The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

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.

THE CHOICE THAT DETERMINES YOUR DESTINY (Revelation 14:4-13)

Chapter 14 of the Book of Revelation is a chapter of contrasts. It contrasts the Lamb and the beast, earth and heaven, and the harvest of the doomed and the harvest of the saved. It contrasts the decisions that determine a person’s eternal destiny. It also contrasts those who follow the Lamb, and those who are bossed by the beast. It is this contrast that we are studying today, and it is from understanding the characteristics of both of these groups that we can learn a great deal from to apply to our lives today. The truth is that while this chapter discusses events in the Tribulation Period, the choice that is described here, is the same choice that man has been faced with since Creation. We must choose to follow Christ, or, willingly or not, we choose to follow Satan, and it is that choice which determines our eternal destiny.

When you die, you are either going to die in the Lord, or out of the Lord. So, the question is, if you died today, would you die in the Lord, or would you die out of the Lord? If you die in the Lord, of course, God says, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. On the other hand, if you die outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, what a curse, what a sorrow, what a tragedy it would be for you. Another question to consider is, if you were to die today, where would you be? In other words, if you get to where you are headed, where will you be? Five minutes from now you may be in heaven, or you may be in hell. These are the questions that we will be asking today as we study the decisions of the living and the destiny of the dead.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the choice that will determine your eternal destiny. Is it Heaven or Hell? We will answer the question of whether Hell is real, or is it symbolic? How long will you stay in Hell? We will also discuss what your loved ones are doing in heaven today.

Amen.

JESUS CHRIST THE ALMIGHTY GOD (Revelation 10:3-11)

The Book of Revelation presents to the world Jesus Christ as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Creator of all things, and the Lord of lords and King of kings. Jesus is the One we worship.

One of these days, sin's clock will be stopped, and the mystery of God will be finished, and delay will be no more. Sin has been on a rampage. Righteousness seems to have suffered. It is now coming to a conclusion. God has given the inhabitants of the earth time for repentance, but time is running out. The clock will strike its last note and sin's clock is about to be stopped. God’s mercy for sin is about to end. The time for repentance will come to an end.

Don't get the idea that you have time before the rapture to turn to God, for that may come at any moment. Don't get the idea that even after the rapture, that God will continue to give you time, even if you've never heard the Gospel before. There is coming a time when time will run out. When God's clock stops, that's it! And if you are not on God's train, you are going to be left.

The Book of Revelation tells us about the majesty, the mastery, and the mystery of Jesus Christ. When I see the majesty of Christ that means Jesus, my Savior is due my total worship. When I see the mastery of His power that means that Jesus my Lord is worthy of my total confidence. He is the one who has everything under control. When I see God’s mysteries are revealed, then God’s mercy ends.

Click on the link below to hear a message on our Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in The Book of Revelation.

Amen.

CAN'T GOD DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT? (Revelation 9:15-21)

I think that we can all agree that evil is certainly growing around us today. In spite of the restraint of the Holy Spirit during the day that we live in, evil is still on the rise. Men murder others. Women even murder their own children, and now we have children who become murderers in their own homes and schools.

Yet, most of all, may God have mercy on the murderers of unborn babies. May God send His Spirit to bring repentance to every man and woman who has participated in this most heinous act against defenseless little babies. People today get upset and wonder where the judgment of God is for the perpetrators of terrorism and mass shootings, but the number of people who die all across the world from terrorism is but a fraction of the murders of babies that occur each year in this country. It is a sin that God will hold this country accountable for. It would be easy to wonder where is God in all of this, and why isn’t He doing anything about it.

Click on the link below to hear a sermon on the Biblical truth that timing is more important to God, than time. God has a plan to deal with all of the evil of this world and in all of creation. That plan is on time. God is never early, and He is never late. Nothing, or no one can stop or change that plan. Not Satan, or all of his demons, for Satan is but a creation, and God is sovereign.

We started this series by asking Doesn’t God know? Doesn’t God care? And if God knows and cares, then why isn’t He doing something about it? God knows, and God cares. It is man that has turned his back on God. That no longer wants to know God. That no longer cares about God.  Yet, we have still have a chance during this age of grace that we live in to turn to God. God loves you. Lay aside your pride. May the mercy of God through His Son bring the saving judgment of eternal life to you today, so you will not be lost in the fires of Judgment for all of eternity.

Amen.