Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6. I know
this past Wednesday that I preached from this very text. I'm going
to preach from today. And I felt at liberty to, we
had a visitor and I had felt at liberty that I needed to explain
things that were not necessarily in my notes and to make sure
that the references were seen and heard by him and I believe
the Lord blessed it. But again, I want to reiterate
this because I don't think I got to get to some of the latter
points and I skimmed them and I really think that you need
these things. I really do. I think these things
were meant for the comfort of the church during the Apostle
John's time and they are meant for our comfort and it's good
that we be reminded and strengthened in these things. rooted and built
up in the things of God. And these things are meant for
your comfort. And so that's why I decided to
go ahead and not re-preach the same message, but I re-studied
it and re-went and did a completely different message. But the substance
is the same. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Four Horsemen of Our Experience. The Four Horsemen
of Our Experience. And in chapter 6, in verse 1,
we see the Lord Jesus Christ opening one of the seven seals. He says, And I saw the Lamb open
one of the seals. And I heard, as it were, a noise
of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw,
and behold, a white horse. And he that sat on him had a
bull, and the crown was given unto him. And he went forth conquering,
and to conquer." Now, everything in the book of Revelation has
led up to this point. everything that the Lord had
revealed to the Apostle John was leading up as you would have
in music. You have this building of the
symphony and then you have the crescendo of it. And this is
the moment, this is the pinnacle, the time that everything before
was leading up to this point of revelation. It was the opening
of this book is the center of all that has happened, all that
happened in the past and eternity, all that has happened in the
Old Testament, all that has happened even to Christ our Savior has
led up to this point. And consider this, everything
concerning your own salvation, Everything in history had moved
unto that point where God called you. That was the crescendo for
you, wasn't it? When He called you. All of these things were done,
but you knew nothing of this until He called you. And that's
what He is here. So my purpose here is to show
you that this is our salvation. So everything from the beginning
of the book has led up to this point. In chapter 1, we have
the purpose of the book, the revelation of Jesus Christ. We
see in chapter 2 and 3, for the benefit, the comfort of God's
saints, we see Jesus walking among the churches. I'm telling
you, He is walking among us today. This is the comfort that John
gives us, is that He is here in our midst walking. And the
reason I'm able to preach is I'm one of the stars in His hand.
I am upheld by His omnipotent power to deliver His Word to
you. There's no other reason for me
to do this. There's no other way that I could do this, except
He uphold me to do it. And you who come, this is what
He does. He walks in and He touches you
in that particular time of your need. By the same message, He'll
touch you at a different time and you for another point. And
it all works for our comfort. And in chapters 4 and 5, we see
the purpose of God in saving His elect. It is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because we are sinful by nature
and cannot merit the holiness of God or earn His favor. God's
purpose is salvation. God's purpose is to save. His
elect people. And this salvation is pictured
in that book. If you look at chapter 5 and
verse 1, He said, I saw on the right hand of him that sat on
the throne a book written within, on the backside sealed with seven
seals. This is the salvation of God
is in that book. The elect are named in that book. The purpose and providences of
God that He has purposed from eternity that should take place
to call His people are written in that book. But that book is
sealed. That book cannot be known except
there were one worthy to open the book. You remember John wept
because of this. He wept. And he said, Who is
worthy to open the book? I want to know. Can a man be
just with God? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? I won't ever know except that
book be opened. And John saw that there was one
worthy. One worthy. It is the Lamb of God, Jesus
Christ. And He was only worthy because
He was slain. He was slain. He's the only appointed, acceptable
offering for sin is the blessed Son of God. There is no other
offering for sin. How many offerings do men make
a day? Is this your offering, this coming here? That's no offering
at all, is it? If you were to offer your life,
God would condemn you to hell if that's your offering. But
see, Christ is the only acceptable offering. And He was so acceptable
that He took the book. I like that word. He took it
because He earned it, because He merited, because He was worthy
of it. He took the book of salvation. He was worthy to open it. And
what was the whole purpose of this? That God poured out His
wrath on His own Son. That God in justice took the
sins of all those in that book, imputed them to His Son, and
without mercy, killed His Son. What was all this for? Our Lord
Jesus Christ tells us, He said, Father, glorify me with the glory
I had with You from the beginning. I have finished the work You've
given me to do. And this is what He's done this for, that I may
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given me. Now, you suppose that He won't
give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him? Will
He withhold in any way eternal life? No, that's His purpose,
that's why He came. And behold, the certainty of
this, the certainty of salvation, that Jesus will give eternal
life to all that the Father gave Him. So then Jesus' words ring
true, all that the Father has given me shall come to me. You see how this is building
up, how this is building up, how there was no hope. Now then
there's, look, there's a book of hope, but nobody can open
it. Oh, now Jesus Christ has come and he is worthy to open
the book and loose the seals. And he's promised to do so. And
all that the father gave him shall come to him. And now then
we come to this point in our text where he opens the seal. He opens the seals. And friends, this is the picture
of experience. This is the experience of grace
that happens to every believer in Christ. As the book in Christ's right hand is God's
eternal salvation which He purposed before the world began. The book
which Christ purchased by His blood is now opening the seals. So when Christ opens the first
seal, what does John see? He says, And I saw and beheld
a white horse, and him that sat on him had a bull, and a crown
was given to him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. When a sinner is made to see
his sin by the Holy Spirit, when a man is made to know his own
depravity, only then can we see our need of an absolute Savior. We then see we need someone outside
of ourselves to save us. we find that there is nothing
in ourselves capable or willing or able to merit the favor of
God. It's only then we begin to look
outside of ourselves. We need someone to do all our
salvation for us. We need someone strong enough,
worthy enough, capable enough to do all that God requires of
us. Because we can do nothing for
ourselves. We can do nothing but offend
and defile the sacrifice of God. You remember in Exodus chapter
20 when God said, when you make me an altar of earth, stone,
See that you put not your hand to it. Don't put a tool to it. Don't take a chisel. Don't try
to carve it out. Don't try to make it beautiful.
Don't put your own work to it. Why? In the day you do it, you
pollute it. You remember that scripture that
says, the plowing of the wicked is sin. Nothing wrong with plowing,
is it? Plowing's good. If you need food,
that's good. We'd have to grow food. That's
good. But the problem is the sinner.
Everything he does, he does it for himself or for his own glory,
and he does it for his own pleasure. He does it not for the glory
and praise of God. So then all we do is sin. And
I want you to know this, that knowing your depravity is not
grace. If that's all you know is your
depravity, then you've not experienced the grace of God. How many of
our kin recognize their sin? As a matter of fact, one of your
children came to me and said, well, I've been drinking. Like
they're confessing to me. What are you confessing to me
for? I'm no Savior. But they know
it. They confess it. They know their
depravity. They confess. Yet they continue
to lick the vomit, don't they? They continue, yeah, I'm a sinner.
Just go right back to their vomit. Nothing. So knowing your depravity
is not grace. Such knowledge for the wicked
is only condemnation. Without power to flee to Christ,
it is the most miserable existence in the world is to know your
depravity and yet find no relief for it. Nor want any relief for
it. But true saving grace, you listen,
there's a two-fold thing here. When the seal comes, when you
understand your depravity, if it is of the Holy Spirit, you
will always flee to Christ. If it is a work of grace, you
will always come by faith to Christ. Saving experience of
grace is this, the revelation of Christ which is pictured to
us by this white horse. This is clearly Christ and you
can go several places to see it. Revelation 19, the Lord is
pictured again in that passage as riding a white horse. whose name is faithful and true,
whose name is the Word of God, who is King of kings and Lord
of lords. It is the same vision here as
it is there, although it is for different reasons. This revelation
of Christ coming on the white horse is not one like that of
chapter 19. Chapter 19 speaks of Him coming
on the white horse in judgment. Here, He is on the white horse
coming in mercy. In mercy. It is used by the Holy Spirit
to show us that Christ comes to conquer His people. When the revelation of sin and
we are exposed to our sin, it is then that Christ comes and
conquers us. He convinces us of sin. What is the greatest sin? Unbelief. It's the root and mother
of all sin. He convinces us of sin because
we believe not on the Son of God. He convinces us of righteousness,
that we have none and Christ has all righteousness. He convinces
us of judgment, that judgment is coming and yet now judgment
is passed. For who? All who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, judgment is passed. There is therefore now. Now, no condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus. And God by the bow. He's pictured
here riding on a white horse. And He's pictured with a bow
in His hand. That is the gospel. It's a picture
of the gospel. Christ comes riding on the Spirit
of God. which is the white horse, with
the gospel in his hand. And what does he do? He strikes
his mark. Oh, Christ is an excellent marksman. Christ is an excellent marksman. You know that every preacher
as before was pictured as a star in the right hand of Christ.
And now, as I preach the gospel to you this morning, I am pictured
as a bow. I'm a bow. But I'll tell you
what, the bow in my hand is meaningless. I never hit the target. In all
my years of preaching, I have never hit the target. Somebody
does something and I want to correct it. I want to fix it. And you know what? I never hit
the mark, ever. I usually miss and hit some poor
innocent soul over here who needs no conviction over that. All
the time I miss. But in His hand, the mark is
hit every time exactly where He desires it to be hit. He is
an excellent marksman with the gospel. And so then, I have this
confidence because He's the marksman. Every time I preach, it hits
the mark. I hit no mark. He hits it every
time. He never misses the mark. Paul
says of preaching, he says, it is always, he says, I thank God
which always, always causes us to triumph in Christ. and maketh manifest the savour
of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet-smelling savour." Now,
do you get that? We are not unto men a sweet-smelling
savour. We are unto God a sweet-smelling
savour. in them that are saved and in
them that perish." You get that? It doesn't matter where this
gospel goes and what it does, it always does what God wants
it to. Whether in saving you or hardening
you, that's what He purposes to do today. Whatever it is that's
done, that's what He purposed to do. If you are lost and God
will not hit the mark, you will go away more hardened today than
you did when you came in. If you are His, He will hit the
mark and He will cause your heart to bleed. He will strike the
heart. And He will cause His sheep,
and Psalm 40, cause His people to fall under His feet. You see, He's a conqueror. He's
a conqueror. He sent forth Conquering and
to conquer. He has conquered and He will
conquer. This is what the revelation is.
This is the experience of grace in every believer's heart. When
He conquers you, you know it. Now I have to guess. Am I conquered? I don't know. Am I conquered? I don't know. Are you? Is Christ all? If Christ is all,
you're conquered. If He's King, you're conquered.
If you've fallen under His feet, you've been conquered. This is
your experience of grace. The seal has been opened. Christ
has been revealed. He has come with a crown on His
head and a bow in His hand, and He has hit the mark of your heart,
and you believe on Christ. And you cast the world aside. That's what it is to be conquered. Christ is always victorious. Today, none of you will ever
be the same. You get this? Every time this message is preached,
none of you will be the same. He always hits his mark. Believers
will draw closer and the infidel, the unbeliever, he will be only
hardened by our message. Christ is our conqueror. He has
an elect people and He will conquer them. His elect will be in this
life pierced for their sins, fall under His feet and believe
on His precious blood alone. Have you been conquered? Have
you repented and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Because
that's what that seal is. Is that seal clear? That's your
experience. That's all He's trying to teach
you. Is what you've already experienced, that verse of Scripture is yours. Now then, After you have been conquered
by the Lord Jesus Christ, after you have believed on His blood,
do you suppose then that everything should be smooth? Do you suppose? Because I did.
I suppose that the world would have fallen under my feet. I
suppose that sin would have just fallen away, never to be heard
of. Oh yes, Christ is all. Christ
is all. He's my King, my Lord. Everything
should move. The waters should part. The clouds
be rolled back. Every day should be sunshine
and roses. That's not what the Word of God
teaches. You should not expect that if
you've been conquered by Christ. Matter of fact, these next seals
that are to be opened are to reveal the experience of the
believer's life after he's been conquered, after he's been saved. And the first one is this. Look
at verses 3 and 4. And when he had opened the second
seal, I heard a second beast say, Come and see. 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 sword." A great sword. The red horse here is one of
war. War. It is meant to testify of this,
that after you have been conquered by Christ, after you have become
a servant of Christ, a war will break out. You will experience warfare immediately
following the first revelation. The impartation of the new nature
creates warfare. It is completely ignorant for
us to assume that by our logic that we should be in Christ,
that all should be well. And those who preach such health,
wealth, and prosperity, the false gospel of this religious age. You know, if you trace the root
of their gospel, it's always free will works religion. Cheryl was talking to me about
some of her friends and their religion, their horrible, these
little practices that they do. I said, don't worry about the
little practices. Don't worry about the little things. Trace
it to the root. What is their root gospel? Is
it grace or is it works? I'll tell you what it is. It's
works. Health, wealth and prosperity is all about works. But our Lord
has made it abundantly clear. that in this world you shall
have. Not you might have, not you may
perhaps have, in this world you shall have tribulation. Experience of everyone in Holy
Scripture has been this way. Everyone in Holy Scripture. And
the first Then, of these experiences being the red horse, I want you
to see that this war takes place not on a battlefield far away,
not in some distant land, but in your own heart is where this
battle rages. Where the battle is hottest is
in your own heart. As you sit in this congregation
today hearing this message, do you not have to rage against
your flesh to contend? to stay, to maintain thought
and focus on the things of God. Now, if it was a nice movie,
would we have any problem if it was a nice movie, a good picture? I mean, just thrilling, epic. We wouldn't have any problem
sitting for hours and days watching those things. But yet here we are, talking
about eternal matters of the soul, about dealing with God
and judgment and justice, and yet our flesh is like, oh! It's
battle! It rages within our own hearts.
Why? Because the flesh still remains. The sin nature still drags us
to the ground. It is as a rotten corpse tied
to our necks, dragging us down. And we would ascend upward. We
would ascend to the heavens. And yet it drags us to the earth
constantly, daily, pulling and tugging. And we constantly try
and strive against it. It's a warfare. It's a sword. daily vexation of spirit. Paul says, "...the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." These are
contrary one to the other, so that you cannot do what you would. I know what you would do, believer.
You would serve God. Isn't that what the psalm says?
We sing, "...His faithful servant I would be." would be, but this
flesh drags me, drags me down. Paul says in Romans chapter 7,
you know his plight. He says, "...in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing, for to will is present with me." To will to
serve God is present. To will to praise God is present. To will to believe Christ is
present with me. But how to perform that which
I find not? O wretched man that I am who
should deliver me from the body of this death! Oh, but then comes
the conquered nature that says, I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. You see the war? I know what
I am, I know what I experience, and they seem to be opposed.
So I'll forsake what I experience and cleave to what I know. Christ
is all. And this warfare will continue,
so don't be surprised. The warfare of the world is another
one. Go to Matthew chapter 10. And
I want you to see that this is not to take us by surprise, and
it does. Daily, does it not take you by
surprise how wretched your flesh is? How opposed and how strong
it is? And yet our Lord is so graciously
patient with us to give us His Word. Look at verse 34. Think not, I am come to send
peace on the earth. How do you suppose that would
play in modern religion? Well, he didn't mean. No, he
meant it. He meant exactly what he said.
I came not to bring peace on the earth. You listen to me.
If he came to bring peace on this earth, there would be peace. You got that? Because whatever
the sovereign Christ decides to do is what he does. He said,
I came not to bring peace on the earth. I came not to send
peace, but a sword." And what's the sword? The sword is a divisive
thing. It's a divisive thing. It cuts
in two that which was once one. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's
foes shall be they of his own household. For he that loveth
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that
loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he
that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy
of me. See what the sword is? The sword
is you believe on Christ, you bow to Christ and they will not.
And listen, they will hate you for it. Consider worship. How do you
suppose that if your worship interfered with the plans of
your children, or your spouse, or your job? Buck them, cleave to Christ,
and tell me how peaceful things are going to be. It won't be peaceful. Why? Christ
said, I came to set them at variance. And He does. So don't be surprised.
Don't think He didn't come to set us at peace with this world.
And our warfare with Satan is another one. So we have threefold
enemies here. Yourself, the world, and Satan. Now Satan is bound and cannot
rob you of your salvation. He cannot pluck you from the
hand of God. But I tell you this, he does
vex us greatly. He does. He vexes us greatly. Why? With accusations. Who is
not accused? As I mentioned sin, who does
not ramble through their mind and pour forth all of the vileness
of your own flesh and condemn you before God? Who is that?
That's not God. That's not God. It's your enemy.
You're at war. Remember, you're at war. and
the warfare don't end. Just because you've got a lull
in the battle doesn't mean it's over. If we've got a lull, usually
we've given in. If we've got a lull, it's because
we've given in. And so expect that when you follow
Christ. Go back to your text. The third,
the next seal, he said, when he had opened the third seal,
I heard another beast say, come and see. And I beheld and lo,
a 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, a measure of wheat for a penny, and three
measures of barley for a penny. And see thou hurt not the oil
and the wine. This horse seen riding with the
balances, this black horse, is one of affliction, one of economic affliction. This horse riding has a balance
in his hand saying a measure of wheat for a penny or three
measures of barley for a penny. A measure of wheat is only enough
food for one day. This is not talking about famine.
This is just talking about a measure of food that a man was to sustain
life, was only one measure of wheat. And a penny was a day's
wage. Back then they didn't have salaries.
You worked a day, you got paid the day. You didn't work the
day, you didn't get paid. Simple. A man works in a day, gets one
penny, he trades the penny for the wheat, he eats for the day.
Does that sound pleasant? Why? Because he doesn't have
anything for anything else. He doesn't have any money for anything else. If he
has one penny, he has enough for the day. If he has one penny, he has enough
three measures of barley, that would feed a small family. So if a man has a family, he
has one penny, he has enough to feed his family for one day. And you'll notice he says, don't
hurt the wine or the oil. That's not to be harmed. And
the lost in every age are made and desire The wine and oil of
this world, they live and fare sumptuously. Anybody seen the
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous? How they live sumptuously every
day. I was reading about a hotel room
that cost $10,000 a night. just for a night's bed, $10,000, as
though they lay it out as though it's nothing. To them, they fare
sumptuously. They live lavishly in this world. As a general rule, the wicked
prosper and the righteous suffer. That's a general rule of it.
This religious generation, the religion of this generation,
is that God wants you to be prosperous. And if you're not prosperous,
it's because you lack faith or you're not giving enough money
to line their pockets. That's what they say. These people, they're God. Paul
says their God is their belly. But for those of us who believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, this horse pictures for us very great
difficulties. Christ, through the apostles,
says, Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as a matter
of some is. Now, as believers in Christ,
we are either going to obey that or we're not. Now, the world
will set everything against that Precept. This is one of many,
but this is one we can all understand. It's very simple. Study. Study the Scriptures. Pray. Prayer. Reading the Word of God. Now then, how many times a day
would you set yourselves to do these things, and at the moment
you would set yourself to do it, something comes in that would
oppose you? And you know what then it's going
to take to do those things? Sacrifice. You're going to have
to sacrifice the pleasures of this world to heed the Word of
Christ. There's no way around it. You
can't have both. You can't have Christ and this
world. Many in John's day, they belonged to what they called
guilds. And these guilds had to offer incense to false gods.
If you had a construction guild or you had a carpenter's guild
or a masonry guild, and then they would have their own God.
And basically, they would demand of their... If you wanted work,
if you wanted to work, you had to go through them. And so then you would offer incense
to their God, you would be able to earn money. If you would not,
you would not be able to work. What would you do? Would you rationalize it? Well,
I have to feed my family. And God knows there's no other
gods but God and this is just, this is just, I'm just doing
this to earn a living. I'm just doing this. You are
compromising your king. There's no way around it. You're
compromising. You stop fooling ourselves. How many saints have shed their
blood for the cause of Christ, and yet we would not forsake
the things of this petty world to worship in this freedom that
we live in? If you're to worship Christ,
You should expect that kind of tribulation. Remember Elijah,
the prophet, that great prophet? Do you suppose it was comfortable
for him to be fed by ravens? That was a miracle. Do you suppose
it was comfortable? Do you suppose it was comfortable
him living in that small hut with that woman and her son,
eating one loaf of bread a day? and one glass of water. Do you
suppose that was comfortable? No, but he would not defy God. And you know what God did? God
gave him what he needed for the day. Now, you know what you need?
God does. Should we then not forsake all
and then wait for God to give us what we need? And the world
says, that's just stupid. So what what they say? I don't
care what they say. God says to do it. And if we've
fallen under His feet, we'll do it. And it's going to hurt. It's going to cost us monetarily. It's going to cost us in relationships. It's going to cost us. And then
the third horse is this, and I looked and beheld there was
a pale horse, verse 8. And the name of Him who sat on
Him was death and hell, followed with Him. And power was given
Him over a fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword,
with hunger and with death, and with the beast of the earth."
This is a horse that we must all face, death. Death. You and I will have to face it. No believer, except those small
number that Christ when He comes back will take up and not die. But most of us will face this
horse. But death to the believer should
not be loathsome. It should more likely be a companion. Why? Because it has no power. After it's taken the body, it
has no power over us anymore. Whosoever believeth in me shall
never, what? Never die. Believest thou this? May God give us His grace to,
because Him, To those who are conquered by
Christ, the Scripture tells us, He who hath part in the first
resurrection, over him shall the second death have no power. And so then as we see these horses,
may we see our own experience. That's what it was here for.
And it all leads up to this. That Christ will come and conquer
His people. That they shall experience war. They'll experience trouble. They'll experience even death.
But you know what the end is in that next seal? He says that
all they that were martyred... What is it to be conquered? It
is to be a martyr. To give up your own life for
Christ. They that are martyred were under the altar. Safe. That's our end, and you
should expect that end. You should expect it. Even because
Christ, our King, has promised it. I pray that God blesses to
your heart.