Well, it's good to be back with
you after the two weeks that we've had away. We've been having
our issues, as you know. Hopefully, this will keep running
whilst we finish this message. But I want us to look this morning
at Revelation chapter 6, verses 1 You know, you might think about
where the real important matters go on. You know, I'm sure all
of those working in politics, you know, they'd be buzzing around
Whitehall corridors even on this Sunday morning, thinking that
without their finger on the pulse, the whole world will come to
a halt, and in the White House in America, and all over the
place. They think it's so important, but do you know what we are considering
here in these verses of Revelation? This is the throne room of the
universe. This is where God speaks. This is where the Lamb of God
is sending forth these horses into the world. He is the one
who is controlling all things. You know, we live in troublesome
days. We live in days, the last three years, one of the reasons
I'm returning to Revelation when it's so recent in 2015, 16, that
we looked at it the first time through. But the last three years
have done so much to underline that the end is coming, that
God's kingdom will be triumphant, that the wrath is coming. Flee from the wrath to come is
the message of Scripture. This book of Revelation is given
by God, it tells us in the first verse of the book, to show his
servants things that must shortly happen, to show us today what
is happening and why it's happening, that we might not fear, that
we might not be alarmed, that we might not be concerned that
someone other than our loving God, our brother, our friend,
Our Master, our Lord, is in charge of all things. This unfolding
of world history is in accordance entirely with God's decree and
direction. We often, even as believers,
are perplexed at this life. You know you believe the truth
but you're perplexed. Why are things like they are?
What is it all about is a question that I've heard and I often pose. What is it all about? Well here
in these verses is the key, the key from heaven to understand. And my prayer is that you see
what is here revealed And not just get intellectual satisfaction
from that, an intellectual smugness that you see what is going on
and why it's going on, but, above all, that you seek the One who
controls all for the eternal triumph of His kingdom. For if
you find Him, if you find the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of
God, you will have life. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 9
says this, if we receive the witness of men, if we listen
to what people tell us, the witness of God is greater. let that sink
in. If you receive the witness, you
listen to what men tell you when they tell you to do this, that
and the other, and we obediently do it without questioning it,
the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God
which he hath testified of his Son. Listen to what God says. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath
made him a liar. Do you disbelieve God? You're
calling God a liar. Because he believeth not the
record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us, his people, you that believe. He has given
to us that believe eternal life. And this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Isn't that
absolutely crucial? This is what it's all about.
That you might know that you have life. Not just that you
have an intellectual smugness to know why the world and its
history is unfolding as it is. but that you might know the Son
of God, because in knowing Him, you have life, the life of God
in your soul, a hope of eternity. You'll know that your sins which
would separate you for eternity from God have been dealt with,
they've been paid for, they've been cleared by the Son of God
Himself. Now then, we're in chapter 6
of Revelation. We're in the middle of the second
of the seven visions that were given to John in this book on
the Isle of Patmos, 1900 and however many years ago it was,
about AD 95. In the first three chapters we saw Christ and his
people in this present world. Christ moving amongst his churches,
Christ in the midst of his people, in this world. He prayed not
that we be taken out of this world, but that the Father would
keep his people from what he called the evil. That's in John
17. Then in chapters 4 to 7, we have a heavenly perspective. We have a vision of sovereign
power. We have in chapter 4 a vision
of the kingdom of God triumphant in its settled final state. Sovereign
power. We have a vision of the direction
of world history. We have a vision of the population
of God's kingdom triumphant. So The first four seals are loosed
in chapter 6 verses 1 to 8, and that's what I want to look at.
The first four seals of the seven-sealed book, which is the book of the
plan of God for his kingdom to triumph over the kingdom of Satan,
for Satan to be destroyed. That plan is in that book. Who
is worthy to implement that plan? Only one was found. It was the
lion of the tribe of Judah. And then, not as a lion, but
as a lamb as it had been slain. The lion of the tribe of Judah.
Look, look, nobody was found worthy. Nobody was found worthy
to populate the kingdom of God with qualified sinners, with
sinners redeemed from their sins, with sinners redeemed from the
bondage of corruption, with sinners made the children of God, citizens
of his kingdom. Nobody was found worthy, but
don't weep, John, don't weep. Look, the lion of the tribe of
Judah has prevailed. As Jacob said in Genesis 49,
he would. The lion of the tribe of Judah,
and he looked, and in the midst of the throne of God was not
a lion, but was a lamb as it had been slain. And he alone
was qualified to implement God's plan for the triumph of his kingdom
for only he in that role of a lamb slain has paid the price of the
sins of his people and therefore God who cannot allow anything
which defileth, any sin into his perfect blissful, sinless
kingdom, He is able to allow them, for they are made meat
by the blood of the Lamb. And the implementation of the
plan is the same as unloosing the seals, opening the seals.
The Lamb, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest to
His people, opens each of the seals, and He opens these first
four seals. And one of the four beasts, who
I think are the four beasts of creation in that vision of heaven,
one of the four beasts for each one, they say, come. It says
in our translation, come and see, as if it's saying to John,
come and have a look at this. It isn't. That and see should
not be there. He's saying come come forth the
horse come forth the beasts of creation Four of them and each
one says come forth to a white horse to a red horse to a black
horse to a pale horse with its rider come First of all, a white
horse, I saw, verse 2, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat
on him had a bow, as in a bow and arrow, and a crown was given
unto him, or a wreath, a wreath of victory, and he went forth
conquering and to conquer. White is symbolical of victory. In Revelation 19 and verse 11
we see there a vision right at the end, I saw heaven opened
and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
called faithful and true. This is clearly the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in righteousness he doth judge and make war. So white is symbolical of victory. It's symbolical of righteousness
and of holiness and of perfection. He has a bow, a bow as in bows
and arrows. In Psalm 45 and verse 5 we read,
Speaking to God, thy arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's
enemies. He has a piercing weapon that
goes right through to the heart, and a crown or a wreath of victory,
conquering. This is a victorious picture.
This is a picture of the gospel, of sovereign grace. This is a
picture of the force of God, of the truth of God, of the gospel
of God, which has redeemed a multitude from the curse of sin, from the
curse of the law. And he is victorious, that is
the symbol. World history is powerfully affected
by the going of the gospel of God's kingdom. Yes, of course,
it calls out the elect of God, the true people of God, who believe
him and go to his eternity in the end. But it's also powerful
in that it affects a lot of mankind, what we might call Christendom.
Christendom is a result of this white horse going forth. Not
everybody is saved, not everybody is truth, but nevertheless, this
white horse going into the world's history has a powerful effect
on it. It's the Kingdom of God coming.
What did Christ preach? When he went ministering, his
ministry was this. The Kingdom of God is at hand.
That's what he preached. That white horse is sent forth
into world history. We'll think about why a little
bit later, but let's look at the others. Then, Verse three,
when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast
say, come. I'm not saying the and C because
I don't think it's there really. I heard the second beast say,
come, come this horse and its rider. And there went out another
horse that was red. Here's a red horse and power
was given to him. He goes out into world history
and power was given to him that sat there on to take peace from
the earth. What? God sends forth a force,
symbolized by a red horse, to take peace from the earth. But
isn't the objective of God's kingdom to create peace on the
earth, you might say? Apparently not, if we believe
what God's word says. God sent forth a red horse to
take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another.
What? That's what it says. And there was given unto him
a great sword, a weapon of war. Red speaks of fire, of war. There's a sword. The Lamb sets
loose a power to bring war between the peoples of the earth. Just
let that sink in and meditate on it. Why is there war in the
world? Because the lamb has set forth
and is setting forth and it continues a red horse to take peace from
the earth that they should kill one another. You say, that's
shocking. I didn't believe that. I didn't
know that. Well, read the scriptures and ask God to show you what
it says. It says that. And then thirdly, Verse five,
when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast,
these are the four beasts of creation, we saw them in chapter
four, I heard the third beast say, come, come again, come forth. And I beheld, and lo, a black
horse. And he that sat on him had a
pair of balances in his hand, a symbol of equity, of justice,
of pluses and minuses. And I heard a voice in the midst
of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat for a penny. and three
measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil
and the wine. The black horse, the lamb, sends
forth into the history of this world, in the plan of God, to
recover His kingdom, from the clutches of Satan, is a black
horse who is the horse of scarcity and of famine. What's this about
a measure of wheat for a penny? A measure of wheat was about
what was needed to sustain a man in his day's work, and a penny
was about the wages he got for his day's work. In other words,
it's what we call a hand-to-mouth existence. Subsistence wages
for a subsistence economy. A day's meagre wages for a day's
meagre food. The same applies to three measures
of barley for a penny. But the rich always prosper. See thou hurt not the oil and
the wine. Do you know, there's a statistic
that says, even today, and you could quote variations of it,
but let's not trip over numerical details, but I read the other
day that the richest 1% of the people of the world own about
half of all the wealth in the world. One percent, one out of
a hundred, own half the wealth of the world put together. That's
it, that's touch not the oil and the wine. He sends forth
a horse which brings such polarisation of riches and poverty. We see
it in our own society, don't we? We see We see in our own
day directors of companies being paid bonuses, bonuses, never
mind wages, bonuses that are ludicrously big. They're monstrously
big. They're obscenely big. And it's
as if that is justified when their workers are on hand-to-mouth
subsistence. You know, we see all of the discontent
and the strikes that there are. I'm not in support of strikes
and in discontent, but is it not symbolical that this horse,
sent forth by the Lamb to disrupt this world, This is the effect
of it and we see it. And then the fourth one, verse
7, when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the
fourth beast say to this horse and its rider, come. You see
the horse is a symbol of power, of military might. It's a magnificent
creature, isn't it? And it's a ridden, directed horse,
directed. the edict of the God of the universe
and he comes forth to exert his power in this world and this
fourth one he says, come and I looked and behold a pale horse
and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed with
him and power was given unto them over the fourth part of
the earth a quarter to kill with the sword and with hunger and
with death and with the beasts of the earth It's the colour
of a corpse, this pale, sickly green colour. And a quarter of
the population is killed by old age, by war, by accident, by
natural disaster, by disease, etc. What do you see in the news? Let's make sure that this can
never possibly happen again. I'm sorry it will as long as
this horse rides forth. God in Christ brings all these
influences on the unfolding of world history. Now why does he
do it? I could The problem with this
sermon is this, I could happily stand here and give you a lecture,
which I think you might even find interesting, for three hours
plus. I wouldn't have the slightest problem in that, but I'm trying
to condense it into a sub 40 minute message with the gospel
in it, because that's the key thing. Why does he send forth
these horses? Meditate on them, think more
about them. The answer is this, we live in one world, but there
are two kingdoms. All the nations of the world,
fundamentally, they're all the kingdom of Satan. There's two
kingdoms. God created this world as his
kingdom before the fall in Eden. Genesis 1, Genesis 2. Before
the fall, Adam perfectly obeyed God. And Adam's obedience connected
all of the created world as a kingdom, with Adam as its viceroy, deputized king, God made him
the viceroy of his kingdom, this created world, it connected it
completely, that obedience, that walking with God of Adam connected
the world as a kingdom with the God of that kingdom, it was the
kingdom of God. It's the world that God created,
and I believe I think this is significant, you know in John
3.16 where it says, for God so loved the world, now yes you'd
say well that means the world of his elect people, yes, but
I think it's more than that. God so loved the world he had
created, which was his kingdom in the beginning before the fall.
God so loved that that he gave his only begotten son for the
purpose of redemption, that his kingdom might be restored. with
people qualified, justified to be there. This is not the world
of reprobate rebels, which Christ said he prayed not for. In John
17.9, Jesus said, I pray not for the world, but for those
you give me out of the world. Not that world, but the world
that God had created, the world of creation. And when Adam rebelled,
all the world with him stood in rebellion and the world of
creation became the kingdom of the prince of darkness this was
satan's great coup this was satan's great act was the fall so satan
then when he was tempting jesus in matthew chapter 4 you read
there that satan took jesus to a high point and showed him all
the kingdoms of the world and said, if you will obey me, if
you will worship me, I will give you all these, pretending that
all those kingdoms were his, because he got them in the fall.
And ever since the fall, there has been continual war between
God and Satan, between Christ and Antichrist. Satan always
fights to wrest, to snatch the kingdom of this creation from
the power of God. And so there is enmity. Genesis
3.15, God says, I will put enmity between thee, Satan, and the
woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy
head, the seed of the woman, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Speaking of the cross of Christ, where Satan would bruise Christ's
heel, but Christ would bruise Satan's head. That's a mortal
wound. And the war began then, and it began straight away with
God regenerating Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We know
that because he killed a lamb, and he clothed them with skins,
and he taught them redemption. And we knew that they knew about
redemption and the seed of the woman to come. And ever from
then, there was enmity between the seed of the woman and the
seed of Satan, his seed. That's what he says, Genesis
3.15. There were two lines in this
world, the line of election of God versus reprobation. There's what we read of as the
sons of God and the daughters of men. We read about Abel, and
Cain. Abel was of the line of election.
Cain was of the line of reprobation. We read of Lamech and Enoch.
And this goes on until we read about the end of chapter 5 of
Genesis, the amalgamation of the sons of God with the daughters
of men threatened to exterminate the seed of the woman who was
Christ to come to cause to triumph the kingdom of God. And so God
sent the flood. God, you know, we always think
of God sending the flood to destroy that wicked world. It's more
this. God sent the flood to save his
kingdom from satanic sublimation, from Satan, taking even that
which was the little trace of the elect line, Noah's line,
into his kingdom. He sent the flood to save his
kingdom from Satan's plans. And then, after that, we had
Nimrod, and Babel, and the Tower of Babel, and, you know, building
a tower up to heaven, which is all speaking of globalism without
divine righteousness. That's the key to it. The kingdom
of Satan wants nothing to do with the righteousness and justice
of God, and so God confounded the languages, and the beast's
head was wounded. as we'll see in Revelation 13
when we get to it. And then God separates Abraham
and his seed, and national Israel stands alone in the world and
in world history. And today, he has his church
without any national borders. So Christ's mission is to save
the world. It is to recover God's created
kingdom from Satan. That world, this creation, longs
for its success. You say, how do you work that
out? Look at Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 19. I said that
this world, this creation, is longing and groaning. for the
triumph of God's kingdom. Look at verse 19 of Romans 8.
The earnest expectation of the creation, I'll say it that way,
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God until they've
all been called out. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not
willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same in
hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from
the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children
of God. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. It wants
this to end, for God's kingdom to be triumphant. The objective
of the book on the hand of God is the triumph of God's kingdom,
and it's the defeat and destruction of Satan and his kingdom. So
then, we ask this question, how do those four horses of chapter
6 verses 1 to 8 accomplish God's triumph? You see now, most of
what calls itself Christianity finds it easy to see the white
horse as the beneficial influence of the Christian gospel on the
world. But few understand that the red, the black and the pale
are also deliberately sent by God in His plan for the triumph
of His kingdom. Why are those horses all sent,
the white, the red, the black, the pale? It's all the accomplishment
of His plan, God's plan for the triumph of His kingdom. All four
influence and affect all mankind, believers and unbelievers, in
this fleshly existence. The people of God are not immune
from natural disaster. The people of God are not immune
from the effects of war. The people of God lose their
children in wars and such like. Disease runs through a land,
as it used to do. I pay no attention to the recent
nonsense that there's been, but when there really were proper
plagues, you know, the Black Death and ones like that. Believers
and their children died in large numbers in those things. Those
horses affect all without distinction. The white horse of Christ's redeeming
grace goes forth and calls the elect. That's obviously, who's
going to argue with that apart from those that don't believe
in election? And he reveals the accomplishment of redemption
in Christ, and confirms salvation and citizenship of the Kingdom
of God. But also, that white horse influences reprobate globalism
in the false Church of Christendom. You know, the great so-called
Christian churches, that you know are nothing in reality in
relation to the truth, but nevertheless, they are an effect of the white
horse going forth. They all seek a utopia without
divine justice and as we get to Revelation 17 we see that
which calls itself the true church of God turns out to be the whore,
turns out to be that which is completely untrue, that is completely
compromised with the kingdom of this world. It all goes on
together, all of it side by side. You know, Hebrews six, verses
seven and eight says that the rain comes down from the sky
and falls on the ground and the good crops grow, but the weeds
and the thorns grow with it. It's all influenced by the same
thing. And this is really what this is saying. all the good
line from God and the reprobate line are all under the same common
grace as it were and so Christendom preaches a social gospel of love
and a peace for all and of global unity without divine justice
if you think that's the message of the true church think again
Read your Bible. It is not, that is not the message
of Christ's church. You know, you go to, let's make
poverty history. It sounds like a wonderful aspiration.
It is not the message of the true church of God. Love, peace
for all, global unity, that is not the message. Because one
of the biggest dangers to the people of God is world peace,
because it's false, because it's not based on the maintenance
and establishment and enforcement of the justice and righteousness
of God. Revelation 17, as I say, will
show us the satanic reality of what calls itself Christendom
in our day. It was one of his main tools,
Satan's main tools for the destruction of God's true kingdom. So then,
If it wasn't for the red horse, and the black horse, and the
pale horse, if it wasn't for them, the kingdom of Antichrist
would reach its peak, its zenith, prematurely. And that's the horrendous
vision of Revelation 13. And in actual fact, the days
in which we live, I believe, This last 40 years, 30 years
maybe even, it's coming to a peak that it grows more and more like
Revelation 13, where the true people of God cannot trade in
this world, we cannot commune in this world, we cannot engage
with this world, we don't think like the world, we are forbidden
from joining this, that or the other. That's the world of Revelation
13, which is the kingdom of Satan in this world. but those horses
restrain it and impede its progress to its zenith. It's more or less
as it is today. I believe this is Satan's little
season of Revelation chapter 20. Deception is at an all-time
high. You look for those that believe
the true God. They're deceived. They're deceived
by Satan. But war and hardship and death always prevented the
worldwide peaceful unity of Satan's kingdom, which he wanted without
divine justice. Down history, no one empire was
allowed to dominate for long. There was the Egyptian Empire,
the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, Medo-Persia, the Greek
Empire, Rome. None of them was allowed to persist
for too long. You see, world peace is not the
aspiration of God's people. It's their greatest danger, in
fact. The pale horse of death came to disrupt. See, each of
those empires was Satan's attempt to bring about worldwide peace
and unity, to unify everybody under one organization. Just
like today, deluded politicians, Maybe they're not so deluded,
maybe a lot of it's deliberate. They're trying to get us all
under the control of the World Economic Forum and the World
Health Organization and all these globalist things. That's the
kingdom of Satan on parade, I'm telling you. but the horses prevent
it, as he did at the Red Sea when Moses and the children of
Israel came out of Egypt. The pale horse of death destroyed
the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. The Assyrians under Sennacherib
were besieging Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah. And they were
terrified and they thought they were all going to die. And God
said, don't worry about them. They'll be gone in the morning. And thousands of them had died.
The pale horse of death rode through and killed them all.
Alexander the Great was the greatest general that has ever existed.
He went storming and conquering through the world with great
power. And at the height of his physical strength in his mid-thirties,
He was struck down by a fever. The pale horse, the pale horse
came and cut his time short. Even Jewish temple religion was
destroyed in AD 70, exactly as God had said, to frustrate Satan's
anti-Christ agenda. The horses stopped the kingdom
of Satan from triumphing. And today, the last three years,
we see it especially. Almost Revelation 13 accomplished,
exactly as the Word of God tells us. Now then, now then, here,
in the last couple of minutes, here's the challenge. When Moses
and the children of Israel came out of Egypt, Moses challenged
the people he said to them who is on the Lord's side you know
there was prevarication as to whether they were on the Lord's
side or not and he said who is on the Lord's side just as Joshua
had said choose you this day whom you will serve who is on
the Lord's side you might say that's an interesting view of
world history and how interesting that what's pictured there nearly
2,000 years ago It gives such a good explanation. You know,
what is life all about? It's these four horses going
and destructing this world. And who sends the four horses?
God! The Lamb of God sends the four horses. You might say, well,
that's a very interesting narrative. You might even say it's a compelling
narrative. Oh, it's intellectually very
satisfying as well, isn't it? Because it explains so much.
What would hinder you from believing it? Loads do not believe it. Should I tell you why, I think?
It's materialistic, godless, uniformitarian, evolutionary
philosophy is the most likely reason. It's full of it. In all
of our media, the great saints of this philosophy, Sir David
Attenborough and so on and so forth, they all have filled the
minds of generations and in the schools, the minds of children
and young people are filled with this philosophy. It's that that
stops you believing what is an utterly compelling narrative.
But you see, this isn't an intellectual debate. That's not what it's
for. It's a question of believing
God or of calling Him a liar. You see, God's kingdom will triumph. God's kingdom is triumphing. God in Christ has redeemed, already
at Calvary, his innumerable multitude of hell-deserving sinners from
the curse of sin. He's done that. His kingdom will
be populated with sinners redeemed, made the righteousness of God
in him. Blood, the blood, the precious
blood of the Lamb of God, as a lamb without blemish and without
spot, of which all those Levitical Old Testament lambs Look forward. His blood has satisfied the law's
demands. As Peter said, you are not redeemed
with silver and gold. You are not bought from the bondage
of your sin with silver and gold and corruptible things, but with
the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot. That
has satisfied the law's demands for the death of the sinner.
To believe God? To trust Christ is not just to
have a comforting, satisfying philosophy of life, sitting there
smug, knowing what life is all about. No, no, no. It's to have
eternal life. You know what we read right at
the start in 1 John 5? It says this, doesn't it? He
that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Do you have the Son of God? If
so, you have life. You understand what this world
is about. You understand what this life
is about. You have a hope which cannot be changed. You have a
permanent, unmovable hope of eternal glory. It's to have eternal
life, to be a citizen of God's kingdom, which will triumph over
Satan's kingdom. It's to have a solid hope, just
as Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said, who is on
the Lord's side? Where will you be? Where will
you seek to be found on that last day? You know, Paul said,
I want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
my own attempt to be good, but that which is of my righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Jesus
Christ. That's where I want to be found, in Him, justified in
Him. I want to be amongst that number,
His sheep, who will hear that voice saying, come ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Where will you be? Who is on
the Lord's side? Which side are you on? Are you
with Christ's sheep or with the goats to be banished from His
presence? Seek him while he may be found. Call while he is near. He has
promised to hear and to save. Amen.