Letters to the Churches Part 8

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Sunday school lesson working through the book of Revelation

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Letters to the Churches Part 9

Letters to the Churches Part 9

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Eternal God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant to us your Holy Spirit who writes the preach word into our hearts
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So that we may receive and believe it and be gladdened and comforted by it in eternity
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Glorify your word in our hearts make it so bright and warm that we may find pleasure in it and through your inspiration
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Think what is right by your power fulfill the word for the sake of Jesus Christ your son our
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Lord. Amen Okay It must be windy the video is choppy sound is too
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I that I cannot help and yes It is a little bit windy and snowy outside so Yeah, well welcome to the little church on the prairie, you know
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All right. So, all right what we're gonna do real quick here. We're gonna take a look at Questions because we always encourage questions in relation to the sermon
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It's very important that pastors answer questions and not be How should we say threatened by them?
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So you are you are welcome and Encouraged to ask questions regarding anything that you hear taught here for clarification and don't worry if it's a high inside fastball
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I I know how to duck You know how to back away from the plate and then go ahead and hit it from there a little bit of a note
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One of the folks from the online services asked it as asked it.
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She's asked it Oh, what is wrong with me? She is asked for prayer In regard to the fact that she has a low -grade fever
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So let's pray Lord Jesus your daughter Elizabeth has a low -grade fever, and she's not feeling well.
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We pray that you would Be with her and that you would help her as she rides out the symptoms of the flu or whatever
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It is that is ailing her and we pray that you would give her a speedy recovery. We ask all this in Jesus name.
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Amen Okay, let's see here. So I got
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And the question were our technical guy Joshua My son has asked if the stream is a little bit stronger in the video and the audio is better If so, please let us know it says it's really windy in Illinois, but that's all
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I know All right. So the question is what is double imputation? this is from One of the people on online.
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What is double imputation? I was it was mentioned in an online live stream this week as a Lutheran affirmation
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So when we talk about a double imputation the idea here is is that What happened on the cross is that God?
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Imputed to Christ our sin and our unrighteousness. So we talked about double imputation
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We understand that imputation goes two ways Corinthians says God made him to be sin who knew no sin or as Isaiah 53 says in fact
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Let's pull that text up so that you can kind of see this Isaiah 53
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You have that wonderful passage and in fact this is it's this passage that caused the church fathers to say that Isaiah was the fifth gospel writer because there's such good gospel theology in the
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Prophet Isaiah But here's what Isaiah writes regarding Christ who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the
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Lord been Revealed he grew up before him like a young plant like a root out of dry ground He had no form or majesty that we should look at him.
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No beauty that we should desire him he was despised and he was rejected by men a man of sorrows acquainted with grief and as one from Whom men hid their faces and he was despised and we esteemed him not
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Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God and afflicted and Here comes the here comes the one part of the imputation.
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He was pierced for our transgressions He was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with his wounds
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We are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one of us to his own way and here's the last part of verse 6 and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all so the idea then is is that The justice of God has been propitiated by the sacrificial death of Christ And so we talk about penal substitution or you can talk about vicarious atonement
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The idea is is that God took the entirety of man's sinful
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Sinfulness all of our sin and laid them on Christ. He is our sacrificial day of atonement
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Offering if you would the sacrifice and so all of our sin was laid on him God made him to be the singular sinner of all of humanity
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He is laid on him the iniquity of us all and so this that's that's the first part that single that single imputation double imputation then takes up where The other side of the equation in Philippians chapter 3
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You have Paul talking about how if anyone thinks he has confidence in the flesh and in other words being saved by their good works
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Paul says he has more that he himself was circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin Hebrew of the
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Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness under the law blameless and He says this whatever gain
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I count as a loss for the sake of Christ indeed I count everything as a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing
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Christ Jesus my Lord for his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and I count them as rubbish in order that I might gain
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Christ and Be found in him and here's the second part of imputation then not having a righteousness of my own that comes from from the law
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But that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness that is from God that depends on faith
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So the idea then is is that when we talk about double imputation all of our sin was imputed to Christ It was a bled for died for atone for and then when somebody's brought to faith in Christ Christ sinless perfect Righteousness is imputed to them.
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So when you hear texts in Scripture that says things like The prayer of a righteous man availeth much and then you sit there and go.
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Well, I guess that doesn't refer to me Mm -hmm. How does it not have does not it does it not refer to you?
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You are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. So the idea then is is that when somebody talks about how?
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That we somehow have to have righteousness to get into heaven and they start to sneak in Righteousness that that you have to be doing that you've done
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They're there, you know in a way diluting the fact that we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ and Paul makes it very clear
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That he wants to be found in Christ that he might gain Christ not having a righteousness of his own that comes from the law
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But that which comes through faith in Christ the righteousness from God that depends on faith
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So double imputation recognizes Christ blend out for all of us all of our sin.
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He becomes decent sinner of humanity and We then are clothed in the righteousness of Christ when we're brought to penitent faith in Jesus So that's what double imputation is referring to so and I would say this conceptually a lot of Christians might agree with the concept
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But there are entire Theological systems within Christianity opposed the concept of double imputation, you know it.
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Well, that's just too free That's to you know, you know if you preach that then nobody's gonna do any good works.
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Are you kidding me? you ain't gonna do any good works as long as you're dead and trespasses and sins and It were saved by grace through faith and everybody who is a
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Christian Does good works because they is a Christian not in order to become one. So that that's the idea
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All right. So that's the answer on double imputation so Let's see here
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Mike and Sharon Navarrette my apologies if I don't pronounce that correctly Said pastor just looked up Jonathan Bengals comment
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The labor of digging a hole and burying the talent was greater than the labor involved in going to the banker
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Could you explain? Well having not heard Johan Bengals Comments or seen them or read them myself
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I would have to kind of just go along the lines of it that you'll note that unbelief is
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Extremely active in the suppression of truth you know, so the
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Apostle Paul talks about how people suppress the truth and unrighteousness and so I Would think a good parallel along those lines would be to think
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All the atheists that I've ever encountered have put a whole lot of effort into their atheism
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Just a ton. Whereas, you know, I when it comes to Santa Claus, I'm a complete atheist I don't believe in Santa Claus.
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Well that being the case, you'll note that I put no effort into this at all It's like I just gave up believing in Santa Claus a long time ago
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But unbelief is extremely active in the suppression of truth And so in in saying that it took more effort to dig the hole and to hide the talent
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I think that's an example of what the worthless unbelievers do they actively suppress the truth
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He didn't that that fellow didn't want anybody to accidentally run across that talent and he didn't want it making money
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He didn't want to make he didn't want it in the bank or whatever It would have been super easy just to put it in the bank I mean,
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I don't pretty sure they didn't have ATMs at the time, but you know still it's not it wouldn't have taken that long
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What what Josh what what I write my own jokes on the flight? It's obvious he writes his own jokes cruelty cruelty
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Okay Let's see here Sound as much bit better video still choppy.
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All right, very clear explanation. Good. All right now what we've been doing The all of our texts we're dealing with the end of the world
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Which is just always loads of fun anxiety creating and you'll note that in the sermons that I've been preaching on the end of the world text it's all about hope encouragement and alleviation of Anxiety in relation to the fact that Christ loves you that he's bled and died for you
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We are already the children of God as far as we are concerned The end of the world is pretty much a non event.
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It's a big day It's a big day non event in the way of by the way judgment, you know
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Like negative consequences and things like that Christ has already bled and died for all of our sins we were looking at then the book of Revelation and we were in chapter 6 and we were looking at chapter 6 and noting how in the book of Revelation what we're looking at is
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In this portion of it the opening of these seals and these seals really Typify if you would the state of the earth the humanity the world
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From the time of Christ's ascension until the time of his return in the women's
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Bible study yesterday I'm gonna duplicate this tab real quick in the women's Bible study yesterday
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I reminded the women of some of the opening statements that were made by the
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Apostle John in Relation to you know getting into the book of Revelation and here's what
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John writes in Revelation 1 I John your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus Was on the island called
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Patmos on account of the Word of God in the testimony of Jesus Now it's really easy as you read something like this to not
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Really zone in on some important words here partner in the
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Tribulation The tribulation tay flips a yet That flips this is is the word for tribulation in the
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Greek tay flips a in it and it says dot So we have the definite article. What is this referring to the we're in the tribulation right now if the
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Apostle John 2 ,000 years ago was a partner in the tribulation.
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Do you think the tribulation is something? We're that we're waiting to arrive No, it's here now it's been here since the ascension of Christ the other words that were really important in this and this is the major theme then of The book of Revelation the patient endurance that are in Jesus With all the tribulation in the world and it just doesn't seem to end it always seems to get worse
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What what's the rule of the day for Christians, it's the rule of the day for Christians the same yesterday today and until Christ returns patient endurance
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You'll note that in last week's parable and in this week's parable in our gospel text from Matthew 25
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That Jesus is delayed he's going on a long journey He won't be back for a while.
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You know, the expectation is there for the church to basically say well It's gonna be a while before Jesus shows up and you sit there and go well, don't you think he'd be here by now?
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Yeah, I know. I I don't know but so what does this call for then patient endurance and you'll note that as we get into the middle portion of the book of Revelation the things are gonna take a decidedly dark turn because you're gonna note that the devil is in the current state of rage due to the fact that he knows that his time is short and The the people who are the focus of his ire and his wrath are the children of God The church today and that has always been the case and there will be two
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Really horrifying things that he will conjure up for the purpose of waging war against the Saints And so if you remember in our epistle text today
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Paul made reference to our spiritual armor, right? Yeah, that's important stuff and always and again
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Paul reminds us we are in a war All right, you thought World War two was bad, right?
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This is a war that's been going on for millennia Launched by the devil and each of us were born belligerents on the side of the devil against God and we have been beautifully marvelously graciously lovingly kindly transferred from the dominion of darkness into the kingdom of Christ and So that being the case you'll note that the devil and those under his power never seem to be
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Tired of attacking the church in one form or another and I recently received a question from somebody in regards to Romans chapter 13 and Let me kind of pull this up so you see what's going on here and I'll remind you of a very important thing and this will also become part of the part of what we're gonna be looking at in the
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Chapters ahead in the book of Revelation. So Paul says let every person be subject to the governing authorities
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There is no authority except for from God and those that exist have been instituted by God Therefore whoever resists the authority resists what
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God has appointed and those who resist will incur judgment For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad
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Would you have no fear or the one who is in authority then do what is good and you will receive his approval for he
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Is God's servant for your good, but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain He is a servant of God an avenger who carries out
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God's wrath on the wrongdoer Therefore one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's God's wrath for the sake of conscience
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For because of this you also pay taxes for the authorities are ministers of God attending to this very thing
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Now a little bit of a note here when Paul penned these words there are many scholars who believe that he penned these words while Nero was the
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Emperor of Rome and You're gonna note something the Apostle Paul was not obsessed with giving weekly prophetic updates on how
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Nero was the incarnation of the Antichrist All right Instead Paul left an example for us to follow and he was in subjection to the governing authorities even to the point of kneeling down and having his head taken off of his shoulder and You're gonna hear in the book of Revelation that that's the same kind of subjection we as Christians are to Be ready to endure
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To not rebel against the government even when the government tells you deny Christ or die
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You say to the government you don't have the authority to tell me to die to deny Christ But if you want to take my life,
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I will not stop you from doing it Yeah Right Well, it's it's it's the founding
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Documental authority that establishes our government here in the in this Republic So what are we as Christians living in this society is supposed to do if the governing the people who are in charge of Say the federal government are in direct defiance of the
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Constitution who is supposed to be the governing documents right, so when you have a rogue government you call the government to repentance and You use every means possible to get them to stay within the bounds of the established law
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Law is a thing, you know Basically, it's the rules by which we all play in the sandbox together
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And when somebody is breaking those rules as Christians, we call them to we call people to repentance and as citizens
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We say you are behaving lawlessly you know and and so you'll note that even governments can behave terribly and we'll get to that when we get to The Beast in a
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Revelation 13, there's an important thing there, but I'm not no No, I'm specifically in this context talking about our relationship to the government as Christians Not as citizens of the
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United States All right And so there we have to be we have to kind of look at it in a two kingdom in the two kingdom way
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Right, so that's that's all part of this now a little bit of a note here
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I was making a point regarding this text in Romans. Somebody had asked the question a few weeks ago What do
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I say, you know to those people who if you say that God is the one who's established all these authorities
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What about authorities that are doing evil? How then has Christ been the one to do that?
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and I and I always point out that yet that sometimes God will act and give us a good leader for our blessing and Sometimes he gives people a bad leader as his punishment
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For their bad behavior, you know sin is its own punishment if you would so sometimes
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God's act acts in blessing Sometimes he acts in judgment. That's just how it goes
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But the ultimately at the end of the day you're gonna note then the purpose of government is not the eradication of evil
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I know it's gonna sound a little bit counterintuitive but work with me here for a second The purpose of government is for the restraint of evil.
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That's its primary function so when we talk about the three uses of God's law the first use is the is the use used by the government for the purpose of curbing and restraining evil and That being the case as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ we must take note of the fact that the restraint that have been put on the devil in the past are
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Loosened as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ and in the days immediately before the return of Christ There are zero restraints on the devil
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So the thing we should expect in our world is not Well, how they used to how did the
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Beatles used to sing it? We got to admit it's getting better getting better all the time.
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No, it's not gonna get better all the time Okay, in other words buckle up the ride gets really scary and bumpy at the end
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That's what we should expect and the text for that if you really want to see what that's looking at is it found in 2nd
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Thessalonians and 2nd Thessalonians is the text I've been referring to over the past few weeks
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Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and are being gathered to him We ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit a spoken word
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And I would like to add to this text or a popular book series
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The effect that the day of the Lord has already come Let no one deceive you in any way that day will not come and less the rebellion the apostasy
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Unless the rebellion comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed That doesn't sound like a fellow who has any restraints on him.
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All right a man of lawlessness All right He's the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called
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God or object of worship So that he takes a seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be
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God When what do you remember not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things and you know
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What is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time?
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And so as we get into this next portion of the book of Revelation Especially as we finish up the the seals the seven seals and we start getting into the seven trumpets in the in the seven trumpets
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You're going to see the lifting of the restraints against the devil himself and with the lifting of the restraints
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Let's just say it gets demonically crazy on planet Earth so all of that being said you recognize that History human history from the time of Christ's ascension until today has been one where clearly you can tell that the devil to some degree or another has
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Experienced restraints put upon him. The gospel has gone forward Christ has been proclaimed to all the nations and You know, these are important things to consider but as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ the restraints that are holding him back are lifted and For lack of a better way of pointing it the thing we should expect to happen on planet
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Earth is that all hell will break loose and And It will be a treacherous and difficult time for Christians and it already is it's only just going to get amplified
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And what's our what's what do we do in the midst of all that we patiently? Endure, even if patient endurance and faith in Christ results in our death.
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Don't worry Christ is coming soon, and he will vindicate you and avenge your blood.
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We do not avenge ourselves He is the one who avenges us so you get the idea. I want you to keep those themes in mind and so if you remember when we were in Revelation 6
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We we noted that that in 6 you have the opening up of these different seven seals
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I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder come and I looked and behold a white horse this writer had a bow and a crown was given to him
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He came out conquering and to conquer and so you'll note in the time from Christ's Ascension until his time until his return
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War is the thing on planet Earth Wars and conflicts are happening to this day
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They're happening right now as we speak this is not a peaceful place to live and despite the creation of the
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United Nations and the League of Nations by Woodrow Wilson The governments of the world have done very little to be able to stop wars from happening and taking place
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He opened the second seal I said the second living creature said come and out came another bright red Its writer was permitted to take peace from the earth so the people should slay one another and it was given a great sword
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And you're gonna know violence is violence a thing of our planet Yeah, you betcha.
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All right my wife once she's cooking She has these programs on her iPad that she watches on the internet
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And it's all about crime scene investigations and stuff like that And I am shocked that month after month after month goes by where every day.
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She's watching these things I'm thinking how many of these programs have they made how many murders are taking place out there?
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And I'm kind of thinking about it and going the people who came up with CSI Were brilliant because they have an unending supply of murder stories that they can tell and that's kind of a weird thing.
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Yes She said that yeah, if you need us if you need a safe space come come talk to me, you know
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Yeah, wow, how would you know three bodies would fit in the back just a guesstimate, you know
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Okay, so you'll know violence is a thing here on earth, right Yeah, I always find it fascinating that the
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Certain rioters during the race riots and particular groups, you know Antifa and others
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They were always described as having peaceful protests while they're burning down cities and beating the tar out of people
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Mostly peaceful mostly peaceful protests mostly, right? Yeah Yeah, and that's just an example of the violence that's on earth
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So you'll note that these are descriptions of what's happening and I point when we went through these last time I connected them back to what
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Jesus says in Matthew 24 that's your good cross -reference because everything being described in these opening of the seven seals is is really
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Laid out by Jesus in Matthew 24 when the fourth seal I heard the voice come say fourth living creature come
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I looked behold a pale horse It's writers name was death and Hades followed him and it looked like Clint Eastwood and they were giving authority over a fourth of The earth sorry couldn't help that Sorry over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword with famine and with pestilence by wild beasts of the earth
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When I opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the
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Word of God Martyrdom are there Christians being martyred today?
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Oh, yeah You betcha Yeah, and the thing is is that Ultimately at the end of the day we all can see that the the pot that we're in is starting to get warmer
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Here in the United States Somebody asked a very legitimate question Regarding the
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Biden campaign when on earth did it become orthodoxy that an eight -year -old child can?
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Choose which gender he is and the parent has no authority to stop a procedure from taking place
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At eight years old. When did that become orthodoxy here in the United States? And you're gonna know if you listen to the more
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Progressive voices out there politically they make no bones about the fact that their expectation is is that once they're in power?
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The Christianity in the church will bend the knee and their theology will adapt to their wishes.
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They've made that very clear so That being the case then you'll note
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You'll note that they cried out with a loud voice Oh Sovereign Lord, holy and true
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How long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And they were then each given a white robe told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were killed as they themselves had been and When they opened the sixth seal
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I looked and behold there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth and the full Moon became like blood and the stars
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Of the sky fell from the earth as the fig tree sheds its light winter fruit It was shaken by a gale the sky vanished this like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place
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Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful Everyone's slave and free hid themselves in caves and among the rocks in the mountains calling on the mountains and the rocks to fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and From the wrath of the
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Lamb for great the great day of the wrath has come and who can stand Yes, sir,
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James Who's Clint Eastwood Clint Clint Eastwood is the biggest yellow belly in the
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West haven't you heard that We just had one of our youth ask who's
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Clint Eastwood I'll let you let your father introduce you to the good the bad the ugly
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Yeah, right All right So you get that you get the picture here so the world is
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Ending at this point in the book of Revelation and I've noted that what we see happening is the world ends multiple times
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And again, these are all big graphic prophetic word pictures Graphic prophetic word pictures of Describing what it's going to be like in the interim between Christ's Ascension and his return so after this
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I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth that no wind might blow on the earth or sea or against any tree and I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the
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Sun with a seal of the Living God and he called out with a loud voice to the four angels who have been given power to do harm to the earth saying do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees
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Until we have sealed the servants of our God now this next picture here. We've got to pay attention to the details because Cults like the
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Jehovah's Witnesses and also other I would say really fringy dispensational groups they want to split this into two groups and it's not all right what we see next is going to be a
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Picture of what the church looks like. So let me ask you this. What does
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Paul tell regarding? Gentile Christians Relationship to Israel What's your relationship you
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Norwegians here at Congress of Inger? What's your relationship to Israel? You're grafted in.
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All right So we Gentiles we be grafted in Which tribe are you grafted into?
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I don't know. I don't know right Oles is that a tribe?
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The Sven also have a Sven has his own tribe in Israel got it. Okay, so maybe
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All right all right, so All of that being said let me give you the cross -reference on this so you can kind of see how this plays out because if you
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Miss this part you're gonna miss the theology in it. Okay, so Paul writes in Romans 9. I'm speaking the truth in Christ I'm not lying.
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My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit. They have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart I could wish that I myself were a curse and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers my kinsmen according to the flesh
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They are Israelites and to them belong the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law the worship the promises to them belong
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The patriarchs and from their race according to the flesh is Christ who is God over all blessed forever
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Amen, but it's not as though the Word of God has failed for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel Listen to that sentence again, not all
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Who are descended from Israel? belong to Israel So does being born genetically
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Jewish give you an inside track with God? no, all right and Not all our children of Abraham because they are his offspring
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But through Isaac shall your offspring be named and so the idea here is everybody who is truly a child of Abraham is
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One by faith who has the faith of Abraham not the DNA of Abraham This means it's not the children of the flesh who are the children of God.
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It's the children of promise who are counted as offspring For this is what the promise said about this time next year
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I'll return and Sarah shall have a son and not only so but so also when
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Rebecca had conceived children by one man Our forefather Isaac though They are not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue
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Not because of works but because of him who calls She was told the older will serve the younger as it is written
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Jacob. I loved Esau. I hated So what shall we say then is there injustice on God's part?
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No by no means for he says to Moses. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy I will have compassion on whom
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I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion It depends on God who has mercy for the scripture says to Pharaoh for this very purpose
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I have raised you up that I might show my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all of the earth
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So then he has mercy on whomever he wills and he hardens whomever he wills
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So you say to me then well, why does he still find fault for who can resist his will?
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But who are you? Oh man to answer back to God. Well, what is molded say to its molder? Why have you made me like this?
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Has the potter no right over the clay to make it out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable?
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Use what if God desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power has endured with much patience vessels of wrath
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Prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy Which he has prepared beforehand for glory even us whom he has called not from the
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Jews only but also from the Gentiles as Indeed, he says in Hosea those who are not my people
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I will call my people and her who was not beloved I will call beloved and in the very place where it was said to them.
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You are not my people there They will be called the sons of the Living God And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea only a remnant of them will be saved
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For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay as in Isaiah as Isaiah Predicted the
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Lord of hosts has not left us has had not left us offspring We would have become like Sodom and become like Gomorrah So what shall we say then the
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Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness they have attained it That is a righteousness that is by faith
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But Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law
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Why because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works They have stumbled stumbled over the stumbling block as it is written
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Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.
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So kind of you know Foundation in this concept then is that just because you're genetically
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Jewish doesn't give you an inside track with God and We Gentiles have attained righteousness
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Because we've attained it by faith and those who are genetically Jewish who are still trying to attain it by their works
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They have not attained it at all and they remain under the wrath of God So Paul then says brothers my heart's desire and prayer for God for them is that they may be saved
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I bear them witness they have a zeal for God but not according to knowledge For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and then seeking to establish their own
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They did not submit to God's righteousness for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes
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So let me fast forward then that that in this portion of the text
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Where we can then see where we're grafted in hang on a second here I think it's in the next chapter chapter 11 you get the gist of the foundation
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So he Paul asked then in chapter 11. I asked then has God rejected his people by no means
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I myself am an Israelite a descendant of Abraham a member of the tribe of Benjamin God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew
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Do you not know that the scripture says of Elijah how he appeals to God against Israel Lord? They've killed your prophets
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They've demolished your altars. I alone am left. They seek my life. But what is God's reply to him?
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I have kept for myself 7 ,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal So to at the present time there is a remnant a remnant of Israel chosen by grace
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But if it's by grace, it's no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise grace would no longer be grace So what then
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Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking the elect have obtained it But the rest they were hardened as it is written
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God gave them spirit of stupor eyes that would not see ears that would not hear down to this very day and David said let their table become a snare a trap a stumbling block and a retribution for them
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Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever So I asked them did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means rather that through their trespass then
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Salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous Now if their trespass means riches for the world and if their failure means riches for the
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Gentiles How much more will their full inclusion mean? Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles in as much as I am the Apostle to the
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Gentiles And I'm magnifying my ministry in order to somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus to save Some of them for if their rejection means a reconciliation of the world what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead if the dough that it was offered as First fruits is holy.
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So is the whole lump and if the root is holy So are the branches but if some of the branches were broken off and you although a wild olive shoot were grafted in Among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree
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Do not be arrogant toward the branches if you are remember it is not you who supports the root
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But the root that supports you then you will say well branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in that is true
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They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith so I Preach this several times.
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I always remember one of the times I preached this concept that we are all grafted into Israel Mikey burst out in the middle of the congregation in the middle of a servant and he said
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Muzzletoth right which was hilarious It's burned into my memory forever
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But you get the idea So we've all been grafted in that being the case when we look at this next portion of the book of Revelation You have to see the two images as the same
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Picture. All right, and so the Jehovah's Witnesses what the Jehovah's Witnesses actually taught
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I don't know if they've modified this recently because they had a problem They claimed that Jesus secretly returned in the early 20th century at a house in San Diego I Mean I don't know why he chose
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San Diego. I mean the San Diego is not the best city I mean, I would have preferred they went he showed up in San Clemente San Clemente is way better than San Diego.
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I'm just saying Yes, I'm gonna go with you on that one. Okay, but Christ secretly returned in San Diego according to the
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Jehovah's Witnesses and there were 144 ,000 Jehovah's Witnesses who were living at the time of Jesus's secret return in San Diego and their claim was that Jesus's second coming would have would occur
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Prior to the death of the of the 144 ,000 Well, they've all crumped and died already because it's been all it's been over a hundred years
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But but they're yeah, that's right. They're still voting in Ohio Sorry, but the point is is that they've had to they've had to alter this now
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Dispensationalists will basically they claim that this 144 ,000 what is representative of is an end times
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Army of Christians who are made up of those who are genetically Jewish and so after the after the rapture
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After the secret return of Jesus, why is Jesus always coming back in secret? I don't get this after Jesus secretly returns and snatches the church up to heaven after the rapture
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There will be no Christians on earth Except for there'll be the the gospel will go out among those who are genetically
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Jewish and there'll be a hundred and forty four thousand Jews who are saved and you sit there and go no, that's not what this is saying either
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So when you take Romans 11 that we are grafted into Israel, everybody is in Israel if you have the same faith of Abraham Congratulation, you're
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Jewish. You've been made Jewish by God That being the case when you look at the details of the hundred and forty four thousand, you know, it's it's twelve thousand you know twelve times right and 12 ,000 times twelve to get a hundred and forty four
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This is a symbolic number and when you pay more attention to the actual tribes themselves
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Then you begin to see this can't be referring to a literal to a literal Israel thing going on And here's the reason why so let me back up just a little bit.
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So After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth
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That no wind might blow on the earth or sea against any tree Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the
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Sun with the seal of the Living God And he called out with a loud voice to the four angels who have been given power to harm the sea the earth and the sea
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Saying do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our
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God on their foreheads Pay attention to that on their foreheads.
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Hello. Okay. Yeah Hmm When has
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God put his name on your forehead? in baptism, right
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I Baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit All right, there's four heads involved here.
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All right Some cases more but at least a forehead Right, all right, so then
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I heard the number of those who were sealed 144 ,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel But let's pay attention to the details of these tribes.
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Shall we 12 ,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed check 12 ,000 from the tribe of Reuben gad
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Asher naftali Manasseh Simeon Levi Issachar Zebulon Joseph Joseph and Benjamin if you go into the
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Old Testament and you look at the lists of the twelve tribes of Israel, how many names are listed?
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13 13 why? the sons of Joseph So if you remember
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Joseph Was considered dead and so Joseph who typifies it in the types and shadows.
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He's an exemplar of Christ Joseph died and rose again So he didn't have an inheritance with his father's
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Inheritance instead because he was dead and rose again His father
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Israel made his sons Inherit Joseph's share and they were what tribes half tribe of what?
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Manasseh half tribe of Ephraim Ephraim half tribe of Ephraim half tribe of Manasseh.
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All right, look through this list and tell me which of those two are missing Ephraim is missing
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Ephraim is missing What other tribe is missing? That's a tougher one to answer
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There's another tribe missing here, Dan The tribe of Dan is missing now important to note
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When you look back at the time in Israel after the death of Solomon rub bone, you know takes the throne and then the
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Kingdom of Israel is torn apart You have a northern kingdom and you have
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Judah the northern kingdom is named Israel ten tribes Southern kingdom
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Judah technically has two tribes right Judah and Benjamin Have you ever heard of the?
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lost tribes of Israel How many of them are lost? ten
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Ten of them are gone. They're lost All right And there's a reason for that because after the death of Solomon the the reign of rabbo
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I'm the tearing apart of the kingdom what What was the thing that the northern kingdom immediately went into Idolatry rank idolatry
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Remember that bronze serpent that God had Moses fashion They they were sort of worshiping that thing.
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They created their own temple complex at the top of Mount Gerizim and Sychar and It was
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Dan and Ephraim who led the way for Israel as they plunged headlong into rank worship of false deities in the worship of Baal and Shira and Moloch it was
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Dan and Ephraim who led the way and you're gonna note Dan and Ephraim. They ain't on the list
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Joseph's name shows up again. And so you know, this is not a literal number.
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This is not this is not a literal Number of Jews here. This is a list that makes you sit there and go.
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Why is why is Ephraim missing? Why is Dan missing and you can find the answers it when you do the cross -reference work?
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so what this then is a picture of is a picture of all People who are saved the 12 ,000 times 12.
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It's it's it's a symbolic number. It's not a literal 144 ,000 we're part of this group.
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So I will be I will note this though. I do not see the tribe of Sven or Oli So I'm gonna
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I'm gonna I'm gonna do a little biblical fact -checking on that when I get back to my commentaries at home
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But I'm pretty sure Sven and Oli are not part of this, you know, maybe they're a clan in one of these tribes
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Yeah All right
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So after this so so you're gonna note then so here you got this picture of all of those who are sealed and then watch
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This just kind of blends into the next picture after this. I looked and behold a great multitude
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No one could number from every nation from all tribes peoples and languages standing before the throne before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and Crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to our
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God who sits on the throne and to the land so the 144 ,000 all of a sudden just gives way to this great multitude that you cannot number and this the same picture
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It's just looked at differently. That's the same idea and you're gonna note here that what it is that this great multitude
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Receives is no different than any of the promises that are promised to us as Christians in general
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So that's gonna help us out a little bit here and we'll pay attention to what we what we saw in Revelation 1
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So they were clothed in white robes Salvation belongs to our God and all the angels were standing around the throne
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Around the elders and the four living creatures they fell on their faces and they worshiped before the throne worshiping
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God saying amen blessing and Glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
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God forever and ever. Amen Notice the Christo centric Theo centric
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Lyrics of their worship songs. They didn't sing about themselves Right. So then one of the elders addressed me saying who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come?
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And you get to see John caught flat -footed goes Well, sir, you know
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And he said to me now listen, these are those coming out of the Great Tribulation What did
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John say? At the beginning of John 1 of Revelation 1 partner in the
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Tribulation All right And this is a multitude too great to number.
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Is This saying Then that these are all the all the
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Saints who are coming out of the Tribulation That is to come the seven -year period and that's a symbolic number when all hell breaks loose.
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No This is a picture of over everybody who's saved they're coming out of the
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Great Tribulation. We're in it now They have washed their robes made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Haven't you done the same?
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Yeah, we have Therefore they are before the throne of God serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne he will
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Shelter them with his presence has God promised to shelter you in his presence. Yes, they shall hunger no more
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Neither thirst anymore. The Sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat Is that not what's promised to all of us in Christ exactly right for the
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Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd He will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes
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Is that not what's promised to every single Christian? You betcha, right even all he knows that All right
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So you got the idea? So the hundred and forty four thousand and the great multitude too big to be numbered from every tribe nation and language
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I I remember quoting that particular passage against somebody who was it's this to say overtly
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Anti -semitic and basically saying I don't think you're gonna like the new earth man I just don't think
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I don't really think you're gonna like it because all those people who you hate They're there. They're already there man.
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You wouldn't want to spend eternity with them You know, they didn't seem to like that argument, but that's just them.
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All right Now comes the next part. So we've got all six seals opened We've seen the great multitude of all those who are saved.
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They've been grafted into Israel It's a number too great to number from every tribe nation and language
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Oh, and by the way here when it comes to counting tribes nations and languages I think a good argument can be made that we go according to the table of nations from the book of Genesis If you go with that table of nations from the book of Genesis Then we already we recognize that the gospel has gone out already to every tribe nation and language
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It's gone out to the whole world. It hasn't missed anybody already All right, keep that in mind
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Next comes the so now we've got the opening of the seventh seal and you're gonna notice it's gonna go to silence it's gonna be a pause and then we're immediately gonna go into another picture of heaven and Then into the into the seven trumpets when the
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Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about a half hour so this is the big intermission between the pictures at this point
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America sings starts to turn and we move into the next picture. We move in the next anyone ever remember
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America sings from Disneyland. Yeah Sorry, I'm really in dating myself here.
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Yeah, that thing's been gone for a long time. I think it's still in Isn't it still in Florida though? Yeah, yeah burl
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Ives was he played Sam the the American Eagle and America sings in it I don't know what they call it but you go into this part of part of it and the whole building turns and you go from like, you know room -to -room and it changes a big carousel that changes music genres in the different places that you go and so it kind of starts off at the beginning of America and the moves on into the the 1800s and then on into the early 20th century and then into the rock and roll era
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It's really cool. Anyway So anyway, the whole point here is that the America sings it's the carousel is now turning and the picture is gonna change
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That's the point. And so that's what's going on. So then I saw the seven angels who stand before God Seven trumpets were given to them.
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Another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer. Now you're gonna note here This is similar to what we saw in before the opening of the seals before the opening of the seals there was a picture of The heavenly worship as well as the prayers of the
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Saints being put in golden bowls With incense and rising before God Pay attention to that detail because you're gonna see this again here before we get into the judgments
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We're again reminded that God Receives the prayers of the Saints as part of the heavenly worship
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They are held in precious instruments golden censers golden bowls And they are mixed with with incense and that all rises up before God And so I was
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I pointed out to the women's women in the women's Bible study yesterday Don't think for a second your prayers are ineffective stupid or powerless
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The reason why prayers are mentioned twice here first in Romans 5 before we go into the into the seals now here in Romans Revelation 8 sorry
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Revelation 5 and Revelation 8 as we get ready to go into the trumpets is because hello Patient endurance the life of a
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Christian is the life of prayer and You'll note that in all of these theological systems that go off the rails
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They end up engaging in aberrant forms of prayer that are not prayer at all
54:56
The devil knows full well, you really want to Isolate those sheep and make them the prey of the wolves you you cut off their communication with God So in the
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NAR they don't even pray anymore. They just decree and declare stuff I feel like I just lost my
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Yep, I just got booted Got booted off the Internet Hang on we're waiting for a second here
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Wow Oh Wow you are lucky that bad jokes were never punished by stoning to death
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Hey listen, I'm exemplifying hypocrisy here just Yeah Yeah, anyway the point
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I was making is is that in the NAR they don't they They don't even pray anymore. I could decree and declare
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I command and control and I And they you know, and they're they're exerting their so -called heavenly royal authority
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But I would also note that Rome they pray to Mary to dead saints
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This is this is makes no sense. Why that's not prayer at all There's one mediator between God and man
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Christ and so it always fascinated yesterday in the women's Bible study We had a gal who came out of Rome and she was talking about how you know, you know in praying to Mary you know you end up tattling on Jesus because apparently she's the only one who has any sway over what he'd how you know, the
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Makes it's crazy. It's nuts, right? But you're gonna note here watch this picture of the prayers of the
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Saints So another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the
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Saints on the golden altar before the throne and The smoke of the incense with the prayers of the
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Saints rose before God from the hand of the angel and so note here you
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You think God doesn't hear your prayers? He does He does and so this is a vital piece you don't let this just run by you that big part of the patient endurance of the
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Saints is our Communication with God and we are assured not once now twice that our prayers are gathered up in golden Instruments mixed with incense they are then they rise before our
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God not a single one of them goes unheard Unconsidered now remember that God has the prerogative to say no
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To your prayers, that's his prerogative. He can say yes. Sometimes he might even say wait
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You know Or he might even modify what it is that you need But the point is is that he hears our prayers and so the expectation here as his dearly blood -bought children we should take comfort in the fact that this is a
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Description of our prayers and that we should not fail to pray then Not because it's it's a work by which we earn things from God No, it's it's something that God considers to be precious
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Right. So the angel took the sensor filled it with fire from the altar threw it onto the earth and there were peals of thunder rumblings flashes of lightning and an earthquake
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All right, so we're gonna leave there. Let me check questions real quick because Things were going a little crazy with our internet connection here.
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I need to Yeah, there we go. My apologies on the unmuting myself here when
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I got put back on I didn't realize I needed to do that Those of you online just so you know, we did record this lesson.
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So the internet Disruption that we had you will be able to hear what you missed
59:08
By going online and Joshua usually gets those out like Monday Yeah, so our apologies for for the disruption, but we're gonna leave there today and We will see you all