Sharers in Suffering (Hebrews 10:33-34)

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August 23, 2021

Thank you for joining us this Sunday to Worship Jesus Christ our King. This and previous sermons are available at https://www.youtube.com/kootenaichurch

00:00: Infinite mercy, His child and forever I am, redeemed through His infinite mercy.
00:50: Redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the
00:56: Lamb. Redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever
01:02: I am. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus, no language my rapture can tell.
01:11: I know what the light of His presence, with me doth continually dwell.
01:19: Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed,
01:28: His child and forever I am. I think of my blessed
01:37: Redeemer, I think of Him all the day long. I sing for I cannot be silent,
01:45: His love is the theme of my song. Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the
01:54: Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed, His child and forever
02:01: I am. I know
02:06: I shall see in His beauty, the King in whose law I delight.
02:13: Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps and giveth me songs in the night.
02:21: Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed,
02:30: His child and forever I am. I'm redeemed, redeemed, redeemed by the blood of the
02:39: Lamb. Redeemed, redeemed,
02:47: His child and forever I am. Testing one, two.
03:20: Testing one, two, three, four, five. Testing.
03:29: Yeah. I think we're good.
03:44: Thank you. All right, let's sing. Invisible sin, you slay.
04:26: Who is like you, Spirit? Our Comfort from above.
04:37: You draw us to the Savior.
04:43: Reveal the Father's love. Spirit, oh
04:52: Spirit, How long to live?
05:07: Come fill our hearts again. How long to live?
06:04: God the splendor in holiness.
06:35: And is to come Father, Son, and Spirit.
06:46: Most holy, free in love. Most holy, free in love.
06:59: Most holy, free in love.
10:27: Our King, earth and sea,
10:42: Shall fear when Redeemer comes
10:54: To take His longing excelsome. Earth to reign.
11:10: Hallelujah. We have warned
11:33: His name. Pierced and nailed into the tree.
11:39: Deeply well in sorrow grieve When they the true
11:46: Messiah see. Every eye will see the
11:53: Lord Dressed in dreadful majesty.
12:00: Every knee shall bow For the
12:05: Judge of all eternity. Hallelujah.
13:04: Still here of saving grace.
13:14: All the saints bought by His blood Shall then rejoice to see
13:22: His face. Yes, our men, let eternal
13:32: Kingdom as your own.
13:59: We await the coming Earth to reign.
14:46: Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Good to see you all. Welcome to Kootenai Church Adult Bible Study.
14:54: This morning we're going to continue our study of the prophet Haggai. So I invite you to open your Bibles to Haggai.
15:01: We're going to be looking at chapter 2, verses 10 through 19 this morning.
15:07: But you could also bookmark Ezra. Once again, Ezra who wrote the history of this period of time.
15:13: We're going to be going back and spending a little bit of time in Ezra. But before we do, let's commit our time to our
15:20: Lord. Oh, are these for me? Bunch of presents up here. You shouldn't have.
15:27: You didn't. Let's commit our time to our Lord and ask His blessing on our time.
15:33: Our Father, we do thank You once again that we are able to gather and fellowship in the name of our great
15:43: God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We know that it is by Your grace that we are able to do this.
15:48: Thank You that we can open Your Word and be taught by Your Spirit this morning. So we just ask Your blessing.
15:54: Help us all to understand Your Word more clearly. Help us to be more obedient to what we learn.
16:00: And then help us to praise You for all that You're doing in our lives. And we just thank You in Jesus' mighty name.
16:06: Amen. Well, last time, just a real quick review, we looked at God's promise of future glory.
16:12: And that was chapter 2 of the first nine verses. And we saw that He had them remember past glory, or actually, some of them are remembering the past glory as the old people and as the old
16:26: King James said, the ancient ones. I was going to make a direct application of that last time, but we don't have any ancient people here, okay?
16:33: Just thought I'd let you know. And whether or not we have any old people, it doesn't say how old you have to be to be an old person.
16:40: So personally, I'm going to make a rather liberal application of that. But there were people that were obviously upset that this new temple was not quite as great as the old temple.
16:52: Enough of an issue for God to use Haggai to bring it up and remind them.
16:58: Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory, He asked. How do you see it now? Is it as nothing in your eyes,
17:06: He said. And I was, you know, in looking at that, we went back and looked at Ezra. I'm kind of wondering, were they thinking that maybe they deserved a bigger temple?
17:15: Possibly. Well, then we saw that He reminded them of their present glory, what they have to do now, and He exhorts them to be strong three times.
17:24: Be strong. They have the promise of God that He is with them no matter what they're doing.
17:31: And then He moves to revealing the future glory. There's also going to be a future judgment, and we saw this cataclysmic event, not a local earthquake, but a cosmic earthquake of giant proportions that's going to take place.
17:48: And then the future glory will be greater, and then the future peace will be greater. So were there any questions or comments you might have had about what we saw last time?
17:59: Any ancient people got offended? Okay, good. Well, how about some questions from page eight?
18:06: Questions to consider. How did the older, the ancient returnees, possibly discourage or contribute to the discouraging of the rebuilding effort?
18:15: Any thoughts on that? We know that they were discouraged by the people group that was there, by the existing indigenous people also in there.
18:45: Okay, so the same audience is exhorted now to be strong, and He says it three times, says it to each individual and the whole group of people.
18:54: They are reminded of the Mosaic covenant, which obligated them to obedience, but also promised
19:02: God's protection and presence, the presence of God. That's okay.
19:08: That's why we're doing what we're doing. Okay, number two, since none of you ancient people want to talk about that first one.
19:15: Doing God's work God's way means working in total dependence on His, okay, we got to depend on God's what?
19:31: Spirit, okay, or you could put strength, spirit. His spirit is represented in His presence, which
19:40: He provides by His continual presence, which He had promised in the
19:45: Mosaic covenant. I am with you, He says. What a promise. If you're tasked by God with doing something, no matter what it is, good to know you have
19:56: His presence, which should remind you of the Great Commission, Matthew 28, all authority is given unto me, right?
20:03: And then what? Make disciples. And then the final part of that is, and I am with you always.
20:11: So number three, at Mount Sinai, Yahweh shook the mountain and the surrounding region. In the future,
20:17: He promises to shake everything. Yeah, cataclysmic, and multiple references there.
20:26: He's going to shake the heavens and the earth. In other words, all, everything, the nations as well. And then number four, between verses six through nine,
20:34: Yahweh says, I will, four times. Do you think He will actually accomplish what He says
20:39: He will do? Vote for one. It's in the election. So, you know, kind of was getting in the spirit maybe.
20:47: Okay. No. Maybe. I don't know. Or an emphatic yes. Okay. And I'm not trying to influence your vote here.
20:56: You can't do that. You're not supposed to do that. You're not supposed to tamper with the ballots or influence votes.
21:01: Just thought I'd let you know. Except this is my ballot and I can do what I want with it.
21:06: Okay. Just saying. Number five, the promise of the latter glory being greater and peace in this place, that place being
21:14: Jerusalem, where the temple was. That has not happened yet. These will be features of the millennial kingdom
21:21: Jesus Christ will establish at His second coming. Multiple references there.
21:26: This is not a thin doctrine in Scripture. It is absolute promise of the coming kingdom.
21:33: And this is cover to cover throughout Scripture. We have then a reference to Peter's preaching.
21:40: He's preaching to the Jews down at the bottom of the page there. Acts chapter 3, verses 18 through 21.
21:47: And he says, but what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets. In other words, this is nothing new.
21:52: This is God's plan, God's word from the very beginning. That as Christ would suffer,
21:59: He thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out.
22:05: That times of refreshing, that's a technical term, meaning the restoration of God's creation.
22:14: Times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send the
22:19: Christ appointed for you. Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which
22:29: God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets long ago. Bracketing this statement is a reference to the prophets, the prophets.
22:39: And that phrase, restoring of all things, that again, the
22:45: Jews would have understood what he meant by that. This is God's restoring the fallen earth and the restoration of it.
22:52: That will happen when Christ comes back. That will be part of His kingdom. The earth will bloom and blossom and it will be restored.
23:00: Creation will be restored. This is the same root word that is found in Acts 1 -6 when the disciples, after being with Jesus for 40 days, after He was raised from the dead, and He gave them a 40 -day clinic on the kingdom, it says, the kingdom.
23:17: They had one question. That question was what? When? They didn't ask anything else about it.
23:24: Why? He'd already answered those questions. They had a 40 -day clinic about the kingdom. And their one question, and they used the same root word, is it at this time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?
23:36: There was a high messianic expectation in those people. And you see that all through the
23:41: New Testament. They were expecting the coming Messiah in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy.
23:47: They believed what God said. Simple. They just believed what He said. And so there was a high messianic expectation.
23:55: And when this happens, and I think this passage is one of the key passages for understanding, the nation will be saved, then
24:03: Christ will come back. The exegetical look at this would tell you that this is what He's calling them to do.
24:09: Be saved so that Christ can return. And He will. And when He comes back, He's going to come back to a saved nation of believing
24:16: Jewish people. Okay, any other thoughts you might have or questions about what we saw last time? Well, we're into week three.
24:25: This is going to be page nine. And we're looking at verses 10 through 14.
24:31: This is the third oracle, as it's called, or message by Haggai.
24:37: And it starts out in verse 10. On the 24th day of the ninth month in the second year of Darius, the word of the
24:47: Lord came by Haggai the prophet. Now, once again, we have that, we've seen it over and over again, this timestamp, right?
24:54: Mentioned it before, I think, that Haggai is called the most chronologically sensitive of the prophets, and he is.
25:01: He's so specific, getting down to the days. And here we have 24th day of the ninth month, second year of Darius.
25:08: All of these oracles or messages of Haggai took place within about a four -month period in the same year, the second year of Darius.
25:18: And one of the things we need to notice is chapter two, verse one, in the seventh month.
25:25: And then this one starts on 24th day of the ninth month. But if you turn one page ahead to Zechariah, Zechariah returned somewhat after Haggai did, but his ministry is going to overlap with Haggai's ministry.
25:42: So you see that verse one of chapter one, in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the
25:50: Lord came to the prophet Zechariah. So if you like to scribble in your
25:55: Bible, you could put between verse nine and verse 10, Zechariah begins here. So we're talking a lot about dates and times in our study.
26:05: That shows you there's some overlap there, because Zechariah clearly tells us he's beginning in the eighth month.
26:13: So we have seven, eight, and then nine, starting in verse 10 right there. So Zechariah begins here.
26:21: And what does this oracle talk about? Well, ultimately, it's going to talk about a future blessing, that's way at the end.
26:28: But what he has to deal with first is problem. And you've noticed this sort of a cycle, right?
26:34: There's a problem, and God deals with that, then talks about the solution, talks about what it's doing to their lives, but then he gives a promise, a future blessing.
26:45: And we just sort of cycle back and forth, or around through the same sort of a sequence. So the first thing he's going to do is deal with this problem of unclean worship.
26:55: And the way he does it is to simply ask two questions. What he's really doing here, he's taking them back to basics, back to the basics of the law.
27:04: And the law, early on, I mean, this is even all the way back to Mount Sinai. I think we talked about that last time.
27:10: Basics, basics. There's God, and he's holy. He's up on the mountain. And you are down here, we're not holy.
27:18: And there's separation or distance between God and people. He's holy, we're not.
27:24: And he even put the barrier around the mountain. You can't come up to me. You can't approach
27:31: God on your own basis. If you're going to approach God, you have to approach God his way.
27:37: And, of course, God made the way through that sacrifice that was made. And that particular covenant on Mount Sinai was a bilateral covenant.
27:49: The blood, some blood poured on the altar representing God's part. Other blood was spattered on the people. They were obligated to obey the
27:56: Mosaic covenant. And so what we have here is a return back to the very basic question of holiness.
28:05: And it says in verse 11, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Ask the priests about the law.
28:12: Because the priests would have been the ones who would have interpreted the law, and the people would have asked them questions about the law and so on.
28:19: Here's question number one. If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his garment and touches with his fold bread or stew or wine or oil or any kind of food, does it become holy?
28:33: The priests answered and said no. In other words, basic question,
28:39: Can holiness be transferred or communicated merely by contact or touch?
28:46: And even here, it's in the fold of the garment, so it's not really even direct contact. But the basic principle is,
28:53: Can holiness be transferred? The answer is no in verse 12.
28:59: And then the second question he asks, Then Haggai said,
29:05: If someone who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, in other words, any of this food, does it become unclean?
29:16: The priests answered and said, It does become unclean.
29:23: So the second question, Is defilement transferable? The answer is yes.
29:30: And the difference in the answers there, one said no and the other one, there is no word in Hebrew, the biblical
29:36: Hebrew for the word yes, so they just answer with a positive statement. It does become unclean.
29:43: So here we have, back to basics, this basic attempt by God to say,
29:49: Here's the fundamental issue here, holiness or unholiness. And holiness cannot be transferred, but defilement can.
30:01: And then he makes application of it. In verse 14, Then Haggai answered and said,
30:08: So is it with this people and with this nation before me, declares the
30:14: Lord. And so with every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean.
30:23: What's going on here? Why is he bringing them back to this basic fundamental issue and back to what was wrong in their lives?
30:34: They had gone back to work. We know that from chapter 1. They had begun to rework on the temple again.
30:40: And yet as we're going to see, they're still suffering the chastening of God. Well, let's go back to Ezra since Ezra wrote the history of this.
30:49: We looked last time at the event concerning the old people complaining about the temple not being what it used to be.
30:58: But prior to that in Ezra chapter 3, we have the account of right when they came back, right when they came back to Jerusalem to begin to build the temple.
31:10: And remember, they were sent back in order to build the temple. Even Cyrus the Great, who had issued the decree to let them go back, understood that this is the purpose you're going back to Jerusalem, to rebuild the temple.
31:25: And even financed by the Persian Empire. So they really had no excuses. But in chapter 3, verse 1 of Ezra, here's the history of just when they came back.
31:37: Look what they started to do. When the seventh month came and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem.
31:45: Big, massive gathering of people. This would have been thousands and thousands of people back into Jerusalem. Then arose
31:52: Jeshua, that's Joshua, the son of Josedach, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, with his kinsmen, and they built, not the temple, they built the altar of the
32:06: God of Israel to offer burnt offerings on it as it is written in the law of Moses, the man of God.
32:14: They set the altar in its place. Now here's a real tell.
32:20: For fear was on them because of the peoples of the land. Their motivation is not obedience to God.
32:27: If it would have been, they would have been busily building the temple, right? But for fear of the people in the land, they got busy being religious, okay?
32:36: Back to the law, back to the requirements of the Levitical law and all of these offerings. So they built the altar and they offered burnt offerings on it to the
32:46: Lord. Burnt offerings morning and evening. Verse 4,
32:52: And they kept the fees to booths, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the rule, as each day required.
33:01: They weren't missing anything. They were getting it all down. They were checking every box. And after that, the regular burnt offerings, the offerings at the new moon and at all the appointed feasts of the
33:12: Lord and the offerings of everyone who made a freewill offering to the Lord. Offering, offering, offering. They were getting really busy, really religious, right?
33:18: Then verse 6. Verse 6, Once again, there's a timestamp that sort of is a bracket that closes this off.
33:25: From the first day of the seventh month, they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the very next statement,
33:32: But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
33:38: So they started to do that. They gave money to the masons and the carpenters and food, drink, and oil to the
33:44: Sidonians and the Tyrians to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea, to Joppa, according to the grant that they had from Cyrus, king of Persia.
33:55: So they had a priority that was not God's priority. And you could say, Well, okay, well, what's wrong with going back to the
34:02: Levitical law and doing the offerings that it said to do there? What's wrong with that? Wouldn't you call that good works?
34:10: Sure, right? Yeah. And well, and they did not, they weren't doing what
34:22: God told them to do. You parents can probably come up with some illustrations concerning your kids, right?
34:28: Billy, clean your bedroom. And Billy is doing some other stuff, maybe good stuff, right?
34:34: But Billy, you're not cleaning your bedroom, right? The question,
34:48: Cornel's comment is, I can come to God on my terms. We're back to Mount Sinai.
34:54: They thought they could approach God on their terms and God put barriers. No, you can't.
35:00: I'm the one that's going to create a way for you to come to me. Apart from that, you can't come to me.
35:06: Well, let's go back to Haggai. Now that we see the background of this, this indictment, he's taken them right back to basics, right back to spiritual life.
35:17: I'll say 101, but what's the 1 .0? Is that the better, more contemporary? Okay, back to basics.
35:23: And then he says, so that's the problem. Unclean worship. They understood this, that holiness is not transferable, but defilement is.
35:34: And what is defiled? Every work of their hands and what they offer there is unclean.
35:42: Do you want kind of a good working definition of paganism? Okay, religion without revelation.
35:50: And when I say revelation, I mean the word of God. Religion without revelation. External religious ritual.
35:58: And it could be lots of stuff. I mean, it could be good stuff, you know? Everything, and why? Of course it's going to be good stuff because you're using it as a substitute for internal spiritual reality.
36:10: External religious ritual as opposed to internal spiritual reality.
36:16: And that external stuff could be, probably is really good stuff. And, I mean, you can think of movements and groups who emphasize that.
36:24: Well, we feed 10 ,000 people a week through our church. We got rid of the pulpit and all that. I mean, we're turning this into a food bank.
36:31: Isn't that a good thing? I mean, and you can go down the list. You can find all kinds of things that are good, but when you use them that way, you're displacing the best.
36:41: You're displacing the word of God and the place it is supposed to have in the body of Christ and in the church.
36:48: This is what they were doing. External religious ritual is no substitute for internal spiritual reality.
36:56: Think of Nicodemus, John chapter 3. This guy could check all the boxes, right? Right down the line.
37:02: Jewish, a Pharisee. Jesus referred to him as the teacher.
37:07: The article is there, the teacher of Israel. Now, he may have been the preeminent teacher of his day, but he was at least a very prominent teacher, and yet he didn't know the basics about being born again.
37:18: And the Lord rebuked him. You're the teacher of Israel, and you don't understand these things?
37:24: Well, he's a Pharisee. He's an expert in the Old Testament. He could have understood it from many places, right?
37:31: Genesis 12, the Abrahamic covenant. He could have understood it from Ezekiel. He could have understood it from many places.
37:38: Paul even told Timothy, because Timothy, he said, you grew up, you had the sacred scriptures. He would have had the
37:43: Old Testament. He's not talking about the New Testament there. Able to make you wise unto salvation.
37:49: You can get saved from reading the Old Testament. I want to get off down a rabbit trail, but what do we have nowadays?
37:56: We have a lot of people running around saying, well, we just need to just focus on the New Testament. The famous, well -known
38:02: Andy Stanley says, we should decouple ourselves from the Old Testament. He didn't get that from God.
38:09: Okay? Well, the problem was unclean worship. The people then are called once again to consider or to think carefully.
38:21: In verse 15, it says, now then, consider from this day, and there's a very interesting textual issue here.
38:31: Some commentators have said that all of the interpretive issues of Haggai are between verses 15 and 19, and they are.
38:40: And a very interesting one is right here. The word onward there, and in the
38:45: ESV here, there's a little footnote that takes you down to the bottom, and it says, or backward. Now, usually when there's a little footnote concerning a word, and you're looking at the semantic range or the range of meaning, you know, you're going to have, they want you to know, well, there's a different kind of a nuanced meaning or a couple of them here.
39:04: Well, that's not exactly nuanced, right? I mean, is it going to be look onward or look backward?
39:11: I mean, that's kind of a polarity, right? So that is an issue, but I think, and the best commentators,
39:18: I think, understood this, that it needs to be backward, mainly based on context. What he's calling them to do. Think back, like he has before.
39:26: Think about your life. Think back. And he says, consider from this day, and I'm going to use backward.
39:34: Think back. Because he calls them, in the next sentence, before stone was placed upon stone in the temple of the
39:41: Lord. How did you fare? When one came to a heap of 20 measures, there were but 10.
39:49: When one came to the wine vat to draw 50 measures, there were but 20.
39:55: In other words, the heap would have been the heap of grain from the threshing. They would have piled the grain up.
40:00: And then the wine. So you have the basic staples of life back then. You have bread and wine.
40:07: That would have been the basics. But you didn't have what you thought you were going to have. Even though you began to build the temple, there is still chastening taking place up to this point.
40:20: There were but 10, but there was only, you came to draw 50 measures, there were but 20.
40:26: And then here's why, God says, I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and with mildew and with hail.
40:38: Yet you did not turn to me, declares the Lord. He calls them to consider what their lives were like up to that point.
40:46: Even though they began to rebuild the temple, it just wasn't what it should have been. There was still chastening continuing on even after their obedience.
40:56: Their punishment was unproductive work. Think carefully about this.
41:04: They were back in the land, and since stopping work on the temple for 16 years, their hard work was not productive, yet they still didn't turn to God in repentance.
41:14: That's the blank there for verse 17. And then verse 18 calls them to carefully think back from that day.
41:22: This was the 24th day of the ninth month, and again, the timestamp is the laying of the temple foundation. He says in verse 18, consider from this day onward or backward, think back from the 24th day of the ninth month since the day that the foundation of the
41:38: Lord's temple was laid, consider, is the seed yet in the barn?
41:45: Expecting a no answer. Indeed, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have yielded nothing at this point in time.
41:55: They were still being chastened because of their disobedience.
42:00: They had not returned to the Lord yet. They had not, in repentance, turned to the Lord. What they, early on, got busy with external religious ritual, but they had neglected the internal spiritual reality.
42:16: Some scholars believe the stress placed on this date means that this day was the last day of their 70 -year chastisement and why they still suffered the consequences of this judgment for 18 years after entering the land.
42:33: But regardless of their past failures and disobedience, they now have this glorious promise, and that's at the very end there of verse 19, but from this day on,
42:45: I will bless you. And so that's why some scholars believe that they're out from under the 70 -year chastening now, and now, from now on, in their land,
42:55: God is going to bless them. The blessing or cursing all through Scripture has to do with them being in their land.
43:04: If you want to see the relationship between the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant, read
43:09: Leviticus chapter 26. Leviticus 26, because he's going to go through, and it's a horrific list of chastening and all of the punishment that God will give them for disobedience to the
43:24: Mosaic covenant. But then he repeatedly says, as Jeremiah does, but I will bless you.
43:29: There's a promise, a future blessing. And that's based on the Abrahamic covenant made four -plus centuries before that was not conditioned on their obedience.
43:39: It was conditioned on the faithfulness of God. And so that's probably, could be, what is in view in the end of verse 19.
43:49: From this day on, God's making a real point of marking the day. One more time stamp in Scripture.
43:56: From this day on, I will bless you. One commentator says this.
44:03: The people were to notice something on the day this prophecy reached their ears, the 24th day of the ninth month, they were to notice that from the day they started to rebuild the temple, looking back, their hardships had continued.
44:18: They still suffered shortages of staples, such as seed, grapes, olives, and luxuries such as figs and pomegranates.
44:29: However, the Lord revealed that he would now bless them. Beginning that very day, the 24th of the ninth month, this oracle explained why agricultural blessing had not begun immediately after the people resumed reconstruction on the temple.
44:46: Their present dedication and obedience did not wipe out their previous covenant unfaithfulness and its punishments.
44:54: That punishment had to run its course, but now, as the day of this prophecy,
45:00: God would begin to bless the people with better harvests. This message surely must have encouraged the
45:06: Jews to persevere in their obedience. God will bless his people for their obedience, but sometimes he will not erase the punishment that previous sins have made necessary.
45:18: Sometimes that punishment must run its course before blessings can begin. So, God's promise of future blessing is based upon his covenant faithfulness by which he bound himself to the terms of the
45:35: Abrahamic covenant and all its provisions. Remember, Abraham did not participate in that. God put him in a trance, and he was on the sidelines just watching in a vision this covenant promise in Genesis 15, the cutting of the covenant, and God himself passed through the parts of the animals.
45:53: It was unconditional, unilateral, and it depends totally on the faithfulness and the power of God to bring it to pass.
46:01: That's why these people are still surviving after 70 years of captivity. They are going to be the people through whom
46:08: God provides Messiah, the seed promise, and that's what we're going to look at next time.
46:14: Do you have any thoughts or questions about this oracle here?
46:20: Brian? He wanted to know who the commentator was.
46:29: I'd have to get back with you on that. I don't have it here on my notes. It might have been. Sounds like him.
46:36: Yeah, could it be Charles Feinberg? I'd have to check and see to verify that. It's not my comment. I just want to make sure of that.
46:43: That'd be plagiarism. We can't do that. Well, you can do that and maybe rise to some higher heights.
46:52: Any other questions? Cornell? Yeah, all
47:25: Scripture is God -breathed. I think Jim brought that out in our study of God Wrote a Book. All Scripture, God -breathed and profitable.
47:34: So there's a prophet, even in the very short things that God has written and communicated.
47:41: Any other thoughts or questions that you might have? There is a, if you didn't get notes, there's more of the notes around, but then there's also this little time chart here.
47:52: I was kind of hesitant about reproducing this, but we're going to talk about it a little bit next time. You've noticed how much, how many time, how much time is part of what we've been studying, right?
48:04: In fact, it's a major part of a lot of things. Even some of the sort of the historic arm wrestling theologically back and forth, if you just kind of boil it down, what's it about?
48:15: It's about timing. Are you pre? Are you post? Are you all? Those are timing issues. So it's an important issue.
48:22: And what kind of motivated me to put this together was, in my studies of Haggai, of course, and I'm looking at commentators that are conservative for the most part and exegetical commentators that kind of get you back behind the usual English translations, but even they are mentioning other commentators.
48:45: And historically, there have been commentators who have looked at the 70 years that we see in Jeremiah and so on, and they basically kind of can't put it all together, and they can't figure it out.
48:58: So what do they immediately do? They pronounce it as, well, that number can't be taken literally. That's not 70 years.
49:05: So you have to spiritualize that, okay? And that's something that I personally disagree with on an exegetical basis from scripture, but it's kind of a way that people reconcile in their own minds, apparently, how they can't figure this out.
49:25: And the second way is, if it conflicts with their theological system, well, they have to pronounce, instead of changing their theological system to come closer to identifying with the word of God, they say, well, that word can't be taken literally.
49:40: You must have to spiritualize it. And there are scholars who want to say this can't be taken literally. Well, I came across an article there, and that's at the very back on page three.
49:51: Dr. Talbert, it's a real, you can look that article up. It's a short article, and basically, so was it 70 years or not?
50:00: And as I read through that article, what he did, he basically showed from the text of scripture, there are different aspects to this 70 years.
50:08: And so what I thought I would try to do is try to chart this. Okay, now, this is a draft, okay?
50:14: And it says possible, all right? So don't hold me to, this is not for public consumption.
50:21: It's just for you guys, okay? We're gonna talk about this a little bit next time, but I encourage you just kind of go through this and see what you think.
50:28: So if, and I believe he's correct in this, understanding there are different aspects to the 70 years.
50:35: There is a 70 -year land issue, right? And what did we see back from 2
50:40: Chronicles 36, and we talked about from Leviticus? They failed to let the land lie fallow or desolate to let the land have its rest.
50:50: And they did that for 490 years. And so when they went out of the land, that 70 years is just not an arbitrary number.
50:57: God is basically saying, you're not letting the land have its Sabbaths, so I will, and out they went. So there's a 70 years that's applied to the land.
51:05: But then there's also the 70 -year captivity of the people. This is the one most people commonly think of, the 70 -year captivity in Babylon.
51:15: It probably started in somewhere around 606, the decree of Cyrus was 538.
51:23: And the bottom line is, if you just kind of look at these as individual aspects, you can easily see how 70 years fits this, and it does.
51:32: And then Babylon, this one's a fascinating one to me. The Babylonian, Neo -Babylonian
51:38: Empire came into existence 609. You can just, you look that up on any source you have, they'll say, if you look up Assyrian Empire, it came to an end in 609, why?
51:50: Because the Neo -Babylonians conquered them in 609. So whether it's the end of the Assyrian Empire or the start of the
51:57: Babylonian Empire, 609, that's a pretty firm number. And then, when did it come to an end?
52:03: Daniel 5, that night, in one night, boom, it came to an end.
52:08: Daniel witnessed that. Handwriting on the wall, right? And in fact, we have time real quick.
52:15: Let's look at Daniel, well, we won't take time this time, we'll do it next time.
52:22: But Daniel, when he's reading the handwriting on the wall, he says, your days have been numbered, okay?
52:30: And when you see this timeline, you realize, he really means this.
52:35: Your days have been numbered, and tonight's the end of it. And it's 539, that is a well -agreed -upon date.
52:41: And what's amazing about it is that this kingdom was surrounded by massive walls, and they were impregnable.
52:49: They had the river running right through the middle of it. They were growing crops in there. They were storing grain. They were impregnable.
52:54: And even the siege of Jerusalem took 10 years. You go back to Jeremiah 52, in those passages, they put the siege around.
53:04: It would take a long time. But in one night, Babylon, that amazing kingdom, fell.
53:10: Boom. They were pretty smug, pretty secure inside of there because they had all the provisions.
53:15: They had this massive wall that two chariots could pass by on the top. They could patrol their perimeter from the top of the wall.
53:24: And yet the Emito -Persian Empire took them down in one night, and that very night, it says, Belshazzar was killed.
53:31: And Daniel witnessed that. And so Daniel, at that point in time, would have said, this is the end.
53:37: And he could have calculated back, and he also could understand, and he received, in a letter form,
53:42: Jeremiah's prophet of the 70 years. So we'll talk about this a little bit next time, but I think you can know that when
53:50: God says 70 years, it's 70 years, okay? Now, your first impulse should not be, well, you can't take that literally.
53:57: It's an indefinite period of time. Your first impulse should be, I can't figure it out because I'm fallible, but I'm gonna take
54:04: God for what he says in his word. And again, this is just a possible time chart.
54:11: And by the way, if you turn to page two, and I'm giving you this because I know a bunch of you guys are a whole lot better on a computer or calculator than I am, so check this one out.
54:21: Check out page two. This guy actually figured out, from this date in Haggai, he figured it out and calculated it all out, down to the day.
54:32: And so this timeline is 70 -year captivity based on the captivity of Ezekiel in 590 to Haggai's date in 520, okay?
54:44: And that may be an actual timeline as well. So look at this.
54:51: We'll talk a little bit about it next time, but really the bottom line is we can trust the word of God for what it says.
54:57: And we don't need to spiritualize the text of Scripture. It is not spiritual in the positive, biblical sense to do that to the word of God.
55:06: Okay, do you have any thoughts or questions about what we saw? No? Do I need to raise some more controversial issues here?
55:20: Yeah. Yeah, and I think he's going to do that based on their obedience.
55:45: Now we know, because we have the history of Jerusalem and Israel after that, this temple was rebuilt by Herod the
55:55: Great in about 10 BC, and that temple was destroyed in 70. So clearly they went back to their old ways.
56:05: There's a principle in Scripture concerning prophecy that oftentimes, well, what you'll see is a far fulfillment.
56:15: But then there will be a near fulfillment. So when Isaiah told King Ahaz, the Lord himself will give to you a sign.
56:22: And that sign was the birth of this one called Emmanuel. Well, we know who that is, right? But that was the birth of Christ centuries into the future.
56:30: How can that be assigned to Ahaz? Well, so you have this principle of a prophecy given, but you have a near fulfillment, which serves as the guarantee.
56:42: Paul develops this in Ephesians 1 with the spirit, and he uses the word that is actually commonly translated earnest or down payment.
56:51: The spirit that indwells a believer here and now is just a down payment. There will be a far fulfillment in the future that it will be beyond your wildest imaginations of the
57:02: Spirit's activity. So if that answers the question, I think you find, if you say, well, how can this be a fulfillment?
57:09: Well, there's a near fulfillment that guarantees the future fulfillment in these prophecies. It has been called that, yeah.
57:23: Yep, there's a bunch of them. I tend to not call it dual. I just say near versus far because Paul uses the word arabon in Ephesians 1.
57:33: That's a Greek term for, it means earnest. In other words, just apply it to purchasing anything. You purchase a house, you have an earnest payment, but what does that do?
57:41: That guarantees the future full payment that will come. Exactly, yeah.
58:08: Yeah, he brought up Robert Culver was his name,
58:13: I believe. I'm not sure of the name, but in the 1940s he wrote a book, and that's where that quote comes from, and it's absolutely true to this day.
58:20: If the basic sense, the literal sense, the normal sense makes plain sense, seek no other sense of the
58:28: Scripture. Yeah, so we're talking about hermeneutics here, or how do you interpret
58:33: Scripture? This gets back down and accounts for a lot of the differences you see.
58:40: How does one group of people read the same Scripture and come up to this conclusion, and another group reads it and comes to this conclusion, and then they arm wrestle about what does it mean.
58:51: Well, back, back, back, go clear, back, back, back. How do you interpret? And that's gonna tell you how they got there.
58:57: Your theological conclusions will never be more biblical than your hermeneutics, ever. Another way to say that is your hermeneutics will determine your theology, always.
59:09: Let me hear your theology, I can tell you what your hermeneutics are. And so, yeah, hermeneutics are a critical issue to understand.
59:19: I think Cornell's gonna be talking about that, too. He's gonna solve all the problems next time. No, but it is a big issue.
59:27: And Daniel, and he's brought this out in Daniel, Daniel has just been ravaged by the critics through the years.
59:34: Why? Because it's predictive prophecy. I mean, it is so clearly predictive prophecy, and predictive prophecy in Scripture is probably the most powerful argument for this being the word of God.
59:48: God uses this in Isaiah. Basically, he challenges the idols. Can you prophesy the future, you idol, and can you bring it to pass?
59:57: God can do both, and he does. And so the critics don't like that, because if it's true what it says about the predictions that it makes, what's it say about them and their future?
01:00:09: They got a problem. And so if you even go, Wikipedia, check out Wikipedia. Prophet Daniel, and what it's gonna say is 2nd century
01:00:17: B .C. prophet. 2nd century? There you go.
01:00:24: But, I mean, this is commonly thought, you know, how could Daniel be 2nd century? They have to date him there, because they have to make him a historian.
01:00:32: They can't make him what he is in Scripture, a prophet used by God to predict the future with precision and accuracy, and going across vast periods of time, and even well into the future, and has to be done away with if you're someone who does not believe the
01:00:49: Bible is the word of God, because what it says about you, right? John said it.
01:00:55: Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. So they gotta extinguish the light any way they can.
01:01:02: Okay, any other thoughts that you might have? Well, we've opened up multiple cans of worms here today, and that's good, that's good.
01:01:10: These are issues we need to be talking about, because the Bible does have answers for them. Well, let's pray. Our Father, thank you for our time in your word this morning, and thank you that we can trust your word, whether it's
01:01:23: Haggai or Daniel, or as we will hear now from Hebrews, your word is trustworthy, and even though critics assail it, apostates twist it and pervert it, we can trust your word, and we just thank you for your spirit, who is our teacher.
01:01:45: And now, Father, as we gather to worship you, we pray that you would be exalted, that you would just give strength and encouragement to those who minister to us in leading worship, and from the pulpit today, help us to be not just hearers of your word, but doers as well.
01:02:02: Help us to learn and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and accomplish it all for your glory, in his name, amen.
01:02:37: Okay, we can just leave these back there. ♪
01:02:51: Jesus, Redeemer, God ♪
01:03:26: Oh, Lord God ♪
01:03:43: Like you there is ♪ True delight ♪
01:03:50: Is found in ♪
01:03:56: Your grace ♪
01:04:05: Exceeds the heavens ♪ Real or true ♪
01:04:13: I found the perfect ♪ Wisdom ♪ My highest ♪
01:04:19: And in me ♪
01:04:37: Oh, Lord ♪
01:04:45: Defend ♪
01:04:52: My soul ♪ To fight ♪ The bison ♪
01:05:11: Surround ♪ My joy ♪
01:05:24: And try ♪ Gracious Savior ♪
01:06:03: My guilt ♪ And cross laid on your shoulders ♪
01:06:10: In my place ♪ You suffered less ♪
01:06:18: You rose ♪ The grave in death ♪ You broke ♪
01:06:55: May all ♪
01:07:02: May all ♪ His mourning touch ♪
01:07:44: And they always ♪ To you I bring ♪
01:07:53: Oh, gracious God ♪ My source of strength ♪
01:07:58: In you I live and breathe ♪
01:08:03: Each hour is yours ♪ By wisdom fed ♪
01:08:08: Each deed empowered ♪ By sovereign hands ♪
01:08:14: Renew my spirit ♪ As day unfolds ♪
01:08:37: I seek your will ♪ In all of life's demands ♪
01:08:47: That drives me still ♪ I cling to your ♪ Coming sacrifice ♪
01:09:13: Today ♪ As sun gives way ♪
01:09:43: To darkest night ♪ Your spirit still is here ♪
01:09:50: And though my strength ♪ Fades like the light ♪
01:09:56: Blue mercies will ♪ I rest in you ♪
01:10:07: Until my throne ♪
01:11:33: Though the dark is overwhelming ♪ And the brightest lights grow dim ♪
01:11:40: Though the word of God is trampled on ♪ By foolish men ♪
01:11:48: Though the wicked never stumble ♪ And abound in every place ♪
01:11:55: We will all be humble ♪ When we see ♪
01:12:10: And the demons we've been fighting ♪ Those without and those within ♪
01:12:16: We'll be underneath our feet to never rise again ♪
01:12:25: All our sins will be behind us ♪ Through the blood of Christ erased ♪
01:12:32: And we'll taste your kindness ♪ When we see your face ♪
01:12:48: We will see ♪ We will love ♪
01:13:03: We'll be ♪ All the waiting will be over ♪
01:13:27: Every sorrow will be healed ♪ All the dreams it seemed could never be ♪
01:13:39: And you'll gather us together ♪ In your arms of endless grace ♪
01:13:46: As your bride for ever ♪
01:13:51: When we see your face ♪ We will see ♪
01:14:06: We will love ♪ We never will see ♪
01:15:08: And you'll gather us together ♪ In your arms of endless grace ♪
01:15:16: As your bride for ever ♪
01:15:21: When we see ♪ When love ♪
01:16:00: We shall see ♪ Our safe ♪
01:16:06: Shining light ♪ Every tear ♪
01:16:17: Every shadow will bleed ♪
01:16:29: Will be made ♪
01:16:35: Will be made ♪
01:16:42: Come Lord Jesus ♪
01:16:47: Listen to creation ♪ Lord Jesus ♪
01:16:59: Come and take your people ♪
01:17:14: Every tongue will praise him ♪
01:17:19: Every knee will ♪
01:17:25: When we see ♪ Our safe ♪
01:17:45: Lord Jesus ♪ Listen to creation ♪
01:17:53: Lord Jesus ♪
01:18:02: Come and take your people ♪ Now we see in part ♪
01:18:22: Then we'll see in part ♪ Jesus will satisfy ♪
01:18:41: We see in part ♪
01:18:50: Your good ♪ Jesus ♪
01:19:05: Lord Jesus ♪ Listen to creation ♪
01:19:12: Lord Jesus ♪
01:19:22: Take your people ♪ Take your people ♪
01:19:33: Come and take your people ♪ You gave us life and breath ♪
01:20:22: You numbered all our days ♪ You set your gracious love on us ♪
01:20:29: And chose us to be saved ♪ This fleeting life is passing by ♪
01:20:36: With all its joys and pain ♪ But we believe to live is
01:20:42: Christ ♪ And death is gain ♪
01:20:47: To live is Christ ♪ To die is gain ♪
01:20:53: In every age ♪ This truth remains ♪
01:21:00: We will not, we're unshamed ♪
01:21:06: To live is Christ ♪ To die is gain ♪
01:21:18: We grieve for those we love ♪ Who fall asleep in Christ ♪
01:21:24: We know they'll see the Savior's face ♪ And gaze into his eyes ♪
01:21:31: So now we grieve ♪ Yet we don't grieve ♪ As those who have no hope ♪
01:21:37: For just as Jesus rose again ♪ He'll raise his own ♪
01:21:45: To live is Christ ♪ To die is gain ♪
01:21:51: In every age ♪ This truth remains ♪
01:21:58: We will not, we're unshamed ♪
01:22:05: To live is Christ ♪ To die is gain ♪
01:22:11: We'll see the lamb once slain ♪
01:22:42: Who saved a countless multitude ♪ To glorify his name ♪
01:22:49: We're yearning for the wedding feast ♪ Of Jesus and his bride ♪
01:22:56: His nail -scarred hands ♪ Will finally bring us to his side ♪
01:23:02: To live is Christ ♪ To die is gain ♪
01:23:10: In this truth remains ♪
01:23:16: We will not scare ♪
01:23:46: To live is Christ ♪ As held the oceans in his hands ♪
01:24:36: As numbered every grain of sand ♪ Kings and nations tremble at his voice ♪
01:24:49: All creation rises to rejoice ♪
01:24:56: Behold, seated on his throne ♪
01:25:05: Come, let us adore him ♪ Behold, a king ♪
01:25:15: Nothing can compare ♪ Come, let us adore him ♪
01:25:36: Who has given counsel to the Lord ♪
01:25:45: Has churned any of his words ♪ Who can teach the one who knows all things ♪
01:25:55: Who can bow his wondrous deeds ♪
01:26:09: Seated on his throne ♪ Come, let us adore him ♪
01:26:17: Behold, a king ♪
01:26:22: Nothing can compare ♪ Come, let us adore him ♪
01:26:45: As felt the nails upon his hands ♪ Bearing all the guilt of sinful men ♪
01:26:56: God eternal ♪ Humble to the grave ♪
01:27:03: Jesus, Savior ♪ Risen now to reign ♪
01:27:11: Behold, seated on his throne ♪
01:27:21: Behold, a king ♪
01:27:30: Nothing can compare And good morning.
01:30:49: Good morning and welcome to Kootenai Community Church. I think I have the right slides today, so we should be good.
01:30:56: That was on me. All right, would you please stand as we sing Redeemed. Good song.
01:31:08: Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it Redeemed by the blood of the
01:31:14: Lamb Redeemed through his infinite mercy His child and forever
01:31:20: I am Verse two. Redeemed and so happy in Jesus No language my rapture can tell
01:31:29: I know that the light of his presence With me doth continually dwell
01:31:38: Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed
01:31:47: His child and forever I am I think of my blessed
01:31:55: Redeemer I think of him all the day long I sing for I cannot be silent
01:32:04: His love is the theme of my song Redeemed, redeemed
01:32:11: Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed
01:32:18: His child and forever I am I know
01:32:25: I shall see in his beauty The King in whose law I delight
01:32:31: Who lovingly guarded my footsteps And giveth me songs in the night
01:32:40: Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed
01:32:49: His child and forever I am I'm redeemed, redeemed
01:32:55: Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed
01:33:07: His child and forever I am Jesus, your mercy is all my plea
01:33:37: I have no defense, my guilt runs too deep The best of my works pierce your hands and your feet
01:33:47: Jesus, your mercy is all my plea Jesus, your mercy is all my boast
01:34:00: The goodness I claim, the grounds of my hope Whatever I lack, it's still what
01:34:07: I need most Jesus, your mercy is all my boast
01:34:18: Praise the King who bore my sin Took my place when
01:34:25: I stood condemned Oh, how good you've always been to me
01:34:32: I will sing of your mercy Jesus, your mercy is all my rest
01:34:49: When fears weigh me down and enemies press A comfort
01:34:54: I cling to in life and in death Jesus, your mercy is all my rest
01:35:06: Praise the King who bore my sin Took my place when
01:35:13: I stood condemned Oh, how good you've always been to me
01:35:21: I will sing of your mercy Jesus, your mercy is all my joy
01:35:46: Forever a gift, my heart and my voice To sing of a treasure no power can destroy
01:35:56: Jesus, your mercy is all my joy
01:36:04: Praise the King who bore my sin Took my place when
01:36:11: I stood condemned Oh, how good you've always been to me
01:36:18: I will sing Praise the King who bore my sin
01:36:26: Took my place when I stood condemned Oh, how good you've always been to me
01:36:35: I will sing of your mercy As morning dawns and evening fades
01:37:04: You inspire songs of grace
01:37:09: That rise from earth to touch your heart
01:37:15: And glorify your name Your name
01:37:22: Is a strong and mighty tower Your name
01:37:28: Is a shelter like no other Your name Let the nation sing it louder
01:37:36: Cause nothing has the power to save Your name
01:37:53: Jesus, in your name we pray Come and fill our hearts today
01:38:03: Lord, give us strength to live for you
01:38:09: And glorify your name Your name
01:38:16: Is a strong and mighty tower Your name
01:38:21: Is a shelter like no other Your name
01:38:27: Let the nation sing it louder Cause nothing has the power to save Your name
01:38:38: Is a strong and mighty tower Your name Is a shelter like no other
01:38:45: Your name Let the nation sing it louder
01:38:50: Cause nothing has the power to save Your name
01:38:58: You may be seated.
01:39:21: So each year our church purchases MacArthur Study Bibles for the graduating seniors.
01:39:26: That's a tradition that was started by the elders years ago, a long time ago.
01:39:32: I don't remember, too old. So we do this every year cause our goal is for every member of our congregation to use their gifts, their talents, all their resources to glorify
01:39:44: God. And the best way that we can glorify God, again, is to know about Him, to understand what is true about Him, and to learn that, to share that, to believe that, to express it, to model it.
01:39:55: And so we think, at least it's the view of the elders, that the MacArthur Study Bible is the best study
01:40:00: Bible available. It's the most accurate and clear study Bible.
01:40:06: And so that's why we do it. So I'm going to ask our, I was going to say graduating seniors, we ordered these
01:40:13: Bibles in May, but COVID, so we're just now getting them. So graduated, I guess, seniors. Liam Osmond, you come up.
01:40:22: We'll just have you come up here, and Jim will give you your Bibles as you come up. A couple aren't here.
01:40:27: Sam Becker's not here today, and Andrew Hernandez. Amy Razor's here. Raylynn MacArthur is here.
01:40:38: Clara Cave. Aileen Smith. Izzy Yant, who really isn't loving coming up here right now.
01:40:52: I don't know if Elise Reeder is here. I didn't see her. And Jacob Cowell, I don't think, is here today.
01:41:02: So those are our graduating seniors last year. We had a, what do you call it, ceremony,
01:41:08: I guess, for them, and slideshow and all that stuff. This was back in May.
01:41:18: So I promised them they wouldn't have to do a speech or anything. Should I go ahead and make?
01:41:25: No. Anybody want to give? No. Okay. All right.
01:41:31: So I just wanted to bring them up here so you could kind of know who they are and remember them, remember to pray for them.
01:41:38: If you remember when you were this age, those of you who are older than this, they have to make some really important decisions at a time when, honestly, we're probably least well -equipped, but we still have to do it.
01:41:49: So whatever wisdom you can provide, encouragement, exhortation, and just prayer and generosity toward them.
01:41:57: We all want to glorify our shared master, and so we just pray for them that they would do that.
01:42:03: So we'll have a prayer for them at the end, so you guys can sit down unless you want to say something.
01:42:09: Izzy? All right. So some other announcements.
01:42:16: The Week of Adventure starts tomorrow night, so we'll have Adventure Club every night, so make sure to get your rest this afternoon.
01:42:24: We'll meet every night at 6 .30. I have to remember the new time. There's a membership class sign -up sheet.
01:42:33: We've announced that every week in the back. It was in the newsletter that we're going to have at least two membership classes on the 16th and 23rd of October.
01:42:40: If you don't know what that is, Jim leads the prospective members through kind of a brief history of Kootenai Church and the distinctives of the church.
01:42:48: He goes through the doctrinal statement, and there's lunch, so you'll want to be there for that.
01:42:55: Seriously, if you want to join us in worship and ministry, you want this to be your church home, then please show up for one of those membership classes.
01:43:04: So you sign up for that in the back. The Midweek Bible Study begins on September 1st. Again, that's going to be led by Jeff Miller and Brian Wood.
01:43:13: So again, there's a sign -up for that in the back. Fellowship dinners, guess what? There's a sign -up for that in the back. If you want to be involved in the fellowship dinners, we're meeting at people's homes for dinner.
01:43:24: September 26th, Peter Hammond is going to lead some evangelism training in the
01:43:29: Way of the Master. Is there a sign -up sheet for that? Okay, well, there you go.
01:43:36: So that'll be really good. Two things for which there is not a sign -up sheet.
01:43:42: There's a sign -up sheet for everything out there. I would say be careful what you sign up for. Make sure you sign up for the right thing.
01:43:48: Otherwise, you'll be preaching next week or something. There's a lot of stuff back there. There's a choir practice after church.
01:43:56: I don't think you have to sign up for that. So if you're interested in that, Casey will lead that, and that'll be back there in the youth
01:44:02: Sunday school room. And that's right after church. Lastly, Kathy, do
01:44:07: I still announce this? Okay, there was some cash that was found in the parking lot. We already have a volunteer for the cash.
01:44:17: So if you can identify the serial numbers on that, then you can have that. There was a small, well,
01:44:24: I don't know how much it was. So I say small because the one bill I saw was a five, okay?
01:44:30: But there may have been hundreds in there. I don't really know. So if you lost the money, it was a little bit of folded -up money, then see
01:44:37: Kathy. She might give it to you. Okay, those are the announcements. Now we get to turn to hear from God's Word.
01:44:47: So if you would open your Bibles to 2 Timothy 1. We'll read from verses 3 to 18, 2
01:44:59: Timothy 1. I'm grateful to God, whom
01:45:12: I serve with a clear conscience, the way my forefathers did, as I unceasingly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, having remembered your tears, so that I may be filled with joy, being reminded of the unhypocritical faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother
01:45:29: Lois and your mother Eunice, and I'm convinced that it is in you as well. For this reason,
01:45:35: I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God, which is in you through the laying out of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and self -discipline.
01:45:45: Therefore, do not be ashamed of either the witness about our Lord or me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.
01:46:06: But now has been manifested by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which
01:46:16: I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason, I also suffer these things, but I'm not ashamed, for I know whom
01:46:24: I believed, and I'm convinced that he's able to guard what I've entrusted to him until that day. Hold to the standard of sound words which you've heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
01:46:34: Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
01:46:40: You're aware of this, that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are figalists and homogenies.
01:46:46: The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.
01:46:51: But when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. The Lord grant to him and find mercy from the
01:46:57: Lord on that day. And you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus. Let's pray together.
01:47:06: Father, we are grateful for your word. We're grateful for this opportunity to gather here to hear it, to hear from you, to hear your word preached and to sing to you.
01:47:15: We are always grateful to be able to gather together in worship and just to have this opportunity to thank you and to declare your perfections.
01:47:23: And Lord, we want to remember to pray for these recent graduates, Lord. There's still a lot of decisions that they have to make, and we pray that they would make those in wisdom.
01:47:30: And I pray for this church body that we'd be committed to them, we'd be a church to them, that we'd be just encouragement, we'd give them the wisdom that we were able to give them.
01:47:40: We've been through some of the same things that they've been through. And Lord, you've told us that part of the reason why we go through things is so we can offer comfort and wisdom to others.
01:47:48: So I pray we would do that for them. And so, Lord, as we go to your word, we pray that we would be good hearers this morning,
01:47:53: Lord, in Jesus' name. Please stand and let's sing how deep the
01:48:03: Father's love for us. How deep the
01:48:17: Father's love for us How deep the
01:48:22: Father's love for us How vast beyond all measure That he should give his only
01:48:29: Son To make a wretch his treasure
01:48:36: How great the pain of searing loss
01:48:42: And yet I will be joyful As wounds which mar the
01:48:51: Chosen One Bring many sons to glory
01:49:04: Behold the man upon the cross
01:49:09: My sin upon his shoulders Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
01:49:20: Call out among the scoffers
01:49:26: It was my sin that held him there
01:49:31: Until it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me life
01:49:42: I know that it is finished I will not boast in anything
01:49:58: No gifts, no power, no wisdom But I will boast in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection
01:50:14: Why should I gain from his reward?
01:50:20: I cannot give an answer But this
01:50:27: I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom
01:50:39: In Psalm 130, verses 1 through 4, it reads, Out of the depths I have cried to you,
01:50:45: O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
01:50:52: If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.
01:51:01: This morning we're going to learn a new song called Have Mercy on Me. I am a sinner, your blameless
01:51:34: Lord My sins against you can't be ignored
01:51:45: They will be punished, I know they must
01:51:54: Your law demands it, for you are just If you would count everything that I've done wrong
01:52:11: Who could stand? But there's forgiveness with you,
01:52:18: God Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
01:52:28: A broken and a contrite heart you won't turn away
01:52:36: Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
01:52:45: Because of your steadfast love
01:52:59: Father of mercy, you gave your
01:53:05: Son To make atonement for wrongs
01:53:13: I have done What you require,
01:53:19: Jesus fulfilled I don't deserve it, and I never will
01:53:31: If you would count everything that I've done wrong
01:53:39: Who could stand? But there's forgiveness with you,
01:53:47: God Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
01:53:56: A broken and a contrite heart you won't turn away
01:54:04: Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
01:54:12: Because of your steadfast love
01:54:23: Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
01:54:32: A broken and a contrite heart you won't turn away
01:54:38: Have mercy on me, have mercy on me
01:54:48: Because of your steadfast love
01:54:55: Because of your steadfast love
01:55:02: You may be seated
01:55:15: Please now if you will turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10 Graduates, if you want to take this opportunity to open up the package that you just received
01:55:24: You can do that now and hide it, hide the noise of that Well, that didn't take long Hide the noise of that amongst the flipping of the pages of everybody else
01:55:32: It's easier to just tear the bandage off and get it out of the way Than it is to take the entire sermon and try and unwrap it quietly
01:55:37: So, only one taker on that Okay Hebrews chapter 10
01:55:44: We're going to begin reading at verse 32 We'll read through the end of the chapter Hebrews 10 beginning at verse 32
01:55:51: But remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings
01:55:56: Partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations Partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated
01:56:03: For you showed sympathy to the prisoners And accepted joyfully the seizure of your property
01:56:08: Knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one Therefore do not throw away your confidence which has a great reward
01:56:16: For you have need of endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised For in yet a very little while he who is coming will come and will not delay
01:56:25: But my righteous one shall live by faith And if he shrinks back my soul has no pleasure in him
01:56:31: But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction But of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul
01:56:37: Let's pray Father it is according to your great mercy and grace that we are able even to gather here together around your word
01:56:46: You have preserved us and kept us You have granted us this freedom This opportunity and this place
01:56:52: These are all your gifts to us And we thank you that we can enjoy them together this morning And we pray that you would send your
01:56:58: Holy Spirit to be our teacher and our guide As we examine your word and look at the afflictions that your word promises some of those who have believed
01:57:07: We pray that you would grant to us understanding and discernment and wisdom Contentment and also the grace to be unwavering and to stand strong in our faith
01:57:18: And in our love for Christ Unite our hearts together we pray and illuminate us together
01:57:23: In your word by your word and in the power of your Holy Spirit We ask this in Christ's name Amen The history of Christianity could be called a history of persecution
01:57:33: A history of opposition and hostility to the faith And that's a great way to start a sermon isn't it?
01:57:39: Because you're thinking to yourself Oh this is going to be another tour down Encouragement Boulevard this morning You're getting used to this in Hebrews chapter 10
01:57:46: Early Christians were no strangers to persecution or to hostility and opposition to the faith
01:57:51: In fact Acts could be called the story of the spread of the gospel In the face of almost unthinkable hostility and opposition to the truth
01:58:00: And yet in spite of all of that opposition and hostility And the persecution that was unleashed on Christians in the early church
01:58:07: The gospel went to the remotest parts of the world And continued even after the lifetime of the apostle
01:58:12: Paul You see the persecution that the apostles were subjected to in the early chapters of Acts In fact you're not very far into the book of Acts You get into chapter 3 where Peter and John heal a man who was lame at the temple gate
01:58:24: And they are immediately thrown into prison for that Not because they healed a man but because they healed a man
01:58:29: And then preached the truth to the crowd that had gathered around So we read in Acts chapter 4 verse 3 And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day for it was already evening
01:58:39: And they grilled the apostles and they threatened the apostles And then released the apostles And the apostles did what you have to do if you're going to be faithful to the faith
01:58:47: And that is to preach and proclaim the truth So they went right back to it And so then in Acts chapter 5 verse 17 and 18 we read
01:58:54: But the high priest rose up along with all his associates That is the sect of the Sadducees And they were filled with jealousy
01:58:59: They laid hands on the apostles and put them in public jail That's Acts chapter 5 Then in Acts chapter 7
01:59:05: Stephen is stoned In Acts chapter 8 we read of a young man who was there watching that happen
01:59:11: And holding the garments of those who were putting him to death Acts chapter 8 verse 1 Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death
01:59:17: And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem And they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles
01:59:26: Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him But Saul began ravaging the church
01:59:31: Entering house after house and dragging off men and women He would put them in prison
01:59:37: Of course you know that that's not the end of the story for this man named Saul He eventually was converted on the road to Damascus and became
01:59:43: Paul the apostle In Acts chapter 12 before we even really get to the unfolding of the story of Paul the apostle
01:59:48: In Acts chapter 12 we read this Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church
01:59:54: In order to mistreat them And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword And he saw that it pleased the
02:00:00: Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also Now it was during the days of unleavened bread When he had seized him he put him in prison
02:00:07: Delivering him to four squads of soldiers to guard him Intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people
02:00:12: So Peter was kept in the prison But prayer for him was being made fervently by the church of God That's all the way up to Acts chapter 12
02:00:19: And then we get to Acts chapter 13 And the focus goes from Peter and John and the apostles in Jerusalem The focus goes to this young man
02:00:27: Saul of Tarsus Who's persecuting the church and rounding up Christians And putting them into prison in Acts chapter 8 And then he is converted in Acts chapter 9
02:00:34: And baptized and then goes away into hiding And then you get to Acts chapter 13 And the focus switches over to Paul And we find out ironically in the providence of God That this one who was once imprisoning
02:00:44: Christians Now he himself is going to be put into prison Acts chapter 14 verse 9 But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium And having won over the crowds
02:00:51: They stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city Supposing him to be dead It's right after that the apostle tells the church
02:00:56: To the Christians who watched him get stoned He said to them It is through many tribulations
02:01:01: That we must enter the kingdom of heaven Acts chapter 14 verse 22 Then in Acts chapter 16 When Paul went to the city of Philippi He says the crowd rose up together against them
02:01:10: And the chief magistrates tore their robes off them And proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods When they had struck them with many blows
02:01:16: They threw him into prison Commanding the jailer to guard them securely And he having received such a command
02:01:22: Threw them into the inner prison And fastened their feet in the stalks And really the apostle Paul's ministry
02:01:27: One of the defining characteristics of it Is his imprisonment That is one of the most remarkable things about him
02:01:33: The one whose first appearance in the book of Acts Is throwing Christians into prison
02:01:39: He later on becomes one who spends An incredible amount of time in prison After his three missionary journeys
02:01:45: Paul was arrested in the city of Jerusalem In Acts chapter 21 And then for Acts chapter 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28
02:01:54: The apostle Paul is in prison He's in chains Two years in the city of Caesarea And then after that he gets on a ship
02:02:01: And sails to the city of Rome Where he spends another two years All of that under house arrest Four years the apostle
02:02:07: Paul spent in prison And because of that we have four of his epistles Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians And the book of Philemon After the end of the book of Acts The apostle
02:02:17: Paul was briefly released from prison But then re -arrested again for a second imprisonment During which time he wrote 2
02:02:24: Timothy The book that Dave read from this morning In the scripture reading And eventually the apostle
02:02:29: Paul Not too long after writing 2 Timothy He was executed by being beheaded Along the
02:02:34: Appian Way Outside of the city of Rome Now what was Paul's perspective on his imprisonment?
02:02:39: That's a good question The apostle who wrote two thirds of the books Of our New Testament And was so influential in the spreading of the gospel
02:02:46: From the city of Jerusalem All the way to the remotest parts of the earth Even at one time Intending to go as far away as Spain To spread and to preach the gospel
02:02:55: What was his view of his chains and his imprisonment? In Philippians chapter 1, verse 10
02:03:00: Paul says, now I want you to know, brethren That my circumstances have turned out For the greater progress of the gospel
02:03:06: So that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ Has become well known throughout the whole
02:03:11: Praetorian Guard And to everyone else And that most of the brethren Trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment
02:03:17: Have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear How would you summarize Paul's perspective?
02:03:24: He would say, my imprisonment Has been for the advance of the gospel And for the encouragement of other
02:03:30: Christians And therefore, my imprisonment in the cause of Christ Has turned out for the greater progress of the gospel
02:03:36: Paul was not concerned that he was in prison He was only concerned that being in prison He would be faithful to preach the truth
02:03:43: Now imagine, if you will That the church was not born in the midst of affliction And hostility and persecution
02:03:49: And imagine, if you will That the New Testament was not written at all In that environment to Christians who face that Imagine for a moment
02:03:57: That the New Testament church was born Under the same kind of blessings and benefits
02:04:02: And freedom and grace That we have enjoyed in our country For the better part of the last 250 years or more
02:04:09: Imagine that the New Testament were written At a time when Christianity And the spread of the gospel
02:04:16: And religious tolerance were sort of the order of the day And that the church was birthed in that environment
02:04:23: If that had been the case You and I would be concluding Just from reading the New Testament today
02:04:28: That persecution and opposition to the gospel Are an anomaly and not the norm
02:04:34: We would actually have very few examples in the New Testament Of anybody ever suffering for the faith
02:04:40: We would have no books written by anybody Who suffered for the cause of Christ in prison
02:04:45: If it had been birthed in different circumstances We would conclude that the church can only grow
02:04:50: And grows at its finest When the church is at peace And when the church is secure
02:04:56: And when Christians are safe And when hostility and persecution do not exist We would come to the conclusion that the church
02:05:03: Is at its best when it is in favor With all of the institutions of our society and culture
02:05:09: When the government is influenced by Christians And those who are in government Rule and administer their offices
02:05:17: Christianly And when justice is being done And when there is freedom That's when the church flourishes
02:05:22: We would come to the conclusion That the church is at its finest When it is at its freest If the
02:05:29: New Testament had been birthed Under different circumstances But because the
02:05:35: New Testament was written At a time when the hostility and opposition to the gospel Was at a fervent pitch
02:05:41: For that reason we have examples of godly And righteous and pious and devout men Who suffer physical affliction and persecution
02:05:48: And we have instructions On how to think about that persecution And how to respond to that persecution
02:05:55: And we have instruction on how to prepare For that persecution I think we're at a stage now
02:06:01: When we need to be thinking about how to prepare And how to respond And how to think about these things
02:06:07: And scripture tells us exactly What we are to look forward to And one such example of that Is right here in this warning passage
02:06:14: In Hebrews chapter 10 We have been looking at Those who had endured the reproach of faith In fact verses 32 to 34
02:06:20: I just want to remind you of the overall outline Of this entire passage Because we are taking some weeks to go through it Verses 32 to 34 he tells them
02:06:27: Reminds them to remember Their enduring of the reproach of faith And then in verses 35 through 39
02:06:34: He tells them to look forward To receiving the reward of faith Those who endure faith's reproach
02:06:40: Receive faith's reward That is a statement that I want you to get into your mind Those who endure the reproach of faith
02:06:47: Will receive the reward of faith Those who endure faith's reproach Get faith's reward
02:06:53: And you are going to hear me say that over and over again I have already said it a number of times Because that is really what carries us
02:06:58: All the way through chapter 11 In chapter 11 the faith chapter We have example after example of people
02:07:03: Who endured the reproach of faith And then look forward to receiving the reward of that faith And the author is here spelling out that very same thing
02:07:10: We look forward to a better possession A lasting one, a great reward Receiving what is promised The preserving of our soul
02:07:16: All of that we anticipate with eagerness Because we are those Who do not shrink back to destruction
02:07:21: Verse 39 But instead we have faith to the preserving of the soul We endure faith's reproach
02:07:26: So that we look forward to Because we look forward to Receiving faith's reward So we have been looking in recent weeks
02:07:32: At this great conflict of sufferings Described in verse 32 What did it look like? There were two different kinds of sufferings by the way
02:07:38: Today we are looking at the shared sufferings Last week we looked at The individual sufferings The ones that people had personally
02:07:44: Themselves endured Described in verse 33 They were made a public spectacle Through reproaches and tribulations
02:07:50: You'll notice that there is a division here In the types of suffering that they were Enduring Some partly had become
02:07:59: A public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations Some shared with those Who were so treated
02:08:04: There's two different kinds of persecution That is described here Persecution that came to them And persecution that they went to Persecution sometimes will find you
02:08:13: Sometimes you have to go find persecution And you have to look forward to it And kind of seek it out Now we would always prefer that persecution find us
02:08:21: We never try and pursue Or define persecution Nobody wants to live in that kind of environment
02:08:27: But there are two different groups of people here Those who had endured public Spectacle, becoming a public spectacle
02:08:33: Endured a reproach And endured the tribulations They had endured those things
02:08:38: Then there is this other group in verse 33 That had shared with those
02:08:43: Who had been treated that way Indicating that they themselves Had not necessarily been treated that way
02:08:49: But that they in some way participated With and joined in the affliction Of those who had been
02:08:55: Suffered in that way Sometimes persecution puts Its force against people who are
02:09:01: Immovable and unwavering And do not go along with the spirit of the age The persecution that will find you
02:09:07: Is the persecution that comes to you When you are doing nothing Nothing to seek it out Nothing to necessarily deserve it
02:09:14: But you are just unwavering and unbending in the truth You know what the truth is And you stand there and you proclaim it
02:09:20: And you rest in it, you are content with it And you just are obedient to the Lord And when you do that And the current of the culture is going
02:09:28: An entirely different direction And it seeks to just roll right over top of you That's when persecution finds you
02:09:34: There's nothing you can do to stop it It's just going to happen because this is the way That the world is going and you can see it happening
02:09:40: In our culture today You can see the direction that everything is going Have you ever stood by a river
02:09:46: That is where the water is moving Rather quickly past you And you can see that under the surface of the water
02:09:51: There is a rock there that is immovable and unwavering And you can see the water come up against that rock And the rock does not move but the water
02:09:57: Is forced to go around it and sometimes over top of it And you know that there is pressure being put On that rock or if there is a stick
02:10:04: That is sticking up out of the water You can see the water hit that stick You know that the water is putting its pressure against that stick
02:10:09: But the stick or the rock is immovable And unbending and does not snap off It does not waver
02:10:14: It does not move at all And the culture, the current of that river Is going against it and putting its pressure against it
02:10:21: You know what the stick can do In order to not feel any of the pressure Of the current of the river It can break off and go along with the river
02:10:28: And if you are just drifting down the river And not standing against it Then you don't feel any of the pressure
02:10:34: Any of the current, any of the opposition at all But if you will remain unbending and unmovable
02:10:41: And not shaken at all And stand in the truth When the culture begins to flow
02:10:46: Like a rapidly flowing river And you don't move You are going to feel all of the pressure of that And it will come up against you
02:10:52: It will be all around you And it will even go over top of you That is how you need to envision that You are not a stick or a leaf
02:11:00: That is being pulled along by the current But you are standing immovable And if you stand immovable you are going to feel that pressure
02:11:06: That is the persecution that will find you Listen You don't need to go looking for persecution
02:11:13: Just be patient It will find you soon enough And when it does
02:11:20: Then you will know That you are in this first group These things happen We are being made a public spectacle
02:11:25: Through reproaches and tribulations Then there is a second group That is the persecution that they chose
02:11:32: You see this is kind of a This is kind of a Voluntary persecution When those who are so treated
02:11:39: You join in and share with them You don't necessarily have to Right Or do you have to You kind of do, you kind of don't
02:11:48: I will get to this later But you join in and share with them In that persecution
02:11:54: That is the second group that we are looking at Today, there were some who had endured these things They were treated this way
02:11:59: And then there are others who joined in and jumped in And shared with those who were so treated Two different kinds of persecution
02:12:05: I want to make an observation that should be obvious to all of us But it does need a little bit of It should require us to think a little bit about this
02:12:12: We should give some time to consider this Not everyone suffers The same kinds of persecution
02:12:17: Or the same degrees of persecution You understand that right Not everybody suffers equally
02:12:24: Some are made a public spectacle Reproached and endure tribulation Some jump in and participate
02:12:29: With those who are treated that way God does not evenly distribute suffering You can observe this
02:12:35: Just looking around you God does not evenly distribute suffering or persecution This is true of physical infirmities
02:12:41: God does not make everyone blind Though he does make some people blind God does not make everyone deaf Though he does make some people deaf
02:12:47: God does not make everyone crippled He makes some people crippled God is judicious according to his wisdom
02:12:53: His providence and his sovereignty To assign to us varying degrees Of physical abilities as well as disabilities
02:12:59: God is not fair in his distribution Of money, talent, looks, skills Opportunities, natural abilities
02:13:08: God is not concerned with fairness We are preoccupied with it in our culture But God is not at all concerned with fairness
02:13:14: He does not distribute to all of us Equally spiritual gifts, natural abilities
02:13:20: Talents, stations in life Prosperity or any of the other things That he distributes as his gifts
02:13:25: And it is the same thing with suffering You are not currently enduring The same kind and the same degree
02:13:31: Of persecution that your brothers and sisters In Christ are enduring in Afghanistan At this very moment
02:13:36: You're not enduring that I thank God for that, I'm grateful for that It makes me pray for them
02:13:41: And to be aware of what they're going through But he has not distributed Suffering to us in the same way
02:13:48: That he has for them And even in the turning against Christians In our own culture, we're not seeing
02:13:53: An equal degree of suffering even in our own nation We can name probably off Most of us probably could off the top of our heads
02:14:00: A couple of pastors who were Arrested recently in recent months In Canada, James Coates and Tim Stevens Those two men were arrested
02:14:08: They weren't the only pastors In Canada with their churches open I know this because I know people in Canada And I know they were attending church
02:14:15: I know some of them were attending church underground Some of them were attending church publicly But not every pastor
02:14:21: Was arrested in Canada for having their church open Those two men were They were granted the grace
02:14:28: Of suffering in that way That other pastors in Canada were not In our own nation, John MacArthur was threatened
02:14:33: With all kinds of fines and Possibly imprisonment and other things For opening up Grace Community Church There are other pastors in this church
02:14:40: That had their churches open At the same time that John MacArthur did, right? He became a target, I did not become a target
02:14:47: Even though we were meeting at the same time On the same day of the week So God does not distribute his suffering
02:14:52: And afflictions equally Or fairly Peter, Paul, John, thousands
02:14:58: I would say tens of thousands of others Have been asked to suffer things that I have never been asked to suffer You may be asked to suffer things
02:15:04: That nobody else in this congregation will suffer Other people in this congregation May be asked or given the gift to suffer
02:15:10: Things that you will never be asked to suffer The church at Thessalonica faced Opposition and persecution that the church in Kootenai Has never faced
02:15:18: God is unequal Unfair, as it were In the distribution of his suffering
02:15:24: But who ultimately controls Who suffers, where they suffer, when they suffer And how they suffer, who controls that?
02:15:30: God controls it, and would you want it any other way? Would you want Governing authorities to be the ones who determine that?
02:15:37: Would you want The wicked to be able to be the ones who determine that? God is the one who As a sovereign
02:15:43: God in his providence Appoints suffering And affliction and persecution to his people
02:15:49: In his timing, for his purposes For our good, it's for his glory And it is for our good
02:15:54: And these two things are not at odds with each other Everything he does is ultimately for The best for his people that it could possibly be
02:16:01: He milks From our every situation Our maximum good out of that situation
02:16:06: Whatever he appoints for us And he at the same time milks out of that same Situation maximum glory for himself
02:16:13: God has so In his providence and in his wisdom Orchestrated all of the events of human history
02:16:18: So that all of it will unfold In a way that brings him the maximum Amount of glory and does the
02:16:24: Maximum amount of good for his people, the church That is how God in his wisdom Has orchestrated it And since he is the one
02:16:31: Who orchestrates all of that And ordains all of it You and I should not envy others
02:16:36: Who suffer less than us or more than us If we see somebody Who is suffering persecution
02:16:43: To a lesser degree than us If we envy them, if we wish that we were them If we complain against that Station in life, then really what we are
02:16:51: Doing is we are calling into question According to our judgment and our discernment The wisdom of God, the goodness of God The grace of God and the providence of God And we are saying to God I would be more able and more wise
02:17:03: In the distribution of these things than you are And I would know better Who should suffer and who should not suffer
02:17:09: Than you do And I am more able to judge The right and proper disposal
02:17:14: Of all of your creation than the Sovereign God of the universe is able to judge Those things So even in the distribution of suffering
02:17:22: Unequally as it is, you and I have to say That if it has been granted to us to suffer Just like it has been granted to us to believe
02:17:29: That's Philippians chapter 1 verse 29 If that is granted to us Then suffering is a gift
02:17:35: It is not a gift that we ask for Is it? How many of you this morning
02:17:41: In your private quiet time Asked the Lord for suffering This morning?
02:17:46: You did not It is one of his gifts Philippians chapter 1 verse 29 For to you, remember
02:17:52: Paul wrote this In prison, to you it has been granted For Christ's sake, not only to believe
02:17:57: In him but to suffer for him For his sake, experiencing The same conflict which you saw in me
02:18:03: And now hear to be in me To you it has been granted To believe, that is a gift from God Your faith is a gift from God So that you can believe, that is granted to you
02:18:13: That is bestowed upon you As a gracious gift of the Father Not only is your faith to believe
02:18:19: A gift, whatever suffering He appoints for you is his gift to you as well That is how we are to think about it
02:18:26: So John Owen says, let every one of us be content And rejoice in whatever so way God shall be pleased to call us
02:18:32: To suffer for the truth of the gospel So whether we are in the group Who are so treated or the group who shares
02:18:38: With those who are so treated Whatever our station in life is, whatever our allotment in life is We are called to not be envious
02:18:44: And to not complain, to see it as God's gift Ordained for us, appointed for us It is through many tribulations
02:18:49: That we must enter into the kingdom of heaven We should expect this, we see it coming If he should so allow
02:18:57: That nobody here ever suffers for the truth Then we will praise him for that But if he should so allow that all of us
02:19:02: In some measure would suffer for the truth We would praise him for that as well Because that would be his good gift to us
02:19:08: And those of us who do not Those of us who do not Face the hostility And the being made a public spectacle
02:19:15: And the seizure of our property We have an ability, scripture says To share with those who are so treated That's verse 33
02:19:23: Partly by becoming sharers with those Who were so treated That word sharer is koinonioi That sounds familiar because it comes from the word koinonia
02:19:30: Which is translated fellowship So often in scripture It is fellowship Typically when we think of fellowship
02:19:37: What we mean is a bunch of guys or women Getting together and just gabbing over food Or coffee or drink
02:19:42: Talking about life and the kids Visiting, catching up We call that fellowship
02:19:48: That's really not what the bible means by fellowship The idea of fellowship doesn't exclude that But that is not the sum total of fellowship in the new testament
02:19:55: The idea of fellowship in the new testament Is actually a word that describes A partnership or an association
02:20:00: An active experiential participatory involvement In something with somebody else
02:20:06: So if you and I went into a business venture together And I contributed my good looks And you contributed all the money
02:20:12: And we went in together on this And we both had a share in this and an interest in this Then you and I could be said to be sharers
02:20:19: Or fellowshipers in that business venture If you and I got together
02:20:24: And did some activity Where we both invested our time Our talent or our treasure in something And then we reaped the rewards equally in that So that we had a common interest
02:20:33: A common goal A common participation A common work And interest in something
02:20:39: And an investment in something Then we would say to be sharers in it We had shared with it We had become participants or associates
02:20:46: Partners in it Companions It describes one who joins with you in something
02:20:52: Someone who shares in it with you And if we take the commands of the new testament The commands of the new testament
02:20:58: And the teaching of the new testament seriously Then this kind of fellowship is unavoidable Because you and I share
02:21:05: A common interest The gospel that we preach and that we believe It is the same gospel
02:21:10: We have the same name of Christ that interests us The same kingdom truths The truth of scripture
02:21:16: We have the same Lord So your interest if you're in Christ Your interests are my interests
02:21:21: His suffering is my suffering Your suffering is my suffering His people are our people
02:21:27: His truth is our truth We have these things in common Because we are one people with the
02:21:33: Lord We are of the same bride We are of the same body We are of the same kingdom We are of the same people Our election and our calling we share that in common
02:21:40: So that everything that is his is ours We have the same inheritance We have the same future We get some of the same rewards
02:21:47: We worship the same Lord We sing the same music We have the same family We enjoy the same citizenship
02:21:52: And it's not here on this earth All of these things we have an interest in We are invested in those things
02:21:58: And listen, the more these things concern me And I am in these things And the more that these things concern you
02:22:05: And you are in these things The more we are drawn together in these things And the more we participate in them together
02:22:11: So if I am going to be Biblical and if you are going to be biblical And we are going to do the one another's
02:22:16: Love one another, serve one another Be kind to one another, forgive one another Be generous with one another, fellowship with one another
02:22:22: Exercise hospitality with and to And for one another If we are going to do these things Then it is inevitable that we would be sharers and partakers
02:22:30: In this common journey And so if I am a sharer And partaker with you In our fellowship, in our
02:22:37: Lord In his sufferings, in his kingdom, in his interests Then when he is assaulted, you are assaulted
02:22:42: And if you are assaulted Then I am assaulted Once again, in our business venture Where I put up the looks, you put up the money
02:22:49: And we are together and we are sharing in this thing If one of us is assaulted, let's say I am killed And I no longer have the good looks
02:22:54: To contribute to this venture, that hurts you, doesn't it? Because you are a sharer with this in me And so if something happens to me
02:23:00: To compromise my investment in this thing In which we share, in which we enjoy this fellowship
02:23:05: Something happens to me It is happening to you as well, isn't it? So in one sense
02:23:11: This sharing and this suffering is an unavoidable An unavoidable consequence Of our union together with Christ These things draw us in To the suffering of others
02:23:21: How did they share in it? It's verse 34 For you showed sympathy to the prisoners You showed sympathy to the prisoners
02:23:26: Now, you can't read the New Testament without coming to the conclusion As I did at the beginning of just a survey of verses
02:23:31: That prison was a common thing In the first century church Being in jail for the faith was not an anomaly
02:23:37: It was not an oddity, a rarity There were a lot of them, in fact, later on in the book of Hebrews The author says, take notice that our brother
02:23:43: Timothy Has been released, with whom, if he comes soon I will see you Timothy had been in prison
02:23:49: We know that Paul had been in prison Paul had probably been executed before the book of Hebrews Was written, but Paul had been in prison
02:23:55: And then the author of Hebrews knew Timothy And he said that Timothy Has been released, take note of that So that if I come to you,
02:24:03: I'm going to bring Timothy with me In the New Testament In the early church, and this is actually
02:24:08: True for most of the ancient world Prison or imprisonment was not like You and I imagine it today Three hots on a cot, and not so much
02:24:16: Three hots on a cot At taxpayer expense, not so much Whereas today,
02:24:21: I mean Apart from obviously having the limitations On your freedom, that's obviously a detriment The prisoners of today
02:24:28: In our prisons today, don't suffer anything Like what they would have suffered In the first century, not at all
02:24:33: In fact, prisoners in the first century Once they were in prison They were often abandoned by loved ones
02:24:40: And by other people By their friends, and once they were in prison If nobody came to bring provision
02:24:46: To them, they didn't have provision Nobody showed up with a hot meal On a tray and slid it under the door
02:24:52: Or through the bars at that time If somebody didn't Somebody outside the prison did not show up To bring you food, you didn't eat
02:25:00: If they didn't show up to bring you a change of clothes, you didn't have a change of clothes If they didn't show up To bring you something to read
02:25:06: Or any kind of creature Comfort at all, you went without that There was no infirmary
02:25:11: Where you could go and have your teeth worked on Or get a new pair of eyeglasses Or sit and cruise the internet
02:25:16: There was no hospital, prison hospital Where you could go and have a sex change operation At taxpayer expense, none of those blessings existed
02:25:24: In the first century, none of that None of those creature comforts You went into prison, if somebody else didn't share in you
02:25:30: With that and contribute to you You were absolutely destitute Somebody else had to bring something to you
02:25:35: And so it fell to Christians It fell to Christians to do that for the prisoners The people in their own congregations
02:25:42: Who had been put into prison You say, what about their family members? What if your family members are the reason you're in prison?
02:25:50: Oh, you say, that never happened Oh, it did happen It did happen in the early church Because some of these people to whom this author is writing
02:25:57: They are people who had walked away From the temple and all of the old covenant And they had embraced Christ and come out of that And then what do you think
02:26:04: How do you think that that made all of their friends and family feel Who were committed to all of those features And forms of the old covenant
02:26:10: They resented that And that is why they were suffering this persecution They had walked away from that So for many of those who were in prison
02:26:17: It is not a stretch to suggest that the imprisonment Could have been caused by the betrayal Of their friends and their family members
02:26:24: Maybe even their spouse or their kids Or their loved ones, their parents Who had betrayed them because they had abandoned
02:26:30: What they considered to be the true faith And had instead turned to the Messiah And left that old covenant
02:26:36: And now they were facing persecution for that So what do you do if your family members have turned against you And they're the reason that you're in prison
02:26:43: Then your only family In that case is actually your true family Which is the body of Christ And the people who know the
02:26:49: Lord And have fellowship with you in that They had become sharers And I think that this word, this idea of fellowshipping here
02:26:56: Because it's not just the idea of sharing Visiting, right, just visiting with somebody That's not the idea here
02:27:01: The idea is an investment, an act of participation In this suffering They had become sharers in their suffering
02:27:07: In what way? Well you can imagine that they would have shared Their possessions with one another Because some of them, you read in verse 34
02:27:14: Had their property seized That's the same group that had been made a public spectacle Or approached tribulation who had been put into prison
02:27:20: They had had their property seized And so this gave opportunity for those who had not Had their property seized to take some of their property
02:27:26: And to use it for the blessing and benefit Of those who had had their property seized And were in a destitute situation
02:27:32: Namely prison So they shared in that way They also shared by associating with them And this is the sense in which this suffering
02:27:40: Was avoidable It is avoidable because you can imagine A situation in which a bunch of people are thrown into prison
02:27:46: For the faith And all you have to do to avoid that is nothing That's all you have to do, you have to do nothing
02:27:52: That's a low bar You just have to do nothing You just have to lay low for a couple of weeks
02:27:57: Keep your head down Don't say anything, don't visit them Don't contribute anything to them
02:28:03: Do nothing to draw the attention Of the governing authorities or the wicked people Who are causing this suffering
02:28:08: For your brothers and sisters in Christ All you have to do is nothing And nothing will happen to you
02:28:16: Just be quiet Maybe even slightly As a number of pastors in Canada did
02:28:21: And a number of pastors here in the United States did Concerning John MacArthur Even just sort of a little snarky thing
02:28:26: Like well, they got what they deserved, they're violating the law Just put that out there To sort of show that we're on the side of the people
02:28:33: Who are doing this to our brothers in Christ All you have to do is just lay low So in this sense
02:28:39: This was avoidable suffering But in the other sense If they are going to love one another
02:28:45: And pray for one another, be kind to one another Give to one another, serve one another Provide for widows and orphans, be generous Care for one another
02:28:51: If they're going to do that Then they have to actively participate In the suffering of others
02:28:56: And of course that would make them a target Because when your brothers and sisters are in prison
02:29:01: And you show up with a hot plate of food And a change of clothes, a pillow and a blanket Guess what that indicates
02:29:07: To everybody watching That you are one of them And that you share with them in that And that you put yourself in their position
02:29:14: And you consider their suffering to be your suffering And you are doing everything you can to alleviate them Because you belong to them and they belong to you
02:29:21: And if that is the case Then you make yourself a target You make yourself a target for other people Who want to persecute
02:29:26: Christians Hebrews 13 verse 3 says Remember the prisoners as though in prison with them
02:29:32: And those who are ill -treated since you yourselves are in the body 2 Timothy chapter 1 Those verses that Dave read at the beginning
02:29:39: The Lord grant mercy to the house of Anisiphorus For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains
02:29:45: But when he was in Rome He eagerly searched out for me and found me The Lord grant to him to find mercy
02:29:51: From the Lord on that day And you know very well what services he rendered at Ephesus Anisiphorus is just a That's a guy
02:29:57: I want to meet in heaven I know I'll meet him in heaven, we've got a long time there But Anisiphorus And I'll have his name right when
02:30:04: I meet him in heaven Anisiphorus is one of those guys That I'm looking forward to meeting in heaven He was a man who when he was in Rome Knowing that Paul was in prison in Rome He sought
02:30:13: Paul out, he had to look for him Hey, where can I find Paul the Apostle? You know Enemy of the state, number one
02:30:21: The most well -known Christian Whose suffering has become well -known Throughout all the Petroleum Guard and all the believers
02:30:27: Back to all of the Roman world Everybody knew the Apostle Paul was in prison He had written letters from prison The news of his imprisonment had spread all around What they didn't know was which prison is he at, where can
02:30:36: I find him But when Anisiphorus got to Rome He sought for Paul, eagerly sought for Paul Why?
02:30:41: So that he could refresh Paul He could do something for Paul This is somebody who didn't wait for persecution to come to him Anisiphorus went and he found persecution
02:30:48: He made himself a target By sharing with those who were so treated Anisiphorus in 2
02:30:53: Timothy chapter 1 is a perfect example Of the very thing that we're talking about here I hope that you can see how
02:30:59: Body life, life in the body of Christ Is essential to being able to do this For other people and with other people
02:31:05: You cannot do this If you are forsaking the assembly of yourself With other Christians You cannot do this
02:31:11: If you are not actively committed to And involved with The life of other believers in a
02:31:18: Christian church It is impossible You can't do this watching the live stream At home every
02:31:23: Sunday And never meeting the people who are in the audience You cannot do this if you stay home And you hunker down in your bunker
02:31:29: And wait for the bad times to happen And keep the Christian church and your Christian family And other believers at arm's length
02:31:36: You can't fulfill these commands You can't possibly participate with others In that way We need body life and life in the body
02:31:43: And we need to do life with one another Be with one another in order to Not only know the needs of others
02:31:49: In the body of Christ but also to meet those needs And this is how we model that behavior And it is more difficult
02:31:55: When we are far away from people Than it is when we're close to people I was thinking about this
02:32:01: This last week You hear about the persecution going on in Afghanistan And Sudan and other places around the world
02:32:10: My heart goes out to them in a certain measure Because they are my brothers and sisters in Christ So I know that they are suffering
02:32:15: I don't know any name in particular I read it online But I don't know their name
02:32:21: I've never met with them I've never had a cup of coffee with them I've never sat down and talked to them I don't know their life story Their kids names
02:32:27: I don't know any of that My heart can feel for them To a certain point but only to a certain point
02:32:34: But if that type of affliction were to happen To people in this congregation Or Christians that I know who are close to me
02:32:40: It's an entirely different thing, isn't it? You recognize that? Imagine if you will that an entire quarter
02:32:47: Of our congregation was Put in prison for the faith A quarter of us was just missing
02:32:53: That's different than reading about The suffering that is on the other side of the world Suddenly it becomes personal
02:32:59: Suddenly I know these people Suddenly I love these people Suddenly I have had dinner, fellowship dinners With these people in their homes
02:33:05: I know their names, I know their kids names I know their story, I know how they got converted I know what their needs are
02:33:10: I know what they struggle with I know their proclivities And now it becomes personal Imagine that a quarter of our congregation were in prison
02:33:18: That's an entirely different thing I say this, imagine Imagine our brother Ed, just one of them, Ed was in prison
02:33:23: And this time not for a swim in the Rio Grande But for the faith Imagine he was in prison for the faith
02:33:30: Faithful to the truth and they threw poor Ed In the clinker, again But this time for the faith Imagine that, all of a sudden our hearts would break
02:33:38: We would move into prayer for this man We'd want to know how do we contribute to his family How can we help Ed, how can we visit him
02:33:43: And encourage him and lift his spirits We can do those things because we are close to one another We can't do that for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan We can send money through organizations
02:33:52: We can pray for them But there's a tangible and real way That we can participate in the sufferings of others
02:33:57: When we are doing life together That is something that is entirely different So what do you do with this?
02:34:06: I'm not in prison You're not in prison We're not in prison
02:34:11: We don't know anybody in our congregation That is in prison So is all of this just theoretical I would suggest you know it's not
02:34:20: You and I need to be preparing ourselves Mentally, spiritually and emotionally For whatever suffering God may appoint for us
02:34:26: This is true in good times and bad by the way I know it's tempting at this point To think, Jim, don't you believe in a pre -trib rapture
02:34:33: You think we're going to get out of here Before it gets really bad That's not what people who believe in a pre -trib rapture believe
02:34:39: It can get really bad Before we ever get out of here We just know, at least I'm confident That we're going to be out of here
02:34:44: Before it gets really, really, really bad Before the badness described in Revelation hits
02:34:49: I don't think we'll be here for that But that doesn't exclude us from all badness Or all bad things that might happen
02:34:56: We can still endure a lot of bad Without ever getting into the Great Tribulation So we need to mentally
02:35:03: Spiritually Emotionally In terms of our body Prepare that way Prepare for that Exercise your spiritual muscles now
02:35:12: So that when the time comes For you to lift yourself up Or to lift others up You will be ready to do it
02:35:17: And what do I mean by exercising your spiritual muscles You start living now in the body
02:35:23: With other people Getting to know them If you haven't already You don't live in isolation I know the tendency in our western culture
02:35:30: Is to think that the best thing to do in difficult times Is to buy a big chunk of land As far away from civilization as we can
02:35:37: Build a bunker, hunker in the bunker And keep everybody at arm's length Because we can't trust anybody
02:35:42: We can't love anybody, we can't be near anybody And I'm better off on my own No, scripture says that the opposite is the case
02:35:49: The opposite is the case If you live your entire life with your Christian family At arm's length
02:35:54: You are going to find that when you suffer Your entire Christian family is at arm's length Because that's where you've put them
02:36:00: And it always boggles my mind When Christians who have a loose And apathetic and very trivial
02:36:07: Connection to a local church body They do this And then they're always surprised When they start suffering that they're suffering alone
02:36:13: What did you expect? You wanted to live alone, you wanted to be alone You didn't want to be around anybody else So should it surprise you that when something bad happens
02:36:21: That you're all alone, nobody knows what's going on You know how people know what is going on When you are with people who can know what is going on And they can help you
02:36:29: And they can live with you through that And they can strengthen you so that if you're enduring it They can share with you in that affliction
02:36:35: And that suffering So when I talk about exercising our spiritual muscles In preparation for this I mean that we are to exercise hospitality
02:36:43: We are to share our lives with others That's biblical Christianity Bearing the burdens of others Allowing others to bear our burdens
02:36:50: Becoming strong spiritually So that if we are asked to lift a heavy load We will be able at that point to lift it
02:36:56: And if we are asked to share the burdens of others And lift their heavy load We will be able to lift their heavy load as well
02:37:02: We can be using our time now To prepare for whatever might come Now, what is the worst case scenario
02:37:09: Of what might happen What if nothing bad happens to me Oh, well Then I guess you wasted your life
02:37:16: Getting to know and love other great people I guess you wasted your life serving And being compassionate and being generous
02:37:22: And you wasted your life Getting to know other people Letting them get to know you And sharing the little burdens in life
02:37:28: Worst case scenario is that nothing bad No suffering for the truth ever comes to you But you have enjoyed others in the body
02:37:35: You have strengthened your spiritual muscles You have participated in spiritual disciplines You've been obedient to scripture And you get to reap the rewards
02:37:42: That such obedience promises That's worst case scenario Or maybe there's something else worse
02:37:50: I guess it's possible That suffering for the truth does come to you In which case
02:37:55: You get to enjoy all of those things And then you get to use your spiritual muscles That you spent some time building
02:38:02: For the benefit and blessing of other people And then, having borne The reproach of faith
02:38:07: You can look forward to faith's reward It's described in verse 34 A better possession and a lasting one
02:38:13: And we'll look at what that means next week Let's pray Our Father, we thank you for your grace
02:38:20: Your sustaining grace We thank you for your infinite Beautiful, perfect wisdom
02:38:26: That you as our sovereign God Have promised to dispose of all of your creatures And your people and this creation
02:38:33: According to your purposes According to your perfect wisdom You are the one who has orchestrated all of this
02:38:39: We know that everything That has happened and is happening Is under your sovereign control
02:38:44: And we can trust you And rest upon your word And upon your character, your faithfulness
02:38:50: And at the same time Pray that you would strengthen us And give us grace to strengthen ourselves
02:38:56: And to exercise These spiritual disciplines, these spiritual muscles So that we may be prepared To bear the burdens of others, if so called upon And if not, then we get to enjoy
02:39:05: The blessing and the benefit of being in the body And living according to The way that you have called us to live
02:39:11: In obedience to your word And to the promptings of your spirit We are grateful for your work in us
02:39:16: And through us And we pray that you would be glorified in your church And amongst your people Here, now, and forever
02:39:24: That you would strengthen the Brothers and sisters that we have In foreign lands
02:39:29: Who do suffer persecution Keep them faithful, give them strength to be unwavering And to face whatever it is that you have appointed
02:39:36: For them We know that having borne faith's reproach They will receive faith's reward And they will be abundantly
02:39:44: Rewarded for all that you have Called them to endure When they do so with faithfulness Continue to build your church, we pray
02:39:51: Glorify your name And strengthen your people And give us grace to look forward to the reward
02:39:57: That is to come We anticipate this with great expectation Knowing that you are faithful to give us
02:40:03: All that you have promised We thank you and we praise you in the name of Christ our Lord And all God's people said Please stand
02:40:13: Wonderful Savior Is Jesus my
02:40:25: Lord A wonderful Savior to me
02:40:33: He hideth My soul in the Cleft of the
02:40:39: Rock where Rivers of pleasure I see
02:40:47: He hideth My soul in the Cleft of the rock
02:40:54: That shadows The dry Thirsty land
02:41:00: He hideth My life in the Depths of His love
02:41:07: And covers Me there with His hand
02:41:14: And covers Me there with His hand
02:41:21: A Wonderful Savior is Jesus My Lord He taketh
02:41:30: My burden Away He holdeth
02:41:37: Me up And I shall not Be moved He giveth
02:41:43: Me strength as my Day He hideth
02:41:50: My soul in the Cleft of the Rock that Shadows the dry
02:41:58: Thirsty land He hideth
02:42:04: My life in the Depths of His love And covers
02:42:10: Me there with His hand And Covers me there
02:42:18: With His hand With numberless
02:42:24: Blessings each Moment He crowns And filled
02:42:30: With His fullness Divine I Sing in my
02:42:38: Rapture O Glory to God For such
02:42:43: A Redeemer Is mine He Hideth my soul
02:42:52: In the cleft Of the rock That shadows a
02:42:58: Dry thirsty land He hideth
02:43:04: My life in The depths of His love And covers
02:43:11: Me there with His hand And covers me there
02:43:18: With His hand May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Be with your spirit, brother.
02:43:25: Amen. You are dismissed. Hail the day
02:44:51: Of the skies To worlds unknown Glorious There He Ever is
02:45:00: Object of All heaven's Praise See Him lift
02:45:16: His hands above See the Scars of His great love
02:45:24: He has conquered Death and sin Saving all