The wholeness of our faith..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. The second letter of the Apostle Peter. And we're going to continue on our study on chapter 3.

And this time I hope that by the grace of God, the Lord may help us to understand and meditate upon verses 8 and verse 9 of chapter 3 of 2 Peter. in which the apostle, by the inspiration of the Spirit, gives this verse, this truth of the word of God. It says, but do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count the slowness. but is patient toward you or toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

We're going to read the context, beloved of Christ, but I just want to bring your attention to these couple of verses in which my desire from my heart to yours is that we will be encouraged in our belief of or on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the only thing that I want us to do this afternoon is just to be encouraged or to be exhorted by the Word of God. To believe, to have faith on the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, on the day of the Lord, on the day of eternity, on the day of judgment. And you may say, why do we need to be encouraged? Why do we need to be exhorted about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?

We do need to be encouraged, beloved of Christ, because if we indeed and truly and in fullness and in completeness believe that there is a day in which the Lord Jesus Christ is coming, we wouldn't live like we live. We wouldn't do church as we do. We wouldn't live the lives that we have. But rather, beloved of Christ, the power of the Spirit would be in us. Take here, how you hear, pay attention to the words, beloved, of this encouragement, this exhortation to believe the promise of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it is given to us there in those two verses, verse eight and nine of this second Peter.

This exhortation, very simply put, beloved of Christ, is just the response of the apostle Peter to the situation that was happening and that was going on there with those churches. There were false prophets and false teachers that were questioning the coming of the Lord. Where is the promise of his coming? Everything continues to be from the beginning in creation. Everything continues the same.

Where is the promise of his coming? And in the offset against that situation, the apostle now is going to encourage the believers. not to ignore, not to overlook the fact that this promise of the second coming of the Lord is a promise that is under the sovereign control of God, who is above time, who is beyond time. And we are to rest and to have hope that the Lord is going to fulfill His promise and there is a purpose for that promise. And that is that everyone who has been called eternally will come to repentance.

That is the plain, simple teaching of those two verses that we have there. It is an encouragement from the heart of the Spirit of God through the Apostle Peter to the church, to the congregation, that we will believe, that we will have hope, that there is a day in which the Lord is coming. And the reason why He has not come yet is because He's working out His redemptive plan in bringing all His elect to salvation. That is the only thing that I want to communicate with you. And I don't want to use difficult words, but I want to condescend that this is just a simple teaching, that we're to be encouraged in that.

So what we're going to do now is that we're going to read these verses from chapter chapter three verse one to verse 13. And of course, we're going to take those truths and ask the spirit that might guide us and help us. And I hope that what he has taught me, I may be able to communicate to you that we may be encouraged in these things. So brothers and sisters paying much attention to each one of these words and to the context and to that exhortation there in verse eight and nine, not wasting your time in the flesh, but reading these scriptures in faith and paying attention to the best of your ability. Let's read together those first 13 verses of chapter three.

This is the word of God, this is now. the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, Where is the promise of his coming?

For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlooked this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook or do not ignore this one fact, beloved.

that we, the Lord, one day, he says, a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not as slow to fulfill his promises. Some count the slowness, but he's patient, he's patient toward you, toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, And then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burnt up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people are you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for the hastening of the coming of the day of God?

because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to this promise, or according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Amen. That is the reading of God's word. Beloved of Christ, I said to you that my heart for years, just as was the heart of the Apostle Peter to these churches, is to bring an exhortation on an encouragement so that you will believe on the promise of the coming of the Lord.

that your faith will be strengthened on that promise that has been given to us from scripture of the day of God, the day of eternity, the day of destruction, the day of judgment, the coming of the Lord. Behold, he's coming with the clouds. Every eye will see him. All the nations from the earth will mourn because of his coming. Even so, amen.

This is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega who has promised that there is a day in which he is going to come and he calls Christians throughout the ages, those who by grace through faith have been genuinely inserted into his body to believe in that hope, to believe on that day, beloved of Christ, to have faith on the coming on the Lord Jesus Christ. To have faith on the coming on the Lord Jesus Christ. That glorious virtue. Without that virtue, we cannot be saved. Faith.

That you may have faith on the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That your faith may be strengthened and empowered when you think about the coming of the Lord. And you see how difficult it is for me to speak to you, because this morning you did not have the urgency of the Lord, perhaps, as the people in the first century had. People in the first century, they had the eager awaiting of the coming of the Lord. And it was not only something that abided in their minds, but it was a reality.

They were eagerly awaiting for the glorious, the blessed hope and the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Two thousand years of providence and history behind us. And many of the heresies and false teaching about this topic have reduced the power of our faith when it comes to thinking upon the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, the day of God, the day of eternity. So it is our mission, beloved of Christ. that we will be encouraged, that we will be exhorted to have faith on the coming of the Lord, that we would have faith on this day of God in which he is going to separate the nations, in which men are going to be separated, not according to who they are, but according to where their heart is established.

Glorious day, yet fearful day, beloved of Christ. And we are called to have faith. This virtue that has inserted us in Jesus Christ, to have faith. Faith is that which allows us to be saved. It is the grace of God that is manifested from heaven, that is given to us through faith, that has inserted us in the person of Jesus Christ.

That faith has not only justified us, Praise be to God that we have been justified by faith and we have peace with God. But genuine faith that abides in the heart of the believer is not only a faith that gives you a legal position before God as innocent, but it's also a faith that is to be lived, that is to be exposed or lived out of your heart, that has to flow from you. That's why the apostle says that he's not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, from faith given to faith consummated. Because it is by faith that we are justified, but it's also by faith that we live, not by sight, but by faith.

It is by faith that we are preserved. It is the power of God that is guarding us and preserving us through our faith. 1 Peter 1.5 And it is faith, the one that obtains the outcome of our salvation. Salvation is the outcome of our faith.

1 Peter 1.9 Faith is not something that you did in the past, that you prayed a prayer and then you became Christian and you started to do things. Faith is the substance of your life. And faith requires, beloved of Christ, that we believe everything that Scripture demands on us to believe. The nature of faith itself demands that you believe on the future.

The nature of the Gospel itself demands that you believe on the future. The Gospel itself is a Gospel message that is not only about the past. It is about the present and about the future. And because of unlearned men who have trampled many times the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in handling with these matters in the flesh through books and through videos, then the church of the living God is left without hope about the future. Best case scenario, agreeing to disagree.

Not to have any type of controversy, yet living a faith that is partial. Because the nature of faith demands that we have equal certainty of the things that are hoped for. Right? Go to Hebrews chapter 11. You can see it there with your own eyes.

So it is not someone quoting these verses. This is faith. This is genuine faith, beloved of Christ. This is genuine, biblical, Christ-centered faith as it is given to us in Scripture, not as the general church professes and preaches. This is the nature of faith in chapter 11, verse 1.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. This is the faith that is going to be the argument of the author of Hebrews to speak of the glorious faith that we have in Christ, that just as Christ endure until the end, we're to endure until the end because of this faith. And this faith is a conviction who is the substance is the assurance. There's no doubt. There is no place for uncertainty.

Faith, biblical faith, saving faith, the faith that is not obtained through the intellectualism of men, but rather the faith that is granted according to Philippians chapter 1 verse 29. It has been granted to you to believe. It is a gift from God. And if it's a gift from God, it's meant to be manifested in us in the spiritual way, not in the man-made fleshly way. This faith is a certainty, a conviction of things, beloved, that go beyond our scope.

Things that go beyond our ability. It says things that we have not seen. things that we hope for. This faith of the New Testament, beloved, of Christ, demands that we look to the past and that we have full certainty and full assurance that Jesus Christ was incarnate. He came, He dwelt among us, tabernacled among us, and that He lived a perfect life and that He went up to the cross to die for His church.

Death was not able to hold Him captive. And for that reason, God rescued him from death. He was victorious from that death, and he was resurrected in a newness of life. He was ascended to give us now this life that he has. All of it took place in the past.

But also, beloved of Christ, together with that first coming, we are told and instructed in Scripture that there is a day in which the Lord will come. And faith demands, beloved of Christ, that we will have this certainty, this assurance, not only of those things that go beyond our scope of time in the past, but also that which comes in the future. And that is the glory of faith. Because it is easier for you to be certain about the things that you can see, about the things that you can touch, about the things that you can manage and that you have experience with your senses. It is much easier for you to believe and to have certainty and assurance of those things.

That is for you to have certainty and assurance of things that happened before you were born. Yet the Bible demands to those who are going to come to him that they will have certainty and assurance of things that happened 2,000 years ago and things that are going to take place in a future that is not yet here. We are creatures of the present. We are captive to this very moment. This is now gone.

Past. Gone. We are creatures of the present. Yet the faith that we are supposed to have in the Lord Jesus Christ demands that we have certainty not about that in which we live, the present, but faith demands that we have certainty of that which goes beyond our scope and our ability. 2,000 years ago, a long time ago, and in a future that we do not have and we have not seen.

Many times the Bible, when it uses this word that things that we have not seen, it speaks of the past. The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter speaks that this Lord Jesus Christ, whom we have not seen, yet we love. This Jesus Christ that we have not seen, yet we believe in Him. This is the absurdity, foolishness of faith that in the flesh, when you think about it, is something that demands irrationality. Because you have to have certainty of things of which you do not have control.

Now, beloved Christ, when you experience greater measures of that type of faith, that is a childlike faith, your life will continue to change in greater weight of glory. because in the end we live our lives by faith and it should be I continue diligence or duty of every Christian to come before the Lord daily to ask the Lord to help us to in an unbelief to help us to grow in faith, to help us to bring greater manifestations of this certainty of things of the past, but also things of the future. Because, beloved of Christ, the other word that we have here is things that you hope for. And things that you hope for are not things that have already happened. Things that you hope for are things that are coming in the future.

And I hope that I'm understanding the English language correctly. Things that you hope for are things that are coming in the future. So what do you have in Hebrews 11 verse one? It is a definition of biblical faith that demands that we will have certainty and assurance of things of the future. Yet we live our Christian lives praising God for the past and agreeing to disagree when it comes to the things of the future.

That to me looks like an incomplete faith and hence a powerless faith. because we love it of Christ. We have been called to have certainty and assurance through the word of God and through the commandments and instructions that are given to us here in this book to have the same certainty of the things of the past as those things that we hope for. Come with me to Romans chapter 8. Then you will see here how the apostle puts together very clearly these two words and these two statements.

We come to Romans chapter 8. You may remember this passage in Romans chapter eight, speaking of the revealing of the sons of God and the groanings of creation awaiting for the Lord and awaiting for the day of the Lord there in chapter 18 verse 22. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirits, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies. This is speaking of the future.

Then he says something very important in verse 24. For in this hope we were saved. That is shameful to me that many times try to not face these things of the last days, just to agree to disagree with men, just not to force myself into choosing a view from four or five or many views that people may have. Yet the scripture says that the coming of the Lord, the restoration of creation is the hope in which we were saved. Our past salvation is established not only on the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in the hope of the coming of Christ.

Oh, beloved Christ, I hope that you see our salvation, not only ours, but of every Christian throughout the ages. It is not only the glory of the cross that is glorious. It is glorious to think upon our Lord Jesus Christ coming to this earth to die for our sins and that upon the cross and be powerfully resurrected. But this is a second element or another element of the gospel that we so easily miss and never want to proclaim and never want to grow in understanding of. If someone comes to you and starts to doubt or to question or to partially believe about what happened in the cross, you will be very quick to point your finger to that person as a heretic.

But when someone comes with things of the future or with the things of the coming of the Lord and their different views and different opinions, then we just simply take a step back as if the hope that we have of the future was of less importance than the things that the Lord accomplished in the past. We were saved in this hope. It says, verse 24, for in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

utilizing or using those two words of Hebrews 11 verse one. The faith is the substance or the certainty or the conviction of things that we hope for or the certainty of the conviction of the substance of things that we have not seen here. The apostle clearly speaking about the day in which the Lord is going to be gloriously manifested on all things are going to be restored. And that is the hope in which we were saved. I don't know if you can relate to what I'm saying here, but for me, it means that I have been living in a partial faith.

The Lord is merciful. But I have been living in a faith that only points to the workings and the doings of God with reverence, but when it comes to the completion of His workings and the completion of His promises, just taking those things with supposedly fleshly reverence, in which I don't want to engage on the things that scripture says, not because of fear to scripture, but many times because of fear of meeting this camp or that camp or whatever assumption or thing that is behind your mind. That is very disrespectful to the Lord. And that is the faith, beloved of Christ, that every Christian needs to have. A genuine, genuine faith that goes beyond the scope of our ability.

Now, beloved of Christ, think about this. This real saving faith does not only take us beyond the scope of our ability when it comes in time. Does not only take us beyond our time frame of life into the past 2,000 years ago and into a future that we have not seen. Faith actually does something greater for the Christian than just giving us certainty of things that happened in the past. Because the world is filled with people that have certainties of things that have taken place before they were born.

And the world is filled with people that have certainties in their minds of things that are actually going to happen. Didn't you see the many people that sometimes die in colds, thinking that the end of the world is going to come on a particular day? Those people believe that they had certainty about something that was going to come in the future. And many people, the world, believes that something took place beyond our scope. So faith for the Christian, that's something greater than giving us certainty and assurance of things that go beyond our time frame or beyond the scope of time that we have been allocated as simple creatures.

Faith gives us entrance into the substance of divine reality. Faith not only gives us certainty, but faith gives us the spiritual substance and reality that goes beyond our world. The divine spiritual reality of the presence of God is given to the Christian by virtue of genuine faith. It is not only a certainty or a conviction that we have in our mind, but rather, beloved of Christ, genuine faith. gives us this glorious substance and this glorious reality of something that transcends who we are.

You will understand what I mean when I show you this example, because I see those faces of, what are you talking about? Go to chapter 3 in Romans, please. Go to chapter 3. Please pay attention to this, because it's actually difficult what I'm going to try to explain to you. So if your mind is not with me, then we will just simply be lost.

Pay attention to chapter 3, verse 23. It says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. What is the meaning of former in the English language? Brothers and sisters, past, previous.

It says that this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Pay attention to what I'm going to say now here. People through the ages. From the fall.

Genesis chapter 3. The only way for salvation has been by the grace of God that is conveyed or communicated in faith. Faith has always been the means by which people are saved and they will be saved throughout the ages from the fall until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now there was a point in which that faith was not believing in Jesus Christ dying upon the cross, dying and being resurrected and then going to heaven. Why?

Because simply all of those people were born before that had taken place. Now, what I said before is that faith not only gives us certainty of things that go beyond our scope of time, but faith gives us the substance of spiritual realities that are beyond time. And that is manifested in the salvation of the saints in the Old Covenant. That when they came to the Lord having faith in whatever means of proclamation of the gospel it was, the ceremonial law, or Moses speaking, or whoever was in the Old Testament, and they had faith, then the righteousness of Christ was accounted to them, not in a fictitious way, or not in a way that is standing by and it will be effective and real when Jesus Christ comes, but substantially and really. That is what the apostle says in chapter 4 in verse 3.

Go to chapter 4 in verse 3 in Romans. Speaking of Abraham, for what does this scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now, brothers and sisters, I know that you have read these many times. I know that you have read the story of Abraham so many times, and even in Roman chapter 4, and perhaps you have even memorized or, I don't know, done whatever thing that we do as Christians to study scripture.

But just think with me about this. Faith is not only something that gives you certainty of something that happened in the past 2,000 years ago. And faith is not only something that just tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come. Just us, for the saints of the Old Testament, it just was not something, a certainty that something is going to come in the future, just a certainty that was in their mind. But once a person has genuine faith Genuinely, the divine righteousness of Christ is given to that person in whatever moment of history that moment has believed.

So Abraham, who lived his life before Jesus Christ came, before the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross, before the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law, went to the cross, died, was powerfully resurrected, and ascended, and sent the Holy Spirit, before all of those things, The righteousness that Abraham received was the righteousness of Christ, which is the same righteousness that we receive when after that moment 2,000 years ago, any person believes and receives the righteousness of the Lord. This is because faith. does not only give you a certainty of confidence in your mind that things that happened in the past or that will take place in the future, but in a sense, communicates to you substantial realities. I don't have any better words to express this, but I hope that you understand. It gives you a reality of something that in the mind of God has already taken place, because God is outside of time.

All of these, I just have done it to explain verse 8 of the passage that we have in front of us. Because the exhortation. of the Apostle to the Church is that we will not overlook this one fact, that one day is like a thousand years with the Lord, and 1,000 years is like one day with the Lord. He's calling us to believe, not in amounts of time. He's calling us to believe in a spiritual reality that goes beyond our scope and our existence.

Beloved of Christ. The Lord Jesus, or the Lord the Father, did not only decree that his son will die upon the cross, but when he decreed that that will take place, it was in the mind of God as if it had already happened. This is what a brother read when he was praying. The Lamb of God who was slain before the foundation of the world. He was not slain in time before the foundation of the world.

Hence, many translators have many problems translating that verse. But it's that in the divine category, these things had already taken place. And I don't know. I think you know. That is just simply mind-blowing.

Even just with my broken English, just trying to explain this to you, this glorious truth, the depths of this thing is just simply impossible to do. Beloved of Christ, the only thing that I'm just trying to say to you is that your faith, it's something that puts you in a position that God has already determined even beyond, beyond, beyond, beyond time. Come with me. Let me show you this exercise. Perhaps this will give you more biblical evidence to have faith on these things that I'm saying.

Go to Acts chapter 1. Go to Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. Now, you remember that this is the time in which the Lord was, and this is the part in which actually the most difficult part that I want to communicate with you comes. So if your mind is because of your flesh somewhere else, please try to pay attention to this.

Try to pay attention to this. I just want to take you to a human time frame of something that has taken place in human time, OK? We have the Lord Jesus Christ, who died upon the cross, was partly resurrected, and then he's going to spend 40 days with the disciples. You know that part, right? And then in the end of those 40 days, something is going to happen.

What happens with the Lord? He is ascended. So then we are told then in verse Eight, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he has said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? These Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him going to heaven. The Lord ascending to his glory and then 10 days elapse in human time. In human time 10 days pass. What happened in the end of those 10 days?

Pentecost, right? Then the Holy Spirit is given after 10 days. The next time that we hear of the Lord Jesus Christ is in Acts chapter 7. Go to Acts chapter 7. You remember the speech of Stephen.

Stephen. Stephen. Then go to verse 54. This is the next time that we hear in chapter one, the Lord Jesus Christ was ascended into heaven. And then he said, he's going in the clouds.

And as you're seeing that he's going in the clouds, he will come back in the clouds, they said basically there. And then the next time that we are told about the Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Acts, human time has passed and has elapsed here. But now, through Stephen, we are gonna have an insight into the things that are taking place in heaven. beyond time. It says in verse 54, Now when they heard these things, they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.

But he, full of the Holy Spirit, this is Stephen, gazed into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, Behold, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Acts chapter 1, the Lord coming up in the clouds to be ascended. Time has passed, and the next vision that the Church has of the Lord Jesus Christ is now standing at the right hand of the Father. Like the one who has been enthroned, the one who has received his crown because he has been completed what he was sent to do.

Now time has elapsed not many days or not many long time after this. And the vision that the church through Stephen has is this of this Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. The things that are taking place in the heaven are beyond the scope of time. This is the only thing that I can say, and this is the only way that I can to explain it, that I can explain these things. That the things that are taking place in heaven are beyond the scope of time.

This was through human time. And now we see the Lord Jesus Christ ascended, and then we see him in glory. What happened during that time? What happened during those 10 days? There's glories that the scripture speaks about.

Just read Hebrews chapter 9, and then you will see what happened during that time. There's a glorious thing that if we were going to address that now, I will not finish the sermon. But let me just simply take you now to the book of Revelation. Come with me to the book of Revelation. Please now to chapter 4.

Because now, beloved of Christ, we have John, One of the disciples, one of the disciples that saw the Lord Jesus Christ being ascended and taken with the clouds, right? This is just simple information there from Acts chapter one. One of the disciples that was alive through the martyrdom of Stephen. One of the disciples that was there serving the congregation and serving the church as Stephen was uttering this statement that the Lord Jesus Christ was at the right hand of the Father. who have been enthroned now because of the completion of his work.

Now, we're going to have this John writing this book of Revelation before or after what took place there with Stephen. After, we don't know when, and we don't really care when that was. But the only thing that we know is that the Lord, through John, gave us this letter of revelation way after time had elapsed, after all of these things that had taken place in the book of Acts. The ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beholding of the majesty of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father by Stephen. Now yet, we are going to be with a very similar language in chapter 4.

We're going to be given similar insight into heaven. And this is when we are going to be reading this together, brothers and sisters. And I really hope that I'm able to communicate this. Chapter 4. This is John.

This is John the Apostle, right? This is the witness, the one who is bearing witness to the Word of God, to the testimony of Christ, and also to all this vision that he has seen. Thank you so much, brother. Now. Chapter four.

This same apostle, after hearing the voice like a trumpet behind him in chapter one, he's hearing the same voice that now is giving him an insight into the things of heaven. Chapter four. After this, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit, just as in the beginning. I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne.

And the question that the Christian asks is, who is on this throne? If Stephen saw Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father already on this throne, then the question that one asks is, who is on this throne? And he who sat, verse three, he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones, and seated on the thrones were 24 elders, clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. John is being given a vision into the ruling powers of heaven, and this one that is seated on the throne is God the Father.

That just as when He came, the Lord God of Israel came upon Mount Zion, all of these manifestations of His presence would manifest to the people of Israel. Then John is given a view into heaven of the presence of the throne of God with the Father there. Verse 5. From the throne came flashes of lighting and rumblings and peals of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven churches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.

And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures. Full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature like a lion. The second living creature like an ox.

The third living creature with the face of a man. And the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within. And day and night, they never cease to say, please pay attention to this. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is to come.

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor, and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever. The 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying, pay attention to this verse, worthy are you O Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power. What is the reason why the one seated on the throne is to receive all glory and honor and power? The reason is given here.

For you created all things and by your will they existed and they were created. John is given a vision into heaven in which the rulers of heaven are given worship to the one that is seated on the throne because he was the creator of everything that has been created. This is a heaven without Christ. This is the heaven that has not seen Christ yet coming into it. This is the heaven in which all the creatures are worshiping God because He is the creator of everything, the creation that testifies of the glory of God.

But all of the sudden, when you go to chapter 5, Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne, the father, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And then the answer is, and no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And then John, who had in the flesh already experienced the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who had already seen the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ, me, genuinely, John, and I began to weep. loudly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.

And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, and that he can open the scroll and its seven seals, beloved of Christ. These are the words of the psalmist in the Old Testament in Psalm 24. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and open your door, you everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be open, you doors, everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in.

Who is this King of glory? Mighty and strong in battle, who is this King of glory? Jesus is his name. And this is the moment in which the one who accomplished everything upon the cross now is taken up in heaven to enter into the throne of the father, the one who was worshipped because all the things that he had created. This is the descendant of David.

This is the lion. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Weep no more in verse five. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing, Jesus Christ, as though he had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. No man, on earth or on heaven was able to take the scroll from the decree of God to be open and fulfilled in time. No one was able to do it because no one was found righteous. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and a golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, the worship of heaven now has changed.

Because the worship that was given to the Father on the throne, because He was the Creator of all things, now with the glorious presence of the Lamb of God who has entered through the divine presence of the Father, because He has accomplished the work, because He has purified the heavenly places with His blood, and has become not only the High Priest, but also the King, David, to live eternally, the King of God. is now entering there and the worship and the focus of worship in heaven has now changed. It is not the glories of creation that are the reason why these creatures are devoted to call worthy, worthy, and holy to the Lord. But now we are told there in verse 9, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe, and every language, and people from every nation.

And you have made them a kingdom and a priest to our God. And they shall reign on the earth." Brothers and sisters, this is the church. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saints with a loud voice, worthy is the land who was slain to receive power. and wealth, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.

And I heard now every creature that in the past had worshiped God the Father because of his created powers, and because he was the creator. And I heard every creature in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and worshiped. Beloved of Christ, heaven without Christ. Because of weeping for humanity, who will be able to open the seals and to read the scroll?

Heaven without Christ, the reason of weeping, no hope for humanity. And when that Lord Jesus of ours, the lover of our souls, the lily of the valley, the rose of Sharon, when he died upon the cross, He accomplished that what was impossible to accomplish for every man. So that after he went to that grave and he was powerfully resurrected, he was not only resurrected into newness of life, that he was received in heaven. And with his blood, he sprinkled the heavenly places, which had been the model given to Moses in the Old Covenant, to do the tabernacle and to build the tabernacle in the Old Covenant. In the heavenly places, in that reality, he comes and he sprinkles with his blood.

He purifies all the utensils of the heavenly places, according to Hebrews chapter 9. so that once everything is purified with his blood, this eternal blood of God, there is no need of ongoing and continual sacrifice. But rather, this high priest now moves to sit at the right hand of the father, not only as the high priest who has fulfilled all the requirements, but also as the king of kings, who is not only men enthroned, but is also God. And being God, he's worthy to receive the same praises that God the Father had received from every single creature now praises to the Lamb, beloved of Christ. This man was given this view after the Lord Jesus Christ had been ascended and many things had taken place.

Genuine saving faith in this glorious Lord Jesus Christ of ours. that not only gives us a group, a set of principles and data that abides into our minds, but gives us entrance. And I'm not speaking entrance in the sense of John, right? I'm not speaking about that. That gives us the substance of divine realities that are already accomplished in the mind of God.

Now, when is this going to happen? You or we will perhaps answer by God's grace these questions in the future. But beloved, John saw this vision of heaven, of a heaven without Christ, and a heaven with Christ. And the same faith of the apostles, as Apostle Peter says in chapter one, is of equal value or equal standing than the faith of the believers throughout the ages. How are we going to say, beloveds, that we're going to live a powerless life?

How is it reconcilable for Christians who have been captured by the beauty and the might and the accomplishment of this Christ to live lives given to the flesh and to the things of this world, things that are going to be burned up and destroyed? How is it possible that this faith that is meant to be of equal standing in us as it was for the apostle who saw and beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, how is it possible that we are not going to be affected and move and desire to have greater manifestations of the glory of God and his gospel and Christ and the Spirit in us? How is it possible that Christians will be contempt with religion and ticking boxes through Christianity? How is that possible? How is it possible, beloved of Christ, that we live with our eyes on things of this earth, when by faith, through the Word and through the Spirit, we have entrance into this glorious grace in which we stand?

And just as John saw these glorious things through his scripture and in the Spirit, we can see the same things. It is only the illumination of the Spirit, the revelation of Christ in our hearts. That is the revelation of Christ. This is the revelation of Christ which the Father gave Him to give to His servants of things that must shortly come to pass. He signified by His servant John.

speaking, bearing witness of the words of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, of this vision that He was given, of the glorious accomplishments of Christ. One day, like a thousand years, a thousand years, like one day, He is above all. And salvation, beloved of Christ, has already taken place in the mind of God. Because God does not work as we work. He's not submitted to time.

He does not work sequentially, step by step. What He does, what He desires, is what comes to happen. Eschatology is first in the mind of God. That which is last for us is first in the mind of God. And the glorious thing of all of this, beloved of Christ, is that if you go back to the chapter or the verse that we're supposed to be speaking about, In verse 9, we are told the purpose.

We are told about the purpose of this seeming delay of the Lord. This is a seeming delay. This is something that is not real. It's not that the Lord is slow, it says the other verse. It's not that the Lord is just simply not doing what he said.

It is just to the perception of men who is captive to time and time elapsing, then those who are unlearned and those who are faithless are moved to question the promise of the Lord. The Lord is above time. And then the apostle gives us the purpose in verse nine. He says, The Lord is not as low to fulfill his promise as some count his lowness, but is patient toward you or toward us, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance. Beloved of Christ, listen to these words.

The Lord knows who are the ones that will come to him. The Lord has already written the names of the people of his church in the eternal book of life. Those names are already written there. The elongation of time. It is simply a manifestation of the long-suffering and the patience of God, so that His Church will be gathered from every tribe, from every nation, from every tongue, from every generation of history, that it pleased the Lord in eternity past, when creation was not, to choose them unto a salvation that they do not deserve.

So when we see days passing and time passing, it's not only that the sun is coming and that night is coming. It is one more day that the Lord has given for His people, His church, His bride, to come to a glorious word. Repentance. Repentance. Because beloved of Christ, the reason why there is evil, the reason why there is days that are passing through time, the reason why there is an elongation in the coming of the Lord and there's all the things that take place is because God was pleased before the foundation of the world to demonstrate His love towards His people.

And the way that that love has to be manifested is not only by manifesting love in a general sense, but it has to be manifested to the maximum extent. God cannot manifest His love partially, because otherwise He will not be God. God cannot love as we do, just partially, from time to time, or depending on certain things. The manifestation of the love of God is at perfection. and for a perfect love to be manifested, namely the love of God, then a very important component needed to be, and that is called forgiveness.

You will never love to the maximum extent of what you can love if you have not forgiven. It is easier to love a person who has not done anything against us, and there's no reason to forgive that person, but requires a greater measure of a manifestation of love to love a person that has offended us, and then we provide to that person forgiveness as a manifestation of love. Beloved of Christ, forgiveness. It is a necessity in the great manifestation of the love of God. And because God wanted to manifest to us the greatness of His love, He had to allow for us not only to be recipients of the love, but also for us to be forgiven.

And not only be forgiven of something that is of no importance, but rather the greatness of love demands the greatness of forgiveness, and the greatness of forgiveness demands the greatness of the offense. So God, desiring to manifest His redemptive love to a people that do not deserve that love, allow that all of these things will take place, that sin will enter into the world, so that humanity will become the greatest offender of God. So by having the greatest offender before them, then God will manifest the greatest measure of His love in forgiving them by giving the one that is object of His love. So that by forgiving those people who do not deserve, God will manifest a love that is incomprehensible. That's why nothing can separate us from the love of God, because the love of God requires forgiveness that is found in Jesus Christ.

And then when He chose His people before the foundation of the world, His love is so faithful that until the last elect is born, and until the last elect comes to genuine faith, that is the great day of the coming of the Lord. Salvation and the day of the Lord is contingent upon the fulfillment and the accomplishment of the loving promise of God towards His people. the church. Because when we're reading here in verse 9, it says, it is patient towards you. This, this time that is elapsing, this time that is passing, that people counted as loneliness, is patience towards you.

The long-suffering of God, which is a characteristic of love according to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. The Lord is patient and long-suffering waiting for the last of his elect to be saved, to come to him, our beloved of Christ. This should take us to a greater level of appreciation, not only of the love of God, but the love that God has for his people. Because repentance, and this is for your practical life, repentance is not just that definition of dictionary that tells you just a change of mind. That is not repentance.

Repentance as an experience is a realization of God's love towards you in forgiving you because of your wickedness through His Son Jesus Christ upon the cross. And when you come to that realization of that love of God towards you, the only outcome is that you will change your ways. That is genuine repentance. It's an encounter with the revelation of the love of God in crushing His Son upon that cross to forgive you. That's why genuine faith will always experience forgiveness.

You cannot have a faith that abides in your mind that is emotionless. When you have a real faith in your mind and in your heart, that will always bring you to constant and greater understanding of the forgiveness that you have in the person of Jesus Christ. And by experiencing that forgiveness, if you're not broken, if you are not coming humbly before his presence, then you are dead. When you forgive your wife, and when you forgive your husband, and when you forgive your kids, when someone does something against you and offends you, and you provide genuine forgiveness, there's emotions in you that are moving you to grace and to good things. How come on earth, having a genuine spiritual understanding and realization of the forgiveness that we have in the person of Jesus Christ, because of the sins and the unrighteousness on us, will not move us to greater weight of glory?

I don't understand that. But the Lord saves a person by visiting that person and opening the eyes of that person, not only to the Lord Jesus Christ dying upon the cross and being an atonement for our sins, which is true, but also to the hope that that Lord Jesus Christ is coming to rescue us from this present evil age. And you know the third element that we don't sometimes add to our proclamation of the gospel? Listen to this, what John says to the elect lady. He says, I rejoice that I have found some of your children walking in truth.

This is 2 John. I rejoice that I have found some of your children walking in truth, as we received commandment from the Father. And now I plead with you, lady, not as though I was writing a new commandment to you, but that which we received from the beginning, that we love one another. And what I will say, that is the commandment that we received from the beginning. That is speaking of the Old Testament.

Then the apostle continues. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments. And this is the commandment, that as you heard from the beginning, that you should walk in love. That is repeated a number of times in 1 John. And that is repeated in 2 John.

And that is repeated in 3 John. the church of the first century received a proclamation of a gospel that had the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross in which God forgives people through the debt and only through the debt of the Lord Jesus Christ to be given a living hope of the coming of the Lord in the future in which we are going to, he's going to rescue us from this present evil age and that therefore, because his love has been manifested to us, we are to walk in love. And then you found, in the present time, people choosing and picking. People choosing the love of God, and people choosing the cross, and people choosing the end of the world and the end of times. Sound doctrine is that we submit ourselves, not to the traditions of this world, and not to the traditions of religion, but that we submit ourselves to the teaching of scripture as its entirety, because the Word of God is the one that is perfect, and the Word of God is the one that gives us everything that is needed.

When the person is visited by the Spirit, beloved of Christ, not only once we are initially saved, but as you progress through your life, this is my invitation, and this is my advice, and this is my counsel, and this is my heart for you. Come to the Lord every time, every day. Seek the Lord so that you will have a greater realization of what Jesus Christ did upon the cross. that you will understand the unrighteousness that is in you so that you will understand the love of God manifested upon that cross for your soul so that you will be moved to genuine repentance and receiving the forgiveness of God that takes you to greater manifestations of conformity to Christ awaiting for the blessed manifestation of the hope of Jesus Christ and not leaving your life center in who you are and the things that you are, but rather by this glorious faith, going 2,000 years ago upon that cross, by this glorious faith, having an insight into divine things through the words, and by this glorious faith, having certainty of the coming of the Savior that is going to rescue us, to unite us to Him. And then we're going to see Him there, seated at the right hand of the Father, enthroned in heaven.

And we are going to join our voices to the creatures and to all of these angels to say, Worthy, worthy, worthy is this Lord God Almighty, this King of glory, that entered into that throne and that accomplished a work that cannot be accomplished by your works. And praise Jesus Christ, because apart from him, you and I will be on our way to hell, that he has loved us so much as he has loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever should believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. Amen.