Episode Transcript
2 Kings chapter 18 verse 32 is our text and 10 o'clock is our time.
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2 Kings 18 verse 32.
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And while you're turning there, I'd like for you to also find 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
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And just mark that for the future.
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2 Corinthians chapter 11, if you'll just put a marker there,
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so you won't have to spend much time finding it later in the message.
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And happy Mother's Day to the mothers and happy Lord's Day to everyone.
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That's the main reason we're here, isn't it? It's the Lord's Day.
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But we love our mothers, so we're going to give them a salute too.
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All right, everybody there.
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So if you found 2 Corinthians 11, let's go back to the text in 2 Kings chapter 18 and verse 32.
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Representing the kingdom of darkness at this time in history was an Assyrian king named
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Sennacherib. So when you hear me say his name or the name of Rabshechah, they are 2 men,
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but 1 message. And Rabshechah is the spokesman, he's the military leader.
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Sennacherib is the one giving the marching orders. And at this time he is actually in
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Lakeish, but that's okay if you don't remember that part. Because we're looking at what's going
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on in Jerusalem and specifically at the wall of Jerusalem. And this man, Rabshechah, was crafty,
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he was deceitful, and he tried to deceive the Jews in Jerusalem. And we began looking at a theme
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that has appeared in other places in the Bible. And that theme is that Satan is a counterfeiter.
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Now if you were here with us when we did a verse by verse study of revelation, our pastor did that
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during the 11 o'clock hour. It's been quite a few years now. That was something we learned
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about Satan is that he was and is a counterfeiter. And we're going to see some more of that today
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in our text, and we're going to learn from it. You know he actually began his deception
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toward man in the Garden of Eden. It went way back. And he continues it even to this day,
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and it's just as strong now as it's ever been. And in fact people are more prone to believe it now
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than they've ever been as well. But Rabshechah promised Judah they could eat from their own
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vines and their own trees and drink of their cisterns if they would only come out and submit
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themselves to Sennacherib in the Kingdom of Assyria. And what we learned last week is that
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Sennacherib tried to bring Judah into a bondage from which God had already delivered them.
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And we learned last week that Satan wants to take you away from where God brought you.
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He wants to bring you into a place from which God delivered you, and he wants to take away
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the possessions God has given you. And although he cannot take the salvation of any person,
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he can certainly steal all kinds of things from you. He's a robber, he's a destroyer,
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and his target is mankind. His target is the church because he doesn't want the mission of
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the church to succeed. And I'm thankful that that church is founded on a rock and not on sinking
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sand. So he wants to take away what God's given you. And now we're going to see how Rabshechah
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further tries to entice Judah away from the protection and the provision and the promises
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of God. So let's reread verse 31 in 2 Kings 18 and we'll go right into verse 32 which is the new
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verse for today. And this is what Rabshechah said to the men of Judah, "Harken not to Hezekiah,
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for thus saith the king of Assyria, 'Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to
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me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one
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the waters of his cistern, until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of
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corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive, and of honey, that ye may live
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and not die. And hearken not to Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying the Lord will deliver us."
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Now I can promise you we are not going to get out of verse 32 today. In fact, we may not get to half
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court, but it's going to be good the whole way. I had a wonderful time with my study and God's
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never failed to give me something to teach from His Word. Look at the first part of verse 32,
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where He says, "Until I come and take you away to a land like your own land." Now in verse 31,
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Sennacherib, speaking through this man Rabshechah, promised Judah a blessed life in the place where
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they were. And in this verse, verse 32, He promises them a blessed life in an even better place,
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that being Assyria. Now doesn't this sound familiar? God took His people from a terrible place,
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that was Egypt, and He brought them into a wilderness which would have also been a terrible
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place, except that He led them, He lighted their way, He protected them, and in that wilderness
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where they were for 40 years, He gave them manna to eat, and gave them water from a rock when they
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were thirsty. He gave them clothes that never wore out, and He kept their feet from swelling
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all of those years. He testified of those things too. He gave them a priesthood and sacrifices
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so they could learn about sin and its consequences, and what atonement was. They could learn about the
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light of the world and the bread of life and the holiness of the Lord. They could learn that they
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needed a mediator between them and God, and between God and them. And in the wilderness,
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He blessed them in the place where they were, but He had an even better place for them.
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So what the king of Assyria is saying is, "Hey Judah, you submit to me, I'll bless you in the
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place you are, and then I'll bring you to a better place." Do you see the counterfeiting
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going on right there? That's Satan saying, "No, no, no, no, no. That stuff God has for you,
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that's not going to work. What I have for you is better, and it's even going to be better than that."
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And that better place where God would take His children from the wilderness was a land
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flowing with milk and honey, and it was a place where they could enter into rest.
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Israel's deliverance from the bondage of Egypt is, as you have learned if you've been here long,
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a picture of our deliverance from the bondage of sin. Sin is our Egypt. And God's leading and
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protecting Israel in the wilderness was a picture of God leading and protecting us
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through this wilderness, and He does it through His Son Jesus Christ. Now listen to Acts chapter
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7 verses 35 through 38, if you'd like to write that down, Acts chapter 7 verses 35 through 38.
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And by the way, this is the way people treat Jesus. He said, "This Moses, whom they refused,
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saying, 'Who made thee a ruler and a judge?' The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer
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by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had
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showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness 40 years.
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This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, 'A prophet--" Now he's talking about
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Jesus. "'A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me him shall
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you hear. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him
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in the Mount Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles given unto us.'"
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Now although God led them and protected them in the wilderness, Israel's journey was not complete
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until they entered the Promised Land. Wouldn't that be terrible if you said, "Well, I'm saved,
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but apparently I'm going to live forever on this sinful earth." I don't want to live forever on
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this sinful earth. I don't want to be--and this is impossible--but I don't want to be saved and
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living forever on this sinful earth. That's what a terrible thing to have been forgiven of my sins
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but to never have the hope of eternal life and the judgment of evil. And so Israel's journey
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wasn't complete in the wilderness. In the wilderness they had to carry that tabernacle
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and set it up. And then when God said, "Go," they had to take it back down and then carry it some
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more and set it back up and all of the furnishings that went with it. It was hard work. Those were
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some tough priests back then. They were strong. They did loaded carries every day. If you do
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weightlifting, you'll know what I'm talking about. I say every day they did it fairly often. They had
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to kill beasts every day, didn't they? And cut them up, shed their blood. That's hard work
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if you have never done something like that. But in the Promised Land, the city of Jerusalem,
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a temple would be built one day. David wanted to build it and God said, "No, you've shed too much
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innocent blood, but you can get all the lumber and this is better than what you get at Home Depot.
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You're going to get from Lebanon. You're going to get all of these wonderful resources that I have
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created for you, but your son's going to build it." And so one day that temple would be built.
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And that temple was a permanent structure and that signified to Israel the permanence
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of their residence in that Promised Land. Isn't that wonderful? That their residence in that
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Promised Land was to be permanent. Now in an earthly sense, it wasn't because they sent.
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But it teaches us that one day we will no longer journey.
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We're not going to be hungry and have to eat and then get hungry again and have to eat.
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And Israel, when they arrived in the Promised Land, when God took them there,
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they would no longer journey or hunger. In fact, they'd be at peace with God protecting them from
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their enemies. And for us, this wilderness in which we live is not our final destination.
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And I'm glad for reasons I already said. In fact, we long for a city not built with hands,
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a city of which we are already citizens by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ,
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but into which we have not finally entered. So right now, in this wilderness, though we're
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saved and though we have God leading us and protecting us and directing us, we are constantly
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being bothered by the devil. And he's pretty good at it. In fact, there's not anybody better than
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he is at doing that. And one of the ways he bothers us and the chief way he bothers the Christian
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is by trying to get us to submit to him in exchange for worldly pleasures. He does it.
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But when Jesus comes to take us with him, we'll no longer have to hear Satan speaking through
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the Rabshikas and Sennacheribs of this world who say, until I come and take you away to a land like
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your own land. We'll never again have to hear the enemy promise us good things if we'll just submit
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to him. Now look at this phrase until I come right there in verse 32 until I come. Now these are the
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words that are being spoken by the enemy of Judah, King Sennacherib through Rabshikah. If you take
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verse 31 and 32 together, and that's why I read them together a moment ago, Sennacherib wants
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Judah to enjoy their food and their drink until he comes. Now at no time did God ever tell his people
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to wait upon the coming of an earthly king to make their lives better. He never did.
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And the Apostle Paul, when he was teaching the Corinthians about the Lord's Supper,
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there's so much we can learn from that chapter, he reminded them of an important truth in verse 26.
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He said, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
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till he come." That's who we're waiting on. We're not waiting on Sennacherib to come.
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Judah should not have been waiting on Sennacherib to come, but that was the promise that Rabshikah
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threw out there for them. He said, "You can live the good life now if you'll submit to my king
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and an even better life when we take you away to another place." He said, "Until I come."
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Who is the church waiting on? We're not waiting on Donald Trump to become president. We're not
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waiting on Benjamin Netanyahu to continue his rule in Israel. We're not waiting for someone to defeat
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Putin or the Chinese premier. All of those are earthly things. If you're waiting on those things,
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you are going to be disappointed whether they happen or not, because if they don't happen,
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you'll be disappointed. And if they do, you'll say, "Well, I thought it was going to be better
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when he took the throne, the presidency, or when he got defeated, or when he passed away. I thought
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things would be better." Look, it's not going to get better, better until Jesus comes, and that's
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who we're waiting on. Speaking in a parable in Luke chapter 12, Jesus told his disciples something
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about his coming. It's Luke 12 and verse, I wrote down verse 35 through 27 just to see if you're on
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your toes, but there's no such thing unless I read it backwards. I believe it's 25 through 27. Here's
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what he said to his disciples, "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. And when
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ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding,
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that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants
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whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself
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and make them sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them." Jesus speaking this parable
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about himself. He used the parable of the Lord and the wedding. If you read that whole parable,
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you'll see it, but I wanted to point you to those three words, "When he cometh, when he cometh," and
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he's speaking of himself in truth there. And it's very clear to me that the only one who's coming
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we await is the Lord Jesus. And while we await his coming, then we're to have our loins gird,
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like he told these people. What do we have our loins gird with? The truth. Now that's in
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the armor of God there in Ephesians chapter 6. "We have our lights burning," he said.
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What are our lights burning mean? That means we're witnesses. "Let your lights so shine before men
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that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." And if you have a light,
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candlestick, you don't put it under a bushel, but on a hill, and it gives light to all that are in
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the room. That's what we are to be doing. And to be watching for his coming, as he said, that does
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not mean standing outside going like we do right now. He said, "What looks like he's going to rain?
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What looks like the Lord's about to come? I think I see him in the cloud." That's not what he's
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talking about. Watching is not necessarily with the eyes, although that's the image you have.
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Watching is waiting. It's guarding yourself so that his coming doesn't take you by surprise.
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We're looking for his coming. If you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, you don't believe that
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Jesus just lived the perfect life or that he was just born of a virgin, lived a perfect life,
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but that he also died a substitutionary death and he defeated death when he arose from the grave.
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And he promised that he would come back for us. So he went to the right hand of the Father,
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and he is coming back. You believe all of that, so you look forward to his coming. If you say, "Well,
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I believe certain things about Jesus, but I don't really believe he's going to come back," then you
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don't believe in the Jesus of the Bible. Why then would you say, "Well, I believe he died on the
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cross for sinners," if you don't believe he's also coming back to take us to be with him?
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So that is who's coming. We are waiting, and he taught what we ought to be doing
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until he comes. And the food that he's going to feed us is not this earthly physical food for
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which we hunger. It won't be what some earthly king promises us, like Sennacherib promised Judah,
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where he said, "You can eat of your vines and of your fig trees, and you can drink of your
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cisterns." No, that's not what sustains us. It's the same thing Jesus told that woman at the well.
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He said, "You drink from this water, you're going to thirst again. The water I give you,
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you're not going to thirst again. You drink of it, you'll not thirst again. And all that Jesus serves
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us will be his, not ours. But because it's his, then it will be ours." You get that? Jesus isn't
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going to say, "Here, I'll give you a drink of water from your own sink, Andy. And by the hour,
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I'll be thirsty again for some more of it. He'll give me the water that I really thirst for,
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and the one from which sister and I drink, I'll never thirst again."
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The world doesn't understand that. And all that Jesus serves us will be his, but all that
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Rab Sheikah and Sennacher had promised Judah was what they would serve them from their storehouse,
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from their resources. And that was a false promise, but it was quite effective. You know why?
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Because most people are carnal. All he had to do is say, "Hey, you can have good stuff here,
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you can have better stuff if you come with me." Now look back in your text, he said in verse 32,
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"Until I come and take you away, and take you away." Let's look at those few words. Thinking
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about this promise should have made Judah shudder. They should have said, "Whoa, whoa,
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wait a minute. God took us, took our fathers away from Egypt, from bondage, and brought us through
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a wilderness and delivered us into this promised land. In fact, this city right here that we're in,
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that has walls around it, the one that you're about to assault Assyria, this is the city of God. This
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is the city where the temple is. This is the one where he delivered us. He didn't say, "I'll drop
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you off in Jerusalem, and then I'll move you somewhere else later on. I'll let you go to the
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kingdom of Assyria and try it out over there." Not at all. So Judah should have heard those words
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and said, "Oh no, we don't want anyone to take us away." Well, how would you like it if some evil
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person came to your house as a child and said, "I'm going to take you away from your mom and dad.
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I have a better place for you." You'd run into your room crying, wouldn't you? You'd say, "I don't want
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to go anywhere." At least, I hope you would. "And take you away." You know, God brought
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the Jews into this land of promise, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now, imagine if somebody in
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that day had asked Joshua, "Hey, Josh, how would you like to be taken away from the place
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God brought you and into a foreign land under a Gentile king?" How about that, Joshua?
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Well, Joshua was quite a man. He was a man of God. He was a man of war. And he would have
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not only rebuked somebody for that, but their life might have been in danger.
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He may have said, "Well, that's blasphemy. You're ungrateful. You're worldly. Why would you want
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to leave the land of promise into which God has brought us?" Do you know, I feel that way about
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the house of the Lord, too. This is a precious place to me, and it's not because of the building,
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even though I'm very thankful God has provided us with this building. We're sheltered from the
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rain right now, and we're relatively comfortable. And it's a nice, comfortable, clean place to
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worship. It's better than a Motel 6. Tom Bodek promised a clean, comfortable room, and this is
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better than that. It's precious to me because the saints assemble here, and they assemble here
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not to play tennis with each other, but to hear the Bible taught and to encourage one another in
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spiritual things. And every Bible lesson taught in this place, from what the children are taught
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to what the adults are taught in every class, every Bible lesson ought to be so valuable
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to you that you might say in your heart, "I would never want something or someone to take me away
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from it. I don't want to miss it." And God brought you here through His providence,
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and to be taken away from a place where the truth is preached is to hearken to someone like
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Rabschicha, who offers things that appeal to the flesh. And we've had people from time to time,
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I've been here, I think November will be 12 years, pastors have been here about 13,
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and we've had people from time to time come through here, and things didn't roll the way
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they wanted them to for whatever reason, and they roll right on out and found them some place else.
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And we love those people, I don't know all the reasons that all of them left, but I think some
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of them said, "Why, this is boring." All we do is come in here and go straight to the Bible and
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read it until 1045, and then take a break and come back in here and we sing a couple songs,
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and then we just do it again. Do y'all have anything else? No, we don't have anything else
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for you. And there's not anything else you need, by the way. There's not any... You tell me something
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that's equal to or better than teaching the Bible. And I'll tell you that Satan has deceived you if
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you say you found something like that. What do we have for the kids? We have the Bible.
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My daughter is teaching the littlest ones we have who are able to sit and pay attention. We don't
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expect our little infants to do that, but the littlest one, and I bet your core is in there right
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now, isn't she? Yeah, core and Leah and Shiloh, and I don't know if we have any others in there now.
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And they're not able to read just yet. And so Sarah had... Guess what she has in there? She has a Bible.
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And it's one that I had when I was a little boy, and that is an awfully long time ago. So the
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parchment, not paper parchment, in it has the words of truth. And it doesn't have these little
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cartoonish drawings where you have this arc this big and all these animals poking out of it like
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they can't fit. No, it doesn't have that. The drawings in there are representative of truth,
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of how things really work. And you know what Sarah does? She reads that to them. It's a children's
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Bible, so it doesn't have every single word in it. It has what they can understand. And she asks
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some questions, and do you know what? They know how to answer those questions. They remember the
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answers to the questions, and that's what she does. And you know what will happen when she finishes
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the book of Revelation in there? She's going to start right back over and go through it again,
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because there's not anything better. Now, little children can't read their Bible for 45 straight
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minutes and pay attention. So we have things in there for them to do, and little crafts and so
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forth. But we don't have anything better for them than the Bible. And that goes all the way up
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through our young people and into our adults, to our people who are in the Genesis to Jesus class.
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Brother Fulton's over there. I'm over here. Guess what we're both doing? We're both teaching from
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the Bible. And so that's all we have. That's what we have, and that's all you need. And I don't want
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to be taken away from it. Who has the right to take us away? Now, I miss people when they're not here,
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and I'm sure I'm not real sure that in some cases I want to know why they're not here. I don't. I
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used to think I did, but I don't. It irritates me a little bit sometimes. But other times people
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can't be here. Maybe they have to watch online, and maybe they're ill and all of that. And that's
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fine. That happens. We're humans. We have frail bodies, don't we? And we can't always be places.
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But if somebody says, "Well, I missed this thing or that thing," my only question is, could you
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have been here, and if you could, was what you were doing more important than studying the Bible with
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us? And that should be convicting to you there. Don't let Rab's sheek take you away. And it's very,
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very subtle sometimes. Who has the right, by the way, to take us away? John 14, 2, and 3.
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John 14, verse 2 and 3. Jesus said, "In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so,
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I would have told you, 'I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you,
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I will come again and receive you unto myself.'" In other words, he'll take us away from where we are,
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"receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also." That's the only person who has the
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right to come take us away from where we are. And I'm ready to go. Not in a hurry to die,
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but I'm ready to go. Whenever he says, "I'm coming, I'm there." When Jesus comes again,
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of course he will receive all the believers unto himself where he is. That's where we're going to
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be. And when Sennacherib comes to take Judah away, he would receive them unto himself that
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where he is, they would also be. What a deal, right? If you want bondage, it is.
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If you want to lose your freedom, it is. It's uncanny to me how a person,
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just any person on the street can say he believes in God. You could ask him, "Do you believe in God?"
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"Oh yeah, yeah, everybody believes in God." "Well, no, that's not true, but if you say you do, okay."
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And you could ask such a person, "Well, do you believe there's a place called heaven?"
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Well, most people would say, "Yeah, I do." "Well, what about a place called hell?" Well,
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not as many people will say, "Oh yeah, I believe in hell, but I'm sure quite a few do."
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We're talking outside the church. And the people who believe in heaven would say,
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would agree with you that it's a wonderful place and that hell is not a wonderful place. It's an
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awful place. And that kind of person would probably tell you, "Well, no, I don't want to go to hell.
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I hope I go to heaven." Now, that's just real basic religious understanding from society.
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However, that same person, rather than repenting and putting his faith in what Jesus did for him,
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his ultimate decision is to be taken away to the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. Now,
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he wouldn't tell you, "That's who I want to take me away." God told Adam he would die if he ate
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of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan told Eve she would not die,
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but they'd be as gods knowing good and evil. So she and Adam went with Satan's lie and sin entered
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into the world. Now, follow this. And when sin entered into the world, Adam and Eve were
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taken away from the place where God put them. Listen to Genesis chapter 3 verses 23 through 24.
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Genesis 3 verses 23 through 24. This is after they had sinned. "Therefore the Lord God sent him forth
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from the garden of Eden." Now, let me stop right there. Was it God's perfect will for Adam and Eve
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to be outside the garden? No, it wasn't. He put them in the garden for a reason, gave them one
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law and gave them everything they could ever ask for. Perfect health, perfect everything,
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food, available, abundant, and all Adam did is dress the garden and keep it.
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So sin entered the world and he sent him forth from the garden to till the ground from whence he
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was taken. Now, God took Adam from the ground in that he took him from the dust of the ground. He
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breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. He formed the man.
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So he took him from the ground and breathed life into him and Adam became a living soul.
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Now, just think about that for a moment. It said, "So he drove out the man and he placed at the east
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of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of
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the tree of life. Adam had been taken from the ground and placed in the garden. Sin took Adam
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from the garden and placed him back in the ground." You see that? From the garden, he could live and
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never die and go back in the ground. But now he's going to die. He's going to plow that ground in
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sorrow and to that ground he's going to return when he died. Now, where was Sinacrib going to take
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Judah? Sinacrib sure wasn't going to take Judah to a place to give them eternal life. He was taking
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them away from the place where God put them. And that is how Adam and Eve were taken away from the
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garden is sin. They listened to one who said things would be better if they just did what he said.
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Sin entered the world and there they went. Now look further it says in our text we're in verse 32,
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2 Kings 18 if you've just joined us. Verse 32, "Until I come and take you away to a land like
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your own land." All right, let's look at that phrase for a moment. To a land like your own land.
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The only way this could be seen as a winning combination is if the alternative was seen
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as worse. Would it have been worse for Judah to stay put? No. It would not have been worse for
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them to stay put. But Rabshika tried to convince them it would be worse. Remember I mentioned last
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week that the way many salesmen sell the things that they have is by first creating a crisis in
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your own life to which they have the answer. I said are you driving a Ford? Now I drive a Ford out
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here. You driving a Ford? Did you know that Fords have a problem? They have a lifespan of whatever
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the years are and start making me doubt my ownership of that pickup. And then they say, "But
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if you'll come over here and drive this Chevy, all your problems will be solved." Well if I'm a strong
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enough Ford owner to say, "Look, I've had a Chevy and I've had a Ford and I'm gonna keep my Ford."
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Or, "I have a Chevy and I used to have a Ford and I'll keep my Chevy. I'm not in here to promote one
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brand over the other." But if I'm a strong enough owner, I'm not gonna fall for that.
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I'm gonna say I'm fine right where I am. You can go try to trick someone else.
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It's paid for, which makes it more valuable than the brand name on it. I promise you that.
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So to a land like your own land, this is being delivered as a promise of better things to come
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by saying, "Hey, where we're gonna take you, it's just like this. It's just as good as what you have."
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And that's what Rab Sheikah tried to do in some of the prior verses we studied,
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was shoot down their current situation saying, "God's not gonna deliver you.
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Hezekiah's already offended him. And so you don't have a chance here. There's no place like this
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place for the Lord our God gave it to us. That should have been what the Jews said.
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That man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
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We don't need the bread in Assyria because we have the bread here.
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And the word that proceeds out of the mouth of God came to Moses in Exodus 34 verse 12.
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Exodus 34, 12, where he tells the children of Israel, this is hundreds of years before what
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we're reading here. He said, "Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of
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the land with thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee." Now what are you putting a
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snare? You put something that looks delicious, don't you? Yeah, you put bait. That's exactly
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right, Brother Doug. It's bait. Same thing I put on the end of my hook, bait. And what you're hoping
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is that the danger of the snare or the danger of the treble hook is overlooked in favor of the
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food, the bait, that is in it or on it. And that's what Sennacher was trying to do. So hey, look,
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forget about all that stuff God told you. Forget about him warning you that you shouldn't make a
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covenant with these other nations. Look at the bait. That's what he was doing. And in saying this,
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when God told the children of Israel not to make this covenant because it would be a snare,
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he's strongly implying to them that the land of the Gentiles is not a land like their own.
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And it will not be a land like their own. And even more so in a spiritual sense. Now let's take this
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truth right here about the land and make the spiritual application because it's there.
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Satan will use false preachers to tell people, hey, why don't you come to our church?
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It's just like your church. It's Bible based. I heard a Mason tell me that one time. I didn't
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know anything about the Masons and he said, oh, it's based on the Bible. So what was he trying
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to do is tell me, hey, it's, well, I know a lot more about it now than I used to.
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Thanks to some people who came out of it. And I'll tell you what you want to, you want to step on
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some toes and offend people. Just go to a large church. It doesn't matter what the denomination
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is. You're going to find some Masons in there. And we used to have some here and we love them,
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but it's, they're going to get mad whenever the truth of the Bible is preached. When the gospel
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is preached says the only way to be saved, the gospel of Jesus Christ, because if they're a
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so-called good Mason, they believe there are many ways and the Bible teaches exactly against what
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their, what their beliefs are in that regard. But the Satan will tell you through these false
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preachers, it's a Bible based. But then when you begin to question the doctrines of such a church,
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you find out it's not like your church at all. It's not like your land at all.
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You find that the preaching of the gospel is that of another gospel.
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The apostle Paul recognized this tendency and turned to second Corinthians 11, where I had you Mark.
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He recognized this tendency in man to be persuaded by those who claim their religion is just like
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ours and maybe even better. I'm going to read verses three through four, second Corinthians 11,
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three through four. Paul wrote, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguile Eve through his
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subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that
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cometh preacheth another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which
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you have not received or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with
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him. Now let's examine this for a moment. I don't think we'll get through with it,
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but I'll give it a shot. Notice first in that text, they right there in that text, if you would,
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so you can look down at it, the word preaches. Satan will try to deceive you through preaching
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and he knows better than to try to deceive you through some wild raucous show at the
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church of Satan or in the dark wilderness or to use the scary music and fire and costumes
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with horns. He doesn't need to do that. He does it by preaching and not only by preaching,
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but preaching in a church building where people say, well, we ought to be safe from the ravages
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of Satan in here. No, you're not any safer in here than you are outside the doors. It's just a
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building. Come hear our preacher. He's just like your preacher. He's educated, passionate,
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and he's a terrific speaker. Everybody loves him, but Paul explained what the problem is with that
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preacher, which is the second thing to notice in that passage. He preaches another Jesus.
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That's right. A Jesus just like your Jesus, except this Jesus is nonjudgmental.
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He's accepting and affirming of all faiths and he doesn't send people to hell.
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That's that other Jesus. And notice the thirdly, the word spirit. He said another spirit,
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not the Holy Spirit, but another spirit. And that spirit is called the spirit of antichrist.
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1 John 4 verses 2 through 3. 1 John 4 verses 2 through 3.
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Hereby I know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the
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flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is
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not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist. Whereof ye have heard that it should come.
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And even now already is it in the world. The test of whether the spirit, this spirit is of God
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or not is whether it confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. And the one who does not
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confess that is the other spirit that Paul wrote about. In fact, the one who preaches the other
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spirit, the other Jesus is well, that is the preacher Paul is talking about. And you cannot
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preach the true Jesus without preaching the true spirit of God because they're one.
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And then notice, we'll have to stop after this, the phrase another gospel.
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Paul said this other gospel was the one that the Corinthians had not accepted. It wasn't
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the one they accepted. So these were believers. These were Christians to whom he was writing
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because they had accepted the true gospel of Jesus Christ. But the phrase another gospel
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simply means a feel good message by someone like Raghbeshikah in front of some church at a pulpit
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like this. Speaking to people who've been deceived in believing that the gospel message is a message
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like your own message. So that's what the Mormons will tell you that the Jehovah's Witnesses,
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"Oh, our message is just like yours." No, it's not. It's not just like ours. It's not a land
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like our own land. And with that, we'll stop and I'll finish expounding upon that verse next week
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as we hopefully meet again at the 10 o'clock hour. Let's pray. Father, your word is so good.
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Thank you for the truth of it. Thank you for teaching us today. And Lord, I pray that your
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spirit would impress upon us the importance of knowing when we're hearing another gospel,
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knowing when someone like Raghbeshikah, who is nothing more than Satan's representative on this
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earth, is trying to call us to what they say are greener pastors. Lord, help us not to be moved
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away from this gospel, not to be bewitched or beguiled as even some of the Old Testament
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church members appeared to have been. In Jesus' name, amen.
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