Thank you for selecting this message by Dr. James Hoffman. Dr. Hoffman preaches verse by verse through the entire book of the Bible. From all of us at Living Water of La Pine here in Central Oregon, we hope that it will encourage you and feed you spiritually. And if you would like to leave a message after the sermon, our contact information is found on the sermon page where you found this sermon. Now may God richly bless you as you listen. Well, I'm gonna begin this morning by giving a very telling question to you that if you answer honestly, it will reveal how you will respond to our passage this morning. When you're offended by people, is it because they are disregarding the first and greatest commandment Do you think to yourself, well that person exists to love God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and when people offend you, do they offend you because in what they are saying or what they are doing, they're despising God? In other words, is your primary concern for God's glory? are the uppermost thoughts in your mind, thoughts of how people owe God honor, but refuse to give it. Now, quite honestly, there may not be anybody in this room who could answer yes to those questions. But here's why I have asked those. If your concerns are primarily for God and His glory, our passage this morning, Revelation chapter six, will not surprise you. But if your concerns are not first and foremost wrapped up in a concern for God's glory, Revelation chapter six will be very surprising. Have you ever read the judgments in the book of Revelation and thought, wow, this is scary stuff. I'm having a difficult time wrapping my mind around how such a loving God can do such things. You see, one of the things that our passage will make very clear this morning is that God is directing it all. He is the one who initiates and controls everything that happens in the judgments that we are about to encounter in our study through the book of Revelation here. Dr. Kent Hughes expresses such thoughts as he opens chapter of his commentary on Revelation chapter 6 and I just want to continue briefly in line with his thinking before we dive into these verses of our study this morning. If you are primarily concerned with what concerns God, your primary concern will be for his glory. And if you were informed by such passages of the Bible as Romans 121, you know that God is just and that God keeps his word. God created the world for his glory and he has promised to punish those who do not glorify him as God or give thanks to him. But if you are not primarily concerned with God and his glory, if you're not offended when his glory is trampled in the dust, you'll have different thoughts about Jesus seizing control of history. and you are going to be surprised by his actions. You see, God has been patiently storing up wrath for all these long ages. God has been allowing crimes and injustices and blasphemies and abominations for so long. He has been tolerating slander, lies to be spoken about him all these years. Revelation 6 promises that that's all gonna come to an end. The debt finally comes due. Justice will be done. The wicked will give an account. The righteous will be avenged. God will be glorified in his justice. Now we need to have our minds and our affections shaped by the Bible. We need to love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, all our strength, And we need to love God's glory. We need what Revelation chapters 6 that we start today, all the way through chapter 19, we need them to give us because it shows how passionately committed to his own glory God is. We need to understand first and foremost that God is just and he will justly repay all the ways that his glory has been despised and his holiness has been defiled. But now there is a second reason why we need these next chapters in the book of Revelation, what they offer to us. You see, in order to live for Christ, Christians need to believe that it is worse to deny Christ than to have our life troubled, upset, ruined, or even ended in this world. We need to be assured that our Heavenly Father will come for us. We need to be assured of God's promises so that our faith in God will be certain. God has not only made his promises to us, he's disclosed his plan. We need to know that God has a plan to deal with evil and pain, that he will be just, that he will be merciful. God's disclosure of his plan to judge evil and to save his people frees us to trust him no matter what happens to us. If the earth shakes and if buildings fall on us, If the laws change and we are persecuted for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, if the political climate continues down the path it's on of placing justices and judges and administrators and government positions that restrict our religious freedoms and our rights as U.S. citizens, these chapters show us that God will deliver his people from every calamity. He will avenge every injustice that is committed against his faithful ones. So if it gets so bad that you think the Antichrist is about to arise at any moment, if they send you to a forced labor camp for re-education, If they break all of your teeth through blows to the face, if they take you from your children and put you to death, God has a plan to save and to judge. He will judge justly. He will save those who trust in Jesus. The gospel will go to the ends of the earth and then the end will come. Now the previous two chapters were introductory, setting the stage, showing who is in control, and preparing us as the readers here for the coming description of these judgments. The judgments can be divided into three main series of sevens. Seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls. The seventh seal is the seven trumpets. The seventh trumpet is the seven bowls. And we'll need to understand that going into it here. As we study the next 14 action filled chapters, keep in mind that John wrote to encourage God's people in every age of history. He was not simply writing prophecy in order to satisfy our curiosity about end times. Oh, that's how it all ends. Hmm, interesting. The important thing for us to keep before us is the great tribulation is triggered from heaven. Jesus Christ directs the entire operation. Now, there will always be those who study these events and they will conclude I don't like all of this." Well, do you have a better suggestion as to how Christ should put down the rebellion on earth against him? How do you think he should put it down? Do you think that they are ready in Moscow, in the Kremlin, to turn authority over to Jesus right now? How about in any other country? How about in our country? I'm telling you they are not about to turn it over to him in Washington, D.C. Neither of our political parties is interested in putting Jesus Christ on the throne. They have some very unworthy men and women on both sides who would like to be on the throne. Christ alone is the one who is worthy. And how is he going to come to power? Exactly as Psalm 2 9 says, in Psalm 2 9 we read, you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. And so the time of singing, which we saw in last week's chapter has finally ceased. The hour of judgment has come. The lamb who's right it is to possess the earth has received the earth's title deed. and now must begin to take possession of his kingdom. We saw in last week that the scroll, this title deed, had writing within and had been rolled and sealed with seven seals before the great claim can be verified officially. The seals must be broken and the writing openly displayed to all witnesses. Earth's squatter on Christ's property and his human assistance must be expelled before the Lamb's divine ownership will ever be openly recognized. So as each successive seal is broken, the wrath of God takes successive toll on the earth and its inhabitants, expelling them so the rightful owner can take possession. And as I said, the judgments are executed in three series, the seals, the trumpets, and the most severe will be the bowls. These occur over a seven-year period and are the most severe troubles the world will ever know. This is the day of the Lord, the time when God breaks his age-long silence and speaks from heaven with mighty power. The great judgments of this period are described in the words of fire by the prophets of the Old Testament, especially Isaiah and Daniel. And so with that, please turn with me now to Revelation chapter six, as we begin this coming period of time. Revelation chapter six, beginning with verse one, one and two, it reads this way. Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four 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 came out conquering and a conqueror. Now horses represent God's activity on earth, the forces he uses to accomplish his divine purposes. During the first century, a white horse was usually ridden by conquering commanders. It was ridden by generals in parades after a great victory. They usually would not ride them into battle because it would draw attention from the enemy as to single them out for attack. But they were used to declare the victory has been won, as the general would ride it. The one who rides this white horse comes as a white knight in shining armor. There is a lot of dispute, however, as to who this rider is and who he represents, who's riding this white horse. Some identify him as Jesus because in chapter 19 of the book of Revelation, Jesus appears on a white horse wearing a crown. Well, it's a different crown, a different wording in the Greek for crown there. However, bringing an end to the terrible series of judgments that have gone on on earth, that's what we're reading in chapter 19. Jesus comes to end the trouble, but this writer comes to bring trouble. What a mistake I believe it is to identify our writer of the white horse here in chapter six as Jesus. because the context is entirely different. Here, we're looking at the beginning of the judgments of God. In chapter 19, we see the end of them. Also, the writer of chapter six is summoned by one of the living creatures, but it would be unthinkable for a creature to summon the conquering Christ of chapter 19. But it is significant that this rider on the white horse bears some resemblance to the appearance of Jesus on a great white horse that we will read in chapter 19. They both ride a white horse, they both wear crowns, and both are bent on conquest. It suggests that this rider is someone who is like Christ, but who is not. Christ. Many of you are already anticipating what I'm going to say. This is doubtless the long predicted Antichrist, whom scripture speaks of in several places, who is to appear in the last days. The man of lawlessness is his name in 2 Thessalonians 2.3. Paul calls him the lawless one in 2 Thessalonians 2.8. He will appear and offer himself as though he were Christ, the Messiah. Jesus himself said to the Jewish leadership of his day in John 5 43, I have come in my father's name and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. And I believe that was Jesus prophesying about the Antichrist, who they will receive. This writer comes like Christ, but in his own name. He is given a bow, but notice, no mention is made of arrows. Why? Because this appears to be a bloodless conquest that he launches. I think it's clear. that it suggests some kind of overpowering of people's minds and wills without physical destruction yet. When the Antichrist comes, he will come promising peace, a mock millennium. And whatever else he needs to promise to rally the nations behind him, he will promise. The tribulation actually begins with the Antichrist making a covenant with Israel by promising them peace and protection. Remember what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5.3. While people are saying there is peace and security, then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains comes upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. Until recent years, I used to wonder how such deception could ever be pulled off. I mean, Israel is very difficult to fool. They're suspicious of everybody, aren't they? I don't wonder about that anymore. We are so inundated with delusions today. Here in America, the majority is willing to elect anybody to be our president. The character in their past doesn't matter. We are obviously living in a deceitful age. What this writer on the white horse tells us, however, is that the worst is yet to come. We're living amidst great deceit. It is true, but it is not as bad as it's going to be. coming an event, it will be a much greater lie. Listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in his Second Thessalonian Letter. 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 9-12 says this, The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false in order that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Makes it crystal clear, does it not? This first conquest by evil in the last days is set in motion when God takes off the reins and lets deceit run its course, have its way, get worse and worse and worse until it reaches a climax of delusion. It's coming. Astounding delusion exists today, but it's going to get worse and it will reach a climax on the world stage with the Antichrist. Now, we're ready for the second seal as it's opened. Verses three and four. When 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 should slay one another. And he was given a great sword. Now this writer is a little easier to recognize. It's war, of course, but not war between great armies, at least not at first. The word for slay is really slaughter. It's a reference to civil war or civil anarchy where mobs of people group together to attack and destroy other people who they don't like. It's like ethnic cleansing, religious jihad, or ganging up in cities against police officers because they're police or whatever. That we are even seeing today. It's a murderous slaying of others by people unrestrained by any control. A sense of lawlessness. The peace that the rider of our first horse brought to earth without bloodshed was short-lived. And soon peace will be shattered by a bloody slaughtering of groups of people. All rulers, including the Antichrist, will learn that you cannot have peace without the Prince of Peace, namely Jesus Christ. Any peace obtained will be superficial. Underneath is a hostility just waiting to break out. The end time is not characterized by peace and tranquility. Then we have the third seal that will be opened. Look at it now, verses five and six. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come. And I looked and behold, a black horse and its rider had a pair of scales in his hands. Now most scholars take this to be a reference to widespread famine on the earth. They say that the scales symbolize food being weighed out carefully. It's in such short supply that it's got to be rationed. Even then, no one can get very much because it takes a day's wage to earn a single quart of wheat, or because it's cheaper, three quarts of barley. This would only be enough food for one person for one day. You could work all day long and you would be able to earn at best what would be enough for your own physical needs, but there would be nothing for your family or anyone else. But the luxuries, the wine and the oil are left untouched. A quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine. Well, perhaps all of this is not referring to famine because we see that in the next seal. We're going to see it when we get there. Famine is especially mentioned as part of that judgment. But what else causes terrible shortages and creates high prices so that people cannot buy adequate amounts of food? Hint, it's inflation. Economics out of control. Panic in the marketplace. And that last part of it hurt not the oil and the wine that we see in verse 6. Oil and wine were widely used but not as essentials like wheat or barley. When poverty is rampant, there are those who engage in profiteering big time from those hard times. The oil and wine represent the property of the wealthy and these products are protected during the difficult times of famine so that the rich become richer and the poor become poor. So this time of famine and poverty that ravages the world will not be without the wicked exploiting people who only make the judgments of God worse by their cruel actions of profiteering. Fourth seal, starting in verse seven here, says this. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice, Of the fourth living creature say come. And I looked and behold a pale horse. Its rider, its name was Death. And Hades followed him. And they were given authority over fourth of the earth to kill with a sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. Now the word for pale is chloros. It's where we get the word chlorine. It's pale green, pale green horse, like chlorine color. And so the rider is named Death, and following close behind is a figure that's identified as Hades, or Hell. Death takes the body, Hell takes the soul. There's four forms of death that are related to this attack. First, the sword, which here is not war, but it's murder, individual assault, one against another. It's people taking the law into their own hands and murdering other people without regard to justice or law. With murder comes famine and death. widespread starvation, and we're all familiar with the terrible pictures of famine areas largely in Africa with spindly little arms and legs and bloated bellies, distended. When civilization begins to crumble, the defenses of mankind against disease will be lost as well. Whole populations are decimated by plagues. There may be a reference here to biological warfare, I don't know. The willful spreading of disease among people so that they are wiped out in mass. It covers also the appearance of previously unknown diseases. Fourth, it says the wild beasts of the earth multiply and humans are subject to attack by these predators. The account says that a fourth of the earth is given over to these four elements. There are approximately four billion people on earth today, and that would mean that one billion, equivalent of the entire population of China, would be decimated by these elements. It's a picture of a desolated earth caused by man's hatred and barbarity. Now these four elements here confirm God's announced method of making men face up to the truth. How does he make mankind stop hiding their heads and refusing to face reality? Answer, by allowing evil to have its full reign. Romans 1 declares that he delivers men over. Romans 124, Romans 126, and Romans 128. delivers men over to their own passions, their own evil, and allows it unrestricted manifestation. God will teach those who dwell on the earth to face up to unpleasant truth by giving them what they demand. If men want to believe a lie, then God will send the lie in the form of the Antichrist. If men want to seek to destroy and kill and refuse to see the evil of that, then God's going to give them widespread anarchy. Then God gives them mob rule and murder. If men want more and more luxury and higher standards of living, they're going to take what goes along with that, high inflation, which finally makes money worthless. If men demand power and control, what they're given is intrigue, murder, disease, and desolation of the earth. These cannot be stopped because they are inescapable consequences of the evil of mankind. Now the fifth seal, verses 9 through 11. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, oh 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, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. Some people will read this and they'll say, see, believers are gonna live through the tribulation because they're gonna be martyred. But what that's not taking into account is that there will be great revivals on the earth. I believe those are gonna happen after the church is taken away. They're gonna see, they're gonna come across our Bibles. They're gonna remember the things you and I have told them. and they're going to put it together. Plus, God tells us in chapter 7, we'll see it next week, there's going to be a great revival among many of the Jews, and they're going to spread all through the earth. And remember the two that he brings to Jerusalem who are finally slayed, and then there's going to be revivals that are going to be happening, folks. Many will be saved, but there's going to be a price for trusting Christ. by those who remain and then give their faith over to the Lord. Believers will be martyred for the word of God and for their testimony. The Greek word martus forms our English word martyr. This word means a witness. These folks will die because they will be witnessing for Christ. But notice the prayer that these martyrs pray. Their petition is when Will God's holiness be vindicated? Judge and avenge. Their supplication is for justice. So it speaks first of examination, though it says judge and then condemnation, avenge. It's a fair court. God's way is that examination comes before condemnation. Investigation comes before indictment, probing before punishment. They're given white robes. The color of the robe speaks of approval. It's a robe of honor. Persecuted saints will be honored in heaven. On earth, they're despised. They're persecuted, they're martyred. But in heaven, it's much different. They'll be honored in heaven. Those despised on earth are often those who are honored in heaven. Persecution on earth wasn't over yet. There's still more to come. And the martyred saints were to wait until all of it had been completed. God is giving the persecutors time to repent, but instead of repenting, they only add to their ledger of evil by doing more persecuting. God made clear to these martyrs that their sacrifice was an appointment, not an accident, and that others would join them. Even in the death of his people, God is in control. We see it all through these judgments. And then we come to the sixth seal, verses 12 through 14. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth, and full moon became like blood. And 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 being 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 the cave, and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? I appreciate Hal Lindsey. I read his books in the 1970s when he came out with The Late Great Planet Earth, and I remember how he was making a big point to say, this describes what nuclear war looks like. And he was projecting as the sky peels back, well doesn't that sound like the mushroom of an atomic bomb and that just rush of energy and so forth? and falling from the sky like figs, boy, that sure sounds like missiles being launched and so forth. And I look at that and I said, maybe, but I don't think we need these human explanations. God can do this. We don't have to put it in human terms of what we understand to say, oh, that's the way it must be. It might be, but I don't know. And then when I get to the end of the chapter and I see that they knew it was God. So I'm not so sure that it would be all these nuclear things of man launching war against each other like that because they identify properly who was behind it. But boy, isn't this a vivid description of chaos in nature. The whole natural world goes on rampage. Again, in Matthew chapter 24, Jesus describes this very same event. Look how Jesus describes it in Matthew 24 verses 29 through 30. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man. And then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. It's gonna be a time of great terror and anguish throughout the earth. And what's the effect gonna be on the people? John now sees the final scene of it in verses 15 through 17. Look at it again here. 15 through 17 says, 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 the caves and among the rocks and 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. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? Boy, isn't that a clear picture of their arrogance? of just the arrogance of man and wickedness of sin. One would think that in the reality of this type of judgment, man would fall down on his face and cry out to God for mercy. But pride won't let him. Instead, this prayer is directed to the created, not the creator. Interesting. People reflected their stupidity And what they did and what they said first, their stupidity and their desire, look at it in verse 16 here, calling to the mountains and the rocks fall on us, hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. What a dumb desire. If the mountains and the rocks fell on them, they'd be crushed to death, not protected. The protection from divine judgment was not in physical things of the earth, but in repenting of their sins so the Lord could protect them. Second, notice their stupidity in their declaration. The great day of the wrath has come, verse 17. Wrong, it was just beginning. If they think that's bad, wait until God lets loose all of his other judgments that are coming on the earth. And third, their stupidity and their deduction. Who shall be able to stand? These people knew answers to many questions that they didn't know the answer to the most important question of all. Namely, how do you stand in God's judgment? They didn't know how to be saved. Many folk are like that today. They may be experts in their fields, but they don't know how to escape eternal damnation. They're ignorant of the answer to the most important question of life. Who shall be able to stand? Now there was some wisdom in what they said. They recognized the fact that it was the great day of his wrath. At least they identified the traumatic and fearful phenomenon as divine retribution Today, if you mention divine retribution as a cause of earthquakes or hurricanes or tornadoes or other disasters, you're ridiculed. You're greatly scorned. How dare you think that the earth is being judged by God? That's the foolish attitude of the world. Thus, they're not gonna repent when God sends catastrophes because of sin. Repentance now, And in the coming judgment is the way to stand. Have you acknowledged your position before God as a sinner who completely is unworthy of His attention and unworthy of His salvation? And that it's only by His grace giving us what we haven't earned or certainly deserve Have you accepted by faith that Christ took the punishment that you deserve when he died on the cross? Six seals have been broken by the lamb and we see the result. The antichrist is revealed first as the promisor of false brief peace under the symbol of a white horse, followed by the red horse of war black horse of famine, pale horse of pestilence and death. The fifth seal revealed that amid all the tribulation there were a faithful remnant who had been martyred for their faithfulness who were gonna share in kingdom glory with us. And the sixth seal gives a graphic picture of the awful time of sorrow and death upon the earth when a fourth of the population will perish by slaughtering, hunger, and pestilence. Why would God allow these things? I think God wants a clear contrast between what results from embracing His rule and what results from rejecting it. God wants people to see what happens when humans reject the true God and embrace false gods. God wants people to see what happens when humans reject the rightful king, the Lord's Messiah, Jesus. and replace him with some chump who looks good and speaks well. So God lets these fools have their day in the sun and he lets all the mayhem and the ruin that results from their pride and folly defile his world. God lets all this happen so that his wisdom, his power, his righteousness can be seen clearly. God wants his people to know that only he can bring peace justice, security, and happiness. God wants to be worshiped as God. He wants his people to embrace the rule of King Jesus, the Messiah. He wants us to do that now. All the pain and the death and the horror of God's coming judgment comes because people do not honor God as God or give thanks to him. I put this up before, I'll put it up again, Romans 121. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. They refused to honor God. So God gives them over to their gods. But you know, there's hope even in this. Let me ask a similar question to the question I began with this morning. When you think of Jesus seizing control of history, what comes to mind? I hope that it is God is just. Jesus has taken hold of the scroll. Jesus will come and get us. And then as he opens the seals of the scroll, Jesus will finally set in motion the outworking of God's justice. Let's pray.