All right, if you will, take
your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 6. Everything that we've read and
studied in the first five chapters of this book have been leading
up to chapter 6. Chapter 6 has to do with the
opening of the seals of God's book of Revelation. In chapter one, we saw our Lord
as the glorified Christ, the Son of God and the Son of
Man, and we saw Him walking among His people, holding His pastors
in His right hand, as if to say, what or whom shall we fear? He walks among the churches.
Now, if we were here on our own and by ourself, we'd have much
to fear. but if he walks with us. That's
what Moses said, if you ain't going, I ain't going. And then in chapters 2 and 3
we read the epistles which Christ dictated and sent by his pastors
in the power of the Holy Ghost to the beloved churches. And
in these epistles we read of the state of the local churches
and how our Lord deals with each church in that state. And that helps us to understand
his dealings with his churches all through the gospel age. And
then in chapter 4, we're called up with the Apostle John into
heaven itself. And it begins with a clear view
of the throne. And then the 24 elders representing
the church of the living God, and the four beasts representing
God's gospel preachers in every age. And you might wonder, how
does that preacher get that these beasts are preachers? Where's the verse that tells
you that? You just need to read all the way through the book
and see where these beasts are located, and who they're talking
to and what it has to say about these beasts. These beasts were
chosen, he said, out of every nation and tongue under heaven
and redeemed by the blood of Christ. So he's not talking about
something foreign. He's not talking about angels.
We know angels. There's no redemption for angels.
So he's talking about men. And where are these men located?
Between God and these elders which represent the church. And
so these beasts represent gospel preachers in every age. And in
this chapter, we get a clear view of God's wisdom, His power,
glory, and greatness, assuring us that His throne is secure.
That's what John saw first, the throne of God. And that tells
us that everything's going to be secure, and therefore His
people are safe. And then in chapter 5, he focuses
on three things. the throne, the book, and the
Lamb. And this throne symbolizes His
absolute sovereignty over all things. And the book represents
all that God has purposed to do and to reveal to chosen sinners. And the Lamb is He alone who
is able and worthy to reveal God's everlasting purpose of
grace. And to see our Savior aright,
a man must see him upon the throne. If you're going to see him right,
religion represents him pacing back and forth before a banister
looking down upon men and weeping and crying because they won't
do what he would have them to do. That's not how the Bible
represents the Son of God. He's in the midst of the throne.
He's seated upon the throne and he does all his will. Now this
morning in chapter 6, we're going to see our sovereign Savior as
He begins to open to us that which God has purposed to be. And it's the natural inclination
of all men to try to apply these things to times and seasons and
all sorts of things. But you remember what I told
you from the beginning. These visions all begin with
the appearance of Christ And they take in all the gospel age
all the way until the end. Six of the seven seals are opened
in this chapter. There are seven seals. Six of
them are opened by Christ in this sixth chapter. So let's
look at these things and carefully and prayerfully and see if the
Lord Himself won't be pleased to reveal these things to us.
Revelation 6-1. And I saw when the Lamb opened
one of the seals, and I heard as if it were the noise of thunder,
and one of the four beasts saying, Come and see." Now, way back yonder in the history
of man, there appeared in the tombs of the great Egyptian pharaohs
a language And when those tombs were excavated and men went in
to look into those things and to see what those things were
all about, they found a language there that they didn't understand.
And for years they tried to interpret it. It was a pictorial language
and it pictured things but they couldn't make any sense out of
it. They couldn't read it as we would read something in our
own language. And then when one of the tombs was excavated, they found a small
book made out of stone. And this book, because it was
near the city of Rosetta, was called the Rosetta Stone. And
this book unlocked the mystery of hieroglyphics to men. So they
could look at that ancient language and they could understand all
those things that were held in the mystery of those pictures
that were printed in them tombs. And what John is about to tell
us here in chapter 6 is that Christ is the Rosetta Stone. If you would understand what
God is revealing to us and what God has purpose to do, you're
going to understand it through Him. And not only are you going
to understand it through him as the Christ, but as the Lamb
as if he were slain. Now that's who took the book
and began to open the book. The Lamb opens the seals. And
when the Lamb opens the mysteries of God, one of the beasts, his
preachers say to chosen sinners, come and see. Come and see. That's what he tells the elders.
Come and see. Now I want you to see something
here. Preachers don't have anything
new or different to share with the world. You know, I was talking
to somebody about the purpose of God one time and it was one
of my relatives, I don't remember which one, but they said to me,
don't you think those things that were written back there
were written for that time? I said, no. No, I think they
were written just like yesterday's newspaper. I think they're just
as applicable to me as it were to them. And I know that that's
so. But we don't have anything new
or different to share with the world. What we have is the revelation
of Christ. And as Christ unlooses these
seals, the preachers say, look, look, look what's revealed. Isn't
that what I tell you every Sunday? Look! Today we're going to look
at Luke chapter 6 and I'm going to tell you, look! Come and see! Come and see what Christ has
said and what Christ has done. But men hear a man say something
and it runs contrary to what we think or know and we immediately
then turn a deaf ear to it. Preachers point men and women
to the revelation of Christ in the book of God. And that's what's
taking place here in chapter six. All right, verse two. He said, look, and John said,
I saw. If God gives you eyes to see,
you'll look and you'll see. John said, 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 the first thing revealed
to chosen sinners in the purpose of God is the conquering Christ. When Christ is revealed to the
hearts of chosen sinners, that's how He's revealed. That's the
first thing they understand. He sits on the throne. He conquers. He does the work. He gets the
glory. This is the Son of God, and He's
the victor. All the way through, He's the
victor. So the first thing revealed to chosen sinners is the conquering
Christ. The sovereign Christ is the only
Christ that can do the sinner any good. Once a sinner knows
what he is, and knows what's around him,
and knows his potential, nothing else can help him but the sovereign
Christ. The sinner is powerless against
the fallen nature. What can you do against the fallen
nature? You can't do anything. And if
God reveals that to you, you'll sit and shiver in your boots.
There's nothing I can do. This nature reigns in me. It reigns in my thoughts and
it reigns in the lust of the flesh. It reigns in me every
day, every second, every minute. It rains. Paul said, I discovered
something. After I was born of God, I discovered
that in me is a law. When I would do good, evil's
present with me. That's what I'm saying. And you're
powerless against this nature, this nature of sin. All man's
faculties are subject to his nature, his will, his affection,
his mind. And the sinner's powerless against
that. And he's powerless against the prince of the power of the
air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
You know he says in the scripture that Satan takes men captive
at his will? At his will. It's no big thing for him to
take you captive. Over in 2 Timothy 2, 26, it tells
you that. Satan's a master of deceit and
even the Lord's disciples were fooled by the religious prestige
of his ministers, the Pharisees. And they tried on several occasions
to intercede for him with the Lord, trying to defend the Pharisees
before the Lord. Why would you do that unless
you were completely duped by them and just deceived? And our Lord said this, they're
going to rise false Christ and false prophets that will show
great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible,
even the very elect should be deceived. So we're powerless
against this enemy, Satan. You're no match for Satan. I
can tell you that right now. You're no match for him. There's
nobody a match for him except the Son of God. Sinners need a conquering savior,
one who's able to overcome the strong man and spoil his house. One who's able to save us out
of the kingdom of darkness and deadness and sin. The beast said, come and see. And John said, I saw him sitting
upon a white horse and in his hand a bow. Job likens this bow
to the gospel. Listen, he said when his arm
was strengthened with the bow, this is Job talking, he said
unto men, unto me men gave ear and waited and kept silence at
my counsel. They listened to me. After my words they spake not
again, and my speech dropped upon them and they waited for
me as for the rain and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter
rain. He said this when the bow was
renewed in his hand. Now this is Christ on this horse
holding this bow and this bow represents his everlasting gospel.
By this bow his enemies are slain, his kingdom is established, and
his peace was brought to pass. And then it says this, he had
a bow in his hand. You know there's only one weapon
that the Lord uses when he goes to battle. That bow. That bow. And he hits what he shoots at.
Those arrows strike exactly where he shoots them. And his enemies
are slain. And a crown was given unto him.
By virtue of his obedience to his father and as a reward for
his travail, he'd been given power and authority over all
things. It's the very basis by which
he encourages his disciples in Matthew 28, 18 to go and preach
his gospel to all nations. And our lives are to be lived
humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may
exalt us in due time casting all our cares upon him for he
cares for us. Christ is he who sits upon this
white horse and what's he doing? What's the Son of God doing mounted
on this horse and charging into this world? What's he doing?
Conquering. That's what he's come to do.
Conquer. Conquer. And who's going to stop him?
Who's going to keep him from doing what he set out to do?
Nobody. Now, I think you might be surprised.
I titled the message this morning, The Four Horsemen. At these next
three horsemen, I think you might be surprised at the revelation
of these things. Sometimes these are called the
horsemen of the apocalypse. Verse 3, when he'd opened the
second seal, I heard, and the second beast said, Come and see. And there went out another horse
that was red. And power was given to him that
sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should
kill one another. And there was given unto him
a great sword. The red horse is a symbol of
war and slaughter. and you might even insert in
that the law. What does the law do to a man?
Slays him. It slays him. Now the carnal
man's mind is enmity against God, it's not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. And there's great unrest
in natural man that causes him to be at odds with the people
of God, the law of God, and the way of God. He's always at war. He's at war with himself. He's
always at war. Cain was infuriated at his brother
Abel's attempt to reconcile him. Abel went out to reconcile him,
went out to calm him down and tell him why God made this judgment
on him. And he didn't want to hear it.
And he rose up in anger and slew his brother. So twisted is the
minds and hearts of natural men that they think death and bloodshed
will bring about peace and reward. He thought, well, I'll just get
him out of the picture altogether, and then I'll have peace. He
killed his brother. Isn't that what men think today?
We'll just take them out of the way, and then we'll have peace.
No, because the warfare is in here. Warfare is in here. Paul said, for thy sake, talking
about the believer, we're killed all the day long. We're counted
as sheep for the slaughter. So throughout this gospel age,
the red horse is going to carry its sword and he's going to stain
the ground with the blood of God's saints, either in a physical
way or a physical and spiritual way. And then following the red horse
comes another horse. This is a black horse. Revelation
6 verse 5. When he'd opened the third seal,
I heard and the third beast said, Come and see. And I beheld and
lo a black horse. And he that sat on him had a
pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst
of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, Three measures
of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the
wine. Now the black horse is the symbol
of economic hardship. It's describing the poverty and
injustice that'll come in all ages until the end of time. It's always gonna be. You know,
every time a generation appears, they say, boy, this is just the
worst generation. If they would have been like
the generation before, no, they were just as evil as you are.
Just as evil. God's people are not spared the
hardships of poverty and economic hardship and injustice of men
when they come. And what he's telling us here
is that it's coming. It's coming. We're even now experiencing
some of those hardships, and we're experiencing them even
as others. But what our conquering Savior
will have us to know is that even in such hard times, we'll
have enough. We're gonna have enough. A loaf
of bread may cost a day's pay, but we'll have a loaf of bread.
Huh? And that's all we needed. That's
all we needed. And then secondly, that this
poverty, famine, and persecution can never sever us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Can't do it. Can't
do it. Listen to this. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? That's trouble. Distress? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Or so what? Nay, and all these
things were more than conquerors through him that loved us. And
then lastly, he speaks here of a pale horse. Revelation 6 verse
7. Actually, we'll read 7 and 8
together. And when he'd opened the fourth seal, I heard the
voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and
beheld a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was Death.
And hell followed with him. And power was given unto them,
that is, these horsemen, over the fourth part of the earth,
to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with
beasts of the earth. That is, he'll kill men even
with the beasts of the earth. Now the pale horse is the symbol
of death and the grave. And like all these other things
is the common woe of all mankind. We're going to die. We don't
want to think about it. We like to put it off. Not something
we sit around and meditate about, but you need to. You need to. You're going to die. And then
what? Then what are you going to do?
Death's coming. Famine's coming. Trouble's coming.
Bloodshed's coming. It's all coming. He represents
those things to us as he opens these seals and shows us these
horsemen and what they represent. He shows us also that death comes
by many means, but always to the same end. Now there's five
things that if we truly believe and understand will help us during
our life in this present evil world. First of all, to face
up to the fact that all these things are upon us and are yet
to come. And they're going to affect us
every day of our life. So we need to prepare. You don't
read these things and say, boy, I wish so-and-so was here. That
would have done him some good. No. It's coming on you. It's
coming on you. And I tell you, when it comes,
it's so fast, it's in your lap. It's in your face before you
even know what happened. All that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. And then secondly, to know that
all these things represented by these horses are purposed
and sent of God into this world. Now I'm gonna give you something
to think about. It just may be that Christ sits
on all four horses. I didn't read that. It's just
something that came to me this morning as I was reading and
studying this passage. It might be. Who controls these things? Who steers the horse of persecution? Who steers that horse of bloodshed? Who sends these things? These
things just happen at random? No, we're being told here that
these come out of the book of God's purpose. And it just may
be that Christ sits on all four horses and he's bringing those
things to you. And he's bringing them to you
for a reason. For a reason. We need to know that all these
things represented by these horses are purposed and sent of God
into this world. And then thirdly, that God uses
these sorrows and afflictions to refine the pure gold of your
faith, which He gave to you, and to strengthen our love and
dependence upon Him, and also just to make us flat out sick
of this world. Fourthly, to assure us that in
the midst of all these things, our great conqueror is in the
midst. Now the red, the black, and the
pale horses are not alone in this world, but also that white
horse and the sovereign savior who sits upon it. And then fifthly,
that our days here are short, and they're soon going to be
behind us. and some of you young fellas and young women you're
not going to know what that means for a few more years and then
it's going to settle in and you'll understand that your days are
short and that's a blessing that's a blessing one of the reasons he sends these
sorrows upon us is to wean us from this world and to make us
so miserable here that we'll pray to be with him you know
Paul said to die and be with Christ is far better. He said
that's better. But he said it's more needful
at the moment for me to be here with you and preach and teach
you. But the better part is to be
with him. And this was a man who knew suffering.
He knew troubles, persecution, and so on. And he said it'd be
better just to go be with him. May God help you to understand
those things that I've said this morning.