10-11-2020 Revelation 11-12 (Class) & A Spiritual Checkup (Sermon)
Automated Transcript
The thing I love about technology is it always works. Oh, we are in revelation, chapter 11 and 12 today, revelation chapter 11 and chapter 12, we just have a little bit to finish in chapter 11,
and then we will proceed into chapter 12. Let’s begin with a word of prayer, our gracious father in heaven. We come before you grateful for the blessings. You showered upon us on a daily basis, grateful for all that you do for us in good times, and in hard times, grateful for your love and your care, your concern, your loving kindness.
That is granted to us that though we do not deserve it. You have bestowed upon humanity, and we are so grateful for it. We’re grateful most, especially for your son who came and died on the cross for our sins. The lamb that was slain, and yet is standing before the throne. The one who conquers the one who is victorious, the one who will sit on his throne and who rains Lord,
we are grateful for all the many things that you’ve granted to us inside of the word of God. And inside this book we refer to as the Bible, and we’re especially grateful for the book of revelation and the hope and the encouragement that it grants to us. And the reminder that no matter what comes, no matter the struggles in this country or any country that’s come before,
there is one who’s on the throne and there is one kingdom that is eternal and none other is, and that is Christians. We are citizens of the kingdom of God. We pray for all the nations throughout the world, and especially the nation in which we live, that they might make, right choices, that they might do, things that are in accordance with your will.
They might accomplish those things that Lao for Your gospel to be spread to a greater degree throughout the world. All this we pray in jesus’ name. Amen.<inaudible> Revelation, chapter 10. We began a pause, an interlude as the sixth trumpet had sounded. We talked about the fact that there’s the, the seven seals and inside of the seventh seal are seven trumpets.
And the first six trumpets will be, will sound in chapters eight and nine. But then as the sixth trumpet concludes, and that second woe, remember there’s, there’s two woes or there’s, there’s three woes in the last three trumpets, one woe in each trumpet. And as that second trumpet sounds, and it concludes, then there’s another pause, a pause to remind the Christians that they are going to make it through this,
that God is on their side. That Christ is on the throne and he is going to rule and he will avenge the persecution that is coming upon them. As we talked about the fact that at the time of the writing, the persecution, isn’t immediate, it’s about to come back up. The beast is about to come back up. And so God is telling them what is remember chapter one verse 19,
John was supposed to write what is and what has come before and what is about to come. Okay? So God is connecting what he’s told them in the old Testament to what is currently the state of things and what is about to happen in all these things he says must shortly come to pass. I believe I, I can honestly say I grew up with a,
with a mindset that revelation was about the end of time. And it’s just not the more you study it. The more you pay attention to it, the more you just insist on taking John at his own statements, that the things which come the, the things that are going, that are written in this book must shortly come to pass. These are things which shall come quickly.
He says, these are things which are near are at hand. You know, when Jesus and the apostles went around, preaching and teaching that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. They didn’t mean 3000 years from now. They didn’t mean 2000 years from now. They didn’t mean a hundred years from now. They were preaching it because it was at hand.
And John says, these things are at hand. They must shortly come to pass. Now that doesn’t mean that every word in every detail in every thing is that, but the message of the book is about things that must shortly come to pass. Now we mentioned in chapter 11 on Wednesday night, that there were a couple of things we’ve wanted to spend a little bit of time on this morning for clarification and clarity sake.
And one of those is the city that is mentioned in verse eight in this interlude, we first have the first kind of interlude is in chapter 10 where the mighty angel is standing. He’s got one foot on the sea and one foot on the land. He’s he has authority over both. That’s the idea there. And he has in his hand, a little book and John is told to take the little book and to eat the book.
And it’s sweet as honey when he tastes it in his mouth, but in his belly, it’s bitter. And the message is this the same message of Ezekiel chapter two in chapter three, where the same type of vision is seen, you’re going to prophesize and your prophecy originates with God. But your message is not a good message. Your message is a message of judgment.
It’s bitter. Okay. So then chapter 11 opens and we see two witnesses there. These two witnesses come from, at least the imagery comes from Zechariah chapter four, and the two witnesses are two olive trees and two lampstands. Now in chapter four of Zechariah, Zechariah makes it clear that each lampstand has seven lamps. Okay? So there’s seven lamps and two lamps,
seven lamps on each lampstand in two lampstands into olive trees. Zachariah also gives us the clarity and the vision in that the olive trees have as it were their, their branches hanging into the, the lamp bowls are the bowls of the lampstands. And they’re continually putting oil, the ideas eternal light, as long as the trees produce, as long as the tree stand,
the lampstands remain burning. And the picture there is the revelation of God and the anointed ones who were in Zechariah’s day<inaudible> and Joshua, the high priest and the ruling individual, okay. That imagery is brought over here to demonstrate to the people of God you, the church that’s the remember Jesus has already promised them chapter two, chapter three, chapter one,
you are a kingdom of priests. You are Kings who will rule. He’s already told and identified who the Kings and the priests are. That are the anointed ones in this day in time. And they’re Christians, the church. So he’s telling the church, you, as the anointed ones, you will be those who speak. You will be those who prophesied.
You will be those who torment those on the earth with the word of God. And you will be those who will be killed for your testimony. We’re going to see that over in chapter 12, but the message is you might appear to die. It might look like the church’s gone. It might look like the beast is one. It might look like by the way,
this is the first time we really read of the beast coming up and persecuting the church. Okay. He may look like you’re dead. You’re, you’re, you’re lying in the streets and they’re having a throwing a party and they’re sending gifts to one another and they’re letting your bodies lay there in the street. And it looks like the church is going to get decimated until God tells the church to rise or again,
to be resurrected after three and a half days. After a period of time, God says, no, no, no, no, no, you didn’t defeat my church. I’m still in charge because your persecution is only a partial, a half of a seven. It is incomplete. It is derived authority. It is not God’s authority. Okay? Then verse seven,
when they finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city. There are a number of references using that phrase, the great city in the book of revelation. And I firmly believe they have referenced to the same city every time.
And it’s not Jerusalem. Now this passage would make you think, Oh, we’re talking about Jerusalem. Here’s why the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt. And this is the phrase that causes most people to think, okay, we’re talking about Jerusalem where also our Lord was crucified. Okay. Oh, that sounds like Jerusalem. Right? The idea there is the one that the city that caused the Lord to be crucified.
Okay. When it comes down to it in the time of Christ, when the high priests and the elders and the chief priests and the Pharisees and the scribes all wanted to kill Christ, did they have the authority to know who did they have to convince to kill Christ? Did they take him to Herod? No. Who are alone in the land of Israel,
had the authority in Jesus’s day to put anyone to death. Pilot who’s derived authority came from Rome, turn to acts chapter two and acts chapter two. You find the right verse here. I wrote it down in acts chapter two, beginning in verse 22 men of Israel. Hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, Amana tested by God, to you by miracles,
wonders and signs, which God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves also know him, notice this being delivered by the determined purpose. And for knowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it for David says,
I foresaw the Lord always before my face four. He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart rejoiced and my tongue was made gland. Moreover, my flesh will also rest in hope for you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will you allow your Holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life.
You will make me full of joy in your presence. Now also go over to Psalm chapter two. This Psalm is a messianic Psalm about the crucifixion and about the resurrection in Psalm chapter two, it begins with these words, why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing. The Kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying,
let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. He who sits in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall hold them in derision. He shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure. Yet I have set my King on my Holy Hill of Zion in revelation, the great city. We saw it over in chapter 17.
We’re going to see another place as the great city refers to a city sitting on seven Hills. Well, that’s not Jerusalem. That’s Rome. So the picture here is in the description of the crucified. Christ is a picture of Rome. You’re seeing Rome from three different aspects, okay? Pay attention to this because it will make more sense as we go later on and examine Rome again,
as it’s seen in the BESE, we’re looking at Rome, not in its physical sense, but in its spiritual sense, when you get the picture of Saddam, what was Saddam known for it’s sin? It’s sin specifically in the sexual matters that it had violated God’s word, but also in its way that it treated people, both of those things. It’s,
it’s lack of hospitality. It’s willingness to abuse people and it’s sexual immorality. All three of those are the things throughout scripture that are accused against Saddam and Rome is pictured as the seductress Rome is pictured as the one who’s guilty of the sexual and morality. Rome is pictured as the one who has committed all these great sins. So you see Rome in the spiritual aspect of her sin,
her worldly or seductive power, but then you have Egypt. The second name that is given to Rome, Saddam, the worldly, seductive power Egypt. What is Egypt known for throughout scripture? Many gods, but in relationship to Israel, say what? Power control captivity. Okay. So in Egypt you have the civil persecution power. Egypt had control as the slave owner of Israel,
as the captor of Israel, they had power to bring about persecution and they did. Okay. So you’ve got the civil persecuting power, which you’re also going to see in the beast. There’s three BS. All three of them described Rome. They look at Rome from three different perspectives, and it’s the same perspectives that Egypt, Saddam, and the one or the city where our Lord was crucified,
looked at it. What is Jerusalem? Now here’s where I want us to pay attention. The city where our Lord was crucified is Jerusalem, but the great city isn’t, but the great city isn’t Saddam and the great city isn’t Egypt, either Jerusalem is here referenced as a, as an spiritual example of Rome. And in the fact that Christ was crucified on the cross in Jerusalem,
what does Jerusalem stand for? Think about it for a moment. They saw his miracles, they heard his prophecies. They witness his testimony. They heard God speak from heaven and declare him to be his son. They heard John declare him to be God’s son and they killed him anyway. And they claimed to do it in the name of their religion because they took him to pilot and said,
when pilot asked, what is he guilty of? He has Blass themed. Our God Jerusalem here is not the great city. Jerusalem is a picture of perverted religion, which also describes Rome. So Jerusalem gives you perverted religion, which is also one of the beasts. You’re going to see one of the beasts rise up and his whole power is to pervert religion.
You’re going to see another beast rise up. And he’s the seducer it’s the, the, the, seductress the, the prostitute scene in chapter 17. She’s the one who rides the great beast and seduces all the world. And you’re gonna see another beast rise up. And he is the civil economic persecuting power. So you’ve got three BS that describe three aspects of Rome.
You’ve got three cities here that all described for three aspects of Rome. Okay? The great city is Rome. And so here in this passage, the great city is where one last thing I should mention if we take that, the great city is Rome. There’s one interesting fact about Jerusalem. The Romans never persecuted the Christians in Jerusalem. The Jews persecuted the Christians in Jerusalem,
all the living long day, but even in the book of acts, who is it that saves Paul from the hand of the Jews. The Romans remember Paul’s about to be killed by the Jews. And the Roman Centurion comes in and he extracts him out of their hands. And then he keeps him out of their hands. And then he takes him to Rome.
Rome was not a persecuting power against the Christians in Jerusalem. So the great cities, not Jerusalem. Alright, so I’m just wanting to make, kind of make all those points there. And then let’s, let’s move on. Verse 14, we come to the end of the second woe reread verse 14. The second wall was passed behold. The third woe is coming quickly.
Then the seventh angel sounded, all right, so we’ve, we’ve ended the sixth angel we’ve ended the interlude. Now we’re into the seventh angel seven angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of this world has become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever now where we’ve got to be careful not to get off track.
Is this when you read about those in heaven, declaring with a loud voice, that God is now reigning, do not immediately make the assumption that God hasn’t been raining all this time, Huh? Who is the King of all the earth going all the way back to Israel in Egypt. And even before that, Moses has sent to Pharaoh to tell him your gods,
aren’t the gods of heaven and earth. Who did God say to tell Pharaoh that he was the, I am, that I am. And Pharaoh asked Moses, who is this Jehovah that I should listen to him. And the whole period through the plagues was to declare I’m the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Is there any point at which God stopped being the King of all the earth?
Is there any point at which God’s power was overcome by Satan’s power and God stopped ruling and the kingdoms of men in Daniel’s day when it looked like Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians were going to wipe the face of the planet over or wipe over the face of the planet. And here they are, and Nebuchadnezzar is here and now all his grander in all his glory and all the things that he’s accomplished.
And God says, you’re going to learn that Jehovah rules and the kingdoms of men and gives power to whosoever. He will. So when you read that the kingdoms of heaven have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And he shall reign forever and ever don’t immediately assume that means, well, the kingdom begins in the seventh trumpet because that’s what the pre-millennial is do.
Well, wait a minute. We’ve got to Wade through all these things and all this tribulation all this time, and then Christ will establish his kingdom. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The latest date you can possibly give for Christ sitting on the throne as King. It’s the day of Pentecost.
That’s the latest possible date? The earliest date, I think you could say with any assurance would be the date of his resurrection because Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 through 20, I have been given what all authority in heaven and earth kind of sounds like he’s on the throne already. Doesn’t it? Okay. So the latest that you can give is Pentecost for Christ reigning over his kingdom.
This declaration, isn’t the beginning of his kingdom. This is the acting and the action whereby he uses his authority to bring about justice on the kingdoms of the earth. All right, watch this. And the 24 elders who sat before God and on their Thrones, fell on him on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give you thanks. Oh Lord God almighty the one who is and who was,
and who is to come because you have taken your great power and rained. The nations were angry and your wrath has come the time of the dead that they should be judged. And that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. This declaration is not,
Oh, well, the kingdom has finally arrived. This declaration is the one who’s on the throne has finally brought about the judgment that he said was coming. He has used the power. He has to bring about judgment because remember when those saints in revelation, chapter five, we’re praying and crying out to God. How long, Oh Lord, how long,
how long until you bring justice upon those who persecute us and Christ says, you rest a little while, but you rest in assurance. And I’m paraphrasing here. You rest in assurance that I will bring judgment. And the seven seals were open, kind of looking forward to what was coming and telling what had been going on. And then the seventh seal was open and you had the seven trumpets and they were the warning shots.
They were the plagues. They were the listen, you better repent or final judgment against Rome is going to come. And they didn’t repent. And because they didn’t repent in the end of the sixth trumpet, God now says, and all those in heaven, declare it’s time judgment’s coming. He’s going to take his power and he’s going to rain and he’s going to judge and he’s going to reward those who are his saints.
Okay? It’s not a picture of the judgment day, not a picture of the final judgment. It’s a picture of the judgment in the context. We’re talking about all through here. This is almost in a sense, the 10th plague where God says you didn’t listen, you didn’t listen. And now you’re going to pay the ultimate price because you didn’t listen.
Okay? So verse 19, then the temple of God was opened in heaven. And the arch of his covenant was seen in his temple. And there were lightnings noises, thunderings and earthquakes and great hail. Just the picture of the culmination of all the plagues coming together. Again, this destruction coming against the nation, but one more time. So the seventh trumpet sounded,
but one more time, God’s going to tell his people, you’re going to go through the ringer. You’re going to get hurt during this. It’s not going to be easy, but I want to tell you about the dragon. I want to tell you about the beast. I want to tell you about Satan. And I want to tell you he’s a three time loser.
Okay? Chapter 12 is the devil is a three time loser. Okay? That’s the whole point of chapter 12, chapter 12 beginning verse one. Now a great sign appeared in heaven. Seventh trumpet sounded, praise goes up that God is going to rain. That God is going to bring judgment. And now there’s a sign that appears in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet and on her head, a Garland of 12 stars. Now what did we say? The number 12 stood for<inaudible> Authorized religion and the people of God. Okay. So she’s a Dorn as the people of God. She is the church. Okay. We’ll see that. As we go through here, then being with child,
she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. Okay. So we see the woman. She’s got the she’s clothed with the sun. The moon’s under her feet on her head is a Garland of 12 stars and she’s pregnant and she’s about to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven, behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his head.
What are diadems crowns? Okay. He looks like he’s in charge. He’s got seven heads. He’s got 10 horns and all over his heads are crowns. He looks like he’s in charge. By the way, this is where we get the picture of, of the devil as, as red. Okay? Nowhere else in scripture stuff here that I know of at least,
but notice he’s not without power, not without real power. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. All right. Here’s a dragon that his tail is so great. And so sweeping it reaches up to heaven and knocks the stars down. Okay. In the, in the vision God’s showing you he’s got power,
but notice what we read by the way, could he take all the stores stars down? No, a third. What, what have we always said? A third is partial. He’s got limited power. Okay. He’d through his tail, drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman was ready to give birth,
to devour her child. As soon as it was born. You know, if I didn’t know how to interpret things in their context, I think there was a planned Parenthood. So here we are, she’s bound to give birth and the child or the dragon is sitting there waiting. As soon as she gives birth, he’s going to devour the child. He’s going to conquer the child.
Now in most Bibles, you will see the word child capitalized because it’s not going to be hard to figure out who the child is. Okay. And watch this prepared to devour the child. As soon as it was born, she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Now what child was ever born, whose inheritance was to rule all nations only one.
And it wasn’t Alexander the great, and it wasn’t anybody who was ruling in Rome. It was Christ. He said, well, wait a minute, Aaron, the church did not give birth to Christ. I beg to differ. Had there not been a need for the redemptive work of Christ. What do you have ever left heaven and taken on flesh all the way back in Genesis,
chapter three, our sin. It ma it’s clear in chapter three of Genesis, our sin and our need for redemption would cause the Christ to be born and woman would give birth to the Messiah. It’s a picture of the church in its redeemed state that could only be achieved through the birth of Christ and through not just his birth, but his reigning. Remember the context that we just had in chapter 11 was he’s reigning.
And now we’re seeing a picture of the devil, tried to stop him from ever raining, but what happens? So the devil’s there. He’s prepared, waiting for her to give birth. He’s going to devour the child as soon as it’s born. But wait, what happens? She bore a male child who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God.
And to his throne, the moment she gives birth, the child straight to heaven, and the devil misses his chance. First time loser. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days. Now we’re not gonna spend a whole lot of time talking about time, times and half a time and 1,260 days and 42 months,
because we talked about all that on Wednesday. They all mean this. The church is going. It is a state of time in which the church will be ultimately victorious, but will endure difficulty in the process. It is taken from Elijah’s three and a half years of drought, three and a half years of no rain where God delivered those who were his.
He provided for those who were his, but it wasn’t easy. And it wasn’t pleasant. Okay. So the first time loser, he tries to devour the baby. When the baby’s born, he doesn’t succeed. The child goes up to heaven and he’s on his throne. Reigning verse seven in the war and war broke out in heaven. Now you get this first scene is here’s a woman.
She’s got the moon under her feet. She’s clothed with the sun. She’s got stars on her head. And the moment she gives birth, the baby goes, the child male child goes up to heaven. And then the next moment, where are you at verse seven? You’re immediately in what place? Heaven. The devil tried to chase him down. Okay.
That’s what you get you get. He failed on the first attempt. So he followed him into heaven to go finish the job. Okay. Verse seven in war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought. So the dragon goes to heaven to try and still devour the child to try and stills,
keep him from reigning on his throne. But instead of being able to confront the child, he’s confronted with messengers, God’s messengers, he’s confronted with angels. He never gets near the child. He never gets near the Christ. He can’t touch the Christ. He can’t even get past Michael, by the way. Very interesting that the name Michael, if I’ve got it written down here and can find it,
let’s see. Say that again. He, who is like the Lord, you’ve got this picture in Michael of he who is like unto God or he who is like unto the Lord. The devil doesn’t get near Christ, but the one who’s like God goes and stands and fights and notice what happens. So they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.
So the great dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, Oh wait, here we go. So the dragon is pictured as who? Satan, the devil, the deceiver. And so the great dragon, the old sir, the serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now, salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. And some people say, well, this, this is what happened before the earth was ever formed. And before Satan was,
was on the earth and Tim did eat, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is what happens in the seventh trumpet. He’s the serpent of old, but this isn’t talking about his origin. This is talking about God saying, Satan, you stood here, accusing my people of wrong. You stood here accusing my people of guilt,
which is why you’ve been using your servants to kill them at now. You won’t stand before me, you know, all through the old Testament, we’ve read about times in book of job. And other times where Satan appears before the Lord, God says no more, no more. You’re outta here. Second time loser. Then those what happens. They overcame him by the blood.
Then I heard a loud voice saying verse 10 in heaven now, salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. And they who’s the, they, the accused ones, the ones who are being accused, okay. Notice.
And they overcame him. Who’s the him, Satan, the dragon, the devil, the accusers, or the accused overcome the accuser. And how did they do it? Three ways, three ways that Christians destroy the power of Satan notice right here. And they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives unto death.
When a Christian clothed in the blood of the lamb covered in the blood of Christ, washed in the blood of the lamb, who declares the testimony of God. And won’t give it up, holds fast to the truth and won’t turn aside and then gives his life as a martyr because he will not turn aside. He will not bow his need of the beast.
He will not give in to Satan. He will not turn his back on Christ. He might be dead on this earth, but he wins. He overcomes the accuser, verse 12, therefore rejoice. So heavens and you who dwell in them woe to the inhabitants of the earth and to the sea for the devil has come down to you. Ah, this isn’t the end of time.
This isn’t the final judgment. Cause now the devil’s down on the earth, wrecking havoc on who Vietnam Evidence of the earth. Now we’ve said all along and having served the earth are Who centers. Why would the devil be wrecking havoc on sinners? Because that’s what sin does. He doesn’t care about them. He wants them to go to hell, just like he does.
He doesn’t care about them. And so wherever he is, he brings misery and anguish and pain and persecution. And it doesn’t matter who he does it to. He’ll always do it for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short time. I’m going to read through verse 13 and verse 17, and then we’ll close.
Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child, but the woman was given two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth,
like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. By the way, that’s a picture of the red sea and the destruction of Pharaoh’s army in the red sea and Exodus chapter 15 and Moses, his song is they’re kind of brought into this so that the devil tries to act like a God destroy the woman with the power of the,
of water, but instead what happens, but the earth helped the woman And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon spewed out of his mouth. He tries to act like God, he doesn’t have that power. God always is in control and God will protect his people. That’s the assurance we’re given all through this. And the dragon was enraged with a woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Okay. So the message through chapter 12 and we’ll catch up on the questions on Wednesday. The message of chapter 12 is to the church. Again, you’re going to go through persecution at, you might die, but the moment you do, you win the moment you die, you win and I’ll always provide for you because the child is on the throne.
The Christ is on the throne and Satan’s a three time loser. Okay. That’s chapter 12<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> Good morning. Welcome to the Collierville Sunday morning services here at Collierville church Christ. It’s good to see each and every one of you. I see a few more of our regular members with us this morning. It’s great to see everyone of you.
And for those of you that are still able, unable to come out because of the COVID-19 and various things going on, please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers and we pray for each and every one of you every day and cannot wait for the day that you can return and worship our Lord with us here in his building on Sunday mornings and on Wednesday evenings announcements today,
if there are any visitors with us, we are glad that you took the opportunity to come and worship with us. We asked that you’d fill out a visitor’s card. If you did not pick up your Lord’s supper on the way in now, it’d be a good time to do that. Our sick, please keep Aaron in your thoughts and prayers. He is getting a little better.
He still has some pain here and there. They’re changing some medications, but he’s working through that slowly but surely and getting a little better each day, Joan Springer is still having her difficulties. So please keep Joan and your thoughts and prayers. Janet Jones is back at home now, and she’s going through a home therapy, physical therapy at home. So please keep Janet in your thoughts and prayers as she works through that,
because any of us have been through physical therapy, know what that’s like, that pain that they put you through to make you get better. Sometimes you make, you makes you wonder if it’s really worth it, but in the long run, it is Dorothy Wilson is still dealing with very high blood pressure issues. Please keep Dorothy and your thoughts and prayers. Sylvia’s a nerve block that she was going to have this past Friday has been rescheduled.
That’s now going to be on the 23rd of October. So continue to pray for Sylvia, Danny O’Neil that’s Tommy’s brother is still in st. Francis. He is slowly getting a little better and they are working on getting him off the ventilator. And Tommy said with all goes well, they should have him off the ventilator by the end of today, but it’s a slow process.
Getting him off that ventilators continued to pray for Danny and the entire O’Neill family. James Luna is having a lot of numbness in his hands and he will see a specialist on Thursday to see if they can determine what’s going on with him. So please pray for James Victoria Melton. Who’s a previous member here is hospitalized, and I am not going to be able to pronounce what this is that she has,
but it’s something to do with the fact that she’s pregnant and her baby is 32 weeks old and she may have to stay hospitalized until the baby is at least 37 weeks before they can go ahead and take an early delivery on that baby. So please keep Victoria Melton and your thoughts and prayers. Jenny Sanderson, sister-in-law Mary Joe Todaro has passed away. So please keep that entire family and your thoughts and prayers.
And we have a special request for Vincent to Darrow who’s Jenny’s brother. They were married for Vincent and Mary Jo were married for 49 years. And Vincent relied on her. Like you would not believe, you know, Mary Joel was his everything to her, to him. So please, please pray special prayers for Vincent. In this time of his loss,
he’s going to need all the help he can get to get through this other announcements. The 45th annual spiritual sword lectureship at get well, church of Christ is scheduled for October 18th through the 22nd. We have a flyer on the board out here, the Memphis school of preaching fifth, fifth annual world evangelism seminar is this Friday and Saturday, the 16th and 17th,
Gary Kali will be speaking and his sermon will be the second. The disciples second baptism that’s Friday at 9:00 PM on a nationwide gospel calling meeting and the flyer list in each one of the speakers and what the topic is, is on the table out there in the foyer. So please pick one of them up on your way out today for the man reminder that tomorrow night at 7:00 PM,
we’ll have our monthly business meeting. And if there’s anyone here that has anything that needs to be addressed, please put it on a sheet. I’ll draw on a bulletin board. So men can discuss that. And also reminder too, that early voting for the general election starts here. This coming Wednesday, the 16th and runs through Thursday, October 29th. So that’ll be here at church early voting our service.
This morning song leader will be Michael Dale opening prayer be Terry Sanderson. Lord’s supper will be Joel caisson. Sermon will be Erin coats are, and our closing prayer will be Tommy Lassiter. Thank you.<inaudible> Our opening song. This morning will be number 227 on Zions glorious summit On XY yarns glorious man. It’s de<inaudible> by blood. They him, their King and strains.
D I heard that song and Stroh too. I heard the song<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> shout victory.<inaudible> great.<inaudible> for the gray wow. Lasting<inaudible> rise and<inaudible> to<inaudible><inaudible> to<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> like me<inaudible> Oh my God. Oh, the<inaudible> God<inaudible> Oh, Oh, Oh, a song before our opening prayer will be number 800.
What a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend we have in GE is all our sins and griefs to back. Yeah.<inaudible> a very thing to God and pray. Yeah. Oh, a peace. We often fall this pain mean we<inaudible>. Oh, because we do<inaudible> eh, very thing to God and pray. Yeah. Ah, we try also<inaudible> is TRIBE<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> to the Lord and<inaudible><inaudible> we find a friends<inaudible> Oh,
Oh, so<inaudible> jeez.<inaudible> three. We<inaudible> to say goodbye to the Lord and pray. Yeah. We weak and heavy. Hey, calm bird with<inaudible><inaudible> refuge to get to the Lord. And<inaudible> do friends despise for<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> and his arms take. Yeah. And<inaudible> well find us all Right. A father who art in heaven.
We thank thee for this first day of the week and the opportunity to, we have to come together as your children to study your word. We pray that you would be with those that are sick and unable to be with us. We pray that you would comfort them and restore them for their health. If that’s the reason that they’re not here, we pray that they will soon be well enough to come back and be with us.
We pray that you would be with the teacher of the hour, that he may have a lesson prepared for us too, that we may understand. And it will help us to become strong with Christians. And that weak may spread the word in this community. We thank you for the opportunity that we have to be here and, and be with the, with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
We pray that the things that we do here today will be accepted linear side, where you pray that you would be with the leaders of our country. At this time, we pray that the election will go in a way that will be placed into the on and that later we’ll look at you aware to help them and make decisions. And to make this a better country.
We pray that you would go with us now through the, for the exercises this day and forgive us when we do wrong in Christ’s name, we pray amen. Song to prepare our minds for the Lord. Supper will be number 364. Come share. We gather here in jesus’ name, his love is burning and a heart it’s like living flame for through the loving son.
No father makes us Swan. Come take up, bruh. Come drink. No cup. Come share the Lord. No one is a stranger. Hey,<inaudible> finding<inaudible>. He joins us. You. He breaks up bruh. The Lord who pours the cup is risen from a dad. No one. We love the<inaudible>.<inaudible> come take up bruh.
Come drink a cup. Come shit.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> angels. See, well, see the glory of our Lord Dan Kami King. Now we anticipate, Hey, no fees for which we wait, come take up bread, come drink a cup, come shit.<inaudible> This morning in order to help prepare our minds for the Lord. Supper will be reading from Isaiah chapter 53,
who has believed I report into him, whom is the arm of the Lord revealed where he shall grow up before him as a tender plant. And it root out of dry ground. He has no form to come then this. And when we shall see him, there’s no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him. Not surely. He had born our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did not esteem him stricken smitten of God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes,
we are healed. We are like sheep that have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him, the iniquity of us all, but a spray. Dear God, our father in heaven. We come before you, as our minds, go back to the cross of Calvary and your son there. And the cruel death that he suffered,
bearing our sins there on the cross of Calvary. We’re mindful of that sacrifice that was made for each and every one of us for all of mankind father. As we look to this Memorial this morning, we pray that our hearts and minds will be centered upon him upon what his love for us and his willingness to give his life that we might have life eternal fathers.
We partake of this bread, which is representative of his body. We pray that we might examine ourselves and do so in a manner that would be worthy in Jesus name. Amen.<inaudible> We will now continue that reading. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet. He opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to slaughter and his sheep before her shearers is dumb.
So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation. He was cut out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people, was he stricken and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich, he was in his death because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the precious pleasure of the Lord shall prosper. In his hand. He should see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justly justify many where he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore what I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spore with the strong, because he has poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. That is probably Father in heaven. As we continue to remember our savior and the love that he demonstrated for us,
remind of that precious blood, that flowed on Calvary, that we might have our sins forgiven. We are so grateful father for being able to be your children. And for this time and moment that we can remember our Lord and savior. And we pray father that we examine ourselves and do our best to serve and glorify you with our lives. We pray that this fruit of the vine,
which is representative of that blood, that we might partake in a way that will be acceptable and memory of him and Jesus. We pray. Amen. We prepare our minds to think about how blessed we are as a people and how much material wealth that we really do have. And we think about the scriptures as they teach us that of those that have much,
much shall be required. And it should be a blessing for each and every one of us, as we’ve thought about what we would give today, that we should remember the blessings that’s already been given to us, and that we’re willing to share those blessings to not only further the cause of the kingdom, the spreading of the gospel, but also to be benevolent to those that are in need and try to help those that need help.
They’re less fortunate than we are. And I know myself a lot of times, I fail to keep that in mind. And we always think about mainly I guess the church, which we should and the spreading of the gospel, but there are so many souls out there that really do need our help. And sometimes we might overlook them. So let’s think about that.
As we think about our contribution, let’s bow father in heaven, we are grateful for every blessing that we receive each and every day of our lives. Many of which we take for granted, we pray father that you forgive us for doing that and help us to appreciate every blessing that comes from the, we pray father, that we’ve purposed in our hearts today.
And given it great thought on what we would give back at this time that we would continue to contemplate all the blessings that we have and what we could do. If we put our minds to it, we pray father that our offering will be acceptable. And that we might not only further the kingdom, the work of the kingdom preaching and teaching your word,
but that we might also reach out to those that are in need. And those that are struggling with various things in life, we might help them in some way that they know that we truly do care about them and would help them with things that they need. And we have might have that opportunity to share the gospel with them, that they too might want to be a child of yours and be a part of this body in jesus’ name.
We pray amen song before the lesson will be number 290 shine. Jesus shine. If you can please stand for this song. Lord, the light of your love is shining in a man. It’s the dark nurse shining. Jeez, a snide of China upon us said a spree by the truth. You now bring us shame on me, shame on me.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> me.
Try me consume all my darkness.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> with grace and mercy.<inaudible><inaudible> You may be seated if you’d like to Mark number nine, 15, trust and obey for the invitation song. You can, if not, it’ll be up on the projector. Good morning. A number of us in recent days and months have had more doctor’s visits than we planned on.
And when you go in the first time, it’s generally for an evaluation to figure out what’s wrong. But every so often we go to a doctor for just a checkup, just a, what we call a physical, maybe annually, maybe more often than that. Maybe for some of us who were stubborn much often than that, We just, we go to just find out the state of things.
What are we doing? How’s everything working? Is it working? Is it working the way it’s supposed to be working? Can they maybe working better? Just a checkup. And sometimes you and me in our lives need to do a spiritual checkup. We need to examine ourselves. We’re called upon by Paul and the Holy spirit through Paul to examine ourselves on a regular basis.
As a matter of fact, we’re told that on the first day of every week, when we come together, part of what we do in the Lord’s supper is examine ourselves. We are to examine ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith, but Jesus, in John chapter 12 would call upon those who were present to do a little self examination.
So we’re going to notice in our lesson this morning, the ending of John chapter 12. So I encourage you to open your Bibles will take the majority of our text or we’ll take our texts from that passage. Spend the majority of our time in that scripture, John chapter 12, beginning in verse 42, when you only have one usable arm, you drop a lot of things and I’m trying not to drop anything.
So John chapter 12 beginning in verse 42, nevertheless, among the rulers, many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him less. They should be put out of the synagogue. Now John is giving us the reason behind it. This, this, this isn’t, you know, ruler after ruler comes up and says, you know what I believe on you and does,
and says it publicly. I believe on you, but you know these Pharisees over here, man, they are a pain. And if I say anything publicly about this, they’re going to kick me out and say, no, this isn’t a public proclamation. This is the Holy spirit who knows the hearts and minds of men revealing to us behind the curtain what’s going on.
There are these rulers in Israel and it’s coming up on the final week of a life of Christ. It’s coming up on the final week, in the final time where Christ will be on the earth. And there are rulers in Israel who won’t confess him because of the fairs because they know what will happen, but it’s not just the Pharisees. And the text that follows in verse 44 through the end of the chapter is not about the Pharisees.
It’s not about what people do because of the people around them, having an influence on them. It’s not about what people do because there are people holding them back from doing it. It’s about what’s inside the end of verse or the end of verse 42 says less. They should be put out of the synagogue, verse 43 for, they loved the praise of men.
More than the praise of God. The Holy spirit examines these individuals, any, it goes ahead and tells you they had external forces that were working against them. They had people who were leveraging them and keeping them from doing what was right, because they had influence over them. But internally their main problem, the primary issue, and the reason why anyone had leverage over them was because they loved the praise of men.
More than the praise of God. They wanted to be in the synagogue because they were rulers. They wanted to be where the people were because they had influence. They wanted to be recognized. Then they wanted to be promoted. And they wanted to be those who were called, whose names were called before others. And because they loved the praise of men,
more than the praise of one who wasn’t going to necessarily give them influence who wasn’t going to necessarily give them position or prominence, but who would say on that day of judgment when they stood before him? Well done, thou good and faithful servant because they love the praise of men. More than the praise of God. They would not confess Christ. And so what follows is Jesus declaration that we need to examine ourselves.
He begins first in verse 44. Then Jesus cried out and said, he who believes in me believes not in me, but in him who sent me the very first thing that Jesus cries out is about faith. The premise of this very situation is there are those who will not confess him. They know who he is, they know what he’s done. They know where he came from.
They know who he is and they will not confess his name because of the influence of those around them and because of their own selfish interests. And he says, look at your faith. He who believes in me believes not only in me, but in him who sent me, if you did nine, me, you deny him. When we examine ourselves spiritually,
we begin with our faith. What does our faith look like? What is our belief? And what is the state of our belief in second Corinthians chapter five in second Corinthians chapter five, Paul is writing to the church at Corinth, a congregation that so often struggled with the difficulties of the world around it and the influence of the world around it. But he says in verse five,
now he who has prepared for us this very thing who also has given us the spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord for, we notice this statement, walk by faith and not by sight.<inaudible> We walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident.
Yes. Well-pleased rather to the absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Paul says, we’ve examined ourselves. We’ve looked at ourselves and we know we’re not walking by sight. We’re not walking by the things that we know to be true in this life. In other words, we’re not walking by the influence of man. We’re not walking by the wisdom of man.
We’re not walking in a certain way because of those who try to influence us one way or another, we are walking. According to revelation, we are walking. According to God’s word, we walk by faith, not a leap in the dark, not guesswork, not a hope in a, in a circumstance where maybe sometime this might be true. No,
we’re walking by the declared word of God and not our own wisdom. Their wisdom said, if we confess Christ will be put out of the synagogue and God’s wisdom says, so what, what are you willing to give up to be obedient to me? So we begin with our faith, but also notice in Romans chapter 10 and Romans chapter 10 and beginning in verse eight,
as Paul writes to the church at Rome, he says, he says, but what does it say? The word is near you. Now notice the context. The passage is talking about the word of God and its action in their lives. He says, well, what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart.
That is the word of faith, which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead you will be saved for, with a heart. One believes on the righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. You know, that passage is important and it’s integral to our understanding of the position and the order of faith in view of baptism.
But so often we go to that passage and we’re only trying to get to the point that faith and confession come before baptism. And we ignore much of what that passage says about righteousness, salvation, and the word of God. It says that the word of God belongs in our heart in our mind. And that the word of God being in our mind ought to cause it to come out of our mouth.
They would not let the word of God come out of their mouth because there was a problem with their heart. There was a problem with their mind. So when we do a spiritual examination, a spiritual checkup, it begins first with our faith is our faith causing us to speak or our influences around us causing us to be silent. But then he goes on in John chapter 12 and he says,
he who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. And he who sees me, sees him, who sent me the second thing that we’re going to examine in our spiritual checkup is our eyesight. I will freely admit I’ve been blessed with good eyesight, but because of that, I’ve been negligent to go to the eye doctor.
I haven’t been to an eye doctor since I was seven years old, but I can still see. So, you know, but Jesus says your site is important. Your site is integral integral to your spiritual condition. And here’s why verse 46. I have come as a light into the world that whoever believes in me should not abide in darkness. He says,
can you see me? Can you see me? Do you have enough light in your life to see who I am? Because if you can see me, you can see him who sent me earlier on in this passage, back in John chapter 12, beginning in verse 31, be actually a little bit, get in verse 30, Jesus answered and said,
this voice did not come because of me. But for your sake now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cashed out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all peoples unto me under myself, this, he said, signifying, by what death, he should die. The people answered him.
We have heard that the law, excuse me, from the law that the Christ remains forever. And how can you say the son of man must be lifted up? Who is the son of man? Then Jesus said to them a little while longer, the light is with you while you walk or excuse me while you have the light less. Let me try one more time.
See if I can read the words on the page fairly. I do need to go to the eye doctor a little while longer. The light is with you walk while you have the light less darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going while you have the light, because believe in the light that you may become sons of light.
These things, Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them. Jesus is in their presence. Jesus declares that he would be lifted up. Jesus declares his crucifixion, Jesus declares. What would happen as a result of his crucifixion? And they say, Oh, we’ve read the old Testament. The Messiah who comes and sits on the throne reigns forever. How can you say the son of man will be lifted up?
They understood what he meant. They understood what he said. When he said the son of man would be lifted up. They knew he was talking about dying. And they said, we’ve read the old Testament. That can’t possibly be true if you’re the Messiah. But then Jesus said beginning in verse 37. But although he had done so many signs before them,
they did not believe in him that the word of Isaiah, the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke Lord, who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord been revealed. Therefore they could not believe because Isaiah said again, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts less. They should see with their eyes less. They should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them.
These things I say is said, when he saw his glory and spoke of him, you see Isaiah said, Oh, you’ve got highs, but you won’t use them to see you’ll stay blinded. You’ve got ears, but you won’t hear, you have a heart that could understand, but you won’t let it because had fit did because if it did, I’d heal you,
but that would require you to open your eyes. That would require you to believe with your heart. Had they wouldn’t. So we examine our faith and we examine our eyes. Whether or not they let any light in. But then we also examine our hearing. Jesus said, if anyone hears my words and does not believe I do not judge him now that might be easy to stop right there and say,
see, alright, no judgment. It’s okay. Believe what you want to, nobody’s going to judge you. That’s not what Jesus said. He says, I do not judge him for, I did not come to the world to judge the world, but to save the world, Jesus said, I’m not here to judge you. I’m not here to be the judge who brings about your judgment,
who brings about your, the justice that you ought to get? Because you’re a sinner for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life. Jesus said, I’m not here to judge the world. I’m here to save the world. But he said, he who rejects me and does not receive my words has that.
Which judges him. The word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day. Jesus said, I didn’t come to this earth. I didn’t give up heaven. I didn’t take on flesh. I didn’t come to this earth to judge you, but the word that I’ve spoken remains forever. The word that I’ve spoken, whether you’re willing to hear it and obey it or where you’re willing to hear it and dismiss it will judge you on the final day,
we examine our ears. Are they open to the word of God? Or do they hear the word of God and dismiss what they don’t want to hear and accept only what sounds good because that’s what these people were doing. If Jesus said something they agreed with, they were fine. But the moment he started declaring himself to be the son of God. The moment he started declaring himself to be the Messiah,
the Mullen, he started declaring himself to be someone who had authority over them. They refuse to hear our faith, our eyes, our ears, but he’s not done our speech. We go through this spiritual checkup, we’ve got to examine our speech. We’ve got to examine what we say in verse 49. Jesus sets a standard. He says for, I have spoken or I have not spoken on my own authority.
He says, I’m going to judge you in the final day, but it won’t be me. It’ll be the words that I’ve spoken. But just in case you begin to argue with the words that I’ve spoken, you need to understand something. I haven’t spoken of my own authority. I didn’t come to this earth with my own authority to declare my own message,
to declare my own judgment. That in the final day you will be judged my mind words. He said, I have not spoken of myself or of my own authority, but the father who gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak. Jesus said, my doctrine doesn’t belong to me. My word isn’t mine. The word that will judge you,
didn’t originate with me. It originated with the father. And in doing this and making this statement, Jesus sets a standard. What should we speak? Should we speak our own doctrine? Should we speak our own ideas? Should we speak our own opinions? Should we speak our own judgments? Or should we declare the word of God? Should we speak?
Not of our own authority, but of his, we examine our speech and Deuteronomy chapter 18 in view of both the hearing and the speaking. Moses sets an interesting standard in Deuteronomy chapter 18, beginning in verse 18, as he is declaring about the prophet that would come. He says in verse 18, I will raise up for them. A prophet like you,
God’s speaking through. Moses says, I will raise up a prophet like you Moses in their presence. He says, I will raise up for them. A prophet like you from among their brethren. And I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them. All that I command him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear my words,
which he speaks in my name, I will require it of him. God says, I’m going to judge. I’m going to raise up a prophet like you Moses. And they’re going to hear him. But some of them won’t accept what he says. And when they don’t, I’m going to judge because his words won’t be as old, but they will have come from me.
And so our speech as the church of Christ, as the body of Christ, as the bud bought bride of Christ, our speech, our doctrine, our proclamation Ought to always originate with him. We do not preach opinion. We do not preach that, which is coming from our own mouths or coming from some creed or coming from some Pope who claims to have the authority of Christ.
And doesn’t, it’s not coming from some head. It’s not coming from some regional doctrine comes from God. And if it doesn’t come from God, it has no business in this house. And I know, and I know that his commandment is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak just as the father has told me. So I speak fifth and final aspect of this checkup is how’s your life walk into the doctor’s office.
Maybe I should start that a little differently. The doctor walks into his office and there you are. And he begins to do the checkup. He checks your brain. Soso checks your eyes, not very responsive. Checks your hearing, not getting much checks your checks, your speech, not much. There then bothers to check whether or not you’re alive. Sometimes we judge ourselves by ourselves.
Paul uses that phrase to mean Christians sitting in a congregation, judging themselves against some other Christian in the congregation. Well, I’m better than so and so I’m doing, I do more than, and then Susie who sits down on the fourth row, I’ve been here for 41. Doesn’t matter. The question is, are you alive or dead? Jesus says that the commandments of God give life.
James says it a little differently. James says, show me your faith without your works. And I’ll show you my faith by my works. And that faith without works is dead. How’s your life? Does it look like someone who has faith in God who sees the Lord? And the one who sent him, who hears the word of God and responds to it?
Who accepts what he hears and obeys it, who not only hears, but speaks the word of God to those around him because he is faith. Isn’t dead, but alive. And those commandments that originate with the father that he obeys, that he acts out in his life are in his life producing everlasting life. Jesus came to give life. John chapter one,
John chapter one, as we begin this book that John gives this record of jesus’ life. He begins it with in the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him was nothing made that was made in him was life.
And the life was the light of men. See, we’re already right back to where we started faith and light and hearing the word of God. And the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe he was not that light,
but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, there’s your hearing.
But as many as received to him, received him to them. He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of men, but of God. Their life begins again. Their life begins with God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. John bore, witness of him and cried out saying this was he of whom. I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me for, he was before me and of his fullness. We have all received. And grace for grace for the law was given through Moses,
but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he has declared him. John says that Jesus said John chapter 14, when Phillip said, Lord, show us the father. He said, Philip, have you been with me so long? And you do have not seen me when you’ve seen me.
You’ve seen the father. I encourage all of us to spend a little time this week with John chapter 12, verses 42 through 50 or 48 and ask ourselves what is our spiritual condition? And when we get the results of the checkup, where are we lacking? And what do we need to work on? You’re here this morning and you’re outside the body of Christ.
You do enter into Christ by being born. Again, you do enter into Christ as, as BJ made. So clear last week, you do enter into Christ by being born of water and of the spirit. Having believed that Jesus Christ is the son of God, willing to repent of your sins, willing to confess his name, willing to bow to his authority as he bowed to the authority of God.
But are you willing to do that? If you’re outside the body of Christ, you can put Christ on in baptism today. If you have need of the invitation, if you have need of responding to the invitation for any reason, good or bad, why not come together now as we stand in, as we sing, Hey, while we do is good,
he abides with us and with all trust and<inaudible> to be happy and jeez us, but to trust and<inaudible>, but we never can.<inaudible> for the<inaudible> and<inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible> to be happy and jeez us, but to trust. And<inaudible> walk by, Hey, this, and Hey, what he says we will do where he sends we.
Well, never fear only trust. Oh, Hey.<inaudible> to be happy and jeez, us, but to trust. And<inaudible> The closing song will be number 736 to Christ. Be true to It’s been long. Oh man, be true. He needs<inaudible> and<inaudible> to<inaudible> to Christ the truth to cries me. Oh man, be true. He needs<inaudible> to stand against the powers of sin.<inaudible> to<inaudible> the Lord be true.
Would you bow with me? Our God and father in heaven. We’re indeed thankful for this beautiful first day of the week that you’ve allowed us to gather as your children and worship Dee and same price to your name, father. We are thankful for the work that Aaron and Michael do here. And father we’re thankful for their most loving and giving families that they brought with them,
by the way, thank you for the word that we’ve heard today. And we pray father that we can use that to be that shining light to those around us. And those that may be lost. Bring them to you while we pray that you’ll be with us and keep us safe and forgive us of our seniors. They say in jesus’ name, we pray.
10-07-2020 Revelation 11 – Article – Rejoice! (Part 2)
The Kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord.
The Seventh Trumpet & The Third Woe – Summary of the Book of Revelation: Chapter 11 (part 2)
A LOOK BACK: The angels with the trumpets are still sounding. The seventh angel is about to pronounce the third woe upon the people of Earth.
Consider Jim McGuiggan’s review of the chapter thus far.
John is being told the Church is about to undergo hard times, but at the same time he is being assured everything is all right with them. In this chapter, he is told this in two different ways. A vision of a city trodden under the heel of the enemy while the inner sanctuary is… invulnerable. The second vision is one of two witnesses. They have a task to perform, namely, prophesy for 1260 days. They have opposition, but they have more than enough ability to take care of that opposition. They finish their task! But there’s that other side of the picture to portray – the gloom. That is hinted at in their wearing sackcloth, but it is spelled out in their death at the hands of the beast. Their defeat is seen to be only apparent since they are resurrected and glorified.
The same truth is taught in chapter 12:6,14 and in 13:5ff.1
Rejoice! The King Reigns!
The sixth trumpet sounds in 9:13 and then a message came to comfort the Christians. Now the seventh trumpet sounds, and again we will see a message of comfort for the brethren. Understand that with the last trumpet sounding (and the contents of its message), God’s judgment against Rome will be complete, the Christians vindicated, and God will be victorious.
The proclamation of “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” is the announcement of the public vindication of the Kingdom. The kingdom of our Lord encompasses all sovereignties of the world (see Matthew 28:18). He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The elders rejoice on their thrones (verse 17.) “We give You thanks… Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.” Jesus’ utilization of His authority to bring judgment upon the Church’s persecutors is rejoiced over. They rejoice in the wrath of the King upon the nations; the judgment of the dead; the reward of the prophets and saints and those who fear His name; and the destruction of those who destroy the earth.
Has It Already Happened?
This expression is taking place as if the “final woe” was already delivered, but it is still coming–we will read of seven bowls of wrath in the coming chapters. When God’s wrath begins it is as good as done. There will be nothing to stop it.
Then the Temple of God opens in Heaven, and the ark of His covenant is in the Holiest of Holies. John again observes “lightnings, noises, thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail.” Judgment is a reason to rejoice.
Next week: The Dragon Loses to the Child of the Woman.
1McGuiggan, Jim. Revelation. Sunset Institute Press. Kindle Edition.
10-07-2020 Revelation 11 – Article – Two Witnesses
Two witnesses are called to testify, and their blood will declare the judgment on Earth.
A LOOK BACK: Chapter 10 continues the second woe with a prophecy made by an angel that John is not allowed to write down. The angel declares that the time when the mystery of God is complete—the mystery declared by the prophets in the Old Testament.
John is commanded to take the little book from the hand of the angel and eat it (his prophecy). It is sweet to taste, but bitter in his belly.
Measurements
John is called upon to measure with a reed the Temple (or inner sanctuary) of God, the altar, and those who worship in the Temple (God’s priests = Christians). He is not to measure the courtyard of the Gentiles (profane people). To describe the kind of people these Gentiles are, they are the Gentiles will tread underfoot the city—the persecutors.
The Two Witnesses
The angel declares that two witnesses will be given to prophesy for 1,260 days. Notice they prophesy in sackcloth – their message isn’t one of hope, but judgment. The witnesses are olive trees and lampstands which stand before God. If anyone seeks to harm the witnesses, they fire devours them.
The witnesses’ authority includes shutting heaven, causing no rain to fall, turning water to blood, and striking the earth with plagues. These are the actions of prophets during the Mosaic ages (Elijah) and Patriarchal ages (Moses).
The Beast Makes War
When the prophets cease prophesying, the beast begins to make war against the witnesses of God. He will overcome them and kill them. The prophets’ bodies are paraded and dumped in the streets of The Great City.
The city is spiritually Sodom, Egypt, and the place of the crucifixion (Jerusalem). Here is a picture of the complete rejection of God’s prophets from Moses to Elijah to Christ by those of earth.
The reaction of humanity at the death of the two prophets is to throw a party, to rejoice and give gifts because these prophets “tormented” earth with their prophecies. But these prophets are not finished yet.
The Resurrection
After three and a half days the two prophets stand on their feet in the middle of the street. Fear falls on the people who see them. A voice from heaven calls to the prophets, “Come up here.” Do not miss: God ultimately protects His messengers – even if the world kills them physically.
The prophets ascend to heaven in a cloud as their enemies watch. Immediately, judgment begins. An earthquake; one-tenth of the city falls; seven thousand men die (7 x 1000); the remainder of humanity glorifies God (repentance). Thus ends the second woe. The third woe comes quickly.
Next week: The Seventh Trumpet.
10-07-2020 Revelation 11 (Class)
JOHN – Revelation 11
The Two Olive Trees And The Seventh Trumpet
- What was John given and what was he told to do? Revelation 11:1 ______________________________________________
- What was John told to leave out? Revelation 11:2 ________________________________________________________________
- How many witnesses were there and what were they told to do? Revelation 11:3 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What two things do the witnesses have power to do and who are these things pictures of in the Old Testament? Revelation 11:6 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Revelation 11:7-8 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Revelation 11:11-12 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- 15-16 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Under Christ’s reign who would be rewarded?
What was seen when the temple of God in Heaven was opened?
Revelation 11:18-19 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Automated Transcript
<inaudible><inaudible> good evening. I was telling, sorry, the, the pain medicine does this to me. I lose my words. I was telling Tommy just a minute ago. I said, I sure am glad that I’m injured. And everybody’s being very patient with me because I’m injured because everything takes so much longer than normal when you only have one hand,
okay, we are in revelation chapter 11 this evening. I don’t have as many slides on the overheads as I have had previously. Mostly we’re just going to use the images tonight, but revelation chapter 11 is for those who have been here for Zechariah and our sermons on Zechariah revelation, chapter 11, at least the part will sound very Familiar to you, or hopefully it will because it comes straight out of Zechariah,
Zechariah chapter four. So we’ll get into that in just a moment, but let’s get started with a word of prayer, our gracious father in heaven, we bow before your throne grateful for this day that you’ve given to us for the life that you have blessed us with and the health that you have given to us. We pray for this country. We pray for its leaders.
We pray for all those who lead around the world, both in local and in national levels. We pray for them to make choices that are in accordance with your will. We pray for them to be used for your purposes. And we pray for this election here in our country to be equitable and to be in accordance with the law and that, which is just,
but also that which is done and handled in a way that promotes unity and not division. We pray for this congregation and we pray for all those who are undergoing and enduring difficult times and struggles, hardships illnesses, pray that you will be with them, that they might have the strength to endure those hard times. They may have the strength to Le lean on you and look to you for grace and mercy,
comfort, love, and kindness, and also to be able to lean on their fellow brethren and their brothers and sisters in Christ, for those things that they need. We know that at times the hardest thing is to ask for help when we need it. And we pray for the wisdom to know that we ought to ask just to the same way we know that you have told us that you know what we need,
but that you want us to ask for it. We pray for forgiveness when we fall short of your glory and we pray that you continue to be with us when we do what is wrong. And when we are willing to repent of those things and seek your forgiveness, we pray for all those who are traveling, pray that they might reach their destination safely.
All this we pray in jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s go over the questions from chapter 10, very quickly as a review chapter 10, question one after mankind would not repent. What did John see coming down from heaven? A mighty angel. Okay. Who does he look like? Based upon his description? I had the, he’s got the he’s clothed with a cloud.
He’s got a rainbow on his head. His face is like the sun. His feet are like pillars of brass. He is one who roar his voice is like the roar of a lion. What we noticed the imagery of those things and all of those things. Connect back to who? Jesus and the Godhead. Okay. He is the representative, the strong representative of the Godhead.
And very clearly the connection to Christ is there because the shared descriptions. Okay. So who does he look like? Based upon his descriptions, the Godhead or Christ specifically? Where are his feet? All right. One foot on the land and one foot on the sea. What is in the Angel’s hand? Say what a little book. What did the angel do and what followed his actions?
Cried with a loud voice. Don’t hesitate for home out there. Come on.<inaudible> we don’t have a whole lot of extra time. So everybody just chime in, cried with a loud voice. And then what followed his cry? The seven thunders sounded their voice. All right. What happened to the prophecy of the seven thunders? All right. John was told,
do not write it down, seal it up. What would be finished when the seventh trumpet sounds the mystery of God? Why are sorry? Weigher is a picture like this. What we see in verses five through seven, where is a picture like this scene? In the old Testament? We mentioned a specific chapter. Daniel chapter 12. What did the voice from heaven?
Tell John to do in verses eight through 10. All right. He said, go get the book from the angel and eat it. Where in the old Testament, do we see? This is<inaudible>. Do you remember the chapter? The Z kill chapter two and three. All right. What did the little book taste like? Sweet, like gelato now.
Sweet, like honey AB, but unlike Joe’s honey, what was the little book like in his belly? Bitter. Okay. And remember what we said, the revelation of God, to those who were Christians to those who were profits having God’s word revealed to them was always a wonderful thing. But that didn’t mean the message was. And so that’s the picture here.
The receiving of the message is a sweet is sweet as honey, but the message itself is bitter because it’s judgment. That is going to be prophesied. What would the little book cause John to do prophesied. Okay. That’s why, that’s why it’s the clear picture is this is the revelation from God, because he eats the book and it causes him to speak to prophesy God’s message.
What kind of message would it be the idea of it being bitter? What kind of message would it be judgment? It would be a message that was, that was bitter or, or judgment. Okay. All right. Let’s go through, if I can find the remote here. We won’t say a whole lot about chapter 10, but let’s go through and do just a little review.
Like we’ve done before. Kind of set us up for chapter 11. The time of the writing of the book read in chapter 17, about the seven Kings, the seven horns that are on the Beast’s head. We’re not to chapter 17 yet, but we talked about it and Daniel identifies those NGS as the Kings of the fourth kingdom, the kingdom, in which God said in the days of these Kings,
I shall set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, but ultimately God’s kingdom would destroy, would crush all those other kingdoms. Okay. Revelation is the description of that. Okay. That’s revelation is the fulfillment of Daniel chapter two, verse 44. It is, the church has already been established. The kingdom’s already been established, but the wiping out of those four kingdoms isn’t done yet,
but it’s going to be prophesied here. And God says, I told you this was going to happen in the days of Nebuchadnezzar and it’s going to happen. Okay? So we said we’re in the days of Vespasian because the beast, the persecuting emperor is not on the throne, but there’s another emperor who’s coming very shortly. And then the beast will rise up.
And we know Vespasian is that persecuting beast? So John in chapter one C is, is in on the Island of Patmos on the Lord’s day. And he’s in the spirit he’s worshiping. When he begins to see a vision. There’s one who speaks to him from behind me, turns around because he hears the voice of one who sounds like a trumpet. And he turns around and he sees Christ and Christ is in the midst of the candlesticks.
The candlesticks represent what the churches, all right. And in his right hand are seven, seven candlesticks around him. And in his right hand are seven way stars. Okay? And the stars are the angels of the churches. And then chapter two begins because Jesus says to John, what I tell you to write the things that are the things that will be,
you write them in a book. So the commandment is given to, right? So he’s going to write, and he’s going to write to all the churches and the focus there. Chapter two and chapter three is Christ and his connection to the churches. So then chapter four begins in John is sees an open door. God calls John into the throne room.
He enters into the throne room of God. And he sees there the throne room of God. He sees the one who sits on the throne and he never describes him. He just describes the glory. That’s emanating from him like a rainbow. And he describes those who are around the throne there in chapter four. And the point is of chapter four, believe in God,
then chapter five, you see, after you’ve seen the throne room of God, you now see that the one who’s on the throne is holding a scroll. The scroll is covered with seven seals. It’s a scroll that has a revelation from the throne of God, but it can’t be opened except by the one who’s worthy. And so they search heaven and earth.
And under the earth, everybody who’s lived and everybody who is alive and no one’s found who’s worthy. And John begins to weep, but God says John, or excuse me, one of the elders comes to John says, don’t we for one has been found in the midst of the throne as the lamb, the lamb of God and the lion of the tribe of Judah.
And he’s got seven eyes and he’s got seven horns. And he’s like a lamb who was slain, but he’s standing up and he’s alive and he’s worthy. And so the lamb proceeds to go to the one who’s sitting on the throne and takes the scroll. And chapter six, he begins to open the scroll. We have seven seals. And the first seal we see the one on the white horse and he’s coming out and he’s conquering.
And we see that as Christ Christ being victorious, the church through Christ conquering through the spread of the gospel. Paul said that in his day, the gospel went to every nation. Under heaven, Christ went forth, conquering, but persecution followed three horses that follow are the four soar judgments of God. Coming upon the persecutors as a result of their persecution,
then you have I’m behind. Then you have in the fifth seal, the souls under the altar. They’re crying out to God. How long though, Lord, are you going to allow this persecution to go on? And God tells him, you wait, you just rest. He gives them white robes and tells them to rest for a little while. And then the sixth seal is open.
When the six steel is open, you have kind of the preview of God’s judgment. Judgment begins to happen on those who dwell on the earth. And they, the rich and the mighty and all those who are prosperous and all those who are, are powerful. They cry for the mountains to fall down on them and protect them from the wrath of the one who’s on the throne and the lamb.
But as few dials, they can’t get protection from that. They can’t get protection from the wrath of God. But the question then is asked, who can stand in the day of God’s wrath? So at the end of the sixth seal, there’s a pause. And chapter seven begins with the ceiling of the people of God. 144,000 by number are described as those who are sealed 12 tribes and 12,000 each TRIBE 12 times,
12 times a thousand, every one God says everyone who belongs to me can stand in the day of my judgment because I know who belongs to me. So they go into the, the tribulation, they go into the persecution, they go into the trials marked with the Mark of God. And God says, I know who you are and you’ll come out the other end.
And then they come out on the other end and they’re not 144,000 there an innumerable number in the presence of God. And they’ve got Palm tree or Palm leaves in their hands and they’re praising God. And they’re Perfect. Okay. I mean, I know all the time we have a president who loves to call everything perfect, but they were, they, they went through the tribulation.
They went through the difficulty of, I came out perfect because God protected. It’s a message of comfort. And then the seventh seal is opened. And inside the seventh seal, you have seven angels who are given seven trumpets and they prepared a sound, but that God says, wait, not yet. And another angel comes from heaven and he goes to the throne of God,
or it goes, goes to the altar of God. And he takes the prayers of the saints. Those who are undergoing persecution. And he mixes it with incense and he offers it before the Lord. And when the incense goes up, he takes his censor. And he goes back to the altar, the burnt altar. And he takes the fire from the alternative Cassa to the earth.
The message is clear. God hears the prayers of his children and answers them. And now the seven trumpets begin to sound. The first trumpet begins to sound. And first through fourth trumpets, they go forth. And it’s a picture of, well, actually all seven trumpets are a picture of the plagues in Egypt. They’re not identical, but the pictures they’re,
the similarities are enough to tell us, God is giving Rome what God gave Egypt. And he’s only doing it a partial way. Every single one of the trumpets is a partial action. Not complete, not finished, but it’s enough to get them to the end of chapter seven, where God says, it’s time to repent, but the message at the end,
sorry, at the end of chapter nine is at the end of the sixth. Trumpet is they did not repent. So the sixth trumpet comes and when the sixth trumpets over, there’s another pause. Chapter 10, we have the pause because we see another angel comes out of heaven and he’s holding a little book and we just went through that. So we’re not going to take the time to rehearse that again.
That brings us to chapter 11, chapter 11, by the way, have you gotten yet? It’s just a picture book. It’s just a, I just, just look at the pictures And granted they’re all in words, but I mean, if you want a copy of the pictures, that’s at least an artist’s rendition of the pictures. It’s Just a story,
But it’s real. I mean, it’s not a fake story. It’s not a fairy tale. It’s real, but it’s figures. Okay. Then I was given a read. All right. We immediately go back to the ZQ because the Z Gill is told by God, go measure the city, take your measuring line and go measure the city and tell me what you find.
Okay? This is an act of investigation prior to judgment. I, you to measure it. I want you to see its boundaries. I want you to know what is there. Okay. So then I, John, okay, was given a Reed like a measuring rod and the angel stood saying rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.
Now, if the timeline of the book is what John says, it is in chapter 17. Then is there a temple in Jerusalem to go measure? No, the temple was destroyed in 80 70. When, when the Romans under Titus came into the city, there wasn’t a temple in Jerusalem. So he’s not talking about the temple of Herod. John is not told,
go to the temple of Herod and measure the temple and the people who worship there. God, isn’t telling him that. God’s saying you go measure my temple. Now, according to first Corinthians chapter three and chapter six, who are the temple of God, the churches you have the Christians individually talked about as the temple of God in one of those chapters.
And you have the church collectively spoken of as the temple of God in the other. And God says, John, take this measuring rod and go measure my temple. Okay. Now notice specifically though, there’s some very specific instructions. I want you to measure the temple of God and the altar as those who worship there, but leave out the court, which is outside the temple and do not measure it.
Now he’s using the figures of the temple. He’s using the figures of the temple. They were familiar with in Jerusalem that no longer stood and outside of the temple were, was what the area of, of who? The Gentiles, the court of Gentiles. He’s getting them to get the picture. There’s those who are on the inside, who belong to God.
But specifically here’s the picture who is specifically on the inside of the temple. Every time the Temple’s open, the ones who work there, the priests go back to revelation, chapter five, revelation, chapter five, beginning in verse eight. Now, when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense,
which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and knows this and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Those who are the redeemed, those who call Jesus Christ worthy. Those who praise the lamb.
They’re not Jews in contrast to Gentiles. They’re every TRIBE, they’re every tongue they’re every nation there, everyone under heaven who has been obedient to the blood of Christ and redeemed by the lamb, but notice verse 10 and have made us Kings and priests To our God. And we shall reign on the earth. All right. So John is told you go measure the temple and the people in it who worship there.
And they’re Christians. The temple of God is the church. Those who worship there are the Christians. And he’s saying, you go measure it, but you leave out the court, which is outside the temple and do not measure it for it has been given to the Gentiles and they will tread the Holy city under foot for 42 months. All right. In chapter 11,
you’re going to see 42 months and 1,260 days. If you do the math, Both of those equal out to three and a half years. Okay. They’re the same number. One of them expressed in days. And one of them expressed in months. But if you go study the book of Daniel, you’ll know why they’re being used because in Daniel, they are used there together with a description that is a little bit different.
It’s called it’s. It’s given this way times, time and half a time. Okay. So get that. There’s a plural times, a singular time and a half a time. If you put years in the place of the word times, there’s a plurality of years. There’s a single year and there’s a half a year, three and a half years.
Okay. They all mean the same thing in chapter 12, you’re going to see in chapter 12, beginning in verse Six, Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days. Okay. So we’re going to see 42 months in chapter 11 and chapter 12. We’re going to see 1,260 days in chapter 11 and chapter 12.
But then notice this later on in chapter 12 in verse 14. Okay. So the woman was taken to the wilderness for 1,260 days. But in verse 14, we read, but the woman was given two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, which she is, where, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time.
Okay. Chapter 11 and chapter 12, keep track of this 42 months, three and a half years, 1000, 260 days and time, times and half a time all mean the same thing, but here’s, what’s important. Three and a half years. That’s half of what three and a half years is half of what? Seven years, the message in Daniel,
the message in revelation of that time idea is this. This is the time when it looks like the beast is going to win. It looks like the Christians don’t have a chance. It looks like God’s going to bring judgment, but it looks like everybody’s going to perish anyway. And here’s where the picture comes from. Turn to James chapter five, three and a half years.
Now you go do the math and you go, wait a minute. That’s not three and a half years. If your calendar is 365 days, but the ancient calendar wasn’t, it was 360 days. So that’s why the number’s a little different than we would have gotten for three and a half years ago. The numbers 360 days in the ancient calendar. Okay.
Chapter five of James verse 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. Now, hang on to Alijah, get your picture of Elijah in the days of who, who was on throne. Hey help. And his wonderful pleasant wife,
Jess, Val, all right. So a heaven Jessebelle are on the throne in the Northern kingdom. And even Alijah will say, I’m the only one left. Everybody else is dead. No one serves God, but me and God says, that’s not true. I’ve got 7,000 that haven’t bowed the Nita bale, but that all comes after this. Elijah tells his servant,
you go to Ahab and tell him there’s not going to be any rain until I say so, and then aligned to disappears. And here’s the picture. God’s people look like they’re gone. God’s people look like they’ve been annihilated. You look around for God’s people and you can’t find them anywhere because the persecution and the destruction and the judgment, and yet all the while the evil ones on the throne,
the evil ones raining, but he’s not raining for perfection. He’s not raining with a seven. The number of God, he’s got three and a half years, and Alijah will disappear for three and a half years. And they’ll send everywhere looking to find them in all the while. There’s no rain. Now we’re there righteous people in Israel suffering because there was no rain.
Yes, there were, were there some people who were righteous all over the region around Israel who were suffering because there was no rain. Yes, sir. Work. And it looks like they’re not going to get through it, but God wants them to know. I measured the temple and I know who’s there. I measured those who are mine. And I know who’s there,
but it doesn’t mean it’s going to be pleasant. The message of three and a half years of 42 months of 1000, 260 days and times, times, and half time, times and half the time is this. The Christians are victorious, but it’s not going to be easy. Okay. So let’s go back into the text. I give power and I give power to my two witnesses and they will prophesize,
Oh, wait a minute, go back to verse two. The Gentiles come into the Holy city. Now that’s not Jerusalem. I mean, it’s the picture of Jerusalem, but it’s not the old Jerusalem. It’s not the place that the Romans decimated. It’s not the physical Jerusalem. It’s God’s city. It’s the church. They come in and they trot the church.
They’re destroying them. They’re persecuting. They’re ruining them as if it was Rome, trampling, Jerusalem. But notice what happens. And I will give power verse three to my two witnesses. And they will prophesize 1000, 260 days. So the Gentiles trod the city down for 42 months, but the prophets prophesied for 42 months. Okay. And they’re clothed in sack cloth.
These are the two olive trees. Now you remember Zechariah chapter four, turn over there real quick. I know it doesn’t feel like we’re getting anywhere, but we’re getting somewhere. Alright. At Zechariah chapter four, God has just talked about the high priest, Joshua and chapter three, chapter four. He begins now the angel who talked with me, came back and wakened me as a man.
Who’s waking down in his sleep. And he said to me, what do you see? So I said, I am looking in, there is a lampstand of solid gold with a bowl on top of it. And on the stand seven lamps with seven pipes to the seven lamps, two olive trees are by it. One at the right of the bowl and the other at its left.
So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me saying, what are these? My Lord, then the angel who talked with me answered and said to me, do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my Lord, verse 11. Then I answered him and said to him, what are the two olive trees at the right of the lampstand?
And that it’s left. And I further answered and said to him, what are these two olive branches that drip into the receptacles of the two golden pipes, which from which the golden oil drains, then he answered me and said, do you not know what these are? And I said, no, my Lord. So he said, these are the two anointed ones who stand beside the Lord of the whole earth.
Okay. There’s your picture? That’s Zechariah. And in Zachariah, it is Joshua or Jeshua, who’s the high priest. The high priests were anointed and<inaudible> who is the governor and the, the secular leader of the people like a King. He was anointed. Okay. These are the two witnesses of God. These are the two representatives of God. These are the two prophets of God.
These are God’s anointed. Okay. Get the picture. But they’re lamps and olive trees. They’re olive trees that are feeding lamps and the lamps do what provide light. And by the way, in chapter one, two and three who are lampstands, the church is God said, go measure my temple and who are, who’s the temple of God, the church,
the Gentiles trot under the church. But God says, here are my two witnesses. They’re going to prophesy all this time. And they’re feeding the lamps and the lamps are still the churches. Okay? God’s voice is going to be heard. It’s going to be heard by his people. It’s going to be declared by his people. But remember, 42 months is the Christians are victorious,
but it ain’t going to be easy. Okay? So these are the two verse four. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These watch,
this have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. And they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire. Hmm. What two people does that describe in the old Testament, Elijah and Moses, Moses represents the law. Elijah represents the prophets and the message of God is clear.
My voice will be heard no matter who’s on the throne. My voice will be declared to the one who’s on the throne. And my people will look like they’re going to get destroyed. What happened in Egypt? When Moses came and started telling Pharaoh what he was supposed to do, did it get easier on the Israelites or harder, harder? And it was harder and harder and harder and harder till they were let go.
They told Moses, you came here to kill us. We’re all going to die because you won’t stop going to Pharaoh. But in the end they were delivered. Okay. If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth. When they speak, by the way, who does, whose power do they use profits, gods, okay. They speak and fire proceeds from their mouth.
That’s the power of God. They don’t win by battle. They don’t win by the size of their army. They win by declaring the word of God. Okay. They have power to hold back rain. They have power to bring plagues. They have power to turn water to blood and to strike the earth. Then verse seven, when they finished their testimony,
the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them and kill them. So they go out, they prophesied before the people and what happens to them, the beast murders them, and then notice what happens. And their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Now, probably going to take some time on Sunday to explain that one, because I don’t have the time tonight, but it’s Rome and not Jerusalem. Okay. We’ll get into the reason why on Sunday. So their dead bodies are left in the streets of the great city. Then those from then peoples tribes, tongues and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days.
All right. So before we have three and a half years now we have three and a half days. They’ll see their bodies for three and a half days and not allow their dead bodies to be put in graves. The people around, they see the murdered profits and they’re so glad they died. They won’t even let them be buried. They’re laying there in the street.
They’re being observed by the people and the people glory in it. Notice what their reaction is. Then those from the peoples tribes, tongues nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days and not allow their dead bodies. We put in graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, making Mary and sending gifts to one another.
Because those two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth, the earth, the sinners, those who do not love God and do not listen to his voice, do not appreciate the word of God. As a matter of fact, they consider it torment. And when the prophets are murdered by the beast, they throw a party, they send gifts to one another.
What’s the occasion. I got a gift from you. The prophets of God are dead. But yeah, These profits look a lot like Christ because three and a half days later, verse 11. Now after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered them. And they stood on their feet and great fear fell on those who saw them.
And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, Come up Here. And they ascended to heaven in a cloud. See, they look like Christ three and a half days later, they resurrect. And then they ascend in a cloud. They look like Christ and their enemies saw them in the same hour. There was a great earthquake and a 10th of the city fell in the earthquake.
7,000 people were killed. Now don’t, don’t go looking in history for a time when Rome, one 10th of Rome just got in an earthquake in the 7,000 people to it to a T died. That’s not what you’re supposed to get out of this. God’s saying I’m saving my people and you’re getting your last warning. Remember the sixth trumpets already sounded when the seventh trumpet sounds it’s all over and notice the reaction.
A 10th of the city fell in the earthquake. 7,000 people were killed and the rest were afraid and where they were sending gifts to one another because the profits were dead and they were glorying before. Just a day, just the day before. Now we read and gave glory to the God of heaven. God’s long suffering. Always, always waits just long enough because God doesn’t desire that any should perish,
but that all should have salvation. Okay. We’ll pick up with verse 14 and actually let’s read verse 14. We’ll pick up with verse 15. The second woe is passed behold. The third woe is coming quickly. So there’s your warning shot. That’s that’s your hold on. It’s about to get real. Alright. We’ll pick up there verse 15 on Sunday.
Thank you for your attention. Good evening. Welcome to the Collierville Wednesday, even Bible study and devotional. It’s good to see each and every one of you out here tonight. And for those of you that are unable to still make it out because of various reasons, COVID-19 et cetera. We want you to know that we truly miss each and every one of you.
And we pray for each and every one of you daily. And really look forward to the day that we all can assemble here again together and worship our God. Our announcements this evening are sick. Please continue to remember Rudel Wilson, John Springer and Pam chafe. And you know, Pam was here Sunday. She was able to get out some, and that was good to see her.
So that means she is getting better every day. So to continue to pray for her though, Dorothy Wilson is experiencing extremely high blood pressure. So please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. Sylvia pass. We’ll have a, another nerve block procedure this Friday, and this pray that this one does some good for her. Cause I know she’s tired of messing with her back.
Aren’t you Sylvia. Janet Jones is in a meth, Memphis Jewish home, and she is scheduled to be released tomorrow. So that’s great news for Janet. So thank God for that. Aaron, as you saw is here this evening with us. He’s recovering, I guess he’s doing okay. He doesn’t look like he’s in any pain right at the minute. So that’s a good thing.
He says. He says so and so. Okay, Danny O’Neil who’s Tommy O’Neill’s brother is in st. Francis hospital. He is on a ventilator. He’s had issues with CLPD and now he’s being tested for COVID-19 and they don’t have the results of that yet. They’re expecting the results of that tomorrow, but please keep Danny and the entire own Neal family and your thoughts and prayers,
Liam, Dan Danley. This is Paul. His grandson is recovering from a dog bite. So please keep Liam and your thoughts and prayers. And then Michael Dale, you know, was out Sunday because he has some type of virus. He did see his doctor today, but we have not been able to get ahold of him yet to find out the results of what his visit was with his doctor.
So we’re not a hundred percent sure yet how Michael doing, but please continue to keep him and your thoughts and prayers. The only other note I have or announcement is for the man, a reminder that next Monday evening at 7:00 PM will be the monthly men’s business meeting for our devotional. Tonight. Song leader is going to be Joel caisson. Aaron coats are,
will bring us the devotional itself. And then Joel caisson is also going to do the closing prayer for us. Thank you. If you would Mark your books for number nine Oh two, that will be our song of encouragement nine zero two. And if you would turn to number 2014, Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Then sign a fire. The Bible tells me it wants to him being long.
They are weak, but he is strong. Yes. Jesus loves me. Yes. Jesus loves me. Yes. Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me, so Jesus loves me. Hey, die. Heaven’s gate two up and why he will wash away. My sin. Let is lit a chalk and yes, Jesus loves me. Yes. Jesus loves me.
Yes. Jesus loves me. Bible tells me, so Jesus take this hard. My<inaudible> ah, yes. Bled and died for me. I went for the yes. Jesus loves me. Yes. Jesus loves me. Yes. Jesus Going to do something a little different tonight, going to read a chapter from second Peter and it truly is an invitation.
I think you’ll see where if you’re outside the body of Christ this evening, you need to change that. And if you’re a member of the body of Christ, we get to the end of this chapter. You should know what your condition is and if it’s not what it ought to be the invitations in here to change it. Second, Peter chapter three beginning in verse one,
beloved. I now write to you this second epistle in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the Holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and savior. Knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking,
according to their own Luz and saying, where is the promise of his coming for? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation for this, they willfully forget that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of water and in the water by which the world that then existed perished being flooded with water,
but the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But beloved do not forget this. One thing that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and as a thousand and a thousand years as one day, the Lord is not Slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness,
but is long suffering toward us. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise. And the elements will melt with fervent heat, both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Therefore sins, all these things will be dissolved. What manner of persons ought you to be in Holy conduct and godliness looking for, and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be being on fire. And the elements will melt with Fermin heat. Nevertheless, according, nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells,
therefore beloved looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by him in peace, without spot and blameless and consider that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation as also our beloved brother. Paul, according to the wisdom, given to him has written to you as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand,
which are which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction. As they also do the rest of the scriptures. You therefore beloved since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness being led away with the error of the wicked, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ to him be the glory both now and forever.
Amen. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but jeez, what can make me whole and nothing, but ah, jeez.<inaudible> that makes me widest. No, no nothing. Butterfly. Jeez, nothing. Eh, Marson nothing butterfly. Jeez, no, the good that I have done nothing. Bertha, blah, jeez. Oh, brash.
Yeah, that makes me wide ass.<inaudible> nothing butterfly. Ah, geez. Our father, which art in heaven, we truly are thankful for the privilege that we’ve had this evening to come together And study your word and be strengthened by the gospel. We’re thankful father for the privilege. It is to be with our brothers and sisters to be encouraged by one another and to demonstrate our love for one another and especially our love for the father.
We’re mindful of those that have been mentioned that are going through various difficulties in their lives with the hate that they have. We especially want to ask you to be with Aaron, that his risk continues to heal and that he might have a speedy recovery father. We pray for Paula’s grandson that everything might go well for him and that he will not have any difficulties over that incident.
Father help us to remember all of those that are not with us this evening, pray that we might always try to encourage one another in particular as the days, go by and help us to keep our eyes on the goal. And remember that we are your children that we need to continue to study your word, that we might be strengthened by that we might remind faithful to you and be able to encourage others to come to knowledge of the gospel and be obedient to it before it’s everlastingly too late.
Help us each day that we are compassionate toward one another. That we have patients. We have long suffering that we always are mindful of each other. And especially those that are outside the body, realizing that they are in a lost condition and they need us to encourage and help them find their way, strengthen us each day and continue to watch over us in Jesus name.
We pray. Amen.
09-30-2020 Revelation 10 – Article – A Delicious Little Book that Caused a Stomach Ache
A LOOK BACK: Chapter 9 reveals the first “woe” and the second. People die. The judgment against the people of the Earth not marked with God’s mark. The Star (King / Angel) with the key to the bottomless pit falls from heaven to earth. Then the four angels under the altar of God release plagues to bring more judgment upon sinful humanity. After all this, humanity still does not repent of their iniquity.
Note: The second woe continues until Revelation 11:13.
The Angel and the Book: John sees another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He holds a little book open in his hand. He speaks, and his voice is like the roar of a lion in strength. When he cries out, seven thunders speak. John listens to the voices (thunders) and is prepared to write their message, but a voice stops him and tells him, “Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.”
The angel raised his hand to heaven and swore by God that there should be no further delay, but “in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.”
Note: God’s description: “…Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it…” From Genesis to Revelation, the Scriptures carry one unified creation account. Accept it or reject it, but if you reject it, also reject the eternal nature of God, and His prophesies contained within Scripture. They all stand or fall together.
Then the voice that stopped John from writing speaks again and tells John to take the book from the hand of the angel. John tells the angel, “Give me the little book.” The angel responds, “Take and eat it; and it will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth.”
John takes the book and eats it, and it is sweet like honey in his mouth but bitter in his stomach. He must again prophesy about many peoples, nations, tongues and kings (his prophecy will end bitterly for them).
Next week: The Two Olive Trees.
09-30-2020 – Revelation 9-10 (Class)
JOHN – Revelation 10
The Angel with the Little Book
Automated Transcription
<inaudible> It is time for us to get started. Hopefully this will be the last time I’m sitting down with my arm, propped up on a pillow on a podium for teaching class, but we’ll see a surgery is tomorrow will be the first time I’ve had anything other than surgery on my tonsils. So a are not tonsils, but a wisdom teeth. So it should be fun.
I expect fun will be, will be the correct description of tomorrow. But anyway, we are in revelation chapter, chapter, chapter 10, revelation, chapter 10, let’s begin with a word of prayer gracious father in heaven. We bound before you grateful for the day you’ve given to us the life that we have, the opportunities that we have to serve.
You grateful for all of the many blessings that you shower upon us on a daily basis and grateful for this book of revelation, this book, which teaches us so well. And so clearly that you are on the throne that you are victorious and that you reign and that no Man, no individual, no persecutor and not even Satan himself has power to destroy you or to overcome your will.
We pray that you’d be with us as we go through this period of study, may the things that we do be in accordance with your will pray that you be with those who are dealing with illnesses, injuries, those who are dealing with loss of loved ones, give them strength and comfort and be with them during the difficult times, pray that you be with those who are dealing with COVID.
And we know that the disease is getting worse in other parts of the country and in other parts of the world as well. And we pray for churches throughout the world that are dealing with the Results of the coronavirus and the difficulties that it brings. But we also pray for more opportunities to teach people and to reach people because of COVID-19 all this, we pray in Jesus name.
Amen. I mean just, okay, let’s go over the questions from revelation chapter nine and chapter nine, we have the fifth and the sixth trumpets, and now we only got part way through chapter nine. So we’re going to go through the first questions, covering the fifth trumpet, and then we’ll get into the sixth trumpet and go through that. And hopefully chapter 10 as well.
What was fallen to the earth from heaven? When the fifth angel sounded a great star, what is the one called or what is this one called in verse 11, the angel, the angel of the bottomless bit. Okay. So called a great star in verse one called the angel of the bottomless pit in verse 11. What was given to him? Key to the bottomless pit?
What did he do with it? He opened it up. See if it had been a key given to me, I’d have lost it, Jay, your keys in a, but he didn’t. He, he opened the bottomless pit. What arose from the bottomless pit initially upon it being opened and what happened as a result, smoke as from a great furnace and it darkened what sun and the sky sun in the air,
you get the picture of pollution. All right. Not pollution from carbon dioxide pollution from what did we talk about it being from sin. This is a picture of sin and its ability to everything. What came out of the smoke and who were they commanded to torment? Alright, locus with these. I mean, these weren’t normal locusts. These were some,
some pretty extraordinary locusts looked like what horses prepared for battle, but what were they given power to do? What were they commanded to do? All right, those who dwell upon the earth or the inhabitants of the earth. And we mentioned last during that lesson, whatever day that was we, we mentioned on Sunday that these, this reference those that dwell on the earth,
the inhabitants of the earth, depending on which version you’re in, is always in revelation. It is always a reference to sinners, not to just humans. Okay. Not to righteous and unrighteous, but only to the on righteous. Okay. That’s the way it’s used in the book of revelation. How is the torment described? How long five months? What did it cause the people to do?
They saw it death. You remember back in chapter five when the fifth or sorry, the sixth seal was opened. The judgment of God started coming upon them, the wrath of the lamb. And they called for the mountains to fall on them. Well, what happens if a mountain falls on you, you die. Okay. They want anything that to hide them,
they protect them from the wrath of the lamb. And here they’re so inundated with sin and some suggest. And you’ll see this in the notes that I’ve handed out. Some suggest that the angel of the bottomless pit, the star fallen from heaven, isn’t Satan, and some suggest it is, but here’s what you’ve got. No matter what you’ve got sin and it’s internal corruption in the,
in the nation of Rome, it was any historian will tell you, you go study Rome and Rome died from the inside. It didn’t die from the outside. It had a bunch of people that, that, that attacked it from the outside, but it died from the inside because it turned into a heinous nation, was doing some reading on some of the Caesars last night.
And I mean, just unimaginable, unimaginable sins in, in the times of Tiberias and Caligula and Nero and the mission. Okay. So this sin in the N in would cause the people to be in such misery, such despair, such anguish, that they would want to die, but God says, no, you’re not going to get to die. You’re going to go through torment.
But then what part of the body of the locus was causing the torment, the tails. Okay. They had tails that had, that had stings like scorpions. And we mentioned that the scorpions of the middle East and that region don’t typically cause death, but they will put you in a world of hurt. And God’s using that as the analogy. Okay.
Who is the King of the locus? What does his name in Greek and Hebrew mean? First of all, who is it? It’s the angel of the bottomless pit. And we said the name Apollyon an Abbott Dawn means destruction or the destroyer. Okay. Now all of that would have been a little easier if we had had the slides on Sunday, because all of that was up on the slide.
So we do have the slides tonight and we’re going to go through them here. As we, as we get started, we can go back through just a little bit of review. Just kinda take the book again, get, get the pictures. Just again, treat it like a picture book. Just what’s in this chapter, what’s in this chapter, we’d said that the writing of the book was when the beast is in an is not state.
He w he was, he is not, he’s not currently persecuting buddies about to come up. And we said that the timeframe meets the way Daniel delivers the Kings of Rome to John and John uses Daniel’s listing of the Kings Vespasian is on the throne. Titus is about to come up and after Titus comes, demission Titus will only rain for a short, short time.
So then chapter one chapter, one’s the introductory. We see Jesus appear to John and say, I’m going to tell you these things, and you’re going to write them in a book. Now go to verse 19 of chapter one. I want to show you something here. Jesus said specifically to John, write the things which you have seen and the things which are,
and the things which will take place after this. The introductory commandment to John is write this down. Okay? That’s going to come into play as an interesting point when you get to chapter 10. Okay? But we see Jesus in the midst of the seven churches and the holding in his hand, seven angels of the seven churches. Then we see the seven letters going out to the churches.
Okay? Each one is introduced. Each one talks about Christ. The focus is Christ all the way through chapter four begins. And John sees an open door. He’s told to go through the door. He goes through the door and he enters the throne room of God. God is sitting upon the throne, but God is not described only his grander. His glory is described as the light emanating from the throne,
but before the throne or the seven lambs, the seven torches of, of fire, the seven spirits of God before the throne as well, or the four beasts around the throne are 24 elders with crowns on their heads, sitting on Thrones, arrayed in white robes. And they praise God when the four B’s praise the Lord, the 24 elders, take their crowns and cast them on the ground and praise God and glorify him.
Then in chapter, chapter five, we see again, the throne room of God. But now we see a mighty angel and he comes forth. And in the hand of the one on the throne is a scroll. You see the one on the throne. He has the scroll, but it has seven seals on it. And they look through heaven and earth to try to find someone who can open the seals.
The seven seals are seven revelations. Okay? So seven seals are in the seven or upon the scroll. They look for someone who can open it. They can’t find anybody in heaven or earth who can do it. John begins to wheat. One of the elders comes to John and says, don’t weep for one has been found. Who’s worthy. Who was the one who was worthy?
Jesus Christ was the lamb who was slain. The lion of the tribe of Judah. He comes forth, takes the scroll from the one on the throne and proceeds in chapter six to open the scroll. First seal is open and a white horse goes out and he’s conquering. And it’s a picture of Christ. He’s going forth and he’s conquering. And the church is spreading and the gospel is going forth,
but then persecution begins. Persecution begins. But also we have a picture of the four sore punishments of God seal to seal three and seal four. You’ve got the red horse, the black horse, the pale horse, pale horse has death on his back. And Haiti’s following after him. And then the fifth seals open. And you see the calls of the Christians who will not give up the testimony of Christ.
They will not bow to Rome. They will not say Caesar is God and they’re dying for it. And they’re crying out to God. How long, Oh Lord, will you allow this to go on that cry, having gone up to God, God says you rest for a little while. They’re arrayed in white robes, they’re told to rest. Then the sixth seal is open.
And the Mo the sun turns dark. The moon turns the blood. You begin to see all of these events occur. And the co the cry that goes out is who can stay in, in the day of the wrath of the lamb. Then there’s an interlude. The interlude in chapter seven matches the interlude in chapters 10 and 11, because remember the sixth feel was opened.
And then there was a pause before the seventh seal. When we get to the end of chapter nine, the sixth seat, the sixth trumpet will sound. And there’s going to be another pause before the seventh trumpet. Okay? So we’re about to hit another interlude. Chapter seven opens up and all the saints, every Saint on the earth, everyone that belongs to God who has his name written in the book of life has a seal placed upon him.
This is God saying, these are the ones who in stand in the day of my wrath. Now we see the number of them, and it’s 144,000. They’re all from tribes of Israel. They’re all 12,000 from each tribe. They’re all there as a representation of every Christian. But then when they come out of the tribulation, it’s not just 144,000. It is an innumerable multitude.
And there, they have palms in their hands and they’re rejoicing. And it’s a picture of the TA, the feast of Tabernacles. And they’re praising God. They came out of the tribulation. They might’ve died during it because they’re before the throne of God, but they didn’t lose. The point is they didn’t lose. They went through the tribulation. They went through the ordeal.
And even if it cost them their life, they won, they were victorious. Okay. So chapter seven is a reminder of comfort and hope because God is in control. And he knows who belongs to him. Then chapter eight begins chapter eight begins, and the seventh seal is open. And inside the seventh seal, we see seven angels, seven angels with seven trumpets.
They’re given seven trumpets, but they’re told, wait, wait, don’t sound yet. Because something else has to occur. They’re told not to sound yet, but instead we see another angel come forth and he has incense. He has the prayers of the saints, and he offers that incense up before the throne and before God, and then takes the incense or sorry,
takes the, the Sceptre with which he offered the incense, dips it in the altar, gets fire from the altar and cast it to the earth. The message is clear. The saints pray, the saints seek for God’s help, and God delivers his help. So then the trumpets begin to sound. The first four trumpets happened in chapter eight and chapter,
you see silence. And then the seven angels, seven trumpets. You see the first trumpet and it’s hail and fire mixed with blood and a third of the trees. And all of the green grass is destroyed. Then you see the second trumpet and it’s a burning mountain. It’s cast into the sea. And a third of all of the water, all the oceans are affected.
Then you see the third trumpet in a star called warm woods, falls from heaven and falls upon the earth. And all of the fresh water is affected. And it turns bitter. And those who drink of the bitter water die. Then in verse 13, chapter eight, there’s a warning. Three lows, three Wells are going to follow with the three remaining trumpets.
And this is God saying, you better pay attention, wicked earth, unrighteous people. You better pay attention because these are limited judgments. These are partial judgments, but the, they are announcing a full and complete judgment. So then chapter nine opens<inaudible> With the fifth trumpet. My screen’s getting a little behind here, fifth trumpet. And that first, Whoa,
we talked about that on a Sunday. So chapter nine opens and you see a star fallen from heaven to the earth, and he was given the key of the bottomless pit. So we talked about that in the questions. We’re not going to go over that in detail, because we just noticed the questions about it. But the locusts in the fifth trumpet were given the ability to torment,
but not to kill sin pervades throughout the nation and Satan, when he causes people to sin, when he causes people to be unrighteous, Satan thinks he’s winning, but God can use Satan’s own influence on people for his own purposes. And he will, he’ll use it to torment. Those who are unrighteous. So then we see the sixth trumpet, or we see the angel,
the destroyer, the angel of the bottomless pit there in verse verse 11. And we read in verse 12, one, Whoa has passed. Okay. There were three ways at the end of chapter eight, one of them’s finished behold, still two more coming after these things, let’s pick up in verse 13. Then the sixth angel sounded, we begin the second,
Whoa, I heard the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God real quick. Do you remember when we were studying in the book of Samuel and someone wanted their life to be pardoned? What did they do? Joe AB wanted his life to be spared. And he ran and did what grabbed a hold of the horns of the alter.
Okay. The horns of the alter were a symbol of justice, but also an opportunity for mercy. But here, the voice comes from the four horns of the golden Alder, which is before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet release, the four angels who were bound at the river at the great river Euphrates. Now that Euphrates river North of Israel is that kind of the divider.
The other side of the Euphrates river is the land from which all of the major attackers would come excluding Egypt. A Syria came from the other side of the river. Euphrates Babylon came from the other side of the river Euphrates and they all came down and wiped out Israel. Okay. So this is a place of opposition from external forces. The fifth trumpet was internal forces,
the sin and the degradation inside the nation, tearing it apart. Now you’re seeing external forces coming against Rome. God’s going to get at them from the inside and he’s going to get at him from the outside. Okay. So the one, the sixth trumpet sounds, and he’s the sixth angels told you release the angels. You let them go. You let the battle begin.
Notice what occurs. So the four angels who had been preparing the F for the hour and the day and the month and the year were released to kill a third of mankind. Okay. So they’re set forth with a command they’re set forth with power to do what kill fifth trumpet. They didn’t have power to kill only at power to torment. Now we’ve got power to kill,
okay. But it’s only what, how many? A third. Okay. It’s partial. It’s not the full judgment. It’s not the final judgment. This is a warning, but people are losing their life because of this warning. If you want to see that idea about the river Euphrates, by the way, turn over to Isaiah chapter eight real quick,
Isaiah chapter eight, tell you what I’m gonna let one of y’all read. Cause it’s hard to turn in my Bible. One handed Isaiah chapter eight, verses five through eight<inaudible>. Okay. So God says, since you don’t want the calm, peaceful waters, since you don’t want the peace that I offer you and obedience to me and all of the things that I offer you,
I tell you what I’m willing to give you the river Euphrates. Instead, I’m going to give you the great river, which he says, who is a Syria. So he makes it clear. He’s using the river as an analogy for a Syria. Same idea is right here. Okay? So the river Euphrates, these four angels are bound up the reviewer fray,
Euphrates, but they’re being told you’re released, go forth and kill. So the four angels who have been prepared for the hour in the day in the month, in the year were released to kill a third of mankind. Don’t miss that. This isn’t done by accident. Don’t miss that God is doing it exactly on his timeline. They weren’t prepared for the year.
They were prepared for the month. They were prepared, prepared for the day and the hour that this would happen. It reminds me of when we read in the new Testament, that at the edge exact right time, Jesus Christ came into this world. Jesus Christ. Didn’t come into this world and happened to just fall at a specific year. We built the calendar around him.
It didn’t, it didn’t start out there. I mean, they weren’t counting down two years, zero Oh, Lux time for the Messiah. It happened at the right time when full the fullness of time has come. That’s what you’re seeing here. God is in complete control and he knows the exact moment that this judgment is going to begin. Okay. So it begins now the number of the army of the horseman was 200 million.
I heard the number of them say, John says, I, I heard the number called out and it was 200 million. And notice it’s, it’s interesting here. The number of them’s 200 million, but it’s not 200 million men. It’s 200 million horsemen. That’s a lot of horses. All I’m saying is feeding time and cleaning time. Hmm. That’d be fun. Alright.
Verse 17. And thus, I saw the horses in the vision and those who sat on them had breastplates of fiery red hacked, synth blue and sulfur yellow. So they’re the breastplates of those who are on the horses are red, blue and yellow. And the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions and out of their mouth came fire, smoke and brimstone.
So when you see the description of the army, you see a picture in the 200 million of over whelming Force. My knowledge, there’s never been an army of 200 million on this earth, let alone 200 million of a mobile army. It’s overwhelming force. Nothing’s going to stop it. Okay. But you also see this idea of they have the power to kill, and they’re going to kill through what are called three plagues,
fire, brimstone, and smoke. Okay? So by these three, a third of mankind was killed. The new King James translators provide the word plagues by these three plagues. A third of mankind was killed. When, when in the old Testament, do we see fire and brimstone bringing about death and destruction, Sodom and Gomorrah. When God said, I’ve heard what’s going on and their time has run out.
You’re seeing the pictures from the old Testament brought forward. Okay. They were killed by fire and the smoke and the brimstone, which came out of their mouth, comes out of the mouth of the horses for their power is in their mouth. And in their tails for their tails are like serpents having heads. And with them, they do harms, right?
So you get the full picture of the, of the, the horsemen or the, and the horses in there. Their mouths breathe out fire and brimstone and smoke. And their tails are like snakes. They don’t get you going one way. They’re going to get you going the other way. Okay. But the rest of mankind, verse 20, but the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hand.
Now notice the accusation, notice the guilt. What is it that God lays at their charge? Obviously they’re persecuting the saints. Obviously they’re they’re causing trouble for the church, but notice the accusations. And this ought to be just a real clear warning for us. Notice what he says. He that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver,
brass stone, and wood, which can be, can neither see, nor hear Norwalk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries. By the way, the word sorceries could also be translated, drugs sorceries of, or their sexual immorality or their theft. They’re corrupting everything. They’re abusing everything. You get the picture going all the way back to the days of Noah,
where every thought of their heart was only evil continually. And God said, I brought this on them. And I brought this on them, six trumpets. And they still didn’t repent, which by the way, tells you what the trumpets were all about. All six of the trumpets are warnings for a purpose to get them to repent, but they don’t.
All right. So the second woe is finished. The sixth, the trumpet is over and now chapter 10, chapter 10, we see the mighty angel with a little book. Let’s get into the text chapter 10 verse one. And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun and his feet,
like pillars of fire. You’re going to see is we’re going to summarize this description here in a minute, but you’re getting an appearance. Who of someone who looks like Christ? Not saying it is Christ. It’s an angel buddy represents who he is, therefore very clearly. Okay. So he’s got the rainbow on his head. Where was the rainbow? Last time we saw a rainbow on the throne of God.
Okay. So we saw an aim, a rainbow on the throne of God. It was different colors, but we’re not told what color this one is. It’s it’s up there. And an artist rendition is regular rainbow, but who knows if it was or not? Okay. The rainbows on his head he’s clothed with a clown. His face was like the sun.
Where did we see that revelation? Chapter one. It’s the picture of Christ. Okay. A verse. I think it’s verse 15 or verse 16. In addition to that, his feet are like pillars of fire. Where did we see that revelation? Chapter one. It’s the description of Christ. Okay. But then verse two, he had a little book open in his hand.
Notice the scroll that was in the hand of God was what? When it was first seen, it was sealed. Not this one, this one’s open. Okay. It’s supposed to be red. It’s supposed to be understood. And it’s supposed to be known. It is waiting to be read. And he said his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,
whatever angel, this is, he has authority. He has power. He has Mike. He can set one foot on the sea and one foot on the land. And he is in complete control. Okay. See if I can keep up with these, but then verse three, cried with a loud voice. As when a lion roars brother, Andrew calmly,
who did mission work in Africa stated one time that the lions there in Africa, when they would roar at night, he said, you could feel the earth move. It. It just trembled at the roar on the line. There’s a reason why they’re called the King of the jungle. I mean, their roar is magnificent. And the roar of this angel,
this cry of this angel is like a roar of a lion. But where was the, what have we had referenced as a lion? The lion of the tribe of Judah who is Christ. All right. You’re getting the picture, right? This angel. Isn’t just an angel. He’s an angel who represents God clearly. Okay. So he cried with a loud voice as when a lion roars,
when he cried out seven thunders uttered their voices. Okay. Remember back here in, let’s see, where was it? Yeah, eight, eight, right? Eight verse five. Then the angel took the sensor, filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth. And there were noises. Thunderings lightenings and an earthquake. I think you also see this in a couple of other places.
One of the reasons I bring that up is thunderings in this prophetic language. Almost always. You’re talking about judgment. Alright. Impending judgment. So seven thunderings sound or, or cry out when or utter their voices. When the angel cries out. Now, when the seventh thunders utter their voices, I was about to write you remember, chapter one, verse 19,
John was told by Jesus, do what? Write the things, which you see the things which are and the things that will be all right. So here’s John. Imagine him sitting over there in the corner. He’s seeing all of this. And every time he sees something, he starts scribbling it down. Okay. That’s what he’s there. He’s the scribe.
And he’s there. And he’s he’s writing. And he’s about to write what the seven thunder said, by the way, that means he understood what they said. They uttered their voices and he understood it. That’s why he was going to write it down. But notice what occurs I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me,
seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered and do not write them. Voice comes from heaven.<inaudible> wait, wait. Nope. Not this time. This prophecy, you heard it, but you don’t write it down. This isn’t a prophecy to be made known. This is something that is held back now over in Daniel, chapter 12, you see a similar,
not identical, not necessarily saying it’s the same prophecy or the same meaning, but you see a similar idea. Daniel chapter 12, the last half of Daniel, you’re seeing visions. Daniel’s going through much the same thing. John is okay. Daniel chapter 12, verse four. But you Daniel shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end,
many shall run to and fro and knowledge increase. Then I, Daniel looked and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and the other on that riverbank. And one said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river. How long shall be the fulfillment of these wonders? Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and notice the similarities,
what we’re about to see, we held up his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever. That it shall be for a time times and half a time. And when the power of the Holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished. Okay? So verses four through seven of Daniel 12, you see a prophecy that’s made.
And then God says, seal up the book, seal it up. Don’t let anybody read it until the time. This time you see John being told, don’t even write it, seal it up, don’t write it down. Okay. Then I saw the angel standing on the sea and on the land, watch the picture. You just read Daniel, watch the picture,
raised up his hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer. But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound,
the mystery of God should, would be finished as he declared to his servants, the prophets. So over in Daniel, again, sharing the picture, sharing the imagery, Daniels told, shut up the book, seal it up. Don’t tell anyone what it means. And then someone raises their hand toward heaven and makes a declaration. Well, now John sees an angel one land,
one foot on the land, one foot on the sea. And he cries out and the seven thunders utter their voices. And they told no, shut up the book. Don’t write it. But then the angel says, this is the fulfillment. This is the finishing of what God has said. Now the word mystery is used there. We’ve talked about this many times.
The word mystery simply means that, which is yet to be revealed. Okay? God says it’s going to be revealed and it’s going to be finished. Okay? What you’re getting here is a declaration about the seventh trumpet inside the seventh trumpet are seven bowls, seven angels with seven bowls and those angels and those bowls will carry out the full and complete judgment of God.
God’s saying, don’t write it down, but they’re going to get it. They’re going to get it. And it’s going to be finished. Okay. Then verse eight. Let’s see if I’m behind any on these slides.<inaudible> Alright. So the angel swore God would finish his revelation. Then verse eight, then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said,
go take the little book, which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth. That picture is if you would an angel, large enough to put one foot in the ocean and one foot on land. And here’s John and John stall go get the book.<inaudible> It doesn’t matter that they’re two different sizes. John’s told,
go get the book. Okay. So he’s told, he goes to get the book. So I went to the angel and said to him, give me the little book. And he said to me, take and eat it. And I will make your stomach bitter, but it will be as sweet as honey in your mouth. Now got to read Ezekiel chapter two,
to know why this statement is made XE Guild. Chapter two, beginning in verse seven, we read, you shall speak my words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse for they are rebellious. But you son of man, hear what I say to you do not be rebellious, like the rebellious house, open your mouth and eat what I give you.
Now, when I looked there was a hand stretched out to me and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. Then he spread it out or spread it before me. And there was writing on the inside and on the outside and written on it. Now notice, notice the contents of the book written on it or laminations and mornings and Whoa,
it’s a revelation from God. That’s a wonderful thing, but the message, not a message of hope. It’s a message of judgment. Now, chapter three, moreover, he said to me, son, a man, eat what you find, eat this scroll and go speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth and he caused me to eat that scroll.
And he said to me, son of man, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll. And I, that I give you. So I ate it and it was in my mouth like honey and sweetness. Then he said to me, son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them for you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language,
but to the house of Israel, not too many people of unfamiliar speech or of ARD language, whose words you cannot understand. Shirley had, I sent you to them. They would have listened, but the house of Israel will not listen to you because they will not listen to me for all the house of Israel are impudent. And hard-hearted behold, I have made your face strong against their faces in your forehead,
strong against their foreheads, like adamant stone, harder than Flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them nor be dismayed at their looks though. They are a rebellious house. Okay? So Z Kiehl’s given a prophecy. He sent to Israel and he’s told them, he’s told you go speak and they’re not going to listen. So he consumes the book and it’s sweet in his mouth,
but bitter in his belly because the message is bitter because the message is judgment and they’re not going to listen. John is given a little book and notice what happens. Then I took the little book, verse 10 and out of, out of the Angel’s hand and ate it. And it was sweet as honey in my mouth. But When I had eaten it,
my stomach became bitter. And he said to me, you must prophesy again again about many peoples nations, tongues and Kings. So chapter 10 is pause. Chapter 11 is going to be a continuation of a pause, but it’s going to be a pause saying, there’s another revelation and I’m giving it to you and you’re going to declare it, but it’s not good news.
Anytime you take the word of God into you. It’s good. Anytime that you are given the word of God, it’s a Psalm 19 sweeter than the honey and the honeycomb. But what if the word of God is a pronouncement of judgment, a judgment against you? Well, that’s not sweet. That’s not like honey. That’s bitter. So John’s told you’re going to speak.
You’re going to declare my judgment and sharing Ezekiel’s message. And they’re not going to listen. Okay? That’s chapter 10. No, you are dismissed A Wednesday evening Bible study and the devotional that we are about to enter into. It’s good to see each and every one of you here. Thank you for your presence. I have very few announcements tonight. I’ll run through them real quickly.
And most of which are concerning the people that are ill or having some health problems. Don’t forget about Rodale and Dorothy Wilson. Dorothy, Wilson has been in and out of the ER with an extremely high blood pressure. Joan Springer is continuing to recover at home. Sylvia pass. Likewise is progressing slowly. Pam chafing is still improving, but she tires very easily.
Jan Jones is in the Memphis Jewish home. She’s progressing slowly, but really loves getting cards. And her appetite is improving. And last of all are not least don’t forget Erin and her prayers in your prayers for tomorrow as he goes through a surgery for his wrist. That’s all the announcements that I’m aware of. The song leader tonight for our devotional will be Michael Dale.
Aaron has the devotional and I don’t have anyone down for the closing prayer. So Joe, would you do that? Thank you. Michael had to go for one for a reason. We’ll just leave it at that. Take your songbooks and open them to number 652. And Mark in your song looks number 907 nine zero seven first and last verses of six 52.
We have HUD, the Joel<inaudible> Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Read the tidings all around. Jesus saves, saves<inaudible> climb the steep sand cross. The waves onward is our Lord. Jesus saves Jesus. Hey, please give the wins. Mighty evil. Nice Jesus saves. Jesus saves.<inaudible> Jesus saves. Jesus saves shouts out. Hey, full and free.
Hi,<inaudible> this song. Song of victory. Jesus saves Jesus and things. Again, the invitation song will be number 907. That song number 907 says hark the debt gentle voice of Jesus falleth tenderly upon your sweet, his cry of love and pity Koloth turn and listen, stay here so many times in the new Testament, when Jesus was speaking, he would say to those who were listening,
he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear and over and over is John writes to the seven churches of Asia minor. As he opens the book of revelation in revelation one and or two and three, the message is at the end of every single letter or addressing every single congregation. He, that happened ear to hear, let him hear when those chief priests and Pharisees and scribes would come to Jesus and they would tempt him and they would test him with the scriptures and Jesus would reply.
Have you not read Jesus emphasized over and over again? Go back to the word of God. If you want the answers, you seek, go back to the word of God. If you want to, what God would have you to do, go back to the word of God. They come to Jesus and they say it is it lawful for every man to put away his wife for any cause.
And Jesus said, have you not read? He that made them, made them male and female and what God has joined together. Let not man put us under. He said, didn’t you read Genesis the answers right there. Why are you separating what God did? We need to be mindful that Christ calls upon us to hear. He calls upon us to know the word of God.
And he calls upon us to listen. And so often he speaks gently and he speaks quietly and he offers rest and he offers hope. That is until his long suffering runs out. And then we will hear Jesus said in John chapter five, there was coming a day when every ear would hear and every eye would see him and every knee would bow. So there’s coming a day where you’re going to hear whether you like it or not.
And there’s coming a day where he’s going to judge whether you like it or not. But today is a day when you can hear and he’ll speak gently and he’ll speak quietly and he’ll give you hope and salvation and redemption and a home, and then inheritance. And the ability to stand before God not judged and condemned, but clothed in white clothed in the blood of the lamb.
Unless of course you don’t want to hear, but still the cry comes. He that has an half an ear to hear, let him hear if you have needed the invitation or the gospel call this evening. Why not come now? As we stand in, as we sing hark, the gentle voice of Jesus fall<inaudible> Your Swede is cry.<inaudible> stay.
And you<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> you take his yoke for? He is me<inaudible><inaudible> to him. He who called us is a master. Holy, he will teach you<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> then is<inaudible> fine. A yoke. His hand is on you.<inaudible><inaudible> a heavy Laden lean upon your dear Lord<inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible> give you a list, Dear God,
our father in heaven, we truly are grateful into the privilege that you had to come together, strengthen by your word to those things, our lives today. So grateful father for Erin<inaudible> for those that are not saving, we might encourage them.<inaudible> every day they might come back to you<inaudible> tomorrow, rather than everything will go well and pray father that you have for us to be grateful that we are<inaudible>.
09-27-2020 Revelation 9 – Article – Trumpets & Woes
Judgments and woes begin as the trumpets continue.
A LOOK BACK: In chapter 8, John sees the seventh seal of the book opened and from it comes seven angels with given seven trumpets. Their trumpets sound proclamations of judgment upon those who will endure “the wrath of the Lamb.” Four Trumpets sound, three more are still to come.
The Fifth Trumpet (WOE 1): The angel sounds the trumpet, star falls from heaven to earth.
The locusts look like horses prepared for battle (armored) with crowns of gold on their head and the face of humans. They had hair like women and teeth like lions. When they beat their wings, the sound was like chariots with many running horses in battle. They had the tails of scorpions whose sting hurt humans for five months.
The Sixth Trumpet (WOE 2): The sixth angel sounds and a voice comes from the middle of the altar which is before God, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates
The four angels’ army is made up of 200,000,000 horsemen.
After this judgment upon humanity, did the unrighteous repent? No. Did they cease worshiping demons and idols? No. Did they repent of their murderers, sorceries, sexual sins, or thefts? No.
The result is another woe to come.
Next week: A Delicious Book that Caused a Stomach Ache.