The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

THE FINAL JUDGMENT (Revelation 20:11-13)

The simple truth is that we live in a world full of evil. Evil lives in the heart of man. Evil doesn’t care who it harms, it just wants to harm someone or something. When a young man takes a gun to school and kills other students, that is evil living in the heart of that young man. I don’t care what you believe you are a victim of, there is no rational reason for killing others. It is just plain evil. No law can change the evil that lives in our hearts. Creating a perfect environment to live in cannot change the evil that lives in our hearts. You can make the world a Garden of Eden, and evil will still bubble up out of the heart of man.

There is only one way to change the heart of man, and that is the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Yet, this world rejects the free gift of salvation, and being given a new, godly, nature that the gospel of Christ offers to a lost world. So, evil grows and grows. The world gets darker and darker with sin. It seems that there is no answer to the problem. It seems that evil will eventually win and shut out the light of all that is good.

As believers in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we know that the answer is not to be found in man, but in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus comes again, He will deal with evil of every kind. He will deal with Satan and all of his followers, and He will deal with the evil that resides in the heart of man. A day of judgment is coming, when Christ will deal with the evil of this world, forever.

Today’s message is about that final judgment of the unsaved dead. It is called the Great White Throne Judgment. Satan has persuaded mankind for centuries that there is no future punishment, no final accounting before God. It is a lie that has allowed evil to grow. The Bible tells us over and over again that there is a judgment day coming. There is coming a time when God will put the final period upon the final paragraph, upon the final page, upon the final chapter, upon the final book of human history. This judgement will include every person who has ever lived that rejected God’s free gift of salvation. If during your life on this earth, you said no to the gospel message of Jesus Christ, then you will stand before Christ as your judge at this final judgment.

The time of this final judgment will come and every scheme, every plan, every desire, that men sold their souls for, will turn to rust, and dust, and mold, and corruption. The unsaved dead will be raised from their graves to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ to be judged.

You may make the choice not to be a Christian. You may choose to never give your heart to Jesus Christ, but one day you are going to meet Jesus Christ. Every person who has ever lived has an appointment already set on the calendar to meet Jesus Christ. He is inescapable, and He is unavoidable. You will meet Jesus Christ. If you don't meet Him as Savior, then you will meet Him as Judge. You may have ignored Him, you may have denied Him, you may have disbelieved Him, you may even have cursed Him, but one day you will stand before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the Final Judgment.

Amen.

RESURRECTION AND REBELLION (Revelation 20:5-10)

The title of our message today is Resurrection and Rebellion. In the first part of our message we will talk about the order of the resurrections of the just and unjust. Contrary to what many will tell you, the Bible does not teach of a single resurrection. Instead, it teaches of two resurrections. The first resurrection is for those saints who have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The second resurrection is for those who have rejected Christ as their Savior. Instead of joining Christ in heaven for eternity as the saints will do, these who have rejected Christ, will now stand before Christ as their Judge.

The second part of today’s message is about God’s plan to bring a final resolution to sin on this earth. Jesus Christ is going to come and rule for a thousand years. This will be a literal period of one thousand years when man will live in a perfect society. The animal kingdom will be changed, the mineral kingdom will be changed, and the earth will become a regenerated Garden of Eden. Men will live for a thousand years, they will be but youngsters at the age of 100 years old. Satan will be removed from the scene and cast into the bottomless pit, where he will remain chained until the very end of this one thousand year period, when God will let him loose for a little while.

The people of the earth will have been living in blessing for a thousand years. They will have children during the millennium. The population of the world will grow again. Even though they are living with the Son of God right before them, in blessings, in peace, many of them will reject Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Jesus will rule the nations with a rod of iron. There will be no uprising during that time. There will be no Satan leading in rebellion. But down in the human heart, latent in the human heart, there will still be sin if it has not been washed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is these children, who, after a thousand years, are going to rebel against God when Satan is let loose. God is demonstrating to the world two great principles when He does this.

Number one: Punishment is not the final answer. Satan has been in the prison house doing hard time for one thousand years and he comes back to rebel one more time. Even a thousand years of punishment did not reform Satan. Punishment is not the answer to reform the heart of man.

Number two: Environment is not the final answer. Make your environment as good as you can, but after one thousand years of peace and righteousness down in the human heart this latent sin comes bubbling up. That is the way it is with sin in the human heart. There is only one answer to sin and it is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God will deal with this rebellion and He will deal with Satan, bringing a final resolution to sin. Sin will be no more.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the order of the resurrections and how God deals with rebellion against Jesus Christ.

Amen.

ARMAGEDDON (Revelation 19:12-21)

The Battle of Armageddon is described in the Book of Revelation. It describes a climatic moment in the history of the world. In this battle, our Lord Jesus deals with the forces of evil that have taken over the world. Jesus Christ will deal with Satan, the demons that fell with Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet. But most of all, He will deal with the people of the world who have utterly, angrily, and with full knowledge of what they were doing, rejected God as the one they will worship and obey. In one moment, at one place, Jesus Christ will bring the full wrath and vengeance of God on the evil of this world.

Don’t believe the depiction of this battle that you see in the movies and in secular books. When Jesus comes in power and great glory at the Battle of Armageddon, how is the battle going to be won? Not by guns or weapons, but by the sword that goes out of His mouth. It will be won by the power that is found in the Lord’s voice. The armies who are riding with the Lord are not in battle fatigues carrying arms, they are dressed in white linen, and then the Lord speaks. I think it will be just two simple words that the Lord shouts, “Drop dead.” The One who spoke them into existence will speak them into oblivion.

If there is a lesson for us to be learned from this it is, don't ever be at war with God. I am telling you that the time is coming soon and very soon when 777 will take care of 666, and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ. The saints have prayed through the ages, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Make no mistake about, God’s will, will be done.

Are you at peace with God or are you at war with God? Jesus made peace through the blood of His cross.

Col 1:19-22
19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
21 And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
KJV

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on the final battle, where Jesus Christ comes in power and glory to set right all of the evil injustices of the world. You can be at war with God and suffer the wrath of God, or you can sign a peace treaty with the Prince of Peace. You can be at peace with the Lord, if you will just say yes to Calvary.

Amen.

THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS CHRIST (Revelation 19:11-16)

We need to be looking for the imminent return of our Lord. The suddenness of His coming, shapes much of how we are to live our lives as Christians. It gives us a sense of urgency to reach people for Christ. We are not looking for something to occur. We are looking for Someone to come, and that Someone is our Lord Jesus Christ, and He can come at any moment. Jesus tells us that for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. If you believe He can’t come today because some event has to occur first, then you better buckle up because this is a day when He might come.

Two things are critical that we need to know and understand. First, Jesus Christ is coming suddenly at any moment. Second, the church is not waiting for the tribulation. We are not waiting on any thing. We are not waiting around fearing the coming of the wrath of God. Instead, we are looking for Jesus.

1 Thess 5:9
9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
KJV

The Bible teaches that God will chastise His church, but He does not pour His wrath out on the church. What does that mean to you and me today?

First, We need to learn of His coming. You cannot afford to be ignorant of these things. You need to teach others these things. The world needs to learn. Jesus said over and over, "Be ready, be ready, be ready, be ready, for I am coming again."

Second, We should look for His coming. We are not waiting on some prophecy to be fulfilled. If I thought that we were going through the great tribulation, if I thought the mark of the beast and all of these things had to take place first, I wouldn't be looking for the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of looking up, as the Lord tells us to do, I would be looking around. I would not be waiting for someone to come; I would be waiting for something to happen. But we are to live every day as if Jesus were to come at that very moment.

Third, We are to long for His coming. The last prayer in the Bible is this, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. We should long for the coming of our dear Savior. What a day that will be when I will see Jesus. We need to long for his coming.

Fourth, We need to live for His coming. The Bible says we are to occupy. Jesus said, Occupy till I come. And when he does come, I want to be found faithfully serving Him, and I hope that you do to.

God's people ought to be praying, Even so, come, Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.

GOD JUDGES BABYLON (Revelation 18:8-24)

In the book of Revelation, the term Babylon represents the world’s false religions. It is the cradle and the grave of false, apostate, religions. This false religious system has been around for all of the history of mankind. When Satan tempted Eve in the garden, it was with the promise of becoming like God. That is a false religion, for there is only one, true, Almighty God, the Creator of all things. Over the history of mankind, brick by brick, stone by stone, this false religious system of Babylon has been building up sins against God until they reach toward heaven. In chapter 18 of The Book of Revelation, during the Tribulation Period, God tells us that He is going to judge Babylon.

There will be two basic reactions to the fall of Babylon, and they are completely opposite of each other. There are those who are grieved by it, and there are those who rejoice over it. On the one side, the people of this world who don’t know our Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior are going to be depressed by the destruction of Babylon. On the other side are the ones who rejoice over it. This group includes all of the saints of God and the entire hosts of heaven. God tells this group to rejoice over the destruction of Babylon.

Rev 18:20
20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
KJV

Never let the devil get you to thinking negatively about God, for we are on the winning side. Those in heaven will see God’s righteous judgment on sin and Satan’s system and shout, at last, at last! Hallelujah! It is true that the hearts of the saints of God have been burdened with sorrow and bruised by Satan. Now this sinful system will meet its doom. It will be gone forever. The saints are on the winning side, and that calls for a celebration. I say, let’s start celebrating early.

Hallelujah and Amen.

THE CUP OF BABYLON FILLS (Revelation 18:1-7)

I don’t know about you, but with the state of today’s news media, it is hard to tell the good news from the bad news. But, when you put the news stories in one hand and the Word of God in the other hand and you see that everything is fitting into the sockets of prophecy, what seems to be bad news may, indeed, be good news.

Our lessons over the next couple of weeks are about some news that fit into this category of news that may seem bad, but is really good news. It is about the destruction of the Babylon that is to come during the Tribulation Period, and while all of the death and destruction that will come from this event may seem like it ought to be viewed as bad news, it is truly halleluiah type of news. It is halleluiah news because it means that the cup of God’s wrath regarding Babylon has finally been filled, and the Almighty God is going to deal with the evil of Babylon. He is going to deal with the sin of Babylon, and He is going to deal with the false religion of Babylon. That is worth an amen and a halleluiah. In fact, when it occurs, there will be a full halleluiah chorus in heaven as the saints of God shout praises to the glory of God.

Click on the link below and listen as we discuss the questions of whether the Babylon that is spoken of in chapter 18 of the Book of Revelation is a literal city, or is it symbolic? If is a literal city, then where will it be? There are many good Biblical scholars that split on these questions, but we will lay out what the Bible has to say about it.

Amen.

A BEASTLY BEAST (Revelation 17:10-18)

There is coming, with ever increasing rapidity, a world religion and a world government. As a reborn child of God, you don't belong to this world government; you belong to Jesus Christ. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. You don't belong to the harlot church; you are the bride of Christ. And in these days, though we are not yet in The Tribulation, nor will we be when it does come, coming events cast their shadows ahead of time.

Our loyalty to our Lord and Savior is going to be tested severely, and we will need to double down and remain loyal to the heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. As the body of true believers, we are the bride of Christ. We cannot flirt with false religions. There have been many who have told me that they need to study other religions in order to better defend our faith. I believe that is true for some special warriors, and if you are one of these, then God will provide.

But, for me, and the vast majority of Christians, I believe that there is so much that I do not know about the depths of the Word of God, that I could spend the rest of my life digging into it, learning the Mind of God, and barely scratch the surface. I have made up my mind to spend every moment I can learning more about God, rather than waste a single moment learning about a false religion. I will defend the gospel of God not by my own words, not by using the words of a false religion that I have studied, but by the Word of God.

Luke 21:12-15
12 But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake.
13 And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
14 Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
15 For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
KJV

We are going to be persecuted, and during this persecution, there will come a time for us to give a testimony of our faith. We are to always be ready to defend our faith.

1 Peter 3:15
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
KJV

We are to do this by diligent study of the Word of God.

2 Tim 2:15
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
KJV

And when that time comes for you to give your testimony about the God you serve, to those who persecute you, let God lead you, “Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom.” The Bible says that we are to be true to Jesus. We are to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Any time that we spend studying, or playing with, a false religion is like flirting with a married woman. It is called spiritual iniquity. We are to remain spiritually pure to our Lord Jesus. I challenge you to get a bulldog grip on the truth because there is going to come a time when we will be under great pressure if we dare to say that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And if you are not saved, my best advice to you is to give your heart to Jesus Christ, for the time is coming when you will believe the lie, and not the truth.

Click on the link below to learn how there is coming a beast to dominate the world, as Bible believing Christians we cannot be ignorant of the coming events that are told to us in God’s Word.

Amen.

THE VIAL JUDGMENTS (Revelation 16:1-21)

We have come to the time in our study for the last of the three judgments to be poured out upon the world. We have studied the seal judgments, and we have studied the trumpet judgments. Both were terrible in their own right. Now, it is time for the vial judgments.

The stage for the vial judgments has been set up by events that have occurred in chapter after chapter in this Book of Revelation. The storm clouds have been gathering. We are studying the Tribulation Period in the Book of Revelation. This is a period that occurs after the church has been raptured out to meet the Lord in the air. The church, the body of believers will not be on the earth as this set of judgements take place. The events that we will study today, will likely occur in the last month or so of the seven-year Tribulation Period. The Antichrist will be in full control of the world. His False Prophet will be demanding that everyone shall worship the Antichrist, and take His mark, or face immediate execution. Millions will be saved during the Tribulation period, and as a consequence of their choice to serve Jesus Christ and reject the Antichrist, those same millions will face torture, persecution, and death.

The full wrath of God is about to come upon the earth, and its remaining inhabitants, including the unholy trinity, the devil, the beast, and the false prophet. A world ruined by man, and a world ruled by Satan, has been described for us. Now the time has come for the world to be rescued by God.

As believers, this is the day of the Lord that we have prayed for. The secret of our victory is the wrath of God. Apart from the wrath of God, apart from the righteous judgment of God, there can be no ultimate victory. Sin must be dealt with. This is what victory in Jesus is to look like. The Lord Jesus will deal with the sin of man, and the sin of Satan and his demons.

This is the victory that we praise our Lord for. Our victory comes from three things, the Word of God, the redeeming works of God, and the ensuing wrath of God. We are to celebrate the wrath of God, because it means that we have victory in Jesus Christ.

Amen.

GAINING VICTORY IN JESUS (Revelation 15:3-8)

Let me ask you a question, have you ever considered celebrating the wrath of God?

Chapter 15 of the Book of Revelation talks about the tribulation saints standing in victory on the crystal sea of glass, or the Word of God, and celebrating the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. We can learn three principles about our victory in Jesus Christ from these Tribulation saints, and how to celebrate that victory. We are studying the Tribulations saints and the events that occur during that Tribulation Period, but there is much that we can learn from this set of verses and apply to our lives today.

Have you ever looked at the sin of those around you and asked the question, Where is the wrath of God? Doesn’t God promise to punish sin? Yet, when you look at rape, child abuse, blasphemy, sexual perversion of all kinds, and the horror of terrorism, we are all tempted to ask, Where is God? And where is His wrath?

The answer to the question of where is God? Is, He is on His throne. The answer to the question of where is God’s wrath? John tells us “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name?... for thy judgments are made manifest.” God’s judgements are God’s wrath for sin. John says that God’s judgment, or wrath, is made manifest, or visible, for all to see. One thing the Bible teaches us for certain is that all sin will be punished. Your sin will be punished. My sin will be punished. Every sin, whether it be that of a lost person, or a saved, will be punished. The only question is, who will bear that punishment? Every sin will be either pardoned by Christ, or punished in hell, but it will never be overlooked. Nobody’s sin is ever overlooked. All sin is dealt with.

Don't ever forget that the secret of our victory is the wrath of God. Apart from the wrath of God, apart from the righteous judgment of God, there can be no ultimate victory. Sin must be dealt with. We celebrate the Wrath of God, because we know that God will deal with all sin. God is indeed a loving God, but God is also a just God. God will deal with all sin. As believers, our victory comes from three things, the Word of God, the redeeming works of God, and the righteous wrath of God.

Amen.

GATHERING CLOUDS (Revelation 14:14-15:2)

Without a doubt, I praise the Holy name of God that, during the period that I have been alive on this earth, there may have been wars, there may have been rumors of wars, but there has not been a major world war to endure the tragedy of on a global scale. There was the Vietnam war, the Cold war, Israel’s Six-day war, the battle of Yom Kippur, The Falkland Islands, the Iraq wars, and the war on Terror, just to name a few. Each of these was terrible in its human toll of death and injury. Now, make no mistake about it, when you are a soldier fighting, and your friends are dying around you, it doesn’t matter if the war you are in is called a world war, a police action, a skirmish, or a conflict, it is horrible, it is tragic, and I am glad we have soldiers willing to fight these wars.

But the scale of deaths in a global conflict is staggering. If we look at WWII, just as an example, depending on where you look, they estimate the total deaths due to the conflict as anywhere from 35 million to 96 million people. All of these other wars that I mentioned earlier pale in comparison to the deaths and casualties that occurred during WWII.

Yet, one thing is consistent no matter the size of the conflict, each of these wars had a period at the beginning where the storms clouds of war were gathering. People, rulers, and nations, made decisions that either cast their country into war, or turned toward peace. We have many of those events happening in our world today. North Korea and Iran are two that come to mind. Either of these countries could throw the world into a major war based on the decisions their rulers make.

Chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation tells us of a turning point in Satan’s worldwide empire that will exist during the Tribulation Period. It describes that from this point on in our study, God is going to start intervening in the events of the world until it reaches a point where Satan is defeated, the world is judged, and those who have rejected the gospel message of Christ will be cast into the Lake of Fire with Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet. This chapter tells us that the storm clouds of a truly epic war, unlike anything that mankind has seen before, is about to become a reality. Decisions are being made, and eternal destinies are being decided.

Click on the link below to hear a message about the coming of the Day of the Lord. The storm clouds are gathering as God moves toward judging the evil of the world at the Battle of Armageddon.

Amen.