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Reaching Hearts SDA Church - Locked and Loaded · Adventist Podcast Network

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Speaker 1: Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful today that we
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Speaker 1: were born again into Jesus and that through the miracle
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Speaker 1: of the Word of God, we can live forever. Lord,
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Speaker 1: we don't want to be mush-mush Christians. We want to
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Speaker 1: be Bible-believing Christians. So help us to know the way.
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Speaker 1: Help us to follow you, to be found in Christ
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Speaker 1: with no righteousness of our own based on law. but
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Speaker 1: law obeying nonetheless. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, the title
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Speaker 1: of the message today is called Locked and Loaded. It's
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Speaker 1: a military term. When you're locked and loaded, you're ready
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Speaker 1: for war, you're ready for battle, you're prepared to engage
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Speaker 1: the enemy and to protect. As Christians, we are told
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Speaker 1: to put on the whole armor of God, not part
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Speaker 1: of it, all of it. And what does that mean?
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Speaker 1: It means we are to be locked and loaded for God,
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Speaker 1: fully prepared... And fully ready to act at any time
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Speaker 1: faithfully in behalf of the church. Locked and loaded. Now
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Speaker 1: most Christians today are neither locked nor loaded. We live
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Speaker 1: in a lukewarm Laodicean era where Christians are not Bible
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Speaker 1: prepared for the challenges ahead of them. They neglect the
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Speaker 1: essential disciplines of maintaining a living and daily relationship with
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Speaker 1: God through Jesus Christ and his word. Now I'm very
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Speaker 1: grateful for the window you had this morning where you
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Speaker 1: emphasized how we can overcome depression through the Word of God.
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Speaker 1: And I lost my brother to suicide. I know what
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Speaker 1: it feels like, and I've struggled with feelings in my
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Speaker 1: life at very low times, like some of you may have.
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Speaker 1: The Word of God is a fortress in our life.
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Speaker 1: That's why children here are taught to love the Word
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Speaker 1: of God. So what are the essentials that we need
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Speaker 1: in our lives to be locked and loaded? Here are
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Speaker 1: seven concrete essentials. I'm going to put them on the screen.
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Speaker 1: Read them with me. Number one, daily Bible study. Not
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Speaker 1: every week, daily. That's why we have a Sabbath school quarterly.
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Speaker 1: It helps your devotions. The spirit of prophecy helps us
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Speaker 1: to get into the Bible. Pastors, teachers, preachers, if they
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Speaker 1: have trouble with the spirit of prophecy, they're going to
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Speaker 1: have trouble with the Bible because it points to the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Number two, what does it say next? Continual prayer. Look,
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Speaker 1: pray all day, but pray in the morning. You consecrate
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Speaker 1: yourself to the Lord in the morning. But you end
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Speaker 1: the day with prayer and you pray through the day.
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Speaker 1: Number two, Christian fellowship and worship. By the way, continual
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Speaker 1: prayer would include a prayer meeting experience in a small
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Speaker 1: group setting, Wednesday night prayer group, any chance you get
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Speaker 1: at it. Number two, Christian fellowship and worship. People say, well,
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Speaker 1: I just stay online. I'll listen to the pastor online. Well,
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Speaker 1: that works if you can't get here. But if you
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Speaker 1: can get here, it's like your way of saying, I
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Speaker 1: don't need to show up and meet the people of God.
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Speaker 1: In Hebrews 10, it says if we fail to meet
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Speaker 1: together when we can, that we're actually, in a way,
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Speaker 1: setting aside the sacrifice of Christ. Why? Because Christ died
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Speaker 1: to bring us together, not to keep us apart. The
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Speaker 1: gospel has a social dimension. And we are strengthened by
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Speaker 1: Christian fellowship and worship. Number three, witnessing. Witnessing. This idea
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Speaker 1: that you can be a Christian and not share your faith,
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Speaker 1: incompatible with apostolic Christianity. When you share, you grow. Number four,
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Speaker 1: service in the church. Now, is it fun cleaning the church? Well,
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Speaker 1: it could be. Who said yeah? Amen. Now, Barbara, you
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Speaker 1: were part of the cleaning crew. You're in your 90s now. Whoops,
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Speaker 1: I hope I didn't let it out. You look younger, though.
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Speaker 1: You look like you're in your 70s or 80s, maybe.
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Speaker 1: We'll take a vote. But you were part of our
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Speaker 1: cleaning crew. Lydia? She just had her 93rd birthday. And
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Speaker 1: that was in late Jason? Tell me. She looks younger
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Speaker 1: than she is. No, that's what I said. I agree
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Speaker 1: with you. So we'll take a vote. Is she younger
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Speaker 1: than she actually is? Raise your hand high. Barbara? Now,
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Speaker 1: Moses lived to be 120. You start thinking about that, okay? No, no, no, no, no.
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Speaker 1: You never know. But we've had a number of people
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Speaker 1: live to be almost 100 at RHI. We need some
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Speaker 1: who break the boundary. Go for 120. We'll see what
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Speaker 1: the Lord does there. But look, serving in the church
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Speaker 1: means taking care of the church. Now, I do my part.
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Speaker 1: I do. I help out in cleaning the church. I
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Speaker 1: do mechanical repairs with Mike and others at times. But
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Speaker 1: this is where the men of the church can help
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Speaker 1: out a lot more. The women do, I would say,
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Speaker 1: more than men in this area. And it's kind of
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Speaker 1: tipped wrong. Men need to rise to manhood. And there's
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Speaker 1: nothing masculine about a lazy man. Am I right? Oops,
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Speaker 1: I got in trouble there. There's nothing masculine about a
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Speaker 1: lazy man. So men, let's... Number five, sharing. Sharing doesn't
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Speaker 1: mean just our faith. Just being people who share. Who
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Speaker 1: think of others. When they see a need, they give.
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Speaker 1: They give. Number six, caring. Not just sharing to look good,
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Speaker 1: but caring because you truly care about the other person
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Speaker 1: more than you. And number seven, giving. Giving, in a sense,
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Speaker 1: means returning the tithe, but that doesn't sustain the church.
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Speaker 1: Giving to support the church. Giving in other ways, time, energy.
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Speaker 1: And if these seven disciplines are in your life, do
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Speaker 1: you realize that you have Jesus in your heart? That's
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Speaker 1: what it means. I mean, this is a way you
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Speaker 1: can get a good gauge of whether or not you're
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Speaker 1: walking with Christ. So write those down. You can take
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Speaker 1: a snapshot. Get your cell phones out. Take a picture
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Speaker 1: of that and go home on your knees and do
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Speaker 1: a spiritual assessment. Locked and loaded, seven key points. Dear heart,
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Speaker 1: if these essential seven points are present in your life,
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Speaker 1: I'm going to make a statement. You will be saved. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because these seven essentials represent the obedience of faith. They
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Speaker 1: are an evidence of righteousness by faith. When you are
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Speaker 1: transformed by faith in Jesus Christ, dear heart, these seven
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Speaker 1: disciplines pop up naturally because the Holy Spirit is working
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Speaker 1: in you. You are locked and loaded as a Christian
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Speaker 1: for God. Friend, Christ came into this world to both
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Speaker 1: save us and to change us. Did you hear me?
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Speaker 1: An unhealthy Christian is a complaining Christian who is quick
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Speaker 1: to point out the deficiencies in others, when he or
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Speaker 1: she is failing in those seven points I just mentioned here.
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Speaker 1: You cannot grow up into Jesus Christ if you're not
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Speaker 1: locked and loaded, fully prepared and ready to act in faith.
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Speaker 1: And when you are locked and loaded, friend, you experience
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Speaker 1: what Paul calls the obedience of faith, which is the
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Speaker 1: obedience that is faith, grammatically speaking. Faith and obedience are
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Speaker 1: one if Christ is the focus. Faith in Christ, obedience
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Speaker 1: in Christ, the obedience of faith. And this active faith
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Speaker 1: is perfected and revealed to be true faith. How? By
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Speaker 1: your obedience and good works. We are not saved by
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Speaker 1: good works. Not at all. But we are not saved
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Speaker 1: without them either. Turn to Romans 16, 27. Now Romans
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Speaker 1: is the book that talks about the gospel of God.
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Speaker 1: In the book of Romans, it's God's gospel. It's God's
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Speaker 1: good news that comes to us in Jesus. And Paul
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Speaker 1: tells you why God gave us the gospel. Verse 26.
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Speaker 1: But now made manifest by the prophetic scriptures made known
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Speaker 1: to all nations. Now you see the Bible there in
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Speaker 1: verse 26, which says the prophetic scriptures. According to the
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Speaker 1: commandment of the everlasting God. In other words, it comes
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Speaker 1: from God. Why is the gospel? For obedience to the faith,
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Speaker 1: or literally faith. the obedience of the faith. And so
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Speaker 1: when the gospel comes into our life, it is to
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Speaker 1: bring about obedience that is faith. That's Paul's thesis, Romans 1, 5.
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Speaker 1: Through whom, Jesus, we have received grace and apostleship to
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Speaker 1: bring about what? The obedience of faith for the sake
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Speaker 1: of his name among all the nations, or Gentiles. Friends,
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Speaker 1: God raised up the church. God brought us to Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Not so we can just get into heaven. That we
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Speaker 1: can have the inward working of the Holy Spirit in
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Speaker 1: our lives so people can come into a state of
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Speaker 1: existence where their worship experience, their life experience mirrors heaven,
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Speaker 1: the obedience of faith. In the Bible, the gospel of
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Speaker 1: God's forgiveness bears good fruit in a changed life. Fruit-bearing
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Speaker 1: Christians are faithful Christians. Fruit-bearing Christians are obedient Christians. They
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Speaker 1: are not necessarily perfect. Do you hear me? Do you
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Speaker 1: hear what I said? They're not necessarily perfect, but they're
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Speaker 1: getting there. And they're accepted in the journey as they
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Speaker 1: grow and mature. Why? Because they value the cross of
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Because they have lost themselves in Christ. They've
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Speaker 1: been justified by faith in Jesus. And thus the Holy
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Speaker 1: Spirit begins to change their lives and they live out
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Speaker 1: the seven essentials I talked about. They are locked and
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Speaker 1: loaded by the power of the Holy Spirit. So the
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Speaker 1: purpose of the gospel is to bring us into alignment
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Speaker 1: with the will of God. The Apostle Paul was a
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Speaker 1: Bible-believing Christian, but I have to qualify that a little bit.
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Speaker 1: The early church grew because they believed, they shared, and
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Speaker 1: they honored the Scriptures, plural. They called the Scriptures, they
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Speaker 1: called their Bible, they didn't have a Bible as we
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Speaker 1: have it, they called it the Scriptures or the Holy Scriptures, plural,
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Speaker 1: because the Bible had not yet coalesced into a book,
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Speaker 1: a single book that we have today. The Bible we
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Speaker 1: hold in our hand every Sabbath, crystallized in its final form,
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Speaker 1: you can write this date down, in 1826. when the
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Speaker 1: Apocrypha was rightly removed by the Scottish Bible Society. And
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Speaker 1: Bible societies all over the world began to print the
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Speaker 1: Bible in its present form, which is the Bible for
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Speaker 1: the last days. The time of the end in the
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Speaker 1: books of Daniel and Revelation occurred in the year 1798,
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Speaker 1: at the end of the 1260-year prophecy of papal supremacy
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Speaker 1: and papal persecution. The book of Daniel says that the
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Speaker 1: book of Daniel itself will be unsealed in that year.
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Speaker 1: In Revelation 11, it tells us the word of God
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Speaker 1: will be exalted after that year. And so we are
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Speaker 1: living in the time in which God has exalted his
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Speaker 1: word in such a way that we hold the Bible
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Speaker 1: in its final form for the last days. In Revelation 11,
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Speaker 1: the two witnesses are called really the Old and New Testament,
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Speaker 1: the two lampstands. The lamp stands from the old covenant,
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Speaker 1: from the new covenant, which becomes our Bible today. And
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Speaker 1: Jesus is in all of it. The early church had
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Speaker 1: the scriptures plural. After 1798, we have the Bible singular
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Speaker 1: with the scriptures that God has chosen that are the
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Speaker 1: Bible for the last days. And it is perfect for us. Now,
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Speaker 1: when someone comes along and they tell you, well, the
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Speaker 1: Bible is full of all these errors. I can show
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Speaker 1: you this, that, and so on. ignore that person. That
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Speaker 1: person has nothing to do to help you to get
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Speaker 1: to heaven. If someone comes to you in sincerity and says,
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Speaker 1: I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bible
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Speaker 1: I hold in my hand is the sweet and precious
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Speaker 1: word of God given to save me and my family,
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Speaker 1: that's someone you can listen to. In our time, the
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Speaker 1: two witnesses of the Old and New Testaments are called
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Speaker 1: the Bible and We are Bible-believing Christians, and only Bible-believing
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Speaker 1: Christians will endure and prevail in the last days in
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Speaker 1: the Mark of the Beast test. I mean, if you
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Speaker 1: want to fail the final test coming on the whole world,
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Speaker 1: just treat your Bible like it's a so-so book in
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Speaker 1: your life. But if you want to pass the test
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Speaker 1: at the time of the end, reverence your Bible, read it,
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Speaker 1: study it, share it, grow in it, submit your will
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Speaker 1: to it, and obey it, and you and your family
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Speaker 1: will be saved, just like Noah and his family were
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Speaker 1: saved in the ark. It's that basic. We must be
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Speaker 1: Bible-believing Christians, or we're not Christians. Dear heart, if you're
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Speaker 1: not a Bible-believing Christian, if you're not a Bible-reading, Bible-obeying Christian,
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Speaker 1: you're not locked and loaded for the last days. Now,
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Speaker 1: Paul knew that the only way to advance the faith
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Speaker 1: effectively was to share the Holy Scriptures. Friends, I'm going
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Speaker 1: to make a statement to you. I want you to
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Speaker 1: hear this from me. I would rather be in a
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Speaker 1: small church sharing the Bible than in a large one
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Speaker 1: that has a crowd dancing around a golden calf. Do
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Speaker 1: you hear me? I would rather be where two or
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Speaker 1: three are with this book than where 3,000 could care
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Speaker 1: less about this book. Acts 17.1. Now when they had
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Speaker 1: passed through Amphipolis, or Amphipolis, no matter how you say it,
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Speaker 1: In Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a
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Speaker 1: synagogue of the Jews. So I want to shift into
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Speaker 1: Acts 17.1 and look at how Paul engaged the Scriptures
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Speaker 1: in his evangelism and how the Scriptures became so important
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Speaker 1: for the church at Berea. Amphipolis, which is probably the
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Speaker 1: best way of saying this in Greek, means around the city.
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Speaker 1: A river flowed around it. Apollyona in Greek means of Apollo.
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Speaker 1: who was the Greek god of music, prophecy, and healing,
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Speaker 1: and the arts. Apollyona can also mean destruction, like Apollyon
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Speaker 1: in the book of Revelation. So destruction, music, prophecy, healing,
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Speaker 1: artistic stuff, like Hollywood. All around, huge crowds. Now what happens,
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Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you this question, what happens when
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Speaker 1: the truth comes to the big round cities today, full
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Speaker 1: of crowds, where people preoccupy themselves with destructive worldly rock music,
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Speaker 1: Hollywood and entertainment kind of arts, counterfeit teachings of prophecy
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Speaker 1: that cannot heal the life like Nostradamus and everything you
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Speaker 1: can imagine from the ancient Greeks and the Nephilim, who knows.
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Speaker 1: When they're into that stuff but not into the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Paul brought the scriptures to these doomed cities. He took
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Speaker 1: his Bible and he walked into those cities and they
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Speaker 1: were transformed by the word of God. Paul came to
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Speaker 1: Thessalonica where there was a Jewish synagogue in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the city with all kinds of bad elements in
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Speaker 1: it and the word of God began to work in
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Speaker 1: that city. Two books that are better in our New Testament,
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Speaker 1: two books that are letters in our New Testament are
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Speaker 1: named after the city of Thessalonica. What are they called?
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Speaker 1: Do you know? First and second Thessalonians. That's right. Acts 17,
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Speaker 1: 2 and 3. Now when you read those books, first
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Speaker 1: and second Thessalonians, you realize that they're books that are
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Speaker 1: not just about letters to the churches. They engage the
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Speaker 1: book of Daniel. They're prophetic books and engage Isaiah and
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Speaker 1: some other prophecies. Now Paul raised up the church in
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Speaker 1: Thessalonica with Bible prophecy. Now we're living in a time
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Speaker 1: where people say, you know, well, you know. That's what
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Speaker 1: the old Adventist pioneers used to do. They would teach
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Speaker 1: the prophecies and, you know, this, that. Uriah Smith isn't
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Speaker 1: right all the time. Well, the way to grow the
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Speaker 1: church today is to bring in a Christian rock group. Well,
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Speaker 1: you know what we need to do in the church?
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Speaker 1: We need to have less of the Bible and just
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Speaker 1: have some simple points on the screen about how you
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Speaker 1: can have a happy life. Well, that's not the kind
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Speaker 1: of preaching and teaching that Paul did. And that's not
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Speaker 1: the kind of preaching and teaching that raised up this movement.
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Speaker 1: We are Bible-believing, prophetically empowered believers, or we're wasting our
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Speaker 1: time in church. Now, we've had generations in our own
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Speaker 1: church that have left the church. Why? I'm going to
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Speaker 1: tell you why. Because they have not been strengthened enough.
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Speaker 1: They've not been rooted in the Word of God and
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Speaker 1: our prophetic message and own it for themselves. They got
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Speaker 1: mush in their growth here and growth in other places.
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Speaker 1: God forbid we should raise a generation that is ignorant
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Speaker 1: of the Scriptures, that does not integrate the Bible into
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Speaker 1: their personal life, that cannot articulate prophetic truth, that goes
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Speaker 1: for silly mishmash instead of deep, profound truth. There will
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Speaker 1: be a generation in the last days of young people,
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Speaker 1: and there will be a generation of children who will
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Speaker 1: own the Word of God with godly mentors, and they're
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Speaker 1: going to heaven. But God's not taking compromised Christians who
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Speaker 1: don't want any of this and who complain about it.
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Speaker 1: They'll have no place. So let's align with the kind
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Speaker 1: of thinking that really gets us there. Friends, Paul drew
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Speaker 1: from texts like Psalms 2-7, Psalms 110, 1-4. And Leviticus
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Speaker 1: 23 to prove the resurrection of the things. So Paul
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Speaker 1: brought the scriptures to these doomed cities. He came to
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Speaker 1: Thessalonica and the word of God transformed them. Acts 17,
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Speaker 1: 2 and 3. When Paul went in, as was his custom,
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Speaker 1: and for three weeks he argued with them from the what?
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Speaker 1: Now we call that an evangelistic series or small group
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Speaker 1: setting in the synagogue. We opened up the Bible. Now
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Speaker 1: we do that on Mondays and Tuesday nights at Reaching Hearts.
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Speaker 1: We do it through online means. I open up the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Mervyn opens up the Bible Monday night. And Debbie, you
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Speaker 1: kind of lead out in that part of it. You
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Speaker 1: make sure we all pray. It's like a little mini
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Speaker 1: prayer meeting. And there's people who are Adventist and not
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Speaker 1: Adventist there. And we study the Word of God. And
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Speaker 1: the same thing happens on Tuesday night. And Mark, you
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Speaker 1: have a study as well. Yes, and then I know
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Speaker 1: that Sherilyn has a study, and I may have messed
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Speaker 1: someone here. I know we have the studies that occur
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Speaker 1: in the prison where people are gone to the prison systems.
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Speaker 1: So we're sharing the Word of God. Now I'm going
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Speaker 1: to tell you something. More sharing of the Word of
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Speaker 1: God occurs in this church than when I pastored a 3,000-member
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Speaker 1: church that didn't do hardly any of that. So it's
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Speaker 1: not about crowds. It's about faithfulness. It's about making a difference,
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Speaker 1: digging in, and sharing the Word of God. Paul drew
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Speaker 1: from Psalms 2-7, Psalms 110, 1-4, great prophecies of the
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Speaker 1: coming of Christ in the Psalms. Leviticus 23, he proved
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Speaker 1: the resurrection from the sanctuary and the feasts. He used
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Speaker 1: Isaiah 53 with Daniel 9, the mare, the appearance, to
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Speaker 1: show Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, that he would appear.
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Speaker 1: And that becomes the word for New Testament eschatology. He
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Speaker 1: has appeared once and for all at the end of
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Speaker 1: the ages. I could go on. He used the first
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Speaker 1: fruits of Leviticus 23 to say that Christ is the
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Speaker 1: first fruits from the dead to show that he rose
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Speaker 1: on the third day, the feast of first fruits, after
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Speaker 1: the crucifixion. Friends, if you value and study Bible prophecy
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Speaker 1: like the early church that points to Jesus, if you
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Speaker 1: do it at the time of the end, you're locked
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Speaker 1: and loaded for the last days just like Paul. was
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Speaker 1: locked and loaded in his day for the gospel now
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Speaker 1: there are two key verbs in verse 3 number 1
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Speaker 1: Luke records that Paul was explaining and proving Jesus from
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Speaker 1: the scriptures now when you explain something what happens do
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Speaker 1: you complain or explain What? You explain. When you're explaining something,
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Speaker 1: what are you doing? You're expanding on it. You're making
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Speaker 1: it clear. You're filling in the gaps. But when you
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Speaker 1: prove it, you marshal logic and evidence to demonstrate the truth.
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Speaker 1: I mean, who wants to believe something that's nonsense? Anybody here?
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Speaker 1: I mean, there are people who will try to present truth,
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Speaker 1: and it's nonsense the way they present it. Or they're theologians.
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Speaker 1: I've heard theologians who go, when they don't like the
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Speaker 1: clear statements of the Bible, they come up with these theologies. Well,
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Speaker 1: we really, when it says that the Lord is not
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Speaker 1: willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance,
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Speaker 1: he really doesn't mean it. Now, if you do that
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Speaker 1: too much, you know what you do? You run out
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Speaker 1: of common sense. Because God doesn't break with our common
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Speaker 1: sense to make statements like that if he doesn't mean them.
21:01
Speaker 1: And so Paul had to explain and he had to
21:04
Speaker 1: prove Now, we don't see a touchy-feely religion here at Thessalonica.
21:10
Speaker 1: We see an evidence-based religion in the early church. Paul
21:14
Speaker 1: said this to the Jews. This Jesus, whom I proclaim
21:19
Speaker 1: to you, is the Christ, which means the anointed one,
21:23
Speaker 1: if he'd used Hebrew, the Messiah. He just says, look,
21:27
Speaker 1: I'm opening the scriptures. I'm proving to you that Jesus
21:31
Speaker 1: is the Messiah. So let's open the Scriptures. Daniel 9, 24.
21:34
Speaker 1: He was going right to Daniel 9. He was working
21:37
Speaker 1: off the book of Daniel to win those people to Jesus.
21:41
Speaker 1: Seventy weeks are determined. Now the Hebrew word is cut off.
21:45
Speaker 1: Cut off of what? The longer time prophecy of the
21:49
Speaker 1: 2300 years of Daniel 8. So the first part of
21:52
Speaker 1: that big huge prophecy that reaches the time of the
21:54
Speaker 1: end is cut off for your people and your holy city. Why?
21:59
Speaker 1: To finish the transgression of the Jewish people. to make
22:02
Speaker 1: an end of sins, that's all of us, to make
22:06
Speaker 1: reconciliation for iniquity, there's no definite article in the Hebrew,
22:11
Speaker 1: it just means all iniquity. While he was saving the
22:14
Speaker 1: Jewish nation, he'd saved the world. And then, to bring
22:18
Speaker 1: in everlasting righteousness, Jesus is the new Melchizedek, the new
22:22
Speaker 1: king of righteousness. To seal up Chodzon, the 2300 year
22:27
Speaker 1: prophecy of Daniel 8, and literally envision actually seal up
22:35
Speaker 1: vision and nabi. It's chadzon and nabi and prophet and
22:39
Speaker 1: prophecy or the prophet. And to anoint, I'm working off
22:43
Speaker 1: the Hebrew in my head, the most holy. Now, you
22:45
Speaker 1: see that word most holy? How many of you see it?
22:48
Speaker 1: Are you looking on the screen? Look in your Bible. Now,
22:52
Speaker 1: if something is most holy, is it about God or angels?
22:59
Speaker 1: It's always about God. I mean, that's a loaded word there.
23:02
Speaker 1: Let's go to the next word. Now, know therefore. Now,
23:07
Speaker 1: God doesn't tell us to know something if we can't
23:10
Speaker 1: know it. Know therefore and understand that from the going
23:13
Speaker 1: forth of the command, the Hebrew is davar, the word.
23:17
Speaker 1: The command is a decree, the word, and the word
23:20
Speaker 1: is Jesus. Now, this is the road that leads us
23:23
Speaker 1: to Jesus, a decree that is Jesus-bound to restore and
23:27
Speaker 1: build Jerusalem until, now look at, what does it say next?
23:32
Speaker 1: Help me with it. Messiah, Mashiach Nagid in Hebrew, Messiah
23:37
Speaker 1: the Prince. In other words, here's a time prophecy of
23:41
Speaker 1: 490 years, 70 times 7, 70 weeks, that from a
23:46
Speaker 1: decree to restore and build Jerusalem, gets Jesus online. The
23:50
Speaker 1: Mashiach Nagid, the Messiah Prince shows up. And look, then
23:54
Speaker 1: he breaks it down. There should be 7 weeks and
23:56
Speaker 1: 62 weeks. First part, 7 times 7, 49 years. Second part,
24:01
Speaker 1: 434 years, 62 times 7. And then you have the
24:05
Speaker 1: Messiah shows up. I mean, this is math. Sir Isaac
24:08
Speaker 1: Newton said the 70 weeks of Daniel 9 is the
24:10
Speaker 1: cornerstone of the Christian religion. Why? Because, friends, this is
24:16
Speaker 1: evidence that passes the science test. He is the father
24:20
Speaker 1: of modern science. And so Paul used this science kind
24:24
Speaker 1: of evidence to win these Christians. He goes on. The
24:27
Speaker 1: street should be built again. The wall even troubles times.
24:30
Speaker 1: It starts out with trouble, ends with Jesus. Next verse.
24:34
Speaker 1: And after the 62 weeks, which is 7 times 7,
24:38
Speaker 1: 62 times 7, Messiah shall be what? He dies. You
24:44
Speaker 1: have the prophecy predicting the death of Jesus. But not
24:47
Speaker 1: for himself. Jesus didn't die for himself. Who did he
24:49
Speaker 1: die for? Help me. He died for us. Not for himself.
24:54
Speaker 1: And the people of the prince who is to come
24:56
Speaker 1: shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. People have argued
24:58
Speaker 1: about that for so many years. Some people say, well,
25:01
Speaker 1: it's the people of Jesus, the Messiah Prince, the Jewish
25:05
Speaker 1: people that destroys the city and the sanctuary. Others have said, no, no, no, no.
25:10
Speaker 1: The prince here at Naguid is Titus, the Roman prince.
25:13
Speaker 1: They destroyed the city and the sanctuary. Do you know
25:15
Speaker 1: how the Gospel of John applies this verse in John 14?
25:18
Speaker 1: It doesn't do it either way. Jesus says, the prince
25:21
Speaker 1: of this world is coming, and he has no power
25:24
Speaker 1: over me. The prince that destroyed the Jewish nation, the
25:27
Speaker 1: prince that destroyed the people of God, that attacked the
25:31
Speaker 1: true sanctuary, who was Jesus, was Satan. He showed up
25:35
Speaker 1: to tackle him out and bring him out. And two
25:38
Speaker 1: centuries before Christ, that's exactly how that verse was interpreted
25:42
Speaker 1: in the Dead Sea Scrolls when they engaged Daniel 9
25:46
Speaker 1: in the Dead Sea Scrolls in 11Q, which is the
25:50
Speaker 1: Melchizedek document, cave 11. So sometimes we have to grow
25:54
Speaker 1: as Seventh-day Adventists. We don't have all the answers. We
25:56
Speaker 1: need to recognize that the text can lead us in
25:59
Speaker 1: great directions. Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. You
26:01
Speaker 1: know how Jesus interpreted that in the Gospel of John?
26:03
Speaker 1: Destroy this temple. In three days, I'll raise it up again.
26:06
Speaker 1: Not just the Jewish temple, which is destroyed after the
26:10
Speaker 1: 70 weeks. They get him in the middle of the
26:12
Speaker 1: 70 weeks. The end of it shall be with a flood,
26:16
Speaker 1: like Noah's flood, until the end. Now, the end of it,
26:20
Speaker 1: the Hebrew can be read, his end. shall be with
26:23
Speaker 1: a flood. Christ is swept away by the flood of
26:28
Speaker 1: human sin and evil. It's the bigger flood. Noah's flood
26:32
Speaker 1: was nothing like what he experienced on the cross. Until
26:35
Speaker 1: the end of the war, desolations are decreed. It goes
26:38
Speaker 1: on to say Messiah will be cut off in the
26:40
Speaker 1: middle of the week. I put the chart up there.
26:42
Speaker 1: If you want to see it all, go to the
26:44
Speaker 1: next slide. Here it is. The decree occurred in the
26:48
Speaker 1: spring of 457 B.C., Seven weeks, 49 years, brings us
26:53
Speaker 1: to 48 B.C., Israel's restored. 62 more weeks, no year zero,
26:59
Speaker 1: brings us to A.D. 27. The middle of the last week, A.D. 31,
27:03
Speaker 1: Messiah's cut off, it'll say in verse 27, the new
27:06
Speaker 1: covenant will be established. And then the stoning of Stephen
27:09
Speaker 1: leads us to the apostolic expansion. Paul used this. He
27:13
Speaker 1: taught this. I can show you many examples in the
27:15
Speaker 1: New Testament where he engages the book of Daniel to
27:18
Speaker 1: raise up churches. So when people come along and they say, well,
27:21
Speaker 1: we don't need prophecy to have church growth. Is that
27:25
Speaker 1: apostolic Christianity? Is it? It's nonsense. It's not. So let's
27:32
Speaker 1: stick with the Bible. Now, I'm so proud of the
27:36
Speaker 1: Angels in the Glen website. Are you? Now, Jim, you
27:40
Speaker 1: just had a prayer meeting here, talk this Wednesday, where
27:43
Speaker 1: you went into angelsintheglen.org, and you focused on the 70 weeks,
27:48
Speaker 1: and one thing you focused on was we are almost
27:52
Speaker 1: to the 2,000th anniversary of the baptism of Jesus in
27:55
Speaker 1: AD 27. That's next year. And so wouldn't it be
27:59
Speaker 1: great to have a soul winning emphasis on the world church?
28:03
Speaker 1: And the world church is focusing on soul winning baptisms, evangelism,
28:08
Speaker 1: based on the 70 weeks day and night. I really
28:10
Speaker 1: like that. I think it's cool. Now I want to
28:13
Speaker 1: draw your attention to something. In verse 24, it said
28:16
Speaker 1: the 70 weeks would come to anoint, or The holy
28:19
Speaker 1: of holies. Kodesh kodeshim, the most holy one. Now, is
28:23
Speaker 1: that talking about angels or God? That's right. You can't
28:28
Speaker 1: be most holy unless you're God. And so the Messiah,
28:32
Speaker 1: now think about this. At the council of Nicaea, just
28:36
Speaker 1: like Paul, Athanasius, the great student of the Bible prophecy,
28:40
Speaker 1: when he was arguing against the satanic area of sin,
28:46
Speaker 1: not sin, but sin, error of Arianism that would rob
28:51
Speaker 1: Jesus of his divinity. He argued from the Bible that
28:55
Speaker 1: Jesus is the anointed one of Daniel 9. He went
28:58
Speaker 1: to the 70 weeks. And the Messiah, he argued, who
29:03
Speaker 1: is called the most holy, cannot be a created being
29:08
Speaker 1: because when you're Kodeshim, when you're most holy, you are God.
29:13
Speaker 1: So to bring in everlasting righteousness, he argued, to be
29:16
Speaker 1: the holy of holies that is anointed at his baptism.
29:19
Speaker 1: Christ has to be God. And he met the error
29:23
Speaker 1: of the doctrine that Christ was a created being from
29:26
Speaker 1: the 70 weeks of Daniel 9. And he did a
29:28
Speaker 1: little bit more than that. See, Paul did the same thing.
29:32
Speaker 1: Paul preached Christ as God from the 70 weeks. But
29:36
Speaker 1: Athanasius in 325, when he combated Arianism, this false anti-Trinitarian
29:42
Speaker 1: theology that had come into the church there from Egypt
29:46
Speaker 1: where they would mishmash the scriptures away. Athanasius, who would
29:51
Speaker 1: later be persecuted by Constantine, he was a forerunner of
29:56
Speaker 1: the Seventh-day Adventist church. Most people don't know it. Because
29:59
Speaker 1: he actually, in his treatise on the incarnation, tells us
30:03
Speaker 1: that the 70 weeks were cut off. He understood they
30:06
Speaker 1: were part of the longer time prophecy of the 2,300 days.
30:11
Speaker 1: And years later, when Desmond Ford would come upon the
30:13
Speaker 1: scene and say, well, cut off doesn't mean cut off,
30:16
Speaker 1: katak in Daniel 9.24, you have an early 4th century
30:19
Speaker 1: witness to how that text would have been read that
30:22
Speaker 1: gave rise to our understanding of that the 70 weeks
30:25
Speaker 1: is part of the 23-year prophecy that brings us to
30:28
Speaker 1: the year 1844, when God starts to fix things in
30:32
Speaker 1: heaven and earth to prepare the world for the coming
30:34
Speaker 1: of Christ. And so don't negate those early Christians' ability
30:38
Speaker 1: to study the Bible. So what was the result in
30:40
Speaker 1: Thessalonica of preaching Jesus with Bible prophecy from Isaiah, Daniel, Moses,
30:45
Speaker 1: and Psalms? Look at verse 4. And some of them,
30:48
Speaker 1: that is the Jews, were persuaded. And a great multitude
30:52
Speaker 1: of the devout Greeks, so some Jews and a lot
30:54
Speaker 1: of Greeks, and not a few of the leading women
30:57
Speaker 1: joined Paul and Silas. Now most of the new converts
31:00
Speaker 1: came from the Greeks. They turned their backs on Apollo
31:05
Speaker 1: and the gods for Jesus. And godly leading women of
31:10
Speaker 1: the city joined the church to follow Jesus. Can I
31:13
Speaker 1: hear an amen from the ladies at least? Men, you
31:16
Speaker 1: can join in that. The church needs godly women who
31:20
Speaker 1: are workers for God and not complainers for the devil.
31:25
Speaker 1: And you know, God will bring consecrated women in the
31:28
Speaker 1: church if we don't rise. And those women transformed those churches.
31:34
Speaker 1: They built up those churches. They put their effort in
31:37
Speaker 1: those churches. Friends, the labor and love as a godly
31:40
Speaker 1: woman is much needed today in the church for the
31:43
Speaker 1: salvation of souls. Luke is drawing from the language of
31:47
Speaker 1: Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19, the verse that follows.
31:51
Speaker 1: Just like Sodom and Gomorrah, these unconverted Jewish non-believers got
31:55
Speaker 1: jealous of Paul's teaching of Jesus, the Bible prophecy and teaching,
31:59
Speaker 1: so they connived and they moved on the mob to
32:02
Speaker 1: attack the house of Jason, to drag him and other
32:06
Speaker 1: new Christians out and to molest them. Acts 17.5. Notice
32:10
Speaker 1: the similarity of the Sodom and Gomorrah story, but the Jews...
32:13
Speaker 1: who were not persuaded, becoming envious to some of the
32:17
Speaker 1: evil men. Now that's the word used in Genesis 19.
32:20
Speaker 1: From the marketplace and gathering a mob, just like this
32:23
Speaker 1: surrounded Lot's house, set all the city in an uproar
32:27
Speaker 1: and attacked the house of Jason, just like they attacked
32:29
Speaker 1: Lot's house, and sought to bring them out to the people. See,
32:33
Speaker 1: if you don't accept Christ in the Bible, you can
32:35
Speaker 1: find yourself in a mob. That's what's happening here. Certain
32:38
Speaker 1: key words are used in the Greek language. The word
32:41
Speaker 1: jealous is zealous in Greek. Suggesting the idea of terrorists.
32:47
Speaker 1: The zealots in Paul's day were Jewish terrorists. And they
32:51
Speaker 1: would take a dagger. Josephus calls them the men of
32:53
Speaker 1: the dagger. In a crowd, they would stick it in
32:55
Speaker 1: a Roman. Luke also uses the Greek word for agitators
32:59
Speaker 1: and the mob. Dear heart, I want to make a
33:02
Speaker 1: clear statement here. God is not in the backbiting business.
33:06
Speaker 1: The terrorism business. God does not work in mobs, agitators,
33:11
Speaker 1: or social justice warriors. Or Christian nationalists. You hear me?
33:16
Speaker 1: Left or right. In the church and for the church.
33:21
Speaker 1: God changes individual hearts not by crowds, not by force,
33:26
Speaker 1: not by intimidation. God changes them by Jesus. You can't
33:31
Speaker 1: take a majority vote to kill people and just because
33:34
Speaker 1: it's a majority vote make it noble and right. Poor Jason.
33:39
Speaker 1: They couldn't find Paul so they dragged Jason and his
33:42
Speaker 1: friends out of his house. Look at verse 6. But
33:46
Speaker 1: when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and
33:49
Speaker 1: some of the brethren, the rulers of the city, crying,
33:51
Speaker 1: These who have turned the world upside down have come
33:55
Speaker 1: here too. That's an amazing statement. Paul and Silas and
34:01
Speaker 1: Luke and the others were reaching hearts international for Jesus.
34:05
Speaker 1: They had turned the world upside down. The whole world
34:07
Speaker 1: was changed by the preaching of Christ and the prophecies,
34:11
Speaker 1: and they knew it. In verse 7, they accused them
34:14
Speaker 1: of undermining the government by preaching another king, King Jesus
34:19
Speaker 1: instead of Caesar. Acts 17, verse 7. Verse 7, next slide.
34:26
Speaker 1: I'll wait till you get it. Take your time. Acts 17, 7. Well,
34:32
Speaker 1: I'll read it to you. And Jason has received them
34:40
Speaker 1: and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar,
34:43
Speaker 1: saying that there is another king, Jesus. That's what verse
34:47
Speaker 1: 7 says. You see it there. Jason has hardened them,
34:50
Speaker 1: and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar,
34:53
Speaker 1: saying there is another king, Jesus. That was an offense
34:58
Speaker 1: punished by death in Roman times, usually death on a cross.
35:01
Speaker 1: On Jesus' cross, Pilate wrote the inscription over his head
35:05
Speaker 1: with a crown of thorns, Jesus, king of the Jews. Jesus.
35:09
Speaker 1: Jesus is always another king, the true king. And I
35:12
Speaker 1: ask you the question today, is Jesus your king? Are
35:17
Speaker 1: you proud of saying, I'm a Christian, Christ is king?
35:22
Speaker 1: It could cost you your life at the time of
35:24
Speaker 1: the end if you're faithful to Jesus. The rulers of
35:26
Speaker 1: the city sized it up pretty quick as they took
35:29
Speaker 1: some money, some bail money from Jason as security, like
35:34
Speaker 1: a payment, and then they let him go. The brethren
35:37
Speaker 1: didn't fool around. They realized that the clock was ticking.
35:40
Speaker 1: They quickly sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea,
35:43
Speaker 1: where they entered the synagogue in that city also. Look
35:45
Speaker 1: at verse 10, Acts 17, 10. The brethren immediately sent
35:50
Speaker 1: Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when
35:53
Speaker 1: they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue. It was
35:56
Speaker 1: a common practice for Paul to take the gospel first
35:59
Speaker 1: to the Jews, then to the Gentiles, so he would
36:02
Speaker 1: spend his time initially in the synagogue of a city.
36:06
Speaker 1: The diaspora... The spreading out of the Jewish people that
36:09
Speaker 1: had occurred had put synagogues all over the world. Romans 1,
36:13
Speaker 1: 16 and 17. Paul makes reference of this. He says,
36:16
Speaker 1: for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the
36:19
Speaker 1: power of God for, and what's the key word? Help me.
36:22
Speaker 1: Salvation to the elect. What did it say? Now here's
36:30
Speaker 1: an example. Does Paul mean what he means? To everyone.
36:37
Speaker 1: but who has faith. So God provides salvation for everyone,
36:42
Speaker 1: but those who have faith receive it. To the Jew
36:46
Speaker 1: first and also to the Greek. So he agrees with Paul.
36:49
Speaker 1: Peter does. God is not willing that any should perish.
36:53
Speaker 1: But who are those who will be saved? Those who
36:55
Speaker 1: have faith. Verse 17. For in it the righteousness of
37:00
Speaker 1: God is revealed through faith for faith. If God doesn't
37:03
Speaker 1: provide an opportunity for people to be saved, if he's
37:05
Speaker 1: just holding it back stingy like, for a few. What
37:08
Speaker 1: kind of God is that? See, Paul says the righteousness
37:12
Speaker 1: of God is revealed through faith to faith. God himself
37:16
Speaker 1: is declared to be righteous in Romans 3 because Jesus
37:18
Speaker 1: died for everyone. As it is written, he through faith
37:22
Speaker 1: is righteous shall live. And Paul is very clear about
37:25
Speaker 1: works of the law shall no flesh be justified in
37:27
Speaker 1: sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin,
37:30
Speaker 1: Romans 3. But now a righteousness has been manifested apart
37:34
Speaker 1: from the law In Romans 3, he quotes Daniel 9, 24.
37:38
Speaker 1: The righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ. For
37:42
Speaker 1: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Therefore,
37:45
Speaker 1: we're justified freely as a gift. Christ died for the world.
37:51
Speaker 1: He wasn't stingy on the cross. The love of God
37:54
Speaker 1: was not limited on the cross. If the love of
37:57
Speaker 1: God is limited, he's Satan, really. Because he's stingy with love,
38:02
Speaker 1: God poured a flood of love upon this world that
38:06
Speaker 1: would never be withdrawn to the end of time. And
38:09
Speaker 1: when people stand before the judgment bar of God at
38:12
Speaker 1: the end, and they claim that somehow God had chosen
38:15
Speaker 1: for them to be lost, it won't work in the
38:18
Speaker 1: judgment day. They will see Jesus in their own mind,
38:22
Speaker 1: hanging on that cross, saying, Father, forgive them. They know
38:27
Speaker 1: not what they do. And who is he praying for?
38:30
Speaker 1: He was praying for Caiaphas. He was praying for the
38:34
Speaker 1: people that were crucifying him. And Revelation 1.7 says they're lost. Behold,
38:40
Speaker 1: he's coming with clouds and every eye will see him
38:42
Speaker 1: and those that pierced him. He was praying for people
38:45
Speaker 1: who'd be lost. Father, forgive them. They know not what
38:48
Speaker 1: they do. There is not a limited atonement. There is
38:52
Speaker 1: unlimited love at the cross of Calvary. And you can't
38:56
Speaker 1: connect the dots and be true to the Bible without
38:58
Speaker 1: Unless you realize that. And so what does the gospel do?
39:01
Speaker 1: In it, the righteousness of God is revealed through faith.
39:04
Speaker 1: For faith is written, he through faith is righteous to live.
39:07
Speaker 1: I don't want to worship a mean God. I want
39:09
Speaker 1: to worship a loving God. The gospel reveals Jesus as God. Now,
39:15
Speaker 1: the brilliant Jewish converts valued the Holy Scriptures just like
39:19
Speaker 1: we should today. They tested everything with the Scriptures. Every
39:23
Speaker 1: single day, every idea. They welcomed Bible-based preaching and teaching.
39:27
Speaker 1: They checked it out for themselves every day. They didn't
39:30
Speaker 1: get tired of it. They didn't ask for naive mush
39:32
Speaker 1: and simpleton spiritual food. The Berean Christians wanted Bible meat
39:37
Speaker 1: so they could grow up and go deep into God
39:39
Speaker 1: and the Word of God. Now my translation says they
39:42
Speaker 1: were more noble than the Thessalonians who were already noble.
39:46
Speaker 1: The Greek literally says they were well-born and It's an idiom, open-minded.
39:52
Speaker 1: I've met scholars who are closed-minded to the love of
39:55
Speaker 1: God based on the evidence of the Bible. They need
39:58
Speaker 1: to study the prophecies to bring in everlasting righteousness. To
40:02
Speaker 1: atone for iniquity without the definite article, all iniquity. It's
40:07
Speaker 1: possible to be a traditionalist and let tradition prevent you
40:10
Speaker 1: from opening your eyes so you can see Jesus. Let
40:13
Speaker 1: me ask you a question. If God is sovereign, does
40:17
Speaker 1: it take more power To forgive someone who will never
40:22
Speaker 1: be saved in your heart or just to forgive the
40:26
Speaker 1: people that will respond? Which is the greater God? You see,
40:32
Speaker 1: the forgiveness of the king in Matthew 18 is a
40:34
Speaker 1: universal forgiveness for all sin. On the cross of Christ,
40:39
Speaker 1: Paul says, God in Christ has forgiven us. And the
40:45
Speaker 1: tragedy is there'll be people who'll be lost that Jesus
40:47
Speaker 1: pled for in the garden. that he pled for on
40:50
Speaker 1: the cross, who will never accept him, but not because
40:53
Speaker 1: of the love of God, because of their own stubborn hearts.
40:56
Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians 3, 14-7, But their minds were hardened. For
41:01
Speaker 1: to this day, when they read the old covenant, that
41:04
Speaker 1: same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ it is
41:06
Speaker 1: taken away. Yet to this day, whenever Moses has read,
41:10
Speaker 1: a veil lies over their minds. But when a man
41:12
Speaker 1: turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the
41:14
Speaker 1: Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the
41:15
Speaker 1: Lord is, there is freedom. The Jewish leaders in those
41:19
Speaker 1: synagogues that did not accept Christ were not able to
41:22
Speaker 1: understand because Christ is the key that unlocks the door
41:25
Speaker 1: to Bible prophecy. The Bible is a liberating book for
41:29
Speaker 1: those who are seeking truth from God. Take your Bibles
41:31
Speaker 1: out and hold them in your hand. Could you do
41:32
Speaker 1: that real quick? Take your Bible out and hold it
41:35
Speaker 1: in your hand. Now, doesn't it feel real good to
41:38
Speaker 1: have a Bible in your hand? Does it? Man, imagine
41:42
Speaker 1: what your life would be like without this Bible. It
41:46
Speaker 1: opens the mind. It opens the heart. It opens the
41:49
Speaker 1: life to new possibility. It educates and transforms a person.
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Speaker 1: If you're ignorant, you can become intelligent and wise through
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Speaker 1: the Bible. It elevates the character and refines the person.
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Speaker 1: It converts hearts to God. It makes a person noble
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Speaker 1: so that they are more noble, open-minded. It gave birth
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Speaker 1: to modern science. Sir Isaac Newton, the great monotheist, was
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Speaker 1: the student of the Bible. It gave us the scientific method.
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Speaker 1: And when he wrote his book, Physica, he quotes Daniel 2,
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Speaker 1: Bible prophecy. I had a person recently who I love
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Speaker 1: mock me. Really, I'm serious here. Mock me because I
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Speaker 1: spend time with children in the Bible. Kids don't need
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Speaker 1: the Bible. The Bible mocked me. And I'm praying for
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Speaker 1: that dear blind person. God loves them. We are all
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Speaker 1: assaulted with junk every day. The kids need the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Let's spend our precious spare time in the Bible alone
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Speaker 1: with God, together in small groups, teaching children, encouraging them, pathfinders.
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Speaker 1: And what was the result of good Bible preaching and
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Speaker 1: teaching in the church of Berea? Look at verses 12
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Speaker 1: to 14. Many of them, therefore, what does it say?
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Speaker 1: Believed with not a few Greek women of high standing
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Speaker 1: as well as men. The women were more likely than
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Speaker 1: the men to believe, but the men believed too. Verses
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Speaker 1: 13 and 14. But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned
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Speaker 1: that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at
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Speaker 1: Berea also, guess what they did? They came there too,
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Speaker 1: stirring up and inciting the crowds. Then the brethren immediately
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Speaker 1: sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but
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Speaker 1: Silas and Timothy remained there. I have found in my
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Speaker 1: personal life as a pastor that when I commit myself
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Speaker 1: to the study of the Bible, to sharing the Bible
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Speaker 1: as a pastor through small groups... mentoring, publications, radio, and
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Speaker 1: the like. Satan stirs up unconverted church members to say
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Speaker 1: we don't need all that Bible. There's nothing special about
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Speaker 1: this building that we're in today in and of itself.
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Speaker 1: Do you realize that? Now, we have a wonderful church building.
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Speaker 1: We have 250 membership in our church, and give or
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Speaker 1: take maybe 120 or so on a Saturday morning. COVID,
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Speaker 1: we have an online church that fills it out. We
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Speaker 1: were never a megachurch. Why did God give us this building?
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Speaker 1: Not so that we can glory in a crowd, but
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Speaker 1: that we would have an opportunity to share the word
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Speaker 1: of God with people who have never heard it before.
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Speaker 1: You know, we are coming to the end of our
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Speaker 1: lease with the, not lease, but the renters are leaving
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Speaker 1: here November 29. They've been here almost eight years. They've
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Speaker 1: purchased a synagogue that they've transformed into a church. I
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Speaker 1: had a chance to have the committal for Pastor Oscar's
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Speaker 1: brother when he died in COVID. I met the leadership
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Speaker 1: of the denomination he represents. I've studied with him at
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Speaker 1: times the Word of God and the Bible. We had
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Speaker 1: a chance to encourage his mother through the teaching of
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Speaker 1: the resurrection. I gave her a copy of The Desire
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Speaker 1: of Ages in Spanish. And we're inviting those people before
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Speaker 1: they leave to come here to a worship service at
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Speaker 1: RHI and to testify a little bit and for us
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Speaker 1: to pray for them. Because that relationship matters when they
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Speaker 1: move on. See, this church is not just about us.
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Speaker 1: This church is about sharing and caring for people who
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Speaker 1: need the prophecies, the three angels' messages for the time
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Speaker 1: of the end. And I've learned something from them. We're
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Speaker 1: not better people than them. They were here earlier this
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Speaker 1: morning to pray than we were. Did you know that?
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Speaker 1: They came in greater numbers to pray than we do.
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Speaker 1: They are consistent. I've seen the senior pastor of that
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Speaker 1: church on his knees in the office area praying for me,
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Speaker 1: praying for our church. See, just because they don't have
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Speaker 1: certain key things like the Sabbath and prophecy correct doesn't
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Speaker 1: mean they aren't the children of God. These are godly
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Speaker 1: people who have come to us. They could learn a
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Speaker 1: thing or two from us, but we could learn a
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Speaker 1: thing or two from them too, and we have. And
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Speaker 1: so I would exhort you to be an open-minded Berean
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Speaker 1: kind of Christian where you're concerned more about somebody else
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Speaker 1: than proving a point. When I was at my church
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Speaker 1: up in Oakwood, I'm almost done here, but I've got
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Speaker 1: to share this with you. We brought a group of
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Speaker 1: people into the church from the Armstrong group, the Seventh-day
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Speaker 1: Church of God, and we were studying with them. And
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Speaker 1: they had this problem with Christmas trees in their theology.
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Speaker 1: So I asked the church that year, please, let's not
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Speaker 1: put a Christmas tree up this year. Let's just work
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Speaker 1: with these dear people. They've made so many changes. They've
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Speaker 1: come into the church. They're getting it. And there were
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Speaker 1: two rebellious women in that church who defied my leadership
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Speaker 1: as a pastor. And they stuck a Christmas tree up
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Speaker 1: to make a point like they were something special. And
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Speaker 1: these dear people who were trying to process and figure
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Speaker 1: things out, we never saw them again. In the judgment day,
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Speaker 1: if those two Adventists are still unconverted, they'll have to
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Speaker 1: answer for that. Because God was bringing the Greeks to us.
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Speaker 1: He was bringing people who needed to grow to us.
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Speaker 1: And we needed humility and love in our church, not browbeating,
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Speaker 1: virtue signaling, and this kind of thing. So truth without
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Speaker 1: love doesn't do us any good. When God brings people
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Speaker 1: into our church, they need to find a Bible-believing church
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Speaker 1: that is a loving, spiritual church. Not a rock and
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Speaker 1: roll church. Not a social club church. Not a righteous, right,
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Speaker 1: arrogant church gloating in perfection. It's full of itself. Friends,
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Speaker 1: We need to be locked and loaded Christians who study
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Speaker 1: the Bible, who love Jesus, who is our most holy Messiah. Look,
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Speaker 1: if Christ doesn't have God credentials, the salvation doesn't work.
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Speaker 1: There is nothing compelling about a Savior who does not
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Speaker 1: have the God credentials we need. So I challenge you today,
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Speaker 1: in love, to be like the Bereans. You want to
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Speaker 1: be like the Bereans? Raise your hand high. Berean Christians,
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Speaker 1: you want to be like Bereans? locked and loaded to
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Speaker 1: make a difference, then study your Bible, learn Bible prophecy,
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Speaker 1: let the love of God revealed in the Bible work
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Speaker 1: for you so your life will matter. Almighty God would
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Speaker 1: have it so. Dear Heavenly Father, one day this world
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Speaker 1: will be in a mess, much more than now. Make
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Speaker 1: us people of the Bible. Lord, not to show off,
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Speaker 1: but to be right. Thank you, Lord, for Paul, who
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Speaker 1: used prophecy to build up the Christian church. Help us, Father,
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Speaker 1: to let prophecy use us to prepare the world for
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Speaker 1: the coming of Christ. May there be no compromise in
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Speaker 1: our lives, but Lord, may we be Christians with love,
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Speaker 1: who share the truth in love, never browbeating someone who
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Speaker 1: differs with us, but growing in the love of God
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Speaker 1: that's beyond power. In Jesus' name, bless everyone. In Jesus' name, amen.