Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Promise of Persecution │ Msg 316 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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The Promise of Persecution │ Msg 316 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Many people these days live life on the path of
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Speaker 1: least resistance. They choose the quick and easy route to
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Speaker 1: happiness instead of the steeper way to maturity that requires
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Speaker 1: discipline and determination. Sadly, that mentality has seeped into the
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Speaker 1: mindset of many Christians too. Yet Jesus calls us to
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Speaker 1: travel a more perilous path that he himself walked. The
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Speaker 1: New Testament, author of the Book of Hebrews, wrote, God,
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Speaker 1: for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to
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Speaker 1: bring many children into glory. And it was only right
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Speaker 1: that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader,
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Speaker 1: fit to bring them into their salvation. That's from Hebrews,
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Speaker 1: Chapter two, verse ten. How did God make Jesus a
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Speaker 1: perfect leader, not by leading him along a path of ease,
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Speaker 1: but by taking him down the hard road of suffering,
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Speaker 1: which most often came in the form of persecution. As
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Speaker 1: we will discover today in our study from John's Gospel,
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Speaker 1: the Christian journey follows a similar road paved with sharp
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Speaker 1: stones of persecution, a road blazed by Jesus himself. Join
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Speaker 1: me now by turning in your bibles to the end
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Speaker 1: of John fifteen. I'll be reading from that chapter, starting
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Speaker 1: with verse eighteen through John sixteen verse four. I'll be
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Speaker 1: reading from the new Living Translation. Now begin with me
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Speaker 1: in John fifteen eighteen. The world hates you. Remember that
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Speaker 1: it hated me first. The world would love you as
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Speaker 1: one of its own if you belong to it, but
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Speaker 1: you are no longer part of the world. I chose
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Speaker 1: you to come out of the world, so it hates you.
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Speaker 1: You remember what I told you. A slave is not
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Speaker 1: greater than the master. Since they persecuted me, naturally they
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Speaker 1: will persecute you. And if they had listened to me,
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Speaker 1: they would listen to you. They will do all this
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Speaker 1: to you because of me, for they have rejected the
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Speaker 1: one who sent me. They would not be guilty if
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Speaker 1: I had not come and spoken to them, but now
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Speaker 1: they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone who hates
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Speaker 1: me also hates my father. If I haven't done such
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Speaker 1: miraculous signs among them that no one else could do,
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Speaker 1: they would not be guilty. But as it is, they've
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Speaker 1: seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and
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Speaker 1: my father. This fulfills what is written in their scriptures.
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Speaker 1: They hated me without a cause. But I will send
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Speaker 1: you the advocate the spirit of truth. He will come
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Speaker 1: to you from the Father and will testify all about me.
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Speaker 1: And you must also testify about me, because you have
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Speaker 1: been with me from the beginning of my ministry now
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Speaker 1: beginning at verse one of John chapter sixteen. I have
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Speaker 1: told you these things so that you won't abandon your faith,
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Speaker 1: for you will be expelled from the synagogues. And the
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Speaker 1: time is coming when those who killed you will think
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Speaker 1: they are doing a holy service for God. This is
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Speaker 1: because they have never known the Father or me. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I'm telling you these things now so that when they happen,
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Speaker 1: you will remember my warning. I didn't tell you earlier
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Speaker 1: because I was going to be with you for a
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Speaker 1: while longer.
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Speaker 2: As the new year dawn, I gave thought to the
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Speaker 2: new year, as I'm sure all of you did at
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Speaker 2: some time during the day. My thoughts were mixed with
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Speaker 2: feelings of paradox, because I am basically a positive kind
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Speaker 2: of person and like to camp on those things, but
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Speaker 2: was forced by virtue of the morning message to face
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Speaker 2: the negatives of the new year. And so I say
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Speaker 2: at the outset of this message, it is difficult for
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Speaker 2: someone who is positive to preach a message that is negative,
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Speaker 2: and in doing so, I confess to you the difficulty.
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Speaker 2: And yet I'm committed to declaring what I believe you
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Speaker 2: need to hear, as God has revealed it to me.
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Speaker 2: I asked Mark to lead us in that hymn that
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Speaker 2: we all just sang together, because it frames a series
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Speaker 2: of questions that we are forced to answer. Isaac Watts
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Speaker 2: asked three lines of questions, and then he answered the
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Speaker 2: questions in the last. But even though the questions might
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Speaker 2: be the same, I am not sure our answer is
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Speaker 2: the same as his. Am I a soldier of the Cross,
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Speaker 2: a follower of the Lamb, fear to own his cause
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Speaker 2: or blush to speak his name? Must I be carried
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Speaker 2: to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others
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Speaker 2: fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas?
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Speaker 2: Are there no foes or me to face? Must I
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Speaker 2: not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend
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Speaker 2: to grace? To help me onto God? Sure, says Watts,
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Speaker 2: I must fight. If I would rain increase my courage.
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Speaker 2: I'll bear the toil, what toil? I will endure the pain? Really,
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Speaker 2: what pain? Who in this congregation has borne in his body?
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Speaker 2: The marks of the Lord Jesus? What marks? What fight?
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Speaker 2: I imagined as I stood before you and sang along with
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Speaker 2: you that hymn, that we were standing in a dungeon,
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Speaker 2: cold and damp and dark. I pictured us in sweatshirts
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Speaker 2: and bare feet, and all of a sudden it seemed different.
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Speaker 2: How different it would be if your home had been
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Speaker 2: confiscated and your weapons had been taken. How different it
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Speaker 2: would be if you did not have a Bible, nor
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Speaker 2: a hymnal, nor a church, and we did not have
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Speaker 2: a nation. Would we still have a hymn? Would you
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Speaker 2: still be singing? Sure? I would fight, increase my courage.
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Speaker 2: That's why New Year's Day was thought provoking for me.
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Speaker 2: God has a way of timing messages to fit just
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Speaker 2: the right season of the year at just the right time,
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Speaker 2: so that we are brought face to face with reality.
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Speaker 2: We cannot live in a bubble of fantasy Christians. First
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Speaker 2: of all, I don't make New Year's resolutions because I
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Speaker 2: never keep them. And secondly, when the year is begun
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Speaker 2: to run its course, I find that they weren't really
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Speaker 2: good resolutions at all, because I didn't know my needs.
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Speaker 2: But I am ready to make a prediction the new
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Speaker 2: year is going to be harder. I'm not speaking economically,
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Speaker 2: because that's not my field. I am speaking of it spiritually,
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Speaker 2: because that is my department. And if I read my
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Speaker 2: Bible correctly, I find that it may be necessary for
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Speaker 2: there to be a fight, and it may very well be.
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Speaker 2: Should Jesus Christ, Terry, we will be in a dungeon.
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Speaker 2: We have no hope of a tricentennial.
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Speaker 3: Do it.
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Speaker 1: No.
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Speaker 2: I want the attention of every student, every businessman, every homemaker,
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Speaker 2: every teacher, every professional career man or woman that's here today.
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Speaker 2: I want you to hear what God is saying. It
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Speaker 2: is a bleak scene. Spiritually speaking, the predictions are such
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Speaker 2: as not to make it a happy new year. Now
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Speaker 2: you see my dilemma. I want to be positive and
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Speaker 2: I can't be positive. I want to be accurate more
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Speaker 2: than I want to be positive. I was raised, and
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Speaker 2: not raised, but came really under the sound of the
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Speaker 2: of the Word in a church that was terribly negative
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Speaker 2: and petty, more at a communistic than it was pro Christ.
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Speaker 2: Every third message was a political harangue against communism. And
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Speaker 2: I suppose because of that I have been reeling from
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Speaker 2: the wake of it through my ministry, thinking I don't
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Speaker 2: want to have that kind of a message, and I
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Speaker 2: hope that I do not. But there are occasions where
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Speaker 2: we need to be brought up short with reminders that
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Speaker 2: the cause of Jesus Christ is slowly, but very surely
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Speaker 2: degenerating in the free world. And so I'm prepared today
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Speaker 2: to preach a message that's hard for me to preach,
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Speaker 2: but we've come to it in the study of John.
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Speaker 2: And therefore I do not want to be labeled as
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Speaker 2: a prophet of doom or a petty preacher of ill tidings.
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Speaker 2: I want you to hear what is said and then.
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Speaker 3: Reckon with it.
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Speaker 2: Just before we move into the scriptures, let me add
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Speaker 2: that one of my difficulties is knowing how to close
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Speaker 2: a message like this. How do you close a message
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Speaker 2: on persecution? You certainly don't want to pray for persecution,
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Speaker 2: do you? And yet how do you know how you
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Speaker 2: will do in persecution if you're not persecuted? So it's
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Speaker 2: all theory. Many of us have had the best year
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Speaker 2: of our lives. Others have taken a tail spin. I mean,
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Speaker 2: what do you do when you come home from the
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Speaker 2: Rose Bowl where you've won a magnificent victory vicariously and
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Speaker 2: walk in the door and go to bed in a
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Speaker 2: lovely surroundings with a loving family and the security of
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Speaker 2: our home, and prepare a message like this. It's hard, see,
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Speaker 2: and therefore I come with that honest admission of difficulty,
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Speaker 2: wanting you to close the message, because some of you
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Speaker 2: have begun to know persecution like you've never known it before.
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Speaker 2: My only answer is it will probably get worse. Two
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Speaker 2: Timothy Chapter three, let's start there. Tell you if there
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Speaker 2: was ever a need to build a church, a place
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Speaker 2: where the truth is proclaimed, it's in this era. Some
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Speaker 2: answer by saying, look, why build a new building when
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Speaker 2: you're in an era like this? You ought to stop
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Speaker 2: and check the cornerstones of churches that were etched during
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Speaker 2: the depression. That's an interesting study. How many churches were
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Speaker 2: built right in the heart or in the wake of
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Speaker 2: the depression. When times are hard, that's when people flock
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Speaker 2: to hear the truth of God. There is hope in
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Speaker 2: spite of the era that we're facing, and the only
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Speaker 2: hope is in Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 3: The only hope.
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Speaker 2: Tewod Timothy three is a prophecy where the apostle writes
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Speaker 2: to Timothy and says, realize this. Maybe Timothy wasn't realizing
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Speaker 2: as he should. Maybe you're not, and this will be
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Speaker 2: a reminder, if nothing else, that you need to remember.
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Speaker 2: Difficult times will come in the last days. That's what
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Speaker 2: Verse one is saying. See the words in the last days.
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Speaker 2: Any dependable New Testament student will tell you that that
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Speaker 2: is a reference to our era. The hard times are
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Speaker 2: these times. We have moved into that epoch known as
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Speaker 2: the last days, when the signs of the times are
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Speaker 2: marshaling evidence that Jesus Christ's return cannot be far away.
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Speaker 2: His coming is imminent. That's why the times are hard.
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Speaker 2: See the word difficult. A Greek lexicon will teach that
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Speaker 2: it means harsh, hard to deal with. One even says savvage.
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Speaker 2: In this era, in this epoch, savage times will come.
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Speaker 2: What's savage times? A third of the world could tell
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Speaker 2: you soon to become a half those that live and
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Speaker 2: breathe Jesus Christ in the underground Church caill tell you
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Speaker 2: about savage times. Well, what do we care about savage times?
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Speaker 2: We're in America. I think the apostle of saying nothing
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Speaker 2: else is saying we better care we better know that
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Speaker 2: it's possible. As a matter of fact. Verse ten. He
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Speaker 2: goes on to say to Timothy, you followed my teaching
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Speaker 2: and conduct, and purpose and faith, patience and love and perseverance.
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Speaker 2: Verse eleven. You also followed persecutions and sufferings such as
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Speaker 2: happened to me in Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra.
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Speaker 2: What persecutions I endured? And out of them all the
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Speaker 2: Lord delivered me. That's true, But that's the apostle Paul.
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Speaker 2: That's century one. Look at the next verse. Indeed, all
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Speaker 2: who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, here's your prophecy,
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Speaker 2: will be persecuted. Hard to believe, that, isn't it.
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Speaker 3: Now?
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Speaker 2: Not if you're a student that's bold enough to raise
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Speaker 2: your hand and ask the wrong question in the right class,
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Speaker 2: to be nailed by the prophet who despises the name
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Speaker 2: that you call deer. Now, it's not difficult to believe.
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Speaker 2: If you're a businessman that's committed to the principles of
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Speaker 2: honesty surrounded by a group of men who are not
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Speaker 2: and want you to shape up. It's not difficult to
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Speaker 2: believe if your husband walked out on you because your
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Speaker 2: commitment to Jesus, Christ is the strongest thing on earth.
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Speaker 3: Our husband wife the opposite.
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Speaker 2: It's not hard to believe for the child that watches
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Speaker 2: mom and dad split up because of the cause of Christ,
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Speaker 2: because the sword has come. It's not hard to believe
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Speaker 2: when you get letters from friends who are over there
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Speaker 2: and now the church is gone and they're living in
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Speaker 2: a hole, It's not hard to believe. In other words,
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Speaker 2: what I want to do is transport you, as difficult
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Speaker 2: as it is, into the imaginary world of what could someday,
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Speaker 2: sooner than maybe we're ready to believe, could become reality.
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Speaker 2: All who desire to live godly in Christ will be persecuted.
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Speaker 2: Now I go back to John, will you, and let's
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Speaker 2: look together at first of all, John sixteen thirty three,
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Speaker 2: the last verse of the not fifteenth chapter, but the
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Speaker 2: sixteenth chapter. Our lord was alone with his men in
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Speaker 2: the upper room, and he talked of our times. Jesus
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Speaker 2: said to his men these things I have spoken to
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Speaker 2: you that in me you may have peace. Notice the
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Speaker 2: source of peace, not the world, in Christ. In the
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Speaker 2: world you have tribulation. But take courage. I have overcome
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Speaker 2: the world. Will you mark very carefully that phrase and
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Speaker 2: it will haunt you if you do. In the world
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Speaker 2: you have tribulation. Now go back to John fifteen eighteen.
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Speaker 2: Having seen the general prediction of our world, let's look
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Speaker 2: at some specific instruction from Jesus Christ regarding our times.
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Speaker 2: In doing so, let's answer for questions. The first question
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Speaker 2: is who will persecute? We need to know the identity
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Speaker 2: of our enemy or the enemy of Christ. And listen carefully.
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Speaker 2: When you come to know the Lord Jesus, you become
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Speaker 2: a member of that very small minority band of men
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Speaker 2: and women called the Body of Christ. And the Lord
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Speaker 2: Jesus' plan is not to take that body out of
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Speaker 2: the world, but to leave it in the world and
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Speaker 2: to live within that body and to give power, meaning, definition, purpose, strength,
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Speaker 2: and all those marvelous dimensions. And he has said to
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Speaker 2: us in this passage already the thing that's going to
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Speaker 2: hold you together in a meaningful group is love. Love
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Speaker 2: one another, care for one another, Minister to one another,
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Speaker 2: Listen to one another, talk, respond to one another, because
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Speaker 2: in this world it's lonely. Now, when we leave this place,
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Speaker 2: we suddenly move into the minority. This is the only
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Speaker 2: place where we're in the majority. Right that when you
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Speaker 2: leave as a member of the body, you're still a
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Speaker 2: body member, but all of a sudden you're taking the
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Speaker 2: blows alone in a world that doesn't love. It hates.
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Speaker 2: And when that world system hates you sufficiently, you will
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Speaker 2: begin to move into the realm of persecution. What is
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Speaker 2: the source? What is the idea of the persecutor? Well,
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Speaker 2: it's the world Verses eighteen and nineteen. If the world
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Speaker 2: hates you, you know that it has hated me before it
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Speaker 2: hated you. The if could mean in our English, maybe
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Speaker 2: it does and maybe it doesn't, But in the construction
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Speaker 2: of the Greek sentence it means sense if and it
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Speaker 2: is true. Let's assume this statement to be true because
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Speaker 2: it is. Since the world hates you, you know it
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Speaker 2: hated me, says Jesus now verse nineteen. If you were
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Speaker 2: of the world, here's another kind of if, isn't it.
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Speaker 2: You're not. But if you were of the world, then
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Speaker 2: the world would love its own. But because you are
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Speaker 2: not of the world, it hates you. I noticed something
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Speaker 2: about verse nineteen. I know that the world either loves
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Speaker 2: or hates. There's no neutral ground with the world, and
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Speaker 2: the world loves or hates depending upon whether you are
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Speaker 2: in agreement with it, doesn't it now? By world Jesus
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Speaker 2: does not mean this planet Earth. He doesn't mean the
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Speaker 2: dirt and the water that make up Earth. He's referring
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Speaker 2: to the world system, which is often clothed in the
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Speaker 2: garb of sophistication, refinement, culture, education, attraction, and all the
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Speaker 2: subtleties of human improvement. But the world system, at its
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Speaker 2: heart and core hates God, and therefore whoever is in
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Speaker 2: ligue with God will be hated by the world system.
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Speaker 2: Look down at verse two in the next chapter, they
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Speaker 2: notice he's calling the world. They so he's referring to people,
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Speaker 2: not a planet. The unbelievers in the world system will
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Speaker 2: make you outcasts from the synagogue, and our is coming
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Speaker 2: for everyone who kills you. To think that he is
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Speaker 2: offering a service to God.
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Speaker 3: You believe that, well, you must believe it.
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Speaker 2: God said it. What is he saying. He's saying that
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Speaker 2: a number of those who are in the world system
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Speaker 2: will even be religious. The whole ecumenical movement he has
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Speaker 2: in mind, the churchy religious scene of our era. Thinking
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Speaker 2: it's doing a service to God is in fact putting
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Speaker 2: to death. Hoping to remove the distinctions of biblical evangelicalism.
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Speaker 2: That will be their desire. Stop and think about that.
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Speaker 2: Who were the greatest antagonists in the days of Jesus,
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Speaker 2: The Judaizers, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees. Well, how
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Speaker 2: about a little later on in history when Jesus had
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Speaker 2: left the earth and the disciples had left, and there
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Speaker 2: came another era of persecution called the Inquisition. What prompted
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Speaker 2: the inquisition? The church? The religious world. As a matter
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Speaker 2: of fact, it has been my observation in my few
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Speaker 2: years in the ministry that the single most difficult group
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Speaker 2: to handle is the religious crowd. Not believing, but the
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Speaker 2: religious group. They bring persecution. Now, having answered the question,
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Speaker 2: who will persecute and it's the world system, there's another
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Speaker 2: question that we need to answer. What can we expect
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Speaker 2: from the world system? Now, let me get even more
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Speaker 2: direct about this. You are a physician, and you're serving
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Speaker 2: in a group of physicians, And I have a case
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Speaker 2: in point of a close friend of mine in another state,
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Speaker 2: hundreds of miles from here. He wants very much to
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Speaker 2: have a meaningful practice, an excellent practice in the realm
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Speaker 2: of medicine. But he also wants his position in Jesus
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Speaker 2: Christ to be supported. He has traveled from state to state.
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Speaker 2: In fact, just got back from a traveling up into
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Speaker 2: Illinois and Iowa looking for such a group, and he
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Speaker 2: cannot find one such medical group that has medical excellence
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Speaker 2: and stimulating, exciting biblical Christianity mixed together. What's his pursuit?
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Speaker 2: Why is he pursuing such a thing? Because in his
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Speaker 2: present work, which is excellent in the realm of medicine,
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Speaker 2: he is absolutely no camaraderie with.
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Speaker 3: His guys, with the scene.
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Speaker 2: The world system that works within the heart of these brilliant,
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Speaker 2: capable physicians is so strong that this good man, top
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Speaker 2: of his class in the medical school, an excellent physician,
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Speaker 2: cannot enjoy that relationship any longer. He seeks in vain
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Speaker 2: to find a place where there can be both. And
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Speaker 2: I'm speaking in terms of the same thing many of
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Speaker 2: you businessmen wrestle with. One of the few places where
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Speaker 2: there can be a free career free of the clamps
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Speaker 2: on you is the ministry, and it's getting less and less.
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Speaker 2: We are in that era in which the hatred of
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Speaker 2: the world is like a smearing effect across careers. Ask
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Speaker 2: the teachers in our midst ask the salesman who fight
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Speaker 2: the battle. In the competitive jungle of the United States,
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Speaker 2: you will find precious few who say, ah, there's no
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Speaker 2: problem at all. I've not met one yet that's in
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Speaker 2: this world system and trying to do a job for
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Speaker 2: Christ hasn't begun to experience the brunt of it. Now,
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Speaker 2: look now at what can be expected. I want to
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Speaker 2: show you three things that the Lord says. First is
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Speaker 2: in verse nineteen, the last phrase, therefore, the world hates you.
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Speaker 2: The first thing you can expect from the world is hatred.
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Speaker 2: This emotion wears many faces.
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Speaker 3: Friends.
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Speaker 2: It can be as blase as just avoidance or a
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Speaker 2: disregard for a person. If you're a student and you're
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Speaker 2: born again and your life is counting for Christ, not
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Speaker 2: as a freak, but as a balanced believer who is
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Speaker 2: committed to the things of God, you as an individual,
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Speaker 2: will experience the hatred of this world, often by just
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Speaker 2: being avoided. Just disregard what you feel. You will be
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Speaker 2: made to appear foolish. Your opinion will be considered unimportant.
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Speaker 2: You will be seen as obnoxious by many in your class.
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Speaker 3: Or in your school.
29:09
Speaker 2: This can grow to an obvious repulsion for your presence
29:15
Speaker 2: and that can lead to open hostility. I have a
29:18
Speaker 2: friend who, as a little girl was a known as
29:23
Speaker 2: a Christian in her school, and at Christmas time someone
29:26
Speaker 2: wrapped up her gift and gave it to her, and
29:28
Speaker 2: it was garbage. That was her Christmas gift from a
29:33
Speaker 2: class member, a little box of garbage that's hatred. Well,
29:41
Speaker 2: you say, well, you can overlook that as a child.
29:45
Speaker 2: The lady speaks of it today as though it happened yesterday.
29:48
Speaker 2: It leaves a deep impact on a life, a growing animosity.
29:55
Speaker 2: We have a man in our congregation who defended a
29:58
Speaker 2: Christian cause this last and lost his case because of
30:02
Speaker 2: acknowledged and admitted prejudice in the court against family ministries.
30:10
Speaker 2: It was clear from the beginning, in fact, before the
30:13
Speaker 2: beginning of the trial, that the whole scene was a
30:16
Speaker 2: prejudice scene against the case of Jesus Christ. In the
30:22
Speaker 2: whole adoptive realm another notch, another level, and you pass
30:28
Speaker 2: it off as if to say, well, that's the signs
30:30
Speaker 2: of our time. Yes, it's also a fulfillment of exactly
30:35
Speaker 2: what God said about the hating of the world system.
30:39
Speaker 2: Educated respected judge who said thumbs down because the case
30:46
Speaker 2: was pro Christ. Second, there will be persecution Verse twenty.
30:53
Speaker 2: Remember the word that I said to you says Jesus,
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Speaker 2: a slave is not greater than his master. If they
31:00
Speaker 2: persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Mark that that
31:05
Speaker 2: is a promise. That is a prediction. They will also
31:10
Speaker 2: persecute you. You can expect next persecution. Hatred is an
31:14
Speaker 2: attitude that works out in persecution. In this context, the
31:20
Speaker 2: Greek term translated persecute means to put to flight, to pursue.
31:27
Speaker 2: At Robertson, a fine Baptist scholar, has written a book
31:31
Speaker 2: called our series of books called word Pictures in the
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Speaker 2: New Testament, and he says, this word persecute means to
31:39
Speaker 2: chase like a wild beast. I thought that was vivid
31:43
Speaker 2: enough to be mentioned. You will be chased like a
31:48
Speaker 2: wild beast when it reaches its height. You know, many
31:53
Speaker 2: of us have not yet known such a thing, and
31:57
Speaker 2: by God's grace, we've been preserved from it. We have
32:01
Speaker 2: not known the fight, born the toil, or the pain.
32:07
Speaker 2: But there's a whole world that has the underground Church.
32:15
Speaker 2: This is the last time you prayed for our brothers
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Speaker 2: and sisters that have now come to millions in number
32:25
Speaker 2: who would count it the greatest gift in life to
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Speaker 2: know one worship service such as this one, or to
32:35
Speaker 2: have just one shread one page in some places of scripture,
32:43
Speaker 2: just a page. One fine independable expositor writes this, It
32:51
Speaker 2: may surprise some to know that among all of the
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Speaker 2: twenty centuries since our Lord left the earth, the century
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Speaker 2: which has seen more outright, vicious, violent persecution of Christians
33:04
Speaker 2: is not the first, but the twentieth. More Christians are
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Speaker 2: being hated and destroyed, their goods and homes confiscated, their
33:17
Speaker 2: persons attacked and mistreated in this century than any other century.
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Speaker 3: Close quote.
33:27
Speaker 2: Billy Graham entitled our world a world of flame.
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Speaker 3: In the early sixties.
33:36
Speaker 2: The fire isn't less, it's greater, Like a sleeping giant.
33:42
Speaker 2: The underground Church has given rise to the cause of
33:47
Speaker 2: Christ through several booklets.
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Speaker 3: You have read some.
33:53
Speaker 2: The drama, bravery, and martyrdom of the early Church are
33:59
Speaker 2: happening all over again now, and the Church of the
34:05
Speaker 2: Free World.
34:08
Speaker 3: Sleeps on Salem.
34:13
Speaker 2: Curbon, in his book I Predict makes a number of
34:18
Speaker 2: sweeping predictions, not the least of which is this matter
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Speaker 2: of death, which is the third response that we can expect.
34:28
Speaker 2: It's in verse two of chapter sixteen. They will make
34:33
Speaker 2: you outcasts from the synagogue. Now that applies to the
34:38
Speaker 2: apostles directly, but the implications of it apply to every century.
34:46
Speaker 2: We may very well lift to see a time in
34:48
Speaker 2: which we will be expelled from public worship. In fact,
34:55
Speaker 2: he goes on to say, there will be those who
34:57
Speaker 2: kill you, thinking their offering your service to God. Isn't
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Speaker 2: it easy to pass over that word k I L L.
35:09
Speaker 2: It's not an exaggerated language. Jesus chose his words carefully.
35:17
Speaker 2: It's a bleak picture, but it's a picture in which
35:23
Speaker 2: we are driven closer together than ever into our only
35:28
Speaker 2: source of peace, and that's Jesus Christ. Why will they
35:33
Speaker 2: do it? Why will this persecution occur? I find woven
35:39
Speaker 2: into the fabric of these verses three reasons that you
35:42
Speaker 2: can see for yourself Verse nineteen, Verse twenty one, and
35:47
Speaker 2: verse twenty five. Just take your pencil and note them.
35:51
Speaker 2: Verse nineteen. If you were of the world, the world
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Speaker 2: would love its own. But because you are not of
36:00
Speaker 2: the world, it hates you. There's your first reason. Because
36:06
Speaker 2: you don't march to the same drum beat, because you
36:10
Speaker 2: have a higher principle that you live by the world
36:13
Speaker 2: hates you without a single proven fact against you. You
36:18
Speaker 2: are indicted just by your commitment. I think the best
36:25
Speaker 2: example of it we won't take the time to look, unfortunately,
36:28
Speaker 2: is Daniel Chapter six, verses one to nine, where that
36:33
Speaker 2: great man of God was indicted because simply he walked
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Speaker 2: with God and was surrounded by jealous, envious men who
36:43
Speaker 2: despised his promotion and finally had him thrown into the
36:49
Speaker 2: den of lions in a trumped up charge. Daniel was
36:57
Speaker 2: not of the world, and he was hated and persecuted.
37:01
Speaker 2: Here's another reason, verse twenty one. But all these things
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Speaker 2: they will do to you for my name's sake. Here's
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Speaker 2: the second reason. Because they do not know the one
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Speaker 2: who sent me. You and I will be mistreated, misunderstood, maligned,
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Speaker 2: indicted by those who don't know God. There is a
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Speaker 2: basic built in guilt that is increased when you live
37:30
Speaker 2: a righteous life surrounded by people who do not and
37:35
Speaker 2: do not desire such genuinely righteous, not hypocritically, but genuinely righteous.
37:45
Speaker 2: And the third reason is in verse twenty five. You
37:48
Speaker 2: will experience this that the word may be fulfilled.
37:53
Speaker 3: That is written in the law to fulfill prophecy.
37:59
Speaker 2: Now this this bears some thought. The very existence of
38:05
Speaker 2: the Christian among worldings is a guilt producing existence. Jesus
38:13
Speaker 2: says that very thing in verses twenty two through twenty four.
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Speaker 2: If I hadn't come, they'd not even no sin. But
38:20
Speaker 2: I'm here and they hate me. If I hadn't spoken
38:23
Speaker 2: these words, they would have no sin. But I've spoken them,
38:26
Speaker 2: and their guilt is increased. That's the same thing true
38:30
Speaker 2: of the Christian today. Let me say that we have experienced,
38:35
Speaker 2: My wife and I, our family have experienced just a
38:38
Speaker 2: measure of this sort of thing in our neighborhood. From
38:41
Speaker 2: the day we moved in, we were marked people. We
38:44
Speaker 2: were known as Minister and family, and we were disliked
38:50
Speaker 2: before we were ever met, and there was the passing
38:54
Speaker 2: word in the neighborhood to watch out we were moving
38:57
Speaker 2: in before we were ever unpacked. We got wind of it,
39:03
Speaker 2: Our kids got wind of it, and felt the brunt
39:06
Speaker 2: of it. Now nobody suffered measurably. We didn't lose sleep
39:09
Speaker 2: or have rocks thrown at us, but we were misunderstood
39:13
Speaker 2: before we ever got the car door opened. So recently,
39:18
Speaker 2: an exciting thing happened. We've been determined that in God's
39:22
Speaker 2: own time and in his beautiful fashion, he will surround
39:25
Speaker 2: this neighborhood with his presence. A couple moved away and
39:31
Speaker 2: another couple moved in. They're born again. Recently a home
39:36
Speaker 2: was put up for sale, and we just asked God
39:40
Speaker 2: to take care of that detail. You know, our request
39:44
Speaker 2: was bring in some Christians. It stayed vacant for an
39:49
Speaker 2: extremely longer period of time than others. And we just
39:52
Speaker 2: recently heard that the navigator representative of Los Angeles, it's
40:00
Speaker 2: moving right in that neighborhood. Oh, those neighbors are infant
40:04
Speaker 2: and surprises. It's gonna be great. Now what am I saying?
40:09
Speaker 2: I'm saying that all hope isn't gone. Our hope is
40:13
Speaker 2: in Christ. And that's where you're gonna find your hope,
40:16
Speaker 2: your shelter, your peace, your excitement, your enthusiasm. Not in
40:20
Speaker 2: this world. This world is passing away and all the
40:24
Speaker 2: things that pertain to it. But in Christ, every ugly
40:28
Speaker 2: expression of the world is a reminder you're just about home.
40:34
Speaker 3: You know.
40:35
Speaker 2: It just is a period of time until His coming
40:38
Speaker 2: draws near, nor is here. What a great hope now,
40:46
Speaker 2: how should we react in this era. Let me give
40:51
Speaker 2: you a couple of positives and a couple of negatives,
40:55
Speaker 2: a couple of things to do and a couple of
40:57
Speaker 2: things not to do. First, I think the abrupt mention
41:02
Speaker 2: of the Holy Spirit in verse twenty six is on purpose.
41:06
Speaker 2: So the first thing we would say, when the Helper comes,
41:09
Speaker 2: whom I will send, he will bear witness with me.
41:12
Speaker 2: Rely completely upon the Holy Spirit. Don't try to fight
41:17
Speaker 2: the battle in the flesh. You'll become paranoid, defensive, an ugly,
41:22
Speaker 2: fanatical fighter. Rely completely on the Holy Spirit, the Helper.
41:30
Speaker 2: He'll fight your battles for you. He'll fill those empty houses,
41:35
Speaker 2: he'll take care of those ugly people on the job.
41:38
Speaker 2: Or he'll give you the strength to roll right on
41:41
Speaker 2: through them, which brings up the second point secondly, verse
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Speaker 2: twenty seven. You also will bear witness because you've been
41:49
Speaker 2: with me from the beginning. Stand firm, boldly testify of
41:55
Speaker 2: your faith in Christ. Don't back off. That's for us.
42:00
Speaker 2: Where we live is not nullify your witness, But neither
42:05
Speaker 2: is it to cram it down their throat. It's to
42:07
Speaker 2: live as under the Lord. Don't change your stand, Boldly,
42:14
Speaker 2: move right on one New Testament scholar says this, It
42:19
Speaker 2: is here that Christians failed most. When we are persecuted,
42:26
Speaker 2: we back off, we run away, we change our stand.
42:33
Speaker 2: Don't change your stand. Stand firm. You're witnessing of Jesus Christ.
42:42
Speaker 2: That's why you must rely on the Holy Spirit. Fox's
42:44
Speaker 2: Book of Martyrs is a book an inch and a
42:46
Speaker 2: half thick full of prayers addressed to God by dying saints.
42:52
Speaker 2: Time and again. The Holy Spirit is called upon for
42:55
Speaker 2: strength when the flames are licking up on those bodies.
43:00
Speaker 2: I completely on the Holy Spirit. Stand firm, boldly testify
43:06
Speaker 2: of Christ.
43:07
Speaker 3: Now.
43:07
Speaker 2: The third piece of advice is in verse one of
43:09
Speaker 2: chapter sixteen. It's the negative, don't stumble. I've spoken these
43:15
Speaker 2: things that you may be kept from stumbling. The word
43:19
Speaker 2: stumble is the Greek word scandolidzo. Get the word scandal
43:23
Speaker 2: from it. Don't be scandalized, don't be crippled. You know
43:28
Speaker 2: what stumbling is. It's just an interruption in your walk.
43:32
Speaker 2: When you stumble, your walk is interrupted. Your normal every day,
43:37
Speaker 2: moment by moment, rest in the Lord, beginning in the
43:40
Speaker 2: morning and ending in the evening, is stopped when you stumble.
43:44
Speaker 2: Persecution can make us stumble. Don't stumble, says the Lord.
43:49
Speaker 2: This is to keep you from it. And one more
43:53
Speaker 2: word of warning is don't forget. That's verse four. These
43:58
Speaker 2: things I have spoken that when the hour comes you
44:00
Speaker 2: may remember, don't forget. Christians are notorious for remembering what
44:05
Speaker 2: we ought to forget, and forgetting what we ought to remember.
44:08
Speaker 2: Are we You can remember every dirty thing that the
44:11
Speaker 2: Lord's already forgiven, but you can't, for the life of you,
44:14
Speaker 2: remember the very promises that will help you in these times.
44:18
Speaker 2: We're fixed with that kind of a mindset. Now, you
44:25
Speaker 2: haven't been exposed to this message by accident. You don't
44:29
Speaker 2: know what tomorrow may bring forth. For all we know
44:33
Speaker 2: that the Church of Jesus Christ will begin in an
44:37
Speaker 2: afflicted society by having a number of things happened to us.
44:43
Speaker 2: The whole realm of public worship is in the throes
44:46
Speaker 2: of decision by a nation that is twisting the very
44:51
Speaker 2: foundation upon which we were established. Business principles, free enterprise,
44:56
Speaker 2: and all of those things that we consider dear are
44:59
Speaker 2: under the God. Now the application for the Christian is
45:04
Speaker 2: to me not that difficult to decipher. There's three statements
45:10
Speaker 2: I leave you with each one begins with there's a
45:13
Speaker 2: great difference between. First, there's a great difference between picking
45:17
Speaker 2: a fight and enduring persecution. You know, in the flesh,
45:23
Speaker 2: we can pick a fight and then call it the
45:25
Speaker 2: signs of the times when somebody comes back in a taxes,
45:29
Speaker 2: when really it's not the Lord's battle at all. You
45:32
Speaker 2: created the battle yourself with some stupid or fanatical statement
45:37
Speaker 2: or decision. Now, there are times when your principles must
45:41
Speaker 2: stand firm. That's not fanaticism. But when something petty, are
45:48
Speaker 2: insignificant is there and you make a major case out
45:52
Speaker 2: of it, you begin to fight or pick your own fight,
45:55
Speaker 2: that's not the signs of the time. That's a personal
45:58
Speaker 2: battle of the flesh. There's a great difference between picking
46:02
Speaker 2: fights and enduring persecution. Seconds, the great difference between loving
46:07
Speaker 2: the world and living in it. It's been the Lord's
46:11
Speaker 2: plan not to take us out of the world, but
46:14
Speaker 2: to give us protection through it. The answer for me
46:17
Speaker 2: is not to lead a survival group up to Big
46:20
Speaker 2: Bear and we all eat canary mix and sing hymns.
46:25
Speaker 3: That's not the answer.
46:28
Speaker 2: The answer for us is to stay right where we
46:30
Speaker 2: are do the job for Christ. We've never had so
46:33
Speaker 2: many unbelievers around us, they'll never get away. Now, now's
46:38
Speaker 2: our chance. What an era in which to make Christ known.
46:43
Speaker 2: They're so miserable they're not even talking about it. What
46:46
Speaker 2: an opportunity. That's the hope, that's our life. That's why
46:52
Speaker 2: you're in business. That's why I'm in business. It's to
46:56
Speaker 2: make Him known my in this world without loving it,
47:01
Speaker 2: and have an impact. Fact, it's the most exciting era
47:05
Speaker 2: in which to live. So glad I wasn't born in
47:08
Speaker 2: the dark ages. I could just shot now. Third, there's
47:12
Speaker 2: a great difference between running scared and being informed, or
47:17
Speaker 2: the Lord wants you informed, but not running scared. There's
47:24
Speaker 2: a tick of the clock, and it's Christ's clock. And
47:28
Speaker 2: when he says, that's all, and friend, that's all. There's
47:33
Speaker 2: not even any rap sation that follows. That's it. So
47:40
Speaker 2: don't be afraid with what you hear, what you read
47:42
Speaker 2: from such books. They're true, but God's calling the shots.
47:48
Speaker 2: I've spoken to those that were living in Nazi Germany
47:52
Speaker 2: when it happened, and they said, you wouldn't believe it.
47:56
Speaker 2: We didn't believe it. Went to sleep one night just
48:01
Speaker 2: knowing a little of it in the paper and the
48:02
Speaker 2: next day it was there. Now that's what this message
48:06
Speaker 2: will keep from happening. You need to hear what is happening,
48:12
Speaker 2: and then in your own individual capacity, respond as you should,
48:17
Speaker 2: if nothing more than being alert, ready, aw Tozer writes
48:23
Speaker 2: in his book, God tells the man who cares that
48:27
Speaker 2: people think of the world not as a battleground, but
48:29
Speaker 2: as a playground. We're not here to fight, they say,
48:34
Speaker 2: We're here to frolic. We're not in a foreign land,
48:37
Speaker 2: We're at home. Those are the words of a carnal Christian.
48:42
Speaker 2: The longer you live here, the more homesick you ought
48:45
Speaker 2: to get, and our prayer ought to be with John.
48:50
Speaker 2: Come quickly, Lord Jesus, Like would you believe before lunch?
48:58
Speaker 3: Like right now, let's about together.
49:06
Speaker 2: Oh maybe you don't know Christ and this message will
49:09
Speaker 2: frighten you. Or you're so much a part of the
49:13
Speaker 2: system you think of it as a harangue. You've missed
49:17
Speaker 2: the whole principle. If that's your response, I've asked the
49:23
Speaker 2: Lord to take what is not really a happy message
49:26
Speaker 2: and turn it into one of hope, clarification, a quiet
49:32
Speaker 2: reminder that the Lord is still on the throne. Nothing
49:36
Speaker 2: is out of hand. The answer is not for us
49:41
Speaker 2: to go to sleep at the switch Christian, but to
49:43
Speaker 2: be ready, speaking of Jesus as if of our closest
49:49
Speaker 2: personal friend. You've never met, the Lord. You need to
49:55
Speaker 2: come to Calvary before you take up arms. You really
50:01
Speaker 2: have nothing to fight for without Christ. He died for you.
50:07
Speaker 2: He rose that you might have life after death, purpose
50:12
Speaker 2: and meaning, definition, discernment, security.
50:19
Speaker 3: He offers you eternal.
50:21
Speaker 2: Life if you'll receive His son, God does. That's a
50:27
Speaker 2: matter of personal faith in Jesus Christ. Asking Jesus Christ
50:34
Speaker 2: to come into your life right where you're sitting, right now,
50:42
Speaker 2: in a very definite way. Lord, we leave this morning
50:49
Speaker 2: without fear of anyone but God, and faithful to no
50:56
Speaker 2: one but Christ. It may meet agony, hurt, offense, suffering.
51:08
Speaker 3: Death.
51:11
Speaker 2: It's one thing to say that in a suit and tie.
51:13
Speaker 4: In this quiet and comfortable place.
51:15
Speaker 3: It's another thing.
51:18
Speaker 4: To be brought face to face with imprisonment, the loss
51:23
Speaker 4: of family and home and loved ones.
51:29
Speaker 2: But what I may ever be your plan?
51:31
Speaker 4: Father made this message live on to prepare us realistically
51:38
Speaker 4: for a year of purpose in peace. I pray this
51:45
Speaker 4: Father in Jesus' name. Amen.
51:49
Speaker 5: The preceding message, The Promise of Persecution, was copyrighted in
51:53
Speaker 5: nineteen seventy six, nineteen eighty seven, two thousand and twenty eighteen,
51:58
Speaker 5: and the sound recording was copy writed in twenty eighteen
52:02
Speaker 5: by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
52:06
Speaker 5: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited to.
53:30
Speaker 2: The mind a