Eschatology Is About Jesus (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

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I sound like I just woke up, but I did wake up this morning at 5 o 'clock a .m.

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It's one of those things where you have been awake for too long, but I really haven't had to talk to anybody all day because it's just the dog,

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Hello, Steve and Mike and all the production staff. The first thing I'd like to say, Eric, is it's supposed to say

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Mike and Steve and the production staff. The production staff is actually not capitalized.

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I fall perfectly into your listening demographic, which means I'm an aging, white, bigoted, literalistic male.

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See, this is nice. I love your shows, very informative, fun, and convicting, and then there's some emoji there, smiley face, but it's old fashioned, of course.

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While listening to arguments from atheists, I was dozing off, and I'll see what kind of listeners do we have.

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Everything was going so well there. I opened up the letter, looked for the check, then

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I decided to read it. You know that's how you open up cards, too, don't you, on your birthday?

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If there's any money in there, fine, you read them later. While listening to arguments from atheists,

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I was dozing off until you said one word which perked me up just in time to swerve back to my side of the road,

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Devo. Are we not men? You said you like Devo.

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I do, too. My 19 -year -old daughter does not. However, she loves her dachshund, so I created this ringtone using

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Devo and her dachshund. Thought you might like it. Feel free to put it on your phones. Thanks again for your ministry,

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All right, I'd like to talk today about a very important subject, and that's the subject that is entitled eschatology, eschatology, eschatos, which means last.

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And then ology, logos is in there, logo, word, a word about end times, a word about the last days, last things, eschatology.

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Now, I don't talk often about eschatology, maybe because there's lots of stuff that is discussed, bantered back and forth, a -mill, pre -mill.

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I live in pre -mill, a -mill worlds, a -pre -mill, that's the new one.

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You know, the old joke is pad mill, it'll all pan out, that one's way too trite. I do like pro -mill,

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I'm definitely pro -millennium, who wouldn't be? I mean, even if you're a -mill, you should be pro -mill, but now it's a -pre -mill.

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So it's like, you know, a -pre, grand old a -pre, pre -mill. I've never seen the grand old a -pre in person, but if I was there,

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I'd go. I would definitely go. If I was in Branson, I'd go to the Oak Ridge Boys Theater.

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Well, speaking of eschatology, I was at the

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Worldview Weekend family conference in Branson, Missouri, and Brandon House has it held at the

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Oak Ridge Boys Theater, and we are there for three days, I believe. And the night before, at least the last two years that I've been there, the

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Oak Ridge Boys have actually played, since we're talking about devo and bands. And so I said to Brandon, can you get my wife and I free tickets?

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Hey, we'd like to just go check it out. Now I personally am not a huge country music fan,

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Oak Ridge Boys fan, I mean, I know a couple of the songs, but it's the experience, right?

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So it's a grand old a -pre, and you say, well, of course I'd like to go. By the way, I don't know what else you're going to do in Branson, Missouri that night unless you go to the cave, some probably tourist cave sites or something.

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I guess you can go eat, go have some custard, go for the, I don't know, the booze cruise down on the boat or something, but since I don't do that, what else do you do?

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Well, Oak Ridge Boys Theater, and so we went and had dinner, Tommy Ice and his wife,

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Mike Gendron and his wife, Brandon, his wife, and Kim and I, and so we said we're going to go.

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So we excused ourselves from dinner, and then everybody else, Mike and Gendron said, hey,

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I want to go. Ice said he wanted to go, and so I just want you to know that it was quite the experience.

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This is a good way to introduce eschatology on No Compromise Radio. In the

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Oak Ridge Boys Theater with comped seats, sitting there singing Elvira, actually

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I think we stood at this time because everybody was standing, and it was the final song. We all stood and sang along Elvira with Tommy Ice, Mike Gendron, and Brandon and myself.

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I have pictures to prove it. So, see, we're all about making memories. Now back to eschatology.

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Most people study eschatology because they like to know what happens, right? What happens in the future, and I'm not saying that's bad.

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God has revealed himself in Scripture, and we can know some what will happen.

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Some people study eschatology because they're just curious. You first get saved, and you read the book of Revelation and try to figure it out.

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That's what usually happens, or maybe you get saved while you're reading the book of Revelation. P .S.

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Don't call it Revelations, et cetera, because it's just a revelation.

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It's an unveiling we're going to talk more about. Some people, I guess, want to study and find out exactly when.

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They think they can figure out exactly when, and of course you can't. But what's the main reason people should study eschatology?

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What's the main reason? The main reason to study eschatology is, if you boil it all down, study of end times should be so you can study more and learn about Jesus Christ.

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See, we forget that. Now after I said it, you would say, of course, I mean, all of Bible study should teach us about who

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Jesus is. Sinclair Ferguson said, when we think about the last things, we must never allow our minds to be diverted from this principle, that the last things, like the first things, are the things of Jesus Christ.

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The last things, like the first things, are the things of Jesus Christ. And so when you study the

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Bible, it makes sense. I'm yawning because I got up so early today.

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That is bad. We could try to figure out with the staff there. Eric doesn't know there's 500 no -compromise staff members, so maybe they can edit out the yawn.

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You'll know that's not true if there's not a yawn. If I've ever used hyperbole, sometimes people think that that might be true, and I've actually been accused once of, when

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I used hyperbole, of lying. So there you go. I don't want to lie. Or bear false witness.

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Now the ancient creeds, they knew the focus of end times was

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Jesus himself. Let me give you three illustrations. The Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the

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Athanasian Creed. You might want to call it the Athanasian Creed, to each his own.

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From thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead, he being

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Jesus Christ. He, Jesus Christ, secondly, shall come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead.

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And then lastly, from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead, at whose coming all men must rise with their bodies and are to render an account of their deeds.

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I mean, it's pretty amazing to think. Jesus is going to come back to earth, personally.

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Jesus with his body. It'll be a bodily, personal return.

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I mean, can you imagine Jesus shows up on terra firma again? It's either too crazy or too wonderful.

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But the question is, why will he return? In what manner will he return?

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And I think those creeds that I referred to earlier tell us the answer, to judge.

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Apostle's Creed to judge, Nicene to judge, Athanasian to judge.

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That is going to be his purpose of returning. That's what he's going to do.

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Now I've been preaching through the book of Malachi on Sunday mornings at Bethlehem Bible Church. I try not to yawn when

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I preach, but sometimes that happens. And they, the readers of Malachi, are basically saying,

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God isn't just. The wicked people, they prosper. Of course, the bad side of this is that they're all wanting

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Jesus, well, they wouldn't know his name is Jesus yet, but they want the Lord to judge wicked people.

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And of course, they are wicked, right? They're the ones back in the promised land, and the temple's been rebuilt, and they don't get what they want.

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Political oppression is what they get, economic privation is what they get, according to the

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ESV Study Bible. And they're bugged, they're discouraged, now they're apathetic.

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And complaining to the God of the universe, you don't manage affairs very well.

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In Malachi 2 .17, you have wearied the Lord with your words, but you say, how have we wearied him?

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By saying, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or by asking, where is the

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God of justice? And so, they become so focused on themselves, and focused on other people, that they begin to think, hey, what about them?

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All these evil people, what do they get? We are the righteous people, and of course, that was not right.

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They were God's chosen people, but they weren't acting righteously. We're getting the short end of the stick here.

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And what does God do? Well, the God of justice responds and says, well,

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I have an answer, and I'm going to first send my messenger, Malachi 3, who's going to prepare the way, right?

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John the Baptist is going to be preaching repentance, and we know he did that before the first coming. And then we have the second coming discussed, the

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Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and we have the second coming prophesied by Malachi.

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Jesus is going to come and judge. There's going to be judgment. And so, you, listeners of Malachi, you think to yourself, well, what about evil?

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The people get away with it. Of course, it's true for us today. We say, well, these evil people seem to prosper, and the church and Christians, they seem to be on the run.

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What gives? And the answer is, well, Jesus is going to come back and judge and make every wrong right.

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He's going to solve the problem. Now, when I was younger, and even these days, in certain realms of my life,

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I think to myself, I wish my dad were around because I would call my dad or I would have him come over and he could help me solve the problem, whether it's a mechanical problem or something else.

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I'd love to talk to my dad. Now, I haven't had my dad to talk to for, you know, 26 years.

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In pastoral ministry, sometimes I'll say to myself, I wish John MacArthur were here, or I want to transport myself back to Grace Community Church because John will figure it out, as John is, as I told him, is kind of a father figure.

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Well, I loved my dad and I loved John MacArthur, but Jesus is going to come back and he's going to take care of everything.

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Jesus. Literally, Jesus will come back. And we have to, when it comes to eschatology, keep the main things the main things.

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The focus is on Jesus Christ. If the focus is charts and graphs and timing and looking at current events in light of Scripture, well, okay,

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I'd go for that last one, but I don't want you to look at Scripture in light of current events. And that's what ends up happening for many people.

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Now, in prophecy, you could have a theological term called foreshortening.

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And foreshortening, maybe the best way I could describe it is if you stood at the base of a mountain, you wouldn't know if there's another mountain on the other side because you could only see the first one.

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And so lots of times you're going to see a discussion of the second coming of Christ prophesied in the

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Old Testament when first there's the first coming, but we put everything together systematically and we would see first and second coming and you would see

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Jesus the first time he comes and he saves people. He dines with sinners.

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He rides on a donkey. He's a newborn baby, right? He's going to be rejected by people, crucified, rise from the dead, and then you see other passages in the

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Old Testament prophesying Jesus is going to come, Messiah would come, and he's going to rule, he's going to reign, and he's a warrior.

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He's going to judge. And so that's exactly what's happening in Malachi. We go from the messenger,

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John the Baptist, to the second coming. But all that to say on No Compromise Radio, in eschatology, the focus is on Jesus.

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You need to learn more about Jesus when you study eschatology. I know there's an ethical aspect of eschatology where you, in light of the son soon returned, we should live a holy life.

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I get that, 1 John 2. I get that, 1 John 3. I get that, 2 Peter 3.

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But you also have to remember that Jesus is going to come back to judge this time. It was a saving mission, the first coming.

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It's a judging mission now. And Jude 14 and 15, strike that bell loudly.

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It was about these that Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied, saying, now just listen to this language.

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Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

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So Jesus first comes as Savior, then he comes as judge. Now, while Warren Wiersbe won't match up with us theologically in every detail, especially soteriologically, he's an excellent writer and has lots of good insight.

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And I have benefited from Warren Wiersbe's comments many times. He has a book, Discover Yourself in the

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Psalms. And he talked about an evangelist that he heard preach a long time ago. And here's what

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Wiersbe writes, quote, In a frontier town, a horse bolted and ran away with a wagon that had a little child in it.

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Seeing that the child was in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop it. The child who was rescued grew up to become a lawless man.

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And one day he stood before a judge to be sentenced for a very serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the man who, years before, had saved his life.

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So he pled for mercy on the basis of that experience. But the words from the bench silenced all his pleas.

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Young man, then I was your Savior. Today, I am your judge.

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And I must sentence you to be hanged. Savior and judge.

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So Jesus, His first coming was, He's seeking and saving those that were lost, right?

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And He's going to live a perfect life, man born under the law. I know He's more than a man, but He was a man, certainly.

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And He lived perfectly, was raised from the dead, of course, after His crucifixion.

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And so the second coming, He's going to come and judge. And therefore, some have called this the most dramatic event in all history.

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S. Louis Johnson would call it the most prophesied event in the Bible. And even

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Time Magazine in the 60s said that the only thing that would make a greater headline, greater news splash, than Neil Armstrong when he walked on the moon, would be the second coming of Jesus Christ.

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That would get more attention. I think they were probably right. I don't always agree with Time Magazine. By the way,

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I have a question for you. What's a magazine? All right. T .S.

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Eliot said in 1925, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.

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Hmm. Robert Frost, some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.

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Well, I think we should find out, and we can find out. Now, we don't know exactly when

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Jesus will return, 1988. That didn't work out so well for some people that gave their money away, the recipients of that money that was given away because they thought

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Jesus would come for a secret rapture in 1988. Well, those other people probably benefited.

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But Revelation tells us about Jesus. And so when you read the book of Revelation, it's going to teach you about Jesus.

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Now, that just sounds kind of strange. It sounds introductory. But it is a revelation of Jesus.

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It's a revelation actually from – let's see how I want to phrase this exactly to get my objective and subjective genitives correct.

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Let me read the ESV to start. Wait a second. Is this the ESV? ESV, yes. My second

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Bible of choice. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants.

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And so when you think of Revelation, it's an apocalypse, an uncovering, an unveiling of Jesus, the second person of the

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Trinity, which God, the first person of the Trinity, gave to Jesus to show us, his servants, the things which must soon take place.

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And so it is a revelation of Jesus from the Father to us.

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That's the way you should think about it. If you're George Bernard Shaw, you could call it a curious record of a drug addict's visions.

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But I suggest you don't go that route. That's what

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I suggest. I'm going to take a sip of coffee here to stay awake. Now, I usually drink

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Pete's coffee on the air. It's our contract with him, of course. Not. But they had some coffee on sale the other day, and it was called

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Wicked Coffee. Now, of course, if you're from New England, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Wicked is not used negatively or pejoratively.

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It's used positively, like it's really good. Except it's not really good. It's wicked good. It's wicked good.

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And so I thought I'd try some. And actually, it's not too bad. It's organic. It's roasted or burnt in Maine.

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And it's pretty packed with caffeine. When I drink some in the morning, it's jet fuel.

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It makes me not yawn. Radio Nano. Hey, you.

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Now, when we study eschatology, we have to come face to face with. We want to learn more about Jesus.

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The object of our study is Jesus. That's what you need to think.

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Now, even in the book of Revelation, He, Jesus, is the one who ministers among the churches.

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He is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. He is the

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Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He, Jesus, is the one who is and who was and who is to come, the

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Almighty. He, Jesus, is the first and the last. He, Jesus, is the

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Son of Man, the one who was dead and now is alive forevermore, the

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Son of God, the one who is holy and true, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, the

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Amen, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb, the

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Messiah, the Word of God, the King of kings, the

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Lord of lords, the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star.

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Those are all descriptions of Jesus as He is revealed, as He is unveiled, as we have the

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Greek word apocalypse in the book of Revelation. And so if you start getting into the minutia of the tribulation in chapter 6 through 18 without remembering this is all about Jesus, I think you're reading the book wrongly.

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And I don't mean just the Bible, although that would be true, because you would be forgetting about Luke 24 and John 5.

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But Revelation tells us, it's the revelation of Jesus which God the Father gave to Him, which must soon take place.

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So when you study eschatology, I hope you study Jesus, because that would be the point, studying the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We'll talk more about Revelation chapter 1 and 19 next time. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.