Revelation chapter 6. I'm entitling
the message from what is said in this chapter, and we're going
to look this morning, Lord willing, at verse 3 down through verse
8. But the title is, The Lamb Upon
the Throne Opening the Seals of God. The Lamb Upon the Throne
Opening the Seals of God. We know from reading the previous
chapter, the Lord Jesus Christ takes the book, the book of God,
the eternal decrees, He opens the seals and executes the decrees
of God's eternal immutable book of His purpose. This book that's
in the hand of God that the Lord Jesus Christ takes from God the
Father is that book of God's eternal immutable decree. Everything
that comes to pass in time Everything that comes to pass in what we
call human history has all been decreed, fixed, and settled from
all eternity. That's God. He's big, He's able,
He does all things right on time, and He does all things well.
A couple of scriptures that help us to understand that, let me
read them to you. Isaiah 14 says, this is the purpose
that is purposed upon the whole earth, This is the hand that
is stretched out among all nations. For the Lord hath purposed, who
shall disannul? And his hand is stretched out,
who can turn it back? Remember in Isaiah 46, he said,
I've spoken it, I've purposed it, I'll bring it to pass, I
will do it. None can stay his hand, or say
unto him, what doest thou? God has declared the end from
the beginning. known unto God are all of his
works from the beginning. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the only one who was worthy and able to execute all the purpose
of God in saving us and judging others. Who was worthy, the question
is asked. And John weeped because no man
was worthy. And finally, someone said, worthy
is the Lamb. that was slain. And he took the
book. The Lord Jesus Christ has right
and title to all things as a God-man mediator, as a surety of the
everlasting covenant. We read in John 3 that the Father
loveth the Son and has given all things into His hand. I want to be in His hand. None
can stay his hand, or say unto him, Lord God, what doest thou? Now last week we considered verses
1 and 2 of Revelation 6, and there we learned about the victorious
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 2 again, Revelation
6, And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat on him
had a bow and a crown, and he went forth, was given unto him,
and he went forth conquering, overcoming, Victorious over all
things, conquering and to conquer. Our Lord Jesus Christ has entered
into many battles, but He's never lost a battle. He's a victorious,
conquering King. And the good news to believers
is this, He's our God. He's God our Savior. Thanks be
to God who has given us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ,
because He wins, we win in Him. He went forth conquering and
to conquer. Remember what we read in Romans
chapter 8? We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. We are conquerors in Him. Whatsoever
the Lord doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it. Nothing
can be taken from it. The Lord doeth it that we should
worship Him. We had that on the radio this
morning. I hope some of you listened to the message. Ecclesiastes
3 verse 14. No one need add anything to what the Lord has done. His
work is complete. And no one can take anything
from what He has done. He gets all the honor and glory
for the salvation of our soul. And we want it that way, don't
we? Now, let's look at verse 3 and 4, and we'll consider this
second seal being opened. And when He opened the second
seal, as the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who is executing the
decrees of God, the King of kings and Lord of lords. And when he
had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast, or the second
minister, Preachers of the Gospel, those four beasts, and he said,
Come and see, come and see, go and behold what great things
the Lord hath done. This is still the message today
of all Gospel preaching. Come and behold the wondrous
works of God. All things are of God in creation,
all things are of God in providence, and all things are of God in
salvation. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. Come and see. Come and see and
behold the wondrous works of the Lord. You remember the message
of the last Old Testament prophet? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of all God's people wherever they are in this world.
And I heard the minister of the gospel say, come and see. Come
and see, come and behold the Lord, what wondrous thing he
had done. And there went out another horse,
now, that was red, a red colored horse, and power was given to
him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, that they
should kill one another. And there was given unto him
a great sword." Now here we see, and this is really what has happened
down through human history. Wars, rumors of war, men rising
up against one another, shooting one another, killing one another,
maiming one another, hurting one another, all those things
are included in the eternal, wise purpose of God's decrees. As it is written in Psalm 44,
we are for thy sake killed all the day long, we are counted
as sheep for the slaughter down through many, many centuries
of man, but more since the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the full accomplishment of salvation by his substitutionary blood
sacrifice, we see the Lord's people suffering because of the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not exempt from it. Hold
your place there and turn over here to John chapter 15. John
chapter 15. You know, all the apostles, how
did they die? They died in persecution, didn't
they? Even the apostle Paul was put in a Roman prison and executed. All the apostles, even John when
he writes this, he's on this alcatraz of his day being punished
for the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. In John chapter
15, our Lord told the disciples that this would happen. John
15, 18. If the world hates you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. You see it? John 15, another
verse 19. If you love the world, the world
would love his own, but because you're not of this world, I've
chosen you out of the world, Therefore, the world hateth you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not
greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will
persecute you. If they kept my saying, they
will keep your saying. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me." Now, stay right there in the book of John. Look at
John. Chapter 16, verse 1. These things have I spoken unto
you, that you should not be offended. They shall put you out of the
synagogue, give the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will
think that he's doing God a favor. Now, how could the Lord speak
with such definitive decree, knowing exactly what's going
to happen? He knows that because He decreed
it. He decreed it from all eternity, and time He brings it to pass.
Now stay right here in John chapter 16, and look at verse 32. Again, He tells His disciples,
these days, these days are coming, the time of persecution and heartache
and famine and all these things for the gospel's sake. John 16,
32, Behold the hour cometh, yea, it is now come, that ye shall
be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone,
yet I'm not alone, because the Father is with me. Verse 33,
these things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have
peace. In this world, you're not going to have peace. You're
not going to have peace. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. Ah, but be in good cheer. I have overcome. You remember I pointed out last
week that word there, overcome, is the same word we read in Revelation
6, verse 2, conquering and to conquer. I have conquered. I have overcome. So in this world,
yeah, you're going to have tribulation. You're going to have trouble.
But in the Lord Jesus Christ we have eternal peace, because
we have eternal salvation. When the apostle Paul was stoned
at Lystra, and when the Lord raised him back up to preach
the gospel again, he told the people there, we must, through
much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. All who will
live godly in the Lord Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution. Now notice back in our text,
power was given unto him. Now, where does power originate
from? Where does power spring from?
All power is given of God. Power was given to this one who
sat upon this red horse. Again, a symbolic language. This red horse is the horse of
dread and murder and persecution. To take peace from the earth,
power was given to him that they should kill one another, and
there was given him this great sword of slaughter. Now this
power that was given unto him may be referring to all the wicked
men, all the wicked kings that have ruled among men who have
hated the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has hated the
Lord's people, and have persecuted them unto death. The power of
the ungodly men is not given of men, it's given of God. You see that there? God is in
control of all things. You remember in Proverbs 21,
where it says, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and
he turns it whether so ever he will, just like the river over
here, the big sandy or the tug fork, the Lord turns that river
just wherever it pleases Him to do so. And that's what He
does with the hand of every king, whether it be Pharaoh, whether
it be Nebuchadnezzar, You remember, Nebuchadnezzar was taught of
God, and he said, The Lord is in the heavens, and He has done
whatsoever He has pleased. You remember, God raised up a
pagan king named Cyrus, named him, and decreed what he would
do to set the Babylonian captivity of the children of Israel, and
to end it, and to set them free. How did that happen? God decreed
it to be done. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. And it doesn't matter who the
king is. It may be our president. It may be the president of the
United States. It may be the president of what
they call that country over there, Russia. Everybody's concerned
about Russia and the things that are going on. All those things
that are happening right now, and we see some horrible things
happening. My friend, all those things come
to pass on God's purpose. Purpose. He's not vacated His
throne. He does everything He wisely
does on purpose. On purpose. All the kings of
the earth accomplish God's purpose. The powers that be are ordained
of God. You remember Psalm 76 10, The
wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath thou
shalt restrain. Now, I don't know what's going
to happen in the current conflict that we see going on, but you
who have been around a long time, you've seen World War II, you've
seen the Korean War, you've seen the Vietnam War, you've seen
all the Gulf Wars, and now we've got another war. You know what? We're going to see more wars. rumors of wars, and more war. All these things come to pass,
not by fate, Not by any kind of happenstance. These things
all come to pass on purpose. Purpose. If we just learned that,
it'd give us such peace and assurance in our heart. And I know looking
at those things on the, turn to Isaiah 45, looking at those
horrible images that we've seen in the last 40, 50 years, heart-breaking, heart-wrenching.
And I weep for those people. I know you do too. But these
things are all the creed of Almighty God. Now look at Isaiah 45. Turn over there. Isaiah 45, look
at verse 5. Isaiah 45, verse 5. He said, There is none else. There is
no God beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me, that they may know from the rising of the sun from
the west that there is none beside me. I am the Lord. There is none
else. I form the light. I create the
darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things."
Turn one page. Isaiah 46. Verse 9, remember the former
things of old. I am God, there is none else.
I am God, there is none like me. Declaring the end from the
beginning. Now how can he do that? Because
he's decreed everything that comes to pass. All things are
of God. He declared the end from the
beginning, from ancient times to things that are not yet done,
saying, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure, calling
a ravenous bird from the east, the man, whoever he may be, to
execute my counsel from a far country. I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I purposed it. I'll do it. Now a lot of people
are of the idea that everything that is wicked and evil and all
this wars and all these things, Satan's doing all that, and God
is over here on his side, he's trying to stop all that, and
then we have a conflict. No, the devil is God's devil.
He can't whisper, make a move, move a hand, a muscle, if he
has any, he can't do anything except God decree it to be so. So this red horse, power, all
powers of God, and power was given to take peace from the
earth that men should kill one another and do so with a sword
and then go around and brag about it. I've got more bombs than
you've got. I've got better bombs than you've
got. God is control of all things. You know, the prime example of
that to me is this. When the Lord Jesus Christ dies
at Calvary's tree, it's not an accident. We're going to study
in the Revelation that he's a lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. We study in the book of Acts
him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. You have taken him by wicked hands and crucified the Lord
of glory. And then he comes to Acts chapter 4 and he says that
Herod and Pontius Pilate and the Jews and Gentiles were all
gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.
They did what they wanted to do, they did what they had that
hatred in their heart to do, but they did what God determined
before to be done. That's true then, and it's true
in every other case. God is God of all things and
absolute control, even over the wicked deeds of men. He controls
all things. And I'm glad it's so, because
he does so wisely. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? He will. Now here's the second
thing in verse 5 and 6. When he had opened the third
seal, I heard the third beast say again that repeated message,
Come and see, come behold the works of the Lord. And I beheld,
and lo, a black horse And he that sat on him had a pair of
balances in his hand, and I heard a voice in the midst of the four
beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, a measure of barley
for a penny, see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. with this pair of balance scales,
this black horse represents, and the rider represents, poverty,
hardship, economic turmoil, mourning, famine. Black is the color of
sorrow, isn't it? Black is the color of sorrow.
This, too, the Lord is fully and absolutely sovereign over. I remember a statement I read
by John Gill, who lived back and ministered in the early 1700s. I read this statement. I've never
forgotten it. He said, God is the first cause
and last end of all things. Now, you think about that. The
first cause. There may be second, third, and
fourth causes. God is the first cause and last
end. It's all going to end according
to His purpose. Remember, He's the beginning
and He's the end. He's the first, He's the last.
It's all going to serve His purpose and His glory to the good of
His covenant people. We often quote this scripture,
Romans 11, 36, for of Him, of Him, and through Him, and to
Him are all things. to whom be glory forever and
ever." And then it says, period, and then it says, Amen. Amen. When trouble and hard times spread
over the land, it not only affects All unbelievers, it also affects
the Lord's people as well. When we were flooded here on
New Year's Day, it affected us, but it also affected this whole
county. The whole county had trouble. The whole county was
flooded. But here's the difference. The Lord will provide and care
for His people. He'll never leave us. He'll never
forsake us. And all the floods that we've
been through here, together, We've been through some floody,
muddy messes. The Lord's always provided for
us. The Lord has always taken care of us. And those weren't
easy times. They were hard times. My back
still aches from those times. But my times, as David said,
my times are in your hand. But the Lord's provided for us
over the years here, has he not? The Lord has blessed us over
the years. And he's good to his word. He
said the Lord, you remember Abraham said to Isaac, the Lord will
provide. He provided himself a sacrifice. He provided the lamb, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And Paul reminding the believers
that Philippi, my God, shall supply all your need according
to his riches in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. He provides
for us so generously, abundantly. He's given us eternal life. He's
pardoned all of our sin. He's given us redemption from
the guilt and condemnation of sin. He says this, seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be
added unto you. The Lord will take care of you.
Seek Him first. But I like this statement here,
the last part of verse Six, don't hurt the oil and the wine. The
Lord will give us enough, a measure of wheat, a measure of barley,
but then he said don't hurt the oil and the wine. Now the oil
and the wine here is a picture of the gospel. The Lord has a
special eye upon his people. He will take care of them, will
never leave us, will never forsake us. He said, Lo, I'm with you
always, even to the end of the earth. All persecutions and trouble
and hard times cannot separate the Lord's people from His loving,
tender care. We read that list there in Romans
8. Who can separate us from the love of God which is in the Lord
Jesus Christ? It is an exhaustive list. Nay,
in all things we're more than conquerors to Him that loved
us. I'm persuaded What persuasion are you? I'm persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, principality, nor power, nor
things to come, nor things present, nor things to come, height or
depth, or any other creature, shall separate us from the love
of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate
us. We are blessed in the Lord Jesus
Christ with the oil of His Spirit. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given
us the oil of His Spirit abundantly. You hath He quickened who were
dead. The Spirit quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. He's
taken the things of Christ and revealed them unto us. the oil
of his blessings, the oil of God the Holy Spirit anointing
us, teaching us, loving us, shedding abroad the love of God in our
heart by the Holy Spirit. And then he mentions there the
wine. When you think about wine, we're going to take the Lord's
table in a few minutes, and when we think about the wine, we think
of his blood. His blood being shed for us.
It's the wine of His love. Having loved His own, He loved
them with an everlasting love. He loved us. His love is a sacrificial
love. It's the wine of His love. Everlasting
love. It's the wine of His mercy. It's
of the Lord's mercies that were not consumed. And it's the wine
of His grace. You remember the promise in Isaiah
55? Ho, everyone that's thirsty, come ye to the waters. He that
hath no money, come ye buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk
without money and without price. It's free, justified freely by
his grace. Wherefore do ye spend money for
that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth
not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Incline your ear and come unto me, here, and your soul shall
live. And I'll make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Now, let's read on for just a
few minutes here, verse 7 and 8. And we see the fourth seal
being opened. And I heard the voice of the
fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale
horse. And his name that sat on him was Death, Death and Hell. Death and Hell followed him,
and power was given, again, given unto him over them, over the
fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, with hunger,
with death, with the beast, these are wild beasts of the earth. Again, the minister of the gospel
says, come and see. The pale horse here represents,
and the one who sits on that pale horse represents death. The wages of sin is death. The red horse represents wars,
the black horse represents famine, grief, And here we're given the
name of the pale horse, death. The pale horse. When someone
dies, they just kind of go pale, don't they? The pale horse. The
pale horse in the writer represents death and the grave that will
follow. We know the end of this flesh,
we see this all the time, don't we? Don't we see this every day? You pick up the paper every day,
and there's an obituary every day. Back to the dust. This flesh is going back to the
dust. Back to the dust. Power was given
unto him over the fourth part. Now, I'm not sure what the fourth
part has reference unto. Maybe being the fourth part of
this vision being the fourth seal. But nonetheless, it's all
controlled by God Almighty. We know that death is an appointment
of God decreed for all flesh. It's appointed unto men once
to die. You'll never be late for that
appointment. It's appointed unto men once to die, and after that
judgment, there are no, we often use these phrases, it was an
accident. or it was an untimely death.
There are no accidental untimely deaths. Everybody dies exactly
on time because God has fixed and decreed the time, the means,
and the way, however it may be. It may be a car wreck. It may
be a virus. It may be a bug. It may be this
illness or that. God has fixed and decreed all
things in your life and in your death. Listen to these scriptures. 1 Samuel 2. The Lord killeth
and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and He bringeth up. Deuteronomy 32. The Lord says,
See now I, even I, I am He. There is no God with me. I kill
and I make alive. I wound and I heal. There is
none that can deliver out of my hand. Sounds like somebody's
in charge. Thank God it's our loving Heavenly
Father who does all things right. Death may come by various means. He mentions here hunger, He mentions
here the sword, or he mentions here the wild beast, but always
remember, it's a pointed end of all flesh. It's appointed
unto men, once to die, and after that, the judgment. The flesh
must return to the ground because God said it would. and the Spirit
back to God who gave it. Death to the unbeliever will
be a terrible great day of eternal judgment to the unbeliever. Death
will be an eternal judgment day of great eternal condemnation. But to the believer, it will
be a grand day of celebration, not eternal condemnation, but
eternal glory. We sing unto Him, remember in
Revelation 1 verse 5 and 6, unto Him who loved us and washed us
from our sin in His own blood. To Him be all the honor and glory
and blessing both now and forever. It will be a grand day of celebration. Now, I'm probably a weird person
because I enjoy going to the cemetery and reading the tombstones. Did you ever do that? Sometimes
I'll watch these YouTube shows where they go to these old cemeteries. I watched one the other day about
Doc Holliday, that famous Western, and he's buried in Colorado near
to where my great-grandfather is buried. And we were watching
that show, and I like reading. They go around and read the different,
when they were born, when they died, and who they were, and
what they did. But I enjoy reading those. There
is a little cemetery over here where we live, the family cemetery,
just up from where we live. And I've asked permission from
the family if we could be buried there, and they've given us permission.
But I went up there yesterday, kind of looking around at those
tombstones. There's about six or seven people
buried there. And one of the tombstones of
a little infant that had died, maybe a day or two old, and a
little tombstone at the bottom that said, gone home. I thought,
that's it. That's it. That little infant
is with the Lord. Gone home. Paul said, for me
to live is Christ, but to die is gain. Death to the believer
is not punishment, it's promotion. Promotion. That's what we're
going to study in Revelation 14, 13. Blessed are those who
die in the Lord. That's a blessing. Blessing are
those who die with the Lord Jesus Christ. When He was crucified,
we were crucified in Him. When He was raised, we were raised
up in Him. When He is seated in the heavenlies,
when He ascended to glory and He sat down, we sat down in Him. That's why The psalmist said,
death is precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of
His saints. Now, when you think about death
being called blessed and precious, it's not that to every person. Blessed are those who die in
the Lord. Precious in the sight of the
Lord is the death of His saints. All these horses and the riders
and all these things, we're going to look at the rest of this chapter
next week, the fifth seal, and then the sixth seal. All these
things, our God is in absolute sovereign control over all things. And these things that we see
happening from human history, all the way from human history,
including Adam's fall, Adam's ruin, That was no accident, was
it? That was all part of the decrees
of God. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
salvation in Him is all fixed, settled, certain, and sure.