Thursday PM LIVE (7PM | 3/11/21)

okay foreign hello church family good to see you how you guys doing good welcome happy thursday let's stand to our feet so good to to be with you to gather midweek to remind ourselves that god loves us that he's sovereign that he's good and that he has perfect plans for each one of us so let's pray and then we'll go into a time of singing to our father in heaven father we thank you for just your goodness and your love and for your consistency your faithfulness lord in each of our lives we thank you lord that you are all wise all knowing you know what each one of us need lord you know every situation we're facing you know our feelings you know our fears and you uh have a plan that you're working out and weaving together a beautiful tapestry of your grace and your mercy and so we look forward lord to the work that you're going to continue doing in our lives we thank you for the work you have done and we thank you for the work that you will continue to do until you bring it to completion on the day of christ jesus so we honor you and we look to you tonight we worship you in jesus name everyone said amen amen [Music] let's put our hands together [Applause] [Music] [Applause] morning [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] king of glory you will never [Music] change [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] we know [Music] you [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] for jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] victory [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] us when we call his name [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Applause] [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] for jesus [Music] is for there is power in the name of jesus there is power in the name of jesus there is power in the name of jesus to break every chain break every chain break every [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] break every [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] break every every chair break every [Music] you guys can be seated tonight we thank you for your power lord [Music] the weapon may be formed but it [Music] knows [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] so there's power of this power in the mighty name of jesus [Music] [Music] is [Music] victory [Music] [Applause] only to you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] victory [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] it forward [Music] [Applause] [Music] let's give him praise tonight [Applause] we thank you that you won the victory for us in our lives lord we honor you lord we thank you for being strong and mighty and yet humble lord to come and save us we just thank you [Music] [Music] my [Music] so what can i say [Music] look [Music] [Applause] is [Music] salvation [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] what can i say [Music] [Applause] is so what can i say [Music] is [Music] is let's stand together sing at church [Music] i am [Music] is [Music] yours [Music] [Music] bless the lord [Music] is [Music] or we are in awe that you would give your life to rescue us that you would give your life to save us lord we're so grateful lord that you love us that much lord you love us you proved your love to us and so we honor you we worship you we love you in jesus name everyone said amen amen amen the lord is good and it's good to sing his praise turn to someone wave say hello hello to those of you watching online type in the chat something nice to somebody else in the chat and then you guys can grab a seat we really just have one announcement tonight and that is that um easter is right around the corner and we want you to start praying about who to invite so easter is april 4th sunday april 4th we have good friday friday april 2nd and we have palm sunday i think it's march 28th sunday march 28th so invite somebody we have all the information about what's going on at ccsouthbay.org easter okay so very easy url you can remember that and you can also see all the information in the app all right and the other thing we're going to do right now is we're going to worship by giving our finances to god's work in the world and so you can do that by using one of these methods for online giving or you can give as you go out but just know that it's an act of worship as you give to the lord we're gonna sing one more song it's a new song and we love it and we want to introduce it to you tonight the dark tried to hide you and seal you away [Music] he tried but he lost [Music] you cannot be sad when we cry for freedom you tore down the walls [Music] the weight of our birds [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] miracle maker [Music] awesome [Music] [Applause] [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] is nothing that can stop our god there's nothing that can stop our god there's nothing that can stop our there's nothing that can stop our god there is there is [Music] jesus says [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is amen amen we thank you lord that you are unstoppable your work in the world is unstoppable the gates of hell will not prevail against you lord and against your church and so we could we pray you'd continue to advance the kingdom through this church through our lives in our lives and we pray lord that even as we've given these dollars and cents to you take them and use them all over the world to bring people into the kingdom of god which will reign forever and ever in jesus name amen amen and amen well tonight i have some really good tidings for you if you turned isaiah 61 before you get there i'll give you some really good tidings if you haven't heard beginning between monday and wednesday of next week we go into the red tier which means restaurants can open for indoor dining 25 uh movie theaters will open back up same thing uh shopping malls are back to 50 percent along with food courts so for those either just dying for a corn dog you know it you'll be able to get that but we have some good things going on in the covid front we have all kinds of good news with regard to vaccinations here in our particular neck of the woods in los angeles county and so i want to just encourage you to continue to pray we're going the right direction finally here's a good one for you parents schools are going to be opening back up as well you can have private gatherings again with a handful of families and so keep praying just announce today that the plan is to try and have all those who wish to be vaccinated that are adults vaccinated by the end of may and for things to be back to normal sometime in the middle of summer maybe by july 4th so keep praying keep doing your part uh the lord is indeed delivering us and that is certainly the message that we find here in isaiah chapter 61. would you join me let's pray and let's take this first verse and a half father we thank you for your goodness to us lord in you christ jesus there is always good tidings there has always been good tidings you've always had a plan to redeem and to save and you were mighty to that end and we pray that through your word you'd speak to us tonight we'd ask that you encourage us and strengthen us lord how we confess that we are weary some of us came tonight and we're we're cast down our our eyes are maybe gazing on this earth and we would just simply ask that you'd help us have our hearts lifted to heaven and that as your children how you would speak to us we thank you we praise you we give you this time in jesus name amen verse 1 isaiah 61 and now isaiah is making the march towards the end and he's beginning to speak about that age that is to come and he says for the spirit of the lord god is upon me because the lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor he sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of prison to those who were bound and to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord you know sometimes as the old testament authors wrote they were completely unaware of what it was that they were writing and i say that because the bible actually gives us very clear understanding in and of itself of this truth and in fact the new testament even speaks of this as paul would write to timothy and as peter would write in his epistles that they would write as god inspired them and it says actually there in in ii peter in chapter chapter 1. knowing first that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man but holy men of god spoke as they were moved by the holy spirit in other words as god authors scripture he has intended for mankind to understand things in his time he has chosen to reveal to us not everything but all things that we need to know in their time and so very often when you look at these old testament passages of scripture that are prophetic there is a really good chance that in the old testament days they would have certainly misunderstood the intent and there is even an indication that in the new testament that during the life of jesus that these prophecies were still misunderstood and you can see that definitely in this particular passage because imagine a jewish person during the time of jesus hearing of this wonderful freeing of the captives and then thinking about their own life were under the heavy hand of rome we're not only not free our people have actually not been free for 1500 years matter of fact we spent 400 years in slavery in egypt and so it doesn't surprise us that trying to understand the difference between the first coming and the second coming of the lord might be a little difficult or perhaps understanding that the church would be birthed now think of this for a moment remember what jesus said that he desired that the jewish people his own people know him but they didn't want to do that and so that would be given to another he came to the jew first then the gentile that literally the first century church would be largely jewish but it would expand to the gentile world and would grow as a gentile church the apostles all jewish but the first century church almost completely gentile this is written to jewish people in captivity and so as we think on this passage the apostle paul is speaking of these things which he would call a mystery he would look at this passage of scripture ultimately that will be spoken of through jesus in luke chapter four jesus actually quotes from this particular passage of scripture and so here's the apostle paul basically looking at these things peter looking at these things going well we don't quite have all the pieces yet and so some of the things that we read in scripture even tonight are still future the question is which ones which parts where are we on this timeline that we call the last days the where are we in world history in that sense and to that much of this and even tonight some of this is going to make sense later daniel as he's writing just before he gets to chapter 9 and makes this incredible prophecy of these 70 weeks one of which is still yet unfulfilled tonight in chapter 8 verse 26 he reminds us that these things are for later it was a vision of evenings and mornings and he said therefore seal up this vision for it refers to many days in the future he would go on in chapter 12 to seal up the book and he says there until the time of the end where many shall run to and fro and knowledge will increase now let me give you a little understanding of how difficult it would have been during even the time of jesus for someone to walk around you all are blessed virtually everyone in here if you don't have a bible in your lap you probably have a cell phone or a tablet that has a bible program on it and has many versions of the bible but people did not have those things especially during the time of isaiah they did not have those things during the time of christ virtually no one even possessed the scriptures themselves and if they did they might only have the torah the first five books of the bible that you might find all five of the pentateuch in a given synagogue so genesis exodus leviticus deuteronomy that what we would call the books of the law but they definitely would not have had every one of the prophetic books so they wouldn't have had isaiah and ezekiel and daniel they wouldn't have had jeremiah and malachi they wouldn't have possessed those books by the time you get to the new testament maybe they might have had we believe that the first actual written gospel was mark's gospel there may have been a copy of that before john died on the island of patmos that was circulating the oldest piece is what we call autographs or original pieces of the scriptures that we have of the new testament most of them come from 200 a.d so you can see how rare it would be that someone would have the actual information to do an in-depth bible study involving all of the prophetic books now fast forward to the days of the internet i don't know how many of you have that are in here it looks like most everyone has been alive since roughly the early 1990s when the internet really becomes available to the rest of us and wasn't just a government tool that was used for the military for the most part and you certainly didn't own probably in the 1990s a personal computer that had much computing power my first laptop had a 200 megabyte hard drive 200 megabytes now to give you an idea probably most of you have multiple gigabyte cell phones you may have a 128 gigabyte cell phone you you would have thousands of times more data in your cell phone than i had in my first laptop in the early 1990s now advance a little bit forward to today this little guy right here is thousands of times more powerful than the computers that we use to put people on the moon your cell phones are thousands of times more powerful than the computers that we used to put people on the moon you now can have a bible program on your phone when i'm studying very often i have at least five or six different versions of the bible open simultaneously and i can search every last verse in all of those that are open along with commentaries on the same and language tools and all those kind of things that's only happened in the last 20 years so when daniel writes in the last days knowledge will increase i believe he was speaking about not just general knowledge which is also true but knowledge of the scriptures themselves because we can do things today that never before in human history were even attainable i grew up in a time i was we were still studying using book stands to open multiples of books on a desk using bookmarks and so now imagine that we can actually compare scripture to scripture do things like word searches i can tell you that in the king james version of the bible 2278 times one or more of the words that are translated god el ella or elohim exist in your entire bible do you know how hard that would have been even 50 years ago you'd had to gone through and literally circled and counted on a piece of paper someplace see we can now look at the scriptures very differently we can do very in-depth studies of what all of the prophets said about any given time now i want to draw your attention to how precise the scriptures are in luke chapter 4 if you're with us in our study through luke there in verses 16 to 20 jesus actually quotes from this particular passage of scripture so isaiah is writing in 686 bc jesus comes along some 700 years later and so it was that he came to nazareth verse 16 luke chapter 4. where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up to read and he handed the book of the prophet as he was handed the book of the prophet isaiah so this is a very very prominent synagogue they don't just have a torah scroll they've got the great scroll of isaiah it's a scroll it's probably at least 25 to 30 feet long it's got no chapters and no verses it is as if you had written a letter in about 16 font and it's on a single piece of stitched together parchment jesus is handed that scroll he stood up to read and when he had opened the book he found the place where it is written check out what jesus reads from the scroll of isaiah as dr luke listens in and records it in his gospel the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has appointed me and anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he sent me to heal the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives recover the sight of the blind and to set at liberty those who were oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord now notice what follows because if you're looking at your bible back in isaiah 61 you know that that is not the end of verse 2. but jesus stops right there he closed the book gave it back to the attendant he sat down and the eyes of all who were there in the synagogue were fixed on him there's more to that sentence exactly where i stopped reading tonight jesus stop why would he do that because between the first half of verse two in your bible and the second half of verse 2 in your bible you have the first coming and you have the second coming of jesus and so jesus talking about setting the captives free is talking about the age of grace the next half of the verse is talking about the wrath of god the vengeance of the lord and this is super important because if jesus had continued on he would have blended the first and the second coming together because he said today in your hearing is this fulfilled is what fulfilled the preaching of the good news of the gospel the setting free of the captives the recovery of sight to the blind remember what jesus did he came to heal the blind he came to heal the brokenhearted he came to set the captives free that's what he came to do he did not come the first time to extract his vengeance on this earth but he is coming again to do exactly that and so jesus stops that's how precise the word of god is the disciples you might imagine were a little confused because they were actually hoping he was there for vengeance for wrath to bring about the kingdom to anoint and appoint the jewish people to their rightful place because they were god's chosen people and still are and so this is where our understanding exactly as daniel said for a later time when knowledge is increased we now are looking back on all of that history aren't we we can see the age of grace with hindsight we can see for 2 000 years the gospel has been preached and people have been saved one by one sometimes in mass the church has existed and that church has not been predominantly jewish it's been largely gentile and so isaiah the prophet not knowing the things that he would write but being instructed by the holy spirit includes both comings so what was fulfilled what was yet to be fulfilled well jesus definitely preached the good tiding the good news it's actually what the gospel means amen that's what the word gospel means means good news that's really good news isn't it you know if you are here tonight and you are in christ jesus the best news that you have ever gotten is that jesus loves you amen and when you believed on him your whole eternity was taken care of and so now look at how the gospel authors or some of the people in the new testament or even like john the baptist he actually asked the question if you remember back in luke chapter 7 john the baptist is preaching and he actually says are you the one or are we supposed to look for somebody else now he had already said jesus was the one you know why john the baptist actually said that because between when john was at the river jordan baptizing in chapter 7 of luke's gospel he's been captured by herod he is now in the fortress of macarus he calls out salome and herod for their infidelity and he's about to be beheaded even the great john the baptist who isaiah 40 said was to prepare the way of the lord was a bit confused about the comings of the lord it's easy to see it's not a surprise john expected the kingdom to come immediately jesus actually doesn't answer that question in a direct way he answers it in an indirect way jesus said i i didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance you see that's the imprints here in isaiah i came to present the truth of the gospel so men could be saved and set free and this is the heart of jesus throughout the gospels i got in this email conversation a couple of days ago with the guy who was just absolutely sure that we were an emergent church and you know we didn't have the right view of sin and all those kind of things and the reason he said that is you know you don't really call it out i said well you don't know me very well because if you've ever listened to me i'm pretty rough on sin but i handle it the way jesus does jesus the only people that jesus was ever in their face was the pharisees the hypocrites the sadducees what did he do to the woman at the well where are your accusers go and send no more jesus was gracious to people who repented the only people who he ever got on their case were people who were unrepentant who whose lives were essentially marked by the fact that they didn't want to do what god asked him to do and so for me when i look at what is going on here in this particular chapter of isaiah it is marvelous to me because isaiah sees though he doesn't probably see it literally he's actually seeing the age of grace he's seeing jesus preaching the good news of the gospel he's seeing the day and time that you and i live in tonight he's seeing the ability for anyone who calls on the name of the lord to be saved and and he's speaking this incredible gospel message even though the gospel itself isn't going to come for 700 years because that's what jesus came to do so you might ask yourself well who are these captives in this chapter notice what it says he knew the spirit of the lord was upon him to preach good tidings that literally renders if you take it from hebrew to greek to preach the gospel to preach the gospel to the poor to send messiah to heal the brokenhearted and that is exactly what's been going on for the last 2000 years the gospel's been preached broken-hearted people have had their hearts healed and then he goes on to say to proclaim liberty to the captives and the open of the prison to those who are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord this is absolutely marvelous to me because i don't know about you but i am one of those guys that i've always looked at the old testament and when i was young in the faith i was like i was pretty sure there is no way in the world david was saved the dude was an adultery murderer right growing up in a legalistic church i figured well that's it first corinthians he's out that's the way i looked at it i thought man you know the heavy hand of the lord don't make a mistake don't think that i'm saying that what david did was ever right don't make the mistake in thinking that god doesn't want us to absolutely repent and turn from sin he does but every person who's saved is a saved sinner every last one of us some of us got a few more sins in our account than others but there's none righteous not one all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god and the good news of the gospel is that you can be saved and so what happened to those who were alive let's say like abraham isaac sarah rachel rahab how about isaiah himself because we're all pretty sure that the only way anybody gets to heaven is by being saved through believing in jesus amen isaiah tells us what happened jesus went to the prison and preached the good news to those who were captive where were they in prison luke 16 tells us paradise you get this incredible picture lazarus who dies a beggar the rich man is on one side of this great gulf he can see lazarus lazarus is blessed the rich man is in torment jesus called that place paradise ephesians chapter 4 reminds us of this verse 7 to each one of us his grace was given according to the measure of christ's gift and therefore i was quoting there from psalm 68 when he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men now what does this mean paul said but that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth and he who descended is also the one who ascended far above all heavens that he might fulfill all things what all things the prophecy of isaiah 61. you see there were a whole bunch of old testament saints waiting for the day when jesus said it's time to go peter says it this way in first peter chapter 3 by whom he went and preached to the spirits in prison by whom who jesus who formerly were disobedient when once the divine long-suffering waited in the days of noah you ever thought about what it was like to be alive during the time of the patriarchs when people live to be nearly a thousand years old we get kind of sick of wearing masks right we're like we think we've gone to gehenna because of masks imagine you're noah and you spend 120 years building an ark in your front yard and every day people come to your house and they go you're an idiot dude what is wrong with you there is no body of water anywhere near here and this whole rain thing we've never seen it you talk about faith what about faith can you imagine when noah died you imagine noah with abraham and isaac and sarah and rahab and all those people who were waiting the book of hebrews declares waited in faith until when hebrews says they died in faith not having received the promise but god having reserved something better for us that they apart from us couldn't be brought the bible says into a completed state in other words until jesus said from the cross to tell us die it is finished they were still waiting and so the book of isaiah actually gives us this incredible picture of what would happen prior to the church age jesus dies on the cross sheol the righteous part called paradise remember what jesus said to the thief on the cross that believed today you will be with me where paradise you didn't say heaven he said when you die until i'm raised again you're going to go where abraham's going but he said i'll meet you there and then you're going to be free you imagine the joy matthew 27 actually gives the picture that after jesus rose that there were actually people wandering around who had previously been dead kind of like lazarus was resurrected so were there many they were released from prison paradise is emptied and so jesus in luke's gospel in chapter 4 and the prophet isaiah see this exact time to proclaim the acceptable year of the lord that your salvation would be secured that's the accepted day it's already happened and so that's why the apostle paul could write there in second corinthians chapter 5 now to be absent from the body is to beware church present with the lord there's no more waiting the captives have already been set free you take your last breath here you're going to open your eyes in heaven but now notice what is said as we continue man i thought you said god was loving where's all this gray stuff notice what comes next and the day of the vengeance of our god now do you know why jesus stopped in the middle of that what we call verse two because that day still hasn't happened jesus came the first time to bring grace as the lamb when he comes the second time he's coming as the lion of the tribe of judah to exact his revenge his vengeance on this earth primarily for what the world has done to the jewish people joel chapter 3 isaiah is not going to get that he's not going to see that in that moment you see the day of vengeance of our god you know people often say well you know you know i don't think god's gonna do that really there's a little over 250 verses in your bible that says otherwise but god actually is going to pour out his wrath on this earth the great news is that if you're here tonight as a believer you don't need to fear that time this time that from revelation 6 to revelation 19 now i don't encourage you this was not a bedtime passage okay people say well you know what shall we you know if you're going to read before bed read you know one of the gospels or something it's a little you know read the psalms don't read revelation 6 to 19 before you go to bed why because it's the pouring out of god's wrath on this earth it is the vengeance of our god it is the return of the king the real return of the king not j.r.r tolkien's return it's the real king coming back to really claim his earth and to punish all unrighteousness if you notice the way that romans chapter 1 opens it actually says there in chapter 1 that the wrath of god abides against all unrighteousness it doesn't say that the wrath of god is poured out yet on all unrighteousness it says it dwells it lives it's still there it's waiting to be exacted and one by one by god's grace you can escape that wrath first thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 9 says for we have not been appointed unto wrath but unto salvation why because the good news saves you from the wrath of god the good news keeps you from having to worry about the wrath of god but if you don't choose the good news the wrath of god still abides and it must be appeased you know we always use that phrase you know without the bad news there really isn't any good news and vice versa the bad news is you're a sinner the good news is there's a savior amen the bad news is you've sinned the good news is he's greater than all your sin you see the the conflict between those two things but there's a definite superiority to the good news amen the good news is better news than the bad news is bad isaiah sees that as he writes these words but he probably doesn't understand it the day of vengeance revelation 6 says it this way fall on us and hide us from the face of the lamb for his day of wrath has come church i don't know about you but when i when i think of that if i thought i was going to go through it every day that i'm on this planet i would be very concerned but i'm not very concerned because i will not be here when god pours out his wrath now there are a lot of people who think you will and i get challenged everyone you know i don't know why you're not preparing the church to go through the tribulation well that's because i don't believe the church is going to go through the tribulation why aren't you making people aware of the fact that you know they might get the mark of the beast because you're not going to get the mark of the beast okay if you're here tonight you're in christ jesus you will not ever get the mark of the beast just square that away in your own head and heart because the mark of the beast is very specifically for those who worship the antichrist that comes after a very important event called the rapture of the church where the church is finally caught up into heaven forever to be with the lord and it happens before the wrath of the lamb and i can tell you i can really see that look at revelation chapter 6 to 19 and ask yourself do you see any mention of the church the answer is no there's not one mention of the church why because they're in heaven it's all about what's going on on earth why do some people reject the rapture of the church i want to just give you a handful of things just to think on because there are some really incorrect assumptions that have some good premise to them one of the most common arguments i i have people tell me is that well we should all have to go why should anybody be spared from it i mean the first century church was you know they were wrapped in animal skins and covered in in tallow and then lit on fire in nero's garden you know why should they have gone through that and we live in all this wonderful goodness that's on the earth right now how come we should not have to go through that thing and on one hand you could say well that's fair the problem is is that it's also incorrect and unscriptural because god plainly states he's not going to put us through that wrath because it's for the purpose of punishing evil and if he has made you righteous by the blood of the lamb you are not subject to the punishment of your sins anymore that's part of the glorious thing of being a believer the wrath of god used to abide on me and now i've been set free from that wrath so there's no reason for god to punish those for whom christ died that would be like punishing jesus it's like well son it wasn't quite good enough for jeff so i'm going to put the wrath on him even though you already took it for him he made him sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of god amen so when people say ah you know i just i just don't see it you know because we should all have to go through it it's just an emotional contention it makes some sense but it plainly denies what first thessalonians 5 actually teaches jesus actually promised in revelation chapter 3 i will keep those from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them to try those who don't know the lord we're going to be kept from that the second thing is to fail to distinguish between the church and israel and this is the important part for the remainder of our time here in this chapter tonight you see god's still got a plan for israel and if you can confuse the church in national israel if you say the church has now absorbed the jewish people and there's just the church then you miss the whole reasoning for why isaiah writes the rest of what's written matthew 24 actually gives us some further the implications and remember jesus in that chapter is actually on the temple mount explaining to his jewish disciples the events that are going to occur in national israel and the other nations that are going to lead to his return as their messiah i can pretty much guarantee you if most of you know a handful of things about the jewish people you also know that a very large percentage a vast majority of them are not believers in messiah yet amen if anything they're they're primarily secular but they're certainly not evangelical christians and in fact when you travel to israel it is pretty tough to be an evangelical christian in israel a messianic believer they're not real popular because there is a jewish nationalism which takes religion and kind of combines it with the national life of israel and yet jesus is explaining this to his disciples during the week before his crucifixion he can you imagine their hearings like what we're not going to inherit the kingdom the temple is going to be destroyed what's going on with that well that's because i didn't come to save the temple i came to seek and save that which is lost i i came to save those who would believe on my name i came to give eternal life to those who would receive me by grace and through faith and so jesus goes on two will be in the field and one taken and the other one left and two women will be grinding at the mill and one taken and the other one left you see what jesus was saying there's going to be believers and non-believers but more importantly there are going to be people who will be saved during the tribulation who are those people well the bible pretty plainly clear declares that that is going to be the jewish people they're the focus that's the 144 thousand the elect of god why because the church isn't on earth the church is going to come back with jesus so failure to distinguish those things gets you in all kinds of theological troubles so matthew records these things so that we can kind of look at it and go hmm who's he talking about there jesus goes on to say well the angels are going to gather the elect from the four corners of the earth and then it says the lord himself will descend from heaven with the shout with the voice of the archangel start to speak of the second coming again not not being able to distinguish between those two two events get you in all kinds of difficulties here's the good news church the rapture could happen tonight there's not a single thing left in your bible not one piece of prophetic word that needs to be fulfilled for the lord to come get his church there are all kinds of things that have to happen for the second coming to happen there are literally dozens of things specific things that have to happen for the second coming of the lord i can't wait so i live expectantly i walk around say lord you could be back today somebody was asked i you know i got my coven shot and you know i get emails from people it's like well you know you just got the mark of the beast no i actually didn't just get the mark of the beast i'm sorry i know you'd like to think that but being as the antichrist hasn't risen the mark of the beast is not here you don't need to buy and sell so sorry you're wrong there's another reason that the church has kind of missed the rapture throughout history and that's primarily because the the same reason that we've had a difficulty studying scriptures in their totality up until the last 50 years or so that's because people couldn't sit down with all of the books that were ever written about the rapture of the church the antichrist and so if you you look at some of the teachings of the early church theologians like ephraim he actually talked about the rapture of the church all the way back in 306 bc or 306 a.d rather and so we we know that one day the lord is going to take us home i'm absolutely convinced of it and one of the reasons that i believe that is because it's the only thing that answers the missing pieces of how we escape the wrath of god when the lamb comes to exact as vengeance the place that jesus stopped when he read from isaiah 61 when he was in the synagogue because he stopped before he got to the vengeance part and he said the rest of it was fulfilled in your hearing well what did he bring about the age of grace and the age of grace is still going on so that tells me that what the rest of isaiah says here in chapter 61 has to be referring to later it's got to be after the age of grace after that time that the apostle paul said was the time of the gentiles the day of the vengeance of our god to comfort all who mourn verse 2 says verse 3 goes on to say to console those who mourn in zion in other words this picture of the kingdom age to give them beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness who is the they it's the jewish people it's those that have been saved after in and out of the tribulation you know you can apply some of this in a metaphoric way to the church of course and we've all been given beauty for ashes the oil of joy for mourning but he's speaking of them of they directly add a group of people a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they may be called trees of righteousness the planting of the lord that he may be glorified where did jesus stop before the wrath and after the good news so these people are clearly after the wrath after the vengeance begins and if christ died to save us from it this has to be a group of people that somehow get saved when the wrath of god is poured out there's only one group the book of revelation declares that that is the the main focus of a specific group and you know them as the and forty four thousand the twelve thousand out of every tribe and tongue out of all the tribes of israel they shall rebuild the old ruins and shall raise up the former desolations and repair the ruined city the desolation of many generations so come to pass the rebuilding in that age of the land of abraham isaac and jacob will be substantial and of course we see the beginning of that today but it's crazy because your bible actually declares that there are going to be two more middle east wars that are going to exceed all of the the horrors that we've ever seen on this earth one of them is the battle of gog and magog which i happen to believe is going to take place over a long period of time maybe what we would call a campaign and then ending with the battle of armageddon and again that's that non-bedtime story of revelation chapter after you get to chapter 16 17 18 19 and the lord returns there's all kinds of things going on in the land of israel today but they're not all the things that are going to happen one day strangers shall stand and feed your flocks the sons of foreigners shall be your plowmen and your vine dressers god is going to restore the jewish people it's a beautiful picture of what will happen in the very last days it's going to take this this child that hosea saw as low on me this not my child is going to make it once again that beautiful child of god so hosea saw go and take your wife and buy her again and redeem her she was in slavery this this picture of how god would redeem israel buy it back i say it goes even further out into the prophetic window and you shall be named as priest of the lord you know what's interesting does that mean you're joining with the children of the lord with christians with believers by grace because we are also called priests of the most high god and ultimately the bible says we rule and reign with him shall call you the servants of god and you shall eat here it goes the riches of the gentiles verse 6 and in their glory you shall boast you see isaiah and jesus see this incredible picture of those who love the lord serving the lord speaking for the lord being that person that the book of colossians says whatever you do in word and deed do it heartily unto the lord serving jesus the glorious kingdom age instead of your shame you shall have double honor instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion and therefore in their land they shall possess a double in what land the land of abraham and isaac and jacob they weren't even back into that land until may 14th of 1948. but they are now and they're getting towards a double portion they just finished a brand new high-speed train between jerusalem and tel aviv it's incredible what's going on in israel right now but some of that is going to get wiped out in a couple of upcoming wars then the king's gonna come they shall possess double everlasting joy shall be theirs you know in order for something to be everlasting it has to be everlasting not temporary in other words for i the lord love justice and i hate robbery and burnt offering i will direct their work and truth and will make them an everlasting covenant and their descendants shall be known among the gentiles again you can see the difference between the them and the day and the gentiles why because it's speaking of the jewish people specifically and their offspring from among the people and all who see them shall acknowledge them that they are the paster posterity of the lord whom he has blessed and they'll rejoice in the lord my soul shall be joyful in my god for he's clothed me in garments of salvation church what's the only name under heaven whereby anyone can be saved it's jesus and so if this is after the age of grace this has to be a reference to actual salvation in christ and it's speaking of the jewish people for he has covered me with the robe of righteousness how does that happen by believing in the name of the lord jesus christ his righteousness is draped upon you you're given a garment of righteousness as the bridegroom decks himself with ornaments as the bride adorns herself with jewels as the earth brings forth its bud as the garden the things that are sown into its spring forth so the lord god will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations this beautiful picture we should all be praying even so lord jesus come quickly amen he's got a plan and it's good i don't know about you but i can't wait it's like look you know yeah you're probably all gonna have to get shots if you want to get on a plane anyway so get over it but it's not the end of the world it works out really good for the children of god in the end i had a conversation with a guy today he's you know he's just i posted a thing on instagram and he's like oh i can't believe that you told people to get the vaccine and he you know he started to tell me his thing that he heard someplace in the deep bowels of the internet that you know we were all going to be turned into zombies or something but and i asked him i said do you have a degree in microbiology by chance and negan of course said no he said do you understand what messenger rna actually does he said no and i said so do you have any idea what this vaccine actually does he said well no and i said but you're against it is that correct and he said yes and i said why and you know he just went on to tell me how he googled it can i just tell you something not everything on the internet is true you might want to check your facts before you start throwing them around as fact because actually what mrna or messenger rna does is that in it kind of instructs it's like information that allows your cells to to build other things in this case proteins and all it does it does not interact with your dna at all it doesn't in it does not go inside the cellular nucleus and so if you're worried about that stuff you're worried about the wrong thing it doesn't even do that why am i saying that because god's got it under control he knows what he's doing and we shouldn't be freaking out over silly things like vaccines when the world is perishing when people need to hear about the gospel it's kind of self-centered for the church to be running around going you know whoa come on let's let's just get this show on the road so i just pray even so lord jesus come quickly if it's today that's great if it's next week it's great if it's the week after that's great because next year that's still great because he is greatly to be praised amen father we thank you for your goodness your blessings your amazing word lord to think that you jesus the author of all of this put those words into the mouth of luke that you stopped and literally paused closed that scroll up and handed it back to the attendant and said today in this side of your hearing these things have been fulfilled lord the age of grace was launched it just causes us to be mind-boggled at the truth of your word and so lord we thank you for that truth we thank you that you haven't appointed us under wrath but unto salvation that they that wait upon you will be renewed in strength mount up with wings as eagles shall run and not grow weary or that they hide under the shadow of the wings of the most high god will be safe that you were a stronghold and a fortress to the weak your promises are true the lord we believe you and so lord excite your church about the days that are ahead make us busy lord there's plenty to do and so help us to get busy about your business we love you we praise you we thank you for tonight we thank you for your word in jesus name amen alex let's stand together [Music] mover mountains breaker of chains jesus has triumphed [Music] [Music] breaker of chains jesus has triumphed over the grave sing hallelujah the battle is can stand against our god oh sing hallelujah the battle [Music] our is [Music] amen amen be encouraged be strengthened be built up be blessed the lord's got this one day heaven amen what's the worst can happen you wake up in heaven it's kind of a good deal didn't it all right god bless you we'll see you out on sunday don't forget to invite somebody out to our easter services what's up me i just have a quick question here thank you thank you you you

Channel: Calvary Chapel South Bay

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Id: 83D08_ETz1c

Length: 101min 45sec (6105 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021