Latest / HBCWestminster / Five Questions on False Gospels and the Antichrist • Sunday Sermon • 3.2.2025

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Five Questions on False Gospels and the Antichrist • Sunday Sermon • 3.2.2025 · HBCWestminster

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1 John chapter 2, we continue our study of the book of 1 John.
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As I was preparing this week, I was reminded of the difference between just a normal restaurant and an all-you-can-eat buffet.
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At a normal restaurant, honestly, the only difference between the two, at a normal restaurant, the chef decides your portion.
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Here's how much you should eat, right?
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At an all-you-can-eat buffet, you decide your portion.
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You decide how much you can eat, and you get to go back as many times as you want.
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But this morning, what I'm offering, although we're really only studying one verse from chapter 2 and verse 18,
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really only studying one verse, it's going to feel like an all-you-can-eat buffet, all right?
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So don't be ashamed or embarrassed if you can't catch everything all at the same time.
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A lot of content is coming your way this morning, all right?
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Like an all-you-can-eat buffet, however, you can go back over the course of the week.
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Watch the video, listen to the sermon, fill in some of the blanks and whatever,
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and I'll guide you through with our outline and other things.
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But really,
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this is such a rich and penetrating verse this morning in verse 18.
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Our section, however, is going to be verses 18 to 27 of chapter 2.
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And when you found that, if you would stand in honor of God's Word, as I read.
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1 John, chapter 2, beginning in verse 18.
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Children, it is the last hour.
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And you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come.
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Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.
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They went out from us, but they were not of us.
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For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out.
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That it might become plain that they are all not of us.
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You have been anointed by the Holy One.
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You all have knowledge.
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I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it.
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Because no lie is of the truth.
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Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?
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This is the Antichrist.
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He who denies the Father and the Son.
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No one who denies the Son has the Father.
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Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
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Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you.
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If what you heard from the beginning abides in you,
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then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.
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And this is the promise that he made to us, eternal life.
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I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.
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But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you,
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and you have no need that anyone should teach you.
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But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie,
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just as it has taught you, abide in him.
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And Lord God, our ears are open to the preaching of your word,
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and by the power of your spirit,
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we ask that it would bring encouragement and conviction to our hearts.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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Amen.
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Thank you, church.
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Maybe you heard about this story,
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but many restaurants and bars have incorporated an app
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for their patrons called Touch Tones.
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It allows customers to control the music that's being played in that bar or restaurant
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by selecting their preferred song.
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It's similar to an old jukebox.
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On December 21st of last year, 2024,
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the University of Tennessee was playing Ohio State
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in the first round of the college football playoffs.
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The Tennessee fans took to social media.
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They filled Ohio bars and restaurants,
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who then flooded the local airwaves with the song Rocky Top Tennessee,
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their football team's fight song.
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Rocky Top became the most played song in Ohio
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for the three days that Tennessee fans were in town,
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cheering on the team.
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All because Tennessee hijacked the Ohio jukeboxes.
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We pick up this morning with an entirely new section of the letter.
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You notice the section goes from verse 18 to verse 27,
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what we just read and that which will be the focus of our study
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the next four Sundays.
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This section, beginning with this morning in verse 18,
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gives us a staunch warning against false teaching in the church
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and even more specifically,
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how that false message,
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in fact, any false message,
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is an Antichrist attempt to hijack the church's jukebox,
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to take over the message that the church is intended to convey.
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And this one verse, verse 18, prompts five questions
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regarding false gospels and the Antichrist.
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Five questions, which will become our outline for this morning.
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If you're taking notes, just focus on those five questions
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and then you can follow along.
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Fill them in as we go.
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But question number one is this.
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What is the last hour?
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What is the last hour?
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Again, look at verse 18.
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Children, it is the last hour.
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Then look at the end of that same verse.
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Therefore, we know that it is the last hour.
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The phrase the last hour refers to the final moments
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of the final epic of human history,
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known as the last days.
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The last days were ushered in by the first coming of Christ.
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The apostle Peter uses that same phrase,
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quoting from Joel chapter two in his Pentecost sermon
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in Acts chapter two.
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He calls these days the fact that Christ had come,
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had been crucified, buried, resurrected, ascended.
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Now the Holy Spirit has come upon the church
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and the church has been born.
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He said the birth of the church is the inauguration
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of a new human era, a new era in human history,
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a period, an epic of human history.
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And this would become the last major epic,
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the last phase in human history.
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Now, in other places, the New Testament
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uses the same phrase, the last days.
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Notice Hebrews chapter one in verse one.
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Long ago at many times and in many ways,
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God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,
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referring to the Old Testament.
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But in these, what does he say?
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Last days, he has spoken to us by his son.
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The coming of Christ inaugurated
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the last phase of human history.
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First Peter chapter one in verse 20.
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He was foreknown before the foundation
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of the world, but was made manifest,
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again, referring to Christ, in the last times
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for the sake of you who through him are believers in God.
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The assumption of the New Testament writers
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was that now that Christ had come,
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had been resurrected, had ascended into heaven,
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the end must surely be near.
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Listen to the urgency with which Christ himself spoke.
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Matthew 24 in verse 36.
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But concerning that day and hour,
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referring to his son,
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the second coming, no one knows,
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not even the angels of heaven, nor the son,
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but the father only.
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For as in the days of Noah,
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so will be the coming of the son of man.
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When am I coming back?
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He says, nobody knows the day or the hour,
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but the father.
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He continues, same passage, just a few verses later.
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Therefore, he says, stay awake.
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You do not know on what day the Lord is coming.
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A couple of verses later, again,
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therefore you also must be ready
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for the son of man is coming at an hour
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you do not expect.
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The New Testament expectation
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is that the Lord could return at any time.
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Amen?
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Every hour is the hour of crisis.
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And his coming will take place, he says,
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when it is least expected.
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As one author worded it, and I liked how he said it,
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he said, we are to live as though Christ
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is ever at our door.
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Live as though Christ is ever at our door.
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And by the time of the apostle John's writing,
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some six decades after Pentecost,
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the other apostles had all died.
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He was the only guy left.
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Time had hurried past since the birth of the church.
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And so John's assumption was, well,
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if when Luke wrote Acts, the church was in its last days,
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surely now the church is in its last hours.
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This is it.
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The final moments of the final phase of human history.
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In other words, the apostle John is saying, hurry up.
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The curtain is about to close.
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Question number two.
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If that's true, then what's taking so long?
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Do you ever wonder that?
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If that's true, if we really are in the final moments
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of the final phase of human history 2,000 years ago,
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then what's taking so long?
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Why have an additional two millennia passed?
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Why has the return of Christ not already happened?
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And to understand that answer,
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we must first understand two things regarding time.
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Two things which we often, I think,
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misunderstand regarding time
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that we should change our thinking about.
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Number one, God does not measure time the same way that we do.
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We all know this to be true,
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that God's ways are not our ways,
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that God works in mysterious ways,
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that God's clock doesn't run like our clocks.
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But I think we are so fascinated sometimes with timelines
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that we miss the point.
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Turn, if you would, it's probably just one page to the left.
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Look at 2 Peter 3.
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2 Peter 3 and verse 8.
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He says,
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But do not overlook this one fact, beloved,
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that with the Lord, one day is as 1,000 years
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and 1,000 years as one day.
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God's clock ticks and talks differently than does ours.
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Many have attempted,
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and I think to silly and childish ends,
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to take this verse as though the Lord were offering
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some algebraic formula for understanding the timeline
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and world events.
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They'll say, well, what he's offering us here
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is clearly D equals 1,000 years.
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D equals 1,000 why.
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That's what he's saying.
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It's some algebraic formula that we can go back in time now
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and reinterpret even scripture itself.
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Going back to Genesis 1.1.
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Well, it says six days, but after all,
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with the Lord, one day is 1,000 years
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and 1,000 years is a day.
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So maybe it was thousands of years.
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We reconstruct even what scripture tells us happened
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according to this algebraic formula.
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And can I give you some good advice?
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Don't do that.
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It completely misses the point.
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The point of this verse has nothing to do with algebra.
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All right?
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The point of verse 8 is to remind us
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that God works differently than we do.
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And even when it comes to time,
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God's clock ticks.
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It ticks differently than ours.
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The second thing we got to understand about time
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is that God is not concerned with time
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the same way that we are.
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In other words,
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time is not God's greatest concern.
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We are consumed with time
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because we are bound by it.
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Everything in our lives revolves around time
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and clocks and watches and iPhones.
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Everything does.
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Our schedules.
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Even when we eat,
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even when we sleep.
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All of that stuff is dictated to us by time.
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But that is not the way the Lord works.
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He's not concerned with time the way that we are.
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Look at the next verse in 2 Peter 3.
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The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise
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as some count slowness.
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In other words,
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somebody was accusing God of taking too long.
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Why is this taking so long?
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And he says,
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the Lord is not slow like that,
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but is patient toward you
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and not wishy-washy.
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He's not wishing that any should perish,
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but that all should reach repentance.
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I've been leading a Bible study
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for high school aged young men,
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freshmen, sophomores in high school.
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I pick them up.
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My son is one of them.
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I pick up he and his buddies from school
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on Wednesday afternoons.
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I bring them home.
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Hallie has snacks and dinner prepared for them.
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We've been going through the book of Revelation,
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one verse at a time.
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Last Wednesday, we covered chapters 10 and 11,
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where there is this great angel,
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this massive angel who comes down from heaven to earth.
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He is holding the eternal gospel.
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He is roaring the good news like a lion.
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He sets one massive foot in the ocean
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and the other massive foot on the land,
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and he just starts screaming the gospel.
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And I asked all of these freshmen-ish in high school,
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why?
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In a book about the tribulation and suffering and pain
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and death, man, by the time you get to chapter 10,
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the world is wrecked.
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It's wrecked.
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There are trumpets.
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There are trumpets and seals and all kinds of stuff
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just being poured out with judgment, judgment,
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judgment, judgment, judgment.
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And why, over and over through the book,
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I just started pointing out these little glimpses
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of God's grace.
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Why would he send an angel to proclaim the eternal gospel
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with this voice like a roaring lion?
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This is unmistakable.
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Why, in a book about trouble,
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does God keep sending the good news?
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One of these boys astutely said,
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so that people will get saved?
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Yes.
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Even in the midst of suffering and tribulation,
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God wants people to understand that he is a gracious God.
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He wants them to repent.
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And so then I asked him,
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why didn't Jesus return yesterday?
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Yesterday seemed like a good day for it.
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Actually, actually yesterday was warm and nice and sunny.
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So maybe not that day, right?
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But maybe the next time it's gonna be like 12 degrees.
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Like, Lord, come the day before that.
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Can I get an amen?
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Right?
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Why not yesterday?
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And then another one of those boys said,
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well, because of the people who got saved today.
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Yes.
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We get stuck on asking how much longer
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when God is asking how many more?
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Remember, the point is not to finish.
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We know it's gonna finish.
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The point, according to Jesus, was to seek and to save.
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This leads to our third question.
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Question number three.
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So when will the Lord return?
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When will he come back?
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Look with me at Romans chapter 11.
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Lest you be wise in your own sight.
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I don't want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers.
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A partial hardening has come upon Israel
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until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
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That Greek word pleroma, in English fullness,
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has a numeric reference.
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In fact, if you're holding NIV,
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it probably even says until the full number
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of the Gentiles has come in.
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Leading Moses,
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most Bible scholars to agree, and I concur,
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that God has a determined set number of Gentiles to be saved.
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When that number is reached,
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it will spark Israel's softening.
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You say, well, why does that matter?
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Because it shows, and here is the key,
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that God is more concerned with souls than timelines.
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And I wonder, are we?
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Are we as concerned with souls as God is?
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Our souls,
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the first thing on our minds,
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are the souls of our neighbors and our friends
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and our family members.
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At the top of our priority list,
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I mean, we pray and we beg,
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come Lord Jesus, amen?
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That's a real prayer from his people,
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and we should pray it,
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but maybe not too soon.
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I mean, I hope he comes today.
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I hope today is the day.
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Unless one more soul will be saved tomorrow.
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In which case, I would say, come Lord Jesus,
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whenever you are.
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Whenever you decide to.
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Come Lord Jesus, yes.
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But you know what, I can endure one more day.
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If the gospel's going out and people will be saved,
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I can endure one more day.
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When will he return?
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Exactly when he should.
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Question number four.
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What does the author mean by antichrist and antichrists?
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Look again at chapter two and verse 18.
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It is the last hour, he says,
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and as you have heard, that antichrist is coming.
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So now many antichrists,
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have come.
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No doubt the most curious portion of this verse.
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Notice the evidence which John provides,
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supporting his claim that this is indeed the last hour,
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is the presence of many antichrists.
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Now the prefix anti or anti,
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can have two possible meanings.
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Anti can mean against,
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or it can mean in place of.
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Against Christ or in place of Christ.
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It can refer to any person who either sets himself against,
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the Lord,
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or someone who seeks to replace him,
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either an adversary or an unholy substitute.
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And it's impossible to miss the distinction the author makes
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between antichrists and the antichrist.
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The antichrist is an eschatological figure,
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an end time figure,
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who will be revealed when the restraining influence,
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I believe, of the Holy Spirit is removed by the rapture.
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Now, I know that there is some difference of opinion,
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on this point,
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and that's okay,
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as long as you're holding to Jesus and his atonement.
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But I think,
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and I'm just gonna tell you what I think,
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I think there is something keeping the antichrist at bay.
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Something restraining the antichrist
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from being revealed even now.
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And notice,
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and I put it up here,
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2 Thessalonians,
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and chapter two.
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2 Thessalonians chapter two,
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allow me to turn there in my Bible,
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because my eyes are so old,
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I can't read those in the back there.
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2 Thessalonians chapter two,
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and look at verse one.
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The apostle Paul,
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writing to the church at Thessalonica says,
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now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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and our being gathered together to him,
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we ask you brothers,
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so what is he writing about?
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The return of Jesus.
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When is Jesus coming back?
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So he's answering this question,
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when is Jesus coming back?
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Verse two,
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don't be too quickly shaken in mind or alarmed,
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either by a spirit or a spoken word,
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or a letter seeming to be from us,
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to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
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Apparently what had happened,
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was somebody had conveyed a message to the church,
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of the Thessalonians,
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at Thessalonica,
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that they'd missed it.
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It's the left behind nightmare, okay?
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You missed it.
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Somebody told them you missed the return of Christ.
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It's already happened.
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The gathering together of his saints in glory,
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it's already happened,
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and you're all still here.
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One of my first jobs after we got married,
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was teaching eighth grade Bible,
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at a Christian middle school.
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Eighth grade Bible,
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had 38th graders,
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13, 14 year old boys and girls.
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In the middle of one of my lectures,
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one of those boys fell asleep.
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I know that that would never happen,
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here at Heinlein Baptist Church.
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Everybody is waiting with baited breath,
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sitting no doubt on the edge of their seats,
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but this kid fell asleep.
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He puts his head down on the desk.
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He is out cold.
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I noticed it.
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I was 23 or 24 years old at the time.
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I thought it would be funny,
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and honestly, I still think it's funny,
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to pretend like he missed the rapture.
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So I had everybody in the class very quietly listen.
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Chris is asleep.
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Did everybody see that?
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There's all these little giggles, right?
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And we just very quietly all walked next door,
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and we're all watching through the windows.
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You know, like, what's he gonna do?
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And he finally wakes up.
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He realizes nobody else is in the room,
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and he looks up and, you know,
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and somebody just yells from the next classroom over,
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you missed the rapture.
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Like, you missed it.
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You got left behind.
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That's what happened to this church.
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Somebody had come in and said,
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you missed the whole thing.
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Jesus came back.
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He took his people,
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and you're still here.
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So let me just enlighten you.
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That's the point of this passage.
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Verse three.
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Let no one deceive you
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in any way.
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That day will not come
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unless the rebellion comes first,
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and the man of lawlessness,
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the man of sin,
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the man of sinful rebellion,
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is revealed,
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the son of destruction,
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who opposes and exalts himself
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against every so-called God
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or object of worship,
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so that he takes a seat in the temple of God,
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proclaiming himself to be God.
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This is clearly the antichrist.
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Do you not remember that when I was still with you,
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I told you these things,
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and you know what is restraining him now
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so that he may be revealed in his time?
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This is interesting.
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Paul says there is a restraining force against him.
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The antichrist will be revealed,
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but for now something is holding him at bay.
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In verse seven,
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for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
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Only he,
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okay, so apparently that's restraining force as a person,
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only he who now restrains it
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will do so until he is out of the way,
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and then the lawless one will be revealed,
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whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth
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and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming.
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And I believe that's Revelation 19.
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So what is keeping this man of lawlessness,
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the antichrist at bay?
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There is this restraining force.
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Now you can, you guys, there is unlimited articles,
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unlimited dissertations, unlimited books, commentaries,
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whatever, different ideas, different opinions.
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Like I said, as long as you're holding
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to the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can all be friends.
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But let me tell you what I think this means.
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In my opinion, the restraining force against the antichrist
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is the Holy Spirit of God.
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The Holy Spirit is holding the antichrist at bay.
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And more specifically, even than that,
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it is the presence of the Holy Spirit
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in every individual believer,
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the indwelling Holy Spirit in all of us, you and I.
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The church has a sanctifying influence on its culture,
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but also has this restraining force against the antichrist.
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There will be a day when that sanctifying force,
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that restraining force against the antichrist
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will suddenly be taken away,
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where the Holy Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God,
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residing in all believers, will suddenly be gone.
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You might even say in the twinkling of an eye, right?
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I believe that to be the rapture.
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The rapture will happen.
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Suddenly, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit
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is gone on earth, and the man of lawlessness,
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the antichrist, will use that as a platform
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to unleash his unholy kingdom upon mankind.
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All of that, I believe, will one day happen.
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I don't think it's already happened.
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You can find commentaries who think
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that it was Paul, the restraining force,
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and once he was executed, that Nero was the antichrist.
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You can find all of these other things.
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I think they're wrong.
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The antichrist will one day be revealed,
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but that doesn't mean he's not already at work.
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The spirit of the antichrist is already very much prevalent.
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It is actively working to corrode the spiritual kingdom
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which Christ came to establish.
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Look with me at 1 John, just a couple of verses over.
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over. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 22, who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ,
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this is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. Look at chapter 4 and verse 3,
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every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the Antichrist.
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Go one more page to the right, 2 John and verse 7, for many deceivers have gone out into the world,
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those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, such a one is the deceiver
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and the Antichrist. The Antichrist is coming, but also anyone who preaches
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an aberrant view of Christ is also the Antichrist. The enemy uses such a one
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to spout his false gospel, to deceive as many as he can.
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And Jesus referring to these same events in the end time says,
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this is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son, this is the Antichrist,
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Mark 13, if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ or look, there he is, do not believe it
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for false Christ, there they are, the Antichrist and false prophets will arise and perform signs
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and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Here is this morning's art installment
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from Luca Signorelli, he's on display at a church very high up, right? So this is a picture of his
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work, and it displays the power, the influence, the deeds of the Antichrist
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and the Antichrist. Notice there are all these little factions and fighting and, you know, just
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strife and discord all over the place. And notice here, right in the center on this platform, there
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is this weird looking Christ, right? Being held up, propped up by the devil himself. There is the
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Antichrist whispering into his ear to spread this false gospel. If you were to zoom in on that piece
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and it's kind of creepy, but there it is, right? There will be a day when the enemy of our souls
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props up a false Christ. I believe that day is really coming. So let's look at that.
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He will prop up this false Messiah. He will fake a resurrection. He will deceive the nations.
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He will declare himself to be God on earth. But don't miss what John is saying here.
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He says that's already happening. Every time a false gospel is preached and believed upon,
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the spirit of the Antichrist is already at work. Which leads us to question number five.
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How do we combat the spirit of the Antichrist? What do we do?
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How do we get in the game? How do we go to war? How do we combat those false gospels?
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There is a two-pronged strategy for combating false gospels and the Antichrist. And honestly,
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we have to do both. Two things. Number one, believe the true gospel.
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Know what you believe and then believe it. And you may say, well, I've already done that.
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I've already believed the gospel. Do I need to keep dwelling upon the gospel if I've already
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been doing it? No, you don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't. You don't.
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Have you been saved by the gospel? The answer is yes.
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1 Corinthians 15 and verse 13 says that the gospel is of first importance.
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In other words, nothing is more important in the life of the church
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and in the lives of its members than the gospel.
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C.J. Mahaney in The Cross-Centered Life said it this way, if there's anything in life that we
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should be passionate about, it is the gospel. And I don't mean just passionate
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about sharing it with others.
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I know I'm supposed to be passionate about the gospel.
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I know I'm supposed to share the gospel with my friends,
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my coworkers, whatever.
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He says, that's not what I mean.
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I mean we've got to be passionate
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about thinking about the gospel,
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dwelling upon the gospel, rejoicing in the gospel,
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allowing the gospel to color the way
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that we look at the world.
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Milton Vincent, in his book,
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Gospel Primer for Christians, says it this way,
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that God did not give us his gospel
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just so we could embrace it and be converted.
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He didn't give us the gospel just so you could be saved.
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That is one reason.
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Actually, he offers the gospel to us every day
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as a gift that keeps on giving to us
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everything we need for life and godliness.
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Another author says, the gospel isn't one class among many
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that you'll attend during your life as a Christian.
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It's like Gospel 101, Systematics,
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Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey.
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The gospel's just one class among many.
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He says, rather, the gospel is the building
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that all of the classes are taking place in.
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You rightly approach.
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All the topics you'll ever study and focus on as a believer
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will be offered to you within the walls
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of the glorious gospel.
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So what is the true gospel?
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You ever sit down and practice articulating the gospel?
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Do you ever do that?
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Or maybe around your dinner table with your kids.
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Do this tonight.
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Ask them, do you believe the gospel?
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They will say, yes.
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And you say, what is the gospel?
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And there will be crickets.
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Crickets.
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Crickets.
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The gospel means knowing which answers to say yes to.
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Do you believe that Jesus is God, very God,
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and was sent to, you know,
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and you give the whole gospel to them,
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and they say yes,
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and as long as they say yes at the right time, believer.
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Right?
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And certainly making affirmations of faith is important.
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Of course it is.
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Professions of faith are important.
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Of course they are.
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But do you ever practice teaching them
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how to share the gospel,
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making sure that what the gospel they understand
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is the glorious and eternal gospel?
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You know, the word gospel comes from the old English,
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good spell, it just means good news.
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In the Greek, it's the word euangelion,
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you meaning good,
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angelion, announcement, good announcement.
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It's where we get the word evangelism.
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The gospel is both the story of Jesus Christ,
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Mark 1.1 says the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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It is also the message which Jesus and his followers preached.
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Matthew 4.23, he went throughout all Galilee,
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teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the gospel.
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The gospel of the kingdom.
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It's the same message which Hebrews 10.23
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commands the church to grip tightly.
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It says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope
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without wavering.
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And although there are a lot of ways
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to summarize the gospel,
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there are a whole lot of theological truths
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which could be included.
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I think the essentials boil down to four.
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Four essentials of the true gospel.
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They are God, mankind, Jesus, and response.
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I appreciated Mark Dever's gospel summary
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in his book, Deliberate Church.
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I'm gonna use it this morning.
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He said it this way.
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He said, God is our holy creator and righteous judge.
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He created us to glorify him and enjoy him forever.
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But mankind has rebelled against God
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by sinning against his holy character and law.
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We've all participated in this sinful rebellion,
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both in Adam as our representative head,
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but also in our own individual actions.
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As a result, we've alienated ourselves from God.
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We have exposed ourselves to his righteous wrath,
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wrath which will banish us eternally to hell
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if we're not forgiven.
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But God sent Jesus, both fully God and fully man,
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to die the death that we deserve for our sins,
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the righteous for the unrighteous,
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so that God might both punish our sin in Christ
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and forgive it in us.
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The only saving response to this good news
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is repentance and belief.
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We must repent of our sins,
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which means turn from them into God,
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and believe in Jesus Christ,
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both for forgiveness of our sins and reconciliation to God.
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God, mankind, Jesus, and response.
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And in order to combat the spirit of the antichrist,
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all of those false gospels,
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we've got to believe the true gospel.
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That's the first step to the strategy.
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The second is this.
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We also have to stand against every false gospel.
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In Galatians chapter one and verse six,
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the apostle Paul said to the churches at Galatia,
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I am astonished that you are so quickly
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abandoning the gospel you've heard
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and are turning to another gospel,
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which is really no gospel at all.
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I am blown away, he says,
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that you've turned from the good news
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to a different good news,
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which isn't even good news.
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I can't believe it.
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How could you turn from the good news
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to another good news, which is bad news?
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Only the Lord knows how many false gospels there are,
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but here are a few,
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which I think are prevalent in modern Colorado.
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I'll bet you run into them every single day.
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I'm not gonna cover the cults.
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Honestly, the differences in their gospels
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compared to ours aren't even subtle.
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I'm assuming you're already aware of those.
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If someone comes and knocks on your door
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preaching that Jesus and Lucifer are brothers,
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I'm assuming you know to close the door.
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Here are some, though, equally dangerous,
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which are a lot more devious.
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They're being embraced by thousands.
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And honestly,
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if we aren't careful,
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they'll try to hijack our jukebox.
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They'll try to change the message of the church.
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I wanna give credit here to Steve Madden
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at Southeastern Seminary for these ideas,
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but listen to some of these false gospels, okay?
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First, the prosperity gospel.
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It can also be called the word of faith movement.
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It teaches that Jesus is a means
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to health, wealth, and prosperity,
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as opposed to a savior who reconciles us to God.
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The phrase you'll hear is just have faith,
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and you can have your best life now.
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In fact, they might even write a book about it.
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Jesus is mentioned frequently.
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The scriptures are often quoted,
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but the prosperity gospel is nothing more
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than an act of insurrection.
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It's an attempt to dethrone Jesus and enthrone mankind.
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It is the public proclamation
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that a suffering servant is not the king we want.
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It's the act of attempt to fill the throne
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with our own desires for power and status.
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And to minimize the promises of eternal reward
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by demanding those rewards now.
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Let me ask you this, church.
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Are we promised, are we promised eternal health?
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Are we not?
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Maybe you haven't read to the end.
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Yeah, read Revelation 21.
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It's gonna be good.
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You're actually promised eternal health.
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Are you promised eternal riches?
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Yes.
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Read the book of Ephesians.
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Yes, riches and reward await those who are in Christ Jesus.
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The question is, are you promised those things now?
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No, and that's the difference.
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The prosperity gospel assumes that the promises
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which are meant for then apply to us now.
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And so starts making those demands now.
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What is promised to us in eternity, they want today.
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And it's a dangerous gospel.
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The second one, I'm gonna call the personal gospel.
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You can call this the self-help gospel,
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the unity at all costs gospel,
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my own happiness at all costs gospel.
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You can call it the me first movement.
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The central fallacy in the self-help gospel
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is that the gospel is about you.
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Self-help preaching tends to look more like
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a motivational speech than it does a proclamation
34:06
of the word of God.
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And just like the prosperity gospel,
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messages are sometimes, have Bible references.
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The name of Jesus is certainly used.
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However, the focal point of the message will not be the son of God.
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It will be you.
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I get the appeal.
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Who doesn't wanna hear a message about me?
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A message about how I can become a better person.
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I can be more productive.
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I can defeat my Goliaths.
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I can part my Red Seas.
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The self-help gospel is running rampant in our churches,
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promoting the ability of self,
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all the while using the name of Jesus.
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Ultimately, the focal point of that message will fall
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on how you feel, how you feel about yourself.
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How you think, how you act.
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And not to say that feelings aren't important
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or that thoughts and actions aren't important.
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Of course they are.
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But when these things become the primary emphasis,
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we're no longer making disciples of Jesus.
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We're peddling a form of religious therapy.
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And preaching a message that cultivates a me-centered church
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rather than a Christ-centered church.
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Beware the personal gospel.
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Third one, and most dangerous,
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and honestly the one I'm most attracted to.
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I'm gonna call the political gospel.
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This one is really subtle.
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Because it really just boils down
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to where a Christian places their hope.
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Either in this life or in the next.
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It borrows language from the scriptures, certainly.
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God bless America.
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In God we trust.
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It will proclaim Jesus is Lord, absolutely.
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But at the same time, functionally speaking,
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the political gospel puts its hope
35:40
in political parties and candidates.
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The political gospel is simply a confusing,
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confusing of Christianity and conservatism.
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So it will say things like this.
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We are calling for a return to an America of old.
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An America of shared Christian values.
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To the America of our founding fathers.
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And honestly, to be clear, it's okay to want those things.
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I want those things.
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In fact, I voted for all of those things.
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That's what I want.
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I want that too.
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But don't mistake this, friends.
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Jesus didn't come to save America.
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That's not why he came.
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He didn't come to reestablish America.
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That's not why he came.
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And certainly those desires can be good things.
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Christian values, shared morality, all of those things.
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Yes, of course, we want what is moral and right and good
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and that which will bring light not only to our own nation,
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but light across the nations.
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We want those things, but let us not confuse the two.
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We want those things.
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Christianity and conservatism are two different things.
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And that's not to say that they don't have some blurred lines,
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but listen, they only have blurred lines from within.
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And what I mean by that is those who don't agree
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with those same values will oftentimes look at us
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and be unable to distinguish the difference.
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They would ask the question, which do you care more about?
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Christ or conservatism?
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Because you're giving them equal time.
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Does that make sense?
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It's subtle.
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Beloved church, it is the last hour.
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And so let us endeavor to live as though Christ is ever
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at our front doors.
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And the next time we pray, come Lord Jesus,
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maybe let's also include the words,
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but save just one more before you do.
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Let us hold fast to the true gospel,
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knowing that any other gospel is an attempt
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to steal the church's God-given message,
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to hijack our jukebox.
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Lord, thank you for your word.
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That is our prayer.
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Which speaks clearly and directly to us.
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And God, I pray that we would be alert.
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I pray that we would stay awake,
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just as Jesus commanded us to do.
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Knowing that you could come back at any time.
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Lord, we long for that day.
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But Lord, we also trust your sovereign will.
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And so if it is not today, we trust that it'll be tomorrow.
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And if it's not tomorrow, the next day is okay.
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Lord, give us the strength to endure as long as you, Terry.
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Notice, knowing that your purposes will be fulfilled.
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You break, you'll heal, then you'll be healed.
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and knowing that your intention is to seek and to save the lost of which we were one.
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God, thank you for the true gospel. I pray that we would live in it and according to it in Jesus' name. Amen.