Participants: Ivor Meyers (Host), James Rafferty (Host), Jason Bradley, Yvonne Lewis
Series Code: SISS
Program Code: SISS000003A
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00:31 We are back in the Book of Revelation.
00:33 Now when we left off in our last session, 00:35 we had just gone through some sanctuary symbolism, 00:38 that's what Ivor shared with us. 00:40 And it was good, it was great, 00:42 I think it's going to be important for us 00:44 though to go through that again. 00:45 I just want us to get a fuller picture 00:49 of the symbolism of the sanctuary. 00:50 And the reason why is because the symbolism 00:53 of the sanctuary is really an outline 00:55 of the plan of salvation. 00:57 The program that we're doing is called Salvation 01:00 in Symbols and Signs. 01:02 And one of the greatest symbols in the Bible of the plan 01:06 of salvation is found in the sanctuary. 01:08 The whole sanctuary service was 01:09 all about the plan of salvation, 01:11 and that's why it's incorporated 01:13 in the Book of Revelation, 01:14 because the Book of Revelation 01:15 is all about the plan of salvation. 01:17 And so, if you only understood the symbolism of the sanctuary 01:21 in the Book of Revelation, 01:22 you didn't understand the beast, 01:24 you didn't understand the dragon, 01:25 you don't understanding anything, 01:26 just the symbolism of the sanctuary, 01:28 you could find the plan of salvation 01:29 laid out perfectly. 01:31 And not only the plan of salvation 01:32 but its historical demarcations 01:34 where it lay, how it plays out in history, 01:37 all the way down on second coming of Jesus, 01:39 just in the symbolism of the sanctuary. 01:41 When I think about, again, 01:44 the fact that this is by divine design. 01:47 It's so amazing to me that God has implanted in this book, 01:53 you know, and throughout the word 01:55 we have elements of the sanctuary 01:57 in different places, so it to me, 02:00 God is just, He is so incredible, 02:02 the way He has given us the plan of salvation. 02:05 Thy way, O Lord, is in the sanctuary. 02:07 So we can see His way through the sanctuary, 02:12 and now you're telling us that 02:15 the sanctuary symbolism is here in Revelation. 02:18 Amen. Absolutely. 02:19 Jason, have a word of prayer for us and let's dive in. 02:22 All right. 02:23 Dear Heavenly Father, we want to thank You 02:24 for blessing us with the opportunity 02:26 to even be able to read Your word, 02:30 and we ask that as we study and unpack Revelation 02:33 that You will be with us 02:34 and guide us and tell all truth. 02:36 In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 02:38 Amen. Amen. 02:39 Ivor, pick up where you left off. 02:40 Get us back on track here, 02:42 we want to get into the sanctuary symbolism. 02:44 Right, so as we've looked 02:47 at the Book of Revelation previously, 02:50 we've seen Revelation broken down 02:51 into various sections. 02:54 If we were to juice that, okay, 02:57 Revelation would be broken down really into two sections, 03:00 Revelation 1 to 11, 03:02 right that covers the seven churches, 03:05 seven seals and the seven trumpets. 03:08 And then from Revelation 12, 03:10 what you call the seven salvation signs 03:14 from Revelation 12 on to the end of the book. 03:18 So what we have there is a picture of the sanctuary 03:23 in the first half of the book 03:26 pointing to the candlesticks, the altar of incense 03:31 and the table of showbread, and we'll show that 03:33 in little bit more detail later on. 03:35 And then the last half dealing with those seven signs, 03:38 so how does the sanctuary in the Old Testament 03:43 help us to understand 03:44 what these two halves of the book are about. 03:49 So let's go back again and we'll recap, 03:51 just we're refreshing now with the sanctuary. 03:53 Good. 03:54 And we saw that in the outer court, 03:55 there was the altar of sacrifice, 03:58 and there was the laver. 03:59 The altar of sacrifice is how God forgives 04:02 and that points to the cross. 04:04 The lamb is taken to this altar and sacrificed with the sins. 04:07 The lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 04:10 Revelation 13. 04:11 And then the laver shows us how God purifies. 04:17 Okay, so if you were to take the New Testament as a whole, 04:22 okay. 04:23 And understand that Revelation 04:24 is the last part of the New Testament. 04:26 What we discovered 04:27 is that the entire New Testament 04:29 is actually written 04:31 on the pattern of the sanctuary. 04:34 So... The whole New Testament. 04:35 The entire New Testament, 04:37 so think about it, Matthew, Mark, 04:39 Luke, and John. 04:40 What article of furniture do they point us to? 04:42 They point us to the altar of sacrifice... 04:45 Okay. 04:46 Because those four books... 04:47 The lamb, the lamb, slain, slain, slain, right? 04:50 So those are the first four books. 04:52 The next article of furniture, so by the way 04:55 those four books teach us the lesson 04:57 of how God forgives, okay? 05:01 The next article of furniture we saw was the laver, 05:04 how God purifies. 05:06 Well guess, well both comes 05:07 after Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 05:09 You've got the Acts of the Apostles, right? 05:11 And there you have the baptism of the early church, 05:14 and everything from there on, from the Book of Acts 05:18 all the way to Jude is the process 05:20 whereby God cleanses us. 05:22 This is what it means to live a cleansed, 05:26 purified life, okay. 05:28 So it's like gospel instruction. 05:31 Now, remember when we get to the holy place, 05:35 there are three articles of furniture. 05:36 Okay, there is the seven branched candlestick, 05:39 the altar, the table of showbread 05:41 and the altar of incense. 05:43 Well guess what Revelation Chapter 1 introduces us to? 05:47 The seven branched candlesticks. 05:49 Yes, Christ is standing in the midst of it. 05:51 Christ standing in the midst of these seven candlesticks. 05:53 So, whoa, if I'm seeing the pattern then I can expect, 05:58 with the seven churches are unfolding, 06:00 and he actually says the seven candles 06:02 which you saw are the seven churches. 06:05 Okay, well, I'm making a connection here 06:07 between the seven branched candlestick 06:09 of the Old Testament sanctuary 06:11 and the message to the seven churches. 06:14 The very next in Revelation Chapter 4 and 5, 06:17 you have a scene of the table of showbread. 06:21 And we're gonna get into more detail 06:23 about that a little bit later, 06:24 but what you see there is the table of showbread, 06:27 that throne, that is where Jesus is standing, 06:33 we're going to find represents the table of showbread. 06:36 Underneath that table, 06:37 you have the unfolding of the seven seals. 06:42 By the way, it's under the seven seals 06:45 that you have the mentioning of the 1,44,000. 06:50 or 144 is 12 times 12, 06:54 what's on the table of showbread, 06:56 12 loaves of breads. 06:58 So understanding the 1,44,000 07:05 will have a lot to do with our understanding 07:07 of the table of showbread, under which it unfolds. 07:10 So what does the table of showbread represent again? 07:13 So the table of showbread represents the word of God. 07:15 Man shouldn't live by bread alone. 07:17 But it also represents the people of God. 07:18 Remember we talked about 12, 07:20 how in the Old Testament, God's people, right? 07:23 So, you know, give us to stay our daily bread. 07:26 The bread was what Ivor is saying is that 07:28 the bread on the table of showbread was stack 07:30 into two stacks of six, 07:33 which is another interesting point 07:34 because we have 66 books in the Bible. 07:37 So if the bread represents the word of God, 07:39 and there is two stacks of six, six, six. 07:41 And 12, they are representing God's people. 07:43 So it's really the symbolism is, 07:45 it can go on and on and on, it's rich. 07:48 It's beautiful, and that's why 07:49 when you study the Book of Revelation, 07:50 it's like, oh, that's a new thought, 07:52 that's a new thought. 07:53 Oh, 30 years later, oh, that's a new thought. 07:55 Oh, yeah, yeah. 07:56 It keeps unfolding. 07:57 For eternity we are going to be studying these things. 07:59 And this is why I believe it's so important for us 08:01 to study the Bible with the focus 08:05 as Jason brought out on the love story, 08:08 on the lamb, on the plan of salvation. 08:11 Then the villains in the Book of Revelation get, 08:15 have their proper perspective. 08:17 They are second. 08:18 Jesus is first, they are second. 08:20 Our next meet we're going to Jesus first, 08:22 they become secondary, and they don't loom up, 08:25 you know, there is a hymn and the words go like this. 08:29 "Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go." 08:32 Anywhere? 08:34 Anywhere, fear I cannot know. 08:36 Now, some people say, 08:38 "You know why does God bring out 08:39 all these fearful characters in the Book of Revelation. 08:41 We talked about that earlier, because He wants to prepare us 08:43 for what's around the corner. 08:45 But first He brings us Jesus, 08:46 because anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. 08:49 And so, by the time we get to Revelation 14, 08:53 which is right in the climax of the controversy. 08:55 We have a people who follow the Lamb 08:58 wherever He goes. 09:00 And that's how we get past the beast and the dragon 09:03 and the mark and the image, 09:04 by following the Lamb wherever He goes. 09:06 And they are safe because of Him. 09:08 Yes, in Daniel, you think 09:10 the same picture is delivered to us. 09:12 And the picture is then Michael shall stand up, 09:14 that great prince would stand for the children of thy people, 09:17 and they shall be delivered everyone 09:19 that's written in the book. 09:21 In Revelation 13 it's, everyone's going to worship 09:23 the beast except those who are written in the book, 09:26 so the connection there is similar. 09:28 So what you have here, you know, 09:30 we just saw the seven churches, 09:32 the seven seals unfolding at the table of showbread 09:35 and then the seven trumpets 09:37 unfold under the altar of incense. 09:39 That's Revelation 8 and 9. 09:40 Okay, Revelation 8 actually feud to Revelation 11. 09:44 So those three articles of furniture 09:47 we saw earlier was how God sustains His people. 09:51 I thought I've been forgiven and cleansed. 09:52 How does God sustain me? 09:54 By His word, through intercession, 09:56 and through His light, right. 09:58 Let your light shine, 09:59 study your word everyday, pray everyday. 10:01 That's how we are sustained. 10:03 So guess what? What does that tell us? 10:05 The seven churches, the seven seals, 10:07 and the seven trumpets is a Revelation 10:10 of how Christ sustains His church throughout the ages. 10:17 See, now, here's the interesting thing, 10:20 'cause when we get to the most holy place, 10:22 this is where we see, this is how God eradicate sin 10:27 and sinners, un-repenting sinners. 10:30 While turning your Bible to Revelation 11:19. 10:32 Remember we talked about the two divisions of the book, 10:35 you have one, Revelation 1-11 10:38 and then Revelation 12-22, right? 10:40 In Revelation 11:19, 10:45 we are introduced to the most holy place. 10:48 It says, "And the temple of God was opened in heaven, 10:51 and there was seen in his temple 10:53 the ark of his testament." 10:54 So Revelation 11:19 moves us from holy place imagery 11:01 to a most holy place context. 11:04 And so now... 11:05 In the context of sanctuary symbolism? 11:07 In the context of sanctuary symbolism. 11:08 And so we know that everything from Revelation 12 onward 11:12 is how God is going to finally eradicate the sin problem. 11:16 Yes, because that's what happened 11:18 at the earthly sanctuary, 11:19 so in the earthly sanctuary, everyday there was a sacrifice, 11:22 there was this laver 11:24 where the priest would cleanse themselves 11:25 and go into the holy place. 11:27 And everyday there was an offering 11:28 that was brought into the holy place 11:29 in the morning and the evening, 11:31 a sacrifice is made and offering was made 11:32 and there was a ministry that went, 11:34 took place in the holy place 11:36 for the whole camp for God's people, 11:38 but once a year there was a final atonement 11:40 that took place in the most holy place. 11:43 And that was a symbol, that was a representation 11:45 of what I was saying here of the final cleansing 11:47 of the year for sin and sinners. 11:49 And that's what we see 11:50 in the final half of the book of Revelation. 11:52 That's why the final half of book of Revelation, 11:54 so full of judgments and final seven last place, 11:57 and all those finality. 11:58 Is that then the sanctification pieced? 12:01 The sanctification piece is taking place 12:03 in holy place, but... 12:04 Within the holy place, not the most holy place. 12:07 You could break it down this way. 12:08 Actually, it's a good question. 12:09 If you look at the sanctuary imagery, 12:11 there are three places in the sanctuary images, 12:14 it's the court yard, the holy place 12:16 and the most holy place. 12:17 If you look at the Christian experience, 12:19 there are three stages in our experience. 12:21 There is justification, which is forgiveness of sins. 12:24 That will correlate with the court yard, 12:26 we're forgiven by the blood, then sacrifice is made. 12:30 Then there's sanctification, 12:31 which is where we are empowered to overcome sin. 12:34 How He preserves us. 12:36 That takes place through the word, 12:37 through prayer, through incision, 12:38 through witnessing. 12:40 Then there is glorification, 12:42 when we are finally changed and perfected, 12:44 made perfect in His image. 12:46 And that is the most holy place. 12:47 And so, you could say that Revelation 12 onward 12:50 is the process of glorification. 12:52 Yes. 12:53 Preparing for that glorification, 12:54 'cause for the final glorification, 12:56 which Revelation 12 and onward 12:57 really highlights is going to take place 12:59 at the second coming of Jesus. 13:01 Now, James, I was going to say, 13:02 what happens at the end of the Day of Atonement? 13:05 What did the priest, the high priest do? 13:09 He laid his hands on the head of a scapegoat. 13:13 And a scapegoat was sent out into a desolate place. 13:16 Well, guess what happens in Revelation Chapter 20? 13:19 An angel descends, and the Bible says 13:22 he laid hold on the dragon, 13:24 but if you look at the term laid hold on 13:26 and check it out in your concordance, 13:28 it actually means laid hands on. 13:31 So right there at the end of the process 13:34 of the scenery in the most holy place, 13:38 you have this being descending and laying hands on the dragon 13:43 almost as if sins are being transferred. 13:47 And that dragon is being sent out into a desolate place. 13:52 And so what you have here is that 13:54 entire Book of Revelation, 13:56 go through the process of holy, most holy, 13:59 ending with the feast of tabernacles behold. 14:02 The tabernacle of God is with men. 14:05 That's exactly how the Jewish year went. 14:08 And so looking at that example, we can see here is the pattern 14:13 and the Book of Revelation follows that pattern clear. 14:15 Wow, do you know I have heard some people say, 14:19 it's sacrilegious to say 14:21 that the sins were laid on the scapegoat. 14:25 And the scapegoat represents Satan, 14:27 but supposed to be that our sins were laid on Christ. 14:30 How would you answer that? 14:32 The best answer to that question is found 14:35 when you look at a verse in Hebrews Chapter 9. 14:38 And now Hebrews is all about sanctuary imagery. 14:41 So you want to understand the sanctuary 14:42 from a New Testament perspective, 14:44 you got to be in the Book of Hebrews. 14:47 And as Paul is going through here, 14:49 in Hebrews 9:22, 14:51 he explains something very significant 14:54 about the sanctuary service of the Old Testament 14:58 for the New Testament believer. 15:00 Hebrews 9:22, you want to read that verse for us? 15:04 "And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, 15:07 and without shedding of blood is no remission." 15:10 Okay, the scapegoat did not shed blood. 15:15 Scapegoat is no blood as you can see. 15:17 Now see, I hadn't heard that. That's the key right there. 15:20 It is the blood of Christ that cleanses us from all sin. 15:23 The scapegoat specifically, it was not slain. 15:27 It bore the weight of guilt, responsibility for, 15:30 that's why it is a outline, 15:33 a symbol representation of Satan, 15:35 Because he is the one who is ultimately responsible. 15:37 But Jesus took our guilt upon Him 15:39 and shed His blood, He died for us. 15:42 Just like that lamb's throat was cut, he died for us. 15:45 And that bled shed brought remission, 15:46 but Satan's, the guilt that he bears 15:49 doesn't bring any remission, he is no savior. 15:50 So the actual laying on of hand's then is, 15:53 it's not with the expectation 15:57 that our sin is taken away by the scapegoat. 15:59 It's the responsibility. 16:01 Yes, here is the difference, 16:02 when the hands of the sinner was laid on the lamb 16:05 in the court yard, the lamb was then slain. 16:08 Right. 16:09 His throat was cut, his blood was spilled 16:11 and the blood itself was taken in the sanctuary 16:13 to atone for sin. 16:14 When Satan has the hands laid on, 16:16 when the scapegoat has the hands laid upon him, 16:17 symbolically representing Satan. 16:19 He is not slain, and he is not taken 16:21 into the sanctuary, nothing is taken 16:22 into the sanctuary, he is led out 16:24 into the wilderness to die. 16:25 That's good. 16:27 It's your fault, you've been irresponsible. 16:28 Yes, that's rich, good, thank you. 16:30 I think that could answer a quite 16:33 'cause that is the question... 16:34 Key difference between the two, 16:36 and there is no remission of sin without that, 16:37 so, no matter what you say about that scapegoat, 16:40 it doesn't remit sins, or it's not a savior. 16:42 Right, well, that's good. 16:44 I remember in Leviticus, Psalm 16, 16:46 it actually says, one goat was the Lord's goat, 16:50 and the other the scapegoat. 16:52 So the question is, if these, 16:54 both these goats belong to the Lord, 16:55 why would one be called the Lord's goat. 16:57 Yeah. Oh, that's good. 16:58 You know, it's obvious that if one is for the Lord, 17:03 then the other which is called something else 17:05 must not be for the Lord. 17:08 Good point. 17:10 And the process of that 17:12 whole process of cleansing is super important. 17:15 And I like to kind of explain it like this, 17:17 'cause we go through this process 17:19 like everyday in our houses, you know, 17:21 when you, everyday you clean your house 17:25 and you put the garbage at the side of the house. 17:28 You're free from the garbage in a sense, 17:31 but you know you've got, the garbage is still with you. 17:34 On one day of the week, the day... 17:37 Come on. Come on. Come on. 17:40 You will get that garbage shed out... 17:42 You know, the garbage one is out to the front. 17:44 Guess what? 17:46 You're going to be stuck with that garbage, right? 17:48 So that's the process, 17:49 the divine garbage truck, right, 17:53 comes on that special day and takes that garbage where, 17:57 out to a desolate place. 17:59 This is exactly... 18:01 To the dump... To the dump. 18:02 Oh, I love that. 18:03 This is exactly what Jesus does, 18:05 He says listen, I have been collecting your sins 18:07 and yes, you are forgiven 18:08 but there is still a memory of sins. 18:10 When this process is done, 18:12 there is no remembrance of sins, right? 18:16 So that whole process again is revealed 18:19 in the Book of Revelation. 18:20 So as we begin to understand this pattern, 18:24 now we can jump in and say, okay, yeah, 18:26 this part of the Book of Revelation, 18:28 this part of the Book of Revelation, 18:29 I can see the sanctuary coming out of it, 18:31 and that just gives you a better footing 18:35 to grasp what's been discussed in the book. 18:39 Amen. Illustration. 18:40 Isn't it? Perfect. 18:42 And it's really beautiful 18:44 because again the whole sanctuary symbolism 18:47 of the Old Testament is being brought to be 18:50 right here in Revelation. 18:51 And in this transition, 18:53 now, I want you to notice something here, 18:54 it's really interesting. 18:55 In this transition point, Revelation 11:19, 18:59 you have us seen for the first time, 19:02 the most holy place which is identified here 19:04 as the "The temple of God being opened in heaven, 19:07 and the, in his temple was seen the ark of his testament." 19:13 And that is the place 19:15 where the Ten Commandments were kept. 19:17 Which is the same as the Ark of the Covenant? 19:19 Yes, the Ark of the Covenant. 19:20 Well, the testament is the covenant. 19:22 Is the covenant. Yeah. 19:23 And, so, we're looking now into the Ark of the Testament, 19:26 the Ark of the Covenant in the most holy place 19:28 and we are looking at the Ten Commandments. 19:29 We are transitioning now to the final phase 19:32 of salvation history. 19:34 Before Revelation 11:19, 19:37 Revelation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19:42 never is the commandments of God mentioned. 19:46 They are not there. 19:48 As soon as we get to the most holy place, 19:52 as soon as we move into the most holy place, 19:55 we see the Ark of the Testament, 19:56 now all the sudden we have a people 19:58 who keep the commandments of God. 20:00 Oh, come on now. 20:01 What are they doing? 20:02 They are stepping into this final phase, 20:04 this glorification phase, this final phase, 20:06 this mystery of God is going to be finished, 20:08 they step and this took place in our history, 20:10 this took place post 1844. 20:12 So I sense you could say, that most, 20:15 the majority of the prophecies 20:17 of the first half of the book are pre 1844. 20:21 And the prophecies that we're going to be looking at 20:23 by far the large part of these prophesies 20:25 'cause each one of them touches on like 20:27 all of the churches and seals and trumpets, 20:29 touches on the second coming of Christ. 20:31 And even Revelation 12 and 13, 20:33 looks back at the history that has already. 20:36 But the point of looking back is to take us forward, 20:39 and the point of all this history is 20:41 to move us to the second coming. 20:42 But the primary emphasis of these prophecies 20:45 in Revelation 12 and onward is going to be post 1844. 20:49 And it's going to be point to a people 20:51 who will keep the commandments of God, 20:52 who keep the commandments of God, 20:53 who keep the commandments of God, 20:55 and the faith of Jesus, and the faith of Jesus. 20:56 So this is how the sanctuary tells us 20:59 where we are in history. 21:00 Historically, that's why historically 21:03 you can't apply the trumpets and the seals 21:05 in the churches post 1844. 21:09 You can't, because the sanctuary symbolism 21:11 tells us it's pre 1844. 21:12 The sanctuary symbolism actually identifies 21:15 these symbols as the holy place time, 21:17 and the holy place time is pre 1844. 21:19 Absolutely, in other words the holy place events 21:21 don't occur after the Day of Atonement. 21:23 Right they occur before the Day of Atonement. 21:26 So the first part of the sanctuary service, 21:30 a holy place, the last part most holy place. 21:33 So seeing that these trumpets, seals 21:36 and our churches unfold under candlestick, 21:41 altar of incense, table of showbread. 21:43 You now know, okay, yeah, 21:45 I can't take the seven churches and say that's future, 21:48 how do I know that? Because that would destroy 21:50 the sanctuary symbolism. 21:53 Because it's in order, 21:55 It's in order. 21:56 There is a divine pattern. 21:57 This is... This is, isn't it rich, Jay? 22:00 That's what I say. 22:02 Yeah, I have to study, study, study. 22:05 That is so rich. 22:07 I want to reemphasize that, we talked about checking our, 22:11 like math problem, you check it. 22:12 Well, God has even given us the feast days 22:15 to show us the same thing, okay. 22:17 So the first four feast days Passover, unleavened bread, 22:21 first fruits, all point to the sacrifice of Christ. 22:24 Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 22:25 What's the next feast? Pentecost. 22:29 That's the Book of Acts, right? 22:31 The next feast is the trumpets 22:33 which are a warning of coming judgment. 22:36 So we can say from Romans all the way into Revelation, 22:40 all the way up to Revelation Chapter 11 22:43 are all warnings of judgment is coming, judgment is coming. 22:45 Then Revelation 11:19, Day of Atonement. 22:50 So from Revelation 11:19, 22:51 the final feast, Day of Atonement, 22:53 all the way to Revelation 20 22:55 and then guess what Revelation 21 and 22 end with? 22:57 The Feast of Tabernacles. 22:59 God is gonna tabernacle, 23:00 my tabernacle would be with them. 23:02 And I would be with them. 23:03 I would dwell with them. 23:04 Absolutely, so understanding these, 23:06 you know, we think about, 23:08 I'm just going to jump to Book of Revelation, 23:09 but really it's an understanding 23:11 of the sanctuary patterns and those things, 23:15 you know, think of Revelation as the rooftop 23:17 and the Old Testament as the foundation. 23:20 If you get the foundation right, 23:22 then the rooftop is going to be straight, 23:25 secure, but a lot of people jump into Revelation 23:28 without securing the foundation. 23:32 And so, you got all kinds of things coming out the roof 23:34 and there is no rhythm, rhyme or pattern. 23:38 Yeah, yeah, wow! 23:39 It really helps because what we're doing now is 23:42 we're setting the foundation that allows us 23:44 to be pretty sure in the way 23:47 that we interpret these symbols. 23:49 And that's what's important, is under... 23:52 I mean when I first read Revelation's trumpets, 23:54 so I'm reading Revelation trumpets, 23:55 I'm going through here in Revelation Chapter 9, 23:58 I know we are jumping around a little bit here, 23:59 but this is a good analogy. 24:01 And I come to Revelation Chapter 9, 24:03 and I read in verse 4, 24:05 "And it was commanded them that they should not hurt 24:07 the grass of the earth, 24:09 neither the green thing, neither any tree, 24:11 but only those men which have not the seal of God 24:13 in their foreheads." 24:15 Now as a new believer, 24:16 I have been studying about the seal of God 24:18 and that's an end time thing. 24:19 By the way, there are aspects of the church's seals 24:22 and trumpets which were all end time 24:24 because they take us down through history, 24:25 so the last church, 24:27 the last seal, the last trumpet, 24:29 those are all end time, you understand. 24:31 Okay, so I read this and I'm thinking, 24:34 the seal of God, Revelation 9, 24:36 this must be post 1844, 24:38 this is the seal of God, you see. 24:40 And for long time I thought futurist 24:42 because these trumpets must be all future 24:44 because this is the seal of God and that's an end time thing. 24:46 Then I read in Revelation Chapter 9 24:49 and now notice this in Revelation 9, 24:51 this is the next world, that was the first world, 24:53 this is the second world and it says verse 13. 24:56 Jason, would you read that verse for us, Revelation 9:13? 24:58 9:13. 25:00 "And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice 25:02 from the four horns of the golden altar 25:05 which is before God." 25:06 The four horns of the golden altar, 25:08 you know what altar that is? 25:09 That's the altar of incense. That's in the holy place. 25:12 So it's not the... 25:14 It's not, you got it, you got it. 25:16 Just from the sanctuary symbolism, 25:18 we have just identified the fact 25:19 that whatever is taking place in here is still holy place, 25:22 that's still pre 1844 right there. 25:25 So then I had to go back and I had to say, 25:26 well, was the seal of God ever talked about 25:29 other than in the end of time, and I realized it is. 25:32 In Ephesians Chapter 1 and Ephesians Chapter 4, 25:34 it talks about God's people being sealed 25:36 with the seal of God in earnest of the Holy Spirit. 25:38 In other words, the seal of God isn't just an end time idea. 25:42 It's funny because, you know, we as Bible students, 25:45 one of the things we often quote is, 25:47 Isaiah 8:16 25:49 "Seal the law among my disciples." 25:52 And that was way back in the Old Testament. 25:54 Yeah. Yeah. 25:55 You know, so what we have to see 25:57 is that there are patterns to how, 26:00 there are laws that govern how we interpret. 26:04 We don't just say, okay, 26:06 I think this should mean this, 26:07 no we got to figure out the laws 26:09 and then let everything we interpret 26:11 fall into the laws. 26:13 If it doesn't fall into the laws, 26:14 we have to push it out because these laws are, 26:18 you know, they are what governing 26:19 our interpretation, not the other way around. 26:22 So one of those laws, or one of those principles 26:24 that we just talked about is the sanctuary symbolism. 26:26 Does where we put this fit 26:28 and meet the sanctuary symbolism? 26:30 Another law of principle is repeat and enlarged. 26:34 In other words, is the way we are interpreting this, 26:36 fitting into the repeat and enlarge sequence? 26:39 Another law of principle that we're looking at 26:41 is Christ, the plan of salvation. 26:45 Does this fit the plan of salvation, 26:47 the outline of the plan of salvation 26:48 that we've seen in the Bible, the message 26:50 that's communicated in the Bible? 26:51 And as we start identifying, we can call them laws 26:54 and principles of interpretation, 26:56 it's really going to help us 26:57 to understand the Book of Revelation. 27:00 It's going to be able to help us to piece in together 27:01 point by point and see where things fit 27:04 and keep us from the error that comes in 27:07 when we just, we don't have any of that foundation, 27:08 we are not sure what to do 27:10 you know, because, whoa, this could mean this, 27:12 that could mean this, it could fit here, 27:13 it could fit there. 27:14 And God in His wisdom 27:16 has put the Book of Revelation together in this way 27:19 so that if we will take the time 27:20 to understand these principles, it will all come together. 27:24 It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, 27:26 you like doing the jigsaw puzzle? 27:27 No. No? 27:30 It is a challenge. 27:31 I hate to say over though, I know, I know. 27:33 Well, we will talk a little bit about that. 27:35 I love the illustration of jigsaw puzzle. 27:37 Now, we've run out of time right now, 27:39 but we'll talk a little bit about the jigsaw puzzle 27:41 and how that works in relation or illustrates 27:43 that the way we study Revelation, 27:45 the way we study prophecy in our next session. 27:47 Well, let's just close with a word of prayer. 27:49 Jason, would you pray with us? Sure. 27:51 Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You for being with us, 27:53 as we've been discussing Revelation. 27:57 Please be with the people that are watching this program 28:00 and help them to get a better understanding as well. 28:06 Please be with us and help us 28:08 to retain this information, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. 28:11 Amen. 28:12 Amen. Amen. |
Revised 2016-07-11