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Amen. So Acts chapter 11 is where we're at this evening. And we're looking at Acts chapter 11. And remember from Acts chapter 10, we see the story of Peter. And Peter meets Cornelius. And Cornelius, of course, is this Roman centurion. And Peter is given this vision that is, again, repeated in Acts chapter 11. So I'm not going to go into great detail on the first 17 verses or so because it's just basically Peter repeating this story. But basically what happens is if you look down at Acts chapter 11 in verse number 1, Peter wasn't in Jerusalem. Peter was off on the coast, and he was off in Joppa. And then he got called and went to Cornelius, and he preaches the gospel to Cornelius after God gives him this vision that, you know, hey, you know, you're not to just, you know, shun the Gentiles. And God's trying to bring the gospel to the Gentiles here is what he's trying to do. And he's trying to break down all these cultural walls that the religious Jews have of which Peter is one. So that's what the point of this vision was. Look at verse number 1 of Acts chapter 11. The Bible says, And the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. So basically what it's saying here is that what happened in Acts chapter 10 has made it back to Jerusalem. People have heard about this. They've heard that the Gentiles got saved and that not only did they get saved, but they received the gift of the Holy Ghost. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were baptized with the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues, all this, and they started to do the same miracles that the disciples and the apostles were doing in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Look at verse number 2. It says, And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, so now he travels back to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him. So it says he had some trouble here. So the Jews that were in Jerusalem, they're all bent out of shape that Peter was off, you know, preaching and hanging out with the Gentiles. So, you know, that's why he repeats what, you know, the vision that he was given. He tells them in, he says, But Peter rehearsed the matter, verse number 4, from the beginning and expounded it by order of them saying. So now he just goes through verse number 5 through 17. I'm not going to go through all those verses again. He basically just goes through event by event, you know, of the napkin coming down from heaven with all the animals in it where God says, Peter, you know, in this one, he says, Slay and eat. And in Acts Chapter 10, he says, Kill and eat. The Bible says where God tells him there is, you know, because Peter says, I can't I can't go and hang out with people that are unclean. And God says, you know what I have made pure, you know, don't call unclean because Jesus Christ has been rid of the carnal ordinances. What we can and can't eat. And, you know, all these carnal ordinances of the holy days and everything. And we studied that last week. And then, of course, right after I preached that, someone offers me a cricket to eat at church. So, I mean, tell me that's not like a divine appointment right there. But anyway, the point is, is that Peter has some explaining to do to the Jews back in Jerusalem that, you know, God's trying to get the word of God, get the gospel out to the world here. And he's got to break the these cultural habits of these these Jews, especially in Jerusalem. Hey, you know, the gospel is for everybody is what God is trying to get across here. So we're going to start here at verse number 18. So he tells them the story about how God gave them the vision. The three men were sent to him. He met Cornelius. Cornelius saw the angel. He tells them this whole miraculous story and how all these Gentiles got saved. And look at verse 18. It says, When they heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God. So they're like, okay, we're good. They accepted it. They accepted it. And they understand now what God is trying to do, saying, Then have God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Notice it doesn't say repentance of sins here. It just says, you know, the ability to get saved is saying that the Gentiles now have the ability to get saved because all you have to do is what? Leave on the Lord Jesus Christ. So anybody that would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Jew or Gentile. I mean, it's a common theme throughout the entire New Testament, you know, can obviously get saved. Look at verse number 19. Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution. That's an interesting point there and one that I'm really going to drive home this evening. Look at verse 19 again. They that were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenix, Cyprus, Antioch and Antioch, preaching the word to none but only the Jews only. So here was the problem. Go back to Acts chapter eight. Go back to Acts chapter eight. Remember, we studied through Stephen's sermon. Stephen was the first Christian that was martyred. He was killed. He was stoned after he preaches this great sermon in Acts chapter seven. And in Acts chapter eight, right at the beginning, the first verse says, and Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time, there was a great what? There was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they that were scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. So here's the picture, folks, okay? You think that, okay, Stephen and that point in the Bible, Stephen's martyrdom was very important because what was happening, the first seven, the first six chapters of Acts, what do we see? We just see thousands of people getting saved. Just they go out and they preach the gospel. I mean, we're all sitting there as soul winners and we're reading these stories in Acts where they go and they preach and just like another 3,000 were added. And just thousands more are listened and just scores of people were getting saved. They were dropping everything in their lives and they were just saying, what do we need to do? They're just joining the church at Jerusalem. It's just this huge explosion of Christianity in Jerusalem. But God needed them out. God needed them out. God wanted them scattered. So Stephen's martyrdom, it accomplished this task. It accomplished this task of scattering, it got them out of Jerusalem. So the Christians went everywhere, Antioch being one of the main places. Now look at verse number four. And what did they do? What did they do when they left? In Acts chapter eight, look at verse number four. They didn't go run and hide in a cave, okay? They didn't go and like, you know, dig a bunker and you know, they're like doomsday prepper time. No, they went out and look what they did in verse four. It says, therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere doing what? So, I mean, isn't that interesting? Isn't that interesting that they were being persecuted in Jerusalem, and they scattered, but they didn't just scatter and like shut their mouths. It's super interesting. And it's super applicable to us in whatever we see coming forward in our lives. They literally went, they were scattered abroad, and they just went preaching the gospel everywhere. I mean, this was God's plan. But we learn even more in Acts chapter 11, that they were preaching the gospel everywhere, but just to the Jews. So, it's like they went out to Fresno, but they only went to like, you know, the east side of town. Or they only went to, you know, certain neighborhoods, or they only went to like the Armenian neighborhoods or whatever. I mean, they were being discriminatory according to whatever culture of people that they found. And God's like, no. So, this is where in Acts chapter 10, God does this miraculous miracle. Everything in the Bible has a purpose. Everything in the Bible has a purpose. You see, why is this just random story in the Bible about this man named Cornelius and Peter? Because that was, Peter was one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, and God was using him to break down this wall between the Jews and the Gentiles, the cultural wall that was there. So, he uses Peter to do this. And then in Acts chapter 11, we see that they're scattered abroad. They're scattered abroad. They're preaching the gospel. He's like, but they go and they, now they're preaching the gospel to everybody. After Acts chapter 10, now all these people that are scattered, they're like, oh, we're going to preach the gospel to everyone. And this is where the change is right here. Look at Acts chapter 11. See, in verse 19, it says preaching to the word to none but the Jews only. So, Stephen's death sparked this. Okay, it's this whole thing that people fled, but now we see 20, and some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned onto the Lord. So, now we see a change. Then tidings of these things came onto the ears of the church, which is in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch. So, this is big news right here. Okay, this is big news. Peter comes back. They're upset at Peter at first in Jerusalem. They're upset at him. They're saying, why are you hanging out with the Gentiles? Why are you fellowshipping them, eating with them, preaching to them? He's like, no, look, we're supposed to be doing this, is what Peter basically says. And then they go out and they start getting all these people saved. And all of a sudden, they're like, oh, man, this is big news. These Grecians, they're getting saved. We need to send them some horsepower, is what they say. And that's why they send Barnabas. So, they sent Barnabas, one of the key players in Jerusalem, to help out and help get things going in Antioch. You know what we're seeing here? We're seeing the first church plant in the Bible right here. We're seeing the first Christian church plant. This is the model, by the way. This is why we didn't just make up this model of planting churches and sending men to plant churches, you know, all around the country, all around the world, by the way. It's right here. We're seeing it start in Acts chapter 11. Look at verse 23. It says, who? This is Barnabas. When he came, he had seen the grace of God. He had seen that these people got saved. It was just like, you know, he saw, you know, what did he see? He saw the grace of God. He went and he talked to these people. It's just like how one group of soul winners was out on Saturday and they got a whole bunch of kids saved like over here and then another group of soul winners ran into a big group of kids of which some of those kids had now been part of and a soul winner asked those kids, like, hey, do you know if you're going to heaven? And a bunch of those kids were like, yeah, I know I'm going to heaven. What do you have to do? Trust in Jesus Christ. That's it. And we're like, what in the world? Like, it's just so random. You're like, how does an 11-year-old kid know the right answer to that question? Like, and I was the guy, by the way, that was talking to these kids and I said, I was like, I didn't believe them at first. I was like, I was like, what else do you have to do? These three kids are sitting on a fence. There's like 15 kids around and I'm like, because I'm like, I think I'm seeing the grace of God here. Just like Barnabas saw when he went to Antioch and I'm like, these, I'm like, what do you have to do? Do you know how to get to heaven, kids? Yeah. Just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm like, what in the world? And I'm like, oh yeah, what else do you have to do? You know what that kid said to me? Nothing. He was like, he was ready to fight me. I'm like, I'm like, exactly. I'm like, how did you know that? Like, cause we just talked to Garrett and that's what he told us. But no, look, it's, it's a great proof of the grace of God. It's a great proof of the grace of God. And that's what Barnabas saw. He went and he saw that these people were saved. He saw proof of his own eyes that these people had literally trusted on Jesus. It was a great example. And now look, he exhorted them all. Now he's just trying to encourage them. He's trying to encourage them in their Christian life that with the purpose of heart, they would what? They would cleave unto the Lord. So now what's he trying to do? This is what we wish everybody that gets saved would do. We wish everybody that got saved, that believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, that was sealed by the Holy Spirit. We wish that they would cleave unto the Lord with their life. And Barnabas was there to exhort those people to, Hey, now you're all saved. It must've been a lot of them. It's like, now you're all saved. You need to cleave unto the Lord. What do you do? What's the first step that you do? You get in church and you get baptized is what you do. And I'm sure they were probably already baptized, but look, it says, he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith. So he was there and he was, he was there to exhort to disciple these people. Okay. And much people was added unto the Lord. Then departed Barnabas to Tarsus for to seek Saul. He's like, he's like, this is a gold mine here. I need, I need more help. So he goes to get Saul. And this is where Saul and Barnabas come together for these great missionary journeys that we're going to read about in the book of Acts. So he goes and he gets Saul. Look at verse 26. And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. He goes to Saul and he's like, you wouldn't believe like how many of these, these Gentiles are getting saved. I need help. And so he gets, you know, basically they're planting the first church here out of Jerusalem. And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the what? Here it is with the church and taught much people. So Barnabas and Saul are these two great evangelists. They pull these people together into a church in Antioch and they just run this church for a year. And the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. And these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. So, I mean, here's your official church plant right here in Antioch or from Jerusalem. They're sending, you know, guest preachers. It says here in verse number 27, this is exactly like the model of us right here. All right. You know, we see guest preachers. You know, we had Pastor Jimenez come and be a guest. He was a guest prophet here this last weekend. We're going to have, you know, Pastor Mejia come here at the end of this month. He will be a guest prophet for us in Fresno. Look at verse 28. And there stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the spirit, there should be a great dearth throughout all the world which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Now, this is interesting because Claudius Caesar was the Caesar, the Roman emperor right before Nero. Okay. So we're looking at like AD 40 to like AD 50 here. And what happened was, it's interesting because they had started to help, they started to help the church in Jerusalem. So Antioch began supporting, you know, financially and with an offering the church in Jerusalem because of this dearth. So a dearth is something that none of us as Americans know what it is. All right. A dearth is basically, you know, a lack of things. So what was happening in Jerusalem was, you know, I've referenced the martyr's mirror many times. Okay. And there was basically the martyr's mirror, this secular book on Christian persecution. It talks about 10 major Roman persecutions. And Nero is the first one. Okay. Nero is the first Roman persecution. It starts around, you know, 60 AD. He's the one that is credited in secular history with killing Paul, beheading Paul, with killing Peter and killing many of the disciples themselves. But Claudius is the one right before him. And it's not really considered by, you know, secular historians as a Christian persecution so much as what happened, just remember what happened in 70 AD. In 70 AD, the Romans, they destroyed the temple. They just tore the temple down and there was, you know, it's what Jesus predicted. Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple. Basically what was going on here with Claudius in like 40 AD to 50, the Jews were kind of wearing out their welcome with the Romans. And the Romans were getting tired of them causing trouble. And the Christians, this whole Christian and, you know, the Christians and the Jews persecuting the Christians because really if you look at the book of Acts, it's the Jews persecuting the Christians in the book of Acts. The Romans don't start persecuting the Christians until Nero is in charge and that's a literal just like, let's find the Christians, hunt them down and kill them. The Claudius situation was more of just the Romans just getting tired of the Jews and trying to get the Jews, get rid of the Jews out of Jerusalem, okay? And then they end up destroying the temple in 70 AD. And quite frankly, they considered, they probably considered the Christians here as just another sect of Jews. You know, just these people, they probably considered them just Jewish infighting. Because if you think about it, you know, how did Pontius Pilate look at the whole thing with Jesus? He just, he was irritated with the whole thing of these Jews just fighting amongst themselves and couldn't even agree on their own religion and he just, he was irritated. He was just only worried about his own political future is what Pontius Pilate. So the Romans were just, they're just getting tired of the Jewish situation. They weren't even called Christians in Jerusalem. They were called Christians first in Antioch. Okay, but the point is the things were getting difficult for the Christians in Jerusalem. They were getting difficult, you know, financially. They were getting difficult for them altogether. Look at verse number 29. Then the disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Paul talks about this in the letter to, in his first letter to the Corinthians. He talks about this. They basically took up a special offering. So, you know, it was the Jerusalem church that sent the horsepower to start the Antioch church. But look, when the folks in Jerusalem needed help, the folks in Antioch, they ponied up and they sent an offering to the church in Jerusalem. Look at verse number 3 of 1 Corinthians chapter 16. It says, and when I come, Paul says, and when I come, whosoever you shall approve by your letters, then will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. So Paul is going around and he's telling the church at Corinth that he's coming to gather a collection for the church at Jerusalem. Why? Because they're going through a dearth. Because they're going through a time where the Jews and, you know, these, even the Christians at this time, the Romans probably don't really understand who they are. They're just going through a time of where they don't have anything. They're being persecuted. They're going through tribulation and they're sending them financial support. Look at verse number 29 of Acts, or verse number 30 of Acts chapter 11, verse number 30, which also they did and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. So that's of course why Saul was, or Paul now, was writing to the church of Corinth. So what is happening here? Let's get context of what's happening in this chapter. Look at the very first verse of Acts chapter 11. It says, and the apostles and brethren that were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. The context of, of actually the last several chapters was the word of God going out to the Gentiles. Okay, well what we're looking at here is like a worldwide revival that's happening. Okay? And guess what? It was sparked, this is kind of the point that I want to get across this evening. Revival, everybody always says all the time, like we need revival in America. We need revival in this country. I mean, how many times have you heard that in your life? But the point I'm trying to get you to understand is there's a pattern to revival. There always is. And I'm going to show you that this evening. This worldwide revival, it was sparked by persecution. It was sparked by the death of Stephen, really. And then it was sparked even further by this dearth in Jerusalem. It's sparked by tribulation. Okay? Look, this is exactly how it will work in the end times to turn to Daniel chapter 11. This is a pattern that we can watch for because it will repeat itself again and again and again. Turn to Daniel chapter 11, Daniel chapter 11 and look at verse 31. Here we're talking about the end times. We're talking about the antichrist. We're talking about the abomination of desolation set up in the temple. The antichrist is going to set up this image that everyone has to worship. Look at verse number 31 of Daniel chapter 11. Look what the Bible says. It says, an arm 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 maketh desolate. The antichrist is going to have all this power. He's going to have all these armies and he's going to have all this power and he's going to place this figure in the temple, the place of the daily sacrifice and people are going to have to worship this image. Look at verse 32. And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries. He meaning the antichrist here. Okay? So he's going to take wicked people. It's not just the antichrist in the end times. He's going to find wicked people and what's he going to do? He's going to corrupt them by what? Flatteries. Is flattery ever good? Flattery is always bad. So the antichrist is just going to, he's going to get all these world leaders and all these, these powerful people behind him just by saying, you're so great and if you just follow me, I'll make you super powerful. And he's just going to get like, so I mean you wonder like how, how is the antichrist? I mean we know, we know the method that he's going to use to unite the world by the way. I mean this is what Daniel was telling us. He's going to, the method that he's going to use is he's going to just promise power and he's just going to lay flatter at all these world leaders because I mean what are, what are major super powerful people there? You know who falls for flattery? Who falls for flattery? If you come up to me and you say, I think you're the best and I just want to be just like you and I want, I want everything, I mean I'm just going to be like, I may smile and I'm like, but I'm going to be like, you're freaking me out right now. You know it's just, it's going to make me like, you know, it's going to, you know, prideful people fall for flattery though. And you'll see this, men will see this in the workplace. You know the guy that's always just, you know he's always, he's always kissing up to the boss. You know why people do that? Because it works. Because if you get a boss, if you get a boss that's really prideful, here's what happens. Somebody comes up to that boss and they're like, hey boss, I just really like that decision you made in that meeting. That was brilliant. It's like, I think you are the smartest person in the whole company. And a prideful person, a prideful boss will be like, I am pretty smart. Well thank you. Thank you for that. You know what? I've always known I was smarter than everybody. I've always known I was the best manager that ever possibly could be. And you notice it. Good for you. And you know what? Flattery in cases where you have super prideful people, works. That's why people do it. And that Antichrist is going to flatter all these world leaders, you know, and he's going to get them all behind him. And this is how he's going to unite everybody. Alright, so he's going to corrupt these people. Look, they're not saved. They're just super prideful. But the people, but, now here's the key thrust right here. But, we're the other side, okay? But the people that do know their God, that's us. The people that know Jesus Christ, they're not going to fall for all this stuff. They're going to be like, that's the Antichrist right there and all these people are wicked. It says the people that do know their God, what shall they be? They shall be strong and do exploits. You see the pattern here? And then look what it says that they'll do. And they shall dig bunkers. And they shall dig bunkers and they shall store freeze-dried food to live in a hole in the ground for 30 years until the tribulation passes. Look what it says. It says, and they that understand among the people, that's us by the way again. Because we're the only ones, what was the whole point of Sunday night sermon? The whole point of Sunday night sermon was to show you this wicked philosophy that is corrupting every single thing. It's corrupting the arts. It's corrupting the movies. It's corrupting TV. It's corrupting everything that you see. And it's this wicked philosophy that's in everything and you're like, this is depressing. But at least you recognize it when you see it. If you know the Bible and you listen to Bible preaching, you recognize those wicked philosophies when you see it. And when somebody tries to creep something into your home, you recognize it. You're like, no. You're like, no, it's because guess what? A lot of these things, they seem harmless. A lot of these cartoons and a lot of these media things, they seem harmless. But if you know your God and you know the Bible, you know these attacks. So the people that know their God, they that understand, that's us. You know, you're reading your Bible, you understand what's going to happen. You know, you, you listen to Bible preaching and they that understand among the people, what will we be doing? It says they shall instruct many. Oh, but then what? It's not, they're not going to be appreciated for it. It says, but they shall fall by the sword and by flame, by captivity and by spoil many days. So here's the pattern right here. This is the exact same pattern that we see in Acts chapter 11. So just write Daniel chapter 11, Acts chapter 11. I don't know if that was a cool, you know, meant to be that way, but I mean it's the exact same pattern. There was great, there's a wicked person that came up. It started persecuting people and people were scattered everywhere. But then guess what? Great exploits happened. Great instruction happened by what? By the people who know their God. So we see the same thing. We see, you know, the Jews, the Jews, you know, they, they take the place of this wicked person in Acts chapter 7 when they, they kill Stephen. So they kill Stephen. Then you have Claudia Caesar that arises. You're starting to see kind of the handoff between the Jewish persecution into the Roman persecution that's coming in just 10 or 15 years. And it's going to be full blown Roman persecution after the temple is destroyed. And then what do you see? You're going to start to see many persecuted and killed. But then of course, God's people show strength and do exploits. That's the pattern. That's the pattern right there. And that's the pattern that will repeat itself again and again and again. Now look, I was talking with Pastor Jimenez about this on Saturday night and he had an interesting point, but he said like, look, here's the thing. We have never in like this sliver of time that we're living in. That's why I kind of made that joke like dearth. We just have no idea what that even means. If you just take like the last 50 years, and I'm talking about the last 50 years of just human history, you take the last 50 years of 6,000 years of human history, there has never been a time of such ease as there is now, especially for you all in this country right now. Dearth, I mean, dearth has been unknown in this country especially for two or more generations. If you think about it, you think about a generation being 25 to 30 years, there's been no dearth. It's interesting because, now I think about this a lot, now this is interesting because it's not like we deserve there not to be a dearth. So I see this, it's a great dichotomy when you look at the fact that there's just been, I mean, when you think about we're living in a time, just think about the, I mean, congratulate yourself. You're living in a time that no human in history has ever seen, with just this great ease. Yet, we're doing all these things that deserve God's terrible judgment. And you think, how long can this go on? I mean, I think about that a lot. How long is God going to allow this to go on? I mean, the point is, we know that it's coming to an end. I don't know when. I don't know if that's going to be one year, I don't know if that's going to be 20 years, I don't know if that's going to be 100 years. But, here's the thing, when it does come to an end, what I'm trying to get you to understand from this pattern tonight, when this great ease that we're living in comes to an end, it's probably going to feel pretty terrible. But, there's great opportunity there, is what I'm trying to get you to understand. I mean, I guess, I guess many people would prefer the easy life. But, we should kind of start thinking about the exploits, because that's the revival that everyone says that they want. And the revival will be worth the tribulation. That's what I think. Okay, now look, turn to Revelation chapter 18. Turn to Revelation chapter 18. Let me just give you some thoughts on the USA versus if we're going to be in the end times or not. Alright, here's what I know. I know for sure that judgment's coming to the United States. I know that for sure. I don't know when. I'm not God. I don't know how long He's going to, you know, let things go on the way they're going. But, here's what I know. You know, I know that, you know, a lot of people think that we may be Babylon in Revelation chapter 18. This great city or the city could even be, you know, a symbol of a country in Revelation chapter 18 that's destroyed right at the end of God's wrath in Revelation chapter 18. Let's just read through this real quickly and see if the United States fits, you know, this description of Babylon. And after these things, Revelation chapter 1, we're at the end of God's wrath here. After these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven having great power and the earth was lighted with his glory. And he cried with a mighty strong voice, with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great has fallen. It has fallen. It has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Now look at verse number 3. Here's a lot of evidence that this could be us. For all nations have drunk, there's basically three things I want to point out in verse number 3 that point to the fact that this could be the United States. There's three things, all right? The first one is, for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. You know what that's saying? That's saying all nations have participated in the culture of this Babylon. All nations have participated in the culture of whatever this Babylon city or country is. Now look, you will never, if you've ever been around the world, you will know that you can go to the darkest corner of any continent and they're going to be walking around trying to look like and be Americans there. You know, it's kind of funny if you've been to other countries where you'll look like, you'll say like this looks like America in the 80s, you know, because they're a couple decades behind or whatever. But the point is they're trying to be like America. America is exporting their culture all over the world. You cannot deny that. So we definitely fit that culture. And the funny thing is, is if you look at, you know, we're told that there's all these other evil cultures in the world, but what are we exporting? We're exporting, you know, wickedness around the world. We're exporting, you know, perversion around the world. This is why it doesn't really make sense. We don't have any moral authority around the world. We don't have any moral authority. So when we say, oh, Russia's evil and Russia says we're evil, it's like, they're probably more right. Because I'm not saying they're good, but I mean, the point is, you know, there's not really a time in the world right now where you can say like somebody's wearing a white hat, not that I see anyway. So the point I'm trying to get you to understand is we're exporting our culture and that matches the first part of verse number three. Let's continue reading. And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. So you know what this is talking about? This is talking about alliances and that countries that have sidled up to this Babylon to gain something from her or Babylon or whatever. This is talking about alliances. You know, hello, there's all kinds of alliances that people are just sidling up to the United States right now. Why? Because we make them powerful. Because, you know, frankly, Poland isn't really powerful unless, you know, they have an alliance with a powerful country. You know, that's why you get things like NATO and all these different, you know, alliances around the world. It's the same as verse number three is talking about. Now look at the third one. So we see that, you know, this Babylon exports the culture. It's a wicked culture. Okay, it's for, you know, the Bible compares it to fornication here. And it says that the other nations of the world, their leaders have sidled up to, you know, this Babylon as well. And then look at this. And the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Okay, it's saying that like the merchants of, you know, you know what merchants are? You have to understand here that this isn't talking about Babylon making things and sending it to people. It's talking about merchants. A merchant is someone that sells you stuff. So what it's talking about in item number three and verse number three is it's talking about how this Babylon is making these merchants rich. Why? Because people are selling all kinds of stuff to Babylon. Does that sound familiar? I mean, have you seen the pictures of like, I remember we were in the Philippines and we went, we took this little day trip to this Corregidor Island and we left the port of Manila. And you know what? It's not a bunch of container ships coming into the Philippines. You know what it is? It's a bunch of container ships leaving the Philippines going to the United States. It's, and it's like that all over the world. It's just all these countries are just shipping us stuff. Why? We're making them rich. That's why. Because Americans we just, we consume, we just consume all the world's stuff. Look at verse number four. So that's the three things in verse number three that I mean really point to the United States here. Look, if we are in the end times, Babylon is definitely us. That's all I have to say. I don't know if we're in the end times or not, but if we are, it fits. Okay, look at verse four. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her many people that you be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues for her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. This is why America is getting it no matter what, whether we're Babylon or not, and whether we get your say, we get right tomorrow, say that there's no persecution and we just all of a sudden decide to get right. Like it's not going to happen. Okay. But we also, we get right. God's still going to remember our iniquities. This is a problem. God's going to remember the 60 million abortions. Even if we stop all abortion tomorrow, that's a problem. Reward her even as she rewarded you and double her unto double according to her works in the cup, which she had filled to her double, how much she had glorified herself and lived. Here we go. Live deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her. This is why it was important that I brought up that little sliver of time. You see this underline that in your Bible. If you write it in your Bible, look at verse number seven, it says she lived deliciously and it says so much torment and sorrow give her. So how bad is Babylon going to be punished? How bad whether we are bad, I mean, this is a good just philosophy to take right here. How bad is the United States going to be punished whether we're Babylon or not? You know how bad we're going to be punished? As good as we had it. That's how, and I just told you that you can't really argue that this last 50 years has been the most comfortable 50 years in human history in the United States. So how bad is it going to be when God judges the United States? Bad. That's what I'm trying to get you to understand. Okay? There's a bright side to this. Don't get all depressed on me this evening. All right? Her plagues shall come in one day, death and mourning and famine. She shall be utterly burned with fire for strong is the Lord who judged her. And look at this. And the kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her shall bewail her and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burnings. Look at verse 11. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man, it says because they really love this place. It says they will weep and mourn because they love the people of Babylon. Look what it says. It says because they don't buy their merchandise anymore. The only reason that people will mourn over Babylon is that they're just not buying the junk anymore. That's it. The merchandise and it lists all the merchandise. Verse 15, the merchants of these things which were made rich by her shall stand afar off for the fear for torment, weeping and wailing. They won't even like back her up. They won't even back up Babylon. They're going to be like, we don't want any part of that. What's happening over there. They're going to be sad only because of the money that they lose because they were again in verse 19. It says they were made rich. All right, so look, here's what's interesting though. If you look at Revelation chapter 18, here's what's interesting. So if this does, if this is the United States, we can, we can tell, we can tell by verse 18, the verse 24 of chapter 18 that it's a little bit of a measuring point here and look at verse 24 where it says, and in her was found the blood of the prophets and of saints and all that were slain upon the earth. And really this is what I want to cap it with is that if Babylon, if first of all, forget that the United States might be Babylon. Babylon follows the same pattern. Okay? Because what happened here? They, what were, what was the last thing that they were doing? They were slaying the prophets. They were slaying the saints. They were literally killing God's people. Okay? In this Babylon, which means if it is the United States, things are going to get much worse here for Christians. Okay? So you know, there's going to be dearth and there's going to be persecution and you can kind of sort of see that playing out. To be honest with you, you can kind of see that coming now. So that is coming. So wicked leaders will have to arise for that to come in the United States. Wicked leaders have been arising, but even more wicked leaders will have to arise. This is the pattern, right? They will have to arise and say, we're not going to allow this type of preaching. We're not going to allow the Bible to be read. We're not going to allow people to teach the Bible. Maybe churches will go underground or whatever they will do. They will start arresting people that preach the Bible. It's the same exact pattern folks that's happened all throughout the world. The persecution will start, but then guess what? Great exploits will happen. Great exploits will come out of that. The pattern will be the same. So whether or not we're Babylon in the end times or we're not, we're going to be judged and it's going to follow this pattern. You see what I'm saying? So that we can see happening. Okay? And look, here's all I'm trying to get you to understand. Just kind of be ready for it. This is what Jesus said, you know, in Mark 13, Matthew 24. He says, look, I'm telling you these things so you won't be offended. I'm telling you these things so when these things happen, you will be like, no one told us. Look, the pre-trib people are going to be offended because they're going to be like, why in the world are we having to go through this? But we shouldn't be offended. We should be ready for it. You know, we don't have to go dig bunkers because somebody's got to go out and do all these great things. Okay? Look, I mean, it's kind of exciting when you think about it that way. It's kind of exciting to think that there's a possibility. First of all, you can do great things anytime. Okay? But there's kind of great to think that, you know, there's a possibility that you could be part of, of something like this great revival that would happen in end times that Daniel chapter 11 was talking about. All right? So turn to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. We'll wrap up here in just a couple of minutes. We go to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. And look at verse, look at verse 14. So back to Acts chapter 11. God needed, God needed the gospel going out. He couldn't have it just stay in Jerusalem. All right? Because look, that is actually a prerequisite of the end times. Look at verse 14 of Matthew chapter 24. And he says, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto nations. And then the end shall, then shall the end come. So look, that's a, literally a prerequisite that this gospel start to get out. What we're seeing in Acts chapter 11 is the beginning of verse 14 of Matthew 24. Okay. We're seeing the beginning of the gospel starting to go out to the world. All right. So look, here's the last point I want to make. Here's the last point I want to make this evening. We see this pattern that wicked leaders will arise. We see this pattern of persecution that those wicked leaders, you know, the end times application is the antichrist. Okay. And his leaders that he flatters and all this wicked leaders arise, they persecute the Christians and then the Christians go out and they do great things and they do exploits. Okay. But look, this is kind of something that you need to realize in your life that any, I mean, in times of discomfort is when great things happen in your life. Okay. Any great thing that you will do in your life, let's put the end times aside for a second. Any great thing that you will do will have discomfort with it. You say, what do you mean? I'm saying, let's just say that your goal in life is just to be a great father. You want to be a great father. Look, that's going to come with personal discomfort. You say, what do you mean? Because if you just live this life where you just do everything, every single decision that you make is just to make things as easy as possible for yourself personally, that you're not going to be great anything. To be a great father, you're going to have to make personal sacrifices. You're going to have to go through great discomfort. Maybe that means that you don't have the nice things that a lot of other people that you know have. Maybe that means that you sacrifice things for your children and sacrifice things for your wife. Look, if you want to be a great husband, that means that you are going to have to go through discomfort in your life. You say, what do you mean? Because you're going to have to sacrifice. You can't just be a husband and just say, whatever that I feel like doing that makes me feel good, I'm going to do and think you're going to have a great marriage. You're crazy. You probably will have no marriage if that's the way you operate your life. But everything you say, I want to be a great husband. I want to be a great wife. Guess what? There's going to be great personal discomfort with that. Because anything that you will do that is great is difficult and uncomfortable to do. This is what we see here. This is what we see. We see this great dearth, this great uncomfortable situation happening in Jerusalem and just these great things happening out of it. You know, they were in Jerusalem and it was just like party time. It was just like party time. Everybody's getting saved. It's awesome. Everything's awesome here. God's like, no, discomfort, discomfort, great things. It's the same thing with everything in your life. You want to be a great mom? You want to be a great mom. You want to raise great children. Look, that's going to come with great personal discomfort and great personal sacrifice. And just like lay around and just do nothing and just expect that everything's going to turn out okay just because you just want a comfortable life. This is the danger of this sliver of time that we're living in is that everything is so comfortable that we may just choose comfort at every corner. And then we'll never be a great father. We'll never be a great husband. We'll never be, you'll never be a great wife. You'll never be a great son. You'll never be a great daughter. You know, you'll never have a great marriage. Which, you know, I mean, you got a wife and you got a husband who are just, they're just focused on being the greatest wife and greatest husband they can possibly be at and throwing their own comfort out the window. That's great marriage right there. You're going to have a great marriage, which is possibly one of the best blessings that you will receive on this earth. That's my opinion. But the point is, the point is times of great discomfort. Just if you take away nothing from tonight, take away this. Great things always come with great discomfort. That's what we can take away from Acts chapter 11. Remember that in your life. I mean, remember that in your Christian life. When things get tough in your Christian life, just be like, you know what, I'm going to go harder. Look, I'm telling you, I'm telling you today, and this doesn't happen to me very often. We have a very small group of people out soul-witting today and we're in the worst neighborhood that I've ever been in in Fresno. And we've been, I mean, you all know, we've been to some bad neighborhoods in Fresno. This was the, this was that neighborhood where I'm just like, my head's on a swivel and I can't see everybody and I was just like, should we be here? And we're just getting, everybody else is just getting people saved everywhere. But that's the thing. I was uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable and great things happened. You see? And look, the Lord takes care of us. I get that. But, you know, I feel responsible and we're in a really bad place, but great discomfort, great things. It's a great application for exactly what we're talking about tonight. Just remember that. Remember when you're thinking about, ah, do I really want to do this? Yes, you want to go through that discomfort. If it is how you get to what the Bible says, if you're, if your pastor preaches something and you say, but that's going to be uncomfortable, go through that discomfort because then you'll do great things. And you know, guess what? Somebody has got to do great things for the kingdom of God on earth. And Jesus Christ said, you know, I'm leaving. It's your job. You do it. Times of discomfort equals great things. Let's bow our heads and have a word with God.