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We conclude today the series on the life of our Lord Jesus Christ that we began back in

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January.

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With the study of a normal person's biography, one deals with those historical facts of his

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life until one comes to the grave.

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And there, of course, the study ends.

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But the Lord Jesus Christ is different.

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He rose from the grave.

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We've been dealing with that for the last several weeks.

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And in fact, he is coming again.

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And today we are dealing with that blessed truth revealed to us in the Bible.

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I invite you to open your Bible to the book of Titus, chapter 2, verses 11 through 13,

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where we get our theme.

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It is Titus chapter 2, beginning in verse 11.

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For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny

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ungodliness and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present

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age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and

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Savior, Christ Jesus.

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The blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ

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Jesus.

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Every part of Christ's life and ministry vitally affects every person who has, does,

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or ever will live until the end of time.

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His cross, for example, becomes the reference point for the final judgment.

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Everyone's eternity depends upon which side of the cross he stands, either on the side

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of belief and trust in Jesus as his Lord and Savior, or on the side of unbelief, of willful

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rejection or neglect of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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The eternity of every person who has, who does, or ever will live depends upon where

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he stands with relation to the cross of Jesus Christ.

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The cross becomes the central reference point for every person's final judgment.

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Likewise, Christ's second coming is related to every person.

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In some manner, the fulfillment of the promise of Christ's coming again will affect every

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person who has, who does, or ever will live until the end of time.

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When we consider the second coming of Jesus Christ, it is important for us to differentiate

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between two phases of his coming.

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In fact, that difference you may note even in the scripture that's in our worship folder

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this morning, for in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the trumpet that is mentioned refers to

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the first phase of his coming.

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That is when he comes back to receive the saints, the church, to himself.

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The second passage dealing with a trumpet, this time from Matthew 24, is a different

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context and refers to the second phase of his coming when he will gather his elect,

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the Jews, from around the world and will bring them together in Palestine.

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That has to do with his coming again to the earth.

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The first phase we sometimes call the rapture.

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It deals with the church and there is a trumpet associated with that.

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The second phase we usually distinguish by calling the return, the return of Jesus Christ

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to the earth and likewise there is a trumpet call associated with that one.

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Today we're going to focus our attention on his return.

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That is his return to the earth to consummate his promises to Israel and to all the nations

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of the world in setting up his reign, his kingdom upon the earth.

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We have many times spoken of the rapture of the church.

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We are going past that in our thinking to his return to the earth for this study this

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morning.

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The second coming of Jesus Christ is the very next event on God's prophetic calendar.

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I believe that we can speak about Christ's return to the earth in three ways.

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In the first place we can say that his second coming to the earth will be visible.

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That is the key word I want you to remember.

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His second coming to the earth will be visible.

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I remind you of Acts 1 and verse 11.

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Would you look at that with me?

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We have Luke's account in the book of Acts of Jesus' ascension.

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Acts 1 and verse 11.

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In verse 10 he mentions that they were gazing up intently into the sky while he was departing

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and then two men in white clothing stood beside them, angels.

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And verse 11, they also said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky?

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This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way

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as you have watched him go into heaven.

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And so associated with his departure from the earth is the promise that he would come

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again just as he went into heaven.

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How did he go?

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Visibly.

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They saw him depart until the clouds took him out of their sight.

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And so there were clouds associated with that departure.

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When Jesus left, he left the earth.

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And the promise is here that when he comes, he will come back to the earth and indeed

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to the same mount in Palestine, the Mount of Olives.

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And the book of Zechariah tells us that when his feet land on that mountain the next time,

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it will cause a great split in the mountain.

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Our Lord is coming again visibly, just as he went away visibly.

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Would you turn with me to Revelation chapter 1 and notice the promise given through John

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as he writes the concluding book of the New Testament.

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These early verses in chapter 1 are words of introduction and greeting, words of dedication.

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And he says in verse 7, Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him,

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even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him, even so,

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amen.

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A way of underscoring the truthfulness of what was said.

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Behold, he is coming with the clouds, an allusion to a text in Daniel chapter 7 verse 13, where

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prophetically Daniel sees the same event, the Son of Man coming with the clouds in great

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glory.

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And John brings that by the Spirit's inspiration up to New Testament times, and he says, Behold,

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he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him.

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The second coming to the earth will be a visible coming.

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Now that is in contrast to the first aspect or first phase of his coming again.

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For as I understand the New Testament, when Jesus comes for the church in the rapture,

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he will not be visible to all the tribes of the earth.

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Every eye will not see him in that day.

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In fact, I believe that only believers will see him and will hear the sound of that trumpet

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that calls us forth from the world into his presence ever to be with him.

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Only believers will behold him in that phase of his coming.

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But when he comes again to the earth, on that time, at that time, every eye of every person

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in the world will see him.

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How will that be done?

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I don't know.

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But it will be so.

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His return will be observed by everyone.

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Someone says, but wait a minute, I think somewhere in the Bible it says that when Jesus comes

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again it's going to be like a thief, isn't it?

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It's going to be secretly.

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Well, it does say in fact in several places that his coming will be as a thief, a thief

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in the night.

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But the thought there is not the secrecy of it.

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The thought is the unexpected nature of the event.

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His coming is not going to be in secret when he returns to the earth, for every eye will

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see him.

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But the point is that as a thief is never expected.

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So his coming on that day will be unexpected by the world.

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They will be involved in the normal affairs of life, eating and drinking, marrying and

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giving in marriage as it was in the days of Noah, said Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.

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That is, they will be wrapped up in the affairs of life in a sin-cursed world.

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They will be enjoying their iniquity with no thought of judgment, no thought of intervention,

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no expectation of Christ coming.

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And suddenly his sign will appear in the heaven and he will return.

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When it speaks of his coming like a thief, it speaks of the unexpected nature of his

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visible return to the earth.

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Our Lord's second coming to the earth will in the second place be a violent one.

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The key word there is violence.

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Yes, there is violence associated with the return of the Prince of Peace to the earth.

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That is because he will come to deal with sin.

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I want you to notice with me as we look at Scripture very quickly that in the first place

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there will be violence in the heavens.

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Let's turn to Matthew chapter 24 where we have an extended portion of Jesus' own words

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dealing with this second coming of his to the earth.

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He speaks about the days of the tribulation early on here in the chapter.

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And then in verse 29, Matthew 24, but immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun

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will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the stars will fall from the

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sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken and then the sign of the Son of Man

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will appear in the sky.

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When the Lord Jesus comes again to the earth, there will be violence in the heavens.

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The sun, the moon, the stars will all be affected by the power, the energy, the impact of his

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return to the earth.

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I invite you to flip back further with me in your Bible to the book of Joel.

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And then look in chapter 2 of Joel.

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A few weeks ago when we were talking about Pentecost, we looked at an earlier portion

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here, beginning in verse 28.

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A portion that is referred to on the day of Pentecost, the Lord pouring out his Spirit.

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But beginning in verse 30, there are words of prophecy that have never been fulfilled

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and will be associated with his return.

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Joel 2 and verse 30, and I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire,

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and columns of smoke.

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The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome

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day of the Lord comes.

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So Joel as well joins in the theme, saying that there will be cataclysmic changes in

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the heavens.

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In chapter 3 verse 15 he says, the sun and moon will grow dark and the stars lose their

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brightness and the Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens

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and the earth tremble.

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And so when our Lord comes again to the earth, his coming will be a violent one.

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Again if we had time we would turn to Isaiah the 13th chapter, verses 9 through 13, where

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similar words are used to describe the violence in the heavens, which is associated with his

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coming again to the earth.

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Will that be because of warfare on the earth?

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Is there some kind of inference here of atomic warfare with fire and blood and columns of

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smoke and the atmosphere changing its color?

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Well perhaps, but how would a biblical prophet speak of atomic warfare in his day?

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If that is what it is, it fits rather interestingly with the language here.

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Perhaps in our Lord's return to the earth there will be some kind of a limited warfare

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like that.

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In the battle of Armageddon perhaps that will be associated with it in some way.

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But the fact is that when our Lord does come it will be a time of violence in the heavens.

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I'd like you to turn to the book of Revelation again with me this time to the 20th chapter,

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where we see that there will also be violence in the heavenlies associated with his second

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coming.

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The heavens and the heavenlies are two different things.

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The heavens refers to the atmosphere and beyond.

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The heavenlies, a phrase from the book of Ephesians, refers to the realm of spirits.

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It is the invisible realm to us where good angels of God and demons or evil fallen angels

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do battle with each other even now.

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When our Lord Jesus comes back to the earth he will deal with that invisible realm, the

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heavenlies, and there will be violence.

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In chapter 20 of Revelation verse 1, and I saw an angel coming down from heaven having

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the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

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And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound

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him for a thousand years and threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him.

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So that he could not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were completed.

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In the larger context this is something that occurs in conjunction with our Lord's return

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to the earth in chapter 19.

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At that time Satan, and I would assume associated with him all of his evil cohorts, will be

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bound and chained by the angels of God.

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Do you think there will be a submissive spirit by these beings at that point?

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Do you think when our Lord comes they're just going to roll over and say, well we give up?

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Not in the slightest.

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For just as the battle of Armageddon taking place in the world at that time will be the

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greatest battle in the history of the world.

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I believe that the battle that is involved here in these verses with the chaining of

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Satan will be the greatest battle ever witnessed in the heavenlies.

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And it is a battle that will be associated with his return to the earth and the result

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of that great battle in the heavenlies and the violence there will ultimately be the

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binding of Satan and his being cast into the abyss.

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And that abyss then sealed for a thousand years so that he cannot escape it.

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He will not go willingly to that place.

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He will be dragged there and thrown in along with all of his demon powers, the powers of

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darkness.

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And so associated with our Lord's second coming to the earth will be violence in the

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heavens and violence in the heavenlies.

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But there will also be violence on the earth when he comes again to the earth.

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We see it in chapter 19 as the great battle of Armageddon is described for us beginning

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in verse 17.

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An angel invites the birds of the air to come and assemble themselves to eat the flesh of

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the people who will be killed in that battle.

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These birds of flesh eating birds will come and will eat the flesh of kings and commanders

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and mighty men and horses and those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, free men

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and slaves, small and great, who will be involved in that battle.

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He further describes it in verse 19.

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And I saw the beast, read that antichrist, that's what the beast represents, Revelation

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13.

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And the kings of the earth and their armies assemble to make war against him who sat upon

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the horse and against his army.

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The one on the horse is described in verses 11 through 16 and is Jesus Christ, his army,

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the one that comes with him from heaven.

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And so you see there will be violence on the earth associated with his second coming.

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We'll read more of that in a moment.

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I'd like you to turn back with me to the book of Isaiah and look at an Old Testament prophecy

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regarding this event.

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Look in Isaiah 34, verses 2 and 3.

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Now remember Isaiah is writing 700 plus years before the coming of Christ.

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But he looks ahead to the day of the Lord, the day of judgment.

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And it says in verse 2 of Isaiah 34, for the Lord's indignation is against all the nations

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and his wrath against all their armies.

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He has utterly destroyed them.

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He has given them over to slaughter.

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So their slain will be thrown out and their corpses will give off their stench and the

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mountains will be drenched with their blood.

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Now he goes on to describe that great day, but I want to stop at that point and simply

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underscore the fact that when our Lord Jesus returns to the earth, he will return to subdue

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the armies gathered under the leadership of Antichrist.

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And there will be a violent war, one that is described earlier in the book of Revelation

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as involving such a death that the blood will run in that great valley of Megiddo to the

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depth of the horse's bridle.

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Perhaps the blood will be mingled with a great downpour of water.

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And so great is that army of multiplied thousands upon thousands and so great the slaughter

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as our Lord returns to the earth to subdue Antichrist and the united armies of the world.

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That there will be a fierce, violent war which will ultimately lead to the coming of his

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kingdom of peace and righteousness upon the earth.

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Sometimes people don't think of the violence associated with Jesus' return to the earth,

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but my friend, his coming will be a violent one in certain respects.

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And now I'd like for you to think in a third way regarding his coming.

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His coming to the earth will be visible.

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Every eye will see him.

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His second coming to the earth will be violent in the heavens, in the heavenlies, and upon

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the earth.

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Thirdly, his second coming to the earth will be victorious.

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Victorious.

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I'd like you to go back to Revelation with me.

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Maybe you kept your finger there.

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To the 19th chapter again.

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Now let's think first of all of the army that is gathered there in the valley of Megiddo,

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where the battle of Armageddon will take place.

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Revelation 19 and verse 20, And the beast, Antichrist, was seized, and with him the false

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prophet who performed the signs of his presence, that is, the religious leader, by which he

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deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

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These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone.

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And the rest were killed with the sword, which came forth from the mouth of him who sat upon

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the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.

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Now the center figure here is the one who is depicted with a sword in his mouth, which

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seems to symbolize the power of his word.

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Look back in verse 11, I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat upon

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it called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war.

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And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems, and he has a name

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written upon him which no one knows except himself.

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And he is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.

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But there be no mistake as to who this is, it is Jesus.

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And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following

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him on white horses.

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And from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may smite the nations, and

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he will rule them with a rod of iron.

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And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty.

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The winepress is a picture of judgment.

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Just as the grapes were thrown into the press and that huge stone rolled over them, extracting

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from them the juice which then ran out of the press and was caught, made into wine.

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So the population of the world is pictured here as being thrown into the press of God's

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wrath and judgment being extracted upon them to its full.

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It is called the fierce wrath of God the Almighty.

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Let anyone who reads this and who is under the wrath of God tremble at the thought of

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it.

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And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

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Our Lord's second coming to the earth will be victorious.

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He will begin by subduing the armies of Antichrist.

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Following that he will subdue the kingdoms of the world and will be the King of all kings

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and the Lord of all lords, no exceptions.

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He will then bring into judgment all of the unsaved of the world.

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Not their final judgment, but their immediate judgment.

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For no one who is unsaved will enter into his kingdom.

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All of those who have rejected him will at that point be put to death.

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Later to be judged finally.

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But at that point they will die so that they will not enter into and defile the kingdom

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of his righteousness.

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And then in Revelation chapter 20 we read in verses 4 and following of the completion

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of the resurrection, the first resurrection.

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That seems to be the resurrection at that point of all of the saved through the ages.

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So that the saved, all of the righteous will enter into his kingdom of victory.

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Our Lord's second coming to the earth will be victorious.

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It is a fearful thing to align oneself against God the Almighty.

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And yet there are those who do it thoughtlessly and carelessly and they think that somehow

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this is sport.

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This is a joke.

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It is no laughing matter.

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Yesterday I looked out my family room window and saw some visitors in our neighborhood.

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Some people coming through in pairs with satchels.

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And so I waited and sure enough ding dong.

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So I went to the door and there were two lovely ladies, two grandmothers.

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And I stepped outside and closed the door and she pulled out of her satchel a magazine

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and she said, I'm here to tell you the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom.

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That one day all of the earth is going to be united under one kingdom, one government

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and that's going to be quite a day.

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And I said just a moment, before you go any further, could I ask you a couple of questions?

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She said sure.

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That may have been her first mistake.

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I said was Jesus a good man?

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And she said oh he was perfect.

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He never sinned.

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I said well let me ask you a second question then.

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Was Jesus, Jehovah God, come in the flesh?

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And she said oh no.

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Jehovah Father God is up in heaven, Jesus he created.

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And I said well I find that interesting.

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You tell me that Jesus was a perfect man who never sinned and yet he himself claimed to

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be Jehovah God come in the flesh.

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How do you explain that?

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She said he never said that.

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I said look in your Bible in John chapter 8 and see if it doesn't say, before Abraham

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was I Am.

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And see furthermore if it doesn't say, if you believe not that I Am, which was clearly

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a claim on his part to be the I Am of the Old Testament, Jehovah.

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It says if you believe not that I Am, you will die in your sins.

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And I said dear ladies I implore you to understand that Jesus is Jehovah God come in the flesh.

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And that unless you recognize that and receive him, you are going to die in your sins.

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The thing I was trying to get across to them and did not succeed very well is what I want

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to say to all of you this morning.

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We can talk about his kingdom.

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We can know that someday he is coming back to the earth to establish a reign upon the

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earth which will then extend into eternity with him on his throne.

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We can know all of that.

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But if we are on the wrong side of the cross, it doesn't mean good news.

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It means bad news.

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It's only the gospel of the kingdom for those who are on the side of belief and trust in

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him, not only as Jehovah God come in the flesh, but as Jehovah God who laid down his life

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and shed his blood for our sins.

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It's good news that he is coming again if one is on that side of the cross where one

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trusts him and believes on him.

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It's terribly bad news if one rejects that message or neglects that message.

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Bad news.

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Sadly, for those ladies who later walked away after a rather intense conversation, it's

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bad news still because they are on the wrong side of the cross.

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But what about you?

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The cross of Jesus Christ is the center reference point for every person who has, who does,

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and ever will live on the earth.

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It is the reference point for the final judgment.

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And the side of the cross that you are on on that day will make the difference between

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salvation and damnation.

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If you are not on the side of faith, the side of belief in the Christ of the cross, that

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he died for your sins and rose again, will you today make that change?

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Instead of neglecting or even rejecting him, will you today bow your knee to him and receive

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him?

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And may those of us who have done that, who are on the side of belief and trust, may we

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today be anticipating the coming of Christ.

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This is a doctrine that today is sadly missing in the church.

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And I think the reason for that is that we Christians are too much satisfied with the

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world.

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We rather like it here.

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We like the things.

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We even enjoy a little bit of the evil.

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And therefore we don't like to think about Jesus coming again.

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I think of my brother-in-law who was fishing with a friend of his who claims to be a Christian.

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And as they were chatting, they started talking about spiritual things.

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And my brother-in-law began to say how glad he was that Jesus was coming again.

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And the other man who claims to be a Christian said, I don't want him to come again.

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I've got too much to do.

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Well, we say shame on him, but does not that express the attitude that many of us sometimes

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have?

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We are to live godly and righteously in this present age, looking for that blessed hope

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and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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May our hearts today be renewed in fervency with expectation for His coming again.

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Let's bow together in prayer.

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Would there be someone today who would say, Pastor, today I need to make that change.

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I'm on the wrong side of the cross.

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And I know if Jesus were to come today, I would be in trouble.

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I would be in judgment.

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And I want to receive Him.

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Behold, today is the day of salvation, our Lord says to you.

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Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.

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Call upon Him while He is near, says the prophet.

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Dear friend, if He's knocking on your heart's door today, He's near.

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And He wants to come in.

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Will you allow Him to?

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Will you invite Him to?

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Will you trust Him?

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Just where you're seated.

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Father, I thank you for the promise that you have given to us through the word of our Lord

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Jesus coming again to the earth.

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Every one of us is related to that coming some way.

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We will be related either in salvation or in damnation to His coming.

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If there be some friend here today who's trying to decide is in the midst of a decision,

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I pray that that one will trust the Savior and pass over from death into life by receiving

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your Son by faith.

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Thank you for the promise and oh may our hearts beat with fervency for His return.

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And we pray this in His name, in Jesus' name, amen.