Seeing Past the Distressing Details

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 20th chapter.

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There came to Jesus some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection. They asked

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Him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.

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Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, died without children. The second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.

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Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as a wife.

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And Jesus said to them, The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to the age and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry or are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to the angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

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But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the

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God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him.

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Then some of the scribes answered, Teacher, you have spoken well, for they no longer dared to ask

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Him any questions. This is the gospel of the Lord. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our

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Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus.

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Amen. Alright, so we've taken the last turn here in the church year. It's getting towards the end, and you know what we do every year at the end of the church year.

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We talk about the end of the world. Now there's a lot of bad teaching out there regarding the end of the world, and the one thing

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I've noted, that bad teaching regarding the end of the world always seems to create anxiety.

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Anxiety in the person who goes for it. Now, there are a lot of bad books that have been written out there. I remember the days, and I always muse about this, of the book,

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The Late Great Planet Earth. The Late Great Planet Earth, that was written in the 70s. And, well,

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Jesus didn't show up in the 70s. And so, not to be dissuaded how Lindsay doubled down, and he wrote, 1980s, countdown to Armageddon, right?

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And everybody was talking about the politics of the day, and who was it that was going to be the

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Antichrist? It was always the game, the proverbial game of pinning the tail on the Antichrist. Would it be Nancy Reagan?

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Would it be? Never mind, you kind of get the point. People still do this today, right? Is it

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Obama? Maybe it's Nancy Pelosi. Oh, I know, it's Trump, right? And you sit there, and you go, this is just wrong.

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But even in the last ten years, what was the big book that hit the bookstores? You could buy it at Sam's Club, and everybody was talking about it.

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The Four Blood Moons, right? And, well, no one's talking about those anymore.

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And so, you'll note there that everybody who talks about eschatology always seems to focus in on the gory details and say that we're just on the cusp, it's right around the corner.

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And by the way, Christ's return probably is just around the corner. It could be tomorrow or 2 ,000 years from now.

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Either way, it's right around the corner. Because remember, with God, one day is as 1 ,000 years.

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He's not slow, as some people count slowness. So what we're going to do today, we're going to work our way through our epistle text.

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And you're going to note that I'm going to be with the Lutheran theologians who think that the man of lawlessness is an actual human being who has yet to step on the scene.

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I understand there's a whole lot of Lutheran theologians who also have a different view. I'm not in that camp. And the

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Lutherans play this game with the man of lawlessness like a game of tennis. One generation says, well, he's legit, he's a real thing coming.

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And the others say, no, no, no, no, it's symbolic of something. And so that goes back and forth.

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The current crop of Lutheran theologians generally are in the other camp. And I seem to be way ahead of everybody in the next generation.

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So I think exegetically we should take this a little bit more seriously. So we're just going to assume the man of lawlessness is a guy who's still coming on the scene.

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You kind of get the idea. But you're going to note here, the emphasis here is not on the gory details.

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There are gory details in here. But the emphasis is what comes next.

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And that's the thing. The people who traffic in fear -mongering regarding the eschatology, the eschaton, never really get to the back part of what the emphasis of the scripture is.

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In fact, in our Sunday school lesson today, we'll do a little bit of work from the book of Daniel to show how that works. And so you'll note then, if we were to put this in terms that we could all understand, the movie

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Braveheart, poorly, it's not historically accurate. But it's a great story of how

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William Wallace was totally betrayed by the Bruce. And there he is right there.

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No, I'm kidding. So there he is. He's on the battlefield. This is a great story.

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He's fighting the English. He's fighting for Scotland and for freedom and all this kind of stuff.

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And there they are on the battlefield. And in the middle of the battle, the guys who were in league with the

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Bruce, they leave the battlefield. And what ends up happening is that William Wallace, while he gets captured, and we all know how the story ends, him being tortured, his guts being taken out of his body, and him going,

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Freedom! It's on a great movie. Anyway, you get the idea. But here's the thing. When you read the details of scripture, as the church gets closer and closer to the physical return of Christ, you're going to note that scriptures prepare the church for what is going to happen.

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And it's not good for us. Scripture makes it clear that there's going to be a great rebellion against God, that this man of lawlessness is going to exalt himself within the church itself, proclaiming himself to be

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God, and the whole world's going to go for it. And then those who are truly Christ are going to be scratching their head going,

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What has bewitched these people? And if that's not enough, he's going to wage war against the church, and for a season, he's going to win.

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We're going to get the snot kicked out of us. There are going to be martyrs, and there's going to be persecution, and it's just going to be awful.

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And Christ has told us this ahead of time. And so what do we say? Who cares? Who cares?

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Yeah, martyrdom, great. Yay. Because the story doesn't end there.

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It doesn't end there. It ends with Christ returning. And that's the point.

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See, Jesus has given us the playbook ahead of time. So as dark and as bad as things may come and may get, we can sit there and go,

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It doesn't matter. So if the Democrats win the Senate and win the presidency next year, or if the

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Republicans do it, whichever way is your bend, we don't have to worry. It's not the end of the world.

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When the end of the world shows up, Christ does. So consider then our epistle text. Note his thesis sentence here is actually quite helpful.

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Our being gathered to him. That's a big deal. It's a good thing. This is a joyous thing that we should be looking forward to.

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So he says, Listen, I ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the

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Lord has come. Life was filled with guns and wars, and everyone got trampled on the floor.

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I wish we'd all been ready. Someone got left behind here. And you'll note that those trafficking in bad eschatology, even in the time of the

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Apostle Paul, they were creating anxiety within Christians. Their hearts were being shaken, their minds were alarmed, and they had feared that somehow they had missed it.

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No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right. So the traffickers of bad books, you know, they had their own versions of guys who were writing the four blood moons in the late great planet

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Earth all the way back in the time of the Apostle Paul. He says, listen, don't let this stuff shake you. So first and foremost, don't let anyone deceive you in any way, any way at all.

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Don't let anybody deceive you, especially eschatology. For that day will not come unless the, and here our

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Greek word is helpful, apostasia comes first. Have you ever heard the prophecies of the great apostasy?

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I always like to say there's nothing great about it. It's actually quite awful when you consider the details. But here we have the rebellion coming.

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And where does the rebellion take place? The answer is exegetically when you work your way through this, the rebellion takes place in the visible church.

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Because you'll note that everybody who's dead and trespasses and sins, they're still on the side of the dominion of darkness.

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They're still under the power of the devil. And so it wouldn't be news or some kind of a sign if there was rebellion in the world, because there's always been rebellion in the world.

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But this rebellion takes place within the visible church. This is a full -on rebellion against Christ himself.

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I don't care that the Scriptures say that women cannot be pastors. We're going to ordain women anyway.

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We don't care that the Scriptures say that homosexuality is a sin. We're going to bless these unions and we're going to call it marriage.

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We don't care. We don't care that Scripture says thou shalt not commit adultery.

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We will never confront anybody in our church who is shacking up with their boyfriend or girlfriend.

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We don't care. We don't care. So what do they do? They rebel against the

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Word of God, and this rebellion goes deep. We don't care that Scripture says to teach what's in accord with sound doctrine.

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We want to hear what we want to hear. You sit there and go, well, that sounds a lot like today.

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Yeah, it is. And you'll note that the apostle Paul, even in his time, said that all of this rebellion against Christ in the visible church had already started.

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You see, Jesus describes the end of the world like, well, birth pains. We all know how that starts off. It's like, whew,

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I need to go to the hospital. And then you get to the hospital and they hook all the monitors up to the woman who's about to give birth, and the contractions get stronger and stronger and stronger.

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And just when you think they can't get any stronger, the nurse comes in and says, oh, honey, you're only four meters dilated.

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So we still have a ways to go. And then it gets worse and worse and worse and worse and worse. And finally, at the end, there's a baby.

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So you'll note the rebellion kind of gets worse and worse. So the rebellion is coming, and listen, the man of lawlessness is revealed.

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This is the fellow who is described as the son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself against every so -called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be

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God. Now a little bit of note, when you do the work here and you look at Pauline theology regarding the temple of God, that's not talking about a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem sometime in the near future.

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The temple of God is, well, it's right here. Paul describes the temple of God as being built with living stones, like the

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Joshua Stone or the Don Matson Stone or the Bruce Stone or the Danica Stone. Where are the stones that make up the temple of God?

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And this is consistent in Paul's theology. Therefore, the man of lawlessness is a churchman.

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He shows up within the visible church, get this, claiming to be God himself.

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And the rebellious, those who participated in the apostasy, are going to go, yeah, you're God, and they're going to worship this crazy fellow.

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It's like the whole church, the whole world is going insane. Are you kidding me?

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That guy's God? I'm supposed to worship him? And when this all goes down, if we're alive when it happens, or whoever's alive in the church is going to go, that guy ain't

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God. And they go, how dare you say he's not God? I kill you.

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And so you lose your life. This is how this works.

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And you're going to note I'm a little blasé about it. I'm not really kind of all that worried about the details because as gory and as scary as they are,

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Christ and the Scriptures tell us when you see these things happening, look up, rejoice.

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He's just about ready to get here. You're sitting there going, but the whole world's going to hell in a handbasket.

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Yeah, and you're shocked about this. Why? Jesus told you it would be this way.

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Paul told you it would be this way. Daniel said it would be this way. Do you not read your Scriptures? You see, these are the cues to look for.

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These are not times for us to sit there and go, what do we do? What do we do? What do we do?

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What do we do? You sit there and you go, ha, this is awesome. Jesus will be here in about five minutes. Ah, this is great.

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So this guy, he's going to oppose everything that calls itself God, claim to be God, take his seat in the temple.

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And so Paul says, listen, don't you remember when I was still with you, I told you these things? And see, that's kind of the point.

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The same admonition comes to us. Listen, when all this goes down, don't you remember Paul told us it would be like this? Jesus told us it would be like this.

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Daniel said it would be like this. Relax. So you know what is restraining him now, so that he may be revealed in his time.

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For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. 2 ,000 years ago, it was already up and running.

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But note, it talks about the fact that there's something restraining it. So throughout history, although the mystery of lawlessness has been at work,

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Christ has been putting a restrainer on it, not letting it do its full thing. And at the end, he takes his hands off and lets the whole thing go nuts.

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But that's the idea. And so only he who is restraining it will do so until it is out of the way.

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And then, then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.

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Huh. So all right. So this lawless one exalts himself, claims to be

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God, receives worship from all the earth, and how long is that going to last? About that long.

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And when Jesus shows up, all of this crazy, maniacal man of lawlessness delusions about being

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God are going to come to a screeching halt because he's going to come face to face with God in human flesh. Jesus Christ, the glorified one, the one who conquered death and the grave, the one who bled and died for all of your sins, the one who has reconciled you to the

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Father. Keep this in mind and don't discount this. Each and every one of us, we were born into the dominion of darkness.

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We deserve the fate of the devil, but Christ has had mercy on us. He has taken his sin upon us, and he has bled and died for your trespasses and mine so that we can be reconciled to the

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Father so that rather than face the day of judgment and fear and receive God's wrath for all eternity, we instead are pardoned, we are justified, we are forgiven.

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So the same Jesus who has had mercy and compassion on us is going to have a face -to -face encounter with the man of lawlessness.

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And the only way I can describe this, and I know I'm dating myself by using this analogy, it would be like Hulk Hogan versus Pee Wee Herman.

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We know how this is going to go down, right? Thank you, Mikey, I'm glad you approve. I was afraid it was a little too old.

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Yeah, got it. I remember when he played Thunder Lips, but that's a whole other story.

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All right, so you get the idea. And now I like to think of it this way. Remember in the book of Genesis, God in chapter 2 took the dust of the earth and he formed a body, formed

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Adam from the dust of the earth. And what does he do to make him come alive?

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He comes up and he breathes in his nostrils, the breath of life. And Adam became a living being.

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I like to kind of think of it this way, because you'll note that God kind of works, he likes to bookend things.

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Well, it doesn't say it, but I like to think that when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, he sends out his angels and God's wrath is being wrought over all of humanity.

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And it even describes Jesus on a white horse, swinging a sword and blood up to like six, seven stadia on the horse itself.

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I mean, it's just a gory mess when you think about the details. I kind of like to think that the last guy standing on humankind is this crazy maniacal fellow, the man of lawlessness.

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Because remember, what was the temptation in the garden? Oh, you eat of the tree of knowledge and good and evil. You'll be like God, right?

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So God lets it run its course. So here's this insane fellow thinking he's God, face to face with Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, and he's the last guy standing.

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And it's not even like a jujitsu move. Jesus just goes, and he's dead.

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And thus, human history in sin comes to a close.

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Okay. Now, think of it this way. Remember what Paul says. Remember, I told you these things.

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I told you these things. This is like the ultimate spoiler alert. You know how the story is going to end.

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Have you ever had somebody tell you all the details of a movie before you went and saw the movie, and then you were mad at the person for telling you about the details of the movie?

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That happened to me when I was in junior high. Sam Babikian, he told me all of the details about the

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Superman movie with Christopher Reeves, and then my parents took me to go see it the next day. I know exactly what was going to happen.

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It was just horrible. But the idea here is this, is that you've been given all the information about how the story is going to play out at the end.

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You've listened to all the spoilers. So when all this kind of comes, you're going to sit there and go, yeah, yeah, yeah, I already know all of that.

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I already know how this is all going to go down. And that's the point. It's all been spoiled for you so that you can focus on the real outcome.

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The real outcome is not about some crazy guy in the church claiming to be

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God and the whole world worshiping him. The real story, the end of the story, is Jesus just goes, and that guy dies, and Jesus then reigns and rules forever.

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You're being raised from the dead. You're going to reign with them in a world without end, and you're going to be safe forever from the devil, temptation, and sin, and all of this is given to you as a gift.

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You don't even have to lift a finger to earn it. So that's the point. So the lawless one will be revealed.

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The Lord Jesus is going to kill him with the breath of his mouth and bring him nothing by his appearance's coming. And so you'll note some more details that are in the text that the lectionary omitted, but I think worth noting.

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The coming of the lawless one then is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and false wonders.

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We're seeing that a lot today. With all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved, therefore

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God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that they may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

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So you'll note then that with the coming of the lawless one, part of the rebellion is just crazy stuff, false signs, false wonders.

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If you don't know what that's like, just watch TBN. You get the point. Have you ever seen anybody say, in the name of Jesus, I'm going to cause your leg to lengthen and grow?

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It's nonsense. This is exactly what we were told is coming, and you have to be completely deluded to believe all this stuff, and that's the point.

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God sends a delusion on these people who are believing these things. So now we get to the best word in our epistle text today, verse 13, and the word is but.

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But. You'll note that the word but has a tendency to kind of erase all the things ahead of it.

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I always love it when somebody says to me, you know, Rosevere, you're a pretty smart fellow. It's clear that you've studied the word of God, but.

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And then you know what's coming next because everything they said that was kind just got erased. But we think that you're a pretty big meany head and that you're just a little too big for your britches because you're taking this

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Bible stuff way too seriously. Don't you know that doctrine divides? Of course it does. It's supposed to.

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So you'll note that in the text the best word here is but. But. So all the gory details we've been given to them, and yes, they're scary.

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It's going to be terrible, I promise. That being the case, there's a but here.

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And the but says, we ought always to give thanks for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved through sanctification by the

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Spirit and belief in the truth. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know it's going to be awful, but don't you understand this? God chose you in Christ.

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You have been saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. You have been baptized, united with Christ in his death and his resurrection.

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Your sins have been forgiven. You are here worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth.

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So all those gory details, who cares? Who cares? So to this then he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, all right, here's some practical stuff. If you want an application, this is a good one.

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Stand firm. Stand firm. When all this is going down, stand firm. But it's scary.

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Yeah, I know. It's going to be terrible. Yeah, it's going to be painful. Yeah, I assure you it will be. Yeah, so stand firm.

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Hold to the traditions that you were taught by us. You know, the preaching of the word, the receiving of the sacraments, praising the

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Lord and thanking him with our songs and with our offerings.

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Just keep on doing, keep on trucking on. So when the whole world's going crazy and going nuts, you know what we're going to do?

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Same thing we're doing right now. We're going to gather. We're going to confess that we're sinners. We're going to hear that Christ has forgiven us.

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We're going to hear the word of God, rightly taught, law and gospel. We're going to hear the call from Christ to again repent of our sin, of our unbelief, of our anxiety, and there's kind of where the rub is.

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You see, all this anxiety that is fostered by bad eschatological teaching, it ultimately, what it does in us is it creates doubts rather than confidence.

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Doubts about the mercy of Christ. Doubts whether or not I'm worthy to survive. Doubts whether, well, listen,

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I assure you, you're not worthy to make it into the end of the world, to make it into the new creation.

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You're not worthy to stand before Christ and hear, well done, good and faithful servant. I'm not worthy either.

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So how do we survive the end of the world? Oh, you see, Christ has given you that all as a gift. You've been gifted with the righteousness of Christ.

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You've been gifted with the forgiveness of sins. So you don't have to worry about surviving the end of the world or being raised on the last day.

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You're not worthy to, and Christ has made you worthy by bleeding and dying for you.

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So stand firm. Hold to the traditions that you've been taught by spoken word or letter. And now we get this benedictory thought.

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Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, and that's what he's giving us today.

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May he continue to comfort your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.

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So it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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