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that I was way too loud like
mom it was all quiet we were working on stuff and, all of
a sudden we hear this shouting and everybody's just looking
like, what is going on and Jude said I just said that's my mom. So apparently yeah yeah no clue
never heard that woman in my life. So anyway apparently I
need to tone it down a little bit. But you know, Revelation
four and five, just that's the way you got to do it. So I don't
think I'll be quite that way today, but, but it's always good. So we are going to get started.
Let's pray together and we'll start. And hopefully we'll get
a few to come in. It seems like we're a little short on numbers, but
maybe they're just coming. God, we thank you so much for
this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for what it tells
us about what the future will be like. And while there are
many horrible things, that await our world in the future. We thank
you that for those of us who know you as our Lord and Savior,
we have nothing to fear, and that you have promised that you
will save us from those days, and even more importantly, save
us from eternity separated from you. And I just pray that, again,
as we go into your word, and I always feel inadequate, and
I just don't do it justice, I know that, but I just pray that the
Holy Spirit would do his work in our lives today, and Help
us to hear what you would want us to hear and to learn what
you'd want us to learn We give it to you and we pray this in
your name. Amen So we are getting pretty much into the Nitty-gritty
of the judgment of God that is awaiting in the future So just
kind of out of curiosity because I knew it would be good. I Decided
to Google God's judgment. I and see what people have to
say about that. And this is just one of the quotes
that came up by some, I have no idea who this is, Sherry Rowe
Dirksen. She says, quote, the divine is
free of judgment. The statement God is love reiterates
this. Of course, there is no smiting.
There is no judgment. Do not conceptualize the divine
as if he, she were human. It is only us who think like
this. Well, Sherry, there's a lot of things that we disagree about
with your statement there. But unfortunately, this is probably
a pretty accurate reflection of what most people would say.
That God is love, right? We're all about love now. Love
is love. Live and let live. Don't judge. And while this is certainly a
feel-good message, it's a lie from the pit of hell, because
it prevents people from seeing God for who He truly is. It prevents
people from seeing themselves for who they truly are. And it
prevents people, most importantly, from getting right with God,
because they don't realize who He truly is and who we truly
are, and that His judgment is real. And when we read a book
like the book of Revelation, we're faced with a choice. We
can either take the Bible seriously and accept that it is God's truth
to us, or we can adhere to the popular
and convenient belief that the wrath of God is an old-fashioned
notion that is to be discarded. I recently saw a quote, well
it was a while ago, but on social media I saw a quote once that
said, if your entire theology is God is love and do not judge,
you don't have biblical Christianity, you have Oprah. And isn't that the truth? But
that's what a lot in our world think today. Nancy gets special treatment
around here. You know, we really have no concept
of how truly holy God is. We tried to paint that picture
a little bit, Revelation 4 and 5. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. He is worthy of all our worship
and worthy of all the glory. And we really have no concept
of how holy God is and how utterly ugly and offensive our sin is
to Him. Because we're sinners and we're
just used to it and we're used to the world around us. And we
don't think about these things. But Revelation is a book that
tries to lay this out for us. Revelation, as we know, we've
talked about the Apostle John writes Revelation and he receives
a series of visions. It's all one revelation. Dad
hated it when people said revelations. It's not revelations, it's one
revelation. But he sees a series of visions
that lay out the future of the world. And we are in the tribulation. Thankfully, not literally, but
we're in it in our Bibles. That's the point that we have
reached. We are in the tribulation. If you were here a couple of
weeks ago, we did chapters four and five, which is this awesome,
majestic, mind-blowing scene in the throne room of God. And
I believe that God opens with that. And I'll put up on our
timelines. I know you guys have seen it,
but this is where we're at now, tribulation. I believe God opened with that
throne room scene because part of the reason anyway was he knew
he was going to start to reveal now to John the inconceivably
horrific judgments that are going to come upon the earth. And God
understood the overwhelming magnitude of what he's about to lay out
for John. And it's as if God kind of prepares John for those
terrible things by first giving him a virtual tour of heaven.
by first reminding him that he is in control, that God is in
control. And that John had, you know, despite the horrible things
he's going to see, John had no need to panic. He had no need
to be scared or be dismayed or to despair because there is a
throne in heaven and God is on it. And in chapter four, we saw
that the father is on the throne and he was holding a scroll that
was written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
That's really the best way to think of it maybe is probably
the title deed to the earth. So once you open this scroll,
it will start to unveil the culmination of redemption story. And it's
going to be the reconciliation of all things to God. And also this scroll is going
to usher in the tribulation judgments. So before we get to that scroll,
I kind of want to go briefly through some just facts about
what we know of the tribulation. So you know where these facts
are found in the Bible and what the tribulation is all about.
And I know we already have covered some of this stuff and some of
this we won't talk about much because it'll be in some passages
yet to come. But I kind of wanted to just set the stage for what
this seven year tribulation is like, because it's going to be
so different. You know, we tend to think that
the world is the way it's always been, that when we've experienced
it. The Old Testament world was very different. The Tribulation
world is going to be very different. There are going to be so many
things that are just radically different from what we're used
to, and just kind of get an idea of what the Tribulation is going
to be like. So, our facts about the Tribulation.
It will last for seven years. That's your, we all know that
one. One of the places we find that is in Daniel's 70 weeks.
We talked about that extensively. If you were here for that lesson,
remember that it's 360 days in those years, so the tribulation
will last for 2,520 days according to the lunar calendar that the
Old Testament Jews used. It will begin with the signing
of a peace treaty between the Antichrist and Israel, and it
will end with the return of Jesus. Second, and we talked about this
in our rapture lesson, that the two primary purposes of the tribulation
are to punish unrepentant Gentiles, and that's what we're going to
see with all these judgments that are coming up in Revelation, and
it's also to discipline and to save rebellious Jews. Because remember, the tribulation
really is for the Jews, because God has promised that the Jewish
nation will return to Him. fully, not just in their land
like they are today, but spiritually, they will realize that Jesus
is the Messiah. Gentiles will also be saved during the tribulation,
but it is primarily for the Jews. Third, the tribulation will be
ruled by the unholy trinity of Satan, the Antichrist, and the
false prophet. Satan is always doing his best
to imitate mimic God and to deceive others and to believing that
he is God deceive others into worshiping him So here he copies
God with his unholy Trinity. We won't talk about that too
much because we will get to that later in Revelation The tribulation is going to be
unprecedented in many ways number four it is the time of unprecedented
divine wrath poured out by God upon the people of the earth. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew,
if the time wasn't cut short, that nobody would live through
it, because that's how bad it's going to be. Number six, it's a time. Oh,
did I skip? No, number five. Number five,
it will be a time of unprecedented spiritual warfare. We'll see
that a lot in Revelation chapter 13 where Satan gets really mad
when he's finally officially kicked out of heaven as far as
he has no access to it anymore and he completely loses his mind
and he takes it on the world and we will talk about that later
in Revelation. Number six, we talked about this one too, it
will be a time of unprecedented violent persecution of Jews and
all who would refuse to worship the Antichrist. And all of these things we will
get to again, but I know we've touched on some of them too. Number seven, I want to try to
develop this one a little bit. We don't have a lot of time,
unfortunately, but it is eerily similar to the days of Noah. And this is what Jesus himself
told us. I really wanted, as I've been
saying this, I really wanted to spend an entire Sunday on
the days of Noah. Because if you understand the
days of Noah, you so much better understand the days that are
coming in the tribulation. Because honestly, the world is
going to look more like Noah's day than it looks like in our
day. And I don't know that I'm going to be able to spare another
week to talk about the days of Noah. I guess I'll see how we
get through this, and maybe I'll get one at the end. Or maybe
by the time we hit May and June, you guys will be ready to be
done with this class. I won't want an extra week. Anyway, I
would highly recommend to you this book. as it was in the days
of Noah by Jeff Kinley. If you want to know more about
the parallels between, because obviously we can write a book
about it, there's a lot to say about it. It's really good and it just
gives a lot of insight about this time, this period of time. This is where Jesus says it.
He says it in Matthew chapter 24, verses 37 to 39, For as were the days of Noah,
so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days
before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they
were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away.
So it will be, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. I'm
losing the microphone. How is it similar? I probably
don't have a full list here. I guarantee all these facts,
there's a lot more facts we could list about tribulation. I'm sure
none of my lists are really exhaustive. First of all, we know that Noah
lived in the end times of his own world and generation. He watched his entire generation,
his entire world get wiped out, minus seven other people with
him in the ark. Really, one of the primary ways
that the tribulation will be like the days of Noah is that
human depravity will once again reach its fullness. And I don't
think I mean, even after studying it, I feel like I don't totally
understand. Exactly what these days were
like and what it was like for Noah to live in this kind of
generation But this book we try to paint a little bit of a picture
here. And one of the verses that really just brings us home is
Genesis chapter 6 verse 5 where it says the Lord saw that the
wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually and
And speaking of that verse, Jeff Kinley writes, wait, did you
read that correctly? Did Moses really mean to write
that? Did he actually say that every
thought of every person was only evil continually? As in all the
time? Is that even possible? Apparently
so. They were, they actually were
as bad as they could be all the time. In a pre-flood humanity,
sin became a lethal virus, a plague spreading from parent to child
and person to person. It was manifest through sexual
perversions, wickedness, hatred, aggression, and violent behavior.
And Noah's contemporaries were eaten up with it. It consumed
them, man and woman, boy and girl. No one was immune. It respected
no geographical boundaries. It was equally in women as it
was in men. It flowed like a river through
every town and village like their only source of water. They drank
it during the day and binge drank it in the evening. Evil was king. People hated each other and the
whole planet hated its creator. It was Mardi Gras on steroids. Every day was a riotous rebellious
rejection of the one who had made them Insanity and lawlessness
reigned in the absence of righteousness sensuality violence and demonic
activity filled the void the image bearers Yahweh had made
had transformed themselves into a global mass of moral chaos
and wickedness This then is the strength scope and potential
reality of life without God Aren't you so grateful that we
don't have to live through that? That God has given us a way to
escape because those days are coming again when every person,
every thought will be only evil all of the time. That's mind-blowing. That's hard to even comprehend. We know from Genesis that there's
kind of three specific types of sins that are mentioned in
Noah's time. There was rampant violence. It's
on your sheet. So there was rampant violence.
There was unrestrained sexual deviance. And there was obsession
with the demonic. And as I thought about those
three things, I thought, you know, for lack of a better term, our
world today, being groomed for all of that aren't we like our
society is telling us to accept all of these things rampant violence
I mean we saw so much violence connected with you know the George
Floyd thing with all the riots and the burning and the looting
and the stealing and people almost like yeah good for you you deserve
it this is what our government's bad or these business owners
are bad and you know everybody is just promoting these things
and I think of I'm gonna have to be careful of my words today,
aren't I? I've got some little ones in here. I was gonna say
some, yeah. Also, the deviance that I talked
about, I won't talk as much about that as I was going to, but you
guys just need to turn on the news to know that there is all
kinds of sexual deviance everywhere, and we are well and truly down
a road that, I mean, I'm no prophet, but the next thing around the
corner is pedophilia, is allowing it, legalizing it. I mean, there's
already groups out there to promote that agenda. It's coming. Also, the obsession with the
demonic. There seems to be indication from Noah's account too that
there was even connections with sexual activity with the demonic.
which is pretty crazy and I won't go into that too much either
with the young ears here but we can see these things we
can see that our society is doing its best to promote these things
to normalize these things and to even celebrate these things
and if you don't think so which I'm sure you do but I mean June
is coming right pride month We take pride. I mean, it's literally
depravity on parade, which is what it was in the days of Noah. We have well and truly gone down
the rabbit hole. Isaiah 5, 20 and 21 says, woe
to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for
light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet. Woe
to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their
own sight. And don't you, I mean, I know
you feel this. The world just recently, almost
even just as COVID, I don't know if it was before then, but it
just feels like everything is upside down and inside out. Right is
wrong and wrong is right. Everything is so confused. And
you just look around, you shake your head and you think, where
is even the common sense? I mean, can we just not, we can't
even agree on basic things like men can't be women. Or I mean,
some men say they can give birth. And you're just like, what is
happening right now? How did we even get to this point?
We are down the rabbit hole and we are marching closer and closer
to the time when Sodom and Gomorrah will describe every city, every
town, every neighborhood. I think you're all familiar with
the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, so I won't say those details
either, but you know what those men were doing. Imagine that
in every neighborhood. things like that, depravity like
that. We are getting closer and closer
to a very dark age where every thought of every person will
be only evil all the time. We were approaching a godless
world. That will be the world of the
tribulation. It is just staggering to think because Bible scholars
estimate, and there's obviously we can't have an exact number,
but most Bible scholars, historians of the Bible, estimate that the
population of Noah's world, I mean I guess in my head I always kind
of think of it small. You know because it's not long after relatively
speaking, it's not long after Adam and Eve, but because of
all the kids that people had in the extended life periods
that they had, The population of the world, they estimate,
was between 7 and 10 billion. That's more than today. I mean,
it's right around that number. We're about eight-ish, I think,
now. But it's as many, if not more, than today. And isn't it
just staggering to think that when God looked at all of these
people, he found only one? Only one? If Noah has never made your personal
cut of heroes of the faith, add him today. It is amazing what
that man went through and how he was a righteous man in that
kind of culture. Thankfully, in the tribulation,
there will be more than just one. We'll get to that in our
passage later in Revelation. But most will be totally godless
Also similar to the days of Noah mankind will receive ample warnings
and opportunities to repent we will see in the tribulation They
will get many opportunities to repent. We know that Noah took
at least Well about a hundred years to build his ark second
Peter tells us he was a preacher of righteousness Those people
had chances to repent and to get on that ark themselves They
didn't take it Because D mankind will live in willful ignorance
and unbelief of the coming judgment of God and therefore will be
completely unprepared. They'll just keep living like
things have always been the way they've always been. And God's
judgment will be on a global scale. just as it was in the
days of Noah. But what almost makes tribulation
scarier than the flood is at least the days of the flood,
the globe, the world was destroyed in a single event. In the days
of the tribulation, God is going to draw out his anger over seven
years. And there will be none with excuse
because, number eight, everyone on the earth will hear the gospel.
We'll get to that, but we will know everybody will hear the
gospel. And we also know that most will
refuse to repent and they will harden their hearts against God. So we're going to talk about
that first series of judgments, the seal judgments, beginning
as the seal is broken on the scroll that Jesus has received
into his hand. We're also going to see that
the other judgments of revelation and the tribulation judgments,
they will all come from the seals. So as Jesus opens the seals,
he gets to the seventh seal, and that's going to open the
trumpets. And as the last trumpet is sounded, the seventh trumpet,
that is going to open the bowls. And we're going to see all of
these judgments. They're going to ramp up in frequency and intensity. As Jesus said, they're going
to be like labor pains. So they start slow but it gets
fast quick with intensity and frequency. Let's go to Revelation
chapter six to read about the seal judgments. Now I saw when the lamb opened
one of the seven seals, I heard one of the living creatures say
with a voice like thunder, come. And I looked and behold, a white
horse and its rider had a bow and a crown was given to him
and he went out conquering and to conquer. So we see here in
this first seal, this is the beginning of the famous four
horsemen of the apocalypse. And three, the last three represent
forces or circumstances. the first writer follows that
pattern we could say that this seal is world conquest but we
could also say that this world that this seal is the Antichrist
himself now this doesn't mean the Antichrist himself is on
this horse I mean the Antichrist doesn't come from heaven he's
a human being on the earth so this writer would be representative
of the Antichrist and The color of the horse, it's the color
of peace. We associate white with peace. We know that the
treaty with Israel will kickstart the tribulation, but this will
be a false peace. This rider has a bow, but he
has no arrows. And a lot of scholars point to
that to say this is probably a reference to the Antichrist's
ability to conquer without use of military might. He is going
to take over the world without firing a shot. He's going to
be charismatic. It's going to be after the rapture
happens. People are going to be terrified and want answers. And so he is going to come and
say, hey, it's OK. I'm here. I'm the savior of the
world. And take over and deceive people into thinking he's a great
guy. It says he's given a crown, which in the Greek, that crown
was given to a victor, not a king. So if you won an athletic competition,
this is the kind of crown you would get, the crown of a victor.
You've won something, but a crown for a king was different. So
the Antichrist, he's going to win for a time. He's going to
have victory for a time, but he will not have ultimate authority.
He is not the king. And I want you to notice in the
first four seals, there's going to be phrases used like given
to or granted to. It was given to the rider. It
was granted to the rider. God is in control. He's the one
giving these things. And we're going to see that the
world will be swept up in an unprecedented sense of peace
and hope and security. But this golden age of peace
will be very short-lived, because the second seal is pretty much
right behind it. Verse 3, Then he opened the second
seal. I heard the second living creature
say, Come. And out came another horse, bright
red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth,
so that people would slay one another, and he was given a great
sword. This seal represents violence,
murderous conflict, global bloodshed. We see this in the color of the
horse, the red associated with blood. This seal could refer
to war. Some people call this World War
III. I'm not sure that that's what it's talking about. I feel
like it's talking more about just personal violence. conflict
between individuals within cities, within neighborhoods, even in
homes, talking about assassinations, revolts, riots, civil unrest,
looting, assaults, abuse, rape, murder, and all of it stemming
from people hating each other's guts. The short sword that he's
given is more of a dagger-like in the Greek. It was a weapon
that was used not so much in war, but in close combat, personal
one-on-one close combat, And this word that says slay, they
will slay one another. That was the same word that was
used for the violent death of Jesus. It's used for the violent
death of the Antichrist that we'll read later. It's the same
word that they use for the violent deaths that talk about the tribulation
martyrs that we will see yet to come. So it is violent. Violence, hatred, murder will
run rampant and unchecked across the world. And violence usually
leads to something else, verse 5. Then he opened the third seal,
and I saw the third living creature say, Come. And I looked, and
behold, a black horse. And this rider had a pair of
scales in his hand and I heard what seemed to be a voice in
the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of
wheat for Denarius and three quarts of barley for Denarius
and do not harm the oil and wine. The third seal represents famine
or scarcity. We see this with the black horse.
Black is often a color that's associated with sorrow or lamentation. we see that the writer has a
pair of balancing scales, which was used in ancient times to
weigh out grain and other food essentials to determine how much
you should, what was the cost for that. So this says, in this
scenario here, you can buy a quart of wheat or two or three quarts
of barley for the same amount of money. Barley was cheaper,
but it was also less nutritious. It also required more of it to
fill someone or to make your bread, that type of thing. A
denarius was an average day's wage in John's time. And a quart
of wheat was enough to sustain one person for one day. So what
this is saying, that during this time, in order to buy enough
food for one person to survive for one day, it will require
a full day's wages. And you thought your grocery
bill is bad these days. Biden's economy is going to look
great compared to this. I mean, there's no way someone
can feed a family, and how can you even pay your other expenses?
Food isn't our only expense. Can you imagine? It costs that
much money to feed someone for one day. It says don't damage
the oil and wine. I think that probably means because
those were things that were considered pantry staples, kind of like
our flour and sugar, our butter types of things. These were used
for making bread, for cooking. I think it's saying that those
things will become luxury. So what you used to have in your
pantry and you're just used to it being there and it's not that
expensive, you better not damage it. You better take care of it
because you're going to have to ration those things. You know, do you
remember the eerie feeling it was during COVID to go into the
store and see some empty shelves? Do you remember that? And thankfully
they weren't all completely empty. I mean, there was still plenty
of food to be had, but sometimes there were certain things on
your list and you went to get them and like, it's all gone. It was
just kind of creepy, wasn't it? Every single shelf will be empty.
There will be nothing to be had. This will be a hunger crisis
that's not limited to some random nameless village in Africa. The
world will be filled with malnourished children with bloated bellies.
Everywhere on earth there will be glassy-eyed people wandering
around like skeletons with their skin hanging off. And we know,
if you were here when we talked about the siege of Jerusalem,
starving people are desperate people. And desperate people
do desperate things. And people will cheat and lie
and steal and kill. They will even turn to cannibalism.
in order to have something to eat. Verse 7, Then he opened the fourth
seal. I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come.
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And its rider's name was
Death. And Hades followed him. And they
were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with a sword,
and with famine, and with pestilence, and by wild beasts of the earth.
The last rider represents Death. We see the horse's color. Mine
says pale. Some versions say ashen. Basically,
the color here is a sickly green. It's the color that's used to
describe the pallor of a decomposing corpse. And we see this as the
culmination of the four seals because we talk about sword.
We talk about famine. And now we've added pestilence
and wild beasts. You know, COVID really showed
us how fast a virus can spread in our modern society and how
devastating it can be. Imagine like five different viruses
all going around at the same time. I mean, we saw the panic
that just one caused. We saw how weak and vulnerable
humanity is, how weak and vulnerable our economies are. It also talks
about attack from wild beasts. This could be large animals that
have become so ravenous, because of all the disasters happening
and their food shortage, that maybe animals are attacking dogs,
wolves, bears, lions, depending where you're living. Wild animal
attacks increasing. It could also I think refer to
beasts that carry infectious diseases. Animals like bats,
birds, dogs, rats. There are more than 100 diseases
that can be spread from animals to humans. I think that's why
maybe these animals are linked here together with pestilence.
That could be how these beasts are attacking. The bottom line
is there is a massively devastating death toll. We see that this
writer is not alone. It says that Hades is following
him. Hades there means the abode of
the dead or the grave. So it doesn't necessarily mean
hell. That doesn't mean there's only unbelief like death is coming
and Hades follows and all these people dying are getting thrown
into hell. It's Hades just is mean here the grave. So it's
going to be saved and unsaved alike who are dying and their
bodies are going to the grave. Because we see here that these
four horsemen are responsible for killing a quarter of the
world. Now the seals, I think, start
pretty much right at the beginning. Obviously, the first one is right
at the beginning because the Antichrist comes. And so this
is kind of the first half of the tribulation. All of these
seals and their ramifications will continue through the whole
thing. But can you imagine, let's even give it three and a half
years. Three and a half years that a quarter of the world's
population dies? Can you imagine the quarter of Lamar's population
dying in three and a half years? We would all be losing our minds.
That would be so devastating. This is the world. 25% of the world's population
is gone, and we are only in the fourth judgment of 21. It will be the single greatest loss
of life on earth since the days of Noah's flood, and we've only
just begun. Verse 9, when he opened the fifth
seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain
for the word of the Lord and for the witness they had borne.
They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true,
how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those
who dwell on the earth? Then they were each given a white
robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their
fellow servants and their brothers should be complete. They were
to be killed as they themselves had been. So the scene shifts
back to heaven. These are martyrs in heaven,
the souls of those who have died for the sake of the gospel. Now,
there have been martyrs in every generation, but there is a greater
period of martyrdom yet to come in the tribulation. And remember,
there's no believers to start. But once the rapture happens,
the church is gone. But it won't take long for people
to figure out, for some people at least, to figure out what
happened. The Bible is true. Jesus is who he said he was.
And they trust in Jesus. But then they have a target on
themselves because they're followers of Christ. Many who are left behind, well,
all those who trust Christ will refuse the mark of the beast.
They'll refuse to worship him. They become targets of Satan's
wrath. Many will be beheaded. We'll see that that becomes the
favored method of persecution later on in Revelation. But we
see here in this scene in heaven that Satan might be able to take
off their heads, but he cannot destroy their souls. They're
in heaven, they're praying to Jesus, they're asking how long
before He will avenge them. And they're not asking here,
I don't think, for personal vengeance, revenge, but rather a vindication
of God's holiness. Like, how long before you establish
your kingdom? How long before you defend your
holy name? Let's do this thing! Let's get
to the end! Let's bring about the kingdom
of Jesus! You know, and I always thought
it was an odd description that they're under the altar. I'm like, it
just gives me, anyway, this weird mental picture of all these people
squished under an altar. You know, I don't know exactly
how that's going to look, but it is an appropriate place, I
guess, when you think about it. In Leviticus, it talks about
how the blood of sacrifices were poured out at the base of the
altar. They were always pouring the blood out at the bottom of
the altar. It would run down the altar. And so I kind of think
of this as their position here demonstrates that their lives
were poured out as a sacrifice for the glory of God. They were
a sacrifice for him. And how does God answer their
question about how long is it going to be before he avenges
their death? Well, he doesn't. In typical God fashion, he doesn't
always answer our questions. And he just tells them to wait,
wait a little longer until the number of martyrs are going to
reach the number that they're supposed to, the number that
God has ordained. And so we see in this that the
death of every martyr is not an accident, it's an appointment.
God has a plan in place and everything's going to fall in line exactly
as he has ordained it to be. Verse 12, then he opened the
sixth seal. I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake.
The sun became black as sackcloth. The full moon became like blood.
The stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree sheds
its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like
a scroll that is to be rolled up, and every mountain and island
was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and
the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful
and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and among
the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the rocks
fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on
the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. So the great day of the wrath
has come, who can stand? So at this point, the natural
world goes haywire. We see that there are catastrophes
on earth, oops, I go ahead, catastrophes on earth and in space. If you read of a global earthquake,
it's going to be the first one of three in Revelation. The light
of the sun will die out. The moon hangs like a blood clot
in the sky. Stars fall to the earth. The
sky splits like a scroll. Every mountain and island is
moved. Now how this all plays out is
a bit of for grabs. Obviously it's going to happen.
So some of the speculation comes in and how is this all going
to happen? The greatest earthquake that
the earth has ever seen would likely trigger tsunamis and volcanoes. It could be the ash and the dust
or things that are going on in the atmosphere that obscure the
light of the sun. So that's why it seems like the
sun goes dark or maybe why the moon appears like it's red. John says that the stars fall
to the sky or the stars fall to the earth. Obviously if a
real star hit the earth we'd all be dead. That's not what's
happening. Remember John's trying to describe
what he's seeing, what things look like. I think this could
maybe mean that some of the light of the stars just is gone. Maybe
obscured again in the atmosphere so he's not seeing stars anymore.
I also personally I kind of think he's seeing some devastating
asteroid showers. stars hitting the earth. Just
as an example, in 1989 apparently there was a small asteroid, a
half mile in diameter, that passed our planet at the distance of
500,000 miles, which in cosmic terms is a close call. This is
what an article in the LA Times said about it. An object half
a mile across, like the one that just missed us, would hit with
the force of 20 billion tons of TNT. If it struck New York,
it would undoubtedly wipe out the entire city and kill millions
of people in an instant. If it struck the ocean, it might
be even worse, for the water in the ocean would slosh tremendously
and huge mountains of water hundreds of feet high would crash onto
neighboring shores and drown tens of millions. If the object
were bigger still, it might puncture Earth's crust, set off volcanic
action, start worldwide forest fires, drown half the continents,
and cast so much dust up into the stratosphere as to cut off
sunlight for a long time. Kind of sounds like what John's
describing, doesn't it? If he did witness an asteroid shower,
I'm sure it looked a lot like stars falling to the sky. I thought
it was interesting. This was in 1961. This is a Russian
hydrogen bomb that was being tested. As I was reading about
that, it says, nuclear blasts create a vacuum in the atmosphere. Of course, being a vacuum, then
air rushes back to fill the vacuum. It kind of appears, does it not,
that, The sky is rolling up on itself like a scroll, which is
exactly what John said. The sky, let's see what verse
I'm looking for. Yes, in verse 14, the sky vanished
like a scroll being rolled up. You can kind of see it, right?
Interesting to think about. Maybe this is something John
is seeing, not from a man-made nuclear bomb, but possibly from
an asteroid hitting with so much power. But clearly, however this all
plays out, however the sixth seal plays out, it is divine
judgment like the world has never seen, and no one is spared the
horror. These people know it's from God.
It's His wrath against them. They even say, this is the one
who sits on the throne, this is the wrath of the Lamb. They
know it. They acknowledge these disasters
are coming from Him, and yet they continue to harden their
hearts. It gives me very Pharaoh in Egypt during the plagues vibe. Right? Sometimes you just read
that story about what happened in Egypt, and you just shake
your head, and you're like, Pharaoh, what are you doing? Your country is devastated. Your firstborn is dead. You're
not going to beat this God. It's not going to happen. He's
shown this over and over and over. You can't beat him. And
yet he keeps hardening his heart, keeps hardening his heart. And
even when he finally lets him go, he then changes his mind
and goes after him again. And even, and God stands between
his people and Pharaoh, they go through the Red Sea, and then
the cloud moves, and Pharaoh decides to charge through. And
I think, was there nobody in the army who thought, this is
a really bad idea? Like, I think I would have been
the last guy hanging out at the back. I'm just going to see how
this goes for the rest of y'all. Have they not seen what God did
in their country? And, you know, those of us who
are saved and we have the Holy Spirit in us, this just makes
no sense. But it just shows us what a godless
world is like, and someone who doesn't have the Holy Spirit,
they can harden their hearts so hard. that they even know
this is from God, and they know they can't win, but they're still
going to refuse. And instead of asking for His
mercy, instead they want the rocks to
fall on them. But we will see here, after this
chapter of God's great wrath, that his wrath is inseparable
from his love. Because even in the midst of
judgment, God gives opportunities to repent. Chapter seven. After this, I
saw four angels standing in the four corners of the earth, holding
back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth
or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending
from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God. And
he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been
given power to harm earth and sea, saying, do not harm the
earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants
of our God on their foreheads. And I remember the number of
the sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.
12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed. 12,000 from Reuben,
Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar,
Zambulan, Joseph, Benjamin, 12,000 from each were sealed. So we
see here that there's four angels, they're kind of key positions
of the earth. They've been given authority to harm the earth,
to harm the sea, to harm the trees. I think that's a reference
to the trumpet judgments, because we'll see that's what's going
to happen in the trumpet judgments, and they come next. But a voice calls
out and says, okay, hold off guys, hold on. There's this angel
here, he's got a seal of God, he's gonna seal some servants
on their foreheads before we do anything more here. So God seals these servants by
his angel, and it's a precise number, and he gives all their
tribes of origin. Now some say, some scholars say that these
numbers aren't literal, that it just kind of means there's
gonna be a lot of them. beg to differ with that because
while there are places in scripture you know there are verses like
a thousand years like a day and a day like a thousand years I
mean it's kind of a general yeah it just means a long time but
there's nothing in this passage to indicate that these aren't
to be taken literally I mean why be so specific if these aren't
literal numbers so I take this literally there are also some who say that
these are not Jews that this is just a general description
of believers. So anybody who happens to be
a believer during the tribulation, Jew or Gentile, there's just
gonna be a lot of believers, not necessarily Jewish. I've
got a problem with that one too. Why would you bother to name
all these tribes? If they're not Jews, why are
you describing it like this? And there are some who argue
that say, well, but there's no Jew alive that knows what tribe
they came from. Which just makes me want to bang
my head against a wall because God knows. It doesn't say that
they know, but God knows. So what does it matter if they
know or not? God's the one keeping account, so it's OK. These are
144,000 Jewish men. Goes in your blank.
Jewish men. I don't know how much more clear
the word of God can make it. They are Jewish men. They are
sealed on their foreheads. That's your second blank. Sealed
on their foreheads. This is likely not a literal visible mark. It's kind of in contrast with
the mark of the beast. We're going to see that later
in Revelation. But this mark kind of designates ownership.
These men belong to God. They're set apart as a special
remnant. God is going to protect them.
Undoubtedly, they're going to experience hardship and pain
and loss. They're living through the tribulation,
but God will protect them so that they will accomplish their
purpose. It's an interesting list of tribes. There's 29 times
that the tribes of Israel are listed in the Bible. All of those
lists are in the Old Testament, except for this one. This is
the only New Testament list. And if you want to get technical
about it, there's kind of 13 tribes. Joseph was not the oldest,
but he got the double portion. So he had his two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh, and they are the tribes of Israel. So there's
kind of 13 tribes if you divide it that way. Typically the tribe
of Levi is the one that's eliminated from most lists because they
didn't get their own territory. The priests lived in and among
all the tribes so the people would have access to the priests.
So typically Levi is kind of the odd man out on most of the
lists when we make it 12 tribes. And usually the name of Joseph
is dropped, because they always say Ephraim or Manasseh. Here
we do have Joseph, but we also have Manasseh. So when it says
tribe of Joseph, it has to be the tribe of Ephraim, because
we already have Manasseh listed. Does that make sense? So Joseph
is Ephraim, because Manasseh is already listed. The tribe
that's not there is Dan, and we don't know why. So there's
really no use speculating about it. We do know that historically
Dan was guilty of great idolatry. Some say that Dan became so assimilated
and so sucked into this idolatry and so married into the neighboring
people groups that the tribe of Dan lost its identity and
that tribe no longer exists. I don't buy that one bit because
in Ezekiel chapter 48, God is dishing out the inheritance of
the Millennial Kingdom because he's going to give all the tribes
certain portions, again, of land during the Millennial Kingdom.
And the very first tribe named to get their land is Dan. So
Dan is not gone. So even though he's not on this
list, I don't know why, but he's still around. He's not done.
God's not done with Dan or any of the tribes. These servants, they will proclaim,
that's in your blank, they will proclaim the gospel for all of
those who are living during the tribulation. Basically, God plans to unleash
144,000 apostle Pauls to the end of the earth. I mean, we
know how much Paul alone rocked the world. God's going to send
out 144,000 of them. And I'm just going to add a few
quick facts. The rest of these we're not going
to see until really we get to chapter 14, because they show
up again. They may or may not survive the tribulation. There's
debate on that. If they don't survive, they will
still accomplish their purpose. God will seal them for a time,
and then maybe his protection will be gone. Then they will
be martyred, that type of thing. So there's debate. We'll talk
about that another day. we'll see that they will sing a song
before God's throne that no one else can learn. Isn't that cool? They're going to have their own
special song for the throne. No one else will be able to learn
it. It just shows the uniqueness
and the special purpose that these men will have. They're
going to be sexually pure. So virgins, it says they've never
been with any women. So we know from there too that
they're men, because it says they're not going to be with
women. And we also know that they're going to be the first
fruits. They're redeemed as first fruits for God, which when something
is a first fruit, when they offer the first fruits of sacrifice,
that means like this is the first thing that's coming, but that
implies there's more to come, right? A first fruit means this is just
the beginning. So if the 144,000 are redeemed as the first fruits,
that means there's a lot more Jews coming. These guys are just
going to be the first ones. And we've talked about that.
Tribulation for the Jews. More Jews will be saved. And
they are going to be fully obedient to God and blameless in their
ways. They will preach the gospel of
Jesus to the nations. And they will be part of harvesting
many souls. And I think that's why we see
this multitude right after them in heaven, starting at verse
9. So verse 9 says, After this I looked, and behold, a great
multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes
and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands,
and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God
who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels
were standing around the throne and around the elders and the
four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the
throne and worshipped God, saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and
wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our
God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders
addressed me, saying, Who are these dressed in white robes,
and from where have they come? I said to him, sir, you know,
John's learned the trick in heaven. Like you asked me a question.
I'm just going to turn it right. Like, you know, so you tell me. He says,
you know, and so the elder says to John, he said to me, these
are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have
washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. 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 shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore. The sun shall
not strike them, nor any scorching heat. The lamb in the midst of
the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs
of living water. And God will wipe away every
tear from their eye." You know, I love as we go through Revelation,
we keep we'll go to earth and we go to heaven, then we go to
earth and we go to heaven, and we keep getting these snippets of heaven
to remind us that God is in control. And that while the tribulation
is going to be a time of unprecedented judgment, God's grace will allow
for unprecedented redemption. We see this great multitude,
which here is made up primarily of Gentiles, because it says
that they are from every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
though there will also be Jews in this crowd, These, I believe,
are some of the fruit of the 144,000's ministry to the world. And I believe it includes those
from the fifth seal, the martyrs who have died specifically for
their faith. But I think this multitude isn't necessarily specifically
martyrs. This says it's the ones coming
out of the Great Tribulation. So it's everybody who dies who
was saved up to this point of the Great Tribulation. So maybe
they were killed by war. Maybe they were killed by somebody
looting their store and killing them. Maybe they were killed
by you know, a bear, whatever, all these things that can kill
people, so not necessarily martyrs, but any who were saved, who died
up to this point during the tribulation, they are in this crap. And verse 14 says, they are the
ones coming. It's present tense. It means
these people are continually arriving. They just keep coming,
and they just keep coming, and they just keep coming to join
this crowd. I love how chapter seven ends, how he talks about wiping away
every tear, how they will not no longer hunger and thirst,
no longer be burned by the sun. You know, there's so many days
that I just feel like I am done with this world. I just, I so
want to be done. And my life is really good. I've
never starved. I've never not had enough money.
I've never had I've never been totally alone that nobody loves
me. I've never, you know, I've had good health. Most of my family
has had good health. I mean, I have had a blessed,
blessed life. And there are still days when
I'm just like, I am so done. I just want to go home. I just
want to go to heaven. I want to be where everything
is perfect and right and we don't have to deal with this junk anymore.
I just want to go. And can you imagine how these
who have been through the tribulation, they endured so much. And now
they are in the throne room of God where he says, you will never
hunger. You will never thirst. The sun
will never burn you. And I love how it says the lamb
will be their shepherd. Isn't that such a crazy oxymoron? I love the multifaceted aspects
of our God. He is the lamb. He is the shepherd. What a great glorious future
awaits those who trust in him. I want to point out very quickly,
I know we're out of time. This is what we talked about in Revelation.
These are the seals and the martyrs. These are actually signs for
those who will be living in the tribulation of what's happening.
And they've shown up before John ever told us about them. Though
they weren't called that, so we might miss it. But it's called
the Olivet Discourse. False Christs. Wars, rumors of
wars. Famines. Plagues. Martyrdom,
persecution, earthquakes, terrors in the sky, the gospel we preach
to the world. Jesus told us all these things
before John did. So we're going to take a little
detour. I know we just got to Revelation, but we're going to
take a little detour next week. We're going to talk about the
Olivet Discourse. We're going to talk about some of the teachings
of Paul, because we're going to talk about the signs of the
times, because I believe personally We are living in the times of
design. Because all of these signs are
in play right now. At least setting the stage. We will go there next week. I
think you still have one blank left. The seventh seal, right?
A couple blanks of the seventh seal. See I made you wait till
the very end to fill in your notes, because then you don't
put your stuff all away while I'm still talking. We don't get
to the seventh seal until we get to chapter eight. So that's
why I didn't do it now, but we'll see that there is thunder. Well,
there's silence in heaven. That's your blank. There's going
to be silence in heaven at the seventh seal. There is thunder,
lightning, and an earthquake again, and it will unleash the
seventh trumpet judgment. So that's your blank there. So
for those of you who will be at the, we are having Sunday
school next week. For those of you at the women's
retreat, You won't miss out on any revelation. So I thought
that was another good reason to take a little detour. We're
going to talk about the signs of the times, because we're in
the times of signs. And God, we just thank you so
much. Thank you for your word. Thank
you that even in the things that are hard to hear, and even hard
to comprehend, and even hard to wrap our minds around, we
know that it is all right, it is all good. And God, I am just
always reminded that I deserve these things. that these horrors
that the people will have to live through in the tribulation,
I deserve that too. I deserve it because I'm a sinner.
And it's only because you died for me and you revealed yourself
to me in your word and opened my eyes to who you are that I
can be saved from it. And so I just thank you so much
for that. Just pray that you would be honored in all that
we do today. We give it all to you and we pray this in your
name. Amen.
Sealed Judgments and Sealed Servants
Series Prophecy 101 - Dougherty
| Sermon ID | 324241447244759 |
| Duration | 1:00:32 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Revelation 6-7 |
| Language | English |
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