Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / When God Gets the Last Word │ Msg 28 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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When God Gets the Last Word │ Msg 28 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: I suppose we could call today the now generation. When
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Speaker 1: pain comes, we want relief now. When wrong occurs, we
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Speaker 1: demand justice our rights now. When disease strikes, we expect
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Speaker 1: healing now. From fast food to fast relief, we seek
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Speaker 1: drive through windows solutions to the wide range of painful
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Speaker 1: experiences we encounter in life. Raised on thirty second commercials
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Speaker 1: and thirty minute sitcoms, we want our life's problems to
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Speaker 1: be packaged in small, neatly wrapped boxes. But just when
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Speaker 1: we think we finally tied the bow around our struggles,
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Speaker 1: we discover our pain resurfaces and kicks out a side
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Speaker 1: of the box. We sit amid the ruined cardboard and
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Speaker 1: crumpled wrappings, disillusioned, sometimes despondent. The Letter of Second Thessalonians
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Speaker 1: teaches us to think outside our problem boxes, if you will.
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Speaker 1: Paul emphathized with our struggles, answered some hard questions and
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Speaker 1: provided perspective on the pain and suffering that we all
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Speaker 1: inevitably endure. In his book When Bad Things Happen To
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Speaker 1: Good People, Rabbi Harold Kushner asked the question that rises
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Speaker 1: in the minds like a dark, nebulous cloud. He asks,
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Speaker 1: why do bad things happen to good people. All other
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Speaker 1: theological conversation is intellectually diverting, somewhat like doing the crossword
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Speaker 1: puzzle in the Sunday Paper and feeling very satisfied when
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Speaker 1: you have made the words fit, but ultimately without the
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Speaker 1: capacity to reach people where they really care. The problem
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Speaker 1: of pain presents a major stumbling block to our understanding
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Speaker 1: of God. Often, when believers suffer, we begin to doubt
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Speaker 1: our Father's power and love. Suddenly overtaken by persecution or affliction.
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Speaker 1: We find ourselves a little like Jacob wrestling in the
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Speaker 1: dark with an overpowering force. As we read in Genesis
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Speaker 1: thirty two twenty four through twenty six. We strive to
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Speaker 1: know God, understand his will, and receive his blessing, but
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Speaker 1: often he seems distant an alien to us, and we
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Speaker 1: begin to wonder if God really cares. In his outstanding book,
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Speaker 1: The Problem of Pain, C. S. Lewis masterfully address the
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Speaker 1: issue of why bad things happen to good people. He
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Speaker 1: articulated the faulty intellectual argument that many people make regarding
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Speaker 1: the problem of pain when he writes, if God were good,
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Speaker 1: he would wish to make his creatures perfectly happy and
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Speaker 1: if God were almighty, he would be able to do
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Speaker 1: what he wished, but the creatures are not happy. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: God lacks either goodness or power, or both. This is
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Speaker 1: the problem of pain in its simplest form. Rabbi Kushner
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Speaker 1: followed this basic argument in When bad things Happen to
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Speaker 1: good people. He recognized the goodness of God, but he
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Speaker 1: failed to realize that the Father also requires holiness and justice,
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Speaker 1: and the pain results from the effects of human sinfulness
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Speaker 1: in the world as a consequence of the fall. Thus,
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Speaker 1: Kushner wrongly concluded that bad things happen to good people
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Speaker 1: because God lacks the power to prevent suffering. In contrast, C. S.
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Speaker 1: Lewis focused on God's sovereign purposes that are often revealed
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Speaker 1: in the face of suffering. He noted that God's purpose
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Speaker 1: is not as much to prevent suffering in the world
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Speaker 1: as it is to sanctify people, the people who suffer.
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Speaker 1: Jesus prophesied in John sixteen thirty three these things I
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Speaker 1: have spoken to you, so that in me you may
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Speaker 1: have peace. In the world you have tribulation, But take courage.
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Speaker 1: I have overcome the world. God is both good and
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Speaker 1: all powerful. He uses human pain and suffering to draw
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Speaker 1: his children back to him. C. S. Lewis noted, pain
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Speaker 1: insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in
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Speaker 1: our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.
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Speaker 1: It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world. In
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Speaker 1: the letter of Second Thessalonians, Paul addressed the problem of
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Speaker 1: pain by reminding believers that God God uses suffering to
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Speaker 1: accomplish his purposes in their lives. In verses five through
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Speaker 1: ten of the first chapter, Paul took a step back
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Speaker 1: from the persecutions and afflictions experienced by the believers in
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Speaker 1: ancient Thessalonika to view the fragments of their pain in
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Speaker 1: the broader context of a purposeful eternity. From that a
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Speaker 1: whole picture emerged, bathed in such a glorious light that
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Speaker 1: it banished every shadow ever cast on the character of God.
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Speaker 1: Much has been written concerning human pain and suffering, but
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Speaker 1: we'll see here that God gets the last word. Let
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Speaker 1: me read the passage for you Second Thessalonians one five
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Speaker 1: through ten. Listen carefully. Second Thessalonians, Chapter one, beginning at
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Speaker 1: verse five. This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment,
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Speaker 1: so that you will be considered worthy of the Kingdom
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Speaker 1: of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all,
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Speaker 1: it is only just for God to repay with affliction
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Speaker 1: those who afflict you, and to give relief to you
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Speaker 1: who are afflicted, and to us as well, when the
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Speaker 1: Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty
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Speaker 1: angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who
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Speaker 1: do not know God and to those who do not
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Speaker 1: obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay
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Speaker 1: the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of
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Speaker 1: the Lord and from the glory of his power when
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Speaker 1: he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day,
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Speaker 1: and to be marveled at among all who have believed.
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Speaker 1: For our testimony to you was believed. Ours is a
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Speaker 1: day of instant gratification, which I suppose, if we could
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Speaker 1: put that theologically, the God of today is the God
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Speaker 1: of the quick fix. This is true not only in
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Speaker 1: the realm of our possessions, but also in the realm
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Speaker 1: of our expectations. In possessions, we not only want what
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Speaker 1: we want, we want them when we want them, and
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Speaker 1: in expectations. We not only want God to act, we
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Speaker 1: want him to act now, right now. For example, when
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Speaker 1: pain comes, we want prompt relief. We don't want it delayed.
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Speaker 1: When wrong occurs, we demand immediate justice, not next week,
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Speaker 1: now right now. When disease strikes, we expect overnight healing.
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Speaker 1: When affliction hits, we count on swift retribution. When financially pressed,
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Speaker 1: we think instant cash. I'll never forget what you early tremendous,
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Speaker 1: Joanes said on one occasion, we expect our ship to
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Speaker 1: come in when we never sent one out. After all,
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Speaker 1: we're Christians, and God is not only powerful. God is good.
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Speaker 1: And he said in his word he will not hold
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Speaker 1: back one thing from those who walk up rightly. Lord,
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Speaker 1: I'm walking up rightly. Why are you holding back? I
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Speaker 1: want it now. C. S. Lewis must have had his
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Speaker 1: tongue in his cheek when he wrote, we want not
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Speaker 1: so much a father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven,
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Speaker 1: a senile benevolence who, as they say, like to see
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Speaker 1: young people enjoying themselves, who at the end of each
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Speaker 1: day sighed a good time was had by all. Now
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Speaker 1: that's what we want in God. We don't want to
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Speaker 1: sovereign God who waits. We want an action God who responds, now,
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Speaker 1: the God of the quick fix. I think if I
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Speaker 1: could put my statement or our struggle in a statement,
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Speaker 1: it would be like this. We have struggled with a
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Speaker 1: good God who allows bad things, don't we You've been
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Speaker 1: walked out on by a mate. You've done your part,
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Speaker 1: where is God to do his part? You've held a
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Speaker 1: business together over the long haul, and you've poured more
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Speaker 1: of your funds into the outfit than anybody else, and
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Speaker 1: the partners have hall split and they're getting along grade.
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Speaker 1: You've done good, but you've experienced bad. Or maybe another
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Speaker 1: way to put it is, we have a struggle with
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Speaker 1: a perfect God who permits pain, especially when we prayed
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Speaker 1: so sincerely wanting what is right and good for our family,
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Speaker 1: for our friends, a holy God who bypasses iniquity. It's
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Speaker 1: almost as if he just winks at it. And you
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Speaker 1: know what adds what rubbed salt in the wound is
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Speaker 1: when the enemy of the faith uses that against us.
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Speaker 1: Ecclesiastes chapter eight, verse eleven. You have a bible located
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Speaker 1: blow the dust off. Ecclesiastes chapter eight, verse eleven. Unbelievers
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Speaker 1: may not know that this verse is in the Bible,
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Speaker 1: but they act out the verse in their lives because
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Speaker 1: sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore
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Speaker 1: the heart of the sons of men is fully set
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Speaker 1: in them, is fully given within them to do evil.
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Speaker 1: You get that because there isn't a quick sentence against wrong.
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Speaker 1: Wrongdoers say, hey, what are you so excited about. If
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Speaker 1: it were so wrong, God would have zaped me. I'm
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Speaker 1: not being zapped. As a matter of fact, I've never
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Speaker 1: felt better in all my life. Doesn't that just kind
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Speaker 1: of great at you? It's okay to say, yes, it
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Speaker 1: grates at me. There are times I wonder why God
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Speaker 1: doesn't jump when I say, sick them, get at it,
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Speaker 1: go for it, as if I have to give him permission.
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Speaker 1: But because sentence against an evil work does not come swiftly,
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Speaker 1: the evil doer sticks his thumbs under his suspenders and
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Speaker 1: struts around, saying, Ah, Holy God, don't give me that stuff.
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Speaker 1: We want a God who acts quickly, swiftly, and justly,
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Speaker 1: but he doesn't. James Russell Lowell, the poet, put it
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Speaker 1: very well, Truth Forever on the scaffold. Wrong forever on
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Speaker 1: the throne, and it creates a question in our mind.
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Speaker 1: Is God out of touch? Is God? Forgive me? Lord?
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Speaker 1: But is God out of control? No? I want to
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Speaker 1: help today. I hope I will help. I want to
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Speaker 1: offer an answer to that question. I want to suggest
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Speaker 1: that our perspective is all out of whack. Here's the answer,
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Speaker 1: or an answer. We misinterpret God's patience as God's absence,
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Speaker 1: don't we. We read in God's postponement of justice a
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Speaker 1: cancelation of judgment, don't we. I mean because God didn't
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Speaker 1: act within a week or two or three, or a
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Speaker 1: month or two, then he is out of touch. He
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Speaker 1: is just simply absent. I mean, if he were that good,
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Speaker 1: he would act now. After all, He's just I'm waiting
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Speaker 1: for the gavel. I'm waiting for the sound. You see
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Speaker 1: what we call unfair and unjust God calls get this
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Speaker 1: unsearchable and unfathomable Romans eleven thirty three. I have my
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Speaker 1: New Testament open to that. I'd like you to turn
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Speaker 1: from Ecclesiastes eight to Romans eleven over in the New Testament.
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Speaker 1: It occurred to me this week that God does not
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Speaker 1: set his time by our clocks. God does not take
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Speaker 1: his cues from our script. I wish he would sometime
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Speaker 1: other times. A little later on, I say, oh, praise God,
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Speaker 1: he gave me a no answer back three months ago.
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Speaker 1: I wanted you to act so swiftly and as I
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Speaker 1: saw it. But now I see Lord, that that was best.
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Speaker 1: Look at Romans eleven thirty three. Oh, the depth of
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Speaker 1: the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.
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Speaker 1: Clamation point, now that vocative. How unsearchable are his judgments?
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Speaker 1: How unfathomable his ways? That is such a great statement.
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Speaker 1: How unsearchable are his judgments? How unfathomable are his ways?
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Speaker 1: Listen to Isaiah fifty five. Seek the Lord, while he
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Speaker 1: may be found, Call upon him while he is near.
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Speaker 1: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man
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Speaker 1: his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and
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Speaker 1: to his God, and he will have mercy and abundantly pardon.
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Speaker 1: Then he adds my thoughts, says God, are not your thoughts,
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Speaker 1: neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens
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Speaker 1: are high above the earth, so are my ways above
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Speaker 1: your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts. Isaiah fifty
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Speaker 1: five nine are six through nine. My thoughts are high
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Speaker 1: above your thoughts, and my ways are far beyond your ways.
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Speaker 1: We see now, God sees forever we see today. God
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Speaker 1: sees the end, We see the offense. God sees it all.
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Speaker 1: And in light of what we see, we read into
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Speaker 1: that how God ought to react. And he, seeing all, waits,
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Speaker 1: waits patiently, patiently waits. But I have news for the sinner.
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Speaker 1: I have news for the one who thinks you will
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Speaker 1: get away with it forever. One day he'll shut her down,
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Speaker 1: he'll close the books, he'll call it all into account.
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Speaker 1: Back in nineteen twenty seven, James Weldon Johnson wrote an
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Speaker 1: old spiritual that's been played and played and played again,
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Speaker 1: called God's Trombone. And there's a great narration in it.
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Speaker 1: He comes to eternity and just the verge of it
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Speaker 1: at the end of time. This great writer describes how
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Speaker 1: it will all be wrapped up as only a preacher
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Speaker 1: could do it. And I hear a voice crying, crying.
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Speaker 1: Time shall be no more. Time shall be no more,
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Speaker 1: Time shall be no more, And the sun will go
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Speaker 1: out like a candle in the wind. The moon will
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Speaker 1: turn to dripping blood, the stars will fall like cinders,
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Speaker 1: and the sea will burn like tar, the earth shall
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Speaker 1: melt away and be dissolved, and the sky will be
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Speaker 1: rolled up like a scroll. With a wave of his hand,
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Speaker 1: God will blot out time and start the wheel of eternity. Wow,
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Speaker 1: and I will rejoice, but most won't. That is what
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Speaker 1: Second Thessalonians Chapter one is all about. Second Thessalonians Chapter one,
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Speaker 1: verses five through ten. These verses talk about that time
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Speaker 1: when the sea will burn like tar, and stars will
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Speaker 1: fall like cinders, and the sky will be rolled up
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Speaker 1: like a scroll, just on the eve when God starts
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Speaker 1: the wheel of eternity, at that awful apex, at that
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Speaker 1: moment in between time and eternity, when God closes the books,
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Speaker 1: when his patience runs out, when his long suffering turns
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Speaker 1: into judgment. Now these people in Thessalonika have been hurting.
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Speaker 1: We learned that last time they're under the gun. They
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Speaker 1: happened to have been born in the right place at
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Speaker 1: the wrong time. Humanly speaking, this metropolitan area of Thessalonika
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Speaker 1: happens to be one of those hot spots in the
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Speaker 1: mind of the Roman governor the Emperor. It's one of
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Speaker 1: those places where Christianity would not be allowed, not be tolerated,
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Speaker 1: and as a result, the sword fell there as one
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Speaker 1: of the first places families had begun to be disrupted.
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Speaker 1: They were torn apart by the sword. Blood ran in
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Speaker 1: the streets. You think the scenes in South Africa, you
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Speaker 1: think the scenes in the Philippines had been bad lately,
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Speaker 1: You should have seen the scenes in first century Thessalonika.
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Speaker 1: It was horrible. These people, according to verse four, were
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Speaker 1: holding up in their faith and perseverance in the midst
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Speaker 1: of their persecutions and afflictions. Secutions it means suffering because
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Speaker 1: of faith in Christ. Afflictions. It means pressure brought on
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Speaker 1: by the suffering. So if your blood didn't run in
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Speaker 1: the streets, your heart broke because one of your loved
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Speaker 1: ones did. Paul wrote them, because some of them must
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Speaker 1: have wondered, where is God? Is this going to last forever?
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Speaker 1: Is this the way? Is this the reward I get
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Speaker 1: for serving my Lord Christ? Is this the result of
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Speaker 1: saying yes to the appeal of the Gospel? I want
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Speaker 1: you to take a pencil if you haven't won already,
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Speaker 1: and circle the end of verse six and the beginning
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Speaker 1: of verse seven. Two phrases. The end of verse six,
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Speaker 1: I want you to circle those who afflict you, and
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Speaker 1: the end at the beginning of verse seven, you who
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Speaker 1: are afflicted, mark that because what we have in verses
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Speaker 1: five through ten is something like a divinely observed tennis match,
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Speaker 1: or perhaps a racketball game. The ball bounces from one
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Speaker 1: wall to the other and back again, and yet again,
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Speaker 1: and back again and for the last time. For example,
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Speaker 1: in verse five, the reference is to those who were
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Speaker 1: going through affliction, and the ball bounces in verse six
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Speaker 1: to those who were doing the afflicting. It goes back
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Speaker 1: in verse seven to the side of those who are saved,
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Speaker 1: who were hurting, who are being afflicted. In verses eight
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Speaker 1: and nine, it goes back again to the lost, those
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Speaker 1: doing the afflicting, those living their lives as though God
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Speaker 1: does not exist. And finally, in verse ten, it comes
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Speaker 1: back to rest. And that's the side that wins the game.
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Speaker 1: That's the side that comes out on the side of
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Speaker 1: the winter. Verse ten. Mark your bibles, or you'll be
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Speaker 1: a little bit at a loss to understand how this
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Speaker 1: passage unfolds. First verse five, those being afflicted, This is
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Speaker 1: a plain indication of God's righteous judgment, so that you
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Speaker 1: may be considered worthy of the Kingdom of God, for
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Speaker 1: which indeed you are suffering. Two things kind of bubble
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Speaker 1: to the surface when I read verse five. The first
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Speaker 1: is this, what you were going through is not a
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Speaker 1: divine oversight. You will notice it is a plain indication
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Speaker 1: that God's judgment that He's planned is right. That might
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Speaker 1: be a better way of rendering that phrase. All this
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Speaker 1: is evidence that God's judgment is right. What you were
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Speaker 1: going through is a divine oversight. Sometime I think of
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Speaker 1: my life as being in a valley and God is
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Speaker 1: being in a helicopter, and he hovers over this valley
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Speaker 1: and he lifts to a high elevation and he comes
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Speaker 1: right over my valley, and he stays at that high elevation,
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Speaker 1: and then beyond my valley he drops in again to
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Speaker 1: help them out. And when it comes on mine, I say, hey,
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Speaker 1: wait down here, here, here, and he just keeps right
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Speaker 1: on going. And then he hovers over there and he
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Speaker 1: drops down and say, well, what if they got that
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Speaker 1: I don't have? How come they get your attention? And
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Speaker 1: I don't. Why don't you drop down this side rather
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Speaker 1: than that side? Don't you ever wonder? Don't look at
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Speaker 1: me like that, you wonder that the very same thing.
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Speaker 1: I wonder, how come he waits to come down on
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Speaker 1: my side and in my valley he overlooked me. No,
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Speaker 1: my suffering is not the result of divine oversight. He
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Speaker 1: knows I need it. He knows I need it a
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Speaker 1: lot more than she needs it or he needs it.
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Speaker 1: I love the way JB. Phillips paraphrases James one second
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Speaker 1: and third versus, When all kinds of trials and temptations
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Speaker 1: crowd into your lives, my brothers don't resent them as intruders,
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Speaker 1: but welcome them as friends. Realize they come to test
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Speaker 1: your faith and to produce in you the quality of endurance.
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Speaker 1: If only I would remember that when his helicopter passes
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Speaker 1: over my valley, that is a great relief. I know
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Speaker 1: that when he deliberately passes beyond me and leaves me
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Speaker 1: in my need, it is for my good and for
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Speaker 1: his glory. It's not the result of divine oversight. His
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Speaker 1: judgment is right. The second thing I noticed from verse
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Speaker 1: five is that what I am going through is the
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Speaker 1: initiation and the Kingdom of God. See the way he
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Speaker 1: puts it, so that you may be considered worthy of
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Speaker 1: the Kingdom of God, for which indeed you were suffering.
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Speaker 1: You know how you get into the kingdom family you suffer. Oh,
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Speaker 1: you get in there by faith in the Lord Jesus.
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Speaker 1: But you know what the initiation is into the real
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Speaker 1: rights and privileges of kingdom life. Pain, disappointment, mistreatment, suffering. Now,
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Speaker 1: we would never plan it like that. Remember our ways
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Speaker 1: are not his ways, and our thoughts are not his thoughts.
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Speaker 1: Or we would have a smooth plan, well greased. We
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Speaker 1: would have all kinds of rewards regularly provided for anyone
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Speaker 1: who would be willing to give us their time and attention.
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Speaker 1: Would make it easy. He makes it hard. We'd make
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Speaker 1: it broad. He makes it narrow, We'd make it wide.
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Speaker 1: He makes it tough. He knows what he's doing. While
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Speaker 1: thinking about verse five, I thought there are three things
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Speaker 1: that occur to us when we suffer. We mature, We
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Speaker 1: are crushed, and we are awakened. Invariably, when I go
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Speaker 1: through times of suffering, I become stable as a result
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Speaker 1: of more maturity. I become submissive as a result of
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Speaker 1: being crushed, and I become sensitive as a result of
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Speaker 1: being awakened. That's why kingdom life takes time. No one
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Speaker 1: learns to be stable and submissive and sensitive in a hurry.
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Speaker 1: It takes time. It takes time, doesn't it. Now? Suddenly
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Speaker 1: the ball bounces to the other court in verse seven
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Speaker 1: or verse six. After all, it is only just for
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Speaker 1: God to repay with affliction. WHOI afflict you Look at
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Speaker 1: the shift in the scene he talked to us in
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Speaker 1: verse five. We're in this court. Now the ball is
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Speaker 1: sent across the net to the other side in verse six.
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Speaker 1: In this interchange, and God is saying, but don't forget
27:16
Speaker 1: turn about. It's fair play. Not only is that a
27:18
Speaker 1: good children's rule, that's a good divine rule. That's what
27:23
Speaker 1: verse six is talking about. It's when God will have
27:25
Speaker 1: the last word. One day, when things are turned around,
27:29
Speaker 1: he will repay. You see how he puts it. God,
27:35
Speaker 1: it is only just for God to repay with affliction.
27:42
Speaker 1: In my notes I have written Romans twelve nineteen. This
27:46
Speaker 1: is the answer. You know what Romans twelve nineteen says, says,
27:51
Speaker 1: don't take revenge. Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says
27:56
Speaker 1: the Lord. Don't get even, don't try to get back.
28:02
Speaker 1: Leave vengeance with God. Let him do it. After all,
28:08
Speaker 1: he's just you know, we are so enamored of the
28:12
Speaker 1: system of our day, where criminals get out of it
28:15
Speaker 1: by some little, some little nuance of the law, or
28:20
Speaker 1: the blindness or prejudice of some judge, or the oversight
28:24
Speaker 1: of some jury. We think you're going to get away
28:26
Speaker 1: with it. Don't worry about that. God is just, According
28:32
Speaker 1: to verse six, he knows it all. He knows motive,
28:36
Speaker 1: he knows timing, he knows reasons, he knows results, He
28:40
Speaker 1: knows our origin of thought. He knows fully what you
28:44
Speaker 1: have gone through and what you're waiting to happen before
28:47
Speaker 1: to happen. He knows all of that. He'll handle it.
28:51
Speaker 1: Our need is to let him work. Think of all
28:54
Speaker 1: the energy we expend trying to do God's part, and
28:58
Speaker 1: we don't know motive, We don't know timing, we don't
29:01
Speaker 1: know origin, we don't know result, we don't know fully
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Speaker 1: the story. We only know from our prejudice viewpoint what happened.
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Speaker 1: So spend your energy walking with him and leave the
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Speaker 1: revenge to him. Relax, it says in verse six, he
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Speaker 1: will repay. Our problem is that he takes so long
29:22
Speaker 1: getting around to it. But wait, he's gonna do it.
29:28
Speaker 1: Isn't he long suffering? Isn't he patient. If you want
29:34
Speaker 1: an example of that, think about your life. Aren't you
29:38
Speaker 1: glad he didn't zap you the moment you got out
29:42
Speaker 1: of line. We'd all have scars and burn marks and
29:46
Speaker 1: bruises on us from heaven zap. I mean, we wouldn't
29:50
Speaker 1: be able to get out of the house. He patiently, graciously,
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Speaker 1: wisely waits. But when the doors are closed, and when
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Speaker 1: the books are open, he waits no longer. Now. Suddenly,
30:08
Speaker 1: when you get caught up in that thought, the ball
30:11
Speaker 1: comes back to the other court. Look at verse seven.
30:14
Speaker 1: At the same time, he is repaying those who gave
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Speaker 1: us affliction. Verse seven says he will also give relief
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Speaker 1: to you who are afflicted, and wonderful, the affliction will
30:26
Speaker 1: not last forever. He's going to give relief to us
30:30
Speaker 1: as well, when the Lord Jesus shall be apocalyopsis. There's
30:39
Speaker 1: a very interesting term. This same root word is the
30:45
Speaker 1: title of the last book of the Bible, Revelation. It
30:51
Speaker 1: means unveiling, it means disclosing, it means the revealing. The
30:58
Speaker 1: Book of Revelation is it's a vast curtain that the
31:02
Speaker 1: spirit of God draws open for the careful student of
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Speaker 1: the book to look into and to read as far
31:10
Speaker 1: as God's ultimate judgment is concerned, to be carried out
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Speaker 1: at the revealing of the Lord Jesus. That's the term
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Speaker 1: used here. So when will relief come? When will there
31:22
Speaker 1: be justice meet it out? When the Lord Jesus shall
31:28
Speaker 1: be revealed from heaven. Now watch three prepositional phrases from
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Speaker 1: Heaven with his angels in flaming fire. Students of prophecy
31:41
Speaker 1: love passages like that. I come to a section like this,
31:45
Speaker 1: and I think why that would be so juicy to
31:47
Speaker 1: get into the details of that. It would be, but
31:50
Speaker 1: we're trying to get through the Book of Second Thessalonians,
31:53
Speaker 1: not get into the Book of Revelation. But whenever this
31:57
Speaker 1: time occurs, the Lord Jesus will come from Heaven, will
32:01
Speaker 1: be with angels, according to verse seven, with mighty angels
32:06
Speaker 1: of his and in flaming fire. Fire most often speaks
32:10
Speaker 1: of purifying or of judgment in scripture. So there will
32:15
Speaker 1: be judgment on his mind. Not only justice meet it
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Speaker 1: out against the lost the goats, but justice delivered to
32:25
Speaker 1: the saved, to the sheep, to his people who have
32:30
Speaker 1: walked with him through awful, awful times. Now about the
32:36
Speaker 1: time you get thought up in the You get caught
32:38
Speaker 1: up in the thought and the joy of that moment.
32:41
Speaker 1: The ball goes back to the other court. Eight and
32:44
Speaker 1: nine provide us with some of the most awful thoughts
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Speaker 1: in all the New Testament. Awful in the sense of
32:53
Speaker 1: human response. What will this revealing be like? What will
33:03
Speaker 1: be included in his coming? Well, I count three things,
33:09
Speaker 1: if you will count them with me. Verse eight. There
33:14
Speaker 1: will be the dealing out of retribution to those who
33:19
Speaker 1: do not know God. Even it could be rendered even
33:23
Speaker 1: to those who do not obey the gospel of our
33:26
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus. Now we're talking serious stuff. Not only will
33:34
Speaker 1: he relieve those who have been afflicted in life, but
33:39
Speaker 1: now will be the time that the books are closed
33:42
Speaker 1: and he gets the last word. Observe first the dealing
33:47
Speaker 1: out of retribution. One version says inflicting vengeance, another dealing
33:56
Speaker 1: out chastisement, another punished, allotting full justice. Bob Thomas from
34:06
Speaker 1: the local Talbot Seminary and Expositor's Bible Commentary helps us
34:10
Speaker 1: with this word retribution. The word stems from vengeance. It's
34:17
Speaker 1: the same as that for right verse five and just
34:21
Speaker 1: verse six. It has no overtones of selfish, vindictiveness or revenge,
34:29
Speaker 1: but proceeds from the justice of God. To accomplish appropriate
34:33
Speaker 1: punishment for criminal offenses. Brings us right into the courtroom,
34:38
Speaker 1: doesn't he You see, we have become jaded by the
34:42
Speaker 1: courtroom of today. If you're like me, you hear of
34:46
Speaker 1: a person that goes to trial and you think, I
34:48
Speaker 1: wonder how you'll get off this time. I wonder how
34:51
Speaker 1: somebody will get him out of this one. And often,
34:54
Speaker 1: unfortunately it's true. The guilty is set free. Mark it down.
35:00
Speaker 1: This is no man, This is no woman. This is
35:02
Speaker 1: no human opinion judging. This is God who will deal
35:08
Speaker 1: out retribution to those who are immoral. No, not necessarily
35:15
Speaker 1: to those who didn't pay their bills. No, to those
35:19
Speaker 1: who mistreated their families. No, that's not the basis. To
35:23
Speaker 1: those not born in America, No, no list anything else
35:29
Speaker 1: but unbelief, and you miss it. To those who do
35:32
Speaker 1: not know God, to those who have never obeyed the
35:36
Speaker 1: gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first he will
35:40
Speaker 1: do is judge on the basis of faith in the
35:43
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus. If it's absent, thumbs down second verse nine.
35:57
Speaker 1: These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. I wait,
36:05
Speaker 1: don't misunderstand. It doesn't mean annihilation, because he says eternal destruction.
36:14
Speaker 1: If your barn is caught in a tornado, it is destroyed,
36:20
Speaker 1: suddenly annihilated. If you are fighting in a war and
36:26
Speaker 1: the enemy comes towards you with full weaponry and blows
36:30
Speaker 1: your company away, you are destroyed instantly. But neither a
36:37
Speaker 1: barn nor a group of people in fight are involved
36:40
Speaker 1: in an eternal destruction that keeps you from thinking that
36:44
Speaker 1: it occurs in a moment of time, and the people
36:47
Speaker 1: involved are gone forever. No, as a matter of fact,
36:50
Speaker 1: they are here forever under the judgment of destruction. Several
36:56
Speaker 1: years ago, we sighed and ached and wept as we
36:59
Speaker 1: watch one newscast after another that showed the awful scene
37:03
Speaker 1: of our space shuttle as it blew up in the air.
37:07
Speaker 1: We lost seven precious lives who were instantly destroyed, not eternally.
37:16
Speaker 1: This is eternal destruction. Again. You can't think like a
37:21
Speaker 1: human thinks. You have to think like God thinks. This
37:25
Speaker 1: is after there is no more time on earth. This
37:28
Speaker 1: is before there is eternity. This is in between when
37:32
Speaker 1: the last judgment occurs and God steps into space, and
37:39
Speaker 1: he brings before him these individuals who do not know
37:43
Speaker 1: God and do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
37:49
Speaker 1: And he causes these who were lost to pay the
37:51
Speaker 1: penalty of everlasting, unending destruction. I notice thirdly that there
38:02
Speaker 1: is ultimate alienation from God, away from the presence of
38:07
Speaker 1: the Lord and from the glory of His power. I
38:12
Speaker 1: don't know of a more horrible scene, and it's been
38:14
Speaker 1: written about rather vividly by Donald Barnhouse. I quote the
38:19
Speaker 1: adjective everlasting or here rendered eternal, which describes our life
38:25
Speaker 1: with Christ in heaven, also describes the never ending expulsion
38:30
Speaker 1: of the lost from His presence. Outer darkness is the
38:34
Speaker 1: way our Lord Jesus Christ described it, a sort of
38:37
Speaker 1: solitary confinement, forever, all alone with your thoughts and memories,
38:45
Speaker 1: and unable to do anything to change the scene. That
38:51
Speaker 1: is hell. That is hell. Several years ago, Hollywood put
39:06
Speaker 1: together a film which depicted the half crazed leaders of
39:12
Speaker 1: several military outfits as they were involved in skirmishes and
39:16
Speaker 1: war over in Vietnam. There was a weird kind of
39:22
Speaker 1: military leader who lost it all and wound up hiding
39:25
Speaker 1: out in the jungle, and one of the plots of
39:28
Speaker 1: the story was to get to this man and hopefully
39:30
Speaker 1: to kill him lest he raise up a whole group
39:33
Speaker 1: of troops that would form a counter attack against the
39:37
Speaker 1: force of good. And then there was another half crazed
39:41
Speaker 1: leader who dropped napalm bombs on villages so as to
39:45
Speaker 1: clear out the areas so his troops and he might
39:48
Speaker 1: water ski along the river. They called it apocalypse. Now, strange,
39:56
Speaker 1: strange drama from the mind of man. This isn't some
40:02
Speaker 1: imaginary scene led by some half crazed leader. God is
40:09
Speaker 1: in charge, and this isn't some script dreamed up by
40:14
Speaker 1: some script writer who lives in Burbank or southern California,
40:20
Speaker 1: and it's put together an interesting thought that would hold
40:24
Speaker 1: the attention of a group of people. This is God's book,
40:31
Speaker 1: and this is awful. This is true. This is apocalypse then,
40:43
Speaker 1: and there will be no chance for change, no prayer
40:47
Speaker 1: that will be heard to reverse life, no begging for
40:51
Speaker 1: relief will be acknowledged. This is maxim pain suffered at
41:02
Speaker 1: an infinite distance from the living God, forever and ever.
41:13
Speaker 1: My friend, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ,
41:20
Speaker 1: today is the day to take care of that today.
41:28
Speaker 1: It is passages like this that make funeral services for
41:31
Speaker 1: the lost so unbearable for me, so difficult for pastors.
41:39
Speaker 1: You're looking at the remains of the lost, the body,
41:42
Speaker 1: but what you cannot see is the horror of the
41:44
Speaker 1: soul and spirit, and someday in the future that body
41:49
Speaker 1: will be raised, changed so as to endure throughout eternity,
41:53
Speaker 1: joined to a soul and spirit that will spend eternity
41:56
Speaker 1: without Christ in hell. You can't fathom it. I can't
42:01
Speaker 1: fathom it. I can't describe it more vividly, nor will
42:04
Speaker 1: I try. I leave it to the spirit of God
42:06
Speaker 1: to convince you. I spoke on this sometime earlier, and
42:10
Speaker 1: I had a young man stop and say, where do
42:12
Speaker 1: I go? Who do I talk to? I need to
42:14
Speaker 1: get out of that horrible destiny that's mine. But it
42:22
Speaker 1: isn't it isn't all bad. If a person is in Christ.
42:28
Speaker 1: Verse ten says when the Lord Jesus comes, he will
42:32
Speaker 1: also be glorified in the saints on that day, and
42:36
Speaker 1: to be marveled at among all who believe. For our
42:40
Speaker 1: testimony to you was believe. Here's a body of people
42:43
Speaker 1: who are suffering, going through the throes of difficulty, affliction.
42:47
Speaker 1: They can't explain it, they can't get out of it.
42:49
Speaker 1: But their hope is someday I'll be glorified with him.
42:53
Speaker 1: And look at how we will respond, says in verse ten.
42:57
Speaker 1: We will marvel at him. What a grand, grand moment.
43:06
Speaker 1: We will marvel at him. And will it be because
43:08
Speaker 1: we were good? We were moral, we were born in America,
43:11
Speaker 1: we paid our bills, we took care of our family. No,
43:14
Speaker 1: has nothing to do with it. It will be because
43:18
Speaker 1: we have believed. That's the way. The verse concludes, all
43:22
Speaker 1: who have believed, for our testimony to you was believed.
43:27
Speaker 1: I can't think of anything worse than to find my
43:31
Speaker 1: destiny and hell and look back and realize I turned
43:34
Speaker 1: off a gift that simply required my faith and trust.
43:41
Speaker 1: Leave the character, direction and building up to God. You
43:44
Speaker 1: simply turn your life over to him. Now. The solution
43:50
Speaker 1: is a wonderful solution. If you are a Christian, there's
43:54
Speaker 1: hope and here to hang on to.
43:57
Speaker 2: You.
43:57
Speaker 1: Notice how it concludes, this will be your moment. As
44:03
Speaker 1: painful as life is at this moment, your hope is
44:07
Speaker 1: God is not going to last forever. There will be
44:09
Speaker 1: a day when the roles will reverse, and your joy
44:13
Speaker 1: will be the presence of the Lord, glorified with saints,
44:18
Speaker 1: marveling at what He has prepared for you. That is
44:21
Speaker 1: your hope and that's mine. If you're not a Christian,
44:26
Speaker 1: here is the awful truth that you cannot escape, that
44:29
Speaker 1: you must deal with. Now. This is your solution to
44:33
Speaker 1: believe in the Lord Jesus, to put that off no longer.
44:39
Speaker 1: Years before I preached, I sang, I was involved in
44:46
Speaker 1: an evangelistic group of young men who traveled around the
44:54
Speaker 1: state of Texas and a little bit in Oklahoma and
44:56
Speaker 1: some in Louisiana and the Southwest, presenting the Gospel and
45:01
Speaker 1: singing it and preaching it to the youth of our day.
45:05
Speaker 1: Some great memories connect with that time in my life,
45:08
Speaker 1: and perhaps it was there like at no other time,
45:12
Speaker 1: and I realized the value of giving oneself to public ministry,
45:17
Speaker 1: and God used that in my life. Later on, one
45:21
Speaker 1: of the men who was a part of our group
45:26
Speaker 1: used to ask me to sing a song at the
45:29
Speaker 1: close of the meeting in which he had presented the gospel.
45:32
Speaker 1: He had a special message he presented on the horrors
45:37
Speaker 1: of hell, and I will save you from my singing this.
45:43
Speaker 1: Though I know that greatly disappoints some of you, I
45:46
Speaker 1: am not going to sing it. I'm afraid that would
45:49
Speaker 1: take away from the message of this old song written
45:54
Speaker 1: by Bert Shattock many years ago. And you who are
45:57
Speaker 1: my age and older will remember it, but the rest
45:59
Speaker 1: of you probably have never heard it. The lyrics go.
46:04
Speaker 1: I dreamed that the great Judgment. Morning had dawned and
46:07
Speaker 1: the trumpet had blown. I dreamed that the nations had
46:11
Speaker 1: gathered to judgment before the white throne. From the throne
46:15
Speaker 1: came a bright, shining angel and stood in the land
46:19
Speaker 1: in the sea, and swore, with his hand raised to heaven.
46:22
Speaker 1: The time was no longer to be. The rich man
46:28
Speaker 1: was there, but his money had melted and vanished away.
46:33
Speaker 1: A pauper, he stood in the judgment, his debts were
46:37
Speaker 1: too heavy to pay. The great man was there, but
46:42
Speaker 1: his greatness, when death came, was left far beyond, far
46:45
Speaker 1: behind the angel that opened the records, not a trace
46:48
Speaker 1: of his greatness could find. The moral man came to
46:53
Speaker 1: the judgment, but his self righteous rags would not do.
46:58
Speaker 1: The men who had crucified Jesus had passed off his
47:02
Speaker 1: moral men too. The soul that had put off salvation.
47:08
Speaker 1: Not tonight, I'll get saved by and bye. No time
47:11
Speaker 1: now to think of religion. At last they all found
47:16
Speaker 1: time to die. And oh what a weeping and wailing.
47:24
Speaker 1: As the lost were told of their fate. They cried
47:30
Speaker 1: for the rocks and the mountains. They prayed, but their
47:36
Speaker 1: prayer was too late. I want us to bow our heads.
47:45
Speaker 1: I want us not to move about in this worship center.
47:53
Speaker 1: The spirit of God is speaking to you today. You
48:00
Speaker 1: are under a terrible time of affliction. Injustice has occurred
48:08
Speaker 1: to you, and the scars of mistreatment still mark your life.
48:15
Speaker 1: You've got bad memories the truth were known. You spend
48:19
Speaker 1: too much time and energy thinking about revenge. My Christian friend,
48:26
Speaker 1: that's what the cross was all about. At that moment,
48:30
Speaker 1: you delivered that revenge over to him. You transferred to
48:35
Speaker 1: him your revenge, and you received in place his peace.
48:41
Speaker 1: It's yours. Let him get even. Your need today is
48:48
Speaker 1: simply to forgive, and not let that be a noose
48:51
Speaker 1: around your neck or an albatross that seize you to
48:57
Speaker 1: your grave. But more importantly, there are those of you
49:02
Speaker 1: hearing this right now who've never before this moment been
49:08
Speaker 1: so serious. About your eternal destiny. That's God working in
49:14
Speaker 1: your life. If you don't know for sure that Christ
49:18
Speaker 1: lives within you, here's a prayer just in your own mind.
49:25
Speaker 1: Pray this with me, Dear Father. I am lost, I
49:36
Speaker 1: am a sinner. I don't know you, and I've never
49:43
Speaker 1: obeyed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know
49:51
Speaker 1: that if I were to die, this would be my future,
49:55
Speaker 1: the penalty of eternal destruction. And so today I do
50:03
Speaker 1: believe in Christ. I acknowledge him as my Lord. I
50:11
Speaker 1: give him my life. I come fully in repentance to
50:27
Speaker 1: the Cross of Christ for my eternal salvation. I trust
50:34
Speaker 1: Him only as my savior. Today a number of you
50:44
Speaker 1: have prayed that, and it's necessary that you have a
50:47
Speaker 1: little help to get you on your way spiritually. You
50:51
Speaker 1: may need to get rid of the religious rags that
50:54
Speaker 1: have marked your walk and get a hold of some
50:57
Speaker 1: authentic Christianity. We want to provide help for you from
51:02
Speaker 1: trained counselors, people who will who will help you. Let's
51:06
Speaker 1: pray forgive us, our Father for the days and maybe
51:14
Speaker 1: even months we've wasted trying to understand your timing, rather
51:20
Speaker 1: than simply trusting you in the crevice and valleys. Forgive
51:26
Speaker 1: us for blaming you for racing overhead, as though you
51:29
Speaker 1: ignored and overlooked us, when all the while you had
51:32
Speaker 1: our maturing at heart. Forgive us for the wasted years
51:38
Speaker 1: of unbelief running from you rather than toward you. Thank
51:43
Speaker 1: you that today we turn around and we come to
51:49
Speaker 1: you in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
51:57
Speaker 2: The preceding message, when God Gets the Last Word, was
52:00
Speaker 2: copyrighted in nineteen eighty six, nineteen ninety one, two thousand
52:04
Speaker 2: and two, and twenty twenty four, and the sound recording
52:07
Speaker 2: was copyrighted in twenty twenty four by Charles R. Swindahl Incorporated.
52:12
Speaker 2: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
52:16
Speaker 2: commercial use is strictly prohibited