Revelation chapter 6. Last week we read from verse one
down to verse 8 and we primarily focus on the 1st 2 verses.
Today by the grace of God, we will consider verses 3 down to
verse 8, but I'd like for us to read from the beginning in order
to recenter ourselves in this incredible vision that John
recorded and was given by the Spirit.
Revelation 6 beginning in verse one.
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 it's rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him,
and he came out conquering and to conquer.
When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living
creature say come, and out came another horse, bright red.
It's rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that
people should slay one another. And he was given a great sword.
When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature
say come, and I looked and behold, a Black Horse.
And it's right, I had a pair of scales in his hand.
And I heard what seemed to be 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 wine. When he opened the 4th seal, I
heard the voice of the 4th living creature say, Come.
And I looked and behold A pale horse, and it's rider's name was
Death. And Hades followed him, and they
were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with
sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by wild beasts
of the earth. Father, we are completely aware
that if you do not help us by the power of the Spirit, we will
be left in the dark, we will be confused, and even worse, we
will dare to interpret these things subjectively.
But Lord, you are the great Teacher.
Your Word promises us that you've given us an anointing, an
anointing within to help us know your Word.
So we pray, Lord, that we would sense your guidance, that we
would know the truth, and that it would set us more and more
free. We ask these things in the
matchless name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Hopefully you remember that these 4 horsemen, commonly known
as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, are symbolic
depictions of the events that will mark the beginning of the
Tribulation Period. The Tribulation period is an era
that Jesus Christ himself spoke of in the Gospels.
And in essence, they describe the moments, the episodes, the
events that will precede the bodily return of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they are characterized by
distress and destruction in a manner that the world has never
experienced. And as we come here to the Book
of Revelation, we are granted by the goodness of God an outline
of the Tribulation period. And what God does in His wisdom
is that He organizes these events in three sets of seven
judgments. Three sets of seven judgments.
We are introduced to the first here with the seven seals, and
we already started studying it beginning last week.
Following the seven seals, we will then explore the seven
trumpets. And then after the seven
trumpets, we will look at the seven bowls of God's wrath that
will be poured out. Leading to what?
The culminating point of Jesus Christ coming back to this
world, confronting his enemies, and claiming everything
victoriously. But there's a long journey ahead
before we get to that climactic moment in our study.
Because we have just begun examining the beginning of the
end. Here's what we learned so far.
Before Christ returns, Antichrist will appear.
We've concluded that the White Horse here in verse 2 is a
representation of the man of lawlessness who will come as a
real man possessed by unusual satanic power.
And he will influence the world while simultaneously opposing
Christ and his followers as he acts as a counterfeit savior for
a chaotic and confused generation.
We are not told the exact timing of the arrival of the
Antichrist, but we can be sure that he will come at the right
time, at a time when there will be such a need for leadership
and while nations are in turmoil.
We will learn much more about the Antichrist in Revelation
chapter 13, but what we've discovered so far is that his
desire to eliminate true worship from the earth and receive
worship to himself will be realized in great part due to
his introduction as a universal peacemaker.
He will come to seemingly do what no politician or religious
figurehead has able to accomplish in the past, usher in
global peace and security. He will be loved.
He will be adored. He will be worshipped, and in
great part because he will seem to bring to rest areas and
conflicts that have never known a hint of serenity.
That includes peace. In the Middle East, by the way,
nobody seems to be able to figure out how to bring
reconciliation, how to bring calm Antichrist.
We'll do it, and we'll explore that as we approach Revelation
13. But whatever peace this man will
bring, it will not last, and the reason why it will not endure is
because the Bible on more than one occasion assures us that
there is no peace for the wicked.
Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, puts us in his
own way when he gives a general comment about the last days.
And this is a known passage in First Thessalonians 513.
First Thessalonians 5. Three rather while people are
saying there is peace and security, then sudden
destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a
pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
Paul foresees a time where everybody will be saying there
is peace, there is security, but he tells the believers and us
that whatever peace and tranquility is enjoyed, it will
suddenly be broken by an eruption of violence and
turmoil. And this general comment
perfectly fits the sequence of the seals that we will look at.
Today. We explored the first one.
We will complete the rest of the vision of the four Horsemen as
we continue. So let's come back to Revelation
6. If you're a note taker, be ready
to organize your thoughts by using the horses as your
headings. And it's important to note this
from the outset. Not every rider of these horses
represents an actual human being that will cause these events.
In fact, the second, third, and fourth horses and their horsemen
are much easier to interpret than the first one.
The first one was a little bit difficult to decode, but once we
were able to do some work, we were able to see that it it
perfectly parallels Christ teaching about the last days in
the all about discourse. And that will continue to be the
case. But what we find here as we just
read, is that these horses, these riders symbolize
impersonal agents. They're personifications.
They're not distinct individuals, but they are
representations of forces and of things that will happen.
And the meaning of the bright red horse here in verse 3 and
verse 4 is quite obvious. Let's read it again.
When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living
creature say come, and out came another horse, bright red.
It's rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that
people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Here's what this horse means. The Lord will permit World Peace
to disappear and be replaced by worldwide conflict.
Again, I can't help but say it. This perfectly corresponds with
Jesus teaching about the signs of the last days in Matthew 24.
After Christ told us that there will be false Christs who will
emerge and deceive the masses, ultimately leading to the
ultimate false Christ. What does he follow it up with?
Well, let me remind you in Matthew 24 verse 6 and 7, and
you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.
See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place.
But the end is not yet, for nation will rise against nation
and Kingdom against Kingdom, and there will be famines and
earthquakes in various places. So it's a play by play.
We see it in Matthew 24 and it lines up perfectly with
Revelation chapter 6, wars and rumors of wars, nations against
nations. And I know I can hear the
skeptic. We've always had wars.
We've even had world wars. Sure, we're not saying that
that's not the case. We're not saying that leading up
to the Tribulation, there won't be great calamities.
There won't be skirmishes and battles and civil problems.
We know that. But as Jesus qualified, what we
will see in the Tribulation period will be unprecedented.
It'll be things that we've never considered were possible, and
that's what we find here. There are actually things about
what Jesus says and what John sees that indicate to us how
this will be different. Let's consider a couple of
insights. Come back to our main text.
First, consider how swiftly the international violence will
erupt. If you look closely, what you'll
notice is that every time a horse is summoned, John has the
same recorded response. And I looked and behold, let me
prove it. Look at verse 2 and I looked and
behold a White Horse. Scroll down to verse 5.
When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature
say come and I looked and behold.
Look down at verse 8 after the 4th seal was opened and I looked
and behold, he does this every time.
Or does he? For some reason this is not
recorded after the second seal is opened.
Look at verse 3 and 4 when he opened the second seal.
I heard the second living creature say come and out came
another horse, bright red. There's no mention of I looked
and behold. Why is that?
I believe it's to suggest just how sudden the violence will
come and crash into the world as it is enjoying supposed peace.
It's as though the red horse is just behind the white one.
What that tells us is this global conflict will not
escalate incrementally. You know, everybody's on edge
today because we we see wars, but we're also concerned.
Not us believers, hopefully, but the general population is is
worried that things can reach a breaking point and it seems to
be boiling in different regions of the world.
I think with this, with the mention of the absence of I look
and behold, because it was so swift, it was just right there,
means that this global war will come explosively, almost like
overnight. It won't even really make sense.
One day, one week, one month, we're all enjoying tranquility.
How is this possible? And then the script will change
in the blink of an eye. It will be alarming.
It will be shocking in a sense. It will only be deemed as
something supernatural to the discerning eye at least.
But a second thing we must highlight is how the rider of
the bright red horse was given. Look at the last part of verse
4. A great sword.
Not just a sword, but a great
one. Emphasizing the scale and the
severity of this all inclusive conflict.
This future World War will bring mass carnage.
It will bring battles breaking out in virtually every nation.
There will be civil wars and casualties will be realized on a
massive scale, and no doubt the weaponry that will be developed
by then will make all of this destruction the more possible.
Additionally, this transition from a false peace to all of
this chaos will be the opportunity for the Antichrist
to rear his ugly head and to seek and maintain control by
using and resolving to violence. This is where the evil of this
man, apart from deception, will be realized, and we'll explore
that more in the coming weeks. And while we can spend time
trying to speculate all the human reasons for this outbreak
of World War and trying to determine the Antichrist exact
movements at this stage of the Tribulation, we won't because
there's one truth that is undeniably clear from this.
You ready? God is the source and sustainer
of peace. We want to worship in our series
in Revelation. We want to see the godness of
God, if I may use that terminology.
What do we take from this? That He is the source and the
sustainer of peace. Revisit verse 4 again and notice
the language. And out came another horse,
bright red. It's rider was permitted to take
peace from the earth. Permitted by who?
We don't have to guess. Here's how this truth should
inspire awe and all of us right now.
The only reason why we're not seeing bloodshed in every street
and are not trying to flee for shelter because nuclear weapons
are being shot out into space from coast to coast.
It's because God is gracious. One of the things about God's
common grace that I think we overlook is how humanity is
restrained from their iniquity, breaking out without limit
because of God's grace, without violating human will and the
great mastery of God's sovereignty he restricts.
He holds back from self destruction being a reality on a
global scale in a matter of hours.
Have you considered that about the grace of God that he is able
to extend peace to an undeserving world?
And that while this evil world has incredible potential to
destroy itself and accelerate apocalyptic events, any level of
serenity and security that we enjoy is a result of God's
goodness on any level. And let's not limit this now to
the idea of national security or crimes decreasing in our urban
cities. Let's expand our understanding
of the mercy of God and how He gives peace.
Yes, He supervises the world and He offers peace, but He's also
able to grant it on a personal level.
The God of peace, the Bible calls him the God of peace.
See what I take from this, and I hope you see it as well, is that
there is a spiritual dimension to violence.
Do you see that, That God permits peace to be removed?
And it really exposes our depravity.
God is not necessarily acting directly.
He's just removing His hand and letting us have at it.
And even in this we see that He doesn't let it go too far.
So what we find here is that God himself is peace.
He gives peace. He can take peace.
But for the believer and the one who wants to be a believer,
understand that Christ qualifies the kind of peace that we get to
inherit if we trust Him. This is a famous passage.
Let me remind you of it in John 14 and verse 27.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.
Not as the world gives do I give to you.
Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
I think most people will be content if Jesus had just said
peace I leave with you, but he gloriously goes on to tell us
the quality of this peace. My peace I give to you.
Meditate on that. Jesus says my peace I give to
you. Here's what that means.
The peace that Jesus Christ experienced throughout his
earthly ministry is something available to you and I My peace.
It's almost too good to be true. Are you saying that the calm and
the composure that characterized Christ's attitude and
disposition when faced with threats and slander and danger
and the disappointment of his own disciples and the various
challenges of ministry is something that I can actually
know for myself? Yes, because Jesus said it.
My peace I give to you. Now here's the wonderful thing
about Jesus peace. We learn how we're able to
mature and strengthen it in our own lives.
It's found in John, another famous passage, John 1633.
Jesus says I have said these things to you, that in me you
may have peace, in the world you will have tribulation.
But take heart, I've overcome the world.
We learn here that the peace of Christ isn't automatically
produced in us. It's available, but it's not
automatic. And Jesus here tells us that
this peace that is in Him, that is His, is only experienced and
dependent on knowing what He said to us.
Did you see that I have said these things to you?
Why, that in me you may have peace?
Here's the main point of this, that the channel by which Christ
allows this piece of His to flow into our shaky hearts is by no
other than understanding and believing what He already had
spoken. I have said these things to you
so that in me you may have peace.
You can't have peace unless you know what He said.
And He's given us the full counsel of God before us.
And so the more I expose myself to these truths and digest these
truths and chew on them by faith, it feeds a peace.
What kind of a peace? The same peace that Jesus had
and notice here also that he says in me, you may have peace.
The starting point is by first giving your life to Christ.
There's so much talk about peace these days on podcast political
platforms, even between leaders in the world today.
Peace, peace. How do we achieve peace?
They're tweeting about it. They're interviewing about it.
They're meaning behind closed doors to try to make it happen.
And yet it will never be known unless the Prince of Peace is
embraced. And unfortunately, as we learn
here, that Jesus Christ will continually be rejected by the
world to the point that another will come in His own name and
they will receive him. He will come promising peace,
and they will take the offer, not realizing that it will
suddenly be shattered because there is no peace for the
wicked. And that's what we find here
with a third seal. We come back now to Revelation 6
and read in verse 5 what happens when he opened the third seal.
I heard the third living creature say, come, and I looked
and behold, a Black Horse and it's rider had a pair of scales
in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a
voice in the midst of the four living creature saying a quart
of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a
denarius and do not harm the oil and wine.
So like the red horse, the black 1 is not so difficult to
interpret. He represents famine.
And this is no natural famine. This is a man made economic
collapse. It follows the global war that
that we just read about, that we just looked at.
And so we see that famine and poverty are often companions and
the consequences of war. And that's exactly what we're
being told here. And this will lay an even
greater burden on the wider population, especially ordinary
people. We see here that the
international economy, economy will take a devastating blow
during the early stages of the Tribulation.
That's what's coming. And we've seen this in history,
surely. But the severity of this has to
be understood, and that accompanies the arrival of the
Antichrist. Now before I get there, I want
you to consider how this voice among the living creatures
determines the prices of goods. He gives the prices for wheat,
and he gives the prices here for barley.
Now notice here that a quart of wheat is for denarius, and three
quarts of barley for a denarius. Now, according to Matthew 20,
verse 2A, denarius was the wage for a full days of an average
man's work. So what?
What's happening here that a man will have to work all day to
simplify it, just for a loaf of bread?
We're talking about intense inflammation here.
We're talking about something here that is extreme.
It is radical, it is horrifying. I mean, put yourself in the
position of a father or a husband who has to Labor Day
after day and for all that work every day.
He only gets really a small under nutritional meal.
What kind of decisions does he have to make for his wife, for
his children? Will he eat most of it so that
he can be energized to work the next morning, promising his
family that they will eat the following night?
Will he give it up all together for the for the sake of the
survival of his loved ones? Will we have to succumb to
thievery and violence to try to make it another another week?
We're supposed to think deeper about the implications of these
devastations. And what we find here is that
there will be scarce resources. It will be extremely
challenging. And listen, although there are
places in the world that are suffering today, and I'm sure
and I know that there are times in history when even more severe
famines have been recorded, As I said earlier, what makes this
particular season of inflation unique is that it is accompanied
by the Antichrist and his leadership.
And here's what I want to make known to you.
He will surely capitalize on this growing economic hardship.
He will take advantage of it. It will be leveraged to compel
the people to do what worship him.
This sheds light on how the mark of the beast will gain success
over time. In Revelation 1317, we're told
there that no one is able to buy or sell apart from having this
mark. And you think, how is that going
to happen? Well if you have something like
this, an all out meltdown, people trying to even find a
loaf of bread, long lines, people dying in the streets and
homes, then it makes sense how there will be many who will
consider their physical well-being and giving no thought
to the eternal consequences of their Pledge of Allegiance to
the Antichrist. It's horrific to think about,
it's devastating, it's heart crushing, and if any generation
should have zero doubt of the possibility of this concept,
it's ours. It wasn't too long ago where for
a few short years you and I had to wear certain things and
inject certain things in our bodies if we want to do basic
things in life. Say what you want, argue what
you want. I seek to interpret the world
through the lens of the Bible, and if that period of time was
anything, my conclusion, my conviction is that it was a
wonderful dress rehearsal for the Tribulation period.
This is what we find, and it's not so far fetched now, is it?
It's very possible, we've seen it, especially now as we
consider the advancement of technology, that our resources
globally are so interconnected. What happens in one nation
doesn't just affect that nation, it affects the world, depending
really on the nation. So we understand how things are
becoming more and more connected and we're not so separate as we
thought, and we can't really get off the grid as much as we'd
like to. Things are traceable, things are
interwoven. Things are lining up to the
fulfillment of this book. It's all being prepared.
And what I find so interesting about what we read here is that
the voice that commanded the rider of the Black Horse to
inflate the price of wheat and barley also tells them not to do
what? Don't harm the oil or the wine.
Isn't that interesting? Don't touch the oil of their
wine. Why?
Well, you can imagine the conversations around this, the
ideas that have been generated. Here's my goal and I hope it's
yours. I don't want to speculate.
I don't want to imagine. I want to be as close as
possible to what God intended by it.
And I believe the main point of this is this, that through this
there is a measure of mercy in the midst of judgement.
Do not harm the oil and wine. Why do I say that?
Because this happens more than once in the Book of Revelation.
Let me give you one example. Turn to Revelation 7, verse 2.
This is dealing with another act of judgement that follows what
we're reading here, Revelation 6, if we honor it
chronologically and notice what it said here in Revelation 7,
verse 2. Then I saw another Angel
ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living
God, and he called with a loud voice of the four angels who had
been given power to harm the earth.
And see saying, verse 3, do not harm the earth or the sea or the
trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their
foreheads. Here we have an example of the
Lord withholding judgment, one that comes after what we're
studying here because He first wants to accomplish a redemptive
thing. We still have to seal the
foreheads of those who belong to God before we let these things
loose. And so I bring this up to
suggest that it's possible that similarly as severe as this man
made famine will be, God and his goodness won't allow there to be
a total drought to drive the world into complete extinction.
Touch these basic necessities. Don't touch the oil and the
wine. And I believe it's totally
appropriate to rejoice in the mercy of God in a very unlikely
text. That's what we're supposed to
recognize here, that God here is merciful.
And God here is giving, even in the final lapse of human
history, drops of grace so that people can taste it and have
enough of sensibility to cry out to Him and listen.
As we rejoice in the mercy of God in a text like this, we
should also not lose sight of His sovereignty.
How's the sovereignty shown? It's really shown with every
single horse. God doesn't just give and take
away peace. God also is the supreme manager
of every asset, every item in this world.
God supervises, God sees, God determines.
Even with things that we often take for granted.
Notice how He determines the quantity, right?
He's talking about measurements here.
A quart of wheat, 3 quarts of barley.
I mean, how much more specific can you get than that?
He's talking about the quantity. He's determining the quantity
and the availability. Now listen, here's the point.
It's one thing to talk and counsel and sing about how God
is in control. It's an entirely different thing
when we realize just how much He is in control.
This is so specific, this is so precise, and it's something that
we have to understand as a means to be in constant awe of Him.
And if we don't, if we don't see just how God is in control, is
sovereign, we are one step closer to being idolaters.
Am I exaggerating? I'm not exaggerating because
that is the very reason, at least one of the reasons why God
condemns the people Israel. They lost sight of the true
source of every good. Let me give you the example that
I am thinking about. And Hosea, notice what the Lord
says to the people Israel, chapter 2, verse 8.
And as you're prepared to hear these words, what were the main
resources that he highlights in Revelation?
6 Grain, oil, wine, right? Listen to his words.
And Hosea 28 And she, being Israel, did not know that it was
I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil, and who
lavished on her silver and gold, which they use for bail.
Israel lost sight that I was the one who gave her the grain that
she ate, the oil that they used to prepare their food, the wine
to make their hearts merry and to sanitize.
I am the one who gave it. Isn't that what he says?
And Revelation 6, He's the one who controls it.
But notice what he says in Hosea 29.
Therefore, I will take back my grain and it's time and my wine
and it's season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which
were to cover her nakedness. So he gives it and he can take
it. What does this show?
That both in the Old and New Testaments, God is the one who
influences, who supervises, who brings change and shifts to the
economy of the world, to the things that we see happening.
And here's what else I see. That his control is not a cruel
1. Can you imagine being able to
control absolutely everything? And yet what we find here is
that even while Israel was worshipping Baal, God gave them
grain, oil, and wine. I'm still going to provide for
you. I'm still going to nourish you.
I'm still going to give you meals and joyful feasts, even
though with much of it Israel took it and use it to worship
false gods. That's grace, That's grace.
Keep in mind the holiness of God.
Wouldn't he have taken at the moment that they gave a glance
to Baal, and yet for an extended period of time He still supplied
them with what they needed? But what we learned here is that
God's common grace will not be so common in the Tribulation
period. It will be less and less common.
And one of the ways we see this is how he will let loose a Black
Horse who will strike the economy of the world and
everyone will feel it and Antichrist will take advantage
of it and so many other things will follow, especially what we
see here with the final horse. Let's come back to Revelation 6
as we conclude with these two verses.
Verse 7 when he opened the 4th seal, I heard the voice of the
4th living creature say come. And I looked and behold A pale
horse, and it's rider's name was Death.
And Hades followed him, and they were given authority over a
fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, and with famine, and
with pestilence, and by wild beasts of the earth.
Now we might be tempted to see this horse similar in color to
the first one, a different shade of white, but we have to
understand it in the original text.
When you actually look at the original, the word depicts the
color green. In fact, the only time the
original word chlorose is used in the New Testament is to
describe vegetation. So more accurately, what we're
seeing here is a horse that has a pale green hue, the color of a
sickly corpse of a dying man. This is what this horse looks
like. And immediately we understand
here who the rider is. There's no mystery.
The rider on this horse is death.
That's his name. And this is of importance
because he follows. We see the sequence here, global
war and global famine. What follows those things
inevitably death on a massive scale.
So here's what we learned in the early stages of the tribulation.
There will be incredible death, loss of life, and we're told the
exact amount over a fourth of the earth will be killed.
Now if we use today's number, the population of the world, 8.2
billion, then we're talking about at this point just over 2
billion people will die in a short amount of time.
This is startling, and we're told exactly how it would be
accomplished by sword and through famine.
We already covered that. But there are two things that
are added by pestilence and by the wild beast of the earth.
And perhaps the most curious thing out of the four is the
last one, right? The wild beast of the earth.
Now, I think a surface level reading of that would spur the
thought of big animals running out of forests and jungles and
just chasing people down and devouring them.
But it's a little bit more complex than that.
Consider the transmission of diseases from animals even
today. Consider some of the greatest
plagues in history that have been caused by rodents.
Think about what bugs can do, like mosquitoes, serpents and
dogs, mice. I don't think there's one animal
in view here. I think it's going to be the
collection of catastrophes and calamities.
You have mass war, meaning there will be bodies, you'll have
famine, there will be again, such a lack and and many areas,
including sanitation. So this will invite animals and
beasts to invade and to pollute and to bring even more harm to
the world as we know it. The Bible is so specific, and
whatever way you look at it, it is absolutely astounding.
And listen, we're only in the fourth seal of the first set of
judgments. We're not even finished the
seals yet. And this is what we will see.
No wonder Jesus said there will be tribulation, great
tribulation, like the world has never known.
And this judgment, by the way, is just one of the many reasons
why I hold to a futurist interpretation of the Book of
Revelation. Because others would see this in
a different way. The details of what we just read
in these two verses would be applied and taught much
differently. For example, the preterist.
Remember we talked about this in the intro in the overview of the
Book of Revelation. The preterist sees the events in
the Book of Revelation as something of the past, more
specifically, things that have been happening leading up to
primarily 70AD. And so how would the preterist
interpret a verse like this? Well, well, they say it.
It's no secret. This is just apocalyptic
language. This is just symbolic imagery to
describe the devastation of the Jewish people when they were
surrounded by the Romans and when Rome invaded.
And as I mentioned in the introduction, the problem of
this is that we fail to consider the global scale that is defined
by both Christ and the Book of Revelation.
Even in the Olivet Discourse, you see Jesus talking about
things that will happen on a larger, more widespread platform
and things that will be more narrow pertaining to the Jewish
people. And so all of that is mixed up,
all of that is blurred unless you take it in a historical,
literal sense, unless you just take it plainly.
When, when it says here that a fourth of the earth will die,
it's a fourth of the earth. To interpret it otherwise, to
localize it, to allegorize it, is to minimize the severity and
the enormity of what's to come. Here's how we're going to end.
The last horseman is unlike the first 3 in this, he has no
accessory. The White Horse had what a bow,
the bright red horse. What a great sword.
The Black Horse scale in his hand.
The rider on the White Horse or the pale horse?
Rather nothing. But here is also where this
horse stands out. Though he possesses no
accessory, he is accompanied by someone else.
Hades and Hades followed him. So this is where this vision is
unique. Here's this rider on this pale
horse, and immediately trailing him is Hades.
Was he walking? Was he on his own horse?
We're not told. That's not what's important
here. What's important is how more
than once in Revelation, Death and Hades are paired together.
Why is that? What's death?
Biblically, death is when the spirit is separate from the
body, when it is taken from the body, when the body becomes soul
less, spirit less that is death. What is Hades?
Hades is the realm where these disembodied spirits go as they
await their final resurrection. To say that Hades is simply the
grave miscommunicates the actual reality of it.
It's not you being buried. It's not the graveyard in your
neighborhood. It's it's speaking about a
shadowy realm. If I can use that imagery, it's
speaking about a compartment in the world to come that will
contain the disembodied spirits as they await the sealing of
their eternal faith, the judgment of their everlasting
destination. So this is how we make sense of
death being followed by Hades. It's so profound when you think
about it. What this vision is trying to
communicate is that death will come and he will gather people,
but death is not the final state of man.
Yes, they will cease to live physically, but Hades is right
behind death, meaning 1/4 of the world will not just die, they
will slip into eternity. So if we just read this as wow,
1/4 of the world will die. Yeah, that's tragic.
But it's even more tragic. 1/4 of the world will enter into a
world more real than this one. 1/4 of the world in such a short
amount of time will enter into the next World.
They can't change anything. They can't confess anything,
however, and whatever they did in their lives will seal their
fate. And so we're supposed to sense
the gravity of this death simply escorts you and I to another
world, one that is more real and permanent than this one.
And here's what we have to do as we are studying about the
future, I think it's totally appropriate to pause here and to
reflect on our own mortality. You know, the preacher has many,
many things that he has to do. One of his primary tasks is to
regularly remind people about eternity.
And any faithful church will regularly remind the people that
come to receive the word of God of the world to come and how
transient this world is and not to lose focus.
As I alluded to during the announcements, there's many ways
of comparing this world and the next.
You know, this world is really like a stage as significant, as
important as as wonderful as it is by way of comparison is just
a play. And we all have our costumes and
we all have our roles. But there's a time coming with
where the play will end, where the final scene will be
executed, where you will have your final line.
You will give your final performance, so to speak, and
you will go backstage, you will take off your costume, you'll
remove your makeup, and you will push through a door with an exit
sign above it. And that's the real world.
So it is with eternity. There's a time coming where we
will take off this flesh, where we will leave behind all these
props, all the things that we played with, all the things I
brought laughter, all the things I brought tears, and we will
exit through a back door, so to speak.
And that's where life really begins.
Do you know where you're going when you die?
It's inevitable. Look, I'm not trying to scare
you here. I'll help you.
I'm going to die. Does that help?
You can't do anything about it. And I believe it's one of the
greatest apologetics for the truth of the Bible.
Only the Bible has the most comprehensive explanation of
what death is, what it leads to, where it came from, more
importantly, how it was defeated.
And so here's the thing. I mean, to be honest, you can
get so caught up in the details and trying to be accurate, and
you have to be. When you interpret the Bible,
especially with a book like Revelation, you don't want to
get it wrong, right? You want to be faithful.
You don't be too fanciful. You want to be, you want to be
right, sure. But I praise God that even in
the midst of this, and hopefully and prayerfully by His grace, we
remain with the same heart posture.
I want to take advantage of this study to be as evangelistic as
possible. We're talking about the end
here. We're talking about the fate of
every single one of us, whether it will occur in our generation
or not. Death will visit you and I, and
Hades is right behind him. But here's the beauty of this
book, that we don't have to wonder what will happen with our
souls, with our spirits, when they leave these bodies.
We, because of Christ, will not enter into a shadowy realm.
We don't have to question what's going to happen with our eternal
state. No, if you're in Christ, to be
absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord, that's
the hope that we have. Surely that is a reason why we
can know the supernatural peace. I know where I'm going, OK?
Whatever my fate might bring. Is it sword?
Is it famine? Is it pestilence?
Is that a wild beast? Is it a snake bite?
I don't know what it is, but if I'm in him, it doesn't matter
because Death will escort me into his loving arms and I will
be with him, and I'll be more alive, more filled with joy,
more captivated by beauty that this world could never portray.
And so death as an advantage to the believer, I, I just wonder,
I really do. And I'm, I'm ending here, I
assure you, even if one person here doesn't know where they're
going, why would you risk it? Why would you gamble with your
soul? As we're studying revelation, I
want to remind you that this is ultimately about the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Do you know him?
Have you made a conscious decision of placing your faith
and trust in Him? Have you said at any point in
your life, I renounce my sin and I choose to be washed by the
blood of Jesus Christ? Do you realize that if you're in
Christ, you're not destined for wrath and nothing can change
your future? I want to give you the gospel of
the grace of God, the good news of Jesus.
Here's what you must do. You must acknowledge that you're
a Sinner. You must realize that in
comparison to God, you fall so short of his glory.
It would be pathetic to even try to open your mouth and defend
your righteousness. And at the same time, you also
realize the depth of his love. We're the same Christ who opens
these seals at a future time before that, long before that
set aside judgment, suspended it, so that He can enter into
this world and drink your judgement and drink the wrath
that deserves to be poured on me.
Why? Because He doesn't want us to
endure these things, and He doesn't want to want to launch
us into an eternal separated state.
He wants to embrace you, receive you, forgive you, renew you, and
give you life. You say, but what?
What do I have to do? You acknowledge your need for
Him, you embrace Him. In that moment you will
understand freedom, you understand forgiveness, and He
will impart and infusing you the Holy Spirit and you will be born
again. That's what is available to you.
And so I invite you at this time as we pray that if you don't
know Christ, that you would call out to Him and believe what He's
done for you and what He can do for you today.
Father, we thank you for helping us thus far.
We ask God with whatever was said, it would be retained and
it would be used to worship you. We pray for the one who doesn't
know you that today would be the day for those who know you that
we would worship You in light of all the things that we saw.
Lord, your absolute sovereignty, how you gave that great sword,
how you determined the economy, how you permitted death in Hades
to only go so far. Lord, thank you that you are our
Father. Thank you that you are not cruel
with your control. Thank you, Lord, that you give
us so much more than we deserve. And for this we sing to you with
glad hearts in Jesus name, Amen. Let's give him thanks.