Judgment Begins Under God’s Authority

Transcript

GR 2007
06/18/2017
Judgment Begins Under God’s Authority
Revelation 6:1-8
Gil Rugh

We’re going to the Book of Revelation chapter six. You have to look at the Book of Revelation as the crowning point of God’s revelations because here we come to the conclusion, God’s final word from heaven. What an awesome revelation it is, given so that we would understand, something of what God intends to bring about on this earth and the ultimate completion of His program of redemption.

We’ve looked at the opening chapters of Revelation through chapter five, and chapter’s one through five basically are a preparation and introduction to what begins in chapter six.

Chapter 1 introduced us to the resurrected glorified Christ. He gave a series of seven messages to seven different local churches. Following those, seven messages that period-of-time, the churches, we would have had the Rapture of Church. We’ll mention that just briefly in a moment.

Then in chapters four and five, we are taken to heaven, and we saw there an emphasis in chapter four on God the Father and in chapter five on God the Son, the Lamb of God. That all was to prepare us and remind us that the sovereign God, who through the redemption provided by His Son, intends to bring judgment upon an unbelieving world. This in preparation for bringing salvation to many who will come to trust Him during that time, to bring about the final redemption of the nation Israel and the establishing of a kingdom which will never end.

So when we come to chapter six of Revelation, we enter into the major portion of the book. Chapters six to 19 will lay out for us what God is going to bring about on this world in preparation for the return of His Christ, His Son as the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, which will occur in chapter 19. It’s an awesome revelation. What will happen is God will take many of the prophecies of the Old Testament and show how they unfold. He will give us new information and He’ll put things in an order for us that He has not done before so that we could have greater clarity and understanding.

We need to understand the settings so we’re going to put up a chart we’ve shared with you before, called “The Seventy Weeks” and this comes from the Book of Daniel so why don’t you turn back to Daniel chapter nine just for a little bit of review. If this is new for you or you are vising with us, I trust you’ll be able to pick up and get an idea of how things are unfolding. God has spoken so that we can understand. The sad thing for many people, even believers in Jesus Christ, prophetic matters are somewhat confusing. They just sort of think well, there’s too much that’s not understood but really God gave it so that we would understand it and with the passing of time and further revelation culminating with the Book of Revelation, He gives us a complete picture.

The Book of Daniel chapter nine verse 24. God spoke to the man Daniel and said, “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people” . . . so we have the title of this chart “Seventy Weeks” which is literally (70 x 7). Seventy sevens have been decreed for your people and as we have looked at in other studies, we’ll see it as we move through the Book of Revelation, these are seven-year periods. It might be confusing when you read seventy weeks. It is literally seventy sevens. It is a week of years not a week of days, so “seventy;” seven-year periods, which would be 490 years, “have been decreed your people.” He is speaking to Daniel, who is a Jew so this is for the nation Israel. “ . . . and your holy city” . . . and we know what the holy city is; Jerusalem, and by the time you get to the end of this 490 year period six things will be accomplished . . . “finish the transgression, make an end of sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, anoint the most holy place.”

We break it down. “So you are to know and discern” . . . so here’s something you should understand. That “from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince” there will be “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.” All right so it starts; this 490-year period will start with the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. We know when that was because in the Book of Nehemiah, the first chapter, we are told that that decree was issued. It is helpful to get dates at times in the bible because pagan rulers, rulers of other nations, are brought in and we find out information through archeology and preserved records some of the dating, so we know the king that issued that decree and the date, because it’s dated in his reign so it started in 444 B.C. Some of you have 445 perhaps in a note in a study bible or something because of some difference in dating chronology is used but 444, 445 we’re using 444. It is broken down, this 490-year period for us into divisions.

You’ll note in verse 25. They “decreed to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince” so that’s until the coming of Christ, which we’ve noted with this arrow coming down when Christ came to earth. There is a period, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. Well seven weeks (7 x 7) would be forty-nine years, seven, seven-year periods. That’s when Jerusalem and the wall would have been rebuilt and so on, and that’ll be followed by sixty-two weeks, so we’ve broken it down into the two parts for you in the seven weeks there and then the sixty-two weeks, which makes 483 years will carry us from that decree until Messiah and that’s been worked out. We’ve put it here with the return of Christ to earth because we’ve condensed the chart obviously and it’s not proportionate but the end of those 483 years comes just about to the week of Christ’s crucifixion.

Then you’ll note verse 26. “After the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off . . .” now don’t get confused. Remember here the sixty-two weeks are after the seven weeks so He said after seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, then in verse 26 He picks up after the sixty-two weeks. Now there’s an important mark of time here that would not have been clear to Daniel. He doesn’t say in the seventh week Messiah will be cut off, which you would have expected if the seventh week follows that last seven year period, follows right after the previous weeks. He says after that 483 period the Messiah will be cut off because something not revealed in the Old Testament is what is called the “Church Age” so this period of time here we’ve put in a colored space, the “Church Age.“

This Church Age will begin in Acts chapter two. Christ will ascend to heaven in Acts chapter one and Acts chapter two the Church begins. There is nothing about this period-of-time in the Old Testament. Now it’s not that it wasn’t in the plan of God, but it was not God’s purpose to reveal it and make it known at that time so there’s nothing about the Church, this period of time in which we are living, in the Old Testament. In fact, in the gospels during Christ’s earthly ministry, there is no real information given on the Church Age. There are a couple references to the Church that Christ is going to build but there’s no real explanation or information on it so that will be later.

Later revelation doesn’t change anything given back in the Old Testament but it adds to it and will bring clarity so after those 483 years the Messiah was cut off. He was executed, verse 26, He’ll have nothing. He’ll return to heaven. There was no kingdom established. The people of the prince who is to come an important figure. We’re going to talk about him in a little bit, “. . . the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” Those people who destroyed the city and the sanctuary in 70 A.D. were the Romans. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in Jerusalem, 70 A.D. It says they are the people of the prince who is to come and then you’re told something about that prince who is to come in verse 27. “He will make a firm covenant with the many“ . . . referring to Israel . . . “for one week” . . . one seven year period so you see we we’re told after, verse 26, 483 years, the Messiah is going to be executed. The city of Jerusalem and the temple is going to be destroyed by the people of a prince who is to come and that prince who is to come, he is future, even after the destruction of the temple. He will make a firm covenant with the many for one week so you get an indication here, which is clarified, for us in the New Testament that there is a break of time here. The sixty-ninth week ended, 483 years, but we’re going to have a break of time, and this seventieth week will not occur until this prince who is to come signs an agreement, a covenant with the nation Israel. When he signs that, the clock will begin to run again for the nation Israel and God’s program for them, and that last seven-year period will unfold. We’re talking about this because when we start Revelation chapter six we are starting right at the beginning of this period.

Revelation chapter six, we are beginning this last seven-year period, so what was prophesied, now will begin to unfold. Incidentally, while you’re here, we’ll talk more about this as we get into Revelation, particularly chapters 12 and 13, we’ll talk about this “prince who is to come.” He signs a covenant, which is an agreement with Israel, which will guarantee their security. Now he says, he’s of the people who will destroy the city, the people of the prince who is to come, will destroy the city and in 70 A.D., the Romans destroyed the city. I take it that’s an indication this person will be a Roman by identity because he’s part of that people.

Come back to Daniel chapter seven. I realize this is review for you, but in case, we need reminded, and we do, and to perhaps bring it to the attention of those who aren’t as familiar. Daniel chapter seven unfolds the four major world empires that will come into existence from Daniel’s time. In Daniel’s day the Babylonians were ruling. They would be followed by the Medo-Persian Empire which would be followed by the Greek Empire, which would be followed by the Roman Empire, symbolized by different kinds of beasts. So in chapter seven of Daniel, verse seven, “I kept looking in the night visions, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible” and it crushes all the others. That was the Roman Empire, the most powerful, awesome empire the world had seen, and then this beast at the end of verse seven had ten horns, and later in Daniel seven the angel explains to Daniel those ten horns represent ten kings or kingdoms that will be joined together in a federation.

In Daniel chapter two, it was pictured as ten toes, a mixture of iron, which represented the Roman Empire in chapter two, and clay and it will be an empire that is combining great strength and brittleness, as you would have when you amalgamate ten nations together. You still have the separate identities and interest, yet they have the strength of the ten as one and then verse eight of Daniel 7. “I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man, a mouth uttering great boasts.” That’s the same individual, that little horn as was called the “prince who is to come” in chapter nine. We’ll see more of the identifications of this individual in Old and New Testament Scriptures when we get particularly to chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation.

Key person, he’s also known as the antichrist, the lawless one and other names identifying him, he becomes the dominant power, this 10-nation confederacy. Now this person is able to take control of 3 of these 10 nations and thus becomes the dominant element and as we’ll see, you come down here, he’ll work with them during this period-of-time. Then in the last three and a half years, the Book of Revelation makes clear, they all agree he ought to be the one sovereign world ruler, so you come down and then in the days of this king, Christ returns in the final here and He will return and set up a kingdom. So you come down to verses 13 and 14 and you have Christ coming and bringing an end to this man’s rule and establishing the kingdom that will go on for eternity, the first phase of which is a thousand years.

Come over to verse 23 of chapter seven, just highlighting some things. The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, so no problem understanding what was represented or symbolized; each of these four beasts represented a kingdom, the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom and it will be the most powerful. Verse 24, “the ten horns, out of this kingdom will ten kings arise” so again in Old Testament prophecy it doesn’t tell you that this fourth kingdom that was in power here will continue down for some time and then end, fragments of it will continue but it will experience a revival.

You know something perhaps like we see with the common market in Europe, and the European Union that has joined together to be a federation of nations, to have great power and influence but great struggles there and ultimately there will be ten focal nations there, in that kind of alliance. Out of that will rise a man of power, and I’ve shared with you an article from the Time magazine, I think back in the 1970’s when they’re formulating; “if we could find one man to lead us, we would follow him if it was the devil himself.” That’s going to come to fruition in this time when the antichrist will be the devil’s great counterfeit so you have the ten kings and then there will be the one who will arise after them in verse 24.

Verse 25 says he’ll “have the power to persecute the saints,” particularly the Jewish people during this last three and a half year period here. They will be given into his hand for a time, two times, and half a time, which is another way of referring to three and a half years, half of this time because we’re told in the middle of the week he’s going to break his covenant. Chapter nine of Daniel tells us so that would be here and so for three and a half years. We’ll see this as we move through Revelation.

What Revelation is going to do now is take all of this and put it together in a sequential form. Before that, we have all these pieces and it’s hard. By the time you get to the end of the Book of Daniel, we’ve looked at this but come to chapter 12. All this revelation here that Daniel’s been receiving and some of the culminating revelation in chapter 11 and 12 and then in verse eight of chapter 12 Daniel says, “as for me, I heard but I could not understand;” so he addresses the angel and says “My lord, what will be the outcome of these events?” The angel says to him, “Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed . . .” God intended to tell you about them but not to give you the understanding you would need to put it all together. They are sealed up until the end time.

Now remember we looked at the concluding words in Revelation 22, we’ve been there a number of times and John is instructed “not to seal this prophecy for now.” God intends it be fully unveiled, so God is just saying I intend you now to understand what could not be understood until I gave you my final word. So this is something of what the Old Testament talked about and there are many other passages as we move through Revelation we’ll see.

Come to the New Testament to Matthew 24. With the coming of Christ, His rejection by Israel, He gives additional information in His earthly ministry. It’s not just in Matthew 24 but here we have further clarity given. We call this the Olivet Discourse because it was given to His disciples on the Mount of Olives and He tells them about the destruction of Jerusalem that’s going to take place because His disciples are pointing out to them, Herod had built a temple that was striking and magnificent. Herod was a godless man. He was king of the Jews at this time under Roman authority but he was a brilliant builder. He constructed a temple here and it was great and they point out the temple buildings to Christ in verse one and He said, “Do you see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

Remember Daniel, prophesized the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem that would happen in 70 A.D. Some of you traveled recently to Jerusalem, to Israel, and you can go and see the stones that have been excavated there, the stones that were pushed down, these huge cut stones still laying there from when the Romans dismantled the temple, 70 A.D. Then the disciples sitting there saying, “Tell us”, verse three, “when will these things happen, what will be the sign of Your coming and the end of the age?” If this is all going to be destroyed — things aren’t, clear to them. They won’t be clear to them for some time yet so He’s going to tell them what’s going to happen with the end of the age and when they talk about the end of the age, they’re talking about here. “What will happen and what will be the sign of Your coming, unto the end of the age so we can go into the kingdom? This is not going to happen now. Well, how will we know when it’s going to happen and again? He’s going to tell them things but they really won’t grasp it.

Many will come . . . saying, “I am the Christ” and will mislead many. That’s where we’re going to pick up in Revelations chapter six. “You will be hearing of wars, rumors of wars.” That’s going to be revealed in Revelation chapter six. “Don’t be frightened, these things must take place.” But we’re not yet at the end, we’re really just in the first three and a half years going on here. “Nation will rise against nation kingdom against kingdom there’s going to be wars” during this period, there’s going to be “famines, earthquakes, these are merely the beginning of birth pangs.” He’s referring to this first three and a half year period. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation.

In Daniel 9, Daniel was told in the middle of this seven-year period “this prince who is to come will break his covenant with the nation Israel, He’ll put a stop to sacrifice and offerings.” This is in Daniel 9; we didn’t read it all, indicating during this time the temple will have been rebuilt. Israel will reinstitute its sacrificial system but here now he’s going to break that agreement, it’s going to happen suddenly. “They . . . will kill you; you will be hated by all nations because of My name”. It’s going to be a terrible time!

The gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached throughout the whole earth. We’ll see that and God’s provision for that as we move through Revelation. That’s talking about this time here. Sometimes that verse is taken as why we need to take the gospel to other places in the world. Yeah, we are to take the gospel to other places but this verse is not talking about that. This verse is talking about something that will happen at a specific period in time, the last three and a half years preceding the return of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom.

Verse 15. “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand.) Remember some of the things Daniel was told, he was told these are concealed, you can’t understand them. Now Christ is saying you need to start understanding, pay attention and when you put this together with the Book of Revelation, those in the tribulation, in this period-of-time, the Jews are going to begin to have their eyes opened. They’re going to begin to understand their Old Testament prophecies, what Christ talked about, what the Book of Revelation is saying. By the time you get to the end here, you’re going to have a period that Romans 11 says, there’s going to be a national conversion of the nation Israel so when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of through Daniel that’s at the end of Daniel 9.

If you’re not familiar with this, you want to refresh your mind, go back and read Daniel chapter two, Daniel chapter seven, Daniel chapter nine, particular key chapters that get further elaboration and explanation in the Book of Revelation. That takes you back to verse nine because the end of chapter nine of Daniel said in the middle of the week he’s going to break his covenant and he’s going to set up what is called here the abomination of desolation. The wording is, “the abomination, which makes desolate” so when you see that—so Christ is focusing—He taught down through verse eight on this first three and a half years but the major issue for the nation will take place here. This is going to be a period, these first three and a half years, of deception of the nation Israel. This when their persecution begins is when God turns up the heat to such a degree that the nation will be brought to its knees and turns to Christ as the Messiah so they’ll deliver you to tribulation, verse nine.

The marker for Israel for that, the marker for the beginning of this seven-year period, is when that prince who is to come signs a covenant of agreement for Israel’s security and protection. Then for Israel, they ought to take special note when he breaks that agreement right here in the middle. You’ll see he’s going to “set up in the temple”—we get to this in Revelation, “an image of himself, require the nation to worship him, in his image in the temple. It will stand in the holy place” so we know the temple is going to be rebuilt and he desecrates the temple. It’s going to happen suddenly at this point, we would say overnight, so suddenly those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.

The Jews have to get out of this area and get out of Jerusalem, get out of Judea. They have to go hide because his goal will be to annihilate every single Jew on the face of the earth. There’s an irrationality to it. I was watching one of the history things on World War II and Hitler and Germany’s being destroyed, he’s hiding in his bunker and waiting for the Russians to come and he’s giving out decrees that the Jews have to be destroyed. Do you not understand Germany is destroyed? You have no place to go but the Jews have to be destroyed! You understand and Satan understands. If he could annihilate Israel, there would be no completion of God’s program here with the kingdom promised so that’s what’s going on here so they have to flee to the mountains.

It’s going to be so quick so serious, “whoever’s on the housetop must not go down to get things from his house,” so if you’re on the second floor here at this time, “on the rooftop, don’t go downstairs and stop to pack your bag.” You don’t have time for that; you can see there’s an urgency here! If you’re in the field, don’t go back home to pick up some things. You just have to run with whatever clothes you have on your back; that’s how quick the persecution is going to break out and it’ll be a difficult time. If you are pregnant or you have babies—I mean this kind of environment makes escape all the more difficult so keep in mind, we’re not talking about our day.

Then you say, well boy, we have people and I see advertisements on the radio or television, you can buy food now guaranteed it will last for twenty-five years, so you can be prepared when famines come. There is no preparation for the coming tribulation really in the Church Age except believing in Christ and then you get this escape right here called the Rapture. That’s what we’re looking for! This period- of-time will not happen until every believer on the face of the earth is removed, so we as start Revelation chapter six, there are no believers alive on the face of the earth. They’ve all been removed to heaven, so believers here will get saved during this period-of-time, there will be salvation occurring here in great numbers. That’s going to be in the Book of Revelation.

We have to move along here because we’re going to do the first four seals. Can you believe that? Down in verse 21 of—still in Matthew 24. “There will be great tribulation’ . . . note this . . . “such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be.” This period-of-time, three and a half years, will be the time of greatest suffering, greatest tribulation, greatest death that has ever occurred or ever will occur. You know it is amazing, in this period-of-time here, and then you add to it this period-of-time, we’re going to have billions of people die. In fact, it’s so bad Christ said, “Unless those days were cut short, no life would be saved . . .” but God has a purpose for those who get saved during this period-of-time, so He cuts it off after seven years. If He just let it run, its course dooms day prophecies would come true. There would be no life on the planet, that’s how the devastation is multiplying and increasing. All right, so that’s an overview. We’re going to pick up what is in these first eight verses of chapter 24 in what happens in the opening verses of Revelation 6 so we’ll be able to go through those a little more quickly.

Revelation 6, remember we saw the seven sealed scroll that contains all that is included in God’s plan for bringing about His final work in bringing Israel to salvation and establishing a kingdom on the earth. Everything’s there so in that seven sealed scroll, everything from Revelation chapter six on is contained. Now out of that seventh seal will come a series of judgments, the seven trumpets. Out of that seventh trumpet will come a series of seven judgments, the seven bowls but you see it’s like telescoping. Everything is contained in the seven sealed scroll because out of the seventh seal, comes the rest of the seven trumpets, so really the judgment of the seventh seal is the seven trumpets and the judgment of the seventh trumpet, will be the seven seals. Then we come to the return of Christ. There are other things, we could say here, but we need to look into chapter six so are you ready?

Verse one. “Then when I saw, when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals” . . . what an awesome event this is! Chapters 4 and 5 have prepared for this. Note how chapter five ended, verse 13, “every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth on the sea, all things in them, I heard saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne,’” that’s the Father who was the focal point of chapter 4. “To the Lamb,” who was slain to provide redemption the subject of chapter 5 the focal point. Be “blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” The four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” Let it be, it’s true, “the elders fell down and worshiped.”

“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals…one of the four living creatures . . .” remember there are four living creatures surrounding the throne of the Father . . . “cries out with a loud voice like thunder, ‘Come.’” The process, which will now go on without break begins, which this is, this seven-year period primarily here that we’re unfolding which will culminate with the return of Christ in the kingdom.

These first four judgments each will be pictured by the coming forth of a horseman. That’s why we call them, the “four horsemen of the apocalypse,” an expression heard in a variety of settings but it pictures coming judgment and here each of these four horses and their rider picture a coming judgment. Only these first four judgments are announced and called forth by one of the four living beings who are in very close proximity to the throne. Each of these first four judgments, each of these four horses will be called forth by one of these four living beings. Only the first one is said to have a voice like thunder. There is something of that sense of awe of what is beginning here and there will be no breaks, like the break, you had back here, after the first sixty-nine weeks. This now is going to unfold somewhat rapidly so to call forth the judgment.

Now this scroll was written on the front and the back but they don’t read anything. I think of it, sometimes you’ve seen in older movies, where they start out by reading to you from a book, and you see the page of the book, they’ll show it on the screen and the persons reading and pretty soon the writing on the page fades and what is being read comes out as a reality. Maybe it’s an army, that was reading and you know in 1920, the armies came and then you start and then you fade into what the book was telling you is actually being carried out. What happens here is the horse comes forth and the horse is portraying the judgment that now is being brought.

“I looked and now behold, a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow, a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” This rider on the white horse—there’s confusion. There oughtn’t to be confusion. In chapter 19 (if you want to turn over there) we’re told when Christ returns, verse 11 of Revelation 19, “I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse;” that’s Christ in His return to earth and the white horse symbolizes that conqueror and His victorious conquering. Well the white horse in chapter six symbolizes conquering and a conqueror but it’s not Christ. It’s the imitation Christ; this is the prince who is to come. He comes now, and he will be conquering and comes to conquer and we saw in Daniel. What will he do? He comes in and assembles his power and displaces three of the kingdoms out of the 10 and becomes the dominant power and by the time you get to this middle period in the chart he will become the world ruler so that’s who is pictured here. He has a bow and it’s probably significant that it doesn’t say anything about arrows. He’s a conqueror but he’s probably doing it as we see goes on in the world today in political maneuvering, particularly in someplace like the European Union and the countries there as they maneuver and power is adjusted and those kinds of things.

“A crown was given to him “and this becomes an important statement, when it says, a crown was given to him. The crown is the “stephanos” crown. We saw believers get a stephanos crown as a reward. It’s the crown of a victor and he is a victor. He will be successful. He’ll be the most successful world ruler ever, but you note here, an important thing, it was given to him. You ought to have underlined or highlighted, “was given” to him.

Remember what we said chapters four and five of Revelation made clear; God is sovereign; it’s His will that was given. Important and again you know we back this up, it’s true and we as believers forget in this tribulation period it’s going to be important for these people who become believers, God is sovereign. This man will conquer because it was given to him to conquer.

Look over at chapter nine. You see the end of verse one of chapter nine, the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. We’ll pick up the context of this when we come back. Verse 3, “then smoke came, locusts upon the earth, power was given them.” Down in verse five, “they were not permitted,” so that’s the negative side that was given. Here something is withheld from them, they don’t have the power to kill, they’re not permitted to kill, just to make people suffer so they wish they could die. You see God is sovereign in what is taking place. Come over to chapter 13 verse five and we’re talking about the prince who is to come. “There was given to him a mouth speaking, three things, “authority to act for forty-two months,” we’re in that last three and a half year period. You see this power “was given to him,” verse seven; it was also given “to him to make war with the saints.” He’s going to be successful in martyring multitudes of people who become believers.

You say why would God—God do You know what’s happening? Of course He does, He’s planned it. It’s the outworking of His purpose so something must have happened, there was an accident. Oh, if only that hadn’t happened. There are no accidents in your life, my life as a believer, we’re not fatalists because there’s a personal God who is working His purposes and we have the assurance for our good. Believers during this period-of-time are going to have to read this and say, “the power that this man has for such evil was given to him by our heavenly Father, who is causing all things to work together for our good who love Him, and He’s given authority over every tribe, people, tongue and nation.”

Down in verse 14, now you have the counterfeit Holy Spirit who will come on the scene, we’ll talk about in chapter 13. “He deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs, which it was given him to perform.” Verse 15, “it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast” and that’s the image, the abomination of desolation set up in the holy place. He’s going to be able to bring that to life so all of this you see--was given to him.

Come back to Chapter 6. Heaven rules, God is sovereign, and billions of people are going to die under the ultimate authority of God bringing judgment on the world. That’s the first seal; this man comes on the scene. He’s Satan’s greatest counterfeit. Israel will look at him when they sign that covenant. What we’ve been waiting for, the one who brings peace to Israel. We can rebuild the temple. We can institute the sacrifices. How wonderful! What a deception!

Verse three of Revelation 6 the second seal. “When He broke the second seal, I heard a second living creature saying, ‘Come.’ Another horse, a red horse went out . . .” the white horse pictured the conqueror, the red horse pictures blood, suffering . . . “and to him, who sat on it, it was granted” . . . God’s sovereignty . . . “to take peace from the earth, that men would slay one another; a great sword was given to him.” You remember Jesus said in Matthew “there will be wars and rumors of wars.”

Come to the third seal verse five. “He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, ‘Come.’ I looked and behold a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius; do not damage the oil and the wine.’” This black horse and we always connect black with suffering and death, mourning and here what you have is famine and he has scales and this comes from Ezekiel chapter four and we may not have time to go back there right now. God tells Ezekiel that He’s going to bring famine, and they’ll weigh their food on the scale and the picture is food is going to be so scarce it’ll be parceled out like that so in this day when they went to get grain to make bread, they only get what could be weighed on the scale.

Sort of like the rationing that sometimes takes place in wartime. We had it, where people got Ration Stamps for gasoline or whatever. You’ll see down in verse six, “a quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius.” A denarius was what a working man would be paid for one day’s work. A quart of wheat was what one person would eat. Now wheat is more nutritious and I got this from reading, I didn’t know it, I’m not a farmer, as you know. Three quarts of barley….barley’s not as nutritious, so you need three quarts of barley to get the same nutrition as you would the one quart of wheat. The point is, you work all day, you’re going hand to mouth. All you can get is enough for today. What about tomorrow? I don’t know all we could do was to get enough to survive today but don’t damage the oil and the wine.

Then you look at countries, we talk about a country like North Korea where they say people are starving in great numbers but the rulers and the people aren’t starving, the people who rule who are in power, the ruler of the city is quite well fed so that’s the picture here. There is plenty for those who could afford it but you can’t afford it. Those are luxuries. Famine, you’re not looking for a nice big steak and all the trimmings and that. Then, if it would be available, it would only be available to people who had a lot of money. So that’s the picture here and a reminder there will be things going on in the world so sometimes I wonder, well how does the world even function but evidently there will be places in the world where life goes on. They’ll be marrying, giving in marriage, right up till the time Christ returns but there are going to be large devastations.

Then this fourth seal which is the last one we can look at. “The Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature,” here comes the fourth horse, “an ashen horse, he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with a sword, with famine, pestilence, wild beasts of the earth.” Death so that ashen horse, that pale horse picturing death and Hades is following. Now Hades is the place where the unbeliever goes upon death. Remember in Luke 16, “the rich man died and lifted up his eyes in Hades being in torment.” When we get to Revelation chapter 20, we’ll have the souls in Hades resurrected to stand at the great white throne so Hades is the place that the unbelievers are being gathered in great numbers.

You’ll note this, “authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill them, death and Hades,” and on top of everything else now death occurs even in a broader scale. I don’t know, if you had five billion people in the world, you’re going to have a fourth of them die here. Over a billion people dying with sword, famine, pestilence all kinds of diseases and of course what do you have. You have death in that number, who is burying these? So you have the diseases multiply, wild beasts of the earth.

One of the writings on prophecy, the writer just used an example of rats. He said if you killed 95% of the rats in the world, within one year, they would be back to their original population. We were in Colorado looking out the window at the golf course and running across the golf course comes this large grey wolf. We’re in a city of hundreds of thousands and here comes a grey wolf running across the golf course. You know you’re not getting me on that golf course. We sent Bobby, my son-in-law, down to golf. Spurgeon said, “send the young men to the mission field to get eaten by cannibals” but we don’t know, you know, what does God say? He’s going to take the restraints off. That common grace we talk about that enables the world to function even in its sinful condition and now you have the animals taking over.

Next time we start, we’ll look into Ezekiel who prophesized these very four things that God would bring on nations and particularly on Israel for their unfaithfulness. It’s a gloomy picture and for people who do not come to place their faith in Christ you cannot fathom the infinite wrath of an infinite God. We’ve already talked about His infinite love and it is, but for those who persist in rejecting Him, the kind of suffering and death, a billion people, in connection with the fourth horseman; that’s rounding it off. We just drop out a few hundred thousand because a fourth would be more than that and we’re just getting started. There’s seven seals, out of which will come seven trumpets, out of which will come seven bowls and you know what? Every series gets worse! Is it any wonder Jesus said that if He didn’t intervene at the end of seven years, there would be nothing left, there would be no life left.

Then there is hell after that, and there is nothing after that for the unbeliever. But it’s not gloomy because we’ve already been to heaven and seen there’s a Redeemer, for people of every tongue and tribe and language and so on, who’s provided redemption and salvation and so anyone who would desire can come and experience forgiveness from Him. Any wonder God’s wrath is unrestrained when people say, “No,” when He has done that in giving His Son. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.” People say, “No” to God. We’re going to find under the worst of these judgments in the tribulation people will curse God for causing them such pain. That kind of stubbornness deserves hell. He is worthy! God declares them worthy of the judgment that will come.

Our message is there is a Savior. These are days of salvation. We are living somewhere down at the end of the Church Age. I don’t know, Christ could come this afternoon. We would be ready to move into this period. I don’t know, it may be years away. We are to live expecting, and anticipating, and living like it will be at any moment and that’s why we tell people there is a Savior. That’s why we want to carry them the message of life. You can be delivered from wrath to come. You can have forgiveness. You can be taken into the glories of heaven during that seven year period and then come back to enjoy the glory of God’s presence forever. It doesn’t get any better than that. Let’s pray together.

Thank you Lord for the truth of Your word. Thank you that You have been pleased to reveal Your purposes and plans. You intend for us to understand it. You’ve given us as believers Your Spirit. Lord we want to grasp these truths. Lord we want to heed them, live in light of them, being reminded that You are the God who is sovereign and in control of everything happening today, tomorrow and until Christ comes. Pray that we will be faithful. In Christ’s name. Amen.