December 10, 2000

Opening the Seals

Rev 6 & 7

This last Tuesday when Jerry and I came out to put the heater on the wall, it was kind of neat how it worked out. There was somebody else here at the time, and he was replacing the outlet box back there on the pole. The electric circuit was turned off, so there was no heat, it was cold in here, but that didn't affect what Jerry and I were doing. We went ahead and did our bit on the other heater, the other guy finished his work on the outlet, so then we had both heaters on, and it really warmed up quick. I had met the other guy, didn't really know him, Eric had met Jerry, didn't really know him either, but we were all working together towards a common goal. God likes to use different people to do stuff like that. God gets things done with a lot of different people that don't always even know that they're working together, and that's kind of neat.

Anyway, Jerry hung the heater on the wall, it was really nice how easy it went in. It was one of those jobs that had no problems, everything worked right the first time. We got it hooked up, started it up and it burned good, worked great. Then we turned it off, turned the pilot light off, and then couldn't get the pilot light to come back on and stay on. Played with it for about five minutes, and then went back and read the instructions again, more carefully, and discovered that you had to give it time to cool down and reset before you could relight it. Understanding Bible prophecy is a little bit like that. Sometimes you can get things to work, but not everything works right or makes sense until you go back and read the instructions one more time. Last week we spent some time in the book of Daniel, because you can't make sense out of Revelation without the a knowledge of Daniel. Daniel gives the background and game plan for what happens in Revelation.

In today's study in Revelation we get to where Jesus opens the seals on the scroll, the title deed of the earth, and that begins a series of judgements on the earth. It would be good at this point to ask why? Why does God cause all kinds of disasters and calamities to fall on the earth at this point? Once again, we need to go back to the book of Daniel. If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, because it will really help if you follow along, turn to Daniel chapter 2. I'm sure all of you are familiar with this portion of Scripture, King Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream that he cannot remember, and he calls all the wise men and magicians together, and tells them that unless they can come up with the dream, and it's interpretation, they're going to be pushing up daisies. God reveals the dream to Daniel, it was a great image of a man, a head of gold, chest and arms of silver, thighs of bronze, legs of iron, and the feet a mixture of iron and clay. The image is then destroyed by a great stone which strikes it on it's feet, and it gets carried away to the four winds. Then that stone becomes a great mountain, and fills the whole earth.
Daniel reveals to the king that his empire is the head of gold, and then following in history, there will be other world empires, each one stronger in terms of the type of metal, but also inferior in terms of quality of metal. When we get to the toes, it is a mixture of iron and clay, strong and weak.

This is a picture of world history down to the present time, and the world power that is ruling when Christ returns will be a mixture of nations which are very strong, and also others which are very weak. In verse 44, we see exactly what is going to happen when Christ returns to set up His kingdom, follow along with me here: "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure."
Jesus Christ is this stone cut out without hands, He destroys the world powers of men, and sets up His own eternal kingdom. The Bible refers to what is called the "times of the Gentiles," which lasts from the time of Nebuchadnezzar until the return of Christ. It is interesting how that time began with Nebuchadnezzar, who set up a great golden image for all people to worship, and it will end with the antichrist, who will also set up an image for all people to worship.

When Jesus Christ comes and puts an end to the kingdoms and rule of men on earth, the Bible describes it like this: "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth."
This is why we have all this destruction and judgement. We are seeing the stone, Jesus Christ, begin to destroy and break down the kingdoms of men on the earth, just as Daniel predicted. As Jesus opens the seven seals on the scroll, the title deed of the earth, it is almost like each seal is part of an eviction notice. Opening each seal is like a landlord taking another step in throwing out an evil, horrible tenant who has torn the place up, won't pay any rent, and stayed too long. You throw him out. Violently. Turn to Revelation six, verse 1; "And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer."

Who is this rider on the white horse? There are a lot of different books by a lot of different scholars with a lot of different opinions, but I think if we're smart, we will let Jesus Himself tell us. Matthew 13 helped us understand the church age, Matthew 24 will help us understand the Tribulation. Keep your place in Revelation, so that you can flip back and forth, because we will, and turn to Matthew 24, verse 3.
"And as He sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world, (or the end of the age)?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." The deception is overwhelming, Satan's master plan of deception. I believe that this rider on the white horse is the antichrist. A white horse is traditionally the mount of a conquering warrior, he has a victors crown on his head, as opposed to the crown of a king, but the bow he has in his hand has no arrows. It is a peaceful victory. It is not a victory through warfare, it is a victory through diplomacy and politics.

The next thing that Jesus told them was: "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet."
This agrees perfectly well with what John tells us in Revelation 6:3: "And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword."
Wars and rumors of wars, the peace that the world thought the antichrist would bring them disappears, and instead, a great sword. Because of what Jesus told the disciples next, it could very well be a biological or nuclear warfare, or both.

Matthew 24:7 reads: "For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows."
This coincides with what John sees in verse 5 in Revelation: "And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
:6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine."
In the days of Christ, a penny, or a denarius was a days wages. A measure of wheat was about a quart, that was just enough to keep a man alive for a day. Barley was a rougher food, and it takes three quarts of barley to keep a man alive for a day. During the tribulation, it will take a days wages just to make enough money to keep yourself alive. This is a time of famine all over the earth. These are the days of the black horse. Notice that the oil and the wine are not hurt. In times of famine, oil and wine are luxury items, so we could say that this is a time when the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.

Verse 7: "And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
:8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth."
This is a very strange horse. It is called a pale horse, the Greek word is Chloros, from which we get chlorophyll, it is a pale green horse. With the going forth of this horse, things get very strange, and very evil. Notice that there are two that go together here, Death and Hell, the particular word is Hades, evil takes on a strange intensity. Things that happened before happen again, but much worse. There was a sword from the second horseman before, now there is a sword again. There was hunger from the third horseman before, now there is hunger again. John refers to death from the beasts of the earth, and this can mean either wild animals or human beings, but in either case, it means ferocious creatures, bloodthirsty, having no mercy and no pity. People in those days will be as cold blooded as sharks or snakes. Men and women will be like wolves toward other people. There is even the odd phrase that these two riders had the power to kill with death. That sounds odd, but it means that those who die, die without hope of heaven. This speaks of the death of the unsaved. They die, and go to await the second death. They die without Christ, and without hope. A terrible, fearful death. A death that takes in a fourth of the earth, and Jesus tells His disciples: "These are the beginning of sorrows." It is just getting started. There are still three more seals yet to be opened.

Somewhere around this time, it is coming up to the midpoint of the tribulation, and this is when the antichrist breaks his treaty with Israel, and begins to try and destroy them. At the same time, he is also working to destroy all those Gentiles who have come to faith in Jesus since the rapture. Consequently, in addition to that fourth of the earth whose unsaved population is killed by the four horsemen, there are also believers that are killed, we see them in Revelation 6 verse 9: "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
:11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled."

This is a very important passage, we learn a lot from these verses. Notice what they ask: "Lord, when will you avenge our blood on those that dwell -present tense- on the earth?" These martyrs have been recently killed, and their murderers are still alive and in power. Notice that they are given white robes. That is interesting, because these believers have been recently killed, this happens after the rapture, but they are given robes, which would imply that they have bodies. If they were disembodied spirits, they would not need robes, but they are given robes. So we know that the dead have a body of some sort, they are not like some sort of ghost. We don't know the details, but it's still interesting. We definitely know that they are believers, Christian martyrs. All Christians are given white robes, that is something that you get when you trust Christ as Savior, a robe of righteousness, a garment of salvation. And Jesus tells them that they have to wait just a little while, because their fellow servants and their brethren will be killed just like they were. I suspect that these martyrs are Jews, killed by the antichrist and his followers, because "their brethren" would probably refer to other Jewish martyrs, and "their fellow servants" would probably refer to Gentile martyrs.

Jesus speaks to this situation in Matthew 24:9 when He tells His disciples, and through them, warns Israelites living during this coming time: "Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."
In chapter 7 of Revelation, we see the details of how this works. But at this point in Matthew, I believe that Jesus takes us from the first half of the tribulation, into the second half, and the antichrist coming into the temple is God's indicator, it signals the event.
Verse 15: "When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)" We talked about this last week, this is when the antichrist enters the temple, proclaims himself as God, and defiles the temple.
Verse 16: "Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." I am not sure how to interpret this part about the days being shortened, I have read many opinions, possibly the tribulation is a little bit shorter than the full seven years, I really don't know.
Verse 29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:"

Back to Revelation, this seems to go along with the opening of the sixth seal in Revelation.
6:12 "And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
:13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
:14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places."
Over the last couple years, there have been several movies about asteroids colliding with the earth, or Bruce Willis going up in the space shuttle and deflecting asteroids away from the earth, anybody see those? The Greek word used here for stars is aster, from which we get the word asteroid. As we go through the different judgements in Revelation, the things we know today about asteroids, and what would happen to the earth if it were to be struck by one or several large asteroids fits in with what the Bible describes all through this section. God is about to start using every manner of natural and supernatural tool to get man's attention, to bring unsaved man to a place of repentance and salvation, but man refuses. In the face of judgement from God, there are two choices. One choice is to run to God and ask for mercy on the basis of Christ's atonement, the other choice is to run away and hide, like Adam in the garden. Unfortunately, the majority of men and women in the Tribulation will take choice number two.
Verse 15: "And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
:17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"
Men know what and why is happening. They don't pretend that these things are just natural occurrences. There is no doubt that all these things are happening because of their rejection of Christ, and they know it. Maybe they spent their whole lives thinking that Jesus Christ was just a swearword, but not here. They know different, they know better, but there is no repentance, there is no faith in His redemption for them, they rejected Him before, they still reject Him right in the face of God's obvious judgement.

Chapter seven of Revelation is a little bit different as far as time is concerned. Something that happens several times in the book of Revelation is that things are presented in a way to help us understand things, but they are not chronological, they are like a parenthesis in the time frame. Chapter seven is like that. Chapter seven gives us an insight into something that happens pretty much all during the tribulation, and it is not part of the chronology. It's not part of the continuous time line.
Chapter 7:1 "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
:3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel." This is another good example of why you should never confuse Israel with the church when you try and understand what the Bible teaches. As we go through this chapter, it is going to be pretty obvious that when the Bible says Israel, that's who it really means.
Verse 5: "Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
:6 Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nephthali were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.
:7 Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.
:8 Of the tribe of Zebulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand." Before the judgements of God begin to fall on the earth, God seals up for Himself 144,000 Jews. He calls them His servants, and also because of what we will read later in chapter 14, these are all Jews that know and trust Jesus as their Messiah, and they are faithful to Him. Apparently God specially protects these 144,000 Jews, and He gives them the task of going and proclaiming the Gospel during the tribulation. In the verse immediately following, we read of an innumerable number of people that get saved and martyred during the tribulation, I believe that these people get saved because of the witness of these 144,000 Jews.

In the book of Joel, God speaks of how He will pour out His Spirit on Israel in the last days, turn to Joel 2:28: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
:29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come.
:32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call."
Joel speaks here of the time when Jesus will seal His 144,000 faithful followers during this tribulation period. Joel also gives us a hint of what will happen during the tribulation, verse 30, "pillars of smoke:" the Hebrew word here for pillars is palm tree. What would cause smoke to form itself into the shape of a huge palm tree of smoke?(P)The Japanese who were at Hiroshima in 1945 would be able to give you an answer for that one, an atomic weapon. I suspect an asteroid strike would also cause what Joel describes.

Turn back to Revelation 7:9 "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
:10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
:11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
These people here are the martyrs from the tribulation, both Jew and Gentile, that are killed for the sake of Christ during the tribulation. They are not part of the church, they are separate from Israel, they are given a special place of honor because of what they had to go through during this special period in history.
Verse 15 tells us what their place is going to be: "Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
:16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat." This might have special reference to the trials and tortures that they went through during the tribulation.
Verse 17: "For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
These tribulation martyrs here are a special class of saints and God has a special place for them, serving Him, staying close to Him, and Him being a special comfort to them. Maybe you thought that when you got to heaven, all the saved from all the ages were all treated just alike, that there was no difference for us once we all get to glory, but I don't think that's true. I think the Old Testament saints are a distinct group of believers, the church is another distinct group, the believers who come out of the tribulation alive are a different group, and the believers who are martyred during the tribulation are yet another group. I don't think that God will necessarily have any one group in heaven any more important than any other, but I do think that right now, God has a place and a part for each one of us to play down here, and what we do and how we do it is important.

Just like what happens when different ones of us come out here to work on this place, some of us don't know the rest of us, who we are, or where we're coming from, but we each know that we're all here for the same reason. That's what it's going to be like in heaven.

In the mean time, God has put each one of us here for a reason. Maybe you aren't sure at the moment just what your reason is. Maybe you aren't sure at the moment just what is you're supposed to be doing. Maybe you sometimes find yourself thinking; "Why has God put me here?" Quit worrying about it. During the time of the tribulation, there will be an innumerable multitude of people from all walks of life whose reason for living will be so that they have the testimony that they were faithful in dying. They loved God and they were faithful to the death. And because of their faithfulness, God will have a special place, a special blessing, and a special comfort for them for all eternity. If you are here today as a believer, you will not be among that group, so God has other plans for you, and you may or may not know just what they are.

But in the mean time, wether you think you know what God's plans for you are, or not, here's what you need to do: get busy doing all the good you can, for all the people you can, with every opportunity you can, and leave the results to God. Tell people about Jesus, show people the love of Jesus, treat people like Jesus would treat them, because He is here in you. You are His hands, you are His feet, you are His voice. And Jesus was not a time waster, or a person given to doing useless things.

God has plans for you, and His plans are not a waste of time. While you are doing your bit over here, someone else is doing their bit over there, and just like it happened earlier this week here in this building, after everybody gets done doing their bit, the lights come on, and the place gets warm. It all makes perfect sense, it all fits together, but none of us knew ahead of time that's how it was going to happen. That's why it's called faith. We don't have to see it working together ahead of time, because God sees it, and that's good enough. We just have to be faithful to do it. Christ in you, the hope of glory. For you and also for others. Because for every unsaved person you meet, you may be the only Jesus they ever see.