Sermon
Prophecy Countdown _ The Decalogue and God_s Dilemma _ Doug Batchelor)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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S. S. Spece.
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Good evening, friends, Welcome again to Prophecy Countdown. I want
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to welcome those joining us across the country and around
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the world, and the various television networks also listening on
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the radio. Thank you for being a part of this
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Bible study experience. We want to agree to our friends here
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locally in the Fort Worth area, thank you for coming
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out tonight. Very important subject that we're going to be
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studying together this evening. But before we get to that,
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I'd like to tell everyone about a free gift, a
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digital download.
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It's easy to.
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Get a book entitled does God's Grace Blot Out the Law?
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This is our free gift. All you need to do
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book and you can read it and share it with
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somebody else. Now, in addition to the books and the resources,
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we also have the study guides. And if you don't
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have a copy of tonight's lesson, you can just go
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to the Prophecycountdown dot tv website and you can download
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tonight's lesson. It is entitled The Decalogue and God's Dilemma.
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That is our title for tonight. You'll see that QR
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please check out that website and find a local host
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site connect with them, and you'll be blessed. Now, of course,
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we have a theme song that we like to sing
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every night, and I know those of you are watching.
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You sing along with us.
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Let's stand as we sing our theme song.
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Beautiful beautiful, Hey man, let's sing together, beautiful, be beautiful, beautiful.
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Jesus is beautiful, and Jesus makes beautiful things.
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Oh bye, carefully touching me, carefully touching me, cause by
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your eyes to see Cheus face, beautiful things of my life.
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Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Let's sing, sir, you all right,
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a bunch.
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Wonderful lord ful that is oneful face.
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And the things of.
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Earth, and the things of earth will grow strange made.
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In the light of His glory and the grace.
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Amen, you will sound good this evening. Our prayer tonight
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is going to be brought to us by Pastor Michael.
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Let's just bow a head for prayer.
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Are the God in heaven. We praise you, and we
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thank you for this beautiful, wonderful privilege and opportunity for
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us to study your word together. We thank you for
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the freedom that we can do that in this great nation.
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And Lord, I'm also grateful that we don't have to
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beg you, but we can simply claim your promises. O. Lord,
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we believe that it is your desire for us to
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learn and to understand your will. And you have called
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us to your profits, your God, who is the same
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to everyone, so there is no limitations when it comes
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to ages, colors, and language. And so Lord, tonight, I
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pray that as your word being delivered, that it will
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not return to you void. Tony, I pray for the
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outpouring of your holy spirit within this place. May you
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speak to us, May you help us if we open
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our hearts and receive what you have instored for us.
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We asked us in Jesus name, we pray, Amen.
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Please be seated. Before we get to our Q and
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a time, We're gonna have.
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A beautiful, beautiful musical item entitled God, I look to you, my.
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Fate for father.
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And prayer and your tendermer season light o realver.
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With no wind.
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Wells cols mine say.
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Each time I come to your presence a standing waer's upga.
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Okay, because your grace it still massa Your love it's
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s love misty.
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And each day.
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I fall on mine.
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Because your race still maus be, your grace still.
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Mase, Oh paychant.
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Save you you made me hold You are the author
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and the healer of my soul.
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Agity, Lord, what should I say?
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I know there's no way se repay, only to.
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Off for you, my pard prest.
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Because your grace.
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It's still mazes.
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Your love it's still lonely story. And each.
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I follow mine because you're grace still a mass miasable,
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your grace still maze.
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Its bad's wider, it's strong, bird, it's hot, it's deeper, it's.
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Strong, it's wide.
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And theything my aunt seem long.
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Grace it's still low bass, You're love, it's still ostory.
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Each day.
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I'm following man, because you're great still bas is.
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Your grad stllbays maz.
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Thank you Jackie and Ryan, beautiful music, Amen, good evening, everyone,
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Welcome to Prophecy countdown question time. That's right, now, how
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do you post the question? Well, they're going to put
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up a QR code for our friends here also for
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those who are watching. Just scan the QR code. I
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think we've said that one hundred times passed the UG.
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Scan the QR code for everything the free offer of
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the questions. We're going to make it easy. Just scan
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that QR code and you can post your Bible question.
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And I'm still waiting for it to pop up here.
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I'm sure it will in just a few moments. Well,
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we've got some great questions that have come up past
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the UG and we're going to get right to it.
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Last night you spoke about well, Lucifer spoke about the
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birth of evil. So the first questions that we have
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are dealing with that subject. Some follow up questions that
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people had. Number one, I heard that Lucifer was a
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great musician. Is their biblical evidence for this?
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Well, do we know that angels sing? The Bible tells
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us an angel singing rejoice over one sinner that is lost.
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If Lucifer is the chief of the angels and he
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would be the choir director, you can read in Ezekiel
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twenty eight it says thy tabarts and thy pipes were
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prepared in me from the day that you were created.
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The word pipes it means voice or song. Do we
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believe that there can be God inspired music? When David
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played for King Salid drove away the evil spirits. If
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there can be God inspired music, does it make sense
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there can be evil inspired music? Yeah, you got God
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inspired music drives the devil out, and then there's music
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that drives the devil in. But the devil understands the
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power of music. You can be sure of that. And
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Satan was probably the leader of the heaven choir.
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Okay, next question that we have what Satan cast out
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of heaven before or after Adam and Eve were created.
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Well, that's a very important question and it takes a
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little bit of study. A few years ago, Amazing Facts
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did a program called con Cosmic Conflict. You can see
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it for free on YouTube. It was a documentary and
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we had to do some research, and we're pretty convinced
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that the war in heaven and Satan being evicted from
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Heaven happened before our world was created, because Adam and
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Eve had been warned about staying away from the Tree
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of Evil right there in the Garden of Eden. There
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was already the existence of this enemy that was going
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to try to tempt them. So we believe that that
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rebellion happened before the creation of our world.
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Next question, does the devil know our faults?
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No?
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This is one big difference between God and the devil.
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I believe it's First King's Chapter eight, verse thirty nine.
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God and God only knows the thoughts of men's hearts.
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The Bible tells us that God knows what you're thinking.
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You can pray to God in your heart like Neemiah
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did Jesus in Mark chapter two. It says Jesus knew
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what they were thinking. Jesus knew what the disciples were
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arguing about on the road. God knows what we're thinking.
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Will be judged not only by our actions, but by
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the motives of our hearts. So all things are naked
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and open to the eyes of Him with whom we
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have to do. I'm quoting Hebrews here. But the devil,
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he can tempt you and look at your expression and
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try to make a very educated guess on whether he's
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getting through. How many of you are married that sometimes
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you can tell what your spouse is thinking. See and
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we can read minds, but you know, you know some
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and for a while. And the devil, just like God,
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has guardian angels that protect and God a Satan's probably
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got angels appointed to us at study our character, our weaknesses.
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He knows what things would tempt us. They know our
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body language, and they can take a pretty educated guess
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on if they're getting through now. The devil can influence
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your dreams. The devil can put a thought in your mind,
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but he cannot read your mind because when he tempts us,
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he puts thoughts in your mind.
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Does that make sense?
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Okay, you're a quiet group.
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Here, all right?
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Next question, how can I live a pure life? Kind
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of ties in with our subject last night. How do
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I live a pure life when I'm surrounded by so
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much immorality in the media and on social media?
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Important question, And it is true, this is a difficult age.
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Satan has been studying the weakness of humanity and trying
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to accelerate evil more and more. As we near the
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end of time, Jesus said, one of the signs of
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the end, love would wax cold. The evil men, Paul said,
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speaking of the last as evil men and seducers will
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wax worse and worse, and sometimes we're just absolutely shocked
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at the depravity of the human heart, and we see
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the disconcern of men for their fellow humans. How do
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we live holy lives in this kind of an environment.
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When Jesus was born in Nazareth, when Philip told Nathaniel,
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we've found the Messiah of whom Moses and the prophets
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did speak, Jesus of Nazareth, Philip said, can anything good?
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And I'm sorry, Nathaniel said, can anything good come out
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of Nazareth? Nazareth had a reputation for being the wrong
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side of the tracks. And if Jesus could grow up
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and live a holy life in Nazareth, then you can too.
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You know, a swamp that's filled with slime and scum,
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a lily can pop up with a white flower in
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that environment. It's just amazing. And so it doesn't matter
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what your environment is. Blessed are the pure in heart.
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They will see God. You become like what you focus on.
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And even though we may be surrounded with the world
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with all kinds of evil influences, you can choose to
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fill your mind with the word of God. Enoch walked
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with God in a world that was so wicked that
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God destroyed it, but he still walked with God, and
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so did Noah. And you can walk with God just
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before the second Coming.
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All right, next question that we have, this is an
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important question. We do get this from time to time
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on the radio program. Can people who commit suicide be saved?
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Yeah? That's a very sobering question. And when I answer that,
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I'm thinking of two groups. I'll just tell you. We
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get calls on the radio program people ask can a
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suicide be saved? Sometimes it's a young person thinking of suicide.
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They want to know, can I commit suicide and still
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be saved. I'm very careful to tell them that is
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a bad idea, because the Bible says without faith, it's
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impossible to please God. And if the last act of
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a person's life is faithlessness, and the last act of
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a person's life is self murder, that does not bode well.
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But then there are people who call and they ask
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can a suicide be saved? And they're thinking of a
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loved one that got discouraged, or maybe they were under
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the influence of some chemical change in their body or
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some great tragedy and they took their life I think
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there are exceptions. God looks at the circumstances. And Pastor
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Ross and I have had some members that were going
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through tremendous pain because of cancer and they were ready
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to take their lives, and they never would do that
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under normal circumstances. And so I think God he looks
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at that. And Samson was a suicide, but it lists
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him in Hebrews eleven as being among the faithful. He'll
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be in heaven. Last act of his life was being
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filled with the spirit. He said, Lord, let me die
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with the philosines. He pushed down the building on himself
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and the enemy. So I guess you could argue that
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was a sacrifice, but he took his life.
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Okay, that we have How long will be the tribulation?
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And I think it's talking about the last of the
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great tribunal?
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Right, Most Christians agree there is a great final tribulation.
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Jesus said, there will be a time of trouble such
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as there never has been since there was a nation,
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even until the same time. And he said, read Daniel.
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The prophet you read in Daniel chapter twelve says in
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verse one, at that time Michael will stand up the
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great Prince that stands for the children of thy people,
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and there will be a time of trouble such as
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there never has been. And so we all agree there's
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a tribulation. People want to know, is it before the
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second Coming? Is it after a secret rapture? When is it?
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We'll get to that another time. You're asking how long
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is it? We don't know. Some have said, well, we
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believe it's going to be seven years of tribulation. They
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say that because they take a prophecy in Daniel chapter nine,
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called the four hundred and ninety year prophecy. Daniel nine
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talks about the final week, and they take that final
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week off of the four hundred and ninety years and
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they float it down at the end of time. Others say, well,
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because there were seven days that Noah was in the ark,
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even after the door was shut, So they say, you know,
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a day is a year. Maybe it'll be seven years
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of tribulation. Others say, well, maybe it'll be three and
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a half years, because it seems like that's often a
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period of time of great persecution, like the famine in
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the days of Elijah. We don't know. I'll tell you
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it does say in Revelation all of her plagues will
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come in a day, and a day in the Bible
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prophetically is a year. That means within one year all
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those plagues may come in rapid succession. There are two
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times of trouble. There's what you call a small time
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of trouble. That's when you cannot buy or sell, and
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they'll be persecution. Probation is not closed. The saints are
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going to be sharing their faith and many will be converted.
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Some will leave the church during that tribulation. But then
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when the great tribulation happens, probation has closed, saved or saved,
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and the lost or lost when the seven last plagues fall.
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We don't know exactly how long that will be.
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Okay, Another question dealing with time. Where in the Bible
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does it say that it took Noah one hundred and
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twenty years to build the Ark.
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It does not say that specifically. Most scholars believe that
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was the period of time because you read in Genesis six,
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God says, my spirit will not always strive with man.
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His days will be one hundred and twenty years, and
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the next verses talks about God choosing to destroy the
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world in calling Noah and giving him the dimensions of
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the arc, so it's presumed there were one hundred and
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twenty years from that point until the flood came. Peter
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refers to that in Second Peter, Chapter three, but he
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doesn't mention one hundred and twenty years. The life of
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Moses was one hundred and twenty years, broken up in
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three phases. Forty years in Egypt, forty years in the wilderness,
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forty years bringing people from Egypt to the Promised Land.
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So some have thought that Noah had one hundred and
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twenty years. That seems like a long time, but keep
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in mind Noah lived nine hundred and sixty five years,
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I think, so it was comparatively short. All right.
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Another question that we have, why is the Book of
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Enoch not included in the Bible?
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Good question because in the Book of Jude, Jude quotes
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from the Book of Enoch. But why isn't the whole
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Book of Enoch in the Bible. Well, most scholars agree
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the Book of Enoch is not written a book that
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was written by Enoch that was handed to Noah that
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made it through the flood. It was sort of an
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apocryphal book that was written by a devout Jew during
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the Babylonian captivity, and there were evidently some inspired statements
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in the book that Jude quoted from. It didn't mean
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the whole book was inspired. And Paul sometimes quotes from
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even contemporary authors and poets. That doesn't mean that those
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poets were all inspired. Sometimes there's an excerpt that is
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inspired that a prophet may choose to quote from. How
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many of you have read the book Pilgrim's Progress by
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John Bunyan. I'll tell you there's a lot of inspired
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statements in that book in my opinion, but it's not
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the Bible, so it's an allegory. The Book of Enoch
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was an allegory, and Jude chose to quote from part
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of it. It should not be included in the sacred
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Canon of Scripture. All right, next question.
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In the last few minutes you have passed that I'm
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ten years old and I want to know what do
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I have to do to be baptist? Here's the question,
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And I want to know do I have to be
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baptized to be saved?
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Well, of course there will be a lot of children
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in heaven that maybe died or the Lord came before
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the age of accountability, and they weren't baptized and of
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course they'll be in the kingdom when you reach the
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age of accountability and you accept Jesus. Part of that
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process is making the public commitment to Christ. Baptism symbolizes
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a way washing way of sin, and you should be
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You should do that in cooperation with your parents, studying
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with the pastor you should have Bible studies and know
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what the commitment means. People, someone, I'll just let you
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write down a question. What is the age of accountability?
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And we'll leave that for another question. But do we
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have a study where we're going to talk about baptism
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and the commitment and what it means to be spirit filled?
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So we'll wait for the full answer for that question.
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All right, maybe i'll ask question passed the eg will
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we be able to visit the planets when we go
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to heaven?
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Well, you know it doesn't say in the Bible, but
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how many of you have sung that song Rock of Ages?
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Rock of Ages? Yeah, it says we will sor to
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worlds unknown. No, that's not scripture, but I believe it's true.
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I don't, especially when you look at the James Webb
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telescope and the Hubble telescope and they keep thinking they're
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going to find the edge of the universe, and they
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find it just goes on and on, and they are
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seeing galaxies that have billions of stars. As far as
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we can see into space. God has an infinite universe.
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I believe we will not be quarantined to this planet,
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but we will be able to soar to worlds unknown
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and see God's unfallen universe.
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All right, Well, that's it for our questions for this evening. Again,
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it's easy to ask a question. Just scan the QR code,
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or if you don't have the QR code, go to
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the website. It's just Prophecy Countdown dot tv and there
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is a link that you can click on that says
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submit a question and that'll take you to the same
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app where you able to type in your question. And
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we're going to try and answer as many questions as
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we can from.
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Night to night.
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Well, we have been so blessed with our musicians with
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pastor Ryan Johnson, and we got Jackie Jackie Jewel got
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mixed up, almost had our last name. First, I thought,
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well that's not right, but Jackie Jewel at the piano.
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We ready to appreciate the music and we'll be blessed
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with another beautiful musical item.
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Lord prepares our hearts for the messages evening. This is
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a little song of praise that we would like to
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teach you. We're gonna sing it a couple of times,
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and they will invite you to sing it with us
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on the final time.
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Goes a bit like this.
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I will love you, Lord, my stray. I will love
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you Lord my she and I will love you Lord, my.
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Rock forever all my days. I will love you Lord,
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I will my story, I will my she, I will love.
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My walk.
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Forever my days. I will.
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You love.
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Let's try that. I will love you, Lord my Story.
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I love you, Lord, my Shield.
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I will love you, Lord, my Shep, and I will
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love you my Rock. I will love you, Lord, my Rock.
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Forever all my days.
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I will love you Lord.
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Forever my days, forever, all my days. I will love
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you forever, all my days. I will love.
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You.
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I love you, Love and ilve my go.
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To ship you.
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All my soul. Great take tore mokey.
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World.
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You may be a sweet sweet Amen.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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Tonight, we have a very important subject. It's lesson number four.
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For those of you who are watching you can download
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the lesson. It's entitled The Decalogue and God's Dilemma. You'll
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find in the Book of Revelation there's two groups of people,
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those who worship God and keep his commandments and those
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who worship the beast power and keep the traditions of
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this power. We're going to learn about that tonight.
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Welcome once again friends to the Prophecy Countdown program. And
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I want to give a special welcome to those of
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you who are faithfully coming here in Crowley, Texas near
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the Fort Worth area. Also want to welcome all who
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are watching online or three abm AFTV, YouTube, Facebook, and
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this message is going out, you know one of these nights.
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What we need to do is we need to capture
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some of the programs that are going in another language,
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because it's entertaining to see me speaking Hindi and Chinese,
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because what they do is they actually capture my voice
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the resonance. It sounds like me, and then they have
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me speaking other languages and I could watch that for hours.
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It says really fun. So we may show you a
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sample of that. But yes, if you go to the
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website Prophecy Countdown dot tv, you'll see where you can
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click on the language and you can listen to these
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programs in fourteen fifteen different languages and text your friends
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around the world. You know, Jesus said the Gospel of
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the Kingdom will go into all the world to be
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preached to every nation and tongue. And that that is
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happening in your hearing friends. It's wonderful. Tonight we have
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a very important presentation talking about the Decalogue and God's dilemma. Now,
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the word decalogue is another word, it's mor of, an
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an older term for the Ten Commandments. A decca means
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ten log logos words, the ten words, the ten Commandments
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and the dilemma. And I like always start with a
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little amazing fact. The largest man made stone that we
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know is in Lebanon, and it's actually a series of
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stones called the Balbuck stones. Now, these stones can be
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found under what was an ancient temple, a Roman temple
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built in the first one hundred years AD. It was
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dedicated at one point to Jupiter and to Bacchus and
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their different gods. But the foundation stones were bigger than
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anything else the Romans had ever done. And the Romans
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used to brag about their architecture and their Colosseum and
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their aqueducts, but they never in their history mentioned these
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stones that were the biggest stones, because it's believed these
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foundation stones were there and they just used it and
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built on top of it. And so the question is
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who was it could build these enormous stones. One of
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the stones is the biggest man made stone in the world,
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sixty five feet long, rectangle, carved twelve feet wide eighteen
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feet estimated at sixteen hundred and fifty tons. It is
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absolutely massive and for some reason, the largest of the stones.
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They carved it, but they never finished moving it to
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its site, and there's something of a mystery there. And
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you know, as I travel around the world, I love
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to go and videotape amazing facts and different locations. They've
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got some megal massive stones that were carved. We don't
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even know how they did it. You go to South
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America where the Inca Indians were living, and they have
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stones that fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and you
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can't put a razor blade between them. I've been inside
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the Great Pyramid and you see the weather has not
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worn the stones on the inside. You can see it's
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all fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. You think it's
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like laser cut. How did they do it? How did
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they move them? I was an island in the South
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Pacific called Ponnapee in Micronesia. Anyone here ever heard of Pawnapey?
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And I've made two trips there. And they've got a
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place called nan Madal where they built this. They called
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it the Venice of the Pacific. It is a stone
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his own city that was abandoned before the natives ever
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got there. And it's made out of these basalt stone logs.
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Some of them are like, you know, fifty feet long.
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He's it's incredible. And you think about maybe some of
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these ancients had wisdom that we don't know about. And
-
maybe when the Bible tells us that people were bigger
-
and stronger and lived longer in ancient times, there's some
-
truth to that. But when I think about a big,
-
strong foundation stone, I don't think about the Balbic stones.
-
I think about the word of Christ. Jesus said, a
-
wise man is the man who digs deep. He gets
-
down to the rock, and he builds his house on
-
the rock. And when the storm comes and the wind
-
blows and the water rushes, that house does not fall
-
because it's founded on the rock, and the foolish man
-
builds on the sand. And Christ and his word is
-
that rock. And friends, you notice in the parable that
-
Jesus tells in Matthew five and in Luke, he says,
-
there's a storm that comes to a wise man, and
-
there's a storm who comes to the full. Everybody is
-
going to face the storm. The question is what are
-
you building your life off. First few years of my
-
life I built on just the typical, have fun and
-
then die the cares of life. And it wasn't until
-
I had my encounter with God reading a Bible someone
-
left in a cave that my whole world view changed
-
and my abundant life began. And you're able to survive
-
the storms of life when you're founded on the rock.
-
Some of you have already been through some storms. The
-
big storm is coming in a tribulation, and we need
-
to make sure our faith is rooted and grounded on
-
the rock of God's word. And the rock is not
-
just talking about the words of the Lord. The rock
-
is talking about the law, the foundational law. Jesus wrote
-
the Ten Commandments on stone. Now there is a lot
-
of controversy believe it or not in the Christian Church
-
about what do we do with the Ten Commandments? Even
-
here in Texas, there's a great debate on whether or
-
not they could put the Commandments in the schools, and
-
so what do we do with the law of God?
-
Is that pushing religion on the government and commingling church
-
and state. Well, we went to our people on the
-
street to get some insight on what is their view
-
of the Law of God and the Commandments. Laws are
-
basically the minimum of morality. Laws are a way of
-
explaining moral concepts.
-
So there's laws to make sure that we don't do
-
anything to get ourselves hurt or get someone else hurt.
-
I think that the importance of laws is mostly to
-
keep people safe from each other, from themselves and all together,
-
just to make sure that everyone is able to coexist.
-
I believe we have them in place just to make
-
sure sure we can function as a working society. We
-
can function as a cohesive machine, we can function as
-
one organism where we don't try to kill each other,
-
we don't try to harm each other.
-
I think laws give us structure in our daily life.
-
I think I think we need laws. I mean I
-
think it'd be total chaos and disorder if we didn't.
-
We need laws.
-
Morality is defunct, so laws help us define morality.
-
And we do need that.
-
We don't need to push it on everyone, but we
-
got to have some morality, and I think the world's
-
showing is that right now. You know, one thing I
-
was wanting someone to address is if we have law,
-
is there a penalty for breaking the law? And does
-
a law have any force or teeth if there's no
-
penalty for violating that law. You know, the Bible tells
-
us that God has a law and there's a penalty
-
for breaking that law. The wages for sin are well, yeah,
-
that's pretty serious. So we're going to talk about this dilemma.
-
All have sinned according to the Bible. We've all broken
-
God's law. We're all under a death sentence, but we're
-
not dead right now because Jesus on the cross purchased
-
us probation to make an eternal decision. So we're going
-
to discuss some of the tension and the understanding between
-
the law and grace and salvation. And really, when you
-
think about it this topic tonight, it does fit into
-
revelation and it is one of the most important subjects
-
we can study. You get to the last chapter of
-
the Bible, Revelation, Blessed are those who do as commandments,
-
that they might have a right to the Tree of
-
life and enter through the gates of the city. How
-
many of you want to eat from that tree and
-
enter into the gates of that city. Well, what law
-
is he talking about? You know, there are many different
-
laws in the Bible. So we're going to find out
-
about what is the gospel, what is the problem, and
-
what is the solution? All right, Number one, go into
-
Revelation chapter five, verse six. Who is symbolized by the
-
lamb that you find in Revelation five to six. Let
-
me read this to you. It says, and I looked
-
and behold in the midst of the throne and the
-
four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders,
-
these are the twenty four elders, stood a lamb, as
-
though it had been Swain, having seven horns and seven eyes,
-
which are the seven spirits of God sent out into
-
all the earth. And he came, and he took the
-
scroll out of the right hand of him who sat
-
on the throne, the only one who could open the
-
scroll containing the names in the Book of Life we
-
believe is this lamb? Now does everyone understand the lamb
-
with you know, seven eyes and seven horns and seven
-
spirits is symbolic language. The key to understanding these things
-
is found other places in the Bible. That lamb is Christ.
-
John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, behold the
-
lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,
-
the guilt of the world. We are under a death penalty.
-
He's got the seven eyes, representing that God is all knowing.
-
He sees everything. You can read in the Bible where
-
a prophet said, the eyes of the Lord do run
-
to and fro through the whole earth to show himself
-
mighty in behalf of him whose heart is loyal to him.
-
The eyes of God see everything. You cannot run from God.
-
Like Jonah tried, what about the seven spirits? People wonder
-
is there one Holy Spirit or seven holy spirits? Well,
-
the Holy Spirit is one. The Bible says one Lord,
-
one faith, one baptism. There's one God, Father, Son and Spirit.
-
Why is it say seven spirits? These are seven facets
-
or attributes of the Holy Spirit. You can find them
-
listed in Isaiah chapter eleven. Remember, the Old Testament has
-
the keys. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
-
Count that as one. The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
-
the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge,
-
and the fear of the Lord, different facets of the
-
Holy Spirit. When Solomon said, Lord, give me wisdom, well,
-
that's a gift of the spirit. The Bible tells us,
-
blessed be the Lord God. What about the horns, This
-
Slam's got seven horns. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
-
for he has visited and redeemed his people and has
-
raised up a horn of salivation for us in the
-
house of his servant David, a horn of salvation. For
-
the Hebrews. They were largely a nation of shepherds, and
-
they would see that the male goats in the rams
-
they had horns, and that's where their strength was. The
-
oxen had horns. That's where their power was. You even
-
use the expression on the horns of a dilemma. And
-
in Texas you do bull riding, you got to watch
-
for the horns, right, because that's where the power it is.
-
And so it's talking about the power of Christ. The
-
knowing of Christ, the facets of the Holy Spirit. And
-
so this is a picture of Jesus, the Lamb of
-
God that takes away the sin of the world. John
-
said John one twenty nine. He saw Jesus. He says
-
this twice. By the way, behold the Lamb of God
-
who takes away the sin of the world. Right there
-
in the garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve's sin,
-
they Adam and Eve were not streaking naked around the
-
garden as many people try to portray, and they always
-
have pictures and paintings of Adam and Eve. And you've
-
got strategically positioned leaves to cover things, you know, so
-
you can read the books to the children. Adam and
-
Eve had a garment of light when aber I'm sorry,
-
when Moses was talking to God, he came down the mountain.
-
He was shining so bright they had to veil their
-
his face so it wouldn't shine it at them so much.
-
Adam and Eve, in their holiness, they had garments robes
-
of glory. But when they sinned, the light went out
-
and they saw their nakedness, and they tried to cover
-
their nakedness with fig leaves. Now keep in mind up
-
till then nothing had died. They probably thought, well, this
-
would last. But once they picked them, they started to wither,
-
and they thought it's not good. By the way it says,
-
they made themselves aprons of fig leaves. Aprons would mean
-
mini skirts. That's the word. It's like a little apron
-
that a butcher might use. And God said that will
-
not do. And God gave them coats tunics of skin. Now,
-
up to this point nothing had ever died. Where did
-
God get the skin? Revelation talks about the lamb that
-
was slain from the foundation of the world. God instituted
-
the sacrificial system there in the garden of Eden for
-
Adam and Eve, and it took the death of a
-
lamb to cover their nakedness. You remember, Abel brought a lamb.
-
They already knew about the sacrificial system way back in
-
the beginning, and came to want to do that. God
-
accepted able sacrifice. He did not accept Kane's sacrifice, and
-
so the covering of this lamb, the death of the lamb.
-
They were looking through history for when God's lamb would come.
-
And Jesus is that lamb. I remember hearing a story
-
years ago about a lighthouse keeper in Scotland. And he
-
had this very high lighthouse, one hundred and fifty feet high,
-
that was on a rocky bluff on a meadow overlooking
-
the sea, green grass and sheep grazing below. And every
-
now and then you've got to clean the lighthouse windows.
-
And so he was out walking around the railing and
-
he was trying to clean up the windows, and he
-
leaned back against the railing, not knowing that the rust
-
had worn through the rivets, and the railing gave way
-
and he tumbled one hundred and fifty feet down and
-
smacked down on the ground. Was soon he regained consciousness.
-
He was looking up and he saw the puffy white
-
clouds and the blue sky. He thought, I must be
-
in heaven. And they thought, but if him in heaven,
-
what had my back hurt so much? And then he
-
came to his senses. He got up and he realized
-
he had landed on top of one of the sheep.
-
It broke his fall. The sheep died, but he lived.
-
And the Lamb of God had to die so that
-
we could live. And whether you accept it or not,
-
do you know Jesus died for your sins? What a
-
shame that he would die for your sins and you
-
would die for your sins too. Talk about a waste.
-
I remember once going out to eat with my father
-
in law, and we each wanted to be magnanimous, and
-
so I went up and I gave my credit card
-
to pay for the dinner for the family, and he
-
snuck up and he paid, and he gave, and somehow
-
it came out as we were going down the road
-
we had both paid, and they didn't bother to tell us, Well,
-
that really hurts. It'd be ashamed to have it paid
-
for twice. Jesus has paid for your sins. You need
-
to embrace that and cash the check. Friends. Amen. He
-
is called the Lamb of God. When Abraham, God said Abraham, Abraham, Exodus,
-
chapter twenty two. Here I am Lord, Take your son,
-
your only son, Isaac, whom you love. Bring him unto
-
the mountains of Mariah, and there sacrifice him to me.
-
Offer him is a burnt offering. Now this is the
-
child He and Sarah had been waiting for Abraham one
-
hundred years, and now he's over one hundred years old.
-
And God is saying, all of your posterity a great
-
nation is going to come through the sun. I want
-
you to sacrifice him. Abraham probably didn't even wake up Sarah.
-
He took some servants, he took his son, he took
-
the mules with some wood and supplies, and they went
-
a three day journey to the mountains of Mariah. At
-
the base of the mountain, they told the servants stay here,
-
and Abraham said, the lad and I will come to
-
you again. Notice he said the lad and I will
-
come to you again. He didn't know how God was
-
going to get him out of that. But God had
-
said a nation would come through Isaac, and he believed.
-
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
-
And if you read in Hebrews, it says in Hebrews eleven,
-
Abraham believed that even if he killed Isaac, God would
-
raise him up, which was a type of Christ. So
-
then they go half a day up the mountain. Notice
-
three and a half days a day in prophecies a year.
-
Jesus ministered three and a half years. The wood is
-
put on Isaac's back, the cross was put on Jesus back.
-
They get to the top, Abraham has to explain to
-
his son. Abraham did not jump Isaac and wrap him
-
up like a rodeo expert. He said, here's what's going on.
-
God has told me to offer you. He was a
-
willing sacrifice like Jesus. And he put him on the wood,
-
and just before the knife came down, God said, oh wait,
-
I'll have that the best part. On the way up
-
the mountain, Isaac is putting two and two together. He's
-
gone to sacrifice with his father, because everywhere Abraham went
-
he built an altar. And on the way up the mountain,
-
Isaac's looking around. He says, well, we've got the wood
-
and we've got what it takes to make the fire.
-
But uh for missing the sacrifice. And he said, my
-
father says, we've got the wood in the fire, but
-
where is the lamb? And Abraham said, in those immortal
-
words that have gone down through time, my son God
-
will provide himself a lamb. God, the son Jesus provided
-
himself a lamb. And just before the cross, the knife
-
comes down symbol of the cross. The angel stops Abraham
-
and says, don't do it. Don't harm your son. Now
-
I know you fear me. Of course, God already knew
-
this is a demonstration to all of us that he
-
was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice of his child,
-
which is what God did for you to save us.
-
And then God directed Abraham's attention to a Ram that
-
was caught by his horns in a thicket. The word
-
thicket means a thorn bush. You've got a ram with
-
a crown of thorns, like Jesus. This whole story is
-
an allegory of the cross, the father and the son
-
going to the place of sacrifice together. And this is
-
how much God loves us that he would give his
-
son to save us. Number two, why was it necessary
-
for Jesus to suffer and die? I think most of
-
you know this Romans three twenty three. For how many
-
all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
-
We've all sinned, everyone except Jesus. And what is the
-
penalty Romans six twenty three. For the wages of sin
-
is death. It is the most serious penalty, is a
-
terribly contagious, deadly disease that God cannot allow to go unchecked.
-
In his universe. Everybody is sort of born into life
-
knowing there is right and wrong, Paul says in Romans
-
Chapter one. Even the barbarians, even the Pagans have a conscience,
-
even of them, some of them who don't have the
-
law of God, they have that inward law. They know
-
inherently some things are wrong. And you know, as you
-
travel through the world in the primitive days, and they
-
would discover different cultures. People seem to sort of understand
-
that murder was wrong, and lying was wrong, and stealing
-
was wrong. And the Ten Commandments are the best summary
-
of any national law. That's why when you go to
-
the Supreme Court at the pinnacle of the building, you're
-
going to see Moses holding two tables of stone on
-
his lap, because the foundation for all earthly loss springs
-
back to that great man, Moses, who received the law
-
from God. The Bible says First Corinthians fifteen three. Christ
-
died for our sins. According to the scripture, and again
-
Isaiah fifty three six, all we everybody like sheep, have
-
gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, and
-
the Lord has laid upon him. The Lord placed upon
-
him the iniquity of the sin of us. All Jesus
-
died for the sins of the whole world. Now it's
-
hard for us to comprehend that somehow the Lord could
-
carry the buckets filled with the sin and the guilt
-
of the whole world when he suffered and then died
-
on the cross. But he didn't suffer as a man suffered.
-
He suffered as a god suffers because he's the creator.
-
And friends, don't forget that. If Christ's sacrifice was adequate
-
to cover the sins of the whole world, then he
-
has enough for you, doesn't He don't think my sins
-
are just too much. Lord, I don't think you can
-
handle it. If he can handle the sins of the
-
whole human race all through history, he can handle yours. Amen.
-
He is a better savior than you are a sinner.
-
For Christ also suffered once for sins the just, for
-
the unjusts. He took our weakness and gives us his strength.
-
He took our death, and he gives us his life.
-
He took our impurity, and he gives us his holiness.
-
He traded places with us. Number three, What does revelation
-
call the plan to save people from death? We're going
-
back to revelation again. Revelation fourteen six. By the way,
-
just before the Second Coming and Revelation fourteen it says
-
I looked and behold, once sat on the cloud like
-
the Son of Man. It pictures Jesus coming. What do
-
you read just before it pictures Jesus coming. These angels
-
have a message that they are being proclaimed from heaven
-
with a loud voice. That's where you get the word mephon,
-
a Greek word. This loud voice going to the whole world,
-
saying they have the Everlasting Gospel. The Gospel is going
-
to the world. Jesus said, then the end will come.
-
This is happening today, friends. The Gospel is being proclaimed
-
everywhere through all these incredible communication means right now having
-
the everlasting Gospel. It's never changed from the time that
-
Adam sinned and he went out of the garden wearing
-
lambskin to the present day. Everybody saved is saved by
-
the lamb. Please do not miss this now. I come
-
from a Jewish background, and I'm amazed sometimes to hear
-
people say, well, yeah, and the Jews were saved by works.
-
No they weren't. No Jew believes that. I mean, everyone
-
wants to do good works, and there's even some legalistic Christians,
-
but they all trusted in the Atonement. The whole sanctuary
-
was built around God's mercy and forgiveness. His mercy endures forever.
-
Is what the Jews taught. I knew they would never
-
make it with their mercies. They needed to repent and
-
turn and trust in God's mercy, because if we get
-
God's justice.
-
We're all doomed.
-
They were saved by faith. Looking forward to the cross,
-
Abraham believed God. He's the father of the faithful. We
-
are saved by faith. Looking back to the cross. The
-
gospel has not changed. Abel was saved by the blood
-
of Christ. Nobody's going to get to heaven and say
-
I work my way in.
-
Is that right?
-
There's only one name given among men whereby we must
-
be saved. Somebody write down a question, send it in.
-
I won't answer it. Now. Are there going to be
-
people in dark continents that never heard about Jesus that
-
will be in heaven? Not going to answer that? Send
-
it in? See Everlasting Gospel number four. According to the Bible,
-
what is sin and how do we recognize it? Here's
-
like a dictionary definition. First on three four sin is
-
got it on the screen? Sin is what lawlessness? If
-
you have the King James version that says sin is
-
the transgression of the law, which is lawlessness. And you
-
read in Romans three twenty for by the law is
-
the knowledge of sin. If you lie, you sin, You
-
shall not bear false witness. If you steal, you sin.
-
If you commit adultery, Jesus said, you can commit adultery
-
in your heart, and you can commit it literally. And
-
usually if you commit it literally, you also committed in
-
your heart. It's sin, right murder, He said, you can
-
murder in your heart. Anyone who is angry with his
-
brother without cause is the guilty of murder. So Christ
-
not only taught the letter of the law, he taught
-
the spirit of the law. Because keeping the law is
-
not just actions. It's also attitude. It's a bad attitude
-
that leads to the bad action. And when you're born again,
-
God changes your heart. You're a new creature. You love.
-
You don't want to even think those things because it
-
starts as a thought before it's an action. Right, So
-
Christ talked about the law in the heart that then
-
will be played out in the life. But basically what
-
I'm saying is, when you break God's law, it's sin.
-
The Ten Commandments are the most perfect summary of God's
-
will you can find in the Bible. The Bible says
-
Romans seven to seven, I would not have known sin
-
except through the law, For I would not have known coveteousness.
-
In the less the law said, now shall not covet
-
Here Paul is quoting from the Ten Commandments to Commandment
-
number ten. Now, friends, I'm going to say this in
-
as strong way as I can. I don't mean to
-
be unkind, but I've just got to tell you there
-
is a false doctrine that I hear repeated over and
-
over even in Christian churches, that Jesus came and that
-
he nailed the law to the cross, meaning we don't
-
need to keep the Ten Commandments anymore. That is a
-
doctrine of devils. That's not at all what Paul is
-
talking about about. Christ died, he kept the law, so
-
we don't have to You ever heard that. I have.
-
I've heard preachers say it on TV, and I just
-
I think, Oh, that's diabolical. The idea that God doesn't
-
care whether or not we obey his law, that is
-
just mind boggling to me. That's what Paul would call
-
a doctrine of devils. Of course, he wants us to
-
keep his law. We cannot do it without his strength.
-
When Jesus saves us from our sin, we are no
-
longer under the law. What does that mean? We're not
-
under the death penalty anymore. But we're more careful than
-
ever to want to keep God's law because He's shown
-
us mercy. Christians are not just forgiven, we should also
-
be different. Right. Romans four fifteen stains, where there is
-
no law, there is no transgression. Right, the law cannot
-
save anyone, but it shows us God's perfection and our
-
impert affection. And again you read in Psalm one nineteen
-
verse ninety six. Any sin that a person commits is
-
condemned by at least one of the ten commandments. This
-
is why God's law is called broad and perfect Psalm nineteen,
-
verse seven. The law is called perfect. The law covers
-
the whole duty of man. Sin is lawlessness, for by
-
the law is the knowledge of sin. Can God's moral
-
law the Ten Commandments ever be changed or repealed? No,
-
The Bible says it is easier. These are the words
-
of Jesus. It is easier for a heaven and earth
-
to pass away than one tittle to pass from the law.
-
Tittle would be like the little crossing of a tea.
-
It's the smallest increment of writing in the Hebrew language.
-
Jesus in heaven and earth will have to pass away.
-
Why you know God has a copy in heaven of
-
the law. Have you read in Revelation I saw the
-
Temple of God open in heaven. I saw the ark
-
of the Covenant. What's in the ark the law of God.
-
It is the perfect expression of his character. And again
-
you read in Psalm eighty nine, verse thirty four. My
-
covenant I will not break nor alter. The word has
-
gone that has gone out of my mouth. It is
-
a covenant. He will not break it. You read in
-
Psalm one eleven, verse seven and eight. All of his
-
precepts are sure. They stand fast for how long, forever
-
and ever? Malachi three to six. I am the Lord.
-
I change not now. I need to hasten to add.
-
What confuses people is there were a number of Jewish
-
ceremonial laws that were nailed to the cross. These are
-
laws that came later. They came after the time of Moses.
-
But follow me, I'm trusting you know your Bible a
-
little a bit. When Joseph was tempted to sleep with
-
his master's wife potifer his master. He said, how can
-
I do this and sin against God? Did Josephoseph lived
-
before the ten Commandments were spoken or after Before? Did
-
Joseph know that it was a sin to commit adult
-
tree before Moses wrote it down? Yes, when the Bible
-
tells us that God said to cain, sin lies at
-
your door, he was thinking of murdering his brother. Was
-
murder a sin before it was written down?
-
Yes?
-
All Moses did was cartify the will of God that's
-
been in existence through eternity. Let me see if I
-
can explain it this way. If you were to sum
-
up God with one word, what's the word the Bible
-
gives us God is love. The first four commandments deal
-
with our love relationship with God. You might even say
-
the first four and a half commandments because honor your
-
father and mother. He's also our father in heaven. The
-
church is sort of like the bride of Christ the mother,
-
So you could argue that's kind of a halfway commandment.
-
But it transitions then to the last six commandments, deal
-
with our love for our fellow man. By the way,
-
the Lord's prayer is divided the same way. First three
-
petitions we're talking about gods, God's will right, God's name,
-
God's kingdom. The last feed us, deliver us right. So
-
is divided the same way. The first four commandments talk
-
about loving God. If we love God, we're not going
-
to use his name in vain. We're not going to
-
worship other gods. We're not going to break the Sabbath,
-
and we're not going to worship idols and belittle his image.
-
I send them out of order on purpose. The last
-
six commandments deal with our love for our fellow man. Right,
-
We're going to honor our father and other We're not
-
going to commit adultery. We're not going to steal it.
-
We're not going to lie, we're not going to be
-
our fault murder, and we're not going to commit adultery.
-
No cove it. I repeated one of them twice. So
-
if you love, Paul says, love is the fulfilling of
-
the law. God is love. Jesus said, the whole purpose
-
of man is summed up in two commandments. Love the
-
Lord with all your heart, mind and soul and strength.
-
Love your neighbor as yourself. You know what your purpose
-
in life is. How many of you are breathing right now,
-
only two or three. I was wondering some of you
-
look like, how many of your heart's beating right now?
-
You're alive? Are? You want to know why? So you
-
can learn to love God and love your neighbor the
-
principal purpose of life. We have love problems. We need
-
to learn to love God. We need to learn to
-
love each other. And is loving God and sharing his love,
-
loving one another and sharing that love. That's what God
-
tries to teach us. With all that you go through
-
every day, God is trying to teach you to trust
-
and love Him and to love each other. It's all
-
about love. So the ten commands are a summary of
-
God's character in his nature of love. Look at this
-
next slide and this will help bear that out. When
-
you look at the definitions of God in the Bible,
-
and then you look at what the scriptures say about
-
the Law of God, you'll find there the exact same
-
thing the Bible says. For example, God is good Luke
-
eighteen nineteen, the Bible says the Law is good Romans
-
seven twelve. The Bible says God is holy. In Isaiah
-
five sixteen, it says the Law is holy. God is
-
just Deuteronomy thirty two four.
-
The law is just.
-
I don't have time to read you all the scriptures.
-
They're in your lesson, But let me just go through.
-
God in the law is good, holy, just, perfect love.
-
I'm not done. Truth, pure, spiritual, unchangeable, eternal. When you
-
look at the definitions of God in the Bible, you'll
-
find the same definitions for his law. So if you
-
are trying to get rid of the law, you're trying
-
to get rid of who. The devil hates the law
-
of God because the law of God helps us recognize
-
that we are sinners and we need a savior. And
-
so the devil, even among Christians, is trying to downplay
-
the importance of being obedient. We are not saved by
-
the law, but we need the law because it shows
-
us our need of God. Number six a Christian is
-
ultimately what a follower of Christ? You still with me?
-
Did Jesus keep the ten commandments that ought to settle it?
-
He says, I have kept my father's commandments. That's as
-
clear as it can be. And some people say, well,
-
you know, Jesus kept the ten commandments, that was the
-
Father's commandments. But then you've got the laws of Jesus,
-
as though Jesus and the Father have two different laws.
-
Jesus that I and my Father are one, and all
-
things that were made were made by him who Jesus.
-
Jesus said in the beginning was the word. The word
-
was God, The word was with God. All things that
-
were made were made by him. Would that include the
-
ten commandments? Of course, Jesus and the Father do not
-
have two opposing laws.
-
They are united.
-
When he said I've kept my father's commandments, that includes
-
the ones that he spoke to the whole nation and
-
wrote with his finger in stone. So he wants us
-
to not just be hears, but doers of his word.
-
The Bible says he committed no sins. Sin is a
-
transgression of the law. Jesus kept all the commandments. But
-
Pastor Doug his enemies said that he was a wine bibber.
-
That's right. They accused him of that. Jesus was not
-
a drunk. They said he was a glutton. That's true.
-
They did accuse him of that.
-
He was not.
-
They also said he was demon possessed. Was Jesus demon possessed?
-
They said he was a Samaritan. He was not they
-
called him Beelzebab, They called them a false prophet. They
-
said all kinds of things about Jesus that just were
-
not true. He kept his father's commandments. Jesus did not sin.
-
If he did, how could he be the sacrifice for
-
our sins? He he perfectly obeyed all of the ten
-
commandments as a model for us. The Bible says, he
-
has given us an example that we should walk even
-
as he walk. Can you say, man, God's law could
-
be If God's law could be changed, it would not
-
have been necessary for Jesus to die on the cross,
-
because God's law is unchangeable. He prayed in the garden, Father,
-
if there is any other way, let this cup pass
-
from me. Father said, there is no other way. I
-
cannot change my law. You read in the Book of Daniel,
-
chapter six. And the king wrote a law according to
-
the meads in the Persians, which can not change. King
-
Herod he spoke and made a promise that if his
-
stepdaughter would dance, he'd give anything she wanted up to
-
half his kingdom. She wanted the head of John the Baptist.
-
He could not change his law. He has Uaris made
-
a law that all the Jews should be attacked on
-
a certain day. Then he found out esther, his wife
-
was a Jew. He could not change his law. He
-
just made another law that gave them permission to preemptively
-
attack their enemies. But kings could not change their law.
-
How much less can the king of the universe change
-
his law? And God did everything he could do to
-
show its permanence. He gathered the whole nation. He said,
-
y'all take a bath, prepare your hearts, pray. Come before me.
-
I will speak audibly for the whole nation my ten commandments,
-
and then I'll write it in stone to show.
-
With my own finger.
-
I'm not going to have Moses right this part. To
-
prove its unchanging eternal nature, our New Testament, Christians required
-
to keep the ten Commandments. Here's the big question. What
-
does the Bible say? This is all New Testament Matthew
-
nineteen seventeen. Christ said, if you would enter into life,
-
keep the commandments. If that's clear, say amen, John fourteen fifteen.
-
If you love me, keep my commandments. Revelation fourteen twelve.
-
Here is the patience of the saints speaking of the redeemed.
-
Here are these who keep the commandments of God. I
-
don't have time to read you all the scriptures that
-
say this. John said, if we say we know him
-
and keep not his commandments were liars.
-
And the truth is not in us.
-
And yet I hear pastors repeating that that's very dangerous.
-
Jesus said, whoever shall do and teach even the least
-
of these commandments will be called great in the Kingdom
-
of Heaven. So, friends, that's why I'm trying to teach
-
it and do it, because I'm doing what Jesus said.
-
He told us to do it and to teach it. Amen.
-
So I would like to illustrate a little something for
-
you right here. Okay, Now, if I were to continue
-
the sermon like this, would you find it distracting? Suppose
-
for a moment that you were just channel surfing and
-
you came upon this preacher who's preaching with a big
-
piece of black duct tape. You can do everything with
-
Ductory Kendrick on his forehead. Would you find that distracting?
-
Do you see something wrong with my appearance? I mean,
-
let's just say it's odd. You know, today it's almost
-
hard to find anything odd about a person's appearance because
-
it's like, you know, anything goes, but I won't go
-
there right now. But do you realize that I don't
-
see anything wrong with my appearance? How are you going
-
to persuade me that there's I mean, before I came,
-
you know, I brushed my teeth, and I gargled, and
-
I deodorized, and I checked my gigline, and I try
-
to look presentable before I come out, so you won't
-
be distracted by anything I'm wearing. But this is clearly distracting.
-
What do I need to know that there's a problem. Ah,
-
It just so happens, by a strange coincidence that I've
-
got a mirror here. Okay, exact, So he's liked to
-
do that with my watch when I'm on the airplane,
-
the flight attendants giving their thing, and I'm taking the sunshine,
-
and is.
-
All right?
-
So I feel okay right now, at least I did.
-
But I go like this, I go oooh, there is
-
clearly something wrong with what's supposed to be my normal appearance.
-
There's plenty wrong even with my normal appearance, but this
-
is very much beyond that. So since the mirror showed
-
me the problem, the mire should take it away.
-
Right.
-
Is that the function of the mirror. No, So I mean,
-
do I take the mirror and try to solve this? No?
-
What do I need to solve this problem? Another mirror? No,
-
that'll just multiply it. I need something to deal with
-
the sin. What can wash away in my sin? Nothing?
-
What does this represent? Blood of Jesus? You two can
-
have one of these for a dollar fifty at Walmart.
-
So this shows me the problem. This takes away the problem.
-
And now I go, oh, yeah, pretty good. I don't
-
mind this so much. And every now and then I'll
-
want to keep it handy in case that should happen again.
-
Just quickly reflect. Now I think you'd probably all agree.
-
How many of you will admit that at some point today,
-
be honest, raise your hand. You looked in the mirror?
-
Let me see hands, I got an audience shot. Let
-
me see. Come on, how many of you have a
-
problem with lying? Some of you did the How many
-
of you know someone that should look in the mirror
-
but they don't. So this is just to illustrate. There
-
are people that talk about the laws of the law
-
supposed to save it. The law doesn't save you, Paul said,
-
by the laws the knowledge of sin, the devil hates
-
the law because it shows us our sin. When we
-
look in the law and we see there's a problem,
-
then we run to Jesus for cleansing. And it's the
-
blood of Christ that changes us. But we need to
-
every now and then be looking at the law. And
-
Paul says, let each one of you first Corinthians, chapter
-
no tewod Corinthians, chapter thirteen. Let everyone examine himself whether
-
he be in the faith. It's appropriate. Don't become preoccupied
-
with your works, but it's appropriate every now and then
-
for you to do a little honest self examination. That
-
is healthy for a Christian. If you see no growth,
-
then there's a problem. You ought to see progress and
-
sanctification as you follow on to know the Lord. If
-
you've been a Christian for years and you're just still
-
drinking the milk and you can't handle the meat, there's
-
a problem. The Bible says James one twenty three. For
-
any anyone is a hear of the word and not
-
a doer. He's like a man observing his natural face
-
in a mirror. For he observes himself, and he goes
-
away and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
-
You ought to consider what you see when you look
-
into God's law, you look in the law of God,
-
and you say I'm a sinner, then you must go
-
to Christ for repentance, conversion, and forgiveness. But he who
-
looks into the perfect law of liberty, what does it
-
call it? The law is not to restrict us, it's
-
to give us liberty. He continues in the law of
-
liberty and continues in it is not a forgetful here,
-
but a doer of the work. This one will be
-
blessed in what he does. By the way. James then
-
mentions two of the Ten Commandments in the same passage,
-
So no question what he's talking about. God does not
-
want us just to be hears, but he wants us
-
to be doers. You notice they're not called the ten Suggestions.
-
They're not called the ten Ideas, are the ten recommendations.
-
They are the ten Commandments of God. It is the
-
law of God, and to knowingly disobey the law of
-
God is sin, and the penalty for sin is death,
-
and it must be taken seriously. We must repent from
-
and turn repent of our sins. In turn from our sins.
-
The law points us to Christ. This is why the
-
devil hates the law and it is under attack today. Yes,
-
even in churches. Now I wish I had more time
-
to explain. Roger Williams, who founded one of the founders
-
of our country, great man of God. He understood that
-
the government should not make any laws regarding the first
-
four commandments. We have freedom of religion in our country.
-
The last six commandments should be civil in nature, meaning
-
you can't steal, you can't rob marriage should be honored
-
by the culture. Right the first four You don't want
-
the government telling you what the name of your God is,
-
or when to worship him or how to worship him.
-
You should be free to make that choice. But now
-
the government is the pendulum is swinging back and forth,
-
and they're not making the distinction that our founders made
-
understanding how to relate to the Law of God as
-
a government. When I grew up, even in public school,
-
we had the Ten Commandments on the wall in our school.
-
How many of you remember that public school and somehow
-
we survived. And now in a culture where you know,
-
kids are just they're shooting each other, and you wonder
-
maybe if they heard God say you shall not kill,
-
that would have an impact that this is God's will,
-
all right, moving along, Blessed are those who do his commandment.
-
It's not a curse.
-
Friends.
-
The reason the Bible calls it a law of liberty
-
is because it is liberating to keep his law. You
-
came here tonight with freedom. I because you're not under arrest.
-
The law that puts criminals in jail gives you freedom right.
-
How many of you remember zig Ziggler. He was a
-
great motivational speaker and a good Christian. He said, I
-
don't know why they call red lights stop lights. He said,
-
they're really go lights. He said, if all the red
-
lights stop working, you'd find out that nobody goes anywhere.
-
We need traffic signals. We need the law of God
-
to keep us free. Psalm one, nineteen, verse forty four
-
and forty five. So I will walk at liberty forever
-
and ever because I keep your precepts. It's a law
-
of liberty.
-
Friends.
-
The Bible speaks of our day by saying, it's a
-
time for you to act, o Lord, because they have
-
disregarded your law. If the foundations fail, what shall the
-
righteous do? I can do all things through Christ, who
-
strengthens me. One of my favorite Stories. Mark chapter five
-
tells about this demoniac. He is the most lost man
-
in the Bible. He's filled with a legion of demons.
-
He's running around naked, lives in the cemetery, surrounded by pigs.
-
In the Jewish mind, this man is unclean, unclean, unclean,
-
He's lost. But he comes to Jesus just like he
-
is with all who sent Christ forgives him, sets him free,
-
clothes him, gives him a word to If he can
-
save that man, he can save anybody here. Friends, Amen,
-
Just such a wonderful story in the Bible of God's liberation.
-
Being confident of this thing, that He that began a
-
good work in you, God will finish the work that
-
he started in your life. He will perform it. He
-
will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians
-
one six, number eight. What's the difference between the Old
-
and the New Covenant? All right, very simply, the Bible
-
tells us Deuteronomy four thirteen. So he declared to you
-
his covenant, that he commanded you to perform the ten commandments,
-
that is the Old Covenant, and he wrote them on
-
two tables of stone. Are we living now under the
-
old Covenant or the New Covenant. Don't hesitate new Covenant.
-
This last half of the Bible is called the New Testament.
-
That means the New Covenant. So yeah, we're saved by
-
the New Covenant. You know, the new Covenant is it's
-
the same law written in a different place. God says,
-
a new covenant I will make with the House of
-
Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will write
-
my law in their hearts Jeremiah thirty one. The New
-
Covenant is the same law, but it's now written in
-
the heart. People who say I'm under the New Covenant,
-
now I can go steal. That's crazy, of course, not
-
Jesus that. It's not just the action, it's the attitude.
-
I'll write my law in their hearts. By the way,
-
can you show me a place in the Bible where
-
God makes the new Covenant with Gentiles, A new covenant
-
I will make after those days with the House of
-
Israel and the House of Judah. The New Covenant is
-
made with the Jews. We are grafted into the stock
-
of Israel. It is the ten Commandments now written on
-
the heart. And you find it first in the Old
-
Testament when God spoke the Ten Commandments, and the people said,
-
all the Lord has said, we will do. That was
-
the old covenant. Why Moses is getting the Ten Commandments?
-
They make a golden calf and they break all ten
-
in one wild party. And the Bible says in Hebrews,
-
what was the problem finding fault with them? What was
-
the fault with the old covenant? The covenant or the
-
people finding fault with them? He said, I will make
-
a new covenant with the House of Israel and the
-
House of Judah. I will put my law in their hearts.
-
That's what God wants for us.
-
Friends.
-
Have you ever wondered where are the Ten Commandments today? Well,
-
I'll give you a little tip. You know, Raiders of
-
the Lost Ark says they're in Egypt. And there's some
-
Ethiopians that say, we've got them in that solemn sold
-
it to the queen Asheba, and it's now in Ethiopia.
-
But if you read your Bible, it tells us that
-
ten Commandments were still in Israel up until the Babylonian captivity.
-
Jeremiah and the priests knew that Nebu Kinezer was going
-
to destroy the temple. This is all in the Bible,
-
and they no doubt they hid it in one of
-
the many caves that honeycomb Jerusalem, and that has been
-
sealed and hidden from that day to this day. It's
-
still there. Wouldn't it be cool to find the Ark
-
of the Covenant? Well, you know, the cool thing is
-
not the golden box. The cool thing is the rocks
-
in the box. And if you want to know where
-
the treasure is in the Ark of the Covenant, it's
-
in your lap if you have a Bible, because the
-
Ark of the Covenant contained the Ten Commandments, and the
-
words of the ten Commandments are in our hands. Moses said,
-
it's not far from you. You don't have to go
-
to heaven of the bottom of the ocean to find it.
-
The Word is near you.
-
The Law of God is right there in your hands.
-
We don't need to go hunt for a golden box,
-
though that would be a great artifact. The temple of
-
God was open in heaven, and the Ark of his
-
Covenant was seen in his temple. This is telling us
-
that before the Lord comes back, there'll be a revival
-
of truth regarding his law and his people having the
-
law in their hearts. Number nine, What is it called?
-
When we are converted and given a new heart, you
-
must be born again. God wants us to have his
-
law written in our heart.
-
That is the new birth.
-
I don't want to do anything that displeases him. I
-
not only want to be here, I want to be
-
a doer. You know, if you love the Lord more,
-
it'd be easier to obey. How many of you are
-
aware that there is a law in Texas that you
-
cannot murder your children? How many know that? Some of
-
you never raise your hands no matter what I say,
-
right in case you didn't know there is such a law.
-
How many of you who don't kill your children because
-
there's a law? Does the law have anything to do
-
with the reason you don't kill your children? Don't raise
-
your hand. You don't kill your children because you love them.
-
There is a law, but you don't think about the
-
law because you love them. Wouldn't you like to love
-
the Lord so much that you wanted to keep his law.
-
I don't think about committing adultery because I love my wife.
-
And the more that you love love is the fulfilling
-
of the law. The easier it is to obey. When
-
we're born again, and the more we know about the Lord,
-
the better you love him. The more you love him,
-
the better you'll obey him and you'll share him. Number ten.
-
What must I do to be forgiven and cleanse from sin?
-
Repent and be converted, that your sins might be blotted out.
-
Ask God to give you a new heart. Repent of
-
your sins. If you don't feel like it's a Lord,
-
help me to choose. Give me a wis willingness. Whatever
-
it is you're lacking to be saved. God will supply,
-
even if it's the willingness of the heart. As I live,
-
says the Lord Ezekiel thirty three eleven. I have no
-
pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the
-
wicked would turn from his evil way and live. Turn ye,
-
turn ye, Why will you die? If we confess our sins,
-
we repent. Get alone with the Lord, Say Lord, I'm
-
guilty of these things. You know what your sins are.
-
Just look at the ten commandments and repent. Your sins
-
have cost the life of the Son of God. It's
-
not a cheap alter call where you say hey, thanks
-
Lord for saving me and walk away. It ought to
-
be heartfelt. We need to spend some time, maybe weeping
-
at the feet of Jesus, knowing he died for our sins.
-
He suffered for our sins. Because He loves you that much,
-
he will forgive us. Repentance is both a sorrow for
-
sin and a willingness to turn away. And God will
-
give you the power, and he will give you the
-
will who enters. It's a heart of a born again Christian.
-
And what does he do the spirit of truth? And
-
you know him, for he dwells with you, and he
-
will be in you both to will and to do
-
his good pleasure. He will change his will. It'll go
-
from my way to his way. Lord. I want to
-
do the things that please you. Number twelve, And I'm
-
rushing along because I want to finish his up. Friends,
-
why did God make such a fantastic sacrifice for us?
-
And how do we accept it? For God so loved
-
the world he gave his only begotten son. You know,
-
as a pastor, I've done a lot of funerals, and
-
I remember one funeral thirteen year old boy had a
-
heart problem, died in the shower just and I was there.
-
You know, the pastor. After the funeral, you stand by
-
the casket as the family comes by, and the last
-
one out as the family, and this family, the mother
-
in particular, grabbed the case askt and they had to
-
peel her hands off. She would not let go, and
-
she was wailing with a broken heart and saying, we
-
loved you so, we loved you so. And you know,
-
I can't read John three sixteen anymore, that two letter word,
-
so I can't read it the same way anymore. For
-
God soul loved the world that he gave his son,
-
he must really love us in that he loves us
-
more than we love our children. Karen and I lost
-
the son twenty years ago, handsome, healthy young man died
-
in the construction accident. I wouldn't wish that on my
-
worst enemy, that losing a child. And then I realized
-
God loves his children infinitely more than I love my children.
-
And he gave his son for you, and you who
-
are watching, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you
-
will be saved. Eve. It's true, friends, and the proof
-
is in the pity putting. He'll give you a new
-
heart and you'll have a new life. He adopts you
-
into his family, you become his children. Is anyone saved
-
by keeping the law. No, we are saved, the Bible
-
says by grace through faith. It's the grace of God
-
through faith. But when we are saved by grace, we
-
want to be doers of His word because we love them.
-
Number fourteen. Isn't it true that once for saved by grace,
-
it's no longer necessary to keep the law. No, do
-
we then make void? Paul says, do we then make
-
avoid the law? Through faith? God forbid we establish the law.
-
It is not the hearers of the law, but the
-
doers of the law. Paul says, that will be justified.
-
We shall not continue in sin that grace may abound.
-
I've been pulled over more than once for speeding and
-
policeman comes up. You're driving too fast And then I
-
begin to cry because I heard that works and ask
-
for mercy. My insurance will go up. Lord, have mercy officer,
-
and they say, okay, you're free. So now that means
-
they've forgiven me. I can drive as fast as I want. Right. No,
-
I am more careful than anybody, friends, because they've had
-
mercy on me. I want to not only be a here,
-
I want to be a doer of the law. And friends,
-
when you see what Jesus has paid for your sins.
-
How many of you want to say, Lord, You've forgiven me,
-
You've paid the penalty. I not only want to be
-
a here, I want to be a doer of the law.
-
Is that your will? Friends? The Bible says you'll have joy.
-
The doers of the law have joy. Happy is he
-
that keeps the law great peace. Have those that love
-
thy law? Nothing will offend them. God wants you to
-
have that peace. Friends. You can't do it without Jesus.
-
But through Jesus all things are possible. To accept that
-
gift tonight, and so all all forgive me for my
-
sin and help me to live and build on the rock.
-
Is that your prayer? Friends, Let's ask him tonight. Loving Lord,
-
give us that faith, give us that grace, and help
-
us to live for Jesus. We pray in his name. Amen. Next,
-
lesson tomorrow night talking about the good news about Hell.
-
You don't want to miss that. Friends. I promise you
-
it will change your view of God and you will
-
be blessed. God, bless you. Thank you very much. We
-
will see you tomorrow night. And thank you for our
-
friends who are watching