Remember Lots Wife part 1

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Dr Lars Larson

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Living as a Christian Pilgrim in a Pagan World (part 2)

Living as a Christian Pilgrim in a Pagan World (part 2)

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Let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis 19, please. Genesis 19.
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Last week we completed our consideration of what the Bible teaches about the church, both the universal and local church.
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And I thought before we started our next study of a book, which
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I intend to do, I think, two weeks from today, and right now I'm leaning on 1
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Thessalonians. But I thought for today and for next week, we would address this warning of our
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Lord Jesus that He gave to His disciples. Remember Lot's wife.
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And of course this is based on the account of Lot's deliverance from the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah when the
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Lord destroyed them in His judgment, as recorded in Genesis 19. This is an historical account, according to Scripture, of God's judgment upon a people, an event there around the
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Dead Sea of Israel, perhaps the southeast side of that Dead Sea.
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And that event in Genesis 19, recorded in Genesis 19, has become a paradigm for God's future judgment upon the unconverted world at the second coming of Christ.
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And so our Lord Jesus told His disciples, remember Lot's wife. Let's read about Lot's wife in Genesis 19, beginning with verse 15.
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And this is the day in which God's judgment fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. When the morning dawned, the angels urged
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Lot to hurry, saying, Arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.
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And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the
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Lord being merciful to him. And they brought him out and set him outside the city.
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So it came to pass when they had brought them outside that he said, Escape for your life.
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Do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.
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And then Lot said to them, Please, no, my lords. Indeed, now your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have increased your mercy, which you have shown me by saving my life.
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But I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil overtake me and I die.
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See now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Please let me escape there, for is it not a little one?
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And my soul shall live. And he said to him, See, I have favored you concerning this thing also, in that I will not overthrow this city for which you have spoken.
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Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there.
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And therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen upon the earth when
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Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the
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Lord out of heaven. So he overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
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And then verse 26, But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
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Now, in the little epistle of Jude in the New Testament, the second to the last book of the Bible, just before the
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Revelation, one chapter, we read in verse 7, that this event, this destruction of Sodom, again, was a paradigm, a portrayal of God's judgment, final judgment upon a wicked world.
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And so we read in Jude, verses 5 -7, Jude wrote,
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I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
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And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, he has reserved in everlasting change and under darkness for the judgment of the great day, and here it is, verse 7, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
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And then let's read the warning that our Lord gave to his disciples in Luke 17 -32, which reads very simply to his disciples,
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Remember Lot's wife. Now here are our
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Lord's instructions to his people. He gives us his word, and by his word, of course, he directs us, not only what we are to believe, but how we are to behave, how we are to live, not only what we are to believe about him, but also our duty before him.
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And so the Lord speaks to us, and oftentimes his word comes in two forms to us. First, thankfully, the
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Lord gives blessed promises to his people to encourage them, to help them in their
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Christian walk of faith. Here are a few promises. Our Lord told his disciples, Do not fear, little flock, for it is your
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Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. That's an encouraging promise, isn't it, by our
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Lord? He assured his disciples, Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
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Luke 10 -19 The Lord accomplishes his work through his people, and nothing can prevent it.
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And then before our Lord went to his cross, he said to them, Therefore you now have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
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And thankfully, there are many promises that the Lord gives to his people to encourage them. But that's just one form of his instruction.
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For our Lord, secondly, has also given many serious warnings to his people to prevent them from carelessness and complacency.
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He gives promises to keep them from being discouraged and unfaithful. He gives them warnings to prevent carelessness and complacency.
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He told his followers, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.
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He said on another occasion, Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the
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Son of Man is coming. Warnings. And so by these two, the promises and the warnings of Scripture, the
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Lord keeps his people on that narrow road of faithful discipleship that leads them, directs them to eternal life.
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Well, on one occasion, our Lord gave this warning to his disciples, Remember Lot's wife.
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And that's an abiding word. It's the Lord telling you today, if you're a
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Christian, Remember Lot's wife. There's a lesson there for us that we should take to heart.
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I would like us to consider the teaching session of our Lord Jesus in which he spoke these words to his disciples.
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And today we'll consider the context in which this warning is given. And we'll probably have to consider the importance of this briefly worded warning next week.
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So basically today is introduction, and next week will be application.
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For again, when the Lord Jesus spoke these words to his disciples, he also gave this warning to us, and all the disciples that have followed those first disciples.
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The theme our Lord addressed in this passage arose from a question that was posed to him about the kingdom of God.
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In his teaching, he warned his disciples of the difficult days ahead of them, and their responsibility to be alert and retain a sense of urgency, respecting their salvation from God's wrath.
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It ought to be foremost on our minds always. And so we want to read
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Luke 17, verse 20, through I believe 37.
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Luke 17, verse 20. Now when Jesus, he was asked by the
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Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say, see here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you.
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I might just interject this. He was talking to Pharisees. He was not saying it was within their hearts, because it wasn't.
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He was literally saying the kingdom of God is in your midst. He was referring to himself, where he is, the kingdom of God is, is what he was saying.
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And then he said to the disciples, the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the
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Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, look here or look there, do not go after them or follow them.
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For as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven, so also the
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Son of Man will be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
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And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the
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Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.
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Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot, Genesis 19, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
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And even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day he who is on the house top and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away.
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And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Here it is, remember
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Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, whoever loses his life will preserve it.
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I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed, the one will be taken, the other will be left.
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Two women will be grinding together, the one will be taken, the other left. Two men will be in the field, the one will be taken, the other left.
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And they answered and said to him, Where, Lord? So he said to them, Wherever the body is, there the eagles, perhaps better translated vultures, there the eagles will be gathered together.
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So we have Luke 17, 20 -37. This was toward the end of our
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Lord's earthly ministry. He had been ministering among his people for perhaps three years. All knew about him, even
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King Herod was asking questions about him. The longer our
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Lord was among them, performing miracles, the more people asked questions about his identity. Was he a prophet?
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Was he the promised prophet that Moses foretold? Was he the
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Messiah, the promised King? And strong opinions were held by everyone. The common people favored him highly, the
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Jewish leaders opposed him fiercely. When our
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Lord spoke these words, he had been journeying for some time from Galilee to Jerusalem with his disciples.
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The journey actually began with Luke 9, 51. Much of Luke's gospel is a record of this journey.
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About 90 -100 miles, but from Luke 9, 51 all the way to Luke 19, you have this journey to Jerusalem.
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Everyone seemed to expect a great event to occur once he arrived there. There would be conflict. Perhaps there would be a move on the part of Jesus to assert the claim he was the
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Messiah. This is what some people thought. And thereby perhaps foment a revolution among the people.
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Rome would be overthrown. The Davidic Kingdom set up. The Millennium would arrive. Millennium as they anticipated.
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This had done similarly before him, fomented revolution. Perhaps he would also. It is reasonable, therefore, that questions about the coming of the
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Kingdom of God should arise. There are many differing views among the
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Jews respecting the teaching of the scriptures on this subject. But what were his views?
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What were the views of this rabbi from Galilee respecting the Kingdom of God? Well, let's ask him, thought the
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Pharisees. Of course, I am glad they did. For in the record of Jesus' answer, we have details which help us greatly.
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Although I would argue that they are details that confuse a lot of people also. And I suspect that most of us, when we heard that passage read, looked at the words, probably thought that he was talking about a certain thing that he actually wasn't talking about.
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And so don't presume or assume that you necessarily understand his words at a casual surface reading.
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This takes some work to work through. We want to do that. For just as there was much confusion in that day, there is much confusion in this day respecting these matters.
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There are many inerrant interpretations, fanciful speculations among evangelicals, which really just serve to confuse the people of God and divert them from truly important matters.
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Lord, save us from hobby horses. I listen to Christian radio, and so much of it is that way.
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I get circulars from booksellers, Christian books, and so much of it is just peddling nonsense, frankly.
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And so when we enter a discussion of these matters, we have to wade through a morass of varied opinions. They are held very tenaciously by their adherents.
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And these fanciful claims of prophecy pundants sometimes lead unbelievers to be very wary of the claims of Christians.
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And so this is the ground where we will encounter perhaps the zealot, and he will oppose us. Some are very vehement about this.
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You know, I've had people call me and rebuke me for the things I've said because they have a certain view of prophecy that they just presume is biblical.
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And if I don't conform to that, then they are quick to speak up. Now, because of the nature of this material, we need to do some background work.
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And this is important. And so before we look at the text in detail, we should try and understand something of the Jewish expectation of the day.
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And this will be review for some of you. Nevertheless, let's take a few minutes and trace some of the history of the
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Jews' understanding of this subject, that is, the kingdom of God. I'm about 550 pages through a 750 -page book by Thomas Schreiner.
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And it's entitled, The King and His Beauty, where he takes the kingdom of God as a major theme throughout the entire
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Bible. Old Testament and New Testament has been very good. He's going to be our speaker next year at our
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Bolton conference, one of them. I'm really looking forward to it. And I enjoy communicating with him somewhat, and I'm really enjoying his book.
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But we need to understand the Old Testament and what it says about the kingdom of God. And so let's ask the question or answer the question, what kind of kingdom did the
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Jews expect to come? Well, let's consider the Old Testament teaching. And there are various ideas taught in the
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Old Testament that contributed to the Jews' understanding of the kingdom of God. And again, the kingdom of God is taught throughout the
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Old Testament, throughout its pages. We could show you the kingdom of God being taught in the Garden of Eden.
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Adam was called to be a prophet, priest, and king in the Garden, which he failed to be and do, of course.
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And it's found throughout all of Old Testament Scripture. So let's consider some terms and themes often employed by Old Testament writers.
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First, let's consider the expression or idea of the coming of God. The Old Testament portrays
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God coming to the rest of them from slavery and oppression and bring them to a place of safety and security where they may dwell with Him in peace and righteousness.
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And so, first, we see this was so in Israel's beginning with the Exodus. God came from Sinai into Egypt and led out
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His people with a mighty hand to Sinai. The coming of God to deliver
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His people. Secondly, it was so later when His people were in exile in Babylon.
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God promised He would come to them and bring them out and lead them back to their land. Isaiah 40, 10 through 11, describes
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God coming to save His people from Babylon where they'd been held in captivity for 70 years.
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And this event speaks of the deliverance He brought to them through Cyrus the Persian. Behold, the
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Lord God shall come with a strong hand. That's Isaiah 40, verse 10. His arm shall rule for Him.
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Behold, His reward is with Him. His work before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He'll gather the lambs with His arm.
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He'll carry them in His bosom and gently lead those who are with young. He's talking about going into Babylon, taking
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His people like a scattered flock, gathering them and bringing them back to the land where He would show forth the
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Messiah, the Savior. Thirdly, even David described his rescue from King Saul as a coming of God in Psalm 18.
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God bowed the heavens also and came down with darkness under His feet. He rode upon a sheriff and flew.
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He flew upon the wings of the wind. Now again, that's when God rescued David from King Saul who was trying to kill him.
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And David in this poetic way is described as God coming down and delivering him from King Saul.
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The coming of God. Also, we find in Scripture the coming of God as a visitation from God.
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God's coming to visit His people. Now we know that God is omniscient and He is omnipresent.
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There's no place where He isn't. But when we talk about God coming or God visiting, we're speaking about God manifesting
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His presence in a special way. Either to bring judgment or to bring salvation.
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And so the coming of God as a visitation of God is found in many places. We read about it in the account of Sodom and Gomorrah when they were destroyed.
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It was after a divine visitation at which God, as well as two angels, inspected the city and its inhabitants.
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He came and visited them. And of course they failed to show hospitality to those strangers, which was one of their great sins as well as their going after strange flesh.
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Secondly, again, when God would come to Egypt to bring out His people in the Great Exodus, it was described as a visitation.
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God visited His people. Thirdly, Isaiah declared that God would visit the city of Tyre, which was a very prominent coastal city on a little island set out a little ways from the shoreline, not very far, a couple hundred yards, but it was one of the great sea powers of the ancient world.
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It carried on sea trade on behalf of the nations. And God brought judgment upon Tyre. God visited
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Tyre with His judgment. He came and He destroyed that city,
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Tyre, by Babylon and later, more fully, Greece. In fact,
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I would encourage you to examine the many references to the word visit, visitation, as well as the words come and coming, respecting the manifestation of God to His people in Old Testament times.
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This is a common idea. The Jews anticipated a future visitation of God to come among them, to bring them salvation from their sin.
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And of course this was realized in the coming of Jesus Christ. God visited His people.
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Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, spoke of this prophetically upon the birth of his son, the forerunner of the promised king,
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John the Baptist. So we read in Luke's Gospel, Luke 1 .68,
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Blessed is the Lord God of Israel. Why? For He has visited and redeemed His people.
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This was in anticipation of the birth of Jesus. John was born as His forerunner. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant
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David. And he went on to describe the promised Messiah. God visiting
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His people. Then we'll drop down to verse 78 in Luke 1. Through the tender mercy of our
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God, with which the day spring from on high, has visited us. Again, God visited
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His people when Jesus came into the world. And here of course,
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He was visiting His people with salvation through Jesus Christ. In Genesis 19,
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He visited Sodom and Gomorrah with view to judgment. God visiting, coming in among people to assess them, evaluate them, and pass judgment upon them.
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And so we have the coming of God, we have divine visitation, and thirdly of course, the common expression, the day of the
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Lord. Important expression. The day of the
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Lord should not be viewed as a single specific date, but rather it's like an event that takes place.
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An intervention of God. The phrase describes God intervening in the affairs of nations in order to punish sin and deliver
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His people. The day of the Lord. Perhaps it could be explained in this way.
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Man has had his way, that is his day, and now God's going to have His day. His will is going to be done.
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It's as though God says enough, no more, and He executes justice in punishing evildoers and relieving the oppression of His people.
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And so God intervenes, He acts, and He does it in such a way that all know it, that He brought it to pass.
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And He alone is exalted in that day. Perhaps a good description of the day of the
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Lord is found in Isaiah 2. Here's verse 11. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the
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Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up it shall be brought low.
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In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver, his idols of gold, which they made each for himself to worship, to the moles and bats to go into the clefts of the rocks, into the crags of the rugged rocks from the terror of the
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Lord and the glory of His majesty when He arises to shake the earth mightily. And this language is often used, it's apocalyptic language, to describe this day.
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This language is filled with graphic imagery, poetic symbolism. Men hide in caves, the earth shakes, great hailstones fall, stars fall from heaven, and the glory of God is revealed.
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Now please understand, because the day of the Lord is an event, we should realize the Bible indicates there have been a number of days of the
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Lord in history. Most people today, when they hear the word day of the Lord, they're thinking only of the second coming of Christ.
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And that is not biblical. There have been many days of the Lord through history, biblical history.
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God has intervened in overthrowing kingdoms, punishing the wicked, bringing relief to the oppressed. And great harm comes when this expression, day of the
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Lord, is associated solely with a single date or single event in the future, like the second coming of Christ.
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Many Christians do err greatly because they see this expression as always in every instance referring to the second coming of Christ.
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That is a terrible error because many times in the scripture it speaks of the day of the
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Lord, and it's not a reference to the second coming of Christ, but rather it's a reference to God judging people in history.
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And so the day of the Lord is used to describe a number of historical events in the biblical record. A day of the
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Lord occurred when God judged Egypt in 605 B .C. A day of the
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Lord occurred when God judged the nation of Edom in about 600 B .C. A day of the
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Lord occurred when God judged Babylon in the late 6th century B .C. A day of the
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Lord occurred when God judged both the northern kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to Amos 5.
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And that would have been the 6th century for Judah and the 8th century for Israel. A day of the
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Lord occurred when God judged Jerusalem in the 6th century when He brought Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon.
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A day of the Lord occurred. But what happens is people see that term day of the
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Lord, they think that's the second coming of Christ, and they take those prophecies of the fall of Jerusalem, and they project it as something that's going to take place at the second coming.
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And there is most of your error regarding the interpretation of prophecy taking place, in my opinion, because they misunderstand the term day of the
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Lord. And so they infuse a meaning that is not there, and they begin to interpret all kinds of details as though it is a future event, when in actuality it was a historic event that was fully realized.
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Well, what about the term the Messiah? Of course, this would carry a thought about the kingdom of God.
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The word Messiah in Greek, it means anointed. And it's the word
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Christos, anointed one. Christ is Greek. Messiah.
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Old Testament idea, Hebrew. In the Old Testament, when a person or thing was anointed with oil, and again, that's what the
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Messiah is, the anointed one. When a person or thing was anointed with oil, it indicated that person belonged to God, and that he was thereafter an instrument to be used by God to accomplish
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His work. And so judges and kings were anointed of God in order to administer justice on behalf of God.
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In the Old Testament, we see frequently the expressions the Lord's anointed, or mine anointed, referring to the
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God's servants. The Messiah, as the specific title of the coming
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Savior, did not emerge until rather late in Israel's history. Through most of Israel's history, there was little anticipation of a coming
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Savior. Now, it's found throughout the Old Testament, but it wasn't vividly on the people's minds.
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Now, you and I see the need of a Savior throughout the Old Testament, but the people through most of biblical history did not.
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Before, early in their history, before the periods of the kings, they saw their need for specific instances of divine intervention against their enemies.
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They'd cry out to God, and He'd send a judge, a Savior. And oftentimes that Savior would be anointed.
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The periods of rule by King David and his son Solomon were the glory years of the kingdom of God in the
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Old Testament. And the nation of Israel, the theocratic nation, was a manifestation of the kingdom of God during Old Testament times.
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And with the birth of each succeeding heir of the throne of David, the people's hopes were raised that God through him would bring
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Israel to her former glory. It never occurred, of course. There was a continued degrading, was there not, with each subsequent son of David.
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Oh, yes, occasionally one would arise and do better than others, but there would be disappointment usually by the end of his reign.
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And so they weren't looking necessarily for a far -off Messiah. They were looking for a son of David presently to save them from their enemies.
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The prophets, as well as other writers of the Old Testament, declared that they needed a
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Messiah. They needed a Deliverer that was far greater than just any ordinary son of David. Because of their own sin, they had violated.
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God himself was against them. And that's what the prophets declared. And so they didn't just need deliverance from their enemies.
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They needed deliverance from God who was against them. And so we have increasingly the promise of God that he would graciously, mercifully come to them and save them to, again, a promised
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Messiah. And so what finally began to emerge in their thinking is that in order to be delivered, they needed
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God to send someone, send his Messiah, his anointed one. And not only was he regarded as the son of David, but there are places in the
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Old Testament when they look beyond just a human figure and they saw a divine figure, one like the
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Son of Man, like Daniel's prophecy, who would come and deliver his people.
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And so these two ideas really emerge in the Old Testament record. You had a divine figure coming from heaven to deliver his people, and you had a human figure, a son of David, who would arise and deliver his people.
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And so there are different ideas of the nature of the Savior, the Messiah, who would come.
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There are different thoughts and ideas early in the first century. The people down at Qumran, down by the
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Dead Sea, the Essenes, who thought Jerusalem was corrupt and the priesthood corrupt. They viewed themselves as a spiritual temple.
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They were looking for a heavenly man to come, a heavenly son of God to come and deliver them, defeat
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Rome. Whereas the people in Israel were looking principally to an earthly king to come and restore the fortunes of David and restore the political independency and ascendancy of the nation of Israel over the kingdoms of the world.
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And so they had questions. They weren't sure. And then, of course, the main theme that we have, our idea, is the term the
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Kingdom of God. And there is a lot of confusion about what this means.
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In fact, the Bible speaks of the Kingdom of God in several ways. Oftentimes, the
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Kingdom of God is a description of God's sovereignty over all of mankind, over all history, because He is the
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Creator, He is the King. He is the sovereign ruler over all peoples at all times.
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King Nebuchadnezzar learned of this in Babylon. His dominion is an everlasting dominion.
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His kingdom is from generation to generation. In a sense, the Kingdom of God has always existed throughout all history because God is sovereign in all of His dealings.
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And He has never been frustrated, never been defeated in any of His efforts. However, there is a second idea of the
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Kingdom of God, and this describes a realm in which the citizens of the Kingdom of God are willingly subjected to God's rule.
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The first idea, God rules over all, whether they are His people or not, over the wicked as well as the righteous.
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But in this second idea, the Kingdom of God comprises people who willingly submit to God as their
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King. So, the idea of the Kingdom of God arose in ancient
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Israel. Israel was the kingdom in which God Himself ruled through His judges and later kings.
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David, of course, was the ideal king by which all future kings were judged. But then thirdly, the idea of the
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Kingdom of God setting up the promised son of David as its eternal king.
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And this is in the sense that the Kingdom of God is not now, but it is coming. And this is especially set forth in the prophets of the
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Old Testament. Within this promised kingdom there is freedom from pain and oppression.
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There is peace, joy, and righteousness. The people in the kingdom live before God in a manner that pleases
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Him. They experience His blessing with an abundant life that only He can bestow upon them.
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And the Jewish people anticipated this Kingdom of God. But again, they saw it only in physical terms.
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They looked for a restored, glorious Davidic kingdom. They perceived it as a kingdom ushered in by the Messiah that would be sent into history.
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And Israel would once again regain its ascendancy. So, this was the idea of the
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Kingdom of God in the Old Testament. What about the intertestamental period? The 400 years between the end of Malachi, the last book of the
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Old Testament, and the opening of Matthew? Well, you had different views.
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Again, they began to be more formally articulated. And there were different groups within Israel that adopted certain views of the coming kingdom.
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I already mentioned the Essenes at Qumran by the Dead Sea who were thinking of a heavenly figure to come.
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Others were looking for a political king. And so, by the time the
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Lord Jesus arrived on the scene, there was an anticipation by everyone of the soon coming of the Messiah and His kingdom.
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But there was really not a clear understanding of the nature of that kingdom. And so, our
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Lord Jesus taught His disciples about the nature of the kingdom. And He did it in a way that He really had to re -educate them and correct a lot of misunderstanding.
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That's why He called Himself the Son of Man to these people. Had He gone around and told
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His disciples right at the outset He was the Christ, the promised Messiah, they would immediately infuse all kinds of wrong ideas about the kingdom and about Him as king.
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He called Himself the Son of Man among them and over the course of time was able to infuse in that idea of the
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Son of Man the true nature of the kingdom of God and the true nature of the promised king. And so, when our
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Lord taught His people, taught these people, again, there is anticipation by everyone about the coming kingdom, but there is confusion by everyone, everywhere with respect to the nature of that kingdom.
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And we would argue there's confusion today about this matter also. Well, we now come to our passage in Luke 17, 20 -37.
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We have to kind of pick up our speed here. First, we read Jesus' response to the
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Pharisees in verses 20 and 21. Now, when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,
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He answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say,
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See here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is within you, or rather in your midst.
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They were looking for an earthly political kingdom. They were looking for a Jewish millennium like a lot of people today are anticipating a future thousand -year
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Jewish millennium. That's the kind of kingdom they were looking for. And Jesus said, You're wrong. The kingdom is not that way.
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It's spiritual in nature. Our Lord's entire ministry focused on that theme, that through Him the promised kingdom of God would be present and manifest.
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By the way, the Gospels do not present the kingdom as something that would have taken place if the Jews had embraced it.
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The old dispensationalists taught that. Jesus came offering the millennium, the Jewish millennium, and had the
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Jews accepted Him as their King, then the millennium would have begun. But when they rejected
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Jesus, as their King, God withdrew His offer of the millennium, postponed it 2 ,000 plus years.
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And this church age is an intervening parenthesis. That is not what the Scriptures teach.
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The Lord Jesus brought the kingdom and He established the kingdom through His life, death, and resurrection.
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The kingdom of God was inaugurated when our Lord Jesus ascended from the grave and was enthroned in heaven.
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He is King of kings and Lord of lords. We know, of course, that the
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Jewish people by and large rejected Jesus as their Messiah, their promised King. Rather than submitting to Him as their
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Lord, they crucified Him. And they thought that their rejection of Him put an end to His claims as King.
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He was dead and buried. But in actuality, the Jews' rejection of Jesus, His crucifixion, was the very means that God used to exalt
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His Son. He was obedient even unto death, the death of the cross.
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And so the Father raised Jesus from the dead and thrown Him in heaven as Lord. The promise of the coming kingdom was thereby and the kingdom of God does not come with observation.
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It is not political. It is not earthly. It is not physical. It is spiritual in nature. What did our
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Lord teach on this occasion respecting the kingdom of God? He said, basically, one cannot calculate the arrival of the kingdom.
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Pharisees wanted to know what kind of signs would take place before the kingdom would come. The Lord told them the kingdom did not come in that fashion.
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To think in those terms was to misunderstand the nature of the kingdom completely. The kingdom is not something that is to be seen as arriving suddenly being manifested outwardly.
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It is not a physical kingdom which one can identify as being here or there. In other words, the kingdom is essentially spiritual in nature, centered by the new birth, not by physical birth.
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And this is important. It would seem that some people can only see the kingdom through carnal eyes.
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But the kingdom has to do with forgiveness of sins. It has to do with righteousness, peace with God, peace of God, accompanied by joy in these things.
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This is the nature of the kingdom of God. And these things are not visible to the eye, nor can they be confined to physical boundaries.
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Secondly, Jesus declared the kingdom had already arrived. When is the kingdom going to come? Jesus said, it is already here.
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The kingdom is in your midst. That is, again, it is spiritual in nature, experienced by individuals who come to encounter the rule and power of God in their lives through Jesus Christ.
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And so even while Jesus was ministering, the kingdom of God was being manifest to all who came in contact with Him and experienced
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His working in their lives. The kingdom of God is spiritual in nature.
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After our Lord addressed the Pharisees, we have His further response to His disciples in verses 22 -37.
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And this is the hard part. There are a number of interpretations which are given respecting our
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Lord's teaching. And I am going to present them under two broad headings. First, a common understanding. I imagine most of us when we read that passage we were thinking this is a prophecy of the
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Second Coming of Jesus Christ. But there is a second view as well which we will address later.
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But first let's consider this passage as though we are teaching the Second Coming of Christ and how it would be understood in this way.
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Clearly the Lord is coming one day, literally and physically. When He returns to resurrect all who are in the graves and judge each and everyone according to their works.
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And most people see this passage as our Lord's clear teaching respecting His Second Coming. First, the
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Lord said there would be a day when His disciples longed for the days of the Son of Man but they would not see it. Our Lord was basically telling them that in the future after His departure they will not have it as good as they had it when
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He was among them. You are going to long for one of the days of the Son of Man but it is not going to be like that. Second, the
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Lord said there would be deceivers who would teach that Christ has already come a second time and He is over here or over there.
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And the Lord warns them do not be deceived by them. It is hard to imagine
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Christians could be deceived in this respect in thinking that Christ could have returned and we have to find
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Him. But these disciples did not have the advantage of what the Scriptures say that teach us about these matters.
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Even there are some in Thessalonica, the Church of Thessalonica who thought the Lord came back a second time spiritually.
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And Paul had to correct them in 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians. Thirdly, the
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Lord said His second coming will come suddenly in a fashion that there will be no mistake. But first He must suffer and be rejected of this generation.
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He must suffer and die. And fourth, the Lord said His second coming would come suddenly and unexpectedly. It would be as in the days of Noah.
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Nobody expected the flood in Noah's day. Not until the day Noah entered the ark. Again, a lot of prophecy pundits say that there is going to be this future seven year tribulation and a great tribulation over all the world.
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And you know, the Lord comes a second time coming after the end of the seven years. This seems to counter that.
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It basically says life is going on as normal. Marrying, giving in marriage, business is going on. They did not know.
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They were clueless and then bang! The flood came. And so the same way when the
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Lord comes. Secondly, it would be as in the days of Lot. Again, life was going on as usual.
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Nobody anticipated fire and brimstone coming down. Even in the morning, they woke up on that day.
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There is no mention here of the sins of Sodom. That is not what is under consideration. Rather, the point is that people were unaware until the very moment they saw fire and sulfur raining down upon them.
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So it will be when the Son of Man is revealed. That is, He will judge the wicked on that day.
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And then the Lord gives instruction to His disciples beginning in verses 31 -36.
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When that day comes, flee! Get away now! Do not stop to pack is basically what
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Jesus is saying. They had flat roofs. They spent a lot of time on flat roofs. Do not go down to the house and pack your things.
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You do not have time for that. Get out! Do not go home if you happen to be away.
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Flee! Just as Lot and his family left Sodom, you leave. Remember how Lot's wife tarried?
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She looked back longing for her life in Sodom. God judged her, turning her into a pillar of salt.
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Remember Lot's wife. Now it is in these verses that a real problem arises if you interpret these verses to be speaking about the
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Second Coming of Christ. When the Second Coming of Christ comes, are you supposed to flee?
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Where are you going to flee to? When the
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Second Coming of Christ comes, we are not going to flee. We are going to be caught up to be with the Lord. Aren't we? Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment.
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But here the Lord Jesus is telling His disciples to flee. So here is a problem. Some explain this by saying
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He is speaking metaphorically. He is stressing the need for His disciples to be fully ready, hoping and waiting for the
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Second Coming, not to love the world as did Lot's wife. Do not allow yourself to fall back into worldliness and sin.
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Therefore, be an object of judgment as well. That is perhaps plausible. By the way, here is another point of confusion by many respecting this passage.
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Our Lord declared, one will be taken and another left. Most evangelicals assume He was speaking about the rapture of the
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Church. The Church will be snatched away before a future tribulation period. One will be taken away in the rapture by Christ, caught up in the clouds.
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And the ones left behind. You know, we have the whole series, the left behind series, based on this verse and the parallels.
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The ones left behind. Woe on them. They have to go through the tribulation. The ones that are taken away are the ones that are delivered by the rapture of the
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Church. But the context shows just the opposite is the case.
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It is the ones that are left behind that are ones that are spared. The ones that are taken away are the ones that are under the wrath of God.
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They ask the question, where are they taken? They are out there on the ground and their dead bodies are out there and the vultures are feeding upon them.
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They are the ones who were taken away. The whole title of the left behind series is built on a faulty interpretation of Scripture.
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Do you see that? It is very clear. We are a dead body.
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That is where they are. The vultures are gathered. What he was saying is that they are being taken away is that they were killed due to the judgment of God.
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And the judgment would be great. Half killed. They are removed from the living. Now again, we have described the passage assuming our
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Lord was teaching about His Second Coming. However, there is another plausible interpretation of the passage which you should be aware of.
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It is possible our Lord wasn't speaking about the Second Coming at all, but rather He was speaking about the judgment of God upon Jerusalem that took place in A .D.
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70. And I think, by the way, that He was intimating both.
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He was directly talking about A .D. 70, but there is language here that gives forth the same kinds of warnings as we anticipate the
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Second Coming. We will talk about it some next week. We don't have time today. But let's just work through this briefly, shall we?
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Here in Luke 17, it may be our Lord was predicting the fall of Jerusalem exclusively. He may not have been speaking of His Second Coming at all.
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But how do you get that from these verses, we might ask? Quite easily. The days of the
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Son of Man would be seen as equivalent of the Day of the Lord in the Old Testament when, say, God judged Babylon, Edom, Egypt, Israel, and Judah.
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Jesus declared the judgment would fall on this generation after they rejected Him. He said in Matthew, you know,
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Behold, your house is left you desolate. He told His disciples, Do you think these buildings are something there is going to come a time when not one stone is standing on another?
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When will these things take place? These things are going to take place within this generation. And it did in A .D.
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70. Rome destroyed Jerusalem. And the Christians in Jerusalem fled, by the way, when they saw the
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Roman armies surround Jerusalem. The Roman armies went away for three days. And every Christian in Jerusalem fled.
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They escaped. Not one Christian Jewish person perished in Jerusalem. The Jewish zealots thought that God was giving them a great deliverance.
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They hardened themselves. And three days later, the Roman armies came back, surrounded the city.
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There was no escape there. There was a three and a half year siege. They finally broke through, breached the wall in A .D.
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70, destroyed the city. In fact, in the final destruction of Jerusalem, 1 ,100 ,000
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Jews, it's estimated, were killed, according to Josephus. Only 70 ,000
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Jews survived. And they were marched off by the Roman armies in slavery. And you can go to the city of Rome today, and right across the street from the
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Colosseum, there's an arch dedicated to Titus conquering Jerusalem. And you see a relief.
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You can see it on the Internet. A relief of Roman armies marching Jews and slaves into Rome after having been brought there from Jerusalem.
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The Lord Jesus prophesied of this event, and it came to pass. It was an event of immense significance in the first century to the early church.
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And the scriptures speak of this repeatedly. But again, today, most people are not even aware of that event in A .D.
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70. And consequently, people don't recognize the passages that prophesy of that great event.
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And so when they come to those passages that deal with the event in A .D. 70, not understanding that they were fulfilled, they take those and they project them again as though they were prophecies of a future time before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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And much error, in my opinion, in the interpretation of prophecy is due to their failure to recognize the significance of this great event.
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Again, we have to close.
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Give me three minutes and we'll close. Look in your notes. Let's quickly look at these verses from this perspective.
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Luke 17, 22 -23. The days of the Son of Man would be seen as the equivalent of the day of the
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Lord. Again, just as God judged Babylon, Egypt, Edom, Israel, and Judah, He also would destroy
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Jerusalem. Verse 24. When one of the days of the Son of Man would be manifested, that day will come suddenly, unexpectedly, like lightning.
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Here's this expression. Perhaps one of the greatest difficulties applying these verses to AD 70. And the interpretation of lightning is the issue.
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Some argue that He'll be seen like lightning is seen in the second coming, flashing from one end of heaven to the other.
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But probably the idea of lightning here is the idea of suddenness and unexpectedness.
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It falls suddenly. We see in verse 25,
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Christ's death must proceed, precede that day. Not proceed, precede that day. This generation would reject
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Him, and as a result of their rejection, they would encounter their destruction. The day would come suddenly, as in the days of Noah and Lot.
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And again, that's how the Roman army surrounded Jerusalem. Luke 21 speaks about it clearly.
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On that day, His disciples were to flee Jerusalem, and they did historically. Those who want to argue that this is a prophecy of the second coming of Christ, the
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Christian Jewish people in Jerusalem in AD 67 didn't believe that, or they would have stayed in Jerusalem.
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They fled, and they were rescued. And then on that day, the righteous would be separated from the wicked, and that's exactly what happened.
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The righteous were spared. No Christians perished in that fall. They all fled.
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Eusebius, the first church historian, around 310, 15 AD, 315
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AD, 320 AD, he wrote about it. Matthew Henry understands this passage to be speaking about AD 70.
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Here are just a few of his words. When Christ comes to destroy the Jewish nation by the Roman armies, the generality of that nation will be found under such a reigning security and stupidity as this.
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They have warning given by Christ now, and will have it repeated to them by the apostles after him, as they had by Noah and Lot, but it will all be in vain.
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They will continue secure, will go on in their neglect and opposition of Christ and his gospel, till all the
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Christians are withdrawn from among them, gone to the place of refuge. God will provide for them on the other side of Jordan, and then a deluge of judgment shall flow in upon them, which will destroy all the unbelieving
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Jews. He applied this passage to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
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Well, let's close with this. Avoid extremes, avoid dogmatism, be teachable, and in your reading of prophecy interpretation, if there's never any mention of AD 70, be skeptical.
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If there is mention of AD 70, be a little skeptical, and read it carefully, because there is so much, frankly, that appears on the surface to be legit, and yet realize we're often conditioned, preconditioned, to interpret a passage a certain way that just doesn't bear up historically or biblically.
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May the Lord help us in these matters. Father, we ask that you would help us, our
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Lord, to be faithful to you, and we pray, Lord, as we take these matters to heart, that you would help us to embrace this lesson.
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Remember Lot's wife, and we pray that you would help us to see the meaning of this and the implications of this as we reflect upon this passage and the event of Genesis 19.
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Help us, our God, to be faithful to you, and faithful to Christ. Help us, our Lord, to walk in faith and obedience, ever vigilant, watching.
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Father, not so much for signs, Lord, and indications of your coming, but that we'll be watching for ourselves and over ourselves, that regardless of when you come, we will be found to be faithful, trusting, and righteous before you.