What Does Jesus Think of My Church? - Part 1

**Jim Scudder, Jr.** (0:03)
The work that we do for the Lord, the labor that we do for the Lord is important. We're saved by our faith, but the Lord wants us to work after we are saved.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:21)
Welcome to InGrace with Jim Scudder, the senior pastor of Quentin Road Baptist Church in suburban Chicago. He is a strong advocate of the nation of Israel and leads annual tours to the Holy Land.

**Jim Scudder, Jr.** (0:36)
Hi, this is Jim Scudder. Today on InGrace, we are in a series called Armageddon's Dawn, and it is soon that the End Times are here. We do believe that just because of the way the world is and how things are lining up today like never before with what the Bible describes as the End Times. And so in this series, we're going to start talking about what Jesus thinks about churches. In the first couple chapters of Revelation, it's Jesus talking to seven real churches. And as you're going to hear me teach today in the first church of Ephesus, I also think we're going to see church ages in here. I'm not dogmatic on this, but it just seems like it does lay out into church age ages. And also, real churches, of course, Ephesus was an actual real church. Paul spent plenty of time in Ephesus. I've been to Ephesus. It's an amazing archaeological site. But we need to listen today. What is our church like?
Are we pleasing the Lord with our local assembly of believers? And this really impacts me as a pastor. As we go through these things, I really want to know that here at Quint Road Baptist Church in Lake Zork, Illinois, are we fulfilling God's will, God's commission, God's plan as a group, a corporate group of believers? And I want all of us to think through that. So today, I believe this will be a blessing, and I think we're going to be impacted by our series on the Book of Revelation. Armageddon will be in Revelation chapter 2 today.
We would love for you, if you're ever in the Chicago area or passing through, many of you live in Chicago or Milwaukee, if you're in the area, stop by on a Sunday and visit us. Almost every Sunday at 11 a.m. Central time, I'm preaching, and I would be so honored to meet you. So come see us sometime. Quinten Road Baptist Church, Lake Zork, Illinois. It's about an hour northwest of Chicago and about an hour southwest of Milwaukee. And again, you are so welcome to come to Quinten Road Baptist Church sometime soon.
What the Bible says about the end days is horrific. It's horrific. And if you're sitting here and you're thinking, well, if these things start to come to pass, then I'll believe, then I'll get saved. You are stupid. I usually don't say it that bluntly, but I'm saying it today, because why would you take a chance going through this? And how do you know you're gonna make it to those days? We don't know when the last day is gonna be of our life. It could be tomorrow. It could be today.
Do not hesitate to accept a free gift called eternal life right now.
Jesus died, the son of God. He created you. He died for you. He poured out his blood for you. So you could avoid Armageddon's dawn. So you can avoid eternal hell.
He rose again the third day, and he is offering to you a gift called eternal life.
Living with him, restored, forever.
And that's why we preach. That's why we have church, to thank the Lord for that, to learn more about him, to learn how to live in light of salvation that he has so wonderfully given us.
Armageddon's Dawn is a series that is dealing with the end times with prophecy. And I believe we're in the last days. I believe that we don't have a lot of time left. And you say, well, what if you're wrong? What if we have a lot of time left? Well, then I think at least we're living the way God wants us to live.
Anticipating him returning at any moment will make a difference in your life today. It will make you serve the Lord with more purpose, with more urgency.
And I really believe that's why scripture says, no man knows the day or the hour because he wants us to be serving him as if he can come back today. And you say, well, people have been talking about this for years and years and he hasn't come. Well, that's what the Bible said would happen. People would say, well, where is he? He hasn't come. Just because he hasn't come, are we saying that he's not coming? No. Here's the truth. Today is closer than it was yesterday. That's true. Now, we're talking about Revelation. We're talking about a prophecy chart. You have them, if you're in the room, the rest of you that are watching or listening, if you're listening, you're kind of out of luck. Unless you go to our website, you can get this chart featuring the timeline of history or of the future. And the history has been fulfilled. The prophecies have been fulfilled exactly as predicted. So we have great confidence that this timeline will be fulfilled exactly as it is predicted. And here we have what's called the Rapture of the Church. This is the next event on the prophetic calendar for the End Times. There's nothing that has to take place before that happens. There are some things that we might see before that, like talk of doing away with borders, talk of doing away with cash, talk of just doing away with different religions, all coming together as one. And guess what we're hearing in the news today? But then the rapture. What is the rapture? It's a word that you won't find in the Bible, but it's a term, it's a principle you will find in the Bible, where the Lord comes back in the air and gathers his church. We're living in the church age. The church age, we believe, began at Pentecost and continues until the rapture. And the rapture, all of a sudden, the church is taken up by the Lord, hopefully millions of people. I say hopefully. I'm not sure how many people are truly saved, have put their trust in Jesus Christ alone, have confidence that they're on their way to heaven, but those people, the church, the body of Christ, will be gathered and taken up.