R1600 Trusting God’s Word Pt. 1

God has an encouraging word for you and me today through the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton and a message on trusting God's Word. As we open the word together, know that we're open on the phones as well to pray with you at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 or online at tewonline.org. Now today's teaching from Dr. Don Wilton. We're going to be looking at some amazing things, and I've called this series Check Your Temperature. Check Your Temperature, and I'm going to explain this.

Just get ready to check your temperature. This is for you and it's for me. In fact, seriously so. So, you're going to open your Bibles today, and I want you to really check this out, because we're going to be in the book of Revelation chapter 1. Many years ago, Dr. Billy Graham, speaking to millions of people, held out his Bible like this.

This is what he said. He said, I don't understand everything in God's Word, but I believe everything in God's Word. I don't understand everything in God's Word, but I believe everything in God's Word. Now, we're going to be in the book of Revelation, and it takes a lot to think about, because people today are asking a lot of questions, aren't we? You know, are we living at the end?

Is Jesus about to come back? Can't help ask those questions, because let's be perfectly honest with one another. Our world is in a serious mess, right? And I'm not just talking about a pandemic politically, and that's all over the world. You know, we look at the United States and we say, man, look at this divide. It's everywhere, guys, everywhere, every nation in the world. Unrest, civil unrest, social unrest, racial disharmony, racial hatred, racial divide, people hating one another just because of the color of their skin. It's all over the world.

It doesn't stop with the color of their skin. It's language, culture, ways of life, and it's on an all-time high. We don't like it, do we? We're trying to do everything that we can to change. I mean, America today, the most beautiful land in the world, and look at what we're doing to ourselves. The anarchists are out.

We're looking around. It's just hard to comprehend what some people are pushing on America today, on us, from rank socialism to a disdain for life. There are people who don't even think twice about killing babies, unborn babies.

It's not even an issue, and how we live is not even an issue. There's a lot of people who say, man, I just don't care. You know, you come down and we look at all of this and we say, man, Jesus is coming again, those of us who believe. Well, God writes to us about this, and I want to speak to you today on trusting God's Word, and we're going to be in the book of Revelation. So the book of Revelation is about end times. It's about the end. It's not about the beginning. It's about the end. So it's about the subject that you and I talk about so much when we say, you know, how's the world going to come to an end?

You ask that? Where's all this going? Where are we going to end up? How can we keep on going like this?

And for those of us who are believers, and we believe in Jesus, we know that he's coming back. When exactly, and is it not now? I mean, are we not? How much more can we take? The world is kind of imploding. Everything's skewered right now and across the board. We're praying for our country. We're praying for one another. So in the book of Revelation, everything in the book of Revelation is chronological.

So that comes from the word chronos. If you count one, two, three, four, five, to ten, on and on, if I had time, and I'm not going to be preaching through the book of Revelation, so you can rest on that. Although a lot of you want me to, I know, because it's so fantastic a subject.

There's just so much in here. But the book of Revelation, if I had time, I can show you and prove to you in this final book of the Bible, I can show you the order of everything. Number one, number two, number three, this is going to happen. Number four, that's going to happen. Number five, that's going to happen. Number six, the book of Revelation is in order. And we're going to start out by looking at that. And what we're going to do is we're going to look at Revelation chapter 1, verse 1 through Revelation chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. Now watch this.

I'm trying to help you here because I want you to really get a hold of this. In Revelation chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3 in the Bible, God has a special word for believers. He speaks to the church, doesn't speak to unbelievers. Unbelievers wouldn't even believe this. Obviously, they don't. I've heard atheists and agnostics and people who reject Jesus and who say there's no God, they'll look at this, come on, man, that's a lot of rubbish.

Garbage. Who could ever believe such stuff? Christians are weirdos, man. How can you believe stuff like this? Billy Graham said, I don't understand everything in the Bible, but I believe everything in the Bible. That's what believers do. I believe what God says. So in Revelation 1, Revelation 2, and Revelation 3, now I'm going to say this every week for a couple of weeks, okay? Get ready. I'm going to say it.

Revelation 1, 2, and 3, God tells us why we've got the book of Revelation, which deals with how the world's going to end, but he tells it to the church. And I'm putting my own words on this. He says to you and me who are believers, you need to check your own temperature.

Check your temperature. So I'm just going to ask us, can we just for a little bit stop pointing at the White House? Can we just stop looking at everybody else, everything else? Can we just for a minute, in God's Word, let's just do what God wants us to do and look at ourselves. Let's trust God's Word for us, for me, and God's going to show you something incredible.

Then when we get to the end of chapter 3 and you get into chapter 4, the Bible actually says, after these things, and I'm going to read it to you. After what God says happens to the church, to believers, after these things, Jesus comes in the clouds and all those who are alive on this earth are going to be caught up into the clouds to meet Jesus in the air. And we're going to be taken back into heaven where the throne of God is. Where is God? God's at his throne in heaven.

That's where he lives. We're going to be taken back into the throne. That's where the throne is. Let me read it to you. Revelation chapter 1, verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John, who testifies to everything he saw. That is the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear it and blessed are those who take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. I, John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before the throne, is to come and from the seven spirits before the throne, from Jesus Christ, who is a faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve his God and father, to him be glory and power forever and forever. Look, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him. Even those who killed him and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be.

Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Now go to chapter four, quickly. Go to chapter four.

This is fantastic. Look at chapter four. After he speaks to the seven churches, which we are going to be looking at together, after this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must soon take place after that. So from this point in chapter four, all the way through to the end of the book of Revelation, God shows us what happens after all believers have gone in through the open door of heaven into the presence of the Lord our God who is seated on his throne. Look at verse two of chapter four. At this, at once I was in the spirit. By the way, that's where we get our word rapture from. Have you heard the word rapture?

That's where it comes from. At once, I was in the spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. The rest of that chapter describes the beauty, the brilliance, and the majesty of God who's seated on his throne. Lily Graham said, I don't understand everything in God's Word, but I believe everything in God's Word.

I promise you over the next couple of days and weeks, in fact, any study like this, you'll find yourself sitting there saying, what? How? But I promise you this, God by his word, but I promise you this, God by his Spirit is going to give you a spirit of trust and belief. You'll know it. You'll know it. You can sense it already, can't you?

You know what I'm saying? You know what God's saying. So what does God's Word say to us? What does God's Word tell us?

Let me just put this out here for us. Number one, God's Word tells us that this is the revelation. Verse one, the revelation, it's the revelation. You know that little word revelation, most of us understand it. It means to pull back the cover. It means to make known what lies beneath. It means to unveil the mystery.

Another word is to uncover, to expose, make it plain, the revelation. The book, the revelation, it's the revelation. It's making known things that we just don't understand at a time that we've never been. Not one of us has ever died and already gone through all of this. And by the way, Jesus is still going to come back in the clouds. We don't know.

We've never done that. Bible says every eye will see him. The revelation, this revelation, the book, the Word, God is telling us, hey, yo, I'm going to pull back the cover for you. I'm going to show you.

Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with more of today's dynamic teaching with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you, we're here for you. As a matter of fact, right now we're connecting many people with the I Give Up book from Laura's Story. If you'd like to take a peek, you can look on our website at TEWonline.org. That's TEWonline.org. While you're there, be sure to jump in there and follow some of our pastors, social media, Twitter, Instagram, and more. And also consider signing up for the Daily Devotional. It's an email Dr. Don sends out every morning about six o'clock Eastern, and it includes a powerful word from God inside an application to that word to our daily lives. Again, you can sign up online at TEWonline.org to receive that email-a-phonically, so to speak, every single day.

Or if you'd like to have a physical copy, you can sign up for that as well. Again, it's all online at TEWonline.org. Now back to today's message, Trusting God's Word with Dr. Don Wilton. Number two, God's Word tells us it's about Jesus Christ. Revelation of Jesus Christ right there, verse one. That's what Revelation is about. It's all about Jesus.

Now guys, I'm going to tell you something. When it comes to end times, there are so many signs of the end times. I've been talking about some of them even on my daily little short video that I've been sending out that so many are being blessed by. There are many signs. You know, we look around today, and I could go off at an angle here.

Wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, unrest, a great falling away, godlessness, mockery, a disdain for Jesus Christ, blasphemy. By the way, have you heard how many times and how many people use God's name and the name of Jesus Christ in blasphemy? Have you noticed that? You have? Do you know the Bible says it's at the name of Jesus that everyone will bow?

Have you noticed, by the way, have you ever gone to watch a movie? Have you ever heard anybody drop a brick on their toe and say Buddha? Or how about Mohammed?

Hare Krishna, name all the religions of the world. You ever hear anybody use their name as a cuss word? Never. The only name you ever hear as a cuss word is? You got it. Have you ever heard anybody say, oh, Buddha, it's hot today?

You ever heard anybody use a deity or a god or a pagan god? No, no. It's always, you got it. You know, we look around, see a cashless society, credit cards, trying to figure out, just think for a moment, okay, just think for a moment about Instagram, Twitter, emails, just think how easy it is to communicate. Just put a button. You can take a picture. I went to Instagram the other day. I only put one picture of my trip in Alaska. I was just compelled to do it.

You can go to my Instagram account. It's me flying through the air about to do the polar plunge. I mean, you talk about take your breath away. I'm telling you, my wife caught me in the air. You want to see the rest of it. That's why I didn't put it on Instagram.

Do you know, here I am in Alaska, right in the foothills of a great glacier in freezing water. You take a picture and you push a button and people around the world can see it. I had some people in Africa and other places in the world saying, oh, you did that? How did they know?

Mass communication? By the way, what about the big eye in the sky? Have any of you noticed or thought sometimes that your telephone's listening to you? By the way, have you noticed sometimes you can talk and all of a sudden your telephone, your phone, your iPhone starts writing what you're saying down in a text message? Have you noticed that?

Hey, do you know I was in Alaska and all of a sudden on my social media, I started getting advertisements for Alaska and I hadn't sent any pictures out. How'd my phone know that? What does God's Word tell us? God's Word tells us it's the revelation, but God's Word tells us it's about Jesus.

It's kind of like get this, I mean, I've got all this stuff, social media and cashless and Buddha and fighting in the street and anarchy and politics and hate and God says Jesus, about Jesus. Number three, God's Word tells us that it comes from God. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him.

Oh, why do we need to know that? Well, Mark 13, 32, for example, one passage reminds us that not even the angels in heaven know when the end will come, only God himself. And God here in the revelation reminds us that God sent this information about Jesus to show his servants God did this. It came from God. What God is saying is this didn't come from Billy Graham, didn't come from Don Wilton, didn't come from the pope, didn't come from the bishop, didn't come from the Sunday school teacher, the life group leader, the D group leader.

It didn't come from your favorite whomever. This came from God. Trust him. Trust him. Number four, he tells us that what is going to happen is about to happen.

Did you see that word there? He says what must soon take place. That's the imminence of the coming of Jesus.

What God wants us to know, trusting him, is that this is going to happen soon. It's about to happen. You've got to get ready. You've got to be ready.

You've got to be prepared. Can I just say, I just want to say this to you. I'm not trying to be overdramatic. There are two reasons why you cannot afford to give your heart, not to give your heart to Jesus. Now, can I give you two reasons?

There are lots of them. Number one, because you don't know whether you're going to be alive tomorrow, do you? Number two, you don't know whether or not Jesus is about to come back, do you?

Trust the Lord Jesus. Then, by the way, it's fantastic to be forgiven of your sin. It's awesome. I'm just telling you, when Jesus comes in your heart and he forgives you of your sin and he casts it as far as the east is from the west, he makes you brand new. It's just fantastic.

It's fantastic. That's why Jesus died for you. That's exactly why. That is exactly what he did for you. Maybe today there's a fresh understanding of that separation of your sin, because too many times we feel like the enemy or others continue to bring that back up, bring back our past and show us how could we change. Well, we can't change ourselves, but God can change us. I know you've been blessed, as I have, by the teaching of Dr. Don Wilton from The Pulpit today, but as he steps into the studio, open your heart to not his teaching, but this simple request from Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin, and by faith I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you just prayed along with Dr. Wilton on that request of his to give your life to Jesus Christ, we are so excited to see what God's going to do next in 2021 in your life. And perhaps as we partner together to give you some resources that will help you grow in your faith, oh, please let us do so. You can call us right now at 866-899-WORD, that's 866-899-9673. We have wonderful information.

Dr. Don wants you to have, if you gave your life to Jesus Christ or rededicated your life, again, call us at 866-899-9673. But there are also a number of great ways to connect on our new website. We are excited to announce that we have a new updated website. On our new website, you can find current and past broadcasts, order the current monthly offer, post prayer requests or praise reports, sign up for the daily encouraging word, see our current broadcast schedule and donate to the encouraging word. Find us at tewonline.org. It's been a great day and a wonderful start to this message called Trusting God's Word from Dr. Don Wilton. But tomorrow we bring you part two. As a matter of fact, we'll head back to Revelation, but also move into chapter four of Revelation as we open the word of God together. Know that we're open to pray with you anytime at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or online at tewonline.org.