Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Here He Comes, Ready or Not Msg 1121 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Here He Comes, Ready or Not Msg 1121 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: When I was growing up, my older brother and older
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  Speaker 1: sister and I would on occasion experience an unusual time
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  Speaker 1: of quietness, sometime in a car when we were with
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  Speaker 1: our folks, sometime in our home. My mother would sometimes say,
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  Speaker 1: just stay quiet for a few moments. There's an angel
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  Speaker 1: passing through. I thought of that as we sang together.
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  Speaker 1: There's a wonderful Hebrew word that you wouldn't know because
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  Speaker 1: we always use the word glory. It's a hard word
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  Speaker 1: to define, isn't it. Perhaps it is a word limited
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  Speaker 1: to our Christian vocabulary. How often do you read the
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  Speaker 1: word glory outside of a Christmas carol or a Christian
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  Speaker 1: piece of literature. The Hebrew word is cold cold It
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  Speaker 1: means heavy. Isn't that great? There's a sense of weight,
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  Speaker 1: heavy weight connected with that word glory. I thought of
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  Speaker 1: that also as we sang of His holiness. We are
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  Speaker 1: to be holy as he is holy, not pious, not phony, holy,
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  Speaker 1: but pure, pure of thought, pure of tongue, pure of motive.
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  Speaker 1: Holy Jesus often gathered his twelve disciples for a few
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  Speaker 1: moments of quietness, and he took advantage of those moments
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  Speaker 1: by teaching them, giving them insight. They would otherwise never have,
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  Speaker 1: and he chose unusual moments for that. As we go
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  Speaker 1: through this gospel by Matthew, we find him where we
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  Speaker 1: are today in the twenty fourth chapter of All Places,
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  Speaker 1: sitting down on the easy flowing slope of a mountain
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  Speaker 1: called a Mount of Olives. When you travel to Israel,
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  Speaker 1: you will you will visit the Mount of Olives. There's
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  Speaker 1: a western slope and after the crest the eastern. And
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  Speaker 1: he is moving from Jerusalem, which is on the western
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  Speaker 1: side of the mount. He's on his way to the
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  Speaker 1: little village of Bethany, which is on the eastern side,
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  Speaker 1: and along the way a conversation arises spontaneously as the
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  Speaker 1: disciples ask about something regarding the future. Jesus realizing this
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  Speaker 1: is the moment, knowing his arrest, trials and death soon come,
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  Speaker 1: this is the moment he needs to tell them about
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  Speaker 1: things in the future. So he sat down and he
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  Speaker 1: taught them. It's called a discourse. Theologians called Matthew twenty
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  Speaker 1: four and twenty five the olivet Discourse on the Mount
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  Speaker 1: of Olives. He taught them. Matthew covers it in two chapters,
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  Speaker 1: and then it's over. When you read it, it's intriguing,
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  Speaker 1: it's captivating because it has to do with the future.
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  Speaker 1: But it's brief, very brief, and he doesn't answer all
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  Speaker 1: of our questions. He simply, like a good teacher, lays
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  Speaker 1: out the facts and lets you wrestle with him. Think
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  Speaker 1: about we're in the middle of that in chapter twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: We're in the latter half of the chapter. It's a
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  Speaker 1: long chapter, fifty one verses, so we'll only take a
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  Speaker 1: couple of excerpts for the sake of time. Be sure
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  Speaker 1: you listen carefully to what Jesus said to his disciples
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  Speaker 1: about the future. I'll be reading from the New Living
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  Speaker 1: Translation because it is easier to understand for those who
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  Speaker 1: are not well acquainted with their Bibles. My desire is
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  Speaker 1: always to interest those who don't know a lot about
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  Speaker 1: the Bible, even though I'm surrounded by many of you
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  Speaker 1: who know a great deal. But we're going to be
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  Speaker 1: reading excerpts from Matthew twenty four. If your Bible is open,
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  Speaker 1: I'll begin reading verse twenty nine. Then we'll skip a
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  Speaker 1: little section and read another few verses. If you have
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  Speaker 1: your bibles open, please stand together for the reading Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, Verse twenty nine. Immediately after the anguish of
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  Speaker 1: those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will
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  Speaker 1: give no light, the stars will fall from the sky,
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  Speaker 1: and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And
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  Speaker 1: then at last, the sign that the Sun of Man
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  Speaker 1: is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will
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  Speaker 1: be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth.
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  Speaker 1: And they will see the Son of Man coming on
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  Speaker 1: the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And
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  Speaker 1: he will send out his angels with the mighty blast
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  Speaker 1: of a trumpet, and they will gather the chosen ones
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  Speaker 1: from all over the world, from the farthest ends of
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  Speaker 1: the Earth and heaven Verse thirty seven. When the Son
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  Speaker 1: of Man returns, it will be like it was in
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  Speaker 1: Noah's day. In those days before the flood, the people
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  Speaker 1: were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to
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  Speaker 1: the time Noah entered his boat. People didn't realize what
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  Speaker 1: was going to happen until the flood came and swept
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  Speaker 1: them all away. That is the way it will be
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  Speaker 1: when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be
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  Speaker 1: working together in the field. One will be taken the
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  Speaker 1: other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill.
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  Speaker 1: One will be taken and the other left. So you
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  Speaker 1: too must keep watch, for you don't know when, For
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  Speaker 1: you don't know what day your lord is coming their father.
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  Speaker 1: With our bibles in our hands, as we stand to
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  Speaker 1: our feet, we pause to give a lead agents to you,
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  Speaker 1: our great God, worthy of our deepest praise. We have
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  Speaker 1: sung that to you, and now we say it. We
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  Speaker 1: lift up your name, O God, above all other names
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  Speaker 1: and all other gods. We acknowledge that your son is
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  Speaker 1: Emmanuel God with us, the god man who came to
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  Speaker 1: his own and his own refused him. May our response
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  Speaker 1: be different. May we welcome you. May we welcome your truth,
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  Speaker 1: though much of it is beyond our comprehension. May we
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  Speaker 1: embrace what you have given us. May we take by
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  Speaker 1: faith even those portions we cannot explain with logical reasoning.
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  Speaker 1: May they remind us that you are high and holy
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  Speaker 1: and above us and beyond us. You are God, incomprehensible,
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  Speaker 1: worthy of our heaviest words of glory. And because that
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  Speaker 1: is true, we give without reluctance or reservation. We give
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  Speaker 1: that others may be helped in hearing truth and coming
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  Speaker 1: to terms. With it. We give by faith as we walk,
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  Speaker 1: and not by sight. We will not see those who
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  Speaker 1: will receive the benefits of these gifts, but they are many,
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  Speaker 1: and they are scattered across this globe. Bring encouragement to
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  Speaker 1: those who will be encouraged by these gifts. Sustain this ministry, Father,
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  Speaker 1: by the generosity of your people. And may we, without hesitation,
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  Speaker 1: continue to live your message, even when the sermon has
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  Speaker 1: been forgotten. Maybe do what is right, maybe love what
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  Speaker 1: is kind, Maybe walk humbly with you are God. We
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  Speaker 1: pray this in the name of Emmanuel, even Christ, your son,
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  Speaker 1: everyone said Amen. The return of Christ never fails to
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  Speaker 1: create mixed emotions. For those of us who anticipated, there
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  Speaker 1: is great comfort and relief in the thought. Finally the
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  Speaker 1: promises will be fulfilled. At last, we'll be able to
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  Speaker 1: see the one we have believed in by faith, and
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  Speaker 1: we will know him as he is, just as He
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  Speaker 1: has always known us. However, to those who are not
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  Speaker 1: ready for his return, the spectrum is as broad as
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  Speaker 1: one extreme to the other. There are those who fight
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  Speaker 1: against the thought and are skeptical to the core, with
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  Speaker 1: even the idea that there will one day be an
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  Speaker 1: end of the world and a return of Jesus all
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  Speaker 1: the way to the sort of a passive indifference that
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  Speaker 1: that might occur, And what difference will it make anyway?
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  Speaker 1: I have a friend who was a skeptic before he
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  Speaker 1: was a believer, and during his years of skepticism he
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  Speaker 1: sort of kept all religious things at a distance, nice
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  Speaker 1: safe distance. He either didn't think about them, or if
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  Speaker 1: they surfaced, he would have a quick comeback and then
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  Speaker 1: would pass it off with little thought any further. He
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  Speaker 1: was hitchhiking across America a number of years ago, and
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  Speaker 1: clouds were forming and night was falling, and he really
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  Speaker 1: did need a ride, not only to get to where
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to go ultimately, but to get in out
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  Speaker 1: of the rain. Just as the sprinkles began to fall,
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  Speaker 1: a car pulled over and the door flew open, and
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  Speaker 1: the driver yelled hop in, and my friend was delighted
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  Speaker 1: to get in before the rain. As soon as he
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  Speaker 1: got in, the rain started pounding on the car, he said,
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  Speaker 1: so he just sort of settled into the seat and
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  Speaker 1: then was shocked to look in front of him and
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  Speaker 1: to see a small card that had been taped to
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  Speaker 1: the glove box right in front of him. It read
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  Speaker 1: warning in the event of Christ's return, this driver will
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  Speaker 1: suddenly disappear and this car will self destruct at the
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  Speaker 1: bottom in bright red handwritten letters, you better get ready, GIT,
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  Speaker 1: you better get ready. Well, I asked him how we
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  Speaker 1: felt rainfalling? Now? Pretty close to nightfall, and he's in
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  Speaker 1: the car with this fanatic as he would call him,
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  Speaker 1: a guy about an exit while he's driving. How'd that feel,
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  Speaker 1: I asked, and he said, well, I didn't know whether
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  Speaker 1: to write my will, pray or jump. I really didn't know.
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  Speaker 1: So I said, well, what did you do? He said,
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna laugh. But so the first thing I did
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  Speaker 1: was unlock my door. So I don't know why. How
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  Speaker 1: would that help if suddenly the whole thing went up
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  Speaker 1: in flames? But he said. The other thing I remember
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  Speaker 1: is I engaged him in constant conversation because I thought
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  Speaker 1: Jesus won't interrupt our conversation while we're talking back, and
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  Speaker 1: he said, we talked about everything you could imagine. The
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  Speaker 1: guy kept wanting to bring him back to Jesus, and
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  Speaker 1: I kept wanting to stay away from Jesus. But at
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  Speaker 1: least he said we were able to talk. We were
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  Speaker 1: discussing nonsensical things. Just to keep talking. Isn't it funny
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  Speaker 1: how superstitious people can be as the spectrum runs from
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  Speaker 1: one extreme to the other. Here's a guy who couldn't
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  Speaker 1: wait for Jesus to come back. Sending next to him
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  Speaker 1: is a man who doesn't have time to even think
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  Speaker 1: about it until he reads about it from a card
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  Speaker 1: written in front of him. They're in that car. While
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  Speaker 1: I was going through these chapters in twenty four twenty five,
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  Speaker 1: I began to think back over a number of years
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  Speaker 1: that I've spent in passages like this that deal with
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  Speaker 1: future things and climax with the return of Christ. And
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  Speaker 1: I remember being taught carefully by professors at a seminary
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  Speaker 1: that took these words seriously, as they took all the
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  Speaker 1: words of the Bible seriously. And I remember having explained
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  Speaker 1: to me how the Lord would come in the clouds
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  Speaker 1: to receive us from the earth, as believers would be
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  Speaker 1: taken leaving on the earth, only unbelievers to go through
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  Speaker 1: a terrible time of anguish and tribulation that would reach
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  Speaker 1: greater intensity toward the latter half of that time and
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  Speaker 1: ultimately would wind up with Jesus returning to the earth.
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  Speaker 1: There's a difference between his coming in the clouds, often
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  Speaker 1: referred to as the rapture of the Church, which is
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  Speaker 1: the next event in the future, and his coming to
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  Speaker 1: Earth to judge the earth and to set up his kingdom,
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  Speaker 1: where he fulfills his promises to Israel and carries out
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  Speaker 1: the events that are set forth in prophetic passages like
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  Speaker 1: the one we're dealing with. I also have lived long
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  Speaker 1: enough to have heard a lot of foolish predictions, as
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  Speaker 1: many of you had. I've heard people literally put dates
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  Speaker 1: when Christ would return. I remember back in nineteen seventy four,
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  Speaker 1: I was preaching, and I had a pasture a number
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  Speaker 1: of miles away from where we lived and where I
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  Speaker 1: was history who had made an announcement that on a
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  Speaker 1: certain date Jesus would come. We'll say May twenty, nineteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy five. And I remember waiting until May twenty one
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy five, and I wrote him and I
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  Speaker 1: asked how you doing, because he had predicted Jesus would
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  Speaker 1: come on the twentieth, and obviously he didn't, and I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to know his react. I never heard back from him,
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  Speaker 1: And there are others I could have written, and you
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  Speaker 1: could have who have made predictions. In fact, I did
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  Speaker 1: some research and I came up with two pages of
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  Speaker 1: predictions where people determined Jesus would come all the way
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  Speaker 1: back to AD five hundred to January one, one thousand
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  Speaker 1: to the year fourteen fifteen. Pope Innocent the Third in
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  Speaker 1: the Middle Ages took the number six eighteen, which is
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  Speaker 1: the year Islam was founded, and he added the number
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  Speaker 1: six sixty six, which is the number of the beast,
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  Speaker 1: and that came up with twelve eighty four, as he
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  Speaker 1: claimed would be the year Jesus would return. He didn't.
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  Speaker 1: And then February fourteen, eighteen thirty five, Joseph Smith made
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  Speaker 1: his prediction. He was wrong. William Miller made a prediction
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  Speaker 1: between eighteen forty three eighteen forty four. He was wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Another guy, I thought this one was interesting. Worry is this? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Here it is in nineteen ninety eight, which was a
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  Speaker 1: good year for prophecies, since the number six sixty six
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  Speaker 1: times three equals nineteen ninety eight. This psychic named Edgar
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  Speaker 1: Casey taught that a secret underground chamber would be discovered
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  Speaker 1: between the paws of the Great Sphinx in Egypt. Within
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  Speaker 1: the chamber would be documents about the history of the
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  Speaker 1: lost City of Atlantis, and this new revelation would activate
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  Speaker 1: the second coming of Jesus. It didn't. There was also
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  Speaker 1: no document then the year two thousand, member y two.
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  Speaker 1: K oh my, how many people predicted Jesus would come
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  Speaker 1: didn't even foul up the computers. We went right on,
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  Speaker 1: and then Harold Camping made his comments in nineteen ninety four,
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  Speaker 1: and on and on and on and on and on
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  Speaker 1: and on. It's like, you've never read Matthew twenty four
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  Speaker 1: thirty six. Look, you read English, all of you. You're
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  Speaker 1: able to read verse thirty six, just the first few verses. However,
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  Speaker 1: no one knows day or the hour when these things
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  Speaker 1: will happen, not even the angels. Look at the words.
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  Speaker 1: No one knows. Yeah, I give you a tip that
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  Speaker 1: kind of insults the intelligence of any thinking person. If
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  Speaker 1: you're out of the teaching of someone setting dates, you're
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  Speaker 1: following a false teacher. Get out, get away from that teacher.
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  Speaker 1: He or she is dangerous. They'll tell you other things
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  Speaker 1: that are fallacious. No one knows. No one will ever know.
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  Speaker 1: That's what God says in his word. Let's believe it.
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  Speaker 1: And there are details here that are debatable, and if
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  Speaker 1: you study as I've studied it, and I continue to
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  Speaker 1: study it, I keep coming across the debatable issues, and
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  Speaker 1: I decided, not only do I not want to do
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  Speaker 1: what he kind of prophesying, which would be ridiculous and wrong,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to get into any of the debatable
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  Speaker 1: stuff because I'm honest with you. When Christ has a
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  Speaker 1: stand before him, hear this. No one will have to
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  Speaker 1: pass the theology a theology exam, no one will have
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  Speaker 1: to go through a Bible quits, no one. He'll not
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  Speaker 1: ask you how you handled Matthew twenty four and twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: That won't be the issue in eternity. The issue and
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  Speaker 1: eternity will be what did you do in your life
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  Speaker 1: with Christ? Did you trust him as your savior or
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  Speaker 1: did you reject him? What did you do with Jesus
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  Speaker 1: if you trusted him? You're standing before the Lord, comfortable,
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  Speaker 1: confident in the full assurance that it's the blood of
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  Speaker 1: Christ that was given for you on the cross, that
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  Speaker 1: forgave you of your sins and opened the door to
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  Speaker 1: Heaven for you all by His grace which you do
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  Speaker 1: not deserve and will never be able to repay. That's
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  Speaker 1: why you're there. If you're without Christ, as we will
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  Speaker 1: emphasize today, your future is dreadful beyond imagination. No one
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  Speaker 1: is gifted enough to describe how dreadful your future is.
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  Speaker 1: And you are a fool to live your life and
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  Speaker 1: die in unbelief. I tell you to your faith, or
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  Speaker 1: if you're not here, to your ears, I tell you,
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  Speaker 1: the most intelligent thing you can do is to act
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  Speaker 1: by faith and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as
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  Speaker 1: your savior, and then live a life that honors him.
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  Speaker 1: And I'll tell you you have before you the most
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  Speaker 1: marvelous future, not without its problems, not without its surprises,
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  Speaker 1: not without the unexpected things that happen to people regularly.
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  Speaker 1: But you will have the inner assurance that if you
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  Speaker 1: died that night, you would stand completely safe before your God. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in light of that, I've decided to take a whole
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  Speaker 1: different tack. What I want to do is simply provide
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  Speaker 1: you with six or seven facts based on these two chapters.
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  Speaker 1: Just several facts. Someone once wrote. Everyone is entitled to
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  Speaker 1: his or her own opinion, but no one is entitled
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  Speaker 1: to his or her own facts. Facts are true, whether
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  Speaker 1: you believe them or accept them or not. They're facts.
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  Speaker 1: If we believe God's word is God's word, there are
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  Speaker 1: several things set forth here that you can count on
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  Speaker 1: as fact. That's what, to me is the most important
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  Speaker 1: thing we can take from a message like this. Since
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  Speaker 1: he is coming, ready or not, he is coming, we
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  Speaker 1: just don't know when. So let me give you the
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  Speaker 1: facts as I see them, and they will not be
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  Speaker 1: based on superstition or opinion. They will be drawn from
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  Speaker 1: the scriptures. We can kind of click them off one, two, three,
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  Speaker 1: right down through seven. I gave you an outline. I
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  Speaker 1: completed mine this morning. You may want to go through
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  Speaker 1: yours as well to complete it. E'xceup to you. Fact
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  Speaker 1: number one, His delay will be lengthy. I rarely hear
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  Speaker 1: people talk about that, but I find that that is
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  Speaker 1: set forth in these chapters. And I think the lesson
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  Speaker 1: we learn from that. With each fact, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: give you a lesson that other than we can take
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  Speaker 1: with us. The lesson we learn is let's wait with
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  Speaker 1: patient anticipation. Let's wait because his delay will be quite
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  Speaker 1: some time between when he's at it and when it
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  Speaker 1: would occur. In fact, we know now it would be
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  Speaker 1: centuries from the time Jesus spoke these words in Matthew
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  Speaker 1: twenty four to twenty five. Until he returns for his
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  Speaker 1: own will be centuries. Now. We believe it's closer than ever.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, we believe it's imminent. Could be at any moment,
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  Speaker 1: he could come for us and take us to be
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  Speaker 1: with him, leaving unbelievers on this earth. Look at twenty
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  Speaker 1: four thirty six. Again, no one knows the day or
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  Speaker 1: hour when these things will happen, not even the angels.
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  Speaker 1: Look at twenty four, verse thirty. And then at last,
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  Speaker 1: the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear.
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  Speaker 1: At last sounds like time, doesn't it? When I read that?
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  Speaker 1: I think of it when we say to someone, you're
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  Speaker 1: here at last, meaning you've waited while sometime a long time,
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  Speaker 1: you're home from the war. At last you made it
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  Speaker 1: home safely. At last. There'll be a delay, and the
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  Speaker 1: delay will be lengthy. But don't let the length of
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  Speaker 1: the delay make you think it won't happen. Peter writes
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  Speaker 1: about this, check it out for yourself. Second Peter three
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  Speaker 1: and verse eight. God's timing is totally different from our timing.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: One day is as a thousand years with the Lord.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: So the Lord's plan is just what he's ready to
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: send his son. He'll send him not until Here's the
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: second fact. His return will be unexpected and sudden. So
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: the lesson we learned don't get too comfortable, don't cling
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: too tightly to anyone or anything. See twenty four point
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: thirty seven. My Bible is open to that verse. When
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the son of Man returns, look at this, It'll be
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: like it was in Noah's day. In those days before
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the flood, people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: right up to the time Noah entered the arc. Why
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: because they didn't realize what was going to happen until
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: As an eloquent statement, you and I didn't realize nine
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: to eleven would occur until that morning, and looking back,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: we remember exactly where we were and what we were
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: doing until then was in a blip on our screen.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: Even among the bright minds in Washington, DC, even among
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the military strategists, they talked vaguely of something like that.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: No one predicted that day, that hour. Because we've lived
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: through nine to eleven, you'd think people would take this
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: kind of statement more seriously. His return will be unexpected
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: and sudden, at least expected. The people in Noah's day
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: felt the rainfall. Most don't realize it had never rained
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: until that moment on the earth. The earth was watered
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: by a divine appointment of dew that came on the
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: earth during the end deliver The civilization reign didn't come
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: until then, so they doubted it. They were skeptics. Noah
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: built that arc for those years, and they poked fun
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: at him and looked at him critically and sarcastically. Nobody
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: was ready, and here he was with this massive arc,
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: already believe in God, but it came unexpectedly and suddenly.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Here's the third fact. God's judgment will be irreversible. His
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: judgment will be irreversible. A lesson we learned from that
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: learned to take him seriously. God doesn't waffle and God
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: doesn't stutter. Woven through the verses of chapters twenty four
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: and twenty five are words related to being too late,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: are not being ready or thinking there would be another
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: opportunity when God arrives. She doesn't great on the curve.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: You won't be given a second chance after you die.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: I've never lied to you, and I wouldn't start today.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: You have your opportunity to believe while you're alive. Once
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: you breathe your last, your opportunity is over. God's judgment
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: will be irreversible. Take him seriously. He keeps his word.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Fact number four, The truth will be revealed. Look at
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: twenty five, eleven and twelve referring to these who are
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: ready for the wedding feast. And then those who were
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: the door was locked. Even later, when the other five
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: brides made return, they were the ones who weren't ready.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: They didn't have their lamps ready. They stood outside, calling Lord, Lord,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: open the door for us, and he called back, believe me,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know you. I don't know you. The truth
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: will be revealed. He will tell you he doesn't know
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: you if you've never trusted in his son. So learn
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: from this. There will be no place to hide, and
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: there will be no way of escape. Those who didn't
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: get in the arc drowned. There was no exception. You know.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Currently it's possible to live a life of a hypocrite
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: and get away with it. Happens every day. Some of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: you act one way in public, but you're all together different.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: In private, you're a hypocrite. You carry your life out
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: as though it is this way so that people will
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: think better of you. But truth is your own family privately,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes. Maybe those who work with you they
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: know the real truth. Your private life is something you've
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: not really allowed to be invaded with the truth of God.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: But in that day there'll be no hypocrisy, no phony, blogey,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: no masks worn. All of that's ripped off. The truth
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: will be revealed. You'll be either in Christ or out.
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: Number five. Each life will stand alone twenty four versus
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: forty and forty one. We read that earlier. Two men
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: will be working together in the field. One will be
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: taken that's taken to judgment, and the other be left
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: left for the pleasures and joys of the kingdom. Two
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: women will be grinding at the flour at the mill.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: One will be taken to the judgment the other will
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: be left to go into the kingdom and the joys
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: that the Lord has for them. Each person will be
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: individually accountable. That's the lesson we learn. Each life will
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: stand alone. You won't be able to stand behind your
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: wife or husband, your parents, or your family name. You
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: won't be able to clean your partner's faith. In your
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: business world. It will be all on your own. You'll
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: be accountable alone. Before God, one is taken, the other
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: is left. Please remember this is the second Advent of Christ.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: This is not a reference to the rapture of the
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Church which has taken place before. Then always keep those
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: separate in your minds to fact number six. The future
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: of the faithful will be joyful. Of course, why because
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: God's promises will be fulfilled. He will never forget his own.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Look at twenty four thirty one twenty four verse thirty one.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: He will send out his angels with the mighty blast
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: of a trumpet. They will gather his chosen ones from
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: all over the world, even the farthest ends of the earth.
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: He will eat no one out his chosen ones he
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: will find, and he will reward. Drop down to verse
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: forty six. If the Master returns and finds that the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: servant he has done a good job, then there will
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: be a reward. Listen to this, I tell you the truth.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Who will put that servant in charge of all he owns?
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: Beautiful words? Look at twenty five thirty four. Then the
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: king will say to those on his right. Come blessed
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: by my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: from the creation of the world. For I was hungry,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: and you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: God's promises will be fulfilled. He will never forget his own.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Let me say that to you who are faithfully a
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: serving Christ. You may be helping one other person as
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: their life is lingering in an illness that is irreversible,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: and you were there. You are taking care of them.
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: You are lovingly showing them compassion and mercy that will
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: be real warded. Others of you teach a small group,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: maybe a group of special needs children, who perhaps are
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: not able to say thank you for your faithfulness through
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: the God will never overlook one hour spent with them.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Some teach thousands of people and bless their lives. Some
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: write books, and the books distribute and they help people
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: grow in the faith. God will reward all of those
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: efforts because He keeps his word. By the way, there's
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: an old song that used to be sung. Will there
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: be any stars, any stars in my crown? When an
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: evening the sun goes down? We don't know of anything
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: in the scriptures that teach of stars in the crown
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: sounds pretty written by a songwriter with a little imagination.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: But we don't know stars in the crown, but we
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: do know of crown. Five separate crowns are mentioned in
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: the New Testament. All five are based on specific acts
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: of faithfulness done for the glory of God. You will,
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: if you are faithfully serving Him in any one of those,
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: you will be rewarded with crowns. And when we get
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: into glory and the crowns are handed out, we placed
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: him at his feet in worship. I always loved that scene.
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: I wrote on that in seminary when we were required
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: to do or what we call the baby thesis, and
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: the end of our second year, we were required to
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: write a small thesis, and I wrote in the crowns.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I remember writing about the crowns that I discovered in
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: the scriptures and found myself very motivates. A crown for
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: leading people to Christ. There's a crown for serving faithfully
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: though under trial. There's a crown for resisting temptation repeatedly.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Crowns for that, crowns that will be provided, and the
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Lord will not forget. Right in the margin of your Bible,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: Hebrews six, verse ten. Listen to it. God is not
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: unjust to forget your work and labor of love which
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: you have shown toward His name, in that you administered
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: to the saints and continue a minister. Isn't that great?
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: You faithfully, minister? God will not forget your work. There
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: will be a day when all of the curtains will close,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: and all of earth will have passed, and God will
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: have you receiving rewards for your faithfulness. And I think
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: some of it will be beyond our ability on this
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: earth to comprehend, but it will happen. Now. The sad
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: news is the flip side of that. The destiny of
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: the lost will be dreadful. That's a fact. You read
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: through this passage, and you read of there being weeping
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: and gnashing of teeth the last verse of chapter twenty four.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: You read it again in chapter twenty five in verse thirty,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: verse forty six, Chapter twenty five forty six. They will
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: go away into eternal punishment. The righteous will go into
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: eternal life. What we learned from that changing that destination
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: must happen during your lifetime not afterwards. Over nothing in
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: the word of God even hints at a second chance
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: after you die. There is no purgatory. There is no
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: such thing as being prayed out of torment. There is
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: no such thing as lightning lightening the pain of punishment.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: For a moment, allow yourself to ponder the words eternal
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: punishment Beggar's description, doesn't it Your destiny is determined while
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: you're living, not after you've left. So this brings me
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: to three questions that only you can answer and only
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: I can answer for me. One begins with will I,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: The second begins with do I? And the third one
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: with am I. The first is a question of decisiveness,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: the second is a question of assurance, and the third
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: a question of faithfulness. Question number one, will I continue
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: to ignore the truth? Or will I respond to it? Today?
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: Will I believe what God has said about the future
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: and about my life, and about eternity and about Christ
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: and about his cross? Well? I come to terms with
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: that today. God is looking for our being decisive. Here's
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: the second. Do I Do I know for sure that
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: I'm ready to meet my Master, that I'm eternally secure
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: at any moment when I draw my breath, and it's
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: my last breath that I am ready to step into
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: eternity and face my Lord clothed in the righteousness of Christ?
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: Am I sure of that? Do I know that for sure?
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: Only you can answer for you. I thought people in
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: my lifetime knew the Lord, only to find out later
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: when they told me the truth it had all been
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: a sham until something occurred and they were brought face
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: to face with the reality of eternity, and then they
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: gave their life to Christ. The days, the day to
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: take off the mask, to cast aside the hypocrisy, come
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: to terms with do you know for sure? And the third?
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: Am I living my life as if He were to
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: call me home this day? That's a question regarding faithfulness. Again,
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: I cannot answer for you. Only you can answer that
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: I said earlier. There will be no theological question, There
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: will be no Bible quiz as we stepped before the Lord,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: but there will be the issue of what have you
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: done with my son Jesus, when you stand before the Father,
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: your Creator, How we responded to Christ, why we were
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: able to stand before him, and what kind of life
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: we lived as a result of That's it. Bow your
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: heads please with one another. Let's bow before the Lord,
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Let's sit quietly before him. Let the Lord speak to
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: each one of us. Are you absolutely certain that Jesus
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Christ lives in your life, that you've claimed him as
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: your own lord. Now you've dethroned yourself, and you've enthroned
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: him as the one who is to control your life.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Take charge of your motive, Cleanse you from sin, prepare
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: you for eternity. If not, take care of that right now,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: right now, don't put that off. We're here to help
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: you on your journey from Earth to Heaven. And if
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: we can do that, even in this matter of trusting
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: in Christ, would love to do that. Our ministry is
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: always active and available individuals who will talk with you
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: privately and intelligently and calmly to assist you in answering
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: your question. You may prefer us to write us and
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: get a hold of us and let us know your
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: concerned about your soul. Will help you find peace and
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: a reason to go on. Let's pray, thank you, Father
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: for opening our eyes to what you have written in
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: your word. We ask not that all of our questions
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: be answered, but we do ask that there be a
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: peace within our lives. Because of Christ and his role
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: as our master. May we all search our hearts and
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: leave no question unanswered, no issue ignored. As we think
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: about eternity, May it not frighten us, but may we
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: welcome the pot of standing before you our God, clothed
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: in the righteousness of Jesus. It's in his name we pray,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: and for his glory alone. Everyone said amen.
• 49:29
  Speaker 2: The preceding message here he comes ready or not was
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: copyrighted in twenty seventeen and twenty twenty one, and the
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty twenty one by Charles R. Swindall.
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: In all rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: for commercial use is strictly prohibited.