The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, who bore witness to the Word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that He saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.

And then *Deuteronomy* chapter 18, verse 9, when you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which you are about to dispossess. Listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this.

God our Father and King, we bless You that we have opportunity again to open up the Word of life, and we pray that You will grant Your servant wisdom, diligence, clarity of mind, so that I can communicate today these thoughts. I pray You will help me, Lord, to stay with the outline, to not shadow box, to not get off track from what You’ve put before me, because there’s a lot here, Father. And I pray Your grace and mercy. May all that is said glorify Your name, and may our response glorify You as well. In Jesus’ name we pray, *amen*.

Now, we are, as most of you know, if you were here last week, we are continuing. We want to continue our series in *Revelation*. Quick review. What we’re going to do, the three acts of *Revelation*, what I’m calling. Act one is Christ revealed. Act two is the Old Testament, connected, revealed, explained. And act number three is the truth applied. And each week after today, I will try to approach each message from that standpoint. Christ revealed, the Old Testament explained, and the truth from those two things applied to our life.

Now, today we begin by continuing in our framework by reading further from Joel Beeky on our foundational premise, which is that the book of *Revelation* is a revelation of Jesus, not a revelation from Him. It is about Him, not merely from Him. Okay? And if you have questions about that, go back and watch last week’s video. Joel Beeky says this: *Revelation* is primarily focused on Jesus Christ and His further revelation of Himself to His church. It is not about world events or world personalities. The Bible was not written to satisfy the hunger of the human mind for future events. Reading *Revelation* as a horoscope is not only useless, but downright sinful, because all such actions are forbidden in Scripture as we just read in *Deuteronomy*. The technical term for this abuse of Scripture is *bibliomancy*, or using the Bible as a literary divining rod or a Ouija board. We come to the Bible looking for some kind of mystical direction rather than a revelation of Christ.

Now, you might ask why we go all the way back to *Deuteronomy* this morning to connect this. Well, there’s two reasons, but the first one is, and we’ll come to the second one later, but the first one is, it’s the second act in our journey. Act one is reveal Christ. Act two is connect to the Old Testament, and we want to be able to do that today. And here’s the importance of that. You cannot know the book of *Revelation* if you do not know the Old Testament. It’s very disturbing when you hear Bible teachers say that we don’t need the Old Testament anymore. You can’t understand what’s going on in *Revelation* if you don’t know the Old Testament. And I admit to you, we’ve talked about this many times, it is hard to read sometimes. You get over to the genealogies, and this one begat that one, and that one begat this one, and that one begat… I know that’s difficult and hard, but there’s great substance in the Old Testament. And so it’s important.

Joe Beeky says this: throughout these scenes, there are scores of references to the Old Testament. The key to a sound interpretation of many portions in *Revelation* lies in researching the roots of this book in the Old Testament. Once that rootage is properly understood, the basic meaning of a chapter will often become readily apparent. Hank Hanegraaff points out that more than two-thirds, two-thirds of *Revelation*’s 400 verses allude to Old Testament passages. The reason we often cannot make heads or tails out of these allusions is that we have not sufficiently learned to read the Bible for all it is worth. We come to *Revelation*, we see these strange images. We’re lost. But if we were familiar with the Old Testament, as I hope to show you this morning, we would not be as lost as we think we are. In other words, when we read these passages of *Revelation* moving forward in our journey, we should be looking back reflexively to the Old Testament context rather than looking forward in a speculative sense. Is there future implication? Yes. And we touched on that some last week, and we will touch on it some again today. But the result of looking forward and never looking backwards really gives rise to superstitions and speculations and predictions that do not come true and only wear us out as Christians.

Now, today I want to illustrate that in beginning by revisiting our text from last week, *Revelation* chapter 9. I’ll have to read the whole section to you, but I have a very good point to make. And by the way, this does have great relevance to later in the message. Let me read *Revelation* 9, verse 1 through 10. As always, this is edited for space, even on my outline. It says this: The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star falling from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft, and smoke like the smoke of a great furnace rose, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth. In appearance, the locusts were like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold. Their faces were like human faces. Their hair like women’s hair. And their teeth like lion’s teeth. They had breastplates of iron. And the noise of their wings was like many chariots with horses rushing into battle.

Now, as we noted last week, from the more sensationally minded crowd, this scene is said to represent modern technologies or even alien invasions. But if we look closely at our Old Testament link, this passage can be clearly illustrated to be nothing more than Old Testament images conveying the horrific nature of God’s judgment on human sin. It is a piling up of both Old and New Testament images of judgment. For example, the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit. An endless place of torment and suffering for rebellion against God. Listen to this story from *Matthew*, or *Luke* rather, chapter 8. When he, the demoniac of Gadara, who was possessed, says, when he saw Jesus, he fell down before Him and said, “What do You have to do with me, Jesus, You Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don’t torment me.” And they, the demons, begged Him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now, the King James says “the deep,” but the Greek word is *abusos*. It is this word in *Revelation*, the bottomless pit, *abusos*. They’re saying, “Don’t send us to the bottomless pit, which is a place of torment.” They don’t want to go there. The bottomless pit is a metaphor. It’s not, it doesn’t have to be some kind of bizarre thing that you’ll hear sometimes about. I remember some years ago reading a headline that said, “They found the entrance to hell somewhere in Russia. And you could hear the cries of the lost rising up from that corridor.” This is not what that passage is conveying. It’s simply a metaphor for the unending judgment of God upon those who are in rebellion against Him.

Next, there is the column or billowing smoke. *Genesis* 19, he looked toward Sodom and behold, the smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace. When God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, the next day they saw this column of smoke. It was a symbol. It was a metaphor for God’s judgment. Then in *Revelation* 14, the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, these worshipers of the beast and his image. These were metaphors of judgment. And the message when we draw from it, when reading it, is not some futuristic speculation, but just a heart-rending recognition that God’s judgment is going to be unleashed upon humankind and is being unleashed upon humankind. This is one of the symbols, the opening of the bottomless pit. The restraint, the boundary that’s holding back that judgment, and this is something we will see again and again.

But now, we come to the next three images in this *Revelation* passage. The sky darkened by smoke is a recurring Old Testament image for judgment. Locusts darkening the sky is an Old Testament metaphor for judgment. Invading armies is an Old Testament metaphor for judgment. Now, I want you to see all three of these from the book of *Joel*. And what I’ve tried to do this morning is put this text side by side so that you can see where *Joel* says something and *John* is saying the same thing. And he’s quoting from the Old Testament. His vision that he’s seeing is not futuristic. He’s seeing the same images that were in the Old Testament warnings about God’s judgment.

Now, let me read this. I’ll put the slide up, and then I will read the text because the text is longer than what I can get on the slide. *Hear this, you elders. Has such a thing happened in your days or in the days of your father? What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten. And what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten. For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number. Its teeth are lion’s teeth.*

What do we read in *Revelation*? *Their teeth were like lion’s teeth.* John is obviously quoting directly from this passage of *Joel* to indicate this army, by the way, need not be an army of people. It is an army of locusts destroying and ravaging the land, which was something ancient people would well understand. *Listen to* *Joel* *chapter 2.* Now, make sure you got that. *Joel* *chapter 2*, verse 1 through 5: *Blow a trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. For the day of the Lord is coming. It is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people. Their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.* I call your attention to that similarity with *Matthew* 24. *Fire devours before them, and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them. Their appearance is like the appearance of horses.* Did you hear that in *Revelation* chapter 9? *The locusts were like horses prepared for battle.* It is clear that John is quoting from these Old Testament texts on God’s judgment. It isn’t necessary to have some mystical view of the future. Sorry, I meant to do that. *Their appearance is like horses, and the horses as they run rumble like chariots. And when you read* *Revelation*, *in appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle, like many chariots with horses rumbling rushing into battle.* It’s the same imagery. He’s not making up new stuff. He’s calling our attention to what God has already said. *They leap upon the mountains.* Listen to the rest of it. *Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses they run, as with the rumbling of chariots. They leap on the top of the mountains like the crackling of a flame of fire, devouring the stubble like a powerful army drawn up for battle. Not a powerful army. Like a powerful army, which continues the locust metaphor, and locusts are a symbol.* Instead of thinking we need to see this smoke coming up and these weird-looking creatures coming out of the smoke that we try to speculate about what they are, it’s not the point. The point is God is judging human sin. And this is the point.

How about this passage from *Joel* chapter 3? It has more to do with *Revelation* as a whole. *You all know my problem with technology, right? You don’t want to be around my house when I can’t get the TV to work, let me tell you. Can you? The joy. All the joy. I will read it, and let’s try again. It ain’t as technology as me, right? Listen. Joel chapter 3, 13–15: Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The sun and the moon are darkened, and their stars withdraw their shining.* That’s a passage quoted in *Revelation* chapter 14. *Another angel called, put in your sickle. Gather the clusters from the vine, for its grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle, gathered the harvest, threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.* If you look at it, you can see clearly that in these passages of *Revelation*, we’re confronted with the Old Testament. All of those images. Anyone who believes there’s a disconnect between the Old Testament and the New Testament, that God over here is different from the God over here, does not know their Bible. Because it is a tapestry woven together. It’s very important for us to see that.

Now this reminds us, and you will hear this many times through this series. This reminds us that we do not need metaphysical gurus in the Christian church to understand this text. We do not need someone to say, “Now God has given me a special insight. He revealed this to me.” All you need to do is read your Bible and become familiar with it. Now listen, *Revelation* 9 then is not some prediction of a futuristic alien invasion, nor a reference to modern warfare, but is hyperbolic language intended to grip the people with the horrible reality of God’s judgment.

Now, you may ask, in passing, how does that reveal Christ? Without giving it all to you right now, it shows He’s faithful to His Word. He shows He is faithful to His Word. You want to know about God? He’s faithful. What does that mean? What does faithful mean? It means He does what He said He was going to do. And He will judge sin because He promised He would do that.

Now, then we need to go back to our connection with Joel Beeky again and his observations about misusing the Bible like a Ouija board or like a crystal ball or like a horoscope. It’s amazing. I just think it’s amazing one of the things happening. A little weather app that I have, and I understand that they might be paying for this little ad on the weather app. But on the weather app, which is supposed to be the most up-to-date, reliable, scientific technology known to man, there’s an advertisement for your horoscope for today. I think it’s the greatest irony that on a scientific website, they’re advocating you read your horoscope for today. The Bible’s not meant to be used that way, children. And this is what we have to avoid using it as a crystal ball.

Now, this brings us back to *Leviticus* 19:26 and one verse that we already read. *You shall not interpret omens. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.* *Deuteronomy* 18:10, there shall not be among you anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens. Now, yes, the Christian churches often misuse that with what we call a witching, you know, those of you who know the old term, the witching rod, where you would find water with this stick and people thought that was witchcraft. But it’s a scientific principle because the magnetic fields of the earth are changed when you interpret something like that or encounter. We was going to try to get a light pole out here a few years ago, and it was an arm and a leg for one light pole, so we said, we’ll pass. But the guy, the electric guy comes out, and he grabs these two pieces of copper wire, and he walks through the yard, and when he walked over that power line, those came together. It is disrupting the magnetic field, and you can detect that. So when we talk about that kind of stuff, that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re not talking about real scientific principles that work in our natural world. We’re talking about the kind of nonsense where we’re just making stuff up, and we’re predicting, and we’re reading omens. I’ve given up on, well, I haven’t given up, but it doesn’t look good that I’m ever going to be popular, so I just have to tell you the omen nonsense. We have come to the book of *Revelation* now where we almost sanctified omens and fortune-telling. Well, the Bible says, and we’re misusing the Bible. I will call to your attention the blood moon craze from six, seven, eight years ago. Everybody’s talking about the blood moon, the blood moon, the blood moon. Are you ready for the blood moon? There was going to be four blood moons, and all this wonderful stuff was going to happen in the world. And I did the research because, you know, somebody like John Hagee wrote this book and said this happened, and there was a blood moon in this year, and this happened, and a blood moon in this year, and that happened, and a blood moon in this year. And I went back and looked. And it wasn’t during the blood moon. It was years before or years after that these events happened. So how do you prove the blood moon caused it? It’s like saying there was a blood moon in 1960, and in 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated. There’s no connection. But that’s reading omens, these little things. And we say, “Oh,” and you see that in these people all the time. That’s misusing the Bible. It’s not meant for that.

Now, there is a difference between that and what we typically do with *Revelation*. Because you could rightly argue that interpreting omens and telling fortunes as it is condemned in Scripture is condemned in Scripture because it leads us away from God. And *Revelation* is supposed to lead us to God. Ah, but we have to go back to verse number three. *Blessed is the man who reads the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep.* And what did we say last week? It doesn’t mean you remember it. It means you apply the truth. And in order to apply the truth, you have to understand the truth. And you cannot apply a truth about alien invasions out there in the future somewhere. That is not something we can do. And it’s a misuse of Scripture to do that.

Now, the point here, and I understand that today’s message is a bit more complex, but next week we’ll get into the three acts specifically. The point here is that the Bible, and *Revelation* in particular, can be and is often misused. And ironically, one of the passages in *Revelation* is subject to such misuse. And that is *Revelation* 22:18–19. *I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of this book, of this book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book.* Now, this is one of the more well-known passages in *Revelation*, and it’s also one of the more misused passages. Now, when we get to the end of our journey, we will deal with this more in detail. Today, the simple point is you should not tamper with God’s Word.

Now, why is that relevant for us today? Why is that relevant for us? Because there are some people, not necessarily in this church, but somewhere in the Christian community, there are people that are going to say, “Pastor, you said that didn’t mean that, and that’s taken away from the Word of God.” We lost two Facebook followers this week. Now, it’s not the end of the world. It’s not a big deal. They come and go sometime, but it’s been pretty stable, about 160 people for six or eight months, and all of a sudden, two people decide to stop following us in the last week. I’m willing to bet they heard something on last week’s message and said, “Now, that’s not right. That can’t be true. That’s not what I was told, and I’m going to unfollow that person.” That’s so very important because people can make that allegation. They can make it about you and me in a hundred other ways, and we have to be careful. But there could be the accusation that by denying or downplaying the predictive element to say it’s not about predictions. It’s about Christ and His revelation. Well, you’re taken away from the Bible. And so it’s very important for us to be clear. We are not taking away something the Bible clearly says. We are talking about something we say that it says. If it doesn’t say it truly and clearly, we’re not taking it away. We’re just making sure we’re accurate.

Let me give you two quick examples. A wise man. I know we’ve used this example, and of course, it’s not the end of your salvation experience. But I can promise somewhere in the Christian world, somebody would oppose this. When you come to the Christmas story, the wise men were not there the same time as the shepherds. When you read *Luke* and you read *Mark*, it’s clear that they were separated by several years. The Scripture says after Jesus was born in *Matthew*, not when the baby was born, after He was born, the wise men came. We estimate about two years. The word used for the child when they came into the house, not into the stable, they came into the house, and they saw the child. And the Greek word for child there, weren’t there at the same time. Now again, at our pageants, we bring them together. The wise men ride in on their camels at the same time that the shepherds are adoring the baby child. But that’s not really the way it happened. I can promise you somewhere, somebody, when I say that, some good, well-meaning Christian says, “Oh no, pastor, you’re taken away from the Bible. They were both there at the same time.” How many of you remember the story we just read part of? The maniac of Gadara. And Jesus says to him in the, back there in *Matthew*, *Luke*, there’s this maniac of Gadara, he’s demon-possessed, and he comes rushing out to see Jesus. Why, you want to torment us? Leave us alone! And Jesus says, “What is your name?” And the demon says, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” How many demons was it? Anybody know? Many? Boy, that was a profound answer. 20? No, no. One. I’m disappointed because I thought this one was going to go over big. Many times you will hear them say, there were 2,000 demons in that man. Now, where did that number come from? Okay. That’s good. I didn’t know that. Thank you, Jason, for that update. Where else does it come from? Well, I thought we weren’t going to have fun today. Listen. Listen. In *Mark* chapter 5, it says, the pigs, when the demons possessed the pigs, they ran down the hill and drowned themselves in the lake, and there were about 2,000 pigs. And sometimes people take the 2,000 pigs to mean there were 2,000 demons. But pigs can be stampeded. And if you read it in *Mark*, it says they went down a steep cliff, which means they would not have been able to get back up themselves, and 10 demons could have stampeded the herd off that cliff and down the hill. But you’ll have people say, “There were 2,000 demons, Pastor. That’s what the Bible says.” No, it doesn’t say that. It says there were 2,000 pigs. Now, there might have been 2,000 demons. My point is, this is what we do. We come to a verse of Scripture, and we say that it says something that, if you really look closely, it does not say. And then if we’re not careful, we’re accused of taking something away from the Scripture. We haven’t taken anything away. We’ve been more accurate with the Scripture. This is a legitimate concern. For all of you, again, I said this was a technical part, and this is not a word of condemnation or judgment. People who will throw out, “You’re not supposed to take from the Bible, Pastor,” will defend the use of the *King James*. Because, and you have to remember, what does the rest of it say? Don’t add. Don’t take away. So I looked on my phone this morning, and I’ve told you this before. In the *King James*, every word in italics was added by the translators. Every word. You read the *King James*? If it’s in italics, it was added. And I looked on my phone. I don’t, I’m don’t, I didn’t talk to it. I haven’t fallen that far yet, but I did type it in, you know. Me and this AI stuff, we’re not getting along too well. I don’t want this machine talking to me. I was freaked out this week. Lisa called me on my way to the church and asked me something. Okay. I come to the church, and I go in, put the phone down, and doing my business study, and I hear these voices. And I get up and look out the window. I thought, somebody here? I didn’t see anybody. I sat back down, and a little bit, I hear this tinkling noise. What is that? We never hung up the phone. We were both. I need help. AI, cut the phone off, okay? But where am I going with that story? Oh, yes, thank you. So I didn’t talk to the phone, but I did type in, how many times do italics words appear? And before I could finish it, it popped up the question. How many times are italics words found in the *King James Version* of the Bible? It says, the number is uncertain, but there are at least 1,200 words added to the book of *Genesis* alone. So when people say, “Well, we’re not supposed to take it away. These translations are taken away. The *King James* is adding.” And so we have to be consistent, right? It is both sides of the coin that we have to deal with here.

Now, that brings us to the question, what does *John* mean when he says, “Don’t add and don’t take away”? Does this book, in verse 22, does this book mean *Revelation* or the Bible as a whole? Now, you should know the answer to that, shouldn’t you? Based on what we already said. If most of the book of *Revelation* is quoted from the Old Testament, then to take away from *Revelation* is to take away from the Old Testament. *Amen?* And this illustrates how difficult it is for us when we just throw out these kind of phrases and don’t realize the complexity that’s involved. The second thing you need to notice is that passage itself. That passage is a quotation from the Old Testament. Again, we come to it and we think, *John’s* giving us something new. No, *John* is giving us what he’s got, which is God’s Word. Listen to this passage. From *Deuteronomy* all the way back in the front again. *You shall not add to the Word that I command you, nor take from it that you may keep, you may apply, you may live out the Word. The Lord your God that I command you. Everything that I command you, be careful to do it. You shall not add to it or take from it.* So we must see. It’s not just the book of *Revelation* and these wild things that we find there. It’s the whole Bible that we have to be careful we’re not adding to or taking from in the right context.

Now, we believe in a closed and completed canon. That is, *Genesis* to *Revelation*, that’s it. That’s all there is, okay? We’re not like the Catholics who believe in the Apocrypha. We’re not like other people who believe there’s ongoing revelation. This is it, okay? We believe in a completed, closed canon. But it is a bit of a complexity here. Because if we accept the chronology of *Deuteronomy*, that is, that *Moses* wrote it way back yonder, and he says, “Don’t add to my Word,” what do we do with all these other books that we’ve got after that point that were added to the Word? You see the complexity of it? We didn’t have *Psalms*. We didn’t have the prophets. Let me see if I’ve got the slides next. *Jesus* in *Luke* 24. Then He said, “These are my words that I spoke to you while with you, that everything about me in the law of *Moses*, the prophets, and the *Psalms* must be fulfilled.” Now, the law of *Moses* was *Deuteronomy*, the Pentateuch. *Genesis* through *Deuteronomy*. But then after that comes *Joshua*, *Judges*, *Ruth*, *1* and *2 Samuel*, *1* and *2 Kings*, *1* and *2 Chronicles*, *Esther*, *Nehemiah*, *Ezra*, the *Psalms*. All of that came after *Deuteronomy* 4 and *Deuteronomy* 12. So when God says, “Don’t add,” what do we do with that? And the answer, my friends, and it’s complex and involved, but listen, the essence is that the focus about changing the word, adding to it or taking away from it, does not mean the written text, but the revelation of God’s character within the written text.

Now here we have another problem. This, *do not add, do not take away*, means, don’t tamper with God’s revelation within the book. It has nothing to do with different translations. It has to do with whether we’re consistently revealing and talking about God. It would be in this, it goes beyond the word inscripturated to include the word as inherent in God Himself. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And you can’t tamper with Him. You can’t tamper with *Jesus*. See, this is the thing. Now I know this is challenging and I know there’s a lot of balance here, but the point is that when it says, “Don’t take away from the word,” it means don’t take away from the revelation of God and not from other things. And we would defend their scriptures. We believe in these books that the Bible already said is a closed canon. We’re not adding anything to it. But what we’re defending is God’s character in the book.

Now if I can just give you this consideration. And it applies to any version of the Bible, not just *King James* or *New International*. We must be careful that we don’t become *bibliolaters*. What is that? That’s someone worshiping the book rather than the God revealed in the book. We are worshiping the particular vehicle. Again, I’ve told you many times, you’ve heard me, I don’t care what version of the Bible you use, use the one that’s going to help you. But when I step out and say you can’t be a good Christian unless you’re using this version and this version alone, I have just now moved from honoring God to honoring the vehicle. This is why it’s so important that we live the book. We can go back and we’ll have to deal with a lot of this stuff as we go forward. It is the Word from this perspective, it would entail the full essence of God’s revelation, His internal character as reflected in these revealed words. You can defend this book and yet not be exploring, explaining, and defending the God revealed in the book. Go back over to the bottomless pit, the judgment of God. A number of people in our culture, they won’t talk about the judgment of God. Well, there’s no such thing as hell. God is love. You’re going to have to deal with passages about wrath in the Bible. And if you won’t deal with the passages about wrath, you’re changing what the Bible has revealed about God, though you may defend every word in the book.

Now, this is *The Apocalypse* of *John* by *H.B. Sweet*. I don’t know if that’s how you pronounce his last name. This is one of those books that *Scott* helped me, *Scott Ritchie* helped me come upon years ago at a auction. And this one, the first edition was September 1906, second edition 1907, third edition 1909, and it was reprinted in 1911 and 1917, and I have a 1917 version. And at that passage of *Revelation* chapter 22, *H.B. Sweet* says, “It is not the letter of the apocalypse, but the spirit which is to be jealously guarded. It isn’t whether it’s in English or Greek or Hebrew or Spanish or any number of the other languages on the earth where you’ll have different little changes in the way it’s written. It’s the revelation of God within the book that our focus must be on.” And this is important. Where is that? Where is that? How did I miss that? I’m not in a hurry, I guess. So I’ve got to go backwards. I want to remind you of my challenge. I do not know what you’ve been taught or who’s influenced your ideas and understandings of the end times, but if you have had a certain thing drilled into your mind, your natural tendency will be to say, “Well, that can’t be right, Pastor. It’s not what I told. That’s not what I heard.” And the point is that we have to, and because of that, then you could say, “Well, you’re tampering with Scripture.” No, I’m tampering with what you were told about Scripture, which may or may not be correct on any number of subjects.

Now, let me give you one more thought here. We’re almost done. Look at this. I’m on page 21, and we’ve only got page 22 to go, okay? I love it when I get a book, and I read the book, and I find something in the book that validates what I’m saying, partly because I’m vain and weak, and I’ve got to have people, things propping me up all the time, okay? That’s part of it. But on the other part is that you should know. So a poll came out this week that trust in pastors in America is declining. People don’t trust preachers. We’re in a predicament, aren’t we, because God said God chose the foolishness of preaching to declare the gospel. And so it’s important for you to know, when I get up here and say something to you, I’m not talking off the top of my head. It is a product of hours and hours of study and research and making sure I’m fair, and in the middle and biblical, okay? So you can trust what your pastor is saying. And so I was using this commentary this week, the continuous reading commentary, and it came upon this. And I said, “I’ve got to use this Sunday because I’ve used this phrase many times.” He says, “When we talk to others about Scripture, some people say, ‘Yes, I know the Bible says that, but.’ How many times have you heard me say, ‘I know the Bible says it, Pastor, but.’ I have documentation now that someone else shares that understanding. It goes on. When we talk to others about Scripture, some people say, ‘Yes, I know the Bible says that.’ Down, boy. Down. I love you. But it really grates your pastor when people who don’t read the Bible and can’t remember what they did read respond to something the pastor says by saying, ‘Well, now the Bible doesn’t say that.’ How could you possibly know it doesn’t say that if you’ve never read it for yourself? I did not. When we talk to others about Scripture, some people say, ‘Yes, I know the Bible says that, but.’ That is a very serious attitude to take. You might be like the liberals who pick and choose what to accept while cutting out supernatural events such as the virgin birth. Or perhaps you are like the traditionalists who add the decrees and determinations of church councils or synods to the Bible. You can add to the Scripture by attaching little writers to the truth saying, ‘Yes, I believe the Bible speaks about damnation, homosexuality, giving, church attendance, etc., etc., but here’s how I look at that. I believe the Bible speaks about, but I would like to explain it this way.’ In *Revelation* 22, God says, ‘Don’t do that.’ This is why it’s important for us to plow the fields of Scripture together, both in our private reading and in our church gathering. We cannot simply say we cannot justify all the craziness that rises out of *Revelation* by defending it with, ‘Well, you know, you’re not supposed to take away or add to.’ Well, I’ve got to tell you that saying those creatures in *Revelation* 9 are attack helicopters is adding to the Scripture. It doesn’t mean that. Now, let me come around to the end and point out how the book of *Deuteronomy* in these prohibitions points to *Christ*. So we’ve connected *Revelation* back to *Deuteronomy* and our three acts are *Christ* revealed, the word Old Testament employed, and the truth applied. Listen to how the book of *Deuteronomy* corroborates our goal of seeing *Christ*. *Deuteronomy* 18. We started in verse 4 through verse 9 through 14. Now I’m going to read verse 13 through 19. *You shall be blameless before the Lord your God for these nations which you are about to dispossess. Listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. God forbid that our church or any church like us fall into the rut of giving more attention to men than to the God’s Word. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. Well, I know what the Bible says, but I want to give you a really good illustration, but I’ll probably regret it and won’t be able to eat my lunch. The Lord your God has not allowed you to do this kind of craziness. We run to these people and their prognostications, their predictions, their interpreting omens, and their fortune telling. And He says, “No! I don’t want my people acting like that. What are we supposed to do? Ah, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from among your brothers. It is to Him that you shall listen. The focus of the text shift from don’t seek the truth this way, seek it this way. And this way is *Christ* the prophet like *Moses*. The revelation of Him in this book, not the endless predictions and prognostications. I will put my words in His mouth and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And whoever will not listen to my words that He shall speak in my name, I myself will acquire it of Him. The book of *Deuteronomy* which warns us don’t seek truth in this fashion says seek it this way in *Christ*. And therefore if we apply that principle to our journey through *Revelation* we’ll be able to keep the focus on *Jesus* and not the crazy predictions that are so prevalent in our culture. *Amen?*