Welcome back to our ongoing study into the Book of Revelation, after a long break and I pray that today you find comfort and encouragement in this study as a believer of Jesus Christ, for the sole purpose that what we are reading is not what the believer will face but those in a Christ-rejecting world during the 7-year Tribulation Period when the believers have been raptured from the earth and are now in heaven as this judgment of God begins to unfold upon the earth.
Daniel 9 is considered the holy of holies in reference to Bible prophecy and most people don't understand it because they find it confusing but it shouldn't be. You can't possibly understand the Book of Revelation without understanding Daniel 9 or any Bible prophecy for that matter concerning End Times events. I will begin by translating the language into what it says in plain English if I can as it is referred to in your Bible as weeks, but I will translate it for you in years.
Daniel 9:24 ~ Seventy 'sevens' (490 years) are decreed for your people (the Jews) and your holy city (Jerusalem) (483 years have passed, 7 years remain in reference to the Book of Revelation) to finish transgression (the life of Christ, Jesus came to save us), to put an end to sin (the death of Christ), to atone for wickedness (the resurrection of Christ), to bring in every lasting righteousness (the offering of Christ), to seal up vision and prophecy (waiting for this to happen) and to anoint the most holy. (eternity future) "
This dovetails into exactly what we have been studying up to this point when the mystery of God would be finished. We are now approaching the end of the Book of Revelation, and the latter portion of the last 3 1/2 years of the 7-year Tribulation Period. In this chapter, time wise, we are not far from the rule and reign of Christ, in a chronological form we see in the Book of Revelation, from this chapter on to the end of the Book, it will cover a very brief period of time.
So what is the great mystery of God that we are waiting to be finished, the great rule and reign of Jesus Christ in the Millennium, when He comes back during the Second Coming. Jesus does not come to rule and reign via the Rapture. A lot of people confuse the Rapture and the Second Coming. They are diametrically opposed to one another. One is an appearance, the other is a physical coming. The one has no warnings while the other has over 300 warnings. One is to the believer only and apparently the world has no knowledge of it. The other one states that all the world will mourn and weep at His coming. The other one presupposes no prophetic fulfillment to predate it or to introduce it while the Second Coming has tremendous amounts of things that predate it. Isn't it interesting that the church looks to the coming of Christ? Those in the Tribulation Period however, dread and look forward to the coming of the Antichrist.
We are instructed as a church to be alive and to live for Christ. To be alert for His imminent return. The Tribulation Saints are told that they must die for their faith. One will be at least 7 years away from the other event.
Genesis 6:3 ~ "Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
We live in a time zone. Don't forget that. God is saying that there will come a day when His dealing with us is done. Our time will cease. This was signified in Noah's day by the closing of the door. The Bible says, that after Noah entered the ark, God closed the door. Time expired.
Revelation 11:15 ~ "The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever."
Daniel 7:21 ~ "As I watched, this horn was waging war against the saints and defeating them, until the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the kingdom."
Time will expire and the mystery of God will be fulfilled. You may be an atheist, an agnostic, an evolutionist, or in a cult of some sort and you need to understand that time is ticking, you can look around at this world and see what is happening, things are getting worse. As a believer we can look forward to a day when we will be with Christ. We've read the Book, we know what's coming. Remember Paul the apostle, when Jesus showed him a glimpse of heaven, he couldn't even speak about it. It was simply beyond what he could put into words. Yet you can go to any bookstore and find all kinds of books of what heaven will be like. Paul saw it and he said it is so awesome, I can't begin to explain it. Is that your assurance today? Do you have that hope today? You can, and it's a comforting thing. It is where I am going.
You shouldn't believe in a church or a specific pastor, or even a group of people. Some people might argue that they need a person in leadership that dresses up in a robe and a hat, not that I am putting anyone down because I am not, but they feel they need this resemblance in order to strengthen their faith. What? We don't want to encourage people to fall into a weakened state of their faith to be in awe of some person's robe or attire. It causes us to put forth an image that would cause someone to lean towards some earthly thing that can't do anything for you. This is very important! We want to make sure that our faith is securely founded upon Him. When God takes a break, when He pauses in His act of grace, He gives His mandate to mankind.
Revelation 10:8-11 ~ "Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me once more: "Go, take the scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land." So I went to the angel and asked him to give me the little scroll. He said to me, "Take it and eat it. It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey." I took the little scroll from the angel's hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. Then I was told, "You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings."
The Lord is giving His love and His righteousness, His righteous love. Throughout the Book of Revelation, John has been asked to speak it, write it, tell it to others what he has seen. Remember that John is an old man who had been left on the island of Patmos to die. God had another plan. He will be rescued and he will be taken to Ephesus. He will be the only apostle to die of natural causes by the way. He may have been an old man, but he still preached. Was he not the author of the gospel of John in the Bible? Did he not write 1, 2 and 3rd John? Did he not write the Book of Revelation? Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the Bible without error! John is an author of several books of the Bible.
What you and I do as Christians, apparently will last forever! So when people ask you how your investments are doing, you can honestly answer them, they are quite effective! Make an investment today by telling people about Jesus! What we do to help further the kingdom of God will make eternal investments in the furthering of the gospel of Jesus to the world.
What is happening here is that the angel is telling John to know it, take it in, digest it, understand it. For you will experience that my Word is pleasant and wonderful to taste, because I love, save, forgive and redeem. But John the more you eat of my Word and know it more, you will see that when it is rejected and ignored, it brings terrible judgment and horrific destruction to mankind. It will make you so glad and joyous, because of My grace and mercy, and at times you will be filled with such sadness over evil and because of man's rebellion.
As a Christian, I can see where the world is going and I know what is coming. As a Christian, I am glad about a lot of things, heaven and my assurance that I will be going there when I die or when I am raptured. I am sad about the evil in the world today and how far people are going in their rebellion against God.
As a mother, I am glad that my daughters know the Lord and will be going to heaven. I am commanded to bring them up in the ways of the Lord as I am instructed, but sad to know that world they are living in and will be will only get worse in the days and years ahead.
I am glad that God is working things out by the readers who stop by here and encouraged in their faith, to pick up where they have stopped and have come back to Him after a time of being away and are growing again. I am sad when I see others I know that have lost their faith in Him because of circumstances that they feel He has fallen short of investing in their own marriages, spouses and children. They are spending tremendous efforts of time and money to buy things they want in life. They have divorced themselves from their families. Their children don't know the Lord. This is sad and an indictment on us.
What shall it profit you to gain the whole world but lose your soul?
It breaks my heart to see people giving up on God. They give up on God and His will in their life, in pursuit of more money. It's a house of cards, it's all going to come down. Talk to someone who is dying and your alignment will line up real quick. If God has blessed you, turn it around and crank it up for God. He will never be indebted to you. There are rich people, who die rich and are super rich in heaven because they have invested in God's kingdom! There are poor people, who die poor and are poor in heaven because they have invested little in God's kingdom. This doesn't have anything to do with how much you have, it has everything to do with what you do with what you have! A poor person could invest what they do have time, effort, it could be a dollar, but it is spent wisely and they are rich in heaven.
It could be a rich believer invests very little with God and it winds up that they are very very poor in heaven. It's all about making eternal investments in heaven. The greatest investment is the one in God's economy that has eternal dividends that have blessings right now. What are you investing in? God's not impressed by the millionaires status, but by the offering that comes from our heart instead.
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