Eschatology Part 4 Revelation 5

But, I want y 'all to try and focus because this is the last sermon before we begin the typical talks on eschatology.

Now, what's important or what is eschatology? It is the study of last times.

And here in Revelation chapter 5, it is a transition from chapter 4 where we see the throne room of God to chapter 5 seeing the

Lamb of God. And then, of course, beginning in chapter 6 which will be next week, we're going to see the futuristic apocalyptic events that are going to lead up to the judgments of God or are the judgments of God that lead up to the second coming of Christ.

Now, I did your notes a little bit differently today. I wrote them in an expositional manner which means we're going to go verse by verse and I'm going to point out certain things from those verses.

And I'm hoping that through this study of eschatology, this will make your comprehension and your retention much, much better.

John, the Apostle John, the guy who wrote the Gospel of John, who wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd

John. I want to tell you just a little bit of history about him. He was the last apostle alive.

All the other ones had been martyred and killed off. John had not. During the reign of Domitian, and he was a

Roman emperor, the church came under a general persecution. Up until that time, it had been localized to different cities or states.

And different rulers would sit there and go, we don't like these Christians. They're irritating us. Let's kill them in gruesome, graphic ways.

But under Domitian and later emperors, it became an empire -wide persecution.

Now, about 9293 AD, John was arrested.

And tradition, we have no scriptural basis of this, but church tradition says that John was boiled in oil as punishment, which was a death sentence, but he did not die.

And so, because he did not die, it's kind of where we get the laws of today of double, what is it when you can't be prosecuted?

Yeah, double jeopardy. It was kind of like that, and so they set him free, but they actually relegated him or sent him to the island of Patmos.

And there's a picture on your paper there on the front. Now, while he was banished there on the island of Patmos, this is where he received the revelation of Jesus Christ.

It is one revelation. It is not the book of revelations. It is the book of revelation.

And we get that word from the Latin word apocalypse, which means unveiling.

It means to make something known, and that's where we get the word reveal. Now, while he was there, in fact, if you turn the paper over, the cave in which he wrote the book of Revelation, they've turned it into a shrine, but that is the inside of the cave where John actually wrote this book.

While he was there and writing this book, he was, of course, because of his age, he was in his 80s or such, because he was there, he didn't have to do a lot of the work that the younger people had to do.

Once he left, he was relieved from Patmos. He made his way back to the town or the city of Ephesus.

That's from the book of Ephesians. He went back to Ephesus there, and that's where he lived out the rest of his life until about 106

AD. He lived there with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and we are going there one day.

And you can actually, we're going there in how many months? 23, 24 months, this church is going to Ephesus.

It's going to be so cool. So if you're interested in that, please see Miss Gwen or somebody else. But that's where he finally died was in the city of Ephesus.

Now, I want to just point out, and I know this is a long introduction, but I think it's important for us to understand in good harmonetics.

Now, I was just talking to a pastor in Pakistan. We are getting ready for a huge crusade that I'm preaching at via Zoom, and they're expecting 7 ,000 people there.

And so I am practicing my Urdu, and he is practicing his English. And it's amazing to me how much doctrine

I have to teach this pastor because he doesn't know it. He's from a, and I'm not making fun of him, but from a charismatic and Pentecostal background.

And what he is used to in church services is a lot of bish, boom, bah, a lot of lights.

They wanted, they said, well, we got to spend this much money, you know, on lighting. And I was like, dude, you don't need lighting to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Well, we've got to have tea and refreshments. You ain't got to have no tea and refreshments, man. Let's preach the

Word of God and go home. I mean, that's just the way it is. And so I was trying to explain to him, and I taught him something called harmonetics.

Now, if you've ever been, if you've been in this church long enough, you've heard that word over and over again.

And what that means, there are laws or rules meant to interpret both literary, legal, and theological ideas.

As we look at Revelation 5, you cannot look at the Bible in chapters and verses.

They were never written in chapters and verses. It wasn't for 1 ,500 years later that mankind put chapters and verses in Scripture.

But we have trained our minds to look at it that way. You cannot do that. You see, it's written as one complete work.

And it's written by a man from a sovereign God. And there is very specific things that you must do.

One of those rules of harmonetics is context. Now, if you go back to Revelation 1, verse 19,

Jesus appears to John in that little cave on that little island and says, Hey, I want you to write these things down.

And I wrote them down for you. He actually says this, I want you to write down the things that you have seen, the things that are now, and the things that will come.

OK, so in other words, he's saying, write down everything that's going on right now. And then write down the things that I'm going to say in this present time.

And that's where we get chapters 2 and 3, where he addresses the seven churches of Asia Minor.

You know, we've been going through that, OK? But then from chapter 4 and 5, we're still in the present tense, i .e.

with John. But he's about to start writing the things that are going to come.

Things that are still future in our time right now. And things that you can see coming to fruition.

Now, I will tell you this, listen to me. And as the days grow closer, the number of real

Christians are going to shrink. We're not going to get bigger, we're going to get smaller.

Because it's going to be harder and harder to be a believer. Why did Jesus write these things down?

It's because of this. You're going to have doubts. You're going to start having doubts. In this world, to be accepted, you cannot be a true born -again believer in the

Son of God. But it's going to get worse. To be employed in this world as a

Christian is going to become more rare and rare. In fact, the Word of God tells us there's going to be a day where you will not be able to buy, sell, or trade as a born -again believer.

Those days are coming. And you say, well, pastor, they've been saying that for a long time.

Yes, but you must get out of your myopic view of time. You really do. We're talking about the sovereign hand and the sovereign will of Almighty God.

And never before in history, ever before in history, has so much of God's prophecy in His Word is being fulfilled right before our very eyes.

And we're about to spend the next six weeks. We start next week, and we're going to be for six weeks, well, to the end of the year.

Talking about that biblical prophecy. Now, if you go to chapter 4, verse 1, it's the same thing again.

Chapter 4, verse 1, Jesus says to him, Come up here, and I will show you what things must take place after this.

All right, so here we go. I'm about to tell you. Now, John starts describing what he sees before he starts writing what he is told.

Are you with me? Let me say that to you again. If you walked in this building right now and you said, Hey, I saw these people, they were sitting in a circle, and there was this great looking perfected male specimen of a pastor preaching.

You would write those things down. Why are y 'all smiling? Come on now. You would write those things down, and then you would say,

This is what he was saying. That's exactly what we're about to read. Are you with me? So let's go,

Revelation chapter 5, and let's go. We're just going to do ten verses. It says this in verse 1,

Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven scrolls.

And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?

And no one in heaven or in earth was able to open the scroll or look into it.

I want you to see first thing this thing. This scroll, which we're going to read a lot. Do you know the seven seals?

That's what we're going to talk about on that Sunday. But this scroll had seven seals on it. But I want you to note its location.

It was in the hand of Almighty God. It was in its sovereignty, that which was about to be delivered, that which was about to be opened, and its immutability, meaning that which was written therein, was going to take place.

There is no ifs, ands, or buts. There was a movie a long time ago, back in the 90s.

God, did I just really say that? Back in the 90s called The Seventh Seal.

And I can't remember that chick's name. She was married to Demi Moore. Yeah, that chick. And basically it was this.

It was very Mormon -esque in its theology. But basically the guff at the last soul, if the last soul was born into a baby, then the world were in.

And they were running around trying to do all this stuff Yeah, to prevent that.

Let me tell you something. There is no preventing the will of God. You can fight all you want. It's like some of you in this room, you're fighting right now.

There are things trying to distract your attention from what God is trying to tell you now. Not a fat old bald pastor.

I don't mean nothing. Not some stupid Baptist religion. But the word of the living God is trying to speak to you now to thwart or stifle that which the

Holy Spirit is trying to do. But what I'm telling you this is that the word of God and the will of God for your life shall be completed and there is nothing that's going to stop it.

Look at what it says right here. It says, and this is very unusual. This is anomaly. It said it was written from within and without.

In other words, this scroll had writing on both sides of it. You see, back then, scrolls were vellum.

They were really thin sheets of animal hide that were glued together. This is post papyrus.

This is later on. They were glued together and they were rolled out and a usual scroll was anywhere from 10 to 15 feet long.

And it was rolled up and you read it from right to left. You didn't read it from left to right. And it was only on one side, so the outside of it was totally out.

Well, this one, there was written completely on both sides and let me tell you why.

God's word cannot be added to. Listen to me. There are preachers today that are on television that are looking to grow their ministries.

If you ever find a preacher that has a ministry named after him, keep on going. Keep on going.

There is one Jesus Christ mediated between God and man and it is this man,

Christ Jesus. No church or man can ever stand in the gap that Jesus Christ filled with His sacrifice.

God's word is absolutely complete and there can be nothing added to it.

I love this part. It is sealed. God told Daniel, and we're going to be talking a lot in Daniel, God gave

Daniel all these prophecies and He said this, Roll it up and seal it, for it is not for you or this time.

A lot of people over the years of the church have struggled to understand prophecy. You know why?

It wasn't for them. They didn't get it. You got to understand in 700 BC, the idea that the whole world could have knowledge of something immediately was totally unknown.

It took them a month to walk from Baghdad to Jerusalem. There was no way.

Nowadays, we can know immediately something happening all over the world.

You can get on your little phones right now and look up Jerusalem live camera and you can see the wailing wall where Jesus Christ prophesied from now in real time.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you, there's a day coming. Those seals are about to be broken.

Jesus Christ is about to be revealed and it ain't going to be revival as you think you know it.

It's going to be a cleansing and a separating of the wheat from the tares. The fourth thing is this, there's a rhetorical question

Farley. Okay? It's a rhetorical question. Who is worthy to open these scrolls?

Where is Alexander the Great? He is buried in a tomb. Where are the great civilizations of man?

Where are the ancient powers of Rome and Greece? They are monuments and tourist attractions.

But what stands forever is the glory and power of Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy to open these seals.

There is no great Nietzsche or Descantes or Kant. There is no philosopher in this world that can measure the power of Jesus Christ.

There is no Einstein. There is no Musk. There is no Steve Jobs for they will all falter and fall away and die.

But the Word of God will stand forever. Now let's look at verse 4.

John sits there and when this angel asked who is worthy, nobody stepped up.

Hey, nobody stepped up. John sat there and goes, man, I made this journey for nothing.

I was supposed to get all this information. Now, it's sealed up.

John starts crying. Someone comes up to him and goes, hey son, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

Because right here, weep no more. Behold, the lion, the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scrolls and the seven seals.

Listen to me for a second. For most people, they read that and they don't understand it.

Witten, I do not want you to be that ignorant. There is a prophecies in prophecy right there.

You see, when it says that he is the lion of the tribe of Judah, remember this is in about 95

AD, Jesus is writing. I'm sorry, I know this is going to be off for you that are behind me, but here he is right here.

Alright? 95 AD. You've got to go all the way back to about 2000

BC. In Genesis chapter 49, Joseph, Jacob.

Jacob had 12 sons. Right? 12 sons. One of them was a guy named

Judah. He was not the firstborn. He was not the studly one. He was just a dude.

And in Genesis chapter 49, I think I might have, did I write that out for you? Yeah. In Genesis 49,

I wrote up the scripture, a prophecy to Judah was this, you may not be the oldest, you may not be the biggest, but you're going to last forever when everyone else is going to peter out.

And out of you will be a scepter that rules. You don't get it, do you?

In Israel right now, the little guys with the curly Q's sitting with the little felt beaver hats, sitting there with stuff strapped to them, going, honey, uh -huh.

What are those? They're what? Hasidic, true, but what's that last word?

Jew. Why do we call them Jews? Because they're from the tribe of...

Where's the tribe of Dan? Where's the tribe of Manasseh? So here's what you're saying.

Now let me get this straight. All you little millennial mocha latte people. You're saying that 4 ,000 years ago, it was just a lucky stroke of the pen that the least out of the sons of Jacob would be the remaining tribe that still exists in the last days when those seals were open.

Oh, yes, it is. And by the way, it ain't no black hat, black helicopter conspiracy because we have copies of the

Dead Sea Scrolls and all these other things that are thousands of years old. If this was a conspiracy by man, that would have to include generation after generation up until 50 generations later that Judah is still here today.

Are you with me? Okay, do y 'all need to take an Adderall? Come on, baby. Come on, man.

You can twist the fatty later. Stay focused and sober right now. You need to wake up to this.

Why is this so important? Because y 'all are living your lives according to the events that will slake the lust of your flesh rather than the events of God's Word.

Guys, there's a time coming. The time for codependent relationships in your life need to die.

You need to rely on Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. Quit living by fear. Quit living by religion.

Quit living by your morals and start living that Jesus Christ's imminent return could happen before I finish this sentence.

That's the next thing. It says the root of David. You got to come up about a thousand years later.

About 1050 B .C. Well, actually a little bit later than that. About 900. See, David was the king of Jerusalem, yet he died to death.

Right? His son took over Solomon. Woo, Israel's going to be forever. God promised us.

Solomon was like, that's right. God said, I'm the chosen people, man. I can have 1 ,500 wives and 3 ,200 concubines.

Right? God, that dude was on crack. But, of course, the difference was, man, you know, one of them irritated.

Hey, take her right back. Put her to the sword. You know what I'm saying? But anyways, 1 ,500 wives, man.

I know, I know, I know, I know. Woo, God. Yeah, Johnny, be careful.

She's sitting right by you. Guys, David, Solomon died.

Israel split in a civil war. The ten northern tribes known as Israel and the two southern tribes known as Judah.

Right, Judah. Yeah, duh. In 722

BC, the ten northern tribes were taken out. They don't exist anywhere.

Well, they do when God's promise is fulfilled. But right now, there ain't no country of Manasseh.

Okay? We don't know where they are. Israel, with 586,

Judah, the two southern tribes, was beaten their brains out by Babylon. They're gone. They're gone.

God said to a prophet, tell the people, I don't care what the world does or what they think they can do.

I'm telling you this. Out of the root of David, in other words, a descendant of David, will be back on the throne of David and he will rule forever.

You know, during Christmas time, usually in other churches, you have some lame

Charlie Brown kids pageant. You know, and everybody's like, oh, look, the little angel.

And they had the nativity scene, which is found nowhere in Scripture. You know what I mean? Three wise men didn't show up until Jesus was like two, two and a half, three.

But anyways, whatever. They had this little nativity scene, you know, and everybody's like, oh, this is so sweet and wonderful, because we paraphrase

God's word and memorize man's word. And so we sit there and we look at all this stuff.

In Matthew 1 and Luke 1, during this Christmas time, we always skip over that first chapter.

We have to get to the last part of Luke 1 where unto us a child is born and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You do that at your own peril. You see, both Matthew 1 and Luke 1 spend the entire first part of the chapter going back through the genealogy of Jesus all the way back to David.

You know why? Because they didn't use their Bibles as lampstands or in the floorboard of the car. They actually read them, knew them, and found hope and peace in God's word and the promises fulfilled so they could face the loss and dying world.

You know what I'm saying? The root of the tribe, or the root of David. By the way, David was of the tribe of Benjamin who later became, say it all with me,

Judah. See how that all works? Have I lost y 'all? Are y 'all okay? You're blonde.

Are you understanding it? Alright, then everybody should be getting this, okay? Are you with me?

So two prophecies found in prophecy that have already been fulfilled in John's day, he's writing again.

If he's got it right after 4 ,000 years, maybe, just maybe, you ought to listen to him rather than another

Dose of Damas special on HBO. You hear what I'm saying to you? Alright, let's go to this next one. Watch this.

It says, verse 6, And between the throne and the four living creatures among the elders,

I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out to all the earth.

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne.

And when he had taken the scroll, four living creatures and twenty -four elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

The Lion of the tribe of Judah. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. That's great.

Titans. We're playing tonight. Gonna beat them chiefs, man. We're gonna be six and two.

The Giants. The 101st Screaming Eagle.

Why is it that all the pictures we have are ones of strength and might? You know what

I'm saying? How many of y 'all have ever played for a football team called

Buck Snort Butterflies? Cowboys.

It's not cowgirls. Pittsburgh Steelers. Not the Pittsburgh Fairies or whatever.

I don't know. You understand what I'm saying? Now, Jesus was said, he's the lamb.

He's the lamb. He's the lamb. And then finally, my male machismo is satisfied when he calls

Jesus the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Now we got a lion. And that's the last time they call him lion.

For twenty -nine more times in the New Testament they're referred back to him as a lamb.

I'll be honest with you, man. I'm just saying. Maybe my testosterone's low.

I want to follow that lion, baby. I want to draw a sword. I want to charge down there. I want to, you know, all that romantic male machismo and we're back to a lamb?

Really? Well, here's why. Twenty -nine times in the book of Revelation, twenty -nine more times he's referred to as lamb.

You know why? Who is the book of Revelation written to? For some of you that are stuttering right now, listen to me.

The word of God was never written to lost people. Lost people do not understand it. In fact, God's word says the preaching of the word of God is foolishness to them who don't believe.

So if you're in this room, listen, if you're in this room right now and you're going, this is stupid, you probably got a serious problem waiting for you on the other side of death.

It's going to suck to be you because you're going to hell. Okay? But that's another time for another.

I ain't got time to mess with you. The word of God is written to God's people. And to God's people,

Jesus Christ is always the lamb. Oh, pastor, I have screwed up so bad. I've committed adultery.

I've done this. I'm an addict. The lamb of God still bids you come. You see, the lamb of God was slain for you.

Not just the whole world. He was slain for you. And the lamb of God is still present as the lamb of God.

Now notice what it says. It says the lamb of God was standing in the midst of the throne.

You have to understand that triune nature of God. Jesus Christ wasn't beside the throne.

He wasn't chained like a little puppy. It says out of the center of the throne, i .e.

the throne where God was sitting, the lamb of God emanated from. And it says he was standing as though he had been slain.

Yeah. He died. Yeah. You look at all the crucifixes today.

If any of y 'all have crucifixes with Jesus hanging on the cross, you might want to go to 2 .0. Okay?

Because he ain't on that cross. He ain't in that grave. He is sitting at the right hand of God the

Father for all of his enemies will be made his footstool of which some of you may be one.

Understand this today, that he is the King of kings and Lord of lords. And though he was slain, even from the foundation of the world by God's will, he is now alive forevermore.

Now some of you in this room go, I've heard that. And the familiarity of those words have made your heart complacent in praise and worship, have made your heart complacent in faith and works.

You have begun to hope in the religion to give you the fuel to be motivated about Jesus Christ.

And to you, I feel sorry for, for your motivation will ebb and flow depending on the music and the sermon of a religion.

You need to see the Lamb of God risen again. You need to know the power of serving the

Lamb of God who is alive now and evermore. And if you don't have that, then

I ask you to do this today. Don't get another Bible study. Don't go to another fancy stupid church.

You need to repent right now because the reason you're in that state has more to do with the sin of your life than it has to do with anything else that will trigger your emotions.

Faith does not come by emotion. Faith comes by things that are yet unseen, yet you still choose to go forward in the face of doubts.

And for those of you who are doubting, let me give you a piece of solace. Understand this. You can never have true faith without having true doubts.

It's an impossibility. You can't have it. Just like you can't have real courage unless there's a real imminent fear of danger right there.

You understand? So if you are a believer and you just need to be sharpened up some, stop relying on the emotions to dictate where you are with Jesus Christ.

Rely on the Lamb of God. Now look at this also what it says. It says this. He is standing there, and I'm sorry, it was saying seven horns, seven eyes, seven spirits.

These are, and you're going to sit there and go, what in the world does that mean? And by the way, I have no idea who the 24 elders are.

I ain't got no stinking idea. It would be purely guessing on my point and I think I wrote some of it down there.

Yeah, I don't know. I really don't care. I'm not focused on elders, I'm focused on Jesus, okay?

It says He has seven horns, seven eyes, and seven spirits. That is the omniscience, the omnipresence, and the omnipotence of Jesus Christ.

The word seven everywhere in the, the word? I made fun of you for being blind.

The number seven is always used as a form of completion. Six days He created the world, on the seventh day

He, because it was done. Okay, you with me? You understand? He has that power of the seven horns.

In other words, His power is complete. He is omniscient. He sees everything.

He is omnipotent, omniscient, and He is omnipresent. His spirit is everywhere. Understand this.

I don't serve the God made of stones. You know, I talk with a guy named

Sandeep. He's a, hey, Sandeep. He's a pastor in India and they have a

God for everything. Vishnu, I mean, you name it. You know, and this like chick with all these arms and swords.

And some of y 'all get freaked out when I talk about this. Oh, don't say her. Don't say that name out loud.

You might call a demon. You have lost your ever -loving. I serve the King of Kings.

I ain't worried about calling nobody's name. There ain't nobody that can touch me or this house without the

God's approval. I'm on the victor's side. I'm like the George Bulldogs today. God, it pains me to say that.

But it's good to stay humble. Stop. No, man, y 'all have lost too.

Alright, it's verse 9. And they sang a new song saying, Were there you to take the scroll and to open its seals?

For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God for every tribe, language, people, and nation except black people.

And you have made... Oh, I'm sorry, it says Methodist. I thought it said... Oh, wait a minute.

Except only white, Anglo -Saxon, Baptist, Protestant? No. Oh, every tribe, every language, every people, and every nation.

Oh, you mean everyone. Baptists, let's all say that together, can we? Everyone.

Alright, let's keep going. And you have made them a kingdom, a priest to our God, and they shall reign on earth.

I just want to look at that song for a second. Just want to look at that song for a second. If you break that song down, that is the entire word of God.

Why is it some of y 'all drift off when I make something about black, you immediately do two things.

You wait back up, and you find the nearest black person to look at. Okay? Stop it.

Stop it. Shock value should not be what keeps you attention. The very words of life that are being spoken to you now should.

Okay? So listen. This entire Bible right here, this entire

Bible right here could have the title on the front page, or what's this? A cover called

Redemption. That's the whole purpose of the Bible. That's exactly what it's talking about.

It's God's way of redeeming people back to Himself. This song being sung by everyone in heaven and under heaven, and one day will be sung by me in perfection.

I was sitting by Brother Tim, and he and I were singing right over here. And dang, it was rough.

I mean, you know, I thought I was bad, but you put me and Tim together. Man, that was an ugly sounding song.

But one day, we're all going to be singing, and we're going to be singing in perfection. But it's not the harmony that's going to be beautiful.

It's the completion of what we're seeing right now. Understand this. There is a price for your redemption.

I'm closing now. ADD people, focus just five more minutes. Listen. Some of y 'all's eternal life is hanging in the balance.

Listen. There's a price for redemption. Now listen. It is not your church attendance, or your praise and worship abilities, or your denomination, or the church you go to.

Here's the price that was paid. The Lamb of God was slain. Hebrews 9 .27

says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Somebody had to pick up the tab for your godless, heathen acts.

Someone had to pick up the tab for the imputed unrighteousness of your soul. And that was the

Lamb of the living God. Look at this next thing. It says, and you were slain, and your blood you ransomed a people for God.

How many races of people are there? How many churches are there? That's just fact.

It's just fact. Okay? And people always look at me strange when they say, no, there's a bunch of races of people.

You've been conditioned by the cultural of this world. There is homo sapiens sapiens.

Scientifically, there is one people group. That's it. Biblically, there is one church.

There's only one. It doesn't matter what you make up or what your grandmammy did or what you believe in or your theology.

There is God's people from the time of beginning till now that encompass and make up His church.

Now, church people being church people, we got to be stupid and we got to try to separate ourselves from everybody else and say, oh, we do this better or we do that better or we're...

You're just stupid just like the rest of us. Just get it. Okay? But there is a people group called the church that God ransomed.

Now, I want you to look real closely with me here. It says you are a ransomed people.

Notice it did not say you are a ransomed humanity. It does not say all people are ransomed.

Here's something. You young people, once again, that have been brainwashed by Disney, you need to focus on me for a second.

We are not all God's children. We are not. We are all

God's creation. You were created in the image of God. In other words, you have a mind, a body, and a soul.

In Genesis 1, it says let us go down and make man in our own image. It doesn't mean the physical image of God.

It means we are a mirror representation of the triune nature of God. We are a trichotomy.

I have a mind. I have this lustrous body. And I have a soul. Now, here's why some of you all are stressed today.

Because your mind is awake for the most part. Your body is working.

But your soul is dead. It's dead. You're dead. That's why this is stressful to you.

Or you're doing this, like I've seen some of you morons do. You're more worried about the time of the day than the time of eternity.

Listen to me. There has been... And some of you in this room saying, well, you don't know what

I've done. I can tell you this, the blood of the Lamb is enough to pay for whatever you've done. I don't care if you're a street -walking hoe.

I don't care whether you're a crackhead. I don't care if you've had 42 adulterous affairs. I don't care if you've murdered someone.

The blood of Jesus Christ is able to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Now look at this. What is the purpose of our redemption? Have you ever seen

Bugs Bunny cartoons? You know, and one of the little cartoon characters died.

The next thing you see is, you know, two little wings on his back and him playing a harp. That's...

You don't turn into angels when you die. That's found nowhere in Scripture. In fact, that misnomer actually comes from this passage if you go back where it says each holding a part harp and blah, blah, blah.

That's where that comes from. But we don't get harps. We don't turn into angels. We actually rule with Christ.

We'll get to that in a second. But I want you to understand this. The purpose of your redemption is not to save your soul because you're so special.

Okay? It has nothing to do with you. You are the object of what is special.

God chose to save you because God is love. He doesn't just love you. He is the epitome or standard of love.

All right? Everything that is love that we know now, the Greek word storge.

Where's Alina? Oh, she's in the nursery. Dang it. Oh, there's a DJ. This will work.

Look at that. Oh, there's Noah. Hey, DJ, get her number, baby. Yeah, she cute.

Here are two little babies right now. Now, Donnie, how old is he? Four weeks.

Four weeks old. Now, I will give you a hundred dollars to keep that baby and you can never see him again.

A hundred bucks. Five thousand. A million. You've only known him four weeks.

I'll give you a million dollars for Josiah if you never see

Josiah again. Ha, ha, ha, ha. I feel the same way.

There's a love that's innate. Ha, ha, ha. There's a love that's innate with your babies, yeah?

I want you to understand that that love that you feel is not from instinct. By the way, for some of you little college dudes in here, find me the genome of love.

Go ahead. Look it up on your little, you know. Same thing with the alcoholic gene. I've never actually seen that gene mapped anywhere.

You know why you're an alcoholic? Because you were drunk. Because you were a godless, heathen sinner, okay? It wasn't a demon that did it to you.

It was you. You were drunk. Get with it, okay? Same thing with love. It's amazing to me how nihilists in scientific communities say that we are nothing more than a collection of chemical responses.

Okay, crackhead. Tell me how I love my granddaughter or how Donnie loves that child chemically when he is bonded with that child after four weeks yet he's known other people for 20 years but there's a difference in feeling.

If the same chemical responses happen at that stimuli, then they should be that much longer after 20 years.

Why isn't that? I'm going to tell you why. Because you're an idiot. Because you believe in something other than the word of the living

God. You have actually believed in the wisdom of man and it has led you and your life into total disarray.

You know why you were saved? It says right here. You were a people saved for God. You are saved for the

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You were saved by His blood but it is God who has called you to life and God to call you as His possession.

Let me keep going. And I've already talked about every tribe, language, people, and nation. Guys, that is the scope.

That is the scope of who God has called to. There are some in theology that say God only called this.

Well, according to that scope, it wasn't white Anglo -Saxon. It wasn't... I had a guy tell me one time only black folks are

Hebrew -Israelite nationals and every white person's a devil and going to hell. Stop watching

Waterboy and start reading the word of God. Okay? Because the word of God says it will be representative out of every people.

You are actually dumb enough to believe that the melon content in skin denotes a difference in value and worth at the

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You are that stupid. Look at this last thing and I'm done.

Here's the result. I'm done at this. I'm done. So whatever you people, music people got to do, go do it.

Listen. Here's the last thing and I'm done. What is the end result?

Now, some of you may be sitting in this room and you actually had a time where Jesus Christ was your

Lord, but you have somehow slacked off and faded. And you think that now you are relegated to a point.

I actually had a guy tell me this time, I hope that I've been good enough that I can actually get into heaven by the skin of my teeth.

You're never going to go to heaven because you don't go by the skin of teeth, you go by the blood of Jesus Christ.

You with me? Okay? But here's what some people, they've actually accepted that blood, but they've gotten off on that wrong track.

Well, I've lost my chance. There is no way possible. Well then, we've got a serious problem.

You need to buy a buttload of whiteout because we need to change all of God's Word. Because see, the end result here of God's redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ is this.

I'm not going to be an angel singing in heaven for 10 ,000 years. Sorry, amazing grace people. I'm not going to be doing that.

It says this. It says, I will be a priest in the kingdom of God. Now watch, and I will reign with God.

Romans tells us that I am a joint heir with Christ. You want to see the throne room of God and one day what it will be?

It will be the biggest couch ever created anywhere because it's going to have the saints of God filling it with Jesus Christ reigning with him throughout eternity.

Well, pastor, I've messed up. Well, guys, that has nothing to do with eternity. It has to do with right now.

Your failures affect right here and right now. Yes, your children may have been affected by your failures.

Your testimony may be stained by your failures. But your salvation is kept forever by the power of the

Lamb of God. You need to know that peace because from that peace comes hope and comes strength.

You need to get somewhere where you're actually learning the Word of God rather than listening to your silly feelings because your feelings will always make you weak.

The Word of God is the bread of life. So I say this to you, if you are in here today, and I don't know how we're going to do this.

Pastors, go up there. We'll do it the old -fashioned way. Listen to me. Listen. If you are in here today and you are not sure of your salvation, please do not leave here.

Do not leave here. If you want, we can play some melodious song and I can have this emotional, like, oh please, come take me back.

You can do all that. But you're coming in emotion and as soon as you walk out the door, that emotion is over.

Come and make a statement of faith. I don't know where I am with Jesus, but today, I want to know that I am saved.

Number two, if you're in here and you know someone who needs some prayer, let's pray together, church.

Let's do something weird. Instead of us all just sitting here singing, let's all minister to each other.

Let's love one another. Find someone in here who needs some encouragement and encourage them.

Whatever your decision today, maybe you need to join a church. Maybe you need to get baptized. We can help you with all that.

I'm going to ask you to stand with me. And if God has spoken to you today, you come this morning as God leads.