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Series Code: HHJ
Program Code: HHJ000020S
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00:16 Fires and floods, riots...
00:19 Everything in our world is turned upside down. 00:21 And we want to ask the question now, 00:24 "Where is God in all of this?" 00:26 Sometimes we question whether God is a God of love. 00:28 Does He even care about this world 00:30 and what's going on in our world? 00:32 Welcome to, The Hour of God's Judgment, part 4. 00:35 In the first three sessions we talked about 00:36 the hour of God's judgment in relationship to us. 00:40 In this last session we're going to talk about 00:41 the hour of God's judgment in relationship to Him. 00:44 Let's pray together as we jump into God's Word. 00:46 Father in heaven, thank You again for guiding our hearts. 00:50 As we open Your Word right now we just pray again 00:53 that Your Holy Spirit will lead us. 00:54 Speak to each one of us and direct us to answers 00:57 to the questions that if you are a God of love, 01:01 a God that's all powerful, a God that cares 01:02 especially about Your people, why is all this suffering and 01:05 evil taking place in our world? 01:07 Why are innocent people suffering? 01:10 Why is this world in such chaos? 01:13 And where are You in all of this? 01:15 Guide our minds and our hearts, we pray, 01:16 to answer these questions. 01:18 In Jesus' name, amen. 01:21 So we have already looked at three parts of this series, 01:25 The Hour of God's Judgment. 01:27 We began in Revelation chapter 14. 01:30 That's kind of been our foundational verse. 01:33 Revelation 14 speaks to the everlasting gospel 01:38 being preached in all the world as a witness to all nations. 01:42 And we recognize that this everlasting gospel includes 01:45 an hour of judgment. 01:47 John says in Revelation 14, beginning with verse 6... 02:11 So what we see here in the context of these two verses 02:16 is a call to God's judgment hour. 02:19 We could identify these verses as God's last 02:22 message for the world. 02:23 And in God's last message for the world 02:26 there is a judgment that is going to take place. 02:28 And we're going to review a little bit of 02:29 what we've learned about this. 02:31 We know that in Matthew 12:36-37 Jesus talks about a judgment. 02:40 He says... 02:56 So Jesus spoke about an hour of judgment. 02:58 We know that Paul, the apostle Paul also spoke 03:01 about an hour of judgment in Romans chapter 14. 03:05 Paul talks about this hour of judgment in the context 03:09 of not judging other people in Romans chapter 14. 03:12 And if you look here at verse 10, it's really clear. 03:15 Paul says... 03:23 So Paul spoke about a time of judgment. 03:25 Jesus talked about a time of judgment. 03:28 The everlasting gospel in Revelation 14 calls us 03:31 into this hour of judgment. 03:32 James also, in the New Testament, speaks about 03:35 a time of judgment when we'll be judged by the law of liberty. 03:38 He said that we should speak and do as those that will be 03:41 judged by the law of liberty. 03:42 And that's in James 2:12. 03:46 And in the Old Testament we have this judgment talked about. 03:50 Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 talks about, "The conclusion of the 03:56 whole matter is to fear God and keep His commandments... 03:58 For God is going to bring every work into judgment, 04:00 and every secret thing, whether it's good 04:02 or whether it is evil." 04:05 So it's very clear from the Old Testament, 04:08 from the New Testament, it's very clear from the Bible 04:10 that God has an hour of judgment. 04:11 And He's bringing this all to a conclusion 04:13 in His last message to the world: 04:15 there's going to be an hour of judgment. 04:17 1 Peter 4:17 has been another key verse 04:20 that we've looked at in all of this. 04:21 Because 1 Peter 4:17 says that this judgment must begin 04:25 at the house of God. 04:27 It says in 1 Peter 4:17... 04:43 Now here we have an hour of judgment 04:45 connected with the gospel, just like in Revelation 14:6-7. 04:50 So we've looked at the reasons for the judgment. 04:53 We've looked at three reasons so far, 04:55 and today we're going to be looking at a fourth reason. 04:57 The first reason we looked at is that we should stop 05:00 judging one another. 05:01 That's what Paul says in Romans chapter 14 05:04 in the context of Paul bringing all believers to this 05:07 hour of judgment. 05:08 In Romans 14 he says, "Let us not therefore 05:11 judge one another anymore." 05:13 Romans 14:13... 05:24 So Paul is saying basically here, rather than us 05:29 judging one another, we should seek to remove stumbling blocks. 05:32 This was the first reason for the judgment. 05:34 We are recused from judging one another. 05:37 We no longer have to have that burden, 05:40 that responsibility on our shoulders. 05:41 God is the one that will judge. 05:44 We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. 05:46 Reason number two is to expose false believers. 05:51 Jesus talks in Matthew 7:21-23 about those who say they are 05:57 followers, they call Him, "Lord," but they don't 06:00 do the things that He is calling them to do. 06:02 They do many wonderful works. 06:04 They cast out devils in His name, 06:06 and in His name do many wonderful works. 06:07 But he says they don't know Jesus, 06:10 and Jesus doesn't know them. 06:12 And they are workers of iniquity. 06:13 We spent a whole meeting talking about this particular truth. 06:17 Jesus Christ says, "I never knew you. 06:19 Depart for Me ye that worketh iniquity." 06:21 That word, "iniquity," is the same as is used in 1 John 3:4. 06:24 They are transgressors of the law. 06:26 They are transgressors of God's commandments. 06:29 And we went through the entire Bible to show 06:31 how the law of God, what part the law of God plays 06:34 in the everlasting gospel. 06:36 That it convicts us of sin and brings us to Jesus. 06:38 It's our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ 06:40 so that we can be justified by faith. 06:42 That if we confess our sins, sin is transgression of the law, 06:45 we have forgiveness in Jesus Christ. 06:47 So Satan is trying to undermine the gospel by 06:50 destroying the law, doing away with the law, 06:52 so we can't be convicted of sin and so we won't confess our 06:55 sins to Jesus Christ. 06:56 So we spent a whole presentation on that. 06:58 And then we looked at another reason, a third reason. 07:01 And that is, that the whole hour of judgment 07:04 involves silencing the accuser of the brethren. 07:07 It says in Revelation 12:10 that we have an accuser 07:12 that accuses up before God day and night. 07:15 And that now the time has come that this accuser 07:17 should be cast down. 07:19 Can you imagine? 07:20 Day and night, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 07:22 365 days a year, Satan never slumbers. 07:26 He never sleeps. 07:27 He is continually accusing us before God. 07:31 And so we spent a whole time, a whole presentation 07:34 on this emphasis of how God is going to silence 07:37 the accuser, not by our merits, but by Christ's merits, 07:40 and how we are to trust in Him for our salvation. 07:44 And that brings us to the fourth reason for the judgment. 07:46 And this one might be the most significant in many ways. 07:50 And that is, vindication of God. 07:53 A vindication of who God is. 07:55 God is identified in the Bible, 1 John 4:8, as a God of love. 07:59 But a lot of people ask the question, 08:01 "Well, how can God be a God of love 08:03 with all these terrible things taking place in the world? 08:06 How can God be up in heaven loving us 08:09 and saying that He cares about us when He let's 08:11 all this evil take place?" 08:13 And that is a judgment on God. 08:16 And a lot of people are making these judgments on God. 08:20 In their words, in their actions, in their lifestyle 08:23 they're just basically saying, 08:24 "I don't believe in a God in heaven. 08:26 I don't believe in a loving God. 08:27 I don't believe that He really cares. 08:28 I don't even believe that He exists." 08:30 This is why God's judgment hour is not just about us, 08:33 it's also about Him. 08:34 And we see this clearly taught in the Scriptures. 08:37 We're going to look at a couple of verses right off. 08:39 Romans 3:3 is where we'll start here. 08:42 Romans 3:3 08:44 I'm going to start looking at this hour of judgment 08:47 as it affects God, or as it relates to God. 08:50 Romans 3 beginning with verse 3, Paul says here... 09:12 Now Paul here is speaking about People who 09:15 don't believe in God. 09:16 He's speaking about the faith of God toward humanity 09:19 that doesn't get a response from humanity. 09:22 God has placed a lot of faith in humanity by giving Himself 09:25 in the person of His Son to die for our sins. 09:27 And that is the faith of God. 09:28 That is the faith of Jesus toward us. 09:31 He's done this for us while we were yet sinners. 09:33 Paul explains this in Romans chapter 5. 09:35 While we were His enemies He died for us. 09:38 That's exercising a lot of faith. 09:40 And he says here, basically, 09:42 "Well, what if some don't believe? 09:43 You know, if God believes in us, will we believe in Him?" 09:46 And a lot of people don't believe in Him. 09:47 Even though He believes in us, they don't believe in Him. 09:49 Even though He's given for us, loved us, 09:51 poured out His life for us, we're not responding 09:54 and giving to Him, giving our hearts to Him, 09:55 giving our lives to Him. 09:57 And Paul says, "What if some don't believe? 09:58 Does that make God a liar? No. 10:00 God forbid." 10:01 Because God is going to be justified 10:04 when He is judged. 10:06 In other words, when people stand before God 10:08 and they seek to raise a finger of accusation, 10:11 God's love towards them is going to silence 10:13 that finger of accusation. 10:15 God is continually being judged 10:19 by people who don't believe in Him. 10:20 We see this all through the Scriptures. 10:22 Let's go, for example, to the Old Testament, 10:24 the book of Daniel and chapter 3. 10:28 And just a little bit of the context here 10:29 in Daniel chapter 3, Daniel and his friends, 10:33 the children of Israel, God's people in the Old Testament, 10:37 have been taken captive by the Babylonians. 10:40 And in their time, it was a very weak god 10:45 who would allow his people, or the people that believed in him, 10:48 to be conquered by another nation. 10:50 So the Babylonians have conquered God's people. 10:53 They've basically taken them into captivity. 10:55 They've destroyed their city and their temple, 10:57 they've razed it to the ground, 10:58 they've destroyed all their soldiers, their armies, etc. 11:01 And they've taken some of the people captive. 11:03 And Daniel and his friends are some of those people. 11:06 And when you look at the context of this, 11:09 what is happening here is Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians, 11:12 are basically saying, "Hey, our gods 11:13 are strong and you're gods are weak." 11:14 In fact, you find that in the very first chapter 11:16 of Daniel chapter 1. 11:17 As the story moves on, you find Nebuchadnezzar the king 11:22 erecting an image all of gold in his honor 11:25 and asking everyone to bow down and worship the image. 11:29 And that image made of gold is idol worship to God's people. 11:35 and so they won't worship it, 11:36 they won't bow down to that image. 11:38 And in that context we find Nebuchadnezzar 11:41 threatening to throw them into a burning fiery furnace 11:44 and destroy them. 11:45 And that's where we pick up in Daniel 3:14. 11:49 Let's just look here at verse 14 in Daniel 3. 11:53 So Nebuchadnezzar speaks to them, and he says to 11:56 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego... 12:31 You see what he's saying here? 12:32 He's despising God. 12:34 He's saying, "Who is that God? There's no God. 12:36 You're God is a weak God. 12:37 I've already conquered your God. 12:39 You're God isn't a loving God, He's not a protecting God, 12:41 He's not a God that takes care of you." 12:42 And this is the very thing that unbelievers say to Christians. 12:45 Many times when Christians go through trials, 12:47 and difficulties, and sorrows, and losses, 12:49 the words come to them, "Where is your God? 12:51 What kind of God is this? 12:53 Is He going to protect you? 12:54 How is He going to protect you from me? 12:55 How is He going to protect you from us?" 12:57 And this is why God is included in the hour of judgment. 13:02 Because everything that happens to Christians 13:05 is a reflection on the way people think about God. 13:08 We see this in another story. 13:09 We see this in many stories in the Old Testament. 13:11 The next one we're going to look at is in 13:13 2 Chronicles chapter 22. 13:15 2 Chronicles chapter 32, excuse me. 13:17 2 Chronicles chapter 32. 13:19 And we're just going to highlight verse 16. 13:22 2 Chronicles 32:16 13:25 We see this, for example, in the exodus story also. 13:30 We see God's people being questioned by Pharaoh; 13:34 Moses the representative, and God, being questioned by him. 13:36 You know, "Who is God that I should obey 13:37 His voice and let His people go? 13:39 Who is this God? 13:40 I don't know who your God is." 13:42 Because God is not a God that has made Himself 13:44 manifest to deliver His people who have been slaves in Egypt 13:47 for hundreds of years. 13:48 Because it doesn't seem like He's protecting them 13:50 and looking after them and providing for them, 13:52 Pharaoh is led to question God, to judge God as a weak God. 13:56 We see the same thing happening here with 13:57 the Assyrians and Sennacherib. 14:00 And so in verse 16 here, the servants speak. 14:04 Verse 16... 14:26 So there's a question mark here about God. 14:30 "None of the other gods had delivered them, 14:32 other nations, out of my hand. 14:34 And your God is not going to deliver 14:35 you out of my hands either. 14:37 He's just like the other gods. 14:38 He's as weak as the other gods. 14:39 He's less able to protect His people 14:42 than my god is able to reign over and to take over 14:46 and to conquer your people. 14:48 So really, you shouldn't be trusting in this God." 14:50 And that's exactly, those accusations are 14:54 the voices today echoing down through time 14:56 to our present day. 14:57 And people still question God. 14:59 And it's hard because in life we have loss. 15:02 In life we have pain, in life we have evil. 15:05 And we know that in John chapter 10, Jesus talked about this 15:08 and He says, you know, "The devil has come 15:09 to do nothing but destroy and kill and steal. 15:11 But I have come that you might have life, 15:12 and have it more abundantly." 15:14 And that's what God purposed for us, but we 15:16 struggle with, "Well then, why all the pain and suffering?" 15:18 Well the reason why there's all this pain and suffering 15:21 is because evil has come into this world. 15:22 God didn't invent evil, He didn't bring it in here, 15:24 He didn't choose to have it as part of this world. 15:26 Actually, we did. 15:27 His creation did, beginning with Lucifer in heaven. 15:30 And then going on to Adam and Eve, and then down to us. 15:33 And so, the responsibility for all of this 15:35 is the responsibility of choice. 15:37 And yet, we want to blame God. 15:38 And therefore, we put God in the judgment seat. 15:41 So in this judgment hour God's character of love 15:45 is in question. 15:47 And this truth, this biblical truth is brought 15:51 clearly to the front in the book of Revelation. 15:54 We're going to look in Revelation chapter 11. 15:56 We're going to sit here for a while. 15:58 Revelation chapter 11 and we're going to start in verse 1. 16:01 Revelation 11:1 is a very significant verse. 16:07 Historically it comes in the wake of Revelation chapter 10. 16:11 Prophetically Revelation chapter 10 is speaking about 16:14 a movement, an advent movement, that predicted 16:17 the coming of Christ at the end of the 2300 day period. 16:20 The prophetic period of 2300 days in Danial 8:14. 16:23 And they went through, they had a sweet hope 16:26 in the advent of Christ, but they went through 16:28 a bitter disappointment when He didn't return to this earth. 16:30 They later realized that the cleansing of the Sanctuary 16:34 was the transition of Christ in heaven as mediator 16:37 from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place. 16:39 And so, in the wake of that disappointment, 16:42 that sweet bitter disappointment, 16:44 they were encouraged to prophesy again before many 16:46 nations, kindred, tongues, and people. 16:48 They were encouraged to go back, to study their Bibles, 16:52 and to go forth with this message of judgment. 16:55 And it's in that very context that we read Revelation 11:1. 16:59 Revelation 11:1 is actually the prerequisite 17:02 to Revelation 14 and the three angels' messages 17:05 when it comes to the hour of judgment because 17:06 this is the first place the hour of His judgment is mentioned. 17:09 And we want to dissect this verse, 17:11 we want to really understand this verse 17:13 because it's coming in the wake of the disappointment, 17:15 the wake of the advent disappointment in 1844. 17:19 So what does it say here? 17:20 Let's start with Revelation 11:1 17:23 and just read it, then we'll break down some of the symbols. 17:25 Revelation 11:1... 17:40 Now there are four symbols here or four parts of this verse 17:44 that we want to break down and identify. 17:47 The first one is, we want to identify what the 17:49 word, "measure," means. 17:51 And then we want to identify the phrase, "the temple of God." 17:54 And then we want to identify the phrase, "the altar," 17:57 the word, "the altar." 17:58 And then we want to identify the word, "worshippers." 18:01 So what does it mean to measure the temple of God, 18:04 the altar, and the worshippers. 18:06 So we'll start with the word, "measure." 18:08 If you go back to the Greek and you look up this word, 18:10 "measure," it comes from the number 3354, 18:13 and it means, to judge according to any rule or standard... 18:20 So what we have here is a heavenly being talking to John 18:24 saying, "Now listen, I want you to judge, 18:27 I want you to measure, I want you to judge 18:29 the temple of God, the altar, and those that worship therein." 18:32 And so, what exactly is he talking about when he's 18:35 talking about the temple of God and the altar? 18:37 So we put this word in there. To measure means to judge. 18:39 Now we want to look at the symbol of the temple of God. 18:41 What does the temple of God represent? 18:43 And so, the temple of God is identified in a number of places 18:47 in the Old Testament and the New Testament. 18:50 We'll look first in the New Testament Revelation 11:19. 18:52 It says here in Revelation 11:19, 18:54 just a few verses over here... 19:06 "And there were lightening's, and voices, and thunderings, 19:09 and an earthquake, and great hail." 19:11 The ark of the testament is where the 19:12 Ten Commandments were kept. 19:14 The ark of the testament is where the law of God was kept, 19:16 right under the mercy seat. 19:17 And so, when the temple of God is opened, 19:19 we see God's law. 19:20 That's what we see. 19:22 In fact, you look in the Old Testament 19:23 and the same truth is brought forth. 19:25 Let's just keep your finger here in Revelation 19, 19:28 because we're going to come right back to Revelation 19. 19:31 And let's go now to Exodus chapter 25 19:34 and let's look at how Moses describes this place, 19:40 the ark of the testament. 19:41 Exodus chapter 25, Moses is describing this, 19:45 and we'll start here in verse 22. 19:49 "And there I will meet with thee..." 19:51 This is God speaking to Moses. 19:53 "I will meet with thee, I will commune with thee 19:55 from above the mercy seat..." 19:57 So we're talking about the ark now. 20:08 So God is saying, "I'm going to meet you, 20:10 this is where I'm going to meet you. 20:11 I'm going to meet you at the ark of the testimony, 20:14 at the mercy seat, between the cherubim. 20:16 That's where I'm going to meet you. 20:17 And I'm going to command you all the things that you need to 20:20 tell the children of Israel." 20:21 So this is an Old Testament description of 20:24 how God meets us and commands us, gives us commands, 20:28 at the ark of the testimony. 20:29 So the ark of the testimony is the place where God meets. 20:33 In fact, the word, "testimony," means, a witness or a recorder. 20:38 This is God's testimony, it's His witness. 20:40 And He meets us at the ark of the testimony 20:43 as a witness, as a testimony. 20:45 He gives us the testimony. 20:47 That's what the whole focal point of this is, 20:50 this hour of judgment. 20:51 You know, when you think about a judgment, 20:53 you think about something that comes in a court case. 20:55 You know, you have a court case that comes 20:58 into before the judge, before a jury, 21:00 and you have witnesses that stand up and they testify 21:03 in relation to the defendant or in relation to those 21:06 who are prosecuting. 21:08 And then finally, as all the evidence is given, 21:11 you know, one witness after another testifies, 21:13 then you have a decision. 21:14 A decision is made at the end, a judgment is made 21:16 at the end of this court case. 21:18 That's what we see taking place 21:20 in relationship to the hour of God's judgment. 21:22 We have witnesses for God and witnesses against God. 21:26 We have a jury, 21:28 we have people who are going to make a decision. 21:29 And this is going to be an internal decision 21:31 for or against the truth, for or against God. 21:34 God has been shaded in darkness, He's been shaded in evil, 21:37 He's been shaded in a negative light. 21:39 And when you look at the Bible, especially the Old Testament, 21:41 you see a lot of things there that are 21:43 questionable about His character. 21:44 And it's hard for some people to think that God is a God of love. 21:48 And then you look at life's experiences, 21:49 and those add to the burden of evidence. 21:52 And so the prosecutor, Satan, is accusing, accusing, accusing. 21:56 And we need to see and understand the truth about God 22:00 even though we have a lot of evidence piled up against Him. 22:03 We need to know exactly how He really is. 22:05 And sometimes it's hard for us to see how He really is 22:08 because life hits us so many curves 22:10 and we see so many stories in the Bible 22:12 that don't seem to measure up to a God of love. 22:14 And so we've got to understand this in the context 22:17 of the evidence of Christ, in the life of Christ, 22:20 that we see primarily in the New Testament. 22:23 So, to measure is to judge. 22:26 And the temple of God represents God's law, 22:29 it represents God's commandments, 22:33 it represents the place where God meets with us. 22:35 And of course, God's law is a transcript of God's character. 22:37 So it's God who is on trial here. 22:39 It's not some Decalogue that's on tables of, you know, 22:42 cold tables of stone somewhere. 22:44 The law of God is a transcript of the character of God. 22:46 Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 22. 22:48 He says, "The law says to love God with all 22:50 your heart, mind, soul, and love your neighbor as yourself." 22:53 In Romans 13 and in Galatians 5, it also says 22:56 love is the fulfilling of the law. 22:58 And so, what we find here is that if God is love 23:01 and His law is love, law of love, 23:04 then the law of God is a representation of the 23:06 love of God, and the love of God is on trial, 23:08 the character of God is on trial here. 23:10 He's being judged by a lot of people in the world 23:13 as not being a God of love. 23:15 Alright, so now we want to understand 23:16 what does the altar represent? 23:18 Okay, we've got the temple of God representing 23:20 God's law, God's character. 23:21 What does the altar represent? 23:23 Measure the character of God, the law of God, 23:25 and measure the altar. 23:26 Well, Paul tells us in Hebrews chapter 13... 23:29 Let's just look there in Hebrews 13. 23:31 It's just a couple of books before the book of Revelation. 23:34 And Hebrews chapter 13 is really helpful when it 23:38 comes to understanding the symbols, 23:39 especially the book of Revelation. 23:41 Because many of the symbols of Revelation 23:44 are Sanctuary symbols: the temple, the altar, 23:48 the lamb, the priest, the incense. 23:51 All of this stuff that we find, all of the symbols that we find 23:54 in Revelation actually take us back to the Sanctuary 23:58 that God gave as an outline of the plan of salvation. 24:00 And the book of Hebrews is all about 24:03 understanding the Sanctuary. 24:05 All through the book of Hebrews we have all of the different 24:08 meanings of the Sanctuary exploded, 24:11 distilled, made plain, made simple, applied. 24:15 Especially applied to Jesus Christ. 24:17 So we have a full disclosure in the book of Hebrews 24:20 of the symbolism of the Sanctuary. 24:22 And that's where we're going to find a disclosure, 24:23 an understanding of this word, "altar." 24:25 So Hebrews chapter 13 beginning with verse 10 24:29 Paul says here, "We have an altar..." 24:31 See, we're looking, what is this altar? 24:50 So he's saying here, "We have an altar..." 24:52 And then he's going back to the Sanctuary service. 24:53 He talks about it in present day language 24:55 because the priests were still involved in that 24:57 Sanctuary service when he wrote this. 24:59 And he says, you know, the bodies, the sacrifices 25:03 they brought in to this literal altar, the beasts of sacrifice 25:07 were brought into the Sanctuary, and then their carcasses were 25:09 burned outside the camp. 25:11 Well, Jesus fulfilled that. 25:13 He was the Lamb of God. 25:14 And when He came to die on the cross, 25:16 He was taken outside the gate. 25:18 You know, He was taken outside the city of Jerusalem. 25:20 That's where He was crucified. 25:21 And so he's saying basically, the altar of sacrifice 25:25 in the earthly sanctuary was a type that represented 25:29 Calvary on the cross. 25:30 It pointed to Jesus being sacrificed outside the city. 25:33 It pointed to the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God 25:36 that takes away the sins of the world. 25:39 So the altar represents the cross of Calvary. 25:42 So far we've got this? 25:43 We've got one verse that comes in the wake of the 25:46 advent movement, the bitter disappointment, 25:48 that causes to prophesy again, and then moves us 25:51 right into a judgment hour. 25:52 This judgment hour is identified with this rod that 25:56 John is given and he's told to measure. 25:58 Measure what? The temple of God, 25:59 God's character, God's law, 26:01 the altar, the cross of Calvary, and the worshippers. 26:04 And so this last verse also is included in the judgment. 26:07 We spent quite a bit of time on this. 26:09 We are to measure God's law of love, 26:12 we are to measure the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 26:14 And then we are going to be measured in response. 26:18 Now before we get there, let's follow the admonition 26:22 that is given to John. 26:24 Let's measure God. 26:25 Let's measure the character of God 26:27 and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 26:29 You know, this is what John says in John 1:29. 26:34 When he sees Jesus coming, John 1:29, he says, 26:41 And that word, "behold," means, to see or to know. 26:45 See, it's the same thing. 26:46 John, in John 1:29, is saying the same thing 26:49 that he's saying here in Revelation chapter 11. 26:51 We need to measure the altar, 26:53 we need to measure the sacrifice, 26:54 we need to measure the character of God. 26:56 We need to know, we need to see Jesus, 27:00 the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. 27:02 See, a lot of people will hear stuff about God, 27:06 but they won't investigate for themselves. 27:08 They'll hear stuff about, you know, what kind of God He is, 27:12 and what the Bible seems to teach, but they won't 27:14 dig into the Bible for themselves. 27:16 They'll make some pronouncements about God 27:18 without really searching to understand 27:20 what God is really like, to get answers 27:23 personally for their questions. 27:24 When you step beyond all of the hearsay and you get 27:28 into the Bible and prayerfully ask God to lead you 27:32 and guide you to give you and understanding of who he is, 27:34 you're going to find a completely different picture 27:36 of God than what you hear about from other people. 27:39 Because a lot of people are bias by their own experiences, 27:41 their own prejudice, their own, you know, directions 27:44 in life, their own choices in life. 27:46 And they're not necessarily going to give you 27:48 the full picture that God wants to give you of who He is. 27:51 God isn't afraid to be brought into 27:53 the hour of judgment with us. 27:54 He's not afraid. 27:56 In fact, that's what we do. 27:57 All of us naturally judge God. 27:59 God's not afraid of that. 28:00 What He's afraid of is that we won't stay around long enough 28:02 to get an answer from Him as to what He's really like. 28:05 To get an answer. 28:06 Paul brings this out. 28:08 We're going to move now, we'll get back to Revelation 11, 28:11 but we're going to move now to Ephesians 28:13 because Paul really spends some time on this 28:17 in the book of Ephesians chapter 3. 28:21 And we want to just look there, just spend a little bit of time 28:24 here because there's a lot of verses here that kind of 28:26 bring this together. 28:27 Ephesians chapter 3. 28:29 If I were to just take and summarize Revelation 14 28:33 and Revelation 11, and the idea of that's brought out in 28:36 Romans 3, that God is in the judgment with us, 28:39 if I were to try to summarize all of that, 28:41 I would take you to Ephesians chapter 3. 28:44 We'll start at about verse 8. 28:45 You can read the whole chapter, we don't have time to read 28:47 the whole chapter, but you can read the whole chapter 28:49 and it would really kind of summarize 28:52 the message that is being shared here in Revelation 14, 28:56 and in Revelation 11, and in Romans chapter 3; 28:59 about God being involved in the judgment, 29:01 and this whole trial that He's involved in 29:03 and the witnesses that He needs us to be for Him 29:07 to bring about a good decision for individuals 29:11 so that people can be eternally saved 29:13 and not stumble over a misrepresentation 29:15 of His character. 29:17 So Paul here, speaking in Ephesians chapter 3, 29:19 we'll start with verse 8, he says, "Unto me..." 29:21 Starting with verse 8... 29:31 So the Gentiles is another word for someone who doesn't believe. 29:33 Okay? The Gentiles are people who didn't understand, 29:36 didn't know the Bible. 29:38 And Paul says, "God has given me grace to preach 29:40 the unsearchable riches of Jesus, 29:42 the unsearchable riches of Christ." 29:44 Then he goes on in verse 9 and he says this... 29:56 So he wants, Paul wants everyone to see this fellowship 30:00 of mystery with Jesus. 30:01 He wants people to see the riches of Christ, 30:03 the unsearchable riches of Christ. 30:06 And he goes on in verse 10 and he says this... 30:20 So God here is talking about the importance 30:24 of making known the wisdom of God. 30:27 God is wise. 30:28 He's had to deal with an issue, a controversy between 30:31 good and evil, a rebellion in this world, in His universe, 30:35 and He's trying to deal with this is a very wise way. 30:38 And sometimes when you see the way God deals with this, 30:42 you question and say, "Why does God allow sin and suffering?" 30:44 Well, what if God would have simply wiped out 30:47 Satan right at the very beginning? 30:48 What if God would have just wiped out Adam and Eve? 30:49 What if God, as soon as someone sins, God just 30:51 says, "You're gone." 30:52 That wouldn't be very wise because then we would see Him 30:54 as some kind of dictator, some kind of despot, 30:57 some person tyrant that we would just be afraid of. 30:59 So God has allowed sin, He's allowed evil 31:03 to manifest itself so that we can see how horrendous it is, 31:07 how bad it is, and then see Him as a God who wants to 31:10 rescue us from it, even though He's allowed it 31:13 in order for us to recognize it. 31:15 So God is not some kind of tyrant and despot. 31:18 God is not some kind of evil wicked person up there 31:20 just hurdling lightning bolts at us and wants to make 31:23 life as hard as possible. 31:25 And that's what Paul is talking about here in Ephesians. 31:27 In verse 11, I'm just going to read from the NIV here. 31:41 You see that? 31:42 Paul says, "I want you guys to be able to approach God with 31:45 freedom and confidence." 31:47 Well you can't approach someone who you feel is 31:48 a tyrant, and a despot, and an evil person, 31:52 you can't approach them with freedom and confidence. 31:53 You're going to be afraid of them. 31:55 And so Paul is saying, "I've had fellowship. 31:57 I've been searching the unsearchable riches of Christ. 32:00 I've got grace. 32:01 And I want you guys to be involved in the mystery of that 32:03 fellowship and to know God the way I know God. 32:06 Because you're hearing all this stuff about God, 32:08 but you don't know Him the way that I know Him. 32:10 And I want you to know Him the way that I know Him 32:12 so you can approach Him with freedom and with confidence." 32:16 And he goes on in verse 14. 32:18 And he says... 33:03 This is it for Paul. 33:06 This is the bottom line for Paul. 33:07 Paul here is wanting us to enter into this fellowship, 33:11 to search out the unsearchable riches of Christ, 33:14 to be in a mystery of fellowship. 33:16 and He wants us to do this by beholding 33:19 the length, and the width, and the depth, and the height 33:23 of the love of God; that we might be filled with the 33:26 fullness of God. 33:28 And I want us to look at this. 33:29 This is the whole point of what we are talking about 33:32 in Revelation 14 and the hour of God's judgment, 33:34 and Revelation chapter 11, measuring God, 33:37 measuring His character, measuring the altar. 33:40 Paul is saying the same thing. 33:41 He's saying, "I want you to measure God. 33:43 I want you to measure His width, and His length, 33:45 and His depth, and His height. 33:46 I want you to measure the love of God. 33:48 Because God is love, and I want you to measure that." 33:50 Why? So that you can be filled with the fullness of God. 33:52 Because there's a lot of darkness, there's a lot of evil, 33:54 there's a lot of negativity that is going to try to undermine 33:58 what God is really like. 34:00 They misrepresent what God is really like. 34:02 And so you've got to measure God. 34:03 You can't stay focused on the negativity. 34:05 You need to focus on who God really is. 34:08 So when I think about these four dimensions 34:12 of measurement, for example, the width, 34:14 I think about how Jesus died for all. 34:17 That He has taken in everyone. 34:20 The width of God's love takes in every single person 34:24 on planet earth. 34:25 And we read that in John 3:16. 34:27 This is the most precious verse in the Bible. 34:37 So God loves the world, and whosoever believes. 34:41 That includes everyone. 34:42 So when I think of the width, this is what Paul is saying. 34:44 You need to measure the width, you need to measure that 34:47 God wants everyone to be saved. 34:49 Some people think, "Well, God has a certain amount of people 34:50 that are going to be saved and a certain amount of people 34:52 who are going to be lost. 34:53 A certain amount of people that are pre-elected to be saved, 34:56 and that's it that are going to be saved, 34:57 and a certain amount of people that are predestined to be lost, 34:59 and they're going to be lost; and that's the way it is. 35:00 God just predestined everyone." 35:02 Well that's not exactly what the Bible teaches. 35:05 The Bible does teach predestination. 35:06 But in Ephesians, that's where you find the strongest 35:09 verses on predestination, 35:10 in fact, they're in Ephesians chapter 1 35:12 as well as in Romans chapter 8, 35:14 you find that God has predestined 35:16 everyone to be saved. 35:18 That God has not left anyone out of that predestination. 35:21 Doesn't mean that everyone is going to be saved. 35:23 Because God is a gentleman and He will honor 35:25 the choice of every individual. 35:26 And a lot of people are choosing against Him 35:28 because they're listening to the dark, 35:29 they're listening to the evil. 35:31 But God is a God of love who loved the world, 35:33 that whosoever believes in Him might be saved 35:37 and have eternal life. 35:38 So that's what I think about when I think about 35:40 the width of God's love. 35:41 When I think about the length of God's love, 35:43 I think about how God is long-suffering. 35:45 Like He just goes to any lengths, like, 35:46 over and over and over and over again. 35:49 In fact, 2 Peter 3:9, this was my verse 35:53 when I first came to the Lord. 35:54 I was 21 years old when I gave my heart to Jesus. 35:57 And you know, when I was 21 I thought I was really old. 36:00 And I thought, man, I believed in God, 36:02 I said my prayers every night, 36:04 I was raised in a Christian home, 36:05 but I didn't really know Jesus. 36:06 I mean, I can relate to Matthew 7:21-23 36:08 where it says, you know, "You do these many wonderful works, 36:10 but your works are iniquity." 36:11 I wasn't living for Jesus 36:13 even though I was believing in Jesus. 36:14 But when I accepted Him as my Savior, I thought, 36:17 "Man, God's been waiting for me for a long time. 36:19 He's been so long-suffering." 36:20 You know, 21 years. Wow! 36:21 But it's more than that. 36:23 It's thousands of years. 36:24 God has waited, has been waiting. 36:26 Why? 36:27 Well, 2 Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord is not slack..." 36:40 Not willing. God's not willing. 36:42 His will is that none of us will perish. 36:43 Now He wants us to come to repentance. 36:45 He's not going to force us to be saved. 36:47 He's not going to force us to not perish. 36:50 But He's not willing. 36:51 On His side, He's fully desiring for us to be saved. 36:54 On our side, we need to turn around. 36:57 That's what repent means, to turn around. 36:59 Romans 2:4, the goodness of God leads us to repentance. 37:02 The love of God turns our life around back to Him. 37:04 That's what happened with me. 37:06 The love of God turns us around. 37:07 So Jeremiah 3:13 says the same truth. 37:10 The Old Testament; the same God, same truth. 37:12 You think of the Old Testament sometimes and you say, 37:13 "Oh, the Old Testament God is different 37:15 than the New Testament God." 37:16 No, the Old Testament God is the same God as the 37:18 New Testament God, it's just that we have 37:20 misrepresented Him, we've misunderstood Him 37:23 in the Old Testament, what He's about, you know. 37:24 So we think that God is different in the Old Testament. 37:27 He's not. Jeremiah 31:3... 37:39 An everlasting love. That's a long-suffering God. 37:41 That's a long love. 37:43 God is long-suffering toward us. 37:45 In Revelation 13:8, I love this verse. 37:47 Why? 37:49 Well, because it's in the mark of the beast chapter. 37:51 It's in the final conflict between good and evil chapter. 37:54 Revelation 13, the mark of the beast. 37:55 Everyone is going to receive a mark 37:57 in their forehead or in their hand. 37:58 No one is going to be able to buy or sell. 37:59 Right in the middle of all of this 38:01 it describes the people who won't. 38:12 So we have this Lamb that was lain from the 38:15 foundation of the world. 38:16 From the very beginning of time, from the very beginning of sin, 38:19 from the very beginning of creation 38:21 we have the plan of salvation put into place. 38:25 It was there, it's been there for us. 38:26 God is long-suffering. 38:28 So when I think about the length, 38:29 I think about God's long-suffering. 38:31 When I think about the depth of God's love, 38:33 I think about how He, God, became a man, 38:37 and even became sin for us in the person of Jesus Christ. 38:41 That's what we're told in Hebrews, and in 2 Corinthians, 38:45 and throughout the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament. 38:49 Jesus Christ came down to our level. 38:51 "Behold, a body hast thou prepared for me." 38:53 Hebrews 2:9 says, "But we see Jesus..." 39:08 In the context of Hebrews it's talking about how God 39:10 gave dominion to Adam, and Adam gave up that dominion. 39:13 And now we don't see Adam having dominion over the earth, 39:15 but we see Jesus. 39:17 Jesus steps in as the second Adam. 39:19 And He takes upon Himself the consequence of Adam's sin. 39:24 We talked about that in an earlier meeting. 39:26 We need to talk about it again. 39:27 2 Corinthians 5:21, powerful verse. 39:30 "He," God, "has made Him," Jesus, "to be sin for us..." 39:38 Jesus knew no sin, but He became sin. 39:40 We know no righteousness, but we become righteous. 39:43 That's the great exchange of the gospel. 39:45 We become righteous because we receive the 39:48 righteousness from Christ. 39:49 And He can give that to us because He has taken 39:51 care of all of our sin. 39:53 He has taken our punishment. 39:54 He stood in our place as a substitute. 39:56 And He has received the penalty, the punishment, 39:59 for our sins in our place. 40:01 And He did that for us. 40:03 He didn't do it for Himself. 40:04 He didn't sin, He didn't deserve to be punished. 40:06 And He did that for us so that we who are sinners 40:09 and have no righteousness, we don't deserve righteousness, 40:12 can have His righteousness. 40:13 So just like He didn't deserve to be punished, 40:15 but He was punished, we don't deserve 40:17 His righteousness, but we get His righteousness. 40:19 This is the great exchange 40:21 that Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 5:21. 40:25 He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness 40:27 of God in Him. 40:28 It's powerful truth. 40:30 And so when I think about the depth of God's love; 40:31 He becomes a man, He becomes sin for us. 40:34 And then I think about the height of God's love, 40:36 the height of the love of God. 40:38 And we're told that we are actually going to sit 40:41 with Christ on His throne. 40:44 I mean, that's the height of God's love. 40:45 God has purposed that we would be exalted, 40:51 that we would be elevated, that we would be lifted up 40:53 out of this fallen state and be reconnected to Him 40:57 in heavenly places. 40:59 And Ephesians 2 talks about that. 41:00 But also Revelation 3:21. 41:02 It says there in Revelation 3:21... 41:17 Can you imagine sitting with Christ on His throne 41:19 just like He sits with the Father on His throne? 41:21 We have a place with Christ on the throne. 41:22 So when you think about this, Paul is, in Ephesians chapter 3, 41:26 Paul is calling us to understand, to measure 41:30 the character of God. 41:32 The same thing being talked about in Revelation chapter 11. 41:35 Paul is calling us to measure the character of God 41:37 that we might understand the surpassing riches of Christ, 41:42 that we may have fellowship in this mystery, 41:44 that we may be filled with the fullness of God. 41:47 And as we contemplate this, Paul says, "I want you to look at 41:51 the length, and I want you to look at the width, 41:53 and I want you to look at the depth, 41:55 and I want you to look at the height." 41:56 So I think about the width: 41:58 God includes all, Jesus died for all. 41:59 When I think about the length: God is long-suffering. 42:02 He's waited and waited and waited for every single person 42:06 who would turn to Him. 42:07 When I think about the depth of God's love, 42:09 I think about how He came all the way down to our level. 42:12 Because we couldn't come up to His. 42:14 So He came down to our level. 42:16 He laid aside His divinity and became a man, 42:18 He became a servant, He humbled Himself, 42:21 even unto death, the death of the cross. 42:24 He became sin for us that we might become the 42:26 righteousness of God in Him. 42:28 And then when I think about the height: 42:29 He came all the way down, 42:31 and He came down to bring us up. 42:32 To exalt us, to bring us to His level. 42:35 To fill us with His fullness, to restore us to His image. 42:38 He didn't come down here to take our sins so that 42:40 we could just keep on sinning. 42:41 He came down here to take our sins so that we could be 42:43 free from sin, free from bondage, free from addiction. 42:46 So that we could live the life that God created us to live. 42:50 A life of freedom in Him. 42:52 So this is the message that John is bringing to us 42:56 in the book of Revelation. 42:57 This is the message that is being communicated 42:59 in Revelation 11:1. 43:02 Let's just go back there to Revelation 11:1. 43:05 We read the verse, but we'll read it again. 43:07 "I was given a reed like unto a rod..." 43:10 A measuring rod. 43:19 And so we've identified four aspects of this verse. 43:23 The first thing we've identified is what it means to measure. 43:26 It means to judge. 43:29 The second thing we've identified is the temple of God. 43:32 The temple of God is where we saw the ark of His testimony. 43:36 The temple of God is where we saw the ark 43:39 that contains the law of God above the mercy seat. 43:43 Law and mercy is a revelation of God's character, who He is. 43:47 The law is a revelation of love, it's a revelation of God 43:49 because God is love. 43:51 And so we're going to measure God, going to measure His law, 43:53 we're going to measure the very foundation of His character 43:55 and His kingdom. 43:56 And then we're called to measure the altar. 43:59 The altar, Hebrews 13:10-12, represents Calvary, 44:05 it represents Christ, it represents the place 44:08 where Christ was sacrificed as the Lamb slain 44:10 from the foundation of the world, 44:12 as the Lamb that takes away the sins of the world. 44:14 He was slain outside the city, just like the carcasses of those 44:18 beasts were burned outside the city. 44:20 And so you have a perfect representation 44:22 here of the altar. 44:23 And John is calling us to measure God's character 44:28 and to measure the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 44:31 And then the worshippers. 44:32 The worshippers are then measured, judged. 44:36 And we've talked about this in previous meetings. 44:39 But it's really important to understand it now 44:40 in a different context. 44:42 The context in which we read it in Revelation chapter 11 44:46 is, God is measured first, His character. 44:49 And the sacrifice He's made is measured. 44:51 And then believers are measured. 44:53 So when we read 1 Peter 4:17. "For the time is come..." 45:03 It's gospel truth. 45:05 The judgment is gospel truth. 45:07 Why? Because it's based upon a revelation 45:10 of God's character and a revelation of the sacrifice 45:14 of Jesus Christ. 45:15 Those are the two elements that are involved 45:17 in this judgment hour. 45:20 God is involved in the judgment hour. 45:21 We see His character on trial, if you will, 45:24 and we are called to step in to measure that, 45:28 and then to become witnesses for Him, if you will, 45:31 a testimony of how gracious He is. 45:33 That's what Paul is laying out for us in Ephesians chapter 3. 45:37 "I stepped into the fellowship of this mystery. 45:39 I was persecuting the church. 45:41 And Jesus came to me in a vision on the road to Damascus 45:43 and says, 'Why are you persecuting Me?'" 45:45 See, Paul was persecuting the church, 45:47 and Jesus said, "You're persecuting Me. 45:48 You're misrepresenting Me. 45:50 You're actually fighting against Me." 45:52 And Paul is converted because He saw Jesus. 45:54 And Paul is saying, "I've seen Jesus. 45:56 And my whole mind, my whole heart was transformed, 45:59 and my life was turned around. 46:01 And instead of persecuting, I became a proclaimer. 46:04 I became a witness, if you will, of God's goodness, 46:07 of God's character, of God's love." 46:09 This is what we see taking place in the context 46:11 of the judgment hour. 46:13 It's time for us to step up and be a witness, 46:16 a testimony, of who God really is. 46:19 And we do this in our lives. 46:20 We do this in the way that we relate to people. 46:22 We do this in our interactions. 46:23 But we can't reveal God's character unless 46:26 we spend time beholding Him. 46:28 Because by beholding Him we become transformed. 46:31 And so Paul is calling us, Jesus is calling us, 46:33 the whole New Testament and Old Testament is calling us 46:36 to behold Christ and to be transformed into His image 46:39 so that we can be a proper witness for Him. 46:41 Not a false witness, but a proper witness for Him. 46:43 You know, in a court trial many times they have witnesses 46:47 that they would like to bring forth but their lives are so bad 46:50 that the prosecutor would tear them apart. 46:53 You know, they don't live a moral life or a good life, 46:55 they can't be trusted to tell the truth, et cetera. 46:57 And so there's no way that their testimony 46:58 is going to be believed. 47:00 And God is calling for witnesses whose testimony 47:02 can be believed. 47:04 Because we live for Jesus our testimony can be believed 47:07 and we can witness for Christ in this hour of judgment message. 47:11 Mark 4:24, I want you to look at this verse 47:15 because this is really important for us 47:16 as we wrap this up right now. 47:18 Mark 4:24 47:21 Jesus says here, "Take heed what you hear..." 47:30 So we need to look at this in the context of the judgment. 47:33 Okay? When we look at the context of the judgment, 47:36 God's character is judged. 47:38 We look at God's character, We judge God's character. 47:41 And God's sacrifice is judged. 47:43 We look at God's sacrifice, we judge God's sacrifice. 47:45 And then our response to God is judged. 47:48 In the same measure we meet, it will be measured unto us. 47:52 There are so many times as a Christian I've heard people say, 47:54 "Oh, I don't go to church. 47:55 It's just a bunch of hypocrites over there." 47:57 Well, that's the measurement you're giving. 47:58 That's the judgment you're giving. 47:59 Are you a hypocrite then? 48:01 Not that you'd be a hypocrite because you don't go to church, 48:03 but are you a hypocrite in your life? 48:05 In other words, are you living up to your own 48:07 standard in your life? 48:08 Are you living up to the morals that you know, 48:10 what you know to be right in your own conscience. 48:12 I believe that most people are hypocrites in one way or another 48:15 or to one degree or another. 48:17 And only the grace of God can make it different. 48:20 And so when we see hypocrisy, it's not so much 48:23 that it's different from us, but rather it's a failure 48:26 to rely upon the grace of God to make us different from them. 48:30 We need to be different from hypocrisy in our own lives, 48:33 whether in the church or out of the church. 48:35 We need the grace of God to do that, 48:37 because human beings can't. 48:39 We've tried over and over again, the experiment has failed 48:41 again and again and again. 48:43 And there's no man-made utopia 48:44 that can be created on this earth. 48:46 God is the only one that can transform us 48:50 and pull us out of hypocrisy 48:52 And Jesus has made that very, very clear. 48:55 So it's only as we measure God as a God of love 48:58 that we actually become love. 48:59 As a God of giving self-sacrificing love, 49:03 giving sacrifice in Jesus Christ, 49:05 that we actually can become self-sacrificing 49:07 and others centered. 49:08 As we measure God, we will be measured. 49:10 God is the only source of power, the only source of love, 49:13 that can transform us. 49:14 And if you reject that, we will not be restored 49:18 in any way into the image of God. 49:20 We will find ourselves living just like the world. 49:22 We'll find ourselves being hypocrites just like the other 49:24 hypocrites, whether in the church or out of the church. 49:26 We'll find ourselves failing to live up to 49:28 what we know is right. 49:29 Our own morality. 49:31 Just like everyone else fails to live up to their own morality. 49:33 So we will receive what we give. 49:36 As we judge, we will be judged. 49:39 And so it's important for us to live up to the light 49:41 that God has given us. 49:43 And the first part of that light, 49:44 the first part of that truth is to believe in Jesus Christ. 49:48 There's nothing else that we can do to start this journey 49:51 but to believe in Jesus Christ. 49:53 And so John 6:28-29, the people come to Jesus 49:57 and they're saying, you know, they know that He is, 50:00 you know, a man of God, they know that He's a teacher. 50:03 They're impressed by Him. 50:05 They want to know something about what 50:06 they're supposed to do. 50:07 And so they ask this question of Him in John 6:28-29. 50:18 Now let's just stop there for a second. 50:19 "What can we do that we might work the works of God?" 50:22 And that's the question that all of us kind of ask. 50:25 We want to be good people. 50:26 We don't want to be hypocrites. 50:28 We want to do things that are right. 50:30 We want to be respected in our community. 50:31 We want to be known as a person, you know, that can be trusted. 50:35 I mean, if we don't, then we've just... 50:37 That's, whoa, we're way down there. 50:39 But God is here allowing them to ask this question. 50:43 so that He can bring them to a reality that 50:45 we all need to understand. 50:47 And that reality is found in Jesus' answer, verse 29. 50:49 "Jesus answered and said unto them..." 50:58 So the bottom line is, it's not what we can do. 51:01 It's what God can do. 51:02 And our part is to believe in God. 51:06 That's actually the thing that God wants. 51:09 And that's even the work of God. 51:10 "This is the work of God..." 51:12 God works, and we respond to that work by believing. 51:16 We believe in Him because He first believes in us. 51:20 We have faith in God because He first has faith in us. 51:23 And this is God's work. 51:25 And this is what He wants us to do. 51:26 Because the question was asked, "What can we do 51:28 that we can work the works of God?" 51:30 And Jesus says, "Well, this is the work of God, 51:31 if you really want to know: You need to believe." 51:33 And when you believe in Jesus, that's when your life changes. 51:36 That's when everything changes. 51:37 That's when everything changed for me. 51:39 When we believe in Jesus, another power takes over. 51:43 And that's why that work is so important. 51:46 In fact, in the Bible we're going to find that we are 51:49 going to be, in the judgment, 51:50 we're going to find that we're going to be judged by our works. 51:52 We're going to be saved by grace, 51:53 but we're going to be judged by our works. 51:55 And this is the first work that's going to 51:56 come up in the judgment: 51:57 "Did you believe in Jesus?" 51:59 "Did you believe in Jesus?" 52:01 You remember the thief on the cross. 52:02 I mean, that man was raised in a godly home, 52:05 but at some point in his life he went astray. 52:09 And he was influenced in such a bad direction 52:12 that he found himself on death row. 52:13 And at first when Jesus is there hung on the cross 52:16 with the two thieves, both thieves are railing on Him. 52:18 But one of the thieves, this one thief, 52:21 remembers a little bit about maybe how his grandma 52:24 took him to worship God when he was a kid. 52:28 You know, the influences of his early life begin to come back, 52:32 and the things he's heard about Jesus 52:34 begin to come back, and he starts to have this belief. 52:38 Well, that's the Holy Spirit working on his heart. 52:40 And as the Holy Spirit works on his heart, 52:42 he takes ahold of that work, he takes ahold of God is 52:47 working on his heart, and he believes it. 52:49 He believes about himself what God believes about him. 52:52 And that is, that he can be saved in Jesus Christ. 52:54 And that's the same experience any ones of us can have 52:57 at any moment in our lives. 52:59 That we can believe what God believes about is. 53:01 And God's belief about us is that if He dies for our sins, 53:06 He dies for our sins even though we're His enemies, 53:08 because He believes we'll respond to that, 53:09 and we'll accept Him, and our sins will be forgiven, 53:12 and we'll be transformed into His likeness. 53:14 We'll be filled with the fullness of God 53:15 and we'll explore now and for all eternity 53:18 the height, and the length, and the width, and the depth 53:20 of the love of God that passes knowledge 53:22 and be transformed into His image. 53:24 That's what God believes about us. 53:26 And so this is the first works. 53:27 So we're judged by our works, but we're saved by grace. 53:31 Because there's no way we can be saved by our works. 53:34 Our works judge whether or not we have 53:37 accepted the grace of God. 53:38 Do we believe? That's our work. 53:40 Are we believers? That's a work. 53:42 That's what God says here in John 6. 53:43 That's a work. 53:45 And that work testifies if we've tapped into the 53:47 grace of God by which we are saved. 53:49 So we step into the judgment, 53:52 we step into this hour of judgment first and foremost 53:56 with the work of believing on Jesus Christ. 53:59 And the only way that can happen, according to what 54:00 we've read here in Revelation chapter 11, 54:03 Revelation chapter 14, and Ephesians chapter 3, 54:06 and Romans chapter 3, the only way this can happen 54:10 is if we understand God's place in this judgment hour conflict. 54:14 Because most of the people who reject Christianity 54:18 reject it because they have a misunderstanding 54:21 of who God is, they have a misunderstanding of 54:22 God's character, they've lost or never had the vision 54:26 of a God of love. 54:28 So let's summarize what we've learned in this presentation. 54:32 As we close up our four part series 54:34 let's summarize what we've learned. 54:35 First of all, we've been called to measure God. 54:38 And that call comes to us in the context 54:42 of Revelation 11:1. 54:46 And we see that outlined in John 3:16 and other verses. 54:51 "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..." 54:53 Is that true? Is that true? 54:55 "...that whosoever believes in Him might not perish 54:57 but have everlasting live." 54:59 Do you believe that? 55:00 Or has someone or something caused you to think that 55:03 that's not true? 55:04 Have you lost faith in the truth of the Word of God? 55:07 Have you lost belief in the truth of the Word of God? 55:10 That He loves the world and He loves whoever 55:13 will believe in Him, whoever will take ahold, 55:15 whoever will take ahold of that work of God, 55:18 whoever will respond to the work of God 55:20 and make that work part of His life, believing back 55:24 in what Christ has done for him? 55:25 Having faith, exercising faith 55:27 in response to the faith of God in us. 55:29 Are you still willing to see God in that light? 55:33 And then the second point that we've learned in this 55:35 meeting is that we need to measure God's sacrifice. 55:38 Not only measure His character, who He is, 55:40 but measure His sacrifice. 55:42 And this is really significant because 55:43 the sacrifice testifies to the character. 55:47 So God knew, Jesus knew, that the Old Testament 55:52 was so filled with narratives that could be misunderstood 55:55 about God's character, that in His coming to this earth 55:57 it was very important for Him to clarify who God really is. 56:01 And that's exactly what Jesus did. 56:03 Even the Pharisees had been so filled with the misunderstanding 56:07 of God's character that they misrepresented God 56:09 to the people, and Jesus many times had to combat 56:12 their false picture, their false narrative 56:14 of who God was. 56:16 And He had to introduce a paradigm shift 56:17 in the minds of the people. 56:19 On the Mount of Olives He talked about God 56:21 as a God of love, and a God of mercy, and a God that forgives, 56:24 and a God that turns the other cheek, 56:25 and brings rain on the just and the unjust, 56:27 and sunshine on the good and on the evil. 56:28 And the people were just like, "Really? 56:30 He loves the meek, and He loves those that mourn, 56:33 and He blesses them? 56:34 Really? The underdog?" 56:37 That's the picture that Jesus came to give. 56:40 He came to give a right representation 56:42 of this God of love. 56:44 And then the third thing we've learned in this last 56:47 presentation is that we are going to be measured. 56:50 We are going to be measured by God. 56:52 And you just can't get out of that. 56:53 Revelation 14:7 takes us into this judgment hour, 56:57 this time when the hour of His judgment has come. 57:00 And if you're not a believer, if you've never gone to church, 57:02 you've never studied the Bible, you're going to be measured 57:04 according to the light that you have. 57:05 Romans chapter 2 makes that very, very clear. 57:08 Your conscience is going to dictate, 57:10 it's going to be a law to you. 57:12 Don't try to say, "Well, you know, I've never gone. 57:16 So God is not going to..." 57:17 No, you are. 57:19 You don't come to the light because your deeds are evil. 57:20 John 3:17-19 57:23 But you're still going to be measured by those 57:25 things that you know. 57:26 And each one of us needs to accept a fuller picture of God 57:29 so that picture can transform us and we can find ourselves 57:33 on the right side in the judgment hour. 57:35 We are hoping, I'm praying that you'll see the testimony, 57:39 the witnesses of God's character in His people 57:42 and that you'll be able to take your stand for God 57:45 before this hour of judgment is ended 57:48 and eternity begins. 57:49 And that's my prayer for each one of us. 57:51 In Jesus' name. Amen. 57:53 Father in heaven, thank You so much for Your Word. 57:55 Thank You for this message from Your Word. 57:57 Thank You that You stand in the judgment with us. 57:59 Thank You that You have a way of clarifying 58:02 Your love and Your goodness. 58:03 Father, do that for everyone that's listening here. 58:05 We pray in Jesus name. Amen. |
Revised 2021-05-18