The 7 Cities of Revelations Part 3

Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don Noble of Pure

Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today with exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy.

It is great to be with you this evening. I am on part three

of the Seven Cities of Revelation. Last week we concluded with Revelation chapter one,

Versus five and six. I want to finish those two verses, which

I didn't get to complete last week before we go on. I don't know

if we're going to get to chapter two to talk about the first church,

which is the Church of Ephesus. But what I want to say is that

I can't I shouldn't try to predict that I'm going to be on the next

subject because I don't. I don't ever know where the spirit is going to

take me. So we'll try to get we'll try to get there tonight.

I don't know if we'll make it, but we're going to try. So

let's just start with Revelation chapter one, verse five. This is what we'll

start with. Your Verse four. John is now speaking to the seven churches

which are in Asia, and he says, grace to you and peace from

him who is and who was and who is to come, And from the

seven spirits who are before his throne, And from Jesus Christ, the faithful

Witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler over the kings

of the earth. To him who loved us and washed us from our sins

in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God

and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Last week I talked about Jesus Christ being the faithful Witness. Let's just take

a moment to talk about Jesus being the first born from the dead. Now,

if you go with me, I'm in the New King James version of

the Bible. And if you turn to Psalm eighty nine, verse twenty seven.

Now this psalm was not written by David. It was written by Ethan

the Ezrahite. And this is called remembering the Covenant with David. And we

look, actually will look at verse twenty six and twenty seven, and it

says he shall cry to me me is capitalized. He shall cry to me,

you are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

Also I will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of

the earth. So this is Jesus speaking to his father, saying, you

are my father, my God, the rock of my salvation. Also,

I will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

Now we just read that Jesus is called the firstborn from the dead,

and he's the ruler over the kings of the earth. Just know this,

there's no higher authority. There's no king on this earth. There never has

never will be no king, no president, no ruler who has greater position

or authority than Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ruler over all the kings of

the earth. In other words, over all of those who are in a

place of an authority and a leader of a nation, whether they be a

president or a king. Jesus rules over all the kings of the earth.

And then John writes to him who loved us and washed us from our own

sins in his own blood. Now, I just want to say, from

a personal standpoint, this scripture has such a profound effect on me. It's

it's so beautiful. It talks about redemption, it talks about what Jesus did

on the cross. It was because of his love, and it was because

of his great love that he was willing to shed his blood, and by

shedding his blood, he washed our sins from us in his own blood.

That's very powerful. And you see John, Remember I said in part one,

John was called the son of Thunder by Jesus, and I mentioned that

scripture does not tell us why John was called he and his brother called sons

of Thunder. But my guess is that John was a fierce, passionate guy

who was very strong in his belief, and he was going to stand very

firm for the gospel. See Jesus was, I believe, prophesying over these

two men. And you can see that when you read the Gospel of John,

you read the epistles of John for a second and third John, and

you read the Book of Revelation, you get the gravity of John's love and

intensity for the truth of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ himself. So when

John writes that to him Christ who loved us and washed us from our sins

in his own blood, I mean he's really making a statement about our redemption.

And I love it it. It just it brings a lot of comfort

to me. And I think, as I mentioned before, you know,

we can we can read scripture. We can gloss over things and not catch

the just the feeling of the writer. And this to me is profound.

That Christ loved us and he washes from our sins in his own blood.

I don't know anybody. There's not a human being that would do that.

So Jesus really really loved us. Now verse six says and has made us

kings and priests to his God and father to him be glory and dominion forever

and ever. Amen. I don't know if you've ever been taught about being

a king and priest. I sat through twenty some years of preaching and I

never heard it taught. And here it is. It says that he made

us kings and priests. So you're asking yourself what does that mean? Well,

I'm going to tell you what it means. Now. John addresses these

two very important present truths. First, we are Christ redeemed, were loved,

were washed from our sins, and that's a present state. And then

he says, we, through his glorious dominion, have been designated kings and

priest to God. That's a present calling. Yes, And these two offices

give perspective on our authority and duty and how we most effectively may advance the

Kingdom of God. So these are positions that you and I have in the

spiritual realm. We are to operate as a king and a priest. Now,

let's just take the king first and look at that. We are said

to be kings in the sense that we are under the king of kings,

and we're a new breed, We're the reborn, and God has delegated authority

to us to extend and administrate the powers of his rule. That's what we

are supposed to do on this earth. We have been given this delegated authority.

Jesus delegated the authority to us to do what to extend His kingdom through

his power on this earth. Unfortunately, we have not done a good job

at all because look at where we are today in this culture. We're living

in a culture of death, and we are being overwhelmed by evil at every

turn. You're talking, you're talking government, you're talking Hollywood, you're talking

colleges, universities, grade schools, you're talking. Every aspect of society has

been touched by this evil to an intense degree. And it's our fault.

We sat in the church and we did not want to have anything to do

with government, because that was bad. There's a difference between government and politics.

The Bible talks about government. There's a governmental governmental mandate from Jesus for

us to rule and reign. He said in Genesis one twenty six he was

giving us dominion over all the earth, dominion to rule, to reign.

And so we have not done that well at all, and therefore now we're

being subject to the powers of Hell. So we have to we have to

get this right. We have to get this understanding of who we are in

Christ, our identity. I'm teaching you something so important tonight. If you're

not taking notes, I hope you just memorize what I'm saying, or you

can always listen to the podcast over and over until you get it. But

to understand what being a king means in the spiritual realm is vital. So

fathers operate as kings and priests in their home, but mothers also operate as

kings and priests of their home. Fathers have been delegated to be the head

of the house. That doesn't make the woman any less. It's just understanding

what these things mean. So we have been We've been given something so powerful

and so precious from the Lord. And yet I was I bet my life

that most of the church is clueless. And if you told them that they

were a king and priest under God. Right here it says it in Scripture

has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, they would call

you a liar. But you can just prove to them you've tamed to Revelation

chapter one, verse six, and then ask them what that means. And

they won't. They won't have a clue what it means because they've never been

taught. So we have this precious delegated authority from Christ to extend the powers

of his rule. That's how we advance the Kingdom of God, folks,

that's how it works. We should be the head of the Department of Education.

Christians should be the leaders, not the what we have now, the

National Education Association, which is anti christ. Transgender, you know, that's

what they want. They want to indoctrinate our children into believing they can be

a boy or a girl. No, say no, no, we have

delegated authority. We can advance God's kingdom. Now, what does it mean

to be a priest? Well, first of all, you can't operate in

delegated authority. Unless you have the love of God in you, you can't.

You have to be born again, obviously, and you're operating out of

the love of God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Before I go

on to the priest, operating in your delegated authority also involves confrontation with the

dark powers of hell. When you begin to operate in that realm. Let

me tell you, you will come against the powers of darkness of the hell.

What do you think is motivating and the National Education Association I mean to

do, to do these horrible things to our children, to indoctrinate them into

pornography and sex. Those are the powers of hell. And if you come

against it, if you start to walk in your delegated as the authority,

you will confront the powers of hell. But pray are warfare is important,

and you're going to have to assert that prayer warfare. And the next thing

is is that when you operate in this authority, you have an expectation of

the miraculous works of God, because God can turn it all around. He

could take that Education Association, turn it all around and get rid of all

the filth and all the perverse, wicked stuff that's trying to be perpetrated on

our children today. He can turn it around. You just have to begin

to walk in your delegated authority. Understand who you are in Christ now as

a priest. That authority that we've been delegated is only fully accomplished in the

spirit of worship and prayer. So as we exercise the office of the priest,

we're operating in worship and prayer, intercession, we're interceding. That's what

the priest did. That's what they did in the tabernacle. They interceded,

they prayed and so and the scripture tells us that our prayers are like incense

to God's nostrils. So praying, interceding for the lost, interceding for your

loved ones, interceding for your neighbors and co workers, and worship. Do

you know how powerful worship is unto the Lord, and Satan hates every moment

of it. He hates every bit of it. And so when we're doing

this priestly mission, when we're faithful to pray and to worship the Lord,

that's when we will become effect And it is foundational. Prayer and worship is

foundational to advancing the kingdom, the power of the believer before God's throne.

Worshiping the lamb and exalting the Holy Spirit in praise is very confounding. To

our adversary, the devil. He hates it because one time, when he

was Lucifer, he was the head of worship in heaven, and so he

hates worship. So having beautiful worship in your church service, in your personal

prayerful life, every day, bringing worship unto the Lord, he loves it.

It's incense, the scripture says, to his nostrils. So these are

two very powerful positions in the realm that we have been given. We have

been made kings and priests unto God. And that you cannot take lightly.

You cannot take lightly. It is very important. Okay, So now you've

been taught Verse seven. Behold, he Christ is coming with clouds, and

every eye will see him, even though excuse me, even they who pierced

him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him.

Even so amen. Verse eight. Now Jesus is speaking, I am the

Alpha and the Omega, the beginning in the end, says the Lord,

he who is and who was, and who is to come the Almighty.

The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet are alpha and omega. So

that's what Jesus says of himself. I was the beginning of all of this.

I'm going to be the end of all of this, make no doubt

about it. And then he says, he who is present, who was

past? Oh? And guess what who is to come? Oh? Yes?

Verse nine. I John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation

and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called

Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

If you've just tuned in tonight, I talked about the island island of Patmos.

It's seven miles long, about seven and a half miles long, six

miles wide. It's a very small place. It was a Roman called They

sent prisoners and castaways there. John was exiled there by Domician, the Roman

emperor, who had persecuted John for John's teachings against Of course, John was

in ephesis. And what did they do in ephesis? They worshiped the pagan

god goddess Diana, or as they called her in Roman words, Artemis.

So he was exiled there, and that's where he writes the Book of Revelation,

and he says, I was sent there for the word of God and

for the testimony of Jesus Christ. So John wasn't do you think John was?

You know, flabbergasted, was been out of shape that he was sent

to Patmos. Heavens, No, John knew exactly why he was being sent

there, and he knew what he was to accomplish there, that he would

write the Word of God for the testimony of Jesus. We understand right that

the Book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what the whole

book is about. Understanding about the lamb verse ten, John says, I

was in the spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a

loud voice, as if of a trumpet, saying I am the Alpha and

the Omega, the first and the last. And what you see, write

in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia,

to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamus, to Thyatira, to Sardus,

to Philadelphia, and to Laoduce the sea. And so those were seven real

churches. Again, if you're just turning new to this new series on the

Seven Cities of Revelation. These were real cities. They were real established cities.

I have been to each and every one of them, and sadly they

no longer exist. There's not even in some of those churches. And when

we'll talk about them, when I get to them individually. But some,

especially like Philadelphia, there's hardly any remnant of the church left. And when

I say remnant, I'm talking not people. I'm talking about the physical part

of the building. Verse twelve. Then I turned to see the voice that

spoke with me, And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, And

in the midst of the seven lamp stands one like a son of man,

clothed with a garment down to his feet and girded about the chest with a

golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as

snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire. His feet were like

fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and his voice as the

sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven stars, and

out of his mouth when a sharp, two edged sword, and his countenance

was like the sun. Shining in in its strength. And when I saw

him, I fell at his feet as dead. But he laid his right

hand on me, saying to me, do not be afraid. I am

the first and the last. I am he who lives and was dead.

And behold I am alive for evermore a man, and I have the keys

of hades and of death. Write the things which you have seen, and

the things which are, and the things that which will take place after this,

the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand,

and the seven golden lambstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven

churches, and the seven lambstands which you saw are the seven churches. Well,

I can't imagine exactly what John must have felt when he saw one like

the son of Man, who had hair like white wool, eyes like a

flame of fire, feets, find his brass, the voice of many waters.

It had to be overwhelming, and no wonder. He says that when

I saw him, I fell at his feet as if dead. Yes,

you and I would have had the same reaction, I'm sure. But Jesus

is saying some very important things to John. And of course he's saying I'm

alive. You know, I once was dead, but I'm alive forevermore,

forever more, talking about not just now the present, but into the future

for ever. And guess what I have the keys of Hades and Death.

I have the keys. I secured them. I went to Hell and I

got them. And then he tells him, look, you're going to have

to write down what you see and the things that are and the things that

are going to take place. So Jesus is just giving him a heads up.

Heads up, John, You're going to have to write this all down.

This is important, and I'm going to talk about seven churches. The

lamb stands are the seven churches, and the seven stars in jesus hand,

he said, are the angels, and those most people think that those angels

wore the pastors, the leaders of those seven churches, and so we're pretty

much out of time. I don't want to get I don't want to start

chapter two tonight, but I think that it's exciting to see. It's so

exciting to see what is taking place today, what the Scripture is speaking to

us. And as I mentioned before, I believe as you as we touch

each one of these churches, God is going to speak individually to you,

and you know corporately, individually, personally, He's going to talk to you.

So I want you to be prepared when you listen to the program each

Monday evening, because this is this is important stuff that you want to hear

with a spirit is saying to you. As he's speaking to these churches,

he's speaking to us. We are the church, amen, and so we

want to listen to what Jesus tells us to do and not to do well.

This is don Noble. I look forward to being with you again next

week. You can go to ww dot pureheart dot Today and listen to this

podcast again. You can download the iHeartRadio app on your phone and listen twenty

four seven Pureheart Ministries podcast. You can email me at Dawn at pureheart dot

today all lowercase letters Dawn down at pureheart dot today. Please continue to pray

for this ministry and please help support this ministry to stay on the air of

this I am not on a Christian station. This is a secular station.

It's very expensive to be on this station. So I appreciate you helping me.

I look forward to being with you next week and we definitely will start

the book Chapter two of Revelation and the Church of Ephesus. So I look

forward to being with you again next week. This is Don Noble saying Shalom

shalom, Peace be unto you.