Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Good evening.
My name's Pastor Peter Yanada and I am a co founder of a nonprofit international organization called Eyes to See Ministries International.
And we are recording every week on Wednesday at 4pm here in New Oxford, Pennsylvania. Community media for South Central Pennsylvania.
Today I want to talk about.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: Well, the.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: The title of today's message is the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
That's really important.
It sounds superficial. I know people more so even today in the church than out in the world have. There are certain t.
People seem to have adapted and yet I'm finding out that they. They really don't know what certain things mean. Repentance is one. And we are going to go to
[00:01:13] Speaker C: the Book of Revelations.
[00:01:15] Speaker B: This is an introduction and I'm going to go through some key biblical principles.
In chapter one, I'm going to give you a commentary on scriptures and then I'm going to give you an overview of Christ's messages to the seven churches. And then moving forward we'll take a look at each church individually.
Probably spend a week, maybe I don't.
The church at Ephesus is probably going to take three sessions just to get through that church.
The same thing with the last one, Laodicea. The others, maybe some can be combined.
I'll open in prayer and then I will start. Father, I just thank you for the opportunity that in the United States of America we still have the liberty, the privilege to preach the word of God.
[00:02:15] Speaker C: Lord, I ask for, I ask for
[00:02:19] Speaker B: a divine hunger and thirst to come upon those that have, that have the
[00:02:25] Speaker C: ability to speak publicly, to preach the
[00:02:29] Speaker B: whole counsel of God, not just the wrath of God, not just the severity of God, not just the love of God, not just messages that tickle people's ears, but the entire council of God.
Father, I thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. And I'm asking God, I submit myself to you. I don't take this lightly.
And Lord, I bless Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania. I ask you to open your storehouse of provision for this community based, community based nonprofit organization that is an example of what a community based organization should look like.
So we pray in Jesus name, amen.
Before I get into the Book of Revelation, I was listening to a podcast this afternoon on my way back to Pennsylvania and I wanted to share this. I can't pronounce the gentleman's name, but these are notes that I took as I was traveling and what the title of what he spoke on, which is very relevant to what we're getting ready
[00:03:55] Speaker C: to speak about is Seven signs.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: You are Listening to a false teacher according to the Bible, some of these are going to sound basic, but more and more people are not hearing.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: The whole counsel of God and faith
[00:04:18] Speaker B: comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. The Bible clearly speaks about a great falling away.
[00:04:26] Speaker C: And the wording in the Holy Bible
[00:04:29] Speaker B: says it's a falling away from the faith. So if people aren't hearing what we are supposed to be hearing, according to
[00:04:39] Speaker C: the Bible, their faith isn't going to grow.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: And I can tell you this, your spiritual maturity, for the most part, is only going to grow to the level
[00:04:51] Speaker C: of the person that you're listening to.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: My wife and I can teach on
[00:04:58] Speaker C: the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: We can teach and do healing services
[00:05:04] Speaker C: because those are gifts that the Holy
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Spirit, as He wills, use in us. So we have our own personal testimonies and we do teach these classes and we'll lead these meetings and God will
[00:05:17] Speaker C: do what we believe.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Confirm the preaching, following with signs, wonders and miracles.
But that doesn't mean that I only teach and preach on healing. If I did that, even though God uses the platforms that we get invited to through signs, wonders and miracles, the greatest, the greatest gift given to mankind is the gift of salvation. God's free gift of salvation and the greatest miracle is a changed human heart. We spoke about the heart being deceitful among all things.
Some versions say it's sick, some say deceitful. It is the inner part of you that drives your desires.
The Bible's not talking about the organ, the heart organ. It's talking about what motivates you and what drives you to make the decisions you make.
And you can easily deceive yourself. If we can easily deceive ourselves, we shouldn't be going to a place, a house of God, where we are also going to be deceived by not hearing
[00:06:34] Speaker C: the whole counsel of God.
So, number one,
[00:06:40] Speaker B: the first sign that you are listening to a false teacher is that they twist the Scripture. Now, every one of these is going to sound basic, but they are very subtle. And if you don't spend time in
[00:06:57] Speaker C: the Word of God, you're going to
[00:06:59] Speaker B: hear something that sounds good and you
[00:07:02] Speaker C: won't know that it's a lie.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: So these people are going to present a message.
They distort Scripture to support their own ideas and or desires. So they're going to use a scripture out of context.
[00:07:26] Speaker C: The Bible will.
[00:07:28] Speaker B: Scripture confirms itself.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: So if you don't have a study
[00:07:33] Speaker B: Bible, I would really recommend you get a good study Bible, one that is not going to Discount the Holy Spirit
[00:07:43] Speaker C: and not teach you on the gifts of the Spirit. They are clearly applicable today.
[00:07:51] Speaker B: So this is number one of seven signs that you're listening to a false teacher.
Number two, they preach a different gospel.
They add to or take away from
[00:08:05] Speaker C: the gospel, which the Bible says is
[00:08:08] Speaker B: the power unto salvation.
Paul clearly is recorded in his epistles by inspiration of God as saying cursed are they that preach a different gospel.
So if I was the only preacher in a geographic area and I was the only one people were listening to and they didn't have Bibles and I was preaching a different gospel, whether I did that intentionally or not, I would be accursed.
Number three, they celebrate sin rather than calling people to repentance and holiness.
[00:08:58] Speaker C: Now they excuse sin, they minimize sin,
[00:09:04] Speaker B: or even celebrate sin. There are churches today where people will be wearing robes celebrating gay pride.
And the Bible clearly speaks about this. That's a celebration of sin.
And there's other celebrations that run rampant within the church that many people, as I come into contact with them, don't know that what these traditional practices are within the Christian church are actually pagan celebrations.
You have to remember that when Christianity
[00:09:46] Speaker C: moved, when the church was birthed in the book of Acts
[00:09:53] Speaker B: and Paul became the apostle to the Gentiles, he went into the hedonistic world. Hedonistic world.
So these people were, they're pagan cultures.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: And then when the Roman Empire split,
[00:10:11] Speaker B: you had the Western empire and the Eastern empire. And I'm not going to get into
[00:10:15] Speaker C: a history lesson tonight, but in the
[00:10:18] Speaker B: East, Constantinople merged pagan practices into Christianity
[00:10:26] Speaker C: for political reasons, to keep unity
[00:10:31] Speaker B: within his realm of authority. And that's not the unity the Bible talks about.
[00:10:39] Speaker C: Number four, they seek personal gain.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: This can come in money, popularity, influence or power.
[00:10:50] Speaker C: Power will corrupt people.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: That's why the Bible says don't give people positions within the church when they're not ready.
Pride will seek, will slip in many times. And there is a shifting, a sifting
[00:11:09] Speaker C: happening in the body of Christ.
[00:11:11] Speaker B: Right now you're seeing a lot of mega churches, the popularity speakers, motivational speakers, some of them, I won't mention them by name, but many of them are being exposed.
And if you're preaching the gospel and
[00:11:31] Speaker C: walking out and then living a sinful
[00:11:34] Speaker B: lifestyle, you don't belong behind the pulpit. And there is a difference between restoring somebody that's fallen and reinstituting them. Reinstituting a fallen soul is not going to without them being delivered and healed from whatever it is that the strongholds
[00:11:55] Speaker C: are in their heart that they can't let go of.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: You're not helping them.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: Number five, they draw attention to themselves
[00:12:05] Speaker B: rather than point people to Jesus.
I was at a church one time that I believed there were several of us that were led there, had the potential as any church does. But this truly did have the beginnings
[00:12:25] Speaker C: of a move of God.
[00:12:27] Speaker B: The Holy Spirit started to move and people got tired. I think some of the people in the ministry did not really want that.
They wanted life as, as normal.
And as that happened, the pastor began to speak more and more about himself.
I don't know how long it went. It was more well over a year before a salvation message was given.
And the church at one time grew to 120, which I always thought was interesting because there were 120 people in the upper room at Pentecost.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: But when that ministry turned away from Christ and there were several of these, several, several, several of these signs that
[00:13:25] Speaker B: began to manifest themselves, you could feel
[00:13:30] Speaker C: the Holy Spirit lift
[00:13:33] Speaker B: even to the point where that pastor when, that, the morning that happened during a service began
[00:13:40] Speaker C: to babble because he didn't know what happened.
[00:13:43] Speaker B: And, and it was, it was sad.
It's a very grieving and remorseful thing
[00:13:50] Speaker C: to have to witness that.
Number six, they reject sound doctrine.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: One of the signs of this is if you hear something that's not correct according to the Bible and you bring that biblical correction to their attention and they dismiss it, or they say, I'll get back with you, and they walk away, that's a bad sign.
That means there's pride there and not a servant's heart. There's no humility, no humbleness no meekness there.
[00:14:31] Speaker C: The Last 1, number 7, this is the most subtle.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: They undermine God's word.
[00:14:40] Speaker C: Again, this is the most subtle sign.
[00:14:44] Speaker B: They make claims that certain scriptures do not apply today, where the Bible doesn't say that or they bring new revelation in and begin to teach.
Today, people have stayed away from the church and they're judging biblical. This is my own opinion. I believe there's a movement right now away from the true word of God out of people's ignorance and a lack
[00:15:20] Speaker C: of their,
[00:15:22] Speaker B: I'll say, willingness to spend time in the Bible to circumvent going somewhere where you can hear the truth.
And they're looking at how many likes somebody got on social media, in a podcast, and using the number of likes as a, as an example of the
[00:15:45] Speaker C: truth, because multitudes are following that.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: And I can tell you this, there's a lot smaller remnant that are actually saved in the world today, especially in America than what most people think by their fruit. You'll know them.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: Now, what can you do
[00:16:09] Speaker B: here? 7 signs that you'll be listening to. A false teacher. Number one and foremost, you need to read the Bible for yourself.
And if you don't have a mentor, a spiritual mentor, you need one.
You need somebody that you can talk to if you have questions that will give you the truth. And if they don't know the answer to the question, they'll sit down with you right then and you can figure it out together.
[00:16:41] Speaker C: Second thing you can do, you test
[00:16:45] Speaker B: every teaching, everything that you ever heard against the Bible.
Paul said the Bereans were faithful because they did that. So you shouldn't take what I'm going to tell you tonight as face value just because I gave it to you. You need to test the Scriptures, Use the Scriptures to test everything that you hear.
And you need to pray every day and ask the Holy Spirit for discernment.
Those three things will help guard your heart. Most of your discernment is going to come through how much time you spend in the Bible.
Now, I've had more and more people that have started home Bible studies and
[00:17:37] Speaker C: they've asked me to join those and teach.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: And there's individual people as well, people that can't. Can't do that. But we are in perilous times right now.
And I would challenge everybody that hears this message to think about this question.
If you knew that Jesus Christ was going to come tomorrow, what would you do different than you do today in your daily routine?
Because when the door closes, God's going to close it and there's no more chance.
Every knee will bow and every mouth will confess.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: Jesus Christ is Lord.
One day that will happen.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: What we're going to talk about today is, is the last chance that Christ,
[00:18:37] Speaker C: the Word of God, gives us in the Bible on his evaluation of seven churches. But before we do that, I'd like
[00:18:48] Speaker B: you to open your Bible to the Book of Revelation.
[00:18:56] Speaker C: And I'm going to read the first
[00:18:57] Speaker B: three verses to you and then give you a commentary on two of them and give you some other scriptural backup for what I'm going to tell you tonight.
But as a subtitle or a sectional heading, you could label these three verses as the source of the revelation.
[00:19:18] Speaker C: The source of the revelation.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: This is Revelation, chapter 1, verses 1
[00:19:23] Speaker C: through 3, verse 1.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: The revelation of Jesus Christ,
[00:19:33] Speaker C: which God
[00:19:34] Speaker B: gave to him to show to his
[00:19:39] Speaker C: servants things which must shortly come to pass.
And he sent and signified it by
[00:19:48] Speaker B: his angel to his servant John.
[00:19:51] Speaker C: Now, there's several things in this very
[00:19:53] Speaker B: first verse that, that you need to understand the revelation of Jesus Christ. This book in the Bible, the Book of Revelation, is a revelation. And I'm going to give you the definition of that shortly. It's a revelation from Jesus Christ about himself.
This is extremely important for you to understand.
Jesus is the word of God and this revelation is about himself. Now, who is it coming from? He says, God the Father.
Remember, throughout the Gospels, he tried to get his disciples to understand that everything he spoke, he spoke the words the Father gave him. So God the Father is giving Christ this, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[00:20:55] Speaker C: Now, what does that mean? That word only shows up 10 times in the Bible.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: I use the King James Version of the Bible.
I have a study Bible that's a King James and I use the King James Concordance, but I also use the new King James Version, and I have on occasion used the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible.
I say occasionally, because I have looked at some scriptures and compared some from the ESV and the NASB where the word God is not capitalized in certain scriptures. It's a little G or it's plural as God's.
And if you remember the seven signs we talked about, altering the Bible out of context is not a good thing.
[00:21:57] Speaker C: So the definition of this word revelation,
[00:22:00] Speaker B: remember the Greek that this, the New Testament was written in? Kone, Greek
[00:22:07] Speaker C: revelation. It's the Greek word categorized. 602. The the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants
[00:22:20] Speaker B: things which must come shortly. That word shortly translates quickly or swiftly.
So this revelation must come swiftly.
[00:22:33] Speaker C: Quickly and swiftly to you.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: This is a time right now in Church history where we are rapidly. If you look at the signs of the age, we are rapidly heading to
[00:22:45] Speaker C: the end of what is called the Church age.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Now, the word revelation actually is in Greek, apocalypsis.
[00:23:00] Speaker C: It means a disclosure, appearing, coming, lighten, enlightenment, manifestation be revealed, or revelation itself. So that's what this means.
It's a disclosure.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: You could substitute these words in for revelation.
Now, in the King James Version, that word revelation is a capital R,
[00:23:35] Speaker C: Verse 2, who bear record.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Remember, the revelation is of Christ himself,
[00:23:44] Speaker C: given by the Father
[00:23:47] Speaker B: to his servants. Servants of Christ by given to his servant John. Apostle John. So there's four things happening in this one verse. If you're a disciple of Christ, that makes you a servant.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. The word of God is eternal. This chapter, this book applies to today. That's important that you understand that when we start looking and dissecting, what is Christ saying to each of these seven churches
[00:24:31] Speaker C: who bear record of the word of God?
So John bore record of the word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things that he saw.
[00:24:46] Speaker B: Now this is very important. Verse 3.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: Blessed is he that reads and they
[00:24:54] Speaker B: that hear the words of the prophecy.
You got to read it and hear it. When I read the Bible, I read it out loud to myself and keep
[00:25:05] Speaker C: those things which are written therein.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: For the time is at hand. Remember, the word shortly means quickly, swiftly. And Jesus is saying for the time is at hand.
It's time to watch and pray.
We should be watching and praying.
The church should have what we call
[00:25:37] Speaker C: watchmen on the wall.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: They should be people in the body of Christ that are watching the signs of the times and giving the warnings and what they hear from God.
I don't even want to use the
[00:25:55] Speaker C: word a prophet because that's such a
[00:25:57] Speaker B: misused the term apostle and prophet. Those titles are so misused today.
They're not, they're not titles of.
On a, on an organizational ladder chart,
[00:26:16] Speaker C: the word apostle means a sent one. He's a servant of God, sent by
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Jesus Christ to go wherever Christ sends them.
And signs, wonders and miracles are going
[00:26:28] Speaker C: to follow that person. That's what an apostle is.
[00:26:32] Speaker B: Doesn't mean you have 70,000 churches under your apostleship.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: I would, I would question anybody that claims that.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: So once again, the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The revelation, it's a revelation from Christ about himself.
Now why is this important?
Because it reveals Jesus evaluation of his churches 60 to 65 years after his resurrection and ascension. That's the first thing.
I'm going to give you two points on why this is very important for you to understand this, that the revelation is of Jesus Christ about himself. When we get into these seven churches, this is an evaluation Christ is going to give John, Apostle John, his evaluation
[00:27:40] Speaker C: of where the church.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: Each one of these is 60 to 65 years after his resurrection and ascension. So this is only several generations after
[00:27:52] Speaker C: the birth of the church.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: Point number two, why is this extremely important?
It discloses future events concerning the tribulation, future events concerning God's triumph over evil, and future events concerning Christ's return to reign on earth and future events concerning the blessedness of the eternal kingdom of God.
So you have four things there that this is disclosing. Future events of the tribulation,
[00:28:41] Speaker C: God's triumph
[00:28:42] Speaker B: over evil, future events concerning Christ's return, his reign on earth, and future events concerning the blessedness of the eternal kingdom of God. Most people, I'm finding out, shy away from the Book of Revelation because of some of the symbolism that's in there.
They think it's too difficult to understand.
And they believe this is what this is. From my travels, okay. In America and abroad, they believe that that word apocalypse is only speaking about the bad things that are going to happen to the earth.
[00:29:32] Speaker C: And just quick,
[00:29:35] Speaker B: the tribulation is going to be seven years.
[00:29:37] Speaker C: This is what Daniel spoke of, the 70 weeks.
I'm not going to get into that right now, but we'll talk about that
[00:29:45] Speaker B: some in the future.
First three and a half years is
[00:29:49] Speaker C: when God, the one true God and
[00:29:52] Speaker B: Jesus Christ, pours out his wrath on this world, on all of humanity. That's here.
The wrath of God is poured out and then the devil, Satan, is going to begin the second three and a half years to pour his wrath out because he knows his time is coming to an end.
So this will not be a place that you really want to be when this happens. And we already spoke about it. But there's many, many scriptures that say if you're saved, if you're a true
[00:30:33] Speaker C: believer of Jesus Christ, if you're truly
[00:30:36] Speaker B: saved, you were not appointed to God's wrath.
[00:30:41] Speaker C: Now, if we go back to verse three. Blessed is he that reads
[00:30:47] Speaker B: that here when we get into the churches, you're going to hear Jesus say, let those with ears hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
It's the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of holiness.
Blessed is he that reads, this is the first of seven blessings or Beatitudes.
You've heard that word in the Gospel of Matthew. If you've read it. Chapter five begins with the Beatitudes.
There are seven of them found in Revelation, given to those who do what who read, given to those who read and hear and obey the things written in the book.
When Christ comes, the second Coming, when he touches his feet down on earth.
There are signs given throughout the Bible that give us some type of foreknowledge of the season that we're in. That's why Jesus said, know the signs
[00:32:12] Speaker C: of the times and remember the very
[00:32:14] Speaker B: first one he told his disciples on the the Mount of Olives is all of that discourse.
[00:32:25] Speaker C: He.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: The ones that most people repeat are wars and rumors of wars and increase in natural disasters.
We see all those today.
But the first thing he told them is, do not be deceived.
And that's why I felt on my heart that I needed to give you These seven signs of false teaching. If you don't have a Bible, you better get a hold of one and start reading the other. Six blessings given in the Book of Revelation are found in chapter 14, verse 13, chapter 16, verse 15, chapter 19, verse 9, chapter 20, verse 6, chapter 22, verse 7 and verse 14.
And I recommend you also go to Luke 11:28.
Now, I'm not going to read all these to you, But there's seven of them in this book.
So blessed are they that read, hear and keep these things that believers must keep. The commandments of Revelation, the commands of Revelation indicates that.
[00:33:56] Speaker C: That indicates to me that this is
[00:33:57] Speaker B: a practical book with moral instructions and
[00:34:02] Speaker C: not merely a prophecy about the future.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: If the Word of God is the same yesterday, today and forever, this is the last book in the Bible.
And we are given signs in the Gospels, mainly in Matthew, chapter 24 and 25.
The signs to come that we should watch and we should be praying.
We should read the Book of Revelation
[00:34:39] Speaker C: not only to understand God's future program for the world and his people, the world being the wicked and the physical world and God's people, but also to
[00:34:55] Speaker B: learn and apply great spiritual principles or truths.
[00:35:01] Speaker C: That's what you should be thinking when
[00:35:03] Speaker B: you read this book. And blessed are they that read, blessed
[00:35:08] Speaker C: are they that hear.
I don't hear, in my travels, many people speaking on the Book of Revelation.
[00:35:16] Speaker B: I hear this kind of buffet of
[00:35:19] Speaker C: every, all different things.
[00:35:22] Speaker B: And we're, we're in a time right now where you better understand where we
[00:35:27] Speaker C: are on a biblical timeline in the Bible.
Above all, this book should draw us
[00:35:36] Speaker B: nearer to Jesus Christ in faith.
This book is a revelation from Jesus Christ about himself.
[00:35:48] Speaker C: So we should be drawn closer to
[00:35:51] Speaker B: Jesus in faith, nearer to Christ in hope, and nearer to Christ in love.
Remember Paul in First Corinthians, chapter 13
[00:36:04] Speaker C: spoke about faith, hope and love.
The greatest of these is love.
The greatest exhibition of God's love. God is love, is his sacrifice of his son.
[00:36:22] Speaker B: The Word of God was murdered.
[00:36:25] Speaker C: Satan murdered the Word of God. That statement that I just said should inspire you to get into your Bible because your flesh and the devil are going to do everything to convince you
[00:36:39] Speaker B: to not read this every day.
I'm busy.
[00:36:42] Speaker C: I got too long of a drive today.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: If I get up early, I'll be tired.
[00:36:46] Speaker C: Well, guess what?
You have the ability to call on God's grace.
When I get waking up at 2 in the morning and I'm laying there wide awake, I will ask, this is a personal relationship with God.
[00:37:05] Speaker B: Lord is it your will for me to try to go back to sleep
[00:37:08] Speaker C: or should I get up and pray?
And nine out of ten times he says, get up and pray. And then he starts telling me what to pray.
Now, I don't consider myself an intercessory prayer person, but I don't know, maybe
[00:37:24] Speaker B: it's because I hear the voice of
[00:37:26] Speaker C: God and he tells me to do it and I.
[00:37:28] Speaker B: And I go do it.
But every other day there's a.
[00:37:35] Speaker C: And I'm not saying this to brag, I'm just saying this is where I feel that we're at.
So from 2:00 clock to 6:00am that's what I'm doing. I'm reading the Word of God, I'm studying the Word of God, I'm meditating on the Word of God.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: I'm looking at a daily devotional.
And as I do that, and I
[00:37:57] Speaker C: begin to pray, he puts people's names on my heart and tells me to pray for them. And as I begin to pray, I start typing the message to them, the prayer.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Because the words aren't in my head
[00:38:12] Speaker C: and I'm watching what I'm typing. It's an incredible thing. I hope you guys experience that. All can experience that.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: Now here's a couple of those other chapters and verses that I gave you where the word blessed is used.
Revelation 16:15. Behold, I am coming as a thief.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
Our garments are to be white. Christ is coming for his bride,
[00:39:01] Speaker A: and
[00:39:02] Speaker C: he's going to come as a thief. Now remember when we did the lesson on the Galilean wedding and how that relates to the catching up of the church.
If you're watching and you're preparing your heart, your soul and your mind, you will not be taken by Christ when he comes as a thief, because you'll be ready.
We are to be preparing ourselves for that day, and that day is very soon approaching on us.
[00:39:44] Speaker B: Revelation 19:9.
Then he said to me, right?
Remember Jesus. Throughout chapter one, he's telling John, write this down.
Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: Exclamation point.
The marriage supper of the Lamb is where the church will be prior to the tribulation.
[00:40:15] Speaker B: Blessed are those people.
[00:40:21] Speaker C: Also, when you read through Revelation, you will see the phrase, the wrath of the Lamb.
[00:40:33] Speaker B: And he said to me, these are the true sayings of God.
Jesus Christ said to John, these are
[00:40:43] Speaker C: the true sayings of God.
Revelation 20, verse 6.
[00:40:50] Speaker B: Now listen to this.
[00:40:51] Speaker C: These are all from the new King James Version. I'm giving you the new King James Version, so you're not hearing me speak in 15th, 14th or 16th century English, which is how I have them memorized. But blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.
Over such, the second death has no power. But they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. That's the future. Christ is going to come, and he's going to reign for a thousand years on earth.
So blessed are they.
If I died today, I believe that I prepared myself through God's gift of salvation and God's gift of repentance. Yes, repentance is a gift from God.
And you'll see that when we go through the seven churches. How important? Important your understanding of that is.
There would be a time where I would stand before Christ and then eternity would come beyond that. So it the Bible does talk about a second death.
So there are people today in hell? Unfortunately, multitudes more than probably in heaven.
They're dead.
And yet they will stand before Christ when he separates everybody, and then they will go eternally out from there. That so there is another death coming.
Revelation 22 and 7.
[00:42:53] Speaker B: Behold, I am coming. Quickly, exclamation point. Blessed is he who keeps the words
[00:43:00] Speaker C: of the prophecy of this book. Now remember Mary, when she heard things
[00:43:05] Speaker B: from the angel or heard Jesus speak as a boy. She didn't understand everything.
[00:43:11] Speaker C: But she said, I kept these things in my heart. That means she didn't forget them. They might have been for the future, even if she didn't understand them yet.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: That's what this means, he who keeps
[00:43:27] Speaker C: the words of the prophecy.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Luke 11:28. But he said more than that. Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.
James wrote, be a doer of the
[00:43:45] Speaker C: word and not a hearer. Only deceiving your own self. How are you going to deceive your own self? Through your own heart.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: You're going to hear something and you're
[00:43:54] Speaker C: going to decide, is that truth or false?
[00:43:58] Speaker B: And then you're going to either do
[00:44:00] Speaker C: it, accept it, or not.
[00:44:05] Speaker B: Now, in verse four,
[00:44:09] Speaker C: this is a
[00:44:10] Speaker B: salutation,
[00:44:13] Speaker C: John, to the seven churches which are in Asia. Jesus, grace be to you, and peace from him. Which is and which was and which is to come? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And from the seven spirits which are before his throne.
I don't have time to get into who the seven spirits are, but in verse four to the seven churches,
[00:44:50] Speaker B: Revelation is addressed to seven churches.
[00:44:54] Speaker C: In the Roman province of Asia.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: This is located in what is now part of western Turkey.
Each church, each individual church was comprised of various congregations.
[00:45:15] Speaker C: You'll see that listed in the Bible.
The churches at Ephesus.
There's more than one church in Ephesus
[00:45:27] Speaker B: or in these individual churches.
Now, this is speculation. I'm just going to say, based on what the Hebrew number seven means complete.
These churches were probably selected because they
[00:45:43] Speaker C: were representative of the totality of churches of that day.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: So I believe that when we read through what Jesus evaluation is of these seven churches, you're going to see.
I go on social media a little bit each day just to see what it is people are speaking on, who's speaking truth, who's not.
I was in a local church not long ago and I heard another gospel message.
[00:46:26] Speaker C: Somebody clearly spoke what they said, what Christ's purpose to come to earth was, was.
And it was wrong.
A friend of mine invited me. He actually had recorded the message and was so disturbed over what he heard, he wanted to come over. We spoke about it.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: And there is a growing, I'm going
[00:46:56] Speaker C: to call it a fad within the body of Christ to try to broaden the message out, to appeal to more and more people.
That would be another gospel.
There is always been a remnant of God and a remnant. If you ever go to a hardware store or a lumber yard to buy a piece of carpet, there's a rack that is labeled remnant. It means out of that big whole roll, there's just a little piece left.
There's only a small remnant that is actually ever.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: Today, statistically, based on surveys, Pew Research,
[00:47:49] Speaker C: Lifeway Research, and some others, there may be 3% of the population in America that are truly Christians, truly saved people.
So I'd encourage you to Google how many people live in America today, in the United States, and then take 3% of that.
It's very few.
That means that Christ never built a building to draw people into. He went out into the mission field.
In fact, he got. He got removed from the synagogues.
The more that you witness to people, if you're a minister, if you're a preacher, the more that you preach the truth, the less of. There's going to be a smaller and smaller following of people.
Just like Jesus had people follow him from the Sermon on the Mount. They were fed, they came for food. And then when he told them, eat my flesh and drink my blood, they all walked away. They didn't have the discernment. They didn't understand he was the word of God. They didn't understand.
So their lack of understanding drove them away. Rather than to ask, a true disciple of Christ will do what his disciples did.
When the crowd was gone, they would ask Jesus, could you tell us what that meant?
[00:49:42] Speaker B: There are seven spirits listed in Revelation. I would encourage you to read this book.
They may represent the perfection and ministry
[00:49:53] Speaker C: of the Holy Spirit to the church.
When we get into the. The actual letters to the churches, I think we'll be able to get into Ephesus next week, the first one.
But I do have a general overview that I want to give you before that, and I'll do that next week.
So next week's title is going to be Christ's Messages to the Seven Churches.
The Ministry.
The. The Holy Spirit has a ministry.
He has a function in the Godhead.
It's to bring conviction when you feel convicted. When you read the Word of God, that's the Holy Spirit moving on you. Jesus said, I must leave. It's expedient for me to go so that the comforter can come. He's not going to come while I'm still here. That's what he was telling his. His apostles before he left.
And the Holy Spirit has a ministry when you get.
If you're saved at salvation at that time, you have the Spirit of Christ and you have the Holy Spirit.
Now, I'm Pentecostal. I believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I know there's all kinds of nonsense on the Internet right now from people that don't believe that, showing things that are of the flesh and even demonic and claiming that's the Pentecostal Church, that they're doing that out of their own ignorance. And some of these people, entire denominations, follow them.
There was a season last year when I listened to two of them and. And when I saw them do that, I thought, they're leading multitudes of people away from the power of God in their life. But the Holy Spirit's ministry is the ministry of sanctification. So when you received salvation from God, if you did, then the whole. It's the Holy Spirit to bring you into the image of Christ.
That's who's going to convict you when you read the Bible. I would recommend you pray before you read every day. Ask the Holy Spirit for the Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Remember, you got that definition earlier in the knowledge of God the Father, the person of Christ and the person of the Holy Spirit. That's in Ephesians.
We're commanded to know God. How are you going to love something if you don't know if you don't know them, you don't have a personal relationship. You can be infatuated with somebody or something. You can actually have a fetish, some kind of stronghold without knowing it, be driven demonically through unclean spirits towards things.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: Now, I'm just going to give you
[00:53:26] Speaker C: some one sentence for several other scriptures, and that'll. That'll give you a brief overview of what's in chapter one of Revelation. Verse seven. Behold, he comes.
He is coming.
Behold, he is coming. Remember who's coming? Jesus. Remember, Jesus told John, these are the
[00:53:49] Speaker B: true sayings of God.
[00:53:52] Speaker C: Verse 9.
[00:53:54] Speaker B: You'll see the isle of Patmos.
[00:53:57] Speaker C: This is where John has actually been in prison. When he writes this, he has this vision,
[00:54:05] Speaker B: verse 10, in the Spirit.
[00:54:09] Speaker C: You'll see that phrase, this expression refers to.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: It's a special awareness and receptivity to the communication toward.
[00:54:21] Speaker C: The communication of the Holy Spirit towards somebody. And this can come in visions.
So my wife and I are very sensitive to the presence of God, and we also have dreams and visions.
The visions that I've mostly had were when I've heard the voice of God say, you're going to go now, say, to Africa, to Zambia.
[00:54:51] Speaker B: Will you go, Peter?
[00:54:52] Speaker C: And when I say yes, I get the messages through divine downloads.
And then he begins to show me some visions of things, places I've never been. I don't know what they are, but when I get there, I recognize them from the visions. And I believe it's.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: It's either a warning that I was shown ahead of time so I know
[00:55:16] Speaker C: what to pray into, or if things are developing by man, man's getting in the way of trying to close a door that God showed me, I know how to deal with it. At that point, I recognize that's not what you showed me, God.
And I don't speak it out loud, but I'll say, what should I do? And he leads and directs me to navigate through that so that his will is done.
Verse 12.
You'll see the phrase seven golden candlesticks in the King James Version. In the new King James Version, it reads, seven golden lampstands.
I'm going to talk about this when we get to Ephesus in, in more detail. But generally what this means is these are stands that hold oil lamps, not candles.
They represent the seven churches. And you'll see that when you read through chapter one. This is important to give you a deeper understanding, a deeper revelation. If you go back and read the parable of the ten virgins, when their lamps went out, who had Enough oil. That's what this is referring to, these lampstands. And you can go into the book of Zechariah 4, 2 specifically, it'll actually read this way. That's probably the main scripture. Other than you doing some historical research to see what this term means.
Verse 13, the son of man.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: This term is referring to the exalted Christ.
And it is also used by the
[00:57:08] Speaker C: Old Testament prophet Daniel.
Verse 16, the seven stars. These represent. It says angels in, in chapter one.
If you look up the word in the concordance angel, it means pastor or minister.
So these are the, these are those people in that church. That's who. The letters to the leader of that church.
[00:57:44] Speaker B: Verse 19, you'll see a phrase.
[00:57:48] Speaker C: The things seen, the things which are,
[00:57:50] Speaker B: the things which shall be.
This verse pretty much gives you an
[00:57:57] Speaker C: outline of the entire book of Revelation.
[00:58:00] Speaker B: The things John saw in chapter one, the things that are now.
[00:58:06] Speaker C: This is Christ talking in chapters two and three. This is his letters to the churches. Remember,
[00:58:14] Speaker B: these are the true sayings of God.
And the third thing, the things that
[00:58:20] Speaker C: will take place in the future.
[00:58:22] Speaker B: These are events that are preceding.
I'm going to repeat that.
[00:58:28] Speaker C: These are future events preceding and following
[00:58:34] Speaker B: Christ's coming to earth.
[00:58:36] Speaker C: That's chapters four through 22, after the letters that Christ gives to the churches, gives his servant John.
The Word. The church is not mentioned anymore in the book of Revelation until you get to chapter 19 or 20.
So that should give us a clue.
[00:59:07] Speaker B: On how this thing that people don't believe is going to happen.
[00:59:11] Speaker C: The rapture, the catching up of the church, the believers not being appointed to wrath. That's why we opened this up, I think eight weeks ago, talking about this Galilean wedding and how that was different than a Middle Eastern wedding, which they're all the same.
So I'm going to close in prayer. But looking at.
I started to do a five week teaching several months ago on repentance.
Now think about that. Five weeks. The reason I did that was I
[00:59:48] Speaker B: was reading surveys and they randomly, these
[00:59:53] Speaker C: research organizations randomly surveyed the church
[01:00:00] Speaker B: in America.
[01:00:01] Speaker C: And more people than not more than 50% of the people surveyed could not give the definition of what repentance is or even explain it.
And yet one person in the Bible study that I was asked to do this in said to me, pastor Peter,
[01:00:22] Speaker B: you're going very, very deeply into this
[01:00:25] Speaker C: teaching, but this is really for new believers. And I thought, no, this is for the entire church.
[01:00:32] Speaker B: And at that point, as I started
[01:00:35] Speaker C: to get pushback from people in that group, I Just closed my notes up and I thought, this isn't a group for me to come in.
[01:00:43] Speaker B: I can't help you people.
[01:00:45] Speaker C: They were argumentative.
[01:00:47] Speaker B: Remember when seven signs you're listening to a false teacher? You could also apply this to the listeners.
[01:00:55] Speaker C: Are the listeners teachable?
So a year ago, I went to teach on prayer, confession, and repentance. And I got a divine download.
And I didn't know why, but I was in a church that can seat close to a thousand people.
And when they heard repentance, what it meant, and they heard the message and they were challenged, the entire group came forward. Now, I had to, because I heard the Holy Spirit say, you be the first. So I came down from the pulpit, turned my back on them, lifted my arms up to heaven, and when I did that, the whole church emptied out of their seats. And they came forward, forward. So they actually repented as a group, as a family. They came into one heart and one mind. At that point, I thought the pastor was going to chastise me and never have me come back.
He was actually in America at the time, and he called me after the service, and he was weeping. He said, brother, thank you for doing that.
He said that our main church is now a family. In Christ. In Christ. So I just want to read this to you.
I'll go a little bit slow before I close, because this was the prayer that I got the. I got the download on, and I had to write it down. It was lengthy, and I thought, well, I wonder why I'm getting that. But then I learned later. So this is what I was given.
Remember repentance.
What does that look like? Heavenly Father, Almighty God, full of mercy and truth, like David, I cry out, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Blot out my transgressions.
Lord, I acknowledge my rebellion against you. I have sinned in thought, I have sinned in word, and I have sinned in deed. I have sinned in my attitudes that are contrary to the character of Christ.
There are things I have done that I should not have done, and there are things I have left undone that you called me to do.
As your word says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
I am no exception. Lord, I confess my sins to you, both known and hidden, and I ask for your cleansing.
Wash me thoroughly, O Lord, and cleanse me from all iniquity as it is written.
Thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice on the cross.
You took my place, you bore my shame, and you Declared it is finished. You paid the price in full. And through your blood I am redeemed.
Forgive me, Lord, for taking that gift lightly.
I repent of my pride. I repent of my anger. I repent of my selfishness. And I repent of of every way I have turned away from you. I turn away from those things and I come back to you.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me, a contrite and humble spirit. Let the Holy Spirit not depart from me. Lead me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake.
I do not want to return to the sin you have set me free from.
Strengthen me to live in holiness and truth.
Your word declares in Hebrews, chapter 8. For I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more.
Thank you Father, for the blessed assurance that my sins are not just forgiven, but my sins are forgotten.
I rest today in the freedom you give in the mighty and merciful name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
[01:05:38] Speaker B: I had to do that first.
[01:05:43] Speaker C: But when they started to hear that, the whole church came forward weeping.
The message was on salvation, repent and repentance.
And as they all fell on their knees, and I challenge you pastors and ministers, if you're going to give an altar call, Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ.
Sometimes you have to show them what humility looks like.
You have to be willing to do that. That emptied about maybe 750 chairs. There wasn't one person left sitting there, not because of me, but it was a message God gave those people for that time.
And when they came up, I just felt led to have them all take the hand of the person to the right and left of them.
And after they heard that, they were willing to pray that so that group of people, that assembly, that gathering came to true repentance that day. And I told them not to cry out and yell their sin specifically out what they were dealing with. But I was available for prayer afterwards if anybody wanted to talk about something. And I'm telling you when that happens, and it's by the Spirit, the people that are going to come that want to be have yokes broken are the sexually abused, the physically abused, people that have been hanging on to things for fear and shame.
That now because the Holy Spirit let them be aware that they're in a safe place where they can, they can speak about that. When that happens, God sets them free immediately. There's no step by step program, no eight year of deliverance. It happens immediately because their hearts were receptive. And God sets us free that way.
So that was my closing prayer.
I would encourage you to look up Eyes to See Ministries International on the website.
Our phone numbers on there. And feel free to call, Call me.
So have a blessed evening.
[01:08:10] Speaker A: Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty early in the morning Our soul song shall rise to thee Holy, holy, holy.
