{"id":18433,"date":"2018-04-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/daniel-058-progressive-illumination\/"},"modified":"2018-04-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T05:00:00","slug":"daniel-058-progressive-illumination","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/daniel-058-progressive-illumination\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel 058 – Progressive Illumination"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[72],"series_event":[467],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18433","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-daniel","series_event-daniel","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Daniel 058 - Progressive Illumination","sermon_date":"20180408","sermon_month":"4","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5660,"sermon_slides":5661,"sermon_mp3":5664,"sermon_id":"4818134844","series_or_event":467,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":72,"chapter_and_verse":"12:4","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nProgressive Illumination\n\n4-8-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Daniel 12:4\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 58\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Daniel, chapter 12, beginning at verse 4 today.\u00a0 The title of our message is Progressive Illumination.\u00a0 Maybe we should expand the title; how about this: The Reality or Progressive Illumination.\u00a0 That\u2019s illumination, not elimination, let\u2019s make that clear.\n\nAs you\u2019re turning there there\u2019s a couple of things that are there for you\u00a0 on the book table that we\u2019d like to offer as a gift so feel free to take one on your way out.\u00a0 And we are continuing to work our way through the Book of Daniel, in that fascination section where Daniel receives the final vision of his life and ministry, chapters 10-12.\u00a0 Daniel, of course, seeing all of these things under the Holy Spirit\u2019s enablement and through angelic revelation as angels are bringing Daniel insight prophetically back in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C.\n\nOf course chapter 10 describes a great spiritual warfare that goes on before Daniel receives the vision and that\u2019s typical how it works in our lives, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Whenever God is ready to do something significant in our lives, some kind of victory, some kind of opportunity, what I\u2019ve noticed in my life is that time period is preceded by great warfare.\u00a0 Daniel is receiving a vision but before the vision comes a great warfare is described, chapter 10. So you may find yourself this morning in great warfare, spiritually, and maybe that\u2019s a sign to be encouraged, not discouraged, because God wants to do something big in\u00a0 your life perhaps.\n\nBut Daniel has received in this vision, when he finally receives it, prophetic information about Persia and then Greece and then the warfare within the Grecian Empire and then he receives information about someone that would come on the scene 400 years later, named Antiochus IV.\u00a0 And then his vision jumps from that time period into the distant future, a time period that\u2019s still future from our point of view today, in the 21st<\/sup> century, as he gets information about the antichrist, the end of chapter 11 and into chapter 12 about the yet future tribulation and millennial kingdom.\n\nSo how can we sort of outline chapter 12?\u00a0 We have a description of the end times, chapter 12:1-4 and that description, we have the suffering described a future time period of suffering for the nation of Israel and then that time of suffering is followed by a time of great separation, verse 2.\u00a0 And it\u2019s really there in verse 2 that we see the two great resurrections, a resurrection\u00a0 unto life for the believer and a resurrection unto damnation for the unbeliever.\u00a0 And then that time of suffering is followed by what\u2019s called the Shining, the Shining is the time of reward. So Daniel gives us sort of a pattern to follow; he says, number 1, there\u2019s going to be a tribulation, number 2, there is going to be a resurrection for the righteous, and then number 3, there\u2019s going to be a resurrection which will be followed by a time period of reward.\n\nAnd so last week, on Easter Sunday, we had the opportunity to talk about not only our future resurrection as believers, what we can look forward to, but the judgment of rewards that will immediately follow that resurrection and we built that model from the Book of Daniel.\u00a0\u00a0 And we move away from the suffering, the separation, which is described in verse 2, the shining which is this concept of rewards, it talks about some shining rightly.\u00a0 But it\u2019s very interesting that not everyone will shine in the millennial kingdom.\u00a0 All believers enter the millennial kingdom but not all are rewarded equally once they enter.\u00a0 And we talked about that last week, did we not?\n\nSo we move away from the suffering, from the separation, from the shining and now we come to verse 4 which is his last general description of the future tribulation period and millennium, called the sealing.\u00a0 Notice what he says there in verse 4, it\u2019s very interesting.\u00a0 He says, \u201cBut as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 An interesting verse.\n\nNow it\u2019s interesting that this same concept of sealing is mentioned not just in verse 4 but it\u2019s also mentioned in verse 9. Drop down to verse 9 and notice how it\u2019s repeated.\u00a0 \u201cHe said,\u201d now \u201che\u201d is the angel, I think it\u2019s Gabriel that came to deliver this information to Daniel.\u00a0 \u201cHe said, \u2018Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 And you can sort of imagine the frustration that Daniel was experiencing here, he had received all of these great truths, all of these great insights, and he was faithful to record what God told him to write down,\u00a0 and he just wanted a little bit of insight into what these things meant specifically and he\u2019s given this specific instruction to take what he\u2019s written and conceal it and don\u2019t worry about it anymore.\n\nBut conceal it, bottle it up, don\u2019t try to understand what it means specifically because there will arise a future generation that is going to go to and fro and that future generation will understand.\u00a0 So Daniel was never given permission, if you will, to understand what he had received.\u00a0 He had done his job of faithfully recording it and then concealing it.\n\nNow this is not the first time in the Book of Daniel that this has happened to Daniel.\u00a0 You might want to jump back to Daniel chapter 7 and verse 28.\u00a0 You remember the vision of the four beasts that Daniel saw.\u00a0 Daniel 7:28 says this, \u201cAt this point the revelation ended. As for me, Daniel, my thoughts were greatly alarming me and my face grew pale, but I kept the matter to myself.\u201d\u00a0 Daniel, at the end of chapter 7 wanted to understand exactly what that vision meant but he kept the matter to himself, not being able to receive the insight that he wanted.\n\nAnd then take a look at Daniel 8, one chapter later, notice Daniel 8:27, the vision of the ram the goat, Daniel 8:27, it says, \u201cThen I, Daniel, was exhausted and sick for days. Then I got up again and carried on the king\u2019s business; but I was astounded at the vision, and there was none to explain it.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the vision, you might recall, of Persia and Greece, things that would happen after Daniel\u2019s lifetime, in the form of a ram and a goat, and Daniel himself wanted to understand that vision but he was told instead to not worry about and there was really no one there to explain it to him.\n\nSo what is being spoken of here?\u00a0 It\u2019s very interesting, verse 4, it says, \u201cconceal these words\u201d but you\u2019ll notice that the words that Daniel was given were not to be concealed forever, they were to be concealed \u201cuntil\u201d a certain time; they were to be sealed \u201cuntil\u201d a time of the end, because as humanity would reach the time of the end something would happen, \u201cmany will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.\u201d\u00a0 Now going \u201cback and forth\u201d what exactly is this talking about here. What does it mean exactly in verse 4 when it says \u201cmany will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.\u201d\u00a0 Well, probably 99% of the interpretations that you\u2019re given on this will go as follows: this is talking about technology of the last days; this is talking about water travel, air travel, space travel, cyberspace travel, perhaps it\u2019s talking about the internet, and people typically will interpret this as technological advances that will come upon the world in the end times.\n\nAs I\u2019ll be sharing with you in just a minute I don\u2019t think that interpretation is accurate.\u00a0 But before I explain why I don\u2019t think it\u2019s accurate, let me be very clear on something; I do believe that your Bible predicts technology of the last days.\u00a0 In fact, a recent conference that I was at this week I had the opportunity to speak on the signs of the times, seven signs of the near coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in His second Advent.\u00a0 Signs related to Israel, signs related to international politics, signs related to economics, technology, spirituality, society, and even signs relating to the attitude towards Bible prophecy in the last days.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the Sadducees of the first century because according to Matthew 16:3 they knew how to interpret the weather, they knew the saying \u201cred sky in the morning,\u201d what? \u201csailor take warning,\u201d they knew it was about to rain.\u00a0 But they were not paying attention to the signs of the times.\u00a0 In fact, that generation should have known more than any other generation that Jesus was in their midst because His coming was the fulfillment of multiple signs spelled out in the Old Testament.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it interesting that we in the time period that we\u2019re living in are given even more signs, not about the first coming of Christ but about the second coming of Christ.\u00a0 The issue is do you know the signs of the times that your Bible spells out.\u00a0 There are at least, by my count, seven categories of signs.\u00a0 And one of the things I had the opportunity to talk about this last week was technological signs.\u00a0 Your Bible predicts tremendous technological advancements accompanying the return of Christ that are now coming into focus clearly for the first time in our basic generation.\n\nFor example, there are signs, I believer, related to microchip technology.\u00a0 You say well where are you getting this from.\u00a0 I\u2019m getting it from the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, verse 17, which talks about a one-world economy and it says, beginning in verse 16, \u201che\u201d that\u2019s the antichrist and false prophet, \u201ccauses all people, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 17, \u201cand he provides that no one will be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.\u00a0 [18] Here is wisdom.\u00a0 Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.\u201d\n\nAnd it\u2019s sort of interesting to watch commentators over the last 2,000 years try to make any sense\u00a0 of that prophecy.\u00a0 I mean, how in the world can you enslave the whole world economically where unless they receive some kind of mark on their right hand or forehead they\u2019re shut out of the global economy.\u00a0 I mean, how could such a thing ever arise?\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that technology today is such that we don\u2019t have to imagine much, do we?\u00a0 Through these electronic tattoos or small chips that go into people\u2019s bodies, hands and so forth, already being used to some extent in prison inmates, pets, many other examples I could come up with, we now have the technology in place for this very system to arise.\n\nYou see, technology has finally caught up with what the Bible says would exist in the end of the age.\u00a0 I mean, think of the advantage of you in a store, you don\u2019t have to fumble any more for your wallet,\u00a0 your purse, your credit card, you don\u2019t have to stand in line, you just have this electronic reader that automatically calculates everything that you want and because of the convenience of it you can see how fast the population of the world would embrace such a model.\u00a0 I like technology, I don\u2019t mean to be paranoid about technology, technology makes our lives easier but what I\u2019m always concerned about is what happens when all this technology falls into the wrong hands.\u00a0 The Bible says that will happen one day.\u00a0 One man will use this to control humanity to such an extent that people will literally be shut out of economic participation, putting gas in the car, feeding your family, holding down a job, unless they receive this mark in their right hand or forehead. To me it doesn\u2019t take a lot of imagination anymore to figure out how this all will come upon the scene very rapidly.\u00a0 A hundred years ago, two hundred years ago, five hundred years ago, a thousand years ago how could you make sense of that prophecy?\u00a0\u00a0 So technology has caught up to the time period that the Bible predicts.\n\nI found this recent headline towards the end of last year, it says: Wisconsin company to implant microchips in employees.\u00a0 It says, \u201cA Wisconsin company is about to become the first in the U.S. to offer microchip implants to its employees. Yes, you read that right. Microchip implants. \u2018It's the next thing that's inevitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it,\u2019 Three Square Market Chief Executive Officer Todd Westby said.\u201d\u00a0 I went and watched this on You tube and this particular company has a whole party, they call it a chipping party, and by chips I don\u2019t mean potato chips, I\u2019m talking about these microchips that go into the employee\u2019s bodies and it enables them access to snacks, lunchrooms, and they\u2019re having a big party as if some great thing has come because now their lives are more convenient.\u00a0 You see how humanity is being conditioned for the very thing that the Bible speaks of?\n\nI ran into this headline, June, 2017, \u201cSwedish Commuters Can use Futuristic Microchip Hand Implant: The future is here \u2013 a Swedish rail company is trialing letting passengers use biometric chips as tickets.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGone are the days when an e-ticket was seen as cutting edge \u2013 one Swedish rail company is offering passengers the option of using a biometric chip implanted into their hand in lieu of a paper train ticket\u2026The tiny chip has the same technology as Oyster cards and contactless bank cards\u2026to enable conductors to scan passengers\u2019 hands\u2026Around 2,000 Swedes have had the surgical implant to date, most of them employed in the tech industry.\u201d\u00a0 [http:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/travel\/news-and-advice\/sj-rail-train-tickets-hand-implant-microchip-biometric-sweden-a7793641.html<\/a>]\n\nIt\u2019s sort of interesting, in some sense eerie of the time period that we\u2019re living in, how the things spoken of in the Bible you can see happening so quickly and being fulfilled so fast.\u00a0 That\u2019s a technological advance of the last days.\u00a0 Or what about this one: Satellite television. Do you know your Bible talks about that, I believe, to some extent.\u00a0 Have you read Revelation 11 lately?\u00a0 It talks about two witnesses, two Jewish witnesses who are killed in the city streets of Jerusalem by the beast or the antichrist and it talks about that they are gazed on by the whole world when this happens.\u00a0 Revelation 11:9 says, \u201cThose from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations\u201d that would be the entire world, wouldn\u2019t it, \u201cwill look at their dead bodies [for three and a half days,\u00a0 and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb.]\n\nNow again, it\u2019s interesting to read commentators fifty years ago, a hundred years ago, even 25\u00a0 years ago trying to make some kind of sense of this.\u00a0 I mean how in the world could the death of two people in the city of Jerusalem be understood by everybody and visibly seen by everybody on planet earth; it just didn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 And now we\u2019re living in a time period where technology has caught up to what the Bible predicts.\u00a0\u00a0 We have skype streaming, cable television, all of these kinds of things and so it\u2019s not really much of a guess any more how this can and will be fulfilled.\n\nIn fact, I ran into this headline recently, again towards the end of 2017, it says, \u201cIsrael Installs Security Cameras as Jerusalem Tensions Build.\u00a0 Israel has installed security cameras near the entrance to one of the holiest sites in Jerusalem as tensions between Israelis and Palestinians edge higher after a violent week\u2026Israel installed security cameras near the entrance to Old City of Jerusalem holy site early Sunday morning.\u201d [http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/07\/23\/middleeast\/israeli-palestinian-jerusalem-security\/index.html]\u00a0 I mean, what more clues do we need of the season or the timer period that we\u2019re living in.\n\nJesus held the first century Jewish leaders responsible for knowing the signs of the times.\u00a0 Do we understand these signs that the Scripture has provided to us.\u00a0 You know, there are people that can talk about basketball, they can talk about baseball, they can give you stats about athletes, they can talk about the interest rates and the price of gold and make predictions about the stock market but you ask them the question, well what some signs of the times related to the second coming of Christ and they can\u2019t tell you a single thing.\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019re falling into the same error that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were falling into, where they could interpret the weather but they didn\u2019t know the season that they were living in.\n\nAnd so yes, your Bible does give many, many different signs making us aware. One of those signs is related to technology.\u00a0 Another potential sign, I believe, is weapons of mass destruction.\u00a0 Have you read some of these predictions in the Bible recently?\u00a0 Zechariah 14:12 says, \u201ctheir flesh will for while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.\u201d\u00a0 Now how in the world is something like that going to happen?\u00a0 People would scratch their heads, is God going to do this directly?\u00a0 Perhaps He will, or maybe God is simply going to allow man to finally unleash the weapons of mass destruction that he\u2019s accumulated, with their radioactivity, and things of that nature.\n\nDo you know that your Bible predicts a day will come, Isaiah 13:12, when man will become scarcer than gold.\u00a0 \u00a0Isaiah 13:12, God says, \u201cI will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus talked about this, didn\u2019t He, in Matthew 24:21 and 22.\u00a0 He said, \u201cFor then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. [22] Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.\u201d\u00a0 Both Isaiah and Jesus are predicting a time period when mankind will be on the brink of extinction or elimination.\n\nIn fact, when you go through the Book of Revelation what you\u2019re going to discover is half of the world\u2019s population is destroyed.\u00a0 In Revelation 6:8 a quarter of the world\u2019s population is destroyed, leaving three quarters.\u00a0 [Revelation 56:8, \u201cI looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.\u201d]\n\nAccording to Revelation 9:18 a third of the world\u2019s population is destroyed, according to my old math that takes the number down to 50%.\u00a0 [Revelation 9:18, \u201cA third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.\u201d]\n\nBy the time you get to Revelation 9 half of the planet and its population has been totally wiped out.\u00a0 Have you ever asked yourself how that\u2019s going to happen?\u00a0 Does God need nuclear weapons?\u00a0 Well, He did a pretty good job on Sodom and Gomorrah without nukes, maybe God will do it directly.\u00a0 But I often times think that maybe God is going to allow\u00a0 us to destroy ourselves through the technology that we have accumulated.\n\nSee, we become technological giants and at the same time we become ethical midgets.\u00a0 Technology is now in the hands of people that have no understanding of God, no understanding of morality, and maybe God is just going to say okay, go ahead and have your way.\u00a0 How has most of the world\u2019s wars been fought exactly, in human history?\u00a0 Bows and arrows, canons and cannon balls, weapons that are lethal, no doubt, but they don\u2019t have the ability to wipe out the population of the earth several times over.\u00a0 And here we are in our generation, whether it\u2019s atomic weapons, nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, sitting on top of these things where we can destroy the world\u2019s population several times over.\u00a0 And what does the Bible predict?\u00a0 A time when man becomes scarcer than gold, a time that\u2019s so severe that if it were not cut short by God no one would survive.\n\nWhat am I getting at?\u00a0 We\u2019re living in the general season or time period when the prophetic scenario is very credible.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter if\u00a0 you\u2019re talking about microchip technology from Revelation 13, satellite television from Revelation 11, weapons of mass destruction from Isaiah 13 and other places,\u00a0 you name it, the scenario is now credible.\n\nAnd so having said all that many people will interpret Daniel\u2019s prophecy here in verse 4 in that\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 way.\u00a0 They\u2019ll say it\u2019s just another prophecy about technology of the last days which is obviously a concept I believe in based on what I\u2019ve said previously.\u00a0 However, having said all of that I do not believe that this is what Daniel is talking about.\u00a0 Notice again verse 4, it says, \u201cBut as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.\u201d\u00a0 If this is not talking about some kind of technological revolution in the last days then what in the world is it talking about?\n\nHere\u2019s what I think it\u2019s talking about: I believe it\u2019s revealing a concept that I like to call progressive illumination, and here\u2019s how it works.\u00a0\u00a0 As the world moves closer and closer and closer to the time period that Daniel predicted the world itself will begin to study Daniel\u2019s prophecies, move to and fro, which I think there is reading, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s air travel, I think it\u2019s reading, moving to and fro, and they will look at these prophecies and the prophecies haven\u2019t changed, they\u2019ve all been the same, but as you move closer the prophecies get clearer and clearer and clearer and\u00a0 you say to yourself, aha, that\u2019s how that\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 Daniel, of course, living in the wrong generation couldn\u2019t understand that.\u00a0 So he was specifically told to write and conceal and wait on God to progressively illumine.\n\nSo many of the prophecies about the end times revolve around the nation of Israel in her homeland.\u00a0 I mean, whether it\u2019s the seventieth week of Daniel, the Book of Revelation, whether it\u2019s the God Magog invasion, in fact the book, The Middle East Meltdo<\/em>wn that I wrote that\u2019s available for you in the back, all of that revolves around the nation of Israel.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have a nation of Israel the prophecy simply can\u2019t happen as literally written.\u00a0 And what we have to understand is that for 2,000 years there hasn\u2019t been an Israel in her land; she was kicked out of her land by the Romans in A.D. 70 and went into worldwide dispersion; the land was de-Judaized, they pretended like the Jews were never there.\u00a0 And so how in the world to you make sense of prophecies revolving around Israel in the last days in her temple, and then all of a sudden\u2026 boom, the nation of Israel goes right back into the same land, May 14, 1948.\u00a0 And then all of a sudden, boom, the nation of Israel regains Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem in a war of defense called The Six Day War.\u00a0 And all of a sudden you\u2019re looking at your Bible and\u00a0 you\u2019re saying aha, that\u2019s what Daniel was talking about.\n\nDid Daniel understand all of that?\u00a0 No, he was living in the wrong season of time but we have the privilege of understanding that.\u00a0 Are we smarter than anybody that\u2019s ever lived?\u00a0 Are we smarter than Daniel?\u00a0 No, we are just living in the correct period of time; Daniel was not living in the correct period of time so he is told to not worry about the interpretation; let a subsequent generation worry about that.\n\n\u201cTo and fro,\u201d what is that talking about?\u00a0 I think it\u2019s talking about the efforts expended by the godly to understand Daniel\u2019s prophecies as the time period for the fulfillment of Daniel\u2019s prophecies gets closer and closer and closer and closer. All of a sudden people pull out the Book of Daniel, which was written 2,600 years ago, something that Daniel himself did not fully understand.\u00a0 You pull it out and you start to read it, you start to go \u201cto and fro,\u201d you start to look at the world around you and I\u2019m not against looking at signs as long as we start with the Bible.\u00a0 The mistake we make is we read signs into the Bible.\u00a0 But there\u2019s nothing wrong, in fact, that\u2019s a biblical responsibility to look at signs of the times, starting with the Bible first.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re reading the Bible, you\u2019re looking at the world and you\u2019re saying oh my goodness, this is what Daniel was talking about that Daniel himself didn\u2019t even understand.\u00a0 So people are going \u201cto and fro.\u201d\u00a0 Not air travel, but study, and as they\u2019re studying what is becoming progressively unsealed?\u00a0 Not the prophecy but it\u2019s meaning.\u00a0 Not the prophecy, it\u2019s already been there, but the illumination of that prophecy.\n\nNow when you go over to the Book of Amos, chapter 8 and verse 12, I believe that there\u2019s a parallel passage helping us to understand what going \u201cto and fro\u201d means exactly.\u00a0 Amos 8:12 says, \u201cPeople will stagger from sea to sea and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro\u201d does that sound familiar? Same language Daniel uses, \u201cthey will go to and fro seeking\u201d what? Airline travel? No, \u201cto seek the word of the LORD,\u201d but in this case \u201cthey will not find it.\u201d\n\nBut here you see an example of going \u201cto and fro\u201d is not airline travel, it\u2019s not taking a cruise, it\u2019s not the internet, maybe other verses of the Bible you could point to point to those things but this is talking about the discipline of reading prophecy in the right season and there\u2019s a generation that arises and they understand what it means.\n\nThere are three ways that God communicates and these three ways that the Holy Spirit communicates you probably need to understand.\u00a0 Number one, there\u2019s something called revelation.\u00a0 Revelation is a disclosure of divine truth to a particular person; God reveals something to that person.\u00a0 The second method of communication that the Holy Spirit uses is inspiration.\u00a0 Once a person is given revelation about something God then tells that person to write it down. That\u2019s called inspiration.\u00a0 And then lastly the third method of communication that the Holy Spirit uses is called illumination.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this message Progressive Illumination, the reality of progressive illumination.\n\nWhat\u2019s the difference between revelation, inspiration and illumination?\u00a0 Illumination is the desire that the Holy Spirit gives to every single child of God, not to receive something brand new, a brand new revelation; not to record a new book of the Bible as in inspiration but simple to understand what has already been revealed.\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll find these three methods of communication clearly spelled out in your Bible.\u00a0 Is there today\u2026 \u00a0let\u2019s talk about this, which forms of these communications are alive and well?\u00a0 I would say this: there is no revelation today, God is not giving people new revelations of such a quality that they are to become books of the New Testament canon.\u00a0 Jude and verse 3 tells us that the faith has been \u201conce and for all handed down to the saints.\u201d\u00a0 [Jude 3, \u201cBeloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.\u201d]\u00a0 \u201cOnce and for all\u201d means that the revelation that God has wanted to give is now closed.\n\nRevelation 22:18-19 says this, \u201cI testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them,\u201d this is how the Book of Revelation concludes, \u201cif anyone adds to them God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; [19] and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.\u201d\u00a0 When God concluded the canon in the first century He said that\u2019s all there is!\u00a0 The revelation has ceased.\n\nAnd where people get confused is sometimes the Holy Spirit shows you something new in the Bible you\u2019ve never seen before, that you\u2019re so excited about you think that\u2019s a revelation.\u00a0 But really it\u2019s not a revelation; revelation has ceased.\u00a0 What you have received is what I would call illumination.\u00a0 The truth has always been there but the Holy Spirit is allowing you go see it in a fresh way.\u00a0 That\u2019s such an exhilarating process that people get confused and they say well I just got inspired or I just had a revelation.\u00a0 But God\u2019s Word is very clear that revelation has ceased; truth has once and for all been delivered to the saints.\u00a0 Revelation 22:18-19 is very clear, don\u2019t add to it or subtract from it under the harshest penalties possible.\n\nAnd of course, this is what makes us different than the kingdom of the cults.\u00a0 Not if, but when the Mormons come to your house they will have not just the Bible but three other revelations: one is called The Book of Mormon<\/em>, one is called The Pearl of Great Price<\/em>, one is called The Doctrine of the Covenants<\/em>.\u00a0 And they will try to convince you of truth, not just from the Bible but these three other sources as well, and you can close the conversation very fast by saying Jude 3 says, \u201cTruth has once and for all been delivered to the saints.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to know about some sort of manifestation of Jesus Christ in North America around the 1800\u2019s.\u00a0 There is nothing in the Bible about that, so don\u2019t try to convince me that such a thing is so and such a thing is true because revelation is over.\n\nNow what about inspiration? Inspiration is the actual recording of revelation. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAll Scripture is inspired,\u201d so when the original writers of Scripture received from God their revelation, or revelations, they were told by God to write it down and God said as\u00a0 you write it down I am superintending that written record is without error.\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:16, [\u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;\u201d]\n\n2 Peter 1:20-21, Peter describing this process of inspiration, says, \u201cBut know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter<\/em> of one\u2019s own interpretation, [21] for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.\u201d\u00a0 That is a verse, 2 Peter 1:20-21 that is speaking of the process of inspiration, receiving the truth and writing it down.\u00a0 And as they did that they weren\u2019t giving their own private interpretations, they were being carried along by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 In fact, that word there in 2 Peter 1:21 \u201cmoved by the Holy Spirit,\u201d is the Greek verb phero<\/em>, which is used to describe, in Acts 27:15 and verse 17 wind propelling a sailboat.\u00a0 So the wind comes, it fills the sails, the boat is propelled and what Peter, and Paul in 2 Timothy, are saying it that\u2019s how the New Testament and Old Testament were written; men were carried along by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit used their unique gifts and styles and temperaments to record God\u2019s original message without error.\n\nNow this promise of without error applies only to the original manuscripts; it doesn\u2019t apply to copies of the original manuscripts.\u00a0 Now the problem, of course, is we don\u2019t have the original manuscripts.\u00a0 And for one I praise God for that, because if you can find the original manuscript and damage it you destroy Christianity, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 But what if you just damage one copy of a manuscript?\u00a0 You\u2019ve got many, many other copies.\u00a0 And beyond that look at how idolatrous people become when they think they\u2019ve found a splinter of the cross or something like that; they worship it.\n\nI mean, there\u2019s a reason God, in His providence did not allow us to keep the original manuscripts because they probably would become objects of worship.\u00a0 So what, then, exactly do we have?\u00a0 We have copies of the original manuscripts.\u00a0 In fact, we have more copies of our original manuscripts than any other respected work of antiquity.\u00a0 In fact, we come ahead so far in this it\u2019s astonishing.\u00a0 Some of the great Greco-Roman works, they only have a few copies to their name and we have copies all over the earth.\u00a0 We have more copies of the original than any other work of antiquity, AND the time distance between the original and the first copy is shorter than any other work of antiquity.\u00a0 If people want to challenge your Christianity because we don\u2019t have the original manuscripts any more then\u00a0 you have to throw out Thucydides, Plato, Shakespeare, and on and on we could go and nobody wants to do that.\u00a0 But they always want to apply a special standard to the Bible because the Bible makes claims that these other works don\u2019t make claims about, like repentance and morality and things like that.\n\nBut when\u00a0 you simply compare what we have to what these other works of antiquity have we are way ahead of the game.\u00a0 And so with the closing of the Canon, of the Book of Revelation in the first century, not only did revelation stop but inspiration stopped.\u00a0 The Canon of Scripture is closed.\u00a0 If someone today is claiming revelation and inspiration the way I\u2019m describing it then\u00a0 you might as well take their insights and add Revelation 23 because the Bible is very clear that this is a process that God used and that process of communication is over and done with.\u00a0 And people say, the great attack I might add, against the Bible today does not necessarily come from people who deny its inerrancy, that it\u2019s without error, but what they\u2019re denying today in our conservative circles is it\u2019s sufficiency.\u00a0 There are many, many people that will tell you the Bible is inerrant but they look at it like a piece of Swiss cheese with holes in it that needs to be filled up with other sources.\u00a0 Psychology, they want to fill it up with Freud and Skinner, Origen, they want to fill it up with Darwinism.\u00a0 Church manage\u00adment, we\u2019re told the pastoral letters are not enough to govern a church, you\u2019ve got to ill it up with management secular theory.\n\nAnd what is happening today is not the inerrancy of the Bible is being attacked in many conservative circles, is its sufficiency.\u00a0 And what I\u2019m trying to communicate to you is what God has superintended in this book is enough.\u00a0 In fact, over in 2 Timothy 3:17, I read verse 16 just a moment ago, but we might as well read verse 17, Amen.\u00a0\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:16, \u201cAll Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;\u00a0 [17] so that the man of God might\u201d not just be equipped, but what? \u201cadequately equipped for\u201d 80% of good works\u2026 it doesn\u2019t say that, does it?\u00a0 It says, \u201cevery good work.\u201d\u00a0 Everything that God wants you to know, for you to develop into your full stature in Jesus Christ and pursue\u00a0 your calling and your ministry and your vocation and your livelihood, whatever that may be, is found in the pages of this Book.\u00a0 The Bible claims authority on all of those matters.\n\nNow if you have an accounting problem I don\u2019t think the Bible is going to talk to you about that because the Bible never claimed authority in that area.\u00a0 If you have a broken bone I don\u2019t know if the Bible is going to fix that problem because the Bible never claimed authority in that area.\u00a0 But in the area of spiritual reality, in terms of becoming all you need to become in God, you don\u2019t have to go back to the [can't understand word] fathers and the ancient monks and retrieve all of their writings.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need some kind of special individual revelation from God.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need the insights of secularists in the area of counselling unless it\u2019s some kind of medical issue, most of which if you knew their background of some of these secularists you wouldn\u2019t even have them over for dinner let alone let them have insight into your spiritual wellbeing.\u00a0 Everything you need to know to develop into that spiritual person is given to you by God.\u00a0 This is a doctrine that we don\u2019t just call inerrancy of the Bible, we call it the sufficiency of the Bible.\n\nNotice 2 Peter, chapter 1, verses 3 and 4, it makes the same kind of promise, \u201cseeing that His divine power has granted to us\u201d what? \u201ceverything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.\u00a0 [4] For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent\u201d what? \u201cpromises,\u201d where do you find those promises?\u00a0 You find them right here, Genesis 1:1 all the way through Revelation 22.\u00a0 In other words God not only revealed this book, God not only superintended the recording of this book, but God says it\u2019s a complete revelation, you have everything you need for all matters of faith and godliness.\n\nSo do we have revelation today? \u00a0Not the way I\u2019m describing it here.\u00a0 Do we have inspiration today?\u00a0 Not at all in the way I am describing it here because the canon is closed once and for all truth has been given to the saints.\u00a0 Now you might be saying well, pastor, you\u2019re just a real stick in the mud.\u00a0 I mean, are you saying that God has just cut off communication and He doesn\u2019t talk to us at all today and He doesn\u2019t give us insight and He doesn\u2019t lead us?\u00a0 That\u2019s NOT what I\u2019m saying because there is a ministry of the Holy Spirit that is alive and well today.\u00a0 In fact, it is a ministry that\u2019s so important that whenever I have the opportunity to stand up in front of God\u2019s people to preach and teach I plead God to some extent that that ministry would be active; it is not the ministry of revelation, it is not even the ministry of inspiration, it is the ministry of illumination, where the Spirit of God guides us as individual children of God in our understanding of the Bible.\n\nNow watch this very carefully, when the Holy Spirit does this He does not circumvent the laws of language.\u00a0 God has ordained for His Book to be recorded in linguistic form; the moment God made that decision He was saying My revelation is bound by the ordinary rules of context, grammar, language and communication, because people will say well, if a ministry of illumination is alive in my heart and the ministry of illumination is alive in my children\u2019s heart or my mother\u2019s heart or my grandparent\u2019s heart why do we disagree with each other?\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we agree with each other on everything?\u00a0 The answer to that is the Holy Spirit does not work independent of the laws of language.\u00a0 People rip and tear verses out of context all the time.\u00a0 To receive the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit you have to respect the laws of language like context, syntax, grammar, and so forth.\n\nBut once that is respected, \u201cKatie bar the door!\u201d\u00a0 The Holy Spirit wants to communicate with you\u00a0 like\u00a0 you wouldn\u2019t believe.\u00a0 1 Corinthians 2:14 says, \u201cBut a natural man does not accept the things\u00a0\u00a0 of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.\u201d\u00a0 Why is it that as an unsaved person I tried to read the Bible?\u00a0 And I did, I tried to start at the beginning and go to the end and to me the thing was just a bizarre maize, I couldn\u2019t make any sense of the Bible.\u00a0 And then at the age of 16 I trusted the Lord and I\u2019m looking at the Bible and I\u2019m seeing things in the Bible that I didn\u2019t see before in my former unsaved, unregenerate self. What just happened?\u00a0 Did I get smarter?\u00a0 No, something greater than myself entered me and I didn\u2019t know the name of it, but the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit took off.\n\n1 John 2:27, it says, \u201cAs for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.\u201d\u00a0 And anointing, an empowerment to learn.\u00a0 Now why does he say here \u201cyou have no need for anyone to teach you\u201d?\u00a0 I mean, if that\u2019s true why are you all sitting here listening to me?\u00a0 He\u2019s dealing with the Gnostics here; the Gnostics taught a special knowledge, the knowledge only accessible to a handful.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s called Gnostics, coming from the word gnosis<\/em>, knowledge, secret knowledge, and any time someone says I have a secret knowledge that you don\u2019t have, that\u2019s not Christianity!\u00a0 Christianity is a full open complete disclosure, not just in its revelation, not just in its inspiration, not just in its inerrancy but in its sufficiency.\u00a0 And if that is true why would we pursue some kind of secret knowledge when we have the open disclosure from God?\n\nRevelation today?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 Inspiration today.\u00a0 No! Progressive illumination today?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting that over in the Book of Revelation, chapter 22 and verse 10 we read these words, \u201cAnd He said to me,\u201d this is John now, on the isle of Patmos as he\u2019s concluding the Bible, \u201cAnd He said to me,\u201d watch this, the angel to John, \u201c\u2018Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.\u201d\u00a0 Now isn\u2019t that interesting, Daniel 12 verse 4, verse 9, close it up.\u00a0 Six centuries pass, seven centuries almost, John receives the final revelation from God, the biblical canon is closed and now the opposite command is given, open it up.\u00a0 Daniel, seal it\u2014John unseal it! \u00a0Now why the contradiction?\u00a0 Think of a jigsaw puzzle; have you ever tried to put a jigsaw puzzle together and one of the pieces gets lost or two of the pieces get lost, you know how frustrating that is?\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019ll test your sanctification to the breaking point, that kind of thing.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nDaniel is given a jigsaw puzzle and there\u2019s pieces not there.\u00a0 Now what does John do in the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 He adds the pieces, the missing pieces.\u00a0 Daniel, conceal it; John, unseal it!\u00a0 Daniel, incomplete revelation; John, with the pieces added is now a complete revelation.\u00a0 That\u2019s why you have to study Daniel and Revelation together.\u00a0 If you just study Daniel you\u2019re getting part of it.\u00a0 If you just study Revelation you\u2019re getting part of it, so study both together, Daniel and Revelation, you\u2019ll see the whole picture of God.\u00a0 AND, you also have to wait to be in the right generation, not to receive the whole jigsaw puzzle but to understand the jigsaw puzzle because the prophecies get clearer and clearer and clearer as you get closer and closer and closer to the time period of their allotted fulfillment.\n\nThis is why the subject of eschatology, which is what?\u00a0 The study of the end, was the last area of doctrine in Christianity to be developed. Did you know that?\u00a0 The early church was nor preoccupied with issues related to eschatology.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 They\u2019re living in the wrong time period.\u00a0 What did the church wrestle with first?\u00a0 Canonization, what books of the Bible are included and which ones should be excluded?\u00a0 Some are written by the apostles, some aren\u2019t, we\u2019ve got to come up with a canon or a measuring rod.\n\nAnd then after the church got that battle won they moved into the doctrine of Christology, who was Jesus, because there was a man that came on the scene named Arius who said Jesus is a created being.\u00a0 So they had to wrestle with the doctrine of Christology that Jesus is eternally existent.\u00a0 And then later on in time heretics began to emerge and say well when Jesus died on that cross he really didn\u2019t die in your place, he just sort of died as a gesture of love to the world but this idea of absorbing the wrath of God and the place of man, that\u2019s not what the death of Christ was all about.\u00a0 So the church had to deal with the issue of atonement.\n\nAnd it really isn\u2019t even until 1100, think how long a period of time that is, that they began to wrestle with the doctrine of the vicarious (in the place of) substitutionary (as a substitute) penal (punishment) atonement of Christ.\u00a0 The church isn\u2019t even clear on that doctrine until they flushed it out.\u00a0 And then you go into the 1500\u2019s and the 16th<\/sup> century and you see the battle of the Protestant Reformers against the Roman Catholic Church that were mixing faith and works for justification.\u00a0 So now the church has got to deal with the issue of salvation.\n\nAll of these doctrines that we have we sort of take them for granted that they\u2019ve always been there but there has been battle after battle after battle in the last 2,000 years of church history to get solidified on what the Bible actually teaches so we can ward of heretics.\u00a0 And finally eschatology starts to get systematized around the 1800\u2019s and notice that eschatology is the last one on the list. Why didn\u2019t they work on eschatology first?\u00a0 It relates exactly to what Daniel says in chapter 12, verse 4, conceal it, seal it up, you\u2019re not in the right generation, but there will one day arise a generation that will be living very close to the return of Christ and they will start to see these things for what they are as signs of the last days.\u00a0 And so finally the church got around to the business of eschatology.\n\nThe fact that eschatology is the last on the list is to a large extent a fulfillment of our prophecy here \u00a0in Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4.\u00a0 \u201cBut as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Progressive illumination is not going to kick into high gear until just before the time period of its fulfillment in the area of eschatology.\n\nHave you studied the writings of Isaac Newton lately?\u00a0 Most people know Isaac Newton as the\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 great scientist and discoverer of the law of gravity.\u00a0 Did you also know that Isaac Newton was a tremendous Bible student and Christian?\u00a0 Did you know for example that Isaac Newton wrote whole commentaries on the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 Humanists will criticize Newton and say I wish he had spent less time in the Bible and more time with science.\u00a0 Folks, if it wasn\u2019t for his knowledge of the Bible he would have no incentive to do science. Because he believed in God that revealed laws in nature that gave him an incentive to discover those laws.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have modern science without the Bible or Christianity. And Newton writes this concerning Daniel 12, \u201cAbout the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the Prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamor and opposition.\u201d\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 It\u2019s staggering.\u00a0 [Isaac Newton cited in Nathaniel West, The Thousand Years in Both Testaments<\/em>, 462]\n\nAnd the reason I bring this up is because we\u2019re living in a generation now where they won\u2019t believe something unless they find in the writings of John Calvin or the Church Fathers, or church history, or church tradition.\u00a0 And I would say this: if that\u2019s your mindset you\u2019re misunderstanding the principle of progressive illumination.\u00a0 There are things you know that John Calvin did not know.\u00a0 Why? Because we\u2019re smarter?\u00a0 NO, we\u2019re living in the right era.\u00a0 John Calvin was no doubt brilliant, he wrote a commentary on almost every book of the Bible except the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 I mean, this is a guy that is very comprehensive in what he writes and comments on; why leave out Revelation?\u00a0 A simple reason, living in the wrong era, outside the principle of progressive illumination.\n\nHere\u2019s a quote from Martin Luther, who didn\u2019t even believe that the Book of Revelation was a canonical inspired book.\u00a0 Now am I here to disrespect the contributions of Luther and Calvin?\u00a0 Not at all.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard my Protestant Reformation series, it\u2019s in my book, Ever Reforming<\/em>, I tried to pay the Protestant Reformers their due respect, but I don\u2019t look at them as some kind of sage of the past that has the final totality of truth.\u00a0 If I did that I\u2019d have to ignore Daniel chapter 12 and verse 4.\u00a0 [Daniel 12:4, \u201c\"But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.\u201d]\u00a0 So Daniel is told to \u201cconceal\u201d the vision.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 He\u2019s living in the wrong time period.\n\nAnd this explains the frustration of the Old Testament prophets.\u00a0 Do you know that the Old Testament prophets were very frustrated, not even understanding their own prophecies?\u00a0 1 Peter 1:10-11 says, \u201cAs to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come<\/em> to you made careful searches and inquiries, [11] seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.\u201d\u00a0 Think about poor Isaiah, one vision of a suffering Messiah, Isaiah 53; another vision of a ruling and reigning Messiah, Isaiah 9:6-7.\u00a0 Poor Isaiah is saying Lord, which is it?\u00a0 It\u2019s not meant for you to understand, Isaiah; close the book, you\u2019ve done your job.\u00a0 There\u2019ll be a generation that will understand; the prophecies won\u2019t change but they\u2019ll be in the right time period, progressive illumination.\n\nNow you say well, this is an interesting sermon, where is the application.\u00a0 Here it comes?\u00a0 You ready?\u00a0 In the year 2018 you are sitting on a gold mine.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Number 1, you have a completed revelation.\u00a0 Number 2, you\u2019re in the season of the Lord\u2019s return when you can understand the prophetic Scripture better than any generation that has ever preceded you because\u00a0\u00a0 of this principle of progressive illumination.\u00a0 We are so maxed out in terms of privilege, we don\u2019t even understand what we have.\n\nWe\u2019re on a gold mine here; we\u2019re more privileged than Daniel.\u00a0 I can understand Daniel better than Daniel, how do you like that?\u00a0 Because I\u2019m smarter?\u00a0 NO, because the pieces, I have the full jigsaw\u00a0 puzzle and I\u2019m living in the right period of time.\u00a0 You can know more than the Old Testament prophets,\u00a0 you can know more about the things that are going on around you than Martin Luther or John Calvin could ever know.\n\nAnd so here\u2019s the application.\u00a0 Then why are we so apathetic about it?\u00a0 Why do we have this attitude that well, the pastor went beyond 12:30 and I\u2019m looking at my watch, I\u2019m hungry, I\u2019ve got to talk to some people, it\u2019s hot in here, I\u2019ve got to go to the bathroom\u2026 I mean, why is it that we are so indifferent to prophetic truth when we\u2019re the most maxed out privileged generation.\u00a0 And one of the heartbreaking things to watch in the body of Christ is as these things are happening as never before there probably isn\u2019t a time period when more American Christians could care less.\u00a0 Just give me my three points and a poem; just give me enough of a liver quiver to get me through Monday morning; don\u2019t bother me about the seventy weeks.\u00a0 Don\u2019t bother me about the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments.\u00a0 Don\u2019t talk to me about how the antichrist is going to come from the sea and the false prophet is going to come from the land.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to hear all that.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to exercise the muscle between my ears called the brain because my life is too busy and crowded and I\u2019ve got my own agenda after all.\n\nYou know folks, to be honest with you I\u2019ve had people at this church tell me this, two people, if you start teaching the Book of Revelation I\u2019m leaving the church.\u00a0 Now that made me want to teach the Book of Revelation, [Laughter]\u00a0 just to get rid of them.\u00a0 [More laughter]\u00a0 I mean, why do people say stuff like that?\u00a0 Unfortunately those two people have already left so it\u2019s no one in this room that I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 Why are people like that?\u00a0 They don\u2019t want to do the sweat, they don\u2019t want to do the mental work.\u00a0 They don\u2019t want to follow the biblical exhortation that we are to love the Lord our God with our heart, our soul and our mind.\u00a0 And yet you have an ability to understand things in prophetic truth because of the privileged time period that we\u2019re living in, not only a completed revelation but also living in the right season.\n\nSo if nothing else I hope this principle of progressive illumination reminds us of who we are, reminds us of our privileges and what we have in Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd of course, you could be here today not even knowing who Jesus is, not even having the Holy Spirit in you, and if the Holy Spirit is not even in you, let me tell you, you\u2019re going to have a really difficult time understanding anything spiritual, let alone the Bible.\u00a0 And so God is so real and so personable that when we receive what Jesus has done in our place by faith alone God enters us. Do we understand that?\u00a0 God lives inside of us.\u00a0 In the Old Testament they didn\u2019t even have that.\u00a0 The Spirit would come upon people and go.\u00a0 He would come upon, not in, upon.\n\nWhat is the Holy Spirit doing now?\u00a0 He\u2019s inside of you, that\u2019s what gives you the ability to experience His illuminating ministry.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re not a Christian and you\u2019ve never trusted in what Jesus has done then that same barrier still exists between you and a holy God.\u00a0 And there can be no indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 So our exhortation at Sugar Land Bible Church is to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the gospel, meaning good news, because Jesus moved heaven and earth to bridge the gap between lost man and a holy God.\u00a0 And if we come under the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit and respond to that convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit by believing, which means trusting what He\u2019s done, then the barrier is removed.\u00a0 It\u2019s a free gift, and the Holy Spirit enters you.\u00a0 And not only do you have a walk with the Lord but you now have that abiding anointing which teaches you all things.\u00a0 And that can be yours in a nanosecond, simply by trusting what Jesus has done.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of walking an aisle, joining a church, giving money, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you rest or trust in His provision and the Spirit of God enters you.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray;\u00a0 Father, we are humbled by what you want to say to us and what you want to communicate to us and how privileged we are.\u00a0 Help us to understand the privileges that have been given to us as Christians in this generation more than perhaps any other generation that\u2019s ever lived because of the time period we\u2019re living in.\u00a0 Help us to have great respect for future and eternal things as a result, and dive into them deeply.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u00a0 And God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t