When Heaven Opens: Part 3

Heaven doesn’t “open” in Scripture for small talk. When God pulls back the curtain, He moves history forward and He confronts the human heart. I’m Brother James, and this broadcast follows our series on the times in the Bible when heaven is opened, landing on one of the most life changing scenes in Acts 10: Peter on the housetop, the great sheet lowered from heaven, and the command that shatters old categories of clean and unclean.

We walk through what God intends by Peter’s vision and what it means for the church, the gospel, and salvation by grace. The message to Peter is a message to us: God purifies by faith in Jesus Christ, not by ceremony, heritage, or human labels. The cross ends the old wall between Jew and Gentile, and the church becomes a people gathered from every nation with a heavenly origin and a heavenly destiny.

Then we turn to the next opened heaven scene in Revelation 19. John sees the white horse and the Rider called Faithful and True, crowned with many crowns, judging in righteousness with eyes like a flame of fire. We talk about the robe dipped in blood as testimony that Christ already won the decisive victory at Calvary and will return to claim what He purchased. The broadcast ends where prophecy always should end: with a direct, urgent question of whether you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and are ready to meet Him.

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Transcript

Welcome And Purpose Of Broadcast

SPEAKER_01 0:53

All right, thank you so much for that kind word of introduction. I'm Brother James. I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and I welcome you once again to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast. We are so happy that you have tuned into the program today because we honestly believe that God will help you by his grace to enter into a deeper Christian walk, a more meaningful uh Christian walk as you listen to this radio broadcast, not only today, but each and every time it comes your way over this radio station. You know, it's never our intention, it's never our uh desire uh to get anything from you. We are simply desirous of ministering to you by the grace of God. It's our privilege, it's our joy to be a help to you and to be a blessing to you, and God making us able, we will do so on the program again today. Now, this is the fifth broadcast in a series of messages which uh looks like will end up next time on the uh times in your Bible when heaven is opened. The times in your Bible when heaven is open. We talked uh uh first of all about the heaven being opened at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, when uh the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the Father spake from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. We talked about the heaven being opened in Acts chapter seven at the stoning of Stephen, when he uh lifted his eyes to heaven and beheld the Lord Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of the Father. And we started talking last time about the heaven being opened in Acts chapter number ten, as Peter sat upon the uh housetop uh waiting for the preparation of the uh meal, and uh the Lord let down from heaven uh this uh inverted parachute, as you will, this uh great sheet let down from the four uh corners, and all these uh animals and creeping things and fowls of the air and so forth uh being found in that uh in that great uh sheet, I guess you'd call it, and uh the Lord saying, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. And of course, Peter, he says, uh, not so, Lord. Nothing common or unclean ever touched my lips, and the Lord was trying to teach him a lesson, and did teach him a lesson, that he wanted him to go to the Gentile people, that the old economy, the old testament law was no longer in force, that we were now under grace. And we talked about Cornelius and his prayers from Acts chapter ten verses one through eight. We talked about Peter and his prejudices in Acts chapter ten verses nine and ten. And now we want to talk about the vision that Peter had and the divine program of God. The vision Peter had and the divine program of God, and there are two things that we need to look at here what was intended by the vision and what was its meaning. First of all, the intention of the vision. Remember that Cornelius' servants were on their way to Peter. This divinely communicated abrogation of the ceremonial law rise and eat informs Peter's waking mind that now from all nations will be gathered those who will be alike included among God's people. This is no longer going to be a strictly Jewish matter. This is no longer going to be strictly a covenant between God and the nation of Israel, but Jesus Christ came to be the Savior of the whole world, and the gospel message must go to all. The heaven sent vision revokes what had been commanded from the heaven or from heaven in the early history of Peter's nation. The power which made the restriction in the first place can also remove it, and so the old dispensation given by God is now to give place to the new dispensation given by God. And so Peter receives a threefold testimony of God's purifying the Gentiles by faith. Instead of separating Israel by circumcision and ceremonial laws, no difference was now put between believers. Jews and Gentiles are on equal footing, for the cross has changed all that old division and enmity. The problem had been, or the promise, I'm sorry, had been given to Jews. But the revelation of the grace of God could not be limited to one people. Because he was sovereign, God could choose a people for himself when all mankind had abandoned him and sunk into idolatry, and the purpose of his choice was to maintain on earth a witness true to himself. But God revealed in grace that he could not be the God of a single nation, the superiority of the Jews according to the flesh, their special covenant position is alone the people of God. These things were now put aside by the cross of Jesus Christ. Jew and Gentile were now open alike to incomparably better blessings in Christ by faith. The way to God, the way of salvation was not through Jewish ceremonial. And a man who has not observed this is uh not observed these ceremonial laws is well at least not to be counted unclean or inferior. Faith in Jesus Christ and the acceptance of him as an all sufficient Savior and Lord puts the Gentiles on an equality with the Jews. No longer was it a question of the law, still less of becoming a proselyte to Judaism. No, the Savior, speaking from heaven where no such distinction as Jew and Gentile exists, acts on the efficacy of the precious blood, which he is shed to procure the eternal redemption equally for all believers, be they Jew or Gentile, barbarian or Scythian, male or female, bond or free. All now have access to God not through natural birth and bloodline, but through spiritual birth and the blood of Jesus Christ. Now, what about the interpretation of the vision? Well, the vessel or sheet is a picture of the church, if you will. It contained both clean animals and unclean, symbolizing both Jew and Gentile in one body. Yet all in the sheet were cleansed. In Acts chapter 10 and verse 15, we read on the last broadcast the voice spake unto him again. This is God speaking from heaven, the second time, what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. In Acts eleven, verse number nine, Peter's recounting this event. The voice answered me again from heaven, what God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. In that church, the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, will be gathered people from the four ends of the earth. So the sheet was knit at the four corners. The sheet or vessel came down from heaven and went back to heaven, disappearing therein. This symbolizes the heavenly origin and the heavenly destiny of the church. The church is a heavenly revelation, and as the vessel disappeared into heaven, so will the church one day be taken up into heaven to enter upon her heavenly destination. And what a great day of rejoicing that will certainly be. Now the the word in with which the book of Revelation, and in fact the entire Bible closes, is this Revelation twenty two verse twenty even so come Lord Jesus even though s even so come Lord Jesus. If there is one fact above all others which should thrill the heart of the believer, it is the soon coming of our blessed Lord. Then faith will give place to sight, shadows to substance, symbols to reality. The sorrows and griefs, the trials and troubles, the problems and the perplexities, the sins and the mistakes of this life will be forever banished. God's people shall see the one they love, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know he is surely coming. There's no question about it. In the New Testament's two hundred or so chapters, the fact of the coming of Jesus Christ is stated over three hundred times. That's one and a half times per chapter throughout the entire New Testament. Every believer should be conversant with a truth that the Holy Spirit has emphasized so greatly. The Lord Jesus promised he would return. John fourteen three, Revelation three eleven, Revelation twenty-two, seven, twenty-two twelve, twenty-two twenty. All find the Lord Jesus promising his return. The angels proclaimed his return in Acts chapter one verses ten and eleven. James five verse seven, second Peter three, verses four and nine, first Thessalonians four sixteen, first John three two, and all these places and many more, the apostles preached his return. Now the Lord Jesus Christ promised the return, the angels promised the return, the apostles promised the return, and the writer of Ecclesiastes said a threefold cord is not easily broken. Now the one who said, Lo, I come in prophetic truth, says in actual fact, I will come again. Now, did he come the first time? Did Jesus come to this earth once? Of course he did. Then will he come again? Well he said he will, and he is faithful to his promise, just as surely as he came according to promise the first time, he will come according to promise the second time. The Lord Jesus is coming for his church. John fourteen three, first Corinthians fifteen, twenty-three, fifty-one and fifty-two, first Thessalonians chapter four, verses fourteen through seventeen all state that Jesus is coming for his own. We look for the Savior from heaven, Philippians three twenty, whom we shall meet in the air. Later He will return with his saints to reign, and his feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah fourteen four makes this very clear. He will come to deliver Israel, Romans eleven, twenty-five and twenty six, and to judge the Gentile nations, according to Daniel two, thirty six to forty-four, Daniel seven, one to twenty seven, Matthew twenty-four, thirty, and Matthew twenty-five, thirty-one to forty-six. Now this latter aspect of his coming, his coming in glory, is foretold by Old Testament prophets only in relation to Jew and Gentile, and never in relation to the church, which to the Old Testament prophets remained a mystery. And you can check these things out in Isaiah sixty, verse thirty-three, Isaiah sixty-six, nineteen to twenty-four, Zechariah fourteen, twenty-one to twenty-three, and Malachi four, one to three. But he will come with his saints. And this is stated clearly in Colossians three four, Jude 14 and 15, and Revelation 19 14. Now, if the saints accompany the Lord when he comes in great glory, they must be with him previously. That couldn't be any more any more certain. Now his coming glory is described for us in Revelation nineteen, and we want to read these verses together because this is the next case of the opened heaven. This is the next time in our Bible that we want to look at heaven being open. Revelation chapter nineteen and verse eleven. And I saw heaven opened. And behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I saw heaven opened, writes John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and behold a white horse. In the days of his humiliation, during his ministry, Jesus rode but once, and that was when he came into the Jewish nation as its anointed king in his triumphal entry. But then he rode upon an ass, the colt, the foal of an ass. He was meek and lowly. Here the lowly beast is changed for a charger, for a great steed of war. A white horse is the symbol of victorious power and bespeaks a victory that leaves nothing doubtful. It shows the equity of his cause and the certainty of his success. The writer is called faithful and true. Now let's talk about this writer that comes down from this open heaven. As to character, he is faithful and true. He is faithful in the performance of every promise, while every word he ever uttered bears the stamp of absolute truth. He is the one absolutely to be trusted and relied upon. His utter fidelity can never be called into question. No falsehood has ever been discovered in him, faithful and true. Others may be characterized by these qualities in measure, but Christ alone can be so designated without qualification of any kind. He is in his person and ways the embodiment of these attributes. Now mere man cannot be so described. Human nature cannot be trusted implicitly. There is too much duplicity and deceit in the descendants of Adam. These qualities then, faithful and true, lift the Lord Jesus Christ far above the level of humanity. They bespeak almightiness and essential Godhead. As to his conduct in righteousness he doth judge and make war. That we read in chapter nineteen, verse eleven of Revelation. Because he is faithful, the Lord Jesus must discharge the office of judge, not shrinking from the administration of justice and judgment. Because he is true, he cannot alter the standards of God which condemn sin. Favoritism and laxity will not be found in him, for he is the perfect administrator of justice in a world where injustice has long reigned supreme. Heaven cannot be at peace with iniquity, or at friendship with falsehood and rebellion. Not as human kings war, but in absolute justice and right, in strict agreement with every holy principle, the Lord Jesus Christ will use the sword of omnipotent power. It is not only that the judgment he exercises will be in accord with strict justice, but it will also be based on perfect knowledge. So we are now told that his eyes are as a flame of fire. Nothing can escape his all seeing gaze. To judge rightly he must possess infinite knowledge. He must see through and through, search all depths, look beneath all masks, penetrate all darkness. His is the power to search and scrutinize every life, to penetrate the inner chambers of every imagination, to bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart. Before his all seeing gaze, his foes may well tremble in dread. And Jesus Christ the Lord, he comes to reign, and so he is crowned. And the Bible says on his head were were many crowns. They are crowns of royalty as the word of God indicates, rather than of victory. Universal rule and reign, universal sovereignty is in view. Oh yes, the saints wear crowns, but he to whom belongs all power in heaven and on earth, wears many crowns, many diadems, encircling his head in dazzling splendor. There is but one, but one who can be entrusted with the exercise of absolute authority and dominion, and he is the Son of Man. Listen to these words from the book of Psalms and Psalm number eight. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. That's verse one, verse five or six, thou madeest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands, speaking of man. Thou hast put all things under his feet, speaking of the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth. And then something mysterious follows. The Bible says in the verses we read from Revelation nineteen, this case of heaven being opened for the fourth time. He had a name written that no man knew but he himself. An unknown name. Now we know him. If you're saved, if you're born again, you know Jesus Christ, but let's be honest about it. We can never comprehend fully the depths of his infinite person. No created being can fully know the Lord Jesus Christ. In the essence of his being there must always remain something that is mysterious and beyond man's understanding. The Son of God, in the fullness of his divine being, can be known and appreciated only by the Father. Only God can know God in that sense, said the Lord Jesus in Matthew eleven, verse twenty seven. No man knoweth the Son save the Father. Now this is fitting in one, the fullness of whose love and power none can exhaust, the depth of whose wisdom none can fathom. And a very similar figure is given in chapter two and verse seventeen of this same book of Revelation. Let me read you this verse Revelation and verse seventeen. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Very similar expression. There in Revelation two seventeen the risen Lord promises to give to him that overcometh a white stone, in which is written a new name, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Now name speaks of character. In this case a character which has been molded and formed down here, and appreciated by the Lord Himself. In the name given to the overcomer is the expression and sum of the Lord's appreciation of every one of you. His true people, known to each one of them alone. So will the secret name of Christ divinely express God's infinite appreciation of the work and person of his beloved Son. It, this secret name, therefore, involves a depth of meaning and a degree of sacredness and a relation to the Father, which Jesus Christ alone could fully apprehend. He comes forth from that opened heaven in the full revelation of a victory already won. That must be the meaning of the description of a vesture dipped in blood. The word dipped is a significant word. The picture is of a mighty conqueror who is ridden through the battlefield, triumphing over his foes until the very battlefield itself is awash with blood. As he rides the skirts of his vesture dip in the blood of the slain, and so he appears in the evidence of victory already won. Now where was that? Well let me read you first of all from Hebrews chapter two, and I'll read you verses fourteen and fifteen. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And then again, Colossians chapter two, verses fourteen and fifteen. Colossians chapter two, verse fourteen, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Now, listen, don't get me wrong. I believe that there will be a literal battle of Armageddon, as the Bible speaks. There will be a literal sword being used by the Lord Jesus Christ. There will literally be blood flowing as high as the reins on a horse's bridle throughout the length of that valley. There will literally be the slain of the Lord covering the earth in that day. There will literally be a fulfillment of all these prophecies, but my friend, Jesus has already won one great battle when he shed his precious blood on the cross at Calvary, and that blood stained garment identifies this coming one, this one coming to take possession of the kingdoms of this earth, it identifies the fact that he is not a usurper, he is not a thief, he is not a rebel, he is coming to claim what he bought with his blood on the cross at Calvary. When you see that heaven opened and that white horse rider coming down, and you see that garment dipped in blood, that is a testimony to the fact that he owns the earth and the fullness thereof. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, and he is simply coming to claim what he purchased when he laid down his life and shed his precious blood on Calvary's cross. Now, my friend, I want to ask you something, and I'm very, very serious now. I'm just as serious as I can possibly be. If Jesus were to come today to catch out his church, the believers, those that have truly been washed in his blood, received by faith the salvation of their souls through the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection. Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and been saved? If so, you're ready to meet him. And that wonderful, glorious day could be this day. My friend, do you realize that if you're not saved, that's the Bible term, if you're not born again, that's the Bible term, if you've never received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, do you realize that He will not come to receive you unto Himself? But He will come in a day of judgment, and you will be among those enemies slain by that sharp two-edged sword that goes out of his mouth. What a difference. What a difference between having Christ come for you as one of his saints, or having Christ come to war against you with his saints. And you know, in spite of what people are telling you nowadays, the choice is yours. You are not a puppet, you are not a robot, you are not an Ottoman, you are a living soul with a mind, a conscience, and a will, and the Bible tells you, commands you, pleads with you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That's up to you. The Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He'll save you if you'll trust him. He'll give you life if you'll call upon his name. But he'll never force his will upon you. He's not willing that you perish. If you perish, you will do so against the will of God, my friend. Heaven will be open, Jesus will return. The question is, will you be with him or will you be against him?

Closing And Where To Listen

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Thanks for tuning in today. Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast. For hundreds of hours of in-depth expository Bible teaching, please visit our YouTube channel, James W. Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistland, or our website, Bible BaptistTeland.com. Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.