0:01 Welcome once again to Words of Life. We are continuing our study through the Bible and we have reached Revelation chapter 9. This is the judgment of the seven 0:22 trumpets. And here we read of the fifth trumpet in verse 1. A star falls from heaven. The key of the bottomless pit is given to him and smoke comes out of that 0:42 bottomless pit. This is a picture of demons coming out. Who were trapped in the bottomless pit for many years. When it says they are 1:05 like scorpions who have power to hurt people, verse 3. Jesus told his disciples in Luke 10:19, "I give you authority over serpents and scorpions." Both of them are a picture of demons. 1:26 And they were not allowed to hurt anyone who had the seal of God on their foreheads. There were certain people you read we saw in chapter 7 who were sealed. And they were protected. 1:50 And they were not permitted to kill anyone, verse 5, but only to torment people for 5 months. This is all symbolic language. And when they are actually fulfilled, we will see there exactly what they mean. All we need to understand now is that 2:13 they symbolize a time of torture for men on earth. The king over these demons is Abaddon, verse 11. Who is an evil spirit from the pit. 2:38 And then the sixth angel sounded in verse 13. And here we read of four demons that have been bound near the river Euphrates being released. The river Euphrates is first mentioned 2:56 in Genesis chapter 2. And all the great events in the Bible have all happened around that area. I don't know whether you know that next 3:14 to Israel, the most frequently named country in the Bible is Iraq. It's not always called Iraq. It's called Mesopotamia. Babylonia. 3:32 Ur of the Chaldees. But everything in those early chapters of Genesis happened around that area. The Babylonian empire was ruling in Iraq. The Euphrates flows right through Iraq. And it says here that when these demons 3:55 are released there's going to be a huge war around in Iraq, verse 16 onwards. It's very interesting to see that the Bible speaks a lot about 4:11 war around Jerusalem and around Iraq. As the world nears the last days. And this is written 2,000 years ago. We see these things happening before our 4:30 eyes and we know that the coming of the Lord is near. We read about large plagues, verse 18, where millions of people are going to be killed all over the world. And sicknesses. In spite of all this 4:51 the rest of mankind, verse 20, did not repent of all their idolatry and their worship of demons and all that. They didn't repent of their murders or murders or sorceries or immorality. See, repentance is the main message in 5:12 the book of Revelation. For the churches and why the world is being judged. Because they don't have faith, it's because they don't repent. A church which does not preach repentance is not preaching the message of the Lord in our day. 5:34 Listen to the preachers on TV and see how many of them preach repentance from sin. You can understand how completely out of touch they are with the Holy Spirit. They are more in touch with what the psychologists teach. In chapter 10 5:58 a strong angel comes from heaven and says something. He roars and says something. Verse 4, John was about to write what he said. And a voice from heaven said, "No, don't write Then why did he hear it? 6:19 Do you know there are certain things that God says to us which we are not supposed to tell other people. Certain things he says, "Share it with others." And John heard certain things which is only for him. And we also can hear certain things 6:37 which the Lord says is only for you. And certain other things we can share with everybody. And then we read the angel stood there and said that there will be no longer delay, verse 6. And the mystery of God, verse 7 7:05 We know of the mystery of godliness which is Christ coming in the flesh and living a pure life. The mystery of iniquity mentioned in 2 Thessalonians. What is the mystery of iniquity? 7:22 It is the old lie which Satan told Eve. You can sin and you can get away with it. Nothing will happen. God will not punish you. The old lie of the devil, you can sin 7:40 and God will not punish you. Within 24 hours Eve discovered that Satan was a liar. Do you know the number of believers today who believe that lie that you can sin and you can somehow escape, nothing 7:57 will happen? God's word is true. Every man will reap exactly what he has sown. And then we read the voice said, "Now take this book in 8:17 your hand and eat it." Verse 9. And John was told It went into his stomach. It's a picture of absorbing the word of God. And your whole system. 8:38 And the sweetness in it. We can go through bitter experiences when we receive God's word. And he says, "Now you can prophesy." The basis of prophecy is we receive God's word from him. You enjoy its sweetness. 9:01 And we go through bitter experiences because we we follow God's word. You know, all the disciples suffered a lot because they accepted God's word. Through those experiences we prophesy. See, God's word is not like chewing gum 9:19 where you just chew it in the mouth and spit it out. But many For many people it's like that. They receive the word in the Sunday morning meeting and they enjoy it very much, enjoy the sweetness, and then spit it out. But here it goes right into the system. 9:45 Then he can prophesy. Then in chapter 11 11th chapter we read here a measuring rod was given to him. Please remember this is all symbolic language. And he says measure those who are 10:01 worshipping God in verse one. You know that even today God is looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. So many of them go for meetings. But God says just count the people who worship, that's enough. 10:22 God really keeps account of those who worship. They may look just like the other believers who go to the meeting. God takes special note of those who worship. And all the people in the outer court, 10:40 just forget about them. See, there are many people who come to church like visitors, they're not worshippers. They come and listen and they go away. Then he speaks here in chapter 11 about two witnesses that God has on earth at 10:57 that time. And they will witness to the Lord for three and a half years. 1,260 days. Same period of time that Jesus had a 11:15 public ministry. And he says these two witnesses are like two olive trees that stand before the Lord of the earth. They have power which is somewhat like the power that Elijah had. Fire devouring the enemies. 11:40 Uh power to shut up the sky, verse six. Like the power that Moses had to turn water into blood and he like he did in Egypt and he earth with plagues. So these are not necessarily Moses and 11:59 Elijah but two people in the spirit and power of Moses and Elijah. And we read that when the Antichrist rises up and kills these two people something very interesting you see here. The beast is the Antichrist, verse 12:20 seven. He will overcome them and kill them. And the dead bodies will lie in the great city. That's probably Jerusalem. And then in verse nine it says 12:39 people from all over the world will see these dead bodies. How can all the millions of people in the world see two dead bodies lying in Jerusalem? Only by satellite television. 13:05 And John wrote about that 2,000 years ago. People who read it then must have wondered wondered how can people all over the world see two dead bodies lying in Jerusalem? Even 100 years ago people would have 13:25 wondered how is that possible? Even 50 years ago. They have said no, that's impossible. God's word can't be true. Today we know it's true. Everything in God's word is absolutely true. And after three and a half days 13:48 they get resurrected from the dead, verse 11. They are taken straight up to heaven, verse 12. And at that time there was a great earthquake. And then the sec- the sixth trumpet is over. And then 14:08 in chapter 11, verse 14 and 15, we come to the last trumpet. And it says at last the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that is the time of the beginning of 14:28 the millennium, the 1,000 year reign of Christ. So this is a picture of what it's a preview of what is going to take place. And then in chapter 12 onwards, we have few more details of what is going to happen in the three and a half year 14:45 reign of the Antichrist. Here we read of a a woman first of all. Clothed with the sun and the moon and the 12 stars. We know this is Israel because Joseph had a picture Joseph saw this dream of a 15:04 sun and the moon and the 12 stars. That was Jacob and the 12 tribes of Israel. This woman Israel was going to bring forth a child. And that is Jesus Christ. 15:24 And the devil was waiting there who wanted to grab this child and kill it. Verse four is the one place in scripture where we read that when the Lucifer fell from heaven, he took one third of the angels with him. As soon as Jesus was born through Herod, 15:49 Satan wanted to kill him. Of course, he could not be killed. And this male child is going to rule the nations, verse five, with a rod of iron. It says he ascended up to God in his 16:06 throne like Jesus ascended up. But the woman which is Israel through whom Jesus came the dragon went to persecute the woman. You know that the Jews have been 16:24 persecuted ever since. And then we read about a war in heaven in verse seven onwards. And how Satan is thrown down from the second heaven to the earth. At the moment Satan is in the second 16:42 heaven, the heavenlies. And then he is thrown down to the earth. And there are people on earth who overcome him. Verse 11. Those are the believers. Who overcome him by the blood of the lamb 17:02 and by their testimony. They did not they love their life unto death. Satan is called here the accuser of the brethren, verse 10. The old serpent. Then we read about the persecution of 17:21 the Jews in verse 13, how this dragon went after the woman. And how God protects the woman. And when he couldn't kill the woman the dragon dragon began to go and make war with those, verse 17, who keep the 17:39 commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. The devil doesn't make war with every believer. Who does he make war with? Those who 17:57 obey the commandments of God and hold up the testimony of Jesus See, a lot of believers are ashamed to testify of Jesus in their place of work, for example. The devil says they are useless, leave them alone. 18:17 A lot of believers don't obey all the commandments of God. The devil said they are useless, don't worry about them. Let's go after those who obey God's commandments. Those are the ones who overcome the devil. In chapter 13 18:36 we read in the first 10 verses about a description of the Antichrist. How he's going to rule over the world. People will worship him. 42 months, verse five, three and a half years he's going to rule. Verse eight, everybody will worship him 18:58 except those whose names are written in the book of life, verse And then in verse 11 onwards, you read about the false prophet. The Antichrist is a political leader and the false prophet is a religious leader. This is a picture of religion and 19:20 politics coming together. And you we see it all over the world today. Whether in India or the Arab countries the United States all over the world you find religion and 19:37 politics coming together. More than ever before. We never saw it in India so much before. Never saw in the Arab countries so much before. And here it says the beast has got a 19:54 number called 666 in verse 18. In the Greek language each letter has got a value. The name Yesous in the Greek if you add it up the value it comes to 888. Yesous. 20:20 8 is the number of the new creation. 6 is the number of man. 3 6's man becoming like a trinity. And so we see here that the name of the Antichrist when whenever it's revealed you'll find it's 20:38 total comes to 666. He causes people to get a mark either on their forehead or in their right right for or in the mark on in their fore in their right hand. And nobody can buy or sell anything 21:01 except those who have this mark. We don't know exactly all that this means. It does mean that for a true disciple of Jesus it's going to be very difficult to survive in the last days. Even to buy and sell necessities. And the Antichrist says you can be an 21:25 open follower of me with your with the mark on the forehead or you can be a secret follower of me by hiding it in the palm of your hand. The devil gives his followers the option to be open followers or secret 21:43 followers. Jesus doesn't give such an option. See in chapter 14 verse 1. Those who follow Jesus they can have the name his name written 22:01 only on their foreheads. Not hidden away in their hands. A disciple of Jesus must be an open follower. A disciple of Satan can be a secret follower. That means a person can pretend to be a 22:19 believer. Do wrong things in the office. And come to the meeting and pretend that everything is okay. Such a man has got the mark of the beast in his hand. Nobody can see it. In chapter 14 we read of a small number 22:40 not like the big number of people we saw in chapter 7. Only 144,000. It may not be an exact number. It's a number that can be counted. In chapter 7 we saw a whole lot of people who were redeemed by the blood of 23:00 Jesus. But these are people who follow the lamb wherever he went it says in verse 4. And they never told any lies. These are wholehearted disciples of very 23:19 small number. This is a picture of the overcomers. And then in chapter 14 we read in verse 7 to 11 about three different angels coming with three different messages. Fear God. 23:40 Babylon is fallen. Anyone worships the beast he will And it says in verse 13 don't be afraid to die in the Lord. Because you are blessed if you stand true to the Lord and because of that you die. And then 24:02 we read in chapter 14 verse 17 to 20 about the judgment upon the earth. Where God's punishment comes upon the earth. The harvest of judgment where Jesus comes and 24:21 punishes. And then we see a scene in heaven in chapter 15. The overcomers are standing before God. And there's they stand on a sea and they 24:40 sing verse 3 the song of Moses and the lamb. So these are pictures alternately of heaven and earth. We are not given great details and we don't need to know the details. What we know is they're going to be very 25:00 difficult times on the earth for God's people. God will give us grace to stand true and faithful to him. Not to bow down to the devil or his agents in any way. Today in the little trials that come our 25:20 way if we are faithful we will be able to stand true to the Lord. Be open disciples of Christ and not secret disciples. May God help us. Welcome once again to Words of Life. 25:45 We started our study through the Bible 139 sessions ago. With Genesis chapter 1. This is the last session. This is the last session. And in these 26:04 140 sessions we have tried to understand the essential message of the Bible. We now come to the closing chapters of Revelation. In chapter 16 this is where we have 26:22 reached now. And this will be our closing study. In chapter 16 is the first time we find the wrath of God being poured out on the earth. This is the same as the time of the 26:40 sixth seal that we read in Revelations. But number of things mentioned here how God's judgment is poured out one after the other. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 seals are poured out. 27:04 And when it comes to the sixth seal verse 12 again it is over the Euphrates in Iraq. And again it speaks about war. And verse 14 the whole world is gathered together for the war of the great day of 27:22 God. At that time just when this wrath is being poured out on the earth the Lord says I'm coming like a thief verse 15. 27:39 This is the time the church is taken up. The Lord comes in the heavens. So all these judgments are probably going to take a very short time. And there's going to be the great battle of Armageddon. And the church would have been raptured 27:58 up to meet the Lord in the air. And these bowls of wrath are poured out on the earth. And Babylon the false church is destroyed. Here we read of the 28:16 uh the satanic trinity. Verse 13. The dragon that's Satan himself and the Antichrist and the false prophet. In chapter 17 we read about this system called religious Babylon being explained 28:35 further. Babylon is called the great city 11 times here. These two chapters Later on in chapter 21 you read about Jerusalem and that is called the holy 28:55 city. The difference between the false church and the true church is this. The false church and the true church is this. The false church is great big in size. The true church is holy. 29:14 One is the great city the other is the holy city. And here Babylon is called in verse 5 the mother of harlots. Claiming to be engaged to Christ but fooling around with the world. And then we read about the kings of the 29:36 earth joining up with this Babylon. How religion and politics go together. The beast rides on this Babylon. The combination of 29:58 combination of religion and politics. See here about this woman. And the beast together in The beast carries this woman, sorry. The woman sits on the beast, verse 7. That's the antichrist and the religious 30:21 false church joining together. In chapter 18, you read about Babylon is an economic financial system. And you read about all types of things there. Including rock music in verse 22. 30:50 Cloning of human beings. All these things are in this chapter. And how when this Babylon is destroyed, all the businessmen on the earth verse 11 start weeping. The false church is not only linked with 31:12 politics. It's also linked with money and the financial systems. You know, some of the big denominations in the world have got billions and 31:27 billions of dollars in their accounts. There's a tremendous power through money. There's a lot of corruption also in those 31:45 in that between religion and money. Babylon will be thrown down and destroyed, it says in verse 21. This false religious system is what killed many of the prophets and the saints, chapter 18, verse 24. And after these things are all over, 32:12 we read in chapter 19, there's again a loud shout of Hallelujah in heaven. Four times in the New Testament, we read the word Hallelujah. And all the times are here. And it's a Hallelujah because Babylon is 32:36 destroyed. That's something that should bring great joy to us. The false church is destroyed. And the bride is now ready, verse chapter 19, verse 7 to 10. The bride is different from the harlot 32:56 Babylon. The true church that's kept itself pure for the Lord. And then Jesus comes, verse 11. This is the same thing that we saw in chapter 16, verse 15. He But it's everybody can see him now. 33:23 And he gathers together with him the saints of God. And he goes into battle and destroys the enemies' forces. And the beast, the antichrist, was seized, verse 20, and the false prophet, and they were all thrown into the lake 33:42 of fire. Notice one little thing here. In verse 10, John was so taken up with all this that he fell at the feet of the angel to worship him. The angel said, "Don't worship me." 34:04 Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. When we talk about prophecy in the church, remember this phrase. Prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. It's not a testimony that exalts Christ, 34:25 it's not a true prophecy. And then begins the thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth. In chapter 20, the devil is bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit. Overcomers reign with Christ, verse 4. 34:48 The overcomers, chapter 20, verse 4. Reign with Christ for a thousand years. And then when the thousand-year reign of Christ is over, verse 7, Satan will be released from the prison for a short time. Now, you would have thought that if 35:08 after everybody has seen Christ reigning on the earth for a thousand years, nobody will ever want to follow the devil again. Man is so corrupt. A great multitude of people still follow the devil. See, a lot of people just don't want to 35:30 go to heaven. They don't want God. And then we read the devil was thrown into the lake of fire, verse 10. And fire came from heaven and burnt up those who fought against God's 35:48 people. And the devil was thrown into the lake of fire, verse 10. Then comes the final great judgment. And God sits on his throne. 36:06 Verse 12, all the books are opened. In those days, books were like scrolls, not like these type of books we have today. Just like a video tape, scrolls, rolled up this side and rolled up this And um 36:24 we can say the video tapes were opened. Everybody's life video tape is played from the time he was born till the time he died. Verse 12, they were judged according to the things were written in these video tapes that was seen on these video 36:43 tapes. So that whenever anybody is sent to hell, the whole world can see that that guy deserved hell. Look at the way he lived. Do you know that a video tape is running in your memory of every single thing you 37:02 do and say right from the time you are born? And if you have done wrong things there, the only way to clean out that part of the video tape is by confessing it to Christ and asking him to cleanse you with his that part of the video tape will be 37:26 erased. And when your video tape of your life is played in the final day, these blank spots with all the evil things you did not seen by anybody. we don't confess will be there for 37:46 everybody to see. Everything you blamed other people for will be there. But everything you took the blame for yourself and confessed, you'll be cleansed. That is why it's dangerous to blame other people. Because that will remain on your video 38:06 tape. It's better to acknowledge your fault and say it was my fault, Lord, forgive me. It'll be cleansed. And God says, "I won't remember it anymore." And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life, verse 15, 38:22 was cast into the lake of fire. In chapter 21 and 22, of Christ, the holy city where the new Jerusalem, verse 2. And these are the overcomers. 38:45 Verse 7, he who overcomes shall inherit all these things. I will be his God and he will be my son. Characteristics of this church is it's crystal clear, verse 11, 39:03 like crystal clear jasper, it says. That means this is transparent. There's nothing to hide. A true disciple of Christ, nothing to hide. Everything is open. 39:25 And here we read, there will be the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb on the foundation stones of the wall, verse 14. And on the gates, verse 12, will be the 39:43 names of the 12 tribes of Israel. So, we see Old Testament saints and New Testament saints are both going to be here. And the city is exactly the same in length, width, and height. 600 by 600 by 600. 40:05 The devil by you put it, it's it's a cube. is the same as what you see in the front. That means it comprises of people who what they appear to be is what they are 40:24 inside also. That's the depths There's no hypocrites hypocrisy there. And then in chapter 22, verse 1, we see this river of life coming from the throne of God. A picture of the Holy Spirit. 40:49 And there are many other things about heaven which we don't understand fully. The tree of life is there. Verse two, you know what I'm saying? The tree of knowledge of good and evil is not there. And the Lord again says, "I'm coming 41:07 quickly. Listen to the words of this book of Revelation." Verse seven, And here is an amazing verse, verse 11. Can you believe there's such a verse in the Bible? Let the one who does wrong still do 41:26 wrong. Let the one who is filthy remain filthy. That's really amazing. But the Bible exalts you to remain filthy and to keep on doing wrong. You know why it says that? The meaning is this. 41:45 After reading this whole book, and you come to the last page, and you still want to do wrong, then go ahead and do wrong, brother. There's no hope for you. After reading all this, 42:04 you still want to be filthy, you go ahead and be filthy. There's no hope for you. Let those who are holy keep themselves holy. Because he's coming quickly. Uh do you know which is the last sin 42:22 mentioned in the Bible? In verse 15, the last part, telling lies. What is the first sin mentioned in the Bible? What did the devil tell Adam? A lie. 42:41 The first sin and the last sin in the Bible are lies. Many believers have not given up telling lies. When they're caught in a difficult situation, they tell a lie to get out of it. The 144,000 who stood with the Lamb on 43:03 Mount Zion, there was no lie in their mouth. If you're a serious Christian, get rid of lying. And then it says the Spirit and the Bride are still inviting people to come, verse 17. Come and drink the water of life freely. 43:25 And if you hear these words, don't add to them, verse 18. Don't subtract from them. God wants us. And concludes with the words, "He's coming quickly. Let the grace of Jesus Christ be with you all." You know, when we have seen how the 43:47 devil is finally going to be sent into the lake of fire, that's why we are not afraid when we see so many things happening on the earth. You know, in India, one of the big things that people watch is 44:04 India-Pakistan cricket matches. India-Pakistan cricket match. I thought of it like this. Supposing a cricket match is going on between India and Pakistan, and I watched it. I saw that India won. 44:24 Somebody else who was at office could not see it. He comes back in the evening to see the replay of this match. He doesn't know who was won. And he's sitting with me. 44:44 And he sees the Indian wickets falling, and he's worried what will happen. And when Pakistan batsman scores a century, and he's worried. He wonders why I'm not worried at all. Because I already saw the end of the 45:06 match. I knew who won. In between, I know these things may happen, but I know the final end of the match. I've seen the end of the story. 45:25 The devil has been defeated. God is on the throne. Jesus Christ is going to rule. Those who are faithful may suffer a little bit, but finally they'll reign with him. If you haven't seen that, today when something goes wrong in your 45:41 life, you get worried, excited, "What will happen?" And I say, "Well, I'm not worried. I've seen the end of the story. The devil's going to be thrown in the lake of fire." I saw a sticker once. 45:59 When the devil reminds you of your past, you tell him about his future. Tell him where he's going to go. He doesn't like to hear that. And so, we have come to an end of our study of this wonderful book, God's word, the Bible. 46:19 When we started, we started with 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17. The scripture is given to us to make the man of God perfect. So, my purpose in expounding scripture 46:37 was to show you that every book of the Bible has got an interesting message for us. We saw the essential message of each book. We didn't have time to go into every verse, because that would have taken 46:57 many hundreds of more hours. But every book has got a message applicable to us today. And the other thing we have seen as we have studied the Bible is the Bible is a very interesting book. Very relevant to the time in which we 47:20 live. If we follow it, we see the glory of Jesus in it, and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us day by day by day through it, he will prepare us for everything that 47:38 comes on the earth. He will prepare us for everything that comes in our own life. That's why the Bible is called the word of prophecy. Prophecy means something which is 47:55 telling us about the future. We hear a word from God as we read it. And it prepares us for what we are going to face in the next few years in our own life. Those who neglect reading the Bible 48:17 they will not be prepared. It's like having no money in your bank account. You know, for example, if you had no savings, and you have no money in your bank account, in a time of need, you're in a tremendous problem. Those who had the habit of saving, 48:36 saving, saving, when there's a problem comes, they've got enough to take care of that need. You know what Joseph did in the time of plenty? He said, "Store away some for the time of famine." Today, 48:58 in many of our churches, is a time of plenty where we can hear God's word. This is the seven years of plenty. Seven years of famine will come. Now 49:17 is the time to absorb God's word. Through CDs, tapes, meetings, study of God's word, reading godly books, to absorb, meditate, and preserve for 49:37 ourselves. So that one day when the famine comes, we have a store within ourselves by which we can feed ourselves and feed hungry people all over the 49:56 world. God wants you to do that yourself. He wants every child of God in this day study God's word, filled with God's word, filled with the Holy Spirit, 50:15 full of revelation from God on this, transformed to the likeness of Christ, a bold witness for Christ, obeying what you see here, claiming the promises here in the name of Jesus, being a light for the world in these 50:34 last days. May God help you. May God bless you. Amen. Amen.
