December 2, 2007

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 Scripture KJV

Reverend David S. Huffer

Westwood Baptist Church - 2124 Davis Road
 Waynesboro, VA

Introduction to the Book of Revelation

Revelation 1:1-8

Take your Bibles please and find the Book of Revelation

·         It is an easy Book to find for it is the last Book in the Bible

Rev. Ch. 1 - All God’s Word is wonderful – but there is one book that God has attached a special blessing to those who will read and understand it

·         A special blessing for in Rev. Ch. 1:3 – God says: “Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the word s of this prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein, the time is at hand.”

God says: “Not crazy is he – not fanatical is he – but blessed is he who reads and keeps the things which are in this book.”

DEAR FRIENDS - Now if there is a special blessing imparted with a reading and understanding the Book of the Revelation – wouldn’t it be wonderful if God had also given a key so that we could understand this book.

·         A key so that somehow just unlocks the Book of the Rev

·         That would aid our understanding – for you see the Book of the Revelation has been placed as the last Book of the Bible by God on purpose.

Just as the Book of Genesis has been placed by God as the first book of the Bible on purpose.

·         Genesis and Revelation go hand and hand

For example:

In the Book of Genesis we read of God creating the heavens and the earth

·         In the Book of the Rev we find God again with the New  Heaven and the New Earth

In the Book of Genesis – we see Paradise Lost

·         In the Book of The Rev we see paradise returned

In the Book of Genesis we see – man driven from the Tree of Life

·         In the Book of The Rev we see man invited back to the Tree of Life

In the book of Genesis – Satan appears for the very first time

·         In the book of Rev Satan appears for the very last time

In the Book of Genesis – we see the beginnings of sorrows and sufferings and toil and pain

·         In the Book of Rev – we see the end of sufferings and sorrows and toil and pain

In the Book of Genesis we have the first record of death

·         In the Book of the Rev – we come to a time when there is no more death

In the Book of Genesis – we see the first Adam and his bride Eve

·         In the Book of the Rev we see the last Adam and his bride the Called out Saints of God

FRIENDS - It is an exciting book – it’s a book that God wants us to understand and He wants to bless us as we read it and heed it.

·         And I believe the key that God has placed in the understanding of the Book of Revelation is hanging at the front door

I believe that it is CH.1:19 – I believe that v. 19 is the key to understanding the Book of the Revelation

Rev. 1:19 -  John is told by God – he is commissioned by God  - of how he is to write this book

·         Actually – literally – historically Jesus Christ tells John how to write this book

·         And He says “write the things which thou hasth seen, and the things which are and the things which shall be hereafter.”

FRIENDS - We find that God takes the Book of the Revelation and breaks it into a 3-fold outline

·         Three points – three parts – three divisions

Someone has once asked the question –“How many points should a good sermon have?”

·         The answer – was “at least one!”

·         I say amen to that!

But God in good homiletical fashion – to aid us in our understanding of the Book of the Revelation has divided this Book into three main divisions

So this morning – I want you to buckle your pew belts because we are going to move rather rapidly as we look at God’s panoramic prophecy of the entire book of the Rev

ARE YOU READY?

We are going to move quickly now – you need to listen in a hurry – so I can speak in a way that we will get through on time

·         We are not going to try to cover every detail – you can sit back and relax in that

What I would like to do is paint the broad outline – with broad strokes

·         to follow

We will come back and just put in the fine details to some of the major events that I would like to bring before you that is found in the Book of the Revelation

·         God tells John to write this book in three divisions – three main parts

FIRST OF ALL – “Write the things which thou has seen”

·         What had he just seen?

·         He had seen a vision of the glorified Christ

·         That first division can be titled “The Glory of God”

·         For it is the vision of the glorified Christ

AND THEN HE SAID – “Write the things which are”

·         We are going to see in a moment – the things which are is the Church Age

·         It is the time in which God is dealing with the world in Grace

·         He is dealing with His church by grace

·         It is the time in which you and I are now living

·         It is the times which are – it is the church age  - it is a time of grace

We have God’s Glory in the first division - In the second division we have God’s Grace

 AND THEN - we are going to see the Things which shall be hereafter-     God’s Government

God Glory - God’s Grace – God’s Government

·         That’s just a broad outline of the Book of the Revelation

The things which John had seen as I have said is a vision of the Glorified Christ

·         I’d like us to take a moment to go back to verse 12.

·         I want you to see the vision of the Glorified Christ that the Apostle John is given – v.12 -17

·         65 years before this the apostle John  is the one who had laid his head upon the chest of Jesus

·         And now with this vision of the glorified Christ he falls at his feet as if dead

V. 18 – 19 - read

·         It is very evident  - it is very obvious that this is the first division – “write the things which thou hath seen”

What had he just seen?

·         He had seen a vision – of the crucified - risen – ascended – glorified – coming – conquering – Christ

·         And remember we said that is really the major purpose of the Book of Revelation – is to unveil the Glory of Jesus Christ

FRIENDS - When He came the first time His glory was veiled – When He comes again His glory will be unveiled

All the world will see Him for who He really is

·         No wonder Billy Graham said that “if the world really knew who Christians are – they would ask for our autographs.”

·         And that is true – If they understood who we are – it does not appear yet who we will be – we are going to be like Him

·         Be patient – the best is yet to come

This is the division of Glory – it is the first division – it is the shortest division

·         It only takes one chapter

SECOND DIVISION - Then He said “Write the things which are” – that is the second division- Chapters 2 and 3

·         You are going to find that John writes to 7 churches in Asia Minor

·         You will see that the key word in chapters 2 and 3 of the Revelation is “CHURCH”

·         “CHURCH’     “CHURCH’     “CHURCH” – over and again you will see the word church

·         Write the message to the church of:

·          Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea

DO YOU HEAR IT FRIENDS -  “CHURCH” “CHURCH   “CHURCH”

·         He let’s us Know that the things which are – we are living in those times

·         It is the church age

·         It starts with Ephesus and goes right on down to Laodicea

There is a rather unique and interesting thing that I would like for you to notice

·         Coming to chapter 4 – you do not find CHURCH mentioned anymore

·         You don’t find the word CHURCH mentioned anymore!

·         parenthetical statement back to John and to the church.

Rev. 22:16 – “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the bright and Morning Star.”

But in Ch. 2 and 3 the things which are – That is the Church Age

·         And the seven churches – the historical churches – they are literal churches -  but they are also representative churches

·         They represent all of church history

AND DEAR FRIENDS – because there is such an importance and a significance in these seven churches as God gives messages to the church in all ages

·         We are going to take that as a separate series

·         We are going to take chap 2-3 – God’s message to the church – and we are going to save that for Wed night

·         We going to look at God’s message to the church as it is seen

·         And His messages to the seven churches – you see there is not a problem in the church today that is not somehow, in someway, in some fashion addressed in God’s message to these seven churches

THE CHURCH AGE

The church age begins with the time of the apostles and runs right on down until the close of the church age – and closes with the RAPTURE of the church

·         That is chapters 2-3

·         Then we come to chapters 4 all the way through the end of the Book – Ch. 22

·         19 chapters is given to this third division – it is by far the biggest division

·         And the reason for that is primarily because the Book of the Revelation is a book of prophecy

·         This third division He tells John to write the things that shall be hereafter.

·         The things that will come upon the earth after the church age

Look in Rev Ch. 4:1 to see that to be true

·         “after this” – After what? – after he had completed the time of dealing with the church in grace

·         ‘CHURCH’   “CHURCH’   “CHURCH”  - Ch. 2&3

·         Now beginning in chapter 4 you won’t find CHURCH anymore

·         Once again – all the way to the end in Ch.22 after all of the prophetic plan has been recorded

You see there is something fantastic that happens in Ch 4 – “After this”

·         He is going to be very obvious that He is going to start a third division – read 1:19 again and emphasize the third division

“The things which thou has seen” = ch.1 – God’s Glory

“The things which are” = Ch. 2&3 – God dealing with His church – dealing with Grace

Now the third division beginning in Ch. 4 going all the way through to Ch.22  - God’s Government

·         That time when His Son Jesus Christ will come and rule and reign upon this earth

·         And that is the division that we are looking at now

·         And what I want to simply do because so many of us have trouble trying to keep some of these major events that are going to come hereafter the Battle of Armageddon, The millennial Kingdom, the Great White Throne Judgment, The marriage of the Lamb, all these things somehow begin to become intertwined  and people become confused with its order of sequence

So what I want to do is give you an outline

·         I want to give you a panoramic view of God’s prophecy as it is recorded – as it is unfolded in the Book of the Rev

A. The very first thing

·         The next great prophetic event that will surely come to pass is the Rapture of the church

·         It is the next prophetic event on God’s timeline

·         We do not know the time – we simply know that is the next event

·         And you will see it pictured in type and symbol right here in Rev. Ch. 4:1 – As a trumpet talking to the apostle John saying “Come up hither”

Dear friend – God couldn’t have use a more clearer – plainer symbol than that because the N.T. plainly teaches us that there is going to be a trumpet sound at the rapture

·         1 Cor 15:52 – Read

·         1 Thess 4:16 - Read

This is the last prophetic event and will happen at the close of the church age

·         I would like to be honest with you – some people will try to confuse you and tell you that the rapture is some concoction of a Baptist minister.

·         The word rapture is not found in the Bible

·         Don’t let that throw you neither is the word Millennium – or Trinity – or Missions

·         But those precious truths have their counterparts clearly plainly taught in the word of God

For instance in 1 Thess 4:17 – Read “caught up” - where we get the word rapture

·         You see the word rapture is a Latin word and it is taken from this Greek word – Caught up – to be catched away

DEAR FRIEND – If you don’t want to call it the rapture – but the catching up or the catching away – that is fine by me

·         Theologians call it the Rapture

·         If you want to call it the catching away – that is fine – but I tell you there is a time coming when the body of Christ – ALL HIS BODY – living and dead – will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

·         And so shall we ever be with the Lord

That is the Rapture of the Church

·         It is pictured right here in Rev. Ch.4:1

B. The next event – not this is where it gets a little tricky

·         Because now you see that there are going to be some major events unfolding

·         Some in the heavens simultaneously while others are unfolding on the earth

·         For instance what will happen on the earth after that will be the Great Tribulation Period

·         But while that is going on the earth the tribulation Period after the Rapture

You know what happens for us dear people – the Judgment Seat of Christ

·         Romans 14:10 – “For you shall all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ”

·         If you study that passage of Scripture – he is not talking about the lost and the saved – he is talking only about the saved

·         2 Cor 5:10 – “For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ”

·         This judgment is not to see whether you are good enough to make it into heaven

·         That’s been determined by the fact that you are already at the judgment seat of Christ because you have been washed by the blood of the lamb

C. Immediately following the Judgment Seat of Christ – we are still talking about events that will take place in heaven – will follow the Marriage of the Lamb

·         Rev. 19:6-9 - read

·         You look at that and you will find that those who have served the Lord Jesus Christ will be honored with Christ at the Marriage Lamb

·         “Blessed is he who is invited to the  marriage Lamb”

FRIENDS - You look at that and you see that the bride has made herself ready by following after Jesus Christ – by walking after Him

·          That will be the events that will begin to unfold immediately after the Rapture

OK – let’s come back to earth and see what’s happening here

D. Great Tribulation Period.

The thing that will occur upon this earth after the Rapture of the church on God’s prophetic plan will be the Great Tribulation Period.

·         A period of time that will last for seven years

·         Jesus spoke of this time in Matt. 24:21 – “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, never shall be.”

Let me give you an idea of just how bad it is going to be when the wrath of God comes upon this world

·         Rev. 9:1-6 - Read

·         A time when God is going to pour out His great wrath upon this world

·         A time when the earth will be infested with demon spirits who afflict all of mankind except those who have the mark of God on their foreheads.

·         A horrible – horrible time  - that men will long-after, chase-after, seek-after death

·         But God will not let them find it

·         Death will be a welcome release during this time but God’s not going to offer it to them

DEAR FRIEND – God is still the author of life and death

·         It is amazing during this time that men and women are going to run to the rocks and the mountains and cry that the rocks and the mountains will fall on them and hide them from the face of Him who sits upon the throne

·         heard because they have prayed too late

·         The Antichrist will have come to world-wide power

·         We are going to talk about the Antichrist in the evening sessions to follow

I believe with all my heart that the Antichrist is alive and well on planet earth at the very time

·         I may be wrong

·         We do not know that for sure

·         But I believe as we see the events unfolding around us in world history it points to everything that in a short period of time the Antichrist could manifest himself

·         I believe that he has already been born - he is live and well on planet earth right now

But I want to make it very clear – THE CHURCH will NOT BE ON THIS EARTH when the Antichrist is revealed

·         When that man of sin is revealed – it will be after God has raptured His saints

·         After the church has gone home

Let me just give you some verses of Scripture for that – because there are so many today that believe that the church is going to have to go through the Tribulation

·         We will be going through tribulation but not THE GREAT TRIBULATION

·         1 Thess. 1:10 – “…to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

·          1 Thess. 5:9 – “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ”

YOU SEE DEAR FRIENDS - We have God’s word that promises us that we will not be going through the Great tribulation

·         Let me give you a reasonable and practical reason the church is not going to go through the Great Tribulation period

·         God says that no man knows the day or hour that He is coming – RIGHT?

·         Do you know that if the church were to go through the Greta tribulation period we would know exactly when He is coming back!

·         I could tell you exactly when he would be returning if we went through the Great tribulation period

·         Because after the man of sin is revealed he is going to setup a seven-year treaty with Israel

·         After 42 months he is going to break that treaty

·         After another 42 months Jesus is coming

DEAR FRIEND – Any teaching that would lead you away from the imminent, at any moment coming, of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a Bible doctrine

·         The church is not going through the tribulation period

·         You are going to have a hard time getting the Scriptures to show that – I do not believe they do

E. Battle of Armageddon

At the end of the tribulation Period - it closes with the Battle of Armageddon

·         Staying on the earth – after the Rapture we have the Great tribulation for seven years

·         At the conclusion of that seven years will be the Battle of Armageddon

·         There will be one that will be incarcerated – Satan Himself

·         We call him the Beast – the Antichrist – he will come forth and he will be spawned from a ten-nation confederacy – we call it the European Common Market  - dear friend

·         He will become the chief and commander of all the nations of the world

·         He is going to go down to Jerusalem and he is going to set a treaty with them

·         They are going to hail him as the Messiah

·         They are going to say that he is the only one that has brought world peace

·         And after three and one-half years he is going to move into the temple that they had rebuilt

DEAR FRIEND – it is amazing the amount of materials they have already gathered to rebuild the temple

·         For so long they were concerned about the priest and how they would operate in the temple because they had to be cleansed with the ashes of a red heifer and it wasn’t until just a couple years ago that they finally got a strain of red heifers that match what the O.T. prescribes

·         They are now in a position where their priest can be consecrated with the ashes of a red heifer and perform the ceremonial rituals in the temple

We are so close – we are so close – During the tribulation the temple in Jerusalem will be rebuilt!

·         The priest of Israel will be performing their faith – their religion – their rituals that will be taught in accordance with e the books of Exodus and Leviticus

They are going to realize in the midst of that seven year period that they have been duped

·         The Antichrist will move in and set himself up in the temple and declare that he himself is God And demand that all of the world worship him

·         And most of the world those who won’t take the mark of God will worship him

·         But Israel won’t – they will refuse to worship him

·         At that time the Antichrist will flare up with such vengeance and hatred and persecution  against the Jews that they have never seen anything like it

·         He is going to bring all the nations – call them to Jerusalem and then circle Jerusalem

·         But he has not read Zachariah 12:3 – he doesn’t believe it

·         The Bible tells us that all the nations will come against Jerusalem – he is going to make in that day Jerusalem a burdensome stone

·         It doesn’t mean that they will be a burden to others – what it means is they are going to be broken at Jerusalem

·         All the nations will come against Jerusalem – but there is going to be a divine intervention – that fight is fixed

·         God is going to step out of glory – He is going to come back and fight for his ancient people of Israel

I love this in Rev. 19 – by the way in Rev. 16:16 you find why we call it the Battle of Armageddon – because of time – turn to Rev 19:19

·         That’s the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on that horse with His redeemed army

·         He is coming back with His saints

·         I see a lot of people today being deceived by miracles

·         Miracle workers today – but they are false miracle workers – I am not denying what they do is not with supernatural power – but it is not with the power of our heavenly Father

·         It is the power of Satan – some of these miracles that are being performed

·         They are performing miracles to draw you away

·         To commit apostasy

·         To lead you away from the truth

·         and we are only going to have one weapon on our side – A SWORD

·         It is the Word of God – and by the way – we are not going to do any fighting

·         We are just following Him – and He is going to obliterate the Antichrist and the false prophet and all of his followers with a Word from His mouth

·         Ah – the power of our coming – glorious Christ

Following that the nation of Israel when they see Him will recognize Him as they see those nail holes in His hands and feet and that scar upon His side and they are going to wail because of Him

·         And there is going to be a nation as born in a day

·         That remnant of Israel that will come through the Great tribulation is going to recognize Jesus Christ as the true Messiah

F. Millennial Kingdom

Then begins the Millennial kingdom

·         A time of peace and prosperity that we cannot begin to imagine

·         The Old Testaments  are filled with it

·         By the way there are three basic views that picture the coming millennial kingdom

1. AMILLENIAL VIEW

·         The simply believe that there is no literal  historical reign for a thousand years of Jesus Christ

·         And then upon the throne of David ruling from Jerusalem – they are all wet

·         If you are an Amillennist – I don’t mean to be ugly to you – but I want to tell you about 2/3 of the Old testament has absolutely no meaning for you

·         The Amillenist do not believe in a literal actual thousand year reign of Jesus Christ from Jerusalem

2.  POST-MILLENNIST

·         They simply believe that the church is so going to impact society that they are going to get the church so ready for Christ where finally the church is going to bring the world into a state of Utopia

·         And there is going to be a thousand years of peace and prosperity

·         And that at the end of that thousand years of prosperity Christ is coming back – How foolish

·         You cannot have a theocratic kingdom without the king coming back – without the king

·         I think you would admit with me that the church today is not having that kind of impact on this world

·         I am beginning to wonder what kind of impact we are having on this world

·         Jesus made the statement that when He came He could hardly find any faith

·         The Bible tells us that there is going to be a great apostasy that is going to happen

·         I tell you there will not be world peace and prosperity until the king of peace comes - Jesus Christ

3. PREMILLENIALIST

wxThe tribulation period will close with the Battle of Armageddon when God Himself – God the Son – God the Word – stepping out of heaven – full of Glory

·         He is going to usher in a time of peace as we have never known

At the end of the Millennial kingdom after a thousand years – Satan is going to be let loose

·         You see friends – he has been pinned up all this time

·         At the end of this thousand years Satan will gather as many as the sands of the sea and revolt against God and come up against Jerusalem

·         There really is no war - God speaks – and then it is over

G. Great White Throne Judgment

Then there is the Great White Throne Judgment - Rev. 20:11-15

·         Every lost person – you are not going to crawl up in the grave and pull the dirt over your face and hide from God

·         V. 11-15 – read

·         Hell is going to hotter for some than others

·         There will be that individual reckoning and the Books will not be opened to see if you are to heaven or hell

·         The only way that you can get to heaven is through Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior

·         Jesus now is their judge

·         He is Judging them for things they have done

·         And then he will banish them into an eternal lake of fire

After the Great White Throne Judgment

·         The next thing - and I am done with this – This out to put you on shoutin ground

H.  New Heaven and a New Earth

·         kingdom

·         When there is not a blight, a blemish, a blur or a stain of any kind of rebellion and sin upon our lives or upon the universe

·         God is going to purge it all

·         There will be a new heaven and a new earth

·         There will be no death, no more sorrow, nor crying, nor tears

·         All the former things will have passed away

WE all should be shouting – AMEN - “Come even so Lord Jesus!”

·         Are you ready?  Are you ready?

·         The best is yet to be – There is coming a time when there will be no more death – no more sorrow – or suffering

·         God Himself shall dwell with His people – He shall be their God and we shall be His people

·         And Christ Himself is going to sit right there in Jerusalem

·         There will be no more Sun  - the light will be coming from God’s manifold Glory

·         The Shania  Glory of God is going to fill the earth with light

·         There will be no more night

AH DEAR FRIEND – Don’t Miss it. Don’t miss it.

What does it take to get there?

What must I do to be saved?

·         Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved

·         And dear friend you will become a citizen of this place I am talking about

·         And one day you will step into glory and you will be with the Son of God

·         Not as the meek – mild Galilean – but as the coming, glorified, conquering Christ – as the king of kings and the Lord of lords

·         In a world which indwelleth righteousness

I can’t wait – How about you?

I am looking forward to His coming

“Come even so Sweet Jesus!

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