What great words and how great that is that we have a friend for sinners, Jesus Christ. And in the text that we have before us today, you'll see that we need a friend for sinners. And so I'm going to ask you to please remain standing out of honor for God's word and to take your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter six. It's Revelation, the sixth chapter. I'm going to read just the first four verses. First four verses of Revelation chapter 6. I think you know by now when we come to this chapter, remember John has been caught up into heaven. He has seen God sitting on his throne. And in his right hand, he has this book or this scroll, seven-sealed scroll. And the question was, well, who is worthy to open that? Who is worthy to break these seals? And of course, it is the Lamb of God that is worthy. And so now in chapter 6, And now these seals are going to be opened. And so chapter 6, beginning in verse 1, God's Word says this, Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, Come. I looked, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him. And he went out conquering, and to conquer. And when he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, come. And another, a red horse, went out. And to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another. And a great sword was given to him." Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are indeed grateful for the 66 books of the Bible. Grateful, Lord, for this book that is before us today. Lord, we ask that as we look at these seals, which have been talked about for so much, so often in our culture, we ask, Lord, that you would give us understanding. We pray, Lord, that I would handle your word accurately. And we pray, Lord, of course, that if I do not, we ask that your Holy Spirit would make that known to us. And so Lord, we pray your blessing now on the preaching of your word, we pray in Jesus name, amen. You may please be seated. Last week, I met with a friend of mine that I have known for, I think it's about over 40 years. now that I have known this guy, and of course, I hadn't seen him for probably over a year, and when friends get together, they ask all those usual questions, and so I asked about his family, he asked about mine, and he told me, you know, his kids, I probably should mention this, his kids are all just very accomplished. His daughter just graduated, one of his daughters just graduated from the Naval Academy about a year ago, well into her naval career stationed down in San Diego right now. His son is a very, very successful businessman up in San Francisco. But he told me that just before he left to meet with me, one of his daughters had called him. to tell him that she was done with her marriage. She had been married for, or has been married for, I don't know, two, I'm thinking maybe three years. They have a young son together. Her husband is a Christian, comes from a very serious faithful Christian family, so it's nothing like that, no problems with him, but she's just done. And he told me that that very night while we were meeting together that she was going to be telling her husband, we're through. It's over. I don't want to be married anymore. I have thought about that all week. I have even prayed for him. I don't even know the guy's name, but I have prayed for him because I know the pain. that he will go through. And I know the pain he is probably going through right now as we speak. It used to be that you would have to sue for divorce. You had to show cause why you wanted that divorce before it'd be granted. And in the Bible, God has been quite clear about how he feels about it. He hates it. And yet, as you're going to see today, God divorces Israel. But something that we need to remember as we look at this text is that, as one man has pointed out, that Israel was unique from any other of the ancient Near Eastern cultures. It was unique in that only Israel makes it mandatory for a divorce certificate to be given. to the bride. We see it in Deuteronomy 24. It's a text that I think many of you are familiar with. First three verses of Deuteronomy 24 say this, when a man takes a wife and marries her and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, And he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house. And she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man's wife. And if the later husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of the house and so forth, what I want you to see is the certificate of divorce mentioned two times right there. It's also referred to in Isaiah 50 verse one. Where God says, thus says the Lord, where is the certificate of divorce by which I have sent your mother away? Men and women, marriage was and is a covenant. Uh, you, when you, when you marry, you're entering into a covenant and God takes that very seriously. And by the way, it is a covenant of companionship. A lot of times we don't realize it's a covenant of companionship. When we get married and we enter into that covenant, what we're saying is, I'm going to go through this life with you. Your highs are going to be my highs, your lows my lows. I'll be there for you through the thick and thin. You'll be there for me. It's a covenant of companionship. In fact, what is it? Malachi 2, verse 14. God is speaking against divorce and He says this, Again, marriage is a covenantal relationship. But there is something that can break that covenant, and that is immorality. And that's why in Deuteronomy 24 verse 1, that text that I just read to you earlier, we see that a husband must find some immorality, something morally unclean in his wife to divorce her. And that's why when Jesus was questioned about divorce in Matthew 19, and they said to him, they said, you know, why did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? Jesus said, because of your hardness of heart, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives. But from the beginning, it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality, that's the exception clause, and marries another woman, commits adultery. Well, people, I'm saying all of this because you need to realize that in the Old Testament, God, in a sense, marries Israel. Well, Ezekiel 16, maybe not in a sense, in Ezekiel 16, verse 8, says, Few verses later, In Ezekiel 16, we see that indeed Israel is pictured as a wife, but also we see that she is unfaithful. We see that God has found something morally unclean in his wife. He says this, you adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband. Talking about their involvement with idols and so forth. And we also see that God threatens her with divorce. Jeremiah 3.8 says this, And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce. In other words, I gave her a certificate. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she went and was a harlot also." And so God brings his judgment down. on them, brings his judgment down upon Israel. Well, in the first century, Israel's sin was even worse than that. They went beyond. They rejected their Messiah when he came. Listen to the parable of the landowner. It's Matthew chapter 21. You can turn there if you want, but I'm already there and I'm gonna start reading it. But Matthew chapter 21, Beginning in verse 33, Christ tells this parable. Now just listen to what he says. He says, listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it and built a tower and rented it out to vine growers and went on a journey. And when the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine growers to receive his produce. And the vine growers took his slaves and beat one and killed another and stoned a third. Again, he sent another group of slaves larger than the first, and they did the same thing to them. But afterwards he sent his son to them, saying, They will respect my son. But when the vine growers saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance. They took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine growers? And they said to him, He will bring those wretches to a wretched And indeed He will. That's Israel. That's speaking against Israel. John 1, verse 11 says, He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But they didn't stop there, did they? Not only did they not receive Him, what did they do? They killed Him. They crucified Him. Men and women, this is serious stuff. And so God is now going to divorce first century Israel. But remember, a certificate of divorce is mandatory. And that is what God is holding in his right hand that we saw in chapter five. And the lamb is the one worthy to take it and open it. And so now here in chapter six, the seals of this certificate begin to be opened. And as you know, there are seven seals. David Chilton and his commentary has pointed out that a typical covenant had seven seals, had seven points. But the seven seals are even more significant when we remember something that God said to Israel in Leviticus chapter 26. God tells Israel about the penalties if they disobey. And in Leviticus 26 verse 18, He says this, If also after these things you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. A few verses later, verse 24, again of Leviticus 26, He says, then I will act with hostility against you and I, even I, will strike you seven times for your sins. And in case they still didn't get it by that point, four verses later in verse 28, God says, then I will act with wrathful hostility against you and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. And as we will see, there will be three groups of seven. We're gonna have seven seals, then there's gonna be seven trumpets, then seven bowls or vials. And each group of seven will focus on a different part of Israel. The seven seals focus on the people. The seven trumpets focus on the temple, which will be destroyed. And the seven vials or bowls will focus on Jerusalem itself. And so as they say at Disneyland, hold on to your loose items, keep your hands and feet in the cart at all times because now for us, the ride begins as these seals are opened. Look at verses one and two. Verse one, then I saw when the lamb broke one of the seven seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice, of thunder, come. I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering, and to conquer." And already people, we didn't get very far, already we have a huge problem. I really think this is a huge problem, and here it is. Who's the rider on the white horse? The best-selling book of the 1970s, of the decade. Best-selling book of the decade was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey. Hal Lindsey was the one who really made the study of end times, the obsession it is today with so many people. If you weren't around in the 70s, you don't remember just what a big deal that book was and all the talk about end times and the Antichrist. And all that. And by the way, how Lindsey was wrong at so many points. We know that now. Why? Because it's 2024. I have a book in my library that he wrote called 1980s Countdown to Armageddon. Armageddon is gonna happen in 1980s. Well, again, it's 2024. He has been shown wrong in so many points. But in his book, another book that I, again, I have it in my library, it's called, There is a New World Coming. In that book, he says this, that the rider on the white horse is the Antichrist. And he writes this, who is the white horse rider? It's the Antichrist himself. In the symbology of the ancient world, a white steed stood for conquest. When a victor triumphantly entered a newly conquered kingdom, he would invariably ride a white horse. The conquering Antichrist carries with him a warrior's bow, symbolizing his control over the weapons of war. And on his head rests a crown, for he has succeeded in conquering more and more of the peoples of the earth. Eventually, the whole world will claim him as its sovereign." John Wolvard. Some of you are familiar with him. He's a theologian at Dallas Theological Seminary, very, very popular writer of prophecy, eschatology, and so forth. He agrees. He says this, the rider on the white horse is none other than the prince that shall come of Daniel chapter nine, verse 26, who's to head up the revived Roman empire and ultimately become a world ruler. And many, if not most evangelicals believe that today. that this Spurs seal, this rider is the Antichrist, who's gonna come and he's gonna conquer and so forth. Others, however, like Ken Gentry, says, no, the rider on the white horse is Vespasian or Titus, who led the Roman army when they attacked Jerusalem in 70 AD. Others say the rider on the white horse is Christ. I say it's both. It's both Christ and Titus or whoever, the head of the Roman armies. It's both of them. Now why would I say that? How can it be? How can it be both Christ and Titus at the same time. Here's how. Remember when we were in Daniel 9? Remember, we looked at certain things. We looked at the Olivet Discourse in Daniel 9 and certain texts before we began Revelation. But remember in Daniel 9, verse 26, God's Word said this, then after 62 weeks, the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Well, again, people like Hal Lindsey and John Wolford and even John MacArthur say the prince there is the Antichrist. We say it is Jesus Christ. And again, people, you can't be further apart than that, can you? When you look at the first seal, well, this is referring to the Antichrist. And others say, no, this is referring to Jesus Christ. You can't be further apart than that. When we look at the prince to come in Daniel chapter nine, and some say, well, that's the Antichrist. And others say, no, that's Jesus Christ. Again, you can't be further apart. But what does it say the prince will do in Daniel 9? It says the people of the prince will destroy the city. The people of the prince. The prince is Christ, and he uses the Roman army to carry out his will. Isaiah chapter 10, verses 5 and 6. God is bringing down His judgment on Israel. And to do it, he raises up the Assyrians to attack them. And in verses five and six, again of Isaiah 10, he says this, woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger and the staff in whose hands is my indignation. I send it against a godless nation and commission it against the people of my fury. In other words, God uses the wicked Assyrian army as a rod in His hand to bring down His judgment in Habakkuk. Remember, we went through Habakkuk. God used the Chaldeans to punish Judah. Well, clearly, men and women, if He has used the Assyrians and the Chaldeans in the past to judge Israel, could He not also use the Romans for the same purpose? In 70 AD? Certainly he can. In fact, Jesus told a parable that speaks of that very thing. It's Matthew 22. Listen to what Christ says. We just were at Matthew 21. We go to Matthew 22 now. First seven verses. Listen to the parable of the marriage feast where Jesus says this. Jesus spoke to them again in parables saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again, he sent out other slaves, saying, Tell those who have been invited. Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatted livestock are all butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention. and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire." Think of that. He sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited. Who's that? It's Israel. It's the Jews. And he sent out his slaves. That's the Old Testament prophets. And they were unwilling. Well, then he sends other slaves. That's the apostles. But they paid no attention, went their way. The rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them. Excuse me. And what happens? Notice. But the king was enraged and sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire. Well, who destroyed them? The king did. But how? How did he do it? By sending his armies. Same thing here in Revelation 6. The rider on the white horse is Christ. He's going to bring down his judgment on Jerusalem. But how? By sending his armies. The Romans are the rod of his anger as they attack Jerusalem in 70 AD. Remember people, this book or scroll in the hand of God is his divorce certificate against Israel. But why? Why the divorce? For spiritual adultery. And the first seal is now opened. And we see the rider on the white horse, that is Christ. And He is going to conquer Israel. And He uses the Roman army to do it. But that's not all. Now the second seal is opened. Look at verses 3 and 4. And when he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. And another, a red horse, went out, and to him who sat on it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him." What is this rider on the red horse? Well, once again, it's Interesting, I think always helpful to look at what Hal Lindsey says. Same book that I mentioned before that I have, There's a New World Coming. In that book, he says this, the rider on the red horse is Russia, and she will invade the Middle East and attack Israel, which will lead to the Battle of Armageddon. Lindsey, of course, is saying this is all, this is all future. This is way in the future. Others, however, and I'm one of them, Say, no, this is referring to the first century. And it's referring specifically to the Roman war with the Jews. But actually, the Roman war with the Jews wasn't as bad as the civil war amongst the Jews themselves. Remember, we have made the point before that the word translated earth in verse 4, where it says, take peace from the earth, that word translated earth is gay. In Greek, it's gamma epsilon, it's GE. And it's translated accurately either earth or land. Well, what's the land? It's Israel. This is a reference to the removal of peace from Israel. David Chilton makes the point that all God has to do to accomplish this is just remove his restraint, the restraint that God has on evil even right now. All he had to do is just lift that restraint. Do you understand that? Do you understand what he means right now? There are wars all over the world, aren't there? I mean, we can think of, you know, Israel and Hamas going on right now. And right now here in America, we are at war with one another, divided as never before. But we forget how much worse it would be if God were simply to lift his restraint on evil. Right now, God is restraining evil. And if he were to lift that restraint, we wouldn't be able to go out of this building afterwards. In the first century, God did just that with Israel. He lifted his restraint. In fact, notice in verse four, it says, the men would slay one another. That word slay is phaso in Greek, and it refers to murder rather than military fighting. It means to butcher or murder someone. Ken Gentry points out that the civil war occurred among the Jews during the Jewish war. So there's this war going on with the Romans, and at the same time, they're at war with one another in this horrible civil war. And he refers to the Jewish historian Josephus. who wrote about a civil war that broke out in Jerusalem. And he said this, it was a rebellious temper of our own. In other words, of us Jews that destroyed the country. Listen to what Josephus wrote. He said this, and now as the city was engaged in a war on all sides from these treacherous crowds of wicked men, that's referring to the Romans, the people of the city between them were like a great body torn in pieces. The aged men and women were in such distress by their eternal calamities that they wished for the Romans and earnestly hoped for an external war in order to deliver them from their domestic miseries. They almost hoped for an external war to help them get over this war that they had with each other. He even referred at one point to those who acted, quote, while their hands were warm with the blood of their own people which they had shed. Gentry also refers to a speech by Vespasian. During the war where he said this, the Jews were vexed to pieces every day by their civil wars and dissensions and are under greater miseries than could be inflicted by us. Their own killing of each other was greater than what we were doing to them. The Jewish historian Tacitus said that as the Romans closed in on Jerusalem in 70 AD, he said, quote, the Jews were still engaged in civil strife. So then the rider on the red horse affects Jewish civil war in the midst of the foreign war with Rome. And as Gentry says, tragically for Israel, the Jewish war was as much a civil war as a war of resistance against Rome. They're fighting each other. And they're fighting the Romans. Safe to say there is no peace. in Jerusalem at that point. And all God had to do to bring that about was to lift His restraint, to lift His restraint on evil. And indeed, He did just that as part of His judgment upon Israel. Men and women, the writer of Hebrews said this, For if we go on sinning willfully, After receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a terrifying expectation of judgment. and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the son of God and is regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. People, so often we study the revelation and we never apply it to ourselves. I mean, after all, we consider, boy, it's all future. Church is raptured at this point. Anyway, that's what we teach. That's what many believe. A church is raptured, church is gone. This is all future stuff. Just reading this out of curiosity, it certainly doesn't apply to me. We're gone at this point. But we need to look at ourselves and remember that indeed it is a terrifying thing. to fall into the hands of the living God. Just ask first century Israel. They'll tell you, indeed, it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God and to realize that indeed he will judge. He judged Israel and he will bring his wrath down on you and me as well for our sins. And so what's our escape? What's our only hope? Well, we began talking today about marriage and divorce. We referred in this message to two parables, the parable of the landowner, and then the parable of the marriage feast. I didn't finish the parable of the marriage feast. And so let's finish it now. You can just listen. I'm already there. It's Matthew chapter 22. When we read through it, we finished at verse 7. But now picking up in verse 8, that parable goes on and Jesus says this, Then he said to his slaves, the wedding is ready. But those who were invited were not worthy. Who was invited? He's referring to the Jews. They said, no, I'm not interested. So go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast." You know, go to the Gentiles, bring them. Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good, and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there. who was not dressed in wedding clothes. And he said to him, Friend, how did you come into here without wedding clothes? And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, Bind him, hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Men and women, the implication is this. He says, how did you get in here without wedding clothes? Notice the man was speechless. In other words, the implication is the wedding clothes are provided. that there's no excuse for this. The wedding clothes are provided. It's not like we could say today, or like Steve certainly could say, well, I don't have wedding clothes. In fact, at my own wedding, I didn't wear wedding clothes. It's not like they have an excuse. The implication is the wedding clothes are provided. And this man just basically, I don't need it, don't want it, whatever. And what did he do? He said, bind them and throw them into that outer darkness. God has provided for us the wedding clothes, if you will, for the wedding supper of the Lamb. The wedding clothes have been provided. The white garments that cover our sins have been provided. And so men and women, we see here the wrath of God, how real it is. Flee to Christ, the one who provides the wedding clothes for us. and look toward that day that God has provided. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for these words. And Lord, we do certainly see your judgment. We see your wrath against unfaithful Israel. And at the same time, Lord, we are aware that we too have been unfaithful. We too have been sinful. And so Lord, we do thank you that you have provided the way that we can be made right with you. the way that our sins can be covered in those clothes that you have provided through Jesus Christ. We thank you for that, Lord, and we do indeed pray that each one here would flee to Christ, where indeed we can be clothed in his righteousness. We thank you and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.