Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning in to our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Well, I just want to welcome
everybody to this session. And for those of you who are
listening online, I'd appreciate so much you listening to these
podcasts. I've appreciated the feedback
from this and then also our Walking in Prayer podcast.
We've been recording those almost weekly now.
Pastor Jordan and I recorded a a really fun one.
It'll be up in a few weeks to where we were talking about how
do we walk in the word? How do I pray Scripture into
people's lives, into my own life and into other people's lives as
part of my prayer life? And again, those are are helpful
if you're walking around the neighborhood or if you're
driving. You could listen to them while
you're driving or just in your quiet time at home to use to
help this kind of a guided prayer time.
So I hope that you'll check those out as well as this core
training. Let me give you a couple of
heads up. So our next session together,
next time we'll actually be talking about, I'm going to be
talking about the problem of evil.
Why does evil exist? Why do bad things happen?
What causes that? What allows that?
And so it's a question that a lot of people will have.
Who's to blame, who's not to blame, those kind of ideas.
Why did this person get healed and another person not get
healed? We're going to talk about some
of those things at our next time together.
And then in about two episodes from now, I'll be talking about
spiritual gifts and whether all the gifts still exist today or
whether some of them have ceased.
You call that cessationism or continuation ISM And was having
a good conversation earlier today about that.
And so those are coming up as well.
And, and, and hope that you'll, you'll be here for that.
So tonight we're going to talk about, you know, the, the fancy
word is eschatology, but the, the, the common word is the
second coming of Christ and some of the things that surround
that. One of my former administrative
assistants at the seminary, he and I were comparing the role of
a pastor to that if his father, his father is a high school
football coach And, and, and this is what we decided.
He we decided that people are extremely happy with you if you
run the exact plays they think you should at the exact moment
they think you should. And their child is the star
athlete and you win every game. Otherwise they have opinions
about every decision you make. They tell the coach about how
they ran a play once on Madden football on their Xbox or
watched an NFL game once, or how they played themselves back in
the day and and what worked while they're wearing their high
school leather jacket at 45 years of age.
So of course they know better than you could ever know as a
coach because there's no way even with your training and
experience that you could know what you're doing and might just
have some young players who need developing.
But, but if you do not abide by the booster club feedback, off
you go. And it's fascinating how most
never question or argue with their CPA or their doctor, but
with their pastor, I mean coach, they all know better.
So this is kind of one of those nights you just watch.
So we've been working through a series and the fancy words for
it are theological triage. In other words, how do we
prioritize our beliefs? There's some beliefs that we
must believe. If we don't believe certain
things, we're not a Christian. There's certain things we're not
going to heaven, certain things we wouldn't be saved.
And then you get into what we would call secondary levels or
tertiary third level areas to where some of those secondary
certainly divide denominations and can be very serious
disagreements and there can be real reasons for those
disagreements. And then you get down to the
some of the, the third level to where even in one church, you
could have people in the same small group, but they would have
different interpretations of, of difficult passages or, or
passages that have various options.
So how do I know which ones are the primaries?
Which ones are the secondaries and the tertiaries?
And, and what are some of the ways in which we can still have
different interpretations and get along.
So that's what we've been talking about.
If this is the first time you've joined us.
And ironically, one of the problems or just one of the
truths is often we tend to prioritize more time and energy
arguing about the secondary and the tertiary levels rather than
focusing upon the primaries. And that's often what divides
Christendom. Christianity gets divided by
these arguments that we have on these lower levels and and
fighting over tertiary issues, especially that third level is
unhelpful. But fighting over that third
level or tertiary issues while some simultaneously neglecting
the primary issues is is even worse.
And so we need to be careful because Christians divide over
several things and, and some of those are even the beginning of
time and the end of time, believe it or not.
And you might think that those are, are both primary issues and
there are primary issues involved in both of those.
But then there are also some subsets of, of secondary and
tertiary issues that often divide Christians.
And so the interpretation of the days of creation in Genesis 1,
and we're not talking about that tonight necessarily, but are
those literal days 24 hour periods or are they periods of
time, time and and etcetera. And then we can just say the
word Millennium in Revelation 20 and all kinds of disagreements
can start there. And so the, the interesting
truth about what's called protology, that's first things.
Creation protology is the name of that doctrine.
And one version or eschatology last things and don't let these
words throw you, is that they both contain significant primary
issues, but they also can contain tertiary issues.
And so we must believe certain things about both and, and, and
yet we can have different thoughts about both at the same
time depending upon what a part of it we're discussing.
And we're going to look at some of that tonight.
But tonight we're going to focus on end times.
We don't have time for both. We barely have time for an
overview of this. And so this is what we're going
to look at. One of the theologians that I've
quoted off and Gavin Ortland says this many evangelicals
focus more on the timing of the rapture, the identity of the
Antichrist, and the nature of the Millennium than they do on
the second coming of Christ, the final resurrection, or the final
judgement. All, in my view, first rank
doctrines. And so some would rather frankly
engage. And I'm not saying anybody I
know here at Inglewood, but some people I know and obviously
other places, but not here, but several other places that I've
been, would rather engage in a hot blooded debate over
interpretations of eschatology and then frankly go show the
gospel with their lost neighbor. So we need to be careful.
We need to begin by recognizing the true primary doctrine in
this area and then acknowledge the the large continuum, whether
you believe there's one or not, there is of secondary and
tertiary beliefs that many would hold.
So Jesus will return bodily, He will take his people home.
He will judge the nations and the lost.
Those are primary issues. And if and if you don't believe
in that, you're going to struggle with all of Scripture.
We have to believe those things. Another theologian, Christopher
Morgan I this is good. Listen to this.
He says the whole Bible, culminating in the end of the
story, exalts God himself, the creator, the sustainer, the
Redeemer, and now the consummator.
In the grand finale, God wins. And in all of this, he will
glorify himself. So the scriptural storyline thus
ends wonderfully with God on his throne, evil banished from his
eternal Kingdom, and all of us who are his children reigning
with him and resurrected bodies on the new earth.
And that's primary. We must believe that Jesus is
going to return and it's a physical return.
But the range and frankly, the hybrids, because there are a
bunch of them, the hybrids of secondary and tertiary beliefs
include things like views of the rapture, views of the
tribulation, views of the Millennium or the millennial
reign, the timing of the second coming versus a rapture, the
role of the church and the overall role and significance of
Israel. And we're going to talk about
define several of these issues as we walk through this tonight.
And some believe that their view must be the only view.
And they wear it kind of like that old high school leather
jacket and, and proudly display it.
And frankly, to be honest with you, and I've run into this in
many places, some have only heard one view.
They've never heard any alternatives.
All they've ever been taught is 1 perspective.
And so they assumed that that's the only one or that it's the
right one. So they dogmatically demanded to
be the one. And what's interesting is that
some of the views, listen to me, this important sentence that
some of the views held most dogmatically today in some
churches are actually very recent in church history and
were not the most prominent views in the early church.
And that will be difficult for some people to swallow who
believe there's only one view and that they're that view they
hold is the only view. When in fact, some of those
views are actually developed within the last century and a
half. And we're really not a part of
much early church history. So I want to focus again just to
make sure we're clear on a, on a couple of things to make sure
that we recognize that I'm very confident, extremely confident,
exceedingly confident, almost omnipotently competent,
confident that I'm not going to satisfy most or perhaps any of
you with one lesson on this subject.
OK? That's really not my goal
tonight, not for what we're doing in here.
Sometime down the road, we'll have to have another study.
I would prefer to actually do it as we study books of the Bible
and preach through books because I I want to be a biblical
literalist. I don't know how else to
describe it. And I want to present the, for
example, the Book of Revelation as the Book of Revelation
actually reveals itself. But tonight, I will do the best
I can to make all of you angry and and disagree with me.
And just remember, the e-mail address for those of you who are
listening or those of you listening online is
c.taylor@englewoodbaptist.com. So get prepared to all be ready.
You ready, Get geared up, get all revved up to begin to tell
me what I should have said. As soon as we're done here, I
want to focus on some key concepts related to the end of
time. And, and then frankly, you, we
need to study, you need to study and we need to discuss this
doctor more in our small groups, additional sermons, additional
studies, perhaps an entire study just on that subject matter
where we can hit many of these angles.
And we'll, we'll do that down the road.
But let's talk about the primary doctrine again.
First, just to nail this down, let me quote from the Baptist
Faith in Message 2000, which again is a, is a doctrinal
summary that this church adopts officially.
And so this will tell you what where Inglewood is officially on
paper, and it states this about the end of time, God, in his own
time and in his own way, will bring the world to its
appropriate end. Now that sentence alone drives
some people crazy. According to his promise, Jesus
Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the
earth. The dead will be raised and
Christ will judge all men and righteousness.
The unrighteous will be consigned to hell, the place of
everlasting punishment. The righteous and their
resurrected and glorified bodies will receive the reward and will
dwell forever in heaven with the Lord.
So it's interesting to me though, because through the
years this phrase that God in his own time and in his own way
seems to really frustrate people.
And I have a file full of charts and predictions sent to me of
when Jesus is going to return. I have books that were written
on the why Jesus would return in a certain year.
And then when he didn't, I have a follow up book of why Jesus
didn't return in that year. That's no joke by the same
author. I thought that's a brilliant
financial marketing plan for publishing a book.
You could do that just about anytime you wanted to.
But it's always interesting to me, even though Jesus himself
said in Matthew 2436, but concerning that day and hour, no
one knows, just got a pregnant pause, not even the angels of
heaven nor the Son, but the Father only.
So I'm not sure why people still try to figure out a win.
And yet I've, I've been in classes and conferences and
conversations where people got it all mapped out and they know
exactly when, even though Jesus says, no, you don't, no one
does. So it's always interesting to
me. So the challenge of the Gospels
in the New Testament, don't misinterpret them.
The, the challenge and the, and the, and the message of the
gospels in the epistles is not one of prediction.
It never has been. It's one of obedience and
discipleship. It's believing he will return in
his time and we have a certain life to live until that occurs
or we die. And, and that's the message of
the New Testament. So the the job of the church,
our job is not prediction, our job is proclamation.
And we need to be careful about that.
It doesn't mean that it's not OK to talk about because we are
certainly studying God's Word together and we want to do that.
But you also have to remember the context of many of these
passages that we're going to read here in a minute, that in
the New Testament world, this pre Christian Pagan world of the
early church. Let me say that again, because I
believe today we live in what I refer to as a pre Christian post
post modern culture. And it's much more similar to
the pre Christian Pagan world that the early church lived in.
That's one of the differences of our culture compared to some of
the some of the generations that you some of you grew up in is we
now live in a world that's much more like a pre Christian world.
I don't ever use the phrase post Christian because Jesus will
always sit on his throne. There's no such thing as post
Christ, but there's a pre Christian.
They don't know, they don't care, they have no knowledge of
they're, they're focused on other things.
And, and, and, and so this is, this is not a Christian culture,
so to speak. And so we live in a post
postmodern, pre Christian or pre Christian postmodern culture.
And it's much similar to the New Testament pre Christian Pagan
world of the early church. But one of the key things you've
got to know about these passages is that the majority of the
people in this world of the early church did not believe in
or had no hope for life after death.
And so a lot of these passages that are talking about certain
things, this this audience that he's right, Paul's writing to
and some of these places had a very Pagan backgrounds and
surroundings. They had no hope, no knowledge
of any life after death concept. And so that shapes a little bit.
It was a very fatalistic, very works based, fear based, Pagan,
superstitious and religious world that the Gospels that the
gospel floods with this new message of peace and promise.
And it's one of the reasons it was so revolutionary.
And so this is a radical shift in worldview for many who
received this message, especially in the letters of
Paul. So Paul wrote, for example, and
there's a, a primary part of, of Scripture that we often go to in
the New Testament when we're talking about the second coming.
And that's the book of First Thessalonians.
And Paul writes to this church in Thessalonica to help these,
the the very first gatherings of these brand new Christians to
understand concepts of life after death, because that was
not their background at all. And you can't separate
Scripture. You can't remove Scripture from
its original context. If you want to have healthy and
accurate hermeneutics, if you want to have a healthy
interpretation of Scripture, you can't just radically remove it
from its original context. You've got to understand who
these first hearers were. And so this church had great,
you can understand this now had great concern for believers who
had died so that because they don't know what's going to
happen to him, because they don't understand life after
death. And so part of what Paul's
writing about when he talks about some of these second
coming passages is actually this encouragement about those of you
who've lost loved ones, right? And some of you will know some
of these verses. So will will they miss?
Will they miss his second coming, which which they also
believe would take place in their lifetime because they've
already died? The people who've already died,
if they already missed out, because as far as their
background was concerned, they're dead.
And so are they going to miss the the idea of the second
coming I'm hearing about? Because that could happen now?
I mean, in their world, it was like it was going to happen,
especially in Thessalonica. They thought it was going to
happen. In fact, they had a problem with
some of the Thessalonicans of quitting work and going kind of
sitting out there on the hillside and staring up to the
sky because they thought it was going to happen that day.
So we, and so we have the whole Bible to help us.
We have the whole Bible to help us understand, but they just
didn't, they didn't have all that.
So that's the true context of this passage, not some 21st
century attempted predictions. So we get, we need to be
careful. So listen to 1st Thessalonians
chapter 4, verse 13 and, and you'll see this, this will make
see how this verse really makes sense.
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about
those who are asleep or who are dead, but that you might not
grieve as others who do, who have no hope.
Now, I was sharing that passage with some folks who are here
today with us, who just lost a loved one.
They're here with us right now. I was sharing part of that.
We were talking about that concept today that we grieve.
But we get to do it with what hope.
Because we know we know right when believers die, what happens
but you can understand this is brand new to these people, man.
They've got no clue they're they're learning this for the
first time. This is discipleship point O1 as
they're just learning this right.
And so he says this, but I we do not want you to be uninformed
brothers about those who are asleep that you may not grieve
as others do who have no hope for since we believe that Jesus
died and rose again. Even so, through Jesus, God will
bring with him those who have fallen asleep and the man.
If that was the end of it, that would still be confusing.
For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who
are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not
precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry
of command, with the voice of an Archangel, and with the sound of
the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first, then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And so we will always be with the Lord.
Therefore, encourage one another with these words.
I mean, what a radical thing for them to hear for the first time,
really. So let's just think through a
couple of things here. First, let's talk about the
comfort of Christ's coming. We don't want you to be
uninformed about this. We want you to be aware.
We don't want you to be ignorant.
We want you to have not all about what that about those
believers who have already died. That's the conversation here.
You have loved ones who believed in Jesus and they've died before
Jesus came back. What's going to happen?
So don't be like the pagans around you, or like you used to
be, who have no hope for the dead, for you and for us.
Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, there is hope.
A hope based totally upon the fact that what Christ has
already done for us and will also do for us when He returns.
So we have both the past hope and promise of the cross and the
resurrection. We have the future promise of
His return, both of which give us hope.
And those who have fallen asleep don't get into so sleep.
I don't have, I don't have 4 hours to talk about so sleep.
But this is not about so sleep. So sleep is not a good doctrine.
It's not an accurate doctrine. The rest of the Bible, and I'll
show you that in a minute, Testify.
In other words, it doesn't mean their soul just went to sleep at
death. In fact, Paul encouraged the
Corinthian church about this in Second Corinthians 5/8.
Yes, we are of good courage and would rather be away from the
body and at home with the Lord. So those believers who have died
are presently and instantly with the Lord.
The body may be waiting. The final state of the body, the
resurrected body, is not complete yet, but they are
because we're all going to receive new resurrected bodies,
which I'm excited about and thankful for.
I hate steps, but our soul, our spirit, who we really are is
immediately in the presence of God in a very real and real and
conscious way. So, so you someone may say with
a loving heart and mean will after you lose a loved one.
I'm sorry for your loss. And you're sitting there going,
well, I haven't lost her. I know exactly where she is,
right? I mean, I, you know, I
appreciate the sentiment. I'm not, you know, appreciate
the kindness they're trying to display.
I mean, what a comfort, what a difference that makes.
I was having this conversation this last week with someone else
who lost a loved one. And we were just talking about
the, the fact that over the years I've done 300 and
something funerals and, and, and I've done many, many funerals
for people who were not a member of the church, who had no
church, who were not saved. And, and this the difference in
a funeral where there is no salvific hope, there is no
thought of Christ versus a known believer who, you know, the
going home celebration of a, of a believer who's lived a life.
I mean, it's just such a stark contrast.
And why in the world you want to go through that like this when
you can go through it like a believer can?
You know, it's crazy. But Jesus is either is going to
come back and he's either going to come with us or for us.
Basically this passage says either he's going to he's going
to come for us or come with us. And it's not going to be subtle.
It's not going to be quiet, it's not going to be unnoticed again.
416 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry
of command, with the voice of an Archangel, with the sound of the
trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
And I don't know about you, but I long to hear the powerful cry
of command from King Jesus. I'd love to hear what the voice
of an Archangel sounds like, and I'd love to hear how loud the
trumpet of God is. The other morning we woke up at
5:00 in the morning because they decided to pour semen into a new
house right next door to us, right outside my bedroom window.
And it, it's kind of shaking the walls and the, and the glass was
moving a little bit as they had a 2 cement trucks and a boom.
And it was not subtle. It was not, it was not, it woke
us up. I thought I was going to shake
me out of bed. I, I was about to look up to the
sky and, and look for Gabriel or Michael, you know, but anyway,
it was just the cement truck. So, so, so you got to remember
that this is not an imagery here.
Trumpets were used to declare war.
Trumpets were used to declare a special event.
They're also used, obviously, to announce the arrival of somebody
really important royalty. The king is coming and, and here
all three are going to take place war upon evil, incredibly
special event and the arrival of the king.
And then Paul also writes that the body and soul will reunite
in this new glorified way, this this resurrected body.
Listen to a couple of other passages as he writes to the
church at Philippi in Philippians 3, he says, but our
citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await A Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be
like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to
subject all things to himself. So we know that our resurrected
body is going to have a lot of similarities to the resurrected
glorified body of Christ. We know that and and again in
First Corinthians to that church he writes, he says in first in
chapter 15 I tell you this brothers, flesh and blood cannot
inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery and
this is the themes, the theme verse for every church nursery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised
imperishable and we shall be changed.
And so we recognize that this is, this is a, this is a sudden,
this is an unexpected, this is a noticeable.
It's not going to be subtle. You're not going to wonder
whether or not the rapture took place or whether or not the
second coming took place. We're going to talk about the
difference in those two things and whether or not they are the
same thing in a minute. And I know somebody already has
opinions, easyseetaylor@inglewoodbaptist.com.
We will be transformed in the in a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, right? And it's going to be a glorious
resurrect. It's going to be a
metamorphosis, right? It's going to be, it's going to
be really, really something. Jon Patton or Peyton was a 19th
century missionary from Scotland.
And and there's a great quote by him because people in Scotland
were were telling me, you know, you don't you go, don't you go,
you're going to he was going to go preach to what were then
cannibals in some of the island Pacific nations.
And they said, you know, don't go there, don't go there.
You're going to get eaten by by the cannibals.
In fact, one will meaning church member moaned loudly in the
service. The cannibals, the cannibals,
you'll be eaten by the cannibals.
What an encouragement to the commissioning service of your
missionary. But without hesitation.
Peyton said this, he says, I confess to you that if I can
live and die serving my Lord Jesus Christ, it makes no
difference to me whether I'm eaten by cannibals or by worms.
For in that great day of resurrection, my body will rise
as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer.
And so just to recognize what what's going to happen, that
miracle that takes place at that moment.
Well, Paul continues with the Thessalonians and 1st
Thessalonians 4 again, verse 17. Then we who are alive, who are
left, we'll be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air, And so we will always be with the
Lord. Therefore encourage one another
with these words and the idea of caught up here, your translation
might actually have different words there caught up means to
catch up quickly. It's not a subtle word and in
English sometimes just didn't have the punch of of you know,
Greek is a very descriptive, vivid language, which I think is
one of the at Christmas I'll probably preach about this.
The one of the reasons God chose to send Jesus at the time he did
because linguistically Koine Greek was just one of the
wonderful way to express so many things, because it just
describes things much more vividly.
Often we'll have one word in English for something and Greek
will have 20 words for the same thing.
And so one of the things that this means, it means to seize by
force. This is not a subtle thing.
This is not like I'm catching a softball out in right field
because I can't play anywhere else.
So they put me in right field. So it it, it, it means that
you're seizing something by force to claim, to move to a new
place, to rescue from danger is what this word can mean.
And so again, all of this is happening.
How quickly twinkling of an eye, faster than a faster than a
blink and the twinkling of an eye.
So Paul declares again, remember the context.
See, there's no need to worry for your beloved who've died.
There's nowhere for these believers who've passed away.
Don't worry about them. Be comfortable because Christ is
going to come and there's going to be this incredible, not only
resurrection and reunion and, and, and transformation that
takes place. So we can rest and, and be
assured and comforted by the idea of the second coming of
Christ. But secondly, let's talk about
the certainty of Christ's coming.
Then let's just nail this down and then we're going to get to
what you really want me to talk about.
Probably. But in First Thessalonians
chapter 5 verse 1, he says not concerning the times and the
seasons. Brothers, you have no need to
have anything written to you. We don't need to be consumed
about the timing of his coming. I promise you I'm not kidding.
I have all kinds of cool color-coded charts.
Every generation believes or has believed it would probably be
during their time here on Earth. I've heard that for decades upon
decades, you know, Jesus is going to return anytime.
Jesus is going to return anytime.
And I would even say to you, there would have been moments in
history before I was alive to where I could have said, boy,
that seems like a time. Like you think about World War 2
and some of those moments you could really have thought, man,
this is it, isn't it? But the win is not the biggest
issue. I'm not saying it's a sin to
think about those things and to enjoy studying those things, but
that's not the biggest issue. Now listen, the bigger issue is
the why and the how. Those are more important.
So quit sending me charts. e-mail them to see
taylor@englewoodbaptist.com. So First Thessalonians chapter
5, verse 2. For you yourselves are fully
aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the
night. While people are saying there is
peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them
as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will
not escape. For you yourselves are fully
aware. Paul had, obviously, and this is
something you got to recognize. He had obviously already done
some teaching while he was there with them in Thessalonica.
So there's some things that he'd already told himself.
I've already told you this or she'd all be aware of some of
this already. Paul saying the day of the Lord,
This imagery is a very Old Testament image.
This is the image of a day of judgement.
The day of the Lord is a popular Hebraic phrase in the Old
Testament to where it's it represents judgement and that
day will be extremely unwelcomed by many.
In fact, listen to the Book of Revelation.
It says in Revelation 1615, behold, I am coming like a
thief. Blessed is the one who stays
awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go naked and be
seen exposed. It's going to be sudden.
You're not going to be able to escape it.
You're not going to be able to hide from it.
And for those who know him, it will be powerful.
And for those who do not know him, it's going to be painful.
In fact, listen to Matthew chapter 24.
But concerning that day and hour, no one knows.
I don't know how many times I got to say that out loud, but
because concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the
angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
So don't ask me when he's going to come back. 37 For as were the
days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day when Noah
entered the ark and they were unaware until the flood came and
swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son
of Man. Then two men will be in the
field, one will be taken, one left.
Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken and
1:00 left. Now certainly there are signs,
and we can recognize certain signs that that life's going to
be moving along in a pretty sinfully normal way right before
the 2nd coming. But you think we what, what this
ought to do to us is because of the suddenness, because of the
normalcy of life, right? It's unexpected.
Part of what this ought to do is it ought to motivate us to share
the gospel with the lost people around us because this could
happen to them. And we, we have the
responsibility of helping them know the truth so that they can
avoid the painful part of this and they can enjoy the powerful
part of this, right? And so we need to be more
burdened about what they face at the end and then what they think
of us today. Because when they're saved, I
promise they'll thank you one day for that, right?
But let's get to #3 the classifications of Christ's
coming. And here's where the bulk of our
time will be spent. Because one of the things that
I'm learning is that some, and, and sometimes I use words that
need definitions. And so I want to make sure I, I,
I don't want to ever assume that people already know things.
Now, there are some of you in here.
And I know that because we've had conversations that, that
like to study eschatology and you know, all these terms and
you have, you have your, your, your clear interpretations of
some of these terms. I don't mean that in any
negative way whatsoever. You, you feel real certain about
your Bible study and that, and I'm not arguing with that, but
there are other people in this room who have no idea what these
terms mean, right? And so we want to make sure that
we're, we're including some definitions here so that
everybody's clear. When somebody says the word
Millennium or premillennialism or just dispensationalism, what
does, what does that mean? I hear these words.
I have no idea what that means, right?
So let's, let's help you. Let's make sure, let's clear
that up. So, so most of the secondary,
that second level and and third level discussions in
eschatology, they revolve around the when and the how and they
lead to this entire Dictionary of questions and terms and
positions. For example, this is a
rhetorical question. I don't need you holding up
signs with answers. Will Jesus return physically and
reign on the earth for 1000 years?
That would be a question. Will Christians go through a
seven-year tribulation? That would be a question that my
people might have. Will the second coming of Christ
occur at the same time believers meet Christ in the air during a
rapture? In other words, is the second
coming the rapture? Are they the same thing or not?
What does the nation of Israel have to do with end times?
These are the kinds of questions that often revolve around these
kinds of conversations. And in due time, I promise that
we'll come back and we're going to walk through some of these
details. I, I'm going to have to be a
little general tonight, as I warned you at the beginning,
because there are exceptions and hybrid beliefs to many of these
interpretations. I promise you, I know the
details and I assure you, but I want to remain a little more
focused on some primary issues for this session.
And I know that disappoints 95% of those of you who are
listening. And the other 5% don't know what
I just said. So that's great.
So let's just talk about some of these terms.
Let's talk about what the rapture is.
So this is actually a word for it's a Latin, it comes from
Latin, the word rapture, and it means to carry away.
It means to take away, to carry off.
That's what the word rapture means in Latin.
And it refers to the time when Jesus returns for his people.
Now, there are people, many people in fact, who don't
believe there's such a thing that the rapture isn't an event
by itself. So you just need to know that
you are sitting down in here. That's good.
Those of you listening online, sit down because I don't want
you to faint while you're walking or or driving.
Don't hit anybody. Most believe, most who believe
in a rapture believe it's described in some of these
passages we just read right? And so depending upon your view,
it can either be at the same time together with the second
coming, that's all one big thing, or they're actually two
different events that happen some time apart.
We're going to talk more about that, don't worry.
And so beliefs also range. Now see if you can follow this
for a minute because this will give you some of this language
that you might hear in second coming talk.
So it beliefs range from when it occurs, does it occur before the
great tribulation, which we'll define next?
Does it happen in the middle of the great tribulation or does it
happen after the great tribulation, Right?
So you have pre Trib, mid Trib and what would that last one be?
Post Trib, right? And so and you have Christians
in all three categories, You have scholars in all three
categories. OK.
And so all three of those, I'm not just saying that there are
people who believe this. So what is the great
tribulation? Well, the great Tribulation is a
time when great disasters take place and those who believe in
Christ are going to suffer great persecution.
So various views occur all over the place with the tribulation
at different times, that this will occur at different times.
Some believe it lasts for seven years because of what the Book
of Revelation would suggest to us in Revelation 7.
There are others who don't believe that.
Others believe it's symbolic or others believe it's already
happened. So there's actually an entire
sub doctrine called preterism that believes that most of the
prophecies about the end times actually took place in the 1st
century. That it was referring to Nero as
the Antichrist. That the Jewish war and
destruction of the temple in AD 70 by Rome is actually the
tribulation. So all this language that we
attribute to being in the future for some actually already took
place and they believe it already took place in the past.
So just be aware that these different views exist.
Others see the whole idea of the tribulation is more symbolic.
So it represents all of the persecution and all of the
suffering Christians have faced throughout church history so
that it really isn't a future seven-year period that you can
pinpoint in your newspapers and in the news media.
But it's actually something that is just from the very beginning
of Christianity, still going on today every time Christians are
persecuted, because I do assure you, Christians are being
persecuted today in great numbers.
In fact, more people are being martyred today than perhaps any
other time in recent history. Still others I'm not done,
sorry. Still others would say the Great
Tribulation is prior to the second Coming, and others say
it's at the end of the second coming.
So you'll have those who believe in what's called
premillennialism and post millennialism based upon what
the Millennium is, which is our next definition so that these
getting good. So you can be post Trib, mid
Trib, or a pre Trib, mid Trib, post Trib, and also pre pre
millennial or post millennial. Isn't that good?
We need T-shirts. We need T-shirts.
We just need to all wear labels so we can really have great
discussions together in the lobby.
So to best understand, and I do mean this part, to best
understand what the Bible teaches about the great
Tribulation, I really do advise you to study not just passages
about the end times, but to help you, you could study the
doctrine of suffering and persecution, which is a doctrine
in and of itself throughout Scripture and to see, and then
you'll be able to, I think tell better, is this the same thing?
Is this a different thing or not right?
And it kind of will help you with some of those views.
So are all passages referring to persecution or suffering about
the end of time? Or are some about what the
disciples alive at the time of Jesus would face in their own
lifetimes and or what the early church would experience during
his first, say, 2 centuries? And, and the answer is, you
know, in my mind, it's a both an and.
And it will help you to study the both an to kind of help
separate some of these things out because we sometimes
interpret things, I think to relate to us.
This is a a normal and we're going to have a host study on
this someday about how to interpret Scripture.
We're going to do some podcasting about that as well.
How do I study the Bible? Well, because one of our one of
our faulty interpretation problems or what we would refer
to as a faulty hermeneutic is that we often interpret
Scripture for us instead of in a, in a more objective way.
What does Scripture really say? And we often, we often are so
hard. We related to us so much or we
can also do that eschatologically where
everything's about something when it's not necessarily about
that. And so when they actually some
of these passages related to others in the past.
But that's not to say that current and future persecution
is yet to come and promised in Scripture as well.
So again, there's kind of a both ends.
You got to kind of work there. I'll move on.
So then what's the Millennium that was referred to pre
millennialism, post millennialism?
So the Millennium is 1000 year reign of Jesus on earth.
You'll see this in the Book of Revelation with a billion
different views, maybe not a billion, but several.
And these are some of the words that some of you might know or
you've heard of. Most of these have to do with
the way the Millennium works in relationship to the rapture or
the second coming or the tribulation and how all these
pieces kind of tie together. So one of those is called
dispensationalism. Now I know that some of you are
dispensationalist because you told me you are.
That's not a guess. And many of you were likely
raised in a church that believed in a very straightforward
dispensational premillennialism. Now that's a that's a there's
some some words, aren't they? For some of you, you're like,
what did he just? And so and what that teaches is
that the rapture's going to occur before or maybe midway
some of your mid Trib, but probably before the seven-year
great tribulation that the that most believers are getting
raptured out, then the tribulation hits.
That's a common, not always, but a common dispensational
premillennial view. You can also have dispensational
mid Trib premillennialism. Sorry, but the idea here is this
position also holds a very strong view of Israel right?
And sees the church as kind of an in between dispensation.
The word dispensation, the easiest way to describe it would
be a, an age of time, so a section of time.
So you have, you have this dispensation and this, for
example, you have the church age, which we're in right now
according to dispensationalism. So it's a, it's a, it's a period
of time. And for true dispensationalists,
God's working through Israel, you have this church age time
and then God's going to come back to Israel at the end of
time. So the view of Israel is very
important to dispensationalists, all right?
And some who hold this view have never heard any option because
it was the normative teaching where you grew up, and it was
probably the only way many of you were ever taught about the
second coming. Now, don't throw things at me.
E-mail c.taylor@englewoodbaptist.com
because you need to be aware that that does not mean that
most of Christianity hosted this view, because it does not.
And this actually didn't become popular till about 1860.
And then it grew very rapidly in the very first part of the 20th
century. I'm not not, I'm not saying it's
wrong. I'm just saying that that's just
a historical truth, OK? So just recognize that that
wasn't always the view of the early church fathers and early
churches, right? And so beware.
So open yourself up to some both ends, maybe a little.
Another common view is what's called historical
premillennialism, which teaches that Jesus will return to earth
after a time of tribulation, but before the Millennium.
Most historical premillennialists, though not
all, because there's not an all in any of this.
You got to understand there are exceptions to every single slice
of this, but most historical premillennials believe that
Christians remain on earth through the tribulation, that we
actually go through the tribulation, and then Christ
comes back. And whether the tribulation is a
short intense period or it occurs over a long period of
time that's debated throughout church history, post
millennialism teaches that Christ will return to earth
after a Millennium time, 1000 year reign, when the
overwhelming majority of people throughout the world embrace the
gospel. So the world's going to be saved
and then he comes back. And after he's reigned in that
millennial reign, the great tribulation occurred either in
the 1st century or will be a brief time of persecution
immediately before the Millennium.
This view, although it's gaining ground today, frankly was
popular, but I'll be honest with you, World War One and World War
2 beat it out of most people because there's a, there's a
version of this view that says people are going to get better
and the world's going to get better.
And then Jesus comes and most people aren't buying into that
too much anymore, right? Although it's gaining ground
again. I'm millennialism.
This will really make some of you angry.
Teaches that there's no physical millennial reign whatsoever,
that the Millennium is right now, that the spiritual reign of
Jesus and his people, the Church, that is the millennial
reign and Jesus could return at any time.
Now, all of these views, if they're orthodox, believe that
Jesus is going to return. Again, that's a primary issue.
They believe in that. That's not the issue.
It's how and when and what the state of the Christians on earth
are going to be when he comes back.
Those are the different things. So in that view, the tribulation
is when Christians are persecuted, when wars take
place, when disasters happen. It's just the state of our
normal life that I'm going to talk more about next week or
next episode. So then you have the whole idea
of the second coming. Now you might think, well,
that's the same thing. Well, not to everybody.
So the second coming, depending upon what your view is about the
Rapture and the Millennium is, is this marks the final return
of Christ to reign and judge. But is that the same time the
rapture occurs? Is that all one thing or is it
two different things? Most dispensationalists would
believe it's two different things.
You have a rapture, you have some some leftover the either
the whole tribulation or part of the tribulation, you'll have A
and then you'll have a return in a millennial reign, etcetera, in
some order. And so, but for others, they
think it's all one thing. I, I've got a friend who passes
at church not far from here. They will not sing the song I'll
fly away. That's actually a conversation
he and I had not long ago. You also have pan millennialism,
which is where part of you wish you were tonight.
And that is it all pans out in the end.
And who really cares? That's not an official doctrine,
but it's probably the most popular one among some people.
So as I stated earlier, there are, these are extreme
summaries. I mean extreme summaries of
views with many subsets and hybrids.
I personally have never fit neatly into any category.
So I'm a hybrid in and of myself.
I have, I have pieces of more than one view that I tend to
hold to. And that's not because of my
study of, of books or anybody else's opinions.
It's because of the, my study, the Bible.
And so it's, it's, it's the literal readings that I walk
through that lead me to my conclusions.
And I promise we will come back to this and do some of that.
OK, So don't worry about some of the details.
And I know some of you are disappointed in me for not
spending an hour and a half and Daniel or Ezekiel and others are
probably disappointed I didn't spend time in the newspaper
because that's what some folks are doing all the time.
And I, and I, and I'm not, I'm not trying to mock that because
I, I, I'm not saying it should be an awareness.
I'm not saying, boy, look at this.
Could this be a sign of something that's a discussion
worth having? It's just don't let that be your
primary. Don't let that be your primary
source. You make sure you're in the
word. And in the meantime, we, we have
work to do. So as I stated earlier, most
secondary and tertiary discussions revolve around these
ideas of when and how. But let's make sure we go back
to the primary for a moment because that really is what we
need to emphasize. Delay this foundation, and then
we can dive into some of these other things at another time.
Doctor Mohler, Al Mohler, my friend and former boss, says
this. He says Christians who affirmed
the bodily, historical, and victorious return of the Lord
Jesus Christ may differ over timetable and sequence without
rupturing the fellowship of the church.
That's a good sentence. I mean it.
It's fine. For we can sit in the same small
group and somebody be a dispensationalist, somebody a
historical premillennialist, and have extremely lively
conversations and both of them still think the other one's
going to be in heaven. It's just they're going to say
you're going to be surprised when you get there how that
really works out. You know what I'm saying?
And so we affirm the bodily, historical, and victorious
return of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's primary.
We may differ on timetable and sequence.
Christians may find themselves in disagreement over any number
of issues related to the interpretation of difficult
texts or the understandings of matters of common disagreement.
Nevertheless, standing together on issues of more urgent
importance, believers are able to accept one another without
compromise. When you're on 3rd order issues
and that are in question, we always got to remember that
these kinds of things don't need to divide the church.
We need to have great discussion, great Bible study,
do the best we can to come to biblical conclusions and then
hug each other and and eat ice cream or something.
So let me just talk about the challenge of Christ coming.
So the primary doctrinal issue, obviously, that we've been
trying to point out tonight is that Jesus is returning for
those who believe in him and will judge those who do not.
And, and we must be living in such a way as to be ready.
I, I, I, we got to drive this home because regardless of how
and when you, you got to be ready before this happens, it's
too late after it happens in a sense.
And so when First Thessalonians 54, it says, but you are not in
darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
Now they once were because they were pagans, but now you're not.
Now you're not in darkness anymore.
So this shouldn't, this shouldn't catch you.
This, this doesn't have to surprise you like a thief.
For you are all children of light, children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.
So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake
and be sober for those who sleep, sleep at night, and those
who get drunk or drunk at night. But since we belong to the day,
let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and
love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
Boy, it sounds like almost Ephesians 6:00-ish, doesn't it?
With the armor of God. And so he challenges us that in
the word sober in this translation, in its original
version, it really means to be alert.
It means to be village vigilant. It's not just talking about
don't be drunk with alcohol or something, even though that
wouldn't obviously affect the state.
It's the idea of being vigilant and watchful.
I'm watching for this. I'm aware of this.
So it's I may not be spending all day long predicting and and
highlighting everything that I can find to try to figure out
when it's going to happen. That may not be my 100%
occupation, but at the same time, I'm not unaware either.
And I'm alert, I'm aware and I'm ready.
So we live in the light we can see and we're looking forward to
his return and and we do so by being equipped with faith, love,
hope and salvation, right. And then listen to the gospel.
Listen to Matthew 24 again. That whole chapter would be an
interesting one for you to read. Says Therefore stay awake, for
you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known
and what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have
stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is
coming at an hour you did not expect.
So if you expect him right now, you're wrong.
It's kind of like, you know, it's, I often use the, the idea,
you know, because of my travels, I used to be gone all the time.
It's kind of like kind of like waiting for somebody at the
airport that's been gone for a long time.
Teresa is going to go visit our family in Oklahoma because our
grandson, our oldest grandson just graduated from Air Force
Tech school and he's getting ready to be deployed to South
Korea and he's going to be home for a few days.
And so Teresa is going to go back to see everybody to see
him. And so it'd be like, it'd be
like our grandson coming back from deployment, been gone for
years or something on to South Korea and Okinawa, which is
where he's going to be ending up.
But somebody been gone for a long time and you're standing
there at the airport in the old days, you can stand right by the
plane. You remember that, that they
messed that all up. And now you've got to stand way
out there, wherever that is out there in that area where you
can't go past the person or you're going to tase you or
something. So you're out there and you
know, people are holding up signs and think about, think
about, think about a spouse and their children waiting on the
the other spouse. And the little kids got signs
they made for daddy or mommy. And they're sitting there and
they're looking and they're straining their necks and they
just can't wait to even get a glimpse of their loved one.
And then as soon as you can, you go rush to meet him and you hug
them. That's the church waiting on the
bridegroom. So we're watching and we're
aware, so we embrace the certainty of Christ coming
because that's how we're saved through Him.
We love him and we can't wait to see Him.
And so First Thessalonians 59 says, for God has not destined
us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus
Christ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep,
we might live with him. It doesn't matter if I'm alive
or dead when he comes back, it's going to be glorious.
Now I I think it'd be so cool to be alive.
I think it'd be so cool to see it and to hear it.
But but for those of us who believe death is also just
incredible doorway. What a promise.
So verse 11 goes on. He says, therefore, encourage
one another and build one another up just as you were
doing. So we keep encouraging the the
verbs here is a continuous action.
So keep on doing this, keep on encouraging, keep on edifying,
keep on building up. That's what we need to be doing
in the meantime. That's what we're doing in the
meantime. We're waiting, we're watching
and we keep on edifying. We keep on building, we keep on
encouraging. We're also going to keep on
reaching. So I, so I want us to be careful
that we don't lose our focus on times and, and necessarily on
the wind as much as, as the why and, and the the reality of its
truth. Revelation 33 says, remember
then what you've received and heard.
Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up, I will
come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will
come against you. So you also have this challenge.
The King of Kings is coming and that's a fact.
And the question then becomes twofold, am I ready?
Am I ready for him to return right now?
Am I ready for that is my life? Am I saved?
Am I walking with him? Am I who I need to be and am I?
And then the second question, am I living in such a way that if
he were to come today, would it please him?
Would my life right now please him in the way that I'm living
for him? Peter writes about it.
Listen to second Peter 3. The Lord is not slow to fulfill
his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards
you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should
reach repentance and we often will use that verse and that's
all you know he wants everybody to be saved, but listen to the
context. Keep going.
Verse 10 But the day of the Lord but but contrast.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the
heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies
will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that
are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus
to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives
of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the
coming of the day of God? Because of which the heavens
must be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly
bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we
are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which
righteousness dwells. This stuff's all temporary, and
we get ripped. We get awfully wrapped up in the
temporary right. For so perhaps instead of
worrying and fretting over what our life is like here now, we
need to be more focused and living obediently toward our
life. Then a favorite, you know it is.
Corey 10, Boom. Who if I've quoted 4265 times
since I've been in Inglewood at least a couple of times.
If you don't know her story, she survived the terrors of the Nazi
concentration camp during World War 2, lost much of her family,
she said. She shared this.
She says, look around and be distressed, look within, be
depressed, look at Jesus and be at rest.
Luke 19 says this. And they as they heard these
things, he proceeded to tell the parable because he was near to
Jerusalem and because they suppose that the Kingdom of God
was to appear immediately. And he said, therefore a
nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a Kingdom
and then return calling 10 of his servants.
He gave them 10 miners and said to them, engage in business
until I come. Another translation, which is my
favorite says Occupy till I come.
That's her job. It can.
It means to invest until he returns.
There's our job. We've got to share this with
other people. We've got to continue.
We're going to see five people baptized on Sunday.
We're going to see a statistical anomaly on Sunday in the fact
that there's going to be somebody over 80 years of old
age baptized on Sunday. You almost never see that and so
and then we're going to see a couple of younger couples and
it's just going to be a fun day and what we'll observe the
Lord's Supper. I think I get to preach for 45
seconds now. It'll be good.
It's going to be all fun. It's going to be great.
But but just the fact that we need to keep sharing and keep
sharing and keep sharing. I, I got to share the gospel
with somebody yesterday in my office.
And so the Lord's just providing opportunities.
You know, many of you know that I lived in the Philippines for a
while when I worked with the the mission board.
And, and because of that, Filipino lore and history are
something that I've read about. Some of you would know some of
these stories from World War 2 as well.
The most famous perhaps being that General Douglas MacArthur
who had to leave Correhidor Island when it was being
attacked by the Japanese as they advanced on Manila Bay.
And he went to Australia. And of course there's a famous
line by MacArthur. When he got to Australia, you
know, he, he got on the radio to back to the Filipinos and he
said, I shall return. And in October 20th, 1944, he
waded ashore in the Lathi Gulf. I've been to that place where he
walked ashore as American troops landed to retake the
Philippines. And then again he got on the
radio and he addressed the Filipino people.
I have returned. Listen to this I have returned.
We have come dedicated and commitment committed to the task
of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily
lives, and of restoring upon a foundation of indestructible
strength the liberties of your people.
The hour of your redemption is here.
That no heart be faint. Let every arm be steeled.
The guidance of divine God points the way.
And may we as a church see our spiritual warfare just as real
as our Great Commission fulfilment, and that we might
engage, we might invest and we might occupy until he returns.
But we've got a world to warn. We've got a world to help set
free. There's a world out there that
needs liberation and restoration.
They're broken, they don't know, and we've got to tell them.
So I pray that we'll take that very seriously as we ourselves
discuss, even debate, even argue a little bit about what, when,
and how. And we'll talk a whole lot more
about that down the road, I promise.
But also that we love one another, and we bind together
with the hope and the truth that Jesus will return for US one day
and take us home. And we'll be together forever in
a new state, in a resurrected, glorified, transformed state
with our Lord and with our loved ones who have gone on before us.
And he'll join us in that moment.
And I look forward to that time. So let's pray together.
Father, we thank you, Lord. Father, I thank you even for the
difficult details of certain doctrines.
And I know, Lord, that we really didn't dive deeply enough for
some here tonight. But Father, we'll get back to
that as we study your Word systematically, we study the the
books of the Old Testament and the Gospels in the Book of
Revelation together. We'll look at these things in
detail and talk about them as deeply as we possibly can.
In the meantime, Father, thank you for this overview, this
challenge to just give us hope. The fact that we don't have to
fear death, we don't have to fear eternity, but that Father,
we can know, we can be certain, we can be comforted that Lord,
you're going to return and you're going to take us home and
that we're going to be restored and transformed in a way that we
probably likely can't even imagine with our finite brains
here. But Lord, in such a glorious
way. And Father, we just thank you
for the promises. We thank you for the promises
that say things like like Jesus says that he goes to prepare a
place for us and that one day we will be with him there and to
think about our great intercessor preparing a perfect
place for us. And Father, I thank you, Lord,
for the many from every tribe and every tongue and every
nation that will be there. And the way we're going to
celebrate together in a great throne room to bring you
incredible glory as you fulfill your mission and you fulfill
your purpose. And we walk with you in a new
way. And father, I thank you for the
old friends that we'll see. I believe with all my heart.
The Bible indicates in many places that we're going to be
able to recognize and know each other.
We, we may look differently, we may be completely different, but
we're going to have a, a recognition of one another.
And father, the Bible just shows us that over and over again.
And so, Father, in that wonderful time to see relatives
and friends, Father, heroes, people, we've only read about
people from the Bible, Lord, to be able to, to see them and know
them and, and hear from them and walk with them, Lord.
But Father, far more important than that, far outweighing any
of that, Father, far, far greater, is to be able to be
there with you, to see the Lord Jesus, to see you in all your
glory, and to be able to worship you, to walk into, sing with
angels to your glory. Father, that ought to change the
way we live. That ought to change the way we
think. That ought to change the way we
hope that our way that change, that ought to change the way we
invest and engage. We need to occupy till you come
back. We have so much work to do, or
there are thousands and thousands and thousands of
people right around us who don't know any of this.
Don't believe any of this. And Father, we have it and we
know it. We have to authentically,
relationally share that with them, lovingly to them so that
they might come and join us to study your word, to worship you,
to pray, to serve so that we might be ready.
And Father, we're watching, we're hoping, we're expecting.
Lord, it would be great if you return tonight.
Be great if it happened tomorrow, but Lord, if we're
still here, that means that there are others we must tell,
and there's still a job to get done.
So Lord, as long as we're here, let us work.
Work to fulfill your mission. Thank you, Father, for these
truths. Thank you for the hope and
comfort it must have brought to those original brand new
believers in Thessalonica, and the very same hope and joy and
comfort it brings to us today. So, Father, thank you and bless
us. Please look forward to what's
happening this Sunday. And I pray, Father, if anybody's
listening to this and they don't have a church on, they'll come
to Inglewood and see what you're doing because you're doing
you're doing here at Inglewood. And we're just trying to stay
out of your way. And then and Father, be used by
you and bring you glory in Christ's name, Amen.
Thank you all so much. Thank you so much for listening
today. And I also hope that you'll go
to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.