Study Desk

But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit,

save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.

and the Living One. I was dead, but look—I am alive forever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and Hades.

But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first.

I know your affliction and poverty, yet you are rich. I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the Israelites: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.

But I have this against you: You tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and deceives My slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat meat sacrificed to idols.

I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality.

But hold on to what you have until I come.

"Write to the angel of the church in Sardis: "The One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.

Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. But if you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come against you.

But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with Me in white, because they are worthy.

In the same way, the victor will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before My Father and before His angels.

Take note! I will make those from the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews and are not, but are lying—note this—I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know that I have loved you.

But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or even to look in it.

Then I heard something like a voice among the four living creatures say, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius—but do not harm the olive oil and the wine."

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green plant, or any tree, but only people who do not have God's seal on their foreheads.

They were not permitted to kill them but were to torment them for five months; their torment is like the torment caused by a scorpion when it strikes a man.

In those days people will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will flee from them.

but in the days of the sound of the seventh angel, when he will blow his trumpet, then God's hidden plan will be completed, as He announced to His servants the prophets."