And we'll stay right there in
Revelation chapter 6. We're talking about the subject
of the Lamb of God, the Lamb, Christ, opening the seven seals. That's the section that we're
in. This is the second vision that Christ gave to the Apostle
John concerning events that would occur during the last days, the
New Covenant age, the Gospel age, ranging from the time of
Christ's first coming and his ascension all the way to the
second coming. And here's the Lamb who's the
only one worthy to open this seven-sealed book. Remember the
book is the book of God's purpose and plan for this created universe
throughout that last stage. It's all going to happen according
to the plan, the plan of God, the all-wise, the all-powerful,
the all-knowing God. That's what this book is about.
God said that he works all things after the counsel of his own
will. And that's what's contained in
this seven sealed book. And I got to tell you, you know,
we grow so weary sometimes and especially as we get older and
things happen and we mess up. Sometimes we make right decisions. Sometimes we make wrong decisions.
And I thought about this the other night as I was studying
for this. If it weren't for the fact that I know that things
are just going the way God planned it, I believe I would just quit
and lay down and just say, Lord, let me die and go into oblivion
or whatever. But we know God's in control.
And the only one who's worthy to open this book is the lamb
that was slain. The death of Christ is always
prominent in this book of Revelation as it is in the whole Bible.
Because everything revolves around our well-being as sinners saved
by grace revolves around the glorious person and the finished
work of Christ. And if we fail to communicate
that in our preaching, in our thoughts, in our witnessing,
what have we got? This world is not our home. And
this is shown through here. We dealt with the first four
seals which go together, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. You remember the white horse
in verse two. The white horse in verse two
said he sat on, had a bow, a crown was given unto him, and he went
forth conquering and to conquer. That's Christ going forth throughout
the new covenant age, calling his sheep into the fold. The
ones God gave him before the foundation of the world, the
elect, the ones for whom he died on that cross and redeemed by
his blood, The one he sends his spirit to like that bow and arrow,
he shoots that right into the hearts of his people. He slays
us, but he brings us in regeneration from the dead and gives us faith
to believe and repentance and perseverance. Throughout the
new covenant age, no matter how bad things look and how bad things
get, God is still saving his people from their sins. however
few or however many. We don't know the number. It's
not ours to count. God's already counted them. But
God is not willing that any of them should perish, but that
all should come to repentance. And if you're one of his sheep,
that's where he's going to bring you. And he's not going to stop
short. He's going to give you faith
to believe in Christ as he's identified in the scriptures,
he's gonna bring you to turn away from self and everything
else in repentance, and he's gonna keep you under glory. That's
our hope. And then the second seal, the
second beast said the second seal, there was the red horse,
power in verse four, power was given unto him that sat on to
take peace from the earth, that they should kill one another,
and there was given to him a great story, that's wars, rumors of
wars, murders, and I think it even applies to division in the
church. I really do. Trouble, turbulence,
tribulation. I mentioned this in the 10 o'clock
hour that Christ told his disciples, in the world you'll have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. There's gonna be trouble. Sometimes
we're the cause of it. Sometimes we're not. But I'll
tell you what, we talk about wars, I mentioned this in the
introduction to these seven seals. It's like Christ said in the
end, it'll be like a woman having the labor pains. You'll have
a labor pain, and then it may subside, and then later on another
one, and then one day that labor will be the one that leads to
the birth, We talk about the war in Israel and the Gaza Strip
and Hamas, that's a labor pain. It may be the one that leads
to the birth, the second coming of Christ, but we don't know.
We don't know, but it's always gonna be. Every day I read about
murders and conflict, all of that, but still Christ is going
about, he's gonna save his people from their sins. Even they may
be murdered. We're gonna talk about that in
the fifth seal. But they're saved from the wrath
of God. Their sins are not charged to
them. They're gonna stand before God in the white robe of Christ's
righteousness and be glorified together. And then the third
seal comes and that's the, and he opened the third seal, that's
the black horse. And he that sat on him had a pair of balances
in his hand. That's economic conflict. That's
all the problems that we'll have in the social atmosphere. Prejudice, hatred, all of that. Trouble. You'll find out that
prices will rise. That's part of it. We complain
about it. But there will always be Great
separation from the rich and the poor. And I believe that
one of the things that is implicated here is that great separation
between the people of God and the people of the earth, who
are tied to the earth. In other words, this world is
their home. Their hope is in this earth.
But our hope is not in this earth. Our hope is in Christ and the
world to come. And then the fourth seal is the
pale horse, that greenish yellow deathly horse, death and hell. It's coming. It is appointed
unto men once to die, and after that, the judgment. But think
about this. As it was given unto him power
over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, which may
mean a great number, but I think it's more than that, because
everybody's gonna die. But the issue for us is that Christ has
the keys to death and hell. And he's given us those keys
to death and hell in the gospel. I know the way to conquer death. And it's not you doing it or
me doing it, it's Christ who has conquered death. He died,
he was buried, he arose again from the dead because he established
a perfect righteousness that demands the eternal salvation
of all for whom he died. And now we come to verse nine,
it's the fifth seal. The fifth seal is a word of mercy
and justice for God's people. And then we'll deal with the
sixth seal. The sixth seal is a word of vengeance, condemnation
and wrath. for those who are tied to the
world. Let's look at the fifth seal. It says in verse nine,
and when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the
souls of them that were slain for the word of God, the martyrs.
How many there were, especially in the early days of this church
age, when when Christ sent his disciples out in the world to
preach the gospel. How many were slain by the unbelieving
Jews? How many were slain by unbelieving
Gentiles? And it says they were slain for
the word of God. They preached the word. They
preached the light that men by nature hate and for the testimony
which they held. persecuted and martyred for righteousness
sake, as Christ said in the Sermon on the Mount, as they stood firm
for the glory of God in their testimony of the gospel of his
grace in Christ. And notice where their position
was. They were under the altar. What altar is he talking about?
Well, that altar finds meaning in the altar of burnt offering
in the tabernacle, the old tabernacle of old. And that was a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ who is both our altar and our sacrifice. They're covered by the blood
of Jesus Christ. That's what that means to be
under the altar. Hidden from the wrath of God. Hidden from the wrath of man.
Safe and secure. Hidden in the cleft of the rock.
as Moses was, justified by his blood, forgiven of all their
sins and declared righteous in God's sight. Though they lost
their lives on this earth, they're secure for eternal life in Christ. And their death is a testimony
to the world's hatred of Christ and his church and his truth
as it exposes their false hopes and their false refuges. You
remember, this is the condemnation. Light is coming to the world
and men love darkness and hate the light. And look at their
cry. They cried in verse 10 with a
loud voice saying, how long, O Lord, how holy and true dost
thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the
earth? They cry out for vengeance from
God, not for personal vengeance. It's not like us. We just want
to get back at people who do us wrong, see. That's evil. That's sinful, and that's the
way we are. But what they want is justice
from the Lord God. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. And vengeance will come. And
they say, how long? All who persecute Christ's people,
do you know who they're really persecuting? They're persecuting
Him. You remember he said that in
Matthew 25 when he was talking about judgment, where he would
separate the sheep from the goats. And he said that you visited
me when I was sick, when I was in jail, you did this to me,
in that you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did
it unto me. And then on the opposite side,
those who rejected and persecuted, in that you did it to the least
of my brethren, you did it unto me. One old preacher says, when
you kick one of God's children, he feels it. Our unity with Christ. They cry out here for justice
according to the glory of God in Christ. And because they,
by the grace of God, have put their trust and placed their
hope in Christ based on his blood and his righteousness alone to
secure them for glory. the word of their testimony,
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth. And when
he talks about those who are earth dwellers, he's talking
again about unregenerate, non-elect, reprobates, who are so tied to
the earth that this earth is their hope. This earth is their
salvation. And that's why he calls them
that dwell We dwell on the earth as far as living here today,
but we're not earth dwellers. Christ said you're in the world,
but you're not of the world. That's right. This world is not
our home. We're pilgrims. We're foreigners. That's right, on this earth,
because our home is in heaven. We have a citizenship. Now I
know we're American citizens and I thank God for that. And
I want to protect that. But my eternal citizenship is
not America. It's the kingdom of God. And
I've been put there by the grace of God through the righteousness
of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. So this describes the unbelieving
world so connected to the earth that they care nothing for the
glory of God. They care nothing for Christ
and the gospel and the true church, it's all about the world. I think
about in the parable of the sower and the seed, of the thorny ground
hearer, who heard the gospel and latched on to it, but it
was taken away from it by the cares of this world. That's the
earth dwellers, those who dwell on the earth. And so in this
fifth seal, we see the Children of God. And you know, don't you
thank God that we live in a time where we are protected by our
constitution from being murdered over the gospel that we believe.
But there may come a time when that's gone. There'll still be
martyrs. Listen to what it says in verse
11. I love this. To all those who are under the
altar, and you know, You don't have to be martyred for the faith
to be under the altar. To be under the altar is to be
in Christ. To be protected, to be justified,
as I said. To be saved by the grace of God. You right now, if you're a child
of God, you're under the altar. You're under His wings. That's
why I chose that song. Or you chose it. That's what
it means, I like, we're under His wings. hidden in the sun. And it says in verse 11, and
white robes were given unto every one of them. They stood before
God in the white robe of Christ's merits, washed in His blood,
clothed in His righteousness. Now that robe is a metaphor.
You know, it just always baffled me when I hear preachers talk
about the righteousness of Christ.
Not being outside of us or just like a pasted on righteousness
and you hear words like that. This is the imputed righteousness
of Christ. That's what that white robe stands
for. And it's a real righteousness that's laid to the charge of
God's people. So much so that it said we're
made the righteousness of God in Him. My account, you know
the Bible says every one of us must give an account. Well, what
is the account of an unbeliever? An unregenerate, unsaved person? Well, it's his works, her works.
And what does that mean at judgment? It means death and damnation.
Because salvation is not by works. But what is my account? My account
is the blood of the crucified one. My account is his righteousness,
his perfect righteousness. laid to my charge, in which God
the Father can find no flaw." Boy, if he looks at me, there's
a lot of flaws. If he looks at you, there's a
bunch of them. But when he looks at Christ, and as we stand in
Christ clothed in that white robe, no flaws, no sin, no falling
short, perfection. And that's how He's gonna judge
us. By that man whom He hath ordained. And that He hath given
assurance unto all of us that He raised Him from the dead.
That's the standard by which God will judge. And we stand
before God in that standard. What assurance that is. That's
what I preached last Saturday up in Lexington at Trinity Gospel
Church. The assurance that comes from
looking to Christ, the author and finisher of our faith. And
none can enter heaven but those who are given this robe of righteousness,
this white robe. He says in verse 11, And it was
said of them that they should rest yet for a little season,
until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should
be killed, as they were, should be fulfilled. That indicates
throughout this gospel age, there's going to be Those who are martyred
for the faith. One way or another. These believers,
they've entered into Christ's rest by faith in Him. Well, we
have too. That's what we do when we believe
in Christ, when we have God-given faith. We enter into His rest. He rests from His labors. And
His labors were for us. And we enter into His rest because
He did the work. And that's what we do. But now
these martyrs who are under the altar here in this fifth seal,
they've entered into the rest from all the persecutions they
suffered in the world. There's no more suffering. But
for a little season until the final judgment, when all the
saints of God would be free from all persecution on this earth,
until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should
be killed as they were be fulfilled. You know, as I said, when God's
people believe on Christ, we do enter into that rest. But
all things have not yet come to their final end for the body
of Christ. The martyrs in heaven are resting
now in their spirits until the time that all their brethren
are called into the kingdom. And then it will all be gloriously
consummated. and our bodies will be changed
in the twinkling of an eye, and that pain that you're feeling
right now, that sinus junk, it'll all be gone. Think about it. Well, look at verse 12. Here's
the sixth seal. Now, he begins talking about
the sixth seal here, and goes all the way over to chapter eight
when he begins the seventh seal. But this first part of this sixth
seal is a message from God of condemnation and wrath. And look
at what he says in verse 12. And I beheld when he had opened
the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake. Earthquakes,
what does that mean? It means whatever foundation
you have, it's gonna be destroyed. We certainly know about physical
earthquakes. We read about them a lot today.
I think scientists probably agree that there's more today than
there used to be. I don't know. But I know this. When Christ comes again, there'll
be a great earthquake. But even now, when people who
are tied to the earth die, their foundation is shaken. But you
know what? If you're a child of God, that's
already happened for you. You know, that's what happened
when the Lord comes to us, brings us under the gospel. He shakes
our foundation. There's an earthquake within
our soul. Because everything that we stood
for and stood on up to that point is destroyed. All of our religion,
all of our sincerity, All that we highly esteem, because we
see in the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
that it's all but dumb. And that all we need is Christ. But here in this sixth seal,
God's going to shake this earth apart. All that unbelievers see as immovable
and indestructible will be destroyed. All who dwell on earth, who in
some way see this fallen world as their hope and their salvation,
it'll be shaken to the core. And that's what the gospel and
the power of the Spirit does to us before this time. He says in verse 12, he says,
the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as
blood. The sun will cease to give its
light And this will all happen physically now eventually. All
light that this world has will be gone. The light of nature,
the light of conscience, and the light of God's word will
be removed. We think about that here in Albany.
Right here we have the light. How long will it last? I don't
know. It may die with us. You know what? It'll last as
long as the Lord means for it to last. Do you know that? Physical darkness cannot compare
to the horror of spiritual darkness. You know that. We preach Jesus
Christ the Son, S-U-N, of righteousness, the light of the world. But in
this day, there'll be no preaching of Christ. It'll be gone by this
time. There'll be no salvation. This
is how it'll gradually play out now. It won't happen overnight.
It'll start with heresies within the church, and it will gradually
take the light away to where there's no light at all. And then finally, all who are
found before God without Christ shall be damned, and all who
are found in Christ shall be saved. The moon became his blood. You know what that is, that's
a lunar eclipse, that's what that is. I think there's a false preacher
who wrote a book called The Blood Moon. So there's coming a blood
moon and that's the sign of his coming. Well, there's been a
lot of blood moons. How many more there'll be, I
don't know. But you know what, the moon shines with the reflected
light of the sun. When you look up in the sky and
you see that beautiful moon, It's not shining with its own
light, it's a reflected light. And when the source of light
is destroyed, then all light will be destroyed. It'll all
be darkness. We don't know specifically every
detail of this, but we know that all that the unbelieving world
needs to sustain life, all that they judge to be of value, all
that they see as indestructible, will be consumed in death symbolized
by blood. And this is not the blood of
salvation that we have in Christ. This is the blood of vengeance
from God. Death. Blood is death for the unbeliever. But you know what? Blood is life
for the believer. Look at verse 13. And the stars
of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her
untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. Some commentators
relate this to ungodly kings and political leaders who are
looked up to and they'll fall. They cannot save the world. They
shine forth in their sinful earthly glory in the eyes of men. Others claim this signifies false
preachers who were stars in the eyes of religious unbelievers.
That's possible. And they'll all fall. like an
unripe fruit falling off the tree before it's able to survive,
green and incomplete. And that's a testimony to show
us that the only way of completeness and full ripeness is to be found
in Christ. The Bible says, in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete
in Him. Everything about man is incomplete. 666, that's what that means. Less
than a seven. Six incomplete, six incomplete,
six incomplete. 666, falling short. Sinful. But the only way that we can
enjoy a perfect seven is as we stand in Christ and His finished
work given to us. Verse 14, the heaven departed
as a scroll when it's rolled together and every mountain and
island were moved out of their place. The way to God is shut
forever now. Christ is the only way to heaven.
The only way to God because he and his death passed through
into the heavens for his people. And during this time of God's
final wrath, there's no possibility of salvation. Every mountain,
every island moved out of their place. No physical order. You know, in man's view, it'll
seem like chaos. Nothing in its proper place.
We kind of feel like that today, don't we? It's all working according
to God's order, but this is a testimony that apart from the glory of
God in Christ, this whole created universe is not in its proper
place. The whole universe, the whole
creation groans for the glory of God. And then look at the
last few verses. Verse 15, the kings of the earth, the great
men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, every
bondman, every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks
of the mountains. Covers all walks of life there.
They said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, hide us. from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." Wait a minute.
I thought God loved everybody. I thought God was trying to save
everybody. Wrath of the Lamb? What is His
wrath? It's His justice against all
sinners to whom sin is imputed, charged. That's why we relish
in the fact that God will not lay any sin to our charge. Blessed is the man whom the Lord
imputed righteousness without work. But what's happening here? Look at verse 17, for the great
day of his wrath has come and who will be able to stand? They're
looking for a hiding place, but there is none. Where are we gonna
hide? There's no hiding from the wrath
of God. There's only one hiding place, and that's Christ. But that day of salvation's over. And who can stand? Lord, if thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who will stand? The ungodly,
Psalm 1 says, shall not stand in the day of judgment. There's
no place to hide. No place to stand but in Christ. All right, let's open our hymnals
to hymn number 283. We're gonna just sing two verses
of this hymn, Yesterday, Today, Forever. Let's stand.