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.
Re-Baptism: A Biblical Contrast
It is important to understand what the Bible teaches about the “who, when, and why” for a person being “rebaptized.” Paul’s encounter with the men in Acts who only knew John’s baptism teaches us important lessons concerning this question.
09-27-2020 – Revelation 9 (Class) & The Value of a Savior (Sermon)
JOHN – Revelation 9
The Fifth & Sixth Trumpets
- What was fallen to the earth from heaven when the 5th Angel sounded?
What is this one called in verse 11? ____________________________
What was given to him? _____________________________________
What did he do with it? ________________________ Revelation 9:1, 11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - What arose from the bottomless pit initially upon it being opened and what happened as a result? Revelation 9:2 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What came out of smoke and who were they commanded to torment?
Revelation 9:3-5 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - How is the torment described?
What did it cause?
What part of the body of the locusts caused the torment? Revelation 9:5-6, 10 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - Who is the king of the locusts, what does his name in Greek and Hebrew mean? Revelation 9:11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- 13-15 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- John sees an army of horsemen, what is the size of the army? Revelation 9:16
________________________________________________________________ - What three plagues kill 1/3 of mankind? Revelation 9:17-18
________________________________________________________________ - Did this partial judgment, this warning, cause the rest of mankind to repent? Revelation 9:20-21 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Automated Transcript
<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> I think I got it. Thank you. Well, I’ll tell the people online again. Thank you for being patient. We’re getting there. Uh, we are in the book of revelation and we noticed chapter eight.
We’re going to go into chapter nine this morning, and we are in the midst of the seals and the trumpets. Uh, the seventh seal. We talked about this, um, last week inside the seventh seal, when the seventh seal is opened inside that seal, John sees seven angels. Those seven angels are given seven trumpets. We mentioned that the book of revelation in the majority of its,
uh, material is broken up into the seven seals beginning in chapter six, that seventh seal opens up and inside the seventh seal are seven trumpets inside the seventh trumpet. There are seven more angels with seven bowls. And what you have here is you have the seals really looking forward to kind of setting the setting. The example of what’s going to happen. Here’s initially the first seal is open.
Christ is going out and he’s conquering he’s victorious, but then comes persecution and you have the seven sore judgments of God brought upon, uh, those who are on the earth. And, uh, that’s in seal two, three, and four, but then you see the fifth seal opened and you have the saints. Those who have died for the testimony of Christ,
those who have been killed because they were Christians and they’re Bo they’re below the altar. They’re beneath the altar of God and they’re crying out how, Oh Lord, how long until you bring judgment upon those who are persecuting us, they’re told to rest for a little while. They’re given white robes and they’re essentially told the idea of it is just wait, wait and see.
Because the judgment on those who are pursing persecuting, you is coming. Then the sixth seal is opened up and in the sixth seal, you see judgment begin to happen. This sixth seal is kind of a forecast of what’s going to come in the rest of rest of the book, starting with the seventh seal, but in the sixth seal, there’s an important question asked,
and that is who shall be able to stand in the day of the wrath of the one on the throne and of the lamb. Chapter seven is a break in the, the thought line in order to answer that question. So before the seventh seal is opened 144,000 on the earth are sealed with the Mark of God. Having been sealed with the Mark of God.
They are the ones who are able to stand in the day of the judgment of the, of the wrath of the lamb and of the one on the throne and coming out of the tribulation, out of the judgment, having gone through that and been found worthy, been found faithful. They come through on the other side and the picture of them on the other side of the tribulation,
the judgment, the, the things that are coming is an innumerable quantity in heaven, praising God. And they’re not, they’re not in shambles. They’re not like a routed army. They’re not wounded. And, and in despair, they come through it and there’s poems in their hands. And it’s a picture of the feast of Tabernacles. And everyone is happy.
Why? Because yeah, they were found faithful. They were marked with the Mark of God. They came through the judgment, not say they didn’t suffer. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t endure hard times when all this was going on. It meant they came through it and they were found worthy to, uh, have a presence with God and the lamb.
So then chapter eight opens and the seventh seal is open. And instead of an immediate action, you have silence for half an hour. There’s a period of silence. Everyone’s attention is, is clearly focused on what’s going to happen. And then you see the angel who has standby, who stands before God and to them were given seven trumpets. So the seven trumpets are delivered to the seven angels and they begin to sound those trumpets with each trumpet,
you have a partial judgment. The trumpets are partial judgments. Everything that you see here is going to be done in a, in a fraction of the whole. So a fraction of the trees are, are affected. A fraction of the sea is affected. If this is partial judgment, this is a little bit being effected to warn those who are on the earth to repent.
So the first trumpet is, uh, sounds. And, uh, you see there in verse seven, the first trumpet sounded and hail and fire followed mingled with blood. And they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees were burned up and all the green grass was burned up. So as you go through the trumpets, you’re going to get a picture of the plagues all throughout the trumpets.
You’ve got kind of a knowledge and analogy to the book of Exodus, the plagues and the events that happened in history. There here’s the point we need to make sure and remember, these are visions. Exodus happened literally physically. We’re using the language of a physical historical event to tell about an event that’s going to occur. That’s not going to happen in a physical historical sense in the sense of it being a plague where a third is,
is killed or a plague where, where a third of the trees are damaged and all the grass. I mean, all the grass in the entire Roman empire, didn’t burn up one day, okay? This is, God’s saying just like I did it to Egypt. I’m doing it to you, but he’s giving them an opportunity to repent. And we’re going to see that at the end of chapter nine.
So as we go through this, let’s go through the questions from chapter eight and we’ll kind of continue summarizing the contents of chapter eight and the first four trumpets as we go through chapter eight, verse one, question one. What happened in heaven? When the seventh seal was opened Silence, okay. For half an hour inside the seventh seal, what was given to the seven angels,
seven trumpets? What did the angel with the golden sensor and much incense offer up on the golden altar before God, The prayers of the saints are offered up by the angel now. So the seven angels are given seven trumpets, but then they’re told, wait a minute, something else comes first. The angel comes forward and takes the prayers of the saints.
And those prayers of the saints are offered up before God with incense. And then something else occurs after the offering of the incense. What did the angel do with fire from the altar? Alright. He took the, uh, the sector and filled it with fire from the altar and cast it down to the earth. What you’re seeing is the prayers of the saints go up and God answers those prayers.
Okay. So keep, keep that occurrence together with what we saw in the fifth seal, where the prayers of the saints go up and they’re told to wait, now there, now you’re seeing, waiting is done. Judgment is coming. Okay. What happened? Because of the fire from the sensor. Okay. Noises, thunderings lightenings and earthquakes, and you go back into the old Testament prophets.
And those four things are used over and over and over to speak of the fall of a nation. Okay. So there’s, this is an impending action. This is what’s coming before these trumpets begin to sound, God keeps doing this in, in cycles. He tells you what’s coming and then you get what’s coming. And then he warns you as you’re getting what’s coming,
you need to repent, or you’re going to get the full measure of what’s coming and they don’t repent. So, uh, let’s see, what question was that? Um, what did the seven angels do? Or seven angels with the seven trumpets do prepared to sound when, when the, uh, Saint’s prayers are answered, then the seven angels with the seven trumpets prepared to sound,
uh, after the offering, after off, Nope. Nope. I’m in the wrong spot. I gotta keep track of where I’m at. What came upon the earth when the first trumpet sounded hail and fire mingled with blood, and that hearkens back to the plague of hail. Because when you read about the plague of hail there in the book of Exodus,
Exodus chapter nine, it specifically says when the event occurs that it was hail mixed with fire, you also have the notion of blood there, which has to do with a number of the plagues, but then, uh, what was affected by the first sounding, the first trumpet, third of the trees and all the graphs. All right. What came upon the earth when the second trumpet sounded?
All right. A great mountain burning with fire, um, mountains quite often symbolized in the old Testament nations. So you’ve got a burning mountain cast down on the earth. All right. What is affected by the second trumpet? Alright. Third part of the sea became blood. Where have we seen water become blood and the plagues. All right. So what came upon the earth?
When the third trumpet sounded all right, a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch and it fell on the third of what? Alright. Third of the rivers and on the Springs of water, notice the contrast before you had the great mountain with which affected the seas, the seas are made up of what kind of water, salt water. Now you’ve got something that affects the freshwater.
Okay. Just, you’re just getting this, this idea here of first. We’re affecting the oceans, the seas, but the seas weren’t used to, to, for people to drink from what were they used for transportation, the economy they’re used to move and make a nation profitable. The nation’s profitability is, is in decline. We’ve not seen that in America lately.
Have we shut everything? Shut transportation. Now what happens? Everything starts going down. Alright, but Rome, especially without the sea travel in Rome, you have a significant loss because all of the major part of its power came from its access to the sea. All right. But then you now have the fresh water. This is what people live off of.
This is what makes things grow. This is what sustains your flocks, your herds, your animals, your, your, your, your people. Okay. Um, so the third are Siri. The great star fell from heaven. What was the name of the star? Wormwood. Okay. This is a word that is referenced in the old Testament by a number of profits.
And it has a meaning like most names in the Bible that the name has, has a connotation to it. And it’s bitterness. Uh, you have wormwood and Gaul referenced together in the old Testament. And the idea is that which could be done, what could be done to water to make it bitter and undrinkable. And even to a degree poisonous, it,
it would, you drank this water mixed with gall mixed with this become bitter. You die. What happened to the Israelites? When they came in, I think it’s Exodus chapter 17 or 18. They come to the waters of the location that would later be known as Marah they try to drink of the water. And what do they find out? It’s bitter.
They can’t drink it. Okay. It would, it would affect them in a negative way, so they can’t drink it. So you begin to grumble and complain. What does God do? Okay. So God changes the bitter water to sweet. Well, if God has the power to go one direction, he’s got the power to go the other direction.
So, okay. So you’re still, you’re just seeing images from Exodus over and over and over again. God’s saying I’m affecting a third of this and a third of this. What was affected by the star? Paul wormwood? Yes. All right. Third, third part of the water became bitter. And what happened to many men? All right. They died from it.
Okay. You, you, you have a lack of what’s necessary to sustain life, then verse 12. Uh, our next question, a third of what things were affected when the fourth trumpet sounded sun, moon and stars. Okay. Here are the things that give light. Here are the things that, you know, differentiate days and nights. Now,
there, there’s not a point in history. I’m going to keep going back to this because we need to not miss it, because this is where people go haywire with the book of revelation. There wasn’t a part a time in the Roman empire, where everybody looked up and suddenly a third of the stars were just missing from the sky. And a third of the sun just disappeared.
Or a third of the moon was just gone. It’s that’s not what you’re supposed to be getting from this, but here’s one of the things to remember about Exodus, all the plagues in Exodus confronted not only the people and their lives, but their deities gods point all throughout the plagues were you worship the frogs. You worship the river, you worship the sun,
you worship the moon. You, you worship all these things, but I’m the one you should be worshiping. Well, now in the fourth trumpet, a third of the sun, which they worshiped was struck a third of the moon, which they worshiped was struck a third of the stars, which they worshiped were struck. So that a third of them were darken.
A third of the day, did not shine. And likewise, the night and I looked and I heard all, I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven saying with a loud voice, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. To the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blast of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound to whom was a triple world pronounced by an angel,
flying through heaven. Okay. He says, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. To who though? The, uh, is that what you said? Okay. I thought you said that the heavens and the earth, the inhabitants of the earth, um, in the King, James, I think you, you have it, or maybe it’s the ASV. You have the phrase,
those who dwell upon the earth. Okay. And when you go look up that phrase in the entire book of revelation, every single time, the inhabitants of the earth is found in the new King. James. Those who dwell on the earth is found every single time. Here’s what you need to know. It’s talking about the wicked on the earth that is not ever in the book of revelation all the way through it is never a reference to Christians.
It is always a reference to those who are wicked, those who and think about the connotation, those whose dwelling place is this earth. What do we read about Abraham? What kind of life did he live? He lived a faithful life, but he was according to the book of Hebrew, Hebrews. He was a, what Sojourner. He looked for a city that wasn’t made with hands.
He looked for a habitation of dwelling place that wasn’t on this earth, his home wasn’t here. And neither is any of ours. Those who dwell on the earth carries with it. A connotation of those who think this life is the most important thing. And those who dwell on the earth are being pronounced against them is being pronounced three woes, those three woes correspond with the last three trumpets.
When would the woes take place When the trumpet sound? Okay, so let’s get into chapter nine, But not all the ships. Yes. Yes. So, so with, uh, with question seven, then the second angel sounded, and I think I actually skipped over that one as we were going through it, something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood.
And a third of the living creatures in the seed died and a third of the ships were destroyed. Okay. So again, we’re not going back to the Roman empire and going, when did a third of all the ships in the, in the, in the nation just end up destroyed. I mean, we’re not looking for a monsoon. We’re not looking for,
for a hurricane or a, or a natural event or a volcano that occurred that a third of all the ships just disappeared. We’re seeing their economy struck their transportation is struck and God is bringing about his judgment in a partial way to get them to repent. Okay. So all, all through this, you’re dealing with vision elements. You’re dealing with John sees a third as if this may be a good way to visualize this.
If you were going to play a board game and you can see, I mean, you know, if it were real life, you’d be one person and you wouldn’t be able to see the whole board, but you’re not. You’re, you’re seeing the board. You’re, you’re playing a game. And if a third of one, one person’s pieces are all wiped off the board,
you see it happen. If it were real life, it may look like something different, but you’re playing the game. John or John is seeing a vision and he sees as it were here’s all of Rome’s ships and all of their sea moving vessels and all of the sea. And he sees a third of it just wiped off the board. Okay. That’s the picture Doesn’t mean you go back to history and you look for one event where like in Egypt,
a third of everything is affected. Okay. Chapter nine, then the fifth angel sounded, okay. No chapter divisions when John wrote it for angel sounded and then the wo is pronounced. And then the fifth angel sounded a and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. There is a key difference between verse 10 and verse chapter nine, verse one,
chapter eight, verse 10, and a great star fells from heaven. John watches the trajectory of the star and it falls from heaven as he’s watching it. That is not the language of chapter nine. Verse one, chapter nine, verse one, there is a star that was all ready, fallen from heaven. This is a past tense reference. This angel,
why do I say angel bill back to chapter one? And in his hand were seven stars that were the seven angels of the seven churches. Okay. Remember everything in revelation has an angel basically. And so this, this is, this is a representative, but this is an angel. This is a star that has in the past. Not at that moment has in the past fallen from heaven.
That’s a key thought as we go through this, the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth, to him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And we’re not going to spend a whole lot of time surmising what the bottomless pit is because we don’t need to it’s right here in the text. It is the source of which all the things that are about to come out,
come from, and we’re going to get a great idea of what that means. Okay. It is not a literal bottom lip. It nor is it really intended to be helm, okay, this is a place of darkness. This is a pit. This is a source of what is about to come up. And what you’re going to see coming up is sin.
When you see the things arising out of the bottomless pit, this is a source of a degradation. This is a source of infection in a, in a, in a spiritual sense. This is the source of all that’s bad in the Roman empire and is destroying the Roman empire from inside. The fifth trumpet is internal decay within the nation. God uses a nation’s own internal decay to bring it down,
go read anything you want to about the history of the Roman empire. Did Rome fall from the outside, from conquerors, from without, or from inside inside, but they dealt with both constantly. You know, we, we, I love it when someone on the news or in politics says, we’ve never seen a time where the attitudes of politicians and the rhetoric is as bad as it is.
And I’m like, you don’t need to go read history. You don’t have a clue. One of the things they kept track of with different emperors was how many of the senators in Rome did they execute while they were in power? I mean, like we’re sitting, waiting to find out how many people are going to get voted out. And if there’s going to be a,
I love this, a, a, uh, a free and, and, uh, and peaceful transfer of power. You know, there’s a reason why a peaceful transfer of power in America was such a main principle of what the founders set up in our country is because they watched Europe do what Europe did for centuries. Somebody else wanted power, so they can kill off the guy before him.
Somebody did like what this group over here was doing, saying, kill a bunch of them off. And then, well, they do, you know, this was over and over and over again. We just, we just have a, a news media that panics and everything. And I think it’s just simply because of ratings, but here we are.
And this one comes up from, uh, or is fallen from heaven to the earth. And he’s given the keys to the bottomless pit and he opened the bottomless pit and what comes out, but smoke, uh, arose out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
Then out of the smoke locus came upon the earth and to them was given power. As the scorpions of the earth have power. Anybody who’s watched the news in the last month or so has seen footage of the West coast. And when you start getting a fire, that’s burning, that’s out of control. And you start seeing the smoke is sending to it.
Eventually you get to the point where you don’t see the sky anymore. You don’t see the sun, right? You don’t see the sun set. You don’t see the stars you, because all you see is smoke. That’s the picture. You’re walking through a haze of pollution and not pollution made by, by carbon emitting. No, no, no. Sin.
When sin takes over a nation, it can no longer see one day from another. It can no longer see the light that could guide it through its hard times, because sin has a choke hold on. That nation. Sin has a polluting and corrupting influence on the mind. Those who are in the depths of sin often, can’t tell that that’s where they are,
but notice the effect of it. So he, the, the angel or the, the star that’s fallen from heaven, opens the bottomless and outcomes. The smoke that arises out of the pit, then out of the smoke come locus. Where have we seen locusts plagues of Exodus? We haven’t left off the plagues just cause we’re in chapter nine, we’re still with the plagues,
but these locusts are a little different. Um, I wish we did have the PowerPoint up here. See, it’s not in that one. Nevermind. There’s a picture of, and I’ll have to show it to you next, uh, on Wednesday, um, in one of the drawings that I have, uh, where the locus is drawn it, and it’s just a very interesting artist’s rendition of what this is.
Cause here’s the description, uh, to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth, half power scorpions in the middle East, they don’t typically have enough venom to kill you, but they will put you in misery for a very long time if you’re stung by them. So here’s this idea of being brought forth to them was given power as the scorpions of the earth,
half power, they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree. Why is that significant? Because that’s what locus do you go back to Exodus? And what did the Logas do? They ate everything. That’s what locusts plagues do. But here comes a locus plague and they don’t touch anything green. They don’t touch the trees.
They don’t touch anything. They would normally touch they’re focused on something else, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months, their torment was like the torment of a scorpion. When it strikes a man in those days, men will seek death and will not find it.
They will desire to die. And death will flee from them. Something about sin. When a person gets lost in sin, when, when their mind is so corrupted by the evil, they participate in day in and day out. When a nation reaches that level as a whole, one of the things you see is hopelessness. And when hopelessness rains in a nation,
suicide rates, skyrocket, why, well, what do you have to live for? When everything in your life is miserable? When everything in your life is terrible. When everything you see in everything you’re involved in is degrading and polluted and decaying. What do you have to live for here? You have the mentality of this is this sin. So infects them that they want to die,
but God doesn’t let them. They want to end it. But God says, no, no. You’re going to suffer through it. People will act as though sin is harmless. That’s the way the world and, and, and Satan and his minions want to promote it. Sin is harmless. Sin is enjoyable. Sin is, is, is what you should,
you should seek after, but they don’t like painting the pictures of the results. They don’t like showing the video of what happens when someone is so steeped in sin, that they reach that final point where all, all they want to do is die because that’s all they have left. This is the picture of what comes out of the bottomless pit. But then the description,
the shape of the locus was like horses prepared for battle. You’ve never seen any locus like this. These, these locuses are as though they’ve got saddles on them. These locusts are our giant locus that are ready to go to war. So are locusts like horses prepared for battle on their heads were crowns of some thing like gold and their faces were like the faces of men.
All right. They, they appear to be people, but they’re locusts. They appear like horses, but they’re ready for battle. But then he says, and they had on, and their hair was like women’s hair. And their teeth were like, lions, Steve, get a picture of this here. This locus swarm is coming. This plague of locusts is coming in their giant locusts.
And they’re like horses and they’re ready for battle. And their heads look like humans from a distance. Their hair looks like women’s hair. And they that they, they, what you should be seeing here. They almost looked beautiful until you get up close. That’s why sin is looks good to you get up close, but then it devours you. And here’s the picture of them.
And they look good from a distance, but you get up close to them and they’ve got teeth like lions, but then notice they had breast plagues like breastplates of iron and sound. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses running in the battle. And over powering sound. As they approach, they had tails like scorpions. And there,
there were in their tails. Their power was to hurt men five months. So here come the scorpion or the, the, the locus and they have this appearance and they’re coming and they’re bringing pollution and torment and sin and destruction, but not death. And they have power for a part of a year. Okay. Again, not giving a specific amount of time.
This is just another indicator of a partial judgment, but then verse 11. And they had as King over them, the angel of the bottomless pit, the star in verse one is referred to as the angel in verse 11, same individual, same entity. Okay. So the star from verse one is here in verse 11 called the angel. But what is he in relationship to the locus?
He’s their King. They’re under his dominion who who’s, who’s the King of evil. Who’s the King of sin. Satan is Jesus said to the Jews, you are of your father, the devil. So this is a picture of Satan Satan’s influence on a nation will destroy it from the inside out all while convincing it that this is what it wants. And yet here’s the interesting point.
Satan’s actions are used by God for his purposes, Rome and its internal moral decay would be used by God to bring judgment on Rome. Yet it was, it was as if Satan was going, I’m getting exactly what I want. And God’s saying, you’re going to get exactly what you deserve. Okay. So they had a King over them. The angel of the bottomless pit,
whose name in Hebrew is Avedon. But in Greek, his name is a Polyon two different words. One Hebrew, one Greek, one means destruction. The other means the destroyer. Okay. So here’s the picture of the star that was in the past, fallen from heaven, who has the keys to the bottomless pit, by the way, he won’t keep those keys.
That’s important to realize he has power over the bottomless pit for a time. His influence comes on the nation and everyone in the nation becomes miserable and they seek Death, but they can’t find it. And he’s reigning over this influence one. Well, verse 12 is passed behold. Still two more woes are coming after these things. Okay? So we’re going since we’re going to be out of time,
we’re going to save the rest of chapter nine for Wednesday. Um, but as you read through verse 13 through verse 21, you have the sixth trumpet, a constant reminder. When you read through this and go what’s that not make sense. It’s not supposed to, okay. It’s a vision, not everything like a parable, Nadia, every little detail is supposed to have a literal parallel.
It’s supposed to paint a picture. And if you had a picture painted of an event where you see a nation and up out of this hole in the earth comes disease and pollution and a plague. And these destroying creatures that are harming everybody, but won’t let them die. They’re tormenting them, but they won’t let them out of the torment. They’re hurting them,
but they won’t let them loose. And that’s sin. That’s sin all over and you look at our country and that sin. Thank you for your attention.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> okay.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> Good morning. And welcome to the Collierville church of Christ. Sunday morning worship service. It’s indeed. Good to see each of you here.
So many smiling faces. I have a few announcements this morning and I don’t see any visitors with us this morning. So, uh, just a quick reminder that, uh, the communion communion trays have been prepared there on the back. If you haven’t picked your communion issue and take this opportunity to go back and get it, we need to remember our sick this morning.
Don’t forget Dorothy and Rodale Wilson. They are suffering from their chronic problems. Joan Springer is still at home, and I think she’s doing a little bit better, but I don’t see either her or Marie here, they are sheltering in place. They’ve been exposed to the COVID a virus. And as a result, they are quarantined. Pam chafing is doing much better.
She’s able to get around some now. And Sylvia pass is with us today after her back problem. Um, and don’t forget Ron Wallace. That is Jacob’s grandfather. I believe her father, but anyway, uh, he, um, is, uh, suffering from a low blood sugar. And as I understand, he is about the same. Janet Jones is in the Memphis Jewish home in room one,
two, three. And I don’t remember her phone number, but it’s on the bulletin board back there. If you have a chance, uh, she’s uh, having a little, uh, I guess it would be more just feeling bad, uh, than anything else, but, um, she’s, she’s there and would very much appreciate, I think having people call and Erin Cozort will have surgery on his broken wrist Thursday,
October 1st. So all of these people, we need to keep in her prayers. I have some, uh, thank you notes here that I would like to read and then I’ll post them on the bulletin board so that you can, uh, uh, have a look at them yourself. Ava Morgan, uh, has written us a thank you note, and I want to read it.
It is with the greatest gratitude and thanks to you all for the cards and prayers I received during the death of my sister in law and my brother during a time like this, it brings forth how much our family and friends mean to us and you, our family, your prayers gave me the strength I needed during this difficult time. Not only for myself,
but to be able to support my family and brother and for them. Thank you with Christian. Love Ava Morgan. I also have a couple of notes from one from Gladys Lyles and her daughter that I want to read. Dear church, family. I don’t know how they work. I don’t have the words to express my love and appreciation for all of you and all of my 95 years,
I have never been so surprised as I was at the birthday. Drive through that. You gave me, I miss all of you and hope that I can be back at church soon. Thank you very much Gladys lines. And I also have a note from her daughter, Linda, and it reads, I want to thank the church for the wonderful drive-through birthday for my mom.
I am sending a donation to the church in her name. Thank you. Those are all the announcements that I have. Um, today’s service. The song leader will be Michael Dale, Joe caisson. We’ll have the opening prayer. Mari Phillips will officiate it. The Lord’s supper. Aaron Cozort will deliver the sermon. And I have the closing prayer once again.
Thank all of you for being here. It’s good to see your faces. Our song to begin our services. This morning will be number 144 O worship the King number 144. Oh, worship the King. Oh, Gloria, bah and grade four. Lee. See his Wanda for LA<inaudible>. Uh<inaudible> with<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> shines in, uh, ah,
it’s dreams from<inaudible> and sweet. The<inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible> and<inaudible><inaudible> I’m a,<inaudible> a man, a defender.<inaudible> The song before our opening prayer will be number 797. Lord, we come before the now I’m seven, nine, seven<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> Okay.<inaudible> Wow.
Oh God. Our father in heaven, we truly are grateful into the, that we can call your father. We’re so thankful, dear God, that we’ve been brought out of this world of sin by the precious blood of your son. We pray father that as we look to those around us in this world, that we realize how many souls have never named your name and have never come to knowledge of your wheel.
We pray father as a congregation of your people that we do our best to try to reach those in this area with the gospel that they too might know what a blessing it is to be children of yours and not how that weight of sin upon them father, we are grateful for the privilege that we have to be here this day. As your family, we’re thankful for the opportunity that we’ve had to study your word and our Bible class this morning.
We appreciate so much the ability that Aaron has in bringing that class and the message that we’ve been hearing from your book of revelation. We’re so grateful for the, for the understanding of your will and how it should affect our lives and how we can be servants in the kingdom and serve and glorify you with our lives father. We are mindful of those that are not able to be with us.
And we miss him so much and we miss their encouragement that they give us by being here. But we understand where this virus going around. That it’s best for them to be at home, but our prayers are with them. And we pray that you continue to help us to encourage them and them encourage us bother. We’re grateful for the privilege that we have to have your word,
that we can study it and strengthen our faith. That we might be able to reach others with the gospel and try to change their lives, to want to serve you and glorify you father, where mindful of all of those that have been mentioned that have been grieving over loss of loved ones or those that are ill and undergoing treatment. And we pray that the ones that are doctors,
the doctors and nurses that are treating them, we’ll find the best things that might bring, bring them back to a normal way of health. We’re especially mindful of father of Aaron. And we pray that you be with those doctors. It will be in ministering to him, this coming Thursday, that they might do those things that will help repair his wrists,
that after he goes through the time of recovering and the therapy that he receives, that he will have full use of that arm father, we know that there are many that are grieving over various things in this life. We pray that we are an encouragement to them, that we are there for them, that we might bring some joy and peace to their minds,
that they might know that we truly love and care for them and are always there to do whatever we might can do to comfort and help them father. We pray for those that are in other lands, teaching and preaching your word, and we pray your blessings to be upon them, help us to always encourage them as they try to reach those laws, souls,
and other other places. We pray that we might always support them and help them with that work. And we’re grateful that the fact that your words being preached that many souls might hear of it. I want to be obedient to it and become children of yours. By the way, I pray that we never lose sight of how we ought to act in this world,
that we should be a people that have great patients, that we’re long suffering toward one another, that we have a tremendous love for the, and for each other that we’re willing to give up ourselves others. We know in this world that we live in today, it is so people are so selfish and self centered. We pray that we not be that way,
that we extend our love to all of mankind that they know we are your children, that we are. We love you first. And we love others as ourselves, help us to always to have that kind of spirit within us. Yes, this, we should have this morning as we’re able to worship you. We pray in spirit and in truth, be where there,
and they see brings the message, help us to be attentive to it and pray that your word always will dwell in our hearts that we might not sin against thee bless our worship this morning and bless each one. That’s here in jesus’ name. We pray amen. Song to prepare our minds for the Lord’s supper will be number 366 by Christ redeemed by Christ<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible><inaudible>,
uh, step dad<inaudible>. And as we drink, we see, uh, and eh,<inaudible> ah, um, and, uh,<inaudible><inaudible> we, you know, ah<inaudible> and, uh, he, ah, I’m going to read to us this morning from first Corinthians chapter 11, verses 27 through 32. And it reads, therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks,
this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. Let, but let a man examine himself. And so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body for this reason. Many are weak and sick among you and many sleep for if we would judge ourselves,
we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world At this time, let’s focus on the cross and that cruel crucifixion that Jesus went through for our sins. Let us pray. Heavenly father, we’re thankful for this bread that represents jesus’ body. That was nailed to the cross for the sins of mankind.
And we pray heavenly father, you please forgive us of our sins Before we, uh, pray for the fruit of the vine. I’m going to read from John chapter six, verses 53 through 58. Then Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have no life in you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks, my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day for my flesh is food indeed. And my blood is drink. Indeed. He eats my flesh and drink my blood abides in me and I in him as the living father sent me and I live because of the father. So he who feeds on me will live because of me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your father’s eighth and manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever. Unlike men or heavenly father, let’s go to prayer with the blood of Jesus. That’s represented in the fruit of the van. Heavenly father. We’re thankful for this fruit of the van and what it represents and pray heavenly father for your forgiveness this way,
ask in jesus’ name, amen. Separate from the Lord’s table. We have an opportunity to give us we’re here to prosper. Let’s pray. Heavenly father. We’re thankful for the financial gains. We’re here to receive from you throughout the years and pray heavenly father. You will separate portion joyfully back to you to help continue the work here at the Curry with church of Christ.
Amen song. Before the lesson will be number 450. Give me the Bible. If you’re able, let’s stand for this song please. Number four, five, zero.<inaudible> glad Nisqually mean to cheer though.<inaudible> no,<inaudible> small beamy and CERN. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. Give me the bah or Holy message. Ah, nah,
guide me and narrow away. Hey<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> my heart is bro.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> by the<inaudible> have and shining port or show me the glory.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> me and a narrow way. Hey,<inaudible> to<inaudible> and he turn all day. Hey, You may be seated. Oh, it’d be wanting to be one of those preachers that got sit on a stool while he taught.
This is a hard way to get there. Take your Bibles if you will. And open them to the book of Zechariah mentioned last week, as we were going through our lesson and chapter nine and chapter 10 that, uh, we would spend the today’s lesson in chapter 11, the beginning of the discussion that’s here in chapter 11 of the book of Zechariah.
It’s it’s part of a single prophecy that begins in chapter nine, but you have a reference in chapter 10. That really is the foundation of what you read in chapter 11. When you get into chapter 10, you read beginning in verse one, ask the Lord for rain in the latter time, or in, in the time of the latter rain, the Lord will make flashing clouds.
He will give them showers of rain, grass in the field for everyone. There’s a principle here. That’s established by Zechariah. When you are obedient to God and you ask for what you need, God will provide it for you. Jesus said, ask and you shall receive seek, and you shall find knock and the door shall be opened to you. And he emphasized the reason for that is because God is a loving father who knows how to give his children what they need,
but then notice the following statement for the idols, speak delusion, the diviners InVision lies and tell false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore the people, when they’re way like sheep, they are in trouble because there is no shepherd. This statement about the people that there was no shepherd is the foundation of the discussion in chapter 11, God in chapter nine says I’m going to judge a Syria and I’m going to judge the Medes and the Persians.
And I’m going to judge Greece and I’m going to judge the Philistines and I’m going to judge tire and I’m going to judge Seiden and I’m going and on and on and on the list goes, all the enemies of Israel are going to be judged and God’s going to bring Judah and Israel together. Ephraim and Judah are going to be brought back together and they will be brought into the lamp and they will prosper.
And they will pray for the reigns in the latter, uh, during the latter rains and the rains will come, But they’ve got to be warned. They’ve got to be mindful that just because God says I will do these things doesn’t mean they can let their guard down. It doesn’t mean they can just listen to everybody that comes along. Moses told Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 13,
there would be those that would come from the outside. And there would be those that would come from the inside, come from their Mo their own selves that would teach them to depart from the Lord. And that they were to not only be aware when someone was doing that, but that they were to defend themselves by putting a false prophet to death. They were to be active in defending their own knowledge of the truth.
God says, I’ll give you what you need, but you need to know that false prophets and false teachers and liars and deceivers will come against you. And they will tear you apart until you are sheep without a shepherd, If you let them. And unfortunately, they let them, when God judged Israel, when Babylon was brought against the Southern kingdom of Judah,
uh, Syria was brought against the Northern kingdom of Israel. God said a remnant will return. A remnant of my people will still here. And in chapter 11, there will still be a remnant. Even in the days of Christ, when they would crucify the very son of God, there would still be a remnant, but God would be done with this nation to get the foundation of the message of chapter 11.
Take your mind back to a time when Israel had arrived at Mount Sinai, they come to the mountain and they’re there and they begin to settle around the mountain and God tells them I’m going to deliver to you the law. I’m going to speak to you. You make sure no one touches the mountain. Anything that touches the mountain while my presence is on the mountain will die.
And so God in Exodus chapter 19 begins to speak to them. But at the end of chapter 19, the Israelites come to Moses and they say, we can’t do this anymore. We’re terrified. W you go up to the mountain and you receive the law from God and tell us what God says, because we can’t hear his voice anymore because we’re afraid we’re going to die paraphrased there.
So Moses goes up on the mountain and Moses goes on the mountain and God delivers to him, the 10 commandments in written tablets of stone. And God gives him the law. And he is there on the Mount. And he is there on the Mount and the people are down the bottom and they’re waiting and they’re waiting. And he’s on the Mount for 40 days and 40 nights.
God gives them the law. God gives him the tablets. And then he hears down below him, the sound, the sound of the people. And he goes down to investigate and they’re bowing down and worshiping an idol. God makes a statement to Moses and essentially tells Moses, I’m going to destroy this people. I’m going to wipe this people off the face of the earth.
And I will raise up from you a new nation. And I’m going to start over because of the wickedness of this people, they’ve seen every single plague. They were in Egypt and, and we’re there to witness the complete decimation of a world power. And they saw everything that happened. And then they walked out of Egypt with all the value and the profit and the plunder of Egypt.
And they walked through the red sea on dry ground. And they came to Mount Sinai and they heard my voice. And less than a month later, they are worshiping an idol. God says I’m done with, and Moses responds to God. You can’t do that. Think of what the nations around would say, they would blaspheme your name. They would say,
you brought this people into the wilderness to kill them. You can’t do it. And God relents. But that picture of God’s saying because of idolatry, because of sin because of wickedness, because they refused to recognize him as Lord, God almighty God said I’m done with them. Chapter 11 in Zechariah is a rehearsal forecasting. The time when God would say I’m done with them,
they’ve gone too far. Chapter 11 begins open your doors. A Lebanon. Lebanon is in the North, up in the region of tire inside. And it was a region that was known for its trees, for its forests, for the Cedars of Lebanon that was used, that were used to build the temple by Solomon open your doors O Lebanon, that fire may devour your Cedars.
The one defining attribute of this land. God says, I’m coming for that. I’m coming for what you treasure. Most whale Oh, Cyprus for the Cedar has fallen. A Cypress tree of course has, is not as significant in the land of Lebanon is not as significant, not as, uh, as much value as the S the, Uh, Cedar.
So here are the Cypress trees over here, and they’re told you whale because the Cedars are going to be destroyed because the mighty trees are ruined. Whale. Oaks of basin for the thick forest has come down. There is the sound of whaling shepherds for their glory is in ruins. There is the sound of roaring lions for the pride of the Jordan is in ruins the pride of the Jordan there.
The word could be translated thickets. It’s the idea of the reeds and the thickets that grew up as a result of the Jordan overflowing its banks. Every year, it would overflow its banks and the, this, uh, very fertile ground would shoot out these thickets and all these are going to get wiped away. God says, I’m destroying what you value.
I’m destroying what you think is important. And he calls upon the shepherds to weep because they are the focus of this judgment. Thus, as the Lord gone, verse four, feed the flock for slaughter. Now over in the book of John and John chapter 21 gone tells Peter feed my sheep three times. He asked Peter, Peter, do you love me?
And Peter responds. I love you, Lord. There’s the discussion about the different words, but that’s not what I want us to focus on. The response that Jesus comes back with each time to Peter is feed my Sheep, feed my lambs. You love me care for my flock, whose job is that? The job of the shepherd, it’s the job of a shepherd to feed the sheep.
It’s the job of the shepherd to lead the sheep, to pass into two pastures that are rich, where they can feed and they can grow and they can be healthy. But these sheep aren’t being fed to grow and be healthy. These sheep Are being fed for slaughter. There’s a difference in how you care for an animal that you care nothing about because it’s only a source of wealth for you and an animal that you care for.
And you love. There’s a difference in how you treat them. There’s a difference in how you care for them. And these shepherds are Only shepherds for the prophet. They’re only shepherds for what they get. Notice what he says. Thus says the Lord, my God feed the flock for slaughter, whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt. Those who sell them say blessed,
be the Lord for, I am rich and their shepherds do not pity them. Your mind should go over to Matthew chapter 23 and Matthew chapter 23, Jesus pronounces woes against the Pharisees and against the scribes and the chief priests and the leaders of the people, the shepherds of Israel. And he accuses them of devouring widow’s houses. He accuses them of robbing the poor.
They didn’t care about the people. They didn’t feed them as good shepherds. They used them to enrich themselves. Verse six for, I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land. Now wait a minute, God, if this, if the shepherds are the ones doing this, if the shepherds are the ones who are abusing people, if the shepherds are the ones who are causing the problems,
why is it the inhabitants of the land? The flock is going to get destroyed. Why is it that the flock is going to be punished? The flock is going to get slaughtered. Why is that going to be the case? If it’s the shepherds that are the problem, and you’ll see why in a moment, but it ultimately comes down to this because the flop gets to choose who it follows.
The flock gets to choose. If those shepherds continue to be shepherds, and if they continue to hear their voices, remember chapter 10, verses one and two, you can pray to me and I’ll give you what you need. Or you can listen to false teachers and follow them, but you cannot do both. So then notice what we read here. Zechariah is playing the part of the shepherd.
So I fed the flock for slaughter in particular, the poor of the flock. I took for myself, two staffs, the one I called beauty and the other, I called bonds and I fed the flock. A shepherd would take his staff and he would use the staff to tend the flock, to, to keep the flog, to guide the flock.
And he’s here as a shepherd, who’s using two stabs. One of them is called beauty. The word also means grace graciousness. The other is bonds, not the idea of chains, but what bonds, two people together that, which is their attachment and their, their connection to one another. And the shepherd goes out to feed the sheep. And he feeds them with these two stabs.
He’s doing what they need. He’s caring for them properly using the proper tools of a shepherd. But then notice I dismissed the three shepherds in one month, my soul lows, them and their soul. Also abhorred me. Someone who’s working on behalf of God is opposed by someone who’s only interested in themselves. And Zechariah says, I, I pushed them out.
These three shepherds, but they abhorred me. Then I said, I will not feed you. Let what is dying die? And what is perishing perish. Let those that are left, eat each other’s flesh. The shepherd says, I’m done with you. I’m done with you. I’m done with this flock. Those that are going to die, let them die.
Those that are gonna perish, let them perish because everyone else is only interested in themselves and they will devour everyone else. You’re seeing a picture of a flock that is not a normal flock of sheep. This is not a flock of sheep that hears the voice of the shepherd and follows them. This is a flock of sheep that is internally divided and only cares for them selves And the shepherds giving up on them.
I took my staff beauty and cut it into that. I might break the covenant, which I made with all the peoples peoples. Here’s a reference to the nations. Some have been had different ideas on what this means, but here’s what I think you need to get from it. God said to Abraham, back in Genesis, chapter 12, those who bless you,
I will bless those who curse you. I will curse. God essentially made a covenant with all the nations of the earth saying, if you do right by my covenant people, I will do good to you. If you mistreat my covenant people, I’m coming after you. Now, we’ve just had two solid of God Saying I’m going to judge those who have done evil to my people,
but now the flock is no longer faithful to God. Now the flock will no longer hear his shepherds. Now the flock only cares about themselves and will eat and devour themselves. And God says to all the nations around you or around the flock, you’re off the hook. Now the covenant I made with you that I would bless those who bless them and curse those who curse them is over.
This is God telling the nations have Adam. They’re not my people anymore. And remember in Exodus, God said there was a point where were the people of Israel enough was enough. And he would no longer keep them alive because he was the only thing standing between them and destruction. So then notice what happens. So it was broken on that day. Thus,
the poor of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the Lord. This, this covenant is broken. God ends it. And the poor of the flock, the, the, the, the defenseless ones, the ones who can’t care for themselves, the, the, the ones who, who are like in most nations, those who are just stepped on trod upon and despised by everyone.
Those, by the way, if you look at the new Testament who heard Jesus, who listened to Jesus, who wanted to be with Jesus, who wanted to obey Jesus, who did obey Jesus, they heard this pronouncement and they knew it was the word of the Lord. And that’s a contrast because that means the rich, the prosperous the well off the goodly of the flock.
They said, that’s not God, that’s not God’s word. Couldn’t be, he never break that covenant. And the Lord said to me, or, sorry, verse 12. Then I said to them, so the shepherd says to the sheep, if it is agreeable to you, give me my wages and if not refrain. So they weighed out for my wages,
30 pieces of silver. And the Lord said to me, throw it to the Potter that the princely price they set on me. So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the Potter. Now the new Testament will tell us clearly that this is a prophecy of Christ, because it would be for 30 pieces of silver,
that Judas would betray Jesus. And here’s where the entire chapter wraps itself up in its focus, because you have the value of a savior. In this passage, the flock is asked, what am I worth to you? The flock is asked, how much do you value me? I’m the one who cares for you. I’m the one who feeds you.
I’m the one who provides for you. I’m the one who loves you. I’m the one who gives himself for you. I’m the one who came for you. What am I worth? I won’t tell you what I’m worth. You tell me what I’m worth. You decide what I’m worth. And the flog decides the Shepherd’s worth 30 pieces of silver. Now 30 pieces of silver in the old Testament.
Isn’t just a number. It isn’t just a random poll out of nowhere. Number it’s Exodus, chapter 21 in Exodus, chapter 2130 pieces of silver is not just the price of a slave Exodus chapter. 20 ones is 30 pieces of silver was the restoring price of a slave gored by an animal. Here’s a master. He has a slave that slave, or that servant is gored by an animal.
He can’t work anymore. He can’t labor anymore. He can’t do his job. He’s a slave that will have to be sustained by the masters in there for the rest of his life, who can no longer do anything. He is a value LIS slave. And so for the one whose animal, it was the Gord, another master servant, the one who owned the animal had the pay that master the price of a slave that was worthless and a worthless slaves price was 30 pieces of silver.
The shepherd says to the flock, what am I worth to you? And the flock says you’re as much as a worthless slave and Judas sold his master for 30 pieces of silver, having seen what would happen to Christ Judas would take the money back to the chief priests, the shepherds, and he would say, take it back. Or they said, Oh,
we can’t, we can’t accept that, that money that’s blood money. We can’t allow that to be brought into the house of the Lord that they could take from the house of the Lord and pay the price, but they couldn’t take it back after it was used for such a terrible cause. Judas would throw it at their feet and they would use it to buy the Potter’s field.
That would be used to bury those who had no burial place in the land of Israel. When the flock decided, as they cried out to pilot, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. As they decided he was worth nothing. He was worth so little. They said, give us Barabis back the murderer and the rioter and the one who tried to overthrow the government,
give that one back to us, but take this one who claims to be our King and kill him. God said, I’m done with you. This covenant is over. Then I cut into my other staff bonds that I might break the brotherhood between Israel or Judah and Israel. And the Lord said to me next, take for yourself. The implements of a foolish shepherd.
One of these days, I’m going to do a sermon or maybe Michael can write it and turn it in. When he gets into Zachariah, the tools of a fool, because God says you did have two staffs. And they were the correct tools. They were the tools of a wise shepherd. But now you’re going to tend to my sheep with the tools of a foolish shepherd.
You’re going to use the wrong implements. You’re going to do it the wrong way. You’re going to lead them to destruction because that’s what they’ve decided they will get. He says, take for yourself. The implements of a foolish shepherd for indeed. I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off nor seek the young,
nor heal. Those that are broken nor feed those that stand still, or that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces, Whoa, to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock, a sword shall be against his arm and against his right eye. He is arms shall completely with her and his right eye shall be totally blinded.
God says to Israel, if you value my shepherd so little, if you value what I did for you so little, if you will turn against me and follow after these shepherds, then I’m done with you. And I’m going to allow a shepherd to rise up that will devour you God, through Christ would tell his disciples in Matthew chapter 24, that there was coming a day when they needed to be aware and they needed to be watching because there was coming a day when God would bring judgment on Jerusalem and not another stone would be stacked upon another left on the temple,
God would tear it down. God would destroy their nation and God would end his covenant with that people for forever. And they seal that faint. When they put Christ on the cross, they said, God, we don’t care what you do. Or we’ve seen the miracles. We’ve seen what he does. We know that he’s from you, but we don’t care.
We’re going to follow our shepherds. Now you and me, what are we doing? Who are we listening to? And who are we following? Are we looking to God’s word? Are we saying whatever he says in here? That’s what I’m going to do. If he tells me to stop doing what I’m doing, I’m going to stop doing. If he tells me to love someone that I look at as unlovable,
I’m going to love them. If he tells me to care for those who aren’t worth it in my minds, but they’re worth it in his, I will. He tells me to listen and follow him. Then I will. Or are we like Jesus looked upon the people in his day and saw them as sheep without a shepherd. Not because they didn’t have shepherds because the shepherds were only there to use the sheep to get out of them.
What they could. What kind of flock are we? If you’re outside the body of Christ this morning, you’re outside of the flock of God. You’re outside of the hope and the salvation provided by him. But Jesus said, I am the good shepherd and my sheep. Hear my voice. If you’re open to hearing the voice of the Lord, you can begin doing that today to hear what he has said to do what he has said.
He said, if you love me, keep my commandments. You have need of the salvation of God. You can have it. It’s available to you. You can go in through the door and enter the sheepfold. Jesus said, you become part of my flog by dying. Like I died dying to sin and rising the walk in newness of life. Having heard the word,
believing that Jesus Christ is the son of God, repenting of your sins and confessing the name of Christ and being immersed, buried in water for the remission of your sins, dying to sin and rising up to live for him. You can do that. If you’re a member of the body of Christ and you’re a sheep, that’s wandered away, listen to the voice of the savior and come home.
If you have need of the invitation, you can come forward. Now as we stand and as we sing, Yeah,<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> jeez, us. Well, me<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> jeez, us we’ll meet you.<inaudible> a song for our closing. Prayer will be number 648. Stand up,
stand up for Jesus. Stand up, stand up. Or jeez, uh<inaudible><inaudible> and<inaudible> from<inaudible><inaudible> uh, he, the<inaudible> and<inaudible> stand up, stand up or GE is a us<inaudible> Hey for<inaudible> and<inaudible> that? Uh, man, uh<inaudible> uh,<inaudible> uh<inaudible> with Danja and strain to strain up<inaudible> and uh, stand up.
Jeez, us<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> Dan been, uh, wanting<inaudible> stand up, stand up. Jeez, us<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> to<inaudible><inaudible> uh,<inaudible> uh,<inaudible> Heavenly father. We’re indeed grateful for the privilege that we’ve had to assemble and worship. We pray that our worship to you has been in spirit and truth and a sweet savor as we prepare to depart.
And we’re mindful of those that are not able to be among us. We pray that your healing hand will be placed upon them. And they, once again, may assemble with us. We’re also mindful of those that have lost loved ones. We pray that you will comfort them as only you can bless each of us. As we prepared to depart, according to our several needs.
Forgive us. When we sin against thee and turn back, we thank you father for your love and care for us. As we depart, may we always take the son, the name of your son with us. It’s in his name that we pray. Amen.
09-20-2020 Revelation 8 – Article – Silence & Trumpets
In Heaven there is silence… something is coming.
A LOOK BACK: In chapter 6, the first six seals of the book are opened by the Lamb. In Revelation 7, there is a pause in the opening of the seals to allow the angels to “mark” those who belong to God. These will be the ones will be able to stand in the day of the wrath of the Lamb.
SILENCE: The Lamb opens the seventh seal, and John watches as there is silence in heaven for half an hour. The silence might indicate reverence or awe at what is coming. Consider the idea of a “moment of silence” because of a catastrophe that has befallen someone.
Revealed in the seventh seal, John sees seven angels, each given a trumpet. Another angel comes to the altar with a golden censer, and he receives incense to offer up with the prayers of the saints upon the altar. The prayers plus incense are offered and ascend up before God (sitting upon His throne). Remember the saints beneath the altar who died for Christianity and their cry, “How Long!” God’s answer to those prayers is coming.
After offering the incense, the angel fills his censor with fire from the altar casts it into the Earth. Voices, thundering, lightning, and earthquakes occur. Always remember, this is vision language of judgment and retribution on the enemies of God. As this happens, John sees the angels with the trumpets preparing to sound.
The first trumpet: The angel sounds the trumpet and the result is hail and fire mixed with blood is cast upon the earth. A third of the trees and all the green grass was burnt up.
The second trumpet: This angel sounds and a high mountain burning with fire crashes into the sea. One-third of the sea turns to blood. One-third of all creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships of the sea perish.
The third trumpet: The trumpet sounds and a great star falls burning from heaven and falls upon one-third of all the rivers and fountains of water. The name of it is Wormwood (bitterness), and the waters turn bitter and kill many men.
The fourth trumpet: One-third of the sun is smitten, and also one-third of the moon and stars become darkened. One-third of the day turns black and one-third of the night as well.
John sees an angel fly through Heaven declaring, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
Next week: Trumpets 5 & 6 | Woe 1 & 2.
09-20-2020 Revelation 8 (Class) & Zechariah 9-11 (Sermon)
Class: Revelation 8: The 7th Seal & 1-4 Trumpet
JOHN – Revelation 8 – The Seventh Seal and the Seven Trumpets
- What happened in Heaven when the seventh seal was opened? Revelation 8:1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Inside the seventh seal, what was given to the seven angels? Revelation 8:1-2 ________________________________________________________________
- What did the angel with golden censer and much incense offer up on the golden alter before God? Revelation 8:3-4 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- After offering the incense, what did the angel do with fire from the altar? Revelation 8:5 ________________________________________________________________
- What happened because of the fire from the censer?
What did the seven angels with trumpets do? Revelation 8:5-6 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What came upon the earth when the second trumpet sounded?
What was affected? Revelation 8:8
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - What came upon the earth when the third trumpet sounded?
What was it called, and why?
What was affected? Revelation 8:10-11
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - 1/3 of what things where affected when the fourth trumpet sounded?
Revelation 8:12 ________________________________________________________________ - To whom was a “triple Woe” pronounced by an angel flying through Heaven?
When would that Woe take place? Revelation 8:13 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
TEXT:
Re 8:1 ¶ When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
3 Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand.
5 Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
6 So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
7 ¶ The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
8 Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
9 And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
12 Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
13 And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
Sermon: Zechariah 9:9-10 – The Victorious King and the Peaceful Kingdom
Zec 9:9 ¶ “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’
TEXT:
Zec 9:1 ¶ The burden of the word of the LORD Against the land of Hadrach, And Damascus its resting place (For the eyes of men And all the tribes of Israel Are on the LORD);
2 Also against Hamath, which borders on it, And against Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.
3 For Tyre built herself a tower, Heaped up silver like the dust, And gold like the mire of the streets.
4 Behold, the Lord will cast her out; He will destroy her power in the sea, And she will be devoured by fire.
5 Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall be very sorrowful; And Ekron, for He dried up her expectation. The king shall perish from Gaza, And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
6 “A mixed race shall settle in Ashdod, And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
7 I will take away the blood from his mouth, And the abominations from between his teeth. But he who remains, even he shall be for our God, And shall be like a leader in Judah, And Ekron like a Jebusite.
8 I will camp around My house Because of the army, Because of him who passes by and him who returns. No more shall an oppressor pass through them, For now I have seen with My eyes.
9 ¶ “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’
11 “As for you also, Because of the blood of your covenant, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12 ¶ Return to the stronghold, You prisoners of hope. Even today I declare That I will restore double to you.
13 For I have bent Judah, My bow, Fitted the bow with Ephraim, And raised up your sons, O Zion, Against your sons, O Greece, And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”
14 Then the LORD will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, And go with whirlwinds from the south.
15 The LORD of hosts will defend them; They shall devour and subdue with slingstones. They shall drink and roar as if with wine; They shall be filled with blood like basins, Like the corners of the altar.
16 The LORD their God will save them in that day, As the flock of His people. For they shall be like the jewels of a crown, Lifted like a banner over His land-
17 For how great is its goodness And how great its beauty! Grain shall make the young men thrive, And new wine the young women.
Zec 10:1 ¶ Ask the LORD for rain In the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone.
2 For the idols speak delusion; The diviners envision lies, And tell false dreams; They comfort in vain. Therefore the people wend their way like sheep; They are in trouble because there is no shepherd.
3 “My anger is kindled against the shepherds, And I will punish the goatherds. For the LORD of hosts will visit His flock, The house of Judah, And will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
4 From him comes the cornerstone, From him the tent peg, From him the battle bow, From him every ruler together.
5 ¶ They shall be like mighty men, Who tread down their enemies In the mire of the streets in the battle. They shall fight because the LORD is with them, And the riders on horses shall be put to shame.
6 “I will strengthen the house of Judah, And I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back, Because I have mercy on them. They shall be as though I had not cast them aside; For I am the LORD their God, And I will hear them.
7 Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, And their heart shall rejoice as if with wine. Yes, their children shall see it and be glad; Their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
8 I will whistle for them and gather them, For I will redeem them; And they shall increase as they once increased.
9 “I will sow them among the peoples, And they shall remember Me in far countries; They shall live, together with their children, And they shall return.
10 I will also bring them back from the land of Egypt, And gather them from Assyria. I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, Until no more room is found for them.
11 He shall pass through the sea with affliction, And strike the waves of the sea: All the depths of the River shall dry up. Then the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, And the scepter of Egypt shall depart.
12 “So I will strengthen them in the LORD, And they shall walk up and down in His name,” Says the LORD.
Zec 11:1 ¶ Open your doors, O Lebanon, That fire may devour your cedars.
2 Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen, Because the mighty trees are ruined. Wail, O oaks of Bashan, For the thick forest has come down.
3 There is the sound of wailing shepherds! For their glory is in ruins. There is the sound of roaring lions! For the pride of the Jordan is in ruins.
4 ¶ Thus says the LORD my God, “Feed the flock for slaughter,
5 “whose owners slaughter them and feel no guilt; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich’; and their shepherds do not pity them.
6 “For I will no longer pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD. “But indeed I will give everyone into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They shall attack the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”
7 So I fed the flock for slaughter, in particular the poor of the flock. I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bonds; and I fed the flock.
8 I dismissed the three shepherds in one month. My soul loathed them, and their soul also abhorred me.
9 Then I said, “I will not feed you. Let what is dying die, and what is perishing perish. Let those that are left eat each other’s flesh.”
10 And I took my staff, Beauty, and cut it in two, that I might break the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.
11 So it was broken on that day. Thus the poor of the flock, who were watching me, knew that it was the word of the LORD.
12 Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter” -that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD for the potter.
14 Then I cut in two my other staff, Bonds, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
15 ¶ And the LORD said to me, “Next, take for yourself the implements of a foolish shepherd.
16 “For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat and tear their hooves in pieces.
17 “Woe to the worthless shepherd, Who leaves the flock! A sword shall be against his arm And against his right eye; His arm shall completely wither, And his right eye shall be totally blinded.”
09-12-2020 Revelation 7 – Article – The Mark of God
He who has the mark of God.
A LOOK BACK: In chapter 6, the first six seals of the book are opened by the Lamb. With each John is invited to look into the “revelation” the book presents. The sixth seal opens to reveal humanity seeking refuge from “the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb” and a question, “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” The answer comes in chapter 7.
A MARK
Whenever there is a battle, there is always concern over friendly-fire. Great care is given by armies to know where all of their men’s location so they never accidentally fire upon their men. There is reassurance in knowing the color of the uniform, the insignia upon a shoulder. A marking to identify the army to which a soldier belongs. God is going to “mark” His people so that they will be “able to stand” in “great day of His wrath.”
John sees four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, and they are keeping the wind from blowing, having received power to harm the earth and the sea. God’s judgment is often described by the prophets as coming with the wind. A fifth angel appears holding the “seal of the living God” (imagine the same seal that sealed up the book.)
The fifth angel cries out to the other four to wait to bring their destruction until after “we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” This is not a physical mark on the foreheads of humans in the physical earth. It is a mark in a vision to indicate who belongs to God. The same will be true of the marked ones in Revelation 13:18. “666” denotes those who belong to Satan. It also is not a physical mark on physical humans.
144,000
John observes the angels marking 144,000 (12,000 from each of 12 tribes). Understand, these are the representative faithful—the remnant spoken of so often in the Old Testament—not literal quantities of “faithful” in the Earth. There is also “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues who are clothed in white and are crying out, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’”
John speaks to one of the elders to ask, “who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” These came out of the great persecution/tribulation and have made their robes white in the blood of the lamb. They serve before the throne in the Temple of God, and God dwells with them. These are beyond the struggles of Earth, for the Lamb dwells in their midst and is their Shepherd.
Next week: Silence.
09-16-2020 – Revelation 7 Part 2 and When It Was Written
- What chapter in Daniel corresponds to Revelation 17? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What Four Beasts Does Daniel see in Daniel 7? Daniel 7:4-7 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What was on the top of the heads of the fourth beast? Daniel 7:7-8 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What was the beast accused of doing? Daniel 7:11 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What did the horn do? Daniel 7:21-24 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What is the description of the animal ridden by the woman? Revelation 17:3 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What is the state of the Beast when John was writing? Revelation 17:8 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- The Beast would appear to do what? Revelation 17:8 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- How many kings had fallen? Revelation 7:10
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ - “And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the __________, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.” Revelation 7:11
________________________________________________________________
Automated Transcript
<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> okay.<inaudible> okay.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> okay. It is time for us to get started. We have reached our normal three minutes late, so we can actually start now. So in chapter six of revelation, we read about the opening of what, in chapter six, how many of the seals get opened in chapter six,
six of them do the sixth seal gets opened, and then there’s a break. There’s an interlude, because a question is asked at the end of chapter six, and what is the question who shall be able to stand? And the question is asked because it is stated that the day of the wrath of the one who’s on the throne and of the lamb is about to come.
And that day who Shall be able to stamp. So chapter seven is an interlude that answers that question we noticed on Sunday, the discussion of who is the 144,000 a, is it a literal hundred and 44,000? We discussed the fact that it’s not, is it, uh, uh, w where, where were they from? They were from the earth.
Uh, we, we noticed a number of those things. So we’re going to cover the latter part of chapter seven tonight, and then, because I don’t want to get into chapter eight yet. And I told you, at some point, we were going to jump back and answer the question. When was the book of revelation written? Um, and I,
I think I also told you that I don’t agree with most people as far as when it was written, but what I’m going to give you tonight are some reasons why I believe it’s written when I think it’s written and we’ll take the latter portion of our class to do that. So we’ll finish up chapter seven and we’ll do that, which will set the stage for chapter eight.
There are some things that get started in chapter eight, that you need to get an idea of the timeline of the book before you get into them. Uh, so we’re going to go ahead and get that out of the way. So let’s begin with a word of prayer, and then we’ll get into our study tonight, our gracious father in heaven, we bow before your throne grateful for the day that you’ve given to us grateful for the life that you have granted us and the opportunities that we have to serve you on a daily basis.
We pray for those who are at home. We pray for those who are ill. We pray for those who are injured or struggling in some way. We pray, especially for those who are struggling spiritually, that they might see the things that they need to change, that they might overcome the difficulties, the temptations, and the sin in their lives. They might live right,
and, and godly before you, we pray that you be with our nation, may it’s leaders make right choices. May they do those things, which are beneficial and in accordance with your will. And may we always strive daily to teach the gospel, to promote the kingdom and to serve you in a way that is acceptable in your sight. We know we sin and fall short of your glory,
and we pray that as we see those things and repent of those things, that you will forgive us of those times, when we fall short of what you would have us to do all this, we pray in Jesus name, amen. Chapter seven, verse nine reads. After these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could number of all nations tribes and tongues standing before the throne.
And before the lamb clothed with white robes, with Palm branches in their hand, and crying out with a loud voice, saying salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. Now we talked about the connection between chapter seven and chapter 14. So jump on over to chapter 14. We talked about that on Sunday, and let’s notice a few things.
Chapter 14, verse one, then I looked and behold the lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000, having his father’s name written on their foreheads. Now, who did we see in chapter three? Jesus said you will have the name of God written on your forehead. Who did he say that to chapter three? I don’t need the specific church.
Just who to, who did he say it to in general Christians. Okay. Jesus said, you’re going to have the name of the father and of the new Jerusalem out of the lamb written on your forehead. Well, now here, you have 144,000 and they’re there with the lamb and they have what on their forehead, the name of the father, this identifies who this is.
These are Christians, but notice what we read, having his father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters and the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpist playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders.
And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. Here are redeemed ones. They were purchased. They were bought back. What were they bought back with the blood of Christ. Okay. So these are the ones who were not defiled with women for, they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the lamb, wherever he goes.
These were redeemed from among men being first fruits to God and to the lamb and in their mouth was found no deceit for, they are without fault before the throne of God. Okay? So you’ve got this description of them. You’ve got this picture of them. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth to every nation,
tribe, tongue, and people saying with a loud voice, fear God, and give him glory for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the and Springs of water. And another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great city because she was made on because she has made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Then another angel followed with a loud voice. If anyone worships the beast or end his image receives his Mark on his forehead, or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the RAF, which is poured out full strength into the cup of indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Holy angels and in the presence of the lamb.
So we read about this. We see this happening. We read about the 144,000 in chapter 14 and in chapter seven, but they’re being told you’re about to go through tribulation back over in chapter seven. He says that these were the ones who are marked. Cause that was the whole point of this. He said, who can stand in the day of God’s wrath?
Well, the ones who are marked cam, the ones who have the seal of God can, but then notice in, in verse nine, after these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could number. And these are the ones as we go through this chapter who come out of the tribulation, the 144,000 go into the tribulation.
The innumerable multitude comes out of the tribulation. The point is you’re getting the same group of people looked at from two different perspectives. Some people say, well, it can’t be the same group. It’s two different numbers. The numbers aren’t literal. The point of the numbers is to tell you about who they are. And here’s the thing we need to remember.
Numbers in the book of revelation are not intended to be understood in a literal sense. They are instead intended to convey what meaning. So on Sunday, we talked about the fact that there were 12 tribes. There were 12,000 from each tribe. We talked about the idea of a thousand being every single one, the idea of completeness to infinity perfection. So here,
God says all my people and every single one of them can stand in the day of my wrath. And do you know how many there are? Well, God does, but is there ever a time where God tells someone on the earth, there’s going to be a group of people, you can’t number Abraham. You remember God said your descendants will be as the stars of heaven as the sand of the seashore so that you can not number them.
Now God says, listen, heres who can stand in the day of God’s wrath. Every single one of my people, all of them can. And how many of them are there? So many, you can’t number them. God said in revelation or Romans chapter four, that Abraham is the father of all those who believe this is written in the new Testament times because of his faith.
He is our father, whether we’re Jew or Gentile, and Paul’s writing to a Gentile church, the innumerable number that come out of the tribulation is a view of God’s children. Just the same way God tells Abraham you will be the father of an innumerable number. Okay? So 144,000 and the innumerable number in heaven are the same group of people. They’re just looked at from two different perspectives.
But notice what happens after these things, I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could number of all nations, tribes, tongues, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne. And before the lamb clothed with white robes, with Palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne into the lamb.
All the angel stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders answered me or answered saying to me, who are these arrayed in white robes?
And where did they come from? Okay. So now the question comes up where we’re going to get the answer of who these are. The one of the elders comes to Johnny. He says, who are these? The ones in white robes, the ones that are here, the innumerable number in heaven, who are they? And where did they come from?
And John and I said to him, sir, you know, that’s simultaneously a recognition of the other person’s knowledge. And it admittance that John didn’t know, this is not, John’s saying, well, this is who they are. This is John saying, why don’t you answer the question? Okay. He says, sir, you know, so he came,
sorry. So he said to me, these are the ones notice this who came out of the great tribulation. Six seal is open and judgments coming down on the earth and the rich and the mighty and all the powerful are crying out for the mountains to fall on them. And for them to be covered from the wrath of the, of the one on the throne and the lamb.
And the question is who can stay in the day of God’s wrath? And on the other side of that judgment is an innumerable company of people who all belong to God. He says, these are the ones who came out of the other side and then notice what he said. He says, they came out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor the heat, nor any heat for the lamb who is in the midst of the throne. Now, wait a minute. Okay.
Attention here will shepherd them. Wait a minute. The lamb who’s in the midst of the throne will shepherd them, go, go back over chapter 14. Then I looked and behold a lamb standing on mountains, ion, and who’s with him. What does a shepherd do? Leads the sheep. Now here’s the innumerable company that no one can number. And they’re being called the sheep of the one who sits on the throne.
And in chapter 14, you again have 144,000. And what are they doing? They’re standing with the one who’s on the throne. It’s the same group of people. Okay. So chapter seven, verse 17 for the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Okay. So all of this has been just a, a pause, an explanation, and answer to the question that happened in the sixth seal in chapter six. Okay. So let’s go through the questions real quick. From chapter seven, hot off the press from last week, John saw these things happen or these things after the opening of which seal the sixth one,
what were four angels holding back and what were they granted to do in verses one and two, they’re holding back the four winds and they’re granted to harm the earth and the sea. Okay. Question three. Did the angel that came from the East have in his hand, the seal of the living, God, question four for what were the four angels told to wait,
all right. They were supposed to wait, not heard the earth in the seat, but until what, until the ceiling of the servants of God, where on his servants did the seal or Mark of God go on their forehead. How many tribes are marked 12, which of Joseph’s sons are included and which of Jacobs are left out? Manasseh is included,
but you’ll notice if you read through the list, Joseph himself is included, but Ephraim is left out. But then also Dan is left out and I was asked on Sunday, why do you think that is? And the answer is, I don’t know, God, didn’t say he just, just pointing out. It is what it is. Okay. How many from each driver marked 12,000?
Who else besides the 144,000 are present before the throne and the lamb that again, a great multitude and, and don’t let them besides, I mean, besides there is not intended to imply that two different groups, I’m just saying they, all of them are described as being before the throne. Okay. Throughout the text. Okay. Um, who makes up this group of people from every nation and tribe that is in heaven?
According to verses 13 and 14. All right. Those that came out of the great tribulation. Okay. These are the ones that came out of the great tribulation. What did they do to themselves? They washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. And then what is the answer to the question from chapter six, verse 17, as far as who can stand those that are sealed with the Mark of God or Christians.
Okay. So chapter seven is over chapter eight, begins with the opening of the seventh seal, but we’re going to put that on pause. We’re going to act like we’re in an interlude and we’re going to answer this question of when was the book written for that? You need a couple of things. You need an old Testament and a new Testament, because there are two chapters,
one in each then answer. When the book is written chapter 17 of the book of revelation, there are a lot of discussions. There are a lot of opinions, as far as when the book is written and granted, when it comes to many of these books that are in the new Testament, we don’t know exactly when they were written. There are some hints,
like for instance, there are some good indications that first Corinthians came before second Corinthians, but that doesn’t mean, you know, exactly where, you know, what was going on, what year it was, but there’s a lot of good ideas. And there’s a lot of good study. That’s gone into this. Now, when it comes to revelation, though,
there are two predominant ideas. I think they’re both wrong. The first idea is that it’s written between somewhere between a 64 and 66, a D that generally comes because of someone taking the majority of the book and interpreting the book to be about the fall of Jerusalem and the persecution to be the Jews persecution of the Christians. And that the ultimate discussion is the same discussion happening in Matthew chapter 24.
Um, they jumped through a lot of hoops to get the book written in the days of Nero in the days leading up to the fall of Rome. Um, I’m not going to go into a lot of the reasons why I don’t think it’s right. Fall of Jerusalem, sorry. Fall of Jerusalem. Um, I’m just only going to say the book is not consistent with the discussion from Matthew chapter 24.
They’re shared imagery. They’re shared discussions of the fall of nations, but I think you’ll see in a moment that the contents of revelation are, is not the same discussion as Matthew 24. So I’m going to move that theory aside. It’s not written before 80, 70, the other discussion. The other idea is that it was written in 95 or 96 D this is usually held because there is a record of a statement by irony is who is allegedly a student of John and Irenaeus says that revelation was received in 95,
96, or in the time of the reign of Domitian. Um, the problem with that is that’s not what John says and you, and you already know how I feel about context. You already know how I feel about letting the text speak for itself. So we’re going to look at revelation chapter 17. We’re not going to study it in depth, but I want us to see a few things that John put in the book,
and then we’re going to go back to the old Testament. We’re going to see if we can put some things together. Okay? Because the old Testament talks about the same thing that revelation does. How many times we mentioned things that we’ve gone through. The first seven chapters said, it’s over here in Zachariah. It’s over here in Jeremiah. It’s over here in Isaiah.
The whole book of revelation is almost in its entirety, found in the old Testament between the shared imagery and the prophecies that were already there. And so is the date of the book. So there’s the others who say it’s 95, 96, because they see this persecution by Domitian, who was on the throne, who was one of the pers main persecutors of the church in the first century.
And they see that and they go, this must be when it was written. And the statement from Irenaeus, okay. Chapter 17, verse one of revelation. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked to me saying to me, come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters with whom the Kings of the earth committed for an occasion.
And the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Okay? So not going to go in all the details, but someone comes to John and he says, John, I want to show you the judgment of this great harlot. I’m going to show you this judgment of the one who enticed and caused the committed adultery, all the nations on the earth.
Okay. Now notice what happens. Verse three. So he carried me away in the spirit, into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a Scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and 10 horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and Scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls having in her hand,
the golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. Okay. So here’s a picture of a woman. She’s a seductress. And she has cause the nations to follow after her into abomination and into for an occasion. But she’s writing on something we’ve just been in chapter five, we saw this, or chapter six, we saw people riding on something then,
and it had meaning while this woman is riding on what A beast, the beast is color of Scarlet. And what is, what, what attribute does, does John see about this beast? Seven Heads and 10 horns. Okay. Verse five. And on her forehead was a name or a name was written mystery, Babylon, the great the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.
I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement. What’s this woman been doing, she’s been persecuting the church, but she is described, or she has written on, on her forehead. What name? Babel on the grade. Okay. There should already be a connection in your brain back to Daniel because of Babylon.
And you remember there was a discussion over in Daniel chapter two, Daniel chapter two. There’s a discussion that happens because the King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. And in that dream, he sees a statue in it. Statue has what, a head of gold and shoulders and arms and chest of what silver and belly and thighs of what bronze or brass and legs and feet of what iron mixed with clay.
And then he sees something else. What does he see? He sees a mountain carved out of the earth without hands, and it comes and does what to the image. It breaks it, but it doesn’t just break. It, it, it grinds it into powder and then it grows and it fills the whole earth. And the dreams interpreted, and God tells Nebuchadnezzar through Daniel.
Here’s the interpretation of the dream. The four parts of the image are what for great kingdoms. And who does he say is the head of gold? Napa can answer. I want you to notice something the King and the kingdom are interchangeable. He doesn’t say Babylon is the head of gold. He says, you, Oh, great. Nebuchadnezzar are the head of gold.
The King and the kingdom are interchangeable, but that actually has some significance, but he means Babylon as a kingdom and never can as her as it’s representative. But then there’s a nation that’s going to come after Babylon, after Nebuchadnezzar, and that nation’s going to be inferior. And yet it will overcome Babylon. And that nation, or actually nations will be hoot the Medes and the Persians.
And then that nation will be overcome by another nation, which will in turn, be inferior. It yet will overcome it. And that nation will be what Greece. And then another nation will come and it will be inferior in substance to that nation, but it will still overcome it. And it will be what Rome. And in the days of these Kings shall God set up a kingdom,
which shall never be destroyed. That prophecy is the foundation for another chapter in the book of Daniel. And that’s chapter seven, turn to Daniel chapter seven, because now we’re going to talk about four nations in the first year of bell. Shazard King of Daniel, King of Babylon. Daniel had a dream and visions of his head while on his bed. Then he wrote down the dream telling the main facts.
Daniel spoke, saying I saw in my vision by night and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea and four great beasts came up from the sea. Each different from the other. The first was like a lion and had Ingle Eagle’s wings. I watched till it w its wings were plucked off and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man and a man’s heart was given to it.
Now, is there another place in the book of Daniel where some kind of man beast transformation happens, Nebuchadnezzar when Nebuchadnezzar his heart is lifted up. And I think Daniel chapter four, Daniel chapter four, and he looks at all the great things that he’s done and, and, and is filled up with God decides to give him a little bit of a humility lesson and causes Nevin Nebuchadnezzar to go out and live among the bees and eat the grass like an oxen until he realizes that the Lord God reigns on the earth,
not Nebuchadnezzar. Well, interestingly, this beast makes the transformation in the opposite direction, which of course Nebuchadnezzar would, would do in a sense when he would return to his mind and leave the field and go back to the throne. So the beast go, stands up like a man. And then notice what happens. Verse five, suddenly another beast, a second,
like a bear. It was raised up on one side and had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And they said, thus to it arise devour much flesh. After this, I looked and there was another, like a leopard which had on its back for wings of a bird. And the beast also had four heads and dominion was given to it.
If you walked through this and we’re not gonna do it for the sake of time, but you would identify every single kingdom first one’s Babylon second, one’s the Mito Persian empire. The third one, the leopard is Greece. Let’s stay with me. And after this I looked and there was another, like a leopard which had on its back for wings of a bird.
The beast also had foreheads and dominion was given to it. After this, I saw in the night visions and behold, a fourth beast dreadful and terrible exceedingly strong. It had huge iron teeth. It was devouring breaking in pieces and trembling the residue with its fees, with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns.
I was considering the horns and there was another horn, a little one coming up among them before whom three of the first horns were plucked out by the root. And they’re in this horn where eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking, pompous words. This isn’t blast for me. This is being a braggart. So here, you’ve got this fourth beast.
It’s indescribable. There’s, there’s not an equivalent description in the animal kingdom, but it has what, 10 horns. And then three horns are plucked out and the little horn comes up. So all told there’s how many horns? Oh 11. But after the three are plucked out, how many are left? Eight. Okay. It’s going to be important.
All right, just hang on here. It’s going to be important. There were 10, three are removed. A little one comes up and there’s eight. But when the little one comes up, he begins speaking and claiming things that he’s not okay. I watched till Thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated. As Garmin was white as snow and his hair was the hair of his head was like pure wool.
His throne was a fiery flame. Its wheels were burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him a thousand. And excuse me, a thousand thousands ministered to him, 10,000 times, 10,000 thousands before stood before him, the court was seated and the books were opened. Sounds almost like an innumerable number, doesn’t it? But here’s this quantity of people.
And they’re standing before the one on the throne and what’s opened the books because judgment’s coming. That’s the picture you get there. A judge just sat down and the books are about to be open. And I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words, which the horn was speaking notice, here’s the little horn he’s talking. He’s claiming something about himself.
I watched till the beast was slain and its body destroyed. And given to the burning flame as for the rest of the bees, they had their dominion taken away yet. Their lives were prolonged for a season. At a time I was watching on the night visions and behold one like the son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him then to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all the peoples nations and languages should serve him.
His dominion isn’t everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed. Did Daniel just identify what the fourth beast was? It was the same as the fourth kingdom. Okay. Well, wait a minute. Verse 15. I, Daniel was grieved in my spirit within my body and the visions of my head troubled me.
I came near to one of those who stood by and I asked him the truth of all this Daniel doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand. And I can understand why by the way. So he told me and made, known to me the interpretation of these things, these great bees, which are for our four Kings or kingdoms, which arise out of the earth.
But the saints of the most high shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever. But the saints of the most high shall receive or sorry, verse 19. Then I wished to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others, exceedingly dreadful with its teeth of iron and it’s mails of bronze, which devoured broken pieces and trampled the residue with its feet and the 10 horns,
which were on his head and the other horn, which came up before, which three fell, namely that horn, which had eyes and a mouth, which spoke pompous words, whose appearance was greater than his fellows. I was watching in the S and the name, excuse me. And the same horn was making war against who saints and prevailing against them until the ancient of days came.
And a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the most high. And the time came for the saints to possess the earth. Okay. Put a little bit together here in Rome, there were a number of emperors. Let me skip forward to this one. And in verse 24, chapter seven, Daniel says the 10 horns are 10 Kings who shall arise from this kingdom.
And another shallow rise after them. He shall be different from the first ones and shall, should do three Kings. He shall speak pompous words against the most high shall persecute. The saints of the most high and Shalon tend to change times and laws. Then the Saint shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. Okay.
Daniel says there’s 10 Kings, and then another one comes. And when this 11th one comes, he’s going to persecute the saints. Okay. Turn back to revelation. Chapter 17 and look at verses seven and eight, John does not originate the imagery. John uses the prophecy of Daniel and the basic imagery and the references to the Kings that Daniel gives him.
And John identifies who’s on the throne and who’s coming for, I go into this, remember this revelation chapter one said, this prophecy is about things, which must what shortly come to pass. And verse five, the time is at hand. So the time of persecution wasn’t right then it was when coming. It was at hand, okay. Verse seven,
revelation 17. But the angel said to me, why did you Marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has seven heads and 10 horns. The bees that you saw now notice the phrase was, and is not the beast in revelation is a persecuting actor. The beast that was in chapter seven of Daniel was a devouring persecuting actor.
And he was making war with the saints. But there’s something about the beast that is at this point, not current, he says he was and is not. Now, there’s another connection that you need to make because the connection is also, do you remember the description of Jesus Christ? He who was, and who is, and who is the com?
Everything in revelation has its opposite. Everything has its it’s adversary. And here’s the adversary of the eternal Christ. The beast who claims to be God, but he’s not claims to be deity. Buddy’s not. And the beast was and is not, and is about to come up. Notice what we read, the beast that you saw was, and is not,
and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition for it. And those who dwell on the earth will Marvel, whose names are not written in the book of life, from the foundation of the world. When they see the beast that was and is not. And yet is here in the mind, which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
Now, if you know anything about Rome, Rome sat upon seven mountains, seven Hills, okay. Rome is identified. Clearly the woman, the great harlot sits upon seven Hills, seven mountains. Then the beast that wa Oh, wait, I skipped a verse 10. There are also seven Kings five have fallen. One is, and the other has not yet come.
And when he comes, he must continue a short time. The beast that was and is not is himself also what? The eighth. Alright, so we’ve got in revelation. We’ve we don’t have 11. We have eight, but in Daniel, when the 11th came up, he did what took three out. Okay. You go back through Roman history and you’re going to find this.
The first recognized emperor of Rome. It was not Julius Caesar. It was Augustus. Augustus was the first Senate appointed emperor of Rome. Julius Caesar was one who you served the throne and made himself emperor. Beginning with Augustus. You have a Gustus Tiberius Caligula who was an absolutely insane Claudius and then Nero. What did narrow due to the church? Persecuted the church,
bad delay, which is why some people think, well, the books written in the days of Nero, but it’s not Nero is the one who’s described as the one who was notice. Read the text again. There are also seven Kings five have fallen. One is when Nero goes down, civil war erupts in Rome and the space of one year three emperors come and go because their civil war there’s unrest,
they keep coming to the throne. They keep getting killed. So for a period of time, there’s three that just come up and are gone. Those were the three that John skips over. He ignores them. They’re a ortho or a<inaudible>, but then Vespasian comes to the throne in John’s book. Vespasian is the one who is say, what I’ll do.
I, I look, there’s a slide. Vespasian is the one who is, he is the one on the throne. And then you read that there will, he will continue a short time and then another will come, who is not yet. And that will be Vespasian son, Titus, but Titus will only rain for a short time. He’ll rain for two years.
Interestingly, just throw this little tidbit in, who will destroy the city of Jerusalem tight as well. Titus will come he’ll return back to Rome. He will take his father’s place on the throne, but he will only rain for a short time. And then he will die. And his brother will come to the throne in 81, a D Domitian who all of history tells us was probably as insane as Nero and Caligula would come to the throne.
But the mission was different than many of the others. He was like some of the others, but he was different and like Nero in a specific way, Nero and Caligula. He thought he was God. And he wanted everyone to call him God. And he declared his D his declarations to be the orange originating with God. And he began to persecute the church in earnest.
John says, the time that is right now is the time when the one who was persecuting is not persecuting anymore. And that’s Nero. And now there is one who’s currently on the throne. There’s one who’s shortly coming. And then the beast will arise again. During the time of civil war, after Nero died, there was no persecution. Rome was too busy,
fighting itself to persecute Christians Vespasian came and took the throne. And he didn’t really persecute the Christians. And neither did Titus. They were putting down unrest in places like Jerusalem. But when Domitian comes to the throne, history tells us, you begin to see persecution that begins in 80 81 with Domitian coming to the throne and continues for 200 years. The books written though,
according to John, when the beast is in a is not state, he’s not persecuting right now, but he’s about to that makes the book written in the days of Vespasian or in other words, sometime between 80, 69 and 80 79. But here’s the key Vespasian is about to be replaced by the one who will remain on the throne a short time there in chapter 17,
you see that, that verbiage. So Titus is shortly to be on the throne that makes the writing of the book, the time of the book, somewhere around probably between 80, 77 and 80 79. Okay. And John uses the imagery from Daniel to explain it. So, you know, so I don’t really care what Irenaeus said because John said the beast was in an,
is not state. He’s not persecuting right now, but he’s coming. So that’s our classroom night. We’ll go over the questions, kind of review that. So you’ve got some handouts, you’ve got some information, we’ll go through the questions on that. As we start our class on Sunday, I would ask if there’s any questions, but there’s probably too many to answer so Well,
good evening and welcome to our devotional after our Bible class. And I am thoroughly confused about the succession of all of the Roman emperors and so on, but it makes sense once again, is sure. Good to see each of you here and have a good crowd tonight, even have visitors. And, um, thank you for your attendance. We have a number of sick and I’m going to run through this list.
Dorothy and Rodale Wilson have pretty much chronic problems. Um, however, Dorothy Wilson did suffer a heart attack last week. And, um, so we definitely need to keep her in our prayers, but, uh, well I think she’s home. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Joan Springer, uh, is doing much better and I know the reason she’s doing better is,
uh, her son and her daughter are coming. Um, well, Lee’s here and with us tonight, but, uh, Lisa will be here tomorrow. So she’s feeling better. I, I know she is need to keep Pam chafing in her prayers. Um, she’s doing much better to, with her surgery. She had back surgery about a week and a half ago.
And, um, I think she’s healing up nicely. Sylvia pass also had a spinal block for her bad back last week and she says it hasn’t improved much. Okay. Janell<inaudible>, um, that is Janet’s about the same and she has thyroid cancer. Right. And Gladys Lyles of course continues to be at home. Um, Francis Wallace, um,
is, uh, we’re Halvorson’s there Cheryl. Okay. She is home. Is that correct? That’s Jacobs. Jacob, some grandmother. And Jay, you remember Jacob he’s led singing here a number of times for us and that’s his grandmother and she had a stroke about two weeks ago. And, uh, she is, uh, his back home and,
uh, Leah Ben cleave that was on the severe die out dialysis, uh, list. Um, I yes, continues to be in that routine. So all of these people need to keep your prayer. Mary Joe Todaro has been diagnosed with Lynne liver cancer. That’s Jenny sister-in-law and I take it she’s down in Louisiana. Is that correct? Okay. And Cassandra just told me and Michelle Ford,
um, it was down in, uh, it’s a friend of hers was down in the Gulf coast area. I don’t know where, but anyway, her car broke down and she stuck down there in the hurricane. So she’s in a real mess. So I guess she deserves, uh, deserve some attention as well. That’s all the sick that I have or the need really need our prayers.
Remember Ava Morgan with the loss of her sister-in-law Kay Fisher and her brother, Roy Fisher. Now I think Roy is her true brother and she had another brother who is the, um, husband of K Fisher. So that’s how all that fit together. What? Well, that’s my understanding. Don’t forget, uh, September national nationwide gospel meeting call flyers on the table and Friday night at nine o’clock Gary Callie will be speaking on that program and his subject we’ll be obeying from the heart.
Uh, something we definitely need to remember. Okay. Song leader tonight will be Michael Dale devotional will be Aaron Cozort and Joe caisson has the closing prayer. Once again. Thank you all for being here this long before the devotional will be number 753 Or they’re along seven, five three. Once you get there, if you want to walk number 943, that’ll be the song of invitation 943 number 753.<inaudible> why it should be the day<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> and,
uh, uh,<inaudible> uh, uh, and, uh,<inaudible> a few more<inaudible><inaudible> as we sweep through, uh, Buton four. Yay.<inaudible> no,<inaudible><inaudible> no nurse Dan<inaudible> and, uh, uh, uh,<inaudible> uh, when we see G uh, coming and going, Oh, when he comes from, um, is,
Oh man, ah, ah, man, wish me and, and, uh, Brian<inaudible>, uh<inaudible> Oh, by and, uh,<inaudible> no, uh, uh<inaudible> and, uh,<inaudible> uh, uh<inaudible> Oh, by and, uh, Is there a way to stop people from being saved? Paul said there was, Paul said there were those who were striving to achieve that goal,
to stop people from being saved, take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to first Thessalonians, first Thessalonians chapter two, we read for you yourselves know, brethren that are coming to you was not in vain, but even after we suffered before and were spitefully treated at Philippi, as you know, we were bold in our God to speak to you the gospel in much a gospel of God in much conflict for our exhortation did not come from error or uncleanness nor was it in deceit.
But as we had been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts for neither at any time, did we use flattering words as you yourself, or as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness, God is witness. Paul reminds those that Tesla Nika. When I was there,
when myself and my companions were with you, we exhorted you. We spoke to you and what did they speak? They spoke the gospel, but go to the end of the chapter beginning in verse 14 for you, brethren became imitators of the churches of God, which are in Judea, in Christ. Jesus for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen,
just as they did from the Judeans who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own profits and have persecuted us. And they do not please God, and are contrary to all men for bidding on us and notice this phrase for bidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they, they they’re being the Gentiles maybe saved. How would you stop people from being saved?
Stop people from preaching the gospel. And you know, there’s many countries that actively strive to stop people from preaching the gospel, but there’s many in our country who as well would love to stop people from preaching the gospel because they know to be true. What Paul says to be true. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek,
to the Jew and to the Gentile. The gospel is what will cause people to be saved. So the surefire way to keep people from being saved is stop the gospel from being preached. That calls upon us to do something, not just to live the Christian life, but to proclaim the gospel message because it, and not us causes people to be saved.
There are people who want to stop other people from being saved and they will succeed. If we choose not to speak, if we choose not to breach, if we choose to remain silent in our lives, as we interact with others, are we succumbing to the temptation to just not say anything, just not speak up, just not say something that’s going to cause someone to be upset because do we remember that it’s also what just might cause them to change?
Are we giving into the temptation to do Satan’s work for him by not speaking if you’re here this evening and you have need of redemption of salvation, you can have it. And the gospel tells you how you can hear the word of God and believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. You can repent of your sins and confess his name. And you can be immersed in water for the remission of your sins,
by the commandment of the gospel and rise to walk in newness of life. But if you’ve given into the demand of the world to stop speaking, maybe today’s the day we change and start preaching the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation. If you have need of the invitation, the invitation is open as we stand and as we sing,<inaudible> ah,
you, uh,<inaudible> us dude.<inaudible><inaudible><inaudible> here’s each time you cry. Ah,<inaudible> ah, cheers from your, uh, dude, you know, my God sees us<inaudible><inaudible> loves you.<inaudible><inaudible> ass bow here. God, our father in heaven, we truly are so grateful for your love. That was demonstrated to us how your precious son dying on the cross of Calvary and the redemption that we have through his blood father.
We realized that that is the greatest gift that we will ever have or will ever be. And we’re so grateful card. And we pray father that we be mindful of those that have never named your name. Those that might not know your will and pray that we have the strength and courage to share that with those. And they say, father, we are mindful of all those that were mentioned that were ill or having issues.
We pray that you continue to bless them and watch over them and be with those that are ministering to them. A lot of the we’re mindful of those that are teaching and preaching your word elsewhere. We pray that your blessings be upon them and keep them safe that Minnesota might come to you to the gospel father, help us here this evening that we contain it to show our love for our fellow man that we give you the honor and the glory and the praise in our lives.
And others truly know that we are your children and that we’re trying to walk in the steps of our Lord and savior. That’s us, our father, and continue to be with us, whether they’re mine or the week and help us to be mindful. Those that might not have been here to check up on them. And those that might have drifted away,
that we might encourage them to come back and be faithful to Jesus. Right?