Skip to content Alpha/Omega - Revelation: Get Ready! Aug 1 · 1 hr 4 min ...more
Alpha/Omega - Revelation: Get Ready!
August 1, 2021 · 1 hr 4 min
The culmination of this series involved five reasons to get ready for what is coming. These five reasons, coupled with five exhortations, have been embedded in the book of Revelation and seen throughout the entirety of the Scriptures. Hearing the proclamation of God's Word expounding the truth of Revelation 22 will prepare the believer for the upcoming and expected blessings, but also convict the unrighteous of their need to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May this message set your heart aflame for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and may you eagerly await all that the Lord Jesus Christ has in store for us. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church August 1, 2021 · 1 hr 4 min · BRAVE Church
The culmination of this series involved five reasons to get ready for what is coming. These five reasons, coupled with five exhortations, have been embedded in the book of Revelation and seen throughout the entirety of the Scriptures. Hearing the proclamation of God's Word expounding the truth of Revelation 22 will prepare the believer for the upcoming and expected blessings, but also convict the unrighteous of their need to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May this message set your heart aflame for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and may you eagerly await all that the Lord Jesus Christ has in store for us. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less The culmination of this series involved five reasons to get ready for what is coming. These five reasons, coupled with five exhortations, have been embedded in the book of Revelation and seen throughout the entirety of the Scriptures. Hearing the proclamation of God's Word expounding the truth of Revelation 22 will prepare the believer for the upcoming and expected blessings, but also convict the unrighteous of their need to repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. May this message set your heart aflame for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and may you eagerly await all that the Lord Jesus Christ has in store for us. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Lord Jesus, thank you so much for who you are. Lord, even if you didn't do anything, you are worthy of our worship just in your character and your nature alone. Lord, we love you and we just want to bless0:12 you today. We thank you for the privilege of being able to worship your name. We thank you for being present with us through your spirit. And we ask right now as your word is faithfully proclaimed, Lord, that you would0:22 be helpful to me and helpful to us as we receive from you. And now for all of God's people who are gathered, who desire to hear his word proclaimed, will believe what he says,0:35 and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word, amen. Amen. Have you ever been on the giving or the0:46 receiving side of the words, get ready. Get ready. Those words come with an awful lot of urgency. Many times if you're a parent and you have kids and you're getting ready to0:58 leave the house, you'll tell your kids, get ready. Get ready. Hurry up. Let's do this. If you've been in the military, you may have a highly commissioned officer that tells your troop, get ready. You're about ready to1:10 deploy. You may have played on a team or your coach the night before a game tells your team, you better get ready. Here's what you're going to experience. Here's what you're going to need to be ready for.1:22 Or maybe you've been skiing before and you go down a run that's a little bit more difficult with a friend and they say, hey, get ready. Here it comes. Or a roller coaster or something like that. Or perhaps some of you1:33 young gals are getting close to the day where you may bring a young man home, potential fiance where you're telling your dad, get ready. To which I would say to
1:45 either of my daughters, if they ever told me that, brandishing my favorite weapon of choice, I was born ready. Right? So but getting ready has a
1:56 urgency to it, a a necessity of something that's going to happen that we need to be prepared for. And this is certainly true when it comes to the Lord Jesus
2:08 Christ and all that we're going to experience with him. I'm telling you this morning, get ready. Get ready. It's sooner than you think. It's sooner than you think. And there's some things that we need to
2:20 do to get ready. Now as we've been going through this entire series called the Alpha and Omega series, we began in Genesis chapter 1 1. We've made our way all the way through the first 11 chapters of Genesis. Then we
2:30 embarked in the book of Revelation. We've gone through the first 21 chapters, and today, Lord willing, we will finish chapter 22. It's been bittersweet to come to this place because I can tell you in
2:42 this last year, I've enjoyed preaching as much as any time in my life that I've enjoyed preaching the word of God. I've enjoyed it. I've always enjoyed preaching, but God is building something special here at Brave
2:53 Church because the more hungry you are for the word, the better I am at proclaiming it, and the better I am at proclaiming it, the more hungry you are for the word and God's doing something back and forth here.
3:05 And, can tell you with great authority that there's very few places in our culture where the word is preached in any part of the bible. I know as a pastor, I can go to and preach the word with
3:16 authority, and there are a group of people gathered here that will just say, yes, Lord, bring it. We wanna hear what it is you have to say. It's very unique, and so I'm not applauding you. I'm not applauding me, but I am
3:28 doing this. I am saying God's building something really special here at our church and I think he's worthy of our praise today. I wonder if we could just applaud our God for what he's doing.
3:43 It's an honor as a pastor knowing that I don't have to open my bible and say, wonder what they're gonna think if I preach this. I wonder if I'm gonna get fired if I preach that. I wonder if these people are gonna leave
3:51 our church if they do this because I know that I'm preaching to a group of saints that love God and love his word and are saying pastor Jeff, if it's in the word, we wanna know what God has to say. And it's an honor
4:00 honor to pastor this church, I'm telling you. But today, wanna give you 5 reasons to get ready as we've going through the book of Revelation. We started the revelation of Jesus Christ. We got a true picture of who he is,
4:11 and then we looked at how Jesus is central to the church and what he's doing in the church this day and what he's been doing in the church throughout the generations. We looked at what worship was like, and then we began
4:23 to look at what was going to come to pass in this world, beginning with the sealed judgments, and then we got to the trumpets, and then we got to the bowls, and to sit through painstakingly every part of this
4:35 and learn all about the antichrist and the false prophet and the beast and Satan, what he's going to be doing during these times. It's been awesome to walk through this only to get to the place where Jesus Christ is
4:45 ruling and reigning on planet earth for the millennium. He's gonna rule and reign for 1000 years on the planet and then the eternal state is going to begin. And unfortunately for us, chapter 22 is an
4:56 unfortunate chapter break because the first 5 chapters of this section really highlight New Jerusalem and what we talked about is the capital city of the coming millennium. But what you're gonna see
5:08 is in chapter 22 in the book of Revelation, 5 reasons that you need to get ready. 5 reasons that you need to get ready. And I'm telling you with all authority as your pastor, get ready.
5:20 You need to be prepared for what is coming. And the reason I'm telling you this is that too many Christians are lethargic or complacent and have great apathy when it comes to Jesus
5:32 Christ and what's going to take place next. For many Christians, the only thing they continue to think about is, I know I'm saved and that's about all I need to know. And while that's important that you're securing your
5:41 identity and who you are for all eternity, you need to be aware of what's coming. We've spelled it out over the course of hours as we've gone through this book, verse by verse, word by word, taking a look at everything
5:52 that God would have to say. Today is really a summary of 5 reasons that you need to get ready. Now, I'll give you the first. The first is that God's presence is satisfying. God's presence is
6:03 satisfying. Long for him. Long for him. If you have your bible, I encourage you to open up to Revelation chapter 22. We're gonna go through this entire chapter this morning, but God's presence is satisfying. You should
6:15 long for him. Notice what John says. He says, then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal coming from the throne of God and of the lamb in the middle of its street. On either side of the
6:27 river was the tree of life bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse and the throne of God and
6:39 the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it, and his bond servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night, and they will not have any
6:50 need for light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever. Friends, God's presence is satisfying. Long for him. Long for
7:02 him. Now, you may think that there's lot of other things that are more satisfying than the presence of God. I'm here to tell you there's nothing more satisfying than the presence of God. When God created the heavens and
7:12 the earth in Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1, and as he unfolded the entire universe in 6 literal days, he was walking among his creation. And as Adam and Eve were created, we get the picture that God spent time directly
7:22 with them. That was forfeited through sin, where God is still near us now through his spirit, where for the non believer, he convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and for the believer, he indwells us.
7:35 But there's coming a day where we will be face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, all as 1 in our midst. And while we won't see the Father
7:47 because no 1 can see the Father and still live, and while we won't see the Spirit because the Holy Spirit is we will see the resurrected Christ face to face. And I'm here to tell you there's nothing more satisfying than
7:56 his presence. Whatever you think is more satisfying than his presence is an idol in your life that you're trying to fulfill yourself with something that will never fully satisfy you. That's why you have to satisfy
8:07 yourself with it over and over and over time it gets boring. Over time it's just not what it used to be. For some it's video games. It's the greatest video game in the world. But Pac Man is not all that exciting anymore,
8:18 Right? And then, you know, for others it's this fashion, but what people wore in 19 eighties is not as fashionable anymore. For some people it's this new house, but this new house that you have doesn't look as good 3
8:27 decades down the road. I mean, there's nothing that's fully satisfying like the presence of God. And as we gather and worship him and sing praises to his name and pray to him and hear his word proclaimed, his presence is
8:39 with us. And at times, we get different measures of his presence. Right? I mean, there are certain weekends that we come to church and it's as if God speaking just directly to us, and it was just what we needed to hear
8:49 and it was deep in our soul. There's other times where we're worshiping him and the message is okay. It's good. I'm praying and I sense God, but not at the same measure. God pours out in different measure. 1 day, God in
9:01 full measure, in our presence will pour out his presence forever and ever, and nothing but nothing will be more satisfying. There's nothing more satisfying. You have a God shaped hole in your
9:13 heart as it's often said, that is yearning to be in the presence of God. I think of David as he wrote chapter Psalm chapter 27 verses 4 and 8. He said, 1 thing I have asked from the
9:24 Lord that I shall seek. What would be the 1 thing you'd ask and seek of the Lord? Here's what David says it is. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to
9:34 meditate in his temple. Verse 8, when you said seek my face, my heart said to you, your face, oh, Lord, I shall seek. What did David want more than anything else? To be in God's
9:46 presence. He wanted God's presence. Another psalmist writes it this way in Psalm 84 verse 1, how lovely are your dwelling places, oh, Lord of hosts. In in verse 10, he says this, for a day in your
9:58 courts is better than 1000 outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Here's what the psalmist is saying, I'd rather be just at the door looking
10:10 in on New Jerusalem and the presence of God, just to see him, just to feel him a little bit than to do anything else there is to offer in the whole world. Friends, that's what it's gonna be like. And even if you can't
10:21 get your imagination to get yourself there, you are created to worship God and nothing is more satisfying than when you'll be in his presence. God's presence is satisfying.
10:33 Yearn for that. I mean, even the Apostle Paul says some of the same things in the New Testament when he talks about being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. In Philippians chapter 3 in verse 20, he says it like this.
10:45 He says, for our citizenship is in heaven from which we also eagerly wait. That's long. Eagerly wait. I'm yearning for. Eagerly wait for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm I'm
10:57 wanting to be in his presence. He says something very similar in second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 2 in talking about this earthly body and how he's yearning for his heavenly 1.
11:09 He says, for indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven. I mean, even if you have 1 of those days where everything goes right and you're totally satisfied and you think
11:21 to yourself, if I could just hit rewind on this day, every single day, life would be great. That wouldn't be satisfying. In heaven, everything's satisfying all the time, minute by minute,
11:33 hour by hour, day by day. And here in the millennial reign with Christ in the new Jerusalem, in this capital city, there is life and life in his name. You said, how do you know? Because there's the water of life that's
11:45 coming from the throne down the middle of the street. This water that's gonna nourish you and give you life forevermore. It says, and on either side of the river was the tree of life. Remember that tree?
11:57 Remember the tree of life? We saw it all the way back in the book of Genesis. There were 2 trees in the middle of of the garden. 1 was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 1 was the tree of They were told not to
12:06 eat off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When they ate off the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, sin entered in the heart of man and woman, and then they produced offspring that were sinful. But God
12:16 protected them from the tree of life. Isn't God such a good God? Imagine if in their sinful state like we are now, aging and getting old and dying and being separated from God, that he would have allowed them to eat off
12:27 the tree of life and they would have had to endure that forever and ever and ever. But God in his mercy protected it with an angel and a flaming sword so that they couldn't get there. Everyone wonders, where's the tree
12:37 of life? Post flood, we've never seen it. Where's it gonna show up again? It's gonna show up in the new Jerusalem, this tree of life. And what's this tree going to do? This tree is gonna yield its
12:49 fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. This is another reason I think it's talking about the millennium because why would nations need to be healed in the eternal state?
13:00 There's gonna be healing for all the nations as they eat up this tree. Now this tree is perpetually producing fruit. You know, orange trees produce at a certain time and apple trees produce at a certain time, but then at
13:10 other times of the year, it doesn't produce fruit. This tree, every single month, there is a new type of fruit being produced and when it's eaten provides healing, health, life,
13:21 vitality, restoration. No more pills, no more potions, no more promises. Right? Just the healing of the tree of life every single month to provide everything
13:33 that you need to enjoy the fullness of God's presence. Isn't that gonna be awesome? I mean, it's incredible what God is going to provide, this tree, and it's healing for the nations.
13:45 There will no longer be any curse. When mankind sinned, God cursed the ground. It's gonna be hard to toil on the ground and weeds were gonna come up from it. Women
13:57 were going to find hard times in childbearing. Relationships were going to be difficult. Everything in life is going to be hard. There's coming a day where life's not hard anymore.
14:09 The curse is going to be removed. Talking to those of us who are bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, are gonna be in that capital city. Life's gonna be easy straight. Every day is just gonna get better and better and
14:20 better. Every day, we're gonna be healthier and healthier and healthier. Right? I mean, can you even imagine a world that's like that? The curse is removed because we won't have sin in our life. We, as
14:32 the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, will no longer be able to age and die or anything like that. And the throne of God and of the lamb will be in it. That's the new Jerusalem. And his
14:44 bond servants will serve him. We'll serve the Lord face to face. Notice this, verse 4. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. Talk
14:56 about a deeper level of intimacy. I love Brave Church and I love coming here to worship and I love that we have people that love to worship the Lord, not only on our platform, but in our church. People sing here. People
15:07 applaud the Lord here. People raise their hands here. People kneel here. People give homage to our Lord and honor to his name. I love that about this place. The word of God is heralded in this place. People pray in this
15:19 place. I love that the presence of God is in this place, but it won't be anything like what it's gonna be. Because I'll tell you something that's never happened. Jesus Christ has never shown up fully bodily and
15:29 physically to stand right here and say, keep singing. Go ahead. That's gonna happen. That's gonna be there. We're gonna be face to face with him. We talked about how last week in New Jerusalem, he's gonna wipe every tear
15:41 from our eye. It means nothing's going to be wasted on him. He's gonna know every single thing about us because he already does and all those things that hurt us. He's gonna wipe away all of our pain and we're gonna be
15:50 able to worship him right in his presence. And then it says this, he's gonna put his name on our foreheads. Now if you go back to chapter 7 and you remember when God sealed the 144000,
16:02 when you talk about putting the name on our forehead, you're talking about ownership. You're talking about significance. You're talking about belonging. It's deeper intimacy. And I know sometimes we talk about intimacy
16:13 in church, some of the guys start tuning out like, don't want deeper intimacy with God. I don't need to sing more Kumbaya. That's not my thing. Deeper intimacy means this, for us as guys in the heart of us, we wonder, am
16:24 I really worthy? Can I really make a difference? Do I really matter? Do I really count? Deeper intimacy with the Lord in the coming kingdom is, I created you. You belong to me. You're mine. I love you. I have
16:34 significance for your life and I'm here to personally tell you that. I've always felt that way about you. I've always loved you and you've always been created by me and for my service and you matter
16:45 to me a ton. Isn't that awesome? That's what's coming. And regardless of your gender, whether you're male or female, that's what you're gonna sense from the Lord is your significance.
16:58 For women that ask the question, am I valuable? Will anybody care about me? Am I worth loving? Anybody lay down their life for me? Jesus would say, I laid down my life for you. I think you're significant. I think you're
17:09 valuable. I think you always have been. And you were created by me and for me and I love you with an unconditional love. Whether you're a daughter or a son of the king, that's what you're gonna experience with his name
17:19 written on your forehead and him standing in your presence. And then he talks a little more about this city. We talked about it last week in chapter 21 and verse 23, but we hear it again here. And there will no longer
17:31 be any night. And there will you will not have need of the light of a lamp nor of the light of the sun because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever.
17:44 We get to reign with Jesus forever and ever. What's a capital city gonna be like? There's no nighttime. It's a city that never sleeps. I was thinking about this more this week when I was preparing, thinking about the
17:53 majesty and beauty that we talked about last week with the new Jerusalem descending and being like a crystal diamond and gold streets and so much light coming from it and you can see all the way through it and all the
18:05 nations of the world will look on to this huge edifice and say, that's amazing. And then I started thinking, ain't that weird that even if you have walls, there's no place like that you can't be seen?
18:18 Like introverts are probably like, I don't know if I'm going to like that. But you will because think about this, when there's a world where there's no sin, there's nothing that you would ever do in private that you'd be
18:29 ashamed about in public ever. Because everything you do at all the time can be seen by anybody and be appreciated because all you'll know how to do is love God and love other people. Can you imagine a city like that
18:41 with millions or potentially billions of people that are living in it, are all being able to see each other at all times and everybody's cool with that? There's no need for privacy because we're living in the kingdom.
18:52 And we already talked about the millennium. God's gonna recreate the heavens and the earth. There will be a sun, there will be moon, there will be stars, there'll be all those things, but no need for that in the city. No
19:01 need for that there. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Jesus Christ is the lamp. He's gonna light the whole thing up 24 7, 3 65. There's always something going on in New Jerusalem.
19:13 It's gonna be amazing. And I'm here to tell you that God's presence is satisfying. Long for him. Long for him. There's healing and life in his name. And just think about the ways that
19:24 you hurt in this life. Sometimes it's from time to time. Sometimes it's seasonal. Sometimes it's longer. Some of you are dealing right now with severe emotional pain. Some of you with severe physical pain.
19:37 Some of you have mental anguish over things that have happened to you. Can I just tell you there's coming a day where there'll be none of that? I mean, it's all gone. I mean, you'll never have to worry, man, if I go do
19:47 this and I go ride my bike, am I going be sore the next day? It's never going to happen. Never gonna happen. Right? You don't have to go to bed and wonder if you're gonna wake up sore because there's no bed. Nobody
19:57 sleeps. You you're fully complete in Christ. It's totally satisfying. It's the reason why God gives us instructions on this side of heaven for how to enjoy his presence through the proclamation of his word, through the
20:07 reading of his word, through prayer, through worship, through giving, through sharing the gospel, all those different things. And from time to time, we experience him and we see glimpses. Friends, there's coming today
20:16 where all the time, all the time, all the time you experience the presence of God. And if you've ever had 1 of those moments with the Lord, like I know I have, where his presence is so on me that I don't want
20:28 it to end, there's coming a day where it won't. Where he'll just be with you forever and forever. Amen. And there is nothing on your calendar more satisfying than
20:40 that. There's no 1 more satisfying. There's no thing more satisfying. The reasons we on this side of heaven try to look for things that are more satisfying is we're trying to fill a void for the presence of Christ rather
20:50 than seeking his face. And there's blessings God gives to us like marriage and children and jobs and family and all sorts of different things, but they're never to replace the satisfaction
21:02 that comes from seeking the Lord and knowing him. Amen? Get ready because God's presence is satisfying. Long for him. Is it wrong for me to wanna go to heaven? No. Long for it.
21:14 Yearn for him. Look forward to the day. When you pray the Lord's prayer to let your kingdom come. When? Today. Come, Lord Jesus. We want that. God's presence
21:26 is satisfying long for him. Let me give you a second reason. God's word is true. God's word is true. Get ready. God's word is true. Linger with him. Linger with him. Spend time with
21:38 him. Spend time in his word. Notice what he said. Verse 6. And he said to me, these words are faithful and true. But what words? Well, the ones that we're reading, what he's
21:50 talking about, about the new Jerusalem, but what words? Not just the new Jerusalem, but the entire book of Revelation. Not just the entire book of Revelation, but all 66 books. They are all faithful and true. Friends,
22:01 God's word is true. You can bank on it. Isaiah 40 verse 8 says, the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Luke 21 33 says, the heavens and the earth will pass
22:13 away, but my words will never pass away. Linger with Jesus. Linger in his word. Why is his word so important? Because his word reveals who he
22:25 is. 1 of Jesus' biggest problems with the religious leaders in his day, the Pharisees, were that they were diligent in studying scripture. They they they knew their bibles, but they missed the very
22:36 1 that the bible testified about. Jesus said to them in John chapter 5 and verse 39, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me and yet
22:48 you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. Do you know it's possible to study the Bible and to know the Bible and to be acquainted with the Bible and still not have a relationship with God through the
22:58 person of Jesus Christ? Jesus is saying, what a waste of time it is. You study this stuff. Everything in here from Genesis 1 1 through Revelation 22 21 is testifying about who I am, and here I
23:09 am standing right in front of you, and yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I'm the giver of life. That's why we eat off the tree of life. What's what's the tree of life gonna give us? Life, healing,
23:21 vitality, wholeness, everything we want. Where do we get that? It's in Jesus and in nothing else. And friends, his word is true. You wanna experience him in the next life or in this life? Linger in
23:32 his word. Spend time in his word. Even before Israel took the promised land after their 40 year camping trip and Joshua was taking them in. Here's what he says to them.
23:44 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it. That means to linger. That means to memorize. That means to say it over and over again. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be
23:55 careful to do according to all that is written in it. Then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success. How are gonna have success in this life? By being obedient to every single part of God's word.
24:06 You don't get to pick and choose the parts that you wanna pick and choose. Every part of this book is God's word. Every part of this book is enduring. Every part of this book is faithful and true, and God
24:18 wants you to repent and be obedient to every single part of this book. Psalm chapter 19, the psalmist writes about the law of the Lord. Really talking about the word
24:30 or the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord. Listen to what he says. The law of the Lord is perfect. What's the word of God? It's perfect. There's nothing wrong with it. Restoring the soul. The testimony of
24:41 the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure and lightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The
24:52 judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is
25:03 warned, in keeping them there is great reward. Psalm 19 7 through 11. What's it saying? That there's nothing wrong with the word of God, and that you should hunger for the word of God. You should linger in the word of
25:14 God. Meditate on the word of God. Pray the word of God. Study the word of God. Hear the word of God proclaimed. You see, once you realize that everything in the bible is true, you'll approach it differently.
25:26 You'll approach it differently. You'll you'll assure yourself that when God says what he says in Genesis 1 chapter 1 and when he says what he says in the book of Revelation, everything's entirely true. It's true. When
25:38 God said in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. What does that mean? It means that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. When it says that he worked and then there was evening and
25:47 morning and there was 1 day and he does that 6 repetitive times, how many days did it take God to create the universe? 6. I don't need to go to a scientist or a school to have them tell me what
25:59 God's saying because when God says it, it's true whether you believe it or not. And 1 day when you get to heaven, you're gonna see that it is. And if that's true, then the book of Revelation is true. Can I
26:11 just tell you, when people start allegorizing the text and saying, well, he didn't really create it in 6 literal days, a day didn't mean a day, it could have been this, it could have Then he would have said that? Why do
26:21 you get to allegorize that part? Because every time you allegorize, all you're saying is I get to choose what it means. Why do you allegorize the book of Revelation? Because when you allegorize it, you get to say what it
26:30 means. If you just take it in its plain normal sense, God gets to say what it means. And I'm telling you, as long as I'm your pastor until they put me in the ground and I get the privilege of preaching here, I'm gonna
26:41 preach what God says because God wants you to know what he says and he doesn't need a PR agent from the front allegorizing the text and telling you what I think it means.
26:56 I mean, we wouldn't have the problems that we're having if people actually believed it. Mean, you can't get out of Genesis chapter 1 without believing 6 days and 2 genders and 1 race and marriage defined. We're having a
27:08 big problem with that in our culture because many pastors have stood in the pulpit and say, well, that's just allegorical. It's just a story. No. It's the word of God, and it hasn't changed. And
27:22 that's why I praise God for a church like this where I don't apologize for preaching the word. You may not like it. There's things that I wouldn't have made. I wouldn't have made this up. I wouldn't have said this. This
27:30 isn't my thought. This is the eternal God of the universe and I love him and he can say whatever he wants to say, however he wants to say. And I'll tell you this, as a preacher of the word, I'm way more scared about what
27:41 he's gonna say about me than what you think about me. Brave Church, 1 of the ministries of Brave Church is to preach the authority of God's
27:53 word without apology for people that actually wanna hear what God has to say. And by his grace, I hope I will continue to grow in being accurate and faithful to the extent of what the word of God says. And as I've told
28:03 you many times from this pulpit, if I am off and the Bible says something different, you always believe the Bible. Always believe the Bible. I don't have authority. Jesus Christ has all authority. It's his
28:14 word. It's his book. I'm placing myself under his authority. But know this, God's word is true. Linger in it. If this book really is how you can get to know Jesus Christ better and better and how you can
28:26 understand the truth of what's going on in our culture and see it for what it is, the more time you spend in this book, the more time you spend seeking the face of God, the more you'll understand what's going on.
28:37 Friends, it's true. Notice what he continues to say. It's faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his bond servants the things which must soon take place. Take note
28:48 of that. We're gonna talk about that in a minute. Jesus is gonna tell us what's gonna take place soon. And behold, these are Jesus' words, I am coming quickly. Blessed is the 1 who heeds the words of the prophecy of this
28:59 book. If this is allegorical, how can you heed the words of the prophecy when you don't even know what it means? We've been through this book. We know exactly what's coming. God's been crystal clear to us. Certainly,
29:10 there's other things that we'd like to know that God doesn't give us answers, but he gives us enough that we can be prepared for what's coming. John says, I John, am the 1 who heard and saw these things. When I heard and
29:20 saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, do not do that. I'm a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, the prophets and those who heed the words of this
29:32 book. What's he say? Worship God. Worship him. Worship him. I mean, this isn't John's first mistake of trying to worship an angel. I mean, John was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ and was a couple times in the
29:44 book of Revelation prone to wanna worship an angel, how glorious is the fullness of Jesus' majesty going to be? It's gonna be unbelievable. It's gonna be something like we've never seen
29:55 before. And notice what he finally says. And he said to me, verse 10, do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is near. Soon, quickly,
30:07 near. Soon, quickly, near. Don't seal it up. Know this. Know the prophecy is true. Know it's gonna come to pass because everything that Jesus Christ has already said was going to happen, happened in the exact way he
30:18 said. The things that are still future are going to happen in the exact way that he's telling you they're going to happen. You can bank on this book. God is true to his word. God does not lie. I love this
30:30 book. I wish I knew it better. Wish I studied it more. There's a great return on investment for immersing yourself in the word of God and lingering in the word of God and getting to know the person and work of the Lord
30:42 Jesus Christ. I'm here to tell you that God's presence is satisfying. You should long for it. God's word is true. You should linger with him. You should linger with him. And let me give you a third reason that you need
30:52 to get ready. You need to get ready because God's sifting is permanent. God's sifting is permanent. Live for him. God's sifting is permanent. Live for
31:04 him. Now this next verse in Revelation chapter 22 verse 11, you would probably think it doesn't belong in your bible, but it's there and God has a reason for it. It says this, let the 1 who does wrong still do wrong.
31:13 Somebody just said, that's my life first. It shouldn't be. I'm telling you why. And the 1 who is filthy still be filthy. And let the 1 who is righteous still practice
31:25 righteousness and the 1 who is holy still keep himself holy. Why? Behold, I am coming quickly and my reward is with me to render to every man according to what he has done. I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the
31:36 last, the beginning and the end. Who's the 1 giving the authority? The sovereign God of the universe who's always been here and will always be here. Who in his creation as he created everything and he's bringing
31:46 everything to culmination says, I'm authoritatively telling you what is going to happen. I'm the 1 that when I say this is going to happen, it's gonna happen and what's he gonna do? I'm coming quickly and my
31:58 reward is with me. And how am I going to reward people to render to everyone according to what he has done? Well, that's kind of scary because I know my life. How about you? You want to be rewarded for everything you've
32:07 done? I love these verses. Verse 14. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates
32:19 into the city. How do I wash my robe? How do I get it white? There's only 1 way and 1 way only, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. See, the Bible makes clear
32:31 that there is no 1 good, no, not 1. The Bible makes clear there's only 1 righteous, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. And the bible makes clear that when Jesus Christ returns, he's going to separate. There's gonna be a
32:43 sifting from the wicked dead and the righteous dead. If you're born wicked, which all of us are, you need to be made righteous. The only way to be made righteous is through the death,
32:54 burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ who is fully God and fully man who died on the cross for all your sin. When you turn from your sin and turn to Christ, you can have life and have
33:06 it in his name forever and ever. If you know him, you will be spared of any judgment that is to come because God does not pour out his wrath on his children. That will not happen. Which means
33:18 this. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ now and you die, or you know somebody who's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ now and they die, their soul immediately goes to be with Christ because to be absent
33:28 from the body is to be with Christ. If you know someone who has not repented and trusted in Christ, when they breathe their last breath, they immediately go to hell and they wait and wait and wait in hell until the final
33:40 judgment, which we read about at the end of Revelation chapter 20 and verse 15, I believe, where they will experience the great white throne judgment, which at time they'll be trans transmitted from hell with an eternal
33:50 body and go into the lake of fire forever and ever. Amen. Let me just tell you this. God's sifting is real. It's true. Now, some of you will say, well, yeah, pastor Jeff, when I'm old like you, then I'll start thinking
34:01 about things like that. Let me tell you why that's such a horrible idea. Number 1, you may not live to be as old as me. Number 2, you don't know how long you're gonna live. And number 3, every time you hear
34:13 the Lord's voice and you harden your heart, it makes it that much more difficult to hear his voice again. And there is no guarantee in the future that you're gonna hear his voice and respond to him. That's why the Bible
34:23 says today, if you hear the Lord's voice, do not harden your heart. Right? God's sifting is real. Live for him. Live for him. Now we've made clear in this series that God did not create hell
34:35 with any human being in mind. God did not create a life and say, oh, yeah, the unelected, they're going to hell. That never happened. I don't see that in my bible. As a matter of fact, when I read Matthew 25 in verse 41,
34:45 he's gonna say to those on his left, depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for who? The devil and his angels. That's who hell's for. But if you wanna go with them, you can go.
34:58 Because God's holy and he's righteous and he's good and he won't take sinners into his presence. And verse 46 says, these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Eternal hell is just as
35:08 long as eternal life. If somebody's told you an opposite, they're not being biblical. And if somebody's holding a bible while they tell you that, they're a liar. They're a flat out liar. I love you enough that I will
35:19 persuade you. I will proclaim the gospel to you. I can't change you. I can't do anything for you, but I believe that God can. I mean, that's why we see that verse back in verse 11. Hey, let the 1 who's doing
35:31 bad things, let them continue to do bad things. Let the 1 who's filthy continue to be filthy. Their judgments coming. How many of know by show of hands you can't change people? If you didn't raise your hand, that's free
35:42 today. I mean, I'm going save you a lot of time. You can't change anybody. It's hard enough to allow God to change you. You can't even change yourself. You can make some behavioral modifications for a little while,
35:54 but you really can't change your core. Only God can do that. So he's saying, for those that are living evil, just let them do it. It's not our job to save somebody. It's Jesus Christ's job to save somebody. But let
36:06 those of us who are holy, who have been declared righteous by Almighty God, continue to live for him because there is coming a day where Jesus Christ is going to reward all of us for whether we've responded to him by
36:18 faith or whether we've rejected him. It's that simple. And I love you enough and I can't believe that there aren't enough pulpits enough in America that will tell you there's a literal place called heaven and a literal
36:28 place called hell where every single person that dies on a daily base goes to 1 or the other. And once you're there, there's no coming back. There's no oops, I should have known. Oops, I should have listened to my
36:38 pastor. Oops, I wish I would have gone to church more. Oops. There's no oops. You're either with Christ or you're without Christ and that's it. Are you with Christ? Are you with Christ? You say, well, how do I know?
36:51 How do I know? I love God's word. There's there's plenty of scriptures that will tell us that if you've trusted in Jesus Christ that you belong to him and no 1 can snatch you out of his hand, that no 1 can snatch you out
37:01 of the father's hand. Romans 8 tells us that if you've been justified, that you've also been sanctified and glorified. If you if you know the Lord, it's as good as done that you're gonna be in the kingdom. But we get in
37:12 all these debates, you know. Calvinism, Arminianism. Pastor Jeff, are you a Calvinist? Are you Arminian? I'm really neither. I worship the Lord Jesus Christ
37:24 and so did Calvin and Jacob Arminius. So Jesus wasn't Calvinist or Arminian. How many don't even know what I'm talking about? That's good. That's really good actually.Show more
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