(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, so the subject matter for this morning is the seven seals that we find here in the book of Revelation. So we started off in chapter number six, where it's got the most information here with the six seals being open. And you know, what we'll be focusing on primarily is heavily is the timing of the tribulation and the rapture, because that's pretty much what this deals with. And instead of calling it, you know, the seven seals or the six seals, we could just call this the tribulation, because that's what we're covering this morning in the content of these seals being open. Each one of these seals represents part of the tribulation. Now, what's interesting about this is, you know, before I even get started, I'm just going to read a few places, God doesn't want us to be deceived about when this is going to happen. I mean, we have an entire book of the Bible, the last book called Revelation, it's being revealed. It was revealed unto John, it's revealed unto us today. There should be no mystery about this, there should be no problems understanding this. God gave this to us in simple language for us to be able to understand. But as I mentioned yesterday, we're talking about Gog and Magog. People want to take the, you know, concepts from Scripture and just come up with all these bizarre doctrines and things that just don't line up at all with Scripture when you look at all the various places. And one thing that's awesome about this, and as I was studying this, and the reason why I'm post-trib, pre-wrath, is because everything, when you look up every single reference to end times events, when you look in the book of Daniel, when you look in Matthew and Mark and Luke, when you look in Revelation, when you look in 1 and 2 Thessalonians, it all gels together perfectly. You don't need to go through any mental gymnastics, you don't need to try to jump through hoops and try to prop things up that don't make any sense. And the reason why so many people are confused about prophecy is because that's what's being done out there. People trying to tell you things that contradicts what you clearly see in the Scripture. And hopefully, this was really cool, I'm glad that I got this subject to preach on, because it's amazing how well everything fits, and we're going to see, we're going to go to a lot of different places, we're going to go to Daniel, we're going to go to other places to just show you. But just a few places where the Bible tells us, you know, not to be deceived, in 1 Thessalonians 4, 13, the Bible says, But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. And then it goes on to talk about the rapture. God doesn't want us ignorant, He doesn't want us to have a lack of knowledge or a lack of understanding concerning this subject. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1, He says, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. And that's going to happen right now, like any moment, the day of Christ is going to happen. I don't want you to be troubled by that. It says in verse 3, Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. So we know, hey, the day of Christ isn't going to happen until this happens first, but He says, Let no man deceive you. He said, Look, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, let no man deceive you. Matthew 24 verse 4, And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. There's a lot of deceivers out there, there's a lot of people that are spewing lies about when the rapture is going to happen, and when the day of Christ is going to happen, and He says, Look, I don't want you to be deceived, which is why He gave us so much scripture, laying it out very simply for us to be able to understand. And we have, if you have a timeline, like Revelation chapter 6, if you're approaching someone who might be new to this subject, or might be confused themselves, Revelation 6 is an awesome place to show and say, hey, these are all the first things that are going to happen. And it makes sense. Okay, Revelation, just the book itself, it's being revealed. Revelation chapter 1, you have basically John hearing from Jesus Christ, right? And he hears, he's told that he has a message to send to the seven churches. Chapters 2 and 3, those messages are given, right, to all the various churches, the Church of Philadelphia, Laodicea, all the seven churches that there are specific messages to specific churches at that time. Not really heavy into prophecy necessarily, I'm not saying there's no prophecy there, but it's very clear on what's happening. And then in Revelation chapter 4, John goes up to heaven in the Spirit. And what we see in Revelation chapter 4, which is interesting because people want to tell you, you know, the pre-tribbers will say, oh, Revelation chapter 4, that's the rapture. What? Where are all the people going up to heaven? I see John in spirit, not in his flesh, not getting a new body, you know, none of that. And what it says in the very first verse in Revelation chapter 4, if I flip back to that, verse number 1 says, after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. You're going to start seeing now all of the things that are going to happen in the future. It wasn't what I told you, what you heard in chapters 1, 2, and 3, but now you're going to come up to heaven and you're going to see visions of the things that are going to come to pass. So then in chapter 4, then he sees the great white throne, he sees some of the beasts, they're saying holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. He sees just what's going on in heaven at that time, and then in chapter 5 is when they see the book, the book that has the seals, and it's sealed up, and they say, who can open the book, and no one's found worthy, and people are starting to get sad, oh man, no one can open up the book, and say, don't worry, you know, the son of the tribe of Judah, the son of David, Jesus Christ, he's worthy, he's able to open up the seals, that's what chapter 5 is all about. It still hasn't gotten into anything prophetic, it's just describing this event, and then we start opening up the seals in chapter number 6. So literally, these are the first things of prophecy that are going to be taking place. So there's no reason, you know, if you're going to be looking for anything, all the subjects are great, I'm glad I heard, we hear a lot of great preaching on all kinds of different subjects, all manner of things. And it's great, you know, last night Pastor Anderson started on a new heaven, a new earth, you know, it's awesome, it's great to learn those things, but if we're going to be looking for anything in particular, this is where we're going to be starting, because these are the first events that are going to be happening before the rapture. So let's dig into this in Revelation chapter 6 and verse number 1. Bible says, And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. Now I'm not going to get too deep into this, but I would like you to turn real quick, keep your finger here, we're going to be continuing to go back to Revelation 6. Flip if you would to Revelation chapter 19, Pastor Jimenez preached a lot about the Antichrist, and he already had mentioned, I'm going to bring it up though this morning again, that the Antichrist is the first thing that's going to, when the first seal is open, he comes on the scene. He comes on this white horse, and the reason why we know it's Antichrist is because he's trying to be like Jesus Christ. He's an imitation of Jesus Christ. And what we see in Revelation 19, one of the proof, Pastor Jimenez mentioned this, but I don't think he actually turned to the passage. Revelation 19, look at verse number 11, Bible says, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself, and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And obviously we know from John 1, in the beginning it was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and we beheld his glory, the glory of his only begotten of the Father, right, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, further on in John chapter 1. We know that the Word is Jesus Christ. And we see here the prophecy in Revelation 19 of Jesus coming on a white horse. And I believe that the Antichrist is going to be using this symbolism, and we see him coming on a white horse to represent and say, hey, I'm the coming of Jesus Christ. I'm God in the flood, you know, and he's going to be taking the place of Jesus Christ, and that's one of the ways he's going to try to deceive the whole world. But another point I want to point out here is it says here that he rode on a white horse and he had a bow. And nothing in the Bible is in here by accident. There's all things that we could learn from, and even just the fact that it says he's got a bow also indicates, in my opinion, turn if you would to Daniel chapter 11. We put bookmark in Revelation, specifically Revelation 6, because that's where the majority of our text is coming from. But then also in Daniel, we're going to be going back and forth. And Pastor Robinson preached a lot through the book of Daniel, but most of the stuff that I have to cover is not things that he went into detail on. So we're going to see kind of a little bit different angle. But Daniel chapter 11, we're going to see here the rise of the Antichrist found in the book of Daniel. And as I mentioned earlier, you know, what's amazing about this is that we're going through Revelation 6, and it's going to line up perfectly with every other account of end times events, especially in the book of Daniel. We're going to go through these things, and they give different details, but the order is all the same. And you'll notice as we go through this, if you pay attention to where, and we're going to be doing a lot of jumping back and forth, but if you're paying attention, you'll see that the verses are going to be increasing on the different references as we get through Revelation and Daniel. We're going to be going down the list, and we're going to see how they line up and how it fits perfectly. It's amazing. And obviously you're showing, proving this is the word of God. No man can come up with centuries and millennia in between the writings of the word and different areas and not having one contradiction, and not having one problem in all of the various accounts. It's amazing. So, Daniel chapter 11, remember I told you, remember it said that he has a bow. Look at verse number 21 in Daniel 11, the Bible reads, and in his estate shall stand up a vile person. A vile person is the Antichrist, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries, and with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken, yea, also the prince of the covenant. Verse 23, and after the league made with him, he shall work deceitfully, for he shall come up and shall become strong with a small people. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest place of the province, and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his father's fathers. He shall scatter among them the prey and spoil and riches, yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strongholds even for a time, and he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army, and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he shall not stand, for they shall forecast devices against him. So twice it mentions him forecasting devices, right? He's throwing things out, he's forecasting it, he's throwing things out there to spoil, to ruin the enemy's attack on him, because there's going to be war going on here between the antichrist and another kingdom, the king of the south, and in Daniel specifically he's talking about the king of the north and the king of the south, and there's going to be people, it's prior to him bringing in the world peace, the world peace doesn't actually happen until a little bit later, because first he has to rise to power, he has to come to power, and he comes to power by, you know, he makes a treaty with some, but others he's going to war against. And there's still great turmoil, and we're going to see that as soon as we get to the second rider of the horsemen in Revelation 6, but one more reference as far as him having a bow, you know, in an archer, someone has a bow, you're fighting from a distance. It's not the same as a sword, when your sword, that's up close and personal. When someone's fighting with a bow, you're fighting from farther away, and you're forecasting in, as it were, those arrows, right, a long distance. And what we see in Jeremiah chapter 50, if you'd like to turn there, keep a place in Daniel. We're only turning to Jeremiah once, so I know I'm not trying to confuse you too much with all these various bookmarks, but Jeremiah chapter number 50. At the destruction of Babylon, because I believe the Antichrist is going to destroy Babylon, and I don't think this one made it into Babylon USA, but this is a great reference here. We're going to see in verses 8 and 9 of Jeremiah chapter 50, the Bible says, remove out of the midst of Babylon and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans and be as the he goats before the flocks, for lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. And as you read Daniel 11, you'll see that the Antichrist is the king of the north, the north kingdom, the north country. So here, against Babylon now, an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall set themselves in array against her, from thence she shall be taken. Their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man, none shall return in vain. And again, the reference to arrows. Now, I believe that those arrows, since they're like a mighty expert man, none are going to return in vain. They're all going to hit their mark. Everyone with precision, I believe that's talking about, you know, technology like we have today, not just a bow and arrow, like with a string and, you know, this is talking about missiles. This is talking about nukes. I believe this is something that, that they're going to hit their mark. These are laser guided precision missiles that are going to hit their mark every single time. And we can see that today, it seems a lot more evident when we read these things. Yeah. But it's still battle from afar. He's able to forecast those devices. He's able to shoot those arrows for all indications and all completely in agreement with one another. When we see the man riding on the white horse in Revelation 6, we see Daniel 11, the Antichrist, and even in Jeremiah, with the destruction of Babylon, using those same tools, the same instruments as his weapon of choice. Back to Revelation chapter 6, let's look at the second seal and we're going to look at the second horseman because we started off with the four horsemen as the first four seals in Revelation chapter 6. Verse number 3 in Revelation 6, the Bible says, and when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, come and see. And there went out another horse that was red and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from the earth and that they should kill one another and there was given unto him a great sword. So we see he's taken peace from the earth, there's killing and a great sword. So this weapon of choice now is a sword, it's a different type of a battle, but it's still warfare. When you hear, you know, the people dying from the sword, people dying by killing one another and peace being removed from the earth, that's warfare. And I believe this lines up perfectly with the king of the south. I think the second horseman here lines up with the king of the south that we see in Daniel chapter 11. Let's keep reading here in verse number 5. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, come and see. And I beheld and lo, a black horse and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And what we see with this third seal being opened is that this is going to be a time of famine. And what it's referring to when it says, you know, there's a pair of balances in his hand and we don't really use this anymore, but typically when you would buy things, if you're using gold or silver or any type of pressure, you'd have a scale and you'd weigh out the price of the money of whatever you're buying. So when he talks about the balances in his hand, he's saying, okay, you're going to get a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny and it's giving you the value at this time that's going to go for these things. But you might think, well, a penny, that's worth nothing, except we got to go back to the Bible economy, the Bible times of what a penny is actually worth. Because obviously, you know, throughout history, you could have different values for all different types of things. But when we use the Bible as the dictionary, we use the Bible to get our understanding of what do these things mean, we're going to see even a measure, you say, well, how much is a measure? A measure, it doesn't really matter exactly how much it is because we have a frame of reference given to us in 2 Kings chapter 7. I'll read this for you. 2 Kings 7, 1, the Bible says, then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord, tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. If you remember the story at this time, Samaria had been encompassed roundabout and they've been besieged. And because of that, there was a great famine and they didn't, you know, they weren't able to receive any supplies or anything. And the food supply had gotten really, really, really, really low. So the price of everything skyrocketed. And what he is prophesying here is saying, you know what, tomorrow, everything's going to go back to normal. We're going to have so much food, there's going to be so much abundance that everything is going to go back to normal prices. Everything is just going to be the way it was essentially before this famine and before this siege. And the way that he describes that is saying a measure of fine flour is going to be sold for a shekel. That's the unit of measure he gives and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. And it's interesting because it uses the same, even the same things that are referenced in Revelation chapter six, when it says fine flour, where you get flour from wheat, right? So the measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny versus a measure of fine flour for a shekel and two measures of barley for a shekel. Now a penny in the Bible, according to Matthew 22, is a full day's labor. And people are willing to work for an entire day for just one penny. As I said, it's not like the penny that we have today. The penny that they're using would probably be closer to like a hundred bucks as opposed to, you know, the, the, the one cent that we use today. In Matthew 22, the Bible says, and when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And if you read the rest of that parable, you'll see they're agreeing to work for a 12 hour day. I mean, how much money would you agree to do labor for, to be working for, for 12 hours of your time? That's about how much a penny was worth. So what we see here is just getting a measure of wheat, just, just some small amount for a full day's labor. That's almost nothing. That's almost no food. You'll be working. You're going to be requiring more food just by working. Then you'll be able to get back with the money that you receive from doing the labor. That's how bad the famine is going to be. This is one of the things that's going to happen. We have the first two seals is essentially summed up with warfare. You have the Antichrist, the King of the South, there's going to be a lot of killing, a lot of warfare going on, a very great battle. This is going to be, I believe this is a world war. There's going to be a lot of nations involved in this. And then, and I believe as a result of this, with the third seal, we're going to start seeing famine. It's going to affect food prices. It's going to affect things like that. And then it says, but it's mostly just the food though, because it says in seed I'll hurt not the oil and the wine. You don't need, you're not going to live off of oil and wine. You live off the wheat and the barley. That's what you need to survive. So other things won't be affected, but the food supplies will be cut short. They will be affected. Revelation six verse number seven, the Bible says, and when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see. And I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the field. Now, one of the things just, just briefly, when it says here, you know, that fourth horseman, there's still just more death coming as death and hell and power was given to him over the fourth part of the earth. When it says over the fourth part of the earth, I don't believe that just like one in four people all over the globe. I think there's a, there's a section of the earth, like a four, a literal fourth quarter of the earth, if you will, that is going to be under this siege from this fourth horseman of killing with the sword again, more warfare, more battle, killing with hunger. So the, the already we've seen the, the, the, from the previous seal, the hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth. So even the beasts of the earth are getting, you know, there's going to be a lot of killing going on. And look, I just want to remind you, these are the things that are gonna be going on if we're still alive before the coming of Jesus Christ, these are going to be going on on this earth and we'll see it, we'll witness them happening. Those that are alive, you know, if this happens in our lifetime, we'll see these events happening. We'll see the great war, we'll see all of this and this is, this is very significant. I mean, one fourth of the earth, that's huge. That's a huge number of people being impacted by this. These are the things that we're looking for. Now we haven't seen it happen yet, even on this scale. We've seen world wars, but this is a massive scale. This is, this is like nothing we've seen before, I believe. Look at verse number, let's keep reading here, verse number nine. And this is when it gets real and this is when we're going to start knowing for sure that that we are in this time period. Verse number nine, and we had opened the fifth seal. I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. So now we start seeing people being martyred for Jesus Christ, martyred for their testimony, martyred for the word of God. They're making a stand saying, no, we believe on Jesus Christ. And that's when the killing starts. Turn if you would back to Daniel chapter 11, hopefully you have a bookmark there, Daniel 11. And this matches the exact same timeline with the Antichrist coming to power and going to war and then the martyrdom of the saints. It matches perfectly. Which proves these are the same events that are being described. They're not different things. The seals aren't different from what we read in Daniel 11. They're the same things. Verse number 30 in Daniel chapter 11, for the ships of Shittim shall come against him. Therefore he shall be grieved in return of indignation against the holy covenant. So shall he do. He shall even return and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant and arms shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that make it desolate and such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries. But the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits. And they, they understand among the people shall instruct many yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame by captivity and by spoil many days in that verse right there. Verse number 33 is that martyrdom because they're going to the people that know their God. See the Antichrist is going to come back and he's going to be upset. He's got indignation against the holy covenant. He's got indignation against the saints. He's got indignation against the people of God. He's gonna be mad at them and he's going to come and try to destroy them. So he's going to make war against the saints. But the people that do know their God, the people who know their Bible, hey, they're going to be doing great exploits. Praise God for that. I'm looking forward to that. We're in this time, you know, you get to know your Bible because you could do great exploits for the Lord and have a great witness and great testimony, but it's going to be a time of serious tribulation. This is the tribulation of the saints because you don't get much more tribulation than people getting their heads chopped off just for the testimony of the word of God, just for serving the Lord Jesus Christ. That is going to be the reason that people get upset about them and want them dead. That and that alone. It has nothing to do with anything else. It has to do with their faith. It has to do with the fact that they're testifying of these things. And it says in verse 33 there that they that understand among the people shall instruct many. That's going to be a job. Hey, warning everybody. Look, this is the Antichrist. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and they're going to be instructing many people. Many people are going to be getting saved during this time. It says, but they shall fall by the sword, by flame, being burned at the stake, getting the sword against you by captivity and by spoil many days. We'll be fighting a battle where there's going to be people falling on the side of the truth, physically falling, spiritually winning. Verse number 34. Now when they shall fall, they shall be hoping with a little help, but many shall cleave to them with flattery. There's a little warning. Beware of people who are going to be flattering. There's going to be people I think they're going to be trying to infiltrate and get in just as we saw with Apostle Paul before he, when he was still Saul of Tarsus and he was going around persecuting the church. What do you do? He went in places, hailing men and women. Oh, hey, how's it going? You go into their houses or places where they were meeting together and then arresting them and then bring them in. It's going to be the same exact way during the end times, during this time of tribulation. There are people flattering. Oh wow, you know the Bible so well and all this and then they're going to be stabbing you in the back. And it's something to be aware of. Maybe not something you can necessarily know. I mean, we're going to, our job is going to be preaching the gospel no matter what. We're not going to be going underground. We're going to be preaching from the rooftops and we need to be prepared for that because there's going to be a lot of resistance against it. But that's what we are called to do. And verse 35 there in Daniel 11 says, and some of them of understanding shall fall to try them and to purge and to make them white even at the time of the end because it is yet for a time appointed. That same phrase, it is for yet a time appointed. At the end isn't quite yet, just as in Revelation six, you go back to Revelation chapter six when they're, they're crying out to God, these martyrs, they show up in heaven, they're saying, how long? How long are you going to wait? Are you going to come to God? Like, are you going to avenge us? We're waiting for you to come to, and look, this is righteous judgment by the way. People get all upset these days about us rejoicing over the judgment of God coming against wicked people and they'll try to say, oh, you're just in the flesh. If you're, if you're rejoicing over the judgment of God on wicked people on this earth, these people aren't in the flesh. In Revelation chapter six, they're before the throne of God. They have no flesh. They have no sin. They're in the spirit and they're saying, God, how long is it before you're going to judge us and avenge our blood on the earth and what are they talking about? Going down and destroying those wicked people. That is holy. That is righteous judgment. Revelation chapter six, look at verse number 12, we'll keep reading here, and I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal and lo, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood and the stars of heaven fell onto the earth. Even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Sounds like a pretty big event to you. Sounds like a big event to me. And you know, again, for people who might just be new to hearing the doctrine of the post-trib pre-wrath people who have just been exposed only to the pre-tribulation rapture their entire life and probably never understood it because it doesn't make sense. This is actually a very good primer to show people because it's such a major event. We think about the moon turning into blood, the sun turning black. How many times do you think stars falling from heaven? How many times do you think this is going to happen in history? It's not like, oh, it happens this time and it happens this time and it happens. Look, this is a one-time event. Just use some common sense. And when you could get people, show people that and say, why don't you go through the Bible and study for yourself and look for these events? And at least when you see this one event happening, you could say it's talking about the same thing. If it's talking about the same thing, guess what you're going to find? All of a sudden in Matthew 24 when it's talking about and describes the same exact event, we're talking about the tribulation and we're talking about people who have not been caught up to heaven yet. And when you start putting them together, it gives you that reference point of saying, here's one point. We know that this is a one-time event and you can see the events leading up to that and that come after that. And this is something that could be very helpful to a lot of people and I would recommend for you if you're trying to explain this to somebody. Start off with Revelation 6, start off with this type of an event to say, hey, look it up for yourself. Just see what you think. You know, I'm not going to try to twist scripture around. You tell me. Are these events related? Do you think the Bible just talks about something completely different and then something else completely different, you know, and just have this total mishmash of confusion? Is God the author of confusion? No, of course not. It only makes sense that what he gives us here is going to be relatively in a normal timeline. And that's the way that the Bible is written and given to us. That's why it's been revealed. Let's keep reading here. Verse number 15. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every freeman hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that said it on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to stand. And now we see that the wrath is come and this is, and this is important to distinction because people will hear, Oh, you guys are post trib. You don't know what you're talking about. It's important to include the pre-wrath because so many people have a concept when they hear the terminology post-trib, they automatically think it's after the wrath of God, which is totally false and that's easily disproven. And we don't want to turn people off of just saying, you know, and look, I agree with saying we're post-trib because we are, because those are Bible terms and we ought not to shy away from using a Bible term when it says after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun and moon be darkened. And we see the same exact thing happen here. It is, it's after the tribulation, but be sure to include, but it's before God pours out his wrath because it's important distinction to make. And we see here at the end of revelation chapter six, he's saying, well, now the wrath is come, which means everything prior to everything we just read, that's not God's wrath. It's definitely tribulation, but that's not wrath, but what we're going to start reading after that, and it begins with, with, uh, the seventh seal being open is God's wrath being poured. It's like, now is the time of God's wrath. We're going to jump into now revelation chapter seven, we're going to continue along here. Those were the six seals and now it's, it's, it's actually after, you know, the sixth seal ended this or began essentially with the sun and moon being dark and the stars falling from heaven. And then we're going to see it revelation chapter seven, the rapture, we're going to see the 144,000 being sealed in her foreheads. And um, let's, we're going to skip over some of this, but beginning here in verse number one, the Bible says in chapter seven, and after these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried, cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their forehead. So these events are all happening at the, after the opening of the sixth seal. Okay. And he's saying, don't hurt the earth. We're not going to pour out wrath just yet. Well, hold off a minute. We're going to seal the servants of God. The 144,000 explains all the various tribe, 12,000 from each tribe, males, virgins, not going to get into that this morning. Jump down to verse number nine, because this is after he seals the 144,000. After this I beheld and lo, remind you, John's in heaven seeing this. John's before the throne of God. Chapter five explains where he is when he's, when all these things are being shown to him. Verse number nine, after this, and these are the order of, when you look through this, you see order being, after this and then, and using these words, giving you a timeline, giving you a time reference. One after the other, after the other, after this, this is what I saw next. There's no reason to think that these things happen all in completely different orders than the way that he saw them. Why would God show it to him and be like, okay, here's a puzzle and here's one piece and here's one piece and you know, good luck, John, put it all together and try to figure out what order it really comes in. No, of course it only makes sense he's given it to him in the order it happens. Verse number nine, after this I beheld and lo, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the lamb clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. This has to be the rapture. I mean, just look at the people that are described here. What other group of people is going to show up in heaven at one time and they're going to be representative of all people, all, all nations, not just the nation of Israel, all nations. You know, cause some people want to say that, Oh, well, you know, Matthew 24 is only talking about the Jews. That's like a separate rapture for the Jews. Well, where does that happen? Where is the multitude in heaven of, of only the nation of Israel of only the seed of Abraham? We don't see it, but we do see every nation represented. We do see all peoples, all tongues stand before the throne and before land clothed with white robes. Obviously they're saved and palms in their hands. Verse number 10 and cried with a loud voice saying salvation to our God, which sit at the pond, the throne and unto the lamb and all the angels stood round about the throne and about the elders and the four beasts and fell about before the throne on their faces and worship God saying, amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. And one of the elders answers saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes and once came in? This is great because you don't even just have to guess that this is the rapture because now we have one of the elders going to John saying, Hey, who are these guys? Hey, where, where are these guys come from? What's going on here? Where are all these people coming from? And John's like, I don't know. You brought me up here to show me this stuff. I don't know who this is. And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they which came out of great tribulation. Huh? No, no, but the rapture happens before the tribulation. Wait, these, these are they which came out of great tribulation and have washed the robes and made them white and the blood of the lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God and serve him day and night in the temple and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither shall the sunlight on them nor any heat for the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and shall lead them on the living fountains of water and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Why is there tears being wiped away? Because they just went through great tribulation because it was a really difficult time and now they're finally entering into the rest of their Lord. They went through the hard times and now they can, God can wipe off all their tears and say you made it. Well done, now good and faithful servant. You made it unto the end. Turn if you would back to Daniel, now we're going to look at Daniel chapter 12. Again, as I mentioned, it all lines up perfectly. It all matches. We go through the timeline in Daniel, we go through the timeline in Revelation and I'm going to close this morning going through Matthew 24 and we'll see the same exact timeline of events happening there. But I just want to point this out real quick in Daniel 12 because we were going back and forth between Daniel and Revelation. These are, you know, the two books that have probably the most content. You know, we go through Daniel, there's a lot of content in there in Daniel, but as other people already mentioned, I believe this to be a hundred percent true. You know, Daniel was a sealed book. It was a little bit more difficult to understand, but once we have Revelation, once we see, this is very clear, this is explicit, this is the order. We go back to Daniel and be like, oh yeah, wow, this matches up perfectly. Okay, I could see how these events now tie in and it fits perfectly. Daniel chapter 12 verse number one, the Bible says, and at that time shall Michael stand up the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even at that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered. Everyone that shall be found written in the book. Everyone written in the book. What book? The book of life. Amen. Everyone. Isn't that the rapture? Everyone that's saved when Jesus Christ comes back is going to be delivered out of that great trouble such as was never since the world began, more trouble than ever before and God's people are going to be delivered. Everyone that's saved. Verse number two, and many of them that slept, that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. If you had any doubt, they're talking about the rapture or the other words, the resurrection, right? The first resurrection when those who are asleep in Christ shall rise and those which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord, right? And those, they're coming down, the old saints, their souls are coming with Jesus Christ, their bodies are coming up, we're all going to be reunited, we're all going to get brand new bodies, right? That's the first resurrection and according to Daniel chapter 12, it happens after this time of great trouble, such as never was. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Look at verse number 11 here in Daniel chapter 12 and I don't want to spend too much time in this but it also gives us this timeline of this great tribulation which I believe last 75 days, I'm not going to get into all the math behind this but at the end of the chapter we see in verse number 11, from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that make a desolate set up, there shall be a 1,290 days, blessed is that way that cometh to the 1,305 and 30 days. And you say, well wait a minute, maybe you subtract those, that's 45 days, I know but there's a different starting point for each one so you have the abomination of desolation being set up begins the great tribulation. Up until that point, the Antichrist, there's wars going on, there is tribulation, there's famines, there's things going on that's happening but it's not until he sets up the abomination of desolation, that kicks off the great tribulation because that's when he puts himself in the temple of God claiming to be God and when you're claiming to be God, you've got a bunch of heretic unbelievers that still believe in this Lord Jesus Christ, they got to go and that's what kicks off the great tribulation against the saints. It's when he establishes himself to be God and that's the period that we, and you know what, and this is why I love being independent, I love being able to be self-sufficient, I think it's wise to be able to have some food saved up, to have some things so when you go through hard times, you're able to support yourself and not have to rely on other people, I think that's great but you don't need to be getting a vault and storing up seven years worth of stuff or even three and a half years worth of stuff because the time of this great tribulation is going to be very short, it's going to be a short period of time, God didn't tell us we need to get bunkers and hold out and just go off in the hills because times are rough, no he says actually we need to be a testimony to Jesus Christ and if it gets too rough in one place, we're just going to go somewhere else, we're going to keep on preaching the word. Alright, let's tie everything now back, go to Matthew 24. We're done in Revelation, we're done in Daniel, we're going to go to Matthew 24, it's going to close on this, and you know I'll read for you from Revelation 7 because, or chapter 8, excuse me, at the beginning of chapter 8 is when he opens the seventh seal, we went through six seals so we'll hit the seventh seal, and when he had opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour and I saw the seven angels which stood before God and to them were given seven trumpets. So this kicks off now the seven trumpets of the wrath of God and the seventh seal being open now, the wrath is literally starting to be poured out and then it continues on with the trumpets and everything else and that goes beyond the scope of the sermon this morning. Matthew 24, look at verse number 3, and I love Matthew 24 because the question that they specifically ask to Jesus Christ in verse number 3 says, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came on him privately saying, tell us, when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? What do they ask him about? Hey, what's going to happen at the end of the world? Well where do you think we ought to go to if we're going to look to see what's going to happen at the end of the world? How about the place where the disciples asked Jesus and he answered them? What's going to happen at the end of the world? Well I don't know, let's ask Jesus. Hey Jesus, what do you say? And Jesus answered and said unto them. And we see the rest of here, the book of Matthew 24, he's describing what's going to happen at the end of the world. Now let's see how this fits with what we saw with the six seals being open. Let's see how this fits with what we saw in Daniel chapter 11 and chapter 12. Let's see what happens here. What is his answer? Verse number 4. Take heed that no man deceive you. Hey, don't be tricked. There's a lot of people that want to tell you all kinds of crazy stuff about what's happening at the end of the world. Don't be deceived. I'm going to tell you. Verse number 5. For many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. We know there's going to be wars. We know even from the seals. There's going to be great war. But you know what he tells us? Don't be troubled. Even when you start to see a war, even if you think this has got to be the first and second seals being open, we don't need to be troubled. The end is not yet. You know what, there's always wars and rumors of wars. But he says in verse 7, for nation shall rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. This is the beginning of the tribulation with the wars, with the famines, with the pestilences. Those are the first three seals. First two are wars. The third one is the famine. That's the balances, right? We read that. That was the black horse. This is the beginning of sorrows. It's tribulation, but it's not the great tribulation. It's the beginning of the time period that we might call that first three and a half years of Daniel's 70th week, that overall seven year time frame, the first part of that is tribulation. It is a time of trouble. There are things going on, there's famines, pestilences, earthquakes, things like that that are happening and wars, but it's not the great tribulation. Verse number nine, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you. Seal number five, the martyrs, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. Are we betraying one another? People are going to be coming deceitfully or with flatteries, right? Matches up with Daniel 11. Jump down to verse number 15 here. Matthew 24, 15. When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. If you're wondering earlier when I said the abomination of desolation being set up kicks off the great tribulation, well, where do you get this from? You made that statement where this points out specifically saying, hey, look, when that happens, don't even go back in your house, you know, just get out. And this is, you know, again, this is talking about in Judea fleeing into the mountains because this is happening literally in Jerusalem when the Antichrist is going to be setting up his kingdom there. And that's going to be the center point of the most persecution I believe against Christians coming, you know, spreading outward from. So I don't think this is just anywhere you live in the entire world, you just have to leave immediately. But in this area right here, when he's setting up that abomination of desolation, you're right there, he's like, you better just get out. Because it's going to be the most severe right there. Go into the mountains, get out of there, that's going to start and kick off that great tribulation. Verse number 19, and woe unto them that are with child and them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on this Sabbath day, for then shall be great tribulation. Again, where we get these words from, any words that we use to describe these events, where are we getting them from? We're getting them from scripture. And right here it says, well, then at this time, it's not the wars and rumors of wars, it's not the famines, it's not the earthquakes. It's the persecution, it's the martyrdom, it's when the abomination of desolation is set up and the Antichrist makes war against the saints. That's great tribulation. Such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. We see the same phrase, practically the same exact phrase used in Daniel 12. Nothing like this has ever occurred nor will occur. It's another one time event. Just as the sun, moon, stars falling from heaven is a one time event. This great tribulation, there's nothing that's ever been like this and nothing ever will be like this ever again. It's a one time event spelled out. You can't say, well, there's this event and this event, no. The great tribulation happens one time, verse 22, and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. And then we see here in Matthew 24, let's just read through it and then we'll close. Let me get there because I'm reading off of my notes. We're in verse number 22, let's keep reading here in verse number 23, woe unto you, no, that's verse, excuse me, that's chapter 23. Verse 23, then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before, wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth, behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the son of man be. Destroying the secret rapture. When Jesus comes back, there's no, every eye is going to see him. There's no hiding this. You can't say, oh, Jesus came back and he's out in the desert. Oh, Jesus came back, he's up over here in the mountains. No, he's not. You can't lie to you, you can't be deceived by that if you read Matthew 24, because you know that as lightning shines from the east into the west, so shall the coming of the son of man be. We're going to know. There's going to be no doubt. When Jesus makes his entrance, there's no doubt about it. Read throughout the Bible, when God makes an entrance to anybody, when he comes down and he speaks, did anyone have any doubts that God was speaking to Moses on the mount? When you have fire and smoke and clouds, you know, and people are falling on their face, scared to death. Look, when Jesus comes, there's going to be no doubt about it. When he comes in his power to take his kingdom, there's going to be no doubt about it. For wheresoever the carcass is, verse 28, there will the eagles be gathered together. Verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. All the tribes of the earth, not just the saved, every eye shall see him. And just as we saw in Revelation 6, they're going to say the mountains and the rock will fall on us and hide us from the face of the lamb. Everything matches up perfectly. This is why we accept this doctrine, because there is no contradiction anywhere in scripture. There's nothing that's difficult to explain. It's all straightforward. It all matches up perfectly. Verse 31, and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Gathers together the elect. I mean, how could this not be the rapture? Unless you want to just hold to some doctrine because you're proud or hold to some doctrine because you've been taught that way and you know, you don't want to admit that maybe you've been wrong. There's no, there's no getting around the truth of the scripture. There's just no way that you could argue against it. We believe, I believe this doctrine wholeheartedly because we, every single prophecy point in scripture, it matches up perfectly. It's irrefutable. So you know, and I feel like I'm preaching to the choir, you know, as it were this morning, I think most people, I don't know. I mean, hopefully if there's anyone here that didn't, didn't already kind of believe in this doctrine, you know, I'll challenge you to go through and study for yourself, study out the places that I referenced this morning and, and, and decide for yourself, is this what the Bible teaches or not? And try not to just hold for any particular reason, just, just say, no, you'll be resistant to change if it's what the Bible says. You ought to be open to just receiving the truth from the word of God. And that, that's what we care about. This is what we love. And if I'm wrong at any point, you know, a lot of people, you know, I said something about the bows earlier, about, about the Antichrist having a bow, look, I believe that, but what people want to do that, that disagree with us, they're going to say, Oh, how stupid is that? And they're going to try to disprove that, you know, what I said about him having a bow, right? Which is like the least important of pretty much every point I made this morning. So watch out for that because people want to, if they want to tear down a certain doctrine, they're going to try to go to the place where someone says something that it's more speculation than just absolute hardcore fact, as we saw with everything else and try to attack that one little point. You know, someone attacks some little point and if I'm wrong about that, okay. It still doesn't change the fact that we're going to be going through tribulation before the rapture comes. It has nothing to do with that. So don't let that shake your faith in this doctrine. But if there's anyone, you know, you talk to me after a service, I'd be more than happy to talk to you about this doctrine. If you have any questions about it, I'm sure there's many people that would talk to you here as well that are just as knowledgeable as I am. But let's, uh, let's, my friends have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for your words and for the clearness of them there, Lord, for the revelation that you've given that you don't want us to be deceived. You're not the author of confusion. You want us to know the facts about these events, dear Lord, and the order that they're going to happen and help us that we're not asleep as others, that that we can be awake and sober and children of light and that we can be watching as you told us to do, watching for these events and that we can be ready, that we could be strong, that we can do the great exploits that are mentioned in the book of Daniel, dear Lord. Help us to be prepared. Help us to be prepared for that great day of battle that we could win many souls to you. And we can instruct many in righteousness, dear Lord, in Jesus Christ name we pray, Amen.