Book of Esther - Part 6

Park Meadows Church

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Good to be back with you today, and we've been talking about idolatry here.

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We sort of launched out into this from the book of Esther, and so I think we can wrap this up this morning, to be honest, and then move on to some more verses in Esther, but let's finish this up.

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Let me sort of remind us where we were a little bit in the book of Daniel, chapter 12, verses 8 and following.

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It literally mentions the first, or actually, it's really talking about the second three and a half years of the

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Tribulation period, which is really pretty fascinating in the book of Daniel, chapter 12. In verse 10, it says, many shall be purified and made white and tried.

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In many, many places in the Bible, the making white, in other words, the purifying of God's people has to do with tribulation, with trouble.

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Certainly with the nation of Israel, it's just a cycle. You read the book of Judges, it's just a cycle.

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Things would be going so well, riches would come into play, all of a sudden they would forget

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God, all of a sudden they would go into idolatry and worship other things, made other things more important than God, and all of a sudden they'd be taking slaves into a foreign land, and then all of a sudden, guess what they would do?

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They'd begin to pray. Tribulation brings prayer. Tribulation brings us closer to God, and then

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God would raise up us what, in the Hebrew, it literally is the word Savior. They call it

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Judges in the English, but in the Hebrew, he would raise up a Savior, not the Savior, but a

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Savior who would lead them back out of captivity, and then it would start over. The cycle would go again and again.

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It's not beyond a stretch for me to believe that the church will see an end in similar fashion, and I know that the book of Judges and everything that happens to Israel is an object lesson that teaches you, each individual

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Christian, about their own life with the Lord. There are pictures, thousands of pictures, tens of thousands of pictures of your life with the

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Lord, pictured out in a physical object lesson in the Old Testament. There's just everywhere.

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You can learn so much, and I can learn so much about my relationship with Jesus Christ right now because it's all pictured right there, but this concept here in Daniel where it talks about many shall be purified and made white and tried is literally a reference to the last three and a half years of the seven -year tribulation period.

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It says, however, those that are going to do wicked, they're going to go ahead and do wickedly. Isn't that interesting?

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Well, it's always that way. You always have the elect and the non -elect, and the non -elect are going to always do wickedly.

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It doesn't matter what you do. You can witness to them until you turn blue in the face, although you have to be careful because the

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Lord Jesus said not to cast your pearls before the swine, so you have to only witness to people that the

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Holy Spirit leads you to witness to, but whatever happens, they are not going to come to Jesus, the non -elect.

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They're just not going to do it. Why is that? Jesus told us very carefully that it's because the wicked one planted some seeds in the earth, and they came up as tares, and those seeds are always going to be tares.

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There's nothing that will change them. A wheat seed is going to grow up and be a wheat. Jesus planted those seeds, and that is a picture of the elect and the tare seeds, a picture of the non -elect.

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Jesus very clearly said that Satan planted those seeds, so therefore they are the seed of Satan, if you want to put it that way.

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And it's been that way in every age, and it shall be that way in the end of this age.

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And in the end of this age, those who are belonging to the Lord, but who have been corrupted by the mindset of the end times world, which is discussed in many different ways in the early chapters of the book of Revelation, where it talks to the churches, and especially to the one called the

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Laodicean church, where it has the mindset thinking that they are rich in all things, spiritual and everything, and God says, yeah, but from my viewpoint, you're naked, and you're hungry, and you're poor.

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And he said, I counsel you, buy gold from me. Now it's interesting that he told them, or counseled them, and gave them some responsibility.

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Now that's talking about the church at the end of the age. The church at the end of the age is going to be weak and beggarly spiritually, and poor and hungry spiritually, weak as it can be.

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And Jesus says, I'm going to put some responsibility upon you. I counsel you to buy gold.

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Now a lot of people have had trouble with that because they say, well how can you buy gold if gold pictures salvation or Jesus or whatever?

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How can you buy it when it's free? Because the Bible always everywhere talks about two kinds of righteousness.

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It talks about positional righteousness, which you cannot buy. It is a free gift from God, but it also talks about experiential righteousness, which is responsibility to live a holy life.

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Does it not speak of both? It does everywhere. And when it talks about the church being made white, and there's even places that we already studied last week or Sunday that I preached, where it says she shall make herself white.

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Those are the responsibility types of teachings on righteousness. Don't confuse them with the positional part.

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You can't change the fact that positionally you are righteous in Christ. You can't change that.

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But you can change how you live and how you walk. And we're responsible to change that. And what my viewpoint is that at least part of the tribulation, and I'm not trying to nail down where, but part of the tribulation period, part of the purpose of it is to purify the church and make her clean and white positionally, experientially.

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And it's the only way she'll ever do it. If the church is fat and dumb and happy, and all thinking certain doctrines are true that we know are not, because they're not in the scripture that are being preached all over the world in the churches today, how is she going to make herself all of a sudden just get right?

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She won't. The only thing that history and the Word of God shows that will cause that is tribulation, is trials.

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Tribulation, being taken captive, is pictured again and again. And when you get to that place where the world takes everything you have away from you, all of a sudden you will turn to God.

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And I will turn to God. The church will turn to God. The church will be amazingly spiritual at that point.

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The church will lay aside all the things of the world because they won't have it anymore. The economic structure that we have today will be totally replaced and destroyed first.

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Perhaps all of the different creature comforts we have may be destroyed. It wouldn't take much.

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Look at Japan right now. Do you think they ever dreamed they would be where they are now? And so it doesn't take much, you know, but it's rising up everywhere.

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Jesus said it's always been, but it's going to be like birth pangs. They're going to get closer together and stronger, and that's how you know that the end is coming.

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And so we are in it, ladies and gentlemen. We are in it. I'm not saying we're in the seven years, but we're in the end of this age.

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And we're already seeing the earth itself begin to vibrate.

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When that tsunami hit Japan, I don't know if it's true, but there are reports that the axis of the earth was affected by that slightly.

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When you change the axis, the tilt of the axis, it is that tilt that creates the seasons.

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If you change it just slightly, do you not think that will do enormous changes to the weather and everything?

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I mean, so we're actually beginning to see the end of the end already. You're living in it now.

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We don't have to talk about prophecy anymore like we did back in 1980, Charlotte, when we were teaching youth and we got into all this stuff.

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I mean, I love teaching this stuff and I would go in there and tell them, you know, someday you're going to see these things happen.

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We start naming them. And I said, it will probably happen in your lifetime. And that was about a little bit older than Jenny's age,

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I guess, because you were little at the time I was teaching teenagers. So, you know, modern Tony's age,

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Tony's age in particular. And so now Tony is at that point.

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She is seeing what we talked about from the scripture. So, it's pretty amazing. So, this passage in Daniel talks about it.

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Now, when you go into several passages, in fact, we covered one in Sunday school this morning in Hosea. I looked that up.

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I should have been listening to the lesson, but I was. I can multitask. I was listening, but that's in Hosea 2, 23 and other places throughout that part of the

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Bible. Also, in Isaiah chapter 11, verse 10, Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1 and following, of course,

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Isaiah 49, 6, Isaiah 60, verses 3 through 11,

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Jeremiah 4, 7, Jeremiah 16, 19 and many others talk about this end time event.

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And in every passage that I just listed, it not only mentions Israel, it mentions the

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Gentile nations as well. So, it's not just about Israel. And a lot of the hyper dispensationalists have tried to make it be just about Israel, only about Israel.

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And it's not only about Israel. It's about Israel, but it's also about everyone else that Jesus died for too.

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And you can see it very clearly in those passages that I just mentioned. And for sake of time, I'm not going to read through those.

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But it's amazing in Jeremiah 4, 7, it talks about, it says that the lion will come out of a thicket and he is the destroyer of the

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Gentiles. Is that frightening? Who is the lion? Well, there are many lions, but one lion is

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Satan. The lion who roams about seeking whom he may devour and so forth.

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And so, these places talk about this. So, therefore, the tribulation period itself has a multiple purpose, not just a one -fold purpose.

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It is going to be that which brings Israel back to their savior, because when he comes at the second coming and they see him, they will bow down to him and be saved.

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Everyone that's still left alive of the Jewish people in the world. Also, they will be brought together for the first time, all of them from all of the nations of the world where God dispersed them.

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They'll all be brought together into Israel at that time. And so, it will be a great salvation for the

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Jews. But the Gentiles, they're going to be 144 ,000 Jewish evangelists that preach the gospel throughout that seven -year period and hundreds of thousands of Gentiles are going to be saved.

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And they cannot be saved any other fashion than how we are saved after the cross. All this nonsense about, well, the church is gone, and so they're saved more like an

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Old Testament style. That is not true. God will never revert to how it was before the cross.

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They will be saved. They will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They will be brought into the church.

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They'll be part of the body of the bride of Christ. All of that will happen at the moment of their salvation. And the scripture teaches that clearly everywhere.

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So, it's interesting when you see that the end times has multiple purposes.

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Now, I think, and let me go into Isaiah chapter 2 for a moment. And let's talk about how this relates to idolatry, which is really the topic we've been talking about.

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And unfortunately, the way it relates is that the church that is here on the earth at that time is going to be full of idolatry, just like Israel was.

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The people in the world, the main mark that they will have, the nations of the world, will be the mark of idolatry.

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Isn't that something? And so, a huge purpose of the tribulation period itself, the seven -year tribulation period, is to do what tribulation will always do.

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Let me just show this to you. The non -elect will gravitate farther away from God and shake their little fist at him and hate him.

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And the elect will go through the same tribulation and come closer to him and love him and be made pure and white.

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The sinfulness of the worldly types of the sins, the sins of the world that we get caught up in, those will be eliminated.

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We will have no interest in them whatsoever. And we will be made white and pure like a bride in a white dress.

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And I believe that the tribulation period itself is that one thing that could cause the church to make herself white.

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See, that's not talking about positional righteousness. That's talking about experiential righteousness. What will make the church be prayer warriors like they were 200 years ago, as recently as that?

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What will make this modern church be soul winners who cry for the souls of the lost around them like they were just 150 years ago, maybe not even that long ago?

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What will ever bring her back to the point where she wants to fill her churches to hear the gospel preached, to hear the true word of God preached, where thousands would come hear that like they go hear a basketball game or a football game now?

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What will ever bring her back to that? Nothing other than tribulation. All of that will be taken away.

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And that's what will bring her back and make her white and pure like it says she shall be.

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Now, Isaiah chapter 2, it's very fascinating to read down through there. We read some of it in a previous sermon not too long ago.

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It's the famous verse we all know about where it says that they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and nations shall not lift up sword against nation.

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And that is looking forward to the actual millennial kingdom. The very first part of it though, it's looking like in the first years of it.

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And then as it talks about that in this passage, however, it then goes back and talks to Israel as she is at the time this was written.

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And then it gives a foreview or a prophecy of how it shall be right before that. It's just a fascinating chapter to look at.

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But down about verse 8 there, and I'm in Isaiah chapter 2, about verse 8, it begins to instead of looking forward at the millennial kingdom, it comes back and looks at them as they are.

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And it says their land also is full of idols. Before that, it said their land was full of silver and gold.

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Neither is there any end to their treasure. So their economy was amazingly good.

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Their land was full of horses. That is a picture of military might. And there is no end to their chariots, military might.

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And then it says their land was full of idols. And see, that's just the way it gets with man, fallen man, depraved man.

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When things are going that well, he sees little need for God. And he forgets

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God, turns away from him, and walks on his own, he thinks. They worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

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The mean man boweth down, and the great man, the poor of the land, even the blue -collar workers of the land, and even the mighty people, the leaders, the

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Congress, the President, the Supreme Court justices, they all bow down to these idols.

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And then it says in verse 10, enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord. Now it comes in time.

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You see, many prophecies in the Bible have a near prophecy and a far prophecy as far as fulfillment.

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I should say the fulfillment of the prophecy has a near view and a far view. And this one talks about Israel at that time, but now it goes far in the future from their viewpoint up to about where we are now.

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I don't know how much farther forward it moves, but it goes just to the point of the second coming of the

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Lord to the earth. And this is where it says that they will enter into rocks and hide themselves in the dust for fear of the

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Lord and for the glory of his majesty. That's talking about seeing his face when he comes at the second coming.

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The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men. Now notice this is not just Jews.

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This is just humankind on the earth. It includes the Jews, includes Gentiles. The haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the

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Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. So this is one of the great purposes of the tribulation period is to humble mankind, to bring mankind to his knees.

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For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty and upon everyone that is lifted up and he shall be brought low.

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What is the main sign given in Revelation of the Laodicean church? It says you think you're wealthy.

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You think you're full. You think you have need of nothing. And you see

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God says all of this is going to be brought low. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up and upon all the oaks of Bashan.

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So now you talk about Israel and the high mountains and upon all the hills that are lifted up.

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All of these things are going to be brought to naught. And then in verse 18 it says and the idols he shall utterly abolish.

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Now that is at the second coming. I had never noticed this until this year of my life that idolatry was the predominant thing that God was going to take care of in the tribulation period.

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Isn't that interesting? And so we see it pretty clearly now. It's clear to me.

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And then the famous verses in 19 here in Isaiah chapter 2 written some 2 ,600 years ago.

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And yet the book of Revelation is going to almost verse by verse parallel this.

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Where it says they shall go into the holes of the rocks and into the caves of the earth for fear of the

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Lord and for the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake terribly the earth.

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That's the tribulation period. And in that day a man shall cast his idols of silver and his idols of gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the moles and to the bats.

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To go into the clefts of the rocks to the tops of the ragged rocks for fear of the Lord and for the because of the glory of his majesty when he arises to shake terribly the earth.

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Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of.

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There will be many, many, many people killed during this time period.

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And so there we see it. Now when you come back into this passage all of these verses

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I gave you at the beginning of the message today talked about and proved that it's dealing with Jews and Gentiles not just with the

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Jews. So I'm not going to try to go back and reprove that. That's established as far as I'm concerned.

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But then we go into the book of Revelation. And I want you to see this parallel here.

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Turn to Revelation chapter 3 and verse 14. This passage of scripture begins to talk about the

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Laodicean church, the lukewarm church. Many scholars for many centuries have believed that this is a picture of the end times church.

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That this Laodicean church was an object lesson or a picture or a symbol of how the church will be at the end of this age.

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J. Vernon McGee was one. And there are many others who have believed that this was true. He says

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I know your works. You're neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, neither cold nor hot,

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I will spew you out of my mouth, Jesus says. Because you say I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

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And knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. You don't have to go very far.

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In fact, you could go places in our little town of Corsicana right here. But you go up 50 miles north into Dallas and you will see one after another after another after another of churches with sometimes as many as 20 ,000 people in attendance this morning.

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And you look at the material wealth of those churches and always raising money though to have the next new thing.

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And the church believes she is wealthy. She believes she is rich. There are certain groups of people today among Christendom who claim that we're in the greatest revival the world has ever seen.

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So where is this revival affecting our nation? Where is this great revival that's changing everything back towards God?

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It's not there. It's a disguise. And it's disguised in the fact that these huge churches are filled with people.

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But it doesn't mean that they're worshiping like God says to worship. And they have a completely different view of themselves than God has.

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And I won't totally leave our church out as well. I'm sure our view of ourselves here in this church is totally different than Jesus's view of us.

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And that's why we need this experiential righteousness. We need to draw near to him and be more holy and less into the sins that the world are doing around us that we so easily reach out and grab hold of and think we're doing pretty good.

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Know it's not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

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Now here's the responsibility. He says, I counsel you. Jesus Christ says to this church, I command you really.

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Buy of me gold tried with fire that you may be rich. What he is saying is, if you are saved, walk like you're saved.

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Then he's saying, white raiment that you may be clothed and that the shame of your nakedness not appear.

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That nakedness is a picture of every kind of sin there is, but certainly of sexual sin. He's saying, buy white raiment.

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That's talking about experiential righteousness so that your walk in this world, your walk fits the fact that you claim to be born again.

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You claim to be saved. You claim to be delivered from all of that. He's saying, I counsel you to walk that way.

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In the end of the age. I counsel you to anoint your eyes with eye salve so that you can see that you're not who you think you are.

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You think that you are increased with goods and things are going great and you have need of nothing, but I'm telling you, you're not seeing it right.

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You need to put eye salve on your eyes so that you can see yourselves. We can see ourselves from the viewpoint of God.

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And it would cause us to fall on our faces and tremble. That will happen. It'll either happen today or it will happen at some point before he comes back to each of us.

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Then he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. What does repent mean?

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Repent means to change our minds. And in this context, it's talking about changing our minds about who we are.

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Change your mind. Stop thinking that you're doing so great, that you're rich. Stop thinking that you have need of nothing and realize that you're really wretched, miserable, poor, and hungry and naked.

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Change your minds about that. Repent, because I do love you. And then he pulls it up and says, look,

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I'm standing at the door of your heart right now. I'm standing at the door of the Laodicean church and knocking and saying, would you let me in?

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I'm not in there. You think I'm in there, but I'm not in there. You're worldly. You're doing, your business of your church is run just like a business.

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You use, you read the same marketing books that we use in business to learn how to sell something.

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So you fill the pews by marketing. He says, I'm standing at the door. I'm knocking, let me in.

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Let's see how it works. I guarantee the first time you let him in, a lot of these churches are going to go from 20 ,000 down to about 200 solid born again, consecrated

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Christians. And they won't be able to pay for the buildings. That's what would happen if Jesus came in.

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To him that overcometh, I will grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am sat down with my father in his throne.

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He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit says unto the churches. Now it's interesting as we move down through some of this material in the book of revelations, in the book of revelation that there are a couple of places.

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Well, let's go down to chapter seven and verse 14.

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And I said unto them, sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.

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And you go down to chapter 19, revelation 19.

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That previous verse we just read shows that there are many people who are going to be born again,

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Jews and Gentiles during the tribulation period and will be killed for their faith. And so they're still being saved.

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They're still being added to the body of Christ. There's no other thing they could be added to. There's no other type of salvation, despite what these hyper -Calvinists have written books about.

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They have to be baptized into the church by the Holy Spirit. So the church is still here during that time period that we just read about.

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Revelation 19, seven, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready.

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Have you ever noticed that? That is an experiential righteousness passage.

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It is not talking about the fact that we can save ourselves. We know that's positional, correct? When Jesus died on the cross, he said, it is finished.

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I've done all the work that it takes to get my elect to heaven. But then throughout the scripture, responsibility is given to us after we're born again to walk like we're born again in this earth as a good testimony, as salt and as light to the rest of the world.

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And many times we're told to make ourselves righteous. That's talking about holiness.

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That's talking about a consecrated walk. That's talking about not doing some things just simply because the

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Lord is your Lord and you shouldn't do those things. It's talking about giving up some stuff that everybody around us, even people in churches are doing just because we know

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Jesus really would not do that. It's talking about doing some things because we know he would be doing them that other people are not doing them, doing other

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Christians are not doing. It's talking about all of this kind of consecrated lifestyle. And here's what it says.

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It says she has made herself ready. Now, how is she going to do that? Go out and get on the street corner today if you want to in Dallas and preach the gospel and see how you turn that community upside down for Christ.

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You're not going to change them. It's too late. You're too far into it. Idolatry has eaten away and rotted the heart of the

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Christian church. Her legs have been eaten away like leprosy.

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Her hands that used to serve the Lord have been eaten away and they're just nubs now. And the

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Lord says when you find yourself in that condition that she will make herself ready.

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It's going to take tribulation for that to happen. It's going to take trouble.

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It's going to take losing some of those things that we worship, things that we worship.

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The New Testament says clearly that idolatry to the modern man is covetousness. What does that mean?

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It's stuff, just stuff, just wanting stuff everywhere. And we worship the stuff and we get very, very weak.

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And it's proportional to the amount of stuff we worship. We get weaker and weaker as a church.

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I'm talking about the modern church. And so if we're going to make ourselves ready, probably my viewpoint is the

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Lord's going to take some of that stuff away. And that usually happens because of war, or horrible pestilence, or earthquakes, or tsunamis, or volcanoes, or other nations coming in with the sword.

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That's how it has always happened. I don't see why that would change. So we see this is so.

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Now, it does say that the wife hath made herself ready. And to her is granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.

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It's the positional righteousness. I can remember hearing Dr. Rocky Freeman preach that passage right there many occasions.

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And he told people again and again, that is not positional righteousness. He said, that's experiential righteousness.

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We need to be ready. And I agree with him 100%. And the same very passage comes down towards the end of that.

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It says in verse 11, and I saw heaven open and behold a white horse and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true.

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This is the second coming. And in righteousness he doth wage and make war.

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His eyes were as a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood and his name was called the word of God.

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And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

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By that point, we surely will have been changed in the air. The rapture will have taken place and we will be with him along with those who were already in heaven.

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And they will be with him and we will all come back together in the battle of Armageddon. We will see it from that viewpoint.

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Quite amazing thing to think about. Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of almighty

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God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written king of kings and lord of lords.

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So there is a point during that tribulation period where the church is raptured. We go to meet him in the air as he comes back at the second coming.

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I see it as one event, not two comings. I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it teaches two comings of Jesus.

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It's one event, he comes, we're drawn up. He sends his angels to the four quarters of the earth as it says in Matthew 24 where Jesus himself gives his own chronology of the end times.

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And he says, after the tribulation of those days I will send my angels and gather my elect.

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They will come up and be with him and they will move in and the battle of Armageddon will take place. There are some other interesting things that happen too even before that.

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We don't have time in the scope of this passage to talk about it. It's amazing to see some of the things that happen that we've never been told by the old theory that we used to study.

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Interesting. But to put it in a nutshell, we will be with him at this point and that battle will take place and then it comes on down and you get to the place where we just read out of Isaiah where it says that the men great and small are asking the mountains to fall on them to hide them from the face of the lamb and the fierceness of the wrath of the lamb.

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We don't view the lamb as a wrathful thing, do we? A babe in the manger. That's not how he's gonna come the second time.

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He's not gonna be that babe in the manger. He's going to be having battle with the enemies of God.

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As King David said so eloquently, led by the Holy Spirit, and he was such a type of Jesus in so many ways, he said,

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I hate them that hate God. And Jesus will come in that mode when he comes the second time.

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Now, that shows us how idolatry is the key thing that we see in the end times, both among the

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Jews, the Gentiles, and the church on the earth. All of that needs to be dealt with, especially with the elect.

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In Luke chapter 23, which is interesting because you don't normally view this passage as part of the end times material, but you see this in Luke 23, 28, but Jesus turning unto them said,

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Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming in the which they shall say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bear and the paps that never gave suck.

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Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us.

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For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry? And then all through the book of Revelation, starting with chapter six, it talks about all the seals, and it ends up in chapter six towards the end where they're talking about, may the rocks and trees fall on us.

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And I wanna close this study up with this thought, because that takes us all the way from 2 ,600 years ago, all the way out into the millennial kingdom in the future, and then all the way back to where we are, and then all the way up to the very edge of the second coming, all in one sermon this morning.

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And here is some application for us right now that I think is very important. And I'd like you to turn, if you would, to 1

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Corinthians chapter eight. And we'll close this whole study on idolatry with this thought.

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1 Corinthians chapter eight. It begins to discuss these very idols that the world and the church and Israel all have a problem with at the end of time.

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The world, the church, and Israel all have a problem with idolatry, being more interested in the things of the world than they are in the creator of the world.

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That's what idolatry basically is. And it talks about these idols that we have built with our own hands.

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For the man of old, that would be a rock he would carve into a graven image and worship it.

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For the modern man, it would be stuff we make with our own hands, our society, our infrastructure, our economy, our creature comforts, everything we build, our entertainment, all of that.

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We can worship those things if we're not careful. So he says, but if any man loved

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God, the same is known of him. As concerning, therefore, the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols.

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Now look at this phrase. We know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other

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God but one. Pretty clear, don't you think? For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but one

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God, the father of whom are all things and we in him and one

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Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him. That doesn't leave room for other gods.

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How be it there is not in every man that knowledge. That tells us right there some people are gonna believe there are other gods, doesn't it?

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For some with a conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled.

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Now go down with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and now what we learned in that first passage is what idols are not.

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They are not real. They're not gods. They are not really gods at all.

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They're things that we make with our own hands and they're not to be worshipped because there's only how many gods?

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There's only one God. Now if that's true, let's look at 1 Corinthians 10 because Paul reveals something very fascinating.

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He's now gonna come back and say, well, wait a minute, let me explain myself. When I say that idols are not real, there's a sense in which that's true but there is a sense in which they are real and he's gonna show us that right now.

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1 Corinthians 10 19, what say I then that the idol is anything or that which is offered and sacrificed to idols is anything?

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But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, demons and not to God and I would not that you should have fellowship with demons.

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You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. Demons is the Greek word. You cannot be partakers of the

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Lord's table and of the table of demons. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?

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And don't you think it's fascinating that you go down to 2 Corinthians 6 and it says, what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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For you are the temple of the living God. He says, come out from among them and be you separate, saith the

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Lord. I dwell, God says, I dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their

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God and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them and be you separate, saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing.

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I will receive you, will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord almighty. This whole concept of consecration that has to take place before we're ready to meet him as a church, before the rapture can possibly take place, the church has got to be consecrated.

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You may have never thought about that before but it's a fact of scripture.

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It's a fact of common sense. We have got to be ready. We've got to be made ready.

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We've got to make ourselves ready before the church is raptured. God in his sovereignty will ensure that that happens.

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Do you see what I'm saying? You understand what I'm saying? He holds us responsible but he will ensure that it happens and it makes so much more sense to me now that I see that the

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Apostle Paul says, well, wait a minute, idols are nothing but he says, but really they are because when a man worships anything other than God, he is worshiping

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Satan and his demons. It is Satan worship, any other kind of worship than holding the

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Lord Jesus Christ up as God is Satan worship. It makes so much sense to me now in 1

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John chapter 5 that it ends this way and we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

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In the Greek, it can be read this way, the whole world lieth in the evil one,

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Satan. And we know that we are of God but the whole world lies in Satan.

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And we know that the son of God has come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his son,

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Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Grammatically, there is no other way to take that than saying that Jesus is

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God and he is eternal life. But that's not where it stops and this is always puzzling.

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But now I understand it, look how it ends. Little children, from right now when

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I'm writing this until the time Jesus comes back, keep yourselves from idols, amen.

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Makes a lot more sense now, doesn't it? Let's stand and have prayer together. Lord, we thank you so much for your word as we always do at this time in our service because without it, we would not know you.

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We probably wouldn't even know about you. We know that we wouldn't know you personally.

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We thank you that your words are spirit and they are life and that you've given them to us by the inspiration of God that you have preserved your word until this time and shall preserve it until the end of time.

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And Lord, we thank you that you're in the business of making your bride ready. We pray that this message would be part of that here and anywhere it's heard.

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We pray that the things you place on our hearts through a message such as this would cause us to be more diligent to watch ourselves, to keep from the wicked things in this world and to not be led by the wicked one but to be made ready.

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And Lord, may we stand ready and be ready when you come. We ask you to keep us strong, help us not to be weak and wretched and hungry but to be strong enough to be salt and light even until the end of this age.

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And we ask you to go with us in our time of fellowship now and we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.