Latest / 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast / The Rapture Revealed (Pt 1) | Paul’s Urgent Message about the 2nd Coming of Christ (Oct 13)

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The Rapture Revealed (Pt 1) | Paul’s Urgent Message about the 2nd Coming of Christ (Oct 13) · 1 Year Audio Bible Podcast

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If you were a pastor or a teacher and you
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were being sent to a church community
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that was just beginning and you only had 5 or
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6 weeks with them and then you were called to other places,
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what would be the most important teaching or doctrine or foundation
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that you would want to present to get
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that brand new beginning church to grow?
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This is exactly what it was with Paul when he went
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to Thessalonica and he started this church,
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and he only had maybe 5 or 6 weeks with them total.
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And what did he talk about? What was the
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most important thing on his mind that he wanted this persecuted, highly persecuted
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church to know and understand and believe and embrace?
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He talked to them in both 1 and 2 Thessalonians
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about the harpazo, about the coming of the Lord
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to gather up the church into the clouds to be
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with him. This was the main theme in
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1 and 2 Thessalonians. Listen in
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as we unpack 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 today.
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Welcome to the One Year Audio Bible Podcast. Today is October
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13th. Now let's continue our journey reading through the entire
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Bible in one year. This week we are reading from the
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Israel Bible for the Hebrew Scriptures and from the King James for
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the New Testament. Exodus 34:10-26.
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He said, I hereby make a covenant. Before all
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your people I will work such wonders as have not been wrought on
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all the earth or in any nation, and all the people who
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are with you shall see how awesome are Hashem's deeds which I
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will perform for you. Mark well what I command you this
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day. I will drive out before you the Amorites,
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the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites,
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the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Beware of making
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a covenant with the inhabitants of the land against which you are
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advancing, lest it be a snare in your midst.
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No, you must tear down their altars,
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smash their pillars, and cut down their sacred posts.
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For you must not worship any other god, because Hashem,
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whose name is Impassioned, is an impassioned
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God. You must not make a covenant with
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the inhabitants of the land, for they will lust after their gods and sacrifice
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to their gods and invite you, and you will eat of their sacrifices.
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And when you take wives from among their daughters for your sons,
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their daughters will lust after their gods and will cause your sons to
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lust after their gods. You shall not make
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molten gods for yourselves. You shall observe the Festival of
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Pesach, eating unleavened bread for 7 days,
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as I have commanded you, at the set time of the month of
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Abib, for in the month of Abib you went forth from Egypt.
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Every first issue of the womb is Mine,
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from all your livestock that drop a male as firstling,
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whether cattle or sheep. But the firstling of
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a donkey you shall redeem with a sheep; if you do not redeem it,
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you must break its neck. And you must redeem every firstborn
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among your sons. None shall appear before Me empty-handed.
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6 days you shall work, but on the 7th day you
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shall cease from labor. You shall cease from labor even at plowing
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time and harvest time. You shall observe the Festival
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of Shavuot, of the Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest, and the
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Feast of Ingathering at the Turn of the Year. 3 times
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a year all your males shall appear before the Sovereign Hashem, the God of
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Israel. I will drive out nations
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from your path and enlarge your territory. No one will
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covet your land when you go up to appear before Hashem your
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God 3 times a year. You shall not
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offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, and the sacrifice
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of the Festival of Pesach shall not be left lying until morning.
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The choice firstfruits of your soil you shall bring
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to the house of Hashem your God. You shall not
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boil a kid in its mother's milk.
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Jeremiah 22:1-23:20.
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Thus said Hashem, go down to the palace of the king of
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Judah where you shall utter this word.
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Say, Hear the word of Hashem, O King of Judah,
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you who sit on the throne of David, and your courtiers and
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your subjects who enter these gates. Thus said Hashem,
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Do what is just and right. Rescue from the defrauder
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him who is robbed. Do not wrong the stranger,
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the fatherless, and the widow. Commit no lawless act and do
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not shed the blood of the innocent in this place. For if you fulfill this
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command, then through the gates of this palace shall enter kings of David's
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line who sit upon his throne riding horse-drawn chariots with
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their courtiers and their subjects. But if
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you do not heed these commands, I swear by Myself, declares Hashem,
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that this palace shall become a ruin.
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For thus said Hashem concerning the royal palace of Judah: You
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are as Gilead to Me, as the summit of Lebanon,
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but I will make you a desert, uninhabited towns.
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I will appoint destroyers against you, each with his tools.
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They shall cut down your choicest cedars and make them fall into
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the fire. And when many nations pass by
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this city, and one man asks another, why did Hashem
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do thus to that great city? The reply will be,
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because they forsook the covenant with Hashem their God and bowed
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down to other gods and served them. Do not weep for the dead
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and do not lament for him. Weep rather for him who is leaving,
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for he shall never come back to see the land of his birth.
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For thus said HaShem concerning Shallum, son of King Yoshiyahu
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of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah
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as king, but who has gone forth from this place: He shall never
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come back. He shall die in the place
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to which he was exiled, and he shall not see this land again.
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Ha! He who builds his house with unfairness,
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and his upper chambers with injustice, who makes his fellow man
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work without pay and does not give him his wages,
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who thinks, I will build me a vast palace with spacious
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upper chambers provided with windows, paneled in
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cedar, painted with vermilion. Do you think you are more a king
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because you compete in cedar? Your father ate
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and drank, and dispensed justice and equity, then all went well
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with him. He upheld the rights of the poor and
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needy, then all was well. That is truly heeding
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Me, declares Hashem. But your eyes and
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your mind are only on ill-gotten gains, on shedding the
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blood of the innocent, on committing fraud and violence.
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Assuredly, thus said Hashem concerning Jehoiakim
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son of Yoshiyahu, king of Judah: They shall not mourn for him,
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Ah, brother! Ah, sister! They shall not mourn
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for him, Ah, Lord! Ah, His Majesty!
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He shall have the burial of a donkey, dragged out and
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left lying outside the gates of Jerusalem. Climb Lebanon
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and cry out, raise your voice in Bashan, cry out from Abiram,
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for all your lovers are crushed. I spoke to you
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when you were prosperous, You said, I will not listen.
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That was your way ever since your youth. You would not heed Me.
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All your shepherds shall be devoured by the wind, and your lovers shall
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go into captivity. Then you shall be shamed and
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humiliated because of all your depravity.
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You who dwell in Lebanon, nestled among the cedars, how much grace
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will you have when pains come upon you,
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travail as in childbirth? As I live,
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declares Hashem, if you, O King Coniah,
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son of Jehoiakim of Judah, were a signet on My right hand,
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I would tear you off even from there. I will deliver you
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into the hands of those who seek your life, into the hands of those
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you dread, into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of
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Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans. I will hurl
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you and the mother who bore you into another land where
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you were not born. There you shall both die.
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They shall not return to the land that they yearn to come back to.
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Is this man Coniah a wretched broken pot,
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a vessel no one wants? Why are he and his offspring hurled
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out and cast away in a land they knew not?
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O land, land, land, hear the
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word of Hashem! Thus says Hashem: Record this man
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as without succession, one who shall never be found acceptable,
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for no man of his offspring shall be accepted to sit on the throne of
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David and to rule again in Judah.
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Ah, shepherds who let the flock of my pasture stray and scatter,
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declares Hashem. Assuredly, thus said Hashem, the God of Israel,
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concerning the shepherds who should tend my people: It
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is you who let my flock scatter and go astray. You gave no
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thought to them, but I am going to give thought to you for your wicked
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acts, declares Hashem, and I myself will gather the remnant
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of my flock. From all the lands to which I have banished them,
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and I will bring them back to their pasture where they shall be fertile
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and increase. And I will appoint over them shepherds who will tend
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them. They shall no longer fear or be dismayed, and none of
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them shall be missing, declares Hashem. See, a time
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is coming, declares Hashem, when I will raise up a true Branch of
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David's line, He shall reign as king and shall prosper,
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and he shall do what is just and right in the land. In his
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days Judah shall be delivered and Israel shall dwell secure.
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And this is the name by which he shall be called: Hashem is our
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Vindicator. Assuredly a time is coming,
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declares Hashem, when it shall no more be said,
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As Hashem lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of
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Egypt! But rather, As Hashem lives, who brought
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out and led the offspring of the House of Israel from the
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Northland and from all the lands to which I banished them, and they shall
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dwell upon their own soil. Concerning the
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Nevi'im, my heart is crushed within me, all my
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bones are trembling. I have become like a drunken man,
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like one overcome by wine, because of Hashem
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and His Holy Word.
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For the land is full of adulterers; the land
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mourns because of a curse. The pastures of
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the wilderness are dried up; for they run to do evil, they strain to
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do wrong. For both Navi and Kohen are godless; even
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in My House I find their wickedness, declares Hashem.
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Assuredly, their path shall become like slippery ground; They
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shall be thrust into darkness, and there they shall fall. For I will
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bring disaster upon them, the year of their doom, declares Hashem.
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In the Nevi'im of Shomron, I saw a repulsive thing.
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They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.
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But what I see in the Nevi'im of Jerusalem is something horrifying:
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adultery and false dealing, They encourage
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evildoers so that no one turns back from his wickedness.
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To Me they are all like Sodom and all its inhabitants
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like Gomorrah. Assuredly, thus said the LORD
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of hosts concerning the Nevi'im, I am going to make them eat
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wormwood and drink a bitter draught. For from the
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Nevi'im of Jerusalem godlessness has gone forth to the whole land.
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Thus said the LORD of hosts, Do not listen to the words of
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the Nevi'im who prophesy to you. They are deluding you.
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The prophecies they speak are from their own minds, not from the
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mouth of Hashem. They declare to men who despise Me,
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Hashem has said, all shall be well with you. And to all who
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follow their willful hearts they say, no evil shall befall you.
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But he who has stood in the Council of Hashem and seen
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and heard His Word, he who has listened to His Word,
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must obey, Lo, the storm of Hashem goes
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forth in fury, a whirling storm.
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It shall whirl upon the heads of the wicked.
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For the anger of Hashem shall not turn back till it has fulfilled
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and completed His purposes. In the days to come,
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you shall clearly perceive it.
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2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.
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2 Thessalonians 1:1-12.
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Paul and Silvanus and Timothy unto the church of the Thessalonians
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in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to
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you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren,
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as it is meet, because that your faith grows exceedingly
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and the charity of every one of you all toward each other abounds,
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so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches
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of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions
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and tribulations that you endure. Which is a manifest token
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of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy
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of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer,
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seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense
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tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you
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who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall
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be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels
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in a flaming fire taking vengeance on
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them that know not God, that obey not the gospel of our Lord
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Jesus Christ, who shall be
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punished with everlasting destruction from the
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presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come
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to be glorified in his saints, to be admired in all them
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that believe, because our testimony among you was believed,
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in that day. Therefore also we pray always
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for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling
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and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work
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of faith with power, that in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
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may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our
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God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Psalm 83:1-18.
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Keep not silent, O God, hold not your peace,
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and be not still, O God. For lo, your enemies
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make a tumult, and they that hate you have lifted up the head.
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They have taken crafty counsel against your people, and consulted
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against your hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us
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cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may
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be no more in remembrance.
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For they have consulted together with one consent; they are confederate
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against you: the tabernacles of Edom
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and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagarenes,
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Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines
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with the inhabitants of Tyre; Asshur is also
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joined with them: they have helped the children of Lot.
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Selah. Do unto them as unto the Midianites,
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as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the Brook of Chison,
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which perished at Endor. They became as dung for the earth.
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Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb,
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yes, all their princes as Zeebah and as Zalmunna,
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who said, Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession.
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O my God, make them like a wheel, as the stubble before the wind.
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As the fire burns a wood and as the flame sets
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the mountains on fire, so persecute them with Your tempest and make
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them afraid with Their storm. Fill their faces with shame
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that they may seek Your name, O Lord. Let them be confounded
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and troubled forever. Yes, let them be put to shame
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and perish, that men may know that You, whose name
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alone is Yahweh, are the Most High over all
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the earth.
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Proverbs 25:11-14. A word
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fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of
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silver. As an earring of gold and an ornament
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of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear.
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As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger
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to them that send him, for he refreshes the soul of his
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masters. Whoso boasts himself
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of a false gift is like clouds and wind without
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rain. I want to speak to you today from
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our reading from 2 Thessalonians chapter 1.
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And Paul was in Thessalonica for maybe
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5 to 6 weeks. And he planted the church.
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And in 1 Thessalonians, he basically lays the groundwork and
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he gives them a basic doctrine and teaching about
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an event that would come called the Rapture or
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Harpazo, where Jesus
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comes and we are caught up to him in the clouds.
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And so he lays that foundation of that teaching in the first book of
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Thessalonians. Now in the second letter or the second book.
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The reason why Paul wrote this second letter is
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because somebody came along and had stirred the pot
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and was creating all kinds of controversy and fear and anxiety
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because, well, in the next chapter, which we'll see
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tomorrow when we read it, is that somebody wrote a letter saying,
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oh, the rapture has already happened and you missed it and
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you're still here, and so you're going through the tribulation period. And so the
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people in Thessalonica were all upset thinking that
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they had missed the Rapture. Thessalonica was,
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uh, at the heart of commerce, and there
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were roads going from the north, the south, the east, and the west, and all
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kinds of commerce and trade and travelers were passing through.
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And it was highly, highly, highly persecuted. The early
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believers were greatly persecuted from the Roman Emperor.
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And so things were very, very bad. So he wants
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to set the record straight, and he gets into that in chapter 2, which we'll
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read tomorrow. But in the first chapter,
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we see some wonderful lessons that we can glean from
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this very first chapter that we read today.
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Some key lessons and takeaways that we can glean from this chapter is that
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we are to be found worthy of the calling of
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being in Christ Jesus. We are to be found blameless
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even in our afflictions.
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Blameless does not mean that you're absolutely perfect
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and you never sin and you never make a mistake, but that you are pursuing
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a holy lifestyle. And we're also—
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another lesson we can glean from what he shares in this chapter is that we
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are to let our love for one another keep growing,
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that that love for one another in the body of Christ
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needs to continue to grow because that's like a little taste
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of heaven. And we are to find, may Christ
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be in you on that day. What day?
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The day of the Lord. The day when Jesus comes back
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to judge a Christ-rejecting
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generation of people to judge the wicked and
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the crooked and the corrupt and those who have rejected Him.
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And He also says that there's a time coming when those who
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afflict you will themselves be afflicted, and that
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eternal destruction is coming to those who do not obey
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the gospel, that there's a day of reckoning
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coming. But judgment is mine, says the Lord. We are to
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walk in grace and in forgiveness, and in humility,
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but there is a day of reckoning, and that eternal
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destruction is coming to those who do not obey the gospel,
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and that Jesus will be revealed in flaming fire
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with His mighty angels. We could summarize this chapter
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by saying we are to keep growing in our love for one
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another. We are to live holy, blameless lives.
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And Jesus will return in flaming fire, and those
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who do not obey the gospel will go to
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destruction. So Father,
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we just want to take these truths from this scripture and apply
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them to our lives. Help us, Lord, to continue to grow in love
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for the brethren in the family of God.
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Please guide us into the right church community that
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You have for each one of us. Where we can fit in,
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where we can belong, where we can connect,
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where we can love and be loved by others
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in the family of God. I pray this in Jesus' name.
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Amen. That's it for today. We'll see