|
Introduction: These transcripts of Kay Arthur's lectures on Revelation (Parts 2-4) are provided as a service to the body of Christ with the written permission of Precept Ministries International. This material is the property of Precept Ministries International and all rights are reserved. The transcripts are for the most part verbatim with deletions identified by the characters (… ). The utilization of italics, bolding, hyperlinks and pop up notes represent editorial additions. Any written additions are identified by the designation "Ed note". Note that all text in blue identifies a link or popup. All reference are the NASB unless otherwise indicated. Please note that these lectures by Kay Arthur supplement the excellent Precept Upon Precept inductive Bible study on the Revelation. Click the following links to view each division of this encouraging study and note that you can also download the first lesson of each of the 4 parts: Revelation - Pt 1 - Revelation 1-3, 10 lessons Revelation - Pt 2- Revelation 4-22, 12 lessons Revelation - Pt 3- Revelation 4-22, 11 lessons Revelation - Pt 4 - Revelation 4-22, 14 lessons If you can find a local Precept class studying Revelation, I would strongly encourage you to join the class, as I know of no other study available anywhere in the world that will equip you so thoroughly to discern the signs of the times and cause you to live expectantly as you look for Christ's Return! |
|
Knowing Who God Is Click following for literal chapter by chapter chart summary of: |
||||||
|
Are you living without knowing Who God is? How many years, days, or minutes do you have left? No one knows for sure. But you do have right now. Every single tomorrow should be lived in the light of the knowledge of Who God is. Are those in the church living according to Who God is? Do we really know Who God is? What is wrong with our nation? What is wrong with this generation? What is wrong with this world? “What’s wrong” is that they don’t know Who God is. If you and I know Who God is, are we living according to Who He is? Are we living a life worthy of Who God is? If not, someday we will stand before Him and give an account for how we lived our life. What is the hope of our nation? The only hope is to be confronted with Who God is. That is what we are not doing. When we know Who God is we can make a rational decision as to whether we are going to honor God as God and live in the light of Who He is. Then whatever your response, at least you will have made it with a clear mind and you will know where you are headed. The burden for us taking this course is are we going to see God seated on His throne, see the events that are coming and know the sign of His coming and the end of this age and live the way we lived before this knowledge? Don’t do it! We would be fools to not let what we are seeing change the way we live. We have only 11 weeks so stick with it. We may not come up with every answer but we will get enough of a glimpse of God to see that He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power. Seeing these things about God, we will then know how we are to live. Live accordingly and let others know Who He is.
This song of praise comes from the 4 living creatures (lion, calf, face of man, eagle) who stand before God’s throne and cry “Holy, holy, holy’’. Saying holy twice gives it emphasis but saying holy 3x moves into the superlative. The lion is the king of the beasts. The ox/calf is a symbol of strength. The face of man is he who is above the other creatures, with the ability to communicate. The eagle is he majestic one, who when he is ready to die anchors himself on a rock and looks straight into the face of the sun until he dies. These four living creatures do not rest day and night. Rev 4:8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME."
Is God worthy? Those who have been closest to Him, who have been there from the beginning, cry out that God is “HOLY” or set apart, without taint, a Being of total & absolute perfection. “Holy” sums up all of the attributes of God. Those that hear every decree from the throne, who see how He rules and reigns, cry “Holy, holy, holy.” Why? Because He is worthy. WHAT DOES “WORTHY” MEAN? Worthy: axios from ago (to weigh something). So Worthy means to give an estimate or to give value to something. Worthy means inherent value, the value that is within not because of what God has done but bc of Who He is. God has INHERENT VALUE. His worth does not come from something apart from Himself. What is God worthy of? 1). GLORY: doxa (Cp. “doxology”) and means ‘to think, to recognize, to have an opinion’ and comes from the word which means “to seem”. So GLORY means to recognize, to have an opinion. So when we give God glory, it means that WE RECOGNIZE HIM FOR WHO HE IS. What is the problem in our society? Man does not have a correct opinion of Who God is. He has failed to recognize God for Who He is. Is the church in America living according to Who God is? No, not really bc if we were our society would not be the way it is. We are the salt of the earth, and salt stops the spread of corruption. A life lived according to Who God is gives Him glory. 2). HONOR: time which is reverence, proper esteem. We revere God by fearing him. 3). POWER: dunamis means to be able or capable. He is capable of performing everything we see in the word of God. He is capable of running this universe. He is capable of dealing with you as His child. He is capable of dealing with the unjust and the rebellious angelic hosts. Why is He capable (using the “5 W’s and an H”)? Because He has created all things. Nothing in life happens apart from God’s intention/will/purpose. God is saying that we exist because He willed us to exist. And yes God willed the devil to exist but not the devil’s choice to desire to be like God. Nothing exists apart from God’s will
will: Thelema comes from thelo, which means “to will”. The “-ma” on the end means the result of His will. It is not the result of demand but it is an expression of desire, an expression of pleasure. God would tell each of us that we exist because He desires us to exist. We exist because it is His “good pleasure” that we exist. This is why He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power. He has created all things. How? By His will. Because He wants them to exist. And if He created you, then don’t you need to recognize that truth and live accordingly. Evolution says that we evolved from a lower form of life. If so then there is nothing special about us. You may say “But evolution is scientific.” No it is not. There is no scientific proof whatsoever. Evolution is man’s idea and it came ultimately from “the pit of hell.” God wants you to know that He has created you for His pleasure, to bring Him joy. So when THELEMA is used of God, it indicates what God did of His good pleasure Col 1:15 And He is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation. (This does not mean Jesus was created but that He was there before creation.) 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities-- all things have been created by Him and for Him. So why were you created? You were created for God, for His good pleasure. Are you living for His pleasure or for your own pleasure? Are you living according to Who He is? Are you living according to the fact that He is worthy to receive glory and honor and power?
Rev 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. HIM WHO SAT ON THE THRONE: God the Father, Creator of all things… in the beginning God--Elohim--created the heavens and the earth. The “-im” ending in Hebrew is PLURAL. Compare to Gen 1:26 “Let Us--Father, Son, Holy Spirit--make man in our image… ”.
We are no longer slaves to sin. The captive has been set free by the blood of Jesus Christ and is no longer slave to sin because if the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed John 8:36. Kay describes how she previously was an adulteress but not any more bc she has been released from the power of that lust. The God of this world had blinded her eyes (2 Cor 4:4) but Jesus took the scales off so that she could see His Truth. Now she can live a life worthy of the calling of Christ Jesus and you can too. Kay now knows Who God is and because she knows Who God is she no longer lives the way she used to live. And this “knowing” has become Christ in her Who sets her free. So it’s not just knowing the truth but it’s receiving and applying truth. Rev 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of Him Who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. The SCROLL contains 7 seals and out of the 7th seal ultimately come the 7 bowl judgments. These judgments bring the end of the dominion of Satan and the reign of sinful man. Rev 5:2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy (Who has the inherent value) to open the book and to break its seals?" 3 And no one in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look into it. (No one could even look into it… not even a glimpse. And yet God gave the revelation to Jesus Christ that He might reveal to us what is inside those seals. We can know because Jesus is worthy. ) 4 And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy (no one had the inherent value) to open the book, or to look into it; (John must have known somehow that in this scroll was the ultimate revelation of holiness, righteousness, justice, truth, mercy, and the just judgment of God that would bring it all to an end and that would place Jesus Christ on the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords. But no one was worthy) 5 and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah,(a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) the Root of David, (if you trace Christ’s genealogy, it goes back to David) has overcome (1Jn5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith. Jesus overcame bc He kept the commandments of His Father. He overcame bc He believed God.) so as to open the book and its seven seals." 6 And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, (slain is perfect tense which means a past completed action with a present and continuing result. What He did in the past has an import for all eternity.) having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. (Jesus walked by the Spirit.) 7 And He came, and He took it out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. 8 And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." (Know that He is worthy… worthy of everything we have and of everything we are. He is worthy of living for. He is worthy of dying for.)
Because He paid the price with His blood so that we don’t have to live in sin. He is worthy because no one can say to Him that He did not provide the way of escape. But He did… He paid for it with His blood. What was lost to willful disobedience, but belonged to God, Jesus has redeemed by walking into the slave market of sin. He purchased us from the slave block of sin and set us free. This freedom is not so that we might roam about on this earth but that we would be a KINGDOM, (note that “kingdom” implies a “KING”!) PRIESTS unto our God. We need to proclaim this message to the world. The world must understand WHO GOD IS so that they can make a rational decision. Knowing WHO GOD IS they have to know also the CONSEQUENCES of not HONORING HIM AS GOD. They do not have to live in that sinful lifestyle. They can be set free. Jesus Christ conquered sin and death. Jesus’ Death & Resurrection broke the stranglehold of principalities and powers (under Satan’s dominion) over CREATION. Jesus’ death liberated mankind Col2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (JESUS CHRIST: THE ONE WHO IS WORTHY.)
JESUS’ MESSAGE TO THE CHURCH AT SARDIS This church was dead, like so many churches in our time, even though they have a reputation that they are alive. They are not alive but “deader than a doornail.”
The One Who sits on the throne is WORTHY. He created you. We exist because of His good pleasure. Satan blinded us. We believed the lie. But there is another One Who is WORTHY and that One is the LAMB OF GOD Who sets you free from what Satan did to you. He purchased you with His blood. He made you to be a kingdom unto God. And He says in Revelation (Rev 5:10, 20:6, 22:5) that we will reign forever and ever. But those that reign are those that are WORTHY. And those that are WORTHY are those that walk with Him in WHITE, those that walk having their garments cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. They are those that walk hearing what the Spirit says to the churches. All though Rev 2&3 the admonition is 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' and to him “THAT OVERCOMES”. Those that walk with Him in white are worthy (of inherent value). They are made to be of inherent value by the Spirit of God Who lives inside of them. The Lamb dwells inside and so we should walk WORTHY of the vocation to which He has called us. We need to let our world and our society know WHO GOD IS and that they can live a life that has WORTH & VALUE.
Some day ALL CREATION will say it. Someday all will bow and proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Recognize this now “precious one” before it is too late. Know how long you have… no one knows how many tomorrows they have. don’t live like a fool. live knowing Who your God is. He is WORTHY. He is worthy to be WORSHIPPED. |