All right, Revelation chapter
6. Now last week we got roughly
halfway through this chapter and then kind of rushed through
the end of it. So let me rush through the first part of it
to remind us of what's been said and then slow down a little bit
toward the end. In chapter five, our Lord, in
the figure of the line of the tribe of Judah, has triumphed. He has prevailed. And He alone,
in all of heaven and earth, has been found worthy to take the
scroll from Him who sits on the throne. That's God. That scroll
might be We just might say that's the entire purpose and decree
of God. But in particular, it's God's
decree of judgment and salvation. Now those are two themes which
you always find together in the scriptures. Because when the
Lord judges his enemies, he saves his friends, and vice versa. They're always happening at the
same time. And so Jesus Christ is the one to whom authority
and power has been given to loosen the seals on this scroll. He's
talking about the way they used to write a letter, rolled it
up and they put wax on it and put a seal on it. The king would
take his ring called the signet ring and he'd impress his signet
or signature on it And that would seal it up. It meant nobody else
was allowed to open it except the one authorized to open it.
Well, Christ was authorized to open this scroll which was sealed
with seven seals by the King of the Universe. And seven seals meant it was
totally sealed up, completely sealed up, unless someone was
found worthy to unseal it. And so he begins to unseal these
seals and to bring to pass that which God has ordained for his
glory and for the good of his people. And when he opens the
first seal, one of the four living creatures says, Come, in a thunderous
voice. Now we saw that those four living
creatures represent the preachers of the gospel throughout the
ages. And the gospel calls us to view these things and calls
us to it in a thunderous voice because not everything the gospel
tells us to look at is pleasant to experience. Consequently,
we must be called with the force of authority, the force of sovereignty. Come, he says to John, witness
this. Now the things that are spoken
of here throughout the remainder of the chapter are things that
believers experience right along with the unbelieving world. Now
the outcome of the experiences is different and that's an important
lesson to learn about blessing and cursing. You cannot determine
whether a thing is a blessing or a curse simply by what the
thing is. It can only be known as a blessing
or a curse by what results it brings in us. You know, if we
get some money, we automatically think that's a blessing. There
have been a lot of people cursed by money. We all would think
that good health is a blessing and it's nice to have. But sometimes
when people have good health, they use their good health to
curse God, and their good health becomes a curse to them. On the
other hand, who would ever think being sick was a blessing? Well,
I'll tell you one who would. Lazarus. It was said to our Lord
Jesus, He whom thou lovest is sick. Now, why in the world was
he sick? He was made sick that the glory
of God might be revealed in him. And Lazarus, looking back on
that experience, I'm sure even now would say, you know, that
was great. That was just great. I felt miserable for a few days,
but the outcome was good. It was a blessing. Who would
ever think blindness was a blessing? I'll tell you who would. Bartimaeus,
sitting by the road as the Lord comes out of Jericho, and he
says, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Now what would
have happened if Bartimaeus had been a seeing man? He might not
ever have met the Lord Jesus at all, and had he met him, he
would not have had any sense that he needed anything from
the Lord Jesus. But blindness was turned into
a blessing for him. So when we see these things,
these four horsemen of the apocalypse, as they're popularly called,
and we see about martyrdom and about judgment and some of the
things that happen, and when God judges the world, these things,
while they are unpleasant, they are nonetheless a blessing to
the people of God, because the outcome is their salvation. That's why it says in Romans
chapter 8, we know that all things work together for what? Good. He didn't say the pleasant
things work together for good. He didn't say the enjoyable things
work together for good to them that love God. He said all things
do. And therefore all things are blessings for the believer. And we might say, I think with
some authority on scriptures, that all things work together
for bad to him who is opposed to the Lord. who is not the called
according to his purpose and it matters not how enjoyable
they were. They were bad. They were curses. So he opens this first seal.
One of the four living creatures says come and he said there before
me was a white horse and its rider had a bow and was given
a crown. He rode out as a conqueror bent
on conquest. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now he's pictured twice, at least twice here in this chapter. He's
the lamb who's opening the seals and he's the man on the white
horse. The white horse of holiness and righteousness, the white
horse of victory. He has a crown of victory on
him even as he goes out to conquer because his conquest is a done
deal. Last week I illustrated that. It'd be like lining the fellas
up in the Olympics for the 100 meter dash. And before they ever
fire the gun for them to start running, they go out and hang
the gold medal around the neck of one of them. Because this
is one of those crowns of victory. It wasn't a crown of royal powers,
a crown of victory. And so it'd be like putting a
gold medal around the neck of a man before the race is run.
So I said, wait, you can't do that. Well, you can if you know
this man well enough. You can put the crown of victory
on Christ even as he goes out to conquer knowing he will. He's bent on conquest. He's already
conquered once. He's already come and conquered
him who is the greatest enemy of God's people. And now in this
gospel age he rides forth in the preaching of his ministers
and he's conquering and conquering. He conquered you by grace. Some
he'll conquer in wrath, but he will conquer. Every knee shall
bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. And then the
lamb opened the second seal and I heard the second living creature
say, come. And then another horse came out,
a fiery red one. And this rider was given power
to take peace from the earth, and to make men slay each other.
To him was given a large sword. Now notice this, it says power
was given to them. Now I don't know who it is that
rides these horses in some way. We could say really it's the
Lord Jesus Christ on all of them. But whether you want to say it's
the Lord riding out in this form of judgment, or that simply he
has given power to one, here we know this, it's the Lord's
power behind it all. You know, when Satan came to
God and he said, look at Job there, or God said to Satan,
look at Job there. He worships me perfectly. And
Job said, well, of course, you surround him with blessings.
And the Lord said, okay, Satan, you do this. You take away his
blessings, but don't touch his body. Now, what am I pointing
out there? The Lord set limits on what Satan
could do. You know, people worry about
Satan. They say, well, he's so powerful. Well, yes, he is. He
can do things I can't do, that's for sure. But he's not more powerful
than Christ. And he can't do anything beyond
what Christ gives him power to do. So whether you want to consider
the rider on this horse to be Christ himself or just one of
the many agents of judgment that Christ has at his disposal, it
doesn't matter. It's still at the power and sovereign
word of Christ that this red horse rides forth. Now notice
what kind of power was given to him to take peace from the
earth. That is, he's a war horse. And
you know, throughout the ages, God has sent war here and there.
You know, the 20th century, which makes up the lifespan, the majority
of the lifespan of most of us here, they say that was one of
the bloodiest centuries in all of human history. Two world wars
and skirmishes and battles and feuding, more blood was spilled
in that hundred years than any time before. And you know something? When God sends the red horse
to this world, believers, too, get swept up in it. And that's
part of the lesson of this whole chapter here, is that when God
sends these things into the world, He does not exempt His children
from them. Believers go to war, and sometimes
believers get shot. Sometimes they go to war and
they get wounded. Sometimes they go to war and
they get wounded in their mind. I've never been there. I've heard people talk about
it. War is a horrible thing. It does things to some people's
minds, even believers' minds, and they never get over it. They
never completely get over it. It's part of the life of this
world. Some believers, they get swept up as the red horse rides
out, and they die on the battlefield. Believing children are sometimes
robbed of a parent, and believing spouses lose their spouse. It happens. It's part of life
in this world, whether or not you're a believer. The thing
is, that gives us comfort, even in all these troubles, is that
we know who sends the red horse. And we have confidence in Him
that He will not allow anything to happen nor ordain any event
in our lives which will not eventually result in our salvation. Everything
God is doing comes under the classification, He's saving His
people. All right, then the Lamb opened
the third seal, this is verse 5, and I heard a third living
creature say, Come. I looked, and there before me
was a black horse, its rider was holding a pair of scales
in his hand. And I heard what sounded like
a voice among the four living creatures saying, A quart of
wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a
day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine. Now here
is God sending economic disaster. I've been reading When I read
the news, I've noticed that there are some economists predicting
a severe recession for our country in 2008. Some of them are even
saying it will rival the Depression. I don't know. I mean, I've heard
economists say everything, and whatever happens, happens, you
know. But it might happen. This black horse may come through
our country this year. It might not. I don't know. It
may come through your household. It may be that it'll take everything
you can do just to get enough food to put on your table and
eat. It might be. You know, believers,
they are not exempt from the economic hardships of this world.
God will see to it that they have enough to eat until they
don't need to eat anymore. But he never said, I'll keep
your pantry full. In fact, the only time we hear
about something like that is that fellow who said, my soul,
your barns are full. And you had to build more barns
and they're full. So take your ease. And our Lord
said, you fool, this night your soul will be required of you.
So a full pantry, not even full silos or full grain bins or whatever
it is they store that stuff in now, That's no indication of
God's blessings. Neither is an empty pantry. If there's enough for the day,
you've had enough. And here's the blessing behind
it all. It says, do not damage the oil and the wine. Even as
God sends out this judgment, this difficulty of economic disaster,
He says, do not touch the gospel, the oil of God's Spirit, the
wine of the blood of Christ. Whatever else may happen to us,
friends, whatever troubles you and I may go through in this
world, If we are truly among his people, we will always have
the Spirit of God with us. We will always have the blood
of Christ upon us. We will always be able, by the
grace of God, to rejoice in the gospel of his free grace. It doesn't matter what horse
has been sent out. It doesn't matter who sent on
it. The command is, don't harm the oil or the wine. And beloved,
it won't be hurt. There have been times when our
brethren suffered persecution, and we'll get to that more in
a little bit, but they suffered hardship at the hands of those
who hate the gospel, but they didn't lose the gospel over it.
They didn't lose their soul. Our Lord always protects the
souls of His people, even as in their flesh they go through
very, very difficult times. Verse 7, When the Lamb opened
the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature
say, Come. and there before me was a pale
horse. Its rider was named Death and
Hades. That's the Greek word for the
region of the dead. You can even translate it the
grave. The grave was following close behind him. They were given
power over a fourth of the earth to kill by the sword, famine
and plague and by the wild beasts of the earth. You know sometimes
God in his anger sends forth these things. Right now, my understanding
is you go over there to Africa, what they call Sub-Sahara Africa,
that area below the Sahara Desert. People there, they're dying simply
because they don't even have clean water, let alone food. And you've seen the pictures.
That's awful, isn't it? You want to know something? There's
some believers over there too. It's hard. And some of them will
die. Some of them will die. There's
a sword, the sword of criminals, the sword of governments gone
wild, plague. All this God sends. He sends
it to accomplish His purposes and when He does so, even believers get caught up
in it. Maybe, who knows, maybe the pale
horse will come into your life this year. I don't know. We've not had a lot of death
in this church yet. But one thing I do know, sooner
or later this pale horse will come for every one of us. Nobody
escapes Him except those who are here when the Lord Himself
shall return. But you know something? As believers,
even if we see the pale horse coming, and even if we see him
coming in rather notable ways with famine, and tsunamis, or
volcanoes, or global warming, or whatever it is that may come,
I don't know. We can say this, I know who sent
the horse, and that horse is no danger to me, though he takes
my life. He cannot touch my soul. And
then verse 9, when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the
altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the
word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called
out in a loud voice, How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true,
until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?
Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait
a little longer. until the number of their fellow
servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been
was completed. Now, here we have a symbolic representation
of those who die for the testimony of the gospel. And there are
those who do. I don't expect that within my
lifetime We'll see that go on in the United States, though
things could go fast enough for that. You just never know. But
as John wrote this to the churches there in Asia, there were some
who were being put to death for this very reason, that they said
Jesus is Lord. They confessed the Lord Jesus
Christ to be Lord over all, to be the one and only Savior of
His people. And for that and for that alone, they were killed. Now I want you to notice where
these people are. I saw under the altar. What's the altar? It's a place
where the sacrifice is made. Now notice this, they're not
on the altar. They're under it. What song do I so much love to
sing? Under the blood of Jesus. safe in the shepherd's fold,
under the blood of Jesus, safe while the ages roll, safe though
the world may crumble, safe though the stars grow dim, under the
blood of Jesus, I am secure in Him." Who's on the altar? Who
was on the altar? Christ. These people who died
for the sake of Christ, they were not put in a dangerous position.
Nothing happened to them which proved ultimately harmful to
them. They were under the altar where the blood of Christ had
been shed. And you know where the safest place in all the world,
in all the universe is? Under the altar whereupon our
Lord was offered for sin. You're safe there because God's
judgment never goes there. God's judgment fell on the altar.
Everything under it, perfectly safe. And it says, I saw unto the altar
the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of
God. Now these people were not in some state of limbo. They
were not out there in the ether somewhere unconscious or asleep
in the grave. They were conscious. They were
aware of what had happened and they were aware of the things
going on and they cried out to their God and their Savior. I want to make this point to
us. You might say, you know, I'd
give my life for the Lord. And maybe you would. But you know, it's really easy
to boast of giving something you figure you're never going
to be called on. Our Lord said that unless a man
loses his life for Christ's sake, he has no place in the kingdom
of God. Wait a minute, that means if you don't die as a martyr,
you have no place in the kingdom of God? No. It simply means this. Whatever your life is to you,
if you ain't willing to give it up, you have no part in Christ. You've heard me tell that story
of the two friends walking down the road. One of them said, we're
good friends, aren't we? And the other said, yeah, well, we're
great friends. And the first one says, well, we're such good
friends, if you had two houses, you'd probably give me one. You
know, if I had two houses, I'd give you one. And he said, the
first one said, well, we're probably, we're such good friends. If we,
you had two cars, you'd give me one. And he said, yeah, we're
such good buddies. If I had two cars, I'd give you
one. First one says, well, we're probably such good friends. If
you had two pigs, you'd give me one. The other guy said, now
just hold on a minute. That's not fair. You know, I've
got two pigs. Well, it's real easy. to give
away things you don't have. And it's really easy to say you'd
make a sacrifice that you think you'll really never be called
upon to give. But are you willing to give your
time, and your resources, and your energy? Are you willing to give up for
the sake of the gospel, your friends, and your family? and all the comforts of this
life. I don't know what you'll be called
on to give up for the sake of Christ. I'll tell you this, whatever
you give up for the sake of Christ was a great bargain, even if
it's your life. What does it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and then loses his soul? And the
converse is true. And what loss is it to the man
who loses the world but gains his soul? Is there anything you
wouldn't give up for Christ? If there is, if there's something
you would not give up for Christ, you don't have it. I don't know what, as I said,
I don't know what God will call on you to give up. The scriptures
do say this, he that would live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer
persecution. You'll lose something along the
way. Not in payment, but the Lord will test and will try and
will prove you. I would hate for the pale horse
to come for me and I've never been tried. I've never been proven. I don't know if this year will
be a year of loss for you. I don't know if the Lord will
come to you and say as he did to Peter, grab a hold of something
that you hold dear and begin to pull on it and say, do you
love me more than this? what's most important. It says later on in the book
of Revelation concerning the people of God, they loved not
their lives to the death. How much do you love your life?
And not just the fact that you are alive, but how much do you
love the way you live? They'd been slain for the Word
of God and the testimony they'd maintained. They called out,
How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge, avenge
our blood? You know, it is said that when
Cain killed Abel, the Lord said, His blood cries out to me from
the earth, from the ground where you poured it. And later on in
the book of Hebrews, it tells us that the blood of Christ speaks
better things. than the blood of Abel. You say,
why that? Well, the blood of Abel cried
out for vengeance. The blood of Christ cried out
for forgiveness. But you know, the blood of God's
people, when they are slain, when they are killed for the
testimony of the gospel, calls out for vengeance in the ears
of God, in the ears of Christ. Now I know that when Stephen
died, as a martyr even as he was dying he said Lord don't
lay this into their charge that was Stephen his blood cries out
for vengeance and you know something our Lord loves his church too
much not to exact vengeance against those who trouble her now once
again remember that the vengeance of God is sometimes revealed
in grace You know, Paul persecuted the church. And the Lord said,
when he persecuted the church, he was persecuting the Lord.
And do you know that vengeance was exercised against Paul for
his persecution of the church? But who bore that vengeance?
Christ did. Christ bore in his body that
sin of Paul. God will exact a penalty from
everyone who troubles Christ and His church. But that penalty
is sometimes borne by the Lord Himself, just like other sins. But they said, how long? When
will the Lord visit this world in judgment to deal with those
who would stand against the Lord, against His Christ, and against
His church? And it says this to them, here's
their answer. Then each of them was given a white robe. What's
that white robe? It's a robe indicating their
innocence before God, their righteousness before God. They walk with God
in white, walk with Christ in white. There is not a sin upon
them. Do you know one thing that'll
calm your aggravation at this world and your desire to see
it brought to bay at the judgment of God. You know one thing that
will kind of quiet that? When God, in grace, puts upon you
a white robe made of the righteousness of Christ, and in as much says,
don't you worry too much about the world and what goes on there.
Everything's okay with you. To know that I have been graciously
covered in non-guilt, that my soul has been wrapped up in a
robe, a glorious robe of the righteousness of Christ, takes
much of the desire for vengeance out of me. They were all given
a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer. A little
longer. How long? until everybody that's
going to suffer for the cause of Christ is done with their suffering.
You see, the things spoken of in verse 12 will not happen,
at least not in completion, until the end. And the Lord says, before
I make a final judgment, We're going to wait until this
whole thing plays out, and all my elect are called out, and
all my martyrs have suffered their martyrdom for my cause
and for my glory. And then, and then, I'll come. What's that tell us? Well, it
tells us to exercise patience in all our suffering. Whether
it's the mild suffering we may have if we're snubbed by family
and friends, or if we lose a job or something like that for the
sake of Christ, whatever suffering it may be, be patient. The Lord
will deal with it in His way and in His time. Remember this,
you are given a white robe. Everything's okay. You're given
a white robe that belongs only to them who are the righteous.
And as it is written of the righteous, say ye to the righteous, it shall
be well with them. No matter what happens, it's
going to be all right with them. Verse 12, I watched as he opened
the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake.
The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair. The whole
moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to the
earth as late figs dropped from a fig tree when shaken by a strong
wind. The sky receded like a scroll
rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its
place." Now, once again, this is a symbolic vision. You say,
how do you know? Well, for one thing, stars can't
drop to the earth. Stars are a lot bigger than the
Earth. He's speaking in a way to illustrate to us the utter
upheaval and overthrow of this creation as we understand it. Everything in which men trust.
You hear people say, well, as sure as the sun comes up, there's
going to be a day when it doesn't. There's going to be a day when
it doesn't. When you wish upon a star, there'll
be a day when there's no stars to wish upon. Moreover, I think that one way
to take this symbolically is that man, arrayed against God,
man as he is opposed to God, has often worshipped these very
things. The sun, the moon, the stars,
the mountains, trees, the ocean, the great god Neptune
of the ocean, otherwise called Poseidon. They go up on top of
mountains and think when they get on top of a mountain that
they're closer to God. They name the greatest of their
gods the sun. And they got all the planets
up there that they have given names to and called them gods.
And they got the stars and they give them the names of their
gods and they bow down and worship the starry host. And God says
there's coming a day when I will bring every false god to nothing. You know, when our Lord was going
to deliver Israel out of Egypt, here's the way He put it to Moses,
I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. And when He
brought judgment to the gods of Egypt, He brought salvation
to His people which were in Egypt. I also know this is symbolic
because it says the mountains and the islands were removed
from their place and then later we hear that people are calling
on the mountains and the rocks to fall on them. So again, keep in mind this is
symbolic talk. Now verse 15, Then the kings
of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, and the mighty. Oh yeah, you give it to them
God. They've been persecuting us. them big shots and every slave and every free
man you know we see quite a bit of
what they call identity politics in our country and that is the
politicians try to identify themselves with a certain group of people
and then turn on everybody else And so you got some that will
try to act as though they came from humble and poor background
and they'll talk about the evil rich. Meanwhile, they themselves
are piling up more money than they could spend in a lifetime.
You know? Or they'll... a racial identity
or a gender identity or something like that. And it works among
humans. That's just the way it is. We
like the people who are like us. And we approve of them. And we can certainly see why
God would bring judgment on the others. And it doesn't matter
how rich you are, there's probably somebody richer. And you'll make
the dividing line between the rich and the poor to be somewhere
between you and Bill Gates. And you'll be glad for God to
go after Bill Gates and that type. And you'll be glad for
God to go after the kings and the presidents and the congressmen
who you think are making your life miserable. But it says every
slave. He went from the highest, the
kings of the earth, down to the slave. Now you know something?
God's grace spans the same group. It does, because there are some
kings who are participants in the grace of God, and there are
some slaves, and all manner of people between it. But you know,
when it comes to judgment, judgment is as just irrespective of persons
as grace is. God's no respecter of persons.
He'll judge the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the
generals, and the rich, and the mighty, and He'll bring them
low, and He's also going to destroy the slaves that stood against
Him. He's going to destroy the free men. It says they hid in caves. And
I believe that as we look at the book of Revelation, we got
to realize that these things are happening all the time, and
yet there's coming a day when it'll happen big time. Our Lord
has been judging ever since Adam ate of the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. And all these horsemen
have been riding all along. And there's been martyrs ever
since Abel. And there's been judgment ever since that time.
But there's coming a time, friends, when God is going to wind it
up and His men begin to understand and begin to see that God indeed
has come, as it says here in verse 17, for the great day of
their wrath has come, and who can stand when it begins to dawn
on men that they are without hope and without God in this
world? And I mean they are literally without hope, that even the hope
of the gospel has been taken from them. It says they'll hide
in the caves and among the rocks. Oh, men, Men find safety now, don't they? Men think everything's okay now
because they don't see much of the wrath of God. God is so patient. He's long-suffering, says the
Scriptures, toward us, toward His people, not willing that
any should perish. He's not going to do this in
finality until the last of His chosen ones been called in. And
we're going to see that in the next chapter. Full judgment from
God on this earth cannot happen until all of God's people have
been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise and have been called
out. But there's coming a day when
the last one will be called out, and then God's going to lower
the boom. And then what will men do? They'll pray, but not
to God. They'll pray to the caves and
the rocks and the mountains and say, Fall on us. Fall on us and
hide us. Oh, that they had learned to
hide in Christ. He who learns to hide in Christ
need never hide from Christ. You know, when the Lord came
there in the Garden of Eden the day that Adam had sinned, Adam sought to hide from him.
Why? Because he figured it was going
to be the day of wrath. He sought to hide from God by covering
up his nakedness with some fig leaves. And he sought to hide from God
behind some bushes. And you say, how ridiculous.
How could you hide from God behind a shrub? You'll have no more success trying
to hide from God in caves, and under mountains, and under a
pile of rocks. We bury people, and we put a
rock over top of them, and it still won't hide them. There's
coming a day when all the dead will hear the voice of the Son
of God. All of them. Those who died believing
and those who died not believing. Those who died under His grace
and those who died in His wrath. And they'll come forth from their
tombs out of the mountains and from underneath the rocks and
all the places they were hidden. And they'll stand to face Him. You know, when John saw the Lord
there in chapter 1, I believe it was. Here's John, the believer.
John, the beloved disciple. John, who leaned on the Lord's
breast. But when he saw the Lord in his
glory, he fell at his feet as a dead man. Now, if that's what
the appearance of the Lord does to a believer, what's it going
to do to him who does not believe? People fear hell. I tell you,
you're fearing the wrong thing. There's a remedy for hell. There's
no remedy for the wrath of the Lamb. No remedy at all. Fall on us and hide us from the
face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Now let me ask you something.
Doesn't that sound a little odd? If a Lamb got mad at you, would
you worry about it? But if you ever see this Lamb,
He who is both the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world
and the Lion of the tribe of Judah who prevails, if you ever
see His face, and it's a face of wrath, it'll scare you to
death, but there'll be no death to hide you. You know, when people commit
suicide, One of the reasons they do it, some of them, is they're
trying to hide. They think by taking their own
life they can hide in death. People who are under the wrath
of God would give anything to die. They'd love death. Fall on us! Kill us! Eliminate
us! I'd rather not exist than face
the Lamb in His wrath. For the great day of their wrath
has come, and who can stand? Who can stand on that day? I'll
tell you who can stand. The only ones who can stand on
that day are those who stand with the Lamb of God. We now live in a day grace. We now live in the day of God's
acceptation, the year of jubilee, the gospel age. And while we
face a lot of troubles, and while we see the four horsemen of the
apocalypse riding out, and while we may hear of some of our brethren
in other parts of the world dying for the cause of Christ, yet
the door is open, even for you. Right now, if it is in your heart
to do so, you may hide yourself under the altar, covered by the
blood. But if you do not hide yourself
under the altar, the day will come when you'll try to hide
yourself under the mountains, and there'll be no safety there.
Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ, even as He goes forth in wrath, He
goes forth in wrath as the Lamb, and He puts forth the face of
a Redeemer. as well as a judge. I ask you,
what face do you want to look at? What face do you wish to
see? You will see His face. You will
behold His glory. God give you grace that you'll
behold His face as the Redeemer. And when He comes, it'll be coming
not to judge, but to bring salvation. Say, is there anything I can
do to make me among those under
the altar instead of hiding under the mountains? Yeah. You can
call on his name now. You can call on him before you
feel compelled to call upon the mountains and the rocks. For
as it is written, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. And the original place that is
found is in the book of Joel. And it's talking about the day
of judgment. And it says, in that day, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We are, in some respects,
both in the day of salvation and in the day of judgment. Jesus
Christ is riding forth to conquer and bent on conquest. Will you
willingly bow the knee to Him and willingly be conquered by
him and find his salvation? Or will you stand up straight
and tall only to be cut down and later made to bow? God give
you grace to go for the forward. Amen.