Revelation chapter 6. I have
had such a. Just a good time of Lord blessed. Looking at this Revelation chapter
6 this week and I am really looking forward to this week and next
two weeks or three weeks. How long it takes us to get through
this chapter to look at this chapter. I think it will be a.
What was going to teach us something will be a source of great comfort
and encouragement to us. I'm really looking forward to
it. I've titled the lesson God's Purpose Revealed in the first
two seals. We'll look at the first two seals
that were open. Now, we're getting ready to look
at what people in the world call the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
And that's just not a good term at all to describe what the Lord
is teaching us in this chapter. You're saying the four horsemen
of the apocalypse sound like these four riders are going to
be galloping around, scaring everybody half to death, you
know, before the Lord comes. And that's not true. That is
not what this is teaching whatsoever. Let me remind us all that the
book of Revelation is a series of seven different visions of
the same thing. Seven different visions of the
same person from different angles. This, what we're studying right
now, is part of the second vision. This is a vision of man's completed
history from the viewpoint of heaven, from the viewpoint of
heaven, looking down on God's purpose being fulfilled in all
of human time. Remember back in chapter five,
John saw a book. It was a scroll. It was written
within and without on the front side, on the backside, it was
rolled up and sealed with seven seals. And that book we saw represents
the whole purpose of God. That purpose is complete. It's
written on the front and on the back. There's no room to add
anything to it. It's full of writing. Nothing
can be added to it. Nothing can be taken away from
it. Nothing in human history has been left to change. Every
event of human history was recorded in this book, was part of God's
purpose before God ever created anything. And then he created
the world to fulfill the purpose that he had written down. And
God has ordained every event in human history for one purpose.
It's the purpose of the glory of his son and the salvation
of his people. That's what is recorded in that
book. But John saw the book was sealed with seven seals, completely,
perfectly sealed. And no one was worthy to open
the book. No one was worthy to take the book and open it and
fulfill God's purpose that was written in it. Nobody was worthy
to open the book, to read it, and reveal to men what God's
purpose in all things is. No one was worthy except the
Lord Jesus Christ. He came and took the book from
the hand of the father because he's worthy. Now in chapter six,
he begins to open those seals. And when he opens the seals,
he's not revealing a bunch of horrible, scary things that's
going to happen, you know, right before he returns or when he
returns. When Christ opens these seals, what he's doing is one
by one, he's revealing to us something of God's purpose for
his people that Christ has accomplished for them. That's what the whole
book is about. And as Christ opens it, he's
revealing to us what he's accomplished for his people. When Christ opens
the seals, he's revealing everything that happens to his people all
the time. all through human history. This
is not just something that's going to happen at the very end
of time. This is what's been happening throughout all of human
history. He's revealing what's happening
to us right now, just like the letters to the seven churches
we looked at. Those were not letters to the churches at seven
different periods of human history. No, those letters were written
to every local church throughout all of history because every
local church goes through those seven different attitudes at
some time or another. So the opening of the seals reveals
God's purpose to his people. Whatever it is that's happening
to us in this life right now is God's purpose. And our Savior
is opening it to reveal it to us for our comfort, for our encouragement. The time of suffering does not
mean that God has cast off his people and his purpose is not
being fulfilled. That's not what that means. A
time of suffering doesn't mean that God is punishing his people
for our sins. He's ultimately going to destroy
us. No, those times of suffering that God has ordained for his
people have a purpose behind it. It's God's purpose in those
times of suffering, in those times of trial, to draw us closer
to the Savior. to wean us away from the things
of this world and to make us depend more wholly on him and
to see something more of his glory that we couldn't have seen
without this time of suffering. So that's what this chapter is
written to reveal to us. Verse one, here's the first seal.
And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard
as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying,
come and see. Now one of these beasts, those
beasts represent God's preachers, tells John, come and see. And
there was a loud noise out of heaven. It's the thunder of the
gospel, thundering from heaven, telling us, now this is important,
come and see, pay attention to what is being taught here. These
are heavenly things that we can't figure out. They've got to be
revealed to us. Verse two, and I saw And behold,
a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown
was given unto him. And he went forth conquering
and to conquer. Now, remember, none of this is
literal. John is using figurative language
in this book that the people he was writing to would have
understood. He's using figurative language to give us pictures
of God's purpose being fulfilled for his people by our Lord Jesus
Christ. And this imagery, it sounds Scary
and fantastic, but it all makes perfect sense once we see what
it means. The opening of the first seal, this is what it means.
It's revealing that God's will is that the Lord Jesus Christ
be the savior of his people and that he make his people righteous
in him. And it's God's will. Now, if
it's God's will, it will happen. If it's God's will, nothing can
stop it from happening, right? It's God's will that Christ come
as the mighty conqueror. that He conquer all of His enemies
and He rule and reign over them as the sovereign king. Now one
way or another, Christ is going to conquer all of His enemies.
He'll conquer them by His grace or He'll conquer them by His
destroying power, but one way or another, they're going to
be conquered and Christ is going to reign over them. The Lion
of the tribe of Judah has already come. You see, this is not something
that's going to happen in the future. The Lion of the tribe
of Judah has already come. He didn't come to try to conquer.
He didn't come to try to do something. The Lion of the tribe of Judah
came to conquer. And that's exactly what he did.
And that's God's purpose revealed in the opening of this first
seal. Now Christ is the rider here. He rides upon this white
horse. And you know what the white horse
represents. White represents holiness. purity,
righteousness. Oh, that can only refer to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the righteousness of his
people. But now this is interesting. He's going forth to conquering
to conquer. He's a warrior and he's riding
a white horse. Warriors in battle don't go riding
a white horse. They don't want to draw attention
to themselves and make themselves a target. Just like on a battlefield,
in an area where hostility is happening, privates don't salute
generals in those forward areas, because they don't want to make
the general a target. The general doesn't wear all
his stars, and he don't have all those stars on his jeep and
flags with stars on his jeep when he's in a forward area,
when he's in the area of the battlefield, because he don't
want to make himself a target and get shot. rides a white horse, making himself
obvious. And he does that because his
victory over sin, over death, over hell, over Satan is sure
and certain. And he comes riding this white
stallion to make himself stand out so that his people will look
to him, so that it'll be easy for us to see him. You see, this
isn't something that's going to happen in the future. This
is what has already happened and it's going to keep happening.
throughout human history. Christ the Savior has already
accomplished the salvation of his people. And that's what he's
doing right now. He's accomplishing. He's calling
out his people to himself. He draws attention to himself
through the preaching of the gospel. He's the subject. He's the focus. He's the only
message of the gospel. He rides on the white horse to
make himself obvious so his people will look unto him and be saved.
He makes himself obvious as people will look to him to be their
righteousness. He rides this white horse, drawing attention
to himself. So he'll draw our attention away
from the suffering of this world, lift up our eyes to look to him
to find comfort and assurance in our times of suffering and
trial. And he rides on this horse with a bow, a bow and arrow.
Now, what arrows does he shoot? Well, first, he shoots the arrows
of his grace through the gospel message. And those arrows, the
arrows of God's grace, always find their mark. Always. They
always pierce the hearts of God's people. They wound and kills
that old heart and gives a new heart. You see, this isn't something
God's going to do one day, is it? This is what he's doing right
now through the preaching of the gospel. We don't know what
God's purpose is. We don't know where God's people
are. God's preachers just draw back the bow and a venture, just
shoot it into the air. You know, we just, we preach
the gospel wherever God gives us the opportunity and he directs
the arrows. If I try to direct the arrows,
I'm going to miss the mark or I'm going to do something, shoot
at somebody that's not here or shoot at somebody I don't need
to be shot at. We just shoot the arrow and God directs his
arrows. right to the heart of his people,
right to the bullseye every time to give his people life. Now,
second, look at Psalm 7. Second, these arrows that Christ
shoots are the arrows that God aims to destroy the wicked. Psalm
7, verse 11. God judges the righteous, and
God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he
will wet his sword. He hath bent his bow and made
it ready. He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death.
He ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors. See, those arrows
are going to find their mark too, aren't they? So either way,
everybody's going to be conquered by Christ's arrows, his arrows
of grace or his arrows of justice. They'll all find their mark.
Every one of them is going to be conquered by the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this is why Christ came.
He came to conquer. He didn't come to try to save
everyone. He didn't come to try to do anything. He didn't come
to be a pitiful figure that we're supposed to feel sorry for. You
know, what's going on this weekend is Easter weekend. Everybody's
trying to show these passion plays and all these things. to
make you feel sorry for Jesus on the cross. Don't you feel
sorry for him as he goes through this mock trial and he's beaten
and he's abandoned by his friends and he suffers there on that
cross. And I'm not in any way, believe me, I'm not in any way
trying to minimize the physical sufferings of Christ. Brethren,
he's not there for us to feel sorry for him. What did he say? Don't you weep for me? You weep
for yourself. Don't you feel sorry for him?
He's not there failing. He's not there trying to do something.
You know what he's doing there on the cross as he suffers and
dies? He's conquering. He's winning the battle. Christ
came as the mighty conqueror and he will conquer every enemy. He's always been the conqueror.
In eternity past, before God created anything, the Lord Jesus
Christ came forth in the covenant of grace as the conqueror. He
came forth as the captain of our salvation. The father gave
all of his people to his son to save, and Christ came as the
mighty conqueror. And the father said of him in
Isaiah 42, you behold my serpent, look to him, look, he shall not
fail. He's the mighty conqueror. And
then in time, he appeared. He appeared in Bethlehem, born
of a virgin, almighty God, born of a virgin laid in a manger.
And he lived his life. He lived the life of a poor,
homeless man. Just had a few fishermen as his
friends. One of them wasn't a very good
friend at all, was he? And then he went to Calvary. And he went
there as the conqueror. Through his death, the Lord Jesus
Christ completely, utterly conquered every enemy. He crushed all opposition
by his death. Christ conquered the sin of his
elect by washing it away with his blood. He conquered, he crushed,
he took the power of death away from his people by dying as their
substitute. He conquered Satan. He crushed
his head with his bruised heel. He conquered every enemy. And conquering is what he's doing
right now. Right now, the Lord Jesus Christ
is conquering the hearts of his people through the preaching
of the gospel. That's the only way we'll ever
surrender to Christ. The only way we'll ever submit
to him is if he conquers us through his gospel by giving us faith
to believe the gospel. Christ came and conquered and
he's still conquering his people that he bought at Calvary Street.
And he's going to keep every last one of them. He conquered
them. They belong to him. He's not
going to let any of them go. Christ has conquered every enemy. So no enemy, no man, no demon,
no spiritual enemy, no fleshly enemy, no enemy can pluck us
out of His hand because He's conquered every enemy and they
can't do anything without His will. Now, we're still in the
world and John especially, the people he was writing this letter
to were just suffering so greatly. In every way they were suffering.
We're in this world suffering, maybe not to the degree they
were, but we're suffering. What's our comfort in it? Christ
our Savior said, I've conquered the world. I've overcome the
world. And we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. This
world's not going to crush you. It's not going to conquer you.
Christ has already conquered it. And he reigns over it. He reigns over this world as
the sovereign potentate for this reason. to ensure the salvation
of His people that He conquered. God's given Him a crown. John
says here that a crown was given to Him. Who gave Him that crown?
The Father did. And He rides this white horse
with a crown on His head. Now it seems to me, if you're
riding a horse, a crown's going to fall off real easily. That's
what it seems to me. But it doesn't. because he is
in total control. There's nothing here out of control.
His victory is guaranteed. He's riding around conquering
to conquer, not wearing a helmet on his head to protect his head.
You know, we take unto us the helmet of salvation to protect.
He's not wearing a helmet to protect himself. He's wearing
a crown because he rules and reigns, he conquers as king.
The victory has already been won. See, this isn't something
that's going to happen someday. It's already happened and keeps
happening for his people throughout human history. Christ is King. And because he's King, we know
this. Everyone, every human being, man, woman, boy, girl, everyone
is going to be brought to the feet of Christ the King. If Christ
is our Savior, He's already brought us to His feet, hasn't He? We
bow before Him. We beg Him for mercy. When God
saves a sinner, the first thing He reveals to us is this. Christ
is King. He doesn't have to save me. Now,
He could. He could. He's merciful. He's
the Savior. But if He does, it's going to
be by His choice. By His choice. God's mercy is
sovereign mercy. What does sovereign mercy mean?
It means he shows it on whom he will. It's his choice. Well, where does that leave me?
Bowing at his feet, begging for mercy. And that's where he brings
every one of his people. Bowing at his feet, begging for
mercy, and every one of them gets it. But if we refuse to
bow to King Jesus, if we refuse to bow to him now, and we die
in that rebellion, at the judgment we're going to bow. Every knee
on that day is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
on that day that Jesus Christ is Lord. He's King. Christ is
the conquering King. We'll either bow at His feet
or we'll be His footstool. But one way or another, we're
going to be at His feet because He's the conquering King. So
what does that mean? What does the opening of this
first seal mean to the believer? as we go through our life. What
about the opening of this seal can you put in your lunch bucket
and take with you out in the world tomorrow? It's this. Believer, you go through this
life trusting, looking to your sovereign king to rule all things
for you. He's ruling all things for your
salvation. He's ruling all things to ultimately
bring you to glory. I don't know what's going to
happen between here and there. But if you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, I know where this thing's going to end up, because
our sovereign king is ruling all things to ultimately bring
all of his people to glory. So you go through this life understanding
this, that whatever it is you're going through, whatever it is
that's happening to you right now, it's happening according
to God's divine purpose. That's his will. your salvation
and for his glory. That's what the opening of this
first seal reveals to us. That's a comfort, isn't it? All
right. In verse three, here's the second
seal. And we had opened the second seal. I heard the second beast
say, come and see. Now that I went out another horse
that was red and power was given to him that sat there on to take
peace from the earth and that they should kill one another.
And there was given unto him a great sword. Now again, this
beast, God's preacher, says, John, come and see. Come see.
Pay attention to this now. Come see part of God's will for
his people being revealed. Here's what's revealed in the
opening of the second seal. God's people are going to suffer
in this earth. That's God's will for his people.
That's a whole lot different than what you see on TV. I saw
this nut job yesterday. saying that God gave him a gift
of this anointing, and if you'll send him $100, you'll get $1,000.
If you send him $1,000, you'll get $10,000. His anointing is
to get you out of debt. That's not what this book says.
Christ told his disciples, you count the cost. You follow me,
but you count the cost. You go into this with your eyes
wide open. It is God's will. for his people to suffer in this
world. But here's what the meaning of
the second seal, opening of the second seal reveals to us. Christ
is going to keep all of his people through all their suffering.
He's going to keep them. He will be their comfort and
he will bring them through it. God's elect will never be put
into the fiery furnace of God's wrath against their sin. Christ
died for you, God is never punishing you for your sin. Never. Your
substitute's already been punished. But it is His will that we be
put into the fiery furnace of trial to refine us and to draw
us closer to our Savior. Now that's what the opening of
this seal means. Now the second horse John saw was red. And you
know red, it pictures blood. the blood of God's saints, the
blood of his martyrs, the blood, the suffering, just the general
suffering of all of his people. And this is very interesting.
Just as soon as the white horse comes, the red horse is right
behind him. The red horse is right on his
tail. Our warfare with sin, the sin that's within us and the
sins that is without us in this world. I tell you when that warfare
comes, That warfare comes just as soon as the white horse comes.
Soon as you're made righteous in Christ, as soon as you look
to Him and believe Him, as soon as He shoots that arrow into
your heart and conquers you and gives you a new heart, at that
very moment, your warfare with sin begins. The red horse is
right behind you. That's the experience of every
child of God in this world. Here in a couple of weeks, we'll
be looking at in Romans where Paul is talking about the civil
war going on inside every believer. You never fought against yourself
till you're born again. There's somebody to fight with.
That's this red horse. As soon as that white horse comes,
we're made righteous in Christ. We rest in him. We rest from
the law in him. We're forgiven of our sin in
him. Then that warfare of sin begins. And we suffer in this
world. Not because the world has some
power over us, no. It's because this is God's will
for His people. And He uses this world as a tool
in His hand to accomplish His purpose. He'll use this world
in His hand, now it's in His hand, it's not out of control,
it's in His hand, to accomplish His will, just the exact same
way He used the will of man to accomplish the death of Christ.
It was the will of man to take Christ and do everything they
did to Him. That was man's will, wasn't it? But God was using
that the whole time to accomplish His eternal purpose of the salvation
of His people through the sacrifice of Christ. He's going to use
this world to cause suffering for His people, to accomplish
His purpose, to refine us, to draw us closer to Christ, and
He will keep us through every one of them. Now, the rider of
this horse It's not a specific person. It's just the attitude
and way of this world. And the Lord's given this world
some power. Power has been given to it. It's been given some authority.
But the authority this world has over you is authority that's
on loan from God. And they can only go as far as
God lets them. Their power is limited to what
God's given them to accomplish his purpose and no more. And
they certainly will take peace from this earth. Man's accomplished
that. I mean, this is not something
that's going to happen. No, this world is never at peace. The
way of man just run amuck in this world has taken peace from
this world by making war on everybody, especially on God's people. But
listen now, John says they're going to take peace away from
the earth. They're not going to take it
away from God's people. They're just going to take it away from
the earth. Christ, our conquering savior, has already made peace
for his people. He's already bought it. He made
it through the blood of his sacrifice. So that peace, peace with God,
because our sins forgiven. Peace with God, because our sins
have been washed away. Peace with God, because we've
been made righteous in Christ. That can never be taken away.
Christ, our conquering savior, has already accomplished it.
But they can take away our earthly peace. But they can never take
away our spiritual peace. And that's what really matters
anyway. You see, this is not something that's taking away
a peace from the earth. That's not something that's going
to happen someday. You just all you got to do is just take a
glance at this morning's newspaper. You're going to see that there's
no peace in this earth. The world has been doing this
forever. And this is God's will. This
is God's will for His people to draw us away from this world
and to draw us closer to Christ. Look at Matthew chapter 10. This
is nothing new. Our Lord told us that this is
the experience of every one of His children. It's His will for
them. Even to the believer, this is
a fair statement. I honestly would not mind. I'd
be thankful to leave this world right now. I'd be thankful. But I'd be thankful if the Lord
lets me stay awhile and there's things, you know, I'm looking
forward to things I'd like to enjoy. There's things of this
world that are sweet to us. Even the belief, maybe they're
good things, maybe they're bad things, but either way, there's
things in this world that sweet to us. The Lord is going to bring
us to the point We're ready to leave. We're anxious to leave.
Matthew 10 verse 34. Think not that I am come to send
peace on the earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. Christ didn't come to send peace
on earth. He came to bring peace to the hearts of his people.
Peace with God. I'm not come to send peace, but
a sword. For I'm come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And
a man's foes should be they of his own household. 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. Christ
is going to be first. And he that taketh not his cross
and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth
his life should lose it. He that seeks his life in this
world, he's going to lose it. But he that loseth his life for
my sake So find us. And that's what the opening of
this second seal reveals. There's going to be suffering
in this world. The people of this world cannot possibly understand
you who believe. They can't possibly understand
that. There's just going to be differences.
They're not going to understand. At the very minimum, they're
going to mock and make fun, and they don't understand. And people in this world, they've
been killing one another from the beginning of time. And they're
going to keep doing it. They're going to keep making
each other suffer. They're going to keep making everybody unhappy.
And they're especially going to want to do that to God's children.
I mean, they're going to want to make you unhappy. They're
going to want to make you suffer. And if they could, they'd kill you.
That's happened from the very beginning of man's time on this
earth. Cain killed his brother Abel.
Abel was the first martyr. And how many of them there have
been since? Too many to count. Now, by God's will, That doesn't
happen too often today. It doesn't happen to it now.
It can happen. You know, somebody wants to lock your head off and,
you know, for preaching the gospel and other parts of the world,
maybe they can do it and get away with it. It doesn't happen in this
country at this time. We'd be thankful, but it's not
because man has gotten to the point that they don't hate, hate
God and they don't hate his gospel and they'd like to kill you.
That hadn't changed about man's nature. They're just being restrained.
But their hatred, it's real, whether they can actually kill
your body or they can't, you know, their hatred is real. Hatred and suffering in this
world is real. Does that have any effect whatsoever
on your relationship with Christ? Not in the least. They want to
harm you. They hate you. Can they take away your salvation?
Can they take away your hope? They can take away your peace
on this earth. They can make you uncomfortable here, but can
they take away your hope? Can they take away your peace?
Can they take away your comfort? No, they can't. Look at Romans
chapter eight. Now remember, I told you this,
this is not written to scare us to death about the events
surrounding our Lord's return. It's written for the comfort
and assurance of God's people. Yes, the world hates you. Yes,
the world would like to make you suffer. They don't understand
you, but Christ our Savior rules over them. They can't take away
anything from you that's important. Romans 8 verse 35. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Should tribulation or
distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
As it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long.
We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. They'd like to kill
us. They count us as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things, we're more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Yes, the world hates the believer,
but nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing can separate God's elect
from Christ's love for them. The world counts us worthy of
death, but Christ our Savior, Christ, the conquering, reigning
Savior, counts his people worthy of eternal life and worthy of
his love. I can take that with me out in
the world now, can't you? I hope the Lord will bless that to us.