Participants: Ivor Meyers (Host), James Rafferty (Host), Jason Bradley, Yvonne Lewis
Series Code: SISS
Program Code: SISS000011A
|
00:31 Well, it's good to be back in the Book of Revelation,
00:34 we have moved through four of the seven churches, 00:37 we have moved from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos to Thyatira 00:43 and now we're getting ready to jump into Sardis, 00:46 so we've made... we've made a lot of progress 00:49 in... in the Book of Revelation 00:51 in the last... oh... few sessions together 00:54 but we still want to make sure that we're not running too fast, 00:59 we want to make sure that we are allowing... 01:02 what did Joseph say... or Jacob say? 01:04 "The women and the children... " you know... "to keep up with us" 01:10 in other words, we consider ourselves... 01:12 Ivor and I were talking last night... we're just like, 01:14 "Oh, we could be in Revelation 21 by now... 01:16 wrrrrrrr... wrrr... wrrr... wrrr... wrrr... " 01:18 Jason: Hey, what are you trying to say? 01:19 Yvonne: I know... I know... 01:21 James: Because we just... we know all the stuff... 01:24 we've gone over all this stuff... 01:25 and that's why I'm just so thankful that you guys are here 01:27 because... we could just be talking 01:29 right over top of people's heads... 01:31 and just be gone... and you're helping us to 01:35 make it clear, to go slowly, to rehash, to recap 01:39 so that it's something that anyone watching 01:43 can get a hold of it and say, 01:44 "Wow, yeah I see that... okay... that makes sense... 01:46 and so you're helping... " 01:48 Jason: Way to clean it up... 01:49 laughter... James: Good take huh... 01:51 Yvonne: And dummy it down... James: You're helping... 01:54 Ivor: We should add in that part of the reason 01:57 why we're going through the seven churches 01:59 so slowly is because if you understand the seven churches 02:05 you have everything you need 02:07 to understand the rest of the Book of Revelation 02:11 and so the seven churches are the foundation, right? 02:15 Everything after that is just laid over the foundation 02:18 so if you can get the seven churches 02:20 and understand the history of the seven churches, 02:23 everything else after that is just more detail... 02:26 James: It's all in your pocket, it's all in your pocket. 02:29 Ivor: Yeah, it's nothing new... just more detail... 02:30 Yvonne: So it's repeat and enlarge... 02:32 Ivor: It's "Repeat and enlarge" 02:33 absolutely... absolutely... 02:35 James: Ivor, pray for us and we'll get started. 02:37 Ivor: Let's pray... "Heavenly Father, 02:38 we want to ask that as we open your Word again 02:41 that you would continue to give us understanding, 02:43 continue to open our eyes 02:46 and Father, may we see Christ and Him lifted up... 02:49 in all these Scriptures, may we become like you 02:53 because ultimately you've given us this book 02:56 that we may receive the revelation of Jesus Christ 02:58 in ourselves that we might become like Christ 03:01 and so, bless us as we open your Word 03:04 is our prayer in Jesus' name amen. " 03:06 All: "Amen... " 03:08 James: All right... pop quiz... 03:09 Yvonne: Oh no... 03:10 James: Let's go back to the first church 03:13 and just tell us what you've learned so far 03:16 and Ivor and I can fill in more details if we want to 03:18 but just tell us... let's progress from there to fore 03:21 and you recap for all of us what we've learned. 03:24 Jason: Okay, so, starting with Ephesus... 03:27 they lost their first love 03:29 so, I remember that part... they lost their first love... 03:33 Smyrna... which means bitter sweet, is it myrrh? 03:39 James: Hmmm... hmmm... Jason: bitter sweet... myrrh... 03:41 Smyrna and Philadelphia... 03:43 they were the only two 03:46 that didn't have anything that was "negative" 03:48 said about them, 03:50 Pergamos... is that when the compromise started? 03:59 That's when the compromise began... 04:00 and then Thyatira... was when Jezebel... the false... 04:08 the "prophetess" came about and was teaching false doctrines 04:13 and also we learned that persecution purifies the church 04:18 and Smyrna was under heavy persecution. 04:22 James: Hmmm... hmmm... all right Yvonne, 04:24 add to it... what else you've got? 04:26 Yvonne: Okay... well... with Ephesus... 04:29 Ephesus... I love the way Jesus dealt with Ephesus... 04:34 saying, "I know your works... I know this... I know that... " 04:38 he's saying, "I see what you've done 04:41 but I have somewhat... 04:46 not against you... " how did He put it? 04:48 James: No, He says, "against you" 04:49 Yvonne: oh! "somewhat against you... " 04:51 James: Yeah... 04:53 Yvonne: "you've lost your first love" 04:54 so He doesn't just say, 04:56 "Bam, you've lost your first love" 04:58 I love the way... again... this is a romantic book, 05:03 this is what appeals to me that Jesus is not... 05:07 is not just criticizing... 05:10 He is trying to bring them to another level, 05:12 and He's saying, "I see what you've done... " 05:15 James: accentuates the positive... 05:17 Yvonne: Yes... yes... and one of the things that... 05:21 that I've read is that... when you're dealing with people, 05:24 you give like a... what's called the "criticism sandwich" right? 05:28 So, you start with the good part... 05:30 then in the middle... you hit them with the issue... 05:33 and then at the end... you close on the positive 05:36 and what Jesus did was He gave them, like, 05:40 "I know... I see your works... but you've lost your first love" 05:44 so He's loving and kind... even though He's disciplining... 05:48 Ivor: And then He offers a reward at the end. 05:50 Yvonne: And then He offers... criticisms... 05:52 He gives them... the positive, right? 05:55 James: Some incentives... Yvonne: Then we move to Smyrna, 05:58 and Smyrna and Pergamos were the interim churches 06:02 and when we talk about the 70 weeks and the 1,260 years 06:05 and the 2,300 days and all that... 06:07 I'm still trying to get that... those principles 06:13 and you helped yesterday to eliminate that for me, 06:18 so, Smyrna... there was heavy persecution 06:22 and Myrrh... which... 06:24 that whole Smyrna has to do with Myrrh... 06:27 Myrrh... in Chinese medicine... was used for pain... 06:30 and Frankincense and Myrrh... they were used for pain... 06:34 and so, this was... there was pain... 06:36 during this time and persecution... 06:39 and so, I got that from that 06:43 and then Pergamos... was elevated... 06:46 the church was elevated in the world 06:50 and yet... there was... that was the church where 06:56 I don't think there was any... no there were some things... 06:59 they had the doctrine of Balaam or Balaam... 07:03 and so, and they had the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes 07:09 and then when I had done some research on the Nicolaitanes 07:12 that I found out about the whole lasciviousness 07:16 that they were trying to cover up 07:18 and say that God's grace covered all that... 07:20 they could do anything that they wanted to do 07:22 and then... there was Thyatira and that was the Dark Ages... 07:27 and that was where there was so much persecution 07:31 and death and killing and so, so it's really... 07:35 to me... this is really interesting because 07:39 you can actually find a personal application 07:42 with each church, that's what I think 07:48 I mean... and again, if you're dealing with pain... 07:53 like Smyrna... Jesus is the balm... 07:56 He is the balm of Gilead so we can... 07:59 we can tie Jesus in with every period 08:02 of... of... of... with every church... 08:05 we can tie Him in and tie us in. 08:09 Ivor: Well, it's like every issue that these churches 08:13 were going through... that were having issues... 08:15 we have faced on a personal level 08:17 one way or another... 08:18 and He offers a solution to those personal issues 08:22 so, idealism... 08:24 even though there are historical applications, 08:28 there is a historical application... 08:30 we don't just leave it at history... 08:32 we are to learn from these very experiences 08:36 and realize, "Well, I'm going through that, 08:40 if I've lost my first love, then... 08:42 yeah... I need to return and here's the remedy," so... 08:46 James: Jesus Christ is saying to me personally... 08:48 and we can find ourselves in the seven churches, 08:51 now, we still have three to go, 08:52 we can find ourselves in the seven churches 08:54 and we can find what God wants for us in the seven churches 08:57 and we're going to see that very clearly 09:00 when we get into Philadelphia because Philadelphia... 09:03 even though that's not the last church... 09:05 is the goal for our Christian experience, 09:07 it's the church of brotherly love, 09:08 so we started in the church of Ephesus, 09:11 just filling in a couple of gaps here on the timeline, 09:13 so the church of Ephesus is the Apostolic Age, 09:15 All: Hmmm... hmmm... 09:16 James: Apostolic age... we're going to find 09:18 as we nail this down... this "church age" down... 09:21 Apostolic age... 09:23 then pagan Roman persecution in the Smyrna age... 09:26 and then the development of the compromise 09:30 of Pergamos and Constantine, 09:32 and in Thyatira... full compromise 09:35 under the false prophetess, Jezebel... 09:37 which is a symbol or representation 09:39 of the mixing of the church and state, 09:41 and leading people in the wrong direction 09:44 we're going to find this history then... 09:46 of the seven churches... 09:47 it's going to be the same history 09:49 that we see in the seven seals 09:50 and the same history that we see in the seven trumpets 09:53 and the same history that is recapped for us 09:56 in Revelation 12 and 13 09:57 and then boom... off we go... into end-time prophecy 10:01 so all these layers build and bring us into end-time prophecy. 10:05 Yvonne: And when you say Apostolic Age... 10:07 some might not really realize that it has to do with "Apostle" 10:11 the time of the apostles, the early church... 10:15 James: Yeah, the first church... 10:18 so, once we have the seven churches understood, 10:21 all of the other epics... what I mean by that is... 10:24 the seals and the trumpets and the last portion... 10:27 they're all in our pocket... they're all in our pocket, 10:29 we get it... so that's why... when you get to... 10:32 we talked about this... when we get to Revelation 14, 10:34 you've got the everlasting gospel 10:35 the everlasting gospel is not a new idea 10:37 in the Book of Revelation, 10:38 the everlasting gospel is all through Revelation, 10:40 it's right here, 10:41 we've been talking about the everlasting gospel, 10:43 the everlasting gospel is introducing Jesus 10:45 in Revelation 1:1, it's when Jesus says, 10:48 "I've loved you 10:50 and I've washed you from your sins in my own blood," 10:51 it's when Jesus says, 10:53 "Even though you've got major issues, I'm with you, 10:55 I'm standing among the candlesticks all seven of them, 10:58 that's the everlasting gospel 11:00 so the Book of Revelation 11:01 is saturated with the everlasting gospel, 11:03 and we're going to see it more 11:05 and more and more... not less and less, 11:07 so when we get to Revelation 14, it's like, 11:09 "Here's the summary 11:11 of everything we've been talking about 11:12 it's the everlasting gospel, 11:14 it's going to go to all the world," 11:16 what a beautiful picture. 11:17 Yvonne: Amen, it's beautiful. 11:18 James: All right, are we ready to move to the next church? 11:20 Yvonne: Yeah... yeah... 11:21 James: Okay... Sardis... 11:22 Jason, take us away with chapter 3 11:24 beginning with verse one, 11:25 and we're going to read all the way through to verse six, 11:27 one through six... chapter 3. 11:29 Jason: All right... 11:30 "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write: 11:34 These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, 11:37 and the seven stars: I know thy works, 11:42 that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 11:45 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, 11:49 that are ready to die: 11:50 for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 11:54 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, 11:58 and hold fast, and repent. 12:00 If therefore thou shalt not watch, 12:04 I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know 12:07 what hour I will come upon thee... 12:10 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis 12:12 which have not defiled their garments; 12:14 and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 12:18 He that overcometh, 12:20 the same shall be clothed in white raiment; 12:22 and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, 12:27 but I will confess his name before my Father, 12:29 and before his angels. 12:31 He that hath an ear, let him hear 12:33 what the Spirit saith unto the churches. " 12:37 James: Amen... so what we're doing now, 12:40 if we're following the sequence, the historical sequence, 12:43 is we're moving now into the time of reformation. 12:46 Now we... we closed out our last church in our last session 12:50 we closed out that last church pretty quickly 12:53 but if we go back now to these last verses 12:57 in Revelation chapter 2, it says, verse 25, 13:00 well, I'll start with verse 24, 13:02 "But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, 13:05 as many as have not this doctrine, 13:08 which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak: 13:10 I will put upon you none other burden. 13:12 But that which you have already hold fast till I come. 13:15 And he that overcometh, and keep my works unto the end, 13:18 to him I will give power over the Nations: 13:20 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; 13:22 and the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: 13:24 even as I received of my Father. 13:26 And I will give him the morning star. 13:28 He that hath an ear, 13:30 let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. " 13:32 This is referring to reformers... 13:34 this is referring to honest people 13:36 that were within the medieval church. 13:38 During the time of apostasy, there were men, 13:41 there were women who stood for the truth, 13:43 Wycliffe is understood to be the Morning Star of the Reformation 13:47 and there were many others, 13:49 we have Calvin and Luther and Huss and Jerome, 13:52 we have many of these reformers... 13:54 all of them were in the church, the church... 13:58 the Christian church then was one big colossal system, 14:01 where there was no other church, 14:04 it was just one church and they were part of this 14:06 and when they saw the truths of the Bible... 14:11 they were raised in a system where they were taught... 14:13 and I understand this because I was raised in the same system 14:15 where you understand... you're taught certain things 14:18 and you're not really aware of what the Bible teaches 14:21 and when I was 21, 14:23 I got my hands on the Bible for the first time 14:25 and began to read the Bible, 14:26 and I began to see a major difference between 14:28 the religion I was raised... 14:29 the Christian religion I was raised in 14:31 and the things I was taught to do 14:32 and what the Bible actually taught, 14:34 what the Book actually said 14:36 and so many of these people in this system 14:39 came in contact with the Bible... 14:41 Martin Luther found one chained to the pulpit, 14:43 the Bible wasn't available as much back then, 14:46 but he... and as he started reading it, 14:47 it was amazing 14:48 and he just couldn't wait to share with the church 14:50 because he knew all the Leaders... 14:51 they'd say, "Oh, yeah, that's what we need to do... " 14:53 but they didn't... and so the Reformation begins 14:56 and that what it's leading now into the church in Sardis. 14:59 Just a quick overview of the church in Sardis, 15:02 what we have is... we have Reformers 15:05 that are coming out into this light 15:08 and they're learning... they're growing... 15:09 but they're stopping... they're stopping... 15:11 their works aren't made perfect before God 15:13 they're not going further... 15:14 and if they don't go further and strengthen that which remains 15:18 and which is ready to die, it says here, 15:21 "You're not going to know what hour I'm going to come upon you" 15:23 now, God is not being arbitrary here, 15:26 basically, the Reformation has never stopped, 15:30 it's never stopped, 15:32 the Reformation from darkness had to continue on 15:34 and God could only give... 15:36 Jesus says to His disciples at one point, he said, 15:38 "I've got so many things I want to tell you 15:39 but you can't bear them all right now" 15:41 and I remember that with me... when I was coming out... 15:43 I was learning so fast 15:45 but there were things that I didn't understand 15:47 and then God says, "I can't... whoa... hold on... " 15:50 because sometimes, we want to dump... 15:51 we just want to back up to someone 15:53 and just dump the whole truck load on them, 15:55 everything... can't bear it... it's too much, 15:57 and this is what happens with the Reformation 15:59 so God is saying basically, "Keep moving forward... " 16:02 and, but they stop, many of them stopped, Luther never wanted... 16:05 Ivor: They started splintering. 16:06 James: Yes, into their little groups, 16:08 Luther... he didn't want a Lutheran Church, 16:10 he wanted them to keep going... 16:12 but they're stopping and what happens then? 16:14 If you stop... see what's... what God is leading them to 16:17 is, He's leading them to the end of the 2,300-Day Prophecy, 16:20 He's leading them to 1844, 16:22 He's leading them to the judgment, 16:23 He's leading them to a message of judgment, 16:24 that's where we're going, 16:26 "Well, I'm going to come on you on a day you're not aware" 16:28 if you... if you stop... if you are satisfied... 16:31 if your works aren't perfect and you are satisfied, 16:33 when that judgment message comes, 16:35 you're not going to be aware of it, 16:36 you're going to turn against it 16:37 and that's what a lot of these churches did, 16:39 God's people had to come out of them eventually 16:41 because... when the judgment came... 16:43 and then He says, He promises... 16:45 He says now, "If you overcome... 16:46 you're going to be clothed with white robes... " 16:48 that's judgment talk... 16:50 and your name is not going to be blotted out the Book... 16:52 that's judgment talk. 16:54 Ivor: So, what you can see here is... 16:55 remember where we are in this period, 16:57 remember, time and location, right? 16:59 time... 1,260... location... Holy Place... 17:04 you're seeing language now being introduced, 17:08 that's pointing us forward 17:10 to the next of the three time prophecies 17:13 the 2,300 days... 17:15 you see, so now we know that the 2,300 days are coming up, 17:19 after the fifth church, 17:20 we should be looking for events to occur, 17:23 that will involve 1844, right, and the Most Holy Place 17:29 because we're being introduced to language... 17:32 now I'm looking forward to that and saying, 17:35 "All right... since we're in the 1,260, 17:38 I know that indicators must be coming up 17:41 that are going to point me to the 2,300." 17:42 Yvonne: Hmmm... 17:44 Ivor: So that's why we say that these three time markers 17:47 are crucial to understanding, they're the... you know... 17:50 when you washed clothes back in the old days, 17:52 you would hang them on the clothesline, 17:55 the time prophecies are the clothesline, 17:58 and everything in the Book of Revelation 18:01 hangs within the context of one of those three time prophecies. 18:06 Yvonne: Hmmm... hmmm... it's good... 18:09 James: So the language we have here about "coming as a thief" 18:12 about the white robe, 18:15 about not being blotted out of the book... 18:17 are all pointing forward to... to judgment, 18:20 strengthening those things which remain which are ready to die, 18:23 Yvonne: Yeah, look at verse one, 18:26 "These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God... " 18:32 what are the "seven Spirits of God?" 18:35 Why is it seven Spirits as opposed to the... 18:39 just saying "the Holy Spirit of God?" 18:41 What are the seven Spirits? 18:43 Well, one of the things that we can look at here 18:46 is Isaiah chapter 11... 18:47 Yvonne: Okay... 18:49 James: Isaiah chapter 11 points this out also... 18:50 it's a prophecy... the whole chapter can be divided in half, 18:55 the first half is a prophecy of Christ... Isaiah chapter 11... 19:00 and the second half is a prophecy that would apply to us 19:06 in the end of time to... what we call "the loud cry" 19:09 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the end of time 19:12 and the reason why we can turn to Isaiah 11 is because 19:15 this chapter is going to help us 19:17 as we move into the next section of Revelation seals 19:20 because there's a reference to this again in the seals, 19:23 in Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1, 19:27 "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, 19:30 and a Branch... " 19:32 now does your Bible have a capital "B" for the Branch? 19:35 Yvonne: Yes... James: Okay, because that's 19:36 referring to Jesus... " a Branch shall grow out of his roots," 19:40 now, Jesse was the father of...? 19:43 Yvonne: David... 19:45 okay... so the "Branch" that comes out of this root of Jesse, 19:52 the root of Jesse... is referring to David... 19:55 it's coming out... but really it's referring to Christ 19:58 because Christ is the root of David... 20:01 the bright and Morning Star, okay, so... 20:05 the "Branch" that's coming out here is referring to Christ 20:08 and that goes on in verse 2 20:10 to describe what would be Christ's experience, 20:13 it says, "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him... " 20:16 okay, that's number one, "the spirit of God," 20:18 "the spirit of wisdom" two... 20:21 "spirit of understanding" three... 20:22 "of counsel" four... "of might" five... 20:24 "the spirit of knowledge" six... 20:25 and "of the fear of the Lord" seven... 20:27 what it's talking about here is that the seven-fold spirit 20:33 is simply the complete spirit of God, 20:36 the complete spirit of God, 20:37 now Isaiah picks it up and breaks it down... 20:40 the spirit of knowledge, the spirit of understanding, 20:43 the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, 20:46 he breaks it down and he says... 20:47 "But really, it's just the full-fold Spirit of God 20:52 is going to rest upon Jesus... " 20:53 He was filled with the Holy Spirit, okay, so, 20:57 He is the one that's being referred to 20:59 in Sardis, it says here... 21:01 "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; 21:03 these things saith he that has the seven Spirits of God... " 21:06 well, who is that? That's Jesus... 21:07 Yvonne: Hmmm... James: that's the Branch... 21:09 He's got the seven Spirits of God, 21:11 He's got the completeness... He's filled with the complete 21:14 fullness of God's Spirit. 21:16 Yvonne: "In Him was the fullness of the Godhead... " 21:20 James: Yes... yes... 21:21 now you know, we have the Spirit of God, 21:23 Peter had the Spirit of God 21:25 when Peter said to Jesus when he asked, 21:29 "Who do men say that I am?" 21:31 Peter said, "They say... " 21:32 Jesus said, "Well, who do you say I am?" 21:35 Peter said, "You're the Messiah" 21:36 and Jesus said, "Oh, flesh and blood hasn't taught that to you 21:39 but the Holy Spirit has been teaching that to you" 21:41 and then a few verses later Jesus says, 21:43 "I have to go to the cross and Gethsemane... " 21:47 and Peter says, "No, far be it from you Lord" 21:49 and Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan... " 21:51 so we have the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God teaches us... 21:55 we have the Spirit of God that teaches us knowledge... 21:57 but we also have some issues... 21:59 we have some issues... but Jesus doesn't have any issues... 22:02 see, He's got the... in fact... in the context of this verse... 22:06 it says, verse 3, 22:08 "And shall make him of quick understanding 22:10 in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge 22:12 after the sight of his eyes, 22:13 neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 22:15 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor... " 22:17 so, when the woman is caught in adultery... in the very act, 22:20 and she's brought before Jesus 22:22 and the Pharisees quote the Bible and say... 22:24 "Moses said she should be stoned... what do you say?" 22:27 And He has the Spirit of God... see... and so He says, 22:30 "Let me just pause here, 22:32 I just want to write something out in the sand... " 22:33 He starts writing down in the sand... 22:35 because He knows the whole situation... 22:37 He's filled with the Spirit... 22:38 and it's the same with us, 22:40 God wants to fill us with the Spirit 22:41 so we can take in the whole situation 22:43 and not just a little bit of what we see with our eyes... 22:46 or a little bit of what we hear with our ears, 22:48 so we can judge righteously... that's what... 22:50 so when we look at Sardis now, the person that's... 22:53 that's looking... he's looking at the Reformers, 22:56 this is a great... you know... 22:58 how can we find fault with the Reformers? 23:00 But Jesus has the full Spirit of God, 23:02 so He can say, "You're doing good... 23:04 you've got some areas... we... 23:06 but I haven't found your works perfect, 23:07 there are some areas where you're slipping... " 23:09 the same thing he said to Peter 23:10 now He's saying it right here 23:11 so the reference to the Spirit of God 23:13 is helping us to understand that Jesus sees everything, 23:15 He's got full wisdom, full knowledge, full might... 23:17 He's able to discern the whole picture, 23:19 we look up at their performance and say, 23:20 "Oh, they were great people... " 23:22 well yeah, but they had some problems 23:23 and Jesus is point out those problems. 23:25 I'm going to try to share something here that 23:31 if we don't cover it fully here, 23:34 we'll pick it up in our next program... 23:35 but we want to cross check... 23:38 remember how we've been cross checking with history 23:42 so, this power entity that Sardis is described 23:48 as coming out of, right... 23:50 is symbolically represented as Jezebel which is Babylon... 23:54 and so what you have here is... 23:56 the Reformers are coming out of Babylon 23:58 and they are bringing the process of reformation 24:02 okay, so let's go back to what we saw in the churches... 24:08 first church... we saw pointed us to the perfect church 24:14 that eventually fell from their first love, 24:17 reminds us of Adam and Eve, 24:18 second church... persecution reminds us of the next book... 24:21 the Book of Exodus... 24:22 the children of Israel in captivity, 24:25 the next church... compromise... 24:27 we saw that that's exactly what happened 24:29 when the children of Israel entered the Promise Land... 24:31 they began to compromise, 24:32 fourth church... Jezebel... Babylon... 24:35 we saw that right in line with Old Testament history, 24:39 the children of Israel... because of their compromise 24:42 ended up in Babylonian captivity... 24:44 the fifth church... 24:46 Martin Luther basically makes a decree... if you will... 24:51 he nails the theses on the door 24:55 and as a result... people start to leave Babylon 25:01 the support of Babylon begins to dry up, if you will, 25:05 they leave Babylon 25:07 because they're going to begin a work of Reformation, 25:10 well, guess what happens in Old Testament history? 25:11 James: Same thing... 25:13 Ivor: Same thing... a decree is made by a man named Cyrus 25:17 who opens the gates of Babylon to set the captives free 25:21 so that they can go back and begin the work of reformation... 25:25 begin the work of building the house of the Lord, 25:28 so there's just an amazing parallel but guess what happens? 25:31 When they go back to build the house of the Lord, 25:34 Nehemiah... years later... 25:37 wants to know the situation of Jerusalem and guess what? 25:40 He asked, "What about those who have escaped from Babylon, 25:43 what's the situation there?" 25:44 And what does he hear? 25:46 "They're building their own houses 25:48 while the house of the Lord is still in ruins. " 25:51 James: That's what we're seeing right here. 25:53 Ivor: What happened with the Reformation, 25:55 everyone started building their own houses... 25:56 James: All Denominations... 25:58 Ivor: God intended for one house but the Reformers 26:02 they went on with it and they would stop... 26:04 James: They're Followers... specifically... 26:06 Ivor: Exactly... they're followers, exactly, 26:08 they're followers... stop... 26:09 and so now you have all these different houses... 26:12 James: Denominations... Ivor: Denominations... 26:14 James: They all have a little something... 26:16 Ivor: They all have a little something... 26:19 but the house of the Lord is being neglected 26:21 so we know that whatever happens with the next church, 26:24 has to deal with... the house of the Lord... 26:27 bringing everyone into one house... 26:31 Yvonne: Wow! this is giving me chills... 26:34 really, because it's something, it's a way of looking at it 26:39 that I haven't... 26:40 James: That brings the whole Bible together... 26:42 Ivor: Absolutely... Yvonne: Yeah... 26:44 James: So we've just cross checked it... 26:45 Ivor: We know that our interpretation is right 26:46 because it's following the history 26:48 of the Old Testament to a "T... " 26:50 Yvonne: Hmmm... hmmm... James: Hmmm... hmmm... 26:51 Ivor: So if you know the history of the Old Testament, 26:54 you have everything you need 26:55 to understand the whole Book of Revelation. 26:57 And I know people are... 26:59 that going to be listening to this are going to be saying, 27:01 "Yes!" just like you're saying... "yeah, this is great, 27:03 I got to... I got to... but I've got a question... 27:05 I've got a question, I've got a question. " 27:06 Jason: Then they need to send a video of their question 27:10 to sss@3abn. org 27:13 sss... "S" as in Salvation and Symbols and Signs... 27:16 at 3abn. org 27:18 James: Amen, this is really awesome, 27:21 I mean, I just want to say, "I don't use that word for food, 27:24 I don't use that word for people, 27:26 I use that word for the Word of God 27:28 and the truths of God's Word, this is awesome... 27:30 what we're studying is awesome, God is awesome. 27:31 Yvonne: Yes... He is... 27:32 James: And the way this is all coming together 27:34 it's just beautiful to me, 27:35 I think this is definitely a "Holy Spirit work" 27:38 that's working right now, 27:40 helping us to understand these Scriptures 27:42 and bringing them forth in a way 27:43 that ties the whole Bible together 27:45 and gives a meaning to them. Yvonne: Yes... 27:46 James: So we're going to close out our session 27:48 with a word of prayer, Yvonne, would you pray for us? 27:50 Yvonne: Yes... "Father God, what a privilege it's been 27:52 to open your Word and to gain new elements from it, 27:57 I mean, every time we open it, 27:59 there's something new to be gained, 28:00 we can never learn enough and so we thank you God, 28:03 we thank you for your presence, we thank you for your power, 28:06 we thank you for your love, 28:08 thank you God for being in our midst 28:11 and continue to guide us 28:12 and continue to guide these discussions 28:15 so that we might come to an understanding 28:17 of your Word, amen. " 28:19 All: "Amen... " |
Revised 2016-08-15