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Fly Away"
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Revelation Series
Right
with God, or Left Behind?
Rev.
4
[of course, the only way to be 'right' with God is to be born again,
and 'made right' with Him. It's HIS righteousness we need, not for us to be
living right in attempt to achieve heaven.]
We saw the new Left Behind
movie, and I must say it wasn't the failure that most
Hollywood
attempts at Christianity are.
This should be a good conversation starter...make sure you are ready to have
that conversation!
Rev. 1:19
19Write
the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things
which shall be hereafter.
The church [born again believers] has had the center stage until now…as a
matter of fact, the word church appears 19 times in chs. 2 & 3, but
in Rev. 4:1, the church
disappears! And is
not seen again until ch. 19 when we find the church returning with
Christ to earth at the battle of Armageddon!
To use radio language, we would say that in 4:1, the church goes “off the
air”. Why does the church go off
the air in 4:1? I’ll tell you
why, because the church goes “in the air” in 4:1!!
This verse is a picture of the rapture of the church!
We can only imagine that glorious ride!
Are you excited about making that trip?
Are you watching for Him?
Working? Witnessing?
The rapture is the next event on God’s prophetic time table.
It won’t be long…it can’t be!
All the prophecies have been fulfilled.
There is nothing holding back the return of Jesus
Christ, it is imminent, it could happen ANY moment…and
though we do not know the day or the hour, right now, we are closer to the
return of Christ than any humans
have ever been in the history of the world!
You can hear His footsteps approaching.
He’s almost at the door!
He’ll open it and invite His children in!
v. 1 sounds like Paul’s
description in I Thess. 4:
16For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in
Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
We’ve seen enough signs…we need
to start listening for sounds. [trumpet]
Forget the undertaker…I’m looking for the uppertaker!
Look up! Your redemption
draweth nigh!
The world scoffs at these things, just as they did in Noah’s day, but
no one will be laughing on the day when millions, including all young
children, suddenly vanish! [2 cartoons…]
6
Reasons for a Pre-tribulation Rapture:
1.
Not
one time is the church mentioned in a Bible text discussing the
tribulation
2.
In
all the writings of Paul, the church is never mentioned in connection
with the tribulation or wrath to come.
3.
The
church has already been judged at Calvary [purpose of
trib. is judgment!]
4.
The
pictures of Enoch/Lot,
etc. [all Bible types picture pre-trib]
5.
Rev.
19 pictures church in Heaven during the tribulation.
6.
The
coming of Christ for His saints
is always pictured as sudden and unexpected
[imminent]
I want to say that we don’t serve a
half-baked God…yes, he’s a God of love, but also of wrath—“it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God!”)
Aren’t you glad the
rapture precedes the tribulation?!
Right now, God is still striving with
rebellious mankind…
…calling/convicting/convincing/saving
sinners…but there’s coming a day very soon when God’s patience will give way
to God’s wrath…and there will be an avalanche of God’s judgment poured down
upon the world which rejects Christ.
It will be a judgment so terrible, so severe, so beyond
comprehension, that God will not allow His church to go thru it!
I
Thess. 1:10 says we as
God’s children are waiting for Christ’s
return, and that we are not appointed unto wrath!
There’s a feeling in the air that the return of
Christ is very soon.
Why do so many feel that way?
Certainly signs of the times are all around us.
But think of it this way:
Many
people in this room, in their lifetime, have seen mankind harness the atom,
and develop capabilities to destroy the entire earth in less than 30
minutes/Israel established as a nation, and the dispersed Jews return to
Israel by the hundreds of thousands (just as the Bible predicted would
happen just before Christ returns)/Israel has become the hub, the hotbed
of all that goes on in the world/Jews recapture the city of Jerusalem for
the first time in 2000 years, in a war that took only 6 days/computers
change the world…linked together with instant communication/the cashless
society is nearly a done deal/heard of more earthquakes in your lifetime
than the last 500 years put together/technology advance from horses to
airplanes to space shuttles!
If
you are old enough to get a discount at restaurants, then you’ve seen in
your lifetime the divorce rate go from 1 in 8 to what it is today when
divorces outnumber marriages every year/crime rate increase by over
500%/Bible and prayer outlawed in schools/birth of the church of Satan in
1969, and granted tax exempt status by the US government/one-world
government begin to be formed…the new world order/one-world
church…ecumenical movement/unprecedented increases in famines, natural
disasters, incurable diseases like Ebola/there’s an intensity building up,
an expectancy is in the air…
…but
as believers, we need not run around with headline hysteria, we are to
simply look up, for our redemption draweth nigh!
We are to faithfully and patiently wait for our Savior, who will soon
come bursting thru the blue with the sound of a trumpet, in the twinkling of
an eye.
When
the Bible says that, it means in a millisecond, in an instant…therefore,
when the rapture occurs, if you’re not saved, there will not be time to get
saved, it will be too late for you.
If
you are a Christian, and not
living for God, there will be no time to make it right.
Your salvation is secure, but will you be ashamed when He comes?
You won’t be able to ask Him to wait…
Wait, Lord, I want to win a soul for you!
My brother, my father, my spouse, my kids, my friend, neighbor, my
co-worker!
Wait, Lord, I want to obey you and be a tither/got bitterness in my heart
toward someone/looking at porn right now, let me turn it off/(stamp foot)
let me put this out!
The
message of the rapture is “be ready”/do it now, for the Lord could come at
any moment. Be watching…be
ready!
Let’s pretend the rapture just happened, and we were whisked away.
What would happen…what would you see…what would you hear?
v.2
Behold, a throne!
3 things we’ll see upon arrival in Heaven:
1.
The Master on the Throne
V3
jasper and sardine stone=great in glory
Word
translated jasper could mean diamond=radiance, beauty, infinitely pure.
Then there’s the Sardine stone=deep red, symbolizing blood of
Christ
In
the OT, the high priest wore a breastplate…in it were 12 stones,
representing the people of God, the 12 tribes of
Israel.
The 1st and last stones in that breastplate were these 2!
Not
only great in glory, but
great in grace.
Look at end of v. 3: rainbow
After God destroyed the world with a flood, He made a covenant with man, and
put in the sky His symbol of that covenant…the rainbow, a picture of God’s
grace.
Most
rainbows are multi-colored, but this one is emerald green…the color of the
earth. And us earth-dwellers,
raptured away, will realize that once and for all, the storms of life are
over! …in heaven, beholding the
throne we realize, all the storms are over!
“It
will be worth it all, when we see Jesus, life’s trials will seem so small
when we see Christ.
One glimpse of His dear face, all sorrow will erase, so bravely run
the race, ‘til we see Christ!”
Can you see Him on the throne?
Great in glory, great in grace, and:
Great in government
v. 5
What a change! One moment
we’re beholding the rainbow of peace, and the next the lightning’s flashing
and the thunder’s crashing!
Though the
storms are over for us, down below the storms are brewing like never before
as God’s righteous judgment goes forth upon the earth from His mighty
Throne.
Time out!
Where will you be when the rapture occurs?
Will you be witnessing this scene we’re describing in heaven, or will
you be left behind in the storm which originates from His throne?
There’s only the 2 choices:
be raptured away by Jesus, or be left behind by Jesus…and what you do
with Jesus now determines what
He will do with you
then!
We’ve seen
the master on the throne, great in
glory/grace/government…
2.
The multitude before the throne
v. 4
who are these elders?
These are the redeemed, ch. 5 makes it clear.
v. 4 says:
clothed in white raiment=righteousness of Christ
then it mentions the crowns we can win:
Runner’s crown
(imperishable crown in I Cor. 9)
Given to the Christian who
exhibits self-control, temperate in all things
Soulwinner’s crown
(crown of joy) I Thess. 2
Given to those who win souls to Christ
Crown of righteousness
(anticipator’s crown) II Tim. 4
Given to the Christian who faithfully waits, and looks for the coming
of Christ
Crown of life—Js.
1
Given to the Christian who
endures suffering in a noble way (persecuted, suffering)
Crown of glory—I
Peter 5—Minister’s crown, given to a faithful shepherd
These are the 5 crowns we
can win…and what will we do with them?
Parade around with them showing them off for eternity?
What is, “no!”
v. 10-11
Christian, will you have
any crowns to cast at His feet?
We’ve seen
the master on the throne/multitude
before the throne
3.
The majesty surrounding the throne
v. 6-8
Who are these 4 beasts at the foot of the throne?
These 4 beasts represent all of creation praising the Lord.
In Gen. 9,
after God destroyed the earth with flood, and saved Noah and family, He made
a covenant with 4 specific categories of creation:
8And
God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9And I,
behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10And with every living creature that
is with you, of the fowl, of the
cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you;
man/fowl/cattle/beasts of earth
With
that in mind, read Rev. 4:7 again…
Lion—beasts of earth
Calf—cattle
Man—man
Eagle—fowl
God
has made a covenant with all His creation.
Don’t ever get the idea that God is finished with His creation.
Don’t ever get the idea that the devil spoiled it and it’s all over
with His creation. Not only did
God redeem man, but all His creation will be ultimately redeemed.
The Bible says if we don’t praise the Lord, the very rocks would have
to cry out! Rom. 8:19-22 describe creation
groaning for its redemption…when all of creation will bloom like the rose.
Later in Rev. we will see the lion and the lamb lying down together,
and the little toddler will play by the hole of the snake!
And together, all of creation will praise God together, the Creator!
Look
what the 24 elders say when they see the 4 beasts praising God…
v.
11
This world was created by Jesus, for Jesus, sustained thru Jesus,
redeemed by Jesus, and it’s all coming back To Jesus!
We’ve described what we will see there?
But what will it sound like?
For one thing there will be singing…sing v. 11 with me.
There’s another sound we hear in this chapter…v. 8
Let’s imagine the sound of all creation…(chant:
Holy, Holy, Holy continuously)…as it attempts unceasingly to describe
how holy our God is!
What
will happen to you at the rapture?
Will you be right with God, or will you be left behind, preparing for
the storm that will end your life, and begin an eternity separated from God
in hell?
What
you do with Jesus right now, will determine what Jesus will do with you
then! Are you rapture-ready?
1.
Appeal to the unsaved.
2.
Christian,
are you being left behind in this race of life?
If the rapture occurred soon, would you be crying out, “wait!”?
By “right with
God” we don’t mean perfect, but forgiven…your sin has been paid for and you
have accepted the payment. If
not, you’ll be left behind.
Some may be
saved, but not right with God, and that’s different.
You have a relationship with God…He’s your Father, you’re His child,
and your eternity is secure, but you’re not in good fellowship with Him.
You still have a relationship, it’s just a poor relationship, and in
a way you’re being left behind…not experiencing the abundant
life God wills for you.
John 10:10
I am come
that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
You may view
your salvation as more of an eternal thing…a “fire insurance” if you will,
when it’s supposed to be a present possession that gives victory now.
We all want to be saved from hell, but do you really want to be saved
from sin now?
Make sure
you’re Right with God, and not
Left behind!
Click here to
recommend to thousands of pastors.
Right with God, or Left Behind?
Rev. 4
In Rev. 4:1, the church d__________________! I Thess.
4:16-17
6 Reasons for a Pre-tribulation Rapture:
1.
Not one time is the church mentioned in a Bible t______
discussing the tribulation
2.
In all the writings of P______, the church is never
mentioned in connection w/ the tribulation
3.
The church has already been j__________ at Calvary
4.
The pictures of E________/L____
5.
Rev. ____ pictures church in Heaven during the
tribulation
6.
The coming of Christ for
His saints is always pictured as s__________ and unexpected I
Thess. 1:10, v.2
3 things we’ll see
upon arrival in Heaven:
1.
The M__________ on the Throne
v.3
·
Great in
g________
·
Great in
g________ v.3
·
Great
in g__________________
v. 5
2.
The
m________________ before the throne
v. 4
I Cor. 9, I Thess. 2, II Tim. 4,
Js. 1, I Peter 5, v. 10-11
3.
The
m____________ surrounding the throne
v. 6-8
Gen. 9:8-10,
Rom.
8:19-22, v. 11, v. 8
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