Okay. I'm being recorded. That's okay though. I just don't pay attention to it. I'm just speaking what the Lord has for me, for us. And as I often say, I study and I get much more out of it. And I get a whole lot and I'm thankful for that. But we're gonna be in Revelation 1. We've been talking about it. Been here a couple of weeks and we haven't gotten too far, but that's okay. There's not a timeline on this. I'm not being graded for how fast I can teach it. I don't care to do it because we'll miss the boat and what God would have for us. As we said, the book of Revelation is revealing. It's a combination of the whole Bible. It's revealing the first words of the revelation of who? Jesus Christ, the Christ. And so revealing things, showing us things. Correct me if I'm wrong, Pastor, but it's not set up of doctrine, the book of Revelation. You can get doctrine from it, don't get me wrong. Turn for reproof. That church doctrine, that's what I was talking about. So, you know, there's a lot of things that when you read the Bible, certain things pop out to me. And as they would to you on certain things, hmm, what's this mean? Oh, what's he talking about here? Then next thing you know, you start following the path of it. But in the first verse says, and we'll read down a little bit, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified it by his angels unto his servant John." And I was thinking about this signified by his angels and showing unto the men, but you know what? I don't I had this belief that God's just not going to sit there and you not read the Bible and God reveals things to you, and that you would know all scripture. I don't like to argue, but I will debate you on that. And I can show you, if you go to 1 Peter, and I'm going to write this down, 1 Peter And I want you to go to chapter 1, and I believe it's going to be that. I looked at it, right? Yeah, that'll be right. And then we'll see where we go from there. I'm not even there yet. Holy smokes. Chapter 1 in 1 Peter. And in here, he says that the trial of your fate being much more precious than of gold that perish it, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. A month of Sunday preaching on that. Whom having not seen ye love, in whom thou art, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." Well, what's the grace that should come unto you? All this has to do with the testimony of Jesus. And so what it says here, the prophets have inquired and searched diligently. And that's where I get over and let's see if I want to look at this verse or not. Yeah, we'll do that later. But I just wanted, looking back at chapter one of the book of Revelation, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which was shortly come to pass, and said it signified by his angels unto his servant John. God has given us the word of God. He's given us this Bible. And he he wants us to see Jesus by diligently searching the scriptures We're going to look at some scripture today That's not new testament. It's well before He came on this planet earth And sent down to become in the flesh Throughout the whole bible you'll see jesus but The book of Revelation is a culmination of everything that you'll see in the Bible. But I wanted to look at this word shortly, will shortly come to pass. And what's that mean? So I was trying to just think of that shortly. I was thinking of Trevor. No, I'm just kidding. Well, your brother said it, so I had to play along. But I was thinking shortly, and I say, well, I'll be with you shortly. That means real soon. I wanted to look at some things, but let's go to 2 Peter. Because when it says here, he says, which much shortly come to pass, things are going to happen soon. Well, When you look at this, when this was written, it wasn't five years ago, but things were surely going to pass. So we look at a thing called time again. But it says here in verse number nine of chapter three, he says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. The Lord, it says, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. Okay. Things are shortly going to happen. Well, and then it says here, as some men count slackness, but as long suffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And then I look at verse, let's start with verse eight. Well, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. We talked about that before. And then you go back over to Daniel chapter 9, where he's talking about 927, three and a half years, and then the breaking of the treaty, another three and a half years. That's talking about God dealing with time. That's a verse that is a set time, a fixed season. And the word shortly, I also was thinking about could be rapidly. And you say, well, this happened in I can look here, and I didn't look at the timeline of what year was written, but I don't have that in my Bible. Some Bibles will have it when John, the revelation of Jesus Christ was written roughly. I should have, I failed on that, so. Yeah. Well, if you want to fire me, then you can teach. But I think of God deals with time. And I think a lot of us don't like that. A lot of us want to rush things. A lot of us want to push things forward. Even though the Bible says shortly, I come soon or I come rapidly, there's things God has a set time and a fixed time and a fixed season for everything. And it's all within God's time. Now to say, well, one year is where the Lord is like a thousand years and a thousand years is one year, you know, I can't give you an answer, but if we go back to 2 Peter chapter 3, I think that's where I want to be. No, that's not what I wanted. Let's go back to, I was looking at 1 John, no wonder. There's a difference. Let's continue reading on. He says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, this is verse 10, in which the heaven shall pass away and great noise and elements shall pass with fervent heat and the earth shall and the works of their end shall be burned up. Then you get down to verse 14, And it says here, wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, what are we looking for? He just listed a bunch of things up there we're looking for. What? What's the saying, Peter? Looking for his promise. Back over in verse number nine, he says that you look for such things, be diligent, that you may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless." There's things you've got to do. As we search and seek and want to know things, what's Christ require of us? To be diligent. Diligent about what, Nathan? His what? His work. He wants us to be diligent about his work. Is that what you're saying? Anybody else have a thought? What's he wants to be diligent? Sean. Exactly. That's good answers all the way about, but found in him peace without spot and blameless. It's not about serving the Lord and going out there teaching Sunday school and preaching in the fall, it's about your own life. Searching yourself out diligently to where you stand with him. Yes, Pastor. So, we as independent Baptists have gotten into the habit, and you read prayer letters for missionaries and you see this, they equate service with Christian growth. In other words, as long as somebody is serving the Lord, hey, they're growing as a Christian. But you can serve the Lord very carnally, as a lost Pharisee. The Pharisees did that very, very well. If you were to measure Christian growth by service, well, then those Pharisees were as saved and sanctified as anyone could ever be. You remember a Paul saying? Yep. Oh, yes. Those things that I did, I count the loss. Yes. So our diligence is more in stewarding the mysteries of God and not letting those things slip. as an unprofitable thing. And we want to be found profitable servants when He comes. And so we're diligent in the Word of God, diligent in keeping those things. And the Lord gave me this thing this morning as we were praying, and I see now why. I wrote it down, and it comes together here. Why should we be diligent to learn the Word of God? What profit is it? Is it just profitable for us? The profit is this, that in this generation, thy name might be known. This generation. We're not responsible for the generation of the 1940s, 50s. mysteries of God as such and be diligent in those things, so that when our Master does come, He finds us faithfully. Yeah. I want us to turn. I'm going to write the case for those who are writing verses down. For those of you who are writing anything down, turn to Amos. I tell you what, if you skip over the Minor Prophets when you read the Word of God, you're missing blessings. You get what Pastor was saying, because this kind of ties in, this brings us, you know, this is what Christ desired that He wants to show you. You know, remember in verse 1 of Revelation 1? Who's there in Revelation 1? I'll turn back, I've got my Bible marker there. He says that God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must surely come to pass, and sent and sanctified by his angels unto his servants. This is what he wants to reveal to you. He says in verse number 7, "'Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He will reveal the secret unto the servants, the prophets.' He revealed the secrets, the mysteries of God. Now let's turn over to Daniel chapter 2 verse 28. But there is a God in heaven that revealeth what? And maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days, thy dreams and thy visions and thy head upon the bed are these. So you see all this happening. Now I want you to turn over to Luke. I did, I read it. 3-7. And then I went to Amos. I said I'll turn back to Revelation. I'm sorry, I spoke fast. I got excited there. Amos 3-7, it talks about God revealed the secret things. Daniel chapter 2, God revealed the secret thing. Now we're, because that's what in Revelation 1-1, that's what he's revealing. And so, loop now. I kind of went fast, Pastor. My apologies. I missed it. I didn't realize it. Yeah, that's why I wrote them down in case we missed the boat somewhere. At least we have part of the rope we can grab on and they can pull us. verse number 10. You're dealing with parables. You're dealing with the parable of the sower in verse number 4. And you get down here and verse number 9, disciples ask him saying, what might this parable be? Chapter 8. I was going to have you guys figure it out. There was going to be a bonus question at the end. Where am I reading from? And then I think I got a Werther's in here. of coffee worthers. Yeah. But he says, and disciples asked him, saying, what might this prayer will be? I just get excited when I when God shows me stuff and I'm able to pass it on. I don't know. I just I'm just Rambo coming in there, shooting away, blasting everything. And, you know, and it says, and he said unto them, it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Okay. But to others in parables and seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is the seed and the word is the word of God. Okay. So he reveals things and show things and through his prophets and so forth. But, you know, as you look at this and I got thinking, okay, what's he revealing John here? what's the message that He's given to John to bring forth to us in the Word of God. And as we read on down, who bear record of the Word of God and the testimonies of Jesus Christ and of all things that He saw. And you know, so whoa, to bear testimony of all those written, all the things that He saw. He says, "'Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the word of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand.'" A mouthful there if you were to shut it out there, but he says, so who's he writing to? Who's he trying to speak to? Well, what I gather here is in verse number four is John to the seven churches which are in Asia. So when you look over in chapter three and chapter two and three, and then you head over all the way to the last verse of chapter three, verse 22, and you see that there's a message there for the seven churches. And as I've been saying all along, well, what's the message going to be about? Just gonna say, get ready, be ready. We already say that, but the whole thing goes back to the first verse, the revelation of Jesus Christ. So this message that he's gonna be giving, if you read ahead, it's the person and the work of Jesus Christ. And so as we look through and look at this, I want us to read verse four. John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you, and peace from which is, and which was, and which is to come. Peace from him. Who, which is, which was, and which is to come. Who is that? I have the microphone, you guys don't, so they can't hear you back there, so stand up and shout, it's Jesus. Amen. So I got thinking about this and so he's talking about Jesus here and And I don't want to steal John's thunder sometime. He's gonna he's gonna teach on the spirits of God But I'm gonna take a little bit of his thunder a little bit because you get here you just can't bypass say oh we'll save this for a later date and from the seven spirits which are before his throne and Well you just have to, you can't just pass by this without looking and studying this. The seven spirits, which are before his throne. So you kind of have to break it down and look at it. Let's turn over and look at verse 16. And he says, and he had in his right hand seven stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his content was as the sun shineth in his strength. Now the reason I went there And then let's head over. Let's go to verse number six of chapter four. And he says, and before the throne, there was a sea of glass like under crystal in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. Now when you start looking at this and you start saying, what is this? Who is this? What's this all about? Turn over to Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 4. That's why I didn't give you the chapter, because I knew it was going to take a while to get there. Chapter four is talking about. golden candlesticks, talking about the Zerubbabel's foundation and olive trees, but he's talking about a vision. It says, and the angel that talked with me came again and walked and waked me as a man that is waking out of his sleep. And there's a message that he was giving and everything. And so I started reading down through and then I got to verse number nine and you know, It says here, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. So the monarch revealed things. For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. what seven? Can you read none? They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth. I gotta go over to chapter five of Revelation now. You have to go there. You just can't leave it there. You can get excited, but it's so much more excitement to come. And then you look at verse, chapter five, and, and, Let's go to verse 6. Let's start verse 5. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. Amen. And it says, And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb. Does that get you excited? As it had been slain. For who? For what? Yeah. Having seven horns. You remember we did a little bit and I said, pay attention to these little things. Seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits, spirits of God. Turn back to Revelation chapter one, verse four, from the seven spirits, which are before his throne. Amen. And it says the spirits of God set forth into all the earth. Why? Back to Zechariah. You go there. Chapter 4. But we're going to be in chapter 3 this time. Start with verse number 7. Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Let's ask you this. Anybody know when he says Zerubbabel who he's talking about? Now you got some couple of Zerubbabels. You got one that's in the lineage of David that was a king back in, I believe it's 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, his name's brought up, or some refer back to Nehemiah. Who is this Zerubbabel? You read the word. Tell me what you think who he is. If you read the Bible, you see his name out there a few times. He is a priest. He is a priest. I wrote this down. No, I didn't. Ezra. Yeah, I want to look at Ezra 3.8 through 10. I gotta get there first. Let's start in verse number eight. Now in the second year of their coming into the house of God at Jerusalem, and in the second month began, who? Zerubbabel. Isn't that good how God's word just ties in and leads you to certain things? And the son of Shealtiel, how do you say that pastor? Oh man, praise the Lord. A redneck on Horserun Road. Amen. See, he must be God. I hope he's speaking through me on that. He says, and Jeshua, the son of Zoadack and the remnant of their brethren, the who? Hey, you were right, right? Priests and the Levites and all that were come out. of the captivity under Jerusalem and appointed the Levites from 20 years old and upward and set forward the work of the house of the Lord. Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Cadmiel, and his sons and sons of Judah together to set forward the workmen in the house of God, the sons of Hanadad, which their sons and their brethren, the Levites, And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they sent the priests and their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, and the symbols, and praised the Lord at the ordination of David, king of Israel. You can just go on and keep reading about it. Just keep reading about it. Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't go in there yet. I figured they would kind of figure it out because the rule doesn't. There's a name that stands out. But we're going back to Zachariah. I'm getting Zachariah chapter three. Remember what I just read over in Revelation 5, 6. And before I did that, we were over in Revelation 4, 9 and 10. And so we're going to be in chapter 3, verse 7. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, if thou wilt walk in my ways, and thou wilt keep my charge. Now, remember what I read over in 2 Peter. Remember chapter 3, verse 14? Read that one, Nathan, for me. You click the turn there. I just love it. God just gave that to me just now, by the way, so I'm having you read something. All right. Ready? Yeah. Word for Beloved is saying that he looked for such things to be diligent. Okay, right there. Be diligent. And what's it say here? Thus saith the Lord of hosts, that thou wilt walk in my ways to bring glory to God. When you do that, it's not about you, it's about him. And he says, and will walk in my ways, and thou wilt keep my charge. Then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. And it says here, O Joshua, the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, for they are men wondered at, for behold, I will bring forth my servant who The branch, who's the branch? It's Jesus. Verse nine. So we're dealing with Jesus here. We're dealing with the revelation of Jesus Christ in Revelation. And we're seeing it all throughout his Bible. And it says, and behold the stone that I laid, verse 9, have laid before Joshua upon one stone shall be what? Seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the graving, therefore saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree. Dealing with Israel. who is the fig tree. I don't mean to slow things down. No, go ahead. Branch is completely capitalized. Exactly. That's why I got excited. I walked over and said, who's this branch? It's Jesus. Go to chapter 6, verse 12. Zechariah is addressing Joshua the high priest right now. Yeah. It says, and speak unto him, saying, speaketh the Lord what's spoken of Joshua the high priest in Zechariah 3 is actually referring to the one that is the branch, Jesus. So, linking those things together. Yeah, amen. But looking at that, I just got a little excited to look at the eyes of the Lord going to and fro. looking at everything that we just looked at. And next week, well, I won't be here next week. Maybe Brother Jackson, our pastor, will teach. We'll see. I'll be out of town. But the following week, we're going to be looking at things about Jesus Christ. And It might take us a while, like I said, to get through Revelation. I'm not on a timeline. I'm just enjoying this study, and I'm enjoying to be able to give to you what God has given to me. And I don't have all the answers, but He does. And I know we get excited about end time stuff, but this is all around Jesus Christ. And it's not about, okay, all this other stuff because I read the back of the book and I win. I read where he gets on a white horse and we come with him when you're dealing with Armageddon and you're dealing with all that stuff. There's a lot of stuff to go over there, seven. If you notice, God deals, the main number in Revelation is seven. If you ever do a study on numbers, what does seven come to you as? What is completion? The number seven is completion. A lot of people that aren't saved tell you the number seven means love. No, it's completion and perfection. But I like the word completion. All right, we're going to stop there. Gotta get past our time to preach. more verses to go. I want us to look at, if I can give you some more verses, the one thing you want to look at is over in 1 Peter, there's a verse there, Revelation 3.11 talks about quickly. Revelation 22.7 talks about quickly. When you want to look at that, always remember God manages time. I desired for the Lord to come, even now. And I wouldn't miss things on this earth. I really wouldn't. Everything going on in the Middle East, things that, well, it's all in this plan. I don't get worried over things like that. Because remember, he says he's the God of peace. But I do worry about, I have family that are lost. I know I have friends, they're not friends, but people I know, they're lost and need Jesus. And so that ties in with redeeming the time. Shortly, that deals with that. What are you doing? How are you living? all these things where we bring in honor and glory to Christ for everything we do. All right, well, Nathan, would you close us in prayer? Thank you for all that was shown here today, Lord. Just help us to keep it in our hearts, grow and meditate on that, Lord. Just help this service to follow and just get us something from that, Lord, and help us have a good rest of the day. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.