Zephaniah 2

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Join Dan and Rob as we walk through Zephaniah 2.

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Hello, everyone. This is Truth and Love Network. Thank you for watching tonight.
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You're with Dan and myself. I'm Robert. Tonight, we're going to be talking about and walking through Zephaniah.
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We need to know what we have to do. That's truth and love.
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Now that we got all that out of the way, Dan, how are you doing? Good. How are you doing? I'm doing good.
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Doing pretty good. Got my coffee. It's hot. I'm thankful for that.
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There you go. You got some cold weather up where you are. Yep.
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It is very chilly right now. We're going to warm up a good bit tomorrow. Supposed to get up to 25.
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Nice. Nice. Well, let's get started on Zephaniah.
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You ready? Let's do it. Let's do it. All right. We looked at Zephaniah chapter one last time, and we discovered that chapter one was pretty much a judgment going towards Jerusalem to Israel.
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Zephaniah was around the time of King Josiah, and Zephaniah wanted to bring about, or Josiah wanted to bring about some restorations, bringing back the true worship of God.
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Zephaniah's warnings could have been part of that motivation, initiation with King Josiah.
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Then we, which was beautiful, we got to, we worked through Zephaniah chapter one. Then as you told us, of course, there were no, originally there were no chapters and verses.
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We look at chapter two verses one through three, and this is a beautiful invitation of God's mercy and grace to the people after the warning, this judgment's coming, this judgment's coming, but I'm still going to show mercy.
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I'm still going to show grace. Here it is. Here's your invitation.
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It was just a beautiful door to open up for the gospel and talk about Jesus.
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Here's some things that I've thought about as we went from chapter one going into chapter two.
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You'll see, which question do
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I want to ask first? Let's ask this one first.
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So a big theme in Zephaniah, we see it in quite a few places.
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Chapter one, verse 14, near is the great day of the Lord. So you'll see this, this theme, the day of the
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Lord, the day of the Lord, and it's a pretty common, pretty common theme throughout scripture.
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If you're a student of God's word, you'll talk about the day of the Lord. Chapter 10, on that day declares the
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Lord that we, you know, sounds of Christ. So quite a few verses in Zephaniah speak of the day of the
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Lord. And then we get to somewhere like, here it is, second
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Peter chapter three, verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.
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So you have this, this wording, this phrase in the new Testament here in second
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Peter. What would you say as to, or how are we to understand the day of the
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Lord when it comes to it's used here in Zephaniah? Is it the same thing in second
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Peter? What have we got here? The day of the
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Lord, generally talking about some sort of judgment. It really depends on the context of where you would place that judgment.
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From my understanding, there would be several days of the Lord. Not all of them as wide ranging as what we would know in New Testament and eschatology think of as the day of the
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Lord. Um, here in Zephaniah, we see a, just a direct rebuke of a certain people for a certain sin.
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And we see a certain punishment that would come upon them. And that would be the day of war.
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That'd be the wrath that's coming upon them. The anger of the Lord, that's going to be like it says in a verse or chapter two, verse two, uh, before let's see, uh, before the day of the
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Lord's anger comes upon you, it's, uh, it's his, uh, it's his anger being poured out on people for their sin.
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Uh, but we also see a great hope coming for those same people. I mean, like next verse, you know, seek the
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Lord, uh, you have upheld his justice that you may be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger.
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Um, so it'll go well for you. What we see all throughout the old
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Testament is, um, the day of the Lord, speaking of the time of judgment on a particular people.
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When we move into the new Testament, um, God still does deal with nations, but he has expanded the scope of things by introducing his own kingdom into the world.
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It's the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, this kingdom that's, that's on the earth. That's made up of his people.
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And that means that all other nations that are upon the earth are then on the outside of the good promises that are given to, uh, his kingdom to his church.
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So what you see in the, in the new covenant and the new Testament is a expansion of what you saw in the micro in the old
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Testament. So while Israel was being, uh, declared as, as being sinful and they were going to have wrath come upon them, it was a regional judgment, as we'll see in chapter two, those going to several other nations are all going to be taken over by either a
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Syria or Nebuchadnezzar through Babylon. Um, but in the end, the final analysis, there is another great day of the
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Lord, the day of the Lord, when Christ himself will return to take his kingdom and deliver it to the father.
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It's on that day when, uh, all evil and wickedness will be taken from his earth and will be cast into outer darkness.
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It will be judged. And so what you see in the, the small sense through a nation who has been sinful, they will be judged based on their sin.
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You're now saying in the new Testament as the world will be judged because of the world's sin.
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And only those who are a part of Christ's kingdom proper, who have turned from their sin, who have found a place or faith in Christ, who have been elected by God will actually see that deliverance in the day when the
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Lord comes to judge all the living and the dead. Okay. And I don't want to get my, my pre meal and my post meal mixed up here, but, but that day that you're referring to that's coming in the future, is that, is that what we know as the great white throne judgment or the, um, there, there's two different throne judgments, right?
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The great white throne judgment and the, uh, be famous. Yes. Okay.
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Um, the dispensational pre -millennialist says that the great white throne judgment is only for the unbeliever.
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Uh, I don't think that's accurate. I believe that that's a general judgment for all people.
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Um, you'll be judged based upon your works. Now, granted, if you're hidden in Christ, you were hidden in Christ where your works, your evil works have been done away with paid for and put aside.
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As far as the East is from the West, that will never be viewed by God in the judgment because Christ has already paid for those things.
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Your judgment based upon your works would be the good works that you do because as it says in Ephesians 2, uh, 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that we should walk in them will be judged upon those good works.
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At the same time, at the same judgment, uh, those who do not have their evil works, uh, covered by the blood of Christ who sins have not been removed from them.
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As far as the East is from the West, they will be judged based on those evil works. So we'll all be judged based on our works with our works, either being our evil works, either being covered by Christ or left to us, depending on, uh, if we know or have placed our faith in Christ.
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Um, so there is, there is a sense in which there are, it's two, it's two different styles of judgment, but really it's all the same event.
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Gotcha. Sorry about that rabbit trail. It was as you were describing those things, it made me think about that.
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But, but originally, um, we were talking about the day of the Lord and so what
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I gleaned from that is, um, what they have in common is the fact that judgment is involved.
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Right. But the, the event, the, the time that it comes, um, how it's delivered is different.
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So, so here in Zephaniah, the day of the Lord is going to be different than, um, second
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Peter three and, and the, the end great day of the
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Lord that you're referring to. Right. So it, they all mean judgment, but they're all, there could be different times and different means of delivering that judgment.
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Right. And, and here, I think we're in agreement that, um, Babylon is those means, is that correct?
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Uh, yeah. Um, yeah, to these people, it would be
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Babylon, uh, the Northern kingdom at this point, I believe it already been taken over by Assyria.
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So unless some of these people, uh, you know, went toe to toe with Assyria before they went toe to toe with Babylon.
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Uh, yeah, Babylon was going to be the one who, who struck them down. Because Zephaniah is in the Southern kingdom. Right. Right.
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Right. All right. So my second, um, intro question as we get started, um, kind of looks like this.
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I was looking over this and, and things started popping into my mind and thinking about thinking things through and ask myself the question, what, uh, you know, we always understand and know
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Israel as, as God's chosen people throughout the oldest God, uh,
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God's elect God's chosen people. So here we, um, well, not just here, but here and all throughout everywhere in the old
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Testament, um, even prophecies in the old Testament pointing to future events, God, God judges
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Jerusalem because he cares because he cares about his covenant. First and foremost, he cares about his word.
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Um, but he, he judges Israel, but he also grants, uh, mercy and grace to Israel.
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So we, we see that, but also we see that God cares, if you will, about other nations.
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Um, you know, he sends Jonah to Nineveh to, to call them to repent.
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Um, we see that those prophecies that I mentioned earlier that, uh,
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God is going to draw all nations to himself. They're going to flow to that great mountain.
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And so he cares about other nations, not, not just his, his chosen nation. And here in Zephaniah, of course, in chapter one, as I stated earlier, it's, it's pointing to a judgment toward Israel, towards, um,
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Judah, towards Jerusalem. But then in, in chapter two, um, as we were talking about before we started, yes, it's, it's warning or it's, it's telling
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God's people that he's going to destroy their enemies, destroy these other nations. But then as, as you pointed out, there's also the fact that there's going to be a remnant from the, from those nations.
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So he's going to show mercy to those other nations. So back to my original thought, we, we know
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Israel as God's chosen people, but we see
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God treating them and other nations very similarly with, with judgment and with mercy.
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So what, how is Israel in relationship to God unique, um, different than all the other nations?
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From your perspective, what would you say? Well, actually I have scripture for this one.
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And, and I never told you the question. Right, right. You're on it, man. Yeah.
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Uh, I don't, I don't know how, but well, here we go. Uh, Israel is different.
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Uh, not because, not because they were all saved because they weren't, uh, but they were saved because they were called out by God for a specific purpose.
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So if you look at Romans three, Romans three answers the question, he says, he's talking back and forth with somebody who's not really there.
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Paul is, he's like basically making up somebody who's going to ask questions by, Hey, what about this Paul? So he answers, it says, what advantage then has the
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Jew or what profit or what is the profit of circumcision, which is pretty much your question.
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How are they special if they're getting judged too? He's like much in every way. He says chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God, which would be the scriptures.
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Uh, for what if some did not believe, um, will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?
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Certainly not. Indeed, let God be true in every man, a liar, as is written, uh, that you may be justified in your words.
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You may overcome when you are judged. So what is a special place that Israel holds?
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Israel holds a special place because God covenanted through Abraham that he was going to make all the families of the earth, all the nations that are blessed through him.
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Uh, Israel is the, the nation of Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham were the people through which
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God had chosen to bless the rest of the world. So the Messiah was going to come through that bloodline.
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The nation that he was gonna be born into was that bloodline. They were a special people because God picked out of all the people of the earth.
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He said, Israel, I'm going to do something great for the entire world through you. And what's sad is that a lot of them turned away.
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And that's why, you know, Paul writes that, you know, what benefit did they have? No, they had the oracles of God.
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They had, you know, the covenants. They had this, that, the other thing. Um, is
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God faithless because he used these people and then they turned away? No, because God is true. He kept his promise, even though every man's a liar.
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So Israel was kept and protected, especially for the purpose of bringing salvation to the entire world.
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He brings up the same point again in, uh, in Romans 11. Uh, he says, talking about the, the tree that was, uh, the olive tree, it says that some were branches were broken off and thrown to the side.
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So that way wild olive branches can be grafted in. And he says, Hey, wait a second.
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You wild olive branches have been grafted in. If he, uh, if he tore them off, make place for you.
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I don't think he won't tear you off and make place for them again. They're faithful. They'll be grafted back on too.
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So the purpose of God's covenant and plan was salvation all along. And he, he did that through the nation of Israel.
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So that's why they were, they were important. Right. That's similar to where I would have went to, um, because, because they had the word and they had the word, the
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Oracle and the living word of God. Yep. Uh, in human flesh, God in flesh.
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So that's cool. Well, thank you for that, Diana. And you're a good sport for me, not giving you the questions beforehand and ready to answer.
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So I appreciate you doing that. Uh, as we look through, um, you can tell me if you agree with these, this assessment, but Dr.
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Constable, Dr. Constable's expository notes, he says, as we look through, um,
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Zephaniah chapter two, these are, these are five things that he saw, um, as he went to the chapter that, that the
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Lord is God of all the earth. The Lord plans for spiritual needs of the world. The Lord is in charge of, um, the whole historical process.
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The Lord's people are central to his world purposes. And the Lord is the fierce enemy of pride.
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Um, and I didn't see any problem with that. I mean, that, that spoke to the sovereignty of God, um, and the purposes of God, God using those purposes to glorify himself.
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Um, I didn't see any problem with those things. And I think we'll, we may see all those things in chapter two as well.
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So let's, let's start going verse by verse. Let me pull up the screen here. Here we go.
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Zephaniah chapter two. Oh my, sorry about that.
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I want to minimize this screen. There we go. Press the wrong button.
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There we go. Zephaniah chapter two. And we, we've already looked at verses one through three. Um, that was the great invitation to, to Judah.
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And then, uh, you know, as I was looking at this, I was, I was noticing how it was an encouragement.
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Um, well, it was a warning, but then you have this encouragement. If you, if you stay with me, you know, you will be preserved.
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I will have this remnant. If you remain faithful, um, Jerusalem's going to get judged, but, um, you know, you, you can remain.
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And not only that, I'm going to take care of your enemies for you too.
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So there's, there's this blessing for the remnant. Um, let's start in chapter two, verse four.
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Um, and you can comment after, I guess I'll read a few verses. For Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon a desolation.
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Ashdod will be driven out at noon and Ekron will be uprooted.
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That's a mouthful. Do we need to stop there? Yeah. You, you had a mouthful when you said the word for, uh, really, really, uh, one of the things
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I learned in, uh, it's, it's been helpful, uh, in no learning about interpretation and hermeneutics and stuff is whenever you start with four or therefore you need to stop and ask what it's there for, right?
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Why is it there? Why is the word for, or therefore present? You can't just start with that.
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I mean, it presupposes that there's other stuff going on and the other stuff that's going on.
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It isn't just verses one through three. It's the entirety of the book beforehand where you see, uh,
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Israel being, uh, here, here's a, a great warning, a judgment coming to Israel. And then there's a great hope.
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And he's, he's saying, uh, seek the Lord in verse three, seek the
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Lord. All you who see all you meet of the earth who have upheld justice, seek righteousness, seek humility.
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It may be that you'll be hidden in the day of the Lord's anger. So what's in view here is a salvation and for the people of Israel and the day of the
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Lord's anger, which was promised to the people of Israel who had been unfaithful. And this is for Gaza shall be forsaken.
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So this judgment is not just a judgment that is not just judgment against Israel's enemies.
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It's a judgment that's coming over the entire region, uh, for their faithlessness to, uh,
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God and God's people. Uh, the trueness of God's people being, uh, those who have faith and believe who are turning from their sins and trusting in God and the, the, at that time, future
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Messiah that was to come. Uh, what they, what you see here is that there's one judgment coming and it's going to land upon Jew and Gentile alike.
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But the only people who have a, a, a glimmer of hope so far, cause we'll get to nine through 11 and stuff in a little bit.
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The only people who have hope so far are those, those Jews who were faithful to the covenant that God had laid before them.
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So when it says four, it gives you the idea that there is a judgment coming and there's a special people who are going to be preserved through this judgment.
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And this is those who care about justice and righteousness, true justice and true righteousness, not whatever we think of in the 21st century, but those things are going to be, um, that's what's in view here.
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So when it says Gaza will be abandoned, Ashkelon a desolation,
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Ashdod will be driven out at noon and Ekron will be uprooted. He's naming a specific people that are right next door.
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They're basically occupying some of the same land as Israel and saying, it's not just you.
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These folks are going to get it too. And the reason why they're going to get it is because of their, uh, idolatry.
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Um, they were wretched people. So because of their idolatry, they're turning away from God.
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They were uncircumcised and they fought against the Israelites and they tried to take away the land that was promised to a people who was going to bring of the
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Messiah. They turned their back against those promises of God. It was given to the, to the, that they would have benefited from.
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They were given to Abraham. They turned away from those promises and they, uh, they went hard towards, uh, sin.
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They will, they're going to be judged. Let me ask you this question. Um, I don't know if we can make an umbrella statement or not over this.
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Um, maybe, you know, right off the hand, um, it's based on something you were mentioning to me earlier.
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Um, we know a lot of the reason for the troubles that, that Israel has is because when they were, um, wandering in the desert, being led to the promised land and, and on that, on the way there, and when they got there, you know, they were given orders to take out all these people and to not leave anything behind and not to take any of the treasures or the bounty back with them.
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They disobeyed on all fronts, on all those commands. So are these, are these some of the nations or are all of these nations or peoples that were, um, left behind that Israel originally should have taken out?
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Because we know that's at least some of these nations and they mixed with them and they started worshiping their idols.
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Um, so what, what do you think? Um, these, these here, these cities of the
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Philistine, absolutely. They should have been wiped out. Okay. Um, now the, the
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Ammonites and the Moabites that we see over in verses, uh, eight and nine or 10 and 11, uh, they were, uh, cousins, you know,
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Lot was Abraham's nephew. They were relatives kind of like, uh, Edom, you know,
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Edom, Moab, Ammon were all people that were supposed to be family. Uh, you know, they're not, they weren't circumcised.
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They weren't marked off as having the covenant given to them, but they were still considered family, which is why, uh, when, um, uh, who was it?
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Uh, Moses, when Moses was taken to people through the land, they were going to go real easy, like up into Canaan.
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Uh, but they couldn't because they're going to, they're going to pass through, uh, Edom and they weren't going to buy anything.
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They were going to just pass through. They're going to buy their food, buy their water. They weren't going to take anything from them.
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They were going to treat them with respect, but Edom said, no, I don't want you coming through. And God was like, well, don't attack them.
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They're your family go around. So they went, or this thing's mirrored. So it's throwing me off. So they went around and ended up coming in the other direction, um, which they kind of passed through, uh, to two kingdoms to do that.
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But it's another story. Uh, so some of, not all of these listed were those people, but the
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Philistines definitely were the Philistines were a descendant from the people of Crete.
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So they'd come over beforehand, uh, taken land that was then promised to Israel.
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Uh, they were being judged, uh, previously. Uh, but that judgment didn't come because Israelites were unfaithful.
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Oh, we even see in Titus where, uh, they still have a reputation to be in terrible folks.
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Um, cause he leaves Titus, uh, on Crete and then says to him, uh, what is it?
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It's in here somewhere. Yeah.
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Uh, Titus one, 12, uh, one of their own prophets said, Cretans are always liars, evil, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.
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This testimony is true talking about the people of Crete who had sent folks to, uh, the
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Southern lands of Israel to be close to Egypt. So that way they can have a trade route from Egypt up through, um, up through, uh, the coastlines of Israel and then back over to Crete.
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Uh, so they were there, uh, the land that they were living on was promised to the
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Israelites by God. And, uh, they weren't, they were never destroyed.
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So at this point, um, I guess that the sins of the Philistines were filled up just like, um, the, the sins of the
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Amorites were not yet filled up. So when they came out with it, when the children of Israel into Egypt, they went in because the sins of the, the
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Amorites had not yet been filled. And so when they came out, it was filled and they took over that land.
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Uh, but the Philistines were absolutely taken out at that point. Gotcha. And that, that leads us to verse five, woe to the inhabitants of the
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Seacoast, to the nation of the Cherithites. The word of the Lord is against you,
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O Canaan, land of the Philistines. I will destroy you so that there will be no inhabitants.
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Right. Yeah. That's a, I kinda was talking about that, I guess.
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So the Seacoast will be pastures with caves for shepherds and folds for flocks.
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Right. It was going to be, um, it was going to turn into its original purpose, pasture lands for the people of Israel.
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Verse seven, and the coast will be for the remnant of the house of Judah. They will pasture on it in the houses of Ashkelon.
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They will lie down at evening for the Lord, their God will care for them and restore their fortune.
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Right. There's that, there's that promise again. Um, you're not going to do it.
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So I'm going to do it and I, and I'm going to risk, not only am I going to do it, you know, take care of these people that you were supposed to take care of, but I'm going to restore your fortune.
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Right. Uh, and this, uh, it's, uh, it's interesting.
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This, uh, this happened. Um, but it's funky the way that the history goes.
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Um, it happened, but then at some point, um, you know, Israel again, lost their claim to the land and people, uh, probably a small remnant of those same folks who had lived there their whole lives came back and then they fought over it for, well, until today.
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Um, but the, the, the issue is, you know, were those people who were
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Jews back then and the people who claim to be Jews now, are they the same people?
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They have the same claim. And I don't believe the answer is yes. I believe the answer is no, because it wasn't left for just the people of Judah who left, it was there for the remnant.
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And that remnant is those people who we find in verses one through three, who were those who, um, who repented of their sin, who looked to God, who sought justice and righteousness and humility.
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And they were hidden from the Lord's anger is talking about faithful believers. Those faithful believers are today
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Christians because they saw the Messiah come pay for sins, rise up, go into heaven, establish his kingdom on the earth.
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Uh, so eventually this land again will be the possession of the true
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Israelites. The true Jews are Christians. Uh, we see this actually in Romans four, uh,
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Romans four says that, uh, the, those who have faith like Abraham or the inheritors of the, of the promises of Abraham and will inherit the entire earth.
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So that's just, that, that's a mind blower. Uh, and that's just a, that's a bomb.
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And I guess this in Tom's eschatology it's, um, oh my goodness, what, what we've held on to for so long, what we've been taught in our churches for so long.
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Um, not that, not that I want us to turn, um, anti anything.
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Uh, we, we still should, you know, we should be allies and helping, uh, be that way for, for everyone.
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But on one hand, we're pro -America, we're, we're, um,
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America first. But then if you're any kind of Christian at all, at least for the past, however many years, you are also pro -Israel.
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And, um, and the prophecy was, you know, according to what we followed was that, you know,
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Israel was going to become a nation again. And there they did in 1948. Um, but if I heard you correctly, what you were saying was, um, it's not necessarily the case that those that, those that are occupying now that, that reclaimed, um, the nation in 1948 is, is who
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God promised would ultimately occupy. That's not who we are looking for to occupy.
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Right. True people of God that are promised to occupy are the remnant who are believers.
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Right. Cause what, there's a, there's a thing in, uh, there's a thing in, in, uh, scripture that it's been described as a scarlet thread, scarlet thread of redemption.
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You know, if you ever looked at a piece of fabric that has a weird colored thread running through it, you don't always see it, but every once in a while it'll pop up and you can see the color for a while and then it'll go on the backside and then it pops up and then you can see it again.
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Uh, the idea of, of covenant or salvation through covenant, um, it, it, it's that scarlet thread that runs throughout all of scripture.
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You see it from the very beginning. God promised to Adam, uh, that he would crush the head of the serpent.
35:24
You see that, uh, promise, uh, carried on to Noah, uh, through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, um, all the way through.
35:39
Uh, what you're seeing here is not a new prophecy that's making a new promise.
35:44
What you're seeing here is an old promise made to Abraham, um, that he, that there was a piece of land that would be his.
35:54
And what you do is you see that the land and he gives them dimensions of what the land would be, uh, in Genesis.
36:03
This is a part of that land. Uh, and then you move on into the new
36:08
Testament and it pops up again in Romans four, where Paul is talking about this, this very same idea of the inhabitants of a certain place and the heirs of Abraham's promise being heirs of the entire earth.
36:26
Uh, so there's, it's not just a, it's not a, a promise of a physical piece of land to a physical nation.
36:38
It's a promise of salvation through, uh, through covenant from throughout all of scripture.
36:47
Why are these people going to be brought back? Because all of the earth is going to be the Lord's. The earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the glory of the
36:55
Lord, like the waters cover the seas. You're going to see a remnant, the faithful people of Judah sitting in this land.
37:03
Why? Because they're going to inherit the entire earth. It's what
37:08
God had promised from the, from the very beginning. So, so 1948 is, is not the, not the prophecy.
37:16
It has nothing to do with it. It's probably, here's the thing.
37:25
I think people put up, some people put a lot more on that date than they should. Now, here's why
37:31
I say possibly, because if, and judging by what we've seen, huge if, uh, if the people who populated that area, call themselves
37:44
Jews, you know, Tel Aviv, all of it. If those folks, uh, were, uh, believers who trusted in Christ, then we, we would have to look at it a little bit differently.
37:59
I mean, it may, there may be something to that, but from what we've seen, uh, that's basically a secular nation that has taken a, a
38:08
Jewish heritage. And, uh, it doesn't look a lot like the, the people of the old
38:14
Testament. The remnant are, aren't in charge there.
38:20
Right now there is, there are some Christian Hebrews there, but they are generally not the ones who are in charge.
38:30
Right. It's not, it's not their land yet. Right. Plus you, you actually have the
38:36
Israeli government giving away the portions that were promised to the remnant. Uh, you see
38:41
Gaza, Ashkelon, like all those places are the places that they marked off and gave to the
38:46
Palestinians. Wow. Um, so I, I don't believe we're looking for a, a land promise in the small sense.
39:00
I really think what this is pointing to is a land promise in the big sense that those who are the heirs of, of Abraham are those who have faith and they will inherit the entire earth, which is those who have faith from this area will inherit the land that they're in.
39:20
Uh, we see this coming up in, uh, where was it? Uh, verse 11 when it starts talking about, uh,
39:29
Moab and Ammon. Um, it says then the distant coast and islands of the nations will bow and worship to him each in its own place.
39:40
What place are they going to have and what place are they going to worship from the place where they are? Why? Because that place is going to be the
39:46
Lord's. Right. What's going to be interesting as, as post -millennialist, you know, we believe that the, the, the earth is going to be filled with, um, with believers, with the remnant, with the sentence of Abraham spiritually and physically.
40:04
Those who believe in the Messiah, all nations are going to flow and stream to the big mountains.
40:09
So, you know, we believe that eventually we're going to head to that goal or that, um, end game.
40:18
But as, as you were talking, as we, we've been talking about this, what's, what it struck me is going to be interesting is, um, you've got
40:27
Israel this whole time, you know, that they're still looking for, um, their
40:33
Messiah to come. And then you have the, the Muslim community, they're looking for their, um, what final
40:40
Imam or what did they call it? Something like that. I think there's a number associated with it, like the 12th or some, some sort of Imam.
40:49
Yeah. So something similar to, to their Messiah to come, I guess. Um, so they've got very firm beliefs in those two systems.
41:00
And of course, when we believe that those systems, those spiritual systems, those religions, um, um, and then the political spheres, all those things are going to be knocked down by Christ.
41:13
What's going to be interesting to me is, is which one falls first? Is it going to be the, the
41:20
Israel's hold to their future Messiah to come and they submit to Christ or is the
41:28
Muslim community going to submit, submit to Christ first? That, that will be fun to be, to be there, to see that, to see which one falls first and submits to Christ.
41:45
Yeah. I don't know. It'll be good. It'll be good. It'll be great.
41:51
Uh, let's see. I think we're on verse, uh, verse eight. Yeah. I have heard the taunting of Moab and the revilings of the sons of Amon with which they have taunted my people and become arrogant against their territory.
42:09
Therefore, as I live, it declares the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be like Sodom and the sons of Amon like Gomorrah, a place possessed by nettles and salt pits and a perpetual desolation.
42:24
The remnant of my people will plunder them and the remainder of my nation will inherit them.
42:33
Harsh. Yeah. That, uh, you were speaking of that earlier. Um, yeah, you were talking about lots of descendants and yeah, their, uh, their family, uh,
42:45
Lot was, was Abraham's nephew. They separated and Lot went off into the
42:52
Valley of Jordan, which had, uh, which had, uh,
42:57
Sodom and Gomorrah in it before they were destroyed. And he actually, uh, ended up in, in Sodom after a while.
43:05
Um, we see that, that they, uh, they were not good people.
43:10
They were lacked hospitality. They were in, in to sexual sin and they were just wretched, just horrible people.
43:20
Um, actually remind me a lot of ourselves today, but, uh, and they were destroyed, but because of lots of proximity to Abraham, he said,
43:34
Hey, you know, will you spare my nephew? And he did. He spared his nephew and his two daughters and his wife for a period of time.
43:44
His wife ended up looking back and turned into a pillar of salt, which is actually, this is who you want to talk about somebody being savage.
43:55
Look at what fills that land. It's nettles and salt pits. Like of all the things they could fill there.
44:03
It's a, it's a testimony to turning back to your wicked ways after seeing a deliverance provided for you by God.
44:11
Yeah. Brutal. Um, so what you had was a lot when he, uh, he, uh, hit up in the caves and his daughter said, look, we don't have anybody to continue on our family line.
44:26
So they got their father drunk and then they both slept with him and they had, uh, two sons.
44:33
Uh, they became the of Moab and Ammon, uh, these two nations.
44:39
Uh, so he says the, the people of Moab and Ammon who were spared because they were close to Abraham, um, they will be destroyed just like the cities that they inhabited destroyed, uh, were destroyed.
44:56
Um, Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed and they were preserved from it. They went and they filled up the land.
45:02
They pointed to Israel and laughed at Israel. They saw them go off into captivity for 400 years.
45:08
They came back, they taunted them. They messed with their borders. They were just terrible neighbors, terrible family.
45:15
They're the cousins and uncles you had next door that were throwing trash over the fence. I mean, they were just not good people to have around and because of their hatred for the people of Israel, because of their love for other gods, uh, they were then destroyed.
45:33
Uh, they're going to be wiped out just like Sodom and Gomorrah. So that destruction that they saw a temporary reprieve from still came to them.
45:45
Uh, that's something that we should all take to heart. Uh, we, especially those of us in the church, uh, we should, we should remember that it's not anything that we did to cause our salvation.
46:05
We should be very careful not to become arrogant, uh, boastful, prideful, think highly of ourselves because it very well may be that we end up leaving the faith without even realizing it and becoming wretched folks.
46:21
Uh, people who were, you know, at one point thinking that they were safe from harm because at one point they had an emotional religious experience come to find out they never actually left their sin behind and the judgment that they thought they escaped caught up with them.
46:38
Um, I'm not trying to say that anybody can lose their salvation, but I'm trying to say that we should work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, knowing that there were people in the past who, after seeing the grace of God come flooding into them, have seen like literal saved from fire, like literally saved from fire while it was raining down on the place where they lived.
47:03
Those people, several hundred years later, turned their back on the God who preserved them and found themselves in a heap of trouble.
47:13
Yeah. It just all speaks to the fact that we, we need something outside of ourselves that we can't, we can't change.
47:24
Uh, we, we may for a moment where season turn, um, you, if we do have a moment of clarity, um, some people don't even turn, um, their, their cows.
47:37
But if we do have a moment of clarity, um, you know, I'm, and I'm speaking in general terms of all humanity, um, and Israel throughout their history, we have that moment of clarity and we turn, but like you said, um, generations, um, or even the next generation or generations down the road, go back to the old ways, go back to the high places to, to worship those idols again.
48:02
And we keep turning from God, uh, in and of ourselves, we keep turning away from God.
48:09
It's inevitable. Um, and this history that we're, we're looking at and that we're studying, we're reading is just a testimony to that.
48:18
It should be screaming to us that it's us and, and we need someone outside of ourselves.
48:27
So verse 10, this, they will have in return for their pride, which
48:32
God hates because they have taunted and become arrogant against the people of the
48:38
Lord of hosts because of their pride. I mean, that, that, that speaks to God's how
48:44
God feels about pride, that he's, he would do this to a people. Yeah. It's interesting that, that they, uh, they're preserved from death by God once and they had pride against the people who had been thrown into captivity and then came out.
49:00
Um, and it's even, it's interesting that those same people, uh, or those people who they were taunting were themselves a bit arrogant thinking, well,
49:10
I've got Jewish blood running through my veins, so I'll be saved. They didn't turn from their sins either.
49:17
Uh, which I think is kind of what he's getting at here in verse 11. Verse 11.
49:24
And here's where I was teasing you before we started the podcast. I know more stuff you gotta throw, throw at me.
49:32
It's not necessarily a question. Um, I've just got a viewpoint on, on this here and I want to see, get your thoughts on it.
49:38
So verse 11 says, the Lord will be terrifying to them for he will starve all the gods of the earth and all the coastlands of the nations will bow down to him, everyone from his own people.
49:54
So the, the, the context of what we're looking at here is God taking care of these nations.
50:02
He's, um, wiping them out. He's, um, judging them, uh, taking care of them.
50:10
However you want to phrase it or put it. And so the phrase that I'm looking at here is for, he will, to me, it's a word picture.
50:20
He will starve all the gods of the earth. And here's what happens in my mind.
50:27
So we know that there's no other God before the Lord. None of the other gods are real.
50:35
They're all idols. So they can't, they can't eat. They can't, because we're using that terminology starve here.
50:43
They can't eat and they can't consume anything and they can't smell an aroma.
50:49
Um, and if, and I don't think it's talking about taking away their sacrifices necessarily because, um, if you just take away this false
50:58
God sacrifices, you still have a people who are, or can offer sacrifice again to these people, these gods.
51:07
I'm not sure that it's necessarily talking about sacrifices. What I think is talking about, if you're going to starve a false
51:15
God, then you're going to take away its worshipers. How do you feel about that?
51:22
I, I, I think I was about to say the same thing, only I was going to say it differently.
51:29
I was going to say it absolutely had to do with their sacrifices being taken away, but not because the place of the sacrifice was taken away or because the altars were moved or torn down, but because there were not going to be a people left to make those sacrifices, because it's, it's, they're going to be starved because the worship of those gods is going to cease in the earth.
51:55
And what's interesting is in its place will arise worship of the one true
52:02
God, where it says, uh, and all, all the coastlands of the nations will bow down to him.
52:11
Everyone from his own place, uh, the ones who are going to, uh, worship before, um,
52:21
Hey, here I stand. Uh, yeah. Uh, all those folks.
52:26
Uh, yeah, I forgot where I was going.
52:32
Oh, Claude got me turned around. Well, when
52:38
I read, when I read that and, and that was coming to my mind where, where God is starving these gods by taking away their worshipers.
52:46
I'm thinking about our, our current context and contemporary context and, and how, what that would look like.
52:55
And, and a lot of, a lot of cases we're worshiping ourselves. Our, our own selves are our idols, our false
53:02
God. And if you, if you starve that God, you're in big trouble.
53:09
Um, and, and all the other things that we worship and we hold up as, as idols before God, it could be a very awful scene.
53:28
Um, God begins to shake down all the, um, all the worshipers of false gods in our town.
53:36
Well, one of the biggest false gods we have now, and this is for 98 % of the population, that's probably a terrible number, you know, like 94 % of statistics made up.
53:47
I just made that one up. So I would say a lot of folks, um, today, uh,
53:52
Republican and Democrat, uh, libertarian, whatever constitution party, uh, a lot of people, uh, view their, their
54:02
Lord and savior to be the government, um, either a government that will take care of them, provide for them or a government that will give them their liberties.
54:13
Um, that's one thing that the constitution did do right is it said that the creator endowed them with certain, certain liberties.
54:20
Now it doesn't give homage to that creator, which is mad, but at least it acknowledges that our rights and liberties come from our creator and not from the government itself.
54:34
Because what we're seeing is people who are looking to the government to fix all of these problems instead of looking to God.
54:41
So to starve the gods of the earth today, to starve the
54:46
God of government will be to see incredible turmoil as governments are thrown down and demolished, which could look pretty ugly.
54:57
Oh yeah. That's what I was looking for earlier. Ugly. Yeah. But imagine every place where the government is thrown down, nations will bow down to him.
55:10
Everyone from their own place. As we see America's government inadequate to provide the things that only
55:18
God can provide, people will turn from their false idols as those idols starve and they will worship
55:25
God. Yeah. And to me, this is the post meal principle that will starve all the gods of the earth.
55:33
If we're looking for an end game here, that all nations are going to flow to the high mountain, to Christ.
55:42
If that's the case, if that's where we're headed, then this has to happen. God has to starve all the false gods.
55:50
They have to be gone somewhere or another because eventually all of the coastlands, all of the nations are going to bow down and worship
55:59
God. So there has to be a point where one has gotten rid of and the other, and it's replaced with another, with a worship of true
56:06
Messiah, with a true God. And so you're exactly right.
56:11
When we think about political things, we must think about those things when we're in the voting booth.
56:20
And I've got to the point where I vote my conscience. I don't care.
56:26
I'm not voting pragmatically anymore. We've got to vote for the lesser two evils. I'm voting my conscience because I want to be on the remnant side.
56:35
I don't want to be on the idol side because those idols are going to be starved and they're going to be cast down.
56:42
And what's going to be left are the true worshipers of the living God. That's the side
56:48
I want to be on. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Okay. Good.
56:54
Good. All right. Verse 12. You also, O Ethiopians, will be slain by my sword, and he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy
57:04
Assyria, and he will make Nineveh a desolation, parched like the wilderness.
57:10
Can you imagine being from Ethiopia? You've got all these long people these long things saying, hey,
57:20
Ashkelon, Ashdod, you're all going down. Here's why. And Ammon, Moab, you're going down and here's why.
57:28
Ethiopia, I'm looking at you. Assyria. Ethiopia is going to be sitting there like, what did we do?
57:36
Which part of us is wrong? Oh, no, we're in trouble. I don't know. Maybe that would work better if you're like,
57:42
I don't know what we did. Maybe we should just start repenting of everything. I don't know.
57:48
That's harsh. I mean, it's just it's short, almost like this is settled.
57:54
Y 'all are going down. So, oh, man, we better bow up. We got some issues going on here.
58:02
Yeah. He will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy
58:12
Assyria, and he will make Nineveh a desolation, parts like the wilderness. So Nineveh was saved.
58:19
But then here's a promise that they will be destroyed. We talked about Jonah before and Assyria, who we'll see.
58:28
Assyria took Israel first and then
58:34
Babylon, correct? Because Babylon took over Assyria. Yeah, Assyria took the northern kingdom.
58:42
Yep. And then Assyria was was taken over eventually by the Babylonians.
58:48
OK, so we're on track here. Verse 14. Flocks will lie down in her midst, all beasts which range in herds.
58:56
Both the pelican and the hedgehog will lodge in the tops of her pillars. Birds will sing in the window.
59:03
Desolation will be on the threshold at the door. For he has laid bare the cedar work.
59:14
Yeah, cedar work being that quality craftsmanship usually reserved for king's palaces and stuff like that.
59:22
So what's going on with all the animals here? And they're lodging and singing.
59:30
What are your thoughts? Remember when
59:35
Israel was going in to take over the land and they couldn't take over all of it because if they did all of it at once, because if they did, the wild beasts would come and destroy them.
59:45
Wild beasts will overtake them. These are all wilderness animals. It's talking about having like herds all over the place, just running amok, like herds of wild buffalo.
59:56
If you think of out West, the pelicans being out there, they're kind of gross.
01:00:03
They'll eat up whatever they can. The hedgehog is always talked about as a place of living or something that lives in a place of desolation.
01:00:12
No, a desert, a wasteland, a wilderness. Birds will sing in the window.
01:00:19
Well, why is a bird going to sing in the window? Because there's no one there to chew it away? Yeah, nobody's going to be there to tell it to go on.
01:00:29
Basically saying that there's not going to be enough of you to keep the wild beasts from taking over the land again.
01:00:37
Gotcha. Verse 15. This is the exultant city, which dwells securely, who says in her heart,
01:00:46
I am, and there is no one beside me. Wow. How she has become a desolation, a resting place for beasts.
01:00:55
Everyone who passes by her will hiss and wave his hand in contempt. Yeah. If you remember when they came by, they came by and they yelled, hey guys, your gods can't save you.
01:01:16
You're going to be destroyed. Your gods can't do anything. We're here to take you over.
01:01:25
Basically saying that the ones who thought that they were God's gift to the world, while they were definitely used by God to judge those who needed to be judged, they too were going to be judged.
01:01:39
And they're going to be judged in such a way where when people pass by, they're going to say, oh, that was Nineveh.
01:01:44
They were so big, but they're just a bunch of punks. They're going to be thrown down, hated.
01:01:52
Imagine in the late forties, early fifties, somebody who drove past or flew past Berlin, you flew over, imagine a
01:02:06
Jewish person flying by Berlin in the late forties, early fifties, right?
01:02:11
Hiss, throw stones, do whatever. Stupid Berlin.
01:02:17
Look at you guys now. You got your city all torn up into two pieces. Can't even take care of yourselves.
01:02:25
You know, a bunch of jerks. I hate you guys. Basically saying the entire world is going to look at Nineveh like that.
01:02:32
But you guys came by, you thought you were somebody big, but you were nothing. You fell. And here, here's the thing.
01:02:42
We look at places like Germany, Nazi Germany, Assyria, Babylon, the old
01:02:48
Roman empire. We think of people that fell. All those wicked folks over there, they fell.
01:02:55
They had it coming to them and they did. But look at just about every other country on the earth that has rejected
01:03:04
Christ. Man, they all deserve the same thing. Even the nations that at one time covenanted together for Christ.
01:03:19
Think of Scotland. Scotland at one time put in their charter that they were under the rule and authority of first King Jesus.
01:03:31
It's a far cry today from what it was then. Oh yeah, absolutely.
01:03:40
And on the note, before you go any further, I'm going to find this quote because Brother Ramsey, he sent me this text today, which
01:03:49
I was familiar with it. And I'm sure you are too being from the state.
01:03:56
But he sent me this quote and though the federal documents, like you said, are vague and in general, you know, promoting a religious freedom for anybody and everybody.
01:04:11
But the state of North Carolina and their constitution in December 18, 1776, section 23, this is what our constitution says.
01:04:19
I'm not sure the current state of this phrase in part of the constitution, but it says no person who shall deny the being of God or the truth of the
01:04:31
Protestant religion or the divine authority of either the old or new testament shall hold any office or place of trust in the civil department within the state.
01:04:42
So it doesn't say the name Jesus, but if you're going to have somebody hold to the
01:04:49
Protestant religion and the authority of the new testament, you know who they're talking about. And though the federal government didn't do it,
01:04:58
North Carolina did it. But you see where we are now because we've left those roots.
01:05:05
In fact, the federal government made an amendment to strike that part down where it said that you can't have any religious tests in order to hold office in the land.
01:05:14
So we actually had the federal government fighting against the states at that point. And we see how that turned out.
01:05:24
Yeah. I mean, if you don't look at the current state of our nation and see the mess that we're in, then you're just blind.
01:05:36
You're completely blind to the messes that are in our society because of neglecting the lordship of Jesus Christ and honoring him and submitting him to that in that position.
01:05:50
So I want to answer this question and let you answer this question as well. And then we'll wrap things up because I think that's what this question will do.
01:05:58
So what we see in Zephaniah chapter two, I glean spiritual and physical benefits from this.
01:06:09
And you tell me your spiritual benefits that we can glean from it as well. So the spiritual benefits I see are, we see a
01:06:17
God that we can trust. We see a God that fulfills his promises, whether his people aren't going to do it, he's going to do it.
01:06:24
So I see a God that makes promises, makes covenant and keeps those promises, keeps those covenants.
01:06:31
And so throughout history and in our lives, we have a God before us that we can trust, and he has a track record of keeping and fulfilling his promises.
01:06:42
And then two, physically, we have a
01:06:48
God, we have a situation where men continue to fail to fulfill their part in filling the earth.
01:07:08
Not only did they not take down the idols, take down the nations and replace it with a worship of God, but they didn't fill the earth with believers.
01:07:28
They didn't fill the earth with dominion. That dominion mandate, they continue to fail over and over again.
01:07:37
But we have a God who, despite our failure, is going to fulfill that.
01:07:46
And where we couldn't save ourselves, we have a God who intervened and takes over that role, showing us that we need him.
01:07:57
We need him in all those areas, spiritual fulfillment of things and physical fulfillment of things.
01:08:05
So what's your take on spiritual gleaning and physical gleaning from this passage? Well, real quick,
01:08:11
I wanted to hit a rabbit trail off of something you said. Okay. How we as people are not fulfilling the dominion mandate, be fruitful, multiply, take dominion over the earth.
01:08:24
In fact, we are actively fighting against that. What is the big things that you hear about today?
01:08:32
The earth is overpopulated. We need to have less of us. In fact, there were a set of stones put up in Georgia.
01:08:39
Georgia Guidestones. Yeah, Georgia Guidestones. The very first point on it is to maintain the world's population at 500 million people.
01:08:48
That is a lot of dead people if we're going to reach that place. It's also not being fruitful, multiplying and filling the earth.
01:08:55
It's something that fights against God. Anyway, we're not going to go kick that rabbit.
01:09:01
We're just going to say, hey, there's a rabbit trail. We're going to move on. Just interesting point.
01:09:13
I had stuff to say and now I just came up blank. Let's see.
01:09:22
Oh, I think throughout this whole chapter, even the whole book up to this point, the thing that I would remember from all of it is that the fear of the
01:09:36
Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The place where the nations failed is that they were not afraid of God.
01:09:51
I mean, you look at the word fear in the Bible, and you look it up in the
01:09:57
Greek, you look it up in the Hebrew, and it means fear. It means to be afraid.
01:10:03
People will try to say that fear just means to respect or to understand. It means afraid, fear, like, ah, fear.
01:10:14
For us to understand that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, lack of the fear of the
01:10:22
Lord is not, since it's only to begin wisdom to fear the
01:10:27
Lord, not to have any fear of the Lord is utter foolishness. Because what comes when we don't fear the
01:10:33
Lord? Destruction. It also means for us that us as Christians, when we fear the
01:10:44
Lord, we fear him, but we recognize his goodness.
01:10:57
The Chronicles of Narnia, there's a question asked to believe it's
01:11:04
Mr. Beaver by the children. Don't quote me on that, could be wrong. But anyway, they're asking it about Aslan, the lion.
01:11:13
And they ask, I believe it's Mr. Beaver, they ask him, is he safe?
01:11:20
And he says, no, no, he is not safe. He's very dangerous. And Aslan being a picture of Christ in the story.
01:11:29
And he says, but he is good. And I think that's what we see here in Zephaniah and what we've covered so far, and what we'll cover in the third chapter.
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The God is not safe. He is one to be feared. He's not one to be trifled with. We should look at him and we should tremble because he is, like it says in the
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New Testament, he's not only able to destroy our bodies, but he's able to take our souls and to throw it into hell.
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He's not someone to be messed with. He is our creator and we ought to respect him and treat him with the utmost respect.
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And we ought to be afraid of coming into contact with the
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Holy God, knowing that we are sinful. But we have to remember that our
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God is good because plopped down right in the middle of all this judgment, there's three little verses where he says, uphold justice, seek righteousness, seek humility, seek
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God, and you'll be spared from judgment. And why is that? Because Christ himself came and took that judgment that was meant for us and took it upon himself.
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It's the same Christ that is coming back with a bloody sword, a flaming sword, a bloody gown, and he's going to be ushering in death, judgment.
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This is a scary, scary, scary God, and yet he is good and kind and loving.
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So when we look at all of this destruction, all of these people who God is calling them out for destruction, we should recognize
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God for who he is, but we should also recognize God for his mercy and grace in the face of that.
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It's something to take serious, but it's not something to lose heart over because our
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God is good. He gives opportunity to repent. He gives opportunity to turn away from our sin and to seek him.
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And because of that, he is very good because he doesn't know it's not. That's kind of where my brain took me while reading all this.
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Well, and the beginning of that wisdom that comes from that fear of the
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Lord is turning to Christ. And that's where Dan was taking us.
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It's turning to Christ. That's the beginning of that wisdom. And then it grows from there.
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It moves from there. And parallel passes that I was just thinking about,
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I was trying to look it up real quick. I thought it was in Hebrews chapter 11. I looked at it not too long ago where it speaks of God shaking things so that those things that can be removed will be, but those things that can't be shaken won't.
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And those things that can't be shaken is Christ's kingdom. And so that's what we see going on in Zephaniah happening here today.
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He's getting rid of these idols, getting rid of these things that keep people from turning to him and worshiping him.
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God is shaking the earth. God is shaking things spiritually. God's shaking things physically.
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However he's shaking things, he's shaking them so that those things that can't be shaken will.
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And the only thing that's going to remain is the kingdom of Christ. And that's why we were talking about earlier, you know, instead of having a fear of man and going along the path of the majority or whatever it may be, you know, go with your conscience knowing that you are going to be a part of the remnant, part of that kingdom that can't be shaken.
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And that's why we want you to grab onto that fear of the Lord so that that wisdom that you will receive from that will cause you to turn to Christ, to be a part of his kingdom, the kingdom that can't be shaken.
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And the remnant that will remain and last and be a part of the kingdom that will last forever.
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And that's the promises that we hear at Christmas, that his kingdom will last forever. He will reign forever and ever.
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Of his kingdom there will be no end is the language that we see here at Christmas. So that's our encouragement to you.
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That's our encouragement to our community that we want people to turn to Christ. And these things are going to pass away.
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These political scandals, these political parties, it's just, it's going to fade.
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It's going to go away and we have to endure it, but we have to keep our eyes focused. Have our eyes set on what is it?
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Is it Colossians 3? Have our minds set on things above? Where am
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I at? New Testament. New Testament. Do like Paul said, he's like somewhere sometime it was written.
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That's right. Having our minds set on things above. So that's what, that's where we want to be sanctifying our hearts or sanctifying
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Christ as Lord in our hearts and keep our eyes and our mind on things above so that that's our encouragement to you.
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Turn to Christ and be a part of that unshakable kingdom. Any last thoughts,
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Dan, before we get off here? Nope. All right. Let me pray for you. I got one little one just to kind of tie it into history.
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These events that he's talking about, the destruction of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ammon, Assyria, even, all this is coming very soon with the
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Babylonians. The Babylonians, specifically Nebuchadnezzar, is given a vision that Daniel interprets as being that he,
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Nebuchadnezzar, the gold, the gold standard for what a king is at the time is going to be and then the
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Greeks who come after him will be destroyed. And nope, I lied. The Medo -Persians to come after him will be destroyed.
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And then the Greeks to come after them will be destroyed. And then the Romans who come after them will be destroyed.
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Being that the governments of this world, these ones who are facing judgment, the governments of this world are being put down when the little stone, which is
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Christ's kingdom is coming to destroy the world's government. So even in the midst of all this destruction and mayhem of all this judgment that God's putting on people, it's not just putting judgment on people to be some sort of capricious, hateful
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God. This is all a part of his plan to usher in his kingdom, to bring many people to repentance.
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Right. And so as we look through the
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Old Testament, just kind of placing in the context of history, he's calling out to a people saying, no, not only you may have, you may find, you may be hidden from the
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Lord's anger on that day. It's not just that they'll be hidden from his anger when a physical judgment comes upon them, but that everything is working together for the salvation of his remnant.
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That hundreds of years before Christ even came, he was thinking of these people who would need salvation.
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So just to kind of put that in context of history and what all is happening in biblical events. These events are leading directly into the coming of the
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Messiah and the life that is given to us through Christ on the cross. And you made me think of another passage that makes it even more consistent.
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Everything comes together. Everything's logical. Everything's consistent. You brought us to the Roman empire, and then the kingdom of Jesus, the kingdom of Christ, kingdom of heaven is coming.
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Our text today at church, we start in Matthew chapter three. Now, in those days,
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John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying, repent, which is what you were talking about for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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And what was going on? Talks about the prophecy. John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy. Verse four.
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Now, John himself had a garment, people, camel hair, wild honey, locust.
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Then Jerusalem was going out to him and all Judea and all the districts around the
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Jordan. And they were being baptized by him in the Jordan as they confess their sins. So they were, they were leaving
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Jerusalem and coming out into the wilderness to repent and believe, believe the good news and join this new kingdom.
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Um, to me, I see them, this is just the visual of turning, turning away from, from Jerusalem and going out to repent, receive this new kingdom of the kingdom of Christ.
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And then John tells what the Pharisees, Sadducees, when they come, who, who warned you, you brood of vipers to flee the wrath to come.
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And to me, that's, you know, what was part of Jesus' message is his message was to, to flee
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Judea, flee Jerusalem, because there's going to, there's a destruction coming. And so he's asking them who, who warned you that to flee the wrath to come.
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It all ties together. It's all consistent. Almost like there was one author.
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That's right. Exactly. And, uh, you know, you, they, they had to leave that, um, they had to leave that system.
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They had to leave Jerusalem, what they held on so tightly. Um, they had to turn from it and turn to Christ, um, so that they could be that remnant, be his remnant.
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So we, we encourage you to come to Christ that that's our, that's our ultimate goal is for you to see him and desire to come to him and then be, be lovers of his word and the truth of his word.
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So we hope that we, um, you were encouraged and edified spending time with us tonight.
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Let me pray for us as we close father. We thank you for our time together. We pray that you were glorified in this time that we spent looking into your word and we pray and that you used us to, to lift up your son, um, to, to show him off and to exalt him and to, to praise him for all the wonderful things that he has done.
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Thank you for his kingdom. Thank you for his kingship, his justice, his goodness and his mercy.
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You always do what's right. Thank you for allowing us to see your work in our world.
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Um, despite, despite the fear, despite the sin that's in our world, we know that you are working and you're good.
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So we, we trust, we trust in what you're doing and we pray all these things in Jesus name.
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Amen. All right. Thank you guys for watching. Remember that Jesus is king. Go live in that victory.
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Go, um, speak with the authority of Christ and live in the authority of Christ and the victory of Christ and continue to go out there and share the gospel of Christ.