Thank you, John. Good morning, church family. As we just learned, and many of you have learned already, passing of Phil Planton this morning, we got a call from Kathy, and I just want you to know that the songs took on a much deeper meaning for me this morning, maybe they did for you as we thought about the life and the service of Phil Planton and what he meant to so many of us. Let's lift that family up in prayer. I'll say a few more words at the end of the service, but for now, let us turn in our Bibles to Revelation chapter five. I know that today we're going to be looking at chapter six and seven, the four horsemen of the apocalypse and the 144,000, of course, the great multitude. But I want to walk through basically the timeline. Many of us know this timeline now. We are currently in the church age. The next event to happen is the rapture. How many of you have seen the news recently of the attack by Hamas on Israel just this past weekend? And so now here we are. We are walking through the book of Revelation and now it takes on a more poignant meaning for us because we see that wars and rumors of wars are in fact happening, not just Russia invading the Ukraine, not just China threatening to invade Taiwan, but now Hamas radical Islam group attacking Israel God's People and so we need to pray we need to pray as a church family about that but it's interesting as we think about where we are as a people this generation that we live in could we in fact be living in a in the last days? That's the question that we ask ourselves. And then, of course, we know that coming forward after the rapture, at some point, a seven-year tribulation will occur, Daniel's 70th week, and it's split up into two parts, three and a half years each. after which, during that time, the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls will happen, will cover the first six seals today. And then, of course, the second coming of Jesus Christ. He is coming again. I want everybody to know that Jesus is coming again. Are you ready for the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? And then, of course, there is that thousand-year millennial period It's a thousand years where Christ will reign. And those who are in Christ, those of us who are saved and take part in the first resurrection, we will be part of that millennial kingdom. We will judge during that kingdom. And then, of course, there will be the judgment, the final judgment, the great white throne judgment referred to in Revelation chapter 20. And then finally, the new heavens and the new earth. And of course we see that will all play out. And so this morning I want us to just look at chapter 5. I'll go back for a minute. We'll look at chapter 5 as a as kind of a launching pad into chapter 6 and 7. And if you have a copy of your word in front of you, I just want to begin by saying that chapter 5 again has John saying, then I saw the right hand of him. Then I saw the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And of course then there's this question, and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll? But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside. Here's John speaking, I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. than one of the elders. One of the 24 elders. Remember last week we talked about the 24 elders. And one of those 24 elders comes up to John and says, do not weep. See the lion of the tribe of Judah. This is a title for Jesus Christ. Now, why is it a title for Jesus Christ? We know that Jesus is a descendant of the tribe of Judah. We understand this from Matthew chapter one. We also understand that in Genesis chapter 49, Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes, on his deathbed, renders a blessing to all 12 of the tribes. And to the tribe of Judah, he says, you are a lion's cub. But the Lion of the tribe of Judah will come from Him. And we know that that line ultimately goes through King David, but then ultimately all the way to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In addition to that, it says there that he is the root of David. He is the root of David. And we learn in Isaiah chapter 11 that out of Jesse, Jesse was David's father, out of Jesse comes a root, out of a stump comes a root, and that root is a representation of Jesus Christ the Messiah. And so he is the root of David, the greatest king in all of Israel's history, will be followed up by the greatest king of all of history, Jesus Christ. He is the root of David. And it says that he has triumphed when he hung on the cross and he said, it is finished. The payment for your sin and mine was paid in full. Praise God. Hallelujah. What a Savior. He is able to open the scroll and the seven seals. And then it says in verse six, then I saw a lamb. You notice all the songs that we sang this morning pointed to the lamb of God, Jesus Christ. His first coming was as a lamb, as a humble servant, laying down his life for the world. He said, I have not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. In that way, he is the lamb of God. John the Baptist would say, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And then it says in verse six, then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne and circled by the four living creatures representing all of creation. and the 24 elders. And he had seven horns and seven eyes. The seven horns represent the power of Almighty God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the seven eyes represent the fullness of his knowledge, the completeness of his doing the work that God had called him to do. The number seven always means completeness or perfection. And then it says that these seven horns and seven eyes are the sevenfold spirit of God sent out from the earth. And he came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. So the son takes the scroll from the father. And then he says, and when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb. You and I have to recognize that last week I said this. I don't think we're going to be running up to Jesus. I think we're going to be falling prostrate before him. And it says here that each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, the prayers of the saints, which are the prayers of the saints. And then he says, they sang a new song. Now listen, what Marcus and Anne Marie and the choir sang to us this morning. Are you worthy? Is he worthy? It says, and this is the song that they sang, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood, with your blood, you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people. and nation. You made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God and they will reign on earth. Friends, I don't know about you, but this gives me great hope. You know, Jesus Christ And coming to Jesus Christ is the most exclusive claim of the scriptures, that there is no way any human being can come into a right relationship with God the Father, can go to heaven, can be reconciled to God without the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It is only by the precious blood of Christ. But our world wants us to believe that there are many pathways to God. There are many ways for us to be able to believe how we can get to heaven. I'm here to tell you from this pulpit and from the Word of God there is no other name given among men by which we must be saved. His name is Jesus Christ and the world may say that seems exclusive. And it is because there is no one who has done for us what we could not do for ourselves except Jesus Christ. He alone is worthy to open the scrolls and to break the seals. He alone is worthy of our worship and our praise. He alone is why we gather in this place, because we are here to worship the Son of the living God. That's why we're here. And so it says there that we are purchased by His blood. We're redeemed. We're bought back. That's what it means to be purchased. We're bought back by the blood of Christ. And then what does it say though? While it's the most exclusive claim, It's also the most inclusive family. Look at what it says there, from every tribe and language and people and nation. You know, the gospel of Jesus Christ is available to all. There's not a person ever born on this planet who cannot come to Jesus Christ. He accepts all of us. There is nothing we have done that keeps us from Him. There is nothing that we will do that will keep Him from holding on to us. This is the power of the blood that we sang about so beautifully this morning. And because of that, he says, then I looked, in verse 11, then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand... Can you imagine this scene in heaven here? This is unbelievable to me. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders in a loud voice. They sang, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and power. sevenfold praise of God Almighty. He says then in verse 13, then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever. I don't know about you, but this has got to be one of the most amazing pieces of scripture that we have before us, where we get to see the inside of the throne room of Almighty God. And we see the four living creatures representing all creation, and the 24 elders representing those who have come into the family of God through the shed blood of Christ. him. I don't know about you this morning, but sometimes when I come into church, I am not of the mindset that I need to be in order to come into the holy presence of Almighty God. And yet that's what he invites us to do every Sunday morning here in this church, to be ushered into his presence And so as we think about it, let's now turn to chapter six, because we leave heaven and we go to see what happens on the earth. And we see this, and I'll walk through the timeline, there you go. And we see here the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Let's pick up in chapter six, and I'll read the first four seals here. I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, come. He's telling the horse rider to come. I looked and there before me was a white horse. Its rider held a bow and he was given a crown and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. And when the lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come. Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. When the lamb opened the third seal, I heard the 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. Then 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. When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. Let me just pause there and just say, I'm going to set the scene for us. The rapture has happened. We don't know how long it has been since the rapture. The rapture is the catching up of all Christians out of the world, those who have already died. Their bodies are taken from the graves and they join. It's like a reunion with their spirits. They are joined to their spirits and they go with Christ up into heaven. Those who are left and remain, our bodies, we are transformed according to 1 Corinthians 15. We're transformed in the flash and the twinkling of an eye and our bodies are joined. Our bodies are made new and we go and we join Jesus in the sky. What a powerful thing that happens. It's something that's going to create great chaos in the world. If you think about, we have 8 billion people in the world. Can you imagine if even 25% of them are born again, genuine believers in Jesus Christ? That's 2 billion people gone. Leaving the other 6 billion to figure out what just happened. And I would argue that there are many people who go to church who are very familiar with the Christian faith, who may even know the Bible pretty well, will be left behind because they didn't have a genuine saving faith in Jesus Christ. It'll be those people who are probably the ones who will be wondering, wait a minute, something has happened, I know what has happened, and I'm left behind, I've got to figure this out. The Left Behind series, if you've read those books, it has a pastor himself who was left behind. And so we see here that there's great chaos in the world, and so as the seals are opened, that chaos is magnified as these riders on four horses come into the scene. And so many people mistakenly believe that the white horse rider happens to be Jesus, but we know that can't be true. The reason is that all these seals really are a judgment upon the earth. Jesus doesn't come until chapter 19 at His second coming when He is in fact riding on a white horse. No, most scholars believe that this rider in chapter 6 is none other than the Antichrist. He is the Antichrist. He is the one who will come in imitating Christ. He will claim to be the one who brings people together. And He is bent on making conquest. He has a bow but no arrows, meaning that this Antichrist will use the chaos of the world, the calamity that is coming upon the world, and he will use it to bring people to himself. And this is what the Antichrist is bent on doing. He wants to generate great influence over the inhabitants of the earth. And then, of course, after that, then there will be war and bloodshed. And that is represented by the second horse. And we see that that second horse, there will be great bloodshed. Right now, there is bloodshed over in Israel. There has been bloodshed since April in Ukraine. And we continue to see wars and rumors of wars playing out before our very eyes. Oh friends, let's watch, let's be ready as Jesus commanded us to do in Matthew 24. That third horse is a black horse. A natural result of all this bloodshed and war is famine, starvation. Have you experienced inflation recently? We all have. Why? Because the goods that are available to us are in shorter supply than the demand. This is what happens with inflation. It continues to grow, and more and more we will see this happen as the end draws near. It says there, a quart, look at what it says, a quart of wheat for a day's wages. Can you imagine working an entire day just for a quart of wheat to eat? Can you imagine how difficult it will be to live in those days? This is spanning the first two to two and a half years of the tribulation period. The Antichrist comes on the scene. He initially comes as one who is speaking peace until he gets a tremendous amount of influence, and then wars will be breaking out all over the place. And then famine results. And then, of course, the natural result of famine is death. Death, it says, the fourth horse is the pale rider. And death is riding on him. And Hades, Hades is nothing more than the place of the dead. We all remember our Greek mythology, the Greek god Hades. Well, Hades is the Greek word for the place of the dead. And so those people will die. We have no idea how this will be manifested in the numbers of people who will die, but it will be a tragic time. And so those are the four horsemen of the apocalypse. And then, of course, we see here the fifth seal. Look at what it says there in verse 7. I'm sorry, 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. You see, the fifth seal actually helps us to understand that during the tribulation, people will come to faith. They will, in fact, come to a genuine relationship. They'll see all the chaos around. They may have some knowledge of what has happened, and therefore they will seek Christ and be found. And it says that they will die a horrible persecution death. They will be the martyrs of that first two to two and a half years. And that's what they are. But their plea to God is, how long before our blood is avenged? And of course we see here that the answer is until the full number of those who are going to be killed for the faith come to me is completed, that is. And so that's the fifth seal. And then we get to the sixth seal. And look at what it says there. Verse 12, I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was 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 the 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. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come. Who? can stand. You see there is a transition between seal five and seal six and it's very clear the calamities that come upon the earth during the first five seals are human originated. But that sixth seal is God allowing the heavens to be rocked by his judgment. Just as Anna Lee read earlier from the book of Joel, the day of the Lord is great and dreadful, and this is the beginning of this wrath of God that is raining down on the world. The earthly calamity is earthquakes and of course islands and mountains being removed from their places, but the heavenly, the cosmos, is also affected. And notice the call of all of the people who are on the earth. What are they saying? For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? They understand the source of the divine wrath, that it is God's final judgment upon the earth. And all of it is intended to do what? God, who is rich in mercy, sometimes uses great punishment in order to get us to finally lay down our arms and to surrender once and for all to Him. All of this is God's final attempt to bring those who are perishing into the family of God so they will never suffer and never have pain or death again, you see. And so we see the first six seals play out in chapter 6, but then we must turn to the 144,000. And I'm just going to break it to you now so that you know it is not the Jehovah's Witnesses, okay? I'm sorry to say they come to my house from time to time and they later regret it. But in verse 1, it says, after this I saw four angels. standing at the four corners of the earth. This is just an idiomatic expression to say that it's the four compass points of the earth. We know the earth is not flat, but the idea behind it is that every part of the earth is covered here. And they're holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God, that is the seal of God the Father. And then he's called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea. Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God. Notice, they are servants. of Almighty God. And it's our God. Do you notice how they say, our God? Then in verse 4, then I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. This is why we know there can't be Jehovah's Witnesses. Maybe some Jehovah's Witnesses are converted Jews, maybe not. But the point is, is that these are Jewish people who will be sealed during the tribulation period. And they will be sealed by the seal of the living God. Therefore, nothing can harm them. And it tells us the tribes from which they come. Now, if you look down and if you have studied this passage, you may notice something that's interesting about this list of the tribes of Israel. Number one, Joseph is listed as well as Manasseh. If you know anything about your Old Testament theology, Manasseh was one of the sons of Joseph. Typically, Joseph is not mentioned. It's Manasseh and his other son, Ephraim. But Ephraim is not mentioned in this list. Joseph is, interestingly. That's the first thing you'll notice. The second thing you'll notice is that Dan, the tribe of Dan, is not listed here. Now, there's a lot of speculation about why Dan is not there. I don't want to go into a long, lengthy explanation into this, but we do know this, that when the land was allotted in Joshua's time to the 12 tribes, Dan was allotted a tribe to the west. out towards the sea, the Great Sea, the Mediterranean Sea. But at some point during the period of the judges, they became unhappy with their allotment and they made their way north. And they became idolatrous in their worship. And so the Danite tribe actually set up a second temple beside Shiloh outside of the area called Bashan. And many believe that that is why Dan is not included here because they succumb to idol worship outside of the allotment of Almighty God. Now another thought is that if that's true, And I don't believe it is because guess what? In Ezekiel chapter 48 we learn during the millennium there will be an allotment to the tribe of Dan. And if you turn to Ezekiel 48 what you'll find is that Dan actually is mentioned first as the first tribe to receive an inheritance during the millennial reign of Christ. No, I would argue that perhaps it could be more tied to the record that Ezra kept in the Chronicles. In 1 Chronicles chapters 4 through 7, it lists out all the tribes and all of the descendants in those tribes, the leaders of those 12 tribes. Guess what you find? You find that Dan is not listed. Dan had no descendancy that lived on, that carried on the line after him during the time of Ezra the high priest in the 450s BC. And so therefore it would make sense now that maybe there is no one living during this time who will be part of the tribe of Dan and they will not be alive during the tribulation. Well, you say, then how are they in the millennium? Because many of the Danites who died before Chronicles would be making up that tribe allotment. Does that make sense? And so we see here the 144,000. You ask me the question, how do people come to faith in Christ during the Tribulation? These 144,000 evangelists. Jesus turned the world upside down with 12 disciples. Imagine what he could do during the tribulation with 144,000 evangelists who know their Old Testament and understand that the Old Testament pointed to the true Messiah, Jesus Christ. And then finally, we get to the great multitude. The great multitude. Well, there it is. Okay, there it is. And look at what it says there in verse 9. Sound familiar? Yes, it's the inclusivity of Jesus Christ. And look at what it says, they are standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. While the 144,000 were on the earth and were sealed in order to do the gospel call for God and for Jesus Christ upon the earth, we see this multitude is in heaven. And it says there that they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And of course, then he goes on, skip down to verse 13. Then one of the elders, one of the 24 elders, looks at John and he says, who are these? And I love John's answer. John goes, you know, you of course would know, because you're asking me, have you ever asked somebody a question knowing the answer yourself? Okay, that's what he was doing. One of the 24 elders is asking John, who are these? this great multitude. And John goes, you know, and then he says this, these are they who have come out of great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. These are folks who are living during the tribulation, who are potentially converts of that 144,000 evangelists. Or maybe they came to Christ as a result of people who were left behind, who knew that they were just playing church, but they weren't the church. And they themselves took up the cross, came to the cross, laid down their lives, and surrendered to the one who could save them. And now they are in heaven. having been persecuted and martyred, and they are given a white robe washed in the blood of the Lamb, and palm branches to hold in their hands, symbolizing that they now not just have the peace of God, but they have peace with God. They are now His children. I want us to know that if you're sitting here this morning and you love Jesus Christ, there's a promise for all of us, just as the promise is extended to this great multitude. Look at what it says there. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. I wonder, do you feel the tent of Jesus Christ over your life today? No matter what comes into your life, He is faithful. He loves you. He created you. He has given you His image. You're an image bearer. of God Almighty. And because you're an image bearer, you have a job to do. Your job is very simple, to bear the image of Almighty God to a world that so desperately needs help. As we sit here this morning, tragedy has struck our own church family in the passing of one of our very own. Thousands of miles away, countries are at war. Massive casualties and bloodshed. God uses our adversity to become His opportunity. May we all walk out of this place hopeful of that final resurrection. when we will see our Savior face to face. Are you ready? Are you ready? Can we claim with John the Apostle, even so come Lord Jesus. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the Lamb of God. We thank you that even in the midst of the first six seals, and the calamity that will come upon the earth in the tribulation, that you sealed 144,000 to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, the greatest hope mankind has ever heard. Oh, Lord, help us to be faithful. Help us to have a sense of urgency as we share the gospel with our friends, our family, our co-workers, and our neighbors. We pray all of this in Jesus name and for his sake and all of God's children said Amen, amen, you know, you may be standing and we're gonna sing this hymn of Commitment nothing but the blood of Jesus if you have never trusted Jesus Come down. I want to talk with you about what that means, and we can talk further after the service. If you want to join our church family, you come. You come forward and say, I'm ready to join this fellowship of faith. So as we sing, you respond. Thank you.