The Incomparable Jesus

The Hope of All Mankind — A New Heaven and a New E

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: ICJ

Program Code: ICJ190025A


00:01 "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!'"
00:04 It's the invitation of a lifetime.
00:07 But if you're too busy, you may miss it.
00:32 We've all got an incredible invitation from this
00:35 incomparable Jesus, this marvelous Savior,
00:39 this incomparable Jesus.
00:41 He sends an invitation through the Spirit
00:44 and through His bride; His church.
00:46 We can hear it in the book of Revelation
00:49 right down near the end in Revelation 22:17.
00:55 "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!'
00:59 And let him who hears say, 'Come!'
01:02 And let him who thirsts come.
01:06 And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely."
01:11 Now that's a wonderful invitation.
01:13 And Jesus wants you and me to be part of that invitation.
01:16 We're going to talk about that invitation today.
01:19 We've seen Jesus, this incomparable Jesus,
01:22 incomparable Jesus, moving through the heavenly Sanctuary.
01:26 You know, He did marvelous things for us here.
01:29 But by faith we watch Him; and He's moving through
01:31 the heavenly Sanctuary.
01:33 And as He does, He goes to the candlesticks,
01:36 He goes to the table of showbread, in chapter 4,
01:39 which is the throne of God, He goes to the wonderful
01:43 alter of incense where the prayers of the saints ascend,
01:47 and He takes those prayers and He presents them to the Father
01:51 for you and for me.
01:52 He's doing all kinds of wonderful things for us.
01:55 He's answering prayers, He's sending angels to help us.
01:58 Heaven is a busy place.
02:00 He said He's getting ready for us to come.
02:03 And this invitation is all about being ready.
02:07 Being ready for Jesus to come,
02:10 and to accepting that invitation.
02:13 When will Jesus come?
02:15 We don't know.
02:17 We don't know, but Jesus Himself made it clear
02:19 that we can know when it's close
02:21 because of the signs that are coming.
02:25 Now in Revelation 14:6 we have the three angels' messages.
02:30 And those three angels' messages are the last messages
02:33 given to the world.
02:35 And it starts out by saying, "And I saw another angel
02:38 flying in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel,
02:42 saying to those on the earth, 'Fear God and give glory to Him,
02:47 for the hour of His judgment has come.'"
02:50 Now the next two talk about Babylon being fallen
02:53 and it talks about the mark of the beast.
02:55 But everything in those three angels' messages
02:58 are contained in that invitation, and contained
03:01 in the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
03:03 The good news that Jesus has done for us and has won for us.
03:09 Jesus Himself talked about one of those great signs,
03:12 and I think it's the last sign, and that's the gospel
03:15 going to the world.
03:16 And He said, "This gospel shall be preached into all the world
03:19 for a witness to all nations, then the Son of Man will come."
03:24 My words, paraphrasing.
03:26 So the last sign is the true gospel of the Lord Jesus
03:31 as found in the New Testament.
03:32 That goes to the whole world.
03:35 Now there are great issues still before us to be done.
03:38 And that, of course, we're going to see the mark of the beast,
03:41 and the development of Babylon, and the overthrow of Babylon.
03:45 We're seeing many signs, though, around us
03:47 that we are moving very close to the end of time.
03:50 I think the great time prophecies are all finished.
03:54 So we know we're living in this time period that Daniel
03:57 would call the time of the end.
04:00 Daniel mentions something about this time of the end
04:03 in Daniel 12:4.
04:07 The angel that was giving Daniel this information
04:09 made this prediction.
04:11 It's a very fascinating prediction.
04:12 It says that in the end of time...
04:15 I should read it here.
04:16 "But you, Daniel, shut up the words,"
04:19 shut up the words, "and seal the book
04:22 until the time of the end."
04:24 So the message of Daniel is going to be opened.
04:28 And of course, the book of Revelation is the
04:30 opening of that message.
04:31 It's the Revelation of Jesus.
04:34 But it's sealed until the time of the end.
04:36 We're living in that time of the end.
04:38 As I mentioned, all the time prophecies are finished,
04:40 so we know we're living in the time of the end.
04:43 "Many shall run to and fro..."
04:45 It's a very fascinating thing.
04:46 "...and knowledge shall be increased."
04:48 Now some people say that's about the book of Daniel.
04:50 I don't doubt that.
04:51 But I think the implications are much wider.
04:54 He's saying that in the end of time,
04:55 during this time of the end, there's going to be huge changes
04:59 in travel and in knowledge.
05:02 Some people say that knowledge is just increasing,
05:05 doubling for mankind every few years.
05:07 You can't keep up with all the knowledge that's going on.
05:10 All the technological improvements,
05:12 everything that's affecting our lives today;
05:15 from getting ready, I guess, they're talking about
05:18 self-driving automobiles.
05:20 And of course we have all the smart phones.
05:22 Who knows? Everything that's going on nowadays
05:25 is a huge increase in knowledge.
05:30 And of course, travel is unprecedented.
05:34 You get on a jet plane and fly 500 miles an hour.
05:37 It's amazing, really, when you think about it.
05:39 And it's only happened in a few short years.
05:42 It wasn't that long ago that man was
05:45 driving around in horse and buggy.
05:48 And then, of course, you have the automobile
05:49 and some of the other kinds of things that came on.
05:52 Look where telephones have gone.
05:54 From that thing where you wind it up like that
05:58 to smart phones today.
06:00 So we see this kind of a thing.
06:02 And then, of course, we're finding that
06:04 the mark of the beast is going to mean that
06:05 governments are going to have the ability
06:08 to control populations.
06:10 And with that, you have to have information.
06:12 Today we know the government is,
06:15 and it's not just the United States government,
06:17 but they're collecting information on everybody.
06:20 On your phone calls, on your text messages,
06:22 on your emails, and everything.
06:24 They may not be looking at it right now,
06:25 but if you come up on the radar screen,
06:27 they're going to have information on you.
06:29 And that kind of information is the ability to control.
06:34 Government control; that's going to be a big thing.
06:35 In fact, the book of Revelation is picturing
06:37 that this thing becomes, the mark of the beast,
06:40 these powers become control freaks.
06:44 Maybe I shouldn't say it that way.
06:45 But they've just become obsessed with being in control.
06:49 Control of everything.
06:51 Revelation 22:10-11, it's one of the most solemn
06:54 statements in Scripture.
06:56 And this is what it says about this time of the end.
06:59 "For I am your fellow servant,"
07:00 says the angel to the apostle John,
07:03 "one of your brethren the prophets,
07:05 and those who keep the words of this book."
07:07 And then the angel says, "Worship God."
07:10 And then he said, "Do not seal the words of this prophecy
07:14 of this book, for the time is at hand."
07:18 In other words, these prophecies are being fulfilled,
07:21 starting to be fulfilled in the time of John
07:24 all the way down to the time of the coming of Jesus.
07:28 And then speaking of the time just before Jesus comes,
07:31 he says this, "He who is unjust..."
07:33 It's very solemn words.
07:35 "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still;
07:40 he who is filthy, let him be filthy still..."
07:43 We're talking about moral filth here.
07:46 "...and he who is righteous, let him be righteous still;
07:50 and he who is holy, let him be holy still."
07:55 This is talking about a time that closes before Jesus comes.
08:00 We often call it, and we talked a little bit about this
08:02 in the past, the close of human probation.
08:06 As the seven last plagues begin to fall,
08:08 human probation closes.
08:10 Not because God has run out of mercy, as I've said before.
08:13 Not because He's not willing to forgive.
08:15 But because every human being, as they have faced the issues
08:19 in the end of time of whether they're going to trust
08:22 the God of the Bible, whether they're going to trust
08:24 the Scripture, or trust the mechanisms of man,
08:28 these become the issues that every person will make up
08:32 their mind one way or another.
08:35 Daniel says the same thing in another way in Daniel 12 again,
08:40 the last chapter in the book of Daniel, verses 9 and 10.
08:43 The angel says to Daniel, "Go your way, Daniel,
08:47 for the words are closed and sealed up till the end of time."
08:49 Now we've noticed that the angel said to John
08:52 that they're unsealed, of course.
08:54 To the end of time, or the time of the end, I should say.
08:57 "Many will be purified..."
08:58 Notice these two groups.
09:00 "Many will be purified, made white..."
09:03 Now I want to be among that group.
09:05 I want my heart...
09:06 I'm a poor pitiful sinner like everybody else.
09:08 We've all fallen short of the grace of God.
09:11 I'm so grateful for the forgiveness of Jesus.
09:15 But I want my heart to be pure.
09:18 Don't you want your heart to be pure?
09:20 Don't you want your heart to be like Jesus?
09:22 Don't you want your heart to be full of unselfish love?
09:25 I want that in my heart.
09:26 Now that can only be accomplished
09:28 by the power of the Lord Jesus.
09:30 And He has power. Listen, we sell Jesus too short.
09:33 He's strong. He's powerful.
09:36 He can make a different person out of you.
09:37 He can change your heart from the inside.
09:40 If you put your faith in Him, put your trust in Him,
09:42 He'll strengthen your will power.
09:44 He can help you overcome anything.
09:47 And listen to this as it goes on, "Many will be purified.."
09:51 Many.
09:52 I like that.
09:54 I like that in the end of time there is going to be a lot of
09:55 people who are going to turn to Jesus.
09:57 Now not everybody.
09:59 Not the great majority.
10:00 But many. I want to be among the many.
10:02 "Many will be purified, made white..."
10:04 Talking about their hearts.
10:06 "...and refined..."
10:07 I want to be refined.
10:09 You know, when the Sadducees and the Pharisees
10:11 ran into the disciples of Jesus,
10:12 you know what they said about them
10:14 as they listened to them, their boldness and their clarity?
10:17 They said, "They've been with Jesus."
10:20 Don't you want that?
10:21 To be with Jesus so much that you're refined by His power?
10:27 But, but, here's the other group.
10:29 "...but the wicked shall do wickedly;
10:32 and none of the wicked shall understand..."
10:35 You know, sin has a blindness about it.
10:38 It makes us blind to our need.
10:42 You think about it, I've talked about this before,
10:43 the old Pharaoh of Egypt, how could he be so blind?
10:47 But sin does that to us.
10:50 And I don't want it in my life.
10:51 So there's this great divide in humanity that's coming;
10:55 a divide between those who will be refined and purified
10:59 by the grace of Jesus...
11:01 They can't do it themselves, but they cooperate with Jesus.
11:04 ...and those who refuse to be willing.
11:06 Now they may use Jesus on their lips,
11:08 but they're unwilling to be refined.
11:11 They're unwilling to be purified.
11:13 They're unwilling to have their hearts
11:15 changed, and their behavior.
11:16 Listen, you're behavior is just a reflection of your heart.
11:20 Your behavior is a reflection of who you trust.
11:23 Sometimes people get hung up on that,
11:25 but we've got to go to the root of the tree, as it were.
11:29 And it's where the heart is.
11:31 So there's this great divide in the end of time,
11:35 and a special time of waiting before Jesus comes.
11:40 Of course, the next words of the angel were,
11:42 or of Jesus, "Behold, look, I'm coming quickly.
11:45 You go through this, but look, I'm coming quickly."
11:49 So as we go to the throne room of heaven, in Revelation 15:5,
11:53 just before the seven last plagues are poured out,
11:56 we hear these words, it says, "After these things I looked,
11:59 and behold, the temple of the tabernacle," in heaven,
12:05 "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony
12:07 in heaven was opened."
12:10 Now we've already talked about these last messages
12:14 to a dying world of the three angels, but you know,
12:16 Jesus keeps repeating those messages.
12:19 He keeps repeating those messages.
12:21 He'll repeat it again in Revelation chapter 18
12:24 where He says, "Come out of her, My people."
12:27 We'll talk about that next time.
12:29 And then He also repeats it in the last chapter of Revelation
12:32 where He says, "The Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!'"
12:36 So there's this special time of waiting,
12:39 and this special time of getting ready
12:42 for the close of human probation.
12:44 Now we talk about that in the book of Revelation
12:48 in a unique way.
12:50 If you look at the Sanctuary there's a thing called,
12:53 the Jewish Day of Atonement.
12:56 Now we call it today, Yom Kippur.
12:59 It was a symbolic time of the end of time.
13:03 It was a most solemn day of searching and confessing sins.
13:08 Why? Because the Judge was at the door
13:12 and getting ready to fix the destinies of all Israel
13:15 for the next year.
13:16 But it's symbolic of the end of time and the fixing of destinies
13:20 for all eternity.
13:23 So awful was the Day of Atonement
13:25 that we're told in the Jewish book of ritual
13:28 that the very angels run to and fro trembling,
13:32 saying, "Lo, the day of judgment has come."
13:38 The question is, are we taking time to prepare for that final
13:42 day of judgment?
13:45 So as we continue, and the Spirit and the bride
13:48 say, "Come," they want us to be ready.


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Revised 2019-11-18