Our passage of scripture today, as we continue through the book of Revelation, is Revelation 6, verses 1 through 8. Revelation 6, verses 1 through 8. Finally, we're starting the prophetic part of this book. As I said, Revelation 6, 1 through 8. Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, And I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a loud voice like thunder, come and see. And I looked and behold a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given him and he went out conquering and to conquer. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, come and see. Another horse, fiery red, went out, and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that the people should kill one another, and there was given to him a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he was sat on it, had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine. When I opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the four living creatures saying, come and see, So I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and the name on him who sat on it was Death. And Hades followed with him, and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and with the beasts of the earth. My first exposure to the Four Horsemen of Revelation was long before I was a Christian. I was an avid sports fan by the age of 10, and probably by age 12, I had heard of the Four Horsemen. The Four Horsemen that I heard of first were football players who led Notre Dame University on an undefeated season and a national championship. And hearing of these, somehow I also heard that the nickname, the Four Horsemen, was from the Bible and from the book of Revelation. And so I started looking it up. And today I realize as undefeatable as the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame were, God's Four Horsemen would probably be just as undefeatable. and would probably be better named today if I named them accurately, Jesus, his gospel, and the three horsemen. And they're still more undefeatable. It is Jesus, his gospel, and the church that goes forth conquering and to conquer. Even when we don't look like we're winning, we are winning the battle. The first seal and the first horseman, or bowman you might call him, because he also carries a bow, represents Christ, his gospel, his church's ministry, going out into the world and impacting a sinful world and saving souls. It says, now I saw the lamb opened one of the seals, And I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, come and see. And I looked and behold a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given him and he went out conquering and to conquer. Now I wanna go over some reasons for counting this first seal, horseman, to be symbolic of Christ and the gospel and not of something else. Some people believe this is Satan. So it's almost like the total opposite. And even godly Bible interpreters believe that. Or if it's not Satan, it's just another one of the ill effects like the other three horses. but I want to argue for my point that this is actually Jesus Christ, not just Jesus Christ, because remember these are symbols and they can represent several things, but I believe it's Jesus Christ and also his gospel which goes out into the world and in a sense I include myself, it includes his ministers in this who preach the gospel because that gospel goes out and it conquers. and it's conquering right now, even today. And so this prophecy is being fulfilled. Today is Sunday. I believe wherever the gospel is preached, we see some victory that God is bringing about. He says His word will not go forth void. And so what are the reasons that I believe this is Jesus and not the devil or some other malevolent force? Well, one, The scroll itself was from the hand of God and it was given to Christ and it was for Christ alone to open. Remember chapter one or chapter five, I mean verse one. It says, and I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And then if you remember, and I'm not gonna go over the whole chapter, but nobody was able to open it except one, who is Jesus. And in verse five, it says, do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has prevailed to open the scroll and to loosen its seals. And so this scroll was handed from God, the father to God, the son. It was not given to Satan to open the scroll. The second point is just that. Those under the earth, Satan and the demonic beings are mentioned among those who are not able and not worthy to open the scroll. It says in verse three of chapter five, and no one in heaven or in earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. And notice it says under the earth. Under the earth would include Satan and all his demons. And they were counted not worthy to open the scroll. And then point number three, this scroll with its seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls, all coming out of it as I preached a few weeks ago or a couple of weeks ago, has as its main theme, and this is the theme of the whole entire book of Revelation, the final victory of God's kingdom and the judgments of the kingdoms of man and Satan. It's not about the book of Revelation. It's not about how Satan conquers everything and rules the world and crushes Christians. That's not what the book of Revelation is about. The book of Revelation as a whole, its main theme, is the victory of Jesus Christ and the setting up of God's kingdom. We see, I just, I'm sharing one verse, because I want to make point by point, but the one verse is Revelation 11, 15. And it says, then the seventh angel sounded, that's the seventh of the trumpets. And it says, there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And so in the end, it's not Satan who reigns forever and ever, it's our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who conquers, he's conquering now, and he will finally conquer. The entire book of Revelation is about God's kingdom, it's advanced, Jesus and his gospel, as I said, conquering and will conquer. The Greek word here, or the root word used for both conquer and conquering is nekao, which is the word from which we get our English word Nike. And it means to be a victor. to win and Satan is not a winner. And the repetition here. conquering and to conquer puts an emphasis on the nature of the conquering here. I feel better fit with Jesus's continuous conquering and final victory than Satan's short-lived. Satan does, and it'll even show us when we get to a certain chapter, we'll see Satan's victory. in this world, and he is ruler of the world even now under God. I mean, God is sovereign over everything, but Satan is ruler because of our sin, but Satan's rule is a temporary rule. Whatever conquering he does is temporary. Just like when they nailed Jesus to the cross, how long was Jesus in the grave? For 40 years or a hundred years? Is he still in the grave? No, he rose in three days. The devil had a temporary victory and all his victories are temporary. In my book, Jesus is the victor, not Satan. Fourth, a battle is implied and or actually stated in this book of Revelation and Christ is in that other passage represented as riding a white horse and his followers who are us are also on white horses. It says in Revelation 19, 11 through 16, Now I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on him was faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one except himself knew. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven clothed with linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's from Revelation 19, 11 through 16. Now, one of the arguments. against the first horseman being Christ, his church, or his gospel going forth, is that Jesus, to be one of the four horsemen, reduces him to a level with the other three horsemen, and I don't believe that is true. In my view, this argument is totally defeated by the context, one, In verse two, this rider, the rider on the white horse has a crown given him. None of the other riders have crowns, only the first rider on the white horse. B, I believe it shows the fact that he has a crown that he is the leader and the commander of them. And note, this has been a long time the case with Christ. as he leads God's forces on earth. He's not too high and mighty as, you know, today a general in the army is probably in an office and never goes out to battle. But in Old Testament times, the kings went out to battle. and they led their armies. And Jesus is one of those Old Testament type of kings that goes out to battle with his troops. He leads them. And we see an example of this, even in the Old Testament, there's a pre-incarnate showing of Christ in Joshua chapter five, Joshua five, verse 13 through 15, it says, and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked And behold, a man stood opposite him and with his sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said, are you for us or for our adversaries? So he said, no, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? Notice Joshua bows down to this person and any godly person, good person who's not God would say, get up, I'm not a God. I'm not God. But this one doesn't because why? It's Jesus. It's pre-incarnate Jesus. And it says, then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy. There, not only negatively does he not tell Joshua to bow, tell Joshua not to bow, but he actually says he should take his sandals off his foot, just like the IM said to Moses when Moses came to the burning bush. And why is that? Because this is God, this is our Lord Jesus Christ. And notice how he comes. He comes as the commander of the Lord's armies. And what was Joshua about to do? He was about to go to Jericho and he was gonna kill everybody there except for Rahab and her family. and including women and children, and they killed everybody. And Jesus led that. And some people, that's the other reason they don't like to say this white horse is Jesus because of the other horses being death and economic despair and war death and other kinds of death. Why would Jesus be connected with those? And I'll explain that later. But we see it's not an objection to scripture because God commanded Joshua to kill these people and this commander Jesus was with them. Look ahead here. Revelation 6 if we went down to the bottom and we'll cover this later, so I won't say much about it here I just want to read it but Revelation 6 16 and 6 17 and Said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb and for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand. And I point this out now, just to say, if you're saying Jesus is only about peace and he could never hurt anybody or send anybody to hell or have wrath against anybody, this passage shows he does have wrath. And yet, when we're talking about the four, Horseman, the judgment of God is not yet in the picture. These passages that I just read are truly against wrath and against sin and sinners. However, this white horse with the crowned rider symbolizing Christ and Christianity and the going out of the gospel does not primarily represent judgment. but I believe the conquering grace of the gospel. When we become believers, it's because Christ has conquered us. He's made us submit to his ways. The ministry of the word is called a sword ministry. Notice when I mentioned about, when I read from that chapter 19 revelation, the sword was coming out of Jesus's mouth and it's picturing the word of God, which in Hebrews 12 is said to be sharper than any two-edged sword. And so the ministry of the word is a sword ministry. Even when I'm preaching, an ordinary person, this word is a sword. And it's meant to cut hearts. It's meant to make you feel pain for your sins. And we see an example of this in Acts chapter two with Peter's preaching. He's preaching the truth. the truth that our sins killed Jesus. And some of those who Jesus was preaching to may have been some of those who are literally yelling crucify him at the day he was crucified. And so he's preaching and he says in verse 36 of chapter two, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus who you crucified Lord and Christ. And there's the truth. He's telling them, among other things, you crucified Christ. And what was their response? It says, and this is C2 in your outline, God's word makes us feel pain for our sin. In verse 37, it says, now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, not with a scalpel, it's not the scalpel of the spirit, but with the sword of the spirit, they were cut to the heart, then said to Peter and the rest of his apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? At this point, they're cut to the heart and they're desperate. They seal not only that they're dying, but because of their sin, they could be pulled right down to hell. What shall we do? They're asking. How can we be saved? How can anything be good after we've killed the Christ? And Peter answers them. He says that Repent and let everyone you'll be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to all who are far off as any, as our Lord will call. And so we see here, Peter gives them the law, and he tells them what they did wrong. They crucified the Christ. When they feel for it, and they're in pain, because the sword of the spirit, the word of God has cut their hearts, they cry out, what shall we do? And he gives them the answer, an answer of grace and salvation. And in Acts 2, you could say, well, maybe it's the sword of the spirit that cuts the heart. But here we see in Revelation 6, the horseman has a bow. The white horse who sat on it had a bow. And it's interesting, God uses all sorts of weapons to cut our hearts and to get us. J.I. Packer, and I'm not sure now if this quote could accurately be attributed to J.I. Packer, because I found the same in Matthew Henry, and I think he was quoting Matthew Henry, but the quote is, the convictions left by the word of God are sharp arrows, and they can reach their target from a distance. When you say from a distance, what does that mean? Well, maybe today I'm using the sword of the spirit, and by the grace of the spirit, you're convicted of sin. But maybe sometime you pick up a book written by John Bunyan, like Pilgrim's Progress, and when you're reading it, you feel conviction for your own sin. And even from, The 1600s that he wrote that book, from that distance, from another country, that arrow comes and hits your heart. Because it's the word of God that is behind it. And every time we read the word, it can be an arrow coming from a distance as well as a sword cutting our heart. But whatever it is, it makes us feel for our sins. It makes us cry to the Lord. Jesus says, blessed are they that mourn. And that means mourning over sins, for they shall be comforted. God comforts and he heals. At this point, they were crying and no longer fighting against God and his word. And it's at this point that forgiveness, grace, and salvation are offered. Then Peter said to them, repent. And let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises to you and to your children and to as many as are far off. as many as the Lord will call. That promise spreads, and that's what we see in Revelation 6-2, the gospel going all over the world. So what started in Jerusalem and moved to Samaria has spread as that horse rides, and that horse is symbolic of all the Christians, as well as Christ, who go through the world preaching the gospel. The idea that this horse represents Christ, Christians, and his gospel going forth in a sinful world fits with the spiritual warfare that runs throughout the New Testament. As it says, Ephesians 6, 10 through 12, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. When we are ministers, pastors, we are soldiers. When we are Christians, doing the work we should, even if we're not a pastor, when we're doing God's will, we are soldiers. We are in a battle. Satan is fighting against us. It's a spiritual battle. When we pray, Ephesians 6 talks about prayer as one of those weapons. In our warfare, we carry a sword, as I said, not a scalpel. and take the helmet of salvation, Ephesians 6, 17, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. That is the sword we have. When we pick up their Bibles, they are swords, they are sharp, they are meant to cut hearts. Christ knocks us down, humbles us, brings us pain to win souls. Acts 9 is another example of salvation. This of Saul, who you know became Paul, and yet before he was a believer, he was fighting against God. It says in Acts 9, then Saul, starting at verse 1, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who are of the way, meaning believers in Christ, whether men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed, he came near Damascus and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. And then he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you're persecuting. It's hard for you to kick against the Goeds. So trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And the Lord said to him, arise, go into the city, and you will be told what you must do. Here Saul is persecuting the church. You could say persecuting Christ because we are the body of Christ and Jesus shines a light on him. We read later he was blinded by that light at least temporarily and maybe in a way for a long term time as far as some are concerned. And this is how he came to Christ. It wasn't, you know, the free will, you know, people are very confused about the idea of free will. And the theological idea is that it means that your will is somehow free from sin enough that you freely choose God. And so people go out there and they have what Elder Breen calls dog and pony shows in order to bring people to Christ. Well, those don't bring people to Christ. Our wills are set against Christ. We battle against him like Paul. Our wills are not free from sin. They still are a bondage to sin and we need to be set free. And that's why there's this rough part of the gospel that we see here with Acts 9. And often we've experienced in our own lives that we don't even think about it. Christ brings trials into our lives, and a lot of us, if we tell how we really came to Christ, it was through a great deal of trials and difficulties. C.S. Lewis says, Christ whispers in our pleasures, but shouts in our pains. And he was an atheist. His mother had died. He remembered all kinds of trials that he had as a child, and God brought him through his pains. And often that's how he speaks to us, when he brings us to our knees. We as believers, especially preachers, but anyone who shares God's word are part of this battle. As it says in 2 Corinthians 10, four and five, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, meaning we don't use physical swords, we don't attack people with tanks, not carnal, but mighty in God, even though they're not carnal, they're mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Second Corinthians 10, four and five. Notice not carnal here means spiritual. We have spiritual weapons, not a physical sword, but God's sword, the word of God. Now also second Corinthians 10, four, these weapons are powerful and we should trust in their power. You know, a few years ago, more than a few years ago, the passion of Christ came on. And I remember being on the internet and arguing with people, because I don't believe we should have any kind of pictures of Christ, especially not a movie. And some people were arguing with me, this movie replaces the Bible. The Bible is weak, they said, because it can't really convert people. Motion pictures are powerful. And I said, no, no, no. The Bible is sharper than any two-edged sword. It's our strength. We don't need motion pictures. We have the most powerful thing, the sword of the spirit for converting souls. And they never agreed with me, but at least I think I stood up for God's word. 2 Corinthians 10, five, it says, casting down arguments. And this implies winning a debate, not necessarily a physical battle. And we lovingly go to debate for the things of God in order to save souls. I know that when I became a Christian, there was a young lady in the college that I was at who argued with me and argued with me and argued with me and got me strained out in a lot of ways. A lot of times I'd argue with her and I knew she was right the whole time. And yet God used her arguing with me to bring me around, winning the debate to the loser's benefit. The loser comes to Christ, he comes to God. But he has to be fought with, not with physical weapons, but spiritual weapons, including God's word. Well, what did all four seals, back to the four seals and the four horsemen, what do they all have in common? Well, all of these have horses in common. And again, this goes along with what I'm saying, horses implied battle. They were the weapon of the day and the weapon for the longest time. They were instead of tanks and instead of nuclear bombs, horses were the power. In the Old Testament, David says in Psalm 20 verse seven, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. God was their strength in Israel, and David was right to trust in him, and not in military power, but horses, and you can read all through scripture, I don't have time to go through it all, they were used in battle. Riders, though, imply tame, directed horses or forces, rather than something wild or haphazard. This is especially true when we think of the last three horses symbolizing war and economic disparity and death in all its varieties by disease and other ways. When we think of those things, we think of things that kind of seem like they're happening by chance and they seem like they're out of control because we don't control them. But here, these are said to be horses with riders on them. And riders have a mission. And horses, you know, horses can be like bucking Broncos and wanting to throw you off. And a storm, like a real storm is kind of like that. It's very disturbing to us, especially like a hurricane that might lift you up and throw you someplace, but they're under God's control. All these things that are mentioned here, and I'll get into them more later, they have riders. God is controlling them. Remember Mark 4.37 through 41, it says, and a great windstorm arose and the winds beat into the boat so that it was already filling, but he was in the storm asleep on the pillow and they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Then he arose, meaning Jesus arose, rebuked the wind and said, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. Jesus was sleeping in the boat when the storm came up. And when he says, peace, be still, it means, the word be still means in the Greek, be muzzled like a dog, shut up, be quiet, be at peace. And it all calmed. and they were more scared after that than they were during the storm. It says, and they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the winds and the sea obey him? And yet God controls the wind and the sea. He controls diseases. He controls wars. He controls all the things that we think of as negative and are negative things in this world. These are meek stallions running to do God's will. The things that sometimes come against people are smart bombs, and they are directed to and flying at God's target. And because these things are controlled by God, this is why repentance and prayer are real answers when catastrophes are happening. 2 Chronicles 7.14, I've heard it quoted many times in disasters. For a nation, it's as if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." We can pray to God. We can repent as it says, it says, turn from their wicked ways. How do we solve our nation's problems? By repenting, by asking God to change these things. And some of us are already doing that, and we do it more and more fervently. But this is the only way, because God controls these things. You may say, well, that was Israel, Pastor. Well, we can look further, even in the New Testament, even Nineveh, which is definitely an ungodly nation. It was definitely a Gentile nation, was spared from judgment by fasting and prayer. We read, and I'm assuming most of you know the account of Jonah. And in chapter three of Jonah, verse four, it says, and Jonah began to enter the city on the first day's walk. Then he cried out and said, yet 40 days in Nineveh shall be overcome. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. Then the word of God Then word came to the king of Nineveh, the word of God, and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in Ashes, and he caused it to be proclaimed and published throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, let neither man nor beast nor herd nor flock taste anything. Do not let them eat or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, meaning they're making their animals fast, and cry mightily to God, "'Yes, let everyone turn from his evil way "'and from the violence that is in his hands.'" Meaning they're repenting. Who can tell? They weren't sure that God would have mercy on them, but maybe he will. It says, "'Who can tell that if God will turn and relent "'and turn away his fierce anger so that we may not perish, "'then God saw their works, "'that they turned from their evil way "'and God relented from the disaster "'that he said he would bring upon them.'" and he did not do it. Now God could have brought the disaster on them all anyway because they were sinners and yet when they repented he pulled it back and I just say this to show and demonstrate God is in control of the things that happen around us. Now third major point, third Roman numeral three question How is the gospel of the kingdom, the first seal, the first horseman, related to the other three, which seem so negative? And the answer is, the next three seals, the second, the third, and the fourth, and I put them all as one group, are fighting under and in support of the gospel of Christ of us by restraining sin. Note these things are all negative things. I'm not going to go in depth of these because I've already covered a lot here, but the Red Horses War conflict, murder. It says when he opened the second seal, I heard a second living creature saying, come and see another horse fiery red went out and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that the people should kill one another. And there was given to him a great sword. Well, how does war help the gospel? Well, all the world Under Satan, all the non-believers want to get together. They want world peace. They want to unify as man, man, man. And instead of warring with each other, they would war with us. That's what Satan desires. The same would be true with the black horse, economic disparity. Verse five, it says, when he opened the third seal, I heard a third living creature say, come and see. So I looked, and behold, a black horse. And he sat on it, had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius. Now, a denarius was a big, Mountain, so he's saying these things are expensive the needs the necessities of life are expensive to buy people are poor They can't afford it, but it says they do not hurt the oil and the wine meaning the rich people They have whatever they want the oil and the wine are in abundance and they have it But the poor people are suffering and this means economic disparity which what what does it do it causes people to fight with each other and then third the pale horse is death in all its forms. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come and see. So I looked and behold, a pale horse and the name of him who sat on him was death and Hades followed it with him. And the power was given him over a fourth of the earth. to kill with the sword and with hunger, with death and with beasts of the earth. Now, I wanna explain something about these things that are happening here. They're all happening now, aren't they? And they've happened for years. Has there ever been war in this world? Anybody wanna answer that? Yeah, there's been war. Is there death from disease? Yes, there's death from disease. Is there economic disparity? Are there times, have there ever been times in the history of the earth where some people had more money than others? Yes, of course. So none of these things in these Four horsemen are representing things that are strange to us. None of them are future things. Later we'll talk about future things. But the four horsemen as symbols show us things that in a nutshell that are happening throughout history. And they happen, you could say every day. And it's all being prophesied. And the fact that they're horsemen doing it is God's way of saying these things are under God's control. Two things to notice that Christ says, and I'm going a little away from revelation here. These terrible things, these things that we see all around us all the time do not mean the end. It says in Matthew 24, six through eight, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled. Don't be troubled by these things, he said, for these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Notice he's saying when these things are happening and you're seeing them, the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginnings of sorrows." And so he's saying here, these things are happening, and they will happen, but they are just the beginnings of sorrows. They don't mean that the end is coming. And the end will not come Until when? Until God wants it to come. And that's only when the gospel has been preached to all the world. The next verses, verses nine in Matthew 24, Jesus is still speaking. It's right from the next verses. It says, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you. This will be happening. Has that happened? Have Christians ever been killed and persecuted? Obviously, yes. from the apostles themselves to this very day. We hear in the news of believers being killed and it says, and then many will be offended and betray one another. and will hate one another, then many false prophets will arise and deceive many. Has that happened? Yes, many false prophets. I could probably make a list of them for you, but I don't want to do that today. You all know of people who are false prophets. And it says, and because lawlessness will abound, as lawlessness ever abounded, constantly. The love of many will grow cold, but he who endures to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached, and there's the white horse going all around, in all the world to a witness to the nations, and then the end will come. And so all these things that happen are happening now, including the preaching of the gospel. And what do these other things have to do with the preaching of the gospel? Well, they keep the world from unifying against Christ. They are God's helpers, you could say. We may not like them. They are judgment of sin, which we deserve as well as unbelievers. That's why these things, at least in this chapter, they hit Christians and believers as well as unbelievers. And we see it in Matthew 24, 6 through 14, the same thing represented in the six seals. The events of Matthew 24, 6 through 8 are seen in the second through fourth seal. And I'll let you look that up yourselves. You have the outline. The events of Matthew 24, 9 and 10 are seen in the fifth seal. And the gospel preached in Matthew 24, 14a is the first seal. And the end predicted in Matthew 24, 14b, the end will come, is what we see in the six seals. And we'll be dealing with those in the next couple weeks, some of those that I haven't dealt with, but you'll see how they correspond if you want to look for yourself. How though is war, economic disparity and death, in general working according to the providence, God's providence, and in concert with the preaching of the gospel? These things, and I've already said this already, but these things, at least for a time, keep Satan from accomplishing his full rule over sinners and his desire to unify the world against Christ. 666, and I'll talk about this later. You'll have to take it by faith. Now, 6-6 faith in me, but 666 is man, man, man. 777 is God's number. 777, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, represent God's kingdom. 666 is man's kingdom. And in this sinful world there are men always trying because Satan is inspiring them and empowering them. They're always trying to unify the world against God. We see it in the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. We see it in Egypt's enslavements of the Jews in Exodus 1-15. We see it in Haman's plot to kill all the Jews in the Book of Esther. We see it in Herod's killing all the boy babies around Bethlehem in Matthew 2. And that particular account we see spiritually represented in Revelation 12 as spiritual battle. The Roman Empire, Nero, Hitler, wicked Christian killing popes are all part of God's plan and Satan's plan. They're part of God's plan, too. I meant to say Satan's plan, though. Satan wants to rule the world, and he does rule the world. Several places in the Gospel of John, Jesus says Satan is the ruler of this world. He rules this world, but under God. And all these things he brings, and he's trying, trying, trying to accomplish the unity of ungodly world against Christ. And according to Revelation 13, which obviously we'll get into later, a rule of Satan will one day be accomplished against Christ. Revelation 13 says, Then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, And on his horns ten crowns, and on his head a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave him power, his throne, and great authority. The dragon is Satan. And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded. And his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed after the beast. So they worshiped the dragon, who gave authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him? Kind of the opposite of the lamb. And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And he was given authority to continue 42 months. Now that you can interpret literally, or you can interpret it spiritually. And I don't care right now. I'll talk about it later. But it's either way, it's a limited period of time. And it says, then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God. Okay, I already read that, didn't I? And then it says in verse, and blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven. It was granted to him to make war with the saints and overcome them. So there is coming a day when the Antichrist or Satan will come against the saints and be able to kill him at will, at least for a short time. And it says, all who dwell on the earth will worship him, meaning all the ungodly, whose names have not be written in the book of the Lamb, of a book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has hear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity. Who you kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the saints. And so here we see someday in the future, it could be soon. It could be later. We don't know. Satan will rule the earth. but it is for a short period of time. And during that time, he will be able to kill the saints, meaning Christians that will, yet the wars and the rumors of wars and the things mentioned in Chapter 6 of Revelation verses 1 through 8 all hinder him from doing that. He can't get the nations to unify against Christ. Why? Because they fight against each other. He can't get them to unify against Christ. Why? Because sometimes their leaders just die or commit suicide or do something like that. Why can't he get them unified? Because of all these problems that God is in control of. Yet if you read carefully, as I said, his rule is short-lived. But before Satan's kingdom has such power to overcome and silence Christians, the death of Nero, the defeat of the Nazis, wars, economic disparity, death, and even by wild beasts, as it says in Revelation 6, consider Daniel and his adversaries were fed to the lions. that did not eat him, God was in control and they ate his adversaries. Consider Haman, he was hung on the gallows that he built for Mordecai. God was foiling these people in their attempts to destroy God and his kingdom. And it says in Revelation 6, And power was given to them, this is the death that's back in Revelation 6, just so not to confuse you, over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and hunger and death by the beasts of the earth. When it says a fourth of the earth, I don't think it's saying the literal 25%, even though I won't argue if you say that's what it means. It means exactly 25% are killed. What it means, and we'll see this later, when the trumpets are being blown, the disasters kill a third. And when the bowls, there's seven bowls are poured out, The punishments that come from the bulls, the wrath from the bulls, kill everybody. They destroy everybody. And so what we see here is in the Gospels, or in the Book of Revelation, I mean, we see at first the six and seven seals represent a broader picture of things, including what's happening even right now. We see these things happening. We know they happen. And they're happening even now. And when these things happen, they are the regular, you could say, normal judgments of God on sin. And his normal restraining sin so that the gospel could continue to go forth. This doesn't mean that Christians won't be killed because we, we also are included in this. 1st Peter, and I should have had it in my notes, but I'm not seeing it right now. I believe it's 1st Peter 4.17, which talks about how judgment would come first upon the people of God. And we have certain judgments that come even against us. And Hebrews 12 says that God brings difficulties and trials upon us as discipline for sin. And so we have these things happen in this world. And next Sunday, Lord willing, if I'm back, we'll be talking about Christians who are killed in persecution as part of what we see happening all the time. We've had that since the time of Christ, and even before, godly prophets in the Old Testament were killed by ungodly people. And so we see these things happen, we see the wars and rumors, but during this time, the gospel goes forth out into the world, and people are being saved. and people are coming to Christ. And we're still, I believe, in that time. I'm not sure, some of the things, when we go further and we consider some of the trumpets, which represent, I believe, you know, when they went around Jericho, what did they do? They blew trumpets every day. And what did those trumpets symbolize to the people of Jericho as Israel was circling them? They symbolized that the end was close. When they blew the trumpets on the last day, that meant the end was there. And the coming of Christ's kingdom and the defeat of the ungodly is increased with the trumpets. And you see 1 3rd instead of 1 4th. 1 3rd is bigger than 1 4th, just to make that clear. Some people are math challenged. 1 3rd is more, and so there will be more death. It's saying the judgment is close, the trumpets are blowing, but when the bulls are coming, none of the bulls will come on believers. They come on unbelievers because it's the final judgment of God. Yet now is the time, and I believe we see this in Revelation 6, that Christ's gospel is riding through the world, and it will be victorious in that many will come to Christ and come to know him and praise him. Well, let's pray. Father, we have this passage before us, and we thank you for Jesus, our Lord, Even if we don't believe that this particular horse is Christ, and it doesn't say in the passage specifically, it's Jesus or it's Satan. Even if we don't believe that, we all know that Jesus and his gospel will conquer, they are conquering, and in the end, his kingdom will reign. And Father, we're grateful for that. We're grateful for this that we see in scripture, that in the end, and this, everybody who As Godly who interprets Revelation knows, Christ will come back and he will rule this world forever. And Father, we rejoice in that. We rejoice in Christ's kingdom, in his victory, which is also our victory when we're with him. We are called and chosen and faithful. Help us to be those who are called and chosen and especially faithful. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Our hymn of response is number 400.