Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. Have you turn over to Matthew,
chapter 15, verse three. I'm really excited about this
morning. We had some young adults come
over to the house last night and they were with us for a little
while. And so I'm like not going to
sleep a whole lot tonight because I got to get up early.
But I'm glad that the Lord always knows what his church
needs. And so as I was coming in, I
called our creative director and I said, hey, this is probably
going to go a couple weeks, So I just want you to know ahead of
time. Most of the time they don't ever
know I'm in a series until I start it.
It's technically not assured it'd be two weeks, but we will
continue in this subject matter next week prior to our Christmas
Eve service. Amen.
But in Matthew chapter 15, verse three, it says this and he
answered and said to them, why do you transgress the
commandment of God for the sake of your tradition.
And we've launched out with this scripture a lot at Anchor Faith
Church because we have found that it's extremely important
for all of us. I'm talking about, me included,
to make sure our belief is in alignment with the word of God
and not just what people say, because there are a lot of
things that are spoken that people say is God.
But when you actually examine scripture, it's technically not
or it definitely doesn't reveal enough.
You know, we've said this before that most people quote, you
know, that God works together for the good, for those who love
him, and that is part of the Scripture, but they kind of
leave it there. And so in any circumstance, they
begin to say, well, you know, the Lord calls all things to
work together for the good, for those who love them.
But you know that Scripture has an and it says for those who
love him, and that's called a conjunction.
That means the next part applies as well.
You can't have the first part and God working it out if you
don't have the latter part. And he says He, He works all
things together for the good for those who love him and are
called according to his purpose. So you can love him and do your
own purpose, and God's not obligated to work things out for
you. Amen.
Now I might question your love for him.
Because again, when God defines love, God defines love.
If you love me again according to Scripture, not according to
our tradition, well, I love the Lord.
He knows I love Him, and I know that he knows whether you love
him or not. I know he knows the difference
because God is not mocked. He's not mocked.
He knows your heart. That is true.
You know what the Lord knows I love him.
Well, He knows if you are loving Him according to his definition
of how you love Him. And Jesus made it very clear.
In John chapter 15 he says if you love me, you'll keep my
word. So keeping his word is loving
God. Not being born again is loving
God, keeping his word. And we see this in the book of
beginning with Adam Adams, breathed out of God.
God, from his own substance, breathes into this person made
out of dust. You know, when I was talking,
we're working on a book right now called Dominionaire Man.
We're close to having it done. And when we were going through
it this past week, Daniel and I, I said, you know, I imagine that
when he says he formed man out of the dust of the earth
because, you know, we have the beach.
Although technically I haven't always seen this, I've
definitely never seen a competition.
Maybe there has been, I know there are other beaches, but
where they'll do those sand draw, you know, sculptures and
the detail on those. So I can imagine that God, when
he began to form Adam, right, that he first started with his
skin on the back and the hair, he started pulling out, each
with sand. Then he inlaid where the muscle
tissue would be and then where the vascular system would be.
And then he forms the femur. Oh, get there.
I mean, each detail that if you could go layer by layer, you
know, for most of us, you know, we kind of get down and you pack
yourself with sand, you know, and you're like, oh, you're a
person. No, he was detailed when he
breathed. There was something by which his
breath went into each thing. I mean to the molecular level He
formed out of the dust of the earth.
So if you could peel us back layer by layer skin, then he
would have had that all detailed out in the sand.
That's pretty amazing. And he and he breathed into him
to be a living being, and now he is a son of God.
He's God's son. He's Adam without sin.
Yet God doesn't know he loves him.
That alone is not demonstrating Adam's love.
He says, Adam, you can eat from any tree of the garden, but of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat
for the day you eat you'll surely die.
And as long as Adam keeps that word, he demonstrates his love
for his father. But the day he ate the fruit, he
rebelled. He did not demonstrate love.
Amen. So there are a lot of things in
Scripture that will refute tradition, is what I'm saying.
And so, you know, there are some events that are about to come
upon us. And you know, the more I
meditate on these things and where I know the Lord wants us
to go in 22. I mean, honestly, January,
what's the first Sunday in January?
It's 8th, I think 7th. I mean, I almost wish we could
translate to it because what I want to be release to the body
of next year. I'm just so jacked about it, but
we're going to kind of have a teaser in these next two weeks
concerning some things about next year.
All right. And so, you know, as I'm kind of
meditating on some things again, you know me, I'm not going to
believe it, even if I've thought it, because every thought I
have, I've not actually studied out.
And every subject there is in the Bible I've not actually
studied. Now I've already mentioned this,
so I'll mention it again. I've never done a sermon on
angels. Never.
But I will next year. So what I think I know about
them may not be correct, but we'll find out what the Bible
says so we can rightly divide it.
Why? Because we're going to need to
understand a few things. And don't you?
Understanding the Lord is not keeping things from us.
He's keeping things for us. Excuse me?
And there are things he's revealing more so as the time,
you know, Daniel had a revelation of some things and he
said seal it up. But then John pops the top off
and people are still having a problem with that.
But the reality is, is as we get closer to these events, John
spoke of more clarity. And here's the thing.
There are people who assume they knew what that was in the 50s,
but in light of today, they may find out man, they were, they
didn't know, and they only knew based upon what they knew.
But now that God reveals more, guess what?
We can adjust and get more clear.
In essence, you've got to see yourself as an Apollos in some
of these things we're going to discover.
And what do I mean by the Polish?
You remember in Acts that he was preaching, he was eloquent and
he preached the baptism of John. But Priscilla and Aquila was in
one of his meetings, and they took him aside after the
service, and it says they showed him a more clear way, a more
clear way. And in essence they gave him the
revelation they had received from Paul that turned on the
light. It's not that Apollos wasn't
preaching truth, it became more clear.
In essence. He went to the spiritual eye
doctor and what he could see that was a little fuzzy and he
could still read all of a sudden became crystal clear.
The same thing happened to Saulatarsus.
He was ministering truth concerning the God of Israel,
but he didn't have the right context.
And then when Jesus revealed himself, all of the old covenant
and the prophets became crystal clear.
Amen. So the Lord wants, as the time's
drawing near, as we're living in the last last of the last days,
He wants it to become more clear.
And it won't be clear because we're saying we believe the
Spirit says it'll be because we'll be able to go straight to
Scripture and prove it. So the Scripture will confirm
what the Spirit of God is revealing.
Amen. So I want to encourage you, as
we begin to do some things into next year and into today that
don't hold a tradition. Just because a majority of
people believe something doesn't mean it's correct.
That mean it's correct. All right, So with that being
said, the time my message is cloudy with a chance of rain.
Hallelujah. Amen.
Now that's probably not going to get a lot of clicks on YouTube,
but if I put this word out, the Rapture, then they may look it
up. So they'll have to figure out
how to do that on their own. But in Revelations chapter one,
how many you do in your Bible reading?
Then you read this this week. When I read this this week, I'm
like, seriously, seriously, Lord, seriously, Lord.
Hallelujah. Revelation chapter one, Verse
four. Look what it says, John, to the
seven churches that are in Asia. Grace to you and peace from him
who is who was and who is to come.
And from the seven spirits who are before his throne, we'll
find out who they are. Verse 5.
And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness the first born
of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Who are those kings? Come on.
Who are those kings? To who To him who loves us and
released us from our sins by His blood, that he made us to be a
Kingdom? Priests to his God and Father to
him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.
Behold, he is coming. Say he's coming.
Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see
him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth
will mourn over him. So it is to be.
Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
says the Lord God who is Who was who?
Who is to come the Almighty. So John the Apostle is the one
whom God loved. He is the Apostle of love, which
means his love walk was tremendous, all right.
And because of that love walk he could not be killed, although
tried. History says that they boiled
him in oil. Now I don't know what his skin
looked like when he came out. All I know is he didn't die.
And because they could not kill him physically because of this
prediction, and I'm not saying that he had any marks on him.
He could have been like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
Nothing. They're like, I don't even
understand this. And because of that, they were
so intimidated. They exiled him, right?
They exiled him and in his exile he gets a revelation of the
Christ. Revelation is not about the
Antichrist, which is one of the biggest tradition that happens
in the church today. And the reason why revelation is
most of the time people struggle with it is because they're
looking for the Antichrist and not what revelation is about.
It's about the Christ. The Antichrist is a secondary
issue. It's, you know, just something
in the line, but it's not the main character.
You know, when more people are trying to figure out who the
Antichrist is, then they are of just seeking the Lord.
There are many ministers and Saints that posture on Instagram
and YouTube and their podcast because they want to be the one,
hopefully known as the one who rightly got the Antichrist.
Does that make you spiritual? Think about it.
I mean, are you going to be some spiritual giant just because you
named it? You're the one who figured it
out, right? I mean, that's not even the main
character. I mean, the Antichrist is really
no big deal, 'cause even the works that he's doing during
those tides are secondary to the main character.
I say they're secondary to the main character, and everyone on
the planet is going to know the main character.
Everybody. All right, so here it is in
plain sight. Let's go back to verse 7.
Plain sight, verse 7. Behold, he is coming.
How many believe he's coming? I said how many believe he's
coming? I said how many believe he's
coming? How is he coming with clouds?
It's coming with clouds and and how many eyes and and what are
the eyes going to do? So I'm a little tired of the
commercials of us just disappearing.
That's right. Because they're playing them the
social media phenomenon that all of a sudden everyone's going to
boom. People are just disappearing,
disappearing, disappearing. And nobody knows why.
That's not what the scripture says.
Come on, that's not what the Scripture actually says, I said
that's not what the Scripture actually says.
It says Behold, he is coming with the clouds and every eye
will see him. Notice the first group of
people, even those who pierced him.
So the ones who hate Jesus will see Jesus.
So the first group of people that will recognize Jesus in the
cloud is gonna be those that aren't his.
And how much territory would this cover?
All the tribes of the earth? Now, we ain't talking about all
the tribes of Israel. All the tribes of the earth will
mourn over and events going to take place that there.
The world's going to know I'm already hitting traditional
walls right now. This is crazy.
But that's all right. This is my first scripture.
Configs that Jack your mind? Yeah, yeah.
Because we've already dealt with the Love Walk, and we're going
to talk about love again next year because I'm going to preach
that on Sunday and let it go out to everybody.
OK. But here's the thing.
Everybody thinks something's going to take place in the
Scripture Does not support it. Doesn't support it.
I said it doesn't support it. Every eye will see him.
Now think about it. Most of us believe that there's
a great end time revival. I know now without hesitation
that this revival is going to be split.
There's going to be a coming in prior to a trumpet and then
there's going to be a coming in after a catching away.
The revival will crossover. You want to be on the side
before the trumpet. I mean, it has saved you a lot
of grief. It won't keep you out of heaven,
but it will save you a lot of grief.
You can be delivered and we'll take some more time to talk
about that next week. But there's this revival most of
us believe there's this great revival we're going to go.
And really it's left me with this thought that when people
preach it this way is that like all the people are going to get
born again, they're going to be gone and all that's left on the
planet are just non believers. But the scripture doesn't
support that, doesn't support that.
But we see here and think about it.
If Jesus is about to pour out his wrath on the earth during
what we call the tribulation, do you think he wants the devil to
take credit? I mean, do you understand?
I mean, this is scripture. This is why it's so important to
read the Bible, Genesis 11 to Revelations 2221, because it
gives us the nature and context of God.
When you read the book of Jeremiah, do you think that God
wants the nation of Israel to believe that Babylon was just
bigger, stronger and better than him?
That he was more powerful than the God of Israel?
There's no way God's going to let a nation take over his
nation and his nation believe Wow, Babylon was stronger.
No. What did he do?
He sent Jeremiah to say you tell him that because they sinned,
they picked other gods. They did this.
They killed my prophets. They wouldn't do anything.
I am stepping back. That's the only reason this is
taking place. Because this nation is not more
powerful than me. I told you, if you'll obey me,
if you'll keep my. Word if you'll do I'll bless you
coming in and bless you going out.
I'll make you the head and not the tail.
I'll make you above and not beneath your Your enemy will
come before you one way and he'll flee before you seven way.
But I'm telling you right now through my prophet, because you
have not kept my word. This nation is coming against
you, and I'm letting them in, 'cause they are definitely not
better than me. Do you really think that God is
going to have this secret plan to pull this church out of the
earth and all of a sudden everybody don't know it was him?
But tradition will make you believe that.
Because here's the thing, God, when he gets into wrath mode,
he's in wrath mode because he's
like my evidence of who I am is irrefutable, and you're still
not yielding to me. It's irrefutable.
He gets into wrath mode. It's because of the revelation
of who he is. So you understand there's a lot
happening right now in the Spirit.
His Spirit's in the earth. His church is in the earth.
His church is moving. And you understand His church
when I say his church because again, if you read the Book of
Revelation and the seven churches, he had some things to
say about him and not all of his comments were encouraging.
Now they were encouraging to all because he's like, hey, this is
pretty cool because you started out like this, but here's my
problem. And he's talking to the Grace
Church, the church under grace. I got a problem with you.
The head of the church is telling the church I got a
problem with you, which means you can't be under grace and
never have a problem with God. You have a problem with God
under grace if you're not doing His Word.
Grace empowers us to do His Word, not to not do His Word and
stay right with God. And so he's got conflict with
his church through John telling them.
And not only is it churches that exist that day, but we also know
that is 4 showers communicating of a distant time of where
churches are functioning in these capacities.
And we can identify ourselves as one of those seven churches.
Amen. And so he's saying, look, at the
end of the day before I, I'm letting you know what I'm going
to do. And so the church at large is
starting to function like Israel, where they are always
hearing about God having his blessing, seeing his miracles is
irrefutable as God. They've given him praise about
stuff he's done. And then they still turn their
back and go back into the world's way.
And how many people have gotten born again?
They've gotten filled with the Holy Ghost.
They have been healed by God. They've seen him, bless them,
and then they go back to the ways of the world.
Well, there comes a time that as that's been happening, you
understand we've got about 2000 years on this deal that God's
like, seriously 'cause this isn't going to be hypothetical
whether Jesus exists, although there's plenty of evidence now
he does, but he's going to come in a cloud and the whole world's
going to know. I said the whole world's going
to know. Now you understand he's not
doing something that hasn't been done.
Acts Chapter One. In Acts chapter one, again it
says this. So when they had come together,
they were asking him, saying, Lord, is it at this time you are
restoring the Kingdom to Israel? Now notice what Jesus says.
He says to them, it is not for you to know the times, OK, which
his father is fixed by his own authority, but you have
received, but you will receive what power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and even to the
remotest parts of the earth. And after he had said these
things, he what? He was what?
Lifted up.
He was caught up. He was lifted up.
He was caught up. He's the word that describes
what we called the rapture. He was raptured.
He was caught up. He was lifted up while they were
looking on. And a what what happened?
A cloud received him out of their sight.
Notice Jesus is in a cloud and they could see it.
Because what I'm going to show you today is every time Jesus is
in a cloud, you can see it. Now here's the thing, in this
particular moment, there were people that were around him,
right? And so it's not that.
Again, if I was to take a balloon today, right, a helium
balloon, and I was to walk outside, we were all to go
outside and I release it. Could we watch it ascend now?
Could the beach see that balloon?
They could if they knew where it was at in the sky.
Do you not see planes? I mean, we're talking thousands,
10s of thousands, maybe not 32,000 because they typically
are above the clouds, but prior to the you can see those planes,
you can be here and you can watch that thing, just continue
to ascend till it till you can't see it because it's so far away.
So just because Jesus ascended on this day doesn't mean if
anyone had been looking in that location, it wasn't like he was
only seen to those people. My point is he wasn't like
invisible to the world. If someone had been glancing,
they would have watched a person go up.
He was visible to those who are watching, I said.
He's visible to those who are watching because if you're not
watching, you're not looking in the direction you can miss what
is completely visible to everyone.
So it says that they he was lifted up.
He was in the cloud. It received him out of their
sight. And as they were gazing intently
into the sky, what were they doing?
Like you do with the balloons? You still see it.
Yeah, yeah, yes. Right there.
I still see it. There it is.
Is that. No, no.
Yeah, yeah, I see it. Right.
It says while they were gazing intently in the sky while he was
going, behold, 2 men in white clothing stood beside them and
they said men of Galilee. Why do you stand looking in the
sky? This Jesus?
Which Jesus? Now which Jesus is this Jesus?
This is the Jesus that came, born of the virgin, died on the
cross, rose from the dead, walked through walls, performed
miracles, walked on water. Come on.
This Jesus still has holes in his hands and in his feet and in
his side. This Jesus who has been what
raptured, taken up from you in heaven, will will what will come
in just the same way as you watched him go into heaven.
So on the day of Pentecost, they're letting them know.
Did do you believe the Bible? Do you believe that Peter and
all the apostles and whoever else was hanging out with Jesus
that day when he was talking to them and he went up that they
literally saw him? That's not metaphorical.
Well, and the Angel says he's coming back the same way, which
means if you could see him go, you're going to see him come.
If you saw him go, you'll see him come.
You can see him come, you can see him come.
And revelation tells us everybody's going to see it.
I said everybody's going to see it.
Oh, Hallelujah. Say Amen anyway.
He's coming the same way, The same way.
Look what it says in First Thessalonians 413 and 18 says
this. But we do not want you to be
uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that
you will not be grieved, as do the rest who have no hope.
OK, For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then so
Even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in
Jesus. For this we say to you by the
word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain.
We who are alive and what remain until the coming of the Lord
will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself will what descend from heaven.
How? With a shout, with the voice of
the Archangel Angel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead
in Christ will rise, Will rise What?
And it's first. First.
So this is where I have a problem with the amplified.
Because the amplified takes the next verse and says
simultaneously. Well then this can't be first.
If there's a simultaneous and, I would conclude that that
interpretation's wrong based upon an event and we're going to
see it here in a minute, then then say, then now again. 1st
and 2nd can be separated by milliseconds, but first is
first. But this 1st and the 2nd may not
be the same as you think, at least not how we see it In all
the stuff that has been shown on TV about left behind and what
happens and all the the churches that put on the little you know
shows you know where people came in.
And the vacuum cleaners are running, clothes are left on the
floor, cars are where they're at.
Come on, is it? Does it not?
Does it not bother anybody that basically we're saying that God
would immediately pull his at the immediate destruction of
others? Because if you're driving 65 and
you're gone, your car doesn't immediately stop #1 airplanes
are crashing. There's a lot going on.
So in essence, we're saying the Lord creates A genocide
immediately by taking his church, although the scripture
doesn't support this. Now there's going to be problems
because of the wrath of God, but it won't be in that particular
moment, 'cause there's letting them know we don't have time to
talk about the three years of peace.
There's going to be some calamity.
Don't get me wrong, 'cause you're going to go and they're
going to know, and a lot are going to exit, and then they're
going to have to figure this out.
But then seals are going to get broken and Ras going to start
showing up. All right, here we go.
It says this. Then we who are alive and remain
will be what caught up. That's what they call the
Rapture. We're caught up together with
them in the air, so they're in the air.
Who's in the air already? The ones who rose first.
OK, we'll be caught up together with them in the in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air in that.
Interesting. We're going out in clouds, too,
I said. We're going on clouds, too.
I wonder if anyone's going to be able to see that now again.
Why do you forsake the commandment of God for the sake
of your tradition? Is it bothersome to you that you
would change your thinking that people are going to see me go as
opposed to, Is it better that they don't know you disappeared?
And I already know where everyone's going.
We're going to get to that scripture.
But that scripture's been quoted wrong.
And we're going to see that today.
And we're going to go for anyone who's thinking that and think
that's the case because you keep quoting it in your mind, you're
going to be like, ah, I'm wrong. Now many of you are quoting it
now you'll realize, oh, it doesn't say that.
So it says we're going to be caught up together with him in
the clouds to meet him in the air.
Now I'm not saying we're not going to heaven, but I will tell
you this air is not heaven. Air is atmosphere.
I'm not saying we're not going to heaven.
I'm not telling you that. But I can equally say what stops
God from pulling out a table in the upper atmosphere?
You'd be beyond the clouds. They wouldn't see you anymore
anyway. And he could set up his beam a
seat in the atmosphere of Earth, and he's still close to that
which he's about to pour his wrath on.
I'm not telling you that's the case.
I'm not saying that. But I'm going to tell you Heaven
and Earth have a connection that's closer than you think.
They are two separate places. Do not confuse that.
But they are more connected than you think.
OK, so they're caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air.
And so we will shall always be with the Lord.
Notice it says we'll always be with the Lord.
It does not say we'll always be in heaven.
Because is this the last time the Lord will come?
Nope, it's not the last time. So wherever the Lord is, where
are we with Him? So when he comes to a millennial
reign, where will we be and where will he be?
On the earth? So the notion that will live in
heaven forever is actually not biblical.
It's not a biblical principle. It's actually fantasy because
even the Lord is not going to be there forever.
Hallelujah. Now, I'm not telling you won't
have access. I'm not telling you won't get to
go. I'm just saying you'll be on the
earth, too. And for me, I'm going to be with
the Lord. And if the Lord goes to Saturn,
I want to be there. All right.
So it goes on to say, then we'll meet the Lord in the air.
And so we shall be with him. Always be with the Lord.
Therefore, comfort one another with these words.
So I'm here to comfort you with these words that, as Jesus went
up in a cloud, will go up in a cloud.
Now let's get to your scripture. First Corinthians, chapter 15.
This is what you're thinking of anyway, and this is what
everybody tries to use to prove the point that we're going to
disappear, vanish, go, bam, gone right, says Now, I say to you,
brethren, the flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of
God, nor does perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold, I will tell you a mystery.
We will not all sleep now. What's he mean by that?
Not everybody's going to die and go into the earth, the grave.
OK, their body. Because again, we know in this
dispensation, if you are absent from your body, what are you
present with? The Lord.
That's why Paul said to be absent from the body now is to
be what present with the Lord. But that wasn't always the case.
There was a case when you were absent from your body.
You were not present with the Lord.
You were in paradise. And Jesus talked about paradise
because he told one of the thieves on the cross, Today you
will be with me in not heaven, but paradise.
So there was a time when people left their body.
Their spirit and soul was in paradise.
Their body was in the grave. The flesh and blood did not go
to that realm. It stayed in the earth, right?
But he's telling us not all of us are going to experience this.
So in today's scenario, our spirit soul, we go, those go to
heaven, but we're not in our glorified bodies, OK?
Because that's why the dead has to rise 1st.
And let me just go ahead and answer the question that is is
wrong because people say, well, you know what, you should never
get cremated. You know, don't do that.
You know what? Everyone's being cremated,
cremate. Cremation is the acceleration of
what's already happening to the body when it gets on the ground.
I mean, do you really think that people that were thousands of
years are still intact, So when God comes and resurrects that
body, he's having to put it all back together anyway, he said
from dust she came now. So cremation is accelerating a
process, and I don't care if they scatter your dust all over
the planet. God has no problem if you were
born again to get all that back together and hook you up with a
glorified suit, right? So don't think cremation is
ungodly. It's the acceleration of dust.
OK, with that being said, he says this.
Behold, I tell you, mystery, will not all sleep, but we will
be. What?
What will we be? What will we be?
What is that word? What is that word and how will
we be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last
trumpet? For the trumpet will sound and
the dead will be what first and then those who remain.
According to first Thessalonians, they are going to
be called up then. But notice when the trumpet
sounds were not caught up, it just says changed, changed and
called up are two different words.
And if Paul, who had revelation of these things, of which he
wrote First Thessalonians and he wrote to the Corinthian church
and he tells the Corinthian church, Now listen, I want you
to know that not all of us are going to sleep, but there'll
come a time when the trumpet blows.
In essence, when we see Jesus come down on the cloud, we're
going to be changed. First, you'll get changed before
you're caught up. And what we've done is we've
concluded that this twinkling of an eye, which they say is half
of a blink. That's why they conclude we poof
disappear. But it doesn't say you'll poof
in 1/2 a blink. It says you'll be changed and
what you'll do is the imperishable will put on or the
perishable will put on the imperishable and the the the
mortal will put on immortality in poof.
So all of a sudden you'll go from this to glorified.
Now that doesn't mean ascension. That is not ascension because
you got to understand, God loves the world.
God loves the world. Here's the problem.
We have reduced church at large, has reduced the message of Jesus
Christ to the door. Ask Jesus into your heart so
you'll be saved. That way when you die, you go to
heaven. And that is not the gospel.
That is the door and part of your existence.
You can be born again and part of your existence will be in
heaven. And we've reduced it to that.
To where then we're only talking escapism.
And in essence, we hate the earth.
I mean, you understand Christians hate earth.
Well, the earth doesn't have the problem.
It's the systems that have the problem.
And the earth doesn't have a problem.
It's the devil who's still working a system on the earth
and the sin of rebellious man that the earth is receiving and
stuck, but the earth itself is crying out for it's actually
redemption. But yet, modern day Christianity
at large hates the earth, doesn't want to do anything with
the earth, wants to leave the earth, can't wait to get out of
here. And so we've created doctrine
that even God doesn't love the earth, is going to abandon it,
and he's going to catch us up out of here.
And for most, that's where their theology stops.
We're caught up and we're in heaven forever, never to see
planet Earth again. And that's not even in
Scripture. So change means changed.
Everybody all right with that? OK, Is this the first
resurrection? Has someone been resurrected
before this? Who was resurrected first?
Well, there was only some people that were resurrected long
before Jesus, just to be honest with you, right?
OK, Lazarus was resurrected before that.
But before Lazarus retrorected, then there was a widow woman who
had a son, he was resurrected, and then God resurrected a
daughter. She was actually resurrected.
And then Elijah, Elijah resurrected somebody and Elijah
resurrected somebody. So there's been resurrections
just to let you know they died and rose back to life.
OK, but in the context that we're talking about,
resurrection or coming to life and no longer having sin
dominate your life, Jesus is the first born from the dead.
Did Jesus leave the grave alone? He did not.
Look at this in Matthew. This is good stuff bro.
Matthew 2752 to 53 and it says in the graves were opened.
Jesus just said it is finished. He said it's finished.
He gave up his spirit. Earthquake takes place.
The veils ripped and Matthew records this and the graves were
opened. And many bodies of the Saints
which slept arose and came out of the graves after his
resurrection. And and what went into the holy
city and appeared Let's read this from the passion
translation. It says it this way and the
graves were open. Then many of the holy ones who
had died were brought back to life and came out of their
graves. And after Jesus resurrection
they were plainly seen by many people walking in Jerusalem,
which means they didn't. I mean think about it, Why does
God bring them out of the grave, reunite their spirit and soul
with their glorified body, and let them walk the streets of
Jerusalem before they leave? You understand God.
His proof of his existence is amazing.
You understand this. Now, even though there's this
proof, it doesn't mean people will believe.
Because what happened, we know. We know.
We have this whole context. A guy by the name of Lazarus
dies. I'm not talking about the one
that was raised from the dead. I'm talking about the one that
died and stayed dead, and that particular one was a beggar at a
rich man's table, and when he dies he goes to Abraham's bosom,
or we call it paradise, and all of a sudden that same rich
ruler, he dies, but he don't go to paradise.
He goes to the other side of the grave where there's torment and
he's being in torment and he looks up to Abraham.
This is not a parable, because when God said parables, he never
used proper names, never. And Abraham was a real man.
So this is not a parable. This is an account of what God
knows is happening in the spirit realm that we don't see.
So he says That rich ruler, excuse me, says to Abraham, he
says, Abraham, he says, look, I'm in torment.
Send Lazarus over so he can like, dip his finger in some
water, put it on my tongue, 'cause I'm in great torment.
I mean, he hasn't changed, even though he's in torment.
And you got to understand, when people are cast into the Lake of
fire, they won't change. They're selfish when they
they're cast in and they stay selfish when they're in.
And that's why they'll be deserving of eternal damnation,
because they'll never change. They will be haters of God,
They'll always hate him, they'll never not hate him.
And they will have proven it out in their lifetime with all the
evidences that he should be submitted to.
And so Abraham says it's not going to happen.
See, there's a a gulf fix. One translation says there's
this great abyss between us. We can't go over to you and you
can't go over to us. Why?
Because that sealed whether you were believing God that the
Messiah would come and you were trusting in the blood to come,
or whether you just didn't love, God discounted him because of
all the evidence and you were never going to serve him.
So you're over there, We're over here.
It's not going to happen. So he says to him, he said,
look, I got five brothers that are worse than I am, Can you
send Lazarus back and go tell them?
And this is what he says? He says, Son, if they don't
believe the prophets and the law, meaning they don't believe
the word, the word is enough, then they will not believe.
Even if a man's raised from the dead.
Yet God gives the evidence of him being raised from the dead
and he gives evidence through Saints who had been dead in that
from Jerusalem, that they walked and talked to people.
Can you imagine what they must have said?
Jesus is the Messiah. Do you understand?
Jesus is it? He's the one.
He's the one you've been looking for.
He's the one. He's the one he's been looking
for. He's the one.
He's it. He's it.
Because here's the thing. How in the world could Peter,
James and John know that was Elijah and Moses?
Nowhere has it indicated that he said their name.
We know what? Because the writings tell us.
But I I suspect that the Holy Ghost revealed to them, you're
standing before Moses and Elijah and they passed away year deck
centuries ago, yet they had the revelation of who they were as
people. So the same thing, these people
are walking and people are having a revelation of who these
individuals were. How can they be walking the
streets? How could they be alive again?
They know an event took place because an earthquake's taking
place. But they're not the only ones
who saw it, because let's look at the 25th verse of Matthew 27.
It says this very powerful, I mean the 54th verse, the 54th
verse of 27. Now when the Roman military
officers and his soldiers witnessed what was happening and
felt the powerful earthquake, now they weren't just witnessing
him on the cross dying, they were witnessing what was going
on in Jerusalem. They're seeing the dead walk,
and look what it says. They were extremely not me.
Seriously, think about this for a moment.
If you were right over here off of US1, you're leaving
Chick-fil-A. You take a right and you decide
you're going to pop over to the cemetery because it's quiet and
you're going to eat your Chick-fil-A sandwich and all of
a sudden a bunch of clouds show up.
Right now a sound happens to you.
It may be Thunder, but we know it's a trumpet.
And then all of a sudden people start coming out of grave.
Now do you understand the world? The devil's already preparing
them for his interpretation. This is why The Walking Dead and
all those are huge deal people. I mean, why do we have so much
messaging about this kind of stuff?
Because the devil's always wanting to try to cloud truth.
Now the difference is, is when they come out, they're not going
to go. It's not going to look like
that. It's going to be like little
light bulbs pop up out of there like, boom, you know, these
shiny beings, right? And all of a sudden now what do
you, I mean, you understand, to a person not born of God, what
do you think's happening right now?
Terrified. Extremely terrified.
So these soldiers are extreme. And look what they said.
There is. Oh, y'all got to hear me.
There is what? No doubt this man was the Son of
God. But you know what?
That does not mean? All of those soldiers submitted
to Jesus doesn't mean that, but it does mean this.
There was no doubt they knew. This is why, I conclude, of the
great revival that's coming. In the end, there's going to be
more on the other side of the trumpet.
And why do I believe this? Well, 'cause the scripture talks
about martyrs under the throne, and there's a lot of them.
I said there's a lot of them because they were in the
tribulation and they didn't die because of the the Antichrist
per SE. I'm talking about his wars
because God's pouring out wrath and messing.
I mean the earthquake and all the stuff that's that's coming
from God, they're not dying from that.
They're dying because they keep an oath to Jesus, and the
Antichrist kills them for that purpose, not because of all the
plagues and different things. That's coming from the Lord, and
the Lord's doing that to try to get the rest of humanity to
repent. In essence, it's a huge layer of
mercy where he's saying to them, do you really want to exist
without me? Because if this seems like a lot
of torment and you're begging to die, this has nothing with a
lake of fire. And even now, you could change.
But you know what? The Bible says they will not
repent. Wow.
Will not. Now let me give you a couple
types and shadows again, just so you understand about this cloud.
All right? And we'll kind of run through
these pretty quick. Exodus 241812 to 18.
A lot of people who are into eschatology, OK And in times
they use these two Old Testament as types of the catching away
and they go in line with what we've already seen from Jesus
himself when he was first died and rose.
We know he goes up in a cloud. We also know that the Angel says
he's coming back the same way we already know in Revelations when
he comes back. Because again, the reason why I
read Revelation. One because don't confuse
yourself with that's probably the second coming.
Because Jesus, obviously in his coming for the church, will
still come in a cloud because we're caught up together in the
cloud in the air with him. He's not in heaven.
We don't poof to heaven, we poof to where he is now.
He can take us on to heaven from there, no problem.
But at the end of the day we don't poof straight to heaven in
the twinkling of an eye. We change in the twinkle up and
eye. And let me tell you, you gonna
have time to park the car, land the plane.
You gonna have time. Cause at this point you
understand the devil ain't got Jack on you.
It ain't like he can keep you in the planet.
And why God have to rush that deal?
You're gonna have time to say, let me tell you, you're gonna
become so obvious that you're not them and you're going to be
able to testify because they then because of a deluding
spirit and deception, because in essence, the church is out in
that which which strains the Antichrist no longer will
restrain him. Then deception will run large,
and even though they have this burn ingrained in their mind,
the devil will be able to convince them that something
else took you. This convincing proof will be so
radical that leaves no doubt. Yet the enemy will deceive and
be able to deceive. And you say, how can this be?
How in the world could he have done it to Adam?
Because here's the deal. Free will always has the power
to rebel. All right, here we go in Exodus
2412 through 18. Now the Lord said to Moses, come
up to me on the mountain and remain there, and I'll give you
the stone tablets and the law and the commandments, which I've
written for instruction. Verse 13 So, OK, Moses arose
with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of
God. But the elders, he said, wait
here for us until we return, and behold, Aaron and her are with
you. Whoever has a legal matter, let
him approach them. Verse 15 Then Moses went up into
the mountain, and the what cloud cover the mountain.
And the glory of the Lord rested on mount Sion, and the cloud
covered it for six days. And on the 7th day he called to
Moses from the midst of the cloud and to the and to the eyes
of the sons of Israel, the appearance of the glory of the
Lord was like a consuming fire on the on the mountain top.
And Moses entered. So do you think they could see
him go up? Could they physically watch him
go up? You bet He entered the midst of
the cloud as he went up the mount and Moses was on the
mountain. 40 days and 40 nights he was in the clouds.
Moses went up into the clouds. All right, let's go over to 2nd
Kings Chapter 2, Second Kings Chapter 2, verse one.
It came about when the Lord was about to take up Elijah by the
whirlwind. Now a whirlwind is a funnel
formation of a cloud. We typically know him as
tornadoes, and it says that Elijah went to Elijah with
Elijah to Gilgal. Now they went to a few other
places. Right now we're to jump down to
verse 9. And when he had crossed over
Elijah because he kept saying just stay here and he goes no
man, wherever you are, I'm going.
So he gets to this place. Elijah knows it's fixing to
happen. So he says what?
Ask what I shall do for you before I'm taken up for I'm
taken from you again called up. Elijah says please let a double
portion of your spirit be upon me.
And he said, You have you have asked a asked a hard thing.
Nevertheless, if that's the condition, if what you see me
when you, if you see me, when I'm taken from you, it shall be
so for you. But if not, it shall not be so.
As they were going along and talking, behold the appearance
of a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, which separated two of
them. And Elijah went up by the
whirlwind of heaven. Elijah what He saw it and cried
out my father, my father, the Chariots of Israel and its
horsemen. And he saw Elijah no more.
And when he took off his own clothes and he tore them into
pieces, did he see Elijah go? So why is it that we have
allowed religious tradition to convince us that it's a
disappearing act? Hallelujah.
We'll close with Luke chapter 21, Luke 21.
And I'll come back to this next week, because there's some
things if you want to get a sneak peek of next week, just
read Beyond. I'll leave it there said.
There will be signs in the sun and the moons and the stars, and
on the earth, dismay among nations in perplexity, at the
roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear
and the expectation of things which are coming upon the world,
for the powers of heavens, of the heavens, will be shaken.
Then they will see the Son of Man.
What they will see, they will see the Son of Man coming in a
cloud with power and great glory.
But when these things begin to take place, straighten up, lift
up your head, because your redemption draweth nigh.
Could it be that that verse means that at the first coming
of Jesus in the cloud that catches up the Church as we see
it, we know it's about to come to an end.
The total consummation of what God has ordained is about to
begin. For most, they believe you're
redemption, You're gone, You're in heaven forever.
But that's not the case I see now.
My redemption is close, meaning the full measure of what God's
intended for His earth, for His created heavens, for His created
beings, for us as His children is coming near.
We are closer than ever before, and we're moving into a
seven-year stretch before we come back with Him again and
reign on this earth for a millennial. 1000 years of which
we will then encounter the Devil once more, only to wipe him off
the planet, cast him into the lake of fire forever.
And then judge everyone that wanted to follow him and conceal
that bad boy up. And let God create a new heaven
and a new earth. And we will reign with him in
the new Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven to the earth.
Man, our redemption will draw nigh.
Let's pray, Father, We love you and we honor you.
Everyone's going to see you. Everyone's going to see you.
When you come, everybody's going to see you.
And the reason why we titled this today, Cloudy with a chance
of rain, meaning to rain, is that will you go in the cloud?
Because if you remain, there's a chance you won't rain.
Because the wrath on the earth during that period is so
terrible. And the deception is so bad that
if the Lord had not shortened it, those who did know him, even
they could denounce him as Lord. They don't.
But there's that much pressure, that much even though there's
irrefutable evidence that he has the power and he has the glory.
Wow, I want to go in the cloud. I want to reign immediately.
I want to reign while I'm here now, but I want to get caught up
in the cloud and reign with him. Because we're going to talk
about next week what happens when we're in the cloud.
Father, we thank you so much that Jesus is irrefutable.
Like the Roman centurion said, there's no doubt he's the son of
God. Thank you so much for listening
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