Welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the book of Revelation. This will be study #9 of Revelation, chapter 1, and we are going to be reading from Revelation, chapter 1, verse 3:

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

We were discussing in our last study the first phrase in this verse:

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy...

We were looking at the truth, that we can read many things in the world and, afterwards, experience no blessing. This applies to the world's books, its newspapers, its magazines, and whatever, even its religions and philosophies. It might be interesting on some level. We may learn something on some level. It may amuse us on some level, but at the end of the period of time, we will have learned nothing about God, nothing about the Bible, nothing about truth. There would have been no blessing of any kind! Blessing comes from reading of the word of God, the Bible, and God says this here, plainly:

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy...

So an individual who reads the Bible is blessed. Well, what about an unsaved person? Is it true that an unsaved person who reads the Bible, or hears the Bible, is blessed? And the answer is, yes, to some degree, in a way that benefits them concerning living their lives in this world. Reading the Bible is a blessing, and there are many reasons why, because it teaches us how to live a good life in this world. Even unsaved people can experience some degree of blessing, if they follow the Bible's laws.

For instance, the Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not steal," and we should honor our parents. The Bible commands that we are not to divorce, and the Bible tells us to be honest and upright, of good character, and so on. If people follow these directions, these commands of God, these laws of God, will they be beneficial? Well, of course, because if someone steals, they are not doing anything good; they could prosper, perhaps, momentarily, but what happens when the police catch them and they are sent to jail? Has that been a good thing for them, that they were involved in stealing or killing, if they are caught and sentenced and even, possibly executed? Is that something good?

Or (what about) someone who lies and gets a reputation as an untrustworthy person, is that a good thing for them that people doubt what they say, that people look at them as kind of a questionable character? No. What about someone who fails to honor their parents? They will have difficulties in their family.

Or (what about) someone who does not listen to God concerning marriage and divorce, and they get a divorce? That will not be anything good for that person, despite what the world says, and it certainly will not bring anything good to the children, if there are any in the marriage.

If people, unsaved as well as unsaved, follow God's guidelines, the ten commandments and all the commandments (to whatever degree they do follow them), they will experience blessing. They can experience staying out of jail and having an upstanding reputation, and having peace in their home and their home life can run well.

You see, God's word, the Bible, really is a manual for how a person, a creature created in the image of God, is to properly and rightly live their life. And if we would do it absolutely perfectly, there would be no fault, no transgression, but of course we do not. But to what degree we do observe the law of God and keep His commandments, we can be blessed. For someone who does not involve himself in drunkedness, there is blessing. He can save himself liver damage and other physical ailments in his life. For someone who does not smoke (because the Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill"), he can save himself from the awful disease of cancer in the throat or other places, and so on. So there is blessing to hearing the Bible and following its guidelines, its commandments, for every individual.

You know, it says in Hebrews, chapter 11, and I will turn there and read this, a very interesting thing about faith. We read of Isaac who was the son of promise, and it says in Hebrews 11, verse 20:

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

And that is all we read: Isaac blessed both Jacob and Esau, and he did so concerning things to come. Now we understand what that means. Isaac was a true child of God and he knew the Gospel (of course, in a far more limited way than we who have the whole Bible know it today), but he knew many truths of the word of God. As a faithful father, he shared them with his children, just as fathers today will read the Scriptures with their children and talk to them about the things of God. Isaac was a faithful father, so he told his children concerning things to come. What things to come?

We read in the book of Acts, in chapter 24, that the Apostle Paul had an opportunity to speak of the Scriptures when he was a prisoner, and it says in verse 25:

And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

You see, when the believer speaks of the Gospel, of the word of God, we tell all the truth, the whole counsel of God. We tell people what we know that the Bible says, and the Bible says that we are sinners, and due to our sins, we are under the wrath of God, and subject to the judgment of God, of final and complete destruction and annihilation.

And we share things to come, and we can also tell people (and certainly a father would tell his children) that there is a new Heaven and a new Earth that God intends to bring to pass, and the ones that will be able to live on that new Earth in the presence of God forever more are those that God saves through the Lord Jesus Christ, or as Isaac would have said it, through the Messiah, through God, who takes the sins of His people and saves His Elect, and grants them that eternal salvation.

These are the "things to come" that Isaac blessed BOTH Jacob and Esau with! He did not just speak to Jacob, but he shared it with both of his children. They were twins, God tells us, and God made the decision before they were born (we can read about this in Romans, chapter 9), and God determined to love Jacob and to hate Esau. He did this by predestinating Jacob to obtain His eternal salvation, and not by saving Esau. Esau was not one of God's Elect, and so, as a result, God loved one and not the other.

And, yet, both - who are used in the bible to represent Elect and nonelect, or saved and unsaved - hear the warnings and the blessings of the Scripture, and all that they are told by father Isaac is a blessing. It is a blessing to read the prophecies of this book, to hear what God has to say to His creatures, to man made in His image, and to His Elect people. So we are greatly privileged. We are really tremendously blessed that we have Bibles and we can pick them up and read them, and hear the words of God.

Let us continue on now in verse 3:

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein...

Now there is blessing, on one level, to all that hear, yes, even the unsaved can be blessed by reading the Bible, by following it outwardly to whatever degree they are able to do. They can experience blessing by attempting to live their lives by the guidelines the Lord lays down.

But there is a blessing infinitely greater that far surpasses that kind of a blessing, and that is the blessing that comes only to those that God saves. These people will be the only ones equipped by God, as the Lord gives them a new heart and a new spirit, to actually keep the commandments of God, that is, perfectly without fail or error, without transgression. And they can do this because God has given them that new heart which is sinless and perfect. It is from that heart that they now keep the law of God without any transgression of any kind. And so they are blessed in the sense that they have been granted eternal life, and granted the tremendous blessing of keeping God's law from the new heart that God has put within them. This new heart has caused them to keep God's statutes and to do His commandments.

Now Jesus said in John, chapter 14, in verse 15, and this is a familiar verse but it applies to what we are reading here in Revelation:

If ye love me, keep my commandments.

And that is why it is such a blessing for someone, as it says here in Revelation 1:3, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear." Yes, there are certain blessings to that, but, above that, "and keep those things which are written therein." And written "therein" in the Bible are the commandments of God, and it is a blessing to keep those things because that would be evidence that we love Christ, that we are able to keep His commandments.

Of course, we only love Him (we have to remember) because "He first loved us." That is, if God did not first do the work within us in saving us and granting us salvation through the faith of Christ, and not our own faith; if He did not change us and turn us, we would never turn to be able to keep His commandments. So it is a wonderful blessing that God has worked within His people.

Okay, let us look at the last phrase here in verse 3:

...and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

The Greek word that is translated as "time" can also be translated as "season," and it often is. The Greek word that here is translated as "at hand," "eggus," Strong's 1451, is often used to describe something "very near." Actually, I cannot find any instance where it is NOT talking about something that is "very near," whether it be in terms of distance, or in terms of a feast, or in terms of other things. Normally, it is referring to something that is "nigh" or "close at hand."

For instance, regarding distance, it says in John 11, verse 18 (and this is just one example of a few, concerning distance):

Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off:

Fifteen furlongs is not really that far, so Bethany was a town that was relatively close to Jerusalem. Now also in John, in chapter 7, it says in verse 2:

Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.

And shortly following this, in the same context, it says in verse 8:

Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.

And then in verse 10:

But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.

This shows that when verse 2 says "the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand," it means that in time it was "very much at hand." It was not very long at all, from what we can gather by reading the next few verses, before the feast was under way. So the word "at hand" had to do with something right there in proximity, in this case, in time. It was not long at all and the "season" for the Feast of Tabernacles was there.

We also read, and this is what makes this word so interesting, in Matthew 24, we find this Greek word "eggus," (if I am pronouncing it right; I do not spend too much time concerning myself with pronouncing the Greek words; I try the best I can), but in Matthew 24, it says in verse 32:

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

The word "nigh" is the same Greek word "eggus," translated as "at hand" in our verse in Revelation, and it is also found in verse 33:

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

There we find God uses that word two times in those two verses to indicate that the judgment of God, or the final return of Christ at the very end of the world, is "near. " It is "at hand." It is used in relationship to the fig tree. This is found in Mark 13, the parallel chapter, and also in Luke 21, and I would like to turn to Luke 21 and read a few verses here, beginning in verse 27 through 32:

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

Well, here the Lord is using that word to indicate something is quickly about to happen, once you "see" these things, or as verse 28 of Luke 21 says, "when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads..." Now if we read Luke 21 and the previous verses, it is talking about the judgment on the churches, "Jerusalem compassed with armies" (in verse 20), and "these be the days of vengeance" (in verse 22), "signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring" (verse 25), and "the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (verse 26); and all of these things, and then verse 27 states:

And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

What? How can it be that redemption draweth "nigh" when, apparently, the world is ending, "the powers of heavens are shaken," and "the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory," and is that not the actual redemption time, the time when the Elect receive their new resurrected bodies? Is that not describing the End of the world? Why is it necessary that when these things "begin" to come to pass, that we must "look up" because our redemption draweth "nigh? " It is not there (yet). It is still off a ways, and how can that be if everything being described is happening?

Of course, the answer is that the things that are being described are all spiritual! The armies compassing Jerusalem about is spiritual language concerning the assault against the churches during the Great Tribulation. The signs in the sun and the moon and the stars is spiritual. The "powers of heaven being shaken" is a spiritual reference. "The Son of man coming in a cloud" is a spiritual reference.

So when you and I, and the people of God, "see" these things come to pass, then we can know that our redemption is "nigh." Now back in Matthew 24:33, it also says:

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.

Well, the word "see" is used; it is the Greek word "eido" and it is used in verse 15 of Matthew 24:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place...

Now has anyone ever "seen" the abomination of desolation with their phyical eyes? The answer is, no. You cannot see Satan, and that is just another name for him in the churches. You cannot see him at all. He is a fallen angel, a spirit being, and how can we "see" him then as God says?

Well, the word "eido" is often translated as the word "know." As a matter of fact, in verse 36 of Matthew 24, where it says, "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only," the word "knoweth" is the same Greek word "eido."

And so we have every right to go back to verse 33 and to read it this way: "So likewise ye, when ye shall 'know' all these things, 'know' that it is near, even at the doors." When you "see" or "know" these things happening (these signs in the sun, moon and the stars), and when you "know" from the Bible what it means that "the powers of heaven are shaken," and when you "know" from the word of God what it means that Christ is "coming on the clouds." When you "know" from the Scripture that we have entered into the Day of Judgment, that God has put out the lights of the Gospel, typified by those celestial bodies, THEN "look up...for your redemption draweth nigh." It is close at hand!

In other words, we have been moving along, as we have lived through the days of the Great Tribulation, through Jesus' response to His disciples question, "What shall be the 'sign' of thy coming and the end of the world?" and we now are able to readily answer many of the passages and verses found in Matthew 24 and its related chapters, where we know exactly what God is saying.

We have progressed into the period "after that tribulation," where we can also now explain these other verses, and this is strong evidence - strong, encouraging evidence - from the Bible to us that we are "nigh" the return of the Lord Jesus at the end of the Day of Judgment, once this period of Judgment Day concludes to its last day. Then we will see the final destruction of this world, and we will see the Lord Jesus Christ as He gathers His people to forever be with Him, and we turn our attention to the eternal future that awaits.