From His Heart

Speaker 1

Will the real Jesus stand up? Wait, he already has. Here's Pastor Jeff Shreve.

Speaker 2

The Jesus of the liberal is not the Jesus of the Bible. And the Jesus of the cultist is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the apostate, those who have fallen away from the faith, is not the Jesus of the Bible.

And there are lots of folks that have a one-sided Jesus. Jesus is all love, but Jesus is not much of anything else.

But if we're going to understand the real Jesus, we have to see that he is not only the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist said, but he's also the lion of the tribe of Judah.

Speaker 3

There is true, there is blessing, there is hope that you always dream love. He can heal every scar.

Speaker 1

Jesus is often hailed as a meek and mild man who healed and offered friendship and forgiveness to the least of these. This is an accurate picture of Jesus when he came the first time. But when he returns, will we see a side of him that is strikingly terrifying?

This is from his heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who today will provide the accurate and perhaps different understanding of the real Jesus that you or others you know may have embraced. It's a crucial message from Pastor Jeff that reveals how the sacrificial lamb of God will soon return as the fierce and fiery lion of Judah, not the meek and gentle lamb.

The message is entitled "From the Lamb to the Lion," and it's the last lesson from the 7-message series we've been in this month called "Encountering the Real Jesus." Now listen, each of these lessons shows us how many people have misunderstood Jesus, and the consequences are devastating for generations.

So open your Bible to Revelation, chapter 19, as Pastor Jeff begins the lesson from the Lamb to the Lion.

Speaker 2

In our series Encountering the Real Jesus, we've tried to focus in on who does the Bible say Jesus really is? What are the intricacies of his personhood? You know, because we have thoughts today of what Jesus, what we want him to be and what you want Jesus to be. And what Jesus is. He's not who you want him to be per se. He is who he is. And the Jesus of the liberal is not the Jesus of the Bible. And the Jesus of the cultist is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of the apostate, those who have fallen away from the faith is not the Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of grace only is not the Jesus of the Bible because the Jesus of the Bible is full of grace and truth.

There is much, much confusion in our world about who Jesus really is. And there are lots of folks that have a one-sided Jesus. Jesus is all love, but Jesus is not much of anything else. It's kind of like Jesus light. Jesus who is light on judgment. Jesus who is light on truth. Jesus who winks at sin. Jesus who tastes great, Jesus who's less filling. But that Jesus doesn't exist. Jesus is who Jesus is and we read about him in the pages of the book. To get a full understanding of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to see him in all of his glory.

Now when he came the first time, his glory was hidden. There's only one time in scripture where he really opened up and let Peter, James and John see his glory. He peeled back his humanity, so to speak. And they saw him. His clothing began to shine like the sun and his face became like the sun, his clothing as white as lightning. And they heard a voice from heaven say, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. They were scared to death. They got a little glimpse of his glory. In Revelation chapter 19 we see the Lord ablaze in glory.

Now for the Jews, one of the big reasons that they misunderstood the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is because the Bible in the Old Testament gives hundreds of verses about the coming of the Messiah. But there are two comings prophesied in the Old Testament. There's his first coming where he comes humbly riding upon a donkey, the foal of a beast of burden. And then there's the second coming when he comes in power and great glory. There's the first coming where he comes to redeem. There's the second coming where he comes to rule and reign. There's the first coming when he comes to defeat sin. There's the second coming when he comes to defeat a Christ rejecting world.

The two comings. And they missed it and they thought everything. Messiah is just coming to rule and reign. And boy, when Messiah gets here, Rome better watch out because he's coming to kick tail and take names. And Israel won't be on the bottom anymore. We're going to be on the top. And that's what Messiah is supposed to do. And you know what? Messiah didn't do it. Because that's what he does at his second coming. But if we're going to understand the real Jesus, we have to see that he is not only the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist said, but he's also the lion of the tribe of Judah.

We must get a full picture of the Lord Jesus Christ to see him. In Revelation, chapter 19 speaks of the second coming of Jesus Christ to this earth. It's prophesied over 1500 times in the Old Testament. It's prophesied 300 times in the New Testament. Jesus spoke of his coming, his return 21 times out of his own mouth. You know, outside of the doctrine of faith, the doctrine of the second coming of Christ is the most discussed doctrine in the Bible. This is going to happen one day. John said, and I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. And he who sat upon it is called Faithful and true. And in righteousness he judges and wages war, and his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head are many diadems. And he has a name written upon him which no one knows except himself.

He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. And from his mouth comes a sharp sword so that with it he may smite the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I want to share with you three insights, three insights that will help you really understand who is this Jesus? Because as the song said, so many people, we didn't know who he was. We didn't know that you came to save us, Lord. We didn't know that you were the Holy Child. And we still don't know today who you really are. You know what eternal life is? Eternal life, Jesus said, and this is eternal life. That they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Do you really know him? Do you know who he is? Or have you believed in another Jesus whom we have not preached?

Three insights into the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Insight number one. He is faithful and true. Faithful and true. Verse 11. Again, I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse. And he who sat upon it is called faithful and true. Well, the Lord is called faithful and true. Faithful means faithful. True means true. It's not confusing there. That's what God is trying to communicate. The Savior is faithful and true.

Now, to understand the context of Revelation, chapter 19 and the second coming of Christ, you have to know what's going on. We have this thing that most people know about in our world today, people who don't even know the Lord, trust the Lord, believe the Bible. They know about this thing called the battle of Armageddon. Armageddon is the battle of battles. Here is what is going to happen, just in a nutshell. What are we waiting for as the Church of Jesus Christ? Just as we sang that song. Like a bride waiting for her groom will be a church waiting for you. We are waiting for the Lord to return.

Not in Revelation, chapter 19. We're waiting for him to come in the clouds, to take his own out of this world. It's called the rapture of the Church. It's talked about in John, chapter 14. It's talked about in First Corinthians, chapter 15. It's talked about in First Thessalonians, chapter 4, where the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. And those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

We're waiting for that that takes place, I believe, before the revealing of the Antichrist. And our world is headed toward this revealing of the Antichrist. We have disaster in our world today. I was reading just the other day about the hyperinflation in Venezuela and how a hamburger costs US$170 to get a hamburger in Venezuela because they have this hyperinflation. I think the world is going to hit such terrible, horrible times that they're going to be clamoring for one who can deliver. And the devil will have his man and people will follow after him.

The Bible refers to this man, calls him the beast. Revelation chapter 13 tells us about the beast. And the beast has a cheerleader called the false prophet. It's the Satanic trinity. You have the dragon, referred to in Revelation, chapter 12, who is the devil. And then you have the beast who is the Antichrist. The dragon is anti Father, the beast is Antichrist, the false prophet. The cheerleader for the beast is anti Holy Spirit. And this triumvirate then takes over and makes a covenant with Israel, a treaty with Israel. And Israel thinks we have found our Messiah.

Isn't that amazing? They miss the Lord Jesus when he comes, the true Messiah. And they put their faith and trust in the devil's Messiah. Jesus said, I come in my Father's name and you don't receive me. Another is going to come in his own name. And him you will receive and they do receive him. And the devil, the Antichrist makes a pact with Israel. I will protect you. And they sign this seven year treaty. But at the middle point of the treaty, the devil or the Antichrist breaks the treaty. And he says, hey, I'm shutting down all worship. From now on, everyone worships me. And if you don't worship me, I'm going to kill you.

He makes everybody get a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. 666, the mark of the beast. And the devil now in charge, the Antichrist is the devil in the flesh, just as Jesus is God in the flesh and the devil in the flesh, the Antichrist, he begins to destroy all those who stand in his way. And God is raining down judgment in the book of the Revelation and it's horrible. The devil through the Antichrist is dealing out all sorts of death and destruction.

The devil through the Antichrist amasses all the kings and all the armies in a place called the Valley of Megiddo, or known as Armageddon. And they're going to come to destroy Israel, God's chosen people once and for all to wipe them out. And as the armies gather to destroy them, it looks like it's going to be a wipeout. It looks like Israel is done for. It looks like the promises of God are not going to come true because God has made promises to Israel. And if Israel doesn't exist anymore, then how can those promises come true? And if God tells a promise and it doesn't come true, then God is a liar, then God is a welcher. And then through that instance, the devil will have defeated God.

But at the last moment, in the nick of time, here comes the Lord, faithful and true. See, he's faithful to his promises. He's faithful to his promises. He promised that he would come again. Over and over and over again he promised he would come. The Old Testament is replete with references to the reign of Messiah on the earth. And it's a glorious reign. We learn about it in the New Testament. It's a 1000 year reign of Christ on the earth. It's where the lion lays down with the lamb and the little kid plays at the den of the cobra. And they do not hurt. The Lord says, in all my holy mountain. It's when the curse is removed from the earth and the desert begins to bloom like a rose.

It will go back to pre-fall days when Adam and Eve were in the garden and there was no sin. That's what's going to take place. But before that can happen, the Lord has to come and do battle with the Antichrist and the armies of the world and all those who have rejected him. And he comes in the nick of time. As Charlie Boyer has told me, that's one of the great names of God, Jehovah. Nick of time. Not in the scripture, but it's taught in the scripture. That's who he is. He comes in the nick of time and he comes back. He is faithful to his promises.

Hey, you know, when life is tough, when it gets hard and you don't know what to do, you got to cling to the promises of God. Because he who has promised is faithful. He who has promised is faithful. And he will always come through, and he will always keep his word. About six or seven years ago, there was a movie that came out called Taken with Liam Neeson, where he plays a retired black ops operative and his daughter is abducted by some terrible, horrible people who are going to put her in the sex trade business.

He's told, you have four days to get her. She's in Paris. He's in the United States. He flies to get her. He kills. I don't know. You lose track after about 100 guys that he kills. But he is on a seek and destroy mission to get his daughter back. And when he kills the last guy on the ship, his daughter is there and she sees her dad and she says, you came for me. He said, I told you I would. You know, one of the things, one of the reasons why just in the human heart that we gravitate towards stories like that, because we love it. We when righteousness wins, we love it when the bad guys get their comeuppance.

We love it when a dad rescues his daughter. Well, we're talking in this story about a savior rescuing his people. He is faithful to his promises, and he is the true and only Messiah. Faithful and true. Now, such a contrast to the Antichrist. The Antichrist is faithless and false. He presents himself as Messiah. He is the false Messiah, the ultimate false Messiah. And Jesus is Israel's true Messiah. And so he has that name. He's called faithful and true.

Second, insight to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is he faithful and true, but he is loving and just. Loving and just. And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. And he who sat upon it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and wages war. Now, we know about the Lord, that he is loving. We see that. I mean, the Bible clearly says, First John, chapter four, God is Love. Beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God and is born of God. He who loves not, knows not God. For God is love.

Beloved, let us love one another. God is love. And we know that. And we see that in Jesus, how he treats people, how he's so loving and so patient and so gentle and so kind. And many people we love. I love you. Love. We love. We love the fact that God is a God of love. If God weren't a God of love, we'd all be sunk. God weren't a God of grace and compassion, we would all be sunk. And God is that in spades. But God is also just. And God is also holy. And God is also righteous.

Now, those things are not either or. They are both. And God is both of those things I love. In Exodus, chapter 34, where the Lord gives his resume, so to speak, to Moses, you know, Moses said, lord, let me, I pray thee, show me your glory. And the Lord says, well, I can't show you my glory. No man can see my face and live. I'll just let you see the back part of my glory, the afterglow of my glory. And when he hid Moses in the cleft of the rock, he covered him there with his hand.

He passed by. And when he passed by, he said these words. The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. Man, this is awesome. You're that kind of a God. And then he says, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. He can't leave the guilty unpunished. Why? Because he's holy, holy, holy. He is just and he is righteous.

The justice and holiness of God and the righteousness of God says that God must punish sin. Now, as we talk about from the Lamb to the lion, from the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, that we are introduced to Jesus in his first coming to the lion of the tribe of Judah, I want you to notice something. The Lamb comes to save sinners. And The Lamb came 2,000 years ago not to condemn the world. John 3:17. The Father did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

The Lamb came to save sinners, and the Lamb came veiled in flesh. And many people missed who he was. We didn't know who he was. They just saw him as sweet little Jesus boy. And then when he began to teach and he began to perform miracles, and then he began to call them out because of their sin, he said, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. And the reason it hates me is because I shine the light on their sin. And they don't like that. Men love the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.

And so here comes the Lamb of God. Now in that song, it says, we made you be born in a manger. That's not true. Nobody makes Jesus do anything. He's God. And Jesus said, no one takes my life. I lay it down freely. And when the lamb came, he allowed himself to be beaten. He allowed himself to be scourged. He allowed himself to be mocked. He allowed himself to be spit upon. He allowed them to rip out his beard. He allowed sinful men, evil men, to nail him to a tree. He allowed all of that. Why? Because he came to seek and to save that which was lost.

Because he was going to give his life a ransom for many. Because he was going to satisfy the righteousness of God. As the scripture says, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. The holiness of God, the righteousness of God says, sin must be punished. And the Lamb of God said, and I will pay for that punishment. I will allow sin to come upon me. The Lamb came to save sinners, but the lion comes to judge sinners.

Speaker 1

One day, everyone will declare Jesus Christ as Lord. Everyone. But the real question for us today is, will we be forgiven by the Lamb or judged by the Lion? That's the question answered in the message today called "From the Lamb to the Lion." It's the last message in this illuminating seven-message series, "Encountering the Real Jesus."

Did you know that Jesus of Nazareth is the most famous and controversial person of all time? Sadly, many people don't know who he really is and what he really came to do. Multitudes who say they follow him have created a Jesus Christ in their own image to satisfy their own desires. But Jesus is not who mankind would like him to be. Have you encountered the real Jesus?

In Pastor Jeff's seven-message series, "Encountering the Real Jesus," he shares biblical insights to shine the light on the true identity, character, mission, and message of the one called Jesus, and how knowing the real Jesus will change us completely. So many people pretend to know him, but they don't really.

You can get the entire seven-message series in the format of your choice when you click the listen link at fromhisheart.org or call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-24253). Request the series "Encountering the Real Jesus," and for a gift of any amount to From His Heart, this month we'd like to say thank you for that gift by sending you the seven-message series "Soldiers of the Cross" and its companion booklet, "The Lord's Army." Again, just call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org.

Well, time has gone for today's broadcast, but please make your plans to join us tomorrow for part two of this last message in the "Encountering the Real Jesus" series. Join us then when we will open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

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He can heal every scars of truth. Real love, real hope from his heart.

Speaker 1

Is the listener supported Broadcast Ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more@fromisheart.org.