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Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with the

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moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And

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today we challenge you to think through the book of Revelation and its beginning. What are the

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major themes of the book of Revelation? That's what I want to challenge you with today. The

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book of Revelation is not just a handbook on the last things, on the rapture and the seven-year

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tribulation and who the Antichrist is. No, the book of Revelation is so, so much more. And I want to

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cover with you some of the major themes of the book of Revelation that we will be covering in days and

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weeks and months to come because New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church has launched out on a study of

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the book of Revelation. I'm preaching through the book of Revelation now, and I have never enjoyed

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preaching more than I have the book of Revelation here at this time. It's very challenging and it's

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very sobering to the Christian view as we look out over the book of Revelation because it's not a book

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just for the future. It's not a book just of the past. It is a book that is so relevant to every

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Christian, every man, Jack, one of us here on the earth as we live out our Christian lives. So I want

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to be able to cover some of the major preaching themes that I am going to be covering that the book

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of Revelation lays before us, and I'm trying not to skip any one of them. This is not just a kickbook

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to be able to have fun predicting the future and seeing whether Hillary Clinton is really the

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Antichrist or whether it might be Barack Obama or even Donald Trump, of course, as some might even

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posit. But dear listener, the book of Revelation is so, so much more. So I want to introduce my message

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today by reading for you the prologue of Revelation, and that begins in chapter 1, verses 1-3. So let me

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read, begin to temper our study of the book of Revelation with the text. Always, always stick to

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the text. Keep your eyes, hearts, and minds glued to the text. Revelation 1, 1-3. Revelation of Jesus

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Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known

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by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of

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Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy,

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and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. Revelation 1, 1-3.

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And the last time we were together, we covered some of the introductory matters to the book of Revelation.

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I want to finish some of those introductory matters, give you just a brief perspective on where I go in the book

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of Revelation, and where every preacher should go, consequently, too. Not just plumbing and mining

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and skimming and cherry-picking the book of Revelation for the fun stuff, as many would perceive it to be.

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That is, oh, when does the seven-year tribulation begin? Who's the Antichrist? When's the rapture?

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No, there are other major themes in the book of Revelation, and I want to cover those with you.

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And 12 major themes the book of Revelation lays out for us. Number one, the suffering of the saints

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is the means of its triumph. Yes, the suffering of the saints is the means of the triumph of the church.

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This, indeed, is ironic to the worlding, isn't it? We'll unpack this as we go through more and more.

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And it's hard for us to get through our heads sometimes, too, right?

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Oh, let's win elections. Let's raise armies. Let's do it the way the world does it, right?

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The way the cynical Chairman Mao would put it. Chairman Mao. Excuse me, not Mao. He's not mayonnaise.

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It's Chairman Mao. Mao Tse Tung. Of course, he said political power comes out of the barrel of a gun,

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doesn't he? That's pretty cynical and that's pretty worldly, too. And it's true as far as the world goes.

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But we know that true spiritual power comes from the blood of the cross, doesn't it? Spiritual power

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comes from the blood of the cross because this is how Christ triumphed. And it's ironic and it's

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foolish to the world, but it is so true for us, isn't it? We embrace the cross. That's where the

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Apostle Paul could hold the cross up as his banner because spiritual power comes from the blood of the

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cross. That's one of our major themes in the book of Revelation. And it should be for every preacher

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out there. Secondly, the apocalypse is now. That's another major preaching theme. That is the theme the

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Apostle John holds forward throughout the book of Revelation, that the apocalypse is now for whoever

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might be reading it. And this we will be unpacking for you. It's not just off some far distant day in

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the future. And we put the book of Revelation on pause until then. No, the book of Revelation, the apocalypse

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is happening now because apocalypse is a constant theme throughout the Bible. And the Apostle John is certain of

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this, too. That's why I preach from the book of Daniel, because it was an apocalypse for its day. And there is

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throughout the life of the church, the sense that all things that are transpiring in the book of the

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apocalypse are unfolding and happening currently, presently for every single generation. That's our

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second major preaching theme. The apocalypse is now, dear listener. Thirdly, government not explicitly

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given to Christ is by its very nature the beast. That's another major preaching theme throughout the

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book of Revelation. Government, human government, and that includes ours today. And that's including

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government that has ever been, ever will be, or has been, and is now. Government not explicitly given

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to Christ, because we will see how indeed the nations are his, and he will shatter them with the rod of his

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mouth. And indeed, all government is the Lord Jesus Christ, because he governs all things, all things

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have been given to him, all power and authority, as he told his disciples, have been given to me.

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Therefore, go forth, make disciples, baptize, and the gates of hell will not prevail against you.

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And the book of Revelation bears this out as well. Government not explicitly given to Christ

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is by its very nature the beast, including our own, especially our own today, dear listener.

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That's the third major preaching theme. Number four, spiritual combat is the state of affairs for

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the church under this covenant, the new covenant. We're not under dispensations, dear listener. We

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are under covenants. And the book of Revelation bears this out as well. Spiritual combat, consequently,

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is the state of affairs for the church under this covenant. And this is a major theme of the book

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of Revelation, right? Combat from the very beginning. We overcome. We are conquerors. We are Nikes.

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That's the Greek word. Nikos is a conqueror in Greek. The word Nike, in fact, is taken from the

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Greek, meaning to conquer or to overcome. And that's a major word. That's a major word and theme all through

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the book of Revelation, is that we are conquerors, but we don't conquer by sword. We conquer by spirit.

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But spiritual combat is the state of affairs for the church under this covenant, and we better get

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used to it. So many of us are flabby and weak and on our rear ends. We are couch potatoes when it comes

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to spiritual combat, many of us, especially in the American church. But that's not what the book of

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Revelation lays out for us. That's not what the apostle John tells us. That's not what our very Lord

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Jesus Christ tells us either. No, indeed, spiritual combat is the state of affairs for the church under

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this covenant. And then fifthly, dominion is our destiny, a very important theme. Dominion is our

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destiny. The Lord Jesus Christ, he unfolds his inheritance in the seven-sealed scroll, his

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inheritance handed to him, and he goes out like Joshua did to take the land. And indeed, he takes dominion

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of the world. The Lord is in process of taking dominion of the world, even now as we speak. And

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you, dear listener, are a soldier in that army, in that spiritual combat, to indeed take the Lord

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Jesus Christ's inheritance, even as Joshua had to earn it. Dominion, then. We are taking dominion,

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and we are expected to hold dominion and exercise dominion over all of creation because it is now

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Christ's inheritance and the church's inheritance. So, another major preaching theme in the book of

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Revelation, and should be with every preacher, is that dominion is our destiny. Sixthly, there can be no

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compromise with the world come out of her. That's one of the Exodus themes. There are many themes in the

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book of Revelation taken from the Old Testament. You don't know your Old Testament. You do not know

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the book of Revelation. You never will know the book of Revelation. Exodus, the theme, come out of her,

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come out of the pagan world, come out of Babylon, John was exhorting, even as Israel came out of

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and the Exodus came out of Egypt and left Pharaoh and all of his minions behind. And we are to leave the

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culture and the idols and the living styles, if you will, of Babylon, our present-day Babylon. And this is

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something the church has gone soft on, too. It has compromised far too much with the world. This has been one of

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those things that has sobered me as I have studied the book of Revelation this time around. I've been studying the book

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of Revelation all my life. And this is one of those themes that has struck me deeply, that has

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confronted me very much. We're far too comfortable in the world. There can be no compromise with the

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world. The book of Revelation brings this forward for us. Come out of her, we are exhorted.

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Seventhly, a seventh major preaching theme for the book of Revelation is that God's love is with the

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suffering, marginalized church. In the day of John, oh, how it seemed that the church was not long for this

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world. It was oppressed. It was weak. It had no power. It had no status. The Roman Empire was persecuting

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her, especially under the Emperor Nero, using Christians as torches. He would coat them with

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tar and pitch and then light them to illumine his festivities in Rome during the evenings. Oh, how the

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church seemed marginalized, persecuted, and about to be stamped out. This was the feeling among many.

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We'll see this unpacked for us. But the Lord tells us in the book of Revelation that God's love is with

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the suffering, marginalized church. He hasn't forgotten her. He knows her. She is before his

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very throne at every moment of every day, and he loves every single one of us. He loves those, even

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though we may not know the names, remember the names and faces and lives of all of those being

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persecuted today, for example. How many of us know the particular individual believers that are being

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persecuted and slain in Syria, for example? But there is a revival going on because the lives of the

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saints indeed have been a witness to those taking their lives. And many Muslims have come to Christ.

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This is something you'll never hear on CNN, but indeed many Muslims in Syria have come to Christ

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because of the faithful witness, the martyrdom of the witnesses and believers in Syria, because God

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indeed does love the suffering, marginalized church. That's preaching theme number seven,

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preaching theme number eight. God will requite perfect justice on the wicked. Yes, how long,

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O Lord, the souls cry underneath the altar in heaven? How long, O Lord, before you do take

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vengeance upon our enemies? This is a major theme of the book of Revelation 2. God will requite perfect

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justice on the wicked. God is just. He is perfectly just. And not only in the last judgment, but as we

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see unfolded for us in time and space, he also requites perfect justice on the wicked, and he will

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redeem his people. He will vindicate them. He will justify them before the world and before all of

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history because he is perfectly just. God will requite perfect justice on the wicked, preaching

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theme number eight. Preaching theme number nine that should come through, that should come through

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with every preacher is that Jesus is the new Joshua and the conquest is the new paradigm. Yes,

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Jesus is the new Joshua. His very name is what? Yeshua, which is Joshua then in the Hebrew. And it comes

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through in the Greek as Jesus and of course in English as Jesus. But the name Joshua is the name

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that was commanded to be given to him, that Jesus would be his name. Joshua would be his name. That is

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deliverer. Jesus is indeed the deliverer. And the conquest is the new paradigm. He unfolds. He breaks

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open the seven seals of his inheritance. And one by one, he goes forth and conquers. And we are his

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co-heirs. We are his co-conquerors too, but we don't conquer with sword. Political power may come out of the

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barrel of a gun, but spiritual power comes out of the blood of the cross. And indeed, that is how we conquer

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with the blood of the cross, the sword of his mouth, as Jesus characterizes it. That is the word of God

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is a, is a weapon we use to conquer as well. The word of God and the blood of the saints is indeed how we

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conquer, how we overcome in the world. Jesus is the new Joshua and the conquest is the new paradigm.

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Preaching theme number nine. Preaching theme number 10 is that heaven and earth are intimately

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connected. God is bringing about his will on earth as it is in heaven. This is a major theme. And it's

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one of those that reassures those suffering crushed saints is that indeed, however, so our state seems

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here on earth, how desperate it may seem, how crushing it may seem, how full of defeat and death and

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blood it may seem. Nevertheless, Christ sees, Christ knows, God knows. Everything is present before him

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in the heavenlies. And we are alive in the heavenlies as well as here on earth because heaven and earth are

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intimately connected. I've mentioned to you last week, the idea of the oscillation between heaven and

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earth. This is meant to show that God indeed has not forgotten. He sees all, he knows all, he loves us,

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and he uses our suffering and death to conquer. This is reflected in the heavenlies. Heaven and earth are

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intimately connected and, and the book of revelation oscillates beautifully between heaven and earth to

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demonstrate this to us. Preaching theme number 10. Preaching theme number 11. Liturgy is life.

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Heavenly life. Indeed, worship is a major theme of the whole book of revelation. And this is one of those

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often neglected things, especially by our, us Protestants, is that our worship is meant to be

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guided and shaped and shown by the book of revelation. New Testament worship is very much

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revealed for us. It's meant to be too. The heavenly pattern is meant to be that replicated on earth.

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Liturgy is life, dear listener. And you should not neglect this in your rush to find out who the

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antichrist is, uh, when the seven year tribulation begins, begins, when the rapture will be. No, you

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don't sack the book of revelation looking for these things and leave everything else because the pattern

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for worship, for heavenly worship, for new Testament worship is reflected for us in part in the book of

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revelation. That's a preaching theme. Number 11. Liturgy is life, dear listener. And you neglect it to your

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own peril. Liturgy is life. It is heavenly life. Preaching theme number 11. Every preacher should

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be taking this up, but they don't do that. Your preacher, no doubt does not do this. Liturgy is

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life. It is heavenly life. Number 12. God is sovereign over all. Indeed, that's preaching theme number 12.

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And this is one of those umbrella themes that stretches from chapter one to chapter 22. Does it

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not? Indeed, that God is sovereign over all. Um, I like that better than just the glib quip so many

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people throw out. God's in control. God's in control. God's in control. That's usually a sign

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that whoever is saying it is throwing up their hands and saying, I don't have to do anything

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because God is doing it all. All I have to do is wait for the rapture. That is the theme that so many

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modern, uh, evangelical Christians bring to the book of revelation that does not translate to the

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major theme. John is holding out for us that indeed God is sovereign over all. And he expects

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his whole church to participate in taking dominion. Dominion is our destiny. He expects his whole church

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to suffer and bleed. He expects his whole church to come out of the world. And indeed you are an active

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participant in all of this. And as you do, you find out indeed God exercises in your life, his

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sovereignty. God is indeed sovereign overall. These are our major 12 preaching themes. Dear listener,

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we'll be unpacking them in days to come, but there are also some common errors. I want you to avoid

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as you take up, uh, the book of revelation with us. I urge you to join us. Uh, we meet for holy

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worship on Sundays at, uh, uh, on at 10 AM, uh, at one on one four street. And I'm preaching through

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the book of revelation, but there's some common mistakes I want us to avoid. Number one, I want us

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to avoid the mistake that, uh, revelation is somehow a prophetic handbook that lays out in coded form,

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the second coming of Christ. That's a common error. That revelation is somehow a prophetic handbook

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that lays out in coded form, the second coming of Christ. And then somehow magically, uh, once we have

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the code, we can know what's coming. For example, I once heard John Hagee say, once the church is

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raptured from the earth, I can tell you precisely what will happen for the next seven years, month by

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month, unquote. Oh, that's hubris. That's arrogance. That's vanity. Revelation is not a prophetic

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handbook that lays out in coded form, the second coming of Christ. Revelation is less a prophetic

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handbook than it is a combat manual on how to wage spiritual warfare under the new covenant.

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This is not a dispensational book. It is a covenantal book. So it is more a combat manual on how to wage

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war, spiritual warfare under the new covenant with the new Joshua as our commander in chief. So avoid that

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error of seeing revelation as a prophetic handbook that lays out in coded form, the second coming.

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Secondly, another common error we want to avoid. And that error is that revelation lays out prophetic

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events in a linear historical sequence for the future. Oh, dear have dear Lord, please keep us from

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this error. That somehow revelation lays out a prophetic event calendar in a linear historical

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sequence for the future. And so often many believers, beginning with the four horsemen of the apocalypse,

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they think prophetic events move sequentially to the end when the new Jerusalem descends from heaven.

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No, this Western reading habit fundamentally misreads the genre of apocalyptic. I tried to unpack,

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go back and listen to those earlier messages on what genre revelation is. It's not a literal

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unfolding of prophetic events. Rather, revelation employs literary techniques like recapitulation,

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where the same scene is revisited time and time again, and it's gone over again and again with new

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insight each time. Revelation is more a visionary kaleidoscope than it is a left to right

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cartoon panel as so many modern believers take it to be. So thirdly, the third error we want to avoid

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is that revelation is primarily for the generation in which the prophecies will come true. This is how

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futurists take it so often, and they are just plain wrong. Revelation is not primarily for the

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generation in which the prophecies will come true. Sure, revelation had some good, encouraging things

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to say they say to previous generations, but really, we can see by the signs happening around us that

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revelation was meant for us. Can't you see it? We will see that it might also be true that those

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things foreshadowed in the book of Revelation happened in the day of the seven churches of Asia.

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Yes, but also with lasting consequences for us. This book is just as much for us as it was for them,

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and it's not just for the future generation. No. So, just as the Gospels capture redemptive history

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with power and meaning, so does the book of Revelation. Fourthly, the fourth error that we must

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avoid if we are going to understand the book of Revelation, avoid this error. That is, revelation must

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be read literally to avoid spiritualizing the Bible. Oh, what a gross error. Revelation must be read

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literally to avoid spiritualizing the Bible. This is a spiritual book, dear listener. It is also a

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symbolic book. In the past, interpreters have gone into grave error by seeing other meanings than the

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literal one intended by the author, they say. And a good example, and one that always amazes me,

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is a literalistic error is that the thousand-year millennium is a literal thousand-year millennium.

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In a book that is symbolic to the hilt, to the core, the most symbolic book and the most spiritual

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book in the entire Bible, oh, it's taken literally. That's the first error. What if spiritual symbols,

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spiritual meanings symbolize spiritual meanings for us, right? In the most spiritually

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symbolic book of the Bible, that is indeed the book of Revelation, and we fall into grave error

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when we take it literally. Oh, so we begin then, dear listener, to unpack this wonderful,

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marvelous labor of love that so beautifully brings us the Lord Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation

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does this for us, and it does it in ways only hinted at in the rest of Scripture. I love the book of

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Revelation because I see Jesus so clearly in it. Revelation is so necessary to the life of the

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church, and we must understand it with the principles laid out for you here, the errors to avoid, and the

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12 major preaching themes. Christ, in the book of Revelation, is the Alpha and Omega. He is the first and

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the last. This is why we love the book of Revelation, because Christ is so clear and present in it,

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isn't he? He is the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God indeed who conquers. A Lamb looking as if slain is

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one who conquers. And he is the very new Joshua as well. His very name is Yeshua Joshua. That is,

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he is the one who delivers. He is the one who conquers, even as Joshua conquered the land in the

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Old Testament. So now our Lord Jesus Christ, the Yeshua, the Joshua, conquers his inheritance,

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which is the entire world. Yes, and we are co-conquerers with him. We are co-heirs with him,

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and we indeed conquer by his blood. We indeed conquer by the word of his mouth. We love him. I hope that you

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love the Lord Jesus Christ as well, because he is ours. He is yours. He is mine. All things are ours.

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All things are mine. All things are yours. All things are the church's. And dominion is our destiny,

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brother and sister. Dominion of all creation is our destiny. And we are in the midst, in the middle,

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if you will, perhaps at the end, perhaps close to the end of that conquering, when indeed all things

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will be our Lord's and ours too, as co-heirs. He loves his church. He loves you. He sees all that

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you do. He sees your suffering. He sees the suffering of our brothers and sisters all over the globe.

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He is ever present with us and to us. And he loves you and continues to sustain you and sustain me.

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I love him for it. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

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New Geneva Meets for Holy Worship, where we are studying the book of Revelation.

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New Geneva Meets for Holy Worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. Join us at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th

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and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information, perhaps some comments you want to

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make at area code 208-523-0196. That's area code 208-523-0196.