Revelation: Part 9

He said truly I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the things of the Kingdom of God and that’s what it means here. You’re blind. Unless you’ve been born spiritually, you can’t understand the things of the spirit of God. And so Jesus says the Church of the last age, the last stage of the Church age would be basically spiritually blind.

And then he says, you’re naked. And what does he mean by that? Self-righteousness does not clothe a person before God, only the righteousness that comes from him. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

The moment we believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and receive the gift of pardon, that he died to give us, he clothes us with his righteousness and that’s worth more than the finest clothes that we could ever buy. Now don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with dressing up. Even my barn looks better if you put a little paint on it.

So nothing wrong with cosmetics. But the question is what is your emphasis? You know, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Now notice it’s not money that’s evil, it’s the love of money that’s evil.

It’s not a sin to have money, it’s a sin for money to have you. And some of the most godly, gracious, unselfish people I know are wealthy. And they freely give it to help support things that are going to help people, but especially that are going to further the Gospel. All right, he says, verse 18, now here he goes to the exhortation.

I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich. Remember what he said to the Church at Sardis, the suffering Church. Hold your place and just turn back for a second to chapter 2. I’m sorry, it’s the Church of Smyrna.

Verse 8, chapter 2, verse 8. And to the messenger of the Church

I’m glad that’s over. But after I get through saying my first thing, I say forgive me, Lord, and thank you.

But you’d be amazed of the power in praise. There was a little book written like that several years ago. It was a great book. There’s power in praise.

Because praise is the way of showing -it’s the greatest way of showing you’re trust in God and your faith in God. There’s power in it. And so that’s the first thing you do. 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

The second thing you do is check to see if there’s something in your life that you know about, if you don’t know about it, you can’t confess it. But if you know there’s something in your life that’s wrong, you go to God in prayer. And he says if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Now all means all and he’s just in doing it because Christ has already died for it.

And when it says if we confess, the Greek word homologeo, which means to say the same thing as. You say the same thing about your sin as God says about it, agree with him. He says he forgives it. And then the Holy Spirit will give you the power to move away from it, turn from it.

But that’s the second part of s.o.p. You know, many times things happen, and there’s nothing you’re conscious of in your life that you’re doing wrong. Well, don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that. Paul probably suffered more trials than any of us whoever lived.

And he was always doing things right. But that’s the second thing. And then the third thing is Romans 8:28. You claim that.

For we know that God causes all things to work together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. You just claim that and that’s what Jesus is talking about here. That our faith, though it may be tried by fire, will be found under the praise and honor and glory of God. And it’s finer than gold.

He says he wants us to learn to -I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. Now the white garment is what? What do you think it is? Righteousness of Christ.

Isn’t it? Sure it is. You see, the only thing that clothes our nakedness before God is the imputed righteousness that he gives us. He gives us Jesus Christ’s righteousness when we believe in him.

And none of us will ever be able to stand before God, except in that white garment of Christ’s righteousness. Now, in verse 19, you see, what he has just -that exhortation in verse 18 was to the Church in general of this stage of Church history. He counsels the Church in general to buy gold refined by fire and to get white garments on and to get eyesalve so they can see. That’s to the Church in general.

But in verses 19 and 20, Jesus speaks to the individuals within this Church period. And this is the first time that he goes from speaking to a local Church to speaking to individuals. And you can see why because he sees the organization of the churches and everything so far off, that he’s got to go directly to the individual. So in verse 19, he speaks to the individuals and exhorts them, those who are believers, within the system.

This is a challenge to them. You see, there are lots and lots of people that I know that they come to me and they’re bewildered. They’ve been going to a certain Church for a long time and they say, you know, I just don’t know what’s happened, but I don’t get anything out of what’s being said anymore. I don’t hear the Bible anymore.

And when somebody gets up and teaches the Bible to them, it’s like putting water on parched ground. But this is what Jesus says to the individuals that are within the system and they’re believers. Okay, verse 19. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent.

So he appeals to the believer within the Church system. And he says, those I love, I discipline. Now where do you find that? Hebrews 12:5.

And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him; for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline, or because of discipline, that you endure; God deals with you as with a child or sons; for what son is there whom the father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all who have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful. Yet those who have been trained by it, afterwards yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

You see, he exhorts them to respond to the discipline that he gives them. Because, you know, when I would lead people to Christ, when I was in campus crusade for Christ, you know, you lead some young guy to the Lord, and after being excited for a few weeks, all of a sudden he sees you coming, and you see him cross the street so he won’t pass you. And he sort of runs from you. I used to wonder, I wonder if he really accepted the Lord or not.

But you know how I would know? I’d wait. If the Lord disciplined him, I’d say, yup, he’s God’s kid. But if he never got disciplined, I’d say, no, must not be.

And that’s what he’s talking about here. He’s talking to those who are in the Church. And, you know, if you’re going astray, he’ll discipline. And he’s faithful.

And he says those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; be zealous therefore, and repent. This is from the word metanoeo, which means a change of mind. In other words, it means as it is in this context. And it’s in the imperative mood.

So it means I command you, change your mind. And it’s a transitive verb. So it has to have an object. So what is the object of the context?

Well, he’s saying change your mind from the human viewpoint to the divine viewpoint. And that can only be found in this book right here. So to the believer, individual, that’s kind of lost in this labyrinth of the Church and apostasy, he says I’ll discipline you, and I will guide you, but change your mind about things and seek out my way. And then in verse 20, this is addressed to the individual in the Church system who’s not a believer.

Now how do we know that? Well, let’s read it. It says, behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me. First thing to ask about this, is where is Jesus?

Outside of the person. Right? What does that tell you? Not a believer.

If he was a believer, he would be inside. And so he says to this individual, he says behold, I knock at the door and knock is in the perfect tense. Greeks just have a wonderful way of precisely saying something. Perfect tense means I knocked in the past.

With a result, I keep on knocking. God is so gracious that he just keeps on knocking at the door. Now, the door is your heart. He says, behold, I knock, and I keep on knocking at the door.

And then he says, if anyone hears my voice, if. Which shows God is a gentleman. He knocks at the door of your heart. He wants entrance, but you have to invite him.

You have to invite him in. You can’t become a believer by osmosis, by birth. Because you were born in a christian home, because your dad was a pastor. Those preacher’s kids have the hardest time.

I know. I got them.

But he says, if anyone hears my voice, the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking often through someone. If you hear his voice, don’t turn away. If you hear his voice, open the door. And this is what he said, what he promises.

He says, if anyone hears my voice, and opens the door, now how do you do that? You just say, Lord Jesus, thank you for dying for me. Come into my life. I receive the gift of pardon that you died to make free to me.

That’s how simple it is to change your eternal destiny. Isn’t that awesome? You have the ability to change your eternal destiny. Now most of you have already done it.

But if you’re hovering in between and don’t know, listen to what I’m saying. And he says, if you’ll do that, if you open the door, I will come into him. And Jesus says I give to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone pluck them out of my hand.

For the father who gave them to me is greater than all and no one can pluck them out of my father’s hand. Do you notice in that promise that there are two hands on you? He says no one can take them out of my hand and no one can take them out of my father’s hand. So you are like in a divine sandwich between two hands.

The father, and the son. And, you know, I feel really secure with that. And Jesus says I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. He might discipline you, but he won’t leave you, nor will he ever forsaken you.

And then he uses an illustration that was well-known in the ancient world. And believe me, this is still a traditional view in the Middle East today. The most, the greatest compliment that someone can pay you, especially in that day, was to come and dine with you. To be invited to have dinner with someone was a great honor.

And what Jesus was saying is I will come and dine and fellowship with you. But even more important, he says and you with me. That even in this age of compromise and apostasy, the Lord is still reaching out. Thank God there’s a believing remnant and that we see them all the time.

Now Jesus closes by saying, he, that’s what he closed with each of the letters. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. All right, that brings us to the end of the Church age. And remember, and I’ll close with this.

Remember in Revelation 1 when we were there. I showed you in verse 19 that John gave us an outline of the book? He said in 1, verse 19, look at it. He says, Jesus told him, write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall take place after these things.

It’s in the original Greek, it reads like this. Write therefore the things which you have seen, even the things which are. Kai in the Greek can mean and or it can mean even, depends on the context. But here he commands him to write only about the things of which he was an eyewitness.

So he says, write therefore about the things you have seen, even the things which are. In chapters 2 and 3, are the things that are. Because it talks about the present age of God’s outline of history, the Church age. And the things which shall take place after these things.

That is after the Church age. And so next week, we’re going to go with the Church extraterrestrial.

Because look at 4, verse 1. I’m just gonna read it to you. After these things, after these things. Remember he said what shall happen after these things?

After these things, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard, was like a trumpet speaking with me and said, come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. In the Greek metatauta, m-e-t-a-t-a-u-t-a, metatauta. That should be the name of a Church after these things. Metatauta.

I think I will start a Church one day and call it -I already called one tetelestai, which means paid in full. But metatauta, think about that. Now I want you to read chapter 4, and think about -you know, there’s a lot of symbol in the book of Revelation. But those symbols have very literal meanings.

Because you can find these symbols or explain usually somewhere else in the Bible. So the best tool you can have as a Bible student is a concordance. A concordance is something that lists every word in the Bible and shows you where the -every place that it occurrs. And so that is something I use more than any other study tool.

Metatauta. We are about to go extraterrestrial. So if we don’t by next week, we’ll take up chapter 4. God bless you.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary, and he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible are now very curious.

This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been, for the Church and for the nation.