Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #12 of Revelation, chapter 22.  We are reading Revelation 22:8-11:

And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

I will stop reading there.  We have come to the point in verse 8 where the Apostle John is falling down to worship, once again.  We have seen him do this before.  He is falling down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed him these things.  We saw this back in Revelation 19:9-10:

…And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

John is speaking to one of the seven angels and it is the same thing in Revelation, chapter 22.  John fell down before the feet of the angel who is one of the seven angels.  We discussed this before in Revelation, chapter 15.  There are seven angels clothed with fine white linen, which is the righteousness of saints, so they are the elect of God.  In chapter 16 they poured out the vials full of the wrath of God and God identified one of the seven angels as having shown John the vision.  We discussed how Christ is identified with the seven angels and the seven angels are identified with Christ, as Christ is identified with the elect and the elect with Christ. 

It is just like how the Bible says in the Book of Romans, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel,” but in Isaiah it says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,” the Gospel.  It is the same idea, but in the Book of Romans it refers to “them” and in Isaiah it refers to “Him” and that is because what Christ does, the body of believers do.  When the believers went out into the world with the Gospel it is as though Jesus was going out with the Gospel in the day of salvation.

Christ is the one in view sometimes when we read of the seven angels.  He was one of the seven angels that was giving John this information and revealing the visions.  But, here, when John fell down to worship at the feet of the angel that showed him these things, it said in Revelation 22:9:

See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

And this does fit a fellow child of God.  If one of the seven angels represent the elect, John is also one of the elect and we are John’s fellow servants and John is brethren of the prophets and all the elect are spiritual prophets.  Also, all of God’s people “keep the sayings of this book,” because God gives them a new heart and spirit with a desire to keep His sayings.  So all of these things do fit the child of God, but they also fit the Lord Jesus Christ.  Christ is our fellow servant, we could say, as He also humbled Himself and served God.  Jesus said that He had brethren and they were those that do the will of God.  When someone told Him that his brethren were waiting without, Jesus responded that His brethren were those that do the will of God.  He also perfectly kept “the sayings of this book,” as He performed God’s will in perfect obedience.  He never transgressed the Word of God.  Remember, God magnifies His Law above all His name and He is under His own Law and Christ submitted to the commandments of God.  So each one of these statements also apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

You know, the Book of Revelation has many difficult passages, but God has opened so much information to us that we have been able to read it relatively easily all the way through.  But one difficulty we have is with this passage about John falling down before one of these angels.  All I can say is that if this “angel” is Jesus, I just do not see why He would tell John, “See thou do it not.”  There is nowhere else where Christ refuses worship.  If you read the Gospel accounts, people would fall down at His feet and worship Him and Jesus never rebuked them for it.  That never happened.  But that does not mean there could not be some spiritual application or teaching, but I am not seeing it.  So, based on that, I would have to say that this “angel” is representing God’s elect and, of course, a child of God would not worship another child of God.  We only worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us go on to Revelation 22:10:

And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

Again, the entire Bible is the prophecy.  It says in 2Peter 1:20-21:

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

The prophecy is the Bible.  The Bible was given by God and prophecy came by God moving holy men to record His words.  So when it says, “Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book,” it is making a statement that the Bible and all its Words and all its prophecies are compiled into one Book and this is God’s divine communication for man.  The command is to “seal not” the prophecy and that causes us to understand that since it is not to be sealed, it must be referring to the time of the end of the world.  This is due to what God said to Daniel, in Daniel 12:4:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

It is repeated in Daniel 12:9:

And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

God gave Daniel many revelations concerning the end of the world.  Many times God would give Daniel a vision and add, “At the time of the end shall the vision be,” so Daniel is being used as a figure of all of those prophets that wrote the Bible and the revelations given to him indicate that the Word of God (the Bible) was to be sealed till the time of the end.  The implication is that the Word would be sealed “to a certain point” and that certain point is “the time of the end.”  Then it says in Daniel 12:10:

… and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

This indicates that when the Bible is unsealed there will be a progression in understanding by the people of God.  It is the same thing He indicated in verse 4 when he said that at the time of the end “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”  So the implication is within the statement, “seal the book till the time of the end,” but with the additional information that knowledge will increase and the wise will understand, we see that it has always been God’s plan to conceal certain information related to the end of the world until the time of the end would arrive.  That is exactly what God did at the end of the church age.  By God’s grace part of the information that God opened to His people was that the church age ended on the day before Pentecost on May 21, 1988 and that began the Great Tribulation, the point when judgment began at the house of God on the churches.  That was also the beginning of the time of the end – the final stage of earth’s history.  The end of the world was ushered in on May 21, 1988 at the beginning of the Great Tribulation and that was when God unsealed the Bible.  He removed the seals and opened the Scriptures and His people soon began to gain knowledge.  Knowledge was increased and the “wise” (the elect) began to understand various teaching regarding the churches.  They realized that God gave the churches space to repent, but if they did not repent God would cast them into great tribulation and take away their candlestick.  God’s people began to see that God was bringing judgment upon the churches and the Holy Spirit had come out of the midst of the congregations.  Then God commanded His people to leave Judea and flee to the mountains.  God’s people must get out of the churches and then the Lord revealed His plan to separate the wheat and the tares.  The tares would remain in the churches and the wheat would come out.  All kinds of information began to open up from the Scriptures, as the Bible was unsealed and it remained unsealed throughout the 23-year Great Tribulation period and into the Day of Judgment, which began on May 21, 2011.  Now we are in this prolonged period of Judgment Day, which will very likely be 1,600 days in duration and during this time, the Bible is not sealed.  Actually, God has indicated elsewhere His intent to reveal even more information to His people, as He says in Romans 2:5:

… treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation…

Let me stop here, because God is joining two ideas we normally do not see together, nor did we expect it.  It is only because we are remaining on the earth in the Day of Judgment that we can “see” this truth at this time.  Again, it says, “the day of wrath” but then it joins this term by using the conjunction “and” to the next statement “the revelation.”  When God opens the Scripture (revelation) to increase knowledge so that the wise will understand, He does it through “revelation” from the Bible.  (For instance, we learned of the “man of sin” as it says in 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, because God revealed him in the Bible.)

So, again, it says in Romans 2:5:

… treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

This what God is revealing.  He is revealing to His people the “righteous judgment of God.”  We actually spent a good deal of time explaining this and showing from the Bible that it is a righteous judgment for God to shut the door to heaven and bring about spiritual judgment.  There have been many charges that it is not fair and not just and some say that a good God would not do such a thing in allowing people to continue living on the earth when there is no possibility of salvation.  There have been accusations because children have been born since the door to heaven shut and they think this is just no fair.  So we have been carefully showing from the Bible that God’s salvation program was designed for the elect whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.  That is the only obligation God made to Himself and that was to save each one of these individuals.  Once the last one of the elect became saved, which occurred prior to the door being shut on May 21, 2011, God then shut the door.  He has no more obligation or responsibility to the rest of the people of the earth.  God only sent forth the Gospel to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  The Gospel has no other purpose.  It is like a missile that is targeted for a certain object and it follows that target and that is what God’s Word went forth to do as it sought the lost sheep.  The last sheep was brought into the fold and the sending forth of the Gospel ceased.  If there are no more names in the Lamb’s Book of Life (and there is not), then the purpose behind evangelization is finished.  It ended when that last individual did become saved. 

We have spent a good deal of time discussing this as God has revealed the nature of His judgment – it is “the righteous judgment of God.”

Again, it says in Revelation 22:10:

And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

From this statement we can know that the time being spoken of must be the Great Tribulation and into Judgement Day, the final end of the world.  It is the time when the Bible is not to be sealed and we know that the point at which the Bible would no longer be sealed is at the time of the end.  Therefore, verse 10 would at least indicate it is speaking of the Great Tribulation.  However, it is verse 11 that confirms that it also has to do with our time of the Day of Judgment.  We will discuss why this is in our next study.  We do not have time to get into that topic right now, but it will confirm that God is speaking of Judgment Day and the spiritual judgment He has brought upon the world.  There are “just” and “unjust” and there are “righteous” and “filthy” and they are all still present (on this earth) and each one remains in that spiritual condition and that is only possible in our time.  Again, we will talk about that more in our next Bible study.