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Clarifying "Sound Bites" in 1 Peter · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to look at 1 Peter chapter 4.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a reason that I want to look at this.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: This will help us in a lot of ways.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: It'll help us with our with our confidence in God.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: It'll help us with our certainly of our understanding of scriptures.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, most of us are pretty much aware that in society, well, the media today, we get most of our news and sound bites.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: And really, I think a lot of reason that there's so many people angry at each other socially and politically is because of news sound bites.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can take, in other words, you can take one sentence that somebody says and make another picture out of it that's not even in the context of what they said.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: This happens all the time.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they they'll use it and they can make it look like something that the person wasn't even talking about.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what happens with scripture.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is why so many scriptures are confusing.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is why there's so much division of doctrine, honestly, because of not rightly dividing the word of truth, of people taking sound bites.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: They'll take a passage of Scripture and it'll become either a whole doctrine or a big part of doctrine.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I get questions from people all the time.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And many of these questions come from this book of 1 Peter.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And uh in fact, we see one right here in 1 Peter chapter 4.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I want to say this about the sound bites.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be, if you if you don't take the word in just sound bites, if you take it as the word to us, in other words, when you look at these words that have been that have been written, some of them were letters to other Christians, some of them were prophetic images, some of them we know the gospels were historical accounts of things that were going on that happened.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um when we look at the context, when we look at the when, the where, the why, the who, the sound bites disappear and you get the real picture.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, when you watch the news and you'll hear somebody give a soundbite and you think, oh, that was horrible.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: But then you've got to go to YouTube and watch the whole video and see, oh, they weren't talking about that at all.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it is with the Bible so much of the time.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so we have an example right here that I want to take off on in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 18.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we read this, how many believe that when you are born again, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: You are a child of God.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: You are radically saved, you become righteous, you become holy, you become perfected in Him, you become unblemished, you're a new creation, you become righteous.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And here in verse 418, Peter makes this statement that people have had trouble with, and they ask me about.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, then where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: If the righteous are scarcely saved, some Bibles will say, if the righteous are barely saved, barely saved.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or some Bibles will say, if it's hard for the righteous to even be saved.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is where people get things like, you ever heard people talk about people making it to heaven by the skin of their teeth?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some people just barely slipped in.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's verses like this that make it look like that.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they could use that verse and say, see, it says right there, they can sit here and debate with you.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you can say, no, I don't believe that.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll point you at that scripture and he says, the righteous are barely saved.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So in other words, and then what they'll do is they'll create a bigger picture and they'll say, what that means is, is that since you are saved, you did become the righteous of God.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: But but even the righteous are scarcely saved.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, a lot of the righteous won't even make it, is what it sounds like.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: So then it, so then it takes us to, so if we want to be one of those righteous that are saved, that do make it, then we better try harder.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: We better work at this, we better be a better Christian, we better be one of the good ones.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So St.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Peter will let us in.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: If the righteous are scarcely saved.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But Peter said it.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's Bible, and if it's in the Bible, I believe it.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Do you?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a soundbite.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole video here to look at.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at the whole video, he's not talking about you barely making it to heaven.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: But you can take a soundbite and see that's what Peter's preaching to us.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: So what is he saying?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: You want to look at the whole video?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, run the tape.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Go back to chapter one.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to know the context gives us all the understanding in the world of the scriptures.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you the context because it's not spelled out.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: You have to know it.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of it's in there.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to know what was going on.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Peter was a real man, he was a real live in a time in a real time.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: He died in the year 68.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: We know that.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Scholars tell us, and I believe it, that this letter was probably written in about 67 or very close to that because he says a couple of things.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: He'll say things like, I'm now ready to be offered up.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: The end of my time is near, even as the Lord showed to me, that he was about to die and he knew it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says there's other scriptures in here that are also hard.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I want to look at this as an example of this.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's other scriptures that say things like, After you've suffered a while, God will perfect you.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a soundbite.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So what does that create?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going to create a doctrine from that, what's the doctrine?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: That the way that you're perfected is God putting you through suffering.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: But that can't be true because if that's the way it was, then Jesus doesn't need to come.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: He'll just make us suffer and we'll get there.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a soundbite.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: He said it.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I can prove it.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's right there on video.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Can't say he didn't say it, he did.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Another one, he says, he says that he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to cease from sin, so let me suffer, Lord.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the doctrine you would build out of that.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And many people have and do.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I've got friends that hold that doctrine simply because of that sound bite.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, that's not that's not how it is.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And they point me to the to the video and they say, look right there.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said it with his own lips.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: But they're not watching the whole speech.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the whole speech.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Peter's writing a letter in the year 67.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: There there is much persecution of Christians coming.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nero went to war on Christians in the year 64.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Nero was crazy.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like a lot of them were.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: He came after Caligula, who was the craziest of all.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Literally, literally insane.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Nero is pretty close to him.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Rome, there was a great fire in Rome.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: It burned the city, burned much of the city down.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And many say that Nero actually did it.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And uh did nothing to stop it.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's why you hear the phrase, you know, Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's angry at Nero, so he blames it all on the Christians.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, These Christians have done it.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now the Christians have spread.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: This gospel has been preached throughout the whole Roman Empire, and there's things.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, Paul wrote a letter one time, and at the end of it he says, he says, and and the saints in Caesar's house salute you.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, right there, all the way in Caesar's household, there's the housekeeper making the bed saying, and this is the day the Lord has made, you know.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this thing has spread.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so history shows us, history tells us that Nero blamed it all on the Christians.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: So the Rome, so the Romans would all get behind him and they would go to war against the Christians.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And they went to persecuting the Christians, crucifying them.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's when we see them all beginning to, they would take them and burn them at the stake.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: They would put them in the gladiator pens to fight.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: They would mock them, they would cover them in animal skins, and they would chase them with dogs, and they would do all these horrible things.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And people were enjoying the mockery of these evil Christians who had come up against Rome and were burned and had burned our city.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so we know before that that they were getting persecution from the Jews.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Christians called it persecution, the Jews called it discipline.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Jews didn't differentiate.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: These were just, these, the Christians to them, they were just Jews who had a wrong doctrine.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: So they saw it as discipline.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's why they felt that they had the right to do all these things, to beat these people and to throw them in prisons and things, because they were simply heretics of the faith.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, so that had been going on also.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: And now you got the Romans coming down and doing all these horrible things, and there's much killing, there's much martyrdom, they're beating these Christians, and all this is going on, and the Christians are they're all being holed up and everything, and they're all they're all here.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: They are believers in Jesus, and it's like this is not supposed to be happening here.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: His yoke is easy, his burden is light.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And all this suffering is happening.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Christians are suffering.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Paul addresses, I mean, excuse me, Peter addresses it.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And he's encouraging them in this letter how to deal with this.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a horrible time, but he says, here's how we deal with it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So we look at 1 Peter chapter 1 in verse 5, and he says that you are kept by the, and I'm, and of course, we can't read every verse, we don't have time to do that, but we'll highlight.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: A salvation, a deliverance that's coming.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you're grieved by these various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now remember that term.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: The word revelation is apocalypso, which means the appearance, the coming, the manifestation.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here it literally means the coming.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Last verse, verse 13.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, So therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope completely on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation or the coming of Jesus Christ.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So he's already given them a clue here.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's saying, He's saying, this is not going to last.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is what's going on, is not going to last because there's a coming of Jesus.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, oh, there's so much in this.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna I won't be able to get it all into this, but what another thing that we do is we take these scriptures of the coming and we look at them in the light of our the light or the darkness of our ignorance.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: What I want to do with this is really make us sharp, just get just just show you the whole thing and show you what's really going on, because there was a coming that was spoken of.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: I could go to the book of Joel, chapter 2.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I hope I have time, wish I did.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Malachi chapter 4, I can go to the book of 2 Peter and talk over and Matthew 23 and 24, Revelation 18.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I can show you that these things, that there was a coming, there was a judgment, there was this thing that Malachi called the coming of the day of the Lord that will burn like fire.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Joel talked about it.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: There shall be there shall be blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this war that Nero declared upon the Christians, so to speak, started in 64 and didn't end until August 30th of 70 A.D.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: It started in March of 70s, where it uh the end of the end of this whole thing came, that this end that Peter was telling them is coming.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it did come in the year 70.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: It came a couple of years later, uh, two or three years later, or after Peter wrote this.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he told him, he said, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming soon.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: This won't last.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And all this trouble that they were in, it all ended in 70 A.D.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: with this magnanimous event, one of the biggest events ever on planet Earth, besides the flood of Noah, the birth of Jesus, and then this destruction of Jerusalem that happened in 70 A.D.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was spoken of so often, it was promised.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: The prophets spoke of it, they looked at it, they looked at this coming, this burning.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: You ever wonder about why he talked about this day of the Lord comes burning like an oven?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: Said, all those who do wickedly, they will be ashes under the soles of your feet.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: There will be signs in the earth, in the heaven, there will be blood and fire and vapor of smoke, and vapor of smoke.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, anyway, what happened was that they that that in March of 70 A.D., Titus, the Roman general, came and besieged the city of Jerusalem.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because not only were they persecuting Christians, but there was now a war.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's actually called in history the Jewish-Roman War.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Jews rose up and revolted.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: They had a few leaders, in fact, about three main leaders that came up, three different sects.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: They had created the Judean free government, and they had their own armies.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: They had tens of thousands of people in their armies to come and fight against Rome.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: This was just one faction.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Almost like if you know what's going on in Syria, which very few of us do, but we know that there's a lot of factions fighting for each other.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just one against one.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's this one wants control, that one wants control, that one wants control.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's what was going on in Judea.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: So we had a guy named John of Giscalah who was leading the Judean Free Army.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Then we had the zealots.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: We had the zealots who they wanted to control the thing, and they were more passionate about the old Orthodoxy Judaism than anybody else.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: And they were led by Eliezer ben Simon.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Then there was another group led by a man named Simon ben Giora.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: You had these three factions, and they and they and they were all rising up together to fight against the Romans.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they they had come and they had killed some Romans, they were attacking Roman outposts and all things.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So Rome came down on Jerusalem real hard, and General Titus besieged the city, surrounded the city with tens and tens and tens and tens and tens of thousands of troops.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they started three days before the Passover.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: When all of these Jews from all these other countries had all come to this one city, Jerusalem.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they surrounded that city.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And nothing, no one could get out, and no one could get in.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty soon they're starving in there.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Weird things were going on in there.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: If we could take the time, I could show you in the Revelation where he says the great city was divided into three parts.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: These three leaders began fighting each other.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: There was actually while while the Roman army was surrounded them for months, from March to August.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: It got so bad their love waxed cold.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: They started hating one another.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Father and mother turned against each other, against son and daughter, and all this stuff.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: History records.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Flavius Josephus writes it, and he was there.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: He was actually one of the negotiators for Titus.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he got wounded in this battle.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he records that mothers were eating their own sons.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: They lost their natural affection.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: They started fighting each other within that city.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: John of Giscalah murdered one of the other leaders, Eliezer Ben Simon.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: All this fighting is going on inside there.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, Titus and they've been fighting.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, they're trying to hold off the Romans.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're using battery rams.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're breaking down the walls and trying, they're running, they're doing all these things are going on at the same time.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, on August 30th, they overtake it.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: And they come in and they start setting fire to things.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: History says that Titus really didn't want to destroy the temple.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to make it a Roman temple, but it all caught on fire and it all burned.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: There was blood, there was fire.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: The writings of Flavius Josephus say that blood was flowing like a river, so that it just flowed, it just ran from sanctuary, just blood and the fire and the smoke, and you couldn't see the sky.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Couldn't see the sun or the moon.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: The sky, the sun became as black as sackcloth.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the moon became red.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said in Matthew 24, says, or excuse me, in Malachi 4, the Bible says, that the day is coming, there was not, there will not be a day like it, nor will there nor will there ever be after it.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's not been a day like it, nor will there ever be after it.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And history shows that it wasn't.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Josephus wrote that over one million Jews died in that one moment, in that one day, when they tore down Jerusalem and burned it to the ground.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: Temple and all.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: They were all holed up in there from all these other nations.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: They killed over one million innocents, besides the thousands, these were not the thousands of soldiers.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: 97,000 soldiers were carried away, much many more of them were killed, but but over over one million, just women, children, old men, non-combatants were killed Jews.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's never been a day like it, and there never will be before be after.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hitler killed more than that, but it was over a much longer period of time.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's never been this many people, Jews, especially, killed in one day.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And it was prophesied that it would happen.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that was but then when that happened, Josephus also recorded this, and he wasn't a Christian.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: He was a Roman citizen.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Josephus recorded that not one Christian died that day.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Not one believer in Jesus died.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And there were reasons for that.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, go with me to the book of Matthew, chapter 24.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: Before we look at Peter anymore, go with me to Matthew chapter 24.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh in fact, go to go to chapter 23, the very end of chapter 23.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're probably just going to have to divide this into two parts.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now in other words, a lot of this that we're looking to come is going up.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: It has happened.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: I can show you very plainly.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: See, and this is one of the reasons you don't have to fear.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, we're not looking to a future judgment.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said, Now the judgment has come, he was talking about something very, very specific.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist said, when they came, when even the Pharisees came to his baptism, he said, You generation of vipers, who's warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because a wrath was coming.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: It was prophesied by the Old Testament saints.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, this they were all talking to the Jews, and Jesus ministered only to the Jewish nation.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And here in Matthew 23, he says, he's lamenting Jerusalem.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: And he's talking about how they're the ones that spill all the blood of the prophets.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh he goes on, he says, verse 33, you serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's a whole other thing.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: That word hell is Gehenna.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know what they did that day with all those bodies of Jews, those millions, over a million people?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: They burned them in the fire of Gehenna, the valley of Gehenna, which is on the east side of Jerusalem.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Consumed them.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: How are you going to escape that fire?
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did they die in the fire, but they were consumed and burned in that trash dump called Gehenna.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, I send you wise men and scribes, and some of them you're going to kill and crucify.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Not just talking about Old Testament people.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: New Testament people came.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: After the day of Pentecost, people were saved.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: They went out preaching.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: What did Jerusalem do?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: What did the religious leaders of the Jews do?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: They killed them.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Have them crucified.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Had the Lord himself crucified.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them you're going to scourge them in your synagogues.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Talking about the Jewish people here.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have them beaten right there in your synagogues.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: To the Jews, it was just discipline.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: They were preaching something wrong.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: They were disciplining them so that they wouldn't mess up things.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to persecute them from city to city.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: So that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel to Zachariah, to Barekiah, whom you murder between the temple and the altar.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: I say unto you, all these things will come on this generation.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And stones, and you stoned those that are sent to you.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: What did they do to Stephen?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Stoned him.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: They tried to stone Jesus.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: They did stone Paul also.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: He happened to live through that one.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, How often I wanted to gather your children together like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Look, your house is left to you desolate.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: For I say to you that you will see me no more.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Until you say, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Your house shall be left desolate.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what happened that day.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was such a magnanimous event.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: What really happened, the Jewish religion for every intent and purpose was destroyed once and for all.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know there's a Jewish religion, but it's not what that was.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's a nice little teaching thing that they do now.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's no temple worship, there's no altar, there's no all those sacraments and all those things that go.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have the worship.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're not doing what they were doing all throughout the Old Testament ritualistic law.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Up until 70 A.D., they never recovered.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: The temple had never been built, and I'll tell you something else, it never will.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because a new one was made.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: He said, That house will be left desolate.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: Why do people think he's going to build another temple?
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because he promised he would, but he did.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, now, look at verse 1.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: So then, immediately after Jesus makes this speech, saying, Come on, Jerusalem, I've tried.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is why he went around preaching to them for all these three and a half years.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I tried.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to gather you together, but you wouldn't do it.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: You opposed me.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: He said, And your house is left desolate.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: He was trying to save them from what was about to happen.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: Something that God promised in Malachi and Joel and Isaiah and all these other prophetic books, that this day, this great and terrible day of the Lord, would come burning like an oven and would leave not stone or anything.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, and for verse 1 says, and Jesus went out and departed from the temple.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: And his disciples came to show him these buildings of the temple.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now this was almost a brand new thing.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: This thing, this temple of Herod had just been finished, and it was grander than anything.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Not only did it have the temple itself, that house of worship with the inner court, outer court, holy of holies, but he added all these other courtyards and he made it so big that he actually expanded the temple mount.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: He had to fill in where the old temple stood on top of that mountain.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: He had to make the top of that mountain so much bigger and make it like a city in itself, and built these walls around that whole thing and filled it all in with the ground.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: What they call the Western Wall now is not a temple wall, it's the outer wall that Herod built to hold the earth that could hold this bigger complex is what it really was.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Do you see that's why they said the buildings of the temple?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: There were many buildings in this complex.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just one building.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Do you see these things?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Surely I say to you, there's not going to be one stone left here upon another that shall not be thrown down.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Archaeologists were amazed when they found the walls of the city.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: They said they were so level with the ground.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Without history, you wouldn't know that there was a city there.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Desolate.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: Josephus wrote about it when he could when he just described this bloodshed and all this stuff.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, it was such a garden before olive trees and these beautiful, it was such a beautiful city.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: And to watch what happened to it was horrendous.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 3.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came privately and said, Well, tell us, when will these things be?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now Jesus just told me, He says, This whole thing's coming down.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now here's these Jews.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Malachi said, The day's gonna come, the day of judgment's gonna come, burning like an oven.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Who can stand when the Lord appears?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who can stand?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's not gonna leave root nor branch.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: What did he do with that whole thing?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: There's not root nor branch.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: It never has recovered.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's nothing left.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: No temple worship.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: No sacrifices.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: None of the things that they had did before, that they had, they trusted in.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: No sacrifices?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: How are their sins going to be?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because they became something else.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: They just began to teach just be good.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just be good.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, is their teaching.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: No more of the stuff that they that was all laid out for them in the Old Testament.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: There's not root nor branch left.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're nothing like they were.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so he tells them it's all gonna come down.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so they pull them aside and they say, When are these things gonna happen?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: What's gonna be the sign of your coming?
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And they're talking about the coming that was promised that was going to burn the whole thing.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because there was going to be a coming.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: That event was called the coming of the day of the Lord.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, there's so much in this.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: When Peter talked about it, he said, the day's coming, he says, when the elements are going to burn with a fervent heat.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And with that we look, he says, and the heavens will be dissolved.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: And that heaven means the literal word, it means the dwelling place of God.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: That was a temple.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it will be dissolved.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and we look for a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what happened when that whole thing destroyed?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Not one Christian was killed.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because of what we're about to read right here.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: There was a reason that they weren't killed.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, So they said, When will these things be?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: What will be the sign of your coming?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: What will be the sign of the end of the age?
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because 70 AD ended that age once and for all.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: It would never show again.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: The axe was laid to the root of the tree.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: The wrath came, dissolved that whole ritualistic, carnal, that man's ordinances of law, the knowledge of good and evil, that all of that thing, and created a new heaven, new earth where righteousness dwells.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're in the this is what we reap, this is what we enjoy now, the righteousness of God in Christ to all who believe.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: A new heaven, a new earth.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Not rules, not laws, not works, righteousness, not anything.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: This whole gift, the whole new heaven, new earth, so to speak.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: A new temple.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: New temple, new dwelling place of God.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: The hearts of men.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: He says, so, but what will be the sign?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the end of the age, because that's what they were looking for.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: They were looking for when the Messiah came, he would end that an old age and begin the messianic age.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many things he says, but we can't read it all.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, verse 9.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, They're going to deliver you up to tribulation and they're going to kill you.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: And you're going to be hated by all nations for my name's sake, not just the Jews, but the Roman Empire.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Romans got the Syrian army, they got all the armies under their empire that were in that region to help them to fight against these Jews.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then many will be offended, and they will betray one another, and they're going to hate one another.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's what happened in the city.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when you read 1 Peter, what does he tell them about while they're going through these things?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: When he says, after you've suffered a while, you'll be perfected and established.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: What's he saying?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says, he's telling them, hang on, hold on, see that you love one another fervently.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go back into carnality.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go back into fleshly carnality.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, see that you love one another earnestly.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what happened within the city with the with the Jews that were all there?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: They were all fighting each other.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Many will be offended, and many will betray one another, and they will hate one another.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what was going on in the city.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Killing each other.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: And many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: But he that endures to the end shall be saved.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is what Peter was exhorting them.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on, establish your hearts, he would say, and hope to the end for that deliverance that's going to be revealed.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on, church, he's saying, because they're like everything's coming down on us.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: He says, it's not going to last.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: The end of all things is near, he says.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the end of the world.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: The world hadn't ended yet, 2,000 years later.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: What are you talking about?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: The end of those things that were going on.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but he that endures to the end.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: All these things that are coming, he said, but but stay, stay strong, establish your hearts in me.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: See that you love one another fervently.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Hope with the faith and the grace that God gives you.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter says in this book.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be able to read it here.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to just show you everything that Peter said about it.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 14, we'll find out.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: He says, And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, while we can apply things, I mean we can apply things to our day.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: These principles of things can be applied.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let's also be aware that there was a literal thing going on.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: That gospel went to all the world, so to speak.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: The whole empire, every all the region around.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then Nero and the Romans came and began to attack as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: The end of the aid.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: When will the end that God spoke of throughout the prophets in the Old Testament that came in that historical event?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: What they were looking for, they knew it was coming, and Jesus would talk so much about it and say, it's coming.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what it looks like.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore, verse 15, when you see the abomination of desolation, what happened?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: The house was left desolate.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you see that, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in that holy place, whoever lets it, whoever reads, let him understand.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: Let him that's on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let him who's in the field not go back to pack his clothes.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because he says, When you see that, the Romans are coming.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't say the Romans.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody mentioned the Romans in Malachi.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: He called it, God called it his great army from the north.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, When you see these things coming, he's warning the Christians.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: When you see these teeth, he said, if you're in the house, don't go down and pack a suitcase.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Run.
• 32:21
  unknown: Why?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because they're going to destroy the whole city.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: Run, get out of there.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Come out of her.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Flee, that you will not be a partaker of her plagues, he says in Revelation.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: He says, He says, if you're in the field, don't go back in the house.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: Run.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: But woe to those who are pregnant, nursing babies.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's going to be harder for you.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: He hopes you're not.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't know the day or the hour.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because in fact, he says, and pray that your flight be not in winter or the Sabbath.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus didn't know what season of the year it would be or what day it would come on.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, Pray that it's not that.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because if it's in the winter, it's going to be a lot harder.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: On the Sabbath, it's going to be harder for you.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it's not in winter.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: Pray that it not be winter.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're going to have to run.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing this?
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's warning them.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's going to be great tribulation.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: Such as not has been since the beginning of the world until this time, nor ever shall there be.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: And unless those days were short, no flesh would be saved.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: They all would have died.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the end came.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: But for the elect's sake, the Christians, the believers, those who know me, those who have believed what I've said, everybody that believed what Jesus said left and were saved.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Flavius Josephus says, not one Christian died that day.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because of these words right here.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because of these words.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's see if we can go back to Peter and see the encouragement.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the light of this, are y'all hearing anything?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: So he says.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: So now here's these people in that time.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem hasn't been destroyed yet.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: But the tribulation has come.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: The persecution has come.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Suffering is happening.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, verse 19, he says, For this is commendable if because of conscience toward God you endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 20, because what credit is it if you're beaten because of your faults, you'll take it patiently.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, he says, if you break the law and you get and you get punished, you get beaten for breaking the laws, you understand that.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: You'll take it.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know you got caught.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but when you do good and you're suffering, because it's what they were doing, all they were suffering was because they were Christians.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: They believed in Jesus.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: They would not renounce him, they would not denounce his name.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: They would not uh reject him in in spite of all these tribulation that was going on.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're suffering simply because of good.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: When you do good and you suffer, you take it patiently.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is commendable before God.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's encouraging the people.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I know it's hard, he says, but look at the good side of this.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Look, look, look what happens here.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For to this you were called, because watch this, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: Who, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: When he suffered, he didn't threaten, but he committed himself to the one who judges righteously.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, That's your example.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's not creating a doctrine that all of us Christians here today, that God's called us all just to suffer.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus came to the suffering and took the suffering and took the pain and took the shame and the death and all.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he took all of that upon upon himself.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we rejoice in now, why we can believe that and live that type of life.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: But they were suffering.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: They were in an instance where they were suffering.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there are Christians in this world that are suffering different things.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Not because there's a doctrine that we have to suffer, but that's what the world has brought on them.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are suffering, if you're in a country where they're persecuting Christians and you're getting beaten for your belief, and we've got great examples, even in modern days, that have done that.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: And they stood strong, and the glory of God rested upon them, and their life served as a trophy of God's grace and his goodness, and it preached to people.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it and those and there's testimonies of people, of people that were some of the firing squad people that watched the patience and the love and the courage and the faith of the people they were supposed to kill and couldn't kill them.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_00: When the Romans were put were burning us at the stake, feeding us to lions, they'd burn us at the stake.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: Justin says that we would we we that while we were burning at the stake in these Roman arenas, we would sing praises, and it drove the persecutors crazy.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Stephen was stoned, he just looked like an angel.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't revile again, he just said, I see the Lord.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Paul was watching this thing and it drove him crazy.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: He says, So if you're gonna have to suffer, if you're gonna suffer, suffer just like Jesus did.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hebrews 12 says, Consider him who knew no sin.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: Consider him who endured such a contradiction of sinners against himself, so that you don't be weary and faint in your minds.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter 3.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: Going down to verse 14.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, this is why Peter talks about suffering, not because Christians have to suffer to be perfected.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you're blessed.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: And don't be afraid of their threats.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be troubled.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: But just watch this.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Here's his encouragement.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: But just sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: And always be ready to give a reason to everyone who asked for a defense to everyone who asked for a reason of the hope that's in you with meekness and in fear.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you still so happy?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you still have such peace?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you still have such joy?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why are you singing?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've sanctified God in my heart.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I read stuff like this, we think we've got problems when in the light of this kind of stuff, we don't usually.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: The toughest things I've ever gone through, some of you know some of my tough things.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: The toughest things I've ever gone through, what did I do?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: I sanctified God in my heart.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: When my first wife died and my whole world was what did I do?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: I sanctified God in my heart.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: I stood up and I began to sing.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: I stood up with a faith and a love and a strength.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't get mad, I didn't get angry, I didn't get bitter.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: I sanctified God in my hearts and I stayed strong.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Come on.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we do.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it applies to us.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 16, having a good conscience.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: And when they defame you as an evildoer, those who revile your good conduct in Christ can be ashamed.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: For it's better if it's for the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the other things that he talks about that we don't look, we don't have time to look at a whole lot, was he would tell them, he was encouraging them, so don't go back into fleshly lust.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Don't the pressure's on.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're just like, what's going on?
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is it even any good to stand for Jesus?
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: Look what's happening to us.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but look what you got.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So don't go back into that.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go back into carnal lusts.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: Don't don't start hating each other.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let your love wax cold.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, the love of many would wax cold.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: See that you love fervently.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Stay there.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_00: Stay in it.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sanctify God in your heart.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your eye on Him.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 4.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 1.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind, for he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_00: I know I got a friend that wrote a whole book on that.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: Man, he took that verse at Soundbite and it made sense the way he spelled it.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's right there, right?
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm looking at that, and that and I was thinking, I believed it for a while.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: There was a time in my life, I believed this.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that the way to stop sinning is that you just go through a lot of suffering.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: I almost prayed for more suffering.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you almost want it.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: I know one woman who in the ministry, she she believed this so strong, she was deathly afraid that she would have to lose the worst, the things that she loved the most in order to become more holy.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: In order for God to refine her and to make him what he wanted her to be.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: We hear all that stupid talk.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we and and and and and she said, and she was afraid, and she said, Rick, I was afraid that I was going to lose my husband, that God was going to kill my husband and take him from me because I loved that man so much.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you get that?
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because she believed that I had to suffer in order to get better.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what he's saying.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: He's not creating a doctrine here.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: These are people suffering.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, remember, Christ suffered for us so simply.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're in this, keep this mind.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the same mind that he kept.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason that you're suffering in the flesh, he that has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: You're righteous.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're believing in him.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_00: You're not doing bad.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're not suffering as an evildoer.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're not suffering as a sinner here.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: You ceased from sin.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Don't go back into it.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, because we spent enough of our time in the past doing the will of the Gentiles when we used to walk in lewdness and lust and drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, abominable idolatries.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the end of all things is at hand.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: What's he telling the world's about to end?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: The end of the tribulation, the end of the persecution, the end of this whole suffering and all this.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's about over.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, be serious and watchful in your prayers.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: And above all things, have fervent love for one for another, because love will cover a multitude of sins.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: The Jews who rejected Jesus in the city, they didn't have this love.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Only those who have Jesus had that love.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: It got, when the stress got onto them, they fought each other.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: They were fighting over the food, they were fighting over leadership.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: They were fighting over who's the grave.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: They were fighting, fighting, and fighting.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: They had a literal, literal civil war, they called it.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Outside, all these Christians, he's telling them, keep the love.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: You got it.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Keep the love.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know there's offenses going on.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's pressure in this.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know you're going to blame each other for things.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: People aren't going to be, it's not going to be fair.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody's going to be eating more food than the other.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: All this stuff's going.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but love will cover a multitude of sins.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: You'll get through this that way.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: Are y'all here?
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 12.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, beloved, don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: But rejoice to the extent that you're partaking of Christ's sufferings, so that when his glory is revealed, you can be glad with exceeding joy.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: He said it's coming.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 15 But let none of you suffer like a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a busybody in other people's matters, because if anyone suffers as a Christian, don't be ashamed.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just glorify God in this matter.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, even in the book of Acts, they would they would take um uh Peter and uh the other guy, you know, they throw him in jail.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'd take them out and they say, okay, we'll let you go.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, but don't preach in in that name anymore.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: And they would beat them and send them out.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: And they'd just go out and keep preaching that name.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says, and they rejoice that they were worthy to be persecuted for Christ's sake.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, they must think we're pretty dangerous.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_00: They must think we're pretty good here.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, Lord, I'm glad that you're able to shine through me that way.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: They rejoiced.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: Let them glorify God in this matter.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 17, because the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: How many times did I used to preach that soundbite?
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1980s, I took that soundbite and I said, It's happening now.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: When Jim Baker and Jimmy Swagger, this is the time judgment beginning at the house of God.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: Then in 1990, something else happened.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now's the time that judgment in 2000.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now's the time.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: And all I was doing was taking a soundbite and trying to and making a different picture than what was going on here.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: What was he talking about?
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: A real one.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: A real judgment that had been prophesied on the house of Israel, on the Jewish religion, on the laws and the sacrifices and the burnt offerings and all that stuff, that whole system.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: He says, the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if it begins with us first, then what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God, those who rejected him, those who did not believe him?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says they, you know, they will be left desolate.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: So now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, in other words, if it's hard for you guys, and the salvation, he's not talking about, he's not saying you're barely going to make it to heaven.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about being saved from that situation.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: Huh?
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what he's talking about.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's not saying that you barely make it to heaven.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: He was saying you gotta endure to see the deliverance from this situation.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: But where will the ungodly and sinner appear?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: They were destroyed.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 19.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, let those that suffer according to the will of God, just because you're a Christian, just commit your soul to him as if he's a faithful creator.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: Commit your soul to him.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_00: You don't like it?
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's horrible.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: You see in the encouragement here?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: Get your strength from God.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: You got something special.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: You got something different.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, you guys, you're new creations.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are the righteous ones.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: You guys are the new Jerusalem.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: Remember this.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_00: We finish up in chapter 5.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 6.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: So therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that he may exalt you in due time.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: There again, the encouragement is simply hang on.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's coming.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to get good.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: Casting all your care on him because he does care for you.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it sure don't look like it.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm telling you, he does.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: And be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, goes around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: Resist him.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_00: Steadfast in the faith, knowing that these same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's going on in the other places where the Christians are.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're being persecuted too by Rome.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you've suffered a while, he will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's not saying you have to suffer to get there.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, but but you are suffering, and after you've done it, and he says, it's a little while.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: But he's just telling them of the hope that's coming.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: He said, He's going to establish you, he's going to perfect you, he's going to settle you, he's going to strengthen you.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it did happen.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: When they left, they were dispersed throughout not only the Roman Empire, to all the world, and it got to you and me.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: And while the Roman Empire no longer exists, the government of Jesus continues on.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: And of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: God has been faithful and always will be.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand up.