11-15-2020 Revelation 20 (Class)
<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> good morning. Anybody’s wondering it’s not anybody in here. So, or I’ve told you already Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to revelation we’re in the end of revelation, chapter 19, the beginning of chapter 20, we do not have any questions, any new questions for today because we’re not going to make it through chapter 20 today.
Okay. Just to set the expectations where they belong, because they don’t belong very high. This is one of those passages is one of those chapters in revelation where a lot of the things that people teach from the book of revelation come from these verses, especially concerning the end times. And so we are going to take a little bit of time and kind of go through this,
not try and push too quickly to where we can get an idea and a firm grasp of what is John saying? Why is he saying it and, and be clear in our minds concerning that as we go through from chapter 20 in the chapters, 21 and 22. So let’s start with a word of prayer and then we’ll begin our gracious father in heaven with all humility and a gratefulness we bound before you thankful for this day that you’ve given to us thankful for the life and the energy that we have to be able to assemble together,
mindful of those who are struggling because of illness. Many throughout our country that are struggling because of COVID mindful of, of the whitleys and praying that they recover quickly and fully from their struggles with this disease. We’re mindful of all those who are still at home because of this disease and the many, many disruptions that is brought to their life. We pray that you be with them and comfort them in this hard time.
Help us to be a comfort to them as well. Pray that you be with those who are leading our nation now and in the future, pray for the leaders of every nation throughout the world, that they might make decisions that provide doors of opportunity for the gospel to be preached throughout the world and help us in every country, as Christians to have a mindset that is determined to take the gospel to the loss throughout the world.
Lord, we pray that as we go through this time of study, the things that we read and the things that we understand from this book might be clear to us, but also that we might keep fast in our mind the main message of the book. And that is that as long as we’re faithful to you, we are victorious in the end, no matter what happens in this life,
all this, we pray in Jesus name, amen, as we go through. And as we conclude the book of revelation, what I hope is that you know more about revelation than you did before we started. If nothing more than just going through the questions, because the majority of the questions aren’t, what does it mean? The majority of the questions are what’s in the book,
what’s in the text. And if you have a grasp of what’s in the text and you connect it with the message of the book, because the message of the book is simple. The message of the book is clear the message of the book, all revelation, the entire book is one single solitary message. It is Christ telling the church. You may go through hard times,
but if you’re faithful to me, you’re victorious in the end or in a short phrase, the message of the book is the overcomers come over, okay? The ones who overcome in this life come over to be with God when this life is finished. Okay. That is the message of the book. And so everything that we go through, whether you get every aspect of every vision,
whether you get every detail or not just remember when you back up, it’s a picture book, it’s got a symbol message and the message is Christ wins and Satan loses. That’s the message of revelation. So when we get to the end of chapter 19, we’re going to begin about verse 17. And we’re going to go down into chapter somewhat, but we’re going to do this.
And we’re going to hopefully do it fairly methodically, but try and cover a number of things that are going to be questions. And if you ever study revelation with someone, especially someone in the denominational world, they’re going to have questions about this section. And because they will have heard all sorts of things about what chapter 20, especially, and the end of chapter 19 means.
And the thing to remember as we go through this is we’re going to stick with one very significant principle. And that is this. The book was written to a specific group of people who were alive at a specific time who were about to undergo something that John says was shortly to come to pass. And if we lose sight of who John wrote it to,
when he wrote it, why he wrote it and what those people living then were about to go through, we will go hog wild with chapters 19 and 20. But if we keep it in the context, if we keep it in the text where it was written and the people it was written to in the time it was written for, we can understand clearly what it is that God is saying.
Now let’s go over the questions real quick. Before I get ahead of myself, chapter 19 questions, question one. According to the multitude of voices from heaven, what four things belong to the Lord? Our God, God, Salvation, glory honor, and power. Now we made mention of the fact that the emphasis of this here is if these things belong to God,
then they don’t belong to who Satan. They don’t belong to the beast. They don’t belong to the, the, the CBS, the land bees, the false prophet, the dragon, the great whore. They don’t belong to any of them. They belong to God. Okay. What act caused the multitude in heaven to make this declaration the judgment of God.
Okay. Not now talking about the final day of judgment. God’s act of judging specifically the great city chapter 18. Who’s also seen in chapter 17 as the great whore. All right. Ver question three, verse seven. What celebratory occasion is pictured as a reason for those in heaven to rejoice. All right. Marriage, supper of the lamb. Question four.
What? Adorns the bride?<inaudible> All right. So the, the visual is fine. Linen clean and clean and white, but what does, what’s the interpretation? The righteous acts of the saints. Okay. Here’s one of those times where John says, here’s what saw, and here’s what it meant. He doesn’t always do that in the book of revelation.
Quite often, he just says, here’s what I saw. And it’s up to us to figure out what it meant by going through the book and interpreting it properly. But here’s one of those occasions where he’s very clear. I saw the bride and this is how she was adorned. And the interpretation of that is this was the righteous acts of the saints.
There we go again. All right. Someone’s going to find a different pocket. Put their keys in question five, who is John commanded? Not to worship. Okay. The one, the one who’s speaking to him, which it, based upon the earlier text, it could be one of the elders, or it could be one of the angels, but the,
the one who’s speaking to him, who’s not God, he’s not supposed to worship him. Who is John commanded to worship God only. Alright, question six, who is riding the white horse? Christ is what is he called? Faithful and true. What is he doing in this passage? And what was the one on the white horse doing in revelation six?
What was he doing in this passage? Judging and making more, what was he doing in chapter six, conquering and going forth to the conquer. Okay. So the reason why I bring that up is we want to be clear. What we saw in chapter six is what we’re seeing in chapter 19, but there’s no big separation between chapter six and chapter 19.
There’s no, there, there, there’s not thousands of years between those, those two passages. They’re right there. They’re saying the same thing. Chapter six was just a preview of what we’re now seeing in culmination in chapter 19. Okay. Question seven, who is described as the one who rules over the nations and treads out the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of almighty God Christ.
Okay. When we look at this, it is important for us to realize that a lot of people’s view their, their, their mental picture of Christ as kind of starting off the, he he’s the baby in the manger that everybody can get, you know, get on board with. And then he’s just, he’s all about love. They, they read John three 16 and,
and, and God and Christ. They’re all about love and revelation. Doesn’t hold up that picture. But Jesus didn’t either because you just step right over to chapter five of John and Jesus is saying all judgment has been put in my hand by the father. There’s coming a day when everyone will hear my voice and rise from the dead, Jesus never painted a picture of himself as somebody who’s all about love and not about judgment,
never, never made that picture. Never left that impression here, Jesus has pictured over and over and over again as the one who fights against evil, the one who fights against sin, the one who fights against those who ally, ally themselves with the beast and with Satan. Even if those people go back to chapters two and three are his churches. If one of his churches,
allies himself with Satan, Jesus says, I’ll come and make war with you. Okay? So we need to be careful that we don’t put on our mental image of Jesus, an attribute that just simply doesn’t exist. And that is love without judgment. That’s not Jesus. What happened to the beast and the false prophet. Okay. All right. So verse 20,
then the beast was captured with him, the false prophet who worked signs in his presence by which he deceived those who were received the Mark of the beast. And those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the Lake of fire burning with Brin stone. Okay. So the beast and the false prophet. Now, remember you’ve got the beast of chapter 16.
Nope. It’s chapter 13. You’ve got the two beasts. You’ve got the beast that looks like the dragon, the lamb beast. And then you’ve got the sea beast. Now I’ve got those opposites, the CBS that looks like the dragon and the lion beast that looks like a lamb. And the land beast is a false prophet. The land beast is the one that deceives everyone.
The land piece is the one that is the religious force of Rome. The CBC is the military and the conquering power of Rome and the economic power of Rome. So both of those two BS, one references, the false prophet, the, the, the land bees, those two bees are cast into this Lake of fire. Okay. We’re not looking at the final judgment of God.
We’re not looking at the day of judgment. This isn’t nowhere in here is that the day of judgment, it’s just not here. Okay. We’re going to get into that a little bit more. Then question nine. What happened to the armies of the beast and those who followed the bees?<inaudible> All right. So they were killed with a sword and then devoured by what the birds.
Now, if we’re on the day of judgment, okay. If that’s what we have here, if the day that the beast, the CBS and the land-based are cast in the Lake of fire is the final day of judgment. We have a problem. Beltway. It’s a real simple one because Peter tells us when that day comes, all the things that God created,
all the elements, all the universe is going to be burned up. And this physical life is going to be over. Now, if this physical life is over and that’s the day we’re talking about here, then by all means, tell me why are the birds still around what birds and notice. So this is where we’re going to, we’re going to pick up here.
Let’s actually start in verse 17. I want to get the whole kit, the whole context, chapter 19 verse 17. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven. Now somebody will come along and say, well, these aren’t, these are earthly birds.
These are the, the, this is this some spiritual thing. Okay? Here’s the problem that we’re going to get into. And we’re going to point it out over and over and over again, probably to a point where you were sick of it is you don’t get to go into a passage. And just as the phrase that I remember hearing growing up,
Willy nilly change, this is literal. This is not, this is literal. This is not all in the same passage. It’s either literal or it’s not, but you don’t get to pick and choose. That’s literal. That’s not, that’s literal. That’s not. That’s literally just to make a doctrine and a story that you want to tell. That’s not how we interpret scripture.
John’s seeing a picture. John’s seeing a vision and all through revelation. We were to understand this. We’re supposed to see what he sees and understand what it means, not see what it means. Those are two different things. If you look at it, you have to then interpret it. You’re not supposed to look at it and say, that’s, what’s going to happen.
No, you’re supposed to look at it and say, okay, that means something about what’s going to happen. Okay? And there’s a very big difference. When you look at, maybe this is a good way to, to, to do it. When you look at a photograph of two children playing, let’s exclude the whole Photoshop idea at all, that you just look at a good old Polaroid.
What do you know about that picture?<inaudible> It was one moment in time and it actually happened. Okay. We’re just talking about general reality. You see a Polaroid of two people, two children playing outside, and you know, that event happened. You’re not supposed to interpret it. It’s just that a moment in time, that is not the book of revelation.
That is th th the time that that ends is when you get to the part where John says I was on the isle of Patmos on the Lord’s day. That’s about the last statement in the book of revelation. You get to treat as if it’s a Polaroid. From that point forward, you’re supposed to see an artist’s rendition that has meaning and may not look like the actual events in physical form.
Instead, it’s a visual representation of something. Okay. Very different thing. So when we get into this, we’ve got all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, and somebody is going to say, well, that’s, that’s heaven where God is, no, it’s not. That’s the sky. And all throughout scripture, we hear the birds that fly in heaven,
being a reference to just the birds of the earth. Okay? So let’s, let’s not take it where it doesn’t go. And the message of the one who’s standing in the sun says, come and gather together for the supper of the great God that you may eat. The flesh of the Kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men,
the flesh of horses, and those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free and slave both small and great. Okay. The angel says to the birds, you’re going to devour<inaudible> Yeah. The whole army, but specifically, what are they going to eat off of them? Their flesh. It’s not spiritual. It’s physical. Okay. But it’s not literal.
We’re not supposed to be looking for a time in where God defeats a great army and all the birds of heaven get called together to devour. No, no, no, no. That’s not what we’re here for. God’s saying I’m going to destroy you so completely that my armies don’t have to come and take care of you. I can just send the birds.
There’s nothing left. They’re going to completely deal with the beast and his armies. Okay. As we view revelation and revelation is God’s judgment on Rome. That picture is crystal clear all throughout the book. God is not the, for those who interpret revelation to be before age 70 and to be about the Jews, I’m sorry, but this doesn’t work. This is no picture of the Jews.
Anytime. In the first century, there was no time where all the Kings of the earth gathered together and fought with the Jews against the Christians that didn’t happen, but Rome and its forces and its armies and its powers did long after the Jews were, were done and finished as a nation in 80 70. Okay. This also isn’t about some future time to come to pass.
John made it clear over and over. These things must shortly come to pass. So God’s going to take Rome in, in the embodiment of Domitian as that one, who would bring that persecution back mouth persecution is going to continue after demission dies, but we’re okay with that because here’s the thing we need to remember. God says at that point in time,
you’re S you stand condemned. Here’s a good analogy. Some will question. Well, wait a minute. If, if the persecution continued after Domitian and it did Rome continued to persecute the church for 200 years after demission. If that persecution continues, how is it that God could say he judged it and dealt with it in the days of demission in this same way.
When did the old Law and the law of Moses, When Christ died, when did God replaced replace the high priest that was under the old law with a new high priest, same time when Christ died. When did God replace the old covenant King with a new King, same time. All right, God changed the law. God changed the priesthood. God changed the King.
He also changed the covenant. When Christ died, all those things were nailed to the cross. The week after Christ died, what had changed in the temple? Nothing. What had changed about the priesthood? Nothing was there still a King in Jerusalem? Yes. The fact that God changed it, then didn’t mean there. Wasn’t still a continuation of time that would bring about his full and complete judgment on all of those things.
But it didn’t matter that they continued to exist. It didn’t matter that for another 40 years, almost those high priests that fought, they were high priest of the Lord would continue offers, offering sacrifices. And those who were still looking for the kingdom to come and for a King to rise up, we’re still looking for that. And that they fought, they were still living under the old covenant and they fought all of those things.
It didn’t matter that they fought all those things were still true because it looked like it physically, because God had said it’s done right here at this moment in time, it’s finished, even though it looks like it continues on. Do you know there are still Jews who were holding onto the old covenant today? How many, how many years are we out from the day that it was nailed to the cross?
Now? How is it? We know the covenant ended and the high priest changed and the King ship changed and the law was Bagnall. How do we know all those things happened when Christ was put on the cross? Because we’re told, hit same. Thing’s true. In revelation. When God says in demission, I’m judging Rome, it doesn’t matter that in history,
Rome looks like it continues on as far as God’s concerned, right? Then his judgment is signed, sealed, delivered, guaranteed. Even though it looks like in history, Rome continues on it doesn’t matter. Just like it looked like Israel continued on it didn’t matter. Their fate was sealed and God says it’s done right here. And the only way we know that is because that’s what he told us,
same way that we know that the law was nailed to the cross when Jesus died, because he told us, okay, we’ve got to remember that as Christians, we don’t look at events time, the way God does. And that’s not a license to arbitrarily interpret the Bible. That is a licensed to say, I believe God did it because God said he Did.
And I’m going to let him work out the timeline of how those things get finished. But ultimately God says, here’s when it happened. Here’s how I judged Rome. Here’s what’s going to take place. And here’s what you need to know about it. Okay? So the S the angel calls the birds together, and they devour the armies of the beast.
And I saw the beasts and the Kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. Then the beast was captured with, and with him, the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the Mark of the beast, and those who worshiped his image.
Okay? So they go out to make war. They go out against the one who’s on the horse. They go out against the army is the one who’s on the horse, which are Christians. And they go out And they lose their captured. And then they’re judged. These two were cast alive into the Lake of fire burning with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword,
which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh. There’s a time in the old Testament where Israel has come out of Egypt And they’re sick and tired of manna. They don’t want any more, man. They, as they say, love this light bread that they’ve received. They here they are.
They’re being fed by God. Every single day. They’re having to do nothing to get it other than go out and gather it in the morning And they can’t stand it. They hate it. And God says, okay. And they say, we want meat guys. This I’m going to give you meat. And God, It causes birds to come in and basically just lay themselves down and die To such A degree.
God says, I’m going to give you so much meat. You’re going to despise it. I’m going to give you so much meat. It’s going to be coming out. Your nose is the analogy. And then The birds fly in. And a bunch of the people greedily go out, because remember the thing about the manna was they had a portion. They could only get what they were allotted.
If they got more, it went, it went bad. If they got less, they didn’t have enough. They were to go out and get their portion. While a bunch of these people go out and greedily begin to gather up this. The, the birds that are, have, have landed to gather of this meat beyond what they need. And God begins to bring about a plague.
God begins to kill them because of their greediness here, the pictures flipped on its head. It’s now the birds of the heaven that get the feast. They get the feast prepared for them by the Lord because of the wickedness of those who follow the beast and the false prophet. Okay. So it’s just an interesting flip-flop picture from the old Testament. The restaurant Killed with a sword,
which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. Okay. So see the picture. Don’t expect to get every, every little detail to have some great meaning. John sees an angel he’s descending from heaven.
He’s got a great chain in his hand And he’s got a key. Okay. Notice what happens, Got the key to the bottomless pit, a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. And he cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal on him so that he should not deceive the nations that he should deceive the nations no more.
Till the thousand years were finished. Now go back to chapter 13 And be reminded chapter 13. Then I stood on the sands of the sea and I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns, and on his horns, 10 crowns, and on his heads, a blast one’s name. Now the beast, which I saw was like a leopard.
His feet were like a feet of a bear. His mouth was like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and his authority. We Said in Daniel’s picture, in Daniel’s prophecy, those individual creatures, the lion, the leopard, and the bear were all part of the kingdoms that came before Rome. You remember there was the Babylonian kingdom and then the Mito Persian kingdom,
and then the Grecian kingdom. And ultimately Rome would come Rome in Daniel’s visions described as an indescribable beast. Okay. But these attributes are all carried forward into sure. Of Rome and his power to deceive nations And to convince them, but who, who do they get their power from? Who does Rome get its power from the devil? The dragon? Okay.
So now the beast, which you see was just cast into the Lake of fire and the false prophet, who is the other beast, verse 11. Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns, like a lamb and spoke like a dragon. So he speaks with the power of the dragon. He exercises all authority in the,
of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth. And those who dwell in it to worship the first bees. So he’s causing false worship to happen. And those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed, he performs great signs and even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth, in the sight of men.
And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image of the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. All right. So the one beast is the power and the mind, and the force pictured as, as Babylon and the Mito Persian empire and the Grecian empire all rolled in the one in Rome.
And the other beast is pictured as the deceiving, the deceptive one, the false prophet who causes people to worship the first beast and the dragon. So here we see angel comes down from heaven. He’s got this great chain. He’s got the key to the bottomless pit, by the way, where did the beast come up out of Way back in chapter 11,
there were two witnesses. And those witnesses are proclaiming the word of God and testifying. They’re the prophets. The one of them’s pictured like Moses, the others picture like Elijah. And something comes up out of somewhere and kills them. What was it that came up? We’re just holding. It’s the beast. Okay. The beast comes up out of the bottomless pit.
Okay. This is not new. We are not suddenly introduced to a bottomless pit that holds back the power of the persecuting beast. No, no. That’s what we saw at the very beginning. Here comes the beast. He rises up out of the bottomless pit, and now he’s being put back in the bottomless pit. Okay. Get the picture. Rome as persecuting power was here before we saw it in Nero,
he persecuted the Christians and then Nero died and the persecution stopped and the beast is coming back up. And he’s going to persecute the Christians again in the time of demission and forward. But God, don’t worry about it. I know where he came from and I’m putting them Back. I’m going to destroy his power. What you see in the end of chapter 19.
And the beginning of chapter 20 is God’s saying as an instrument of Satan, Rome Room is finished. You’re not seeing a final judgment on Satan. I know that. And so do you, because in just a little bit, we’re going to read about a little season where he comes back up. This isn’t a final judgment on Satan. This isn’t a final holding of Satan.
This is, God’s saying, Satan, you tried to use Rome every time you read about the dragon. He looks like Rome. Remember the dragon had seven heads and 10 horns. And he looked like Rome. And he was being written on by a harlot. He looked like Rome. And then the causes Rome to begin persecuting and Rome looks like him,
But God says, you’re done. The beast is done. Profits done. And the dragon who looks like Rome is done Bound up, put In the bottomless pit. And he’s there for a thousand years Now, Ash, those who believe in pre millennialism Is the key. A literal key will go. No. Is the chain the literal chain? No.
As the bottomless pit, a literal bottomless Pit. No. Is the dragon a literal Dragon? No. Is the thousand Years a literal thousand years? Well, yes, Absolutely. Do we see a problem? That’s not how we interpret scripture and never has been. So what is a thousand years in this text? We’ve seen Thousand before we we’ve seen multiples of a thousand.
We’ve seen a thousand used all throughout revelation to mean different to, or to mean the same thing over and over again. A thousand always pictures God’s complete Action. It means The totality of something. And don’t just take my word for it. Go to Psalm one Oh five or not. I didn’t expect to make it any farther than this. So we’re we’re right on schedule Psalm one Oh five and verse eight.
I will Want us to be clear. This is not some arbitrary interpretation of a thousand. Okay. This is regularly. God uses it in scripture. Psalm one Oh one Oh five verse eight. I can turn one more page, actually verse seven. He is the Lord of our, he is the Lord. Our God, his judgments are in all the earth.
He remembers his covenant forever. The word, which he commanded for a thousand generations. What about generation? 1001? Is that the question we’re supposed to ask in that passage that God’s going to be faithful in his judgments and his commandments for every generation up until generation 1000? No, that’s not what we’re supposed to get from that. If he’s been faithful for the last thousand generations,
don’t you think he’ll be faithful for the next one? That’s what the writer is saying. Go forward to first Chronicles, chapter six or backwards, I guess first Chronicles, chapter 16, first Chronicles chapter 16, verse 15, verse 14 says he is the Lord. Our God, his judgments are in all the earth. He remembers his covenant forever. The word,
which he commanded for a thousand generations. Again, the same verbiage, same iteration is that God is going to do this. Perpetually. God is going to keep his judgments. God is going to keep his covenant and nothing is going to stop him From doing it. Okay? Go backward. Well, actually forward again. Psalm 50 Psalm, 50 verse 10.
Not every beast of the earth. Let me read that again. With the words that are on the page. This time for every beast of the forest Is mine. And The cattle on a thousand Hills are mine. Are we supposed to interpret therefore the cattle on Hill 1001 doesn’t belong to the Lord? No. If the cattle on a thousand Hills belong to him,
then every cattle on every Hill belongs to him. Deuteronomy chapter seven, Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse nine. Therefore know that the Lord, your God, he is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations, with those who love him and keep his commandments. Does God keep covenant mercy in every generation with those who love him and keep his commandments?
Did it end at a thousand? No. Nowhere in revelation. Do we get the number 1000 where we’re supposed to see it and a tribute to it, a literal thousand in substance, nowhere. But if we were to, okay, if we want a thousand year reign of the Messiah later on in chapter 20 and the thousand year binding of the beast or the dragon here in the first part of chapter 20,
here’s what we’ve got to do. This is our responsibility. If we want to interpret it that way, then we are required to interpret it as a literal chain, as a literal key, as a literal bottomless pit and a literal dragon. But we’re not told to interpret it that way, anywhere in the book of revelation. So therefore we’re supposed to look at what we see and ask what it means,
not look at what we see and assume that’s what it means. Okay? That’s what you deal with when you’re dealing with apocalyptic literature and the book of revelation and the book of Ezekiel and a lot of other books like the latter, half of Daniel, don’t look at it and go 70 weeks. Well, he must mean 70 literal weeks. No, he doesn’t not.
And Daniel, see what it is. See what John saw and then ask what it means. All right. So we’re going to pick up here in verse three, go down through the end of the chapter on Wednesday. Thank you for your attention.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> good morning. It’s good to see everybody out this morning. It’s a beautiful day, but it’s kind of windy out.
There seemed like March, but it’s going to get better. But anyway, we like to welcome all of our barristers. If we have any today. And if you would to fill out a visitor’s card and put it in a collection plate back here at the back. So we’d have a record of your attendance. And if you hadn’t picked up your Lord’s supper,
It’s back there on that back table. Now it’d be a good time to get it. If you have a gotten it, we need to remember our CIT Jones, Springer and Dorothy Wilson and Janet Jones. We saw Janet yesterday and she’s, she’s doing good. She’s kind of feisty, but she was doing good. Our other sick Sandy Tramble is back home and feeling much better.
She had a stone that we still don’t know where it was, but they did remove a stone from her and she’s doing a lot better. And Jessica Dale is having some kind of stomach issue. Terry and Patricia Wigley are still recovering from COVID. And I think they might be doing, doing better. Terry we’re doing better Wednesday night. And I think she had gotten better before that,
but they’re doing better. Congratulations to Victoria that used to come to church here. And Jason Melton, they had a baby girl the other day. He was born Wednesday added Lynn. Kate, is that right? Where’s her name? But anyway, she had some problems had to be bedridden for a while before the baby was born. But everything’s good. I saw her announcements order of worship today day,
Michael Dale would be leading singing. Joe has the Oatman prayer. J Schaffner has the Lord supper and Aaron Cozort has the sermon. And Eric Harrelson will dismiss this with the closing prayer. Thank you ed, to be before you lead in SUNY. Again, my voice isn’t back a hundred percent, but I’m going to do the best that God will allow me to do our first song this morning.
We’ll be number 144 O worship the King O worship the key. Oh,<inaudible> and grain for Lee. See here’s Wanda for<inaudible> Dallas and then splendor and<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible> Hey for children.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible> Mac defend<inaudible> The song before our opening prayer will be number 474. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.
Thank you Lord, for loving me and thank you Lord for blessing me. Thank you Lord, for making me whole and saving my song. I want to thank you.<inaudible> thank you for saving my soul. Let us all with one eye caught seeing praise as to Christ. Lord, let us all you in song to praise him all day long. Thank you.<inaudible> thank you for saving my song,
who please rebel y’all well for me so I can serve you.<inaudible> use my life and bring your way take today. I want to thank you.<inaudible> me. Thank you, Lord.<inaudible> you<inaudible>. Thank you, Lord.<inaudible> Oh God. Our father in heaven, we truly are grateful that you do love us. We’re so thankful father for that love,
that was demonstrating through the death of your son, whereas willingness to die on the cross of Calvary. We’re so grateful father for the fact that we able to be cleansed of our Sans and as we become obedient to your will, and we’re so thankful that we are your children, father, we’re mindful of life itself, and we’re thankful for it. And we pray father that we realize that it is so brief.
We pray God that we might use our lives in service to you and glorify your name. As we have that privilege and opportunity, we never lose sight of life and of eternity. We pray father that we examine ourselves daily, that we remain in the faith that we look to one another, that we might gain strength that we look to your word, that we might be,
build it up in the faith and that we use our faith to try to reach those round about us. With the gospel. We are keenly aware of the brevity of life and that there are souls out there that have never named your name. We truly be mindful of them and of ourselves, of our responsibility and privilege that we have to share your word with them.
Father, we’re mindful of the faithful and we’re thankful for the influence they have over our lives. We’re mindful of our families, not only our physical families, but our spiritual families. And we’re so grateful for the faithful that they’ve been such a good example to us. And we’re thankful for physical families of the love that we have for one another. And especially our love for the father.
We’re mindful of those that are teaching and preaching your word and other places. And we pray that we might be an encouragement to them. We might be a blessing to help strengthen them and encourage them as they teach and preach the gospel that many souls might come to you. Father, we’re thankful for Aaron and Eddy and their family. We’re thankful for what they mean to the church here or the abilities that they have to encourage us and be a blessing to us here.
We pray that you be with air and as he breaks into us, the breath of life this morning, we’re thankful for Michael and Jessica and or that the work they’re doing. And as Michael goes through the school of preaching for the studies that he is engaged in, that will, it will help him to become a great minister of the gospel. We pray father that you help each and every one of us to look to one another and be mindful of each other,
especially those that are not able to be with us physically, that we continue to remember them in our prayers daily, that they might be okay. And that those that are facing physical problems, that they might be resolved by the ones that are administering to them. Father we’re mindful of those that are facing challenges with their spiritual walk. And we pray that we’d be keenly aware that they might not be fateful,
that we would reach out to them and try to encourage them as we have that privilege and opportunity help us each day, that we live, that we are mindful of those that are ill and try to administer them to their needs. We pray that you help us to always be mindful of who we are. And the example we set before, others, we pray that they always will see Christ living in us.
Father help us to be more loving, kind, compassionate patient, and understanding of one another that we can truly exemplify our Lord and savior. Forgive us father. When we fail the, and help us to repent of those sins that we might stand justified in your sight. Or we never know when our savior will come back and claim us. We pray that you help us to build one another up as the days go by.
And the forward to that home in heaven with the, and Jesus, we pray amen Song to prepare our minds for the Lord’s supper will be number 381 years. I spent in vanity years, I spent in vanity you years. I spent in vantage and PRA I had caring nod. My Lord was crucified, no knowing nod and was for me. He die.
And<inaudible> see, that was green. And grace was spree. God. And there was more to apply to me. Nah, my burden<inaudible><inaudible> by God’s word. And last night<inaudible><inaudible> to my guilty soul and flooring turn to<inaudible> see, there was great. And grace was free. Oh God. And there was more to apply to me.<inaudible><inaudible> no I,
again to your Jesus. Very thing. Nah, I gladly own him as my King. Nah, my rap shirts or can only seeing<inaudible><inaudible> there was great and grace was free. Oh God. And there was more to apply to me.<inaudible><inaudible> Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan. Oh, the grace had brought it down to man.
Oh the mighty in golf. Thank God dance, man.<inaudible> see. There was great. And grace was free. Oh God. And there was more to apply to me.<inaudible><inaudible> We now come to a very special time in our worship service where we remember the death of our Lord and savior. So let’s focus our minds upon that cross upon the sacrifice that he has made for us.
Let us pray. Heavenly father. We’re indeed grateful for this. We have to assemble about this table to participate in these emblems, which memorialized the death of our savior. We pray, especially now for the bread, which represents the body that was sacrificed on that cross for the forgiveness of our sins. It’s in jesus’ name that we pray amen. Ever my father in a similar manner,
we’re grateful for this fruit of the vine, which represents the blood that was shed for the remission of our sins. Help us to realize the full significance of this great sacrifice and help us to partake in a worthy manner. It’s in jesus’ name that we pray. This concludes the Lord’s supper. We find this a convenient time to offer a prayer for and Thanksgiving for the blessings that we have received.
Heavenly father, we’re indeed grateful for the many material blessings that you so richly bestow upon each of our lives. We pray that we always remember that we’re merely stewards of these things that all of these blessings truly come from you. And as we prepare to return a portion of what you’ve blessed us with, we ask your blessing is upon us in jesus’ name that we pray Song before the lesson will be number 957.
This world is not my home. If you’re able, please stand for this song. This world is not my home. This world is not my home. I’m just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond that knee angels back in me from heaven’s open door and I can feel at home in this world any more<inaudible> no, I have no friend,
Mike, you<inaudible> the angels back in me from heaven’s open door and I can feel at home in this small world any more. They’re all expecting me. And that’s one thing I know my savior. Pardon me? And now I on word, I know, take me through, I am weak and poor and I can fill that at home in this<inaudible> I have no friends like you,
if heaven’s not in my<inaudible> the angels back and me from heaven’s open door and I can feel at home in this world any more, just<inaudible> the same sun, every ah, shouting Victori song of sweetest, praise draft back from heaven. Sure. And I can feel that, huh? In this<inaudible> you know, I have no friends like you,
heaven’s not in my home. Nana Lord. Why? Well, I do need angels back and me from heaven’s open door and I can feel at home in this<inaudible> Maybe see you then if you would like to Mark it, it will be up here on the slides. But if you’d like to Mark it, the song of invitation is number 948. I am resolved number nine 48,
good morning. Just about every day, all over the country and all over the world. People get up, get ready. They prepare themselves for the day and they go out To work. They go to a job. They go to make gain. And that idea of gain carries with it. A similar idea in our English language, the word profit and all throughout scripture,
God speaks concerning gain. And the idea of gaining things in this life, sometimes it is spoken of in a neutral way, just simply a fact of matter that that it’s a necessity to, to gain, to provide for oneself. But sometimes it’s spoken of in a very negative way. And sometimes it’s spoken of, of things in a very different way than we might expect.
I want to spend some time this morning talking about gain, but we’re going to look at it from the negative perspective. First, there are some things when we go about our daily lives, when we provide for our own selves, when we go through life, gaining what is needed to sustain our homes, our families, and our livelihoods. There are some things that we must not do some ways in which we must not gain in this life.
Turn with me. If you will, to the book of Isaiah Isaiah in his prophecies in chapter 33 speaks concerning this very idea. Isaiah chapter 33, we’re going to begin around verse 14. God is he speaks through. Isaiah says the sinners in Zion are afraid. Fearfulness has seized the hypocrites who among Us shall dwell with the devouring Fire. Before we go much further.
We need to make, make note of one fact, the Hebrew writer over in Hebrews chapter 10 speaks concerning those who have access to the new and living way. The blood of Christ salvation through baptism found in the blood of Christ. That salvation, which provides us a home in heaven and a fellowship with God. But there are those in Hebrews chapter 10 who are departing,
therefore Seki being the church and the Hebrew writer writes to these Christian. And he tells them that those who are forsaking the assembly of themselves together, those who are forsaking the church, they have turned their back on Christ. He says, when you do that, you try to pawn the blood of Christ. You count the grace, which God has given to you as an unholy thing.
And he warns those Christians who are turning their back on Christ, who are going back to the Mosaical law, who are going back to the ways of the world. He warns Them that your God is a consuming Fire. That picture Partially from Isaiah chapter 33, as God pictured as a devouring fire. So the question in Isaiah chapter 33, verse 14,
who among us shall dwell with the devouring. Fire is speaking of God, in his judgment, Who Among us shall dwell with ever lasting Earnings. And here’s the answer. Two questions asked two questions, asked in repetition in order to focus on who is it that can stand with God. It’s very similar to the question asked in revelation chapter six, who can stand with God when God judges the wicked.
And here’s the answer he Walks righteously and speaks up rightly But in focus on our lesson. Notice this next phrase. He who despised Is the gain of oppressions. One of the struggles that Israel found itself in over and over and over again, especially in the minor prophets and in the later prophets, when the prophets would write to them, they would accuse them Of abusing the poor.
They would accuse them of doing harm to those who were defenseless. They would accuse them of, of controlling these people for their Prophet. And Isaiah makes it clear. The one who stands with God When God judges the one who is able to stand when God has a devouring, fire comes upon. Those who are doing wickedness is one of his attributes. Is he despises that he despises those who take advantage and oppress others who gestures with his hands,
refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from seeing evil. This isn’t someone who closes his eyes and says, I’m not going to look. I’m not going to see what they’re doing. No, no, no, no, no, no. He will not look upon evil to desire. Writ he will not allow someone to come into his presence who would give him a bribe.
He will not allow someone who will speak to him and encourage him to shed blood. He will not do these things. This is looking like a judge. This is looking like the picture of one who ought to be a righteous judge. But there were so many times in Israel where they were judged by those who would take bribes judged by those who would commit murder for their own gain,
judged by those who would oppress the poor to get profit. They were judged by those who would see The evil. And instead of condemning it, they join in. He will dwell on high, the person who won’t do these things, the person who walks, righteously, the person who speaks up, rightly he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks.
Bread will be given him his water will be sure. Notice The point that Isaiah is making the Lord is speaking to Israel. And he’s saying the judge, the person who has power and authority, who will not do wickedness, who refuses to even hear it, to see it, to, to dwell on it. But instead walks righteously and judges uprightly who speaks righteously his game.
His needs will be He taken kero. Jesus makes The point over in Matthew, chapter six concerning the one who strives for things of this life who seeks to gain that, which this life has and is worried about this life’s possessions. He says, when this person strives to do this, they’re missing what is of greatest value. Instead he tells that person seek first,
the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness and all these things Shall be added to you. So the first thing that we see here is that Isaiah says we are not to be those who seek gain By the oppressing of others, but he also in his, In the old Testament and in the new we read that we are not to receive gain dishonestly first Samuel chapter,
Wait, there was a time in Israelite history where they were without a King. There had not yet been a King in Israel. They were judged by those who were called judges. And Samuel was the last in the line of judges because in chapter eight of first, Samuel Israel will demand the King and God will give them a King. Now up until that point,
God was their King. They didn’t need an earthly King. They had a heavenly King, but they had refused that. But notice this statement that’s made in the beginning of chapter eight of first Samuel, as we see the reason, or at least the excuse as to why they needed a King. Now I came to pass verse one. When Samuel was old,
that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joelle. The name of his second Abijah. They were judges in bear Sheba, but his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dis honest Gain took bribes and perverted justice. Now Actually would also occur in a very similar fashion with the sons of the previous judge.
But here Samuel Is going to appoint his sons as judges after him. And they’ll be put there in bear Sheba. And there’ll be said there to judge Israel, but instead of judging, according to the law, instead of judging, according to the commandments, instead of judging, according to the ways of God, they look for those who will give them profits.
If you can give me something, I’ll judge in your favor. If you can make sure that I get this, I’ll do this. I’ll make this judgment For you. Gon tells us And the old Testament law that the judges were to judge righteous judgment, but they were also not to show favoritism to the rich or to the poor. They were not supposed to judge in favor of one who was poor simply because he was poor.
They were to judge according to the law, when a Richmond came to the, came to them and said, I have possessions and I can take care of you and I can make sure you have everything you need. They weren’t to hear that they were to judge according To the law, but here Samuel sons seek after dis honest gain over in Ezekiel chapter 22,
God condemns two groups of people because they also saw it after dishonest gain. Ezekiel chapter 22 beginning in verse 23, Zeke GQL rights. And the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, say to her, you are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey.
They have devoured people. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have violated my law and profaned my Holy things. They have not distinguished between Holy and unholy, nor have they made, known the difference between the unclean and the clean. And they have hidden their eyes from my Sabots Sabbaths so that I am profaned among them.
Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey to shed blood, to destroy people, to get dishonest, gain three categories of people here are given by God that he condemns because of their actions, because their actions were dishonest for profit. First, he says your profits. The problem I have with you, Israel is your profits profits. I for money,
your profits speak good to someone for gain and evil against someone who will give them nothing. He says they are dishonest and they are causing widows to exist. If they can’t make their prophecy come true and get their money one way they’ll make it come true. Another way by killing people, Their profits were like Those roaring lions tearing their prey, but then he accuses their priests.
He says, this isn’t just a problem with your profits, but your priests as well are doing the same thing. They violated the law. They profaned my house. They profaned my name. They’ve caused people to know no difference between clean and unclean between Holy and unholy. They have destroyed my name For their own profit. But then he says, and your princes are no different.
Your princes, those who rule over you, those in the house of the King, they’re doing the same thing. All of this. He says it’s because of dishonor Gain, but even in the new Testament, we’re warned about dishonest gain. In first, Peter chapter five, Peter is he is writing as an elder, writes to elders. And he says,
this, the elders who are among you, I exhort verse one. I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed shepherd. The flock of God, which is among you serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly, not for dishonest gain Ain, buddy girly. One of the things the new Testament promotes and allows is that elders are,
can or can be paid for their service for their shepherding function. But Peter makes it clear to those elders. You don’t do this. Like those profits of old, you don’t do this. Like those judges of old, you don’t do this. Like those priests of older, those princes of old, you don’t do it for this honest gay. You do it out of a love for the flock and for the Lord.
Why is it that this is such a problem? Why is it that game? And the things of this world were always such a problem generation after generation and still are Today. Part of it is greed in Proverbs chapter one, Solomon would write to his son, okay? As he opens up this, this book of wise sayings, as he writes these things to his son,
he writes beginning in Proverbs chapter one, beginning Around verse eight. He says, My son hear the instruction of your father and do not forsake the law of your mother for, they will be a graceful ornament on your head and chains about your neck. But then notice what he says. He says, my son, if sinners entice, you Do not consent.
He says, there are going to be people who will come to you and will seek to get you to do things with them, but you should not do. He goes on to say, if they say, come with us, let us lie in, wait to shed blood. Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause let us swallow them alive.
Like she’ll and whole like those who go down into the pit, we shall find all kinds of precious possessions. We fill our houses with spoil. You go down To verse 19 and we read, so are the lays of everyone who is greedy for Gain. But notice this statement, He says, so is everyone who is greedy for gain? And then he says something about that game.
He says something about an attribute of retribution as it were that that gain Will have on them. He Says it takes away the life of it. Owners Here. He describes one. Who’s willing to kill, willing to mane, willing to hurt and destroy in order for his own profit, for his own loss, his own desires in his own greed, buddy Warren Lose them.
When you do that, It is as if that game, that Profit remembers your deeds and will bring on you. What you’ve done to others. And how much, Many times in history, how many times in life, how many times in society do we find the person who abuses others for profits? It gets, it turned back on themselves by someone else.
Who’s willing to kill them for what they have greediness and the desire For what doesn’t belong to. You has always been a problem. And Isaiah chapter 56, Isaiah Again makes an accusation against another group of people in Israel, Isaiah chapter 56, beginning Verse nine, God and Isaiah through the Lord’s words, condemn the Watchman now in an old Testament city, okay?
In a place where you were surrounded by not only armies of, of nations, that didn’t like you, but even just the dangers of living in that day in time, the beasts of the, of the forest and the beach that would surround them. There were always those who were placed as Watchman. Those who were to keep an eye at night, especially they were to keep an eye for the enemy who might be coming.
They were to keep an eye for the beasts that might be lurking at the edge of the city. Those who might attack the prey and those who were unknown, The Watchman was there to keep an eye on the behalf of others. But in verse nine of Isaiah, chapter 56, we read all you beasts of the field, Come to devour God, the beast,
This time, God says, you get ready. You come prepared obese of the field and come to devour. My people notice what he says, all you beasts in the forest, his Watchman, the Watchman that belonged to the city. The Watchman that belonged to my people, the Watchman that belong to those who are supposed to be, He says his Watchman are blind.
They are ignorant. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving the slumber, Their defenses aren’t ready. He says, no, one’s paying attention. They’ve put the weakest in the, in the blind. They put them on the wall to watch for danger because everyone loves Their own sleep versus 11. Yes, they are greedy dogs,
which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand. They all look to their own way. Every one for his own gain from his own territory. What is it that they’re doing in actuality? They’re not literally putting blind men up on the wall. They’re not literally putting those who are blind out in the, in the edges of the city at night,
watching for the creatures that might come in and hurt someone know they’re placing those as Watchman, as shepherds of the flock of Israel who are only interested Did in themselves. This isn’t a condemnation of blind Watchman in a physical sense. It is a condemnation of self interested leaders whose only fought for themselves is their own gain. First Timothy chapter six, Paul Warren Timothy,
and in turn tells Timothy to Warn the church. First, Timothy chapter six in verse five, he tells us Going back to verse three, if anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine, which Accords with godliness. He is proud, knowing nothing but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy,
striving for violins, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds of destitute of the truth. Who suppose notice, who’s suppose that godliness. This is a means of gain from such withdraw yourselves. Paul says among the church among Those who were Christians, if you see Someone who Uses their godliness for Profit, who use Is and has a mindset that their good deeds are supposed to be reimbursed,
that their good deeds are there and are done for money. And if they don’t get the money, you’ll never see the good deeds. Paul says, from that type of person, you withdraw yourself. You will Have no fellowship with them. But in the contrast, as we shift over to what God says we should do, when it comes to gain,
he says in verse six, now godliness with contentment is great gain. You know, I said, sometimes we see the scriptures, look at gain, look at profit, look at getting what we need in this life. A little different than you and I do in our daily lives. Maybe then we, we need to, re-examine how we view gain.
Because here Paul says, in contrast to the one who gives godliness in order to get gain, he says you have godliness and contentment, and that is gain. Whether there’s any money involved or not. Jesus said it this way. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Now, if you give something away, are you gaining in monetary or possessions?
Are you gaining something by giving? Yes, you’re gaining something, but not something physical. You’re gaining something spiritual all throughout scripture. One of the things that we are to understand that we are to see clearly is that we have a need for possessions. We have a need for the daily necessities, But We have a greater need for spiritual things. Philippians chapter three,
Paul writes to the church of Philippi And he says in Philippians chapter three and verse seven, he says, but what things were gained to me, she’s talking about a time in his life. When he was a Jew of all Jews, where he was the specimen of a Pharisee, where he was the example of one that everyone could look to and say that someone who’s important,
but he used all of those things and all of that position. And he abused it by using it to persecute the church. And Paul says, but what things were gained to me, these, I have counted law For Christ yet. Indeed. I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ. Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ Matthew chapter 16,
Jesus speaks concerning one who would follow him One who would be his disciple. And in Matthew chapter 16, he says the one who will be my disciple must do a number of things. Must forsake a number of things. Then he asked the rhetorical question, what shall man give in exchange for his soul? What does it profit a man if he gained the whole world and lose His own soul,
Some things that are gained in scripture that have real value honor is one of them in Exodus chapter 14, God is spoken of as gaining honor over Pharaoh in his armies, by defeating them at the red sea honor is something that has value. As long as it doesn’t create pride so long as it doesn’t establish within ourselves, something that we think we deserve instead of something given to us by God ultimately,
but land and possessions is another thing that is gained in this life. But it’s interesting that in Psalm 44 verses one through three, as the Psalmist writer reflects back on what God did for Israel, he reminds Israel in his day in time that the possession of the promised land wasn’t given to them, wasn’t gained by their efforts. It wasn’t gained by their strength.
It wasn’t gained by their ability. It was given by God. And one of the attributes that you and I need to recognize in everything that we have is that what we have doesn’t Along to us, Israel So often looked at the land they dwelt in as there The land and it never was, it was God’s land. Wow. Is it that Israel refused to observe the Sabbath?
One of the attributes of the Sabbath and the specific attribute of the Sabbath was that they were to do no work. They were to not seek profit there on that seventh day. And Israel had a hard time holding themselves back from their own profit For God because they lost sight of the fact that it all belonged to God. Why is it that Israel failed over and over and over for 400 plus years to keep the year,
the Sabbath year, the year of Jubilee? Why is it that every seventh year when they were commanded not to plant, not to put their crops in the ground, they didn’t do it. God, when he would bring 70 years of judgment upon them and bring them off into Babylon would accuse them through the prophet. Jeremiah. He said, the reason you’re going to go into captivity for 70 years is because that’s all of the years,
you didn’t observe the seventh Year Sabbath of my land. Why didn’t they observe this of the land? Is it because God didn’t prosper them enough? No, it’s because they were so interested in themselves, they didn’t obey the commands Of God. And God said, Oh, my land is going to get it Sabbath because it was his land, not theirs.
And so the Psalmus writer says in Psalm 90 Psalm 90 and in verse 12 Psalmus writer says to those who would hear verse 12. So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom. One of the things over everything else that we are to gain is not profit. It’s not money. It’s not possessions, it’s wisdom and understanding.
But Paul said, one other thing was gained. One other thing that we wouldn’t normally call game and it was death. You remember Paul wrote in Philippians chapter one verse 21 For me to live is Christ. But to die is gain. As we go through this life, many mornings, we will get up and we’ll go to work. We’ll do whatever it is that needs to be done to gain the thing,
Things we need in this life. But may we never lose sight of the things that we are to be gaining that really matter glory before God and honoring him wisdom and understanding. And one day, if we have not sought to gain The world at the cost of our soul, one day when judgment comes from one, who’s described as a devouring fire, and we stand with him,
we can say I gained everything because whatever I had to lose for my soul was rubbish in comparison to eternity. If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, you’re outside of salvation, you’re outside of hope and redemption. You’re outside of an eternity and the possibility of an eternity with God, the father, how do you change that? You change?
It means that by dying to self, that thing, which causes you to seek after things, instead of God, possessions, instead of wisdom, that which has only temporary value instead of that, which has eternal value, you die. How do you do that? You recognize that Jesus Christ is the son of God. You recognize that he can teach you how to lift properly.
And instead of you insisting, you can live Properly. And you repent of your sins. You repent of the way that you have lived to change, to live the way he tells you to live. You confess the name of Christ. And in making that confession, you make that claim that you and everything you have Belongs to him, no matter whether you have wealth or nothing,
whether you are great or not that whatever you have is his, because it is anyway. You just might not admit it, but then you’re going to die. You’re going to be immersed in water for the remission of your sins. We’re going to go into a watery grave of baptism as an old dead sea. She’s going to rise up out of that watery grave,
a new living creature, Romans chapter six, alive, but no longer alive to yourself, alive to Christ. And then you two can look at your past and say, as Paul did, I counted as loss. And I counted as rubbish for what I have gained in Christ. You’re outside the body of Christ. This, you can change that if you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve lost sight on what his own real value in this life,
you can change that to, if you have need of anything, why not come as we stand? And as we say Hi, the things don’t know, blah, the<inaudible> ah, Hey son to him. Hey son. So glad<inaudible> jeez. Us great is yes. Well come to the, ah, I am resolved to go to the same<inaudible> he is the true.
He is that job. Last one. He had<inaudible><inaudible> Hey son to him. Hey son. So glad free. Jeez, us great. Yes. Come to the resolve to<inaudible> he<inaudible> he, well, he is<inaudible> Hey, Hey to him. Hey son. So Gladden free. Jeez, us great. Yes.<inaudible> I am resolved to and to the King leaving friends may oppose me.
Cause maybe sad me.<inaudible><inaudible> Hey son to him. Hey son. So Gladden free. Jeez, us great ass. Yes. Come to the, the song before our closing prayer will be number six, 134 we’ll work till Jesus comes six 34. Oh,<inaudible> in P sad. Oh,<inaudible> to jeez.<inaudible><inaudible> to Jesus Christ.<inaudible><inaudible> Connect me.
Oh,<inaudible> to Jesus comes when Jesus comes and being a<inaudible> God, our father in heaven, we come to you at this time, Thanking you for another opportunity to assemble here this morning, to sing songs, appraised your name and study a portion of your word. But God, we are so thankful that you sent your son Jesus to live amongst us here on earth years ago and to teach us.
But most importantly, to give us your word so that we had a guide to live our lives by Lord. We also know that there are many amongst our number that are dealing with various illnesses and ailments. And we ask that you please wrap your loving arms around them and comfort them as only you can. And if it be your will look upon the caretakers and the care providers of these individuals,
and if it be your will restore them to a measure health that they so desire so that they may one day assemble with us again, here in this building to worship you. And you’re a great name and Lord, we know that there are times that we fall short of your glory. And when we do fall short and we come to you and ask for forgiveness of sins,
we ask that you please do that. Forgive us our sins, and help to strengthen us so that we may live better lives. Now, as we prepare to depart this place, we asked you go with us and guide guard and direct each and every one of us in our everyday lives. So that we may be your shining light here on earth. To those that do not know your word or those that have heard your word and chose to ignore it so that they may one day have the same opportunity that we do.
And that is to live with you forever and heaven. We pray this through your son, Jesus name. Amen.
11-11-2020 Revelation 19 (Class)
Review – Revelation 18
New Questions – Revelation 19
Automated Transcript
<inaudible><inaudible> that’s fine.<inaudible> Okay. It’s about time for us to get started.<inaudible> We are in revelation chapter 19, start with review from chapter 18. It’s the questions let’s begin with a word of prayer, our gracious father in heaven. We bow before you at this time, grateful for the day you’ve given to us for the life that you’ve granted to us and the opportunities that we have to serve you.
We pray that you be with those that are dealing with COVID at this time and pray that you were dealing with those who are suffering from all manners of illnesses and difficulties. We’re mindful right now, especially of Francis’s daughter, SA, Sandy, and pray that all will be well with her. And that she’ll return to her desired help. We pray that you will be those who,
whose families have endured the loss of loved ones in recent months and days, we pray that you will give them strength, comfort during hard times during those moments, when it’s a struggle, because of the loss that they feel pray that you be with each and every one of us, as we go through our own set of struggles and difficulties each day, help us to look to you in faith and understanding.
But also may we always seek your grace and your comfort, your strength in time of need. We ask that you help us to remember that we have access and boldness to come before your throne. For that help, we pray that you be with this country, this nation for every nation that is on the top side of this earth, that they might have leaders,
which promote good things, moral things, but above all that, they have opportunities to teach the gospel to those around them and bring law souls to you. We ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory, all this we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Chapter 18, Question one. How is the mighty angels glory described?
All right. The, the angel that’s described in chapter 18, verse one, his glory is described as illuminating the earth chapter 18. Verse two. What is the mighty angels announcement? All right, Babylon, the great is fallen is fallen chapter 18, verse three, question three upon whom has the great city had influence all nations. Okay. Question four.
What are the Christians told to do? All right. Come out of her, out of the city. What does it mean? Quote, God has remembered her iniquities. Okay. God’s going to remember her iniquities in, in Jew and judge her for her works. Okay. So it’s a judgemental or a judging remembrance question five in the analogy of Rome to Babylon,
would her judgment come quickly or slowly, quickly Question six. What would the merchants do? Who bought the riches of the who brought that’s supposed to be brought? They’re supposed to be to hard. There brought the ridges of the world to the great city to sell. We’ve been mourn who is commanded chapter 18, verse 22, rejoice at the judgment of the great city,
The saints, the apostles, and the prophets. And then in her destruction, what was found in the great city that brought about her ultimate destruction. All right. Blood of the profits and saints. Okay. So chapter 17 and 18, you get The, The judgment on the harlot and her desolation talked about chapter 17, chapter 18. You have the judgment of the great city and the beast.
And then chapter 19, we’re going to see all of this wrapped up because everything’s kind of been forward-looking forward-looking forward-looking and then chapter 19 is done. Okay. It’s going to be very anticlimactic when it happens with everything that’s been set up to this point, it’s going to be finished. Okay. But that’s because in all of this, God has said, listen to the saints,
because remember, God’s going to say it’s done before it ever gets started. And he’s going to remind them, this is what’s coming. This is what I’ve said. This is who it is. Here are all the clear indicators be ready for it, but they first have to go through the trials. They first have to go through the persecution before they ever arrive at the victory.
So we’re going to spend some time on that here in chapter 19 tonight, After These things, John writes, I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying Alliyah salvation and glory and honor, and power belong to the Lord. Our God, A victory cry goes up. The Great city is taken as a millstone and cast into the sea,
never to rise again, not that there was a time where Rome as the city got picked up and cast into ocean, but instead that God’s judgment would be complete and finished. It would be total in its, in its scale and in its scope. And as a result of that, when God judges Rome, when John God judges the harlot, when God judges the great city who’s riding upon the beast,
the rejoicing comes from, as we mentioned, the saints, the prophets, the apostles, and then he hears a great multitude in heaven. Now, before we go too far out of what we’ve discussed, all the way, all the way through who are those who dwell in the earth, in the book of revelation, they’re the ones that are marked with the Mark of the beast.
They’re the ones who are sinners. They’re the ones who are preached to they’re the ones who are the ungodly, who are those who dwell in heaven in the book of revelation. Are they the dead saints who are already gone on? Or are they the righteous? The righteous? Okay. There are times where they’re very specifically spoken of as those who have been killed.
Those who have suffered those who have died, but not exclusively, always in revelation. Those whose dwelling places, heaven are the righteous, whether dead or alive, and those whose dwelling place is the earth are always wicked, whether dead or alive. Okay? So when you hear a great multitude, shouting Allah, Eluvia salvation, glory, and honor, and power belong to the Lord.
And there are those who are in heaven. Don’t immediately assume that it’s only the dead people who are crying out this great cry of rejoicing. No, it’s the righteous ones. Okay. Dead or alive, having gone through the persecution or not the righteous ones recognize God and his power for attributes that belong to the Lord. Salvation glory honor, and power.
There’s there’s that one finger that’s still not quite, not quite there yet on that hand. Now these, these four things aren’t just brought out because they do belong to God. There’s many passages in scripture that describe these things as belonging to the God. This is set as a stark contrast to Satan, to the dragon, to the beast, because every one of these that belong to God,
doesn’t belong to Satan. Doesn’t belong to the dragon. Doesn’t belong to the whore. Doesn’t belong to the beast. It doesn’t belong to any of them. Why? Because it belongs to God. Okay? So this declaration is made and then verse two for true and righteous are his judgments because he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication.
And he has avenge on her, the blood of his servants shed by her. We mentioned a little bit on Sunday, and we’re going to continue to mention it. Chapter six, over and over again, go all the way back to chapter six and the seals that are open and the seals that, that started out in the fifth seal, the saints crying out.
How long are you going to let this go on? And all the way over here in chapter 19, we’re seeing the fulfillment of what God told those saints in chapter five, or sorry, chapter six in the fifth seal. He said, you rest a little while. And I will. Judge is the implication there. They’re going to rest because they’re going to see his judgment.
And now they’re declaring his judgment has come to pass. Okay. Again, they said, hallelujah, her smoke rises up for forever and ever. And when Rome ultimately falls, when, when the nation is finally in, fully in the kingdom is finally in fully put to rest. Is there going to be a burning fire in Rome that never ever ends?
And Jesus uses the example of my brain stuck on Gomorrah. And it’s not Gomorrah the, the word for hell Gahanna. Thank you. That was, it was not coming out. When Jesus uses the word Gahanna, it was a bird trash heap uses it too. He uses the figure of a physical place with a, a very physical and temporal fire that where people burdened their tracks cash to exemplify eternal judgment.
Okay. He uses the figure of the physical place to speak about the spiritual place. Well, Rome, isn’t going to burn in a eternal fiery Pyre for all of time, but would Rome ever arise again as a kingdom? Like the kingdom that was destroyed? No. Her judgment is complete final and finished. And we’re going to bring this out as we go through here,
because contextually, we need to pay attention to the context in these passages and be careful that again, we’re seeing things that are like something else that doesn’t mean. They mean the same thing. Okay. So the 24 elders and the four living creatures, verse four fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. Then a voice came from the throne saying,
praise our God, all you, his servants. And those who fear him both small and great. So those who dwell in heaven, praise God, the BESE, praise God, the 24 elders, praise God. Every one is to recognize the Lord and praise him. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and the sound of many waters in the sound of mighty.
Thunderings saying Allah Lulea for the Lord. God omnipotent reigns. Now was this the first time was this the moment in time that God began to rain? Oh, okay. W w when God formed the earth, he was already raining. W w w when Adam stepped foot on the planet and didn’t even have Eve yet, he was already raining in the days of Abraham.
He was King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the days of David, he was all ready. The one who David said, the Lord said, the my Lord, sit down with my right hand. He already was raining. This is not a proclamation of the beginning or the start of his reign at the end of some great time of tribulation.
He’s already raining, But Sometimes, sometimes we know he’s raining, but it doesn’t look like. And what you have in chapter 19 in the beginning is not the declaration of the beginning of his reign, but the recognition of the power of his reign, because he acts upon that power. He judges the harlot. He judges the beast. He judges the great city.
He brings about the judgment and his reign is seen by those who are suffering. And therefore you’re getting this proclamation. Okay. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come. And his wife has made herself ready. Okay. So we’re going to transition from this time of, of joy this time of jubilation to a marriage feast.
Why a marriage feast well could be a number of different reasons, but it’s interesting to note at the end of chapter, 19 beginning in verse 21, then the mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying thus, with violence, the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore. The sound of harpists musicians,
flutists and trumpets shall not be hurting you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore. And the sound of a millstone shall not be heard of you anymore. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore. And the voice of Brian Gruman, Brian shall not be hurting you anymore. He’s just used an analogy. Describe Rome and the,
the great city falling. And they wouldn’t have, there there’d be no marriage fees. There’d be no marriage ceremonies. There’d be no joy. There’d be no musicians. There be no building. There’d be no construction. None of these things are going to happen. And he’s going to turn right around and he’s going to talk about a marriage feast and you get into chapter 20 and 2122.
And he’s going to talk about a city and he’s going to begin to contrast all the things that God wipes out in Rome, to all the things that God builds and does for his people every day. The thing you won’t get when you follow the beast, when you worship the beast, when you serve the beast, when you’re defeated with the beat you get,
when you worship the lamb you get, when you follow the Victor. Okay? So there’s a, there’s a, there’s a contrast here between the two, but we also recognize and fully recognize. There’s a continual analogy in the new Testament between Christ and the church, the bride groom, and the bride. Okay. So he’s going to use that analogy.
We’ve seen it before, but just like his rain, doesn’t start here. You’re going to see a marriage ceremony, rejoicing, and all of this. But that doesn’t mean that was the, the point at which Christ married his bride. He’s didn’t marry his bride. The day Rome fell Christ married his bride in acts chapter two. When the church was established over in Galatians chapter five,
before we even read this text, recognize that in Galatians chapter five, the bride’s already spoken of as being one body with Christ. He is there one flesh. They are bride and husband in Ephesians chapter five long before we get to revelation chapter 19, we are not reading about the moment in time when Rome falls in the days of demission, we’re not reading about the time where Christ’s bride and him get married.
It’s a fit you’re okay. So as with everything we’ve gone through here, don’t look at it at a timestamp. You’re looking at a picture, okay. You’re looking at a contrast. So I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude is the sound of many waters in the sound of many thundering saying, I’ll aloo you for the Lord. God omnipotent reigns.
Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the lamb has come. And his wife has made herself ready. And to her, it was granted to be a raid in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, write blessed are those who are called to the marriage,
supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him, Oh, wait a minute. Who who’s making this declaration to John? Is it Christ? No, he, this, this one who’s making this declaration to him says, or, or makes us decoration. And I,
John sees him. He sees himself, he’s in the vision. John’s on the Island of Patmos, but in the vision, he falls to his feet and he begins to worship the one who makes the par the proclamation. But he said to me, see that you do not do that. I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus worship God.
So the one who comes to him, one of the elders, I believe in, in the context, you go follow it all the way back makes this declaration. John falls down as his feet and be as worship. Now this John, the apostle, no better than to worship. Yes. So, so what’s this here for, okay. It was there a momentary lapse in John’s mind where he suddenly decided he needed to worship everybody who comes before him in division.
No, this is another visual visual element. This is another part of the vision to indicate to us. There’s only one who gets worshiped. There’s only one who you fall before. And by the way, it’s not just it’s, it’s here. And it pictures for us. It’s not just the wicked dragon. You don’t worship. And it’s not just the wicked beast that you don’t worship.
And it’s not just the wicked false prophet that you don’t worship. And you don’t just worship. Just not worship the wicked one on the throne. You also don’t worship a good person. You don’t worship the one who delivers the message to you. You don’t worship angels. You worship one And it’s God and him alone. Okay. So it doesn’t matter.
Good or evil. No one deserves worship, but the God, Lord God himself. Okay. So he said, I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Okay? So you’ve got this declaration going to John. This is the revelation of God. This is the revelation of the lamb.
This is the testimony of Christ. You worship him. Now I saw heaven, open and behold, a white horse. Where are we seeing a white horse before in the seals? Very first seal chapter six, verse two. We’ve got a white horse. Okay. Thank you. If you pay close attention, you’re going to find that it’s the same white horse and it’s the same person on it.
Okay. Now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse, and he who sat on him was called faithful and true. Okay. Who have we already heard called faithful and true. Jesus Christ. Okay. So we know who this is. There’s no guessing about who, this is the one who rides on the white horse, white 16 different times in the book of revelation always has to do with holiness.
The one who rides on the wind horse is the one who’s called faithful and true it’s Christ. And then notice what we read. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war back over in chapter six, verse two, we see a white horse. And the one riding on the white horse is doing what hold on to this for a minute.
Very introduction that the opening of the revelation remember, because that’s what the scroll is. The scroll with the six seals. He’s opening up and revealing the word of God. Okay? So he opens up the first seal and the picture immediately, the, the moment that it’s opened up the picture is Christ is conquering. But with the second seal, things start turning a different direction because you start getting the judgments of God and you start getting plagues and you start getting darkness and you start getting death and you get all of these things.
And these following seals, you begin with Christ, he’s winning, he’s conquering, he’s victorious, but then you see the saints and they’re dying and they’re crying out. How long are you going to allow this to happen? And then you see in the sixth seal, the judgment of God and the lamb coming upon those who are doing this persecution. And now here you are back in chapter 19.
And Christ is still conquering. You see all this time, Christ never stopped all this time. Christ was never the loser all this time, Christ didn’t stop being victorious. But for the Christians, it looked like it. They felt like it. They felt like he wasn’t doing anything. That’s why they were crying out. How long, how we don’t see you dealing with this?
How long until you do, but from chapter six to chapter 19, the message is clear. The one who looks like he’s winning, never wins. The one who looks like he’s conquering, never conquers. The one who looks like he’s got the power of death has no power at all. He’s only there temporarily. And the one who is riding the white horse,
who began the revelation will end it and will be victorious. Okay? So he, his eyes verse 12 are like a flame of fire. And on his head were many crowns. Now we we’ve talked about crowns all through the book. We we’ve talked about the elders who have crowns, but there’s two types of crowns. We’ve talked about. There’s the crown of the Victor.
And there’s the crown of the King, the elders that are around the throne of God, which crown do they have? They have the victory crown. They’ve got the crown of the overcomers. God says, I’ll give you a crown of life. That’s a victory. Crown chapter 19. The one on the white horse has many crowns. And they’re not the crowns of victory.
They’re the crowns of the King. They are the diadems. Okay. And so you see him and he, his eyes are like a flame of fire on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. And his name is called the word of God. Now,
for anybody who knows John’s writing, you know who that is because John chapter one verse one in the beginning was the word and verse 14. And the word took on flesh and dwelt among us. John’s not leaving it up to guessing. There’s no guesswork here. John says, this is the word of God. Okay? His eyes were like flame of fire air.
His head had many crowns. His name was written that no one could read except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. And his name was called the word of God. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine, linen white and clean followed him on white horses. So you’ve got a white horse leading white horses. Now these armies in heaven,
who do you think they’re made up of? I think you’re right. Grace. Doesn’t go to battle with Rome with a bunch of angels behind it. He goes to battle with Rome, with people who do battle, according to Paul against principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this age. And he is the word of God. And we are the ones who give testimony concerning him.
And they are clothed in white. Now you go back over to chapter 16, chapter 16 says blessing or excuse me, behold, I am coming as a thief. Bless it. Is he who watches and keeps his garments. Those who are clothed in white over in, in this, the fifth seal, they’re the ones who, who endure the ones who die.
They’re given white roads, but it’s more than that. They’re given white robes because of their works. You see the bride clothed in white and her garments are made up of, Of what fine linen. But what are they clean and white. They’re the, The righteousness of the saints. Oh, these are the rights of the dead Saint, right? You know,
the people, the Catholic church votes on after 400 years, right? No, these are the living saints. The brine that Christ Mary’s, isn’t dead. She’s not in heaven already. She’s alive. She’s the church. She’s the bride of Christ and the, her righteousness now. And this is the great thing about righteousness. This is a great thing that we need to remember.
Although we struggle with, because we look at our righteous, this personally and go, I keep making mistakes. I keep sending, I keep failing. And so we look at ourselves as a blocked and blighted and struggling individual. And God doesn’t, God warns us to keep our garments. But we are first John chapter one verse, verse seven and eight.
Those who are washed in the blood of the lamb, we aren’t blotched and spotted. And we’re not the lambs that Jacob got out of the herd of his father-in-law. We’re the pure and Holy we’re the ones who were to come out of the, the herds of the Israelite on when they got the best. And they offered it to the Lord. It was to be the one without spot the one without blemish.
The one that was perfect. That’s the one they offered to God, you and me, we’re not spotted and dirty. We’re not blocked in Maine all. Sometimes we look like it, but not if we’re covered in the blood of the lamb. And so the one on the white horse goes to battle and following behind him are, is a multitude on white horses.
And they’re the armies of heaven in contrast to the armies of the beast. In contrast to the armies of hell, in contrast to the armies of Satan, they’re the righteous ones. I’m not in chapter 19 anymore. Hold up the armies of heaven or in heaven, clothed in fine linen and white and clean, followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it,
he should strike the nations. We read about the sharp sword that comes out of the mouth of Christ, way back in chapters, two and three. Interestingly, let’s not lose focus on the fact that Christ tells those churches, that if those, that, that he condemns them for their actions, he says, if you don’t repent, I’ll fight against you with the sword of my mouth.
Here’s his judgment coming upon Rome, but he warns churches. If you turn your back on me and you worship the beast, if you turn your back on me and you worship the harlot, if you turn your back on me and you worship sin and self and lust over me, you become my enemy and I’ll treat you like my enemy. I’ll fight against you with a sword in my mouth.
So out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it, he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. Isaiah chapter 11 speaks concerning the rod of iron and the TRIBE of David. He himself treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of almighty God. So we, we noticed in the previous chapters with the harlot,
she was tried and her, her, her judgment and her desolation was tried out in the wine press of the wrath of God. We saw that in the bowls that we had earlier on, and now here’s Christ pictured is the one who’s doing it. He’s the one bringing this judgment. Okay. He had on his robe and on his thigh, a name written.
Now here’s why, you know, or here’s how you identify. I guess I should say what all those crowns are about. He’s on his head were many crowns, right? Why? Because he’s not King he’s King of Kings. He’s not Lord he’s Lord of Lords. He’s he’s above them all. But wait a minute. When he’s King of Kings,
why is it? Then that Nero came to the throne and started getting the, the, the Christians and lighting them up to, to light his garden. I thought he was King of Kings. Wasn’t he? King of Kings then? Yes, he was. And that’s the whole point. Even when it doesn’t look like it, even when it doesn’t feel like it,
he’s never given up his throat. He’s never given up his rule. He’s still King of Kings and Lord of Lords and he will judge. Okay. Absolutely. Absolutely. Then I saw an angel, so, all right, we’ve done this so many times before the victory ever happens. The victory is described. The rejoicing is described. The marriage feast is described.
All of this happens in the joy of victory in contrast to the city that’s fallen. That’s desolate. This destroyed hadn’t happened yet. All right, here we go. Here’s the anticlimactic end. Then I saw an angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gathered together for the supper of the great God that you may eat of the flesh of the Kings,
the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and those who sit on them and the flesh of all people free and slave both small and great. Well, wait a minute. God’s taking out everybody. Oh, who did God warn about his judgment? Go back to all of those trumpets. All of those trumpets were partial judgments and,
and eventually they included what the whole earth, those who dwell on the earth, then the bowls who did, they ultimately include those who dwell on the earth. So now who is it? The birds are called to come pick over everybody. But it’s also this go back to chapter six<inaudible>. I went to chapter six of Romans that was too far chapter six,
verse 12. Then I looked and he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair. And the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth. As a fig tree drops its late figs. When it’s shaken by a mighty wind, then the sky receded as a scroll, when it is rolled up and every mountain and Island was moved out of its place and the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men,
the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne from the wrath of the lamb, put the two pictures together. All those described here described over in chapter 19 and here they’re all hiding where in the caves and the rocks.
If you’re being attacked by a bunch of birds, where’s a good place to hide in the case of the rocks. But is it going to help them? No. Are the birds literally? No. Okay. The point is you have nowhere to go to escape from the wrath of God. The point is always, you have nowhere to go to escape.
The wrath of God, they will be judged and they will be feasted upon their destruction will be complete. Then actually no verse 19. And I saw the beast Kings of the earth and the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. Okay. The one who sits on the horses, who Christ and his army are saints and the beast and his army and the Kings of the earth,
they all gather up and John sees it. Okay. So we’ve already read about him doing battle with the sword of his mouth. We’ve already read about him being victorious. We’ve already read about the destruction. We’ve already read about the birds of heaven being called in for the great feast. And now as it were back up and actually start the battle, okay.
That’s where we’re at. John finally sees the beast and his armies and they’re all here. They’re all right. Then the beast was captured. And with him, the false prophet who worked signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the Mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone and the rest were killed with a sword,
which proceeded from the mouth of VM who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh, done two verses. There’s your whole battle. There’s your whole judgment. I told you they it’s high climactic. Now the one past, the one thing I do want us to pay attention to here is you remember over in chapter 14, verse nine,
then the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his Mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their torment,
ascends forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast or in his image and who received the Mark of his name. We went over in chapter 14 and we looked at that and we noticed where it comes from, that comes from the, the imagery comes from the old Testament. It comes from Sodom and Gomorrah. It comes from a Z kill and it is the destruction of a nation.
It is God’s judgment, enacted fire and brimstone. And it looks like hell, but this isn’t how the beast and the false prophet aren’t cast down into hell. They’re cast in the Lake of fire. Well, wait a minute. I thought hell was like a fire. Not here, not describing what hell is or isn’t here. It’s not here. The context is the judgment on Rome and God didn’t take the whole planet and every free and every slave man and all those who dwell on the earth and every King and every,
and the beast and judge them eternally right then didn’t happen. This is old Testament, fire and brimstone. This is old Testament judgment. This isn’t the final Hill. This isn’t B because more stuff happens after this. Believe it or not. So if we’re getting the day of judgment here, we got a problem. Okay. And if it’s not the day of judgment,
it’s not hell it is God’s judgment on Rome. So the rest were killed with a sword, which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh. Okay. So we’re gonna, we’re gonna put a peg there, but the judging continues Sunday morning to be continued.dot.in parentheses.<inaudible> Good. Amen. Good to see everybody tonight had,
you could get out. We hope there’s a good match. Listening on the phone or computer ever, how you’re doing it. And we’re glad to have everybody with us. We got some announcements on our sick Dorothy and Rodale Jones are Janet Jones, Robin woods and Laurie white and Terry Waitley is feeling better. Sandra Trammell, Francis Redmond’s daughters in Baptist. Collierville in room two,
24. And Francis is the only one able to visit her. Now Sandy’s in a lot of pain and she has an enlarged spleen and a stone, but they’re not sure where the stone is, where they say kidney stone or gall bladder or whatever. And she would have more tests tomorrow. And at some point she will have her explain removed. Well,
that’s all of our sick and all of our announcements. So if you would do it, get a song look, and Michael Dale is going to be singing devotional there and Cozort, and Joe would have the closing prayer. I thank you Just quickly. I remembered when I got here and then I forgot to tell him before he got up here and did the announcements.
Jessica is very sick, like very sick. And in a lot of pain, they gave her some medicine that really messed her up really bad. And now she’s having to recover from the medicine with more medicine that they gave her. Hopefully it doesn’t mess her up anymore, but please keep her in your prayers. She’s really not doing well at all. Our song before devotional will be number 230.
My voice is not back all the way, but I will do the best I can for you and for the Lord. Number two, three, zero worthy art thou, Where are the praise is Christ red. Where are the<inaudible>? Where the<inaudible> where the, the, where the<inaudible>, where the<inaudible> glory and ah, where the<inaudible> where the,
the, Oh Lord, may we come before the, was he being filled with<inaudible> wisdom, man? Ah, may we scribe the glory? And ah, the, the, Oh, Oh, the<inaudible> where the<inaudible><inaudible> the heavens things getting heavy. Where the, where the, ah, if you could please Mark song number 905 yield not to temptation.
That’ll be the song of invitation. Number nine, zero five, Psalm chapter 78, Psalm 78 in verse one give the year, Oh My people to the law, incline your ears. To the words of my mouth. Psalmus writer calls Israel to open their ears. Jesus uses this phrase. He, that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.
Som was writer says, pay attention, listen. And then he says this, I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known Jesus wasn’t the first teacher come from God who uttered parables. Parable was, was a story, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, a throw beside a comparison in the old Testament,
there were parables, but there were also dark sayings of old. And those were Proverbs, parables and Proverbs and things. We have known. It’s almost writer says, listen, listen, and hear what you already know. But he doesn’t just say, listen. He says, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us, but notice this statement.
He says, we will not hide them from their children. Psalmus writer says you and I, we know these things because our fathers taught us, but we have a responsibility to pass them on to the children, their children. He says, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.
Psalmus writer wants us to remember. He wanted his generation to remember. He wanted those who had ears to hear, to remember what they had been taught, what they had been told, what they knew, but then they wanted them to pass on the things they had been taught, the things they had been told and the things that they knew to the next generation while each one of us is still alive.
There. Some, one coming along who doesn’t know what we know, who hasn’t seen, what we’ve seen, who doesn’t understand what we understand. And it is our responsibility to tell them what the Lord has done. And that goes for the Psalmus generation and every generation that’s ever been since then, we need to be those who proclaim the word of the Lord,
who teach the next generation. Because if we don’t, no one else will. If you’re here this evening and you’re outside, the body of Christ. Salvation is found in the word of God. Salvation is found in the Lord and it is the salvation of the Lord. That is one of those things that we are to declare to the next generation. If you’re here this evening and have an age of accountability and you have need to put Christ on in baptism,
you can do that tonight. If you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve drifted away from God, you can come back tonight. If you have need of the invitation, why not come now? As we stand in, as we sing<inaudible> he needs victory. Well, the two<inaudible><inaudible> dog passions,<inaudible>,<inaudible> us.<inaudible> save,
you know, to up you calm strength and<inaudible>, he is willing to a June. He well carry you through, Oh, with me, please. Their God, our father in heaven. We’re truly grateful into the, for the privilege that we’ve had this evening to come together, to stay to from your word, we pray father that we will always try to look to your word diligently.
Each day, we might be strengthened in our faith. Be strengthened as we go through life, we’ll be able to remain faithful until you we’re so thankful, dear father, that we have the blood of your son to cleanse us of our sins. And we pray father that as we go through life, that we’re able to reach others with the gospel, that we might always be mindful of the thoughts that were mentioned this evening,
from your word in Psalms, that we need to be teaching our young people, your word, and how they ought to conduct their lives and live their lives. They might be faithful to you and serve you and glorify you throughout the days. They have father help us to be mindful of those that have been mentioned that are ELL. And those that are in the hospital,
we pray that you be with the ones that had ministering to them, that they might do those things that are needed. Now we pray father that we might encourage one another as we have that ability on time that we might have strength in each other. And that we always try to reach out to those in this area with the gospel, bless us. As we continue to do your will help us each day that we draw closer to you and to one another.
And we pray for that home and have him with the Jesus. We pray. Amen.<inaudible>.
11-08-2020 Revelation 18 (Class) + Zechariah 14 (Sermon)
Review Questions – Revelation 17
New Questions – Revelation 18
Automated Transcript
<inaudible><inaudible> We are in revelation. So encourage you to open<inaudible> Your Bibles to the book of revelation. We’re going to be in chapter 18. After we notice a few of the, a few of the questions from previous chapters. Did I go over chapter 16 questions yet? No. Okay. Hey Jay, could you find chapter 16 and bring me a copy of those?
Cause I didn’t bother to actually bring one up here. I thought I had skipped that one, but I wasn’t certain<inaudible>. There we go. Thank you. All right. So we’ll, we’ll go over by way of review chapter 16 and chapter 17 questions, and then we’ll get into chapter 18 for our class period this morning. It’s good to have the Rushmore’s with us.
It’s good to have the Warrens with us. If you get a chance to meet them today, they attended South Haven when, when we were there and we sat just, just a few apart, they, they sat right behind us at South Haven when we were at South Haven. So it’s good to have them hope everyone’s doing well. I talked with Terry Whitley yesterday and he said Thursday and Friday,
we’re no good at all. He said he barely got out of bed, but, but yesterday he, he was able to get up, get outside a little bit, do a little bit of puttering and, and whatnot. So he, he said, you don’t want this? What w yeah. He said, whatever else I, I know about COVID now.
He said you don’t want it, but his wife has basically had no symptoms at all. So somebody mentioned this morning, well, at least there was somebody there to take care of him. I said, well, that that’s, that’s valid. That’s valid. All right, let’s begin with a word of prayer. Our gracious father in heaven, we bow before you grateful for the day that you’ve given to us grateful for the life that we have and the opportunities that we have to serve you.
We are thankful for every day that we have and are mindful that there are those who will not see tomorrow, and then also mindful of the importance and the necessity of being ready for this life to be over. Because we have no assurance of when our life will come to an end where mindful of all that you do for us on a daily basis, we’re mindful of the things that you give to those who are good.
And to those who aren’t the sunshine and the rain and the beauty of the earth, and all of the things that you have provided in your creation, but we’re most especially thankful, or your son and the, his salvation that he brought to us by coming to this earth, dying on the cross for our sins. We ask that you be with us as we go through this period of study.
And through this worship hour this morning, may the things that we do be acceptable to you may the things that we teach, be in accordance with your will in accordance with your word. And may we grow closer to you in faith and in knowledge and an understanding each and every day, all this, we pray in Jesus name, amen, chapter 16 of revelation.
And if you need a copy of the questions or you’ve misplaced a copy of your questions, they’re back on this small table, right back here at the back of the auditorium, you can grab a copy of one of those now, and you’ve got plenty of time to do that. Chapter 16, question one, what was contained in the bowls given to the seven angels?
All right, we read in verse 15, it was the wrath of God, but we also see in, in the greater context that these will be plagues, but verse one, and the answer to that question is the wrath of God. Verse six, question two. What reason did the angels angel of the water give for bold two and three. Yeah.
Okay. So ball two and three, the second and third plague in this are similar to the Exodus plague of turning the water to blood. Except in this instance, you have the seas and the oceans turned to blood. And then as a separate item, you have the fresh water turned to blood, but the angel of the, of the water comes in and declares.
Here’s why this is retribution for the shedding of the blood of the saints and the profits. Okay. Question number three, for what people in the old Testament where water’s dried up so they could cross over. Okay. But in the old Testament, Israelites, okay. We, we talked about this. There’s two different possible applications looking backwards, but there’s only one group of people consistently throughout old Testament history where the water’s dry up before them and allow them to cross over.
And so this picture of the Kings of, from the East is seemingly a picture of God’s people. The alternative to that, because again, especially when you’re dealing with apocalyptic literature, you get a here, here’s this, this sign. And it’s like, okay, you got to kind of piece it together and hope you’re you’re headed in the right direction.
Sometimes the other option is the example of when the Mito Persian empire came and they diverted the Euphrates river because in the text, the Euphrates is specifically mentioned. They diverted the Euphrates river and went under the wall of Babylon and conquered it in one night. That also shares a lot of the fact that we have a reference here to Babylon over and over and over again,
throughout this chapter, chapter 17 and chapter 18, you’ve got this, this picture of Rome as Babylon. And so that would also meet the, the picture. But the old Testament example of those who crossed over on dry ground is consistently and Israelite or God’s people analogy in the new Testament does quote, I am coming as a thief always mean that we are talking about the second coming of Christ.
No, it doesn’t. Matter of fact, there are numerous times where the analogy of God coming as a thief. In other words, coming when people are unprepared coming at an unexpected time deals with a, shall we say, a regular judgment and not necessarily the end of time and such as is also contextually true in chapter 16, verse 15, chapter 16,
verse 15, question five, who is blessed, according to verse 15, All right. The ones who watch and keep their garments. And we talked about the analogy of holiness that is made earlier on in the book. We talked about the layout of seeing church and God’s description that because they have what they were doing. They were poor and blind and naked.
They fought, they were close, they fought, they were rich. They thought they had eyesight and they didn’t. God says you need to be prepared for my judgment. What is number six? What is the physical location in Palestine for the Hebrew word? Armageddon. Maketto okay. That’s that is the word for the location known in the, the land of Israel,
Asma ghetto after all seven of the bowls that mankind repent. No. Okay. So what you’re seeing here, what we’ve seen earlier is you see seven trumpets and earlier on in the book, and those seven trumpets are partial judgements, trying to get the people to repent and they don’t. And then you see, because they didn’t repent w during the partial judgments,
now God’s wrath is going to come upon them with full judgment. And yet they did not repent. Okay. Revelation, chapter 17 questions, according to verse one, what is chapter 17 about, Okay, But there’s it here in chapter 17, one of the angels who had one of the bowls comes to John and says, I’m going to show you something the judgment of the harlot that sits on many waters.
Okay. So chapter 17 is the judgment of the harlot, which we’re going to see in chapter 17. Verse 18 is also the great city. We’re going to continue that discussion into chapter 18 as well. Okay. So what is chapter 17 amount? It is the judgment of the great harlot. What did the King of the earth do with the, or the Kings of the earth do with the harlot?
Hey, they committed fornication. When you see this in chapter 17, it’s not really explained. It is explained more in chapter 18. So we’re going to spend some time talking about that in chapter 18. What kind of beast does the woman bribe Say that again? All right. A Scarlet colored beast. How many heads? Seven heads. How many horns?
10 horns. Okay. So the, the woman who’s, who’s pictured as a harlot who the nations have committed for an occasion with her. They are sorry. She is riding upon a beast. The beast, if you compare it to the, the different creatures that have been discussed already in the book of revelation looks most like the dragon. He looks most similar to the dragon earlier on in the book,
but she rides upon this beast and we have the seven heads and 10 horns brought forward, carrying forward. Some of the prophecies of Daniel, we talked about that last Wednesday. So we’re not gonna spend a lot of time on it. What is the woman drunk with the blood of the saints? Okay. Over and over and over again. You’re going to read this in this section on judgment.
You go back to chapter 16 and the judgment of the water turning to blood is because of the blood of the saints. You come over to chapter 17 and here’s the woman and she’s pictured, and she’s drunk with the blood of the saints, go all the way back to chapter six. And the very first time we really hear of judgment coming. It’s immediately following the cry of the saints going,
how long God are you going to allow this to go on? And they’re the saints who have died for the testimony of Christ. Okay. So this is a constant reminder. God is about judgment on Rome and on its persecuting power because of their treatment of the people of God. Okay. What was John’s reaction to seeing her? All right. He was amazed.
John is going to be amazed, but the one who’s with him says, don’t be, let me show you what occurs. All right. What do we read about the status of the beast in the past present and future three terms. All right. He was, he is not, and yet is okay. So there was a time when he was persecuting.
He’s not currently persecuting, but he’s about to begin persecuting again is what we’re, we’re getting there in that passage, beginning in verse nine. What two things are signified by the BESE seven heads. Okay. Seven mountains and seven Kings. All right. Seven mountains is a, is a declarative picture of Rome. The city that sat upon seven Hills and seven Kings of the emperors of Rome up,
up to this point. Okay. Up to and including Titus, the, the one that would follow what is the beast that was and is not. And this is directly from the text. What is the text? Say? It is the eighth. Okay. Over in Daniel, you’ve got 10 Kings initially. And then an 11th that comes up. John ignores three of those Kings,
because over in Daniel, those Kings were uprooted anyway. Okay. In John’s prophecy, drawing forward, Daniel chapter seven, you have seven that you begin with and then in eighth comes up. Okay. You’ve got a parallel there between what John is saying and what Daniel is saying, but it’s important to notice that the one who’s coming up when, when the beast comes back up,
the one that’s going to do the persecuting all the way, including back in Daniel, the one who’s going to do the persecuting is the eighth. Okay. That would be the mission now in, where am I at? Question number eight? What do the beast and the Kings or horns do according to verse 14. All right. They make war with the lamb.
Here’s the picture you’ve got. You’ve got Rome. And you’ve got this persecuting power, especially seen in, in the eighth King, rising up and they make war. But do they win? No. Okay. So what will happen to the harlot? According to verse 16. Okay. She’ll be made desolate, but by whom, okay. The 10 horns you go back to earlier on in the passage and you get this picture of the horns being the,
the Kings and the nations that Rome was allied with Rome didn’t fall because a great nation came against her. Rome fell from the inside. Predominantly it dealt with many Kings coming against her many, many nations attacking her, but Rome, the cage from the inside, out these Kings, while they had an Alliance with Rome. And while, while it was mutually beneficial,
they didn’t like her. They hated her. And they would make her desolate. Her own alliances would bring about a portion of her destruction. Then verse 18, who is the woman? The great city. Okay. So we go all the way back to Let’s see, lost the Go all the way back to chapter 11. We’re talking about the two witnesses here in chapter 11 and the witnesses,
the ones that have power over keeping rain from falling. And we get a picture of Elijah. We, we also have the one witness that has power over bringing plagues on the earth and turning water to blood and, and making the sun not shine. There’s a picture of Moses. Okay. But all together, it’s a picture of God’s people. When they finished their testimony,
verse seven, the beast that sends out of the bottomless pit, which over in 17, we’re reading about a woman who’s riding what a beast. Okay. So the beast that co sends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them and kill them all throughout, back in chapter 16, back in chapter 17, the woman is accused of what?
Killing, who the saints. Okay. So you’re, you’re not, and this is something to, to understand. When you go through revelation, you shouldn’t think about it as a chronological progression where chapter 11 happens. And then the, you know, God’s prophecies come about something that’s going to come later. And that’s chapter 15 and chapter 16. And then you don’t think about it in a current chronology or chronological progression.
There are things where God says, I’m going to do this, and then I’m going to do this. But all throughout it, you keep circling back. You keep circling back to the picture, the analogy of all the way back to chapter six, I’m doing this because of the persecution of my sayings. And so you see the beast come up, but you don’t see who he is.
And then you see later who he is, and then you see the other beast come up. And, but you don’t see really who they are. And then you get to chapter 17 and you get more clarity, but you kind of have to backtrack all the way back to chapter 11 to go wait a minute. Now let’s put the pieces together. Okay.
So it’s, it’s one of the difficult things. As you read these progression of prophecies, you’re not necessarily progressing further down the years of time. You’re just seeing a different picture and a more complete picture of what God is saying quite often. So when they finished their testimony, the beast that it sends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them,
overcome them and kill them. And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the people’s tongues, from the people’s tribes, tongues and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days, and will not allow their dead bodies be putting graves.
Those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make Mary this and send great gifts to one another. Because the two prophets who tormented those who dwell on the earth, okay? So here we are. We’ve got a picture of a city. We have three analogies, three different descriptions of the city. We’ve got Saddam and it’s wickedness. It’s fornication,
it’s infidelity. We’ve got Egypt, it’s captivity and persecution of God’s people. And we’ve got Jerusalem, the city of faults worship. Okay. It’s interesting that Jerusalem becomes the city of false worship as viewed here in this chapter, that is comparative to the false prophets that we see when the land beast comes up. Because again, you’ve got the three, the same three pictures coming forward in,
in the three beasts, because here’s the point Jesus Christ died in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is not under consideration the book of revelation, but the city that was so ingrained in its religion that they won, except the giver of their religion is the epitome of false religion. They were so ingrained in their own worship. They’re temple, they’re this. And they’re that,
that when the one who gave them the religion to begin with, came to the earth, they put him on a cross. It is the epitome of false religion. Okay? So that’s chapter 17, chapter 17 and chapter 18 go together. Okay. This is kind of a package unit. There should be no chapter break here, but it’s probably good that there was,
we would have never gotten through all of it in one class. Anyway, chapter 18, verse one. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority. And the earth was illuminated with his glory. This angel proceeds down from heaven. Again, John’s seeing this. This is, this is visionary. John sees an angel come down from heaven and his glory is such that what happens he’s brighter than the sun is okay.
Here comes an angel. He comes down to the earth and it is glorious such that it illuminates the earth. Okay? And he cried mightily with a loud voice saying Babylon, the greatest fallen is fallen and it has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. This angel comes down from heaven and Reed declares.
The prophecy that’s already been made to somebody. Remember just off the top of your head, where that, that statement has already been made. Let’s see. 14, eight. All right. So let’s go back to verse six of chapter 14. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation,
tribe, tongue, and people saying with a loud voice, fear God, and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come. And the worship of him and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the Springs of water. And then another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Okay. We’re taking the statement, the declaration from the, the angel and chapter. And now John’s going to see the fleshing out Of that prophecy. Okay. That statement. So he sees another angel come down and the same declarations made again Before we were, before the judgment started now where the judgments concluded. I mean, th Seven bowls have been poured out.
God’s judgment has come upon them. Now you’re Getting the complete picture. Okay. So you’re getting the before and the, after My Babylon, the greatest fallen is fallen has become a dwelling place of demons of prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird for all the nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Wasn’t that what we just read in chapter 42 SA same words.
You’re, you’re, you’re seeing the connection here. The King, The earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of our luxury. John’s going to describe as is given by the angel, this declaration Of why these nations did this banking Chapter 17. We’re told that the Kings of the earth committed fornication with this Charlotte,
but we’re not told why we’re just Hold that they became intoxicated by her. Well, now we’re going to get the picture. Now we’re going to see why Is it that God Wrath is going to come upon them and why God’s wrath is going to come upon the great city And what it was that caused them to get in bed with this city. Okay.
For all, All the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, verse four. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her. My people lest you share in her sins, less you receive of her plagues. So there’s a, a cry that comes out a declaration that comes out to the people. God,
leave, come out, back in Matthew chapter 24. Jesus tells his disciples that When they see the signs of the destruction of Jerusalem Coming, they’re supposed to do what leave. He said, if you’re out in the field, I’ll go back home. If you’re off the mountain, don’t come back down. If you’re up on the rooftop, get out.
When you see this happen, you leave. Because if you delay, your judgment will come to your, you will be caught up in the judgment. Okay? So not talking about the end of time and this isn’t either here. There’s an opportunity for those who are Righteous to leave before the destruction comes on the city. Okay? So he says, I heard another voice From heaven saying,
come out of her. My people, as you share in her sins, less you receive of her plagues for her sins have reached to heaven and gone has remembered her iniquities arrows. A number of times in the old and new Testament where we are Told God remembers something a few times, That’s a positive statement. God remembers the good things someone did, but overarchingly that’s a God’s judgment.
And his wrath Staff has been filled up. God Remembered had been storing up as it were all that. And now it’s time to wipe the slate clean through judgment. Okay. So when you, God remembered it, it wasn’t though. Oh God, that it slipped God’s mind. No, no, no, no. That’s not what you’re reading. Okay.
You’re bringing about your book, Bringing forward. All of the things they’re guilty of as if in court, as if to a judge, if you’re, you’re not sitting there watching all of the things happening and trying to no, no. You’re rehearsing before the judge. Why the person’s guilty? Why the judgment is just why they’re going to receive a, Just punishment.
Okay. There’s your picture of remembrance here? So for her Ends have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquity render to her just as she rendered to you and repay her double. According to her works in the cup, which she is mixed, mixed doubles for her. So often we read in scripture, the way you judge, You will be judged the way Yeah.
You measure towards someone else. It will be measured to you Again and here you have The way she has done, the others will be turned back on her And double, okay. For all that she’s done in the measure and that she Fight herself and lived luxuriously in the same measure, give her torment and sorrow for. She says in her heart, I sit as queen and am no widow and will not see sorrow.
The declaration of the great city, the declaration of Rome is I’m impenetrable. I I’m queen of all the earth here, A harlot, a degenerate who’s declaring herself, queen Jane and she’s queen only because of the influence that she’s had to cause people to sin. But she believes nobody’s going to judge me. Nobody can touch me. This kind of fixture occurs in the old Testament.
By other nations. I believe tire is, is one of the nations where that idea over in Ezekiel is used of tire, declaring yourself untouchable, Except she wasn’t. And they found an entire found out from Alexander. The great, the untouchable Can be touched. God is going to tell Rome, you think you sit as queen of the world. You’re not verse eight.
Therefore her plagues will come in one day, then Death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire for strong is the Lord. God who judges her now all throughout this chapter, you’re going to get the, the Babylon parallels. Okay? The great city Babylon, those ones Already been mentioned, but Babylon fell in A year and a night.
So you’re going to keep Seeing the analogy of Babylon drawn forward throughout this passage. So in a day, Death and Mourning and famine, verse nine, the Kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her. When they see the smoke of her burning. Now, wait a minute. I just thought back over in chapter 17,
the Kings who were allied with her, Devoured her and made her desolate. They did, But they’re not mourning because of her desolation. Watch why their morning, okay. They’ll see the smoke of her burning and they’ll look, they’ll weep and lament, standing at a distance for fear of her torment saying a last of last, the great city of Avalon that mighty city for in one hour,
your judgment has come. So they declare her judgment. They declare it’s, it’s rapidness standing, and the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her for no One. Watch this buys Their merchandise anymore. Are they weeping and lamenting because they love the great city. No they’re weeping And lamenting. Cause they just lost a whole lot Of money. Thank Got ships full of product.
And they take them to Rome and they sell them. And now Rome, as<inaudible> as the picture is, as these merchants in these shifts are, are sitting there on the Mediterranean sea as if it were sitting back and watching Rome burn, they go, who are we? Who are we going to sell it Junk too? Who are you selling this stuff to?
Our city just, just got, just got desolated at. They’re not, they have no concern for the city. They have no concern for, For Rome. They have concerned for their own riches. Okay. This is entirely selfish mourning. And the merchants of the earth verse 11 will weep and mourn over her for no one buys their merchandise anymore. Merchandise of gold and silver,
precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple silk and Scarlet, every kind of Citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of the most precious wood, bronze iron and marble and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense wine and oil flying flour and wheat, cattle and sheep horses and chariots and bodies of the souls of man.
Everything from slaves to every precious thing that you can imagine. Every aspect of commerce is what this city is involved Then. And all the world sits back and watches Because when she falls, so do they, they get him economically, but her desolation, her judgment is complete. Okay. So the fruit of Your soul longed for has gone from you and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you and you shall find them no more at all.
Here’s the woman, the city, the CA declared herself, queen declare that no sorrow would ever touch Her. And immediately following That picture is all of those who were in bed with her. Declare You’re gone. No joy will ever touch you again. Okay. The merchants of these things who became rich by her will stand at a distance for fear of her torment,
weeping and wailing, and saying alas, alas, that great city, which was clothed in fine linen purple and Scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls for in one hour such great riches came to nothing. Every ship master in all who traveled by ship sailors in it, many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance and cried. When they saw the smoke of her burning saying,
what is like this great city. They threw dust on their heads and crying out weeping and wailing and saying, alas, alas, that great city in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by our wealth for in one hour, she has made desolate, rejoice over her. Oh, heaven. And you Holy prophet or Holy apostles and prophets for God has avenged you On her.
So In the myths of all the war of, of mourning in the midst of all the weeping and myths of all the anguish in judgment and desolation, Who gets to rejoice the apostles and the prophets and the saints, you take that all the way back to chapter six. When God says you rest for a little while and I’ll show you, what’s going to happen to her.
Okay? What’s going To come about by way of judgment for the persecution of his people, then verse 21, then am I, the angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea. There is one passage in scripture talks specifically about a millstone being cast into a sea thing. It’s Luke chapter 17, where Jesus says, do not offend one of these little ones for IQ calls.
One of these little ones to stumble into sin. It would be better for you that a millstone were hung about your neck. And then you be cast into the sea. Then you cause one of these little ones to stumble, kind of have this picture here of here’s Rome. Here’s the great harlot. Here’s the one that seduced the world to sin. And God says,
I’m bringing you to destruction and that I’m casting you in the sea. And I’m going to catch you as a millstone. Ain’t nobody ever pulling you back up. Your judgment is final. So the mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying thus with violence, the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore.
The sound of harpists musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsmen or any craft shall be found in you any more in the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore. And the voice of the brine and the brine or bride room, and Brian shall not be hurting you anymore for your merchants were the great men of the earth for,
by your sorcery. All the nations were deceived and in her. Okay? So, so now you get this picture. She’s cast into the sea as a millstone, she’s drowned in the sea. And when you take something and you uproot it kind of like when big storm comes by a great big giant tree falls, what do you see for the first time?
What was underneath it? And that’s kind of the picture you have here. When the gray city is uprooted, winter judgment comes, winter. Desolation is made apparent. And then as it were, she’s picked up and cast into the sea. As a millstone, you look underneath, you look on the inside. You see what’s always been hidden. And verse 24 says,
and in her was found the blood of profits and saints and of all who were slaying on the earth. You find judgment comes. And then as that judgment is enacted, you find God picturing and here’s her guilt. And it’s readily apparent. This is why she was guilty. And this is why this judgment was called for. Okay. So that’s chapter 18.
Again, as we go through this, remember we’re not supposed to be looking for a time when, when Rome fell in a day, we’re not supposed to be looking for a time when Rome was picked up and cast into the sea. We’re not supposed to be even looking for a time where no flute was ever played in the city of Rome ever again.
No, these are pictures. These are pictures that carry forward. A lot of old Testament imagery and a lot of old Testament judgments to say, God is saying, I’m going to be done with her. And isn’t it interesting that to this day, one of the things that you can go see is what’s left of Rome. There are a lot of nations that have come and gone on this earth where you can’t go find anything that’s left,
but Rome, you could go see she fell and she’s gone the power, the world power, that one declared by Daniel. God said, I’m going to raise up a kingdom made without hands and it’ll never be destroyed. And while the church has gone through torment and difficulty, anguish and pain and persecution everywhere on this planet, at some point in time,
she still exists and Rome is gone. God did exactly what he said. Okay. That’s what revelation has always been about. God wins. And so to his people. Okay. Thank you for your attention. We’ll go over chapter 18 questions on Wednesday.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> Good morning. Welcome to Collierville church. Christ’s Sunday morning worship service. It is really good to see each and every one of you out here this morning,
we have several visitors with us and I want to thank you for joining us to worship our God this morning and visitors. If you don’t mind, if you have an opportunity, please fill out a visitor’s card and either leave it on a Pew or do it to one of the men so that we have a record of your visit. And again, we are so glad that you chose Collierville church Christ to worship God this morning.
If you did not pick up your Lord’s supper, it is on the tables at the back of the pews. Here it be a good time. While I finished the announcements to go get that. If you did not get it already on our sick list, please continue to remember. Joan Springer, Dorothy Wilson, and Janet Jones. As they continue to work through their ongoing problems,
please keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Terry and Patricia Wheatley, you know, have been out with COVID-19. Patricia has very few signs of it at all, and she’s doing really good. Terry is getting better, but he says, it’s one of those things. You do not want to get it, but he is getting better. He said yesterday,
he felt pretty good, but he says, you don’t want to get it. If you’ve not had it, don’t get it. Period. Crystal crystal Rushmore has have some, having some soul shoulder problems. It is a possible torn rotator cuff. They’re going to do the physical therapy route first and do some more examining and checking on her to see if they can’t determine exactly what is wrong with her.
So please keep crystal in your thoughts and prayers and then Vince it to Darrow who’s Jenny’s. Dad is in the hospital and he has pneumonia. So please keep Vincent to narrow in your thoughts and prayers for the man. We’ll have our monthly business meeting tomorrow night here at the church building at seven o’clock. If you have any agenda items, please write it on the board out there or give it to Jay.
He is our contact person for this quarter. Shelby County election commission has notified us that they are going to use our building from November 18th through the 3rd of December, because on December 8th, there has to be a runoff election. And that’s for one of the alderman here in Collierville is what I understand. So there’ll be using our building again for voting so that in mind,
as you come to a Bible study on Wednesday evenings, check out the news, why gospel call meetings? Several people that we know very well are going to be on there presenting different topics in the next few weeks here, Gary and Glen Colley are both doing it. And then TJ and BJ Clark are all speaking. So be a good time. Pick up one of those flyers and call in and listen to that at nine o’clock Monday through Friday,
also, don’t forget about the truth. FM radio stations, a lot of great lessons and great singing going on 24 hours a day, seven days a week on that we have a card I’ve already put the card on the bulletin board, but I got the contents of the card here on my notes. So that reads Collierville family. We want to thank you for your love prayers and support during our family crisis,
the financial help you so generously gave our family, made something we thought impossible possible. We are so grateful to have a church family like Collierville love the Dale family, Michael Jessica, Brandon, and Christian. That’s all of our announcements this morning. Our worship service today. Song service is going to be between Aaron and Joel. They’re going to take care of that for us.
The two of them combined opening prayer, Louis Rushmore. One of our visitors is going to do that for us. Lord supper is Jay Schaffer. Sermon will be Aaron Cole, it’s art and closing. Prayer is Tommy O’Neil. Thank you. Take your songbooks or use the overhead. If you will. And let’s turn to number 991, 991. This is my father’s world.
We’ll sing all three verses. This is my fault.<inaudible> all nature’s seeings. And round me rings music<inaudible> rocks and trees of skies.<inaudible> the Lily white, the<inaudible>. I hear him pass. He speaks to me every way.<inaudible> nah, though, the wrong seems off so strong. God is a rule<inaudible> jeez, us who die shall be side is five and Dan ham be Whoa,
Let us pray. Our heavenly father, as we come before the, this hour on the morning of this day, at the beginning of a new week, we do do so humbly and recognizing that thou art, our God, our creator, or thou art, our greatest benefactor, our friend, if we are obedient to the gospel of Christ and continue therein,
we pray heavenly father that all we do this hour in our, our efforts to worship, they will be acceptable. The time that the divine favor would overshadow us, we pray that as we’ve gathered a worship, we might be able to remove from our mind, the various distractions of life. We might be fully involved in every aspect and facet of our worship.
Our only desire might be that we can do what we do to please the, to glorify thy name. We pray heavenly father aware of the various circumstances in life that affect us all that we might be able to address the challenges that face us, whether they be health challenges, or economic challenges, family challenges, whether they be challenges of any, of,
any, of any origin that we might be able to, to be the eye children, to conduct ourselves accordingly, to have the appropriate, to conduct and response and words coming from our mouth. We pray thy blessings upon this nation in which we are. We pray that the unrest it has been so far flung might come to an end. We’re mindful of the pandemic that has not only affected this country,
but it has affected the countries throughout the world. We pray that my bed satisfactory conclusion to that also as a song we sang so indicated, we recognize that our, our, the creator of all that is in likewise, that ruling over this earth also rules and the kingdoms of ma’am. We pray that we might, as I people recognize by hand in the affairs of man and not to contest the way in which that would unfold.
I will in these things, but rather we would concentrate and being the church concentrate on being at eye children. We pray that the liberties that we now enjoy, that permit us to assemble as we have this morning to worship in spirit and truth might not be changed or hindered in any way. We pray that around the, that opportunities might have bound for the gospel of Christ and that other children might be able to assemble and to worship and to serve.
We are mindful of many of our family that are ill. We pray for their recovery or mindful that there are families that are facing bereavement. We probably, they might be up with didn’t confident too. We know that in various parts of the world, persecution against people continues on. We pray that they might be relieve that persecution of possible. And certainly I’m able to go forth as they face.
These also challenges in life. We pray heavenly father that they will be done in earth. We pray might be a part of the unfolding that providential will we pray for wisdom. We pray for understanding. We pray for patients. We’ll pray. Heavenly father that I would reserve for us, a place in heaven. We probably that will be done in all things.
We might be a part of. I will. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Next song will be number 496. Oh, listen to the wondrous story. 496. I hope you all know this one. If not join me in any way it occurred to me. I don’t know that we’ve sung this one here since I’ve been here. So it’s a good,
it’s a good song though. 496. Oh, listen to a one dressed. Ori counted one song among a loss. Yet one came down from heaven’s glory saving us awful. Cause who’s saved us from me.<inaudible> what did he<inaudible> no. Angel could his place have a gun? Hi. Yes. Hi though. He, the loved one on the cross voice<inaudible> was one of the God had three.
Who’s a saved us from me to no laws. What did he do?<inaudible> in heaven into see<inaudible> well, YUSA Renda to this<inaudible> you too. Shall come to know his fave. He will save you. Save you. Who’s saved us from me. Did he do, where is he now?<inaudible> We got through that one. Okay. 715,
715. We’ll use this song to repair our minds for the Lord’s supper. The churches one found a fish is jeez, Hold on just a minute. Just a minute. There’s two versions of this song and I’ve got the wrong one. Just a minute. We’re just going to change songs. So it takes your, take your songbooks. If you will,
and turned to number 314, just blank. That screen. If you don’t mind, 314 beneath the cross of Jesus, We’ll sing the first, second and fourth verse Beanie Kroll song. Jeez, I fan would tag my<inaudible> wrong with and we are and home with, and<inaudible> from the<inaudible> the noon tide. He<inaudible> Oh, safe fan happy.
Or if you tried and we say, Oh,<inaudible> and Avon’s justice me mean as to the Patri.<inaudible> so see my Savior’s Ross to me up to<inaudible>. I<inaudible> shine than the us and shine<inaudible> to the Whoa, go by too. No, no again, no, I lost my<inaudible>. My only shame, my glory, all the fuck wrong.
We now come to a very special time in our worship service, where we remember the death of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. I want to just read a short passage from Matthew, where Jesus instituted this, what we call the Lord’s supper. And in Matthew chapter 26 and verse 26, it starts and as they were eating and I might add that this eating was the Passover that they had traveled to Jerusalem from Galilee.
He Jesus and his disciples to celebrate this Passover feast, no small journey, 60 miles. They walked probably all the way. Probably took them two, three days at any rate, they were in Jerusalem and as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and break it and gave it to the deposits. The pot disciples and said, take eat.
This is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks and gave it to them saying drink. Ye all of it for this is my blood of the new Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you,
my father’s kingdom. So let’s displace all of our worldly thoughts and focus our minds upon the cross. As we partake of these emblems heavenly father, we’re indeed grateful for the privilege. We have to assemble about this table to participate in this Lord supper, to remember the death and the significance of the death of your son, Jesus, as we partake of this bread,
which represents his body, there was sacrificed on the cross, help us to remember the pain and anguish that our sins caused. So in jesus’ name that we pray amen, and all lives matter. Father, as we partake of this fruit of the vine, which represents to us that blood that was shed for our sins, help us to do so in a way that was fitting and that’s acceptable in God’s side,
it’s in Jesus name. We pray, amen. This concludes the Lord’s supper. We find this a very convenient time to offer our prayers for the many material blessings that have so richly been bestowed upon us. Let’s go to our father in prayer and acknowledge those. Yes, heavenly father. We’re indeed grateful for the many material, things that have so richly given to us in this country where mindful of all these gifts truly coming from you,
help us always to acknowledge the true source of these. And we thank you father for your great generosity. It’s in Jesus name. We pray as we give back a portion of what we’ve been blessed with, You would be marking your books for number nine Oh nine. That would be our song of encouragement. Number nine Oh nine will be on the overhead.
I believe I’m not sure now we’ll be singing number 71 as the deer 71, pass a pass, pour the water. So my<inaudible> my heart desire and I long to worship you<inaudible> and I lore to worship you. I watch more than go<inaudible><inaudible> ever. And the, my I<inaudible> my strength. My<inaudible> Now Aaron, good morning. Take your Bibles.
If you will. And open them to Zechariah Zechariah chapter 14, the closing chapter of this book, As you’re turning there, want to for just a moment, remind us where we started in Zechariah Zechariah and begins what we have recorded of his prophecies chapter one, verse one in the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah.
The son of Berekiah, the son of<inaudible> the prophet saying the Lord has been very angry with your fathers. The very first words from the prophet Zechariah to Israel bearing in mind, they went into captivity. They were in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. Then they returned, they came back to build the temple, and yet Zechariah comes to them. After they had failed to build the temple,
they laid its foundation. Then it sat dormant for 16 years and they had guy in Zechariah come to get the work back to completion. And the very first words we have from Zachariah is the Lord has been very angry with your fathers in the tone and tenor of how Zachariah’s prophecies begin. They’ll end, therefore say to them, verse three, thus says the Lord of hosts,
return to me says the Lord of hosts. And I will return to, you says the Lord of hosts do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets preach saying, thus says the Lord of hosts turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds, but they did not hear nor he read me, says the Lord, your fathers, where are they?
And the prophets do they live forever yet? Surely my words and my statutes, which I command my servants, the prophets. Did they not overtake your fathers? Notice what Zechariah begins by saying, number one, the Lord’s been very angry with your ancestors. Number two, don’t be like them, or you’ll get What they got. Number three, don’t think that That your ancestors made it out without my word being fulfilled upon them.
The word of the profits overtook them verse the end of verse six. So they returned and said just as the Lord of hosts, determined to do to us, according to our ways and according to our deeds. So he has dealt with us. The, the closing statement Is exhibit Exactly what God said he would do is exactly what he Did. So Zechariah begins his prophecy by reminding them of where they came from,
reminding them of what God’s done in the past so that they can have a surety that when he speaks to them and delivers what God is telling to them, now they can be just as assured that what God says about what’s to come will come to pass. And with those words from chapter one, chapter 14, verse one, as we get to the conclusion of this three chapter prophecy that began in chapter 12,
we find behold Old, the day of the Lord is coming And your spoil will be divided in your midst for, I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken the houses rifled and the women ravaged half of the city shall go into captivity. But the remnant of the people shall not be caught, shall not be cut off from the Zachariah.
The Who is encouraging them to build. Hold on. I am okay. Just got quieter. The profit that Is encouraging them to build Is now the profit that says God’s going to bring destruction again. Here’s Zachariah. Okay. And here they are in the midst of this and in the midst of this prophecy. And again, they’re being told Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.
So where’s the hope, Eh, w where’s the, where’s the, to go on. Where’s the encouragement to continue building. If they’re already being told long before the city is now a walled city again, long before the city is strong again, long before the city is prosperous. Again, God’s going to come and destroy it again Here in Zachariah. God makes it clear.
This nation will reach a point where I will end my covenant with them. We, I saw that over in chapter 11 and chapter 12 and chapter 13 in the prophecies concerning the death of the Messiah. You remember how many times Jesus in his parables and in his illustrations would bring up the idea of a vineyard owner and the occasion where Jesus would talk concerning the vineyard owner that would leave and go on a journey and leave his vineyard in the hands of those who were to tend the vineyard and the vineyard keepers,
where to keep it. And they were to, they were to provide for it and they were to care for it, but he was going to return. And so he sent back a servant to see how things were and they beat him and sent him back. They didn’t receive the servant. They didn’t listen to the servant. They didn’t treat the servant like the master.
They instead abused him. So he sends back another servant. And again, the same thing happens. So Determines this time I will send my son because they will honor my son and he sends his son And they kill him. And then jesus’ question is what will the master do to those vineyard keepers? When he returned The arms and the answer’s clear, he’s going to judge them.
He is Going to destroy them because of what they did to his son, Israel, One through whom the Messiah would come is the one God would judge for the messiahs Death for. They would be the one who would put him on the cross. And yet in this prophecy concerning Jerusalem, again, being judged, again, being destroyed, you have Again,
a remnant or with God, there always seems to be a remnant. There Always seems to be those, no matter how small their number might be. If you think about places, Sodom and Gomorrah, where three, Make it out alive, No matter how small the number is, there’s a remnant that will be faced<inaudible> to him. So God says here in the end of verse two,
but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. And here’s where you see a transition. At the beginning of the prophecy, all the nations are going to come against Jerusalem and Jerusalem is going to be destroyed. But a new Jerusalem Comes a new Jerusalem made from a remnant of faithful people, a new Jerusalem. And interestingly, at least my understanding of the passage,
if this is applicable to the new Testament church, this is no longer the old Jerusalem. This is no longer the rebuilding of the walls. This is no longer the laying of a ground for a new temple. This is no longer the Jerusalem that would again, someday be destroyed. Pre-ACA rye, the prophet that bridges the old and the new Testament. He is,
It is the prophet that talks about the old Israel and the old Jerusalem, and then a new one where everything’s different. And I want us to see in chapter 14, the new Jerusalem, wherever Things different because this Jerusalem is no longer about the Jews. Notice what we read, but Remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. As a result,
verse three, we have now God’s judgment upon the nations. God, doesn’t let this stand. God uses the nations to draw, to destroy Jerusalem. As he’s done in the past, he did it with Babylon and he’ll do it again. But God in turn will turn around and judge the enemies of his people. Then the Lord will go forth verse three and fight against those nations.
As he fights in the day of battle. And in that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of olives. One of the Mount of olives is one of the Hills outside of Jerusalem is interesting that a number of times you find Jesus going to the Mount of olives. You find the Mount of olives is one of the primary places where Jesus would spend his time.
When he was in the vicinity of Jerusalem. It is the Mount of olives that Jesus will come from. As he enters Jerusalem, victoriously riding upon the donkey. It is the Mount of olives. He will go back to after he and the apostles, leave that upper room on the night of his bedroom. Jesus Christ we’ll find his place Standing upon Mount Zion,
standing upon Jerusalem, standing upon the Mount of, and here you have the Mount of olives pictured as a place of deliverance. Notice what we read and the Mount of olives shall be split into from East to West, making a very large Valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the Northern half of the, toward the South. Then you shall flee through my mountain Valley for the mountain Valley shall reach to Azale.
Yes, you shall flee. As you fled from the earthquake. In the days of use IAH, the King of Judah, God says using again, this is figurative language. This is, this is apocalyptic language language, as Zechariah would use it quite often, he says, here’s the Mount of olives. And the Lord is going to stand on the Mount of olives.
His feet are going to be on the Mount of olives. And yet from there, deliverance comes and God says, I’m going to split the Mount of olives in half. Now. We’re not supposed to be looking for a time in history where we see the fulfillment, where God takes the Mount of olives. It splits it. And it has a matter of fact,
if you go over the land of Palestine, you can go stand on it right now. So what is he saying? There was a time when Israel stood On the shores of the red sea And there was an army behind them and a sea in front of them. And they could go no further. And if they stayed, they die. And if they tried to go back,
they die. And they By themselves had no hope. And yet Moses said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And he was Raised his rod and he stretched it over the red sea by the commandment of God and the water Parted And stood up on either side. And the people Walked through on dry ground. God, again, delivers his people.
God, again, provides And opening Dressing. When you go over to Matthew chapter 24 and Luke chapter 21, as you read about what Jesus said would come in the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus makes it clear. There’s going to be a, a number of signs that lead up to the destruction of Jerusalem. And there’s going to be a time at which it will appear as though there’s no escape,
even for the righteous, But the righteous, knowing what Jesus said, we’re to Be ready because he said there would be a way of escape. There Would be when they saw those signs and opportunity for them to escape. And historically We know there was Because Rome would come and they would besiege the city of Jerusalem. And then that occurs in late 80,
68, early 80, 69. And they’re there and they’re besieged around Jerusalem. And then for a time, The Roman army backs off and people can again, move in and out of the city, Josephus and other historians tell us that when That occurred, every Christian left or Islam that didn’t come back, they saw the opening and they went through it.
But the majority of the city did not. I think that’s what he’s talking about here. I might be wrong, but God said, I’m opening a path of escape and you’re going to flee through my path. If you belong to me thus as the Lord, my or thus the Lord, my God will come. And all the saints with you, it shall come to pass in that day that there will be no light.
The lights will diminish. It shall be one day, Which is known to the Lord neither day nor night. But at the evening time, it shall happen That it will be light. Now, One of the things we need to remind ourselves as we go through Zechariah is he uses this phrase In that day, in that day, in that day. And as we’ve mentioned before,
we’re not always dealing with the same day. There’s different parts of this prophecy as in the book of revelation where John will see one thing happen and then he’ll turn and he’ll see another thing happened. And it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re happening in order. This, these are visions and these are aspects he’s seeing it’s going to come in that day, that there will be No light.
We’re not. And always going to find a clear fulfillment of this type of Elliptic prophecy. But it is interesting that there was a Day where the sun stopped shining that had A direct connection with the destruction of Jerusalem, because while Jesus hung on the cross, it became dark as if the sun stopped shining. And then the graves were opened and the Veil of the temple was rent from top to bottom.
And this interior and said, surely This was the son of God. Maybe that’s what it’s talking about. Maybe not, but what you do see here is God making it clear. I’m in charge the Sun doesn’t shine. When I tell it not To. And in there The evening when it’s supposed to be dark. And I say, it’s going to be light,
it’ll be light. So you can be assured that I’m in control. And in that day, verse eight, it shall be that living water shall flow from Jerusalem. That’s one of the reasons why that phrase is one of the reasons why I believe this may have a connection to the crucifixion and may have a connection to the cross. In that day. It shall be that living water shall flow from Jerusalem,
half of them toward the Eastern sea and half of them toward the Western sea in both summer and winter is shall occur. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day. It shall be the Lord is one and his name One Zechariah comes forth with this prophecy. And he says, there’s a day that’s coming where living waters will go forth from Jerusalem.
Jesus would tell the woman at the well, in some area as he was there. And he said, give me a drink from the well John chapter four, and the woman would say, how is it that you being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman. And Jesus said, if you knew who I was, you would ask of a drink from me.
And I would give you a drink of waters of life. And you would never thirst again. And she wanted that water. She wanted a drink, but she questioned how in the world could he possibly give her a drink when he had nothing to draw Water out with, Jesus will make it clear to her that the way Waters that he offers are spiritual waters of life.
There was not going to be a day in which Jerusalem opened up a found in the fount, went East on the fountain, went West and water was supplied to all the world from inside Jerusalem in physical water. But there was In spiritual life in acts chapter one and acts Dear one, Jesus, as he is preparing to ascend back to the father will speak to his apostles and being assembled together.
Verse four, he commanded them not to From Jerusalem, but to what Wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you have heard from me for John, truly with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy spirit. Not many days from now, therefore when they had come together, they asked him saying, Lord, will you,
at this time restore the kingdom to Israel. Notice Here are his disciples. And they’re looking for a restoration of the, But he makes it clear. They misunderstand. He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons, which the father has put in his own authority, but you shall receive power. When the Holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Sumeria and to The end of the earth,
truly the fountains of water of life. The word of God would flow from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. So we see in verse nine, the Lord shall be King. He’s not going to be King over one, small nation of Israel. He’s not going to sit on a literal throne and physical Jerusalem and reign over a literal nation of Israel.
He is King of King And Lord of Lords and the Declaration here at the end of verse nine, the Lord is one and his name one, God makes it clear. There’s no one else Who stands next to him. There’s no one else who’s above him. There’s no one else who’s beside Him. No one is like, God like the Lord, like Jehovah and verse 10.
And, and the land shall be turned into a plane from Geba to Rehmann South Of Jerusalem. Jerusalem Shall be raised up and inhabited in her place here. You’re seeing almost the picture of what John the Baptist is declared to do in Isaiah chapter 40. When we’re told that the way would be prepared for the King and the declaration is take the mountains and make them flat,
take the valleys and fill them in, make straight the way of the Lord. And yet here you see Zion Mount Jerusalem. The city of David raised Up all The land around them becomes flat. All the Hills, all the valleys are all filled in. It’s one flat plane, but up above at all Is Jerusalem. Now remember Jerusalem back in verses one and two is being told,
you’re going to be destroyed. Now, here we are Jerusalem. You’re going to be lifted, But it’s not the same Jerusalem. It’s not the physical place. It is spiritual Jerusalem. And they’ll all the land shall be turned into a plane from Gibbon to rain, to Ramon, South of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be raised up and inhabited in her place from Benjamin’s gate to the place of the first game of the corner gate.
And from the tower of Hananel to the King’s wine press, basically laying out the borders of the city. The people shall dwell in it and no longer shall there be utter destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet.
Their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets and their tongue shall dissolve in their mouth. It shall come to pass in that day that a great panic from the Lord will be among them. Every one will seize the hand of his neighbor and raise his hand against his neighbor’s hand. Judah also will fight a Jerusalem and the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be gathered together.
Gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance. Such also shall be the plague on the horse and in the mule and the camel and the donkey and all the cattle that will be in those camps. So shall this Plague B I think it’s beneficial for us, especially those who have been in the adult class to be Minded that God doesn’t always speak concerning plagues in this type of judgment,
in literal terms that would bring about a physical plague The world, but he does speak in terms of old Testament, judgment being brought forward. God Says I’m going to destroy all the nations that came against my people. Everyone that comes against my people Will be judged. And he uses the plagues. He used Is a picture of those who die while standing up as if they’re walking through and they just Decay right then and there.
But then verse 16, as God looks at this new Jerusalem, something about it is very different. Something about Jerusalem has changed and here’s the declaration. It shall come to pass that Everyone who has left of all the nations, who came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year To worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of the Tabernacles Stressing.
The feast of Tabernacles was one of those fees where once a year, the people were to come to Jerusalem and they were to dwell Intense. They were to dwell in Tabernacles in booze. It was called the feast of booths, feast Of Tabernacles, feast of weeks. They Were to come together and they were to rejoice. They were to praise God for all that he had done.
They were to recognize the Lord for all that he had done for them. And they were to bring the first fruits of all their harvest together as an offering to God. And yet that command was only ever given to Israel. That was never a command in the old Testament, with the old covenant, with the old people of Israel, that was never a command to the Gentiles.
Oh, they were to share with those who were in their house and the servants that were within their Gates and the stranger that was within their Gates. They were to share with them, but it was not a commandment to them. The Babylonians had no commandment at any point in the old Testament to come and to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. No, But God’s people did.
And you remember that the fountain that went out from Went to the entire earth. Yeah. And the King who’s the King in Jerusalem is the King of the entire earth. Something’s changed. It’s no longer in Israel. That’s in one small nation. It is an Israel with Jerusalem at its head and Christ at its head that is over the entire world World.
And God says, you’ll remember When you used to be sojourners. See, because that was the thing about the feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Tabernacles was there in the Israel. I year to remind them, there was a, The time when they were so jurors there, It was a time when they didn’t have a home. There was a time where they wondered about looking for a home.
There was a time where they relied upon God and him alone. Now every nation, every nation Celebrates a time of soul journey. And Every nation recognizes without God. They’re nothing. Every Nation comes together to Worship the Lord. This isn’t Israel anymore. This isn’t a one nation covenant people. This is a covenant people made of Free nation. And every tongue,
It shall be that whichever of the families of earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King. The Lord of hosts will err on them. They’re the King, the Lord of hosts. I can get my tongue tied on them. There will be no rain. If the family Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain.
They shall receive the plague, which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to the feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not keep the feast of Tabernacles. Now, How is it? If this is old Israel under the old covenant, God can condemn a nation for not keeping a feast.
He never commanded them to keep The answer is there’s no way God can do that. God will not judge you for a commandment. He never gave you. God never commanded Egypt to come to Jerusalem, to worship until we’re not talking about physicals Russo. So it’s interesting as we kind of make full circle back to the waters, the living waters that is Jesus was standing there with a woman in Samarria at the weld,
talking about living waters. The discussion came I’m up on where to worship. She, He said, the Jews say that we are to worship in Jerusalem, but our fathers worshiped on the mountain And Jesus said, there’s coming a day where the location of worship won’t be the important factor. But instead the heart of the one who worships will be okay, The heart and the obedience of the one who worships in spirit and in truth for God,
seeks such to worship him. Now, wait a minute. Does God only see those to worship him that belong to the children of Israel? No. Does God Only one, those who live in the land of house and to worship him? No, but he does require that everyone who worships him In the days of the Messiah in the days of the church,
in the days of Christianity, in the days of the kingdom of Christ, everyone must worship him recognizing this. And it Can’t be stated any better than Paul stated It wrong. Chapter three, verse 23 for all, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and Romans chapter Six, verse 23 for the wages of sin, His death. But the gift of God is eternal life in the feast of Tabernacles,
the virus. First time they came into Palestine as they come across the Jordan river, as they do battle and they begin to take the land Of Israel. God Makes them a promise. When you come into the land, you’re going to receive fields. Didn’t plant, You’re going to receive crops. You didn’t water. You’re going to live in houses. You didn’t build in cities.
You didn’t make. And God Makes it clear. He provided All of those things. And they were to remember when they were so generous and had nothing, that everything they had came from him. And so God expands here in Zachariah, the commandment that every nation, Egypt and every other nation Egypt is just simply the, the applicable illustration here comes together.
Not in literal Jerusalem, not in The physical city walls of Jerusalem, but In spiritual Jerusalem, in the church, in the body of Christ to remember, they’re still just sojourners. They’re still just in this life waiting for the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises in eternal life. In that day, he says holiness to the Lord. Declaration goes out, at least in the King,
James new King, James it’s all caps holiness to the Lord. Declaration goes out. This is God’s decree holiness. This righteousness is what I want Holiness to the Lord shall be engraved on the bells of the horses. The pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yes. Every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holiness to the Lord of hosts.
Everyone who sacrifices shall come and take them and cook in them. And in that day, there shall be no longer. There shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house Of the Lord of hosts. And you go, all right, what, what happened to the Canaanites? And where did they come in? We’re going to end the book with no Canaanites anywhere around why?
Go back to chapter one, verse one, verse two. The Lord was very angry with your fathers, but what did they do? They came into a land that God said you destroy and judge every person In this land, because their iniquity is full because of their idolatry that they have committed. And their iniquity has brought their judgment. You do not Let them live.
God was going to use Israel to judge a people that he said your Up. Now, Israel would come in in the historical event and they wouldn’t do it. They didn’t fulfill what God commanded. They didn’t judge the Canaanites as the instrument of God, in a complete sense, they allowed some of them To live. But Here as Zechariah concludes his picture,
his prophecy to Israel, he reminds them all the way back of the anger. God had it, their fathers, because God said, if you allow the Canaanites to live, here’s what they’re going to do. They’re going to turn your heart away from me. And they’re going to cause you to worship their idols. And they’re going to bring about your destruction.
So here In this verse, don’t understand this to be, there’s this one group of people, these Canaanites, and God doesn’t want any of them to worship him. God doesn’t want any of them present. Yeah. Canaanites symbolize something. Just the way the Egyptians did the Egyptians symbolized captivity, that Knights symbolized idolatry. Now remember go back To the previous,
verses the declaration in verse nine, the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day. It shall be the Lord is One. And his name one Hitomi of idolatry is the declaration. God’s just one guy Among many, but no more. God Says I will make it clear. And it will be true of all those who appear before me in holiness that I,
the Lord One, there will be no idolatry among my people. Well, there will be no Canaanite Eights in the house of the Lord of hosts. You and me, as we close this book of Zechariah, we need to examine ourselves. Where’s our heart Is our heart set on God and him alone, or is our heart set on the things of this life?
Have we determined that we will be sojourners In this life, doing everything we can to be prepared when this life is over? Because Hebrews chapter nine, verse 27 still makes it clear for every person there’s coming a day when they will be judged. When this life is over and they will stand before God and judgment, are you ready? Zachariah carries a lot of pictures that are sometimes hard to be understood,
but it carries one simple message. Israel, your fathers departed from me and I destroyed them. And Israel, your descendants are going to depart from me and I’m going to destroy them, but you can be faithful today. If you’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ, you enter into the church, the Jerusalem of God, the Mount Zion of the Lord,
the people of God, the kingdom of the Lord that spans the entire earth. You enter that kingdom by dying to sin and being immersed in water to rise up, to walk in newness of life, believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Repenting of your sins, confessing the name of Christ and being immersed in water for the remission of your sins.
You can have the waters of salvation today, and then on you can spiritually be written holiness to the Lord, but you can also choose not to. You can also choose not to tomorrow or the day after or for the rest of your life, but you need to understand this judgment’s coming. Judgment’s coming for everyone because there is one King and there is one law.
And by our actions, we will be judged. If you have need of redemption salvation, you can have it today. If you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’ve become like Israel and you’ve turned your back, you’ve gone after other things, you’ve put this life ahead of the life to come. You need to change because there will be no Canaanites in the house of the Lord.
You’re here and you have needed the invitation. Why not come as we stand? And as we say, There’s a Two have, if you don’t mind, give us a chance after services to get to know you better and know, we’re certainly glad that you’re here. Our closing hymn will beat number 10 15. Jesus loves the little children. And as we think about this song,
I know we think about young people quite often, because that’s kind of what we think about when singing it. But you know, we are the little children of God and no, we need to think about where we stand today and what we’re doing today and how we’re living today. Particularly in this time of turmoil in our nation. Remember that God loves us and he’s there for us.
And that’s how we gain our strength by saying this. And then we’ll have a closing prayer.<inaudible> all the children.<inaudible> red and yellow, black, and why they are precious in his sight jeans.<inaudible> We thank you for the beautiful fall weather that we’re in, enjoying our heavenly father. We thank you for the freedom that we have to gather together as your children and to worship the prayed.
Dear Lord, it would forever stay that way. We pray for leaders throughout the whole world. Pray that they might turn to your great and Holy word to lead people by our heavenly father. We pray for each of the sick mentioned here today. Probably that if it be the wheel, they might soon be able to rejoin us to worship our heavenly father.
We thank you for our visitors today. We pray that they might have safe passage in their travel, be with each one of us. Dear Lord, as we leave here, strengthen us against sins and temptations of this world. These things we ask in Christ’s name. Amen.
Bulletin – 45 Vol 7 November 8, 2020
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Bulletin – 44 Vol 7 November 1, 2020
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Bulletin – 41 Vol 7 October 11, 2020
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10-04-2020 – Sunday AM Class and Worship – B.J. Clarke
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Automated Transcript
Yes. Test, test. I agree. Like, okay. Well, I want to, I want to wish you a good morning and tell you that Tisha and I are both very, very delighted to be with you, although we’re sorry for the circumstances that bring a sheer way. Sorry to hear about Aaron and what he’s going through with this pain. Certainly hope he gets to feeling better soon. And I told the editor telling me it’s not a young pup anymore. That it’s only young people that should be trying to get out of trees like that. But some of us older folks, it takes us a while to catch on to the fact that we’re not as young as we used to be. I also to thank you for the support that you’ve given to the Memphis school of preaching over the years, we couldn’t do what we do without good folks. Like you providing us with the opportunity to help train men, to preach the gospel. And I know with reference to Michael Dale, he’s under the weather too this week because of a stomach virus. And so I’m having to be in town. Most of my appointments have been canceled in 2020. I haven’t done a lot of traveling, although it’s starting to pick up a little bit again. And so it was a thrill for me to be able to come over and be with you. I wonder if you’d stop and think with me for a moment. Some of you are old enough to be members of the church for decades. And I wonder how many Bible classes do you think you have attended in your lifetime? How many hours of Bible study would you guesstimate in your mind that you have actually attended over the period of your lifetime? If you start, when you’re small and mom and dad take you to services and then you keep going your whole life, literally hundreds and even thousands of hours of Bible study can be represented. Now, if I ask you, can you tell me the number one thing that stands out to you after all your hours of Bible study? What’s the number one thing you remember learning in Bible study? I’m sure that you would probably say there’s so many things. It would be hard to narrow it down to just one thing, but what I want to do for just a few minutes this morning in this Bible study period, is explore with you the power of even one hour of Bible study and how revolutionary that can be. And to prove this to you. I want you to go back with me about oil to the sixth century before Christ or 600 years before Christ during the time of a man by the name of Josiah. And if you’ll go to second Kings chapter 22, I would remind all of us that it was a new Testament, Christian named Paul, who said that the old Testament was written for the learning of the Christians, that Rome it’s certainly written for our learning as well. And as we explore second Kings chapter 22, when we start off, we see Josiah is only eight years old when he begins to rain, he is in that position to reign and he rains a total of 31 years. And the Bible talks about his mother. And then look at the overall assessment of Josiah that is given to you in may. And second Kings 22 two. He did that, which was right in the sight of the Lord. He walked in all the way of David, his father. He turned not aside to the right hand or the left. And then when he was 26 years old, this is the 18th year of his reign verse number three. So he was when he started we’re 18 years into his reign. So we’re now Josiah is 26 years old. I wish we had more 26 year olds with a heart of Josiah. And I’m glad for the ones we do have you’ll notice when he was 26, he actually sent Shay fan the son of ACLI, the son of Michelle and the scribe to the house of God saying, I want you to go up to Hilkiah the high priest. I want him to keep a record of, or some the silver that is brought into the house of the Lord. And so long story short for the sake of our time here today, while they’re in the process of fulfilling that task, they find a book. And if you’ll drop down to verse number eight, you’ll see that he’ll carry the high priest says to Shay fan the scribe. I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, and then he’ll CAG gives it to Shay fan and he reads it Shay fan the scribe then comes to the King verse nine and he’s reporting what had happened. We found that we gathered the money that was found in the house and cetera, and he’ll cry. The priest verse 10 is delivered me a book. And then Shay fan starts reading it before the King. And we’re not told exactly what section of scripture was read in the King’s ears that day, but we know that it changed him. We know that it absolutely revolutionized the nation in good ways. Positive ways. This hour of Bible study was going to be a moment of tremendous importance in the life of Judah. You’ll notice the reaction of the King in verse 11, when he heard the words of the law, the book of the law, he rent his clothes. He’s hearing a section of scripture that moved him emotionally. It is not a pleasant section of scripture. It’s one of those severity passages. You know, Romans 1122 says that you and I ought to be holed the goodness and severity of God. And as you and I think about defining God, I know he’s good. He is so good. I also know that there are times when he has to be severe because of his holiness. And here on this occasion, Josiah is reading a section that has to do with it has to do with the punishment that was coming to Israel or Judah in particular here. And so the King does something. I want you to number one, notice he was moved by the study of God’s word. And I’m not asking for a show of hands here, obviously, but can you think back to moments in your life where you have studied the word of God, either in private, personal study or in the midst of a gospel meeting or sermon that was preached or a class and that it has moved you, it has brought you to tears. It has caused you to feel a sense of need to change. This is the humility that Josiah possesses. And one second thing I’d like for you to notice. Josiah does not just want to take this without thinking about it. He wants to double check his understanding of the word. So look at verse 13, he tells him to go and choir the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that is found. I want to double check this great is the wrath of the Lord kindled against us, because look at his willingness to admit even this, our fathers have not hearkened under the words of this book to do, according to all that, which is written concerning us. It’s never pleasant for anyone, any one of us to have to suggest or admit that our ancestors might not have followed the word of God, the way they should have, or that some loved one has not lived the way they should have. That’s not easy for any of us, but there are times when we have to be that willing to make such a concession. And Josiah says, look, based on what this book is saying, we are not right. And our fathers were not right and we need to fix it. And so the confirmation is then given in verse number 16, thus say the Lord behold, I will bring evil or punishment upon this place. Upon the inhabitants thereof. Even how many, All the words Of the book, which the King of Judah has read. Now, I’d like to ask you, is God’s temperament ever hair-trigger. Is that ever one of these deals where he’s just had a bad day and he’s going to take it out on the human race? No. Is there a reason assigned for this severity of God? Look at verse 17 because they have forsaken me. What’s the very first commandment of the 10 commandments under which these people lived very first commandment was what thou shall have no other gods before me. They had not listened. They were actually burning incense to these other gods verse 17. And God says, this provokes me to anger with all the works of their hands. And therefore my rash shall be kindled against this place shall not be quenched, but watch, watch what happens when a man receives this word humbly to the King of Judah verse 18, which sent you to inquire the Lord. Thus showed you say to him as touching the words, which you’ve heard then verse 19, because dine heart was tender. And thou has humbled ourselves before the Lord. When thou heard us, when I speak against this place and against the habit in Sarah, that they should become a desolation that occurs and have rent that close and actually wept before me. I have heard of the, I’ve heard the says the Lord, and I will gather the end of that fathers. And you’ll be gathered to your grave in peace and your eyes. Won’t see all the punishment or evil that I’m going to bring upon this place. And so Josiah’s humility extended his life of peace with God. In fact, God says, Josiah, I’m still going to do everything I said I was going to do, but because of your humility and receiving my word, I’m going to put it off until after you’re dead and gone and stop and let that sink in for a moment. One man’s humility and righteousness was a blessing to the nation as a whole. And God withheld the judgment sooner than he would have. If it hadn’t been for Josiah’s humble attitude. What a tremendous man, Josiah is. In fact, I want you to go to second Chronicles. This is a parallel text to what you’re reading here in second Kings. And I want you to see in second Chronicles, chapter 33, the Bible tells us actually second Chronicles, 34 is what I mean to say, the Bible tells us about this same man, Josiah. And I want you to notice in verse three, what it says he did when he was 16 years old. I know, you know, that text, remember that create or winter was supposed to do that in the days of our youth, right? Those Josiah. Do that. Remember how old was he? When he started his reign, he was a co Regent reigning at the same time as someone else. And so not required to make all decisions at that age, but he starts officially at age eight. Now let’s ask this question. How old is he? According to second Chronicles, 34 in verse three. It’s the eighth year of his reign and eight plus eight is he’s 16, 16 years old. And what is the Bible say while he was yet young? He began to seek after the God of David, his father. And then when he was 20 years old, the 12th year of his reign, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the groves, the carved images, the molten images. And as the 20 year old, he helped break down the altars of Baylor him in his presence and the images that were on high above. He cut them down and he had actually made dust out of them and spread them on the ashes of the brute kid, drawn spread the ashes on the brick kid, drawn, let it flow away. Get out of my sight to get that out of here. We don’t need that strikes me that yesterday. And, but believe me, what I’m about to say is not a criticism of sports and college football. I enjoy watching that very, very much. And every Saturday, 20 year old kids and above, or around that age, get out on the field and do things that make the highlight reel that night. Look what this guy did. Look what this guy did. They’re 20 years old, some of them, and what is it that makes them famous. They can throw a ball. They can catch a ball. They can block, they can tackle. They can run. They can sack. They can kick what made Josiah stand up at 20 years old and friends, isn’t this what we need in this world. 20 year olds, 40 year old, 60 year olds who have this kind of humility and mentality that says, let’s get rid of everything that doesn’t honor. God let’s do that. So that’s what they do. Verse four, they broke down the altars of all these idols in his presence. And he burnt the bones of the priest upon those altars. Now, this is interesting because 345 years earlier, you remember in first Kings 13, there was this young prophet who came to King Jeroboam and he pronounced a judgment upon him for his idolatry. I want you to go back to first Kings 13 for just a moment. I want to show you something that shows that God, even though centuries may pass between what God predicts and the actual event happening. God keeps his will. He keeps his promises. He never fails. In first Kings chapter 13, the Bible says in verse one, that there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord and the Bethel Jeroboam, who was an idolater is standing by the altar to burn incense. But he cries against the older, this young prophet does and says all altar altar, thus say the Lord behold, a child shall be born into the house of David Josiah by name. Now we think it’s remarkable. And it is that Jesus’s birth was predicted seven centuries. Actually, even more than that, Isaiah seven is around seven centuries before Christ, but we need not forget. There are some other fascinating prophecies in scripture. I want to ask you to name the president of the United States, 345 years from right now. I’d like you to tell me his or her name and what they will do. That’s going to be of significance 345 years from now. Anybody. I have no idea. If the United States of America will still be, or this world will still be here 345 years from now, though. I hope and pray that if the world is still here, that this country will still be here and serving God in lore Holy ways, but for God to nail down the fact that 345 years later, a man by the name of Josiah would do what this man, Josiah, according to first Kings 13, is going to offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon these talking to the altar men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee. And sure enough, what you and I are reading here in second Chronicles, chapter 34 in verse five, he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars and cleanse to Judah and Jerusalem. And I’ll tell you, what’s fascinating about Josiah. He’s the King of the Southern kingdom, which is primarily Judah and Benjamin absorbed into it. These places you’re about to read of in verse six, Manasseh that’s Northern kingdom stuff. Ephraim verse six Simeon had started out in the South and Ben kind of absorbed into a lot of different areas and had no longer maintained their tribal identity. A NAFTA lie. That’s a Northern kingdom. Territory’s here is here’s Joe Tsai, exerting positive influence over a kingdom. He’s not even the King of One hour. Bible study can change the world around you for the better. If you take that hour of Bible study and humbly received the word that you learn. And the Bible says in verse number seven, that he broke down the altars, the groves, he beat the graven images into powder, cut down all the idols through the whole land of Israel. And then he returns to Jerusalem. He is determined to do whatever he can do as far as God will allow him to extend his influence. And then when he’s 26 years old, verse eight of second Chronicles, 34, that’s where again, they find the book of the law and he is the one who’s willing to receive it. I want you to drop down to verse number 27. I want you to see in second Chronicles, 34, 26, actually second Chronicles, 34, 26. This is what the prophet is sends word back to Josiah. You tell Josiah verse 27, because then heart was tender. And you did humble yourself before God, when you heard his words against this place and against the inhabitants thereof and you humbled by myself before me and you did, Rindge your clothes and weep before me, I’ve even heard the also say the Lord, I would like to ask this question, Okay, Do you? And I see anything’s happening in our country that bring us to tears. That causes us to feel a sense of great sorrow. And let me ask this question. Can’t even one of us can a group of us feel these things be moved by these things, pray about these things. Receive the word of God and try to get the word of God to others. Can we change the world around us, by our actions and our attitudes? Yes, we can. And notice Josiah look at verse number 31. What he does. He stood in his place. Second Chronicles, 34th. And first thing he did verse 29. I should have told you, he sent first and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem said, everyone come this hour Bible study that it had as made him want to spread this word to others. So he convenes an assembly of all the elders and the people of Judah and Jerusalem. And then notice what he does. Talk about leadership. See this verse 30, the King went up into the house of the Lord, all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levis, all the people great and small. And he read in their ears. All the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the Lord, Josiah. Now that you’ve found the word of God, what are you going to do with it? I’m going to get me a big assembly. As many people as I can. I’m going to command everyone to come to Jerusalem and then I’m going to go up and I’m going to read those same words to everyone. Everyone needs to hear the same words that I just heard. And I’m going to be an evangelist to make sure that the word of God gets told that is the action that he did. And so picture him verse 31, standing in his place and then making a covenant before the Lord, before the group he’s promising, he’s going to walk after the Lord, keep his commandments, his testimonies, his statutes, how much with all his heart and with all his soul to perform the words of the covenant, which are written in this book, he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it and say, you will, you do the same. Here’s the commitment I’m making to keep the covenant of God. Will you make that same commitment? That is the action and the attitude of Josiah and look at what he does in verse 33. He took away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel. And they made all that were present in Israel to serve, even to serve the Lord, their God not idols and all his days, they departed not from following the Lord, the God of their fathers, Josiah. One of my very favorite Bible characters, because watch what happens in chapter 35. There’s a Passover that is kept by Josiah. Now, this is interesting. According to scripture, the Passover was supposed to be kept on the 14th day of the first month. Now has the had preceded Josiah as a King. And he had actually to his credit said, let’s observe the Passover, but they were not able to get everyone sanctified and purified in time. And so they followed the teaching of numbers and they actually were able to keep it in the second month. But that was not the ideal time. That was not the real originally prescribed time. It’s kind of like if you want to use an illustration that we’re familiar with, someone might not be able to make it for Sunday morning services to worship with the whole group. And I’m talking about those who are healthy and able to get out and about. And so maybe they have a sick child, they have a flat tire on the way here. They are something that keeps them from being here at the normally scheduled service. And so then at a second service later in the same day, still the first day of the week, they partake of the Lord’s supper. And yet the next Sunday, their ideal goal is to be there, you know, for the morning worship service and to be a part of this. And they’re not deliberately trying to miss Josiah does something that even has a cat didn’t do. He restored the Passover back to the original time. It was intended to be kept. And in fact, if you’ll notice in second Chronicles, 35 in verse, number one, Josiah kept a Passover. They killed the Passover on the 14th day of the first month. Now zoom in, if you will please, on the statement that is made in verse number 13, they roasted the Passover with fire. According to the ordinance, they’re following the word of God and verse 18, there was no Passover like to that captain Israel from the days of ready, Samuel, the prophet, neither did all the Kings of Israel keeps such a Passover as Josiah kept and the priests and the Levi’s rights and all Judah and Israel that were present and inhabitants of Jerusalem question, did Josiah have a different book than they had? No. Why didn’t these others who had the same book observed the Passover in the same way that Josiah did? Because that’s what I’m telling you. He, his heart was so focused on doing exactly what God said do in the way God says do it. He so humbled to try to do whatever God says that he sets an example for the rest. And there was no King. None of the Kings of Israel ever kept a Passover like Josiah did. And he was the one who led the way in observing this and doing what God said to do. I want you to go back to second Kings 23 for just a moment. Hold your place in second Chronicles, 35 for the end here. But I want to go back to second Kings 23, and I want to get a little more specific. I’ve shown you right now. Let’s see where we’ve been so far. Number one, we’ve seen Josiah hearing the word. We seen him double checking the word to make sure that he’s really understanding those words and incidentally, whom does that remind you of in the new Testament, double checking to make sure this is really what it’s saying. Who do you think of in the new Testament? Yeah, the noble Bereans who, what search the scriptures. But we often skip to that part and skip over. Maybe we don’t intend to skip over the first part of acts 17, 11. Do you know that before it ever says they searched the scriptures daily, it says something about their humility and bind. They received the word with all the, remember the language readiness of mind. Does that sound like Josiah? When they read those words to him, those condemning words, does he say, I’m not accepting that if you can’t preach me a positive sermon, then get out of here. His idea is, listen. If that’s what the word of God says, I need to know it. Now I need to double check that and make sure I’ve understood that correctly. And so he sends for information and that message is confirmed. And then he, we see him spreading the word, convening the assembly, getting everyone together and making sure that everyone’s on the same page. And then we see him keeping his, making a pledge tool Bay, the word in front of others. He sets the example and then we see him keeping his promise to do that in second Chronicles, 34. But if you go back to chapter 23, look at the specific things he removed. He eliminated everything he, that he could not find approved of in God’s word. Look at second Chronicle or second Kings rather, I’m sorry. Chapter 23. And look at verse two, he went up into the house of the Lord, and this is a reiteration of what we read in second Chronicles, 34, but it gets a little more specific. I would like you to note that even the small and the great are there and he read in their ears, all the words of the book of the covenant, all of them, I know some preachers and I tell our students this. I said, listen, don’t be that preacher, that every time people get up and go to services, they think, well, let’s see what we did wrong this week. And we’ll just get blasted again from the pulpit week after week after week, we’re not doing this. We’re not doing that. We’re not doing this. I said, second. Don’t be that preacher that gets up. And it’s always sugar and spice and everything nice. And there’s never a challenge. There’s never a warning. There’s never an exhortation. There’s never anyone who needs to be reproved or rebuked. It’s always sugar and spice and everything nice. Now, which of those is the right way to be, to always preach only the positive and never the negative or to all this preach only the negative and never the positive. Tell me which of those two is correct or are either of them correct? What you want is what a blend? Listen, a car battery has a positive pole and what a negative pole and do they both have a function. They both have something to do. Yes. And so our preaching ought to have a sense of positivity and negativity combined. As long as it’s coming from the word of God, Josiah is one of those individuals who says, look, if that’s what the word of God says, I want to do it. And I’m going to live according to God’s word. And so when he finds out what God wants, look at what he starts doing. He starts removing idolatrous items from the temple that were put there by his kinfolk, before him, he starts eliminating those things. And verse number four, carrying the ashes. Last part of the verse out into Bethel, put down the aisle. He gets rid of the idolatrous priest. He says, you’re out of a job all but we’re priests. No, you’re not, not here. Not going to be priest to an odd God that doesn’t even exist. No, he put down the idolatrous priests, verse five, whom the Kings of Judah, that’s his kin who proceeded him, had ordained to burn incense in the high, in the cities of Judah. He says, you’re out of a job. Verse six. He brought out the Grove from the house of the Lord. They had actually, they had actually turned the temple of God into an idolatrous worship center. And he took that out of the temple. He brought it to the Brook kid, Rome burned it at the Brook kid, drone stamped it small to powder and cast the powder on the graves of the children of the people. Look at what he does in verse seven, broke down the houses of the sodomites that were by the house of the Lord. That influence did not need to be near the temple or anywhere in sight. So he got rid of the filth that was taking place in the neighborhood of the temple, where God was supposed to be worshiped. And then verse eight, he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah defile the high places where the priest had burned in since all the way from Gabby to Beersheba and broke down the high places of the Gates. And he defiled verse 10. He defiled Tulsa with which is in the Valley of the children of Hinnom. Now let’s stop here. This is not going to be pleasant, but let’s let’s address it. You know what the Greek word for hell is in the new Testament. You probably heard this. I’m sure get henna. It is hearkening back to the Valley of Hinnom. What happened in the Valley of Hinnom? This is where parents would actually take their small children and put them on top of a figure that had been built with an opening in between the arms. The arms would be built like this to hold something over a fire. And here is a child that has put in those arms and a fire is built underneath it. And the child is burned alive as a sacrifice to a God. That’s not even real, doesn’t even exist. That’s sick. Who would ever do that to a child, a friend. I don’t want to be mistaken at what I’m about to say, but I won’t say it hopefully lovingly and compassionately and firmly all at the same time, there are barbaric things happening to innocent children in this country because of some who were determined to extend a right that God never gave. And that is the right to abort, a child deliberately and with purpose, for the purpose of not this, isn’t like going to the doctor and trying to have a baby. And unfortunately, complications develop and the child doesn’t make it. This is not that this is a little deliberate choice. We say, look at these barbarians, taking children and burning them alive. How could you be? So barbaric, one of the methods of abortion that is approved in this country, it’s approved as being used in this country is a saline abortion in which a saline is injected into the womb and the saline has a corrosive effect and it burns the skin of the child inside off of its body. And about 24 hours later, the mother gives birth to the child dead. It’s called a candy Apple baby by some, because the outer skin has been burned away. You tell me that that’s not barbaric. You tell me that that shouldn’t be on our minds. As we think about the folks that are going to lead our nation, where we live protecting the children is always been an important thing for any government official to do. And your side does just that here in second Chronicles. And second Kings, I said, we’d close out with second Chronicle. So I want to go back there very quickly with you. Look at second, Chronicles 34, or make it 35 and verse 25. This also give you a little perspective as to where to put Josiah on the prophetic timeline. What does your Bible say about who lamented for Josiah? And he died, who, who stands out as having lamented his loss, his passing, Jeremiah, the prophet, Jeremiah lamented for Joe Tsai, all the scene men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their Lamentations to this day, made them an ordinance in Israel, behold, they’re written in the laminations and the rest of the acts of Josiah and his goodness. According to that, which was written in the law of the Lord, his deeds first and last behold, they’re written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. It strikes me as I close years ago, many, many, many centuries ago, Josiah was introduced to a section of scripture that changed him. That caused him to go out and change others and change the, And here we are studying centuries later about this very man’s experience with Bible study and what it did to him and his nation. Can we leave today with this one hour of Bible study and be moved to be more like Josiah in good ways, and to imitate his excellence and to change the people around us as we first change ourselves, can we do that? We can. And it’s a true blessing to be able to study this man. One of the greatest men of the old Testament. Sure. Still a man, but a man of humility who said I will change and I’ll do everything I can to get others to do the same. And what motivated that study of the word of God? Good morning. Welcome to the Collierville Sunday morning services here at Collierville church Christ. It’s great to see each and every one of you and those of you that are unable to attend that are either on the dial in or watching on the live stream. We welcome you. And we can’t wait until the day comes that we can see everybody assembled here. Again, worship our Lord to our visitors this morning have special. Welcome to you. And thank you for choosing the Collierville church of Christ to worship God this morning. And we have a couple of special guests with us here today. BJ Clark and his wife, Tish are here. BJ will be bringing us a message this morning, and then Tim Boswell and his wife, Hannah are also with us today. And Tim is going to lead our song service for us this morning. So thank you all for joining us today. Other announcements, if you did not pick up the Lord’s supper, please take this opportunity to pick it up. It’s on the tables in the back prepared for you for the, when the Lord suppers taking the day are sick. There are many of on our sick lists, so let’s please remember Janet Jones. She’s still in the Memphis Jewish home. She may be coming home this week if her improvement continues. So that’s good news for Janet. Pam chafing is with us this morning. She is still in the recovery process from her back surgery, but she’s doing better. And her doctor has kind of let her go on, you know, do as she can and get out. So it’s great to see Pam with us this morning, Dorothy Wilson is having some very high blood pressure issues. So please keep Dorothy and your thoughts and prayers, Sylvia pass is going to have another nerve block procedure. That’s coming Friday to try to resolve her back problems. So please keep Sylvia and your thoughts and prayers. Michael Dale is not with us this morning. He has a virus of some type. It is not the coronavirus, but he does have a virus. And so he had to stay home. So please keep him and their family and your thoughts and prayers, and naturally Aaron, our preacher. You only had his surgery on Thursday on his wrist to set his wrist after he broke his wrist. And he’s in quite a bit of pain from that. So please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he goes through his recovery process. Other announcements Nesbith church of Christ have a gospel meeting October 4th, which is today through the seventh. We have a flyer up on the bulletin board. If you’re interested in details on that, the 45th annual spiritual sword lectureship at Getwell church Christ here in Memphis, starts on the 18th of October and goes through the 22nd. The flyer is on the bulletin board. Also with all the details for that nationwide gospel meeting for the call in the flyers are out there on a table. So if you’ve been doing that or if you’re interested in what that’s all about, please pick one of them up. That is Monday through Friday evenings at nine o’clock each night. There’s a call and it’s about a half hour long Bible study on a telephone powder children’s home pantry item for the month of October is Velveeta cheese. And the last announcement is reminder for the men. On Monday, October 12th at 7:00 PM, we’ll have our monthly men’s business meeting. We do have a sheet on the board out there to bulletin board for agenda items. So if anyone has anything that needs to be addressed in the men’s business meeting, please put that on that sheet. So we can talk about them in our meeting our services this morning song leader, as I said will be Tim Boswell, opening prayer. We’ll be Jay Schaefer, Lord supper. We’ll be Joel caisson. Our sermon will be brought to us by BJ Clark and a closing prayer will be Terry Sanderson. Thank you. Good morning. Our first song. Listen to this morning. It’s going to be song number two. Number two, We praise thee O God for the son of for Jesus. now God dying. The glory. yeah. Oh man. Yeah, dine the glory. we praise thee. Oh God. For the spirit who has shown us? the glory. Hi. Yeah. Oh man. Yeah, the glory revive us and Oh, glory and praise to the lamb. That was slain. glory. man. no glory. all glory and praise to the God of all grace who has bought us and saw a sign guy. Dad ways. Yeah, the I’m the glory yeah. Oh man. Yeah, the glory revive us. revive us again. Philly charged with five from Hollina. Yeah, the glory Hollin yeah. Oh man. Yeah, the glory revive us again and We have a new prayer almighty God, our father in heaven. We’re so odd by that presence. We with our finite minds cannot begin to comprehend how magnificent your intellect truly is, but we are so very grateful that you chose to create us in your image and create this entire universe for us. We, as I say are so odd that we cannot begin to comprehend how truly magnificent you are. And we are so bounded by the element of time that we are at such a handicap. We have trouble even remittance regarding how magnificent and truly great the life would be forever. We’re so grateful. Also, father, that you sent your son to this world, to be an example, and to give us your word that we may have that hope one day of being with you forever. We are so grateful that he came to this world to forgive our sins and we, but have to repent and turn from them to be whole and pure in your sight. And we know that you will hear our prayers. We have many things to be so grateful for most of all, we’re grateful for our families and the church and the things that are represented here in this community. We’re mindful of those that are not able to be with us due to illnesses. We pray that your healing hand will be placed upon them, that they will run once again, be restored to their much wanted Hill. We’re also mindful of those that have recently lost, loved ones that you will comfort them. We are thankful for the multitude of other blessings that we’re so richly blessed with. We’re also very grateful for this great country in which we live and it is for that country and it’s leadership that we pray for. Now. We pray that you will be with our president, that you will grant him a speedy and complete recovery from the coronavirus we ask that you be with those also have our number that are at least infected and quarantined from this disease. As we look about us, we want you to have our sincere belief that we are a blessed people and we pray for unity within our country. That we, once again, can speak with one voice under God. As we go through the further exercise of this service, we pray that our worship to you will be in spirit and truth and a sweet savor. So in Jesus name, we pray amen. Our song before the Lord supper this morning, it’s going to be song number three, one five, 315 one more time. Ah, ah. TRIBE I just say then that or a nice all the man things that me. It was a nice breath. A nice so and me so like I am dad to so Didi mans. My saw my As we protected the Lord suffer this morning, we would like to reflect on a few scriptures and we’ll read those before we have the bread and the fruit of the vine and acts chapter 20 in verse seven, it says in the phone the first day of the week after that, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them ready to part on the Morrow. And he continued to speech until midnight. And if we turn over to second, first Corinthians chapter 11, we’ll read verses 23 and 24 for I ever seed of the Lord, that which I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when they had given thanks, he break it and said, take eat. This is my body that is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. Let’s pray there. God, our father in heaven, we truly are so grateful for the privilege that we have this day to come and remember our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. We’re so thankful father that you demonstrated your love for us. And he was willing to give his life upon the cross that we might have that hope if eternal life within heaven, fathers, we partake of this bread, which is representative of his body. We pray we might do so in a manner that would be acceptable unto thee and Jesus. We pray, amen. Will continue reading from that same opening verses 25 through 27. And after the same manner as he took the cup, when he gets up saying this cup is the new Testament in my blood, this do ye as often as she drank it and remembered some me, whereas often as she eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death. Did he come wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord. Unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let us pray. Oh God, our father in heaven. It’s such a blessing and a opportunity for us to be able to come here and remember our Lord and savior to remember him suffering upon the cross and bleeding and dying for us, bearing our sins upon the cross. We probably fathers, we protect of this fruit of the vine, which represents his blood, that we remember him. And we give him the honor and the glory and the praise or the death that he suffered for us and Jesus. We pray amen. As another act of worship, we have the opportunity to unity, to give as we’ve been prospered and we’ll look at second Corinthians chapter nine, verses six through nine, we might contemplate our giving, but this I say he was so aspiring and he shall also reap sparingly. And he, that soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully every man, according as he purposed in his heart. So let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God. Loveth a cheerful giver and God is able to make all grace abound toward you. That he always have all sufficiency. And all things may abound to every good work had is this written, he, that dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Let us pray there. God, our father in heaven, we are grateful for all the blessings that you’ve given to us. And we pray father that we’re good stewards of those blessings. And we have this opportunity today to give a portion of that back to you that we might further the cause not only here in Collierville, but throughout the world, to be able to reach those that are lost and to be able to be helpful to those that are needing some help in a benevolent way. We pray that we’ll always remember that all these blessings come from the, and that we’re to the happy about being able to give as we’ve been prospered. And that you’ve blessed us so much. And we’re grateful for it. Bless our offering this day. And we pray that we might be used in a way that would be acceptable onto you and Jesus. We pray. Amen. If you would like to Mark it in your hymnals, the invitation song this morning will be some number 660 to 662 Before the sermon this morning, though, we will stand and sing song number 991 nine nine one. Again, please stay we’re out me rings the NA Dan, have me again, Please be seated again. The invitation sound will be Simon number 662 Check. There we go. Can you hear me all right, bear. Glad to be with you today. Although I do lament the pain that a brother Aaron is in, do appreciate the work that he does and helps in so many ways at the school at times when we’ve needed technological help. And I appreciate that, but we’re, we’re grateful the chance to be together. I want to take you back 50 years ago today. It was October the fourth, 1970, a young girl in Bible class listens to the message. And then during the worship service responds to the invitation and is baptized that very morning, 50 years ago. Today, later that afternoon, a young boy that was in that same class approaches his father and wonders whether he might need to be baptized as well. And after a long conversation that young boy, 50 years ago to the day was baptized at the night Arnold church of Christ in Memphis, Tennessee. And that young boy was me 50 years ago today I was baptized. It just so happened that a few years ago, one of the secretaries at the church was going through some material and came across a response card that was filled out on October 4th, 1970, in which I wrote these words because I want to have my sins washed away and serve God. That is what I wrote down is my desire 50 years ago. And it has not changed. I got to thinking about the opportunity to preach today, and I thought there’s nothing I could think of wanting to preach about more than how this subject that was on my mind so much. All those years ago is still on my mind today and how the message has not changed. The message has not changed in the last 50 years. Any information that I was given on that day about what I should and should not do with reference to the subject of baptism came from the same inspired message that I’m using to preach about it this morning. The message has not changed. Surely the world around us has think about what the world was like in 1,970. It’s definitely a different world now in so many ways than it was then, but some things have not changed. And one thing that I’m so grateful has not changed is this book right here, whatever the message was on the subject of baptism 50 years ago is the same message that is in place today. As a matter of fact, go way back beyond 50 years ago and go all the way back to the new Testament. And you’ll find that the same teaching Jesus and the apostles gave about baptism then is the same message that needs to be governing our world today. Nothing has changed as far as the authority of God’s word is concerned. And so I want you to go back and consider with me the message of baptism as taught by scripture. And the first thing I’d like to notice with you is that the motivation for baptism is the same today as it was when the teaching of our Lord was first given, why is it that one would want to be baptized? Now I would first direct your attention to Matthew chapter three. And there comes a man by the name of John, the baptizer, and he is preaching about a coming kingdom and a coming Christ that he is blazing the trail for who will establish that kingdom. And in Matthew chapter three, you’ll notice that in verse number two, he says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then we read in verse number six, those individuals from the areas all around Judea and Jerusalem and all around about the Jordan came and were baptized of him. And Jordan notice confessing their sins. Some people are not aware of the fact that even though John’s baptism was a baptism, which anticipated an acceptance of the Christ and his kingdom, according to Mark chapter one in verse four, the baptism of John notice was for the remission of sins, meaning that those who were commanded to be baptized with the baptism of John were commanded to do so for the motivation of having their sins remitted. It’s interesting to know that the message of baptism today is skewed by so many. Some have suggested that the motivation for baptism is not to remit your sins, but to acknowledge that they’ve already been remitted by same some fabled sinner’s prayer. I want to lovingly say this dear friends, but I would like to ask you to find the place in the word of God, for me, where you ever find anyone ever been told to say a prayer and to ask Jesus, to come into their hearts, to make him the Lord of their life and the savior of their soul. I really want to see that some years ago, I was at a Sonic drive in during the afternoon hours of two to four, when the drinks are half price and the ice is so good. And you know what I’m talking about, if you enjoy that kind of drink on a hot day or just about any day. And so here I was in my car waiting for my order to be brought. And I noticed the lady get out of her car and she was going car to car, passing out some literature or trying to sell something. I waited till she got to my car, of course, to see what was going on. And then she handed me a little four page tract. It was small. The front page only said three words on it. God loves you. And certainly that’s a wonderful statement. Turn the page. And the second page only had one thing on it. It was John three 16 for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And I love that verse. And so certainly I have no objection to John three 16 being printed and broadcast anywhere in the world. Page three was of interest. Page three of that little track said, if you believe the verse on the opposite page, say the following prayer and ask Jesus to come into your heart, make him the Lord of your life and the savior of your soul, and then gave you a script to pray to say those very words. And then it said, if you just prayed this prayer, congratulations, welcome to the family of God. And then you turned and the last page says, now go tell others. And when the woman handed it to me and I glanced over it rather quickly, I said, ma’am, I would like to give you a compliment, commend you for something. And I don’t think she was expecting that. I don’t think she’d received a whole lot of warmth from the other automobiles or the drivers of those automobiles. But I said, I want to tell you that I am impressed that you have the courage to go car to car, telling people that God and Jesus loved them. That is so true. And I’m glad the world knows that. Want the world to know that I love this verse you have on page two, God. So loved John three 16 is one of my favorite verses. My question for you is really about your third page here. Can you help me with this? I see the, the instructions given here to say this prayer. And they asked Jesus to come into my heart and make him the Lord of my life and the savior of my soul. But what I don’t see on your third page is some scriptures to show where people ever did that. Could you help me with that? I have a new Testament with me and I would, I would be greatly benefited. If you could show me where individuals in the new Testament ever did, what this page is telling people to do. And she said, well, it’s, it’s so many different places. I wouldn’t know where to begin. And I said, even one would be okay. Could you just show me one instance where anyone was ever told to say this prayer and that’s Jesus to come into their hearts? And she said, well, what do you think about it? And I lovingly said, and our whole conversation was cordial. By the way I lovingly said to her, I said, ma’am, I wouldn’t want to stake your eternal salvation or mine on what I think. I think we would both agree that what the Lord taught is, is what’s going to really be the standard of judgment. And so Matt tell you what the Lord said about this. And she acknowledged that she was okay with that. And so I started, I started not with baptism because Jesus did not start with baptism. Jesus started with the concept of believing in who he is. He said, except you believe that I am key, shall die in your sins. John eight 24 and friends. Let me tell you something today. If someone is dunked in this body of water, any body of water and it is not them is not because they believe Jesus Christ is the son of God. If they do not believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, we are doing nothing, but getting them wet. We’re not washing any sins away by magic water. So Jesus said, except you believe that I am you’ll die in your sins, John eight 24. And I remember he asked whom do men say that I, the son of man, em, and they said, well, some think you’re John the Baptist. Some think you’re Jeremiah or one of the prophets, but whom say, ye, that I am. Who, who do you say that I am? Peter said, thou art, the Christ, the son of the living God. And that is the recognition that the people on Pentecost came to grips with when they suddenly realized, Hey, wait a minute. We killed the son of God. Peter had just preached along with the other apostles, a sermon in which he exalted Christ and said you with wicked and lawless hands have crucified and slain the very son of God, but God raised him up. And the same Jesus that you crucified has now been made both Lord and Christ Christos. The anointed one acts two 36. Now when they heard this acts two 37, they were pricked in their hearts and said, men and brethren, what shall we do? Stop? Did the apostle Peter respond to their, what shall we do? Question with the following. I want every head bowed. I want all eyes closed and every head bowed. I want all of you here on Pentecost to now say a prayer, say the following prayer with me. Lord Jesus. Come into my heart, save my soul, wash my sins away by your blood and become the Lord of my life. Amen. Is that what you read in acts two 38? Yes or no. Did you read that? No. What do you read? Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, the motivation for baptism has not changed over the years. It was from the get go for the remission of sins. Someone says, well, that means because your sins have already been forgiven and they’ll use the illustration. They’ll say I went to the store and bought some chapstick for my chapped lips. And when I say for my chap lips, I didn’t buy chapstick in order to get chapped lips. I bought chapstick because I already had chapped lips and the chap stick was supposed to help me with that. The problem with this illustration is twofold in the identical language that Jesus used in Matthew 26, 28. You’ll find the same exact language in acts two 38 and Matthew 26, 28 is very significant in this regard. Notice Jesus Christ on this occasion says the following. He says in Matthew 26, 28, this is my blood of the new Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sin. Stop Jesus. Are you saying that you shed your blood in order that people might have remission of sins or because they already do? Jesus did not bleed because men had already been saved. He bled so that they could be. And the Greek word that’s used here that is translated for has a meaning. That means to reach him unreached end. And Jesus said, I’m shedding my blood so that men might reach the unreached end of having their sins washed away once. And for all, remember even the transgressions that were under the first Testament were blood blotted out and cleansed by the blood of Christ, according to Hebrews chapter nine, 15 and following. And so the blood of Christ is necessary to wash your sins away. What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus. I wrote 50 years ago tonight because I want to have my sins washed away. Do you remember a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus who saw the Lord of the road to Damascus and as he was going toward Damascus with a full intention of persecuted, even more believers in Christ, he’s now suddenly confronted with the, the Christ is talking to him. He says, in acts nine, six, Lord, what will they’ll have me to do? And acts nine sixties told arise and go into the city and watch this, please. There, it shall be told the what thou must do. Saul of Tarsus is told you go into the city and that’s where you’re going to be told what you must do. So let’s see about this. If you’ll go with me to acts chapter nine, I want to show you something here that you may or may not have thought of. Do you know that when God called the preacher and, and I asked to go preach to Saul of Tarsus and tell him what to do, do you know what he told? Anne and I saw was already doing in acts chapter nine. Look at verse number 10. There was a certain disciple at the maskus named Dan and nice. And to him said the Lord in a vision and NIS. And he said, behold, I’m here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him arise and go into the street, which is called straight and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus. For behold, he prayeth. And the ETH in the King James version here is indicative of the fact that he was in a continual state of prayer. Now just reason with me a little bit, here’s a man who now knows that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he’s waiting in the city to be told what he must do. What’s he doing in the meantime, praying? What do you suppose he was praying? Did he feel any guilt for having done what he’d done to those who followed Christ? Did he feel any guilt for having rejected? The Christ whom he now knows is indeed the son of God. I guarantee you that he was beside himself because he couldn’t eat or drink for three days. He was blind. He was not eating. He was not in a state of happiness and joy. He wasn’t rejoicing in his new found salvation. In fact, Paul would write it this way in Romans five one, therefore being justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord. Jesus Christ. Question. What Saul at peace when he wasn’t eating or drinking, was he at peace when he was praying prior to the preacher, getting to his house, had he found peace in prayer? No, he had not. Now, if prayer is the way to invite Jesus into your heart and make him the Lord of your life, here’s a perfect opportunity. In fact, I would say you couldn’t find a better opportunity for a gospel preacher to teach the sinner’s prayer than an occasion where the man’s already in prayer when the preacher gets there. But if you’ll turn to acts chapter 22, you’ll notice that when Anna knives, the preacher gets to the praying man soul, would you notice in verse 16? He says, and now why Terry is thou acts 2216. And now why Terry is thou repeat after me, Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I’ll make, is that what you read in acts 2216, which you read in acts 2216? Is that an inspired preacher tells a praying man. And now what are you waiting for? Get up arise and be baptized and wash away their sins. Calling on the name of the Lord. I want to have my sins washed away, but I had been taught revelation chapter one in verse five. I want you to see revelation one five, because no one is teaching that water has magical mystical powers to wash sins away in and of itself because it’s some how Holy no, it is the connecting place where God’s power does. What only God’s power can do. But in revelation, chapter one, you’ll notice verse five. It mentions Jesus Christ. Yes. That’s where my focus is. If it’s not for Christ, I have no hope of salvation. And then the last part of verse five of revelation, one unto him that loved us. God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Yes, indeed, Jesus Christ and washed us from our sins. How in his own blood, this is my blood of the new Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins. Jesus says your blood is going to wash sins away. Jesus. Yes, that’s why I’m shedding it so that men might have their sins remitted or washed away. And so 50 years ago, an opportunity is granted to have my sins washed away, but that was available to me 50 years ago because of something that happened thousands of years ago in the area surrounding Jerusalem, where a Virgin conceived and brought forth a son and called his name Jesus. And he, he lived a sinless life. He died as a perfect sacrifice. See a Rose on the third day, he ascended into heaven and there then on the day of Pentecost from that day forward, men started accessing the benefits of his blood in ways that were official. And so moving now, I know that this may not be the exact anniversary of the day that you were baptized, but I would guarantee some of you in here today are thinking back to the day that you were baptized. And you think about it with me for just a moment. How did it feel when you came up out of that watery grave of baptism, having confessed Jesus Christ, to be the son of God, having made the decision you would repent having indeed believed Jesus Christ was the son of God that led you to make those other decisions. You now are buried just for an instant with your Lord in baptism. You come up just an instant later and you leave the old man of sin behind Romans chapter six, and you are now clean and you feel lighter than air. And you’ve been added to the church that Jesus bought with his own blood. Can you think back to that moment in your life, how much does it mean to you all these years later, that woman at the drive through, I told you about it, the Sonic stall, I started showing her some of the very same things I’ve been talking to you about these last few minutes. And before I could go to the last step, I talked about the need to first believe Jesus Christ is the son of God. After hearing faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God, Romans 10, 17, I started showing her the necessity of belief and without faith, it’s impossible to please God. And if you don’t believe he’s the Christ you’ll die in your sins. I started showing all men everywhere, been commanded to repent acts 17 and verse 30 confession is made with the mouth on to salvation, Romans 10, nine, and 10. And before I could even get the words out, she said this, she said, wait, just a minute. You’re taking me to water baptism, aren’t you? And I said, well, ma’am so far the only words that I’ve used are words from the Lord himself and inspired apostles. And those words have taken us this far. Let me just ask you if the words of Jesus would take us as far as water baptism. If the words of Christ would take us that far, shouldn’t we be willing to follow the, his words that far. And she acknowledged. Yes. And I said, well, Jesus said this. He that believe with, and this baptized shall be saved. He, that believeth not shall be damned March 16, 16. And she said, but wait a minute, sir, respectfully, there is not a drop of water in John three 16, John three 16, doesn’t have a drop of water in it. She said, and I said, ma’am respectfully. It doesn’t have to because John three and verse five, which comes before it is already soaking wet. And I could tell that this intrigued her. You remember what Jesus said in John three, five before he ever got to verse 16, he said, except a man be born of what water and of the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus had told Nicodemus, you have to be born again to see the kingdom of God. And the Kadima says, well, how can a man be born when he’s old? What does he go into his mother’s womb a second time? And, and then be, but what do you mean born again? Jesus then clarifies except a man be born of water and of the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. I want to tell you the true story that happened in Knoxville, Tennessee involving a 92 year old man named pop Collins. He’s reading his Bible, his large print Bible, as he did every day. It just so happened that his reading on this particular day fell to John three. And he’s reading of how Nicodemus has this conversation with the Lord. And then he reads verse five. But this time it stops him in his tracks except a man be born of water and of the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God and pop starts lingering over this. And he starts thinking, I need to figure this out because if I haven’t done this, I cannot enter the kingdom of God. And I want to enter the kingdom of God. So I’d better make sure I’ve been born of water into the spirit. So I don’t miss out. And he starts just thinking it through. Okay. I know that a man has to be born of water and of the spirit, or he cannot wait a minute. Where was I reading? Just the other day. He was remembering where he’d read acts eight, where the Ethiopian nobleman had been to Jerusalem to worship. And now was headed back to Ethiopia, hundreds of miles away. And yet, even though he’s been to worship, he still reading Isaiah, the prophet in his chariot, that was not a regular occurrence for people to have a copy of God’s word hand that he and their chariots back then. So this man was of some means and he was using it to the best of his ability to learn the word. And so here he’s reading and Phillip runs up and joins him, gets in the cherry. It begins at the same scripture, preaches unto him Jesus. And after having preached the message of the Holy spirit to this Ethiopian nobleman acts chapter eight 36 says, as they went on their way, they came into a certain w a T E R water. And the eunuch said, see, here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized? Now, may I point out to you friends that in acts eight after hearing Jesus preached, you do not read the following. You don’t read as they went on their way. The Unix said to Philip, you know that sinner’s prayer you were talking about just a minute ago. Would this be a good time for you to lead me in that or teach me how to say that? Is that what you read in acts chapter eight? No, instead you read this as they went on their way, they came to a certain water. And even though there’s not a word said about baptism in verse 35 or any verse leading up to this explicitly here is the unique wanting to be baptized, but he’d heard Jesus preach. Well, yes, you preach Jesus. You’re going to preach his death. You’re going to preach this barrier. You’re going to preach this resurrection. And sure enough, having preached the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ, the uniq understands that he needs to die to the practice of sin. Be buried with his Lord and a water, a grave of baptism and rise to walk in newness of life. Otherwise he would have had no interest and I’ll guarantee you if baptism had not been the proper response to that sermon, Philip would have said, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I think you’ve misunderstood something, sir. Where did you ever get the wrong headed idea? That water baptism is the way you respond to hearing Jesus preached. No, it’s not acts two. When Jesus was preached, what was the response? Water baptism act sate. You can trace it through the book of acts. And so here you see here is water. What does hinder me to be baptized? They both went down into the water, came up out of the water. They went on their way, rejoicing. He went on his way. Rejoicing in particular, the unit did. Now question pop Collins is reading this John three, five passage days after he’d read the passage and just mentioned in acts eight about a man who heard the message of the spirit and wanted to be baptized in water. And pop said, that’s got to be with this as talking about. So he called his preacher on the phone. He said, I want you to pick me up and take me down to the church building and baptized me so that I can enter the kingdom of God. That was his motivation. He wanted to enter the kingdom of God. His preacher said, pop, what are you talking about? You came to our revival years ago and you got down to the mourner’s bench and you asked Jesus to come into your heart. And you know that, that took care of that. Then you don’t need to be, have to be baptized. You’ve already been saved and you’re 92. And I’m not about to get you soaking wet and get you catching pneumonia and die. And then your family blames me for it. And no, I will not baptize you pop pleaded with him. But this verse says, if I don’t, if I’m not born of water to the spirit, I cannot enter the kingdom of God. His preacher said pop that is talking about how a woman, when she’s very close to her delivery time will her water will break. And then she’ll have the baby pop was 92, but he’s sharp as attack. He says, you’re telling me that this borne of water is about a woman about to give birth to a baby. That’s right. Pop says, this says, except a man be born. This isn’t talking about an infant being born. And are I read the other day about this man that just heard Jesus preached? And he pointed and said, see, here is water. Was that man pointing to a woman about to give birth to a baby? No. Well, what was he pointing at? Well, he was pointed at actual water. Well then that’s the kind of, I want to get in. Will you pick me? He wouldn’t do it. He would not take so pop got out the yellow pages. He starts going down the listings, calling churches. Guess what? Every single church he called, wanted to do with him over the phone, rather than come pick him up and take him to their church building and baptize him. Can you guess what everyone wanted to do over the phone with him? Why don’t you just bow your head and we’ll say a little prayer and we’ll take care of it that way. He said, no, I thought that took care of it years ago, but I didn’t know. This verse was in the Bible then. So he got desperate. He called Baptist hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee. I would like for you to picture your on the switchboard that day and you answer Baptist hospital. How may I direct your call and the voice on the other end says, yeah. Could you connect me with the baptismal department please? I’m sorry. What? Oh yeah. Could you connect me with your baptizing department, sir? You do know you call the hospital, right? Well, yes, but because of the name of your hospital, I thought you might have someone there that could perform baptisms upon request and I’m requesting it. I just read in my Bible that Jesus said, except a man be born of water and of the spirit. He cannot enter into the kingdom of God. I want to enter the kingdom of God and I can’t find anyone to help me do it. I think perhaps it was Providence that just at the time he placed this call, the woman on the switchboard, a member of the young high church of Christ in Knoxville, Tennessee now known the South Knoxville church of Christ. She said, sir, you’re wanting to be baptized. Yes. Where do you live? She called her local preacher. Her local preacher went out to meet with pop. They took pop and taught him indeed the church that he was entering upon his obedience. And they took him and put him on a stretcher. I met Papa after he was baptized and never knew him before that. He told me this story that I’m telling you, his arms were about as big around as a broomstick handle. And that’s not much of an exaggeration. He was a feeble frail man, but they put him on a stretcher after taking this confession that he believed Jesus Christ was the son of God. And they dipped him quickly beneath that watery grave. And they brought him back up and pop Collins went on his way. Rejoicing because his sins had been washed away. He was now in the church of Jesus Christ. I don’t know how many years ago your baptism might’ve been, or if you are here today, for all I know needing to be baptized, I don’t know the entire makeup of the audience to whom I’m speaking. And I don’t know about those watching and what your needs may or may not be with reference to this matter. I can tell you this, the message has not changed in the 50 years since October 4th, 1970, the mode or manner has not changed this idea that yeah, it used to be by immersion, but now it’s okay. If you just decide to sprinkle poor. No, the Bible says in John three 23, John shows a certain spot because there was much water there. John three 23, you don’t need much water to poor. You don’t need much water to sprinkle in. The Greek word for sprinkle is ran teat. So you’ll never find it once with reference to baptism. The Greek word for pouring is a Greek word, K O C H E L, with a hard C H you don’t ever find a form of that word used with reference to baptism, signifying a pouring of water upon the head. What you see is that teeth. So to dip, to plunge, to immerse, it’s like a garment that’s being dyed. It’s completely submerged and then removed from the solution. You and I are completely submerged in water. We come forth and we’re cleaned. We’ve been made brand new by the blood of Jesus Christ that has washed our sins away. And that message hasn’t changed. The motivation hasn’t changed the manner or mode hasn’t changed and our mission to get others to do that has not changed either. Dear friends, I am spending my life to the best of my ability to try to get folks to do what I did 50 years ago And what others Did long before I ever did. Now baptism’s not the end. It’s the beginning and are close with Romans chapter six. I’d like for you to go there with me and, and notice with me this wonderful text in Romans chapter six, the Bible says that indeed, verse number four, we are buried with him by baptism into death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead, by the glory of the father, even. So we also should walk in newness of life. I remember I’m sure you do coming up and feeling like bran, who no sin, no stain. I’m right with God. And then what I keep on trying to record myself to be dead under sin verse 11 and I don’t verse 12, let sin reign in my mortal body and obey them. The lesser of I don’t yield. Once again, my members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, verse 13, no I’ve obeyed from the heart. That form of doctrine delivered and being made free from sin. I become the servants of righteousness. In fact, because I want to have my sins washed away and serve God, that’s the component. I don’t just hand God this card on the day of judgment and say, this should get me where I want to be. Have I served God since the day I became his, have you? I hope that you have, and maybe there’s someone listening or someone here today that says, this is the day I need to begin my walk with Christ. Preached the gospel made it in Elizabethton Tennessee years ago. And there was the young lady that when the invitation song was sung, I’d never had anyone respond so quickly in any church service I’d ever been in where I’d preached as this woman did. She was young in her twenties. And I mean, as soon as the invitation song was sung, she was booking it down. She was booking it down the aisle. In fact, she just went straight for the door that led back to the baptistry. She knew where it was. The preacher got there just before she opened that door, ask her a quick question. She made one quick sentence to him and she kept going. And essentially she told him I’m not waiting another second to put on my Lord in baptism. And that day there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. As we watched her connect with the blood of Christ and have the blood of Christ, wash your sins away and add her to his church. I hope indeed. I have not been around that church in year since then. I hope indeed she’s remained faithful. I know there are some folks in scripture who did and some who did not. And that is why I know some are concerned about this pandemic and its impact longterm on the faithfulness of Christians, will some individuals fall away and never return will. I don’t know. Yes. I’m sure that the world is, if it stands, we’ll continue to have folks who, who leave their first love, but I’ll tell you this. There are others who are going to come to their first love for the first time and realize, you know what? I’m mortal. I’m not going to live forever in this human body, but I’m going to live forever somewhere. And I want it to be heaven. So I’m coming today and I want to be a Christian by hearing, believing repenting, confessing, and being baptized for the remission of sins. I’m doing that right now. Maybe you’re here today and you’re already a child of God, but not living like interacting like it. This second law pardon was offered to Simon. The sorcerer, after he was baptized, he believed he was baptized. Therefore he was saved. And then a few verses later he’s told repent that his wickedness might be forgiven. That’s the way you get things right after you’ve been scripturally baptized, then you pray and repent. So I’m asking today, I don’t know what your situation is. The invitation song is about to be sung and wouldn’t it be sweet? Who knows how this would work, but wouldn’t it be sweet if someday somewhere there is someone 50 years from this day of the Lord lingers that long who says in the year 2070, I remember October the fourth, 20, 20 that’s the day I was baptized 50 years ago to wash my sins away and to begin serving God. We’d love to see that happen today. As together we stand in saying, won’t you please come to Jesus the Oh, please be seated. We’re so grateful. Everybody’s been with us today. Today in closing, we would like to sing the song number five 78, 578. And then we’ll have our closing prayer. We will ratify the King of Kings. We will glorify the lamb, the Lord of Lords. we will worship him in righteousness. We will worship ham alone. He is Lloyd off hap and Lord over. He is Lord of a. He has Lord, I you never up you him. We yeah, yeah. To the King of Kings ha man. Yeah. To the ah, man. Yeah. To the Lord of Lords, who is the gray? I am Oh, spray a father who art in heaven. When he thanked me for this beautiful first day of the week and the opportunity we’ve had to come together as your children to sing these songs of praise and today, and to study that word, we pray that the things that we have learned here today will help us to become strong Christians and to be better servants in that kingdom. I pray that you’d be with those that have been mentioned today that are unable to be with us because of illness. We pray that you would be with them and comfort them. We thank Dee for the technology that we have this day and time that we can go into the homes or those that are more vulnerable to the virus. And that pay may be with us in spirit. We pray that you would be with the school of preaching in brother Clark, as he labors over there, that they can produce more young men that are willing to work. And I came to him to do serve thee. We pray that you would be, keep us safe and bring us back in the next opponent time. Forgive us the rest, sand and crash. Now we pray. Amen.