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Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay, I think since we're going where we're going, it is a very appropriate time to ask the Lord to guide us and bless us and protect us. So we're going to do that first. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for your Holy Word.
Thank you for preserving your Word through the ages so that it's available to us this morning. Thank you for giving us a desire to come together to worship you and to study that Word. Thank you for sending us the Holy Spirit to guide us as we undertake that study.
And most of all, thank you for sending your Son into the world as a man that we may receive eternal light. This morning, I ask that you lead us to the scriptures you wish us to explore. Shake them into the message you wish to be delivered and give it to those you wish to hear.
In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. I'm going to start by reading Revelation 1. And if I occasionally slip up and say Revelations, it's because I have been trained in my youth at Revelations.
It's not a bunch of Revelations. It's one Revelation. It's not about angels and dragons and plagues and those things revealed to us. It's about the unveiling of Jesus Christ. So you understand that about Revelation to begin with, that Revelation is the unveiling of Jesus Christ.
That's all it's about. In fact, when we said earlier on, as we were going back to last lesson, the Bible is all about Jesus. And if the Bible is all about Jesus, Revelation is all about Jesus on steroids.
So here we go. The Revelation, it tells us right in the first, what, five words? The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him. Unto whom? God gave unto Jesus Christ to show His servants things which must shortly come to pass.
And He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John. So ultimately, it does get to John. And John is going to see visions and he's going to report on what he sees. Who? Bear record of the Word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and all things that He saw.
I was looking for this verse right here. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy. And keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. Is it a surprise that reading a scripture is a blessing?
Does that surprise you? It's a blessing to read any book in the Bible. So I've got a question for you just right up front. Why does John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, find it necessary to promise that blessing not once, but twice?
He doesn't do that in any other book, does he? I can tell you I looked for blessing. And he does talk about blessings, but he in no place promises, if you read this book, you will receive a blessing. If you hear this book being read, you'll receive a blessing.
If you keep those things which are written in the book, you'll receive a blessing. No other place does it say that. And in Revelation, it says it twice. One at the beginning and one at the end. Turn to chapter 22.
Revelation chapter 22. We'll go to verse 7. There is something else in this passage in 22 that I want to get into today. But for right now, it's just this. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Now, there are more than one book. Revelation is not the only book that deals with end-time prophecies. I gave you a clue of another one. Daniel deals with end-time prophecies. Can you think of any others?
Any other books that deal with end-time prophecies? Isaiah does. What else? Especially Matthew. If you really wanted to look at the definitive New Testament book about the end-times, other than Revelation, you'd want to look at Matthew.
Because it's got the most... 1 Corinthians in the New Testament deals with end-times. 1 and 2 Thessalonians deal with end-times. Ezekiel, an end-time book. Joel. Micah. Zechariah. That's eight. I think you could go right through the Bible, and you could see somewhere in almost every book something about the end-times in that book.
I'll give you a challenge. Read Ruth. It's a small book. And see if you can find something about the end-times in Ruth. And I will tell you, you will. But what I said here is, maybe the greatest two, the greatest two books of the Bible dealing with end-time is Daniel and Revelation.
And that's what we're going to deal with today. And it's interesting, to me at least, that both Daniel and Revelation come with a set of instructions. But the sets of instructions are two very different sets.
Now, before we begin, I want to list about five or six things that are presuppositions to all that we're going to do. Thing number one, God means what He says, and He says what He means. Turn to Isaiah 46, verse 9.
Isaiah 46, verse 9. And I think somebody in here told me yesterday, or last time, I shouldn't say turn to, I should say thumb to. And that gets everybody. Isaiah 46, verse 9. Remember the former times of old, for I am God, and there is none else.
I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel will stand, and I will do all My pleasure. What He says is going to come to pass.
And what He says is what He means to say. God means what He says, and says what He means. I don't really like to go where I make up what I think God may have meant by what He says. I think it's much better to let God tell us what He means.
He always, He never leaves us without instruction somewhere else in the Bible that I know of, anything, one time. He always goes somewhere else and explains the same thing in a different way. So God means what He says, and He says what He means.
Number two. The Bible is an integrated whole. Every detail is there by design. Well, He tells us that in Matthew 5, verse 17. Turn to Matthew 5, verse 17. This is Jesus Himself speaking. He is talking to the scribes and the Pharisees and the lawyers of the day.
And He says, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth shall pass, not one jottle or one tittle.
I said not. Not is not in there yet. One jot and one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. What does that tell you? Every jot. A jot is a little thing that looks like an apostrophe.
And a tittle is a little, I think, a little curly thing that's put on the end of a letter. It's kind of like the crossing of the T or the dotting of an I. Not any I will be left undotted and not any T will be left uncrossed.
And every one of them is crossed or dotted to a purpose. This is not a book like I would write. I might write a book and leave a T uncrossed or an I undotted. But the Holy Spirit won't. Everything that's there is there by design.
So you've got to look for everything. Nothing is trivial. That's supposition number three. Nothing is trivial. All things are, among other things, for our learning. Go to Romans 15. While you're going I'll make a little side comment that I'll make later on purpose.
But one of the blessings that you'll get in the study of Revelation is you'll wind up reading the whole Bible. Because there are so many references to so many other places in Scripture. Especially the Old Testament.
Okay. Romans 15 .4. For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning. So why were they written? Among other things for our learning. That we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
If you didn't have the Scripture, you would have no hope. Item number four. God is His own interpreter. Another way of saying that is say, Let the Scripture interpret the Scripture. 2 Peter 1 .19 will begin and 20 will conclude saying exactly that.
Peter's been talking about the experience that he and John and James, the brother of John, and one other one experienced on the Mount of Transfiguration. When he saw God in His glorified state before He was crucified.
He was so in awe that he said, It's a good thing that we saw this Jesus. Let's make a tabernacle to you and to Moses and Elijah. The other people that were there. And a voice comes to him out of heaven.
Scolded by God the Father. This is my son. Hear ye him. I think it's what it says. I may have that wrong. But I do know this. He was scolded by God Himself. Oh, you'd remember that, wouldn't you? So here's what he says.
He just described all that. And here's what he says. We also have a more sure word. More sure than what? Having been spoken to by God out of the cloud. A more sure word than that. Where unto ye do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in your heart.
Knowing this first. There is no prophecy of the Scripture. Knowing this first. That no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. What does that say? We're not to interpret the Scripture to create our own version of the truth.
There's a big tendency for everybody that teaches or even reads and discusses to try to mold the Bible into saying what we want it to say. I'm not saying that I'm beyond that. I certainly try to find things that support my point of view.
Rather than what I should do. What should I do? Not search the Scriptures to find something that agrees with me. But I should search the Scripture to see what is really true. And, of course, I will mention this passage more than once.
But you don't have to turn here. Acts 7 and 11 where it says, These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, the Bereans, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so.
So where are you going to find what's true and what's not true? Not from me. Although, Ron, I do not hesitate at all to give you my notes. I'm happy to do that. I want to do that. And yet you shouldn't use my notes as your guide for what the Scripture says.
You should use the Scripture. It will tell you. The Scripture will tell you what it says. Reading on in Peter. We just read the passage in Peter that says, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.
Now going on. For the prophecy came not in old times by the will of man, not what I wanted, but by holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now item number five. The fifth presupposition.
The Bible. The entirety of the Bible and particularly the entirety of the Revelation is all about Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 4 .13. But I will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of God, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
Prevent means precede. It doesn't really mean keep from happening. It means go before. Brother Otis said it like it came from the word prevent. It aired out beforehand. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and the voice of the archangel and with the trump of the God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we be ever with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
So what's he telling them? What's Paul telling the Thessalonians? They thought they had missed the coming. And he's saying to them not to worry. They didn't exactly think they had missed the coming. They thought those that had died before now had missed the coming.
And he's saying don't worry about those that died. They won't miss the coming. When God returns He will bring them with Him. Okay. And as we await for our departure from this earth which we all will depart some of us will depart in death and some of us may depart by being called directly to Him in what is referred to as the rapture.
As we await our departure or His coming we can comfort one another with His word. Look one more time at John 5 .37. John 5 .37. And the Father Himself which hath sent me hath borne witness of me. Ye have never heard His voice at any time nor seen His shape.
And ye have not His word abiding in you. For whom He hath sent, Him ye believe not. Search the Scriptures. We talked about that over the last few days the importance of searching the Scripture. Of spending time in the Scripture.
Search the Scriptures. For in them ye think ye have eternal life. And they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. Why won't they come to Him? They're not chosen.
They're not called. They're not allowed to come to Him even though they may search the Scripture they may read it they may have an understanding of what the Scripture says they will have no understanding of the God that said it.
And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. I receive not honor from men. You don't want to figure it out. But I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. That's why they won't come. I come in my Father's name.
And ye receive me not. If another shall come in his own name him you will receive. And you might want to keep that verse in mind. Humanistic men even scholars of the Bible often reject Jesus. But these same men when someone else comes they will stumble all over themselves in order to receive Him.
Who is John talking about here? This someone who comes in his own name. This is Jesus talking and He's saying to the Pharisees I came in my own name and you haven't seen the Father you haven't seen me you can't hear you don't and you reject me.
But someone else will come He'll come in His own name and Him you will receive. Who is that He? It's the Antichrist. They'll receive Him because they know Him because they're of Him. Now we're getting ready to begin our introduction to Revelation.
But we're going to go to Daniel 12 verse 1 first. This is one of the two chapters in Daniel that are really loaded with every with many good things about the end times. And Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 and it begins by saying at that time and that time is in the end times.
That's that time He's talking about. 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 to that same time.
Now what does that say? There's going to be trouble and it's going to be trouble that surpasses all of the trouble that has happened prior to this second coming. Now that includes the time when they were in exile in Babylon.
That includes the time when Adolf Hitler was as the agent of Satan attempting to destroy all of the Jews from off the face of the earth. It is it is the tribulation. It's a time of trouble unlike any previous time of trouble.
You even go to now when you have the Isis and the Jordanians and that's not what I wanted to say not the Jordanians, the Palestinians whose goal is to see Israel off the face of the earth. There is one interesting thing about that comment too.
Of all the people that have made it as their goal the goal to remove Israel from the face of the earth you got to look at them and say the Israelites remain and they are in the city now in this country now and all the rest of these are gone and long gone.
The Assyrians are gone. The Babylonians are gone. The Egyptian Pharaohs are gone. Hitler is gone. Isis is not gone yet. But if the Lord delays His coming again long enough they'll be gone. Somebody else will come into the place as the goal to remove the name of Israel from the face of the earth and they won't succeed either.
Okay. There will be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time. And at that time thy people shall be delivered. Every one that shall be found written in the book.
Okay, written in what book? The book of life. The book of life is what does the book of life contain? The names of the elect. Those that are already born and died. Those that are born and are living. Those that are born and living and don't know that they're elect yet.
Those that are not yet born and will be elect and of course they don't know it yet either. It will contain them all. Who else is in that book? No one else. You can't get in that book by being a biblical scholar.
You can't get in that book by creating your own religious cult as the Mormons did as the Jehovah's Witnesses did as Mohammed did. You can't get there any other way only if you are one of his elect. How many of his elect will be left out?
None. 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 that they shall be wise and they shall be wise I'm going to try that one more time and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
So, not only will the elect be called up but the non-elect will be called up also and they'll all either be rewarded or judged. If you're elect and it comes time for your judgment Jesus will say in some fashion he belongs to me I paid his price.
If Jesus doesn't intervene for you then you'll face the judgment. And what will be used and what will be used for the judgment? What will be the grounds for the judgment? What did you do with what you knew?
Somebody told you about Jesus what did you do with it? Yes, we'll be judged by what we do. I think that's people that are on the earth that are elect, that are his, that are wise and one of the things that they know is they should share the gospel with everyone.
So, should we share it only with those that are elect? Well, that's what Spurgeon said. If they came with a label I think he said if they came with a yellow streak down their back I would know and I would share the gospel only with them.
But we're to share it with everybody because some are going to be turned to righteousness those that are elect and some to everlasting contempt. Do I think this is after? I think that this is probably probably after the rapture but maybe not.
It depends on when the rapture occurs. There are those and I'm not going to get into that right now but there are those that think the rapture occurs at the beginning of the seventh week of Daniel. There are some that believe that it occurs at the middle and there are some that believe that it occurs toward the end.
Whether it occurs anywhere not at the very end but even if it occurred a week before the very end they would have an opportunity some would have an opportunity I don't want to get into that right now but I'm not sure I would think that it probably has to do with the tribulation period but it's something that we can certainly take to heart today.
Now I know he says don't cast your pearls before swans they may come and devour you. So you don't necessarily have to tell everybody in the world about the scripture. You might show judgment. You might allow the Lord in the form of the Holy Spirit to tell you those to whom you should share the gospel.
But understand this just because you share the gospel doesn't mean that they're going to be that they're going to turn to righteousness. Most that you share the gospel with will not. Most that you share the gospel with will not turn to righteousness.
But now the verse that I was looking for but thou O Daniel shut up the words and seal the book even to the times of the end and many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased. So what's Daniel told to do with this book?
Shut it up. And there's going to be information in this book that will not be available at this time. It will wait until the end times when the knowledge shall be increased. And one thing that I could not help add is the word it was knowledge.
Daniel is told to seal up the book. These prophecies are for later. But I can't leave without mentioning that the word is knowledge. Dahath not wisdom. Shakma. That's increased. We know so many more things now.
We have access to all kinds of things. Knowledge is really, really, really larger than it has ever been before. But not necessarily wisdom. Is wisdom increasing? Well, I hope wisdom is increasing for all of us.
In fact, I think that only the elect I think only the elect experience wisdom increasing. Knowledge? Yes. Wisdom? No. Now, we're going to compare that. What was Daniel told to do? He was told to close the book.
Shut it up. The prophecies are for later. Now, look back at Revelation 1 .3. Blessed is he. Revelation 1 .3. I'll wait a couple more seconds. This is the exact same passage that we were in a while ago.
The same verse. And it says, Blessed is he that readeth. And they that hear the words of this prophecy. And I just stopped it there last time. But the verse doesn't stop there. What does it say? And keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand.
Now, go all the way to the final chapter. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and the is after the blessed is also in italics. So it wasn't in the original. Oh, actually, there's three. Oh, there's only two here. You're right.
No, there's three. What are they? Okay, that's one. That's two. And keep. And so, see, now, the keep is a very important word. What does keep mean? One of the definitions for keep is to keep it in the state that it was originally in.
I mean, there's a lot of different things you can do for keep. But one of the definitions for keep is to keep it in the state that it was originally in. And what that says is don't try to change it into something you want it to be.
And that's why I want to make sure we got that. Now, that's in my notes, so we'll come back to that later when we do this verse line by line through the verse. We've not gotten to Revelation. We've not even really gotten to Daniel yet.
We're just doing an overview. And we'll do it line by line when we get there. And then in Revelation 22 .10, now, the other one was 22 .9, is that right? The other one that I referred to, the blessing, it was 22 .7.
And then it skipped. 22 .9 talks about something different. And then 22 .10 comes back to this idea. What does it say? And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.
Okay. Now, let's think about that. In Daniel, Daniel was told, Seal the book, the time is not now. Revelation was said, Seal not the book, the time is now. Both 22 and chapter 1 says the time is at hand.
Now, this is just me. And so you might want to kind of keep in mind Acts 17 .11. Search the scriptures daily to see if those things are so. Perhaps the commandment given to John not to seal the prophecies of the book of Revelation implies that the time has also come for the book of Daniel to be unsealed.
I don't know. I don't know if we're going to understand Daniel more now than we would have understood it had we gone into Daniel at the time that Jesus was on the earth or in the Old Testament times. I don't know that, but I suspect that it might be.
I suspect that the commandment to not seal Revelation is also a commandment to unseal Daniel. I am not 100 positive. I know that Paul talked about when he was called from the third heaven. He went to the third heaven and he came back and they said, there are things up here that you can't tell.
I know that that's in there. I think you may be right, but I'm not 100 certain. If it is, it's later on in the book. I'm not 100 certain. And I'll never be 100 certain unless the Lord makes us certain.
So now we're going to examine the first four verses of Daniel 12 line by line, and then we'll go into Revelation. And I think we won't get much past verse 1 today. 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 to that same time. That is, we've already talked about that. That is a time of great trouble. That's the time of the great tribulation.
But my question to you is, is that the first time that the children of God see trouble? And so then I went and listed five or six times when great trouble was experienced by the children of God. The first one I selected was Job.
And the question I got, did Job see trouble? Okay? As we go through Job, I want you to keep in mind that there's something different about this trouble and the trouble that is referred to in Daniel. Remember, it's a time of trouble such as never was.
So there's something different about this one than the one at Job. Job certainly suffered. Who was the direct agent, John, of the suffering of Job? Satan. Job's trouble would come by the instigation of Satan.
Satan is defined as, or in some places known as, the prince of the power of the air. Satan, using evil men, using demonic power, and natural disasters, creates trouble for God's people. Now, John, you're right.
It is clear that Satan is the direct cause of Job's trouble. What about God? Does God have a role? Not only did He allow him to, in fact, He made him do it. See, that's a little stronger statement, not that He just allowed Satan to do it, but He made Satan do it.
But God also limited the scope of Satan's attack. Let's look at what it says. Oh, I didn't get that there yet. Let's just go on. I think I've got it listed in a second. Another case. Antiochus Epiphanes.
Anybody know him? He was the king of Jerusalem that desecrated the temple, that terrorized Israel, and triggered the Maccabean Revolt. Did he bring trouble? He was not. He was an idiot man. He was the direct ancestor of Herod.
So Herod, at the time of Jesus, was the descendant of Antiochus Epiphanes. What about Nero? Did he bring trouble to God's people? What about the Roman Catholic Church? Who do you think killed more people, the Roman Catholic Church or Nero?
The Roman Catholic Church killed more Protestants than Nero killed Christians. What about Adolf Hitler? He killed Jews. It was his goal to take Israel off the face of the globe. What about Joseph Stalin?
What about ISIS? So far, we don't know. We don't know where it's all going to end. What about the rise of Islamic terrorism? What about the Antichrist? Even the Antichrist. All of these bring trouble to God's people.
Now, the difference between the two kinds of troubles. One type is the type referred to in Daniel 12, has as a direct cause the wrath of God. He does not send a subordinate to do it. He does it himself.
Not a demonic agent. He didn't select Satan and say, Satan, you go do this. He didn't say, let's take a Nero or a Joseph Stalin or a Hitler or Antiochus Epiphanes and use that evil man to create the trouble.
Not a natural disaster. He didn't create a storm. He didn't create an earthquake. The Lord himself. Now, are there any other times when God himself initiated the trouble? Okay, in one sense, all of them, but without using a demonic or a human agent or a natural disaster.
Can you find any place where God himself acted as the agent without calling on somebody else to do it for them? Brother David had an illustration of an angel, a demonic angel in heaven that when the Lord called on to bring the downfall of one of these kings, said, I want you to go, I need somebody to go and tell lies.
And so this demon said, I'll go and I'll put words in your mouth and you will lead this guy to his destruction. Well, what about when he doesn't do that? What about when he just does it himself? I've got three or four things that I found.
Look at 2 Peter 2 2 4. I'm just going to read it and then I'm going to ask some questions. And you tell me. Yes, sir. Two minutes. Okay, we won't really get to Job. We'll finish right here. 2 Peter 2 2 4.
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. That's the passage. If God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.
My question is, who spared not? Who cast them down? Delivered into the chains of darkness, reserved unto judgment. Something else to consider is these angels are some but not all of the fallen angels.
The fallen angels that sided with Satan originally and were cast down to the earth. Some of them engaged in such a horrendous activity that the Lord took them and bound them and chained them eternally in hell.
That's not all of them. There are some that are still unchained. Okay, let's just stop right there and we'll pick up here next time.