FBC Morning Light (11/9/2024)

Faith Baptist Church

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Good Saturday morning, people of faith. This weekend we're going to be reading parallel passages in Matthew, Mark, and Luke in regards to various things, but primarily the one that I'm going to focus on is in response to Jesus's prediction of being able to, or that the no stone would be left upon another regarding the temple.

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All right, I'm going to read from Mark chapter 13, and starting in verse,

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I'll just read in verse 3. It says, Now as he sat on the

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Mount of Olives, that's Jesus, opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,

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Tell us, when will these things be? What things are these?

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These are the no stone left upon another regarding the temple, and what will be the sign when all these things will be fulfilled?

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And Jesus answers, starting in verse 5, and the first thing that stands out about Jesus's answer is that he does not give them the direct answer of saying it's going to be 37 years, 18, or 2 months and 18 days, he doesn't say anything like that.

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He doesn't. And Jesus, in verse 5, answering them, began to say,

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Take heed that no one deceives you. All right, so his answer isn't a direct answer to their question, but is apparently, since it's

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Jesus, the more needful answer that they are not deceived. And I want to give you three ways that you could be deceived regarding these things here, and two of them come directly from this passage, another one comes from a passage elsewhere in Scripture.

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So, verse 6 says, For many will come in my name, saying,

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I am he, and will deceive many. There is only one

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Jesus. There's not another. There's not a second coming of another

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Jesus. There is the second coming of the one Jesus, right?

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And so, when someone comes and claims that they are the Messiah, and they are not the

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Messiah, it is important that we are not deceived into thinking that the false

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Messiah is actually a Messiah at all. All right, so that's one area where we can be deceived, all right?

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And particularly at this time in the nation of Israel, there were many rising up, claiming to be the

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Messiah, all right? Second, from the Gospel of Luke, when it comes to the

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Lord's return, Jesus says in chapter 17, He says, And they will say to you,

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Look here or look there. Do not go after them or follow them. 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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So you've had people throughout the ages say,

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Jesus is coming back at this particular time. Let's go up to the mountains, go up to this mountain. So this is where Jesus is going to appear.

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When a group of people think that they know the day or the hour upon which

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Christ will return, do not believe them. Believe that Jesus will return for certain, and that is a guarantee of Scripture.

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But no man knows the hour. Also, don't believe for a moment that when

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Jesus comes back, he will come back secretly. As lightning that strikes under one part of heaven is shown in another part of heaven.

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The idea of that is everybody's going to know when Christ comes back. It's not going to be a secret. So the second way you could be deceived is in terms of the

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Lord's return itself, of thinking that he has already come or that you could possibly name a certain day.

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And finally, it says in verse 7, back in Mark chapter 13, it says, but when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled.

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For such things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles.

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These are the beginnings of sorrows. But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues.

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You will be brought before rulers and kings for my sake for a testimony to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.

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So a third way that we could be deceived is into letting our hearts be troubled by all the horrible things that are going on.

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And certainly in our day and age, we have access to knowing about so many horrible things that are going on, right?

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It may have been that 150 years ago, the different hurricanes that came through about a month or month or two ago, we may not even have heard of them in our area 150 years ago.

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But now, everybody in the world will know about them through the different forms of media communication.

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It's still very important that we are not deceived by letting our hearts be troubled, right?

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The Lord will come and return for His own. That is a guarantee.

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We are not guaranteed that it will be somebody else that comes back for us. We are not guaranteed that we will ever know a time or a day, but our trust needs to be in the promise of Christ's return.

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Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your promise, for your encouragement that we are not deceived, that we would not look to another, that we would not think that we've missed your return somehow, that we would not let our hearts be troubled, but let us trust in you for the promised return of your

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Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.