Participants:
Series Code: PU
Program Code: PU000001S
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00:01 What do the mysterious images of Daniel and Revelation mean?
00:06 When will the antichrist appear and make his final move? 00:10 How can I be ready for the final events of earth's history? 00:15 You'll be amazed and encouraged by what the Bible reveals. 00:25 Welcome everyone to our Prophecy Unsealed Seminar. We're so glad 00:32 you've chosen to join us. A warm welcome to all of you at home. 00:35 Thank you. We're delighted that you're also here in our study. 00:38 Our topic tonight is Unlocking Revelations Mysteries. Now as we 00:43 meet together today it does not matter if you have a Baptist 00:47 background, a Methodist background or a Muslim 00:50 background, there is still something we would all agree on. 00:52 I wonder if you know what that something is. You may believe in 00:56 God, you may not. You may believe there's an entity called 00:59 the devil or you may not but there is still something we 01:02 would all agree on. Every thinking person acknowledges 01:05 that something has gone very terrible with our world. It 01:09 doesn't take a lot to look around and see the chaos that 01:11 this world is in right now. There's continued violence, 01:15 extreme forms of chaos, famines and pestilences. There's all 01:20 kinds of things going on in our world today, severe economic 01:24 uncertainty. Instability is everywhere. Governments are 01:27 changing. The state of communication is changing. It 01:30 seems that even the state of marriage is changing and 01:34 businesses are changing. And because of all of this 01:36 instability people are looking for something that is secure. 01:39 They're looking for something that they can rely on and 01:42 because of that millions of people today are turning to the 01:46 Bible. It seems like in the Bible God gives unmistakable 01:51 evidence that there's not much time left for planet earth. In 01:54 the Bible God is warning us that great events are about to take 01:56 place. In the Bible, God is giving us evidence that time is 02:00 running out for this world. Prophecies are shouting to us 02:05 telling us that the time of Jesus' return is near at hand. 02:08 And as we meet together here friends I am convinced that our 02:12 world is poised on the brink of a precipice and if God was to 02:16 take his hand away just for a moment it would go hurtling over 02:19 to its destruction. It seems as though someone who knows the 02:23 future is selecting the headlines and matching them up 02:26 with Bible prophecy so that we would know the times in which we 02:30 live. Bible seminars like this can be part of that preparation. 02:34 Taking time to come apart from the mad rush of this world and 02:38 recognizing the things that are important to God should be also 02:41 things that are important to us. It's amazing friends that not 02:44 only Christians who are reading the Bible are talking about the 02:48 nearness of some great crisis but even those who do not 02:51 believe the Bible non-Christians are saying something great and 02:55 decisive is about to take place. Now they may not know what that 02:59 something is but they feel it. And I'm wondering if you have 03:02 felt it as well. It would seem that the God of heaven would try 03:06 to alert us to help us to understand the times in which we 03:09 live. This world is truly, as the apostle Paul said, waxing 03:13 old as a garment. The God of heaven realizes the crisis that 03:16 we're in. The question is do we realize it as we should? Let's 03:20 take a look here at 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7. And here 03:23 the scriptures say, For God has not give us the spirit of fear; 03:27 but of power, and love, and of a sound mind. Now a sound 03:31 mind is a stable mind which means a peaceful mind in the 03:33 midst of all of the chaos we're in. God is telling us that he 03:37 wants us to have a stability about us. We put that verse 03:40 together with Jeremiah 29 and verse 11 where it says: For I 03:44 know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, 03:46 thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected 03:50 end. Now ladies and gentlemen I'm here to tell you that God 03:52 has a rescue plan. An expected end is a planned end. God has a 03:58 plan for everybody on planet earth. And there is hope for you 04:02 And there is hope for our children. God desires to give 04:05 us peace amongst the storm. He wants to give a peace to a 04:10 hurting world. And when you think of the book of Revelation 04:13 I wonder what comes to your mind What thoughts do you have. Do 04:16 you think of that entity called the beast? Do you think of the 04:19 event called Armageddon? Do you think of the New Jerusalem? The 04:23 book of Revelation has puzzled people for some 2000 years since 04:27 it's been written. It is a challenging book. And if you've 04:30 been involved in the book of Revelation for any period of 04:32 time you will know that quite often people do not agree. In 04:36 fact it is said that if you get any 12 people in a room you'll 04:40 get about 13 opinions when it comes to the book of Revelation. 04:42 In fact, if you have been studying at all you'll know that 04:46 quite often Christians do not agree with each other when it 04:49 comes to the study of the Bible and in particular the study of 04:52 the book of Revelation. Some will say that Revelation is 04:55 important, that it is a book for our time, that we need to get in 04:58 and really understand what it says. Other say no it's a closed 05:02 book. God never intended us to understand it. It is off 05:04 limits for us. And after having taught this book for many years 05:08 I will tell you that the biggest reason for people not 05:12 understanding the book of Revelation is not what you might 05:14 think. It isn't the difficulty of the book that is the problem. 05:17 It's because people come with preconceived ideas of what they 05:21 think the Bible is saying rather than what it really says or what 05:25 they think the book of Revelation says rather than what 05:28 it really has for us. They've done some study. They've come 05:34 with what I call excess baggage. They've done some study and 05:38 perhaps even no study and then they try to impose their 05:41 understanding upon the book rather than what it really says. 05:45 In other words, they come to the book trying to find what they 05:50 believe rather than simply believing what they find. Why is 05:55 it that so many people do not understand it. Well perhaps in 05:58 this article there's an answer. It's found in Fox News back in 06:03 February 2016. It said: Most Christians know enough about the 06:06 Bible to be dangerous. The Bible in America is a massive industry 06:11 ($2.5 billion) yet it is the best seller few read and fewer 06:14 understand. The Bible has become a moving target. One can strip 06:17 it down, twist it, misread it, add to it, supplement it, and 06:24 even overrule it, and unfortunately, 95% of the 06:26 congregation will not realize it. Why? Because Americans no 06:30 longer know the Bible. The evidence is overpowering that 06:33 contemporary Christianity is Bible-ish, at best and at worst, 06:36 in some cases, Bible-less... Everyone has an opinion about 06:40 the Bible. Politicians attempt to use the Bible, Grammy-award 06:43 winners quote it and Hollywood has portrayed it on the big 06:46 screen. Yet one problem remains: most are oblivious to the 06:50 Bible's basic content, meaning and message. 06:55 Here's a Time Magazine article some years back they 06:58 said it's called the Bible and the Apocalypse. And the subtitle 07:01 is Why more Americans are reading and talking about the 07:03 end of the world. So there is an interest in the scriptures in 07:06 spite of the fact that many people don't know what they say. 07:09 The book of the Bible so mysterious actually reveals 07:14 God's love for us. Did you know that friends? But in order to 07:15 really grasp the future we have to also understand the past. 07:19 History is prophecy in reverse and prophecy is history in 07:23 advance. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and 07:26 verse 21 and here the scriptures say: Prove all things; hold fast 07:30 that which is good. When we've proven something true from the 07:33 Bible what does God ask us to do friends. He asks us to hold 07:37 onto it, to consider it precious to not let it go. Now not 07:40 everything that is good is easy to hold on to. What happens 07:43 if we been raised with something that is not good, 07:45 something that is false, 07:46 something that doesn't agree with the Bible. In order 07:49 to truly hold onto what is good we have to first let go of 07:52 something that may not be correct. So the same holds true 07:56 with various beliefs and teachings. In order to have 07:59 the Bible enshrined in our hearts and our minds we have to 08:02 always be willing to accept truth. In John 7 verse 17 it 08:07 says: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the 08:09 doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. 08:13 Now I want you friends to be able to understand the Bible 08:15 for yourself because me standing here telling you what I believe it 08:20 says doesn't make it say what I'm saying it says. In other words 08:23 all of us here agreeing on something doesn't 08:24 change the Bible. All we can do is come to the Bible 08:27 with open hearts and minds and say 08:29 what are the facts of what it really teaches. All we can do 08:33 friends is open our minds to the Lord and know what he has to 08:38 teach us is right. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 3: For this is good 08:42 and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior who will have all 08:45 men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. 08:50 Now in the Bible friends God is equated with truth. So the 08:53 purpose of studying the Bible, the purpose of coming to a 08:56 prophecy seminar is to discover truth so we can understand 09:00 further what the will of God is for our lives. God wants to take 09:03 us and put us on the highway of truth. If we're not on that road 09:08 now God wants to make sure that somehow we find that highway. 09:11 In fact, many people today they're telling us that it 09:14 doesn't matter what truth is. That you don't really have to 09:17 find truth. Let's go to the Bible again friends. 1 Peter 09:20 chapter 3 and verse 15. It says: But sanctify the Lord God in 09:24 your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man 09:27 that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you 09:30 with meekness and fear. 09:31 So is it important according to the Bible to find 09:34 truth. Absolutely friends. Is it important in the Bible to give 09:37 an answer for what we believe. Absolutely it is. This is one of 09:41 the first verses I ever memorized as a Christian. You 09:43 see friends, wrong teaching leads to wrong thinking and 09:47 wrong thinking leads to wrong actions and wrong actions lead 09:53 to a wrong character and a ruined character leads to a 09:54 ruined life. It can all be traced back to correct teaching. 09:56 You have to be able to be taught correctly. Sadly today 10:00 many Christians are following after things that are written 10:04 for sensationalism or maybe for book sales rather than a sincere 10:09 intelligent study of the word of God. So we're going to go 10:13 tonight and we're going to really find out how to study the 10:15 scriptures. How can we correctly understand end-time prophecy? 10:19 We're going to be going to scores and scores and scores of 10:22 texts. So it's absolutely imperative that we study the 10:26 Bible correctly. We're going to begin in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and 10:30 in verse 16, a verse that many know of by heart. It says: All 10:33 scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is 10:36 profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for 10:40 instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be 10:42 perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Thoroughly 10:47 furnished means fully equipped for all good works. So according 10:52 to scripture how much... according to the Bible how much 10:54 scripture is inspired. All of it Some people say to me, Pastor 10:58 Brian, I only believe in the Old Testament. And some have said, 11:00 in fact many have said, I only believe in the New Testament. 11:02 Some have said to me I only believe in the four gospels. 11:05 According to what we have just read, how much scripture is 11:08 inspired? All of it is inspired. You see friends the Old 11:12 Testament is revealed more fully in the New and the New is 11:16 concealed in types and shadows in the Old but if you throw out 11:17 The Old Testament you throw out the only scriptures that we have 11:20 when Jesus was on the earth. So, all of the scripture is 11:25 profitable for it. The two sections of the Bible are called 11:30 Old Testament and New Testament because they both testify of 11:33 Jesus and that's valuable to us isn't it? You see friends I 11:36 don't want to just be an Old Testament Christian and I don't 11:39 want to just be a New Testament Christian. I want to be a Bible 11:42 Christian, don't you? Absolutely So the Bible doesn't know the 11:46 terms old scripture, new scripture. You might hear 11:47 Christians say that but to the Bible and Bible writers 11:50 scripture was scripture. 11:58 So again dear friends with so many people deciding to throw 12:01 out the Old Testament, at least in their mind, with so many 12:04 people making a mental decision to throw out the Old Testament 12:07 and 270 of the 404 verses of Revelation are taken from the 12:12 Old Testament can you see why they might not understand the 12:14 book of Revelation. The book of Revelation rests upon the 12:17 foundation of the Old Testament. So when you take out the Old 12:21 Testament you are leaving yourself open to all kinds of 12:24 what the Bible calls private interpretation. Let's go take a 12:28 look. 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 20. It says: 12:35 Now private friends means belonging to an 12:39 individual. If I got up here and said well here's what I think 12:41 the antichrist is and I just gave an opinion that would be a 12:44 private interpretation not based on the Bible. But you're not 12:47 going to see that in this seminar. We're going to get it 12:49 from the scriptures. So the emphasis or the usage of the 12:52 word "first" here is emphasizing priority. In other words, Peter 12:56 is saying put this on the top level of your priority list. No 13:00 scripture is of any private interpretation. Then it goes on 13:03 and says this: 13:10 So this reminds us again that it's not up to a man. 13:14 It's not up to a church to say what they think it is. God will 13:18 tell us in his word. You know there's an old saying friends 13:21 that goes like this: The teachings of men so often 13:24 mislead us so this my only question be, what says the 13:27 Bible, the holy Bible to me? When we get our own personal 13:31 opinions involved that's when you get church traditions and 13:33 you get prejudices and you get biases and you get all kinds of 13:36 errors coming in when it comes to doctrine. Proverbs 16 and 13:40 verse 25 says: 13:43 Now why does it seem 13:46 right to this individual though it's going to lead him on a path 13:49 of destruction. Because he's probably told himself over and 13:53 over again that he is right and he hasn't checked it out from 13:56 the scriptures. Two biblical keys I'm going to share with you 13:59 now friends. Number 1: The book of Revelation rests upon the 14:03 broad foundation of Old Testament history, imagery and 14:07 prophecy. The New Testament again, we've said it before, is 14:12 standing on the foundation of the Old and particularly the 14:15 book of Revelation is standing on the foundation of the Old. 14:18 Much of the language of Revelation, the symbolism, the 14:22 imagery is taken right from the Old Testament. In fact, all of 14:26 the books of the Bible meet and have their ending in the book of 14:30 Revelation. Revelation was written some 600 years after 14:34 Daniel and so it is to be understood that when you come to 14:38 the book of Revelation the book of Daniel has already been read. 14:41 If you try to understand Revelation without first reading 14:44 Daniel and understanding what Daniel has for us there it would 14:48 be like trying to study college trigonometry or algebra without 14:51 having basic mathematics. Now calculus or any of those colleges 14:55 courses can be understood but it's very important that we 14:58 first, understand arithmetic. And it's the same way when it comes 15:02 to the study of the Bible. If we go to Revelation and we don't 15:05 have that knowledge of the Old Testament first, we're never 15:08 going to unlock it's mysteries for us. So Revelation builds 15:14 upon the words that were previously written there. We 15:16 need some basic knowledge before we go into it. Now there's 15:20 another key of understanding I want to bring before you right 15:23 now. The principle forever lock in your mind is let the Bible 15:26 interpret the Bible. We're going to compare scripture with 15:30 scripture. Let's see this principle in 1 Corinthians 15:33 chapter 2 and verse 13. And here the Bible says: Which things 15:37 also, we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but 15:41 which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with 15:44 spiritual. In other words, there's a comparison process 15:47 here. In order to see the big picture of what these Bible 15:50 verses are telling us we have to compare verse with verse. Now 15:53 that was a verse from the New Testament. Let's see how it says 15:56 the same thing in the Old Testament by going to Isaiah 15:59 chapter 28 and here it says in verse 9: Whom shall he teach 16:03 knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? 16:06 (Doctrine there is something he's teaching) them that are 16:09 weaned from the milk and drawn from the breast. So the idea 16:12 here is if we're going to advance in our study and go 16:15 through a spiritual weaning so to speak then we've got to get 16:18 off the simple things and we've got to understand how the 16:22 scriptures explain themself and it tells us in the next verse. 16:25 It says: For precept must be upon precept; (and the way of 16:31 saying that would be Bible instruction upon Bible 16:33 instruction) Precept upon precept; line upon line, line 16:37 upon line; here a little and there a little: So another way 16:41 of saying that is put the principles of God together with 16:45 the principle of God. Find everything the Bible says about 16:49 a topic; finding out what the Old Testament said, what does 16:52 the New Testament say, what did Peter say, what did Paul say, 16:55 what did Jesus say? And put all of these assembled verses 16:58 together and then you get a very well-rounded picture of the 17:01 truth of that topic. Now if that is the truth, and it is if that 17:07 is the way of proper study then we should be able to see that 17:09 in the scriptures themselves and actually, friends we do by none 17:13 other than Jesus. Jesus showed us that comparison process and 17:16 we're going to pick it up here in Luke chapter 24 where Jesus 17:20 is meeting with these two disciples on the road to Emmaus. 17:22 And he said to them in Luke 24 verse 25: Then he said unto them 17:28 O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets 17:31 have spoken. Let me pause there. They had made up a theory based 17:36 on selected texts from the Old Testament and they made 17:38 up their own ideas 17:40 of how the Messiah would come. We'll look at that again in our 17:43 next message. He goes on: Ought not Christ to have suffered 17:46 these things, and to enter into his glory? In other words, if 17:49 you had been studying the scriptures as you should you 17:50 would have known that this was to be expected of the Messiah. 17:54 And now verse 27: And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, 17:58 he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things 18:02 concerning himself. Wouldn't you have loved to have heard that 18:05 Bible study. Oh I know I would have. But Jesus didn't start in 18:10 Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. When it say beginning at Moses, 18:14 now Moses wrote first five books of the Bible. So what it's 18:17 basically telling us is it's saying and beginning at the 18:21 beginning he went through the scriptures and they only had the 18:25 Old Testament back then. He went through the scriptures and he 18:29 took out the selected texts that dealt with his work as the 18:33 Messiah. And oh friends, again, what a study that would have 18:36 been coming right from the lips of Jesus himself. So he didn't 18:40 start in Genesis 1:1 and read the entire Old Testament to them. 18:43 Now the road to Emmaus was only about six miles long. It 18:46 wasn't time enough to do that. He simply took various texts 18:49 that dealt on him as the Messiah and put them together for them. 18:53 You see in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15. It says: Study to shew 18:58 thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be 18:59 ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now the word 19:05 rightly dividing it really means in the actual literal Greek it 19:08 means to cut straight but in practical terms it means to 19:10 expound correctly. There's a right way to study the Bible and 19:14 there is a wrong way to study the Bible. The wrong way is to 19:17 simply say this is what I think this text is saying. I'm going 19:20 ignore all the other texts in the Bible because I don't want 19:23 to hear what they have to say. And to simply make a whole 19:26 doctrine based on one verse. Now that's the wrong way. What is 19:30 the right way. Again we go back to the scriptures, comparison 19:33 process scripture with scripture line upon line, precept with 19:36 precept. So where is the safety when it comes to studying the 19:41 Bible? The Lord answers us very clearly, find out what Jesus 19:44 said, what did Peter say, what did John say? It's sort of like 19:46 this friends, if I could make an analogy for you. If a farmer 19:51 went out to make a fence he would put a fence post down on 19:53 the ground and then with just on fence post you could take a 19:56 look at it from where you are and you could say maybe the 19:58 fence is running this way. And I could take a look at it here and 20:00 I think maybe the fence is running that way. But we don't 20:02 know because there's only one fence post. Think of the one 20:04 fence post as one verse of scripture. But then the farmer 20:09 puts another post down and then he puts another post down and 20:12 every time he puts a post down it becomes more easily seen 20:15 exactly where that fence line is running to. In the same way, 20:19 every time we add a verse of scripture, verse upon verse, 20:21 line upon line, it becomes very clear where the Bible is leading 20:25 us on that particular topic. So, when you use a text of scripture 20:29 in such a way that it contradicts another text of 20:32 scripture somehow you should know that you've misused the 20:36 Bible. You've taken it out of context. Somehow you've 20:39 misunderstood it because the Bible does not contradict itself 20:42 Jesus said it this way. He said: The scriptures cannot be broken. 20:46 I like to say it this way friends: Whatever is true in the 20:49 Bible is true all through the Bible. It's not going to be true 20:53 in one place and contradict itself in another place. So when 20:58 Revelation uses a phrase, let's make it practical to the book of 21:00 Revelation now then. Ask yourself, where else in the 21:03 Bible do I see that word? Where else in the Bible have I heard that 21:07 phrase? And then go to that place in the Bible, and this is 21:11 where a concordance can really help you out, read it there, 21:13 understand its meaning there and take that meaning all the 21:16 way back into the New Testament or into the book of Revelation 21:19 and usually, Revelation helps to apply it in a symbolic or a 21:23 spiritual type of way and then you can see its true meaning. 21:26 Once again all the books of the Bible meet and have their ending 21:29 in the book of Revelation. But let's give a couple of examples 21:33 here today just to give us an idea of how this works. We'll 21:37 give an easy one first. Back in ancient Israel's time the 21:41 economy centered around what we call the sanctuary and its 21:44 sacrifices. The lamb was the most prominent sacrifice of all 21:47 of the sacrificial animals. Now how many of you've read the book 21:50 Exodus or the book of Leviticus? You can see again that that 21:54 sanctuary service was a very very prominent part of Israel's 21:59 economy. But you cannot be struck with the fact that they 22:03 constantly sacrificed every day every year all through the year 22:08 for centuries and one day there was a man named John and he was 22:12 baptizing people in the Jordan river. Then he looked up and he 22:16 saw a presence coming before him He said, behold the Lamb of God, 22:19 which takes away the sins of the world. Now was he looking at an 22:24 animal. Of course not. He was looking at Jesus but what would 22:26 come to his Jewish listeners' mind a perfect, spotless 22:31 sacrificial lamb. You see the book of Revelation uses the word 22:35 lamb 27 times. Of those, 26 times it refers directly to 22:40 Jesus. That might not strike you as important till we understand 22:43 that the lamb is used in the entire New Testament only 31 22:48 times. So 27 of the 31 times it's referred to in the book of 22:54 Revelation, 26 of those 27 times it's referring directly to Jesus 22:57 and, therefore, because the word Lamb is so prominent in the book 23:02 of Revelation, you would think it's important to understand 23:05 what that lamb is all about and it is, friends. We're going to 23:07 know about it right here at the Prophecy Unsealed Seminar. Now 23:09 let me give you a more detailed example number 2. In Daniel 23:14 chapter 7 which we're going to look at on another night, the 23:17 prophet Daniel sees four beasts out of the water. The first 23:20 beast was like a lion. The second beast was like a bear. 23:23 The third looked like a leopard and the fourth is a dreadful and 23:26 terrible beast with 10 horns. And so now when we come down to 23:31 the book of Revelation what do we see? We see a creature. He's 23:34 coming up out of the waters just like those other ones in Daniel 23:36 and what does he look like? He's got the body of a leopard, 23:38 he's got the feet of a bear. He's got the mouth of a lion and 23:42 he's got 10 horns. In other words, the student of the Bible 23:45 will say, Oh I have seen those symbols before and they're 23:50 drawing...it's drawing their attention back into the Old 23:53 Testament, back to the book of Daniel. The only way to make 23:56 sense out of these symbols in Revelation is to know and go back 23:59 into the Old Testament. Now it is this beast power that you 24:04 presently see. God says don't worship it, don't worship it's 24:07 image or don't take its mark or you'll be forever lost. Now when 24:10 you think about it this is kind of a strange creature; don't you 24:13 agree? Let me ask you an intelligent question. Have you 24:15 ever seen anything like this down at your local zoo? Is this 24:18 a literal animal, yes or no? No of course not. It's symbolic and 24:22 that means it represents something. As we look at this 24:25 beast the first thing we see is that it is a composite animal 24:27 and we want to know how to understand it. And then of 24:31 course we realize we have to go back into the Old Testament. We 24:34 have to leave the book of Revelation for a little while 24:37 and we pick up on the prophet Daniel. Now a key to 24:41 understanding prophecy is to know the book of Revelation and 24:42 the book of Daniel goes hand in glove. Very tightly related each 24:47 one helps to explain the other Both of them prophets, John and 24:52 Daniel. Both of them called beloved of God and both of them 24:54 writing what we call apocalyptic prophecy. Prophecy that pulls 24:58 back the curtain and shows us the future in advance. So, we go 25:02 here to Daniel chapter 7 and verse 2. And it says: Daniel 25:05 spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the 25:08 four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea. It says in verse 25:11 2 and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from 25:16 another. Now our next obvious question is what does a beast 25:21 represent in Bible prophecy. Now we don't have to guess at it, we 25:23 don't have to speculate at it. The Bible will explain itself 25:26 and we get that by going to verse 17. And here it says: 25:30 These great beasts which are four are four, what friends, 25:34 Kings which arise out of the earth. So there you have the 25:38 Bible interpretation of a beast. It says a beast represents a 25:40 king. But we want to broaden that interpretation some by 25:44 going to verse 23. And here it says: Thus he said, The fourth 25:47 beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth. Now a 25:52 kingdom is simply a shortened form of king's dominion. So a 25:54 king rules over a kingdom. So when it says the fourth beast 25:57 shall be the fourth kingdom then what would the first three 26:00 beasts represent? Well the first three kingdoms starting in 26:03 Daniel's time. Kingdom one, kingdom two, kingdom three and 26:06 finally the fourth beast represents the fourth kingdom. 26:09 So in Bible prophecy a beast represents a king and a kingdom. 26:13 You know we do the same thing today. We use animals to 26:17 represent nations. In other words today we have a rooster 26:19 that represents France and a bear represents Russia and I 26:21 guess a kangaroo represents Australia and of course we have 26:24 the great eagle that represents the United States. Now I come 26:27 from the great white north of Canada originally and what 26:31 symbol is that? Now I know many of you'll say maple leaf, but 26:34 it's not the leaf when it comes to animals right? Of course, we 26:37 know about the maple leaf but we're talking animals tonight. 26:39 and so what animal is it that represents Canada? Well it 26:42 usually takes a Canadian to know it but it is the beaver. And so 26:48 ...yeah I know it's not as majestic as the great eagle that 26:49 we love from up there anyway. He's an industrious fellow. So 26:53 we got that idea from the word of God. God has for a long time 26:57 used animals to represent nations. Now sometimes people 27:00 ask me this question. They'll say Pastor Brian why did God 27:02 choose to put these truths in coded language in the Bible? 27:07 The answer to that friends is that God did this to protect his 27:12 word from people that would corrupt it, people that would 27:15 think to destroy it. God coded certain things in scripture and 27:19 they can be un-coded by scripture and therefore the sincere and 27:24 the earnest can understand it by doing some diligent study and 27:28 the insincere and the corrupt and the evil will never 27:30 understand it. So the lazy, the insincere will never understand 27:35 it. So the student of the Bible is going to know the language 27:38 of the Bible and they are going to be able to unlock it for 27:41 themself. Now let's see what we've learned already tonight. 27:43 Unlocking Revelation's Mysteries What have we found out? Number 27:48 Take the whole Bible as the inspired word of God. Number 2: 27:52 Understand the book of Revelation is meant to be 27:55 understood. We're going to look at that shortly. Number 3: Be 27:57 willing to let go of preconceived ideas that are in 28:00 error, 1 Thessalonians 5:21- Prove all things hold fast that 28:03 which is good. Number 4: Seek truth with a humble heart and 28:07 have a mind that is open to be taught by the Spirit of God. 28:11 John 7:17- If any man will do his will he will know of the 28:15 doctrine. Flee from any private interpretations of Scripture 28:19 number 5 and number 6: Understand that Revelation rests 28:21 upon the board foundation of Old Testament history, imagery, and 28:25 prophecy. Number 7: Use scripture to interpret scripture 28:29 Find as many verses as you can which speak on the topic and 28:32 study them together as a whole. Number 8: Learn from the Bible 28:36 the meaning of the symbols that will unlock Revelation's code to 28:39 us. In Amos 3 and verse 7 it says: Surely the Lord God will 28:43 do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the 28:46 prophets. So why is spending time like this in a prophecy 28:50 seminar so important? Because God has said to us that he's not 28:54 going to do anything of a major import in the earth until he 28:58 first declares it through his prophet. The prophets wrote down 29:01 what we now call prophecy. And so God is working his will in 29:06 the earth and he desires his people to understand it. Back to 29:09 the scriptures now. 2 Peter 1 verse 19: We have also a more 29:13 sure word of prophecy; says Peter, whereunto ye do well 29:16 that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark 29:20 place. We live in a very spiritually dark world tonight 29:23 don't we friends? Because of that we need the light of the 29:26 word, we need the light of prophecy to show us exactly 29:29 where God is leading us. Now let's go to the second major 29:35 Biblical key that we're looking at tonight. We looked at number 29:40 The book of Revelation rests upon the broad foundation of Old 29:41 Testament history, imagery and prophecy. The only way to make 29:44 sense of it is to go to the Old Testament and use it as our 29:48 foundation and now Biblical key number 2: Jesus Christ is the 29:53 foundation and the focus of apocalyptic prophecy, and 29:57 particularly the book of Revelation. Have you ever heard 30:00 that old saying, friends, he couldn't see the forest for the 30:03 trees. I'm sure you have. Now what exactly does that mean? 30:06 That means that a person can be so up close to a certain tree 30:12 examining all the details of that tree that they miss the 30:14 fact that beyond it is a great and magnificent forest. In a 30:18 similar fashion someone can be trying to find certain things in 30:21 the book of Revelation, looking at certain symbols and examining 30:24 them in all the detail that they miss the broad idea of what 30:28 Revelation is trying to tell us. They're looking at dragons, 30:31 they're looking at beasts but they're missing the main point. 30:34 Let's go to Revelation 1 and verse 1 and here it says: The 30:38 Revelation of Jesus Christ... It's the revelation of who 30:42 friends? Of Jesus...which God gave unto him, to shew unto his 30:46 servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he 30:49 sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John. 30:52 So I want to ask you a question. Are you one of his servants 30:55 tonight, friends? And if you are and God gave this to you to 30:59 understand. And it says, things which must shortly come to pass. 31:02 Let's go to verse 3: Blessed is he that readeth...now you're 31:05 going to see a threefold blessing in this verse...and 31:08 they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things 31:11 which are written therein: for the time is at hand. Now did 31:14 Jesus tell us to read this book? Absolutely he did. Did he tell 31:18 us to hear it. Now hear in this context means understand. When 31:25 my daughters were smaller I might say to them, do you hear 31:27 me? Now what am I telling them? Am I asking them if they're deaf? 31:29 Well of course not. I'm saying do you understand me and they 31:32 got the point. So understand is one of the things the Lord wants 31:38 us to do in Revelation. And then it says Keep those things...keep 31:42 them means obey. So we're to read the book, we're to 31:45 understand the book and we're to obey the things that are in 31:48 that book. And it says if you do you'll be blessed and that means 31:52 happy or content. So for studying the book of Revelation 31:56 friends and we're trying to find the whole meaning of it 31:58 the key is that Revelation is to lead us to a saving 32:03 relationship with the Savior Jesus Christ. Folks do you know 32:07 that in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation, it is 32:11 said to refer to Jesus over 140 times, just in the first three 32:16 chapters. And it says if we do that that we can have a blessing 32:21 Now friends I need that blessing in my life, don't you? Every day 32:23 is so filled with uncertainty. You know we don't know if the 32:26 stock market is going to go up or gas prices are going to go 32:29 down. We don't know what's coming. We do know the Bible is 32:32 true and we do know that Jesus is faithful, don't we? So 32:35 Revelation testifies or witnesses to it about Jesus. 32:39 Some just want to know about the mark of the beast. They want to 32:42 know about that number 666 or they want to know about 32:45 Armageddon. Now we're going to get to those things in this 32:47 seminar but first we want to understand what the purpose of 32:49 Revelation is which is to lead us to Jesus Christ. You see 32:53 friends, being smart is not enough for salvation. God wants 32:58 that intimate understanding of his relationship with us and 33:02 Revelation is what we call a Christocentric book and that's 33:05 why friends that Satan attacks Revelation with every ounce of 33:09 his might. He tries to get people to misunderstand it, to 33:15 be confused by it or to simply reject it so it has no part in 33:20 their life. He works overtime to try to discredit it or to 33:23 discourage people from reading it. So does the book of 33:30 Revelation has beasts in it? Yes. Does the book of Revelation 33:33 talk about certain creatures like dragons? Yes. But who is it 33:36 we're really trying to find in the book of Revelation? We're 33:38 really trying to find Jesus, right? That's what the whole 33:40 purpose is. If you don't you don't find Jesus in the book of 33:44 Revelation you've missed the entire purpose of what prophecy 33:46 is all about. Now let's go take a closer look at this book shall 33:49 we. There are 22 chapters in the book of Revelation. Let me 33:53 suggest to you that in these 22 chapters is a wonderful 33:57 outlining of the great battle between good and evil, between 34:00 Christ and Satan. Now in highly symbolic literature like the 34:04 books of Daniel and Revelation, God tries to drive home a 34:08 specific point. We're going to start in chapter 1 and here John 34:12 is given this wonderful vision. It's like this most incredible 34:16 movie you've ever seen. He's asking John to write down the 34:21 things that he has shown. Chapters 2-11 present a history 34:25 of Christianity from the first coming to the second coming. 34:28 We have seven letters to the seven churches. We've got a 34:31 spiritual profile there of the Christian church for the last 34:35 2000 years. In Revelation 6 and 7 now we've got history but from 34:39 a different perspective. Now we see Satan's attacks on the 34:43 church through compromise, through apostasy, through heresy 34:47 And then we've got seven trumpets. It's another history 34:50 of the Christian church but from another perspective. Here we see 34:53 Christianity against the backdrop of major political and 34:57 military events. And then we've got Revelation chapter 12. 35:01 Revelation chapters 10 and 11 are mainly historical chapters 35:04 We won't go into them right now for the sake of time. Revelation 35:08 12 shows us the great dividing chapter of Revelation. This 35:13 amazing chapter focuses on the battle between good and evil. 35:15 Between Christ and Satan. Everything before chapter 12 35:20 is mainly but not entirely history. Everything after 35:26 chapter 12 is mainly but not entirely prophetic. So scholars 35:32 look at chapter 12 as the great dividing chapter. Revelation 13 35:36 describes a beast power, we're going to look at this also in 35:39 our seminar, who enforces his mark trying to establish an 35:42 economic boycott upon those who refuse to take the mark of the 35:45 beast. And there's another power spoken of in Revelation 13. This 35:48 power comes out from the land. We're going to also study this 35:51 in our seminar together. Revelation 14- Tremendous 35:56 chapter. It focuses on God's last warning message that goes 36:00 to all the world before Jesus comes back, telling them to 36:04 worship the Creator and not to worship the beast. Revelation 15 36:07 shows us the close of probation for this world. Revelation 16 36:10 shows us the seven last plagues which we will also take up in 36:14 our seminar. Revelation 17 shows us a magnification of the events 36:20 of Revelation 13 and it further details the union of church and 36:25 state before Jesus returns. Revelation 18 graphically 36:28 details the total collapse of false religion and God's call to 36:33 come out of it and then Revelation 19 shows us the 36:36 second coming, Jesus coming in in Glory vividly portrayed by 36:41 Jesus riding on a horse. Revelation 20- We're going to 36:42 look at this in a few subjects from now. It shows us the 36:47 millennial period. It shows us the great thousand years and 36:49 what's going to happen to Satan during that time and where the 36:51 church is during that time. We're going to be studying that 36:54 in detail. And finally chapters 21 and 22, they show us the end 36:59 of the great controversy, the great battle between good and 37:00 evil and the ultimate restoration of all things. So 37:04 there's a wonderful outline of Revelation. Let's examine more 37:08 closely this great dividing chapter, chapter 12. It says in 37:11 verse 7: And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels 37:14 fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels 37:18 and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in 37:21 heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, 37:25 called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: 37:27 he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out 37:29 with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is 37:33 come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and 37:36 the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast 37:39 down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they 37:44 overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their 37:47 testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. 37:50 Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe 37:53 to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil 37:55 is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth 37:58 that he hath but a short time. So here we've got this overview 38:04 of the battle between good and evil. And I want to ask you a 38:07 question friends. What is the greatest war that has ever been 38:10 fought on planet earth. Some might be tempted to say World 38:12 War I. It was called the war to end all wars. Some might say 38:16 World War II because of course the amount of carnage that was 38:19 present in that era. Some might say the war against communism 38:23 or even more present-day war against terrorism but folks let 38:25 me share with you the greatest battle that has ever been fought 38:29 is being fought and ever will be fought in the battle over our 38:34 mind. The devil is trying to take control of our allegiance. 38:38 The devil is trying to take control of our loyalty and God 38:42 is fighting back trying to get us to surrender to him. This 38:47 background of the mind is where the great controversy's 38:49 taking place for 6000 years now since sin has entered planet 38:53 earth. Now have you ever wondered why in Revelation the 38:57 adversary of all mankind is called a serpent and a dragon? 39:00 The answer is because the serpent deceives us and the 39:04 dragon destroys us. Jesus said of Satan, He's a liar and a 39:08 murderer. And this has been the devil's constant effort to get 39:13 us to be deceived so eventually we could be destroyed. And the 39:17 devil hates the book of Revelation with a passion. He 39:19 hates Jesus' death on Calvary. He hates his ministry for us in 39:23 heaven. He hates the eternal truth of scripture. Now don't be 39:27 discouraged by this. Why? Because the Bible tells us the 39:32 Lamb is going to win the battle, that's Jesus. And we are all in 39:35 the midst of that battleground. In the midst of this battle 39:39 we're told this in Luke 19 and verse 10. For the Son of Man is 39:43 come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now friends I 39:50 have two children. They're grown up now but when my youngest 39:55 daughter was quite small, maybe she was about five years old, we 39:58 were at a pastors' conference I remember it was in Florida, a 40:00 very high hotel and there we were in the very basement with 40:03 a crowd of people waiting to get on an elevator. And while we 40:06 were there I had my two daughters with me and my wife 40:09 a little family of four and the doors opened and a press of 40:12 people pushed into the elevator and I could see it was too full 40:14 for us to get on so I thought I'd just wait for the next one. 40:17 So I was watching the elevator and then when the doors closed 40:19 I looked around and in my family of four there was only present a 40:24 family of three. And I thought, Oh no! My youngest daughter 40:29 walked into that elevator. Now let me tell you something, Dad 40:35 sprang into action and I started to run because I knew it wasn't 40:37 going to be very long before she figured out Dad and Mom weren't 40:40 with her and that wasn't going to work out very well. So I ran 40:42 up the stairs as fast as I could and the elevator wasn't on that 40:45 floor. So I ran up to another one. I tried to find where the 40:48 elevator was and I thought maybe it'd gone back down so I ran 40:50 back down again because there was more than one elevator. And 40:53 let me tell you friends you just have to be a parent to know what 40:56 you feel like at that moment. I knew my daughter was in that 40:59 hotel but I didn't know where and this father was going to 41:03 find her. I don't know how many minutes went by but it seemed 41:06 like a long, long time. And so finally, some kind soul figured 41:09 out what was going on and they took her by the hand and got her 41:12 all the way down to the main lobby and we got reunited, but 41:15 the reason I tell you that story friends is that if I as a father 41:19 can feel such anguish over my child who's only lost for 41:24 supposedly minutes. How does God the heavenly Father who loves 41:28 far more than we can love, who loves far deeper and broader 41:34 than we ever could, how do you suppose he feels friends when he 41:38 sees a whole world going down to destruction. No matter how big 41:43 or small your home is God knows where you live. He hasn't lost 41:48 your address. God is watching over you even tonight. Folks I 41:54 don't leave my warm home simply because I like travel. I leave 41:59 because the Lord of heaven is trying to find more people who 42:03 want to go to heaven. Would you agree? Right now in the 42:08 spiritual realm and the reason I leave my home friends is for one 42:14 reason. The Bible is the road map to heaven and I want to help 42:17 more people read the road map right. Right now in the 42:22 spiritual realm which the natural eye cannot see we've got 42:26 holy angels doing battle with unholy angels and we would call 42:29 them demons. And the book of Revelation is not about who is 42:32 fighting who in the Middle East or even here in North America. 42:35 There might be interesting information there but that's not 42:38 the primary reason the book of Revelation was written. The 42:41 primary reason it was written is that God is showing us that he's 42:45 going to take this world that has fallen into chaos, he's 42:49 going to ultimately restore it back to its Edenic glory, back 42:54 to the glory that was once there in the garden of Eden and I want 42:57 to be part of that glory, don't you friend? Aren't you tired of 43:00 the violence of this world. Aren't you tired of the chaos 43:04 that we read every day in the news? I'm tired of this pain 43:07 friends and I believe you are too. Revelation wasn't written 43:10 to get us spiritually hyped up on some kind of sensationalistic 43:14 thing. It's trying to show us that God is leading a people out 43:19 of the chaos of this world into the peace of eternity. I want to 43:25 thank you for coming to this seminar. I know that you could 43:29 be in a lot of places here tonight. Those of you watching 43:32 at home, I know that you could be doing a lot of other things too. 43:35 You know, we go through this period of time through our early 43:43 years, we call it elementary school, 12 years of it. Some of 43:47 us then go into more education, four years of university. Some 43:51 even go beyond that into professional work. Some of us 43:55 take further education classes depending on what our trade is. 43:58 We can go years and years and years of study just trying to 44:04 get through 50, 60, 70 more years of this world, right? And 44:08 yet when you have a seminar and you tell them it's going to be 44:09 for a number of nights and you tell them how many, they go 44:12 Oh! I could never go that many. Folks if we can spend multiple 44:19 years of our life trying to navigate our way through this 44:23 world, it's worth it spending some time learning about 44:27 eternity, would you agree? It's worth it spending some time 44:29 learning how to prepare for Jesus' coming. You can't buy a 44:34 kit that tells you to get ready, right. You can't buy readiness 44:37 for the second coming. Look how Jesus finishes the book of 44:41 Revelation by giving us an appeal. Revelation 22 and verse 44:44 7. He says: Behold, I come quickly (the world quickly there 44:49 means suddenly); blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the 44:52 prophecy of this book. Now when God wants to emphasize something 44:55 he repeats it to us. So God is going to repeat it to us again 44:58 in verse 12. And here it says: ...behold, I come quickly; and 45:02 my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work 45:05 shall be. Now he's told us twice but even twice wasn't enough. 45:09 He's going to say it to us again in verse 20. And here we read: 45:14 He which testifies these things saith, Surely I come quickly. 45:19 Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. 45:23 Not once, not twice but three times God is sending us a clear 45:26 message isn't he friends? The book of Revelation is not a 45:28 message of beasts and dragons and gloom and doom. No way! 45:32 The book of Revelation is what has always been. It is a 45:37 revelation of hope for this world. It is God guiding us to 45:42 a beautiful conclusion if we will only put our trust in him. 45:45 Here in Matthew 24 and verse 44: Therefore be ye also ready; for 45:49 in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. We don't 45:54 know the exact day, we don't know the exact year, we don't 45:57 know if it's going to be this present year or the next but we 45:59 do know that we need to be ready for that great event. I 46:03 want to be ready, don't you friend? Once again, Satan will 46:07 do all he can to distract you from furthering your study in 46:11 this seminar. I'm glad you're here But I want you to know for those 46:15 of you who are more advanced in your study of the Bible, we're 46:18 going to have a lot for you too. We're going to deal with some 46:21 more basic things, that's true but for those of you who 46:24 consider yourself scholars we're going to have a lot of 46:26 information that you are going to be happy with as well. The 46:29 Old Testament tells of a Savior to come. The New Testament tells 46:32 us the Savior has come and both the Old and the New Testament 46:35 tells us the Savior will come again. The Lord came the first 46:40 time to redeem. He's coming the second time to restore. He came 46:44 the first time as a suffering servant. He comes the second 46:47 time as a conquering King. The first coming of Jesus was a 46:50 matter of history. The second coming of Jesus is a matter of 46:55 faith. Both the first and the second, coming go together 46:59 Without which neither one of them would be complete. 47:01 Friends you could be in a lot of other places tonight 47:03 but you've 47:04 chosen to come here. Would you make another good choice and say 47:09 Lord, I want to be ready with all of my heart and soul for the 47:11 second coming. If that's your decision friends would you just 47:15 put your hand in the air tonight God bless each and every one of 47:18 you. The devil doesn't want you to be here. The angels of heaven 47:23 want you here, God will work out your schedule. Our very next 47:27 session together we are going to look at the second coming of 47:31 Jesus. Why is that so important? Because the second coming of 47:34 Jesus is a pillar in the series of end-time events. There are 47:37 things that the Bible speaks about just before the second 47:40 coming and things that are just after the second coming. But the 47:44 second coming is absolutely essential that we understand it 47:47 correctly because if we don't understand that correctly we're 47:51 almost certain we'll be off on all the other things that 47:54 surround it. Father in heaven, we want our hearts to be filled 47:59 with joy for that second coming. For those of us that have made 48:03 that decision accepting Jesus into our life, this is a 48:06 wonderful thing. But for those listening to this message 48:10 whether here or at home, Lord there are many that have not yet 48:14 made that decision. For those who wish to just invite you into 48:19 their hearts right now we ask Lord that you would give us of 48:23 your Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus died for the 48:28 salvation of the world. We believe that you sent your Son 48:29 into this world to die on Calvary's cross. But we need 48:33 help Lord. We need power to live a changed life. So give us of 48:37 your Holy Spirit. Live in our hearts. Help us to walk out of 48:40 here tonight in peace looking forward with joy for your soon 48:45 second coming. This is our prayer and we thank you for 48:48 hearing it. In Jesus' name, Amen 48:52 ♪ ♪ 49:03 Hello everyone. I'm Pastor Brian McMahon the speaker of the 49:06 Prophecy Unsealed broadcast. We're so grateful you're 49:08 watching. We sincerely hope you've been blessed by what 49:10 you've heard. We're committed to sharing the good news of 49:12 salvation through Jesus Christ. If you would like to partner 49:16 with us, you can send a tax deductible donation to 49:19 The Evangelism Center P. O. Box 165, Liberty Lake, WA 49:21 99019. That's the Evangelism Center P.O. Box 165 Liberty Lake 49:26 WA 99019. We want to thank you for your generosity and your 49:33 prayerful support. |
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