Bible Study - August 12, 2020

Okay, well, if not, let's go to Revelation 3, and we'll finish up the message to Sardis. Last week, we only got into verse 2 of that message. And just to remind you, in verse 2, we did talk about being watchful, and talked about how that sentence there in verse 2 begins with watchful. And at the end of verse 3, we have the tie-in to it that says, therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as the thief, and you won't know what hour I come upon you.

So in these two verses, verses 2 and 3, God shows us kind of the importance of watching, and what He means by watching. It's not just keeping our eyes on news items and whatever, but really watching ourselves, comparing ourselves to Jesus Christ, the standard that we see in the Bible.

And that's where we need to be having our focus. Yes, being aware of what's going on in the world, and yes, seeing the signs of what's going on, of where the world is going, and seeing that as it marches towards prophecy. But in verse 2, when it says watchful, you know that? As we looked at some verses last week, and as we looked at the word strengthen, we learn and we see that our strength has to come from God.

We have to watch ourselves, we have to discipline ourselves, we have to have ourselves focused on God, and realize that our strength only comes from Him. If we are looking at ourselves, and somehow we're going to strengthen ourselves, no, no, no, that's pride that has to be rooted out of all of us.

We have to come to the point where we're reliant on God, and we strengthen ourselves, and we discuss that, you know, how we strengthen ourselves, and by being immersed in the Word of God, learning the Word of God, applying the Word of God, making conscious decisions and choices in our life that apply His Word, and do His will rather than taking what we would want to do all the time, and putting our preferences, you know, ahead of what He says in the Bible.

So we got through the words, watchful and strengthen, and we left it off there. So let's continue in verse 2 there, because as we look at that sentence, and you remember the message to the church at Sardis, it's a sobering message. He says, you know, to the church and people that might find themselves in the Sardis state, if you will, you have a name that you're alive, you know.

People look at you and say, I'm the on heart of the church of God, and they look at what you do on the outside of the dish, right? And you keep the Sabbath day, and you might keep the holy days, and you might tie, and do the things in your neighborhood, and whatever, that they see you as an example. But but He says you have a name that you're alive, it looks good, but on the inside, you know, you're dead, and you're spiritually languishing here.

So He says in verse 2, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain. And we talked a little bit about spiritual death. And what He's telling this group is, you know, there's still life in you. The fact that you're still here, the fact that you're listening, the fact that you're even hearing this message, there is life, you can turn it around. It's going to take some hard work, it's going to take some discipline, it's going to take you committed to and seeking God with all your heart and mind to get back to where you were before, as we'll see in a little bit here.

But He says, you know, you have to, these things that remain, you're still alive. But He says, but they're ready to die. It's kind of like someone who, you know, is literally physically dying. You know, the breathing becomes shallow, and lethargy sets in, and there's no energy. And you just lay there. There's no zeal to life. There's no reason to go on. And, you know, we can look at our physical lives, and we see someone like that, it's like, man, you just need to pick it up.

Now, there comes a time in our physical life we die, so I'm not talking about that. But, you know, we have to watch what we're doing physically. You know, we have to eat the right diets. We have to exercise. We have to keep ourselves moving. And if we see ourselves physically languishing, there's things we do, you know, to the extent that we can. Spiritually, it's the same way. If we see ourselves languishing, you know, our spouses or our friends say, you just seem like you're drifting.

You don't seem like you have any interest at all. You're just going through the motions, but you're not really you're not really there. You know, you're just there, but there's no life to you. You know, we might want to look at ourselves and say, I'm going to have to start spiritually exercising. God gives me the tools. I have to start using them. You know, if we don't ever exercise, our body's just atrophy. You know, our muscles give out and we become weak. We have to do we have to do the exercise.

You know, people in rehab, they have to go through it. And it's tough, tough when they have go through rehab to do some of those exercises and whatever. But if we're going to build our strength back up, we have to go through it and go through that time. And we have to watch what we're eating.

You know, we're told, you know, spiritually, you know, eat the bread of life. If we're eating the bread of death, you know, doing the things that the world wants, paying more attention to what's going on in the world and eating that food as opposed to the bread of life that we should be feeding on every day, we're going to we're going to languish.

So, so, you know, Christ here in the message here in the message or to the charge of service, he says, you know, there's life in you. You're going to have to you're going to have to do something here, though. You're about to die. You're about to die. Those should be sobering words to anyone who might even think that they're in in that state. Because he says, I haven't found your works perfect before God.

You know, we are our works are indicative of our faith. Our works are indicative of the depth of commitment that we have to God. You know, how how are we growing in love? How are we growing in service? How are we growing in our outlook in life? How are we growing, you know, with concern for others and putting other things first and not just our own, there's just our own comfort, our own, you know, whatever it is.

So he says, I haven't found your works perfect before God. Maybe you've got works, right? He says this, he goes, I know your works back in verse two. But he says, you have a name, you're dead, you have a name, you're alive, but you're, but you're dead. You know, they don't, there's no death to them. There's no life to them.

And so, you know, we move into verse three there and a word, you know, whenever we say the word, remember in the Bible, you know, we should pause, we shouldn't just read right over and we might want to just stop and contemplate what God is saying because, you know, we talk about the word remember a lot during the days of Unleavened Bread and the Spring Holy Days back in, you know, chapter two to the church in Ephesus. There's that word, remember that's there, remember from where you have fallen here to this church that's in spiritual trouble. You know, God says, remember, you know, remember, remember how you have received and heard, you know, remember, remember back when you received the truth. Remember when your mind was opened and how excited you were about the truth that God had opened your mind to, to the Sabbath day, the Holy Days, the plan of God. You couldn't, you couldn't wait to be at church. You couldn't wait to be with people of like mind. You couldn't wait to read the Bible. You couldn't wait to do all those things. Are you still that way? And, you know, he says, remember how you received? Well, we all received, you know, was God's Spirit worked with us and opened our minds and we began to see the truth of where our lives were, were compared to where God wants them to be. And he says, remember how you heard? You know, there's always the part in God's Word of hearing the Word as well as reading and studying it. And in Romans 10 verse 17, you know, it says, faith comes by, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, or maybe I've got that reversed a little bit. We can never discount, you know, the hearing of the Word. And so, and in that, God shows we're part of a body. We're part of the makeup of the body that God puts us into. We read, we study, we hear, we are part of one another. We do it God's way if we're pleasing to Him. So, you know, the next words there in verse 3, two words I do want to pause on a little bit because we've read them before in Revelation. We'll read them in Revelation again later. The words hold fast, you know. Remember where you came from. Pause. Stop and think. What's changed? What's changed? Why am I the way I am today versus the way I was five years ago, ten years ago, one year ago, fifty years ago? Why am I doing things today? How am I doing things today different than I would have done back then? Would I have ever thought back then that I would be making some of the choices that I make today, we might ask ourselves. And if not, pause. Stop. Don't just don't just make excuses for it. Go back and remember, you know, the apostle, the apostle John and his epistles, you know, we talked about it many times. He says, what you were taught from the beginning. Hang on to that. You know, hang on to it. And here, you know, John, as he's, yes, he's recording what Christ wrote, you know, he said, or gave him, he says, hold fast.

You know, there's three times in these messages that we, you know, read this back in the Thyatira, you know, chapter two, verse 25, just a few verses up, you know, he says to a church that's wrestling with, compromising with that woman Jezebel, you know, that church that he describes is the death of Satan. You know, he says, you know, repent and then hold fast.

Cling to it. Don't let it go. Don't let your ideas, your compromises, your, your desires that, you know, don't let them overcome what God wants. Put him first. You can do all those things. Hold fast to it when you remember those things. And, you know, next time we'll talk about the church at Philadelphia in verse 11, or this same chapter, chapter three, it says to that church, you know, Christ says, Behold, I'm coming quickly. Hold fast. Don't let it go. Don't let it slip through your fingers. The way we let us slip through our fingers are by the choices that we make. The closer that we get to the world, the more it slips away. We have to become stronger and stronger in God's Word and his life and using his Holy Spirit and letting it lead our lives as we go through. We have to hold fast, and that's a conscious decision. And, and around the clock, and around the clock, this decision and choices that we make, you know, as well. But let's, you know, you know, I often, you know, I like to stop on some of these these concepts because, you know, God says that here in Revelation. It's there throughout the New Testament, right? 1 Thessalonians 5, 21, you know, we're told, prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. We can go back a couple books here to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 10 and verse 22 and see where God talks about holding fast, not only in the New Testament, but the same message is there in the Old Testament as well. We're going to see here in a message because there's this consistency of the message from God, the consistency of the admonition, you know, to the ancient Israelites who didn't have God's Holy Spirit except the leaders. And those of us who have the Holy Spirit today, the message is the same and God's will is the same. But in Hebrews 10 and in verse 22, we know we're admonished, let's draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. And in verse 23, he says, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful.

You know, believing in the promises of God, believing in God, having that as our core, that we believe in Him and we would follow Him wherever He says and whatever He wants us to do, let's hold fast to that and let us hold faster, you know, have that grip even closer to that as time goes on. But let's go back to Deuteronomy. You know, here in Deuteronomy, you know, we hear, we see these the same hold fast admonitions. Deuteronomy 10.

And of course, you know, remember Deuteronomy. This is Moses as he is about to die. He's not going to be the leader taking Israel into the promised land. He will be, you know, he'll be dying and passing the baton, if you will, off to Joshua. But here, as he's recounting to Israel, all of the things they've been through, and he's giving him his, you know, his final, you know, admonitions. Stay close to God. Here in Deuteronomy 10 and verse 20, he says, "'You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name.'" You know, he's the one you're going to serve. He's the one that you fear. He's the one that you cling to. Now, Moses never drew the attention to himself. He always pointed, hold fast to God. And Moses did that. He wasn't perfect. He made some mistakes, of course, but we knew, too, to hold fast to God and follow as he directs us to follow him. One chapter over in Deuteronomy 11 and in verse, you know, 22.

Now, the word, there's the word carefully, you know, in other places of Deuteronomy, it uses the word diligently. When we look at God's law, when we study God's law, we apply it carefully into our lives. Or if you carefully keep all these commandments, which I command you to do, to love the eternal your God, to walk in all his ways, and to hold fast to him, then he will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.

You know, we want strength. You know, we might look at ourselves, or we might look at some of the weaknesses and faults we have and think, and I can never overcome that. It's just so rooted in me. I just can't seem to get that thought out of my mind, that reaction out of my mind, that language out of my mind, that proclivity out of my mind, that sin I just can't seem to overcome. You know what we need to do? We just need to follow what it says in Deuteronomy 11.22.

Get closer to him. Carefully apply his commandments into our lives. Carefully look at what we're doing, not making excuses for ourselves, but carefully applying. And the closer we get to God, the closer that we do the things that he says, and he sees that our heart is really determined to do his will, that we really do pray, thy kingdom come, that when we pray, thy will be done, we really mean it. And he sees that in our hearts, and that we even ask him, teach us your will. We don't even know sometimes what his will is. We say, thy will be done, and we ask your blessing on this, but he's not going to bless, and what we're doing is will and sometimes we just need to ask, teach us, teach us, are we doing your will?

Is this the way you want it done? Is this the way it should be done? And God will respond to that because he is our teacher. He will lead us into what we need individually and collectively when we allow him to do that and when we ask him, when we ask him to do it.

You know, one more in the Old Testament here in the book of Joshua. We're in the book of Joshua a little bit. Well, in the first chapter, backless, Last Sabbath, as Joshua was beginning, you know, his leadership of Israel under God. And in chapter 22, his time on earth, you know, is coming to an end, and he's going to die. Israel will find themselves, you know, in the time of the Judges that we read of in Judges. But in chapter 22, he admonishes them of something we can take, you know, that we can take note of. He gives them the same message that Moses gives them in chapter 22 and verse 5.

He says, but take careful. There's that word, you know, always when you say that word careful and diligently, that's effort on our part. Not just generally keeping the commandments, not just generally knowing the will of God, but carefully learning that and examining ourselves and watching ourselves, whether we're living and walking in the way God wants us to in the detail. But take careful heed to do the commandments and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

I mean, those are New Testament words. I mean, Jesus Christ could have said that. We could each of that say that to each other, those very same words, right? And notice, you know, I think as we talked about, you know, what you were taught from the beginning do, that's what Joshua says here, too. He doesn't come back and say, you know, everything that I've told you to do, continue doing Israel. You know, the law, God gave the law to Israel and the way of life through Moses. And he goes back and he says, you know, what Moses commanded you to do, that's the law.

It's still in effect. It still works. It's the way. What you were taught from the beginning back 80 years ago, when Moses, you know, when you follow God and Moses out of Egypt, that law still applies. And the same thing for us today. What we were taught in the beginning still applies. You know, it's us who may have altered the law in our minds. It's us who may have given ourselves permissions that the Bible doesn't give us permissions.

We just need to, you know, make sure that we are carefully clinging to God, carefully following His way of life, carefully, you know, carefully watching ourselves. You know, the message to hold fast to God is consistent throughout the Bible, you know, from the beginning all the way to until the end.

So let me pause there if there's any comments, questions, or whatever. And of course, you know, whenever you have one, you can go ahead and just, you know, speak up at any time. So we'll head back to Revelation 3 while I'm pausing here. So okay, well, let's continue then on with to the message at Sardis. You know, there's that word hold fast, you know, we see the words hold fast, we may pause for a second and kind of make ourselves think, oh, that's right, hold fast. That's something I need to be doing. And I need to be kind of looking at myself and examining myself. Hold fast and, of course, repent. It says to finish that sentence. We don't have to spend a lot of time on repentance unless someone doesn't understand repentance. Repentance is, you know, of course, turning from our way to God, not doing it our way anymore, when we realize when he opens our minds, but doing it his way, consciously choosing that way. So then, you know, the message here in these verses finishes with a therefore. Therefore, if you want, watch. If you're not going to pay attention to things I say, if you're not going to go back and remember how you received and remember how you heard, if you're not going to hold fast to me, if you're not going to, you know, repent. Therefore, if you're not going to do any of these things that I asked you to do, I'll come upon you as a thief, and you won't know what hour I'll come upon you. That's, you know, that's an interesting way for Christ to put it as well, and God to put it.

Because, you know, Christ talks about, you know, to those who aren't ready, it'll, he's going to come as a thief in the night. But if we're ready, if we're close to God, if we have that relationship, if we are exercising the Holy Spirit, if we're feeding on the on the bread of life daily, if we are consciously making choices in our life to get closer to God, instead of making excuses that allow us to become what we want us to become or make our lives easy, if we're doing those things, then the time comes, however it is, however it is, that God is going to make us know or let us know whatever He has in mind about whether it's time to flee or what is coming. You know, if we're close to God, we're going to understand that. But if we've just been kind of waltzing through life and doing our own things, you know, we're not going to know. He's going to see what's not in our heart. And when it happens, when it happens, whoa, it's going to be how did that happen? Right? Jesus Christ, when He talked about a thief coming as a thief in the night in Matthew 24, you know, He went on in that chapter in that prophecy, and He talked about, you know, two will be in the field.

One will be taken, and the other one will be left behind. One was close to God. Both of them were in the field. Both of them were there together, but one was ready, and the other wasn't. And they were left behind. Now, there's chapter break between 24 and 25 of Matthew, and He goes right into the parable of the Sanbergians. You know, all of them were virgins. All of them have cast off their former religious ideas and things like that. All of them were asleep, but five of them were so soundly asleep, it took them by surprise when the bridegroom craig came. And so they rushed to hurry up, but when they went to knock on the doors, like, too late, too late, you know, you weren't ready. You know, He goes on in that chapter, and He talks about the parable of the talents, what He gives us to do. And are we multiplying those talents, or are we burying them in the ground? And we've just become, you know, very inert. Nothing's going on, and we just think, hey, you know what? I'm good enough. I'm at a place in my life. I don't have to change. I don't have to grow. God is happy with me, and, you know, we're just static. God didn't call any of us to be static. He intended us to grow right until the time our life ends. You know, sadly, some are even regressing a little bit, you know, when we look at ourselves. But He says those that didn't multiply the talents, they just kind of buried it in the ground, didn't do anything with it, just kind of gave up and fell asleep and thought, hey, I'm okay. He says, hey, take it from them, and says, you know, it has an awful pronouncement on them, and the same thing with the sheep and goats as you go through that chapter. Because as we grow, and as we're closer to God, these things and these attitudes that we see, you know, in those chapters will become more and more the way God wants us to be. None of us want to be, you know, there at the time that Christ returned to say, oh, I had no idea the time was that close. I had no idea! Because if we're in that group, we kind of know, as we read in Revelation 7 a couple weeks ago, you know, what we need to do in order to, you know, in order to remain alive, in order to have our robes washed white. And so he says, you know, I'm going to come upon you as a thief, and you won't know what hour I'll come upon you. You know, keep that word hour in mind. Later, as we get into Revelation, you know more, we're going to come back to that word hour and what it means. It's a specific instant in time, but we're going to see that word hour appear in Revelation a few more times as we go through the book. So again, let me just stop there if there's any questions, thoughts, anything. You know, I pause because I know if I just keep talking, I'll just keep talking. And I pause so that we have time to absorb some of the things that we're talking about. So we can kind of put it in our minds, and as we go through this, kind of put the whole message together that it sinks in there a little bit as well. So.

Okay, well let's go on with verse four then, because we'll finish up, you know, the message to Sardis here. So he's got, you know, he's got this pronouncement and he says, you know, you have a few names, even in Sardis, you know, even in Sardis, even in this, even in this attitude, you have a few names who haven't defiled their garments, and they'll walk with me in white, for they are worthy. That's a beautiful verse when you, when you look at it, because when we read back in Revelation, you know, one and two and three, when the seals are being opened, there was no one worthy to open those seals. Not in heaven, or certainly not on earth, only Jesus Christ was worthy. And yet he says, you know, if you come out of your doldrums, if you'll really embrace me, if you'll really hold fast to me, if you'll really do it the way I've called you to do it, you'll walk with me. You'll be clothed in white. You'll be worthy. You'll be worthy. Look, look where we come from, from being even unworthy to, well, unworthy in every respect of the word, less than nothing to, as we follow God, to, for him to say, if you do these things, you know, you'll be worthy. Well, let me, let me just pause there. I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw up on the screen here. Am I gonna throw up on the screen here? Let me open a document in my word file here. Yeah, Mr. Shabe, I thought it was very interesting about, you know, when it says in, in verse three, Hold, fathom, there's probably a show not watch. I'll come to you as a thief. And it reminds me of Matthew 24, you know, when Christ talks about coming as a thief in the night, you know, I mean, basically meaning that, you know, people will be asleep and won't even recognize the times that they're living in. And it'll just come upon them, you know. Yeah.

Exactly. Exactly. It's kind of a, you know, kind of a sobering thought to think you might just sleep right through it. And what we, what we've, what we've been called, you know, to, and that all of heaven is waiting for the time that this hour to come. And yet they're ready, but we're not. So, you know, it says, Bernadette, did you have a question before or a comment? No, no. Oh, okay. I thought I saw, I thought I saw a hand or a light go on on your, on your screen a little bit ago.

So, okay. You know, in verse four, he says, You have a few names even in Sardis who haven't defiled their garments. And before I throw this screen up in the history of, of, of Sardis, as, as, you know, the centuries of going by, you know, let me, let me talk about defiling our garments a little bit. You know, we, those of us who have had kids and even ourselves, you know, we dress ourselves in clean clothes. And, you know, if we, we go out and we want to look, look our best, we want, you know, fresh, freshly pressed, very clean clothes.

And, and if something comes by and splashes mud on us, it's kind of a depressing thing to, to have that happen. If we dress our kids all up, and they're out playing in the mud, it's like, no, don't defile your garments. They dress you in clean clothes. You know, we're, when we're baptized, you know, when we're baptized, and we've truly repented, and we are, you know, immersed in the waters of baptism.

And I remind people as they're coming up out of those waters, you know, in God's eyes, He has forgiven your sins. You are clean in His sight. It says, He forgives your sins. He'll forget your sins, as this, as it's as if, you know, we're a newborn child, someone that He's going to write His laws and principles on the rest of our lives.

But in His eyes, we're pure and clean. But as we walk through life, we soil our clothes, right? We defile our garments, and we make mistakes. We sin. And it's our job when we sin, and when weaknesses and faults and attitudes come up that we're aware of to repent.

The way we wash our, wash our clothes is through repentance. You know, in Ephesians 5, it talks about washing, you know, being washed white in the Word of God by looking into the Bible and realizing, oh, to have our clean garments, this is how we, yeah, this is how we walk. This is how we carefully and diligently do it.

And so He says, you know, to people in Sardis, He goes, you know, they, they defile their garments. They're kind of walking around with filthy, filthy clothes. Back, let's go back to Zechariah for a minute. Mr. Shavey. Yes, Paul. Oh, you mentioned repentance, and I don't, we hardly ever talk about the fact that we can't even do that by ourselves. Repentance is a gift, so we need to pray for it. That's a, that's a very good point. Very good point. Even, even repentance comes from God.

He gives us the gift of repentance that we can kind of see ourselves, you know, as He sees us and, and everything. Good point, Paul. That's what I mean, you know, when you look at it, we, we are thankful to God for literally everything. There is nothing about us that is self-sufficient. I mean, if we ever kind of think that we can do this and we can do that, we are dependent on God for everything.

And He, He literally gives us everything to, to allow us to have even the opportunity of eternal life. You know, so I, I always go back to Romans 12, 1 and 2, when Paul says it's our reasonable to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, which is our reasonable service. And I think, yeah, it's our reasonable service. God's given us everything. Without Him, we are nothing. And we owe Him everything. Let's, you know, along this, this, this concept of defiled garments, if you're already in Zachariah 3, you know, often we go back, I say, and Zachariah will, we'll do this again when we get to the two witnesses here and a couple Bible studies as well.

But let's just read through that. And then we see these filthy garments show up in, in Zachariah 3, too. In verse 1, it says, He showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing in his right hand to oppose him. You know, that's kind of the picture we have of Satan, you know, God will, you know, we're trying to follow God, but Satan is right there all every step of the way, too, to see if we can, if he can trip us up, if he can lure us into something, if he can deceive us somehow, you know, because his entire mission is that we become upended and lose, you know, lose the spiritual life that God has given us.

And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a hand plucked, a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua, the high priest, was clothed with filthy garments and was standing before the angel. He was a sinner. And see how God describes him? And there he is, it kind of reminds you of Isaiah, you know, by Isaiah 6, when we were back in that chapter a few weeks ago, and then Isaiah, when he was in the presence of God, he just kind of saw himself as, man, I am, I am not worthy to be here at all. And, and God, you know, cleansed him and forgave his sins.

And then in verse 4 says, he answered and spoke to those who stood before him, saying, take away the filthy garments from him. And to him, he said, see, I've removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes. And that's what God does to us. When he gives us those rich robes, you know, like children, he expects us and really wants us to continue to walk in and keep them. Well, that they would actually become whiter and whiter and whiter to the white that he wants them to be, you know, at the time of Jesus Christ's return. You know, none of us are perfect. All of our garments have spots on them. All of our garments have wrinkles. All of our garments, you know, have certain dirt on them. But God will show us where that dirt is. If we're watching ourselves, if we're, if we're remembering what we heard, remembering what we received, if we're looking into his Word, he'll, he'll show us where those spots are, that we can, you know, cleanse them through the washing of the water of the Word. But he says, you know, these, these, the people with the Sardis attitude, the people with the Sardis, you know, mentality, they're just, they're, they're garments are defiled, but there are a few, even in Sardis, you know, who will walk with him and be clothed in white. Now let me, let me bring up this, this history of Sardis. Okay, can you, can you see that?

Yes. Yeah, this is in your, this is in the history of the church document that, you know, we sent out several weeks ago. Now we've been referring to it from time to time, and this is the era, if you will, that, you know, is, is, you know, compared to the time of Sardis. And as we go through some of the history of the church of God, you know, we talked about the times where for 1260 years, you know, the Bible was, you know, book non-grot, the Catholic Church suppressed it, people would be burned at the stake for even trying to read a Bible. It was something that had to be kept under wrap and, you know, under wrap and whatever the, the, the praises there, key and wrap, I guess. No one could see it with the Bible. But as we move into the 14th, 15th, 16th centuries, you know, we see the world beginning to change. And as that 1260 years expires, we begin to see the Bible appear in England. We begin there in 1315 A.D. And you remember, you know, from your reading, I don't think we looked at Thyatira online last time we were talking about it. We see that, you know, from Germany, the Waldensian preacher Walter Lallard, you know, came to England. And of all places, you know, in England is where the Bible began to be printed, translated into English, and shared ultimately with the whole world. And it's interesting that it was in, you know, Ephraim, you know, one of the, as we say, modern day 12 tribes there in Ephraim, that God began to open his Bible, and it was his people there that, you know, that began to translate it. And there it became accessible to everyone in the world. You know, it's an interesting time in English history when you look back at that period because there was a time when England was completely Catholic, and then the kings began to look at it. They didn't want to be under the control and under the thumb of the pope anymore, and so they began to pull away, and the Reformation was beginning. And so they looked at the Bible, and they thought, we don't need to be under the control of the pope, you know, we'll do our own things.

But it kind of stopped with the Church of England, because they thought, okay, we don't want to be under the control of the pope anymore. There's things that the pope is clearly doing wrong when we look into these pages, but the kings wanted to have that spiritual authority vested in them along with the civil authority. So they had the Church of England, and that's where it stopped. But at least they did allow the Bible to be translated and through some ups and downs in history, you know, the Bible emanated from there. So we see the truth. The truth come from the Waldensians over to England in 1315. You know, in the 1380s, we see the first English language Bible manuscripts were produced by John Wycliffe. You know, one of the Bible programs I used still has the Wycliffe Bible, so you can kind of go on and see what his translation is, which is extraordinarily similar to the King James Bible. His followers were called the Lallers, that he said. And I do remember last time we talked about at the end of the Thyatyran era, that some of the people began to look at some of the Catholic practices and began to adopt some of those things, like baptism of children, or even being able to attend mass. And they kind of mixed some of them. Not all of them did that. And some of that, you know, might have happened with the Protestant Reformation as they saw that becoming, because they would have seen the Protestants look at the Bible and say, hey, the Catholics are all wrong. We've been taught all our lives. It's absolutely heresy. It's not in the Bible at all. In fact, in many cases, it's the opposite of the Bible.

So then they would embrace the Bible, but for some reason, they kept some of the Catholic virtues. They still kept worshiping on Sunday. Now, I have no idea what the status of Christmas and Easter and all that stuff was back then, but they kept those holidays of the Catholic Church. And they didn't go all the way to the Bible. They used a little bit of the Bible, but then they kept the pagan religions, too. So they were as guilty of mixing truth and error and the knowledge of good and evil as the Catholics were. And so you see that happened down through the ages there. But then as you get down into the 1600s, you begin to see congregations that are actually calling themselves the Church of God. You know, they're not at this point going to be burned at the stake. They're not going to be arrested. They're not going to be killed. Times have changed. God has opened it, and it's time for the Church of God to emerge after the 1260 years of suppression that were there. And you see some people then actually openly keeping the Sabbath, not having to keep it in secret, and you know, as they did all through those years. But now they can keep it there in the world. You know, that time we call them Sabbatarians. Look, they're keeping a seven-day Sabbath like the Jews, you know, so they might have been curious about that.

It comes over to America, you know, when we look at some of the history. Many of you have heard the name Stephen Mumford, you know, who came to Rhode Island, raised up a small church that was a Baptist church, but they did keep the seventh-day Sabbath. And this historian, you know, again, he'll mention the Sabbath as part of the identifying sign of that church, but like we saw in another church era, there's another sign that he pointed to that they didn't even hold on to that Catholic dogma or that Protestant dogma. And he goes, I conclude, and where I have in yellow there, I conclude they all believe in one God, the Father and Maker of all things, sin accepted, and a one Lord Jesus Christ, or that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And they also believe in the Holy Ghost as the operative power or Spirit of God. But there are few, if any, of this denomination, as I can see, who believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are three absolute distinct persons.

Co-equal, co-essential, and co-eternal gods, and yet but one God, as such an idea would be in the face of Scripture and repugnant to right reason. So when he, you know, he sees the Sabbath, but the other thing he sees in this group is they're not holding to the doctrine of the Trinity. They're not saying the Holy Spirit is a person. They would find that when they read Scripture, repugnant to them, that that could even be discussed. And we saw that in another part, you know, back a few churches ago, and we looked at some of the writings of the early Church history.

So today, the Church of God is going to keep the Sabbath day. It's going to keep the Holy Days of God. It's not going to share the doctrine of the Trinity. And any, any church that shares or believes in the doctrine of the Trinity simply is not the Church of God. And not simply, simply put, there's just no way to reason around it. And you know, any church that just keeps, you know, as we see here, the Seventh-day Baptist, they had it. But then in 1709, the history shows a watered-down version of the Church survived into the Seventh-day Baptist. There was an interesting thing that developed during that time because you would see these churches emerge. Now they're in the public. Now they're keeping the Sabbath day. Now they have these beliefs that are out there. They, but they began to wane a little bit. You know, they began to allow things and depart from the truth. They compromised a little bit, no longer were is it them against the entire world. Now they were part of the world and somewhat accepted, not being persecuted. And they allowed things into their lives. And as they grew apart from God and more and more like the world, their name, Church of God, disappeared. You know, so this group became known as the Seventh-day Baptist. No longer called the Church of God, but called the Seventh-day Baptists. You know, they really maintained some truth, but not all. The true Church of God should be preaching, teaching, and living all the truth of God. Same thing with the Seventh-day Adventists. You know, they learned the truth of the Sabbath. You look at 1843, they briefly are affiliated with the true Church, and they were called the Church of God. They had a publication that was there. They even had a songbook in the early days dedicated to the Church of God scattered abroad. But as that church emerged, you know, Ellen White came in. She had some ideas. They began to pay attention to her. They began to adopt some of the practices of the world around them. And they were no longer the Church of God. And they changed their name to Seventh-day Adventist. It's like God does not allow that Church of God name to be on a church that used to have the truth. They had a name that they were alive, but then when they died, the name was taken off of them. And today it's a dead church. You know, there were some out of the Seventh-day Adventists, we see in 1860 there in the next 70 years, that did emerge from that Church. And one notable name that we'll talk about next time that didn't, you know, succumb to the things that happened to that church. And they survived this remnant Church of God in Stansbury, Missouri. You know, they survived. They keep the Sabbath day. They don't keep the Holy Days. And from time to time, you know, we have someone from that church today that will visit us on Holy Days. And they'll say, you know, they still believe they should keep the Holy Days. Their church doesn't. For some reason, they stay there rather than joining a church that keeps them all. But that's between them and God. And then you have out of that dead church, the Philadelphia era, the Philadelphia Church emerged. And we'll talk about that, you know, more next time. But even in history, as we look at those, the history of the churches, and what happened after, you know, the Bible, you know, was able to be distributed, we see they had a name for a while, but then they became dead.

And the same danger can happen to us if we, you know, if we allow the world and ourselves to begin to take more precedence over the careful and diligent, you know, obedience to God.

Let me pause there for just a second as we head back to Revelation 3.

It's like that scripture that says, not everyone who says, Lord, Lord will be called into the kingdom. Very good. Very good. Yes, exactly.

Yeah, Mr. Shaby, I think it also points out the fact that, you know, it's not just, like you're saying, it's not just the Sabbath. The Sabbath isn't the one sign or the one truth that indicates where the true church is, because there are other churches that have left true church that keep the Sabbath. But like you're just saying, you know, they still keep Christmas, they keep Easter, they keep all that. And it's got to be the entire truth of the Bible, or else it's not God's church. And that's just, you know, that's just how it is. That's what the Bible says. Yeah, and it's incumbent upon God's church to remain or to retain white garments, right, that we teach the truth. And that's why I always say, if you hear something you don't understand, if something doesn't look like in the Bible that you see, always ask. No one's going to get mad. You know, we want people to understand it's the truth. We live by the truth, and we're striving to live by every word of God. So that's what the Church of God should do, and none of us are perfect. We will learn, and we will grow as God opens our minds. But we certainly are striving to teach the truth and live by it, or the Church of God does. Yes, Xavier? Going back to verse 3, where it says, watch, no, hold fast. He mentioned the word, and the word is terael. And it's similar to what God says about, he tells us, for the seven-day commandment, and all of those. To keep, it means also not just observe, but to guard. And that also agrees with the rest of what you've just showed. Guard what we were given, but keep it at the same time. Don't compromise it. Don't let anything come in. Set a fencer on your guard. Yep, very good. Very good.

A lot of meaning in those Greek words.

Okay, want to move on? We'll got one more verse in Sardis, and then we'll move over into chapter I guess two verses. In Sardis, I will move over to chapter 8. You know, well, the walk with me in white. Let me just give you some verses on walk with me, right? You know, we talk about walking with God, and there's even a song that choirs things sometimes about, I'll walk with God. But walking with God is a concept that is in the Bible everywhere. We are walking with God, right? I mean, how can two walk together if they're not be agreed? We need to be in total agreement with God and seeking that. Let me just give you a few verses that you can look up on your own on walking with me, because it's a concept in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament. Again, there's the the symmetry of the old with the new. The messages are the same. You can go back and you can look at Psalm 56 verses 12 and 13. In there, it talks about David and how he, you know, I don't know if it actually says he walked with God, but it talks about how he was, that he kept God's law, that he was, his whole heart was with God. And then you see that reference in Isaiah 38 and Isaiah 42, Isaiah 38, 3 and Isaiah 42 verses 23 to 25. You know, Isaiah 38 is talking about Hezekiah. You know, he reminds God, I walked with you when he's sick, and God hears that, and he gives him 15 more years of life. In Isaiah 42, we walk with God. You know, in Mic 6 verse 8, it's a well-known verse that says, you know, what does God require of us? But to walk humbly with Him and to, you know, to be people of justice, mercy, and faith. And so, you know, the concept of walking with God, you know, and as we, if we find ourselves in this kind of dying state that Sardis is, and we come back out, you know, we walk with God and walk always indicates motion. We're always moving. We're not stagnant. We're not stationary. We're not inert. You know, we're moving because we're moving. We're walking with God. In verse 5, you know, the admonition to every one of the churches, he who overcomes, you know, that's incumbent on us. God wants us to overcome. God gives us the tools to overcome. We can't do it without Him, but without our effort, without our determination, without our will and desire being to overcome, it's not going to happen.

We have to pour ourselves into it. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments.

You know, we read that in Revelation 19, the end of this book, you know, the the bride of Christ will be adorned in white, which is the righteous act of the saints. They'll be clothed in white garments and kind of a warning to Sardis and people who might find themselves in this state. And I will not blot out His name from the book of life. Notice what he's saying there, you know, there are people whose name is going to be plotted out of the book of life in this Sardis attitude. But those who will watch, those who will turn around, those who will walk with God and get their lives, you know, back in order and come alive again and remember, remember what they heard, remember how they received, and then get life again, I won't, I won't blot them out of the book of the life. The others will be. But Christ says, I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels. It's a beautiful verse, but it's also a sobering verse to realize that, you know, if we fall into this state, our names could be plotted out of the book of life. We might have a name, but if there's no life on the inside, the book of life isn't going to be where our name is written. You know, one thing I forgot to mention this afternoon too until late, and I'm just going to reference it here. When we were talking about watching before, so just food for thought, you know, back in the spring holy days, you know, we have Passover, the very next night is the days of Unleavened Bread. Again, we have the night to be much observed. Now, we talk about this every year, I think, you know, we sometimes have the night to be much observed. We see it as a celebration, you know, God has brought Israel out of Egypt. He's brought us out of spiritual Egypt. He's given us life. He's given us eternal life. But when you look at what the words are in the commentaries there and the concordances, it says the night to be much observed is a night of watching. A night of watching. A night of vigil. A night of watching. You know, so that's a different look at it when we call it what, you know, some of the commentaries say and where it's related to in the New Testament. We're going to have to talk about that now, but keep that in the back of your mind as we, you know, talk more about the night to be much observed next year, maybe over the course of the next, you know, six months that's been ruminating in our minds and we learn why did God call that very first holy day that evening where we get together a night of watching? A night of watching. What should we be picturing? What does he want us to know about as our journey begins with him? So, okay. Verse 6, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, you know, people that are listening, you know, let it ring true and let it, you know, let it, let it have an effect on us and let that hearing turn in, you know, to action is what God is saying.

So again, let me pause there and we'll move over in the time we have remaining.

Over to chapter, well, first a little bit to chapter 7. We'll get through chapter 8 here tonight. So, message, you know, message to the church of Sardis. A lot of times we, you know, we read through it and we say, boy, that's awful. That's hardest church. They didn't do anything right and boom, boom, boom. But boy, it's a message to us that rings loud and loud and clear that we need to pay attention to.

So, okay, let's move to chapter 7 then. And again, feel free to speak up at any time.

You know, in chapter 7, we've already talked about the 12 tribes of Judah. We discussed those, our 12 tribes of Israel, 12,000 in each of them. In the early event of the chapter, we see this great multitude that had their robes washed white in the Great Tribulation. You know, by the time we get to the end of chapter 7, the first six seals have opened. And you have this Great Tribulation that is over, that is completed. You have the sixth seal open, the heavenly signs that can't be predicted. It is clear to mankind this isn't anything that was written in the script that we could predict from the stars 200 years ago. This is God at work. And so people are scrambling, they're looking to hide from the supernatural power God who is rattling the heavens among them. And then we have this group of 144,000, and we have this great multitude that, you know, God tells us, are the people who came through the Great Tribulation. You know, here we are at this time before the seventh seal opens, right? Before the seven seals opens. Let's look at, I think, I don't know if we did this last week or now, but let's just read verses 15, 16, and 17 of Revelation 7, and see what it says about this people, this people that we've talked about here, and or these peoples that we talked about here in Revelation 7. It says, Therefore they, they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sat on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

So we, we kind of see, you know, what this group is. They're before the throne of God. They're there, they're there, you know, if this is a chronological thing, they're there before the seventh seal opens. Now we can fast forward to Revelation 21 and see very similar words in Revelation 21 that we just read, that we just read there in chapter 7. Chapter 21, let's look at verse 1. It says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will be well with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them and be their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. And he said to me, It's done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water, I will give of the fountain of the water of life, freely to him who thirsts.

To him who overcomes, he will inherit all things. So after we see these people, you know, who were sealed, the tribes, and after we see this great multitude who came through the Great Tribulation and had their robes washed white through the Tribulation, you know, God defines his people with words very similar to what they'll be doing at Revelation 21.

And I don't know, though, I want to get into a discussion, certainly, you know, any thoughts that are there. But again, food for thought, you know, it defines in verse 17, it says, The Lamb, we know who the Lamb is, the Lamb is who in the midst, who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He'll lead them to the mountains of living water. You know, there isn't the, you know, to the first fruits, the bride of Christ. Christ is the husband, you know. And before the seventh trumpet, before the seven trumpets begin, you know, we have this group of people that God are saying these things to and defining what they will do, how they will serve him, that they will be before him. And we see this picture in Revelation 21 as well. Might, just might, give us kind of a clue as to what these people in this group will be doing and opposed to other promises that God makes to people who are in the first resurrection when we get, when we get to that event. So let me just, just let me let you, you know, I'll just leave you with that, that thought. But certainly, I'm not going to just leave it if anyone's got a comment or wants to talk about that. I'll be happy to talk about that a little bit. I'm not making any pronouncements, just drawing an observation. So Mr. Shaby. Yes, right.

You know, there's a captivity coming of the house of Israel. And as yet, God has not given promised land to the physical house of Israel yet. So there has to be a group that is given the physical land. And there has to be physical, you know, house of Israel during the millennium. If possible, these are the people that are in the second exodus that go down and take possession of the promised land.

It's, anything is possible. There has to be physical Israelites alive in the millennium to inhabit that land, exactly as you said. So.

Well, Shaby, the context of chapter seven seems to begin in chapter six, verse six, where the planet will be damaged, the planet will be damaged. And then it goes forward and backwards. It goes forward to the first resurrection, and it shows a summary of people who are saved.

And then it stops, and then the vision continues almost chronologically again. Yeah, I see that. That will maybe be just an inset chapter. It's just interesting, because there's another group of people whose future is different than the future that's painted there. They're not one of the same when you look at what their purposes are, and everything. So. Yeah, because we know there will be repentance before Christ, before Christ returns. Some of Israel, we repent. Some people from other nations, we repent.

There will be the ministry of saints as well as the two witnesses.

We know it won't be a lot, but, and then there will be physical people that we carried over. It's a 10 percent. 10 percent of what we have nowadays is a lot of people. That has no pleasure in the amount that will die, but still 10 percent that will be reproduced during the thousand years will be allowed. Yeah, if you look at chapter 6 verse 17, I mean, the sixth seal has ended, right? And a great day of his wrath has come. And after these things, after those seals have been opened, you know, and then in verse 3, I'm going to come back to that in a minute as we begin chapter 8 here, you know, he talks about the first three trumpets saying, don't harm the earth, don't harm the sea, don't hurt the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

Okay, we're going to do this first, and then don't do, don't let those trumpets sound until after this has happened, and then it defines what's happening, I guess. So anyway, I'll just, when you look at what, again, just food for thought. God will lead us into what, you know, what it is exactly that we learn, you know, as we go through here. But let's go on to chapter 8, and you know, and verse 1. You know, so as we begin chapter 8, you see this, you know, I really like verse 1 of chapter 8, because it kind of sets the tone for what's happening next.

You know, the world has been, you know, as you read through the chapters, we've been through six seals have been opened. The world has been shaken with the heavenly signs. You know, we've had the stage set. We've seen a lot as we've gone through Revelation. We've seen the throne of God. We see 24 living, 24 elders, four living creatures.

We've, you know, we've had messages to the churches. We've had, you know, the Great Tribulation. We've had people come through the Great Tribulation who resisted the mark of the beast. And then this seventh trumpet, the seven trumpets are about, the seventh seal is going to open. And it's like God says, you know, drink it all in. Let's, there, it says there will be silence in heaven for about half an hour. You know, that's, that's half of, half an hour.

And the commentaries say that's a very brief period of time. Just, just time where God says, you know, relax, take it all in. This is the moment that we've been waiting for from the time the earth was created. And even before plans have been made, we've, we've lived through 6,000 years of mankind. Jesus Christ has given his life. He's about to return to earth when the seven trumpets begin. It's, it's the time, the time he returns and the revealing of the sons of God, the revealing of the first fruits happen at this time.

Just pause. You know, sometimes in our life, they are so busy. We need to, to, to just pause and, and contemplate what we've read, what we've been through. Now, even through this coronavirus time, you know, it's like, sometimes just stop and think, where have we been?

Look at what we've learned. Look at what we've been through since the beginning of March. It's one lesson on another, one twist and turn on another. It's a never-ending education, if you will, an eye-opener. And sometimes we just need to pause. And God kind of like puts the pause button on in history at that, that time. Mankind has been through a lot.

They've seen, they've seen the sixth seal open. Heavenly signs they can't explain. They are scared to death. And they too are waiting to see what happens next. And then we see God with this very orchestrated, well-planned out, you know, series of events that introduces this very, this very dramatic, you know, trumpets that we will be celebrating here within the next month or five weeks. So as I saw, you know, John writes, I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets.

And we can go back to Revelation 1 verse 4. And there we read back, you know, whenever we started the book of Revelation, you know, John says in verse 4, Brace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. You know, there they are. And this could well be the seven, same seven angels who stand before God, ready for their part in this dramatic event, climactic events that are about to happen.

I saw the seven angels stand before God, who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. You know, just picture as we go through, you know, this what's, what's going on and how God has this planned and how he leads up to this time.

Now, sometimes people will say, oh, the piece of trumpet, you can't find that anywhere in the Bible, you know, and the Leviticus 23 says, this is memorial of the sounding of trumpets. The Numbers 10 tells us that in the Old Testament, but anyone who who's reading the Bible knows anything about it, these trumpets, you know, certainly this is the Feast of Trumpets, and these trumpets sound, and as we talk and as we observe the Feast of Trumpets to feel what's going on and to picture what's going on, God gives them, or to them was handed the seven trumpets.

And then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And so in this, you know, things pause.

Seven angels are there. They're handed seven trumpets. And then another angel in perfect timing, exactly as it has been planned, exactly as the message that God wants in heaven as they rehearse what's going on, as have they planned what's going on, as he's recorded for us, to see the magnitude of the events that are about to unfold. This angel comes, and he has a censer, and in it he has much incense. And that incense is there that he will offer it with the prayers of the saints. You know, a couple chapters ago in Revelation 5, we talked about the prayers of the saints. How long, O eternal, how long until you avenge us? And here those prayers are coming up before God again. They're pleasing to him. He relishes them. And as the prayers of the saints, you know, come up before him, and this incense is there. It's a dramatic time in the Bible.

And again, it's a picture of the Old and New Testament, God's plan that has been in effect since the beginning, you know, of the world. If we, you know, go back to the Old Testament and the incense, you know, we've talked in church about prayer, and our prayer is coming up as sweet incense before God. But let's just look at a couple verses here that tie all this together. Back in Psalm 141, Psalm 141 and verse 2, you know David writes. David, who had the plan of God, who God opened his mind to understand what was going on, and you read his words, and you can kind of, you can see that God opened his mind, and he had the picture of the plan. And verse 2, he writes, let my prayer be set before you as incense, you know. And here in Revelation, those prayers are coming up before God along with the physical incense, right? Let my prayer be set before you as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. You know, in our prayers, when their heart fell, when God sees what's in our heart when we pray to him, when it's our, his Holy Spirit communicating with him, those prayers are very, very pleasing to him as he sees the desires of our heart are to please him and to yield ourselves to him. And David says, you know, let my prayers come up before you as incense. Back in Exodus, back in Exodus 30, we see in the physical temple, the tabernacle here in the wilderness, and then in Solomon's temple later, Exodus 30, you know, we see built into the tabernacle, you know, God was dwelling among the people then at that time in tabernacles and temples, physical buildings. Today, he dwells with us, you know, where is temple? Where is buildings? He dwells in us individually. He dwells with us in his church. Chapter 30 of Exodus, verse 1, he says, you know, part of his instructions on the tabernacle, you shall make an altar to burn incense on. Make it a vacation. Get this altar together, right? You're going to burn incense on it. Down in verse 7, he gives Abraham the high or Aaron the high priest a command. Verse 7, Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning.

When he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it. Now, when Aaron lights the lamps of twilight, he shall burn incense on it, a perpetual incense before the eternal throughout your generations.

So from that temple, that incense was burning day and night, just like there's an ever-burned light that was that was perpetually on in that temple. And so God, you know, as we come in before the seventh and climactic seal being opened and the seven trumpets sound, you know, we have this, we have this, this, this, you know, event, this, this, that God has planned and orchestrated. The incense coming up before him in our prayers. You know, just as an aside, down there in verse 34 the same chapter, Exodus 30, tells us, you know, what that incense was like. It says, the Lord said, the Moses takes sweet spices, stacked thee, and onychah, galvanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices, equal amounts of each, and make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted pure and holy, and beat some of it very fine. Right? I mean, we've talked about our prayers, not just being general prayers, you know, heal the sick, bless me, you know, but being specific with God. Let him see what's in our heart what we're really looking to do. You shall meet some of it very fine and put some of it for the testimony in the tabernacle of meeting where I'll meet with you. It will be most holy to you.

And then a caution about that incense because someone's saying, oh man, that's, that's the fragrance of God. That's the incense. I want to, I want to have that burning in my house. And he goes, no, no, no, you know, for the ancient Israelites, that's for the incense which you shall make. Don't make any for yourselves according to its composition. It's holy to God. It's in his temple that that incense is burned. And he says, whoever makes any like it, to smell it, he'll be cut off from his people. It's of God. So when we, when we read what went on in the New Testament, our Old Testament, when we see David's words, when we see this picture in, in verse three here, before the seven angels sound, you know, it's very dramatic. God has planned it all out. It has meaning. And as we, you know, as we come to that time, if we're alive at that time, you know, we'll, you know, we can remember these verses and remember the timing and the ceremony that God has. There are things that go on and they all have meaning. He's not a God who just snaps his finger and everything happens. It's planned out. It's orchestrated. We see every, every player here in the, in this event, knowing exactly what they need to do, and they do it exactly the way God said. As it is in heaven, that's what we pray that it should be on earth and that we would learn to do everything exactly the way God says. Now if we're done, we'll go back to chapter, again, pop in. I'm gonna, I'm not gonna rush through this. We don't have to spend a lot of time in the rest of chapter 8. We'll see the picture of what's going on here, but in verse 4 says, "'The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand. And then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth.'" Again, you can see the intensity. You can see the planning. He takes that censer, dips it into the fire, he throws it down to earth. And what happens? The silence in heaven is broken. There were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. You know, God often, when he's about to work, there's earthquakes. Even Christ mentions the earthquakes in diverse places that will announce or precede his second coming.

And so the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

They wait for God's order to sound. These things have happened exactly the way God planned, exactly the way it needed to be. And they're standing there with their trumpets in hand.

And they begin to sound one by one. The first angel sounded, and hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. Remember back in chapter 7 verse 3, he said, you know, wait a minute, wait a minute, to those angels that are ready to do this, don't harm the earth, don't harm the grass, don't harm the trees, till my servants are sealed in their forehead, and then we see it begin to happen. And you notice that God didn't harm 100% of the trees. You know, he's, he's, he, well, let me, let me go back a minute. I mean, we, we all have come, we're dependent on the earth, right? We live on the earth, it's terra firma, terra firma, we get our, we get our sustenance from the earth. You know, God created the earth for mankind, and we live on it, and we've become accustomed to it. But we will learn, we will learn in the first four trumpets here, that God is in control. And the reason the earth has been the very solid, very, very, the planet that we can trust in, you know, is because, as it says in Colossians 1 17, Jesus Christ holds it all together. You know, we don't have to worry about asteroids hitting the earth, we don't have to worry about meteors, those things aren't going to happen. This is God's earth, the entire focus of heaven has been on what's going on on this earth with mankind, from the time that God put man on it, and even before. Now there will be, you know, possibly asteroids that we see in the next four, or meteors, or comets, or whatever they are, hitting the earth, you know, but it's at God's time. That's not going to happen before His time, because this is His earth and His plan, and now He's going to begin to shake the earth. So mankind realizes, whoa, everything we've trusted in, even the earth and the ground we stand on, we owe it all to God. He provided it. He created this earth for us. He created it. He can destroy it. We're totally dependent on Him. So we see, you know, a third of the trees. Notice not all the trees, but a third of the trees. You know, two-thirds of the trees are still left, and as we go down through these trumpets, we're going to see there's a third. You know, later on, we get into chapter 16, and we read about the seven vials of the seventh trumpet. Now we see the rest of the trees burned up. We see the rest of, you know, the ships suck. We see the rest of the sea creatures. But here in this first trumpet, it's as if God is, it's almost as if God is getting mankind's attention. I can shake the earth. Do you realize who I am? I am the God who sustains the earth. It was never about you. It's about me. You are totally dependent. And here, a third of the trees are burned. Then the second angel sounded, verse 8, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea.

You know, could that be a meteor? Could that be an asteroid? Could that be something else? But it certainly comes from God. It's His will. And mankind sees this, and all of a sudden it's the thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. Two-thirds were okay, but a third became blood. No man can predict that. That's not written in the skies. There's no calendar that we can look at that and say, oh, that's going to happen on such and such a day. And the third of the living creatures of the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. Not all of them, but a third of them were a significant, a significant number that's going to get our attention.

And then the third angel sounded, and a great star. You know, sometimes the Bible refers to angels as stars. Is that really a star, or is it an angel? I don't know. Maybe someone has the answer. But something happens, and something fell from heaven burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. Not on all of them, but on a third of them. The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the waters became Wormwood. And many die men died from the water because it was made bitter. Now, I do have some... I'm looking at the time here. I think I might write some of this down and put it in the letter on Friday. There's some interesting things about the name Wormwood. You know, back in the 80s, when Chernobyl happened over in Ukraine, there was something that went around that, in the Ukrainian language, Chernobyl means Wormwood. And there was this sensation about this verse. Oh, look at Chernobyl. Radiation poisoned the waters. People died in Chernobyl. The name of it was Wormwood, and it was like, oh, is this... is it radiation that's going to poison the water and whatever? You know, they went back and they looked and looked at the derivations of the words and Ukrainian words, and it means something. It's very, very similar, but it doesn't mean exactly that. But it was interesting, back at that time, to hear, you know, the people, even the president, Reagan, you know, I remember him commenting or reading about it, you know, someplace that he was even fascinated by this, and this verse in the Bible that Chernobyl might have meant Wormwood. But there is something about Wormwood. You know, Wormwood also shows up in the Old Testament, and you can look up Wormwood, and some of the verses back there, you always see it attached with bitterness, sin, and death.

You know, it isn't associated with gall. And do you remember when Jesus Christ was on the cross, or on the crucifix, I should say, and he... they offered him wine mixed with gall. And you remember, he wouldn't take that. He wouldn't take the gall. But gall was bitter. Gall was for sinners. Gall was a repercussion for something that was wicked. And so when Christ refused that, gall wasn't for him, you know, gall wasn't for him. It's for sinners. Wormwood is for sinners. And the water is here became Wormwood. And many men died from the water because it was made bitter. Verse 12, the fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck. Now, if we woke up tomorrow, and a third of the sun was gone, we'd know it. They wouldn't be talking about how many deaths from coronavirus there were. They wouldn't be talking about how many new cases. They wouldn't be talking about all the things they talk about on the news. It's like, where did a third of the sun go? The first angel sounded, and a third of the sun was struck. A third of the moon, and a third of the stars.

Noticable. Can only be of God. Nothing that man has done. God shaking the earth, getting man's attention. He didn't. He was a harming man, only during this time, except for the men who drink the bitter waters. Mankind is just seeing this. Mankind is getting the effect of the power of God as his wrath comes upon upon a people who have always rejected him. And a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day didn't shine, and likewise the night. Dramatic events. Dramatic events. And if we pause and just think about it, what it will be like when those things happen. And when mankind sees those events occur on earth, what will they be thinking?

At the end of the sixth seal, they were running in the caves, and they were saying, hide us from the face of us, to hide us from God. If we fast forward to the end of chapter 9 here, the end of the sixth trumpet, it tells us men didn't repent. They kind of see the power of God, but they didn't repent. Their murders were their sorceries. There's that word sorceries. It shows up several times in Revelation. Revelation. Or murders were their sorceries, or their sexual immorality, or their theft. And they hardened their hearts. We're not going to repent. We're not going to turn to God. We're kind of going to... we're just kind of... we're just kind of ignore this. No matter what the warning is, no matter how strong the trumpet sound is, we will steal our hearts against God and not yield to Him. What an awful and silly and foolish, foolish position, you know, to take.

So we see the first four, you know. They strike the earth, but mankind hasn't been affected yet, personally. There hasn't been the pain. There hasn't been any torment. He isn't... he isn't feeling himself in any pain. He's feeling the pain from what's going on in the earth, and as the senses are awakened, and there's something going on. And then in verse 13, we see after the first four trumpet sounds, I looked and I heard an angel. And maybe your Bible, too, has an asterisk, and in the margin it says that the majority text, you know, the Masoretic Texts says that that is translated, or it reads, eagle. You know, eagle. You know, I mean, the Greek word there is really, apparently, you know, angelic being and whatever, but for some reason the Masoretic Text, the majority text, they call it, it's eagle. And I looked and I heard an eagle, if we say, flying. Well, it makes sense there. Eagles fly, right? And look, and I saw an angel, or an eagle flying through the midst of heaven. I'm just gonna pause there for a moment, just, you know, if we remember the four living creatures in the throne of God. Remember what they look like?

John said one had the face of a man, one had the face of a lion, one had the face of a cow, and one had the face of an eagle. Could it be what John is saying is one of those four living creatures now, he's got his perfect timing, this is happening, if it's not him, it's an angel, that after the fourth trumpet sounds, however long the space is between these trumpets, he flies through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. And as we go into those last three trumpets, we see the torment of man, as you read through chapter nine, and verse four of chapter nine. You know, notice there it says, the fifth angel, they were commanded, you know, what the results of the fifth angel sounding his trumpet, they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree, but only those men who don't have the seal of God on their foreheads. So, you know, dramatic things yet to occur, but we've gone through the first four trumpets, next time we'll take it up and, you know, look at the remainder of the trumpets, the trumpets here, and we may well look at the church in Philadelphia as well during the next time. So let me pause there. I've thrown a lot at you. It is 8 29, so but let me just let me stop talking and let you talk about whatever you want to. Any comments, observations on anything? So, Mr. Shavey? Yes, sir. About the gall that Christ wouldn't drink, I've understood in the past that the, that it was some sort of a drug to lessen the pain and everything of a crucifixion that was given to people at that time, just to take the edge off a little bit, and since he needed to take on all of our sin and everything, okay, that's a good point, and you're right, I'd forgotten that. I think hemlock falls into the category too. It can dull the sense that he didn't, he needed to feel the pain. Yeah, good point. That's a very good point, actually. Thank you. Like an anesthesia. I had to confirm the word before it's loaded. Yep, very good. Some of the, I remember reading that now, some of the translations will talk about it being like opium and stuff like that. They put some modern-day, modern-day spin on it and whatever, so okay. Very good.