Revelation 1 Verse by Verse Preaching

Revelation 1 Verse by Verse Preaching

Video

July 8, 2013

..trying to start something new, dear God, and please just bless us this year in 2007, dear God. Bless this new series on Wednesday night. And use it in the lives of your people in such an important subject, dear God. Please speak to every heart tonight and in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

All right. So we are starting a brand new book tonight, the book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible. And I want to just give a few notes before begin and delve into this great chapter, chapter one of the book of Revelation. I want to tell you a little bit about what we are going to be learning. Now, when you are studying the book of Revelation, obviously we are dealing with 90% of this book is future events. And so because we are dealing with future events there are some things that people speculate about, some things that people guess about and have ideas about that are their opinions. Now the purpose of this study is similar to all the studies that we do on Wednesday night going through the Bible. We are not going to focus on what we don’t know. We will focus on what we do know. And so there is so much in the book of Revelation that is so clear and so obvious. This isn’t going to be about speculating about how this is going to play out in our world and what year it is going to happen and all these kinds of things. It is just going to be looking at what the Bible says. And the goal is that at the end of the series you have a mastery of the book of Revelation to where you understand the book of Revelation, you understand what each chapter is about. You understand the flow of the chronology. And so look, if you would, at the last verse one chapter one. This is still by way of introduction. But the Bible says, “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand,”[1] Jesus Christ speaking of course, “and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”[2]

Now what I want to point out is that throughout the book of Revelation God doesn’t make you wonder what things mean. God doesn’t leave you in the dark about what things mean. He says here, “The mystery of the seven stars.” And then he says, “Let me tell you what they are. You know, the mystery of the seven golden candlesticks. Let me tell you exactly what the candlesticks are. They are seven churches.”

Now throughout the whole book of Revelation you will see this more than any other prophetic book in the Bible, all the Old Testament prophetic books. The book is explained as it goes. I mean God tells you, “This is what this means.” John is scratching his head in a few places in the book wondering what something means. Immediately someone comes and tells him what it means.

Now the only reason that people don’t understand the book of Revelation is because they are unwilling sometimes to accept the obvious truths that are put forth. And so they find a way to explain them away. They find a way to change and twist what it means. And they call it their interpretation. Whenever people talk about their interpretation it makes me nervous right away because the Bible says that the Word of God is not of any private interpretation.[3] It says, “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”[4] Every word in this Bible is exactly what God means. It is exactly what he wants it to say. And so you don’t need to interpret the Bible. Read the Bible. And take it literally for what it says.

And so the problem that people have understanding the book of Revelation is their unwillingness to take the book literally or their unwillingness to accept the obvious truths that are taught here.

Verse 20 of chapter one makes it very clear that God is not going to keep us in the dark throughout this book. He says, “It is a mystery, but it is not a mystery to you because I am telling you what it means. It is a mystery to people who are not privy to this information.”

Look at verse number three. He says, “Blessed is he that readeth.”[5] Revelation 1:3. “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”[6] He says, “Blessed are you that read because you that read will understand the mystery of the seven stars. You will understand the mystery of the seven golden candlesticks. You will understand the great unfolding of events that is going to take place in the end of the world.”

And so that is what I want you to know right away is that this book is not as difficult to understand as people make it. It is very simple actually. And we will see that.

I want you to decide right now that you are going to try to be here for all 22 weeks of this series. I want you to really try and make a point to be here. This is so important and if you miss a week, obviously you can jump right back in. But you are missing a lot if you miss a week in this particular series especially. And so decide right now instead of maybe “Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy,”[7] blessed is he that comes on Wednesday night and hears this book preached, ok, because you are going to understand it. God has manifested his Word through preaching the Bible says,[8] in Titus 1:3.

And so let’s look at this and let’s begin right away. The Bible says in Revelation 1:1... And, by the way, chapters one, two and three are introductory. Ok. Chapter one gives us the scenario, the events. Chapters two and three are Jesus Christ’s exhortations for the seven main churches in Asia at that time. And then he gets into the events of the book of Revelation in chapter four.

But look at verse number one. The Bible reads, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:”[9]

Now what I love about the books that the apostle John wrote is that he always tells us what the purpose of the book is. In the book of John, for example, at the end of the book—and you don’t have to turn there. I will read this for you—at the end of John 20 the Bible reads in the final verse, “But these are written,”[10] talking about the things that are written in the book of John. “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”[11]

So in John 20:31 God says here that the purpose of the book of John—and this is the only book that really claims this—is so that you would believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing you would have life through his name.

When you get to the book of 1 John he says, “And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.[12] He says, “I am going to explain to you now that you are saved how to have fullness of joy in the Christian life.” And he explains that that is by walking in the light and not walking in the darkness because your fellowship with Jesus Christ is when you are walking in the light.

Well in the book of Revelation he says in verse one what the purpose of the book is. It is to show unto his servants those things which must shortly come to pass.[13]

So who is the book of Revelation primarily written to? Is it written to an unsaved world warning them of the doom and destruction that is coming? No. The primary purpose of the book of Revelation is written to God’s people, saved born again Christians to show unto them the things which must shortly come to pass so that they can be ready for these things when they do come to pass. That is the purpose of the book of Revelation.

So notice that the audience is God’s people. It is you. You are the one who needs to be reading this book. You are the one that needs to be ready as Jesus Christ admonished you to be at so many places in the gospels.

Look at verse two. The Bible says, “Who bare record of the word of God,”[14] speaking of John:

“Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. 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[15]

Now look if you would at chapter number three. See, notice that phrase, “the seven Spirits which are before his throne.”[16] Look at chapter three of Revelation. Flip over if you would and look at—let’s see here, I lost my place—look at verse number one of chapter three. The Bible says, “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write;”[17] This is Jesus Christ speaking to each of the seven churches, “These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God.”[18]

Ok. So who has the seven Spirits of God? Jesus Christ is what the Bible is saying.

Look back at chapter number one and verse number four. The Bible says that...so we know that Jesus Christ is speaking. He says:

From him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth.[19]

If you were here a couple of weeks ago you know that that “and” there is not talking about two different people. It is restating who that person is. The person who is and was and is to come who has the seven Spirits before his throne is Jesus Christ. It is clear from English grammar if you understand what that word “and” means. It is a restatement of who he is.

Now we studied a few weeks ago, also, the eternal preexistence of Jesus Christ. Remember in Micah 5:2 the Bible says that in Bethlehem was going to be born someone whose goings forth were of old from everlasting.[20]

Somebody asked me the other day, actually just on Sunday when I was out soul winning. I won this guy to the Lord and he said...and his brother was there listening and his brother did not get saved. And his brother said to me, he said, “Well, who made God? I mean, where did God come from? I mean, if everything came from God, where did God come from?”

And I said, “Well, God always was.”

And, see, that is what he means here. He says he was, he is and he is to come. We are talking about the eternality of Jesus Christ. See, Jesus Christ is as eternal as God is. He has no beginning. He is from everlasting.

By the way, those two words “from everlasting” only in the King James Bible will you find that concept of the eternal preexistence of Jesus Christ from everlasting. And so he says he is, he was and he is to come...

....and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father[21]

Do you see the word “and” there again? “Unto God and his Father”?[22] Are those two different people? Are God and Jesus Christ’s Father two different people? No. So you have to understand the English language here. He says, “Unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”[23]

Now when we see the word “Amen” there at the end of verse six we are ending a phase, ok. The first six verses is the introduction, telling us what the book is, telling us who the book is written to. Then we get into verse number seven which is the quintessential verse, I feel, of the entire book of Revelation. This is the key verse. And it is set apart by amens to give it a place preeminence here. Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”[24]

Now this is the theme of the book of Revelation. The theme of Revelation is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Now there are certain things that note the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Number one, he is coming in the clouds.

Now, we know that from Acts chapter one. Remember when the 11 disciples beheld as Jesus was taken up from them in a cloud the Bible says? He was... “a cloud received him out of their sight.”[25] And then the two men stood there in white apparel which said, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”[26]

So when he left...now in order to understand the Second Coming you have got to understand the ascension. When he left he was ascending up to heaven in the clouds and people were watching him, right? Eleven men stood up gazing into heaven the Bible says as he went up in a cloud into heaven. Well he is going to come back the same way. That is exactly what this says here. “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”[27]

So picture this. Jesus Christ is going to return in the clouds. Every one is going to see Jesus Christ in the clouds and, I mean, think about this, world wide. He says, “All kindreds of the earth.”[28] I mean, people in Africa, people in Asia, people in North America, South America, Australia in one moment of time are going to see the heavens rolled back as a scroll and they are going to see Jesus Christ descending in the clouds of heaven. “Every eye shall see him,”[29] the Bible says.

Now there are several mentions in the New Testament of Jesus Christ coming in the clouds, ok. Let’s look at them quickly. Turn to Matthew 24. We are just going to look at these very quickly. Some of them I will read to you. Some of them you can look at because there is so much information that I want to give tonight and there is not a lot of time.

But look at Matthew 24 and we will look at every mention that speaks of Jesus Christ returning in the clouds. Look at Matthew 24 and look at verse number 29. Actually, look at verse number 24. Matthew 24:24. The Bible reads, For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible,”[30] you see, it is not possible, but if it were possible, “they shall deceive the very elect.”[31]or saved, God’s people, born again.

Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.[32]

Now, look. From those two verses if somebody tells you that Jesus Christ’s coming is in some way a secret are we supposed to believe it? No way.

He says, if somebody tells you, “Oh, look he came over here it is a secret, he is over here, he is over here.” And see it says, “There shall arise false Christs.”[33] Is that coming from up or coming from down? That’s coming from down. They are arriving, these false Christs from the earth. And it is a secret, shh.

But, no. That’s not what the Bible says. It says, “Believe it not.” “For as the lightning,”[34] verse 27, “cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”[35] He said it is going to be like a bolt of lightning that if it flashed over here you would see the brightness over here. You could see a bolt of lightning anywhere you are looking in the sky. You could see the shine, the flash from it.

And the Bible says:

So shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.[36]

Verse 29.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:[37]

Now the word “appear,” that is a visual word. He says the sun is going to turn to darkness. The moon shall not give her light and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man. So then there is going to be an appearance in the sky. I am trying to describe for you what Revelation one describes here, the Second Coming, that it is going to be an appearance of Jesus Christ coming. See that is a verb that means he is in the process of coming. So while he is while he is on his way down people are going to see him. He is going to appear in the sky, in the clouds of heaven. “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.”[38]

Now let me read for you Revelation one again. He said, “And all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.”[39]

Ok. And then in Matthew 24 we see, “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.”[40] So people, when it says “wailed” it is kind of like the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth that is going to be in hell. It is people wailing, crying out saying, “Oh, no. Woe unto us,” they are saying. “Good night.”

Now is this positive feeling that the world is feeling when the see Jesus Christ coming on the cloud? They are saying, “Whoa.” They are wailing. Do you know what wailing means? Wailing is like if you have babies or toddlers you understand what wailing is. Wailing is not just weeping or crying. Weeping could be just sniffling. Wailing is like... That’s right. We know. It is a familiar sound in our house with John here, you know, 10 years old. John, would you please demonstrate for us wailing? Would you demonstrate gnashing of teeth and weeping and wailing?

But anyway, the Bible says, “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.”[41] They are crying. They are wailing. They are scared to death. “Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds,”[42] very important “in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”[43]

And so they blow a trumpet and Jesus Christ gathers his elect. He gathers all of his people. It is the rapture and they come up together to meet him in the clouds. And he will send forth his angels to “gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”[44]

Look down if you would to verse number 40. Look at verse number 40.

Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.[45]

And so, basically, the Bible is saying here that it is going to be a certain order of events here. First, the tribulation. After the tribulation the sun and the moon are darkened which is going to be at the opening of the sixth seal when we get into chapter six of Revelation. The sun and moon will be darkened. Then there is going to be an appearance in heaven of Jesus Christ coming in the clouds of heaven. Then there is going to be great weeping and wailing on the earth and mourning and shock. And then it is going to be two people in the field working together, grinding at the mill, doing their work, men, women, working. One is going to be taken, one is going to be left. That is the way it is going to be when God gathers his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

And so flip back, if you would, to Revelation one. And while you are turning there I will read to you another account of this quickly. And I am reading you every single time, every single time that Jesus Christ coming in the clouds is mentioned, every time. I am not leaving anything out. And this is what it says. The Bible reads in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord...”[46]

Now stop for a second. Are the saved, born again Christians going to be alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord? Absolutely. He says, “That’s who I am writing to.” It could be us for all we know in 2007. We might be the generation in which Jesus Christ will return. And so he says, “unto you that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord,”[47] so right there we see that born again Christians are going to remain unto the coming of the Lord. He said that, “we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent,”[48] or go before, “them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God...”[49] There is the trumpet. “And the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.”[50] Notice, two times we have seen the clouds mentioned. “...to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.[51]

And so that is 1 Thessalonians chapter four. A little bit further down, well, I’ll skip for the sake of time. And then, of course, there is another mention of Jesus Christ coming in the clouds in 1 Corinthians 15. I will read that for you. 1 Corinthians 15 the Bible reads:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.[52]

And so we see here the coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds several times mentioned, always consistent. Jesus comes down in the clouds, blows a trumpet. We are caught up together to meet him “in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”[53]

Now look, if you would, at verse...Revelation 14. Revelation 14 is the final mention that actually mentions the clouds in this Second Coming of Jesus Christ which is what I am trying to illustrate for you. Revelation 14, the Bible reads in verse number 13 of Revelation 14.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple.[54]

See, there is always that other angel mentioned. There is the archangel and Jesus mentioned always with the coming in the clouds.

“And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud,”[55] which is the Son of man, Jesus Christ, “Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.”[56]

So here we have, again, Jesus Christ coming in the clouds of heaven with the archangel and he reaps the earth. What do you think he is scooping up when reaps the earth? Us if we are here. So, you see, he is basically reaping the earth of the elect, of God’s people. He is gathering them from one end of heaven to the other. He says, “The harvest of the earth is ripe.”[57]

Remember Jesus said that the field is white unto harvest?[58] Ok, so the harvest pictures the end of the world, the Bible says. “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.”[59] He that soweth the tares is the wicked one.[60] He says, “The reapers are the angels.”[61] The field is the world. He says, “[And] the harvest is the end of the world.”[62] This is all found in Matthew chapter 13. He explains very clearly what this means. And so you have to compare Scripture with Scripture. And you will see that the reaping that takes place in Revelation 14 is the rapture of God’s people who have been saved and born again according to Matthew chapter 13. It doesn’t take a genius. The Son of Man comes in the clouds, thrusts in a sickle, reaps the earth. And then he reaps...and then another angel comes and reaps the earth and casts it into the winepress of the wrath of God.[63]

And so back to Revelation one. Actually, let’s look at one more place quickly. Look at Revelation six at the end of Revelation six. The Bible says at the end of Revelation six...and let’s start with verse number 12. This is where I said about the sixth seal. Look at Revelation 6:12. “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair,”[64] just like in Matthew 24, remember the sun and moon darkened.

....the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.[65]

And look at this. This is the key, verse 15. “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man...”[66] Do you see how it is the whole world wide here? Every single person on the face of the earth.

.... every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the [face] of the Lamb.[67]

So you see the...they see the face of the Lamb. Right after the sun and moon are darkened, boom, they look up and they see the face of the Lamb and they are weeping and they are weeping and wailing. And what are they saying when they weep and wail like we saw that they were weeping in Matthew 24? We saw that they were wailing in Revelation one. This is what they are wailing. They are crying out to the mountains:

Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the [face] of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?[68]

So we see here that the initiating of God’s wrath is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the clouds. Do we see that? When Jesus Christ comes in the clouds people are weeping and wailing because the day of his great wrath has come.

And then what is the next step? We know from Matthew 24, from 1 Thessalonians four, from 1 Corinthians 15, from Revelation 14 the next step after the weeping and wailing and “the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”[69] He sounds the trumpet and gathers, “his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”[70]

So let me ask you something. Is the rapture going to take you by surprise? Not at all. The Bible says, “But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief,”[71] in 1 Thessalonians five.

Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.[72]

He says, “Be sober, be ready. Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh,”[73] he says in Luke 21. You will see, my friend, if you are alive on this earth to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, we that are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord are going to look up and see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory. That is what you are looking for, my friend. And when you see that, when you see the sun and moon darkened, when you see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great glory, then, he says, “Look up…for your redemption draweth nigh”[74] He says, “Any second now you are going to be taken and the other that you are with that is unsaved is going to be left.”

And so look back, if you would, to Revelation chapter one. See, the Bible is very clear. It is very consistent. It is very easy to understand. And so we saw, of course, the introductory verses one through six and in verse number seven, the quintessential verse of the book of Revelation, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”[75]

Here we have the dichotomy of the book of Revelation, the dichotomy of the great day of the Lord, the day of Christ. The dichotomy is that for those of us that are saved it is a very exciting day. It is a glorious day. Now, that is why he says here people are going to be wailing because of it, but he says, “Even so, Amen.”[76] Because he is writing it. He is not in that crowd. And so that is why in Revelation 22—don’t turn there—but he says, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”[77] He said, “[Behold] I come quickly.”[78] And then John says. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”[79] You see, it is going to be a great day of excitement and rejoicing for those of us that are saved, those of us that are watching, those of us that are ready to meet Christ at his coming. Boy, it is going to be nothing more exciting in the world than to see men...the sun and the moon darkened, Jesus Christ, the face of the Lamb coming in the clouds.

You know, like the song, It is Well with My Soul, “And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so, it is well with my soul.”

Now let me ask you something. Did the person that wrote, It is Well with My Soul believe in the pretribulation rapture? No. Because they said, “Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so it is well with me soul.” The person who wrote that song knew that Jesus Christ coming in the clouds, the blessed hope, when the trump resounds and the Lord descends is going to be at the same time as the clouds, as the heavens are rolled back as a scroll.

Now, when are the heavens rolled back as a scroll? In Revelation six when the sixth seal is opened the sun turns back, the moon turns dark, the stars fall out of the sky. Then the heavens are rolled back as a scroll. Then Jesus Christ comes in the clouds and blows the trumpet.

You see, the person who wrote that song understood this great truth. They understood the book of Revelation. And so that is why I like the old hymns, the old songs in the hymnal because they are not filled with false doctrine like the new songs are that are shallow and they come out of Nashville, Tennessee. This didn’t come out of Nashville, Tennessee. No, this came from somebody who studied the Bible and understood the book of Revelation and understood the things that we are talking about. It is a great song, by the way.

And so we see this verse that describes the dichotomy of this day of the Lord. To us it is known as the day of Christ when we see Jesus Christ come in the clouds. But to the unsaved it is called the day of the Lord.

Now, as you are reading in the Old Testament, you know, you are reading through the Bible cover to cover, God willing. And so as you read through the Bible always look for that phrase, “the day of the Lord.” Ok, look for those words right there. I am talking about the capital LORD, the all caps in the Old Testament. You will see it a lot in the book of Isaiah. You will see it a lot in the book of Joel. You will see it all throughout the Old Testament. And the Bible says in the book of Joel:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered.[80]

And then that is quoted again in Acts chapter two, you know:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.[81]

That is what it says in Acts chapter two.

And so all throughout the Bible you will see that the day of the Lord is a day of clouds and of thick darkness the Bible says. He says it is going to be a terrible day. It is going to be a dreadful day. It is going to be a horrible day is what he says. But to those of us who are saved it is a glorious day. That is the day of the Lamb of God’s great wrath. But to us it is a glorious day because it is our deliverance. It is our salvation. It is the redemption of our body. It is the first resurrection when we will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye and caught up together with Jesus Christ in the clouds to be ever with the Lord.

Boy, so you see the dichotomy—is what I am trying to say—of the book of Revelation? Extremely negative and extremely positive depending on whether you are saved is the deciding factor there.

So that is verse numbers seven. Isn’t that a great verse? What a powerful verse in the Bible. This is my favorite verse in the whole book of Revelation, bar none, hands down, Revelation 1:7. I mean I quote this verse all the time it is such a fantastic verse. Understand verse seven in order to understand the whole book of Revelation.

Look at verse eight. The Bible reads, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,”[82] talking about Jesus Christ, “which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”[83]

Now, of course, the Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that Jesus is God. And this is what they will say. They will say, “Jesus is a mighty God. But he is not the almighty God.” Like, for example, in verse number six of Isaiah chapter nine the Bible calls Jesus Christ, “the everlasting Father, the mighty God.”[84]

And I have shown that to Jehovah’s Witnesses and said, “Look. Jesus Christ is the everlasting Father, the mighty God,”[85] because even in their Bible, their Bible perverts a lot of things and tries to remove every reference to Jesus being God. But even in the New World translation of the Bible, Isaiah 9:6 is not tampered with. It is left as “the mighty God.”[86] And they will say, “Well, he may be the mighty God, but he is not the almighty God.” That is what I have been told by literally in excess of 10 Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

But here we have Jesus Christ called the almighty. Do you see that? And he is called the beginning and the ending. He is the beginning. See, there was nothing before Jesus Christ because he is the beginning. I mean, by him, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”[87] And so he says, “I am Alpha and Omega.”[88] Those are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He is saying, like, “I am the A to the Z.” He says, “I encompass the past, the present, the future.” “By him all things consist,”[89] the Bible says in Colossians.

You know, people don’t even understand what holds an atom together. You know, the proton and the neutron and the electron? Did you know that if you were to put things to scale? Let’s say you made a proton be the size of a marble, then the electron would be thousands and thousands of miles away, literally. I mean, they are both far smaller than that and so they are very close together in our mind, you know, within an atom I am talking about, a single atom. And, of course, even a penny is made out of just quadrillions of atoms, right? But if you go down to the smallest unit, an atom, the electron is so tiny and the proton is so tiny that they are literally...it is like they are millions of miles apart, I’ll put it that way, even though they are close together. But in relation to their size, do you follow what I am saying?

What holds them together? What keeps that electron in orbit around the proton? Am I going to deep here? I mean what keeps the electron in orbit around the proton?

You say, “Gravity.”

Gravity? Things that are that small? I thought only big things had gravity, otherwise I would be attracted to things in this room by gravity. But my density is too low, my mass is too low and things have to be close together and they have to have a lot of mass.

Now, does an atom have a lot of mass? Not at all. Tiny. What keeps it together? What keeps it in orbit?

And you think about the planets. They spin around other planets. I’m sorry, the planets spin around the sun. The moon spins around the planet. What keeps it spinning?

You say, “Gravity.”

Well, then why does it spin the exact same way in the atom?

You see, “By him all things consist.”[90] Jesus Christ is the one who keeps the whole universe together. He is the one that keeps that electron and the proton and the neutron in that balance. And no one can ever understand it. The world doesn’t understand it. All they know is that if they split that atom they can create an explosion that could level a city like that. See, that is the power of God, my friend.

And so Jesus Christ is the end all, be all is what he is saying when he says, “I am alpha and omega.” He says, “I am the beginning and the ending.” And he says, “I am the Almighty.”[91]

And then look at verse number nine. Here we have John speaking.

I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.[92]

So John, who is writing this book, is actually being punished because it says that he is in the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus Christ and for the Word of God. Why was he put on the Isle of Patmos? Because he maintained a testimony, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Because he took a stand for the Word of God he was sent to this Isle of Patmos as a punishment, as exile. Instead of being killed or thrown in jail, they decided to punish him by throwing him on this deserted island. You know, I don’t know if he was all by himself. I don’t know if he was in some kind of a prison colony. I am not really sure if anybody was there with him. But he was probably not with any other believers or anything like that. He is just kind of on his own on this desert island, so to speak, the Isle of Patmos, “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”[93]

Now, I love what he says here. “I John, who also am your brother.”[94] Ok. And he says, “And companion in tribulation.”[95]

Now the word “tribulation” is a word that everyone knows, a very commonly used word when dealing with the book of Revelation. But did you know that it is used very little in the book of Revelation? It is used in Revelation chapter number one. It is used in Revelation chapter number two. And then it is used in Revelation chapter number seven. And that’s it. It is used very little, ok? It says in verse number nine here. He says, “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation.”[96]

Now what is the tribulation that John is enduring in verse nine? The tribulation that he is enduring is persecution for what he believes as we see the first time that the word tribulation is used in the New Testament in Matthew 13 when the Bible says, “For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word...”[97] Ok. “For when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.”[98]

And so here we have, again, the tribulation is because of the testimony of Jesus Christ and the Word of God. Tribulation is a result of taking a stand for the Word of God. Do you understand why I am saying that? The Bible says, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”[99] “For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.”[100] He says we will suffer tribulation for what we believe. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”[101] You will be persecuted for what you believe. If you take a stand, not just for the testimony of Jesus Christ, that might not get you persecuted, but when you take a stand for the testimony of Jesus Christ and for the Word of God, now you are into some tribulation. Now you are going to get some persecution. You see, when persecution and tribulation ariseth because of the word.[102]

You say, “Well, you know, people aren’t persecuting me because I am a Christian.”

Well, start talking about this book and see. Start preaching the things that are in this book. Start talking about the Word of God. And you are going to find yourself in a heap of tribulation right away. Ok, that is the difference. It is not just the testimony of Jesus that gets you tribulation, but when you take it a step further and say, “I am going to take a stand for the whole book. I believe everything in this book and I am going to preach it from the housetops.” That is where you are going to endure tribulation and persecution because of the Word.

So John says, “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation...”[103] He says, “I hope as you are reading this, that you are enduring tribulation like I am. I hope you are not leaving me on this island of Patmos in suffering and persecution, tribulation as well while you don’t take a stand for Jesus Christ, while you are living some namby pamby Christian life, while you are in the in feel good, psycho babble church, while you are in some lame church, while you are not taking a stand, while you are not out soul winning, while you are not taking a stand for the things of God, while you are some liberal preacher that won’t stand up and preach right, because I am in tribulation and persecution and the people that I am writing to,” as we saw in verse one, “are his servants. I am writing this to show unto his servants those things which must shortly come to pass. And his servants are enduring tribulation.” And he says, “If you are not my brother, if you are not my companion in tribulation, you are reading the wrong book. This is written to people who love God, who take a stand for God, who are my companions in tribulation.”

Would you like to be a companion of the apostle John? Would you like to be a companion of those that are like him? Then you are going to have to endure a little bit of persecution for what you believe. And if you are not enduring any persecution for what you believe, you are probably not living godly in Christ Jesus, because otherwise the Bible is not true.

And so tribulation and persecution will come to those who believe. The other mention of tribulation...I am just going to show you the three mentions quickly. I am hurrying to get done with the chapter. But look at verse number nine of chapter two, Revelation 2:9. This is written to a church in Smyrna. The Bible says:

I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.[104]

Now, let me ask you something. Is the book of Revelation hard to understand? Or is it very consistent? Because here we see John in tribulation because of the Word of God and he is in prison, so to speak, because he is on the Isle of Patmos. That is exactly what he says here to this church. He says, “You are going to have tribulation 10 days.” He says, “The devil is going to case some of you into prison.” He says, “Be thou faithful unto death and I shall give thee a crown of life.”[105] So the Word is very consistent.

And then look down, if you would, here is another mention of tribulation, verse number 21 and 22 of chapter number two. The Bible says:

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death.[106]

So what does tribulation mean here? Well, here it is God saying...and this is...keep in mind these are written to seven literal churches back in the time of John’s day, these seven churches. He writes to another church and says, “You know what? This woman who is an adulteress, who is seducing my servants to commit adultery and to commit fornication,” he says, “I am going to cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation.” And he says, “I am going to kill her children with death.” He says, “I am going to go around and persecute her myself.”[107] And so tribulation always means in the Bible persecution. Nine times out of 10 it is the world and the devil and the evil crowd persecuting God’s people. Here is one of the 10% of the times where it is actually God persecuting an unbeliever, you know, or an ungodly person. Here it is probably a person that is saved, but that is living ungodly because he says she is seducing his servants to commit adultery. And he is persecuting her. He is killing her children. Do you see that is a persecution? That is a tribulation.

And then the last mention in the book of Revelation is in chapter seven, Revelation chapter number seven and look, if you would, at verse number 14.

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.[108]

You see how it is the...basically the same people that...remember, “So shall we ever be with the Lord”?[109] Remember that? Well, these people that have come out of great tribulation and washed their robes, he says that they are with the Lamb day and night. You know, later on we will see that they follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth.[110] And so they are right with him.

And so that is the last mention in the book of Revelation of tribulation. It is not mentioned that much. But there is a great deal of tribulation mentioned in the book of Revelation, mainly the antichrist persecuting God’s people for what they believe, for the testimony of Jesus Christ and for the Word of God.

So verse number nine, again, where we were in chapter number one he said:

[I am your] companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.[111]

Now, was the voice that he heard a trumpet? No. He says it was as a trumpet. See, the Bible is always careful to tell you when it is literal a trumpet and when it just sounds like a trumpet. That is what “as” means. It wasn’t a trumpet. It was a voice that was like a trumpet.

What is a trumpet like? A trumpet is very loud. And so he says with a very loud voice. It was a voice as of a trumpet saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.”[112] Of course, that is the book that we are reading, the book of Revelation is what he wrote.

He lists the seven churches there.

Verse number 12.

And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.[113]

Now Jesus Christ here is standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Now what are the seven golden candlesticks according to verse 20? The seven churches, right? So those candlesticks... Now remember this verse? “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”[114] So here we have a...it said here that Jesus Christ is in the midst of his churches. So in this church right here is Jesus Christ here in the midst of us? Is he with us? Absolutely. And that is what he is saying here. He is saying, “I am standing in the midst of these particular seven golden candlesticks because these are the seven golden candlesticks that I happen to be addressing right now, that I happen to be writing to right now.”

And he says in verse number 13, it says that he is:

...clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.[115]

Boy, isn’t this a dreadful picture? Can you imagine seeing a man whose face is pure white as snow. His hair on his head is as white as snow. And his eyes are like burning flames of fire. Can you imagine this? And it says, “His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.[116]

So two illustrations of what his voice is like. He said it is like a trumpet. “I heard Jesus talk to me,” he said, “It sounded like a trumpet.” And he said, “And it sounded like many waters.” I mean I was thinking about this. Every time I go to the ocean I think about this. I was standing by the ocean not too long ago and just the waves crashing in and I thought of this verse. This is the verse that popped into my head. “His voice as the sound of many waters.”[117] I just thought about that loud sound. I mean you get right next to the water and just hear those waves crash. And that is what his voice sounded like. It is a powerful voice.

The voice of the Lord is so powerful, the Bible says, that it can break cedar tree in half with his voice when he speaks.[118] And so he has a powerful voice.

And, of course, his voice, this is what he speaks. When he speaks he speaks the Word of God, the Bible. And so he says, “His voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword.”[119] Of course the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword.”[120] “The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God,”[121] it says in Ephesians six.

It says, “And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance...”[122] his face is what countenance means. “His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”[123] When it says the sun shineth in his strength it means...it is...go back to the Greek. It says. It says, “The sun shineth in Phoenix, Arizona.” Ok, that is what it says. “The sun shineth in its strength.”

Now, you can be on the brightest day of the year, for example, in Chicago. Like let’s say in January in Chicago and it is noon and sometimes, boy, I remember when I was there blue skies. The sun is bright and it is like negative three outside. And it was weird because you would look out the window and it looks—is this true?—I mean it looks sunny. It looks nice. You walk out there... because what happens is at different seasons the sun is at different angles with the earth’s atmosphere. And when it is shining straight down it has the shortest distance through the atmosphere to the earth. So when the sun is directly above you it shines just straight down and there is not as much resistance of air. But if the sun is coming at you diagonally like this, well, then it has to go through the hypotenuse of that triangle is a lot longer. It has to go through a lot more atmosphere and so the sun gets weaker. That is why sometimes in the winter...have you ever noticed that the sun goes up like this? It doesn’t really ever get above your head. You know, in the winter it kind of goes up. Unless you live in Phoenix. Then it is always just beating down on you. But go somewhere else sometime, see the world, ok? And you can see the sun sometimes will rise...it will rise over here and it will go up. And it will never get up in the sky. I mean it will just kind of rise over here and then just go down because...and it has got that angle. And that is why.

That is why if you go out at noon you are more likely to get a sunburn than if you go out at, you know, six AM it might be just as sunny, but it is not shining in its strength.

So he is saying here that when you look at the face of Jesus Christ here it is like looking at the sun. But not only is it like looking at the sun. He says it is like looking at the sun when it is straight up in the sky at noon time in Phoenix, Arizona and you look straight up in the air. He says, “That is how bright.”

Probably just the only way that he can describe it, because what is brighter than that? I don’t think there is anything brighter on the face of the earth than the sun shining in its strength.

And so he says, “That is what Jesus Christ’s face looks like.” It is no wonder that in verse 17, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last.”[124]

Here, another time read Daniel chapter seven. Daniel chapter seven and, again, in Daniel chapter 10 this is alluded to. If you read Daniel chapter seven you will see this exact same description of the white hair, the eyes that are a flame of fire, the throne of God. He calls him there the Ancient of Days and talks about God on his throne. Of course, Jesus is God, the same person. And it makes it very clear that...let me see here. Where it says he...it is the same thing happens, really, because this man appears to him in Daniel chapter 10, actually it is...look at seven and look at 10. But in Daniel chapter 10 this man appears to him and, again, Daniel falls on his face like he is dead. And then an angel actually comes and lays his hand upon him and tells him, you know, “Fear not, Daniel, Though thou beloved of the Lord,”[125] or whatever it actually says.

And so you will see almost the exact same scenario as this in the book of Daniel. “I am he that liveth, and was dead,”[126] a very important doctrinal statement there. He was dead. Understand the resurrection of Jesus Christ was that Jesus died and that he was buried and that he rose again. He didn’t...it is very important to understand that he was dead for three days and three nights, ok.

A lot of people don’t really comprehend that. Some people think that just was up in heaven during that time or something. No, he was dead. I mean he was in hell. Ok, he was dead for three days and three nights. He was dead and he says:

Behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.[127]

So you see the past, present and future. He says, “Some of the things that you are writing in the book of Revelation are things that are present day,” which is chapters two and three. Chapters one, two and three are all present day for him. Some of chapter 12 is also present day for him. And he says, “Some of the things that you have seen is past,” you know, some past events are described in Revelation 12, the birth of Christ, the ascension of Christ which John has physically seen, the ascension of Jesus Christ. He says, “Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.”[128] That’s the bulk of the book of Revelation, the future events.

And then, of course, the verse we already read, “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”[129]

So let’s quickly review this and just get a grasp of chapter one. I want you to understand the book of Revelation by the end of this series. I want you to have a firm grasp of it so that it doesn’t daunt you and you say, “Boy, the book of Revelation, wow, it is over my head. It is complicated. It is cryptic. It is mysterious.”

He says, “It is mysterious and let me tell you what it means.” It is mysterious to those that are not reading it and that aren’t saved or that haven’t had it explained to them, perhaps. But, really, you don’t even need it explained to you as long as you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. He will explain it to you. Don’t be daunted by it.

Let’s go over it quickly. Verse number one through six was an introduction, John explaining to you the purpose of this book. It is written to you that are saved. It is written to the servants of God, “to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.”[130] Now, look. It is even shorter now than it was back then. Every day it gets closer. Every day it is drawing nearer. And so he says in verse number one through six, he explains to us who Jesus Christ is, what the book is about, who it is written to.

Verse number seven, the quintessential verse to understanding the book of Revelation, Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”[131]

Then we see in verse number eight Jesus Christ stating who he is.

Verse number nine, John explaining that he is on the Isle of Patmos. Here he is minding his own business. He is in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day. It is Sunday. He is reading the Bible. He is in prayer. He is fellowshipping with God. All of the sudden he hears a voice behind him that sounds like a trumpet, that sounds like many waters. This great voice behind him stating, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,” you know, all of that. And then he turns around to see who it is that is talking to him and he looks to see who is talking to him and what does he see? He sees:

...“seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.[132]

And it described the same description as in the book of Daniel and Jesus Christ as he looks face to face at Jesus Christ like the sun shining in his strength. Jesus instructs him. He says, “I want you to write everything that I show you, some things that you have already seen. But you are going to see everything else that I show you, you are going to write it in this book and you are going to send it out and mail it out to these seven churches.” He says, “You are going to write the book of Revelation and seven copies and send it out to these seven churches.”

Now think about this. Why was it sent to seven churches? Why did he write seven copies of the book? Well, if he wrote one copy somebody might tamper with it, right? Think about this. And this is why it is so easy to believe that the King James Bible is the Word of God and that these other Bibles are wrong. If he just wrote the book of Revelation one time and just mailed it out somewhere, who knows if it is going to get lost in the mail? You know, who knows somebody is going to mess with it?

Ok, so he says, “Write it seven times and send it to the seven churches.”

Now think about this. If he wrote it seven times and sent it to seven different churches it is going to be pretty easy to tell the accuracy of the book because all you have to do is compare the seven side by side and if they all match up, you know, you have got an accurate copy. That is what the basis of the King James Bible is that it is the majority text. It is the text that is based on the hundreds and millions of copies throughout history. And so he sent...that is why he sends it out to seven churches. He sent out seven copies of it. He said, “Don’t add to it. Don’t take from it.”[133] He says, “Compare the seven. They will be the same. They will match up.”

And so these are the seven copies that he sends out. And he explains what he is sending out.

And then look at verse number one of chapter four in closing, verse number one of chapter four. So we saw John. So far the book of Revelation is pretty easy to understand, right? John is being persecuted for what he believes. He is thrown on this island, but God sees fit to appear unto him and give him this great vision of the things that are going to be hereafter.

Look at verse number one. This is what picks up the story of chapter number one. The Bible says, “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me.”[134] Now, did he hear a trumpet? No. He said, “The first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet,”[135] the same word that we saw earlier, “as of many waters.”[136] Did he hear many waters?

Oh, it was because he was on the Isle of Patmos. It was the tide came in and he thought it was Jesus.

No. When it says his voice was as waters, it means it was like waters. It was not literally waters. Again, we see not literal, not literal trumpet here. He says, “The first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me.’[137] “It sounded like a trumpet talking with me.” And he says:

Which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set.”[138]

Where? In heaven. So after Jesus appears to him on the Isle of Patmos, gives him some special instructions for these seven churches in chapters two and three. When it picks up the story in chapter number four verse one he says he looks up and a door opens in heaven and he hears a loud voice, the same voice that he just heard, the one that sounds like a trumpet, the voice of Jesus Christ saying, “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”[139]

Everything in the book of Revelation is not just what Jesus told John about, but it was things that he was shown. I mean, he literally saw everything we are going to read about in the book of Revelation. Have you noticed how that has been emphasized. On and on he says, “I am a witness to these things.” He says, “I have seen these things.”

Everything in the book of Revelation John saw and so that’s chapter one.

Let’s bow our heads and have a word of prayer.

God, thank you so much for the Bible and thank you so much for the book of Revelation. What a fascinating book, what a phenomenal book in the Bible, dear God, so interesting to study. And it is so clear, dear God. And please just give us understanding in these coming weeks, dear God, as we delve into this book of the Bible. Help us to understand what we read and, boy, what an exciting book, what a thrill to think about Jesus Christ coming in the clouds. How exciting to look up in the sky and to see Jesus Christ come in the clouds. Imagine how our hearts are going to be pounding when we know that any second now we are going to be caught up to be with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. “ Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus,” is our prayer tonight. And we love you and thank you so much for everything that you do for us, dear God and in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

The Jews and Their Lies - Part 2

The Jews and Their Lies - Part 2

By Pastor Steven L Anderson

July 27, 2014

Tonight I'm going to be continuing my sermon from this morning called "the jews and their lies". Where I get that title is 1st John chapter two which we read this morning. 1st John 2:22 says "who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the father and the son." So when the Bible says "who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?". What he is saying is that that is the biggest liar that there is, is one who would tell you that Jesus is not the Messiah, because Christ means Messiah. And someone who will tell you such a lie and be such a brazen liar as Judaism teaches... this myth that there is some other Messiah coming and that Jesus Christ was not the Messiah, you know I preached about it last sunday night, how ridiculous that is in light of OT scripture. Whould it surprise you that they tell us many other lies as well? And so that's why I am preaching on the Jews and their lies. Now, just to give you the review from this morning, I'm not going to re-go over the points, but lie number one was that they believed the Torah, or the OT. Not true. Number 2, they say that the Talmud is the Word of God. That's a lie. Number 3, they teach that God is both male and female. That's a lie. That's new age mysticism of the Kabbala. Number 4, they teach that the Jews did not kill Jesus, which is a lie. And then number 5, they teach that christianity is responsible for the nazi holocaust. And they try to use that to silence people from just telling the truth about their religion, by declaring that you are hateful, you are of the nazi's, and all these ridiculous things. Obviously we would never approve of the Nazis or the communists for that matter. Obviously there have been all kinds of genocides throughout the 20th century and we approve of none of them. And we don't believe in violence.

But tonight I want to get into the sixth lie, which is that the land of Palestine belongs to them. This is the lie of the Jews today. Go if you would to Hebrews chapter 3, and let's examine their claim from scripture. They say that the land of Palestine belongs to them and it's a lie. Now, christians will also repeat this, and in fact, you almost hear this more from christians than jews. Christians will tell you "hey, God promised them that land, that land belongs to them. They have a right to that land according to scripture!". Well, that is a lie. Because the Bible is very clear, that that promise of that land unto the jews was always conditional upon their faith and obedience to God. Always. Now look at Hebrews chapter 3, this is talking about that original generation that left Egypt with Moses, after they had been in bondage for 400 years. Look down at verse 17, it says "but with whom was he grieved 40 years? WWas it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, and to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not". So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. So that first generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt with Moses, was not allowed to enter the promised land. "That's their land!". No they weren't allowed to enter into it, because of the fact that they didn't believe, that's what the Bible says. Now after 40 years, and after all of their carcasses fell in the wilderness, every person who was above 20 years of age died and did not go into the promised land, all the men of war that is. Even Moses himself died before going into the promised land. Then there arose the next generation of their children, who DID believe the Lord, and they went with Joshua into the promised land. And they inherited that promised land. But what happened over the years? They turned away from the Lord, they sought after other gods. And as a punishment, they were removed from that promised land. Just as God promised would happen. Go back to Deuteronomy chapter 30. God told them that if they turned after other gods and did not obey His commandments, that they would be removed from the promised land. And that happened to the children of Judah, when Nebuchednezzar came and took them captive. Well after 70 years of captivity in Babylon, after they had turned back to the Lord in their hearts, God brought them back into the promised land, because they had had a change of heart. And we read about that in Ezra and Nehemiah, the people coming back and rebuilding the temple that was destroyed by Nebuchednezzar. Rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, and being in that promised land once again. Then when Jesus Christ came, he came unto his own and his own recieved him not. And because the Jews rejected Jesus Christ, he prophesied that as a result of them rejecting him, that their temple and their city would be destroyed. He gave a parable about it. And he talked about how their city would be burned, and how the temple would be destroyed, and it all was fulfilled in AD 70. In the year AD 70 the Romans came in, destroyed the temple, and as Jesus Christ prophesied, there was not one stone left upon another. And as Jesus said, their house was left unto them desolate. And their city was destroyed. And the temple was destroyed, and they were dcattered into all nations. And that is going to become important later in the sermon.

But look down at your Bible in Dueteronomy verse 1 it says "and it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither thy God hath driven thee, and shalt return unto the Lord they God, and shalt obey His voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children with all thy heart and with all thy soul, that the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and have compassion on thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the uttermost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will He fetch thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it. And He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers." So here, God is telling them inthe mosaic law, that if they turn back to God after they're scattered, after they're in captivity, He will bring them back. That's what He did, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. So let's just go back, and go through the history quickly. First of all, children of Israel don't believe the Lord, they can't go into the promised land. Then they believe the Lord, they're allowed to go into the promised land. They turn away from the Lord, they're removed from the promised land into Babylon. They turn back to the Lord, they're put back into the promised land. They turn away from the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're removed from the promised land... And then in 1948 they all believed on Jesus Christ, and that's why they're back in the promised land today, because they have turned unto the Lord with all their heart. YOU KNOW THAT ISN'T TRUE!! So how can people say "oh, God brought them back to the promised land?". The christians will teach today that they are int he promised land as "a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, when God said He would bring them from all nations". Now, here is what boggles my mind. People fail to rightly divide the Word. The Bible says "study to shew thyself approved to God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth". Here is a good way to divide the word- OT and NT. That's a great way.

But not only that, you will have people today that will quote things from Jeremiah and ezekiel about them coming back from all the nations where they'd been scattered, and they will say that's what happened in 1948. Otherwise, where is the fulfillment of this prophecy? Here's what people don't understand. They don't realise that when Jeremiah is speaking in the Book of Jeremiah, they were just about to go into captivity with Nebuchednezzar, they hadn't even done that yet. And when Ezekiel is speaking, they had just gone into that captivity. So both Jeremiah and Ezekiel are speaking at the beginning of that Babylonian captivity, or shortly BEFORE that Babylonian captivity. And so, OF COURSE, there are all kinds of prophecy saying "I'm going to bring you back from the nations where you have been scattered." That's what He did 70 years later. Those prophecies have already been fulfilled over 2500 years ago. Those prophecies were fulfilled long before the time of Christ. But people say "oh yeah, this is of today. This is being fulfilled right now in the 20th century with the rebirth of the nation of Israel. It's a fulfillment of God's prophecy to bring them back from all nations". No, that was a prophecy of Nebuchednezzars captivity, and them coming back from that, okay? So, again, failure to rightly divide things that happened thousands of years ago, and things that are happening today, big difference. Why can't they show us NT scriptures of the children of Israel coming back from all nations? because it's not of the NT, that's why. Now they will say "oh what about the 144 000?". Oh, we'll go there, okay? (LAUGHS) that whiteboard out there... you're wondering what's on that whiteboard, we are going to go there, and you will see about that. Go to 2nd Chronicles 6- and honestly we could go all over the OT to see this, we are just going to hit a few key points for the sake of time. We could go all over the OT to show you that promises of children of Idrael to be brought back to the land are all conditional on their faith and obedience to God. But look at 2nd Chronicles 6:36. It says "if they sin against thee"- talking about the children of Israel- "if they sin against thee (for there is no man which sinneth not) and thou be andgry with them and deliver them over before their enemies and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near, yet if they bethink themselves whither they are carried captiove, and turn and pray unto thee in the land of their captivity saying, we have sinned, we have done amiss and have dealt wickedly. If they return to thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house which I have built for thy name, then hear thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place their prayer and their supplications and maintain their cause, and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee."

Go back to Genesis 13. We see right there again, that when they are scattered into all nations, there has to be some repentence. They have to realise that they have done wrong, okay? They can't just say "wel, we're just going to continue in the same thing that got us kicked out of the land- but God is just going to bring us back anyway." Why would God- it would be like if I kicked out one of my children out of my house. Let's say I have an adult child, and my adult child is living in fornication, God forbid. And by the way, if I ever had an adult child that was committing fornication they would be thrown out of my house, you know God forbid that that would ever take place. But let's say that I threw them out, and they just continue living in fornication, and I bring them back. Would that make any sense? "I threw you out because you were living in fornication, but I'm just going to bring you back, even though you're still living in fornication." Now, what you would say is "Oh, he must have realised he made a mistake when he kicked that child out, he has changed his mind". Here is the thing- God doesn't make mistakes like that. When God kicks you out, He means it. And God kicked them out, if you study the book of Mathew, it's because they rejected Jesus Christ that their city was burned, and that their temple was destroyed, and that they were scattered into all nations. If that hasn't changed, then why would God have brought them back? And if God is not the one that brought them back, then someone else brought them back. Because it's amazing... I mean, people say "wait a minute, it's a miracle!". Now, I wouldn't say it's a miracle, but you know what I would say? It's a phenomenon. I would say it is unparalleled in human history. It is definately VERY remarkable. But it's not a miracle, because when you have multibillions of dollars, you can make alot of miracles happen. When you have the money of the Rothschilds, when you have the money of the Jewish bankers of the world, you can make things happen! You can make something happen that looks like a miracle. But it's not a miracle, it's just you having th emoney to buy the politicians, and to buy the tickets and to bring all the jews back to Palestine because you have got the money to do it, because you are a fractional reserve lender. That's how you can do that, okay? Because you can make money appear out of thin air, which some people would consider a miracle, it's more like a magic trick. I mean, if I brought a hat up and started pulling money out of a hat, like pulling rabbits out of a hat, no-one would say I'm a miracle worker. They would say that I'm a magician.

So, if you would look at Genesis 13, these are some of the promises to Abraham that christians today really focus on when they want to say "that land belongs to the Jews today". They will focus on scriptures like Genesis 13:15, where it says "For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy seed forever". Verse 17, "arise, walk through the land and the length of it and the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee". Look at chapter 15:7. Chapter 15, verse 7, "and He said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it". Chapter 17, verse 8. Flip over to chapter 17 verse 8 it says "and I will give unto thee and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of canaan, for an everlasting posession, and I will be their God". Now, I don't know about you, but when I see the word "everlasting" and "forever", I actually believe that. I believe that means everlasting. Forever. Now, this can't be talking unto the jews, because frankly they didn't have the land forever. They got kicked out of the land and they were gone from it for, what? 1800 and something years? so for 1800 and something years they didn't have the land, that doesn't sound like an everlasting posession when you are kicked out of it for 1800 something years. "Well, but God just knew they were coming back". No, see the promise is being made unto Abraham. And He is using the word "thee" singular, and He says "I am giving this land unto thee and thy seed". Well, all we have to do is go to Galatians chapter 3, you don't have to turn there. But in Galatians chapter 3, it says "now to Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith not to SEEDS as of MANY", but He said "as of one, to THY SEED" and He said that "SEED which is Christ". The seed of Abraham is Christ. So when you read this where it says "for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it and to thy SEED forever". He is saying, "I am going to give it unto you Abraham, and to your SEED, which is Christ, and all those that are in Christ". Because all they that are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. If you're of FAITH, you are a child of Abraham. Remember when they told Jesus, the jews told Jesus in John chapter 8, they said "we be Abraham's seed". And he said "if ye WERE Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham". He said "you do the deeds of YOUR father, you do the deeds of your father the DEVIL". He said "Abraham is NOT your father, God is NOT your father, you are of your father the devil". So these promises were made unto Abraham and to his seed. There is no promise that is just an unconditional promise that says all of the physical descendents of Abraham, all of the jews, or all of the Israelites have this land, it's for them, no matter WHAT they do, no matter how blasphemous they are, no matter what sins they commit. That's not true! And if that were true, if God really made a promise like that, then He has broken it many times. By kicking them out of that land.

So to sit there and say "well that land belongs to them" by virtue of the fact that they are the physical descendents of Abraham, that is meaningless. Now, go to Genesis 15, you are right there in chapter 17. Because a popular teaching that I have heard alot is that they say "well, you know God never really fulfilled that promise to Abraham", because they will say... I don't know if you have seen the maps of the "greater Israel borders". Where they will show you that the, I'm sorry, that it is the land from the river of Egypt all the way to the river Euphrates, and they will say "hey, that still hasn't been fulfilled. That needs to be fulfilled for the physical seed of Abraham!". They say "God has not yet fulfilled promises to Israel!". And these dispensationalists always say "you know there are alot of OT promises to Israel that God still has to fulfill". It's all been fulfilled unto that physical nation! And they have been rejected at this time. But look if you would, let me just show you how this is a false doctrine. Look at Genesis 15:18. It says "In the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying, unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt, unto the great river, the river Euphrates". "Well see right there, God promised the jews everything from the river of Egypt, all the way to the river Euphrates!". And I've seen all kinds of maps online, where they draw this out... "THIS is what Israel should have!! ALL THIS LAND!". Big chunk of this, big chunk of that. Okay, go to Deuteronomy 2. See this is just a failure to study the word of God. It's just being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. To think "oh man, we need to make sure the jews get this huge portion of land, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates". Let's see if that's really what the Bible is teaching in that scripture. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 2 verse 9. Remember, this is when the children of Israel are first coming out of Egypt, they haven't even inherited the land yet, they are about to inherit it for the first time. God gave Abraham, Isaac and Jacob no inheritance in the land. They were strangers and pilgrims in that land. They dwelt in tents in that land. But he is bringing them out of Egypt to conquer and inherit that land. And they're going to the promised land. Look what God specifically sayds to them in Deuteronomy 2:9. "And the Lord said unto me, distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give thee of their land for a posession, because I have given Ar unto the children of Lot for a posession." Look at verse 19. "And when thou comest nigh over against the children of Ammon, distress them not nor meddle with them, for I will not give thee of the land of the children of Ammon ANY posession because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a posession". THIS land is within that space of the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates! And God is saying "I am not giving it to you! It's for Ammon. It's not yours!". SO to sit there and say that God intends us to just physically, politically give them all that land, "it all belongs to them, that's a promise that needs to be physically fulfilled", God said no about part of it even back then. And even when they first went in with Joshua, when they disobeyed God, even with Joshua, even though they had the faith to go into the promised land, they were not perfect. And they made some serious mistakes and they disobeyed God. And God told them "I'm not going to give you all the land, I'm going to leave the Philistines here over in the gaza strip. I'm going to leave them there. You are not going to be able to drive out the Hivites. You are not going to be able to drive out the Jebusites. I'm going to leave these...". He NEVER gave them all the land because they did not keep their end of the bargain. They never did. So you say "well how is this going to be fulfilled?". Well, if it's a promise that's made unto Abraham and his seed which is Christ, to have the land forever, well you know what? SOmeday in the millenial reign of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is going to be ruling and reigning, and these people, the children of Abraham will inherit all that land. Basically all of the believers. That are the spiritual seed of Abraham. Even many of the physical seed of Abraham that are believers are going to inherit this land. In the millenial reign of Christ. And also in the new heaven and new earth, we will inherit all things. That's why it says it is an EVERLASTING posession, and it is a land that he will inherit fprever. But to try to apply these "forever", "everlasting", "Abraham and his seed" promises unto the jews of today is false doctrine. It is to totally misunderstand the whole history of the nation of Israel. Which is a history of being removed from the land when they don't believe, and being brought back when they do believe. DO THE JEWS TODAY BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST? No. Why did He kick them out? Because they rejected Christ. So why would He bring them back when they STILL REJECT CHRIST? It makes absolutely zero sense.

So this is one of the lies of the Jews today, is "hey, we own this land, this land belongs to us". No, God did not say that you could just have that land, and use it as a den of iniquity. He didn't give you that land to turn it into some den of iniquity, a den of sodomy. A den of perversion, a den of false religion. No. A den of Abortion. He gave you that land to be a light unto the gentiles, He agve you that land for when you were obeying Him and worshipping Him and serving Him, and when you stopped doing that, you forfeit your right to that land. That's why He never let you into it in the first place when you didn't believe. And that's why He kicked you out of it other times when you turned away from Him. So that's one of the lies of the jews today. Now here is the next lie. GO to Acts chapter 7. The seventh lie of the Jews today is that the star on their flag is the star of David. They will lie to you, if you point to that star and say "what is that star?", they will say "that's the star of David". And you know what's funny? We asked a bunch of Rabbis. We asked all these rabbis. "what is that star?" and they said "we have no idea". Every rabbi we talked to had no idea where that star comes from. And I asked all four of them, I said "is that in the Bible anywhere?". No. Now the Bible talks alot about David. So if there were a star associated with David, we would hear about it somewhere. We talked to all the Jewish experts. They said that that star is found nowhere in the Bible. "we have no idea where that star comes from". Now, I can tell you where that symbol comes from. That's the star of remphan. Look at Acts 7:43. It says "yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god remphan, figures hich ye made to worship them, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." So the only star that we see associated with the children of Israel is the star of remphan. When they worshipped a FALSE god, they had the star of remphan as an icon, and as a symbol. We never see a star of David in scripture, but the star of the false god remphan. And so we know today that they are not worshipping the true God. Because the Bible says "he that denieth the son, the same hath not the father. But he that acknowledgeth the son, hath the father also". If the jews do not believe on the son, the Bible says that they don't have the Father. So who do they have? Somebody else. A false god. Call it what you want... "Shekinah", the female goddess that they worship. We showed that in the scripture this morning. Other things that prove that. Now go if you would to 1st Timothy 1 where we started the sermon. 1st Timothy 1.

And this is what I want to spend alot of time on tonight. Because one of the biggest lies that they will use, is they will say "we're jews. And you're gentiles". Okay? This is what they'll say. "We're jews, and you're gentiles". And when they spoke to us, they say "you gentiles..." (mocking the haughty, condescending tone)... They said "what you gentiles call the old Testament... We call the ONLY testament". (makes drum sound to punctuate a bad joke) So, you know, they basically call us gentiles and they basically, and they say "we are jews, you are gentiles". That's actually a lie. Now the Bible talks about them in revelation 2:9. And it's funny because sometimes people today will tell you "oh the book of Revelation covers the tribulation, and the tribulation is all about the jews, you know". But here is the funny thing. The word "jews" is used twice in revelation. And both times, it's calling them the synagogue of satan, both times. The only two times you will find the word Jews in revelation, is in chapters 2 and 3. You say "well it says Israel over here". Israel and jews are 2 different things. Don't have time to go into it. But anyway, Revelation 2:9 says "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of satan". Now we know that only one religion uses synagogues. And He said "they SAY they are jews, and are not, but do lie". Now, who uses a synagigue, and says "we're jews". Obviously the jews, okay? But you say "wait a minute Pastor Anderson, they say they're jews and they are". But the reason that it says "they say they are jews and are not but do lie", is because in Romans 2:28 it says "but he is not a jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a jew which is one inwardly". And the Bible says in Philippians 3:3 "WE ARE THE CIRCUMCISION, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh". So in God's eyes, they're not jews! Because they're not inwardly. So He says they say they are jews and are not but do lie, but are the synagogue of satan. And it's interesting what He says in Revelation 3:9, because he says "behold I will make them of the synagogue of satan which say they are jews and are nto but do lie. Behold I will make them to come and worship before they feet and to know that I have loved thee". Now why would He have to make them know that God loved the Philadelphians, because you know what they think? "well, God loves us, but he doesn't love you. We're the chosen people. You're not. We're the jews, you're the gentiles. We're the chosen, you're the Goyim". Is the word they use for those that are of the heathen, that's what they consider us. I am going to prove this to be false. I have already proved it spiritually false. Because the Bible says we are of the jews which are jews inwardly, we are the circumcision because we rejoice in Christ Jesus. You are in 1st Timothy, but I do need to just quickly read from Ephesians before I get into this wonderful chart over here on the whiteboard.

But Ephesians chapter 2 reads in verse number 11- listen to this carefully. Ephesians 2:11. "Wherefore remember, that ye being IN TIME PAST gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being ALIENS from the commonwealth of Israel, and STRANGERS from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But NOW in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes WERE far off, are made NIGH by the blood of Christ". Look at verse 19. "Now therefore ye are NO MORE strangers and foreigners but FELLOWCITIZENS with the saints, and of the household of God". So what He says there in verse 12, is that in time past, you were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. You were foreigners! But in verse 19 He says "you're not strangers and foreigners anymore, you are fellowcitizens now". So he says in verse 12 "you were an alien of Israel, you were a foreigner to Israel" and in verse 19 he says "you're a citizen of Israel". So this idea of "we're jews, you're gentiles". No. He says in verse number 11, don't miss this. He says in verse 11 "wherefore remember that ye being IN TIME PAST gentiles in the flesh"- are we still gentiles? (No). You were in time past gentiles, you are called uncircumcision, but actually through the blood of Christ, you have been brought nigh unto Israel. You are a citizen of Israel. You are a part of Israel. How can anyone read Ephesians 2 and not realise that we are citizens of Israel? That's what it says. When you were without Christ, you were a foreigner to Israel. Now you have been made nigh to Israel through the blood of Christ. Now you are a citizen of Israel. Now there is a bunch of people over in Israel today that call themselves citizens of Israel. I say they are a bunch of foreigners over there. Bunch of strangers and aliens. Why? Because they are not made nigh by the blood of Christ. In God's eyes, they're not of Israel, because they don't believe in Jesus Christ! Those natural branches have been broken off. And we've been grafted in, as the gentiles. But think about this now. In order to immigrate into Israel, now this is really important, in order to immigrate to Israel, you can't just be anybody and just immigrate into Israel. You can't just, you know, for example be a mexican and say "I want to just go to Israel". Right? You can't just be chinese and say "I want to immigrate to israel". You can't be just, an american and say "I want to immigrate to Israel". No. In order to immigrate to Israel, you have to be able to prove that you are Jewish. In order to immigrate to Israel today. Now you can be someone of a different ethnicity, and immigrate into Israel, but you would have to convert to Judaism, which involves renouncing Christ. In order to convert to Judaism, we spoke to several rabbis, and you have to renounce Jesus Christ. You cannot believe that Jesus is the Messiah, you cannot believe that he is the son of God. SO in order to become a citizen of Israel today, you either have to prove that you are Jewish. Of Jewish blood. Or, you have to renounce the Lord Jesus Christ. So there are two ways to immigrate to Israel. Have Jewish ethnicity, or deny Jesus, and join the religion of Judaism. It's a very rigorous conversion process that takes about a year and a half. Of just, you know, bowing down unto the rabbis and doing whatever they say or whatever. I'm not really interested in it. So I don't have all the details. But anyway, let me just explain to you how ridiculous this is. To say "oh, you have to prove that you are jewish, you have to prove that you are of Israel, then we will let you immigrate". And it's called "the right of return".

Now, they won't accept DNA. And I'm going to explain to you why in a moment. They will not accept DNA. You could go to a DNA lab, and prove that you're related to them, and prove that you are descended from the same jews that they are descended from. They will not accept that. You have to be certified by them, by the rabbis, by THEIR jewish community. They will certify whether you are jewish or not. DNA, which has been scientifically proven to be accurate, which has been used to convict all kinds of criminals of the DEATH penalty, and to exhonerate and let other people go free, because it is so accurate- they won't accept it. And I am going to show you why in a moment. Because if they accepted it, it would prove everything they believe to be a fraud. Now let me explain this chart to you that I have drawn over here, I want to go over this with you. But first let me read to you from 1st Timothy. Now I have already proven that we are of spiritual Israel. That we are spiritually jews, according to Romans 2, Philppians 3, and Ephesians 2. That's pretty easy to prove from the Bible, we could turn to many other scriptures. But listen to me. I am about to really blow you away tonight. And I don't say that very often. And I am about to make a really big promise. And I am going to deliver on that promise. And when I first make this promise, many of you are not going to believe that I am able to do what I say I am going to do tonight. I am going to promise to do something. And many of you are going to not believe that I am able to fulfil what I am going to guarantee you, but let me tell you something. I will deliver, okay? And I don't say that lightly. Just hear me out, okay? Have I proven that we are spiritually the sons of abraham? I mean I have done that in many other sermons. Have I proven that we are of Israel, we have been brought nigh unto Israel, we're citizens of Israel, spiritually? Listen to me tonight. You are not going to believe me. But when I am done, you will see it. I am going to prove to you tonight, that YOU ARE A PHYSICAL DESCENDENT OF ABRAHAM. I am going to prove it to you tonight. I will go a step further. I AM GOING TO PROVE TO YOU TONIGHT THAT YOU ARE PHYSICALLY DESCENDED FROM ISRAEL HIMSELF! Not even just of Ishmael or Midian. I AM GOING TO PROVE TO YOU TONIGHT, THAT YOU ARE PHYSICALLY DESCENDED FROM ISRAEL. You say "I'm black!". I will prove it to you. You say "I'm Chinese". I will prove it to you. "I'm Korean". I will prove it to you. "I'm white!". I will prove it to you. Now, I know what you are thinking. "Pastor Anderson is out of his mind, there is no way he can prove that". Look, when I am done tonight, the only people who will disagree with me, are just people who don't understand science and math. No scientist will disagree when I am done tonight. No mathematician will disagree when I am done. That YOU... "well surely you don't mean me?". I mean YOU. Are descended PHYSICALLY from Israel. Not spiritually, physically. Let me step over to the board here. I know it's a tall order. It's a big promise, okay? But let me explain this to you. Now this is something that I actually learnt when I traced my family tree and when I figured out how this worked, this blew my mind. This blew me away. And I learnt this about 5, 6, 7 years ago when I was tracing my own ancestry and my family tree. And I want you to pay very close attention because this is going to involve math. And so I want you to pay very careful attention. I;m going to explain this to you and make it as simple as I can. Okay, this is what a family tree looks like. Who has ever made a family tree before? Lots of people, great.

Now, at the bottom of this family tree, we just have one person, these circles represent people. So at the bottom of the family tree, we just have one person which is you. Now, you descend from 2 people don't you? Your mother and your father. So if we go back one generation you come from 2 people as a direct descendent, right? But if we go back another generation, you don't just have 2 grandparents, you have 4 grandparents. And it keeps doubling, doesn't it? Because you have 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents, 16 great-great grandparents, and you have 32 great-great-great grandparents. Everybody follow so far? And it keeps doubling because everybody has 2 parents, okay? So, we're going to use exponents tonight, okay? Exponents will help us understand this. Because we started with one person, right? That's 2 to the zeroth power equals one, alright? Then in the first generation, we go back one generation, going back to mum and dad. We have two parents, which is 2 to the first power. When we go back 2 generations to our grandparents, we have 2 squared, or two to the second power, which is four. Four grandparents, right? If we go back 3 generations, we have 8 great grandparents, that's 2 to the third power. Four generations, it's going to be 2 to the fourth power. 16. Two to the fifth power, 32. Two to the sixth power, 64. So the number keeps doubling, doesn't it. Now, that means that if I were going to do a family tree that went back five generations, I would have to have a piece of paper wide enough to where at the top of that paper I would be able to have 32 people's names, wouldn't I? Because that is how ancestors I am going to have directly in that fifth generation. Now if I went to the sixth generation, my paper is going to have to be twice as wide, because now I am going to have 64 slots to put in the names right? Now, our parents are 2 different people. Our grandparents are 4 different people. Our great grandparents are 8 different people. Now, how could we have 3 grandparents? It would be like a guy with 2 wives, and people are marrying their half sister, it would be a mess, okay? So these people are all unique people. If I made a family tree like this, these would all be unique names, all unique people, all different people. Not like that song "I'm my own grandpa", about living in the south and so forth. So... have you heard that song? (LAUGHS) So anyway, a normal family tree going back five generations, all the names are pretty likely to be unique. I've done my family tree to this level, and the names are all unique. It's all unique people, because theres alot of fish in the sea. Alot of unique people in the world right? Well what happens though, is that as we go back further, this number get reallllly big. Now in order to understand how this chart works, we have to understand how long a generation is. Now a generation has nothing to do with the lifespan, okay? For example, my mother gave birth to me when she was thirty years old, okay? most women give birth to children around that age, you know. The child bearing time would be between 20 and 40 these days. That would be the primary time when women are giving birth. So let's just take 30 as an average. My mum was thirty when she had me. If you go online and type in "how long is a generation?", the number that keeps coming up over and over again, the number that keeps coming up over and over again is 25, 25, 25. Sometimes you will see 30, sometimes you will see 20 something. But 30 is a nice round number, and 30 is a very conservative number for this calculation. So a generation is 30 years. Meaning somebody has a child when they're thirty, and then they have a child when they're thirty, they have a child when they're thirty. Nothing to do with lifespan.

So that means, that if we go back 10 generations, and a generation is thirty years, then that's 300 years right? So let's just round off and say that if we went back in our family tree about 10 generations, we're going to be at about the year 1700. Does that make sense everybody? About 300 years ago. Now because our family tree is getting wider, if we wanted to do a complete family tree showing all of our ancestors back to the tenth generation, we would have to have a piece of paper that was wide enough to have a thousand and twenty four slots. Because 10 generations ago, there would be 1024 people that we would directly descend from, right? Because it's going 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 when we get to the tenth generation. Now, here is what I noticed when I did my family tree though. When I went back 10 generations, you know what I started noticing? These are no longer unique people. Why? because people marry their.... Don't you hate it when you accidentally marry your 7th cousin, and you didn't even know that she was such a close relative. I mean obviously you don't know. I mean, who here can name their third cousins? Who even knows what a third cousin is, you know? But anyway, this is what a cousin is, a cousin is the people that you share your grandparents with. You share the same grandparents, right? A second cousin is somebody that you share great-grandparents with. For example, the children of cousins, are second cousins. The children of second cousins, are third cousins. The children of third cousins are fourth cousins. You don't have to understand all that. But what I want you to understand, is that by the time I got to the tenth generation here, these 1024 people were not all unique because there had been some intermarraige in that 300 years that had unknowingly taken place. Let's go back 20 generations. So now we are back around the year 1400. Well, if I wanted to have a complete family tree, I would have to have a piece of paper that could fit 1 048 576 names. That's a pretty big piece of paper. It's an unbelievably sized piece of paper. Now do you think all of these people are going to be unique? Maybe not, right? okay. Now, let me just show you the scripture, I am going to come back to that chart, just digest that for a minute. Look at 1st Timothy chapter 1. In 1st Timothy chapter one, it says in verse 4 "neither give heed to fables and ENDLESS geneaologies". I want you to keep that phrase in your mind. "ENDLESS geneaologies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do". Now in Titus, he just said avoid geneaologies. But here he says to avoid ENDLESS geneaologies. And I'm going to show you why geneaologies are endless, they truly are endless.

So in the year 1400, if I am going to trace ALL of my ancestors. I mean, I am going to tell you who ALL of my ancestors from the 1400's are. I would have to show you a family tree that just at the top, would have a million something people. Just in the top row, let alone eveything else coming downward, right? If I were to go back 30 generations, now I am only in the year 1100, I'm not even close to the time of Christ yet am I? No. If I went back to the year 1100, 30 generations, I would have 1 BILLION, SEVENTY THREE MILLION, SEVEN HUNDRED AND FORTY ONE THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWENTY FOUR ancestors in that generation. Now, listen, they're not all unique. And let me tell you why, there were not a billion people living in the world at that time. So there is alot of repeating going on right? You know what that shows, is that alot of people are descending from the same people. Cannot help but intermarry, it's impossible not to, because of these numbers. Now look, the real number that we want to go back to, is not 1100 AD, let's go back to 70 AD, because 70 AD is when all the Jews were scattered into all nations. And they were scattered into all nations, okay? IF we were to go back to 70 AD, and we were to have a family tree that shows all of our ancestors in 70 AD, and how they're connected, that top line would have 18 quintillion, 446 quadrillion, 744 Trillion names. From 70 AD. Now, who thinks that there were 18 quintillion, 446 quadrillion, 744 Trillion people living at the time of Christ, or shortly thereafter. No. In fact, the approximate population at that time was 200 million, on this earth, okay? Of that 200 million, let's just call 7 or 8 million, Jews. You say "I don't like that number". Well that number is not going to matter in a minute, okay? So let's just call it 7, 8 million, okay. SO if there are 200 million people on the earth at the time of the temple being destroyed, in 70 AD there are 200 million people on the earth, and about 7 or 8 million are Jews, that means if I have an ancestor from that era, there is a 1 in 27 chance that they were of Israel. That's not even counting all the mixing that could have taken place up to that point. But let's just use this number. Let's just say 1 in 27 people living at that time are descendents of Israel. And, let's say that 200 million is the population of the earth, so basically, each of my ancestors has a 1 in 27 chance of being of Israel. Does everybody understand? How many slots am I filling in on that family tree? 18 quintillion slots right? So think about this. What if I were buying a lottery ticket, and the odds of that lottery ticket coming up a winner are 1 in 27, does everybody understand? Because that's the winning ticket that says "you're jewish! You're of the chosen people! You're of Israel! You are an Israelite indeed!". I've got a 1 in 27 chance of pulling that number. Okay, you say "well, Pastor Anderson, if you have a 1 in 27 chance, you are probably not going to win that lottery, because you have 26 chances of losing". Okay. But what if I buy 18 quintillion lottery tickets? You think I'm going to win? So what if I buy 18 quintillion lottery tickets, and I have got a 1 in 27 chance of striking Jewish? You think I am going to hit it? Let me ask you this. How many times do I have to hit it to be descended from Abraham? How many times do I have to hit it to be descended from Israel? So, how can anyone in here say "I'm not descended from Israel. I don't have a drop of jewish blood in my body"? You're saying, that out of all these chances... And I realise that these are not all unique people. There are not 18 quintillion ancestors. But you are filling out your family tree, there are 18 quint... qui.. ah... I can't even say these numbers. 18 quintillion spots for you to write a name, of someone in that generation that you directly descend from, and only ONE of them... only one of them has to be an Israelite. "Well, there weren't 7 or 8 million!". Okay, let's just say one million. Right? Let me grab my pen here. "Well there weren't 7 or 8 million!". Okay. How about one? How about a 1 in 200 chance? You have got a 1 in 200 chance of your ancestor from that generation being an Israelite and you are buying this many tickets. Think you are going to hit it?

You say "well, Pastor Anderson, you are not taking geography into account. I mean, if you are in the middle east, you are much more likely to hit it, than if you are in Korea, or China, or Africa, or... I mean, what are the chances that you are going to hit it then?". But wait a minute, you only have to hit it once. You only have to have ONE ancestor out of ALLLL these ancestors. Only one has to be of Israel. And you say "well, I'm hispanic!". Okay, well, first of all, people that are hispanic... notice spanic... Spain. Did you know that spain was one of the places that the Jews lived the most. There was a huge jewish population in spain until 1492 because in 1492, all of the Jews were forced to either... In 1492 all the jews had to eith leave spain or convert to Catholicism or die. Those were their choices. Well, guess what alot of them did? Alot of them left spain. But you know what alot of them did? Converted to catholocism. That's why today a HUGE portion of the spanish population is directly descended from those jews. Because alot of them were the "conversos", you know, converted unto catholicism. And then you know what those people on Spain and Portugal, who were jews who converted to catholicism, you know what their descendents did? They came to mexico, they came to south america, they came to brazil. So people all over mexico, brazil, south america, they are FOR CERTAIN going to have ancestors from spain and Portugal somewhere in their big gian family tree of millions of ancestors. And for sure there is going to be at least one them that is a jew. At least one, out of millions of ancestors. Out of a quintillion chances, 18 quintillion, mind you. That's going to be... You say "well, I'm black, I'm of Africa. How can I be connected with Abraham?". Well, stop and think about it. Israel- we're not even talking about Abraham, I'm saying you're of Israel, okay? Think about Israel's children, you know what one of Israels children Joseph, guess where his wife was from. Egypt. Joseph's wife was of Egypt. Where is Egypt? Africa. Moses' wife, was Ethiopian! So we already see, even in Bible days, intermingling with Africa, intermingling with the sons of Ham. I mean, if you think about it, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, were half of Ham, and half of Israel. Because Israel's son Joseph married an egyptian woman who was of Ham. So ALL of the Ephraimites and Manassites are descended of Ham. They all have connections with Africa. And not only that, but all throughout history you have all kinds of merchants and missionaries and conquerors. Even, you think of the mongolian empire, that went all over the world, and that conquered China, that conquered korea. All the ships that sailed and went here and there and everywhere. You ONLY HAVE TO HAVE ONE! Ancestor. Out of your MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of ancestors. You only have to have one that descends from Israel, and you are a direct descendent of Israel today. Only one is what's necessary.

Now, anybody who understands what I explained just now, anybody who knows math, you know we've got a certified accountant, do you approve of this message? We have a certified accountant in the front row here, that's just told me that he approves of what I am saying. Because any mathematician knows this is true. And you know what any scientist will tell you that this is true. We talked to the guy at the DNA lab, he said if you go back several hundred years, we're all the same. You know what? The Bible was right when it said we are all of one blood. That God has made the nations of the earth of one blood. You sit there and say "oh, I am just purely a white person. I'm just purely asian, I'm just purely african". No you're not. No-one is. No-one is. That's why it's so ridiculous to take pride in that. (SARCASTICALLY) "ohhh, I'm Jewish, you're gentile". Those Palestinians over there all descend from Abraham. Every single one of them. "well no, you mean most". ALL of them. Every single Palestinian is a descendant of Jacob. Anybody who disputes that statement after seeing this information just doesn't understand math and doesn't understand science. And the guy from the DNA lab will tell you, there has been so much mingling. And look, you can sit there and have your endless geneaology, because you know what you can't tell from a geneaology? Someone who committed adultery and lied to their husband and said "oh yeah, this is your son". And he's not. People that are adopted, and not told that their adopted. Or even they're told they're adopted, and then that information gets lost. I mean who here can tell all the people that were in your lineage that were adopted? "Oh yeah, my ancestors 300 years ago were adopted." You're not going to remeber that. So there are adoptions, there is infidelity, there is travelling, there is conquest, there are merchants, there are missionaries... It doesn't matter where you're from folks. You know why God said to avoid this? Because it hurts your mind to even think about this stuff. (LAUGHS) I mean, these numbers bend the mind. He is just like "just avoid it". Avoid endless geneaologies. You know what, they minister questions. I mean does this make you feel really sure about your nationality now? No. It raises alot of questions. Because now you are thinking "goodnight, who do I descend from? Iroquoi? Gypsy? African? Chinese? Korean? Caucasians?". We're all mixed. There is no pure. you know, the nazis, "the pure aryan"... Baloney. There is no such thing. Because one little drop of Jewish blood... And I asked the guy, the leader of the Jewish congregation. I said to him, "how jewish is jewish?". I said "how many jewish ancestors do I...". I said "I did my family tree and I said 10 generations back, so at this level...", because I really did, "I found someone with a jewish name". And he said "well as long as it's the matrilineal line", because they do it on the mother's side, for some bizarre reason. "As long as it's matrilineal, then you're jewish". Then we're all jewish. But do you see now why Israel doesn't let you use DNA to return to the land? (sarcastically) I want to return! I want to return to my homeland of my ancestors! LET ME RETURN TO ISRAEL, I'M AN ISRAELITE! "PROVE IT!"... (motions toward whiteboard where he made the argument regarding geneaologies)... Let's all, I mean John Hagee ought to buy me a ticket! Help this jew return to the homeland. I don't want to go, but anyway... (LAUGHS) Now look, this just goes to show you what a fraud this whole thing is, of "well THEY'RE the jews, YOU'RE the gentile. DON'T say you're a jew, DON'T say you're of Abraham, YOU'RE NOT A SON OF... YOU'RE A GENTILE, THEY'RE THE JEWS... THESE PALESTINIANS, they're all of Ishmael! The PALESTINIANS ARE OF ISHMAEL! And the JEWS are of ISRAEL!". No. Every Jew is also of Ishmael, because of mixing! And every Palestinian is also of Israel.

Now some people who just don't comprehend this, here is what they say. "Well how can we all be descended from Abraham when there were other people living at that time to descend from?". Because you don't descend from one person. You descend from millions of people. And only one of them has to be a descendent of Israel, for you to be a descendent of Israel. And the chances, I mean, I was going to put on the board the chances of you not being an Israelite. It had so many zeroes, it couldn't fit on the board. This is your chance, it's like, you have a point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero... it would be all over the wall, like just... "these are the chances of you not being of Israel". (Motions toward entire wall). So you know it becomes just statistically insignificant at that point. Any mathematician will tell you. Just zero zero zero zero zero zero... you know. So I could tell you tonight, you have a 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999... etc percent chance of being of Israel. But it just makes more chance to say 100... Let's just round it up to the nearest significant digit. And just call it 100 per cent. And anyone who says "well, you know there is still a chance...". You need to go back to math class, and you need to go back to science class. Let me just wrap my sermon with one last thing. Ezra chapter 10, because I am running out of time, but I really wanted to drive that point in. Ezra chapter 10. Because this is what people will say, people are just stubborn my friend. People are really stubborn, you show them the truth, and they just don't want to accept it, no matter what you show them. So there are going to be some people, who, you know how they are going to argue with this right here? Here is how they are going to argue with this. They are going to say "well no Pastor Anderson, because the jews were REALLY CAREFUL never to intermarry with other nations throughout history. THEY were just...". Well, look, only a few slip ups, and you are bringing in all kinds of DNA, number one. But they say "no, no Pastor Anderson, you don't understand. The Jews were just REALLY careful not to intermarry throughout history. I mean I know they were scattered throughout all nations. I know they were throughout Europe, but they only married each other". I have heard this so many times. "they only married each other, they were really careful to marry only within the jewish community, and that's how hey preserved their identity". No they preserved their identity through their religion, that's of antichrist okay? But you say "Oh no, they really were careful to preserve that identity Pastor Anderson". They did not mix. Well first of all, what about the ones that converted and assimilated into the societies where they lived? They're mixing all over the place. And what about all the people that were none jews who converted to Judaism? In in Esther chapter 8:17, it says many of the people of the land became jews. For the fear of the jews fell upon them. And when they became jews, they are going to intermarry now. So that logic falls apart, but let's see if that's really true.

Let's go back to the days of Ezra. One example. I could show you tonnes of examples of intermarraige. I could show you Joseph marrying an Egyptian, Moses marrying an Ethiopian, I mean I could show you TONNES of intermarraige. But let's just look at one example. Because remember "the jews were really good. They were in Europe, they only married each other pastor Anderson, that's why your logic falls apart". Okay, Ezra chapter 10:19. "And they gave their hands that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their trespass. And of the sons of Immer; Hanani, and Zebadiah. And of the sons of Harim; Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah. And of the sons of Pashur; Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah. Also of the Levites; Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah, (the same is Kelita,) Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. Of the singers also; Eliashib: and of the porters; Shallum, and Telem, and Uri. Moreover of Israel: of the sons of Parosh; Ramiah, and Jeziah, and Malchiah, and Miamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah. And of the sons of Elam; Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Eliah. And of the sons of Zattu; Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza. Of the sons also of Bebai; Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, and Athlai. And of the sons of Bani; Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, and Ramoth. And of the sons of Pahathmoab; Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezaleel, and Binnui, and Manasseh. And of the sons of Harim; Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, Benjamin, Malluch, and Shemariah. Of the sons of Hashum; Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, and Shimei. Of the sons of Bani; Maadai, Amram, and Uel, Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh, Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasau, And Bani, and Binnui, Shimei, And Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah, Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, Azareel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah, Shallum, Amariah, and Joseph. Of the sons of Nebo; Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, and Joel, Benaiah. ALL THESE HAD TAKEN STRANGE WIVES: and some of them had wives by whom they had children". I rest my case. (Laughter). They had all taken strange wives. I mean, did you hear that list? That's one event. That's one generation. (LAUGHS) "No, no, Pastor Anderson, they were really good about not intermarrying." They just kept it within the jewish community". Right, sure. But you know what? People are just stubborn. This is their sacred cow. "Israel, the jews...". They love that star of David- it's of remphan. They love this nation of people and think they're just so wonderful. Look, I don't love them or not love them any more than anybody else. They're just human! Just people. You say "you hate jews!". Then I'd be hating myself, because I'm a jew. "Well, you just hate the ethnicity of Jews". I'm of the ethnicity of the jews! "Well you hate obama because he is jewish!". (LAUGHS) You say "He's a muslim!", he's a jewish muslim, I guess, I don't know. I mean look... just name anybody you want. I'll declare them a jew right now. Just name who you want. You know, Sammy Davis Junior converted to judaism. But he was already ethnically a jew. Be not decieved. You know what? This is stupidity to sit there and say "oh yeah, the jews are God's chosen people". No, if you believe in CHRIST, you're God's chosen people, because we're ALL of one blood, we're ALL the same. We're all human beings, we're all related, and you know what? WE ARE THE CHOSEN PEOPLE if we believe in JESUS CHRIST! And those who DON'T believe in Jesus Christ are NOT THE ELECT. And you say, "oh, the 144,000, they're going to be of those 12 tribes". Look, somebody said "well, they don't know who they are, but God does". God could just pick 12 thousand people, randomly. and they would be of Rueben. With all this mixing. He could just pick 12 thousand people RANDOMLY and they would be of Gad! They would be of Asher. RANDOMLY, ANYBODY! But you know what, that's not true, those 12 tribes in revelation are OT saints from back when those tribes actually existed and meant something. It don't mean anything anymore. No jew can even tell you what tribe they are of today. Because they haven't done their family tree all the way bcak to 70 AD, okay?

But, thank God we're the chosen ones, doesn't it feel good to be chosen? doesn't it feel good to be the elect? You know, God's people, the Holy Nation? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for these spiritual truths Lord, and thankyou for giving us minds that can comprehend math, and that can learn why everything in the Bible was right. You were right when you said "endless geneaologies". You were right when you said that Abraham was a father of many nations. You were right Lord, when you said to just avoid geneaologies and to just figure out whether you are of Abraham, by whether you have the faith of Abraham. Lord, please help us all to not feel that we are second class citizens of the kingdom of God, but to know that we are of the chosen people. And Lord, help us to love the lost whether they are so called "jewish", whether they be red, yellow, black, white, Lord. How ridiculous for someone to hate those of another race when they must have an ancestor of those nationalities somewhere if we go back far enough. Lord, help us to go our seperate ways Lord, with just a renewed appreciation for our position in Christ. And for our position as the elect. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, let's go ahead and sing a song before we go...