This morning we just pray for those in need. Lord, we think about those whose paths we cross. Just help us to always be conscious of the fact that there are needs there that we do not know, that we may not recognize. But Lord, we do have victory in Jesus and that is our hope and the hope that we can convey to others. We just pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen. You may be seated. Go ahead and turn to Revelation 1. Revelation chapter 1, there's a lot of sevens in the book of Revelation. I mean, a multitude of them. Seven is the number of completion. And so, when you're looking at the book of Revelation, of course you would have a lot of things completed in it. And so, Revelation 1-4, the Bible says, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before His throne. So as you're looking at the seven, I want to go ahead and cover them just in a teaching format in Sunday school. It's the first of many times that number appears there in verse 4. It actually appears twice. You've got the seven churches, the seven spirits. And the number seven is a common number in the book of Revelation and throughout the Bible. By comparison, when you study the sevens in Leviticus chapter 23 and Proverbs 30, you'll see a lot of similarities there with the usage. And then you've got, look at verse 12. Revelation chapter 1 verse 12, the Bible says, And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks. And then of course it defines what those things are later on in verse 20. It says, The seven candlesticks which I sawest are the seven churches. You know, you go on down there to verse 20. You've got the seven churches. And look at verse 16. Verse 16, and he had in his right hand seven stars out of his mouth when a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as the sun, shineth in his strength. So then you have the seven stars there. So you see, seven is a big deal in Revelation. Seven churches, seven spirits, seven golden candlesticks, seven stars, and it mentions the seven churches. Look at chapter 4 now. Now in chapters 2 and 3, you're actually looking at the seven churches individually, which we will study those in detail, and there's a good reason for doing that. There were seven local churches during the first century, and those seven local churches are given seven letters. Those letters are to be read in the churches. So think about it. When you read the book of Ephesians, there's a church in Ephesus in Revelation. That is a letter to churches. It's a letter to us. So when you think about it, people ignore Revelation sometimes when there are epistles in there that are written for churches. So make sure you understand that. In chapter 4 verse 5, The Bible says, "...and out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunders and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God." So what are the seven lamps? The seven lamps are the seven spirits of God. And then go ahead and look at chapter 5 verse 5. Chapter 5, verse 5, "'And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not. Behold, the line of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.'" So you have seven seals. And I've showed you in my Bible the seven-sealed book, but what it is, is he has that book and nobody is worthy to open it. He opens that book and he breaks a seal and he breaks another seal and he opens another seal. So it might be that each portion of the book has a seal on it and he's breaking that seal as he opens that up and he opens that seal and he reads the seal. He reads the book... that now has the open seal. And again, this isn't something mysterious. If you look in the old times, they would take a letter and they would seal the letter and put candlestick wax on it, and then they would seal it with their seal where it was closed, and then when you opened it, you broke the seal. So again, it's not something that you ought to think is real mysterious. It's not. Look at verse 6. And I beheld, and low in the midst of the throne of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes." So the lamb has seven horns, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. So again, you have the seven horns, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits. Notice it's not capitalized here. like it is earlier. And we'll study those seven spirits and there's a little controversy on it, you know, exactly what is it. But again, we'll deal with the Scripture the way the Scripture is written. Look at chapter 8. Chapter 8. Verse 1 says, And when he had opened the seventh seal... So again, there are seven seals. He mentions that earlier. He's opening the seventh seal. There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. So what do you have? You have seven angels. What do they have? And you have seven trumpets. And they're going to blow those trumpets and judgment's going to come from each one of those seven trumpets and we'll study what that sound is all about. Why do they blow the trumpets? It's like when you have an army and they used to blow the trumpet, they would sound retreat. They would sound march. They would sound attack. And that's what this is all about. Each trumpet sound had a different and distinct meaning to it. And that's why you have it that way. Now look at chapter 10. Verse 1, this is a parenthetical chapter here. Verse 1, I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud. And a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open. And he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth. So imagine the size. Verse 3, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth, And when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices." There's a storm coming. When you think of thundering, you've got all these sayings when you're a kid. Grandma may have told you, well, it's the angels bowling in heaven. That's the thunder. The lightning is a strike or something, I don't know. But grandmas have a tendency to do that. Confused the poor kid to death till he gets your age and now all of a sudden you go Wow, I don't think that's what it was. You've been thinking it was bowling all along. I guess huh? Look at chapter 11 Revelation chapter 11 and Revelation chapter 11 talks about the times of the Gentiles in the 42 months and you will just jump down to Verse 12, and they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. Talking about the two witnesses. They're called up. They're killed. They're laying in the street three and a half days and God says, Come up hither. So when people say, Well, is there a rapture and revelation? And the answer is yes. There's one right here. come up hither and they ascended up into heaven, a cloud, and their enemies beheld them. And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand." So you have a seven there. They don't really call it seven thousand men. And the remnant were affrighted. Now notice this group, "...and gave glory to the God of heaven." You have a saved group and this is them. I mean, they gave glory. Remember, everybody else doesn't repent. Verse 14. I'm sorry, go back to verse 13. What did it say there on the 7? Oh, the 7,000. That's what it was. It was that one. The 7,000 men, another 7. Look at chapter 12. Now chapter 12, I told you, is the hinge upon which the whole book of Revelation revolves around. We'll deal a little bit here. So verse 1, There appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. Anybody know where you might see that? Genesis 37. In verses 9 and 10 it talks about a woman clothed and you're looking at the 12 children there, Joseph being one of them, and that's the prophecy there. So that means this is Israel. So when you're looking at the woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, upon her head a crown of 12 stars, Genesis 37 shows that's the nation of Israel. She being with child cried. So again, she is with child. Is she with a fetus? What's in the womb? It's a child. So if you let the Bible be your guide and the Bible determines truth, then you will understand that there is no such thing as just a fetus. A woman is with child here or great with child. Verse 3, And there appeared another wonder in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns. So you've got seven heads and ten horns. and seven crowns upon His heads. So you've got that seven over and over and over and over again. And that's just the way the Bible works. So then you've got verse 4, And His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, did cast them to the earth. What do we know about those stars? They're angels. And again, you let the Bible be literal where the Bible's literal, but when the Bible's figurative, it will tell you. And just one star would burn the whole earth up. So as you're reading this, you go, Oh, I always thought that was weird. All those stars falling to earth. Wouldn't that just... Yes, it would destroy the earth. I mean, the size of stars is amazing, let alone one hitting the earth. It would completely knock it off of its axis. One star could do that, let alone a smaller meteorite could do that. But that isn't what's going to happen. So anyway, it talks about those stars. And again, it's the third part of the stars of heaven. And then verse 5, and she... Who is that? Israel. The woman brought forth a man-child. Who is that? Jesus. How do you know? Context. Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Notice the past tense. Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up unto God and to His throne. So the point is Jesus was always supposed to rule. He will rule in the future. When He came the first time, they were supposed to accept Him as Messiah. Did they? No. They put Him on a cross. He didn't come as king to rule, but His kingdom wasn't of that time, but it will be of His time later. And let's go ahead and cover a little of this because I want to go ahead and just give you a basic on it. I think the point is we're in chapter 12. We'll go ahead and get in there and roll around a little bit. you'll have further insight because 12 is the key to most everything in this whole thing. And so you've got verse 6, and the woman fled into the wilderness. So who's the woman? Israel. She flees into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days. So she doesn't flee. until the middle of the tribulation. Why? It's 1,260 days. That's three and a half years. So you've got some things that are going on before the three and a half years, and then you have the three and a half years mentioned. There's some people say, well, no, Revelation only covers the last half of the seven years. And that's not true because if she's going to hide for three and a half years, everything I just read right before that happened before the 1,260 days. And then verse 7, I'll give it to you again. We're going to go over it and over and over it. There was war in heaven. At what point is war happening in heaven? At the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week, the three and a half year point, there's war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon fought and his angels. So does Satan have angels? Sure he does. Third part of cast the earth. And again, that may be part of this story later on. You're just getting a detail of the summation that was already given. But there's war in heaven. I believe the first three and a half years, Michael is on earth. He's protecting Israel. He who now letteth will let until be taken out of the way, Thessalonians. He's protecting Israel. And then when he's taken out of the way, Israel has no protector. an angelic protector down here on earth. That's why she has to flee into the wilderness. In other words, you had the summary and now you've got the detail. So there's war in heaven, Michael's going to prevail, Michael the archangel, verse 8, and the dragon prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. See, you've got to understand, where is Satan the majority of the time now? He is in heaven as the accuser of the brethren. And you may not understand it. When you read chapter 4 and 5, you'll see the angels. And listen, you've got to be reading Revelation while we're going through it because when you're reading through it, you may have questions and then I may say something that will answer your question or you may ask me a question. Like I said, we may go over next door first Sunday. Sunday school over there and just do question and answer Well, if you've been reading Revelation a good time to ask question on Revelation, you know, you might and listen, there are no bad questions The only question, you know, the only dumb questions the one you don't ask You know I'm not gonna laugh at you and and I can embarrass people pretty bad if anybody treats anybody else bad. I Don't think we have anybody in here like that But I'm not sure I looked out. Oh, I just looked at Halleck. No, Halleck would not do that. If he did, he'd put a smile on his face and nobody would get mad at him. Verse 9, and the great dragon was cast out. Cast out of where? Heaven. Oh, I thought nothing bad can go into heaven. The devil's up there if he wants to be right now. Just like in Job, where was thou? I was walking to and fro in the earth. But he presents himself with the angels before God. And he's the accuser of the brethren. So he's up there accusing the brethren. Now, I was going to get this. So when you're reading Revelation chapter 4, you'll see the angels going, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And they're doing this repeatedly in heaven. Why? they're drowning out Satan. So he's over there accusing the brethren and you got all this other noise over here that's drowning him out. You say, well, I just thought God just wanted everybody to tell him how great he is. There's a purpose for everything. First of all, he is that great and he deserves all that. But there's a purpose for it and you don't understand the purpose until you know that the devil's in heaven accusing the brethren and God doesn't want to hear it. Is He allowed to be there? Sure. Till when? Right here. That's it. That's it. So there's no place found anymore in heaven. The great dragon was cast out. That old serpent called the devil and Satan. So who is the dragon? He's the old serpent. Remember in Adam and Eve, He had that serpent? That's who we're talking about. the devil and Satan, but he didn't look like a red-horned whatchamajigger, and he didn't look bad when he talked to Eve. He was enticing her. Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. So what does he want to do? He wants to deceive the whole world. Why is the world in such a mess? Because he deceives them. I mean, why is it a mess today? Because people are deceived. They think evolution is true, that we all came from a rock, an inanimate object, or an amoeba, or a frog, or an ape, or whatever. Wherever you are in that progression, that's where they believe we came from. Why? Because we all have similarities that can't be explained apart from a Creator that created us all. Or, we all evolved from the same source. And that's why you have to have evolution. And what do you do? You teach the kids evolution, you wonder why they are shooting up the schools. Well, you tell them they're apes, they're going to act like an ape. Tell them they're a monkey, they're going to act like a monkey. It's just the way it is. You tell them they came from inhuman objects, they're going to act inhuman. I remember when I was coming up, I remember being in school and wondering, what makes something wrong? My mom and dad. Just because they say it's wrong, doesn't make it wrong. You see, that's a lost person, a lost kid, who's analytical, thinking, what makes it wrong? What makes murder wrong? Well, society says it's wrong. God says it's wrong. That's what makes it wrong. And that's why we have such a mess. You think of the mafia. You think of the cartels in Mexico and the killings and the murders and the drugs and the prostitution and all that they do. How do they justify all that? They justify it because their authority goes no higher than the top of their head. And if it goes any higher, the authority is corrupt. Well, my authority is the government. If the government is corrupt, the outcome is corrupt. My authority is religion. If the religion is corrupt, then you got a problem. The only way this country, this world, individuals within it, make any sense of anything, is through a relationship with Jesus Christ, God the Creator, and then His book, and His book says, Thou shalt not, that's what makes it wrong. And that's it. That's it. Let me finish up this a little bit. Chapter 12 is the most enthralling, and the rest of it is even better. I'm going to have to stop there. We'll do it again, but go on to chapter 15, Revelation 15. Look at verse 6 and the seven angels, and we are already introduced to them. These are the ones with the vials. The seven angels came out of the temple having the seven plagues. So what's in the vials? They are the plagues. Clothed in purple and white linen, having their breasts girded in golden girdles, one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God who liveth forever and ever. So what are the seven vials? They have the seven plagues which are the wrath of God. You see, some of you looking around, you go, I don't understand why God doesn't judge this earth. Well, He's going to judge it. He's going to judge it all. He's going to destroy all of His enemies twice in Revelation. Once at the second coming, And then Jesus is going to reign for a thousand years and then once at the end of that thousand years, He's going to destroy His enemies twice. At the first destruction, you say, well, those enemies are dead. Yes, but then people go in the millennium with natural bodies. And they may be natural bodies with eternal life and they have children. Those children populate the millennium and those children will have free choice. Satan will be loose for a season at the end of a thousand years. The armies are going to go up against God and He's going to come down from heaven and just wipe them all out. So that's why you have enemies twice being destroyed. But God is giving man a choice. This is why it's so amazing to be alive at this time, to know what we know, to live when we live, and to realize that we have the truth here before us. We can know the future. We can understand the present. We can understand the past. We can understand what to do, how to live, and how to be. So you got the seven plagues there and the seven golden vials. Look at chapter 17. Look at verse 9. And this is not exhausted by any means. And here's the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. This is a different woman. This is the whore. It's not the woman of Revelation 12. That's why you have to be careful. This is the woman that sitteth on seven mountains. And those seven mountains, you'll see the waters are peoples and so on. So we'll deal with that later. Look at chapter 17 and look at verse 10. Where was I? I just did that. Oh, I wanted to mention the seven kings. And there are seven kings. Five are fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue his short space. And we'll get into all that later on. So you've got the seven mountains, the seven kings. Seven is frequently, it means perfection or completion. And we can understand it as 100% so sending the letters to the seven churches indicates that the book is intended for all churches throughout time. This is intended for us. Now, if you're saved, you're not going to be here, but you need to know. There are people that are searching for answers, and we need to be able to give them the answers. Let me see if I'm going to do this. No, I will not touch the seven. I was going to go back to chapter 1 verse 4 and deal with the seven spirits, but that is quite extensive. Alright, so there's a number of sevens in your Bible. Again, I would encourage you, if you can, get Alexander Scorby. Let him read it to you. It helps you with your pronunciation. It helps you with your understanding. I actually have in my office, I haven't seen them for a while, but we bought some of those little things that have the whole Bible on them. Do you remember? Did you get them? That's right. Do you still have them? Do you know what I'm talking about? So anyway, they have the whole Bible on them. I've got a couple of them. And if you need one, let me know. I mean, they weren't extremely expensive. Yes, sir. Yeah, YouTube, same thing. I have them on my phone, so I downloaded it, and I have Scorby, and he'll read to me, or I'd search it. But yeah, you do have YouTube also. So what I'm saying, though, is I told you, we listened to Revelation eight times. On the eighth time, when we went from Atlanta all the way down to Fort Lauderdale. And then on the eighth time, the one thing I needed, I got in Revelation chapter 19, verse 20. And it just changed, it answered a question I've had what I believed, but I didn't have the proof, and He gave me the proof that day. God did by Him reading it. All right. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank You for Your many blessings. God lead and direct in all things. We just pray for Your will to be done. Pray for You to be glorified in all things. And we pray, Lord, especially for the loss in the family this morning. Just pray that You would reach down and just comfort in Jesus' name. Amen.