Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Promise of Persecution │ Msg 316 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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The Promise of Persecution │ Msg 316 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Many people these days live life on the path of
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Speaker 1: least resistance.
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Speaker 2: They choose the quick and easy.
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Speaker 1: Route to happiness instead of the steeper way to maturity
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Speaker 1: that requires discipline and determination. Sadly, that mentality has seeped
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Speaker 1: into the mindset of many Christians too. Yet Jesus calls
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Speaker 1: us to travel a more perilous path that he himself walked.
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Speaker 1: The New Testament, author of the Book of Hebrews, wrote, God,
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Speaker 1: for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to
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Speaker 1: bring many children into glory. And it was only right
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Speaker 1: that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader,
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Speaker 1: fit to bring them into their salvation. That's from Hebrews,
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Speaker 1: Chapter two, verse ten. How did God make Jesus a
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Speaker 1: perfect leader, not by leading him along a path of ease,
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Speaker 1: but by taking him down the hard road of suffering,
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Speaker 1: which most often came in the form of persecution. As
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Speaker 1: we will discover today in our study from John's Gospel,
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Speaker 1: the Christian journey follows a similar road paved with sharp
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Speaker 1: stones of persecution, a road blazed by Jesus himself. Join
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Speaker 1: me now by turning in your bibles to the end
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Speaker 1: of John fifteen. I'll be reading from that chapter, starting
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Speaker 1: with verse eighteen through John sixteen verse four. I'll be
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Speaker 1: reading from the New Living Translation. Now begin with me
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Speaker 1: in John fifteen eighteen.
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Speaker 3: The world hates you. Remember that it hated me first.
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Speaker 3: The world would love you as one of its own
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Speaker 3: if you belong to it, but you are no longer.
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Speaker 2: Part of the world.
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Speaker 3: I chose you to come out of the world, so
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Speaker 3: it hates you. You remember what I told you. A
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Speaker 3: slave is not greater than the master. Since they persecuted me,
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Speaker 3: naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened
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Speaker 3: to me, they would listen to you. They will do
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Speaker 3: all this to you because of me, for they have
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Speaker 3: rejected the one who sent me. They would not be
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Speaker 3: guilty if I had not come and spoken to them,
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Speaker 3: but now they have no excuse for their sin. Anyone
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Speaker 3: who hates me also hates my father. If I hadn't
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Speaker 3: done such miraculous signs among them that no one else
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Speaker 3: could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is,
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Speaker 3: they've seen everything I did, yet they still hate me
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Speaker 3: and my father. This fulfills what is written in their scriptures.
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Speaker 3: They hated me without a cause. But I will send
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Speaker 3: you the advocate the spirit of truth. He will come
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Speaker 3: to you from the Father and will testify all about me.
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Speaker 3: And you must also testify about me, because you have
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Speaker 3: been with me from the beginning of my ministry now
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Speaker 3: beginning at verse one of John chapter sixteen. I have
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Speaker 3: told you these things so that you won't abandon your faith,
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Speaker 3: for you will be expelled from the synagogues. And the
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Speaker 3: time is coming when those who killed you will think
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Speaker 3: they are doing a holy service for God. This is
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Speaker 3: because they have never known the Father or me. Yes,
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Speaker 3: I'm telling you these things now so that when they happen,
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Speaker 3: you will remember my warning. I didn't tell you earlier
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Speaker 3: because I was going to be with you for a
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Speaker 3: while longer.
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Speaker 2: As the new year dawn, I gave thought to the
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Speaker 2: new year, as I'm sure all of you did at
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Speaker 2: some time during the day. My thoughts were mixed with
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Speaker 2: feelings of paradox, because I am basically a positive kind
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Speaker 2: of person and like to camp on those things, but
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Speaker 2: was forced by virtue of the morning message to face
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Speaker 2: the negatives of the new year. And so I say
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Speaker 2: at the outset of this message, it is difficult for
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Speaker 2: someone who is positive to preach a message that is negative,
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Speaker 2: and in doing so, I confess to you the difficulty.
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Speaker 2: And yet I'm committed to declaring what I believe you
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Speaker 2: need to hear, as God has revealed it to me.
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Speaker 2: I asked Mark to lead us in that hymn that
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Speaker 2: we all just sang together, because it frames a series
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Speaker 2: of questions that we are forced to answer. Isaac Watts
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Speaker 2: asked three lines of questions, and then he answered the
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Speaker 2: questions in the last. But even though the questions might
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Speaker 2: be the same, I am not sure our answer is
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Speaker 2: the same as his. Am I a soldier of the Cross,
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Speaker 2: a follower of the Lamb, fear to own his cause
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Speaker 2: or blush to speak his name? Must I be carried
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Speaker 2: to the skies on flowery beds of ease while others
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Speaker 2: fought to win the prize and sail through bloody seas?
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Speaker 2: Are there no foes or me to face? Must I
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Speaker 2: not stem the flood? Is this vile world a friend
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Speaker 2: to grace to help me on too? God? Sure, says Watts,
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Speaker 2: I must fight. If I would rain increase my courage,
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Speaker 2: I'll bear the toil, what toil? I will endure the pain? Really?
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Speaker 2: What pain? Who in this congregation has borne in his body,
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Speaker 2: the marks of the Lord Jesus? What marks? What fight?
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Speaker 2: I imagined as I stood before you and sang along with
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Speaker 2: you that hymn, that we were standing in a dungeon,
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Speaker 2: cold and damp and dark. I pictured us in sweatshirts
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Speaker 2: and bare feet, and all of a sudden it seemed different.
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Speaker 2: How different it would be if your home had been
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Speaker 2: confiscated and your weapons had been taken. How different it
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Speaker 2: would be if you did not have a Bible, nor
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Speaker 2: a hymnal, nor a church, and we did not have
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Speaker 2: a nation. Would we still have a hymn? Would you
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Speaker 2: still be singing? Sure? I would fight in increase my courage.
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Speaker 2: That's why New Year's Day was thought provoking for me.
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Speaker 2: God has a way of timing messages to fit just
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Speaker 2: the right season of the year at just the right time,
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Speaker 2: so that we are brought face to face with reality.
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Speaker 2: We cannot live in a bubble of fantasy Christians. First
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Speaker 2: of all, I don't make New Year's resolutions because I
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Speaker 2: never keep them. And secondly, when the year is begun
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Speaker 2: to run its course, I find that they weren't really
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Speaker 2: good resolutions at all, because I didn't know my needs.
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Speaker 2: But I am ready to make a prediction the new
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Speaker 2: year is going to be harder. I'm not speaking economically
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Speaker 2: because that's not my field. I am speaking of it
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Speaker 2: spiritually because that is my department. And if I read
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Speaker 2: my Bible correctly, I find that it may be necessary
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Speaker 2: for there to be a fight, and it may very
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Speaker 2: well be. Should Jesus Christ, Terry, we will be in
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Speaker 2: a dungeon. We have no hope of a tricentennial do it.
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Speaker 4: No.
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Speaker 2: I want the attention of every student, every businessman, every homemaker,
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Speaker 2: every teacher, every professional career man or woman that's here today.
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Speaker 2: I want you to hear what God is saying. It
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Speaker 2: is a bleak scene. Spiritually speaking, the predictions are such
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Speaker 2: as not to make it a happy new year. Now
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Speaker 2: you see my dilemma. I want to be positive and
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Speaker 2: I can't be positive. I want to be accurate more
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Speaker 2: than I want to be positive. I was raised and
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Speaker 2: not raised, but came really under the sound of the
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Speaker 2: of the word in a church that was terribly negative
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Speaker 2: and petty, more at a communistic than it was pro Christ.
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Speaker 2: Every third message was a political harangue against communism. And
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Speaker 2: I suppose because of that I have been reeling from
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Speaker 2: the wake of it through my ministry, thinking I don't
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Speaker 2: want to have that kind of a message, and I
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Speaker 2: hope that I do not. But there are occasions where
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Speaker 2: we need to be brought up short with reminders that
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Speaker 2: the cause of Jesus Christ is slowly, but very surely
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Speaker 2: degenerating in the free world. And so I'm prepared today
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Speaker 2: to preach a message that's hard for me to preach,
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Speaker 2: but we've come to it in the study of John.
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Speaker 2: And therefore I do not want to be labeled as
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Speaker 2: a prophet of doom or a petty preacher of ill tidings.
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Speaker 2: I want you to hear what is said and then
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Speaker 2: reckon with it. Just before we move into the scriptures,
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Speaker 2: let me add that one of my difficulties is knowing
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Speaker 2: how to close a message like this. How do you
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Speaker 2: close a message on persecution? You certainly don't want to
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Speaker 2: pray for persecution, do you? And yet how do you
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Speaker 2: know how you will do in persecution if you're not persecuted?
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Speaker 2: So it's all theory. Many of us have had the
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Speaker 2: best year of our lives. Others have taken a tail spin.
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Speaker 2: I mean, what do you do when you come home
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Speaker 2: from the Rose Bowl where you've won a magnificent victory
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Speaker 2: vicariously and walk in the door and go to bed
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Speaker 2: in a lovely surroundings with a loving family and the
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Speaker 2: security of our home, and prepare a message like this.
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Speaker 2: It's hall right see. And therefore I come with that
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Speaker 2: honest admission of difficulty, wanting you to close the message,
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Speaker 2: because some of you have begun to know persecution like
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Speaker 2: you've never known it before. My only answer is it
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Speaker 2: will probably get worse. Two Timothy Chapter three, let's start there.
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Speaker 2: Tell you if there was ever a need to build
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Speaker 2: a church, a place where the truth is proclaimed, it's
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Speaker 2: in this era. Some answer by saying, look, why build
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Speaker 2: a new building when you're in an era like this?
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Speaker 2: You ought to stop and check the cornerstones of churches
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Speaker 2: that were etched during the depression. That's an interesting study.
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Speaker 2: How many churches were built right in the heart or
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Speaker 2: in the wake of the depression. When times are hard,
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Speaker 2: that's when people flock to hear the truth of God.
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Speaker 2: There is hope in spite of the era that we're facing,
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Speaker 2: and the only hope is in Jesus Christ. The only
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Speaker 2: hope tewod Timothy three is a prophecy where the Apostle
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Speaker 2: writes to Timothy and says, realize this. Maybe Timothy wasn't
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Speaker 2: realizing as he should. Maybe you're not, and this will
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Speaker 2: be a reminder, if nothing else, that you need to remember.
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Speaker 2: Difficult times will come in the last days. That's what
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Speaker 2: Verse one is saying. See the words in the last days.
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Speaker 2: Any dependable New Testament student will tell you that that
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Speaker 2: is a reference to our era. The hard times are
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Speaker 2: these times. We have moved into that epoch known as
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Speaker 2: the last days, when the signs of the times are
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Speaker 2: marshaling evidence that Jesus Christ's return cannot be far away.
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Speaker 2: His coming is imminent. That's why the times are hard.
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Speaker 2: See the word difficult. A Greek lexicon will teach that
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Speaker 2: it means harsh, hard to deal with. One even says savage.
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Speaker 2: In this era, in this epoch, savage times will come.
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Speaker 2: What's savage times? A third of the world could tell
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Speaker 2: you soon to become a half those that live and
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Speaker 2: breathe Jesus Christ in the underground Church caill tell you
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Speaker 2: about savage times. But what do we care about savage times?
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Speaker 2: We're in America. I think the Apostle of saying nothing
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Speaker 2: else is saying we better care. We better know that
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Speaker 2: it's possible. As a matter of fact. Verse ten. He
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Speaker 2: goes on to say to Timothy, you followed my teaching
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Speaker 2: and conduct, and purpose and faith, patience and love and perseverance.
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Speaker 2: Verse eleven. You also followed persecutions and sufferings such as
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Speaker 2: happened to me in Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra.
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Speaker 2: What persecutions I endured? And out of them all the
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Speaker 2: Lord delivered me. That's true, But that's the apostle Paul.
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Speaker 2: That's century one. Look at the next verse. Indeed, all
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Speaker 2: who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, here's your prophecy,
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Speaker 2: will be persecuted. Hard to believe, that, isn't it now?
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Speaker 2: Not if you're a student that's bold enough to raise
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Speaker 2: your hand and ask the wrong question in the right class,
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Speaker 2: to be nailed by the prophet who despises the name
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Speaker 2: that you call deer. Now, it's not difficult to believe.
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Speaker 2: If you're a businessman that's committed to the principles of
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Speaker 2: honesty surrounded by a group of men who are not
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Speaker 2: and want you to shape up. It's not difficult to
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Speaker 2: believe if your husband walked out on you because your
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Speaker 2: commitment to Jesus Christ is the strongest thing on earth.
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Speaker 2: Our husband wife the opposite. It's not hard to believe
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Speaker 2: for the child that watches mom and dad split up
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Speaker 2: because of the cause of Christ, because the sword has come.
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Speaker 2: It's not hard to believe when you get letters from
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Speaker 2: friends who are over there and now the church is
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Speaker 2: gone and they're living in a hole, It's not hard
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Speaker 2: to believe. In other words, what I want to do
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Speaker 2: is transport you, as difficult as it is, into the
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Speaker 2: imaginary world of what could someday sooner than maybe we're
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Speaker 2: ready to believe, could become reality. All who desire to
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Speaker 2: live godly in Christ will be persecuted. Now I go
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Speaker 2: back to John, will you, and let's look together at
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Speaker 2: first of all John sixteen thirty three, the last verse
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Speaker 2: of the not fifteenth chapter, but the sixteenth chapter. Our
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Speaker 2: lord was alone with his men in the upper room,
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Speaker 2: and he talked of our times. Jesus said to his
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Speaker 2: men these things. I have spoken to you that in
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Speaker 2: me you may have peace. Notice the source of peace,
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Speaker 2: not the world, in Christ. In the world you have tribulation.
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Speaker 2: But take courage. I have overcome the world. Will you
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Speaker 2: mark very carefully that phrase, and it will haunt you
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Speaker 2: if you do. In the world you have tribulation. Now
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Speaker 2: go back to John fifteen eighteen. Having seen the general
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Speaker 2: prediction of our world, let's look at some specific instruction
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Speaker 2: from Jesus Christ regarding our times. In doing so, let's
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Speaker 2: answer four questions. The first question is who will persecute?
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Speaker 2: We need to know the identity of our enemy or
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Speaker 2: the enemy of Christ. And listen carefully. When you come
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Speaker 2: to know the Lord Jesus, you become a member of
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Speaker 2: that very small minority band of men and women called
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Speaker 2: the Body of Christ. And the Lord Jesus' plan is
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Speaker 2: not to take that body out of the world, but
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Speaker 2: to leave it in the world and to live within
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Speaker 2: that body and to give power, meaning, definition, purpose, strength,
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Speaker 2: and all those marvelous dimensions. And he has said to
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Speaker 2: us in this passage already the thing that's going to
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Speaker 2: hold you together in a meaningful group is love. Love
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Speaker 2: one another, care for one another, Minister to one another,
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Speaker 2: Listen to one another, talk, respond to one another, because
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Speaker 2: in this world it's lonely. Now, when we leave this place,
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Speaker 2: we suddenly move into the minority. This is the only
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Speaker 2: place where we're in the majority. Right that when you
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Speaker 2: leave as a member of the body, you're still a
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Speaker 2: body member, but all of a sudden you're taking the
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Speaker 2: blows alone in a world that doesn't love, it hates.
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Speaker 2: And when that world system hates you sufficiently, you will
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Speaker 2: begin to move into the realm of persecution. What is
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Speaker 2: the source? What is the idea of the persecutor? Well,
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Speaker 2: it's the world Verses eighteen and nineteen. If the world
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Speaker 2: hates you, you know that it has hated me before
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Speaker 2: it hated you. The if could mean in our English,
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Speaker 2: maybe it does and maybe it doesn't, But in the
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Speaker 2: construction of the Greek sentence it means sense if and
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Speaker 2: it is true. Let's assume this statement to be true
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Speaker 2: because it is. Since the world hates you, you know it
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Speaker 2: hated me, says Jesus now verse nineteen. If you were
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Speaker 2: of the world, here's another kind of if, isn't it.
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Speaker 2: You're not. But if you were of the world, then
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Speaker 2: the world would love its own. But because you are
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Speaker 2: not of the world, it hates you. I noticed something
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Speaker 2: about verse nineteen. I know that the world either loves
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Speaker 2: or hates. There's no neutral ground with the world, and
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Speaker 2: the world loves or hates depending upon whether you are
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Speaker 2: in agreement with it, doesn't it Now, by world Jesus
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Speaker 2: does not mean this planet Earth. He doesn't mean the
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Speaker 2: dirt and the water that make up Earth. He's referring
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Speaker 2: to the world system, which is often clothed in the
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Speaker 2: garb of sophistication, refinement, culture, education, attraction, and all the
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Speaker 2: subtleties of human improvement. But the world system, at its
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Speaker 2: heart and core hates God, and therefore whoever is in
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Speaker 2: ligue with God will be hated by the world system.
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Speaker 2: Look down at verse two in the next chapter, they
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Speaker 2: notice he's calling the world. They so he's referring to people,
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Speaker 2: not a planet. The unbelievers in the world system will
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Speaker 2: make you outcasts from the synagogue, and our is coming
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Speaker 2: for everyone who kills you. To think that he is
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Speaker 2: offering a service to God. You believe that, well, you
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Speaker 2: must believe it. God said it. What is he saying.
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Speaker 2: He's saying that a number of those who are in
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Speaker 2: the world system will even be religious. The whole ecumenical
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Speaker 2: movement he has in mind, the churchy religious scene of
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Speaker 2: our era. Thinking it's doing a service to God is
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Speaker 2: in fact putting to death, hoping to remove the distinctions
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Speaker 2: of biblical evangelicalism. That will be their desire. Stop and
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Speaker 2: think about that. Who were the greatest antagonists in the
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Speaker 2: days of Jesus, The Judaizers, the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees. Well,
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Speaker 2: how about a little later on in history when Jesus
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Speaker 2: had left the earth and the disciples had left, and
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Speaker 2: there came another era of persecution called the Inquisition. What
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Speaker 2: prompted the inquisition?
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Speaker 3: The church?
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Speaker 2: The religious world. As a matter of fact, it has
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Speaker 2: been my observation in my few years in the ministry
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Speaker 2: that the single most difficult group to handle is the
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Speaker 2: religious crowd. Not believing, but the religious group. They bring persecution. Now,
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Speaker 2: having answered the question, who will persecute, it's the world system.
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Speaker 2: There's another question that we need to answer. What can
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Speaker 2: we expect from the world system? Now, let me get
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Speaker 2: even more direct about this. You are a physician, and
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Speaker 2: you're serving in a group of physicians, And I have
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Speaker 2: a case in point of a close friend of mine
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Speaker 2: in another state, hundreds of miles from here. He wants
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Speaker 2: very much to have a meaningful practice, an excellent practice
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Speaker 2: in the realm of medicine. But he also wants his
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Speaker 2: position in Jesus Christ to be supported. He has traveled
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Speaker 2: from state to state, In fact, just got back from
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Speaker 2: a traveling up into Illinois and Iowa looking for such
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Speaker 2: a group, and he cannot find one such medical group
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Speaker 2: that has medical excellence and stimulating, exciting biblical Christianity mixed together.
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Speaker 2: What's his pursuit? Why is he pursuing such a thing?
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Speaker 2: Because in his present work, which is excellent in the
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Speaker 2: realm of medicine, he is absolutely no camaraderie with his guys,
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Speaker 2: with the scene. The world system that works within the
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Speaker 2: heart of these brilliant, capable physicians is so strong that
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Speaker 2: this good man, top of his class in the medical school,
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Speaker 2: an excellent physician, cannot enjoy that relationationship any longer. He
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Speaker 2: seeks in vain to find a place where there can
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Speaker 2: be both. And I'm speaking in terms of the same
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Speaker 2: thing many of you businessmen wrestle with. One of the
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Speaker 2: few places where there can be a free career free
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Speaker 2: of the clamps on you is the ministry, and it's
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Speaker 2: getting less and less. We are in that era in
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Speaker 2: which the hatred of the world is like a smearing
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Speaker 2: effect across careers. Ask the teachers in our midst ask
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Speaker 2: the salesman who fight the battle. In the competitive jungle
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Speaker 2: of the United States, you will find precious few who say, ah,
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Speaker 2: there's no problem at all. I've not met one yet
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Speaker 2: that's in this world system and trying to do a
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Speaker 2: job for Christ hasn't begun to experience the brunt of it. Now,
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Speaker 2: look now at what can be expected. I want to
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Speaker 2: show you three things that the Lord says. First is
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Speaker 2: in verse nineteen, the last phrase, therefore, the world hates you.
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Speaker 2: The first thing you can expect from the world is hatred.
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Speaker 2: This emotion wears many faces. Friends. It can be as
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Speaker 2: blase as just avoidance or a disregard for a person.
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Speaker 2: If you're a student and you're born again and your
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Speaker 2: life is counting for Christ, not as a freak, but
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Speaker 2: as a balanced believer who is committed to the things
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Speaker 2: of God, you as an individual, will experience the hatred
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Speaker 2: of this world, often by just being avoided. Just disregard
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Speaker 2: what you feel. You will be made to appear foolish.
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Speaker 2: Your opinion will be considered unimportant. You will be seen
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Speaker 2: as obnoxious by many in your class or in your school.
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Speaker 2: This can grow to an obvious repulsion for your presence,
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Speaker 2: and that can lead to open hostility. I have a
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Speaker 2: friend who, as a little girl was a known as
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Speaker 2: a Christian in her school, and at Christmas time someone
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Speaker 2: wrapped up her gift and gave it to her, and
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Speaker 2: it was garbage. That was her Christmas gift from a
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Speaker 2: class member, a little box of garbage that's hatred. Well,
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Speaker 2: you say, well, you can overlook that as a child.
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Speaker 2: The lady speaks of it today as though it happened yesterday.
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Speaker 2: It leaves a deep impact on a life, a growing animosity.
29:56
Speaker 2: We have a man in our congregation who defended a
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Speaker 2: Christian cause this last and lost his case because of
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Speaker 2: acknowledged and admitted prejudice in the court against family ministries.
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Speaker 2: It was clear from the beginning, in fact, before the
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Speaker 2: beginning of the trial, that the whole scene was a
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Speaker 2: prejudice scene against the case of Jesus Christ. In the
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Speaker 2: whole adoptive realm another notch, another level, and you pass
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Speaker 2: it off as if to say, well, that's the signs
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Speaker 2: of our time. Yes, it's also a fulfillment of exactly
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Speaker 2: what God said about the hating of the world system.
30:40
Speaker 2: Educated respected judge who said thumbs down because the case
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Speaker 2: was pro Christ. Second, there will be persecution Verse twenty.
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Speaker 2: Remember the word that I said to you says Jesus,
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Speaker 2: a slave is not greater than his master. If they
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Speaker 2: persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
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Speaker 3: Mark.
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Speaker 2: That is a promise. That is a prediction. They will
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Speaker 2: also persecute you. You can expect next persecution. Hatred is
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Speaker 2: an attitude that works out in persecution. In this context,
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Speaker 2: the Greek term translated persecute means to put to flight,
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Speaker 2: to pursue. At Robertson, a fine Baptist scholar, has written
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Speaker 2: a book called our series of books called word Pictures
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Speaker 2: in the New Testament, and he says, this word persecute
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Speaker 2: means to chase like a wild beast. I thought that
31:43
Speaker 2: was vivid enough to be mentioned. You will be chased
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Speaker 2: like a wild beast when it reaches its height. You know,
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Speaker 2: many of us have not yet known such a thing,
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Speaker 2: and by God's grace, we've been preserved from it. We
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Speaker 2: have not known the fight, born the toil, or the pain.
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Speaker 2: But there's a whole world that has the underground Church.
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Speaker 2: This is the last time you prayed for our brothers
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Speaker 2: and sisters that have now come to millions in number.
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Speaker 2: Who would count it the greatest gift in life to
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Speaker 2: know one worship service such as this one, or to
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Speaker 2: have just one shread one page in some places of scripture,
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Speaker 2: just a page. One fine independable expositor writes this. It
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Speaker 2: may surprise some to know that among all of the
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Speaker 2: twenty centuries since our Lord left the earth, the century
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Speaker 2: which has seen more outright, vicious, violent persecution of Christians
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Speaker 2: is not the first, but the twentieth. More Christians are
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Speaker 2: being hated and destroyed, their goods and homes confiscated, their
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Speaker 2: persons attacked and mistreated in this century than any other century.
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Speaker 2: Close quote. Billy Graham entitled our world a world of
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Speaker 2: flame in the early sixties. The fire isn't less, it's greater.
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Speaker 2: Like a sleeping giant. The underground Church has given rise
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Speaker 2: to the cause of Christ through several booklets. You have
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Speaker 2: read some. The drama, bravery, and martyrdom of the early
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Speaker 2: Church are happening all over again now, and the Church
34:05
Speaker 2: of the Free World sleeps on Salem. Curbon, in his
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Speaker 2: book I Predict makes a number of sweeping predictions, not
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Speaker 2: the least of which is this matter of death, which
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Speaker 2: is the third response that we can expect. It's in
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Speaker 2: verse two of chapter sixteen. They will make you outcasts
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Speaker 2: from the synagogue. Now that applies to the apostles directly,
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Speaker 2: but the implications of it apply to every century. We
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Speaker 2: may very well lift to see a time in which
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Speaker 2: we will be expelled from public worship. In fact, he
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Speaker 2: goes on to say, there will be those who kill you,
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Speaker 2: thinking their offering your service to God. Isn't it easy
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Speaker 2: to pass over that word k I L L. It's
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Speaker 2: not an exaggerated language. Jesus chose his words carefully. It's
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Speaker 2: a bleak picture, but it's a picture in which we
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Speaker 2: are driven closer together than ever into our only source
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Speaker 2: of peace, and that's Jesus Christ. Why will they do it?
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Speaker 2: Why will this persecution occur? I find woven into the
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Speaker 2: fabric of these verses three reasons that you can see
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Speaker 2: for yourself Verse nineteen, Verse twenty one, and verse twenty five.
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Speaker 2: Just take your pencil and note them. Verse nineteen. If
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Speaker 2: you were of the world, the world would love its own.
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Speaker 2: But because you are not of the world, it hates you.
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Speaker 2: There's your first reason. Because you don't march to the
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Speaker 2: same drum beat, because you have a higher principle that
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Speaker 2: you live by the world hates you without a single
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Speaker 2: proven fact against you. You are indicted just by your commitment.
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Speaker 2: I think the best example of it we won't take
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Speaker 2: the time to look, unfortunately, is Daniel Chapter six, verses
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Speaker 2: one to nine, where that great man of God was
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Speaker 2: indicted because simply he walked with God and was surrounded
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Speaker 2: by jealous, envious men who despised his promotion and finally
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Speaker 2: had him thrown into the den of lions in a
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Speaker 2: trump up charge. Daniel was not of the world, and
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Speaker 2: he was hated and persecuted. Here's another reason, verse twenty one.
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Speaker 2: But all these things they will do to you for
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Speaker 2: my name's sake. Here's the second reason. Because they do
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Speaker 2: not know the one who sent me. You and I
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Speaker 2: will be mistreated, misunderstood, maligned, indicted by those who don't
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Speaker 2: know God. There is a basic built in guilt that
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Speaker 2: is increased when you live a righteous life surrounded by
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Speaker 2: people who do not and do not desire such genuinely righteous,
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Speaker 2: not hypocritically, but genuinely righteous. And the third reason is
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Speaker 2: in verse twenty five. You will experience this that the
37:51
Speaker 2: word may be fulfilled that is written in the law
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Speaker 2: to fulfill prophecy. Now this this bears some thought. The
38:04
Speaker 2: very existence of the Christian among worldings is a guilt
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Speaker 2: producing existence. Jesus says that very thing in verses twenty
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Speaker 2: two through twenty four. If I hadn't come, they'd not
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Speaker 2: even no sin. But I'm here and they hate me.
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Speaker 2: If I hadn't spoken these words, they would have no sin.
38:25
Speaker 2: But I've spoken them, and their guilt is increased. That's
38:29
Speaker 2: same thing true of the Christian today. Let me say
38:33
Speaker 2: that we have experienced, My wife and I, our family
38:37
Speaker 2: have experienced just a measure of this sort of thing
38:39
Speaker 2: in our neighborhood. From the day we moved in, we
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Speaker 2: were marked people. We were known as minister and family,
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Speaker 2: and we were disliked before we were ever met, And
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Speaker 2: there was the passing word in the neighborhood to watch
38:56
Speaker 2: out we were moving in before we were ever unpacked.
39:01
Speaker 2: We got wind of it, Our kids got wind of
39:04
Speaker 2: it and felt the brunt of it. Now, nobody suffered measurably.
39:08
Speaker 2: We didn't lose sleep or have rocks thrown at us.
39:11
Speaker 2: But we were misunderstood before we ever got the car
39:15
Speaker 2: door opened. So recently, an exciting thing happened. We've been
39:20
Speaker 2: determined that in God's own time and in his beautiful fashion,
39:24
Speaker 2: he will surround this neighborhood with his presence. A couple
39:30
Speaker 2: moved away and another couple moved in. They're born again.
39:35
Speaker 2: Recently a home was put up for sale, and we
39:39
Speaker 2: just asked God to take care of that detail. You know,
39:43
Speaker 2: our request was bring in some Christians. It stayed vacant
39:48
Speaker 2: for an extremely longer period of time than others. And
39:52
Speaker 2: we just recently heard that the navigator representative of Los Angeles,
40:00
Speaker 2: it's moving right in that neighborhood. Oh, those neighbors are
40:04
Speaker 2: infant some surprises. It's gonna be great. Now what am
40:08
Speaker 2: I saying? I'm saying that all hope isn't God. Our
40:12
Speaker 2: hope is in Christ. And that's where you're gonna find
40:15
Speaker 2: your hope, your shelter, your peace, your excitement, your enthusiasm.
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Speaker 2: Not in this world. This world is passing away and
40:24
Speaker 2: all the things that pertain to it. But in Christ,
40:27
Speaker 2: every ugly expression of the world is a reminder you're
40:32
Speaker 2: just about home, you know. It just is a period
40:36
Speaker 2: of time until His coming draws near. Nor is here.
40:41
Speaker 2: What a great hope? Now, how should we react in
40:48
Speaker 2: this era. Let me give you a couple of positives
40:53
Speaker 2: and a couple of negatives, a couple of things to
40:56
Speaker 2: do and a couple of things not to do. First,
41:00
Speaker 2: I think the abrupt mention of the Holy Spirit in
41:03
Speaker 2: verse twenty six is on purpose. So the first thing
41:06
Speaker 2: we would say, when the Helper comes, whom I will send,
41:10
Speaker 2: he will bear witness with me. Rely completely upon the
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Speaker 2: Holy Spirit. Don't try to fight the battle in the flesh.
41:18
Speaker 2: You'll become paranoid, defensive, an ugly, fanatical fighter. Rely completely
41:26
Speaker 2: on the Holy Spirit, the Helper. He'll fight your battles
41:31
Speaker 2: for you. He'll fill those empty houses, he'll take care
41:36
Speaker 2: of those ugly people on the job. Or he'll give
41:39
Speaker 2: you the strength to roll right on through them, which
41:42
Speaker 2: brings up the second point secondly, verse twenty seven. You
41:47
Speaker 2: also will bear witness because you've been with me from
41:50
Speaker 2: the beginning. Stand firm, boldly testify of your faith in Christ.
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Speaker 2: Don't back off answer for us. Where we live is
42:01
Speaker 2: not nullify your witness, But neither is it to cram
42:06
Speaker 2: it down their throat. It's to live as under the Lord.
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Speaker 2: Don't change your stand. Boldly move right on one New
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Speaker 2: Testament scholar says this, It is here that Christians fail most.
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Speaker 2: When we are persecuted. We back off, we run away,
42:31
Speaker 2: we change our stand. Don't change your stand. Stand firm.
42:38
Speaker 2: You're witnessing of Jesus Christ. That's why you must rely
42:43
Speaker 2: on the Holy Spirit. Fox's Book of Martyrs is a
42:45
Speaker 2: book an inch and a half thick full of prayers
42:49
Speaker 2: addressed to God by dying saints. Time and again. The
42:53
Speaker 2: Holy Spirit is called upon for strength when the flames
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Speaker 2: are licking up on those bodies. I completely on the
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Speaker 2: Holy Spirit. Stand firm, boldly testify of Christ. Now. The
43:07
Speaker 2: third piece of advice is in verse one of chapter sixteen.
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Speaker 2: It's the negative. Don't stumble. I've spoken these things that
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Speaker 2: you may be kept from stumbling. The word stumble is
43:20
Speaker 2: the Greek word scandolidzo. Get the word scandal from it.
43:24
Speaker 2: Don't be scandalized, don't be crippled. You know what stumbling is.
43:29
Speaker 2: It's just an interruption in your walk. When you stumble,
43:33
Speaker 2: your walk is interrupted. Your normal every day, moment by
43:38
Speaker 2: moment rest in the Lord, beginning in the morning and
43:41
Speaker 2: ending in the evening, is stopped when you stumble. Persecution
43:45
Speaker 2: can make us stumble. Don't stumble, says the Lord. This
43:49
Speaker 2: is to keep you from it. And one more word
43:54
Speaker 2: of warning is don't forget. That's verse four. These things
43:58
Speaker 2: I have spoken that when the hour you may remember,
44:01
Speaker 2: don't forget. Christians are notorious for remembering what we ought
44:05
Speaker 2: to forget, and forgetting what we ought to remember, aren't we.
44:09
Speaker 2: You can remember every dirty thing that the Lord's already forgiven,
44:13
Speaker 2: but you can't, for the life of you remember the
44:15
Speaker 2: very promises that will help you in these times. We're
44:19
Speaker 2: fixed with that kind of a mindset. Now, you haven't
44:26
Speaker 2: been exposed to this message by accident. You don't know
44:30
Speaker 2: what tomorrow may bring forth. For all we know, the
44:33
Speaker 2: Church of Jesus Christ will begin in an afflicted society
44:38
Speaker 2: by having a number of things happen to us. The
44:43
Speaker 2: whole realm of public worship is in the throes of
44:46
Speaker 2: decision by a nation that is twisting the very foundation
44:51
Speaker 2: upon which we were established. Business principles, free enterprise, and
44:56
Speaker 2: all of those things that we consider dear are under
44:59
Speaker 2: the God. Now the application for the Christian is to
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Speaker 2: me not that difficult to decipher. There's three statements I
45:11
Speaker 2: leave you with. Each one begins with there's a great
45:13
Speaker 2: difference between. First, there's a great difference between picking a
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Speaker 2: fight and enduring persecution. You know, in the flesh, we
45:23
Speaker 2: can pick a fight and then call it the signs
45:25
Speaker 2: of the times when somebody comes back in a taxes
45:29
Speaker 2: when really it's not the Lord's battle at all. You
45:32
Speaker 2: created the battle yourself with some stupid or fanatical statement
45:37
Speaker 2: or decision. Now, there are times when your principles must
45:41
Speaker 2: stand firm. That's not fanaticism. But when something petty, are
45:48
Speaker 2: insignificant is there and you make a major case out
45:52
Speaker 2: of it, you begin to fight or pick your own fight.
45:55
Speaker 2: That's not the signs of the time. That's a personal
45:58
Speaker 2: battle of the flesh. There's a great difference between picking
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Speaker 2: fights and enduring persecution. Second, there's a great difference between
46:07
Speaker 2: loving the world and living in it. It's been the
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Speaker 2: Lord's plan not to take us out of the world,
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Speaker 2: but to give us protection through it. The answer for
46:17
Speaker 2: me is not to lead a survival group up to
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Speaker 2: Big Bear and we all eat canary mix and sing hymns.
46:25
Speaker 2: That's not the answer. The answer for us is to
46:29
Speaker 2: stay right where we are do the job for Christ.
46:32
Speaker 2: We've never had so many unbelievers around us. They'll never
46:36
Speaker 2: get away. Now, now's our chance. What an era in
46:41
Speaker 2: which to make Christ known. They're so miserable they're not
46:44
Speaker 2: even talking about it. What an opportunity. That's the hope,
46:50
Speaker 2: that's our life. That's why you're in business. That's why
46:54
Speaker 2: I'm in business. It's to make Him known in this
47:00
Speaker 2: world without loving it and have an impact. Fact, it's
47:04
Speaker 2: the most exciting era in which to live. I'm so
47:08
Speaker 2: glad I wasn't born in the dark ages. I could
47:10
Speaker 2: just shot now. Third, there's a great difference between running
47:14
Speaker 2: scared and being informed, or the Lord wants you informed,
47:20
Speaker 2: but not running scared. There's a tick of the clock,
47:25
Speaker 2: and it's Christ's clock. And when he says, that's all,
47:30
Speaker 2: and friend, that's all. There's not even any rap sation
47:36
Speaker 2: that follows. That's it. So don't be afraid with what
47:41
Speaker 2: you hear, what you read from such books. They're true,
47:44
Speaker 2: but God's calling the shots. I've spoken to those that
47:50
Speaker 2: were living in Nazi Germany when it happened, and they said,
47:54
Speaker 2: you wouldn't believe it. We didn't believe it. Went to
47:59
Speaker 2: sleep one night just knowing a little of it in
48:02
Speaker 2: the paper in the next day it was there. Now
48:05
Speaker 2: that's what this message will keep from happening. You need
48:09
Speaker 2: to hear what is happening, and then, in your own
48:13
Speaker 2: individual capacity, respond as you should, if nothing more than
48:18
Speaker 2: being alert, ready, aw Tozer writes in his book, God
48:24
Speaker 2: tells the man who cares that people think of the
48:28
Speaker 2: world not as a battleground, but as a playground. We're
48:32
Speaker 2: not here to fight, they say, We're here to frolic.
48:35
Speaker 2: We're not in a foreign land, We're at home. Those
48:39
Speaker 2: are the words of a carnal Christian. The longer you
48:43
Speaker 2: live here, the more homesick you ought to get, and
48:48
Speaker 2: our prayer ought to be with John. Come quickly, Lord Jesus,
48:53
Speaker 2: Like would you believe before lunch? Like right now, let's
49:00
Speaker 2: a pow together. Oh maybe you don't know Christ and
49:08
Speaker 2: this message will frighten you. Or you're so much a
49:12
Speaker 2: part of the system you think of it as a harangue.
49:16
Speaker 2: You've missed the whole principle. If that's your response, I've
49:22
Speaker 2: asked the Lord to take what is not really a
49:25
Speaker 2: happy message and turn it into one of hope, clarification,
49:31
Speaker 2: a quiet reminder that the Lord is still on the throne.
49:36
Speaker 2: Nothing is out of hand. The answer is not for
49:41
Speaker 2: us to go to sleep at the switch Christian, but
49:42
Speaker 2: to be ready, speaking of Jesus as if of our
49:48
Speaker 2: closest personal friend. You've never met, the Lord. You need
49:55
Speaker 2: to come to Calvary before you take up arms. You
50:01
Speaker 2: really have nothing to fight for without Christ. He died
50:05
Speaker 2: for you. He rose that you might have life after death,
50:11
Speaker 2: purpose and meaning, definition, discernment, security. He offers you eternal
50:21
Speaker 2: life if you'll receive His son, God does. That's a
50:27
Speaker 2: matter of personal faith in Jesus Christ. Asking Jesus Christ
50:34
Speaker 2: to come into your life right where you're sitting, right now,
50:42
Speaker 2: in a very definite way. Lord, we leave this morning
50:49
Speaker 2: without fear of anyone but God, and faithful to no
50:56
Speaker 2: one but Christ. Or it may be agony, hurt, offense,
51:06
Speaker 2: suffering death. It's one thing to say that in a
51:12
Speaker 2: suit and tie in this quiet and comfortable place. It's
51:15
Speaker 2: another thing to be brought face to face with imprisonment,
51:23
Speaker 2: a loss of family and home and loved ones. What
51:30
Speaker 2: I may ever be your plan?
51:31
Speaker 5: Father made this message live on to prepare us realistically
51:38
Speaker 5: for a year of purpose in peace. I pray this
51:45
Speaker 5: Father in Jesus name. Amen.
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Speaker 4: The preceding message, The Promise of Persecution, was copyrighted in
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Speaker 4: nineteen seventy six, nineteen eighty seven, two thousand and twenty eighteen,
51:58
Speaker 4: and the sound recording was copy writed in twenty eighteen
52:02
Speaker 4: by Charles R. Swindall, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
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Speaker 4: Duplication of copyright of material for commercial use is strictly
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Speaker 4: prohibited s