{"id":18430,"date":"2018-03-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-055-gods-protective-care\/"},"modified":"2018-03-18T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-055-gods-protective-care","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-055-gods-protective-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 055 – God\u2019s Protective Care"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18430","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 055 - God\u2019s Protective Care","sermon_date":"20180318","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5574,"sermon_slides":5575,"sermon_mp3":5582,"sermon_id":"3181811164510","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"12:1-2a","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Protective Hand of God\n\n3-18-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 12:1-2a\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Lesson 55\n\nIf we could take our Bibles and open them to the 12th<\/sup> chapter of the Book of Daniel, having finally escaped the 11th<\/sup> chapter of the Book of Daniel, which sort of seemed like the tribulation period in a way.\u00a0 I have to say that\u2019s one of the more challenging chapters I\u2019ve ever had to study and preach and teach through as Daniel 11 so I\u2019m glad to be in Daniel 12, just for the simple reason that Daniel 11 had 45 verses in it.\u00a0 Daniel 12 only has 13 verses in it but they are rich verses.\n\nThe title of our message this morning is The Protective Hand of God.\u00a0 And as you know we\u2019ve had a couple of weeks hiatus but we\u2019re back in the Book of Daniel today.\u00a0 Daniel, of course, has received this final vision, which really spans chapters 10-12, about 536 B.C.\u00a0 So Daniel sees many things back in the sixth century that are even still yet future from our own time period.\u00a0\u00a0 The vision itself really begins in chapter 11, verse 2 and spans all the way to chapter 12 and verse 13.\u00a0 Daniel has been given information about his own day and beyond, information about Persia, information about Greece, information about the warfare between the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, information about a diabolical ruler that would emerge a couple of hundred years before Christ, a man named Antiochus IV.\n\nAnd then suddenly beginning, I would say around verse 36 of Daniel 11 he\u2019s teleported into the distant future.\u00a0 And he begins to see information that from our day is yet to come.\u00a0 All the things Daniel has said and spoke of and written about in this vision are things that from the 21st<\/sup> century are in our rear view mirror.\u00a0 But now he\u2019s in that section where he\u2019s revealing things that from the 21st<\/sup> century are yet future.\u00a0 So he\u2019s revealed a lot of information about the coming antichrist, Daniel 11:36-45.\u00a0 And now, as we move into chapter 12 he\u2019s giving a lot of information about the tribulation period yet future and the kingdom which will follow.\n\nSo just to kind of give you the big picture of Daniel 12 here\u2019s what the big picture looks like.\u00a0 No, you\u2019re not seeing double there, there are two major parts of this chapter.\u00a0 Verses 1-4 is what I would call a description of the end times; that\u2019s the section we\u2019re going to be beginning this morning.\u00a0 And then in verses 5-13 we move away from a description of the end times to information about the duration of the end times.\u00a0 And the reasons I\u2019ve entitled it the duration of the end times is because there is two rounds of questions and answers, questions related to duration and length and when.\u00a0 So the first round of questions and answers is verses 5-7; the second round of questions and answers is verses 8-13.\u00a0 And by the time we finish that question and answer session we will be finished with the Book of Daniel.\n\nLet\u2019s start off here and let\u2019s get a description f the end times, verses 1-4.\u00a0 Four things are revealed: number 1, the suffering, verse 1.\u00a0 Number 2, the separation, verse 2.\u00a0 Number 3, the shining, verse 3.\u00a0 And then finally number 4 the sealing, verse 4.\u00a0 And it\u2019s likely that we\u2019ll only be getting through, if we\u2019re even fortunate to do that, verses 1 and 1.\u00a0 \u00a0But notice if you will the suffering.\u00a0 There is an intense period of suffering yet future for the nation of Israel and we can divide that as follows.\u00a0 In verse 1 you have the prince described in verse 1.\u00a0 Secondly you have the pain described, also in verse 1.\u00a0 And then finally you have the perseverance described also in verse 1.\u00a0 But notice Daniel 12:1 as information is given about the prince.\n\nDaniel 12:1 says, \u201cNow at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard<\/em> over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice out of the gate here it says \u201cat that time.\u201d\u00a0 What time is it talking about exactly?\u00a0 Well what it\u2019s revealing is information that has come before, information about the future antichrist.\n\nIf you look back at verse 40 it says, \u201cat that time, the kind of the south will collide with him and the king of the north will storm against him.\u201d\u00a0 You notice the chronological marker \u201cat that time\u201d revealing information about the end times.\u00a0 Now that information continues into chapter 12.\u00a0 In fact, chapter 12 may not be the best chapter division in the Bible;\u00a0 you all know that chapter divisions weren\u2019t put there by the Holy Spirit; the chapter divisions are basically manmade and sometimes I think the divisions are very helpful because they segment the Bible for us but other times I think they\u2019re somewhat confusing because they unnaturally bifurcate what we\u2019re reading about from what came before.\u00a0 And so we really need to look at all of chapter 11 and 12, really chapter 11:36 all the way through the end of chapter 12 as a one unit information about the end times.\n\nBut notice what Daniel predicts here.\u00a0 \u201cNow at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of Israel will arise.\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re introduced here, for the very first time in the Book of Daniel, to an angel named Michael.\u00a0 Now it gets a little confusing because we\u2019ve run into an angel before, haven\u2019t we, several times in the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 That angel\u2019s name is Gabriel.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reference to Gabriel in Daniel 8:16, Gabriel is the one that gave to the nation of Israel and to Daniel the prophecy of the ram and the goat.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019ll Gabriel\u2019s name is mentioned in Daniel 9:21, again it was through Gabriel that the prophecy of the Seventy Weeks was given to the nation of Israel in Daniel.\u00a0 [Daniel 8:16, \u201cAnd I heard the voice of a man between the banks of Ulai, and he called out and said, \u2018Gabriel, give this man an understanding of the vision.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Daniel 9:21, \u201cwhile I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.\u201d]\n\nAnd now we\u2019re introduced to a completely different angel, named Michael.\u00a0 While Gabriel has a function in God of revealing new truth Michael\u2019s function is slightly different.\u00a0 He stands guard over the nation of Israel.\u00a0 In fact, he protects the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Jude and verse 9 refers to Michael as an archangel.\u00a0 [Jude 1:9, \u201cBut Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, \"The Lord rebuke you!\u201d]\n\nOne of the things to understand about God is God is a God of order.\u00a0 You look at God\u2019s blueprint for the family and the home and what you\u2019ll see in it is an order.\u00a0 You look at God\u2019s blueprint for the church and what you\u2019ll see in it is an order, there\u2019s a hierarchy, there\u2019s a leadership structure.\u00a0 You look at God\u2019s blueprint for the business world and you\u2019ll see in it there\u2019s a hierarchy or a structure to it, there are roles for people to play that God expects people to submit to and to adhere to.\u00a0 And to the extent that we submit to, and first of all understand but secondly submit to, thirdly respect the order of God what you\u2019ll discover is businesses can function successfully, a family life can function successfully, a church can function successfully and effectively.\u00a0 But the problem today is we are a people that don\u2019t want to submit to divine authority.\u00a0 And as we reject the blueprint of God we have complete chaos in marriage, we have complete chaos in government we have complete chaos in the family, and God forbid, we even have in many cases total chaos in a church.\u00a0 And it really has to do with not understanding God\u2019s blueprint for these things and an unwillingness to submit to the things that God has said.\n\nAnd just as there is a divine blueprint for family, church and business there is a divine viewpoint in the angelic kingdom.\u00a0 Not all angels do the same thing; Michael doesn\u2019t do Gabriel\u2019s function; Gabriel doesn\u2019t do Michael\u2019s function.\u00a0 Gabriel has a function of disclosing divine truth; Michael has a completely different function of protecting the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this message the protective care of God, the protective hand of God.\u00a0 One of the things that God is doing in your life is He\u2019s protecting you. You may not see the protection, you may not be aware of the protection but it\u2019s there.\u00a0 Psalm 34:7 says, \u201cThe angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him and rescues them.\u201d\n\nAnd you might recall even from the Book of Job, when Job requested permission to come against the life of Job as he\u2019s requesting permission from God, Satan was not allowed to do anything until first of all God gave Satan permission, and secondly, Satan was not allowed to do anything without limits placed on him.\u00a0 And we can praise the Lord for that because if it were not for the protective care of God I doubt we\u2019d be meeting here worshipping the Lord, praising the Lord and studying the things of God.\u00a0 1 John 5:18 says, \u201c\u2026He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.\u201d\u00a0 And we can be grateful for that.\n\nI\u2019ve shared this incident from Billy Graham\u2019s book, Angels, God\u2019s Secret Agents<\/em>; let me refresh your memory.\u00a0 Billy Graham writes this: \u201cThe Reverend John G. Patton, pioneer missionary in the New Hebrides Islands told a thrilling story involving the protective care of angels.\u00a0 Hostile natives surrounded his mission headquarters one night intent on burning the Patton\u2019s out and killing them.\u00a0 John Patton and his wife prayed all night during that terror filled time that God would deliver them.\u00a0 When daylight came they were amazed to see that unaccountably the attackers had left.\u00a0 They thanked God for delivering them.\u00a0 A year later the chief of the tribe was converted to Jesus Christ and Mr. Patton, remembering what had happened asked the chief what had kept him and his men from burning down the house and killing them.\u00a0 The chief replied, in surprise, who were all those men who were with you there?\u00a0 The missionary answered there were no men there, just my wife and I.\u00a0 The chief argued that they had seen many men standing guard, hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords in their hands; they seemed to circle the mission station so that the natives were afraid to attack.\u00a0 Only then did Mr. Patton realize that God had sent His angels to protect them.\u00a0 The chief agreed that there was no other explanation.\u00a0 Could it be that God had sent a legion of angels to protect His servants whose lives were being endangered.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s sort of interesting to study the concept of angels and guardian angels and how God\u00a0 uses angels and what we discover here is Michael, not Gabriel, has a specific role that he will play in the end times where he will stand guard over Israel.\u00a0 And it\u2019s so interesting to me that God will call angels to do different things.\u00a0 And if they violate their role confusion reigns.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 14:33 says, \u201cGod is not a God of\u201d what?\u00a0 Confusion.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 14:33, \u201cfor God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.\u201d]\u00a0 God has an order in the angelic world.\u00a0 He has an order in the area of marriage and family.\u00a0 He has an order in the area of the church.\u00a0\u00a0 He has an order in the area of business.\u00a0 He even has an order in the area of angelic protection.\n\nSo why is the nation of Israel going to be needing protection in the end times?\u00a0 I mean, why is Michael specifically dispatched from heaven to protect the nation of Israel?\u00a0 Well I\u2019m glad\u00a0 you asked that question because that moves us from the Prince to the pain. Pain is in store for the nation of Israel, they are about to enter a very dark time in their history yet future, and they will need angelic protection.\n\nNotice the second part of the verse, it says, \u201cthere will be\u201d not might be, \u201cwill be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time;\u201d there are very dark storm clouds on the horizon for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 In fact, you\u2019ll notice\u00a0 this language here, it describes a time of distress that there has never been and never will be again.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to me as you study this time of distress Daniel is not the only prophet that refers to it.\u00a0 The first prophet that I can find that refers to it is the Book of Joel, in Joel\u2019s prophecy.\u00a0 Joel says of this time period, \u201cA day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, as the dawn is spread over the mountain so there is a great and mighty people\u201d notice what Joel says, Joel 2:2, \u201cthere has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it.\u201d\u00a0 [Joel 2:2, \u201cA day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.\u201d]\n\nJeremiah the prophet foresaw this time period as well.\u00a0 Jeremiah 30:7 says, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob's distress, But he will be saved from it.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that this is a time period, not for the church; this is a time period for the nation of Israel, a time of distress for Jacob.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just in the Old Testament, Jesus spoke of this time period.\u00a0 In Matthew 24:21, Jesus said, \u201cFor then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.\u201d\u00a0 This is a time period that has been revealed, first of all by the prophet Daniel in a prophecy we spent a lot of time going over, Daniel 9:27, and John, in the Book of Revelation is primarily talking about this time period.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201cAnd he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\n\nA lot of people say well how bad can it be?\u00a0 How much pain is there?\u00a0 How much distress is there yet future for the nation of Israel and the world?\u00a0 Well, over in Revelation 6:8 with the fourth seal judgment it talks about a quarter of the earth\u2019s population perishing.\u00a0 [Revelation 6:8, \u201cI looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.\u201d]\n\nOver in Revelation 9:18 with the sixth trumpet judgment it talks about a third of the earth\u2019s population perishing.\u00a0 [Revelation 9:18, \u201cA third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.\u201d]\n\nOne of my heroes of the faith is Charles Ryrie.\u00a0 Charles Ryrie had an ability to communicate lofty concepts at a very simple level.\u00a0 One of the things to understand about Charles Ryrie is he started off not to be a theologian but he started off to write children\u2019s books.\u00a0 The very first book that Charles Ryrie ever wrote was not a theology book, it wasn\u2019t the Ryrie Study Bible, it was a book for children and because of his love for children and because of his desire to reach children he had a capacity to teach concepts which are very lofty, but he had the ability to put, as J. Vernon McGee said, \u201ccould put people on the bottom shelf.\u201d\u00a0 Charles Ryrie learned to be the great theologian and teacher that he became because of his work with children.\u00a0 And some of you may feel a calling to preach, you may feel a calling to teach, and may I make the humble suggestion to you\u2026 I would start off with children.\u00a0\u00a0 Our church, as you know, is hungry and very interested in finding people that can teach children.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have a lot of people that want to teach at that level. We have a lot of children but we don\u2019t have a lot of teachers.\u00a0 So we\u2019re always in prayer as a staff that God would raise up children\u2019s teachers, children\u2019s workers, children\u2019s ministry leaders.\n\nAnd it may be that as you develop the capacity to create and communicate with children, maybe it\u2019s going to be that God is going to expand your horizons because you\u2019re going to learn how to communicate at a very simple level.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how the ministry of Charles Ryrie really began; it began teaching children.\u00a0 He became the great communicator of truth because of his work with children.\u00a0 And I looked at my newspaper, this was when I was living in Dallas, and I noticed there was a little church down the street from me, where we were living at the time, and there was Charles Ryrie, he was going to be the speaker.\u00a0 He had retired from Dallas Seminary so I never had a chance to learn from him directly, I had read many of his books, and so I went down the street and kind of sat there in the back because I wanted to hear Charles Ryrie speak.\u00a0 And in this little church, Town North Bible Church, he was talking about the tribulation period and he was describing how bad it\u2019s going to be.\n\nAnd this is an analogy that he\u00a0 used, it\u2019s so simple.\u00a0 He said, \u201cI want everybody in this room to hold up four fingers.\u00a0 So you all can do that with me, can\u2019t you?\u00a0 Just hold up your hand and if your hand is not up I\u2019ll call you out, embarrass\u00a0 you, and he stood in front of this little church, (keep your hands up, I see some of you are putting them down, I know there\u2019s lactic acid build up) but he said I want you to take your forefinger and put it down just like this.\u00a0\u00a0 He said that\u2019s Revelation, chapter 6 and verse 8.\u00a0 Now I want you to take your middle finger and put that down, that\u2019s a wiping out not just of a quarter of the world\u2019s population but a third of the world\u2019s population, and that\u2019s Revelation chapter 9 verse 18.\u00a0 Now of the original fingers you have left (which was four) how many are left?\u00a0 Two.\u00a0 Just a simple analogy and I\u2019ve never forgotten it, revealing the severity of the end times, revealing and communicating the fact that when the tribulation begins half of the world\u2019s population is going to be destroyed.\u00a0 And this is what Daniel is speaking of here.\u00a0 He\u2019s speaking of the time period of distress that has never occurred and never will occur again.\n\nNow when you begin to study the Book of Revelation what you\u2019ll discover is there\u2019s many views on this book.\u00a0 Did you know that?\u00a0 There is a view called preterism which essentially argues that these prophecies that we\u2019re reading about already happened; they happened in the first century when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in A.D. 70.\u00a0 That\u2019s what is called preterism.\u00a0 Preterism comes from the Latin word past, which means bygone or past, preterist.\u00a0 And you say well that\u2019s crazy for people to think that.\u00a0 Let me tell you something, the preterist interpretation is gaining tremendous ascendancy in our day.\n\nThere are many, many people that you know by name that are arguing for a preterist interpretation.\u00a0 Many of them call themselves partial preterists, meaning the bulk of Revelation, the bulk of Daniel\u2019s prophecies have already happened; there\u2019s a small shred for the end.\u00a0 You might recognize names like R. C. Sproul, N. T. Wright, the Roman Catholic apologist Scott Hahn, he has a ministry, which I put in parenthesis-\u201cministry\u201d where he is out to\u2026 well, it\u2019s called this, it\u2019s called\u00a0 Home Sweet Home Ministry. \u00a0The idea is to get everybody to come back to the Roman Catholic Church.\u00a0 When you look at the writings of Scott Hahn he is a preterist.\u00a0 Jumping down to the second to last name on the list you might recognize the name Hank Hanegraaff, his ministry is called The Bible Answer Man.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something that he just stated on the radio, he, like Sproul, have written entire full length books on the subject telling people there is no future tribulation period, there is no future antichrist, all of those things are past.\n\nAnd you see, the preterist has a tremendous difficulty with verse 1 which talks about a time of distress that far transcends what happened in A.D.\u00a0 70.\u00a0 Don\u2019t get me wrong, A.D. 70 was bad, probably about a million Jews lost their lives during that time period.\u00a0 But it is not a fair description of what Daniel is talking about here when he talks about a time of unequalled distress, something that has never occurred and never will occur again.\u00a0 A million lives lost is tragic but Hitler amped up that number, didn\u2019t he, from a million to six million.\u00a0 And what I\u2019m saying is if I\u2019m interpreting my Bible correctly what is going to happen to this planet future, what is going to happen to the nation of Israel yet future far transcends any past event.\u00a0 And yet the preterist must dismiss the ordinary rules of language to get their interpretation to work.\u00a0 In order to take these global events that are predicted and ram, jam and cram them into the local events of the first century involves de-literalizing and in some cases de-historicizing passage.\u00a0 And when\u00a0 you read Preterist writers they go on and on and on and on about how you can\u2019t take these prophecies literally.\n\nOne preterist says, \u201c\u201c\u2026the preterist view does understand Revelation\u2019s prophecies as strongly reflecting actual historical events in John\u2019s near future, though they are set in apocalyptic drama and are clothed in poetic hyperbole.\u201d\u00a0 [Kenneth Gentry]\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0What he\u2019s saying is you don\u2019t take this literally.\u00a0 The problem with that, of course, is all of the prophecies that have already happened that Daniel predicted have come to pass very literally, haven\u2019t they.\u00a0 So why would the Holy Spirit switch horses in midstream?\u00a0 Why would the prophecies yet past be literal and the prophecies yet future are suddenly nonliteral.\u00a0 Yet to make the preterist system work there\u2019s always an argument against deliteralizing the prophecies.\n\nHere is R. C. Sproul; R. C. Sproul in his book, it\u2019s a full length book, you can find it on the internet and read it for yourself, he says:\u00a0 \u201cRussell and Calvin agree that the language employed in biblical prophecy is not always cold and logical as is common in the western world that adopts a kind of fervor common to the east.\u201d\u00a0 Translation: don\u2019t take this literally.\n\nAnd within the maze of interpretations of the Book of Revelation there are others.\u00a0 Another view is what is called historicism.\u00a0 Historicism has probably been the dominant interpretation of the church for the last 2,000 years.\u00a0 Historicists basically say these prophecies are not talking primarily about A.D. 70, but what they\u2019re talking about is events in the history of the church.\n\nSo they will gravitate towards the Black Plague for example, as a possible manifestation of the judgments spoken of in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 They\u2019re always trying to find things in church history to say that the Book of Revelation has already been fulfilled.\u00a0 By the way, our camp is accused of date setting all the time.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been the pastor of this church since 2010; has anybody ever heard me give a single date for the return of Christ?\u00a0 I hope not, because that is not something that I believe we can do.\u00a0 But historicists, which is the dominant interpretation in church history, sets dates all of the time.\u00a0 In fact, you might remember David Koresh, wacko from Waco as he was called.\u00a0 He was basically a historicist in his interpretation arguing that the seal judgments were happening right then and there in the compound, and so forth.\n\nThere\u2019s another view called idealism and this is sort of the recycling view.\u00a0 They locate Armageddon, for example, in every generation, it just recurs in every generation.\u00a0 Or they look at the prophecies of Babylon\u2019s destruction and they say well that refers to Jerusalem\u2019s fall in A.D. 70, it also refers to the destruction of the Roman Empire later on in church history.\u00a0 It can be happening today, Babylon, Las Vegas after could qualify as Babylon.\u00a0 Or San Francisco, or I would say Washington D.C. or any city you wanted it to be, and they say oh, there\u2019s going to be a literal Babylon in the end times.\u00a0 So you see what they bought into is this recycling, this perpetual recycling of the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 They reject the idea that these prophecies are speaking of a singular fulfillment yet future.\n\nAnd as we have been studying these prophecies how are they fulfilled?\u00a0 They are fulfilled, at least the ones that have come to pass in the past, in real time in history in a singular way.\u00a0 Every prophecy we\u2019ve looked at has been fulfilled that way so why would the prophecies yet future sort of recycle from generation to generation?\u00a0 The viewpoint that we embrace here at Sugar Land Bible Church is called futurism.\u00a0 We believe that these prophecies are yet to come and they will be fulfilled in the future, primarily in the tribulation period and the kingdom that follows.\u00a0 And why do we embrace that particular position?\u00a0 We embrace that position because as you look at these prophecies it\u2019s obvious they are such a grand scope, it\u2019s obvious that they are so global in nature that they\u2019ve never happened on planet earth.\n\nFor example, Revelation 16 talks about the sea of the entire world turning to blood red.\u00a0 Now I realize that the BP oil spill was bad but it wasn\u2019t that bad; at least not in comparison to the global nature of these prophecies.\u00a0 These prophecies talk about a man of sin called the antichrist who will rule the whole world for a period of three and a half years.\u00a0 Adolf Hitler was bad but he\u2019s not as evil as this global empire that is yet future.\u00a0 And so the preterist, the historicist, the idealist, when they come to a passage like Daniel 12:1 it gets very difficult for them because they have to bend over backwards explaining to their readers and explaining to their listeners why the passage really doesn\u2019t mean what it says.\u00a0 [Daniel 12:1, \u201cNow at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.\u201d]\u00a0 But if words mean things, and they do, God is describing a time of unparalleled distress which has never hit planet earth the way it is described here, and therefore it is yet future.\u00a0\u00a0 And by the way, if you want a very good book on this I recommend this book by Steve Gregg called Revelation: Four Views: A Parallel Commentary<\/em>.\n\nSteve Gregg, unfortunately is a preterist so I don\u2019t agree with his conclusions but he does an amazing job of setting up four parallel roads on each side of a book that he has written and every section you come to it\u2019s a verse by verse study of the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 He says here\u2019s how a preterist interprets that verse, here\u2019s how a historicist interprets that verse, here is how an idealist interprets that verse, and on the far right would be ourselves, here is how a futurist interprets that verse. And I have to be honest that even though I disagree with Steve Gregg\u2019s preterism I think he does a very good job representing all the different views.\u00a0 And I had an opportunity to write my dissertation on this sort of subject and so Steve Gregg\u2019s parallel commentary was a great asset to me just to understand how other people think differently.\n\nAnd so I\u2019m sort of the type of teacher and preacher where I just don\u2019t to tell you what to think, I\u00a0 want to move away from what to why.\u00a0 We are not the only view out there; however, we embrace futurism here at Sugar Land Bible Church for the simple reason that the language of these prophecies is obviously global, they are obviously things that have never come to the earth the way they are described here, and we take those prophecies just as literally as we do the prophecies that have already happened.\u00a0 And yet the preterists and so forth have a difficult time here rewriting the verses.\n\nLet\u2019s let the text say what it wants to say.\u00a0 Shall we?\u00a0 What is it saying here?\u00a0 \u201cThere will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time,\u201d and if you want an in-depth description of that time period the Book of Revelation, where half of the world\u2019s population is wiped out, is a tremendous\u00a0 treatment on this. [Daniel 12:1, \u201cNow at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.\u201d]\n\nAnd you see, once you understand that this time period is coming for Israel you can understand why at that time Michael, the angel designated by God to protect the nation of Israel is going to stand up and offer protection to the nation of Israel because let me tell you, she is going to need that protection during that terrible time period.\u00a0 So futurism is our viewpoint on these things.\n\nSo we move from the\u00a0 prince to the pain and notice the third part there of verse 1, we move to the perseverance, \u201cat that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.\u201d \u00a0You\u2019ll notice that it says \u201cyour people,\u201d now we\u2019ve already had teaching, haven\u2019t we, on who \u201cyour people\u201d is.\u00a0 This is not speaking of the church; this is speaking of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 In fact, you might to back to Daniel 9:24, you might remember that when we were studying the seventy weeks prophecy I gave you ten facts to understand about that prophecy and does anybody recall the first fact?\u00a0 Who does the prophecy concern?\u00a0 The nation of Israel.\u00a0 Daniel 9:24 says, \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, [to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.]\u201d\u00a0 The prophecy is being aimed at Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel was a Jew.\u00a0 What is Daniel\u2019s city?\u00a0 The city of Jerusalem.\n\nThis is not a prophecy about First Baptist of Houston, Second Baptist of Houston, Sugar Land Bible Church, North America.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s very clear when you let words say what they want to say that these are prophecies for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 It says there in Daniel 12 and verse 1, \u201c\u2026at that time your people,\u201d that\u2019s the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, \u201ceveryone who is found written in the book, will be rescued.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And you can understand why a Jew reading this and going through this time period would see this as tremendous hope.\u00a0 This is why God has included these prophecies for the nation of Israel as they walk through these times, to give them hope, to remind them that God is very much on the throne and some way, somehow through this ordeal, through the distress, a believing remnant will emerge.\u00a0 And through that believing remnant God will fulfill everything He\u2019s ever promised to do to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\n\nYou can parallel this verse with the Book of Zechariah, chapter 13 and verses 8 and 9. Notice what Zechariah again says concerning this time period.\u00a0 \u201c\u2018It will come about in all the land,\u2019 declares the LORD, \u2018That two parts in it will be cut off and<\/em> perish; but the third will be left in it. \u00a0[9] And I will bring the third part through the fire, refine them\u201d not destroy them, \u201crefine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested.\u00a0 They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, \u2018They are My people,\u2019 and they will say, \u2018The is my God.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe nation of Israel, by definition, has within it believers and unbelievers.\u00a0 The purpose of the tribulation period is to purge off the unbelievers, in this case it will be two-thirds, which is a scary statistic since the Jews today say never again with Hitler who killed one-third.\u00a0 If I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly the worst suffering is yet future for the nation of Israel, even surpassing what Adolf Hitler did to the Jewish people in the World War II era.\u00a0 The unbeliever\u2019s two thirds will be purged off, a believing remnant will exist and through that believing remnant God will purify that believing remnant and through that remnant He will fulfill all of the promises that He has made to the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\n\nThe church, by definition, does not consist of believers and unbelievers.\u00a0 If a person is a believer in Christ they are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ; the church certainly has babes in it, infants in it, carnal in it, spiritual in it but all are believers.\u00a0 So therefore there\u2019s really no need for the church to go into this time period to separate believer from unbeliever since we\u2019re all believers.\u00a0 Israel is very different.\u00a0 Israel, by way of structure, by way of definition,\u00a0 can have believing Jews and unbelieving Jews and the purpose of the tribulation period is to separate the two.\n\nSo this reveals to us tremendous information about the character of God.\u00a0 All hell could break loose on a person\u2019s life and\u00a0 yet God some way, somehow, is going to use that difficulty to execute His purpose.\u00a0\u00a0 And you say well how does this apply to us if we\u2019re not going to be here.\u00a0 Well, the application to me is very simple, God has made you a promise, has He not?\u00a0 The moment you place your personal faith in Jesus Christ the following promise was made to you.\u00a0 John 10:27-29, \u201c\u201cMy sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; [28] and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. [29] My Father, who has given them<\/em> to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them<\/em> out of the Father\u2019s hand.\u201d\n\nNo matter what distress, no matter what difficulty takes place in your life God is going to use that difficulty to execute His purpose in you, just like He\u2019s going to use this difficulty for Israel yet future to execute His ultimate purpose in and through them, the conversion of the remnant.\u00a0 Your destiny as a child of God, as a member of the church age, is arrival in heaven.\u00a0 That\u2019s the purpose.\u00a0 That\u2019s a promise that God has made to you and adversity and difficulty and problems can\u2019t subvert that purpose.\u00a0 If anything God is going to use them to accomplish His purpose.\u00a0 God is using adversity in the life of the nation of Israel to accomplish His purpose and it\u2019s the same for you.\u00a0 Your life could be going through some very deep waters, it could be going through some adversity, it could be going through some difficulty, to get through it all the purpose of God will be accomplished.\n\nAnd just as Israel, just as this remnant is going to be protected by God through this difficult time the same protection exists for you as you walk through life\u2019s valleys.\u00a0 1 Peter 1:4, Peter writes of us who are protected by the power of God.\u00a0 [1 Peter1:4, \u201cto obtain an inheritance which is imperish\u00adable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,.\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0I mean, do you realize that as you sit here today, as you listen to me speak, that you are actually being protected by the power of God.\u00a0 Do you realize that as you go through job layoffs, bad news from the doctor, relational difficulties, adversities, problems with your body, do you realize that you\u2019re being protected by the power of God because God made you a promise that if\u00a0 you put your trust in His Son your arrival in heaven is guaranteed.\u00a0 Nothing can derail that.\n\nSo God\u2019s character is such that He\u2019s going to use tribulation to execute Israel\u2019s purpose.\u00a0 And why would it be any different for us?\u00a0 Just because you\u2019re going through a difficult time doesn\u2019t mean somehow the promises of God and the plan of God and the program of God for you as an individual has somehow been subverted.\n\nPeople ask me a lot, well, do you believe in the perseverance of the saints?\u00a0 What do they mean by that?\u00a0 Well, you\u2019ve got to persevere in good works to the very end of life to prove you\u2019re a Christian.\u00a0 To be completely frank with you I don\u2019t believe in the perseverance of the saints the way I just described it because there can be ups and downs in a Christian\u2019s life.\u00a0 In fact, the guy who wrote this verse, 1 Peter 1:5, about us being protected by God, didn\u2019t that guy, the Apostle Peter, have some problems.\u00a0 [1 Peter 1:5, \u201cwho are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.\u201d]\u00a0 I mean, isn\u2019t this the same guy that denied the Lord three times?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t this the guy that made an off the wall statement to Jesus in Matthew 16, and Jesus said to him, \u201cGet behind Me, Satan.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 16:23, \u201cBut He turned and said to Peter, \u2018Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's.\u2019\u201d]\n\nIsn\u2019t this the same guy that got so bound up in a false gospel and in legalism, therefore in the Book of Galatians, Galatians 2, he had to be corrected face to face by the Apostle Paul?\u00a0 The same guy that went through all of those problems and all of those deficiencies and all of those highs and all of those lows would write at the end of his book, to, by the way, a group of Christians who are about to be thrown into the lion\u2019s den in Nero\u2019s coliseum, this is why Peter concludes his epistle by saying \u201cthe devil roams about like a\u201d what? \u201croaring lion seeking someone to devour.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Peter 5:8, \u201cBe of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.\u201d]\u00a0 Most of the time we get a metaphorical interpretation of that.\u00a0 I happen to think it was very literal.\u00a0 I think it was an actual physical lion historically that these Christians were being thrown to.\n\nSo here is a man about to go through great adversity, by the way, the Apostle Peter is about to be crucified upside down so as to glorify Christ.\u00a0 You talk about a man with problems, you talk about a man with failings, this is the same guy that tells us that we are being protected by the power of God.\u00a0 Adversity cannot in any way derail God\u2019s purpose in your life, which is arrival and glorification.\u00a0 Just like this time of great distress that\u2019s coming upon the nation of Israel after the church has been removed, it\u2019s not going to derail God\u2019s purposes for the nation of Israel.\u00a0 In fact, God has a whole program in order where Israel will be protected during these things, at least a third.\u00a0 That protected agent is Michael.\n\nSo don\u2019t think that because you\u2019re walking through deep waters and experiencing losses that somehow you\u2019ve slipped out of the omnipotent hands of Jesus Christ and the Father.\u00a0 The fact of the matter is God is so strategically and instrumentally working in your life that he\u2019s actually using these things as a mechanism to further advance His purpose in you.\u00a0 So I do not believe in the perseverance of the saints.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I believe in\u2014I believe in the preservation of the saints.\u00a0 The perseverance of the saints puts all the responsibility on me.\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe that because I gave you examples of Peter\u2019s failures.\u00a0 Preservation of the saints puts all of the responsibility on who?\u00a0 On God.\u00a0 And so Israel is going to enter this time period and yet she will be preserved through it.\n\nNow notice, we move from verse 1 to verse 2, we move away from the suffering to the separation.\u00a0 Notice verse2, \u201cMany of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You know what we\u2019re getting ready to celebrate next Sunday, Palm Sunday?\u00a0 Do you know the Sunday that comes after Palm Sunday?\u00a0 Easter, we call it Easter, better said Resurrection Sunday.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that the Lord would have us, in this verse, which is perhaps your most graphic prophecy or depiction of the future resurrection than anywhere else in the whole Bible?\u00a0 The Lord would have us in this verse in this season.\u00a0 You say gee, Andy, you really plan your sermons well.\u00a0 I had nothing to do with it.\u00a0 I\u2019m absent many times, not too much hopefully, from this pulpit.\u00a0 The calendar gets pushed back, and I just find it interesting that when we just move through the Bible the Lord will have us in the right verse at the right time covering the right circumstances.\u00a0 That takes all the pressure off of me as a preacher; just let the Bible speak and let God say what He wants to say to God\u2019s people and exactly when and how He wants to say it.\n\nSo a tremendous prophecy here about resurrection, which means we have to define what resurrection is.\u00a0 We talk about resurrection all the time but what does it mean?\u00a0 Resurrection is the opposite of death.\u00a0 What is death exactly?\u00a0 Death is a separation between the material and the immaterial.\u00a0 You see, when the Lord created you He created you with a material component, a body, the body would have, you know, the various five senses, taste, smell, touch, sight, hearing, and those kinds of things.\u00a0 But He also placed within you what is called the psuche, or the soul.\u00a0 What is the soul?\u00a0 Jesus said what can a man give in exchange for his soul.\u00a0 The soul is the part of you that is designed to live forever.\u00a0 And just like the body has different components to it the soul has different components to it.\u00a0 Like what?\u00a0 Like personality, volition, tastes, preferences, intellect, conscience, all of these things are part of the psuche <\/em>or the soul and this is why man is very different than an animal.\u00a0 Man is made in God\u2019s image, having this capacity within him not just biological life but soulish life.\u00a0 So the body is the material, the soul is the immaterial.\u00a0 So what happens when you die?\u00a0 The two separate. Death is a separation.\n\nThis is what happened with Jesus in Matthew 27:50, it says, \u201cAnd Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit,\u201d which I believe is a synonym for the soul, the two separated.\u00a0 The same thing happened to Stephen in Acts 7:59, \u201cThey went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, \u2018Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 When a person dies that is what happens, the material and the immaterial separate.\u00a0 So if resurrection is the opposite of death, then resurrection is\u00a0 a reunion.\u00a0 The resurrection is a time in history where a person\u2019s immaterial capacity re-enters their body.\u00a0 But guess what?\u00a0 You\u2019re going to look a lot better and I\u2019m going to look a lot better.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s the body as God intended it.\u00a0\u00a0 You see, sin has cursed our bodies.\u00a0 Original sin has put us into a decaying body.\u00a0 What did God say to Adam in Genesis 3:19, right after the fall of man?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re going right back into the dirt from which you came.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the body itself was placed under a curse.\u00a0 You see that?\n\nAnd you say well, I don\u2019t really believe this is true, I mean, I take my vitamins and I\u2019m on the exer-cycle regularly.\u00a0 Well, let me prove it to you.\u00a0 When you go home today break out\u00a0 your high school yearbook pictures and just take your modern driver\u2019s license and put it right next to it and you\u2019ll quickly see your body is decaying.\u00a0 In fact, a couple of years I was so bold I went to my 30 year reunion from high school, 30 years is not an awful long period of time but it was almost like the night of the living dead.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 I hardly recognized anybody.\u00a0 Fortunately the conference organizers had our pictures from our high school yearbook that we were to wear and I put two and two together so they were unrecognizable, I was unrecognizable.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because 30 years is a long time for a decaying body to run its course.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think I\u2019m going to go to my 40 year reunion.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Nor the 50 year reunion, I\u2019m hoping the Lord will come back.\n\nBut you see, this is why resurrection is such a big deal to the Christian.\u00a0 It rescues us from the original sin of the decaying body.\u00a0 So when you are resurrected you are put into your body, it\u2019s still you.\u00a0 I could recognize you, you could recognize me but the curse is pulled out of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s the body that God intended.\n\nAnd the concept of resurrection is hinted at many times in the Scripture.\u00a0 For example, in the Book of Job, the oldest book of the Bible, I believe this is in Job, I want to say chapter 19, verses 25-27,\u00a0 Job says this, \u201cAs for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.\u00a0 [26] Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh\u201d Job says, \u201cI shall see God;\u00a0 [27] Whom I\u201d speaking of his eyeballs that he currently had, \u201cWhom I myself shall behold, and whom my eyes will see and not another.\u201d\u00a0 Then he says at the prospect of this, \u201cMy heart faints within me!\u201d\u00a0 There is Job, the oldest book of the Bible, probably written around the time of Abraham, holding out the\u00a0 ultimate hope of the Christian which is resurrection.\n\nIsaiah 26:19 speaks of resurrection, and it says, \u201cYour dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.\u201d\u00a0 This concept of resurrection is nothing new; it\u2019s hinted at many times.\u00a0 But what you have here in Daniel 12:2 is the most graphic depiction I can think of, of two resurrections.\u00a0 One of the things that people really don\u2019t understand is the fact that everybody on planet earth that\u2019s ever lived will be resurrected.\u00a0 We have a tendency to think it\u2019s only the Christians that will be resurrected.\u00a0 Look at this passage very carefully, it\u2019s not saying that at all.\u00a0 It says, \u201cMany of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others\u201d see that, \u201cbut others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.\u201d\u00a0 Some are resurrected unto life to experience eternity with God.\u00a0 Others are resurrected unto damnation to experience judgment throughout all eternity in a resurrected body.\n\nJohn 5:29, New Testament, is the second place that these two resurrections are described.\u00a0 John 5:29 says, \u201cand will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.\u201d\u00a0 This hope of the resurrection is something the Jews well understood; it was part of their culture.\u00a0 Their own prophets had spoken about it.\u00a0 That\u2019s why when Jesus said to the sisters, your brother, Lazarus will live, not under\u00adstanding that He was going to resurrect now or I would call it resuscitate him now.\u00a0\u00a0 Martha, John 11:24, said to Him, oh, \u201cI know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.\u201d\u00a0 What is she thinking of?\u00a0 She\u2019s thinking of Daniel 12:2, she\u2019s probably thinking of the Book of Job.\u00a0 She\u2019s probably thinking of the prophet Isaiah.\n\nActs 24:15 says, \u201chaving a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And then we come to the Book of Revelation, chapter 20, verses 4-6, also describing these two resurrections.\u00a0 John says, \u201cThen I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw<\/em> the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand;\u201d and look at this, \u201cand they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. [5] The rest of the dead\u201d same verb, \u201cdid not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. [6] Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.\u201d\n\nNow John in the Book of Revelation gives us another piece of information, that these two resurrections at the end time are separated by a thousand years.\u00a0 The thousand year millennial kingdom, a resurrection unto life for the believers at the beginning of that thousand year period and then a horrific resurrection unto damnation for unbelievers to stand before the Lord at the Great White Throne Judgment for sentencing at the end of the millennial kingdom.\n\nAnd we\u2019ve just started with this resurrection stuff; maybe if I\u2019m long winded enough I could stretch this verse right on into the first Sunday in April, who knows?\u00a0 But this is the season that we\u2019re in and this is the time period where we need to be thinking about these things.\u00a0 The great hope of the Christian is a resurrection unto life.\n\nNow next week I\u2019ll be showing you where the church fits into this because since God has separate programs for Israel and the church, we are resurrected at different times, and I\u2019ll be showing you this very clearly from Paul\u2019s writings and I\u2019ll be giving you what I call resurrections in review.\u00a0 When are these different resurrections going to happen chronologically?\u00a0 What\u2019s the resurrection at the end going to be like for the unbelievers?\u00a0 And one of the doctrines I\u2019m convinced that the evangelical church today is about ready to throw overboard, and I don\u2019t say this because of exaggeration, I don\u2019t say this because of hyperbole, I say this because I read people and I hear and see what they\u2019re saying.\u00a0 One of the doctrines that\u2019s about a millimeter from being thrown overboard is the doctrine of eternal retribution, the idea that hell is just as long as heaven is.\u00a0 It\u2019s called annihilationism. And so when we reconvene next Lord\u2019s day I\u2019ll be showing you that you linguistically cannot do that.\u00a0 If heaven and the kingdom are forever then so is hell, because the same words describe both.\u00a0 And when\u00a0 you throw a wet blanket over the doctrine of hell, let me tell you something, it affects many things in the church, not the least of which is the urgency in evangelism or evangelization, or missions.\n\nHere at Sugar Land Bible Church the top 20% of the budget goes to missions and maybe we ought to do more.\u00a0 Why are we doing that?\u00a0 A very simple reason, we\u2019re trying to keep people out of hell because hell is hell; hell is a horrific horrible place that your Bible talks about very dogmatically and categorically.\u00a0 And you start playing games with that you just destroy the concept of world missions.\u00a0 The urgency is removed.\u00a0 And if anybody shows up next week we\u2019ll be talking about that doctrine.\n\nAnd you say well, gee, pastor, we want some application here; give us some application.\u00a0 Well here it is, you ready?\u00a0 What resurrection do you want to be in exactly?\u00a0 There\u2019s your application.\u00a0 Do you want to be in the resurrection unto life, which is clearly spoken of here?\u00a0 If you reject that then the only option for you is the resurrection unto damnation, which is plainly spoken here as well.\u00a0 You see, the reality of the situation is because a person has not believed in Christ they are already condemned.\u00a0\u00a0 You see that?\u00a0 John 3:18, [John 3:18, \u201cHe who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.\u201d]\n\nThe judgment of God is already hanging over them, it just hasn\u2019t been executed\u00a0 yet.\u00a0 The sentencing hasn\u2019t happened yet.\u00a0 The sentence that we\u2019re reading about here, that\u2019s your condition in the first Adam.\u00a0 But what a glorious thing it is for a human being to hear the clear gospel, that Jesus Christ entered history to absorb the wrath of God in our place and resurrected from the dead to validate and vindicate who He claimed to be, and what a glorious thing it is to believe that gospel, to trust it.\u00a0 And once that happens your whole destiny is altered, no longer a candidate for the resurrection unto damnation but the resurrection unto life.\n\nAnd so our exhortation to you today and to those that may be listening via internet or what have you is to think about that.\u00a0 You know, we talk a lot in Christianity about the need to be saved.\u00a0 Don\u2019t we use that vocabulary a lot?\u00a0 What exactly are we being saved from?\u00a0 We\u2019re being saved from this\u2014we\u2019re being saved from an eternal hell!\u00a0 And if you\u2019re listening on the internet or listening in the building it\u2019s just a matter of hearing the gospel, \u201cfaith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God,\u201d and trusting the gospel.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a matter of raising a hand, joining a church, walking an aisle, giving money, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between and the Lord where the Holy Spirit, and Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do this, would convict\u00a0 us of our need to do this.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t believe for us, He would convict us of our need to believe.\n\nYou know, pain is not always a bad thing.\u00a0 When I\u2019m walking on the beach at night, or even in the day and I feel pain coming through my feet that\u2019s a signal that\u2019s actually helpful to me although it\u2019s uncomfortable at the time; it tells me to put my shoes on or get off the beach because there\u2019s broken glass under the sand and if I keep doing what I\u2019m doing I\u2019m going to destroy my feet.\u00a0 Do you see that?\u00a0 Pain becomes an ally.\u00a0 Or a person\u2019s hand is on a hot stove, and the pain goes shooting through your hand, and we\u2019re irritated at the pain but the reality is the pain becomes a friend because if the hand set there on the hot stove the hand would be destroyed.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the Holy Spirit does.\u00a0 He inflicts conviction or pain on people because the pain actually becomes a friend; it convicts them of their need to respond to the gospel so they will not be thrust, resurrected body and all, into a fiery eternal indignation.\n\nYeah, there\u2019s something to be saved from.\u00a0 The gospel is good news for the reason that it rescues us from something really bad.\u00a0 And so our exhortation is in the best you know how, in the privacy of your own heart is to respond by way of faith to the gospel of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Trust Him and Him alone, what He did for us in His resurrection from the dead and His crucifixion to remedy this problem, because you\u2019ve got a lot of problems in this life and so do I but none are as severe as this.\u00a0 Every problem\u00a0 you have is very temporal and transitory in comparison to this. And yet in the gospel this can be fixed in a nanosecond, simply by trusting in what Christ has done.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for this time of the year when we celebrate Your triumphal entry and your bodily resurrection from the dead; help us to grow in our understanding of the doctrine of resurrection and help us to walk these things out through the urgency of the gospel message this week.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t