Revelation: Part 14

It’s very, very important to see that God never allows anything to happen on earth before it’s settled in heaven. And this shows us that. So, let’s read the first verses. And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, and sealed up with seven seals.

Actually, book should be scroll. It’s a seven-sealed scroll. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth, or under the earth, was able to open the scroll, or to look into it.

And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll, or to look into it. Now here we have the introduction of a scroll that contains God’s judgment of the world. It contains more than the judgments that are gonna fall on the world. It contains God’s decree to reclaim the earth from Satan and to take it over.

Now we’ll learn more about that in a minute. But I want you, first of all, to understand thehistorical background about which this is based. First of all, this, this is always -you know, much of things that are written in the Bible are based on practices that were kept in the nation of Israel. In the nation of Israel, land that was given to the tribal states and to the families could never be permanently taken from a family.

Did you know that? They might fall on hard times and have to sell the land, but they could never claim permanent title to that. They always had to leave it open for that same family, once they recovered economically, even if it was generations later, they had to allow them to buy it back. And the terms of the sale were kept in a scroll with seven seals.

And so they -this is put up against the background of that. And this scroll actually contains God’s right totake back his earth that was forfeited to Satan by the quisling of the universe, Adam. You see, Adam was given sovereign control of the earth for mankind. And Adam had the title deed to the earth.

When he decided to go his own way, reject relationship with God and follow Satan, he forfeited the title deed of the earth to Satan. Now this may be spooky stuff to you, but it’s part of the Word of God. And it’s part of what’s behind the drama of human history. You may not want to believe it, but believe it.

It’s part of what has influenced history from the beginning of mankind on this planet. I want you to turn to a book, the book of Job 1:6. Now there was a day when the bene ha Elohim came to present themselves before the Lord. Bene ha Elohim, seldom used in the Old Testament, that word, those words.

When the sons of God, in the Hebrew, bene ha Elohim. There’s another place where it’s used in a very important way and that’s Genesis 6. Where it says that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took of all they desired. Bene ha Elohim, which cannot mean men or humans, it means angels.

Apparently, this was made impossible after the flood. But it was possible before the flood. This is talkingabout angels, the sons of God, bene ha Elohim, came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come?

Then Satan answers the Lord and said, from roaming, from roaming about on the earth and walking up and down on it. You hear the insolence? Now why did he say it like that? He was bragging that he owned the earth.

Because Adam had forfeited the title deed. And, of course, the whole point of the book of job is that God points out, okay, so you own the earth. But there are people on the earth that don’t follow you and you don’t own them. And he brings up as an example, job.

And Satan says, well, you know, he goes through several, several schemes to say, well, he only follows you because you made him rich or you did this or you did that and so forth. And so God allows Satan to put him through a number of trials. But at the end, God made him wealthier and better than he ever was before, because God works all things together for good. You know, there are several reasons why God allows good people to suffer.

This is one reason. One reason that God -and usually he’ll only do this with someone who is very mature. There are sometimes when God wants to teach the angels a lesson through us. And he allows unexplainable problems to come into our lives so that the angels can see that an inferior creature like man and something that is desperately terrible and not -that he can’t understand trusts God and believes God in the midst of that.

And every time a human being does that, there is rejoicing among the angels of God and God will give him a crown. All right, so, I just wanted to make a point though here that Satan had the title deed of the earth. Now let’s go back to Revelation 5 and I want you to note something. This says who is worthy to open the scroll that contains the judgments and the things that God is going to do to officially reclaim the earth for himself again.

This is another surprise to many people. Job was the first book written. And most of us think the book of Revelation was the last book written. It wasn’t.

As best we can tell, the Gospel of John was the last book written. It was certainly written after John received the revelation on the isle of Patmos. Because he wrote the Gospel of John after he was released after Domitian, Caesar Domitian was -he died and he was released and brought back to Ephesus. So he wrote the Gospel of John then.

Now the reason I say that is because the things he sawin the book of Revelation obviously influenced his recall of some of the things that Jesus had said during his life. None of the other Gospel writers include certain things that the book of John does. And the reason is because, hey, you couldn’t go through something like the book of Revelation and be an eyewitness to what he saw and not be changed by it and not influenced by it. So as he talks about who is worthy to open the seals, he later tells us what Jesus said about being worthy to do that.

Hold your place and we’re gonna take another trip. We’re going to John 5:25. Jesus speaking, truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear shall live. For just as the father has life in himself, even so he gave to the son also to have life in himself.

In other words, he could say I am that I am just as the father could. Self-existent life. And he gave that to the human nature of Jesus. All right, and let’s read on.

Verse 27, and he gave him authority to execute what? Judgment. Why? Because he is the Son of Man.

You see, once man sinned, broke his relationship with God, the sin caused him to forfeit the title deed of the earth to Satan. And the only one who could redeem man and purchase back the title deed from Satan would be a man who is perfect and willing to die for the sins of mankind. And so when Jesus died on the cross in Golgotha, he not only purchased a pardon for every sin that anyone would ever commit, and purchase a pardon for every person that would live, but also he broke the legal right of Satan to keep the title deed to the earth. See, God is honorable.

God is just. God is so just, that he couldn’t just take the title deed back. He had to pay the penalty in order to legally, in his court, purchase it back from Satan. He even honors his ethics with someone like Satan.

Do you follow me? Now, it had to be a man. And that’s why Jesus loved -do you know he loved calling himself the Son of Man? Why?

Because to him, that was a novelty. Now I can tell you I’m the Son of Man. And you say, ho-hum. Big deal.

That’s rather obvious. If I tell you I’m a Son of God, it’s a little different. I am a Son of God. Not the Son of God.

But, you see, because he is the Son of Man, he became a true man. He lived a flawless life and then voluntarily went to the cross to pay for the sins of the world. He purchased back Satan’s right to hold that title deed. Now he did that almost 2,000 years ago.

He still hasn’t taken the title deed yet. But the price has already been paid, you see. What we see happening in chapter 5 is when he takes up what he has purchased. Now the reason he didn’t take up what he purchased before is he wanted to give man time.

You know, God had to put up with a lot of sin in order to give a chance to those he knew would believe in him. That’s the reason you say, well, why doesn’t God stop all of this war and all of this evil? Why does he let this happen? Well, because God madea sovereign choice to give man freedom of choice.

And he doesn’t change his sovereign decisions. So, in order to give the human race maximum opportunity to have the choice to receive the pardon, that he sent his son to die to give them, he has to put up with all of the evil that goes on with it. Now God could stop -you say why can’t God stop all of this evil? Well, he could.

Just, boom, shut down the world. Destroy it. But that’s the only way he could. So he endures it in order that more may come to Christ.

So when people ask you, why doesn’t God do something? Well, he is doing something. He’s winning people out of darkness into light and building them for his kingdom. All right, now, let’s look at a couple of other things here.

Back in Revelation 5, where it says that in verse 4, and I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the scrollor to look into it. And you know what? This is a, once again, a beautiful, breathtaking thing. The apostle John is representing all believers in these chapters.

For instance, when Jesus said come up here, and instantlyhe was in heaven. That was a picture that we will all go through when the Rapture happens and every believer is instantly brought up by God’s command to be in heaven. And here, he also represents the tears of mankind. Here he is weeping.

And in his weeping, there is a representation of all of the trillions upon trillions of tears that have been shed because of the destructive influence of sin. Because of the tremendous suffering that fallen man has brought upon this world and upon himself. And so he’s weeping as though for all mankind because there’s no one that can open the scroll that will give God, give God’s judgments the right to be imposed and to take back this world. Now, in verse 5.

And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping; behold, the lion that is from the tribe of judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the scroll and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne -now notice every word. I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the world, or all the earth. He came and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

First of all, he saw a lion. It says stop weeping; for the lion of judah, the root of David, has overcome. You know, when Jesus came the first time, he came as a Lamb. When he comes the second time, he’s coming as a lion.

Hold your place. This is an easy one. Go to the first book, Genesis 49. You know, if you’re gonna study the book of Revelation, the best tool to have is a concordance.

Because it will show you where many of these titles and symbols are explained. So it says in Genesis 49, verse 9, this is a prophecy of Jacob. He said, in verse 1 he said, Jacob summoned the sons and said, assemble yourselves, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the days to come, or literally in the last days. All right, in verse 9, he talks about each tribe.

Verse 9 he says, judah is a lion’s whelp. What does that mean? It means judah is the son of a lion. From the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He crouches, he lies down as a lion, who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until shiloh comes. Do you know what the Hebrew word shiloh, shilo’ah means? The one to whom it belongs.

The scepter shall not depart from judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until the one to whom it belongs comes. Right there was the prediction the Messiah Jesus would come from the tribe of judah. And he is the lion, the son of a lion. As it says, as a lion, is one of his characteristics.

That’s where that idea came from that God gives a prophecy in Revelation 5. The lion of the tribe of judah. And, again, you don’t have to turn to this one, I’m just gonnaread it to you. You can mark in your notes if you’re taking them, the reference.

It’s 1 Chronicles 17:11-14. Here’s what it says. This is a prophecy given to David, king David. And it shall come about when your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up one of your descendants after you, who shall be one of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall buildfor me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. Now we know right away this is some kind of an unusual person to have an everlasting throne. Not an ordinary man. And it says, I will be his father, and he shall be my son; and I will not take my lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you.

That’s saul. But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. Now that’s when we learned that the Messiah had to come as a direct descendant of David. This was the prophecy.

And that’s why he is called in -or I should say now in Revelation 5, the root of David. From the tribe of judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the scrolls and the seven seals. So we know right away we’re talking about Jesus. The one that was predicted, the one that would come.

Now, I want you to see where all of this comes from. That it’s deeply embedded. That the Bible is unlike any other book. Written by 40 different authors, over an expanse of thousands of years from different places, different backgrounds, and, yet, what God wrote through these 40 men is like one book because the Holy Spirit inspired it all.

It shows that it is the divinely, verbally-inspired Word of God. The one that’s gonna carry out what’s written in the scroll is the lion of judah. Now, in verse 6, he said that he’s the one that’s gonna go it. But when he looks to see the one that’s gonna take it, what does he see?

And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain. So much is said in those few words. First of all, he’s a Lamb that was slain, but he’s now standing. What does that tell us?

He was dead, now he’s alive. Next, he was slain. So as they look, as he looks at the throne, he sees a Lamb that’s got the marks and the scars of his death. These will be the everlasting badge of Jesus to remind us what it cost to forgive us and bring us into heaven.

When we see Jesus, he’s going to have some terrible scars and they will always be there. Even in his glorified body, and I’m glad. Because I never want to forget.

If you have the guts to be a real revolutionary, come forward right now and accept Jesus Christ as your real revolutionary. And he’ll make a revolutionary that will change lives.

As I prepared for this week’s program, I was again struck by the speed with which events are moving into the scenario the prophets predicted for the end times. I believe we’re there. People on the street are talking about what all of these things mean. Folks that wouldn’t darken the door of a Church or pick up a Bible are now very curious.

This may be our greatest opportunity, maybe even our last opportunity, to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ before we’re silenced by political correctness. The message that God has given me is more important now than it’s ever been, for the Church and for the nation.