Studies on The Book of Revelation

Study No. 16 – Another Principle In The Book of Revelation

Revelation 5:12 “Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”

Revelation 13:8b “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

Revelation 14:1 “And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.”

Revelation 14:4 “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”

Focusing as always on the verses which speak of The Lamb, let us consider another Principle which weaves its thread through the Scriptures and which is highlighted in the Book of Revelation. It is the Principle God’s Deliverance, God’s Salvation; that it is God who saves and God alone. Perhaps sometimes when you feel as if the heavens are brass, you will need to remind yourself that not only is Salvation for fallen man entirely the Plan of God, but also that it was always God who made the first move towards fallen man.

Revelation 5:12 describes millions of angels unable to keep silent! With shouts of wonder and praise they fill eternity with their adoration of their King. There at the Throne of God, with a disfigured form and face, is the One they worshipped equally with God as the Lord of hosts. To them He has done something marvellous, which demands a great response. Now they know why He went to earth and why He returned so marred.

Revelation 13:8b looks back through the ages, and this statement rings throughout Eternity. Who else could God have called upon the put right the terrible wrong done? Who else was capable of submitting Himself so completely to the Will of God? Who else could display such devotion to God that He was willing to endure intolerable suffering in His total obedience to God’s Word? Who else was willing to be treated as less than a worm, to be killed in sacrifice, to go into the lowest hell as a criminal, and, in being raised from the dead, to be willing to spend the rest of Eternity with a marred face and body? The title He bears of the Lamb encapsulates all this.

Revelation 14:1 & 4 is the vision of those within the Church whose lives reflected the fullest response possible from a redeemed soul to the Subject of those questions. Resurrected in Heaven, they declare The Lamb their Way, their Life and all the substance of it!

There are two Old Testament passages which particularly emphasise this essential Principle :

1 Samuel 17:47 “And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD’s, and He will give you [Goliath, the Philistine] into our hands.”

We as believers on the Lord in this Age are in a different position from the Israelites of old, commanded by God to destroy all the heathen nations surrounding them in Canaan. It is the spiritual principle that we are to note and learn from. Hence the words of Paul :

1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

By the mild and kind, yet earnest reproof of the Written Word of God, we are kept in check, for all things have been accomplished in Jesus Christ, for whom we long to see at His Appearance.

2 Chronicles 20:10 – 15, 17 “And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir, whom Thou wouldest not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; 11. Behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of Thy possession, which Thou hast given us to inherit. 12. O our God, wilt Thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee. ... 14. Then upon Jahaziek the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the Spirit of the LORD in the midst of the congregation; 15. And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s. ... 17. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you.”

And these are our enemies, our strong foes, against which we cannot fight successfully, so we need the protection and guidance from our God, who alone has made full provision for our vic-tory. We need His Plan and no other to save us; we need His Salvation in the Way He has given it.

Ephesians 6:10 – 12 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. 11. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places.”

The spiritual battle we all face is based on the fact that Satan plays on the weakness of our flesh. He gained the victory in a very short time over Eve, innocent and sinless. From thereon it was the easiest thing in the world for him! Humankind fell like ninepins before him. Just a whisper, and the crash follows, “as sure as eggs is eggs”, as they say!

Peter admitted the constant failure. And Peter, coming out of failure by the Grace of God, preached the Gospel powerfully after he received the Holy Ghost.

Acts 15:10 – 11 “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the necks of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we [Jewish believers] shall be saved, even as they [Gentile believers].

Jew and Gentile all hopeless; all lost. Because of the Lamb, Jew and Gentile all able to be saved!

Psalm 100:3 “Know ye that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.”

So simply and straightforwardly expressed! We didn’t ‘come up out of the soup’, millions of years ago! We are His creation; made in His image, and always very special to Him. Surely the poured out Blood of Christ is proof enough! A further proof of God’s desire for us to belong to Him and to walk in His Ways is in this verse of Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 23:1 “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture, saith the LORD.”

God’s Will through Christ, the Good Shepherd, is for all mankind to be saved and full of the Word of God, being fed line upon line, precept upon precept. An unfaithful, or un-Baptised, or lazy, or unregenerate pastor cannot provide that spiritual food. They are not fulfilling God’s Will in the office they have taken, so they can only face judgment at the end.

Acts 16:30 – 31 “And brought them [Paul and Silas] out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

Such a simple answer! Men are full of guilt and carry such heavy burdens going around in their darkness and ignorance, yet here in a simple statement is the transforming power. But we must not forget that the Lord Jesus paid an enormous Price in order for this statement to be made.

Focusing on Christ as the Lamb provides a constant reminder of the vast difference between human nature and His Nature. In order for “God manifest in the flesh” to bring the Full Salvation which God on the Throne desired to bring to all mankind, firstly He had to surrender His own Will.

Psalm 40:7 – 8 “Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book [Psalms] it is written of Me, 8. I delight to do Thy will, O My God: yea, thy law is within My heart.”

In agreeing from the foundation of the world to be the Lamb, He had to submit Himself entirely to God’s Will. There was no room for self-expression, His own thoughts, His own words, His own actions, His own reactions, His own motives or preferences – nothing of Himself! The records of Calvary bear that out. It is an excellent spiritual discipline to read these records daily, morning and evening. We, surrounded as we are in this age of unbelief, arrogance, disobedience, wilfulness, let alone blatant Satanism, need to keep ourselves apart unto Him.

His Power is in His Humility – quite the opposite from the world! He had to save us from our-selves! – our clamouring self-centred flesh! He had to save us from Satan’s deceit and lies, the false chains we imagine ourselves to be bound by. He had to save us from the world’s system; its God-less, Christ-less ways, its greed, vanity and insistence of its own independence from God.

Noah is the example of a man resisting the world. Day after day for a hundred years he concentrated his life on carrying out God’s plan in building the ark. All the while violence filled the earth, carnality, fornication, blasphemy and devil-worship [just like today!!] as they mocked Noah and his sons. Yet it was Noah and his family that benefitted from God’s Plan of Salvation; the rest perished with their evil deeds.

(I’m seeing more and more that unbelief, which expresses itself with a dismissive attitude, is really a great evil and also so foolish as it bars the soul from God’s Salvation.)

Here’s an interesting Scripture:

Acts 18:26 “And he [Apollos, v24] began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.”

What is “the way of God”? I had this verse explained to me in my early years of coming to Christ that it meant Apollos didn’t know about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. Now I know differently!

The Way of God is the Way of The Lamb! The poured out Blood, without which is no remission of sin! The Way of the Cross – His Perfect Obedience, suffering unto Death! This is why He declared Himself the Way. Without Him, without the Lord Jesus Christ, without Him being the Lamb, there is NO Salvation, no Baptism in the Holy Ghost; no Holy City to us to dwell in for eternity.

All these amazing Scriptures of deliverance and salvation in Isaiah could only be true and come to fruition by the Lord Jesus Christ becoming the Lamb and fulfilling all God’s Will for the Salvation of all mankind.

Isaiah 1:16 – 20 “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17. Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. 18. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.”

Isaiah 44:22 “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee.”

Isaiah 50:6 – 7 “I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not My face from shame and spitting.”

Isaiah 45:17, 22 “But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. ... 22. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

Isaiah 53:4 – 11 “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed. ... “

Only God can save! Only God could plan the Salvation of mankind!

Because He endured that intense suffering as a Substitute for sinners in AD33, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophesies 700 years before, we can read words like these which are as fresh today as in the days of the Early Church :

Galatians 1: 3 – 5 “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4. Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: 5. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Romans 8:1 – 2 “There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

Only God could fulfil His Plan, for only God could find and use such a One willing to be made a Lamb to restore what He had lost. – “I have laid help upon One that is mighty” [Psalm 89:19]

In closing, here is a verse from Psalm 59, where Christ declares His intention to praise God in the Morning of His Resurrection Day. He praises God for keeping and protecting Him during all the torture and physical abuse He suffered so that He could continue His life until the last necessary drop of Blood remained in His Body. Only in that way, by the shedding of His Blood could He fulfil God’s Plan to save us. His Body had to be kept intact as far as possible.

(Especially when He was taken to Herod, it says that they “set Him at nought”. [Luke 23:11] If the disciples were afraid that Paul would be pulled to pieces [Acts 23:10] in a great dissension, certainly they would have done it to Christ without God’s permission.)

v16 “But I will sing of Thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of Thy mercy in the morning: for Thou has been My defence and refuge in the day of My trouble.”

Yes, we were His trouble! But He still went willingly to the Cross. The fruit of the Spirit which He bestows on us were abundant in Him! [Galatians 5:22 – 23]. The Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance poured out of Him unto mankind with His Blood. There never was, nor can ever be such Giving as displayed by our Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb.

Redemption Hymnal No. 481 “Rock of Ages” by Augustus Toplady, ends the second verse with “Thou must save and Thou alone”. Here’s a rendering of the whole song on youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM7gt_cSxjw

May this long-established Principle in the Word of God, including The Book of Revelation in its persistence of Jesus Christ as the Lamb, that Salvation is of the LORD alone, be joy in your heart and as fresh as ever to bless you in your lives.

Please visit http://www.basar-blessings.org to download free e-books :

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"Insights Into The Book of Revelation" 

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Study No. 15 

A Third Insight Into

The Unique Nature of The Lamb

Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (Antichrist), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

It’s time for more meditation on the Most Wonderful Living Being who ever walked this earth, and on the Most Transformational Complete Act of Selflessness and Self-abnegation ever to have taken place on this earth. “Not what I will, but what Thou wilt” [Mark 14:36] had Eternal Consequences for both the Speaker and the Hearer – and you and I, as believers, benefit eternally.

To use the beautiful expression of the KJV, it behoves us to foster and maintain an attitude which constantly reflects on “Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” [Hebrews 12:24] So we continue to see how the verses which contain the Description of The Lamb in the Book of Revelation link with the Psalms.

The two Chapters we look at this time which have “The Lamb” references in them are clearly in the time of The Day of The LORD, stretching from the first few months through to the end of the Seven Plagues and the death of the Two Witnesses. The Psalms reflect this in revealing the thoughts and words prophetically of the Lord Jesus declaring His own Righteousness and ability to Judge Unrighteousness. Only by being “in Christ” have we a part in His Unique Nature and Appointment.

Revelation 12:11 “And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

Firstly, this is a Declaration of Full Salvation – the Victorious Life of Living in the Spirit; the Crucified Life!! The Full Revelation, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of having “this treasure in earthen vessels” [2 Corinthians 4:7] !

This verse sits in a passage of three verses which interrupts the telling of the history and flight to safety of the promised Remnant of Israel, given more detail from Chapter 7 verses 1 to 8. The “woman” of verses 1 to 5 – the Nation of Israel – compresses in verses 6 to 9 and 13 to 17 to the Remnant of Israel. (The “remnant of her seed” in v17b are the only ones, being believers, who are killed in the Day of The LORD – the Two Witnesses, both of Israel and the Church!)

Continuing through the Psalms, consider the following passages and verses highlighting the reality of the Darkness of Death and Hell, of Holiness, of Humility and Obedience unto Death, and God’s determination to save sinners and keep them in His Ways...

Psalm 23:4 – 5 “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with Me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort Me. Thou prepares a table before Me in the presence of Mine enemies: Thou anoinest My head with oil; My cup runneth over.”

Psalm 24:3 – 4 “Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up His soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.”

Psalm 25:1 – 5 “Unto Thee, O LORD, do I lift up My soul. O My God, I trust in Thee: let Me not be ashamed, let not Mine enemies triumph over Me. Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause. Shew Me Thy ways, O LORD; teach Me Thy paths. Lead Me in Thy truth, and teach Me: for Thou art the God of My salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.”

Psalm 25:8 – 10 “Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will He teach sinners in the way. The meek will He guide in judgment: and the meek will He teach in His way. All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.”

Psalm 23 is possibly the most well-loved and most quoted Psalm, spoken and sung. It sounds very comforting to the human soul! I’m not decrying that, however there are pointers which show that these are the Words spoken prophetically by the Lord Jesus Christ concerning His Coming to die.

The “shadow of death”, spoken mostly of by Job or in the book of Job, certainly is a foreboding place and one to be avoided! The Lord Jesus was the only Light in every place He walked for around 37 years. And that Light went through the ominous dark shadow, not only to the place of the dead but right down into the lowest Hell. He could have said to Job [38:17], “They will be opened up to Me; I will see them, so that sad, oppressed, confused souls like you need never go there!”

Job 3:5 “Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it (the day Job was born);...”

Job 10:21 “Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death.”

Job 10:22 “A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where light is as darkness.”

Job 12:22 “He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.”

Job 16:16 “My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death.”

Job 38:17 “Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?”

Isaiah 9:2 “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” (Fulfilled : Matthew 4:16 & Luke 1:79).

He instructed Peter and John to prepare the table for the feast of the Passover. All twelve disciples were present. Judas had already gone to the chief priests with his promise to deliver up his Master to them. He went to the arranged supper, had his feet washed by the Lord, but went out into the night immediately after accepting the “sop” – a piece of unleavened bread dipped in the broth of the central dish – which his Loving Master offered him. In Jerusalem, with the envious religious and a Satan-filled traitor abiding their time, the Lamb was indeed in the presence of His enemies.

The Lord Jesus Christ came anointed! “a Saviour which is Christ the Lord” [Luke 2:11]. Regarding the cup, mostly it is taken to mean a cup of goodness and blessing, but the Lord said to Peter, “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?” [John 18:11] It was a cup of great pain and suffering. (NB. Matthew 20:22; Mark 10:39)

Lastly, v6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow Me all the days of My life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever”, can only be appropriate if the Speaker/Singer is the Lamb!!

Goodness and Mercy don’t follow us, our Goodness and Mercy originates and flows from the Lamb at the right hand of God on the Throne! The Lamb, through whom alone we overcome our greatest enemy, Satan, gets the glory when He sees Goodness and Mercy active in the lives of those who have claimed Him as their Victor and Good Shepherd. He looked to God for all His earthly Life; we in turn, through His Death and Resurrection, have no lack because of Him.

Psalm 24 begins with a statement which was quoted in previous times by scientists presenting their papers before an audience. How times have changed! Last week, an audience laughed at hearing of a man who insisted the earth was only 5000 years old. Can someone enter the Kingdom of God believing in Evolution?

But here is One who had no difficulty in being allowed to enter that Holy Place! A Body and Face brutally deformed and disfigured, so much so that the angels around the Throne had to ask who this was, He ascended into the hill of the LORD on that third day of the Feast of Passover, AD33.

To meditate on the Fact that, however much He yearned to Return Home and be in Full Fellow-ship with the Other Half of His “turtledove” [Psalm 74:19 – turtledoves are always in pairs] He waited for Mary Magdalene before going, is both glorious and deeply humbling!

And here’s the Truth, if He had decided He had had enough and left us to our own devices and returned to Heaven, leaving His human body on the Cross, we would have no High Priest, no Intercessor, no Daysman, who, as God in a human body, albeit wounded, could lay His hand upon us both. But, rather, for our Salvation – Eternal Victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil – He kept to His vow to do the Father’s Will not His own [Luke 22:42] and so made it possible for erstwhile sinful human beings to follow Him into that Holy Place. (daysman – Job 9:33)

Psalm 25 is a Psalm typical of those in this first Book of the Five books of Psalms, revealing the Lord Jesus Christ as “The Meekest Man in All The Earth”. It is a Prayer unto God – His Equal – on the Throne. It is a plaintive Cry, as One helpless to help Himself. This is the only Consequence of One who puts Himself completely to one side and vows to be completely under the Authority of One to whom He is Equal... for Eternity!

Let these verses from Psalm 25 soak into your consciousness. Here is One equal with God on the Throne pleading for His protection from His enemies! Let it break your heart! There is so much hardness, so much arrogance in the world in this deeply atheistic age! Where else are we to learn the Ways of God, to be different from the world, to stand out as a child of God? Only by absorbing the expression of the Nature and Character of the Meek. “... learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” [Matthew 11:29] – and we observe, as through a lens, that meekness in the Psalms!

Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Antichrist), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

Right in the middle of a Chapter concentrated on the most wicked of all wicked men on earth, is this shaft of Light from Heaven! The Book of Revelation really knows how to set your focus straight!! In a few words we see Eternal Life reaching out to fallen mankind from the very beginning in a planned and lovingly lawful way. Blood was covenanted to be shed. Responses were expected from the Giving of That Blood. Names of human souls are written in a Book as a truthful record. And that Book will in its time serve as a legal document proving the Just Condemnation of those whose names will be blotted out. Yes! Names can be blotted out! Compare 3:5, 3:16 and 20:12 of Revelation.

The following Psalms describe the kind of Person who belongs in Heaven, whose focus is There, and not here on earth. They record the expressions and thoughts of One who has made every move of His life on earth a deliberate act of obedience and commitment to God upon the Throne.

He gave an example of a man with a plough being not fit for the kingdom of God if he turns back [Luke 9:62]. The whole point of putting a hand to the plough is to go forward with deliberation, to achieve the result of a well-ploughed field fit for seeding and planting. He said, “I will” and He never flinched from that. Satan, who enters the vile man said, “I will” and everything detrimental to the spiritual, physical and mental health of mankind has enmeshed us ever since. The Lamb said, “let him... take up his cross, and follow Me” [Matthew 16:24]. Which must have our total loyalty, The Lamb, or Satan?

Psalm 26:4 – 5 “I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers. I have hated the congregation of evil-doers; and will not sit with the wicked.”

Psalm 26:9 – 10 “Gather not My soul with sinners, nor My life with bloody men: In whose hands is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes.”

Psalm 27:2 – 6 “When the wicked, even Mine enemies and My foes, came upon Me to eat up My flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against Me, My heart shall not fear: though war should rise against Me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of My life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide Me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide Me; He shall set Me up upon a rock. And now shall Mine head be lifted up above Mine enemies round about Me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.”

Psalm 28:3 – 6 “Draw Me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them, and not build them up. Blessed be the LORD, because He hath heard the voice of My supplications.

Psalm 26 reveals the fathomless Humility of One who utters total transparency of His Life before God on the Throne. He shamelessly declares His absolute separation from ungodliness of all shades. He declares His love for the Holy Place He has left, and vows to praise Him with those He has redeemed [v12] for He has not shrunk from going to the altar of God (the Cross) [v6].

Even as God manifest in the flesh, He had to declare before man, angels and devils that His Life was exemplary; that He was fit to restore sinful, fallen mankind to a right footing with God and to bring them up to that same Holy Place He had come from. These are the meditations which can heal our hearts and draw us into a really close contact with The Lamb, ensuring that our names our kept in the Lamb’s book of Life.

Psalm 27 reveals the heart of One making Himself utterly helpless before God. He takes all the punishment, all the curse associated with being sentenced to crucifixion, and yet He calls on God with confidence and even joy, vowing to sing His praises when He is back in God’s tabernacle [v6].

He remembers how they came and forcibly bound Him in the Garden of Gethsemane [v2] and they fell backward to the ground! [John 18:5 – 6]. All the time, in His agony, He is looking to His Resurrection [v4, v6, v13] when His head would be lifted up from the cold slab of stone and He would see God again. He looks forward through the ages until the New Heaven and the New Earth, where there will be no physical building of a temple! [v4]

Whether He is encouraging His own heart in v14, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen Thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD”, He is certainly giving us this good advice as well! It is absolutely necessary to have a quiet, patient heart as we walk in the Spirit, waiting for the Lord Jesus to come for us. And if we don’t allow Him to strengthen our heart, but remain with a weak heart, how can we look forward to breathing in the air of Heaven!!

Psalm 28 continues with the desperate cries of the Humble One, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He made His commitment to come; He never turned back from the Covenant agreed upon. And so, when the Reality of His Sacrifice encompasses Him, He will not rely on any Power or Authority of His own, but gives Himself up to God’s Mercy.

He speaks the Truth [v1] – God did turn His face away; Christ did go down into the pit... But He clung to God’s Promises even when His hands were outstretched on the Cross [v2]. He trusted God to raise Him up [vs6 – 7] and again vows to praise Him.

His Humility is revealed even when He calls upon God to deal with the wicked! He knows that it will be He who judges all the wicked, but this is the heart and mind of the Lamb! He takes nothing upon Himself. All through His days on earth, He lived entirely as an instrument of God. And as those days came to a close, He still took no action to relieve Himself of the relentless punishment He bore in our stead.

He was” the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, and He would carry it through... If He could keep even one soul’s name in His book of Life to the end, He would be satisfied with the travail of His soul! [Isaiah 53:11] 

Study No. 14 – More Principles In The Book of Revelation

In the last Study, I introduced the remarkable and very close association between the Church, the Body of Christ, and the Seven Angels of Judgment which the Book of Revelation reveals. It establishes the Principle of God’s Eternal Righteousness In Every Age – Before the Cross and After the Cross in a Future Time. Now I would like to focus on another Eternal Principle of God revealed in the Book of Revelation, that of The Necessity for a Witness.

Revelation 11:3 “And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”

They are appointed for the Day of the LORD; preaching and administering Judgment for three and a half years in an attitude of mourning... [vs 5 – 6]

Even before the Law, Jacob and the tribes proceeding from his sons used stones as a permanent witness of an agreement or vow made. They were moved to do this as they acknowledged God. Then the Law regarding the requirement of witnesses in criminal cases is stated in Numbers 35:30 and Deuteronomy 17:6 and 19:15.

Deuteronomy 19:15 “One witness shall not rise up against a man for any iniquity, or for any sin, in any sin that he sinneth: at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established.”

So straightaway we can see the Principle of the Necessity for Two Witnesses. (Jesus Christ, the Appointed Judge, would be the Third Witness!) Again, the Book of Revelation fulfils the whole Word of God!

In fact, this link has very good thoughts of the subject of witnesses through the Scriptures :

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/witness/

Perhaps the small number of the tribe of Judah in Jeremiah’s time came to him with their vow remembering even the vow of their forefather Jacob’s mean and conniving father-in-law, Laban!

Genesis 31:50b “see, God is witness betwixt thee and me.”

Jeremiah 42:5 “Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us”

It appeared to be established that God Himself could act as a Witness – the Best! – in an agreement between two human parties. This brings us again to the Final Book, the Book of Revelation, where the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is stated as being the faithful witness [1:5] and the faithful and true witness [3:14].

John 18:37b “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth...”

He was unable to reveal to Pilate that He was about to give His Blood for the sins of the world.

Instead, He goes to the very core of God’s Plan of Restoration. Instead of Satan’s lies and deceit which produced unbelief in His creation, He comes in the flesh to demonstrate Truth, so that “every one that is of the truth heareth My voice”. How can we be saved if we don’t, won’t, or can’t, pay attention to His truthful Word?!

I believe that the first smiting the Lord received [John 18:22] was because of the objection to His gentle chiding that they had up to that point called no witnesses, violating the law of Deuteronomy. In a desperate attempt to make their “Court” legal, they scrabbled around for witnesses, as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel account [Matthew 26:59 – 61].

Proverbs 14:25 “A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful witness speaketh lies.” The Lord Jesus suffered at the mouths of two false witnesses. But with the birth of the Church, His words of Acts 1:8 were fulfilled at Pentecost AD33! “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

It is not surprising then that as God on the Throne is a Witness and the Lord Jesus, God in human flesh, is also a Witness, and the Holy Spirit is also a Witness, as He testifies of Christ [John 15:26], God must also provide a witness even in the days of Judgment.

God’s Final Programme for the Future of All Mankind must reveal the Lord Jesus Christ as His Evidence that He was determined to save man, but if there was rejection of the Salvation, there must be Judgment. That is what Revelation is all about – The Revelation of Jesus Christ!

So God on the Throne will give the Lord Jesus two witnesses in the first 42 months of the LORD’s Day. They will not preach Salvation, only Judgment. Their whole Ministry is of Judgment. Their power is immense, being able to breathe out fire from their mouths to consume their enemies! Imagine that! They are “ordinary” human beings! Chapter 11 records their complete ministry.

Understanding and following their lives and deaths prevents any misinterpretation regarding “the saints” who are killed during the Tribulation. Too many voices speaking of the end times promote the false doctrine that these saints are Christians who are in their numbers; either left behind at the Rapture for a second chance of Salvation, or who are living through the Judgments because there is no Rapture. In fact there is a website https://www.compellingtruth.org. Sorry to say, the teaching there on “tribulation saints” is totally unscriptural and not to be believed.

Briefly, the three relevant passages are, Revelation 13:7, 15:2 – these refer to the Two Witnesses – and 20:4 – which refers to all those through the ages who had been raptured before the Tribulation, and therefore had not lived through the days of the Antichrist; they were not of that ungodly nature.

These are pernicious false teachings! 1) There is no “second chance” for someone who said they belonged to Jesus Christ but who couldn’t be bothered to “watch and wait” for the Bridegroom! The whole point of the Rapture is encapsulated in Luke 21:36 and 1 Thessalonians 5:9 – 10 :

Luke 21:36 “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, [v22] and to stand before the Son of man.”

1 Thessalonians 5:9 – 10 “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”

The days prophesied in the Scriptures including in the Book of Revelation will be a time of Wrath – God’s Indignation that the Person He Loved and Gave for a Sacrifice for human sins has been rejected, despised, ignored and mocked. There’s no escape from That!

And 2) there most certainly is a Rapture! The Book of Revelation calls it the “first resurrection” [Chapter 20:5 – 6]. The fact that the twenty-four elders who represent both Old and New Testament saints are already before the Throne clothed in white and having crowns proves that the Rapture had already taken place before the Day of the LORD!

As Christ was raised from the dead, and is the “firstfruits of them that slept”, it will be “every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at His coming”, so says Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:20 – 23. Besides, there is only One Resurrection unto Life! How do the saints, the armies, descend from Heaven on white horses behind the Lord of lords coming to reign after partaking of the Marriage Supper, if they are still on the earth?! Another point of these strange doctrines that doesn’t make sense! [Chapter 19]

Who are the Two Witnesses, and does it matter? Because there is such a body of evidence in Scripture that explains clearly what kind of men they must be, and then clearly reveals exactly who they are and why, I believe that we should follow those Scriptures and know for certain who they will be in those days to come.

While I was in Zambia recently and waiting for the arranged Crusade to begin, I sat in the grounds in the (rare!) warm winter sunshine discussing at length many Scriptures with an interested man named Doubt! I came to a verse and paused, saying that this referred to the Two Witnesses. Yes, said Doubt, we know who they are. How do you know? I asked, as most in the UK have a wrong idea of who they are. “We worked it out”, he said. So this is how it is worked out ...

Revelation 11:3 “And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”

They are Christ’s two witnesses; they belong to Him. They must therefore be in the Church.

Zechariah 4:3 “And two olive trees by it, [the candlestick] one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.”

                      :12 “... What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves.” The “golden oil” represents the Word of God” (Matthew 25:3,8; Psalm 119:105; Exodus 27:20, 35:8) and the olive tree represents the nation of Israel (Romans 11:24)

                      :14 “... These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.” – specifically the Lord Jesus Christ in the Godhead.

They are close to Christ. They poured the Word of God into the Church. They are both Israelites and in the Church. They are able to endure living on the earth in the presence of the Beast (Daniel was physically sick in seeing him!) and are in full control with their own Judgments as the prophesied Plagues rain down. These days of Judgment are characterised by Thunder, Lightning, Earthquakes and Voices [4:5, 6:1, 8:5, 10:3, 11:19, 16:18, 19:6]

Mark 3:17 “And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James; and He surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder.”

Matthew 20:20 – 21 and Mark 10:35 – 37 tell of the two brothers desiring to sit on the right hand and the left hand of Christ in His Kingdom. As in the Vision of Zechariah 4... He said that it was the Father’s place to grant that. As with the Seven Angels, the Two Witnesses are given to Christ as He carries out the Instructions written in the book of Seven Seals.

The Lord asks them, “Are you able?” They reply, “We are able”. And they would follow the steps that He took in going to Calvary :

The Witnesses minister for 3½ years;  HE ministered for about 3½ years (with the 12)
Their lives are divinely protected;      HIS Life was protected and His Body kept intact
They are killed in Jerusalem;              HE was crucified at Jerusalem
Their deaths promote rejoicing           HE said of His death “the world shall rejoice”
They are raised up after 3½ days        HE was raised again on the third day
They go bodily into Heaven                 HE was taken up into Heaven
They go up in a cloud                         HE went up in a cloud
Their ascent is witnessesd                  HIS ascent was witnessed

                   by their enemies                               by His own

Furthermore, as Apostles who stated firmly in Acts 6:2 – 4 that their business was to give them-selves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word, and not serve tables, they prove they are those “sons of oil” in Zechariah 4.

And when they return to Heaven, they are qualified to sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb, 15:3 – 4, giving further evidence that they were both Israelites and of the Church. Only those who personally belong to The Lamb can really understand and appreciate that Song.

There are two more ‘revelations’ to add!

ONE. At the opening of the Fifth Seal, those resurrected saints from before and after the Cross are told to wait “for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren (again referring to the fact that they were both Israelites and in the Church) that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” Revelation 6:11.

Establishing that there will be no “believers” left after the Rapture, either to live or to die, the two Witnesses are therefore the only men who will be killed, as Revelation 11:7 shows, “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” (Satan, Revelation 20:1 – 3)

The opening of the Sixth Seal brings on the actual physical Descent of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Battle, the Slaughter and His Reign. The time between that and Revelation 11:7 therefore is not long.

TWO. The Message of the Mighty Angel, who we saw last time from Revelation 10 is the Lord Jesus Christ, is only for these days of Judgment. John heard Seven special Messages of Judgment and, as he had got used by now to write down everything he heard and saw, began to write, as he evidently understood them. God Himself on the Throne instructed him not to write them down, v4. Instead he was to seal them up – how? by eating the book he took from Christ’s hand, for the little book contained the Messages, vs8 – 10. Because it was the Word of God, it was sweet like honey in his mouth, but because it held the Messages of Judgment, it was bitter in his stomach. When we eat something disagreeable, we vomit it up, and John will do exactly that with his brother James for he is told to “prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” v11.

This was a serious charge to the elderly apostle! He eventually and evidently left Patmos, but when did he undergo a world-wide teaching mission before he died? Does anyone know?!

These Messages of Judgment given specifically to John while in exile on Patmos, died with him. He and James will be resurrected at the Rapture, but returned to the Christ-rejecting world as the Day of the LORD begins and will deliver these Messages of Judgment. God’s Judgment on mankind since the Cross is because they have not found the crucified Jesus Christ desirable. When He returns with His saints, the angry rejecters will melt with fear, calling on the rocks and the mountains to fall on them – they will know they are facing The LAMB!!

May the Lord of Truth bless you with the saints in Zambia to understand this amazing revelation and Plan of God for the “time of the end”!

A fuller coverage of this topic may be found in Chapter Five of “Introducing The Book of Revelation”. The newly revised version may be downloaded free of charge from the Bâsar Blessings website http://www.basar-blessings.org

Study No. 13 – Unlocking The Book of Revelation

  

There are many different characters or persons written about in the Book of Revelation, some being described by the same noun, even though they differ vastly in behaviour. So I thought, this time, I’d concentrate on some of these persons or beings, as a basic insight into understanding this amazing Book of prophecy...

Sixteen Angels

The Lord Jesus Christ, for whom the Book of Revelation is The Revelation of Jesus Christ, is very much the Focus of this Study. Seven of these angels are created beings, originating from Heaven, and are given to Him by God; seven more are created beings with heavenly connections but not originating in Heaven, and belong to Him; and Two are not created at all!

The Seven Spirits; Angels of God (Hebrews 1:14 – angels = ministering spirits). These Seven send their Greetings, via John, to the churches, together with God upon the Throne: “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne.” Revelation 1:4.

They are with the Lamb at the throne of God in Heaven as the Day of the LORD is about to break:

It soon becomes apparent that there are SEVEN separate beings that carry out specific duties in the Day of the LORD. The Holy Spirit is not being referred to as giving His Greeting in 1:4.

3:1 “These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God”

4:5 “And out of the throne proceed lightnings and thundering and voices: and seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.”

5:6 “In the midst of the throne ... stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns (His own Appointed Authorities) and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth (pouring out their Plagues in the Day of the LORD).”

The Seven Angels and The Seven Last Plagues

Chapters 15 and 16 is another re-run of the Programme outlined in Chapter 6, so we read of the Angels being given the plague-filled vials (bowls) and continuing with the pouring out of the Plagues to take us to the events in Chapters 17 and 18 to the chronological end of the Book.

15:1 “And I saw another sign in Heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God”.

15:6 – 8 “And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. 7. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. 8. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from His power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”

The Seven Angels Sound Their Trumpets . . .

8:2 “And I saw seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets”

8:6 “And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared to sound”

8:7 “The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up” 8:8 “And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood” (the Mediterranean sea)

8:10 “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters”

8:12 “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so that the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise”

8:13 “And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhibiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!”

9:1 “And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit”

9:12 “One woe is past, and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter”

9:13 “And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God”

10:7 “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets” – In Heaven

11:15 “And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever” – On Earth

. . . And Pour Out Their Plagues

The Blowing of the Trumpets signals the Pouring Out of the Plagues. They are the kind of Warning which does not say, “Watch Out! Beware of what is Coming!” rather, “Here It Comes! The Wrath of God promised to you from ancient times is now upon you”. All is within the time-scale of 42 months; the second half of the seven-year reign of the Antichrist.

Some think that because the trumpets are described in earlier Chapters [8 and 9] and the vials in later Chapters [15 and 16], they come in the two halves of the seven years. But Daniel’s prophecy clearly says, “in the midst of the week ... he shall make it [Jerusalem] desolate” Daniel 9:27. And all the references to a time-scale say: “a time, times, and a half” [Daniel 12:7]; “a thousand two hundred and threescore days” [the Two Witnesses’ ministry 11:3]; “a time, and times, and half a time” [the safety of the Remnant of Israel, 12:14]; “forty and two months” [the Two Witnesses’ ministry 11:2; power of the beast, the man, 13:5].

16:1 “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth”

16:2 “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image”

16:3 “And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea”

16:4 “And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood”

16:8 “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire”

16:10 “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain”

16:12 “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared”

16:17 “And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. 18. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great ... 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven ... the plague thereof was exceeding great”

Could anything be more terrifying?! When you are mocked or persecuted in any way for your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, don’t gloat that such people will be justly punished, but do be confident and more confident than ever that your living a Crucified life for God’s Beloved One is MOST acceptable to the Lord God Almighty on His Throne!!

It is interesting to see that one of these seven angels is sent to come alongside John as the Holy Spirit shows him Four Visions. The angel “carried me away in the Spirit”, John says. First he is show the Rebellious, Idolatrous City, Jerusalem, 17:1, - in the wilderness... Next, the angel tells John to write these words, “Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb”, adding, “These are the true sayings of God”. 19:9. John is overwhelmed by the experience of being in the presence of such a being, but the angel – which one of the seven we are not told – humbly explains that he is simply a fellow-servant of John and of all those like him who “have the testimony of Jesus”, in other words, he works closely alongside members of the Church of Jesus Christ. 19:10.

Whether it is the same angel or not, one of these seven comes alongside John again, this time to carry him away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, to show him “the bride, the Lamb’s wife, 21:9 – 10. John does not see a number of people, but a City! A great city, at that, with a long and glorious description stretching through the remaining verses of the Book! The Bride will live there! The fourth Vision John is helped to see by this same angel is of the individual, personal Throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is described as “the throne of God and of the Lamb”.

The Person of the Godhead who was willing to be sent by the other Two Persons as a Servant to Obey Utterly the Word of God was made the Lamb of Sacrifice as He came as God manifest in the flesh. Flesh full of Blood to be poured out to atone for the sins of the world. What a Story this is!! Aren’t you looking forward to Eternity?! Aren’t you willing to occupy till He comes for you, and then enjoy the rest of the Plan of God for the next thousands of years?!!

Seven Angels; Seven Stars. When John saw the Lord Jesus Christ as The Judge of all the earth, he first saw seven golden candlesticks, 1:12, and “seven stars” in His right hand, 1:16. He was told that the seven stars were the “angels” – ministers – of the seven churches, and that the candlesticks were the seven churches to which he had to write the letters dictated to him, 1:20.

Seven Angels – ministers; pastors

2:1 “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write;”

2:8 “And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write;”

2:12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write;”

2:18 “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write;”

3:1 “ And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write;”

3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;”

3:14 “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;”

Note that in each letter, the praise or grievance was to the pastor personally: “I know thy works”, not, “I know your works”, and “thou hast left thy first love”. This is the precision one gets with the King James Bible!! If the pastor is failing, how can the members be fed? It is important to seek out someone who is able to feed your soul and prepare you for that Day...

Nevertheless, the Judge still has them in His right hand and says that He has both them and the seven Spirits of God, 3:1. The Lord Jesus Christ is in full control of the pastors of the Church, His Body, in the Church Age and, in the Day of the LORD, the seven angels specifically appointed to assist Him in the Judgments.

Note also that the Lord says, “the mystery of the seven stars...” In the other places in the Book of Revelation where there is a “mystery” it is explained or able to be worked out from the Scriptures: “the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to His servants the prophets”, 10:7; “MYSTERY, BABYLON...”, 17:5; “I will tell thee the mystery of the woman”, 17:7.

The only other place in the Bible which mentions “seven stars” is Amos 5:8. Obviously referring to the stars in the sky, actually, Pleiades, but we are instructed to seek Him who made them. Good Advice!! I think that the KJV translators stuck to “seven stars” rather than calling them Pleiades to bring to our attention that the stars and the members of the Church of Jesus Christ are both sources of Light – the Creator and the Bridegroom being the Light Himself.

John first sees the golden candlestick when he is faced with the Judge. So we have both vehicles of light; the Church itself as a whole and the specially called ministers to that Church. In Matthew 5:14 – 16, the Lord said, “Ye are the light of the world ... Let your light so shine before men...” We are meant to be lights, reflecting, projecting by the Holy Spirit the Light of the Life of the Crucified, Risen Lord Jesus Christ; the Lamb. In this, the “mystery” is explained!

We can now bring these two sets of seven angels together by looking at an extraordinary vision in the prophecy of Zechariah, Chapter 4.

The prophet is shaken awake to see a golden candlestick! It is described as being “all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof:” v2.

In speaking to Zechariah about Zerubbabel (of the Lord’s lineage, Matthew 1:12 – 13) who returned from exile in Babylon to re-build the Temple in Jerusalem (Ezra and Nehemiah), the angel says in v10, “... the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; which are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth”.

Revelation 4:5 “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne”

Revelation 5:6 “... stood a Lamb ... and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth”

The association between these specially commissioned beings for the Day of the LORD and the members of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is extraordinary and requires attention and meditation!

In that Day, when the Church is complete and all the Plagues have been poured out upon a rebellious, Christ-rejecting world, these fourteen angels will all have exactly the same attitude of God’s Righteousness and His Judgments – because that is how they will have lived!!

His Angel; Mine Angel. Both John in 1:1 and one of the seven angels in 22:6 refer to this person as “His Angel”. The Lord Jesus Christ refers to the same person as “Mine Angel” in 22:16.

Interestingly, there are Old Testament references in Exodus 23:20 – 23 and 32:34 where the LORD refers to “an Angel” that He will send before the children of Israel when they enter the Promised Land, whom He calls “Mine Angel”. He says, “Mine Angel shall go before thee...”

Again, in this period of God’s contention with His idolatrous people, in Exodus 33:1 – 3, He tells them through Moses to go up into the land He promised to their forefathers, saying,” and I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite (and the other heathen nations) ... for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way”.

We should understand that the Person of the Godhead who spoke face to face with Moses on Mount Sinai was the Person who took on flesh and the name of Jesus Christ. The other Person He promised to give the children of Israel was to keep them in the way. They were to beware of Him, and obey His voice, and to not provoke Him. And He gives the reason why not: “For He will not pardon your transgressions: for My name is in Him.”

This “Angel” can only be the Holy Spirit. As the Pharisees rightly said, “Who can forgive sins but God only”! [Mark 2:7b] In Psalm 95, the Holy Ghost says, according to Hebrews 3:5, “... in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My work. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways...”

It is most appropriate, therefore, that in the Book of Revelation, which describes in detail the “day of Jacob’s trouble” [Jeremiah 30:7] and the raining down of Plagues upon idolatrous Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus Christ in His Final Appointment as Judge, refers to the Holy Spirit as “Mine Angel”.

22:16 “I Jesus have sent Mine Angel to testify unto you these things in the churches”. In John’s Gospel He promised that the Comforter He was sending would “testify of Me”, John 15:26.

Incidentally, in the Exodus readings, the Israelites were made to put off their ornaments as the LORD dealt firmly with them. Surely then, these are examples in the Scriptures that decorating the sinful flesh is actually an affront to God and to Christ personally who shed His sinless Blood to make us clean. The putting off of their ornaments was to demonstrate a show of repentance; ours should be true, sincere and permanent! What do you think?...

So in 1:1 Christ “sent and signified it (The Revelation of Jesus Christ) by His Angel”. John’s Gospel has many references concerning the role of the Holy Spirit in showing – revealing – to the Church the Truth and of things to come: John 14:16 – 17, 26, 15:26, 16:13, 14. Only a Divine Person could show John by miraculous signs the full Revelation of Jesus Christ!

The Mighty Angel. The description of “another mighty angel” in 10:1 is so similar to that of the Son of man vision of Christ as the Judge in Chapter 1.

10:1 – 3 “And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud; and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: ... and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth...”

1:7 “Behold, He cometh with clouds”

1:15 – 16 “And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. ... and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”

In Chapter 11, the angel is still speaking to John, and says in v3, “And I will give power unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth”: revealing clearly that the “mighty angel” must be the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

After all, was He not constantly referred to as “the Angel of the LORD” in the Old Testament? He was always the Communicator between the Lord God Almighty on the Throne and the people.

Paul said in Acts 27:23, “For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve”. How lovely!

And Stephen, bearing the wrath of the descendants of those stiffnecked people, said, “This is that Moses ... This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers...”, Acts 7:37 – 38. Again Stephen said in v53 that they had received the law “by the disposition (bestowal by Deed or Will) of angels...” ! It was Christ there on the Mount with Moses!

The Book of Revelation throughout its Message makes the great distinction between the works of men (the flesh, sinful flesh) which is temporal, and doomed to destruction and the Work, the Plan, the Programme of GOD which is for Eternity.

The Lamb means crucifixion of the flesh and total submission and obedience to God. Therefore describing the Lord Jesus Christ as the “Mighty Angel” in the New Testament in which He has fulfilled all the Will of God on the Throne emphasises His Heavenly Origin and the Fact that He has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with this corrupt world founded on unbelief and rebellion.

He came to SAVE us from it; that is all! He had and has no plans to embrace it or put down roots in it!! When He returns to the Earth to Reign, He will be the Prince – Controller – and King over all nations, kindreds and people, and among them will be those He redeemed with His own Blood. In new sinless bodies, they will rule and reign with Him with a rod of iron. What a Future!! It’s yours for the taking because of Calvary!

Study No. 12 – A Second Insight Into The Unique Nature of The Lamb

  

Revelation 6:1 “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.”

Revelation 6:16 “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

Revelation 7:9 “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.”

Revelation 7:10 “And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

Revelation 7:14  “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Revelation 7:17 “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

As we return to our studies in seeing the Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb in both the Book of Revelation and the Psalms, the above are the next six references to The Lamb, in two contrasting Chapters, but both set in the first 42 months of The (Eternal) Day of the LORD.  Last time, all the Psalms except the last reference were in Book 1, depicting Christ as The Meekest Man in All the Earth. The last reference, Psalm 69, is in Book 2 (Psalms 42 – 72), revealing Christ as Longing For and Panting After God.

In looking at the first three Revelation references to The Lamb last time, we saw that His role of both Saviour and Judge was obvious. Nowhere is it more obvious than in Chapter Six that Jesus Christ is The Judge! And in Chapter Seven, in these four verses, we see this great multitude which had once greatly suffered (before Christ died) but are now rejoicing in the Salvation of The Lamb.

Revelation 6:1 “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.”

The scene here is that the Lord Jesus has taken the hand-written book (scroll) from the right hand of God seated on the Throne (who says that God has no form?!) and has begun to open it, Seal by Seal, in order to execute all the Instructions for the Future of All Mankind written there by God.

Thunder symbolises Judgment – God’s Judgment [1 Samuel 12:16 – 18] – and indicates that the Lord’s Day has now begun. The “beast”, one of the four incredible, special, angelic beings round about the Throne, calls out to the Antichrist as he is being launched as part of God’s Judgments upon the Earth. He says in other words, ‘Get on with it; the Day of the LORD’s Vengeance has begun!’

These following Psalms are all to do with God’s Sentence and Judgment on ungodliness, especially in the Future Day of the LORD :

Psalm 1:6 “For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Psalm 2:4 – 5 “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.”

Psalm 2:12 “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”

Psalm 5:5 – 6 “The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight: Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing *: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.”

Psalm 5:10 “Destroy Thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against Thee.”

Psalm 9:7 – 8 “But the LORD shall endure for ever: He hath prepared His throne for judgment. And He shall judge the world in righteousness, He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness.”

Psalm 9:16 – 17 “The LORD is known by the judgment which He executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah. The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”

Psalm 9:19 – 20 “Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in Thy sight. Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.”

*“Leasing” means falsehood, deceit, lying, lies.

“Higgaion” means meditation – consider carefully what is being said.

“Selah” (often in the middle of a verse) means pause – connect what has just been read with what is coming. The subject matter of the Psalm is of more importance than the music; the music only serves to help the listener/reader in understanding the message from God.

Psalm 1 starts off the Theme of Book 1 with Christ being the Meekest Man in All the Earth. This is essentially the Nature of One who agreed to be The Lamb. Here we see the contrast between the Lord Jesus – the “Righteous” – and the “ungodly”, meaning every soul without His righteousness.

When such people die, they descend into Hell, but the Judgment is still to come on the Earth with the Plagues and Torments. At the end of His Thousand-Year Reign, all the dead will be raised to stand before Christ – acknowledged in the verse as God – at His “great white throne” [Revelation 20:11]. The final place in which they “perish” will be the Lake of Fire [vs. 14 – 15]. It is The Lamb who has been appointed Judge who casts them in...

Psalm 2 begins with the question which was partially answered when the Lord was ‘tried’ by Pilate and Herod, as the disciples prayed in Acts 4:25. But it has a longer vision, stretching into the Day of the LORD, as verses 8 and 9 indicate. It is then, not now that the “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” and have the ungodly and the idolaters and the rebellious in derision. Now is the Church Age; the Age when souls can repent of their Christ-less lives. The Lamb lives to act as the Son heading up the new Family and as High Priest interceding for every soul.

God is ready to receive them into His Family because of the shed Blood of Christ – which you may know from Colossians 2:14 has caused God to blot out all the charges against all Mankind, forever!!

I do believe that most Christians cannot fully grasp the fact that there is now NO MORE SIN as far as God is concerned! That is why they believe that this and that Happening is the Judgment of God! God’s Judgment for sin – Man’s transgressions, disobediences, wrong doings, evil ways etc – was laid on Christ. In This Age, the church Age, Condemnation rests upon the Christ-less soul until that necessary Repentance. Then it is covered by the Blood of The Lamb and is free from all accusation. The Judgment of the LORD is reserved for the LORD’s Day.

If you would like to take a little time out to read Job Chapters 20 and 21 and compare Zophar’s argument, which the LORD condemned, and Job’s reply, putting the Action of God in its right perspective – “Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?” [21:7] and “That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.” [21:30]. If “all have sinned” and the Blood of the Lamb was shed for all, then God must wait for as long as He can for a soul’s repentance and acknowledgement of Salvation in Christ.

The Plagues and Punishments in the Day of the LORD will be against all those who have rejected The Lamb. That is what the Book of Revelation is all about – The Lamb, The Lamb, The Lamb!!!

Psalm 5 reveals the heart’s cries of The Lamb; His committing Himself to God in His intense pain and suffering on the Cross, and looking for His resurrection [v3]. This is the Faith of the Son of God in action! Only He, as The Judge, could pray for men’s destruction! We are to pray for our enemies and do them good! But He had already been promised the role of Judge and here He is always ready to do God’s Will. He is the instrument through whom God punishes the world in the Day of the LORD.

Psalm 9 is one of the three Psalms containing the Hebrew word Higgaion, meaning deep meditation [9:16, 19:14, 92:3 (margin)]. This is what I wrote down from our ‘Away’ Church Studies above this Psalm 9 : “CHRIST speaking after deep thought (meditation) of what He should utter aloud – because it should be recorded – the Judgment of God will reveal who CHRIST really is; (so it was) of great concern to Him.” (This is the depth of the Teaching we received!) The Lamb is revealed clearly as both Saviour and Judge. He has submitted Himself to the Lordship of His Equal, God on the Throne forever; whatever God wants of Him, that will He do.

Revelation 6:16 “And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.”

The Lamb has opened the Sixth Seal. All except the Fifth Seal are Instructions for Punishments and Plagues. The time scale within the Sixth Seal stretches right through the Millennium Reign to the completion of all the Judgments. This v16 is the ‘fulfilment’ of the Lord’s words to the weeping women as He went to the hill of Calvary, as He quoted Hosea 10:8. Luke 23:30 – 31 “Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Nothing will be drier than in those first 42 months of the Day of the LORD! No rain, burning grass, burning trees, scorching sun... And the Reason? Jesus Christ, the Beloved of God, the Willing, Humble Sacrifice has been rejected and scorned and rebelled against and ignored... Truly we need to “Kiss the Son”! And why not?!

These following Psalms reveal The Lamb executing God’s Judgments – just as He was taught!

Psalm 11:5 – 7 “The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; His countenance doth behold the upright.”

Psalm 18:19 – 24 “He brought Me forth also into a large place; He delivered Me, because He delighted in Me. The LORD rewarded Me according to My righteousness; according to the cleanness of My hands hath He recompensed Me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from My God. For all His judgments were before Me, and I did not put away His statutes from Me. I was also upright before Him, and I kept Myself from Mine iniquity. Therefore hath the LORD recompensed Me according to My righteousness, according to the cleanness of My hands in His eyesight.”

Psalm 18:34 “He teacheth My hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by Mine arms.”

Psalm 18:38 – 44 “I have wounded them that they were not able to rise: they are fallen under My feet. For Thou hast girded Me with strength unto the battle: Thou hast subdued under Me those that rose up against Me. They cried, but there was none to save them: even unto the LORD, but He answered them not. then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets. Thou hast delivered Me from the strivings of the people; and Thou hast made Me the head of the heathen: a people whom I have not known shall serve Me. As soon as they hear of Me, they shall obey Me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto Me.”

Psalm 18:47 “It is God that avengeth Me, and subdueth the people under Me.”

Psalm 21:7 – 12 “For the king trusteth in the LORD, and through the mercy of the most High He shall not be moved. Thine hand shall find out all Thine enemies: Thy right hand shall find out those that hate Thee. Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of Thine anger: the LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the fire shall devour them. Their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men. For they intended evil against Thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform. Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back, when Thou shalt make ready Thine arrows upon Thy strings against the face of them.”

Psalm 11 is one of those Psalms dedicated to “the Chief Musician”! A direct link with the Holy Spirit on David the anointed king and the Source of all Joy still in Heaven, waiting to fulfil His Unique Roles of Saviour, Son, Baptiser, High Priest and Judge! Through the human vehicle, He looks forward to the time of the Settlement when all ungodliness will be dealt with.

Psalm 18 is also dedicated to Christ, the Chief Musician. The first passage reveals Christ as both the Righteous One and the Substitute for Sin. A human being cannot have both “clean hands” and “iniquity”... The Lamb was rewarded with the Highest Honour anyone in human flesh could attain to. He will be acknowledged by all the world as “Lord of lords and King of kings” when He comes to Reign. The next three passages refer to the Battle of Armageddon and the Great Slaughter. He humbled Himself to behave as a Lamb, a submissive Servant, an Obedient Son; God had to teach Him to destroy the souls of those He had shed His Blood for. He will obey because He had agreed from the foundation of the world to be subservient to God on the Throne.

Psalm 21 also is dedicated to the Chief Musician. May your heart sing out its praises to Him! Christ is the Right Hand of God – the hand of Action, carrying out God’s Plans for All Mankind, Salvation and Judgment. Christ as The Lamb will avenge the righteous God of all man’s wickedness which ultimately has been against God. As His Reward, God gives the Submissive Lamb the opportunity to destroy His enemies for their hatred against Him although He gave His Life for them.

Could the “mischievous device” be the death by crucifixion on a wooden cross? What do you think? It was indeed a hideous device which the princes of this world used to try to destroy the Prince of Life, but instead, they were “not able to perform” His destruction – He was raised to Life in a glorious triumph over death and hell!!

Revelation 7:9 “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.”

This vision and its interpretation is an excellent example of the necessity to read with under-standing the Whole Bible, and not take it bit by bit!! The “great multitude” must first be seen in its context and position in the Programme of the Book of Seven Seals. The Programme has been panned out but with little detail through Chapter 6. As one goes through the Book of Revelation, there are several ‘re-caps’ with greater detail added each time, continuing broadly in a chronological order until all Creation is destroyed and replaced with God’s New Order.

Therefore, this scene, as with the Remnant of Israel in vs 1 to 8, is an interlude within the overall Programme. There are special and vital Points which MUST be adhered to in interpreting the Book of Revelation. The very First Point must be that the Rapture has already taken place. So ALL saints are already in Heaven, gathered around the Throne; the Church AND the Old Testament Faithful. This understanding therefore completely does away with the theory that these people are being saved and taken up during the time of the Plagues and Punishments. There is only ONE Resurrection unto Life. There is no life after death for anyone killed during those 42 months (except the Two witnesses, of course), indeed for anyone who dies after the Rapture.

Those choosing to hide from the beast’s Reign of Terror will remain alive by their obedience alone. They will be relatively few in number, but there will obviously be those who are alive at the start of the Millennium Reign of Christ.

Know your Bible History!! Who was promised he would be a father of a multitude of nations? [Genesis 17:4] (In the Vision we see people “of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues”) And whose name was changed from ‘Exalted father’ to ‘Father of a great mutitude’? [Genesis 17:4] – Abraham!! Over and over, the Nation of Israel was said to be in multitude as the sand on the seashore. So there is our First Clue. Second, they had palms in their hands – they had been used to keeping the Feast of Tabernacles.

These are the other Revelation verses with “the Lamb” in Chapter 7. We’ll continue looking at the Vision and understanding it...

Revelation 7:10 “And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

They were there, around the Throne, resurrected and clothed in white robes and with crowns on their heads, before the Day of the LORD began. They witnessed the mighty revealing of The Worthy One, the Lion of Judah, as being The Lamb. They had joined in the loud praises as He was acknowledged. And here they are in this Vision so joyful to acknowledge that God had brought them Salvation through the Lamb. They knew how they had brought an innocent animal before the priest to have their sin atoned. They had seen the look in its eyes as they had laid their hands in substitute upon its head and watched it being killed and its blood poured out on the altar. And here, in Heaven, they saw a Real Person, Equal with God on the Throne, who had ultimately suffered for them as He had died for the sin of the whole world. They could only rejoice, for in their new resurrected bodies there were no tear ducts! There are no more tears, v17; Isaiah 25:8!

Revelation 7:14  “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

These resurrected saints, who were evidently unknown to John because they were of a previous era, are spoken of in Hebrews 11. Listed often by name are all those who “died in faith” v13, who in the days before the Cross and Resurrection of the Lamb, “obtained a good report through faith” v39. They had in their lifetimes “washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”. When John Baptist announced by the Spirit, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” [John 1:29], he meant for all souls, and for all Time, whichever Age, Past, Present and Future. The Lord Jesus in His astonishingly humble prayer to the Father in John 17, said, v20, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word” – that’s you and me; it’s US!! We followed on hundreds of years after those initial thousands in Jerusalem at Pentecost AD33!!

I say ‘astonishingly’ because humanly speaking it was. Being absolutely eternally equal with God on the Throne, He addresses Him like a little child; it is far and above the capability of human nature, and I would say, whether fallen or not... This is the Person of The Lamb; this is Who we are saying is our Saviour and Coming Lord and King. This is Who, by the Spirit, we are to be One with, dead with, raised up with, and to reign with!!

Regarding the Future : Note that John in Chapter 1 verse 5, in addressing the churches and giving the Greeting from Jesus Christ, bursts into praise, saying, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood”. This is the difference : they in their day before The Lamb took on flesh and blood had to obey the Laws of Sacrifice to prove their faith in God.

Revelation 7:17 “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

This is take place during Christ’s Millennium Reign. The members of the Church are the “living fountains of waters”. This is the ultimate fulfilment of what the Lord Jesus said in John 7:38, “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said [ie Isaiah 55:1] out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. The Word of God is the water [Ephesians 5:26], and by the Action of the Holy Spirit within a Spirit-baptised believer, rivers of living water flow out upon thirsty, world-weary, dry souls.

These Old Testament saints who lived by the Laws of Sacrifice to keep themselves clean before God will be taught by the Church how the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of those Laws in Himself. Ezekiel [Chapters 40 to 48] describes the new arrangement for the Millennium Reign, with the allocated land for the resurrected tribes, and with a City and a Sanctuary and a Temple.

The animal offerings will be graphic explanations of the Perfect Sacrifice of The Lamb Himself. The priests who serve will be the resurrected Levites (who have no inherited land, as in ancient time) and the tribe of Levi from the now enlarged Remnant of Israel, named in Chapter 7:7. They will live in the suburbs of the rebuilt Jerusalem, tending to the food produce in the areas east and west of the City, Ezekiel 48:18 – 19.

These Psalms reveal more of the relationship these faithful ones had with The Lamb :

Psalm 22:4 – 8 “Our fathers trusted in Thee: they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. They cried unto Thee, and were delivered: they trusted in Thee, and were not confounded. But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him.”

Psalm 28:9 “Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.”

Psalm 99:5 – 9 “Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at His footstool; for He is holy. Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name; they called upon the LORD, and He answered them. He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept His testimonies, and the ordinance that He gave them. Thou answerest them, O LORD our God: Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at His holy hill; for the LORD our God is holy.”

Psalm 100 “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD He is God: it is He that that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.”

Psalm 22 of all the prophetic Psalms on the sufferings of the Lord Jesus as our Lamb, this is the most direct. But the point to bring out here, in relation to our Revelation 7 verses above is His free acknowledgement that it was God who delivered these ancient people. The Lamb gives God the glory for bringing them through all their trials and tribulations. He praises God for listening to their cries for help; He is evidently truly glad that they trusted in Him. He casts Himself upon God’s Mercy; He acknowledges His earthly beginning when He came down from Heaven to be born as a helpless Baby. And then in verses 22 and 25, He vows to declare His praise to God at the Throne with all those He has caught up in the Rapture surrounding Him! What a Saviour!!

Psalm 28 reveals that because Christ took God as His Rock, we, in Christ, have Him as our Rock. Christ Crucified is our Rock, the only Sure Foundation on which to build a life acceptable to Almighty God. Christ Crucified is The Lamb!! The Book of Revelation therefore is essential in understanding the whole Plan of God for fallen human beings for both Salvation and Judgment. The Psalm continues with His interceding, His pleas for recompense for sufferings at the hands of the wicked for doing the works of the LORD, and His praises for the opportunity to trust God as His strength, shield and helper. Verse 9 corresponds with Revelation 7:17 – and there they are, exalted to the Throne of God!

Psalm 99 is in Book 4 revealing the Lord Jesus Christ as the Man who is God manifest in the flesh. [Psalms 90 to 106]. The setting of this Psalm is clearly the Thousand-Year Reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, ruling with His saints with a Rod of Iron. Judgment and Righteousness will be the Order; Justice not Mercy; Obedience or Punishment and Death. And alive in the world will be Moses and Samuel and Aaron and those others named and unnamed in Hebrews 11! All through the Blood of the Lamb poured out on the earth outside the walls of Jerusalem in AD33!! The same Person who led them Himself in the wilderness in those days will be clearly seen as a glorious and mighty King, acknowledged with the bowing of every knee and the confessing of every tongue that This Wounded Lamb is Lord over all the earth!

Psalm 100 in just five verses gives a glimpse into life during that time for the faithful who knew His Mercy and the obedient among the Gentiles, as they recognise that serving Him and praising Him leads to Eternal Life.

May the truly Unique Nature and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb saturate your heart and mind to continually cling to Him as your First Love. May these scriptures in both Revelation and Psalms water your soul and open up depths of understanding you had not realised before. May you know that whatever betides you there is One who gave His all that you might be delivered, strengthened and encouraged, and one glorious day presented before the Throne of Almighty God!

Study No. 11 – The Lamb’s Involvement with a Faithful Israel

Testament noun – proof that something exists or is true: be; a testament to something

Covenant noun – an agreement

Revelation 11:19 “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament...”

Revelation 15:5 “...behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened”

Revelation 19:10 “The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy” – meaning...

... The Holy Spirit inspired holy, specially anointed men of old to record through the ages in writing all the Evidence of the Coming One, who would be God manifest in the flesh, and, who was coming, and did come to die for sin and rise again, and is coming again to judge and reign.

The testimony of Jesus, therefore, is the whole History of God’s Beloved One, sent to fulfil His Will as told in the Written Word of God by the Holy Spirit. His Perfect Obedience to that Word culminated with His wounded and disfigured Body and Face from all His Sufferings. At present, during the Church Age, He is seated on the right hand of God on the Throne. When He comes to Earth, He will sit on His own Throne in the newly rebuilt Jerusalem. When all creation is burnt up and the New Heaven and the New Earth replace it, He, as both God and The Lamb, will sit on His own Throne in the New Jerusalem [Revelation 22:3].

He was the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” [Revelation 13:8] and will be worshipped as the Lamb throughout Eternity. (“Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” [Hebrews 13:8]Have you ever thought of this verse like that before?!

These two following verses show that Christ fulfilled the Written Word of God by the totality and depth of His personal Obedience to that Written Word :

·         Psalm 138:2b “for Thou hast magnified Thy word above all Thy name.”

·         Isaiah 42:21 “The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honourable.”

For all new creatures in Christ who have trusted in His poured out Blood to wash away their sin and reconcile them to a Most High and Holy God, this following passage sums up all the above :

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Romans 8: 17 – 18

But not only is it the Church who has suffered. All those righteous souls in the days before the Law and those who were aware of the Commandments placed in the ark who eschewed idolatry and the evil works that went with it, suffered greatly. Hebrews Chapter 11 tells their story name by name!

Paul said also to the young pastor “Yea, and all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” in 2 Timothy 3:12. The saints before the Cross knew they were dealing with God’s Equal Representative!

The first three verses of this Study indicate the great length of time that God has been dealing with His people, wooing them through the ages and through His specific Plan back to Him for an Eternal Destiny of Safety and Security from evil.

Let us in our day, then, consider why in the Book of Revelation the Holy Spirit focuses specifically on the objects so much a part of the life of Israel.

Firstly, I would say, that this is because The LAMB, so often named in God’s Final Message concerning His Plan for the Future of All Mankind, died for EVERYONE. His blood covers everyone.

·         His poured out Sacrificial Blood covered those who died in faith before the Church Age. These are mostly from Israel, demonstrating their obedience and faith through the animal sacrifices and Feasts. They will be resurrected with the Church.

·         His poured out Sacrificial Blood has blotted out all traces of sin and its consequences from God’s sight for ever, so that any person in this Church Age – Jew and Gentile – may repent from living without Jesus Christ and live a Crucified, Spirit-filled life before God.

·         And thirdly, His poured out Sacrificial Blood will enable the Remnant of Israel – the Future Faithful Israel – and the Gentile nations remaining from the Thousand-Year Reign of Christ to live for Eternity on the New Earth and have free access to the Throne of God and to the separate Throne of Christ (God and the Lamb).

Second, because, of course, God’s still has promises to fulfil concerning Israel. But which ‘Israel’? In which Age of ‘Israel’ will those promises be fulfilled? And what is the situation today now that God has sent and provided the Lamb for the Sacrifice? What should the Church position be regarding the Jewish people world-wide and those in the created State of Israel?

In each of these three Ages above, we see Israel, but in different forms. The Covenant which God made with the fathers of Israel was an Agreement. But the Testimony is to do with the personal involvement of Christ through His personal suffering to give them total freedom from sin and Eternal Life.

Israel Historically

Simply, those who disobeyed, as recorded throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, are lost. They will be resurrected from Hell at the end of Christ’s Reign on earth, the same as any other rebel against Christ. They will stand before Christ’s Throne of Judgment, be shown the Scriptures they refused and the place where their names should have been in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and cast into the Lake of Fire to live in regret and torment in the darkness and pain forever.

Those who obeyed and believed as recorded in Hebrews Chapter 11 and those who turned to the Lord as recorded in a number of Scriptures (under Hezekiah, Josiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, for example) all “died in faith” and will be resurrected at the “first resurrection” (the ‘Rapture’).

Prophecies Concerning A Return to the Promised Land

These are some of the Scriptures which are frequently quoted to show that the Jews scattered

throughout the world will return to their land :

             Deuteronomy 30:3 “That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.”

             Isaiah 43:5 – 6 “Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; 6. I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;”

             Jeremiah 30:3 “For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.”

                               :10 “Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.”

             Isaiah 66:8 “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”

             Ezekiel 20:34 “I will bring you from the nations and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered -- with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath."

             Ezekiel 37:22 “And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all.”

Why do I list these passages? Because I believe it is necessary to show in which Age these Scriptures will be fulfilled. They surely will be fulfilled! Israel will indeed possess the land as promised – but WHEN? And which part of Israel? Those are the Big Questions!! In my experience I see many believers holding to two separate and opposing doctrines at the same time. In seeking the Lord about it, He said distinctly, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways”. Either we live in the New Testament, living a New Testament life covered by the poured out Blood of Christ, and filled with the Word and filled with the Spirit, or we don’t!!

Church Teaching in the Church Age

             Acts 2:7 – 41 “Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. 10. Strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes. 14. Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem. 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37. what shall we do? 38. Repent, and be baptized ... in the name of Jesus Christ ... and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off. 41. Then they that gladly received his [Peter] word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”

             Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Gentile).”

             1 Corinthians 1:24 “But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.”

             Galatians 2:15 – 16 “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ...”

             Ephesians 2:12 – 18 “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers ... 13. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15. Having abolished in His flesh the enmity ... for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace. 16. And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; 17. Peace to you ... afar off, and ... them that were nigh. 18. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

So we see clearly that the Church is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. It began like that, and should be continuing like that. The converted Jew and the converted Gentiles are bound together as brethren in One Body in Christ. Both have been washed in the Blood; both are baptised (immersed) in water; both are baptised in the Holy Ghost. That is God’s Vision for His new Family. No more ritual of religion; no more worshipping of idols; no more strangers; no more enemies. All One in Christ Jesus! If we don’t see God’s Vision from the Scriptures, how can we live it out?!

What is clear, therefore, that Jews and Gentiles all over the world should be working together in the Body of Christ to extend the Kingdom of God by bringing in more Jews and more Gentiles by preaching and teaching Christ Crucified and God’s Unique Message of Salvation through the poured out Blood of His First-born (Risen) Son...

Why then is there such a focus upon retrieving land? Such a project doesn’t exist in the teachings of the New Testament. The New Testament is in fact, according to Hebrews 9:14 - 17 the ‘last Will and Testament’ of Christ – dying in order that the Inheritance of God’s Home (which is real and tangible and very, very large!!) might be passed to every beneficiary of the Will. By being alive from the dead, He now ensures that every Promise is received and enjoyed! That is as it is meant to be!

Therefore the very fact of a New Testament being launched onto the world for both the Jew and the Gentile means that neither seeks for material gain (above that which is reasonable and necessary) and seeks instead the Kingdom of Heaven!

Exactly as the Lord Jesus spoke in His teachings on the mountain as recorded in Matthew Chapters 5, 6 and 7! [Mathew 5 – 7]

Clear Indication of Prophecy Fulfilled in the LORD’s Day :

             Ezekiel 37:12 “Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”

This verse points directly to those faithful in the Old Testament days that died in faith and will be resurrected with the Church. These will inherit the allocated land as described in Ezekiel Chapters 47 and 48 when they return to the earth with the Church on white horses with the Lamb!

             Hosea 3:4 – 5 “For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days."

Again, this passage points to the Future, just as Daniel was told about the time of the end. We do not see this happening today! By “David” the Holy Spirit means the Lord Jesus Christ, ‘great David’s greater Son’.

             Amos 9:14 – 15 “And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. 15. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.”

This speaks of a time of real security and confidence in living in that land. There is no peace or security or restfulness in the man-made State of Israel today. The resurrected saints will inherit a far greater area than is called Israel today. All the fighting and bombs and bullets can’t give them anything more in this Church Age!! God has ordained only that they repent and believe the Gospel!!

             Isaiah 11:11 “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left...”

             Daniel 12:1b “and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”

These two passages could not be clearer! “In that day” in the Old Testament Scriptures always refers to the Day of the LORD. And it is used over and over again, pointing to the time when all unfulfilled prophecies of Judgment – the sword, famine and pestilence with wild beasts – will eventually be completed as described vividly in the Book of Revelation. And that Eternal “Day” will begin with “a time of trouble”!

Israel cannot receive her promised land in this Age! Apart from the prophecies and the ‘restrictions’ of the Church Age which indicate that, such an ambition is entirely impractical! The present area is not large enough to house the many millions of Jews in the world. Besides, they don’t all agree with the creation of a State of Israel before its prophesied time, especially as modern Israel is entirely secular and political!

Israel in the Future

The Remnant

Chapter 7 of Revelation shows two distinct groups of Israel at the time of the LORD’s Day. The first half, verses 1 to 8 reveals what Daniel 12:1b (above) records of a people who would be delivered, and they are listed here tribe by tribe, according to which tribes the Lord decides who should make up His New Israel, as “found written in the book” – the Book of Revelation!! The long-prophesied Remnant spoken of by Isaiah in 1:9, 10:20 – 23 will be miraculously carried to safe areas promised to them in Daniel 11:41, speaking of the Antichrist’s return to Jerusalem where he will pollute the sanctuary and attack the Remnant [Revelation 12:14 – 16].

During the 42 months of Plagues and Judgments upon unbelieving, idolatrous Jews and Gentiles, each of these tribes will increase in number from the stated twelve thousand heads of families, and will wait for Christ to return to Earth. He will come down to Bozrah [Isaiah 63:1] treading down His enemies as He journeys from the Great Battle at Megiddo. From Bozrah, south of Jerusalem, He will lead His New Faithful Nation of Israel back to Jerusalem along the route of the King’s Highway [Isaiah 35:8 – 10]. Idolatrous Jerusalem will be burnt to the ground, the carcases, cleansed by the carrion birds, will be buried, and these tribes will live in the suburbs of the newly built Jerusalem and provide food for the city throughout the Reign of Christ [Ezekiel 48:17 – 19].

When all creation is burnt up and the Final Judgment completed, and there is the New Heaven and the New Earth, the Remnant, the New Faithful Nation of Israel, will live in harmony on the New Earth with the Gentile nations who came through the Thousand-Year Reign through their obedience to Christ.

The Resurrected Faithful Old Testament Saints

These are seen in the second half of Revelation Chapter 7, verses 9 to 17. Those who are of Israel will inherit the land as allocated to the named tribes in Ezekiel 47 and 48. They are seen with palms in their hands, indicating their knowledge of the Feast of Tabernacles, when they would have made booths of palm branches remembering their days in the wilderness after their escape from Egypt. In v14 they had “washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb”. In other words, before the Cross when the Lord Jesus washed us in His own Blood, those who desired to follow the ways of the LORD showed their faith by obedience to the law of sacrifices. They came with their offerings and by laying their hand on the head of the victim, identified themselves with the sin that it would bear for them.

Verse 17 brings the Church and these faithful resurrected souls together! The Church is described as the” living fountains of waters” (full of the Word of God) who will feed these special people with the Word, explaining to them how the Lamb fulfilled in Himself all the Law of Sacrifice. The animal sacrifices will be made throughout the Millennium Reign of the Lord as prophesied in Ezekiel, from Chapter 43 verse 12 to the end of Chapter 46. There will be Levites from both groups of Israel to officiate in the offerings.

The Church has a wonderful Future! She has a Service to do for the Lord for a very long time, way beyond our natural life-span on this earth! She will see these people and mix with them and enjoy their wonder as they understand what depths the Holy One of Israel went to in order to become the Lamb.

Make sure that you are a member of that holy Body! Hold fast to the truth and don’t be drawn aside with strange and conflicting doctrines. All the Truth is in the Word of God, and best understood through the KJV and by being Baptised in the Holy Spirit. “Search the Scriptures”, the Lord Jesus said, “for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.” [John 5:39]

And the Evidence of all God’s Plans for both Jew and Gentile in This Church Age is seated at His own Right Hand – the Lamb; the Lord Jesus Christ with all His wounds guaranteeing Full Salvation to all who will come and humble themselves before Him!! May the Lord shine His Blessings upon you all.

Study No. 10 – An Insight Into

The Unique Nature of The Lamb

Revelation 5:6 “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had had slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”

Revelation 5:8 “And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.”

Revelation 5:12 “Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”

Revelation 5:13 “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”

These are the first four references to the Lord Jesus Christ as The Lamb in the Book of Revelation. There are 28 references throughout the Book in total. Four will be enough to start our new Study with! After looking at some Events which will take place in the LORD’s Day to come in previous Studies, I felt it was time to consider the Person of Jesus Christ specifically as the Lamb, and specially in relation to The Psalms. For within the Five Books which make up the collection of 150 Psalms, there is a great treasure of revelation concerning the Life, Ministry, Death and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Firstly, looking at these four references, it becomes clear that Jesus Christ as the Lamb is both Saviour and Judge. There are those who worship and adore Him willingly, and there are those who are forced to praise Him and fear Him greatly. In John’s case, he could see that without the Lamb to bring about a lasting and complete Settlement, the world would continue in its corruption without end. . .

Take the first Revelation reference, concentrating only on the phrase “a Lamb as it had been slain”. Obviously a Person in human form, and living, but looking as though freshly killed. (incidentally, the seven horns belong to Him – they represent seven aspects of His Particular Authority as the Lamb. The seven eyes, just to avoid confusion, are the Seven Special Angels who assist the Lamb in His role as the Judge by blowing their warning trumpets and pouring out their vials of plagues.)

It is not often, unfortunately, that one hears much of a focus on the terrible nature of Christ’s Sufferings and exactly how He came to His Death. How often have you heard in recent times a lengthy exposition from the Scriptures of what was done to His Body? Or how He felt about it?

Are you aware that He was raised from Hell and the tomb with all those wounds on Him? They are the Evidence of your Salvation. There will be seen in Heaven by you, just as John saw them! So – the first reference. . .

Revelation 5:6 “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had had slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”

... and compare it to the following Psalms:

Psalm 3:1 – 5 “LORD, how are they increased that trouble Me! many are they that rise up against Me. Many there be which say of My soul, There is no help for Him in God. Selah. But Thou, O LORD, art a shield for Me; My glory, and the lifter up of Mine head. I cried unto the LORD with My voice, and He heard Me out of His holy hill. Selah. I laid Me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained Me.”

Psalm 4:8 “I will both lay Me down in peace, and sleep: for Thou LORD, only makest Me dwell in safety.”

Psalm 5:1 – 3 & 7 “Give ear to My words, O LORD, consider My meditation. Hearken unto the voice of My cry, My King, and My God: for unto Thee will I pray. My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct My prayer unto Thee, and will look up. 7. But as for Me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy: and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.”

Psalm 6:1 – 10 “O LORD, rebuke Me not in Thine anger, neither chasten Me in Thy hot displeasure. Have mercy upon Me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal Me; for My bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: but Thou, O LORD, how long? Return, O LORD, deliver My soul: oh save Me for Thy mercies’ sake. For in death there is no remembrance of Thee: in the grave who shall give Thee thanks? I am weary with My groaning; all the night make I My bed to swim; I water My couch with My tears. Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all Mine enemies. Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the LORD hath heard the voice of My weeping. The LORD hath heard My supplication; the LORD will receive My prayer. Let all Mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed: let them return and be ashamed suddenly.”

Psalm 16:10 – “For thou wilt not leave My soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew Me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”

I have deliberately capitalised the first letter of the pronouns – “Me”, “My”, “Him” instead of “me” etc, because, when you consider that these words actually could only be spoken by the Lord Jesus in the terrible situation of pain and derision and humiliation He was in when He paid the Price for our sins, these Psalms make real sense. The interspersed word “Selah” – ‘meditate on that’ further encourages the understanding that these are the prophetic expressions of Jesus Christ. Only He intercedes for our souls; only He can ask God to punish His enemies!!

Psalm 3 dove-tails with the Calvary records of Him on the Cross. He was mocked and derided, but He was looking to be raised to life again after His Sacrifice was accepted;

Psalm 4 – compare with Calvary records – He bowed His head and gave up the ghost and His legs were not broken;

Psalm 5 shows His intercession for us on the Cross and again His hope in being raised early on the first day of the week. He couldn’t allow Mary Magdalene to touch Him before He had presented Himself to God on the Throne;

Psalm 6 is a detailed account of His cries in His agonisingly painful sufferings, as though His bones were on fire, which are omitted in the Gospel records, but He was truly there, suffering for you, interceding for your soul, paying the Price, not counting the Cost, for you to be saved for Eternity!

Psalm 16 is easy to recognise as His glorious Statement of His victory over death and Hell, quoted by both Peter and Paul as they convinced men by the Holy Ghost that this Jesus is indeed the Christ [Acts 2:25 – 28 and Acts 13:35, resp.] (incidentally, neither Peter nor Paul, in declaring that this is Christ and not David, speak of David going up into Heaven. On the contrary, Peter says, “David is not ascended into the heavens” [Acts 2:34] and Paul says that David “fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption” ! Just as 1 Thessalonians 4:14 – 17 tells us. Keep on believing in the Rapture – the “First Resurrection” – it will come! He is coming to raise us up and give us new (sinless) bodies and present us to the Father on His Throne!!

The second Revelation reference to Christ as the Lamb shows us the future time when the Settlement is about to begin. At last! Justice, Vengeance (Holy Righteous Vengeance, of course!), Rewards to the wicked and Rewards to the faithful! It MUST come to pass! The book contains all the Instructions which Christ as the Lamb will execute, Seal by Seal until all is Complete and Ready for the New Heaven and the New Earth, where only Righteousness will live.

Revelation 5:8 “And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.”

Heaven was searched for a suitable person to carry out this tremendous Task for God. Even Earth and Hell were searched! Never say that God is not totally Just and Legal!! It had to be perfectly activated; nothing left out and nothing more than God wanted. The plagues are all precise, accurately targeted – no “friendly fire”, no accidental casualties, nothing going on longer than planned, and nothing watered down from the Plan. ONLY Christ as the Lamb, selected, examined, crucified, slain and raised was SUITABLE to carry out the Task; only He could be trusted to obey the Will of God perfectly in this essential matter of bringing all spoilt Creation to a final Account.

Consider these Psalms in relation to Christ’s intercession for sinners :

Psalm 8:1 – 9 “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! who hast set Thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy [Satan] and the avenger [God]. . .”

Psalm 9:1 – 2 “I will praise Thee, O LORD, with My whole heart; I will shew forth all Thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in Thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.”

Psalm 9:9 – 14 “The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. And they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee: for Thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee. . .”

Psalm 12:5 – 7 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him. The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, Thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.”

Without the Lamb upon the Throne of God, raised from death as His First-born Son, anointed again as High Priest, to sit on God’s Right Hand, there is no Salvation for you or me; there is no escape from Judgment and its Eternal Consequences; there is no invitation to lift up our hearts, any time day or night, to petition the Almighty One for our needs.

Psalm 8 reveals Christ’s humbleness in coming from the Glory of Heaven to this corrupt world as a baby. From that moment He declared war on Satan, as God now in human flesh, not for His own need, but to silence the deafening accusations from this enemy, and to pacify the righteous anger of an offended Unchallengeable Authority.

Psalm 9 (1) resounds with Christ’s Victory, which would be evident as He stood before the Throne with the book in His hand. His own heart would be filled with praise to God as these elders, representing all the resurrected redeemed from both the Old and the New Covenants offer their prayers up to the same God who gave them the Lamb.

Psalm 9 (2) demonstrates that Christ was first oppressed by the world of wicked men and the (persecuted) Church will not be forgotten. v13 declares yet again the Faith of the Son of God as He looks to God to raise Him out of Hell and the tomb.

Psalm 12 demonstrates that Christ Himself became the Poor and the Needy One – ‘poor yet making many rich’ – and we, in Christ, in turn are guaranteed Eternal Safety and separation from all the former oppression and wickedness of the world.

The third Revelation reference to Christ as the Lamb is a powerful expression of understanding from the millions of angels under His joint command as the Lord of Hosts. They recognise that His wounds unto death were done to Him on earth, and now that the Secret is now longer closed to them, they see just how much He is due their praise and the praise of every living creature.

Revelation 5:12 “Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”

These Psalms also express Christ’s intercession as He suffered on the Cross:

Psalm 7:4 “If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with Me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is Mine enemy:)”

Psalm 31:4 – 5, 9 - 12 “Pull Me out of the net that they have laid privily for Me; for Thou art My strength. Into Thine hand I commit My spirit: Thou hast redeemed Me, O LORD God of truth. 9. Have mercy upon Me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: Mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, My soul and My belly. For My life is spent with grief, and My years with sighing: My strength faileth because of Mine iniquity, and My bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all Mine enemies, but especially among My neighbours, and a fear to Mine acquaintance: they that see Me without fled from Me. I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel.”

Psalm 32:3 – 5 “When I kept silence, My bones waxed old through My roaring all the day long, For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon Me: My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledged My sin unto Thee, and Mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess My transgressions unto the LORD; and Thou forgavest the iniquity of My sin. Selah.”

There are many such cries of deep anguish, intolerable pain and affliction expressed by the Lord Jesus in the Psalms, yet all the while He is identifying Himself with the sin of the sinners He came to save. All the Psalms quoted so far are in Book 1 (Psalms 1 to 41) in which we see our Saviour as the Meekest Man in all the earth. The Patience and Fortitude He showed in the truly dire situation He was in is beyond the understanding of the human mind. We need the eyes of the Holy Ghost, the vision of the Holy Ghost; we need His touch upon our limited, blemished souls to break up the hard, stubborn ground and bring in the light and air in which our appreciation can grow.

Psalm 7 reveals Christ’s deep desire to please God and ensure that everyone is covered by His Sacrifice, even Judas, if he would repent. Judas took his own life; Christ reached out to him.

Psalm 31 can easily be compared with the sparse records of Calvary – the verses in the four Gospels reporting the Lord’s trial and crucifixion.

Psalm 32 also has echoes of the Calvary records. Crucifixion had drained all the fluids from His Body; His mouth was utterly parched; He needed some liquid in order to declare His Victory over all the captivity which Satan had brought mankind into. This is what the angels witnessed. It amazed them, and now – the time of the Vision – they freely praise Him for His Selfless Love, the Total Giving of Himself to save mankind.

The fourth Revelation reference to Christ as the Lamb reveals an extra-ordinary scene. Not only are the angelic hosts and the redeemed from all Ages giving Him praise, but also those left on the earth, most of whom are doomed to perdition, Jew and Gentile. And besides these, those in Hell, those human spirits held prisoner there until the Final Judgment when they are cast into the Lake of Fire, will also be made to give Him the glory and honour for His Great Sacrifice. This is what God demands, as fitly written by Paul in Philippians 2:5 – 11 ! Jesus Christ, equal with God on the Throne willingly humbled Himself and obeyed the Will of God as a lowly Servant. God therefore insists that every creature acknowledge this Humility and Profound Giving – and here, seen in the Future is the very time when this comes to pass! : “every knee”, “every tongue”.

Revelation 5:13 “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”

Consider these Psalms as those that reveal the Way the Lord Jesus worked out your Salvation :

Psalm 38:1 – 4 “O LORD, rebuke Me not in Thy wrath: neither chasten Me in Thy hot displeasure. For Thine arrows stick fast in Me, and Thy hand presseth Me sore. There is no soundness in My flesh because of Thine anger; neither is there any rest in My bones because of My sin. For Mine iniquities are gone over Mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for Me.”

Psalm 39:9 – 13 “I was dumb, I opened not My mouth; because Thou didst it. Remove Thy stroke away from Me: I am consumed by the blow of Thine hand. When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou makest His beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah. Hear My prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto My cry; hold not Thy peace at My tears: for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all My fathers were. O spare Me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.”

Psalm 69:1 – 9 “Save Me, O God; for the waters are come in unto My soul. I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow Me. I am weary of My crying: My throat is dried: Mine eyes fail while I wait for My God. They that hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of Mine head: they that would destroy Me, being Mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away. O God, thou knowest My foolishness; and My sins are not hid from Thee. Let not them that wait on Thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for My sake: let not those that seek Thee be confounded for My sake, O God of Israel. Because for Thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered My face. I am become a stranger unto My brethren, and an alien unto My mother’s children. For the zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me.”

To say that His Sufferings were immense is truly an understatement. The Lord Jesus, God’s Eternal Fellow and Daily Delight, as a Crucified Man alive from the Dead is God’s Drawing Power. We should experience a persistent increase in our love for Him by the day. He completely identified Himself with every sinner, just as if He had done those unclean and evil things. ‘Just as if’ – don’t we use that expression when saying we are justified by faith: we say, It’s just as if I’d never sinned. So for Him, that’s what He experienced being numbered with the transgressors. We can only say it’s as if I had never sinned because He, the Lord of Heaven, was cursed just as if He had sinned.

Psalm 38 contains His cries to God in His pain and intercession. Sin – unbelief, disobedience, carnality, wilfulness, arrogance, self promotion, uncleanness, idolatry, etc, are TERRIBLE things! – both to God, because none of these things have any part in Him, and also to us, because they destroy us. They destroy the ability to find God wonderful; they destroy the whole purpose which God intended for us as human beings – to be predestined to be conformed to the Image of His Son [Romans 8:29] Jesus Christ is the Perfect Pattern (Example) for every human being born into this world at any time and any Age.

Psalm 39 continues to demonstrate the intensity of His intercession for us while undergoing such unimaginable intensity of pain and deprivation. He was prepared to go down into the lowest Hell to complete His position as a Criminal and Sinner, but He looked to God to bring Him out and restore Him to Heaven.

Psalm 69 reveals His experience of facing the prospect of Hell – the bottomless pit, a sphere with no base. He endured the parching of His mouth and the ceaseless taunts while on the Cross. Then He went down into a place that could not be more opposed to the Life and Environment He enjoyed in Eternity. Yet He stayed there for three nights and three days. He continued to intercede for our foolishness in separating ourselves from God. He continued to bear the reproaches of unbelieving men in their blasphemy against God in Heaven.

Study No. 9 – An Insight Into The Unique Language of

The Book of Revelation – 2

Revelation 13:1 “And I [John] stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”

Revelation 17:3 “So he [one of the seven angels (of Judgment)] carried me [John] away in the Spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”

vs 9 – 10 “ And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.”

I feel the need to continue with the theme of Study No. 8 “An Insight Into The Unique Language of The Book of Revelation”. Highlighting the above Scriptures of prophecy from the Book of Revelation is intended to emphasise the Fact that the whole Word of God (alone) is the Key to the Events which MUST come to pass, as recorded in This Book.

Understanding and realising that the Book of Revelation both looks forward to the prophesied time of Judgment in the Day of the LORD and looks back to the prophecies given to the two houses of Israel, especially to the tribe of Judah at Jerusalem, is fundamental to having a clear, steadying vision of God’s Plan for the world, and therefore for your own life.

I see, looking back, that I touched on this in Study No. 2 “Introducing Thoughts on The Title “The Lamb”, writing: The troubles in the Middle East we see today is all man’s doing – regime change desires by UK and US governments with other nations working as a ‘coalition’. This has NOTHING to do with God’s Final Plan of Judgment! It simply proves that the spirit (not the man) of antichrist is in the world. [1 John 4:3].

The Seven Heads

The Middle East reference refers to the ten horns. But let’s concentrate on the seven heads. We see that both the beast rising out of the sea – the Antichrist; the vile person, the man of sin, rising to prominence out of the multitudes of nations around the Mediterranean, and the scarlet coloured beast – Satan who will be embodied in that man – are seen by John as having seven heads. It simply means that these two abominable creatures are of the same mind, and that the Antichrist is in full agreement with the way Satan has controlled the nations of the world, enslaving them with his lies, deceits and murders.

These “mountains” – equated with great edifices of stone, iron and brass which form barriers or insurmountable problems to a traveller – which are the Seven Heads – can ONLY be interpreted by knowing the History of God with His ancient people, the Israelites, as recorded in the Old Testament.

It is ONLY there, not in men’s history books or media outlets, that one sees the despotic Nations which ruled over Israel throughout most of their history.

First there was Egypt – the newly-formed Nation of Israel, twelve sons of Jacob, whose descendants became slaves and were only liberated from bondage by the specific intervention of God.

Then there was Assyria, a great and Godless Nation which God used to punish the ten Northern Tribes of Israel for their constant rebellion.

Then there was Babylon, an even greater Godless Nation which was used by God to take the two southern Tribes, Judah and Benjamin, into exile for seventy years for their rebellion, idolatry and persistent wickedness.

Then, during those seventy years, Babylon was defeated by the Medes and Persians, and they in turn were defeated by Greece.

V10 now refers to the actual men, “seven kings” the rulers of those seven heads: Pharaoh, Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:3 – 6), Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, Alexander (Daniel), saying, “five are fallen”. These are the five which have all passed away and into history. (NB. Alexander is not specifically named in Daniel, but referred to as the king of Greece.)

These seven regimes are not the only ones in the world in Old Testament times. The Bible doesn’t include the ancient kingdoms of Anatolia, China or India; they were not involved in Israel’s journey with God and their rebellion against God. But THESE Seven were!

And that is why they are revealed again in that Book of prophecy which unfolds the Events, the Plagues, the Judgments which are surely coming upon the world of unrighteous, rebellious mankind, and centred on the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was chosen by God to be the source of the True Governance in Righteousness and Wisdom, and the Place of Worship for His people.

“and one is”, is obviously Caesar, the king of Rome, under which John and the early Church lived and suffered. (And yet, by the Power of the Gospel when the Word of God (the sword) magnified in thousands of believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan’s power was, as it were, “wounded to death” in this regime[the meaning of Revelation 13:3, 14])

To expand on this, each man is specifically referred to as that nation’s king : Exodus 1:8 “Now there rose up a new king over Egypt”; 2 Kings 17:4 “And the king of Assyria found conspiracy”; Daniel 1:1 “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem”; Daniel 6:6 “King Darius, live for ever”; Daniel 8:21 “And the rough goat is the king of Grecia”; John 19:15 “The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar”.

So it is worth repeating that ONLY in the Scriptures and not in men’s history books or media outlets does one see the despotic Nations which ruled over Israel throughout most of their history. Then the prophecy continues in Chapter 17 verse 10 :

“the other is not yet come” is that man mentioned by Daniel in Ch. 11 v20, a “raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom (Palestine under the whole regime of a World Government) but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.” This man corresponds exactly with “and when he cometh, he must continue a short space”. He is the last ruler before the man of sin comes to power.

v11 “And the beast that was, (that is, the beast John saw first in Ch 13) and is not (the scarlet coloured beast John is now seeing), even he (the man of sin) is the eighth, and is of the seven (of the same lawless mind) and goeth into perdition – the only possible end for disobedient, rebellious, Godless mankind and angels!

Bringing the Old Testament Into The Future

When the Lord Jesus was being led up to Calvary, He too looked back to the prophecies of Judgments against His people and looked forward to the Consequences of their actions and Fulfilment of those Judgments:

Luke 23:27 – 31 “And there followed Him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented Him. 28. But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. 29. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck. 30. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, cover us. 31. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”

This passage is actually a KEY Link between the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation, concerning the End Times and how all will be fulfilled. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Personal Link, who is bringing the two together here, even as He went to Calvary; to pain, suffering, deformity and the lowest Hell... “the green tree” – full of Eternal Life for you and me!

The Lord is quoting from Hosea 10:8 “The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: ... and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us”.

“Aven”, apparently is the abbreviation of Beth-aven, which, because of the Israelites’ behaviour, instead of being Bethel, the House of God, was then referred to as the house of nothingness or vanity, that is, false gods; idolatry. This was their sin – on the top of every hill, they offered sacrifices to the heathen gods (devils). The Books of Kings is full of it.

And then He is looking forward in time to when there is no mercy (the dry), when He is the appointed Judge executing all that God on the Throne has commissioned Him to do.

Revelation 6: 15 – 16 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16. And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:”

All these categories of people will have their wealth and livelihoods focused on the Centre of Wealth and Commerce in those days – Jerusalem, that great city where our Lord was crucified.

So, don’t the Scriptures agree together wonderfully? Isn’t the whole Plan of God for the Salvation and Judgment of mankind very skilfully told throughout the Bible? Please, dear friends, never let a day go by in which you have not read at least two Chapters of the Word of God (KJV)! It is your Investment for Eternity! Remember, just three or four Chapters a day takes you through from Genesis to Revelation in a year! I do it year on year on year!!

May the Lord grant you full understanding of His Planned Programme and the way that it will fulfilled in the Future, so that your hearts may be all the more set upon Him and free from the rumours of false teachers and false prophets. 

Study No. 8 – An Insight Into The Unique Language of

The Book of Revelation

The Book of Revelation, it has to be admitted, is unique in the Canon of Scripture. Whether this is the reason for its neglect or lack of understanding, is not for me to say. Each believer in the Lord Jesus Christ must answer for him/herself as to why it is not warmly embraced as a truly precious Message from God... and most relevant in these last days.

One clear aspect in its content is its constant reference to Old Testament visions and prophecies. And yet it is written in Greek rather than Hebrew! It could be said to be a Hebraic book written in Greek! Or an Old Testament book included in the New Testament! And these anomalies are what makes it particularly interesting!

The very first verse sets the Scene for the whole Message of the Book. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His Angel unto His servant John”.

We have God (the Person of the Godhead on the Throne) specifically giving the Revelation of Jesus Christ (as God sees and knows Him)) to the Lord Jesus Christ for Him to convey events which must quickly come to pass when God initiates it (by means of this Revelation of Jesus Christ) to His servants (His Church) and that the Lord Jesus Christ sent it (firstly) to the apostle John through visions given him by the Holy Spirit.

So the Holy Spirit conveys to the churches through John’s individual letters to them the details of the Final Plan and Programme for All Mankind. In doing so, He must return to the Old Testament imagery and language and prophecies, for these are the things which are yet to be fulfilled – but which MUST be fulfilled as the completion to the great Plan; the Judgment and Settlement of All Things, and the separation into just Two Eternal Destinations.

It must be emphasised therefore that the fulfilment of God’s Prophecies must and will be in accordance to God’s Word and God’s Word alone, and not in today’s media or “watchers of events” or modern scientific inventions.

There is in the Western world particularly – I don’t know if it is in India or Zambia where I have contacts – a false doctrine which teaches that the “Babylon” of Chapter 17 and 18 of Revelation is the apostate church of Rome (Roman Catholicism). I trust that this Study will convince any reader that a totally different viewpoint must be taken.

In being deeply impressed by the unique language of the Book of Revelation in particular relation to the way God (upon the Throne) is described, I see that this “apostate church” doctrine is deceitful and dangerous. Why? Because it focuses its adherents to current world events or past events within the Church Age. It causes its followers to try to keep up-to-date with current affairs – what’s happening in Israel, etc etc? – instead of doing what God intends them to do, and that is to fill their hearts and minds with the Written Word of God – and, of course, give it out!

Only the Word of God can reveal God and His Nature and Character and therefore His Plan for Mankind in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Take a moment to consider this verse in 1 John 4:9, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”

His only begotten Son is Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead, sent out into the world as God’s Complete Work of Salvation for all mankind. “That we might live THROUGH Him” – having the Risen Christ dwelling within through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and therefore having the whole revealed and fulfilled Word of God as Jesus Christ obeyed it, being lived out in our individual lives. This is living by the Faith of the Son of God – His Faith in God to raise Him from the dead and bring souls to Salvation through His Sacrifice is lived out in the lives of each believer.

It is a full-time occupation!! Filling one’s mind and memory with all the foolish and complex activities of sinful men is bound to clog up one’s spiritual arteries and cause one to look downward and inward and not Upward towards the Throne of God where is Victory and Truth.

The Background to The Book of Revelation – The Old Testament!

Through the Old Testament Prophets and writers, the Godhead of Three Eternal Persons spoke to fallen mankind of His Supreme Authority, of His Provision to the obedient and His Wrath to the disobedient, of His Deliverance through the shedding of innocent blood, of His Desire to be close to His called out people, detailing the structure of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and the Temple in Jerusalem which Solomon built. Through the Prophets’ visions, glimpses into His Eternity are gained, and the wonders of His Kingdom. Through the Prophets visions (and even the interpretations of others’ dreams and visions) glimpses into the far-off Future are realised. And through the Prophets’ constant Warnings in the perpetual stream of wickedness from God’s people, it is made evident that terrible troubles and punishments await those who walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit...

All through the Prophets, Jerusalem (Judah with Benjamin) and Samaria (ten tribes) are rebuked by the LORD for their spiritual adultery and their idolatry. The expressions the LORD uses are not just strong but very pertinent and personal.

In Jeremiah Chapter 3, Jerusalem is told “thou hast played the harlot with many lovers” (v1) and “thou hadst a whore’s forehead” (v3).

Is it just coincidence that it was a man from JUDAH (Achan) who coveted the BABYLONISH garment (Joshua Chapter 7)? This lust of Judah/Jerusalem for the ways and goods of Babylon took them there for seventy years.

Pointing Always to The Future

All through the Prophets the expression “in that day” is used, meaning a period of time far into the Future, but WILL yet come with terrible Punishments upon ungodly mankind.

“The day of the LORD” in several different ways is mentioned around twenty times throughout the Prophets. With it come promises of darkness and dire trouble. Over and over come warnings of plagues. There are Three and one other added: the Sword, the Famine and the Pestilence, with wild beasts.

ALL these things are included in the language and Visions and Events in the Book of Revelation!!

The Greetings reveal the same God of the Old Testament – the Eternal One on His Throne – and direct you to the prophecy of Zechariah (the seven lamps, Chapter 4), and exalt the Lord Jesus Christ in a variety of ways including His Sacrificial Death for our redemption.

Still in Chapter One, there it is revealed that the ancient candlestick in the Tabernacle and Temple, which Jews call a “menorah” represents the CHURCH of the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the Book of Revelation reveals that!

Chapter Six, which is a brief run-through of the second 42-month’s reign of the Antichrist, lists those Plagues of Sword, Famine and Pestilence with wild beasts, in verses 4, 5 and 8.

This is the Mind of God! He has patiently endured mankind’s wickedness, rebellion, disobedience, indifference and utter self-centredness up to the time when the Lord Jesus Christ’s Cry rent the Heavens with “It is Finished!” as the veil in the Temple was rent in two!! All sin is now blotted out!! BUT, mankind’s allegiance must be transferred from self to the Sacrifice, from rebellion to the Redeemer. So we have a glorious period of time of Abundant Life in the Spirit, of Refreshing in the washing of the Word made plain through Christ’s Obedience, in which to prove all God’s Promises and make up His New Family. This is for a limited time – only God on the Throne decides when it will end (with the Rapture).

Then, with the Holy Spirit removed from the earth with the resurrected saints, the remaining population of the world will continue until Daniel’s prophesied Last Kingdom encompasses the whole world. And, at the time appointed, all the remaining prophecies regarding Judgment, Punishments, and Plagues which were never completely fulfilled in any Age previous to the Cross, will come to pass.

The Same God of The Hebrews Now Revealed in A New Book of Prophecy!

One important Feature of the Book of Revelation, in this aspect of its different language is in the Names of God. They are numerous in the Hebrew: EL, ELOAH, ELAHAH, ELOHIM, JEHOVAH, JAH, EL SHADDAY, ADON, ADONAHY. Some are singular; some are plural Names and they demonstrate and describe the exact Nature and Character of the Eternal God in the Three Persons of the Godhead.

In Greek, however, there is only THEOS for “GOD” and KURIOS or DESPOTEES for “LORD”. This is what the Newberry Edition (KJV) says regarding “Theos” : This title corresponds with the Hebrew titles, El, Eloah, and Elohim; singular and plural; but the beautiful precision of the Hebrew is not expressed in the Greek”.

The Holy Spirit, then, must find a way to convey the Nature and Character of the same True and Living God of the Old Testament prophecies who will bring those prophecies to a complete fulfilment in His own perfect timing.

The one Name of God which is prevalent in the language of the Book of Revelation is JEHOVAH. It means:”He that always was, that always is, and that ever is to come”.

The Book of Revelation reveals God upon the Throne as that Person of the Godhead who planned mankind’s Salvation and Judgment by Jesus Christ. Therefore He is the Subject of the Book of Revelation.

And He is described, through lack of Hebrew titles, as “him which is, and which was, and which is to come” in Chapter 1 v4, and

“the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come” in v8, and,

“Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” in Chapter 4 v8, and,

“him that liveth for ever and ever” in Chapter 5 v14, and,

“him that liveth for ever and ever” in Chapter 10 v6, and,

“Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come” in Chapter 11 v17, and,

“Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be” in Chapter 16 v5.

This Person of the Godhead is further described as “one sat on the throne” in Chapter 4 v2, and,

“him that sat on the throne” in v10, and,

“him that sat on the throne” in Chapter 5 vs1 and 7, and

“him that sitteth upon the throne” in v13, and,

“him that sitteth on the throne” in Chapter 6 v16, and,

“he that sitteth on the throne” in Chapter 7 v15, and,

“God that sat on the throne” in Chapter 19 v4, and,

“he that sat upon the throne” in Chapter 21 v5.

No one is left in any doubt as to what kind of Person this is and where He is to be located. He is the same Person seen by Daniel as “the Ancient of days”, Chapter 7, vs 9 and 13. Can you see (now?!) the sense and reasoning in God’s Mind? Here, in Revelation, the Book of Scripture detailing that terrifying Kingdom which Daniel saw over 600 years before John, the same Description of the Great Planner of it all is used. Truly, there should be NO confusion about the Book of Revelation!

ELOHIM – The Godhead Working Together for Mankind

The other Name of God which is described in the Book of Revelation in its unique way is ELOHIM. This Name is a plural form. It occurs in the Old Testament about 2500 times. It denotes the Godhead working in Unity, as in “In the beginning God (Elohim) created the heaven and the earth” and “Let Us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1 vs 1 and 26).

So we have in The Book of Revelation, Titles and Descriptions for God on the Throne given equally to the Lord Jesus Christ, as in “I am Alpha and Omega” (God on the Throne) in Chapter 1 v8 and “I am Alpha and Omega” (Jesus Christ) in v11, and again, “I am Alpha and Omega” (God on the Throne) in Chapter 21 v6 and “I am Alpha and Omega” (Jesus Christ) in Chapter 22 v13.

A third equality of Descriptions is “the beginning and the ending” (God on the Throne) in Chapter 1 v8 and “the beginning and the end” (God on the Throne) in Chapter 21 v6 and “the beginning and the end” (Jesus Christ) in Chapter 22 v13.

And, for good measure, here is an interesting way in which the Book of Revelation reveals Jesus Christ as an Equal with God on the Throne, and yet is made distinct from Him:

In Chapter 19 v16, Christ, as the Word of God descending to reign over the world, is seen with “a name written” on His cloak and thigh, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS”.

Note that we have already been told that the Name of the Lord is “The Word of God” (v13) and we are NOT told that “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS” is HIS Name! If we go to 1 Timothy 6:14 – 16, we read that the Person described as “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of Lords” is God upon the Throne, as revealed by Jesus Christ!!

Then is Chapter 17 v14, when the ten kings (horns) attempt to make war with the Lamb, “the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings”.

So we see the Lord Jesus Christ coming to Reign in His own glory, as The Word of God, Luke 9:26 and also coming in the glory of His Father, Luke 9:26, Matthew 16:27, Mark 8:38 – because He is the Humble One, The Lamb!! Equal, and yet distinctly different – God manifest in the flesh!

A Book of Prophecy – Fulfilling All Remaining Prophecies

Finally, the Book of Revelation is called FIVE times a book of prophecy : Chapter 1 v3 and

Chapter 22:7, 10, 18, 19.

This also is unique to this Book. No other Book of Scripture, whether in the Old or the New Testament, is ITSELF called a book of prophecy. Peter, referring to the whole Word of God, says, “we have also a more sure word of prophecy”, rather than only visions and visual experiences, 2 Peter 1:19, but that is all.

The Lord Jesus Christ, as The Lamb, is the Object of the Book of Revelation. It is the Revelation of HIM that God wishes/demands that you (all mankind!) see and honour.

The Eternal Destination of every single soul is determined by his/her allegiance to The Lamb. And The Book of Revelation makes that very clear.

Dispelling The Error of Modern Doctrines

This is how I see it: The Book of Revelation carries you through the Church Age via Chapters Two and Three. These are the things that ARE( Chapter One v19); the due diligence all believers must have in their profession of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. And interspersed throughout the Book, the Lord Jesus calls to His Church to let them know He is watching over them and is coming for them (“here is the patience of the saints” and “Behold, I come as a thief” for examples).

Then it forces you back into the days when God promised that all those who do not live His appointed Way will pay a terrible price. There will be a DAY, a time of thundering and lightning with the Wrath of God when all disobedience and rebellion will be punished;

And THEN it faces you with the visual unfolding of those ancient Warnings so that they are SEEN (and heard!) as they will be fulfilled BY THE LAMB, who was made that Appointed Way to God for all mankind. This Day of the LORD will come when the evil fruit is fully ripe and ready for harvest into The Lake of Fire.

There is NO room in this for the current affairs and situations of our times! They have no real relevance to the Plan of God. Stick to the 66 Books of God’s Word and understand the Book of Revelation through the 65!!

Study No. 7

A Study in Revelation and Hebrews – Rest and Work

May I ask you to first read through Hebrews Chapters 3 and 4...

Then, please read through Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, picking out the following verses...

Revelation 2:2 “I know thy works”

                         :9 “I know thy works”

                         :13 “I know thy works”

                         :19 “I know thy works”

   Revelation   3:1 “I know thy works”

                       :8 “I know thy works”

                         :15 “I know thy works”

In Revelation 2:1 – 7, the letter to the pastor of the church at Ephesus, Christ says, v4, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love”. “thee” – it is addressed personally to him, the pastor. He had left the Lord Jesus Christ out of his life!! It is extraordinary! Here was an active Pentecostal, New Testament church, and the pastor, and presumably members of his flock also, had forgotten that the First Duty of any soul desiring fellowship with God must love Him with the whole heart and mind and strength!!

We list FIRST LOVE as one of the Descriptions of Christ in the twenty-two Chapters of the Book of Revelation. [“Introducing The Book of Revelation” Chapter 2 “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”]

It was a serious error on his part! And he is told to repent, and do the first works, v5a. The consequence of not obeying this Command was dire. “I will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” It meant Eternal loss. The “candlestick” was one of the seven churches to which Christ, the Son of Man, the Judge, was seen in their midst, Revelation 1:12 – 13. And the pastor was one of the seven stars safely held in His right hand – but no more for him if he didn’t repent!

So, what does the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb, mean by referring to His knowledge of their “works”? And what does the instruction to “do the first works” mean?

After all we know that we are saved by grace. We come to Christ believing that He has done the Work of atoning for our souls and washing away our sins by His poured out Blood, and therefore we are justified by our faith in this Work; we cannot exert any human effort to persuade God to accept us into His Heart and into His Kingdom!

That is why we need to see what Hebrews says about Work – and see that God had always planned that we should work for God only in the manner in which He has prescribed, if we desire to go His Way and live with Him for Eternity.

Hebrews 3:1 “Consider ... Christ Jesus”. The first sensible Step! Focusing on the once-Crucified, Risen One who is God manifest in the flesh, who was anointed the second time [Psalm 45:7] as the official Son who is appointed High Priest, will not result in you leaving your First Love!

And the next few verses – vs2 – 6 – reveal a House with Love in it! Then – vs7 – 4:11 – comes the serious warning, but also with it comes this wonderful revelation of REST. Real Rest; No expenditure of Energy; A closing of the eyes (and ears) perhaps?; No frenzied activity of body or mind...REST!

Putting away Unbelief, then, according to these Scriptures in Hebrews, gives us the Rest of God – that Eternal Rest of the soul which has left all the necessary Work of cleansing my soul to God.

The Holy Ghost calls us to that Rest now that Christ Jesus sits on the Right Hand of God on the Throne. He shows us that hardness of heart and unbelief goes hand-in-hand.

Remember Mark 16:14, “Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen” ? And the Holy Spirit is here to bring the things that Christ taught to our remembrance...

The spiritual wanderings of the Israelites are used as a real example of how to enter and how not to enter into this Rest. They wandered about the wilderness because they kept wandering from the Lord! And those that continued without repentance, died in that condition – lost. But it is evident by the repetition of this warning of the Spirit, that God deeply desires us to understand the Reality and the Availability of this Rest.

It always strikes me with wonder that the same God to whom one day is as a thousand years, displays real deep sorrow of heart that these people He wanted as children irked Him for “FORTY YEARS” as though to Him it was like four hundred thousand years! Don’t you think so?

So we must read vs12 – 13 as God’s Love coming down to us, showing us the dangers that can destroy that Rest and wrench us away from His Love. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God (as the pastor in Ephesus had done!) But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Praise God, it is still “Today”! We are still in the Age when we can enter into this Rest. We can call it “Salvation”!! And there is another word for it, which we’ll come to later...

Actually, let’s call it “Full Salvation” because it is the entering in to a Rest by the Holy Ghost. It is the promised Rest of the Holy Ghost, for Christ promised He would send Him after He had returned to Heaven.

“My rest”, 3:11, 4:3, 5; “His rest”, 3:18, 4:1, 10. It’s personal! – as personal as “thy First Love”. The necessity to know and love Christ is bound up with being full of the Holy Ghost and ceasing from our own efforts to live for, or do anything for, God.

Hebrews Chapter 4 continues with the same example of the story of the Israelites as those who were specifically barred from experiencing the Rest of God because of their perpetual unbelief.

But with the remembrance of the warning as an example to us in the Church Age comes the assurance of the Promise that such a state of Rest is possible and attainable.

v1 “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

“... a promise being left us...” The Rest is there for the taking. But there must be conditions to be fulfilled in order to receive this Promise. After all, we are dealing with God! It is His Rest. He was unable to give it to those of time past because they wouldn’t fulfil the simple conditions. Their hardness of heart and their unbelief, which was of their own, was their own put-up-barrier preventing them from receiving the Promise of Rest!

Ever heard the expression that some people can be their own worst enemy! This is surely appropriate here. In Ezekiel 18:31, the LORD says, “Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”

The generous Offer was given; the Plea was uttered. The Lord did everything He could for them, but they prevented themselves from receiving His Salvation by their own refusal to repent. Sad, isn’t it? So Hebrews points these things out to us. ‘It’s all happened before, so take note, be warned and enjoy what is there for your Eternal good’ is really what it’s saying.

It is in Chapter 4, vs3 – 10 that we learn of the Reasoning behind this Offer or Gift of Rest. God worked and God rested! We work – in the flesh – and by taking this Gift, we rest – in the Spirit!

The works of God in Creation were finished before the world was founded on unbelief, 4:3.

“And God did rest the seventh day from all His works”, 4:4.

“... If they shall enter into My rest”, 4:5.

“Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein”, 4:6.

v7 gives another reminder, another warning, of how to not be able to enter into the Rest.

v8 speaks of Joshua – he was not able to give the Israelites rest when they entered the Promised Land, so the Holy Spirit speaks again (through the Psalms, Psalm 95) that a Rest is available to...

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God”, 4:9.

And the glorious result of being among the people of God, walking in God’s Way and doing His Will:

“For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His”, 4:10.

What a wonderful conclusion to this two-chapter debate!! So simply stated! It is a great Revelation, which, when really understood and lived out, is Revolutionary. And it is put forth with such simplicity! God worked, God rested; cease from your own works and enter into this Eternal Rest which God has enjoyed since He said that all He had made was, “Very good” !

This ceasing from our own works is only possible when we are free of unbelief. For us, in this Church Age, it is a different focus than that of those Israelites.

They demonstrated their unbelief when they had no water, when the Sea was before them, when they had no food, when they saw men taller than themselves... Time and again they couldn’t lift their hearts to know that God would find a way, provide them with their basic needs, or defend them from their enemies... [read it all in Exodus and Numbers]

For us, in this Church Age, we must beware of expressing any unbelief in God’s New Way to deliver His people from slavery!

We have been delivered spiritually! We have escaped the slavery of sin, Satan’s chains and the sicknesses of a corrupt world and the clutches of our own fallen human natures.

How? How did that Deliverance come about? Not through the blood of a lamb or a goat’s kid smeared on the upper lintel and side posts of a house. But because the innocent Blood of God manifest in the flesh was poured out upon this earth. Instead of the Angel of Death passing over the blood-stained doors of their houses, with This Blood, God received the Offering as the Full Price necessary to pay for the atonement of every human soul, past, present and future.

Anyone believing that freedom from sin and self and Satan is absolutely possible through that shed Blood can boldly go through the Door into the Kingdom of God!!

So this ancient barrier of “unbelief” is to be forbidden in the recipient of This New Life! It is not only to be dismissed, rejected, but also counted as abominable! It’s a case of a ‘Not In My Back Yard!’ attitude!

Entering into the Rest of God by believing that the Blood of Christ secured total cleansing from every-thing abominable to God, means :

there is no guilt,

no burden of past failure,

no burden of memories of past actions,

“no more conscience of sins” (implied from Hebrews 10:2),

no being bowed down by the frailty of the flesh,

no more feeling powerless against the lusts of the flesh.

This is the victorious Life which Christ suffered and died to give you. This is the Life which the Lord Jesus displayed during His earthly Life, culminating in His suffering in the Garden, before the high priests, Pilate, Herod, on the way to the Cross and hanging on the Cross.

He still displayed His Patience and Longsuffering and Obedience while in the lowest Hell for three days and three nights (Thursday evening until Sunday early morning! – yes, that’s right!).

This is the victorious Life which you are given when you receive Christ as your Saviour. And the receiving of the Holy Spirit through the Baptism in the Holy Spirit makes it real and Believable.

This is the Truth!! How else can one fulfil the Command, “Be ye holy, as I am holy”? It isn’t to do with YOU (the ‘ME’), how strong-willed I am, how many hours I pray, how many church services I attend. It is SOLELY to do with what Jesus Christ has DONE. His Work; His Effort, His achievement.

You are called to simply believe it. And to replace your unbelief with Faith. And to produce Works by the Spirit out of your unfaltering Faith! So it is actually the Life of the Spirit working within you.

The pastors of those seven churches whose works Christ was familiar with were being judged by Him as to whether they were works of the flesh or works of the Spirit through their faith.

The Command to the pastor at Ephesus to “do the first works” was coupled with the Command to repent. He was to remember the very high position he had fallen from. It was a very serious charge against him from the Lord. And the remedy was to repent and “do the first works”.

Which were??

He obviously had to get back to that very high position he had fallen from. He had to re-place himself in that spiritual attitude and frame of mind which held the Lord Jesus Christ in the very highest place in his worship, his service, his motives. Then other things would be put right as a result of that turning. The Ephesians had been idolaters [Acts 19]; they had turned to Christ. Now they had fallen from Christ, (or at least the pastor had – it’s all directed to a single person).

Out of his repentance he could perform once again the “first works” which he enjoyed as a child of God, freshly saved and Baptised in the Holy Ghost. [Paul’s letter to the Ephesians was very loving and full of commendation of their new found faith. They were quickly baptised in the Holy Ghost, 1:13, and received from him many wonderful revelations]

He would then also have “entered into His Rest”. And the other word for Rest, as promised in page 2, is SABBATH. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”

The Rest of God spoken of by the Holy Spirit in Psalm 95 and expounded wonderfully in Hebrews 3 and 4 is the fulfilling of the Fourth Commandment, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy...” [Exodus 20:8 – 11]. Christ died to give us a Life, not just one day a week! A new creature in Christ is not a ‘Sunday-only’ Christian!

2 Corinthians 5:15 puts it in a nutshell, “And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” It’s a full-time vocation until we escape when He collects us!

It is a great mistake for the ‘established’ churches to call Sunday the Christian Sabbath. The Sabbath was the Seventh Day. Sunday is the First Day of the week. The Sabbath in the Church Age is the Life in the Holy Ghost, through the Blood of Christ. Every Jew and every Gentile is entitled to enter into this Sabbath Rest! Please God that they will, before the sunset of this Age!

With that Rest comes a personal knowledge of the confidence one can and must have to approach the Throne of God. Chapter 4 of Hebrews ends with that encouragement. We don’t come because we think we have a right to come as made in His image. We come solely because Christ is there at God’s Right Hand – the Great High Priest interceding, the Son of God as the First-born of the Family we are now part of, the Wounded Lamb as the evidence that our sin is put away forever, the Word of God as the proof that we can live obedience, acceptable lives before the Most High God.

May the Lord bless you to come boldly to that Throne of Grace with that Eternal Rest in your heart!

Study No. 6 – Revelations on the Difference of The Lamb

Have you noticed that sometimes powerful instructions in the Word are put in a negative form?

Here are two examples:

John 3: 17  For God sent not His Son into the world [that is, Risen again from the      dead] to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be  saved.

Hebrews 4:15    For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings  of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin [no amount of temptation would have caused Him to sin; it wasn’t in Him – but that didn’t mean the suffering was not real to Him].

Put like this, it is far stronger than saying, for example: God sent His Son into the world to save it from condemnation, or, We have a sinless high priest who was touched with the feelings of our infirmities and tempted in every way as we are. Do you agree?!

So, as the Book of Revelation reveals both the person of the Antichrist and the Person of The Lamb, let us consider more fully the negative in order to see more clearly the Positive.

Revelation 13:1 – 9

 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. ²And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. ³And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. ⁴And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? ⁵And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. ⁶And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. ⁷And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. ⁸And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. ⁹If any man have an ear, let him hear.

The revealing of the Antichrist, the “vile person” [Daniel 11:21] now embodying Satan who lives and rules within him (at his own will, of course).

ANTI – against; in complete contrast; the opposite of. This vile lawless man is the antithesis – the direct opposite – of the Lord Jesus Christ, The Lamb.

The vile person, the man of sin, the son of perdition will be the culmination – the zenith – of all unbelief. Zenith means ‘the time at which something is most powerful’. That truly describes the state of the world of unbelief ruled by this abomination in the coming Day of The LORD.

v5b     “fortytwo months”. So we know this is in the Day of the LORD – starting from the second half of the seven-year rule over all the world of the “man of sin” [2 Thessalonians 2:3]

v4      “worshipped, worshipped”. They won’t just be world ruler, but a focus of    

          abandoned adoration.

v2     “leopard, bear, lion”. We know these wild animals represent the ancient former kingdoms of Greece, Medes and Persia, and Babylon, but considering them as beasts, they are wild/untameable; lawless [to God’s Law], and all able to tear their prey to pieces for meat!

v6      “blasphemy”. The fulfilment of man’s utter contempt for God and godliness.

Peering back into Eternity, through Proverbs 8 we see that as God formed this Plan for a family even before Creation, His “daily delight” was proclaimed and installed, if you like, as the Pattern for every member of this family to come. As soon as those first two members of that innocent family fell from Grace, this Person in whom God on the Throne delighted was prepared to take human blood and die for the remission (cancellation) of their sin. (refer to Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22; Revelation 13:8b)

As we all know by what we see around (and within!) us, not everyone on the planet has embraced this generous vicarious offer of cleansing and absolution of their sin with open arms and ready willing minds and hearts! Unbelief was evident at the start, and unbelief continues and is rife today in the 21st century. The unbelief is unbelief in the Word of God, specifically, not just saying, ‘Oh, I don’t believe in God, or in all that stuff’.

What Should Man Be Like?

“Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve”

(Mathew 4:10 (Deuteronomy 6:13))

“Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might”                                                                                           (Deuteronomy 6:5)

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh”                 (Galatians 5:16)  “Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”                                                                             (Deuteronomy 8:3 / Matthew 4:4)

“What doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”                                                                                    (Micah 6:8)

                                                                                           

·       The Word of God contains the whole revelation of what God expects of man. We can know why we do things.

·      The Word of God contains the whole revelation of the Evidence of what Christ did and will do. We need never come off the Word of God! Have it in your heart all the time.

Psalm 10:4   The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

Such is the condition of the Antichrist – the ultimate wicked man. We should keep the Word of God in our hearts. Get into the habit of having God in all your thoughts.

·         Having the Word of God in your heart by the Holy Spirit separates you from the spirit of antichrist

·         Having the Word of God in your heart by the Holy Spirit fills you with the reality of the Life of the Crucified, Risen Christ – The Lamb (28 times in the Book of Revelation!)

Behold The Man!

The Lord Jesus Christ, taking on that Name and Title by being born into the world with human blood and flesh and bones, demonstrated fully that He loved the Word of God. He loved serving God, whatever it cost Him. He lived solely to give glory to God, to acknowledge God, to submit Himself to the Will of God and to declare that He was loved by God, even when He would be smitten.

·         Christ was constrained by His own Love and Will to continue to the end in His loving obedience to God and His Word.

·         Christ lived solely to do the Will of God, to obey the Word of God, as a Servant (even though His Equal)

·         Christ had God in all His thoughts.

·         Christ conducted Himself in peace, without hysteria, being always pure in thought, action, and motive.

·         His was a clean heart, and a clean mouth.

·         He came to witness to the Truth; He spoke the Truth; He embodied the Truth.

In other words, as the beast out of the sea is wicked, so Jesus Christ is pure; as the man of sin is lawless, so God manifest in the flesh is obedient; as the little horn is arrogant, boastful and destructive, so the Son of God is humble, meek and a bringer of Salvation. As the Antichrist deceives and seduces, so The Lamb is the Truth and draws men to the Father.

John spoke of the thief, the hireling, the stranger in contrast to the Door, the Good Shepherd. [John 10] The former steals, kills and destroys, the Latter gives life, eternal life, by laying down His own. The former is Satan, the father of lies, who will, in the LORD’s Day, (and not before!) find the prepared body of the ultimate sinner and live out his 42 month’s reign in him.

The LORD, in His Position of Ultimate Authority, must operate legally – or He would be working outside His own Standard of Holiness and Justness, being exactly like the sinner, the rebellious; the infidel. Therefore He allows for, as the Lord Jesus said, the wheat to grow together with the tares until they have both come to maturity. [Matthew 13:24 – 30, 36 – 43] The Antichrist is the ‘maturity’ of all abominations. And what do we see? The world worships him!!

In my own notes of our special away studies on “Loving Obedience”, I have it written: “Holiness is very practical. Human nature can’t react in the same way.”

The Lord, in revealing in His Word these two utterly different lives, proves to us that only Love for the Lamb can create in our hearts that separating power that keeps us clean and free from the encroaching spirit of antichrist. And we demonstrate our love for the Lamb by loving the Word of God as He did, and letting it work out in our lives by the Holy Ghost. May your hearts know the real Joy and Peace of being filled with Love for the Lord Jesus Christ, in the confidence of the Father’s Love for you!

Study No. 5 – Revelations on The Thrones

Revelation 20:4

Matthew 19:28

Psalm 122:1 - 9

(Daniel 7:18, 22, 27)

In studying the Book of Revelation, I’ve always believed, and have seen the sense of that belief, that other books of the Scriptures should be viewed in its light. After all, Revelation tells the story of the end of all things; the fulfilling of the whole purpose of the Lamb being the Lamb! – He who was prepared to come as our Sacrificial Lamb from the foundation (system of unbelief) of the world.

These first three passages relate to “thrones”. In Revelation, it is not clear who sits on the thrones: “they sat upon them”. But we do see that the scene is set in the Future and in relation to the days of Judgment and the Reign of Christ on the earth.

Revelation 20:4

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

The souls that were beheaded are here in this Vision alive in their new resurrected bodies from the Rapture – “souls” means that they are whole human beings, spirits clothed with a new sinless body of flesh and bone. But they had paid the ultimate price for declaring that Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Christ, the Risen Son  of God, according to the Scriptures. Following Christ with the whole heart and mind is an Attitude; waiting for His Coming is not in counting time or having prophecies of when He will come. It is an Attitude of waiting; continuing to walk in the Light until...

And so, in interpreting these words, “and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” we should see that these people have already been resurrected (Raptured). In Revelation 1:6 we read, “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father” and in 5:10, “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth”. Members of the Body of Christ are destined to rule and reign with Christ!!

These in 20:4 will never live under the regime of the beast, the Antichrist. Their pure lives will have been in complete contrast to the lives of those who will worship him and his image and receive his mark. The Scripture is revealing the Attitude which those who will be raptured will be living by. This is why we must understand that there is only One Resurrection to Life – the other resurrection is the second death! Therefore these people cannot possibly have lived in the days of the reign of the Antichrist!

It is so important, when reading the Book of Revelation with a will to understand it, that we realise the time setting of each vision and the position of the people in it. Getting this right will preserve you from many errors and false doctrines!

So firstly in this Vision, John saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: but we don’t know from the passage alone who “they” are.

The other passages, though, shed a lot of light on the thrones and who sits on them – in that same Future Age.

Matthew 19:28

“And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regener-ation when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

(Interesting, isn’t it, that the Lord spoke to the twelve, knowing that Judas would not be one of them?! Matthias would replace him, as shown in Acts 1:26.)

The Lord speaks very clearly here. He is promising a future age called “the regeneration”. The Book of Revelation shows this to be His Thousand Years’ Reign – the regeneration refers to the rebuilding of a new faithful Nation of Israel. He speaks directly to the twelve, which then included Judas. (Even this promise of such elevation did not turn his stubborn, fiercely self-centred heart from his strategy to overthrow the regime of Rome.)

It is easy to put these two passages together! Twelve men, Christ’s own Apostles, which He describes as “ye which have followed Me” (Matthias was one who had followed Him since they left John the Baptist until His ascension, Acts 1:21 – 23) would be in a special position of judge when Christ rules over the world from Jerusalem. The twelve tribes of Israel would have to be those listed in Revelation 7 (see below) as the other group will be resurrected in new, sinless, bodies – hardly in need of judgment!

Psalm 122 1 – 9

“I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. ²Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. ³Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: ⁴Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD. ⁵For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. ⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee. ⁷Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. ⁸For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. ⁹Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.”

verse 6a is often quoted, but it is quoted completely out of context! Let’s look at the words; it’s quite a short Psalm:

Firstly, who is the speaker in verse 1?

Second, is Jerusalem today as a city compact together; verse 3?

Third, when have you seen twelve tribes of Israel going up to Jerusalem, giving thanks to the LORD; verse 4?

Fourth, where are the thrones in Jerusalem today; verse 5?

Fifth, is there spiritual peace and prosperity in Jerusalem today; verses 6 & 7?

Sixth, who is the speaker; verses 8 & 9?

It should be clearly seen that the speaker is not referring to this present Age! The Answers to Questions 2 and 5 is NO; the Answer to Question 3 is Never; the Answer to Question 4 is Nowhere! The speaker refers to a time in the Future – when the twelve tribes of Israel will indeed go up rejoicing to Jerusalem during the Millennium Reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. One set of those tribes will have been resurrected at the first resurrection (the Rapture) and will comprise the tribes of Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Rueben, Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, and Gad (as listed in Ezekiel 48 vs1 – 7 and vs23 – 28).

They will come up to Jerusalem for the feasts, travelling from their allocated promised lands west of the river Jordan. (Joseph was given two portions, so his sons Manasseh and Ephraim inherit; Levi, never inheriting land, will serve in the Sanctuary).

The other set of those tribes who will go up to worship their King will be the enlarged Remnant of Israel, increased from the 144,000 miraculously lifted away from the Antichrist’s persecution at the start of the Day of the Lord and the launch of the beast. These will live in the suburbs around the city of Jerusalem, as spoken by Ezekiel 48:17 – 19. These will comprise Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zabulon, Joseph, and Benjamin, as listed in Revelation 7 vs 1 - 8.

And the speaker? Who is it? There are several reasons why I see that it is the Lord Jesus Himself.

In Matthew 25:40 at the dividing of the sheep and the goats just prior to the destruction of all creation and His final ‘White Throne’ Judgment, He refers to this growing former ‘Remnant’ as “My brethren”. In His Millennium Reign, the Temple, the House of the Lord, where the sacrifices were offered, is set in an area called the Sanctuary, as described in Ezekiel 48:8 – 14, and is separate from the rebuilt city of Jerusalem.

Therefore, it is quite easy to see that the Lord Himself would take great delight in hearing His brethren in the flesh say to Him, ‘Let’s go to the House of the LORD’! (v1) Don’t forget, although the Lord Jesus is King over all the earth, He is still in subjection to God on the Throne in Heaven – He is always the Lamb! In verses 8 – 9, then, we can also see that He can call them His “brethren” and promises for their sakes that He will always be the Peace in Jerusalem and will always do them good. After all, He has long ago appointed His closest friends to be their guardians and guides!

In attempting to highlight the practicalities of these visions and revelations, I bring your attention to:

Daniel 7:18, 22, 27

“But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever. 22. Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom. 27. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.”

Daniel has already seen the ungodly thrones of men and devils cast down in his vision (v9) and he asks someone among the many millions around the Throne of God the meaning of the four great beasts he has seen (v16).

 His spiritual adviser assures him that though these great beasts arise out of the earth, yet the saints of the most High will prevail and take full control in the kingdom for ever (v18). He is speaking of all the saints reigning, not just those twelve Apostles.

v22. The “Ancient of days” is of course the Lord God Almighty on His Throne – it is not the Lord Jesus Christ. When it says, “the Ancient of days came”, it doesn’t mean that He left His Throne and went somewhere. It means as is said in Revelation 1:4b and 4:8 where He is described as “which is, and which was, and which is to come”. The Day of the LORD is to come – He will, through Christ, bring an end to all things. Included in His Plan is the physical fulfilment of the Promise that those who are “in Christ” will be kings and priests and will reign with Christ for one thousand years, with a rod of iron.

v27 emphasises again that the saints of the most High – we have a “high calling” don’t we? – will reign and rule in His kingdom.

Besides, then, having a clearer understanding of the Book of Revelation – which is a blessing in itself, is it not?! – what is the practical lesson for our personal lives as we watch and wait for our Lord to return?

Do you want a Job to do in the Future?!! An important Job with a Thousand-Year Agreement!!

Can you imagine yourself in a new sinless body? And ruling and reigning with Christ on this earth for a thousand years? Can you imagine yourself administering punishments with a rod of iron with the full authority of the Lamb who purchased you with His own Blood? Can you imagine yourself being able to teach the resurrected Old Testament saints how the Lord Jesus fulfilled all the Levitical sacrifices by the sacrifices offered in this new Temple in this area called the Sanctuary?

This is what the Church, the Body of Christ, will be expected to do. If you desire to live and reign with your Saviour in this way, then allow Him to take you through into maturity, into the way of wisdom and to grant you all the spiritual gifts you will need to fulfil His Will in you.

“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” John 14:23.

May you walk forward into the Future with this Love within you, ready to serve Him for ever!

Study No. 4 – Revelations on The Cleansing Blood

Revelation 1:5 “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood...”

Revelation 7:14 “And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood”

“they ... have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”

Can you see the difference between these two statements?

Let’s talk about the Two Settings first, while you think about it!!

1:5 This is the set in the Introduction to Chapter One, and indeed to the whole of the book of Revelation. We spoke of this in “Insights into the Power of Revelation”. Have another look at it!

So, here we have John speaking directly to the seven churches and by the Holy Spirit, immediately brings Greetings from, firstly, God on the Throne, then from the seven special Angels who will pour out the Plagues over the 42 months of the Tribulation, and then from the Lord, calling Him simply, “Jesus Christ” – meaning, simply, the One Equal with God and Anointed by Him to come to earth where He was deeply humiliated and subjected to sufferings and death.

He is exalted here in v5 with these wonderful Descriptions. And then comes this exuberant peal of praise from John, which ends in v6 : “to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

I must briefly take you into Daniel 7 vs13 – 14. Here the Lord, called “the Son of man” comes to the Throne of the Ancient of Days (God on the Throne) to receive – “dominion, and glory” ... It is NO Coincidence!!

So the overall setting of this verse in Revelation 1:5 is where John is exiled on the island of Patmos, ready, in the Spirit, to receive the special Message from Christ, exactly as Christ had received it from God on the Throne. That was in the same Age as we are in now – the Church Age; the Age of Revelation, of Repentance, of Salvation, of Sanctification, of Victory of sin, self and Satan!!

7:14 This verse is set right in the time of which John was writing and seeing and hearing all the Events and Numbers and Sights and Sounds of The Day of The LORD – Judgments on the Earth; Exciting Things happening in Heaven!! We are looking at a Time YET TO COME.

These people – the vision is from v9 to v17 – this great multitude – are standing before the Throne. They are clothed with white robes. Straight away, therefore, we should see that that have been resurrected. There is only One Resurrection to Life, we call it the Rapture. These were among those who had died in Christ, who were raised first and caught up together with the living believers to meet the Lord in the air! [1 Thessalonians 4:15 – 18] (It’s not yet come!!)

They have palms in their hands. This signifies that they knew the Law. The Feast of Tabernacles, where the Israelites made booths from the palms and trees around them to celebrate their escape from slavery, bondage and oppression. They would have been made up from mostly Israelites and those who joined them and submitted themselves to the Laws of God, the God of Israel.

If you read through the Old Testament with this in mind, note the times when the people really served the Lord, when they rejoiced in His ways and were obedient to His Word. These are the people who will be there in reality when all these things come to pass.

So these are those who lived in the days BEFORE the Cross, before the Lord Jesus poured out His Blood to atone for the sins of the whole world.

Please read Hebrews 11 – the whole Chapter. Verse 1 is for YOU! The rest is the wonderful historical account of those who could not know the Lord Jesus Christ as a born-again person does today in this Church Age, but who steadfastly, against all the odds, deprivation, torture, harsh persecution, cruelty, continued to obey the Word of God and walk according to the Law of that era – the blood of an innocent animal to take away their sin, transgression, ignorance from the sight of God.

Please, let this sink in! Compared to life in Christ that you have, they had SO little – yet they endured; they kept their faith. And here in Revelation 7, you see their reward!! Don’t they deserve it!! God is no man’s debtor!!

So you see, the first verse is directed to the Church, those redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb, who came to Christ after His Death and Resurrection and were born again by His Word and the Holy Spirit (this is not the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, which is a separate receiving of His Grace). They are New Testament saints.

And the second verse is records part of a Vision of those who were Old Testament saints. That accounts for the difference in the language.

No other can save himself from the Wrath of God. We know that. The sin of Adam has separated every human being born into this world from the Righteousness of God. We need to hear from God what God knows we must do to be saved from His Wrath! All world religions think they have found the answer, but we know, or should know, that they are all wrong. The True and Living God alone has satisfied His Legal Requirement for a Just Sentence for the Crime/Offence and His Passionate Desire to Gather Around Him a Loving, Obedient Family.

“Without the shedding of blood is no remission” Hebrews 9:22

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11

Revelation 13:8 “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

Galatians 4:4 “But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law...”

The Scriptures show that it was always God’s Plan and intention to save mankind from his sin and restore him to Himself – the Holy City is large enough for many billions, if they would come in!

The whole revelation of who Jesus Christ really is proves that over and over. But until He came and died on the altar of Calvary, men had to be given a way through which they could approach God humbly and obediently, and know that if they did those things which He said, they would be accepted by Him. Hence Leviticus etc...

So these people were forgiven their sins as they brought the innocent animal before the priest for slaughter. Its shed blood was accepted by God in Heaven, and they could go free of that sin. And so it went on and on, all their lives, all their generations... They “washed their robes” – they washed them themselves by going to the priest with their offering as commanded by God.

And then they died in faith... If they were not raised again, what hope had they? But they did have hope, as Hebrews 11 says, hope for a City whose builder and maker is God – that Holy City in Heaven. That is exactly where those Old Testament saints will live with the Church, the Body of Christ. (The enlarged Remnant of Israel will live on the New Earth with the Gentile nations who have been obedient to the King and therefore come through the Thousand-Year Reign of Christ.)

And because Christ was always going to come and shed His own Blood, these faithful, obedient people are also covered by the Atoning Blood. “It is finished!” covered all time, all ages. All true believers are ‘under the Blood’, as we say – or at least the old Pentecostal believers used to say that! “It’s under the Blood, brother/sister!” In other words, Go on your way rejoicing!

So that is why the two verses we are looking are phrased differently. They do not mean the same thing! We, today, in the Church Age, come to God through the Blood of Christ, knowing that we cannot wash ourselves. This is what we are told from day one. ‘You cannot make your own way to Heaven; accept the Lord Jesus Christ because He has died in your place and taken your sins upon Himself.’

1 Corinthians 6:11 speaking of coming out of a selfish, worldly life without Christ into the Eternal Life of Christ, says, “And such were some of you (fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners –vs9 – 10) but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

The Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit have each played their part in making a sinful, vile detestable creature in God’s sight CLEAN AND HOLY AND SINLESS!!

Washed – washed clean. Has He left a little spot or stain? NO! He cried “It is finished”.

Sanctified – set apart unto God, in harmony with His holiness.

Justified – free from all charges again the sinner, counted as holy as Jesus Christ.

Can you believe it?

You MUST believe it!

If you don’t, or won’t, or can’t believe it, you will not be able to live a victorious life by the Faith of Jesus Christ.

You can work out for yourself what the consequences of that unbelief will mean for you!!

May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly as you take into your heart and life this new revelation from the Word of God.

Study No. 3 – Introducing Thoughts on
The Letters to the Churches

Revelation 2:25 “But that which thou hast already hold fast till I come”

Revelation 3:11 “hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown”

As we saw in “Insights into the Power of the book of Revelation”, these verses are set in the second instruction of what John was told to write: Revelation 1:19 “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;”

These verses in Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 are to do with “the things which are” – from the Day of Pentecost when the Church was born until now; the situation of the churches in the church Age.

What is it that we have already?

We have Forgiveness, we have Cleansing from sin, we have Justification, we have Sanctification.

We have the Word of God – the Word of Truth – by the Holy Ghost.

We have the Witness of the Holy Ghost of its Truth.

And, We have the Person of the Holy Ghost to bring us all that Christ has given us!

So, in order to hold fast onto these spiritual things unto the end, and gain the crown that is waiting for us, we need to draw on the spiritual help and encouragement available to us.

COMFORT. Another word for encouragement is COMFORT. It includes exhortation, imploration; entreaty; and it is also means beseeching – as a goad; a prod. It is not just for consoling.

Acts 9:31 “...the comfort of the Holy Ghost”. We need this while we live in this world without the physical presence of Christ.

Romans 15:5 “the comfort of the scriptures”. They should often “pull us up” as well as calm us!

2 Corinthians 1:3 “the God of all comfort”. He knows exactly how to teach us, and in what measure.

Matthew 9:23 – the woman healed was told to “be of good comfort”. She was to have courage.

2 Corinthians 13:11 “be of good comfort”. They were to be perfect, and be strong, and, being called near, they were invited. Paul was pleading with them, invoking them, imploring, exhorting, entreating (it means all these things) them to stir themselves out of their fleshly natures. He was certainly not saying, “there, there” and giving them a pat of sympathy!

The Spirit of God, given to us by Christ as “Another Comforter”, is constantly calling, beseeching, imploring members of the Church to live a life in the Spirit, which is, in fact, the Crucified Life. He shows us the Life of the Crucified One. That is His Mission; not to receive prayers or songs directed to Himself, but to direct us always to Christ – The Lamb.

Psalm 23 v4 “Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort Me.” We must learn how Christ overcame the flesh, showing us how to do the same.

The Hebrew for “comfort” means as a sigh, breathing strongly, as in consoling. Christ was confident of God’s Love, but still He was prepared to take the smiting.

Psalm 23 is actually the revelation of Christ looking to God in His last days on this earth. The table spread for their last Passover meal together, with Judas there at the beginning of the meal; He went down into the valley – Hell, the lowest Hell. He looked to God as HIS Shepherd – so that we can look to HIM as our Shepherd. And, as He sits at God’s Right Hand, He sees the Goodness and the Mercy which He obtained for men, following Him as they crowd into God’s Kingdom!!

The shepherd’s rod and staff is basically just two sticks, branches cut and shaped for their specific purposes.

STAFF – a support as a walking stick over rough ground; The Way which God sent Him; the Cross.

ROD – for punishing/chastising, for writing, for fighting, correction, also for walking (in the right direction)

For writing – in other words, for marking the sheep, identifying the sheep in whose flock they are.

John 10:14 & 27 The Lord said, “I know My sheep and they follow Me.”

This is comparable to the Sealing of the Spirit in this Church Age. Christ was set apart, and so the members of His Body are to be set apart by the sealing of the Holy Spirit.

For counting the sheep – (Leviticus 27:32); Ezekiel 20:37 “I will cause you to pass under the rod”. John 17:12 So the Lord said, “none of them is lost (but the son of perdition)”.

Separation from the other “sheep” meaning, the world, is essential to be able to remain in This Fold, and feed where This Shepherd leads His sheep to feed in the middle of the day (Song of Songs 1:7)

For Punishing – Paul said “shall I come to you with a rod?” (1 Corinthians 4:21)/ chastising / correction. Punishment in order to AVOID the Final Judgment!

Hebrews 12:5-8 uses very strong words. If you want to be a true child of God then you must allow Him to keep you in His Narrow Way.

If the Lord from Heaven came prepared to be smitten by God to do God’s Will, then so should the members of His Body, the Church, be prepared to be chastened, refined and pruned.

1 Corinthians 6:19 – 20 “We are bought with a Price; you are not your own”.

It has to be Death to Self. The Lord said 2 years / 1 year before He went to the Cross Himself :

“Take up your cross” / “Take up your cross daily” – Matthew 10:28; 16:24; Luke 9:23.

Paul said “I die daily” – 1 Corinthians 15:31 – this is the Resurrection Chapter!!

John 12:24 “except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: ...”

It is not One Person over-lording over another weak and frail person! It is all for your protection from the world! For your place in His Eternal Home!!

For Fighting – not with His own sheep! but against His sheep’s enemies. We cannot possibly overcome Satan by our own means or strength, or our knowledge of martial arts, or any weapons of war, but ONLY by “the Blood of the Lamb” [Revelation 12:11].

John 16:8-11. The Holy Spirit was sent to reprove the world of SIN, of RIGHTEOUSNESS and of JUDGMENT If the Church / the local churches do not sound a clear call from their trumpet, how is the world to see and understand its faults, and repent? That’s what Paul, in 1 Corinthians 14:8 said: “if the trumpet give an uncertain sound...”

If the members of the Church are not already reproved of their sin and have repented of it, how is the world to understand that they must acknowledge Christ as their only Saviour from sin, and repent?

If the members of the Church are not already reproved of their lack of knowledge of God’s Righteousness while Christ sits on His Right Hand Side, how is the world to recognise that God’s Righteousness is necessary for their lives also?

If the members of the Church are not already reproved of the Fact of Coming Judgment and the Complete Settlement upon this world and Satan’s end in the Lake of Fire, how is the world to know these things and fear the Lord? The world is to see your fear of the Lord, your holiness before God and Man, and your separation unto the Crucified Christ.

What has this to do with the book of Revelation??!

Everything!!

Because Revelation shows us The Lamb as the Central Figure of God’s Eternity, with His Wounds as the Central Feature of God’s Eternity, and His Death as the Central Fact of God’s Eternity.

Every person’s Eternal Destiny, as shown clearly in the book of Revelation, depends entirely on that person’s relationship to The Lamb. And if we already know what we have in Christ, we must keep it unto the end!

Sobering Facts!

Hebrews Ch. 2, Ch. 6, Ch. 5:9.

A Life Under Grace is More Demanding of Total Obedience than a life under the Law Because of THE Innocent Blood – because of HIM, the Lamb, the Crucified One.

The Consequences of falling from a Life Under Grace is More Severe than a life under the Law Because allegiance to the Crucified Christ has been once proclaimed.

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:”

v10 “I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins...”

1 Samuel 2:3 “the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.”

Today the emphasis is so much on Self Esteem – Feeling Good About Yourself – Self Achievement. It’s all Anti-Christ! It is NOT the Crucified Life! It is the Complete Opposite!

(Of course, whatever work we do in a job etc, then we do it unto the Lord; giving Him the glory and without self-boasting – that is the key!)

Paul said “I count all things but dung!” – Now there’s a graphic expression to show one’s despising of the world and its glories!! [Philippians 3:8]

It’s realistic! Would you drape a gold chain around a heap of dog’s mess? Of course not!
This is why Jude said, “hating even the garment spotted by the flesh”, v23b.

It doesn’t mean we should throw all our clothes away, far from it! But to know in our deepest soul that clothes are only necessary to cover our nakedness because we are no longer innocent; we are in a body of sinful flesh. We need new bodies in order to live with God in Heaven. And that’s why the Lamb says, “Behold, I come quickly” Revelation 3:11.

So there is a crown waiting for all those who endure the chastising and correction and instruction! This is the Message of the book of Revelation!

1 Corinthians 10:13 “there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Why doesn’t He take away the troublesome thing? ...

Because He has given you the Crucified Christ; He has given you the Holy Ghost to see the Crucified Christ on God’s Right Hand; He has given you the Word, purified and tested, to live by. He wants you to learn how to live the Crucified Life and be worthy to live with His Son!!!

John 8:29b ”I do always those things that please Him.” – That’s the Crucified Life! – pleasing God as Christ did and does always!

We can now live innocent lives, free from the captivity of sin and Satan’s lies AND have the Person of the Son of God – the First Begotten From the Dead – the Crucified, the Lamb with us.

Whatever you go through; whatever your (present) weakness; whatever your trouble – God your Father KNOWS all about it, all about you, what you can take, what you can endure, and what you can achieve from it.

There are EIGHT mentions of OVERCOMING in the book of Revelation! Seven times in Chapters 2 and 3 Christ says, “He that overcometh...” and Revelation 21:7 God on the Throne says, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son”. Purified, humbled (but not humiliated), having endured chastisement and tribulations, to be victorious. All because the Holy One, the Lord of Hosts, the Alpha and Omega offered Himself as the Lamb!!

Study No.2 – Introducing Thoughts on The Title
“The Lamb”

Revelation 14:1 – 5 and 17:12 – 14 (King James Version!)

We are familiar with the Lord Jesus being called the “Lamb of God” from the Gospels, where John Baptist made his Holy Spirit-inspired pronouncement, “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” [John 1:29 & 36]. But in the book of Revelation this special Title is greatly emphasised, with many repetitions.

After God manifest in the flesh is declared to be “Jesus Christ” [Ch. 1 – 5 times],

“the faithful witness”, “the first begotten of the dead”, “the prince of the kings of the earth” [Ch. 1: 5],

“Alpha and Omega”, “the first and the last” [Ch. 1:11, 17 (NOT v8); Ch. 2:8],

“the Son of man” [Ch. 1:13],

“first love” [Ch.2:4],

“the hidden manna”, “a white stone” [Ch. 2:17],

“the Son of God” [Ch. 2:18],

“the morning star” [Ch. 2:28],

“the Amen”, “the faithful and true witness”, “the beginning of the creation of God” [Ch. 3:14],

“gold tried in the fire” [Ch. 3:18],

“the Lion of the tribe of Juda”, “the Root of David” [Ch. 5:5] ...

the Holy Spirit then reveals Him as “a Lamb” [Ch. 5:6]. And this is the First of TWENTY-EIGHT times throughout the rest of the book that the Lord Jesus Christ is called “The Lamb”.

Do you think this is significant?! Those of you who have children – if you had to say to your child something as many as 28 times, would it be something important?!

The two passages above, Revelation 14:1 – 5 and 17:12 – 14, each contain a verse where the Title “the Lamb” occurs TWICE in the same verse, namely, 14:4 and 17:14.

Do you think that this is significant?!

Revelation 14:1 – 5. “an hundred forty and four thousand...” Who are these people? Where are they and when do they arrive there? What time-span are we witnessing here in this scene/vision?

From Chapter 4 the story told by the book of Revelation is overall chronological. It starts with the Book of Settlement (see Study No. 1) taken by the Lamb from the Hand of God on the Throne [Ch. 5], and it being opened by the Lamb [Ch. 6] and goes through Plague by Plague until they are all poured out and Christ returns to earth [Ch. 19] and the two Eternal Destinations become very obvious [Chs. 20 – 22].

(The overall Plan contained in the book of Settlement is repeated in several different ways between Chapters 8 and 16 – more on this later!)

By understanding this overall Plan and the Fact that John was in the Spirit, mentally and spiritually able to receive from Christ all the things that were to come to pass in the Lord’s Day [Ch. 1], we can see clearly that the Rapture had already taken place by Ch. 4. The 24 elders had new resurrected bodies and their white robes and crowns indicate that the Judgment of the saints and their rewards had already taken place [2 Corinthians 5:10 and 1 Corinthians 3:13 – 15]

This is important! Many strange interpretations are given to Revelation because people do not see which era / time span they are reading about!

So the 144,000 on Mount Sion are in Heaven, at the Throne of God, in new resurrected bodies while on earth the effects of the Day of the Lord are being felt.

V1. They have “His Father’s” name written in their foreheads. This doubly speaks of them being in the Church. Our Heavenly Father is called “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” [Ephesians 1:3], meaning that the Risen Son of God as the First-born of God’s New Sinless Family can take in other sons and daughters into the Family. These 144,000 are well-secure in that Family through the Risen Son!

V2. Thunder and the voice of harpers! This again shows the difference between what is going on on the earth – thunder, Wrath of God, Plagues, Punishments – and what is happening in Heaven – joy, victory, a special relationship with God, their Father.

V3. “as it were a new song”. These words are significant and not to be left out. It means that they did sing a new song before the Father, but it was not exactly new to them because they had sung it before in their victorious lives on earth. Only they among all the other members of the Church could sing it like they did. From the time of their spiritual birth they had sung that “new song”. Freedom from sin; completely turned around from the world and self; complete understanding of repentance, was the harmony of this song. Once they had repented of their Christ-less lives, they never needed to repent again! They never experienced doubt, back-sliding or sinning again! They had been “redeemed from the earth” once and for all time!

V4. This has nothing to do with whether these people were male or female. The Scriptures often use these kinds of expressions to emphasise relationships with God. Israel was often called “a whore”, and an unfaithful wife. Paul speaks of the mystery of Christ and His Church in encouraging love between husbands and wives. And in 2 Corinthians 11:2 we have Paul saying, “for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” – whether they were male or female!!

V4. And they “follow the Lamb” and they lived the purest lives since their conversion “being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.”

V5. “no guile”. They spoke the word of God in truth. Never a twisted meaning or wrong interpretation.

They never sought to deceive or trick, or mislead. There are many wrong doctrines about today, mostly about Rome/Israel and about the Holy Spirit. (I’ve just learned of “Cessationism”!!)

The last time I went to India in 2010, I was very moved to say that if we do not preach Christ as He is and revealed in the Scriptures, we will make disciples of ourselves and not of the Lord Jesus Christ. Liars, deceivers, untruthful – sinful human nature!! (Remind yourself of Jeremiah 17:9!)

“without fault”. The purity of their Lord Jesus Christ was eternally in them; clothed in His Righteousness, fully aware of why He is the Lamb – hence the two references to the Lamb in v4.

This revelation can have two lessons for us:

When we bring people to Christ, they should know the power of the Blood to redeem a soul from sin, that there is the possibility available to them that they need never backslide or have the need to repent again.

The other lesson is that for those who have fallen from Grace and needed to return to Christ, there is the possibility to regain the position of the high calling. The 144,00 is a special part of the Church; there are many others all around the Throne praising God and partaking in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb! [See 1 John 2:1 – “sin not... if any man sin...”]

Revelation 17:12 – 14. Whereas the first vision could be related to any time within those first 42 months of the Day of the LORD, this vision is set at a very specific time. This is the fulfilment of prophecies declaring the complete downfall of Jerusalem for her idolatry and spiritual adultery.

V18. “that great city”; Ch. 11:8 “the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” – unmistakably Jerusalem! Remember how the Lord wept over the city, Luke 19:41 – 44 and lamented over it in Matthew 23:37 and Luke 13:34. Back to Matthew 23, vs. 35 – 36 :

“upon you shall come all the righteous blood” and “All these things shall come upon this generation” – the judgment, the avenging of all the righteous blood, besides His own, coming upon the generation at the time of the Settlement, the 42 months. This is the Fulfilment of Everything, far beyond just the fall of Jerusalem in AD70!

(I seek to focus people on the Scriptures, the Written Word of God which is the Revelation of the Secret, Christ Crucified, or The Lamb, rather than the newspapers and the tv and today’s fake media!)

V12. “the ten horns” These are the ten nations surrounding Jerusalem : Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and Yemen. They are not with this power to destroy her NOW. Every citizen of each of these countries is called into the Church and has the right to become a child of God. In the Age of the vision, in the 42 months Judgments, this will be when God allows them to align themselves with the beast, the Antichrist, and destroy her for her rejection of God’s Beloved One.

V12. “one hour with the beast” In just one hour they will torch Jerusalem and burn her with fire, v16.

V13. “one mind”, “give their power and strength to the beast”. Total submission to the man of sin. All with the LORD’s full powers of execution! They are puppets, fulfilling the LORD’s Command! They think they are in charge, but they are fulfilling the Scriptures of old, as the LORD said they would!

V14. “war with the Lamb”, “the Lamb shall overcome them” He comes to reign with all His saints; stands on Mount Olivet, which splits north and south, making a way through to Jerusalem, now destroyed with the Plague of hail and the fire from these ten kings. They confront Him in their wrath and hatred for Him and He destroys them with the sword of His mouth, Ch. 19:21.

[Revelation 19:11 – 14; Zechariah 14:1 – 3, v4; Revelation 12:15a, 19b, Revelation 16:17a, 21]

So what does this vision teach us?

Obviously, that no opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ will succeed!

Then, we see clearly that there is a definite end to all opposition with a specific programme, and it is according to the Scriptures. The end of Jerusalem is prophesied in all the Prophets. Babylonian exile and siege did not destroy her. AD70 destroyed the temple, but we have a Jerusalem today! The prophecies will be fulfilled in the Day of the LORD, and particularly at the end of the 42 months, just before the Lord descends to earth. He will not enter an idolatrous city again!

The troubles in the Middle East we see today is all man’s doing – regime change desires by UK and US governments with other nations working as a ‘coalition’. This has NOTHING to do with God’s Final Plan of Judgment! It simply proves that the spirit (not the man) of antichrist is in the world. [1 John 4:3. (Incidentally, “come in the flesh” means He returned to Heaven in the flesh.) and 1 John 2:18] At the same time, the Gospel is preached and souls come into the Kingdom. The wheat and the tares grow together! [Matthew 13:30 (there are actually three “harvests” /gatherings : the Rapture of the saints; the miraculous escape of the Remnant of Israel, Revelation 12:14; and the Battle of Armageddon, Revelation 16:14, 16, 19:19.)]

Now, in the Church Age, God “commands all men everywhere (that’s Jew and Gentile) to repent” – come into the Body of Christ; be one new man in that Body! God is not interested in land; all that will be sorted out when Christ returns. [Acts 17:30; Ephesians 2:13 - 16]

That is why we need to look at “The Lamb”!

Revelation 14:4 “the Lamb”... “the Lamb”

Revelation 17: 14 “the Lamb”... “the Lamb”

What do we see?

In the first, we see a group of people who so love, cherish and honour the Lord Jesus Christ because of His endless Giving of Himself to secure their Eternal Salvation, and because of the terrible suffering and shedding of His Precious Blood in that Once-for-All Sacrifice, that whatever befalls them, whatever suffering they go through, they resolve never ever to doubt, backslide or sin again until He comes for them in the First Resurrection!

They follow the Lamb!

In the second, we see a group of people who so hate and despise the Lord Jesus Christ that even when they see the terrible wounds of His suffering for them upon His Face and Body, desire only to confront Him with all their weaponry and venom.

They make war with the Lamb!

A Person who can evoke such extremes of Love and Hate must be Unique !

It is as The Lamb that He brings out these extreme human emotions.

His Humility, His Crucified Body, His terrible wounds, the Humiliation He was willing to endure to restore the Family to God, His Complete Submission to the Will of God, and the Word of God, either DRAWS a soul to Him in awe and an unreserved resignation to His Call,

OR, it REPELS a soul away from Him in disgust and rebellion against His Call.

“Whosoever will may come”; “Come unto Me...”

The book of Revelation of all Books of Scripture brings these two extremes to a head. That is why there is this emphasis of Christ being “The Lamb”. There is only One Destination for either of these two extremes. There is no swapping or temporary residence in either!!

The Destination is chosen and it is Final – the New Earth with the New Jerusalem, the Holy City for the Church and the Resurrected faithful saints from before the Cross OR the Lake of Fire, the second death.

Once again, we see the Powerful Call in the book of Revelation. In it we see clearly “The Lamb”!

Answer the Call for yourself and make the Call plain to all you seek to bring to Christ before the Rapture.

Study No.1 – Introducing Thoughts on
The Day of The LORD

Revelation 5:1 – 14 (King James Version!)

It all begins with the Book! A hand-written Book containing all the Instructions which must be carried out by ?? “someone” ?? in order for the Whole Plan of God – Salvation and Judgment – to be wrapped up forever!! You can call it the Book of Settlement.

Chapter 5 clearly shows that ONLY the Lord Jesus Christ is fit and able – worthy – to open and execute all these Instructions. He is the ONLY One, not because He is the God who created Israel and brought them through many troubles up to that day, but because He is The Lamb.

He receives great praise from both men and angels because He is The Lamb who shed His Blood to redeem mankind and make them right with God.

V13 “And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea ...” The redeemed in new bodies in Heaven, around God’s throne, AND the “left behind” rejecters etc on earth plus the Remnant of Israel (who are soon to be revealed as a faithful Nation as the Antichrist seeks to attack them), and in the sea, AND those dead in Hell – ALL will worship The Lamb, whether willingly from their hearts or forced out from them!!

(THE Revelation of Jesus Christ) The Final Book of Scripture reveals Him EXACTLY as God sees and knows Him, and demonstrates what He will do for God in Fulfilling God’s Plan for The Future of All Mankind.

Just before the opening of the Seals, Christ, described as “an angel” (messenger of God) in Revelation 8 vs 3–5, offers up the prayers of the saints crying out for the Settlement to begin – as shown in Chapter 5 vs 9 & 10. It is obviously Christ, going through the actions of a high priest (Aaron, Leviticus 16:12)

[A great revelation!!] NB. Chapter 8:2 begins the Programme of the first 42 months of the Lord’s Day again, in more detail, after the Brief Outline of Chapter 6.

So the Book is opened! Each seal opened reveals new Instructions for Christ to execute within the first three and a half years of the Lord’s Day and into Eternity. As the First Seal is opened (in Heaven), The Day of The Lord begins. On earth, the Antichrist has just proclaimed himself GOD  (2 Thessalonians 2:3–4 and Daniel 9:27). One of the four beasts (living creatures at the Throne) commands the man of sin to launch himself out onto the world – the counterfeit messiah. He is used by God to confirm the wickedness in those left behind after the Rapture. Everything is Legal and Just!

So the Antichrist is launched with the opening of the First Seal of this Book of Settlement, as a great conqueror to destroy all rebellious Jews and multitudes of Gentiles.

This corresponds to Daniel 9:26–27 “... the prince that shall come... And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate (desolator)” Compare what the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24:15 – same abomination; the man of sin.

The next THREE Seals launch the Antichrist to fulfil the ancient prophecies of the Plagues of (Second) SWORD, (Third) FAMINE AND (Fourth) PESTILENCE with wild beasts.

These Scriptures are: 1 Chronicles 21:12 and 2 Samuel 24:11–14 – David’s choices for his disobedience.

Isaiah 51:19

Jeremiah 5:12, 14:15, 21:9, 24:10, 14:12, 16:4

Ezekiel 6:11

Sword... Famine; Sword... Famine... Pestilence (plagues of fearful diseases); Sword... Famine... Beasts of the earth. To the Jew first (it is the “time of Jacob’s trouble, Jeremiah 30:7) and also to the Gentile.

The Promises of God in the Prophets are to 1) Jew and Gentile who accept Christ as Saviour and Head of the Church, 2) Obedient and faithful before the Cross (resurrected), 3) the Remnant of Israel.

The Plagues, Curses, Promises of Judgment etc are to the Jews without Christ as their Lord and Saviour in this Church Age and in the Age to come.

The Fifth Seal is different! Those who have died – killed – for their faith in the Lord and acceptance of the Word of God in the Ages both before and after the Cross, in their new resurrected bodies (they are “souls” ie complete again) cry out for Justice. They are told to wait just a little longer for “their fellowservants and brethren” to be killed as they were.

This verse 11 of Revelation 6 has been so misinterpreted!! How many people does it take to make a single person into a plural?! Just TWO! These “fellowservants and brethren” are the Two Witnesses, who must be both Jews and in the Church (they are able to sing both the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb, Revelation 15:2 – 4). NOONE ELSE will be resurrected to Life after the Rapture (called the first resurrection, Revelation 20:5–6).

These Two are killed by Satan in the man of sin and rise again three and a half days later and ascend into Heaven, Revelation 11:7–12. The timing of this is crucial to understand the Event of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the Descent to Earth of Christ and His armies to judge and make war, beginning His thousand-year Reign. (I will explain who they are, if you don’t know already! another time. This too is a great revelation!)

Now to the Sixth Seal! “And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” (Revelation 6:12–14)

Please be aware that this is NOT the End of the World! These are the Signs that Christ is coming very soon with His saints to rule and reign for a thousand years. After that Reign all creation will be burnt up. Here we see cataclysmic movement, shifting of stars, mountains and islands. The planets will appear to be gathered up and shifted to one side – Christ, descending will be all the more clearly seen!

There are many events that occur around this time. From the Start of the Lord’s Day, Seven specially commissioned angels will in turn over the following 42 months blow their trumpets and pour out their vials (bowls) of severe and damaging Plagues – Punishments.

So Revelation 11:14 says, “the second Woe is past (the Plagues of the 6th Angel); and, behold, the third Woe cometh quickly (the Plague of hail of the 7th Angel)”

Also Revelation 10:7 and 11:15 says, “But in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished...” and “And the seventh angel sounded...”

This means that the Church is complete (with the return of the Two Witnesses), so the Marriage Supper of the Lamb can take place in Heaven, also that the Last Plague of Hail pours out on the ungodly on Earth.

The Sixth Seal opens and a great earthquake comes – the same great earthquake which comes within an hour of the Two Witnesses’ return to Heaven, Revelation 11:13.

So, members of the Body of Christ, the Church and His Bride, will most definitely be in Heaven when the sun goes black! They – we! – will be enjoying the Very Special Feast with the Lord, joined to Him officially for all time and Eternity hereafter!! Remember He is still abstaining from drinking the fruit of the vine, and He will only break that fast on This Special Day!!

When the Marriage Feast is over, and the world is much subdued by the Hail and collapse of its cities from the earthquake (Revelation 16:19), and Jerusalem – the great whore – will be burning, utterly destroyed by the earthquake and the attack on her from the ten nations surrounding her (Revelation 17:16 etc), THEN the Lord Jesus Christ will come to reign; to judge and make war (Revelation 19:11)..

And we will reign with Him for a thousand years! Hallelujah!!

Why The Judgment?

Psalm 9:16 “The LORD is known by the judgment which He executeth...”

Ezekiel 6:10 “And they shall know that I am the LORD...”

Ezekiel 6:13 “Then shall ye know that I am the LORD...”

Ezekiel 6:14 “... and they shall know that I am the LORD.”

etc, etc, etc – many other references in Ezekiel

They shall see His Blazing Majesty, the piercing purity in His eyes, the terrible wounds of His humility and unwavering obedience to the Word of God, His power over all flesh! They will truly know who He is!

He will commit the rebellious to Hell and the Lake of Fire.

He will provide for the faithful and obedient for Eternity in the Holy City or the New Earth.

Every soul must answer the Call, or take the fearful consequences...