Latest / Scripture Central / #51 Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Dec 11 - Dec 17) Revelation 6–14

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#51 Scripture Central Come Follow Me Insights (Dec 11 - Dec 17) Revelation 6–14 · Scripture Central

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Hello everyone. Thanks for listening to Come
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Follow Me Insights with Taylor and Tyler presented by Scripture
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Central. We use a lot of visuals in our
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videos, so if you want to see the visuals, we invite you to
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find us on YouTube. Thanks for listening and enjoy.
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I'm Taylor. And I'm Tyler.
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This is Scripture Central's Come, follow Me insights today
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Revelation Chapter 6 through 14. This is a fascinating set of
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scriptures because for those of you who are familiar with with
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epic movies and epic books, they often not always come in
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trilogies and that middle part of a saga is usually this heavy
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difficult. Oh no, what are we going to do?
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Because the the enemy that we're we've been fighting against is
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now mounting up and the outlook looks it's terrible.
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It's very grim. We have little hope that we're
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going to be able to survive and accomplish well at first glance.
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If you look at our three weeks of lessons in Revelation, the
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first one is very, very beautiful setting the stage.
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The last one is the triumph where God prevails.
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This middle one is filled with a whole bunch of of struggles and
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kind of difficult chaos being poured out on the earth, and
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there are times in here where it looks pretty bleak.
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But again, that's the whole point of the book being a
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revelation, an apocalypse to show or uncover, unveil, reveal,
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make clear the future so that we don't stay in this second
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episode of the trilogy and lose hope and give up.
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We we endure to the end. And in our lives, are there ever
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moments where it feels like everything's going wrong,
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everything's tension? It's not where we're usually
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typically super happy. We don't typically pray for
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those moments. We usually pray to be liberated
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in those moments. And when we are, how glorious it
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is versus if life was just steady state and we had God's
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presence, like oh, that's how it always is.
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But when we are suffering and struggling, when there is a
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clear need for the author and finisher to tie up all the loose
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ends of the chaos, it is absolutely glorious and so
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compelling when the story gets to his conclusion and we see how
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God has done his work. And so we're just in the middle
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of the story here, and we can just be quite at peace knowing
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that everything will turn out, that God will win.
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So as we jump in, remember that the significance of the number 7
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to this book is a complete perfect lacking nothing.
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It's a full set. You have three sets of these.
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Sevens is how John is going to tell this middle part of the
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story, which will actually lead in also to the beginning part of
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next week's scriptures. You have first the seven Seals,
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the first thing that comes to us in this, this middle part about
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the unfolding of this revelation or this panoptic vision where he
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sees each of the seven Seals representing roughly 1000 year
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period. Keep in mind, these are probably
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not to be interpreted literally as exactly 1000 years down to
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the day. They're just 1000 is a
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fascinating number. Why?
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Because it's using another one of those significant symbolic
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numbers to the Hebrews, the number 10, which represents A
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totality. Remember last week we talked
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about this? You have 10 fingers, you have 10
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toes. 10 is a very round Number. It's this total complete number.
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And if you multiply 10 * 10 times 10, it's a superlative of
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totality. It's it's a, it's an absolute,
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beautiful complete number, this thousand.
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So symbolically you have 7 seals, each representing a
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totality of a totality of a totality of of events that need
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to take place within that time frame.
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So that's where we're starting. It's like concluding a chapter.
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Can you imagine if you were reading a book and you finish a
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chapter and moved on to the next chapter, but then suddenly the
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first chapter intruded on the second chapter?
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You'd be completely confused about what's going on.
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So again, it's each seal is like a different chapter of God's
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work with humanity on earth, and that he will complete each of
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the seven chapters and we can totally trust He knows exactly
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where the story's going and how it is concluded, and nothing
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will be commingled inappropriately.
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So as you get through the seven seals watching time March
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forward, then you get to the 7th seal, and in the 7th seal you
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now get introduced to the next set of seven, which are the
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trumpets. Remember last week we talked
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about noise in the ancient world typically signaled that God is
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arriving to do his work. Now, typically we want to see
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the positive aspect of God's work, but sometimes God has to
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act in certain forms of justice. That to us might seem a little
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scary, but the trumpets are like The mentioning of seven trumpets
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is that God is fully arriving to cleanse the earth and prepare it
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for His full return. And so as you get through, we'll
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cover the seven trumpets, and when you get to the 7th trumpet,
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then it introduces the next set of seven, which are the seven
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vials or the seven containers with 7 angels that are going to
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pour out what is in their vials onto the earth.
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This is not a literal interpretation.
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It's very symbolic of John trying to describe how an Angel
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has this capacity to create certain consequences.
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As Taylor's talking, some of these justice is being served in
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the form of a symbolic vial being poured out.
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So this will begin the set of verses or the set of chapters
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that are covered in next week's lesson.
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So for today we begin in Chapter 6 with this moment when the Lamb
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has taken the book out of the hands of God and now begins to
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open those seals 1 by 1. What an amazing thing, by the
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way, to picture the the prophetic vision of how this is
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being portrayed of the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah before the
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world was, was created as he breaks open the first seal and
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it says, and I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I
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heard as it were the noise of Thunder and one of the four
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beasts saying come and see again, Thunder trumpets these
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loud noises to get your attention, come and see.
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Don't you love that? That's the same phrase that the
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Savior used when he was first baptized and had some disciples
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begin following him and asking him where he lived.
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That was his response. Come and see, which is kind of
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the whole focus of our come, follow me curriculum is an
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invitation for all of us, wherever we may live, whatever
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our life situation be, whatever our history in the church is,
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it's to come and see. And what is it that we're
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looking for? What is it that our focus is on?
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It's on Him. It's on Christ.
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It's the Lamb. Everything revolves around Him.
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And if we're not teaching about him, then we're probably missing
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the mark. We're we're probably missing
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something in the in the symbolism or in the story.
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So verse 2, you get the first of what we call the four horsemen
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of the apocalypse. They're all here on this on in
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these first eight verses of chapter 6 and.
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It's probably worthwhile to say God is sharing with John some
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symbols to help him understand that God has a plan.
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Remember we talked about four There's this idea of four
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corners of the earth. Now we all know the Earth is a
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globe and there's not technically four corners on a
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globe. But if you take, you know, a a
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crosswise of XY axis, you basically can go north-south,
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east and West. And the horses in some ways are
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also symbolized as they go throughout the whole world.
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Exactly. So this first horse that we're
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introduced to or horsemen, he's riding on a White Horse and he
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that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him and he
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went forth conquering and to conquer.
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So that first thousand year period seems to be focused on a
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whole bunch of of conquering, which then leads you to the
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second horse which is red. And power was given to him that
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sat there on to take peace from the earth, and they that should
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kill one another. And there was given unto him a
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great sword. So we get peace removed during
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that second thousand year period.
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And then the third in verse five is riding on a Black Horse, and
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he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
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And I heard a voice in the midst of the of the four beasts, say a
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measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a
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penny. And C thou hurt not the oil and
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the wine seems to be a a period of of intense famine.
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Now you will notice that there there are a lot of examples that
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you could go through in the Old Testament in that first thousand
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year period with with Adam, with Seth, with Abel, in that first
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thousand year period. In the second thousand year
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period you've got Enoch. You would have the the events
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with Noah and the Tower of Babel in the second thousand year
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period, in the third with this Black Horse and periods of
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famine. Think about how many famines
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there were in the Old Testament stories, beginning with Abraham,
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with Moses, Joseph in Egypt, all of that famine, all of that a
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need for a measuring device, and things are very expensive to buy
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because there's famine in the land.
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And then you get to the 4th the which would be the second-half
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of the Old Testament. I looked and beheld A pale
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horse, and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed
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with him, and powers given unto them over the 4th part of the
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earth to kill with sword and with hunger and with death and
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with the beasts of the earth. So you get those four horsemen
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and people often try to bring those four horsemen of the
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apocalypse back to life in our day.
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And the reality is, is Joseph Smith found out in his question
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and answer period with the Lord in section 77 of the Doctrine
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and Covenants that you don't have to wonder about these
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because there's a pretty clear description of where they fit
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and we're studying history right now.
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Hence panoptic a view of everything.
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So right now we happen to be looking into the past, not to
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just satisfy curiosity, but to learn from the past, to
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recognize the stories and where they they may be messed up and
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where they did the right thing and learn from that.
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So that we don't repeat the same struggles and we can actually
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repeat the same covenantal blessings that they received
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because of their faithfulness. Which now brings us to the fifth
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seal being broken open in verse 9.
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And when he had opened the 5th seal, I saw under the altar the
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souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the
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testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud
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voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, does thou not
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judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
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And if you look at the 5th seal, and you look at the timeline of
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dispensations in the history of the the gospel, this would be
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the Savior's dispensation. So as you analyze verse 9 and
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10, they're under the altar are the souls of them that were
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slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they
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held. The most amazing ultimate
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fulfillment of that description is Jesus Christ Himself, whose
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blood was shed for and in behalf of all of us, and then after
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him, most of His apostles and many of the seven and others who
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went out. And now in John's time period
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when he's writing this, you had all of the persecutions under
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the hand of Nero. And by the time the Book of
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Revelation is probably being written, we have Domitian, who
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has started to make wreak havoc among early Christians.
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And you have multiple martyrs. Not just the leadership of the
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church, but multiple people who would be attending your local
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ward or branch of the church are getting killed for the name of
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Christ being persecuted for his name's sake.
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So this fifth seal seems to be really marked by this sacrifice
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of life, which you would think should have squelched the the
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growth of that or a Christian Church.
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But it did the opposite because the Lord is is teaching these
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people through His apostles like John the power of blessed.
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Are they who are persecuted or all those who are persecuted for
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my name's sake for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven And they're
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they're actually having people join the ranks rather than flee
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from their rings because of that persecution.
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But let's not leave it at the persecution because the 5th Seal
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description does not end in verse 9 and 10.
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It actually goes on to verse 11, and white robes were given unto
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every one of them, and it was said unto them that they should
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rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also
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and their brethren that should be killed as they were, should
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be fulfilled. Keep in mind if I'm receiving
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this letter in one of the seven churches from John, I'm reading
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this and I've I'm probably related to people who have been
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persecuted to the point where they've they've been killed or
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friends and associates and he's saying oh and there are others
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who are also going to be killed. But I love the fact that he's
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describing that they're going to be given these robes, these pure
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robes of white, the symbol of the of the heavenly clothing
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that will be given them in exchange for them giving their
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life, which I might add, Taylor, I think sometimes in in our
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world today, because there are laws against this level of
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persecution, it's probably fairly easy for some of us to
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become complacent about religious freedom and about the
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the ability we have to worship how, where and what we may.
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I I think a a good reminder for us is to pause and say wait.
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Even though my life, my physical life might not be on the line, I
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could probably do a better job of giving my life not not in
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death, but in life. Giving my life for the Kingdom
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of God. Which now brings us to the 6th
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seal. Now I'm a very visual learner.
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I love to see the page just visually marked for me to be
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able to quickly make sense of it.
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So I have a number one there, a 234 over the four horsemen of
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the Apocalypse. These first four seals being
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open and they're pretty quick we're we're just quickly
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marching through history and now we get into the 5th seal which
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is a little bit longer and then you get into the 6th seal which
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covers this you know 2 1/2 columns plus a little bit over
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here. This is this is important and
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he's he's giving us a lot more details And then the 7th seal
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will open up in chapter 8 before we then get into the trumpets.
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So let's look at this 6th seal. Why?
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Because this one is more relevant to people living in the
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latter days. For those who are keeping track,
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if you read all of the Book of Revelation, the second coming of
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the Lord won't happen until we're part way into the 7th
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seal. So all of these things we're
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reading about in the 6th seal are still in our time frame.
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In the latter days I beheld when he had opened the 6th seal, and
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lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became
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black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became his blood when
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the stars of heaven fell into the earth, even as a fig tree
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casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
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So again, are you going to interpret this literally, that
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there's a great earthquake, sun turns black, the moon turns
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blood. Or are there symbolic ways that
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this can be fulfilled at different degrees, at different
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times, at different events, moving forward in time?
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Notice verse 14. The heavens departed as a
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scroll, and Israel together, and every mountain and island were
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moved out of their places. The way I drive and read maps,
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that seems to be the case when I get lost, but I don't think his
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has been fully fulfilled yet. No.
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And it's fascinating because if you want to take the literal
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lenses off for a minute and put on symbolic lenses, mountains
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are often referred to as either a sacred space to get to heaven
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and that will be moved, or in other places In for instance,
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Isaiah, he he refers to the lofty as the proud, the puffed
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up, the haughty. And they'll be moved.
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They won't always be able to stay.
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Every single mountain is going to be made low or brought down,
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and every island that which is isolated is also going to be
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moved. Lots of ways to interpret this.
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And verse 15 says the kings of the earth and the great men and
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the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and
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every bond man and every free man sounds like he just covered
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all of humanity there. Where did they go?
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They hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
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mountains. So if you take a literal lens
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approach to this and say, yeah, there's going to be worldwide
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upheavals, geologically speaking with earthquakes, then it would
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destroy a lot of the infrastructure and for safety
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and security and for some shelter, Where would you go?
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You would go to the mountains to hide in the holes of the rocks,
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in the caves, in the dens. And isn't it fascinating that
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they're they're going there and what do they say?
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They said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide
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us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from
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the wrath of the Lamb. It's at that point that people
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are recognizing, Oh no, I haven't done what I needed to
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do. And the last thing I want to do
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is is come into the presence of of God.
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And so they're they're in survival mode.
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And it's in that condition that then verse 7 or Chapter 7 opens
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up. He saw four angels standing at
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the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the
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earth. That the wind should not blow on
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the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
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Again you see the symbol of four, which is repeated again
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and again and again. The symbol of four can mean the
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earth, or the stability, or again just the four angels, the
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four corners. And so an Angel comes into that
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setting, and in verse three he says, hurt not the earth,
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neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants
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of our God in their foreheads. And so then what gets sealed?
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He saw the number. There were 144,000 of all the
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tribes of the children of Israel.
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That's a lot again. That numbers.
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You look at numbers. These are.
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These are very symbolic, 12 * 12 times 10 * 10 * 10.
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So if you square a number you you're adding emphasis to it.
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So here you get the final number of the set of three.
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That is kind of the complete set of numbers, 7 being perfect,
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complete and whole, 10 being a totality, 12 being this, this
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full set that the 12 tribes, the 12 apostles, 12 authority.
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Now you have a doubling of that authority, and then you make it
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supervative. You you you make it total and
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complete. 144,000 is this beautiful number to represent
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this most authoritative, most perfectly assembled group of
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missionaries in the history of the world.
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It's supervative. There is no better set of
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missionaries than these 144,000 high priests out of each of the
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tribes of Israel, and he lists those tribes in verse 5 through
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8. You'll notice that there's a
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tribe missing. It's Dan that is not mentioned
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and a lot of ink has been spilled over the years as to why
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Dan is missing. Keep in mind Jacob had twelve
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sons but Joseph had two and we're replacing Joseph with his
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two sons Ephraim and Manasseh. So it actually makes 13 tribes.
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So for whatever reason, and I'm not going to speculate as to
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why, Dan is not in that list. And so it's this idea of 12,000
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sealed from each tribe and they're the ones that go forth
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to do this missionary work. And verse 9 says, after this I
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beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number.
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That's an important thing. No man could number them as he's
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seeing this envision. He's saying.
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I don't even know where to start in trying to describe how big
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this group of people is. Which is a number like this.
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It's the totality of anything that could exist.
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That's right. God will do his work and he will
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bring it to full completion. I used to worry like what if I
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was 144,000 and one oh sorry, you missed the cut off the
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clicker. And that's what happens when we
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literally sometimes we think, I hope in that limited invitation
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engagement I can be one of those special ones that get here.
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It's like, have you chosen to follow Jesus Christ through
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repentance and faith and baptism?
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You're in because it is everybody who has chosen to be
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with God. So verse 9 says that the the
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rest of this is extremely significant to me.
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No man could number this great multitude.
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And notice where this multitude came from of all nations.
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It wasn't just a certain select number of countries.
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These people are coming out of all nations and kindreds and
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peoples and tongues. There's that #4 again for the
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earth, for for fallen mankind. And where are they?
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They stood before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with
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white robes and palms in their hands, bringing us back to to
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John John's description of the triumphal entry with the people
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shouting hosanna, Hosanna as they wave those palm branches,
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this praise to God and a plea for salvation from God.
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And they cried with a loud voice, saying salvation to our
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God, which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb.
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Isn't that beautiful salvation to our God.
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At the triumphal entry it's pleading for salvation for them.
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But in this vision where they're in this celestial court with
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Him, they're shouting the opposite, which is salvation to
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our God, and their focus is on him.
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And unto the Lamb both of them and all the angels stood round
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about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts, and
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fell before the throne on their faces and worshipped God, saying
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Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and Thanksgiving, and
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honor and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever.
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Amen. I love songs that that refer to
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this in Amazing Grace. It talks and when we've been
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there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun.
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And then that song goes on to talk about how it it won't ever
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get old. It will be as if we had just
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gotten there shouting these praises, and now one of the
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sweetest set of verses ever written in any book at any time
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that I know of. If you're feeling down, if
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you're feeling discouraged, lack of hope, this is a set of
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verses, that it it's powerful. So one of the elders answered,
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saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white
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robes, robes, And whence came they Who?
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Who are these, and where do they come from?
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And John's response I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest, And he
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said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation,
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and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of
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the Lamb. Now many of you are watching
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this, and right now you're sitting there in pain.
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It might be physical pain, it might be spiritual pain, it
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might be mental or emotional anguish over loved ones or life
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situation. There there's great tribulation.
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What have you learned about the Lord Jesus Christ?
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What have you learned about yourself?
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What have you learned about God and about others?
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Because you passed through that trial and it wasn't taken away.
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Look at the wording again. These are they which came out of
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great tribulation and I've washed their robes and made them
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white. And the blood of the lamb.
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Oh, that symbolism is amazing because few things stained white
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linen quicker than blood. But the most powerful cleansing
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agent possible in all the universe happens to be blood.
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Just not my blood or your blood. It happens to be the blood of
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the Lamb of God that cleanses and purifies in ways that no
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earthly cleaner or chemical could possibly cleanse and
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purify. And verse 15 Therefore are they
28:28
before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his
28:33
temple, And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among
28:37
them. Did you catch the fact that it's
28:42
day and night serving God in his temple, and He's dwelling among
28:49
them? And then this beautiful promise
28:51
they shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither
28:56
shall the sunlight on them, nor any heat.
28:58
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed
29:01
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.
29:05
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
29:11
So to bring this into focus from a 30,000 foot overview, we we
29:19
were working our way through the seven seals.
29:23
We got to the 6th seal and then after talking about the the
29:27
earthquakes and the the mountains moving and people
29:31
fleeing to the rocks, then you get the 144,000 high priest
29:36
sealed to go out and and gather them in.
29:41
And then you got this, this conclusion in Chapter 7 which
29:46
was a prophetic view forward in time.
29:50
So up till now we've been looking into the past.
29:53
Now we're looking into the the future and then into the the
29:58
beautiful future of when God will dwell among us and we'll be
30:02
with him in either a Millennium or in the the eternities where
30:09
he's going to wipe away all tears from our eyes.
30:12
And there's going to be no more hunger, no more thirst, no more
30:15
sick and afflicted, no more poor and needy.
30:19
Because Christ is the one who is taking care of all those those
30:24
things for us at that point. So it's this little interlude.
30:29
It's as if the Lord is giving John this respite in the midst
30:33
of a pretty heavy, deep and and a bit hard to take set of
30:41
prophecies. In this vision he He keeps
30:45
interspersing these pockets, or packets rather, of hope, and of
30:52
the glorious future, lest we we get overly discouraged.
30:56
So as we transition into trumpets, so just chapters 6 to
30:58
8, roughly speaking are the seven seals, Chapters 8 to 11
31:06
are the trumpets. And then you'll see the vials
31:09
actually show up next week in chapters 15 to 16.
31:12
There's actually also 77 signs that you'll find in chapters 12
31:19
through 14. We'll talk talk about those
31:21
briefly as well. So let's jump into Chapter 8 and
31:24
see what happens when the trumpets are announced.
31:28
So when he had opened the 7th seal, so this is this is the
31:33
last seal being opened. There was silence in heaven
31:35
about the space of half an hour, And I saw the seven angels which
31:39
stood before God, and to them were given 7 trumpets.
31:45
And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden
31:47
censer, And there was given unto him much incense that he should
31:50
offer with the prayers of all the Saints upon the golden altar
31:53
which was before the throne. Keep in mind when you go into
31:57
the temple of at the time of Christ, or at the time of
32:02
Solomon, or the Tabernacle at the time of Moses and Aaron you
32:05
would go into the holy place. And at the veil, right in front
32:08
of the veil is the altar of incense.
32:11
And you would take the incense off that table of showbread and
32:14
dump it onto the those existing hot coals and it would just
32:18
smoke. And as that smoke rises in front
32:22
of the veil with the the presence of God being in the
32:26
holy of Holies on the other side of the veil, you can see how how
32:32
closely associated the the ancient Israelites and the 1st
32:36
century Christians would have had this smoke being a symbol
32:41
for their prayers ascending to heaven.
32:45
And isn't it beautiful that it's at the veil where you go to ask
32:53
to make these petitions, to seek the Lord, to knock that you
32:59
knock at the veil? And to to connect this back to
33:04
Hebrews chapter 10 that we've talked about many times.
33:08
And President Nelson has talked about the veil being this
33:11
beautiful symbol of the flesh of Christ.
33:14
When I go to the veil, when you go to the veil in the temple of
33:19
our God, it's a very literal yet symbolic way of coming unto
33:26
Christ. And we make our petitions to God
33:30
our request. We're asking things of God, and
33:33
we do it through Christ or in the name of Jesus Christ, to
33:39
God, who symbolically is on the other side of that veil.
33:43
So it's beautiful seeing this symbol come full circle.
33:48
Now in chapter 8, verse three, with this incense and the smoke
33:52
of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints,
33:55
ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
34:00
And the Angel took the censor and filled it with fire of the
34:02
altar and cast it into the earth.
34:05
And there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and
34:08
an earthquake. And the seven seven angels which
34:11
had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
34:15
So now we finished our first set of seven.
34:18
Now we get into our second set of seven with the trumpets.
34:22
And again you you can do whatever you want with your
34:24
scriptures. I love marking mine.
34:26
So it's just very, very easy to see.
34:28
And again you get rapid succession with the 1st 4 and
34:33
you're losing 1/3 of the trees. In the first trumpet, you're
34:36
losing 1/3 of the animals in the sea becoming blood.
34:40
Are you recognizing some of the repeat themes from the Old
34:44
Testament, Pharaoh Egypt with Moses and the 10 plagues?
34:49
Again, it's a symbol that God is in charge.
34:52
His presence is here. He's the one who acts and
34:56
effects these mighty deeds. And then you get a third of the
35:00
rivers, and then in the 4th trumpet you get a third of the
35:04
sun, moon, and stars being smitten.
35:07
And then verse 13. And I beheld and heard an Angel
35:11
flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud
35:14
voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhibitors of the earth, by the
35:19
reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels
35:22
which are yet to sound. This is one of only four places
35:27
in Scripture where you get the superlative or triple woe.
35:32
The ultimate curse. That's that's as woe as you can
35:36
go. It doesn't get any lower than
35:38
that, right? This is one of only four.
35:41
The other places it's spelled WO instead of WOE like it's spelled
35:46
here because of the the Greek influence.
35:50
Now you get Chapter 9. So that Angel has just
35:53
pronounced that superlative woe because of the three trumpets
35:57
which are yet yet to sound. Well, here we go.
36:00
You get in Chapter 9 the star that fell from heaven all the
36:07
way down to verse 12. And then the 6th Angel in verse
36:11
13 gives you the description of people who still refuse to
36:17
repent even amidst all of this destruction, and their world is
36:21
crumbling around them and they still refuse to repent.
36:26
It sounds like a variation on the same theme from the Book of
36:31
Ether and the Book of Mormon. The smaller book Mormon Inside
36:37
of the larger Book of Mormon, at the very end of that nephite
36:41
socio political civilization, when they also verse 20.
36:46
The rest of men which were not killed by these plagues, yet
36:48
repented not of the works of their hands, that they should
36:53
not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver and brass and
36:56
stone of wood which neither can see nor hear nor walk.
37:01
Brothers and sisters, this is an important point.
37:04
God loves us so much, and the whole war in heaven was fought
37:10
over agency. And we won.
37:13
We won that war. We've got our agency now.
37:16
Here we find ourselves on the earth with lots of options.
37:20
We're free to choose. And if we choose to use our
37:24
agency to follow the devil's enticements and to follow the
37:30
natural tendencies in us, that's our choice.
37:33
God is not going to reach in and squeeze our heart and say you
37:37
will follow me. He He lets us make our decision.
37:42
It's an amazing thing to consider that God, who has all
37:45
this power, allows you and me to still be independent agents.
37:52
He he's got cause power, but he allows me to make my own
37:58
decisions. He'll entice, He'll invite,
38:01
he'll encourage. He sends lots of consequences to
38:06
perhaps help encourage us to use our agency, but he's never going
38:10
to force. That's our choice.
38:12
And this is a this is a sad moment when these when the 6th
38:19
trumpet sounds and people still in the midst of all of that
38:22
destruction, they still refuse to turn to him.
38:26
OK, when we move into chapter 10, look for the repeated
38:29
pattern of seven. In verse three we have an Angel
38:33
crying with a loud voice, as when a lion Roarth, and when he
38:37
had cried 7 thunders uttered their voices again, maybe
38:42
symbolizing that God himself, in the completeness of his arrival,
38:46
that God's presence is near. We should expect that God is
38:50
appearing. It's a great day for those
38:53
who've repented. It's a terrible day for those
38:56
who haven't. It's either mercy for those who
38:59
show mercy, or justice for those who deserve justice only and
39:03
have been unwilling to receive the mercy of God.
39:06
And this Angel delivers to John a book.
39:12
Have you noticed how often this happens in the Old Testament and
39:15
even in the Book of Mormon? This idea of when angels come to
39:20
a prophet and Commission that prophet, or when the Lord
39:23
himself comes? Often, not always, but often it
39:28
it involves a book, a book being delivered.
39:31
And it's usually a book that is a book of woe, a book of repent,
39:37
or you're going to be destroyed. And look how he describes it
39:40
here, verse nine. I went unto the Angel and said
39:42
unto him, Give me the little book.
39:43
And he said unto me, Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy
39:46
belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth, sweet as honey, so it
39:51
tastes good but oh, it leaves you with a with a tummy ache
39:56
when you're when you're done because of the effect, which is
40:01
amazing because here we're talking about a book given by
40:05
God. So it's like scripture.
40:07
Of this history of the world and the unfolding of the future
40:11
elements of the world. But the same exact thing could
40:15
be said for the things of this world.
40:18
They might taste really sweet in your mouth, but they end up with
40:24
long term bitter consequences if we if we consume them, if we
40:30
allow them to be a part of us. So it's kind of this play on on
40:35
opposites here of what the Book of Mormon might teach or what
40:39
this little book that John consumed, sweet in the mouth
40:43
like honey, but bitter in the belly.
40:45
And you can see that that corollary in in the world Around
40:51
us today. Then you get into Chapter 11,
40:55
which is a famous chapter about the last days regarding the Jews
41:02
in Jerusalem. This this lead up in the battle
41:06
of Armageddon. You you find that in verse three
41:11
I will give power unto MY2 witnesses and they shall
41:15
prophecy 1203 score days clothed in sackcloth.
41:21
If you do the math for 1260 days it's roughly 3 1/2 years.
41:28
So this 3 1/2 year ministry there are, these are the 2 olive
41:33
trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the
41:37
earth. Great symbol.
41:39
These are represented as a piece of God's offer, of an invitation
41:45
into his light. But of course, what happens?
41:48
People are not paying attention. They are rejecting.
41:51
They're not changing their lives, even though they're given
41:54
the time to repent. It reminds me in the Book of
41:57
Mormon, there's a couple of prophets right before Jesus
42:00
shows up, so a lot of chaos in the Nephi society.
42:03
And there's two men in particular who end up preaching
42:06
for about 3 1/2 years. And similar things happen where
42:10
they we see famines in the society, but people repent and
42:14
eventually the people realize that if we trust God, he will
42:19
fulfil his promises to us and get here.
42:22
Seems like people want to live in their own reality in the
42:26
sense of we don't want to be oriented by God and His
42:30
expectations, we want to create our own world without God and it
42:35
just doesn't work. Yeah, these these two prophets,
42:39
they're going to have power. It says in verse 6 to shut the
42:43
heaven that it rained not in the days of their prophecy and have
42:46
power over waters, to turn them to blood and to smite the earth
42:48
with all plagues as often as they will.
42:50
Almost like Moses did when he. Tried to.
42:52
Save the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage.
42:55
And Elijah to shut the heavens. And when they shall have
42:58
finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the
43:01
bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome
43:04
them and kill them. And then we find out that
43:07
they're going to leave their bodies 3 days and a half, their
43:10
dead bodies lying in the streets.
43:12
They won't put them in graves. And then verse 11 After three
43:16
days and a half the spirit of life from God enters, entered
43:20
into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell
43:23
upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice
43:26
from heaven saying unto them, come up, hit her, and they
43:30
ascended up into heaven. And then there's a great
43:31
earthquake which closes the 6th angel's trumpet, which was very
43:37
lengthy, lots of columns here. And now we open up the 7th
43:42
trumpet. Verse 15 He sounded his that
43:46
Angel and the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of
43:50
our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.
43:55
Those of you who know handles Messiah and he shall reign
43:59
forever and ever. This is the verse where where
44:02
that comes from? And look at verse 19.
44:08
The Temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in
44:11
his temple the Ark of his Testimony Testament.
44:15
And there were lightnings and voices and thunderings and an
44:17
earthquake and great hail. And now we pause.
44:21
There's a bit of an interlude here because now you get chapter
44:24
1213 and 14, which are going to give us these interesting
44:31
elements describing this ultimate clash between what
44:39
Satan is trying to do to overthrow what God has set up in
44:43
his Kingdom. If you look at chapter 12's
44:46
heading, I'm just going to say from my own perspective, my own
44:48
view, This is one of the finest chapter summaries as far as
44:55
being instructive and teaching powerful ideas that aren't
45:03
perfectly described in the in the chapter itself.
45:06
Listen to this. It reads like Scripture all by
45:10
itself, Standalone. John sees the imminent apostasy
45:15
of the church. He also sees the war in heaven.
45:19
In the beginning, when Satan was cast out, he sees the
45:23
continuation of that war on earth.
45:26
That is one of the most instructive chapter summaries
45:29
I've ever seen in all of Scripture, because John in the
45:32
1st century sees the imminent apostasy.
45:35
Then he sees into the distant past the the war in heaven, and
45:40
then he sees the continuation of that war on the earth.
45:43
Including in our day. Including in our day Panoptic.
45:47
It's a view of all You don't have to wonder what the war in
45:52
Heaven was like quite as much as you maybe thought.
45:56
While we don't remember all the details in the Veil is pretty
45:59
thick. The continuation of the war that
46:02
you started fighting there is now going on here.
46:08
And you feel those tugs. You feel those wars, those
46:13
battles of ideas of faith versus fear, of discipleship versus
46:20
giving up, and the the wrestles that you and your loved ones
46:24
have to face on a daily basis. We're fighting the war in
46:29
heaven. It just happens to be now on the
46:30
earth. It's a continuation of that war.
46:33
I love the imagery. So we've all probably seen
46:36
really spectacular and engaging action films that have lots of
46:41
lots of amazing visual sequences, and we kind of have
46:45
that here in Chapter 12. Now, I don't know about you, but
46:48
as a regular reader, sometimes I can be a little overwhelmed by
46:52
the verbal imagery that is expressed.
46:55
And we might just remind ourselves that the way the story
46:59
is going is that God will win. And if you are finding yourself
47:04
a little discouraged, if you don't understand everything in
47:06
these verses, it's OK. In fact, it may not be the need
47:09
to nail down every last word and its symbol, but just to step
47:13
back and look at that chapter heading and realize, OK, I get
47:17
it. I see where I am at in this
47:20
plan, salvation I'm living in these days.
47:22
There's still war going on and it's my choice which side to
47:25
fight, fight for. Excellent.
47:29
Now as we jump into chapter 12 it for those of you who who want
47:34
to dive a little bit deeper, it would be worth your time to go
47:37
back to the Joe Smith translation back in the the
47:41
ending part of your Bible right before the maps and read the the
47:45
Revelation 12/1 through 17 sequence.
47:49
Because he he changes some of the order of the verses here and
47:53
it and it's instructive how he does that.
47:55
For the sake of time, we're going to fly through the
47:57
sequence here in the the King James Version.
48:01
Look at verse one. There appeared a great wonder in
48:03
heaven. A woman clothed with the sun
48:08
noticed often that the woman could be taken literally as
48:11
somebody like Mother Eve or Mother of Christ Mary.
48:15
But it could also be a symbolic representation of the Church, or
48:22
of all of us as the bride. Look at what the woman it has.
48:28
She has a crown of 12 stars and she being with child cried,
48:35
travailing birth and pained to be delivered.
48:37
And there appeared another wonder in heaven and behold a
48:40
great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven
48:45
crowns upon his heads. Keep in mind the crowns, the
48:49
horns, royalty horns represent power.
48:53
So it's this dragon who's coming in.
48:56
He's got 7 seven heads and if you're living in the 1st century
49:04
in Eastern or sorry, in western Turkey and you're getting this,
49:08
this revelation in a circular letter form in one of your
49:12
churches. You hear about a dragon, you
49:16
hear about these seven heads. Most of you are probably going
49:20
to think of Rome because Rome is built on seven hills.
49:25
You you can Google this and and see an image of the seven hills
49:30
wherein Rome is built. And it's where they would see
49:36
Rome as the embodiment of this dragon who is fighting against
49:40
the church, fighting against the Saints of God.
49:44
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and it
49:49
cast them to the earth. And then the dragon goes and
49:52
stands in front of women, woman ready to be delivered, waiting
49:55
to devour her child as soon as she should deliver it.
49:59
And she brought forth a man, child who was to rule all
50:02
nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up unto
50:05
God and to his throne. So you get this ascension to to
50:10
save him ultimately from what the dragon wanted to do.
50:14
And the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath the
50:16
place prepared. This should be where they should
50:19
feed her 1203 score days. Joseph Smith changed that Two
50:25
years 1000, 260 years. And you think about the church,
50:34
the this woman symbol being out in a wilderness safely waiting
50:41
for 1200 years before she can slowly start coming back out of
50:45
that wilderness again. And then you get the allusion to
50:50
the war in heaven verse 7. And there was war in heaven.
50:54
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the
50:56
dragon fought and his angels. Can I just suggest to you that
51:00
you personalize verse seven? I I could be wrong, but I don't
51:04
think that it's a stretch to assume that you could circle and
51:10
his angels after the word or after the name Michael and put
51:15
in the margin. Me too.
51:19
You're included in that. I I don't believe that you were
51:22
neutral. I believe you were actively
51:26
working with the Lord under the direction of Michael the
51:30
Archangel. And verse 8 says And they
51:33
prevailed not the angels of the devil, the dragon prevailed not,
51:37
neither was their place found any more in heaven.
51:39
So they were cast out, and his angels were cast out with him
51:43
down to the earth. And so verse 10 talks about how
51:47
in a loud voice they they hear now is come salvation and
51:52
strength in the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ.
51:55
For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them
51:59
before our God day and night. Did you catch that?
52:03
One of the titles or one of the attributes of Satan is the great
52:08
accuser, the great finger pointer, the guy who's going
52:12
around pointing out what everybody did wrong and he's
52:15
talking to God about what everybody did wrong, trying to
52:17
get everybody in trouble. And now he's cast down to the
52:22
earth and look at this, the solution here, verse 11.
52:27
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
52:33
their testimony. And they loved not their lives
52:36
unto the death. That verse is the power we used
52:42
to overcome the devil and his angels in the pre mortal realm.
52:48
Well, we're fighting the same battle.
52:49
It's just a different battleground.
52:51
It's just a different location, though.
52:53
We're fighting against the same people.
52:55
We're fighting against the same ideas.
52:57
It's everything he's trying to do to tear down our agency and
53:02
to tear down the plan of God and to overthrow the the triumph of
53:07
the Saviour's Infinite Atonement.
53:08
And yet again, we need the blood of the Lamb to overcome same
53:13
battle, same sides, same victors, and same process for
53:19
winning up and having her down here.
53:22
And the question is, will we continue to choose the Lord's
53:26
side? Now, I would suggest that if you
53:29
are spending time with God, the answer is yes.
53:32
And I think we can just kind of lower the temperature a bit,
53:34
that yes, we want to be anxiously engaged in a good
53:38
cause, but we should not feel like there's some crisis.
53:40
That man, am I really on the Lord's side?
53:43
The answer is, if you love the Lord and want to be on his side,
53:47
you've already chosen yes. Which, as as you're moving
53:51
forward in life, in this, in this battle that you're waging
53:54
every day against the forces of darkness, there are simple
53:58
things we could do to make minor improvements.
54:01
To turn a little bit more to the Lord, just a little bit more
54:04
today than you did yesterday. And and to encourage others, you
54:09
could replace a little bit of time that you spend perhaps
54:12
scrolling through news feeds or social media and instead use
54:16
that very same phone to listen to a general conference talk or
54:21
to read an inspiring book, or to contact somebody and call them
54:30
or text them and send them some encouragement.
54:32
The very same instrument that could be used to by the by the
54:38
forces of darkness to drag us down.
54:41
Those very same instruments could be used as reflector
54:46
mirrors to reflect the light of God's goodness and love not only
54:51
into our own souls, but into other people's lives.
54:54
It's we're not, we're not victims in this battle.
54:59
We have agency. We fought for that and won that
55:02
part of the war. Now we're fighting for the the
55:07
souls of of everybody around us, to the best of our ability, here
55:12
on this battlefield. Look of verse 12.
55:16
Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and neither dwell in them
55:21
because Satan was cast out. So now you can rejoice up in
55:24
heaven. Woe to the inhibitors of the
55:27
earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you
55:30
having great wrath. So this is John who's living on
55:35
this earth out on an island of the sea, and he's seeing this
55:39
vision. And the Angel is saying, woe to
55:41
you inhibitors of the earth, because the devil has this great
55:44
wrath. Why?
55:45
Because he knoweth that he hath but a short time a.
55:51
Very encouraging verse. And yet all of the promises from
55:55
our prophets, sears and revelators is We have eternal
56:00
destiny, filled with light and power and freedom to act and and
56:06
love. Our future is bright as long as
56:10
we stay connected with the source of that love and light
56:15
and power which is Jesus Christ. When the dragon saw that he was
56:19
cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman which
56:21
brought forth the man child. So don't be shocked when the
56:26
world doesn't stand up and applaud you for doing good
56:29
things. It it's it's going to happen in
56:33
a fallen world that you're going to get mocked and at times
56:37
abused, and at times bad things are going to happen when you do
56:40
good things. Verse 17 ends this chapter by
56:44
saying the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war
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with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of
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God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
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But remember that group back in Chapter 7 who came through great
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tribulation and found great rest and peace and love in the
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presence of God as he wiped away all tears from their eyes?
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That's that's John's petition to us to keep moving forward
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through these these persecutions.
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So now we get into chapter 13, which is John showing you a
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vision of what the devil is doing.
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Well, the Lamb and the followers of the Lamb and his church are
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doing what they can to build up the Kingdom.
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Chapter 13 is all about these earthly kingdoms that are
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following the devil, and they're binding people down and doing
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blasphemies and killing, killing people and living lives of
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iniquity. That's all in chapter 13.
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So then you end chapter 13 in this last verse where he says
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here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the
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number of the beast, for it is the number of a man and his
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number is 603 score and six. Is this the right number?
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That would be a superlative perfection completion.
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Wholeness 6 consistently falls short of six is the kind of
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symbolically not a great number because it approximates but
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falls short of seven, and it acts as if it's complete, but
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it's not, so it would be like bad, bad, bad.
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It's a superlative of not ever arriving at completion.
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It's actually a complete imposter.
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It tries to get people to focus here versus being fully
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complete. Which is going to be focused on
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Christ. So if you get into gematria
58:55
this, this using numbers associated with the the letters
59:01
in your name spelled out in Hebrew and each letter has a
59:04
number value. Add those up and everybody's
59:07
name has a one number value. To the Saints receiving this
59:11
book, this revelation of John in the 1st century, I think they
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would have all recognized the number 666 as being the the name
59:23
equivalent of Nero. Because if you say Caesar, Nero,
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Kaiser Nero, you're going to add up all those numbers and it
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comes up with 666. So they see him as this beast
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that is being empowered by the dragon, by the devil himself, to
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do this work of destruction among the the woman and her
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children who are striving to keep the commandments.
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So that's 1st century. But quite frankly, Nero isn't
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affecting my life. He's not not not a part of your
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life. So there are other symbolic ways
1:00:02
that you could analyze in your life.
1:00:05
What are those influences that are?
1:00:09
Battling against my spiritual progression on the covenant
1:00:13
path. Keeping you from being full and
1:00:16
complete with God that want you to be stopped or damned at just
1:00:21
about being there but not yeah. Now, there's a Greek manuscript
1:00:27
tradition that sometimes uses the word 669, and it's a variant
1:00:32
reading of Nero's name as neuron.
1:00:36
And so you just have to realize if you ever see the number 666
1:00:40
anywhere, you don't have to lose your mind over this.
1:00:44
It's it's just a symbol. In fact, there in the United
1:00:48
States, there was a highway called Hwy. 666, and there was a
1:00:52
governor who was so bothered by this, he actually changed the
1:00:56
number. Maybe that was a fine thing to
1:00:57
do. But look, the number itself has
1:01:00
no inherent meaning. If you find it in your phone
1:01:04
number or your address somewhere, it means nothing
1:01:07
about whether you're on God's path or not.
1:01:10
But in the time of John, it was as a clear symbol that someone
1:01:14
like Nero who's standing the way of God's people, fully
1:01:18
progressing. You want to avoid those kinds of
1:01:22
influences and people in your life.
1:01:24
You want to be with God all the way?
1:01:27
Now on a happier note, we turn to chapter 14, and in this one
1:01:31
it opens by saying, And I looked and lo, a Lamb stood on the
1:01:34
Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 having his father's name written
1:01:39
in their foreheads. So watch for the the
1:01:44
characteristics of the people who are with the Lamb of God
1:01:48
number one. They have the father's name
1:01:50
written in their foreheads, #2. They sung as it were a new song.
1:01:54
Before the throne #3. They were redeemed from the
1:01:59
earth. The ending of verse 3.
1:02:01
Now beginning of verse four is #4.
1:02:04
These are they which were not defiled with women.
1:02:07
These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
1:02:12
Verse 6 or sorry. Verse five is number six.
1:02:14
In their mouth was found no guile, for they were without
1:02:18
fault before the throne of God, without fault.
1:02:24
You and I can't do that. If you're standing before the
1:02:27
throne of God without fault, then I instantly know who you're
1:02:30
standing beside. I know who you're standing with,
1:02:34
because you can't stand there without fault on your own.
1:02:36
You can't get to the 777 Superlative, perfect, complete
1:02:40
and whole, lacking nothing, finished state on your own.
1:02:45
Only the Savior can do that, as you use your agency to connect
1:02:51
with Him and allow His power to work through you and to redeem
1:02:56
you through all of these these aspects here.
1:02:59
I look at these qualities and I think a bit about temple
1:03:01
recommend interview questions and you see some of the same
1:03:04
themes here. Are you seeking to live a lot of
1:03:08
chastity? Do you believe in God the Father
1:03:10
and Son, Jesus Christ? Are you seeking to be honest in
1:03:14
all your doings and not to beguile people with the way you
1:03:17
act or speak? So the things that you hear in a
1:03:21
temple recommended interview might be related to the
1:03:24
qualities we see here of those who find themselves in the
1:03:28
presence of God. Standing on Mount Zion.
1:03:30
In fact, isn't being at a temple standing on Mount Zion, isn't
1:03:33
that? That's where you become a savior
1:03:35
on Mount Zion, doing things for others that they can't do for
1:03:38
themselves and and we become a little bit more like him every
1:03:42
time we go. President Nelson has has
1:03:46
emphasized our need to spend more time in the temple.
1:03:50
Every time you go, you have this opportunity to become more like
1:03:54
the Savior, and it's powerful. Now you go to verse six.
1:03:58
I saw another Angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the
1:04:00
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the
1:04:03
earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.
1:04:06
What makes me think about Moroni?
1:04:09
We have had Moroni on temples. It was the Nauvoo Temple where
1:04:12
Moroni was actually placed in a horizontal level, flying through
1:04:15
the heavens with this trumpet and bringing forth the Book of
1:04:19
Mormon. This verse here helps us think
1:04:21
about the Restoration was founded on the revelation that
1:04:26
comes from the Book of Mormon, which Moroni delivered to Joseph
1:04:29
Smith. Really, really powerful.
1:04:31
One of my favorite chapters. So you you again notice how the
1:04:36
Lord gives this vision to John, and every once in a while when
1:04:41
it starts to feel a little heavy, he'll throw in these
1:04:45
these incredible hope filled segments.
1:04:49
One of them comes here in verse 12 and 13.
1:04:53
Here is the patience of the Saints.
1:04:55
Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the
1:04:58
faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven
1:05:02
saying unto me, Right, blessed are the dead which die in the
1:05:07
Lord from henceforth, yeah, saith the Spirit, that they may
1:05:11
rest from their labours and their works do follow them.
1:05:16
For those of you who have lost a loved one recently, or or even
1:05:19
in the distant past, And it it hurts, it's painful.
1:05:24
I I suppose it wouldn't hurt so badly if you didn't love so
1:05:28
much. What comes in love generally has
1:05:34
to leave in pain. It's the words of a of a song
1:05:37
that I've heard. And here's this idea.
1:05:40
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.
1:05:44
That's a that's a beautiful promise to these 1st century
1:05:48
Saints as well as to the 21st century Saints, us, who maybe
1:05:53
we're facing different persecutions than Nero and and
1:05:57
Domitian are inflicting on that group.
1:06:00
But it's a beautiful promise that we can rest assured that
1:06:06
our loved ones who have passed on are resting from their
1:06:08
laborers and their works to follow them.
1:06:11
So to finish this, these chapters this week, let's go
1:06:15
back one more time to Chapter 7 and end here.
1:06:21
These are they which came out of great tribulation and have
1:06:25
washed their robes and made them widen the blood of the Lamb.
1:06:30
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither
1:06:33
shall the sunlight on them, nor any heat.
1:06:35
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed
1:06:38
them, and shall lead them into living fountains of waters.
1:06:42
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
1:06:47
I just marvel at God's goodness, at His grace, at His love, how
1:06:55
we love the Lord for that, that everlasting kindness that He
1:07:00
offers to us and all these promises that we don't have to
1:07:03
be victims of these difficult circumstances that have been
1:07:07
foreseen by the prophets, both ancient and modern.
1:07:11
May the Lord bless us to always stay firmly connected to Christ
1:07:16
in this covenant and in His church.
1:07:19
And we leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ.
1:07:23
Amen. Know that you're loved.
1:07:26
And spread light and goodness