Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
241124 Revelation/ The Royal Priesthood for His praise
[MUSIC] >> So did Richard doops? >> Yeah, Richard and Jordan Richard, and they're at their point, yeah. It's good, actually I'll pick up, and he's not gonna be here next week. So I'll pick up, and I lay where he left off probably. >> Wednesday. >> No, well, he's gonna be here next Sunday. >> Well, maybe he won't be here. >> I'm not gonna be here Wednesday. >> Wednesday. >> He'll be here Sunday. >> Okay, no, okay, so I'll be, okay, I'll pick him, pick him up where he'll have to go. >> Nobody's gonna be here Wednesday. >> No, nobody's gonna be here Wednesday, but he's going to a wedding next Sunday. >> Yeah. [MUSIC] >> I'll have fun, I do like weddings. >> You like weddings? >> I've grown to really like them. >> Really, is that for seizures or do you? >> No, no, no, real. >> We haven't even been there. >> Yeah, great. >> So let's move into every one. >> No, we went to a brandy's. >> A brandy's. >> All right. >> No, that's when she was- >> And one. >> Here's your weather buddy. >> Okay, well, oh, but Joe Lane, are you gonna pray for us today? No, no, you're not gonna pray for us today? All right, we're up to line. Amanda, you wanna pray for us today? Michael, you wanna pray for us today? >> Buckle stop here. >> [LAUGH] >> All right, good morning. I can't say we, let's stand, we'll open up with what a day that will be. [BLANK_AUDIO] >> Did you do it on there or did you do it on there? >> [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Michael. >> So, I'm a holy father, thank you so much for this day. And as macarius as we are in it, Lord, it does pale in comparison to that glorious day when we do stand before you Lord. By the way, thank you for this time and ask that you would open our hearts and our minds, your word, and let's be discerning. Give us a discerning spirit, allow the spirit to be with each and every one of us, and Lord, lift us up. And all these things be praise, Jesus Christ's name, amen. >> Amen. >> Amen, amen. Thank you. >> Amen. >> Thank you. >> Amen. >> Thank you, Lord. >> All right, we are in Revelation chapter 1. And God wants to speed through it. It just reminds me. Let me try that, George. I kind of like that. Thank you, George. Really, this reminds me. Even when you're teaching and you're going, it's almost like every, you know, you have conjunctions, you have words. But the key words, you can go and make a sermon out of every key word, you know, sometimes some verses have two key words, three key words. But at least, it seems like every verse has at least one key word that tells us and preaches so much in there. And it's so hard not to get bogged down. And remember what, remember where we are. The sermon traces the theme of God's everlasting kingdom. Throughout Scripture, we're revealing God's plan for his people to be holy of nation and a kingdom of priests, culminating in Christ as a victorious king. Revelation gives us, again, I said that Revelation doesn't give us an image of doom and gloom by no means. For those that are in Christ, it is a time of excitement. And this is what we've said before that the, if you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you're, first of all, you grow in your love for him. And that's, establish your spiritual priorities and you're growing in God's Word. And you're growing in prayer. And listen, prayer is also encouraging thing because as you see, prayer being answered. It is like you're faithful in your prayer and you see prayers answered and you see God's providential hand in the life. You begin to note God even more. You grow closer to God. Then you have a revelation that He's coming and the very one that you're into His Word. You're praying to Him every day. And all of a sudden, so Revelation is a prospect that you're going to see your Savior soon, your Redeemer, the one who loves you. And I guarantee you, He loves us more than we could ever love Him. And so the reunion is exciting for all of us. Beginning with the beginning, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His bond servants, the things which must soon take place. And He sent and communicated to an angel to His bond servant, John, who testified to the Word of God in the testimony of Jesus Christ even to all that He saw. Mccary us. Thank you, Michael. Happy as He who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy and heed the things which are written in it for the time is near. John, to the seven churches of Asia, grace to you in peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before the throne. We handle that seven spirits and I'm not really satisfied with where we are at with it yet. But we look at the, and that's just me. You may be all right with it and I'm not going to argue. It's not an argument. But the seven spirits, what are the seven spirits? And I'm saying this is God the Holy Spirit, one Holy Spirit. But taking it from Isaiah chapter 11 where it talks about He will have the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of the fear of the Lord and what have you. And I'd say, something was still uncomfortable with it that this is the Holy Spirit. Remember, seven is the completion. He has all of the Holy Spirit. There is not partial Holy Spirit, but remember the seven is the number that we recognize is completion. There's another thing that cues me off that this is the Holy Spirit too, going back to start with verse four again, John to the seven churches. And why just the seven churches? No, it's to all churches, seven, the number of completion, not just the seven, but all churches in this, this is a letter to us today. And here it is that are in Asia, grace and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven, and from the spirits who are before the throne. What do we see there? That we're receiving grace and peace from spirits. These would not be angelic spirits, would they? Where do we receive our grace and peace from? From God. And so this is the third, the seventh spirit is the single, is the single spirit, which is the Holy Spirit from Him, who is God, who dwells at each of us. Verse five, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. From Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the one without sin, his life, the Lord's life is a testimony. He is a faithful witness to God. His, the Lord Jesus Christ, his mission was one mission. That one mission wasn't our salvation. It wasn't become king. It wasn't anything else. All these things are important and all these things are going to fall into place. But his number one, the Lord, the number one mission of the Lord Jesus Christ was to glorify the Father in heaven. He, among all the aspects of his life, he models the Christian life. Just like Peter says to, to grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Jesus modeled the Christian life for us. He modeled the life of a walk that we are to walk. And to, and so that, because remember that he is, he is man. He, he suppressed through conosency, suppressed the, the deity or freely restricted divine use of his divine attributes to function as a man. And as he fucks as man, he demonstrated to us as we should be living that life. So if it was that Christ, his highest aspiration, his highest goal is I, however you want to see it, his highest achievement that he, he lived for, should be the same ones that we lived for, we become enricers of Christ, is to glorify God. Everything that we do, everything that we say, everything we think, this is why Paul says that we take captive of every thought, because even our thinking can be unfaithful. Jesus and all these, and the things that he said, things that he thought, things, every aspect of his life was for one purpose was to bring glory to God. He is the faithful witness. He is the one without sin. His life stands as a testimony of the God who lives and who loves the Lord. And this God, this God sent, he loved us so much that he sent his son. And again, John says that he is the Lagos, he's the message. And Jesus honored the Father. And now once did Jesus commit a sin, you'll hear, you'll hear people try to, try to say that he did. But Hebrews chapter 4, 15. Somebody give me Hebrews chapter 4, 15. Whoever gets the first go for it. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has yet has been tempted in all things as we are yet without sin. Therefore let us drill near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. The very message of victory comes from the Father in heaven when he says, when he says, "Sit down at the right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for my feet." He is the faithful witness. He is the testimony that stands true. Jesus said, I am the truth in the life. He is the truth. He is the true witness. So then we come down to our next part, which is the firstborn of the dead. We talked about this Tuesday night. In the patriarchal period, much emphasis is placed upon the firstborn. The first one that breaches the womb. And Jesus said, that one is mine. All for important were dedicated to the Lord. You have that? Let's go to Exodus 13 2. There we go. There we go. Okay, I can't get there. Sanctified to me every firstborn is the first offspring of every womb among the son of Israel, both of man and beast. It belongs to me. There you go. Now, what do we know about Sarah? Somebody help me out. What do we know about Sarah? Abrahams? She was barren. Could not produce. And she was long past childbearing. And we could say that she was dead. She had a dead womb. But what happens is that from the hand of God, that womb came alive, the one who came out of it, the promised son, Isaac, the promised son, the one that was promised to her, who emerges out of the womb. And he gets dedicated to the Lord. Now, it wasn't Ishmael. Ishmael came from Hagar. So, in typology, we also know, and that brought, it was Jesus who is the promised son. And he is the firstborn, Israel or not Israel. Isaac, through Isaac, his descendants came through the promises went through him. So then fast forward up to the time of Jesus. What does Jesus do? He emerges out of a dead tomb. And so he is the firstborn of the dead. He is the first one that is resurrected. And our faith centers around the resurrected Christ. If there is not a resurrected Christ, we don't have a faith. First Corinthians, we just want to read this one. First Corinthians 15, 13 to 19. But if there is no resurrection from the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith also is in vain. Moreover, we are even more to be false witnesses of God. Because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise. If in fact, the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are all men, most to be pitied. As a church, if, and as Christians, if the foundation of your faith is not the resurrected Christ, what is it? What is it that you have a faith for? What is it that makes you Christians, if it's not an understanding that we have believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life? Some points of application. Again, number one, the Christian of faith is centered around the birth, or the truth, as you were, around the truth of the resurrected Christ. Number two, the church is built upon the rock, and what is the rock? Well, it's this doctrine, which is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And Matthew 1618 says, I also say to you that you are Peter. This is Jesus speaking with them. This is after his testimony. And upon this matter of fact, let's go there. Matthew 1618. And let's back up a little bit. And Jesus asks Peter, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you Simon Bargona, plus flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven." I also say to you that you are Peter. And upon this rock, I will build my church. The gates of Hades will not overpower it. Now, we can ask several ways. We can ask, what is this rock? But I like to think that this rock is the very doctrine, the removal, and it's compared with, earlier, I think it's Matthew 7 where the Lord says, "Whoever feeds these words of mine is like a man who builds his house on a rock. This is a stable foundation, a foundation that will not be moved." And so, in this part, when Peter says what Jesus said on this rock, I think he's referring to the doctrine, on this very doctrine that my church will be established. All right, number three, in the baptism of the Christian is associated with Christ's death, burial and resurrection. And then when we come to communion, it is to commemorate the body and life of Christ. Okay, first Corinthians 11, 26, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." Okay, so the question is, do you believe this? Okay. All right, next part of our next, moving on with Revelation. First, verse five, "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first Lord from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth." And I'm going to stand up a little bit. So Revelation, Revelation 19, 16, "And on his robe and on his thigh, he has the name written, "The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords." Romans 13, 1, "Every person is to be subject to governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." Whether we're talking about good kings, bad kings, we have rulers, we have presidents, we have kings, we have governors, and that they all serve to God's good pleasure. We can write, we can moan, we can talk about bad presidents or what have you. Saul ended up being a very wicked person, but Saul, by the providential hand of God, he was placed in that position. There are those, so we're talking about permissive will, the sovereign will, the providential will, and as much as we might not like this outgoing president, it doesn't matter. And we might say that he cheated, that they cheated in the election, or what have you, nonetheless, it is by God's hand that he's in that position. He is accountable to God, the worst kings that ever walk this earth, he can start turning to Psalm chapter 2. Man, I'm going to get you to read that one, if you can. Psalm 2, and a second Psalm, which is one of my favorites, and you figure if it is the Lord who established, if it's the Lord who has established his authorities, then we are accountable, then these rulers are accountable. Psalm 2, start with 10 and go to 12 for me, please. Now therefore, O King, show discernment, take warning, O judges of the earth, worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, and he not become angry, and you perish in the way, but his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him? Come me like this first, how me like this chapter 2, we've read quite a bit, but we recognize that we are under, sometimes we are under good rulership, sometimes we are under bad rulership. Sometimes we wonder, and even leading up to this election, we shouldn't have, but we've got other elections probably coming up in the future, and we may be ringing our hands, who's going to be running this country, who's going to be setting, but we don't have to worry about that. Because beyond our scope, beyond that, we recognize there is a light at the end of all, it has not been turned off, at the end of this journey, Christ is going to set up his regime. Now we may be happy about this last election, we may have gotten what we wanted, but I want you to just objectively look at it for a moment. Objectively look at it, and understand a certain perspective here, we had four years of wickedness, just pinpoint, I mean just pure evil, and I'd say just about everyone that was in that administration is wicked to the core. And that's not even counting what we don't see in the darkness, that's pulling their strings. And all of a sudden we had an election, the president has been elected with a mandate, and I don't know where he is as far as a Christian, but I know where he is with the Constitution. And I know that he loves America, and I know he's, but look at this way, we saw the dark is the dark, and now there is that ray of hope. Now, I'll tell you right now, he's not the savior, I'll tell you right now, he did not come into clouds. So I tell you right now that dark days are still ahead, don't start, don't do like Truman and be out there, happy days are here again. Understand, enjoy this, enjoy, and I pray that he'll make it to the office in January, I pray Heavenly Father that there will be a smooth, I pray to the Father that this will be a smooth transition going in. Anything can happen between now and January, and maybe we'll have a four years of reversal of everything that's going on, but regardless of how good this day is, and I don't want me to do it in the gloom, but we know that the days are coming. In comparison, when the darkness is here in that extreme and wickedness is prospering, you can imagine how great it's going to be when the Lord returns to set up his regime. And that is an everlasting covenant, that's an everlasting, you see, this President is for four years. And maybe JD will take over for the next four years, or eight years, but eventually, the evil isn't going away folks, they don't repent, they just double down on that evil. But there's coming time when the Lord will come in the air, and this is what Revelation is about, and this is where our excitement is. He is the ruler, he's sovereign. All right, so to him who loves us and who released us from our sins by his blood, somebody gives me Hebrews chapter two, verse five, if you will. So here it is that the king of kings, the king who rules over even the greatest rulers, we remember that we just said that there is not a king, there's not a ruler, there's not a sea, that the high court isn't over. And the only reason what, and the Lord is a gentleman, he places the rulers and he gives them latitude to leave, either bad or good. Now let's also say this, that even the Elohim, and Psalm 82, they are also held accountable. I skipped that little bit earlier, but we're going to move on. So even the most powerful in history, even the Elohim, God looks past and shows partiality to the least. Who is our king? Okay, we're governed by the rulership of this earth, but our king, our king is the king in heaven. We're ambassadors, Paul tells us that we are ambassadors, and a bastard represents, is one who represents his king to a foreign nation, to a foreign people. The ambassador goes to that country, he has to be under that king, though he represents the king in the other country, he has to obey the laws of the king in this particular country. You know what I'm saying? As an ambassador, I go to South Carolina. I can't, or not South Carolina, it's the South America. I can't break, let's say Venezuela, I can't break Venezuela as a wall. I'm under the laws of that land. But my, until I'm called out from that, I'm still under, my king is the Lord Jesus Christ. Michael, give me Hebrews 2, 5 through 8, please. For he did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking, but one has testified somewhere saying, what is man that you remember him? For the son of man that you are concerned about him, you have made him for a little while lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor, and have appointed him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in subjecting all things to him, he left nothing that is not subject to him, but now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. Our king died for us. What other king had come down on the level of his subjects? How many kings have actually given their lives for his own subject and who have lifted us up? Not only did he do that, but he also adopted us, he also made us righteous. He brought us into his own family. Tell me, and this is mind-brogging. Mind-boggling, study your Bible. Please read your Bible. Just reading up your Bible, let us know that it's an extraordinary book. But when you come to understand that no one could who can make up a story like this? That the king said his only son is his uniquely born son. And who's God's son there, Julian? Very good Jesus, right? So God sends his son to die for us because we are guilty before God for crimes against God, and we're under a death penalty. But he sends his son, who could make that up? How could somebody write a book like this? And so here's a king. He looked beyond all the kings of this earth to the humble. He looked beyond the presidents. He looked beyond the kings. And we may listen. We may be under a tyrannical rule someday. And someday in the future we may be running from a government that's seeking to kill us because we're Christians. But God looks past those rules but we can look, we can know that trumping them above them is a God who loves us. That we are more important, us love lives, us commoners. Remember that when Jesus came he bypassed Jerusalem. He passed that. He was the lowest of the low. He was born on the other side of the tracks. He was born to an impoverished parents. He was in his ministry. He said the birds have nests and the foxes and holes but the son of man has no place to lay his head. This is our king. This is our God. He came down to us bypassing all the hierarchy and came right down to meet with us. Hey man. Revelation 20 verse 6. Bless it. What's that word for bless it? Carry us. And holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power. But they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. Kind of gives you a thing what Peter says is humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you at the right time. What's that tell us? That's okay. When a justice has fallen upon us before of tyrannical leaders. That's okay. The when because our hope and our king is the one and he's going at the proper time he's going to take us at the on his timing. He's going to take us. He's going to lift us up and he's going to put us into places where we will rule and we will reign with him. Revelation 1 6 and he made us a kingdom of priests and his god to his god and father to him to the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. That's verse 6. So let's start looking at that verse. He has made us a kingdom. What's the word for kingdom? Basilea. Basilea and here there is the Basilea kingdom. It is an area or district ruled by a king or a kingdom. So a kingdom is made for us for our own possession. He has made us a kingdom. He's made for us a kingdom. Jesus said I've gone to in my father's house. There are many rooms. I've come to prepare. I've prepared a place for you. Again, you know I get on this soapbox about the kingdom now crowd. The Rick Warrens and others that say that we are living in the kingdom. There's another case in which we know that we are not in the kingdom. He has made for us a kingdom. The church isn't here to build the kingdom. And the kingdom is made by the hand of God. It was what Abraham did. Abraham was, his faith was looking at a kingdom not made with hands. And so for us we are sojourners. We're sojourners in this age and in Christ we possess an inheritance. It's what it's already but not yet. It's like having the lottery ticket. It's all the numbers. All the numbers are there. You just hit the jackpot and the lottery tickets. It's right there. Every number matches. You're now a multi-millionaire. Does that mean you have the money in the back yet? No, you just, you got the ticket. That's your ticket. See as Christians we have an inheritance. It's already but not yet. It's, it's a credit to us. But we, we don't have yet. But we are sojourners in this age. In Christ we possess an inheritance. 2 Peter 3, 13 says that we're looking for a new heavens, a new earth. We're righteousness dwells. We are citizens of the common kingdom. We have been grafted into law. The Richard talked about a little bit ago about the new covenant. A covenant that was made with Judah and with Israel. We've been grafted into the new covenant. And so we have an inheritance. We have a kingdom. And we say amen to that. We're citizens of this. We're not citizens of, well we got a dual citizenship. We are citizens of the United States of America. There is a, there's coming a kingdom, a far better than this one. This kingdom is not going to last forever. Why do we know that? Because David, David is the one who will rule, or the son of David, will, is the one who's going to rule forever and ever. The relation that will never be destroyed. Christ, the menu will without a doubt be successful. He is the son of man returning to rule. And we are his administrative staff, his rulers. Right now we are, where we are right now we are being groomed for rulership. We are being ruled for priestly function. Everything that you do today counts. Every thought, every, you are held accountable. Remember what we said about rulers? That he has made us a kingdom of priests and we are, and to reign with him. We are accountable with things that we think. So our kings and our governors and our rulers. May be very much rogue, but we shouldn't be. We have a responsibility. It's like a marriage. Regardless how your wife might be. And regardless for the wives, how your husband might be. Individually we are still accountable to God. We can't blame the authority over us. Now that may give us a great challenge. But we are still accountable to God. Coming back to Revelation as we close out this morning. So Revelation 1, 4. And I'll start with 4. John to the seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace. From him who is and who is to come. And from the seven spirits who are before the throne. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witnesses are first born from the dead. The ruler of the kings of the earth to him who loves us and who has released us from our sins by his blood. And that's where we will pick up on that on Tuesday night. We'll close out any, let me see, we'll close out with one. We'll try this one now. I'd rather have Jesus. This is going to be 5-7. We haven't done this before together. We'll try this. And this is going to be in your hymnals 5-17. This is the same one we were saying. That's what we opened up first. That's what we... Yeah, first song? Yeah. Oh, no, this will be the second song we did today. No, no, no. I'm saying before we opened up with Richard, we sang this. Before we opened up with Richard was... Revive us again. Maybe it was the second song we had. Okay. But we'll get this on. Alright. Let's see. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus. This is over gold. ♪ ♪ I'd rather be his sin than with Richard's heart ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus. This is over land. ♪ ♪ I'd rather be his sin than with Richard's heart ♪ ♪ of a vast domain. ♪ ♪ For he now deserves to be read. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than anything. ♪ ♪ This world of wars today. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than with someone's. ♪ ♪ I'd rather be his face. ♪ ♪ 'Cause to his dear ones. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than with one faith. ♪ ♪ I'd rather be true to his holy name. ♪ ♪ To his dear ones. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have a vast domain. ♪ ♪ For he now deserves to be read. ♪ ♪ A vast domain. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than anything. ♪ ♪ This world of wars today. ♪ ♪ He's a sad man with ease. ♪ ♪ A great stress lord. ♪ ♪ He's sweet and done. ♪ ♪ He's gone now. ♪ ♪ He's all that I'll agree. ♪ ♪ He's bitter and he's. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than him. ♪ ♪ A great domain. ♪ ♪ A vast domain. ♪ ♪ The world we have. ♪ ♪ He's soft and straight. ♪ ♪ He's soft and straight. ♪ ♪ I'd rather have Jesus than anything. ♪ ♪ A vast domain. ♪ ♪ He's a sad man with ease. ♪ ♪ That is right. ♪ Father in heaven, we thank you for blessing and being able to meet together and to enjoy fellowship together. And your word, Heavenly Father, that sanctifies our hearts. I pray Heavenly Father for each one and our service is earlier and for those now. I pray Heavenly Father, that you lift up our hearts and as we continue to serve the and we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. And bless you all and have yourself a great day in the Lord. ♪ Go ahead, do you mind it?
This sermon traces the theme of God's everlasting kingdom throughout scripture, revealing God's plan for His people to be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests, culminating in Christ as the victorious King.