The Church of the Last Days

real life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. If we're going to be an operational, effective, heaven-approved, new Testament church, we've got to love God more than anything else. Listen up, team. You got to love God more than this world. We're living in dark day's church and the only answer is for you and I according to scripture is to stand up and to resist evil. We are commended to do that. You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com slash podcast. Today, if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. I love the fact that Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 just absolutely without apology says in the beginning God created. I mean if there's ever a mic drop, it's one from heaven right there. The God of the Bible is the great divine creator. Dr. A. E. Wilder Smith, the great believer scientist who was now in heaven, a seven earned doctorates out of Einington, Switzerland. Can you imagine that? He said that God has given us two Bibles, that man is without escaping the truth of God. He's given us two Bibles. One is printed on paper and for those who don't have it that might live in the jungles of the Amazon, he said God has given them his creation. God, the creator, bears witness of the testimony of his very will, of his power, and of the fact that without apology he is God and this God of the Bible is a prophetic God. But we would say the God of eschatology, God knows the future. And then all the way to the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, there's a similar mic drop moment that's introduced in its Revelation one, one, the revelation of Jesus Christ without apology. The answer is Jesus Christ. The answer is not in politics. The answer is not in wealth. The answer is not in achievement. The answer is not in some globalization like we learned last night or some great reset. The answer is in Jesus Christ. The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is all about mankind knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus, his name means God saves or God's salvation. Christ, Messiah, the Messiah, the Savior, the Christ of the world, the Christ for us is none other than Jesus Christ. And in Revelation 1 verse 19, the Scripture says right down these things John really, to know and to never forget, but here's the outline for the book of Revelation, write the things down which you have seen. What have you seen John this far? And it's chapter 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the nature of who he is. Church that applies to you and I, you've seen this so to speak, right? You've seen Jesus in the Scriptures. He's this one whose face is brighter than the sun. He's the one who's going to come back in the great second coming and establishes kingdom. You read about him just now a moment ago and all of his grandeur, by the way, all of those descriptions. I love what I'm about to say next. It's not me saying it. I'm just lifting it from the Bible. He's the first in the last. That comes from the book of Isaiah. He's the beginning of the end. That also comes from the book of Isaiah. Jesus Christ is none other than the revelation of God in flesh and he has a church. He created the church and the church is a transcendent entity made up of people of faith who believe in him personally and that's who I trust. All of you are right now here today and those that are viewing. Write down the things that which you have seen and that covered verses 10 to 20 in that portion of Scripture. The second thing is write down the things which are. That's Revelation chapter two and three. The letters to the seven churches. If you haven't read those, you need to read them. But the things that are in John's time, watch this. This is fine. When was the book of Revelation written? Some were around 95-ish AD, right? So here's the deal. The things that have been seen is the revelation of Christ. Number two, the things that are started then and continue now to the moment. We are living in those things that are revealed through the seven letters to the seven churches and then the third part, the third break of the book of Revelation is found in chapter four, verse one, all the way to the end of chapter 22 and that is the things that shall be the future things. So, Jack, why do you say this to us? Number one is assurance. Christ has been revealed and there's no excuse for any of us to say today we don't know who he is. The first chapter of the book of Revelation, it's almost like God said, you know maybe people won't read it. So I'll put this part up front. Maybe they'll read this one part and they get it or at least they see it. Jesus is the one. Secondly, the things that are is what you and I living through right now and I want to submit to you today that we are not only living in chapters two and three, we are right at the end of chapters two and three. And I think we can prove that in our study today. Number one, write it down if you would. The church of the last days must be a church known for its influence of love. We've got to be known as a church that influences by love. You should write down love and let me explain and define what we're talking about. Not just the influence of love for love sake. Oh, we have to love one another. Wait a minute. Stop talking like that. What are you talking about when you say love? We live in a day and an age right now, people are not using the same dictionary anymore. We don't know what people mean when they say God. When somebody says, I believe in God, we have to stop his believers and say, time out, can you define who you're talking about? Because Al Gore believes in God, I just heard him say it. Did you know that? Oh, praise the Lord. Al Gore is a believer. Oh, excuse me, Al Gore's God is Gaia. Gaia, the goddess of the earth. That's his God. Gaia, ancient pagan God. George Soros believes in God. George Soros said, if there was a God, I'm him. George Soros. Wow. Surely McLean, she's still alive. Is she alive? Anybody know? Okay. Well, surely McLean believes that she can be a God, right? Which is always cracks me up. She's standing on the beach in Malibu 20, 30 years ago and she's going like this on her program. I'm God. I am God. She said, and she said, just repeat it. I'm God. And she wanted people to join in and say, I'm God. I'm God. And she's standing there. And I just, when I saw that, I just cracked me up because I'm thinking, how does that sound from heaven? She's saying, I'm God. And the robe, the Malibu, the wind is blowing, the robes. She's makeup is perfect. And I'm wondering if God's going, oh, what does that sound? Gaper, what is that? You know like there's nails on a chalkboard. And can you imagine God looking over a cloud? And he looks down on Malibu and there's surely McLean. And he hears, I'm God. I'm God. I'm God. I'm God. No, the Bible says God's voice sounds like waters, great waters roaring, not like a mouse standing on the beach. But everybody notice with all the cults and all the new religions and the paganism. And again, as we learn last night with the world economic form and Klaus Schwab, everybody gets to be God except Jesus. Isn't that convenient? We are to be a church known for love and the love is to be defined by Jesus Christ himself. God is love. Today, when they talk about love, the world doesn't know what they're talking about until they are talking about a biblical orthodox understanding of who Jesus Christ is. Church family, more than ever, people need to know that we are talking about the love of God. And we need to speak lovingly, but truthfully. And the hostile world in which we live in, sometimes that's lovingly, but firmly. When something's wrong, you need to say, listen, I love you. And because I love you, I'm telling you right now, that is a dangerous path that you're on. We need to be very strong about that. So the first thing I want you to realize is in Revelation chapter two, the Bible says, then do the angel of the church at Ephesus, right? These things who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands. That's the witness of the church. And nevertheless, I have this against you that you have left your first love. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works, the first works of love. Or else I will come upon you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. I'm going to remove your witness if you don't wake up. Verse seven, he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit, that is the holy spirit, is saying to the churches. And to him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. When Paul, the apostle wrote his epistle to the church at Ephesus, they were a strong church. You know it is the book of Ephesians. They were a strong and mighty church. Paul wrote that earlier and they were tremendous. You read that book regarding instruction on marriage, don't you? You read that book regarding raising up your children. It's that book you go to when you learn about Christian armors and fighting the spiritual warfare. It's a tremendous work. But what happened? Years later they drifted away. They were a church that got away from love. They got away first of all for their love for God. If we are going to be an operational, effective, heaven approved, new testament church, we've got to love God more than anything else. Listen up team, you got to love God more than this world. You got to love God more than money. You got to love God more than whatever it is in your life. You got to love God more. I personally believe the greatest fence that you can build around your walk. The greatest way that you can garrison your witness in your statement for Christ, your lampstand as it were. Think about right now there's thousands of lampstands in here right now burning for Christ. To protect that flame, we could wrap you in bubble wrap and we could build a wall around you and make a monk out of you that you're a Christian but you're just like this. You're in a vacuum. But I don't read that in the new testament. If you love God more and we all need to ask God, it isn't funny. God, I love you but every time, but when I say that, I feel like I don't love you enough so please give me more love for you. That's not like turn into your wife or husband and saying, can you love me more? They can't do that, but God can do that. If today you're saying, you know what, maybe Jack, I think I might have left my first love. In fact, I had to get drug here to this conference. People brought me here and I was kicking and screaming. Maybe you're watching right now and you're like, well, whatever. Listen, God wants to take that well, whatever and have you catch fire again for Jesus. If you love him more, you won't have to have bubble wrap and walls built around you. You will be a new testament church in the 21st century that is galvanized to go out into this world of absolute darkness and insanity and affect this culture for the glory of Christ. That's who we need to be. No more hiding, no more running, no more pulling the blanket over our heads and waiting for it to go back. It's not going to be a hurricane like Ian. It's not going to come and do its destruction and leave. We're living in dark day's church and the only answer is for you and I, according to scripture, is to stand up and to resist evil. We are commended to do that and we need to be engaging in that, but it needs to be loving always, of course. But I love the fact that it says here that Jesus holds the seven stars and his hand and that Jesus watched the midst of the seven landstams. It simply means this, that Jesus holds the pastors of those churches in his hand. I love that. And he walks to the midst of the seven landstams. The seven landstams represent the seven churches of Asia Minor, which each of them represent even in chronological order. Watch this everybody. Am I going too fast? Yes. Number one, it marks every believer at any given time of their season of life. Any one of us could be any one of the descriptions of the seven letters of the seven churches, so we need to be careful about that. The second thing is this, it actually spans the book of Revelation, chapters two and three, spans the history of the church age these last 2,000 years. I have no doubt whatsoever that we are living as we'll see as I end the message later that we're living in a laodicean period. But we are to be Philadelphiaians, right? Loving God. We want to be careful that we don't fall into the Ephesian model of having been so busy about ministry that we stopped loving God. Ministry becomes a job. Look, I've been doing this for over 32 years now, and I still can't say it. I can't say on Monday or Tuesday morning, hey, Lisa, I'll be right back. I got to go to work. I can't say it. I think that's an offense to God. Is it work? Of course, it's work, but it's not work. It's a church. It's a love affair between God's people and God himself. This is why we had to take such a stand against the government in the state because they don't understand. I don't expect them to understand. Well, let me see if the church is essential or non-essential. That's for you to figure out. God has already made it clear. It's the church of the living God. He bought it with his blood. It is a living breathing entity. It's not essential or non-essential. The church is wholly transcendent. It is absolutely awesome, but we must influence our culture with love, but just know. It's a biblical love. It's beautiful. It's strong. It's not weak. It's a love that tells the truth. It's a love that will invite people out of the darkness and into the light. We're a church of the last days. Oh, it's so rough out there. Are you kidding me? Those are opportunities. What's coming next? What's going to happen next? I don't know. He knows. I just know this. I'm supposed to be known to be sharing the love of Christ with people and that evidence should be overwhelming. The church of the last days must be a church known for its faithfulness to God, faithfulness to God. By the way, as we look at this, it's Revelation chapter 2, verse 8, enter the angel of the church at Smyrna. These things says the first and the last, this is important, who was dead and came back to life. Hey, listen, if you're involved in a cult, guess what? You need to know. Our God is so awesome that he can die and come back to life for us. Verse 9 says, I know your works, your tribulation. Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. Verse 11 says, he was in here to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches and he who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. In other words, if you're born again, listen up, everybody. If you're born again, remember you have to be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. You'll know that. If you don't know that, Jesus said to Nicodemus, a Jew, who was the chief teacher over Israel, the guy, Jesus said to him, unless you're born again, you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. So first of all, don't think that your Jewish are going to go to heaven automatically because your God wrote the Bible. That's not how you get to heaven by being Jewish. Thank God. And don't think because you're a Gentile, you get to go to heaven. You got to be born again. That call is ethnic free. It's cultural free. That invitation goes to anyone who will have the ear to hear. You must be born of the Spirit. We say born again. The Greek is born from above. You had an earthly birth. You need a heavenly birth. So all of us were born once into this world, but for those of us who have been born again, we only die once. Isn't that cool? If you're not born again, the second death, that holds power over you. You were born into this world. You not only die physically. We all die physically, unless the rapture happens. So we all die physically, but for the believer, that's all we do. That's all we do. Tonight, you're going to lay down. You're going to fall asleep. For the believer, there's going to come a day when your body, you're going to fall asleep. You're going to open your eyes in the next second. You're going to be in the presence of the Lord. Listen, how was that possible? Because listen, you were born twice, so you only die once. You were born into this world, and then you were born into the heavenly kingdom by the salvation of Jesus Christ. So when you die, you only die physically. But if you're not born again, listen, you're born once, and you have to die twice. You die physically, and then you die spiritually for eternity. 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