Bible Study June 17, 2020

We're going to finish here in the first few minutes, I think, the Book of James, that we've been in here for five or six weeks. So let's go back to James.

And as past Sabbath, we did have a sermon on James 5.16. We touched on James 5.16 a little bit last week in the afternoon study.

And, yeah, James 5.16. That's the verse that says, Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

Now, we talked about, I think we might have talked about, that healing can be spiritual, that healing can be physical, it can be emotional. When God talks about healing and the prayers that we offer for each other, they're not just for physical sickness, but any malady, spiritual or physical or emotional or mental that we might have, that we would ask God to heal us with.

Devin in his sermon, out on the Sabbath, we hit some of the things, some of the hurdles, I guess, as we have to, as we might work with each other in confessing our sins to one another, or our trespasses, if you will. Of course, he said, this doesn't mean that we all go in, and each week, when we tell each other it's the Sabbath services, or we pick up the phone, we start telling everyone what's wrong with us. That's not at all what the verse means.

But sometimes we need extra help, right? And God builds into our lives, our Christian lives, the opportunity for humility. And it can be humbling for us to have to go to someone else that might be a very good friend and that we trust, or someone that we know that may have had a similar situation that we're dealing with, and tell them what's going on with us, and ask them to pray for them. And there's nothing wrong with that humbling experience. We need God, certainly.

We always go to God, and we know that He can resolve everything as we yield to Him, and His Holy Spirit can heal everything. But God is built into our lives, as He tells us here in Galatians 5, 16. That sometimes we need to work with each other to help. It kind of reminds me of, you know, the when Jesus Christ, when the disciples brought to Him someone who was demon-possessed. And they said, we don't know what to do. We did what you said, Jesus Christ, but we can't cast this demons out. I remember what Jesus Christ said. He said, sometimes it takes prayer and fasting. It's not just prayer alone. So, prayer, we know, asking God the things that God tells us to ask for, going to Him as we, you know, read in verses 13, 14, 15, you know, 16 here. That's something we always do.

But sometimes God wants us to do a little more. The disciples learn. Sometimes it takes prayer and fasting. And sometimes to overcome sin. Yes, God can give us the Spirit. Yes, it can be this. Yes, we have the Spirit, and that gives us the strength that we need, maybe the desire we need.

But sometimes we need someone else, right? Sometimes we need someone else, and God is looking to us to, you know, have that accountability of another person that's there. And we should all feel always accountable to God, because He watches everything we do, every idle word we speak, as we talked about many times. But sometimes having that accountability to another person is exactly the crutch we need and the incentive we need to keep on the straight and narrow, if you will. And to, when it comes time to, you know, when we're faced with something and we have a choice to make, it'll be so easy to give in to temptation or sin or whatever it is that we're doing. If we know that someone else is watching it too and knows about this, and we're going to be accountable to them, that can give us that extra little strength that we have. All of us have heard of, you know, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, all the various anonimuses. And that's one of the things that they learned. They say these addictions can be so hard to overcome, you need the accountability of a group. And so God has put us as part of a family. We're here to help each other.

We're here to encourage each other, even more so, it says in Hebrews 10, 24, even more so as the day approaches, not less so, but even more so. And so I think verse 16 is telling us, you know, sometimes we need each other and we need to open up to someone. And then that someone we might need to open up to, you know, or choose to open up to, has to be paying attention to everything we've read in James, that they're not out telling someone else, you know, saying, did you know this person has this problem or whatever. There's the privacy and the confidentiality and the, you know, paying attention to our lips and our tongues that has to go along with that as well. So both parties learn something when they're involved in this. So let me look, I'll open up for any questions or comments or observations you had on verse 16, and then we'll move on to verse 19, unless there's unless there's some questions you've got or some observations someone would like to make.

Mr. Shavey? Yes, ma'am. He's in lane. I wanted to comment about that. I did a complete study on it on both verses and I pulled up three versions, King James, New King James, NIB, to help me to better understand what's being said from those three translations, and then went through all the coordinate scriptures that are referred to. And then that helped me to come to my conclusion with the help of God, of course. On the first part, James 519, um, let, um, it's important, I learned personally from personal experience, it's important if you see someone that's close to you, that you really love, um, in my case it was a family member that was once in the church, um, but you see them doing something wrong that they shouldn't be doing, then we should, um, not be afraid to speak up, because that's always a hindrance, at least from my self.

I'm not too quick to say anything, um, you have to, I had to weigh out my words, how I'm going to say it, say it with love. And the second part, well, you're saying it with love and you're the only reason why you're speaking out, and that's what gave me the strength to move forward, is that if I couldn't stand by and watch the person go down and possibly lose their salvation, and I love that person enough that I, then my fear of speaking, and then, um, I understand this, that helps me to understand the second verse of 20 that goes into, it covers a multitude of sins, if you were effective, if you were able to help that person to come back to themselves, come back to doing the right thing and realize that that was an error that they were in, then God will give us cover, he says it will cover a multitude of sins.

And I think the whole crux of the matter is that we have been enough love for the brethren to do that, otherwise it won't work.

It all comes down to love, doesn't it? And that's, that's only if we're close to each other and we, we know each other and we're bound together as family that it really hurts when we see someone straying away or turning away, so.

Okay. Okay, well let's read, let's read verses 19 and 20 here.

It says, brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns the center from the area of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

Now, you know, that, that, that says a lot. And Paul, Paul says the same thing in Galatians 6.

If you want to write down Galatians 6 verse 1, you know, he says the same thing in his epistle.

So the Galatians there, and I'll just read it. You don't need to turn there if you don't want to.

He says, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one as a spirit of gentleness, consider yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. So, you know, it is watching out for each other, kind of knowing each other, kind of understanding each other. And as we know each other, even though we might even see each other just, you know, once a week on Sabbath services, we kind of know, you know, what each other are like. If someone seems more distant, if they start not coming to church, you know, at this day and age, if they are not showing up on a Sabbath or a Bible study, and they always have, you know, we might pay attention to that. Not that we're monitoring everyone, and not that we're all schoolmarms and looking for these things, but it's an indication of, it can be an indication, if someone is beginning to stray, beginning to become, you know, a little more distant from everyone. And there's a danger in this time we're together.

While it's had its tremendous benefits for all of us, you know, there is that danger in those who could wander away a little bit and get too comfortable with being away from seeing each other and the camaraderie that goes with seeing each other each week to week. And we need to be aware of that, and we need to watch out for each other. So, you know, what James is saying here is the same thing that Paul is saying, you know, watch out for each other. Be aware of what's, we're aware of behaviors. Look at the differences in patterns. And it doesn't mean the first time that you see something that you would want to hop on them and accuse or tell them you think that they're straying from the truth, but just call and find out, you know, how are things going? Is everything okay?

Anything, you know, and whatever. Just to keep in contact with people. And it doesn't always have to be the minister, right? It says, if anyone, right, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back. So I certainly watch out for that. And, you know, you know, I will send an email or pick up the phone from time and just say, hey, I haven't seen you for a couple weeks, how are things going? Whatever. It doesn't mean I'm, you know, taking attendance. It means I just want to keep in contact and, you know, just want to want to know everything is okay and that there's no problem. We should all feel comfortable with that. And when we, when we get that, when we get a phone call or an email or text or something like that, we should feel like what looks people love us. People are concerned with us. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing that we should be that way. But you know, there's a couple of things there. And let's, you know, we'll open this up for more discussion. But let's go back and look at a couple verses that I think relate to that.

Let's go back to Luke 22. 22, verse 21. I'm sorry, verse 31.

You know, here, here Jesus Christ is talking to Peter. And you know, a few times Christ has had to admonish Peter through the, you know, through the year, through the times that they were together. And Peter always took it well. He didn't get mad and run away. And he kind of did some introspection. And Christ tells him here in 31, he says, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you his wheat. Here we have another indication kind of reminds us of Job where Satan is like, okay, you think this guy is with you the entire way? You know what, let me let me put him through trials and let's see what he's really about, right? Satan has asked for you that he may sift you his wheat. But Christ says, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you've returned to me, strengthen your brethren. You're going to go through a hard time, Peter. There's going to be some trials. There's going to be some things and maybe some attitudes that are there that you're going to have to weed through. But I'm praying for you, Christ says. No, he could have, you know, just him saying it should have been enough. But look, Christ is praying for him. I'm praying that you will have the strength to go what you're going through. It's kind of an example to us when we see someone that might be struggling with something.

Now, we all struggle with something, so we never are in a position that we should judge or can judge someone and say, that's not that important. What are you worried about? That, you know, to every one of us, we have something and we have to understand each other. And when people go through, you know, we do the same thing. Christ said, I'm praying for you, Peter, that you won't fail.

We can pray for each other. I pray that God will give them the strength to go through this ordeal they're going through, the things that are in their mind, to bring them to the other side, if you will, to understanding, to close to Him, to reliance on Him. You know, we can pray that same prayer Jesus Christ did, and we should, right? We can phone call, we can encourage, we can pray. Now, that goes back, you know, to what we read earlier in the book of James.

And then He says, notice what Christ says, and when you have returned to Me, Peter, there's going to be times, and we know when Peter departed from Christ, when he denied Him three times and kind of left Christ alone, it wasn't there at the time, he was being crucifixion. He goes, when you have returned to Me, there's a very positive thing there. When you've returned to Me, when you've come to your spiritual senses, we might say, when you've returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.

You know, be open with them about what you went through. Talk to them about the things that you went through that you understand what they're going through, but to keep their eyes on God and the trials we go through, the emotional things we go through, just the mental things that we go through sometimes as we try to put two and together, or some things happen that we don't understand, that we're patient with one another, so we can strengthen one another and share some of our experiences with one another, too.

You know, that can be very helpful in times of illness. If we have an illness that someone else has had, and it's a daunting one, you know, heart conditions, cancer, whatever, maybe we share some of those things privately with someone to help them through that. If it's a spiritual situation, if it's just malaise or apathy, or I don't know, I can't even come up with all the situations because it's all different for all of us. You know, it's good to share and to have that openness, all for the purpose of building one another up and keeping us in the faith.

It's the greatest place that God wants us to be. He's called us to eternity, and none of us, you know, all of us should keep that in mind. But if we see someone else beginning to take that a little bit lackadaisically, you know, we might want to talk about it with them. And God says it's good for us to do that, and that's showing that love. Okay, let me stop there. Any other thoughts on that or things that someone wants to talk about? And it'll kind of go into verse 20 here about, you know, what He says about someone who turns, turns someone back.

Mr. Shaby, I'd like to make another comment. One of the other things I found when I was studying this, well, it actually came into my mind, it popped into my mind that before we go and talk to try to help the people to make sure that we examine ourselves first and make sure we don't have that take the speck out of some brother's eye and while I still have the plank in my eye, the scriptures that cover that. Matthew 18, 15. And yeah, that's the basic scripture for that. And also to, well, that's it. I'm gonna leave it at that. That's a good point, Elaine.

And we should always ask God to work with us when we're going to talk to someone, you know, that we approach it the correct way and ask God that they will receive it the right way. You know, as you're talking, that last part of Galatians 6, 1, verse 2 there, you know, says something about us, you know, that we don't fall into temptation. And what that means is we could find ourselves saying something and fall into some way that we make normally, you know, we might come across very arrogantly, you know, we may come across as we're superior to you and talking down to them that, you know, we want to approach them the right way.

And when Paul says, you know, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted, I think that's what he's talking about. What, you know, what are we going to do? Are we going to kind of come through there with a superior attitude or whatever attitude it might be that we need to consider that and ask God to let us approach these things the way he, that we Jesus Christ would with humility and with love. Mr. Shaby? Yes, sir. Yeah, having an indicator on ourselves is very important, especially if we're helping someone else, bringing back that obedience to God.

But praying to address the situation with love and compassion. And if there's anything we've learned from James, it is patience and watching our tongues and how we approach that situation. Because you can really hurt someone's feelings. And praying for it before you confront somebody is something else. And when you have a really good relationship with somebody, I mean, I have relationships, good relationships with a lot of our brethren.

And we've come together before and say, you know what, maybe we shouldn't be doing this. And us discussing it that way, giving it that approach. Maybe we shouldn't, because maybe we've both done it or one another. It's just a good way to approach it on some things.

Yep. Praying before we do anything is so important. You'd be surprised how God can change our minds and direct us when we ask Him to. Okay. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Yes, so going back a second to that after Luke 22 verses 31 and 32, the word we are reading.

Yes, I guess one of the things that I read there that it's kind of sobering is the fact that Satan at some point in time can demand to have a shot at us as the people of God, even individually like he did with Peter. And the fact that Jesus, when he prayed, he didn't pray for him to be delivered, but for him to have enough faith to basically weather the storm. So I guess that, like I always believe, is that one of the things that Satan, I guess, hates the most is that at the end of the day, he's a tool in the hands of God for our growth. But it's something that's sobering, you know, to keep in mind that at some point in time, God may allow Satan to take a shot at us to the purpose of our strengthening. And that, no, I think that's, you know, and sometimes things will happen to us, and we might examine ourselves and say, I just don't see what I did, you know, to deserve that if we look at it in human form. And some, you know, Job certainly could have done that, but look, look what happened to him, and we could endure the same thing. But our job, you know, like we talked about earlier in James 5, patience endures, right? Keep our faith in God, and no matter what comes our way, just stay faithful to him as Christ prayed for Peter here. Yeah, that's a good observation.

He didn't pray. He didn't pray that God would take the trial away, just that he would give him faith to endure it. Good observation. Mr. J. Yes, Wayne. Wayne? Yes, Wayne, huh?

The last part of verse 20, I've often wondered that last section that says, and covers a multitude of sins, is that referring to the sins of the person you're trying to help, or is it referring to your own? Or where does the application of that piece go?

Yeah, that's one thing I think is a good discussion point. You read that, and it almost sounds like it's going to cover a multitude of our sins, right? It's like if someone sins, if someone turns someone back from error, that'll cover a multitude of sins. But when you look, you know, because the commentaries, they're not really, I think, you know, that isn't, I mean, it takes repentance to cover our sins, right? It takes repentance to have our sins forgiven.

It's not going to be just going out and bringing someone back into the church, if you will, that has left. You know, the word there can be cover, it can conceal, and as I've, you know, looked at that and thought about it, save a soul from death, okay? So when we bring someone back, when we're part of it, it's really, you know, their repentance and God who brings them back. But when we're part of that agent, we, you know, we can help them come, we can help them come back to the truth and cover a multitude of sins. You know, the word could have been translated conceal there, and if it had been conceal, it would have been like, it would have been like those sins are hidden, you know, from everyone. And, you know, maybe the hidden sins is that not everyone in the church knows what those sins are, where the person who left. And that's when I'm still kind of feeling out. So I, you know, but I don't believe it means that it's going to cover a multitude of our sins. I'm sure, I know God is very happy with us when we do that. But forgiveness, forgiveness only comes through repentance. So that's not going to cover our sins, but it can conceal the other person's sins if they come back and they stay in good stead, I guess. I don't know if I can do that at all.

So that means if the person had, you're approaching him on one sin you happen to see, where there may be hidden other ones that will also be changed even without your knowledge, because he did come back, then the other sins have ceased also, you may never know about them.

Yeah, that's a good point. I hadn't thought of that. That may be exactly what it's talking about, that usually there's more than one thing involved, right? And so that person then may look at himself his entire self spiritually and get back on the right track. Yep.

Okay, that's clear now. Yep. I just have another scripture that explains it from the other way.

I believe it has both meanings. What about 1 Timothy 4 16? And I use the NIV version.

Watch your... well, maybe you can read it because I'm getting feedback. Or the New King...

Uh, yeah, I've used the NIV version of 1 Timothy 4 16. If you can read it because I have the feedback.

I don't have the NIV version. Okay. Am I giving you feedback? Can you hear me?

And read it because I'd like to hear what the NIV version says.

Okay. Watch your life and documents closely. Preserve in them because if you do, you will say both yourself and your heroes. Okay. Okay. That's similar. I'll read what the New King James says. It says, take into yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will say both yourself and those who hear you. Okay. I think what he's saying there, he's telling Timothy, you know, pay attention to the... pay attention to the doctrine. Stay close to God. Preach the truth, right? Be instant in season or not in season. And if you stay close to the doctrine, you know what? You will learn about yourself and you'll keep yourself on the straight and narrow if I can use that. And I often say, you know, as I put together sermons of Bible studies, I step all over my toes and say, oh, well, I need to be paying more attention to that. So he's telling Timothy, you know what? You stay close to the doctrine. You preach the right thing. You do it in truth. You're going to see things you need to yourself, but you're also going to be teaching others and you're going to help them to see from your teaching what they should do.

So you'll save both yourself because you'll straighten up your behavior, right, and become closer to God and do things his way. But those who are listening to you, who have God's Holy Spirit, who have a receptive mind and are swift to hear, you know, and aren't dull of hearing, that they will too. You'll help them by the things you say and show them as God works with all of us.

I think that's what he's saying there. It's not that someone else is going to cover their sins for them, but they're going to repent and it's going to lead them to repentance by the preaching that they hear and looking at the doctrine of the Word. That's my interpretation of it.

If someone has another thought, I'm open to discuss that. Thank you, because I was thinking the other way and that helped me, what you just explained. Yes. Yeah, Mr. Shaby, I was thinking along the lines also, just came my mind about, you know, covering a multitude of sins or hiding a multitude of sins. In one way that shows that to be a good brother or sister in Christ is to, one aspect of it is to, if someone talks to you in confidence, to not repeat it. To be a trustworthy brother and sister in Christ, to be able to, you know, if someone does say something to you, not to condemn them, whatever, but just to be there for them and not going around as a tailbearer, not going around this or that. But, you know, if you're doing that and you're helping somebody, you are kind of, in a way, you're covering, you're kind of hiding it in yourself because you're not going around telling everybody about it and stuff like that. So, I think, you know, you just have to be trustworthy and show yourself trustworthy as well. That's just one other aspect I was thinking about it. No, I think that's right, because it is something that we have to do. When we're told something, it's an exercise in us to keep our mouths shut, too, right? Just pray for that person and work with them and not give it to someone else or tell someone else, right? So, yeah, it's just a trial on us and an opportunity for us to grow as well. Yeah, good point.

You know, along in this, I, you know, back in Luke 15, you remember this parable of a lost sheep, where Christ says, you know, which of you, if you have a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, you know, but 99 of them are still in their flock, which one of you won't go out and look for that lost sheep? And I think that's something that we all need to keep in mind as well. You know, we're all aware, we're all aware when we're together, you know, at Savva services, and even by the contact we have with each other, even on Zoom meetings, you know, and everything. Well, when we see each other, you know, we should feel the responsibility. People, innately, every single person wants to be wanted, right? Every single person wants to be part of something. And so, you know, it does this all good for someone to ask and say, how are you? What are you doing? Not accusingly, right? Not saying, you should have been there, why weren't you? And whatever, missed you, how are you doing?

Is everything okay? Out of concern and whatever. I think that that's, you know, that's good. And I think that's what God is showing here. You know, we, there's a lot of things in the life that God has called us to, you know, that we learn individually, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. There's a lot of things we cannot learn that God wants us to without being part of His body and being part of it full-time, full-time and 100% in, you know, as they say, sometimes they say, all in. We have to be all in with the body God has put us into because there's things that we learn in a body that we can't ever learn on our own. And God has called us to be part of the body now and part of the body in the future. And so that's, that's part of what we learn in these verses, kind of as James wraps it up here and his epistle brings us back to that reality.

We all are here for each other. And an important part of our calling is we watch out for each other.

We love each other as brothers and sisters. Okay, any, any more thoughts on those verses or anything?

Okay, well that concludes, that concludes, you know, the book of James. I thought before we leave James, though, that we should probably take a few minutes and just kind of recap again some of the things that we've learned. You know, I wrote down just without even turning back, you know, I know what I've got here, 15 or 20 of them, of things that I remember from, from James. And you know, the Bible studies that we do and everything, they're very good. I enjoy doing them. I enjoy, you know, and I learn a lot from the study that I do. I hope they're beneficial to you.

But they're not beneficial if we get through a book and just cross it off and say, okay, we've been through James and just move on to the next thing and forget about everything that we've learned. So it would be good. It would be good because part of what we're doing here is learning these things and then applying them into our lives. They need to be settled up here in our mind to become part of us and not just part of a knowledge base that we did. And it was interesting to see these various things as we move through the book. But they have to become part of us, if any, if this has any value at all. So maybe we just take a few minutes and, and talk about some of the things in the book of James that maybe struck us that we want to keep in our minds going forward so that when we move over into the book of Revelation, we're not, you know, we haven't just forgotten everything about James and just move on to the next thing, but you know, we're building on it. We have this now as part of our foundation. We're going to work on these things and not forget what we learned in James. And then we're going to build on it when we go through the next book and learn some things from there as well because many of the concepts you'll see when we get into Revelation. Revelation is not just about prophecy. It is an awful lot about how we live and what we need to do. And many of the concepts we talked about in James, you know, in spiritual principles we'll be seeing in Revelation as well as we go through the prophecies and also see what God's admonitions are. So, you know, maybe we take a few minutes. I can read to you some of the things that I think, but maybe we talk about it just for a few minutes and maybe when we're done with this Bible study, you want to go back and put a synopsis on James, you know, what you've learned from it, what touched you because we all hear, you know, in our own language, if you will, we'll hear the things and see the things, oh, I've got a weakness in that and that we need to work on. Anybody got something that they remember out of the book of James that we can maybe build a little list here?

Mr. Ch at World Events. We can look, and I was talking to my niece in Seattle. She goes to church up there and she's about 10 minutes where some of the demonstrations and all that have taken place.

We're talking about the wisdom from above and then what's earthly wisdom. And we read those, they're the opposite. It's like the tree of life and the tree of good and evil. So, that specifically, it's summed up quite succinctly there in a very few words when we're thinking about something that, you know, we have to make decisions or ferret out. I think we can go to that as a guide.

Is this from, is this godly wisdom or is this the wisdom of this earth and of mankind?

Very good, very good. Yep, that's an important thing. Excellent.

Anyone else? Yeah, Mr. Shaby. Yes, Dave.

I just think in for the book in general and the times that we're living in, there's so many things in there that apply to us and today, you know, and it really brings, it focuses into my mind about exactly what it means to be a first fruit and what we're called to be. We're called to come out of this world. We're called to do our part in preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

Do our part in preaching the gospel of the kingdom to this world and overcome growing holy righteous character. And as you've been saying through the book, how it's an example of what a Christian should be. And there's so many different aspects in it and there's so many different things that just, they apply to what's going on in our world today. It helps me to take a step back and remind myself, wait a second, Dave, you're supposed to be a first fruit. You're supposed to be an ambassador and not a part of this world. And so the whole thing, the whole book itself is just, it's great for that as an example of what a true first fruit should be striving to do and how I should be striving to live my life. Very good. Very good. Good.

Hey, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Ricardo. So just a quick comment. One is the discussion on partiality about basically considering and treating persons without partiality. And even, you know, we are in the church sometimes may have even unconsciously this mentality that because God has called us to His truth at this time, that other people are less worthy or different. And even that may drive unconsciously our treatment of that people. So that is, you know, being without partiality, even to people that God is going to call later. The other aspect is the one about this issue of faith and works. And the fact that James makes very clear that works are basically evidence of your faith. So they work together, they're complementary, not mutually exclusive, which is what, you know, the mainstream Christianity wants to make you believe.

Very good. Yeah. Yeah, I think the partiality one and the fact, you know, that James even says partiality is a sin, right? It's a sin. So it's in the same category as the Ten Commandments in regard to that. But yeah, so timely for our world today. And even understand, you know, like we talked about in James, digging into ourselves and even uncovering some of that partiality that we may not have even realized was there because, you know, it's, you know, we probably have some of that built into us that we don't even realize. So, okay.

Anyone else? Yes, Mr. Shabey. Yes. Hey, Bob. Good nominee. I'm always looking for something different.

And everything I'm listening to is great. I have this question. It seems as though James, he had been martyred what, like, 10, 12 years after Christ was resurrected. It was 20 years, I can't remember. All right. And the disciples were still preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand. All right. And James does that a lot through his epistle in numerous different places.

But I don't, again, there's probably something that can't be answered, but I wondered sometimes, you know, why were they still doing that? Was that, were they doing that to encourage people, you know, to stick to the faith? This is kind of what I'm taking out of the book of James, partly what I'm taking out of it. Yeah. You know, I think when we get into the book of Revelation, you'll notice in the first two or three verses there in the letter of Revelation, it talks about in a short time, things that'll happen quickly, right? And that book was written in 90, what, 95 AD, 96 AD, something like that. It's like God always wants his people to have a sense of urgency. We need that sense of urgency. And every day and age that we live in, we can kind of see these things beginning, right? Then we can't lose track and say, oh, you know, if James knew and the people back in the first century thought, oh, it's 2000 years away before Jesus Christ is going to return, there would have been the natural laxity to just kind of let go.

But they always kept it in the forefront that I think God wants us to do that, you know?

You know, you remember, for those who've been in the church a long time, you know, I even hear on TV about people, you know, going back to the 1960s race riot and riots, and it looked like a very, an awful situation back then. And the church thought then, you know, the Christ would return not too many years after that. There's always a sense of urgency. When we lose that sense of urgency, when we don't look at worldly events and are reminded that this is not God's world, and that we need to stay close to God, you know, we have the danger of falling away.

So I think that's what James is doing there, just keeping people, you know, I don't think he knew it was 2000 years away. I think that's God lets us know when, right? Yeah, I think that's part of the message, if you will, of James, is that, you know, no matter what you're experiencing day to day, okay, always keep your mind on the fact that it could happen at any time. Whether or not, you know, you know, it's going to happen in 10 years, 20 years, it doesn't make a difference. He was saying, keep your mind on the goal. All right, and I think that's what he was getting at in a very, very big Yeah, and you know, that word suddenly is in there. We all learned again, like I said last week, we all learned what suddenly means, so it could happen at any time. Now, they didn't understand some of the prophecies that we understand today, so we look at it in a little different way, but yeah.

It's shady. Yes. Yes, could we be looking at the two times, God's time and man's time?

We know that man's day is 24 hours. God's time is a thousand years, and God is timeless.

There's no big beginning or any ending, so could it be that we're thinking more about man's time, the 24 hours, you know, the 12 months out of a year, when God's time, it's just out there, you know, he's way under. Yes, so we could be thinking of man's time opposed to God's time. You know what, I think that's a good point, yes, because God looks at it much differently than we do, and he's not willing that any should perish, right? So he's going to give us all the time we want. That might extend past our lifetimes, and but yeah, to him, a thousand years, this is a day. So two thousand years to us is like, wow, that's forever, but to God, it's just two days. Yeah, right. Yeah, good point. Good point. So okay, let me, anyone else have some things they want to let us hear? I'm going to just kind of run down a couple of them here, just to kind of close it out and remind us of some things. You know, we talked about double-mindedness, right? Double-mindedness is one of the things that was in the first chapter of James. He revisits it in the fourth chapter, and he tells us, don't be a double-minded person. What he's telling us is, you know, be a single-minded person. Put God first. We have to learn to do what God wants us to, single-minded, not one foot in and one foot out. You know, I think I'll always remember swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. And so many times we're swift to speak and slow to hear, and we need to be just the opposite. You know, we need to listen to each other. We need to listen when someone is talking to us, even if it's something that we don't want to hear. We need to be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, and that'll allow our natural human tendencies to flare up if someone, especially if we're one of those situations where we might have to talk to someone about something not so pleasant that they might want to look at and consider and whatever. You know, if someone's doing that to us, we want to listen and realize they're not just doing this, you know, for fun. It's not fun for anyone, but they're doing it out of love, and we need to pay attention to it. You know, I've got, you know, submit to one another, you know, bridling the tongue and every iteration and every iteration of that. You know, everything we do is by the tongue. Even when James said in chapter five, let your yes be yes and your no be no. You know, how we discipline ourselves with the things we say and the things that we do that when we commit to do something, we do it. You know, we don't swear, we don't bow, and certainly if we do, we make sure that we are, you know, we're doing it doing it right. You know, we talked about those who are straying from the truth. And again, James has this, we're part of the body. When you look at what he's what he's saying, it has a lot to do with each other, right? And always paying attention to each other and doing what he would have us do. We talked about, you know, God resisting the proud, you know, another one where he says, he goes, if you know to do what's right and you don't do it, it's sin. Another one of those things that he equates to breaking the Ten Commandments.

If you know to do it and you don't, it's sin. And we talked about, sorry about that, we talked about, you know, anointing, praying, when we pray, and putting God first into the things we do. So I've got some others here too, but I, you know, well, let's leave it at that. You might want to just go through and just do that and even periodically review some of the things that we've looked at there. That's how we grow, and that's how it becomes part of us, you know, when we have a constant reminder to us and we become the way God would have us become. So any other comments?

If not, we'll move over to Revelation and start talking about that a little bit.

Shaby, I just had one. Sure. I had this written at the top of the book, at the top of the or it says the Epistle of James in the Bible, and it sort of gives an overall reason for the book as the way someone told me, as I jotted it down, this is years ago. It just says, going on to perfection. Very, I know what, excellent, excellent. That's a good synopsis of everything that we've talked about. You know, I think one of the verses to remember in that that I should have said, is if anyone among you thinks he's religious. I think I'll always remember that. Anytime I think I'm religious and good, I'm going to go back and look at James, and I'll probably find something I need to work on. So, you know, none of us, when we're giving ourselves a pat on the back on how good we are, we might want to go back and let God let us ask God to help us examine ourselves in the light of his word, and maybe specifically the book of James that has so much packed into it.

And patient endurance, and patient endurance. When we get into Revelation, we're going to see patient endurance a lot in this book as well, that's mentioned too, just like James mentioned in his book. So, well let me just talk a little bit about the book of Revelation, right? It's, you know, I think we all have a good background in Revelation. You know, one of the things is that you really can't understand the book of Revelation unless you're living... well, first of all, you can't understand the book of Revelation unless you know the rest of the Bible. That's why it's kind of a mysterious book to people that are in the world. They read it, they think you can't make any sense of it. Of course, without God's Holy Spirit putting it all together, you can't, but you have to know the rest of the Bible in order to understand the book of Revelation. And really, the book of Revelation really can't be begun to be understood until you live in the day and age that we are.

You know, it's as we see, as we are here in the 21st century, you know, we can look at what, you know, was revealed to John that he recorded, you know, way back in 95, 96 AD. And we can make sense of it because we see things that the people of the first century wouldn't have had any clue, any clue what John is talking about when he talks about some of the things described, some of the things that's going to happen at the end of the age. In their minds, it was just kind of totally, it's almost like fiction that they couldn't even really picture. We can put the pieces together, of course, it's God's Spirit that leads us to that. But the book of Revelation, you know, the first verse there, you know, tells us where the Revelation came from, you know, says in Revelation 1.1, it came, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ, as it probably says at the title of your Bible, but it says which God gave to Christ. So it's God's revelation. He gave it to Christ.

He gave it to the angel who gave it to his servant. And of course, that's the word, doulos, John, John the Apostle. So we see, you know, we see how the prophecy was given, you know, down first from God to Jesus Christ to an angel to John, and then John recorded it for us to see. It's, you know, it is the final book of the Bible because it's the capstone on the rest of the Bible.

It tells us everything that's happened, that is going to happen at the time of the end leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. And as we go through the book of Revelation, you know, I was kind of striving in the book of James to go through a chapter a week.

I don't know that we're going to be able to do that in Revelation because there's so much, there's so much in each of the chapters that we'll see, you know, it's going to take us back into other books of the Bible that you can kind of see it all come together in the book of Revelation.

For instance, even here in the very first, you know, a few verses of Revelation 1, it's going to take us back to the book of Zechariah, not a book that we turn to that often, a book that talks about the end time, though, and has some symbolism that we're going to see throughout the book of Revelation. And we might find ourselves, you know, in a Bible study going back to Zechariah and talking about the things that are prophesied there and tying them in to what the book of Revelation says.

Because, again, you can see the continuity of the Bible and you can see what God has revealed here in the book of Revelation is something that was planned from the beginning of the, from the foundation of the earth. It's not something that God's just fronted up after Jesus Christ was resurrected and came up to heaven. It's something that's always been planned. And the prophets of old told that as well. And it's, you know, one of the proofs of the Bible.

So, you know, this, this book, this book is a really important book and throughout it, throughout it we're going to see the admonitions of what we're to do with this. When God opens our minds to the book of Revelation and what is going to happen, it's not just so that we have some secret knowledge and we can, you know, say, hey, we know what the end of the book says and we know this.

He's got admonitions around the way. You have heard sermons, you know, from home offices and headquarters and people to say, you know, the purpose of prophecy is so that we know because God promises, you know, that He'll reveal to us what's going to happen. He isn't going to reveal to us every single detail.

Sometimes He does and sometimes we see the prophecy in our ears, right? We look back and we think, oh, that's exactly how that prophecy occurred. And we don't see it happening, you know, at that moment that occurred, but we look back and see that it's been fulfilled. But the purpose of it is for us to develop faith, more faith in God, to draw closer to Him and understand His Word. And as we read through this book, as we develop understanding of what God has revealed that will take place, as He says shortly in the first few verses here, you know, it should build our faith in God.

And as we learn those things, it's, you know, it might make us fearful, but the closer we get to God, you know, perfect love casts out fear and we have the faith and the strength to move forward. So let me look at my notes and see if I've thought of anything here. Anyone else have any things this would be again here that you'd like to? Hey, Mr. Shemi. Yes, sir. Regarding right at the beginning of the book, one of the things that I guess it's good to note is that there, according to what it says here on verse 3, bless are those who hear and who keep what is written in it.

So apparently that says that they're teaching in this book of things that we should keep and observe in order to be blessed. So yeah, you basically it's a lot of prophecy and about, you know, the things that kind of transpire at the time of the end. But it's also basically, I guess, practical living teaching, you know, things that we need to do in order to become blessed. Yeah, you're absolutely right. That's one thing to remember about Revelation is not just prophecy. It's interesting. It's good, but throughout it, you hear see Christ's words.

And even as we get into the first few chapters, there's an awfully lot of instruction for God's people in this because that's what God is. We have to be the first fruits that are defined in Revelation 14 if we're going to be part of the future that's described here. So, you know, let's look at the first few verses then here and just kind of dissect them a little bit because John gives us what really God, right? God through Jesus Christ, through the angels, through John who wrote it down, gives us the introduction of who wrote the book in the first oh seven eight verses here really talks about Jesus Christ and reminds us of who he is and what he's done for us.

But it says the revelation of Jesus Christ, you know, we talked about that gave it to John, but the progression this there, John wrote it down.

Now, you know, John, let's just go over to verse nine, you know, let's stop there because John is the one who's writing that, but let's talk a little bit about John. You know, I think everyone agrees, the commentaries agree, and certainly, you know, we're going to see that the John who is the author of revelation here, the author as in he wrote down the prophecy is John the Apostle who was with Jesus Christ, the one that the Bible describes as the one that Jesus loved. And you remember back in John John 20 21 when when when Christ was talking to the disciples and he inferred, let me look, let me see if I can find that quickly. I think it's in John 21, where he is telling Peter, basically inferring to Peter, that he's going to die by the same type death that Jesus Christ did. Yeah, John 21. Yeah, let's look at verse verse 18, because Christ says something in those last few verses of John, he's talking to Peter and John, that, you know, we kind of see why it happened when we get to the book of Revelation. John 18, John 21 verse 18, Christ speaking, he says, most assuredly I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish. Now Peter must have understood what Jesus Christ was saying about, right? Same thing happened to Christ. Someone else stretched out his hands and girded him and carried him where that was God's will, but he's telling Peter the same thing's going to happen to you. This he spoke, signifying by what death Peter would glorify God. Now when he had spoken this, Christ said to him, follow me. That'd be kind of a tough thing to hear, wouldn't it? That was you and I, and Christ said, you know, here's what the end of your following me is going to be. You're going to be martyred. You're going to be killed. You're going to go through the tribulation. You're going to whatever happens to you happens to you. You know, he's telling Peter and preparing him, and he says, follow me. Well, Peter had to digest that, you know, to Peter's credit. He did follow Christ, and that is the way his life ended. And then Peter turns around and says in verse 20, he saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on his breast at the supper and said, Lord, who's the one who betrays you? Peter, saying him, said to Jesus, but Lord, what about this man? And Jesus said to him, if I will that he remain till I come, what is that to do? What is that to you? You follow me. You know what? Your lot is the path that you're going to follow, Peter, may be different than John's, but that's my business.

That's not yours. Your path is this. John's path may be different, but that's okay. That's his path.

Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die, yet Jesus didn't say to him that he wouldn't die. But if I will that he remains till I come, what is that to you? This is the disciple who testifies of these things and wrote these things that we may know his testimony is true. So here's in the book of John. So Jesus Christ is saying, you know, John's not going to die the same death you do, Peter. He's going to exist a while. And history does show John was the longest living of all the apostles. He didn't die by martyrdom. And when we look at Revelation 1.9, we find him, you know, on the isle of Patmos, a prisoner, if you will. But here he is, the longest lasting of the apostles, the longest living of them. And his purpose for living that long, you know, comes true because this revelation is given to him. And he's the one who writes it down.

And earlier, earlier, and before we get to verse 9, you know, he's able to say, I was a witness to all these things. I was a witness to Jesus Christ. You know, it needed to be someone who would who could say, I was there when Jesus Christ lived. I saw him. I can testify of him. I know what he did. I'm an eyewitness. It isn't word of mouth. And so when we look at, we look at verse 9, you see that God chose John, you know, John who was there at the crucifix, at the time of the crucifixion, who stuck by Jesus' side, you know, and took care of his mother as Christ did it. We see that God chose him to write down this prophecy and to live, and not to die by martyrdom. But he was in prison, notice, right? It says, I, John, both your brother and companion, in the tribulation and kingdom. So it wasn't like his life was just a bed of flowers. He had, he went through tribulation. He went through persecution, just like Jesus Christ did. His life wasn't just super easy without any trials at all.

Your companion in the tribulation and kingdom, and notice, patience, patience of Jesus Christ.

That same patience that James talks about, you know, we need to have patient endurance, you know, through our lives, that John, who lived longer, may not understood why he was living all this time, but he was the patience of Jesus Christ. He lived long and he kept, he endured to the end.

The patience of Jesus Christ was on the island that's called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Well, the reason he was on Patmos, it appears, and it kind of infers that he was arrested because he was preaching, and then he was made a prisoner and sent out to this isle as a prisoner there because of what he was preaching.

You know, same thing that Jesus Christ said, you know, people aren't going to like what you say.

They'll throw you into prison. They'll do all manner of things to you because they don't like the message. As John preached, he found himself in that situation on Patmos, but he was the one.

He was the one, the very last book, if you will, of the Bible that God revealed to. So, you know, we have God the Father who gives it. We have Jesus Christ who passes it on to the angel, and we have the angel then who passes it on to John who writes it while he's in exile on the island of Patmos, the last living of the original apostles. So, you know, it's the authorship, and as we go through the next few verses, is very telling here. This is a wrapped up book. This is God speaking. This is Christ speaking. This is John, you know, loyal, faithful to the end. John writing down these things for us. Okay, let's go back to verse 2, okay? It says, signified it by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the Word of God. Who bore witness to the Word of God, right? So he, John, throughout his life, could say, I knew Jesus Christ. I know who he is. I know what he's about. I know him. And I was there when he said this. I was there at the crucifixion. I was an eyewitness to these people coming up on the graves. I was an eyewitness to his resurrection. I was an eyewitness to his ascension into heaven. Who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all things that he saw. To all things that he saw. So John comes from a very credible, very incredible background to write these things and to be the one to whom God conveyed it.

Verse 3, blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of this prophecy, as God Gardo pointed out, blessed is he who reads, right? Blessed is he who hears.

And hearing doesn't mean just hearing the words, but God opens our minds to understand this prophecy. There's reading, there's reading, and countless millions, if not billions, have read the book of Revelation over time. Over time, but they didn't hear it. Their minds weren't open to understand what the Word of God is. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy. But notice the word and. And keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near. The time is near. So keeping those things, so even in this book, it admonishes us what God tells us to do. We'll see a lot of instructions. You read it, you understand it, but you got to keep it. You got to observe it. You got to build it into your life. Hearing and understanding isn't enough. You got to do it, right? You got to walk the walk. You got to talk the talk. It's got to be body, mind, and soul committed to God and doing those things. Now, I mentioned, I didn't highlight in verse 1, it says, you know, God gave this to him to show his servants, that's his slaves, as we talked about, doulos, right? Things which must shortly take place.

So in 96 AD, you know, it must shortly take place. I think Winoma, you know, made a very good point.

In God's eyes, as he gave this prophecy, it was shortly going to come place. In maybe two days, or a little over two days, Jesus Christ was going to return, and there would be this prophecy fulfilled. Shortly take place. Verse 3, for the time is near. Now, when we read those verses today, right, shortly take place. Time is near. They should even have more significance to us because we can see the things that have already passed in prophecy. We can see and understand, even in real life events, what some of these caricatures or whatever and descriptions that John had, that we know in real life, what he's talking about, because they exist today, some of these items of weaponry.

You know, we understand when we look at the book of Daniel about there's a time when people run to and fro on the earth, all over the earth. We understand about a time of knowledge that is increased on the earth because we've lived it in a way that the prophets of old couldn't possibly have understood, and even people from 30 and 40 years couldn't possibly understand what we understand today and what we have access to. So when we read this book and we see those things, you know, we know the time is near, and throughout the book we see a sense of urgency, something that God always wants his people to have. Never to let our arms just hang down limply and kind of coast through life or sleep through life. He, you know, through many things we read, he cautions us, don't fall asleep. Don't fall asleep. Don't take it easy. Keep your antenna up. Be aware of what's going on, and because you don't know, you don't know when all these things will suddenly come together. So let me stop there. Any questions, comments, or anything on that?

I just want to make sure we understand the book of Revelation is just not 100% prophecy, you know, and it comes from, it's a God-determined from way before who was going to write it and how it was going to be revealed. Okay, let's look at the next verse then. John. John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Okay, so we're in 96 AD when, or 95, 96, somewhere in that neighborhood, when John writes this book, and he addresses it to the seven churches which are in Asia.

And we know those seven churches are listed here in for us in chapters two and three, and I didn't, I meant, I meant to put a map up so we could kind of look where those churches were. I'll have it there the next time. But you've seen the maps of where the seven churches are in Asia that that this book refers to. But it's interesting that John writes it to the seven churches, you know, some people will say, well, it's just of those legitimate seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyatira, Philadelphia, Laodicea, you know, all of them. But is that really who God is writing to? Is he only writing to those seven churches? Because this is a book, this is a book that we see takes the church all the way to the end, really talks about from the beginning of the church when Jesus Christ spoke it in Matthew 16 all the way to the time he returns and and harvest the first fruits that he's been working with. So those seven churches which are in Asia, you know, represent the world of that time. The gospel has spread out to, you know, these churches worldwide. It's gone from just the gospel that was to Judah and the scattered tribes of Israel to all the world that was known at that time. Those seven churches are really representative of all the world. It's interesting that, you know, John doesn't say, you know, to the seven churches which are in Asia and the church in Jerusalem, why might he not have said and to the church in Jerusalem or the church in Judah or wherever he might say that.

Any thoughts on that?

A couple years ago, remember?

Mr. Shaby, it's possible that by the time he read it, you know, church had fled, you know, so they weren't in Jerusalem. They were scattered broad in different areas as well. So, nope. I think that's exactly it. Remember back a couple years ago in the home Bible studies, we went through a history of the church and we talked about the scattering of the church from Jerusalem and Judea and that as Nero came in, they fled and they fled to what was a Pella. And so there wasn't really a church in Jerusalem at that time. The Jews were there, but the true Church of God, you know, really when you look through history, they've been there, but the church, the church, true Church of God was now out in Asia. It was out in the world.

Jerusalem wasn't the headquarters of the church anymore at this time. Just like Jerusalem isn't the headquarters of the church today, there's a couple scattered people who were in the church in Jerusalem and over there in the little nation of Israel, but the headquarters of the church is not there today. It certainly will be when Jesus Christ returns and when he brings his people back and he establishes his temple and his government and everyone to look to Jerusalem. But that's not the case today, and that doesn't appear to be the case at the time that John was writing this. That wasn't where the Word of God was coming from. So God works in different places in a different time to move the church from where it was. It was time to flee Jerusalem when the persecution came in.

He tells us in Matthew 24 when persecution comes into Judea, flee to the mountains. You know, God will choose the place. He's not tied to just one place to have his gospel and his truth be preached from. At this time, John was writing to the seven churches in Asia, which was the world as they knew it at that time. Today, the Word of God goes to all the world from a different place that they didn't even know existed perhaps at that time. So he's writing to the seven churches that comprised the world as they knew it, where the gospel of God was going out and the truth of God was going out.

But we'll see as we look into those seven churches, as we look into those seven churches, that they apply to us every bit as much as they do to the people at that time as well.

Okay, pause there for a moment.

And, um, or... Okay, let's go on then. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia.

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.

Here he talks about the eternity, the eternity of Jesus Christ. He always was. He was here on earth with us. John is saying, I knew him and who is to come. He's the same God yesterday, today, and forever. Grace to you, peace from him who is and who was and who is to come.

And from the seven spirits which are before his throne. Seven spirits which are before his throne.

What could he be talking about in when he says the seven spirits before his throne? Anyone have an idea on that? Mr. Shaby? Yes, sir. I think there's a scripture that mentions that those spirits, they go back and forth the earth. In a sense, there the the eyes have gone.

There is a verse like that. Very good. Mr. Shaby? Yes, sir. Yes, Ben.

Berda? When I say 9-6, it tells us that the government that will be over the shoulders of Jesus will be wonderful, consular, mighty God, everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Will God be the seven spirits? Okay. It does tell us all the aspects of the spirit, right, that are there?

There's not... because I looked at that too. I don't... one, two, three, four, five, six. Yep, I think there's six there, not seven that I counted, but maybe I missed one. So, okay. But good. That kind of tells us some of the aspects of the spirit. Yeah, wonderful. Would that be one? And then because it's a comma right after wonderful, the mighty God, comma, the everlasting Father, comma, and the Prince of Peace. Period. Okay. So, it's... I don't know. I just... I remember that if I say it.

No, no, no, that's a good point. Talking about the aspects of the spirit. There are a couple places in Revelation, you know, that addresses this very thing. Anyone maybe think of some verses in Revelation that might say, these are the spirits of God? Again, as we look through the Bible, we'll hear... we'll see things like that. And, you know, we know the Bible interprets itself, and then later on, often we find where, you know, it'll say, oh, these are the seven spirits of God.

Well, let's look at chapter four. Chapter four. Where?

Chapter four. I think I've got the right...

Oh, I'm here in chapter three. That's the problem. Okay. Let's look at chapter four, verse three. This is after... excuse me, after the seven... the messages to the seven churches. Here, John finds himself in the throne of God in vision. In verse five, it says, and from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. So that's exactly the same thing that he says there, you know, in whatever verse we were in, in verse four. From the seven spirits which are before his throne. So there's the seven lamps of fire. Now we might pause and think, what are those seven lamps of fire?

So, I say 11-2.

Okay, I say 11-2. I think I know that scripture. Yeah, 11-2.

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. So there's six of them there. So that's the verse that I had, yeah, six of them there. But if we look at, and we'll talk about this more next time as we get into chapter two, and really the end of chapter one, right? The seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Okay, there's another one there.

Revelation. Five-six. You got five-six? Okay, yes. That would be it. Five-six.

I looked and behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Kind of what Agarda was referring to. Now we would go back to Zechariah to see the eyes, because there's a prophecy back, and I think in Zechariah 9, maybe Zechariah 12.

We're not going to get to it today. That we can talk about, that kind of talks about these eyes that go to and fro in the earth. And then, you know, as you read Zechariah, you might look at that and think, what is that about? But then we come to the end book of Revelation, and we find the same thing here. And God says, those are the seven spirits of God. So the seven spirits of God that John talks about here as he begins to introduce this chapter have a meaning.

And as we get through chapter one, we're going to see what those lamps are. You know, one of the things to remember when we think about lamps, because God, when he uses the symbolism, it has a meaning to it, right? Because he, you know, he, we remembered that Jesus Christ, he was the light that came into the world, right? It tells us that in John 1. It tells us that that he was the light that came into the world. It's like he was a lamp. You walk into a room, it's a dark room, you turn on your lamp, and all of a sudden you've got light.

The world was totally dark. Jesus Christ comes into the world, and all of a sudden there's light. And he tells us, you know, you be lights of the earth. You know, you be the lamps of the earth, if you will.

You be the ones who, when I look down on the earth, I see lights down there, and not just the total darkness that covered the earth. And so these, the churches are defined, as you see later on, as lamps. They're the lamps on the lampstand, and these are churches that Jesus Christ is working with. They're the lights of the earth. And so when we get into the symbolism and seeing what God is saying, he kind of related back to some of the other things that we read in the Bible about who we are, how God sees us, what we're supposed to be.

We kind of, it kind of brings it all together and gives us a vision of what we are to be. You know, we, that's why it's so important that we are true light, not the very, not the filtered light, and not the, you know, very dull light, but the bright, shining light, by the way we live our lives. And as God looks at us, by the way we are yielding to Him, and letting Him change us and mold us into who He wants us to be.

So, you know, I think, you know, those are the seven spirits, and we'll get to that as we go along. So let's go back to chapter, chapter one here, and get through at least the first eight verses, I think, here, and try to do that as John talks about it, because we'll introduce these things, but we'll come back to them just like we did in James. There, you know, verse four, you know, he talks about grace to you from Him who is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne, and from Jesus, oh, okay, grace and to you from Him.

That's talking of God the Father, obviously, because then in verse five, he says, and from Jesus Christ. So he's got the seven spirits that are there that will be in the churches of God. He's got God the Father in person. Go ahead. Okay. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to Him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood. So he kind of reminds us as he gives a description of Jesus Christ there, he's the one who did it all.

He's the one who opened the door. He's the one who made all of this possible, and without his sacrifice, we, of course, know we have no future. We have no forgiveness. All we've earned is death, and we owe it all. We owe it all to Him. So to Him who loved us and washed us, right, cleansed us from our sins in His own blood, willing to shed His life for us, and to shed His blood, that we might have the opportunity to live. And to Jesus Christ, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.

Now, that's a verse. You know, verse 6, you know, we look at the future of the first fruits and what God has called us to become.

And it says, He's made us kings and priests to His God and Father. And I know there's been sermons in the past, and maybe, you know, maybe we should do a Bible study on what's, what do kings do and what do priests do, but you probably understand that. And if you don't, you know, you can do a study on that, or we can do one if we could. And maybe we could have some other people participate in that, and outlining what it is that kings do, what it is the priests do.

But He says He's made us kings and priests to His God and Father. And I'll let there are some, I'll let there's some questions about that verse. I'm going to pause there and just see if there are, 227, okay? See if there's any questions about that, because my margin has a comment that yours probably has as well. Mr. Shebby. Yeah, Ed Garland. Yeah, there's some, some versions, actually, that translate that part. You know, the kings and priests part is, is, is, I think, is a correct rendering, but also is translated a kingdom of priests. Yep. In some versions, which also has, is full of meaning, too. Yeah, it does. And, you know, you look at that, and, and there are some of the newer translations that do say kingdom of priests. The old, the older versions of the Bible, the older translations say kings and priests. I think, now I can't remember, I looked up Young's Literal, and I don't remember, I don't remember which one it did. I think it did say kings and priests. But if you look at anyone, anyone else on that, anyone know, anyone know the Greek word that's translated as kings there? Mr. Shady. Yes. A king is a person that rules, right?

Correct. He dictates the laws. A priest is a person, just in my opinion, is a person that reveals or preached the gospel to us. So in America today, we said there's a separation of church and state.

In my opinion, there shouldn't be a separation of church and state. And I think they should go hand in hand. And I do believe, once we get into the kingdom, they will go hand in hand. Am I right, or am I wrong? You know what? No, I think you bring up a good point, because in the Old Testament, there was that separation of church and state too, wasn't there? You know, you would see the kings who administer the physical government, but they would have priests, high priests that administer the spiritual things. So we had, and the king would consult with the high priest, and you had the two working together. But Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. He's our high priest.

All of it is wrapped up into one. And kings, like you say, that are converted, right, that have the Spirit of God, should be able to handle things, the physical in line with the spiritual, and should be one. And that's, you know, when God says He's made us kings and priests, I think my personal opinion is that He is marrying those two together. We don't need to have a separate king that administers the physical affairs. That person, you know, that person, even if we remember the parable of talents, right, God said, you know, you've done very well, rule over 10 cities, you know, that wasn't going to be that they were just going to be the one working with the city council and doing those things. They were going to rule over the 10 cities as at all. So if you look at the Hebrew, the Greek word that's translated kings there, it doesn't say kingdom. I find it interesting that some of the commentaries and some of the new ones say kingdom of priests because, you know, the actual what Strong says it means is kings or a leader, a leader of the people. So I'm not sure there must be something in the translation or the words that are there that has led, you know, the authors to say that some of the versions say kingdom of priests. So I'm not sure what that's about, but go ahead. Mr. Shavey, I'm just going to mention that's a moot point, but the word for that's for priest in Greek is the same word that's used for father. It's called papas.

Okay. So you can look at it, you know, that a priest that's equating priests with a father, a figure, maybe, I don't know. Okay. Interesting. Yeah. Well, we'll think about that one. Let's go to Revelation 20. Let's go to Revelation 20 and see what God says about the first fruits, the ones who are resurrected. In chapter 20 verse 6, you know, keeping chapter 1 verse 6 in mind, when it says, He has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, you know, chapter 20 verse 6, it says, Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. You know, we know who that is. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God. Okay. They'll administer the spiritual aspect of God's way of life. They shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. They'll be priests of God and they will reign with him a thousand years. Kings reign, priests serve. So I, you know, when I look at verse 6, I think it tells me we're going to be, you know, kings and priests because we will reign with Christ a thousand years, but we will be priests of God as well. We will be, you know, we will be spirit beings that, you know, know how to administer the physical as well as the spiritual, just like Jesus Christ does, just like we're learning, you know, in our lives here today. So.

Mr. Chevi. Yes. And you're coming about God basically reuniting the offices of ruler and priest. The point is that for ancient Israel, it was never God's intention for them to have a human king. It's because they demanded one that he basically gave them one, but he was their king all the way until Saul. So basically it's kind of bringing things back to the way they're supposed to be where, you know, your ruler is God and the saints in this case. And they're also your priests. They're also your teachers and the people that basically explained to you the law.

Very good. Now you're exactly right. God wanted them to choose him as king, not a physical one.

Okay, good. Yeah, Mr. Chevi, I was going to add, because I came to your mind the same thing with what Edgardo said. Exodus 19 verse 6 says, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So we know what happened with them. They were supposed to be the example. They were supposed to set the example for the rest of the world to follow. And of course, they failed miserably, as you know, were failing miserably. And the reason is they didn't have God's Holy Spirit to be able to overcome and to be able to do that. So I think it's very interesting how, you know, Christ is making us to be kings and priests, to rule with him, underneath him, and to be teachers of his way to help others learn God's way when he comes back to establish the kingdom of God here on earth. It's very fascinating.

Really cool, too. Yep. Marry the two together. Yeah, very good.

Hey, Mrs. Habe, this is Randy. Hey, Randy. To go along with what they were saying when you were mentioning about kings and priests, which I agree they're both one and the same, when you look at King Solomon was a king, but he also was the wisest man at the earth at that time, and they always brought matters to him to judge.

That's right. And he prayed for that, right? He prayed for that wisdom as he became king.

So, yeah, good. So, in a sense, he was acting both functions in one. Very good.

Okay, so we can go ahead. I agree with what was said there. One thing that has been somewhat of a confusion is, if you look at Revelation 5, 8 through 10, how can you reconcile that with what has just been said?

Okay. Let's read Revelation 5, 8 to 10. 5-8. Now, when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Now, they sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you are slain. You have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and you have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Okay, you are worthy to take the scroll.

Okay, explain what is your question then? How do you reconcile that? Yeah, yes.

But before then, he was saying that we should become a kingdom of priests or just kings and priests. And now he's saying, Here are the four elders, of the twenty-four elders and the four vistas. They're saying the same thing.

Oh, I see what you're saying. Okay, with the word us. The word us is in question. Let's look at it.

I've got an asterisk. I think that probably means something else. Yeah. If you look in your mark, my margin says the majority text reads them and have made them kings and priests to our God.

So we could probably look up that Greek word and see there it's us, but the margin says it should be the majority text or Masoretic text reads them. Yeah, so I think that's the confusion there.

So the elders are saying you have made them kings and priests. That's a misprint there, right?

That's what it would indicate there. Yeah, we're looking at chapter five verse ten.

I'm sorry, say it again? Chapter five verse ten, looking at the word us.

Of which book? Oh, Revelation. I'm sorry. Okay, that's right.

I think he meant which translation. I've got the new King James. I have the old King James, it says us.

It says us, yeah. Yeah, but it does meant, like I said, it mentions in my margin, you know, well, actually, I wonder why they changed it then. It says both the, both the, I don't remember what NU is, but the minority text and the majority test both read them, and for some reason they said us. But maybe that speaks to the translators who didn't understand what God's purpose for mankind was and thought, well, they can't possibly mean them. They have to be talking about the elders being that. So that might be just their, a mistranslation because they didn't understand what God's plan was as they read that. Yeah, Mr. Shaby, the New American Standard Bible, New American Standard Bible also has that as Revelation 5.10 says, you have made them to be a kingdom and priest to our God and they will reign upon the earth. They will reign on earth, yeah.

Same as ESV, as is Dan. Yeah, I think, I think, I think that's just a mistranslation. Apparently, it should be them and they. By their own acknowledgement here, too. So not even something we had to dig for. It's the the answers right there. So. Shortcoming and speaking Greek.

Sure, yeah, well, when we can speak Greek and Hebrew, we'll learn a lot, I think.

Does that clear that up, Charlie? Yes. Okay, okay.

Okay, well, we're past time. I bought back the minutes I had to waste on the people in the backyard, and I'm sorry about that, but let's, let's, well, I will finish verse six here.

To him, be to Jesus Christ, be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen is always a good place to end on. So we'll stop there with verse six and begin in in verse seven the next time.

We should be able to get through through there. I'm gonna, you know, as we get into chapters two and three, you know, we talk about the messages to the seven churches, and I'm thinking about how we can approach that. So I may be contacting a few of you on an idea on how we can, how we can address each of those churches because of, you know, we'll see that all those messages apply to all of us, right? I mean, it's not like, you know, we're not the church in Ephesus, and so Ephesus doesn't apply to us. We're not the church that's located in Thyatira, so that doesn't apply to us.

We need to bring the messages of the seven churches into the 21st century that because they all apply to us. Maybe not every single one of us, and probably different churches in the United States and around the world have different characteristics, you know, and, you know, and we all just need to kind of be aware of that. So we'll get in, we'll finish up chapter one, and then we'll get into two and three, but I've got some ideas, and I'm thinking about that, and I may contact a few of you on that. So let me close it there and just ask if there's any, you know, any other comments that anyone has or anything you'd like to to talk about before we close for this afternoon.

Okay, well then I will, I thank you very much for joining us here. Again, everyone understands, and I'll put it out in a memo again that so that everyone's clear. We'll have, if anyone wants to come to Orlando this week, if you'll let me know so that we don't have too many people to show up that we can't, you know, that we can't have, just let me know. If you want to come, let me know, and and we'll probably be okay, but there won't be any live in-person services in Jacksonville this week, so we'll be back there on the 27th, but in Orlando, and the webcast will be there at 1130 from Orlando, so. So, John Berra can sign up for some of this? Yes, I put your name on there.

If you want to come, I've got you, I've got you down, so. Okay, very good. Since I have the reception on my phone. Okay, okay. No, I've got you down. You don't have to do anything else, but I've got, you know, others, if you just email me or whatever, I'll accumulate a list here and make sure that we're okay space-wise. Okay. Okay, hey, thank you very much, everyone. Have a very good rest of the day and week, and we will see you on Sabbath.