The Only Approved Cleansing Agent That Guarantees Salvation

We are going to finish up the remainder of Revelation Chapter 7 today and we are going to be talking a lot about blood today because God places a lot of value on the blood of Jesus Christ. In order for us to become justified before God, God needed to become flesh so that we might find forgiveness from our sins, because the wages of sin is death. We needed someone to take that punishment for our sins as the ultimate sacrifice to redeem us before God and that only happened when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, as that perfect sin payment for all of us. We need a perfect blood to atone for our sins and nothing we have other than our faith in Jesus Christ will ever save us or be good enough.

We are going to look at the attire we wear in heaven and it's all based upon the blood of Jesus Christ. When God looks upon us, He sees the blood of His Son, and only through that sacrifice can we be granted righteousness because we have accepted that atonement only found in the blood of Jesus Christ. His blood is the only approved cleansing agent for sin. When God looks at us from the spiritual realm, He is looking for blood. Remember that the children of Israel were required to put blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their homes in order for the angel of death to pass by. It was told to only look for the blood. For us today, God looks for the blood. Are we covered by the blood of the Lamb? The simplicity of Christianity is mind boggling. It's not about what we do for God, but about what God has done for us. Its not about us trying to get His attention but Him coming down to wake us up from death.

All Jesus is looking for is faith in Him, much like the thief on the cross who uttered, "Remember me Lord when You come into Your Kingdom." Our faith will be an active living faith. Remember the thief on the cross didn't have a chance to be baptized, didn't have a chance to tithe, couldn't be an usher, involved in children's ministry, couldn't be a greeter or go on a missions trip, he just hung there and said, :Remember me Jesus."

By saying that he is saying, "I believe You are God, that You are coming back to establish Your kingdom and when You do that, will you remember that I turned to You?" Makes you wonder if that same person come forward today, would we accept him? We might say, the words, "Remember me aren't good enough." We just need faithfulness. A faithful Christian has his course set. Do you have a plan in your life?

What is your plan today or even tomorrow? You know we all have one. You might be heading out to your job today or tomorrow. It might be to visit a family member or friend, to go on a dinner date with someone you love. But do you have a spiritual course set? Don't wait around to find out what your course is Christian! We are so cautious about what direction we should take for God, waiting on the Lord until we die of old age. In every generation, God has called His people to be faithful. A Christian not only needs to set a course, but we need to stay on it as well.

Matthew 24:45-46 ~ "Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns."

We need to be a church that is busy doing. Why? Because our Master is coming back. If He were to look at your life under the column of faithfulness to account for the time He has given you, what would He find? What is there was only three things on that list, but under your name there was another column and He clicked on it and it listed all the things He wanted to do through you, but you didn't want to do them. All the things He wanted you to do but you weren't open to do them for God.? It would break our hearts. Lord give us the ability to do all the things You have engineered for our lives!

Matthew 25:21 ~ "His master replied, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness."

1 Corinthians 4:2 ~ "Now it is required that those who have been given a rust must prove faithful." 

It would be like our boss asking us to do something in our jobs, like make 10 copies of that document and make the print black. What if we said, "You want that huh? Well do it yourself." Would we even have a job after that? Jesus has laid out for us what He wants us to do, to abstain from sexual immorality, and follow Me. Would we tell Him, "NO! Why don't you do that?!" Jesus has called us to evangelize, and you might say, that is not your calling, you aren't cut out for that. Well Jesus didn't say for you to do anything persay, why don't you wear a t-shirt instead with Passion on it. Remember this, heaven will not be full of people who said No. It will be full of people who said, "Yes Lord!"

May the Lord put handles on our backs, so He can place us anywhere He wants. We need to pray every day that we would be willing to do whatever God puts in our life today to bring Him glory and honor. God wants more "Yes Men and Women!"

Colossians 1:2 ~"To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father."

Matthew 7:20-24 ~ "Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. :Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you, Away from me, you evildoers!' "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and put them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock."

Matthew 24:21 ~ "For then there will be great distress , unequaled from the beginning of the world until now - and never to be equaled again."

A faithful believer is one who is committed. The ones were are reading about in Revelation are the ones who have washed their robes. They are faithful and secure in Jesus Christ. They followed Jesus in the Tribulation so faithfully even unto the point of death. They were killed in their faithfulness to Christ. They would not bow before the Antichrist or accept his mark or accept him as leader, and deny Jesus. They will pay for their faithfulness with their lives and in doing so, Scriptures says that they have washed their robes. Make no mistake, their death does not wash their robes! Their faithfulness to Christ does not wash their robes. They are following Christ, and it is Him that washed their robes white. He does this by His own blood. In the old times when blood was contaminated it need to be cleansed. We cannot cleanse our own blood from sin. You can't get a blood transfusion and all of a sudden begin to think holy thoughts. Only God can do that through the blood of Christ. It is the blood of Jesus that makes us ready for heaven.

Revelation 7:15 ~ "Therefore, "they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them."

Looking back for a moment to Revelation 7:9 ~ "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands."

Palm branches have always been a symbol of peace and security to the nation of Israel.

Leviticus 23;34, 40-43 ~ "Say to the Israelites: 'On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD's Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it last for seven days. On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days. Celebrate this as a festival to the LORD for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. Live in booths for seven days. All native born Israelites are to live in booths so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.'"

From the days of Nehemiah and the return of the captives, as they celebrated their freedom in returning to their homeland Israel - palm branches and palm Sundays!

John 12:12-13 ~ "The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!"

They are symbols of liberation and independence!

Heaven in the midst of salvation is an absolute reality. Earthly perils will no longer trouble us.

Revelation 7:16-17 ~ "Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. "

Remember that in Revelation 13, you can't buy or sell, eat anything or drink anything without the mark of the beast. These believers will be starving to death. They'll be dying of thirst, but they won't thirst anymore. The horrific environmental effects that are coming to the earth, will not affect them anymore. They are now with the Lord in heaven. The ozone layer will be completely gone and the effects of the sun will be to scorch people, they won't be impacted by the scorching heat any longer. Heavenly blessings will be theirs.

The four things listed here is the pathology of how they died. Starvation. Deprivation. Neglect.  Exposure. Remember that Chapter 7 breaks chronology so we are probably looking ahead to the sufferings imposed by the government of the Antichrist.

There will come a time, when we are long gone, that someone will come along and pick up a Bible, and read verses 16 and 17, and that will give them the endurance and the hope to live a few more days longer or a few more  hours longer before they go into the everlasting arms of Jesus. These verses will be read, perhaps in your Bible that is left behind, by someone who will say, "It won't be long for me now when I will according to these scriptures, die of hunger or thirst, or by this scorching sun that is permeating through the atmosphere that is causing us absolute exposure and exhaustion. I will soon be dead in this world and alive with God almighty." These verse will bring them absolute hope.

You don't have to wait that long. You can make a decision today to accept God's grace or according to 2 Thessalonians 2, if you don't and you keep putting Him off, and God calls His people home, before these events can take place, the Bible says you will never be able to believe again. You will never have that opportunity. God, Himself, says that because they did not believe the love of the truth I sent them, I will send them strong delusions so that they will believe the lie. The opportunity you once had will be gone.

It will be exactly as it was in the days of Noah, when the door on that ship shut, and you know who shut that door? God did! God closed the door.

You might be saying, "Well I'm going to wait and see how this all works out." God is going to close the door. Once the door is shut, it won't be opened. You're flirting around in the world and playing with Jesus, thinking you'll have plenty of time to make a decision, even if you miss the rapture. According to 2 Thessalonians 2, you won't be able to. God will do something to your heart and mind, like Pharaoh, and you will NOT be able to believe. You'll be lost. All because you refused the love of the truth. Don't be in that group of people. Respond to Him now!

You might be feeling some pressure, but I'd rather you feel the pressure than be lost forever! Why should we even care? I'm the one going to heaven for sure! I already got my ticket! And yet people, myself included, are pleading with you to get your ticket! For the amount of pain and blood that Jesus lost, I want Him to get every soul possible for what He suffered for! If you have lost vision of that, go see the Passion of the Christ. That will set your sights clear! Just how much you are worth to Him! So what are you waiting for? It's a nice day isn't it? You wouldn't want to walk away from him and slip and die would you? Step outside of your house on your way to their job or errand and get in a car accident and die, would you?

To those of us that are Christians, believers in Jesus Christ, it's a beautiful day! No matter what happens today, we are going to heaven! I hope you come with me!