From start to finish, the prophecies and controversies in Revelation focus on true and false worship.
Good morning. Happy Sabbath. We welcome you this morning to Sacramento central seventh day adventist church for central study hour. An hour where we open up God's word and study together with our members here and those of you around the world. But, of course, before we do that we sing your favorite hymns and this morning we're going to start with #15 my Maker and my King.
This is a request from our extended world-wide Sabbath school family. Ralph, birdie, and tajh in the bahamas, omar, lavonne and Michael in ghana, deborah lewis and family in grenada, jevaughn, zoya, mickey, denzle, loan, annjulette and cassandra in jamaica, mathew in kenya, rogers in the netherlands, freddie in the Philippines, chelsea and charleston in saint vincent and the grenadines, sharon in trinidad and tobago, walugembe in uganda, bev and sherace in england, letetia in Georgia, joyann and marcellus in new york, and steven in Delaware. All four stanzas, #15 my maker and my king. I hope that every day every word and each desire are for Jesus. I want mine to be and I hope you do too.
If you have a favorite song that you would like to sing with us on an upcoming Sabbath it is very very simple. If you have a computer, get on the internet, go to saccentral.org, click on the 'contact us' link and you can send in any hymn request and we will do our best to sing that for you on an upcoming Sabbath as soon as possible. #538 Guide me, o thou great jehovah. It is from marina and matija in croatia, carmen in england, audrey in Georgia, sheela in india, george and nancy in kenya, Israel in Mexico, chiemela in nigeria, sandie, vern, jamie, jenny, and jared in North Carolina, elias in saint vincent and the grenadines, thando in south africa, brenda in tennessee, and gideon, nicolette, vikki, veronice, and Enoch in trinidad and tobago. #538 - All three stanzas.
Father in Heaven, we thank you so much for blessing us this morning with this beautiful Sabbath day and may our songs of praises ascend to you this morning as sweet music. The music, of course, down here on this earth is nothing from what compares to what you hear in heaven, but I pray that it would be acceptable to you. Through our hearts this morning that are open we want you to fill us. Father thank you so much for loving us, for blessing us the way that you do - so abundantly. Please be with us as we open up Your Word and we study together.
Be with our speaker. In Jesus' Name, amen. At this time our lesson study is going to be brought to us by pastor Luke fessenden. He is a retired adventist pastor, of course I really don't think there is any such thing as a retired pastor; and there's not because he is proof of that. He is actually our online pastor, so those of you who are online members you probably know pastor Luke pretty well by now.
And he will be bringing us our lesson study. Welcome to central study hour. We're happy you're here. We're happy you're watching around the world. Today's free offer is 'heaven is it for real?' We'll mention it again at the end of the study class 'heaven is it for real?' You may call in 1-866-788-3966 or you can go online at www.
amazingfacts.org for the free offer. We're going to conclude - this is the 13th lesson in our third quarter. And to conclude a study on worship, what better place to conclude it than at the end of the Bible, the last book of the Bible? Is worship mentioned in Revelation? Of all the books in the Bible, it is mentioned more in Revelation than in any other. But let's look at the word Revelation. It comes from a Greek word apocalupsis, which really is appearing, coming, manifestation, being revealed, an uncovering.
And this book in the Bible that many people just say 'oh it's too complicated, too mysterious. It's got too many strange things in it. I just - I'm afraid to tackle it.' The entire book means God is revealing. The first verse in the book says 'the Revelation of...Jesus Christ and so he is wanting to reveal - today we're going to focus on the worship aspect. But some people get apocalypse - Revelation- confused with apocrypha, which is totally the opposite.
It's something secret and hidden and refers to about 15 books that appeared between the inter-testamental period between Malachi and the Gospels. And there are some books there that are being used by some that are not considered inspired by protestants and there are many, many reasons and I'm not going to get into all of them now but I will mention just enough to say that there's really need for question because the inspired canon - Hebrew canon - of 39 books are agreed that they're inspired but then some of these books came that we aren't sure who the authors are. They're not identified. They never say that they're inspired or God showed them or God gave them something. And, would you believe that there are some teachings in some of them that are totally against the canon - Hebrew canon.
Like purgatory, praying for dead, prayers for and of the dead. There is enough in them to lead - and then one of the strongest evidences that i, well two of them, that I like is that even though the new testament has over 500 direct quotes or references to the old testament Scripture, they do not have one reference to any of these 15 apocryphal books. Jesus, nor his disciples, nor those that wrote the new testament quoted once. And to me that's good evidence. And then Josephus, one of the great Jewish historians, was related to the maccabean family that provided two books in the apocrypha, and he said, 'there may be some history but they are not inspired by God.
' Well, that's - of course you might find relatives of mine too that might say something against me and some people say, 'that's not a very strong argument.' But when you get about nine evidences - and that's one of the nine - I think it has some credence. Written by John, right off in the first chapter it says John, but it doesn't identify which John. John was a popular name back there, just as John is a common name today, correct? But most scholars agree and really are quite sure because of the style and because of his emphasis on Christ and God that it's John the apostle, John the Gospel writer, John the epistle writer - wrote 1, 2, and 3 John, so John is attributed to all five of those books. And by the way, you know that there are five books in the Bible that only have one chapter and John has two of them - 2 John and 3 John. You can read those two books this afternoon in two chapters and in about three minutes you will have read two of the sixty-six Bible books.
Something else that's interesting is that the entire book of Revelation was written when John was old and he was on a penal island. He was in prison on the isle of patmos. Now, they had tried to get rid of him and the question came in a couple of weeks ago, 'where does it say in the Bible that John was put in a vat of boiling oil?' And the answer is, it doesn't say that in the Bible. Then why do we say that? Well, the scholars and the writers back at that time, they said it. Tertullian, who lived from 160 to 220 - it was a known fact.
He said John was put in boiling oil and survived. And then, because they couldn't kill him in boiling oil - and by the way, boiling oil - water boils at 212 degrees fahrenheit, right? You know what oil boils at? It depends on what kind of oil, but the lowest boiling point of any oil is olive oil and it's 375 degrees. Safflower oil boils at 510 - that's two and a half times hotter than water. And lube oil - now I don't know how much they got into lube oil, but crude oil - anywhere from to 1200 degrees fahrenheit. Now, even if we said it was just water at 212, you throw anyone in water at 212 and they're going to burn and die.
But this oil was much hotter. We don't know, but it was many - much hotter than water and nothing happened to John. And so, 'well, we've got to get rid of him somehow' and so they put him out on this isle - it's out in the aegean sea, thinking, 'now we've done it. And this book of Revelation, one of the most intriguing books of the Bible was written by a man, an older man, out stashed away from everyone yet it is very very popular today, isn't it? And you can link that with John :16, the most recognized verse in the Bible. "For God so loved the world", right? "That he gave his only begotten son that whosever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." It's very very clear God wants all to be saved. You know that that popular verse was written or was shared, it was written by the Gospel of John, the same man, it was said to nicodemus at night with no one else around. The point is that God can do marvelous things when there's very few people around. "Be still and know that I am God." God has done marvelous things when a person has been alone. And so, this book, very very well known, was produced very, very much in solitude.
So these seven churches all had a spiritual situation that God's church, from the time of Christ until the second coming of Christ, would experience in the same order and those seven churches form, not a perfect circle, but a sort of a circle in asia minor. How interesting. And so the first three chapters are dealing with seven churches. As a matter of fact, seven appears so many times, somebody told me, 'you know, there's something interesting about the number seven - not just the seven days of creation and the seventh day Sabbath, but there's so many sevens and sevens.' Well, in Revelation he says, 'you know it's seven squared. Seven times seven.
' And I believed them for many many years and then I said, 'well, I better study that out. I don't want to say it if it's not true.' And he was wrong. Not 49 times, 54 times. Now we've got to come up with - how can you add five to it? Anyway, add five to seven squared and that's the number of times that seven appears and that triggers other things that are in this lesson too. The special group that go through all of that difficult time identified as the 144,000.
Only found two places in the Bible and it's Revelation perfect and Revelation double perfect. Revelation 7 and Revelation 14. But then if you want triple perfect you get to Revelation 21 and that's the earth made new. And so, I like - that helps me to remember. ,000 7 And 14.
And then in 21 all of the redeemed with the 144,000 in the last two chapters. So seven appears 54 times in the book of Revelation. The first three chapters deal with seven churches. Then there's seven seals and seven trumpets. Then you get the seven last plagues.
As a matter of fact, there's seven spirits, seven candlesticks, seven stars, seven lamps, seven horns, seven eyes, seven angels, seven thunders, seven heads, seven thorns, seven golden vials that pour out the seven last plagues. God is telling us something. And then the word worship - you may come up with other books that you say, 'well they're going to mention worship' and I don't mind if you do, I can repeat it for the television. What other books do you think would say a lot about worship. I'm used to dialog and I'm kind of limited here, but identify a book - I will tell you that none beat Revelation.
Revelation, worship is mentioned times. What other books? Daniel. Good. Thank you. I figured you'd say that and so that's one I did look up.
The book of Daniel, it is mentioned in Daniel ten times. Ten times. Psalms. Another one I thought you'd ask - and I did look that one up. Psalms it is mentioned 16 times.
That's the second most in the Bible. Psalms and Daniel and how about John? Because John wrote Revelation how about the Gospel of John? Pretty high, but still not half as many. Eleven times. So in those 404 verses in Revelation you're going to find the word worship appear times. Worship.
Has anyone ever come to you to bow down to worship you? If they did, what would you do? I think you're going to do what John did when he bowed down. We're going to have some texts to that effect coming up very shortly. But, the whole point of any human being being worthy of worship is not biblical. Any - even a spiritual leader. Can you imagine if our four pastors - that we had to kneel down to them and kiss their feet or kiss their hand? You'd say, 'well I wouldn't do it for any.
' But yet, you know, this is going to show us today in Revelation that there are many people in the world that are really worshiping somebody other than God. They might not be bowed down and kissing them, but in their hearts they are putting them above God. We have a Bible verse that tells us not to bow down and worship any human being. And this is why we choose not to use the word reverend. Because the Bible says in psalm verse 9, "holy and reverend is his name.
" His name. That means he is the only one to be worshiped. And isn't that what the first commandment says? Only one God. Worship him. The bottom of the first day's reading, the Sabbath afternoon's reading.
Revelation reveals what we have been studying all quarter, that the Lord alone is creator, redeemer, our judge. He only is worthy of worship. Now, let's look at our memory verse and since it's printed in the quarterly, let's read it together. The memory verse for today's study. "And they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders and no man could learn that song but the 144,000, which were redeemed from the earth.
" The 144,000 had a special experience and they're singing a song and what they're saying no one else can say. It's just like, if I went outside of a girls' club and they were singing 'I'm a member of the girls' club' I couldn't sing that song. Because I'm not the member of a girls' club. And so, their experience - The Song is a song of their experience and they're the only ones that can sing that. Are the others jealous? Not at all.
Anyone that's in the Kingdom of heaven is going to be so thankful to God to be there that they will too bow down and cast their crowns at his feet. Right? There's going to be no jealousy, there's not going to be any caste system in heaven. All are going to come humbly before God and before Christ. Four beasts and 24 elders - just very very briefly. You're probably aware that these beasts that are identified have been seen in Ezekiel's vision.
The same faces. And also history, Jewish history, says that when they camped around the tabernacle in the wilderness. There were three tribes on each side and then there was a head tribe on each of the sides. And the head tribe put up the banner for their tribe and the banner was a flag and on the flag was a face and it was these four faces. Did you know that? These four faces and judah happened to be the east tribe and judah was the head tribe of - judah was the head tribe of issachar, judah and zebulan and the face on the judah tribe was a lion.
Isn't Jesus called the lion from the tribe of judah? Does it make sense? These beasts are representing the completeness of all of God's family. The totality. And so the beasts are representing all of the people and then the 24 elders. Why 24? Well, the old testament has an answer to that too. Chronicles chapter 24.
It calls them the 20 orders in the levitical priesthood and so these 24 elders, that according to Revelation each have a little thrown around the throne. These 24 elders are representing the Spiritual leadership of the entire group. Just as the levites were spread around - they didn't own any land in the land of Israel. They were spiritual leaders in all of the other territory - then you might say, 'well, how did they still get divisions of land?' Well, you know that Joseph himself didn't have the tribe of Joseph but his two sons, ephraim and manasseh, so that made up for the levites who were the priests. Anyway, getting into too much history.
We've got to get into real worship now. Okay? Let's turn to Sunday's lesson and 'I fell at his feet as dead.' I have distributed a slip to be read and it's - there's going to be two read at two different intervals. The first one is going to be Revelation 1:17 and 18. "To him - and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me saying 'do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last. I am he who lives and was dead. And behold I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of hades and of death.
'" Now John is seeing this and he's talking to - he's seeing Jesus in vision - and he thinks it's Jesus that he's bowing down to, but it's not. It's an angel. And he said, 'I fell as one dead.' Even the angels that spend time in God's presence, when they are seen by humans, humans want to worship them. And this angel said, 'no.' But the response was 'I'm unworthy. I am nothing.
' And in job, the next reference, job 42. We're going to read verses 5 and and brian will read that one for us too. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." Okay job, job said he saw God. He said if you see God you can't live.
He meant he has seen some demonstration of his power. God reveals himself through various means. But he, job, had felt like he had seen him. And he had definitely heard his voice. And what did he say? "I abhor myself.
" That means, woe is me. Who am i? I'm not worthy. I'm worthless. And I repent. I repent.
Repent is, 'I'm going to turn degrees and I'm going to be right with you.' And so, here, when these individuals are confronted with even angels, they feel 'I am unworthy.' They're wanting to demonstrate and to worship before them. When Christ was on earth, we know that he chose a human body. % Human. But 100% divine. But he couched his divinity in humanity because he did not want to, you know, use his divinity as an advantage.
He was the second adam, right? And there were times when his divinity did flash through because as he demonstrated divine things. He couldn't, you know, the eyes are the avenue of the heart, and if a person is looking at you and you're really really impressed, you're going to be attracted to that person. And Jesus attracted those that wanted truth. Jesus attracted them. Remember in the beginning of his ministry Jesus went into the temple and he saw what all was happening there and those that were doing wrong in the courtyard, in the outer part of the church, he chased away, right? And three years later - a little over three years later he goes in and he does the same thing.
Now, we have insights from Desire of Ages showing that during those three years those priests - now they had three years of listening to this so-called Son of God and they were fortifying themselves against that man and they said, 'if that fellow ever comes in here again we will chase him out. And after saying that for three years, you think they would be pretty sure it was going to happen, right? Desire of Ages says this, "three years before the rulers of the temple had been ashamed of their flight." They were kind of embarrassed. They were kind of cowardy, you know? "Before the command of Jesus. They were ashamed of their flight. They had since wondered at their own fears.
" 'How come we were afraid of him, you know we outnumbered him.?' "And their unquestioning obedience to just one single human humble man." In other words, he's not a type-a charismatic, he's just a very very calm, gracious, humble man. "They had felt that it was impossible for their undignified surrender to be repeated." They had fortified themselves 'if he comes again we'll chase him out.' "Yet" it says, "they were now more terrified than before and in greater haste to obey his command." What does that tell us about God and Jesus? When you're in their presence, if you are doing evil, you don't want to stay. If you are doing - wanting to do good - you love it because the very people that left the temple upset at Jesus - crowds were coming in with children and the children came and crawled on his lap. When a man is upset do his children want to go near him? Not even his wife. Was Jesus upset? Righteous indignation.
But his love and warmth and his person never changed. He was just as warm and loving and friendly as before. Now, a passage that has helped me to understand more about those that are choosing to go wrong. Those that are not wanting to fully commit to God. We in America still have it pretty easy here - even though the economy is not good, it is still rather easy.
And it may take tougher times for some people to wake up, but God wants us to wake up while it is still good time, but I've often thought there are so many people that are not going to make it that once knew the light. And the Holy Spirit is bombarding them. And if they could truly truly see Jesus and God as Revelation is revealing it here and as Jesus presented it when he was on earth. If they could really see him that way and their heart wanted him, they couldn't help but go to him. They would have to go to him.
Then how about those that once walked or those that never did but could have? What about them at the very very end - toward the end of Revelation when - Revelation 20 - when it talks about the millennium and then after the millennium and how the sin and sinners are destroyed by fire at the end. That's not going to be pleasant - and that's called God's strange act. It's an act of mercy so that we don't live forever in this sinful mess. And I've been at the bedside of many who have suffered so badly that they say, 'I just want to close my eyes.' No, they're not wanting to commit suicide, but they don't want to live in that state. They would rather close their eyes and not know a thing and the next thing know Jesus.
That's what they're saying. And so I thought, 'how about these that had their opportunity or were walking with God and turned? What about them? And here's the scene that was - is revealed. It's easy to remember, it's Great Controversy 666. Oh that rings a bell does it? By the way, 666 only appears in Revelation 13:18. The number to identify with the beast, but it does appear once in the old testament as the amount of gold king Solomon received every year for taxes.
You think we're taxed. Solomon received 666 talents - a talent is 75-plus pounds - of gold every year. Now that, my friends, is 50,000 pounds or 25 tons of gold. In today's Market, that would be decent. With an ounce being $1,700.
00 or something like that. That would be decent money. My calculator wouldn't go that far. No, it's big money. And so 666 is mentioned as Solomon's tax and that's very well supported in the old testament and in Revelation :18 it says it's the number of the beast.
But that's not the big clue, that's one of about 18 identifying Marks. And so, don't be afraid if you're phone number is 666 like a friend of mine up in battleground who will be seeing this, actually. The first three digits of his phone is 666. He doesn't care because he hasn't done anything hundreds of years ago come out of that fourth beast of Daniel 7 and he hasn't subdued nations and he hasn't ruled for 1260 years and suffered a wound and he hasn't persecuted God's people. He says, 'I don't care.
' I heard this week that somebody had a t-shirt on. The back of it was 333 and it said, "only half evil." People are making fun of 666. They don't know what it means and so they're making fun of it. But you see, if seven is a perfect number, six would be imperfect, right? Six would be far inferior. And then three of them in a row would really be not good news.
The scene here in great controversy 666. The wicked are gathered together by satan. They develop implements of war. They go to take over new Jerusalem that is temporarily set down. Big city, 375 miles on each side.
It's 1500 miles - 375 each side, miles around it - and as they get there, the gates are closed. And then the throne of Christ is lifted up in the middle. And they stop. They can't move. When they see - there they are, they can't pursue, they can't do anything.
This is when the wicked bow. They don't bow in reverential awe, they bow that 'this is the God that we've been fighting and we cannot do anything. We are defeated.' And it says, "as soon as the books of record are opened and" this is in Great Controversy 666. "And the eye of Jesus looks upon the wicked, they are conscious of every sin which they have ever committed." Not going to be happy are they? "They see just where their feet diverged from the path of purity and holiness. Just how far pride and rebellion have led them in the violation of the law of God.
" Point they all had their chance. Everyone had their opportunity and I don't see them there pointing to you. They're pointing to themselves. God gave me the opportunity. Okay, let's go to Monday's lesson.
Holy, holy, holy. There are six texts listed there and I'm going to have two people each read three texts and the first one is going to be Revelation 4 verse 10 and whoever has it, okay. Jeff, Michael? Michael, I'm sorry. He's going to read Revelation :10 and then Revelation 5:14 and Revelation 7:11. Revelation 4 verse 10.
"The 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying:" Revelation 5 verse 14. "Then the four living creatures said, 'amen!' And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever." And Revelation 7 verse 11. "All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God." All three in three different chapters saying they fell down and worshiped. If you follow it further it will say what they're saying, they're praising God and giving him glory and just recognizing him as the supreme. The next three verses - someone has the slip with all three on it.
It will be Revelation 11 verse , Revelation 15 verse 4. Revelation 19 verse 4. This lady right here. Revelation 11:16. "And the 24 elders, which sat before God on their thrones, fell on their faces and worshiped God.
" Revelation 15:4. "Who shall not fear you, o Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. For all nations come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested." Revelation 19:4. "And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne saying, 'amen! Alleluia!'" Worship. Before God they fall down and worship.
What is clear here that heaven is involved with human salvation as well, right? Heaven is involved. The angels are involved. The - those closest to God's throne. Turn to page Tuesday, Revelation 13. Revelation 13 - 13 is supposed to be an unlucky number, right? And in Revelation 13 is unlucky.
Some people say, 'well you know, Matthew puts the names of four - Jesus' four stepbrothers in Matthew 13.' You can find them by name there. And some say it was kind of unfortunate that he had those stepbrothers that gave him so much grief when he was growing up. And so, it's just another way I can remember some of the key places in the Bible. But Revelation 13, worship is mentioned five times, but it's not the type of worship that God is after. This is where it's talking about the worship of another power, the beast.
And, actually, Revelation 12, , and 14 is kind of like the mini plan of salvation. Some people - I had a professor in college that says, 'if you just show someone Revelation 12, , and 14, and read it, read it, read it, you'll find that Revelation 12 talks about the good and - the struggle between Christ and satan. Revelation 12. Revelation 13 is satan's plan. This is what satan's like and this is what he's - he's out to destroy you.
And Revelation 14 - double perfect, remember? Revelation 14 is the - God loving the world so much he gives one final message that ties everything all the way back to creation. And so the mini Bible in there - here is the chapter that talks about the beast and his issues. We know that we love to tie Daniel and Revelation together and just, if you're taking any notes you might want to just jot these verses down. We won't take the time to go over them, but to understand what all is happening in Revelation 13 you have to really see what Daniel was shown in Daniel 7. And you find that there were many things that that little horn power was going to do and it was going to rule for a time, times, and dividing of times, which we know to be three and a half years.
A time is one year and times is both years, that's three, and a dividing is splitting in half - three and a half. And then, in Revelation, that picks up three and a half times. You say, 'well how do we know a time is a year?' Well the Bible uses it. When nebuchadnezzer, in Daniel , was cast away it says, 'till seven times passed over him and that was seven years. The word times is used in Revelation 12:14 and actually, three and a half years is how many months? Even today? Months.
Months is used twice in Revelation. To identify the same power against God. And then, 42 months with an average of 30 days per month is how many days? Days. A day is, in prophecy, often means a year, right? Days would be 1260 years or about 538 to 1798 time period of the rule of this power that can be identified biblically here in Revelation 13 and Daniel 7. And so, you find two references to three and a half years, two references to 42 months, and two references to 1260 days.
All identifying the same time period where this little horn power of Daniel 7 or the beast of Revelation 13 is going to persecute God's people. And it says the whole world - toward the end is going to cause the whole world - now some stop there. I'm getting ahead of myself a little. It says - let's look in Revelation 14 - 13, I'm sorry. Well, I've got somebody lined up to read that.
Revelation 13 verse 8 and the person that's going to read that is also going to read the next passage and so, who has Revelation 13:8? Thank you andrew. Revelation 13:8 says, "all who dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world." Okay, thank you. And that text can raise other questions and we'll try to briefly answer it. If you stop at 'all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him' talking about the false Christ, the beast, if you stop there it says everyone is going to worship him. Christ is going to have no redeemed.
But you don't stop there. It says, "whose names are not written in the book of life." In other words, those that are redeemed are not going to be worshiping him. Only those that have not been - had their names in the book of life. But then the last part. It says, 'uh oh.
We've got a problem. Slain from the foundation of the world. Uh oh. Uh oh. Was Jesus slain when the world was created? Uh oh.
We've got an issue here.' But we're going to read, now, a passage that will help us clarify and that is going to be Peter 1 and excerpts from 17 through 20. 1 Peter 1:17-20. It says, "and if you call on the father knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible thing, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of the lamb without blemish and without spot, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you." There's the text that puts it together. Thank you. It says that he was foreordained to pay the price from the foundation of the world.
But it was manifest now. In other words, it's just happened now. And you know why the new testament only has 27 books and they're not covering a long period of time is because the new testament authors had to be contemporaries with Christ. They had to live - their lives had to overlap Christ's life. And so, in 96 was when we thought John wrote this book of Revelation.
It is the newest book we have. It is the latest book from the Bible. He's making it clear that it was manifest - and he could truly say, 'in my lifetime' because not only did he know about Jesus, no one could get closer to Jesus than Peter, James, and John, right? John was there. And when John wrote the Gospel it's different than the other three Gospels, isn't it? Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called synoptic Gospels because they basically cover the same events, but John comes out and he starts right in and he makes it clear that Jesus is The Son of God and he's highlighting the glory of Jesus, not only the Messiah and the creator, but the redeemer and God himself. John 1 has loaded - Jesus is God too.
And so, John is saying he was foreordained from the foundation but he was manifested, it happened during my lifetime. He said that, I'm quoting John, not my lifetime. John said that. Okay, let's go to 14. Revelation 14 on Wednesday's lesson, and we're going to talk now about God's plan.
God's plan. The only new teaching that the seventh day adventist church really has an understanding is in Revelation 14. The three angels' message. And in particular, the first angel's message that says, "the hour of God's judgment is come." Now, when that was written, it hadn't come, right? You have to wait until judgment before you can say judgment is come. And so, this was present truth in 1844.
And again, another long study, Daniel 8:14 shows when the judgment would begin. And in Daniel 7 it shows judgment set and the books being opened and one like The Son of man came in the clouds before The Father in Heaven. They thought it was going to come to this earth in 1844. It says 'no no no. He came before The Father.
' And it's clear in Revelation that when the plagues come that are recorded there in Revelation and 16, that the plagues only are falling upon the wicked. The righteous receive not one plague. Therefore, judgment has ended. Probation has closed. Christ is on his way and on the seventh plague, Christ appears.
And so, the judgment scene of Christ going through the lives of people now is uniquely seventh day adventist. When Christ comes it's all over. Uniquely seventh day adventist. This power in Revelation 13 is trying to get the whole world to follow them. Jesus comes back in Revelation and identifies that the God we're to serve is the creator of heaven and earth and ties in the fourth commandment again.
Did you notice that? The creator of heaven and earth. And worship him that made everything. And what does the fourth commandment say? And it's we worship him because he is the creator and so, Revelation 14 is bringing the world back to worship the creator and it goes right back to Genesis and Revelation and Genesis are linked up again here. Judgment is happening now. I have given out the text Exodus verses 16 and 17.
Who has that? Okay. David. Exodus 31:16 and 17. "Therefore, the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.
" Amen. Sabbath is a sign that God is our creator. He created all. There was no Jewish person there in the Garden of Eden, was there? Adam and eve were created the first of humanity. And so it draws it back to our - worship the creator.
Worship the one that created heaven and earth. Constantly bringing us back. And then on Thursday's worship God. This is very neat. Right toward the end of Revelation John is encouraging the seven churches, which include all of us now, right? All of God's redeemed.
And I would like whoever has that one. Okay, jolyne. Revelation 22 verses 8 and 9 to start with. Okay. "Now i, John, saw and heard these things.
And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. And then he said to me, 'see that you do not do that for I am your fellow servant and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.'" That's a sermon right there, isn't it? John again fell at the feet of an angel because the message was from God and he felt like he was on holy ground again. And then, jolyne, again back - now Revelation 19 verse 10. This is John again.
19:10 Or 20? It should be 10. Okay. Revelation 19:10. "And I fell at the feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'see that you do not do that.
I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.'" Amen. We like the last part of that one too, right? Identifying that God's remnant church is going to have the prophetic gift and we don't have to be ashamed of that. Every book in here was written by a human being that claimed inspiration from God.
And it says, all through the four places of gifts of the spirit, prophecy is on all four of them. And it says in Amos there's going to be - Joel - there's going to be prophecy at the end, but the prophec - prophets, prophetesses must past the test. The litmus test. They must agree with Scripture, right? And so, having the prophetic gift is a blessing God gives as needed. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
" Amos 3:7. Whom do we worship? God wants all to be saved. Very very clear. Peter 3:9 he doesn't want any to be lost. Ezekiel 33:11.
None to be lost. He is doing all that he can to save every person. He doesn't use force. Love does not force. I pray that we will each say as did Joshua, "choose you this day whom you shall serve" or let's say worship, "but as for me and my house, we will serve (and worship) the Lord.
" I'm going to remind you of the free offer 'heaven is it for real?' It's - you just need to call in at 1-866-788-3966. And that concludes this lesson. God bless you. If you missed any of our Amazing Facts programs, visit our website at amazingfacts.org. There you'll find an archive of all our television and radio programs, including amazing facts presents.
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