, then he tries the.

The whole pride thing about making you more than you are.

You know, how.

How he can accomplish that?

Well, he doesn't.

It's not really any different here.

And the desires of the flesh, she, you know, he kind of pricks her pride a little bit, you know, gets her curious.

And does.

Does Satan do that to us today?

Absolutely.

He.

Absolutely.

The.

The curiosity.

That whole phrase, the curiosity killed the cat.

It totally falls with temptation.

And how that works with us, if you know what we have to do.

Look, just from a strategic standpoint as a.

As a believer, we have to know his schemes.

We got to know our enemy, and that's really the key.

And as far as, you know, looking at our sin and understanding how to attack it.

And not to get off on a side tangent here, but if you don't understand the schemes of the enemy, you're never going to defeat him.

And thing is, God gives us the ability to defeat him because his spirit's in us.

We can sense if we're in tune.

If our eyes and the ears of our hearts are in tune with the Holy Spirit, we'll know when he's attacking.

Well, know when he's trying to deceive us.

And my favorite saying is Satan.

He, he's the Master of the 98.

2 Rule 98 Truth, 2% false.

But always think of it like this.

Anything with him involved is like that number multiplied by zero.

It's still going to end up at zero.

You're still going to end up all wrong.

It's going to be 100 wrong.

It's going to be a zero percent.

You know, amen.

So that's, that's what a lot of times people don't realize.

It's going to be zero percent.

It's going to all be false.

Even though he's 98 being truthful in the way he presents it.

So, and he does that right here.

And you, you can see that if you read Genesis 3, he's being all truthful, but he's twisting the truth.

And there's that little bit of intention that if she would have stepped back and thought about it, she could have avoided this, but she didn't.

Well, how does Genesis 3 illustrate, say, the concept of knowledge and wisdom being both beneficial and dangerous?

Give us some examples from this chapter in other biblical texts.

So here it is.

Obviously God told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge.

And what the serpent does is he pricks her and says, no, what it is, it's going to open your eyes.

And he's tempting her with this wisdom that'll make her smarter.

He's tempting her pride is what she's doing, you know, to make her bigger and better than what she thinks that she.

And make her bigger and better than she is.

That's really what's happening here.

And I always think of it like this.

And I.

And it's the same here.

I am guessing that at some point God was going to open their eyes.

Oh, yeah.

But they weren't ready for it.

They.

They had not.

It's just like, it's just like when Jesus goes into his ministry, he needed to fast for 40 days.

There was reasons for that.

Okay.

It's also a sign to us of a time that we Need a time of preparation before we start really acquiring knowledge and wisdom.

You know, you get, you take on too much too fast, you're not ready for that.

And it's the same thing here.

She wasn't ready to deal with this and I think that was, that's really what's going on here.

She's not ready for that knowledge and that wisdom.

And so I always think of it like this.

God gives us the knowledge and wisdom that we need at the moment and there's going to be things he gives us later which will make us more knowledgeable in wisdom when we're ready for it.

I've shared with my family and stuff at different various times growing up.

My dad was all into hunting and all that and he would not allow me to even touch the guns when I was 5, 6, 7 years old.

Sure, when I turned 12, he bought me my first gun.

I went in the military and learned how to become an expert marksman and how to handle weapons and all that.

Became a cop and all that stuff.

In that light here Adam and Eve is, we'll say as toddlers basically learning how to do what God wants and what is required of them and all that.

And Satan says, oh yeah, God's got plenty of these gods know, he just doesn't want you to have any fun.

Y, you know, and what do you do if you got a three or four year old with a live weapon?

Just, you know, oh, what's this do you know?

And nothing good ever happens.

No, nothing good coming from that situation.

But in the hands of someone who has matured and received training, those things are tactically efficient tools to accomplish a specific purpose.

Yes.

And so that's, that's, I like relating it to that because everyone hears these tragic stories where, you know, a four year old found his dad's gun and killed his brother and stuff like this, you know, and, and that's just an example of, you know, oh, God wants you, he's holding back on you, you know, and it's like, you know, your brother uses a gun, he plays with a gun and all this stuff.

So it's, it's, it's tragic, but it's a pretty good analogy, you know.

Amen.

Yeah, and, and that's, and, and you know, and that's part of what happens here.

And what I always find funny is that, you know, Adam was not created in the garden, he's created outside the garden.

So he had obviously seen the outside world, Eve had not.

And I kind of wonder if that's why the Serpent went after her because she didn't know the difference in her.

You know, Adam could have explained it to her, but that doesn't matter.

He understood the protection and the beauty and the gift of the garden.

She did not.

Amen.

Yeah, that's true.

And I think that, you know, and I think that matters here because that is who he tempts.

She just had not experienced the outside.

And had she experienced the outside, I think she would have told the serpent where he could go.

Wanted to leave especially.

I mean, this is going to be the worst mistake in the history of.

The long, sad history of horrific mistakes ever made.

This is gonna be the worst one ever.

Yeah.

And if she'd have known that, she would have done this.

I mean, and neither would have Adam.

Yeah, he knew better.

He even knew better more than she did.

Yeah.

Kind of didn't do nothing to stop it.

He was right.

And he could have put his foot down and said, no, that's right.

And regardless, it's not like the serpent force fed her.

Right.

He couldn't make her eat it, so she still chose it.

And so did he.

I mean, they both chose this.

Yeah, I mean, he's.

He's probably like, what's gonna happen?

Nothing.

Okay, well, let me take a bite.

Yeah, exactly.

And, yeah, but this, this knowledge and wisdom thing matters because, you know, it's about timing.

And, and I was.

God's timing matters.

And if you don't, if we don't appreciate God's timing, then you're going to push things too far, too fast ahead of what you're capable of or ready for.

You will be.

You're capable of it.

You're just not ready for it.

Right.

You know, it's.

It's like what you said with the gun.

So I completely agree with that.

And I think that's exactly what this is saying here.

And Daniel, chapter 12, I think, verse four.

So knowledge is said to be sealed up until the end.

That's right.

How does that idea connect to the knowledge gained by Adam and eve in Genesis 3?

I mean, is there.

Is there a link between the two passages or was there too much knowledge given to them?

So God's limiting our ability to have knowledge today.

So here's the thing.

When Daniel saw these things, the problem was the Messiah had not come and the word of God, the gospel had not been spread.

He was seeing the totality of the end and how horrific would be, however it could not accompany.

The things that God wanted to accomplish through man could not be to man, I guess, would be more of it could not be done until after the Messiah had come and the Gospel had spread.

That did not happen yet.

And so that's why he had to seal these words and think about it.

All the prophecies about the end and what we read in the book of Revelation and all this stuff.

What is the one thing that still has to happen before it can be done?

The entire world has to be preached the Gospel, every tongue, tribe and nation.

And even today, we're not totally there yet.

We're getting close.

And, and so that's why, and that's why I tell people to, to be cautious about this whole, about the whole thing.

You know, people saying, hey, the rapture's getting ready to happen and blah, blah.

I'm like, well, the whole world hadn't been preached the gospel yet, so that's kind of hard.

I said, yeah, we're seeing all the signs.

And that's exactly why God tells Daniel that.

Because the Messiah hadn't even come yet and the world hadn't been preached the Gospel.

Every God's goal and God, what God wanted to happen was, is he wants every tongue, tribe and nation worshiping him in heaven.

Every tongue, tribe and nation he's created.

Amen.

Well, how does Genesis 3 help us understand, say, the balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility today?

So, you know, think about this.

That's a great question.

Divine sovereignty is that we need to always acknowledge that God is the Creator.

And we, we not only acknowledge it, but we need to submit to it.

We have to submit that he's the Creator.

Therefore that gives him the right to make all the decisions of how and what is right and wrong.

He gets to decide, not us.

We don't get that decision.

Our responsibility is to follow him and to obey.

So there's an interesting question that, that I've been asked before, and I think it's exactly why pastors, a lot of pastors, when I get them to actually tell me the truth, and I've asked this question, and this is an interesting question.

How much of your church congregations actually follow the gospel, actually do what they're called to do, and when I get them in private and they tell me, I've never had one.

Tell me more than 15%.

Never.

I'm.

And I'm.

I've talked to several.

Not one time.

So here's the deal.

This is what it boils down to.

Don't tell me what you believe, tell me what you follow.

Because what you follow is the key.

That is.

It is.

I.

It's not about belief, it's about what you follow.

And I think, you know, so many people that I've visited with over the years and talked to, they talk about what they believe, but what they follow is something different.

And it's.

It's more like people want their fire insurance and then to move on.

So I think the, the sovereign part is that God gets to decide how this is done.

Our part is to follow that and to follow Him.

And ultimately, what it is is that the reason he puts these things in place is so that you'll pursue Him.

You pursue him through obedience.

You pursue him by delighting in his law.

I mean, the Bible tells us that you're.

We're to delight in that day and night.

Yeah, we're delighting in his law all the time.

That's what we're supposed to do.

You know, we're supposed to be focused on his word, on his message.

It's not our message, it's His.

It's just like, for instance, we'll hear people call themselves certain things, like they'll call themselves prophets or apostles or whatever.

The truth is.

No, we're.

None of us are apostles and none of us are prophets.

We have a gift of prophecy.

We have a gift of being an apostolic gift.

We have the gift of speaking tongues.

The truth is, it's his, and it's him that's doing it.

It's not us.

No, we're.

We're simply his ambassadors.

That's it.

And towards his calling.

It's.

It's him giving us the gift.

And so what we have is a gifting that has come from him, and he can take it away just as fast.

Yeah, you know, that's a good word.

As ambassador.

You know, if an ambassador is sent to a nation, he's representing the leader of that nation.

Yes.

You know, like the United States ambassador to wherever.

And if they're not doing the job, he gets recalled.

Exactly.

Placed.

You know, and so.

Yeah, amen.

Amen.

You know, Genesis 3 talks about God's judgment, as we said.

It's also hinting at redemption.

How does that tension between judgment and grace shape our understanding of God's character?

Well, the first thing we have to do is realize that God's wrath is real.

But we have to understand why that wrath is real.

And it's because of our sin.

Sin is rebelliousness to God, whether done through passive indifference or actively active rebellion.

It's sin.

Sin is sin.

And you gotta call it that.

What I've told people before and what I like to explain it people, is that you have to admit how sinful you are.

You can't justify it because when you justify it, you glorify it.

We aren't to glorify sin.

Amen.

So that's the part of the judgment that matters is that we have to, we have to totally own that we are depraved and sinful.

But once we do that, then God's mercy is right there for us for the taking.

And how does that happen?

That is through the shed blood, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He is the bridge.

What we have to obviously finally surrender to is that we can't do it right.

We're not capable.

And where God's mercy comes in and the gospel comes in is that because we can't do it, he does it for us.

That's where his love, his grace and his mercy come in, is that he will be merciful.

If we own that, that's, that's the bottom line.

And so it's, he loves us and offers a wonderful plan for our life.

But because of our sinfulness we are separated from God and we have to own that.

And then Jesus is the only bridge between us and God and he covers our sin.

I always say in, in my wife likes to, she likes to illustrate this with the way in this a particular story but basically think of it as your sin all be written in a book all your sins.

And if God looks at you, is he going to see the book of sins or is he going to see the blood of Jesus on each page that covers those sin where he doesn't see the sin anymore.

That's really what it pulls down to.

Yeah.

And it's what you again, it's what you surrender and follow.

Amen.

You know, do you surrender to that you own the fact that you're sinful?

You know, it's not enough to acknowledge it.

You, you have to surrender to it, you know, as an act of your will.

Scott, as usual this been so interesting.

How can someone reach out to you with questions or they want to get more information or maybe invite you do an interview like this?

Sure.

Just reach out to me there.

I'll be glad to respond.

I'll put all this information down in the show notes below.

Praise the Lord folks, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is for you to realize where we're living at on the timeline right now in these last of the last days.

I mean the days that have been prophesied as the end times are here now.

Praise God.

Just drop down the show notes, reach out to Scott, get in touch with him, subscribe to the podcast, be sure to purchase his journal and start learning all about the God centered concepts that he specializes in.

Amen.

Do it right now before you forget about it later on because I know that everyone's busy this time of year.

Drop down the show.

Click the links right there.

Do it right now.

Scott.

Again, I appreciate you coming on the program sharing all about this information with us.

Look forward to the next conversation.

Brother.

Hey, thanks for having me on and look forward to next time.

Amen folks.

That's all the time we have for today for Scott Wright.

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