Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Let the Judgments Begin Msg 113 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Let the Judgments Begin Msg 113 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: For the sake of time, I think we'll forego the
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Speaker 1: scripture reading for the morning. We'll actually be doing a
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Speaker 1: bit of a review of our time in the Book
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Speaker 1: of the Revelation. So you can have your Bible open
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Speaker 1: to chapter one and scan that during our time of
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Speaker 1: the receiving of the offering, will you vow with me please?
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Speaker 1: It often takes moments like this our Father, to catch
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Speaker 1: us up short and to remind us of things eternal.
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Speaker 1: Our lives are spent in a busy world, hours in
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Speaker 1: a car, hours at our work, hours, engaged in activities
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Speaker 1: that seem NonStop, especially during this time of year, and
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Speaker 1: it takes a worship time such as we are currently
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Speaker 1: involved in to bring us back to things that matter,
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Speaker 1: things that are timeless, truths that are priceless, a life
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Speaker 1: that we worship and adore in the person of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Nothing around us is anything like he is, and the
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Speaker 1: life he offers is never a part of the media,
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Speaker 1: which is such an impact on us, more than we
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Speaker 1: even want to admit. So times like this become a
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Speaker 1: survival mode for so many, especially those in the throes
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Speaker 1: of decisions, trials, circumstances that have stunned them and paralyzed
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Speaker 1: them and the struggle of moving on into life. It
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Speaker 1: takes worship and the benefits of such to clear our
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Speaker 1: minds of the fog of the flesh and all of
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Speaker 1: its reactions. We are grateful our Father for the years
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Speaker 1: that pass that bring us to a place of grandparenting.
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Speaker 1: And today, on the day set aside for the honor
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Speaker 1: of them, we remember these women and men who play
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Speaker 1: such vital roles in the lives of their family. Slow
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Speaker 1: us down, we who are in this category, and remind
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Speaker 1: us anew of the value of our contribution and what
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Speaker 1: we can provide for those who were still trying to
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Speaker 1: find their way. Thank You for those children's parents and
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Speaker 1: for the roles they fill. Tough role role of financial
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Speaker 1: stress and anxiety and decisions and job insecurities and high
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Speaker 1: prices and pressures and moving and all that goes with
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Speaker 1: adulthood and parenting. Thank you for single parents today who
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Speaker 1: fight a lonely battle which only gets lonelier as life
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Speaker 1: moves faster. Thank you for the role of grandparenting in
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Speaker 1: those families especially. May we realize that you have left
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Speaker 1: us on this earth in many ways for that single purpose.
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Speaker 1: Thank You for your word that lives and abides. For
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Speaker 1: its timelessness, it's treasure. Thank you for preserving it and
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Speaker 1: for giving it to us in our own tongue, and
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Speaker 1: for opportunities to learn from it, most importantly, to apply it.
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Speaker 1: Thank you, our Father, for unveiling things yet future, and
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Speaker 1: entrusting to us some of the mysteries and symbols the
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Speaker 1: intriguing scenes of this book of revelation. We sit in
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Speaker 1: awe before you, and we would we would never want
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Speaker 1: to take advantage of the privilege of instructing others from
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Speaker 1: this book. So guide my lips that I might speak
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Speaker 1: truth and nothing else. Now, our Father, this is a
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Speaker 1: day we worship your son, especially around the table, and
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Speaker 1: we pray that all we say and all we participate
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Speaker 1: in will be a reminder of the one who paid
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Speaker 1: the price and redeemed us from the clutches and domination
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Speaker 1: of an enemy that controlled us long enough. Thank you
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Speaker 1: that there is a redeemer, Jesus, your own son. He's
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Speaker 1: the one to whom we give our gifts. Now he
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Speaker 1: is the one we worship. That's in his name, we pray,
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Speaker 1: everyone said Amen. Interruptions are sometimes introductions to a whole
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Speaker 1: new way of life, and often they come is surprising
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Speaker 1: and sudden manner that we never expect. But from that
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Speaker 1: point on, life is never the same. Don't know if
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Speaker 1: you saw the movie titled Nell, where the main character
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Speaker 1: was played by award winning actress Jody Foster. When her
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Speaker 1: mother died, Nell remained in the forest, which was her world,
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Speaker 1: a world, if you will, of primitive language, a world
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Speaker 1: of the animal kingdom and the luxuriant surroundings of the forest.
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Speaker 1: And that's all the world she knew. Nell knew nothing
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Speaker 1: of stock prices and gross national product and the state
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Speaker 1: of the Union, or for that matter, wars and fashions
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Speaker 1: and politics and sports. Just the forest until those people
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Speaker 1: outside the forest interrupted her world, and then it was
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Speaker 1: introduced to a fast lane existence that was altogether foreign
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Speaker 1: to her. That became for her a turning point the
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Speaker 1: rest of her life. The world of the aging apostle
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Speaker 1: John was a simple world, like Nils. It was spent
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Speaker 1: during the day listening to the crashing surf and the
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Speaker 1: chirping of the birds of the air as he existed
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Speaker 1: on the tiny little island of pat Mus, located at
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Speaker 1: the southern end of the Aegean before it opens into
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Speaker 1: the Great Mediterranean, and at night he found himself in
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Speaker 1: a dark cave, surrounded by silence. And I'm convinced John
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Speaker 1: knew that he would simply die there in exile, having
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Speaker 1: been sent there by the emp to keep him quiet.
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Speaker 1: But one day John's world was interrupted, and he was
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Speaker 1: never the same from that point on. He was never
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Speaker 1: known as John the Old Island Dweller, but John the Seer.
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Speaker 1: Up until that time he knew he knew nothing of
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Speaker 1: the timeline to Armageddon. He really knew nothing of the
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Speaker 1: natural sciences and the world of outer space. He loved
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Speaker 1: the Lord, and his heart was turned to the Lord
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Speaker 1: in deep affection. But John the Old Island Dweller was
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Speaker 1: full of thoughts of the past as he focused on
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Speaker 1: his Savior, by whom he sat at the Last Supper.
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Speaker 1: He remembered the Lord's whom he helped to the last
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Speaker 1: day of her life. But John's world was very small
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Speaker 1: and simple until the Lord broke the silence and opened
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Speaker 1: to him vistas that no one besides John would ever see.
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Speaker 1: He must have hurried to find a stylus and a
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Speaker 1: few scraps of papyrus on which he would write his observations.
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Speaker 1: The things which he heard, in the things he saw
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Speaker 1: and the things he felt. Because John was privileged to
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Speaker 1: get a panorama of the future like no one who
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Speaker 1: had ever lived before or will ever live since. His
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Speaker 1: writings have been by the grace of God preserved for us.
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Speaker 1: In the last book of the New Testament, apocalyoupsusesue Christu
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Speaker 1: the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. This isn't the revelation of John,
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Speaker 1: as some traditional titles read, this is the revelation of
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Speaker 1: Jesus himself, because this isn't what John dreamed up. This
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Speaker 1: is what God revealed about his son. It isn't It
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Speaker 1: isn't about things that were in the past familiar to John.
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Speaker 1: It wasn't about history. It was a revelation about really
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Speaker 1: the future, how the world would unfold in its judgments,
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Speaker 1: and how the Lord would ultimately keep his promise to
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Speaker 1: his nation of Hebrews, and how his son would rule
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Speaker 1: and reign as he had promised in a kingdom, for
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Speaker 1: he would be king of kings and Lord of Lord.
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Speaker 1: Can you imagine all of his life had been spent
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Speaker 1: in a simple first century world, and now he is
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Speaker 1: catapulted to a world that even in this twenty first
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Speaker 1: century boggles the mind. Gratefully, it wasn't limited to just
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Speaker 1: a revelation that he saw and heard and felt. It
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Speaker 1: was reduced to writing twenty two chapters of a book
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Speaker 1: that holds our attention and keeps us on tiptoe. You
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Speaker 1: have a copy of Scriptures with you. I invite you
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Speaker 1: to look again at that first chapter. You will find
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Speaker 1: in the Scriptures, and often in spiritual writings, there are
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Speaker 1: three dimensions that are set forth, the past history, the present,
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Speaker 1: where one is living his life at the moment, and
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Speaker 1: then the future, which is yet to be lived and known.
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Speaker 1: Revelation is like that. It looks first behind John's life.
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Speaker 1: It looks then at John's world, and then it especially
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Speaker 1: looks into a future that must have left him with
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Speaker 1: open mouth and wide eyes as he saw it unfolding.
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Speaker 1: This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
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Speaker 1: him to show to his bond servants the things which
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Speaker 1: must soon take place, and he sent and communicated it
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Speaker 1: by his angel to his bond servant John. Understand John
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Speaker 1: didn't know what was coming. Was just another day on
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Speaker 1: the island, just another day of hearing the crashing serf,
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Speaker 1: another day of seeing the birds fly over his head,
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Speaker 1: just another evening spent in the cave which he had
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Speaker 1: made his home until this interruption which changed everything. John
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Speaker 1: was later released from the island and made his way
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Speaker 1: back to the mainland and spent his days, tradition tells us,
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Speaker 1: in the city of Ephesus, where he returned to that
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Speaker 1: great church and ministered there and thereabouts, and became for
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Speaker 1: many a person of great encouragement in his later years,
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Speaker 1: no doubt, living longer than any of the other disciples,
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Speaker 1: as God gave him long life to minister what he
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Speaker 1: had seen and heard and felt now. Unlike most Bible books,
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Speaker 1: this particular book has an outline that is in spe
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Speaker 1: chapter one, verse nineteen, John the Writer, John the Seer
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Speaker 1: is told to write, please observe the three categories, the
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Speaker 1: things which you have seen, then right the things which are,
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Speaker 1: and then right the things which shall take place after
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Speaker 1: these things. If you haven't done so already, you might
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Speaker 1: margin in your Bible. Chapter one is reflected in the
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Speaker 1: things which John saw. He saw the Lord Jesus high
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Speaker 1: and lifted up. He saw the throne room of the Father.
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Speaker 1: He saw the beginning of the revelation with the myriad
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Speaker 1: of angels about them about this setting. He saw all
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Speaker 1: of those things, and he recorded it, especially the description
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Speaker 1: of the Lord Jesus. Chapters two and three are ref
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Speaker 1: elected in the words the things which are In John's day,
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Speaker 1: there were prominent churches that formed sort of a well
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Speaker 1: and oblong circle, of course, sort of in the shape
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Speaker 1: of a football Ephesus verse one of chapter two, followed
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Speaker 1: by Smyrna verse eight chapter two, and then Pergamum verse
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Speaker 1: twelve of chapter two, and on through chapter three, concluding
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Speaker 1: at Leoticea. If that seems foreign and difficult for you
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Speaker 1: to imagine, just think of the Lord writing churches in
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Speaker 1: the United States of America. He may begin at Miami
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Speaker 1: and then go to Atlanta, and then to Dallas, and
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Speaker 1: then to Los Angeles, and then to Seattle, and then Minneapolis,
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Speaker 1: and then Boston or New York, and in a bit
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Speaker 1: of a cycle of our country. So it was there,
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Speaker 1: though in an area much smaller than that. Tours are
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Speaker 1: made to these old sites, and I've been on that
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Speaker 1: tour more than once. And some of these sites cannot
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Speaker 1: be found. Time has covered them up, but those that
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Speaker 1: can be the tradition has taken the place of truth However,
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Speaker 1: the old sites bring back the great writings and the
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Speaker 1: memory of the writings of chapters two and three of
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Speaker 1: the Revelation. These are the things which are but beginning
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Speaker 1: chapter four. Notice verse one Chapter four the reference to
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Speaker 1: what will be after these things. Now, then, after these
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Speaker 1: things I looked, This is John, same writer, the old
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Speaker 1: island dweller, now the seer I looked, and behold a
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Speaker 1: door open in heaven. The first voice which I heard,
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Speaker 1: like the sound of a trumpet, speaking with me, said
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Speaker 1: come up here. Now. At this point John's world is
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Speaker 1: not only unfamiliar, it is, if I may use this
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Speaker 1: sort of a shallow term, it is dazzling. It is glorious,
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Speaker 1: It is majestic, as all of the limitations of time
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Speaker 1: and space are removed, as he is caught up in
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Speaker 1: the timeless, eternal presence, the throne room of God, which
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Speaker 1: has no clock, thank the Lord, no clock. It has
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Speaker 1: no reference to any of the elements that hold us
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Speaker 1: in check. And he moves into a realm that only
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Speaker 1: our minds can imagine, as he, for the first time ever,
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Speaker 1: witnesses this throne room. Now it is a magnificent setting.
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Speaker 1: He sees twenty four thrones about the main throne, and
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Speaker 1: these twenty four elders are sitting verse four, clothed in
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Speaker 1: white garments and golden crowns on their heads. And from
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Speaker 1: the throne there are flashes of lightning and sounds and
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Speaker 1: peels of thunder, and there are all these lamps burning,
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Speaker 1: and this throne, and these seven spirits of God, and
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Speaker 1: something like a sea of glass like crystal verse six.
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Speaker 1: In the center around the throne were these creatures full
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Speaker 1: of eyes. Now we read it and we try to
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Speaker 1: imagine it, and we fall short. A this is a
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Speaker 1: phenomenal setting. But what John notices in the One who
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Speaker 1: is Enthroned Chapter five, verse one, that he has a
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Speaker 1: scroll in his hand. He specifies it as the right hand.
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Speaker 1: In those days, writings were written on scrolls, not books
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Speaker 1: like we have them with its pages you can turn.
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Speaker 1: It's not nearly that convenient. In those days. The scroll
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Speaker 1: was unrolled as it was rolled up, and you read
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Speaker 1: it as you unrolled it and roll the other side
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Speaker 1: back up. And often the more valuable the scroll, the
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Speaker 1: more significant the seal on the scroll to protect it
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Speaker 1: from its from the elements. This scroll has seven seals,
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Speaker 1: seven and there's no one qualified to open the scroll.
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Speaker 1: John has moved over that verse four. He began to
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Speaker 1: weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open
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Speaker 1: the book. And then someone says to him, don't weep
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Speaker 1: any longer. There is one qualified. There is a redeemer, Jesus,
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Speaker 1: God's own son, precious Lamb of God, Messiah, the Holy One.
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Speaker 1: He's qualified, and the Lamb steps on the scene verse six,
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Speaker 1: and he takes the scroll verse seven, and after a
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Speaker 1: time of worship where they sing and say in antifanal voice,
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Speaker 1: worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive blessing
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Speaker 1: and glory and honor and power and riches and wisdom
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Speaker 1: and might and honor. Blessed is this one? Worthy? Is
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Speaker 1: the lamb? He begins to break the scroll, break the seals,
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Speaker 1: and he breaks them one after another. Four of them
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Speaker 1: are broken in chapter six. He moves into chapter later
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Speaker 1: in chapter six for the fifth seal, verse nine, and
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Speaker 1: then the sixth seal, verse twelve. All through chapter six
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Speaker 1: the seals begin to be broken. And what are they?
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Speaker 1: They are judgments? Good place to pause and reminds you
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Speaker 1: of familiar ground. But you may have forgotten the judgments
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Speaker 1: yet future that will occur on this earth. Come in
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Speaker 1: three symbols. First seals. We call them the seal judgments.
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Speaker 1: There are seven of them. The seventh of the seven
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Speaker 1: seals opens the trumpet judgments, and these called the Trumpet Judgments.
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Speaker 1: These begin to blow like trumpets are blown. They run
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Speaker 1: their course with greater intensity, greater havoc reached on this earth,
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Speaker 1: until the seventh trumpet, which opens the bowls bowl. The
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Speaker 1: bulls are then poured out in maximum judgment. The judgments
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Speaker 1: intensify as the seven upon seven upon the last seven
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Speaker 1: begin to be unleashed on the earth. The late John F. Wolverd,
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Speaker 1: in his fine work The Bible Knowledge Commentary, says this,
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Speaker 1: in the Trumpet Judgments, generally speaking, a third of the
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Speaker 1: Earth or heaven is afflicted, whereas in the Bold Judgments,
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Speaker 1: the effects of the judgments are on the entire Earth
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Speaker 1: and are much more severe and final in character. In
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Speaker 1: order is the order is climactic, and the judgments become
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Speaker 1: more intensive and extensive as the time of the Second
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Speaker 1: Coming of Christ approaches. All indications are that the Bold
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Speaker 1: Judgments fall with trip hammer rapidity on a world that
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Speaker 1: is reeling under previous judgments and a gigantic world war.
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Speaker 1: We have seen films, we have read books, mainly novels,
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Speaker 1: about Armageddon, but none of them are reliable because Hollywood
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Speaker 1: has a way of keeping it from being trustworthy. But
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Speaker 1: in the Book of the Revelation and Armageddon is set
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Speaker 1: forth in all its awesome, incredible power, a world wide
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Speaker 1: war that is won by Christ the land. We'll see
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Speaker 1: that in a few moments. Back to the judgments. First,
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Speaker 1: the scrolls are the seals. If you have not marked
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Speaker 1: your Bible, you may wish to do that. Chapter six
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Speaker 1: includes the first of the four and that takes us
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Speaker 1: down through verse eight, and then verse nine is the
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Speaker 1: fifth seal. Verse twelve is the sixth. Chapter eight. Verse
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Speaker 1: one is the seventh seal, which brought silence in heaven.
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Speaker 1: It's believed by most New Testament scholars that the seventh
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Speaker 1: seal is really awful in that it opens the seventh
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Speaker 1: Trumpet Judgments. It is the final seal that allows the
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Speaker 1: scroll to be opened and now begins the reading of
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Speaker 1: the Trumpet Judgments, which are set forth in this eternal
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Speaker 1: scroll that the father held in his hand, and the
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Speaker 1: son broke the seal. So we have the seven seals,
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Speaker 1: and this leads to the seven trumpets. Notice in verse
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Speaker 1: six of chapter eight, the seven angels who had the
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Speaker 1: seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound them. Verse seven is
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Speaker 1: the first trumpet, the first trumpet judgment that sounded. Verse
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Speaker 1: eight is the second sounding or the second trumpet, The
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Speaker 1: third is in verse ten of chapter eight, and the
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Speaker 1: fourth is in verse twelve. We have come in our
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Speaker 1: study to chapter nine, which we will look at next
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Speaker 1: time we're together, but I will tell you ahead of time.
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Speaker 1: It is the worst thus far, because Satan unleashes the
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Speaker 1: demons from the abyss. And the explanation, or the at
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Speaker 1: least the description of that is in the first twelve
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Speaker 1: verses of chapter nine. As the fifth trumpet sounds, it's
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Speaker 1: an awful, awful scene. The sixth angel sounds in chapter nine,
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Speaker 1: verse thirteen, and that introduces the first of three woes.
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Speaker 1: Woe to the world. And if you wonder about now
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Speaker 1: how people are doing on this earth, I have a
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Speaker 1: feeling some of you are thinking. My by now, they
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Speaker 1: have to be on their faces before God. They have
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Speaker 1: to be pleading for the mercy of God and turning
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Speaker 1: to the grace of God for deliverance from this hardly
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Speaker 1: look good verse twenty. The end of chapter nine, these
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Speaker 1: that continued to live called here the rest of mankind
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Speaker 1: who were not killed by these plagues did not repent.
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Speaker 1: It' isn't that hard to believe. Let let me tell
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Speaker 1: you something just for you reading further. I have been
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Speaker 1: through a number of earthquakes. I repented of every sin
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Speaker 1: I had ever ever committed. From the first earthquake I
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Speaker 1: went through, to say nothing of those that followed in
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Speaker 1: the years that passed during my years of living in California.
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Speaker 1: These people have been through earthquakes, plagues, trials that we
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Speaker 1: can hardly describe in hours of time of study and meditation,
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Speaker 1: can hardly imagine them and the rest of mankind in
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Speaker 1: its hardness. Those not killed but the plagues did not
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Speaker 1: repent of the works of their hands. They did not
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Speaker 1: stop their worship of demons. By the way, by now
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Speaker 1: the beast who is called Antichrist is on the scene
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Speaker 1: and giving them an economy they think they can believe in,
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Speaker 1: and signing peace packs they think they can trust in.
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Speaker 1: And this charismatic style of his, with his suave and
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Speaker 1: capable ability before the public, along with the false prophet
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Speaker 1: his right hand man, these are sweeping the world with
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Speaker 1: their words of deceptive hope. And these people don't turn
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Speaker 1: from that. They stay with them, They continue to believe
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Speaker 1: in them. They're idols of gold and silver and brass,
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Speaker 1: stone and wood, which can neither seed, nor hear nor walk.
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Speaker 1: Verse twenty one s as again, they did not repent
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Speaker 1: of their murders, of their sorceries. We get the word
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Speaker 1: pharmacy from the term translated sorceries, probably his reference to drugs.
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Speaker 1: They did not repent of their immorality, are of their thefts.
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Speaker 1: The point is they kept right on. So the Lord
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Speaker 1: continues to judge. The scene gets increasingly increasingly more disastrous.
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Speaker 1: And when you get to chapter sixteen, you're at the
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Speaker 1: bowls as they begin to be poured out. The first
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Speaker 1: bowld in verse two, and the second in verse three
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Speaker 1: of chapter sixteen, and the third in verse four, and
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Speaker 1: the fourth bowl verse eight, and the fifth verse ten,
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Speaker 1: and the sixth verse twelve, in verse seventeen, the seventh
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Speaker 1: this is as bad as you can even imagine. Do
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Speaker 1: you know what? They're still following the beast, still listening
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Speaker 1: to and worshiping the religion of the false prophet. Finally,
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Speaker 1: the Lord says that's enough. Chapter nineteen, he returns before
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Speaker 1: I get to that, let me take a load off
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Speaker 1: your mind, because some of you were thinking, where am
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Speaker 1: I going to be about that third seal. I have
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Speaker 1: wonderful news for you. As I understand the scriptures, you
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Speaker 1: and I will be taken from this earth before the
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Speaker 1: judgments begin because of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Speaker 1: How great is that delivered from this wrath that is
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Speaker 1: to be poured out on the earth, and we will
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Speaker 1: be among those who are in the armies of Heaven
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Speaker 1: who returned with the Lord for the final Armageddon battle.
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Speaker 1: How wonderful a relief reminds me of the little cartoon
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Speaker 1: that Charles Schultz drew a number of years ago. Go.
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Speaker 1: Linus is standing with his blanket alongside Lucy, and they're
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Speaker 1: both looking out this big picture window with this enormous rainstorm,
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Speaker 1: and Linus is sort of shuddering, and he says, look
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Speaker 1: at it rains. It's it's gonna If it keeps on,
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Speaker 1: it's gonna flood the area. Fact, that's gonna flood the
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Speaker 1: whole world. And Lucy, always in control, said that will
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Speaker 1: never happen. The Lord promises in Genesis, chapter seven, verses
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Speaker 1: seven to twenty eight, that there will never be a
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Speaker 1: universal flood. In fact, he's given us the rainbow as
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Speaker 1: the promise that we will never again be flooded over
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Speaker 1: the whole world. And Linus looks at Lucy and says, Wow,
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Speaker 1: you've taken a load off my mind. Lucy, with a
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Speaker 1: pompous pride, responds, sound theology has a way of doing that.
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Speaker 1: Don't forget that line. Sound theology will keep you from
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Speaker 1: a lot of sleepless nights. Sound theology will hold you
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Speaker 1: intact when those around you were coming apart. There's a
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Speaker 1: scene in chapter nineteen that has a way of capturing
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Speaker 1: our attention. Beginning of verse eleven, I saw Heaven opened.
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Speaker 1: This is still John, still seeing dimensions he's not seen
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Speaker 1: before I saw Heaven opened. He's looking way into the future,
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Speaker 1: really maybe not that far. And behold a white horse,
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Speaker 1: and he who set on it is called faithful and true,
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Speaker 1: and in righteousness he judges and wages war for those
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Speaker 1: who believe there will be no animals in heaven. You're
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Speaker 1: going to have a hard time explaining the horse on
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Speaker 1: which Jesus return burns from heaven. He's described along with
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Speaker 1: his army verse twelve. His eyes are a flame of fire,
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Speaker 1: and on his head are many diadem meaning crowns. And
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Speaker 1: he has a name written on him which no one
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Speaker 1: knows except himself. He's clothed with a robe dipped in blood.
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Speaker 1: His name is called the Word of God. The armies
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Speaker 1: here we are believers in Christ, not unbelievers. If you're
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Speaker 1: without Christ, you're not here. If you're still living, you're
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Speaker 1: going through the hell on earth that we've been describing.
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Speaker 1: But the believers who come back with the Lord, or
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Speaker 1: make up the armies who return with him. And we
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Speaker 1: read that there will be a sharp sword, so that
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Speaker 1: with it he verse fifteen, strikes down the nations. He
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Speaker 1: will rule them with a rod of iron. And then
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Speaker 1: the descriptive terms he treads the wine press of the
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Speaker 1: fierce wrath of God the Almighty. The words from the
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Speaker 1: battle Hymn of the Republic are taken from a section
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Speaker 1: of Revelation nineteen in case you see some familiar terms
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Speaker 1: in here. And on his robe is written King of
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Speaker 1: kings and Lord of lords. What does that mean? King
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Speaker 1: above all? Who would call themselves king? Lord over all?
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Speaker 1: Who would call themselves lord? The King of kings. The
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Speaker 1: Lord of Lords comes and with one sweep of his
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Speaker 1: sword defeats the armies. He puts the beast verse twenty
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Speaker 1: and the false prophet into the place where they deserve,
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Speaker 1: the lake of fire that burns with fire and brimstone.
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Speaker 1: Verse twenty concludes Verse twenty one. He sets up his kingdom,
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Speaker 1: called the millennium by Theologians, never in scripture, but it
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Speaker 1: represents one thousand years. And by the way, in case
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Speaker 1: you are concerned about the presence of the enemy Satan,
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Speaker 1: he is held in the Abyss. Remember what I said.
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Speaker 1: Chapter nine. He opens the abyss and lets the demons
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Speaker 1: out here. He is sent there and chained or kept
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Speaker 1: there for that thousand years. As Jesus reigns over the
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Speaker 1: earth and establishes as he promised Israel, the time of
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Speaker 1: peace and the fulfillment of those promises. Judgment follows at
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Speaker 1: the end, and then there is ushered in the new
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Speaker 1: heavens and the new Earth great to which I want
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Speaker 1: to go. We did it. Look at the end of
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Speaker 1: the book. You've looked at the beginning, Look at the
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Speaker 1: very ending. In case you wonder if this should be
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Speaker 1: taken all that seriously, here is a warning that doesn't
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Speaker 1: appear in the scriptures elsewhere twenty two eighteen. I testify
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Speaker 1: to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of
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Speaker 1: this book. John is writing, If anyone add to them,
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Speaker 1: God will add to them the plagues written in the book.
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Speaker 1: Anyone takes away from the words of the book of
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Speaker 1: this prophecy, God will take away his part from the
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Speaker 1: Tree of life, from the Holy City, which are written
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Speaker 1: in this book. He who testifies to these things says, yes,
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Speaker 1: I'm coming quickly. You would not be surprised to read
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Speaker 1: John's response, amain, I believe it amain translated or transliterated. Amen, Come,
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with
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Speaker 1: all Amen. This book brings great encouragement to those who
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Speaker 1: know Christ. It says God keeps his word. In the end,
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Speaker 1: God wins. The triumphant supreme Lord is Jesus and none other.
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Speaker 1: And by even the end of there will be no
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Speaker 1: other one to whom every knee will bow and every
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Speaker 1: tongue will confess. Now go back to the simple days
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Speaker 1: when John leaned on Jesus' chest at the Last Supper,
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Speaker 1: to the simple evening when Jesus told him that he
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Speaker 1: was going to leave them, and that left them troubled. Ay,
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Speaker 1: he said, don't let your heart be troubled. You believe
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Speaker 1: in God. Believe also in me and my father's house,
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Speaker 1: or many places of residence. If it were not so,
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Speaker 1: would I've told you I go and prepare a place
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Speaker 1: for you. And if I go and prepare a place
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Speaker 1: for you, I will come again receive you unto myself,
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Speaker 1: that where I am there you may be also. And
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Speaker 1: then he took the loaf and he and he brought it,
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Speaker 1: and he gave it to them to eat as a
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Speaker 1: reminder of his body. And then he took this single
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Speaker 1: chalice of wine and drank from it, and gave them
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Speaker 1: to drink as the faithful. Eleven participated in the first
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Speaker 1: of centuries of what we know today as the Lord's Table.
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Speaker 1: Interesting this also looks back to the cross, looks at
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Speaker 1: where we are, says to all of us who partake,
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Speaker 1: Look at your life. Don't hide behind the secrecy of
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Speaker 1: lies and self deception. Face the fact that you need
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Speaker 1: to know me. If you choose not to know me,
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Speaker 1: don't participate, don't take the bread, don't drink from the cup.
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Speaker 1: But if you do know me. I invite you to
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Speaker 1: come and take this meal with one another, and we
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Speaker 1: are to do this, and the Church will continue to
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Speaker 1: do this until he comes. That's the future, the past,
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Speaker 1: the present, the future. Where are you in the present?
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Speaker 1: Where are you right now? Tozer writes, we think of
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Speaker 1: ourselves as inhabiting some parenthetic interval between the God who
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Speaker 1: was and the God who will be. But in this
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Speaker 1: ever present now we are lonely, with that ancient and
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Speaker 1: cosmic loneliness. We're like children in the marketplace, always chattering
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Speaker 1: about everything, but learning the true value of nothing. At
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Speaker 1: the table, we pause to remember the value of a
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Speaker 1: life perfectly lived and of a death sacrificially given for us.
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Speaker 1: Will you bow your heads and close your eyes, just
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Speaker 1: for a time of preparation, please. The Lord's plan for
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Speaker 1: all of us is that we be in his family,
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Speaker 1: His desire for us. I should say, some of you
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Speaker 1: have never come to Christ, and I point you to him.
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Speaker 1: That is the invitation that is always extended from this
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Speaker 1: Church to all, regardless of your past, truly, regardless of
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Speaker 1: how you spent your life. The point is it can begin,
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Speaker 1: be the beginning of a whole new life. As the
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Speaker 1: Lord interrupts you this day and introduces you to himself.
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Speaker 1: And what a great moment it would be to celebrate
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Speaker 1: your new faith by participating with us. There are two groups,
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Speaker 1: two categories who are told not to participate. First those
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Speaker 1: without Christ, and second those who know the Lord robardly
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Speaker 1: and knowingly are living in disobedience, which is why we
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Speaker 1: are told to examine ourselves and then take of the
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Speaker 1: bread and the cup. It's a good time to do
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Speaker 1: that right now, right now. Thank you, Father for your
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Speaker 1: work on this earth. Thank you for introducing us to
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Speaker 1: one who has changed the whole course of our lives,
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Speaker 1: given us a new direction, a new purpose, new definition,
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Speaker 1: new reason to go on. Thank you for interrupting our
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Speaker 1: world of sinfulness and selfishness and introducing us to a
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Speaker 1: life of love and joy and forgiveness and peace. I
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Speaker 1: pray today for those who've never met your son, ask
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Speaker 1: you to work in their hearts as only you can,
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Speaker 1: and no one else, to bring them to their knees
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Speaker 1: to faith in Christ alone, by your grace alone. Now, Lord,
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Speaker 1: we worship your son, as we in silence and reflection,
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Speaker 1: think back, look at, and then go beyond our day
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Speaker 1: in anticipation of his work of judgment, and then reward
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Speaker 1: be pleased in our setting. As we sit before you
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Speaker 1: and worship, we pray in Christ's name. Everybody said amen.
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Speaker 1: The preceding message, A Glance Back to the Future, was
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Speaker 1: copyrighted in two thousand three, two thousand six, and two
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Speaker 1: thousand twenty four, and the sound recording was copyrighted in
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Speaker 1: two thousand twenty four by Charles Rswindahl, Inc. All rights
42:16
Speaker 1: are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use
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Speaker 1: is strictly prohibited.