FTGC-52A – Exploring The Map Of The Future–Jesus Leads John The Apostle Through Revelation 4-22

If the YouTube video above is not available, here are two other ways to view:

CloudFront | SermonAudio

John Barnett here and welcome to, sadly, week 52 of the 52 Greatest Chapters of the Bible. Thank you for being with us for a whole year. I do have to confess that this is not the end. I spent so long on this, that I broke it into two parts. We’re going to survey, as you see right here on the board, the 52 Greatest Chapters, week 52, Revelation 4 to 22. These are the applications that we’re going to cover today. I’m going to explain, of course, what you saw last week, then I’m going to show you how to continue your studies. Then next week, I’m going to give you the What’s Next presentation. Looking through the eyes of Jesus, to us as believers in His Church, at the map He left at the end of the world. Also, how those predictions Christ made are showing up as modern birth pangs.

For example, Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine, right? You’ve been watching that and have seen that on the news. What was our very first way to defend Ukraine? What did the United States do first? Economic sanctions. What’s that? Digital money. Freezing, stopping the ability to buy and sell through electronic digital transfers. That is exactly what the Anti-Christ does. Not for Ukraine. Not for Putin, not for just some individual, but the whole world. If you don’t worship him, you can’t buy or sell. If you won’t get his mark on your forehead or hand, you can’t buy or sell. In other words, it’s a death sentence to not worship him. That’s why either you’re an Earth dweller or you are being hunted down and slain. There is no middle ground in the Tribulation we’re going to see. Fascinating.

Let’s go through the slides because I want to do this last lesson of the 52 Greatest Chapters and get everything done that we’re supposed to do. Down at the slides, we’re in Revelation 4 to 22. It’s God Almighty’s guide because remember, this is what God the Father gave to the Son to give to us the Church. That’s the book of Revelation. This is the Aegean Sea and I got to visit Patmos, it’s the backdrop for this study. Here we are on week 52. Our goal is to understand God’s plan for the future.

Lookup for a second. If you’re just joining our study, there’s a whole year behind us. I want to show you on this slide in just a second, what our goal for this whole class is so look at the slide. You are part of a survey of the whole Bible. There are 52 of the greatest chapters or passages that we study using a week-long study method called the devotional method. By that, we read through the passage daily. I’ve read through Revelation 4 through 22. I’ve read it over and over and made many titles. You’re going to see those on the following pages. Then I’ve noted lessons. Guess what? I found 61 lessons, but I’ve reduced them down to 12 that are going to be on the board. Then look at this, I’m going to end with a prayer I wrote this morning. I’m so excited and I hope you will write a prayer of application.

Revelation has three parts. Week 50 we covered chapter 1, Jesus, as He is now. That’s how God wants us to see Him, with us. In chapter 2 and 3, believers as Jesus wants us to live every day. This study can impact your life more than any other study. I know every Bible teacher always says that they are very excited about the book that they’re teaching. However, if you stick with this study of Revelation you’ll see it is the only book of the Bible in which God promised a very specific blessing. It’s for us to see Jesus is the image of God with all the attributes, all 25 attributes of God. The Creator, the Redeemer, and the Judge, that’s chapter 1, Jesus, now. That perspective shows that we are His Church, so we know how Jesus wants us to live in an ever-darkening and evil world. That is the perspective God wants us to have. That’s what chapter 1 is all about.

Look over here. I’ll remind you because I want you to see it in the Bible. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God…” It’s the revelation, the seeing Jesus clearly, that God gave Jesus to show us, His servants. The whole purpose of Revelation is God wants us to see Christ clearly. Back up to this diagram. If you see Jesus clearly as God the Son and see our role as His servants, all of a sudden, all the events that we see happening around us are clear. Whether it’s the rumblings of China trying to take Taiwan back or the advances of Czar Putin trying to expand his empire and overrun the peoples of Ukraine or whatever’s the next thing. There’s always going to be something. If it’s not the pandemic of COVID, it’s going to be something else. Maybe we’ll get our whole attention on some catastrophic climate change event, or maybe there’s going to be some asteroid or meteorite hit or maybe there’s going to be this gigantic earthquake. Something’s going to fill the news every day.

What should we do? Get afraid? Get worried? No. Remember that Jesus is God the Son, the very image of the invisible God. We are His Church. He’s walking around, wanting us to live as His lampstands, His lights to the world. Remember what Paul said to the Philippians? “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain.” We’re supposed to be holding out that word of life to people, showing them Jesus Christ. We already know what’s going to happen. Soon when our lives are finished, our purpose, we go to Heaven, chapters 4 and 5. We know what’s going to happen on Earth, chapters 6 to 20, and we know how it all ends, that Jesus will right all wrongs. That’s the plan.

Back to the slides. What we’re looking at specifically today is that it’s God’s map of the final days of humanity. Do you remember, I’ve shown you this slide, this is what’s behind me? Jesus is the Son of God that overshadows, brackets everything else. That’s chapter 1, we are His Church. That’s the next thing. First, He introduces Himself. Then He introduces us as His Church and shows us how He wants us to live. See, this is the smallest part of the whole study. Yet, the map of the end of the world is what everybody wants to spend all their time and worry about and argue about. No. We’re supposed to see that Jesus is orchestrating the end of the world, that we have a duty while we’re in the world to not fear the events as the birth pains get closer and stronger, but we’re supposed to, look at this, live. Right here is the key, live for Jesus in an ever-darkening world.

Remember, really quickly, this is Revelation in 60 seconds. This second, we’re the Church on Earth. At any moment, we’re going to be raptured, taken into the presence of the Lord. We’re going to stand before His judgment seat and receive the reward for what we’ve done. While we’re getting that the Tribulation unfolds on the Earth. It culminates with Christ’s second coming. He sets up His kingdom for 1000 years, at the end of which He releases Satan who leads the entire world in rebellion. God ends it and executes everyone. The Great White Throne judgment and we dwell in the house of the Lord forever. There’s the book of Revelation in 60 seconds.

Remember, see this map. Let me show you. Rome is right here. John is right here on Patmos. The seven churches are right here. This is the mighty Roman empire. No one could imagine resisting the power of the Roman empire. Look over here at the map. This is what I just showed you right now. I want you to think about this; God said He wanted His churches right here in the epicenter of the Roman empire to live for Him. What’s the message throughout all the ages? Right where you are right now, live for Him. I get notes from some of you that are up here in the UK. I get notes from people in Italy and France and somebody that was in Croatia. I get notes from the Middle East and even from over here in oil country or the United States where about 75% of all of us are watching this live. Wherever you live God wants you to live for Him. That’s what the book of Revelation is about. Back to the slides. The map reminds us of this: the churches were at the epicenter of the empire. Here they are. John is on Patmos. The first church, second church, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and final church at the epicenter of the empire where God wanted them to live in an ever-darkening world.

Now you remember the context is that this is the second generation Church that Jesus is coming to and looking at to see whether or not they’re applying the Gospels and the epistles that were finished and spread widely, as well as the whole Old Testament. Only John is left, and Jesus communicates to him the message to the Church then, and to all churches through the ages.

By the way, let me talk to you about Living Hope for the End of Days. There are two books I’m going to talk about at the end. This is my dissertation on Revelation. It has every detail. It covers the prophetic content of every book of the Bible. It also covers every part of Revelation. It has, in the end, literally hundreds of footnotes, a bibliography, and the study guides. It’s just amazing to look at that. This is Living Hope.

This book is called Christ’s Last Words. That is all the application from my life. Living Hope has all the details of prophecy and revelation and every chapter and every seal and all those 18 sets of sevens. Sometimes we get all mixed up with those things and lose the primary message, which is this: how does Jesus want me to live? Two separate resources for you to use and think about.

Back to the slides. Living Hope is for wanting to tune up the understanding of Bible prophecy and world events. Christ’s Last Words For His Church is what I want to do, what Jesus wants me to do with my life. How do you get them? Paper books are available at discoverthebook.org. By the way, if you order one of these books it helps Bonnie and me. A hundred percent of all of these book sales go to our missionary support. You can also get them anywhere in the world. I just heard some of you contacted our office and said, I can’t get a book mailed to me in my country. Someone from Brazil said that and someone from South Africa said that too. Somebody from India said it cost, I don’t know, three times the price of the book to mail. See right here, Kindle, you can get the eBook on Amazon and join us.

 

Let’s go through my journal because as I told you, I found over 60 lessons and I just want to jump into them with you. We’re on week 52. I typed in everything that was in my journal. See right here? You take your journal, you read the passage through every day, and while you’re reading you jot down your notes. Let me see how many pages I got. There we go. Revelation 4, Revelation 5, two pages on 6, Revelation 7 a page, Revelation 8, 9, 10, got a page for each of them, 11, 12. See, I did every chapter with a page, just shorthand, then on these slides, I typed them out because I was enjoying the study this week.

Here we go. A summary is: Revelation is God wanting to make Jesus clearly seen by His saints. That’s the whole first verse. God Almighty rules the entire universe, He accomplishes His plan despite all demonic and human opposition throughout all time. Since Revelation was written, all Bible teachers and scholars have seen three levels of meaning. Some say it’s past history, that’s the preterists. Some say it’s the continuous inspiring story of Christianity making it, that’s called the idealist. After a lifetime of studying this book, I agree with those who have always taught that it’s Christ’s map of the future. This is what Jesus said: Revelation 1-3 brought a message historically of hope. This is the historic element to the believers, to John, and to the seven churches. Then, because all scripture applies to us through the centuries, we see before our eyes the record God gave us that He’s in absolute control of Satan, the demons, all the nations, and the entire physical and celestial worlds. Sometimes Satan seems powerful and although evil seems universal, God shows He controls and limits and directs all things.

Then chapters 4 and 5 God shows us what Heaven’s like right now, as well as during the Tribulation’s wrath. Where do we fit in that awesome majestic scene of God’s power and the joyful worship of His redeemed saints? God shows even in those chapters, He’s completely in control of everything. Then the main portion of our study today, God shows how everything’s going to end. Jesus describes for us the final political landscape of humanity. The final battles that humans wage against each other, and God, the final global ruler. His name is Anti-Christ. Then Jesus is literally going to rule on Earth as the son of David for a thousand years. Then we see the beauty and radiance of the new Heaven and the new Earth and the eternal capital city of the universe, Jerusalem. The final destiny of every unrighteous rebel, both angel and human, is Hell, and have every one of us redeemed and righteous humans we’re dwelling in our Father’s house. God says I control the universe. I limit evil while it’s here then I get rid of it I’m directing all things.

Revelation follows an earlier divine planned confrontation of Moses versus Egyptian false gods. For just a minute, look up here. Revelation is the map of the future God wants us to understand, but what’s amazing is it follows the same pattern as Moses versus the gods of Egypt. Do you understand that this book of Revelation is Christ’s final explanation and application of all the scriptures? Now we see why all the plagues, and everything are so detailed and so graphic in the book of Exodus. Why is that? Because just like Moses defeated Egypt’s gods through God’s almighty plan, Revelation is God defeating every one of Satan’s lies that humanity brings up. Let me show you on the slides what I mean by that. God directs His wrath against every idol of rebellious humanity. While He’s doing that, He’s caring for His own, for His saints, for His Church, for those Tribulation martyrs.

Number one, saints love and serve God as we struggle through life. Chapter 1 is Jesus comes to us anywhere we are, that’s John on Patmos. Then in chapters 2 and 3 Jesus is walking among us and then in chapters 4 and 5 is Jesus bringing each of us safely into His presence.

The scene switches here to lost humanity. They believe in evolution. They deny biblical creationism, so the creator shows them His power. Earth dwellers worship Mother Earth so God first allows the natural disasters to amplify, that’s chapters 5 through 8. Then He begins to send final divine, environmental destruction. By the way, those heavy-duty ones are in chapter 16. God the Son, the creator systematically destroys the atmosphere, the oceans, and the land. He uses earthquakes, smoke, fire, red tides, global warming, volcanoes, tsunamis, asteroids, comets, and meteors. Each one is detailed.

Then lost humanity is always fascinated with demons so God opens a pit and lets humanity taste the searing torment of demons. That’s chapter 9. Lost humanity seeks to rule themselves and reject God’s Messiah, so God sends the fake Jesus, the beast, as the worst human who ever lived to lead humanity to destruction. That’s chapter 13. Lost humanity wants a false religion of human achievement, so God destroys religion. That’s chapter 17.

Lost humanity wants comforts, entertainment, and possessions more than God. This is the idolatry of covetousness. Remember that God says that when we want things more than Him we’re breaking the 10th commandment. Number 10 is don’t covet your neighbor’s car or his wife or anything she has. It says his donkey or his wife or anything. Don’t want that. Why? Look down at the slide. Humanity wants comforts, entertainment, and possessions more than God. That is idolatry, that’s covetousness. What does God do? He destroys all the possessions and pleasures in one moment. That’s chapter 18. Lost humanity rejected their Creator and Redeemer. What does God do? Christ returns as a Judge to cast all rebels into the fire. That’s chapters 19 and 20.

Finally, back to the saints. We believe in God. Remember Hebrews 11 says without faith it’s impossible to please Him, but because we do believe we please Him. He invites us all to dwell in His satisfying and sustaining presence forever. Chapter 21 and 22. Hey, guess what? We have to live near God because none of us can sustain our own life. We can’t even keep ourselves awake at night. That’s why we fall asleep or want to fall asleep and have to fall asleep. We need that renewal. Do you know what Heaven is? We’re plugged into the charger forever. We’re in God’s presence. Do you remember what happened when Moses was in God’s presence for 40 days? He didn’t need to eat. He didn’t need to sleep. He didn’t need to drink water. He didn’t do any of that for 40 days. He should have died, but instead of dying he came back almost looking like some superhero. His face was bright and shining. It scared people. He came back with such divine radiance. Why? He was in God’s presence for 40 days.

What’s it going to be like to live forever in God’s house overspread by the canopy of His presence? Remember what it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18. “And we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.” That’s what happens here on Earth as we open this book. Can you imagine living with God forever? Wow. Okay. Back down.

Next slide. Here are my 12 lessons and I’m going to not only show them to you here on the slides, see number one. Look over here. That’s number one. The ones that are bright red on the slides I’ve made as the 12 final applications of the book of Revelation. We’re going to think about our Father on the throne. That’s what He wants us to do. That’s what God sent Jesus to show us. The Father is on the throne while we live on Earth as His Church. While we look at all the disastrous events, He’s still on the throne. His perfect kingdom will come. His final justice is tied to our prayers. Believing final justice is tied to prayers and submitting to our Father in Heaven. God seals His own. That’s our security. Salvation is of the Lord. Sin is more powerful. All of these lessons, we’re going to go through one at a time in these slides. Then I’ll just mention all the rest of them because there are about 60 that I found.

Here we go. Our Father in Heaven is always on the throne. That’s Revelation 4:1. Jesus wanted them and us to see God seated on His throne. Look here in my Bible and I want to show you what I mean by that. I would encourage you to do this. “I looked, and, behold, a door was standing open in Heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.'” This is all in the future. “Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a” see the box around it, “throne…One sat on the throne.” Verse 4 “around the throne.” See that box? From the throne, before the throne, around the throne, down here, sits on the throne, sits on the throne. Do you see I’ve marked every time the throne is mentioned? Here is the last one in verse 10 of chapter 4. Then look at chapter 5, the throne, and verse 6 the throne, in verse 7 the throne. Do you understand that? That is the reminder. Verse 11, the throne, verse 13, the throne.

Back to the slides. Who’s on the throne? Our Father in Heaven. Look at that, those 11 times remind us God is on that throne, all is well, all this calm. Think about Matthew 5 through 7. What does Jesus say there? Your Father, which is in Heaven, knows what you need. He takes care of the sparrows, et cetera, et cetera. He is your Father, your perfect Father. Look up and focus on Him on the throne.

Then in chapter 5, we see Jesus was forever the lamb of God. Look over here at chapter 5 and verse 6. It says, “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.” This word here is slaughtered. Slain means massacred. Jesus has the marks of His crucifixion forever. Okay.

Back over here. My third lesson. God’s perfect kingdom will come. In Revelation 5:8 as a part of the saints, they’re both under the throne and they’re talking around the throne. Let’s read it in verse 8. “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.” Look at this, “which are the prayers of the saints.” Right in front of God’s throne are all of our collective prayers. Look at chapter 8 and verse 3. “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 the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the Angel’s hand.” Then what happens is all of these trumpet judgments flow from those prayers collected by God. Wow. Back to the slides. God’s perfect kingdom will come. That’s why the Lord’s prayer says, “Thy kingdom come.“ We’re supposed to constantly be asking God to have His way.

The angry Creator becomes the global focus because once the seals start breaking, the world knows something has happened. The first thing that happens is Revelation 6:4, death through murder and warfare becomes horribly common. Starvation, number 6, stalks humanity. That’s the black horse. It’s amazing. The ultimate pandemic. COVID was not on the scale of Revelation, a real pandemic, because the real pandemic is when one out of four people dies very rapidly. That’s what happens right here in chapter 6 verse 8.

All the people go to Hades, the waiting room for judgment. Number 8, final justice is when the answer to all those prayers begins. Look at Revelation chapter 6 with me in verse 9. “When He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the Earth?’ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.” Then comes the wrath of God right here in verse 12.

Final justice begins right here at the fifth seal. This is the midpoint of the seven years of God’s plan for the end of human rule. The second half is called the Great Tribulation. By the way, all of these verses here call it the Great Tribulation. Under the altar of incense are those who have been martyred for following Christ. Seals one through four are the first three and a half years of the Tribulation. Seal five that we just saw with them crying out is the midpoint and the last three and a half years are seals six and seven. All seven trumpets and all seven bowls. Wow. Verse 10 that I just read says, God knows exactly how each of us will die. He has numbered those who become martyrs before He ends all of Satan’s horrors.

Watch out when God’s patience ends, His wrath begins, that’s Revelation 6:12, and the sixth seal unleashes fear that overwhelms the Earth. Remember Luke 21 reflects people dying for fear. What’s interesting is humans accomplish seals one through five. Humans are murdering each other and ruining the Earth and everything. With seal number six, it’s the direct finger of God called The Day of the Lord when God’s pent-up wrath is poured out in the trumpets and the bowls. The second half of Revelation 6:12 talks about the biggest quake in Earth’s history. Reminds me, you can run, but you can’t hide from God because that earthquake is unique. It strikes everywhere at once. God sends a mega quake. Remember He talked about earthquakes in Matthew 24. He tells us they’re going to be many quakes, but this is the mother of all quakes. It seems all the fault lines that surround the Earth with the ring of fire move simultaneously. This precipitates volcanic activity, ash, and debris blowing. The atmosphere darkens the sun and reddens the moon. That’s what we see in Zechariah 14 as well as here in Revelation 6.

That’s not all, space begins to shake. Look at Revelation 6:13 with me. When the sixth seal opens there is this great mega seismós, this mother of all quakes, which fractures all those fault lines, and the volcanism makes the sun darken and the moon becomes like blood. Then look. Stars, by the way, the word here is anything in space. It can be a meteorite, can be a comet, can be an asteroid, doesn’t matter. They’re all called stars as well as literal stars and planets. They called anything in the sky a star, this asteres word right here, but they started falling to the Earth. A fig tree drops its late figs when it’s shaken by a mighty wind. Look at this, the atmosphere is hit. The sky recedes like a scroll when it’s rolled up. Look at this. Remember I said all the fault lines move at once and every mountain, every island moves out of its place and all the people “hid themselves…and said to the mountains and rock,” verse 16, “fall on us and hide us from the face of Him…for the great day of His wrath has come.” By the way, that’s how the Great Tribulation starts. Wow. Okay.

Back to the slides. The sky is torn asunder. The lamb becomes the lion. It’s the time of His wrath. By the way, all the way through the Old Testament it’s called The Day of the Lord. In Joel, it says there’s going to be these seismic disturbances. Ezekiel talks about violent weather. Joel and Zephaniah talk about clouds and thick darkness. Joel says that the whole heavens are going to be rented asunder as we see up here in verse 14 of chapter 5. Joel also says twice that that day is great and terrible, and the destruction is from the almighty. All of that is what we see portrayed in Revelation.

In the midst of this, look at chapter 7. God is always a Savior. It explained God’s rescue plan for any who will respond with repentance. This is the answer to the question at the end of chapter 6. Look how chapter 6 ends. “Who is able to stand?” Look at what chapter 7 says, “I saw four angels…holding the four winds of the Earth.” It says, “don’t harm the Earth.” Then I looked, and there were all these servants of the Lord there, a great multitude of evangelists on Earth. They’re standing and look at this, “a great multitude, which no one could number…standing before the throne.” The 144,000 are standing on Mount Zion with the Lord, which let me show you here right here in chapter 14, they’re standing on Mount Zion. Chapter 6 verse 17 says who can stand? The 144,000 and all the multitude of those saved out of the Great Tribulation.

Back over here, God is a savior. That’s our 15th lesson. God holds our life’s breath because God sends four angels standing at the four corners of the Earth, the four points of the compass. It doesn’t say the Earth is flat, what it means is what all humans would understand; north, south, east, and west. Those angels stand and briefly stop the atmospheric engine that drives all weather and all air purification that will literally take the breath away from Earth’s inhabitants and remind them who holds their life’s breath. That’s what Daniel 5:23 says, God does. Just think what it would be like to be on the Earth with no breeze, no clouds, no rain. Just stale, dusty, humid, smoky, acrid air. Wow. We’re so used to the air circulating that God set up with the atmospheric engine. God is just reminding them He even holds their breath.

Look at this 17th lesson. God always seals His own. In Revelation 7:2 God knows who belongs to Him. In Ezekiel 9 it shows an angel coming and marking invisibly on the head of all those who are really saved. Here God declares these witnesses are His and look at Revelation 14:1 over here in my Bible. God says He wrote His name on their foreheads. That’s so interesting. Look back at the slide. God always seals His own. If you want to read what Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 23, it says all of us have been sealed by the Holy Spirit.

Why are the 144,000 Jews? Because Israel was designed to share God with the world and now, He’s accomplishing that. They’re targeting the world plus Israel. Soon, those from, as Zechariah says, there’s going to be a remnant saved from Israel. This kicks off the super evangelism event in Revelation 7:9. The Tribulation marks the greatest ingathering of saints redeemed from Satan’s domain that will ever take place in history. God uses the 144,000, the two witnesses, and the Gospel angel to be sure everyone on Earth hears in their own understandable language His plan of salvation.

Why? The 20th thing I observed this week and wrote in my journal, salvation is of the Lord. Jonah reminds us that in Jonah 2:10, salvation is of the Lord. All of Heaven is shouting for joy. Look at Revelation 7:10. “And crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God.'” Look at Jonah. Back here. Isaiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Amos, Jonah 2:9. There it is, at the end of 9. “Salvation is of the Lord.” Jonah 2:9. Look how they say it in Revelation 7:10, “crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'” Back to the slides. Salvation is of the Lord. God is a savior. He’s the initiator, the source of the plan, and He accomplished salvation for all who would trust in Christ.

By the way, people get saved after the Rapture in huge numbers. That’s what verse 14 says in chapter 7. God’s plan is inescapable. By the time we get to Revelation 8, the seventh seal completes the settled plan of God, those seven seals. Look what happens. Out of it springs not only an earthquake, but the following seven trumpets, which cover from chapter 8 through chapter 9:21, and then slip into the final one in 11:15 as God pours His wrath out rapidly. It says there’s silence. Look at chapter 8 verse 1. “When He opened the seventh seal,” that’s the last seal, “there was silence in Heaven for about half an hour.” Why is that? Well look at this, the silence portends the return of the King and the inescapable wrath of God. It’s almost breathtaking. It just freezes you when you think of what’s coming.

The 23rd thing I found this week is the birth pains get stronger and wider. The trumpets are more deadly than those seals, but they’re not as deadly as the bowls. Everything gets worse. The first four of the trumpets display the ruin of the ecology of Earth. The last three show a demonic invasion of Earth. It’s just terrifying.

Number 24, God strikes the environment that mankind protects, Revelation 8:5-7. God shows what He can do to the oceans. It’s an extinction-level asteroid or meteorite that plunges down, strikes the oceans, and devastates a third of all the ships. Perhaps it’s even a tsunami. Recently I was reading in a scientific journal that the 8.3 magnitude quake that hit off those islands of Micronesia a few months back raised the ocean level on all the seas of the Earth. All. They now have delicate enough instruments to find when the seas, the tidal, the normal pattern, they’ve worked into all their instruments. When there was that 8.3 magnitude earthquake down there in the islands of Micronesia, all of a sudden that powerful undersea wave didn’t just go toward the west coast and up toward Japan and Russia and Siberia and Alaska and all that. It went all the way around India, around the horn of Africa. It went all the way around South America and was felt in the Atlantic. This one is going to be felt everywhere and sink a third of the ships.

Number 26, God shows how fragile our air supply is in chapter 8 verses 10 and 11. This star could be a comment that strikes the atmosphere and spreads its poison over the planet. Then solar power gets hit. Remember God the Son ignited our sun and all the other stars on the fourth day of creation, but He dials them down by 1/3^rd supernaturally. This dramatic temperature drop prompts fearsome weather. That’s what Luke 21 talks about. It devastates fragile plant life and animals and people, but then God dials them back because remember in chapter 16, He goes the other way with the dial and makes it scorching hot.

Number 28. Demons are allowed to become predators inflicting tortures. Like scorpions, they paralyze victims with pain. This, the 29th lesson is the greatest loss of human life arrives with the sixth trumpet in Revelation 9. Four angels bound by God are now allowed to lead a demonic army that numbers 200 million. Wait a minute. Some people think that the 200 million are Asian soldiers that are all coming and marching across the Euphrates river. No, that’s not the sixth trumpet. That comes with the seventh. This is a separate event. Look at your slide here. This event is not to be confused with the later human army announced by the seventh trumpet. It’s led by demons in Revelation 16. They’re heading to destroy Jerusalem and fight God at Armageddon. This right here in Revelation 9 is a demonic army that destroys 1/3^rd of all remaining humans. That’s the single greatest loss of human life until the Lord ends everything in His second coming. We’ve had 1/4^th, that’s 25%, and now 1/3^rd, so 58% of Earth has died by chapter 9.

Now this one, I want to stop for a moment. Sin is more powerful than we realize. Look at my Bible over here in chapter 9 verse 20. “But the rest of me mankind,” the ones that after a third of humanity gets wiped out by demon hordes, everybody else who is surviving, “who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols …and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or of their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

Look up for a second. We don’t realize how powerful sin is. Look at this. Sin is more powerful than you know. Do you remember the Thyatirans? How the Lord said some of those in Thyatira, in chapter 2 of Revelation, experienced the depths of Satan? The reason I wanted to say this is I’ve gotten so many notes through messenger, through our different web pages, and YouTube. I’ve gotten messages from people that say, I have tried. I’ve tried and I can’t break loose. For some of them it’s alcohol, some of them it’s drugs. For many of them, it’s immorality. Many of them it’s pornography. Others of them it’s fear. Others of them it’s anxiety. Some of them are so fearful, so anxious. They can’t do anything. What are they experiencing? Sin is more powerful than you know. Do you know what the most important thing to do is? Make sure at this very moment that there’s no unconfessed, unforsaken sin in your life. Why? Because sin is like a reptile. It grows bigger every day you let it stay around. It binds. It’s like being wound around with a spider web. The first time around you can break it, but about the 20th time around it’s starting to restrict you until finally you are completely sealed into bondage to sin.

Now we can never break loose, but who can? It says in John chapter 8, “whom the Son shall set free will be free indeed.” How do you get that freedom over the overpowering strength of sin? Cry out to the Lord, ask Him to set you free. Repent, which means you have a change of mind. Say, I hate that sin Lord, which leads to a change of direction that we say, I don’t want that anymore. I want you more than anything else. Remember, and look down at this slide. Sin is far more powerful than we realize. Despite all the horrors, all the cataclysms, people are still chained to their sins of rebellion, but only Christ can release us. John lists five horrible sins: demon worship, murder, mind-controlling drug addiction, sexual immorality, and theft. Don’t experience those. Don’t get to know the depths of sin like the Thyatirans did. Repent and offer ourselves as living sacrifices back to the Lord.

Here’s the 31st lesson. God reminds us He’s in control in chapters 10 and 11. God uses a lot of sevens in Revelation. When we get to the seven thunders right here, the word seven is used 54 times in Revelation. I counted them all. There are 18 different sets of sevens. In order, they are seven churches, seven spirits, seven lampstands, stars, lamps of fire before the throne, seals, horns, eyes, spirits of God, angels, trumpets, thunders, heads, crowns, last plagues, golden bowls, mountains, and kings. Wow.

Then I saw in chapter 10, the sweet and sour word of God. It’s sweet because we see the anticipation of God’s victory over sin and His vengeance on horrible sinners. It’s nauseating when we realize how horrible the effects of sin are on creation and how horrible is the ultimate fate of eternal punishment separated from God in the fires of Hell. We see the career of the Anti-Christ starting in chapter 11 verse 2. Then we see the two witnesses that God introduces that are especially testifying to Israel of their need for the Messiah, which culminated in Zechariah.

Then in verse 7 of chapter 11, we get to know more about this worst human that ever lives. He’s the incarnation of Satan. He’s described 36 times just here in Revelation. He’s the beast, look at this, that ascends out of the bottomless pit here. That means he’s totally indwelt by Satan. He’s the Anti-Christ we’re going to see in a moment in chapter 13. The whole world, by the way, is going to watch all this unfold. See what it says in Revelation 11? It says the whole world is watching. Look at chapter 11 verse 8, it says, “and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the people’s, tribes, tongues, and nations will see.”

When you talk about peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations, that’s another way of saying all people, because everybody is part of some tribe or tongue or nation. Everyone sees their dead bodies for three and a half days. Look what they do. “Those who dwell on the Earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and they send gifts.” Wow. Back to the slide. The whole world is watching. That’s global digital media. We’ll talk about that next week when I do the What’s Next lesson, 52b. The Earth dwellers. Rejoice that’s God’s description of the lost. Earth dwellers are how God describes all lost people. They live for the Earth. They send gifts to each other. That’s global connectivity and communication. God resurrects the two witnesses and takes them to Heaven in a cloud as the world watches.

Then He sends an earthquake in verse 13, and some people get so shaken up they actually believe in the Lord. There’s a response of faith, Zechariah 12 and 13 predicted that. Paul predicts that and Romans 11 and probably many of those are Jews in Jerusalem. Look at the majority, the hardened Earth dwellers shake their fists at God in verse 18. This amazingly evil response to all that is displayed by God shows that the human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, Jeremiah says. Hard, impenitent.

God’s wrath and justice are holy. Lookup for a second. I’ll remind you, if you can’t read very much of the Systematic Theology, we recommend you read the three chapters on the attributes of God. They’re the best chapters in the whole book. Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology. It talks about what is on the slide, God’s wrath and justice are holy. I encourage you to use the Systematic Theology as well as the notes in our MacArthur Study Bible that we use that explain these attributes of God.

Back to the slides. I saw that Satan is a horrible dragon in chapter 12. Satan has an everlasting enmity against God. Also in chapter 12, God’s chosen people of the promise are the Jews, so He protects them. Satan is confined to Earth and muzzled. He can no longer slander and come before the throne of God as he does in Job chapter 1 but, because he’s confined to Earth, he rages against Israel and kills the saints who obey God’s word. Watch out, beware. Satan has power for false signs and wonders. Look at Revelation 13 with me because a lot of people are caught up in the signs and wonders movement. Be careful because this is what Satan can do.

Another beast. A second beast “coming up out of the Earth, and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.” He looks weak and has powerful communication. “He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence.” This is a false prophet. “And causes the Earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast (Anti-Christ), whose deadly wound was healed.” Why? Verse 13 of chapter 13, 13:13, “he performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from Heaven on the Earth in the sight of men. And he deceives those who dwell on the Earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the Earth to make an image to the beast…who was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak,” this is all signs and wonders, “and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.” Wow. Then “he,” again, this is the false prophet, “causes all, both small and great, rich and poor…to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead.” You can’t buy or sell, verse 17, without it. Look at lesson 45, beware of Satan empowering fake signs and wonders. What Jesus warned about most.

Number 46. What is that mark of the beast? It’s a chosen, visible marker, ID. Like I just read here the context for his recipients in Asia minor was the Roman world. The word that John used in the 1^st century was used for a soldier’s brand, a mystery cult member’s tattoo, or the symbols that they wrote on slaves on their bodies. The Anti-Christ will tie all financial transactions to a number associated with him and the number 666 reminds us, the Anti-Christ is only a man. That’s why it’s 666, the number of man, rather than 777, the number of God. He’s the most powerful human of all time, but he’s merely a human.

By the way, look up. It’s a mark and God said it is a mark here on your right hand and a mark here on your forehead. It’s not a vaccination and it’s not anything else that people have worried about. It’s only brought about in chapter 13 verse 16, he causes all to get this mark on their right hand or their foreheads. That should encourage some of you that are so worried about whether or not the mark of the beast is somehow tied to our current COVID situation. The Bible says it’s not. I have lots of videos on that. I’ve already addressed that in Q and A’s, but we’re right here. Don’t waste your precious time trying to fight off the coming of the Anti-Christ’s kingdom. We’re supposed to be promoting God’s kingdom, living for righteousness, living in peace and joy, doing all of these things that these lessons are saying. Not protesting everything that our wicked government does. We’re supposed to stand for righteousness and not spend our time on political activity.

Let’s look at lesson number 48. Lesson 48, the Gospel angel shares the message of salvation globally. Wow. This one presenting the eternal Gospel is heard around the world. God shows His holy wrath against sin and sinners. In chapter 14:10-11, true believers never stop believing, verse 12 reminds us of that. Only God is eternally self-sufficient and needs nothing. That’s why we need Him. That’s why we pray for Him to supply us. By the way, the final ultimate global warming comes in chapter 16. God the creator touches the sun, and it gets scorching hot.

 

I love this. We’re going to have to pause here and look at Revelation 19:8. Our progressive sanctification will be seen forever. Look at chapter 19, verse 8. It says, “And to her,” that’s the marriage of the lamb, “His wife has made herself ready.” That’s the bride of Christ now coming and being in this banquet before Christ. “And to her, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” Verse 8. Look up, you want to read one of the most sobering notes in your MacArthur Study Bible? Read the note on Revelation 19:8. What God says, that John MacArthur reiterates, that I just wrote on this board, says we will wear our good works forever. What we do as God sanctifies us, look at this. God can sanctify us anywhere and always. No matter how bad the world is, God can keep us pure and righteous and following, walking in the Spirit. What we do energized by the Holy Spirit, living in step with the Spirit is what we will wear forever.

Look back at verse 8. This might be the most important part of this entire lesson today. “To her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright…the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.” What we live for will forever be seen by all. Our sanctification, and look at the notes here, we will wear our good works for eternity. What we did for Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God. It does matter how we live, whether we say no to sin, whether we do good works. Paul reminds us God wants to sanctify every part of our life every day of our lives, that’s 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

We come to the second coming of Christ in chapter 19. That’s the ultimate triumphal entry. Just like the Roman generals would do. Jesus reveals all of God the Father to us. He’s the word of God, the image of God. The conclusion to the day of the Lord is Armageddon and then paradise is restored in chapter 20. Satan’s hold on fallen humanity is super powerful. After the millennium where Satan is bound and the demons are confined, the Earth is nearly perfect. Yet, right after Satan is let loose, in a short time, he again deceives all people on Earth, but the saints. Wow.

I thought this was interesting. Look at Revelation 20 with me verses 9 and 10. This is during the millennium it says, and “they went up on the breadth of the Earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city.” The camp of the saints. What’s that? Look back at these notes. Amazingly, the true believers of the millennium congregate around the throne, the temple in the city of Jerusalem. They are on Earth and this millennial temple that’s in Jerusalem is the presence of God symbolized. They can’t bear to be far away from God. They display their love and adoration for God the Son who is ruling during the millennium, by their chosen, that’s supposed to be the word chosen, closeness to His millennial temple. Hungering for God always marks us as a genuine believer.

Then Revelation 20 is out with the old, in with the new. Then I love this. We’re going to live forever in something shaped like the Holy of Holies. Look at chapter 21 verse 16. I never really saw this until this week of study. “The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: 12,000 furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are all equal.” Do you know what that means? It’s a cube. Do you know that the only thing in the whole Bible that’s exactly a cube is the Holy of Holies? It’s exactly, in the tabernacle and the temple, an exact cube. Look down at the slide. Heaven is a 1400-mile cube in each direction. It’s shaped just like the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle.

Each gate, verse 21 says, is a single 1500-mile high Pearl. Pearls are formed through the injury of the oyster. We’re reminded forever that the one who was wounded and bruised and crushed for us is how we get into Heaven. Hey, every time we walk back after going on an outing with God and we come in front of that Pearl gate, every entrance to the city is one of those 1500 mile high pearls, we’re going to think He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquity. The chastisement so I could be here was on Him. It’s going to make us worship Him even more.

Back to the slide. In Heaven, we’re going to drink the water of life flowing from under God’s throne that portrays the endless supply of everlasting life that is ours to enjoy to the fullest in the presence of our Creator, our Redeemer, and our King. You know what? God gives everybody what they really want. I used to think about that when I was in college. I used to take a busload of high school students every weekend to go witnessing in Clemson and Seneca and Walhalla. Especially in the middle district where all the men would get out of the mill with their paycheck in hand, and guess where they could cash their checks back then? The local bars. They would go to the bar and cash their check. Many of them would spend much of their week’s earnings before they went home to their wife and kids on alcohol. We would seek to share the Gospel with them. You know what we told them? Jesus Christ can set you free from the power of alcohol. Jesus Christ can make you the husband and father you ought to be, but you have to want Him more than anything else. More than your sin, more than all of your bondage to whatever is gripping your life. You have to know, look at the slide, that God gives to every person, what they really want.

The people that want to live forever in the Holy of Holies, who can’t get enough of God and His holiness and Christ’s sacrifice, will be in Heaven. Those who don’t are going to be lost sinners and their lives are recorded by God. They stand without excuse, and they’re sentenced to eternal death. Wow.

This is my application prayer, and I told you that I just wrote it this morning. I want to pray it right now. Lord, to think of that place You prepared for me is in a cube that becomes the Holy of Holies. The very place Your eternal presence is shared with me is just overwhelming, thinking of Heaven. Thank You for loving and loosing me from my sins. Those gates of pearl towering above me as I come and go from home each day will always remind me forever of the great price You paid. I am Your slave now and forever. Help me to trust You more, eat Your word daily, fulfill Your purpose with my life that You bought and paid for. Living for Jesus, a life that is true is really all that I desire until You come or call. For Christ’s sake. Amen.

Next slide. I just wanted to introduce something. dtbmonline.org is a brand new website we’ve made. All of our video training courses are there. So far, we’ve only been able to afford to convert Isaiah, Revelation, and Proverbs. Isaiah has 15 lessons, Revelation has 20, and Proverbs has 10. They’re free, complete courses in our DTBM Academy. Continue your studies. There’s Living Hope, the book. As we finish up our 52 Greatest Chapters you can look at every detail of Revelation in Living Hope, all those details. You can look at Christ’s Last Words, all the applications for my life, or you can start courses in the DTBM Academy. It’s all the notes that I use when I teach classes all over the world. These are the courses that I’ve taught on most of the continents and everything that I teach, all the notes with the corresponding videos. The lessons are in order. It’s not like YouTube, where you have to search everywhere and try and figure out the code and the playlist, and then there are 480 of them. It’s just these three and look back at the slide. The 15 classes, both video, and text of Isaiah. The 20 for Revelation, you can graduate from watching all 20 of the classes and lessons in Revelation. Then Proverbs. I encourage you to continue your studies with DTBM Online.

Remember, find someone with whom you can share your findings this week. Even, like I just did with you, pray your application prayer. Then pray for us. Bonnie and I, between now and the middle of November, we’re going to be in east Asia. We’re going to be in the Middle East. We’re going to be in several locations in Europe, and we’re going to be ministering to those who are reaching out in Sub-Saharan Africa. We are equipping and mobilizing those that are reaching the least-reached peoples of Asia, Europe, and Africa. Pray for us. This is my wonderful wife who’s over there recording this class.

Just before I go, let me say this: it’s been a joy to go through the 52 Greatest Chapters with you. Remember, this is 52a. Next week is 52b and it’s going to be fun. I’m going to look at the latest on what’s next for planet Earth. My hobby is clipping out of the news every time I see one of these 10 trends that Jesus said are on Earth when He comes back at His second coming. I’m going to illustrate all that in class 52b next week. I’m looking forward to seeing you then. God bless you. Have a great week in His word. Have a great week seeing through the lens of Jesus as the image of God, us as His Church. We understand the map of the end of the world He has planned. He wants us to live for Him. Let’s do that this week. God bless you.

Slides