We'll now turn to the last book of
the Bible, Revelation, Revelation chapter 1.
The word revelation means an unveiling.
We have sometimes seen pictures of some dignitary,
a cabinet minister or someone unveiling a statue.
There is a curtain over the statue and
he pulls the curtain and you can see
the statue of some great man.
Revelation is like that.
God pulled the curtain and showed John three
things.
He showed him the glory of Jesus Christ
in chapter 1.
He showed him the condition, the inner real
condition of the churches in that area at
that time in chapters 2 and 3.
And then the third thing he showed him
was the future after, towards the end of
time, how it's going to be in chapters
4 to 22.
So we could say the first chapter deals
with an unveiling of Christ himself.
The second is an unveiling of Christ and
his church.
And the third section, verses chapters 4 to
22, is an unveiling of Christ and his
kingdom.
That's how revelation is divided.
You find that division in verse 19 of
chapter 1.
The things which you have seen, chapter 1.
The things which are at present, chapters 2
and 3.
And the things which will take place in
the future, chapters 4 to 22.
Now, this revelation was given not only for
John, but for all his bondservants, chapter 1,
verse 1.
That's important to remember, that bondservants are slaves.
God has his slaves and God has his
servants.
What is the difference between a servant and
a slave?
A servant and a bondservant.
The difference is this.
We don't have slaves today, so we don't
know it so much.
But in those days, people clearly understood the
difference between a servant and a slave.
A servant could get a salary.
You have a servant in your house.
You pay a salary.
And if you don't pay the salary, they
won't come to work next month.
A slave never gets a salary.
His lifelong, he has to serve.
A servant has got certain rights.
He can go to the government, if you
ill-treat him.
A slave has got no rights.
He cannot appeal to anybody, if he is
ill-treated.
God has servants, who will serve him if
he takes care of them and gives them
money and gives them food and clothing.
If one day he doesn't give them something,
they have complaints and they will stop serving
him.
And they have certain rights.
They say, Lord, I did this for you,
you've got to do something for me.
A slave has given up all his rights.
If his master gives him food, he's happy.
If his master gives him some pocket money,
he's happy.
If he doesn't give him, he still has
to be a slave.
The difference is, those slaves in those days
worked out of compulsion.
We choose to work out of love.
Like in Exodus 21, I love my master,
I will not go out free.
The book of Revelation can really be understood
only if you are a slave.
If you have given yourself to God so
completely, that you don't want anything from him,
you belong to him completely, you have no
complaints about anything he does.
You say, Lord, I'm your slave, I love
you, I never want to live for anything
other than you, I don't serve you for
money or any reward I'm going to get
in earth or in heaven.
If you come to the book of Revelation
with that attitude, you will understand.
If you don't have that attitude in your
heart, you can use your clever brain and
get all types of interpretations from Revelation and
there are plenty of them in the world.
They can't get past verse one.
It was God gave it to Jesus Christ.
Remember, it's a revelation of Jesus Christ.
God gave it to Jesus Christ to show
to his bond servants.
Are you one of his bond servants?
Then he'll show it to you.
If you're not one of his bond servants,
you can study it for a hundred years
and get all types of bright ideas.
You can read all the books on Revelation
in the world and you'll get some ideas,
but it won't be the truth.
It won't change your life.
You'll be living in a world of delusion.
So we should not get stuck in verse
one.
If you don't get past verse one, I
say forget it.
And John was one of those bond servants,
so John saw it.
Today there are bond servants, they see it.
Many other people have got theories on it.
OK, verse three, this is given to, no,
before that, verse one in the last part,
it says he sent and margin says signified
it.
That's another word I want to point out.
Signified, it says communicated or margin.
Signified means he showed it by signs.
That teaches us the whole book is full
of signs and some of them we may
not be able to understand very accurately, but
the more a bond servant you are, the
more accurately you'll understand it.
And the less a bond servant you are,
the less you will understand the book of
Revelation.
However clever you may be, however many degrees
you get studying this book and however many
books you read on it, you've got to
be a bond servant if you want to
understand it correctly.
There are so many views on Revelation.
I'm not surprised because there are very few
bond servants.
All the servants are giving their opinions and
their opinions are fit for the trash can.
Verse three.
Blessed is the man who reads this book.
Now, I believe it's every book in the
Bible is blessed if you read it, but
there's a special blessing promised on those who
read this book.
Now you understand why the devil doesn't get
most Christians to read this book, because there's
a special blessing promised on those who read
this book and not those who understand it.
He doesn't say blessed are those who understand.
That is not mentioned there.
But those who obey it, those who keep
it, the blessing is on those who read
and hear and obey.
It doesn't matter if you don't understand everything.
I don't understand many things here, but there
are certain things here which I have to
obey.
The book of Revelation has not given us
to make charts about the future.
I remember seeing and hearing people who make
big charts on the book of Revelation and
tell you when the rapture is going to
take place and how the churches are all
pictures of different periods in the church age
and Ephesus was the end of the first
century church and Philadelphia is the church before
the last one and that Laodicea is the
church of the 20th century and all this
type of stuff.
I've seen umpteen charts in my life and
I've seen people who study these charts.
They fight and quarrel with each other.
They don't have victory over sin.
They are defeated.
All these charts are again fit for the
trash can.
What you need to know, brother, is not
all these details of prophecy.
It does not say there's a blessing on
those who understand it.
It's a blessing on those who keep it.
The book of Revelation is not given us
to make charts.
The book of Revelation is given us for
obedience, just like every other book in the
Bible.
That means there are things here you got
to obey.
Find that and that's enough.
The other things you don't understand, just leave
it aside.
It's like when you eat fish, you keep
the bones aside and you eat the fleshy
part.
The time is near.
John writes to the seven churches from Jesus
Christ, the faithful witness, firstborn of the dead,
and immediately he talks about his coming.
This book is related to his coming.
Verse seven, he's coming with the clouds.
Listen, and when he comes, he will not
come secretly.
Verse seven, when he comes in the clouds
for the rapture, every eye will see him.
There is no secret rapture.
Every eye in the world will see him
and they will see us being taken up
to heaven.
There is only one coming of Christ and
all those who pierced him will also see
him and they will mourn.
And he goes on to say in verse
nine, I, John, your brother.
He wasn't a bishop.
He wasn't a pastor.
He wasn't a pope.
He was a brother.
Good example.
Ninety year old godly John is still an
ordinary brother.
He wasn't a reverend.
He wasn't a reverend doctor.
He was just a brother.
Can you follow his example or you want
something else?
And a fellow partaker in the tribulation.
The book of Revelation is about tribulation.
How can you preach about tribulation if you
haven't gone through tribulation yourself?
So John had to go through tribulation.
He was exiled to the Isle of Patmos
and there in suffering tribulation, he gets a
vision of how the church will go through
tribulation.
And if you had gone to John in
the Isle of Patmos and told him, brother,
do you know the church is not going
through the tribulation?
He'd have said, brother, I'm already going through
tribulation here.
What are you talking?
Do you think any tribulation is going to
be worse than what Christians have suffered in
communist countries in the last hundred years?
You think any tribulation is going to be
worse than that?
People who think that the God loves these
last century worldly Christians so much that he's
going to take them out of tribulation and
these godly Christians who suffered in China and
Russia and Albania, he never cared for them.
I don't believe that doctrine.
And he says, I was in the spirit
on the Lord's day.
It's only a man who is in the
spirit who can see and understand what God
is trying to reveal.
And he heard as the voice of a
trumpet.
When God speaks and you're in the spirit,
you'll the voice will be as loud as
a trumpet.
Otherwise, you won't hear a thing.
You know, there are voices in this room.
There's rock music in this room.
If I get a radio, I can tune
it and show it to you.
There's God's word is being preached in this
room in the voices through radio.
Why can't we hear it?
We're not tuned to it.
When we are tuned to the spirit, we
hear God very clearly, loud as a trumpet.
That's how John heard it.
And the Lord told him to write down
what he saw and send it to the
seven churches.
John was on the island of Patmos was
about if you look at a map, it's
about 100 kilometers southwest of Ephesus, which is
on the mainland.
This is an island, a rocky island in
the Aegean Sea.
And from Ephesus, he was asked to send
a message to Ephesus.
North of Ephesus, about 100 kilometers was Smyrna
and then about a little north, northeast, northwest,
about 40 kilometers was Pergamon and then about
100 kilometers.
East, southeast was Pergamon.
Sorry, Teotihuacan, and then about 30, 40 kilometers
south was Sardis, another 30, 40 kilometers was
southeast was Philadelphia and southeast to that was
Laodicea, which is finally about again 100 and
so kilometers from Ephesus.
So all these churches were in a circle
of about 100 kilometers radius.
And yet they did not belong to one
denomination.
They all were independent churches.
They did not have one bishop ruling all
over all of them.
Each had their own elders.
That's how the churches were in the first
century.
So close to each other, they were all
independent churches.
So the corruption in one church did not
go to the other church.
If the one church was corrupt, it just
became corrupt.
The church 40 kilometers away was pure.
But if they were all in one denomination,
one became corrupt, everybody would have become corrupt.
The bishop loses his salvation, everybody would lose
their salvation.
That is God's wisdom.
The New Testament pattern is each church being
independent, not one big denomination.
So we see here, to the churches, not
to the church in Asia Minor, each church,
there's no such thing as the church in
India.
There are churches.
There may be a church here and a
church there and a church in another place.
And when he turned around, he did not
see one golden lampstand with seven branches like
Old Testament.
The Old Testament was one golden lampstand with
seven branches.
The New Testament is seven separate lampstands, seven
separate churches, not one denomination with seven branches.
And in the middle of the lampstands is
Jesus, who is the head of each of
these seven churches.
And it describes Jesus in poetic language.
These are all symbols of his purity and
his power and of the word of God,
verse 16, going out of his mouth.
And this man, who once upon a time
had leaned upon Jesus' breast at the Last
Supper, now when he sees Jesus, he falls
at his face as a dead man.
He sees Jesus in his glory.
The holiest man on earth falls on his
face with his mouth in the dust.
Whenever you see the glory of the Lord,
that's what will happen to you.
When you don't see the glory of the
Lord, your head will be lifted up.
But when you see the glory of the
Lord, your mouth will be in the dust.
Even if you are the holiest man that
walks on the earth.
And the same word that Jesus always spoke
to his apostles when he was on earth,
he speaks to John, who has suffered persecution
for so many years, don't be afraid.
Verse 17, that is the word that rings
through the book of Revelation, don't be afraid.
And that's the word that comes to us
as we face tribulation in the future.
Don't be afraid.
Put your mouth in the dust and see
the glory of the Lord.
Forget all these persecutors.
Don't be afraid.
I am the first.
I am the last.
John, don't be afraid.
Don't worry about the king up there in
Rome.
Don't worry about these people who have persecuted
you.
I am the first and I am the
last.
I am the living one.
I was dead.
I am alive and I have the keys
of death.
You cannot go through that door, John, till
I open it, don't worry.
And tradition tells us that John was not
killed.
He died a natural death as far as
we know, because Jesus decided that.
And Jesus is the one who decides for
you and me whether we are going to
be martyred in India for the cause of
the gospel or whether we are going to
die a natural death.
No religious fundamentalist is going to determine that
for me.
Jesus has already determined it.
It's already written in his book.
And if I live faithfully, he's got the
keys of death.
I'm not afraid.
And you don't have to be afraid either.
I tell you, it's impossible to serve God
in days of tribulation if you don't first
see this vision.
You have to see Jesus first before you
see everything else.
You have to see Jesus first before you
even see the condition of the churches.
Otherwise you'll get discouraged when you read about
the condition of the churches in chapter two
and three.
I sometimes get discouraged when I see the
condition of some church.
And I say, Lord, I want to see
your glory first.
Then I won't get discouraged.
And then he says, the seven stars which
you saw, verse 20, are the messengers, angel.
Remember angel?
Indian languages, messenger.
Messengers of the churches.
Among the elders in each church, usually one
was a messenger.
That means one usually had the gift of
the word.
If there were three elders, one would be
the messenger.
If there were two elders, one would be
the messenger.
Every church, it's the same even today.
A church may have two or three elders,
but one will have the gift of the
word there.
The messenger of the church.
And write to the messenger of the churches
and give them these messages for them and
for the churches.
OK, and the lampstands are seven separate churches,
each of whom are directly under me.
They're not under each other.
There's no bishop in charge of the seven
churches.
If there were a bishop, Jesus would have
sent the letter to the bishop and say,
circulate it to the others.
No, he had to send it to each
elder because each elder was in charge of
his own church.
Don't ever try to be a bishop.
Let each church have its own elders.
You can be like a spiritual father if
they want you, want help from you.
They consult you.
But each church must be independent under the
headship of the Lord if you want to
follow the New Testament pattern.
Chapter two and chapter three, we read about
seven churches.
Two of them are good.
Five of them are bad.
Five are terribly backslidden.
Two are absolutely pure.
First, the church in Ephesus, we could call
it the loveless church, the church without love.
They had many good things.
Verse two, they had deeds, toil, perseverance.
They could not endure evil men, means they
judged sin.
They could not endure false apostles, means they
judged false doctrine.
They not only judged sin, they judged false
doctrine.
They had perseverance, verse three, they endured suffering
for Jesus' name, they did not get weary.
You'd think that's a wonderful church.
Purity in life, purity in doctrine, enduring, suffering,
holding up the name of Jesus, laboring.
But the Lord says, all this is worth
zero because you don't love me like you
loved me at first.
Do you understand how important it is to
love the Lord?
That all your work for the Lord is
worth zero?
He says it's so bad, you have lost
your first love, you have fallen.
Can you believe that a man who is
laboring, who fights for purity, fights for purity
of doctrine, laboring, working hard for the Lord,
enduring, is a backslider?
How many people will think such a person
is a backslider?
He is a backslider because he has lost
his love for the Lord which he had
when he started serving the Lord.
The Lord says you have fallen, you were
up there first.
How was he up there?
Because he loved the Lord and did the
same things.
Now you have fallen, repent.
See the relationship Jesus wants to have with
us is like a marriage, husband and wife.
You see a newly married couple who really
love one another and the wife is so
happy to do everything in the house, she
is so eager the first week after she
is married to cook the food and wash
the clothes and keep the house tidy and
waiting for the husband to come from the
office and as soon as the bell rings,
rushing to the door, dressed up nicely to
greet her husband, if she is a little
western minded with a kiss perhaps, okay whichever
way it is, expressing her love for him,
you go and the dinner is ready and
they sit and they enjoy themselves.
Now you go to the same house 20
years later and she is not thinking of
her husband, she has got other things to
think about and she does all the job,
she still cooks, she washes, she keeps the
home and the husband comes and rings the
bell, nobody is at the door, he has
got the key, he has got to open
it himself and come inside and says, where
is the dinner?
Oh it is there on the table, you
can go and eat it.
Did she cook the food?
Yes.
Did she keep the house tidy?
Yes.
Did she wash the clothes?
Yes.
Just like in the first year of marriage,
but there is a difference.
The love has gone, the fire has gone,
how many marriages there are like that?
This is exactly what happened to Ephesus and
that is exactly what can happen to you
or me.
If we don't preserve our love for Jesus
Christ, you must say, Lord I love you,
my ministry is not my God, I want
to love you like I loved you at
first and even more than I loved you
at first, that is a true marriage.
What do I want from my wife?
I don't care if she doesn't cook the
food or wash the clothes, we love one
another much more today than when we were
first married, that is a true marriage.
That is how it must be with Jesus.
Many times I have laid down on my
bed and I said, Lord you can take
away my ministry, you can take away my
voice, you can take away my health, if
you paralyze me and I can't speak anymore
and I lie down in this bed, I
will not be discouraged.
I will lie down here in this bed
and love you, that is all I live
for.
My ministry is not my God.
You can take it away any day you
like.
I never write another book, never speak on
another tape, never travel anymore for a meeting,
but my love for the Lord will just
increase more and more lying down on that
bed.
I hope it is like that with you.
Then your joy for the Lord, then your
love for the Lord, then your service for
the Lord rather will be full of joy
and victory.
Then we go to the next church, there
are many other things, you can look at
it yourself.
The church in Smyrna, which is a suffering
church.
And here is a church that is poor,
verse 9, it faces tribulation.
This church also would not have believed if
you had taught them that the church will
escape the tribulation.
They go through tribulation and this church that
is going through tribulation is the one that
the Lord is happy with.
The other one that is not going through
tribulation God is not happy with.
Do you know that God loves people and
He allows them to go through tribulation?
Even in the future it will be like
that.
But you are spiritually rich, there are people
who say they are Jews, but they are
the synagogue of Satan.
There are people today who say they are
Christians and they persecute the truly godly people.
They are the synagogue of Satan even today,
the church of Satan who call themselves Christians.
Again, what is His word to this church?
Verse 10, don't be afraid of what you
are going to suffer.
What is the Lord's word to us today?
Don't be afraid of what you are going
to suffer.
The devil is going to put some of
you into prison.
Can the devil put God's servants in prison?
Certainly.
All the apostles face that.
Why can't we face it?
The devil can take you to court through
religious people.
The devil can put you in prison.
Jesus was taken to court.
Jesus was crucified.
And if you follow the Lord, you will
follow in His footsteps.
You will go wherever He went.
And why will you be put into prison?
Is it without God's permission?
That is impossible.
The first book of the Bible, Job, the
first book written, teaches us that God has
to give permission before anything happens to His
servants.
That is written in the first page of
the first book of inspired scripture.
So don't worry about that.
It cannot be without God's permission.
And so it is with God's permission.
He allows you to be put in prison.
And why for us to be tested?
We have to be tested.
That is our examination.
Don't you want to go to the examination?
Sure.
What happens after examination?
What happens for any child after examination?
Promotion.
So what will happen after you are examined?
You will be promoted.
Don't miss the examination.
Don't run away from the examination.
I want a promotion.
And so I am going to go through
the examination.
And if the examination is conducted in the
prison, will you go and write the examination
there?
Sure.
I will go anywhere to write the examination
because I want to be promoted.
I don't want to sit in the same
class forever and ever.
So it says you will be tested.
And please remember that I have determined already
the period of this tribulation.
It's going to be for 10 days.
That's it.
On the 11th day you will be free.
God determined how long Job should suffer.
God determined how long Peter should be in
prison.
God determined how long these people should be
in prison.
God determines how long you should suffer.
Some suffering you go through.
Please remember you are in the middle of
it.
But God has already seen the end of
it.
And He has said on such and such
a date, in such and such a month,
in such and such a year, it's over.
Isn't it good for us to know that?
A suffering church.
Remember that.
Be faithful till the end.
Be faithful and I will give you the
crown of life.
In each of these churches the Lord speaks
to the overcomers.
To the first church He says in verse
7, if you overcome, I'll give you to
eat of the tree of life which Adam
missed.
In verse 11 He says if you overcome
the second death, hell won't touch you.
It's not for everybody.
It's for those who overcome.
Chapter 2 verse 12 is the third church.
We could call this the worldly church.
Pergamum.
And the Lord says you are living where
Satan's throne is.
That means Satan has got a special interest
in your city.
He doesn't have his throne everywhere.
He has throne in one place and the
demons have got their junior throne somewhere else.
But Satan had his throne in those days
in Pergamum.
Because he had a special interest in the
believers in that city.
And I think part of the reason was
because in that city there was a very
faithful servant of God called Antipas.
Antipas.
Verse 13.
And when Satan saw this fellow Antipas he
said I better make my headquarters where this
fellow is and give him some problems.
And so there was this Antipas who did
not deny the faith.
He was probably an elder in that church.
A faithful witness who kept the church pure.
Preached prophetically.
Preached purity.
Preached faithfulness.
The Lord calls him my witness, my faithful
one.
And Satan got him killed.
But who opened the door of death for
Antipas?
Jesus.
Who opened it for Stephen?
Jesus.
Who opened it for all the other eleven
apostles who had died before John?
Jesus.
Who opened it for Antipas?
Jesus.
So we see that Antipas goes through the
gate and he's dead.
And then what happened?
The usual thing that happens when a godly
leader dies in a church.
Downwards.
Decline.
That's what happens.
It's what happened in Pergamum.
It's what's happened in many, many other churches.
God's church depends on sometimes one godly leader.
And now what has happened?
Antipas is gone and the other leaders all
were compromisers.
Just like in Ephesus after Paul went.
It was all compromise.
And we see what happened to the church
in Ephesus here.
Because of those ungodly leaders.
Same thing happened in Pergamum.
And he says now you're following the teaching
of Balaam.
More interested in money.
And you're interested in all compromise.
And there's immorality in your midst.
And you've got some other teaching of the
Nicolaitans.
We don't know what the teaching of the
Nicolaitans is.
But some type of teaching which God hated.
And he says repent.
Otherwise I'll come to you and I'll judge
you.
Verse 16.
Again.
If you overcome.
I will give you some secret revelations.
Hidden manna.
Which will not be given to other people.
Do you want secret revelations from God?
Understanding of scripture which is not revealed to
anybody else.
Hidden manna.
I'll give it to you.
If you overcome.
I'll give you a stone.
Like a wedding ring.
With a diamond on it.
You'll be my bride.
With a new name written on it.
My name written on it.
A new name which people don't know.
The Lord says I'll have some secrets with
you.
I'll treat you like my wife.
Husbands and wives have secrets which other people
don't know.
The Lord says if you're an overcomer.
I'll treat you like that.
You won't be like all the other daughters
of Jerusalem.
The other believers.
The next church.
Is.
Thyatira.
The adulterous church.
And there.
He says I know your deeds.
Verse 19.
Your love.
Your faith.
Your service.
Perseverance.
And all that.
But you got spiritual adultery in your midst.
You got this woman called Jezebel.
And the word for woman.
Could be translated as your wife.
Could be woman or wife.
You elder.
You got a wife.
Who's controlling your life.
You take those decisions in the elders meetings.
And you come back.
And your wife tells you all types of
things.
You arrange another elders meeting.
To tell the elders what your wife said.
This is what happens in so many churches.
The elders wife.
Controls the church.
There are Jezebels.
In churches.
Women.
Who want to control the prophets.
Control the elders.
Jezebel could control her husband Ahab.
Ahab was a spineless type of chap.
Controlled by this woman.
And there are some elders like that.
Who got no backbone.
Their wife controls them.
What did.
Who was Jezebel scared of.
It says in those days there were 7000
people.
Who did not bow the knee to Baal.
In Jezebel's time.
Jezebel was not scared of any of those
7000.
Believers.
She was scared of one man.
Elijah.
That's all.
And she even frightened Elijah for a while.
What a powerful woman.
There are some powerful women like this in
the church.
And they need some Elijah's in that church.
To put them in their proper place.
And if you're not going to be like
an Elijah.
To put these strong women in their proper
place.
I tell you.
Your church will be another adulterous church like.
Thyatira.
You can have your choice.
And the Lord says.
I gave her time to repent.
And she did not repent.
She brought all types of worldliness into the
church.
And all those people who.
Listen to her advice.
Her children.
I'm going to kill them.
And to the rest of you.
Verse 24.
Who have somehow escaped her teaching.
I'd say don't listen to that.
All these deep truths they talk about.
It's all deep truths of Satan.
Verse 24.
Hold fast what I've given you till I
come.
If you overcome.
I'll give you authority.
Like I gave Elijah authority.
And you will rule.
The nations one day with a rod of
iron.
Number 5.
Church in Sardis.
Chapter 3.
This is the.
Hypocritical church.
The one that has a name.
That it's alive.
But it's dead.
The leaders were like that.
The leader had a name.
He was alive.
He was a great preacher.
And he had a great reputation.
Because his doctrines were all evangelical.
But he didn't have a life.
To back up his teaching.
He was a compromiser.
He lived on his name and reputation.
But he says.
In your church.
Verse 4.
There are a few.
Maybe a few young brothers in that church
who are zealous.
They are pure.
They have not corrupted their garments.
They were more spiritual than the elder.
And he says.
Those who overcome will be clothed in white
garments.
To all these churches.
Where there is sin.
He has got only one word.
Repent.
Verse 3.
Repent.
You know the Lord's last message.
To the churches.
Repent.
He started out.
Preaching repentance to unbelievers.
In Matthew chapter 4.
He said repent for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.
He ends the bible with revelation.
With the same message of repentance.
Not to unbelievers now.
But to the churches.
Churches repent.
Elders repent.
That's the message.
To elders.
Overcome, overcome, overcome.
This is the message of the book of
revelation.
Repent and overcome.
If you have understood that.
You have understood what it means to obey.
The message of the book of revelation.
Don't worry about the charts.
Prophetic charts and all that.
Just repent and you will be an overcomer.
A lot of people who study prophetic charts
don't overcome.
The important thing is to obey.
Be like those few people.
Who kept their garments clean.
The next church.
Is the church in Philadelphia.
The faithful church.
Verse 7.
The leader has been faithful.
And so the church is faithful.
And the Lord says.
I know your deeds.
Verse 8.
I have set before you an open door.
And nobody can shut it.
Wonderful.
Do you know when the Lord opens a
door for us.
Nobody can shut it.
I have the keys.
I open and no man can shut.
That's what he says here.
And you got a little power.
And you have kept my word.
And you have not denied my name.
That's wonderful.
He is the one.
When he opens nobody can shut.
I praise God.
I don't have to go banging at doors.
He opens them.
Are you looking for a door of ministry.
For yourself.
Who is going to give you that open
door of ministry.
Are you trying to bang it.
And open a door for yourself.
Are you trying to covet the ministry.
Somebody else has.
God has opened a door for somebody else.
You want that ministry.
Brother be faithful.
God will open the right doors for you.
And you won't waste your time going through
wrong doors.
Let him lead you.
And he will lead you to the right
place.
I remember once when I was traveling to
a certain country.
The Lord said you are not to write
to anybody you know in that country.
That you are coming there.
Just go.
And I went.
And I came back.
And then the Lord tested me the first
time.
Then I went.
I found the Lord opened so many doors
of people I never knew.
And they were the places the Lord wanted
me to go to.
And I saw that.
God in his sovereignty.
Opens the right doors.
If you try to open doors yourself.
Create a ministry for yourself.
You will miss the will of God for
your life.
Wait on God.
And let him open the door.
And you go there.
Don't try to push yourself.
I want to have a ministry.
I want to go here.
I want to be like that brother.
You will destroy yourself.
God hasn't given you the ministry.
He has given somebody else.
I open and no man can shut.
I have set before you an open door.
The people who hate you.
The synagogue of Satan.
I will make them one day acknowledge that
I have loved you.
Then he says I am coming quickly.
Verse 11.
Hold fast what you have.
That nobody takes your crown.
I have given you a ministry.
Be occupied with that.
Otherwise your ministry will go to somebody else.
And he will get your crown.
Be faithful.
If you overcome.
I will make you a pillar in my
church.
Do you want to be a pillar in
the church?
Pillars are the things that hold up the
building.
When the pillars go.
Like in Samson's time.
When the pillar collapsed.
The house collapsed.
When the pillars go.
The church collapses.
There were only two pillars in Samson's time.
That held up a whole building.
Sometimes there are two elders.
That hold up a whole church.
When they go.
The church goes.
God wants many pillars.
How can you be a pillar in the
church?
Verse 12.
Overcome in your secret life.
In your private life.
Now the last church.
Laodicea.
Which is the proud lukewarm church.
Here is a church that is absolutely content.
Even though it's thoroughly dead.
It hasn't become cold.
That means thoroughly worldly.
Neither is it on fire for God.
It's sort of half and half.
Like most churches today.
They are not on fire for God.
They are not thoroughly worldly.
They say we are somehow getting on.
You know what happens to such churches?
The Lord says.
Verse 16.
I will spit you out of my mouth.
And not only the church.
The leader was not on fire.
He was not cold.
He was not worldly.
But he was not on fire.
And the Lord tells the leader.
You are in my mouth now.
You are my mouth piece.
But I am going to spit you out
of my mouth.
When something is in my mouth.
I can say it's inside me.
If I have a potato in my mouth.
It's inside me.
When I spit it out.
It's outside me.
Here is a leader who was in Christ.
And then he was going to be in
danger of being out of Christ.
One saved always saved.
Not for this fellow.
He was going to be spat out.
And why?
Because he was not on fire.
And the Lord said you either be on
fire or be cold.
What does that mean?
You either live totally for me or live
for the world.
Do you know who are the ones who
bring the biggest disgrace on the name of
Jesus Christ in India?
It's not the heathen.
It's not the non-christian.
Because the non-christian cannot bring disgrace to
the name of Jesus Christ.
No non-christian can bring disgrace to the
name of Jesus Christ.
Because he doesn't take the name of Christ.
A man who is on fire for Jesus
Christ cannot bring disgrace to the name of
Jesus Christ.
Because he lives totally for the glory of
God.
Who is bringing disgrace to the name of
Jesus Christ in this land today?
Those who are neither non-christians nor on
fire for God.
These in between type of believers.
Who say I'm born again and live for
the world.
Who say I'm born again I'm serving the
Lord and they are serving money.
The Lord says I'll spit you out of
my mouth.
You be out and out on fire for
me or be a thoroughly worldly person.
And I say that to everybody here.
You be out and out for God or
forget about Jesus Christ and go and be
a worldly heathen.
There are only two options.
There is no middle option.
There is no third option.
He says because you are lukewarm, verse 16,
you are neither hot nor cold.
I'll spit you out of my mouth.
Now I know that most people in that
day did not believe it.
Most people today don't believe it and perhaps
most of you don't believe it.
But whether you believe it or not, it
is true.
One day when Jesus comes you'll discover that
every lukewarm person is going to be spat
out of the mouth of Jesus.
You don't believe it?
Because you don't believe the word of God.
I believe the word of God that every
lukewarm Christian is going to be spat out
of the mouth of Jesus even if he's
an elder of a church.
If you don't believe that be honest, scratch
it out of your Bible and say I
don't believe that verse.
I haven't scratched it out of my Bible
because I believe it.
I believe it and I preach it and
I seek to live in fear of it
because I'm an elder.
He who overcomes verse 21 the Lord says
I will make him sit on my throne
even as I also overcame.
That teaches us that Jesus overcame in the
days of his flesh.
He had to fight a battle.
There's no overcoming without a battle.
Jesus had a battle.
He overcame and he sat down on the
throne and he says to us, you fight,
you battle, you overcome, you will sit on
the throne.
It's the same road for you as for
me.
So we see to all the seven churches
the message is basically to the overcomer and
the last church was so bad that Jesus
was outside the door verse 20.
Behold I stand at the door and knock.
That is a verse we quote to the
unbelievers but do you know that was spoken
to an elder?
Can you imagine Jesus telling an elder, I'm
standing at the door of your heart and
knocking.
I want to come inside.
The fellow is an elder in a church.
Can you imagine Jesus standing at the door
of a church and saying, can I come
inside please?
You fellows who are praising and singing hallelujah
inside, can I come inside?
Can you imagine churches can be like that
where Jesus is outside the door and I
want to ask you something.
If you are in such a church the
bridegroom is outside the door.
What are you doing inside the church?
You should be outside the door with your
bridegroom.
I don't want to sit in a church
where the bridegroom is outside the door.
I'm his bride.
I'll stand with the bridegroom.
If they throw him out, they throw me
out.
The sad thing is there are churches today
that have rejected Jesus Christ and his word
but there are believers who claim to be
the bride of Christ sitting in those churches.
I don't understand how.
I think I do.
They are not the bride of Christ.
That's all.
If you are the bride of Christ, you'll
be there outside the door with Jesus.
These are strong words but this is the
last book of the Bible and you need
to get it strong otherwise you can go
astray.
Then comes the things that are in the
future.
After these things that means after this whole
period of 2,000 years of the church
age the Lord says now come up here.
I'm going to show you what is going
to take place in the future.
That's a beautiful word, verse 1.
Come up here.
You know as we consider the future in
India if you want to really be strong
for the future you need to listen to
this word of Jesus in verse 1.
Come up here.
Look at what is going to happen in
India and the world in the future from
my viewpoint.
Then you won't be afraid.
If you look at it from this low
earthly viewpoint, you're going to get really scared.
Now chapter 4, you see the first of
seven glimpses of heaven in the book of
Revelation.
You know the book of Revelation, there are
seven spirits, seven trumpets seven bowls, seven seals
there are also seven glimpses of heaven and
in every glimpse of heaven you see they
are praising and worshiping the Lord.
That is what heaven is like and if
you want to get ready for heaven, you
better start praising and worshiping the Lord now.
That is the spirit of heaven.
Hallelujah.
The Lord is on the throne.
Holy, holy, holy.
That's how it is here.
Verse 8 of chapter 4.
Holy, holy, holy.
They are worshiping him.
The elders are falling down.
Verse 10.
They are casting their crowns before him.
There's no elder going around heaven saying did
you see the crown I won?
No.
They cast it down before the Lord and
say thou alone art worthy O Lord.
Even the reward God gives us.
You know what you're going to do with
the reward?
Supposing God gives you a reward and says
you've been faithful my son.
Here is a crown for you.
You know what you'll do in that day?
I'll say Lord that's yours.
It's not to be on my head.
You're the one who gave me grace for
that.
I'm nobody here in heaven.
Just another servant among the millions of servants
of Jesus Christ.
Thou alone art worthy.
That will be the attitude of a godly
man.
Thou art worthy O Lord.
Verse 11.
Let's mean it when we sing it.
Chapter 5.
We read about a scroll that John sees
and he hears a voice saying who can
open this book and break the seals?
This is speaking about the redemption of the
earth.
There was an Old Testament law which said
that if a poor man became so poor
that he had to sell his land and
an Israelite, a relative of his, it had
to be a relative, a close relative of
his could come and pay for it and
redeem the land and give it back to
this poor man.
That's what Boaz did for Ruth.
And marry, if it's a girl, marry the
girl.
Boaz married Ruth and redeemed the land as
well.
And Boaz, there is a picture of Christ
and Ruth is the picture of the church.
A despised Gentile whom Boaz married redeemed the
land.
This earth has to be redeemed because it
belongs to the devil.
You remember when Jesus was tempted?
Luke chapter 4 and verse 6 I think.
The devil told Jesus I'll give you all
this world because it belongs to me.
It's been given to me.
Who gave it to the devil?
Adam.
God gave it to Adam.
Adam gave it to the devil.
And the devil says thank you very much.
Ever since that day in Eden when Adam
fell, the earth belonged to him.
And when he said to Jesus this belongs
to me, Jesus didn't question it.
But here is the time when the earth
is going to be redeemed back.
But it can only be redeemed by a
relative.
That's why Jesus had to come in the
flesh and become our relative to redeem us
and redeem the earth.
And we read here about he says don't
weep the lion of Judah verse 5.
It's a beautiful verse.
I love this verse.
Verse 5.
The lion of Judah has overcome and he
looks to see the lion.
Verse 6.
And he sees a lamb.
The lion is a lamb.
That's how a godly man is.
He's a lion and he's a lamb.
That's how you should be.
And it says here about his taking the
book and this is the result of the
prayers.
Verse 8.
Of many of the saints for hundreds and
hundreds of years all over the world people
have been praying our father who art in
heaven.
Thy kingdom come.
Finally it's come.
The prayers of the saints.
Don't think those prayers were wasted.
Prayers offered nineteen hundred years ago.
Prayers offered now are all going up.
God is waiting but those prayers are not
wasted.
Not a single prayer prayed by a sincere
believer is wasted.
It all goes up like incense before God
and finally the answer comes.
And they sing a new song.
Thou art worthy.
New means always fresh.
They are never tired of singing that Jesus
blood has purchased me.
I hope you are never tired of singing
that Jesus blood has purchased you.
One of the prayers I have prayed is
Lord never let Calvary become a stale thing
for me.
I always wanted to be fresh for me
that Jesus died.
Every time I sing about Calvary and this
amazing love that could save a wretched sinner
like me.
Lord I want to sing as though I
have heard this message for the very first
time.
And that's how I seek to worship the
Lord.
As though I am hearing for the first
time that Jesus died for a sinner like
me.
Your song can be new even now.
I feel sorry for the believers who have
lost the freshness of the vision of Calvary's
cross.
The Holy Spirit can keep it fresh.
And there he sees millions of angels worshiping
and praising God.
And then when the seal is open you
see in chapter 6 one after the other
different seals are open and different things happen.
Very similar to what Jesus said in Matthew
24 would happen in the last days.
When the disciples asked Jesus what's going to
happen in the last days you compare this
when you have time with Matthew 24 and
the first thing Jesus said is people will
come in my name.
That's the first thing.
The Antichrist a white horse verse 2 and
he who sat on it had a bow
and a crown was given to him.
That shows that it is not Christ.
Christ comes with many crowns and he's not
he owns those crowns.
This is given to him and this is
the Antichrist pretending to be Christ, pretending to
be the Messiah on a white horse pretending
to be Jesus and that's the first sign
the Antichrist second a red horse verse 4
that's a picture of war peace is taken
from the earth.
That's the second thing Jesus said would happen
in the last days.
Third a black horse with a pair of
scales in his hand saying this is the
price of wheat, this is the price of
barley and the oil and wine we will
not touch.
This is a picture of famine and the
interesting thing in famine time is that there's
going to be wheat and barley which is
necessary for food is going to be expensive
but the people who live in luxury oil
and wine that won't be touched which means
that in a time of famine the rich
people will grow richer and the poor will
be poorer exactly what's happening today.
And then the fourth seal when he breaks
it, verse 7 death, a horse named death
comes forth, killing multitudes of people then the
fifth seal, verse 9 is broken and that
is what Jesus also said in Matthew 24
you will be persecuted and this refers to
all the people who have been slain from
Abel onwards Abel's blood cried out for vengeance
and throughout the Old Testament many people's blood
cried out for vengeance and when this particular
thing happened as we read here by that
time by 90 AD not many believers had
died.
Multitudes of Old Testament saints have died so
most of these are Old Testament saints saying,
Lord how long are you not, are you
waiting till you avenge our blood on those
who dwell on the earth and they were
told to wait a little, a few more
people had to be killed, you got to
wait another 2000 years because some more believers
had to be killed in different parts of
the world and they've also got to join
you and there's a certain number, verse 11
that has to be completed do you know
just like there's a certain number of people
who got to be saved who are names
are in the book of life there's another
list of martyrs those who are killed as
martyrs for the sake of Jesus Christ I
don't know whether my name is in that
book I'd be greatly honored if it is
and I don't know whether your name is
in that book but I hope you'll consider
it a great honor if your name is
in that book, that list has to be
complete of those who are to be killed
for the name of Jesus Christ when that
is complete, when the last name there is
finished Jesus will come and that's what we
read in the sixth seal when he broke
the sixth seal there was a great earthquake
the sun became black the moon became like
blood the stars of the sky fell the
sky was split and the mountains and islands
were removed and the kings of the earth
began to hide in the caves and all
the strong people and they said fall on
us because the judgment of God is coming
the wrath of God has come who is
able to stand that is a glimpse of
the whole future it's like a you know
the book of revelation is not in sequence
it gives us a complete bird's eye view
of the whole book and then comes down
to the little details and then gives you
some little expanded picture bird's eye view and
then comes down to the details it happens
again and again so don't go through the
book of revelation in sequence I just want
to say one more thing in chapter 7
chapter 7 has got two parts speaks of
the time when this tribulation is going to
begin and the first part deals with Israel
verses 1 to 8 a remnant from Israel
is going to people who do not know
Jesus as their savior now but who are
God fearing people are represented here by 144
,000 from Israel it's a representative number remember
signified in the first verse means these are
all signs 144,000 is not an exact
number it's a sign of a small group
of people who are whom the Lord looks
for I believe that the fact that God
has restored Israel to their land today 1948
Israel came back to the land Jesus said
that the fig tree will put forth its
leaves and that was fulfilled in 1948 and
1967 when Jerusalem was once again captured by
Israel, these are all fulfillment of prophecies that
Jesus made more than 1900 years ago he
said when Jerusalem will be ruled by the
Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are
over when Jesus was in Jerusalem, the Romans
were ruling and in the history of Jerusalem
always some foreign power has ruled Jerusalem from
Jesus time till 1967 that's the time when
the Jews got back Jerusalem again God's purpose
for the Jews is not over, Romans 11
says that, has God given up his people
Romans 11, no he hasn't he's got a
purpose and he's fulfilling it and in the
tribulation time there's going to be a group
of people who are going to be protected
from tribulation and also it speaks in verse
9 to 17 about another group which is
a great multitude which is the church we
look at that in our next study let's
pray Heavenly Father we thank you for this
wonderful vision of the future and we pray
that it will stir our hearts, we pray
in Jesus name, Amen