I invite your attention to the
book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 6. Revelation, chapter 6. In last Lord's Day morning's
message, we presented Revelation chapters
4 and 5 in a message regarding Christ, the slain lamb, is worthy
of our honor. And in that passage, Revelation
4 and 5, we read of the vision that John saw of all human beings
and all the angels, all God's creatures. Around God's throne, God is seated
in the middle of the universe on his throne. And around his
throne are the four living creatures, evidently, cherubs. They're an
order of angels and they stand before God and declare his holiness. They are attendants as they were
around his throne. Then, around God's throne are
the 24 elders seated around God's throne and these represent all
the members of the church of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 24 thrones from the 12 tribes
of Israel and from the 12 apostles of the Lamb. Beyond them are
all the angels. Multitudes, thousands and thousands,
ten thousands and ten thousands, John saw them in that vision. Then, beyond them, John saw every
creature that is on the earth and under the earth. John was
here even seeing, evidently, Satan and his demons and all
who are not gods. The occasion was the ascension
of Jesus Christ to the throne of God. God seated on His throne,
and He has a scroll in His hand. On this scroll, inside and out,
were written God's decree. But there was no one who was
able to open the scroll. Who can open this scroll? No
one can. Then John began weeping because
there's no one there who could open the scroll and declare God's
decree. And then John saw a lamb as it
had been slain. This lamb is Jesus Christ. And
in His ascension into glory, He climbed the steps up to God's
throne and took the scroll out of His hand. and then began to
open its seven seals. There were seven of these seals.
No man could open the seals, therefore no one could read the
decree. Now, Jesus Christ, in His ascension
to glory, has taken that scroll in His hand, and He now will,
one by one, open the seven seals of God's decree. And as He does,
John writes what happens with the opening of each decree. I'm going to read to you now
chapter 6, verses 1 through 8. Now I saw when the Lamb opened
one, that is, the first of the seals, and I heard one of the
four living creatures around God's throne say with a voice
like thunder, Come and see! And I looked, and behold, a white
horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given
to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When he, Christ
the Lamb, opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature
say, Come and see! And another horse, fiery red,
went out. And it was granted to the one
who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should
kill one another. And there was given to him a
great sword. When he, Christ the Lamb, opened
the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come and
see! And I looked, and behold, a black
horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales, or balances,
in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst
of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for
a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and
do not harm the oil and the wine. When he opened the fourth seal,
I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come
and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale
horse, and the name of him who sat on it was Death. and Hades
followed with him. And power was given to them over
a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, with hunger,
with death, and by the beasts of the earth." Four horses, each
a different color. These four horses are commonly
called the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Apocalypse, what
does that mean? Nowadays, when you ask people,
you know, what is apocalypse? What does it mean? They say,
well, it has to do with end time, in the apocalyptic times, but
that is not the meaning of the word. The word apocalypse means
uncovering, unveiling, or a revealing. It would be something like when
a sculptor makes a statue, and he wants to show this statue
on the day that it is presented or dedicated. And he has put
his statue with a big sheet or a tarpaulin or some sort of device
that covers it. And on the day when the statue
is to be revealed, they remove the cover. And this is an apocalypse. This is what the word means.
It means uncovering, unveiling, a revealing. An apocalypse is
the name of this book. The word revelation is the word
apocalypse. This is the apocalypse of Jesus
Christ. This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. This is the book in which Jesus
Christ is revealed to his people. Now, Jesus has began opening
the seven seals, and with each seal, something happens. And
these four horses and their horsemen, the riders on them, called the
four horsemen of the apocalypse, they are associated with the
first four of the seven seals. The first seal is opened, a white
horse is seen. Second seal is opened, a red
horse is seen. Third seal is opened, and a black
horse is seen. And the fourth seal is opened,
and a pale horse is seen. And all these horses and the
riders on them have great significance. And I'm going to try today to
make this as simple as I can. It really is not all that deep
and dark a subject if you just look at the symbolism and what
it means. Alright, let's look at the first
seal, verses 1 and 2. Now I saw when the Lamb opened
one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures
saying with a loud voice, Come and see! And I looked, and behold,
a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown
was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." The rider on this white horse
is Jesus Christ going out to conquer His people who are His
enemies. and to bring them into subjection
to him and to acknowledge his lordship. He here rides a white
horse and on the last day when he returns, Revelation chapter
19, when he comes back to earth from heaven at the second coming
of Christ, behold again, he's on a white horse. He's on a white
horse. in former times when cavalry
and army rode horses. The king leading the battle,
or perhaps the general leading the battle, wanted to look inconspicuous. Because the opposing army is
going to try to kill anybody they can, but they really wanted
to kill the leader. Now you kill the leader, and
you make the army ineffective. Therefore, when the general or
the king was leading his army into battle, he did not want
to ride a white horse. He let somebody else ride that.
Let the enemy shoot them. The leader of the army did not
want to be conspicuous. But listen carefully. Jesus Christ
wants to be conspicuous. He is going to ride a white horse.
And what is so much an emblem of Christ, and it is so much
a typical color applicable to Him. White symbolizes purity,
cleanliness, and sinlessness. We read that, Wash me and I shall
be whiter than snow. White means purity. White means
cleanness. White symbolizes sinlessness. And in every instance in this
book, When you read the color white, it applies to Jesus Christ. Now, I make this point because
there are some who say the rider on the white horse is Antichrist. No, it is not Antichrist. It
is Christ. Every time you read of white
in the book of Revelation, it applies to Jesus Christ. For
example, He's coming on that white horse at the final day.
What is the color of His head and hair? Revelation 1 verse
14. What is the color of the stone
with the new name He gives to His people? In chapter 2 verse
17. What is the color of the robes
of righteousness He gives to His people to wear? Revelation
3 verses 4 and 5. White is the color of the cloud
on which he now sits, Revelation 14 and 14. And white is the color
of the throne he will occupy at the final day of judgment
when he sits on the great white throne. White is a very appropriate
color for Jesus Christ. And the rider on this white horse
is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He comes. Wearing a crown, he received
from God. Notice, a crown was given to
him. This crown was given to him when
he conquered his enemies on this earth. Men crowned him with a
crown of thorns and crushed it onto his holy brow. But when
he ascended into glory, God said, Here, son, come here. Sit on
my right hand. I'm going to make all your enemies
to be your footstool. And here's my crown. And God
put His crown on Jesus Christ. He comes with the crown that
was given to Him by God His Father. Now, there were two different
crowns in the book of Revelation. Two different crowns. Which one
is this? When he comes back riding the
white horse, Revelation 19, when he returns to earth, the Bible
says he's going to be wearing many crowns, not one. We sing
to him, crown him with many crowns. Why is that? Because he's coming
back as the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. He has the
crown of every lord and every king on his head. And these are
diadems. Diadems are like the crowns that
kings even nowadays, royalty, wear this kind of crown, usually
with gold and silver and precious stones in it. Well, that's what
Jesus Christ will wear at the last day. He'll wear many of
them, but this is not the diadem here. When He is seated on this
white horse, a crown is given to Him, but it is a different
kind of crown. It is not the diadem, the crown
of a ruler, rather it is the Stephanos, the crown of a victor. It was the crown that was given
to the winner of the Olympic Games in ancient times. We give
them medals nowadays, gold, silver, and bronze, but they did not
do that in ancient times. In ancient Rome, when you won
a race in the Olympics, they took a branch of a tree and made
a garland of it, maybe with flowers and leaves, and this is the crown
of a victor. It was a great honor to receive
this garland that would be put around your head. It was the
crown of the winner. It was the crown of the victor. And this is the crown that Jesus
here wears, given to him there on his white horse. Then furthermore, We read that
he deserves to wear this crown because he is a victor. He was
a victor on the cross. Because we read that He conquered
sin by fulfilling the law. Because sin is the strength of
the law. There on that cross, He took
all the strength away from sin. He took all the punishment that
the law required. And in so doing, He won. He was the victor over sin there
on the cross. He fulfilled the law. In His
resurrection from the dead, He conquered death and Hades because
the tomb had put Him within its confines and He was being held
by death. He was being held by Hades, the
place of those who have departed. But they could not hold Him there.
He conquered death and Hades and rose from His tomb. He's
the victor. He deserves that garland. He
deserves that Stephanos, the crown. Then he ascended into
glory. And Satan is now making his last
attempt to stop Jesus Christ. Going to prevent him from reaching
God's throne. We read in the epistle to the
Colossians that Jesus Christ made a public spectacle of his
enemies triumphing over them in it. Satan could not keep him
in the tomb. Jesus won. Jesus is the victor. Satan gathers all his minions,
all his demons, and he says, Don't let him get into heaven!
And there is Jesus ascended into heaven. A great battle was fought,
and Jesus won. Ascended into heaven, and God
puts this crown of the victor on his head. Furthermore, He
has conquered and prevailed to open the seal. No one else could. No one could open this seal.
But Jesus Christ comes and takes the scroll and He's conquered. He's opening the scroll and God
says, Son, put this garland here on your head. Wear this crown
that I here give to you. Now, what's He going to do? He's going out. Conquering and
to conquer means he'll never fail. He's going out to conquer. How is he going to conquer? Well, he has a bow that was given
to him. A bow, such as shoots arrows. He's got a bow in his hand. Now
picture him, if you will, a white horse. representing sinlessness,
cleanness, and purity. The crown of a victor on his
head. He has already won. He's still
going to win some more. He's got a bow and therefore
has arrows as well in his quiver. He's going out conquering and
to conquer. Now, what is this bow that he
uses? What are these arrows that he
uses? They are the arrows of spiritual
conviction. He's going out looking for God's
elect. who are God's enemies, they've
not been brought to salvation yet. They're still in rebellion
against God. They're still at enmity against
God. And God sends His Son, Jesus
Christ, and He says, go get My children and bring them to Me.
Go get them. Go out and conquer them. And
His children have put up a great battle against God because they're
rebels against Him. And here comes Jesus Christ on
His horse. He's looking for God's elect. He's looking for those for whom
He shed His blood, and aha! He sees one. That rebel fighting
against God. Jesus pulls an arrow out of his
quiver, puts it into his bow. An arrow of conviction pulls
back that bow and lets it go, and it pierces right into the
heart of that rebel. Cuts him right to the heart. And Jesus wins. Jesus wins. He's conquered. There are many
instances in which he did this on the day of Pentecost. On the
day of Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus was crucified. All those wicked men who nailed
Him to a cross, particularly among the Jews. They had been
in Jerusalem just about two months earlier. And these enemies of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ had nailed Him to a cross. Said to God,
we won't have Him. We will not have this man to
reign over us. We'll send him back to you with
the words, not wanted. Those rebels, those enemies against
God. Now it is the day of Pentecost.
The law required they come back to Jerusalem for one of the feasts.
On the day of Pentecost, the Lord's disciples were sitting
in an upper room. The Lord had told them, you stay
right here in Jerusalem. Don't leave until you receive
power from on high. So they're waiting. And on the
day of Pentecost, early morning, the Spirit of God comes. Comes
down like a mighty fire. It fills the room where the disciples
are sitting. And they are filled with the
Holy Spirit. And they step outside. And they
began preaching in other tongues. They spoke in languages they
had never learned before. So great and so marvelous, so
miraculous was this power of the Holy Spirit. They are speaking
in other tongues. Now, in Jerusalem at that time,
are people, Jews, of the diaspora. They were over in Rome, some
were in Libya, North Africa, in Egypt, some had come from
other places to the east, but they had to be in Jerusalem for
this feast. And here they come, and they
say, what is this? We hear these men speaking, these
are Jews, Galilean fishermen, Unlearned
and ignorant men, and yet they're speaking languages they never
learned. What can this be? Oh, they're
drunk. And Peter says, no, we're not
drunk. This is what Joel the prophet
prophesied of the last days. And then Peter begins to preach
the gospel. And as he preaches the gospel,
the Lord is pulling an arrow. And he has brought a bunch with
him this day, a few thousand arrows he brought with him on
this day. And as Peter begins to preach the gospel, he tells
them, you wicked men, you conspired against Jesus Christ, you joined
with the Romans against Him, and you murdered Him, you hanged
Him on a tree, you crucified Him. You did this evil against
God's Son. And as he's preaching, Jesus
Christ on his white horse is pulling out an arrow and letting
it go. And all the Bible says, they
were cut to the heart. Yes, they were. Cut to the heart
by an arrow of conviction shot by Christ from His white horse. And Jesus keeps pulling arrows
out. A few thousand of them on that
day. And He began shooting them right there in the heart. These
enemies and these rebels against God. Until finally, the Scriptures
declare that they pierced to the heart, said, Men and brethren,
what shall we do? And Peter says, Repent! and be
baptized. Repent and be baptized. And they did. A few thousand
of them. A few thousand of them on that
day. What happened? The rider on the
white horse had won again. Conquered his enemies. Sometime later, the church needs
a deacon. They get seven of them, choose
seven men. One of them's name was Stephen.
By the way, his name is the same name as this crown. The Stephanos,
his name was Stephan. It's the same name as the crown.
His name means crown. He preached the gospel to the
Sanhedrin. And in the Sanhedrin was a man
by the name of Saul of Tarsus, probably the second-ranking man
in Jewry at that time. And Stephen is preaching the
gospel here to these men. And oh, they're getting mad.
The Bible says they were gnashing at their teeth. And then Saul
said, kill him! And so the men took Stephen by
the authority of Saul of Tarsus. They laid their garments at Saul's
feet. And Saul said, stone that preacher
to death! And they did. But listen. Listen. While Stephen was preaching,
Christ on his white horse had pulled out another arrow. And
he let it go into the heart of Saul of Tarsus.
Now it took a while for the arrow to get there. It got there. A few days later, when Saul of
Tarsus, he says, I got Stephen, I want to kill some more. And
he gets letters from the priest to go to Damascus to get more
Christians. He hates Christ. He's an enemy
against Christ. What he does not know is there
is an arrow from Christ from his white horse already on its
way to Saul's heart. Saul is on his way to Damascus
and there on the road to Damascus, the arrow hit. The arrow hit,
had been shot from Christ through the preaching of the gospel as
Stephen was stoned to death. That arrow hit and Saul said,
who are you Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus whom you
persecute. Well, Lord, what would you have
me to do? Jesus won again. Jesus is the victor. Oh, I could
go on and on. And by the way, I am not going
to try to finish this message today. We'll get the first point.
I'm going to finish this point. We'll conclude at a later time. I want to tell you about one
more. One more time. Jesus Christ on His white horse
shot that arrow. He shot at me. Shot at me. I was deceived as to what I was. Quite deceived. Self-righteous. Holier than thou. On the 17th of June in the year
of our Lord 1975, while a certain man was preaching
the gospel, Jesus Christ rode by that little building, pulled
out an arrow, shot it into my heart. Conviction. And he won again. I bowed the knee. I bowed the
knee. I confessed him as Lord. This
is Jesus Christ going forth, conquering and to conquer. If
you know Jesus Christ, and I speak to you who profess him, you who profess him, he's already
come by you. You remember that day when he
came by and you began to feel grief in your heart because of
your sin? That was an arrow of conviction
shot by Christ. He came to conquer you, you rebel,
you one who's in rebellion against you. He conquered. He went out
conquering in the conquer, pulled an arrow out and said, there
he is, Anthony Tallien. This is for you and shot you
right in the heart. Years ago, when I pastored in
Louisville, I preached a message and I was standing by the door
and someone walking by and said, Pastor, your message really spoke
to my heart. It just pierced my heart. One
of the ladies in the church, dear old mother in Israel, she
overheard the conversation and she said, a preacher is the only
person you thank for stabbing you in the heart. I am thankful to the Lord because
he shot an arrow in my heart. I bless him for it. I thank him
for it. And he's going forth conquering
and to conquer. If there is anyone here today,
anyone here today, and you have never confessed Jesus Christ,
I hope and I pray that even today might be the day when he walks
right up to you or rides up to you on his white horse and pulls
out an arrow and says, you're mine. Here comes my conviction. And he shoots you in the heart,
going forth conquering and to conquer. Oh, I hope that rider on the
white horse rides through here today. I truly do. He's been
riding on that white horse ever since the first seal was opened
almost 2,000 years ago. He's been going out and conquering
every one of his people one by one, and I hope he will do so
today. Oh God, our Father, bless that
rider on your white horse. Bless that bow that he carries. Bless that crown that he wears
with yet another victory. Let him come forth today, conquering
and to conquer. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.