{"id":19010,"date":"2019-11-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-061-focus-on-jesus\/"},"modified":"2019-11-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T06:00:00","slug":"revelation-061-focus-on-jesus","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-061-focus-on-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 061 – Focus on Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19010","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 061 - Focus on Jesus","sermon_date":"20191124","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7316,"sermon_slides":7319,"sermon_mp3":7321,"sermon_id":"1124191258537213","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"19:7-10","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nFocus on Jesus\u00a0 Revelation 19:7\n\nLesson 61\n\nGood morning everybody, a happy almost Thanksgiving to you.\u00a0 I was thinking of the rapture is going to happen this Friday [laughter] the Lord has to kind of work harder getting us off the earth [laughter].\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s going to happen this Friday, it\u2019s a what if thing.\u00a0 Those are the weird things I spend my time thinking about.\n\nWe\u2019re in this morning the Book of Revelation, chapter 19 and verse 7, as the title of our message this morning is as follows: Focus on Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus, of course, is the whole point of history and it\u2019s easy, very easy for us to get our eyes off of Christ onto other things, even in the church world we do that so easily and as we\u2019re going to see from our passage today so inappropriately.\n\nWe are at that point in the Book of Revelation where that seventh bowl judgment, that final judgment has been poured out upon the earth.\u00a0 One of the things that happens, as you well know by this point, is the destruction of Babylon and so we went into sort of a long parenthetical break in the chronology as an angel was explaining to John all about Babylon, past, present and future.\u00a0 And now that that long parenthetical break in the chronology is over we\u2019re finished, as I like to say, babbling on about Babylon.\u00a0 It must have been seven, eight nine sermons, something like that, on the subject of Babylon.\u00a0 And so the whole discussion of Babylon we leave behind, we saw Babylon the city religiously, chapter 17, Babylon, the same city commercially, chapter 18, and last week we saw really a party in heaven as heaven itself, while earth was mourning, heaven itself was applauding and praising the Lord for the final destruction of that city, because now there\u2019s nothing left to impede the coming of the kingdom to the earth.\u00a0 Satan\u2019s kingdom has been toppled!\n\nAnd so this morning we come to chapter 19, beginning at verse 7 where we are now at the very end of that tribulation period.\u00a0 What is going to happen as the tribulation period is reaching its venous or its climax now that the judgments have already been poured out upon the earth.\u00a0 So we can divide Revelation 19, the rest of the chapter, as follows: Number one, there\u2019s a supper in your future, the marriage supper of the Lamb, verses 7-9.\n\n[Revelation 19:7-9, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.\u201d[8] \u00a0<\/sup>It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and<\/em> clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. [9] \u00a0<\/sup>Then he said to me, \u201cWrite, \u2018Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.\u2019\u201d And he said to me, \u201cThese are true words of God.\u201d]\n\nNumber two, verse 10,\u00a0 you\u2019ll see John responding to the revelation.\u00a0 And then number three we\u2019re going to see actually the second advent of Jesus Christ, verses 11-16.\u00a0 And then there\u2019s a terrible supper that happens, it\u2019s called the supper of God, verses 17-18, and finally the chapter is going to end, verses 19-21 with Jesus returning, and finally incarcerating the beast and his armies and the false prophet.\u00a0 Now don\u2019t panic, we won\u2019t get to all that today But at least you can see the broad strokes of what\u2019s happening here in Revelation 19 as the tribulation period is now reaching its conclusion.\n\nNotice first of all the supper that\u2019s in our future, something called the marriage supper of the Lamb.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Revelation 19:7.\u00a0 It says, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage supper of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.\u201d \u00a0I love hos this verse begins with \u201crejoice and be glad.\u201d\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of a better time on our calendar to implement those commands than this week as we\u2019re gathering as families and friends in our own individual homes and so forth, celebrating really what our pilgrims celebrated, the good hand of God upon us and the many things that he has given us materially in terms of liberty, economics and even if people around the world don\u2019t experience those things by trusting in Christ they are given every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.\u00a0 And so there\u2019s a lot to be thankful for\u2026 AMEN!\n\nYou know, there\u2019s a lot of Christians out there and they think they get extra brownie points from God by being miserable.\u00a0 They think miserable is somehow spiritual.\u00a0 But you don\u2019t find that at all in the Bible and in fact, this is of course not to make light of suffering that people through, but the Christian is always to be a person of being on beat, being optimistic, being joyful.\u00a0 In fact, that\u2019s what this week coming up is all about, and in fact if I\u2019m reading my Bible correctly the people that are miserable are the religious people, the Pharisees.\u00a0 Jesus said in Matthew 6:16, \u201cWhenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do<\/em>, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. [Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.\u201d]\u00a0 Now there\u2019s nothing wrong with fasting but this week we\u2019ll be doing some feasting.\u00a0 And Paul did say buffet your body, I might translate that differently, not fail your body this week.\n\nJesus continues and he says, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, they have their reward in full.\u201d\u00a0 You know, there\u2019s nothing spiritual about being unhappy, being miserable because we have Jesus inside of us; we have the Prince of Peace living in us and we know exactly how history is going to end.\u00a0 So many people are distraught by the world, distraught by circumstances.\u00a0 I know we all go through very heavy circumstances but our attitude should be an attitude of gratitude constantly.\u00a0 We should be sort of like a magnet that draws the world to ourselves not through our religiosity and unhappiness but because we have something that the world can\u2019t figure out why we have it.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the joy of the Lord.\n\nAnd you see that there in verse 7, \u201cRejoice and be glad,\u201d and it goes on there in verse 7 and it says, \u201cgive Him the glory.\u201d\u00a0 Who does the glory really belong to?\u00a0 It belongs to God.\u00a0 In fact, Isaiah 42:8 tells us very clearly that God will not share his glory with another.\u00a0 [Isaiah 42:8, \u201cI am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.\u201d]\u00a0 In Daniel 5:23 concerning a man named Belshazzar who God was about to judge, God said this through Daniel in Daniel 5:23, \u201c\u2026But the God in whose hand are your life-breath and all your ways, you have not glorified.\u201d\u00a0 Think how many people there are on this planet that have lived out their whole life expectancy and they\u2019ve just acted as if God doesn\u2019t exist, not under\u00adstanding that their very life (as the passage says) and their very breath, and their very ways are in God\u2019s hand and yet they will not give God the glory He deserves.\n\nSo as these events unfold we have specific commands there in verse 7 about rejoicing and being glad and giving Him the glory.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s something in our future called the marriage of the Lamb, in this case it\u2019s the marriage supper of the Lamb.\u00a0 He says here \u201cthe bride has made herself ready.\u201d\u00a0 Now we know who the bride is, the bride is us!\u00a0 The bride is the church, Jesus analogizes the relationship that He has with the church to groom and bride now to become husband and wife, Ephesians 5:22-33.\u00a0 [Ephesians 5:22-33, \u201cWives, be subject<\/em> to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23]\u00a0<\/sup>For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being<\/em> the Savior of the body.\u201d]\n\nAnd so if you want to see what\u2019s directly in your future as the bride of Christ\u00a0 you would spend some time looking at not just verse 7 but verses 8 and\u00a0 9.\u00a0 Verses 8 and 9 are the culmination of two powerful prophetic realities that are about to become yours.\u00a0 The first is something called the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 According to our understanding of the end times there will be a rapture, we will be taken into heaven, taken into the Father\u2019s house for seven years, that\u2019s the event that concludes the church\u2019s earthly program\u00a0 and then we will return with Christ at the end of that seven years.\u00a0 We have been in heaven with Him for seven years and we return with Him at the end of the seven year period.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s being described here, where will rule and reign alongside of Him under His delegated authority.\u00a0 That is our future.\u00a0\u00a0 So we go up, we\u2019re there in the Father\u2019s house for seven years and then we come right back down.\n\nBut what happens during that seven year time period as the tribulation judgments are being poured out on the earth?\u00a0 What is our future?\u00a0 We\u2019ve been taught many times that we are not appointed unto wrath but we will not be here during this time period so what are we going to be doing exactly.\u00a0 Seven years is a long time, there must be some sort of teacher for us and you see it spelled out here, the end process of it, of something called the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 During this seven year time period we will be exposed to an evaluation.\u00a0 This evaluation is not to judge sin, sin has already been paid for by Christ and the fact that we are relying or trusting in Him means that our sin debt is no longer held against us.\u00a0 John 19:30, Jesus said \u201cIt is\u201d what? \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\n\nThis particular evaluation that I\u2019m speaking of here is not to determine salvation, salvation is yours the moment you trust Christ, John 5:24.\u00a0 [John 5:24, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.\u201d]\u00a0 The evaluation that\u2019s spoken of here and it\u2019s largely mostly developed by the Apostle Paul is a judgment not to punish sin or to determine salvation, but it\u2019s rather to give or not give rewards.\n\nAll Christians will be in heaven but not all Christians apparently will be equally rewarded in heaven.\u00a0 Paul and other New Testament writers talks about five crowns either given or not given to individual Christians, based on what?\u00a0 Based on how they allowed the Lord to express Himself through them right now, during their earthly pilgrimage.\u00a0 You have the incorruptible crown given to the believer that gains mastery over the flesh, the crown of rejoicing given to the soul winner, the crown of righteousness for the believer that endures trials, and the crown of glory to the believer that faithfully shepherds God\u2019s people, and the crown of righteousness simply for longing for the appearing of Jesus.\u00a0 God apparently is in the rewarding business.\n\nWhen is this judgment going to take place?\u00a0 We\u2019ve had in depth teaching on this so I won\u2019t go into it in depth but just by way of summary it takes place after the rapture.\u00a0 Where?\u00a0 In heaven!\u00a0 Who? All church age believers.\u00a0 Why? To give or not give rewards.\u00a0 What\u2019s it analogized to?\u00a0 An athletic contest of stewardship and a building.\u00a0 And how are we going to be judged?\u00a0 Individually as stewards of what God has given us.\u00a0 What was our motive for service?\u00a0 And beyond that as we serve the Lord what do we rely on for our power?\u00a0 Is it just an exercise in the flesh or did I really allow the Lord to express His grace through me as I drew from His resources and not my own.\u00a0 All of that comes out interestingly enough, at this Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\u00a0 And consequently the church that has been with the Lord in heaven for seven years has been rewarded because it talks here not about the transferred righteousness of Jesus Christ; what it talks about is the fine linen represents the righteous acts of the saints.\u00a0 In other words, the Bema Seat Judgment has already past, it\u2019s already taken place.\u00a0 This is what was happening in heaven what we read about in the Book of Revelation, the judgments that were being poured out upon the earth.\n
    \n \t
  1. Dwight Pentecost, in his wonderful book, Things To Come<\/em>, says this of Revelation 19:8, \u201cWhen the Lord returns to the earth with His bride to reign\u201d and by the way, that\u2019s your future, to reign in the millennial kingdom. \u201cWhen the Lord returns to the earth with His bride to reign the bride is seen as already rewarded. This is observed in Revelation 19:8\u201d the verse we just read, \u201cwhere it must be observed that the righteousness of the saints is plural and cannot refer to the imparted righteousness of Christ which is the believer\u2019s portion, but the righteousness which has survived the examination and has become the basis of the reward.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nSo clearly we have the transferred righteousness of Christ, no doubt about, but this is talking about something different; this is talking about the church rewarded already as she returns to the earth.\u00a0 I like the way Samuel Hoyt puts it.\u00a0 He says, \u201cTo overdo the sorrow aspect of the judgment seat of Christ is to make heaven hell.\u201d \u00a0People that turn this into some sort of punishment, or some kind of punitive damages of some kind, they\u2019re turning heaven into hell but he also says, \u201cTo under do the sorrow aspect\u201d sorrow meaning you sort of look back at your life and wonder what could have been, \u201cTo under do the sorrow aspect is to make faithfulness inconsequential.\u201d\u00a0 [The Judgment Seat of Christ in Theological Perspective,\u201d Part 2, Bibliotheca Sacra<\/em>, electronic media.\u201d]\n\nThe most important thing that you can do with your life is to trust Jesus as your Savior because that determines your destiny.\u00a0 Now many people have this idea that okay, I\u2019m saved, eternally secure, assurance of salvation, so I\u2019m just going to live how I want to live.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t do that if I were you because choices of that nature will come out, not to determine your salvation, that\u2019s already solved, but to determine degrees of reward in heaven.\u00a0 In fact, we don\u2019t have time to look at them all but if you look at the Scriptures as\u00a0 you see them at the top of the screen, Revelation 3:11, 2 John verse 8, other passages we could quote, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, there is the prospect of the believer forfeiting rewards at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\n\n[Revelation 3:11, \u201cI am coming quickly; hold fast what you have, so that no one will take your crown.\u201d\u00a0 2 John verse 8, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.\u201d\u00a0 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, \u201cDo you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only<\/em> one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. [25] \u00a0<\/sup>Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it<\/em> to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. [26] \u00a0<\/sup>Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; [27] \u00a0<\/sup>but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.\u201d]\n\nBecause if I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly we receive these crowns and what exactly do we do with them?\u00a0 Revelation 4:10 says we cast them at His feet.\u00a0 [Revelation 4:10, \u201cthe twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne,\u201d] \u00a0To pay Him back?\u00a0 You can\u2019t pay Him back.\u00a0 To earn salvation?\u00a0\u00a0 You can\u2019t earn salvation.\u00a0 You say why would you do it?\u00a0 You would do it and want a crown because it gives you a capacity out of gratitude to glorify Jesus Christ, not to earn salvation but based on what He has done for you.\u00a0 And so there we all are in heaven, taking our crowns and casting them down by Christ\u2019s feet.\u00a0 And would it not be somewhat embarrassing to have a Christian who doesn\u2019t have anything in their hand?\u00a0 We don\u2019t want to be in that position.\u00a0 And so Paul makes it very clear that this evaluation is in our future and this is his basis for warning the whole carnal Corinthian church.\u00a0 I mean, what a group that was!\u00a0 How would you like to be the pastor of the first church at Corinth; that\u2019s an assignment that I wouldn\u2019t want.\n\nAnd what does Paul say as he looks at their carnal behavior?\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say these are not Christians.\u00a0 He never says that in the whole book!\u00a0 What he says is don\u2019t you understand that we will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ where you are forfeiting through carnality as a Christian the potentiality for rewards.\u00a0 And here the church is portrayed as returning with Jesus having been already rewarded.\u00a0 And that is an event that is in our future, yet future.\n\nNow, there\u2019s something else that\u2019s going to happen, the completion of something called the marriage of the Lamb, the last step being the supper.\u00a0 Take a look if\u00a0 you could at Revelation 19, and notice if you will verse 9.\u00a0 \u201cThen He said to me, write blessed are those who have been invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and he said to me these are true words of God.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0You\u2019ll notice this expression \u201cwrite,\u201d that\u2019s John\u2019s job description, going all the way back to Revelation chapter 1 and verse 11, where he \u00a0\u00a0was told to write this vision in a book and write what he would see and send it to the seven churches.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:11, \u201csaying, \u201cWrite in a book what you see, and send it<\/em> to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.\u201d]\n\nNotice that the Holy Spirit, the Lord, keeps telling John to keep doing what he\u2019s doing, write it down,\u00a0 which is why we have the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 So\u00a0 write these things down and then he makes a statement here, \u201cBlessed.\u201d\u00a0 Write \u201cBlessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.\u2019\u201d Now there is in the Book of Revelation seven beatitudes where you\u2019re going to find that expression \u201cBlessed\u201d which is a seven fold repetition of the Greek word makarios<\/em>, the same word used in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus said \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers,\u201d etc.\u00a0 The word \u201cblessed\u201d is used seven times in the Book of Revelation and so I\u2019m very appreciative of Dr. John Walvoord\u2019s commentary on the Book of Revelation where he keeps reminding us at each point of these seven blessings.\n\nIn case you\u2019ve forgotten we\u2019re at blessing number four.\u00a0 The first four we\u2019ve already read.\u00a0 \u201cBlessed on the reader and heeder of the Book of Revelation. God promises to bless a person that just reads this Book and takes it to heart.\u00a0 The second blessing was upon the tribulation martyrs, chapter 14.\u00a0 The third blessing was on the spiritually prepared at the end of the tribulation period.\u00a0 And now makarios<\/em> comes up again where we have a fourth blessing on those that are invited, those that are participating in this supper, this marriage supper of the Lamb.\n\nNow if you want to understand God\u2019s future program of the church you have to understand the steps in a Hebrew wedding.\u00a0 If you understand the steps in a Hebrew wedding you\u2019ll understand exactly what your past and future are in God.\u00a0 This is not for Israel, this is for the church, the bride of Christ.\u00a0 When a Jewish young man and woman got married how did it work back in the time period in Judaism in Israel, the time period that the Bible was written in?\u00a0 Ten steps!\n\nNumber one, marriage covenant.\u00a0 The groom initiated and the covenant was established upon payment for the bride, and the two of them drank from the same cup.\n\nStep number two, the bride is set apart exclusively for that man.\u00a0 That\u2019s the whole significance in a marriage ceremony when the bride comes down the aisle dressed in white, it\u2019s symbolizing her purity and that she is a woman spoken for, set aside for her future husband.\n\nNumber three, the bridal chamber is prepared where the groom separates from his bride and returns to his father\u2019s house to prepare the bridal chamber. Interesting!\n\nStep number four is the betrothal period or the loyalty test.\u00a0 As the two are separated is the husband, the future husband, is he going to be faithful to his bride.\u00a0 Is the bride going to be faithful to her future husband or is she going to be (or he going to be) in all these dating websites while the two are separated?\u00a0 And it\u2019s somewhat interesting, the whole subject of purity, the loyalty test.\u00a0 Now when you\u00a0 understand this,\u00a0 you start to understand why Joseph is a little bit upset when he finds out that Mary is pregnant.\u00a0 I mean, would you believe that the Holy Spirit\u00a0 impregnated her if you were Joseph?\u00a0 I mean, I don\u2019t think I would believe that so an angel has to come to kind of clear everything up because the betrothal test, number four, almost broke up that relationship.\n\nNumber five, the bride is retrieved, the groom returns at an unknown time preceded by shouts with escorts or friends to retrieve the bride.\n\nNumber six, the two are hidden in the father\u2019s house, not for eight days, not for nine days, not for six days, but for seven days where three things will transpire.\n\nNumber seven, the bride will undergo a ritual cleansing prior to the wedding.\n\nNumber eight, they will meet during the wedding ceremony, the father\u2019s assembled guests in a private wedding ceremony.\n\nNumber nine, the consummation of the marriage.\n\nAnd then number ten the two, after seven days, emerge from the father\u2019s house and they are publicly presented to the world as husband and wife and there\u2019s a giant feast.\n\nDoes any of this sound familiar?\u00a0 I mean, you ought to see prophetic parallels here.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go through these.\u00a0 Number one, the groom initiated, the covenant established upon payment for the bride, the two drank from the same cup.\u00a0 It sounds an awful lot like what Christ did for us, how He initiated the relationship and called us unto Himself and the drinking of the same cup is communion.\u00a0 And the payment for the bride is the debt that Jesus accomplished for us on the cross two thousand years ago.\n\nStep number two, the bride is set apart exclusively for the husband (that\u2019s us right now).\u00a0 We are a woman spoken for, we have been positionally set aside for God.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s so much in the Bible about maintaining the purity of the church.\n\nNumber three, the groom separates from the bride and returns to his father\u2019s house to prepare the bridal chamber.\u00a0 Now you ought to think in the back of your mind about John 14:2, that\u2019s exactly what Jesus said.\u00a0 \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>In My Father\u2019s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.\u201d\u00a0 So this number three is talking about Christ\u2019s 2,000 year separation from the church which began with His ascension back into heaven.\u00a0 And what\u2019s He doing in heaven?\u00a0 What\u2019s He doing in the Father\u2019s house?\u00a0 According to John 14:2 He\u2019s preparing the bridal chamber.\n\nSo number four, what\u2019s happening now?\u00a0 We\u2019re in the middle of the loyalty test!\u00a0 And this is the basis of our reward or lack thereof.\u00a0 Not salvation, because the price has already been paid by Jesus.\u00a0 But during this time of separation are we going to be loyal to Jesus or not?\u00a0 That\u2019s why James 4:4 calls the believer moving into false doctrine and worldliness, James 4:4 calls that adultery.\u00a0 It\u2019s like flunking the loyalty test.\u00a0 [James 4:4, \u201cYou adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.\u201d]\n\nNow in this age of separation how in the world do you remain loyal to Jesus Christ?\u00a0 There\u2019s two ways to do it\u2014orthodoxy, orthopraxy.\u00a0 Orthodoxy, correct belief, orthopraxy, correct practice.\u00a0 You become unorthodox in your beliefs and unorthodox in your practice then it\u2019s akin to a violation of the loyalty test.\u00a0 And exactly how we\u2019re doing during this time of separation, during this loyalty test, is the basis of the Bema Seat Judgment of rewards.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nWhich takes us to number five, eventually the bride is retrieved, the groom returns at an unknown time preceded by a shout with escorts to retrieve the bride.\u00a0 I hope you\u2019re thinking about John14:3 because that\u2019s exactly what Jesus said. \u00a0I\u2019ll read verse 2 since I butchered it earlier, \u201cIn My Father\u2019s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told\u00a0 you; for I go to prepare a place for you.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 3, But \u201cIf I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there<\/em> you may be also.\u201d\u00a0 What is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s the rapture of the church.\u00a0 It\u2019s what Paul is unfolding in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.\n\n[1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. [14] \u00a0<\/sup>For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. [15] \u00a0<\/sup>For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. [16] \u00a0<\/sup>For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the<\/em> archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.[17]\u00a0<\/sup>Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. \u00a0[18]\u00a0<\/sup>Therefore comfort one another with these words.]\n\nIt\u2019s the shout; isn\u2019t the rapture accomplished \u201cwith a shout of the voice of an archangel\u201d?\u00a0 I would assume that angels as escorts are returning with Christ to retrieve us, to take us where?\u00a0 To take us to the Father\u2019s house for seven years while He\u2019s been separated from us for two thousand years preparing that heavenly dwelling.\n\nNumber six, the bride and the groom are hidden in the Father\u2019s house, not for six days, not for eight days, but for seven days.\u00a0 What would that be a reference to?\u00a0 That would be a reference to the church in the Father\u2019s house in heaven for seven years.\u00a0 Why seven years?\u00a0 Because that is the length of the tribulation period.\u00a0 That is the seventieth week of Daniel as we have studied.\n\nNumber seven, the bride is cleansed, the bride undergoes a ritual cleansing prior to the wedding. What is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ where Christians are either rewarded or not rewarded based on how they did during the loyalty separation time.\u00a0 Did they, under God\u2019s grace and resources practice orthodoxy and orthopraxy during that time or did they not?\u00a0 See all that comes out at the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ.\n\nNumber eight is the wedding ceremony.\u00a0 There\u2019s a meeting with the Father\u2019s assembled wedding guests, a private wedding ceremony in the Father\u2019s house.\u00a0 What is that speaking of?\u00a0 There was a question that came up in angelology, the Sunday School class we taught today, about where are the deceased in Old Testament ages that were believers?\u00a0 Well, they went to a place called Paradise.\u00a0 Paul, when he was caught up to the third heaven, 2 Corinthians 12, was taken into Paradise.\u00a0 So my under\u00adstanding is that Paradise was brought into the presence of God, with all of those souls of Old Testament believers. What does that mean?\u00a0 It means following the rapture you\u2019re going to meet Daniel, Job, Noah, and everybody else that\u2019s mentioned in the Old Testament that\u2019s a believer.\u00a0 Won\u2019t that be something?\u00a0 Hey Job, I\u2019ve got a question here about your book, this has always bothered me, [laughter] can you\u2026.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s incredible the future that God has for us.\u00a0 We\u2019re meeting with these assembled guests.\n\nThen there is the consummation of the marriage where we are with Jesus, the bride and groom consummate the marriage, that\u2019s Ephesians 5:27.\u00a0 [Ephesians 5:27, \u201cThat He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless\u201d]\n\nAnd then number ten there\u2019s the marriage feast where the two, husband and wife, bride\/groom are now husband and wife and they are now unhidden.\u00a0 Colossians 3:3-4 describes how the time is coming in history where our relationship with Christ will be unhidden.\u00a0\u00a0 [Colossians 3:3-4, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s the formal announcement on the earth following the second advent of Christ where we are not formally married to Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s the last and tenth step.\n\nWhat you\u2019re seeing there in verse 9 is step number ten.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 All of these other things have\u00a0 transpired and the only thing left is a public feast on the earth.\u00a0 And people say well how do you know it\u2019s on the earth?\u00a0 Well, I think it\u2019s on the earth because in these verses Jesus is coming back to the earth.\u00a0 Beyond that there\u2019s another feast that it\u2019s contrasted with, the supper of God which is horrible; it\u2019s dealing with the deceased bodies that fought Jesus when He came back and there\u2019s so many dead bodies that the vultures (we\u2019ll see that later in Revelation 19:17-19) gather to consume corpses of all the dead bodies that Jesus judged at His second coming.\n\n[Revelation 19:17-19, \u201cThen I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, \u201cCome, assemble for the great supper of God, [18] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/sup>so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and slaves, and small and great.\u201d\u00a0 [19] And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.\u201d]\n\nThat latter feast is on the earth.\u00a0 So I think I\u2019m concluding that the former feast, step number ten, also takes place on the earth.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s a pretty good application\u2026 what feast do you want to be part of?\u00a0 Do you want to be part of that supper of God and run the risk of being one of those corpses that the vultures gorge on?\u00a0 Or do you want to be in step number ten of the marriage supper of the Lamb?\u00a0 Well how do I move my membership from one feast to another?\u00a0 You trust Christ as your Savior in this age.\u00a0 If you trust Christ as\u00a0 your Savior in this age you\u2019re going to be in verse 9; if you don\u2019t trust Christ as your Savior you run the risk of being in verses 17-19.\n\nYou might recall that when we studied the Book of Daniel that there\u2019s this strange seventy-five day period before the kingdom comes.\u00a0 There\u2019s a strange seventy-five day interval in between the second advent of Christ at the end of the tribulation and the coming of the kingdom.\u00a0 And a lot of things you might recall from that sermon are going to happen during that peculiar seventy-five day interval, perhaps one of those things is this feast on the earth, this marriage supper of the Lamb that we\u2019re speaking of here.\n\nWell gee whiz, pastor, this just sounds like a bunch of fantasy stuff to me!\u00a0 Are you really saying you believe all this stuff?\u00a0 Well look there at the end of verse 9, what does it say?\u00a0 \u201cAnd he said to me these are the true words of God.\u201d\u00a0 This is going to happen exactly like God said it would happen!\u00a0 And so all of these things that may seem sort of peculiar to us, a marriage custom from another culture, but as God is my witness I\u2019ll guarantee you this much, everting that God says, even if my interpretation of what He says is not completely accurate, that\u2019s not even the important thing.\u00a0 Everything He said is just going to happen exactly like He said it was going to happen\u00a0 You say well why do you believe that?\u00a0 I believe that because this Book has a track record that, we\u2019re getting ready to celebrate Christmas, I can point to Micah 5:2 which pinpoints seven hundred\u00a0 years in advance the exact city that Jesus was going to be born in.\u00a0 It\u2019s not even going to be in Jerusalem, it\u2019s not going to be Bethlehem up north in Galilee, it\u2019s going to be Bethlehem Ephrata\u2019s, which doesn\u2019t even appear on most maps in that time period.\u00a0 An unknown city\u2014that\u2019s exactly what happened.\n\nI could go through countless prophecies that were fulfilled in meticulous detail and the last time I checked the Holy Spirit does not switch horses in midstream.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t say oh, those other prophecies happened exactly like God says but these are more, you know, loosey goosey type things. \u00a0That\u2019s not how the Holy Spirit works, that\u2019s not how the Holy Spirit has revealed Himself.\u00a0 And so consequently these things are directly in our future.\u00a0\u00a0 Number one, the Bema Seat Judgment of Christ following the rapture, and number two, God executing all of the steps of the marriage process, all ten steps that I\u2019ve tried to explain and what is being described here in verse 9 is step number 10.\n\nNow if you received all of this information what would you do?\u00a0 You\u2019d be astounded by it, wouldn\u2019t you?\u00a0 In fact, you might be tempted to be so astounded by this that you would worship not God but the instrument through which the divine revelation came.\u00a0 And that takes us into number two here on our outline for Revelation 19.\u00a0 John responds to the revelation.\u00a0 Look at what John does.\u00a0 Poor John, on the\u00a0 Island of Patmos who thought his best days were behind him, left out there to die, because this guy had a hard time dying, they tried several times to boil him in oil, he wouldn\u2019t die, a stubborn old man I guess.\u00a0 And so finally they just threw him out there on an island called Patmos, which is directly\u2026 everything we know about Greco Roman history that\u2019s exactly what Domitian did to people.\u00a0 Nero cut your head off; Domitian would just maroon you on an island.\n\nAnd John probably was out there in the middle of nowhere, I\u2019m hoping at some point in my life I can get to that island on one of my trips, I haven\u2019t been there yet, but folks tell me that have been there that there\u2019s not a lot out there.\u00a0 So he probably thought oh, God has forgotten me, God has no more purpose for me.\u00a0 Some of you may be thinking that about your life but here\u2019s the reality of the situation\u2014with God you never know what\u2019s coming around the corner.\u00a0\u00a0 John\u2019s greatest book, I would argue, his greatest insight was about to happen.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why it was the design of God to put him on that island so that he could receive this truth that he is receiving, write it down, somehow send it to the seven churches, and we, two thousand years after the fact can read it and study it and be blessed by it and be edified by it and encouraged by it.\n\nChristian, is there breath in your lungs?\u00a0 Is your heart beating?\u00a0\u00a0 If so then God is not finished with you yet.\u00a0 You may not know what\u2019s around the corner but you don\u2019t need to know---God knows!\u00a0 And God, as long as we\u2019re alive still wants to use us.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here with John.\u00a0 The problem with us is we so easily get our eyes off of Christ and onto the instruments that God is using.\n\nVerse 10, \u00a0\u201c<\/sup>Then I\u201d that\u2019s John, \u201cfell at his feet to worship him.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the angel.\u00a0 \u201cBut he said to me,\u201d that\u2019s the angel, \u201cDo not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold to the testimony of Jesus; worship God!\u00a0\u00a0 For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 19:10]\n\nYou don\u2019t have to be a rocket scientist in the Bible to understand that God doesn\u2019t like idolatry.\u00a0 In fact, the first two commandments of the ten commandments, the Decalogue, deal with idolatry.\u00a0 God says don\u2019t have any gods before me, don\u2019t have any graven images.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God is so angry with Aaron, the high priest, who is supposed to be teaching this and is leading the nation, in Exodus 32, into building a golden calf.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that when you get caught in sin, you have a tendency to sort of blame it on somebody else.\u00a0 I love\u2026 I don\u2019t \u201clove\u201d but I get a chuckle out of Aaron\u2019s explanation, well, you know, Moses was up there for forty days and he had all this jewelry and stuff and he just kind of threw it into this pot to melt it and this cast just sort of popped out of nowhere.\u00a0 Sounds a little like us, doesn\u2019t it, when we get our hands caught in the cookie jar.\n\nMatthew 4:10 says, \u201c\u2026 You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 We\u2019re not here to serve a board, we\u2019re not here to serve a church, we\u2019re here to serve Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And John, of all people knew this because John has a paper trail, he didn\u2019t just write the Book of Revelation, he wrote 1, 2, and 3 John and at the end of his first little epistle he writes these words: \u201cLittle children,\u201d 1 John 5:21, \u201cLittle children, guard yourselves from idols.\u201d\u00a0 And what did John just become here, in Revelation 19:10?\u00a0 He became an idolater.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because we have studied the chain of communication through which the Book of Revelation was handed down.\u00a0 We developed it in prior sermons.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how it works.\u00a0 It went from the Father (the vision) to the Son, to an angel, to John, to a book, to a reader or preacher, and then to the listener or those in the seven churches.\u00a0 And John is so enthralled by what he has just received that he doesn\u2019t worship God through whom the vision came ultimately, the source of it, he worshipped an angel who delivered the vision.\n\nI mean, this is the guy that said, \u201cLittle children, keep yourself from idols.\u201d\u00a0 [1 John 5:21]\u00a0 He just became an idolater.\u00a0 And if that weren\u2019t bad enough he does it twice because when we get to Revelation 22:8-9, he does the exact same thing.\u00a0 [Revelation 22:8-9, \u201cI, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. [9]\u00a0 But he said to me, \u201cDo not do that.\u201d]\u00a0 And the angel again says stop it! Knock it off, I\u2019m a fellow servant.\n\nSo there obviously is something deep within us that causes us to either receive glory we don\u2019t deserve or to worship things that are just instruments.\u00a0 Did you know Paul, the apostle, had this same problem?\u00a0 The problem being people worshipping Paul instead of God.\u00a0 It\u2019s all in your Bible in Acts 14:11-18\n\nIt says, \u201cWhen the crowds saw what Paul had done,\u201d a miracle under God, \u201cthey raised their voice, saying in the Lycaonian language, \u201cThe gods have become like men and have come down to us.\u201d \u00a0This is what the pagans were doing now, they\u2019re worshipping Paul and his team.\u00a0 [12]\u00a0 \u201c<\/sup>And they began<\/em> calling Barnabas, Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was\u00a0 the chief speaker.\u201d\u00a0 I mean, he\u2019s the chief speaker he must be a chief god, right?\u00a0 \u00a0[13] \u00a0\u201c<\/sup>The priest of Zeus, whose temple<\/em> was just outside the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds. [14]\u00a0<\/sup>But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd, crying out [15]\u00a0<\/sup>and saying, \u201cMen, why are you doing these things? \u00a0We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to serve the \u00a0living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. \u00a0[16] In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; \u00a0[17] \u00a0<\/sup>and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.\u201d [18] \u00a0<\/sup>Even<\/em> saying these things, with difficulty they\u201d that\u2019s Paul and Barnabas] \u201cthey restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.\u201d]\n\nWhat a warning to us how distracted we can be when we begin to ascribe merit to the creature rather than the Creator.\u00a0 John, who warned of idolatry is now becoming an idolater where he\u2019s worshipping an angel, who\u2019s just the newspaper boy.\u00a0 That\u2019s all the angel was, he was just handing off the vision, he didn\u2019t write the article, or the newspaper, he didn\u2019t even edit it, he just handed it off.\u00a0 John can\u2019t believe what he\u2019s received so he starts to worship this angel to the point of rebuke, not once but two times.\u00a0 It\u2019s very easy to get our eyes off of Christ and onto the servants that God uses.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this message, I\u2019m not even sure if I gave\u00a0 you the title earlier, Focus on Jesus<\/em>.\n\nJames Dawson has Focus on the Family<\/em>, all well and good.\u00a0 Let\u2019s upgrade that a little bit, Focus on Jesus. <\/em>It\u2019s about Jesus Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about a man, it\u2019s not about a method, it\u2019s not about a move\u00adment, it\u2019s about Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And how easy it is when somebody blesses you to forget that and to turn the attention to a human which is even less than an angel.\u00a0 And we become idolaters, without even realizing it, that fast.\u00a0 And how if and when God uses you how easy it is to say \u201cyou know, I deserve a little bit of credit.\u201d\u00a0 Gee, pastor, we really enjoyed your sermon.\u00a0 You know, I really worked hard on that and I went to school a\u00a0 long time to learn some of this stuff and I put a little bit of sweat and guts into that and you know, so what?\u00a0 So what if I just take a little bit off the top for myself.\n\nWell, Isaiah 42:8 says very clearly that God does not share his glory with another.\u00a0 [\u201cI am the Lord, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.\u201d Isaiah 42:8]\u00a0 Are you the subject of compliments from people who have been blessed through you?\u00a0 Be real careful about that.\u00a0 One of the best things I ever learned to do in that circumstance is just say well, praise the Lord!\u00a0 PRAISE THE LORD!\u00a0 Praise the Lord that he could take a donkey and speak through him today.\u00a0 So it gets the glory off\u00a0 yourself and right back to Jesus Christ where it belongs.\n\nYou know, everybody today is talking about the whole Comedy West situation, that\u2019s all anybody wants to talk about, so I\u2019ll say something about it.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 People are saying is he really a Christian and all of this stuff.\u00a0 I\u2019m free grace in my beliefs, I accept his profession of faith, I believe he\u2019s a Christian.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019m wrong on that but I don\u2019t have any problem with that.\u00a0 The problem I have is taking a microphone and jamming it in his face and somehow making him the spokesperson for Christianity when he\u2019s a few weeks old in the Lord.\u00a0 That\u2019s the problem.\u00a0 The problem is the Christian church thinking we\u2019ve got to put this guy in the spotlight as fast as we can because we need to capitalize on his worldly fame.\u00a0 Do you realize what you do to a person when you do that?\u00a0 You set them up for destruction because Proverbs 16:18 says first comes pride, then comes the fall.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Proverbs 16:18, \u201cPride goes<\/em> before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.\u201d]\n\nThere\u2019s a reason your Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:6 concerning leaders in the church, they must not be a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.\u201d Is he saved?\u00a0 Let\u2019s give him the benefit of the doubt but at the same time let the guy grow a little bit, let him have a few experiences in Christ and ups and downs that we all go through in terms of our character development.\u00a0 And let\u2019s not make the person some sort of spokesperson for Christianity, some sort of leader for Christianity, because when you do that you go right against the Bible that gives us very stern and severe warnings about elevating somebody too fast.\n\nAnd by the way, all of you at this church, as we put forward nominees in certain times of our cycle, business cycle I guess we can call it, elders and deacons, we ask\u00a0 you to confirm choices, what in the world would you look for?\u00a0 Well, here\u2019s what I would look for if I were you.\u00a0 How long has that person been a Christian?\u00a0 What\u2019s that person\u2019s track record in Christ?\u00a0 And I would be very, very hesitant to be involved with any church that takes someone a few days old in the Lord and puts them into some position, any position, and consequently the person that\u2019s a few days in the Lord in that position may be used by the Lord and they get all this acclaim and praise and a person with zero discipleship, zero progressive sanctification, zero time in Christ, they don\u2019t know any better, they just collect a few compliments off the top,\u00a0 yeah, I am pretty good, aren\u2019t I!\u00a0 And gee Lord, where would You be without me?\u00a0 And we set a person up for a fall.\n\nThis, of course, is what happened to Satan, as you know.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it says, 1 Timothy 3:6, \u201cnot a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.\u201d What\u2019s the fall?\u00a0 It\u2019s pride comes before destruction, Proverbs 16:18. \u00a0[Pride goes<\/em> before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.\u201d\u00a0 Proverbs 16:18 NASB]\u00a0 It\u2019s played out over and over again in Christianity.\u00a0 It happens all the time yet for whatever reason we get sort of stunned by the moment and we want to elevate somebody, we want to become idolatrous.\u00a0 This is even what John is doing. \u00a0So he is rebuked for this.\n\nAnd I like the second part of verse 10, of course I like all of it and whether I like it or not doesn\u2019t matter, does it?\u00a0 But from a personal perspective I love the end of verse 10, it says, \u201cFor the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Revelation 19:10]\u00a0 I like that because I\u2019ve run into people my whole Christian life who say I don\u2019t really get involved with studying prophecy, it\u2019s too controversial, it\u2019s too divisive and they say it in kind of a spiritual I spend MY time in the Gospels because that\u2019s where Christ is found, in the Gospels.\u00a0 May I just say to you that we love the Gospels, we teach the gospels, we\u2019ve taught the Gospel of John for three years here, we were in John\u2019s Gospel longer than Jesus had his earthly ministry we love the gospel so much.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nBut can I just say this to you, if your whole view of Jesus comes from the Gospels you have a lop-sided view of Jesus.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know of a complete view of who Jesus is until you give yourself not just to the Gospel of John but to the other book John wrote at the end of his life, the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Because what you learn in the Gospels is Jesus is the suffering Savior, praise the Lord for that.\u00a0 But in the Book of Revelation you learn He\u2019s something more than that, He\u2019s the ruling and reigning King who\u2019s coming back to execute violent judgment on every person who has not trusted in His provision that He accomplished in His first coming.\n\nSee, we love the meek and mild Jesus, He had nowhere to lay His head, we love the manger scenes, but what about Him coming back with the rod of iron and sword protruding from His mouth whereby He will smite and strike the nations.\u00a0 What about that part of Jesus?\u00a0 You want to break up your dinner party this week?\u00a0\u00a0 Talk about that part.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Because the reality of the situation is that part is just as much part of Jesus as the suffering Savior.\u00a0 You know, we can get very imbalanced in our diet, can\u2019t we.\u00a0 There are multiple food groups that you need to be healthy.\u00a0 If you just gorge in one part of the Bible and ignore the other parts\u00a0 you\u2019re going to be malnourished as a Christian.\u00a0 God wants us to be fully nourished as His body and His bride and so we teach the full counsel of God\u2019s Word.\n\nThat, to my mind, is one of the reasons we made a decision at this church Sunday morning sermon time that we teach the book verse by verse because if you teach the Bible verse by verse it leaves no wriggle room for the interpreter to skip, cut, edit, bounce around.\u00a0 And so you are confronted as a teacher to teach everything that God said.\u00a0\u00a0 And there are countless times where I\u2019m looking at the passage at the passage for the week and I\u2019m saying Oh Lord, I hope these people know what\u2019s coming?\u00a0 And Oh Lord, I hope you give me some grace to communicate this.\u00a0 And you get a sermon on some area of Scripture that you think will have zero impact perhaps, and then people will come up to you and they will say, you know, I really appreciated the fact that God spoke to me through that sermon that you gave and through that particular verse was exactly what I needed to hear. That happens to me all the time.\u00a0 And then I like to say well gee, you know, aren\u2019t you lucky to have me as your pastor.\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And I practically break my arm patting myself on the back and the Lord taps me on the shoulder and says are you sure you want to do that?\n\nAnd so we need a complete total picture of Jesus Christ and so we move away from the marriage supper of the Lamb to the response of John to it, and the rebuke that he received and now what follows is the second advent of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 What we will see described here is the quality of His return, verses 11-14.\u00a0 There are ten qualities there.\u00a0 And then number two, His activities once He returns, verses 15-16, there are five activities.\u00a0 You say how are you going to cram all that in in sixty minutes.\u00a0 I\u2019m not, it\u2019s too important to cut it and bifurcate it so this week I would just encourage you to read, in addition to your Thanksgiving stories, verse 11-16 where we\u2019ll take a look next week at the second advent of Jesus Christ, what human history has been moving towards, and we see it predicted there.\n\nOf course, the two suppers of God, which supper do you want to be involved in, the marriage supper of the Lamb or the terrible supper of God?\u00a0 How do you change your invitation from one to the other?\u00a0 It\u2019s by trusting Christ as\u00a0 your Savior.\u00a0 Jesus stepped out of eternity into time to pay a price for us that we could never pay on our own.\u00a0 His final words on the cross were \u201cIt is finished.\u201d\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing left for us to do, thanks to His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, other than to believe or trust what He\u2019s done.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how you change your invitation from supper A or supper B I should say back to Supper A, away from the supper of God which is the supper of judgment to the marriage supper of the Lamb.\n\nAnd\u00a0 you can change your invitation right now from one supper to another simply by trusting what Jesus has done.\u00a0 Trust is another word for believe, it means to rely upon, to depend upon.\u00a0 The Spirit convicts us of our need to trust in Christ as our personal Savior and through volition we respond to it, by relying upon the promises of Jesus and what He\u2019s done for us.\u00a0 And that changes your whole future.\u00a0 \u00a0And so if it\u2019s something you need more explanation of I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of joining a church, walking an aisle, giving money, filling out a card.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord when you trust Him for what He has done in your place.\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for the Book of Revelation, grateful for John, grateful for what He went through and how his humanity comes out here and how you corrected him and how we can learn so much just by reading and meditating\u00a0 upon these ancient words.\u00a0 I pray that You\u2019ll be with us at this church as we seek to not just complete the Book of Revelation but to walk in great thankful-ness to what You\u2019ve done for\u00a0 us this week.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t