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Voddie Baucham - Do You Equate America With God's Chosen People · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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  Speaker 1: God's people will prevail. You know the problem with most
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  Speaker 1: of us? We equate God's people with America. Maybe you
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  Speaker 1: find that in second hesitations somewhere, but I don't find
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  Speaker 1: that in my Bible. God's people are not a geopolitical people.
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  Speaker 1: God's people are a spiritual people who belong to him
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  Speaker 1: because of their relationship with Jesus Christ. God's people are
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  Speaker 1: found all over this world. We'll see that on next week.
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  Speaker 1: Every nation and kindred and tribe and tongue. America is
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  Speaker 1: not God's chosen nation. America is not God's chosen people.
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  Speaker 1: We get afraid when America begins to teeter or totter
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  Speaker 1: as though the kingdom of God is somehow in jeopardy.
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  Speaker 1: Listen to me. The king who sits on the throne
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  Speaker 1: is sovereign over all and he is the one who
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  Speaker 1: lives forever and ever. His kingdom is not in jeopardy
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  Speaker 1: and the end is not in doubt. This is not
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  Speaker 1: your final destination. This is not the end of it all.
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  Speaker 1: In the end of it all, there is a king
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  Speaker 1: who is seated on the throne, and he will always
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  Speaker 1: be seated on that throne. And if you belong to
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  Speaker 1: that king and to that kingdom, why are you afraid
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  Speaker 1: of Caesar? Why are you afraid of the trade guilds?
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  Speaker 1: Why are you afraid of the Nicolaitans? Why are you
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  Speaker 1: afraid of Jezebel? All of that will turn to dust.
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  Speaker 1: But the one who is on the throne lives forever. Forever.
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  Speaker 1: Changes the perspective and encourages the Asia Minor Christians and
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  Speaker 1: they need this encouragement. Why do they need this encouragement?
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  Speaker 1: Why do you need to know that God is sovereign
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  Speaker 1: and that God is eternal? Because tomorrow you won't have
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  Speaker 1: anybody preaching to you. Amen. Tomorrow you'll have people breathing
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  Speaker 1: down your neck. Amen. Tomorrow you have deadlines. Tomorrow you
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  Speaker 1: have pressures. Tomorrow you have difficulties. Tomorrow you have threats.
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  Speaker 1: Tomorrow you have to decide to speak or not to
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  Speaker 1: speak in light of what it may mean for your
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  Speaker 1: job and your future. Tomorrow you have to decide to
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  Speaker 1: compromise or not to compromise. And when you stand in
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  Speaker 1: front of opposition like that, when the Asia Minor Christians
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  Speaker 1: face the trade guilds, when the Asia Minor Christians face
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  Speaker 1: the Nicolaitans, or when the Asia Minor Christians face the
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  Speaker 1: Caesar cult, what is it? What is it that will
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  Speaker 1: give you the courage to endure to the end? The
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  Speaker 1: God who sits on the throne and lives forevermore. who
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  Speaker 1: says to you whatever you face in the here and
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  Speaker 1: now know that it's not the end of the story
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  Speaker 1: God's people will prevail Daniel chapter 4 verse 34 Nebuchadnezzar
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  Speaker 1: when God gives him back his mind all the end
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  Speaker 1: of days I'm sorry at the end of days I
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  Speaker 1: Nebuchadnezzar lifted my eyes to heaven And my reason returned
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  Speaker 1: to me. And I blessed the most high. And praised
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  Speaker 1: and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is
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  Speaker 1: an everlasting dominion. And his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
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  Speaker 1: That's whom we serve. It's eternal. It's not four year cycles.
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  Speaker 1: It's eternal. Thirdly we see him as the creator. Notice
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  Speaker 1: from the 24 elders. Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
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  Speaker 1: to receive glory and honor and power. Why? For you
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  Speaker 1: created all things. He's worthy to receive all glory and
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  Speaker 1: all honor and all power. Why? Because he created all things.
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  Speaker 1: He created all things. He created all things. He's the creator.
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  Speaker 1: He's the sovereign, eternal Lord of the universe, and he's
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  Speaker 1: the creator of all things. which is why he has
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  Speaker 1: the right to exercise his sovereignty, which means that everything
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  Speaker 1: belongs to God, not the Caesar cult, not Rome, not
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  Speaker 1: the trade guilds, which means that everything ultimately and only
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  Speaker 1: finds its purpose in the reason for which it was
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  Speaker 1: created by the creator. That's what we learn when we
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  Speaker 1: change perspectives. That God is the creator of all things.
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  Speaker 1: And that everything that we have, everything that we are,
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  Speaker 1: and everything that there is exists to bring glory and
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  Speaker 1: honor to its creator. That's why. Not to you. By
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  Speaker 1: the way, this is not always immediately good news. Amen? Amen?
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  Speaker 1: God is the creator of all things. Amen. That's awesome.
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  Speaker 1: I need to be reminded of that. When I gather
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  Speaker 1: in worship, I need to be reminded that God is
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  Speaker 1: the creator because that means that ultimately everything is going
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  Speaker 1: to be clear sailing for me. Nope. Well, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: ultimately that means that, you know, if I love God
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  Speaker 1: and I live for my created purpose, then that'll please
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  Speaker 1: God and things will go well with me. nope not
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  Speaker 1: at all the spotless sinless lamb of God who was
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  Speaker 1: perfect in his obedience to his father brought glory to
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  Speaker 1: his father by being crushed and killed for sins he
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  Speaker 1: did not commit Who do you think you are? But God,
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  Speaker 1: how can you let these terrible things happen? I'm recognizing
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  Speaker 1: the fact that I'm created to bring you glory and honor, yes.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes it's your suffering at the hands of the
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  Speaker 1: Caesar cult or you're suffering at the hands of the
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  Speaker 1: trade guilds, or you're suffering at the hands of the Nicolaitans,
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  Speaker 1: because you will not bow, that brings glory to God. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: you're created for God's glory. But it's like wood. Wood.
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  Speaker 1: Some wood is glorious when it is erected into a
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  Speaker 1: beautiful building. Some wood is glorious when it makes a
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  Speaker 1: fire to warm you during the winter. Now we see
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  Speaker 1: beyond these theological realities about the one who is on
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  Speaker 1: the throne. Here in this passage in particular, we see
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  Speaker 1: the interplay between the living creatures and the 24 elders.
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  Speaker 1: The living creatures, what do we see? We talked about
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  Speaker 1: this on last week, but let me just sort of
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  Speaker 1: set the stage so we can turn the corner and
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  Speaker 1: get to the reaction of the 24 elders. In the
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  Speaker 1: living creatures, we see that there are four living creatures.
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  Speaker 1: And we see these four living creatures around the throne.
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  Speaker 1: And so these four sides or four corners of the throne.
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  Speaker 1: And we know that this number four is extremely important
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  Speaker 1: in Revelation as this number four points to the earth
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  Speaker 1: in its totality. It points to the four winds, to
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  Speaker 1: the four corners of the earth, and so on and
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  Speaker 1: so forth. And so now we have four living creatures,
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  Speaker 1: four different directions, worshiping God and proclaiming his holiness from
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  Speaker 1: the throne room. So we have a representation of the
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  Speaker 1: living creatures, a representation of the earth, God's glory being
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  Speaker 1: proclaimed throughout the earth by all living creatures. And so
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  Speaker 1: we see here, for example, Psalm 19. We look at
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the heavens declare the glory of God
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  Speaker 1: and that even the heavens pour forth speech. Not only
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  Speaker 1: the heavens, but every living creature screams to the glory
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  Speaker 1: of God. And we have the representative of that here
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  Speaker 1: before the throne with these four living creatures who are
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  Speaker 1: crying out. But when these four living creatures cry out,
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  Speaker 1: the 24 elders respond. Whenever the living creatures give glory
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  Speaker 1: and honor and thanks to him who's seated on the throne,
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  Speaker 1: who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down
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  Speaker 1: before him who is seated on the throne and worship
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  Speaker 1: him who lives forever and ever. And then they cast
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  Speaker 1: their crowns down before the throne saying, worthy are you,
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  Speaker 1: our Lord, Lord and God, to receive glory and honor
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  Speaker 1: and power for you created all things and by your
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  Speaker 1: will they existed and were created. So the 24 elders,
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  Speaker 1: in response to what's happening with these four living creatures,
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  Speaker 1: represent the unity of the people of God throughout time.
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  Speaker 1: Is it literally the 12 tribes and literally the 12 apostles?
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that. But there
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  Speaker 1: are these 24 beings referred to as elders around the
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  Speaker 1: throne who represent that number 12 two times. That number
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  Speaker 1: 12 is significant because it represents the people of God.
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  Speaker 1: That number 12, two times, the people of God in
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  Speaker 1: the Old Testament, the people of God in the New Testament.
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  Speaker 1: What does this communicate to us? Well, again, first and foremost,
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  Speaker 1: it communicates to us the unity of the people of
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  Speaker 1: God throughout time. The unity of the people of God
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  Speaker 1: throughout time. This is important in that it teaches us
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  Speaker 1: that worship is not a new thing. Amen? Amen? In
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews chapter 11, we find this very clearly as we're
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. And in Hebrews
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  Speaker 1: chapter 11, we hear about these saints of old again
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  Speaker 1: and again and again. and the encouragement that they bring
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  Speaker 1: us because of what they teach us about faith. Isn't
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  Speaker 1: that ironic? We think about the saints of old, and
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  Speaker 1: we think that we're the ones who are all about faith.
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  Speaker 1: They're the ones who are all about law. They're the
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  Speaker 1: ones who are all about works. And they had law,
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  Speaker 1: and they had sacrifices, and they had works, and we
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  Speaker 1: have faith. And then Hebrews chapter 11 explodes that. By faith,
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  Speaker 1: by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. You see,
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  Speaker 1: these 24 elders scream to us the presence of the
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  Speaker 1: people of God and the worship of the people of
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  Speaker 1: God by faith in the Old Testament and in the
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  Speaker 1: New Testament under the Old Covenant and the New Covenant
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  Speaker 1: by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith. We also
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  Speaker 1: see that in Romans chapter 11 with Gentiles who are
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  Speaker 1: grafted in this true vine. But not only do we
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  Speaker 1: see the unity of the people of God throughout time,
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  Speaker 1: but we also see the synergy of worship in heaven
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  Speaker 1: and on earth. The synergy of worship in heaven and
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  Speaker 1: on earth. What we do when we gather here is
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  Speaker 1: a picture, if you will. It's an example of what's
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  Speaker 1: seen here in Revelation chapter 4. In Revelation chapter 4,
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  Speaker 1: with these all of creation, and we see these stones
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  Speaker 1: and these natural phenomenon, and we see these living creatures
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  Speaker 1: and the 24 elders, and we see God being worshiped
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  Speaker 1: and giving glory there on his throne. What do we
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  Speaker 1: see on earth? We see a picture of this as
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  Speaker 1: one day in seven, the people of God gather together
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  Speaker 1: to do the exact same thing. The 24 elders remind
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  Speaker 1: us of that. It's like the temple and the tabernacle.
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  Speaker 1: They're earthly pictures and images of a heavenly theological reality.
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  Speaker 1: In the Lord's prayer, what do we pray? Our Father
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  Speaker 1: in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your
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  Speaker 1: will be done. Where? On earth as it is where?
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  Speaker 1: In heaven. What are we praying? We're praying for this
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  Speaker 1: kingdom reflection. of obedience to God here on earth that
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  Speaker 1: looks like obedience to God in heaven. There is a
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  Speaker 1: synergy between the worship of God in heaven and the
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  Speaker 1: worship of God on earth. And there is a synergy
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  Speaker 1: between this change of playing in chapter 4 for the
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  Speaker 1: Asia Minor Christians and this change of playing for you
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  Speaker 1: and for me every time we gather before Almighty God.