“When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about an half hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.” [1]
An altar of incense was one of the items inside the tabernacle of Moses. The top of the altar was square with a horn on each of its corner. The altar of incense was placed before the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. On the other side of the veil was the Ark of the Testimony, where the presence of God was. [2]
Aaron was instructed to burn incense on the altar each morning and at twilight, every day, as a regular offering to the Lord. The altar of incense was called “most holy to the Lord.” [3]
Burning incense relates to prayer. David prayed, “May my prayer be set before you like incense.” As the father of John the Baptist (Zechariah) offered incense in the temple, the assembled worshipers prayed. The angel Gabriel told Zechariah that his prayer was heard, and that he would see God’s answer soon. The angel in Revelation mixes the prayers of God’s holy people with incense and allows this mix to ascend before God. When the angel takes fire from the altar of incense and throws it to earth, it yields noises, thunder, lightning and an earthquake. [4]
When our prayers seem to be unanswered, we may wonder if God is hearing us. The Lord told Moses, “I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.” An angel told Daniel, “Do not be afraid Daniel, since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.” In the last days before Jesus returns, God transforms the prayers of His holy people into fiery judgments on evil deeds. [5]
“So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” God ordered Joshua to have seven priests sound seven trumpets to defeat the city of Jericho. They marched around the city for seven days. When they blew trumpets seven times on the seventh day, the walls of Jericho fell flat down. The people of God inherited the land. When Christ returns, He will inherit the kingdoms of this world, and His saints will reign with Him. [6]
God told Moses to have priests sound trumpets before a battle and He would save them from their enemies. God led Gideon and his 300 men to sound horns before a battle. Priests sounding trumpets preceded a war victory for King Abijah of Judah. His army of 400,000 defeated an army of 800,000. His army slew a half million enemy soldiers in one day. “The children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the Lord God of their fathers.” Like Gideon, they trusted the Lord despite overwhelming odds. The same God who did miracles in the past, will do them again. During the end times, angels sound trumpets before judgments rain down on the enemies of God and God’s people. [7]
“The first angel sounded: and hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.” [8]
The first trumpet judgment is on grass and trees. Undoubtedly, grass and trees suffer, but grass is also symbolic of human flesh. Isaiah 40:7 says that people are as grass. Trees speak of rulers.
King Nebuchadnezzar is compared with a tree in Daniel 4:22. He who meditates on God’s Word is compared to a tree planted by the water in Psalm 1:3.
“Then the second angel sounded: and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.” [9]
The second trumpet brings down a great mountain. God compares Babylon to a mountain in Jeremiah 51:25. “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth, says the Lord. And I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain.”
As a result of the second trumpet, a third of the sea becomes blood, a third of sea creatures die and a third of ships are destroyed. This sea may refer to the Mediterranean and not all oceans. In the Apostle John’s world, the Mediterranean Sea was their sea. Isaiah 57:20 says that the wicked are like the troubled sea. God is judging wickedness.
“Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.” [10]
Wormwood produces a bitter oil. Wormwood symbolizes bitterness, poison and death. The Lord warns us against bitterness, saying, “Watch carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.” God so loved us that HE gave His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. May He help us to love as He loves. May He help us to forgive as He forgives. Considering God’s grace cures bitterness. [11]
Wormwood in the last days is characterized as a fallen star. Satan is a fallen star: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer (Day Star), son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!” The devil and his minions are like vipers who poison hearts and minds against God. The blood of Christ is the antivenin. We claim the blood of Christ over us just as the Israelites placed the blood of a lamb over their doorposts in Egypt so that the angel of death could not hurt them. Medical antivenin is made from lamb’s blood. It neutralizes the poison from a snake’s bite. [12]
“Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.” [13]
Jesus foretold that in the last days, “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.” The people liked the dark side, so God granted their wish. Darkness during the day was one of the ten plagues that God placed on Egypt for their rebellion against His will. [14]
Anne Graham Lotz was interviewed on the Early Show a few years ago by Jane Clayson. Jane asked Anne: “How could God let Hurricane Katrina happen?” Anne replied, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we have been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. Being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand Him to leave us alone?”
The first four trumpet judgments reveal that God remembers mercy even during judgment. The judgments are partial judgments striking only a third of the targets in each category. When the Israelites were forced into exile it was done in three phases not all at once. God’s judgments are painful but are designed to lead people to repent of sin and turn to Him for salvation so that they might be saved from the most painful judgment of all... from eternal hell.
“And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, ‘Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!’” [15]
The proud people of the earth, like Pharaoh, refuse to repent from sin and turn to God after the first four trumpet judgments. God sends an angel to warn them with a loud voice that three more painful judgments are coming.
God does not delight in the death of the wicked. He wants the wicked to turn from evil and to turn to Him for salvation. There is no Savior besides Him, so God must turn sinners to Himself for salvation. Salvation is about receiving. Salvation is about receiving Christ and all that He has done for us. Heaven is God’s home. He invites us to be united with Him. To live happily forever with Him! The one thing people must do to be saved is to believe in Jesus Christ His Son. [16]
Jesus Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath on sin when He died for our sins on the cross. He did not want to drink this cup. He did it for us and for our salvation. We can either believe in Jesus and have Him bear our sin away, which is to drink of the cup of salvation, or reject Him and bear our own sin, which is to drink the cup of God’s wrath. [17]
Jesus urges us, “Drink from it [the cup of salvation], all of you. Drink all of it. This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” [18]
Jesus Christ is a wonderful Savior! When we ask Him to forgive our sins, He does. Jesus fills us with His Holy Spirit to help us live a new life. The Holy Spirit helps us to love God and neighbor. He fills followers of Jesus with love, joy and peace so that we can serve God with gladness. [19]
[1] Revelation 8:1-5
[2] Exodus 30:1-6
[3] Exodus 30:7–10
[4] Psalm 141:2; Luke 1:10, 13
[5] Exodus 3:7; Daniel 10:12; Revelation 8:3-5
[6] Joshua 6:1-20; Revelation 8:6, 11:15; 20:4-6
[7] Numbers 10:9; Judges 7:19-22; 2 Chronicles 13:18; Revelation 8:7-13, 9:1-20, 11:15-19
[8] Revelation 8:7
[9] Revelation 8:8-9
[10] Revelation 8:10-11
[11] Hebrews 12:15; John 3:16; 1 John 2:2
[12] Revelation 8:11, 12:11; Isaiah 14:12; Exodus 12:13-28
[13] Revelation 8:12
[14] Matthew 24:29; Exodus 10:21-29
[15] Revelation 8:13
[16] Ezekiel 33:11; Isaiah 43:11; Acts 4:12; 16:31; Revelation 21-22
[17] Luke 22:42; Isaiah 51:17, 22; Jeremiah 25:15; Revelation 14:10; Psalm 116:13
[18] Matthew 26:26-28
[19] Acts 10:43; John 14:18, 26; Acts 1:8; Romans 5:5, 14:17; Galatians 5:22
Please pray that God will use 21st Century Jeremiah publications to help prophetic speakers to accurately align their messages with the Scriptures even as the prophet Jeremiah sought to do in his day.
Saturday, August 9, 2025
Friday, August 8, 2025
Multitudes are Saved Before Jesus Christ Returns
“After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’” [1]
Have you ever heard someone say, “Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better?” The Lord said to Jeremiah before the Babylonian captivity and before the restoration of His people back to Jerusalem, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” What transpired in the days of Jeremiah is similar to what shall happen in the last days. There will be a time of tribulation followed by a new Jerusalem where people love God and walk in His ways. [2]
During a surgical procedure, the surgeon makes a wound to reach the inner part that needs mending. Once the wound is closed up, better health follows. The Lord “wounds, but He also binds up; He shatters, but His hands also heal.” “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has stricken, and He will bind us up.” [3]
Our Lord Jesus revealed to John four angels holding back the four winds from the earth. Governments have invested millions of dollars in climate control research. God only needs four angels to manage it. They are climate control experts. Winds of change are about to be released when a fifth angel shouts with a loud voice, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” [4]
God’s wrath is not against His servants. Remember what God did for Israel in Egypt? “Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. So, there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail... And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt... Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.” [5]
God told Moses to have people place lamb’s blood on the doorposts of their homes so that when the angel of death passed through Egypt they would be protected. The Lord, “delivered righteous Lot” from His judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot “was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. His righteous soul was tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.” [6]
God ordered a SEAL to be placed on His servants before His angels released the four winds.
God sealed His prayer warriors in the days of Ezekiel as well. He told one angel, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” Then, to another angel, He said, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion.” [7]
“And I heard the number of those who were sealed. 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed: of the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Gad 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Asher 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Naphtali 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Manasseh 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Simeon 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Levi 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Issachar 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Joseph 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Benjamin 12,000 were sealed.” [8]
In the last days, God seals a 144,000 people from the tribes if Israel who profess and follow Jesus Christ. “Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His Father’s Name written on their foreheads.” [9]
In the ancient world, a king or a property owner used a seal to show ownership. I believe the Name of the Father on their heads is invisible to the physical eye, but visible to those with spiritual eyes, namely, the angels of God.
The 144,000 are Messianic Jews. The saved remnant of Israel! Elected by God’s grace! Natural branches grafted back into God’s olive tree! God had mercy on them. These 144,000 Jews don’t come to God by their works. They come to Him by His grace in Christ Jesus. Their unique calling and abilities are God’s grace gifts to them and to the world. The Lamb makes them outstanding evangelists. [10]
In Revelation chapter seven, the names of Joseph and Manasseh are listed but the names of Dan and Ephraim are not.
The tribe of Dan introduced idolatry into the nation of Israel according to Judges 18:30. Some speculate that the anti-Christ will come from the tribe of Dan because of Jacob’s words in Genesis 49:17. Jacob declared, “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider shall fall backward.” A viper that causes people to fall backward. The antichrist leads people to fall away from (abandon) faith in the true Christ.
Manasseh and Ephraim were the sons of Joseph. So, in essence there are 24,000 elected ones from the tribe of Joseph and none from the tribe of Dan.
Usually, Joseph, though one of the twelve sons of Jacob, is not listed as a tribe of Israel. His sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, are listed as half tribes. Sometimes, Ephraim is used in the Old Testament to refer to all the northern tribes of Israel, just as Judah is used at times to refer to all the southern tribes of Israel. The northern kingdom’s capitol, Samaria, was located in the land allocated to Ephraim. Perhaps, the reason that the name Ephraim is not used in Revelation chapter seven is because of its double meaning.
The 144,000 are descendants of Israel. The Lord leads them not to marry. God also led Jeremiah the prophet not to marry. The Lord told Jeremiah not to take a wife to spare him from grief. The Lord told Jeremiah, “They shall die gruesome deaths... they shall be like refuse on the ground.” The last days before the Lord returns will be days of great tribulation. [11]
The 144,000 are not symbolic of the Church. Celibacy was never required of the Church as a whole. God gave Christians permission to marry in 1 Corinthians 7:1-6.
The 144,000 follow the Lamb. They are redeemed by the Lamb. In contrast to the anti-Christ and his followers, they do not deceive. “No deceit was found in their mouths.” [12]
The 144,000 are sealed for divine protection during the tribulation. In the days of wicked King Ahab and evil Queen Jezebel, God reserved 7,000 men who refused to bow to Baal. [13] These 144,000 are sealed by God so that they can complete their mission for Christ. They are His end times harvesters of souls. They are His gift to the world.
Can you imagine the harvest they will have? It only took 12 Messianic disciples to start the Church, but before the world ends, a 144,000 Messianic Jewish evangelists are harvesting souls for Jesus.
The 144,000 have God’s seal on them. God the Father set His seal Jesus. God’s seal is His Spirit. “Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” The seal of the Holy Spirit assures us that we belong to God. “The Lord knows those who are His.” “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The angels of God know whom God has sealed. [14]
God seals 144,000 because He has a special mission for them to accomplish.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing, glory, and wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ So, he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” [15]
While I was in China, I had the privilege of having world renowned evangelist Reinhard Bonnke come and share with my group of Chinese disciples. Mr. Bonnke said that before the Rwandan genocide happened, the Lord opened a door for him to hold massive crusades in which tens of thousands of people came each night to hear the Gospel. Later, during a period of 100 days, nearly a million Rwandans were killed during a genocidal massacre. God graciously sent them Bonnke prior to the killing.
Jesus revealed to John a great crowd of people standing before God’s throne and before the Lamb. They are in God’s presence. They are from every nation, tribe and language.
Each of us will have a unique identity in heaven. During the transfiguration, the disciples knew that the men speaking to Jesus were Moses and Elijah. They never met them before, but God’s Spirit revealed to the disciples their identities. “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” [16] We will know one person from another.
The redeemed of the Lord wear white robes and have palm branches in their hands. Their white robes represent the righteousness of Jesus and priestly service. Palm branch waving symbolizes celebrating a king’s coronation. Remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem? Palm branches are emblems of victory. [17]
John sees a great crowd. Can you imagine the volume of so many voices shouting together, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” They say, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” When the angels, elders and four cherubim hear them, they fall on their faces before God’s throne and worship Him. God and people are united! Heaven and earth are one! What a glorious day! Multitudes of people are saved!
An elder asked John, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” John replied, “Sir, you know.” So the elder said to him, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” [18]
The presence of so many saints from the tribulation is a powerful statement of God’s grace and mercy. During a time of divine judgment, many are saved. This great multitude is a result of the Lamb’s 144,000 elect evangelists. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Those saved in the great tribulation are saved just like the rest of us, namely by the blood of the Lamb.
White by blood is an interesting phrase. We don’t think of things being made white by blood. But the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” [19]
In heaven, there are no barriers, no waiting lists. Politicians don’t have the heavenly capitol barricaded. They enjoy being with God day and night. The abundant food of heaven contrasts with the famine on earth. The pleasant climate of heaven contrasts with the harsh climate on earth. God wipes away every tear from their eyes. Jesus shepherds them to fountains of living waters. Falling tears are replaced by fountains of joy.
Some wonder, “How can there be no sorrow in heaven if we have relatives or loved ones who perish in hell? The truth is that even relatives in hell do not want us there. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, as soon as the rich man realized that there was no escape from Hades, he beseeched Father Abraham, “I beg you father that you would send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” The prayers from him who is in hell is, “Lord, please don’t let my brothers end up here!” [20]
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He brings prodigal sons and daughters back home to the Father. [21] Have you asked Jesus the Lamb to save you? Are you His follower?
[1] Revelation 7:1-3
[2] Jeremiah 1:9-10; 31:31-34; Revelation 21:1-5
[3] Job 5:18; Hosea 6:1
[4] Revelation 7:3
[5] Exodus 9:23-26
[6] Ezekiel 9:4-5
[7] Exodus 12:12-13; 2 Peter 2:7-9
[8] Revelation 7:4-8
[9] Revelation 14:1
[10] Romans 9:27; 11:5, 24, 32
[11] Revelation 14:4; Jeremiah 16:1-4
[12] Revelation 14:4-5
[13] Romans 10:4
[14] John 6:27; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:19; Ephesians 4:30
[15] Revelation 7:9-17
[16] 1 Corinthians 13:12
[17] John 12:12-16
[18] Revelation 7:13-14
[19] Isaiah 1:18
[20] Luke 16:27-28
[21] John 14:6; Luke 15:11-32
Have you ever heard someone say, “Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better?” The Lord said to Jeremiah before the Babylonian captivity and before the restoration of His people back to Jerusalem, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” What transpired in the days of Jeremiah is similar to what shall happen in the last days. There will be a time of tribulation followed by a new Jerusalem where people love God and walk in His ways. [2]
During a surgical procedure, the surgeon makes a wound to reach the inner part that needs mending. Once the wound is closed up, better health follows. The Lord “wounds, but He also binds up; He shatters, but His hands also heal.” “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has stricken, and He will bind us up.” [3]
Our Lord Jesus revealed to John four angels holding back the four winds from the earth. Governments have invested millions of dollars in climate control research. God only needs four angels to manage it. They are climate control experts. Winds of change are about to be released when a fifth angel shouts with a loud voice, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” [4]
God’s wrath is not against His servants. Remember what God did for Israel in Egypt? “Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. So, there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail... And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt... Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.” [5]
God told Moses to have people place lamb’s blood on the doorposts of their homes so that when the angel of death passed through Egypt they would be protected. The Lord, “delivered righteous Lot” from His judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot “was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. His righteous soul was tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.” [6]
God ordered a SEAL to be placed on His servants before His angels released the four winds.
God sealed His prayer warriors in the days of Ezekiel as well. He told one angel, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” Then, to another angel, He said, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion.” [7]
“And I heard the number of those who were sealed. 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed: of the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Gad 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Asher 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Naphtali 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Manasseh 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Simeon 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Levi 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Issachar 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Zebulun 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Joseph 12,000 were sealed; of the tribe of Benjamin 12,000 were sealed.” [8]
In the last days, God seals a 144,000 people from the tribes if Israel who profess and follow Jesus Christ. “Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him 144,000, having His Father’s Name written on their foreheads.” [9]
In the ancient world, a king or a property owner used a seal to show ownership. I believe the Name of the Father on their heads is invisible to the physical eye, but visible to those with spiritual eyes, namely, the angels of God.
The 144,000 are Messianic Jews. The saved remnant of Israel! Elected by God’s grace! Natural branches grafted back into God’s olive tree! God had mercy on them. These 144,000 Jews don’t come to God by their works. They come to Him by His grace in Christ Jesus. Their unique calling and abilities are God’s grace gifts to them and to the world. The Lamb makes them outstanding evangelists. [10]
In Revelation chapter seven, the names of Joseph and Manasseh are listed but the names of Dan and Ephraim are not.
The tribe of Dan introduced idolatry into the nation of Israel according to Judges 18:30. Some speculate that the anti-Christ will come from the tribe of Dan because of Jacob’s words in Genesis 49:17. Jacob declared, “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider shall fall backward.” A viper that causes people to fall backward. The antichrist leads people to fall away from (abandon) faith in the true Christ.
Manasseh and Ephraim were the sons of Joseph. So, in essence there are 24,000 elected ones from the tribe of Joseph and none from the tribe of Dan.
Usually, Joseph, though one of the twelve sons of Jacob, is not listed as a tribe of Israel. His sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, are listed as half tribes. Sometimes, Ephraim is used in the Old Testament to refer to all the northern tribes of Israel, just as Judah is used at times to refer to all the southern tribes of Israel. The northern kingdom’s capitol, Samaria, was located in the land allocated to Ephraim. Perhaps, the reason that the name Ephraim is not used in Revelation chapter seven is because of its double meaning.
The 144,000 are descendants of Israel. The Lord leads them not to marry. God also led Jeremiah the prophet not to marry. The Lord told Jeremiah not to take a wife to spare him from grief. The Lord told Jeremiah, “They shall die gruesome deaths... they shall be like refuse on the ground.” The last days before the Lord returns will be days of great tribulation. [11]
The 144,000 are not symbolic of the Church. Celibacy was never required of the Church as a whole. God gave Christians permission to marry in 1 Corinthians 7:1-6.
The 144,000 follow the Lamb. They are redeemed by the Lamb. In contrast to the anti-Christ and his followers, they do not deceive. “No deceit was found in their mouths.” [12]
The 144,000 are sealed for divine protection during the tribulation. In the days of wicked King Ahab and evil Queen Jezebel, God reserved 7,000 men who refused to bow to Baal. [13] These 144,000 are sealed by God so that they can complete their mission for Christ. They are His end times harvesters of souls. They are His gift to the world.
Can you imagine the harvest they will have? It only took 12 Messianic disciples to start the Church, but before the world ends, a 144,000 Messianic Jewish evangelists are harvesting souls for Jesus.
The 144,000 have God’s seal on them. God the Father set His seal Jesus. God’s seal is His Spirit. “Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” The seal of the Holy Spirit assures us that we belong to God. “The Lord knows those who are His.” “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The angels of God know whom God has sealed. [14]
God seals 144,000 because He has a special mission for them to accomplish.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing, glory, and wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ So, he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” [15]
While I was in China, I had the privilege of having world renowned evangelist Reinhard Bonnke come and share with my group of Chinese disciples. Mr. Bonnke said that before the Rwandan genocide happened, the Lord opened a door for him to hold massive crusades in which tens of thousands of people came each night to hear the Gospel. Later, during a period of 100 days, nearly a million Rwandans were killed during a genocidal massacre. God graciously sent them Bonnke prior to the killing.
Jesus revealed to John a great crowd of people standing before God’s throne and before the Lamb. They are in God’s presence. They are from every nation, tribe and language.
Each of us will have a unique identity in heaven. During the transfiguration, the disciples knew that the men speaking to Jesus were Moses and Elijah. They never met them before, but God’s Spirit revealed to the disciples their identities. “Now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” [16] We will know one person from another.
The redeemed of the Lord wear white robes and have palm branches in their hands. Their white robes represent the righteousness of Jesus and priestly service. Palm branch waving symbolizes celebrating a king’s coronation. Remember Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem? Palm branches are emblems of victory. [17]
John sees a great crowd. Can you imagine the volume of so many voices shouting together, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” They say, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” When the angels, elders and four cherubim hear them, they fall on their faces before God’s throne and worship Him. God and people are united! Heaven and earth are one! What a glorious day! Multitudes of people are saved!
An elder asked John, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” John replied, “Sir, you know.” So the elder said to him, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” [18]
The presence of so many saints from the tribulation is a powerful statement of God’s grace and mercy. During a time of divine judgment, many are saved. This great multitude is a result of the Lamb’s 144,000 elect evangelists. They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Those saved in the great tribulation are saved just like the rest of us, namely by the blood of the Lamb.
White by blood is an interesting phrase. We don’t think of things being made white by blood. But the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” [19]
In heaven, there are no barriers, no waiting lists. Politicians don’t have the heavenly capitol barricaded. They enjoy being with God day and night. The abundant food of heaven contrasts with the famine on earth. The pleasant climate of heaven contrasts with the harsh climate on earth. God wipes away every tear from their eyes. Jesus shepherds them to fountains of living waters. Falling tears are replaced by fountains of joy.
Some wonder, “How can there be no sorrow in heaven if we have relatives or loved ones who perish in hell? The truth is that even relatives in hell do not want us there. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, as soon as the rich man realized that there was no escape from Hades, he beseeched Father Abraham, “I beg you father that you would send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.” The prayers from him who is in hell is, “Lord, please don’t let my brothers end up here!” [20]
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He brings prodigal sons and daughters back home to the Father. [21] Have you asked Jesus the Lamb to save you? Are you His follower?
[1] Revelation 7:1-3
[2] Jeremiah 1:9-10; 31:31-34; Revelation 21:1-5
[3] Job 5:18; Hosea 6:1
[4] Revelation 7:3
[5] Exodus 9:23-26
[6] Ezekiel 9:4-5
[7] Exodus 12:12-13; 2 Peter 2:7-9
[8] Revelation 7:4-8
[9] Revelation 14:1
[10] Romans 9:27; 11:5, 24, 32
[11] Revelation 14:4; Jeremiah 16:1-4
[12] Revelation 14:4-5
[13] Romans 10:4
[14] John 6:27; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13; 2 Timothy 2:19; Ephesians 4:30
[15] Revelation 7:9-17
[16] 1 Corinthians 13:12
[17] John 12:12-16
[18] Revelation 7:13-14
[19] Isaiah 1:18
[20] Luke 16:27-28
[21] John 14:6; Luke 15:11-32
Thursday, August 7, 2025
How Long O Lord
“Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” [1]
This conqueror is an antichrist. The word “anti” means against or instead of Christ. He conquers people militarily and ideologically. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” The appearance of an antichrist is an indication that the end of this world is near. The world is looking for a hero. The largest money making films today are about heroes. [2]
“When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.” [3]
The rider on a fiery red horse has a sword in his hand. Red is the color of blood. The last days of earth will be filled with wars. There will be class, gender, race and religious wars. The rider on the fiery red horse takes peace from the earth so that people kill each another. Without God’s peace, people kill each other. Peace is His blessing. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. If we want peace, we need Christ.
“When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.’ So, I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.’” [4]
The rider on the black horse has a scale in his hand. John hears a voice saying that a quart of wheat will cost day’s wage. Can you imagine having to work a whole day for a loaf of bread? Famine follows war as night follows day.
“When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.” [5]
Death rides a pale horse. The word for “pale” here is the Greek word “cloros.” It is a greenish yellow. The color of a corpse! Death sits on this horse and Hades follows him. Hades (the grave) collects what death leaves behind. He kills a fourth of the world’s population with sword, hunger, death and beasts, which are curses due to sin. [6]
“When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.” [7]
“How Long O Lord?” is a familiar prayer to those who long for justice to prevail. John, who recorded the words of Revelation for us, lost his brother James when King Herod killed him with the sword. John saw Jesus crucified because of His love for people. [8]
John sees the martyrs of Christ under an altar. The altar symbolizes a life poured out for God.
“He [the priest] shall pour the remaining blood at the base of the altar of the burnt offering.” [9]
They were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Jesus said, “You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them...” [10]
The souls under the altar have a loud cry. They cry with a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” They may represent the cry of all martyrs for Christ. From Abel to the last martyr of God, they cry out.
Do you remember the story of Cain and Abel? After Cain killed his little brother, the Lord confronted him. He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” [11]
The Lord issued consequence to Cain for what he did to his innocent brother. The judgments in Revelation are consequences for the shedding of innocent blood of saints and prophets.
“For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.” [12]
God also counts the blood of children as innocent blood. God exiled the Jerusalemites to Babylon for shedding innocent blood.
“He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.” “Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.” “Surely at the commandment of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon.” [13]
False religions yield no salvation. There is only one child whose blood was without sin. Only Christ’s blood can wash our sins away. Only the God of the Bible can save us.
Innocent bloodshed is what makes horror movies so horrific. An Australian missionary once said to me, “Movies that glorify the shedding of innocent blood are satanic.” Visions of demons slaughtering innocent people is evil in God’s sight.
The devil tempts people to sin. Sin yields the curses of the Law. The devil, however, wants people to blame the followers of Christ for the world’s curses. To be their scapegoats.
White robes were given to the martyrs. They are told to rest a little while longer until the rest of their fellow servants and brothers are killed as they were. [14]
It is a painful undertaking at times to save sinners. It cost God His Son. It cost God countless faithful saints and servants. Satan is very cruel. To rescue captives from him is to risk personal harm. But the devil’s day is coming.
Paul told the Epicurean and Stoic people of Athens that “He [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” [15]
“I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” [16]
People want the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb. In the days of Moses, Pharaoh’s magicians recognized that God was plaguing Egypt. They said, “This is the finger of God.” [17]
God told people through His servant Moses that they would be blessed if they obeyed Him and cursed if they defied Him. [18]
As to the curses, after the one round of judgments, the Lord says, “After all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” The Lord pauses between each set of judgments to give people an opportunity to repent. [19]
In Revelation, Jesus Christ reveals three rounds of seven judgments. Round one is the seven seal judgments. They are described in Revelation 6:6-7:5. Round two is the seven trumpet judgments. They are described in Revelation 7:7-15:8. Round three is the seven bowl judgments. They are described in Revelation 16:2-17:8.
Pharaoh would not have experienced ten plagues if he had repented after the first one, but he was hard-hearted. Likewise, many people in the last days will be like the Pharaoh and like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. They will refuse to admit that ungodliness is wrong. “They are presumptuous, self-willed...” People either repent and glorify God or continue in sin. [20]
We can choose denial, but we can’t choose the consequences.
The key difference between saints and sinners is that saints recognize their need for Christ to bear the curse of the Law for us and sinners do not. Paul wrote, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them.’ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” [21]
The Law demands that whoever breaks it incur its curses. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law” means that He covers our imperfect obedience with His perfect obedience. The blessing of Abraham that Christ gives to believers in Him is His righteousness which yields a friendly relationship with God. “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.” [22]
As friends of God, we might experience persecution for a season, but we will not experience God’s wrath on sin which is forever.
God’s judgments are lesser tribulations intended to save us from a greater tribulation, namely an eternity without Him in hell. For example, the Lord called for an earthquake to open the prison cell where Paul and Silas had been locked up unjustly. The earthquake frightened the prison guard. He thought his prisoners had escaped. He was going to kill himself, but Paul stopped him and urged him to believe in Jesus. The prison guard and his entire family believed in Jesus. The earthquake prepared his heart to listen to the voice of God via Christ’s servants Paul and Silas. [23]
The people in the last days before the Lord returns, ask, Who is able to stand before God? Will you be able to stand before God when your life is over? Jesus said to “pray that you may be counted worthy to escape these things and to stand before the Son of Man.” [24]
The Bible tells us how to stand before God... “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” [25] We must stand before God clothed in the merits of Christ and not our own. Don’t be self-righteous! Trust in Christ! He is the Savior of lost souls.
Do not be like the man who trusted in the abundance of his riches. Be one who professes with your mouth. “I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever because You have done it...” It is the fool who says in his heart, “There is no God.” [26]
[1] Revelation 6:1-2
[2] John 5:43; Matthew 24:5
[3] Revelation 6:3-4
[4] Revelation 6:5-6
[5] Revelation 6:7-8
[6] 2 Chronicles 20:9; Jeremiah 29:18-19; 34:17; Matthew 24:7-8
[7] Revelation 6:9-11
[8] Acts 12:2
[9] Leviticus 4:7
[10] Revelation 19:10; Mark 13:9-10
[11] Genesis 4:10-12
[12] Revelation 16:6
[13] 2 Kings 21:6, 16; 24:3-4
[14] Revelation 6:11
[15] Acts 17:31
[16] Revelation 6:12-17
[17] Exodus 8:19
[18] Leviticus 26:1-44
[19] Leviticus 26:18
[20] Revelation 16:9; 2 Peter 2:6, 10
[21] Galatians 3:10, 13-14
[22] James 2:23
[23] Acts 16:26- 31
[24] Luke 21:36
[25] Romans 5:1-2
[26] Psalm 52:7-9; Psalm 53:1
This conqueror is an antichrist. The word “anti” means against or instead of Christ. He conquers people militarily and ideologically. Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him.” The appearance of an antichrist is an indication that the end of this world is near. The world is looking for a hero. The largest money making films today are about heroes. [2]
“When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.” [3]
The rider on a fiery red horse has a sword in his hand. Red is the color of blood. The last days of earth will be filled with wars. There will be class, gender, race and religious wars. The rider on the fiery red horse takes peace from the earth so that people kill each another. Without God’s peace, people kill each other. Peace is His blessing. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace. If we want peace, we need Christ.
“When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.’ So, I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.’” [4]
The rider on the black horse has a scale in his hand. John hears a voice saying that a quart of wheat will cost day’s wage. Can you imagine having to work a whole day for a loaf of bread? Famine follows war as night follows day.
“When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.” [5]
Death rides a pale horse. The word for “pale” here is the Greek word “cloros.” It is a greenish yellow. The color of a corpse! Death sits on this horse and Hades follows him. Hades (the grave) collects what death leaves behind. He kills a fourth of the world’s population with sword, hunger, death and beasts, which are curses due to sin. [6]
“When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.” [7]
“How Long O Lord?” is a familiar prayer to those who long for justice to prevail. John, who recorded the words of Revelation for us, lost his brother James when King Herod killed him with the sword. John saw Jesus crucified because of His love for people. [8]
John sees the martyrs of Christ under an altar. The altar symbolizes a life poured out for God.
“He [the priest] shall pour the remaining blood at the base of the altar of the burnt offering.” [9]
They were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” Jesus said, “You will be brought before rulers and kings for My sake, for a testimony to them...” [10]
The souls under the altar have a loud cry. They cry with a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” They may represent the cry of all martyrs for Christ. From Abel to the last martyr of God, they cry out.
Do you remember the story of Cain and Abel? After Cain killed his little brother, the Lord confronted him. He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.” [11]
The Lord issued consequence to Cain for what he did to his innocent brother. The judgments in Revelation are consequences for the shedding of innocent blood of saints and prophets.
“For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.” [12]
God also counts the blood of children as innocent blood. God exiled the Jerusalemites to Babylon for shedding innocent blood.
“He made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.” “Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.” “Surely at the commandment of the Lord this came upon Judah, to remove them from His sight because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, and also because of the innocent blood that he had shed; for he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, which the Lord would not pardon.” [13]
False religions yield no salvation. There is only one child whose blood was without sin. Only Christ’s blood can wash our sins away. Only the God of the Bible can save us.
Innocent bloodshed is what makes horror movies so horrific. An Australian missionary once said to me, “Movies that glorify the shedding of innocent blood are satanic.” Visions of demons slaughtering innocent people is evil in God’s sight.
The devil tempts people to sin. Sin yields the curses of the Law. The devil, however, wants people to blame the followers of Christ for the world’s curses. To be their scapegoats.
White robes were given to the martyrs. They are told to rest a little while longer until the rest of their fellow servants and brothers are killed as they were. [14]
It is a painful undertaking at times to save sinners. It cost God His Son. It cost God countless faithful saints and servants. Satan is very cruel. To rescue captives from him is to risk personal harm. But the devil’s day is coming.
Paul told the Epicurean and Stoic people of Athens that “He [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” [15]
“I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” [16]
People want the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb. In the days of Moses, Pharaoh’s magicians recognized that God was plaguing Egypt. They said, “This is the finger of God.” [17]
God told people through His servant Moses that they would be blessed if they obeyed Him and cursed if they defied Him. [18]
As to the curses, after the one round of judgments, the Lord says, “After all this, if you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.” The Lord pauses between each set of judgments to give people an opportunity to repent. [19]
In Revelation, Jesus Christ reveals three rounds of seven judgments. Round one is the seven seal judgments. They are described in Revelation 6:6-7:5. Round two is the seven trumpet judgments. They are described in Revelation 7:7-15:8. Round three is the seven bowl judgments. They are described in Revelation 16:2-17:8.
Pharaoh would not have experienced ten plagues if he had repented after the first one, but he was hard-hearted. Likewise, many people in the last days will be like the Pharaoh and like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. They will refuse to admit that ungodliness is wrong. “They are presumptuous, self-willed...” People either repent and glorify God or continue in sin. [20]
We can choose denial, but we can’t choose the consequences.
The key difference between saints and sinners is that saints recognize their need for Christ to bear the curse of the Law for us and sinners do not. Paul wrote, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the Law, to do them.’ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’) that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” [21]
The Law demands that whoever breaks it incur its curses. “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law” means that He covers our imperfect obedience with His perfect obedience. The blessing of Abraham that Christ gives to believers in Him is His righteousness which yields a friendly relationship with God. “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.” [22]
As friends of God, we might experience persecution for a season, but we will not experience God’s wrath on sin which is forever.
God’s judgments are lesser tribulations intended to save us from a greater tribulation, namely an eternity without Him in hell. For example, the Lord called for an earthquake to open the prison cell where Paul and Silas had been locked up unjustly. The earthquake frightened the prison guard. He thought his prisoners had escaped. He was going to kill himself, but Paul stopped him and urged him to believe in Jesus. The prison guard and his entire family believed in Jesus. The earthquake prepared his heart to listen to the voice of God via Christ’s servants Paul and Silas. [23]
The people in the last days before the Lord returns, ask, Who is able to stand before God? Will you be able to stand before God when your life is over? Jesus said to “pray that you may be counted worthy to escape these things and to stand before the Son of Man.” [24]
The Bible tells us how to stand before God... “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” [25] We must stand before God clothed in the merits of Christ and not our own. Don’t be self-righteous! Trust in Christ! He is the Savior of lost souls.
Do not be like the man who trusted in the abundance of his riches. Be one who professes with your mouth. “I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise You forever because You have done it...” It is the fool who says in his heart, “There is no God.” [26]
[1] Revelation 6:1-2
[2] John 5:43; Matthew 24:5
[3] Revelation 6:3-4
[4] Revelation 6:5-6
[5] Revelation 6:7-8
[6] 2 Chronicles 20:9; Jeremiah 29:18-19; 34:17; Matthew 24:7-8
[7] Revelation 6:9-11
[8] Acts 12:2
[9] Leviticus 4:7
[10] Revelation 19:10; Mark 13:9-10
[11] Genesis 4:10-12
[12] Revelation 16:6
[13] 2 Kings 21:6, 16; 24:3-4
[14] Revelation 6:11
[15] Acts 17:31
[16] Revelation 6:12-17
[17] Exodus 8:19
[18] Leviticus 26:1-44
[19] Leviticus 26:18
[20] Revelation 16:9; 2 Peter 2:6, 10
[21] Galatians 3:10, 13-14
[22] James 2:23
[23] Acts 16:26- 31
[24] Luke 21:36
[25] Romans 5:1-2
[26] Psalm 52:7-9; Psalm 53:1
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Jesus Christ is Worthy of Our Worship
“And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and to remove its seals?’” [1]
“Who is worthy” is the resounding question that the strong angel asks. There is something important written in that scroll. The Lord gave Isaiah the prophet a similar experience.
“The whole vision has become to you like the words of a scroll that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, ‘Read this, please.’ And he says, ‘I cannot, for it is sealed.’” The Lord said to Isaiah that because His people only pretended to worship Him, but were far from Him, their wise men would be unwise; and their prudent men would lack understanding. The Lord would not open His revelation to imposters.
“And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.” [3]
John wants the scroll to be unsealed.
Perhaps, it is a scroll like the one God gave Ezekiel. God gave Ezekiel a scroll with writing on the inside and outside that was full of lamentations, mourning and woes. He told Ezekiel to eat it and then speak to people. After this vision, Ezekiel had words of woe within him which he went about sharing everywhere. [4] Is this scroll full of lamentations and woes? If so, why? Why would God release woes and sadness on people?
God released woes and sadness on the people of Egypt because they were abusing His people. The Lord said to Moses, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land…” The Egyptians whipped, despised, insulted, cheated, and slew them without pity. “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” [5]
Does the unsealed scroll contain the vision of Daniel? “In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes.” “He shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule. He shall exalt himself in his heart. Seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future.” [6] Has that future arrived? Is it time to unseal this prophecy?
The scroll was sealed with seven seals. Some think the scroll was the title deed to planet earth.
Before Jerusalem was destroyed by the King of Babylon, the Lord told Jeremiah to purchase land in the city because after a season of tribulation. God would bring forth a new Jerusalem. In the last days, after the devil has a hay day on the earth, the Lord returns to earth to cast the devil and his followers into the Lake of Fire and to bring forth a new heaven, a new earth and a new Jerusalem. [7]
“One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to remove its seven seals.” [8]
The Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David’s tree are references to Jesus the Messiah!
Jesus is King David’s Son because He is a descendant of David. Jesus is David’s root because He is David’s Creator. The title, “Lion of the tribe of Judah” relates Jesus to prophecies of the Messiah recorded in Genesis 49:9-10, Isaiah 31:4, and Hosea 11:10. The title. “Root of David” relates Jesus to a prophecy of Messiah recorded in Isaiah 11:10.
The lion is an image of strength, kingliness, vigilance. A lamb is an image of tenderness and vulnerability. Dr. Adrian Rogers said, “Jesus is a lamb to those who believe in Him but a lion to those who reject Him.”
“And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.” [9]
Jesus appeared to John as a Lamb that was slaughtered and yet standing. Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah 700 years before His arrival, saying, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was like a Lamb led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.” [10]
This Messiah does not minimize the moans of mistreated people. He hears their cries in heaven. Standing after slaughter means He was resurrected. The Lamb had the marks of sacrifice on it. He is also omnipotent (seven horns) and omniscient (seven eyes). In the Bible, eyes suggest knowledge and wisdom. Horns suggest power. [11]
“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” [12]
The moment the Lamb takes the scroll, the four cherubim and 24 elders bow and worship Him. Various cults deny the deity of Christ, but it would be blasphemy for anyone to worship Jesus Christ if He was not God.
Heavens does not lack musicians. Worship in heaven is accompanied with harp music.
The elders present the prayers of the saints to God. God regards their prayer as a sweet-smelling incense, as if set in precious golden bowls. David said to the Lord, “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Incense has a pleasing aroma. It ascends to God. The prayers of holy people smell good to God. Incense needs fire before it is of any use. The fire alludes to the Holy Spirit who appeared as tongues of fire on heads of praying people on the Day of Pentecost. [13]
“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.’” [14]
The song honors the price of redemption: “for You were slain.” The song honors the work of redemption: “You redeemed us.” The song honors the destination of redemption: “You redeemed us to God.” The song honors the cost of redemption: “By Your blood.” The song honors the scope of redemption: “every tribe, tongue, people, nation.” The song honors the outcomes of redemption: “Kings and priests to God.” [15]
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer “who disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (the cross).” On the cross, Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” When Jesus died on the cross, He removed our sin. Sin was the devil’s gateway to destroy us. Jesus disarmed our enemy by removing our sin. [16]
His wrath comes upon those who said, “We will not have this King to reign over us.” His wrath comes upon all who reject His sacrifice for their sin. They rejected the only cure for the deadly disease of sin. Jesus said, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.” [17]
Jesus is the Savior of repentant sinners. Jesus is the Judge of unrepentant sinners. Some people disregard Jesus. Other people use His Name to curse. When we die, we meet Jesus either as a Lion or a Lamb. A Savior or a Judge!
Look at your knees. Stick out your tongue. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. [18] That includes your knees and tongue, as well as mine.
Some politicians persecute Jesus, but they cannot dethrone Him. God sits in heaven and laughs at the coup attempts of kings to overthrow Him. It is impossible to dethrone God. The devil already tried that and failed. [19]
“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, and 1,000’s of 1,000’s, saying with a loud voice: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!’” [20]
Daniel had a similar vision from the Lord during a scroll opening. “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him: 10,000 x 10,000 stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.” [21]
The host of heaven are preparing for war on evil. Countless angels join in, declaring the worthiness of the Lamb because of the redemption He accomplished. They don’t mumble God’s praises. They speak loudly. Millions of voices praising Jesus Christ! They give Him honor, glory and blessing!
Then, John heard every creature praising Jesus. “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, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!’ Then the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.” [22]
Wherever Jesus is present and working, there is praise and worship.
Let us pray for those who hate Christ. The devil “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Jesus Christ is the only One in whom there is salvation. There is salvation in no other Name. Eternal salvation is not obscure. No, the Lord has revealed it to us in the Bible. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. [23]
Long ago the Psalmist wrote, “The redemption of their souls is costly... that he should continue to live eternally, and not see the Pit.” “Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever, their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.” “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me.” [24]
God keeps the promises that He made in His holy Word the Bible. “Our God shall come and shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people: ‘Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.’” [25]
The Lord Jesus is going to gather to Himself all who professed His Name as their Lord and Savior but cast from His presence those who rejected Him. Thus, it is good to pray to God as David did when He asked the Lord, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” [26]
[1] Revelation 5:1-2
[2] Isaiah 29:11, 13-14
[3] Revelation 5:3-4
[4] Ezekiel 2:9-3:1
[5] Exodus 3:7-8; 7:5
[6] Daniel 8:23, 25-26
[7] Jeremiah 32:9-15; Revelation 12-13, 19-21
[8] Revelation 5:5
[9] Revelation 5:6-7
[10] Isaiah 53:7
[11] Zechariah 3:9, 4:10; Psalm 18:2; Daniel 7-8
[12] Revelation 5:8
[13] Psalm 141:2; Acts 2:3-4
[14] Revelation 5:9-10
[15] Notes from Sermon by Adrian Rogers
[16] Colossian 2:15; John 19:28-30
[17] Luke 19:27; John 5:22
[18] Philippians 2:10-11
[19] Psalm 2; Revelation 12:7-12
[20] Revelation 5:11-12
[21] Daniel 7:10
[22] Revelation 5:13-14
[23] 2 Corinthians 4:4; Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9-10
[24] Psalm 49:8-9, 11-12, 15
[25] Psalm 50:3-5
[26] Psalm 51:10-12
“Who is worthy” is the resounding question that the strong angel asks. There is something important written in that scroll. The Lord gave Isaiah the prophet a similar experience.
“The whole vision has become to you like the words of a scroll that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, ‘Read this, please.’ And he says, ‘I cannot, for it is sealed.’” The Lord said to Isaiah that because His people only pretended to worship Him, but were far from Him, their wise men would be unwise; and their prudent men would lack understanding. The Lord would not open His revelation to imposters.
“And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.” [3]
John wants the scroll to be unsealed.
Perhaps, it is a scroll like the one God gave Ezekiel. God gave Ezekiel a scroll with writing on the inside and outside that was full of lamentations, mourning and woes. He told Ezekiel to eat it and then speak to people. After this vision, Ezekiel had words of woe within him which he went about sharing everywhere. [4] Is this scroll full of lamentations and woes? If so, why? Why would God release woes and sadness on people?
God released woes and sadness on the people of Egypt because they were abusing His people. The Lord said to Moses, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So, I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land…” The Egyptians whipped, despised, insulted, cheated, and slew them without pity. “The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” [5]
Does the unsealed scroll contain the vision of Daniel? “In the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their fullness, a king shall arise, having fierce features, who understands sinister schemes.” “He shall cause deceit to prosper under his rule. He shall exalt himself in his heart. Seal up the vision, for it refers to many days in the future.” [6] Has that future arrived? Is it time to unseal this prophecy?
The scroll was sealed with seven seals. Some think the scroll was the title deed to planet earth.
Before Jerusalem was destroyed by the King of Babylon, the Lord told Jeremiah to purchase land in the city because after a season of tribulation. God would bring forth a new Jerusalem. In the last days, after the devil has a hay day on the earth, the Lord returns to earth to cast the devil and his followers into the Lake of Fire and to bring forth a new heaven, a new earth and a new Jerusalem. [7]
“One of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to remove its seven seals.” [8]
The Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David’s tree are references to Jesus the Messiah!
Jesus is King David’s Son because He is a descendant of David. Jesus is David’s root because He is David’s Creator. The title, “Lion of the tribe of Judah” relates Jesus to prophecies of the Messiah recorded in Genesis 49:9-10, Isaiah 31:4, and Hosea 11:10. The title. “Root of David” relates Jesus to a prophecy of Messiah recorded in Isaiah 11:10.
The lion is an image of strength, kingliness, vigilance. A lamb is an image of tenderness and vulnerability. Dr. Adrian Rogers said, “Jesus is a lamb to those who believe in Him but a lion to those who reject Him.”
“And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.” [9]
Jesus appeared to John as a Lamb that was slaughtered and yet standing. Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah 700 years before His arrival, saying, “He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; He was like a Lamb led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth.” [10]
This Messiah does not minimize the moans of mistreated people. He hears their cries in heaven. Standing after slaughter means He was resurrected. The Lamb had the marks of sacrifice on it. He is also omnipotent (seven horns) and omniscient (seven eyes). In the Bible, eyes suggest knowledge and wisdom. Horns suggest power. [11]
“Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” [12]
The moment the Lamb takes the scroll, the four cherubim and 24 elders bow and worship Him. Various cults deny the deity of Christ, but it would be blasphemy for anyone to worship Jesus Christ if He was not God.
Heavens does not lack musicians. Worship in heaven is accompanied with harp music.
The elders present the prayers of the saints to God. God regards their prayer as a sweet-smelling incense, as if set in precious golden bowls. David said to the Lord, “Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Incense has a pleasing aroma. It ascends to God. The prayers of holy people smell good to God. Incense needs fire before it is of any use. The fire alludes to the Holy Spirit who appeared as tongues of fire on heads of praying people on the Day of Pentecost. [13]
“And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth.’” [14]
The song honors the price of redemption: “for You were slain.” The song honors the work of redemption: “You redeemed us.” The song honors the destination of redemption: “You redeemed us to God.” The song honors the cost of redemption: “By Your blood.” The song honors the scope of redemption: “every tribe, tongue, people, nation.” The song honors the outcomes of redemption: “Kings and priests to God.” [15]
Jesus Christ is the Redeemer “who disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it (the cross).” On the cross, Jesus cried out, “It is finished.” When Jesus died on the cross, He removed our sin. Sin was the devil’s gateway to destroy us. Jesus disarmed our enemy by removing our sin. [16]
His wrath comes upon those who said, “We will not have this King to reign over us.” His wrath comes upon all who reject His sacrifice for their sin. They rejected the only cure for the deadly disease of sin. Jesus said, “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.” [17]
Jesus is the Savior of repentant sinners. Jesus is the Judge of unrepentant sinners. Some people disregard Jesus. Other people use His Name to curse. When we die, we meet Jesus either as a Lion or a Lamb. A Savior or a Judge!
Look at your knees. Stick out your tongue. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. [18] That includes your knees and tongue, as well as mine.
Some politicians persecute Jesus, but they cannot dethrone Him. God sits in heaven and laughs at the coup attempts of kings to overthrow Him. It is impossible to dethrone God. The devil already tried that and failed. [19]
“Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, and 1,000’s of 1,000’s, saying with a loud voice: ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!’” [20]
Daniel had a similar vision from the Lord during a scroll opening. “A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him: 10,000 x 10,000 stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.” [21]
The host of heaven are preparing for war on evil. Countless angels join in, declaring the worthiness of the Lamb because of the redemption He accomplished. They don’t mumble God’s praises. They speak loudly. Millions of voices praising Jesus Christ! They give Him honor, glory and blessing!
Then, John heard every creature praising Jesus. “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, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!’ Then the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ And the 24 elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.” [22]
Wherever Jesus is present and working, there is praise and worship.
Let us pray for those who hate Christ. The devil “has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Jesus Christ is the only One in whom there is salvation. There is salvation in no other Name. Eternal salvation is not obscure. No, the Lord has revealed it to us in the Bible. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. [23]
Long ago the Psalmist wrote, “The redemption of their souls is costly... that he should continue to live eternally, and not see the Pit.” “Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever, their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.” “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me.” [24]
God keeps the promises that He made in His holy Word the Bible. “Our God shall come and shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people: ‘Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.’” [25]
The Lord Jesus is going to gather to Himself all who professed His Name as their Lord and Savior but cast from His presence those who rejected Him. Thus, it is good to pray to God as David did when He asked the Lord, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” [26]
[1] Revelation 5:1-2
[2] Isaiah 29:11, 13-14
[3] Revelation 5:3-4
[4] Ezekiel 2:9-3:1
[5] Exodus 3:7-8; 7:5
[6] Daniel 8:23, 25-26
[7] Jeremiah 32:9-15; Revelation 12-13, 19-21
[8] Revelation 5:5
[9] Revelation 5:6-7
[10] Isaiah 53:7
[11] Zechariah 3:9, 4:10; Psalm 18:2; Daniel 7-8
[12] Revelation 5:8
[13] Psalm 141:2; Acts 2:3-4
[14] Revelation 5:9-10
[15] Notes from Sermon by Adrian Rogers
[16] Colossian 2:15; John 19:28-30
[17] Luke 19:27; John 5:22
[18] Philippians 2:10-11
[19] Psalm 2; Revelation 12:7-12
[20] Revelation 5:11-12
[21] Daniel 7:10
[22] Revelation 5:13-14
[23] 2 Corinthians 4:4; Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9-10
[24] Psalm 49:8-9, 11-12, 15
[25] Psalm 50:3-5
[26] Psalm 51:10-12
Tuesday, August 5, 2025
Heaven’s Open Door
“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.’” [1]
Is the door of heaven open to you? Jesus Christ is the opener. He holds the key. But is the door of your heart open to Jesus? Jesus promised. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.” [2]
How wonderful! The King of the mightiest kingdom that exists wants to commune with you and me! What wonderous love this is!
John saw a door standing open in heaven. The first voice he hears sounds like a trumpet. The voice says to John, “Come up here.” This sounds like the rapture that the Lord revealed to the Thessalonian Christians.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” [3]
Jesus said that His coming will be as the days of Noah. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark. Before God’s wrath on sin was released, God took His faithful followers out of harm’s way. Jesus taught that some will be taken and others left behind. Peter spoke of Noah and his family being taken and others left behind, “[God] saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.” [4]
The Lord will winnow the wheat from the chaff. Like a giant metal detector in the sky, those who believe in Him will be caught up to be with Him. “We wait for God’s Son from heaven, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.” Paul wrote, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” The Heavenly Father will say to His Son, “Go get your bride.” [5]
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled; you believe in God; believe also in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.” Jesus is going to take His bride. Jesus told us three last days parables in which He takes some and not others. He takes five wise virgins with oil in their lamps and shuts out five foolish virgins. He takes two profitable servants and rejects an unprofitable one. He takes those who show mercy, but casts out those who do not. When asked where these events will happen, Jesus replied, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” Eagles gather where flesh is available to eat. The rapture will happen wherever there are believers. [6]
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” [7] No wonder that they mourn. The Lord came and took His people to be with Him and they were left behind.
A voice, a trumpet and an entrance to the be with the Lord! Jesus is able to lift John from earth to heaven before the tribulation takes place, but He sends John back to earth to prophesy to the nations. “He said to me, ‘You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.’” [8] Thankfully, John returned to earth from this vision and he wrote down what the Lord revealed to him. This is why we have the Book of Revelation today.
I look forward to the day that the Lord says to me, “Come up here.” Eternity with God!
John ascended! He entered the door! He beheld God! He was in the Spirit when it happened. This is a divine vision.
“Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.” [9]
He sees God seated on His throne. God appears like a jasper and a sardius stone. Israel’s high priest wore the jasper and sardius along with ten other gemstones on his chest. Each of the twelve stones represented a tribe of Israel. As the high priest wore the tribes of Israel symbolically on his chest, so Jesus, our High Priest carries us on His heart. Jasper and sardius are the first and last gems, respectively, on the high priest's garments. This description reinforces that Jesus is the “first and the last.” [10]
An emerald rainbow shines around the throne. The green represents life. Life emanates from God. The rainbow about His throne is a complete circle. An unbroken circle represents life eternal. It reminds us of the rainbow that appeared after the flood. John sees a rainbow before the tribulation of the last days, Noah saw the rainbow AFTER the tribulation of the flood.
God had said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” The rainbow reminds us of God’s grace. God urges us to come boldly to His throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. [11]
“Around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thundering, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” [12]
The 24 thrones with 24 elders around God’s throne represent the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. New Jerusalem is described as having 12 gates with one name of a tribe of Israel on each gate. New Jerusalem has walls with 12 foundations with one name of an apostle on each foundation. The 12 tribes represent the Old Testament. The 12 apostles represent the New Testament. The 24 elders represent God’s redeemed people. They have crowns because Jesus promised crowns of life to victors. He or she who holds to God’s Word wins. Their white robes indicate the righteousness of Christ. They have been sanctified by the blood of the Lamb. [13]
John heard loud thunder and voices. He saw flashes of lightning! This is what the people of Noah’s day saw after he and his family entered the ark. The visions of thunder and lightning contrast with the beauty and serenity of the rainbow. They represent God’s wrath against sin. The people of Noah’s day experienced the wrath of God. If we trust in our works, God judges us by our works. If we trust in Christ, He saves us by His grace. God’s wrath on sin is what the tribulation is about. Storm after storm, plaque after plaque! John sees the fiery lamps that represent the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the One who reveals the things of God to us.
“It is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” [14]
“Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal.” [15] A sea that is as clear as glass is a calm sea. Though tribulation is coming upon the earth, heaven is serene.
Before the Old Testament priests would enter the temple, they would pass by the basin of water and the altar of sacrifice. Water cleanses. In the New Testament, all believers are invited to the baptismal basin. In fact, some churches place a baptismal font just inside the front doors of their church. They call the baptismal basin the womb of the church. The crystal sea reminds us that the Lord got us to heaven by cleansing us with His Word. [16]
“And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ‘You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.’” [17]
John saw four living creatures before God’s throne. Cherubim that never rest!
Reformation theologians interpreted these cherubim to represent the four Gospels because to them the key message of the Bible is Jesus Christ. Matthew spoke of Christ’s kingly nature. He is the cherubim with a lion’s face. Mark spoke of Christ’s servant nature. He is the cherubim with an ox’s face. Luke spoke of Christ’s human nature. He is the cherubim with the man’s face. John spoke of Christ’s exalted nature. He is the cherubim with the eagle’s appearance. Reformation theologians sought to elevate God’s Word.
Other Bible interpreters understand these four cherubim to represent angels because they are similar to the angels that God revealed to Ezekiel. [18]
More importantly than what they are is what they do. They worship God day and night saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” They glorify, honor, and give God thanks.
Heaven is full of joy, respect, and thanksgiving unto God. What a contrast with earth where people take His Name in vain!
King David brought a sense of heaven to earth when he appointed a multitude of men over the service of song in the house of the Lord. He appointed them to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord with stringed instruments, harps, cymbals, and trumpets. [19]
As the four creatures glorify the Lord, the 24 elders bow down and worship. They recognize that worthiness belongs to the Lord. They take off their crowns and lay them down before God. They say, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” They glorify the Lord. They recognize and confess with their mouths who He is. There is no partisan politics. There is harmony. What one does, all do. They exist to glorify God. So, should we.
Glorifying the Lord should be our navigational compass! If we are praising and glorifying Him, we are spiritually healthy, if not, something is lacking. We are off-coarse. We need to come back to a heart of worship.
Some believe in atheism. Some are humanistic. Some are materialistic. Who is on the throne of your life? The Bible says, “To as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” [20] Christ Jesus is willing to receive you. Are you willing to receive Him? If so, repent of sin and ask Him to be your Lord and Savior. Profess that He alone is able to save you and bring you to His glorious throne.
[1] Revelation 4:1
[2] Revelation 3:20
[3] 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
[4] Matthew 24:37-44; 2 Peter 2:5
[5] Matthew 3:12; ; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
[6] John 14:1-3; Matthew 25; Luke 17:37; Revelation 1:7
[7] Revelation 1:7
[8] Revelation 10:11
[9] Revelation 4:2-3
[10] Exodus 28:17–21; Revelation 1:8; 22:13
[11] Genesis 9:12-13; Hebrews 4:16
[12] Revelation 4:4-5
[13] Revelation 21:12, 14; Revelation 1:5-6
[14] 1 Corinthians 2:9-12
[15] Revelation 4:6
[16] Exodus 30:18-21; Ephesians 5:25
[17] Revelation 4:6-11
[18] Ezekiel 1:4-14; 10:20-22
[19] 1 Chronicles 16:4-6, 31
[20] John 1:12-13
Is the door of heaven open to you? Jesus Christ is the opener. He holds the key. But is the door of your heart open to Jesus? Jesus promised. “If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.” [2]
How wonderful! The King of the mightiest kingdom that exists wants to commune with you and me! What wonderous love this is!
John saw a door standing open in heaven. The first voice he hears sounds like a trumpet. The voice says to John, “Come up here.” This sounds like the rapture that the Lord revealed to the Thessalonian Christians.
“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” [3]
Jesus said that His coming will be as the days of Noah. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark. Before God’s wrath on sin was released, God took His faithful followers out of harm’s way. Jesus taught that some will be taken and others left behind. Peter spoke of Noah and his family being taken and others left behind, “[God] saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly.” [4]
The Lord will winnow the wheat from the chaff. Like a giant metal detector in the sky, those who believe in Him will be caught up to be with Him. “We wait for God’s Son from heaven, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.” Paul wrote, “Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” The Heavenly Father will say to His Son, “Go get your bride.” [5]
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled; you believe in God; believe also in Me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.” Jesus is going to take His bride. Jesus told us three last days parables in which He takes some and not others. He takes five wise virgins with oil in their lamps and shuts out five foolish virgins. He takes two profitable servants and rejects an unprofitable one. He takes those who show mercy, but casts out those who do not. When asked where these events will happen, Jesus replied, “Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.” Eagles gather where flesh is available to eat. The rapture will happen wherever there are believers. [6]
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” [7] No wonder that they mourn. The Lord came and took His people to be with Him and they were left behind.
A voice, a trumpet and an entrance to the be with the Lord! Jesus is able to lift John from earth to heaven before the tribulation takes place, but He sends John back to earth to prophesy to the nations. “He said to me, ‘You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.’” [8] Thankfully, John returned to earth from this vision and he wrote down what the Lord revealed to him. This is why we have the Book of Revelation today.
I look forward to the day that the Lord says to me, “Come up here.” Eternity with God!
John ascended! He entered the door! He beheld God! He was in the Spirit when it happened. This is a divine vision.
“Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald.” [9]
He sees God seated on His throne. God appears like a jasper and a sardius stone. Israel’s high priest wore the jasper and sardius along with ten other gemstones on his chest. Each of the twelve stones represented a tribe of Israel. As the high priest wore the tribes of Israel symbolically on his chest, so Jesus, our High Priest carries us on His heart. Jasper and sardius are the first and last gems, respectively, on the high priest's garments. This description reinforces that Jesus is the “first and the last.” [10]
An emerald rainbow shines around the throne. The green represents life. Life emanates from God. The rainbow about His throne is a complete circle. An unbroken circle represents life eternal. It reminds us of the rainbow that appeared after the flood. John sees a rainbow before the tribulation of the last days, Noah saw the rainbow AFTER the tribulation of the flood.
God had said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.” The rainbow reminds us of God’s grace. God urges us to come boldly to His throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. [11]
“Around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thundering, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” [12]
The 24 thrones with 24 elders around God’s throne represent the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles. New Jerusalem is described as having 12 gates with one name of a tribe of Israel on each gate. New Jerusalem has walls with 12 foundations with one name of an apostle on each foundation. The 12 tribes represent the Old Testament. The 12 apostles represent the New Testament. The 24 elders represent God’s redeemed people. They have crowns because Jesus promised crowns of life to victors. He or she who holds to God’s Word wins. Their white robes indicate the righteousness of Christ. They have been sanctified by the blood of the Lamb. [13]
John heard loud thunder and voices. He saw flashes of lightning! This is what the people of Noah’s day saw after he and his family entered the ark. The visions of thunder and lightning contrast with the beauty and serenity of the rainbow. They represent God’s wrath against sin. The people of Noah’s day experienced the wrath of God. If we trust in our works, God judges us by our works. If we trust in Christ, He saves us by His grace. God’s wrath on sin is what the tribulation is about. Storm after storm, plaque after plaque! John sees the fiery lamps that represent the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is the One who reveals the things of God to us.
“It is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” [14]
“Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal.” [15] A sea that is as clear as glass is a calm sea. Though tribulation is coming upon the earth, heaven is serene.
Before the Old Testament priests would enter the temple, they would pass by the basin of water and the altar of sacrifice. Water cleanses. In the New Testament, all believers are invited to the baptismal basin. In fact, some churches place a baptismal font just inside the front doors of their church. They call the baptismal basin the womb of the church. The crystal sea reminds us that the Lord got us to heaven by cleansing us with His Word. [16]
“And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’ Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ‘You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.’” [17]
John saw four living creatures before God’s throne. Cherubim that never rest!
Reformation theologians interpreted these cherubim to represent the four Gospels because to them the key message of the Bible is Jesus Christ. Matthew spoke of Christ’s kingly nature. He is the cherubim with a lion’s face. Mark spoke of Christ’s servant nature. He is the cherubim with an ox’s face. Luke spoke of Christ’s human nature. He is the cherubim with the man’s face. John spoke of Christ’s exalted nature. He is the cherubim with the eagle’s appearance. Reformation theologians sought to elevate God’s Word.
Other Bible interpreters understand these four cherubim to represent angels because they are similar to the angels that God revealed to Ezekiel. [18]
More importantly than what they are is what they do. They worship God day and night saying: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.” They glorify, honor, and give God thanks.
Heaven is full of joy, respect, and thanksgiving unto God. What a contrast with earth where people take His Name in vain!
King David brought a sense of heaven to earth when he appointed a multitude of men over the service of song in the house of the Lord. He appointed them to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord with stringed instruments, harps, cymbals, and trumpets. [19]
As the four creatures glorify the Lord, the 24 elders bow down and worship. They recognize that worthiness belongs to the Lord. They take off their crowns and lay them down before God. They say, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” They glorify the Lord. They recognize and confess with their mouths who He is. There is no partisan politics. There is harmony. What one does, all do. They exist to glorify God. So, should we.
Glorifying the Lord should be our navigational compass! If we are praising and glorifying Him, we are spiritually healthy, if not, something is lacking. We are off-coarse. We need to come back to a heart of worship.
Some believe in atheism. Some are humanistic. Some are materialistic. Who is on the throne of your life? The Bible says, “To as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” [20] Christ Jesus is willing to receive you. Are you willing to receive Him? If so, repent of sin and ask Him to be your Lord and Savior. Profess that He alone is able to save you and bring you to His glorious throne.
[1] Revelation 4:1
[2] Revelation 3:20
[3] 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
[4] Matthew 24:37-44; 2 Peter 2:5
[5] Matthew 3:12; ; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
[6] John 14:1-3; Matthew 25; Luke 17:37; Revelation 1:7
[7] Revelation 1:7
[8] Revelation 10:11
[9] Revelation 4:2-3
[10] Exodus 28:17–21; Revelation 1:8; 22:13
[11] Genesis 9:12-13; Hebrews 4:16
[12] Revelation 4:4-5
[13] Revelation 21:12, 14; Revelation 1:5-6
[14] 1 Corinthians 2:9-12
[15] Revelation 4:6
[16] Exodus 30:18-21; Ephesians 5:25
[17] Revelation 4:6-11
[18] Ezekiel 1:4-14; 10:20-22
[19] 1 Chronicles 16:4-6, 31
[20] John 1:12-13
Monday, August 4, 2025
Brighter and Brighter Until the Full Day
“Hold fast… To My Name… to what you have till I come… Repent… So that no one takes your crown!” These were the messages of Jesus to the churches of Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to us: “Hold fast!”
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” [1]
The devil scammed Adam and Eve out of paradise. He used fake news to get them to depart from God. Jesus said that the devil lies, kills, and destroys. His goal is to separate us from God so he can rob us. The Church, like an Old Testament prophet, calls people to a close relationship with God. We need to tell them that JESUS is the WAY! [2]
“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” [3]
God calls us to be genuine not imposters. God desires truth in the inward parts. [4]
Jesus taught us to be deeply rooted not shallow in God’s Word. [5] Do not allow tribulation, persecution, cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches to strangle your growth.
To repent is to come to one’s senses. [6] We need to realize the matchless worth of Christ.
Sardis was a wealthy city built on high cliffs. It seemed invincible. One day a Sardis defender dropped his helmet down from the cliff wall. An enemy solider learned the location of the secret entrance to the city. Sardis should have depended on God. [7]
“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” [8]
Only a few of the Christians in Sardis stayed on track. The pagan gods of Sardis could not be approached with dirty clothes. Jesus says, “The one who is victorious will be dressed in white.” Jesus gives to us white garments of righteousness. White was also the color of triumph to the Romans. [9] How did they stay clean? They abided in Jesus!
Jesus said, “I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life but will acknowledge that name before My Father and His angels.” Sardis blotted out the names of convicted criminals from the city’s book of life. God also has a Book of Life. [10]
God said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.” Jesus told His disciples to rejoice because their names are written in heaven. “If anyone removes words from this prophecy, God removes his part from the Book of Life.” [11]
To be in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you must have the Lamb. Self-approval or the approval of others is not enough.
“These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.” [12]
Jesus told the Philadelphians He holds the key of David. A king opens or shuts his kingdom to whom he pleases. Christians in Philadelphia were excluded from the synagogue. The open door to God’s kingdom contrasted with the synagogue’s closed door. Jesus has the authority to open or close the kingdom of heaven. [13]
“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My Word, and have not denied My Name. Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.” [14]
Jesus told them that he would make the Satanists to bow at their feet and acknowledge His love for them. The Lord gave to Job, Daniel, Esther, and Mordecai these victories as they abided in Him. Satan wanted them to stumble, but God transformed Satan’s stumbling blocks into stepping stones for Job, Daniel, Esther and Mordecai to bring great glory to God.
“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” [15]
The test is a refining process to remove that which diminishes value so that only that which is of value remains. The people of Philadelphia had already been tested by those of the synagogue (the gathering place) of Satan. After the test, all that remained in them was a desire to profess the Name of Jesus. Glory to God! Sadly, many in the end times will experience tribulation, but refuse to repent and turn to Christ for deliverance and salvation. Jesus promised to keep the Philadelphian believers from the hour of trial. Most likely referring to the rapture. Those in Christ will be raptured to be with the Lord before the last great tribulation begins. [16]
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the Name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new Name.” [17]
Jesus promised to make overcomers into pillars. The temple in Jerusalem had two prominent pillars. One pillar was called Jachin which means “stability.” The other pillar was called Boaz which means “strength.” Pillars convey the idea of stability and permanence. In a city where earthquakes happen, permanence is comforting. Paul calls Peter, James, and John pillars.
Jesus wrote on the overcomers the Name of God, the name of God’s city and His new Name. These wonderful names contrast with the evil beast’s 666 mark. The Old Testament priests had, “Holiness to the Lord” written on their turbans. These holy men helped God’s people to distinguish between the holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean. [18]
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” [19]
Lukewarmness is a metaphor for apathy and compromise. They were too hot to be cold and too cold to be hot. In trying to be both things, they ended up being of no use.
“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” [20]
Laodicea was famous for worldly gold not spiritual gold, and for black clothing, not garments made white by holy living. They were famous for body not soul medicine. If they asked Jesus, He would heal them, but they did not ask.
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” [21]
William Barclay wrote, “Jesus’ great love was expressed in His rebuke. It is, in fact, God’s final punishment to leave a person alone.”
Tough love confronts the straying sheep that does not want to be confronted. He pleaded, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.” Jesus had to knock and urge them to let Him in. Jesus wants a deep, meaningful relationship with us. The text does not say, “If the Church will open the door.” It says, “If anyone hear My voice and open the door.” It must be done by individuals. The church gets right with God as each Christian gets right with God. Jesus told them to open their hearts to Him and He would come and sup with them.
“To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with My Father on his throne.” [22]
The one who overcomes apathy, compromise, and self-reliance enjoys a place enthroned with Jesus.
“Jesus commanded each church to “OVERCOME!” In the book, Lives of Eminent Persons, the common thread that ran through all their lives was a determination to overcome. 25% of these leaders had handicaps. Most should have never made the list.”
“Jesus says to us, ‘Be faithful unto death!’ Do we realize who Jesus is? Are we ready for His return? Are we listening to what His Spirit is saying to our church? There are a lot of spiritual forces of wickedness fighting against us. Jesus is saying to us, ‘Hold fast! Overcome!’” [23]
The following Bible passages contain helpful prayers and declarations of faith.
“O, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” [24]
“They did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, because You favored them.” We are saved by God’s grace through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. [25]
“In God we boast all day long and praise Your Name forever. Selah” [26]
We will praise the Name of Christ forever for dying for us on the cross for our sin and resurrecting from the dead for our resurrection.
“They sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’” [27]
“Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way.” [28]
“I will make Your Name to be remembered in all generations; therefore, the people shall praise You forever and ever.” [29]
Let us lift up the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord for all people to praise!
Such wisdom “will place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will deliver to you.” [30]
“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” [31]
[1] Hebrews 10:23
[2] Genesis 3:1-7; John 10:10; John 14:6
[3] Revelation 3:1-3
[4] Psalm 51:6
[5] Matthew 13:21-22
[6] Luke 15:17
[7] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[8] Revelation 3:4-5
[9] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[10] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[11] Exodus 32:33; Luke 10:20; Revelation 22:19
[12] Revelation 3:7
[13] Revelation 3:9; “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[14] Revelation 3:8-9
[15] Revelation 3:10-11
[16] 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
[17] Revelation 3:12
[18] 2 Chronicles 3:17; Galatians 2:9; Revelation 13:18; Exodus 28:36; Leviticus 10:10
[19] Revelation 3:15-16
[20] Revelation 3:17-18
[21] Revelation 3:19-20
[22] Revelation 3:21
[23] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[24] Psalm 43:3-4
[25] Psalm 44:3, Ephesians 2:8-9
[26] Psalm 44:8
[27] Revelation 5:9
[28] Psalm 44:18
[29] Psalm 45:17
[30] Proverbs 4:9
[31] Proverbs 4:18
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” [1]
The devil scammed Adam and Eve out of paradise. He used fake news to get them to depart from God. Jesus said that the devil lies, kills, and destroys. His goal is to separate us from God so he can rob us. The Church, like an Old Testament prophet, calls people to a close relationship with God. We need to tell them that JESUS is the WAY! [2]
“I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.” [3]
God calls us to be genuine not imposters. God desires truth in the inward parts. [4]
Jesus taught us to be deeply rooted not shallow in God’s Word. [5] Do not allow tribulation, persecution, cares of this world and deceitfulness of riches to strangle your growth.
To repent is to come to one’s senses. [6] We need to realize the matchless worth of Christ.
Sardis was a wealthy city built on high cliffs. It seemed invincible. One day a Sardis defender dropped his helmet down from the cliff wall. An enemy solider learned the location of the secret entrance to the city. Sardis should have depended on God. [7]
“You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” [8]
Only a few of the Christians in Sardis stayed on track. The pagan gods of Sardis could not be approached with dirty clothes. Jesus says, “The one who is victorious will be dressed in white.” Jesus gives to us white garments of righteousness. White was also the color of triumph to the Romans. [9] How did they stay clean? They abided in Jesus!
Jesus said, “I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life but will acknowledge that name before My Father and His angels.” Sardis blotted out the names of convicted criminals from the city’s book of life. God also has a Book of Life. [10]
God said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.” Jesus told His disciples to rejoice because their names are written in heaven. “If anyone removes words from this prophecy, God removes his part from the Book of Life.” [11]
To be in the Lamb’s Book of Life, you must have the Lamb. Self-approval or the approval of others is not enough.
“These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.” [12]
Jesus told the Philadelphians He holds the key of David. A king opens or shuts his kingdom to whom he pleases. Christians in Philadelphia were excluded from the synagogue. The open door to God’s kingdom contrasted with the synagogue’s closed door. Jesus has the authority to open or close the kingdom of heaven. [13]
“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My Word, and have not denied My Name. Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie—indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you.” [14]
Jesus told them that he would make the Satanists to bow at their feet and acknowledge His love for them. The Lord gave to Job, Daniel, Esther, and Mordecai these victories as they abided in Him. Satan wanted them to stumble, but God transformed Satan’s stumbling blocks into stepping stones for Job, Daniel, Esther and Mordecai to bring great glory to God.
“Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” [15]
The test is a refining process to remove that which diminishes value so that only that which is of value remains. The people of Philadelphia had already been tested by those of the synagogue (the gathering place) of Satan. After the test, all that remained in them was a desire to profess the Name of Jesus. Glory to God! Sadly, many in the end times will experience tribulation, but refuse to repent and turn to Christ for deliverance and salvation. Jesus promised to keep the Philadelphian believers from the hour of trial. Most likely referring to the rapture. Those in Christ will be raptured to be with the Lord before the last great tribulation begins. [16]
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the Name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new Name.” [17]
Jesus promised to make overcomers into pillars. The temple in Jerusalem had two prominent pillars. One pillar was called Jachin which means “stability.” The other pillar was called Boaz which means “strength.” Pillars convey the idea of stability and permanence. In a city where earthquakes happen, permanence is comforting. Paul calls Peter, James, and John pillars.
Jesus wrote on the overcomers the Name of God, the name of God’s city and His new Name. These wonderful names contrast with the evil beast’s 666 mark. The Old Testament priests had, “Holiness to the Lord” written on their turbans. These holy men helped God’s people to distinguish between the holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean. [18]
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.” [19]
Lukewarmness is a metaphor for apathy and compromise. They were too hot to be cold and too cold to be hot. In trying to be both things, they ended up being of no use.
“Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.” [20]
Laodicea was famous for worldly gold not spiritual gold, and for black clothing, not garments made white by holy living. They were famous for body not soul medicine. If they asked Jesus, He would heal them, but they did not ask.
“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore, be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” [21]
William Barclay wrote, “Jesus’ great love was expressed in His rebuke. It is, in fact, God’s final punishment to leave a person alone.”
Tough love confronts the straying sheep that does not want to be confronted. He pleaded, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.” Jesus had to knock and urge them to let Him in. Jesus wants a deep, meaningful relationship with us. The text does not say, “If the Church will open the door.” It says, “If anyone hear My voice and open the door.” It must be done by individuals. The church gets right with God as each Christian gets right with God. Jesus told them to open their hearts to Him and He would come and sup with them.
“To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with My Father on his throne.” [22]
The one who overcomes apathy, compromise, and self-reliance enjoys a place enthroned with Jesus.
“Jesus commanded each church to “OVERCOME!” In the book, Lives of Eminent Persons, the common thread that ran through all their lives was a determination to overcome. 25% of these leaders had handicaps. Most should have never made the list.”
“Jesus says to us, ‘Be faithful unto death!’ Do we realize who Jesus is? Are we ready for His return? Are we listening to what His Spirit is saying to our church? There are a lot of spiritual forces of wickedness fighting against us. Jesus is saying to us, ‘Hold fast! Overcome!’” [23]
The following Bible passages contain helpful prayers and declarations of faith.
“O, send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your tabernacle. Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy; and on the harp I will praise You, O God, my God.” [24]
“They did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them; but it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your countenance, because You favored them.” We are saved by God’s grace through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. [25]
“In God we boast all day long and praise Your Name forever. Selah” [26]
We will praise the Name of Christ forever for dying for us on the cross for our sin and resurrecting from the dead for our resurrection.
“They sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’” [27]
“Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from Your way.” [28]
“I will make Your Name to be remembered in all generations; therefore, the people shall praise You forever and ever.” [29]
Let us lift up the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord for all people to praise!
Such wisdom “will place on your head an ornament of grace; a crown of glory she will deliver to you.” [30]
“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.” [31]
[1] Hebrews 10:23
[2] Genesis 3:1-7; John 10:10; John 14:6
[3] Revelation 3:1-3
[4] Psalm 51:6
[5] Matthew 13:21-22
[6] Luke 15:17
[7] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[8] Revelation 3:4-5
[9] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[10] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[11] Exodus 32:33; Luke 10:20; Revelation 22:19
[12] Revelation 3:7
[13] Revelation 3:9; “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[14] Revelation 3:8-9
[15] Revelation 3:10-11
[16] 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18
[17] Revelation 3:12
[18] 2 Chronicles 3:17; Galatians 2:9; Revelation 13:18; Exodus 28:36; Leviticus 10:10
[19] Revelation 3:15-16
[20] Revelation 3:17-18
[21] Revelation 3:19-20
[22] Revelation 3:21
[23] “How to Keep Your Spiritual Fire Burning” sermon by Adrian Rogers
[24] Psalm 43:3-4
[25] Psalm 44:3, Ephesians 2:8-9
[26] Psalm 44:8
[27] Revelation 5:9
[28] Psalm 44:18
[29] Psalm 45:17
[30] Proverbs 4:9
[31] Proverbs 4:18
Sunday, August 3, 2025
Abide in Him to Overcome Sin
The Word of the Lord: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience and have labored for My Name’s sake and have not become weary.” [1]
The Lord says, “Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.” [2]
The Ephesian Christians trusted in the Lord. When false apostles tried to steal their trust in Christ, the Ephesians tested them and found them to be liars. Praise the Lord!
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” [3]
“Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let such as love Your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified!’” [4]
Discernment between right and wrong, and between true and false is a wonderful gift that Christ provides for His messengers. Praise the Lord! But let us remember to love the Lord and magnify Him, rejoice and be glad in Him, lest after we have exposed false apostles, we begin to desire, as they did, to be the first love of people. Jesus told Satan, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’” [5]
“But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” [6]
Nicolaitan, literally translated, means overcomer of people. These people wanted to outdo others rather than help them. The Good Shepherd wants to guide us to the tree of life in paradise. He hates the activities of Nicolaitans because they seek to be superior over others rather than humbly serve them that they might be saved.
“The perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, but His secret counsel is with the upright. The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the just. Surely, He scorns the scornful but gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools.” [7]
Jesus Christ described a fool as a person who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. He said, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” [8]
“I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” [9]
The devil imprisoned some of the Christians in Smyrna.
Jesus told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” David wrote, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.” [10]
In due season, divine deliverance will come from the Lord in one form or another, and your mouth will have a new song to sing.
“I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My Name and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” [11]
In some places, where Satan is reigning, the demonic repercussions are immediate and deadly against those who stand for Christ. Antipas was executed for daring to speak for Christ in Pergamos.
King David loved the Lord. He would have been executed for his love for God had not God answered his prayers and preserved him. He prayed, “Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore, my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me! Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who seek to destroy my life; let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor who wish me evil. Let them be confounded because of their shame, who say to me, ‘Aha, aha!’” [12]
“But I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” [13]
God blessed the people Pergamos with Antipas, His faithful martyr, but even so, some of them were indulging in food sacrificed to idols and indulging in sexual sins. Still others were joining with the people overcomers, those who love superheroes, or superior people, which Jesus hates. Jesus commanded them to repent, or He would come against them.
David wrote, “Blessed is he who considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.” “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” [14]
The poorest of the poor are those who fail to see the value of Christ. Rather than over-indulging in our blessings from God like the man who stored up things for himself, but was not rich towards God, we should consider the lost souls who need the Lord and use our overflowing blessings to help them. The Lord promises to deliver, preserve and heal from illnesses the one who considers the poor. The Lord calls us to quench the thirst of souls who need Him... of the soul who wants to appear before God and be with God forever.
The Lord set the following example for us. He said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your Law is within my heart. I have proclaimed the Good News of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.” Jesus wanted to enrich others by surrendering His will to God’s will, and by not restraining Himself from speaking to many people about God. [15]
“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.” [16]
Perhaps, the people in Thyatira did not want to know Christians or to know their works, but Jesus did and He told them so. David could sense the Lord was thinking about him as well. He wrote, “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me.” [17]
“Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” [18]
The Lord loved His followers in Thyatira so just as His prophets old did, He warned those among them who were doing evil to turn back to God. The evildoers among them were allowing a false prophetess to teach and seduce God’s servants to indulge in idolatry and sexual sin. Jesus warned that faction that He was going to cast Jezebel into a bed of sickness and she and her followers into great tribulation. He was about to kill her children with death so that all the churches would know that He does not turn a blind eye to evil among them.
The Lord says to us today, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” [19]
“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.” [20]
Stay with the Lord! He knows the pressure against you to compromise your loyalty to God is great but He will reward you. Remain faithful to Christ and to the preaching and teaching of Christ alone for salvation. We win over sin as we abide in Him!
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” [21]
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.” [22]
“Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” [23]
Ask the Lord for prayer partners if you do not have them. The Lord Jesus taught us that two or more people praying together yields great responses from God. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.” “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.” [24]
[1] Revelation 2:2-3
[2] Psalm 40:4
[3] Revelation 2:4-5
[4] Psalm 40:16
[5] Luke 4:8
[6] Revelation 2:6-7
[7] Proverbs 3:32-35
[8] Luke 12:20-21
[9] Revelation 2:9-10
[10] John 16:33; Psalm 40:1-3
[11] Revelation 2:13
[12] Psalm 40:11-15
[13] Revelation 2:14-16
[14] Psalm 41:1-3; Psalm 42:1-2
[15] Psalm 40:7-10
[16] Revelation 2:19
[17] Psalm 40:17
[18] Revelation 2:20-23
[19] Proverbs 3:11-12
[20] Revelation 2:24-26
[21] Psalm 42:5
[22] Proverbs 3:5-10
[23] Proverbs 3:26
[24] Matthew 18:20; Ecclesiastes 4:12; Acts 4:31
The Lord says, “Blessed is that man who makes the Lord his trust, and does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.” [2]
The Ephesian Christians trusted in the Lord. When false apostles tried to steal their trust in Christ, the Ephesians tested them and found them to be liars. Praise the Lord!
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent.” [3]
“Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; let such as love Your salvation say continually, ‘The Lord be magnified!’” [4]
Discernment between right and wrong, and between true and false is a wonderful gift that Christ provides for His messengers. Praise the Lord! But let us remember to love the Lord and magnify Him, rejoice and be glad in Him, lest after we have exposed false apostles, we begin to desire, as they did, to be the first love of people. Jesus told Satan, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’” [5]
“But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.” [6]
Nicolaitan, literally translated, means overcomer of people. These people wanted to outdo others rather than help them. The Good Shepherd wants to guide us to the tree of life in paradise. He hates the activities of Nicolaitans because they seek to be superior over others rather than humbly serve them that they might be saved.
“The perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, but His secret counsel is with the upright. The curse of the Lord is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the just. Surely, He scorns the scornful but gives grace to the humble. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the legacy of fools.” [7]
Jesus Christ described a fool as a person who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God. He said, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” [8]
“I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” [9]
The devil imprisoned some of the Christians in Smyrna.
Jesus told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” David wrote, “I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined to me and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; many will see it and fear and will trust in the Lord.” [10]
In due season, divine deliverance will come from the Lord in one form or another, and your mouth will have a new song to sing.
“I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My Name and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” [11]
In some places, where Satan is reigning, the demonic repercussions are immediate and deadly against those who stand for Christ. Antipas was executed for daring to speak for Christ in Pergamos.
King David loved the Lord. He would have been executed for his love for God had not God answered his prayers and preserved him. He prayed, “Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore, my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; O Lord, make haste to help me! Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion who seek to destroy my life; let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor who wish me evil. Let them be confounded because of their shame, who say to me, ‘Aha, aha!’” [12]
“But I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.” [13]
God blessed the people Pergamos with Antipas, His faithful martyr, but even so, some of them were indulging in food sacrificed to idols and indulging in sexual sins. Still others were joining with the people overcomers, those who love superheroes, or superior people, which Jesus hates. Jesus commanded them to repent, or He would come against them.
David wrote, “Blessed is he who considers the poor; the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.” “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” [14]
The poorest of the poor are those who fail to see the value of Christ. Rather than over-indulging in our blessings from God like the man who stored up things for himself, but was not rich towards God, we should consider the lost souls who need the Lord and use our overflowing blessings to help them. The Lord promises to deliver, preserve and heal from illnesses the one who considers the poor. The Lord calls us to quench the thirst of souls who need Him... of the soul who wants to appear before God and be with God forever.
The Lord set the following example for us. He said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book, it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your Law is within my heart. I have proclaimed the Good News of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.” Jesus wanted to enrich others by surrendering His will to God’s will, and by not restraining Himself from speaking to many people about God. [15]
“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.” [16]
Perhaps, the people in Thyatira did not want to know Christians or to know their works, but Jesus did and He told them so. David could sense the Lord was thinking about him as well. He wrote, “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me.” [17]
“Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” [18]
The Lord loved His followers in Thyatira so just as His prophets old did, He warned those among them who were doing evil to turn back to God. The evildoers among them were allowing a false prophetess to teach and seduce God’s servants to indulge in idolatry and sexual sin. Jesus warned that faction that He was going to cast Jezebel into a bed of sickness and she and her followers into great tribulation. He was about to kill her children with death so that all the churches would know that He does not turn a blind eye to evil among them.
The Lord says to us today, “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest His correction; for whom the Lord loves He corrects, just as a father the son in whom he delights.” [19]
“Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.” [20]
Stay with the Lord! He knows the pressure against you to compromise your loyalty to God is great but He will reward you. Remain faithful to Christ and to the preaching and teaching of Christ alone for salvation. We win over sin as we abide in Him!
“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” [21]
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, and strength to your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions, and with the firstfruits of all your increase; so your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will overflow with new wine.” [22]
“Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.” [23]
Ask the Lord for prayer partners if you do not have them. The Lord Jesus taught us that two or more people praying together yields great responses from God. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.” “When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.” [24]
[1] Revelation 2:2-3
[2] Psalm 40:4
[3] Revelation 2:4-5
[4] Psalm 40:16
[5] Luke 4:8
[6] Revelation 2:6-7
[7] Proverbs 3:32-35
[8] Luke 12:20-21
[9] Revelation 2:9-10
[10] John 16:33; Psalm 40:1-3
[11] Revelation 2:13
[12] Psalm 40:11-15
[13] Revelation 2:14-16
[14] Psalm 41:1-3; Psalm 42:1-2
[15] Psalm 40:7-10
[16] Revelation 2:19
[17] Psalm 40:17
[18] Revelation 2:20-23
[19] Proverbs 3:11-12
[20] Revelation 2:24-26
[21] Psalm 42:5
[22] Proverbs 3:5-10
[23] Proverbs 3:26
[24] Matthew 18:20; Ecclesiastes 4:12; Acts 4:31
Saturday, August 2, 2025
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
We are incredibly blessed to have a Creator who reveals to us what we need to know. God gave to Jesus a book full of revelations about things which must shortly take place. Jesus sent His revelation to His servant John via an angel. John in turn, wrote it down, and made it available to seven churches in Asia minor. The Lord has preserved this book for us. [1]
John glorified Jesus Christ for dying on the cross to wash away our sins, and for making us kings and priests to Father God. “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” [2]
One revelation is that Jesus Christ is returning, and everyone will see Him.
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” [3]
Another revelation is that Jesus Christ is one with God. As God is, so is He. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” [4]
Jesus Christ gave John a vision of Him in the heavenly places.
“I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” [5]
The Son of Man refers to Jesus Christ as God enfleshed in human form. In truth, humans are made in His image. In this vision, Jesus is clothed in a garment with a golden band around His chest. His hair is white. His eyes are bright like fire. His feet are beautiful like high quality brass. His voice sounds like the rumble of great amounts of water falling. In other words, Jesus has a mighty river of life coming out of Him. He holds seven stars in His right hand. These are the seven messengers of the seven churches. In other words, they are faithful to present Him to their churches because the hand of the Good Shepherd is holding them and helping them to do so. To God be the glory! The sharp two-edged sword that proceeds from His mouth is the Word of God. Scripture calls the Word of God a sword. [6] Scripture helps us to remove falsehood from truth. The face of Jesus Christ shines as the sun. He is the light of the world. [7] He is the spiritual light that enlightens the soul so that we can see God. John is so overwhelmed by the glory of Christ that he falls at His feet as though dead.
Jesus Christ laid His right hand on John. He revealed to John that He is the resurrected One from the dead, and that He will never die again. Jesus holds the keys of Hades and of Death. Jesus said to John. “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels (or messengers) of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” [8]
Although the Revelation of Jesus Christ was initially sent to seven messengers and churches located in Asia minor, His revelation is still relevant and applicable for messengers and churches today. We should read it. We should ask the Holy Spirit to make it understandable and teachable for us. The Lord wants people to know what shall happen.
Jesus Christ said to John, “Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” The Lord instructed John by His angel, saying, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.” [9]
I echo here what Jesus said to John. Know and keep these sayings! Read them! Pray and ask the Lord for wisdom and understanding to know their meaning and application! Get to together with other believers and study them! The Lord says that He is coming quickly. The quickly here means that He will appear suddenly. Like a lightning flash. [10]
[1] Revelation 1:1-4
[2] Revelation 1:5-6
[3] Revelation 1:7
[4] Revelation 1:8
[5] Revelation 1:12-17
[6] Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12
[7] John 8:12
[8] Revelation 1:17-20
[9] Revelation 22:7, 10
[10] Revelation 22:20; Matthew 24:27
John glorified Jesus Christ for dying on the cross to wash away our sins, and for making us kings and priests to Father God. “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” [2]
One revelation is that Jesus Christ is returning, and everyone will see Him.
“Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” [3]
Another revelation is that Jesus Christ is one with God. As God is, so is He. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” [4]
Jesus Christ gave John a vision of Him in the heavenly places.
“I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” [5]
The Son of Man refers to Jesus Christ as God enfleshed in human form. In truth, humans are made in His image. In this vision, Jesus is clothed in a garment with a golden band around His chest. His hair is white. His eyes are bright like fire. His feet are beautiful like high quality brass. His voice sounds like the rumble of great amounts of water falling. In other words, Jesus has a mighty river of life coming out of Him. He holds seven stars in His right hand. These are the seven messengers of the seven churches. In other words, they are faithful to present Him to their churches because the hand of the Good Shepherd is holding them and helping them to do so. To God be the glory! The sharp two-edged sword that proceeds from His mouth is the Word of God. Scripture calls the Word of God a sword. [6] Scripture helps us to remove falsehood from truth. The face of Jesus Christ shines as the sun. He is the light of the world. [7] He is the spiritual light that enlightens the soul so that we can see God. John is so overwhelmed by the glory of Christ that he falls at His feet as though dead.
Jesus Christ laid His right hand on John. He revealed to John that He is the resurrected One from the dead, and that He will never die again. Jesus holds the keys of Hades and of Death. Jesus said to John. “Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this. The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels (or messengers) of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.” [8]
Although the Revelation of Jesus Christ was initially sent to seven messengers and churches located in Asia minor, His revelation is still relevant and applicable for messengers and churches today. We should read it. We should ask the Holy Spirit to make it understandable and teachable for us. The Lord wants people to know what shall happen.
Jesus Christ said to John, “Blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” The Lord instructed John by His angel, saying, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.” [9]
I echo here what Jesus said to John. Know and keep these sayings! Read them! Pray and ask the Lord for wisdom and understanding to know their meaning and application! Get to together with other believers and study them! The Lord says that He is coming quickly. The quickly here means that He will appear suddenly. Like a lightning flash. [10]
[1] Revelation 1:1-4
[2] Revelation 1:5-6
[3] Revelation 1:7
[4] Revelation 1:8
[5] Revelation 1:12-17
[6] Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12
[7] John 8:12
[8] Revelation 1:17-20
[9] Revelation 22:7, 10
[10] Revelation 22:20; Matthew 24:27
Friday, August 1, 2025
An Apt Answer Is A Joy
Praise God! He speaks when we need to hear from Him!
Long ago, the Lord gave Governor Zerubbabel a word via His prophet Zechariah: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” [1] We need the Holy Spirit’s strength to overcome trials that are too great for us.
Thus, Elihu said to Job, “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. Great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice.” “The spirit within me compels me. Indeed my belly is like wine that has no vent; it is ready to burst like new wineskins.” [2]
God’s Spirit led Elihu to wait until Job and his three friends stopped talking. Then, he spoke because the Almighty had given him understanding. He compared God’s Spirit to wine ready to burst forth from his belly. Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to rivers of living water flowing from the belly. “Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” [3]
Elihu beseeched Job, saying, “Please, Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words.” “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” “Truly I am as your spokesman before God...” [4] Elihu’s authority to speak for God was God’s Spirit.
“God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. In order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.” [5]
The goal of God given words, God given dreams and God given visions is to save people!
“If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man His uprightness, then He is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom;’ his flesh shall be young like a child’s, he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, he shall see His face with joy, for He restores to man His righteousness. Then He looks at men and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it did not profit me.’ He will redeem his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light.” [6]
God sends messengers to people, especially to those who are heading in the wrong direction. Ultimately, God sent His Son to speak to us. Jesus is our Mediator who shows us God’s uprightness. Jesus is God’s grace to us. Jesus ransomed us from the pit of hell. Jesus communicates with people via His Spirit. His goal is to make us delightful to God. Give us joy! Bring us into His marvelous light! Thus, Elihu described the conversion process. [7]
“Behold, God works all these things, twice, in fact, three times with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.” [8]
Jesus is the Good Sheperd who lays down His life for the sheep. He temporarily leaves the ninety-nine sheep who are safe to find that one sheep that has gone astray. Praise God! He brings prodigals back home. [9]
Elihu said to Job, “I desire to justify you.” This was a case of Elihu speaking on behalf of God. God wanted to justify Job. God is only One who can justify a sinner. He says, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” Jesus blotted out our sin so we not need to do so. [10]
Everyone should allow their ears to taste the Word of God. Elihu put it this way, “The ear tests words as the palate tastes food.” [11] God’s Word feeds and satisfies our souls.
It is wrong to think: “It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.” Elihu told Job, “Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice.” [12]
God’s goal is to save us from the pit and bring us to paradise. Death may come to us when we least expect it. “In a moment they die, in the middle of the night; the people are shaken and pass away; the mighty are taken away without a hand.” [13]
“Elihu also proceeded and said: ‘Bear with me a little, and I will show you that there are yet words to speak on God’s behalf.” “Behold, God is mighty but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.” “If they are bound in fetters, held in the cords of affliction, then He tells them their work and their transgressions—that they have acted defiantly. He also opens their ear to instruction, and commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.” [14]
God is for us. Though He is Creator and Sustainer of the universe, He despises no one. He is a chain breaker. He exposes sin to remove it. God opposes defiance because He wants to instruct, prosper and help us experience His pleasure.
Elihu declared, “Hypocrites in heart store up wrath; they do not cry for help when He binds them. They die in youth, and their life ends among the perverted persons.” Paul wrote, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” [15]
People widely propagate fables of fake superheroes nowadays but suppress the truth about the real and only Savior of humankind... Jesus Christ. So, what does God do? He lets idolators, who masquerade as His followers, slip into cesspools of perversity to expose their hypocrisy.
We need to abide in Christ to keep from abiding in sin. We need a stronger king, namely the King of Kings Jesus Christ, to dethrone the sin from reigning in our lives.
Amidst trials, Elihu urges us by God’s Spirit to, “Remember to magnify His [God’s] work, of which men have sung.” [16]
Then, Elihu magnifies God because God:
“Gives food in abundance.” [17]
“Covers His hands with lightning, and commands it to strike.” [18]
“He does great things which we cannot comprehend.” [19]
“Says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.” [20]
“With moisture He saturates the thick clouds; He scatters His bright clouds. And they swirl about, being turned by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.” [21]
God created water and clouds to be multi-purposeful. He uses them to correct people, to irrigate fields and to express His mercy.
Elihu says to us, “...Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.” [22]
Next, God speaks directly to Job from a whirlwind. [23] A mighty wind of His Spirit! He starts where Elihu left off. It’s almost as if Christ has spoken to Job and Job listened, and now the Father also speaks to Him.
God asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me if you have understanding.” [24]
“I fixed My limit for it [the sea] and set bars and doors; when I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!’” [25]
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place.” [26]
“Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me if you know all this.” [27]
“Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” [28]
The mighty armies of Napoleon and Hitler were defeated by God’s snow while attacking Russia.
“Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?” [29]
The Lord asked Job, “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.” Job answered the Lord and said: “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.” [30]
The Lord spoke to Job out of the whirlwind again, and said: “Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath; look on everyone who is proud and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low, tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.” [31]
One of the wondrous works of God is to humble proud people.
The Lord asked Job if he could overcome Leviathan? “Any hope of overcoming him is false; shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me? Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.” [32]
The devil is a spiritual foe that we cannot overcome with human strength, and yet he trembles before God. [33]
The Lord says of Leviathan, “His heart is as hard as stone.” “On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride.” [34]
Job served the Lord before his earthly losses, but after his losses, he knew the Lord better.
Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ... participate in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” Peter and John rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for His Name. Jesus told the Smyrna Christians, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.” [35] God fills the void that trials leave behind with Himself. He is more than enough.
After God spoke to Job, Job said to God: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” [36] God replaced Job’s limited view of God with greatly expanded view of Him.
“And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” [37]
God affirmed twice that Job had spoken rightly about Him. Job’s losses were not because of a particular sin that he had committed as the three friends assumed. They needed to make sacrifices to atone for bearing false witness against him. They needed Job to pray for them.
“So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord commanded them; for the Lord had accepted Job. And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” [38]
The Lord blessed Job with more property, children and a longer life. These are the things disciples want to do for Jesus. We want to bring to Jesus the lands of the nations! See pagans converted unto Him and adopted into His family! Have people inherit eternal life!
“Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.” James wrote, “You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” [39]
I praise God for His words to Job: “An apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” [40]
[1] Zechariah 4:6
[2] Job 32:8-9, 18-19
[3] John 7:38-39
[4] Job 33:1, 4, 6
[5] Job 33:14-18
[6] Job 33:23-28
[7] Jeremiah 35:15; 2 Chronicles 36:15; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 1:16; Mark 10:45; Romans 8:26; John 14:26
[8] Job 33:29
[9] John 10:11; Luke 15:3-7, 17-20
[10] Job 33:31; Romans 8:33
[11] Job 34:3
[12] Job 34:9, 12
[13] Job 35:20
[14] Job 36:1-2, 5, 8-11
[15] Job 36:13-14; Romans 1:18, 24-25
[16] Job 36:24
[17] Job 36:31
[18] Job 36:32
[19] Job 37:5
[20] Job 37:6
[21] Job 37:11-13
[22] Job 37:14
[23] Job 38:1
[24] Job 38:4
[25] Job 38:10-11
[26] Job 38:12
[27] Job 38:17-18
[28] Job 38:22-23
[29] Job 38:36
[30] Job 40:1-5
[31] Job 40:6-14
[32] Job 41:9-11
[33] Job 41:24, 33-34
[34] James 2:19
[35] Philippians 3:10; Acts 5:41; Revelation 2:10
[36] Job 42:2, 5-6
[37] Job 42:7-8
[38] Job 42:9-10
[39] Job 42:12; James 5:11
[40] Proverbs 15:23
Long ago, the Lord gave Governor Zerubbabel a word via His prophet Zechariah: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty.” [1] We need the Holy Spirit’s strength to overcome trials that are too great for us.
Thus, Elihu said to Job, “There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. Great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice.” “The spirit within me compels me. Indeed my belly is like wine that has no vent; it is ready to burst like new wineskins.” [2]
God’s Spirit led Elihu to wait until Job and his three friends stopped talking. Then, he spoke because the Almighty had given him understanding. He compared God’s Spirit to wine ready to burst forth from his belly. Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to rivers of living water flowing from the belly. “Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” [3]
Elihu beseeched Job, saying, “Please, Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words.” “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” “Truly I am as your spokesman before God...” [4] Elihu’s authority to speak for God was God’s Spirit.
“God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. In order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.” [5]
The goal of God given words, God given dreams and God given visions is to save people!
“If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man His uprightness, then He is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom;’ his flesh shall be young like a child’s, he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, he shall see His face with joy, for He restores to man His righteousness. Then He looks at men and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted what was right, and it did not profit me.’ He will redeem his soul from going down to the pit, and his life shall see the light.” [6]
God sends messengers to people, especially to those who are heading in the wrong direction. Ultimately, God sent His Son to speak to us. Jesus is our Mediator who shows us God’s uprightness. Jesus is God’s grace to us. Jesus ransomed us from the pit of hell. Jesus communicates with people via His Spirit. His goal is to make us delightful to God. Give us joy! Bring us into His marvelous light! Thus, Elihu described the conversion process. [7]
“Behold, God works all these things, twice, in fact, three times with a man, to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life.” [8]
Jesus is the Good Sheperd who lays down His life for the sheep. He temporarily leaves the ninety-nine sheep who are safe to find that one sheep that has gone astray. Praise God! He brings prodigals back home. [9]
Elihu said to Job, “I desire to justify you.” This was a case of Elihu speaking on behalf of God. God wanted to justify Job. God is only One who can justify a sinner. He says, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” Jesus blotted out our sin so we not need to do so. [10]
Everyone should allow their ears to taste the Word of God. Elihu put it this way, “The ear tests words as the palate tastes food.” [11] God’s Word feeds and satisfies our souls.
It is wrong to think: “It profits a man nothing that he should delight in God.” Elihu told Job, “Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice.” [12]
God’s goal is to save us from the pit and bring us to paradise. Death may come to us when we least expect it. “In a moment they die, in the middle of the night; the people are shaken and pass away; the mighty are taken away without a hand.” [13]
“Elihu also proceeded and said: ‘Bear with me a little, and I will show you that there are yet words to speak on God’s behalf.” “Behold, God is mighty but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding.” “If they are bound in fetters, held in the cords of affliction, then He tells them their work and their transgressions—that they have acted defiantly. He also opens their ear to instruction, and commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures.” [14]
God is for us. Though He is Creator and Sustainer of the universe, He despises no one. He is a chain breaker. He exposes sin to remove it. God opposes defiance because He wants to instruct, prosper and help us experience His pleasure.
Elihu declared, “Hypocrites in heart store up wrath; they do not cry for help when He binds them. They die in youth, and their life ends among the perverted persons.” Paul wrote, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.” [15]
People widely propagate fables of fake superheroes nowadays but suppress the truth about the real and only Savior of humankind... Jesus Christ. So, what does God do? He lets idolators, who masquerade as His followers, slip into cesspools of perversity to expose their hypocrisy.
We need to abide in Christ to keep from abiding in sin. We need a stronger king, namely the King of Kings Jesus Christ, to dethrone the sin from reigning in our lives.
Amidst trials, Elihu urges us by God’s Spirit to, “Remember to magnify His [God’s] work, of which men have sung.” [16]
Then, Elihu magnifies God because God:
“Gives food in abundance.” [17]
“Covers His hands with lightning, and commands it to strike.” [18]
“He does great things which we cannot comprehend.” [19]
“Says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength.” [20]
“With moisture He saturates the thick clouds; He scatters His bright clouds. And they swirl about, being turned by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.” [21]
God created water and clouds to be multi-purposeful. He uses them to correct people, to irrigate fields and to express His mercy.
Elihu says to us, “...Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.” [22]
Next, God speaks directly to Job from a whirlwind. [23] A mighty wind of His Spirit! He starts where Elihu left off. It’s almost as if Christ has spoken to Job and Job listened, and now the Father also speaks to Him.
God asks Job, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me if you have understanding.” [24]
“I fixed My limit for it [the sea] and set bars and doors; when I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!’” [25]
“Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place.” [26]
“Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth? Tell Me if you know all this.” [27]
“Have you entered the treasury of snow, or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?” [28]
The mighty armies of Napoleon and Hitler were defeated by God’s snow while attacking Russia.
“Who has put wisdom in the mind? Or who has given understanding to the heart?” [29]
The Lord asked Job, “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it.” Job answered the Lord and said: “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.” [30]
The Lord spoke to Job out of the whirlwind again, and said: “Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath; look on everyone who is proud and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low, tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will also confess to you that your own right hand can save you.” [31]
One of the wondrous works of God is to humble proud people.
The Lord asked Job if he could overcome Leviathan? “Any hope of overcoming him is false; shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me? Who has preceded Me, that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine.” [32]
The devil is a spiritual foe that we cannot overcome with human strength, and yet he trembles before God. [33]
The Lord says of Leviathan, “His heart is as hard as stone.” “On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear. He beholds every high thing; he is king over all the children of pride.” [34]
Job served the Lord before his earthly losses, but after his losses, he knew the Lord better.
Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ... participate in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death.” Peter and John rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer disgrace for His Name. Jesus told the Smyrna Christians, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.” [35] God fills the void that trials leave behind with Himself. He is more than enough.
After God spoke to Job, Job said to God: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.” “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” [36] God replaced Job’s limited view of God with greatly expanded view of Him.
“And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” [37]
God affirmed twice that Job had spoken rightly about Him. Job’s losses were not because of a particular sin that he had committed as the three friends assumed. They needed to make sacrifices to atone for bearing false witness against him. They needed Job to pray for them.
“So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord commanded them; for the Lord had accepted Job. And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed, the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.” [38]
The Lord blessed Job with more property, children and a longer life. These are the things disciples want to do for Jesus. We want to bring to Jesus the lands of the nations! See pagans converted unto Him and adopted into His family! Have people inherit eternal life!
“Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.” James wrote, “You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” [39]
I praise God for His words to Job: “An apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!” [40]
[1] Zechariah 4:6
[2] Job 32:8-9, 18-19
[3] John 7:38-39
[4] Job 33:1, 4, 6
[5] Job 33:14-18
[6] Job 33:23-28
[7] Jeremiah 35:15; 2 Chronicles 36:15; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 1:16; Mark 10:45; Romans 8:26; John 14:26
[8] Job 33:29
[9] John 10:11; Luke 15:3-7, 17-20
[10] Job 33:31; Romans 8:33
[11] Job 34:3
[12] Job 34:9, 12
[13] Job 35:20
[14] Job 36:1-2, 5, 8-11
[15] Job 36:13-14; Romans 1:18, 24-25
[16] Job 36:24
[17] Job 36:31
[18] Job 36:32
[19] Job 37:5
[20] Job 37:6
[21] Job 37:11-13
[22] Job 37:14
[23] Job 38:1
[24] Job 38:4
[25] Job 38:10-11
[26] Job 38:12
[27] Job 38:17-18
[28] Job 38:22-23
[29] Job 38:36
[30] Job 40:1-5
[31] Job 40:6-14
[32] Job 41:9-11
[33] Job 41:24, 33-34
[34] James 2:19
[35] Philippians 3:10; Acts 5:41; Revelation 2:10
[36] Job 42:2, 5-6
[37] Job 42:7-8
[38] Job 42:9-10
[39] Job 42:12; James 5:11
[40] Proverbs 15:23
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