Sovereign Grace Bible Church
These are the sermons and teachings of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Biggsville, Illinois. We exist to fulfill the Great Commission through the Great Commandment within Gospel Community.
Sovereign Grace Bible Church
Angels, Demons, and the End Times
Do you know more about apocalyptic timelines than the character of God? In this eye-opening conclusion to our doctrinal series, we tackle the fascinating yet often misunderstood topics of angels, demons, and the end times—subjects that frequently captivate Christian imagination while sometimes distracting from gospel essentials.
Growing up amid the 90s Left Behind phenomenon, many believers became experts in debating tribulation theories while neglecting fundamental spiritual truths. We've seen generations fixated on identifying Russia, Afghanistan, or Iran in prophetic timelines rather than understanding what it means to be born again. Today's younger Christians sometimes swing to the opposite extreme, embracing triumphalistic views about conquering the world for Christ's return. Both miss Scripture's balanced teaching.
Angels, as Scripture reveals, are ministering spirits who primarily appear at pivotal moments in redemptive history—not as regular spiritual guides for daily decisions. Demons, while real adversaries, operate as already-defeated enemies under God's sovereign leash. The most liberating revelation? "The devil is God's devil," permitted only the freedom God allows.
Christ will return unexpectedly, "like a thief in the night," precisely when people are saying "peace and security." This unpredictability serves a purpose: motivating believers to live faithfully today while planning for tomorrow, always ready like the wise virgins with oil in their lamps. The judgment seat will separate those covered by Christ's righteousness from those standing on their own merits, and our physical bodies—so treasured by our culture—will be replaced by glorious resurrection bodies.
While many obsess over tribulation timing and millennium positions, focus instead on this life-changing truth: your eternal destiny hinges not on prophetic knowledge but on whether your name is written in the Book of Life through faith in Christ. Let that reality reshape how you live, love, and share the gospel today.
We are now at week 14 of 14 when it comes to doctrine, setting a proper foundation for this church plant, and if it's your first week or a week you're visiting, you are in for a fun week because we are now at angels, demons and the end times. Growing up in the 90s was a unique time. Was a unique time primarily because there was this resurgence of a fascination with the end times. Come about the 50s or the 60s, that was in full full swing. Come the 80s and the 90s, and the pinnacle of proving that would be what was known as the Left Behind series. That would be what was known as the Left Behind series, where this very popular book that a four-year-old could pick up and try to read and the 40-year-old was excited to read was one of the primary characteristics of what the church was producing at the time.
Speaker 1:I remember growing up and I heard sermons about Russia and how you could tell that the end times were here because of what Russia was doing. I remember hearing during the early 2000s about Afghanistan and Iran and Iraq and how you could tell that Jesus was going to come soon because look what's happening. And growing up again, I was not a Christian at the time, so I had no spiritual understanding up again. I was not a Christian at the time, so I had no spiritual understanding. It was a strange kind of coincidence that I ended up having a very good knowledge of the ideas of what these little word pictures in the book of Revelation meant, and I had no idea what it meant to be born again. The church did a really good job emphasizing these hyper-spiritualized concepts that in truth, were not going to save anyone. And now we live in a day and age where there is this new backlash, where the younger generations if Evan was here he would tell you how true this is One of our college kids this resurgence on the other side of the end times and viewing it in a completely different way. And so now there's this bravado of stoic masculinity that's going for this idea that we have to conquer the world through Christianity and that's how Jesus is going to come back the world through Christianity, and that's how Jesus is going to come back.
Speaker 1:People talk about the end times and the number one thing they want to know when they talk to you about end times is what's your view of the tribulation and the millennial kingdom right? Are you pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib. Are you pre-millennial, amillennial, post-millennial, no-millennial, what are you? So we get to a point where we have to look at do we have a balanced view of what God's Word says?
Speaker 1:I remember there was one time where some of the women of our church went to a conference and one of the ladies came back and had this intense dialogue about a pre-trib versus a post-trib view and she went through it and she was articulate. I was impressed. I was like that's college-grade level, right there, you could go teach at a seminary there. That's impressive, good job. And then I asked her son. I said hey, question for you Do you think that she could name 10 attributes of God? And he said no.
Speaker 1:I said I think we have something out of balance when there are people who understand so intensely the end times and their view of it, but cannot describe the God they believe in that's going to end the times. Well, it's very easy for us, because of our flesh, the sinful flesh, to have this morbid curiosity where we're willing to go to whatever lengths to understand that which God has only revealed partially. You see, you rarely find someone that's super fascinated with the fact that God is good and they'll just talk to you for hours about how God is good, and they'll just talk to you for hours about how God is good. But you will find people that will talk to you about angels or demons or the end times for hours, no problem. At some point in time we have gotten things in a wrong priority. In the same way that you asked me about my marriage and I said, let me tell you once we get to retirement, it's gonna be great. Here's what brie and I are gonna do. We're gonna do this and this and this is gonna be great. And you say, uh, dan, you just had your fourth child and your first one is six years old. You are so far from retirement I can't even describe it to you. How is your marriage now? That's all right, but let me tell you about our plans that we have once we retire.
Speaker 1:In a similar sense, we can look at a Christian life over the last decades and we're more excited and have way more information about what is to come than the gravity-shocking truths of what currently is in my life. Yes, christ is coming back. Yes, there is spiritual warfare. Yes, angels and demons are true entities that exist, and yet none of that compares to the mountain peak of the gospel and it is a lie from the enemy and a great deception and distraction when we take out of priority the gospel and replace it with what we only know partially. When we get to understand angels, demons and the end times, we'll begin with just a synopsis or like a summary of angels and demons, and then we'll hit what are the essentials of the end times. It's very easy for us to say no, no, I want to go talk about my view of this specific thing. We will not be doing that today. We will be talking about what is essential for the faith. We begin with learning about angels, and this will be the first slide in your packet.
Speaker 1:So angels are according to scripture, they are personal spiritual beings who possess intelligence, they express emotions and they exercise will. They do not have physical bodies but occasionally take on physical bodies. They are in an entirely different order of being than humans and they are described as ministering spirits to God's people. What do they do According to the Bible? They praise and worship God, they rejoice in what he does, they serve him and appear before him, and they are instruments of God's judgments. They bring answers to prayer, they aid in evangelism, they observe the Christian life, encourage in times of danger and care for the righteous in a very special way at the time of their death. This is very different than the experiences that I've been told about.
Speaker 1:With people that have talked about seeing angels or experiencing angels, you will hear. None of this sounds like bland toast compared to the stories that I have heard of a random giant angel being outside someone's door and standing ominously, saying no words. But they felt a pressure on them and that's how they knew God wanted them to go left instead of right. And we can look at all that and say, okay, how many times did angels appear throughout Scripture and when did they primarily appear? Well, we see that 95% of the time approximately, angels appear during important turning points in world history, in the history of redemption, primarily as something big is going to happen, angels appear, and when the big thing is done, they are gone. And so we realize that angels appearing in life is not normative, it's not expected. You should not expect on the average Tuesday to get a visit from Michael and him be sitting there telling you something at the foot of your bed. That is not the Christian life. We live by faith and not by sight, so we should not emphasize what we think we have seen or what someone else has said they have seen, when we are to be walking by what we believe, what we know to be true from God's Word.
Speaker 1:Angels are ministering spirits. They are different than human beings. They are considered more powerful, more knowledgeable than us, and yet they are fascinated by the gospel's work in our life. Because the angels don't have a gospel. The angels, some of them, sinned and fell, and there is no grace for them, there is no mercy, there is no second chance, and these are eternal beings, just like your soul. They will not die, they do not end, they do not procreate, so their eternal damnation is of the same level as the souls of those who are unrepentant. So what are demons in comparison to angels? Well, demons are fallen angels who, along with Satan, chose to rebel against God and sin. It's, very simply, a bad angel. There are good angels and there's bad angels, and the Bible will describe the good angels as elect angels or holy angels, or holy angels.
Speaker 1:Demons are spirit beings that have the ability to take possession of a physical body, and demonic possession occurs when a person's body is completely controlled by a demon. They are under the authority of Jesus and cannot possess God's children. That's a very important distinction here. The one who is filled with the Holy Spirit cannot also be filled with a demon. You cannot fill a cup twice. It can only be filled once.
Speaker 1:Now, when it comes to demonic possession, we'll stop for just a moment to answer a couple of maybe questions you might have. Those who are possessed by demons have opened themselves up to it. Those who are possessed by demons have opened themselves up to it. That's very important for us to understand. That willy-nilly wasn't just walking down the road and all of a sudden a demon just pounced on him like a tiger in the wild. And poor Willie didn't want. The demon didn't want to go down that path. But now he's stuck. Think of it a lot more like a drug addict who's stuck right.
Speaker 1:They initially chose to take the drug once upon a time, many years ago, and now they are completely and utterly controlled by this substance. It commands them to do things. It changes their morals and their ethics, their decision-making. That is the idea of demonic possession. And we see also that the Bible is very clear that when people worship idols they are worshiping demons. So when people are bowing down to Baal or to anyone else. In that moment they are worshiping a fallen angel or Satan himself. And you might say, well, I don't have no statues in my house, and we would say, no, but you got a pretty car, maybe a nice savings account. You might have people in your life that you should have spoken truth to a long time ago, and yet you choose a sinful peace where you don't minister to them and speak the truth in love. Idols have become much more effective in that they have gotten rid of the obvious physical appearances, which only aids in their deception of us. You and I are pre-programmed.
Speaker 1:I was asked the other day why Brie and I don't have social media right. It's very weird for a 28-year-old and a 32-year-old to not have social media. You don't even have a Facebook right and that's like the older person social media. Why? And the answer is because it controlled my life once upon a time and I have the capacity to go into a room and every single one of you could say at the end of the day, I thought Dan was ugly and he did a terrible job, and you can say it to my face and I can handle that way better than I did 10 years ago when I would post a picture and get three likes as opposed to my normal 12 or whatever the number was, and I realized this controlling motivation inside of me of I need to respond to that person. I have an answer for them that normally in real life, if I heard them talking across the room I wouldn't go interject, but on Facebook I have freedom to comment real quick and be articulate.
Speaker 1:There are temptations when it comes to this world that you and I do not think of, and yet the world system is only getting more effective at tempting you and I to sin, where they choose a sin so often and so repeatedly and habitually for seasons of life, to the degree that they completely give themselves over to the control of the influence behind that idol. What do demons do? They follow Satan as their leader and do battle with holy angels in an attempt to thwart God's plan and hinder God's people. They seek to destroy God's work, deceive anyone they can. They promote false doctrine and attack Christians. They are aware they are an already defeated enemy of God and his people.
Speaker 1:John Calvin had a great word picture where he said that you and I I think it was Calvin. He said that you and I often forget that the devil is God's devil, that God chooses. However far the devil will go, whatever the devil will do, he is not this force on his own that's fighting against God. That God's like oh no, didn't think about that. Like, let me make sure I close that door so the devil doesn't get through there. He only ever goes as far as the leash that God has allowed.
Speaker 1:He continued the illustration by saying that the demons that attack you and I in spiritual warfare, that attack you and I in spiritual warfare, pick up their chains and drag them to the next place to tempt us or to discourage us or to deceive us, and the chains are their remembrance that they have already been defeated. We do not fight against flesh and blood. We fight against spiritual, true warfare. And yet in that moment we fight against a defeated enemy. There is no questions, comments or concerns regarding if we'll make it or the demons that are stronger than us. Will they control us? Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. We rest in that. So angels and demons are not these scary supernatural spiritual things that we gotta like hypothesize about and think about and worry about. In fact, the Bible communicates them as very natural parts of life that, in the background of life, are battling back and forth on behalf of God and behalf of Satan, for your soul. And it's a good thing we believe in a sovereign God who's in control, because we don't have to worry about that battle, because we know how it all ends. And that leads us into the end times.
Speaker 1:What is important to understand about the end times? The first thing is the second coming. We'll read from 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verses 1 through 5 and 9 through 11. This is God's holy word. Paul says Now concerning the times and the seasons. Brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you, for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, while people are saying there is peace and security. Then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief, for you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness, for God has not destined us for wrath. We just had you are doing.
Speaker 1:We just had our fourth child a couple weeks ago and he came early and he wasn't supposed to do that. I had more things to finish with the house before he got here and I had at least two more weeks before he was supposed to be here and I'll have you know he did not care, had at least two more weeks before he was supposed to be here and I'll have you know he did not care. And you and I we're very silly human beings where we see a pattern in life and we're like I can always depend on that pattern. Our children always come a couple days before the due date. We've had three in a row like that Fourth one guaranteed. And God every now and then has to surprise us in the fact that we're not sovereign and we're not superheroes and we don't know almost anything. Sometimes Paul says to this young church I've already told you these things. So we see that the end times is not like this, like next level of understanding that only the mature Christians can handle, but rather that this is an introductory course, as Paul's planting churches.
Speaker 1:The second coming is a part of the staple diet, of the first bit of teaching. It says you already know about this. Verse two you are aware, fully aware, that the day of the Lord will come, like a thief in the night. Now, I don't know why I have been in so many churches where they are just hypothesizing. The Lord's going to come back 2018, on August 3rd. We're really close. I think that the Lord's going to come back in the next couple of years. You better take it seriously.
Speaker 1:We're at the end times and I remember being a child and like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to make it to 18. Like we're screwed, it's all over. We don't know when Jesus is coming back. It's going to surprise everybody, listen to me. It's going to surprise everybody. Like nobody is excluded from this. Nobody knows the day. Jesus said that. I'm quoting Jesus with that. No one knows the day. So how much profit is there in spending hours of our lives trying to interpret the signs of? Are we in the end times? Let me answer a very important question you might not ask.
Speaker 1:The end times began at Christ's first coming and the end times end at his second coming. That is, the end times end at his second coming. That is the end times according to Jesus. We don't need to throw everything out that way and say that's over there. We are living in the end times, according to Jesus Christ. Now why is it going to surprise people the day of the Lord, when Christ comes back Verse 3, people will be saying there is peace and security. Then sudden destruction will come upon them. So we definitely can't look to the wars in the Middle East or to Elon Musk doing something crazy with technology or finances. Donald Trump's not the Antichrist, probably Like we don't get anything from worrying about those things, because by the time the end times are here, the end of the end times is here. The time the end times are here, the end of the end times is here. Everybody's going to be like it's all good, everything's great. I don't even know if Jesus is coming back anytime soon, and that's the moment where Jesus is going to be like and then you're all done. That's what the trumpet of the Lord sounds like. By the way, you're welcome. You can keep that one, all right. So they're going to say peace and security and sudden destruction will come upon them. Like what.
Speaker 1:I love that the Bible is so illustrative, because it knows you and I we're a little dense and we need illustrations. The children's sermon is probably more memorable than my sermon most of the time because Dan Ashton has surprises is what my children say. Now, what is it going to be like? It's going to be like labor pains that come upon a pregnant woman. Again, case in point, we just had our baby and you just wake up one morning and you're like, oh, it's happening. I didn't get everything in order, I wasn't prepared, I thought it was going to be a different day and it happened.
Speaker 1:In the same way that labor pains are completely out of the control of the mother, you and I will be completely out of control of when the end times come. We cannot force it to come faster, as opposed to some end time views, and we also can't predict when it's going to come. And, my friends, those are both good things, because you know what they force us to do. They force us to take the parables Jesus said literally and say oh, yeah, no, no. I need to be the version that keeps the oil in my lamp because I have no idea when he's coming. So I live today like it could be my last day and the rest of my life, like he may not come for my entire life. I am constantly. Stephen Curtis Chapman had that great song, the Last Five Minutes. And he said I'm going to live this five minutes like it's my last five minutes, when I get to the end of that five minutes. And he said I'm going to live this five minutes like it's my last five minutes, when I get to the end of that five minutes, I'm going to live the next five minutes like it's my last five minutes.
Speaker 1:And the world would even agree that if you and I knew our last day on earth, we would act a little differently. We would apologize to that person. We've been needing to apologize for a long time. We would cry with that person. We've been needing to apologize for a long time. We would cry with that person we should have cried with years ago. We would hold our children more tightly. We would forgive more quickly. You see the motivation here.
Speaker 1:Jesus says you don't know the end, so act like it. Live your Christian life on full display, at full speed, every day. Don't hold back. You're not promised tomorrow. They're not promised tomorrow, because that's the deception of our souls is well, I always have till next family reunion to make things right with that person. Have till next family reunion to make things right with that person. I could always forgive that person later. I can always say I'm sorry the next time I see them. We are not promised tomorrow Now.
Speaker 1:There is hope here At the end of verse 3,. We're going to start with no hope there. Hope here At the end of verse 3, we're going to start with no hope there, paul says. And they will not escape. There will be no escape from this. In the same way that once labor starts by golly, you've begun something that will not end until we get to the end here, okay. In the same way, once Christ is coming back, it is a final moment. There is no more time to repent, there is no more time to reconcile, there is no more time at all. In fact, time itself will end and eternity will begin.
Speaker 1:Verse 4. There's a beautiful but here, but you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. So what's the idea here? We have Christ inside of us, we have this light inside of us. We've been made children of light and because of that, the day will not surprise you. Why will it not surprise you will not surprise you. Why will it not surprise you? Verse five for you are all children of light, children of the day.
Speaker 1:That means that you and I, we do live with anticipation. You know what. You're never shocked by what you're anticipating, right? So let's say that you're up for a promotion at work and you've already been told you're up for a promotion at work and you've already been told you're getting it and it's going to happen next week. The whole week you're looking forward to it. You can't wait. And Monday comes and they come in. They make a big hoopla. You're now assistant manager of whatever. You're like yes, we did it. No one walks into that room and is like I can't did it. No one walks into that room and is like I can't believe it. Wow, how did this happen? They'd be like Bob, we told you last week. In the same way, let's not be the Christians that live our lives not anticipating the last day, not anticipating Christ coming back, so that when he comes back, we're not like, oh, wow, I didn't know this was happening. Instead, we say thank God, you're finally here, thank God, this is all over and now I don't have to fail again. Now I don't have to hurt again. Now I will be perfect. Not because I'm perfect, but because my heavenly father is perfect and he will make me perfectly new.
Speaker 1:End of verse five. We are not of the night or of the darkness. Don't let the devil or your sin or this world deceive you into thinking that you can't know these things, that they don't matter to you, that you need to be oblivious to them. We really enjoy I call it intentional oblivion, right? It's like as a parent of children. There's like the moment where your children are like, literally, you know, they're hitting each other in the other room with blocks and they're screaming and crying. It sounds like the Battle of 300 over there and you're just sinful and tired. So you're like, nope, I'm going to keep reading my book and pretend like nothing's happening right now. That's what I'm going to do, because I cannot afford to go over there and to stop you one more time from sitting against each other. We have intentional oblivion. I don't want to know. Thus, I will pretend like it does not exist.
Speaker 1:You have that in family issues, right? If any of you have unhealthy families, like everyone does, we get to a point where, like, there's this tension, there's this issue. What do we do? I'm going to sweep that under the rug. I'm going to shove that down and not remember it and leave it alone. But the next time I see you I'm going to have a crick in my neck and be like you. Why? Because we're human. We enjoy pretending like nothing's wrong when everything's wrong. Because we're selfish and we're tired and we don't want to do that and it's exhausting. You know how hard it is to have a not fun conversation with your spouse at the end of the day when you've already had not hard conversations and you parented three small children and you just want to go to bed. We all deal with that all the time. The intentional oblivion.
Speaker 1:Look at verse nine. Why do we have hope For? God has not destined us for wrath. Okay, pause. Those who have hope in Christ are not destined for wrath. That includes on your worst day, you know, know the one where you yelled at your spouse, you kicked the dog you don't own and then you sped and got five speeding tickets in the same day On that day. I know five's a lot. I've heard of two or three from some of you in this room in the same day. I won't say any names. God has not destined us for wrath.
Speaker 1:The one who's in control of everything, sovereignly, pulls us through and says no matter what, I will make it happen, your salvation. Why? Because we are saved by grace, unearned favor, through faith, through trusting, believing and accepting jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is only by that we are destined to obtain salvation, through our Lord, jesus Christ, who died for us. So that, why?
Speaker 1:What's the outcome here? So that, whether we're awake or asleep, we might live with him, the idea being, when the end times, the end of all time, comes, if you've already died or you're still alive, both will be with him at the end. So it really doesn't matter if I'm here at the end or I'm not, because guess what? I know the outcome. It's like on our wedding day, right, if everything goes wrong, I can still hold on to the fact. I'm going to say I do to you and we're going to get married and we're going to leave this place married. Even if everyone hates us, the building's on fire, nothing went right, there's no pictures, I'm still going to leave here, married to my best friend. In the same way, you and I look at our lives and say I know how this ends. No matter what life looks like, no matter how bad it gets, I know how it ends, verse 11,.
Speaker 1:What should you and I do in light of that? Therefore, encourage one another. When's the last time you had someone encourage you about the end times? I've had people scare me about the end times. I've had people threaten me about the end times. I've had people hypothesize and make the end times seem like this weird, scary thing. What are we to do? Two things we're to encourage one another with the fact that Jesus is coming back and to build one another up. So think of it this way we're to pull each other up out of the muck, say, okay, stop it, don't do that, we have other things to do. You were made for so much more than that. And then we're to build each other up. So encouragement's the pulling up, and then building up is the pushing up of okay, now go and do the same for someone else. Go and serve. Your Christian life does not end with you, it merely begins with you. What else? Well, obviously, at the end times, there will be a resurrection.
Speaker 1:We continue into 1 Corinthians 15. We got a couple of verses from there. But someone will ask how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? And Paul is always very pastoral. You foolish person. I love that. I'm going to start saying that. Does that sound good guys? And a third of you said yes, and a third of you gave me a stink eye. So we're going to move forward.
Speaker 1:What you sow does not come to life unless it dies, and what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Number one we see that every physical body has a spiritual soul. Okay, that is a reality of life. You are not a body that happens to have a soul. You are rather actually a eternal soul, an eternal soul that happens to have a physical body for a very short season of eternity.
Speaker 1:The greatest issue that you and I have is the world is training you the opposite direction. That's why your beauty is so important and why you need to make sure you keep looking young and you, you stay in this right zone of living right. The Bible says that gray hair is a crown of glory and the Bible in the world says you need to get that fixed. You need to get that fixed. We have to live like this is all going away one day. Thank God, now I'm going to be a good steward of it, but at the end of the day, I'm not taking this with me. This is not like the baggage that I get to carry into heaven of, oh, that body. Oh no, there's aches and pains on it. It's got a little too much weight on it, like I don't like how that part looks. No, thank you. Guess what? This just like the outside of a seed, where you plant it, and the outside breaks away and does nothing. It just goes away forever. But what's inside comes to life. In the same way, this is gonna die and go away and something much greater is gonna come out. We will sow a natural body into the ground and God will raise a spiritual body from it, one raised for eternal bliss with him in heaven or eternal condemnation in hell.
Speaker 1:Speaking of, let's start with the judgment seat. Now, the third aspect of our end times we're going to look at is the judgment seat. Jesus is talking in Matthew 25 and says when the Son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep on his right but the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right Come, you, who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Then he will say to those on his left Depart from me. You cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Speaker 1:How does the end times, the end of all time, motivate me as a Christian? It makes me realize that one day there will be an accountability, and either I will be held accountable for all of my sins or I will be standing behind big brother Christ and he will be held accountable for all my sins. My dear friends, you don't have the shoulders to bear that burden. You're not strong, independent, nothing. You are weak, dependent, desperately needy and unable.
Speaker 1:Thank God Jesus doesn't say I'll do 75% of the work and you do 25. Because guess what the greatest of us would not get 1%. Guess what the greatest of us would not get 1%. Thank God, jesus says my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Why? Because I'm carrying it for you. You don't have to live under the law saying I must, I must, I must. Or else rather, when I believe in Christ as my Lord and Savior and say he is in charge of everything and my life is because of him and for him, in that moment I now get to say I can, because of what he's done, I can do the right thing.
Speaker 1:And if I don't Romans 8, 1,. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I never can stand condemned. The world can look at me and say you did the most terrible, awful thing in the entire world, and I can look to my Savior and say but he already paid for it. I'm free and you cannot put chains on me. That is the beauty that one day there will be a judgment, there will be a separation, my dear friends.
Speaker 1:If that is true and you believe that, how motivated should you be to share the gospel with those you love? How motivated should we be, for however many years God will allow us to be in Henderson County, to reach out to our community with the hands and feet of Christ and the saving message of the good news of the gospel, and say the saving message of the good news of the gospel and say I don't know if I'll see you tomorrow, but today I can tell you about my Lord and Savior. He is the answer to that hole in your soul, that ache that you have. He is the only thing that leads us to our definition of hell and heaven. We allow the Bible to define it because you don't care what my opinion is. You care what God has to say.
Speaker 1:Revelation, chapter 20, verses 11 through 15, talks about this judgment. And then hell, verse 11,. Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. Verse 11,. I want you to think of that for a second. I don't know if you've ever been in a small receptacle or something with people In St Louis. There's this arch you can go into.
Speaker 1:I used to live about an hour east of St Louis and we would go to the arch and I don't know if you know this or this, I'm not a small human being, and so I would get in there. And there's four seats in this little capsule, okay, and I take up two of them, and so we would get in there as a family of four at the time, and I remember I'm not claustrophobic but I couldn't breathe in that thing and we were taking up all of the air that should have been in that little capsule. So much greater is God. When his presence comes into this world, at the end it will feel like, oh, there's no room for air, there is no room for the sky, because God is here. Imagine that just for a second the biggest cloud you've ever seen in your entire life, that covers the expanse of the sky, is smaller than the smallest finger of God. That's immeasurable.
Speaker 1:No place was found for the earth or the sky, and I saw the dead, great and small. Let's understand here there's no differentiation. You could be rich, you could be poor, you could be big, you could be small, you'd be whatever you want. You can be stinky or clean, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, all will stand before the throne and books were opened. And then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. My friends, you don't want to be the person judged according to what you've done, but according to what Christ has done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Speaker 1:I want you to think about how simple that is. Imagine the IRS is coming after you for a million dollars that you don't have and they say all you got to do is go to this guy and make sure your name gets in that book and the million dollars goes away, you're good to go. How motivated would you be to make sure you didn't owe a million dollars you don't have? How much greater should be the motivation for your eternal soul that will never die and will stay for all of life? Like you don't realize how long life is, I think, until you get older. And then you get older again and you're like, oh, wow, life is long. And then you get older again and you're like, whew, okay, like the 30-year-old has no idea how long life is. How much longer will eternity feel when we've been there for the expense of hundreds of years and it's just beginning? We should allow that weight to sit on us for a second and to motivate us to say this life is nothing, it's a wisp, it's here today and gone tomorrow.
Speaker 1:Stop living for myself, for myself, stop living for my selfish desires, and instead live like I believe eternity exists. Live like I believe that I am a pilgrim that's just traveling through, that is on my way to heaven, and I happen to be stopping through. Here we get to heaven. Revelation 21, verses 1 through 6. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.
Speaker 1:And I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said behold, I am making all things new. I am making all things new. Also, he said write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me it is done. I and the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. If I'm going to leave you with something, it will just be that you don't need me to say too much more than what God has said.
Speaker 1:One day, all of this, you will realize that the words that were used to explain it do not come even close to comparing what will actually be If a picture is worth a thousand words and we have less than a thousand words to describe heaven by golly living in it for a second will mean more than thousands of words.
Speaker 1:Let us pray, thousands of words.
Speaker 1:Let us pray, father, we come before you in awe of these realities of eternity, that one day there will be a judgment, that one day you will be coming back and heaven and hell will be forever, realities that all will be aware of and experiencing.
Speaker 1:Help us, lord, to put our trust in you. We are weak and unable on our own, and yet you are strong and mighty and worthy. One day we will all sing. Worthy is the lamb who was slain. We will look to you and we will share communion with you, and we will celebrate the gospel and the good news that saved us for all eternity. And the pains and aches of this life, the struggles of this life, the sin that we can't seem to say no to at times, will all seem like nothing when we are with you. And Lord, that sentence is so hard to believe. It's so hard to believe in real life on the average day. Please help us to grow in our faith and our knowledge of you. Help us to be a congregation, a church that lovingly, continually, compassionately and gently reminds your people and this place of your truth. In Jesus' name we pray Amen.
