Revelation 5

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Well, good morning. Gary, you mind opening us up with a word of prayer?
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Dear Father, we come to you this morning, we thank you for the love that you show us each day and the grace that you give us,
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Lord God. We pray, Father God, as Mike brings forth your lesson this morning in Revelation, and we will be attentive to your word and pray all this in Jesus' name.
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Amen. Revelation chapter 5.
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We have made another step. We have moved to another chapter.
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Beginning in verse 1. It's only 14 verses, so we'll just read the whole thing. This is
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John speaking. I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book, written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals.
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And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and break its seals?
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And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look in it.
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And then I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it.
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And on once of the elders said to me, Stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome, so as to open the book and its seven seals.
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And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing as it slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.
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And he came and he took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty -four elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp and a golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
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And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.
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And you have made them to be a kingdom of priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.
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Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them were myriads of myriads and thousands upon thousands.
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And they were saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessings and every created thing, which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them.
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And I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever.
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And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped.
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Remember, in chapter 4, what's the seeing room? Where are we at?
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The throne room. We're in the throne room. So we're in heaven and we're around the throne. And as we're seeing what's going on, we see the throne, we see 24 thrones, many thrones.
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And those 24 many thrones were representative, as we said, of the church as a whole,
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Old Testament saints 12, New Testament saint 12. And what was going on in chapter 4 continually?
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Worship. Worship. And who were they worshiping? The one who was seated on the throne.
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Yeah, remember, at this point, the picture that we saw of the one sitting on the throne was like a rock.
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I mean, let's just be honest, that's the imagery we get. It was like a green stone. And it's because God is spirit.
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Well, actually, what we're seeing when we move into this part of the vision, we're actually going to see what an anthropomorphism is.
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Anybody know what an anthropomorphism is? And don't ask me to spell it. It's got to do with man.
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Yeah, so it's conveying in that vision something about God that's an attribute of man.
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So in this case, we're going to see in his right hand, does God have a right hand? No. Oh, why?
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He's spirit. He's spirit, that's right. He is a spirit. So as he is seated on the throne, he's getting these four living creatures, which were representative of what?
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Remember what we said, these four living creatures? Or living beings? The corners of the earth.
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Yeah, it was the totality of the creation, of all of creation worshiping him.
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And it had, you know, crazy eyeballs all around it and everything. And they would say, holy, holy, holy. And as they would say, holy, holy, holy, what would the 24 elders do?
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They'd fall down on their face, and they would worship, and they would worship. And this seems to be, from even in chapter 5, the continual act of these four living creatures, which are representative of all creation, and the 24 elders, representative of the church, and we would say, they're continually worshiping
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God. Because what is heaven about? Worship. It's about worship. It's the very purpose for which we were created.
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The very purpose for which all of God's creation was created. It was to worship and give honor to him.
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And just in my brain, you know, they're casting their crowns. Well, they're standing up.
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Are they pulling their crowns back? It just seems like they're going up and down, up and down, up and down. And we're going to see that's basically the same thing that takes place in chapter 5 with the lamb.
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Meaning what? That this lamb is God as well.
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It says, I saw, verse 1, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back.
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Well, it's not right there. Translations as far as what this book, scroll,
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I personally don't prefer the word book. I think the reason for is the
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Greek word here is biblion, and it does carry with the idea of book. Books are codices.
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This is obviously a very advanced. In ancient times, they weren't bound like this. If you look at your
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Bibles, they're leaflets put together, pieced together. That's not how codices or codexes were put together in ancient time.
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Probably by the end of the first century, codices probably became more used because they were taking the parchments, they were putting them together.
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If you remember Paul, he said, send me the parchments. He was one of those vellum or skins put together, but they weren't bound.
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So I don't prefer book. I prefer scroll because that would have been the, yes, question?
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Also in the synagogue, they used to read the Torah was always scroll. Always a scroll.
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That was a Hebrew, and that was more Hebrew, but as you get away from the
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Judaism, even Old Testament Judaism, as you get away from that, you see that Christians got away from using scrolls, and you got more to using codexes or bound books.
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Just like our oldest codex that we have goes back to like the second century, so that tells you that full books were being put together at that moment.
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That is the second century, isn't it? Second, third? Sinaiticus and Vaticanus? Yeah. They were full oldest.
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Actually, the oldest one we have of a full manuscript was Sinaiticus and Vaticanus.
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So I prefer scroll, and there's another reason why I prefer scroll. Scroll has an
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Old Testament. Remember, the Book of Revelation is rooted in the
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Old Testament. So if we want to know, okay, was book or scroll the better translation to be used,
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I have to say it's got to be scroll, reason being because it is rooted in the Old Testament.
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There was nobody handing books, even though in Daniel, we'll look at it here in just a minute, it says seal up the book until the time to the end, but it actually was a scroll.
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It was the scroll of truth. Remember, we finished up Daniel, however long ago that was. We got to the end of the book, which set the stage for us to start the
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Book of Revelation. He said seal up the book, and I said, hmm, book's really not the best translation.
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It's really scroll because that is what he would have had, and it's actually called the scroll of truth. And let's start in Isaiah.
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Isaiah chapter 29, there's this scroll as well.
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Chapter 29 of Isaiah, once again, you have a scroll that's being given, which is written, it says an entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book.
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Actually, that is scroll. Does anybody say scroll? Anybody's translation say scroll? 11, 2911 of Isaiah.
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It doesn't really make sense because you don't seal a book. That's right. Well, yes and no.
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Depending on the dating of how you date the Book of Revelation, they could have said at that point if it's a late, late date, even late preterists would say books may have been in place at that time.
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I'm saying probably not. I'm talking about the sealing, you know how you roll. Oh, like the wax.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. So here it is. We know in Isaiah's time they weren't using scroll books.
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They were, as Novelli said, the Hebrews used scrolls. So here it is.
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He says in verse 11, the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed scroll, which when they are given to one who is literate, meaning one that can read, he will say this,
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I cannot, for it is sealed. Then the scroll will be given to one who is illiterate, saying, please read this, and he will say
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I cannot read. So we even see back in Isaiah there was scrolls given that were sealed and someone could not read.
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But we can even narrow it down into kind of what this scroll is as we move forward from Isaiah and go to Ezekiel 2.
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Yeah, chapter 2. Yes, ma 'am, of Ezekiel. You get around verse 8, he is saying this.
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Remember, Ezekiel is contemporary with Daniel. They are already in,
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Ezekiel is already in Babylon. Daniel was already in Babylon when these prophecies were coming about.
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And he says, now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you.
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Do not be rebellious like the rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what
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I am giving you. Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me, and, lo, a scroll was in it.
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And he spread it out before me, and it was written on the front and the back, and written on it were lamentations, mourning, and woe.
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So this tells us here, one, scrolls is rooted, and as we have already read in chapter 5, how was this scroll written?
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Front and back, front and back. Now, you can then move from Ezekiel forward to Daniel, Daniel chapter 12.
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He has said in verse, well,
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I'll just start in verse 5. No, let's back up. Verse 1, because it will add some context to it.
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Now, at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, he will arise.
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Who do we, anybody remember who we said this Michael is? This is Michael who? Michael, the guardian angel of God's people, or archangel.
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And he will arise, and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time.
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And at that time, your people and everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued. And what would we say that book was?
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It was the book of the registry of those who were in the book of life. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will await some of these two everlasting lives, but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
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Those who have insight, they will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
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But as for you, Daniel, conceal the words and seal up the book or scroll until the end of time, for many will go back and forth and knowledge will increase.
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Remember, he has already asked, hey, when will these, when, he's talking about this great time of distress, what's going, and what does he tell
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Daniel? Seal it up. He says, seal it up. And then he goes on, he says,
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Then I looked, and behold, two others were standing by the river of the bank, and this is by the river bank you lie, on the other side of the river, and one said to me, who was dressed in linen, who was above the waters, how long will it be until the end of these wonders?
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And I heard the man dressed in the linen who was above the waters, as he raised his right hand and his left hand towards heaven, and he swore upon him who lives on the earth that it would be for a time, times, and half of times, and as soon as they were finished shattering the power of the holy people, all these events would be completed.
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But as for me, I heard, but I did not understand, so I said, My Lord, what will be the outcome of these events?
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And he said, Go your own way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed until the time of the end.
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So Daniel has been given a prophecy. If you remember when we got to this point, he was given a prophecy.
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Daniel wanted more information, and what did, and I believe this is pre -incarnate Christ that's hovering over the waters in the linen, what did he tell him?
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He said, Sorry, you've been faithful, you've been good, but it ain't none of your business.
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Ain't none of your business. Seal it up. So Daniel is told to seal up that vision, so he really doesn't know what's going to take place, and obviously you could read the rest of it, and he says,
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All right, well, hang on a second. You want a little bit more information, I'll give you something, and then he gives him what's going to take place, and remember, the book ends on a bad note because Daniel's seeing the destruction of his people, and sometimes
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I think Daniel would have been like, All right, I probably should have stopped there. I probably should have just stopped there, because now he has had great consternation that he was going to go on and be in heaven.
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He wouldn't see the destruction, but he had a grief for his people that although they had been brought back into the land, it's like 534.
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They had been brought back into the land. The temple was about to be being rebuilt, but then he sees another destruction.
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If there's another destruction, what does that mean? There's going to be another apostasy because that's what caused the first destruction.
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So here's this scroll that is written inside and on the back, and the one that had that, well, he was seated on the throne in his right hand.
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Now we can also look if somebody, and we won't turn there. If you want to go back and look at Zechariah 5,
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I'm just showing you these scrolls are connected, okay? Zechariah 5 would have been written after the temple was erect, the second one,
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Zerubbabel's, it was erect, and remember he has some kind of weird visions.
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He has visions in the night, and he sees the four chariots with the four horsemen or four chariots of horsemen that are colored.
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I think they're connected to Revelation as well. And then he has Satan calls out things against Joshua the high priest, and we see the two olive branches and the two lampstands.
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Those are connected to obviously Revelation as well, but he also says in chapter 5, if you read it, it says there was a scroll flying across the sky that was basically 30 feet long by 15 feet wide and written on both sides of that scroll was judgment.
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Once again, we saw what was written on the scroll in Ezekiel, which is a prophetic of judgment and doom, and the one in Daniel, judgment, the one in Ezekiel, judgment.
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So when we get to this one, it says I saw that one in the right hand, him who sat on the throne.
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So in the right hand, what did John see at this point?
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I have no idea. I mean, he sees this throne. Does he just see this hand appear?
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I don't know. When I'm reading that, I'm going, does this hand just poof? There's a hand, a right hand with a scroll in it.
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We have no idea. But this is how the vision is conveyed, and it says that that one sitting on the right hand, the one who we would say is the
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Almighty One, God Himself, the Spirit of the living God, seated on that throne, the one that was like Jasper, the one that was like Sardius, and he has that scroll in his hand that's sealed with seven seals.
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Now, as we think about this sealed document, there are many ways that we could try to understand what this sealed document is.
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There are some that say this document is a title, title deed.
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Why would someone say it's a title deed? Well, in the
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Garden of Eden, throwing forces with the devil, him and his wife, and they forfeited dominion, and Jesus was supposed to come into the world and to do what?
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What did it say Jesus was coming to do? And to destroy the works of the devil, and the works of the devil was tricking
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Adam and Eve into, and you're right though, yes, but he tricked them when he beguiled Eve, and Adam's standing there like a dullard.
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Yeah, what's up? Yeah, and he did the same thing, okay? Matter of fact, he probably said, hey, you want to feed it to me?
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And they headlong full corruption. So, Jesus comes into the world to destroy the works of the devil, and in doing so, he would then retrieve that which
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Adam forfeited, giving rights and privileges.
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Have you read any commentaries? Some of them may say that. That is how they understand what this scroll is.
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I don't. I don't hold that position. Anybody study Bible say anything?
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No, nothing? Then you have this being testament.
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What's one? This probably would help here. Last testament or will.
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What's a last will and testament? What's that?
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Go ahead. What you want done. Yeah, what you want done. When I die, somebody else gets my car, and then
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Sybil gets whatever I have left to her, a bag of brushes, a couple of work vans, and some insurance money so that when her new husband comes along, he can have a paint company.
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But I've got to sell the car because he can't have my wife and my car. All right? So I can say what happens with my car when
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I die. What she does after I'm gone, getting her young strapping lads her business. All right? So a last will and testament has to do with what do you want done with your stuff or what do you want to take place with what has been accomplished in your life when you die.
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For this to happen, there has to be a death, and then once that person dies, there has to be an executor of that will.
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I can tell you what, this is very appealing. This is really appealing. And I do lean towards this way, but I'm going to add a caveat to it in a minute.
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So this document that's sitting in the right hand of God, heads on it both cursing, but as those seals are open, because we already read the book, all right?
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So we kind of know that John's not seeing this. We have already read through the book. We know that there's not only is cursing in this, but what else is in there?
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We could say judgment. You know, these come together every time, judgment and salvation in the
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Bible, every time, every time. Think about in the Garden of Eden.
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They sinned. What did God judge so that He could stay their execution?
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He made coverings. What's that? Yeah, He made coverings for them. So what would be the inference that God had to do to pay for their sin?
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He extinguished the life of whatever that animal was. He put judgment on someone in their place so that He could give them salvation, save them from His judgment.
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They come hand in hand every time. We could go just right through it. What about the flood? God judged the whole world and saved how many?
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Eight. What about Sodom and Gomorrah? Lot and his wife.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, let me back that up. Partially Lot's wife. Yeah, his daughters.
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The angel actually walks them out. You read that? He grabs them by the hand. And as I'm reading that,
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I'm going, this dude really didn't want to go. He grabs them by the hand, walks them out, and for whatever reason, however far they got, obviously the destruction had already begun.
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Remember Lot's wife. She looked back and she was cursed. So ultimately it was Lot and his two daughters that were the only ones that were saved out of the destruction and the judgment.
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But in doing so, the judgment on Sodom led to the salvation of Lot and his daughters, which led to another incestuous and all that stuff.
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Think about, we'll just say the destruction of Jerusalem in 586.
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Well, let's back up. Let's go to 605 -603, depending from 605 to the last deportation at 586 when they destroyed, was not the judgment of God on the city.
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We can all agree. That's what Jeremiah said. But as those judgment on the city was coming out, those that were hauled off into captivity, was that not an act of God's salvation to those people?
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We don't often think of it that way. If you remember, we were in Daniel. Had to be, because was not those that went into Babylon the remnant?
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Yes, they were. I mean, if we could just look at Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed Daniel. We don't need to go any further. Those men became faithful people of God during the time of the exile.
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Daniel still taught the law of God to those
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Jews that were in captivity. So did Ezekiel. Ezekiel was hauled off. He had all those.
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So anytime there is judgment, there is salvation connected to it. God just doesn't make waste to everything without saving
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His people first, or removing them, or protecting them. So the last will and testament has to do with, there's going to be some cursing, and there's going to be some blessings involved.
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The person that died, we'll see, this last will and testament will be the lamb.
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Not only was it the lamb that died, it will be the lamb that will be the executor of this last will and testament.
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And the last will and testament of the Lord Jesus Christ was that this was going to be a time of vengeance on that city.
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You want to go home and read it. We often look at Matthew 24, the
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Olivet Discourse in there. But if you go and you read the Luke passage, Luke passage says, you know, it's
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Luke 21. He says, you know, there's going to be no stone left toppled upon another.
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There's not going to be anything left. The armies are going to surround you. They're going to, they're going to, they're going to, it actually says, hen you in where you can't go anywhere.
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And it is going to be a time of destruction that the world has never seen. And then Jesus says this, for these are going to be days of vengeance so that all that has been written will be fulfilled.
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Had Matthew, Mark, or Luke been written at this point? When Jesus, no.
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So he means, he's got to talk, Jesus is saying something's got to be fulfilled that was written in the
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Old Testament. And I say that would be that what Ezekiel was talking about, the scroll of judgment. It'd be the scroll, the scroll of truth is what
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Daniel was talking about. And the prophetic flying bull scroll that was going across the sky with Zachariah.
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It will be the lamb that will be the executor.
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We will see many times fearful of the lamb.
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I don't know about y 'all, but that just seems weird. I was out at Chuck and Kelly's last night, yesterday, holding this little old tiny lamb, okay?
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This is how my mind thinks. I'm holding that little thing and I'm going, there's nothing to be afraid of this little lamb.
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It's just hopping around and licking and sticking its nose all in my beard. And it's just so sweet, harmless.
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When you get to the book of Revelation, there are people running to the caves and to the hills, and they actually say, save us from the wrath of a lamb.
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I don't know about y 'all, but when a lamb was, that lamb was to come walking around here in the room,
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I don't think this room would part against the wall and go, whoa, watch out, a lamb is in here, everybody, okay?
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I don't think that's going to be the case. Actually, what's going to be the case, if we see the lamb,
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I'm probably going to beat you to it because they're so cute. I'm going to grab it and snuggle it. They're cute.
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The lamb's cute. And I bet they're tasty, too. So, this is,
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I like this, but I want to add something to this, okay? I like being the last will in the
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Testament. This is what Jesus said he's going to do. He says, because you have rejected me, remember in the Old Testament, why did he destroy
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Jerusalem? What is this, Becca? Why did he haul off the northern kingdom in 722
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B .C. under the prophecy of Isaiah? Anybody remember? Is that because they turned to Egypt?
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Well, idolatry. You had two places of idolatry that were set up. One was in Bethel, and one was in Samaria, and they named those two idols
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Yahweh, and they made a place where they could go worship, basically syncretism. They were worn through the prophets time and time again.
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You got to repent. They did not repent. God wrote a writ of divorce.
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He sent away the northern kingdom, hauled them off by the Assyrians in 722, and they were basically absorbed into the
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Assyrian empire. I don't believe those tribes were lost, as many of them say, the ten tribes.
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I don't think they were lost, but I understand what they're saying. And God said, you saw what
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I did to your sister. Talking about the northern kingdom. You saw what I did to her. This is through Jeremiah.
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You saw what I did to her, and you're unwilling to stop your idolatry. Do you not think
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I'll do the same to you? And 100 years later, what did he do in 586? Nebuchadnezzar?
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He laid waste to the city. He hauled them off into captivity, and because of apostasy.
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Apostasy. We see the same thing coming to Jerusalem in 70
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AD. The same exact thing. They rejected the prophets. They rejected the word of God.
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They rejected prophet after prophet after prophet. Even Jesus says in the Olivet Discourse, I'm going to sin.
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He says, I am. So as he's talking to his disciples, and on the last sermon he's preaching to them, or instructions,
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I'm going to sin prophets, and they're going to scourge them. They're going to scourge you.
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They're going to put you some in prison, and some of you are going to be put to death. And then Jesus actually, right before that, had said in Matthew 23, he told those scribes and Pharisees, you're going to do this to these people that I'm going to sin to you, and then woe to you.
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He said, woe. What is woe? That's not like, whoa, man, that's cool. No, no, no. A woe is an
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Old Testament oracle of doom. Meaning, hey, woe to you.
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Destruction. If Jesus tells you woe, you can take it to the bank.
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As a matter of fact, there's six, depending on how you understand those, in Matthew 23, six, seven woes.
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So it will be the destruction on those who have rejected the final revelation of God.
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Who was the final revelation of God? Jesus Christ. What does it say in Hebrews 1?
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In past times, in various ways, in various means, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets, but in these last days,
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He has spoken to you in His Son. That's it. There is no more word coming.
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It's final. So if you're looking for anything else other than what He has revealed in Christ, you're heaping up judgment.
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And that is exactly what these people were doing. But what I do want to say, although it is the last, this scroll is the storyline of the rest of the book.
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Maybe seven minutes. Why do I say it's the last will of the
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Testament? Because I do believe this is what God wants done through the executor of the blessing and the cursing.
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But why do I say it's the storyline for the rest of the book? We're fixing to see...
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You fixing to say something? Yeah.
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Well, if we're fixing to see, were they? Here it is. There's these seven seals that need to be opened.
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Okay? These seven seals of this document, whatever is in that document, nobody knows because that document needs to be opened.
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Now, we can say, why is there seven seals on this document? Well, from a
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Roman culture, you had seven people that had to...
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Once a document, a Testament, last will was rolled up, it was put up, you had seven people testify of it with seven different seals.
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So, if that's what this is conveying, great! I think that's awesome and I think that is a good way of understanding it.
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But not only do I think that's a good way of understanding how the Romans understood a document, but ultimately, this is going to be the fullness of God's last will in Testament and they're going to begin by the opening up of the seals.
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If the seals don't open, will God's blessing, or will
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God's cursing and blessing be unveiled? No! Why do you think
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John goes crying? John goes to crying because he sees in the right hand of God, there's this scroll.
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In that scroll, he knows from what we know about the Old Testament, on the outside and on the inside is judgment, lamentation, and doom.
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Who does John know doom is for? Yes. The Jews.
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Yeah. He knows that, hey, this is not only, and I will even make an application that it's for everybody else that rejects.
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Because I do believe, and it's an immediate context, this is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, but this is only going to typify giving us a trajectory of this is what's going to take place to every generation of every people that rejects
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God. Everyone. Whether it be nations, hey, just, and we'll get there when we get to the four horsemen, but every communistic, secular nation in government.
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You know, what begins to take place in those places? Civil unrest, famine, war.
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What are we going to see these four horsemen do shortly? That's what happens. Why?
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Why? Because they rejected the revelation of who Christ is. So, this, without these seven seals being unfolded, we won't see the storyline of the rest of the book unfold.
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That's why John begins to cry. We got, yeah, we got enough time.
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Would you raise your hand? Well, yeah. Since our church holds the preterist position, orthodox preterism.
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Partial? Partial. Okay. Well, if you have, and I don't want to be confusing, you have late -date preterists and you've got early -date preterists, and then, yeah, so I don't want to get too confusing, but the position that I hold is early preterists, meaning that this is taking place, making the prophetic towards the destruction of Jerusalem.
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Okay? This is pointing towards the destruction of Jerusalem, and that's why
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I believe the book was written before 67, or, I mean, right there at it, because the
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Jewish wars begin to unfold in the end of 66, but they didn't really get out of control until 67.
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Mid -67. Well, yeah, the reason being is because you can see every nation in the world through world history that rejects
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Christ. What happens to them? They fall. And when those central governments, whether they're communistic or whatever, when they fall, what immediately happens?
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Let's just take, for instance, everybody in here except for a few are old enough to remember when the communists, when
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Russia fell. What happened when Russia fell? It just, civil wars broke out everywhere.
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Everybody was wanting their independence. There was bloodshed everywhere. Tribal factions.
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Forget what anybody thinks about Saddam Hussein and all that, but when
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Iraq fell, when Saddam Hussein, you remember what happened in Iraq? Absolute chaos.
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Absolute chaos broke out. One, that's the means by which
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God lets nations fall. Every other nation that falls, why do they fall?
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Another nation comes along and collapses them or insurgents or whatever. Now, do
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I believe that these seals, trumpets, and bowls set a pattern throughout the history of the world that we can draw application?
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Yes, I do. Is that what you were? Yes. Okay, yes, I do. I think we can look at, okay, these are the things that took place in the destruction of Jerusalem, and will these continue to take place and set their trajectory to the final day of judgment at the end of the age?
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Yes, I do, and I can make that argument because at the end of each one of these seals, trumpets, and bowls, you come to a time where there's an interlude, and that interlude then sets up the saving of the saints and then a final judgment.
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Well, if you're going to say this is all taking place in the first century, then you're going to end up with three judgment scenes, and then you don't have the final judgment at the end of the age, and that means you become a full preterist, and full preterism means, hey, look, this is it.
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Yeah, this is it. We're in the eternal state. Bad eyes, broke back, busted up hands.
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I mean, this is not the eternal state. Yeah, this is not the eternal state. But as this scroll unfolds, it will be the unfolding of the rest of the book.
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If this scroll doesn't open, you don't have no trumpets. You don't have no bowls.
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You don't have Jesus coming at the end of the age. You don't have any of that. That's why this is important, and then it's not someone as well.
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Let's get to it next week. It's not as if somebody was unable.
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Let me just clarify this. You have this scroll. Let's just say it was like me, and you said a second ago,
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Richard, probably wax. That was kind of the common wax seal that they put over there. Who can't break a wax seal?
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It's not about the ability. It's about worthiness. I can even go back to what
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Keith preached last week when he said John the Baptist, he said, Behold the
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Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And as he saw Him coming, he said, hey, I'm not even worthy to undo.
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I think in one of the translations it says, I'm not even able to undo His sandal, the strap of His sandal.
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It wasn't saying that John didn't have the strength to reach down there, pop the thong off Jesus' foot.
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That's not what he was saying. He was saying, I'm not worthy in the state and condition that I'm in. I'm not even worthy of touching the dirtiest part of the
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Son of God that has walked through the city on dust. You've got to remember, man, they're walking through cities where animals just defecate wherever.
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Okay? He said, I'm not even worthy to do that. That's where we come to this. It's not about ability to open the scroll.
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It's who's worthy to open the scroll. And then we'll find out who's worthy to open it.
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That lamb died. And if that lamb is overcome, that means this lamb is alive.
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So it comes to be not ability, more so than worthy.
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We've got a minute for questions, clarifications. Good. Good.
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Andy, you'll close us? Help us,
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Lord, to lay hold of it. Help us to put it in practice in our life,
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Lord, and pray it will bless us in our worship together. It may all be done to glorify