The Glorious Appearing (2 Thessalonians 2:8 Jeff Kliewer)

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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org The Glorious Appearing

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As we continue in worship, if you're able to stand with me, I'm gonna read with Psalm 103, first five verses.
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Let all that I am praise the Lord. With my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
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Let all that I am praise the Lord. May I never forget the good things he has done for me.
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He forgives all of my sins and heals all of my diseases. He redeems me from death and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
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He fills my life with good things. Let's thank him this morning.
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Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul.
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Worship his holy name.
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Sing like never before.
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Oh my soul. I'll worship your holy name.
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The sun comes up.
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It's a new day dawning. It's time to sing your song again.
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Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me.
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Let me be singing when the evening comes.
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Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul.
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Worship his holy name.
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Sing like never before. Oh my soul.
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I'll worship your holy name.
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Rich in love and your soul to wear.
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Your name is great and your heart is kind.
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For all your goodness I will keep on singing.
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10 ,000 reasons for my heart to find.
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Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Oh my soul.
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Worship his holy name.
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Sing like never before. Oh my soul.
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I'll worship your holy name.
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And on that day when my strength is failing.
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The end draws near and my time has come.
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My soul, my soul will sweep your place on end day.
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10 ,000 years and then forever more.
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Praise the Lord. Bless the Lord, oh my soul.
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Oh my soul. Worship his holy name.
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Sing like never before. Oh my soul.
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I'll worship your holy name. Oh, I'll worship your holy name.
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Oh, I'll worship your holy name.
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It is wonderful to stand before him and sing praises to his name.
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His mercy endures forever. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. What love could remember no wrongs we have done.
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Omniscient all knowing he counts not their sum. Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore.
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Our sins they are many, his mercy is more.
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Patience would wait as we constantly. What father so tender is calling us home.
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He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor.
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Our sins they are many, his mercy is more.
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Praise the Lord, his mercy is more.
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Stronger than darkness, new ever born. Our sins they are many, his mercy is more.
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But riches of kindness he lavished on us. His blood was the payment, his blood was the cost.
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We stood in the debt we could never afford.
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Our sins they are many, his mercy is more.
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Praise the Lord, his mercy is more.
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Stronger than darkness, new ever born.
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Our sins they are many, his mercy is more. Praise the
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Lord, his mercy is more.
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Stronger than darkness, new ever born. Our sins they are many, his mercy is more.
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Lord, thank you so much that we can call you father. That we can praise your name and you accept our praise.
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Because you saved us. Lord, we want to be a people that sings praises to your name.
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Knows the power of your name. Knows that we've done nothing to deserve it.
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We want to offer you everything that we have. Sometimes Lord you make it so easy and we make it so hard to love you.
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You are so good and so kind to us. I pray Lord that we will be filled with a joy that only you can give through your salvation.
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We offer everything to you Lord. You make it easy to love you.
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You are good and you are kind. You bring joy into my life.
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You make it easy to trust you. I've never left my side.
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You've been faithful every time. All I want is you.
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Jesus, all I want is you.
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You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
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I'll follow you anywhere. There's a million reasons to trust you.
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Nothing to fear for you are by my side.
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I'll follow you anywhere. Jesus you came to my rescue.
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Took my place on the cross. You redeemed what
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I had lost. My whole world revolving around you.
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You're the center of me. You're the treasure before me.
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All I want is you.
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Jesus, all I want is you.
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You are the refuge I run to.
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You are the fire that leads me through the night.
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I'll follow you anywhere. There's a million reasons to trust you.
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Nothing to fear for you are by my side.
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I'll follow you anywhere. Wherever you lead me.
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Whatever it costs me. All I want is you.
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Jesus, all I want is you. Wherever you lead me.
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Whatever it costs me. All I want is you.
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Jesus, all I want is you. All I want is you.
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Jesus, all I want is you.
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You are the refuge I run to. You are the fire that leads me through the night.
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I'll follow you anywhere. There's a million reasons to trust you.
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Nothing to fear for you are by my side.
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I'll follow you anywhere. Follow you anywhere.
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I hope that's your prayer this morning. That you'll follow him wherever he leads. You may be seated.
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I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Amen. It is good to be here.
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Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, your word says, rejoice, always pray continually.
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Give thanks in all things for this is the will of Christ Jesus for you. Your word says, quench not the spirit.
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Do not despise prophecies. But test everything. Hold on to what is good.
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So this morning, Lord, I pray that you would give me prophetic words from your scripture, not from my own imagination, but the exposition of your word,
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Lord, prophetically. And we pray that we would have minds of discernment to hold on to what is good.
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Bless the preaching and the hearing of your word in Jesus' name. Amen. When my wife and I moved to inner city
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Philadelphia in 2004, the early days of our time in Kensington were pretty sweet.
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I would go to the corner store across the street and buy a Day's Soda. Anybody here drink Day's Soda?
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Probably never heard of it, but that was the corner store soda. I'd get a pineapple, and I'd go out behind my house, which was about 15 feet by 10, the backyard, and hang there in a hammock, just drinking my
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Day's Soda. So I enjoyed it. And there was fruit in the ministry. Many of the young people had come to faith, and we had baptized a lot of new believers.
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One particular family was very dear to us, and the guy that lived close by us would come to our house all the time, and we would go to his relative's house in North Philadelphia.
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I would drive the church van and pick these kids up to go to church on Sunday. And one day, actually, after dropping them off,
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I came back from North Philadelphia only to find that Broad Street was blocked off.
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I couldn't get through. So they rerouted me, and before long, I was going on Broad Street only to find out that I was in the church van in the
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Puerto Rican Day Parade. So I was just thumping along in the church van, a 15 -passenger van, and all the other cars were, like, piled with people on top and just moving, like, half a mile an hour, and this music thumping, and here
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I am just waving at everybody. It took an hour to get out of this Puerto Rican Day Parade. Sweet days.
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It was fun. So I finally did make it home that day. But this family that we loved so much,
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I would drop them off on Sundays. We'd always get McDonald's, and the kids would run in the little play thing they used to have with the slides and all.
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As time went on, and these young people grew to be teenagers, tragedy struck.
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The one younger brother died of meningitis, unsanitary conditions, and he passed away.
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Shortly after that, the cousin of these three that were so close to us, her name was,
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I won't say her name, and she was jumping rope right outside of her house, and there was a car that was fleeing from the police.
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Stolen car. And jumped the curb and took her out. And she died as well. So we had this grief.
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And then the other one that we loved so much, he kind of spun out of control when he lost his cousins and ended up stealing cars.
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He stole our car and many things. It was very painful. And oftentimes when you experience that, you look at the world and you say, where is the justice for a criminal who would steal a car and in this case, take out a little girl?
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If there's a God in heaven and he has the power to stop these kind of things, and he's so loving that he would want to stop these kind of things, why is there evil in the world?
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Why is there injustice that seems unchecked? And maybe you look out at the world these days and I remember it was only about a year ago when
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Alan Dershowitz was being interviewed and he said, quote, the state has every right to plunge a needle into your arm and forcibly vaccinate its citizens.
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And that was the feeling of many people at the time. That the state has a right to plunge a needle into your arm and forcibly vaccinate its citizens.
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What injustice! And by God's grace, such evil was restrained to a measure.
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But you still look out at the world and you see injustice everywhere. Media that tells lies 24 -7.
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A few companies own so many of the TV and the radio and the magazine and internet communications.
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It's really a small group of people that are controlling what the media puts out and so many lies.
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If God is all loving and all powerful, why is there so much evil in the world?
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C .S. Lewis said, when the whole world is running towards the cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.
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Ever feel like that? The world plunging headlong over a cliff and here we go in the opposite direction.
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I was at Princeton again with a friend evangelizing and a young man actually was very open to hearing the gospel.
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We ended up spending an hour and a half with this man. So many questions about the faith.
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He was from China. He had once heard the gospel in Hong Kong. Now a student at Princeton. And he had questions.
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He heard about Jesus and he was considering, but the question in his mind was, well, why didn't
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God just make the world different? Why did he put a tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden in order that man could sin in the first place?
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Why not just make the world without evil and without sin? And I would have been foolish to try to answer that question in full.
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Because there are things that are revealed to us and there are things that are secret to his mind and plan.
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And so I didn't try to go beyond what was written, but here's what we said to him that pointed him in the direction of life and salvation.
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We told him about Christ crucified, that there was an innocent one, the
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Son of God, hung on a tree to die. And this one had the power to stop it, but he gave his life willingly, laying down his life for his friends, and he rose on the third day.
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And part of the answer to suffering in this world is to point to the cross of Jesus Christ and say, there is suffering, there is the innocent one laying down his life for his friends.
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And there's meaning in it, there's redemption in it, there's purpose, and here is hope in the cross of Jesus Christ.
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But there's a second aspect that we often forget. And when evangelizing, you need to remember this, because this answers the question of justice to some measure.
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And again, we're looking through a glass dimly in this age, we don't see everything as clearly as we one day will.
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One day we will see face to face, but here we look through a glass dimly. But here's what we know by the scripture.
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The one who died on the cross is coming again. Justice will be established on this earth.
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There is an event that the Bible describes as the glorious appearing. John quoted it as the parousia in Greek.
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It refers to the second coming of Christ. But hear me, not just the overall event of Christ's coming back, but specifically to the moment, the decisive, world -changing moment when
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Christ sets his foot on the Mount of Olives. It's the glorious appearing.
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This morning as we turn to 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 8, we're gonna read about the glorious appearing.
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And after we do, I'd like to answer a couple of questions. One, theological.
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How does this all play out? Because as you're reading the scriptures, it almost appears that there's two second comings.
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The rapture of the church and the glorious appearing.
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My goal theologically would be to disambiguate these things all under the banner of the second coming.
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The second coming is one event, but it has stages.
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And we'll see that in the scripture. The first part of the second coming is when
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Christ raptures the church to meet him in the air, in the clouds, according to 1 Thessalonians 4.
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And then there's a day of wrath, a period where God's wrath is poured out on this earth, decisively ending with the glorious appearing.
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So I want you to theologically think about the glorious appearing as that consummating, final moment when
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Christ himself sets his foot on the Mount of Olives and reigns as king forevermore.
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Amen? Now practically, what I want this to do for us is to remind us that he will establish justice in the world.
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That the evil of this world will not go unchecked. It is for a time restrained, but it will one day be judged.
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Okay, so we're coming into 2 Thessalonians 2a, but we have to remember where we've been in the text.
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1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, we have banners for each. 1
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Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians are eschatological. They're dealing with end times.
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Eschatology is the study of the end times. Okay, Paul is teaching them about things to come in the future.
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And so in the first book of Thessalonians, each chapter ends with a reference to the second coming of Christ.
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Chapter 1 has us waiting for the appearing of Jesus Christ.
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Chapter 1, verse 10, to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead,
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Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. And then each chapter of 1
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Thessalonians ends with this reference to the second coming of Christ. And we go into 2
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Thessalonians and in the first chapter, the problem we're dealing with is suffering, persecution, unjust persecution.
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The Thessalonians are under attack. They're losing their jobs. They're being jailed.
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Some of them have been killed. They've been martyred for the faith. So along comes some deceiver who counterfeits a letter as if it's from Paul, telling them that the reason it's getting so bad for them is that the day of the
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Lord has come. This is the tribulation. You're in the final seven years.
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The day of the Lord is upon you. Now look with me at 2
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Thessalonians 1, verse 5 and 6. The second coming of Christ will bring justice to earth.
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Speaking of the suffering that they were going through, it says, this is evidence of the righteous judgment of God.
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There is a just judge that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.
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So in verse 5, we learn that the sufferings of this life are conforming us into the image of Christ, that we would be fit for the kingdom.
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But look at verse 6. Since, indeed, God considers it just.
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Everybody these days is crying for justice, right? Justice is the buzzword of this generation.
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But very few understand what justice is. They're not defining right and wrong by biblical categories any longer.
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In any case, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you.
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So the issue here is justice. God will one day repay the wicked.
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Now 2 Thessalonians 2. The category here is the return of Christ.
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The second coming are being gathered together to him. We're told in verse 2 not to be quickly shaken or alarmed.
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For 2 ,000 years, people have said that the day of the
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Lord is here. They've claimed to be living through the tribulation. It's proven false in each case.
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Remember when Harold Camping actually picked a date of the second coming? Or William Miller did that in the 1840s with Seventh -day
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Adventism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints and all of these offshoots were eschatological.
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They were date -picking. Well, this sort of thing happened way back when in verse 2. You have a false teacher, some spirit with an orator, a spoken word, and even writing letters as if he's
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Paul, forging letters from Paul, trying to carry the people away and it was to the effect that the day of the
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Lord has come. Such folly. And Paul says, don't be deceived.
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Three things have to happen. You guys should remember because I review it every week. What are they?
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The apostasia, the rebellion, the great defection from Christianity, the antichrist will be revealed.
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We have some candidates on the scene right now, but he's not yet been revealed to us.
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And then third, the abomination of desolation where that antichrist proclaims himself to be God in the temple.
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Which means the temple has to be rebuilt. So these things haven't happened. The day of the Lord is not yet here.
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Don't be deceived. Verse 5 says, do you not remember that when I was still with you
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I told you these things? So what's keeping it from happening? The Holy Spirit through the ministry of the church like salt and light is restraining the evil of the world from doing what it wants to do.
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But there's coming a day, verse 7, when that restrainer will be taken out of the way. The church will be removed.
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The Holy Spirit's ministry will change. And he'll release it. He'll let the evil run amuck.
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Do what the antichrist wants to do. That brings us to verse 8. Let's read it. And then, the lawless one will be revealed.
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It's almost anticlimactic. What's about to happen? You're picturing the antichrist. He's gathered all of his troops to make his big stand against Messiah.
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But look how it ends. Whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
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He makes short work of the antichrist. Now, how many of y 'all wear a WWJD bracelet?
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Remember what would Jesus do? If we went out on the street and we asked, what would Jesus do?
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There was a rebel who proclaimed himself to be God and led the world.
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Worshipped by many. What would Jesus do when he came?
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Well, I think most men on the street would say he would love him. He would forgive him.
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He would show him mercy and tolerance and acceptance.
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What would Jesus do? What does our text say? What will Jesus do? He will kill him.
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I know that sounds harsh, but that's what it says.
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What will Jesus do? He will kill him. He will personally kill him. Because it says here at the appearance of his coming.
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Church, it's very important for us theologically to understand how this fits and practically why this matters.
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Practically, it matters because justice will be established. The Antichrist and all enemies and rebels against his throne will, at a decisive time, be put down.
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And there will be peace on earth. There will be justice. But that justice is delayed.
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That wrath is reserved against this day. And so there's injustice in the world in which we live.
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And there's much evil. So theologically, how does this then play out?
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This will help you in understanding the Scriptures. The glorious appearing is this final, decisive moment.
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When we look at a couple of other Scriptures, we see it is the moment of judgment. It is the moment where the wicked are slain by the breath of Jesus' mouth.
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So what I'd like for us to do is turn back and look at Zechariah and then jump forward and look at Revelation and then tie it all back together.
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Because what I want to show you is that the second coming has an aspect where the church is caught up to meet the
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Lord in the air. Then wrath is poured out on the earth and Jesus comes back with the church to judge the world.
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So turn with me to Zechariah 13. We won't spend long in these parallel passages, but sometimes it's important when studying
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Scripture to look at different passages that all speak to the same event.
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Systematic theology. And then to correlate that data to better understand a concept.
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And here what we're studying is specifically the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. So Zechariah 13 is where we'll pick up.
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Zechariah was a post -exilic prophet. He's prophesying to the regathered people after the exile.
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The Persian king has released them back to rebuild the temple and reestablish themselves in the land.
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And this prophet begins to see things to come. The next events on the prophetic calendar. He'll see in Zechariah 9 .9
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that the king, the righteous king, will come gentle and having salvation, humble and riding on a donkey.
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Zechariah sees the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem as a humble king.
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In Zechariah 11, 11 and 12, he sees the betrayal of that humble king by a man named
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Judas who betrays him specifically for 30 pieces of silver. And then as we come to the end of the book, chapters 13 and 14, he sees then the king returning in glory, the glorious appearing.
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Chapter 13 refers to this age of grace in which we live. It says in chapter 13, verse 1, on that day, there shall be a fountain open for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
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Church, pause right there. We live in this day. There is a fountain.
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There is a fountain according to the writing, the writer of the hymn. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
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Makes me want to sing that hymn at the moment. But the idea is, the fountain is that Jesus' blood was shed on the cross.
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The centurion was washed under it and he made the good confession. Jesus shed his blood like a fountain of cleansing to all who would come.
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And during this age in which we live, any who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
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This is an age of grace. Wrath is reserved for the end time, but all are invited to come.
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Come and be clean. Trust in Jesus and he will wash you whiter than snow.
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There's nothing that can wash away your sin but the blood of Jesus. That's chapter 13. And what comes next?
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Chapter 14. The glorious appearing. Let's read it. Behold, a day is coming for the
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Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst for I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle.
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And the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped.
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Half of the city shall go out into exile but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
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Pause right there. This is a picture in the end times when the nations are raging against God during the day of the
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Lord. The judgments are falling and they're enraged. They have no way of getting back at God who sends these plagues upon them.
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So what do they do? They go to Jerusalem to kill the chosen people of God. And that remnant in the city is waiting.
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144 ,000 sealed by God so that they cannot die. All that the
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Antichrist can do in his beast system getting beat down by hailstones in the darkness. The sun has been turned to blood and the moon blacked out.
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A third of the fish have died. The waters turned to blood. They're enraged and they come to Jerusalem to kill the
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Jews and then we see the glorious appearing. Then the
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Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle.
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On that day his feet shall stand on the
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Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east and on and the
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Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by the very wide valley so that one half of the mount shall move northward and the other half southward.
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2 Thessalonians 2 .8 says that the Antichrist will fall as Messiah kills him.
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Here Zechariah gives us more visual detail of what this is going to look like when
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Jesus comes. Where will he arrive? At the very mountain from which he ascended.
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After appearing to his disciples for 40 days they gathered on the Mount of Olives he gave them final instructions but you shall receive power when the
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Holy Spirit comes upon you. Now go and be my witnesses Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria to the ends of the earth and then right before their eyes on the
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Mount of Olives he ascended into the clouds. He's coming back the same way the disciples saw him go.
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From the clouds he descends and places his foot on the Mount of Olives. He comes with such force such power that the mountain itself is split in two.
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He comes in vengeance against those who destroy his people.
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And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains. So the Jewish people are fleeing just before he comes.
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For the valley of the mountains shall reach to Ezzal and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah.
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Then the Lord my God will come and all the holy ones with him.
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Mark that. When Christ comes it's not the rapture because we're already with him.
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The first aspect of the second coming of Christ is the church being gathered to meet him in the air.
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And so when he comes and puts his foot on the Mount of Olives we are with him.
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He comes for his church and then he comes in judgment. Now I'm just going to pause and talk about that for just a second theologically.
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If this is not the case then it works like this. We get caught up to meet the
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Lord in the air only to get whipped right back down to earth like a yo -yo.
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Think about that. And the first thing that we would see would be the wrath of God upon the nations.
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I think that's a sad way of looking at things. The only difference between my view which is that the rapture happens first in the day of the
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Lord and then the glorious appearing. The only difference is how long the pause is.
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In the other view a post -tribulation rapture Jesus doesn't even stop to say hello.
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We get yanked up and then boom right back down and the first thing we see is wrath. But let me tell you this wrath is not an essential attribute of God.
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Justice is. Before there was sin in the world God was just.
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And he existed in perfect love. God is essentially love. Father, Son and Holy Spirit existed in perfect love in the economy of the
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Trinity before the world began. In fact, within the ontology of the
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Trinity God is love. Now listen. Wrath did not come into the picture until Lucifer fell.
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And man fell by that temptation. Right? Wrath is
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God's righteous response to sin. And when we go to see
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Jesus when he comes for the church the first thing he'll show us is not wrath but love.
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The sad thing about the post -trib rapture theory is that we're caught up to the air and we miss that sweet reunion.
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Here's how it actually goes down. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 comes before 1
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Thessalonians chapter 5. We're caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so we are with him forever.
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We enjoy the wedding supper of the Lamb. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 19.
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And I want you to mark this well because this is important. The wedding supper of the Lamb happens in heaven before the glorious appearing.
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Did you catch that? The wedding supper happens before the glorious appearing.
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So we're already caught up to meet the Lord in the air before the day of his judgment falls on the earth.
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Revelation 19. I want you to read along with me here. Just follow along. Because here now is another picture of the second coming of Christ.
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But the ten verses that precede the glorious appearing describe the wedding supper of the
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Lamb. In Revelation 13 you have the rise of the beast system.
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The Antichrist is revealed. He has the mark of the beast. Everybody knows about the mark of the beast these days, right?
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It's where they put something on your right hand or forehead without which you cannot buy or sell.
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There are rumblings that such things could be soon in the world. But that's restrained until the
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Antichrist is revealed. The abomination of desolation. In Revelation 17 and 18 that system falls.
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God brings it to its knees with judgments. Bowls of wrath poured out on this
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Antichrist system. On the beast. Now look what's happening in heaven as the religious system and the economic system of the one world government and one world religions comes crumbling down.
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Chapter 19. After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out,
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Hallelujah. Salvation and glory and power belong to our
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God. For his judgments are true and just.
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Why do we praise at the wedding supper of the lamb? Because justice is finally falling on the earth.
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These are the seven seals. The seven trumpets. The seven bowls of wrath.
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We in heaven are seeing God judge the wickedness of this world. It's true and it's just.
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And we say, for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.
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Once more they cried out, Hallelujah. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.
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And the 24 elders, and pause right there, I think that refers to the church because you have the 12 tribes of Israel.
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You have the 12 apostles representing the New Testament in unison.
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Old Testament saints, the church all together praising God. These are like the leaders of the church.
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And the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne saying,
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Amen, Hallelujah. And from the throne came a voice saying, Praise our
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God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder.
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Guys, you were singing great today by the way. Michael, did you feel that? There was this power in the singing of praise to God, but if you think that was an awesome feeling, you haven't felt nothing yet.
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I didn't even mean to do that. Can you imagine the thunder, the peals of thunder as we praise
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God for his justice and we sing Hallelujah for the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.
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Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come.
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Who's the bride? The church, church, it's you. It's you who have believed in his name.
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We're with him at the marriage supper. It happens before the second, not before the second coming, before the glorious appearing.
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And his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
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And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb.
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And he said to me, these are the true words of God. When I close in a minute, I'm going to invite you to the marriage supper of the lamb because this is the supper you want to be a part of.
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There's another supper we're about to read about and it's birds eating the flesh of the rebels.
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The glorious appearing. It says in verse 10, then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, you must not do that.
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Don't worship an angel. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.
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Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now, those 10 verses precede what follows.
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That is to say, the church is already having the marriage supper before what is to come.
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All right? Now, I'm going to read verses 11 to 21 and like Zechariah, it pictures
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Jesus placing his foot on the Mount of Olives, splitting that mountain and I want you to understand, it is wrath.
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It is judgment. The glorious appearing refers to this aspect of judgment, of justice, finally on earth and what follows is the millennium.
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So, let's read it. Then I saw heaven opened and behold, picture this, a white horse.
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The one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness, he judges and makes war.
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His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
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He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the word of God and the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, that's us, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
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From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
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He will tread the winepress of the fury, of the wrath of God the
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Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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That's him. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, come, gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders and the flesh of all men, both slave and free, both small and great.
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And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army.
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And the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image.
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These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
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Can you picture that? That's a glorious appearing. That's the decisive moment when
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Christ comes in judgment. Isaiah 11 foresaw the spirit -filled
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Christ and it says, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked with righteousness his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
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And you know what? Immediately follows those verses in Isaiah 11, the lion will lay down next to the lamb and the little child will play with the adder.
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You see, the world is in sin and evil is run amok in the world.
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It's restrained. But even the creation, even lions and lambs and snakes are subject to decay.
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They're groaning until the revealing of the sons of God, Romans 8. So what immediately follows the glorious appearing is the millennial age of peace.
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When Christ comes to Jerusalem, he reigns as king. You can go back and read Zechariah 14 through to the end and you'll see.
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Living water flows from that mountain and the nations stream to worship and Isaiah 11 says there's no more lions killing lambs.
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They can lay down next to each other and a little child playing with a serpent.
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Fathers, you wouldn't let your kids do that right now, would you? But on that day, there's no more death for the former things that passed away.
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The millennial reign is coming. So in closing, all of these things point to the glorious appearing of Christ.
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Theologically, here's how you should think about it. He comes for the church. We meet him in the air.
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For a phase of time, he pours out wrath on the earth. Revelation 6, 17 says that this is wrath of the lamb and of God.
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That's what's happening in the book of Revelation. We're with the Lord in heaven and then the glorious appearing is when he comes in judgment to destroy the antichrist and to put down the rebellion.
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And so we will have a thousand years of peace. Does that make sense? You see how that all fits together?
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By the way, it has to be that way because over and over again, Jesus in Matthew 24 says that until the second coming, people are just going to be going on as usual.
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Marrying, giving in marriage, eating and drinking. It'll be just like the days of Noah until unexpectedly, like a flood, they're taken away.
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That cannot refer to the glorious appearing. It cannot refer to that because of imminency.
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We're being told it can happen any second. What can happen any second?
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As I'm preaching right now, the Lord can rapture the church and that's part of the second coming.
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He calls us to meet him in the air. He comes on the clouds. But we know this, from the abomination of desolation, when the antichrist proclaims himself to be
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God, there's exactly three and a half years. So at the glorious appearing, it's not imminent.
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Nobody's surprised. The church knows that exact time. 3 .5 years from the abomination of desolation until the glorious appearing.
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So how is it imminent? Well, any second now, the Lord can catch us up to meet him in the air.
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All of these things unfold and then he comes and raps. So theologically, as you've been putting together your eschatology, that's the way to think about it.
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But closing more practically, this means you can tell your friend, my friend at Princeton, that there will be justice.
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You can tell him about the coming of Jesus Christ, the parousia, the appearance of Jesus in which he will finally put down the rebellion.
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And there will be peace. There will be a world without death. And Revelation 21 says he will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
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Tell him about that. It's true. Practically, this is our hope.
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This is the longing of our hearts. We've been waiting on the coming of Christ.
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Lastly, it's not too late to accept the invitation. The age in which we live right now, church, it comes to an end.
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But right now is an age of grace. And Jesus has shed his blood on the cross.
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He came as a lamb to be sacrificed. And he is inviting the whole world to the wedding supper of the lamb.
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When the Jews rejected, Jesus tells in a parable, the king said, fine, go out into the streets to the highways and the byways and invite them to come in that my house may be filled.
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The invitation goes to the ends of the earth. As I preach here this morning, I have my dear friend from Dallas Seminary is preaching very similarly in India right now.
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And Craig Wayant in Brazil. And the Kamlins, who are about to come back and join us, by the way, they're finishing their mission career in about a month in Portugal.
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But all over the earth, this gospel is being preached. This invitation is being offered.
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Are you here this morning? And you've never accepted that invitation? It's for you. Christ is saying, come.
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Come eat the bread of life. Drink the living water. Come have your sins washed under this fountain.
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Come be clean. Come be saved. You're invited to the wedding supper of the lamb.
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How do you accept the invitation? You say, yes, Lord. I'm a sinner. Forgive me.
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If you don't come under that cleansing blood, all that remains is the day of His wrath and the feast described in Revelation 19 of birds of judgment.
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So let's pray. Maybe you'd like to accept Jesus now. You can just pray these words.
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You can use your own words because you're talking to God. You're not just mouthing empty words.
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But in your own heart, in the silence of your own heart, talk to God and say something like this.
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I'm a sinner. I need to be forgiven. Dear God, please forgive me.
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God, I accept the invitation to the wedding supper of the lamb.
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I believe Jesus died for my sin. He was buried.
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He rose on the third day. And I believe He is coming again to snatch
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His church for the wedding supper of the lamb and to plant
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His foot on the Mount of Olives to judge the world. I believe in Jesus.
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So Jesus, I accept You as King of kings and Lord of lords.
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Thank You for saving me. Thank You for dying for me.
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Amen. Guys, if anybody prayed that prayer today, please talk to me afterwards or Michael or one of the elders.
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We have Bibles in the back. You're welcome to take one of those home. We'd like to encourage you in your faith, encourage you to keep coming to church and learning the
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Word of God. So we're glad that you're here. And for all of us who have that gift, let's rejoice in it now.
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Let's stand and sing praise to our Lord. Christ the true and better man
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Son of God and Son of man
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Who in tempting ill luck Never yielded, never sinned
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He who makes the many righteous Brings us back to life again
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Dying here, worse the curse Then rising, crushed the serpent's head
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Christ the true and better life
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Humble son of sacrifice
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Who would climb the fearful mountain There to offer up His life
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Laid with faith upon the altar
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Father's joy and only Son Their salvation was provided Oh, what full and boundless love
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Amen, amen From beginning to end
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Christ the story, He's the glory
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Hallelujah, amen Christ the true and better booze
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Has called to lead a people home Standing bold to earthly trials
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Calls great glory to be known With His arms stretched wide to heaven
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See the waters part in two See the vales torn forever
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Cleansed with blood we pass now through Amen, amen
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From beginning to end
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Christ the story, He's the glory
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Hallelujah, amen Christ the true and better David Lonely shepherd, mighty king
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He the champion in the battle
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Where, O death, is now thy sting In our place
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He bled and conquered Crown Him Lord of majesty
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He shall be the throne forever We shall e 'er
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His people be Amen, amen
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From beginning to end
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Christ the story, He's the glory
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Hallelujah, amen
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Amen, amen From beginning to end
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Christ the story, He's the glory
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Hallelujah, amen Christ the story,
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He's the glory Hallelujah, amen
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It was awesome.
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My grandfather was a preacher and he would always at the dinner table say amen and when he'd say amen we all would say amen, praise the
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Lord, hallelujah. So when I finish reading the benediction I'll say amen and you guys say amen, praise the
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Lord, hallelujah. I think it's fitting for Revelation 19. Now, may the
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Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and every way. The Lord be with you all, amen.
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Amen, praise the Lord, hallelujah. You did great.
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Thank you. Yeah. In order to see the advantage of that it just seems to do well.
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Yeah. Yeah. I mean, honestly. It's everything. Exactly. Very important.
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Alright. This is the value of understanding yourself that they don't see the value of it.
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You know what I mean? So it has to be some level of that out taking ownership of their own self.
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Yeah. But yeah, you go through the 10 commandments and that's what it is. I'm not a nurse. You know what I mean? It's more like trying to get them to realize it themselves.
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You know? But yeah. You know what
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I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
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You know what I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
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You know what I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer You know what I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
01:30:59
You know what I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
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There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. You know what
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I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. You know what I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
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You know what I mean?
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There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. You know what I mean? and they would feel corrupted into it. You know what I mean? There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
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You know what I mean?
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There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. and they would feel corrupted into it. There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
01:34:31
There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer
01:35:39
There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it. and they would feel corrupted into it. and they would feel corrupted into it. There's a lot of people who try to get people to say the same prayer and they would feel corrupted into it.
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God provides the opportunity for us to be saved. He provides the means for us to be saved.
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He provides the words to be saved and we're sealed. 15 years old and I've been going to church for such a long time but I've really only felt like it in the last three years.
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Like that, yeah, like I felt a change. So, you know, on the one hand, if I had died, you know, before, yeah,
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I mean, called from the foundations of, you know, but see, I guess that was a confusing statement. God has a plan for my life.
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He knew when I was gonna truly, you know, have that, that regeneration, yeah.
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He already knew, yes, I mean, I can't say, well, if I would've died 10 years ago, I wasn't gonna die 10 years ago, because, you know,
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God had all my days mapped out for me. But no, I don't believe if you truly say that you can't do it in salvation because God's, okay, so God's atonement is for his life.