End Times Pretenders

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Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

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What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. All right, if you would open your Bibles to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 24.

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Gospel according to Matthew chapter 24. I want to encourage you, if you are new to Apologia Church or you're watching this on the internet,

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I encourage you to go back and listen to, watch the sermons that are previous to this one.

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It's very important to get that context. We are nearing the end of the

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Olivet Discourse, so we've been through a lot. We've done a lot of looking at the words themselves, unpacking the original language itself.

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We've talked about context. We've talked about how the Lord Jesus promises destruction upon that generation, and that these things, all of these things would take place before that generation had all passed away.

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So we are coming again to the near end of this, so if you are just now getting into this with us, strongly encourage you to go back, spend the time listening to the sermons, really examining all of the relevant texts.

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So we are in Matthew chapter 24, again the Olivet Discourse. Jesus on the

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Mount of Olives. Jesus talking about the Great Tribulation. We've just come out of Jesus talking about the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet

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Daniel. We've talked about Jesus rescuing his people from the destruction of Jerusalem.

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We've talked about historically the Christians actually fled and went to a town called

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Pella and were spared, many of them, from the destruction of Jerusalem in fulfillment of really what

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Jesus describes here. And we are in Matthew 24. Pastor James just did a message last week on the elect, going throughout the scriptures talking about that concept of the elect of God, God's choice of a particular people in Jesus Christ for salvation.

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So we are in now Matthew 24. 23. Hear now the words of the living and the true

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God. Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it.

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For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he's in the wilderness, do not go out.

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If they say, look, he's in the inner rooms, do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the

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Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is there, the, and the ESV says, vultures will gather.

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Thus far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray together. Father, we present ourselves before you,

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Lord, praising you first and foremost as your people for the salvation you've given to us and for this gift of your word.

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You have spoken. Lord, help me to communicate that today, that you have spoken.

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That's the anchor. That's the foundation. It's not our emotions. It's not our feelings.

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It's not someone's mere claims. It's not the signs and the wonders, but it's your word that's the anchor.

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That's the foundation. Help us, Lord, to understand this passage.

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Help us to properly understand it and to hear you. Guide this teaching today,

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Lord. Guard me, shepherd of your people and under -shepherd from error. Speak and teach,

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God. Let me decrease in Christ, increase in Jesus' name. Amen. So, Matthew 24,

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Olivet Discourse. Quick burst in terms of context. Pastor James was just talking about 1551,

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Stephanus, and the addition of the, uh, the verses. I did, I was whispering that, by the way, but I was afraid of him.

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Um, no, I'm just kidding. It's the shirt, Pastor James. Uh, so, but it's true.

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Very, very important element of that, I think, just goes well with this right now. The verse, um, designations are actually very helpful in terms of referencing all the, all the rest, but we have to be very cautious.

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So cautious. There are people who say we are a Bible -believing church, right? We believe the

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Bible's the word of God. Just the Bible's the word of God, right? And they'll take and string together so many proof texts that are taken really out of context to develop sort of a foundation for a tradition that they have, that they have embraced, and that they propagate.

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Now, just because somebody can give you a list of 15 verses, just because somebody can give you proof texts, doesn't mean that those proof texts have been properly interpreted or brought into context.

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It is vital that we actually approach the word of God with enough reverence for God speaking to us that we handle his word in a way that is consistent, where we let

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God do the speaking in context. This is so vital for us to get as Christians.

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There are so many people who are abused by religious people by having them, quote, proof texts, and sort of being weighed down by a false teaching sort of surrounding that proof text.

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We have to be very cautious. So in Matthew 24, this particular passage is a passage that is used, has been used for ages to abuse people religiously, to abuse people in terms of prophecy.

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There have been so many generations of Christians who have been abused by Christian leaders and profess

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Christian leaders through this text. Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21, the Olivet Discourse, that's the

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Synoptic Gospels. You put those together, you'll see the Great Tribulation passage, the Olivet Discourse, and it's vital for us to go to the passage and say, okay, what is the immediate context?

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What does it say? What is Jesus saying? What do the words mean? What are these in context? How is

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Jesus using this? Who is he speaking to? Who's the audience? What relevance is there to this? All of those things matter, but also in the context of all of scripture, we need to put total scriptura all together to say, how does this work together in God's entire narrative, in his story about history?

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We need to be consistent and say, what does God say in total about this particular subject?

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So the Olivet Discourse, the Lord Jesus has now actually departed. He's now departed and gone to the

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Mount of Olives. And it's interesting, I pointed out that Yahweh in the Testament before the destruction of the first temple, it says that Yahweh's glory departed the temple, went over towards the

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Mount of Olives and rested there. Now we have the Lord Jesus indicting Jerusalem for their covenant unfaithfulness, their sin.

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There's some very serious indictments, of course, from 21 through 23, but now we have

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Yahweh in the flesh departing and now resting on the Mount of Olives.

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And now he's foretelling the destruction of the Jewish temple. So there's the context.

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And Jesus has just in Matthew 23 condemned the religious leadership in Jerusalem.

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He's been doing that through these chapters leading up, but in 23, condemns the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, calls them whitewashed tombs.

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He uses very strong language. He calls them a brood of vipers. He calls them all the things that the 21st century evangelical

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Jesus would never do. The meek and mild Jesus doesn't talk like this, but this is how Jesus handles religious abusers and leaders.

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He confronts them. And we have Jesus, of course, in 23, telling them in 35, so that on you, who?

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Who's he speaking to? Who's the audience? Us, people today? No, Jesus was speaking to them.

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He was indicting them. And he says, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth from the blood of righteous

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Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.

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And here it is, verse 36, truly, I say to you, who's he talking to?

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Us? He's talking to them. He says, all these things will come upon this generation.

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We're not going to spend time today unpacking the word genea, the generation, how it's used throughout the New Testament, through the gospels, in the gospel according to Matthew.

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But I just want to say that we've stressed that this usage here is pretty consistent and it refers to the generation of people been living.

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So Jesus says, all these things are going to come upon this generation. In Luke's gospel, we have the

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Lord Jesus saying, these are the days of vengeance. What days? The days that he is in, the days of the people generation he's speaking to.

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These are the days of vengeance in order that all that has been written may be fulfilled. Jesus promised judgment upon that generation, specific local judgment, verse 37 of 23.

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Again, just an update today. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

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How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you, you were not willing.

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Who? The Jewish leadership. See, your house is left to you desolate.

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So Jesus now indicts the covenant breakers. He's indicting the leadership in Jerusalem and now he departs

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Mount of Olives. He sits on the Mount of Olives, but notice in chapter 24, as it begins, context here is key.

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He's just indicted the leadership. He departs. Now he goes over to the Mount of Olives and you see, of course, this moment where he leaves the temple verse one.

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It was going away when his disciples came to point out to him, the buildings of the temple. Think about the context. He just gave them an indictment.

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Your house has left you desolate all these things upon this generation. And now the disciples are saying, look, but look at this amazing edifice.

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Look at this thing. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful, right? It's when the sun shines on, it looks like a star glowing in the distance on the land.

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It's an amazing thing. And Jesus says, he answers them verse two, you see all these things.

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Do you not truly I say to you, truly, truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.

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We've talked about how in that very generation, 70 AD was the final destruction of the

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Jewish temple. That prophecy the Lord Jesus gave was fulfilled. The temple was taken apart stone off of stone, exactly as Jesus promised it.

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But notice that the context here, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, blood of the righteous upon this generation, you, your house left you desolate.

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The context is very local. The context is Jerusalem. We have a very local judgment happening to the degree that in verse 16 of 24, when

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Jesus refers to the abomination of desolation, verse 16, it says, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

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That's a local judgment. If you're in Judea, flee to the mountains. The early

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Christians of course did that. We have the writings of Eusebius. We've referred to early church father, bishop, pastor, who actually, when unpacking

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Matthew 24, he refers to the fact that they had a prophecy vouchsafed by holy men, scripture, that told the early

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Christians to flee and they did. They fled to a town called

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Pella. In the other synoptic gospel version of the Olivet Discourse, Luke's version of this text, he doesn't say the words in the same way

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Matthew does. He says, instead of abomination of desolation, he says, help for the

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Gentiles, he says, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee. The early

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Christians did exactly that. First century fulfillment, that generation in fulfillment of all that Jesus had told them.

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He warns them, don't go back. Flee Judea. Don't go back. Cloak. Don't do it. Just flee the city.

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Nursing, babies, winter, Sabbath. Sabbath, very

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Jewish context. Jesus tells his people, look, when you see these things taking place, leave immediately.

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And of course we know from history that Christians did flee the city and they avoided the destruction of Jerusalem.

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Now, here we go. Just a quick thing in terms of, again, a burst. Remember that I've been stressing that the great tribulation in Olivet Discourse passage doesn't drop out of the sky as a novelty for the

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New Testament faith. What have we talked about? We talked about how the

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Old Testament told us about a new covenant that was coming. A new covenant.

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Jeremiah 31, 31. Ezekiel 36. A new covenant God was going to make, not like the old one, a new one where he puts his law within his people.

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Something new was going to take place. There was going to be the age of the Messiah, the age of the new covenant.

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But God warns his people through prophecy in the Old Testament, long before Jesus comes, that there is going to be punishment, covenant sanctions upon the covenant breakers.

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We talked about Deuteronomy 28. And God, as he makes a covenant with his people, he tells them,

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I will give you blessings if you obey. Here's the amazing blessings. And then he tells them, and I'll give you curses.

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Here's the curses of the covenants when you disobey. We went through some of those covenant sanctions and we talked about the fact that some of the warnings about covenant sanctions actually go to famine and go to even eating your own children as a covenant sanction.

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A warning that it's going to be so bad that you'll eat your own children. We talked about how in the destruction of Jerusalem, those things took place.

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The famine was horrific. There were so many crosses and dead bodies. It was like a forest of crosses outside of Jerusalem.

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We talked about blood throughout the streets. We talked about records that Josephus even has of people eating their own children.

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The covenant sanctions fell upon that generation. But more important is that God says that when

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Messiah comes in his kingdom, Malachi 3, Malachi 4,

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Isaiah 65, that God was going to bring about salvation. We've got that part down, but he also warned there was going to be judgments.

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Messiah's coming would come with two things, salvation and judgment.

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Salvation and judgment upon the covenant breakers. I encourage you to go back and look at those passages to see exactly that promise.

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Now as you get into Matthew 24, you'll also see, of course we mentioned it, that Jesus refers in verse 15 to the abomination of desolation.

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We've unpacked this. Go back and look at those studies on Daniel. We did a little bit of Daniel 9 and talked about the passage that Jesus was referencing.

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Now I want to note here a very important thing about that passage. Pastor James had a recent debate,

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I mentioned this before, with a man who has fallen into apostasy and his name is

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Lee Baker. And one of the things that he tried to say was the abomination of desolation,

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Christians say that that's Jesus and it's a prophecy of his coming and you know all the rest.

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But how come the New Testament doesn't mention it? We don't have the New Testament writers mentioning that. Interesting thing,

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Matthew 24, who mentions it? Jesus. Abomination of desolation.

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What's that from? Daniel chapter 9. Lo and behold, that's also the passage from Daniel that speaks about the

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Messiah coming to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring an everlasting righteousness, and it says the

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Messiah would be cut off and have nothing and then the second Jewish temple would be destroyed.

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Isn't it interesting that when Jesus the Messiah enters in, in these chapters he talks about his death that's about to take place in Jerusalem, and his going to Jerusalem I should say, and he talks about the fact that the temple is going to be destroyed and mentions of course the abomination of desolation from Daniel chapter 9.

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Very important, but I just want to point out this very important thing. In the very passage where the

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Lord Jesus talks about great tribulation upon that generation, in the very passage where Jesus talks about their house left to them desolate, he describes the destruction of the

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Jewish temple. Now when you look at Daniel chapter 9, Daniel 9 says as a timeline,

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Messiah comes, here's the purposes, atonement is a part of that, the Messiah is cut off and has nothing, and then it says that the destruction of the second temple occurs.

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That's precisely what Jesus is describing here in Matthew chapter 24, the destruction of the second

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Jewish temple. This is all part of God's complete narrative and the glory of this, and this gets to the issue of prophets today, is that scripture is clear.

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God is sovereign, amen? Now I know we're Calvinist now, but don't ever lose sight of that, don't ever get sort of jaded to that truth.

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He's sovereign and amazing, unique, and I say unique very purposely.

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The unique aspect of this revelation in history is that God actually lays down as a test that he's the sovereign, and Isaiah, the test, the calling out of the false gods,

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God actually says this, he says, I'll tell you the future before it happens, and I'll tell you the past and why it happened the way that it did, because God wields all of history.

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He can tell you what occurred even in the past and its purpose. That's how sovereign our

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God is, but in terms of prophecy, scripture teaches us in Deuteronomy chapter 18, 20 through 22, one of the tests of a prophet is if they try to tell you the future before it happens and they fail even one time, they are according to God's own standard here as a living sovereign

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God, a false prophet. That's a unique claim to scripture.

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Because God is sovereign, this revelation that spans hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, and multiple authors, and different locations, this revelation is filled with prophecy about the future, and think about what

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God says. You want to know if somebody is not from me, if they're not from the true and living

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God, if they're a false prophet, if they give you one false prophecy, that is how you know they are not speaking for the true and living

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God, because God controls the future. He wields the future.

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He is sovereign over every single detail. Every detail of my life and yours in Jesus Christ has meaning, has purpose, from the glories and the gardens to the deserts and the sufferings.

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All of it has purpose, but God gives prophecy, prophecy about the future, controls all of history.

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So I often say, if you want to take the legs off the Bible, I challenge you, find a single false prophecy in the entire

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Bible. According to God's own standards, there can be no false prophecy.

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God is sovereign. Now, what's powerful is that Jesus now, after describing the end as the end of the age, that is not the end of the cosmos, not the physical world, the end of the age,

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Jesus finishes, listen closely, he finishes this discussion with this in Matthew 24, verse 34, after the discussion of the tribulation of those days, the sun being darkened, the moon turned to blood, the powers of the heavens shaken, all those things,

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Jesus says this, truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

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Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. Some people have tried to suggest that what we should do, because their eschatology doesn't fit into the passage correctly, we should say maybe some of this is fulfilled in that generation, and some of it is off to some other generation, like the stars haven't fallen from the heavens yet, so, you know, apparently that's future to us.

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Well, the problem is that Jesus caps this off with what? All these things, including what?

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Abomination of desolation, including the sun, the stars, the moon, including the powers of the heavens, all those things are contained in the, this generation, all these things, and we're going to get, of course, into the sun being darkened and all those things, and Jesus quoting from Isaiah 13, something that God said before about pagan nations, it's the way that God speaks about judgment and destruction, but note that cap on the end of this, very important, because what

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I want to argue from the text is that Jesus promised that generation these judgments, he promised that generation these sanctions, he promised that generation desolation, and he promised that generation all of these things, from the difficulties, the persecutions, to even the false messiahs and false prophets.

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What I'm arguing is that Jesus made these promises about what would befall them, and they happened on time and as planned, and so to the text now, 24, 23 through 26,

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I'm not doing all that today, just this first section here, then if anyone says to you, verse 23, look, here is the messiah, or there he is, do not believe it, for false messiahs, false christs, and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

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Quick thing, before this, Jesus says that generation. After this,

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Jesus says this is encompassed in that generation, the ones he was speaking to, his audience in that day, and so the question we have to ask is were there false messiahs and false prophets plaguing that generation, and the answer is yes, and I'm going to demonstrate that today from scripture and from history, but I want to talk just briefly, false messiah,

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I think, is self -explanatory, right, an anointed one, someone claiming to be messiah, the same role or typical role, close to what

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Jesus was claiming about himself, but also false prophets, and we talk about prophets in scripture,

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I'm going to say two categories here, just very briefly, you can have two ways somebody's a prophet, one, you can have somebody who is a prophet by means of foretelling, foretelling, in other words, a prophet in terms of how

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I just described it, right, in other words, someone says, thus saith the Lord, before this generation all passes away, a temple will be built in Jackson County, Missouri, who said that?

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That's the Mormon prophets, right, they said that that generation would build a temple, God's temple, Jackson County, Missouri, before that generation all passed away, failed prophecy, right, that Jesus Christ is going to return in that generation in the 19th century, that would be an example of prophecy, right, foretelling, this is going to happen in this many years, this will take place in your life, thus saith the

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Lord, there's a version of prophets, someone who foretells, tells you beforehand, another way you could speak about prophets in scripture is somebody who foretells, in other words, somebody who is saying,

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God says to you this, someone receiving divine revelation, giving words from God, that's somebody who could be seen as a prophet of God, so you have

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Old Testament prophets that may not give you a foretelling, right, this is what's going to occur in the future, but they're still operating as a prophet in terms of their foretelling from God, he says this to you, so there's two aspects of prophets, foretelling and foretelling, so Jesus says there's going to be false messiahs and false prophets, well, let's go to the

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New Testament record, which I think is the most important thing to do, because they were living in the generation

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Jesus described would experience these things, so let's look at the New Testament record, this is not an exhaustive look at this today, let's just take a smattering of verses, just go back and check them out later in terms of what was the experience of that generation of Christians and believers in terms of what

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Jesus promised would occur to them, quickly go to Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 8,

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Acts chapter 8, and start in verse 9,

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Acts chapter 8 verse 9, but there was a man named Simon, turns out Simon's actually famous in history, right, but there was a man named

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Simon who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great, they all paid attention to him from the least to the greatest, saying this man is the power of God that is called great, and they paid attention to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic, but when they believed

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Philip as he preached the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women, even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he continued with Philip, and seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed, now when the apostles of Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them

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Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the

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Lord Jesus, then they lay their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit, now when

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Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands, he offered them money, he offered the money, saying give me this power also, so that anyone of whom

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I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit, but Peter said to him, may your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money, you have neither part nor lot in this matter, nor is your heart, for your heart is not right before God, repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the

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Lord that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you, for I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity, and Simon answered, pray for me to the

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Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me, so just note that section, now that was

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Acts chapter 8, another section I want you to pay attention to if you would, in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11,

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I'm pointing to this particular one because I think it's valuable for us beyond this message in terms of our evangelism and outreach to the cults, 2nd

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Corinthians chapter 11, some of you guys are very familiar with this, you start with verse 3, but I'm afraid the

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Apostle Paul says that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ, for if someone comes and proclaims another

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Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough, what's that mean, saying if this person comes and preaches another

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Christ, another gospel, another spirit, he says you might even put up with him, you might even allow it, and he says this, indeed

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I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles, even if I am unskilled in speaking,

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I am not so in knowledge, indeed in every way we have made this plain to you in all these things, so the

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Apostle Paul here is dealing in the first century with, of course, other Jesuses, other spirits, other gospels, and he's worried about the church and these quote super apostles and the effect they're having on the believers, look again at 2nd

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Peter, 2nd Peter chapter 2, 2nd

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Peter chapter 2, chapter 2 in verses 1 through 3,

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Peter in that generation says, but false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teaching among you, you will secretly bring in, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction, and many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemes, and in their greed they will exploit you with false words, their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep, here the

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Apostle Peter is speaking to Christians living in that generation about what was going to come upon them, and he's warning them about all these false teachers that will bring in all these destructive teachings and heresies, another example is 1st

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John, 1st John chapter 4 verse 1, again we're looking at the

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New Testament record now, beloved, 1st John 4 1, beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world, by this you know the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess

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Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming in now, in what's coming and now is in the world already, here's the

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Apostle John dealing with false prophets, false teachers in his day, 2nd

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John verse 7, move over just a little bit there, 2nd John verse 7, again happening in the generation

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Jesus had been speaking to, for many deceivers have gone out into the world, verse 7 again, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, such a one is the deceiver and the

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Antichrist, watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward, everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

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God, whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son, if anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him a greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works, here's the

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Apostle John warning the early Christians, look if people are denying these things that Christ has come in the flesh,

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God takes on flesh, they're denying this, don't even let him into your house, now of course we got to think about context, right, because we have people that have abused this verse and have actually said you should never let more missionaries into your house, why?

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Because they deny the biblical Jesus, don't let him into your house, right, don't let Jehovah's Witnesses into your house, that's really a demonstration that we need to read the

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Bible in its context, where were these early Christians gathering for worship? Where? In their houses, so what is

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John warning them against? You don't let these false teachers, these deceivers into your fellowship, don't let them into your worship, don't let them into your communion, nothing to do with your house, we're going to have a real hard time interpreting or living this passage out in terms of, like Dr.

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Martin said in one of his lectures on this passage, he says no one holds to that consistently when they say it's referring to your actual physical home, imagine it's two o 'clock in the morning, the pipes burst and your house is flooding, right, you call the 24 -hour plumber, come rescue me, help me, he comes to your door, you open the door and you say wait, do you bring the doctrine of Christ or not?

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Nobody does that, context is key, right, but again here is John referring to the false teaching that is plaguing the early church there, these false prophets that have ever had arisen, in Jude 1, there's only one chapter there, verse 4, here's what

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Jude says, for certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people who pervert the grace of our

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God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ, and you can read through this entire passage in Jude, the warning about these false teachers, he refers to them in verse 12, these are hidden reefs at your love feasts as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves, waterless clouds swept along by winds, fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted wild waves of the sea casting up the foam of their own shame, wandering stars for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever, here's the point

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I wanted to demonstrate, we can go on and on and on throughout the New Testament record, you have record in the

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New Testament itself of the early Christians, the apostles dealing with a whole multitude of false teachers, people who were bringing in destructive heresies to the early church, they were plagued with this problem, in 1st

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Timothy 1 20 in 2nd Timothy 2 17, the apostle Paul refers to two of these dangerous teachers by name,

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Hymenaeus and Philetus, who had actually been claiming that the resurrection had already occurred, so we have that really throughout the

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New Testament record, but I want to deal with a few historical examples, Jesus says these things are going to be upon that generation, false messiahs and false prophets,

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Jesus even mentions, he says if they say look he's out in the wilderness, don't go, hang on to that,

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Matthew 24, if he's in the wilderness, don't go, this I thought would be good to pull from the

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Jewish encyclopedia, I was like we can pull just from Josephus, but I wanted to read this section from the

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Jewish encyclopedia in terms of the history that they're referring to, here is in the

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Jewish encyclopedia Simon Magus, a person frequently mentioned in the history of primitive

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Christianity, according to Acts 8 9 23, he was greatly feared throughout

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Samaria on account of his magic powers, but he permitted himself to be baptized and wished to purchase the gift of the

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Holy Ghost, being cursed by Peter for this presumptuousness, in spite of the definitiveness of the statements regarding him, the historicity of Simon has been doubted by many critics, especially

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Bauer in his school of course, who held that he was a caricature of the caricature of the apostles of the

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Gentiles, now as this goes on, I'm not going to read all of this today, he mentions how

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Clementine or Christian Clementine recognitiones represents

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Simon as a Jewish magician instead of a Samaritan, lots of history on this character in history, but here's the point in the

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Jewish encyclopedia, in reality however, Simon seems at first to have asserted merely that he was a messiah, though later he claimed that he was a god,

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Irenaeus actually refers to Simon as well and quote says, he was worshipped by many as a god and seemed to himself to be one, for among the

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Jews he appeared as the son, thus identifying himself with Jesus, in Samaria as the father and among other peoples as the

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Holy Ghost, Simon is also said to have commanded that a grave be dug for him from which he was to arise in three days, but this is it is declared he did not do, so we have of course an example there in history of false messiah claims within that generation, with actually a very popular teacher in those days, another example from again

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I thought good to pull from this Jewish encyclopedia, in the first century from Josephus it appears that in the first century before the destruction of the temple a number of false messiahs arose promising relief from the

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Roman yoke and finding ready followers, Josephus speaks of them thus, quote another body of wicked men also sprung up, cleaner in their hands but more wicked in their intentions, who destroyed the peace of the city, no less than did these murderers, for they were deceivers and deluders of the people and under pretense of divine illumination, they said

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God had sent them, were for innovations and changes and prevailed on the multitude to act like madmen, listen listen, and went before them in the wilderness pretending that God would there show them signs of liberty,

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Josephus says, this generation according to history was plagued with false messiahs, false messiahs even calling people to join them in the wilderness, what did

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Jesus warn his people of in that generation, false messiahs, false prophets and if they say to you look he's in the wilderness do not believe them,

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Josephus is not a Christian, he is not a Christian, he was a Jewish Pharisee in the

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Roman army and he experienced what Jesus said was going to happen in that generation in the destruction of Jerusalem and as you see

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Josephus records the history, isn't it interesting that he even mentions that these false messiahs were calling people to follow them into the wilderness, we could go on another example is an

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Egyptian is said to have gathered together 30 ,000 adherents whom he summoned to the mount of olives opposite Jerusalem promising that at his command the walls of Jerusalem would fall down and that he and his followers would enter and possess themselves of the city, so we can go on again this is not today an exhaustive list but what have we been trying to demonstrate that if we actually pay attention to the context if we let the text itself speak if we look at it consistently within the narrative of scripture in God's total revelation we can see that Jesus promised these things upon that generation he promised there would be false messiahs he had said false prophets and that is what took place did it happen yes was it fulfilled absolutely now here's what

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I wanted to focus on the most today is I think it's easy to demonstrate from the new testament record in history that they were plagued with false prophets and false messiahs that occurred fulfillment of prophecy absolutely but I think there's something more important pastorally that I need to deal with for the people of God and that is to provide a firm foundation now we have many people even today claiming to be messiah people claiming to be prophets from God people doing listen closely we know that it occurs signs and wonders

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I actually was in Kauai and it was an amazing experience actually

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I was in Kauai for our mission out there and we had a day where we can go to the beach and I'm at the beach and I look as I'm in the water

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I look and I see that looks like Todd White that looks like Todd White so I'm in there next thing you know this little girl streams up to me she starts talking to me and she said

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I'm realizing that she's you know she's saying some things about Jesus and I'm like huh and so I said is that your dad she says yeah

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I said is that Todd White she says yeah that's Todd White you know my dad I was like I know your dad and so I got to meet

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Todd White Todd White's one of those guys today that goes about you see him on the internet these people there's just one example a person that goes around claiming to uh you know grow people's legs back completely to heal them on the spot signs and wonders miraculous events we have all these examples of all the charlatans over the last generation of our own lives of people who build entire quote ministries upon the signs and the wonders and the spiritual and the miraculous and so the question is how do we face these things down as God's people because it's not a new conflict it's a conflict that has honestly plagued

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God's people since the very beginning the question is how do I know what is true how do

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I know somebody is speaking from God that's what we have to ask because Jesus warns look false messiahs and false prophets are going to come they're going to have signs and wonders they're going to do things if possible to deceive even the elect signs and wonders that seem so real so much from God we have to ask those questions what if someone comes and they produce something that looks like it's truly divine it looks like we're in the midst of the miraculous at the moment raising the dead people have claimed to do that you know early

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Mormon history even has examples of claims to the miraculous happening at the hands of Joseph Smith so we have to ask the question do we follow somebody because they have a sign and a wonder and I want to say from scripture we know that God's standards teach us how we're to know something is true how somebody is from God so two texts to land on today

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Deuteronomy 13 1 through 5 Deuteronomy 18 20 through 22

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I want to say that these people that Jesus was speaking to when he says signs and wonders they should have understood that Jesus is the

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Torah obeying Jew he is the righteous one he knows the law of God and so when

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Jesus says they're going to have signs and wonders if you know the Torah which we should it's the law of God and it is good we should know that in Deuteronomy 13

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God has a warning to his people he says that even if somebody comes and they have oh lo and behold signs and wonders but they lead you after another

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God God's which you have not known that's how you know they're a false prophet so even if they have the miraculous even if they're growing people's legs you'll know whether they're from God based upon what they say about God so what was the anchor for Deuteronomy 13 follow me here

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Deuteronomy 13 is even if the miraculous is happening and it looks divine the standard is

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God's previous revelation of himself here's the answer God has spoken about himself about his character about the future about his love for his people

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God has spoken and God says this even if the miraculous is happening but they lead you after a different God that's how you know they're a false prophet so what was the standard of Deuteronomy 13

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God's previous revelation the signs and wonders God does use in history amen yes those are of course in tandem with his promises and of course they vindicate what

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God said he was going to accomplish who this man of God is but listen that sign and wonder isn't the foundation it's not the foundation it's not intended to be the foundation

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God's own self -attesting revelation is the foundation not the sign and wonder just consider for a moment it's happened in history it's right in the revelation when

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Moses goes before Pharaoh there's some amazing signs and wonders the miraculous is happening and then what occurs

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Pharaoh's own crew his hype men are throwing out their magic right

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I can do that I can accomplish that wonder only there were certain things they couldn't accomplish like they don't control nature so the blood in the water was kind of difficult for him and of course the flies and all the you know all the rest like those things they couldn't control but the point is is even the demonic can influence and empower in such a way as to actually appear to be divine and a message or voice from God we have to say how do we know because the sign and wonder that is not a basis it is

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God's previous revelation second point I mentioned it earlier 20 through 22 and you should and if you say in your heart how shall we know the word which the

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Lord has not spoken when the prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the thing follows not nor comes to pass that is the word which the

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Lord has not spoken the prophet has spoken it presumptuously you shall not be afraid of him so the tests are

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God's previous revelation and we know from prophecy a single false prophecy makes you a false prophet but we also know this is so critical

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I'm going to say this quickly I threw it in actually before service I was like I need to say that so I actually added it here

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I think it's important uh we need to be consistent as Christians we do and we need to hold

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Jesus to the same standard amen it's vital atheists pick up on this agnostics pick up on it when people go to attack the

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Bible and they see Christian traditions that are in conflict with Matthew 24 and they begin using Matthew 24 against Christians to say hey you're saying that's future

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Jesus said it was for them so that's false prophecy it didn't happen I want to say if we have an interpretation of Matthew 24

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Mark 13 Luke 21 if we have a tradition that actually doesn't allow us to let the text speak consistently we need to do away with the tradition any tradition that makes

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Jesus look like a false prophet needs to go amen it needs to go Jesus is held to this same standard now a quick thing in terms of consistency in the law

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Deuteronomy 13 what's the standard the sign and wonder no it's

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God's previous revelation of himself in Isaiah 8 19 through 20

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God says this to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word it is because they have no light in them in Isaiah's day what was the test for God's people it was the law of God God's own self -disclosure and God says this if they don't speak according to this revelation they don't have any light in them what's that they're in darkness if they don't speak consistently with God's law and his testimony so what was the foundation for God's people in the

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Old Testament it was always God's previous revelation of himself what is that God's holy word that's the standard now when you look at Jesus ministry

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I'll give you two points of contact today just for reference in Matthew 15 and Matthew 19 when

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Jesus wasn't speaking on his own authority as God incarnate and he did and he's allowed to do so when he was dealing with controversy he actually confronts listen this is key this is huge did

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Jesus believe in the principle of sola scriptura when he dealt with controversy in his day what did he point the covenant people to in Matthew 15 he shows them that one of their traditions is actually conflicting with God's own word and he says this in Matthew 15 go read it later he says

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Moses says but you say so he takes now here's

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God's word and here's what you're saying and he says this thus you invalidate the word of God for the sake of your tradition how does

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Jesus test him he says this here's what God says and here's what you're saying and you're saying your tradition is contradicting

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God's own revelation so for Jesus lo and behold his standard is the same standard for the people of God that God has always laid down what is that that God's word is the reference point

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God's word is the standard now this is key listen closely it all comes together here in terms of our practice and methodology it's so critical we could say the signs and wonders issue is a very serious issue because people do actually say

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I had an experience I had saw signs and wonders that's how I know it's true

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God says no God's word's the standard here's where you stand God's word other people could say this but you know it's the church the people of God have said this collection of believers over here they've said that this is the truth now brothers and sisters we know that God has worked through his people throughout history amen yes we're a confessional church we believe the

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Holy Spirit is in his people God's been sanctifying his church he uses his church we're a confessional church however this is key the church is not the pillar and ground of truth or the church is not sorry the church is not the grounding of truth it upholds the truth it upholds the truth right the church itself is not the final authority and this is key because in Jesus day listen you had authorities and leaders who were saying but Jesus this is our tradition this is the tradition of the elders and Jesus actually tests their tradition and he says the word of God's the standard you're invalidating

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God's word because of your tradition one more point Matthew 19 in the controversy Jesus was dealing with in his day of the hillelite and shemaite marriage controversy where you had two schools of thought about divorce one was a divorce clause for any cause the hillelite marriage issue where they were saying you could divorce somebody for any cause just give him a certificate of divorce you don't think she can cook well anymore divorce her she's not as pretty as she used to be divorce her you don't like what she's wearing divorce her any cause right so Jesus when confronted with this they say is it lawful to divorce your wife for any cause he says what what's the scripture say go back to the beginning right he made them male and he made them female male and female and they were to come together and become one flesh and so what does

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Jesus do in terms of dealing with that controversy in his day he goes back to the word of God and says from the beginning it says this here's the standard for Jesus that was it now you have of course a reason why

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I'm saying this in terms of signs and wonders messiahs false prophets what should have been the standard and the test for them it was always the word of God God's previous revelation you see

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Jesus applied the law of God with controversies in his day even watch spiritual church held controversies traditions of the church right these are our traditions from the church these are from people who revere

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God these are Jews they believe in God these are the religious authorities and Jesus says no your tradition contradicts scripture so you're wrong you're wrong but you also have a reason for this in terms of modern day controversies just a quick side note here some of you guys may have heard my discussion with Andy Stanley on the unbelievable radio program he is he is suggesting that Christians need to unhitch from the old testament and of course in his apologetic methodology there's a lot of confusion so we have that debate it's up online for you guys radio debate you guys can can watch that it's on our channel and on unbelievable's channel but this actually goes down to the same issue my discussion with him was really about the same issue how do you know something's true what's the grounding for truth is it in the sign and wonder

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Andy Stanley was suggesting and is suggesting propagating the idea that really the truthfulness of Christianity rests on the resurrection of Jesus that sign that wonder that miraculous event is the basis on which we should argue for the truthfulness of Christianity and what

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I was arguing is that's a significant error philosophically speaking epistemologically speaking and most importantly biblically speaking that is not how the bible tells us to ground truth in the miraculous event and you do see scripture actually argues against such a notion

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I'll give you an example and just point you to the text the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 the rich man and Lazarus is an example of the miraculous requested and scripture has an answer in terms of whether that is an appropriate thing to ground something in in Luke 16 it's in verse 27 through 31

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I'll read it to you again you can go to it more details the rich man and Lazarus you know the story rich man is in Hades he's in torment

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Lazarus is in paradise chilling and verse 27 and he said then

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I beg you father to send him to my father's house for I have five brothers so that they may he may warn them lest they also come to into this place of torment but Abraham said they have

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Moses and the prophets let them hear them and he said no father

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Abraham but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent so the miraculous give them a sign give them a wonder what's what's the story they've got

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Moses and the prophets right and here's the final word he said to him if they do not hear

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Moses and the prophets neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead the word of God is the grounding of the truth

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God's self -attesting revelation the miraculous is amazing it's powerful we're not diminishing the glory of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as an historical event that can be demonstrated that's not what we're saying we're saying scripture says the grounding is in God's revelation not the sign and the wonder the word is this if they're not going to listen to Moses and the prophets they're not going to be convinced that someone rises again from the dead now an example of this taking place in history is in Matthew 28 16 through 18 it's an amazing section

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I won't read it now just go there later it's really astonishing right you have some believers seeing

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Jesus now alive from the dead and they have the proper response they fall down and they worship

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Jesus worshipped him because he's God amen yes there's an example of is

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Jesus God well they worshipped him and Jesus wasn't like stop right they worshipped him but then it says in that same passage while some believers proper response to the resurrection is worship

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Jesus it says some doubted here's Jesus alive from the dead after being crucified raised and walking around people worshipped him and some were like yeah

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I'm not so sure I don't know I'm not sure right so there's the sign of the wonder right but they don't and here's my point on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24 24 through 26

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Jesus chastises people who are now going oh we thought he was the messiah Jesus walking alongside them right alive from the dead like we thought he's a messiah and all those things took place where were you at you don't know what's going on with this

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Jesus we thought he was the messiah and he was crucified and what does Jesus do he chastises them slow of heart to believe what all that scripture had promised so Jesus chastising them was that they did not believe and trust in what

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God had promised was going to occur so what's Jesus doing is pointing them back to God's own self -disclosure back to God's own revelation as a standard and saying you should have known he chastises them for what not believing what

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God said and then the most epic bible study in history took place where Jesus takes them from genesis to the end and shows them all the places the old testament spoke of him quick thing here on the apostolic witness what was the standard for the apostles of course you see consistently in the new testament revelation the apostles constantly using what does the scripture say what does the scripture say this prophet says what does the scripture say so when they're when

01:02:54

Paul specifically listen close to this when Paul is actually defending or uh he's he's giving us this systematic explanation of the gospel that he preaches what does he do to ground his systematic systematic explanation of the gospel he grounds it by saying what is the scripture saying what is the scripture saying

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God says that's the standard next of course you know the story of the barayans that bookstore is closed now do they exist anymore i don't know i hope not um but the barayans in act 17 11 you know the story right scripture gives a it gives a remark about these believers and says they are more noble -minded than the ones in Thessalonica because when they heard the word from Paul it says that they did what searched the scriptures what daily to see if what he was saying was so so there's a compliment more noble -minded than the ones in Thessalonica because when

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Paul is teaching them they're searching the scriptures to see all right let me see if what Paul is saying is right there's the standard another example of course is the thing i mentioned a couple times in the last month in first corinthians 4 6 i believe

01:04:11

Paul actually there is reciting an early christian creed about scripture that sounds so familiar to a scriptura scripture alone is the sole infallible rule of faith and practice for the church

01:04:26

Paul says early on in the history of the church first corinthians 4 6 he says that you might learn from me the saying from us the saying not to go beyond that which is written not to go beyond that which is written so for the early church the apostle

01:04:43

Paul is saying this is the standard don't go beyond that which is written so as christians as we face a section of scripture like Matthew 24 final words here question did it happen yes do we have evidence in the new testament yes do we have evidence outside of scripture yes did

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Jesus keep his word yes but the greater lesson i think for the people of God as you approach an issue like false messiahs false prophets is how do we know and the answer from scripture is always