REVELATION 6:1-7:17 We continue our study today in the Book of Revelation. How many of you studied your lesson this week? I hope all of you will because as we saw in the first lesson several weeks ago, God has promised a blessing to those who will read and heed this book. We ve said before that to more fully understand this book, we must discern where the setting is in the different passages. Are we in heaven or are we on earth? I have given you a little printout that should be helpful for you Last week, John took us in our mind s eye to heaven And we saw the throne of Almighty God in all its brilliance and beauty We saw the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, and we saw the Holy Spirit in the form of seven lamps, and we saw the 24 elders who represent the believers of all ages and we saw the four living beasts and we saw many angels thousands and thousands and thousands of angels. We witnessed worship and we witnessed praise and thanksgiving and didn t it make you long to see the splendor and beauty and the grandeur of heaven? Ex. Amy Carmichael Well, this week is a different story the events of chapter 6 take place on earth but it s a far different earth than the one we know. As we begin our lesson, please remember that the church has already been caught away. That s what the word rapture means. The word rapture isn t used in Scripture, but the truth of the rapture is! And the word rapture is the Greek word for to catch away. The church the body of Christ the believers you and I have been taken out of the world and we are now in heaven when the events of last week s lesson and today s lesson and actually the remainder of the Book of Revelation take place. So, before we get into today s text, I want us to think of the earth that is portrayed in today s lesson. Think with me of an earth where there are no born again men, women or children. Think of an earth where all Bible-believing and Bibleteaching churches have been closed down where there is no one left who loves Jesus. All the saints are gone and planet earth is Christ-less. The Holy Spirit s restraining influence is gone. He will not restrain evil during the Tribulation. There will not only be no prayer allowed in schools and athletic functions, but there will be no one on earth who even wants to pray! Page 1 of 8
There may be some churches still open but they are churches which never believed or preached the Word of God anyway. So, can you imagine how bad the earth will be? As bad as the earth is now, and is daily getting more and more evil it s hard to imagine that this world can get much worse BUT IT WILL!! I don t want to be here, do you? Praise God, we won t if we re saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. Well, we saw last week a seven-sealed scroll that no one was worthy to open except the Lord Jesus. This scroll is the title deed to planet earth, but it also is a scroll which is sealed with seven seals and as the Lord Jesus Christ opens each seal judgment is poured out on planet earth. The first thing we re going to see today is the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Now, remember, we re dealing with symbols these are NOT persons riding horses but they are symbolic of forces of judgments. We said a couple of weeks ago that we re to see the symbols, understand the symbols and see and understand and believe the literal truth that they stand for. So, with that in mind, let s look at these seals Revelation 6:1-2 the rider on a white horse This is symbolic of dominion. One day, a man will arise (he may be alive even as we speak) who will bring peace to the world. The world will be in such an evil mess and will long for peace so much that folks will be ready for such a man to come on the scene. He will be so winsome and so appealing and charismatic, that he will win the hearts of the people. He will even make a treaty with Israel! He will allow Israel to rebuild their Temple! As persecuted as Israel down through the centuries, this man will offer the olive branch he will make Israel believe that he is on their side and that he is their champion! He will deceive the whole world and he will be believed and received by the world, and he will have dominion over the entire world. But, the church will be gone!! Verses 3-4 the rider on a red horse This is symbolic of division. Wars and bloodshed national and international wars will occur. men shall slay one another indicates not only wars between and among countries, but it indicates civil wars as well. See, this charismatic leader who has brought peace to the world and has dominion over the world will eventually show his true colors. He will turn on Israel and he will set himself up to be worshiped...but we'll come to all that later in the Book of Revelation. Notice with me verse 2 a crown was given And verse 4 it was granted Page 2 of 8
Beloved, don t think God has lost control just because the events of the Tribulation begin to take place. The Tribulation, the time of Jacob s trouble, the 70 th week of Daniel whatever handle you choose to put on this 7 year period has been part of God s plan all along. It was prophesied all the way through the Old Testament. What we see here is God simply bringing His perfect purpose to pass. But, remember, the church is gone!! Verses 5-6 the rider on a black horse This is symbolic of deprivation. Denarius is a day s pay. If your version says a penny it s still a day s pay. This is a picture of famine, of want, of hunger and starvation. It s hard for us to imagine famine in this country, isn t it? America is the breadbasket of the world!! When the rains don t come and the crops suffer, most farmers can just turn on the irrigation. If drought occurs in one part of the country, another part of our country usually takes up the slack. When WWII ended, General Douglas McArthur was the general in charge of the Japan occupation. There was a famine in Japan that was so severe that folks were literally starving to death. Hungry people are desperate people! General McArthur sent a message to the United States to either send him food to feed the people or more bullets to kill them. See, riots were breaking out because of their desperation. By the way, McArthur also requested missionaries and they weren t sent and Japan is still reaping the consequences of that Japan is technologically advanced and financially superior, but they are still experiencing famine a spiritual famine. This will be a world-wide famine and our country will not be spared! But, remember the church will be gone!! Verses 7-8 the rider on an ashen horse This symbolizes death. The color of this horse is the color of decay and corruption. One fourth of the earth will be killed sword, famine, pestilence, wild beasts. We tend to think that science has wiped out most pestilences but have they? Cancer, leukemia, AIDS, still run rampant. And in that day, they really will and we don t know what else will be unleashed upon mankind. We do know this it will be bad one out of four will die! When we look at this we want to believe that our dear precious country will be exempt! But, folks, it won t be! What will happen to America? The same thing that will happen all over the world! God has blessed our country more than He has blessed any other country, and I believe there are two main reasons why 1) From these shores have gone forth more missionaries into other lands than any other country has ever sent to spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Page 3 of 8
2) Our country has historically supported the nation of Israel. By the way, just take a look at countries who haven t. Look at England, for instance. England used to be a world power. But when England refused to allow the Jewish refugees entrance into Palestine after WWII, God took away England s power and prestige and as Dr. John Phillips says, left her a bankrupt nation off the coast of Europe. Our country has done these two things because of the influence of the church but during the Tribulation, the church will be gone and our country will be no different than any other Godless country! Even now, the church is increasingly being ridiculed. More and more we re seeing God allowing our hedges to be torn down. Verses 9-11 The fifth seal shows us the souls of those who have been slain because of the Word of God and this speaks of determination on the part of the martyrs and on the part of the Lord Jesus. Who are these precious souls who loved God s Word and their testimony for Him more than their own lives? We ve talked in this class before about how Christians today, even some of you are scoffed at, and laughed at, and passed over for promotion because they won t go along with ungodly policies or practices in the workplace but these folks have lost their lives! The world has known and seen persecution of the Christians before Foxe s Book of Martyrs folks have been killed for the sake of the Gospel before but the persecution of the Tribulation will be unparalleled. Let me just tell you what Jesus said about this there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall. And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short. Notice how these souls cry out How long and they are told they must wait a little longer WHY? Because there will be other believers who will also be martyred and we ll see them in just a few minutes. Remember, too, the church will be gone! (verses 12-17 ) The sixth seal is broken and this is total disruption. Verses 12-14 No wonder the kings of the earth and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man will hide themselves in the cave and among the rocks of the mountains and beg the mountains and the rocks to fall on them. Verses 16-17 Do you see? They acknowledge God they acknowledge Jesus! But, does this mean they re saved? No the demons believe the demons tremble. Page 4 of 8
All these folks know is that they want a place to hide there s an old gospel song that says I went to the rocks to hide my face, and the rocks cried out, no hiding place. Dr. Vance Havner: There will come a day when the most valuable piece of real estate will be a hole in the ground. This sixth seal takes us into the realm of the supernatural the earth, mountains, the islands God supernaturally affects them all We ve never seen anything like this before, and if this passage of Scripture teaches us anything, it teaches us that the Tribulation Period is a period that no man or woman should enter! The good news is we don t have to, because the church will be gone!! Listen, just as God saved Noah and his family when He judged the earth by the Flood and just as God spared Lot and his family when He judged Sodom and Gomorrah, God will spare His church when He judges the earth during the Tribulation! If you have received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior you will NOT go into the Tribulation Period. God has not destined His children for wrath So, I ask you do you know that you ll miss it? If you don t know for certain, you can!! You can leave here today knowing this! And I beg you to do so!! I told you a couple of weeks ago that the grief of my heart would be to 1) to teach you error or 2) to teach you truth and not live it out 3) in my own live and 4) to get to heaven and not find you! The seventh seal won t be broken until next week s lesson. Chapter 7 is an interlude it is a parenthesis It gives us some pretty exciting, good news. God knew we would be ready for some good news after what we ve just read!! Revelation 7:1-8 It is commonly believed that the seals of chapter 6 will take place in the first 3½ years of the Tribulation. The last seal, which we will see next week, will announce the beginning of the last half of the Tribulation. Right here, in the middle, we have a chapter about folks getting saved there in the midst of God s wrath, God extends mercy! There s a precious verse in the Old Testament that pictures this so well: Habakkuk 3:2 Lord, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear. O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. First, we see four angels standing at the four corners of the earth This means the four directions North, South, East and West. Page 5 of 8
These four angels are holding back the four winds of the earth. I have a commentary called The Revelation Record written by Dr. Henry Morris. Dr. Morris is a scientist whose expertise is in the area of hydrology and geology. Dr. Morris says that the fact that these angels are holding back the wind is very significant. Dr. Morris says that without the wind system, there could be no rain. This is why these four angels had the power to hurt both the earth and the sea. The drought which this would generate would eventually dry up the rivers and lakes and would scorch the trees and the grass, leading finally to widespread suffering and starvation. We also see here a seal A fifth angel is bringing a seal and he cried out to the other angels to not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads. This seal is symbolic of the Holy Spirit. This is a seal of possession. This is also a seal of protection. These 144,000 will be protected by God because they are His messengers during this dark time of the Tribulation. These are Jews! These are not Jehovah s Witnesses, nor are they Seventh Day Adventists. If anyone comes knocking at your door and tells you that he or she is one of these 144,000, ask him or her from which tribe? What does this say? 12,000 from each tribe. Listen, ask a Jew today which tribe he is from and he won t be able to tell you but Beloved, God knows! The Jewish records of lineage were destroyed when the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, but every single tribe of Israel has been preserved by God through the ages and He knows to which tribe each modern Israelite belongs even though the individuals themselves don t!! Think of this!! 144,000 Apostle Pauls!! Can you imagine 144,000 Jewish evangelists on fire for God? These evangelists will carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all parts of the world. Verses 9-17 Here we see a great multitude of folks from every nation, all tribes, peoples and tongues Most Bible scholars I read this week believe this to mean that this multitude is made up of only Gentiles. Some however, believe this multitude is only Jewish. And, may I say that there are convincing arguments for both views. Those who don t believe any Gentiles will be saved believe that no one who has ever heard the Gospel and rejected it will be saved during the Tribulation. They believe that no man is without excuse that every man has had enough light just by creation (Romans 1) to seek after God and they will not be given a second chance after the Tribulation. There are basically two groups of those who believe that Gentiles will be saved during the Tribulation one group believes that no Gentile who has ever heard the Gospel and rejected it before the Tribulation will be saved during the Tribulation the other group believes that all people will be given a second chance. Page 6 of 8
Having said all that, let me give you my own opinion which I highly respect God tells us in His Word that He is not willing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. However, in 2 Thessalonians 2 (which by the way, is one of the most detailed descriptions of this period in God s Word, with the exception of the Book of Revelation,) Paul in dealing with this same period of time says, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. God also tells us that His Spirit will not always strive with man. So, it is my opinion that yes, there will be Gentiles saved during the Tribulation, but they will be folks who have never heard the Gospel. There are perhaps at least two billion or more people in the world today who have never heard and understood enough of the Gospel either to accept or reject it. Just as death terminates the day of possible salvation for those who reject Christ, so in all probability will the Rapture. Let me tell you more of why I believe this In the Old Testament there were Gentiles who came to know God because of the influence of the Jew in fact, that s what God called the Jew to do in the first place, wasn t it? They were called to be a light to the nations well, all the nations who were not Jewish were Gentile, weren t they? In fact, during the first two thousand years if a Gentile came to know God, he pretty much had to come to God through a Jew. But, in the last two thousand years, if a Jew came to God, he pretty much had to come through a Gentile, didn t he? As Dr. John Phillips says, During the first two thousand years, if God has anything to say, He said it in Hebrew. But in the last two thousand years, when God has spoken, He has spoken in Greek He has spoken in Gentile language. Then, in the Tribulation Period I believe we see that it will go back and be like it was in the Old Testament. The Gentile will come to God through the Jew again these 144,000 Apostle Pauls!! I believe that just as there were Gentiles saved during the age of the Law (not many but a few) and there are Jews being saved during the age of Grace (not many, but a few) there will be people of all nations, tribes and tongues saved during the time of Jacob s Trouble. Having said all that, let me add this. I m not trying to put our great God in a box a little box that I have made for Him. He can save anyone at anytime. If He chooses to save Gentiles or Jews who have already heard the Gospel, who am I to say He shouldn t? But the fact, if we err, we better err on the cautious side, don t you think? We better to assume there is no second chance. We better not say, Well, when all this starts and I see that it s all for real, then, I ll accept Christ. Don t do that Jesus said, Be ye therefore ready! Page 7 of 8
Verses 10-12 I can t imagine what the worship in heaven will be like, can you? I don t believe it will be high church, do you? I believe it will be joyous and full of praise! I believe folks who don t bother to come to worship down here are going to have to get with the program up there! Verse 13-14 Many theologians believe these folks are the Gentiles of Verse 9, who have been martyred. They ve gone through much persecution and torture and ultimately have given their lives for the cause of Christ. Verses 14-17 The Lamb will lead them and the Lamb will feed them! I don t believe we can begin to comprehend the terrible things that will come upon this earth during the Tribulation. Are you certain today that you are one of His blood bought children? Quite possibly, there won t be another chance for those who have heard the gospel. All of us have heard the gospel time and time again. God holds us accountable for the light we have, Beloved! So, when Jesus comes for His church, He will either take us or leave us. If we re His, we ll be taken and we will worship and serve Him forever Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them who love Him. If we re not we re going to go through the horrors of what we have begun to see today and will continue to see in the weeks ahead. My sincere prayer is that each of you knows Jesus as your Savior and Lord and will spend eternity guided by the Lamb to springs of water fed and led throughout eternity by the Lamb of God!! I don t want to get to heaven and look for you and you not be there!!! Page 8 of 8