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He’s the Alpha and the Omega Msg 512 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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  Speaker 1: In our series on His Name is Wonderful, in which
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  Speaker 1: we are looking at various names of our Lord, we
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  Speaker 1: have come to a unique name that could be.
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  Speaker 2: Said only of Him.
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  Speaker 1: Other names, such as King or Master or even Servant,
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  Speaker 1: would apply to others, but this one applies to Him alone.
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  Speaker 1: When I think of the name Alpha and Omega, it
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  Speaker 1: brings back a couple of rather humorous events in my life.
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  Speaker 2: At least I see them as humorous.
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  Speaker 1: Way back when I was in seminary, I remember sitting
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  Speaker 1: in a large English Bible class that was being taught
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  Speaker 1: at Dallas Seminary by the excellent teacher, Dr. Jack Mitchell
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  Speaker 1: of Multnomah School of the Bible fame. And as all
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  Speaker 1: of you know, who know Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Jack, there's just no one.
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  Speaker 1: Quite like he is in the teaching of Scripture, not
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  Speaker 1: only because of his enormous knowledge of the Bible, but
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  Speaker 1: that unique Scottish brogue which follows him in all of
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  Speaker 1: his teaching. And there's something about his approach to certain
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  Speaker 1: words that humors me, or at least it seems a
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  Speaker 1: little humorous to me. For example, in the speaking of
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  Speaker 1: the prophets, most of whose names end with A-H, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Jonah.
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  Speaker 1: They come out when he says them, Isaiah, Jonah, Jeremiah.
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  Speaker 1: And in all seriousness, he will say, we will now
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  Speaker 1: look at Isaiah 40. And I would sort of chuckle
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  Speaker 1: to myself, but it reached the ultimate when he referred
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  Speaker 1: to the Lord Jesus as the Alpha.
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  Speaker 2: And the Omega.
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  Speaker 1: I will never forget that. I think I was the
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  Speaker 1: only one in chapel that laughed out loud at that.
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  Speaker 1: And then a number of years later it haunted me
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  Speaker 1: as I was in a ministry in New England sitting
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  Speaker 1: on the platform and the choir was there.
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  Speaker 2: It was an ice.
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  Speaker 1: Cold winter day and the choir was doing its best
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  Speaker 1: to warm us and encourage us with a song that
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  Speaker 1: had in the lyrics of that anthem those words. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you have ever been to New
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  Speaker 1: England or spent much time with those great folks up there,
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  Speaker 1: but you know every once in a while you'll hear
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  Speaker 1: certain words that come out in a little different way.
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  Speaker 1: And the song happened to have the words, he is
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  Speaker 1: the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. And yet,
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  Speaker 1: New Englanders say alpha and omega. And for the first
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  Speaker 1: time I ever in my life heard it, they sang it.
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  Speaker 1: He's the Alpha and Omega, the beginning. I thought, that
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  Speaker 1: is terrific. Here I am going back to my days
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  Speaker 1: in seminary, remembering the great teaching of Dr. Jack, and
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  Speaker 1: all of a sudden I'm back at it again here
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  Speaker 1: in New England. In fact, I remember looking out the
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  Speaker 1: window and seeing about 18 inches of snow resting on
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  Speaker 1: the ground, and I thought to myself, I hope he
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  Speaker 1: is Alpha and Omega.
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  Speaker 2: That's the kind of weather we're having to face. Indeed
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  Speaker 2: he is. How wonderful it is.
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  Speaker 1: How marvelous. What a reminder that he is the beginning
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  Speaker 1: and the end of all things. He knows the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: He knows the ending from the beginning. He knows how
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  Speaker 1: the pattern all fits together. He puts it together in
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  Speaker 1: perfect fashion and he stands ready to defend it because
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  Speaker 1: to him it makes absolutely perfect, in.
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  Speaker 2: Fact, heavenly sense. Every death.
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  Speaker 1: Every disaster, if you please, every calamity, everything that surprises
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  Speaker 1: you and me, everything that we anticipate and even the
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  Speaker 1: things we would have never dreamed, every child born, every defect,
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  Speaker 1: every achievement, every failure. He knows the beginning, The ending,
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  Speaker 1: the reason why, in between. It is a name that
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  Speaker 1: fits only him. To get a little bit of a
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  Speaker 1: background in reference to scripture, I'd like to have you
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  Speaker 1: first turn to Isaiah 41, if you will. Now the
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  Speaker 1: literal title may not be in Isaiah's prophecy, but the
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  Speaker 1: thought of it is here. Isaiah 41, verses 1 to
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  Speaker 1: 4 says, Coastlands, listen to me in silence. Let the
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  Speaker 1: peoples gain new strength. Let them come forward, then let
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  Speaker 1: them speak. Let us come together for judgment. Who has
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  Speaker 1: aroused one from the east whom he calls in righteousness
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  Speaker 1: to his feet? He delivers up nations before him and
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  Speaker 1: subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword
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  Speaker 1: as the wind-driven chaff with his bow. He pursues them,
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  Speaker 1: passing on in safety by a way he had not
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  Speaker 1: been traversing with his feet. Who has performed and accomplished it,
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  Speaker 1: calling forth the generations from the beginning, I, the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: am the first, and with the last, I am he.
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  Speaker 2: I'm responsible.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter 44, same prophet. Verse 6. Thus says the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.
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  Speaker 1: I am the first and I am the last. And
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  Speaker 1: there is no God besides me. And who is like me?
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  Speaker 1: Let him proclaim and declare it. Yes, let him recount
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  Speaker 1: it to me in order. From the time that I
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  Speaker 1: established the ancient nation and let them declare to them
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  Speaker 1: the things that are coming and the events that are
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  Speaker 1: going to take place. Do not tremble. Do not be afraid.
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  Speaker 1: Have I not long since announced it to you and
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  Speaker 1: declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there any
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  Speaker 1: God besides me? Or is there any other rock I
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  Speaker 1: know of none?
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  Speaker 2: I love the way that reads.
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  Speaker 1: What a wonderful theology emerges from the Old Testament. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I've been thinking lately we ought to refer to it
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  Speaker 1: as the Older Testament. I think by thinking of it
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  Speaker 1: as the Old Testament, which is man's title, not God's,
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  Speaker 1: We tend to relegate it into such an ancient era,
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  Speaker 1: it seems out of touch. When we think of it
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  Speaker 1: as the older and the newer testament, perhaps it keeps
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  Speaker 1: both of them in touch with our times. And again,
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  Speaker 1: chapter 48, verse 12. Listen to me, O Jacob, even
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  Speaker 1: Israel whom I called, I am he. Again, he says it,
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  Speaker 1: I am the first. I am also the last. Surely
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  Speaker 1: my hand founded the earth, and my right hand spread
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  Speaker 1: out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand together.
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  Speaker 1: Assemble all of you and listen. Who among them has
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  Speaker 1: declared these things? And he goes on to describe these prophecies.
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  Speaker 1: If we were speaking Hebrew in this passage, we might
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  Speaker 1: be tempted to paraphrase this This statement in verse 12,
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  Speaker 1: I am the first.
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  Speaker 2: And I am the last. I am the aleph and
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  Speaker 2: I am the tau.
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  Speaker 1: In the Hebrew alphabet, the letters, and there are 22
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  Speaker 1: of them, the alphabet begins with the letter aleph and
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  Speaker 1: ends with the letter tau, unlike Greek. The first and
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  Speaker 1: last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, interestingly enough, The rabbis
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  Speaker 1: of ancient days often loved curious exegesis, or a curious
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  Speaker 1: interpretation of terms and.
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  Speaker 2: Of passages of the Old Testament.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things intriguing about their study was that
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  Speaker 1: the Hebrew word for truth, which is the word emeth, aleph, meim, tau, emeth,
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  Speaker 1: they felt was symbolic of the name of god and
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  Speaker 1: here's the reason they thought that aleph is the first
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  Speaker 1: letter and that's the beginning of the word translated truth
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  Speaker 1: tau is the end of that word and the middle
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  Speaker 1: letter is maim and they claim that that was the
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  Speaker 1: middle letter a little off it's the 13th letter rather
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  Speaker 1: than the exact middle of the alphabet but they felt
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  Speaker 1: like the word emeth perfectly described God because it brought
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  Speaker 1: to the attention of the reader the first of the alphabet,
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  Speaker 1: the middle of the alphabet, and the ending of the alphabet, emeth.
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  Speaker 1: They argued stood for God because he does embody the truth. Now,
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  Speaker 1: when you get over into the New Testament, you find
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  Speaker 1: alpha and omega mentioned as the names of God only
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  Speaker 1: three times. And ironically, all three are in the book
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  Speaker 1: of Revelation. Turn first to chapter 1, and then we'll
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  Speaker 1: go to the end of the book and find it
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  Speaker 1: mentioned again in the 21st, and yet finally in the
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  Speaker 1: 22nd chapter. Revelation 1, verse 8.
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  Speaker 2: I am the Alpha... And.
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  Speaker 1: The omega says the Lord God. Now, this is Greek.
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  Speaker 1: And the writer chose to, under the inspiration of the Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: to leave the letters exactly as we would read them
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  Speaker 1: if we were reading the Greek. He doesn't translate it here.
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  Speaker 1: He simply.
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  Speaker 2: Literates the term, I am the first prophet.
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  Speaker 1: I am the last. I am the initial part of
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  Speaker 1: the alphabet. I am the ending of the alphabet. Alpha
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  Speaker 1: and Omega, says the Lord God.
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  Speaker 2: Who is? Who was? Who is to come? The Almighty.
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  Speaker 1: You will see present, past, and future in the amplification
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  Speaker 1: of the name Alpha and Omega.
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  Speaker 2: Who is? That's the present. Who was? That's the past.
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  Speaker 2: who is to come. That's the future.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, he's conveying to the reader the all-encompassing scope.
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  Speaker 2: Of our God.
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  Speaker 1: In the context, which really begins at verse 4 and
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  Speaker 1: concludes up at verse 8, we notice he says these things.
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  Speaker 1: John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace
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  Speaker 1: to you and peace. From him who is, who was,
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  Speaker 1: who is to come, from the seven spirits who are
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  Speaker 1: before his throne, even from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,
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  Speaker 1: the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings
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  Speaker 1: of the earth, to him who loves us and released
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  Speaker 1: us from our sins.
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  Speaker 2: By his blood.
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  Speaker 1: If you're a follower of the writings of Donald Barnhouse,
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  Speaker 1: you know that at the beginning of most If not
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  Speaker 1: all of Barnhouse's works, certainly of his volumes on Romans,
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  Speaker 1: there is the presentation of Revelation 1 of 5.
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  Speaker 2: And it is in Greek.
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  Speaker 1: To him who loves us and released us from our
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  Speaker 1: sins by his blood. It's the late Barnhouse's way of
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  Speaker 1: saying this work is to him who loved us and
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  Speaker 1: released us from our sins.
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  Speaker 2: It's in the same context.
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  Speaker 1: And he has made us to be a kingdom, priests
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  Speaker 1: to his God and Father. To him be the glory
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  Speaker 1: and the dominion forever and ever.
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  Speaker 2: Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Behold, and now he quotes from the Old Testament. Actually,
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  Speaker 1: from Zechariah, the prophet, chapter 12. Maybe I should say Zechariah. Behold,
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  Speaker 1: he is coming with the clouds. Every eye will see him,
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  Speaker 1: even those who pierced him. And all the tribes of
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  Speaker 1: the earth will mourn over him. Even so, amen. Even so,
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  Speaker 1: I believe it. And then he gives his name, the
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  Speaker 1: Alpha and the Omega. Look at Revelation 21, verse 6.
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  Speaker 1: You'll find the same name. We'll turn from the Aleph
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  Speaker 1: of the book to the Tau. From the first of.
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  Speaker 2: It to the end. 21, 6.
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  Speaker 1: He said to me, it is done. I am the alpha,
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  Speaker 1: the omega, the beginning, and the end. I will give
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  Speaker 1: to the one who thirsts from the spring of the
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  Speaker 1: water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit
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  Speaker 1: these things, and I will be his God, and he
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  Speaker 1: will be my son. I don't know if you've thought
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  Speaker 1: about it lately, but no one else on this earth
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  Speaker 1: could ever say such a thing as that. There is
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  Speaker 1: such finality in these words. I'm of the opinion that
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  Speaker 1: we need a lot of reminders regarding.
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  Speaker 2: The authority of our God.
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  Speaker 1: We who are so regularly and often impressed with the
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  Speaker 1: power and the accomplishments of men and women, we need
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  Speaker 1: a reminder.
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  Speaker 2: Regularly that our God is above all, that.
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  Speaker 1: He is beyond all, that everything begins with his, yes,
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  Speaker 1: that may happen, and everything ends with his, no, that's enough,
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  Speaker 1: and everything in between.
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  Speaker 2: Accepts his nod. I allow that. I permit that. I
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  Speaker 2: direct this. I demand that.
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  Speaker 1: All the way through time, life isn't sort of a
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  Speaker 1: flip of the coin and hopefully it comes up heads.
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  Speaker 1: Life is moving in a perfect pattern and the alpha
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  Speaker 1: and the omega, the one responsible for the beginning, continuation,
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  Speaker 1: and end of it all, is saying all the way through,
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  Speaker 1: that is exactly the way I want it. That is
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  Speaker 1: precisely as I have planned it. That title, if it
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  Speaker 1: means nothing else, certainly means that. What an epical scene,
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  Speaker 1: by the way, is in the first seven verses of
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  Speaker 1: Revelation 21. The next time you find yourself discouraged with
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  Speaker 1: this old heaven and this old earth, take a look
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  Speaker 1: at the new heaven and the new earth that's yet
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  Speaker 1: to come.
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  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful scene.
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  Speaker 1: One more expression is found in Scripture, and that's in
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  Speaker 1: Revelation 22, verse 6. He said to me, these words
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  Speaker 1: are faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of
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  Speaker 1: the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show
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  Speaker 1: to his bondservants the things which must shortly take place.
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  Speaker 2: Behold, I am coming quickly.
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  Speaker 1: This is the promise of the Lord Jesus himself. I
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  Speaker 1: am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words
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  Speaker 1: of Of the prophecy of this book. Now let's examine
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  Speaker 1: the meaning a little more closely.
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  Speaker 2: I am on occasion.
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  Speaker 1: A little surprised with things on this earth. That have
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  Speaker 1: accepted the name of Alpha. Or accepted the name of Omega.
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  Speaker 1: When one puts it in context. you realize right away
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  Speaker 1: the title belongs really only to the living God. For example,
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  Speaker 1: there is a computer system called Alpha Micro. Happens to
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  Speaker 1: be the one we use here at the church offices.
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  Speaker 1: It has really nothing to do with God, I can
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  Speaker 1: assure you. It's just called Alpha Micro. There's a grocery
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  Speaker 1: store chain called Alpha Beta in our community. There is
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  Speaker 1: Alpha Graphics. that some of you are aware of it.
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  Speaker 1: There's Alpha Video, and I looked in the directory and
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  Speaker 1: found a dozen or more other Alpha organizations.
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  Speaker 2: And then Omega. There is a watch. I don't know
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  Speaker 2: why I'm looking at mine.
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  Speaker 1: Mine says Casio, but there is a watch that is
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  Speaker 1: named Omega. It's a great watch, I understand. There is
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  Speaker 1: a car you can buy that is Omega, Oldsmobile Omega.
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  Speaker 1: There is, in our community, an Omega drive-in thought that
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  Speaker 1: was kind of funny my my favorite was the omega
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  Speaker 1: fire protection that's getting pretty close when you get to
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  Speaker 1: that omega fire protection none of these things have anything
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  Speaker 1: to do with the original primary title the hebrew concept
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  Speaker 1: is most interesting the rabbis used to say adam transgressed
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  Speaker 1: the law from aleph to tau adam transgressed the law
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  Speaker 1: from start to finish When he sinned, he sinned all.
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  Speaker 1: He sinned completely. And as our federal head, through him,
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  Speaker 1: we sin. We are sinners by birth. We are sinners
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  Speaker 1: by choice. We are sinners by nature. Adam transgressed the
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  Speaker 1: law from Aleph to Tal. The rabbis also used to
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  Speaker 1: say that Abraham kept the law from Aleph to Tal.
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  Speaker 1: Because Abraham is the father of the nation, they held
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  Speaker 1: him up as one who kept the law Though that
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  Speaker 1: isn't true. Abraham failed as a sinner. And they added
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  Speaker 1: that when God blessed his people, he blessed them from
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  Speaker 1: Aleph to Tal.
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  Speaker 2: And that's true.
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  Speaker 1: When he blesses us, his blessings come from beginning to ending.
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  Speaker 1: He blesses us even in sorrow by giving us strength
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  Speaker 1: to endure. He blesses us even in sadness. It is
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  Speaker 1: in the Hebrew the concept of completion or continuation. When
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  Speaker 1: you read he is the first and the last over
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  Speaker 1: in the Old Testament, the writers are conveying the idea
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  Speaker 1: that God is a God who continues on and completes
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  Speaker 1: the whole story.
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  Speaker 2: Let me show you.
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  Speaker 1: Joshua chapter 1 is an example. Turn from Revelation 22
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  Speaker 1: back to Joshua 1. This is an extremely difficult time
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  Speaker 1: for the Hebrews because Moses has died. We read of
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  Speaker 1: the death of Moses having studied his life and we
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  Speaker 1: feel that we understand the grief of the people, but
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  Speaker 1: I think we enter into it only partially. This was
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  Speaker 1: the man who led them out of bondage. And if
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  Speaker 1: you can imagine being over 400 years under Egyptian rule,
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  Speaker 1: and along comes an 80-year-old man, reluctantly, meekly, Almost had
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  Speaker 1: to be forced into the task of delivering. And he
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  Speaker 1: through miraculous works. Breaks the back of Pharaoh. And sets
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  Speaker 1: the people free. And then for the next 40 years.
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  Speaker 2: He is the one who leads them through the Red Sea.
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  Speaker 1: Brings water from the rock. And declares that manna will
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  Speaker 1: fall from heaven. And points them to the cloud by day.
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  Speaker 1: And the fire by night. on whose shoulders rest the
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  Speaker 1: blessings of God.
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  Speaker 2: This is Moses. And then he dies.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, they are right on the edge of battle.
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  Speaker 1: They're about to move into the land that was promised them,
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  Speaker 1: the land of Canaan, and he dies. He's not allowed
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  Speaker 1: to enter the land because he didn't keep the law
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  Speaker 1: from Aleph to Tal.
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  Speaker 2: And in a fit of anger, he....
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  Speaker 1: He struck the rock. God had told him to speak
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  Speaker 1: to it. And God said, because of that, you will
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  Speaker 1: die before you enter Canaan. Well, that's the background to
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  Speaker 1: Joshua 1. And he's been training Joshua for this moment.
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  Speaker 1: And the people for 30 days have been mourning the
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  Speaker 1: death of Moses. Joshua, can you imagine Joshua in the tent?
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  Speaker 1: Just before taking the leadership of the Hebrews. They've been
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  Speaker 1: listening to and watching this wonderful man of God from
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  Speaker 1: age 80 to age 120.
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  Speaker 2: Lead them in virtual flawless leadership. Now he's dead.
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  Speaker 1: And you're to take his place. Well, I think you'd
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  Speaker 1: feel uneasy and.
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  Speaker 2: Insecure.
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  Speaker 1: God meets with Joshua in these first few verses of
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  Speaker 1: Joshua 1. That is verses 1 to 9, and God
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  Speaker 1: puts fiber in his life. Verse 2, Moses, my servant.
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  Speaker 2: Is dead.
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  Speaker 1: I pause here because I'm reminded when death comes, one
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  Speaker 1: of the hardest things to do is to face it,
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  Speaker 1: to say those words. My father lingered for, oh, four
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  Speaker 1: or more years, quite ill, as some of you know.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, it was in one of our worship services
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  Speaker 1: in the old building where we used to meet in
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  Speaker 1: Fullerton that my father was seized with a stroke and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a mild heart attack. And as a matter of fact,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I was preaching in the middle of the three morning services,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: and I watched them come and take my father out
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the door.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: And I watched the.
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: Light go around on the top of that ambulance and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: as they administered health and all the technique they could
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: to keep him alive. And while I was preaching, I'm
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: not really sure what I said, but I watched that happen.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: And then he lingered for a number of years, and
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: finally he breathed his last. It was a blessing to
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: have him finally die because of the lingering illness and
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: the pain he went through and the incredible stress it
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: brought to our to our families. And though we loved him,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: it was best that he die. But I remember being
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: in the hospital that night when they called us and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: said he's virtually gone. And just as I arrived, they
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: were putting the sheet over his head. And I remember
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: reaching up with my hands and wiping his eyelids closed.
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: Closed his eyes. I kissed him and covered him up.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: And I remember the following morning walking into our offices
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: here and finding one of the men who was on
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: our staff. And I walked into his office and I said,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: something happened last night. And for the first time I
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: said it, my father is dead. He had a wonderful
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: answer for me.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: His answer was, good. That's good.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: It wasn't an answer that lacked compassion. It was an
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: answer of reality. But I remember the difficulty it was
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: to say with my own mouth, he is dead.
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: He's dead.
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: God looks at Joshua because there's a massive job to
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: be done and God says directly to Joshua, Moses is dead.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Dead. He's dead. Now let's go on.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: You see, when you're the Alpha and the Omega, you
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: know it's right. It isn't, Moses, I'm surprised to tell you, died.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: He is saying, Moses, as I planned it, is dead.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Now therefore arise, Joshua, Cross the Jordan, you and all
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: the people, to the land which I'm giving to them,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: sole of your foot treads, I have given it to
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: you just.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: As I spoke to Moses. And then he describes the scene.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: And he points out, just like we would in America,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from the Mexican border
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: to the Canadian border, the land is yours.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Take it. See, he's giving Joshua a game.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: Plan, a strategy for taking the land of Canaan. When
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: you're Alpha and Omega, you know the whole game plan.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: You know where the borders began and where they end.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: You have every right to say that. If you were
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: a commanding officer, you would say, I hope you get
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: as far as the Euphrates. But when you're God, you say,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: it'll be the Euphrates. You'll go no further.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: That's the land.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: And it'll take you all the way to that stretch
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: of mountains and that's where it stops.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: And he has every right to declare that because he
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: is God. He's the Almighty. Verse 5. No man could
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: have said this to Joshua. Only God. No man will
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: be able to stand before you all the days of
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: your life.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Just as I have been with Moses, I will be
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: with you. I will not fail you or forsake you.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: The word means I will not abandon you. That's the
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: word for fail. And I will not forsake you. The
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Hebrew word means to loosen one's grip. I will not
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: loosen my grip.
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: I'm there. You've been through a tragedy recently. You lost
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: a mate through death or divorce. You feel abandoned. You
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: feel alone.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: You had a romance that ended in a dead end
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: street and your hope for marriage has died. He will
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: not fail you. He will not loosen his grip on you.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: He's the Alpha and the Omega. He knew the ending
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: of this as you were enjoying the beginning of it.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: All the way through, he is in control.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: I am here.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: I have always been here. I will be here when
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: you're dead and gone. I love this thought, and I
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: got it from Tozer. When a man of.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: God dies, nothing of God dies. Remember that.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: When a man of God fails, nothing of God fails.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: One of Tozer's best works, which happens to be one
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: of his least known, is a work entitled.
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: The Divine Conquest.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: By the way, you should pick up everything you can
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: find by A.W.
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: Tozer, T-O-Z-E-R. It's worth your time.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: And the pursuit of God is obviously, in most people's minds,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: his masterpiece. A small work that has a massive message
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: for any generation. This one is called the divine conquest.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: And in it he addresses the Joshua passage. In what
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: he entitles the eternal continuum. The eternal continuum. That's the
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Hebrew idea of Aleph to Tao. All the way through
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: God is contingent.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: His plan.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: We cannot think rightly of God, says Tozer, until we
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: begin to think of him as always being.
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: There and there first.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Joshua had this to learn. He had been so long
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: the servant of God's servant, Moses. And had with such
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: assurance received God's word at his mouth. That Moses and
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the God of Moses had become blended in his thinking.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: So blended that he could hardly separate the two thoughts.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: By association they always appeared together in his mind. Now
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: Moses is dead. And lest the young Joshua be struck
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: down with despair. God spoke to assure him. As I
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: was with Moses so I will be with thee. Moses
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: was dead, but the God of Moses still lived. Nothing
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: had changed. And nothing had been lost. Now, I recognize,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: he says. Let me go back and get the full
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: thought here.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: As I was, so I will be. Only God could
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: say this. Only the Eternal One could stand in the
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: timeless I am and say, I was and I will be.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: Once I should have considered such thoughts to be mere
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: metaphysical bric-a-brac without practical meaning for anyone in a world
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: such as ours. Now I recognize them as sound and
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: easy to grasp truths with unlimited potential for good Failure
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: to get a right viewpoint in the beginning of our
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Christian lives may result in weakness and sterility for the
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: rest of our days. May not the inadequacy of much
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: of our spiritual experience be traced back to our habit
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: of skipping through the corridors of the kingdom like children
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: through the marketplace, chattering about everything but pausing to learn
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: the true value of nothing.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: In my creature.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: Impatience, I am often caused to wish that there were
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: some way to bring modern Christians into a deeper spiritual
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: life painlessly by short, easy lessons. But such wishes are vain.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: No shortcut exists. God has not bowed to our nervous
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: haste nor embraced the methods of our machine age. It
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: is well that we accept the hard truth now. The
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: man who would know God must give time to him.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: We think of ourselves as inhabiting a parenthetic interval between
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the God who was and the God who will be.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: And we are lonely with an ancient and cosmic loneliness.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: When you really get a hold of the concept of
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Alpha and Omega, the loneliness goes away. He is there
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: with you at all times. Back to Revelation 1 in
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: verse 8. For the Greek concept.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: Revelation 1.8. I am Alpha and Omega. Says the Lord God.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: Who is and was. Who is to come. And I
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: love this. That he put the Alpha. The Almighty. The Almighty.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: The Almighty.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: God is our almighty ever-present now. You're in the middle
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: of your schooling, let me assume. You're right at the
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: height of your academic career. You are moving from where
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: you were to where you wish to be. And in
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: the middle of it, there are pressures, there are demands,
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: there are responsibilities, there are times of disillusionment, and you
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: wonder if you will ever make it, and you at
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: times even have to confess, you wonder where God is
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: in all of it, though you may be in the middle.
• 33:55
  Speaker 2: Of seminary training. He is the Almighty.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: He is in the midst of all that you're involved in,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and He cares, He's concerned, and He's at work. even
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: in the disillusionment of some of it. He is the
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: ever-present now. He's the one who is, not just the
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: one who was and.
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Who will come.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: I have a very, very close personal friend who got
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: some tough news recently regarding a growth in her body.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: She happens to be single, has been single.
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: All her life.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: She got the news from the physician on a particular day.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: She shared it with a few, and then she had
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: that long drive home. And on the way home, she wept.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: She envisioned the possibility of advanced cancer. And our minds
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: have a way of just running wild, don't they? Imagination
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: being what it is. About the time she.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: She got home and fixed a little supper and let
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: it all sink in. She began to realize that God
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: is involved even in this.
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: Even in this. She said to me later, I.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Was reminded of the truths I had learned years ago.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: That he is in the middle of my now. He
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: isn't just someone from yesteryear who was great. Or someone
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: who will close the chapter of my life. And I
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: can rely on him for that.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: He is engaged in today.
• 35:44
  Speaker 3: Why?
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: Because he is the Alpha. And the Omega.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Nothing happens before him. Nothing will occur after his plan.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: He has it all wrapped in his parentheses. Without that
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: thought we are cast upon our own way. Do you
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: remember the frequent reference that I came to earlier in
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: reading these verses? For example, in 22.13, the beginning and
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: the ending.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Remember that reference?
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: I am the alpha and the omega, the first and
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: the last, the beginning and the ending. The Greek word
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: for beginning is arche. The Greek word for ending is telos.
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: By the way, there's a telos corporation that's advertising on
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: television these days. Interesting how these terms come back to
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: visit with us. Arche could mean beginning in point of
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: time and also beginning in the sense.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: Of source or origin. He is that.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Telos is ending in a point of time and also
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: ending in the sense of goal or consummation. I think
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: of it as a musical reference, a crescendo. It is
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: moving increasingly more so in the direction of God's plan
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: and all the way through he's nodding in agreement And
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: it ultimately consummates with his conclusion to life. Exactly as
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: he arranged it. All this means that Jesus Christ is
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: the source.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: He's the origin. He's the one from whom life began.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: He is the ultimate end, the final goal.
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: Those of us who are.
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: Parents at times need to think back to the time
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: our young ones were born. Remember when our firstborn came,
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: this incredible sense of responsibility swept over me. We had
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: never had a baby before. We were in the midst
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: of our schooling, and I remember leaving Cynthia at the
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: hospital and going home to the little two-room apartment where
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: we were living and falling down beside the bed and saying, Lord,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to do this. I don't know
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: how to be a father. I've never been one. So
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: from the first day, Kurt had just breathed his first
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: that day. I said, Lord, from this first day on,
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: he is yours. What I did is I came to
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the arcade of my son's life, the beginning point.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: And I turned him over to God.
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: I said, I will do all that is within my
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: responsibility that I possibly can. Just guide me. I wonder
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: how many fathers have said that kind of thing. The
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: very first of the children's lives. And then all the
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: way through, Lord, you're going to direct me. There's no
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: other person who could do that. Because no one else
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: is the.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: RK.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: No one else is the Telos. And I ask you
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: to bring him to the ultimate end you have. If
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: you give him to us 10 years, 20 years, 50 years,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: he's yours. And the same for each one of our
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: four as they were born. The theological analysis of all
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: this is that Jesus Christ represents the source and the
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: goal of all of life. That's why we say to people,
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: if you haven't Christ, you haven't direction. You have no
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: sense of beginning and you have no sense of a
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: consummating goal.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: The pattern is confusing. No one else is Alpha and Omega.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: The practical significance, it keeps us from feeling that we've
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: been thrown on this planet to sort of make it
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: on our own. Sort of jumbled in life trying to
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: find our way through the maze.
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: Isn't that at all?
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: Our desire as Christians is to find God's goal and
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: pursue it.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: Whatever it may be.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: I've made a note of the realms in which The
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: alpha omega is involved. And I was reminded of the
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: thoughts I want to share, and there are four of them,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: from Romans 11.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Turn there finally.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: One of my favorite sections of Romans, Romans 11, is sort.
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: Of the.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: Doxology of this first section of the book, or the
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: center section, Of the book.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: And Paul. Comes to this moment. Where he says. 1133.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Oh the depth of the riches. Both of the wisdom.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: And knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments. And
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: unfathomable his ways. Who has known the mind of the Lord.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Who became his counselor. Who has first given to him.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: That it might be paid back to him again. quoting
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: from Job in both of those verses. Now the verse 36.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: For from him and through him and to him are
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: all things. To him be the glory forever.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: Amen. How's that for totality? From him, through him, To
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: him are all things. All things.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: It's easy to question that when your life seems to
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: be in a shambles. The problem is we're looking at
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: the wrong side of the cloth. Cynthia has recently gotten
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: real busy in the area of needlepoint.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: And she's done a Oh, my.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: The stitching you do when you number all the little squares,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: what is that called?
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: Cross-stitching.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: What?
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: Counted. Oh, I'm so glad. Counted cross-stitch.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: I was going to try to look so suave as
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: I talked about this. I always get in trouble when
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: I get in the area of cooking and sewing and
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: things like that.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: Anyway, she has done counted cross-stitch. Now she's doing more needlepoint.
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: And she's.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Doing a particular little pattern that's going to go on
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: a pillow that will go.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: In our place. And it's three little ducks, mallards, that
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: are on this lake. It's beautiful.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: And she has a little thing that holds it in
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: a stand, in a little frame. And my chair is
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: over there, and she's over here working on it. So
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: all I can see is underneath. In other words, she's
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: working here, but all I can see is this part.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: It looks terrible. I haven't told her that, so don't
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: tell her that, but it looks terrible over there. And
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I think, I am going to have that in my room?
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Good night. That looks awful. The other day, I decided
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: to get over on the other side and look. It
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: looks great. I'm so glad I'm going to get this
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: side rather than this side.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: The poet picked up the idea when he said, not
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: till the loom is silent and the shuttle cease to fly.
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reasons why
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: the dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: hands as the threads of gold and scarlet in the
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: pattern he has planned? Not till that final tapestry, that
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: final work of needlepoint, that theology, that final work of
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: God is done will the whole pattern change.
• 44:19
  Speaker 2: Be seen in its beauty. And then we will say,
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: now I understand. Now it makes sense.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: I wrestled all these years on earth wondering why, why, why?
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: And I now see it from the vantage point of
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: Alpha and Omega.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: And it's beautiful.
• 44:47
  Speaker 1: And so the realms in which he is involved, first
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: in the very presence of life. Because he is Alpha
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: and Omega, we have our birth as well as our death,
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: and neither is an accident. Otherwise, he is almost sovereign.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: That takes away all the fear when you fly.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Some of you are just eating your heart out over
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: the flight that's coming, and you wonder if this is
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: your time or not, or if you're going to go down. Hey,
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: if you're going to go down, enjoy it on the way.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: It's going to be over. You're through, finished.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: If it isn't, there is no way you're going to
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: go down. If it is, there's no way you're going
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: to stop it. The very presence of life is in
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: his hands. Helps a whole lot for those who fear death. Second,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: the ultimate purpose of our existence is in the hands
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: of the Alpha and the Omega.
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: The very purpose of it.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Why we were placed on this planet, what we are
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: to do, and where we are to put in our strokes,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: he's got it put together. Just check in with him regularly.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: The ultimate purpose of our existence. Third, and this is
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: where the rub occurs, the circumstances of our surroundings. Alpha
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Omega suggests full spectrum of events. I put the contrast down,
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the good or bad, the prosperous or the calamitous. the
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: ecstasy or the agony, the gain or the loss, the
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: win or the lose, the pleasant or the painful.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: The expected or the surprised.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: He is not only aware, he is involved. The circumstances
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: of our surroundings and finally.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: The results of our efforts. The results of our efforts.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: On my way out of the church, um, on Sunday morning.
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: I was stopped by the fellow who was involved with
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: our food fund. There was a little detail he was
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: working on. He is a man you have probably never met.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: And he regularly serves the body of Christ by helping
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: in the distribution of the food to the needy, the hungry.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: He does that week in and week out He does
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: it in season and out of season.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: He does it without any applause.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: He does it anonymously and has a small group of
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: people who faithfully work with him alongside another faithful member
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: of our pastoral staff who oversees it. It's all done
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: like the massive iceberg beneath the surface so that no
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: one sees it. I thought as I put the key
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: in my car and drove away, That man needs a reminder.
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: That God will reward his every effort. None of it
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: is going to bypass the living God. If he is
• 48:21
  Speaker 2: the Alpha and the Omega, then nothing in between the
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: parenthesis of his power will go unnoticed.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: This gives real meaning to verses like, do not be
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: weary in well-doings. and be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: not in vain in the Lord. I frequently think of
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: the cross when I come to this point. What an
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: enigma for this earth.
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: To accept, especially those who had followed the Lord Jesus.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Here he came as the King of kings and Lord
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: of lords, the Lamb of God, And they followed him
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: all the way in his ministry until he was taken
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: under arrest and put through a mockery of trials and
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: finally nailed to cross timbers and dropped in a hole
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: to die. And they all forsook him and fled away.
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Because of fear maybe or because they didn't grasp the
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: fact that the Alpha and the Omega died. In the
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: plan of the living God, there had to be the
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: death of Christ, or he could not have paid for
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: the sins of the world. Do not think that if
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: you embrace this statement of theology that you will bypass pain,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: or you'll somehow take a shortcut to heaven, and God
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: will look upon you with special favor. It simply means
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: that there has to be the time of the cross
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: before there can ever be.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: The time of the crown. It all fits together.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: This is your moment to reflect back across your life.
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: Church membership is of no concern to us. Your walk
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: with Christ is of great concern. Do you know the
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Lord and are you walking in the light? If you're
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: not sure or if you must confess, no, I honestly
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: must say things aren't right. This is the perfect occasion
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: to make it right.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: Right now. In this parenthesis of time. In prayer say
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: to your Alpha and Omega, Lord, I come to you.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: To take you into my life. or to find cleansing
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: for my life that is in great need.
• 51:10
  Speaker 2: May we pray. Lord God, for the very presence of life,
• 51:19
  Speaker 2: for the ultimate purpose of our existence, for the circumstances
• 51:23
  Speaker 2: that surround us, and yes, even for the results of our.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: Efforts, we pause to express our gratitude. Thank you for
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: caring about even people like us. In the myriad of
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: responsibilities that are yours, you have been pleased to stoop
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: and care for us in our need. We come to
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: this lovely reminder of the Lord Jesus, and we pause
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: to thank you for him who washed us from our
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: sins and cleansed us.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: By the blood. We come to worship. To celebrate. To reflect.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: To acknowledge. You are. The Alpha. The Omega. The beginning.
• 52:22
  Speaker 2: And the ending. In Jesus. Strong name.
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: Amen. The preceding message. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: Was copyrighted in 1988, 1992, 1998, and 2022. And the
• 52:42
  Speaker 3: sound recording was copyrighted in 2022 by Charles R.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: Swindoll, Inc.
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 52:53
  Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited.