Bible In A Year - Revelation (part 1)

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Is God A Perfectionist? (part 2) - [Matthew 5:4]

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And we're going to be spending four Sundays out of the next five on the book of Revelation, a book which has probably caused at least as much controversy as the rest of the
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Bible put together. But we're going to be, you could preach easily for a couple of years trying to go through Revelation.
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And we've already done four lessons on Revelation, and we're going to do four more.
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But through the month of March, skipping Resurrection Sunday, because we don't have Sunday school on the 23rd, we will be looking at Revelation.
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Now, Revelation, its title defines what it is.
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Its purpose is to reveal. And yet, people look at Revelation and they say, oh, we can't possibly figure out anything about what's going on in Revelation.
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I mean, they talk about seals and bowls and trumpets and this and that and all kinds of trouble.
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And so we'll just ignore the book of Revelation, which is, of course, to go directly against what
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Scripture says of itself. It says all Scripture is written and given for our profit and for our use and for our instruction.
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And so we're going to look at Revelation as well as we have looked at the rest of the
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Bible. On this first Sunday, we're going to do kind of a quick overview of the entire book.
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There are sheets on the back table back there that you can pick up if you haven't already, which will go through and complete your set.
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If you've been collecting all of them, get them all and put them together.
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Because this is the grand finale of God's word. He started in Genesis by saying, in the beginning,
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God created the heavens and the earth. And he details in Genesis the entry of sin into the world.
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And in the account of Noah and the flood, he details just how serious it got, how bad it got.
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And on and on, we go through the Scripture, where it's God's dealing with mankind. And we might be forgiven sometimes for thinking that things are constantly going from bad to worse.
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The Scripture even says that things will go from bad to worse. And yet, when we get to the book of Revelation, it's the grand finale where God is going to tell us, at least give us a glimpse of how things are going to wind up.
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Now, I won't ask for a show of hands. But some of you, probably, if you read novels, do you ever sort of look at the last chapter to see how it all comes out before you read the whole book?
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Well, that's what we're going to do. Revelation is the last chapter. And it shows us how it all is going to come out and how, what do you know?
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Throughout all of human history, God has been in charge. And throughout all of human history, it has all been going to the end to which he has directed everything.
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And it's all going to come right in the end, as he is going to correct everything and set up the world as it was intended to be, to set up and rule on earth as it was intended to be with Jesus Christ.
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And so this book details all of that. Now, the book is written by the
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Apostle John. Several times in the book, he identifies himself as the writer, as the
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Apostle John, the same one that wrote the Gospel of John and that wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
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John, the same John. He's an old man by this time. If he's not over 100, he's pushing it pretty hard.
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Because this book was probably written around 94, 95, 96
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AD, somewhere in there. John is very likely the last of the apostles that's still alive.
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And he has been exiled. He has been sent to Patmos and exiled there.
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And while he is there, he is going to receive these visions that he will write down.
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And so we have to make some allowance, too, for John.
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John is trying to describe the indescribable. Some of the things that he is trying to describe simply can't be put into words very well because he's going to be talking about great cataclysms that are going to affect the entire earth.
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And he talks about stars falling from heaven and all of these things that...
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And he uses the word, like, a lot. It's like this, and it's as if it were that.
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And so we have to allow for these things, but we still interpret the book of Revelation using exactly the same historical, literal hermeneutic that we've been using for the other 65 books of the
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Bible. We don't suddenly adopt an entire new mode of allegory or anything else when we get to the book of Revelation.
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He's writing down the way it's going to come out. It's writing down the way it's going to come out.
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And so what we're going to do over the next few weeks, we're going to do an overview today.
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Next week, we are going to look at the judgments, and there are three categories of judgments, each of increasing severity, where we start off with the seals.
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If you'll remember, I did a sermon a few weeks ago on Chapter 5.
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And in Chapter 5, we see Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, taking the title deed scroll to the earth, and it's sealed with seven seals.
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And we're going to start seeing what happens as those seals are broken. And then there are trumpet judgments.
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There are seven seals. There are seven trumpets. There are seven bowl judgments. And these are coming in very rapid succession, and the severity is ramping up at an enormous level as you go through all of these judgments.
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But that, even though a lot of people focus there, they put all their attention on all of these terrible calamities that are going to befall mankind, that is not what the book of Revelation is about.
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The book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is to show us
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Jesus Christ glorified. It is to show us Jesus Christ as the conquering king.
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Remember, the last time any of mankind in general has seen
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Jesus Christ, he was what? He was hanging on a cross. Which pretty well implies defeat, doesn't it?
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You can't really think of somebody who's hanging on a cross right now as coming in glory and honor to conquer the world.
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And so John's book is going to show us a glimpse of the conquering king who's going to come and who actually does win out in the end.
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We're going to take a look at the final victories as he sets up his kingdom and rules.
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And so the third week, we're going to deal with some of the central characters that we look at.
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We're going to look at the antichrist. We're going to look at the false prophets. We're going to look at the tribulation saints, the 144 ,000 evangelists that are spoken of in Revelation.
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We're going to look at...it details the final world government. It details the final world economic system.
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And we're also going to look at the two witnesses. If we can cram all of that into one short hour.
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And then week four, we're going to talk about Christ's return, the return of the king, the return of the king.
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And I'm not talking about Tolkien here. The king really is coming back.
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And we're going to look at Armageddon, the Armageddon battle, and the final victory, and the millennial kingdom, and the great white throne judgment, and the new heavens and the new earth, all of which that are spoken of towards the end of Revelation.
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But the main thing is this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ.
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There are only two key people in Revelation. One is the apostle John, who makes reference to himself on several occasions.
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And the other one is Jesus, who is presented as in his glory.
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And John is uniquely qualified to present Jesus Christ as the glorified king.
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Why? Because he saw him. He saw him like that. John is one of the three men who were given a look at the glorified
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Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration. And you remember what happens. You know,
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James and John are struck silent, and Peter begins to babble the way
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Peter normally does. And so, the effect that Jesus, that the transfigured
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Christ had on these three men. And so, John is going to present that view of Jesus Christ.
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He's the son of God, only now he's risen and glorified, and he's the conquering king.
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He's king of kings and lord of lords. If you look at the first chapter one, you see
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Jesus Christ ministering to the churches. He's moving among the churches, among the seven lampstands.
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Each one represents a real church of that particular time. He's seen as the faithful witness.
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He is presented as the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, all of human history.
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He is presented as the one who was, and who is, and who is to come, the eternal one.
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He is presented as the lion of the tribe of Judah in chapter five. He is presented as the lamb in heaven.
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He is presented as the lamb on the throne. He is presented as Messiah.
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He's presented as Messiah. He's presented as king of kings and lord of lords. He is presented as the word of God.
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And this is another thing that's unique to John. Only John describes Jesus Christ as the word.
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Go back to John's gospel. What's the opening of John's gospel? In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was
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God. The same was in the beginning with God. He's also presented as the offspring of David, the one who has the right to rule.
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And he is presented as the bright and morning star. Revelation is also the doctrine of last things.
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It presents, it's the back of the book. It's by no means coincidence that the book of Revelation is also physically the last book in the
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Bible. It's the chapter you turn to to find out what happens throughout the entire book.
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And so, it has its parallel in the
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Old Testament in the book of Daniel. If you read Daniel's prophecies, Daniel's prophecies, he did prophesy about things that did occur in that basic time period where Daniel was alive.
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But it also has future implications of the prophecies and future applications of the prophecies that Daniel made.
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And so, Daniel and Revelation are more or less parallel books, Old Testament, New Testament. And so, what's shown?
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Well, first of all, there's the central message. Both of those books have the same message. God providentially rules over the affairs of men.
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That's the bottom line. Whatever you think is going on in the world, whatever you think is going on in the universe,
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God is providentially ruling over these affairs. Nothing has occurred that surprises him.
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Nothing has occurred that is not part of the decree that he has laid down before the foundation of the world.
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Everything that is happening, nothing is going to surprise him. He's not going to call any emergency committees to discuss, you know, what are we going to do?
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Everything is playing out exactly as he laid it out. And it's all headed now, now that we are in the second half, all of human history has been heading towards one of two events, the first advent and the second advent of Jesus Christ.
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First advent has passed. Everything else is now headed towards the second advent of Jesus. In fact, if you want to look at it this way, we are in the last times.
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Not that Jesus Christ is going to come tomorrow or next week, although he might.
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In fact, we are supposed to look for him constantly. We are supposed to conduct ourselves looking for the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
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But we are in the last times because we've passed the first advent and now everything is headed towards the second advent.
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And whether it occurs today, whether it occurs in a year, whether it goes for another thousand years, we're still in the last times.
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And so it's the doctrine of last things. And what are we going to see?
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Well, it's going to detail the final political and religious and economic systems of the world.
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We are headed towards a world government. We are headed towards a world economic system.
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We are headed towards a world religious system, if you will, where to buck any of these things will be a very, very serious thing and have very serious consequences for whoever doesn't go along and get the marks and all the rest of it.
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It also details the final battle. There will be a great battle at a place called
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Armageddon or Megiddo, the Valley of Megiddo. Napoleon Bonaparte is supposed to have said when he saw, when he witnessed the
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Valley of Megiddo, he said, you could maneuver the armies of the entire world here. And so we're going to take a look at that, the final battle.
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We're going to take a look at the career and the defeat of the Antichrist. We serve
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Christ, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Son of God, the second person of the
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Godhead. There is also an Antichrist that will arise and be opposed to him.
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Not that people have not opposed Jesus Christ before, but this is going to be something unique in history.
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We're going to see the details of the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions.
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We're going to look at the Christ's kingdom on earth, Christ's ultimate victory.
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We'll be looking at that. And we will also be looking at the final state of the righteous and the final state of the wicked as we go.
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So how does the book outline? Again, I want to emphasize the bottom line here on your sheet.
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The key purpose of this book is not to explain every nuance of the prophetic record. We are not to be caught up with bowls and cups and horns and creatures and all of that.
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This is the revelation of a person. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ. And the purpose of the book, as the name implies, is to reveal.
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And I will caution you several times as we go through this study, do not be caught up.
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There's a certain element that loves to read with revelation in the right hand and the newspaper in the left hand.
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Don't get caught up in that trap. Because while it's intriguing to look at current events in light of Scripture.
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You can't make that the focus of your study.
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Because while yes, to us, it certainly looks like everything can't possibly get any worse.
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But you know, human beings have a great ability that whenever it looks like we can't possibly get any worse, we manage.
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We always somehow manage to make it worse. And the Bible even says that things will wax worse and worse as the end of approaches.
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And so even though it looks pretty bad, it can get worse. Don't worry about that.
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And who knows Jesus or God may work providentially in our lives and reset move the clock back a little bit.
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We don't know. And so don't get caught up. And it's a danger to get caught up in this and over interest in current events versus Revelation.
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I noticed I did some internet searching and I'll tell you what
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Google on Armageddon Google on Armageddon.
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I got 547 ,000 returns. I didn't look at all of them.
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Okay. I mean everybody in his and his cow has got something on the internet about Revelation and Armageddon and all of this and charts and so forth and so on.
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I did find the chart I was looking for by the way, but so that's just a word of warning.
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Here's how the book. Outlines John is told in this visions that he has
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John is told that he's going to write three things. First of all, he is to write the things which you have seen the past.
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And that's chapter 1 verses 1 to 20 and in that he has a prologue.
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He has the his vision of a glorified Christ and he details his commission to write.
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He said the Holy Spirit told me to write this book. And so here it is. And then he's to write the things which are the things which are at present and that's chapter 2 verse 1 to chapter 3 verse 22.
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These are the letters to the churches. Now, we've already done four lessons on the churches and we're not going to do them again.
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I direct you the there are the those lessons are all online. You can go back and pick them up if you want to.
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But just briefly that there were seven churches that he wrote letters to. And these are seven physical churches that were now in what we now call
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Asia Minor. Some of them still exists. Their great -great -grandchildren still exists.
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Some of them are gone. But each one of these churches. Was first of all a physical church with a real pastor.
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It is also indicative every one of these churches is representative of a church age or a period during the church during the church age.
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And each one of these churches is also somewhat representative of individual Christians.
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Like each one of these and most of the cases each one of these letters. He has a commendation.
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For that church. He has a criticism for that church. He has a warning for that church and he has an encouragement a word of encouragement or promise for that church.
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And so what was the criticism for the church at Ephesus? Lots of good stuff going on at Ephesus, you know, you're doctrinally sound you resist evil you you resist the
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Nicolaitans, you know, you do all of these things, but I got I have a problem with you.
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You've lost your first love. You've lost that first rush.
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That marks a new Christian. And how many of us can say that of ourselves?
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You know as time goes by you lose that first rush. You lose that first rush and he goes on the he talks to Smyrna the persecuted church.
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He talks to Pergamum the worldly Church. He talks to Thyatira, which was the idolatrous
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Church. He talks to Sardis the dead Church.
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He talks to Philadelphia, which was the church in Revival. And finally he talks to the church at Laodicea the apostate
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Church. And there are some indications that we are getting into the Laodicean age, but maybe not might things might turn around and we have a few more millennia to work.
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And finally he is told to write the things which will take place after this past present future and that's chapter 4 verse 1 on to chapter 22 verse 21.
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And then we are seen once we get into heaven. Once we get into heaven with the start of verse 4 or it started chapter 4, excuse me.
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First of all, we see worship in heaven. We see what goes on in heaven the worship that's taking place in heaven.
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We are going to be told about the Great Tribulation which takes place on Earth. We are talk.
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We are told about the return of the king. We are told about the Millennial Kingdom and the great white throne judgment and finally the
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Eternal State. And that's how the rest of the book outlines. And so throughout history.
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There have been four primary views of Revelation. How do you view Revelation? Because there are things in Revelation.
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Which are described. Which again are simply indescribable.
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You're trying to describe the indescribable. It's as if when when we were doing the first hydrogen bomb tests in the in the 1950s.
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If if one of the natives in the South Pacific at witnessed.
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The the hydrogen bomb going off at Bikini Atoll. And he's trying to describe that.
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To his fellow tribal members. How could you describe that? It's indescribable. What he's seen.
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And you have certain of that that we see in the book of Revelation. But of the four views, there's the
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Preterist view and the Preterist view interprets Revelation as a description of events that occurred during the first century.
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Primarily under the Romans and specifically the Roman Empire sacking of Jerusalem 70
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AD. There are problems with all of these things. We're not going to we're not going to investigate them right now.
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There is the historicist view which also which interprets Revelation as an overview of all of Church history.
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There is the idealist view which interprets Revelation as an allegory that it it's a presentation of the cosmic struggle that has existed between good and evil since Genesis.
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And finally there is the Futurist view. And I'll give you a hint. We're Futurists here.
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The Futurist view interprets Revelation as prophecy. That the events particularly starting in chapter 6 that the events that go forward from there are genuine prophetic descriptions of things that will happen in the future.
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And again, I said we use the same historical literal hermeneutic that we use for the other 65 books of the
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Bible to interpret Revelation with due allowance for the fact that John Yes is using metaphor in some places because again whenever you're trying to describe the indescribable you have to start using metaphors and so you will see in the text that John has he said it was like or you know words of that type as if you hear a lot of that you know as if it were and those types of things.
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So we will rush along here a few key words a few key words that we run into.
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In Revelation first of all we run into the the term
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Hades and in Greek in Greek it also
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Hades and it means literally the place of the unseen in our minds we tend to we tend to use
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Hades and hell as interchangeable but they're not Hades is the place of the dead
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Hades is the place the abode of those who are no longer alive on this earth hell is a place where the wicked dead will wind up so they are not one in the same or they are not interchangeable hell is a place of eternal punishment and so that's one thing that goes on.
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We also another term that we see a lot in Revelation and I just want to hit a few of these is
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Almighty and again the Greek literally means one who has power over everything and that's the description of God in all that the entire
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Trinity and every member of the Trinity Almighty God the one who has power over everything very similar to saying a sovereign
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God a sovereign God the word if you are a sovereign
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King the word have to and sovereignty don't go together in the same sentence.
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A sovereign ruler answers to no one. And we have trouble with that because for one thing there are no sovereign rulers.
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Earthly speaking anymore except for maybe a tyrant or two and even they're not very sovereign because they are also under God's control but Jesus Christ is a sovereign
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King of Kings God is a sovereign God he does what he does and he answers to no one least of all to us and so you know
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Paul addresses this to a extent who art thou old man to you know to challenge
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God and to say why have you done whatever it is that you did but also because of what
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God has revealed to us about his nature we can say with absolute assurance what
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God hath done is rightly done will not the judge of the universe do right
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Job asked that question and the answer is yes he will he will do right whatever he does is right.
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Whether we see the rightness of it or not and we can have confidence in that the devil of course also appears several places in Revelation and also the term
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Alpha and Omega we see that a lot Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters the Greek alphabet and it means everything the beginning and the end.
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And one of the one of the titles that is given to Jesus Christ is that he is the Alpha and the
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Omega he is the beginning and he is the end of all human history. He's the start and he's the finish everything has been focused upon him.
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And everything that has occurred in human history ultimately is to bring glory to him.
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Excuse me but that probably fried the fried the converter.
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Does Revelation fit the central theme of the whole Bible it certainly does because the central theme of the entire
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Bible is God's provincial dealings and redemptive dealings with mankind and Revelation is going to tell us how it all comes out in the end because we have been told as we read through the
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New Testament for example that we are to leave vengeance to God.
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We are not to extract revenge even though we will be persecuted. Peter assures his readers that you know you're going to be persecuted all who will live holy lives will be persecuted and we are not to take to extract our own revenge and vengeance for this
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God will take care of that. And so Revelation shows us that yes he does take care of that.
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What do you know he is as good as his word he does do what he says it will do. Jesus Christ is our is our
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Redeemer and he's going to come again in judgment. You know Jesus Christ came the first time.
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What did he say to his disciples he said I have come to call sinners to repentance. That's why
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I'm here. I have come to die for the sins of men. I have come to die for the sins of men for the sins of the elect.
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I have come to call men to myself. And we see you know we sort of like particularly around Christmas time don't we.
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We like the little baby in the manger the baby in the manger is not threatening and then it all seems to close with him hanging on the cross and you would certainly think he was defeated.
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You get nailed to a cross that's pretty well defeat isn't it. And yet it doesn't end there.
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And the book of Revelation shows us this time when he comes he comes as the king of kings and the
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Lord of Lords as the conqueror. As one writer put it you know when
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Jesus was here the first time he had kind eyes. He had the kind of eyes that made little children come up to him and want to climb up on his lap.
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He had this sort of eyes that made their mothers want to let them go up to him and climb up on his lap.
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The next time his eyes blaze. The kind eyes are gone.
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The next time the eyes are eyes of judgment and conquering we have to move ahead though.
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Frequently asked questions. Well first of all I've already talked a little bit about the different ways in which the book of Revelation can be interpreted because it's true the book of Revelation probably imposes more interpretive challenges than any other book in the
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Bible. Maybe Daniel's up there along with it but you know basically there's a lot of challenges there and as we've talked about the four basic ways of throughout history that people have looked at the book of Revelation.
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And again as I said in this church at least we we use the futurist we take the futurist position because that view does justice to revelations claim to be prophecy it claims to be prophecy number one and it interprets it using the same hermeneutic that we have used for all the rest of the
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Bible. We didn't suddenly change course at the end. The something about the churches the seven churches we've gone through those where you had
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Ephesus which was the loveless church lots of good stuff going on at Ephesus but they lacked one really important thing they had lost that first love
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Smyrna was the persecuted church and then interestingly enough
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Smyrna was one of the churches that did not receive a warning to use the vernacular the message to Smyrna was hang in there you know
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I know that you're under persecution and just just existing you know is what we can ask of you so just that there was no warning to the church at Smyrna Pergamos the church that was compromised the church that was worldly Thyatira the church that was corrupt
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Sardis the church that was dead they had the name but there was nothing there nothing there it's like you know this as time goes by you know we the churches start out with the motto we preach
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Christ crucified but over time it becomes we preach we don't have anything to say but we preach and there was
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Philadelphia the faithful church that was another church that didn't have a warning that didn't receive a warning and finally the lukewarm
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Church at Laodicea and at Laodicea nothing good to say nothing good to say
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Revelation 320 we need to say some words about that who can quote Revelation 320 behold
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I stand at the door and knock okay when
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I was growing up you know that verse was used over and over and over again as this is do you see
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Jesus is standing outside the door of your heart and he wants you to open the door and basically it's an invitation to get saved please get saved
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I'm knocking on the door this is one of the most incorrectly used verses in the
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Bible it's right up there with judge not that you be not judged and where there is no vision the people perish this is not what this particular verse has nothing to do with salvation it has nothing to do with salvation it hasn't it has to do don't don't forget we're in the context of the churches we're in the this is in a letter to the churches that the context has something to do with the church and so the context here tells us that this is
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Jesus he's saying look I'm talking to a church and you bear my name but I'm not there you bear my name but I'm not there and I want to come in and be a part
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I want your church to really be where my name is upheld not something that's simply on the on the banner outside or on the sign outside and so there's that some comments on the tribulation what is the tribulation where does it fit in the book of Revelation going very quickly here first of all first of all you've heard it said over and over and over again this church that we are pre -trib pre -mill what does that mean it means that we hold the position that the church the body of Christ you guys will be taken out before the tribulation begins that is no by no means is that universally accepted okay but we believe in what is also called the hidden rapture that Jesus Christ will come to in the air not to the earth in the air and will call his saints up to him the church rapture means a snatching away or a catching away that's where the the term comes from and so the church is taken out we base this on the fact that starting in chapter 4 of Revelation the church as represented by the 24 elders is present in heaven not on earth okay and then that marks the start of what will be called the great tribulation period which is a period of seven literal years if you go back to Daniel if you go back to Daniel Daniel prophesied 70 weeks upon Israel 70 weeks of years upon Israel 69 of those weeks have taken place
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Jesus Christ entered triumphal entry into Jerusalem occurred on exactly the same on the exactly the right day that Daniel prophesied okay but now we're missing a week we're missing a seven -year period because Jesus our
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God is going to resume his dealings with his people Israel and that's what the the period of the tribulation starts that you can also tie back to Matthew chapter 24 all the warnings that are in Matthew chapter 24 where Jesus in effect says you know if when you see the desolation in the temple it is time to get out of Dodge he didn't actually say that but you know that's what he meant it's time to leave when it starts to turn bad and so this period of time seven -year period of time where it will start off with a false peace but then very quickly things will start to go from bad to worse and worse will get worser believe me as you go through because all of the seals as the seals get open and the seventh seal contains seven trumpets and as the seventh trumpet sounds there are seven bowls of judgment and it's going to be boom boom boom as things happen faster and faster and faster into greater and greater periods of intensity in which the scripture says itself that if this time wasn't shortened nobody would survive it and so that's a period of time in which judgment is going to be poured off poured out upon the earth and it will come to an end with the physical return of Jesus Christ with his
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Saints to the earth this time member the first time the rapture the rapture takes place in the air we are told in the clouds the second coming
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Jesus Christ puts his foot upon the earth specifically upon the Mount of Olives the
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Mount of Olives splits down the middle and the great battle of Armageddon takes place
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I'll skip this comment about 666 we'll talk about that later what does it mean when the great multitude in Revelation keeps saying hallelujah what does that mean it means praise the
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Lord and what do the Saints in heaven do they praise the
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Lord all the time what do the angels in heaven do they praise the Lord all the time one of the things you'll notice particularly is the descriptions where you're actually seeing things in heaven is that people are always stopping to to sing hymns and to have hymns of praise they have a lot of time available to do that and they do that repeatedly because that's what goes on in heaven is
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God is praised and finally what's the millennial kingdom
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Revelation chapter 20 specifically has mentions of a kingdom that will last a thousand years and again because of the hermeneutical position that we take at this church we believe that is a thousand literal years in which the kingdom
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God will restore the kingdom of the Jewish kingdom and Jesus is going to reign on earth for this thousand years reigning as the son of David because promises were made to Abraham promises of land promises of seed promises of rulers interestingly enough when the rulers were promised to Abraham there was no
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Israelite nation it didn't exist and yet these promises were made the promises have been renewed from time to time unconditional covenants there are features of this of the
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Abrahamic Covenant that have never been fulfilled yet all of this will be fulfilled and one of the things that was promised to David was that you know your son your descendant will rule after you well
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Jesus Jesus Christ is the son of David if you trace his earthly human lineage he comes from David he is of the royal line he has the legal right to rule if you will and he will in fact rule for this period of time it will be a period of time of perfect environment upon the earth and interestingly enough we have to wrap up I'll point this out too and this is not part of this morning's lesson it's just thrown in for everyone that you've heard the argument that well if we have a good environment people will be good okay well if you read the description of what goes on during the
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Millennial Kingdom people are being born during the Millennial Kingdom they still they still have to repent believe put their faith in Jesus Christ as their personal
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Savior because what happens at the end of a thousand years no flash forward here is that Satan is going to be released for a little period of time at the end of a thousand year reign and guess what happens there they go you know we've had a thousand years a perfect environment but fallen men are still fallen and they will follow and there will be a last rebellion that will be put down at the end of that but we'll go into that it's some length when we talk about it any questions so far oh one of the one of the point
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I wanted to make before we quit here the question will there be believers on earth during the period of the of the tribulation the answer to that is yes however you are unique people you realize that you are unique people you are members of the church the body of Christ the church started at Pentecost the church will end with the rapture so Saints there were
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Saints before Pentecost there will be Saints after the rapture but they're not members of the church the body of Christ we are special we are the bride of Christ we are living we are very privileged to live in a very particular time but there will definitely be believers on earth during the tribulation period where will they come from good question one of the things that we are told in Revelation is that they're going to be a hundred and forty four thousand
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Jewish evangelists and one former pastor of mine who himself was a was a messianic
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Jew made the comment he said I can't prove this but one possibility is there are going to be a hundred and forty four thousand
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Damascus Road experiences because right now if you no
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Jewish person knows what tribe they're from because all the records were destroyed in 70
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AD when Jerusalem was sacked so nobody can really say I'm of the tribe of Levi I'm on the tribe of whatever but God knows and he says that I'm going to have 12 ,000 from each one of the tribes so a hundred and forty four thousand evangelists are going to go out and they're going to be the two witnesses and there will be that suffice it to say the gospel will be preached people will come people will come people will repent and believe people will place their faith in Jesus Christ and it's going to be very very hard for them during that period of time a lot of them will be martyred because if you don't if you and this is a bit of a preview if you don't have the proper marks you can't participate in the economic system you can't buy and sell or do anything like can't hold a job and so it's going to be very hard for these people but they'll be there and God will be faithful to them too okay any questions sort of like drinking from the fire hose this morning
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I know all right let's let's close in prayer our Heavenly Father our
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Heavenly Father we thank you and praise you that you have given us a glimpse into the way everything will wind up you have given us the final chapter of the book so that we can get a preview of the way it's all going to come out that we can see the
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King of Kings returning in glory that we can take comfort from the fact that in spite of how bad it might look at some period of time that you are in command that you are in control that you do providentially rule over the affairs of men and that you will bring everything right at the end and that you will in fact triumph we thank you
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Lord for this that you've given us to this may the Holy Spirit apply the lessons of the book of Revelation to our hearts and we ask this in Jesus name