Podcasts about as john the baptist

Why did John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God? How does the message of John the Baptist relate to us today? Rabbi Schneider shares that John the Baptist was a real, historical person. His purpose is what ours is today: 1. A voice crying in the wilderness and, 2. John the Baptist was a forerunner of Jesus. By pointing out Jesus as the Lamb of God, he introduces Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient Passover Lamb from Exodus chapter 12. As John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness, so are we to also cry out in the wilderness to prepare the world for Jesus' return. The New Testament is not separate from the Old Testament. It's the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The Bible is for revealing God, but is not God. Expect God to reveal Himself to you as you learn more about God through the Bible.   Visit our website at DiscoveringTheJewishJesus.com

Day 4: Luke 2:41–3:20 Jesus, at twelve, amazes teachers in the temple, showing early glimpses of His purpose. As John the Baptist prepares the way, calling for repentance, we're challenged: Are we ready for Christ's work in our lives? Let's dive into Luke's call to prepare our hearts.

As John the Baptist proclaims the coming of the Messiah, a team of investigators are sent out from Jerusalem to figure out who this guy is. But with all the important questions they ask, they never ask the most important one. In the same way, a lot of folks today want to talk about important stuff. But it often seems like a way to avoid to asking the real question... the one about Jesus.

Well hey there, hello and a very warm welcome to this episode.  No need to dilly-dally or make small talk…let's just jump right in and talk about God's promises.         Link to the devotional mentioned in this episode     Link to the free No More Worrying digital download mentioned in this episode   You're listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, which can be found wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as on the Edifi app, a unique podcast app featuring Christian content only. That's EDIFI, available in the app store. This is episode number 202. The Promise of a New Year - God's Promises for You.   New year, new you? Ever heard that phrase? How does that usually work for ya? Dive into a new year, do the prep for whatever needs prepping in order to make the new you a reality. Plan it, map it out, might even pray over it. This time! This time, for sure!  Sound familiar?  Let me ask again, how does that usually work out for you?   It works so well for (can you hear my sarcasm) that I have decided not to do that anymore. New year, same God, not going to fixate on a new and improve me. He can mold me, shape me, make me again another as it says in Jeremiah 18:4, do His sanctifying work in me for His glory and His purposes and I've decided that's enough for me. More than enough, because thus far has the Lord helped me, declaring my Ebenezer (not like A Christmas Carol, but like 1 Samuel 7:12 and the hymn “Come Thou Fount” which holds the line, “Here I raise my Ebenezer”. A far, far better way to start a new calendar year, in my opinion. I gain so much peace, I bend the knee and bend my will to God, I can rest in Him and also be expectant of all He will do in the coming weeks and months. As John the Baptist said, “I must decrease and He must increase.” Yes, please. This usually (or always) works well for me, whereas new year, new me…not so much.   The title of episode number 202 is “The Promise of  New Year - God's Promises for You” because there is so much promise in every new season when we walk out said season with the Lord. A new calendar on the wall counts as a new season, and the promises I'm about to share today fit this new season. As always, these promises are God's promises, taken directly from the Bible, and they are for you, my friend. Y.O.U.   Psalm 125, verses 1 and 2, from the NLT:   Those who trust in the LORD are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever. Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds His people, both now and forever.   Now of course this psalm, which is a psalm of ascent, has to do with Israel and her people. No doubt about that. And it also is an encouragement for us, not as Jewish people, but as Christ followers. 2 Timothy 3:16 says all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, reproof, instruction, correction. Knowing what Scripture says matters, and that's why Psalm 125 matters for you right here in this season.  In  Zechariah 14:4-11, Revelation 19:11-16 and Revelation 20:1-6, we read about the Messiah, Jesus, standing on Mount Zion when He returns the second time. So when Psalm 125 says that those who trust in the LORD are as secure as Mount Zion, well that's pretty secure, I'd say. If that is the place where Jesus' feet will land, where He will stand, it's an iron-clad guarantee that Mount Zion is going to be there right til the very end… If we trust in the Lord, we're secure like Mount Zion is secure. This is an amazing promise. It's an immovable promise. They will not be defeated, but will endure forever. God surrounds you like those mountains surround Jerusalem, both now and forever. Huge, huge promise. If the only promise I shared with you today was this one, it would be more than enough for the entire year. Isn't God good? What a promise! You are as secure as that mount on which Jesus will stand at His return, and I do not know what more could be said to ensure that you trust God and know this promised security is yours. Amen?   John 14:1 from the NLT says: “Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me.” This is Jesus speaking.  We all have things that trouble our hearts, and the things that fall into that category, the heart troubling category, well those aren't the small things that get in our craw, that annoy us, the little irksome frustrations. No, anything we describe as heart troubling, well, that's the real hard stuff in life. We can't just brush it off, ignore it, say a quick prayer and have it dissipate, talk ourselves out of it, or anything like that. And Jesus says to you and to me about those things that are the big, hard things, He says, “Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God (as it says in Psalm 125 verse 1) and trust also in Me.” Do you trust in God? Do you trust Jesus? Your answer is probably, “YES”. Do you trust Him with the things that give you a troubled heart? Do you trust Him in the midst of those things, in spite of things, trusting and trusting again and again, until your faith becomes sight, until you have the peace that passes all understanding, perfect peace as it says in Isaiah? This year, trust Him like that. Trust Him more fully, more completely, with more abandonment and more certainty that He's got you, you are so secure in Him, more than you ever have before. Because He keeps all His promises, nobody is more trustworthy than our God, and perhaps no one's trustworthiness has been questioned more than our God. Let's not be among those who question Him, not today, not this time. Let's choose, let's opt in, to not let our hearts be troubled, but to trust God, to trust Jesus.    Let's ponder God's utter faithfulness for a moment, because it's worth the reminder…when we are so dug in, all in, certain of who our God is and of His absolute inability to be anything but perfectly faithful and a perfect promise keeper, well then we believe all of His promises on a better, deeper level. Malachi 3:6 from the CSB says, “Because I, the LORD, have not changed, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.” The Lord does not change. He doesn't! But sometimes the lack of belief we exhibit reveals that we think it's somehow okay to act like He does change, like He might change this time, He might do us dirty. We're fickle, we're selfish, we're mercurial, and we're not often the least be ashamed by that.  James 1:17 also from the CSB, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”  Just to reiterate the truth that God does not change, has never changed, will never change, it just is not going to happen so let's go all in and believe what He has promised in the Bible.  John 8:12, NLT - Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow Me, you won't have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”  Want to be challenged and encouraged and bolstered and blown away by Jesus' words and promises? Read John chapter 8. That'll do it! Feel like you need to expand the boundaries of your faith in the Lord? Read John 8 and oh those boundaries will sure enough expand! In a good way, in the best way.    We don't have to walk in darkness. There are no areas of life that don't fall under this promise. So when we walk in darkness, maybe we're forgetting this promise. Maybe we are in a place of unbelief for whatever reason. Maybe we just need to be reminded that Jesus IS, present tense, right now He is the light of the world - He is the light of your world right now. You don't have to walk in darkness, in confusion, with a clouded mind, because you have the mind of Christ 1 Corinthians 2:16 promises. You have the light that leads to life. Don't overanalyze, don't think yourself out of believing it, just opt in and agree that what Jesus said in John 8:12 is true, and is true for you. Right now. No matter what. It's a true promise for you today.   Proverbs 3:5-6, NLT, say - Trust in the LORD with all your heart (with some of your heart? Most of your heart? Or all of your heart? We need regular heart check ups to make sure our trust level is aligned with this verse) Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding (Do Not! When mom or dad says do not do that, well, the wise child listens and even the ornery child usually listens because a stern “Do not do that” warning from a parent…that gets your ears perked up. This is God, your Father, saying Do Not…and we think little to nothing about doing exactly what He says not to do. Let's read again and keep that do not directive in mind). Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do (in most of what you do? Nope - in all you do) and He will show you which path to take.   Wondering which direction to go? Then seek His will in all you do and He will show you which path to take. We don't just want these promises to be fulfilled in our lives, we NEED them to be fulfilled. And when we see something we've been missing, let's make those adjustments and get on board with the Lord. The Good Shepherd leads His sheep well, and we're safe when we listen to Him and not to any other voices. So, let's listen up and heed His words.   Have you seen the animated film Over the Hedge? In one scene, the character R.J. says to another character, Hammie (and Hammie is sort of spacey, not all there, and Hammie is trying to eat a cookie that is broken in two and being held together with a band aid…kind of gross, right? Well, that's us sometimes.) RJ says, “You don't want that cookie, Hammie. That cookie's junk.” What band aid cookie are you trying for and where is God saying, No, that's junk? Trust in Him with all your heart, and do not depend on your own band-aid cookie version of understanding. He has better for you than you might have for yourself. You don't want that cookie, my friend, because that cookie is junk.   Isaiah 55:10-11 NLT - The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with My word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.   Did you hear that?  His word will never return to Him void. It always produces fruit, always accomplishes what He wants it to, and will always prosper everywhere He sends it. Today, via this podcast, He is sending it to you and it will not return to Him void or empty or ineffective. It works. It can't not work. It's His word, and it does as He wishes. That's the truth, right there. Believe it. (And this verse says will…it will accomplish all He wants it to and it will prosper everywhere He sends it. Will means WILL! My devotional The Power of God's WILL - 40 Days of God's Promises is all about this exact thing and you can find that on Amazon).    The last few weeks God has been laying on my heart the need to daily crucify my flesh. Now listen, I do not claim to be a prophet, and so maybe this is just for me personally, but I have a sense that I, and other disciples of Jesus, are going to need to be Spirit led, Spirit dependent, on a whole new level in the coming months. I really think that's true. We might go through hard times, we may be tempted with prosperity (and that's often harder to walk through and stay close to the Lord than poverty, truth be told). Crucifying my flesh keeps me close to the Lord. The flesh, well, it isn't going with me into eternity and so it is in its last days, so to speak, it's getting near its deathbed and it's temperamental, it's demanding, it's a brat. So as I seek to do as the Lord has put on my heart to do in my own life, Romans 8 verses five and six are what I've been pondering. These are the verses I'll leave you with today. From the NLT - Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.  The flesh makes me want to make a snarky comment when I get my feelings hurt. Crucify that, Jan. My flesh gets annoyed when my coffee maker goes kaput during blizzard weather and I want to be able to go get a coffee since I can't make any coffee but I can't cuz there's half an inch of ice on my car and the driveway is a disaster and I can't get out. Crucify that, Jan. So crucifying the flesh doesn't always look like those huge and terrible sins that come to mind. It can be a bad attitude. Or maybe that's just me. Either way, these verses remind us that our life belongs to Jesus now. And we can both believe all His promises to us and crucify our pesky flesh at the same time.    Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I have something free for ya today. If you ever struggle with worry, this is for you. It's a digital download, a pdf, with 40 Bible passages that will combat worry in your life, and the way you utilize it is super simple. For 40 days, you just write Do Not Worry at the top of your daily to-do list (or set it as a reminder in your phone that will ping each morning). You read the verse or verses for that day, while bearing in mind that for the next forty days, just for forty days, you will not worry. You'll hand those worries to God, and they're not your burden to bear for forty days. Doesn't mean you quit your job and run up the credit cards because Jan said so… that's not at all what Jan said. You keep on living your life, but when you catch yourself worrying about something, about anything, you remind yourself that for forty days, you won't give in to worry. You'll lay that worry, that concern, at the feet of Jesus whenever it crops up, and you keep moving on without the stress of worrying. Do it for forty days. Seriously, this is a really great faith grower. Grab yours for free at JanLBurt . com     I hope you do that as this new year begins. Lord bless you, thanks for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye bye   The Power of God's Will: 40 Days of God's Promises Devotional: Burt, Jan L.: 9798573528939: Amazon.com: Books JanLBurt.com Home Page

As John the Baptist preaches from Isaiah about the coming Messiah, many wonder how they can live according to the high standard of the law. True heart change doesn't come from behavior modification, it isn't earned or found within someone's own willpower; it is only through Jesus Himself. 

Advent 3: As John the Baptist is teaching about bearing good fruit, the crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers ask him, “What, then, should we do?” His answer to each group is slightly different, but ultimately the same: “Do the good that is yours to do.” We can each bear good fruit through acts of justice and righteousness. We can all be what Isaiah calls “repairers of the breach” by satisfying the needs of the afflicted.

As John the Baptist teaches about bearing good fruit, the crowds, tax collectors, and soldiers ask him, “What, then, should we do?” His answer to each group was some version of: “Do the good that is yours to do. In the same way, the question we are invited to consider this Advent is, what is the good that we are called to do? Join us as the Singers of Soul will be performing timeless Christmas and gospel carols! www.TheLoftLA.org

Jesus' Works Through Us (Audio) David Eells 12/15/24 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that [life] which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, [the faith] which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me (Gal.2:20). It is not I, living the Christian life and doing the works of Christ, but it is I accepting my death so that Christ may live and do His works through me. Jesus gave up a natural body in order to take up a corporate body, so that He could continue on a much larger scale His deliverance of this fallen creation. Paul tells us, Now ye are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof (1Co.12:27). We are not the body of “another Jesus,” a weak and worthless Jesus. We are the body of the same Jesus, Who walked in that first body, exercising God's power to set the captives free. We know that Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday and today, [yea] and forever (Heb.13:8). It is sad that most do not agree that Christ's plan is to continue exercising the sovereignty that He had in His first body in His second. We read in (Amos 3:3) Shall two walk together, except they have agreed? We need to be in total agreement with the Word so that Christ may walk in us and exercise His sovereignty through us. A king's sons are princes who grow up to inherit his authority and exercise his sovereignty. (Psa.45:16) Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, Whom thou shalt make princes in all the earth. So shall it be with the sons God is manifesting through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The mind of the flesh is the enemy of God and cannot be subject to Him (Rom.8:7). In Adam we all died and were made useless to God. By abiding in Christ, Who is the Word, we become vessels of His reigning authority. (1Co.15:22) As in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. (Rom.5:17) For if, by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, [even] Jesus Christ. We were meant to accept God's grace and “reign in life.” As the Adamic man dies in us, the spiritual man comes to life. (2Co.4:16) Wherefore we faint not; but though our outward man (the Adamic, nature of self) is decaying, yet our inward man (Christ in you) is renewed day by day. As we read the Word, and repent of our carnal thinking and life to accept Christ's thinking and life, He is able to reign through us. (2Co.4:11) For we who live are always delivered unto death (I.e. to self) for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So, God expects the life of Christ in this earthly body by grace through faith. Through death to self, we can expect the life of Jesus to be manifested in our human bodies. The life of Christ here is not only His fruit but also His ministry, which He will continue through His disciples. Those who teach that we cannot expect the life of Christ in this life are deceivers. Those who preach that as long as we are in this body we will always be in bondage to sin are deceivers. (2Jn.1:7) For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, [even] they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh… When Jesus physically comes again, He will have a glorified body but He is coming now in the flesh of His body of believers. Those who preach that our ultimate hope here is only to be forgiven and not transformed are deceivers. Paul explained that he was revealing a mystery with the words Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col.1:27). He said that the wisdom in this mystery was to present every man perfect (complete or mature) in Christ (28). Christ in you has power over sin and the curse around us. As we come to realize the purpose of Christ is to live in us, our faith in what He can do in us and through us grows exponentially. (Phm.1:6) That the fellowship (Greek: “sharing in common”) of thy faith may become effectual, in the knowledge of every good thing which is in you, unto Christ. As we accept the mind of Christ, which is the Word of God, it transforms us. We read this in (Rom.12:2) And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. If we do not repent (Greek: “change our mind”) when we read the Word, we do not accept the transformation to the life and work of Christ. The first thing we must believe is the Gospel. (Gal.2:20) I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me… This means the old me died at the cross and now Jesus lives in me. Faith in this justifies us and entitles us to the power to bring it to pass. Because many do not understand this, they believe we have no hope but to continue in sin and count on God's grace for forgiveness. (Rom.6:1)… Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (2) God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Notice that because of grace we do not have to live in sin. (3) Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (4) We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death (to self): that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. When we were baptized, the old sinner died and was buried so now we can walk in new life. (5) For if we have become united with [him] in the likeness of his death, we shall be also [in the likeness] of his resurrection. By faith at baptism we both die and resurrect. Neither a dead man nor a resurrected man can sin. (6) Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin. Through faith we died, and now Jesus lives in us. We were delivered… out of the power of darkness (Col.1:13). This is the real good news! We are only free from the power of sin if we believe it. We can now use these promises as a two-edged sword to destroy corruption in our lives. (2Co.7:1) Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. We are responsible for cleansing ourselves by faith in the promises. Those who believe the promises will bear fruit. As a type, Mary believed the promise that she was to bear the fruit of Jesus in her mortal body (Luk.1:31-35). Jesus said, My mother and my brethren are these that hear the word of God, and do it (Luk.8:21). In a type, we who bring forth the fruit of Jesus are His mother. In the second parable of the sower in Mat 13:24,27,32, Jesus sowed the seed (Greek: sperma, “sperm”) to bear His fruit. Since the Word is the spiritual sperm of Jesus, it can only bring forth His fruit. No word from man or religion can do this. Only one of the four types that received the Word bore fruit 30, 60, or 100-fold. Mary was told, Blessed [is] she that believed; for there shall be a fulfilment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord (Luk.1:45). Because she believed the Word, she bore the fruit of Jesus. The Word must be believed for it to be fulfilled in us. Paul writes in (Heb.4:2) For indeed we have had good tidings (Gospel) preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. We can hear the Gospel but make it ineffective by our own unbelief, as Israel did. By bearing the fruit of the same Jesus, we are proving who the true believers are. Jesus said, by their fruits ye shall know them, not by who they say they are. Paul showed us how to exercise this faith with our renewed imagination in (2Co.3:18) But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. If our face is truly unveiled, then we see by faith the finished work of God in the mirror, which is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Only seeing the real Jesus of the Word in the mirror will transform us into the image of God. The Jesus we see must be the One Who has power over sin and the curse around us. Most Christians would think us proud to look in the mirror by faith and see Jesus, but in truth, these are the only ones who are humble to the Word. The one who sees his natural face in the mirror will have no power to obey. (Jas.1:23) For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror. These are the ones who do not unite faith with the Gospel so that it can be fulfilled in them. Paul tells us in (Rom.6:11) Even so reckon (consider it done) ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. (12) Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof. Notice that the way to not let sin reign in your flesh is to reckon yourself to be immune to it because you are dead by faith. It is to believe that Jesus took away your sin and that you are free to obey God. God gives power to save from sin to those who believe the true Gospel. (Rom.1:16) For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth… Those who do not accept their power over sin, by faith, will prove themselves tares, and not wheat, when they do not bear fruit. (Rom.6:17) But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; (18) and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. The true teaching, believed and acted on by the heart, sets us free from sin. Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Joh 8:32) If our truth is not setting us free, either it is not THE TRUTH or we do not really believe it. If you have not had victory, study the truth, not religion. I once received a “woe is me” email from a friend who was grieved over his inability to overcome a certain sin. I highlighted in his letter phrases like the following: “I couldn't resist; I'm hooked; my flesh is weak; they really got me; I have no hope; no willpower; I'm defeated,” and “I'm licked,” and sent it back to him with the following note: “Just because you fail, that does not mean you give up faith. You were delivered of this sin 2,000 years ago. Compare what you have believed in these phrases with what you should believe. (I sent him the Gospel message of our deliverance from sin.) You have a lot of faith to stay in bondage. Even in your failure, you must walk by faith in order to get out of bondage.” My friend's will was against the sin so it was not a willful disobedience. His failure was in his faith. He believed everything he should not have and that robbed him of power. Faith that fizzles out at the finish had a flaw in it from the first. If we sin, there are some steps we should take to lay a foundation for our faith. If we say we have no sin, in other words, justify self, we are deceived (1Jn.1:8). If we confess our sins, we will be forgiven and cleansed from all sin (1Jn.1:9). We should first confess our sins. Then, as the Israelites who had been bitten by the serpents turned and set their eyes on the sacrificial serpent on the pole, seeing their sin and curse on Him, we should turn and confess the sacrifice of Jesus (Num.21:8). From then on, we should believe that our sin has been put on Him and we are delivered. As John the Baptist said, “Behold, the lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” God's complaint about the Old Testament Law was that it could not make perfect them that draw nigh (Heb.10:1)… (4) For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins… (14) For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. The Old Testament had blood covering and forgiveness but could not deliver man from the sin nature. Many today are preaching only what that covenant offered leaving those who believe them in bondage to sin. Many of you, upon coming to the Lord, experienced total deliverance from certain sins. What the real Gospel teaches is that God wants to continue that process to completion. I hear it commonly preached that we are just sinners saved by grace. It may surprise you to know that there is no such saying in the Bible. A sinner saved by grace is an oxymoron. A man is either a sinner or he is saved from sin by grace. Jesus always made a distinction between His followers and sinners. For instance in (Mat.26:45)…The Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. (Luk.6:33) And if ye do good to them that do good to you, what thank have ye? for even sinners do the same. (34) And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? even sinners lend to sinners, to receive again as much. Notice that He didn't consider the disciples sinners. It has been said that Paul as a disciple claimed to be the chief of sinners. This is false! He said that he was the chief of those that Jesus came to save from sin. Let's read it (1Ti.1:15) Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: (God was showcasing Paul as an example of His power to save anyone.) (16) howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his longsuffering, for an ensample of them that should thereafter believe on him unto eternal life. Paul had just said that his sins were in his past by God's enabling power and that he was now counted among the faithful. Verse (12) I thank him that enabled me, [even] Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, appointing me to [his] service; (13) though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: howbeit I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Paul included himself when he said that we were sinners but we were made righteous. (Rom.5:8) But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom.5:19) For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. And in (Gal.2:17) But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a minister of sin? God forbid. (1Co.6:9) Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, (10) nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. (11) And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. The Lord through Paul said that Jesus is separated from sinners in (Heb.7:26) For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Those who justify themselves in their sin, by saying that we are all just sinners saved by grace, will not obtain mercy through our High Priest. It says in (Pro.28:13) He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. David said that sinners would be separated from among the righteous and would be judged in (Psa.1:1) Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked, Nor standeth in the way of sinners, Nor sitteth in the seat of scoffers. (5) Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. If we believe the deceiver's gospel that we are always going to be sinners instead of “made free from sin,” then that is what we will have. Jesus said, “As thou hast believed, [so] be it done unto thee” and “According to your faith be it done unto you.” It is important that we believe exactly what the Word says. It is important that we see the Biblical Jesus in the mirror and not “another Jesus” of man's making (2Co.11:4). If in the mirror, we are looking at the humanistic Jesus preached most often today, then that is the only image we can come into. This is a Jesus who has no power. Does the Jesus in your mirror have power over sin and the curse? Does He have power to minister healing, deliverance, and provision? If so, then that is what He will be able to do through you. Now let's go to (Col.1:21) And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, (22) yet now hath he reconciled (Greek: “exchanged”) in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and unreproveable before him: (23) if so be that ye continue in the faith, grounded and stedfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Gospel which ye heard… (I.e. the original Gospel). We are now reconciled because of the cross if we continue in the faith, unwavering from the true Gospel. The Greek word translated “reconciled” here means “exchanged.” On the cross, Jesus exchanged His life, blessings, and power for our old life, curse, and weakness. Our old life and its penalty, the curse, are on the cross, and now Christ lives in us. God exchanges us to present us holy and without blemish, to deliver us from our past evil works. The Christ, Who is blessed with righteousness and power, will exercise sovereignty through us because He lives in us. We are now ministers of this reconciliation (2Co.5:18-21). In other words, it is our job to administer the exchange to those who believe so that other people are saved from sin, healed, delivered, and provided for. This is the great commission. The curse is enumerated in Deuteronomy 28, and it covers everything bad that happens to man as a result of breaking God's laws. Jesus bore this curse so that we would have authority over it, both in our own lives and in the lives of others who believe. (Gal.3:13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us… (14) that upon the Gentiles might come the blessing of Abraham in Christ Jesus… Jesus became the curse, and now we who believe have the “blessing of Abraham.” He was blessed in all things (Gen.24:1). The exchange was accomplished at the cross but will be manifested as we apply the Gospel by faith to the curse. Before the fall, Adam lived in the Garden of Eden with no sickness, corruption, or lack of any kind. Look around you. The curse is manifested in all of the creation because of the fall. In His life and in His death, Jesus destroyed the curse. He passed on this ministry to His disciples, and they were commanded to pass it on to their disciples, and on down to us (Mat.28:19-20). Eventually this Gospel was totally corrupted by religion so that what was passed on was a form of godliness that denies the power thereof (2Ti.3:5). The Holy Spirit empowers those who have received Him to come into all that Christ is. Paul prays in Ephesians, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend (not comprehend as some translations say.) with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God (Eph.3:16-19). The full scope of Christ, His breadth, length, height, depth, and love, was provided to us through faith. Christ is to be “apprehended” by faith as we are empowered by God's Spirit, “that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.” Does it seem too good to be true? “Gospel” means “good news.” I did not write the Word, I just believe it. Do not let religion stop you, brothers and sisters. Believe it and accept what God says is yours in Christ! Notice the phrase “the fulness of God.” If, as Genesis 1 says, each seed brings forth after its own kind, then what seed has been sown in us? First, by our parents, we were all born of the seed of fallen humanity. Then, according to the second parable of the sower in Mat.13:24,27,32, the seed sown of Jesus in Greek is sperma, “sperm”. That seed of the Word is not the seed of man, but Jesus who is God. In (Joh.1:1)…The Word was God. (Joh.3:6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (7) Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew (Greek: “from above”). When Jesus told the Jews that He was the Son of God, they tried to stone Him, saying, Thou, being a man, makest thyself God (Joh.10:33). They knew that if God had a son, He would be God, also. (Joh.10:34) Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? (35) If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken) (36) say ye of him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am [the] Son of God? In the original language, there were no capital or lower case letters for words such as “gods” or “spirit.” Jesus was saying that the Jews, who had received the Old Testament Word of the letter, were by position gods. How much more then are we who have received the New Testament Word of the Spirit? We are gods, not in the flesh for that is the seed of man, but in the spirit for that is the seed of God. Jesus said, “The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit.” Since each seed brings forth after its own kind, the son of a dog is dog, the son of a man is man, and the son of God is god. The more of God's seed that we give good earth to, the more God manifests Himself in us. We read in (Rom.1:3) concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, (Jesus was Son of man in the flesh.) (4) who was declared [to be] the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness (Son of God in the spirit), by the resurrection from the dead; [even] Jesus Christ our Lord. We, as Jesus, are son of man in the flesh but son of God in the spiritual man. (Heb.2:17) Wherefore it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren… Jesus was made like us in everything. (18) For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor (Greek: “come to the aid of “) them that are tempted. As Son of man, Jesus knew temptation and is therefore able to help us. Our Jesus is the “only begotten (or born) Son of God,” and we are reborn sons of God through Him. Now let's go to (Eph.4:11-13) And he gave some [to be] apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers (The Nicolaitan error [Rev.2:6,15] teaches that some of these ministries are done away with, but the Word says no such thing. The five-fold ministry is:); for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Wow, we are to grow into the fullness of Christ.  All of His righteousness and ministry, are provided for us. The apostate church tells us that this stature is unattainable because they count on man's ability, not God's. They are saying that God is unable or unwilling to completely save us from the power of sin and corruption. (Heb.7:25) Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost (Greek: “completely”) them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. I can hear some say, “David, I do not see any of these people around. How can this be?” First of all, without a mind completely renewed by the Word, we could not discern them. Jesus was discerned by very few as being in the fullness of God. The leaders of Israel did not recognize Him. Even His disciples questioned Him: Peter rebuked Him, and Thomas doubted Him. Secondly, He has saved the best wine for last. (2Th.1:10) When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day. Paul believed there was a day coming when the saints would have grace to believe His teaching and manifest Jesus. This declares that the Lord would come when this happens. His crop has come to maturity, ready for the harvest. (11) To which end we also pray always for you, that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfil every desire of goodness and [every] work of faith, with power; (12) that the name (Greek: “character and authority”) of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. God's grace, through the faith of the saints, will manifest the character and authority of Jesus in preparation for His work and His coming. The prophet Joel declares full restoration of all that the curse and religion have taken from God's people. (Joel 2:23) Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he giveth you the former (or early) rain in just measure, and he causeth to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain, in the first [month]. (24) And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil (bearing much anointed fruit). (25) And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you. These insects represent the curse on God's crop or His people, which was to motivate them towards His salvation. God said the early and latter rain would restore His people from the years of tribulation. This rain was identified in Joel 2:28-29 as the outpouring of the Spirit on God's people. Peter quotes Joel 2:28-29, declaring that the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost was a fulfillment of this prophecy. (Act.2:16) But this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel: (17) And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams. The “former rain” of the Spirit came “in the last days” of the Old Testament people of God, and the “latter rain” will come “in the last days” of the New Testament people of God. This former rain came to the Jews that believed, to restore them after a great falling away, and then it was passed on to the Gentiles. Those disciples, who received that power of the Spirit, walked as Jesus walked and did His works. The pagans called them “Christians,” meaning “Christ-like.” There is little evidence to convict many of that today, but the story is not over. For almost 2,000 years, only a few have been partakers of the former rain. The latter rain will come to believers, to restore the fallen Church to Christlikeness, and then it passes on to the Jews. When will the latter rain come? Both the Jews and the Church have fallen away from what was given in the Gospels and Acts for 2,000 years. The Spirit of God says in (Hos.5:15) I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly. This is clear that the Lord left Israel and the Church to their own self-will and false leadership. In the midst of affliction, which has already begun, there will be repentance. His people will say, (Hos.6:1) Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. (2) After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. (3) And let us know, let us follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth. The Lord will come as the latter rain. The Holy Spirit will manifest in those who receive Jesus Christ. We see, on the morning of the third day, the latter rain outpouring will come to empower and restore after a two-day (2,000 year) falling away period. What are these two days, and when is the morning of the third day? Peter writes in (2Pe.3:8) But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Having read the writings of the early Church fathers, I can tell you that they commonly believed in the 1,000-year prophetic day and that after six of these days, from the beginning, the end time would come. The Hindus, Muslims, and the Jews also believed this. Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire said that the early Christians believed this. I have found in the Scripture over a dozen astounding revelations, using the 1,000-year days, pointing to this time in which we live. The Bible is laid out in seven prophetic 1,000-year days. These days are always numbered from the creation of the first Adam, or the birth of the “last Adam”, Jesus Christ (1Co.15:45). There were 4,000 years, or four days, between the Adams. Since the days of Jesus, the calendar has been tampered with extensively, but most believe we have come to the morning of the third day or the beginning of the third 1,000 years from the last Adam's birth. It is also the morning of the seventh day, or the beginning of the seventh 1,000 years from the first Adam. This is when the end time begins, and God finishes His work. (Gen.2:2) And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. According to this type, God is about to finish His new creation work on this morning of the seventh day, also called the third day in some types, and rest. This soon coming latter rain outpouring will restore the true believers to the holiness, power, and ministry of Jesus. As Solomon said, That which hath been is that which shall be; and that which hath been done is that which shall be done (Ecc.1:9). What happened with the former rain in Acts will also happen in the latter rain acts of our day. The apostate people of God will fight against this move of the Spirit and be rejected. The persecuted, Spirit-filled remnant will, by signs and wonders bring revival to lovers of truth worldwide. The former rain was first offered to Israel, but as many blasphemed, it was given to the Gentiles. The latter rain will first be given to the Church, but when many blaspheme, it will be given to a remnant of Israel. I thank my God that by His grace I was not stubborn but received His early rain. By it, I have been given a miraculous life of God's provision, but the latter rain will be far greater. Praise God! Do all believers have the former or early rain of the Holy Spirit? Jesus said to His disciples, Ye who have followed me, in the regeneration (Mat.19:28). Regeneration comes from the Greek word meaning “new birth.” The disciples were born again but did not have the Holy Spirit because Jesus told them, He abideth with you, and shall be in you (Joh.14:17). He later told them, But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses… unto the uttermost part of the earth (Act.1:8). When the Spirit comes, we receive the power needed to be witnesses of Jesus. The disciples were called Christians by the lost because they did the works of Jesus. The apostate church of our day has separated many from this infilling power by saying that all who are born again automatically have the Holy Spirit. Obviously, Jesus did not teach this, nor did the disciples teach it later. Paul did not believe it. (Act.19:1)… Paul… found certain disciples: (2) and he said unto them, Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed? And they [said] unto him, Nay, we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was [given]. These disciples had not experienced the infilling of the Spirit. (6) And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. Why would believers need prayer to receive the Spirit if it was automatic? As with every New Testament case, they knew when they received the Spirit from the signs and gifts. We have another example in (Act.8:14) Now when the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: (15) who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit: (16) for as yet it was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. (17) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Baptized believers did not receive the Holy Spirit until the Apostles came and prayed for them. Our spirit must be born again before the Holy Spirit will come to dwell in it. The lost cannot receive the Spirit for Jesus said, The Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive (Joh.14:17). The promise of the covenant is clear that those who have “a new spirit” can have “My Spirit.” It says in (Eze.36:26) A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them. When God's Spirit comes to dwell in our born-again spirit, He will empower you to obey the Word. Jesus had two spirits, a born-again, human spirit and the Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God. When we are saved, we receive a born-again spirit in His image called the “Spirit of Christ.” Only then are we capable of receiving the “Spirit of God” into the holy, born-again temple for power. Notice the clear difference between these two states. (Rom.8:9) But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. (The Spirit of God empowers us to be spiritual.) But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. If we do not have the Spirit of Christ we are not born-again. (10) And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. The Spirit of Christ does not empower our fallen body but gives us His Spirit of life. (11) But if the Spirit of him (God) that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. When we receive the Spirit of God, He empowers and gives life to our bodies as He did with Jesus. We see an example of this with the woman who had an issue of blood in (Mar.5:30) And straightway Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power [proceeding] from him had gone forth, turned him about in the crowd, and said, Who touched my garments? This is the power of the Spirit of God coming out of Jesus' body to heal. We read in (Act.5:32) And we are witnesses of these things; and [so is] the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him. Obey, dear friend, and receive. If you are born-again, ask God for His Spirit. (Luk.11:13) If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? God only gives the Holy Spirit to those who belong to Him. (Act.2:18) Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. With this power of the latter rain anointing, God is going to completely destroy the curse of sin and death in the most faithful of His people. (1Co.15:51) Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, (52) in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Notice that we shall all be changed at the last trump, which is at the end of the Tribulation when God takes over the world. (Rev.11:15) And the seventh angel sounded (last trumpet); and there followed great voices in heaven, and they said, The kingdom of the world is become [the kingdom] of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign for ever and ever. Who are these people who will not die but be changed at the last trumpet? The Bible says ‘all that sin will die.' (Eze.18:4,20)… The soul that sinneth, it shall die… Jesus told His disciples that they would have to lose their life to find life. (Mat.16:25) For whosoever would save his life (or soul) shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life (or soul) for my sake shall find it. The Greek word for “life” in this verse is psuche or “soul.” Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. Jesus was saying we must lose our fleshly mind, will, and emotions to gain our spiritual mind, will, and emotions. Even though all of God's elect will lose their lives, all will not physically die. Some will be changed without dying because they have already put their old life to death. (Rom.8:6) For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. Those with the mind of the flesh must die so that the mind of the Spirit can live. Everyone who has not overcome sin in the mind, will, and emotions must die. (Rom.6:23) For the wages of sin is death… Sin must be overcome before physical death can be overcome. Jesus died to empower us to lose our old life, to gain His life, and to have a blood covering so we would be accepted during the process. This process can be finished in a fruit-bearing disciple, at physical death, should he not completely crucify the old life while still alive. This process can also be finished in this life as we die to self through faith in what Jesus did at the cross. There is no curse of death in the Bible on those who do not sin. Enoch and Elijah symbolize these people who will not die because they walk by faith in God. Jesus overcame in His first body so that He could do it in His second body, which is made up of those believers who take up their crosses. He abolished all of the old life, even the last enemy, death. (2Ti.1:10)… Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. After God abolishes the rule of the beast, harlot, and the old life over His people, death will be abolished. (1Co.15:24) Then [cometh] the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. (25) For he must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. (26) The last enemy that shall be abolished is death. One enemy in power that rules over God's people is the old life of flesh. (Rom.8:7) Because the mind of the flesh is enmity (enemy) against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. Jesus conquered these enemies for us at the cross, but we must walk by faith to see it manifested. The resurrection and rapture, both of which abolishes death, are at the end, when He will have abolished all other rule over His people, not seven years before the end while these still reign. Jesus said, I will raise him up in the last day (Joh.6:44), or at the last day (39). There is one more resurrection of the righteous dead at the end so all are included (Rev.20:4; 1Co.15:22-24). The rapture happens at that same time (1Th.4:15-17). Now let's go to (Joh.11:25) Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live (resurrection); (26) and whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never die… If the first part of this sentence is speaking of physical death, certainly the last part is. In order to prove the power of God's salvation, He will restore in these last days the faith to believe that Jesus abolished sin and death. Then some will escape death. (Heb.11:5) By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God. The faith to be an overcomer will be restored by the latter rain. (2Th.1:10) When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day. When will these things happen? Jesus gave us a clear clue in a type and shadow in (Mat.16:28)… there are some of them that stand here, who shall in no wise taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. Notice He said that some who stand “here” will not die till they see the coming of the Lord. Where is “here”? In type, they stood before the end of six days, or 6,000 years, which is proven by the next verse. (Mat.17:1) And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart: (2) and he was transfigured before them; and his face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as the light. Some alive today will see the coming of the Lord because we just passed the end of six days, or 6,000 years. We are now “after six days,” on the morning of the seventh day, when Peter, James, and John saw the coming of the Lord in His glorified body. In type, three disciples saw the coming of the Lord without dying. Peter, James, and John, who were the closest disciples to the Lord, and also prefigured we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord (1Th.4:15). The two witnesses represent the martyrs who are resurrected at the last trump (Rev.11:12,15). These two groups account for the resurrection and rapture at the coming of the Lord, fulfilling the Word. Now I'd like to share some revelations with you.     Just a Closer Walk with Thee Anonymous (David's notes in red) In my dream, my husband and I were given some sort of tour. (Our walk through this world.) When we were in a particular room I became interested in the floor tile. I seemed to forget about everyone else. I seemed fixated with the tile. (God has drawn you to be interested in how and where you walk.) It was dull looking and had a film build-up. But I kept trying to see past the film. (Wanting to see the true walk without all the buildup and corruption of the past.) I looked and there was a white dab of what looked like polish and then I looked again and saw a long piece of material that looked like the wrap-around tie of a terry robe. (This symbolizes girding yourself with the majesty and strength of the Lord. Psa.93:1 Jehovah reigneth; he is clothed with majesty; Jehovah is clothed with strength; he hath girded himself therewith... With this terry cloth girdle you can wash the disciples feet or cleanse their walk. Joh.13:4 He riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments; and he took a towel, and girded himself. Many towels are made of terry cloth. 5 Then he poureth water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. ...14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.) I took the material and began to rub the polish into the tile. It became very shiny and I was pleased to see that it indeed was beautiful. (A glimpse of the true walk with Jesus.) Then I found myself seated in an auditorium of some sort. I was smiling, looking around, and observing everyone. There was a young girl seated beside me on my right (This is your spiritual, born-again man who Jesus places as a sheep on the right) and a woman about my age on my left. (This is your natural man who is like a goat to the left.) I saw that the young girl had a portable radio with her and I believe I remember she was listening to the radio through earphones. (This was hearing the voice of the spirit which cannot be heard by the natural man.) As I looked around I realized that other people were also carrying a portable radio. There was what looked like a helicopter or some sort of vessel that was parked up above and across from me on the opposite side of the auditorium. (Flying vessels represent those who overcome the world.) I could see the occupants inside the vessel clearly. There was a young girl seated with an older woman inside. I smiled at both of them. The young girl was wearing an army helmet. (The helmet of salvation. Your spiritual man is ready to go to war with the enemy after overcoming the world.) She was obviously filled with excitement. She kept a broad smile on her face and could not sit still. (Overcoming the world by conquering the enemy is exciting and joyous.) This young girl looked at me and mouthed the words, “Thank you”. I wondered why she was thanking me, when I realized that she was wearing my helmet. I wondered how she had come to have it. (It is you who gives authority to your spiritual man to conquer and overcome the mind of flesh.) I asked the young girl seated on my right if she had given my helmet to the girl in the vessel and she told me she had. (The spiritual man had put on the armor of Christ.) Seeing how full of excitement the young girl in the vessel was, I remembered to myself how excited I had been when I had gotten my helmet. (A helmet is to protect the mind from the thought attacks of the enemy.) I looked and noticed that the girl seated on my right was dozing. (The spiritual man rests in the power and works of the Lord.) I observed her and continued to take in the place, when the older woman seated with the young girl in the vessel got my attention and nodded towards the young girl on my right and said, “She is asleep.” I looked at the girl again and answered the woman, with, “Yes, she is asleep, but, only lightly sleeping; she is still listening”. (Spiritual rest can only be accomplished by hearing the voice of the Word of the Lord.) The woman seemed displeased and shook her head. (…The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; they are foolishness unto him…. 1Co.2:14.) I ignored it and continued to look around. I seemed to know that she was okay and there was no need for concern. Then a man appeared in the center of the auditorium. He was holding an open bible in his hand. He said he was about to teach us the real truth. (The truth is the only thing that will guard your mind, conquer your enemy, and set you free from this world.) At that point, I lowered my head and blocked everything and everyone out except the voice of the speaker. I said to myself something like, “I hope he is teaching the truth.” or “I had to ensure that he would be teaching the truth.” (Yes, we must be careful that he is speaking the truth or we will be deceived and polluted with the earthbound ideologies of men.)     Feed on the Word, Christ in You  William Steenland - May or June 2013 I dreamed I was at a huge white table, a huge feast, a celebration. I looked to my left and right there were people fellowshipping and laughing together and rejoicing. (The Marriage Feast of the bread and wine or the body and blood or Word and nature of Jesus.) It was a great and happy event. I was eating out of a huge white bowl; there was meat and potatoes and rice all in a bowl. I ate it very fast and when I was done, I took my white handkerchief and placed it over the top of the empty bowl. I was still hungry and wanted more food. I looked down at the end of the table. I was at the opposite end looking down at the head of the table. It was Jesus or at least I thought it was Jesus. The man at the end of the table kept changing. I looked with a puzzled look on my face, as Jesus changed from Jesus to my friend Ernie Miller and then back to Jesus, then to Albert Golt, and then back to Jesus. (If you feed on the Word, you turn into Jesus. :o) I said to Jesus, “Can I have some more food?'' He just looked at me with loving, kind look, the way you would look at a naive child who needs a lot of help, wisdom and understanding. He had a pleased look on his face. It was a look of love, peace and joy. He had a lot of knowledge in His eyes and He knew more about me than I knew and about my future, too. He nodded His head up and down to my question as if to say ‘yes.' I suddenly looked down at the bowl with the white handkerchief and took the handkerchief away and the bowl was full again! I began to eat and eat. I was interrupted by a group of black beings at another table (demons). They said, “Hey, we're going to come over there!” I said, “That's not up to me. You have to ask the man who paid for the feast”. (Jesus gave it all.) They then said, “Hey, come over here! We want you to come over here”. I said, “No”. I didn't want to go over there. They said, “Hey, let's switch”. (The demons want you to feed on their word so you won't turn into Jesus and won't be a threat to them.) I said, “That's not my decision to make. I didn't pay for the banquet or meal”. They were persistent with the questions and the one who stood up was angry with me that I was at this table, but I didn't leave. I knew enough not to go over there with them. 1Co.10:15 I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. 16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? 17 seeing that we, who are many, are one bread, one body: for we are all partake of the one bread. 18 Behold Israel after the flesh: have not they that eat the sacrifices communion with the altar? 19 What say I then? that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? Is anything more important to us than doing the will of God? 20 But [I say], that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have communion with demons. 21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons: ye cannot partake of the table of the Lord, and of the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?     More Light For More Christ Anonymous - 08/19/2007 (David's notes in red) I had this dream and I saw myself in a white room; the ceiling was very high. (The house is the house of the Lord.) There were white stairs with gold banisters on them. (The staircase represents Jacob's ladder [Hebrew: staircase] to heaven and represents following in the steps of Jesus as “the way” [Gen.28:12; Jn.1:51].) I saw a fair lady and she looked to me to be pregnant. (The pregnant woman represents the woman church of Rev. 12 who is pregnant with the fruit of Christ.) She had the keys to unlock the door above the ceiling. As she was climbing to unlock that door, she told me that I could only enter that door above my head until I changed the bulb (a very huge round fluorescent bulb with white light), otherwise, I would not be permitted to enter through that door in the ceiling. (The key is the key of knowledge and the light is the light of understanding that we need to go through the door to the next level which is Christ fully birthed in us. The first-fruits of these will be the man-child.) She came down. (The pregnant woman represents those believers whose sphere of authority stayed below the door.) She seemed to be the keeper of that door and keeping records. I started to climb those white stairs which were very steep and very high. The floor of that room was quite small when I was up there. Of course, no room in reality is made at this height. When you looked down, it looked quite frightening so you can imagine the height. I am not a height person myself and surely it was only by the grace of God I was able to climb up those steep white stairs holding those golden banisters by faith. (Our hands represent our works, which must be holding on to those things that represent the highest heavenly value of gold and must be increasingly more heavenly as in climbing the staircase.) When I reached the ceiling, I had to leave those banisters and reach for the light to change that bulb. It was not easy because that light was situated at the center of the room. It was only by His grace that I managed to balance myself without the banister and change that light quickly. (By grace we will be balanced enough to go to the next understanding level and manifest Christ.) The light was a blinding white light. Then I entered into open heaven through that door.     Ancient Man-child and Bride Seen Again K. H. - 07/06/2008 (David's notes in red) My mom and I were house-sitting for my grandparents, but it was at a different house than they live in right now. The setup was very similar to what they have now but the arrangement of the rooms was different and all of the rooms were a little larger. They also had this enormous and luscious garden in the backyard; it was absolutely breathtaking. I was given a list of things that needed to be done while they were gone and I was given another list to do to prepare for their return. I knew that I had a week, seven days, to do all the things on the list so I wasn't worried about it. I knew that it would get done but to my surprise, my grandparents came home a week early. When my grandpa saw that the house and the garden weren't ready for their return, he became upset. I just kept telling him that I was so sorry; I thought that I had another week and told him that I would get everything done. Then, I saw myself going down the list, one by one, and getting everything done with the help of other brethren. My mom and I talked about how once again the Lord reminded us that we need to be diligent in preparing for the coming times. Also, my grandpa coming home early and finding his house wasn't prepared for his return, I believe, is a warning for the body of Christ to be prepared for His return. This speaks of the return of the ancient Bride and Groom as they were almost 2000 years ago. Their house, the Man-child and Bride of our day, need to be ready for their return, not at the end of the 70th week but at its beginning. Many post-trib saints are not expecting this pre-trib appearance of Jesus in an Epiphaneia, or His shining forth from His saints. Jesus will be manifested in His Man-child company through His Word and Anointing that will live in them. His Bride will be manifested in a modern-day body, as she was then, full of power and holiness. Won't it be awesome? Joh 14:12-14  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.  13  And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  14  If ye shall ask anything in my name, that will I do. Eph 3:19-21  and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.  20  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,  21  unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.

As John the Baptist declares Jesus to be the Lamb of God, two of his own followers, including Andrew, are drawn to Jesus and ask Him where He is staying. With a simple invitation—"Come and you will see"—Jesus begins gathering those who would become His closest companions. Andrew brings his brother, Simon Peter, and soon after, Philip and Nathanael are called. But when Nathanael skeptically questions whether anything good can come from Nazareth, Jesus surprises him with insights only God could know, sparking Nathanael's awe-filled confession: "You are the Son of God!" These first encounters reveal not only Jesus' powerful insight but the mystery and wonder He inspires in those who come near.  The Rev. Roger Mullet, pastor of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Buffalo, WY, joins the Rev. Dr. Phil Booe to study John 1:35-51.  The Gospel of John takes us on a journey through the Good News of Jesus in a unique way. It reveals Jesus as the incarnate son of God from eternity.  From His miraculous signs to His profound "I Am" statements, we witness Jesus offering living water to the thirsty, light to those in darkness, and life to the dead. But this is also a story of conflict: Jesus is relentlessly pursued by those who reject Him, yet He willingly goes to the cross, showing the depths of God's love. As we travel from His first miracle to His ultimate victory over death, John invites us to see and believe—that in Jesus, we find eternal life and the very presence of God among us. Connect to God's revealing Word in this series that uncovers the rich, layered truths of John's Gospel and the unshakable hope it offers.  Thy Strong Word, hosted by Rev. Dr. Phil Booe, pastor of St. John Lutheran Church of Luverne, MN, reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God's Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations. Submit comments or questions to: thystrongword@kfuo.org.

July 17, 2024Today's Reading: Galatians 5:1-26Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 1:1-20; Galatians 5:1-26But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Well? What's next? That was the question in the churches of Galatia when Paul continued on his second missionary journey. They had come to faith in Christ when they heard the gospel that Paul proclaimed, but shortly after Paul left, other teachers arrived, suggesting that Paul had only given them the basics of the faith…now it was time to make their commitment to Jesus a little more serious. That's how they get you. I've heard it called the “Jesus plus” problem. When Christianity tries to add something to Jesus, you wind up losing Jesus and putting your faith in whatever that other thing is (your works, your effort, your emotions). Paul heard about the Judaizers who were drafting right behind him and poisoning the well. It's no wonder that Galatians is among Paul's most emotionally charged letters! The whole book could be summed up in his questions, “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:2-3). You didn't save yourself! What makes you think you're going to keep yourself saved?! Of course, Paul isn't anti-good works. But good works belong in the proper place, in freedom. The Christian church in America is often tempted to ask, “What's next?” We foolishly think that we could ever graduate from the simple truth of the Gospel: Jesus loves you; He died for you; He lives for you. Paul sets us free in his letter to the Galatians– not free to live however we want– but free from the burden of keeping God's law! What do we do with freedom like that? Paul says it like this: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) So your life as a Christian is less and less about you and more and more about Christ. As John the Baptist put it, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) And as Christ increases in us, the fruit of the Spirit buds, blossoms, and blesses our neighbor. Go forth in freedom, for Christ is alive in you! In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.Fruitful trees, the Spirit's sowing, May we ripen and increase, Fruit to life eternal growing, Rich in love and joy and peace. (LSB 691:1)-Rev. Dustin Beck is pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Corpus Christi, TX.Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.Your favorite study Bible is now available in a simple, intuitive app on your device! Distinctively Lutheran notes on the full ESV text, helpful articles, and custom user settings offer an engaging experience in God's Word anywhere you go. Download The Lutheran Study Bible App.

When lost, the first step is to stop going the wrong way. But the next step is even more vital to reaching our destination. We need to start going the right way. As John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Jesus, he preached a message of repentance. Today Dr. John reminds us that John's message was more than, "Stop!" It was also a time to "Start!" Listen to the new way of life that accords with repentance. A Firm Grip on the Gospel: Anyone who has read the four Gospels is struck by how different they are. These accounts focus on the life and death of Jesus, yet they each have a particular theme and emphasis. In this four-week series, Dr. John Neufeld points us to the Gospel of Luke and traces the intent of the only Gentile writer of a New Testament book. 

Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. . . .” — Luke 1:46-47 Lavelle tends to break into song at any given moment. Not like someone humming a favorite hymn from their childhood. Oh no. Lavelle will bellow and blast out a note of praise at the top of his lungs. He is a living testimony of God's grace and goodness. Now, it's true that Lavelle likes having an audience. But even more so, he needs to praise God. He needs to express what is inside of him—belting out praise for who God is in his life. Lavelle has inside of him a song to sing. In Luke 1 we read that Mary had a song to sing. And she sang, “My soul glorifies the Lord,” because God had chosen her—of all people!—to carry the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Other translations read, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” To magnify is to make bigger—like with a magnifying glass. For us, Mary became a model of a decreased self while Christ increased in her and in her life. As John the Baptist would later say, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30, NRSV). Do you sing a song that puts life back into perspective—where you are reminded just how big God, creation, and the love of Jesus are? What are the songs that God has put in your soul to magnify the Lord? Amazing God, you have given us a song to sing—like Mary and Lavelle—a song of victory, a song of praise. Today may we magnify you in all we do. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

The modern church is not in a good place. We must go back to the drawing board. We must follow the example of the early church in the book of Acts and receive power from on high! As John the Baptist boldly proclaimed, "He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with power!" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/douglas-boyd/message

Never doubt the revelation you received in the light in darkness. As John the Baptist waited in prison, he began doubting the identity of Jesus, but Jesus assured John to his disciples his authenticity. Despite contradicting beliefs that attempt to throw us off course, you must use kingdom awareness to establish yourself in finding your place.

One of the most referred to chapters in all of the New Testament is Acts 2. There's many ways people might know this chapter: some refer to it as the "birthday of the church", the beginning of the Church Age. Others might better know it as the day the Holy Spirit was first outpoured upon the church. Either way, it is certainly an important chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and is tremendously impactful for every church today. As John the Baptist spoke of Jesus, "He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and with fire." Other passages such as Isaiah or the Gospels speak of how this outpouring would be a significant event for the church. I'd like to take some time to enjoy going through this chapter and eventually ones to follow, with the reminder that we are still living in the book of Acts -- the Church Age.

The Legal Right Is Yours Isaiah 9:6 The governmental rule is not only Jesus', but also yours as followers of Christ! As John the Baptist was sent to be a witness you too have been sent to be that witness. You are different! You carry the light of Christ. Carry Him with confidence! The legal right is YOURS in Christ! Raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons! Get ready church and allow the stretching to make you His radical bride!

The Legal Right Is Yours Isaiah 9:6 The governmental rule is not only Jesus', but also yours as followers of Christ! As John the Baptist was sent to be a witness you too have been sent to be that witness. You are different! You carry the light of Christ. Carry Him with confidence! The legal right is YOURS in Christ! Raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons! Get ready church and allow the stretching to make you His radical bride!

If you feel as though your life is in limbo, it is time to know that in Christ Jesus, you won't fall apart. The little pieces that don't line up with truth will be removed from your soul, to reveal Christ.  **** Welcome to Celebrating God's Grace, A Women World Leader's Podcast, I'm your host Robin Kirby-Gatto. Thank you for joining us today as we celebrate God's grace, in our lives, in our ministry, and around the world. Today's Podcast is titled, “Limbo.” “I, John, your brother and companion (sharer and participator) with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance [which are] in Jesus Christ, was on the isle called Patmos, [banished] on account of [my witnessing to] the Word of God and the testimony (the proof, the evidence) for Jesus Christ.” (Revelation 1:9 AMPC) Sometimes we can find ourselves in limbo. Limbo means “a period of awaiting a decision or resolution.” No one knew this better than the apostle John, who was banished to the Isle of Patmos, for preaching the Gospel. Thayer's Greek Lexicon identifies the Greek word Patmos, means “the place of my killing.” Greek scholar Alexander Cruden states that Patmos means, “I am squeezed to pieces.” This brings light to the scripture of he who throws himself upon the Stone, will be broken to pieces. (Matthew 21:44) Sometimes we think we have things figured out. We might even believe that we know how God will do things in our life. I learned a long time ago, if I think I know how things will work out, it won't happen that way. I'm sure John the apostle felt the same way, when he was preaching the Gospel. Although he knew it would cost him his freedom, he truly didn't know that he would have ended up at Patmos. If a place is named, “the place of my killing,” or “I am squeezed to pieces,” that pretty much tells me that it's not on my list for a weekend getaway, much less living out a prison sentence. Patmos is different today, it's a tourist site with churches erected in honor of John the apostle. However, back in John's Day, most likely it was as close to the infamous Alcatraz penitentiary. Imagine how loud the volume of John's captivity must have been on the Isle of Patmos. Little did he know, is that it would be the birthplace of the book of Revelation. Patmos was the backdrop of one of the most profound books of the Bible, studied by scholars. Had John not been at Patmos, we wouldn't have the book of Revelation. Part of the requirement for John to receive the writing of the book, was for him to be in tribulation, causing him to throw himself continually upon Christ. Incredibly, John addresses in Revelation 1:9 that he is a sharer in the tribulations of those who are in Christ. As potent as John's trial was at Patmos, to consider he would join the other servants of God, who were enduring affliction, blessed my heart. I thought this is a man to whom I can relate. You and I haven't gone through anything like John, but we go through other trials, which test our faith. This occurrence in our lives is tribulation, in which God provides grace. Tribulation comes from the Greek word thlîpsis pronounced thlip'-sis meaning “pressure, afflicted, anguish, burdened, persecution, and trouble.”[i] This comes from the Greek word thlíbō pronounced thlee'-bo meaning, “to crowd, afflict, narrow, suffer tribulation and trouble.”[ii] You know the movie scenes of someone sitting in a psychiatrist's office, how they hold up ink blots and ask them what they see? The whole purpose of asking a patient what they see, is to get an idea of the thoughts in a person's mind. I continually feel like that with the Word of God. I am the patient in the psychiatrist's office, with God holding up the Hebrew and Greek words, asking me “Robin what do you see?” When I saw the first Greek word for tribulation, I couldn't help but see “the lips is,” I know it should be the lips are, but indulge me. Then, when I saw the primary Greek word from which tribulation comes, I couldn't help but see “the limbo.” When you feel your life is in limbo, you must be careful what words come out of your lips. The lip is the place that keeps you in limbo. Out of the heart the mouth speaks. Limbo is also the name of a game in which people use a stick to see how low one can go. It originated out of Trinidad, which means Trinity. People started doing the limbo under the cart shaft, which is a wood shaft that attaches the cart to the horse. I imagine that one day someone looked at the cart shaft long enough, and decided they would make a game of it, saying let's see who can go under it the best. The limbo is about going low, a place of humility. When we go low, we know the power of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. If you've ever read a book, you know whether the author has head knowledge on the subject or wisdom, which is an experience within the body. A saying, “I've got the t-shirt and have been there,” is an inference that a person has experienced something in their life. The other day I couldn't help but laugh, as I taught on “sifting” in the Bible and confessed that if we're looking at this through the colloquium “I've got the t-shirt and been there, then I have an entire wardrobe of t-shirts on sifting.” Tribulation is the place of sifting, getting things in us, those little pieces that don't need to be there, out of our self-image. This helps us see Christ Jesus in us, the hope of glory. John the apostle at the Isle of Patmos was able to throw himself onto Christ Jesus, and in this act, although he might have felt he was falling to pieces or having a nervous breakdown, he was falling upon the Rock of his salvation. Little did he know that he would see the King of Glory. 42 “Jesus asked them, Have you never read in the Scriptures: The very Stone which the builders rejected and threw away has become the Cornerstone; this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes? 43 I tell you, for this reason the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this Stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom It falls will be crushed to powder [and It will winnow him, scattering him like dust].” Matthew 21:42-44 AMPC Jesus is referring to the prophecy of Psalm 118:22, that He would be the Chief Cornerstone on which God's Kingdom would be built. Cornerstones are the foundation to a building, to which every other stone is aligned.  In the ancient days, the instrument used to ensure placement of all the stones in a building, was a plumbline. A plumbline is a string with a weight on the bottom, which makes it easy to place against the cornerstone and line all other stones on top. The Stone represents Jesus Christ, and His righteousness, upon which our faith is built. Thus, each person who comes into the Kingdom of Heaven, falls upon the Chief Cornerstone. We line up with truth. John was fashioned at the Isle of Patmos to throw himself upon the Rock of his salvation. Instead of falling apart and letting the prison get the best of him, he entered the place of truth, as Jesus called John higher to receive revelation that would change history. Likewise, tribulations in our own life, open our eyes to the Word of truth, so that our heart and mind line up with what God says. During trials, we might feel like we're falling apart. When you throw yourself upon Christ Jesus and what the Word says, the little pieces that don't line up with truth, are taken out of your heart and mind. This leads to greater comprehension of Who Christ Jesus is. He is the Rock on which our faith rests. We can cast all our cares upon Him, and He will direct us through it. We no longer are in limbo, but instead have gone lower still. As John the Baptist said, “I must decrease, and He must increase.” Our greatest aim in life is to see Christ Jesus in us, which is the ceaseless grace of God given to us daily. In our weakness, going low, God is strong.   [i] Strong's Concordance Greek word # 2347 “tribulation” [ii] Strong's Concordance Greek word # 2346 “trouble”

Jesus Christ as the Word in natural creation spoke and darkness was vanished and overcome by light. Christ is the source of all life and light, both natural and spiritual. Jesus was the True Light that came into the world, in contrast to the false light and deception of Lucifer. As John the Baptist came […]

Jesus Christ as the Word in natural creation spoke and darkness was vanished and overcome by light. Christ is the source of all life and light, both natural and spiritual. Jesus was the True Light that came into the world, in contrast to the false light and deception of Lucifer. As John the Baptist came […]

When Jesus comes back as judge, everyone will face a binary outcome. Either they will be judged righteous and experience the peace and joys of Paradise. Or they will be judged wicked and suffer unquenchable fire (Matthew 3). John the Baptist's job was to point to the only way to prepare for a judgment, one where the stakes are that high. Repent! And look to the Lord Jesus. For when Jesus came into our world the first time, it was not as judge, but as Savior. All those whose faith is in Christ have already been judged righteous. Please, take these words to heart: the reign of God draws near, and his judgment is inevitable. As John the Baptist once said, “All people will see God's salvation.” The only question is if one sees Christ's second coming with joy or regret. For those who fail to repent, the coming of the Judge brings certain doom. But his people will see that Judge like a banner on the hilltop, rallying us to his glorious side.

When Jesus comes back as judge, everyone will face a binary outcome. Either they will be judged righteous and experience the peace and joys of Paradise. Or they will be judged wicked and suffer unquenchable fire (Matthew 3). John the Baptist's job was to point to the only way to prepare for a judgment, one where the stakes are that high. Repent! And look to the Lord Jesus. For when Jesus came into our world the first time, it was not as judge, but as Savior. All those whose faith is in Christ have already been judged righteous. Please, take these words to heart: the reign of God draws near, and his judgment is inevitable. As John the Baptist once said, “All people will see God's salvation.” The only question is if one sees Christ's second coming with joy or regret. For those who fail to repent, the coming of the Judge brings certain doom. But his people will see that Judge like a banner on the hilltop, rallying us to his glorious side.

Why did John the Baptist call Jesus the Lamb of God? How does the message of John the Baptist relate to us today? Rabbi Schneider shares that John the Baptist was a real, historical person. His purpose is what ours is today: 1. A voice crying in the wilderness and, 2. John the Baptist was a forerunner of Jesus. By pointing out Jesus as the Lamb of God, he introduces Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient Passover Lamb from Exodus chapter 12. As John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness, so are we to also cry out in the wilderness to prepare the world for Jesus' return. The New Testament is not separate from the Old Testament. It's the fulfillment of the Old Testament. The Bible is for revealing God, but is not God. Expect God to reveal Himself to you as you learn more about God through the Bible.

As John the Baptist starts his ministry, he calls the remnant of Israel into repentance. This mantle continues to be carried by Jesus after John's passing, and that message is now passed on to us here at 1208 as the Holy Spirit has called us to "repent to make space for new gifts."

As John the Baptist languished in prison for his allegiance to the kingdom of God, the prophet's confidence began to wane. Today, R.C. Sproul continues his expositional series in the gospel of Luke by focusing on Jesus' words of assurance for John--and for us. Get R.C. Sproul's Expositional Commentary on the Gospel of Luke for Your Gift of Any Amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/2103/luke-commentary Don't forget to make RenewingYourMind.org your home for daily in-depth Bible study and Christian resources.

As John the baptist saw Jesus coming towards him, he made this statement: "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world". Listen in as we dive into this statement and explore what John really meant and what it means for us today.

As John the baptist saw Jesus coming towards him, he made this statement: "Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world". Listen in as we dive into this statement and explore what John really meant and what it means for us today.

What did Jesus mean when He said, "Blessed are those who are persecuted"? After Jesus' baptism, a time of severe testing and trial came both to Him and to John the Baptist. As John the Baptist is a representative of God's last-days church, we can expect similar experiences of persecution in our own lives. Dr. Eric Walsh discusses how to prepare for persecution, why God allows it to happen, and why persecution is the greatest honour a Christian can receive.

As John the Baptist calls for repentance, Bishop Roger Gustafson says Jesus offers the fit of repentance so that we might lead reoriented lives that bear good fruit right here and now, lives that point to that kingdom that Jesus is bringing in its fullness.

Outside of the awesome work of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Elijah is perhaps the greatest spirit moving in the church today. When I say spirit, I am not equating it with God, the Son, or the Holy Spirit. As John the Baptist came in the spirit and power of Elijah, so do we. Did you know you have a spirit of adoption? Did you know you have the spirit of His Son? The spirit embodies our attitude and embraces our purposes in God. The spirit of Elijah is to see the hearts of fathers turned to the children, the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, and to make ready a people for the Lord. This spirit will and can produce revival anywhere we let it move free. Today, I declare to you a revival not born in the church or in a sanctuary, but in your home. Take a listen. This message will change your life. Please share this message. It is a necessary message for the entire church body.

He [the pastor] must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. (Titus 1:9)In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Table of Duties of the Small Catechism gives shape to the life of the believer. We are not left to make our own way in determining the contours of our holy orders and positions. Are you a pastor or do you know a pastor? The Table of Duties tells us what God says about the shape of that work as the Office of pastor or preacher. That is the focus in our Small Catechism reading for today. This Holy Office is defined by three passages of Scripture, all drawn from what are appropriately called "pastoral epistles." Paul reminds pastors Timothy and Titus of the great responsibility they bear as servants of Christ and of God's people. All three texts included in this section of the Table of Duties deal with unique aspects of pastoral work. First is an admonition to a life that is not characterized by open, public sin. Second is a warning against conceit (your pastors know that is their greatest weakness). And third is a reminder of the pastor's responsibility to faithfully use God's word to encourage all believers and refute false teaching. Humanly speaking, your pastor can do none of these things well, if at all. But thanks be to God that NOTHING rests in the person of your pastor. As John the Baptist said of his relationship to Jesus, Paul wrote of himself and all pastors, "But we have this treasure (the preaching of the Gospel and administration of the Sacraments) in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us" (2 Corinthians 4:7). Your pastor is as much of a sinner as you are. He needs the same forgiveness of Christ that he proclaims to you in the Absolution. And God gives that to him as freely as He does to you. Give thanks to God this day for your pastor. Pray that God would keep him faithful in his calling and safe from the snares of the devil. He needs such prayer. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.O almighty God, Your Son, Jesus Christ, gave to His holy apostles many excellent gifts and commanded them earnestly to feed His flock. Make all pastors diligent to preach Your holy Word and the people obedient to follow it that together they may receive the crown of everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Forever Gods Word brings us to the Prophetic book of Isaiah and part 104. We are well past Assyrian troubles, Babylon has come and gone. Hezekiah is passing on as the Prophet moves into some deeper subjects and more prophecy of that which is to come. But Isaiah's prophecy used by John the Baptist is a treasure trove for the coming of the Lord. While at the same time remind us of the Lord and his righteousness. He will come as either the Savior Redeemer or the one which the nations of men will tremble and weep at his coming. Let us not forget these words which comforted Judah as the Lord rescued them from Babylon at the end of their Captivity.   Go https://linktr.ee/warnradio more info.   Forever Gods Word is where the #believers today will find the #Eternal One. Within the pages of the book, be sure there is a ton of violent competition for what is truth in today's world. As #Christians we can glean many #prophetic #Messianic #promises and fulfillments through #ChristJesus. He is coming again, this time as #KingofKings and #LordofLords. Yet also for the #Jews we find that the Eternal deals with the nation of #Israel through time and eternity. As John the Baptist said, "prepare you the way of the LORD", in today's world we are not prepared.  As the end of days faces the troubles of these times, we also must recognize that there is one help for us. #Forever #GodsWord is what the Lord gave us to be prepared. Let us examine it, pursue it, and live in it.   To get the Books from the Watchman Dana G Smith go to his website http://www.DanaGlennSmith.com

Forever Gods Word is where the #believers today will find the #Eternal One. Within the pages of the book, be sure there is a ton of violent competition for what is truth in today's world. As #Christians we can glean many #prophetic #Messianic #promises and fulfillments through #ChristJesus. He is coming again, this time as #KingofKings and #LordofLords. Yet also for the #Jews we find that the Eternal deals with the nation of #Israel through time and eternity. As John the Baptist said, "prepare you the way of the LORD", in today's world we are not prepared. As the end of days faces the troubles of these times, we also must recognize that there is one help for us. #Forever #GodsWord is what the Lord gave us to be prepared. Let us examine it, pursue it, and live in it. More info Go https://linktr.ee/warnradio more info To get the Books from the Watchman Dana G Smith go to his website http://www.DanaGlennSmith.com --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wibr-visions/support

Jesus KNOWS US first.  However, this is always a SURPRISE to us.  We think that our first thoughts of Him coincide with His first thoughts of us.  Yes we are that narcissistic. Nathaniel gets this revelation today as Jesus says, "I already saw you.  I heard you under the fig tree as you were talking to me earlier in prayer." Nathaniel has this meta-moment in realization.  Perhaps he was praying that the Lord would reveal Himself, or make Himself known.  Jesus knows our warts, our smell, our words and soberingly, our HISTORY.  And yet, here He comes to engage us.  Not that we should be staying the same.  As John the Baptist charges, there will hopefully be some FRUIT in keeping with repentance and interaction of Jesus.  This may be your first day with Jesus.  It is NOT His first day with you.  Thank you for listening. Share please bewithme.us.  Sign up at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Google Podcasts or 35 other sites.  

In a continuation of our topic from last week, we conclude our series over Ephesians discussing the importance of true, Biblical submission, and the immense dangers attached to the poison of insubordinate rebels who spread their toxins among the masses, poisoning the hearts and minds of others unto discord and dissensions. And after a pointed, and firm warning about the toxic nature of insubordination, we go in depth about the need to allow the Holy Spirit to have mastery over every aspect of our lives, with no exceptions. For until we allow the Spirit utter dominion to increase His perfect, and complete work in us, it is impossible to truly put on the whole armor of God as we ought! For to increase in the armory of Heaven within our souls, we must first decrease the bondage of flesh within our hearts! As John the Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). Join us for this final message that is sure to stir your heart with a Heavenly zeal, and one that leaves nothing on the table, addressing many issues that plague the human heart in today's generation. Jesus must be preeminent, or we will never successfully stand against the schemes of the devil...

John's Gospel began with an iconic prologue in the first eighteen verses that set out the focus and character of John's collation of events from Jesus' life and ministry - they will seek to evidence the point that Jesus was the eternal, pre-existent Word of God, now in flesh to shine light in the darkness and overcome Satan, sin and death. Now John turns to his star witness in this case - John the Baptist - who will give testimony that Jesus was the Son of God, the spirit-filled servant of God and the Lamb of God who comes to be a sacrifice for sins to cleanse the sins of the world. John the Baptist is happy to understand himself as Jesus' sideman; he is here to talk about Jesus, to prepare people for Jesus and to talk up Jesus. As John the Baptist is called to the stand by John (the Gospel writer) as his star witness we will consider four themes that come out in the narrative: 1. John's Emergence 2. John's Identity 3. John's Saviour 4. John's Testimony Join us as we explore John's Gospel together and examine the Jesus that we find there - all in the hope that you may believe he is the Son of God and that in him you may have life. For more info on Grace Church: Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GraceChurchDundee Check our website: http://www.gracechurchdundee.co.uk/ Check our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIjy8T3EC1H33znTjt0I6RA Send us an email: info@gracechurchdundee.co.uk

When the night is darkest the questions come. As John the Baptist sits in his cell he begins to wonder... Are you really the one? It's a question for all of us this Advent.

As John the Baptist describes the coming Messiah, Jesus, he said He will speak the words of God and will give the Holy Spirit without measure. Jesus walked in the complete presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Before Jesus, the Holy Spirit worked in the lives of prophets, kings, and leader on a limited basis. They were led or filled with the Spirit for a specific time or for a particular purpose. When Jesus came, He received the Holy Spirit without measure, or limit.

John 7-8 Pastor Jon Alexanian Jesus has no equal – he is the source of salvation, the hope of nations, and God in the flesh Over the last few weeks as we have worked our way through John's Gospel, we have seen Jesus and others make some bold claims about him. As John the Baptist […]

Brian G. Chilton discusses the ministry of John the Baptist and the humility that the prophet possessed. As John the Baptist was humble, it behooves the modern Christian to adopt the same kind of humility. Such humility stems from a proper understanding of God and creation's relationship to his grandeur.   About the Host Brian […]

Glorious Promises in Unfamiliar Territory I'd like to commend to you that you open your Bibles to Isaiah 41. I think, especially as we move out of Isaiah 40, which is very familiar I think to any that are regularly reading the Bible and we go ahead now into Isaiah 41 and beyond that into other chapters, I guarantee we're going to go into some unfamiliar territory. And just because it's unfamiliar, doesn't mean that it's not a rich blessing. Actually in some ways it's even better that way, isn't it? We're going to be discovering some incredible things in the word of God, but I just am following section by section through the chapters. And so, it'll just mean more to you, if you're able to see it right on the page and be able to link the things I'm saying to what you're reading in the text, so I just commend that to you. Before I begin, I just want to summarize the message in a simple word right now, just a simple summary. What we're going to find in Isaiah 41 is that God who takes on the idols on a specific issue, what you just heard, read for us, he's going to take on the idols and say, He can do something that no one else can do. He is able to foretell the future. And we're going to see the reason He's able to do that is because He has decreed the future, He is the King over the universe, and He is able to predict the future not only at a smaller detailed level of Cyrus coming and destroying the Babylonian Empire, and allowing the Jews to return, but bigger than that he has decreed a savior, who for us now is in the past, but in Isaiah's day was in the future and His fulfillment of all of that points to a bright and glorious future for all of us. And so, my final application is not just to marvel that God knows the future and can predict it, and no one else can. But in verse 10, that this same God wants to comfort you in your own fears about the future, because you don't know what's around the next corner, and it's so easy to be afraid. You are wise enough and old enough to see the kinds of tragedies that suddenly befall people, even brothers and sisters in Christ, and you may be shrinking back from that and wondering, "What is my future, what's going to happen to me?" I'm going to kind of end up at Isaiah 41:10. Do not be afraid. I am with you. I have already been to the future. More than I have just been to the future, I've decreed it, and it is a good place for you. So be filled with hope and I'm going to get you there. I'm going to hold you by my righteous right hand, and I'm going to bring you straight through to a glorious end. So there it is. So now you may wonder why even do all the details? I'll tell you why, because the details are glorious, and so, I yearn to just unfold Isaiah 41 for you and we're going to have to keep a strong pace. Okay, I'm going to just take a minute now and tell you something that happens regularly at my kitchen sink, alright? You may wonder what in the world does this have to do with anything? I'm not even sure why I'm telling you this, but we have a little soap dispenser there of kitchen soap. And I regularly make the same mistake over and over, I pour too much of the liquid in there and it just pours out and gets wasted. I have a feeling that my wife may be talking to me about this, that probably never happens to you, but I just... It just pours out and I have to rake it in the sink, and it goes down the drain. Don't let that happen to you today. I'm going to be pouring out Isaiah 41 in you. Expand your capacity and let's take the whole chapter in. Let's not waste any of all that God wants to tell us. So just pick up with me and track. And now, as I begin, I want to tell you I... My initial thought on this, I go to the end of the chapter, and you've already heard beautifully in Isaiah 41 how God boasts over the idols his ability to predict the future. And he says, he's the only one that can do it. This is something that sets him apart from the idols. What Makes Christianity Unique? Now, many of us wonder, as we stand at this place in time in this pluralistic country of ours, a country that embraces and loves all kinds of diversity, some of it is good diversity that God made, some isn't. As we stand here at this juncture of time, we are again and again being asked to make a defense for Christianity from the unbelieving, the skeptical, the culture despisers of Christianity saying, "How do you know that your religion is any better, any different than anyone else's? How do you know that Christianity is the one true religion in the world? How can you tell?" We are called on by God to be the light of the world, we're called on to shine radiantly in a dark place. Peter tells us that we should always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asked us to give a reason for the hope that we have. So, my desire is to preach towards that hope. So, you're radiant and hope start there, but now I want to go beyond that and give reasons for it. I want you to be able to give a reason defense for Christianity to skeptics and atheists and other people who may ask, "What makes Christianity different?" And even more importantly, "How do you know that Jesus Christ is truly the Savior of the world, the only savior there is?" For me, personally, ultimately, it all comes down to this book, the Bible, the uniqueness of the Bible as it testifies to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, that's the difference between Christianity and every other world religion. Now, skeptics may claim other religions have sacred writings, other religions have their sacred books. For example, Buddhism has various collected sayings of Buddha called the Buddhavacana. Hinduism has the Vedas and the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita, and different holy writings. Of course, Islam has the Quran. Shintoism has the Kojiki. Scientology even has a book Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. Mormonism of course, has the Book of Mormon, so how do we know that Christianity is different? How can we know the Bible is unique in this crowded field of spiritual writings, holy books revered by millions of people around the world? Now, there are many answers to this as I've already said, the greatest answer is the way the Bible testifies to Jesus Christ and Jesus of the Bible is utterly unique and could not have been concocted by human ingenuity. The person and work of Jesus Christ claiming to be God incarnate, sinless, claiming to be sinless, teaching in ways that no one had ever taught before or has taught since, doing astonishing signs and wonders and miracles, raising the dead, cleansing those that had leprosy, speaking to the wind and the waves and it obeyed Him. And then of course, the greatest miracle of all, His own resurrection from the dead on the third day. Focused, especially on Christ, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection witnessed by over 500 people. But along with this, is the Bible's testimony to Christ, especially in the issue of prophecy, things that were written about Jesus and about the world long before they happened. The Bible contains dozens of prophets who speak with amazing clarity about future events. One scholar has counted, listen to this, over 2000 prophecies in the Bible covering every nation within 1000 miles of Jerusalem. In Isaiah alone, there are dozens of very specific prophecies about the nations of His day, Israel, Judah, Egypt, the Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, etcetera, specific prophecies, about the nations of his day, and what was going on in that time. But not only Isaiah, Jeremiah, specifically predicted the fall of Babylon, exactly when it would happen, and exactly how it would happen, by the diversion of a river enabling soldiers to crawl under a wall and then slay those who were drunk in their sleep and then open the doors, the gates of Babylon so the city could be destroyed, that specific 70 years before it happened. The Book of Daniel very specifically predicts the coming of Alexander the Great, the king of Greece, who with astonishing speed destroys the Persian Empire, and reaches a height of power scarcely to be imagined, but at the height of his power, cut off, his kingdom divided and broken into four sections, exactly what happened to Alexander the Great. The Book of Ezekiel describes the destruction of the City of Tyre, a prosperous port city by a series of conquests, one after the other, including Alexander the Great, centuries before any of it happened. And even more amazingly that the city of Tyre would never be rebuilt, though, it was just perfectly situated as a port city. But the most overwhelming body of prophecy in the Bible focuses on the person and work of Christ, that same scholar accounted over 500 specific prophecies focused on Jesus. And I believe all of it ultimately points to Christ, ultimately. God isn't ultimately wanting us to be amazed that Cyrus the Great was predicted a century and a half before he was even born and just be amazed that Cyrus had some kind of a kingdom at some point, that's all gone, it's dust. Nobody even... Barely even knows him. And the Medo-Persian Empire is gone. Was that the whole point? No, that was not the whole point. Rather that Jesus Christ is the savior of the world, and his kingdom will never pass away. That's the whole point that we're moving towards. Now, by contrast, I went with the kind of confidence that comes from a Bible believer, reading the themes of Isaiah 41 and later in this section of Isaiah, clearly God saying, He's the only one that can predict the future and make it come to pass. I went with great confidence to Google and searched phrases like Islamic prophecies and had a wonderful time. My very biased conclusion is, there are none. Now, you can read. There's one website where they talk about how in the Quran, the use of fingerprints and fighting crime is predicted, then you go to the Quran and read it, just have a good time with it, because there just aren't any Islamic prophecies. There were some immediate oracles about some of the nations that surrounded during Muhammad's time. Go ahead and read and come to your own conclusion. Buddhism and Hinduism doesn't even try. It's kind of like floating above all of the earthly events and just up there in enlightenment-ville. And so, they're not trying to make predictions about the nations, it's just not what they do. There are a few of them that talk about general sinfulness of the human race, but it just is not compelling at all. Any prophecies there are in some of the cults are borrowed, I think, from the Bible. And so ultimately, there just aren't any fulfilled prophecy, and we shouldn't be surprised, because God's the only one that can do this. So let's dig in and look. I. The Lord Challenges Idols... and Defeats Them! And in this chapter what we're going to see is that God specifically is challenging idols and defeating them. In Isaiah 40, we've already seen the awesome God of Isaiah 40, now He's moving out in Isaiah 41, to comfort and strengthen and save His people. That's what's happening as we move from Isaiah 40 to 41. Isaiah 40, what a great chapter, how from the beginning, God comforts His people with the message that their sins are forgiven by an ample atonement, ultimately in Christ. The same God who moves out over a desert road and levels the mountains and raises the valleys and no obstacle can stop Him. The God who reveals His glory to all mankind and the entire human race will be able to see the glory of the Lord. The God who declares that all humanity is flesh and all their glories, like the flowers in the field and the grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever. This is the God who proclaims a message of good news to Zion and to the ends of the Earth. And the center piece of that good news is, behold your God. The astonishing range of this God who tends His people like a gentle shepherd with His lambs. But at the same time, holds the waters of the Earth in His cupped hand, and with the breadth of His hand marks off the heavens. The God who says of the nations, they are a drop from the bucket and dust on the scales. The God who sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth, and all of its people are like grasshoppers, this God rules over all of human history, He is sovereign over the nations. Now why does God take on idols and idolatry which He clearly does in this chapter? You look at verse 7, and it talks there about the idol maker, who is smoothing gold with his hammer and nailing it down, so it won't topple. He's dealing with idolatry and idols here. Well, it's because of idolatry that the exile to Babylon, which hasn't even come yet is going to come. And so, God is challenging the idolatry of His people. But let's go above the immediate circumstances, because every single human being struggles with a choice between worshipping idols or worshipping the true and living God. So we struggle with idols every bit as much as they did. And so God is challenging the idols of our hearts in every generation. Now, Israel's punishment would be exile to Babylon, God's remedy then is to challenge the idols, take them on, fight them. He wants to control history and use his sovereign control of history to orchestrate a salvation for His people. So God takes on the idols. And we're going to see this again and again in these 10 chapters, Isaiah 40 to 49, God is going to take on the idols, he's going to challenge them. And we see in this the jealousy of God. God is jealous over our hearts, he's jealous like a husband over the affections of his wife. The church is called the bride of Christ. Israel was portrayed in similar language as the wife of Yahweh. And so, he is jealous. He even says His name is jealous. He says in the 10 Commandments, "Do not make any idols, for I the Lord, your God, am a jealous God." The Psalmist said, they made idols and so provoked God to jealousy by what their hands have made. So God is jealous and He's going after our heart affections and He's challenging His rivals, He's taking on His rivals, see what they can do. And He's going to defeat them. And so, the battle ground he chooses here. [chuckle] So let's do this, bring in your idols and let's see if you can foretell the future, and that's going to be the challenge. Let's see if you can do that. So ultimately He's going to win. And so, God is challenging the issue of the foretelling of the future. Now, in order to understand that, we have to understand what we know already basic facts of nature of the physics of the world we live in. And the linear progression of time, the sequencing of events is basic to the world we live in. Look at verse 4, it says, "Who has done this and carried it through calling forth the generations from the beginning." I mean, that should recall even the very beginning of the Bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. So there's a beginning, that means there's a beginning, a middle, and an end. There's a linear view of history being taught in the Bible, not the big circular thing with karma and all that being taught by Eastern religions. But there's a linear view beginning, middle, end. It's Biblical, a linear view of history. First this, then that, then the other. A then B, then C, then D. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end, there's a linear sequencing here. One, two, three, four. You see it in Genesis 1. There was evening and there was morning, the first day. There was evening and morning, the second day. There's a sequencing here and the thing builds on it, you can't have beasts and people made of the dust of the Earth if there is no dust or Earth yet. And so, first you have to have Earth with dust and then you can have beasts and people made from it. So there's a sequencing here and it makes sense to us. So it is in redemptive history. First, you have the promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky when he was just a solitary man at that point. That must precede the Exodus, don't you see that? It must precede his numerous descendants being rescued out of Egypt. And so, the sequencing of those things they must become slaves in Egypt before the Exodus can happen. There's a sequencing in redemptive history. God has ordered all the details of human history before He created the universe, the Bible tells us that God had, and let's use a very human expression, figured all this out before the world began. Now, don't go there, because God doesn't figure anything out, He knows. It's not like God ever said, "Aha, I got it." That means a moment before that, He didn't get it yet. So God doesn't figure anything out. I'm just saying, He knew everything about history before the world began. But more than that, the Bible teaches He decrees that history, He decrees it, like a sovereign king, He chooses that history. Then beyond that he sends forth special individuals, prophets, who declare certain details of that history... Is it still there? No, it fell. Sorry about that. I don't move around much. Should I? Is this better? Over here? No, I'm not doing that. God then declares certain details of that redemptive history that he had predicted in the Prophets. He declares it before it comes to pass, then he executes His plan down to the tiniest detail to achieve His final ends. And the centerpiece of all of this, is the saving work of God in Christ for sinners like you and me. That's what He's doing. And so, we are looking today at the astonishing power of predictive prophecy. No created being really knows the future. None of us. No human being and no angel or demon. No one. Why is that? Because God decides what finally is going to happen? Think about what it says in Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails." You make all your plans, all the plans you want, but if God says no, that's it. So a king may say, "I'm going to invade my neighboring countries." If God says, "No, you won't." He doesn't. Read about it in Isaiah 7, when one king decided they're going to come into Judah and topple the Davidic King and God said, "No, you won't, it will not take place." And so, it didn't take place. Satan may say, "I'm going to ascend to Assyria and Assyria is going to wipe out Jerusalem," and God says, "No, you won't." And so, Satan doesn't know the future, he's got to wait on God to find out what He'll permit, because God is the sovereign King. So the ability the prophets have to declare the future shows that they're speaking for Almighty God. We should not imagine therefore that God is just a good guesser or a very astute student of the human heart. None of the above. God's not a good guesser, God doesn't do any guessing. God decrees and makes it happen. It's the ultimate, as I've said, self-fulfilling prophecy. He makes the prophecy and then He fulfills it. And His ability to do this sets Him apart from all the Gods of the nations. In this chapter therefore, in several places in the series of chapters, we're going to see this again and again, God highlights his ability to predict the future events. Look at Verses 26-27. "Who told of this from the beginning, so we could know or beforehand, so we could say he was right? No one told of this. No one foretold it, no one heard any words from you [Speaking to the idols]. I was the first to tell Zion, look, here they are. I gave to Jerusalem a messenger of good tidings." And along with that He exposed the idols for the false Gods they are. Look at verse 24, speaking to the idols again. "You are less than nothing, and your works are utterly worthless. He who chooses you is detestable." In Verse 29, "Behold, they are all false. Their deeds amount to nothing, their images are but wind and confusion." Now, the specific focus here, the immediate focus of this prediction is the rise of Cyrus the Great, one from the east, we're going to see in verse 2, one from the east. He's not mentioned here, there's lots of debates about this one from the east. But by the time we get to Isaiah 44-45, he's mentioned by name Cyrus. In those chapters, Isaiah 44-45 are clear, and so therefore, I think it's reasonable to see the actions of this same Cyrus here, why is he important? Because Cyrus is the one who's going to destroy Babylon and allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. But that's just the detail. Big picture is, God can do this all the time, this is what God does. And so, as I said, I'm bringing you ultimately to verse 10, saying, "Do not be afraid of the future for God is with you. He's already seen the future, he's already decreed the future, he knows that for you in Christ it's bright." And he wants to encourage you about that. So this is just evidence of the stunning uniqueness of Christianity, the uniqueness of the Bible, this issue of predictive prophecy. No other religion has it. So when you're on the college campus, when you're in the workplace, when you're talking to unsaved relatives and they say kind of, this kind of thing to you, "How do you know that Christianity, your religion is different than any other religion in the world?" Now you have an answer. You've already had it before, perhaps, but focus on this. Fulfilled prophecy specifically, as it points to Christ, that's the difference. That's why... How we know that Christianity is different than any other religion there is in the world, this is something they cannot do. II. The Lord Stirs Up a Conqueror to Do His Bidding (vs. 1-7) Now, let's look at the chapter section by section, first verses 1-7. The Lord stirs up a conqueror to do his bidding. In verses 1-7, he begins by giving a summons to all the Earth. Verse 1, "Be silent before me you islands. Let the nations renew their strength, let them come forward and speak, let us meet together at the place of judgment." Well, you heard Ira say this so beautifully. "The God of the Bible is not just the God of the west, he's the God of the whole world." Wasn't that beautiful when you heard that? I was so blessed by that. This is the God of all the Earth, even the distant coast lands, or the distant islands, and he has the authority, the power to summon them to a place of judgment. So here it's metaphorical, for, let's bring them together and let's have a debate, a discussion on me versus the idols. But it's foretaste of the real assembling of the nations that's going to happen at the end of the world, what the Bible calls Judgment Day. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only God there is, and He's the God of all the Earth, and He is going to summon all nations, and they will all be gathered before Jesus and Jesus, the judge of all the Earth will separate the people into two categories, the sheep and the goats, believers and unbelievers, the righteous and the wicked. This is coming. And at that time, on that day, we'll have to give an account to God, the judge for every careless word we have spoken, Judgment Day is coming. So, verse 1 is a foretaste of the time when the judge of all the Earth will assemble all the nations, and they will have to give an account to Him, so He brings them together. God’s Claim: He Orchestrates Human History Now God makes a claim in verses 2-4 that He orchestrates history, He rules it, he runs it. It's not random, it's not an accident. Things are going according to God's plan. Look at verses 2-4, "Who has stirred up one from the East? Calling Him in righteousness to his service, he hands nations over to Him and subdues kings before him. He turns them to dust with his sword to wind blown chaff with his bow. He pursues them and moves on unscathed by a path his feet have not traveled before. Who has done this, and carried it through calling forth the generations from the beginning? I the Lord with the first of them and with the last." That's a huge statement. I am He. God is the God of every generation. This Isaiah prophecy is a prophecy for every generation. God will be with every generation right to the end of time, with every one of them. But more specifically, He's with every massive powerful conqueror who builds an empire on Earth. He's with the first of them, and He's with the last. He's the one that does it. This one from the East as I say I think is Cyrus, he's coming from the east and God says, who stirred him up to do it? The implication is that God did that. God stirred up Cyrus and moved him out. Well, how did you do that? Well, God controls human history by controlling human minds and hearts. He has the power to do that. God actually has the right to invade your mind and do what He wills with. It doesn't make us robots, that's way too simplistic. What it means is that God controls people's hearts and the king's heart is like a water coursing, the hands of the Lord, he directs it whichever way he pleases. God can do that. Well, He doesn't just direct kings' hearts, he also directs common people's hearts and all that. So how does an individual become king in his tribe among his nation? How does he rise up above his brothers, the competing princes? How does one of them get identified as the leader of his own nation first? That's long before anybody ever heard of Cyrus. But the Meads and Persians identified him and began to follow him. Why? More intelligence, better leadership qualities, certain breaks along the way, it's God that orchestrates all of these things. Who did this? Who raised him up and called him in righteousness to his service. Now, it's interesting that individual in most cases, doesn't even acknowledge the God who's doing all these things, doesn't even know that He exists, but God's doing it. There's not a square inch in God's world that He's not ruling over actively. He doesn't... He's not an absentee ruler and so, He's doing this on nations all over the Earth, all the time. And he raises them up. And He does it in righteousness. You see, the man's motives may be thoroughly wicked and corrupt and God will judge him for those motives. But God's motives are righteous. He knows what he's doing in redemptive history, and he's raising up guys, like Cyrus and giving them kingdoms for his own purposes. He is one from the east, and he's given a gift of military conquest. By his sword and his bow, he turns his enemies into dust. But he himself moves on unscathed it says. He's not touched, he's not wounded, he's certainly not killed. Great leaders frequently expose themselves to great danger on the battlefield. They do so with an arrogant sense of their own immortality, or invincibility, for that attitude God will judge them. But it happens time and time again, these great military leaders just seem to be completely fearless. You see this again and again, if you know anything about military history. Alexander The Great did this, he jumped over a wall into a fortress alone and fought by himself, because he was disgusted by his own soldiers who weren't following his lead. He was ready to die at that moment. Shamed, his other soldiers followed and saved his life. He was severely wounded. But he never died from battlefield wounds. At one battle George Washington's coat was filled riddled with bullet holes, but he wouldn't come off the battle, battlefield. Douglas MacArthur landed, and there were just still snipers, it was still dangerous and there were bullets around his feet kicking up sand. Now, it could be argued if they get knocked off we'd never hear about him. True, good point. They die early in their military career, we never hear about them. They don't make it into the Encyclopedia Britannica. But they... This, it clearly says, Cyrus moves on unscathed by a path his feet have not traveled before. He came from the east and went over and conquered Lydia and its wealthy king Croesus got all his gold and then moved from the north down to conquer Babylon. So both of these things are fulfilled in verse 25, both directions. Look at verse 25. "I have raised up one from the north, and he comes, a one from the east who invokes my name." Which is it? Is he from the north or from the east? From both. He originally came from the east, he moves across conquers Lydia and then comes down from the north to conquer Babylon. But in all of this God's activity is highlighted. Who did this? It's God who does this. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He is the one who stirs up and give them victory. God hands nations over to him. The fear of the nations is there in verse 5, "The islands have seen it in fear, the ends of the Earth tremble." And they turn to their idols for courage. Verse 5-7, "They approach and come forward, each helps the other and says to his brother, 'Be strong.' The craftsman encourages the goldsmith, and he who smooths with his hammer spurs on him who strikes the anvil. He says of the welding, 'It is good.' He nails down the idol, so it won't topple. Good thing, don't want your idols to topple. I mean, the God of the Bible doesn't grow weary. He has infinite power, he doesn't need to be nailed down so he won't topple. And so, God's clearly mocking these idols here. So, oh, Israel, oh my people, do you not see how foolish and worthless idols are? Worship the true God of the Bible. III. The Lord Defeats Israel’s Enemies (vs. 8-16) Next section, in verses 8-16, we see the Lord defeating Israel's enemies, there's a clear contrast between the pagan idolatrous nations who turn to their idols for strength and help, and Israel, who is descended from Abraham, God's friend. Look at verses 8-16. Start at verse 8-9, "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham, my friend, I took you from the ends of the Earth, from its farthest corners I called you, I said, 'You are my servant'; I have chosen you, and have not rejected you." God's unconditional election of Israel sets them apart from the other pagan nations of the world. Sets them apart. So they're turning to their idols for help, Israel turns to the true and living God for assistance. Isn't it beautiful in verse 8. He calls them the Jews. You descendants of Abraham, my friend. Isn't that amazing? The God of the Bible, the God who measures the Cosmos with the span of His hand, calls Abraham who's he, flesh and blood calls him His friend. He says, concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?" He involves Abraham in what He's doing. He draws him into an intercessory relationship. He draws him into a loving relationship. This is fulfilled for us in Christ, isn't it? Doesn't that say in John 15, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have call you friends, for everything I learned from the Father, I have made known to you." We were created to be an intimate relationship with the Eternal God of the universe. He in Christ calls you and I, His friends. Actually though in the resurrection, after the Resurrection, Jesus goes even beyond that. He says them to go and tell the brothers that he is going to go ahead of them in Galilee and there they will see him. Calls them brothers, so we are his brothers and sisters, we are members of his family, adopted sons and daughters of the living God. How beautiful is that? And so, the application in verse 10 is plain. Do not fear, in the verse 10. "So do not fear for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God, I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." How easy it would be for Israel in exile to think that God has forsaken them? How easy it would be? But he said, "Do not be afraid for I am with you, and I will strengthen you and I will uphold you by my righteous right hand." Jesus has put it plainly in this way, "I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you." And so, whatever God has planned for you and it might involve great pain, you know that, don't you? God uses pain to sanctify us, but whatever he wants to bring you through he's going to hold you by His righteous right hand, and never leave you or forsake you. And so, God has made this commitment to crush Israel's enemies by transforming Israel from the core of their being. God’s Commitment: To Crush Israel’s Enemies by Transforming Israel Look at verses 11-16, "All who rage against you, [speaking about Israel] will surely be ashamed and disgraced. Those who oppose you, will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who war against you will be as nothing at all for I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, do not fear, I will help you." Verse 14, "Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob, oh little Israel, for I myself will help you declares the Lord your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." Verse 15, "Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp with many teeth, and you will thresh the mountains and crush them and reduce the hills to chaff. You will winnow them and the wind will pick them up and the gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the Lord in glory, in the Holy One of Israel." So here, God takes on Israel's enemies. So I'm going to crush your enemies. I'm going to take on your enemies and I'm going to defeat them and there will come a time oh Israel that you will search for your enemies and you won't be able to find any of them. There will be none. They'll all be gone, that's what He says in these verses. Well, if you look at the history of the Jewish people from the time of the Babylonian invasion, until this very day, has been what Jesus called the times of the Gentiles. They've been under Gentile domination and even in the promised land, up to this present time. So these words have not been fulfilled, there's really no stretch of time in which Israel could say, "You will look... They looked for their enemies, they couldn't find any of them, they're all gone." That has not happened to this present day. So what is it talking about? Dear friends, I believe this is immediately talking about the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and His resurrection, and beyond that, the coming new heaven and new Earth, and the kingdom of God in which we will look for enemies, and not find any. And the gates of the new Jerusalem will stand open forever, because there's no threat. And all of the wicked that would not love God or serve him or believe in Christ will be removed separated like chaff from the wheat. And so the image here is of Israel being made into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, what is that? I have no idea. So I looked it up. Threshing sledge is used for threshing. What's that? Threshing is the separation of the wheat that you can use from the chaff that you can't use. And so, the sledge is this heavy thing with like, metal discs or something that's dragged across the wheat and pulverizes it, and then it can be threshed and separated. So Israel becomes in human history the separator, the separator of wheat from chaff. How does that work? Well, what Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, salvation is from who? The Jews. And in Christ comes the fork in the road for the human race. And in Christ alone comes the separation from wheat to chaff. As John the Baptist said, he will clear his threshing floor, gathering up the wheat into his barn but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Israel, though warm, though small, though weak will become the issue for the world, ultimately in the person of Christ. That's the best I can make out, of verses 11-16. If you have a different theory, let me know, but I think it harmonize with what's actually happening in Israel's history. But look forward to the day, think about this, the day when you, as a Christian will look around, in the new Earth, you'll walk around and you will not be able to find any enemies at all. They'll all be gone. No satanic enemies or demonic enemies, no human enemies, they'll all be gone. You will search for them, but you will not find them, that's coming in Christ. IV. The Lord Transforms Nature and Refreshes His People (vs. 17-20) And so in verses 17-20, The Lord will transform nature and refresh his people. "The poor and needy search for water, but there is none. Their tongues are parched with thirst, but I, the Lord will answer them, I, the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water and the parts ground into springs. I'll put in the desert, the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland. The fir and the Cypress together, so that my people may see and know, may consider and understand that the hand of the Lord has done this, the Holy One of Israel has created it." Well, let me summarize the image here. The image here is of desert conditions in which there's nothing growing, desert conditions, there's no water suddenly transformed by a flow of heavenly water that changes everything into a lush garden of Eden. That's what those words are talking about. So what is the desert? Well, I think it's both physical and spiritual. By the way, do you notice how often I do that again and again? It's both physical and spiritual, it's both physical and spiritual. I say that again and again with Isaiah. There is an immediate fulfillment that has to do with Israel in space and time, and then there's a spiritual fulfillment in Christ that has to do with the gospel. I think that's the only Christian interpretation you can do for these Old Testament prophecies. There is an immediate fulfillment. Israel, when Joshua entered with the Jews and they took over, was described in this way, a land flowing with what? Milk and honey. Joshua was told, Moses was told, "You know, the promised land is not like Egypt where you had to irrigate with a foot pump." Frankly, Egypt was known as a pretty lush bountiful place, it was constantly cranking out bread for Rome and other places. But you still had to irrigate. He said, "No, no, it's better than that. It drinks in the rain year round, it's lush, it's a land flowing with milk and honey." Yeah, but by the time the idolatrous Jews got done with it, it was like a desert. And God said, He would do this before they even entered. He said, "If you go in there and if you get dragged into the sins of the surrounding nations and you start worshipping Baal and Molech and all these other false gods, I'll tell you what I'm going to do." Deuteronomy 28:23 and 24, "The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you will turn to iron, the Lord will turn the reign of your country into dust and powder, it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed." If you look at a satellite photo of Palestine now, it doesn't look like a land flowing with milk and honey to me, I think it's under judgment. Isn't this the very thing that happened at the Garden of Eden? Don't you remember, when Adam ate the fruit and God judged him? He said cursed is what? The ground, because of you. And so, this whole Earth lies under a curse, this whole created order lies under a curse. Israel itself was turned into a desert physically. So what is God going to do? He's going to rain down water on it. Physical water? Sure. But I think of a better water than that. If you look at Isaiah 44:3, you can turn there or just listen. There he clearly links the pouring out of water as the giving of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 44:3, he says, "For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground, I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants." That's that Hebrew parallelism, pour out water on the dry land, I'll pour out Spirit on you. And so, yes, I believe that God, that this Earth after it's done with all its fiery judgments will be so resurrected and transformed, it will be lush, better than the garden of Eden. But even better, we will be transformed because we, in our sin, we are like in the desert. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever felt that way? Things so dry for me spiritually. I feel so distant from God. I feel like I'm walking through the Sahara. And so David puts it in this way, in Psalm 63:1, he says, "O God, you are my God, earnestly, I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water." He is parched spiritually. The answer is redemption through faith in Christ, and the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And He's going to pour out rain and refresh you. And he's going to give you foretaste of heaven. He is the deposit guaranteeing your future inheritance, your fellowship with God. And you can drink in the Spirit any time. That's what's going on in 17-20. And so Garden of Eden language means that paradise will be restored. Look at 19 and 20, "I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the LORD has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it." And so, God will bring about a new heaven and a new Earth. V. The Lord Alone Determines and Declares the Future (vs. 21-29) Now, verses 21-29, we covered at the beginning. God alone determines and declares the future and we would add a third word, performs it. He does it, he determines it, decrees it as a sovereign King, and then he declares some of it through the prophets, not all, but just enough to know he's on the job and he knows what's happening and then he performs all of it. So verses 21-24, "'Present your case,' says the LORD. 'Set forth your arguments,' says Jacob's King. 'Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were, so that we may consider them and know their final outcome. Or declare to us the things to come, tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear. But you are less than nothing and your works are utterly worthless; he who chooses you is detestable.'" Well, we've covered this. Baal, Molech, Osiris, Isis, Iris, Isis, Jupiter, Zeus, Thor, all of these false gods don't exist, they are storefronts for demons. All of them. The idols are storefronts for demons, the demons do exist. And so, demons are god and goddess impersonators. 1 Corinthians 10:20 says the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. But you know what, demons are just fallen angels and you know what, angels don't know the future. It says in 1 Peter, even angels long to look into these things, they're wondering what's happened. The good angels are celebrating when new things happen, like when Jesus was born, like, "Whoa, that's awesome." They're celebrating and they're wanting to know what's coming next. In the Book of Daniel Chapter 12. They're saying, "Okay, what's good? What's the outcome? What's happening?" They don't know. Only God knows and those who listen to what God says. Now, both past and future are inexplicable apart from God. The idols can't even tell us what the past things were. It's really hard to know the past. Any historian knows how hard it is to find out what really happened. Any trial attorney knows or judges know how hard it is to get the history of what actually happened. But even more than that, so what? All this stuff happened, what did it add up to? Tell us what the former things are so that we can figure out their final outcome. You can't do that. So, all of history lies under God to interpret for us. That's what these verses are saying, and we can't interpret it apart from the finished work of Christ on the cross. And so, God is acting in history to bring about His purposes, including raising up this conqueror, Cyrus the Great to come from the east and the north to destroy Babylon, verse 25. And God is the only one to foretell these events because he's the only one who ordained them and would bring them to pass, verses 26-28. No one else told it, no one foretold it, God alone predicted the future and made it happen. Why did he do this? So that we would believe in Him. Same thing as the miracles of Jesus, He did it so we would believe in Him. Jesus said it plainly in John 14-29, "I've told you this now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am He." That's why predictive prophecy was given so that we would believe in God. VI. Applications So what application? First and foremost, come to Christ, that's the point of all of this. All prophecy leads to Jesus, not to Cyrus the Great. Friends, Cyrus the Great is dead. And it's really, really hard to find his mausoleum burial place. His empire is gone, it's been superseded by the Greeks, which have been superseded by the Romans. I don't need to continue. They're all gone, they're all dust in the wind. But Jesus is risen from the dead and lives forever. He came for sinners like you and me, trust in Him. But guarantee there's someone listening to me here in this vast assembly that is a non-Christian, that came in here, unforgiven under the wrath of God. I plead with you, trust in Christ. You don't need to do any good works. You just need to repent and believe and trust that Jesus is your savior and that God raised him from the dead. Secondly, dear Christian brothers and sisters, stand in awe at a God who controls history like that, who makes prophecies and fulfills. Just stand in awe of Him, worship Him, and stand in awe at His ability to predict the future. And proclaim it to skeptics. Go look for someone this week that says, "What's the difference between Christianity and all the other religions?" Say, "Fulfilled prophecy." There you go, just right away, just say, "Fulfilled prophecy," especially the prophecies of Christ. And just start with your own skeptical heart. Let's just start there, okay? If you're ever tempted to doubt, is it really true? Go to this? The Word of God is a miracle, fulfilled prophecy points to it. And then ultimately, if I could say, "Do not fear for God is with you." Look again at verse 10, I'd urge you to memorize it. If you're only memorizing individual verses, memorize the whole chapter, although after this sermon you're like, "No, I don't think so." 29 verses, it's a long chapter. So, just do verse 10, "Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." You don't know what the future holds, you don't know what's coming. It might be what you think is more than you can bear. God knows what you can bear. He's been ahead of you already, he knows the future and he is telling you in effect, you could picture him going out to the future and coming back from it and saying your future in Christ is infinitely bright. So do not be afraid of what's coming. You may hurt. You may weep. You may go through trials, but I have measured all of those trials and I've captured all of your tears in my bottle. Everything will tend toward your final salvation. Do not be afraid, I am with you. Close with me in prayer.

Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O'Connell Today's guest(s): Sr. Olga Yaqob and Susan Horne Today's topics: Mary, A Woman of Advent Summary of today's show: For the Mother of Christ, Advent was not a time of Christmas shopping and baking, but the difficult last month of pregnancy made more difficult by a donkey-back ride through hard lands to a strange town to give birth in a stable to the Son of God. How can Mary's experience of Advent enrich our own experience now? Scot Landry and Fr. Mark O'Connell are joined by Sr. Olga Yaqob and Susan Horne to consider Mary as the Woman of Advent in joyful expectation and anticipation with “immensity cloistered in thy dear womb”, as the poet John Donne said. 1st segment: Fr. Mark talked about his experience of the new translation of the Mass. He said it takes him back to when he was first ordained when he had to very carefully read every word and pay attention to pages. He said it also surprised him the first time he heard “And with your spirit”. He doesn't feel that he's praying the Mass yet. He's achieving validity, but it will take some time to get comfortable enough to enter into deep prayer. 2nd segment: Scot and Fr. Mark welcomed back Sr. Olga and Susan Horne. Sr. Olga said the Holy Family and Nazareth in Christmas are close to her heart as one of the new community of women, the Daughters of Mary of Nazareth. Susan is a director of religious education at St. Joseph, Needham. She's also a student in the Masters of Arts in Ministry program at the Theological Institute for the New Evangelization and a student of Fr. Mark. Susan is new in her job as DRE and Scot asked her what it's like to be DRE at one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese. She's surprised by the variety of tasks she has to do and the variety of people she encounters and has gotten to know in the parish. These are about 900 students in religious education students in the parish. Scot said Sr. Olga has a special devotion to the Blessed Mother and St. Joseph. Her new community os Daughters of Mary of Nazareth and her new convent is St. Joseph's Convent. It was her idea to enter into the season of Advent by examining it through Mary's eyes and later this month, through St. Joseph's eyes. Sr. Olga said we have seen Christmas as a season of joy and celebration, even a season of adoration, like the Magi coming to adore the Christ Child. We get a glimpse of what Mary and Joseph truly lived in their experience. As a woman, knowing many women who have had babies, she wonders how Mary lived those last few weeks before giving birth to the Son of God, praying and anticipating and thinking of her son as the hope of her people, Israel. She felt a sense of responsibility. Sr. Olga said there is so much too learn from her in these last weeks of Advent. Susan said in pregnancy, in the last month, you begin nesting, preparing the home and the nursery. Susan thinks of Mary having to leave the nest and go someplace foreign to her to have the baby. Scot said each of his three children came after their due date like 705 of firstborns. In that time after the due date, there is the expectant hope for the child. “Come on already.” At the same time, the Israelites waited a thousand years for their Messiah, like expectant parents themselves. Sr. Olga said with her own mother, she learned from her how to receive Communion with the motherly desire waiting to hold her child. With a young woman she was with who gave birth, as soon as the baby was born, the woman wanted to hold the baby and just to touch his skin. When she goes to Communion, she longs to touch Christ and to receive him. Mary helps her to remain in Communion with Christ. She asks Mary to help her receive Jesus through Mary's Immaculate Heart. Fr. Mark recalled a quote from John Donne: : Nativity Immensity cloistered in thy dear womb, Now leaves His well-belov'd imprisonment, There He hath made Himself to His intent Weak enough, now into the world to come; But O, for thee, for Him, hath the inn no room? Yet lay Him in this stall, and from the Orient, Stars and wise men will travel to prevent The effect of Herod's jealous general doom. Seest thou, my soul, with thy faith's eyes, how He Which fills all place, yet none holds Him, doth lie? Was not His pity towards thee wondrous high, That would have need to be pitied by thee? Kiss Him, and with Him into Egypt go, With His kind mother, who partakes thy woe. Susan thought of expectant wonder. What will this baby bring? As the baby grows within, the mother wonders, what will this person become like? Fr. Mark always enjoys the first Sunday after First Communion to see how the children continue to receive Christ with such wonder and reverence. 3rd segment: Fr. Mark began the segment by reading the John Donne poem. He loves the first line, but the last line gives him pause to think of how it must have hurt her to know Herod pursued her son and how other children were dying by Herod's hand. Sr. Olga said what was the feeling of Mary that right after the experience of the Annunciatiomn, the angel departed from her and never appeared to her again. Instead the angel only appeared to Joseph, telling him to marry Mary, to take her and Jesus to Egypt, then to come back to Israel. She said Mary never questioned Joseph, to ask why the angel only appeared to him. She was obedient. then think of her traveling nine months pregnant through a desert to Bethlehem. She suffered and continued to suffer through Christ's passion. Scot said the preparations for your first child are out of control. He went to the hospital a month before the birth and meet all the possible doctors who will be on call, you practice the route, you pack the go bag, you know the phone tree you will call. But here's the Blessed Mother who doesn't know where she will give birth.She and Joseph were just looking for a place to lay down after a long journey. Susan said we don't often think of the day to day elements of Mary's journeys that help women live their lives as Christian women even better. Meditating on Mary's life helps her to deal with difficult situations. As a mother, the last thing you want is for your child to be endangered or suffering. She would take the place of her child on the cross. So Mary must have held this pain inside her, knowing this was God's plan for her family. Fr. Mark told a story of a parish's Christmas pageant. One boy wanted to be Joseph, but was made innkeeper #2 instead and that made him upset. So when Mary and Joseph came to him, he said, “Sure we have room, come on in.” Connecting to the idea of having no place to give birth while carrying the Son of God, that must have been awful for Mary and Joseph. Scot said Advent helps us to prepare for Christ's coming in our lives and to prepare for His Second Coming, buy it also teaches us how to deal with waiting for something in our lives. 4th segment: Scot asked Sr. Olga how we can become a living Nativity. She said that we need to be that “inn” for Mary and Jesus. We see people around us who need help, a smile, a word of encouragement, or other simple things. Those little gestures are like making an inn for Jesus, making room for Mary. She is present in every person and we are called to see him in one another. You don't need to study theology or be a leader in the Church. We are all called to be that living Nativity in the world in those daily simple acts of kindness and charity and sincere love. There are further actions we can do: There are people who cannot afford to celebrate Christmas, or a father or mother are serving overseas, or a parent is in the hospital and can't do Christmas shopping. We can become that living Nativity to people around us. Sr. Olga said a lot of it is being that living example. susan said one thing that helps her is trying to see another person or situation the way God sees it because we don't know what's in the heart of someone. It's easy to judge. We need to see and hear with the eyes and ears of God. Scot said Archbishop Timothy Dolan wrote a book of Advent reflections, . Scot read a passage from the book, relating people in waiting in anticipation of a difficult situation, that this is Advent for them. Sr. Olga said the book has helped her to pray with Mary and live her ministry through Mary in the service to the people around her. He rexample is in her docile willingness, her belief, and her faith. It's amazing she went through that. From the moment of the Annunciation to the first miracle of Cana was almost 30 years and almost her whole life was Advent, waiting for the Messiah to come into His own. Susan said in the midst of all the stress and work of preparing for Christmas we should recall the Blessed Mother's example in turning over all her stress and worries to God. We can offer up those tasks, the extra things were doing above and beyond normal life, to God as an Advent sacrifice. Scot said he often prays for the gift of patience. It's so easy to grow impatient and how we respond to it is through God's grace. Sr. Olga said she learned from Mary that patience is the fruit of trust in God. If I trust in God, I will remember that God gave his only begotten Son to us, When we worry, we have to remember to trust in his plan that what is meant for you will come to you. Do we think that the one who gave us his only begotten Son will hold anything back from us? 5th segment: Now as we do every week at this time, we will consider the Mass readings for this Sunday, specifically the Gospel reading. Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken. Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! Fear not to cry out and say to the cities of Judah: Here is your God! Here comes with power the Lord GOD, who rules by his strong arm; here is his reward with him, his recompense before him. Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way. A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.” John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. People of the whole Judean countryside and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. John was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He fed on locusts and wild honey. And this is what he proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Scot said so much of the spiritual is being “all in” for God and here John the Baptist is all in for God. You couldn't help but notice the messenger sent ahead of his Son. Sr. Olga said what she likes about St. John here is knowing his mission in preparing the way. Often in ministry, we can say, it's my mission, but John knows he's just here to lead others to Jesus. He's full of fiery zeal, but also profound humility. Susan said he also does it with great joy, right from the moment in Elizabeth's womb when he leaped at hearing Mary's greeting. Fr. Mark talked about the two aspects of God in the image of his arm. It's a strong arm, but it also holds the lamb. St. John is a bit crazy, but he's incredibly strong and bold. He's completely committed. He hasn't forgotten what Isaiah's time was like and how the people lived by Isaiah's promise. He wants to proclaim it to the world until Christ comes, then he steps back and lets Christ take the center stage. Scot asked how we make straight the paths to prepare for the coming of Christ into our own hearts. As John the Baptist was baptizing people in the Jordan, they were acknowledging their sins. So we make straight the way for Jesus into our hearts, we go to Confession. Sr. Olga asks Mary to help her prepare the way and her heart to bring Christ in. During Advent, Sr. Olga also tries to console Mary in the week's before giving birth, for her what she went through in the last weeks. Offer sacrifices, prayer, and fasting to console the heart of Mary. Susan said John the Baptist and Mary didn't feel worthy to receive Christ, but we welcome him. Scot mentioned the Pilot article about the new community Cardinal Seán asked Sr. Olga to found and the Mass coming up next week at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. She extends an invitation to everyone in the Archdiocese to come, because she like John the Baptist she has a fiery zeal for Christ in her heart and wants to prepare the way for the people of our Archdiocese to know how alive the Church is in our youth.

Introduction Well, this morning it's gonna be a little bit different sermon than usual. I am generally a verse by verse expositor, and if I were to do that to these two chapters, we'd be here literally all day, I think. So I'm not going to do that, but rather what I want to do is just give you a vast overview of two of the greatest chapters in the Bible, Matthew 24 and 25. Jesus teaches on the end of the world. I think it's natural for human beings to have a fascination with the future. All over the world people strain to guess at what cannot truly be known apart from the direct revelation of God, and that is what's going to happen in the future. False religions are replete with efforts and techniques that people have used to try to discern the future. Ancient Greek and Roman polytheism utilized priests that would seek to read the future by examining the entrails of sacrificial animals, the liver being of special importance for that purpose. They would also observe weather phenomena, the movement of the clouds, lightning, and other things. They would look for omens in everyday life, extraordinary circumstances, things like that. The renowned Roman orator Cicero, who wrote on divination, belonged to the Roman College of Augurs. Now an Augur evaluates the presence or absence of divine blessing by omens. They were the official state-approved interpreters of omens. And no election could be held, no war could be initiated, no law could be passed without favorable omens. So also the Oracles in Greece, like the Oracle of Delphi, where there were prophets and prophetesses, supposedly in direct connection with the gods and goddesses, whose ability to foretell the future was coveted. In ancient Babylon, the Chaldeans were a special class of people that studied the stars, in particular, to try to discern the future. They also were experts at interpreting dreams. In the British Isles, the Druids studied black arts like necromancy and divination and sorcery to seek knowledge about the future. Merlin the sorcerer was one of these, that kind of figure, making predictions about King Arthur and his eventual ascendancy to the throne. The ability to predict the future has, throughout history, been connected with the ability to make money. I mean, if you were to talk to an average non-Christian and say, if you could know in detail the next year, what would you do with the knowledge? They'd immediately say, I'd make money. I'd find out what things to invest in, or what to gamble on, and I would be amazing, my bracket would be perfect. I'd have the first perfect bracket in ESPN history, and I would be able to make money. But that connection between fortune-telling and money is seen right in the scripture in Acts 16:16, Paul and Silas in Philippi, they said, “Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl, who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling.” And Paul and Silas then delivered the girl, cast out the demon. The owners were enraged and had Paul and Silas beaten publicly, because they had in some way slain the goose that laid the golden eggs. So the long-standing yearning to know the future continues, even to this day, people are hungry and thirsty to try to discern the future. I think this is why the Left Behind series has sold 65 million copies. People are interested in knowing what's going to come. Now, I say to you this morning as I've said many times before, the ability accurately to predict the future is God's and God's alone. It's a glory that God reserves to himself. And the only ones that really know, the only human beings that really know the future are those who have received that information from God. Because God is sovereign over all of human history, and “Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it's the Lord's purpose that prevails.” And so, he alone can tell us what's really going to happen. And it's a glory he reserves to himself. Many verses in Isaiah, especially in the 40s, testify to God's unique ability to predict the future. Isaiah 42:8-9, “I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols. Behold, the former things have taken place and new things I declare. Before they spring into being, I announce them to you.” That is his unique glory. He says in another place, “Bring in your idols and see if they can tell you anything at all.” Let's see if they can tell the future, let's see if they can declare anything at all. But they can't, because they are nothing and less than nothing and their works are worthless. Isaiah 45, He issues the same challenge. “Declare what is to be, present it - let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me. A righteous God and a Savior, there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.” So God's claim to be the unique savior of the world, the only God there is, is a link there in those verses to his ability to predict the future, he is the only one that can do it. Now, in the Bible, the Bible is filled with prophecies, all kinds of predictions of the future. Many of them have already come to pass. But the center of prophecy, biblically, is the person and work of Jesus Christ, that's the center of prophecy. And so, in Revelation 19:10, it says, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” And so, in the Bible, first and foremost, prophets proclaimed the Christ, his sufferings and the glories that would follow. Now, here in Matthew 24 and 25, we have the Christ himself predicting the future. We have Jesus sitting on a little mountain off to the side of Jerusalem, making statements sweeping out across the rest of human history, right to the end. It's sometimes called the Little Apocalypse or the Olivet Discourse, because it was on the Mount of Olives that he gave it. Some years ago, I heard from John MacArthur, one of my favorite sermons of all time, it was entitled, “A Jet Tour Through The Book of Revelation.” It was 70 minutes long as I remember, and he took on all 22 chapters of that book. Now, I don't agree with every little detail, but it was a fascinating sermon. I'm not gonna take a jet tour through the Book of Revelation, 22 chapters, what we're gonna do is look at two chapters alone. And we're just gonna try to fly across them and look at the grand structure, as though we're taking back in the 19th century a balloon ride, and for the first time you can just see all the farmland and see everything stretching to the horizon. And then, as God permits us time, we'll go back over these chapters and look section by section. So we're gonna begin this morning by looking at this grand teaching of Jesus on the future. And the context here, as we've been seeing, this is the final week of Jesus' life, he's been in hot debate and argument with His adversaries. It culminates in Matthew 23, The Seven Woes. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites,” the repeated refrain as he deals with the hypocrisy of the spiritual leadership of Israel. And it culminates in these astonishing words at the end of Matthew 23, “O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you that you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” The Three-Fold Question (24:1-3) Jesus’ Devastating Prediction And immediately after that, Jesus leaves, and the disciples come up to him and talk to him about the temple. It says in verse 1-3, “Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. ‘Do you see all these things?’ he asked, ‘I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another, everyone will be thrown down.’” So Jesus is there clearly predicting or prophesying the destruction at least of the temple, and really by implication, of the whole city of Jerusalem. And this was absolutely shocking to the disciples. I think they were just amazed at it, and so they came to him privately, they never imagined that this was going to happen. They did not understand what God was doing in Jesus. The Disciples’ Private Three-Fold Question And so, they come to him privately and they ask this private question. And to them, I really believe it probably was just one question, but it really actually comes at us in three different parts. When will these things be, namely the destruction that you alluded to? Not one stone left on another, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming? And what will be the sign of the end of the age? Three Issues in the Olivet Discourse Now, dear friends, the complexity of Matthew 24 and 25 is in unraveling those three strands. At any moment, as you're reading, is Jesus talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD? Is he talking about the second coming of Christ, the tribulation? Is he talking about the church age in between? What is he talking about? And that's the complexity, and there's so many different interpretations. This morning, you hear mine. But there are other people that will come and give you different ways of looking at this chapter. What I'd like to do now is just pause and just give you quickly an overview of this whole section, just going across. Basically, there are four great truths in this chapter. The first great truth is in verse 14, Matthew 24:14, and that is this, “This gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” The proclamation of the gospel to the end of the world, to every nation, is the first great truth in these two chapters. Secondly, verse 21, Matthew 24:21, “then there will be a great tribulation or distress unlike any there has been in history and never will be again.” So the teaching of the great tribulation is there. The third great teaching of these two chapters is in Matthew 24:42, “You do not know when the end will come, you do not know the day or the hour.” So the Lord keeps us in the dark concerning the exact time. And the fourth great teaching of these two chapters is in Matthew 25:31-32. And there it says, “When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he'll put the sheep on his right and he'll put the goats on his left. And then he will consign each of them either to heaven or to hell, the sheep to heaven and the goats to hell.” These are the four great teachings of these two chapters. I know there are many lesser teachings, but these are the four pinnacle teachings. The gospel is going to advance throughout the world, and then the end will come. Secondly, it's a time of tremendous tribulation and distress and trial. The world is gonna go out with a scream and a wail of agony. It's not going to be easy. Thirdly, we do not know the exact day or hour of the Lord's return. And fourthly, Jesus is going to assemble every human being that's ever lived, and they're all gonna stand in front of him, from every nation and tribe and language, and he will divide them into two categories, based on whether they believed in him or not. These are the four great teachings of these two chapters. There are three implications in these, three commands, three applications that come as well, more than that really, but these are the three I've chosen. In Matthew 24:13, you need to stand firm to the end. He who stands firm to the end will be saved. We need to persevere in our Christian lives. We need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, it says in Philippians. We need to keep going in the Christian life, right to the end. Secondly, Matthew 24:42, you need to be ready and to keep watch, because you don't know at what time the master of the house is returning. So you need to be ready or vigilant at every moment of your life for the second coming of Christ. And the third great application is, you need to be faithful to what God has entrusted to you to do. Look at verse 45, 24:45, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his house? It'll be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.” So persevere to the end, be ready at every moment for the second coming of Christ, and be faithful to do those things God has entrusted to you to do. So those are the four great teachings, and those are the three great applications. So that's the, kind of, overview of the overview. Now, let's go, kind of, through all of the sections of these two chapters. But you already have a sense of the main ideas of this chapter, alright? The first thing we have in verse 1-3, we've already seen the three-fold question of the disciples that sit there and Jesus begins to answer. Life Between the Advents (24:4-14) Secondly, in Matthew 24:4-14, we have, I believe, Jesus' description of life on earth between the two comings of Christ. Between the first and second coming of Christ, what is life going to be like? Look at these verses. Beginning of verse 4, “Jesus answered, ‘Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you're not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” So I really believe that's just describing life in this troubled, sin-cursed world between the two advents. It's what he's describing. Between the first and the second coming of Christ, this is what life is going to be like. Wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, various places, general statements of trouble in the world. And I don't think it's possible for any era or any age of the church to look and say, “Hey, this is coming true now. There's a famine going on in this place, there's an earthquake going on in that place, and there's a war in that place, and a rumor of war over there.” Can you tell me a century in which that didn't happen? That's just a general description of just how tough it's going to be to live in this world before the Lord comes back to end it all. It's the old order of things, and it's the writhing and churning of nations who do not know God, and all of the pain that comes as a result of that. And then within the walls of the church, it talks about the troubles that we Christians uniquely will face; persecution, suffering for our faith, being betrayed by those who were supposedly brothers and sisters in Christ, but under the pressure of persecution turn away and turn in their brothers and sisters in Christ. And so, he urges that call to all generations to stand firm to the end. And if you stand firm to the end, then you will be saved. And then this glorious statement that really just kind of stands on its own even out of its context, but what a beautiful thing it is, and we'll talk about it in due time. But we can't look at it enough. Matthew 24:14, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Just hear your Lord speaking so definitively about these things. Hear his sovereignty concerning the Great Commission. This is a promise, this is a declaration of future fact that only God can make. This gospel will most certainly be preached all over the world as a testimony. And the end will most certainly come, that's what he's saying. So that's the first section, and that is the description of life between the two advents. The Horrors Connected with the Destruction of the Temple (24:15-25) The next section is the horrors connected with the destruction of the temple. Look at verses 15-25. “So when you see standing in the Holy Place the abomination of desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel - let the reader understand - then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, but no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in the winter on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress” or great tribulation, “unequal from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible. Behold, I have told you ahead of time." So I believe that here Jesus is at least answering their question, the first question they ask, “When will these things happen?” Go back one step before that, Jesus said, “Do you see all these stones? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another, everyone will be thrown down.” Destruction of the temple. Then they ask, “When will the temple be destroyed?” Jesus, I believe, is here at least answering that question. Now, why do I say at least? Because there is a theory that the temple will actually be rebuilt right before Jesus returns. It's a fascinating theory. It's deeper than you might think, and I'm gonna devote a whole sermon to it, and I'm not telling you right now what I think, so we'll just move on. But the fact of the matter is, the abomination of desolation at least is talking about the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 AD. We have to admit that Jesus answered their question, and here he's describing just how horrendous that event will be. It's going to be demonic, and it's going to be human all at once, and it's gonna be horrible, and a million or more people will die. And he is giving a warning specifically here to the church, the elect, what to do when they see it happen. Run for your lives. That's what he's telling them to do. Now, will this be re-enacted again, we'll get to that in due time, but that's what he's talking about here. The Second Coming of Christ and Its Signs (24:26-33) The next section in verses 26 through 33, moves rather remarkably and somewhat seamlessly to the second coming of Christ, and for that reason, because he just goes right from the abomination of desolation to the second coming, it seems, that people say that the temple will be rebuilt, we'll talk about that in due time. But this section, I do believe, is talking about the second coming of Christ. The first section, I think, isn't so much because he says, “If anyone says that Christ is coming, don't believe it, because I'm not coming then.” But now, immediately in the next little section, that's when he is coming. Look at verses 26 through 33. “So if anyone tells you, ‘There he is out in the desert,’ do not go out; or ‘Here he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time, the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. They will see the sign of the Son of Man coming on the clouds with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” Verse 32, “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. And even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” So here, I believe, plainly, Jesus is talking about his second coming. He says it will be visible to everyone, there will be no secret coming. He doesn't come in the night while we're sleeping and whisk people away. I won't get into the doctrine of the secret rapture, but I think it's impossible to see any of that here. This is an open, visible, obvious second coming, no faith needed. And that's the great tragedy of it, because the day of faith will be over. The time for justification by faith alone will be done when they see the Lord with their own eyes. And if they had not come to faith in Christ while there was time, they will only see him in judgment, and they will be among the goats separated from him, put at Jesus' left hand, and how dreadful will that be. That's why it says, “All nations of the earth will mourn.” You don't need any faith to see the second coming of Christ, it'll be the lightning that flashes from one end of the sky to the other, obvious to everyone. And he's gonna send out, he says, his angels, and they will find all of the elect, and they'll gather them up. As John the Baptist said, as wheat into the barn, he's gonna gather up the wheat. And so you get your own angel ride if you're a believer, alright. He's gonna come and get you, and he's going to bring you to Jesus, you're gonna be collected with Jesus. And the angels will come get you at the last trumpet. The gathering of the elect worldwide. And he knows, it says in 2 Timothy, “The Lord knows those who are his.” There's no doubt about it. He won't miss any of them, He'll gather them all, all of the elect, and bring them together. The lesson of the fig tree is, you won't be in the dark about the coming of Christ. We're not in the dark, it says in another place. We will be able to see evidences and signs. I believe there are certain sections of scripture that don't make much sense to us now, but they will make much sense to those who are in the final generation. I'm not saying we're not the final generation, but basically when we need light to come from the scripture, it will come. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then read the last chapter of Daniel, and try to tell me what the 1,335 days are. I have no idea what those are, but I think some category of people will know exactly what those days are, and they will know what to do with that information. Right now, we don't need it, and so we're in the mystery, and so we write commentaries and we preach sermons, and we don't really know. But there will be one final generation and they will know exactly, and the leaves will come out and say, “Look, the time for fruit is near.” And they will know exactly what to do with that information. You don't know when, but you do know the signs. The Need for Constant Vigilance (24:37-44) The next section, Jesus says immediately concerning that very issue, you don't know exactly when it's going to come, so you need to be ready all the time. You need to be ready all the time. Look at verses 37 through 44, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. From the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, right up to the day that Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. And that is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will be taken and the other left. Therefore, keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. Understand this, if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him." We need to be ready at every moment, at any moment, and this is the mystery of Christian eschatology. We don't really know for sure what's going to happen. We don't know exactly when He's going to come. And so we have to be ready. Mysterious Timing (24:34-36) If you look back at verses 34 through 36, Jesus says something that's very difficult to interpret concerning this, we don't know the time, and he says that even he doesn't know the time. Look at what he says in verses 34 through 36, “I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Difficult verses, we'll talk about them again in due time. Jesus, some people said, makes a mistake here. Can you believe they actually even say that, that Jesus thought that these things would happen within one generation and they didn't? Can I tell you something? If Jesus is wrong about this, he could be wrong about anything he said, and therefore he's a false prophet and not worth listening to. It says in Deuteronomy 18, “Don't listen to him. Stone him.” Therefore, the Jews were right to put him to death because he was a false prophet. Jesus is never wrong. It doesn't mean I know what this means, I'm just saying Jesus is never wrong. Clearly, these things did not all take place within one generation, so then I'm left with this verse trying to interpret it and I'll do the best I can, but clearly also Jesus admits to not knowing something. And again, this is a mystery here, but I think it has to do with the limitations of the incarnation and his physical life on Earth. He was God all the time, but he wasn't in some mysterious way omnipresent all the time, He couldn't be in many places at once. That's why he said, “It is to your advantage that I go away, because if I go away, I'll send the counsel of the spirit, and then I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age. And so in a mysterious way, in some way, for the Father hid this information from Jesus while he was speaking these words. I do believe he knows now exactly when he's coming back. But from that assertion, he then says we have to be constantly vigilant. 'Cause you don't know when it's going to happen. And life is just gonna go on, it's just gonna keep on going just like we've always known, just like it was in the days before the flood, people are gonna be just eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, all kinds of plans, women will be halfway through their pregnancies that there'll be all kinds of... Life is just gonna go on just like it has. 2 Peter, people are lulled into thinking that coming will never happen because life just keeps going on more or less like it always has. The Lord Jesus is gonna come and interrupt it all, he's gonna come and interfere, he's gonna come and stop it, just like he did in the days of the flood. And people will be side by side, and the angel will come and get one and leave the other, he's gonna gather his elect, remember? And so he's gonna get one and they'll be working side by side, one will be taken and the other left. Two women working in the kitchen, one taken and the other left. Again, I don't think this is talking about the secret rapture, but I think it's talking about that collection of all of the elect at the time of the second coming. The Command for Constant Faithfulness (24:45-51) In the next section, Jesus then says we need to be constantly faithful. Not only constantly vigilant, but you have to be constantly faithful. Verse 45 and following, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time. It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ and then he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him, at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces, and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Now, it's amazing to me the number of parables that Jesus tells that have to do with the principle of stewardship of a master entrusting property to a servant. And then at some point later on, expecting an answer concerning the stuff that was entrusted. It's a major principle in many of these parables. And so here he's saying, “Who is the faithful and wise steward?” It's the one who is doing the right stuff when the master comes back. He doesn't know when the master is coming. The master kind of interferes whatever that steward is doing. Woe to that man who is not doing what the Lord entrusted into his care. Woe to him, he'll be cut to pieces, it says, and assigned a place with the hypocrites. And so that the major lesson here is, we who are servants of Christ, we are entrusted with some things from him, he's given us some things to do, and we need to be faithful right to the end to do those things or else suffer the punishment of hypocrites who do not know the master's will. The Parable of the Ten Virgins: Be Constantly Ready (25:1-13) Therefore, in chapter 25, having established these two great principles, keep watch, be constantly vigilant, principle number one there at the end. And then, be faithful to do what the master entrusted into your hand. These are the two parables that he gives us right away in Chapter 25. The parable of the virgins, five wise and five foolish, basically teaches the lesson, be vigilant, be ready now, you don't know when he's coming, so be sure you're ready right now for the second coming of Christ. The Parable of the ten virgins, be constantly ready. Look at verses 1 through 13, chapter 25. “At that time, the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps, but did not take any oil with them. Wise however took oil and jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight, the cry rang out. ‘Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, give us some of your oil, our lamps are going out. ‘No,’ they replied. ‘There might not be enough for both us and you. Instead go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived, the virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet and the door was shut. Later, the others also came. ‘Sir, sir,’ they said, ‘Open the door for us.’ But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth…’ [We apologize, due to a technical malfunction this sermon was cut short.]

Introduction As we come to Isaiah 15 and 16, I acknowledge here before you the challenge of expositional preaching. It is quite possible that there’s no congregation on the face of the earth that has had Isaiah 16:4 projected up on the walls as we did this morning, talking about fugitives from Moab and finding refuge in Christ. That’s the challenge of exposition and the joy as well. “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” (2 Tim 3:16) Amen. Jesus said, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Mt 4:4) Now, my brother and good friend, Andy Winn, had John 3:16 last Sunday. I get Isaiah 15 and 16. He did a wonderful job and I was greatly encouraged. But frankly, the more I studied these two chapters that we’re looking at today, the more relevancy I saw in my own personal life. I don’t know that this is something where you’re necessarily going to take a verse from it and memorize it, or something like that. Yet, it is the word of the Lord to us today. And I pray that God will enable me to preach it with power and with conviction so that our lives might be transformed. I’ll never forget the summer of 1987, when I had the privilege of ministering to refugees who had fled from the invading Russians in Afghanistan. They were across the border in Pakistan, and we went to the city of Peshawar and we ministered to them. They were the most miserable and destitute people I’d ever seen in my life. And it’s still the case. I’ve seen some poverty in Asia, in India, in Haiti, but I’ve never seen the kind of misery and pain that I saw etched on the faces of these people that had run for their lives from Russian helicopter gunships. Many of them had seen relatives and friends killed before their very eyes. Their prospects were limited. They were not incredibly welcome in Pakistan. They were safe, at least for the time being, but their prospects economically were dim. Very few people were ministering to them. They had a hard time eating and caring for themselves. And again, the future looked dim. What a joy and privilege it is to go into a situation like that and minister the gospel of Jesus Christ! Amen! To be able to bring hope where, other than the ministry of the Gospel, there would be no hope. But the 20th century really was a century of refugees. Look at World War I. Look at World War II. Look at grainy old black and white photos from World War I and footage of German dive bombers, strafing columns of refugees that are fleeing from Belgium, or fleeing from Poland, or fleeing from Russia or Ukraine. You can see a picture in your mind of what it is to be a refugee. It’s a terrifying situation to be in, to lose everything that you have except what you can carry with you. I remember a picture of an elderly French woman. She’s got a mink stole on and she’s got an evening gown and a valuable painting. She’s got it in a baby buggy and she’s pushing it down a muddy road. It’s all she has left of a former way of life. Everything that she has, she’s carrying with her. You get the sense that it won’t be much longer and she won’t even be pushing that baby buggy. She’ll be stripped of everything. So it is to be a refugee. The more I meditated on Isaiah 15 and 16, the more I saw the relevance to our lives. I don’t know that any of us will ever be refugees. I do know that the United Nations High Commission on Refugees said there were sixty-five million displaced persons in 2007. So there’s a lot of refugees around the world. There’s an opportunity for us as a church of Jesus Christ to minister. We had an opportunity to minister to some refugees who came to us from Vietnam. What a great privilege that was! We may well have a practical ministry to refugees. It could be that, if we are in fact the final generation, and some of the events that are recorded in the Book of Revelation take place, then we will actually know what it means to flee for our lives and to dwell in caves, and to look for a place of refuge from an encroaching terror that’s coming to hunt us down. We may know that. If the Lord tarries, we may never know that. But there are people, even brothers and sisters in Christ, in the Sudan and other places in the world, that are actually going through this right now. So at the physical level, I think there’s a relevance to this text. But I also see a spiritual connection. I don’t think it’s hard to find because what happens in this text is a judgment on Moab. Some unnamed invader comes into their country and the people of Moab have to run for their lives. Their military strength is gone. They have nothing left. Their religious strength is gone and they run for their lives. They actually turn, at that point, to their former enemies in Judah, the Jews. They want to see if it’s possible that they might take them in. As a matter of fact, Isaiah the prophet says that it’s the only refuge they’re going to have. I’m going to talk about who the invader could be. We don’t really know who it is. But if in fact the invader was Assyria, and if they came in during a certain time, it could be that, literally, physically, the only refuge there could be would be in Zion, in Jerusalem, with godly King Hezekiah. This, in the end, becomes a picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus, the descendant of David, the King, the Davidic King, mentioned in the middle of Isaiah 16, is in fact the only refuge there is from the coming judgment. So there is a beautiful spiritual picture of the gospel as well. The Bible does this over and over. Oh, how the Lord wants us to flee to Christ! How many different ways does it give us incentive so that we would run for our lives, run to the only refuge there is, the refuge of Jesus Christ? There are pictures again and again in the Old Testament of a place of refuge. If you go there, you are going to be safe from the coming judgment and the coming wrath. But, if you go outside of it, you’re going to be killed. You’re going to perish. Noah’s ark is a picture of that. If you’re on the ark, you’re safe. If you’re outside the ark, you are lost. Also, during the time of Passover when the Jews painted the blood of the sacrificial lamb over the door posts, the angel of death passed over. If he saw the blood on the house, everyone inside the house was safe. But if you were outside the house, your blood was on your own head. That meant you were going to die. So there’s a place of refuge, a place of security and safety, and outside there is none. Or again, we have Rahab’s house nestled in the walls of Jericho. The promise of a scarlet cord hanging down was that she and all of her relatives would be safe if they stayed in the house. But if they went outside the house, their blood would be on their own heads. They would die. It is also a picture of a place of refuge, which you have to be inside. That’s where the refuge is. Outside there is none. In the Law of Moses, there is a provision for cities of refuge where, if you accidentally kill somebody, you can run for your life. If you get there before the avenger of blood comes, you’ll be safe. They’ll protect you and keep you safe until the death of the high priest. It was a picture, again, of a place of refuge. Don’t you see how all of these are pictures of Jesus Christ? Don’t you see Christ in all of this? Don’t you see the need to run for your life? Don’t you see that there is a judgment coming, worse than the flood of Noah? It’s an eternal judgment, an eternal fire. What we stand to lose is not just our mortal lives, but our souls. We are encouraged again and again and again to run for our lives to the place of refuge, and that is Jesus Christ. So there you have it. There’s the sermon in a nutshell. What we have is a current event that’s not so current. Moabite Refugees Fleeing in Terror Prophecies Against the Nations We have, in this section of Isaiah, the oracles against the nations. Isaiah the prophet is giving an oracle, or a saying, a prophecy concerning Moab. From Isaiah 13 through 23, one nation after another is addressed through the prophetic voice. Isaiah the prophet is speaking here to the little country of Moab. We’ve had oracles against great nations like Assyria and Babylon. Last time, we looked at an oracle against the Philistines, a smaller nation. Here, the Moabites were even smaller. The Sovereign God who rules over all the earth is orchestrating the events of all the earth. He speaks an oracle through his prophet to the people of Moab, the Moabites. Who are the Moabites? Now, who were the Moabites? They were descended from Lot, Abraham’s nephew. When, in another picture of refuge, Lot fled from Sodom and Gomorrah to the little town of Zoar, he was able to survive the fire and brimstone. This is a picture, again, of refuge, fleeing for your life. But then, thinking that it was the end of the world, they took up refuge in a cave. Lot was there with his two daughters. And the daughters, thinking that they wouldn’t know any more people on the face of the earth, perhaps with the memory of the flood still very fresh in their minds, induced their father through wine to lay with them. Each of them had a son by their own father and from this came two peoples, the Moabites and the Ammonites. The Moabites took up residence on a tiny piece of land east of the Dead Sea, stretching from the Arnon River, which dumps into the Dead Sea, to the Zered River, on the border with Edom. It’s a small piece of land, thirty miles by thirty miles. It’s really small. The Moabites were not a mighty and significant people. They were usually enemies of Israel, usually in opposition to the people of God. They would fight against them. For example, during the Exodus, they would not allow the Israelites to pass through their territory, they had to go around. They hired Balaam to curse Israel, and you remember what happened with that. The Moabite women seduced the Israelite men to worship Baal of Peor through sexual immorality. It was the Moabite women that did that. As a result of all of these things, the Law of Moses forbad any of them to enter the assembly of the Lord down to the tenth generation. They were forbidden to enter. During the time of the Judges, God gave Israel over to a Moabite king, Eglon, the fat man. Eglon was murdered by one of the judges, Ehud, a left-handed man. These were the Moabites. They were the enemies of the people of God. It was Moabite wives that seduced King Solomon to worship foreign gods, to worship Chemosh, their detestable god. They occasionally organized armies to fight against the Jews, and they usually lost. They were the enemies of God’s people. By the end of Kings and Chronicles, Moabite raiders were still plundering Israel. Yet, for all of that, it was a godly Moabite woman, Ruth, who said to Naomi, “Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God… May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” (Ru 1:16-17) From Ruth came David, and through David, ultimately, came our savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, we see the grace of God in dealing with pagan people. We also see God’s saving intentions to the Gentiles and to every tribe and language and people and nation, everyone on the face of the earth. Why are They Fleeing? These are the people, the Moabites, who are running for their lives in these two chapters. It’s the Moabites who are running now. Why are they fleeing? Look at Isaiah 15:1, “Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night!” By the way, if you see Keith Pendergraff, thank him for that reading. There’s something like twenty proper nouns in that. He did a phenomenal job. I don’t know that I’m going to do as well. I was adjusting my pronunciation as I listened to him read the scripture. So thank you, Keith. We thought about that at our staff meeting, “Now, who’s going to do this reading? Please urge them to practice ahead of time.” But what is going on in Isaiah 15:1? Well, these are two cities in Moab, Ar and Kir, and both of them are destroyed in a night. They’re gone. These are their strongholds, their high places, their walled fortresses. They are nothing to the unnamed invader. In a single night, they are gone, both of them have fallen. Furthermore, their religion has proven to be empty. They turn to their high places. Verse 2 says, “Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high places to weep.” If you look all the way over to Chapter 16:12, it says, “When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail.” Chemosh cannot help them. You know why? Because Chemosh does not exist. He’s an idol of their own imagination and Chemosh cannot save them. So they are running for their lives. They are fugitives. Look at Isaiah 15:5, “Her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the way to Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim they lament their destruction.” You see a picture of a train of refugees, crying, running, leaving possessions behind, stuff strewn along the roads. That’s what’s going on. The Moabites are running for their lives. Like all refugees, they try to carry whatever they can of their possessions. Verse 7 says, “So the wealth they have acquired and stored up they carry away over the Ravine of the Poplars.” They’re going to carry their gold and silver with them. Well, how long is that going to last? It’s heavy. There comes a point where they will leave it behind. The army that’s going to come after them will pick it up and plunder them. So that’s what is happening. These are refugees leaving behind their old way of life, and the slaughter is terrible. Look at Isaiah 15:9, “Dimon’s waters are full of blood, but I will bring still more upon Dimon – a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon those who remain in the land.” Whether it’s a literal lion or it’s just more military conquest coming on this straggling line of refugees, it doesn’t matter. The fact of the matter is, it’s just a miserable, horrible time for these Moabites. The rivers are filled with blood. You see the image of their women in 16:2, “like fluttering birds, pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of Arnon.” As they’re trying to cross this river, they are panicking and weak and defenseless, a picture of the refugee. Turning to Judah for Help At this point, they turn to Judah for help. This is the only place they can turn. Frankly, this is what Isaiah wants them to do. If you look at Isaiah 16:1, it says, “send lambs as tribute to the ruler of the land, from Sela, across the desert.” Where? “to the daughter of Zion.” Reach out to the Jews. Why? Because salvation is from the Jews, your ancient enemies. Reach out to the daughter of Zion. That’s the advice that Isaiah’s giving. It’s really that God is giving it. Reach out to the Jews in your moment of distress. Historical Details Now, I have no idea, historically, what this is referring to. Nobody really knows. I have a sense of what’s going on, but nobody really knows. Of course, the big bully of the time was Assyria. It could be that in 715 BC, the Assyrians were coming down and dealing with some Arabian raiders that were making commerce difficult. As they did, they passed through little Moab. And what do the Assyrians do when they pass through somebody’s land? They do this kind of thing, this kind of conquest, this kind of bloodshed, this kind of plundering and pillaging. It could be that’s exactly what was going. The end for Moab is quite near. The End is Near Look at the end of our reading for today. Isaiah 16:13-14 says, “This is the word the Lord has already spoken concerning Moab. But now the Lord says: ‘Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.” It’s a time table, three years as for a servant bound by a contract, meaning counting the hours. It’s going to be very accurate. Within that time, three years, Moab will be finished. That’s what’s going on. Look at Isaiah’s reaction, weeping for the refugees. Weeping for the Refugees God Does Not Willingly Afflict People I find it fascinating, the emotional response of Isaiah to these, who are supposedly his enemies. I tell you that God does not willingly afflict anyone. He doesn’t willingly bring suffering on anybody. So says Lamentations 3:32-33, “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men.” The consistent teaching of scripture is that it is, in fact, God that brings these disasters. There’s not a subset of disaster that didn’t come from God and had nothing to do with God. He does everything. He’s King of the Universe, but He doesn’t delight in bringing suffering. That’s not what He’s doing. It’s called in Isaiah 28:21, “His strange work” and “His alien task.” It’s not his home base. He does it for a reason, for a purpose. I believe He afflicts the nations to get them up out of their self-satisfied, self-worshipping rut, and to cause them to seek a Savior, who they would never seek if God didn’t afflict them. As King Hezekiah says as he is recovering from his illness, “Surely it was good for me to have been afflicted.” It’s a good thing, then, to be afflicted if, in the end, it means salvation for your soul. And I think that’s what’s going on here. God brings these kinds of afflictions because there is no way the Moabites will seek a Savior from the descendants of David, unless they are desperate and running for their lives. Isaiah Weeps for the Nations God brings this kind of affliction into lives, but you see the emotion, you see the compassion of God through His spokesman Isaiah. You see Him weeping for them, and it’s really quite surprising. Look at Isaiah 15:5. He says “My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath Shelishiyah. They go up the way to Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim they lament their destruction.” He’s weeping for them. He has compassion for them. In chapter 16:9-11, it says, “So I weep, as Jazer weeps… the shouts of joy… are stilled. Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out the wine at the presses, for I have put an end to the shouting. My heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.” This is Isaiah. Isaiah is speaking. He is a man. He is reacting to his own prophecies. He’s reacting emotionally to what he is writing. But in so doing, he is God’s mouthpiece, and it is really God’s own reaction to what the Moabites are going through. That’s quite remarkable. You have to look carefully, but look at verse 10, and then on into verse 11 of Chapter 16. It says, “Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards; no one treads out wine at the presses.” Why? “For I have put an end to the shouting.” Do you see that? The word “I?” Isaiah didn’t do that. It’s not Isaiah’s work that put an end to anything. He’s an announcer. He’s a messenger. This is God speaking. Therefore, the very next verse is God speaking as well. “My heart laments for Moab.” This is the nature of our God. He brings the affliction, but He weeps at the effects. Surely, God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. They are so infinitely high above us, what God is doing in the world. But I believe He does it out of compassion. I believe He does it so that people will turn from their sins and cry out to a Jewish Savior, cry out to Christ and be saved. That’s why He does it. And unless some harsh treatment comes in most of our lives, if not all, we will never do it. We will never do it. Christ Wept for His Enemies Christ wept for His enemies, didn’t He? Didn’t Christ stand over Jerusalem and weep for the coming judgment that would come on that city? Didn’t He say, concerning the men that were murdering Him, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Lk 23:34) Do you see His heart there? The Apostle Paul Wept for His Enemies Do you see the Apostle Paul, in Romans 9, testifying that he has a great sorrow and unceasing anguish over the Jews who are making his life utterly miserable and who would love to kill him as well? He testifies solemnly that he would trade his salvation for theirs, if he could. Amazing compassion! Do We? What about us? What about me? Every time I come to the issue of my level of compassion for the lost, I’m brought up short and convicted. I realize that I have to cry out against the stoniness of my own heart and I realize that I just don’t care enough about fugitives, refugees. I don’t care enough about the lost, the idolaters around me. I don’t care enough. And I have to fan a little ember into a flame, by a biblical meditation on what hell is actually going to be like. I have to do it. The scholarly pastor Andrew Bonar, in Scotland, lay on his bed Saturday nights. Down in the street, below his window, he could hear revelers tramping back and forth, going to the bars and the shows, an empty searching for something. He used to get out of his bed and weep over their souls and cry out, “Oh, they perish, they perish!” He would weep for them. Oswald J Smith, who brought the Gospel to over 50 countries, this is what he said, “Can we travail for a drowning child, but not for a perishing soul? It is not hard to weep when we realize that our little one is sinking below the surface for the last time. Anguish is spontaneous then. Nor is it hard to agonize when we see the little casket containing all that we love on earth borne out of the home. Ah, no; tears are natural at such a time! But oh, to realize and to know that souls, precious, never-dying souls are perishing all around us, going out into the blackness of darkness and despair, eternally lost, and yet to feel no anguish, shed no tears, know no travail! How cold are our hearts! How little do we know of the compassion of Jesus!” I take solace from the fact that you can even see that Oswald J Smith, who brought the gospel to over 50 countries, saw that weakness in his own heart. It’s not natural for us, but we ought to weep over the kind of judgments that come on the lost. We ought to travail for their souls. We see the sorrow of Isaiah and, really, the sorrow of God over the affliction necessary to save them. The Great Advantage of Refugees Advantage? How Can It Be? We also see the great advantage for these refugees. Now, you might say what advantage can there be in being a refugee? Well, on an earthly basis, at a purely secular level, I can’t possibly see any advantage. As I said, these were the most miserable people I’d ever seen on the face of the earth. I don’t mean that in terms of their emotional state. I just mean in terms of their circumstances. As I look at the hierarchy of suffering, the only think that I think is worse than running for your life before an invading army is being captured and held by a malicious tyrant who loves to torture you, with no escape or death. I think that’s probably the worst earthly circumstance you could be in. Of course, none of this compares to hell, because there is always some escape from any misery here on earth. But there is no escape from hell. Still, I think being a refugee is a horrible situation. Yet there is an advantage if, in the end, you come to your senses and come to faith in Christ, if you realize you’re really running for your life. And by that, I mean your eternal life. If you realize that your ordinary way of life was only going to lead you to hell, and something caused you to get out of that rut that was drawing you right down into hell, to get up out of that and say, “Where am I going?” If you then come to your senses and say, “I need a savior,” then it’s worthwhile. Foundations Removed There’s some advantage, then, in being a refugee. Foundations are removed. All the things you counted on and relied on are taken away. You have to think about everything anew and afresh. Everything’s been tossed up for grabs. Pride Removed Pride has been removed. Oh, that’s important. Look at Isaiah 16:6. It’s mentioned right there, “We have heard of Moab’s pride – her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and her insolence – but her boasts are empty.” Oh, they’re empty now! Now whoever it is has come in, the Assyrians, let’s say. Oh, there’s nothing left to be proud of now! Now they’re beggars looking for some place of refuge. Actually, that’s good, because Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:3) It’s good to get to the point where you realize you have nothing in your hands to give to the king. You’re just begging for a place of refuge. That’s a good thing. Pride has been destroyed. It’s amazing how proud we are, isn’t it? But what do we have to be proud of, really? We’re just created beings. Everything we have we receive from God. What do we have to boast about? Yet it’s in there, that worm of pride. It’s so ugly when you see it in someone else, isn’t it? It’s so ugly when you see it in another person, but it’s ugly if you can see it in yourself too. I was reading a quote by the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. I can scarcely read this without feeling a curdling effect in my stomach. He said openly what most people would never parade. Pride is just oozing from this paragraph. Listen to what he said: “What could your miseries have in common with mine? My situation is unique, unheard of since the beginning of time. The person who can love me as I can love is still yet to be born. No one has ever had more talent for loving. I was born to be the best friend that ever existed. Show me a better man than me, a heart more loving, more tender, more sensitive. Posterity will honor me because it is my due. I rejoice in myself. My consolation lies in my self-esteem. If there were a single enlightened government in Europe, it would have erected statues to me.” Wow! Listen, bro. Let’s sit down and have a conversation. Let’s get the scripture and find out what the truth really is. What’s so sad is that we’re like this, though we don’t admit it. We’re not going to bring it this far, but we think, “Has anybody ever suffered like me? Nobody loves like I love. If I really got what I deserved, they’d be erecting a statue.” I don’t know if we carry it that far, but the pride, it’s really laughable. It’s actually good to laugh at yourself. But, you know, to actually get cured from it, sometimes it takes this level of affliction. To run for your life strips you of pride. What do you have left? Where then is your resume? Where then are your possessions? Where then is your glorious future? You’re running for your life, and that’s what it’s done. So there’s a great advantage to being a refugee. The Only Safe Refuge: Christ An Invitation for Refuge It’s good if you know the refuge. Amen? If you know where to run to, now that’s a benefit. And I say to you, the only safe refuge is Jesus Christ. He’s mentioned in the text, though indirectly. With their pride stripped, the Moabite refugees have nowhere to turn but to Judah. As we already mentioned in Chapter 16:1, they’re urged to “send lambs as tribute to the… mount of the Daughter of Zion.” That’s Jerusalem. They begged for help from the Jews. Verses 2-4 of Chapter 16 say, “Like fluttering birds pushed from the nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon. ‘Give us counsel, render a decision. Make your shadow like night – at high noon. Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees. Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.’ The oppressor will come to an and, and destruction will cease; the aggressor will vanish from the land.” A Stunning Prophecy: A Ruler from the House of David Here we have a stunning and beautiful prophecy: a ruler from the house of David. Look at verse 16:5, “In love a throne will be established; in faithfulness a man will sit on it – one from the house of David – one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.” Oh, how sweet is that promise of Jesus Christ! This isn’t any one of the Davidic kings. Yes, Hezekiah was a godly man, but he was no final refuge. He’s a picture of A refuge, but he’s not The final refuge. Oh no. The final refuge is Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. He’s the refuge. Therefore, Isaiah predicts the establishment of a Davidic throne that will reign in righteousness. This Davidic king will bring justice to the nations. It is Jesus Christ then at last, who is every refugee’s place of safety. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run to it and find refuge. Jesus is the name of the Lord. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You run to Him and you find refuge. What refuge is there? The foot of the cross, where Jesus shed His blood for sin. The real danger is not the Assyrian army or any army. The real danger is the wrath of God. “’Do not fear those who kill the body and after that can do nothing to you. I’ll tell you the one to fear,’ said Jesus, ‘fear the one who has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell.’” We need a refuge from hell. We need a refuge from the judgment of an all-seeing God. We need a refuge from judgment and wrath. That’s what we need. Jesus Christ is the place of refuge, amen? We can flee to Him and find safety. There is no other, there’s no other place. God didn’t ordain that Noah and five other people each build an ark. There was one ark, there was one place of refuge. And so it is with Christ. In the Old Covenant, the Moabites were excluded to the tenth generation. Oh, but praise God for the New covenant, Amen? In the New Covenant, anyone who repents and believes is welcome. “All that the Father gives me will come to me,” said Jesus, “and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (Jn 6:37) There is your welcome. There is your place of refuge. Jesus Christ is saying, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28) So He is the place of refuge mentioned right here in Isaiah 16:5. Someday the Whole World Will Become Refugees What’s the connection to our lives? Are we ever going to be refugees? Well, I can’t say. I cannot say. I do know, though, there will come a time when every nation on earth will run for their lives. If you’re alive at that time, you’ll run too. You will run too. That’s all you can do. This is what the Lord says in Isaiah 13:13-14, “Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger. Like a hunted gazelle, like sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land.” Haggai 2:6-7 says, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations.’” Isaiah 30:27-28 says, “See, the name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck. He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction.” Hebrews 12:26-27 says, “At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ The words “once more” indicate the removal of what can be shaken – that is, created things – so that what cannot be shaken may remain.” God himself is going to shake the nations in a sieve of destruction. All the nations that live at that time will run for their lives. So you will be a fugitive if you live in the final generation. It is your future and mine if the Lord tarries. It is a terrifying thing. The prediction is plain in Revelation 6:12-17, “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’” Run for your lives! It’s going to be literal at that point. But the real danger is nothing on earth, friend. No, the real danger is Judgment Day. That’s the real danger. When you stand before Him who knows everything you ever said, everything you ever did, who knows the inclinations of your heart, who remembers everything perfectly, that’s the danger. As John the Baptist said to his Jewish enemies, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” Has anybody warned you to do that, to be a refugee from the coming wrath? Have you learned to do that? To flee from the wrath to come? Christ is the Only Refuge for Spiritual Refugees Jesus Christ is the only refuge from that wrath to come. It says in 1 Thessalonians 1:10, “Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.” Amen? He is a safe refuge from the coming wrath. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” So run for your lives! In the beginning of Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian realizes that he actually lived in a place called the City of Destruction. He started to be worried about the future. Wouldn’t you if you lived in a place called the City of Destruction? He’s reading about it in the book, in the Scriptures, and he has a terrible burden on his back, a sense of guilt for his own sins that are going to press him down to hell. He talks to his wife, but she doesn’t believe. She thinks he’s crazy. The children don’t believe, they think he’s crazy. His neighbors think he’s crazy. Then Evangelist tells him to go to a wicket gate and to a flashing light, and he begins to run there. He’s running, and he’s got his fingers in his ears so he doesn’t listen to the cries of his unbelieving family and his mocking neighbors. He runs and runs for the distant salvation, running for that gate, so that his soul can be saved. Run for your lives. Do you live in the City of Destruction? Yes, you do. So do I. So we’re called on to run this race with endurance, to keep running until we’re done, to run for our lives spiritually. Applications Nothing Here is Eternal… So Flee Every Day to Christ What application do we take from this? First, nothing you see around you is eternal. Don’t be deceived. Did you say, “What? We heard a strange sermon today on being a refugee for Christ. I don’t think that’s going to happen to me.” Well, be careful, friend. Be careful, because someday you’re going to lose it all anyway. You are. And it’s good to know it. I don’t know the specific political and military situations, or earthquake, or hurricane that will cause you to be a displaced person. I don’t know whether that will ever happen to you. But I do know this, you ought to live with that kind of mentality. Live as an alien and a stranger on earth, looking ahead to a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God. Run for that place, the celestial city. Nothing will ever remove that. It cannot be shaken. Run for that. Live a Holy Life Worthy of Our Future Home… Personal Holiness Hold on to your possessions loosely. Live a holy life worthy of that final day, since is says in 2 Peter 3:11-13, “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.” So live a holy and godly life. 1 Peter 2:11 says, “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in this world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” Cry Out Over Our Hardness of Heart Thirdly, I would urge you to cry out over your own hardness of heart, as I do over mine. Cry out that you don’t care about the plight of the lost. Be like God. Be like Paul. Be like Andrew Bonar and Oswald J Smith. Be like these men and women who learned to weep over the condition of lost friends and relatives and co-workers. If you don’t care much, know that God knows you don’t care. He knows, however, if you’re a believer, that you want to care. You want to be healed from your hardness of heart. You want to care about the poor and the needy. Go to Him and ask Him for it. Be a spiritual beggar for that, too. Say, “Lord, change my heart. Give me tears to cry over lost people.” And stay there until He does. Meditate in depth on passages about hell. That might help you. Consider Ministry to Refugees Finally, consider in a practical way a ministry to refugees. We’ve already had some in this church that have sacrificially given to refugees from Vietnam. It’s been a sweet experience for them and for the church. You can give money to Persecution Project, which ministers to Christian refugees in the Sudan, especially in Darfur. You can minister to refugees that are non-Christians, as we did in Pakistan. Those were Muslim refugees. Perhaps God might call you to that kind of a practical ministry. In any case, whatever God calls you to do, live your life as a refugee here on Earth until God takes you to heaven. Close with me in prayer.