I want you guys to turn back
in your Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 2. I know
our reading was from Luke chapter 12, but I want you to go back
to Revelation chapter 2 as we contemplate what Luke chapter
12 really meant. I don't know if you really get
a handle on Luke 12. Luke 12 has been amazing to me
ever since I read it. a desire to know what it means. If you guys heard the reading
of Luke 12, what it talks about is the Lord Jesus Christ coming
back and taking His people and putting them in a position where
He serves them for all eternity. Do you guys remember that portion?
He says when He comes back, He will sit them down at a feast
and serve them. serve them that makes no sense
to me at all It's over-the-top in terms of what you and I would
expect When it comes to our relationship with Christ if you know him But
but over the years I have gathered something from the Word of God
that I shared with you a couple of weeks ago as we were going
through the seven churches and that's where my thoughts are
even now and because I wanted to sum up some of the statements
that our Lord Jesus made as he addressed each church. But here
in Luke 12, he promises those that serve him that he will return
and bring them to where he is and he will serve them. That makes no sense. Other than the fact that God
has always said that those that diligently seek Him will find
Him and know that He is a rewarder of those that do such. Now my
thoughts are around the word that I shared with you a few
weeks ago as I was dealing with the church at Laodicea and you
and I were called to focus upon our Lord's effort. The study
in the seven churches of Revelation really blessed my soul. How about
you? I mean, it really blessed my soul. It challenged me for
sure. It affirmed once again that I
am both undone and in need of His grace daily. But it blessed
my soul from a number of perspectives. And I want to share a concept
with you that was leaked out yesterday to those of you who
are serious about marriage. If you're not serious about marriage,
you disregard what I'm about to say. But for those of you
who are serious about making your marriage honor God, a word
leaked out, and this is the word. Here it is. It is the relationship
of an extraordinary care. The relationship of an extraordinary
care. The relationship of an extraordinary
care. What am I talking about? I'm
talking about marriage. Marriage is the relationship
of an extraordinary care. And may we quickly agree that
Christ cares about us in an extraordinary way. Is he not a marvelous model
of a husband who is committed to our soul's keeping in an extraordinary
way? So I want you, ladies and gentlemen,
to capture this concept now. Those of you who dare to enter
into this institution, those of you who dare to take on this
calling, make sure you understand marriage this way, the relationship
of an extraordinary care. This is what the Lord has done
for seven churches now. He has demonstrated his care
to the church at Ephesus. Has he not? I care about you.
He has demonstrated his care to the church at Smyrna. I care
about you to the church at Pergamos. I care to the church at Thyatira
and then Philadelphia, Sardis, and finally Laodicea. I mean,
if he did not demonstrate to that unthankful heifer That's
how my grandparents used to call us. That's how they used to talk.
That unthankful heifer. Now, some of y'all don't understand
that terminology, but in the country, that's endearment terminology,
okay? It means you are acting way outside
of the scope of your calling. That man has been so good to
you that you are demonstrating yourself like an unthankful heifer.
By the way, God called his bride in the Old Testament a backsliding
heifer. And to that same woman, he said,
come on back. Come on back. His love is amazing,
is it not? Come on back, you unthankful
heifer. Come on back. I'm talking about
myself. I'm not talking about you. But
see, our Lord, he is so magnificent in his offices, in his person
to you and me in spite of ourselves. And so what I want to do today
is I want to capture what I consider an enormous blessing and privilege
given to the people of God that was reiterated over and over
in the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 as overtures to us to
continue to hang in there and do what God has called us to
do. Draw from the resources of grace, which he has made available
to us in Christ by his spirit and through his word to do what
we can to serve him as the church of the living God in this world.
Because after all, we only got a little while to go. So I said
that all of the the final overtures of the exhortation of Christ
to each church where he said, he that overcometh, will I do
this? And he that overcometh, will
I do that? He said it at the end of his
letter to every one of the seven churches. He said, if you overcome,
this is what I'll do for you. And what he uttered amounts to
a word that I want to come home. I want it to come home because
this is going to help us understand how the whole of the New Testament
is framed in terms of the relationship of the believer in Christ. And
the word is honor. H-O-N-O-R. The promise of honor to those
who believe. The promise of honor. I want
you to get the word now. Because see, the word evades
you and me. And I'll tell you fundamentally
why it evades you and me. It's because, again, we're Western
Christians. Again, we live in the best world
that any human being could possibly experience outside of the kingdom
of God and eternity You and I live at the highest level and echelon
of life's experience that anyone could live. Is that true? I just
own it Saints just own it as much as we're struggling with
all kind of stuff. You and I are still kings and queens Compared
to many people in the world and what that means is when I when
I express a term like honor to you It doesn't mean much Because
you already feel like you're an honorable person. But can
I tell you something? You are far less than honorable
in yourself. And the idea that God would honor
us in the way in which he declares he will honor us, I am sure is
designed to humble us now. See, in the Old Testament, the
idea of honor was to bestow glory upon. It was to bestow weight
upon. It was to declare, dignify, to
exalt. Actually, it was to set on a
pedestal. As we go through the marriage
class, I will teach you that the role of the husband is to
honor the wife, set her on a pedestal. See, and what Christ is saying
to the church is, I'm going to set you on a pedestal one day.
I'm going to set you on a pedestal one day and the whole world's
going to see it. I'm going to set you on a pedestal
one day. Hold on. I'm going to set you on a pedestal.
And the idea of God honoring us is still too difficult for
my mind to get a handle on. And the manner in which he said
he would do it is just the stupendous nature of the promises that are
set forth just in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 of which we are
going to look at. Along with all of the other promises
in the Word of God Peter puts it like this. He calls them exceeding
and precious promises Paul says it also using that adjective
exceeding riches of glory and grace in Jesus Christ sometimes
in your reading your Bible you will miss those adjectives the
grace that God gives you and me is an exceeding rich grace
and Now that word exceedingly rich may not mean anything when
it comes from me because I ain't got but five dollars But when
it comes to God being exceedingly rich towards you, do you understand? He's talking about an infinitude
of grace pour it out on you for all of eternity everything you
need he has and more And see, you and I have to learn how to
get absolutely jazzed about that. That ought to make us fall in
love with the Lord Jesus Christ and want to get closer to Him
and more intimate with Him and more productive with Him and
more fruitful with Him simply because of the promises of God
and Christ. And so again, the promise of
honor for those who believe, the final state of things to
come. Our Lord in the book of Revelation actually countermands
The struggles that the church is going through in the temporal
world in which they live, including ours, were the promise of things
to come. So let me help you. What our
Lord says in the book of Revelation in response to the sufferings
of the church is, I've got benefits that are yours to come. Just
hold on. There are blessings and benefits
Untold promises that are yours to come if you just hold on now
now the reason why you got to get a handle on that is because
sometimes your trials and mine are Such that we want some of
those benefits right now. I Understand that fully I fully
understanding understand needing some of the Riches of his grace
that are mine in Christ right now to just be able to deal with
my troubles. I understand that well He gives
us those two But he doesn't give them to us in such a way that
it actually forfeits his objective in our life. And you know what
his objective in our life is? To purge us to a point of being
without spot and blemish. through the trials of life that
we go through that are designed to conform us to the image of
Jesus Christ. And he's not going to do anything
or give us anything that's going to hinder that process. So you
and I can cry like a baby all we want while we're in the midst
of that crucible. Lord, I want out. I think I'm
ready. I think I'm done. I think you
didn't purge me enough. Do you remember how it was now?
You young people don't remember this because your parents don't
whoop you anymore, but ours did. Ours did. Do you remember the
day when daddy used to get at your tail and he'd go to whipping
on you? And you would say, daddy, enough,
enough. I got it. I got it. I got it. You were
actually telling him when it was enough. And if he was a good
daddy, he wouldn't stop until he knew when it was enough. And just a little secret for
black folks, you didn't want mama to get at you. Cause she
never knew when it was enough. I mean, at least daddy drew a
line. Mama used to get at you and what you'd say, she ain't
gonna never stop. She wanted to purge you right
then and there, make you whole, perfect, impeccable and flawless
on the spot. So you never sinned again. That
was mama. So, you know, in the media, we're,
we're, we're jumping our brothers for, you know, abusing our kids
and stuff like that. But the real treachery is mama
getting at your case. Now I say all that to say this,
if you don't understand the rules of engagement, hint hint, and
many of us don't, that's why our marriages are as messed up
as they are. If you don't understand the rules of engagement, which
I'm taking seven weeks to try to teach a lot of us in order
to enjoy a high quality marriage, then you're going to see the
Lord Jesus do things in your life that you're not going to
understand and you're not going to like. You understand what
I'm getting at? You're not going to understand
why he will keep you in the fire as long as he does. Why he won't
answer your prayers today, but he'll answer them a week from
now. Why he will allow you to be in certain circumstances which
just seem, they're inexplicable, they make no sense. And just
at the point when you are asking the question, do you even love
me? Have you been there? Now Lord, you said you love me.
But I don't know how you could love me in this situation. And
just right when you're about to really say it, he opens the
door and delivers you and says, I told you I loved you all along.
And the outcome of that trial becomes so much more a blessing
than the trial itself, that in shame you even contemplated that
you wondered whether or not he loved you. Of course he loved
you. He died for you, did he not? And so the church in Asia
Minor, as they are being confronted by this man who is demonstrating
the relationship of an extraordinary care, is now being adorned with
promises that I want to call to your attention. And as we
look at these promises, I'm going to run through them quickly,
because I don't want to be here long. I want you to think of
the word honor, OK? Think of the word honor. Because
you and I are not honored today. And here's what I mean. Just
like our Lord wasn't honored when he was here. He came unto
his own and his own didn't receive it. He was in the world. Just
think about that. God came into the world and the
world didn't know him. He was rejected by the world.
And had you and I been there, we would have rejected him, too.
He was not honored. He is honored now, is he not?
But not by the world. He's honored by his father, the
holy angels, the saints that have gone Pastimes and his people
today. They're the only ones that honor
him Christ is not yet honored You know what that means because
he's the head and I'm the body. I'm not yet honored And because
he's my husband and I'm his wife. I'm not yet honored because we're
one flesh That means the day that I'm honored is the day he's
gonna be honored Am I making some sense to the whole universe
on the day the son of man will be honored by everyone As he
truly is in his divine nature In all of the perfections of
his offices as savior redeemer and lord of the universe on that
same day His bride is going to be honored at the same time with
the same glory It's crazy And this is what he's talking about.
And I want to capture some of these promises as we read them
from every church. So remember the word honor, it
means to bestow weight upon, to give substance to, is to laden
with quality, to bring about an adornment by which you become
the center of attraction. Like God is honorable intrinsically,
is he not? And so his people shall be one
day as well. Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 20. I want
you to go there. I want you to see a number of verses. Revelation
20 verse 9 through 11 gives us a summation of the church. When she is finally in that that
state of glory of which I am now sort of laying a foundation
And I want to lay this foundation as I go through several verses
to confirm it We read of john's vision in revelation chapter
20 verse 11 Here it is in chapter 21 verse 9 through 11 and there
came unto me one of the seven angels having the seven Vials
full of the seven last plagues this year is the culmination
of God's judgment on the world And he talked with me saying
come hither and I will show thee the bride What she called the
lamb's wife We can call her Jesus's wife the wife of the Son of God
he says come here John and I'm gonna show you the bride and
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain
and showed me that great city. The holy what? Descending out
of heaven from God. Tie it together. The great city,
the holy Jerusalem, is the bride of Christ. Tie it together. The
great city, the holy Jerusalem, is the bride of Christ. You guys
got that? Because what John is saying, as the angel advertises,
I'm going to show you the Lamb's bride. I'm going to show you
her and then what John sees is a great city and the name of
that city is called what? Holy Jerusalem, that is the bride
of Christ. I told you long ago that Jerusalem
and Israel and Judaism is an ideal. It's a concept in the
mind of God. And what it really means is for
God to have a people for himself for all eternity, dwelling with
him, possessing his nature and enjoying his glory for all eternity. In God's mind, Jerusalem always
existed. What is Jerusalem? It's the city
of righteousness and city of peace. It is the place where
the great king lives. It's where all of his people
dwell for all of eternity in the blessed state of absolute
perfection and felicitude with their God in glory. That's why
we're moving to the last of the chapters of the book of Revelation.
And notice what it says in verse 11. Having what? The glory of God. And her light,
see the feminine gender connotation, and her light was like unto stone,
most precious, even like Jasper stone. as clear as crystal and
then it goes on to describe her walls and foundation and all
of this. Ladies and gentlemen, this is
an analogy or metaphor of the beauties and perfections of the
church of Jesus Christ. And in fact, whether you know
it or not, this woman here in the book of Revelation is the
same woman in Revelation chapter 12. Go there. I want to show
you. Revelation chapter 12. While you're going there, let
me give you a little bit more tidbits about the book of Revelation.
In the book of Revelation, There are themes taking place, didn't
we learn that? And they are cyclical and progressive
in nature, themes, so that the book of Revelation repeats concepts
and theological ideas over and over and over from different
imagery standpoints. In the book of Revelation, we
have what are also called parodies, these conflicts between two entities. For instance, in the book of
Revelation, you have the kingdom of God. Then you have the kingdom
of Babylon. Babylon is a kingdom. The kingdom
of God called Jerusalem is a kingdom. They are at war. The Jerusalem
Kingdom's at war with the Babylonian Kingdom. In the Babylonian Kingdom,
there's a woman. You know what she's called? The
Great Whore. Revelation 17. In the Jerusalem Kingdom, there's
a woman. Do you know who she's called?
The Holy Jerusalem. The Bride of Christ. The Church
of the Living God. And in her native redemptive
purpose, this is what she is in Revelation chapter 12, 1,
2, and 3. Are you there? Revelation chapter 12, verse
1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven. Here's the
word, a woman. There are two women in the book
of Revelation, like there are two kingdoms in the book of Revelation,
and two systems in the book of Revelation, and they are at war
with one another. And by the way, these two systems
run through the whole Bible. This is why Babylon is seen in
Genesis chapter 10 and 11 as the great kingdom opposing God. And so what does God do in answer
to Babylon? Raise up Jerusalem. And Jerusalem
is the people of the living God at war with the Babylonian system. But Revelation gives us a woman
before she's glorified. Here she is before she's glorified,
before she's honored. Watch this now. This woman is
clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon
her head, what? A crown of what? The imagery
is that of royalty, dignity. She is a queen. She is a queen
over the whole universe. She has authority over the sun
and the moon are under her feet. She has absolute position of
rule over the universe. She stands above the earth. She
stands over the authority of the moon. She stands clothed
in the sun. The sun is a metaphor for Christ.
That sun that is the center of our galaxy, our solar system. And what it teaches us is the
dignified position of this woman. And she has a crown of 12 stars
on her head. What are those 12 stars? The
12 tribes of Israel. They represent the church of
the living God. The number 12 being the number
for divine authority, right? As the 12 months of a year are. As it represents spiritual government. Now watch this woman's situation. in her pre-glorified state. Verse
2, and she being with what? Cry, travailing in pain, travailing
in birth and pain to be what? Do you understand that present
she's suffering? Do you understand that present
she's pregnant? Do you understand that at present,
she's going through labor and travail? At present, she is not
glorified. At present, she is not exalted.
At present, she is not liberated. At present, she doesn't feel
good. Ask any of your sisters what
it feels like to be full grown pregnant and in travail. It does not feel good, right?
That's the church of the living God in the world prior to the
birth of the Son of God. This is first century, the time
when Jesus Christ assumed a human nature. He assumed a new human
nature in the womb of a woman called whom? Mary. But Mary was
a representation of the church of the living God in that first
century of the Israelites. They were the remnant believers
in Judaism who looked for Messiah. They were the faithful ones of
whom the promises were not rejected or abandoned. And my point is
this, in order for you and I to be assured that we're going to
partake of the glory of Revelation 21, we've got to go through the
suffering of Revelation 12. Now here's how we know that her
suffering is worthy, because she's impregnated with the son
of the living God. That means she's a partaker of
the divine nature by being the vehicle by which the God-man
would come into the world. This, what we see in Revelation
chapter 12 verse 2, goes all the way back to Genesis chapter
3 verse 15, where the promise was given to the woman that her
seed would crush the head of his seed. Am I making some sense? We call it the first proto-evangel,
the first gospel promise that God gave not to mankind but to
the devil. God told the devil, I'm gonna
kill you. And I'm going to kill you by sending my son into the
world, assuming a human nature, but I'm going to do it through
a woman. Even here we see a very clear connotation and connection
of covenant in terms of how God has always worked in humanity.
Remember the father-son paradigm? the king-servant paradigm, and
then the what? Husband-wife paradigm. Those
are the three covenants that dominate our world from God's
vantage point. That means we ought to, now this
is going to task up a little bit, we ought to assume that
this woman right here, are you ready? Is married. I told you
it was going to get us. And the point being is that God's
biblical view of conception and birth and the gendering and the
bringing forth of children has never ever been understood outside
of the context of marriage. Our redemption is a marriage.
The woman in Revelation chapter 21 is the same woman that's in
Revelation 19. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! For the
Lamb's bride hath made herself ready and the feast is at hand. Am I making some sense? So one
of the things we got to do as we preach the gospel and call
men and women to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is to bring
them back into a biblical worldview. Bring them back into a biblical
worldview where we correspond with the truth of God's word
when it comes to relationship because we don't have babies
are we not? But we ought to have them in the context of covenant
This is where the Bible is teaching us the redemptive mysteries of
Christ. So before glory, they're suffering That's what Christ
said a woman in travail and pain she is hurting but as soon as
that child is born She forgets all the pain the church is in
a kind of birth pain state right now Am I making some sense? I just needed you to see that
and understand because sometimes you are hearing voices from other
pastors, other preachers, other churches, other denominations
telling you that you are to have all of your blessings now. No
troubles, no pains, no sorrows, no difficulties. I'm here to
tell you that's a lie. that you and I have to endure
suffering right now because we are in a process of delivering,
as it were, as companions of Christ, who is our head, his
own glory to the world by the salvation of sinners from every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Let's go to work now. Go with
me back to your Bibles, Revelation 2, verse 7. Seven promises, and
I want to touch on these seven today. The seven promises that
this husband who exercises infinitely great and relentlessly consistent,
extraordinary care to his church. In Revelation 2, 7, he says,
he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches. He that hath an ear, in what
we call the singular masculine form of hearing, that individual,
that means that you and I are obligated to ask the question,
do we have an ear? And if we do, let us hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches, because an hearing ear is a gift
from God. Are you guys hearing me? That's Proverbs 20 12. Now,
if you don't have a hearing ear, you can't hear the spirit. But
if you haven't hearing ear, here's what the spirit says to the churches,
plural to him that overcome it. Will I give to eat of the tree
of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God? Now it's
a crazy promise. But can I help you just a little
bit with what it means? It means this. If you are a child
of God and you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's
what it means to overcome the world. What is it that overcomes
this world? Is it not even this faith in
Christ? First John 5, 4. Right. And so
and so that's why God is pleased. He says it's impossible to please
him apart from faith and faith in Christ is going to put the
armor on. Remember what I taught you last Saturday? Armor up.
Because the only way you're going to get through this warfare is
to be armored up with the promises of God. Only the promises of
God are going to get us to glory. And that's what it means to walk
by faith, live in faith, and die in faith. To him that overcomes
will I give to eat of the tree of life. I love this concept.
I've taught it before. The first time you hear about
the tree of life is in the Garden of Eden back in Genesis chapter
2 and 3. Isn't that true? But from there it's moved all
the way to glory. And so for the rest of human
history, no one even remotely has an opportunity at that tree.
The only way you can have even a halfway hope of partaking of
that tree is to live in obedience to the gospel that was given
to us piecemeal in Revelation from the beginning of time to
our present hour. In other words, God took the
tree of life from the garden after our parents fell and put
it in glory. And in glory, here's what he
said to you and I that believe the gospel. Here's what he said.
If you overcome, if you trust me to the end, if you believe
my word, if you believe on him that sent me, you will be able
to eat of the tree of life. Now watch this. And having access
to the tree of life, you will never, ever, ever, ever perish
again. This is amazing. Let me help
you with something here. See, in the Genesis account, Versus
the Revelation account of the tree in the Genesis account.
There were all kind of trees and There was one tree of life
and right next to it was a tree of the knowledge of good and
evil The master said to Adam and Eve in that probational period
of righteousness. You can have all these trees
Also, the tree of life is there but don't touch the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. Remember that I And because we are as
sinful as we are and whenever a choice is given to us, we always
choose the wrong thing. Our first parents forfeited an
opportunity at eternal life because they never ate of the tree of
life. Is that true? Now watch this, God said it in
glory, and He tells you and me, when you get to heaven, I'm going
to put you right back in the garden. Only this garden is going
to be different than the other garden. This is going to be a
paradisiac garden, a garden of paradise, where there ain't going
to be no snakes there. That part I love! No more snakes! Now watch this, I had my brethren
from the British Isles here last week, right? And I took him to
my home. I live in Castro Valley and we
got all kind of redwood trees and stuff in my yard. My yard
is kind of just like somebody plopped a house in the middle
of the woods, right? And I got his and I tell him deer run through
there. Foxes run through their coyotes run through there. And
as me and my British brethren are walking through my backyard,
pastor Cecil, the older brother, he said, uh, I have to ask you
a question. I said, what he said, are there
any snakes back here? I'll say, yeah, we got quite
a few rattlesnakes here. He was ready to go back into
the house. In the garden, there was a snake. In paradise, there
will be no snakes. In the garden, there were all
kinds of trees. Are you ready? In paradise, one
tree. And that's the tree of life.
Revelation chapter 21 verse 1, 2, and 3. Look at it. I want
you to see the nature of this promise. In other words, as we
contemplate going back to that pristine state of the pre-fall
condition, wherein we are like our first parents, Adam and Eve,
what I have taught us more than once is your redemption in mind
is not simply a return to the Adamic state. Why would I want
to be put back in a probational situation where I could sin all
over again. Do you know what would happen
if God just simply made me probationally righteous, cleaned up everything
and took me back to square one? I would sin faster than Adam
did and tie the whole world up all by myself all over again.
Am I making some sense? When God saved you and me, He
didn't save us to take us back to square one. He saved us to
certify and make concretely certain that we have eternal life. So
that when we get to heaven, while there will be a kind of Edenic
state, it will be minus the curse, minus the serpent, minus options. Did you get that? Minus options. Revelation chapter 21 verse 22,
I'm sorry, verse 1, 2, and 3. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of
the Lamb. And in the midst of the street and on the other side
of the river was the, what, tree of life, which bared twelve manner
of fruit and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of
the tree were for the, what, healing of the nations. Love
it. I'm going to give you verse three and I'll talk about it
later. And there shall no more curse be. But the throne of God
and the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve
him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be in their
forehead, and there shall be no more night. They need no candle,
neither light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light,
and they shall reign forever and ever in the awesome. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Now go through those verses,
compare it to Genesis chapter 2 and 3 and say, in Genesis 2
and 3 we had this. In Revelation chapter 21, they're
missing now because God loves us. You got that? Because He
loves us. He would not put us back in the
same situation. Will you notice in Revelation chapter 22, only
one tree. I want you to get that. Only
one tree. And there's only one tree needed
because it's the tree of life. And what that means is that you
and I get to partake of that tree as a symbol of the source
of our eternality forever and ever. Trees were for food. You
guys understand that. We're dealing with an analogy.
Here's another wonderful truth with that as we move to our second
promise. When God promises, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you
have eternal life. He is not saying that you and
I become eternal life. He's saying that you and I possess
eternal life. That eternal life is not intrinsic
to you and I as a part of our DNA. Yes, we become new creatures
in Christ. Yes, we are born again. Yes,
we have the divine nature as a partaker of it. But when it
says that we get to eat of the tree, what it means is you and
I are partakers of God for all eternity. This is quite humbling,
but I don't mind. God himself is intrinsically
life, not you and me. We, for all eternity, will need
God. And just in the same fashion
we will be feeding on the tree of life, we will be feeding on
God as the source of our life. You guys don't understand this.
Aseity means that God is intrinsically self-sustaining, self-existing,
and doesn't need anything to keep him going. You and I don't
have aseity. We will always need God to keep
us going for all eternity. But he's gonna make it to where
he's the only thing there for you to eat on. Isn't that good? That's why the Bible says he
that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall have everlasting
life and will not perish because God himself will provide for
us himself to be available at all times for us to feed on him
and nothing else so that we won't even have an option to kill our
stupid selves all over again. So in our PowerPoint, the tree
of life, here's what I call it. So I can quickly move the tree
of life and eternal existence and the parent to say it. Garden.
Do you see that one food substance? Guess who that food substance
is. Christ. Secondly, all temptations to
heresy removed. Do you see it? Thank you, God.
You give me a choice. I'm always make the wrong choice.
And secondly, turn our thirdly eternal life as a reward. God
gives eternal life to us. He does not make us eternal life
itself. He gives it to us We will always
know that it's a gift our second point our second point in our
second text revelation chapter 2 11 Listen to what it said.
Here's the second promise given to us in the scriptures And he
that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit says unto the
churches He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death
Thank you. God See, because the second death
is that horrible state in which people will exist for all eternity
under the wrath of God. I know, I know, we live in the
21st century and most people have thought that they could
hold to Jesus as their Savior and abandon an idea of eternal
punishment and still be consistent in their thinking. Let me help
you understand something. You go to almost 100% of people
in America. Maybe the atheist won't accept
this, but most people to whom you speak, if you ask the question,
do you believe in heaven? Guess what they will say? Yeah,
I believe in heaven. We all believe in heaven. Isn't
that right? Most people will say they believe in heaven. It's
just sort of a foregone conclusion in most people's minds that there's
a heaven. But then you ask them, do you believe in hell? Do you
know in America less than 50% believe in hell? Now watch the
illogical nature of what I'm stating to you. 90% believe in
heaven. Only 50% believe in hell. See, there's an intrinsic abhorrence
to the idea of eternal punishment. But there's also an intrinsic
acceptance of the idea of a blissful place after we die. Am I making
some sense? Here's the problem. They think
that they're automatically capable of going to heaven without faith
in Christ. What that means is we do not
believe that we're sinners deserving of the wrath of God. But the
Bible is very, very clear. If you and I don't teach that
men are sinners and under the wrath of God and therefore will
perish in hell forever, we have no gospel to preach to people.
If you don't tell men and women that they are sinners, why should
they need a savior if they're not a sinner? Am I making some
sense? And to escape Hell and go to
heaven is a legitimate, legitimate proposal. God takes no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. He takes no pleasure. Intrinsically,
it's not part of God's nature to be pathologically or if you
will, in a sort of sadomasochistic sense, delighted in the destruction
of the ungodly. He does it out of his justice,
out of his holiness, out of his vindication against sin. But
the perishing of the wicked doesn't bring God any satisfaction whatsoever. And this is why he sent his son
in order that men might be redeemed from that horrible, horrible
expression of his holiness, which he must mete out upon the souls
of those who reject the gospel. Am I making some sense to you?
Watch this. So when he says to you and me, whosoever believes
on me, trust me, will never, ever be hurt of the second death.
Those are shouting words again. because for us to be delivered
from the second death means that God has made it so that you and
I in his eyes have never sinned. That means that God does not
view you in yourself as it were because of the crown rights and
sufferings of Christ as a sinner. That's for those who trust him.
He views us as perfectly righteous. You know what that means? In
God's mind, eternal damnation has nothing to do with God's
elect. Are you hearing me? Watch the argument. Revelation
chapter 2 verse 11 says the second death is conquered. Did not Christ
swallow up death? But now going back to our PowerPoint.
Going back to our PowerPoint. I need to just for them to see
that. Here are the three propositions that I want you to see under
your PowerPoint number two. It's done by election. It's affirmed
by our faith. And it's because our names are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. So let me just help you
swallow this big pill if it's too difficult for you. The reason
why you will end up in glory is because God chose you in Christ
before the world began. Are you hearing me? Stay with
me now. You didn't choose him. He chose
you. This is designed for us to bow our knee to the king of
glory and say, God, you have done whatever you please to do.
I can't say anything to it. You chose me. I didn't choose
you. I was not worthy to be chosen of you. There was nothing intrinsically
worthy of me being looked at by you. In fact, if you look
at me according to who I am, I am certainly an object of hell. Why you chose me, I will never
know other than the love of God that you revealed to me in Jesus
Christ and you decided in your own free sovereignty to make
me the object of your love for all eternity. I love the doctrine
of election because it's the only thing that makes sense.
It's the only thing that makes sense. Stay with me for a moment. It makes no sense that God would
save me and let somebody else perish on the merits of who I
am and who they are. I'm just as hell bound in my
nature as they are. God didn't look at me and say,
I know Jesse's going to do a better job than the other Joe. No way. No way. He chose me of his own
prerogative based on something in him, not in me. We call it
sovereign election. It's the mystery that will keep
us rejoicing for all eternity when we get the glory. And we
will say to all the saints, I ain't got no business here. I'm gonna
just let you know now. I ain't got no business here,
but I'm so glad to be here. How'd you get here? God chose
me. God called me. God quickened
me. God kept me. God preserved me. And he brought me into his everlasting
kingdom. I ain't got no business here, but I'm glad to be here. We call it sovereign election.
So 2nd Thessalonians 2, 13 and 14 tells us that we were chosen
before time unto sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth whereunto God had called us by the preaching of the gospel
to obtain salvation. Why did you obtain salvation?
God purposed it for you. Are you hearing me? You were
not better than any other man. He chose you. Now here's the
mechanism by which you know you were chosen. Are you ready? You
believe the gospel. So then people be tripping off
God electing who he wills and whom he will, he won't. But I've
already told you, you spend all your life choosing stuff and
rejecting stuff. You're just like God. See, but
you don't want God to be like you. You want to be like God. You want to choose this car over
that car, this house over that house, this job over that job,
this college over that college, this man over that man, this
woman over that woman, this politician over that politician, this preacher
over that preacher. You do all kind of electing every
day, but you don't want God to be an elector. Can I tell the
truth today? See, we want to hymn God up and
tell God, you've got to do something other than what we're doing.
You got to save everybody. No, he doesn't. Let me help you. God doesn't have to save any
one of us. The moment you say God has to
save us, you strip God of the right to be merciful. Now he
is demanded by your obligations to do something that you and
I don't deserve. You and I are only saved by mercy.
Do you understand that? You're an object of mercy. God's not obligated to save you.
He saves you because He wants to. It's intrinsic to His nature
to save. That's the only reason. If God
didn't save any one of us, He'd be just as just as when He created
the world. Am I making some sense? So don't
ever go around talking about, why didn't God do this? Just
understand this. God does whatever He pleases.
And once we get that, we will solve half the questions that
we talk about asking God when we get to glory. When I get to
glory, I'm gonna ask God, I guarantee you by the time you hit Jordan's
River, I'm talking Jordan's River, that cold river, you got the
cross called death, half of your questions will be either answered
or you will have thrown them in the garbage dump. No, I don't
think I'm gonna ask that question when I get to glory. I think
I'm gonna be just glad enough to be in glory. I ain't gonna
ask no question for a while. I'm gonna just be happy to be
in glory. But we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the
beginning chosen you unto salvation. Do you see it? His choosing you
is not salvation. His choosing you is unto salvation. His job was to make sure that
you get in the way of his message of redemption so that message
of redemption can bring you into a saving state, which will be
evidenced by faith in your life. He chose you in the salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit. I thank God every day
for the Holy Ghost. I thank Him for the Spirit of
the living God. I say, Father, I thank You for
the Spirit of God. One of my men asked me earlier this morning,
Pastor, what does it mean in Revelation chapter 22 verse 1
where it says, And I saw a pure river of life flowing from the
throne of God and of the Lamb. I said, that's the triune God
right there in verse 1. God the Father sitting on His
throne. God the Son is sitting there as the Lamb of God, that
atoning sacrifice by which God's people have access to God. And
the river of life is the Holy Ghost that flows from the throne
of God to hunt down filthy, vile sinners like you and me, to wash
us clean, to wash us clean, to wash us clean, and to bring us
into fellowship with God. I'm so glad the Spirit of God
moves, don't you? He moves the father doesn't move
the son is seated, but the Holy Ghost moves he brooded upon the
waters Did he not he brooded upon the waters and he broods
upon the hearts of sinners? Like you and me to cut the lights
on and show us the glory of God in Christ to clean us up Purge
us and make us ready for fellowship with God. I thank him for the
Holy Ghost. I thank him for him The Spirit of God is the one
that sanctifies you through belief in the truth See, this is what
I'm getting at. Election is God's business. The
evidence of election is whether or not you believe the gospel.
You want to know if a person is God's elect? Ask them, do
you believe the gospel? If they say, absolutely, I believe
the gospel, they're God's elect. Just that simple. Are you guys
hearing me? They're God's elect. Now watch this. I'll just help
some of you theologians. Now, if they don't happen to
believe the gospel right now, that doesn't mean that they're
not God's elect. It just means that you don't know it. Did you
get that? That'll help you. That'll help
you. Because we've seen a few people
come to Christ right on their deathbed. You know what that
means? They were always God's elect
from all eternity. Like the thief on the cross who
said to his partner on the other side, man, we deserve this judgment. This brother, he hasn't done
anything wrong. Lord, When you get the glory,
will you remember me?" Our Master said, I sure will. Salvation
is just that simple. Did you get that? Just that simple. Do you see the glory of our Savior?
He's able to save to the uttermost those that come to Him by what?
Faith. Faith. Faith. So when we talk
about us having been delivered from the second death. It's because
of election. It's because of faith in Christ.
That's why we preach the gospel to everyone in the world. And
it's because our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. There
are three verses in the book of Revelation that speak to that.
I'm simply going to take you to one. Revelation chapter 20
verse 15. Revelation 20 verse 15. Now watch
what it says in Revelation chapter 20. And whosoever was not found written
in the what? Book of life was what cast into
the lake of fire you got that See Luke chapter 10 our disciples. The disciples were sent out to
preach the gospel They came back happy because they were able
to cast out demons You remember that and I told you before don't
start a ministry of casting out demons We got churches all they
want to spend a time casting out demons Listen, listen carefully
to me to cast out a demon does not mean to save a person You
can cast demons out and the person's still headed to hell. You know
that's true, right? Why would you waste your time
trying to cast the demons out and not see to it that that individual
himself becomes born again so that the Spirit of God can come
in? Now, you know the best route to seeing to it that the Spirit
of God comes in? Simply preach the gospel to him. If you preach
Christ, watch this now, the Spirit will come in, kick the demons
out, and take a seat in his heart at the same time. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? That's why we preach the gospel.
We preach the gospel because the gospel is a two-edged sword.
It will cut out the demon and make a place for the crown rights
of Jesus Christ in the heart of a man and a woman. That's
why that demoniac was clothed in his right mind, ready to go
with Jesus when Jesus had gone to the island, saw that man among
the tombs, healed him of his disease. He was ready to go with
Jesus. Our job is to preach Christ. and that will do the work. Don't
get sidetracked with casting out demons. By the way, this
is what Jesus said in Luke chapter 11. He says, don't rejoice in
that you can cast out devils. Rejoice in this, that your name
is written in heaven. The Lamb's book of life has your
name written on it by the blood of Christ on a perfect ledger
which will never fade nor diminish for all eternity. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? This is why we are conquerors
over the second death. Third point, quickly, let me
move on. Revelation 2, verse 17. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.
To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and
I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name which
no man knows except the one that receives it. There's way above
your head. I know that. Way above your head.
But see, to the church to whom he was writing, they understood
exactly what he was saying. Because most of the promises
that Christ gave were promises that corresponded with the cultural
context in which they lived. And very frequently, he gave
them promises that pitted over against the threats that they
were dealing with in their culture. I just spoke to you about the
church at Smyrna. Remember, Smyrna was being persecuted,
and many were dying for the faith. And he was simply saying to Smyrna,
don't worry about the first death. The first death doesn't do anything
but kill the body. It's the second death you got
to worry about and I've already taken care of that for you. Now
we're dealing with the church of Pergamos. And the church of
Pergamos, he's saying here, I am going to give you hidden manna
to eat. Which is a metaphor for the ministry
of the priesthood in the Old Testament. Remember what God
had told Aaron and Moses to do with the manna that came down
from heaven? Put it in a golden pot and put that golden pot in
the Ark of the Covenant. Remember that? As a testimony
of God's faithfulness to keep Israel all the way through the
wilderness. You remember how those knuckleheads complained
about, God ain't taking care of us. Now see, y'all don't do
that. But you know how those knuckleheads complain that God
doesn't take care of us. And God says, Moses, in the morning
I will show you my glory. And from heaven came down a horror
frost that when it sat on the ground and the frost dissipated,
there was a white sort of wafer that they called manna. And between
those hot biscuits in the morning, and the fried chicken that came
in through the pheasants from the east wind in the evening.
God kept his people all the way through the wilderness. Can God
provide a table in the wilderness for his people? He's provided
a table for us, has he not? All the way up to this hour.
God has kept us, has he not? He's been good to us. Hot biscuits,
butter biscuits, with syrup in the morning, maple syrup at that,
and fried chicken in the evening. The Lord knows how to take care
of a brother. I've already told you folks who don't eat fried
food. I understand. I understand. Turn this into
broad chicken for you. Okay. Baked chicken. Okay. I'm
talking fried chicken for those of us who like fried chicken.
The pheasant came in from the east wind. He gave him so much. And they still miss his blessing
on that. But when it says the hidden manna, it's talking about
your calling and mine as part of the priesthood. See, the promises
that are given to us are promises to a kingdom of priests. We are
the priesthood of Christ. Peter said you are a peculiar
people. You are a specific treasure of God. You've been called to
a holy priesthood. That's Revelation chapter 1,
4, and 5. You don't have to go back there. We are priesthood. And
so it just says Aaron and his sons and the Levites had right
to the shewbread. Remember that? We have right
to the manna. The hidden manna is Christ. He
is our hidden man, is he not? He is the mystery of redemption
and the fullness of his offices that we partake of every week,
every Sunday, every Friday, every Thursday, every time we open
the doors we preach Christ one way or the other because he's
our sustenance. Am I making some sense? But the
privilege is that for the priesthood that means your role in mind
is to pray for men and women Advocate for men and women stand
in the gap for men and women We are called to stand as God's
priesthood in this world because it's a fallen world But God makes
sure he takes care of the priest does he not and that's what he's
doing with this promise here What does it mean that not only
are we to eat of the hidden manna? but we are now also engaged in
receiving a white stone see the white stone in that culture and
The Christians were often kicked out of the city because they
wouldn't bow down to Caesar as Lord, burn incense to Caesar. And so they would be brought
before the judgment hall and there would be this sort of pagan,
ancient cultural practice where they would determine your condemnation
or your justification by two stones, either a white stone
or a black stone. They would juggle the stones
in a box and whichever one came out, whether it was black or
white, if it was black, you were condemned and you were out of
there. If it was white, you were justified and you stayed in the
city. When Christ says, I will give them a white stone, what
he is saying is you and I stand before God perfectly and permanently
and eternally justified so that we will never, ever come under
condemnation or be kicked out of the kingdom of God again.
See, Christians have been kicked out of cities. They've been kicked
out of nations. They've been kicked out of churches.
The Bible's clear about that. But Christ will never cast you
out. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And he that
cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. That's what the
white stone is about. He said to us, God's already
made a judgment. You are righteous. and you will
be in the kingdom forever. One more explanation here in
this particular one. And not only a white stone, but
a new name written, which no man knows, save he that receives
it. Now again, the idea of a new
name is not unique to the book of Revelation. It runs out through
the Bible. Do you notice virtually every
person that God entered into relationship with in the Old
Testament, he either gave him a new name or changed his name?
Isn't that right? And Jesus did that when he came,
didn't he? Which means he was God as well, isn't that right?
Because the person that gives you a name or changes your name
has authority over you. Y'all gonna learn this when we
get back to the marriage class. Some of you ain't gonna like
it, but it's gonna still tell the truth. So when the Lord saves you, he
changes your name because your reputation being rooted in your
first father Adam was sin. He gives you a new name because
He gives you a new nature. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 is plain,
isn't it? If any man be in Christ Jesus,
he's what? And so old things have passed away, all things
have become new. When you get a new nature, a new name is only logical. And the name that you receive
is an intimate name between you and the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that fantastic? Pastor, what's that name? I don't
know. That's between you and Him. See, this is how these promises
work. Many of these promises are about
you and him. Nobody else gets to share in that. Only you and
him. This is what I'm going to be
preaching in a revival conference in a couple of weeks. And they're
asking me to preach on personal salvation. And I am thankful
to do it. Because I just can't understand how personal this
infinite God who fills heaven and earth has shown himself to
be in our life. He is profoundly personal. I mean, so profoundly personal
that it's alarming to us. He says, I got a name for you,
and it's between me and you alone. Isn't that romantic? That's just
romantic, isn't it? He's the best lover I have ever
known. You can learn some things from
him, brothers. When you get your wife that stone, that glittering
stone, put a name underneath, and tell it's between you and
me. That'll get you some points in the year 2015. Okay, so, so
the idea is permanent security of provision for food, absolute
permanent justification, never ever having to worry about being
kicked out, and a name that corresponds to our new nature and the intimacy
of the relationship between us and Christ forever. The church
at Pergamos was blessed to hear that word. The next one, verse
27. Notice what it says in verse
27. I'm not skipping anything, am I? Verse 27, notice what it
says. Here in verse 27 he says, Whosoever
overcomes, he shall rule with a rod of iron, as the vessels
of a potter shall be broken to shivers, even as I have received
of my Father, and I will give him the morning star. He that
overcomes. Now this is a little hard for
some of us to swallow, but Christ is a man of war. A little hard
for us to follow, but he's a sovereign king that sits on his throne
and he judges nations. A little hard for us to swallow,
but the church of the living God participate in the judgment
of Christ. So do you know on the last day,
when God has cleaned you up adequately, he's going to allow you to sit
on a throne with him judging the nations of the world? Do
you know that? Paul plainly said it in 1 Corinthians 6, around
verse 13, he said, do you not know that we shall judge angels
and men? We will sit in the judgment with
Christ. All right, so the only thing I want you to do with that,
because I want to move on for time's sake, is this. I want
you to think, if you can actually grasp the concept of judging
men on the last day, if somehow God's going to make it to where
you are qualified to judge men on the last day, this is what
I want you to do now. I want you to get this. This
is going to be critical. If, in fact, you're going to be judging
men, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, I believe verse 3 or maybe verse
13. What you want to do is make sure
that you don't judge men with the flesh now. Don't get caught
up in carnal judgments. See, our master said in Matthew
chapter 7, judge not lest you be judged. Are you hearing me?
Don't waste your time. This is what we learn in the
marriage class, the difference between confession and criticism. Don't waste your time criticizing
folks and judging folks so that you can make it to the judgment
throne because on that day your mind is going to be perfect.
Your heart is going to be perfect and your judgment is going to
be perfect. Today I guarantee you at least 80% of your judgments
about people are wrong. Are you hearing me? So Paul said
in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, judge nothing before the time, but
wait, because when the Lord Jesus comes, he's gonna make manifest
everything. What that means is don't be distracted
by the doctrine of the devil, because the devil is the accuser
of the brethren. His goal is to condemn men now
unjustly. Don't find yourself distracted
from criticism. Make sure you're confessing your
sin before God, acknowledging your sinfulness, so that you
can stay under the blood of Christ yourself. and make it to glory. When you get to glory, he will
qualify you to be a judge of men in that regard. Am I making
some sense? Don't waste your time judging.
God will get the judgment right. Your job is to preach the gospel
and call men to the crown rights of Jesus Christ. So in this context,
the sword that he's talking about is a sword of executing capital
punishment against his foes. It's the sword of Psalm 149,
6 through 9. It's the authority that's given
to us in 2 Timothy chapter 2, 12. If we suffer with Christ,
we shall also reign with him. Do you believe that? Let me move
on now to our last three points. Revelation chapter 3, 5. He that
overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and
I will not blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess
his name before my Father and before his angels. Hallelujah. Let me see if I can make this
simple. If you and I hold on and hold out by the grace of
God, if we believe the gospel, trust Christ and serve Him, no
matter what people say about you, on that day, you're going
to parade with the Master through the universe. And when He parades
through the universe, He's going to be gloriously attired. He's
going to be kicking it. You're talking about just blinging. Our Master is going to be blinging
on that day. And guess who's going to be blinging
with Him? His people. every one of his people. The
white represents the triumph of Jesus Christ at Calvary. It's
the togas that the warrior wore after winning the battle and
all of his physical garments were all bloodied and torn. He'd
go home and clean up and he would put on all of his royal garments
and all of his soldiers would get dressed to the hilt And they
would parade through the city after having won the battle.
And ladies and gentlemen, while we are fighting a hellish warfare
down here, the battle is already won. Christ has already won the
battle. You and I are more than conquerors
through him that loved us. You and I always triumph in Christ
always everywhere. Only there's a day coming when
he will make it visibly known that these who believed on me
have already conquered the world. That's the promise that we have.
He's looking forward to confessing us before the father You're not
gonna be wonderful. He was a father. These are mine
Do you know why because down here we have told everyone in
the world Jesus is Lord See we confess him before men. He confesses
us before our father in heaven. Am I making some sense? All right,
let's go on. Our next one is in verse 12 Verse
12 we're getting now down to the wire. This one is phenomenal
Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my
God. My goodness. That's the one that shook me
up a couple of weeks ago. The man or the woman that trusts
Christ lives by faith, dies in faith. Will I make a pillar in
the temple of my God? That's the individual believer.
I told you in the Old Testament temple of Solomon, there were
two pillars. You can find this in the book of Chronicles and
they had two names on them. One of them was Jochen, Jochen.
It means the Lord is powerful. He has established. The other
one is Boaz. Boaz. That means strength. You
remember Boaz, the kid's been redeemer? You don't remember
Jachin. You don't remember Jachin. But God remembered Jachin. Isn't
that good? You don't remember Jachin, but
God does. Now watch this. Every time the
Israelites went into the church, guess who they had to think about?
Brother Jachin? Or sister Jachin? I don't know.
Now watch this now. What that means is when you and
I serve God in the personality of our relationship with Him,
though people in the world don't acknowledge you, God's going
to see to it that the whole universe acknowledges you. Now isn't this
crazy that He's going to make us a pillar in the temple of
His God? See, now watch this. I already see it. I already see
it over you. I see it over you. You don't believe this. I can
see these little bubbles popping up over your head. I don't believe
it, Pastor. I don't believe it. I believe it! I don't understand
it. It humbles me. But see, the word
that I told you in the beginning of our message is the word honor. Are you hearing me? Honor. When
the people of God who are redeemed from every nation, kindred, tribe
and tongue walk into the temple for all eternity, that metaphorical
temple, they will honor the people that love God and serve God down
here. It's a promise of honor. Listen
to what he goes on to say. I will write their name upon
the pillar of my God, and they shall no more go out. And I will
write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city
of my God, which is what? There it is, which comes down
out of heaven from my God. Did we read that in Revelation
21? and I will write upon him my new name." So God's writing
all over you. Now, I get this. Here it is. I want you to get
it now. So God's a tattoo artist, okay? Now watch this now. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a tattoo artist. No, I'm
just telling you the truth. In fact, He has two tattoos. One on one palm and the other
on the other. He has engraven me upon the palms
of His hands. Do you know what that means?
I am one with Him and He is one with me. His love for me will
never go away. It will be just as permanent
as the engravings of my name in his palm. This is what I mean
about the romantic, deeply transpersonal nature of the gospel. Isn't it
crazy? Isn't it crazy? I want you to
get this now. God loved me so much. He loved you so much. If
you believe it, that he wrote your name on his nature to never
forget you. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy, and I will write upon
him my new name. I will write upon him the name
of my city, which is New Jerusalem. All that means is you're going
to be a visible walking advertisement for the glory of God for all
eternity. See, those are shouting words, they missed that. But
that goes back to Revelation 21, having the glory of God coming
down from heaven, the glory of God emanating, effulgently emanating
from that New Jerusalem so that you and I become the center the
center of the universe in our communion and fellowship with
God. Let me hurry up. You guys are done. Y'all can't
get this. This is too much for you. Too much for you. Revelation chapter three, verse
21. I'm done here. This is crazy. And to him that
overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as
I overcame and I'm sat down with my father in his throne. Remember
the word, we're getting ready to partake of the Lord's table.
We're going to have the offering right here and we're going to
have the Lord's table. And if you're a believer, you
can partake. If you're not a believer, don't. Become one by trusting
Christ and you can partake. Let me share something with you
with the bread and the cup we're about to partake of. The bread and
the cup points to this promise right here. Do you hear me? So think this through. Think
this through for a moment. how passionate Christ is in his
longing to have us sit at the table with him, to sit with him
in fellowship. He said it in Luke 22, with great
desire have I desired to eat this bread and drink this cup
with you and I will drink it no more until I drink it and
eat it in the kingdom of God. the passion of Christ to bring
in all of his elect from the beginning of time to the end
of the world, a number which no man can number, to sit with
him on his throne. He's got a lot of room up there
on his throne, doesn't he? Doesn't he got a lot of room
up on his? Now think about this, saints. Did I bore you today?
Think about this now. It's not all that I have stated.
Honor, dignity, exaltation. Just crazy honor, right? Crazy, crazy, crazy honor. Magnificent
honor. Do you believe the promises of
God? Do you know that they are precious to you? Then hear the
word as we close. Hear the word of God. You and
I have need of patience that after we have done the will of
God, we might receive these promises. Be patient. Trust Him. Amen.