The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THERE IS NO PROMISE TOO HARD FOR GOD TO KEEP (Revelation 7:1-8)

We may be the last generation of church age believers that live on this earth. We may very well be the ones who are alive when the rapture occurs, the trumpet sounds, and the Lord comes with a shout to take us home. What a day that will be when we are called to meet our Lord in the air, and so we need to be ready. We need to have our rapture shoes on, but this should not be a call to stick our heads in the clouds of prophecy. Someone once said that way too many Christians are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.

The promises that we are about to read about in chapter seven should not cause us to put heads up in the clouds, but they should cause us to put our feet on the pavement of serving and soul winning. The blessed hope for which we await is not an incentive to rest, but to work. Jesus said that we are to occupy till I come. He didn’t mean for us to take up space, he meant for us to get to work because we know the future. Our occupation is our job, and we need to get busy.

Chapter seven of The Book of Revelation is about making sure we know that God is going to do all that Word of God says He will do. It is about giving us a more sure word of prophecy. It is about giving us assurance that our future is secure. Because, it is when we know that our future is secure, that we can focus with all of our heart on the present job that Christ has assigned each of us as believers. We are here on this earth to work for Jesus.

We each have a task to complete, a role to play, and a job to perform. If this were not true, then Jesus would simply take us to heaven the moment we made Him our Lord and Savior. There would be no reason to keep us here, for we do not work for our salvation, and we cannot lose our salvation by failing to work. So, if the Lord did not have something for us to accomplish that furthered His purposes and plans for this world, then He would just take us up.

God knows the number of souls that must be saved before the day of the Rapture comes and the end of the period of grace occurs. We are tools that the Holy Spirit uses to bring those souls to Christ. We pray for the Holy Spirit’s guidance on where those souls are, and which ones we are to evangelize to, and then we labor to bring them in for the Holy Spirit to do His work. In doing so, we hasten the day of His coming. We learn about our future in eternity by studying the Book of Revelation and the other books of prophecy. In doing so, we learn that our future is secure. With that settled, we can then focus on working to hasten that wonderful day.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on the mighty God that we serve, and the certain knowledge that there is no promise that is too hard for God to keep.

JESUS IS WORTHY OF MY WORSHIP (Revelation 5:6-14)

God has placed into the hands of men the decision as to whether or not they will accept Christ as Savior, but the decision as to whether or not they will acknowledge Him as Lord is not theirs to decide. The supreme tragedy of a lost eternity will be to know that there, shut out from the glory of heaven, sentenced to spend eternity in the burning fires of hell, all those who rejected Him as Savior, will still have to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord.

He will be praised at the center of heaven by the sinless sons of light and by the redeemed of all ages with joy unspeakable and full of glory. And He will be praised from the depths of the lake of fire by every damned and outcast soul with sobs and tears and choking cries.

Isa 45:23
23 I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.
KJV

Click the link to hear a sermon on how Jesus Christ is exclusively worthy of our worship. There is none other. He is exceedingly worthy because of Calvary, because of creation, and because of conquest. He is eternally worthy forever and ever.

GOD'S THRONE, GOD'S JUDGMENT (Revelation 4:3-11)

The last couple of weeks, our emphasis has been on the rapture, and what a wonderful event that will be for those of us who are prepared for the coming of our Lord Jesus. With the beginning of chapter 4, we turn the page from the things which are, meaning the church age, to those things that are to come. The thing that is most prominent in the rest of this book, is the judgment of God. God has said that vengeance, or judgment, is His, and we are about to study a whole series of judgments where God will judge all of humanity that has lived from the creation of Adam and Eve to the last born person before the consummation of all things. God will judge the earth, and all of His creation. He will judge Satan, and all of the fallen angels, the antichrist, the false prophet, and all of the demons of Satan. He will judge both the saved and the lost of humanity. No one, and no thing, will escape the coming judgment. God’s judgment is real and it is coming soon.

Heb 10:30
30 For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
KJV

In chapter four of the Book of Revelation, the Lord is setting the stage for the multiple judgments that are coming, and the very symbol of God’s judgment, is God’s throne.

Click on this link to hear a sermon on the throne of God and how His judgments will be viewed by all who kneel before Him.

A ROAD MAP OF THE END TIMES (Revelation 1:19)

Many people ask if there is a key to understanding the Book of Revelation? The answer is yes! God’s purpose is not to conceal, but to reveal. This golden key is hanging right on the front door in verse 19 of the first chapter of Revelation. It is John’s commission to write the Book of Revelation. In fact, John got his commission from the Trinity Book Publishing company. Jesus Christ, one of the three partners in the Trinity Book Publishing company, tells John,

Rev 1:19
19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;
KJV

Now, contrary to what some will tell you, the Book of Revelation is primarily a prophetic book. It tells us about the things which shall be hereafter, it is not a history book. Revelation is a book of prophecy, and only God knows the future. God alone can prophecy what will occur in the future. Satan cannot prophecy at all.

Today, I want to give us a panoramic view of the prophecy we find in this book so we can use it as a guide to what we are seeing in these prophecies. I am not going to go into them deeply, because we will be doing that over the next several months, years, or however long it takes us to get through this wonderful book of prophecy. But I do want you to have a roadmap to work from in our study.

Click the link to hear a podcast on the major branches of prophecy that will occur in the future. Jesus Christ is coming to judge the world, and God wants you to know what is going to happen so you can be ready.

THE JESUS WHO STANDS BEFORE US TODAY (Revelation 1:14-18)

We talked last week about a few things we could surmise about what Jesus looked like the first time He came, and compared that to the one portrayed in the paintings that we see, pictures, movies, and books today. The best example of this image is found in the painting of the last supper by Leonardo Da Vinci, showing Jesus with long hair, long white robes, and gentle in nature. If there is a picture of Jesus hanging in the church, it will be of this Jesus, the one man created because the Bible does not give us a clear description of what Jesus looked like the first time He came. Certainly, this is the image that people have in their minds when they think of Jesus today. When they use the name of Jesus in vain, this in the Jesus they are thinking of. When they declare that Jesus was nothing more than a good man, a prophet, or a teacher, this is the Jesus that they are thinking of. This is a Jesus that you can choose to ignore, or to reject, make fun of, or even deny that He ever existed, because there is nothing intimidating about Him.

However, even if this movie image of Jesus was correct, and I don’t believe it is, it was what Jesus looked like before the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of our Lord. The Jesus that stands in heaven today as the High Priest in the Holy Tabernacle of God, does not look anything like that Jesus. That Jesus was approachable, almost indistinguishable from everyone else. He looked like a common man, with nothing desirable about His appearance to draw our attention to Him. The one that stands before us today, retains the humanity of that Jesus, He has the scars of the nails in His Hands, but everything else about Him speaks of His deity, His glory, and His almighty power as the Creator of all things. The Jesus that stands before us today, is in the full glory of God. There is nothing meek or gentle in His nature or appearance, and when the world sees Him as He is, they will fall to their knees in worship and awe. No one will deny that this Jesus exists, nor will they ignore Him, or curse Him.

Click on the link and learn about the Jesus that stands before John as he hears a voice that sounded like a trumpet, and he turned and saw a vision of the resurrected, risen, glorified, Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Jesus who stands before us today.

JUDGMENT IS COMING (2 Peter 3:7-9)

Jesus Christ is coming again, and when He arrives the time of judgment will begin. The Great White Throne of Judgment will deal with all who have rejected Christ. Satan and all of his antichrists, false prophets, apostates, demons, fallen angels, and followers, will be cast into the lake of fire. A new heaven and a new earth will be created, and Christ will reign in power for all of eternity. This is the promise that the Bible has given us as believers. The whole purpose of the Gospel message of Christ is so that man can avoid this judgment and live with Christ in the new heavens and on the new earth for eternity. God’s plan of salvation for the corrupted human race has been planned by a loving God from the foundation of the world.

Rev 13:8
8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
KJV

God knew that we would reject Him and His Son, but He loved us anyway.

1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us
KJV

God loved us so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross for the sins of the world.

John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
KJV

Christ has done all of the work of salvation for us, all we have to do to have everlasting life with Christ is accept His free gift of redemption. Yet, there are those who still reject this gift. They deny these truths, and they claim that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God. He was a good man, a teacher, and a prophet, but He was not the Son of God. The apostate rejects Christ, and claims that he cannot find Christ. They shout, where is He?

The apostate cannot find Christ for the same reason that a thief cannot find a policeman. Because he doesn’t want to find Him.

The only hope of the salvation of any soul rests in the patience, longsuffering, and self-control of God. God is long–suffering; He is patient; He is not rushing things. After all, He has eternity behind Him and eternity ahead of Him. But this almighty, merciful, and patient, God has promised that the final judgment, the dissolution of the earth and the heavens, is coming. God cannot lie. The day of judgment is coming.

In the meantime, He is giving men everywhere a further opportunity to repent and accept His gift of grace. This is the reason you and I need to get the Word of God out. It is the only thing that can change hearts and lives. It is by the Word of God that man is born again:

1 Peter 1:23
23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
KJV

It is not God’s will that you should perish. God does not want you to come into judgment; He wants you to pass from death unto life. And you can do that—you can turn to Him and receive the wonderful salvation that He has for you.

Did you know that you cannot keep God from loving you? You can reject His love, but you cannot keep Him from loving you. Neither can you keep it from raining, but you can raise an umbrella to keep the rain from falling on you. Also, you can raise the umbrella of indifference, or the umbrella of sin, or the umbrella of rebellion, so that you won’t experience God’s love, but you cannot keep Him from loving you.

My friend, you can slap God in the face; you can turn your back on Him; you can blaspheme Him, and you can shake your fist in defiance at Him, but you cannot keep Him from wanting to save you. You cannot keep Him from loving you, for He provided a Savior, His own Son, to die in your place. The Lord Jesus will save you if you will receive the free gift of salvation that He offers. My friend, things are not going to continue as they are now. It is coming to an end, and judgment will come. You and I are living in a world which is moving toward judgment.

We tend to think in terms of “balance scale” justice. God thinks in terms of mercy. He wants everyone to accept His gracious forgiveness so as not to pay the ultimate penalty for sin. Especially since it has already been paid for them! Listen to this podcast to learn of the promise of God that a day of judgment is coming for all who reject Christ.

MORE SURE THAN THAT (2 Peter 1:19-21)

For most things, if we want to know that something is really true, or actually real, we want to see it, touch it, hold it in our hands, shake it around, and simply check it out for ourselves. I am not likely to buy something sight unseen, just because somebody tells me about it.

Important events in our lives are easier to accept if we are able to physically be there, or see them happen. For example, if you told me one of my family members had been seriously hurt, my first reaction would be to immediately go to them so that I could see for myself how they were. When a major tornado hit Wichita, it happened on the other side of town from where I live. I could hear about the destruction on the news. I could see it in the video coverage, and read about it in the newspaper. However, nothing brought home the real amount of damage the tornado caused until I went to see the damage personally. Seeing whole neighborhoods completely flattened made the storm more than just another news story that we hear about every day, it made it real.

This is how many people feel about Christ and the gospel message of salvation. They hear that Jesus Christ was real and that He is the Son of God, and they say, show me. They hear that there is life beyond the grave and they say, show me. They hear that heaven and hell are real and that you will spend eternity in one of them, and they say, show me. They say if you want me to believe that God exists, show me.

God certainly knows that this is true about us, and so He designed a world that no man could possibly create, and no amount of science could explain, no matter how hard they try. He did this so that man would know that an all powerful Creator existed. God made man so intricate in the mechanical and biological portions of his body, that man would know that he was created, and could not possibly have come into existence by accident. Yet, knowing a Creator existed, and that we were the product of that Creator’s work was not enough to allow a holy God to forgive all of the sin that exists in the world. We needed a loving God to provide a path to our salvation from an eternity in hell without God, to an eternity in heaven with God. We needed a Savior, and so God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross that man might find salvation in His Creator.

And so Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, came to this earth to live as a Man, God incarnate in man, fully God and fully man. He did great miracles as signs to show mankind who He truly was. He healed the sick by the thousands. He made the lame walk. He raised the dead, and He fed thousands using the contents of a lunch box from a small boy. Jesus Christ came knowing that He would be rejected, knowing that He would be beaten and mangled, and knowing that He would be crucified and suffer a horrible death. He did this because He knew that it was only His sacrifice and His precious blood that would allow the terrible sins of man to be forgiven by a righteous God. The blood of animals would never be enough. The blood of mortal man would never be enough. It had to be the precious blood of the Son of God that would wash the sin away in the eyes of God.

God, then raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus walked around in His resurrected body for 40 days and he was seen by hundreds of people. People touched Him, felt of Him, put their fingers through the holes in His hands, and ate with Him. People believed because they had seen Him do those miracles, and they had seen Him die and then rise again. They saw Him, they felt Him, and they touched Him. He was real, all those things really happened, and so they believed.

Yet, all those things happened two thousand years ago. Today, people say they would also like to believe, if only they could see those things as well. If they could see Jesus Christ perform miracles, then maybe they would believe that He was truly the Son of God. If they could see Him in His resurrected form, then they would believe that there was life after death, and they would accept the gospel message of salvation. If only, they could see Him, feel Him, and shake Him around a little just to make sure He was real, then they would believe.

Yet, even if God did do this, we know that many would still reject Christ. Christ was seen by many thousands of people, and still He was crucified. So, seeing is not always enough. Sometimes we need something more. Our memories are faulty, that is why we take pictures and videos of our lives, because we forget. We remember how we want to remember things.

God knew this about us. He knew that seeing, touching, and shaking was not enough. People who did not want to believe would corrupt those memories handed down by oral tradition. He knew these things and so He gave us something more sure than that. He gave us His more sure word of prophecy.

Listen to this podcast to learn how God gave us His written Word, and how we can depend on it to live our lives in His will.

GOD'S GLORY AND GOD'S GRACE (1 Peter 5:10-14)

God’s glory.  God’s true glory is beyond our ability to even conceive of.  Yet, we were given a glimpse of this glory in the person of Jesus Christ, who stepped out of heaven, and for a brief time made Himself a little lower than the angels, just so that we might have our sins forgiven.  Is this the quality of God that you cherish the most?

John 1:14

14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

KJV

Heb 2:9

9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

KJV

God’s grace.

Eph 2:4-8

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

KJV

For me it is God’s grace that I cherish the most, for it is by God’s grace that I am saved.  It is by God’s grace that I can live the victorious Christian life against all evil.  It is by God’s grace that I have anything that I have, for I deserve nothing but judgment, but it is God’s grace that allows me to call the almighty God, Abba, Father. 

It is by God’s grace that believers can live a victorious Christian life no matter what the circumstances, terror, or adversary, that we face.  Peter describes our Lord as the God of all grace.  In other words, God has absolutely total control and ownership of this amazing resource.  He has a limitless supply available at all times.  Now this is a concept about God’s grace you may not have thought of before, God has total control and ownership of this quality.  There is none other with this quality.  

God's grace provides strength enough for every situation.  Grace for living and grace for dying, grace to deal with the penalty of sin and grace to overcome the power of sin, grace to face persecution and grace to forgive the persecutor, grace to see us through and grace to get us home. 

God's grace guarantees us a share in God's eternal glory.  God's grace is sufficient to translate that into a living reality in our lives. Satan cannot win.  God's grace cannot fail, and it is ours because of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Let Satan roar and prowl all he wants.  Neither Satan, nor ten thousand Nero’s, nor the prospect of a horrible death, nor anything else can stop God's grace in Christ from getting us home.

Rom 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

KJV

This is the power of God’s grace.  It is supremely sufficient for all of our needs, and it is the quality about God that I cherish the most.   

Listen to this podcast as we learn about God’s grace and God’s glory.

OUR EXAMPLE IS CHRIST (1 Peter 2:19-21)

How many people do you know that would suffer gruesome torture and death for you?  I would suspect not many, if there was anyone at all.  Yet, Christ suffered for us, and the truth is that we don’t even really understand the magnitude of the suffering Christ endured for each of us and for mankind in general.

When we think of Christ, it is generally after He came to live among us.  We think of the baby Jesus, the man Jesus, the miracle worker Jesus, the teacher Jesus, and the Jesus that died on the cross, who was buried and rose again.  We think of Jesus as we see Him portrayed in movies and TV, as a Man.  As believers, we also think of Him in His risen and resurrected glory.  This is the Jesus we normally think of.  But that is a very limited view of our Lord.  Jesus Christ was much more than that.  

I love the description that John Phillips gives of who the Lord Jesus really is.  I am paraphrasing here, but he says that the Bible gives us a picture of who the Lord Jesus was way back before time ever began, dwelling in a light unapproachable and living in perfect harmony with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit in unimaginable glory.  He was uncreated, self-existing, coeternal, coequal, and coexistent with the Father and the Spirit.  He was, and is, God the Son, the second person of the triune Godhead. His wisdom was infinite, His love fathomless, and His power without measure or end.  His nature and attributes were those of the living God.  He basked in the sunshine of the Father's love in endless delight.  Eternal ages rolled by without end.  All was love, joy, and peace, beyond all imagination or thought. And then, in the council chambers of eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit agreed that They would act in creation.  The Son was the active agent. 

Col 1:16

16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

KJV

All things were created by Him.  John tells us the same thing.  

John 1:1-3

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

KJV

The Son put forth His wisdom and His power, and hosts of angels appeared, rank upon rank.  Galaxies of stars sprang into being and filled space with billions of centers of light.  Planet Earth, a bright blue sphere in the Milky Way, was chosen to be the home of man. Life, in a countless variety of forms, appeared at His command.  Man was created and became another exhibit of the Son’s wisdom and power.

This is the One who willingly chose to step down from His throne in heaven and come to earth as God incarnate in man in order to suffer for us because sin raised its head in the universe and was transplanted to Earth.  Adam fell.  Sin entered, and death by sin.  Now the Creator must become the Christ.  Prophet after prophet arose to foretell the coming of a Kinsman-Redeemer, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.

So God's Son became the Seed of the woman, the Seed of Abraham, the Seed of David.  He was to be the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  He was the Child born and the Son given.  He was called the Wonderful Counselor, the Father of eternity, the Mighty God, the Prince of peace.

He was born of a virgin in Bethlehem, the Lord's Anointed, Prophet, Priest, and King.  Page after page of the Old Testament told the story.  Book after book was written, all about Him.  Detail added to detail increased the wonder of it all.  He stood apart from all others, robed in majesty, the altogether lovely One, and the chiefest among ten thousand, the One who suffered for us.

Peter saw it happen.  He was an eyewitness of much of it.  The suffering began when Jesus was but eight days old.  He was circumcised.  It was His first personal experience of pain.  He grew up.  He began His ministry.  He suffered at the hands of the people He had come to save.  He knew loneliness, rejection, and malicious hatred.  His family disbelieved His claims.  His disciples let Him down.  Peter himself denied Him with oaths and curses, and Judas sold Him for a pocketful of change. 

He wept His heart out in Gethsemane.  He was falsely accused, beaten, and abused by His own people, then He was mocked, scourged, and crucified by the soldiers of Rome. He endured the torments of death on a cross. Finally, He was made sin for us and abandoned by God.

Peter says, Leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.  As believers we are the apprentice and Christ is the Master Carpenter.  He is our example of how to live the life of a victorious Christian.  He is our example of how we are to react to suffering, living in a moment-by-moment cooperation with the indwelling Spirit of God.

TO BE ELECTED BY GOD (1 Peter 1:1b to 2a)

The Bible emphatically teaches the doctrine of election, and this is a doctrine that has caused endless debates and disputes throughout the ages.  People will either go off the deep end into hyper-Calvinism with this doctrine, or they avoid it like the plague because they don’t understand it.  When it really is quite simple to understand.  Man complicates it by assuming that God cannot know anything that man does not know.  That really is the heart of the problem for man in understanding this doctrine.  

However, the truth is that man’s mind is limited, and God’s mind is unlimited.  Man’s capacity to know things is finite, and God’s knowledge is infinite.  Man’s knowledge is bounded by the constraints of time, it encompasses what has happened in the past and what is happening right now.  Man can only guess at the future.  

God created the concept of time so His knowledge is unconstrained by time.  He knows all things from before time began until well past the day when eternity makes time irrelevant, and He knows it all at the same time.  God cannot learn anything, since by definition He already knows it all.  

In today’s lesson, Peter gives us his own inspired insight into the subject.  He bluntly declares that our election is based on God’s foreknowledge.  Without hesitation, or qualification, Peter says that God has elected a certain company to become members of the royal family of heaven.  However, God does this and never violates our own volition, or our own right to choose.  God woos, He does not ravage.  He does not endow His creations with wills of their own, with the power of choice and personal accountability for their behavior, and then act as though they had no such thing.  

God’s election of certain members of the human family to become members of the royal family takes into account the response of each individual when confronted by the Holy Spirit with the offer of salvation.  While this may sound difficult to understand, the simple truth of it is that if you want to be a part of the elect of God, then choose Christ when the Holy Spirit presents salvation to you.  

Salvation boils down to one question, will you accept or reject Jesus Christ as your Lord and Master.  

If you say yes, then you will become part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity in heaven with Christ.  

If you say no, then you will not be part of the elect of God, and you will spend eternity burning in the fires of Hell, forever without the light of God.  

Listen to this powerful Biblical doctrine of God’s foreknowledge and how it can bless you because God knows who you are, where you are, what you are going through, and He has a plan for you.  If you are believer, then God will empower you to deal with any persecution or trial that you may be going through.  He knew about this before it ever occurred and He has prepared you for it, and He is with you every step of the way.