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Revelation 22

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Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. We're gonna be in the Revelation chapter 22 tonight. Rob's gonna open us with some worship, and we're gonna open prayers. So, father, we thank you for this time that we've been able to spend at Rob and Vicky and Brandon's home and and study through the book of Revelation and we've studied it once before here and we've studied book of Daniel, a lot of different books lord and we just thank you for the time that we can spend on Monday nights and go both verse by verse through your word and thank you lord for making us students of your word being disciples, watchmen on the wall and all and we just commit this service into your hands tonight and ask that you bless. We pray that you'd be with Jim this upcoming week as he's gonna have his eyes operated on Jim and Tammy. And Lord I pray for Steven Wilcox Lord and Karen as they were sick and Steve's throat we just pray that you continue to heal his throat and give him an ability to breathe really well and not have to have any procedures be with Shelley Dinsmore Lord and help her with her pain management with her back take away that pain be with Karen Waller too the same thing with pain being with Allen Cora and just continue to heal Lord be with Kathy tonight help her to feel better and we just commit this night in your hands any other unspoken requests Lord we just pray that that you as the great physician minister unto us your body in Jesus name amen all right Alright. Chapter 22, the book of Revelation. The what does the word revelation mean? Unveiling. Unveiling. Ever ever heard of apocalypse? Yeah. I got it. Got it. Got it? Okay. The unveiling, the revealing of Jesus, the volume of the book is written of him. And so 22 chapters. This is the last of the canon written, the death of John will follow thereafter on the island Of Patmos, and this is being written at the end of the first century and so from that time forward we don't have any more revelation of God, you know, adding to this, you know. So I know the Book of Mormon and some other people try to say there's added, you know, the Koran later and other holy books or whatever. But this book, what makes it unique is that the writer of it, this is about, he's the alpha, he's the omega, he's the beginning, he's the end, he's everything in between and so he's almighty God. And so let's pray. Father help us Lord as we study chapter 22 here and let it be a blessing tonight. Lord you gave us a blessing in chapter one verse three that anybody that would read this book and keep it Lord that they'd be blessed and we're blessed in in reading it and studying it and the excitement that stirred within our heart as the dots are connected and as we as we look to Zechariah and as we look to Daniel and and so many other Old Testament prophetic books that that helped us to interpret what's being said here Lord and we just thank you for that for you being our teacher and we pray tonight that you continue to minister unto us Lord in Jesus name, amen. Alright and he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb. So this book we started out in chapter one verse 19 write the things which you saw which is the resurrected Christ in chapter one. Write the things which are in the present tense which is the church age chapters two and three. And then we saw write the things which shall be hereafter. In chapter four and five, John's instructed to come up here and I'll show you things which shall be hereafter, after the church age. So after the church age, the church is in heaven according to Romans eleven twenty five, blindness in part is happening unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. When the rapture takes place, that's the end of the church age and the church is in heaven in chapter four, the four and twenty elders represented there. And then Jesus in chapter five, who's worthy to open the scroll and loose the seal and nobody's found worthy. Weep not John, know the Lion of the tribe of Judah that he's prevailed. And Jesus getting ready to open the scroll which contains the six seals. The six seals start in chapter six, the beginning of the tribulation period which begins with the little horn of Daniel seven which is the antichrist in place of Jesus Christ and peace peace where there is no peace. And he comes on the scene riding on a white horse but he's he's not a he he might be a part of the board of peace. Don't know but in any event chapter six starts the tribulation period on to chapter 19 which is the second coming of Jesus Christ at Armageddon and the bride of Christ comes with him we come with him. Chapter 20 is the millennium. Six times the word millennium mentioned or a thousand years mentioned a Latin word speaking of a thousand years. And and so that's the messianic age. So if we were to look theologically at who we are, chapter twenty one and twenty two is the eternal state. And so in Ephesians two verse seven, the ages to come, we're in the church age, the next age is the tribulation period, the 77 of Daniel. The next stage after that is the kingdom age and that's the thousand year rule and reign. And then after the kingdom age is eternity, the eternal state chapter one twenty two. So if we were to look at who we are theologically, so we don't get messed up, We are what's known as pre millennial dispensationalists and what that means is we don't believe that the millennium has happened yet. That amillennialism means there that means no, and so it means there's no millennium. So it's spiritualized from when Jesus said his kingdom wasn't of this world. There are those that think that, you know, it's a symbolic, if you will. And then you have what's a post millennial and that would be kind of like the kingdom age guys, the guys that are trying to usher in the return of Jesus and they figure that spiritually speaking that they're going to be able to make everything right through politics and Golden Dawn and all of his friends and the technocrats and everybody and they're going to make the world a better place and once they achieve this Dominionism is another word for it. Kingdom Now theology is another name for it. And they think then Jesus will return with his church, you know, at the end of the time when they finally subdue everything and then he'll come back and and he'll he'll take over. So again we're pre millennial dispensationalists which helps us in our theology. We take the Bible literally. We take the Bible when it's allegorical or when it's symbolic. We look for words that tell us that. Words like like and but when it's clear in the grammar that it's literal, we take the Bible literally. We don't take the book of Revelation and make it symbolic. We look to Daniel for instance and we try to understand the 10 toes. If we're looking at 10 crowns or 10 kings in Revelation thirteen and seventeen we want to find a frame of reference of that literally happening and not symbolically. And so even when we're looking at chapter seventeen and eighteen of Babylon, you know, starting in Genesis ten and eleven, we don't look at it just symbolically, although there's a characteristic of the Babylonian religious system that we find in chapter 11 of Genesis that continues throughout history and culminates and reaches a place in chapter 17 the Antichrist political and religious system and the economic system in chapter 18 in the city of Babylon being literally rebuilt is another way we look at it so we look at Revelation 13 there's gonna be a literal 10 kings described in Daniel seven as 10 horns or 10 mountains means power. Daniel nine we look at the rebirth of the Roman Empire when the times of the Gentiles reaches a place of end. It's going to end with the rebirth of the Roman Empire and then gonna be replaced by Jesus, by the Messianic Age of Jesus ruling and reigning from Jerusalem as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and so that's what we see in the book of Revelation and so roadmap it's showing us prophetically things that are about about ready to happen, and you and I being in the church age as we're looking future, we know that after the Church Age that we're gonna go up to heaven and we're gonna be at the second Corinthians chapter five at the Bema Seat Judgment and we're going to receive rewards and when we come back at the end of that seven or ten or however many years it is because we could be taken up there before the signing of that peace treaty. We are before the peace treaty but the peace treaty or the covenant of Daniel nine twenty five-twenty seven could happen a year, two years, ten years after the rapture. Otherwise the rapture wouldn't be imminent. And so we're looking at the doctrine of eminency that the rapture can happen at any moment. No man knows the day or the hour but his father who is in heaven. And so the signing of that covenant launches the twelve hundred and sixty days the midpoint in Matthew 24 Jesus said the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel the prophet. So we're able to again to use the New Testament to help us interpret what's happening in the book of Revelation and back and forth. We're allowing the Bible to interpret the Bible. So we're pre millennial meaning we're not at the millennium yet. Dispensationally in that God deals in a see this in Ephesians four the word dispensation means an administration. So the administration, the way the Lord's administering now is not the Old Testament dispensation. We're in the New Testament dispensation and from Pentecost forward we're in what's called the Church Age. And the Church Age continues now for two thousand years. We're not in the Millennium, we're not in the Tribulation period, a lot of people speculating that we're in the Tribulation already because there's signs of famine and pestilence and, you know, the seal judgments of of Daniel six. But but you guys are better than that because you're students of the Bible. And so when people conjecture, you just let them know that it doesn't matter about Darby or McDonald or anybody else, McDonald's Burger King or anything, that you're following the word of God. And when when Darby and MacDonald and others rediscovered in the eighteen hundred late eighteen hundred's the doctrine of pre tribulation rapture. They didn't invent it at that time. It's a rediscovery the same way Martin Luther in the time of the Reformation after 03/13 Constantine institutionalized the church and the church went dead for many centuries. And then at the Protestant Reformation guys like Martin Luther began to rediscover the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone. The Catholics and others muddied the waters on what it means to be saved and they began to introduce a lot of false doctrine, thus the dark ages, people being dark and not understand how to be saved, what it means to be saved, and doctrine of heaven, of hell, and false doctrine of purgatory, and penance, and all the other stuff that Catholics brought in. So Martin Luther, the Lord stirred his heart, the just shall live by faith. And that was instrumental in recognizing that salvation is a free gift and by grace through faith alone. In the same way, eschatologically, which means the study of last days, in the same way at the end of the eighteen hundred's McDonald and others rediscovered the doctrine of the pre trib rapture. And when you go back to the church fathers of Verenaeus and others in the first couple centuries, the doctrine of the pre trib rapture was still intact and people believed in it all. And but again, it went dark. And so people are very ignorant and say, bible does the word rapture isn't even in the Bible. That's extreme ignorance. You guys are smarter than that. You're better than that. And so you would say to a person that says that to you, well in the Latin Vulgate, Jerome, who was commissioned to write the Bible in Latin, the word rapturous is in first Thessalonians four sixteen and seventeen. But in the Greek is the Greek word harpazo which means to catch away violently. And we with our English language we've adopted from rapturists the word rapture. So when we use the word rapture, if we're gonna look for the etymology of it, it's a Latin word that's translated into English as rapture. Okay? And but these guys are so stumped dead stupid that they waste a lot of our time telling us that there's no pre trib rapture, that it's from McDonald and all these people, and they try to bring in a preterist view that the church is replaced to Israel. And because we've studied, we know God's word, we know that God's promises to Israel. Again, Romans, if somebody studies Romans nine Paul deals with that question. Romans chapter nine is Israel's what? You guys like hear my voice? Past election. Romans 10 Israel's present rejection. So they're in a place of blindness, right? Israel, they presently rejected. Chapter 11 Israel's future. There you go. So in the future Paul's letting you know that the gospel that I'm building here that I'm building in the book of Romans the just shall live by faith it doesn't negate the promises to the nation of Israel nor does the church become Israel or Israel the church. The church starts out as Jewish right dominant Jewish and it continues to with the priority to be to the Jew first but if their eyes are blinded, if they don't understand well, the gospel goes out to whosoever will particularly the Gentiles thus that's called the church age. So, and we look at the nation of Israel in the land and because we're students of prophecy we know that Ezekiel thirty six and thirty seven prophesied that God will one day bring and regather the nation of Israel into their land in unbelief. They're regathered in their land but they're unbelievers. There's some, there's some blindness in part has happened to Israel Romans eleven twenty five some Jewish believers still today right and they're a part of the church but by and large the majority of them are still blinded by the truth concerning Jesus Christ. So if they read Psalm 22 they don't they don't it doesn't connect for them about the cross. If they read Isaiah 53 they interpret it as the nation went through all that heartache not a specific Messiah who Daniel says would be cut off, know, and that being cut off is being rejected by the nation and John one points it out. So so it's very exciting for us to take from Genesis to Revelation and for the Lord to formulate our last days eschatology, last days study of last days things. And that in knowing that 27% of the Bible's prophecy and only 2% of the church today teaches prophecy, it makes you and I in that 2%. It makes you and I very very you can use the word weird, strange, unique, special. Maybe you come to Bible study in the short bus. You're so special. I don't know. But but we're here to study God's word. Right? Okay. Alright. So I'm excited about what we've been learning and continuing to learn. And when I hear these other pastors talk about how important prophecy is and how few pastors even teach it and then I get kinda excited thinking, well, I'm one of the pastors that does and I have a congregation that God's given me in Kitsap County that love the study of God's word and they love the study of prophecy. They're students of prophecy. Then we have people on Facebook and stuff that study with us. And when we get to the book of Genesis, we're gonna continue to be students of prophecy. Mhmm. You know? We're gonna be looking, you know, at the Nephilim and things like that in chapter six, and we're gonna ask questions about, you know, how that happened. Is it is it is Jesus did he say as it was in the days of Noah, as it was in the days of Lot, you know? So shall it be at the coming of the son of man. So the things in Genesis are still gonna point future of the characteristics of the times in which we live on the precipice of the second coming of Christ. Alright. So 22 verse one and he showed me a pure river of water of life. Jesus is that water of life and we sing a song I got a river of life flowing out of me. Right? Let's sing it. Everybody's singing now. Just kidding. And and Jesus in John seven thirty eight and thirty nine, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes in me as the scripture set out of his belly shall flow torrents of living water. We can look at Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness and they get parched they don't have any water and we see in first Corinthians 10 that Jesus is that rock that followed them and Moses is instructed to smite the rock and water would come out and he smoked the rock and according to Hosea 12 verse 10 God speaks through the prophets and he also speaks through similitude, pictures. And there's a picture there if people have the aptitude, biblical aptitude to see that Jesus is that rock. He's the rock of ages. And that smiting of that rock is his crucifixion. Right? And then the next time they needed water, remember John seven thirty eight thirty nine, they needed water. Moses was instructed to what? And what did he do? And he broke the type didn't he? People would have a hard time connecting the dot of being Jesus being smitten once according to Hebrews nine, right? Smitten once Hebrews 10. He's smitten once, he doesn't need to be smitten again and again and again and again. So when you go to mass, when you go to the Catholic church, you don't need to believe in a transubstantiation of his body and blood being the real body and the blood. And you are crucifying the Lord afresh, you know, each and every time over and over and over again. No, it's once, once for all. So all you need to do is speak to the rock, right? Speak to Jesus, right? And then you get the water, the living water flowing in and through your heart and life. Jesus, if a person's an unbeliever, Jesus saying to the woman in John four, I have water you can drink of you'll never thirst again. Right? And so we we recognize how essential water is and the spiritual water speaking of the Holy Spirit how much we need the Holy Spirit. And so there's a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God of the lamb. So this is the heavenly Jerusalem, right? And the throne of God. There's an earthly Jerusalem in the millennium in Ezekiel 40 through 47 and again there's a water, there's a river of water emanating from the throne. So when Jesus steps into the Valley Of Jehoshaphat having destroyed the armies of the Antichrist and when he makes his triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem there's according to Zechariah there's a breaking, there's a breaking, a earthquake that takes place that breaks things open and water starts to gush out in physical present Jerusalem now. There's water underneath the surface ready to break open and flow out down into the Dead Sea and into the Mediterranean, right? And then when the Lord allows Ezekiel's temple to be built in the millennium, Again there's water, a river of water flowing out of Ezekiel's temple. And so the earthly temple is fashioned according to the heavenly model. You got that right? And so Ezekiel 40 seven:one through 14, there's a river of water. So proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb. So you're never gonna thirst. You're never gonna be thirsty. You're gonna have the spiritual sustenance, the spiritual life flowing in and through us. So in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life. Where did we first see that? In Genesis. Back in Genesis chapter two, right? And we see it in verse 14 in our chapter here, the tree of life. And we see it in verse 19, the tree of life. Can someone please tell me what the tree of life is? It's a literal tree with 12 types of fruit. Did any of you guys die yet and come back and tell me what those fruit are? Anybody write a book about what these 12 fruit are? Anybody? Can we you wanna make a bunch of money? Just just go to sleep and wake up and say, God told you. Everyone's gonna say, what do you mean God told you? Yeah, God told me. How can anybody refute what you're saying? That's how people are today. Rob and I were talking about that before the service. We have the word of God. We don't were the Bible silent? We remain silent. Now I might say, you know I like avocados. I hope there's an avocado on there. And somebody will say, hey knucklehead, know a what do you call it, a pineapple. We're gonna get we're gonna get messed up in my head with fruits and vegetables. Right? So it's fruit. 12 types of fruit. Right? Pomegranates. I don't know, but whatever. There's there's fruit there. And if we turn back to Genesis chapter two, Genesis chapter two, we're gonna be there in a couple weeks also. But basically God prepares a garden for Adam and Eve, our first federal head, right? And there's water emanating from the Garden Of Eden that he prepared for him and rivers, four different rivers, heads of rivers, and he makes a perfect environment for them. In verse nine there's a tree of life and let's see here where's it first? Very good. Okay. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground verse seven chapter two and breathed life into him. Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there he put the man whom he had formed and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the site and good for food. The tree of life also is in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So two distinct trees among a bunch of different trees in this environment and food, the food source for man. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was part and became four heads. And gives the names of rivers and it says verse 15, And the Lord took the man and put him in the Garden Of Eden to till the ground to keep it. And the Lord God commanded, so here comes a command, the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of knowledge and good and evil thou shall not eat of it for the day thou eateth thereof thou shall surely die. So it looks like Adam and Eve could eat of all the trees including the tree of life but the one tree they weren't supposed to eat of is the tree of knowledge and good and evil. Why do you suppose that is? Well the tree of life, yes. But what about the tree of knowledge and good and evil? Only God could understand good and evil. Uh-huh. And Satan's fallen. Pride. How about free will? You're in a relationship with a God based upon free will and he wants to know if you love him. So he hasn't made you a robot and he doesn't have an AI tree of life to make people live forever. Men are gonna be seeking these things in the last days. Counterfeits to try and live forever. We discovered the tree of life. We discovered the secret. We found the gene where we switch this around and man won't ever die again. So you could sell those lies, the lies that the devil is also selling. And so the day you eat of it you shall surely die. So it's going to tie into Revelation 22 where the spirit and the bride say come and whosoever will let him come. Know, drink the water of life freely exercise free will whosoever will let him come right now come come to the tree of life come to the cross of Calvary right now and you'll live forever The invitation still goes out, come Calvary, you know, and you and I are sharing with people inviting them to partake of the living water to partake of, you know, a relationship with the true and living God. Well, how do I do that? You gotta come by way of the cross. You gotta come by way of, you know, being convicted of the Holy Spirit that you're a sinner in need of a savior. That you call out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner. And as you come to him by grace through faith alone, trusting in his finished work upon the cross of Calvary, he's going to impute to you righteousness, justification just as if you've never sinned. And he's gonna write your name in the Lamb's book of life because you came to him by faith not trusting in yourself or trusting anybody else but trusting in the finished work of Jesus upon the cross. And so, and the Lord God said, it's not good that man should be alone. I'll make him a help fit and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field. And we know that story, right? There wasn't a beast suitable for Adam. God caused Adam to go have a great sleep and the God fashioned from his rib bone brought forth Eve. And then how long do you think it took in the creation of Adam and Eve coming forth out of his ribs? How much time do you think they had in those perfect bodies, perfect relationship, perfect environment, perfect Eden experience. Do you think it was a thousand years before they fell? Do you think it was a month? Did it take a month? Did it take ten years? How long did they get to enjoy the bliss of finite perfection? Why seventeen days? Just sound like a good number? How long does it take to name a bunch of animals? So we would say probably pretty quick, didn't take very long and kind of tragic that men would fall so quickly. And so he develops marriage and brings forth Eve and it says, Now the serpent chapter three was more subtle than any other beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said? So the serpent is going to challenge the Word of God. We in Revelation 22 and Revelation one there's a blessing for those who read the book in chapter one verse three there's a warning as the book finishes up for anyone that would add or take away from this book. The serpent is teaching Eve how to twist the scripture and how to add to the scripture. So watch this. So the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field when the Lord God had made and he said unto the woman, Yea, has God said so challenge. The devil will always challenge the Word of God. Always always always in his strategy is to challenge the Word of God to challenge truth. He has and remember the devil knows the Bible. The devil in Psalm 91 Jesus is is quoting the Bible when he's tempted, Matthew four. And then the devil starts quoting Psalm 91, well give his angels charge of you lest you dash your foot against a stone. That's why I want you guys to be so ready when you see these politicians quoting scripture and carrying a Bible and even praying, even calling a National Day of Prayer or whatever, it can be a total total total satanic lie to disarm you, to deceive. And so remember you got a serpent. A flying serpent is a dragon and Lucifer is the dragon, right? You got a fallen angel, the knowledge of good and evil. Satan already fell before this. So when we look in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, somewhere before God created the heaven and earth Job talks about the angels watching the creation of the heaven and the earth, right? And so Lucifer before earth was created fell from heaven according to Isaiah 14. So you got three heavens, the air we breathe where the birds fly, you got space, then you got where God's throne is, and Lucifer was an exalted cherub and pulled according to Revelation twelve, one third of the stars, the angels fell with him. And at this point Adam is the federal head of the earth. Adam's in charge. God's gonna tell Adam to be fruitful, you know, and to multiply, take dominion over the earth, He's told him. And so now the usurper, the devil is in the form of a serpent and talking. And so the serpent was more subtle and when you see this subtlety here then you're reminded of the Apostle Paul when he's speaking to the church of Corinth, I'm jealous over you with the godly jealousy of a spouse, you to one husband even to Christ, but I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve so through his subtlety, so through the subtlety of the false prophets that you'll be taken away from the simplicities in Christ when they present a different Jesus or a different gospel or a different spirit. And he's saying don't do it. Don't fall for the subtlety. Don't fall for the serpent. And so be careful. And he said unto the woman, Ye has God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? So mocking God. And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, freely eat, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has said, ye shall not eat of it. And notice Adam must have added this part. He must have been so worried about Eve that he said don't even touch it. Right? Because she's adding to it because that isn't what was said. He said thou eat thereof thou shall surely die. So don't eat it. And she's adding, we're not even supposed to touch it. Well that was you're adding to the Word of God. It didn't say about touching it. Although I would tell my family don't even touch it stay away. Put a big circle around that thing. Know put a wall. Let's wall it up. Know because I know we're gonna do more than touch it. And it's so funny temptation. The very thing they tell me I'm not allowed to have this thing I want the most. And I have no problem with diets. I I just give in to eating food. It's have no problem. You shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God has said, there's the word of God, ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die. So we have to define what death is. Death is separation from God. There are three part being body soul and spirit and they're about ready to be body and soul. They're about ready to die spiritually be separated from God, right? And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die for God does know that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as God. There's the very root of sin to be as God. The desire within us to be as God. The desire within Satan. And this is the lie that's gonna be perpetrated in second Thessalonians chapter two where the world when they reject the truth God's gonna give them over to a strong delusion that they would believe the lie. This is the lie that you can be gods. That's what's gonna be sold to all the people to get that chip implant in their brain and to go through all the different AI technologies to, you know, to mess with their DNAs and vaccines and everything else. They're gonna lie to people saying, Jared Kushner saying, our generation isn't gonna die. We're gonna figure out, you know, the cause of death. We're gonna have the tree of life right here in Gaza, you know. And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die for God does know the day you eat of it. Then your eyes shall be opened, ye shall be as God knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, so you tie this in lust of lust, lust of the eye, the pride of life. It was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desired to make one wise. She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also under her husband with her and he did eat. Now Paul says Adam wasn't deceived, he transgressed, he stepped over the line. Eve was deceived and she's influencing Adam and some would say Adam why did you do that? Why'd you give in to her? Whereas she was seduced and Adam there was a unwillingness to yield to God, to love the Lord thy God with all of his heart, mind, his soul and strength. He was really into Eve apparently, he liked Eve. And so in the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked so prior to that they had light. They were clothed with light and innocence. And they sewed fig leaves, so here's your religious effort. Your religious effort to cover your sin, cover your nakedness. So they've sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons to cover their nakedness. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This is fellowship. Enoch walked with God and was not. And so they spent time just fellowshipping with the Lord, walking in the garden in this perfect environment and all. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence, this is guilt, of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. He's got a huge forest of trees, right? And they're trying to hide from God out in the forest. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And I love how Pastor Chuck reminds us that this wasn't the voice of an arresting officer. It was the voice of a heartbroken father. God's heart was broken. And he said, I heard the voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that thou was naked and has eaten of the tree where have I commanded thee that thou shall not eat? And the man said, the woman. So here comes the blame game. Confrontation leads to blame and we husbands are not going to take responsibility for our actions so we're going to look for someone to blame. That's the whole modus operandi of psychological therapy. You don't take responsibility for your actions in the way that you deal with your guilt, way you deal with your sin is not coming to the cross and confessing your sin that God might wash it away and cleanse you and forgive you. You blame somebody. You transfer the guilt to somebody else. It's not your fault. You were made this way or whatever reason they want to try to alleviate that guilt. And so Adam's saying it's the woman you gave me. And watch what the woman does. Woman blames the serpent. The woman you gave me be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou has done? And the woman said the serpent beguiled me and I did eat. So again it's that whole beginning of not confessing our sin, trying to cover our sin, blame somebody else, rationalize our sin, try to justify our sin. And when if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. The serpent beguiled me, she admits, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou has done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, above all every beast of the field, and upon thy belly shalt thou go. So maybe the serpent was able to walk before, maybe even fly, right? And now it's on its belly. And thus shalt thou eat all the days of your life. And I'll put enmity, so here's the here's the prophecy where God is going to cause the virgin born son of God, the seed of the woman, that his heel would be bruised but that he'd crush the servant's head and the woman between thy seed and I'll bruise his head and thou shall bruise his heel. And under the woman he said I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception sorrow. Thou shall bring forth children thy desire shall be under thy husband and he shall rule over thee. So the woman in this broken down fall of man, there's a problem with headship now where God's at the top, He's the head, now God's gonna establish that the man be the head of the home beneath Christ and then the woman beneath the man and she's gonna be in her fallen condition. And in her fallen condition she's gonna attempt to rule over her husband. That's gonna be the conflict in marriage is who's in charge. And so that's why husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Husbands have to love their wives to a degree that she's secure enough to surrender and come under the leadership of her husband. And the only way that can happen is she first of all comes under the headship of Jesus Christ and sees that her husband is submitted and under the headship of Christ. And so that's the curse. So Adam said because thou hast hardened under the voice of your wife and has eaten of the tree which I commanded thee saying thou shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. So part of the curse is work by the sweat of your brow and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of your life. Before you didn't have to work, you just went out into the field, went into the forest and you just pick whatever fruit you wanted. You know now there's gonna be weeds, there's gonna be bugs, there's be things that try to destroy the productivity of the crops that you plant. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth and thence and thou shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground from dust to dust for out of it thou was taken from dust thou shalt return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living and Adam also and for his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin. So here's a picture of the cross, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sin. So tithing with Genesis three fifteen here, there's a blood sacrifice and Jesus it's gonna be his blood not the blood of animals. They could only cover in the type ology but Jesus Hebrews 10 verse four he takes away Hebrews nine twenty two the sins of the world. And the Lord God said, behold the man has become as one of us to know good and evil and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever. So there was a possibility that man in a sinful condition could eat of the tree of life and live in that sinful condition for all eternity. So watch what God does. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden Of Eden, expelled him, to till the ground from where he was taken. So he drove out the man and placed at the east of the Garden Of Eden cherubim. Now cherubim are exalted angels. You got cherubim, seraphim, an angel and Lucifer was an exalted cherub angel. Cherubim is plural so he's got some angels here and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way of the tree of life. So you got a flaming sword guarding keeping Adam and Eve from getting by him and partaking of the tree of life. So he sent him forth to till the ground and he got the angels there And then we're gonna be starting the book of Genesis next week, but that gives you a little starter, an appetizer, and it ties in where we're at because three times here in our chapter we see the tree of life, the tree of life, the tree of life. In verse two verse 14 and verse 19. And this tree of life is gonna be on into eternity. All right, so verse two again. So in the midst of the street of it and on either side of the river there was the tree of life which bore 12 kinds of fruit. And you know, are we gonna remember Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with that tree of life? Are we gonna remember scripturally Jesus said, if any man thirst let him come into me and drink? Are we gonna see everything tied into Jesus? It makes sense when we see how it all connects with Jesus, right? It all makes sense. It all comes to life. And that's the secret of reading the Bible. It's all about Him. It's about Jesus and His plan of redemption for you, His love for you. So in the midst of the street and neither side of the river was the tree of life on both sides which bore 12 kinds of fruit, fruits plural, and yielded her fruit every month. What's up with that? What's wrong with that Eddie? Aren't we in eternity? There's no sun or moon or any recording of time going around the sun, right? So why? I'm sorry Eddie. He normally knows everything. He usually yeah. It'll be in his book. I haven't had the dream yet. Alright. So month there still is a recording of time somehow. What do you think? Every month there's a fresh crop of fruit and leaves. They don't get old and moldy or whatever. No worms, no curse, no sin, perfection. So 12 kinds of fruit and yielded her fruit every month. Every month there's new fruit. Maybe there's a different kind of fruit every month? That'd be awesome. And and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. The word nations is Gentiles so there's Gentiles on in eternity. There's a distinction still between Jew and Gentile on even into eternity. And the leaves keep people from getting sick. It's not to heal people that are sick because nobody's gonna be getting sick because they're gonna be eating the fruit. And the part that I gather from this is I'm gonna have to start to eat salads. I'm gonna have to be a salad eater. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Yesterday, we went out to lunch after church and I had a steak, but before that I had these skewers of chicken. So the waitress looking at me like, he likes protein. You know? And do you want a salad, sir? No. I don't want a salad. And what's that come with? Broccoli. And I'm like, oh, man. Is there anything else? Nope. Just broccoli. And there's some protein in broccoli apparently. But she says, you need something green, sir. You need something green. Alright. Alright. So on up in heaven, back in the Garden of Eden, they got salads. Right? They're eating salads. After the fall, their blood is being shed, that lamb, the skin of that lamb that went on Adam and Eve for coats. They also began Cain and Abel were taught along with Adam and Eve a sacrificial system began to develop in Genesis. That's why in chapter four Cain slew Abel because Abel brought forth the right kind of sacrifice pointing future to the cross and Cain didn't. Cain brought, you know, the work of his own hands. It wasn't mixed with faith. So anyway, there's leaves here of the tree or for the healing of the nations and there shall be no more curse. So no more curse that we read about back in the book of Genesis, right? In chapter three, no more curse. Praise the Lord. But the throne of god and of the lamb shall be in it. The father and the son, right? And his servants shall serve him. So, it's a blessing this Sunday when we talk concerning Ephesians six. We're gonna talk about servants and what a privilege it is to be a servant of Jesus, to be a bond slave, to be addressed as my servant. And so on in heaven here we're able to still serve the Lord, We serve Him in the millennium as kings and priests and I don't know what your role is gonna be or my role is gonna be in the millennium or on into eternity but it's gonna be a privilege to be able to serve the Lord, to be around his throne, to be able to serve him. And they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. And so God's got a new name for us and he's got a name that's gonna be his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. And so you're gonna see the Lord face to face. Moses wanted to see the Lord and Moses was instructed that Moses no man can see God's face in the fullness of this glory and live. So Moses got what we call an afterglow, right? The afterglow after the main service we stay late, we wait upon the Lord for the moving and working of the Holy Spirit and the afterglow is Moses you can catch me as I walk by and just that walking by so lit up Moses's face. His face shown real bright like an angel right And it's shown it's shown so bright that when he came down from the mount with the tablets and all, people are looking at him. He'd been in the presence of God. And why did Moses put a veil over his face? Because Rob says it was a fading glory and Moses didn't want to see the glory fading. Right. The people to see the glory fading. Right? So he put a veil there. And that's why we need to be going to the Lord moment by moment, be being filled with the Holy Spirit. Not a historical event. Oh I was so close to Jesus back in 1944, back in 1980, you know. We want continually be seeking Him, asking, seeking, and knocking. And so see Him face to face. Who wants to read first Corinthians thirteen:nine through 13? Somebody wanna read that? I can do it. First Corinthians 13, I'm turning there and I'm gonna have Debbie read that and think about seeing Jesus face to face one day. Oh, action. Yeah. Camera action. Okay. You're on. For we know in part when we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly. But when face to face, now I know in part, but then I shall I know even as I also am known. And now abideth faith, faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity. So we we know in part and we prophesy in part. Our information is incomplete, but when that which is perfect is come, and here's a grave grave error, the anti we would call them they're called cessationists. A cessationist is like John MacArthur. I love John MacArthur but when it comes to chapter 13 here in his commentaries, boy it's like gobbledygook. It's like an intelligent man trying to explain something that's just so simple if you let the Bible speak. And so he's basically saying that the gift ceased with the closing of the canon of Scripture. So he's interpreting saying when that which is perfect has come meaning the book of Revelation is complete and the canon is complete now, the 66 books are finished, then then we're done. Then that which is perfect is For we know in part and we prophesy in part when that which is perfect has come the can of scripture has come. Then that which is in part shall be done away. So the gifts of chapter twelve and fourteen that Paul's addressing and to be exercised in the proper way in chapter 13 in love basically you're not going to need those gifts of the Spirit later when you see Jesus face to face, right? Cause you're gonna know even as you're known. As a MacArthur saying, it ceased with speaking in tongues and prophecy and all these things ceased with the completion of the Canon of Scripture. When I was a child I spoke as a child and stood as a child, thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things. For now we know, for now we see in the mirror we get a glimpse of Him darkly, but then face to face. We're gonna see the Lord face to face and our knowledge of Him is gonna be complete when we see Him face to face. I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now by faith, hope, love these three but the greatest of these is love. Now turn to first John chapter three. You're gonna see when this happens when you see him face to face. Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows us not because it knew him not. Then here's your rapture verse. Here's your rapture verse, ready? This is when you're gonna see him face to face and you're gonna know even as you were known. Beloved, now are we the children of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him face to face we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope, what's that hope gang? The hope of the rapture, the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. It's a purifying hope. Every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Why? Because you're watching. You're watching. You're you're watching for a soon return. You haven't gone back into the world and said, well, where's the promise of his coming? You know? I I I used to believe in a pre trib rapture and used to be a Bible thumper and all that. You know what? I think it's true anymore. There's a lot of people falling away. They don't believe in eschatology. They don't believe in the teaching of the soon return of Jesus for his bride the church. And so then we're gonna see him face to face, his servants are shown and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads. So you're gonna see Jesus face to face in your new glorified body. You're gonna be able to handle the glory. That's gonna be fascinating, isn't it? And he's gonna mark you out, he's gonna put his name on your forehead, know? And you can see the way that the devil wants to counterfeit. The devil reads the Bible and God has a name for you and God has a seal for you and the 145,000 are sealed and you can see way the devil wants the Antichrist to have people that are chipped and sealed and take his mark upon them, know. It's a counterfeit Trinity, unholy trinity. And there shall be no night there. Now when we study in Genesis we're gonna learn that light is different than light from the sun. As you're in John one and as you're in first John, God is light. And when He creates light, later He's gonna create the sun and the moon. But the light's created before that. And there's darkness created too. And so it's not just an eclipse and the other side of the sun. They stand on their own, that of light and darkness. And so up here there's gonna be no night, and they need no lamp, neither light of the Sun. For the Lord God gives them light, God is light. The Shekinah glory of God shining bright and they shall reign forever and ever, forever and ever and ever no darkness. The flip side of that is the unbelievers outer darkness, place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. In John three, the reason people don't repent is because they love darkness and they won't come to the light. And that's why one of my litmus test is to know that I'm doing what I'm supposed to do that I'm in God's will is that there's a certain degree of people that hate me. Because Jesus said, Woe only when all men speak well of you. Jesus said if they've hated me they're gonna hate you. I know how to be liked. Don't tell the truth. Don't tell the whole truth. Water down the truth. Only tell them what they want to hear and they'll like you. So when I know that there's people mad at me, hate me, I know that the devil hates being exposed. The devil hates the truth to expose the darkness. And so many many, you know, how bad is that darkness? How watered down? How dumb are people today? The light of God's word shines upon the darkness and the darkness flees. And that's the greatest weapon we have, I believe, is truth. The light of God's truth, the sword of the spirit, the Word of God. You can stop all this evil by simply exposing it. You can slow it down but if you join up with them and they convinced you they're gonna usher in the millennium then you're duped. You're deceived. And they call it an age of Aquarius, an age of light, but it's a false light. It's a demonic light, an occultic light. It's not the true light. And so all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. That's a promise for your promise jar. And as I said over and over a lot of heresy, heretical teaching is what a pastor won't say that he won't address because he's afraid. He's gonna make people angry. They're not gonna like him. They're gonna leave the church. And so how popular was Jesus? How popular was Paul? How popular were these guys? Their popularity would swell and then it would dissipate. They could turn a place upside down and people love them one moment. They're saying this is these are the gods have come down in the form of human flesh. It's Jupiter and Mercurius in Acts 14, right? And Barnabas and and Saul are there. And then Paul says, No, we're to men of like passions as ye. You priests of Zeus and Jupiter, you guys don't sacrifice those animals unto us because we're men of like passions as you. Don't do that. And then into a few more passages now they're stoning Paul. They're leaving them for dead, know. People are fickle and so we don't want to try to rely upon being politicians and seeing how many people we can get to like us and how big a following we can develop. And so narrow is the way and so there shall be no night there and there shall be no need of a lamp neither light of the sun for the Lord God gives them light and they shall reign forever and ever. Praise the Lord. And he says now, and he said unto me, these words are faithful and true. You can bank upon these words. This is authentic Christianity. Somebody like Rob was talking about earlier, people that are dying or my husband died seven times people say and he came back with a message each time. That's not faithful and true. That's not trustworthy. How can we trust what somebody claims they heard in a dream a vision or dying or whatever. We have to take everything that's said and apply it to scripture. This is the way as Berean we test and we prove all things based upon God's already revealed truth. Somebody comes up with a new truth or their own truth or I feel this is truth. Uh-uh. God said this. I told you. Yeah. And here's what I would say to him. Well, it sounds like you're writing your own Bible. If you want to develop a following then I suggest you go be crucified, buried for three days, we can verify you really were dead, and then raise yourself from the dead and we'll listen to you. But right now you're claiming you have a new message from God, new revelation, a new truth that none of us else have ever heard and you got it when you died and then came back to life. How do we know you really died? Number one. Number two, how do we know a demon wasn't deceiving you because of all the psychotropic drugs you're on in that hospital bed, know? Certain kind of meds that you take, man, you get some bad bad nightmares and stuff, you know? And so how do we know? How can we know? And the reason we trust this word is because of prophecy and because it's authenticated in the Logos, the volume of the book is written to Jesus. This is his word and not the word of man. All scriptures given by inspiration of God which means it's God breathed and it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction righteousness. So you have to have a confidence that what you're holding in your hand is God's Word not man's Word. You got to have that confidence. And if you see some clerical errors, transmission errors, like say the sixteen eleven King James or whatever, you refer to the autographs, you refer to the very originals, the originals. And in the originals God's words infallible, right? And inerrant and infallible. And so we may have some copyist errors here and then because the human frailty, but there's no central doctrine or central pivotal truth affected by, know, a scribal error. You got that? So you have a confidence faithful and true. And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. So we're being told the Lord sent an angel to John as with the prophets and God speaking through the prophets. Turn to Hebrews one. God who at sundry times in diverse manners spaken in times past through the prophets. So God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times past under the fathers by the prophets, notice has in these last days kids were in the last days. You say but Rick it's been two thousand years. You're in the last days. When Jesus came to go to the cross that started the last days. Only reason hasn't happened yet is because he's long suffering not willing that any would perish but that all would come to repentance. Right? But we're in the last days. Has in these last days spoken unto us by his son whom he appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds. We're talking the second person in the Trinity. We're talking about the deity of Jesus Christ here who be in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His power when He had by Himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Being made so much better than the angels as he's by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my beloved son, this day have I begotten thee. And again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. And again when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world and he sayeth and let all the angels of God worship him. So in the incarnation when Jesus takes on the form of the babe of Bethlehem he took on the Philippians two says he took on the form of a man, the form of a human being. He was made as a human being a little lower than the angels in rank so to speak but he's greater than them in that he's the only begotten. He wasn't begotten of an angel. In kind, He's God in kind. He's the second person of the Trinity, the only begotten of the Father. And I'll be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son. And again when he bringeth in the first begotten unto the world, he sayeth and let all the angels worship him and the angels he sayeth who makes his angels spirits and his ministers a flame of fire but unto thy son he sayeth thy throne O God, here's the deity Christ, thy throne O God is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou has loved righteousness and hated iniquity therefore God even thy God has appointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And thou O Lord in the beginning has laid the foundation of the earth. So in the beginning Jesus laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of his hands. He's the creator, he created the angels, right? So he's the one that has the authority to be faithful and true. These words are faithful and true. And shortly be done. How much time? When's the rapture happening? So now he comes to three times verse seven, verse 12 and verse 20, behold I come quickly. Well pastor it's been two thousand years that isn't what that word means. It means when it starts to happen it's gonna happen like dominoes dropping fast, quickly, rapid, and suddenly is a better word. It's gonna happen suddenly. So when we're watching the beast system in Luke 21 when you see these things begin to come to pass, when you see the one world economic system the Bible speaks of in Revelation 13, when you see it coming on the horizon through AI and all the data centers, the technology and the Stargate, all these things, when you see that aspect of it, when you see democracies and constitutional republics and all forms of government reaching the end of their shelf life and the world moving in a direction of a monarchy, the 10 toes, the 10 horns, the 10 crowns of 10 kings, a one world global government divided among 10 leaders, and then the Antichrist gonna come on the scene, wipe out three of them. He becomes the eighth. When you see the religious system with TPUSA and other efforts to bring about Constantine again, where the state merges religion with the state. That's the one world religious system that's gonna operate during the first three and a half years of the tribulation period and apostate Christianity described in Revelation 17 Babylonian in character, the Babylonian religious system where the religion rides the rides the beast, rides the government. They're working together and then the devil gets rid of them and then it's Luciferian. Everyone's commanded for remaining three and a half years to worship the devil. Well you see these things, you learn these things, you're students of prophecy, you've been in the know. Well Luke 21 says, look up, lift up your head for your redemption draws nigh. It's quick. It's gonna happen. And once it starts to happen, the birth pangs is another way to look at it quickly, suddenly. It's gonna it's gonna increase in intensity and quickness suddenly. And so the doctrine of eminency, the eminent return of Jesus Christ he could come at any moment. Blessed is he that keeps the words of this prophecy of this book. And I, John, saw these things and heard them and when I had heard and seen I fell down to worship before thee at the feet of the angel. Not so John, not again John, don't do it again. In chapter 19 verse 10 you did that before it's an easy mistake but no. And here's a good thing. The angel didn't receive the worship. Jesus received the worship because He's God but angels know better. That's what a fallen angel does, receives worship. And any man, any religious leader that would allow people to bow down and worship him is a false leader. God shares his glory with no man. And so three G's that'll ruin a pastor: gold, the way they become billionaires always begging for money, it ruins them, shows that they're a false prophet. Girls, they mess around with women all the time getting caught in hotels and stuff, children nowadays, everything, and glory. Glory. Taking God's glory unto themselves. So even John, even John, I mean, if we get if we're in the presence of an angel, I'm sure our natural inclination would be to bow down because they're so bright and shiny and you know, looks so big and bad, know. It'd be hard to just give them a fist bump, know. Then said he unto me, see thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren the prophets and of them who keep the words of this book. Worship God. There you go, worship God. You're not to worship the devil, you're not to worship the Antichrist, you're not to worship the false prophet, you're not to worship government man. And he saith unto me, notice he says seal not, seal not. Many pastors, many churches say the reason they don't teach the book of Revelation, they claim that it's a sealed book. It's not a sealed book. God told Daniel in Daniel twelve:four-nine that to seal the book up Daniel, that toward the time of the end it'll make sense to you and I. We'll be able to connect the dots. Daniel didn't have enough information yet. With the book of Revelation, we have more information. With the New Testament, we have more information. We can go back to the book of Daniel and connect the dots. Daniel's Daniel's during the time of the Babylonian Empire. Daniel's barely there at the time of Daniel five with the Persian Empire with Cyrus. Afterwards Daniel wrote about the Grecian Empire, Alexander the Great. He wrote about the Roman Empire, future. Daniel's prophesying things. We're looking back at it. This stuff all took place just as Daniel said it would five hundred years before Jesus comes on the scene right? It's fascinating. It's so fascinating. The more sure word of prophecy. And and he says unto me seal not the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. Man if only 2% of the pastors are teaching prophecy what better time to teach prophecy than right now. It's like missing the first advent of Jesus. It's like being alive and missing out on his first coming. Being brain dead you don't even know. And it takes guys from Babylon coming. The wise men from Babylon. You know, we've come to see the King of the Jews and it really sad in John one the description there. He was in the world, the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came under his own, the Jews, and the Jews received him not. But to as many as received him. Right? So the sadness of the people in Nazareth not recognizing him. The people the Jews not recognizing him. And the world, the creation, not recognizing the creator of the universe, you know. Barabbas or Jesus and they're shouting out for Barabbas, know. People are clueless. You know. Unbelief is a very strange thing. Unbelief. It's it's it's so bizarre. And faith, having faith, is the best gift we've ever been given. That God's gifted you and I with faith. That we find it so easy to believe because the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with our spirit and teaching us and helping us and giving us confirmation that we're on the right track. And so seal not the words of the prophecy of this book for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still. He that is righteous, let him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. It's too late. It's too late for the ungodly. This work is finished For you and I as believers, we're there in heaven. Today is the day of salvation. This call goes out to people. They're projected. They're looking into the eternal state of heaven. And so there's a message of those that are reading this. We're not in heaven yet, but this is a picture of it, you guys. So you that are filthy, you better repent right now. Because when it gets to this point, it's over. There's no going back. There's no pass go and collect $200. It's appointed unto all men once to die. And then the judgment, no reincarnation, no second chance, no annihilation. So there's a finality here, the picture here. And your character is gonna be intact. It's too late. He says, behold I come quickly second time and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be. Oh this is exciting. This is the rapture. He's coming quickly, right? Suddenly And he's gonna reward us. He's gonna reward you and I. No. He's gonna reward you and I at the rapture. He's going to reward the world at the second coming. The world is going to be judged for their works and he's coming in judgment. His wrath is poured out upon a Christ rejecting world at the second coming. You and I, he's taken us to second Corinthians chapter five to the bema, b h e m a, the bema seat of Christ. And so the rapture of the church I'm gonna give you guys some verses to read about the rapture because I know you have these memorized. Who wants John fourteen:one-three? Yep, got it? And who wants first Corinthians fifteen fifty one-fifty three? I already gave you guys first John three one through three, I read that for you. We already read first Corinthians thirteen nine through 13, we'll see him face to face. And now we want four passages that pertain to the rapture in the New Testament. John fourteen:one-three. No, and I want to get the other one out. First Corinthians fifteen fifty one-fifty three, who wants that? Okay, that's Miss Vicky. And then the classic first Thessalonians four sixteen through 17, the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. Who wants that? You want it? Okay, Debbie's got it and she's got a real strong speaking voice. Debbie's gonna be good. And then Philippians three twenty one-twenty two. I'll take it. Okay, Andy's got that. And then we wanna reiterate what we'd said in Luke twenty one twenty eight who wants that Bernie's got it all right now Bernie's on tiptoes that verse for Bernie when it says look up lift up your head Bernie takes it a little further. He steps up on tiptoes trying to get there, tippy toes. And so we're looking at a tachometer. We're looking at the red lining of a tachometer, the the word for time there. I come quickly. It's a picture of your it's it's tacked out, it's in the red man, the engine's gonna just blow up, know, it's getting so close how close it is for him to to come, right? Okay, red line. John fourteen one through three. Let not your heart be troubled. He believed God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. So as they're divulging all this alien stuff and showing Trump walking with this silver dude with alien dude chained, wouldn't it be fascinating if we were raptured? And then they blamed it on all the alien stuff, all the alien activity and all. Now when he says for your reward, Jesus has gone to prepare this place, the father's house. We're gonna be raptured to the father's house and we're gonna receive rewards. We're gonna receive the clean white garment and the crowns and decked out and when we come back in chapter 19 with the Lord in his second coming, we're coming with clean white. We're coming for the marriage, the supper of the lamb on on the ground on the earth at the marriage supper of the lamb which inaugurates or starts the millennium. So the picture is the betrothal, the fetching which is the rapture, the marriage ceremony in heaven with the rewards, all the gifts and then the return to the home of the bride for the marriage supper, the reception. Okay, first Corinthians fifteen fifty one through 53. Now when she reads this, listen closely to behold, I come quickly. How quickly, Vicky? In a moment. I declare to you brothers and sisters that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perish perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen. I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash in the twinkling of of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable and the mortal with immortality. Amen. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Right? How fast is the twinkling? Pretty fast. Can you anticipate it? Happened. Nope. It's over. Faster faster than a blink. Right? Yeah. Just a twinkle. Just a twinkle. That's how quick, how suddenly boom when he comes it's boom. Alright who's next? For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That's that's the that's the blessed hope. That's the rapture that catching away. And then Philippians three twenty one and twenty two, our citizenship is in heaven. Ready? Philippians three twenty one. 22. What could be our conversation in your translation? But our citizenship is in f three twenty one twenty two. Philippians three twenty one at there's no 22. What'd I do? Let's see here. Philippians. Oh, it's twenty and twenty one. There you go. Okay. For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the savior, the lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like in his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. Here we go. In our new bodies, the rapture. Our citizenship is in heaven. He's coming for us. Alright. And then we have Bernie, the burn. Luke twenty one twenty eight. Terry Terry's gonna do it. Thank you, Terry. Why don't you say 28? Verse 28. Right there. So when all these things begin to happen, stand and look up for your salvation is near. Praise the lord. Now, I like what pastor Barry Stagner said. I'm a give him the credit. What problem do you have tonight that the rapture won't solve? Isn't that great? Isn't that a great way to look at it? If you really believe he's coming soon, then you're not gonna be so worried about these knuckleheads and all the stuff they're threatening against us. Know? It just shows that we're getting closer. This beast system being built, you know, in some ways it's it's frightening the way that they these data centers that they're doing, there's local municipalities that are trying to stop it. You know what they did? They shifted gears and they said this is military application and no community can stop a military application. And they're building them everywhere all over the globe. And they're huge and they're expensive. And we talked at lunch yesterday in Lake Tahoe. I saw it in the morning when I was reading. In Lake Tahoe, there's like 50,000 people that are losing their power in a very, nice area of Lake Tahoe because they're being instructed that that energy is gonna be diverted to the new data centers, surveillance, track and trace. And so you can't stop Elon Musk. You can't stop these people. Also you lose your water. You lose water because they're grabbing the aquifer, they're grabbing all the water to cool the computers in these facilities and all. And so farming, food, Bill Gates buying up all the farms and wanting the aquifers and it's just crazy. And so when you see all that I can see why some people in churches don't want to know anything about that. They want to find a way to escape. Well, I wanna know the truth because I am gonna escape. Jesus said, you know, pray always that you'd be kind of worthy to escape these things and stand before the son of man. Luke 21, right? So I know that I'm going to escape the tribulation period because it's a time of God's wrath. And Jesus told me when you see these things begin to come to pass, then look up, lift up your head for your redemption draweth nigh, right? So to me it's exciting. It's not doom and gloom. It's very exciting. So I've been teaching the Bible for about forty years now. Why am I so excited tonight? Because I love God's words alive. My heart's stirring. This is exciting. I mean I can't imagine a pastor just like not wanting not wanting to study this and teach this. I mean why did God put it in the Bible? If only two percent of the churches are willing to teach it. I mean God. How criminal? Alright so we get everybody? So seven, twelve, and 20. Excuse me. I did it again. Yeah. Is 20. Okay. I'm the alpha, the omega. So Greek letter alpha, first one, a, omega, last one. He's everything in between, right? He's the eternal one. So if you looked at Isaiah 41 verse four speaks of Him being the eternal one. The And Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. So chapter one verse eight, chapter 21 verse six, the Alpha, the Omega. Blessed are they, the word blessed means oh how happy are they that do or wash their rubs or do the doing that they may have right to the tree of life. So there's our tree of life again. It may enter through the gates into the city. So the gates are the pearly gates and they're opened, right? You get to you have access. So the blessing of having access to God's throne and we would call them homies nowadays. Blessed are they that are homies, your home. Heaven's your home. Ain't that great? Blessed are you, your homie, this is your home. And now is the earth your home? No, this isn't your home. In this condition, this place, not till the Lord returns and gets rid of all the criminals then we get to rule and reign with him for a thousand years on this earth but ultimately we're gonna see the new heaven and the new earth the new Jerusalem you know in the sky out there. And I hope and pray that we could travel to it, travel to the looks like the Starship Enterprise something out there. I don't know. But even better than that that fictitious movie themes. For outside are dogs and sorcerers. So the contrast here, the outsiders are those unbelievers, those that didn't make it in. Have no access to this city because during their lifetime they rejected the tree of life, they rejected the cross. And Jesus cursed as anybody who hangs from a tree, Jesus became a curse. He that knew no sin became sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So when he's praying, Father if you're willing remove this cup from me then nevertheless but not my will but thy will be done. As he's crying out in Psalm 22, My God, my God why has thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from my roaring? That's when God the Father poured out his wrath upon his son who became a curse. All the sins of the whole world from beginning to end of all of history were placed upon him. He's the savior of the whole world. Every single sin is paid for that anybody's ever committed but it has to be appropriated. So it goes on to say especially for those who believe, qualified, available to believers. So it's like you got a million dollars in the bank but you don't access it because you're in unbelief. You won't access it by way of the cross. Question. Okay. Why aren't they in the Lake Of Fire? Well they are. They are but it's showing that they don't have access that they're the outsiders, they're on the outside. So we would say that we know where they're at, they're in the Lake Of Fire. No, this is looking in the past tense. This is who they were. There's no way they could be at the throne of God in the new Jerusalem practicing these arts. It's a reminder of people that rejected the cross and the type of people there were and they had no access to be here in heaven, the city of peace. So they're on the outside and you're on the inside because of the blood of Jesus. The unbelievers on the outside, no access to the eventuality, the goal, the place, your eventual home that you're going to, they don't have access to this. Because they and their character, in their unredeemed bodies are they that practice these sins. Sorcerers, fornicators, murderers, idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie. So at the second coming these guys are all judged at the second coming and then in Revelation 20 verse 15 they're bodily resurrected from the dead at the end of the millennium and they're cast into the lake of fire along with the devil and the beast and the false prophet. That's where we know they're at In John's commentary here the Lord saying these guys have no access to what you have access to. So comparison, look where you get to be, but look where the ones that rejected Jesus look where they are. So I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. Look at that word church there. In the churches. We saw the word church in chapter two and three down the internal state. John's given this letter, God's given him this letter to distribute this letter in the churches. Is the church age is still the church age. We're still in the church age. Right? That's the age we're in. Distribute this. Well, if you distribute it, it's in everybody's Bible that attends church in Kitsap County. They just don't read it. They aren't taught it. Right? Now I know there's a lot of Christians in the church around here that do read this book and they do want to study it and they study it with YouTube pastors or Bible study fellowship or alternative type groups and stuff and that's good. But what I'm saying is the senior pastor it's his responsibility. It's the leadership of the church that should make sure everybody is taken from Genesis to Revelation verse by verse through the Bible. That's his job. Jesus said Peter do you love me? Feed my sheep. Now they're gonna have blood on their hands because they didn't warn, they didn't give the full counsel of God. That's what Paul said in Acts 20. He's innocent of the people's blood in Ephesus because for the space of three years he gave them the full counsel of God. So you see this principle in Ezekiel three and Ezekiel 33 that we have to warn people once we warn them, once we let them know the truth, their blood's not on us anymore. They're responsible for what they do with the information. We can't convert anybody. One man sows, another waters, God brings the increase. We simply are those who are heralds in the sense that we the evangel, we preach the gospel to the unbeliever and then we disciple the believer. A disciple is a learner. We are in a Bible study tonight and Paul told Timothy, Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. Right? So we want to take these truths and hide them in our heart and have a good working knowledge of the scripture. We wanna be able to open up Revelation 22 or Genesis one, two, or three. We wanna be able to read it to somebody and simply explain what we learned. And if we can't remember, then we get a commentary or a teaching tape or something to help us prepare us ahead of time. And I encourage you to on your phones to put the blue letter Bible. If you ever get stumped, you hit the blue letter Bible on your app. And you can have pastor Chuck teaching there. You can have a bunch of other pastors there and you can look up that passage that you're having trouble with and alright alright okay now it makes sense you know. And so we got a lot of tools. We have a lot of Bible tools. And when I went to school of ministry one of the things that Carl did was he was teaching us how to use the tools. How what kind of tools are available, like let's say a treasure of scripture knowledge or a concordance or a Bible dictionary or a Greek manuscript, a Hebrew manuscript. And I had to take three semesters of Greek and one semester of Hebrew, and and apparently when you study these languages it helps you with the study helps, so you can dig deeper. And so there you go. So these things in the churches, I am the root and the offspring of David, so there's his humanity, and the next, and the bright morning star. There's his deity. So he's the root of David. David comes forth from him but he's also the offspring of David because of the Davidic covenant in Matthew one and Luke three he's in the Davidic line, right, As the Messiah. And his human, his humanity, he's the God man of Philippians two, fully God, fully man. He liked to identify himself 81 times as the Son of Man. So the first federal head, Adam blew it. The second, the last Adam Jesus fulfilled. He finished everything. It is finished. And now if you again if you were confronted with somebody I want you to write this down. I've had you write it down a 100 times. Do we have time? No we don't. If we had time I would take you through John one, Colossians one, Hebrews one, and Revelation one and show you and you can study there how you are going to prove the deity of Jesus Christ. You can prove that he's God. I already read you Hebrews. I read you the Hebrews passage and And so there you go, his humanity and his deity. And the spirit and the bride say come. So here's an invitation. This is a great evangelistic invitation. You can use this. And the spirit and the bride say come, let him that hears say come, let him that is athirst come. Now look, notice this, whosoever will let him take the water of life freely. This is an invitation. We're not in heaven yet. We're not there at the what John's describing here, the eternal state. So as you read this and you realize, oh my gosh, I'm a sorcerer. I'm a dog guy. I'm a liar. I'm a murderer. I need to get right because I don't have access to this place. I'm not one of the homies. Well then you get right with the Lord, right? It prompts you to get right with the Lord. You say man I don't want to be on the outside, I don't want to be in the lake of fire. And so there's an invitation to come. And Isaiah 50 five:one, Who's ever thirst let him come, come to the waters, speaks of free will. There's an invitation here. We give an invitation. Now another good invitation is Matthew eleven twenty eight-thirty. Jesus said, Come unto me all ye that labor. Betty's got it. Betty's got it. Say it, Betty. No, I can't. Come. Come on to me all you that labor and are heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you. Learn to me. The yoke is easy, my burden is light, right? So that's an invitation. Jesus given invitation and the key phrase there is whosoever will let him come. It's not this only the elect can come, only a Jew can come, only a Gentile can come, only a certain nationality can come. No, it's whosoever will. It's a matter of the will. The invitation goes out to everybody to come to Jesus and to drink. So if you're thirsty, if you're thirsty, you qualify. That's it, are you thirsty? I used to say to people when we had the Roxy, I used to say, if you put your finger right here and you've got a pulse, yeah, God can use you. If you're still alive, God can use you. God has a plan and a purpose. God has a place within his body that you can serve him if you're still alive. And so take the water of life freely. Now warning here, for I testify unto every man that hears the words of this prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things. You got so many YouTube pre R O F I T S adding stuff. Everybody's adding stuff nowadays. God shall add to him the plagues that were written in this book. Uh-oh. Lake of fire. It's a serpent adding, taking away. And if any man shall take away, adding and taking away from the words of this book of the prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. So to add or to take away is indicative of being a non believer. A believer wouldn't do that. So it's not like you're a believer and then, uh-oh, took away and now I lost my salvation. No. It's indicative of a person who is unsaved. Unsaved, lake of fire is their destiny. And so 27% of the Bible is prophecy. We have the more sure word of prophecy. Verse 20, He who testifies these things saith surely I come quickly. There we go again, quickly the rapture, point to the rapture, the doctrine of eminency that he can come at any moment and no man knows the day or the hour. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus and that's our prayer even so come Lord Jesus. Now there are prophecies being fulfilled in second Peter three:eight of scoffers. The scoffers are saying where is the promise of his coming? Everything continues as it always has. And Peter says to this they're willingly ignorant not understanding that one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. But God is long suffering not willing that anyone perish that all would come to repentance. So the call went out for one hundred and twenty years with Noah. One hundred and twenty years get in the boat get in the boat get in the boat whosoever will let him come drink the water life freely. Otherwise you're gonna have too much water pretty soon here once it starts to rain. And so God sends his prophets, he sends his evangelists, he sends his people to share the glorious good news. Now in the tribulation period there's gonna be an angel overhead giving out the everlasting gospel. There's gonna be two witnesses in Revelation 11. There's gonna be a 144,000 Jews sealed and going forth to everlasting gospel. But presently we've been commissioned in the church age. We're the ones the Lord's counting on. Not an angel overhead right now, not two witnesses in Jerusalem standing there. There's not a 144,000. We're not in the tribulation period. We're in the church age and it's up to us to go and make disciples. To preach and preach the gospel to every creature, right? Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Grace, grace and peace. Grace, the unmerited favor of God be among you all. Amen. Alright. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the sweet time that we could spend in your word and Lord we pray that evermore that your word would sink down deeper and deeper that your word we would hide in our hearts that we might not sin against you. We pray Lord that we could rightly divide the word of truth and and not just be Bible intellectuals Lord but to know you that we know you and we want to we want to have intimate experiential knowledge of you Lord spending time at your feet getting to know you through the study of your word we know that knowledge puffs up but love edifies so Lord we pray the evidence of our sitting in your feet and getting to know you that the fruit of the spirit of love would be evident Lord would be growing. That we'd have new fruit every day Lord, new fruit growing that you and John fifteen you're gonna dig down and clean and lift the grapes up off the dusty dirt and wash them with your word. You're gonna cut away dead branches. You're gonna prune our lives and Lord you're gonna cause our lives to bear even more fruit, much fruit for your kingdom and glory. Lord we want to bear fruit in Jesus name Amen.

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About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

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