Well, I want you to come back
with me to Revelation chapter 6 this week, and we'll look at
the second half, the fifth and the sixth seals being opened. In this last week, I came across
the bulletin of a church near here, and this is what it said
in its article. It said, the Bible is a handbook
for living. It teaches us how to live. What
do I say in response to that? Absolutely not. Yes, of course,
if you live by its principles, you will probably end up with
a better outcome than not living by its principles. But is that
what the Bible's about? Absolutely not. You know what
the Bible's about. I tell you often, the Bible is
God telling his elect how he has justified them. How he has
justified sinners from their sins. So that he can be a just
God, remain a just God, and yet justify sinners. A just God and
a saviour. That's what the Bible's about.
Not a handbook for living. Not at all. How completely to
miss the point if that's all you think it is. This book tells
sinners, his elect, how he has justified them in Christ. Because
it's all about Christ. Because there's no justification
outside of Christ. And he tells his people how he
keeps them in this worldly sojourn. Sojourn stay, this worldly, this
time that we're in this world, you think, oh, I've got loads
of years and years and years ahead. You talk to somebody who's
reached the latter years of their life and ask them how quick it
seems. very, very quick. It isn't very long at all. No,
it's a short sojourn, but he keeps his people through this
worldly sojourn. He tells us in this book how
his kingdom is established, and how his kingdom shall finally
triumph. How it shall finally triumph.
And how have we seen this? In chapter 5, John's got this
vision of heaven, and there's the throne, and there's God on
the throne, the one on the throne, with all of his majesty. And
then we see in chapter 5, in his hand is a book, a seven-sealed
book. And that is the plan for how
he will implement his kingdom, save his people, create his kingdom. A kingdom has citizens. Who are
its citizens? He tells us, sinners that he's
going to save. How is it going to be established?
How is this plan going to be unfolded? Those seals need to
be unloosed because the unloosing of the seals is the implementation
of God's plan of saving his people. Who's going to do it? Is anybody
worthy? And the call goes out, is anybody
worthy to come? And none is found worthy. And
John weeps much because nobody is found worthy to save the people
of God from their sins. And one of the elders says, don't
weep, don't weep. Look at the lion. Look at the
lion of the tribe of Judah. And John said, I looked and I
saw a lion. No, a lamb. Because the lion
is worthy to implement the plan of God establishing his kingdom
only in the capacity of a lamb, because it's only in the capacity
of a lamb that he dies as the substitute, and that in dying
and shedding his lifeblood, he pays the price of the justice
of God for the salvation of his people. His death is in place
of their death. His death satisfies the law's
demands that the soul that sins, it shall die for his people. His death satisfies it, particularly,
specifically for them. He's worthy. He is found worthy. He is the only one who is found
worthy. And there's great rejoicing in
heaven that John sees, but the church is left in the world. And as we'll see when we get
to Revelation chapter 12, The woman, the church, is sent into
the wilderness. This world is a wilderness. Spiritually,
it's a wilderness. But it's to a place prepared
of God for her, to feed her there, and to keep her there. Jesus
prayed in John 17 before he went to the cross, I pray not that
you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep
them from the evil. Keep them from the power of Satan.
He keeps his people. And he tells us how he keeps
us. So what do we make, I asked this question last week, what
do we make of what we see in history, in world news, in politics,
in religion, in the wars that we see going on, in the strife
and the enmity, and the disasters that we see going on, in what's
called civilisation, what do we make of it all? What do we
make of it? Is it just the random meaningless
product of big bang materialistic evolution? Is that all it is?
Because that's what millions if not billions believe is the
case. The media is full of it. The media preaches no other gospel,
which is no gospel at all, than that gospel of meaningless, big-bang,
materialistic evolution. As Psalm 14 says, the fool, the
fool says in his heart, no God for me. The fool says in his
heart, there is no God, no God for me. The fool fools himself
with that empty notion of big-bang, godless, materialistic evolution. But the people of God, the people
who He's spoken to by His Spirit, the people of God, listen to
God's voice. Let me remind you briefly of
the first four seals in the book of Revelation, the first four
seals. They're in verses 1 to 8. The first one was the white horse.
which is speaking of Christ. And Christ comes, that seal is
unloosed, it's Christ coming with the gospel of his grace.
And Christ touches swathes of humanity, some with regenerating
truth and faith by his spirit coming and quickening and making
alive and giving eyes to see and ears to hear the truth. Christ
touches swathes and a lot of them with that But many, many
others are touched by his coming on the white horse with reprobate
religion, with a false Christianity, with false religion. They use
religion to try to bolster up and establish the kingdom of
Satan and of this world. It's a false kingdom of imitation,
peace, and righteousness. And we see it all around us.
Just look at the world. The world that calls itself Christian
is far bigger than the world of the elect that we actually
know. Far, far bigger. They're doing it today on Remembrance
Sunday. You see the parades out everywhere.
Everybody proud in their own religion. The white horse has
touched the whole of humanity to some extent, but bless God,
he saved his elect. The second one comes, the second
one, the red horse, the horse of war, the horse of enmity and
of strife. And creation history from the
fall is marked with individual enmity. It began with Cain and
Abel when Cain slew Abel, right at the very start. And then after
the Tower of Babel, the nations are established with the splitting
of the languages, and we've got nation versus nation. And does
it go on today? Do you know, I mean, the way
that this world and its philosophy rejects the Bible, and yet you
know one of the most enduring conflicts that there has ever
been was spoken of in the time of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac. And I know the people of God,
the true people of Abraham are those with the same faith as
him. But isn't it interesting that in the Middle East, right
to this day, despite all the philosophies of the world, that
is still the unsolvable conflict between Jew and Arab. That just staggers me how clearly
the world history, however much they try to airbrush these things
out of the picture of what is truth and what isn't truth, it
stands there and you can't avoid it. Then thirdly, the black horse
comes along. The black horse? Economic strife. You know, oh wouldn't it be great,
you know, communism tried to make everybody equal and do you
know what? Nobody was ever more unequal than those living under
communism. For the Pollock Bureau lived in luxury with everything
that they wanted, and the common people were in poverty. Just
living hand to mouth. A day's wages for a day's bread.
That's all it was. And at the same time, others
living in obscene opulence and wealth. And is that not what
we see in this world of ours? Even in this world of wonderful
democracy, which is the answer to everything, so we're told.
And yet we have such obscene extremes of poverty. and wealth,
ridiculous amounts of wealth. And then the next horse comes
along, and that's the pale one, the sickly green one, and that's
the horse of death, that's the seal that God releases of death,
and swathes of humanity are swept away. How many people that were
alive and living like we are a hundred years ago are alive
and living today? Very, very few. They say we're
all living a lot longer, and maybe that might be true statistically.
But how many of them that were living a hundred years ago are
alive today? Very, very few. Very few indeed. The latter three horses, the
red, the black, the pale, the green, the sickly green, They're
all, this is the thing, this was the message, they're all
sent forth by God into this fallen world, why? To frustrate Satan's
designs to establish his worldwide kingdom of imitation peace, of
imitation righteousness. You know, we see all of these
aspirations of world leaders for a worldly utopia of peace. Is it not constantly frustrated? Oh, let's remove Saddam Hussein
in Iraq and, you know, we'll usher in a world of democratic
peace and harmony and look where we are. Twelve years later, what
an absolute can of worms, to use that expression, that has
unleashed. And almost universally, everybody
agrees, what an absolute... You see, every attempt by the
world's politicians to establish this worldly utopia is constantly
frustrating. Why? I'll tell you why. Because
it is a worldly utopia which has no place for Christ. It has no place for blood redemption. It has no place for the righteousness
of God established in the person and work of Christ alone. None
whatsoever. That's why. It's all what we
see, it's clearly the story of the last 1920 years, isn't it?
Those three horses, the red, well the white as well, but the
red, the black, and the pale horse. It's the story of the
last 1920 years, you see it all around. So now we come to verse
9. Now read with me, I'll read down
to verse 11. Revelation 6 and verse 9. And when he had opened the fifth
seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain
for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy
and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto
every one of them. And it was said unto them that
they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants
also, and their brethren, that should be killed as they were,
should be fulfilled. That's the fifth seal, he's opened.
And it's this picture of an altar with the souls of those that
have been killed for the word of God and the testimony that
they held underneath that altar. Now what's all that about? Well,
do remember this, that this book is symbolic. You know, right
back in the first chapter, you don't need to turn to it, but
in the very first verse it says, the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which
must shortly come to pass. And he sent, listen, and signified
it by his angels. It's given in signs. and symbols. It's given in pictures. It's
symbolic, not literal. You must look at the book of
Revelation predominantly, not exclusively, I'll show you that
a bit later, predominantly as symbolic. You know, people who
try to put together all sorts of weird things where they try
and equate the symbolism pictured to literal physical things in
this realm of time and space are bound to end up tying themselves
in knots. It's impossible to end up in
any other way. What we see here is the Church
of Christ in opposition to the Kingdom of this world. That's
what I believe this is talking about. The Church of Christ in
opposition to the Kingdom of this world. John sees in this
vision. It's a symbolic vision. He sees
in heaven the souls of them that were slain. Who's that? Well
obviously, the obvious answer is the martyrs. Have there been
any physical martyrs? Of course there have. Look down
the history of the church. There have been martyrs right
from the fall. You could say that Abel was the
first martyr in that sense. martyred for the cause of Christ,
because he stood for the cause of Christ, and so it has gone
on. If you want to read about martyrs
in the time of the Reformation, I know Catholic doctrine tries
to con us all into thinking that there were as many Catholics
killed as there were Protestants. Don't believe a word of it, it's
just propaganda. You read Foxe's book of martyrs,
and you see what the true people of God suffered for the faith
of God, and for the testimony that they held, and for the word
of God. You read about the Scottish Covenanters, under the cruel,
cruel opposition of the British politicians, the cruel things
that they did to them to get them to deny their faith. Martyrs,
literally. The souls of them that were slain,
yes, definitely martyrs. Why were they slain? For holding
to the word of God. for holding to the truth of God
and to its testimony. Don't lots of people hold to
the word of God these days? I mean, you know, people love
it, don't they? Just as an aside, Christine and
I were singing Handel's Messiah at Hertford last night with Hertford
Choral Society. And the words are straight from
the King James Version of the Bible. It's marvellous to sing
such glorious music. The way the man who chose the
texts and gave them to Handel clearly knew the gospel. Because
he just sets them out, beginning with Isaiah 40 verse 1, comfort
my people, tell them that their warfare is accomplished. It's
talking to the elect of God. And even the soloist, one of
the soloists sings towards the end, shall anything be laid to
the charge of God's elect? And there's a congregation, I
don't know how many people were there, but the place was full with the
choir and the orchestra and everything else. Don't they, aren't they
very accepting of the word of God? No, they don't listen to
it. They don't hear what it says.
They just like it for the music, they don't hear what it says.
If you speak of the truth of the Word of God concerning sin,
concerning judgment, concerning the righteousness which God must
have, which you can never ever produce, never. That the only
way of getting that righteousness is by the doing and the dying
of the one who is God who was sent to this earth to stand in
the place of his people. If you stand for that, Then you
watch the ones that, like when Jesus was preaching in John chapter
6, and they all started to say, that's a hard saying, who can
bear it? And one after another, they all went out, until it gets
down to the little number that he'd chosen. And he says, will
you also go away? Peter says, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal life. We've heard it! We've heard
the words of eternal life, we cannot go anywhere else. Well
these people, these souls, they cry out and they're answered. They cry out for an end to this. They cry out for justice to be
answered and they get their answer. Now, as I've said, yes, clearly
it's talking about martyrs, but I think it's also, must be, speaking
to us here and now. So it's more than just those
that were literally martyred, for example, though not exclusively,
in the Reformation. I'm sure in parts of the world
there are Christians, true believers, being martyred today for their
faith. You only have to see what are
the objectives and the political stance of organizations like
Islamic State and the Taliban and outfits like that, Boko Haram,
all of those will martyr Christians for the fact that they stand
for the Word of God and their testimony of the Gospel of Grace.
But here they are, where does John see them? In heaven. in
this vision. Remember, picture language. He
sees them under the altar. Under the altar. like in a pit
under the altar. What's this speaking about? In
Leviticus chapter 4 and various other places in the Pentateuch,
in the Old Testament books of Moses, in about four or five
different places, we read things like this, and the priest shall
take the blood of the sacrifice and put it on the horns of the
altar of sweet incense in the tabernacle, and then he says,
and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom
of the altar of the burnt offering, at the door of the tabernacle
of the convent. So there were two altars, the altar of incense
in the Holy of Holies and then outside by the door of the tabernacle
was the altar on which the sacrifices were made. The altar of burnt
offering, the altar of killing, the altar of pouring out of blood,
and underneath it was the trough where the blood went. These souls,
these martyred souls are pictured in that place where the blood
went. in that place, right? The souls are where the blood
is. What was the altar in the Old
Testament? In the Old Testament worship,
the tabernacle worship and then the temple worship, what was
the altar? The altar was a symbol. It was
the place where the animals were sacrificed. But what did that
do? What was the sacrificing of the... Did the sacrificing
of animals and the shedding of their blood save any soul whatsoever? We know from Hebrews that it
didn't. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin.
It was only ever a picture. It was a picture of spiritual
reality. The altar, in the Old Testament
worship, was a picture of Christ. taking away the sins of his people. Of Christ accomplishing redemption. I could read you endless numbers
of verses, but let me just read a couple. Colossians 1 14. In
whom, in Christ, we have redemption. We have the price of reconciliation
paid. We have the price of justice
paid in full. We have the price of the sin
debt cancelled in full. How? Through his blood. And what does it accomplish?
Even the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9 verse 12, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, that can't ever do it, they're
just animals, they're just pictures, their blood is just a picture.
It isn't Christ's blood, it isn't precious blood, but by his own
blood, This is how Christ entered in, to the holy of holies, by
his own blood, like the high priest going in as a picture
once a year. He entered in with his own blood,
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Hebrews 13.10 tells us, we have
an altar, where is it? Where's our altar in this room
in Datchworth village hall? Where's our altar? Some people
say you if you don't go to church and there's not a physical altar
there with an altar cloth on it You haven't been to a proper
church Well, I'm telling you this is a proper church because
we have an altar and our altar is is the Lord Jesus Christ and
all that he's done and all that he's accomplished in shedding
his blood on the cross of Calvary. What altar do you need to come
before? You go into the most ornate church, the place we were
in last night singing was a pretty ornate building, very nice, as
they go that is one of the nicer ones and it's got its physical
altar, it was actually covered up by the ranks of seating for
the majority of the choir last night, but it's there Where would
you sooner go to worship God? You know, the high altar of Westminster
Abbey, or St Paul's Cathedral, or something like... Is that
where you'd sooner go? Or this meeting room in Datsworth Village
Hall? I tell you what avails more before God. There's no contest. We have an altar, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and his blood shed for his people on the cross of Calvary.
It's the only altar we need, for that's the altar which pays
the price of sin. These people, having redemption,
and that's you and me if we trust Christ, we have righteousness
in Him. What must somebody have to enter
heaven? Righteousness. Be holy, for I
am holy, says the Lord. We must have the righteousness
of God. How do we get it? Only by this,
by Him who knew no sin, being made your sin, that you might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. I am counted righteous. in the judgment of God, when
I stand before the judgment seat of Christ, as we all must do,
for it's appointed to man did I once and then the judgment,
by faith in Christ I know and I see I will be judged righteous,
although I know in my flesh there dwells no good thing, I know
I will be judged righteous, because I am made the righteousness of
God in him, because he was made my sin and he paid it in full. in the redemption that he accomplished.
And that gives me peace with God. And that leads to eternal
bliss. Can I describe it? It's beyond
description. Eternal bliss. It's only accomplished
by the redemption that is in Christ. It's only experienced
through Holy Spirit regeneration. You must be born again, said
Jesus to Nicodemus. You must be born again. A woman
kept asking Spurgeon, why do you keep saying you must be born
again? And he said, because dear lady,
you must be born again. You just must be born again.
You must be born again. He that is not born again cannot
see the things of the Spirit of God. And when you preach this,
and when you say that's what this book declares, and when
you hold to that testimony, testimony, witness, what I've seen, what
I've experienced, The result? The world hates it. The world
hates it. And the world kills. The kingdom
of this world, the kingdom of Satan, it kills. Slain? Look,
those who were slain. Verse 9. Them that were slain
for the word of God. Slain, killed. Literally, for
many, thousands upon thousands, butchered by the hatred and venom
of the kingdoms of this world. I mean the political kingdoms
of this world. I mean the religious kingdoms
of this world. They're all against Christ. And
our Lord Jesus Christ told us that this would be the case.
Matthew 24, verse 9. Then shall they, the kingdoms
of this world, the people of this world, the authorities of
this world, then shall they deliver you who believe me and are faithful
to me. They shall deliver you up to
be afflicted and shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all
nations for my name's sake. People don't hate gentle Jesus,
meek and mild. People don't hate Jesus, do they?
Yes, they do. If you tell them, you know, if
you tell them all the nice things he did and how he teaches us
to be nice to our neighbor, oh, people don't hate that, do they?
You tell them that he died to pay the price of the sins of
the people that God, in sovereign grace, chose before the foundation
of the world. and that in time he comes by
his spirit and speaks and regenerates and that the only way of being
righteous with God and going to heaven is not by the fact
that you're as good a person as anybody else or half decent
but the fact that he has put away your sins and he has made
you the righteousness of God in him. And all who are not in
Christ's kingdom, all who are not under His blood, like these
souls pictured under the altar where the blood went, all who
are not under His blood will hate those who are. Why? For
Christ's namesake. Why? Because in Him alone is
the righteousness of God. In Him alone do we see what sin
truly is. How do you know how bad sin is? Can I tell you the only way I
can explain how bad sin is, because in myself I just don't feel it
anything like badly enough. I'll tell you the only thing
that tells me how bad sin is, is that God the Father killed
his darling son for the sake of sin. When he was loaded up
with the sin of his people, the justice of God killed him. And
on the cross, his father forsook him. My God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? That's how bad sin is. God the
Father killed his darling son. When we see something of that,
you know, a sinner, a sacred thing, the Holy Ghost has made
him so. The world is full of sinners, but they all deny it.
They all think they're pretty good. They all think they're
well on their way to heaven. They all think it's like a pair
of balances and you just need to do more good than bad and
you'll get into heaven. That's not what the Word of God says.
He who has sinned in one point, says James, is guilty of all.
And has anybody only sinned in one point? Guilty of all, guilty
of all. Now when we talk about that,
about judgment, about condemnation, about our individual impotence
to reach heaven, we can't do it. When we talk about the only
way being God's sovereign grace and particular redemption. the
world hates that message. The religious world especially
hates that message. You can talk to them today, they're
so proud, you know. Don't worry, I'm patriotic. I
wear my poppy, I'm patriotic. I'm grateful for the ones who
gave their lives, but you'll see proud men with their medals
there. And if it's patriotic pride,
I don't have a problem with it, but you know, so often, it's
a self-righteous pride. Look what I've done, I'm good
enough. Any God that won't accept me is not worth having as a God.
And they kill, they hate. There's a hatred for those who
believe the Gospel. Many killed, and many more afflicted. Why? Why? You see, we try, don't
we? As Romans 12, 18 tells us, Paul
says, if it be possible, speaking to believers, as much as lieth
in you, live peaceably with all men. But when we speak of the
word of God and the testimony we hold, it produces hatred. You see, when you give that testimony,
Paul again in 2 Corinthians 2.14 says that there's a division
in the way it's received. He says, to some, we are the
saver of death unto death, and they hate that message. And to
the other, to those who are called of God, to the other, the saver
of life unto life. Blessed words of life, the gospel
of grace. Blessed words of life, when I
heard it. The fifth seal is the experience God has ordained. It's his plan. It's the experience
God has ordained for his people in the worldly kingdom of Satan,
in this wilderness world, in this sojourn for a time and a
place prepared of God to feed us there and to keep us there.
And it's all in his sovereign purposes. It's all for the eternal
good of his people. Is it pleasant to go through?
In many situations, not at all. But is it for the good of his
people? Of course it is. All things work together for
good to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. You know, it's talking about
those slain, and predominantly it's literally slain, but you
know, in a sense, all believers are slain for the cause of Christ.
Romans 8, 36. For thy sake we are killed all
the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Echoing Psalm 44, verse 2. Whenever
Christians stand firm for the truth of God and their testimony
of redemption by Christ, the political world, The religious
world, the world of business, the world of work, the world
of everything hates them. You know, we're supposed to live
in what's becoming a much more tolerant society. You know, this
has been the idea, hasn't it? We've got to be so tolerant of
We've got to remove all differences of gender and of status and of
everything else. All of this has got to be removed.
And we've got to remove all discrimination on the grounds of race. And that's
all a good thing. Don't think for one minute I'm
against that. But the whole society is like,
we're becoming more all-inclusive. And, oh, sexual orientation.
Yes, yes, we're completely tolerant about that and we have diversity
courses at work where we're taught to learn to accept everybody
just as they are. Oh, great freedom, great freedom.
Do you know what? That's true in our democratic
political system, except for one thing. Do you know the one
thing that you're not allowed to do? I'm telling you, absolutely. It may not be written down, but
it's stand for gospel truth. You can be as religious as you
like of whatever. Prince Charles! You know, look
on your coins. The sovereign of England, the
Queen of England is Fid Death, defender of the faith, THE faith. And he said many years ago, when
I'm King, he said, I don't want to be defender of THE faith,
I want to be defender of faith. Anybody's, everybody's faith.
Let's be multiple tolerant. I tell you what, Our liberal
society is not tolerant of this, but you think about it, it's
happening already. The people that have lost their businesses
because they've stood for the truth and the principles of this
book against what this world and its political liberalism
has been doing, its political tolerance of diversity has been
doing in flying in the face of God's truth and God's principles.
No. It comes in the form of mild
persecution. We're going through very peaceful
times in actual fact where we are in this country. You'll detect
it in, you know, somebody asks you or it crops up in conversation
and you tell them what you believe and you'll find bit by bit that
you're ostracized and you're left out and others do things
and you're not involved with it. I think there's an indication
in this verse 11 that there will be more actual martyrdom before
the end. Look at verse 11. How long? Until
your fellow servants also and their brethren that should be
killed as they were should be fulfilled. There's more to come
in this world. More of it to come. Jesus promised
it. the apostles echoed the promise.
John says in his first epistle chapter 3 verse 13 he said marvel
not don't be surprised my brethren if the world hate you because
it will hate you when it hears what you believe. Should we worry? Believer should we worry? This
is painting a gloomy picture isn't it? Should we worry? Not
at all. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me. Thine rod and thy staff, they
comfort me. Psalm 23. Think of that. That's
the believer's experience. Should we worry? Of course not.
May there be difficult times? I don't know. It's all in the
hands of God. But what I do know is this. Who
is it that's opening these seals that sound so dreadful? Who is
it that's opening The seal that lets forth the red horse, and
the black horse, and the pale horse. The one who opens the
seal of the fifth seal to see these souls slain with the indication
that there's enmity with the world that's going to be the
experience of the Church of God. Should we worry? Not at all.
Because it's Him that is ordaining it all. It's Him that is controlling
it. How long will it go on for? How
long? That's their prayer, verse 10.
It's a prayer for justice. A prayer for vengeance. People
not, should the disciples of Christ not turn the other cheek?
Should they ask for vengeance? Well, as individuals, in our
experience with fellow man, we shouldn't be vindictive, we shouldn't
be revengeful. We should say, vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord. We should leave it to God to
do all of those things. But what this is calling for
is for God's justice to be established. For sin against God's justice
not to be allowed to go with impunity. The martyrs have been
slain seemingly with impunity for those that did the slaying.
Their blood has been shed and nothing has been paid in justice.
You know, don't we all get a sense when we hear of a sentence in
the courts that is totally out of proportion to the evil of
the crime committed? And we think justice hasn't been
done. Justice has been outraged. This is a cry for justice. There
are martyrs who've been slain with impunity. How long is it
going to go on? Their blood is crying out. Remember
the very first one, when Cain slew Abel. Outside the garden,
when Cain slew Abel, God said to him in Genesis 4 verse 10,
He said, Your brother's blood cries out to me for justice from
the ground. Your brother's blood is crying
out. No satisfaction has been made.
And injustice has been committed, and it hasn't been paid for.
That's why we read in Hebrews, is it 10 or 11? Or maybe it might
even be 12. That's why we read that the blood
of Christ speaks better things than the blood of Abel, because
the blood of Abel cries out for unsatisfied justice. But the
blood of Christ cries out, justice is satisfied for his people.
So what's the answer to the prayer? The answer is this. White robes,
verse 11, were given to every one of them. White robes. Every
one of them, without exception. God's saints The martyred, and
those, if I can stretch this, those killed all the day long
for the sake of Christ, with the world's hatred, with the
world's persecution, with the world's ostracization, are all
assured, what's the white robe? Their eternal acceptance in the
Beloved. Why have they got this white
robe? Because they are made the righteousness of God in Him.
And when they stand before the judgment seat of Christ, there
is nothing against them. When the books of the records
of God are opened, there is no sin found against them. they're
covered in white. Every one of them, without exception,
they're rich with eternal treasure. All of them equally. Souls literally
martyred and in glory, awaiting the fulfillment of all things,
and all who are in Christ here and now. That's you and me if
we're trusting Christ. Whatever hatred and martyrdom
might await us, we're assured of justification. How long? How
long? For a little season. They should
rest, yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also
and their brethren, that they should be killed as they were,
should be fulfilled. Just for a little season, that's
all, until all God's people, hated and martyred alike, are
fulfilled. That should be, he says, that
should be. that should be killed as they
were should be fulfilled. It's all in God's providential
sovereign control. But there's just one more thing
I want to say, and I know I need to wrap this up quickly. But
it's this. I believe that the opening of
the sixth seal is another answer to the prayer of these people
for justice. Let me just read it out to you,
verses 12 to 17. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth
seal and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became
black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and
the stars of heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig tree
casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and
every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And
the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men,
and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman,
and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks
of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall
on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne,
and from the wrath of the Lamb. for the great day of his wrath
is come, and who shall be able to abide? See, I believe that
this is part of God's answer to the prayers of his church
for just retribution on the kingdoms of Satan and of this world. The
sixth seal is the preparation of this physical creation for
the final judgment, for the rolling up of it all as a scroll, for
the end of it all, for the establishment of a new heavens and a new earth
as we see at the end of the book of Revelation, for Christ's return,
it's preparation for his return, for the final overthrow of Satan's
kingdom, and the triumph of the kingdom of Christ, and the marks
of it involve physical. Now, you know I said the book
is predominantly symbolical, but there are bits that are literal,
and this sixth seal is physical. It's to do with what's going
to happen in this creation. It will involve, the marks of
the end coming involve physical astronomical phenomena. It involves
earthquakes. It involves the sun, literally,
being darkened. The moon's light being altered.
It involves stars falling from heaven, meteor showers or whatever
else that might be. Now, the world's so-called experts
tell us that we have five billion years before the sun engulfs
the earth as it becomes a red giant. You know, that's what
they say, that's what's going to happen. But five billion years is an
awful long time, so you've no need to worry about it, you know,
you won't be here when that happens. God's word warns us that we should
always regard the end as imminent. He says in verse 11, rest for
a little season, just for a little season. The end the end of this
created order, the coming of the judgment of Christ, the establishment
finally of his kingdom and the suppression and the obliteration
of the kingdom of Satan and of this world, that will be marked
by geological and astronomical cataclysm. It's coming. the seal is already opened by
the one who is qualified to open it. When it comes, when it comes,
when it comes, all those great worldly persecutors of God's
people will be in a state of utter terror. They'll be pleading
for their own annihilation. They'll be pleading for the mountains
to fall on us and hide us, crush us. People With this world's
view, with this world's idea of cosmology, they'll say that
what I'm saying now is irrational fiction. But do you know, throughout
history, God has testified to the certainty of this end. Throughout
history. Noah's flood. As much as they
again, I'll use the same expression, try to airbrush Noah's flood
out of geological history, the fact is geological history is
replete with the evidence of Noah's flood. Noah's flood. God came and took them all away.
Sodom and Gomorrah. Earthquakes. We hear all the
time, even now we hear of earthquakes, don't we? Great natural disasters
which sweep away many, many, many natural disasters. Astronomical
phenomena. Meteor showers. Comet impacts. We keep reading about the potential
for a catastrophic comet impact. Near misses. I'm not saying that
the Word of God needs the vindication of astronomical observation,
but astronomical observation is in accord with what this sixth
seal is talking about. It's all telling us, it's coming,
it is coming. What does it say? We read it
in Luke 17 for our reading earlier on. It says this, that he's coming
again so verse 24 so also shall the son of man be in his day
at the end and at the end of that he'll come quickly but first
must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation
that was for him going to the cross and as it was in the days
of Noah so shall it be in the days of the son of man they did
eat they drank they married wives they were given everything was
going on as if there was no judgment coming and then God took Noah
into the ark. In the very same day, God swept
the rest of them away. All of them. All of them. How
many? I don't know. Millions swept
away from the face of this planet for their sin. Same in the days
of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. And so it is. Remember Lot's
wife. Remember. Remember these things. These
things. What are we going to be like?
Jesus again spoke of this often. He told the parable of the wise
and foolish virgins. These are the bridesmaids, and
the wedding, the Middle Eastern wedding, took place at night.
And they needed lamps, and you didn't know when the bridegroom
was coming. And so the bridesmaids had to be ready, and there were
ten wise and ten foolish. And the wise were prepared. They
were thinking, the bridegroom's coming, what do I... I need a
lamp to do what I need to do. I must get some oil for my lamp.
And they went and got the oil for their lamp. And the foolish
were lackadaisical about it. Oh, I'll get round to it eventually.
When I'm a bit older, I'll... And the bridegroom came, and
those that had no oil said to those that did, please sell us
some, give us some, so that we might... And they said, no, sorry,
go and see if you can buy it from those that sell oil. And
they didn't. Salutary lesson for us. God is
in control of all things. Even this, the conflict between
the true Church of Christ and this fallen world, this kingdom
of Satan, with all of its systems, all of its authorities, but he
promises it's coming to an end. It's coming to an end. He's going
to roll up this earth, this universe, as a scroll. It's just going
to be rolled up and put away.