And Father, I pray that as we
read Your Word tonight, that we would be awestruck, that we
would just be content in understanding and knowing that You have given
us Jesus Christ, the Son. And so therefore, because He
is, we live at perfect peace with You. Because He is, we are
able to sit not condemned, but Father, we sit redeemed. Lord, our sins are no longer
counted as guilty, but Father, the guilt of them have been given
upon Jesus and he has suffered and died for them that we might
be raised to the newness of life. Lord, we thank you for that.
As we read this text rapidly this evening, Father, I pray
your grace upon our hearts and minds that we might not lose
focus, that we might stay attentive for it is the sake of our sanctification,
our joy, our worship, Lord, our unity, our fellowship, that we
would grow into the knowledge of your grace, that we would
understand these things that were written so that we might
see them and know them, that we might be blessed because of
them. And Lord, not just for our own sake, but Lord, for the
sake of those around us, our communities, the lost, those
who are still in darkness, those brothers and sisters who are
stuck and caught in the traditions of men as related to this text.
Father, help them. Help us help them see. We continue to praise you and
thank you for all your provision. Lord, we pray for the future,
for tomorrow. For it will take care of itself,
as you have promised us, for you are the God of tomorrow.
You are the God of next week. You are the God of forever. So
help us to trust you in that way. And we pray these things
in the name of Jesus. Amen. Revelation chapter 6. Last week we looked at Revelation
4 and 5, and those go together in the same way Revelation 6
and 7 also go together, but we're not going to be able to effectively
put 7 and 6 together in one teaching time. So next week we'll look
at the 144,000 in chapter 7. Tonight we'll be just in chapter 6. I'll read as I go, if I can,
a little section and then I'll talk about it to keep us from
having to spend 10-15 minutes reading and then re-reading.
Look at verse 1. Now I watched when the Lamb opened
one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures
say with a loud voice like thunder, And I looked, and behold, a white
horse, and its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him,
and he came out conquering and to conquer." Now let's stop for
a moment and let's remember that that scroll was introduced to
us in chapter 5. We saw chapter 4, the one that
sat upon the throne, and in chapter 5 we saw one that looked like
a lamb that took the scroll from the one that sat upon the throne,
and that particular one then had the authority by the father,
or by the king, to actually then open the scroll. We left our
time last week with this premise that though there would be fear
and trembling at the edict of the king depended upon who was
awaiting that that that that information for the children
of the king, there is never fear. There should never be fear because
the king always does decrees that which is good for his children. Keep that in mind as we continue
in chapter 6. So this Lamb who was worthy,
who was slain, and it was worthy to receive power and wealth and
wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing, took the
seal and began to open the scroll, actually, one seal at a time.
Remember all of the things we learned in those first few hectic
weeks. How we are to remember to read apocalyptic literature.
That we know that Jesus doesn't have a scroll that's sealed up. But yet this is a picture of
the authority of the decrees of God, and it's going to paint
a picture, and in the painting of this picture, we're going
to understand what it means and apply it to our lives this very
day. Such was the case with the disciples of Christ, the followers
of Christ, and its original hearers. Such will be the day 5,000 years
from now, if the Lord tarries, when someone else is teaching
and reading Revelation, it will apply to their lives just as
equally. So now I watched, imagine this,
he says, I saw this, behold, and then I saw in the right hand,
chapter 5 verse 1, and now, verse 1 of chapter 6, I watched when
the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard. So what's
going on already in heaven? What do we see? worship. We see
worship, people worshiping the Father, people worshiping the
Son, the Lamb that was slain, people waiting with great anticipation
in the midst of this worship, and now Jesus is opening the
scrolls and breaking the seals each time a seal is broken. And
you need to understand how this looks. If I were to get a piece
of paper, I'll show you. A scroll is a very long piece
of parchment, could be 15, 20 feet long, and it's rolled in
on one end. Written on, rolled up, sealed. Written on, rolled up, seal. The seal was then put on. Rolled
up, seal. Rolled up, seal. Rolled up, seal.
So the first seal was broken, and then you can open it up to
the second seal. Then the second seal was broken,
and then you can roll it out to the third seal, and so on.
So when the scroll is finished being read, then the scroll is
rolled up and put away. Even though it's been opened,
it is now rolled up. So each time the seal is broken,
something else is taking place by the command of whom? God,
Jesus Christ, actually, in this particular thing to open up the
scroll and then to command. So keep that in mind as we go.
We see this first seal and we see the command of the creatures
say come. And I looked, and behold, a white
horse, and its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him,
and he came out conquering, and to conquer." Now, out of these
seals, as we'll see in these first few seals, we see four
people riding on four horses. They're known traditionally in
our contemporary circles as the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
And there are a lot of renditions of who they are. There are a
lot of illustrations of what they might look like. And there
are a lot of misinterpretations of who they are. One of the most
erroneous interpretations of this first seal is that people
would say that this seal now is showing Jesus Christ. And
that's wrong for two reasons. One, Jesus is not going to open
a scroll and then command himself. Number two, in the context of
what's happening here, we don't see that. Why would people think
it was Jesus? Because over in Revelation 19-20
it talks about Him riding on a white horse as a conqueror.
But this particular horseman has been sent by God to conquer.
Jesus Christ is the King who commands. He is the one who sends
the conqueror. So He's not going to send Himself.
I guess if we were It's sort of strange in our doctrine. We
might think that Jesus could make himself do something, but
that doesn't make sense in reality. So then we know that it's not
Jesus, who might it be? Let's look at the other horses
in context and see. And then the second seal. When
I opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say,
come. And out came another horse, bright
red. Its rider was permitted to take
what? Peace from the earth. so that people should slay one
another. And he was given a great sword. When he opened the third
seal, verse 5, and I heard the third living creature say, Come.
And I looked, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a pair
of scales in his hand. And when I heard what seemed
to be a voice in the midst of four living creatures saying, A quart
of wheat for Daenerys, and three quarts of barley for Daenerys,
and do not harm the oil and wine. And we'll go to chapter of verse
7. And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard a voice in the
fourth living creature say, Come. And I looked, and behold, a pale
horse, and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him.
And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to
kill with sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by wild
beasts of the earth." Now let's stop for a second. These verses,
verses 1 through 7, go together. They're one thought, one picture,
even though it is actually four seals. Now, imagine what's happening
at the same time these seals are being opened. It doesn't
tell us that worship stops in heaven. Now, is there a heaven
today? Yes, there is. Is worship of
God taking place this very moment? Absolutely. So, if worship of
God is taking place this very moment, then worship of God is
still taking place as these seals are being unfolded. And as these
seals are being unfolded, does this start to make sense to you?
Think of it very literally. If we think of it woodenly, that
means that we think that there are four horses going to come
out of heaven. One with a sword, one with a bow and a crown, another
one with a set of scales. And here he comes. He's going
to weigh everybody up. We're all going to be found wanting.
And another one that commands pestilence and famine and actually
death is coming. And Hades, the grave. Grave is
riding on a horse behind death. They're partnered up, side saddling
together. That's not what's going to be.
Are these going to be actually... What is this? What is this picture?
Let's look at it from the perspective of exactly what the Scripture
says. There are seals that God has
opened. In other words, all this that's
taking place is the command of the decree of the perfect will
of God. I want you to hear that. So much
so, so perfectly given to us that way because it is written
down by the hand of God, opened by the Son of God who is the
King of kings. So that there is no mistake that
everything coming out of these seals is exactly the will of
God. So, when do these things take
place? Right now. Right now. Who is this white
horse, Victor, who has been given a crown? Who has been given a
bow? And who has been commanded to
conquer? Who is it? Sounds like Jesus,
but it's not. It's a parody of Jesus Christ.
This is indeed the devil. This is indeed the work of Satan.
This is the wickedness that God is unleashing on the world. When
God hurled Satan out of heaven, He hurled them where? What does
the scripture say? To the earth. To do what? Seek. And what? Devour. You don't believe
me? Look at Job. The Old Testament. Look at everywhere
you start to see that God sends the devil to do exactly his will.
Nothing the devil does is outside the will of God. The devil has
no free will to operate. There's nothing in Scripture
that teaches us that. The devil thought he had a free will, and
he was thrown away from the holiness and the might of God. And he
awaits justice, which will be eternal damnation, along with
every unbeliever. So this four seals show us the
things that are now taking place on the earth. We see Jesus in
Matthew 27 speaking of these things. And He says that, you
know, He teaches us that there are, you'll say, wars and rumors
of wars, that you'll hear of earthquakes. Do not worry, for
the end is not yet here. These things will happen. And
so when we think about what these things must be, we need to recognize
that as worship is going on in heaven currently, so is the war
of life with the people of God. Now imagine this for a moment. Have you ever felt spiritual
warfare? Have you ever felt oppression?
Have you ever felt wickedness? Have you ever felt the evil of
this life? Is it not happening this very moment? Is it not going
on right now in our own hearts? How about the second horse? The
horse of war. Have you not heard of war? Have
you not seen war? Is there not war going this very
moment in the world? Yes. How about famine? What about famine? Is there not
people starving? under our very noses? Are there
not people in other places in the world who cannot grow food?
Is there not people who cannot even have water to drink? Is
there not famine in the world? How about death? How about the
grave? Are people not dying? Are beasts
not killing people? Is weather not taking people's
lives? Is pestilence and disease not
taking people's lives? Friends, these seals show the
reality of God's sovereignty of sending pestilence, death,
wickedness and evil into the world to do His will. People have misunderstood supremacy
when they think that wickedness happens apart from God. Did God
create evil? You ever thought about that? Did God create evil? Did God
create sin? It's difficult, isn't it? For
no, God does not sin, nor can He sin, nor can He be tempted
to sin, nor can He tempt anyone to sin. We see that in James
and John and Romans and other places. But we do know that God
in His sovereignty purposed and decreed all that comes to pass. This is where people get really
upset with some theology when it comes to Baptist doctrine,
to evangelical or Protestant theology. We like to think, as
it tells us in the movies, there's the good side over here at war
with the bad side, and they're fighting back in two. And ultimately,
the good side wins, but the bad side's keeping them really on
their toes. It's not the way it is at all. Jesus Christ created
Satan. He belongs to Satan and he belongs
under the will and the decrees of God. Excuse me, Satan belongs
to Jesus. Y'all better check that stuff.
Y'all better pay attention. Satan belongs to Jesus because
he's his creator. Jesus is his Lord. Jesus is his
master. He does that which God decides
and decrees for him to do. And friends, when sin entered
the world, all the world suffered and has continued to suffer.
That's the picture that John is seeing. While there's worship
in heaven, look at what's happening on earth. Now was it not true
for the people of the day of John? Was it not true that they
thought, could it get any worse? And it could. It's going to get
worse. My theonomist brothers and sisters,
as much as I love them, they believe that things are going
to get better and then there's going to be an ushered in a kingship
of earthly kingdom that's going to be really righteous and cool
and awesome. But Solomon himself, who was
the wisest man that's ever lived in the flesh, said that it's
all for nothing. As bad goes from what? Bad to
worse. As the wicked go from bad to worse, things get worse
and worse and worse. And there may be seasons of prosperity. There may be seasons of blessing.
There may be seasons of life. But ultimately, what needs to
take place in our minds is we need to understand that since
the fall of Adam and Eve, we have been under the releasing
of these seals. Why Jesus Christ? Because He
is the One who has authority to do it all. He is the Eternal
Son. He had no beginning. He is God. Jesus Christ is God,
so therefore, as all that takes place is under the decree of
God, Jesus is the Lord and Master of all these things. God's decrees
are the decrees of the Son, the Eternal Son. And so these four
horsemen go to war at the will and the command of the one who
sits upon the throne. These things that happen in this
earth, the death and the destruction, the pestilence, the famine, the
fear, the martyrdom, as we'll see in verse 7, happen by the
authority of Christ the Lamb. He sends it, He purposes it,
He plans it, He produces it, and He does so under His supremacy. Had someone argue with me a little
bit about that the other night, indirectly, last night, right
out here. And his response was that God's
will is perfect, not permissive, which I agree with. So that things
that happen that don't appear to be within the will of God's
character, of God's will, are just because God's allowed them
to take place apart from His will. and He'll fix it later. That's panentheism. And they
believe, panentheism believes that God created it all good
and set it in a motion and He'll fix it in the end but it sort
of runs by itself. And then I asked this question. I said, you mean
like the crucifixion of Jesus? Puzzled look. Knew he was caught.
He couldn't do anything with it. What do you do with that?
Puzzled look. Was Jesus' crucifixion a sin? Yes. What was it a sin of? Murder. The Romans murdered Jesus. They took His life. They murdered
Him. They wrongly accused Him. They bore false witness. They
blasphemed the Holy Spirit of God. The Jews and Romans murdered
Jesus, and that is a sin that God decreed before the world
began in order that He might display His righteousness in
the crucifixion of the Son. Think about it. God commands them. The Lord reigns
over the calamity of life. The Lord Jesus reigns over the
ruler of the air. The Lord Jesus reigns over the
sting of death that comes from our father Adam. The Lord Jesus
calls all these things to war against the earth. And He is
the King, not the enemy. He is the King of the enemy.
As I mentioned in Matthew, You also understand in Mark 13 in
the Olivet Discourse, this is where Jesus says these things.
You will hear of wars and rumors of war. Do not be alarmed. Jesus
says this must happen. These things must take place,
but the end is not yet. Even when they take place, famines,
pains, suffering, earthquakes will come, but the end is not
yet. Because what is the end? We think apocalypse is the end
through terror and horror. The apocalypse is the end in
victory, beloved. The apocalypse, the end of days
is victory for the church. The end of days is success. The
end of days is culmination. The end of days is celebration.
The end of days is a party, a feast of glorious victory for the people
of God in Jesus Christ the righteous. For as He sends all through the
waves of evil in this world, He is sovereign over it. That's
what those first seals show us. That's what it means. The seal
being broken is to read the decree of the King. And the decree of
the King is to send wickedness into the world that it may be
conquered and overcome and be put into darkness. 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, it teaches these things. It teaches us in a very, very
succinct way as Paul was writing to this ridiculously sinful church
who had repented and come back to their first love. And he writes
to them, and the argument is, the unspoken rhetoric is that
there are many who are not receiving the gospel, many who are not
seeing the good news of Jesus, many who are not believing. What
shall we do? Shall we employ another effort? Shall we employ another opportunity,
another message? And Paul says, no! Just as the
Israelites could not stand to see the veiled shadow of the
glory of God through the face of Moses, in the same way the
people of the earth who hate light do not want to see the
light shined upon their darkness. And then Paul goes on to say,
very explicitly, that though we once looked through veiled
faces, we will see Christ face to face one day. As John would
say in his gospel, we have seen the glory of God. Face to face
in Jesus Christ, the righteous, the Son of God. And then Paul
goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 4, he says, but if our gospel
is veiled, listen, it is only veiled to those who are perishing.
For the God of this world has blinded the eyes of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing the light of God. How does Satan
do that? Because Jesus Christ, the King,
decrees it. And if we left it there, this
text is not very good news for us, is it? But as you see in
the next verse, and especially in the next verse of 2 Corinthians
4, the next verse says, But God who said, Let light shine out
of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give us the light of
the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus, the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, so that what
God permits to be blinded, God then is the only one who can
unblind it. And though God sends pestilence
and war and famine and death and destruction, He does it because
it is righteous. Listen to me. It is righteous. Oh, if God has eternally decreed
this stuff, then God is wicked for He authored sin. He purposed
it because He's righteous. He purposed it and it is righteous. Why is it righteous? Because
it's right for God to bring Pain on wickedness. It's right for
God to bring destruction upon evil, is it not? Why wait? Why not just pour hell out on
earth? That's what he's talking about. And the thing is that
the hell that we experience in this life is absolute heaven
in comparison to the wrath of Jesus. Absolute heaven. There is no torture devised of
men that can come close to the wrath of the justice of God's
righteousness. Seal number five. In verse seven, I mean, verse
nine. And when he opened the fifth seal, this gets good, y'all. I saw under the altar the souls
of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness
they had borne. And they cried out with a loud
voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you
will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?
Then when they were each given a white robe and told to rest
a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and
their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they
themselves had been. Now think about that. This is
what's happening in the world. What's happening in heaven is
there's worship. Everybody's at peace. What's happening in
the world is destruction and wrath and injustice and all sorts
of calamity because the wages of sin is death. And God the
Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Godhead, God
is sovereign and supreme over all of these things. He is decreed
it and Christ has sent this forth. And this seal here, this fifth
seal, shows something amazing. This fifth seal is the martyred
people, the martyred souls who are in heaven. Now look at the
imagery. Look at the picture. I'm going
to use that word. This is what it means. Look at the picture. What's the
picture? The picture says they are under the altar. Now let's go back to our Old
Testament for a minute. Let's go to Leviticus in our minds, not in our text.
Let's go to Leviticus 17. Now let's think about what it
means to be under the altar. So here's the altar of God. And
upon the altar sits the what? You know what it was? Sacrifice,
but above that. Think about the Holy of Holies
for a minute. The Ark of the Covenant. And above the Ark of
the Covenant sits what? The Mercy Seat. See all this
imagery, all these pictures, it's all pictures. And it all
represented what? It represented Jesus Christ,
the mercy seat where God meets man, the Holy of Holies, where
God is there dwelling, tabernacling among men. We see in John 1.14. And we see the blood as a sacrifice
is made, and then the blood is poured over the mercy seat. Where does the blood go? Under
the altar. It goes under the altar. And
in Leviticus 17, the Bible teaches us that life is found in the
blood of the sacrifice that puddles under the altar. I want you to
get the picture of the sacrificial system for just a moment. It
is a picture of a picture. There is nothing clean about
Jewish sacrifice. It's kosher, but it's not clean. You think hamburger meat and
it leaks out into the bag? It's like, ew, blood. Or you're
skinning an animal and you cut its head off and you disembowel
it and it's like, ew, blood. Sorry, my son would have ran
out screaming during that one. That's nothing. How many lambs
were poured over the mercy seat in the temple? Innumerable. You think that place looked pretty
and gold? It was bloody. Blood poured out of the altar.
Blood dripped onto the floor. Bloody tracks were everywhere. It was a slaughterhouse. Just with the blood. And the
Scripture says that life is found in the blood of sacrifice. Without
the shedding of blood, what does it say? There is no remission
of sin. These martyrs, in the picture
of their location, are in the lifeblood of Jesus Christ under
the altar. Their blood was not in vain,
for the blood of Jesus Christ is their life. That's the picture. And they're
given, in verse 11, white robes of victory, white robes of righteousness. They're told to rest, just sleep,
just rest, just kick back. When, O Lord, when, O Lord, when,
O sovereign Lord, holy and true, O dear God, when and how long
before you will judge those who did this to us? When will you
avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? This is happening right now in
heaven, is it not? Right now. Martyrs are dying
every day. And the scripture shows that
even though there is calamity by the will of God on this earth,
there is worship and peace in heaven. And even those who are
under the altar crying out, they are at peace. Because they are
in the life of Christ. This cry then will be answered. So all of this that we've seen
thus far in chapter 6 is present. Past, present. Since Adam and
Eve, this has been taking place in heaven. This is what the Scripture
wants us to see. This is what John wants his readers
to understand. Listen, what you're going through,
the calamity that you're feeling right now, the suffering that
you're having, the problems that you're going through, the martyrdom
that you're experiencing, listen, it's not new. It's been going
on since Cain killed Abel. And it's not going to stop. You're
victorious already. Put your robes on and recognize
it. Your righteousness is your righteousness.
My righteousness is yours. You have won. Rest. Sleep. Be at peace. I will bring recompense. Look
at it. And in verse 12, this has yet
to happen. He has it. He opened the sixth
seal. I look and behold, there was
a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth.
And the moon became like blood. And the stars fell to the sky. Stars of the sky fell to the
earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a
gale or a wind. The sky, listen to this imagery,
vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up. And every mountain
and island was removed from its place. Let's just talk about
those few verses for a second. Why is it that it's so difficult
to see what's being described there? Why is it that billions
of dollars, maybe not billions, that's an exaggeration, but a
lot of money is made on writing books about end time signs? There's
a blood moon, there's blood moons every stinking season. They're just common. common phenomenon
of our solar system. There's eclipses. A great earthquake, the sun goes
out, the moon is gone, the stars are gone, the fig tree is gone,
the sky is gone, the mountain is gone, the rivers are gone. Was that talking about signs? No, that's talking about what
Paul refers to on the positive in Romans chapter 8, that the
world comes to an end. It's over. and a twinkle of an
eye, it's gone. No more, never again. The day
of judgment, it is over! All of the wickedness and all
of creation that has been subject to the futility of sin is gone! There is no more time, there
is no more day, there is no more night. All that we know is gone. Not only is He going to bring
calamity upon the earth, Now, He's going to bring justice upon
the earth and all of its inhabitants right now. Look at what happens
when people think they can hide from God. They're not trying
to hide, by the way. Because it says they can't hide.
So, the picture of them trying to hide is just an explanation
of what people think when they think of something like this.
Oh, Jesus will come back and take everything away? I'll hide. Then, the kings of the earth
and the great ones, and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful,
and everyone. Who are they? Every living person
in existence who is not washed in the blood of Jesus Christ
is everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and
among the rocks of the mountains. Wait a minute, the mountains
are gone. You see what I'm saying? You've got to use your mind and
think about the picture. Then they call to the mountains
and the rocks that are gone. Fall on us, hide us from the
face of Him who is seated on the throne. And from the wrath
of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come. And
the question that has ended this text is, and who can stand? Tell you who can stand. Who can stand? In this, we see the sovereignty of Jesus Christ
over the world. The sovereignty over creation,
the sovereignty over sin, the sovereignty over suffering. Because
remember, God commands the fallen angels. You don't remember that, do you?
The devil comes in and out, and God says in Job's writing, the
book of Job, where you been? Does God need to ask the question? No. We relate to the story as it's
portrayed that way. He says, you know, going to and
fro, searching for someone I might, what, devour. And God's, okay, that's what
I sent you down there to do. Why don't you go pick on Job? And the devil says, yeah, right. Job has your protection. I can't touch him. I'll tell you what. I'll take
my hand off of his life and you make a mess of it. I broke that
seal. You're riding. You've got death
and hell with you. You've got pestilence and famine and earthquakes
and fire and everything. Just go into Job's life and tear
it all apart. And the devil's bet, I'll say
that very loosely, is he's thinking, man, I would love to devour this
righteous person. I can turn him against his God.
But you can't turn what God has saved against him. Jesus Christ
is the Lord of the Devil. And God sent Satan to destroy
the life of Job. Every aspect. God is the author
of all of Job's suffering. He unrolled the scroll of Job's
calamity. Church, these Christians were
living in a life much like Job's. Their day was not frustrated
because of work, frustrated because of arthritis, frustrated because
of children, spouses, finances, broken down cars, broken down
eyeglasses, broken down whatever, you name it. We could get a list
of complaints in this place probably 600 long if we all took turns
and we'd be here till next week this time. There's much to complain
about. This is not the life of these
Christians, the recipient of these letters. They lived much
like Job. Pestilence, hatred, persecution. Even more so that Job's situation
was very isolated. And God even restored Job's physical
life to him, even though all of his children died and all
of his friends rebuked him. He lost all of his wealth. all
of his cattle, all of his livestock, all of his property, and even
his own wife cursed him. These Christians are different
than that because they were martyred for the sake of the Word, because
of their faith. God sent destruction upon His
people to prove His power, to prove His love. Why would He
do that? Why would He kill the only begotten
Son so that we might be free from our wicked, guilty sin? If He did not spare His own Son,
surely we too shall suffer. Paul would cry to the Colossians
and say, I pray that I may fill up what is lacking in the suffering
of Christ in my body, that is in my flesh, for your sake. Was
the suffering of Christ insufficient? No, but it is invisible. We're
not watching Jesus on the cross. We don't watch videos of Jesus
on the cross. We don't see Christ suffering
this day. But as we, His body, suffer in
this life, we rejoice, which is an anomaly, which is an idiot,
the word I'm looking for, which is a moronic expression. We are
counted righteous. And God is sovereign over our
suffering. When people come to our house
and they tell us we can no longer have church, God is sovereign
over the suffering. When people storm into these
church services all over the world and they take little children
by the hands and they say, if you do not renounce Christ, I
will take the head from your child's body and the blood flows
down the body of that small child. God is sovereign over that suffering.
When people are arrested because they stand on their convictions,
when people are sued and lose their property, the writer of
Hebrews says, you joyfully, gladly accepted the plundering of your
property for you knew you had a better reward, an abiding reward. Why is it that we hold on to
the cardboard box? that has no contents with the
picture of that house that we so desperately, one day, wish
we could build, not out of Legos, but out of true timber, when
the trueness is there for us, ready for us to receive, and
the house of God, His name is Jesus Christ. Why is it that we hold little
plastic figurines of our treasure chests? It would be better suited
to the bottom of an aquarium to be gazed upon. when the true
treasure of heaven is Jesus Christ. Friends, people will symbolize
this text to the point where it makes no sense. But simply
stated, God will culminate all the suffering into one place,
and the suffering for the saints of God will cease. And the suffering
for everyone who does not believe will just be getting started.
I want you to hear that. Who can stand? No one will stand. No one. No one will stand. No one can
stand under the wrath of the Lamb of God. No one will hide. No one will escape. No rule will matter. Kings, presidents,
generals, rich people, CEOs, businesses, governments, nothing
will stand. Nothing will exist. No one will
be standing in a position except they are with Christ as the body
and the bride of Christ or they are against Him as an object
of His wrath. And they will not be standing.
They will be falling on their face, crying out in the midst
of their eternal agony, Jesus is Lord. The Lamb can see the hearts of
men. In the last sentence of John
chapter 2, it says, the last two sentences,
many believed in His name that day. because of the signs and wonders
that He did. But Jesus Himself did not entrust
Himself to them, for He knew what was in man. No one had to
tell Him about the heart of man. No one will stand to give an
excuse. There will be no question asked
of you, why should I let you in my heaven? There will be no
question asked of any of us. So are you worthy of eternal
life? There will be no opportunity
to give a reason for our sin and our unbelief. There will
be no trial. There will be no review. There
will be no indictments. The indictment has been given
and the verdict has been done. And the charge from the judge
and the sentencing is complete. And it is those who do not believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ have been tried, have been convicted,
and have been sentenced to eternal damnation. And it is good, and
it is right, and it is worthy, and it is glorious. And if it
were not for His love toward us, you and I would be in the
bowl with them. Because Jesus can see and He
knows our hearts. But the amazing thing about this
text, and we see the souls of those
who have been slain for the Word of God. Sometimes we like to take these
first four seals and we say, oh, this is bad. Oh, this fifth
seal's good. This sixth seal's even better.
It's all bad. What's worse? Earthquake, pestilence,
famine, fire, murder, are killing the people for whom Christ died.
Because I think there's a specific reality here for the people who
read this, that they wept with joy when they saw it. Wow! The calamity that has come upon
us is sent by our Lord. But we receive the reward for
it. We receive glory for it. We receive hope through it. We have peace because of it. And it's sent out upon the whole
earth. And those who are targeted as the church, they are hated
even more. And so they're martyred. So the
greatest evil is not death and hell and pestilence and famine
and war and murder and strife and envy and rape and everything
in between. It is not Satan. He is not to
be feared. It is not the grossest thing
that could happen in this life. The grossest thing that could
happen in this life, the most horrific thing that could happen
in this life is that the righteousness of God be put to death on a cross. And His body then that is martyred
after Him, receives the crown of life so that the largest act
of vengeance comes through the Lamb who sends recompense, not
just because of His righteousness, but because of the unrighteous
acts of those who killed His people. Friends, there is something to
look forward to. And you might say, well, that
makes me seem a little selfish. Well, that's why the Bible teaches
that we can rest. We can rest. And we're persecuted. I know four people personally
who have been martyred for their faith. Four. Only four in my
entire lifetime that I know who have died for their faith. Four. Out of 400 million that
have died for their faith in my lifetime. And that might not
be a good number. But if you read the Voice of
the Martyrs, it's like every few minutes somebody's being
cut up or burned or hanged or drowned because they will not
recant their faith in Jesus Christ. Whole churches are being burned
to the ground with people in them all over the world. How many people desperately need
hope and when they got that letter and they saw that, they thought, God's going to pay them back
for this. It is good that God brings recompense
against martyrdom. You hear me? Those who have not
believed on Christ, who nailed Him to that tree, they will bring,
they will have the recompense of God's justice against them
for murdering His Son. Hmm, just had a thought about
that. Judgment of Christ is all throughout the New Testament.
We see it. We see it in John 5, I believe. Yeah, John 5. That
Jesus says that the Father has given the Son the authority to
judge. That it used to belong to the
Father. Now it is mine, He says, basically, in a paraphrase. But
the most amazing thing about this reality is that Jesus is
not just some king sitting upon a throne looking down at the
suffering of his people. Jesus became like us and suffered
among us. The scripture says that Jesus
in every way knows everything that happens in every opportunity
of temptation in every man, every woman, every child. So that he
sympathizes with us, having experienced all of this, yet did not fall
prey to sin. So therefore, we can understand
that He is there not from a place of observation, but a place of
participation. This is glorious. And now He
who is the One who brings justice will bring justice upon those
who cause the suffering of His body. And then seeing the suffering
of His body, He also then knows what they feel. Have you ever
thought about that? You know one of the greatest
agonies of suffering is we often times think nobody knows what
I'm going through. You ever thought that? Nobody knows what I'm going
through. Nobody can understand what it
feels like to have migraines and your eyes not work. Nobody
understands what it feels like to have 7 to 12 joints in your
body hurt so bad you can't breathe. You can't expand your lung cage,
your rib cage. Nobody knows what it feels like,
whatever calamity might come upon your body. or your life,
to lose a loved one, to lose a spouse, to lose a child, to
lose a job, to be laughed at, to be bullied at school, to be
told you're stupid, you're ugly, you're fat, you're retarded,
or whatever the words that these kids like to use these days,
and they're bullying. It's oftentimes, nobody knows
what I'm going through when people hate me and call me names and
make lies about me. Nobody knows what I'm... Jesus
knows what we're going through. Christ knows. He's been there. He's been bullied. He's been
hated. He's been tempted. He's been
despised. He's the God of heaven who created
all that lives. And when He walked among His
creation, they rejected Him. They spat upon Him. They made
fun of His rule. Oh, you're the King of kings?
Come down off that cross and save yourself. He could with
a thought. See, if I were Jesus, I'd come
back one more time for just a couple of days, so they'd put me back
on the cross and I'd come off that sucker. I'd fly off and turn into this
big flame in Jesus and pick the crosses up on this side and this
side. I'm like, shoot, sword, sucker, run for your lives! I
mean, you know, that'd be the best move you've ever seen. We'd
all start cheering, woo! But you know what? That don't
set a candle to the justice of God. Jesus is going to come back
with vengeance that makes that look like a kid's cartoon. And we're going to be safe. We're
going to rejoice. We're going to be right there
with Him. And it's going to be done in the blink of an eye,
and it's going to be over and forever. We get to join that
which is already happening in heaven. Holy, holy, holy. Worthy,
worthy, worthy. And no more of this takes place. The rider on the white horse,
the rider on the pale horse, the rider on the red horse, and
the rider on the black horse all go to hell. So Jesus sends them into battle,
and they do what they love to do, which is cause destruction. And then He puts them in hell.
And He's right about it. He's good for it. He's righteous.
He holds affection for us eternally. We then, therefore, will not
suffer the wrath of the Lamb, but we will suffer the grace
of Him. There's such a way. We will experience the grace
of Christ and all the saints are sealed in Christ. He reigns
forever. He reigns supreme and we will
reign with him. And that's what this is teaching. We are sealed. You see what he's
saying? You're mine, the seventh seal.
I'm going to bring you to myself. I'm going to make right all these
things and I'm going to put my justice on display eternally
without any pock upon it. And then chapter seven starts
to make sense, doesn't it? Those who were sealed, sealed,
sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. If you know anything
about Romans, the letter to the Romans, it's going to make a
lot of sense to you next week. I really encourage you to read
chapter 6, and read chapter 7 before next Tuesday. Because it will
just, it'll just like, wow, I get it. Here's what's happening,
here's what's going to happen, here's the culmination of what
Jesus is going to do, and He seals us, and then we're done,
and we're forever, and it's over. Who are we? That's the question
that's answered in chapter 7. Who are we? Who are those sealed
in heaven? And it's confusing. But it's
answered. The imagery and the picture of
what it meant through Israel and what Israel was supposed
to represent and did, and then all of a sudden, the picture
of the reality of it. Boom! Then it starts. So, with
that, I'll leave us and we'll pray. And then I want to sing
a song. Father, we thank You through Your Word, for this glorious,
most magnificent, precious, sacred, powerful, holy writ. Lord, may
the supremacy of Your Word reign over us, indwell us, envelop
us, encroach upon every fiber of our being and every aspect
and crevice of our soul, every thought and electrical impulse
of our brain. God, would You make the Word
work in it. by the power of Your Spirit. Father, as we depart tonight,
let us be in prayer for each other. Kindness and mercy and
peace is ours through Jesus Christ. Let us pray for each other in
that same way. Let us love each other and rejoice
knowing that we are sealed in Christ Jesus and even if we die,
we live, we are alive forever. Our souls will reign and one
day our bodies with Christ and with each other. We praise You for that. We continually
pray for our fellowship, Lord, our family, and as You bring
others into our midst, Lord, let us love them with a zeal
as though we've known them forever, because You have known them forever,
for they are Your elect, the sons and daughters of God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.