All right, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Revelation chapter 6. I've entitled this message, The Four
Horsemen of Our Experience. The Four Horsemen of Our Experience. When you see these four horsemen,
they are called the four horsemen of the apocalypse. But as you study this book of
Revelation, remember that the key to this book is in the first
chapter. John says this is a revelation
of Jesus Christ. There are future things in this
book. There are things that we have
not yet seen that are going to take place. But a majority of
these things that we read in this book have already taken
place. Many of these things are right
now taking place. And yes, some of these things
will shortly take place. But this is a gospel message. It is wrapped in symbolism. It is wrapped in prophetic form
and sayings. But friends, make no mistake,
this is the gospel. As we read about these four horsemen,
do you ever expect that there's really going to be a man on a
horse riding around with a crown and a bow in his hand? You think
there's ever going to be a red horse and a guy on it, and everywhere
he goes, death is going to come? No, these are symbolic languages. And these are not uncommon in
the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, in the book
of Ezekiel, I believe it is, these four horses are mentioned
in the book of Ezekiel. I won't take the time to go into
all that, because I want you to see Christ. That's my point
of this message, is you to see Christ and see how this is true
of every believer. Now, in chapter 5 of this book,
in chapter 5 of this book, we see the Lamb of God, the Lamb
of God. We see God sitting on his throne,
chapter 4 describes God and his magnificent sovereignty, his
holy dominion as Lord and God. And now you see in chapter 5
he is seated on his throne and he has this book in his hand.
And the angel cries, who's worthy to open this book? And you know,
then John, he's crying. This book is God's book of salvation,
how that a man might be saved, how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. Without that, we have no hope.
And so here comes the Lamb as it was slain. The Lamb of God,
appointed of God to be the surety of our covenant of grace, the
one anointed to be the apostle and high priest of our salvation,
who alone is fit to offer the sacrifice of himself to God for
our sins. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. So the man says, weep not, don't
cry. Behold, the lion of the tribe
of Judah hath prevailed to open the book. And he turns to look
and does he see a lion? No, he sees a lamb. A lamb as
it had been slain. Seven eyes and seven horns draw
the seven spirits of God. We know this. Jesus is not a
real lamb. Jesus doesn't have seven eyes
and seven horns. This is all prophetic language.
This is His omniscience. He sees all things. His horns
speak of His power. His power. Jesus alone hath prevailed to
not only take the book, look at that in verse 7, He came and
took the book out of the hand of God. You suppose there's anybody
else that could walk up to God and take anything? No, the Lord
Jesus, He took the book from him that sat on the throne. And in this book are the names
of all of the elect of God written from the foundation of the world.
This book reveals how God can be just and justify the ungodly. This book is all the providence
of God that must come to pass in order to save His people from
their sins. Why? Because God was not willing
that any of them should perish, but that all of them should come
to repentance. So in our text, he who was slain,
he who was found worthy to take the book and open it and loose
the seals of it because he had redeemed us to God by his blood,
he is now taking the book and he is going to open it. What
gave him the right to do this? Because he was slain. because
He satisfied the justice of God for the sins of His people. Go
to Hebrews chapter 9. Just as you imagine Him taking
that book, I want you to know this, Jesus Christ obtained by
His death and obedience our salvation. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 12.
He says, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His
own blood, He entered in once into the holy place having obtained,
He took it, He obtained it, what? Eternal redemption. By His own
blood He entered in and obtained redemption. For the blood of bulls and goats
and ashes of heifer sprinkling of the unclean sanctified the purifying of the
flesh, how much more if these old offerings, if they were sufficient
for the time? He says, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? That sacrifice, when those old
high priests made those sacrifices, that soothed the conscience of
those worshipers. How much more should our consciences
be soothed? Seeing Jesus Christ, the Eternal
Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, so that we might
serve Him. For this cause He is the mediator
of the New Testament, that by means of His death for the redemption
of the transgression that were under the First Testament, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. They which are called, you who
are believers, you were called. You were called by the Spirit
of God. Why? Because you were redeemed.
Everyone who is called has been redeemed. Redeemed by the death
of Jesus Christ. Those who are called, their transgression
was by our, our transgression was by our disobedience to the
first covenant, the law. But consider that Jesus, our
mediator, paid and satisfied the justice of God. Why? So that
we might be heirs of the eternal promise, the inheritance. Inheritance. And this calling is vitally important. You cannot, we know God has an
elect people, and we know this Jesus Christ has redeemed them. These are just facts. These are
true. But how shall we know that we are redeemed? We were chosen. How is that possible? It is through
the calling. The calling. The experience of
grace. The experience of grace given
to every elect sinner. Everyone who has been redeemed.
Every chosen son of God whose name is written in this book.
This book that Christ took. Every name that is written in
this book. of life before the foundation of the world. All
of them shall be sanctified by the Holy Spirit and believe the
truth, every one of them. This is the experience. 2 Thessalonians 2, the apostle
says, We'll mess it up, 2 Thessalonians
2 and verse 13, we are bound to give thanks always to God
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord. Who are they? Because God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. Here's the means, through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you,
called you by our gospel. So then we see the obtaining
of all that Christ took, all that He did to be able to take
that book and loose the seals of it. Every one of them will experience
the calling of God by grace. This revelation of the gospel
is here in this text pictured by the opening of the seals. Everyone who is going to be called
you're going to understand the word of God. Everyone who is
called, this book is going to be revealed. Now look at this
in verse one of our text. He said, I saw the lamb open
one of the seals, and I heard as it were a noise of thunder,
and one of the four beasts saying, come and see. Remember, only
the Lamb was able to open the book and loose the seals. That
was the whole premise, right? The angel stands there and says,
Who is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof?
And nobody was able to. Nobody. This book was perfectly
sealed. Perfectly sealed. This book is the whole purpose
of God in eternity and time to save His people, whose names
are written therein. And only the Lamb is able to
reveal the gospel, to reveal the things that God had prepared
for us. Only He can open this book and
reveal it to you. Go to 1 Corinthians. Look at
this, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul,
he says, I determine this, not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ, him crucified. That's what I'm going to preach
to you. I'm going to keep preaching that to you. But he says this
in verse 7, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the
hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. He said, which none of the princes
of the world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. As it is written, I hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither entered into the heart of man the things
that God prepared for them that love him. Well, how do you know
it? I know it. How do you know those
things that were in eternity? We weren't there. How do you
know? But God hath revealed them unto
us. by His Spirit. Friends, the Scriptures are perfectly
sealed and no man can open them. Listen, not all the intellect,
not all the power of man, not all the will of man since the
beginning of time. If you were able to combine all
of the intellect and wisdom of man in one place, all of his
power, all of his dominion, all of his strength. If you had everybody in the world
willing to understand this, he can't. This book is sealed and unless
God reveal it, you'll never know it. This is because man by nature
really never seeks after God. Do you realize no one by nature
is seeking after God? This is against religion. Religion
tells you everybody's seeking God. God says nobody's seeking
me. Romans 3 and verse 10 through
12 tells us that there is none that seeketh after God. Listen,
there's none that understandeth. This book is an enigma to them. They don't understand it. Why? Look at verse 14. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him. That's the first obvious thing.
Why are people coming to listen to this? Why? You invite them, don't you? Come
here, come and listen to this. I'm not gonna listen to that. That's foolishness. Okay. Neither can he know them. Now,
to him, it's just foolishness, but in reality, he can't know
it. Why? He is spiritually discerned.
He is spiritually judged. He is spiritually condemned.
Therefore, if salvation is to come to man, Christ must open
the seal of it. He must loose the seal of it. And what's the first thing that
happens? What is it when he looses that
seal for you? What did you see? I saw Christ. That's what the seal is. This
is that's the key to this book. That's what the key that men
don't understand. This book is about Christ. All of it from
cover to cover. It's about Christ. Notice the means by which this
book is then conveyed by which this seal is open. Go back to
your text. Look at this. The lamb, he opened one of the
seals, I heard some thunder, and one of the voice of the four
beasts said, come and see. Now John, first thing that happened,
he heard a noise. When he loosed that seal, the
first thing he heard was thunder. When I hear about thunder in
scripture, all I think about is judgment. When you read about
thunder, it's not a joyful time, It's not a happy time. I think
of Sinai. Immediately, my mind turns to
Mount Sinai, where there was thunderings and lightnings. For it was there that God thundered
and manifested His hatred towards sin. Before Christ will ever
appear before the sinner in salvation, He first must reveal the nature
of the sinner. Immediately when He opens that
seal, what do we hear? Thunder. We hear thunder. The true nature of the sinner
is spiritually dead. The true nature of every sinner
is spiritual death. Now religion, religion exposes
only carnal deficiencies. That's the purpose of false religion,
to expose carnal deficiencies. They look at the outward works
of a man and they try to fix it with carnal means. So their remedy for carnal deficiencies
is what? Carnal. It's physical. It's fleshly. Stop doing that. You doing that? Stop it. Remedy. That's a remedy. But the problem
is man doesn't have a carnal just a carnal deficiency. He
has a spiritual deficiency. And what he needs is a spiritual
remedy. See, outward sin is only the
evidence of an inward problem. You see, our nation is flooded
now. I mean, it's just flooded with
sodomites, freaks and weirdos and what is this? What really? It's not just mental problems.
Friends, it is a heart problem. What is going on outwardly is
just a manifestation of what's inward. Jesus said, make the
tree good and the fruit will be good. Otherwise, if the tree's
bad, what's going to happen to the fruit? It's bad. So man has a spiritual problem. When Adam sinned against God,
he did not just physically die, not immediately anyway, nor did he lose his carnal mind.
Adam still had a mind. He didn't lose his will, he still
had a will. But we see he was of a mind to
see his carnal nakedness, and what did he do? He found a carnal
covering. When God came, that carnal covering
was not yet sufficient. What did he do? He ran and hid
among the trees. Did he do this unwillingly? No,
he had a will. His will was what? To run from
God. His will was to cover his nakedness. Why did Adam not have a mind
to sue God for mercy? Why was he not willing to confess
his sins and give up his covering? Why was he willing to run from
God instead of bowing before God, even for the same reason
that all of his race does the same thing, because we are spiritually
dead? See, no one's gonna have life
unless they first know they're dead. Therefore we willingly go about
to cover our sin with works and religion. Man by nature is not
willing to confess his sin or plead to God for mercy. Men like conditional mercy. There's
no such thing, is there? Conditional mercy is merit, isn't
it? If mercy is conditional on something, it's not mercy, it's
merit. And we do this by nature when
faced with the truth that all we are and all we do is evil,
that by no means or merit can we earn God's favor. We, like
Adam, we like the confusion of religion. This is consider this. Adam had some leaves, right?
But when God spoke, though, his leaves was not enough. So he
ran into the forest with a whole bunch of leaves. Confusion. That's what religion is. It's
just a bunch of leaves. So we run into religion, but
we find this religion is not sufficient to fix the spiritual
Conditioned. And unless God comes to you and
opens the seal of his book, except you be taught of God, as Adam
and Eve would, you will continue in this ignorance. Except he
open the seal and reveal your sin. But praise God, because he has
willed that some men should be saved. He has willed that all,
that not all men should die in this condition of rebellion,
but has in free grace purpose to save some. He has planned
it and by a means, the means by which he can be both just
and justify the ungodly. This is something that no religion
could ever figure out. I find it amazing, and I don't
care if you're talking about Greek mythology or you're talking
about modern Baptists or Roman Catholics, they all have this
in common, works. They're all trying to earn their
God's favor. But only the gospel can reveal
how God can truly be just and justify the ungodly. And though it is plainly revealed
to us in his word, no man can receive it except Christ reveal
it. Now what he said in John 46,
44, no man can come unto me except the Father which has sent me
and draw him. As it is written, they shall
all be taught of who? God. They shall all be taught
of God. His chosen means of this revelation
is through the preaching of the gospel. Notice who it is that
says this. Come and see. These four beasts. These four beasts. Now you can
look at this later. I'm not going to go into detail
about this. But these four beasts are representations of preachers.
These are the ones in chapter 4 that stand before His throne
crying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, which
is, and which is to come. They do this day and night. And you know what happens when
these beasts cry out? Four and twenty elders or twenty-four
elders which represent the whole church, they bow down before
God and cast their crowns before Him. What? At the preaching of
their words. At the declaration of their word
concerning His holiness and His omnipotence and His person, they
bow. And so these beasts, these are
preachers of the gospel. These are all those who preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified only and always. One preacher
said this, and I don't even know who it was. It's just good. I
liked it. Any sermon that is without Christ
is a sin in its conception, an abomination in its execution. And any man who calls himself
a preacher but does not devote himself wholly to preaching only
Christ, all of Christ, and nothing but Christ is an imposter. The whole Word of God is centered
around Christ, and His preachers preach Him. We preach Christ. Tonight, that's exactly what
I'm going to do. I'm going to point you to Christ. I'm going
to point you to the One. that can save you, the only God-man
mediator, the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace
and truth. I preach to those who are bankrupt,
to those who have no hope, those who have no standing before God. I preach to those who are destitute
of any merit, to captives. To those who are exposed by the
thunder of God's law, I preach to you who are bound
a message of freedom, a message of deliverance, not by your efforts
and not by your works, but by a mighty conqueror, a mighty
conqueror. You who are made to see there
is no hope of understanding this book, except God reveal it. I'm here to preach to you. This
is always my prayer that Christ would open this seal and reveal
himself. Now look at this. The first thing
when this thunder comes and you see the conviction, but now he
says, come and see, behold, there's hope. And what does he see? And he said, I saw and behold,
a white horse and him that sat on him had a bow and a crown
was given to him. And he went forth conquering
and to conquer. We can clearly see by just a
few scripture references that this is Christ. This is Christ. In Revelation chapter 19, look
at this. You see this again in Revelation
chapter 19, in verse 11. He said, I saw heaven open and
behold a white horse. And he that sat on him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His
eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
And he had his name written that no man knew but himself, and
he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name
is called the Word of God." And notice this, in his armies, which
were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine
linen, clean and white, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword. And with it he should smite the
nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. He treadeth
the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of the Almighty
God. And he hath on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords."
Can you not see that's Christ? That's clearly Christ. We see
him. In multiple scriptures concerning
his eyes and John actually in the very first chapter This is
exactly how I described him with his eyes a flame of fire and
a sword coming out of his mouth You know, that's Christ But I
want you to see that there's some slight differences here
in Revelation 19 we see Christ as coming in judgment We see
him coming to take vengeance on his enemies and This is the
final advent of the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes back into
this world. His people then are going to follow Him and they're
going to be riding the same horse. They're going to have the same
robes. So you see the difference here.
In our text, Christ is coming not to destroy but rather to
conquer sin and death and hell. That's the first thing He came
to conquer. In our text, Christ is coming
first in His humanity, in His humility to conquer Satan and
our sins, to blot out the handwriting of ordinances that was against
us, nailing it to His cross. Behold, He has conquered. I want
you to know that. Matter of fact, that's exactly
what he's telling you in chapter 5, is that, look, this one, he
has already conquered. He has already conquered sin,
satisfying the justice of God, removing the curse. Therefore,
he can confidently say this, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Shall come to me. by conquest. He who has conquered, who has
obtained our salvation, now he is revealed as riding forth to
conquer his people. To conquer his people. And see
that he rides on a white horse. This shows his perfect deity
and righteousness. Now a white horse is very significant
in the fact that only kings and conquerors rode white horses. Only kings, emperors, and conquerors. Matter of fact, when a man was
a champion of Rome, they would send him on a white horse and
he would parade through the streets as the victor. This is the idea
here. See how then Christ majestically
and swiftly had come into the world. See how brightly he shined
among man, being the spotless Son of God. And in his righteous
purity, he obtained for us eternal righteousness, even the righteousness
of God. And see that he was given a crown.
Look at that. He says, behold, a white horse
and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given to him. Listen, Christ was ordained of
God from eternity to be king. But you understand when He actually
accomplished our salvation, God raised Him from the dead and
crowned Him. God crowned Him to be King. He
won this crown by His conquest. He won this crown. He had conquered the grave. He
had subdued death and hell. He had satisfied the justice
of God. won a great victory and had received
the keys of death and hell. And by his own hand, he had taken
the book. Remember what he said in that
high priestly prayer? He said, Father, glorify me with the glory
I had with thee before the world was. He says, Thou has given
them a power over all flesh. Don't you see that Jesus Christ
is ruling over all things right now? And this should comfort
you and settle you. There's a lot of evil things
going on right now. There's a lot of a lot of things
that cause anxiety and fear. But who's ruling here? Do you
suppose these secret councils of men and high powered people,
you think they're ruling anything? They think they are. They're
just a bunch of Useful idiots. That's all they are. To Christ
they're just useful idiots. They're ignorant. They don't
know what they're doing. They think they do. They don't. He
is ruling and overruling all things for this purpose. All
power is given unto him in heaven and earth that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. When you're not
sure about what's going on, that's what's going on. That's what's
going on. And so we see Christ has ridden,
conquered. He's ridden prosperously. Now,
now as the horse of the Lord, even the Holy Spirit now rides
forth into the world by the gospel. For what? To conquer. To conquer
rebels. Isn't that who we are? Rebels? So when he comes forth conquering
presently, right now, he is conquering, and listen, and to conquer. He's
conquering right now. And listen, if he's not conquered
all of his people yet, he's going to conquer them. He's going to. I like that, the wind bloweth
where it listeth. You can hear the sound thereof, but you can't
tell where it's going and where it's coming. I thought of this,
you know, how do weathermen know where the wind's going? Only by the effects, right? They
don't know where it comes from. They can't tell where it originated.
They don't know. They can only tell anything by
the effect of it. They're just being observant.
That's all they are. They're observing patterns and
stuff, and then they try to put it in a formula. Really, they
don't know. They don't know. Let me ask you this. Who's going
to stop the wind? Does not the wind conquer everything
it blows over? You guys went through a tornado,
right? How long ago was that? That was
a long time ago. Man, I saw the path of that thing, and nothing
stood in its way. Even so it is with the spirit.
We fret. Man, don't seem like there's
many. I don't know how much longer.
We have very few. The church is always 100% full.
You understand that? It's always full. It's never
empty. It's never missing one. Why? Wherever he goes, he conquers. Wherever he goes, he conquers. And see, our Lord is no passive
participant in our salvation, but is actively riding presently
riding into the very gates of hell and darkness and man's depravity,
conquering the hearts and minds and souls of men." Isn't that
what he told us? He said, upon this rock I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. Now what are gates for? Do gates
attack? I thought about this and it just
didn't seem right. It's kind of like, he might have
should have said, well, the gates of heaven will prevent them.
That's not what he said. He said, the gates of hell shall
not prevent. What? His going in and getting
his people and bringing them out. They will not prevail. They won't keep their hostages.
Why? He is riding to conquer the hearts
and minds of men. Go to Psalm 45. See if this doesn't
match what we see in our text. Christ, the victorious rider
going forth to conquer. Look at this in Psalm 45. You
know this very well. God here says, I'm indicting
a good matter. What? I'm going to talk about
the king. I want to talk about my son. You know, God is always
ready to talk about his son. He said, my tongue is the pen
of a ready writer. This is what I'm gonna talk about.
He's fairer than the children of men. That's who he is. He
is fairer than all of us. Why, he is holy and pure and
without sin. Grace is poured into his lips.
In other words, he's gonna preach a message of grace, a message
of mercy. Therefore, God hath blessed him
forever. God hath blessed him forever. I think I'm in the wrong place.
Let me get my notes right. Just a second. There it is. Okay. And so the Lord here is
fairer than all the men. Grace is poured into his lips.
Why? Because he's accomplished salvation. He is blessed forever. In verses 3 through 6, look at
this. He says, gird thy sword upon
thy thigh, O most mighty. With thy glory and with thy majesty,
and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, meekness, and
righteousness in thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Christ here is seen riding majestically. Now where's his sword? Is it in his hand? It's on his
thigh. Why? He's already won. He's already
won. He don't need to pull it out.
When you see that man riding in Rome on that white horse,
his sword ain't in his hand, it's on his thigh. Why? Because
he's won the victory. I don't need to pull it out.
Christ has already won the victory. His sword is on his thigh. He's
the most mighty. And that sword we know is the
gospel. The sword of the Spirit. He has won the battle, justice
is satisfied for all His people, and Christ is a crowned rider. He is a victorious rider. You
know what's the difference between the Christ that we're preaching
and the Christ of modern religion? Success. Success. We know that Christ did save
His people from their sins. He was victorious. He was victorious
But now he rides forth and he says, ride prosperously, ride
successfully in truth. Who's the truth? Did not Jesus
say, I am the truth? This is the truth. Listen, no
man comes to God but by me. That's the truth, isn't it? Of
course it is. He's the truth. And he says he
rides in meekness. Consider his meekness, how meek
and lowly in heart he is. that he condescended. You know,
talk about Christmas and how little baby Jesus in a manger
and poor helpless baby Jesus, he was out in the snow. Friends, they have no idea the
humiliation of the Lord Jesus Christ to come in this world. They don't know how meek he was,
how he condescended to become one of us. Righteousness, he rides in righteousness,
in that he obeyed the law of God and suffered in our stead. He provided for us what we could
not provide for ourselves. And notice this, since he's conquered,
look at this, he also has a bow. Isn't that a coincidence? Verse
5, Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies.
So this one who is conquered, he has a bow. just like the one
in our text. And this bow is very active.
His sword is put away, but his arrows still fly in this. He
is going to strike the arrow of his gospel deep in the hearts
of his people. Now the text of the Lord is pictured
with the bow, and here is his purpose. that he should first
kill, and then what? Make alive. Isn't that what he
did? Paul said, I thought I was alive
once, but then when sin came, when
sin revived, what? I died. He realized he was dead. Isn't this the first strike of
the arrow in our hearts to realize that we are dead? When that arrow
sinks into our hearts, we confess this, in my flesh dwelleth no
good thing. In my flesh there is no power
to believe or perform the works of God. We confess that we are
enemies of Christ and what? We fall under Him. We fall under
His conquest. All who are struck by His holiness
fall under his feet, but notice this, he always gives, raises
his son. He always does. You know, I thought
of everybody that saw the pre-incarnate Christ. You know, Daniel. Daniel,
he was out there praying. He turned and looked and saw
him and he said, I fell as dead. I was dead. That's a picture of when we see
him. We fall as dead at his feet. And what does he do? Same thing
he did. Oh, Daniel, beloved. And he raised him up on his hands
and knees. Yeah, that's what he does for
Mephibosheth. When God brings us to the feet
of the king, what do we do? We fall and say, what is it?
I am a dead dog. I'm a dead dog. And when he speaks to our hearts,
we rise. Not in our own power, but by
faith. And we cry in verse six, look
at this. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter
of thy kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hated wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh
and aloes and cassia out of ivory palaces, whereby they have made
thee glad. You see, we confess that his
righteousness, his offering, is a sweet smell. Isn't it to
you? Isn't his offering? We say, God! We cry, God, thy throne, O God,
is forever. We confess he's God. But his scepter's right, and
he loved righteousness. He hated wickedness. Therefore,
God has anointed him. given Him a name that is above
every name. And notice this, after this, notice what those
who fall under Him, those who believe, look at this, we're
called the king's daughters now. We're called the queen dressed
in gold of Ophir. Pure gold. Why? Because Christ has conquered
us. Christ has conquered us. Christ has robed us in His righteousness.
has washed our sins in his own blood. And now then, what are
we? We desire him. And listen, he
desires us. Look at that in verse 11. So
the king greatly desired thy beauty. See what he's done for
us. We who are by nature enemies,
struck by the grace of God, by this majestic rider, are now
sons of God. Have you been conquered by Him?
Have you seen Him as He is, the victorious Savior? Well, notice quickly now, I'm
going to go this real fast, these last few, go back to your text,
go back to your text. I want to see these next two
seals. I'm just going to put them together.
The red horse and the black horse, both of them picture the suffering
and affliction of the saints. Both of them are intended to
show forth that those who Christ has conquered, what follows after
is trials and afflictions and suffering. Look at that in this
text. He says, He opened the second
seal, and I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And
it went. And another horse that was red, and power was given
to him, sat on it to take peace from the earth. Isn't that what
Christ said? I came not to bring peace, but what? A sword. Now
listen, when a person comes to Christ, If you expect everything
to be hunky-dory, if you expect everything to be good and all
things well, well, God loves me, so obviously I'm not going
to have any problems. That's not what this is saying.
Immediately after Christ comes and has revealed himself, what
comes next? War. The red horse is a picture of
war. Look at that. He said, come not to bring peace,
to take away peace from the earth. and that they should kill one
another, and there was given to him a great sword. What happens immediately after
the believer comes to Christ? War. War within. Immediately when
God creates a new man in us, we fight. There's a struggle. There's a struggle. Isn't this true of every believer
in Christ, that the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary one to another,
so you cannot do what you will? This is what Paul revealed in
Romans 7, that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for the will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Is that not true of you? O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? It is a warfare,
a constant struggle within the believer's heart. And not only
warfare within, warfare without. This world is not our friend. If you want to know what their
true heart is, it's to do away with this book. It is to do away
with the gospel. It is to do away with Christ.
You want to see the real heart of man. You have to look at the
cross. You want to see how men really feel about God. Look at
what they did to his son. That's exactly how they feel
about you. They won't say it. But I'll tell you this, you preach
this word to them and they will despise you for it. Why? We're at war. And what are our
weapons? Our weapons are not carnal, are
they? They're spiritual. They're spiritual. And that second horse here, he
says he saw another horse in verse 5, and he opened the third
seal, and the beast said, ìCome and see, and a beheld and low
black horse, and he that sat on him had a pair of balances
in his hand, and I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
say, ìA measure of wheat for a penny, and a measure and three
measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil
or the wine." I want you to see this. This was wonderful. It's not famine. It's not talking
about famine. A penny's a day's wage. He said
a day's wage for a day's bread. In other words, everything you
need for the day is provided for. Is that comfortable? No. No. It is a trial, isn't it? You believe today. How is it
that you have a measure of faith today? I mean, sometimes our
faith is a little more than others. Sometimes a little less. But
why do you have faith today? because he made provisions for
today. Is that comfortable? No. But
this is always the way with us. We will have exactly what we
need and no more. But do you know what is plentiful?
Oil and wine. He said, touch not the oil or
the wine. The oil is a picture of the spirit
of God. Will you ever be without the
Spirit of God? Nope, they can't touch that.
What about the blood of Christ to cleanse you from your sin?
Nope, can't touch that. You have plenty of that. You
have more of that than you could possibly ever imagine you have. But how do you feel? I feel like
I'm just getting by. That's a trial, isn't it? And
a trial of faith for the believer. This is our experience. That
last horse is the pale horse of death. Now, it says this,
that this horse was given power over a fourth part of the earth
to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death, and with
the beast of the earth. I want you to know this, that
all of these are given their power. Who gives them their power? Who gives the red horse their
power? Who gives the black horse its
power? Who gives the rider of death its power? The same one
who conquered us. The Lord Jesus Christ controls
all of our trials and troubles. All of our difficulties. It is
given to them and they can only do what he gives them. Yes, one day we will die. Except Christ come back, we will
die. This horse of death will come for us. But one thing that
differs is this. You see in the very next seal,
where are those who had died? They're before the throne. They're
before the throne saying, Lord, when is this going to be done?
When's this gonna be, Lord, I'm not, they weren't crying for
their own vengeance. They were crying for the glory
of God. When are you gonna glorify yourself? He said, not yet until
all of them are brought up here. Not till all of them are brought
in. So when a believer dies, you see in that next seal where
they're at. They're before the throne of God. And to them is
given white robes and they should rest until he comes. I hope and pray that God show
you how mighty he is, how successful he is, that he who has conquered
is now conquering. The arrows of his bow never miss. They always hit the mark. He
saves his people. And when he does, trials and
afflictions follow. But our hope is this. When death
comes for us, we shall be ushered into the presence of God to wait
for the consummation, to wait for the others who have not yet
come. You know anybody that's gone
before you? I know, I was thinking of my dad today. My dad's gone
before me. He's waiting. He's waiting for
what? For us. For us. He's safe. If you've been conquered
by Christ, I want you to know how safe you are. What's that
song we sing? More happy, but not more secure,
the glorified spirits in heaven. They're more happy than we are. But they're not more secure. I pray that Christ magnify himself
before you.