FSBCGuthrie

Revelation 4 begins the third section of Revelation, the future. We saw the outline of the book back in chapter one, verse 19. There John was told to write the things which you have seen (past), the things which are (present), and the things which will take place after this (future). Meta tauta is the Greek wording for "after these things", which in context here means the things that will take place after the present church age, the Age of Grace. After the Church is removed from the earth at the Rapture, the time of Daniel's 70th Week will take place. We normally refer to those seven years as the Tribulation Period. That period begins in chapter 6 of Revelation. Chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation give John's attempt at describing the scene from the throne room in heaven. Because of the amount of information involved, we will only be looking at chapter 4 today and will be in chapter 5 next week.

Hebrews 10 continues the comparison, showing Jesus to be superior to the Levitical Priesthood and the animal sacrifices that were under the Old Covenant. His death fulfilled God's will and plan for mankind's eternal salvation. His shed blood makes perfect those who trust in Him by completely removing the believers' sin. We are encouraged to hold fast our confession since we have a High Priest over the house of God who makes intercession for us. There is a warning not to willfully sin after we have trusted in Christ. Those who did so during the time of the writing of Hebrews, the transition period going from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant may have continued to take blood sacrifices to the temple. That would be a direct violation of the New Covenant that was consecrated by the blood of Christ once and for all, and anyone who did such could expect judgment. But the writer points out the the "just" shall live by faith, a quote from Habakkuk 2:4. This is the third time of a trilogy of that verse being quoted in the New Testament (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38).

Genesis 4 deals with the murder of Abel, Cain's wife and descendants, and ends with the birth of Seth.

Chapters 2 & 3 of Revelation deal with the current Church Age and consists of 7 letters to 7 Churches that were in Asia Minor, a portion of modern day Turkey. Each of the letters follows the same pattern of a greeting to the messenger of the church, a description of the Resurrected, Glorified Christ, words of commendation, words of condemnation, instructions or warnings, a promise to the overcomer, and a statement, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches". There are several views of interpretation for the letters and the seven churches: - They were seven literal churches in operation at that time - They represent types of churches throughout the Church Age - There are people in many churches who have these characteristics - The order of the churches given and their situations and experiences picture a timeline through the New Testament Church Age from Pentecost till the Lord returns to set up His Kingdom The letters can be seen as report cards or progress reports for each of the churches. Since we are living in the Church Age today, these letters may be the most important section of the book of Revelation to us today. They instruct us in things to do or not to do and encourage us to have a close fellowship with the Lord.

Hebrews 8 deals with Moses building the earthly tabernacle according to the plans given him on Mount Sinai. It also has a recitation of the New Covenant from Jeremiah 31:31-34. Hebrews 9 deals with Jesus, our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, being superior to the Levitical High Priests, Himself being a better sacrifice than the Old Testament animal sacrifices, and the heavenly, or true tabernacle, being superior to the earthly tabernacle. If one understands the teaching of Hebrews 9, he will understand the eternal redemptive plan of God for mankind, and the knowledge and belief in God's Son will bring eternal salvation.

Genesis 3 gives us the Fall of man (Adam and Eve's sin), the first prophetic verse of a coming Messiah, and the expelling of man from the Garden of Eden. The result of the Fall of man was a seed war (as L.A. Marzulli likes to call it) between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. This is an important subject that not only goes thru the entire Bible, but the affects of it can be seen in our world today.

We begin a study thru The Revelation of Jesus Christ. John the Apostle wrote the things he saw and heard when he was shown the risen, glorified Christ, the throne room and the events that will take place during Daniel's 70th Week, the Tribulation Period. Today we are in chapter 1, which is the first section of the book. Verse 19 of chapter 1 gives the outline of the book: things you have seen (past), things that are (present), and things that will be after these things (future). God gives the information to Jesus, who gives it to an angel, who then gives it to John.

Hebrews 7 deals with Melchizedek and Jesus being our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. The first Biblical reference of Melchizedek from Genesis 14 is reviewed. The most popular view of Melchizedek in Genesis is that it was a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Dr. Johnson has written a book, the Ancient Order of Melchizedek in which he presents the order of Melchizedek as being a list, or order, of human men from Adam to Jacob, after which the offices of Priest and King were separated into two different tribes of Israel. Then when Jesus came and is now our High Priest, seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, He is now our final and eternal High Priest according to the Order of Melchizedek and will reunite the offices of Priest and King to Himself.

Chapter 2 of Genesis covers the same things from chapter 1, but it gives more detail. We see about Eve's creation and her relationship with Adam. We also discuss the 7 days of Creation week and refer to the typology of the 7 days in a work week, the 7 Feasts of the LORD, and the teaching found in the Dead Sea Scrolls from the Patriarchs and early church fathers of 7000 years of mans history prior to the creation of the new heavens and earth.

We look at verses of encouragement from Psalms 1, 31, 61, 91, and 121

Jude is a one-chapter book right before the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Jude was a brother of James and half brother of Jesus, but he introduces himself as a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like James did. Jude is often called the Acts of the Apostates because of Jude talking of judgment coming upon them for their actions. He compares the dreamers as he calls them and their actions to three groups of people; the unbelieving and disobedient Israelites going through the wilderness, the rebellious and fallen angels who cohabitated with women in Genesis chapter 6, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Jude also is interesting because of its chiastic pattern as sometimes found in Hebrew writing. That pattern is a symmetrical form in which the first verse or verses of the chapter coincide with the last verse or verses and the others follow the pattern till there is one particular theme or subject in the middle of the chapter.

The first portion of Hebrews 6 deals with believers bearing fruit. The last portion of the chapter deals with God's promise and oath to Abraham as an object lesson and encouragement to us that we have an anchor of the soul also based upon God's promises and oaths that our salvation is eternal.

We begin our study on "The Beginnings" in Genesis chapter 1. We also mention that one particular chronological Bible actually starts with John 1:1-2, then goes to Psalm 90:2 before getting to Genesis1:1. It also then presented from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 to indicate satan's rebellion and fall prior to creation of earth and man. We will find several Scriptural principles in the first part of Genesis that will carry all the way through the Bible to their culmination in the book of The Revelation. Some of those principles we find in chapter 1 are: - God's creation instead of evolution - God created male and female; only two genders

3rd John is written to Gaius, a member of a church body. John encourages him to give hospitality and support those who have a good witness and testimony. He tells Gaius not to imitate those who do evil but to imitate those who do good. John had additional things to share with him but wanted to share them in person rather than by additional information in the letter.

Hebrews 5 presents Jesus as our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. In this capacity, He is again presented as superior to the Levitical Priesthood. The writer of Hebrews ends the chapter with sadness over his readers not having matured in the Scriptures and still needing a milk diet. This prepares us for his theme in the next chapter of moving on to more mature Scriptural principles