Sermon by Bob Bradley

Transcription

1 Sermon by Bob Bradley COPYRIGHT 2017 CAMPBELL CHAPEL FREE WILL BAPTIST CHURCH 1709 Campbell Drive * Ironton, OH 45638

2 There is One Way Jesus Christ Sunday, February 26, 2017 Bob Bradley Revelation 4:2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. Revelation 4:3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. Revelation 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. Revelation 4:5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Revelation 4:6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. Revelation 4:7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. Revelation 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Revelation 4:9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, Revelation 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. There are some wonderful thoughts here tonight. As I studied today about these events, sometimes we forget about that one day the church of Jesus Christ is going to leave here. We are going to leave here. I think, as we look around today, as we look at the church world as a whole, across the whole world; we see churches closing their doors. We see people falling away. We see people doing all kinds of things. We see the church getting worldlier. We see all kinds of things happening today. We may have a tendency to think that God has forgotten about His church, however, God has not forgot about not one of us. He knows exactly where we are at. There is a people today that are living right. There are people who are living consecrated, dedicated lives. There are people who loves the God of heaven. The very night that Jesus was betrayed, we know that He told His disciples that He was going to go away, and since He was going to go away that He was going to come again

3 and receive them unto Himself that where He was, we can be also. Do you know what that is? That is a promise to you and me that there is going to be a day that Jesus Christ is going to come and get you and me. When you look at Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 here we can read about all the things that are going on there in the different churches that are there. There are all kinds of different issues. There are all kinds of problems. There is all kinds of things going on. Listen. As I already said, there is going to come a day that Jesus Christ is coming. He is coming to get you and me. He is coming to get those who have been born again. That makes me happy that I can know that this world is not all there is. There is going to be a day that we are going to be able to lay down this old body that hurts and gives us all kinds of issues and all kinds of problems. In a world where there are all kinds of issues and sorrows. There is never a time that we need to give up because Jesus Christ is coming and He is coming very soon. Do you know what that should do? That should encourage us today, every day that we live to know that He is coming and He is coming for you and for me. Isn t that great to know tonight? John the Revelator, as he writes these words; as we read chapter 1 in Revelation, we know that he is put out into the Asian sea, out in the Mediterranean Sea, out there on an Island called Patmos. We know that he has been put out there because of his testimony that he loves Jesus Christ. This time John, no doubt, is an old man. No doubt, Nero and those who put him out there thought surely he was going to die. However, God had a message for John and He has a message for you and me today. Do you know what that message is? I am coming again. Listen. Jesus Christ is coming. Here john is and we know the Bible says in Revelation 1, he said he was in the spirit of the Lord s Day and he heard behind him a voice as the voice of a trumpet. He is turning to see the voice, the Bible says and do you know who he sees? He sees none than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is dressed in priestly garment. We understand that and we don t have time to go there. What I want to talk about is this. There is a church that Jesus Christ is coming to get. There is a place called heaven that is real that you and I are going to go to one day. Listen. We are just not going to be toad frogs upon lily pads. We are going to be real people with a real body. We are going to be serving a real God throughout eternity. That excites me tonight to know that. That ought to make us happy. Listen. John says here You know, we are living right in the end of the church age. I really believe that. When you read Revelation chapters 2 and 3; you read about the seven churches that were in Asia. They were there. We read the church is mentioned 14 or 15 times in these two

4 chapters; in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. Do you know what you will find out here? From chapter 4 through 19, you will not find the church on the earth. Do you know why? The church is not going to be here. We are going to planet earth. Isn t it going to be a great day? Isn t it going to be a great day when we get to leave planet earth? The Bible says John says It is no wonder that the Bible calls Jesus: He is the way, the truth and the life. When you read John 10, it will also tell you He is the door. John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. Listen. Jesus Christ is the only way for you and me to get to heaven. Do you know what John is seeing? He is seeing the snatching away of the church from planet earth Listen. Chapters 2 and 3 is about the church age from Pentecost until the rapture. There is coming a day that we are going to leave here and John is showing us a picture when the bride of Christ is going to leave here. He says come up hither. When we go back and read a few chapters, out of the book of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is writing to the church at Corinth. I want to tell you something. He says, Behold I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep but we all shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. Do you know what I say? I say, Glory to the God of heaven that sent His Son to die so that I could live forever. That excites me. Doesn t it you? It is great to know those things. Not only did Paul say that, but he said in a moment, in twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Aren t you glad that we are not going to have to take these bodies to heaven? Aren t you glad that we are going to be able to lay them one day. This body is corrupt. It is dying every day. It is mortal. It was made for planet earth. Do you know what the Bible tells you and me, when we read the scriptures, we are going to have a body fashioned like the body of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Do you remember the day that He got up from the dead? He does some different things. He goes down to Emmaus. He talks to some people but He come back to Jerusalem in the same evening that He got up from the dead. The Bible says the

5 disciples were in the Upper Room. They were in there with the doors and the windows shut. They were scared to death, for the fear of the Jews. Do you know what the Bible says that Jesus did? He just appeared in the midst and He said, Peace be unto you. Listen. If I am going to have a body like that where we are going to be able to take matter and go through matter, do you know I don t understand that. However, I do know one thing. My body is going to be real. It is not going to age. It is not going to die anymore. Isn t that going to be great? We are not going to need any surgeries up there. No heart medications. No cancer treatments. Amen! Isn t that going to be a great place? Blood pressure medicine; they can get rid of that. Libby is going to be out of business because there isn t going to be diabetes up there. I m looking forward to that. Aren t you? He says here 1 Corinthians 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? 1 Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. Listen. I want you to get something. I know sometimes, if we are saved, we fear death. We fear going to the grave. We fear the time they are going to shut the casket in our faces. I want you to understand something tonight. If you are saved, you don t have to worry about the casket. You don t have to worry about the grave. Listen. The God we are serving tonight, the God that dwells inside of His people; they are going to lay us in the ground one day, but I am not going to be in this body anymore. I am going to leave it. I m going to lay it down. This body is going to go right back to the dust from which it came. Aren t you glad there is going to be a day that Jesus Christ is going to speak? He is going to shout and we are going to meet Him in a new body. Isn t that great? 1 Corinthians 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 1 Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? There is no sting in death for you and me. There is no pain in death for a Christian. Now there might be pain in this body getting to there. But this thing called death has no dominion over you and me anymore. The reason that you and I have eternal life tonight. The reason that you and I are going to be able to live forever. The reason that

6 you and I don t have to worry about the grave and all the things that are in the grave. We don t have to worry about going to a lake of fire and suffering. We don t have to worry about going there and being burnt. Do you know why? It is because Jesus Christ got up from the dead. We know they put Him on a cross. We know that He died. We know that gave up the ghost. We know that they buried Him. We also know on Easter Sunday morning He got up from the dead. The Bible tells us that He makes the statement about Himself. I am He that was dead but I am alive forevermore. I have died but I am never going to die anymore. Since you and I have trusted Him we will never die. The real person on the inside, if you are saved tonight, you don t have to worry about the grave. You don t have to worry about the undertaker. God is going to come and get us. He is going to dispatch Jesus one day to take us home to be with Him. 1 Corinthians 15:57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In Revelation 4 John had been seeing the events of the church age. From the time of Pentecost until the end of the church age. Now John is getting reading ready to see some things that are going to happen after the church age. Get this. Revelation 4:2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. One. Not a dozen Amen! but One sat on the throne. Not a dozen different ones. You live in this world and you hear all kinds of voices today telling you there are all kinds of different Gods. There is only One God. There is only One and true Living God. Do you know where John sees Him at here? He sees Him sitting on the throne in heaven. Get this. Revelation 4:3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

7 When you look at a piece of jasper, it is like a diamond. It has all kinds of different cuts all over it. It glistens. It glitters. It is just as white as can be. That doesn t surprise me at all because it is describing the God of heaven. He is a holy God. There is nothing about Him that is not holy. Every aspect of the God of heaven is holy. It also describes Him here as a sardine stone. A sardine stone is as red as blood. There is no wonder when John sees God, the Father, sitting on the throne, He sees the righteousness of God but he also sees the blood. Listen. Without the blood we can t get there. Without the blood of Jesus Christ being shed we are all doomed and damned without His blood. Revelation 4:4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. Do you get that? John in Revelation 2 and 3 has been talking about the church. The first of chapter 4 he says Come up hither. Amen! Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4: Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 1 Thessalonians 4:15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For 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: 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then 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. 1 Thessalonians 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. There is going to be a sound. John hears the voice. Paul said there was going to be a sound. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 For 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: 1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then 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. 1 Thessalonians 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

8 That is the Bible. Isn t it? That is the truth. He says here, he sees four and twenty elders. These are not angels. They can t be angels because first of all they are dressed in white. Second of all, they are seated. Third of all, they have a crowns upon their heads. Get this. This is the whole thought I had. They are clothed in white. They are seated around the throne. God the Father is on the throne. They have crowns of gold on their heads. Do you know who that is? That is me and you. That is the church. That is the born again people. That is the people that God is going to call. When He gives the great calling Come up hither. In what we call the rapture, what we when Jesus speaks, appears in the clouds and calls; saved from all ages are going to go to heaven. Jesus Christ is going to be there. God the Father is going to be there. The reason I say that is this. When you read Revelation, chapter 5; it talks about me and you, saved people being kings and priests. Amen! Do you know what two of these guys are here? Do you know who elders are? Do you know what they did? They had to do with worship. Do you know what priests had to do with? They had to do with worshiping the God of heaven. When you read in the book of Chronicles, you will read about 24 different orders of priests. There were 24 different of priests that made up the priesthood. Listen. From every generation, from every kingdom of the world; there have been people that has been called out to make up the body of Christ. One day, we are all going to get to meet at the throne of God. We are going to be there. Get this. These guys had crowns on their heads. When you read the scriptures there are many different crowns that you can win, as a Christian. That scares some of us to death. There are rewards for faithfulness, when you read about the different crowns that are going to be given. However, there is one crown that every born again child of God is going to get. Everybody is going to get and that is the victor s crown. That is the incorruptible crown that every child of God is going to get. Get this. If we have a race the Daytona 500 was on today. I don t know whether it is over yet or not but when all is said and done there will be one winner. Amen! If we have a horse race there will be one winner. There will be seconds, thirds and fourths. If we have a foot race there will be one winner. Get this. Every born again child of God is a winner. Amen! We are going to get a crown. Every child of God, everyone that has been born again is going to get a crown. Isn t that awesome that God would give you and me a crown. As worthless as we are, we are going to get a crown. Do you know why? Because we have been faithful. We have overcome this world by the blood of the lamb. We have overcome all the sin, all the struggles, all the fights and all the battles; we have overcome because we trusted in the God of heaven and we are going to have a crown of gold.

9 Get this. Probably on our crowns, if you have been able to earn more than one reward I hope I don t leaven anybody out here when you read the book of Corinthians, chapter 3 and different places you will find out that there are going to be different rewards over there. Maybe we will have a different color stone in the crown. Maybe we will have more than one crown. I don t really know that. But I do know this. When it is all said and done, the four beasts that are gathered around the altar here around the throne, when they begin to worship God crying holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty; do you know what you and I are going to do? We are going to join in worshiping with them. We are going to join in and worship with them. Revelation 4:10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. They did not take their crowns home and melt them down then sell the gold for 1,150 dollars and ounce. They did not do that. Do you know what they did? The Bible says they cast their crowns before the throne. That is in verse 10 of Revelation 4; read it. Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. You see, the crowns we are going to cast at His feet because we want to worship Him. He is worthy to be praised. He is worthy to receive all the rewards, all the honor and all the glory. He is worthy for that. We are not. We are not worth anything. I know we get all puffed up in ourselves sometimes. We get like a big balloon sometimes. When I do that I always blow up is what I really do. You do too. He is God. He has done so much for you and me. He demanded the death of His Son that we could be forgiven so that we can go to heaven when life is over. Listen. If you don t Jesus Christ tonight as your Savior it would be a great time to make things right with Him. It would be a great time simply to say Lord, Jesus please forgive me of my sins. I m not ready to meet you. I m not ready to go to heaven. I want to go to heaven. I want to be in this number when you call out the church. I want to be in this number around your throne one day praising you. You can be. If you don t know Him this evening this would be a great time to come. Call upon the Lord. Ask Him to forgive you, to cleanse you and He will do that tonight. He cares about you. He died just for you and just for me; He died. It would be a great time for you to come. Come and pray