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Alright, so we'll be starting a new book on Wednesday nights. We're going to be going through the book of revelation And so this is a book a lot of people don't try to tackle because they're very confused by the book and in today's sermon We're not going to go over really in-depth things We're just covering an introduction Then we're going to go chapter by chapter for the next 22 weeks and cover through the book of revelation And so the first thing I want you to see here is in Revelation 1 verse 1 and the first point is very Simple this book is meant to reveal information Not to conceal and to hide and to confuse you it's meant to reveal. Okay? Notice what it says in verse 1. Excuse me. Hold on one second Man, I must swallow a fly or something. I don't know Revelation chapter 1 verse number 1 the Bible reads the Revelation of Jesus Christ the revelation of Jesus Christ now I've heard people say this before as well that the book of Revelation reveals information and I've heard people answer back Well, that's just the name of the book. That doesn't mean it actually reveals information It's like did you read the first couple words of the book of Revelation? They get the name for the book based on the first couple words. Okay the Revelation of Jesus Christ so this book is Revealing information see a lot of the dark sayings in the Old Testament in the major and minor prophets These things are revealed in the book of Revelation. It's meant to reveal. It's not concealing or hiding information Okay now go back to Zechariah 4 Zechariah chapter 4 So See what you need to understand about the book of Revelation and also the New Testament just in general is the New Testament It sheds light on the Old Testament. See a lot of the things in the Old Testament, especially with the prophets a Lot of those things were kind of confusing Okay, but when you read the New Testament in the book of Revelation this reveals or tells you what that's talking about Okay. Now notice what it says in Zechariah 4 Zechariah chapter 4. Sorry Zechariah chapter 4 verse 3 Zechariah 4 verse 3 and two olive trees by it One upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side thereof and so two olive trees are mentioned Okay. Now when you've read the entire Bible, you know, the New Testament talks about these olive trees Okay, but if you were just reading the Old Testament you'd be like, what are these olive trees like What in the world is it even talking about and see Zechariah? The one who the book was written by he thinks the same thing Two olive trees are mentioned and he's like what in the world is that? Okay notice what it says in verse 4 So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me saying what are these my Lord? So Zechariah says what are these olive trees? I don't know what this is Okay, now you'd figure when he's asking this question. What are these the answer would come right but notice what it says in verse 5 Look what the angel responds to him Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me knowest thou not what these be and I said no my Lord And so the angel responds to what are these olive trees is you don't know what these olive trees are Zechariah He's like no, and that's the answer. He doesn't give it an answer He's like, you know, you don't know what these are and he's like, no, I don't that's why I'm asking you What are these olive trees see the book of Zechariah? It's not revealing the information It is concealing it to some degree in the Minor Prophets. Not everything's all that clear Okay, but see the book of Revelation it sheds light it Reveals the dark sayings from the Old Testament and so Zechariah is really burdened about this He's like, what are these olive trees? So in verse 11, they have another conversation about these olive trees verse 11 Then answered I and said unto him What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And see he did not get an answer the first time and he wants to know what are the olive trees? He's asking the angel verse 12 and I answered again and said unto him What be these two olive trees which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves and notice What it says in verse 3 and this is the angel speaking and he answered me and said Knowest thou not what these be and I said no my lord So it's the same exact thing Zechariah hears about these two olive branches and he's wondering What are these olive branches and the angel says you don't know what these olive branches are. He's like, no I don't Then later on in the chapter He's like, you know, what are these two olive branches and the angel once again says you don't know what these are It's like no, I don't okay. He doesn't actually give him the answer there. Okay, notice what it says in verse 14 He gives a bit of an answer then said he these are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole Earth, okay Now here's the thing if you were to just read the Old Testament alone That is all the information you would get you would have no idea But if you've read the entire Bible and studied it out, you're gonna know this is Moses and Elijah Okay, that's what I believe. It is Moses and Elijah because it talks about it in the Gospels It talks about it in Revelation They mentioned the signs and wonders that those two did but you would not know that from the Old Testament alone See what I want you to understand is that in this time of human history You have more access to knowledge than any time ever You can know more about the Bible than at any time in human history and as we get closer to the times of Revelation the information is gonna make more sense Okay, see a hundred years ago when you talked about this Antichrist and these things being seen by everybody in the world People would be like how in the world could everybody see this but now we have cell phones. There's TVs There's the Internet look everybody has access to information all at once if some celebrity dies in the next couple minutes But we could all be talking about it right after the service because someone checks in their cell phone and you find out somebody died And then everybody's talking about it immediately in the past you wait for the newspapers Okay, you wouldn't know this stuff immediately in today's world in time information is more accessible than ever before and the events of Revelation and Daniel and Zechariah These things will make more and more and more sense as we get closer to the end times see There's a wrong philosophy from a lot of people a lot of Baptists that you know what the revelation is just so confusing How in the world could you understand the book of Revelation? but the first two words of the book of Revelation prove you can understand it because it says the Revelation which means the information is being revealed Not concealed okay turn to Daniel 12 Daniel 12 Sadly in a day where we have more access to knowledge and we have Bibles on our smartphones You know Bibles all over you're on the internet. You can pull up the the whole Bible You can listen to audio Bibles yet in today's world. We probably know less about the Bible than any time It's amazing how little people know about the Bible you go soul winning and some people don't even know what Noah It's like you don't know Noah's Ark. You don't know about the flood They don't know these basic things that it used to be everybody knew about and it's it's it's sad That's the way it is but look as Christians as believers that have the whole Bible and we get closer to Revelation the events that you read about in Daniel and Zechariah, you know what honestly you can make sense of those with the whole Word of God, it's going to tie together It's gonna make sense and you're gonna see that over these next 23 weeks Okay, but I want you to realize first off that the book of Revelation is revealing information It's not concealing it and I've heard people make this joke before generally Baptist pastors And they're kind of make fun of you If you say you know what because we believe in a post-trib rapture, okay Now most people don't believe in a post-trib rapture, but we're we're just upfront about what we believe, okay We're not going to shy away and we can prove it to you from the Word of God and some people believe Like a pre-trib rapture some people believe in a mid-trib rapture We believe in a post-trib pre-wrath. It's before the wrath of God But it's after the tribulation. Okay, the confusion comes in because people think the seven-year period is all God's wrath and Tribulation that's not what the Bible teaches and we're gonna see that in this series Okay But what I want you to understand is this I've heard Baptist pastors kind of make fun of you when you say well It's a post-trib, you know, I can show you in the Bible They'll say well, you know what? I believe in a some believe in a pre-trib rapture some believe in mid-trib some believe in post-trib But I believe in a pan-trib rapture and then they want you to say like what's a pan-trib rapture? And I've heard this joke like 20 times. Okay, and then they'll say well, you know I have no idea but it's all gonna pan out in the end and they say that to kind of make you feel Like oh, whoops. I'm so foolish to think I can understand what the the Bible says in the book of Revelation Look the book of Revelation it says the revelation of Jesus Christ and look there are Confusing things in the book of Revelation, but the timing of the rapture is not confusing. It's very understandable, okay Now notice what it says in Daniel 12 verse 8 Daniel 12 verse 8 I'll show you another example of a great man of God who didn't even understand the things that he was writing about Okay, Daniel 12 verse 8 and I heard But I understood not Then said I oh my lord what shall be the end of these things and so Daniel's a great man of God So when he hears the Word of God, and he doesn't understand he wants it revealed to him He wants to know what it's saying now look as believers We should be the same way when you read the Bible and you do not understand something You should pray to God and ask what is this talking about? That does not mean it's gonna be revealed immediately, but usually if you keep reading the Bible you're gonna find the answer Okay, we have access to the Word of God and the knowledge of God, but sometimes it takes a little bit of time Okay, this is not like a 2 plus 3 math problem There's some deep things in the Bible, and I'm glad because it keeps it exciting okay, but notice what he said What shall be the end of these things and he said go thy way Daniel for the words are closed up and sealed Till the time of the end and what Daniel is told is you know what I'm just not giving you the information You're not going to understand this We can understand more about the end times than Daniel that wrote about the end times That's pretty exciting to think about we can understand more than in any time in human history and as we get closer to the end things like you know the United Nations and just you know the the LGBT agenda and just basically all these religions because hundreds of years ago Or even a hundred years ago the Pope and the Catholic Church said there is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church But now the Pope is just getting together with Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus And it makes sense to us as believers when you know the Word of God this big Ecumenical movement to go against God's people it makes sense Okay as we're getting closer to the end times we can see how these things are unfolding this is revealed to us But not to Zachariah Not to Daniel But it is to us and look there is no excuse as a saved person Who hears this kind of preaching and you know you need to read the Bible to not actually find out what the Bible's speaking about You need to read the Bible for yourself not just five minutes a day, but dig into the Word of God Okay take it seriously love the Word of God why because God wrote this to be revealed to you But if you do not read it you're just not going to know turn in your Bible to Genesis 6 Genesis 6 When my wife and I first started talking you know this was the topic that you know we kind of disagreed about I've mentioned This before in sermons, but about the the rapture and the timing of the rapture and you know my wife You know eventually she became post-trib pre-wrath you know like we believe at this church You know I showed her what the Bible said and you know she had the same response I've heard from a lot of people that have kind of shown the chapters like 2nd Thessalonians 2 Matthew 24 Revelation 6 and 7 she was basically like man It's so obvious how did I never understand this because honestly when you hear false views about Revelation you're just confused Probably many of you in this room grew up in a Baptist Church learning about the pre-trib rapture And when you read the book of Revelation you're like man. I just don't see it It's like where is it? I'm just confused, and you're like man. I can't even understand the book of Revelation It's just too complicated It's the end times But yet the first two words of revelation would disagree with that statement it would tell you that you can understand because it says the revelation of Jesus Christ and when you're indwelled with the spirit of truth as the Bible says and God is revealing the information to you when you read the book of Revelation You can understand it, and it's honestly not that complicated Okay, now. I'm not saying there aren't some dark things in the book of Revelation, but by and large It's pretty understandable when you read the book of Revelation and as you're gonna see during this series especially as we get to chapters Six and seven and you're really understanding the timing you're gonna be like man This makes a lot of sense okay, so the first point we have tonight is this The book of Revelation it is revealing information, but the second thing I want to talk about is this why does the end of the world even come? Okay, because science will tell you we can only live for a certain amount of time And we're just gonna overheat or we're gonna die up But see the Bible says there's gonna be no end of heat and cold of summer and winter until the very end Okay, the Bible would disagree with that statement But science will tell you we can only last a certain period of time That's global warming is not going to end this world my friend Now God will send a global warming eventually okay But global warming as the scientists say is not going to end this world because God promised in the book of Genesis That wouldn't take place God is going to end the world though, and it's not due to the world overheating It's due to wickedness and sin that's taking place and see that is what's gonna Actually in this world is the wickedness of man say how do you know that because in Genesis 6 we see the pattern of God Notice what it says in Genesis 6 verse 5 Genesis 6 verse 5 and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every Imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And so what we see in Genesis 6 verse 5 is that basically God looks down at man He looks down on the earth, and he says it's wicked. It's filled full of sin Okay verse 6 and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth And it grieved him at his heart by the way this has nothing to do with a sermon But this is the first time you see the word repent in the Bible and the first time you see repent in the Bible It's God repenting right that kind of has to change your definition of all repentance is turning from your sins So God is turning from his sins. I didn't know God was a sinner Right because all of us we sin from time to time, but I didn't know God sent But if you're gonna actually take this definition of repenting means to turn from your sins Apparently God is a sinner know what God is doing is he's changing his mind, and he says you know what? I'm gonna start over because everyone has gotten wicked and oftentimes in the Bible when God basically gives certain things He says I'll do this as long as you obey if you don't obey Israel then you're done, okay, there's an example okay notice what it says in verse 7 verse 7 and The Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth both man And beast and the creeping thing in the fowls of the air for repenteth me that I have made them God says he's gonna destroy man. Why did it just get really hot on earth? I mean just global warming right okay because honestly from Genesis 1 to Genesis 6 a lot of time actually goes by in human history the book of Genesis covers a lot of ground in human History did it just get really hot and God had to start over no it's because of sin It's because of wickedness go down to verse 11 verse 11 The earth also was corrupt before God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked upon the earth and behold It was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth and God said unto Noah the end of all Flashes come before me so basically he's going to end he's going to destroy everybody except Noah and his family Why? For the earth is filled with violence Through them and behold I will destroy them with the earth God says I am going to destroy this world because They're wicked okay look you have to understand in today's world. We're getting to that point We're not getting more godly with each passing year 2020 it's going to be a more wicked year than 2019 which was a more wicked year than 2018 Which was a more wicked year than 2017. It's getting worse and worse and worse and worse Look when I talk to people that are from the Philippines and were born here people at this church You say you know what you when you grew up. You didn't see guys running around wearing dresses, right? I can't even imagine the Philippines without seeing guys wear dresses because you see that all the time That's the only Philippines I know since I visited and look it's gotten a lot worse since even 2014 when I first visited here But look the only Philippines. I know is seeing a bunch of guys wearing dresses Are we getting more godly with each passing year? Do you is any country getting more godly see the reason why we're getting more ungodly is you know the television? The movies the music and look the smartphones are not making people more godly Now they're helpful you have the audio Bible on there you can pull up the Bible But look that is making people more and more wicked with each passing year Look little kids have access to pornography in their hands at the age of eight and their parents give them that access They say here's a cell phone I'm not going to pay attention to what you're watching and they wonder why all these kids are being born out of wedlock and Basically all this wickedness has taken place. It's like you're giving them access at a young age You're supposed to be parenting them and preventing them from having that access. Okay, turn to Genesis 18 Genesis 18 And so as the world is getting worse and worse and worse It fits God's pattern of the fact that when it gets really wicked He's going to destroy it Okay, and look we're getting closer and closer to that point now Look, I have always been someone that said I do not believe this will happen during my lifetime But I must admit that over the last 10 years, especially with the LGBT agenda. It is accelerating like this For those of you that like math. I was a math teacher. Like this is how the curve looks like It's not like it's just slowly increasing. No, this is concave up my friend It's getting worse and worse and worse. Okay, it's getting worse and worse until the very end. It's accelerating That's the way the world is getting and you don't notice it from day to day But look we are rapidly getting worse and worse and worse just in my lifetime It's changed quite a bit You could go a hundred years ago go on youtube and look at a time lapse of a city Look at a time lapse of new york city or san francisco Okay from a hundred years ago and it will show you the people and what you're going to see is all the ladies are wearing long dresses And they look like women they're acting like women. You're not going to see any guys wearing dresses But now in today's world Boy, it's everywhere. It's getting worse and worse and worse. That's only a hundred years Just imagine another hundred years. It's hard to even fathom what the world's going to be like genesis 18 genesis 18 verse 31 Genesis 18 verse 31 you say brother stucky. How do we spare the country then? Because obviously we're getting more and more wicked But I would like god to spare the philippines from being destroyed in this world as long as possible I want to live and die an old man. I want to have grandkids and see my kids grow up I don't want this world to just end in five years, but there actually is a way we can spare this world Okay, verse 31 genesis 18 verse 31 And he said behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the lord per adventure There shall be 20 found there. This is referring to 20 saved people And he said I will not destroy for 20 sake and god says you know what if we can find just 20 saved people I will not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah just 20 people, okay Now look abraham obviously knows this pretty wicked because he starts at 50 and he keeps going down like 50 You know 45 40 30 20 notice what it says in verse 32 And he said oh let let not the lord be angry and i'll speak yet But this once per adventure 10 shall be found there and he said I will not destroy it for 10 sake You can't find 10 saved people in sodom and gomorrah, I mean it doesn't tell us the population But look that's showing you a very small percentage of that area is saved But if there was a larger percentage of people that were saved god would have spared sodom and gomorrah even though it was wicked He said we want to spare the philippines. We want to spare metro manila We need to go and do soul winning get people saved and god actually will spare it And look these baptists they get mad at us that don't do any soul winning They want to spare this world. They say we're ruining it by preaching hard against sin Why don't you spare this world by joining us with soul winning? That is what's going to spare it. Okay when soul winning is taking place That is how we can spare this world and spare this country turn in nahom chapter three nahom chapter three But the sad reality was that sodom and gomorrah was destroyed because of sodomy and wickedness It was a wicked country and it was destroyed and I want you to see it name chapter three Name chapter three so part of sparing this world in this country is basically getting people saved And the other part is when righteousness is taking place Not just that people are saved but that basically there's not filthiness and wickedness going on Okay, because sodom was destroyed not just because there was few people saved Look, there's areas of this world where there's few people saved. There's somebody saved in every country in the world But there's areas that have few people saved But sodom and gomorrah was not just they had few people saved they were also incredibly wicked. Okay name chapter three verse one Name chapter three verse one referring to ninnova. Woe to the bloody city It is all full of lies and robbery the prey departeth not And see because ninnova was a wicked country a wicked city within the the asyrian empire. They were destroyed. Okay So if we want to spare this world What you do is you do a lot of soul winning and you preach hard against sin And you get churches started and they do likewise in their areas and they can spare those areas from god's judgment If that's not taking place, then god's judgment is going to go forth. That's what took place in the flood That's what took place with sodom and gomorrah with ninnova And look we're getting to the point of this world where it's getting worse and worse and worse and worse There is no country that's getting better You say prove that to me from the bible the bible says that when we get closer to the end It will wax worse and worse Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse and this world's going to wax worse and worse Okay, and that is what we see in this world. It's getting more wicked people aren't reading the bible in today's world They're by and large not really going soul-winning most churches turn to matthew 24 matthew 24 Hey look I want you to understand I became an independent fundamental baptist when I was 19 And look when I was 19 years old and I was visiting churches that I was considering being a part of This is just 16 years ago 15 16 years ago Look those churches the ifb churches in west virginia. They all went soul-winning Every single one. I remember showing up at the soul-winning time There's like 30 people from the church going soul-winning you go to the same church 10 years later and there's like two in like 10 years Churches are not going so anymore, but you know, they used to Churches old ifb churches used to all go soul-winning being old ifb did not just mean you're king james only It also meant you actually went soul-winning you believed in soul-winning you're knocking doors and people are like, oh man Not the baptists again The baptists are at our doors again see in today's world. They think it's the johovah's witnesses Yeah, I mean even the philippines the johovah's witnesses are out and about and people say oh man the johovah's witnesses again Look I wish they would say oh no the baptists again It's like how many times are you going to knock my door until you get saved? We'll stop we'll we'll agree once you get saved. We'll stop knocking that door. Okay, but we want to get everybody saved But that is the reality that when it comes to baptist churches, they're not going soul-winning anymore And look our church is going soul-winning and we believe in that but look churches used to go soul-winning And I saw that when I was 19 years old That all the churches were going soul-winning and it's just died down through the last 15 years You say why because when people are living more sinful and worldly lives, they won't want to go soul-winning And churches are getting very worldly. They're getting very sinful the pastor preaches on nothing People don't get sent out of their lives. They never feel guilty in church. They never make any changes They're never motivated to read the bible and then they're never motivated to go soul-winning That's the result of it But I want you to understand point number three God is long suffering for the gospel God is long suffering for the gospel and look things might get pretty bad before god destroys it And the reason why is because god wants the gospel everywhere in the world Okay, matthew 24 verse 14 matthew 24 verse 14 In this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for witness onto all nations And then shall the end come okay now I want you to understand something that if you look throughout the bible The word of god is already in all of the world Okay, there's plenty of verses that prove that the name of jesus is everywhere There are saved people everywhere think of rahab the harlot There are saved people that exist everywhere when the gospel is being preached in all the world I don't think it just means oh there's one or two saved people in this area in this city Or there's like 27 saved people. I think it means the gospel is being preached everywhere around the world Now there are some countries where there's really not much of an open door And I don't know if that means god's going to open up the doors of a place like north korea where you're going to get killed I don't really know But the reason why god is being long suffering and he's going to let it get really wicked is because of the fact He wants the gospel to go in all of the world Okay, now wherever you live because we still have people here from the missions trip You need to go home and take that deal with you And preach in the area that you live in Okay preach the gospel why this gospel needs to go in all of the world, okay turn to james chapter five james five And look praise the lord for the online ministry, I think it's great I love the fact that we're able to put our preaching online and there's other great churches that have their sermons online But don't use that as an excuse to not bring the gospel to people Don't think that online ministry is going to reach all the world No God's not going to bless a church that refuses to go soul winning and just says we'll just get people to listen to our sermons Do you realize how few people actually get saved from the first time they hear the gospel from online? Look, I remember I met somebody in west virginia. This person goes to Mountain baptist church pastor jason robinson and you know, I saw that we were common We had common friends, you know that I had a common friend of pastor anderson from somebody I went to I live in the same city as bridgeport west virginia and bridgeport west virginia is a very small town I mean there's like 10 000 people and I was like man There's another pastor anderson listener and the church I was going to was 45 minutes away So I sent this guy a message on a saturday and I said, hey, I saw your friends with pastor anderson You know looks like you're an online listener I said we got a people group of people that go soul winning here in morgan town that listen online You know, we love the online ministry and you know, I invited him to church He messaged me back that next night. He says i'll be there tomorrow and he came the next day He came to church. He drove 45 minutes to church and he came and he went soul winning with me that day Well, I didn't realize this but two years later. He told me, you know, he messaged me online because I was living in sacramento, california He's like I just wanted to let you know That you know, i've been listening to pastor anderson for a couple years But when I visited that church, I realized when I went soul winning with you and I heard you give the gospel I realized I wasn't saved. He's like you actually got me saved And it was like this person had listened online for almost two years But here's what you need to understand when people are listening online oftentimes. They're listening to like the book of revelation Not like how to be saved why that seems more exciting to people people figure Oh, I already got this figured out how to be saved. Just live a good life, right? Live a good life and i'm gonna go to heaven. That's what people think. They think yeah Yeah, believe in jesus, you know and follow the commandments of god, right? That's what they think So they oftentimes they don't really watch that stuff They just look on the stuff like the end times and the interesting stuff That's why you know a lot of people watch people like jean kim That have this that talk about aliens in their sermons like oh, wow, that's interesting. Is that in the bible? No, it's not. Okay it's not in the bible, but People watch the stuff on the end times and oftentimes, you know what? They don't watch the stuff on salvation because they just aren't as excited about that So look people listen the online ministry. It doesn't necessarily mean they're saved And oftentimes they need to hear the gospel presentation many times when they hear it online because it's much more Impactful when you talk to them one on one and you can look in their eyes And you can see their emotion and you can see the parts They're not sure about and you can spend a couple extra minutes if necessary To make sure they get it it has far more impact in person than just hearing it online Now people can get saved from an online presentation I'm, just telling you it's a lot less likely. So do not think the online ministry is reaching all the world You're not going to reach the area you live in by just having them watch sermons online No, you have to actually go soul winning if you want to actually get people saved Otherwise, it's going to be far less people saved james 5 verse 7 And look i'm sure that story is with a lot of people they listen in the i'm sure even in this room There's probably people in this room that did get saved from the online ministry, but it probably wasn't in week one Probably wasn't in week two Probably wasn't in month one month It was probably you know a year or two years and then all of a sudden you're like Oh, wow, because you were so confused on repentance of sins that you just didn't know That's probably the reality But you know when we talk to people one on one man in 15 minutes people can literally change their perspective on eternity and get saved Okay, james five verse seven james five verse seven Okay Be patient therefore brethren onto the coming of the lord james chapter five is actually a chapter about the end times Okay James 5 verse 7 be patient therefore brethren onto the coming of the lord referring to when the lord's going to come back behold the husbandman waiteth For the precious fruit of the earth now us as believers We know the bible says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life and he that winneth souls is wise We're being told to be patient for the precious fruit of the earth, okay And hath long patience the husbandman waited for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it Until he received the early and latter rain, okay Now i'm not positive if the symbolism i'm about to say makes full sense, but this is how I read this When I think of early rain, I kind of think of a gospel presentation or a person who gets saved very easily There's a little bit of rain and then all of a sudden boom they get saved But the latter rain could be someone like your father that has to hear the gospel like 12 times before he gets saved And it basically gets watered. It gets watered and watered. It's not the early rain that gets that person saved It's the latter rain of the rain coming over and over and over again And see god is long suffering and he wants to give everybody a shot because some people get saved like this some people don't When I heard the gospel it took more than an hour to get me saved You know, praise the lord It was a close friend of mine in college who gave me the gospel because I was just arguing with him For like an hour and I don't know how long until basically I just realized man I don't know what i'm talking about and I ended up getting saved But look some people they need to hear the gospel over and over and over turn to first peter three first peter three And so the first point we had was simply this that the book of revelation reveals information It does not conceal information. It reveals information The second point is we talk about why does the end come and that is because this world is getting very wicked Okay point three god is long suffering for the gospel Okay, and as a church that is our number one goal is to get the gospel everywhere in the world Starting here, but reaching out to other areas as well Point four let me go over some reasons why it's important to know the book of revelation And understand because some people feel like well, you know what the book of revelation is just going to happen Why do we really need to study this? How is this practical to my life? What's the purpose of even knowing about the book of revelation? Let me give you three practical points of why you need to understand and know the book of revelation Number one is this it's mentioned a lot in the bible It's mentioned throughout the bible. Look if it's not important, then why does the bible always talk about it? It's not just the book of daniel and revelation Right. I just showed you james five that is about the end times primarily in james chapter five the minor prophets Zachariah and those books they talk about the end times a lot and even a lot of books that are basically not Fully about the end times oftentimes they talk about the end times as well with symbolism the minor prophets the major prophets Look, this is throughout the bible And if you don't understand the book of revelation You can forget about understanding daniel And books like zekio and isaiah and a lot of chapters in the bible And so number one the reason why you need to know this is it's throughout the bible and if god mentions it a lot It must be important Even if you don't understand why it's important god mentions it a lot And and also this realize as we get closer to the end times. Do you think it's going to become more important or less important? more important Because of the fact we're getting closer to those things look It's when it comes to the end times It's not that the world is just a normal place and then overnight it goes from being normal to really weird No, you you basically get worse and worse and worse Okay, so you're getting closer to that point Okay, it's not that it just goes from being normal then just boom. It's wicked. No, we're getting more wicked So we're getting closer to the end times. We're getting closer to those events taking place. Okay, so that's why it's important also Look it's relevant to our lives to understand just things that are going on in this world today Look when it comes to the united nations and the wars that are going on And how the media is always trying to push, you know an anti-muslim like the u.s Versus the islam always as opposed to israel and things such as that these things tie in with the end times It's going to help you understand realize satan is the god of this world And he has a goal of brainwashing you Okay, but I want you to understand that the book of revelation is going to help make sense to these events that are taking place It's going to make more sense. You can look at things that are happening in politics the united nations the lgbt agenda Why is this world getting more wicked? What is the reason what does this mean to us? Look those things on tv. They make sense to people like us They don't make sense to the average world because they don't know the bible But we as god's people we ought to know these things when it comes to having a one world currency and things such as that All these religions getting together all these religions waiting for basically the anti-christ to come You know, i've talked to muslims door to door and they described you about this coming one one day That's going to bring peace to the world and I remember I was so in with pastor jason robinson one time and he's just talking to us about The the one who's going to come back that they believe he goes on for five minutes We're just like man. He's just describing the anti-christ He's going to bring peace to the earth. He's going to unite everybody We're like you're describing the anti-christ, but that's not just islam. It's also hinduism It's it's all of these religions and look it makes sense why they're teaching that and they believe that If you understand the book of revelation, that's why it's important Okay, and look we live in the last days and we're getting close and it's going to be more important But also turn to first peter three and let me say this Another reason why it's important is because people will ask you about the end times a lot That is like the people's most interesting topic. Everybody wants to know about the end times Okay, first peter three verse 15 first peter three verse 15 The bible says but sanctify the lord god in your hearts And be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness And fear and see the bible says that when people are going to basically bring questions to you and talk about things You need to be ready to answer them and look people will ask you about the end times all the time That is the topic people always ask about they're always curious about the end times Okay, and so if people are going to ask you about that you need to know what the answer is And look when your co-worker asks you about the book of revelation And you just in a couple minutes kind of explain some basic things because you understand it. They're going to be like wow That is really interesting that makes a lot of sense and that might be a good way to bring somebody to church Okay, so this would be a great series to bring people to church Okay, and also this when it comes to the end times in the book of revelation This is going to help destroy a lot of false doctrines Because the book of revelation is a book that people do not understand This is where false doctrines and false religions go crazy They go to the book of revelation and they take advantage of people for being a little bit bobo That's the reality they go to the book of revelation because they know people just don't really read the book of revelation And they don't understand the book of revelation and they'll pull out these vague verses and that's where you get a lot of false doctrines They're using these verses that people just aren't aware about they don't know how to answer them But look we need to answer every single part of the bible. Okay now turn your bible to act 16 act 16 Acts chapter 16 So point number one we learned here tonight was this that the book of revelation it is revealing information. It's not concealing It's not hiding information. It's actually revealing information Okay, it's going to help reveal the old testament and the minor prophets in the book of daniel and so point number two We talked about why the the end of the world even comes and that is due to wickedness and sin taking place Point three we see that god is very long suffering for the gospel So as god's people we must understand that god might allow it to get really bad for us The persecution might become really heavy. It might get very difficult to be someone who loves the lord in the next 50 years And you just have to learn to live with that Because look our our brethren in the faith from hundreds of years ago were persecuted and murdered by the catholic church And look if they went through that we live the life of luxury in today's world Look, there is no persecution here in the philippines for preaching the gospel you can preach to whoever you want But look we have to be we have to realize that you know What if people in the past went through that persecution in the next 50 years as we get close to the end times? That persecution might come okay, we must be willing to just deal with that thing God might allow it to get really bad. Why because we're spreading the gospel Okay, and he wants the gospel to go out to everybody and we talked about reasons why this is important But lastly, let me say this that when it comes to the timing of the rapture This is not a topic worth splitting over Say what do you mean by that? Look people that believe in a preacher rapture are welcome to come to our church Of course they're welcome if you believe in a preacher rapture mid-trib You're not sure you are completely welcome to come to our church Now the reason why i'm saying this is because there are a lot of pre-trib churches that wouldn't let me come Just because I believe in a post-trib rapture And they literally will split over this and say you are not welcome if you believe in a post-trib rapture It's like this is not a salvation issue, right? Look, you can be saved and believe in a preacher rapture There are plenty of safe people that believe in a preacher rapture or mid-trib, this is not a topic worth splitting over Okay, act 16 verse 30 And I know these are very basic verses but act 16 verse 30 Act 16 verse 30 And brought them out and said sirs what must I do to be saved? This is obviously the great question of life that people have what do I have to do to get to heaven? What must I do to be saved and they said? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's that simple Then it says in thy house and what this is saying is anybody in your house It's the same promise if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ You'll be saved but the same thing works to anybody in your house if they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ They will be saved as well believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's that simple Okay, that is something worth splitting over if people believe a false doctrine and a false gospel Look people that are unsaved are welcome to visit our church But look, we're not going to let somebody come into this church and just spread some false heresy in our church That is something that's worth splitting over my friend verse 32 And they spake on him the word of the Lord into all that were in his house And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized He and all his straight way. So notice baptism happens after salvation Okay, not to obtain salvation, but after salvation baptism happens verse 34 And we had brought them into his house He set meat before them and rejoiced believing in God with all his house We see everybody in that house believed as well as him and so the people that were baptized believed Not babies. Okay. Look babies cannot believe the gospel, okay You have to be of a certain age to basically believe that to get saved So look, this is not a topic worth splitting over I hope We have baptists that come to our church and are just curious that our pre-trip Say why because quite honestly, you know what? This is not worth splitting over and let me say this I have been soul winning with my old pastor who's a good man I went soul with him and I heard him give the gospel and let me tell you something that gospel was not five minutes That gospel was a 15 minute conversation and he went in depth on eternal security and i'll be honest with you I was shocked when I heard him give the gospel. I was like man, that is some good soul winning It was in depth and he for sure got that person saved. You know, he's pretty trip Didn't affect his gospel presentation Now I understand, you know, most baptists have a pretty shallow gospel when it comes to these churches, but not my old pastor He had a very thorough gospel my old church He had like a five-part series about why you must believe in eternal security to be saved I mean, he's just like driving it in he's like man if there's anybody left at our church Who doesn't give this then he had a five-part series on repentance of sins They're like back to back me and my friends were loving every single week. You're like, this is awesome He was pretty trim though. He didn't believe the same thing about the end times But you know, he was fully like-minded This goes back to what I preached about a month ago where someone like that I can fellowship with Because I know his soul winning is real and he's getting people saved Look, I would rather fellowship with someone like that that is actually soul winning and getting people saved Than someone who's post-trib with a three-minute gospel You say why because our main goal is what according to what we saw tonight to spread the gospel everywhere And see this pastor my old pastor will help with that why he's got a good gospel Someone who's post-trib that has a shallow gospel He's not helping with the goal of what we have to spread the gospel everywhere Okay, and so look when it comes to being like-minded, it's someone who's got a thorough gospel That's part of it Because if you don't have a thorough gospel, how many people are you really getting saved? People do not get saved from a five-minute presentation I'm, not going to say it's impossible because the word of god has power But but let me tell you something i've never led someone to the lord in less than five minutes Nor have I tried Other than like the first month or two when I was first spreading the gospel when I was using the four spiritual laws You know because that's what I was taught. God is a wonderful God loves you and has a wonderful plan for life Do you believe God loves you? Yes, and has a wonderful plan for your life. Yes, I do. That's all right. You got point one Let's go to point two just a really, you know garbage gospel presentation is what I was taught But look, I realize this is not actually getting these people saved Five minutes is just not going to cut it to explain all the parts they need to understand Okay, and so look this topic on the end times This is not worth splitting over And look if people come to our church and join our church in the future that are pre-trib or mid-trib Or they're just confused about the trib look They are welcome to come here and I am very confident that anybody that actually wants to know the truth Will find out the book of revelations revealing it and it's very obvious to them because i'll be honest with you When it comes to topics that are confusing in the bible, I do not believe the time of the rapture is confusing at all I think it is incredibly clear And i'll be and look the person who led me to the lord showed me the timing of the rapture So he taught me this when I was probably 19 or 20 years old He taught me the pre-wrath post-trib rapture and look I was like man, that's that's just clear And i'll tell you this is how I got converted to a to be in pre-wrath post-trib Because my friend showed me basically the timing of the rapture and my first reaction was this It can't be that simple because there's so many godly people that are pre-trib. That's my first reaction I was like I see what you're saying mike I was like I see matthew 24 and revelation 6 and it certainly seems to line up But if it's this obvious, how could so many people disagree with it? And so what I did that night was I went to a pre-trib website And I said, you know what? I want to see the arguments on the other side and I went to the pre-trib website and I realized there are no arguments On the other side and I remember calling my friend mike. I was like, you know what? You're right I was like i'm post-trib I was like it's just really obvious in the bible and look it honestly is And you're going to see that when you come and I I encourage you to stay for this entire series Because look, you know, you might have read the book of revelation many times and been frustrated and said I don't understand this You know what's going on? And as you realize during this series, it's really not that confusing It's pretty simple. It's pretty basic. It makes sense. You say why because it's the revelation Of jesus christ not concealing information He's revealing information. Let's close in a word of prayer dear heavenly father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and I just Encourage us all to stick through this entire series and we can learn the book of revelation I encourage us all to read it and to learn more about it and all parts of the bible are important All parts are valuable and you talk about the end times a lot God help us to understand this book and love this book and study this book. God, we pray these things in jesus name. Amen