Well, we come this week to Revelation
chapter six, and as you read it earlier, you must have been
thinking, wow, unless you're very familiar with it, you've
just been reminded how, at a superficial level, how weird these things
appear to be. But let me ask you a question
right at the start. When you look at the world in which we
live, the world around you, the state of affairs, the state of
history, the state of being born and dying and life going on like
it's, how do you account for the way things are? What's your
philosophy of life as to why things are the way they are?
Today's scientists, and remember that the scriptures call it in
Romans chapter one, science falsely so-called, science falsely so-called,
in so many ways, its philosophy is this, this is the philosophy
that they would teach us, the media's full of it, education's
full of it, that there was a great big bang, and why there was,
they don't know, but there was a great big bang, and everything
that we see, everything that we see, everything, everything,
people, animals, everything that we see is the way it is because
of materialistic evolution. And then the philosophers come
along and they say, ah, no, no, no, no. No, there's more than
that. There's more than that. No, you can't explain everything
with that. And they're quite right. They say this far more.
But they search around human wisdom. And they fail to provide
satisfactory answers. And do you know some of the most
famous philosophers of the last two or three hundred years have
committed suicide because they've come to the conclusion it's all
pointless. It's all a great big joke. There's no purpose to anything. And then you have books which
come along and try to foretell history. I remember growing up
and the book that was often mentioned was 1984. Do you remember when
it was 1981, then 82, and then 84 actually came. I wonder if
something weird is going to happen. 1984 came along and nothing really
changed. And then there have been other
attempts, you know, I know there's the Doctor Who rubbish and all
that kind of thing, sorry to any fans of it, but quite honestly,
that's what it is. But do you remember, the reason
I mention this one was because a date passed the other day,
and it was the date, something of October 2015, that was mentioned
in Back to the Future. 30 years ago, or whenever it
was it was made, 25 or 30 years ago, and it said, on this date
in 2015, and we passed that day the other day, and the things
that Back to the Future predicted, hardly any of them come true,
I mean, it got it so, so utterly wrong. How about a book that
was written 1920 years ago, 1920 years ago, It's that old and it's still
getting it absolutely spot on, accurate, pinpoint accuracy. You'd listen to that, wouldn't
you? If there was a book that got it right and it's that old,
you'd listen to that, wouldn't you? rather than some of these
other fantastical tales that we're told to believe in. Well,
do you know something? It's this book. It's this book.
The chapter that we read in Revelation 6 was written 1920 years ago. Thereabouts, give
or take a year or two. And what it says is absolutely
accurate about the way things are. Let me just remind you,
and I won't spend long doing this, but Revelation is a sequence,
the book of Revelation is a sequence of seven individual revelations
of the way things are in the time in which we live. from when
Christ first came to when he comes again. In fact, beyond
that, the whole of creation history is covered in many respects,
as we'll see later. And it says in the first three
chapters, which is the first vision, the time is at hand.
He's going to show The Apostle John, things which must shortly
come to pass. You say, well 1900 years is not
shortly, that's a long time. Ah, do you know what the word
of God says? With God, a day is as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as a day. No, no, no, don't go and say
things are not happening. You know, Peter talked about
this, he said people say, where are the things that are supposed
to have happened? Don't they know? A day with God, that's
where it says it, Peter's epistle. A day with God is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as a day. No, these things are shortly
to come to pass. And it speaks about the establishment
and final victory of God's kingdom. Remember I told you, what was
the message of the Lord Jesus Christ? What did he go about
preaching? The kingdom of God. Thy kingdom come, was what he
told his disciples to pray. Thy kingdom come. He went about
preaching the kingdom of... What is the kingdom of God? It's
God's kingdom of righteousness and peace. It's God's eternal
kingdom of righteousness and bliss and peace. And nothing
that defileth shall enter in. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Everything
must be perfect. So how are we made perfect to
enter in there? Through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, who for his people paid the law's debt for their
sins, that they might be justified, that they might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And that's his kingdom. In that
kingdom, there shall be no more death, there shall be no more
sorrow, there shall be no more crying. That's the glorious kingdom
of eternity. Oh, set our thoughts on things
above where Christ is. The epistles keep telling us.
This is the ultimate purpose. And with it, the subjugation
and the overthrow and the downfall of Satan's worldly kingdom. And
we saw in those first three chapters, Christ now in the midst of his
churches, in this wilderness world, keeping, and chastising,
and feeding his church. For how long? For a time, for
times, and half a time, as we read later in the book of Revelation.
What does that mean? For what appears to be an awfully
long time, but it's a time that is limited, and will come to
an end. And then we move into chapter 4 where we get into the
second of the revelations of the book of Revelation. And this
one goes on for several chapters including chapter 6. And in chapter
4 we see heavenly realities. We see John is given this vision. It's a spiritual vision. Caught
up in the spirit into heaven. And he looks and what does he
see? He sees a throne. a glorious throne, and one sitting,
one sitting on the throne, God in the midst of his throne, in
majesty, and there's all sorts of pictorial language to describe
the majesty, and round the throne is the church of God, the 24
elders representing the Old and New Testament church, the people
of God in all ages are there in glory, this is the vision
that John in his prison on Patmos suffering persecution, come up
here and see. And this is what he sees, the
church in glory, and all things subject to the rule of God. And
then we moved into chapter 5. And in chapter 5, we saw a book
with seven seals. It's sealed up, it can't be opened.
It's got seven seals. And this book is the plan of
God for the final accomplishment of His, God's victorious kingdom. But how? How is it going to be
implemented? Rather, who is going to implement
the plan? And nobody's found, and the voice
goes out. Who is worthy? And no voice comes back. And
John weeps in his vision. He weeps because nobody was found
worthy to open the book. And then one of the elders, who
is in glory, says to him, don't weep, John, don't weep. Look.
Look at the lion of the tribe of Judah. Look at the kingly
lion, the king of beasts, the king of the... Look at the lion
of the tribe of Judah. And John says, and I looked,
and what did he see? I saw a lamb, as it had been
slain. Alive, but bearing the marks
of having been slain. The lion who is going to open
these seals is only able to do so in the capacity of a lamb.
What does all of this mean? I must just remind you of this.
For sinners who we are, for sinners who will be the citizens of God's
kingdom, to be accepted there, they must have their defilement
removed. They must be made righteous.
How are they made righteous? They can only be made righteous
if the law's demands concerning their sin are answered in full. answered in full, the soul that
sins, it must die, and the life is in the blood, and the Son
of God came, the infinite Son of God, for his people, on behalf
of his people, wedded to his people, his people in union with
him, and he died, that they might die in him, and therefore the
law be satisfied in him. And he made satisfaction, he
made atonement in his blood, he made atonement in his blood,
so that sinners would be justified, so that we might be with him
in eternal glory. This is how the lion unlooses
the seals of God's plan of implementing his kingdom of righteousness
and peace, only by the Lion of Judah coming in the capacity
of a lamb. and dying for his people and
shedding his blood and satisfying the law. And so then we come
to chapter six. And here's this book, and we
know who's worthy to open it, the Lord Jesus Christ, in all
of his glory, in all the glory of his offices. And in chapter
six, we see him opening six of its seven seals. And we're just
gonna focus on the first four seals this morning. Now, let
me just say something about principles of interpretation. And by the
way, I've been conscious all week preparing this message.
I can tell you some things that are just fascinatingly interesting.
You know, really, they are. I mean, as a worldview, it's
just unbelievably fascinatingly interesting. But, you know, I
don't just want to do that. I don't want you to go away and
say, oh, that was an interesting lecture on some weird things
in the scripture, wasn't it? We need a message from God to
our souls. We need to speak to God's believing
people. And with his help, and with his
anointing, I trust that that's what we'll get. But let me say
first of all, principles of interpretation. This vision, these visions of
revelation, are spiritual. This is a spiritual vision. A
spiritual vision which is outside of this time state in the realm
of eternity. We can't comprehend it. I know,
I can't comprehend that. I can't comprehend anything outside
of time, but so it is. I mean, the nearest you'll get
to it is to be a physicist. You know, Stephen and I both
did physics at university, and I wouldn't claim that I understood
a fraction of it, but nevertheless, I know this idea that actually
the concept that you can be outside of time, that it's yet another
dimension like length, height, and... Yeah, I can get that,
I can get that. Well, eternity is outside of
time. We live in a time state of space
and time. This vision is outside of that.
It's spiritual. It's a vision of things from
heaven's perspective. And it's throughout the history
of creation that this vision shows us, because time goes on
from creation to the end, but outside of it is the constant
of eternity, of God's eternity. So it isn't, it's wrong to see
it as a sequence of historical events. And people that try to
do that, especially saying, oh right, all these things are going
to happen. First this will happen, and then that will happen, and
then something else will happen, and then something else, and
then the rapture will come, and these will be taken away, and
then you'll see Jesus coming to rule again from the temple
in Jerusalem, physical Jerusalem, and they get so, so wound up
in intricate details, we've come across various people, you get
the weirdest views, you get the weirdest books written. Remember,
don't ever lose sight of this, the purpose of the book of Revelation
is this, the purpose of the book of Revelation is to assure and
to comfort God's people regarding the unfolding of history as God
establishes his kingdom of righteousness and peace. Thy kingdom come,
don't forget that. But let me ask another question.
Why is there not now an unrivaled kingdom? This is God's purpose,
to establish his unrivaled kingdom of righteousness and peace. wherein
dwells no iniquity or sin or defilement at all. Why is there
now not an unrivaled kingdom? And I'll tell you why I ask that
question. Because if you read the scriptures right from the
start, there was, at creation, a completely unrivaled kingdom
of God. In the Garden of Eden, there
was an unrivaled Kingdom of God. Back in Genesis chapters 1 and
2, we see man, in his innocence, created in this perfect Kingdom
of God. And so we find, just summing
it up, Adam's created, then Eve is created from Adam, woman made
from man, that's the created order, verse 25 of chapter 2,
and they, Adam and Eve, were both naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed. What does that say? I'll tell
you what that says. They were walking in complete spiritual
union with their God. This is Adam, made king of the
created kingdom of God, and he's there walking with God in perfection. Adam, walking with God in sinless
perfection. And it's an unrivaled kingdom
of righteousness and peace. And we don't know how long it
went on. We don't know how long it was from creation to the end
of chapter two. We've got no idea, no way of
knowing. We're not told, we don't need to know. But that's what
it was. It was God's unrivaled kingdom
of righteousness and peace. But God, we move into chapter
three of Genesis. God allowed Satan to beguile
Eve. To trick Eve. to fool Eve into
thinking that the fruit that was forbidden would be good to
eat. And she ate it. And she having
eaten it, and Adam knowing what the consequences of that were,
did you know this? That for love of Eve, Adam was
not deceived. Adam knew exactly what he was
doing. Adam was not deceived. Eve was
deceived, but Adam was not deceived. He knew what Eve had done, And
for love of Eve, Adam took that forbidden fruit. Whatever it
physically, literally was, I don't know. But it's disobedience to
God. And he took it, and he plunged
himself, and the whole of his race, into that corruption of
the fall, into sin, for love of his wife. Is that not like,
that's why Adam is a type of Christ, you know? For love of
his people, for love of his bride, Christ was made sin for his people. He voluntarily was made sin for
his people. So, Adam delivered himself and
his kingdom into Satan's power. And Adam became Satan's ally
against God. And not only Adam, for, you know,
I mean, we're singing Handel's Messiah this coming week, and
one of the texts is, for as in Adam, all die, even so in Christ
shall all be made alive. As in Adam, all die, all who
are descended from Adam, and that's all of us, you, me, every
one of us, are descended from Adam, that set of genes that
God created in the first place, we're descended from that. As
in Adam all die, all of us were plunged into that rebellion against
God. We all became Satan's ally in
Satan's kingdom, the kingdom of this world. We all became
Satan's ally. And so, In that sense, Satan
took possession of the kingdoms of this world. And you know when
Satan was tempting the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness at the
start of his ministry, that's how Satan said to Jesus, look
at all these kingdoms of the world, these will I give you
if you will bow down and worship me. In that respect, they were
his. Because all of the people of
this world had come under his power and had joined him. They
became his ally against God. And the whole creation was affected
by it. We read in Romans 8, 22, we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Satan's objective
is the victory of his kingdom of false righteousness. He gives
us delusion of righteousness and peace, goodness to one another.
But it's false. It's a kingdom of false righteousness,
a kingdom of false peace, in rebellion to God. And Satan's
objective is the victory of that kingdom. The fall, in Genesis
3, was his critical accomplishment, when Eve was deceived. But look
at Genesis 3, 15. God says this, in coming to them. Genesis 3, 15, he says, I will
put enmity between thee, Satan, the serpent, and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head. That's
a fatal wound, isn't it? A bruise on the head. A pain
in the heel might be painful. A bruising of the heel might
be painful, but it's not fatal. A bruising of the head can be
fatal. It shall bruise thy head. And thou shalt bruise his heel.
Enmity. God put enmity between the seed
of the woman and the seed of the serpent. Between her seed,
her seed, the kingdom of God. The people of the kingdom of
God. His seed, the kingdom of this world. Everybody else. All
of them. He put enmity there. God then
immediately struck back at Satan in regenerating Adam and Eve.
He preached the gospel to them. An animal was killed. He clothed
their nakedness with skins. Blood was shed. God preached
the gospel and Adam and Eve believed it. Do you know who the first
believers were in this world? The first saved sinners were
Adam and Eve. I have not the slightest doubt
about that. The first saved sinners in creation were Adam and Eve.
Because God immediately struck back. But then they had children. Cain and Abel and Seth. And Cain
and Abel. Cain. was of the seed of the
serpent, and Abel was of the seed of the woman, of God's line. And he put enmity between them.
And there was such enmity that Cain slew his brother, Abel. And we see it going on and on
and on. This idea of enmity between Cain
and Abel, between, you then read on into the next few chapters
of Genesis, the sons of God line of God's kingdom and the daughters
of men, the seed of the serpent, the line of the kingdom of this
world. And the conflict, the enmity,
is individual against individual, the seed of the woman versus
the seed of the serpent, right up to the flood. When God saw
man, he looked down and he saw that the intents of the heart
of man was altogether evil continually, and God sent the flood. and swept
them all away, apart from eight souls, Noah, his three sons,
and their wives, eight souls altogether. But even then, that
didn't eradicate sin, For after the flood, they came out of the
ark. And the sin, the corruption of Adam, was still in Noah and
his sons and their wives. And then man spread over the
whole face of the earth. And we then get to chapter 9
of Genesis, where Nimrod, who is there, that great hunter,
that great, well, he's actually that great rebel, that great
rebel against God. And what does he do? He establishes
the city of Babel, Babylon. Babel. What does Babylon stand
for now, in Revelation, throughout Scripture? False religion. False
religion. The false kingdoms of this world
in false religion. And he tries to establish the
Tower of Babel. What's the Tower of Babel? It's
the expression of the kingdom of Satan. We will get to heaven
by our own means. We need no Christ. We need no
righteousness of God. We're good enough on our own.
We will get to heaven in our own strength and our own capability.
And God came down. And you know what God did next?
He confounded the languages. They were all of one language.
And they were all setting off to establish this unrivaled kingdom
of Satan in opposition to God with no Christ and with no righteousness
of God. And he came down and confounded
the languages. And when he confounded the languages, we got the separate
nation states. And as soon as we got separate
nation states, we got nation fighting nation. And war came
in. War between nations came in.
So, all of this was going on, and it goes on to this very day. You know, how many thousand years
is that? I don't know, four or five thousand years. People would
say, oh, surely you don't believe in that nonsense. Well, what
about all of the... I'm sorry. God will be proven to be right
in the end. God will be proven to be right.
And for how many thousand years it is, it's been like that. Nation
against nation. Can anybody say it's not the
same today? What is mankind doing? Now as
we speak, the leaders of this world are trying to build their
towers of Babel. They're trying to build their
way to a human righteousness, a human goodness. All the things
that God has said are swept out of the way. We don't want these
things. Let us break their yoke from us. We don't want these
things. We'll establish our own righteousness. And so they have
all sorts of things which I don't say are bad for us necessarily,
but they're all the kingdom of Satan trying to establish his
perfect kingdom in this world, the United Nations. This idea
that gradually we'll move to a global state. You know, there
are many who want a great big European state, which will then
become an even bigger state. A great big global state. And
the removal of international barriers. And free trade. I'm
not saying they're necessarily wrong as they apply to us. in
day-to-day work, but that's what they're about, is the establishment
of this unrivaled kingdom of Satan. You know, even the thing
that we all love, which is seamless communications around the world.
It's all trying to make this one place in which everybody
were all friends together. But you know something? You can't
deny that that's the objective of the leaders of the world.
They all want to get together, don't they? They want to produce
one great big worldwide organization. The United Nations ought to be
the overall power that controls everything. But is it not constantly
frustrated? Shall I tell you what constantly
frustrates their plans? Three things. and this is significant
when we come into chapter six, and we're getting there, don't
worry, we're getting there. Three things, war, economic strife,
and death. Those three things constantly
frustrate the purposes of Satan and the rulers of this world
to establish their kingdom of Satan. So let's look at these
four horses because that's what God is telling us. These four
horses in Revelation 6 verses 1 to 8. Are all things out of
control? Are all things out of control?
No. God's seven sealed book tells
us what's going on. The lion, who is a slain but
living lamb, is the only one qualified to open these seals,
the only one qualified to implement the plan of God in establishing
his unrivaled kingdom of righteousness and peace. He is the only one
who is able to call forth the horses. Not in a quiet secret
way, but with noise and thunder. Look in verse 1, I heard as it
were the noise of thunder. He's doing this, clearly. And
calling forth horses, remember it's a vision. Remember it's
a vision. It's not physical reality, it's
a vision, a spiritual vision. These horses are symbolic of
power and of nobility. Isn't the horse the animal that
is the picture of nobility and power in their various missions? But each of these horses has
a rider and the rider directs the power. Things that we see
in this world around us are the way they are because the lamb,
the lion who is the lamb calls forth these four horses. Let
me explain. Look at the first one. One of
the four beasts saying, this is the end of verse one, come
and see. Now, It's easy to see why the
translators translated it as come and see, and I saw. They were assuming it was John
being told to come and see, but in actual fact it isn't. Really
you can do without the and see, it's just come. It's the lamb
saying to the first horse, come and ride forth. The second, not
come and see, come and ride and do my bidding. The third horse,
come and ride and do my bidding. So the first horse, I saw and
behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown
was given unto him and he went forth conquering and to conquer.
White is symbolic of true righteousness, always in the scripture. White
is symbolic of true righteousness. This is the victor's horse. You
know in the battles of old, when the king would win the battle,
how would he ride back into his capital? On a great big white
stallion. He's the victor. This is a symbol
of true righteousness and victory. Look at Psalm 46, sorry, Psalm
45. Psalm 45. verses 1 to 6. You see, the scripture
is a unity. Altogether, it's a unity. The
same Holy Spirit inspired it, though different men wrote it.
Though David wrote this, John the Apostle wrote Revelation,
but the same Holy Spirit gave the same message. My heart is
indicting a good matter. I speak of the things which I
have made touching the King. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. Thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is
poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee
forever." Now listen. gird thy sword upon thy thigh,
O Most Mighty, and with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty
ride on a horse, ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness
and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things." Verse 5, what did the rider of the
white horse have in his hand? A bow. bow and arrow. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under
thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy
kingdom is a right scepter." There's a picture there in the
Psalms of Christ our God and our Savior, riding on his white
horse with his bow in his hand. And what is his bow? It's gospel
arrows that go into the hearts of his enemies. I was the enemy
of God. You were aliens, but now are
brought nigh, the New Testament tells us. This is Christ, the
king of God's kingdom, riding majestically. Why? He's got a
crown on his head. A crown. He's king, riding majestically
and subduing his enemies. This is the gospel going forth
into the world. And you say, oh, look at us here.
This is not at all impressive, is it? It's such a little...
If you look at the world overall, the impact of the white horse
riding forth is quite profound. Quite profound, I'll say more
about that in a minute. But then, the second seal. Verse three, he opened the second
seal, and I heard the second beast say, come, come, go forth,
go forth, go right, do your thing. Now what does the red horse do?
And there went out another horse that was red. And power was given
to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that
they should kill one another. And there was given unto him
a great killing instrument, a sword. The red horse is the war horse. You know, there was that book
and the film and the West End stage play, War Horse, and a
very good one it was too. But the picture here is that
this horse is red, and this is war between nations. This is
war. He had power to take peace from
the earth. The nations are trying to establish
peace. If only they'd all agree there'd
be such peace, but there isn't. Constantly there's war. There
will always be wars and rumors of wars. Nation versus nation. Rather than all uniting in utopian
world peace and blessing, a great sword goes forth. Why? Because
the Lamb, who is worthy, opens the seal and says, go, cause
war between the nations. Because if war does not occur,
the nations of this world will establish the supremacy of the
kingdom of Satan, with his false righteousness and his false peace.
And God's kingdom will not come, but God's kingdom must come.
So what does God do through the Lamb? To frustrate the purposes
of the kingdoms of this world, he sends the Red Horse forth
to create war. And then, let's look at the third
one. Verse five, when he'd opened the third seal, I heard the third
beast say, come and see. And I beheld, and lo, a black
horse. And he that sat on him had a
pair of balances. You know, balances speak of trade,
don't they? You know, you put weights on
one side and material, balances, trade. This is economics. And he says, verse six, a voice
in the midst of the four beasts says, a measure of wheat for
a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny. Now, what
does that mean? Well, let me tell you. Let me
tell you. You know, when I'm preparing
this, I look at all sorts of commentators, and some have got
some weird ideas, but some are very plausible. This is what
I think it means. A measure of wheat was what was
needed to sustain a man for a day, and a penny was the wages of
a man for a day. It's food, The picture is living
from hand to mouth. The picture is poverty. The picture
is scarcity. The picture is just enough for
the day. That every day the sun rises
and there's a day's work for a day's pay that buys just enough
to keep you going for another day. That is the picture of a
measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley
for a penny. But look, see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. Oil and wine speaks of riches.
Ah, they're not going to be touched. What is this saying to us? It
is saying to us that most are living from hand to mouth in
scarcity and poverty, while some wallow in overwhelming abundance. The earth is able to produce
food and resources enough for all. We are told, and I believe
it, even for seven billion people on this planet at the moment,
But economic strife is what we see as the black horse is ridden
forth. And when we see economic strife,
you know what that often leads to? War. The black horse stimulates
the coming of the red horse again. And then the next one, let's
look at the fourth seal. Verse seven, when he'd opened
the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say,
come and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale
horse. And the idea is a pale, gray,
sickly, green colored horse. and there's no questioning what
this one is about. His name that sat on him was Death, and Hell
followed with him, and power was given unto them over the
fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, and with hunger,
and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. The grey,
green, sickly death of a quarter of the earth. They tell us we're
all living longer, don't they, in the society in which we live?
Well, maybe in some places for a time. But every one of us knows
this, that death is at the end of life. Death continues to mow
down great swathes of humanity, and it always does. A white horse,
which is Christ, coming with the gospel, and then these three
other horses, the red horse of war, the black horse of economic
difficulty, and the pale horse of death. They come, and they
frustrate the purposes of Satan's kingdom. to establish a worldwide
kingdom of false peace and false righteousness, because God's
kingdom must overcome. And this is throughout creation's
history, from the fall. All four horses ride forth under
the Lamb's direction. and all with the objective of
bringing God's kingdom of righteousness and peace to final, complete
victory. And all four horses affect all
types of mankind, including God's elect in this world. The white
horse, obviously the white horse calls forth the elect of God
out of the kingdom of darkness of Satan into the marvelous light
of God. But it also affects many in Satan's
kingdom. Have you ever wondered why there's
so much false Christianity? Is it not the effect of the white
horse going forth on the kingdom of Satan? Yes, we even see some
good coming from it, don't we? We certainly see the restraint
of evil in some of the false religions of the world. We certainly
see good things charitably being done in the name of religion.
Even if they don't have the saving faith of God's elect, the white
horse affects even the reprobate part of creation, Satan's kingdom. And the red horse, and the black
horse, and the pale horse, they all go forth, and they all affect
both. It's not as if the believing
people of God are made immune from the effects of the red horse,
or the black horse, or the pale horse. We all, in times of war,
are affected by it. People who were believers in
the Second World War had their sons and daughters and mothers
and fathers killed by that war. They had their property taken
from them by that war. When economic hardship comes,
when the Great Depression came of the late 20s and early 30s,
Believers and unbelievers alike suffered the effects of it. You
read the accounts of people like John Warburton and William Huntington,
who were great faithful servants of God, and some of the times
as believers of extreme poverty that they went through. No, God's
people are not immune from these things. And the pale horse? Death. Which one of us can say that
we're not affected by it? The pale horse of death comes
and his scythe comes through a quarter of humanity, including
the elect of God. Why do they go forth and direct
the events of creation's history? Because this is what we've seen.
All these things, you know, some will tell you that God is trying
his best. You listen to the average Anglican
bishop and vicar, and they will tell you that God is sort of
sobbing away that there's war in the world. God is sending
forth the red horse. You know, let's end poverty. God is sending forth the black
horse. Death, oh, if there are only
one. God is sending forth the pale horse. God is sending these
forth. So if you're a child of God,
Don't be disturbed. It's all in the control of God. Why do they go forth to direct
the events of creation history? I'll tell you. This is in the
words of the best commentator I've come across so far. It's
to prevent the premature establishment of the imitation kingdom of Antichrist. The red, the black, and the pale
horses make world power too busy with itself to launch a final
attack on the children of God's kingdom. That's certainly what
they want to do, there's no doubt about that. Everything is pointing
to a kingdom of peace. You know, all this political
correctness, all of this stuff that we have to abide by, it's
all attempt attempts to establish the kingdom of Satan, the false
kingdom of Satan, the false peace, the false righteousness of the
kingdom of Satan, in opposition to the kingdom of God. But God's
kingdom will overcome, and God, in the person of the Lamb, who
is alone qualified, sends forth these red, black, and pale horses
to frustrate the purposes of the world in establishing that
kingdom, because The final triumph of God's kingdom is certain.
And what is God's kingdom? That kingdom of God's righteousness
and of God's peace. That kingdom where nothing that
defiles shall enter in. That kingdom of utter bliss,
not under the delusion of Satan, but in the truth and honesty
and righteousness and goodness of God, who has made us and sustains
us. And child of God, if you're a
believer, this is my conclusion, If you're a believer this morning,
this is his message to us. Take comfort. Be encouraged. Don't ever despair as you see
the events of world history unfold, because all things are under
God's control. The things that look like disasters
are there because he sends them forth to do his bidding, because
his kingdom must prevail over Satan's. Romans 8, 28. We quote
it glibly, but what I've just said is the fundamental underpinning
reason for it. Paul there says, we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to his purpose. Oh, a death in
the family, how can that be good? For God's people, all things
work together for good. How do we know? He's in control.
The Lamb of God is sending forth these horses, and we're all affected
by them, but for his people, they all work together for their
eternal good, to take them to that kingdom. For anyone listening
who is not a believer, if anyone listening is not a believer,
answer me this, Is this not, compared with all the philosophies
of life, is this not, I know I'm appealing to natural reason,
but I will do, because I can't appeal to anything else at the
moment. Is this not the most credible explanation of the way
things are and the way things always have been? You know, if
he's right about this, surely he's right about salvation. If
this sounds so plausible, surely you can believe him when he speaks
of salvation and eternal life. Why won't you believe him about
salvation and eternal life? It's like when they were all
going away from Jesus. And Jesus says to the twelve,
will you also go away? And Peter says, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life. The woman at the
well, the Samaritan woman at the well, a woman on her own
at the well met Jesus. And what did she go and tell
the men of the town? She said, come and see a man
that told me all things I ever did. If he can tell me that,
surely he's worth listening to. If he can tell you why things
are as they are in this created world, surely he's worth listening
to concerning salvation. Amen.