Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Promise of Persecution Msg 3 16

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