Romans 15:16 - What It Means to Be a Believer-Priest, Pt. 1 (09/18/2022)

So, good to see all of you. I know school got kicked off, and Kendra, so how's it going?

I've been wondering about you and what you were doing this week, how you liked it. So, Mom, is it pretty good to have her around?

Dad, don't. Dad. That's so cool.

Otis is smiling from heaven. And Miss B, yeah. For those of you who don't know the story, when

Brother Otis first came, and they just had this child, baby, and Matt was born about the same time.

And so Otis and B sort of helped watch Kenner, which was really cool because they never were able to have any grandchildren.

So Kenner became their grandchild. So, anyway, it's a wonderful story. There's a lot more to it than that, but it was really cool.

All right, so everybody's making it okay? Everything went all right while we're gone?

All right, that's good. Yeah, America did not implode yet.

Yeah, I know they're trying. Oh, my goodness,

I read so much scripture on that ship about what God does to nations when they turn from Him and I'm thinking, oh, my, my,

I need to find a place out here on one of these little islands so that I can watch it on color TV when it hits.

I don't want to be there. But it probably won't hit Texas, right? Because we're apple of God's eye.

I don't know. Well, it's great to be back with you guys. I don't like missing

Sundays. And this trip was special, though. It was a birthday present to my wife.

She had her 35th birthday. And that's a special one.

So very few times is it just the two of us, and that was really nice. So we had a great time, and I hope all of you did well and are up to snuff this morning because we're going to pick it right up where we left off.

All right? So we are in Romans chapter 15, verse 16, where it talks about the offerings of the

Gentiles being acceptable to the Lord. Remember that? In Romans 15, 16.

And that was a launching pad a little bit to go out and ask the question, why is the offering of a

Gentile acceptable to the Lord? And how do we make an offering? We don't kill lambs and goats anymore.

And that's what we have been talking about for a while. And just to review a little bit,

I think what we just finished covering, I hope I'm right. I hope I remember where I stopped. That could be a problem. But we talked about how in Romans 12, 1, our bodies are a living sacrifice.

Secondly, we talked about Philippians 4, 18, love offerings. When we give a love offering, it's a sacrifice to the

Lord that's acceptable in His sight. Hebrews 13, 15, when we praise God with our lips, it's an offering.

And God accepts it as an offering. When we do good works, when we give to others in need, not just to the church, but like to you just run across a person that needs something, that is an offering.

That's in Hebrews 13, 16. And then worshiping God is a spiritual sacrifice. A lot of verses we covered on that.

And then giving thanks and praise, sacrifices of joy, just being a joyful Christian.

And I want you to think about that, because as we move more and more towards the end times, where there's tribulation and things that aren't right, where we're not as comfortable as we'd like to be, will we still be joyful?

Well, that's an offering to the Lord, when we can walk through this life with all the storms that are hitting and be joyful.

Doesn't mean happy. Happy is good, too. I've heard preachers say, God doesn't care if you're ever happy,

He just wants you to be joyful. That's not true. There's verses about being happy in the Bible. And so He wants us to be happy, but we can't always be happy because there's sin.

And Adam and Eve asked, oh, they said, Lord, we don't want to just know good. We want to know good and evil. So now we get both.

We got what we asked for. And that's the only Arminian bone in my body is I'll blame that on them.

That's what man did right there. And we got what we asked for. And so it's not all happiness, but it still can be joy, right?

And then the sacrifice of service, any kind of service you do for the Lord in the church or in your own life, whatever.

Those are the things we've talked about. I'm kind of thinking that's about where I left off. If I'm wrong, just raise your hand and tell me.

I'll go three or four pages forward. I don't want to teach you what I taught you last time. But turn with me to 1

Peter 2, verse 1. Some of you have notes in your Bible. You might tell me, did I already do this or not?

I don't think I did. I even stepped out and called Ben. He's on vacation. I called him and said,

Ben, go listen to the last tape I did and tell me, where did I end? And he said, you didn't do 1

Peter yet. So hopefully he's right. Hey, while you're looking, just in case you do see any notes,

Matt, we had a few comments during Sunday school and we forgot to read them. Two of our tech guys are gone today.

And we're not used, the rest of us aren't used to doing everything. So we forgot to read the comments.

So do you have a couple? By the way, in case you weren't here for Sunday school, I put a slide up here, a video that I took while I was on the ship that just showed the water down the side of the ship with these white foam and stuff, and just stark white foam, and the blue, dark blue, rich blue water, and how that pictures.

We talked about in Sunday school that pictures the royalty of God, the deity of Christ, and the

Holy Spirit, and the Father, and the kingship. God is king of kings. That's what we talked about in Sunday school.

So I was asking you guys, when you look at that water, tell me some of the attributes of God it makes you think about.

So that's what we're doing. So we had a couple of online, you guys, that we didn't read. I'd like to read a couple of them. Give me one or two of them.

Yeah, this one's from Brian. Brian, OK. He said, limited is limited.

So it does not make the bubbles on the surface. It makes the texture of the tower transparent so it won't be able to hurt you.

Brian would see that. That's a good one, Brian. All right, so if you didn't hear

Matt, he said it pictures limited atonement because the ocean,

I don't remember, he said, the ocean. The ocean can't make the bubbles. All it can do is be blue.

And it takes, the ship has to go through and stir it up and create that white, beautiful white foam.

So read the last part. He said there has to be an external power.

There has to be an external power to transform that water and make it look white, which pictures righteousness of the saints.

You can't just have that. It has to be given to you by an external power of someone bigger and better and greater than you.

And that is limited atonement. You cannot be saved without being called. Simple as that.

You have to be called by the Holy Spirit. Good, Brian. I love it. What else? Yeah, one more from you.

It says, the boat is creating a beautiful white foam and it has to be set upright like this way and you get two feet on it.

All right, so there's a person, the captain of the ship, that's making it go through there and create this beautiful white bubbles that picture righteousness of God and holiness of God and the righteousness of the saints.

But in our own lives, we need to let God drive the boat and then we'll have righteousness and joy and all that.

That's from Liz. That's great. Yeah, any others? Is that? I know we've got a few that I didn't get to.

OK, well, there were others, though. We appreciate you guys. And we won't forget you next time to read your questions because that was, we wanted you to participate.

We might, and we'll be doing this, might do it again. I might cover some of that stuff in some sermons.

If we do, we'll give you more opportunities and I can even read some more of those later. All right, so now, you should be to 1

Peter 2, verse 1. And just tell me if you think we've covered this. I don't think,

I may have introduced it a little bit, but I don't think I went into it much last time. And so what

I want to talk to you about is dive down, and I think I remember the last thing I said was next time we're going to dive down deeper.

We kind of covered the surface of what it means to be a believer priest. Now we're going to dive down deeper.

And you wouldn't believe the depths you can go to in this stuff. And it tells you all about yourself and who you're supposed to be in Christ.

So let's see if we can grab some of this today. Lord, help us as we study again and we ask your

Holy Spirit to be our teacher, our perfect teacher, and your word. So we want the water and the spirit today to help us to grow.

Thank you that you saved us that way. Help us grow that way. We ask it in Jesus' name, amen.

First Peter 2 .1, wherefore, laying aside all malice and guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

If so be you have tasted that the Lord is gracious to whom coming as into a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious.

That's talking about Jesus, the stone that the men disallowed, the Jews. You also are living stones, lively stones.

You're built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Now that is spoken to the church. That's not Old Testament stuff. That's to us on this side of the cross, to the church.

And it says very clearly that Jesus was the rock, right?

The living stone, but we're also living stones. And because we're Christ -like, which we're

Christian means little Christ, right? We're a little Christ. And we're built up as a spiritual household, which means we all work together with God in each other.

It's not like a one man show, it's a team sport.

And we're all on the team. None of us want to be on the bench. We want to be out there in the game, right?

And so it's a spiritual house. It's a holy priesthood we're part of. So a lot of New Testament Christians today in the modern church, they don't talk about being a believer priest, let alone a king priest, a king and a priest.

Now the king part will take place more vividly during the millennial kingdom, of course. But because we don't get to run things down here, little

G God of the world, Satan, pretty much is in control of all of the systems. And when we talk about the world being evil, we don't mean the beautiful ocean that we just got to see and all that.

We're not talking about that. We're not talking about God's creation. It's not evil. We're talking about the systems of the world, the world systems.

They are controlled by Satan, which is so many of the institutions, just name them. And yet we are priests.

We're not totally able to show forth our kingship yet.

And Jesus isn't totally showing forth his either. Think about King Saul as a perfect type of this or an example of this.

Do you remember when the prophet, Nathan anointed

David as king? God had already fired Saul, remember?

God fired him. And he told the man of God, David, he's the king.

He's the anointed king. He's the apple of my eye. And so he did anoint him and he became king at that time.

But what did he spend the first years of his life doing? Running in the wilderness from Saul who was trying to kill him.

So who was still on the throne, literally? Saul was, but who was the real king? David.

So what was Saul doing? He was usurping authority that was not his, but God brought that to pass for David's sake,

I'm sure, and for the kingdom's sake and for everything to make David a better king someday. But Saul was usurping authority that wasn't his.

That is a perfect picture of Satan right now. Satan was totally destroyed on resurrection

Sunday. When Jesus died on the cross, Satan thought he had won that battle and it actually slew himself.

He committed suicide. When he put Jesus on the cross, he thinks he put him there. He didn't.

God the Father actually did, but he used Satan, didn't he? And Judas and a lot of Romans and the

Jews. And he was on the cross. And when he came forth from the grave three days later,

Satan trembled, I'm sure. I'm sure it changed a lot of things for his evil thinking, but it didn't make him believe.

He's still not a believer. But, so what he continues to do is to act as if he has authority over your life, your family, this church and our country and everything else, when he really has zero authority anymore.

Because Jesus won back that authority by right of conquest when he rose from the grave.

Just like Satan took it away from mankind in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned. By right of conquest,

Satan took the dominion of the world from Adam and Eve. Jesus took it back already 2000 some odd years ago.

He took it back and yet little Saul, Satan, who is just like Saul, keeps his foot on the crown and on the throne, trying to run everything in the world.

But not for long, right? Not for long. But you need to remind him it's not rightful in your life when

Satan or demonic powers come into your family. Say, look, you have no right over me. I belong to Jesus, the true

King, and he's already on the throne in my heart. So, Jesus, would you please rebuke him, bind him and send him away?

And he's gone. You have that ability. He's gone. You wake up in the middle of the night with a nightmare, pray, pray that prayer.

Jesus, don't try to do it yourself. They might turn and rend you. Just ask

Jesus, say, Lord has no right in this house. Would you please rebuke him? Bind him, tie him up, send him out of here.

And I like to add one thing, put a hurt on him, where it hurts when he comes around my house. And the

Lord will do it immediately, and you will go right back to sleep like a baby. So, all of life is a battle.

Much of what I discovered when I was going through all those scriptures about the water and the ocean and so forth that I've talked about in Sunday school,

I saw so much about the holiness of God, the kingship of God, and the omnipresence, everything about God.

And I re -read all those verses that I studied in my own self -taught seminary when

I was young. And all of those things are so great to re -read in the scripture.

And yet, almost every time I see an attribute of God like that in the scripture, two or three verses down in the same context, it'll start talking about our enemies and how

God is our protector and our shield and the one that pushes the enemy back and makes a way for us.

Almost every one where it speaks about any of the attributes of God, it speaks about warfare, spiritual warfare, and how he is the one, it's his battle, not ours, and how he will push them away as you walk with him.

Isn't that marvelous? I mean, you pick an attribute, you'll find it. It's especially holiness, especially

King of Kings, that stuff, when you find those verses, because a lot of it comes from King David, inspired by the

Holy Spirit and Psalms, and David's always running. He wrote so many of those Psalms when he's running from Saul, little

Satan, and he points out, God, you're in control of everything, so I'm going to go to sleep now.

And the guy's trying to kill him, but he knows God is in control and is so magnificent. Well, so here we see, in 1

Peter 2, that we are a holy priesthood. Now, we're also king priests, but we don't get to do the king part so much de facto right now as it is in reality.

We are kings here, but the world won't recognize it. Satan won't allow it. He will slow everything down you're trying to do.

He'll try to kill your fruit trees, right? He'll try to send the grasshoppers, if you're in any kind of business, he will throw a legal problem in there.

I get home, my mom, how long ago did she pass away now? I'm not good at tracking time. My mom's not been with us now for many weeks, and I get a letter from, we noticed something strange on Charlotte's bank account while we're on the ship.

Money disappeared, like 1 ,200 bucks just disappeared, and it said, forced payment.

Um, payment. What the heck is a forced payment? My bank took money out of my wife's bank account because it had something to do with my mom's

IRS stuff, not my stuff. My mom took care of her stuff till the day she died.

I don't know anything about her stuff. I didn't do her books. I didn't do, and she did it all till she was 90.

If she hadn't had a stroke, she'd still be doing it. So I don't even know what it's about, and they took it out of my account.

Is that frightening to you that they can go to your local bank in Little Manhattan, Texas, and say, hey, we need you to take money out of Charlotte Mitchell's account?

Well, why? Well, because we're the government. They shouldn't not have even known my account number. I'm on a rabbit trail.

But I mean, if you think that you're safe in this country from anything, you are desperately wrong.

So don't think that when like tribulation does come that you'll be doing great in America.

That's probably the last place I want to be, because they have more technology and firepower to find you and track you down than anywhere in the world.

I want to be in some little third world junk country that knows nothing. You know, that's where I want to be, if there is such a thing anymore.

So what does that have to do with anything? Well, I guess it illustrates I'm not the king and neither is Charlotte, because they just took money out of our bank account without asking us.

That's the best point I ever made, I think. So let's get back on track.

So there are many passages in scripture where it talks about priesthood. So let's talk about that since we're not kings yet.

We are, but not de facto. So let's talk about priesthood.

In Revelation chapter one, if you want to turn back there, there's a few of them back there. I want to show you some of these, because they're pretty magnificent when you look at the context of these, because these are in the midst of the tribulation period, when these are spoken of, if you put them in context, and they even talk about us being kings, because it's really close at that point.

When you get to that last three and a half years of the tribulation period, you're only three and a half years away from ruling this world, you and Jesus.

You in this room will have portions of this earth to rule over. And you know what?

You're gonna make everyone be a Republican at that point, because there won't be any Democrats left.

I say that tongue in cheek. Texas used to be all Democrats when my grandmother was alive.

She was the only Republican in Texas. She was the chair of the Republican Party in Central Texas.

The day that Kennedy beat Nixon, because John Daly, the mayor, this is a rabbit trail too, in case you can't figure it out.

He was the mayor of Chicago, and mysteriously, bags and bags and bags of ballots showed up in Chicago after Nixon had won the election.

After midnight, they showed up, they counted them, and it made Kennedy win by a few votes. That's how John F.

Kennedy became president of the United States. Did you know that? It wasn't the first time when they did it to Trump a while back.

So, and that was just Chicago. Just one city made that happen. Now, listen, those people aren't gonna be able to make that happen after that three and a half years is over, because they'll be in a place where nobody even knows where they are anymore.

Not even God will remember where they are. Think about that. How'd you like to be in a place like that where you had no chance of God showing up to get you out of there?

Because he doesn't even know you're there anymore. And I'm not saying he won't know, but that's my theory, because the

Bible does say he can forget sin, doesn't it? So maybe he can forget the goats. I don't know, but they'll be there.

In reality, burning, needing a drop of water on the tip of my tongue because I'm tormented in this flame, but God may not even just let himself be aware of them anymore.

Wow, think about that. That is true separation from God, isn't it? And that's what hell is. That's the worst part of hell.

And that's where these people that are running this world right now will be. Every single

IRS agent, no, I'm kidding. I am on the internet. It's a joke, okay? It's a bad one too,

I'm sorry. Forgive me, I love you guys. You make this wonderful country run.

Well, the Fed helps by printing money too that you guys can't, whatever. Okay, so now

Revelation 1 .5 says, "'And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness "'and the first begotten of the dead "'and the prince of the kings of the earth, "'and to him that loved us and washed us from our sins "'in his own blood.'"

That's a good introduction, don't you think? "'And hath made us,' look at this, "'kings and priests unto

God.'" So you may not be a king to this world yet, but God already accounts you as one. And this is training ground for you to be a good king.

Just like when David was running from Saul, that's why you're running from Satan right now.

Don't think there is not purpose in the trouble that we go through. Don't think there's not purpose when we experience death in our family, when we experience sorrow and every kind of thing there is, and Satan slowing everything down you're trying to do in your business world.

Just to feed your kids and grandkids, and he slows all of it. He can't stop God's plan at all, but part of God's plan is him messing with you so that it makes you be a better king after you've been done running through the wilderness from Saul until finally

Saul is killed by God through a happenstance of an arrow sent by a soldier who didn't even know it was not aiming at him.

And he took it out of the picture and David was on the throne and then everything changed. Well, that's gonna happen for us three and a half years, the second three and a half years of the tribulation period when that's over.

It's gonna happen to us. There's going to be a coronation. There's gonna be a wedding feast. There's gonna be a coronation where you're all gonna get a crown.

And then there's going to business begins and you will be running the universe with Jesus. Think about that, maybe more than the earth even.

Probably will be. But it's, God says we can't even conceive of what it's gonna be like.

But I can tell you what you will be is a king and a priest. The priest part is the interesting part to me right now because I can't comprehend that we're gonna be running everything with the

Lord, but we will. But there's a lot of the priesthood part that we can do now while we're still here.

So that's why it's very, very relevant. So he made us to be kings and priests and to God. Now let me ask you this, if God made you to be one, are you one?

Okay, so can you get around it? I mean, like he made you that, he knows your name, he knows every experience in life.

And he said, here's what you are, you're a king and a priest, do it. You're gonna do it. I'm gonna help you be better at it, but you're gonna do it and you're gonna do it with me.

And he's made us to be kings and priests and to God and his father. So now you start to see the triune nature of God is that God made us to be kings and priests to God and to the father.

So that's kind of interesting language. So we're not just priest to Jesus as if that would be a problem.

I would love to be priest with Jesus, but it's not just with Jesus, it's with the father.

And Jesus never did anything as we talked about, I think in Sunday school somewhere today, he never did anything that he didn't see the father do.

So he was totally submissive to the will of the father. And a lot of people miss that when they say, well,

Jesus and God are co -equal. Well, not in all cases, in some ways they are, in other ways they're not.

As far as their essence, they are. They're the same essence, they're God. But Jesus has been made to be subservient to the father and always was when he was on the earth and always will be until the end of the ages, which there's many ages after the thousand year millennium.

There's age into age after that. And after all those are over, we'll all be rolled into God and we'll be one.

But until that time, Jesus is, it's always like we always say it, father, son, and Holy Ghost. There's an order to it.

As far as the ministry of the triune nature of God, Jesus serves the father. Did you know the

Holy Spirit serves Jesus? And we serve God. And that's just a part of the reality of how

God subsists as three distinct persons, not people, but three distinct, all

God, all having the ability to think, all having the ability to love, all having the ability to create, all having the ability to die for the sins of his people, to bring salvation, all of it works together.

God never works in and out like just the father doing or just the son doing. The Godhead always works together on everything that's happening because he's one

God. And it's hard for us to comprehend how that works. But here it's interesting because God says that he has made us kings and priests to God and to his father,

God the father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. Now, when you look at Jesus Christ here in verse five of Revelation chapter one, who is the prince of the kings of the earth and who is the one who actually loved us and washed us in his own blood and took our sins away.

And it's him who made us to be kings and priests unto God and his father.

You see there the distinction of the Godhead. There are many passages where we see the oneness and the unity.

And then there are other passages where we see the distinction. I have found this to be true. When you're trying to solve problems like how can

God be sovereign and man have will and responsibility at the same time. When you're trying to solve those very difficult problems, the best way to do it is to recognize the distinction of the

Godhead. Recognize there is a distinction between Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the father.

And whereas the father, you cannot, listen, I know this, you don't like this. You cannot change one thing in his plan.

I don't care how you cry out to the father. I don't care what you do. You're not gonna change what his will is to do.

However, as the father extends himself into time and space through Jesus, who is

God with us in time and space and through the Holy Spirit who also serves that function now then we can plead to Jesus and he can change things.

Now I say, well, how can that be? I don't know. I don't know.

I just know it is. I just know that when God is in, oh, let me give you an example.

You've heard it a million times. So Raymond, Sharon, y 'all can go eat lunch, but the rest of you, the new folks,

I'm sure you've heard this a million times, but think about when Abraham took Isaac and God had told him, you're gonna offer your only son to me.

And yet God had told him, I'm gonna raise up a nation from your children that'll be like the sands of the sea.

And now he's telling him to kill his only child, right? Does that make sense? But that's what God told Abraham to do, isn't it?

Exactly what he told him to do. So Abraham sets out to do it and gets him up there, ties him up and here this young man way stronger than the father could have run.

He could have beat his dad up and run, but he didn't, he submitted to God's will too, because he trusted God too. They both had amazing faith, maybe some of the strongest faith ever demonstrated on the face of the earth.

And he raises that knife up above the chest of his son. And just as he starts that move down, a voice says, stop.

And what did he say next? What did God say next? Now I see that you believe in me.

Now, let me ask you something. If God is all knowing and omniscient, how did he figure that out only after he raised the knife?

Because that was Jesus talking, not the father.

And Jesus was in time when he did it, when he said it. So when God is in time, it's different than when he's not.

And he works and responds and lives with us in time, but you're not gonna change

God's will outside of time. And all that's happening at the same time. Now there's more for us to study, right?

We have to dig deeper. I remember one time a mentor of mine, the first year I was saved, I was already studying a lot because we were teaching teenagers and they knew more than me.

So I had to study all the time because I didn't want him to ask me something I couldn't answer. But I had a mentor whose

IQ was way up here and I only had him in my life for a while, unfortunately, because he was a great Bible teacher.

His name was Gary Plumlee. He may be in heaven by now. I can't find him anymore, but I always tried to sound spiritual to Gary because he knew so much

Bible. So he would ask me questions like brother Otis did, but this was years before I met brother Otis. He said, brother

David, let's talk, what do you think about the Trinity?

Let's talk about the Trinity. And I said, I'm trying to be spiritual, right? And I said, Gary, Trinity is a mystery.

Now Gary was a single bachelor who had very little tact. It was all just out.

What's real is real with Gary. Like he didn't care how you felt after he talked. You know what I'm saying? You met people like that, right?

Like they don't care how they make you feel. They're just gonna tell you like it is. That's how Gary was. And it scared me to death when

I was so spiritual. I said, Gary, it's a mystery. We just don't know a lot about the

Trinity. David, I don't ever hear you say that again. I said, what? He said, the word mystery, because the minute you call it a mystery, you'll stop studying it.

God wants you to keep studying that till the day you die. And he turned and walked away from me. You know what?

I never forgot that lesson. Never forgot it. It's okay to call something a mystery, but his point was if you let your mind think it's something you can't understand, you won't try to understand it anymore.

And that's not smart. That's not good. You're supposed to keep digging. So anyway, we have

Jesus talking about God the Father here in this verse and saying that Jesus and the

Father have made us to be kings and priests to God, which is in that context,

Jesus, God, and to the Father, which is the Father. So we're priests and kings unto

Jesus and to the Father. That's what that means. And when you stop to think that there's so many scriptures,

I was reading some of this morning on the water stuff, but I didn't get to it because I ran out of time, but talked about like that no man has seen, whom no man has seen or ever will see, but Jesus has been with the

Father and seen him. Now you think about that. Jesus is a man, isn't he? He's the

God man, is he not? And as a man, he was with the Father and has seen him, but no man will ever see him and live.

And yet that God, the Father, that's outside of time and space, that's not made out of stuff that's simple, like we talked about in Sunday school in the sense that he doesn't have parts.

He's not in a place. He's not in a time. He just is and always has been and always will be.

And that God, we serve as a priest to him. Think about that. You have been called a priest by him and for him and unto him and to Jesus.

And it ends with the word, amen. So I think we can say, amen. We have a big job to do. That is an important job.

Behold, he cometh with the clouds. He's gonna come back just like he left into the clouds.

He's gonna come back from the clouds, like the lightning from the east to the west. Every eye shall see him.

That's how I know there is not a secret rapture seven years prior to this. There's no place in the Bible that it ever says when

Jesus comes back that he comes back in secret. That's a lie from hell. In fact, Jesus said there will be false prophets saying that in the end time.

He said, if they say I came in a secret room or if I came out in the desert, don't believe them because when I come, I'm gonna come as lightning from the east to the west.

It's what scripture says. So the rapture and the second coming happen all at the same time. I mean, over time, but it's a period of sequence of things that happen together.

But I believed it the other way most of my adult life just because I was taught that by theologians. But the

Bible don't teach it. There's a free rabbit trail, the third or fourth one.

So now behold, he comes with clouds. Every knee shall see him.

It's not secret. I mean, every eye, every knee shall see him. Every eye shall see him. It's not secret.

It's just gonna be amazing. It's not gonna be a lot like the movie about the rapture.

It won't be much like that where planes are falling out of the sky and all that kind of stuff. Every eye shall see him.

And they also, which pierced him, the Jews. And this is where I think, you know how

Paul said, all Israel shall be saved. This is where they get saved. This is where they get called, right there.

When the ones who pierced him see him, they're gonna bow the knee right there and they're gonna be called and their eyes will be open and they'll receive

Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. It'll be too late for the rapture because it already is happening, but they will be the ones who populate the thousand -year millennial kingdom, save people that got saved at the last second.

So there will be some that, you talk about a deathbed salvation. Can you imagine at the very last culmination of the tribulation period, they see him coming and they had never received him and then they, but they're

Jews and God wants to save them and he opens their eyes. He sends the Holy Spirit, calls them and they bow the knee and boom, they're saved, but they missed the rapture.

So they go alive into as human beings who can still have babies and stuff into the millennial kingdom. And there'll be hundreds of thousands of Gentiles too that the same thing happens to.

All right, so the first few years of the millennial kingdom will be 100 % saved people.

There won't be any goats, it'll be all sheep until they start having babies. And then some of them will be goats, believe it or not.

They rise up at the end of the thousand years, you'll see them. Behold, he comes with clouds, every eye shall see him.

And they also, which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Why? Because they didn't get saved yet.

And they've been taught by the Armenians that they supposed to get saved. That's Texan, if you didn't catch it.

What I do to get saved as if you can do it, right? That's what we were all taught that. Well, tell me how to get saved, what do

I do? Unfortunately, you can't do anything because you're not saved by works. But we don't put that together, do we?

Oh, we don't believe in salvation by works, but you got to get saved. You don't put it together. You don't understand.

It's called the operation of God. God does it. God's the parent, he gives the birth.

The baby doesn't help. You know, it's just like the picture. Oh, it's so good when your eyes are open too, that it's all about what the

Lord does when he brings forth his children in this world. Behold, he cometh with clouds.

All the kindreds will wail because they're the ones that put him on the cross. Some of them will get called. Some of them want the ones that don't.

We'll be wailing and gnashing of teeth and asking the mountains to fall on them because of the face of the wrath of the lamb, a wrathful lamb, does that make sense?

This is what's going to be happening. I am Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and the ending, saith the

Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty, and that's Jesus' father.

So he is God. He is fully God. He is one in essence with God, but he has different services and ministries than the father.

Revelation chapter 20, look at this one. Verse four, chapter 20, verse four. And the context of this is amazing when you think about it.

The very end of this age, of the church age, a lot of people think the church age ends seven years prior to this.

They are wrong about that. They'll say, well, you won't see the church in the past chapter three of Revelation. Not true.

You'll see it right here. We'll get to it right here in a minute. If we, like two or three seconds from now, if you'll find this first, we'll read it together.

Revelation 24, ready? And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them.

And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for a witness of Jesus and for the word of God.

Now, remember the word for in Greek can sometimes be translated by. So you could read it.

I saw the souls of them that were beheaded. It can also be because of.

Because of the witness of Jesus and because of the word of God that they were reading and testifying to and the world didn't like it.

So they killed them. And which these are people who had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither did they receive the mark upon their foreheads or in their hands or the vaccination they told you to get or any of that other stuff.

Oh, I added part of that. Sorry, sorry about that. That's not in there. But it certainly is good training ground to wear the mask.

You know, just because they tell you to wear a mask that the pores are this big compared to the size of a pin of that virus, it goes right through it and it doesn't help, but you wear it anyway.

Listen, you've been so conditioned to do what the government tells you to do, that when they tell you to take a mark on your right hand or on your forehead, you will just simply do it or you can't go to the grocery store of all things.

You can't walk into a hospital without that mark. So you'll get it unless you're born again.

If you're born again, you will say no. So as I've been starting to practice saying no to some of this other stuff, like masks, nah.

They don't work. They don't work at all. Not for a virus. They work really well for bacteria, but unfortunately

COVID is a virus, a very tiny virus, as Trump would say, very tiny, very tiny virus.

So they didn't worship the beast. These people didn't take the mark. I want to ask you, who are these people?

Who are these people that the people in heaven are watching and there's other places where they call them our brothers,

Lord Jesus, come quickly. When are you going to come back and stop them from beheading our brothers and sisters?

And here from that heavenly vantage point, we see the souls of them that are beheaded for a witness of Jesus Christ.

These are Christians being killed because they follow Jesus Christ. And what's the time period?

Revelation chapter 20. That's a little bit beyond chapter three. Oh, but the church is not found anywhere in the book of Revelation past three because the rapture happens in chapter three.

Lie to me, lie if you will, but I will not quit studying.

And there's the church in chapter 20. Well, it's not the church. Well, the reason you think it's not the church is because you're filtering this scripture through all the garbage you've read in books and the sermons you've heard by guys that made this stuff up.

So now you can't just read it simply as it is, where you see these saying, oh, they're killing our brothers and sisters.

Well, who is it talking? It says elders, who are elders? They're preachers of the church.

The elders are saying they're killing our brothers and sisters. So they're still on the earth in chapter 20, the church is.

So the church age ends when the whole thing ends. It ends at the rapture, at the end of the seven years.

And the rapture cannot happen until the great first resurrection happens. There's only two.

There's one at the end of the church age. And they said, no, it's not the church age. Well, that's because you've been brainwashed. Biblically, it's the end of the age, the same end of the age

Jesus talked about when they asked him, tell us about when the end of the world, that word world is aeon, which means age.

When's the end of the age? And he talked about, and Jesus said that I will come and I will have my angels gather the elect after the tribulation of those days, not before.

All of it's in there, it's so clear. So at the end of the church age, which is at the end of the seven years, the first resurrection happens and blessed be those who come in the first resurrection because they will never experience the second death, the

Bible says. And Paul said, we cannot be raptured until after we cannot precede them.

So the rapture has to happen at the end of the seven years when the resurrection happens, it's just easy math.

I mean, I don't know why I didn't see it my whole life. It's because I got caught up in a lie and just believed it.

And it was a neat story. And I would get angry at people that tried to argue against it back in those days.

I would flush up and turn red in the face when they start telling us, oh, the rapture doesn't happen there, it happens at the end.

I'd go, you're a heretic. That's really what I thought because I never read the scripture about it, I just read books.

So here we have it. And all through this time, starting from the time we were born again to the end of this age, we're to serve as priests.

We've been named and called to be a priest and a king, but the priestly part, we can live out at this point.

And so we are that because we're called to be that. So they didn't receive the mark on their foreheads or in their hands, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

There you have it. Let me ask you, who is it that the Bible says again and again and again, lives and reigns with Christ for a thousand years?

Who is that? Is that Jews? Is that Christians? Is that the church? Who is it? Who are the believer priests?

The church. So if it says they, and just above that, it's talking about people being killed in chapter 20 of Revelation, then that's the church.

Do you see that church? Say yes or no. You see it? You can't argue against it.

It's talking about the church and they're still there in chapter 20. So every book you read where it gives you all these reasons why the rapture happens at the front end, well, the first lie they tell you is, well, the church is not found in Revelation after chapter three.

That's where the rapture happens. That's the first lie. Chapter 20, verse four proves it's wrong.

It proves it's not the truth. And why do we care about winning an argument that's not the truth? So just let it go.

Just let it go. It doesn't even matter. What matters is the truth. Who are these people?

Verse five says, but the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.

This is the first resurrection. So these people that are raised from the dead, the saved

Jews, the saved Christians throughout all time that are raised from the dead at the first resurrection will never suffer the second death.

They won't ever experience hell because they've been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. And they will rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years.

Verse six makes it even more clear when we ask, who are these people? Who is it that are raised in the first resurrection?

Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. On such, the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him for a thousand years.

So it's very clear that that's the church. There are many passages in the New Testament that discuss our role as believer priests, but none are as beautiful as this one with regard to discussing our role as offering up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to Jesus Christ.

So what I'd like to do when we come together next time is we're gonna pick it up there at Revelation chapter five, verse eight.

And then we're gonna eventually end up back in first Peter again. And we're gonna start talking about where the

Lord shows us specifically what the believer priest role is and what we're supposed to be doing.

And it's far more than just the eight things we've just mentioned off the top. Give offerings, give praise to the lips.

It's more detailed and specific things that we're supposed to do. And now let's end with this.

What is a priest, by the way? It is a person who can reach up and take God's hand here and take a human being's hand here and attempt to bring them together.

Now, can you win a soul? You're supposed to be a soul winner, as the

Baptists tell us. I grew up Baptist, so I can pick on them a little bit. I was both a Southern Baptist and a fundamental independent

Baptist for many years. So I'll pick on them a little bit. Can we win a soul?

Thank you. Don't be afraid to say no, right? She's going, no.

But can we introduce people everywhere to the Lord and what he's done for the world?

Yes, and isn't that our job? You know, as much as I know this stuff and have preached it for so many years now,

I'm so old now, I had a person on the ship tell me I look like Joe Biden. Right, so I'm old, okay?

So I've taught this stuff so long. And just a couple of years ago, I got all depressed one week and I was just depressed.

And I was talking to the Lord and it's like the Lord said, now I don't hear a voice, but it's like he impressed on me.

He said, why are you depressed? And I said, because it's like,

I don't feel like I'm having any impact. I don't feel like I can, I can't talk people into getting saved anymore.

I still had the old vocabulary. And this was after being with Otis for 13 years, still said it that way to God.

And it's like, then I heard brother Otis from heaven, brother David, did you say you can't save people?

And it's like, the Lord said, that's not your job. And it's like, I said, what's my job?

And he said, be salt and light, can you do that? And then God went and did his stuff and left me there.

And I thought, yeah, I can do that. And I was instantly not depressed. Isn't that something?

So when we know what our job is, it's actually something we can do. It's not something we can't do. We can be salt and light everywhere we go.

And it's more important at the grocery store, at the barbershop, on the ship, on the vacation, than it is in here.

Because we know what we know. And we're kind of in unity. Now, we don't agree on every little detail, but we're in a lot of unity together.

But if we don't take it out there where we're living, it's useless, but that's where we go. And that's what a believer priest is.

You reach up and you take God's hand. They cannot know him. They don't know him. They're blind to him. They don't want to know him.

And you take their hand and you try to make them want to know him, but you can't, but you try. And so then you pray and say,

Holy Spirit, if they're one of yours, call them. Work in their heart. And you know what you can do to save yourself some time?

When you meet a total stranger, I don't think my wife has any strangers. She makes a friend of everybody she meets and tries to lead them to Christ.

But the first thing she'll do is just throw something, a little phrase out there like, well, didn't the Lord make a beautiful day today?

You'd be surprised what a goat will do with that. No, seriously.

And you'd be surprised what a lost sheep will do with it and what a saved sheep will do with it. And you can tell by just making that comment.

Didn't the Lord make a beautiful day today or something? You talk about what you want to and you throw it out there and either they will shut it down and totally change the subject, or they'll say, yeah, you know,

I've been thinking about that lately, in which case you throw another one out there and you see how long they'll stay with you.

And if the Holy Spirit wants you to flat witness to them, there's a million ways you can do it. It doesn't have to be the Romans road, right?

A million ways. You just tell them what Jesus did for his own people and say, do you have a desire for him?

Because if you do, God put that there, you know, and that's our job. All right, so we're going to talk more about believer priest as we go, but that's in essence what we are.

Let's stand and have prayer together. Thank you for giving me a little extra time to try to get caught up for being gone three weeks today.

Lord, thank you so much for your word and how magnificent it is, how rich it is, how it teaches us continually new things from the same passages we've read many, many times.

You bring forth both old and new because you are the great teacher, the great master, Lord, and thank you for that.

And we ask you to go with us into our time of fellowship now bless the meal and we ask it in Jesus name, amen.

All right, you are dismissed. You know what?

I think that's the little ones up here that make it scribbled all over.

That's not good. If you don't read the context of that, it's horrible.

If you go read the context and say, who's he talking to? Which is a great question. He's talking to Ezekiel, Olam.

Not anyone else, but Ezekiel. But you don't get that if you just pluck the verse out. Well, why is he sitting there selling coffee?

He should be out there on the screen if he believes that. Not a

Christian, I was asked as a goose. Yeah.

Well, now they rap. Christian, really? Okay. Yeah, I know what you mean.

And they talk about soul winning, they use that phrase. But you know, a lot of the great saints of the past used the term, even