 |
Light Of His Word The Sermons of Pastor Mike Walls Freedom Baptist Church Used By Permission Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. |
|
|
Light Of His Word The Sermons of Pastor Mike Walls Freedom Baptist Church Used By Permission Psalms 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. |
|
THE SOON COMING SAVIOUR
Acts 1:8-11
Introduction: Give me your imaginations for a few minutes. This period of time is one of the most interesting in the history of man. Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God, came to earth and took upon himself the robe of flesh like we have. For thirty years basically, He lives an obscure life. I am sure that some of His friends that played with Him did not realize who He really was.
After thirty years of relative silence, He shows up at the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. The Father announced to the world that this was His beloved Son in whom He was well pleased.
He goes into a public ministry that lasted for three years. The first year, the people could not get enough of him. The next year, they tolerated him. That last year, they plotted and eventually did kill him. Yet they really did not kill him. They had tried to do so many times already yet they could not until this day. The fullness of time had not come yet. When He went to Calvary, He gave up his life in death. (Let me add this: if Jesus had not died on the cross, those two thieves would have never died. No one died around Jesus in his ministry.)
When He gave us the ghost, His enemies thought it was all over. The devil really thought he had won. The scribes and the Pharisees thought they had won. Death thought he had won. Corruption and stench of death thought they had won.
Christ is buried in a borrowed tomb. His body is in the grave three days and three nights and on the first day of the week, He arose bodily triumphant over death, hell and the grave. No wonder Paul wrote these words in 1st Corinthians 15:55-57. (“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then the next forty days Christ spends time giving His final instructions to the disciples. They are that hillside when the impossible occurs. Christ ascends to heaven via the clouds. Is it any wonder that when the angels spoke to the disciples and said, "why stand ye gazing up into heaven?" I would have been gazing too. I am sure most of them were looking up with their mouths wide open. The last part of that verse is a promised yet to be fulfilled. It says "this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." Let me make a few comments before going on. The word "shall" is a legal term. It means that nothing and no one can change it. "This same Jesus...shall". What a powerful promise that is! "This same Jesus" What a precious promise this is! No one else is going to come for us. He will not send a substitute. He is going to come himself.
What is unsaid by the angels is this: "fellows, you have your marching orders." "They were given to you by the Lord just before he left." "It is time to get busy doing what He commanded you to do." It is found in verse eight. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
Does the Bible have much to say about Jesus coming back again? Yes, it does but I want to make sure you do not mix up two thoughts. Jesus is going to come to the clouds to take the three and one half years of tribulation and three and one half of great tribulation, which makes seven years, Jesus is going to come back to actual earth surface in which He will return and set up his earthly kingdom for the next one thousand years. That is His Second Coming. One truth that is great about the Second Coming is found in the Gospel song called "The Next Time, He comes". The next time he comes, he will not have to die for me.
Are there some signs pointing to His coming? Yes, there are but it is important to remember that is nothing that has to be occur for Him to come for His church in the rapture. Let me give you some signs of His coming. Matthew 24:5-12 lists seven signs. These, too, are evident in today's world.
7. Love of many will wax cold
Now that sounds more and more like the day in which we live, doesn't it? I am not looking for some sign to come pass but listening for the sound.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first”
1st Thessalonians 4:16-17
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
There will be only one kind of people who will go in the rapture. It is all the saved people of the world. Not only are the ones who will be alive presently taken but Jesus is going to the ones who died in Jesus will He bring out of the grave. I have always wanted to be in one of three places when Jesus comes in the rapture. I would like to be behind the pulpit preaching the Word or sitting beside some precious soul as he or she is accepting Christ or on the hillside in Dunmore, West Virginia at the graveside of that precious gray hair grandmother of mine.
Every person who goes in the rapture has several things not in common. Your religion means nothing in that day. Your race means nothing in that day. Your dollars will mean nothing in that day.
The only thing that will matter will be your relationship with the Saviour.
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
John 1:12-13
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Only the redeemed will hear His voice in that day. This is the rapture. When He returns the next time will be at the end of the tribulation when He returns in revelation of who He is. He is the KING of kings and LORD of lords. The greatest battle of the world will be waged with only one clear winner. The One who is returning from Heaven upon a white horse- KING Jesus.
A. This is almost too obvious. He said He would come.
John 14:1-3
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
He had told the disciples to be ready at any time.
Matthew 24:42-44
“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”
If we knew the day or the hour when the Lord Jesus Christ was returning for the church, then we would lose probably the greatest motivation tool of the church. When I was a teenager, my mother and stepdad would go to town some Saturdays for groceries. My mother was a firm believer in that children should learn to work at an early age. She left instructions on what she wanted done while she was gone. She would want us to weed the garden, cut the grass, and get the water and so on. We knew that it took approximately thirty minutes for her to get to town. It would be about an hour or so to do the shopping and then a thirty-minute drive home. My brothers and sisters knew that we had approximately two hours before they get home. We also knew how long it took to the work done. So many times we would play as long as we could and get the work done in record time before she got back.
Well, the rapture of the church is not like that. We don't know when He is returning. So we must work now. We work as if He was returning to today. This could be today when He returns. Here are the tough questions, are we ready for His return? What have we got to lay at His feet? Are there any souls that can say, "I'm saved because of _______ (You can fill in your name there.)?
B. It will prove further that our Bible is true and accurate.
Many places we find the rapture referred. Yes, the word rapture is not found in the Bible, but the principle is there. 1st Thessalonians 4:13-18
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”
“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”
A. Souls will still be lost. Jeremiah 8:20
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”
John 4:35
“Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.”
Millions upon millions and billions upon billions will be lost and most will have to endure the reign of Satan in the tribulation period. Some will try to kill themselves and will not be able to do so. Revelation 9:6
“And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.”
The great shame is that we know so many that are lost and the shame of the matter is that we have done little to try to win them to Christ.
Revelation 2:4
“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
Here is a church that is only one generation from Calvary. The Lord Jesus is telling that they have left their first love, which is love for the Lord. Here we are two thousand years away from Calvary. I wonder what He would write to us as a church. I am afraid to speculate what it may be.
“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”
When
we could have warned people of the dangers of hell and did not,
then their blood will be on our hands when we stand before Christ
at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
What should we do in response to this coming?
“And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.”
In other words, we are to stay busy for Jesus until He comes for us.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
We need to keep short accounts with the Lord. We need to confess our sins for exactly what they are. It was those sins that our Lord also died.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”
Immediately after the rapture we will be at the Judgment Seat of Christ. At the judgment seat, we will be rewarded for what we did since we have been saved. The question of saved or loss was settled on the day we were saved.
What rewards will be gotten at the Judgment Seat of Christ?
1. The Incorruptible Crown 1st Corinthians 9:25
2. The Crown of Righteousness 2nd Timothy 4:8
3. The Crown of Life James 1:12
4. The Crown of Glory 1st Peter 5:4
5. The Crown of Joy 1st Thessalonians 2:19-20
These crowns are really another message. But it is what we will do with the crowns that I want to encourage you. We will cast them at Jesus’ Feet.
Revelation 4:10-11
“he four and
twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship
him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the
throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour
and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure
they are and were created.”
Conclusion: This same Jesus may come today. I have two questions for both classes of people who are here today. Everyone who is here today is either a saved person or a lost person.
To the lost, I want to ask you a few questions. Are you willing to leave today lost knowing that Jesus may come today? Are you willing to walk away from His free salvation now and forever? This may be the last invitation that you may get forever. So I ask you again, are you willing to leave lost today knowing that this may be the day that Jesus could come?
To the saved folks, let me ask a few questions. Are you willing to leave here today with unconfessed sins before your Lord? Are you willing for your family and friends to die without Christ because you did not tell them? Are you willing to do all you can to win your family and friends, knowing that this could be the day that Jesus may come?
|
The Wounded Heart Ministries, Inc., is a non-profit organization and is exempt from federal income tax under section 501 (a) of the Internal Revenue Code. Donors to the Wounded Heart Ministries, Inc., may deduct contributions and gifts, with no consideration received. All donations and gifts to the Wounded Heart Ministries, Inc., will be disbursed in accordance with the purpose statement of this ministry and all donors will receive proper credit for gifts received. All donations and gifts are greatly appreciated and may be sent to: The Wounded Heart Ministries,
Inc., |
 |
 |