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Revelation 1:1-8 - Revelation · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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Good morning, Calvary Chapel. Amen.
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What a blessed morning it is little, little cold, little
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chilly, but it's but it's a blessing.
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You know, I, I was just thinking this morning, you know, you
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know, about all this cold. And then I was talking to a
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brother and, and he said that for the next couple weeks, we're
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actually going to be experiencing this, this cold
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weather. And I'm thinking to myself, wow,
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for the next couple weeks. I mean, it's hard for me to deal
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with it, but but then I was thinking, I said, you know, God
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has a reason for doing this. I'm wondering what it is he's
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trying to kill off. And then the thought came, is he
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trying to kill me off? And because this is hard to deal
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with. But anyway, it's a blessing.
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We thank God for him being in control of everything, even the
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weather. I just want to extend also a, an
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acknowledgement to the Hamley family as they are in dealing
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with the loss of their father. And I got a chance to actually
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meet that brother at one time and we we got a chance to spend
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a little bit of time together. He was the very dear brother.
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He was delightful brother, love the Lord, love the Lord.
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There was no question about that.
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So we know where he's going. But we do extend our condolences
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and obviously, we want to give our support and our prayers for
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the Hamley family as they deal with this significant loss.
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Our sister Diane dealt with all the welcomes and all that really
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sufficiently. So we're not going to go through
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all that. We're just going to go ahead and
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get into the word. Amen.
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So let's turn our Bibles today to the Book of Revelation
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chapter 1. And you know, it's 22 chapters
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in the Book of Revelation. So I'm not even sure that we're
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going to be here. By the time we finish this book,
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in fact, I hope we're not, but in the event that we are, it is
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22 verses. But to keep in mind, and this is
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just a message for all of those that you know, the things that
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are written in this book are so significant that it is, I mean,
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it is truly life changing. I'm obviously for believers,
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it's very good news and it's encouraging and all those
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things. But but for those who are not
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believers, I mean, this is not a scare tactic.
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It's not anything to try to unnerve you, but it is a
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warning. It is a warning.
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He is taking us behind the veil and he's saying, look, this is
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what is coming down the road. This is what's going to happen,
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not what might happen. This is what's going to happen
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and he's the one that's qualified to do it.
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So I just wanted to put that out there.
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And from time to time as we go through this book, I want to
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give opportunities and make an appeal for anyone who wants to
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come to Christ. If you've heard something
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throughout the time that we we go through this book and there's
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something that you hear that that touched your heart and you
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say, OK, that was it. I want to come to Christ.
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I want to have that salvation. We will do it.
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I will give that appeal from time to time.
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It is that serious. It's that serious.
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So anyway, with that being said, let's go to prayer before the
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Father and let's get into the Book of Revelation.
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Put my phone on silence so I won't be the one violating that
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policy. Oh boy, I messed up.
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OK, let's pray. Father, I can't even express how
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good it is for you to give us a book like this that we are able
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to read, that we're to know the things that are going to be
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coming. Father, you're giving us that
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sneak preview and you're saying to us, Lord, that you love us
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and that's why you're sharing this with us.
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Father, what a grace it is for you, Lord, to do that for us,
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and we're so grateful. And Father, I know that me
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myself, I'm not qualified, Lord, to stand here and teach any of
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this word, let alone this particular book.
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But Father, you are the teacher. Your Holy Spirit is the one that
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You sent to teach us all things. So Father, we just ask that You
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would enlighten us this morning, that You would open our eyes,
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open our hearts, open our minds, Lord, and cause us to receive
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this. Let it change us, let it equip
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us, let it encourage us, let it comfort us, but also let it warn
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us and let it convict us in the areas where we need to be
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convicted. So Father, we ask now that you
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would just fill us with your spirit and help us to be able to
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understand what it is that you want to share with us today.
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Lord, if you don't speak, I won't have anything to say.
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So I ask these things. We all ask these things in the
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name of our Savior and our Lord. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
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I think it's also important to note that over the last couple
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weeks as we're listening to Pastor Clark take us through the
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15th chapter, the book of First Corinthians, how timely that was
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as we bout to go into the Book of Revelation and the the detail
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in which he took us through that.
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And I'll probably be referring to some of that or making
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reference to some of that as we go through this book because
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some of those things do overlap. But it was such a blessing.
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I could have just let him go on and continue to complete the
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whole book. He could have went into Second
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Corinthians and I would have sat down and would have been ready
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to listen to that, too. But as we go into this book of
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Revelations, let us be reminded of just how true, first of all,
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how true this is because a lot of people look at this and say,
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well, maybe this isn't actually true.
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It's symbolic. And we're going to talk a little
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about about the ways to interpret the book of
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Revelations. But this is literal.
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This is true. This is not something that's
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just symbolic. This is real.
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And this has come from the mouth of Jesus.
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This is the revelation of Jesus Christ that he gave.
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So as we go through this, please keep in mind this is the Word of
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God. This isn't somebody's opinion.
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This isn't somebody's imagination.
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This is the word of God and everything that it says, it's
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going to do, that's going to happen.
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It will indeed happen. So just to give a little
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background first, you know, this is Revelation.
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It's not Revelations. I know I used to say that.
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I used to say that myself. You know, the book of
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Revelations, the book of Revelations, it's not the book
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of revelations. There's no S on that.
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It is revelation. This is a composite revelation
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of everything that Jesus Christ was sharing with the apostle
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John. The author of this.
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Now I said that the author of this is Jesus Christ because it
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is Jesus who gave this revelation.
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Now the but the writer is the apostle John.
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Now John tended, but make no mistake about it.
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This is about Jesus and it's from Jesus.
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Make no mistake about it. Now you know, John wrote as we
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know this, this is about the, this is the 5th book in the New
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Testament that John actually wrote.
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He wrote the, the Gospel of John, first John, second John,
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third John, and now the Book of Revelation.
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He's very consistent in his writing because John, probably
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more than any other apostle, always expresses and emphasizes
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the deity of Jesus Christ. And then this first chapter in
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this introduction, we're going to be doing a lot of that as
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John talks about the deity of Jesus Christ.
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The recipients of this letter is the seven churches that are in
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Asia. And we're going to talk more
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about that as we move throughout this this chapter date.
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This book is written is AD 95. That's what the scholars have
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kind of agreed. That's about when it was was
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written. And that's actually about how
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old John was at the time that he wrote this book.
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Now, now, John was a very young man when he first started
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hanging out with Jesus and the other apostles.
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He's a very young man, but now he's the only living apostle at
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that particular time that he wrote this and he was up in age.
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He was about 95 years years old at the time that he wrote it.
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He had been exiled to the island of Patmos, which once we get to
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verse 9 and beyond that, we will start to talk more about that He
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was exiled. Now, you know, during this
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particular time, the church was going through very heavy
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persecution, you know, much worse persecution than what we
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are going through here. Now.
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There's some people around the world that are going through the
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kind of martyrdom and persecution that this particular
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church was going through at that time, but it was being
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persecuted by a number of different Roman emperors.
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You know, Nero vas passion and his son Titus was one of the
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ones who were persecuting. In fact, he was under the
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command of Titus that the that the temple was burned down.
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And then of course, Domitian, who was actually the one who
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exiled or the one that exiled John to the island of Patmos, It
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was the the emperor Domitian. Now Nero, when he went through
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his persecution, he persecuted those that were around the city
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of Rome. So it was kind of local.
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But Domitian, when he started persecuting, he persecuted
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Christians all over the Roman province.
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I mean, he extended it everywhere.
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And that's when he decided that it was time that John, who was
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probably one of the the loudest voices for Jesus Christ at that
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particular time, he exiled him. Now, the church was going
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through a lot of different things.
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They were being pressured from without through the persecution
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and those things and outside pressures that they were
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feeling. But they were also dealing with
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a lot of suffering. They were dealing with a lot of
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spiritual warfare at that particular time.
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And even internal, they were dealing with a lot of
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challenges. They were, they were dealing
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with heretical teaching, they were dealing with heretical
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practices as well as spiritual apathy.
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And that's one of the things that happens whenever you are
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dealing with heretical teaching. Spiritual apathy can be born out
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of that. People become very apathetic
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about the things of the Lord because they're not getting the
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truth of the gospel, they're not getting the truth of the Word of
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God. So they can become very
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apathetic about things. So they were dealing with that
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as well. I mean, after all, Jesus had
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promised he was coming back and they were wondering, well,
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when's that going to happen? When's it going to happen?
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We've been waiting and we've been persecuted and it hasn't
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happened yet. When and when it does happen,
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what is it? You know, how's he going to
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return? What's going to happen when he
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does return? So the revelation is this
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promise that he gives the church.
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You know, you know, God decided that it was time to encourage
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these people who were failing spiritually, they were failing
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emotionally, they were becoming weary and well doing.
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And God said it's time to encourage them.
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So the Book of Revelation comes as a a reminder to them or
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encouragement to them that they are protected from the judgment
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that's going to come on the world.
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And we need to understand that as Christians, as believers, we
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are protected from the judgments that's coming on the world.
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In fact, the church won't even be here when when the great
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tribulation happens. So this is an exhortation and an
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encouragement for believers and a big, massive warning for
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unbelievers. So no matter what things we're
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going through, no matter what we're dealing with, no matter
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what kind of pressures you are, you are currently experiencing,
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this book comes to let us know that we have a good outcome.
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It comes to let us know we have a good outcome.
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Regardless of what we see in our political, because what we see
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in social, because what we see going on in our own personal
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lives, our own hardships, what we see with medical problems and
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health problems and all those things, we have a good outcome.
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We have a good outcome. It's going to work out good in
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our favor. Now there's a number of
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different ways that people interpret this book.
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They interpret it allegorically. We, we, we kind of, you know,
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touched on that a little bit. That means that they think all
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these things are just symbols. There's nothing true about it.
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It's just symbols of real things.
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And some people look at it from a historical standpoint, what
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they believe that this has already happened.
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You know, we, they've already missed it.
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It happened already. So we don't have to worry about
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that coming ahead of us. But I, and I believe that most
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scholars kind of look at it as a literal in a literal
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translation, which means that these are prophecies of future
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events. It's coming, it's coming.
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Jesus Christ is coming back. I think it's interesting because
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a lot of the, a lot of the Jews who haven't, who are not believe
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or don't believe, they, they're waiting for Jesus to come back.
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The first time. We're waiting for him to come
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back. He was already here once.
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We're waiting for him to come back.
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So as we go through this, let's now start to open this up a
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little bit. Let's look at verse one.
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Verse one says the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him
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to show his servants the things which must shortly take place.
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And he sent and signified it by his Angel to his servant John,
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who bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of
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Jesus Christ to all things that he saw.
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Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this
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prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the
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time is short. So now the word revelation is
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actually comes from the Greek word apocalypsis or apocalypse
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is our English word for it. And usually when people hear
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that, they think about doom, you know, there's something
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horrible. You know, when people make
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movies and call it the apocalypse, I mean, it's like,
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oh, the, the world's coming to an end and people don't have
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food, don't have money, don't have nothing.
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I mean, I mean, something obviously when we get to into
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the, the, the more and the deeper part of the prophecies,
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we're going to hear about some of those things that come from
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the seals. But, but the word apocalypse
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itself actually means the unveiling.
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It means the revealing of something that has been hidden.
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It's the uncovering. So it's like, you know, again,
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like I said, Earl, it's like Jesus has opened up, opened up
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the, the curtains and showing us what's behind the curtain.
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It's, it's, it's the, it's the revealing of a, of a hidden
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truth or mystery that was not revealed previously.
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So the Book of Revelation basically reveals that that was
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unknown. Now, Jesus gave this revelation
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to John to show his servant. So he gave it to John to show
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Jesus's serve to show us of those things which must shortly
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take place. Now, when you talk about shortly
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take place, he doesn't mean that it's going to take place in a
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short amount of time. That's not what he said.
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He's not saying, hey, look what, we're here today and next week
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or tomorrow or next week. This is going to happen.
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It could, because we don't know when Jesus is coming back, but
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that's not exactly what he's emphasizing here.
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What he's saying here is that when these things start to
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unfold, when these things start to happen, it's going to unfold
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quickly. It's going to happen suddenly,
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so it's going to unfold quickly. So when you hear people talk
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about, well, I'll wait until I see Jesus come back, and then
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I'll, and then I'll repent. And no, no, no, no, you ain't
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gonna have time to do that. These things are going to happen
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quickly. So then he goes on and, and when
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he talks about the, that he said he signified it.
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And that word signified it. When he, when he uses that
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phrase, that just simply means that he, it was made known.
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He made it known. Jesus made it known and
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communicated it. And how did he do it?
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He did it by his Angel and possibly Gabriel.
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And we, we, we know in the Scriptures that there's a lot of
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times where an Angel is used to communicate something from, from
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heaven and, and he and he used an Angel to communicate this to
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John. Now we know that historically or
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in the Old Testament we read about Daniel was approached and
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was given information from an Angel, Mary, when she learned
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about the, the, her, her birth, her virgin birth that came by
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way of an Angel in Zechariah. And then there's other verses
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that I want to just look at a couple other verses here in the
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Book of Revelation. Turn to Revelation chapter 5 and
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look at verse 2. Revelation chapter 5, verse 2.
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52 Then I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice
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who is worthy to worship the scrolling to loose the seals and
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then go to Chapter 7, just a couple I'm going to look at here
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in Chapter 7 verse two, he says. Then I saw another Angel
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ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and
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he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was
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granted to harm the earth and the sea.
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So he communicates quite often in the Book of Revelation by way
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of an Angel. And then in here, in verse 2,
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when he says, here John bore witness to the word of God and
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to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all things that he saw, John
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declared and he bore witness of the word of God.
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It was the Word of God. Like I said, John didn't get
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this from somebody that he knew. He didn't get this from somebody
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who gave him this idea. He didn't imagine this.
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He received this from the Word of God.
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So he bore witness to the word of God, and he spoke the word of
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God, and he testified of Jesus Christ, who is the word of God
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according to John 1. Jesus is God's message in human
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form. And this is exactly who we what
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we are called to do is to communicate the word of God.
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We're not to communicate things that ideas that other people
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have. We're not we're not called to
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that to communicate ideas that people have.
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We're not called to, you know, read a book that has nothing to
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do with the with the with the Holy Bible and get somebody's
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philosophy about things and share that with people.
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That's not what we're called to do.
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We are called to testify to Jesus Christ and share the Word
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of God, the word of God. And when we come here today into
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church and we listen to the Pastor Clark and to the other
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teachers as they share the word of God and thank God, we're in a
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church that does read the Word of God and we all read it
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together. So we encourage people to bring
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Bible so that you can see it is the word of God and not ours.
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It's nothing that we wrote down previously and then came and
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shared it with you. This comes right out of the
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Scriptures. It's the word of God.
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So we can feel good about sharing these things and they
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testify of Jesus Christ our Lord.
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No prophecy of scriptures of any interpretation according to
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Peter. Peter tells us that you know,
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it's not there is no prophecy that that that's of any private
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interpretation, nor is it come from the imagination or the
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thoughts of men, but holy men spoke as they were moved by the
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Holy Spirit. Holy man spoke.
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So I hear somebody say Amen over there.
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Thank you. I'll give you that piece of
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candy after church blessing. So then in verse three, he goes
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into the blessings and and this is this was exciting for me to
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read this and go into the blessings.
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In verse three, he says, blessed is he who reads this and who
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keep those things which are written in it for the time is
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near. So blessed are those who read
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out loud and he's talking about reading out loud.
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So you come into a church and you hear a pastor stand up and
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he reads these things out loud. And that's another reason why I
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love, you know, the way we do things here at Calvary Child,
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because we read these scriptures out loud in your hearing.
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And he says bless it are those who read it.
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If you're at home and you're with your family and you're
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reading these scriptures to your family, that's a blessing.
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That's a blessing. So he said blessed are those who
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reads it and those who hear it. Congregation, whoever it is that
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you're speaking to, blessed are those who hear the words of this
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prophecy and keep those things which are written in it.
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Those two things go together. Hearing it and keeping those
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things go together. It's not about just hearing it,
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but it's about hearing and keeping those things, guarding
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those things, protecting those things, obeying those things
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which are in it, he said. There's a blessing in that
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there's a, it's a great blessing.
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And that in fact, throughout the whole book of Revelations,
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there's about 7 times where he mentions the blessing.
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And some scholars call this the, the, the, the, the, the seven
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beatitudes of Revelation. Just going to look at a couple.
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We already looked at where it says blessed it, you know,
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blessed are the ones who read and hear and those who obey or
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those who keep those things that are written.
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But if you go over to chapter 14, over to chapter 14, he gives
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us another blessing 14 verse 13, he says blessed are the dead who
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die in the Lord from now on. So for those those who are being
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martyred that are going to be martyred in the time of the last
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days of the tribulation, he said blessed are those people who die
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in the Lord. And then in chapter 16, verse
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15, he gives another blessing. Here he says, blessed is he who
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watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see
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his shame. 19 and 9, blessed are those who were called to the
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marriage supper of the Lamb. And then in 20 and verse 6,
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blessed are blessed are and holy is he who has part in the first
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resurrection. Pastor Clark was talking about
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that about a week ago that that resurrection.
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And then in verse 22, Chapter 7, 22 and seven, he says bless it
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is he who keeps the words of this prophecy of this book.
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So we see in the 1st chapter he says blessed are those who keeps
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this these commandments. And then he says he repeats it
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with another blessing in the end of the book.
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At the end of the book in chapter 22, blessed is he who
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keeps these words of the prophecy of this book.
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And then also in 2214, he gives one more blessing.
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He says blessed are those who do His commandments that they may
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have the right to the tree of life.
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Blessed are those who keep his commandments.
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They have a right to the tree of life with a blessing that is so
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John is saying here that there is benefit to those who read and
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understand and obey this prophecy.
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And then he says that he then he says because the time is near
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now. When he says that he is indeed
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speaking about the time period, he is saying that that time is
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near. Now.
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Our near is not the same as God's near, OK?
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He tells us that 1000 day, 1000 years is like a day.
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In the economy of God, 1000 years is a day and a day is like
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1000 years. So we look at this from the time
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Jesus ascended, it's only been about 2000 years.
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I shouldn't say like it's only been about 2000 years, but in
26:56
the economy of God, it's only been about two days.
27:00
That means it's been less than three days that our Savior was
27:05
actually taken up. So for God, it's been a short
27:11
amount of time, but we don't know.
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We don't know when he's coming back.
27:18
We don't know. So we don't know.
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So he says when he says the time is near, we should heed that.
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And unfortunately, you know, when, when you have people who
27:30
look at what's happening in our in our world, and you look at
27:35
the people who are unbelievers who like to mock us because we
27:42
have decided to live the Christian life and we have
27:45
decided to wait on the Lord Jesus Christ.
27:48
We have put our trust and what he says in his word.
27:52
And we're waiting for him to come back so that we can be
27:55
glorified with him. But you got mockers who would
27:58
say why you keep waiting. I mean, how long you going to
28:01
wait? You, you letting your life pass
28:04
you by. Ain't nothing good.
28:06
Ain't nothing happening. You know, he's been saying that
28:08
forever over in first Peter, Peter talks about second Peter.
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He talks about that over in chapter 3 verse, verse three.
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He says, knowing this first, that the scoffers will come in
28:19
the last days and they're here. They're here.
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There's a lot of people who consider themselves to be
28:26
atheists who constantly mock us for what we believe, constantly
28:30
mock us. You got people who want to be
28:33
liberal and they have an issue with the fact that we are living
28:37
a conservative life guided by the word of God and they mock us
28:43
for that. We probably, we might have
28:45
friends or family members who mock the way you live.
28:51
You don't have no fun, you don't do nothing.
28:54
He ain't coming back. Look, you just going to die and
28:56
you just going to go into the earth and that's going to be it.
28:59
This is what a lot of them will say, but this is what the word
29:03
of God says. The Word of God says, knowing
29:06
this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking
29:10
according to their own lusts and saying, where's the promise of
29:14
His coming? For since the fathers fell
29:16
asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of
29:20
creation. For this they willfully forget.
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They willfully forget that by the Word of God, which is the
29:29
word that we're testifying to, which is the word that we
29:32
believe in, the Word that we trust in, by the Word of God.
29:37
The heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water
29:41
and in the water by which the world then that then existed
29:47
perished. He said it was going to perish,
29:50
and it did, being flooded with water.
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He said it was going to happen, and it did, and it did.
29:58
Verse 7. But the heavens and the earth,
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which are now preserved by the same word, Word of God, are
30:07
reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition.
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That means the destruction of ungodly men.
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But beloved, do not forget this one thing.
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Take this with you, take this with you.
30:23
Do not forget this one thing that with the Lord one day is of
30:27
1000 years and 1000 years is as one day.
30:31
We just talked about that verse 9 says the Lord is not slack
30:35
concerning his promise. I make you a promise.
30:39
I may be slow in delivering it. You make a promise to me.
30:42
You may be slow in delivering, but he's not slack concerning
30:47
his promise. If he say he's going, if he
30:50
promises it, he's going to do it.
30:52
He is not a man that he should lie.
30:57
So he goes on. He tells us as some count
31:00
slackness, but his long-suffering that means he's
31:03
patient. He's patient.
31:06
So we should all hear that unbelievers don't look at this
31:11
that God is weak or he's lying or he's slow about making his
31:15
promise good or that he can't make his promise good.
31:18
Believer, unbelievers, if you're unbelievers that are listening
31:22
to me or here, watch. Listen.
31:25
He is patient. He's not weak, he's patient.
31:34
He's not unable to do it. He's patient.
31:39
Why is he patient? It says he's patient toward us,
31:45
not willing that any should perish.
31:50
He doesn't. He doesn't take no joy in the
31:53
death of the unrighteous. He says he desires all men to be
32:05
saved. He's not willing that any should
32:07
perish, but that all come to repentance.
32:12
Every day that you wake up, every day that you open your
32:16
eyes, saved or unsaved, it's an opportunity to get it right with
32:21
God. Every day that you open your
32:24
eyes, it's an opportunity to get it right with God.
32:29
For before all these things that are going to be coming that
32:33
we're going to talk about later comes on you.
32:38
But God is in his faithfulness, God in his loving kindness, that
32:44
which is his character, God in his supernatural patience,
32:51
because he's a lot more patient than we are.
32:56
He's giving opportunity for repentance.
33:00
And all I'm asking if you're unsaved, they take it, take it.
33:08
Don't think that is a it's just another promise.
33:11
That's it's a promise that's not going to happen.
33:13
I didn't promise it. If I promise it, I don't blame
33:15
you for doubting it, but he promised it and it will happen.
33:23
So then verse 4, verse four, he says John to the seven churches
33:28
that are in Asia. And we're going to talk about
33:30
more about those those churches as we move further into chapter
33:34
1. But these seven churches that
33:37
are in Asia, he's not talking about China or Japan, he's
33:40
talking about Asia Minor. So this is actually current day
33:44
Turkey, OK. And that's who he wrote these
33:48
two. And he says grace to you and
33:50
peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.
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And from the seven spirits who are before his throne.
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And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born
34:03
from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him
34:07
who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and
34:13
has made us kings and priests to be his to his God and Father, to
34:19
him be glory. He he, he praises him to Him be
34:22
glory and dominion forever and ever.
34:25
So what he's saying here John is, is talking to these.
34:28
He he sent this letter to the seven churches which are in
34:32
current Turkey and he gives them the, the, the, the, the regular
34:38
greeting, which is grace and then peace.
34:41
Is this usually always in that order?
34:43
Because you need grace before you can never have any peace.
34:48
You know, the grace of God is the unmerited favor of God
34:51
through which every other blessing that he gives us flow.
34:54
And if we don't have that, then we're not going to have peace.
34:58
So he says grace and peace from him, meaning God the Father who
35:03
is, who was and who is to come, that's from God the Father.
35:08
So this peace that he's talking about is the peace that Jesus
35:11
left with the disciples, and he leaves it with us.
35:14
And this is a peace that we have within.
35:17
And this is in the midst of trouble.
35:19
Not peace because of the absence of trouble or because the
35:23
absence of conflict, but this is peace even in the midst of it.
35:27
So when you're in the midst of whatever it is that you're going
35:29
through, God's grace gives you peace to be able to have in
35:33
those situations, regardless of what the threat is, regardless
35:37
of what the, the, the, the, the turmoil is, regardless of what
35:40
your challenge is, regardless of the hardship, God can give you
35:45
peace in those things. How many of you have been laid
35:49
off work and you have peace and your coworkers are asking you
35:52
how, how are you so calm about this?
35:55
You know, you're, you're laid off.
35:56
You lost your job. Well, because your faith wasn't
36:00
in the job, your faith is in the one who was able to provide you
36:04
with that job at the time and can provide you with another.
36:09
Your faith is in Him. So we have that peace, the same
36:12
peace that Jesus had on the boat when he was in the middle of the
36:15
storm. They panicked.
36:17
He was sleeping because he had peace and we can have that peace
36:22
through the grace that is in Jesus Christ.
36:25
But he says here and who is who is to come?
36:29
That's who was from. So now he's talking about where
36:31
that grace and peace came from. And he's actually going to
36:34
describe here the triune God. He's going to describe the
36:38
Trinity here. And the first one obviously is
36:41
the God the Father when he says him, meaning God the Father who
36:44
is, who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who
36:51
are before his throne. Now some people look at those
36:54
seven spirits and they believe that well, 7 angels or it's like
36:58
7 spiritual beings. But when you know, actually it's
37:03
the, the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit, it's the
37:07
fullness of the Holy Spirit, it's the, the completeness of
37:12
the Holy Spirit. All throughout the book of, of
37:16
Revelation, you are going to see seven being represented many
37:19
times. And it's the number for
37:21
completion, the number of fullness of perfection.
37:25
And when he talks about these seven spirits who are before the
37:27
throne, that's the presence of the Holy Spirit, the fullness
37:31
and the completeness, the perfection of the Holy Spirit.
37:35
And he talks about, he talks about that back in Isaiah
37:39
Chapter 11 when he talks about the Holy Spirit there.
37:44
And he talks about the completion of the Holy Spirit.
37:50
These are like the seven virtues of the Holy Spirit.
37:53
And it's the Spirit of God. Isaiah Chapter 11, verse 2, the
37:57
Spirit of the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and
38:00
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
38:04
knowledge and the fear of the Lord, Those are the, that's the
38:08
completeness of the Spirit that is before us.
38:11
And man, how do we need that? How much we need that?
38:15
We need that now. We need that complete Spirit to
38:18
be upon us even as we're studying this book.
38:22
Lord, give us the Spirit of understanding.
38:24
Give us the Spirit of wisdom. Allow your Holy Spirit to come
38:27
in its fullness and fall fresh on each and every one of us,
38:30
Amen. So that we can be able to not
38:34
only hear, but to obey and to keep those things that are in
38:39
this book and that is every day of our life.
38:42
We should be asking for that and it is the Holy Spirit that
38:45
stands before God constantly waits and just waiting for God
38:50
to to command them to send the Holy Spirit out to wherever he
38:55
sends the Holy Spirit to go. So then he also says here that
39:03
he's the first. He's a faithful witness and
39:06
Speaking of Jesus Christ because he says and and from Jesus
39:09
Christ, the faithful witness. Jesus Christ is the true and
39:13
faithful witness of God, the true and faithful witness of
39:17
God. When, when, when you consider
39:20
that his whole his whole life here in the earth realm was in
39:25
total obedience to the Father. He did everything that the
39:30
Father told him to do. He obeyed every command, even to
39:33
the point of death. He was the faithful witness, but
39:38
he was also the faithful witness because he embodied all of the
39:42
virtues of the Godhead. All the virtues of the Godhead
39:47
in Colossians 2 and 9 says that in him, meaning in Christ Jesus
39:51
do us all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, bodily.
39:58
So he was the faithful witness. John 812 says Jesus said even if
40:03
I bear witness of myself, my witness is true.
40:09
From the faithful, he's the faithful witness.
40:13
And then in Revelations 3 and 14, he he describes Jesus as the
40:18
faithful and true witness. Right here in Revelations
40:21
chapter 3 and verse 14. He is the true and the faithful
40:25
and true witness. He's a faithful witness because
40:30
he is the only one that was out that was without sin.
40:34
And later we're going to find out that when they were looking
40:36
for somebody to open the scrolls, Jesus was the only one
40:40
who could. It was the Lamb that was slain
40:43
was the only one that was qualified to open the scrolls
40:49
because He is the faithful witness.
40:52
Over in Hebrews 4 and 4:15, it says that Jesus was in all
40:57
points, tempted as we are, yet He was without sin.
41:00
He's the only one who could have died for us, the only one who
41:04
could have atone for our sins. Jesus Christ, the faithful
41:10
witness, the faithful witness. And then we go to the first
41:16
born. He's the first born from the
41:17
dead. If he's the first born from the
41:20
dead, that means there's going to be others that come after
41:22
him. And that's good news for us.
41:25
That's good news for us. He was the first born from the
41:28
dead, the first to arise from the dead with a resurrected,
41:32
glorified, everlasting body. I love when I heard Clark, I
41:37
think it was last week, who, when he said that our bodies
41:41
that we have here are prepared for Earth, but our bodies would
41:47
not be prepared if we went to Mars or Jupiter or any other
41:51
place, wouldn't be prepared for heaven the way we are.
41:55
Because corruption cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
41:58
And this, this is corruptible. This body is corruptible, but
42:04
when Jesus Christ came out of the grave, he came out with a
42:08
resurrected body. It was a glorified body when he
42:13
came out of the grave. Amen.
42:16
And it was a blessing for everyone around to see him.
42:19
And we too are going to be resurrected after him the same
42:25
way we're going to be. Our bodies will be changed the
42:28
same way Jesus's body was changed.
42:32
And then he says that the ruler over all the kings of the earth.
42:36
And he talks about how, you know, he is the ruler of all the
42:40
kings. All the kings are going to,
42:41
everybody's going to kneel to him.
42:43
Everybody's going to bow to him at one point.
42:46
He is the Lord of Lords and the King of kings.
42:49
He is He is the Lord of Lord and King of kings.
42:51
So He is the ruler of all the kings of the earth.
42:54
Even though they may try to rule over Him, they may try to or or
42:59
believe or convince themselves that they have as much authority
43:03
or power as He does. They do not.
43:05
He is the King of kings and Lord of Lords.
43:08
To Him who loved us and washed us and His and washed us from
43:14
our sins and His own blood, He loved us.
43:19
I like to change that us to me, I like to make it personal and
43:24
I'm asking you to do the same. Make it personal.
43:26
When you read that He loved me, He loved me.
43:32
I don't know how. I don't know why He loved me.
43:36
It definitely wasn't because I was lovable.
43:39
That's not why he loved me. But He loved me.
43:43
And I love the fact that it was past tense because it was a love
43:47
that He demonstrated on the cross.
43:51
He demonstrated it on the cross. He loved me.
43:55
Glory to God. So was a path.
43:57
He showed it when we were yet sinners.
43:59
The Bible says when we were yet sinners, He died for us.
44:04
And then he goes on here and he says that He washed us from our
44:10
sins in His own blood. You know, the very thing that
44:14
used to separate us from our God, which is our sins and our
44:18
iniquities, Jesus washed away in his blood.
44:23
Bible, Bible says over in Isaiah 59 that you have been, you're
44:28
separated from God. Your your sins and your
44:30
iniquities have separated you from your God.
44:34
But we're not separated from him because Jesus Christ shed his
44:36
blood for us. We were not redeemed with
44:39
corruptible things like silver or gold, but with the precious
44:43
blood of Jesus Christ, precious blood of Jesus Christ.
44:49
Hey man, and it and it is precious.
44:53
And he made us to be kings and kings and priests to his God, to
44:57
him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
45:00
We are king that we have changed our position in Christ Jesus.
45:05
Yeah. We used to be disobedient.
45:07
We used to be a number of things.
45:09
We used to be children of disobedience.
45:11
We used to be children of the wrath.
45:14
We used to be all those old things.
45:16
We were sinners. We, we, we were, we were under
45:19
the power of Satan, but he changed our position in Christ
45:24
Jesus and we're no longer under the power of Satan.
45:28
We are now under the power of Jesus Christ who loved us and He
45:34
gave himself for us. And then over in verse 7, he
45:39
says, I mean he, well first of all, he gives him a little, you
45:44
know, John gives him a little worship, praise and worship
45:49
service down here at the bottom of verse 6.
45:52
He says to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.
45:57
And then he goes over into verse 7 and we're going to end here
46:03
because I don't want to start that verse and have to break it
46:07
up. So we're going to end here.
46:10
But I just want to say as we end here and prepare for our for our
46:16
communion, praise the worship team, you can come forward.
46:20
I just want to say that when he has changed us, I mean, he
46:24
literally took us from being ruined to being royalty.
46:31
Our lives were a mess. Our lives were a mess.
46:35
We we were corrupted and corrupted and corruptible.
46:39
You know, when when we look at just who it was we were at that
46:43
particular time, and you look back at Ephesians chapter 2, it
46:50
gives us a really good description of what we used to
46:52
be. And I'm just going to share that
46:55
with you. Says we were dead in our
46:56
trespasses and sins. We were sons of disobedience.
46:59
We were children of red. That's what we used to be.
47:02
That's what we used to be. But in Christ Jesus, we're now
47:07
kings and we're priests to his God, delivered from the Kingdom
47:13
of darkness, translated to the Kingdom of light, to his dear
47:18
Son, Kingdom of his dear Son, redeemed from all of those
47:24
things that we used to be. What a blessing it is.
47:27
So I will say here that we serve the true and living God.
47:33
We serve the one who will one day be coming back.
47:36
As we talk about next week, He's going to be coming back.
47:41
He promised it and He's going to do it.
47:44
And we all need to be ready. The Bible tells us that we need
47:48
to watch and pray. We need to be prepared.
47:52
We need to be busy about doing what it is he called us to do
47:55
when he's coming back, Not to find a church that's that, that
47:59
that's slothful or church that's that's, that's being lazy or
48:04
church that has turned away from him.
48:08
But we need to be a church ready for the, for the groom to come
48:12
back, church ready to receive him and excited about his
48:18
return. Amen.
48:22
So Jesus, as it's written here, Jesus, not only did he love us,
48:27
but he washed us in his own blood.
48:32
He didn't take a goat or a bowl. He washed us in his blood, the
48:38
precious blood of a lamb without spot or a wrinkle.
48:44
And I'm so grateful for him to that flesh sacrifice.
48:47
Because of that, I don't have to be judged according to my sins
48:53
and my iniquities and the way that I previously lived my life.
48:57
And neither do you. Neither do you.
49:02
But because of what Jesus Christ did, our sins have been washed.
49:09
And if there's someone here who has not trusted in Jesus Christ
49:12
yet, your sins can be washed clean today.
49:16
Clean the moment you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
49:25
So the night in which Jesus was betrayed, we thank you, Lord,
49:28
for your goodness. We thank you, Father, for all
49:32
that you have done for us, your your time on the cross, your
49:35
obedience on the cross. We thank you, Father, for the
49:42
love that you demonstrated while you were here.
49:45
And we thank you, Father, that we can look forward to your
49:48
return. We are all looking forward to
49:51
your return, Lord, those who trust in you, who fear your
49:54
name. So on a night in which Jesus was
49:58
betrayed, he took the bread. And after he had given thanks,
50:06
he broke it because that body was broken even before he went
50:13
to the cross. The body was broken, beat up.
50:22
But he said take and eat. This is my body which was broken
50:27
for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.
50:37
In the same manner He also took the cup.
50:42
And this cup represents the very blood that Jesus shed, His own
50:47
blood that He shed for us, that washed away our sins.
50:55
Thank you for the blood, Lord. Thank you for the blood.
51:01
He took the cup and he said, this cup is a new covenant in my
51:05
blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of sins of many.
51:12
Drink this in remembrance of me, for as often as you eat this
51:21
bread and drink this cup. Do show the Lords death till he
51:25
come. Amen.
51:27
We will get a lot, a lot deeper into the Book of Revelations
51:31
next week. The Lord bless you.