Latest / THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together / The Beginning of the End (Revelation 63–8) John MacArthur

Transcript

The Beginning of the End (Revelation 63–8) John MacArthur · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

0:01
Speaker 1: Revelation chapter 6 is a very important Scripture and one
0:06
Speaker 1: which will speak to us profoundly and even shockingly as
0:11
Speaker 1: we go through it. Tonight we take another trip back
0:15
Speaker 1: to the future as we look back to the ancient
0:18
Speaker 1: book of Revelation and in so doing look forward to
0:22
Speaker 1: the unfolding of of God's wrath to come in the future.
0:27
Speaker 1: As you come into chapter 6, as you know if
0:29
Speaker 1: you've been with us, the music of praise that occupied
0:33
Speaker 1: chapters 4 and 5 has ended, and the stirrings of
0:37
Speaker 1: judgment that began at the throne as far back as
0:40
Speaker 1: chapter 4, verse 5, where you see some flashes of
0:44
Speaker 1: lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. Well, that anticipated
0:49
Speaker 1: judgment breaks into action in chapter 6. Here you have
0:54
Speaker 1: the Lamb of God, the worthy Lamb, the Lion of
0:57
Speaker 1: the tribe of Judah, none other than our Lord Jesus Christ,
1:01
Speaker 1: beginning to break the seals in the little scroll which
1:05
Speaker 1: records the wrath of God as Christ takes back the
1:09
Speaker 1: universe which is His own from the usurper, namely Satan,
1:13
Speaker 1: and all of his minions or demons. Now the visions
1:17
Speaker 1: of this text in chapter 6 take us to the
1:20
Speaker 1: beginning of God's final wrath. As we have noted for you,
1:27
Speaker 1: it's our conviction that the church is raptured before this happens,
1:31
Speaker 1: and we see in fact the church is in heaven
1:33
Speaker 1: represented by the 24 elders who are praising God and
1:38
Speaker 1: glorifying God and glorifying the Lamb as the Lamb steps
1:42
Speaker 1: onto the stage of history to enact these judgments.
1:46
Speaker 2: And so the church is caught.
1:48
Speaker 1: Up to be with the Lord and are there in
1:51
Speaker 1: the glory with the Lord as this period of time,
1:54
Speaker 1: this seven-year period known as the tribulation begins. And as
1:59
Speaker 1: the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls
2:03
Speaker 1: all are enacted, all emblems of final judgment. Man's world
2:11
Speaker 1: faces an inevitable death. Sin is taking a fearsome toll
2:16
Speaker 1: that ultimately ends up in the judgment of God. Every
2:18
Speaker 1: dimension of our culture, every dimension of our society is
2:22
Speaker 1: escalating on the downslide, being devastated by depravity, more and
2:27
Speaker 1: more given over to lust and pride and self-indulgence, immorality
2:32
Speaker 1: and rejection of God.
2:33
Speaker 2: And Christ and the truth of Scripture.
2:36
Speaker 1: And thus man is sentenced, his whole world is sentenced
2:38
Speaker 1: to divine wrath. Man will drink the cup of wrath
2:43
Speaker 1: to the fullest. As one writer said some years ago,
2:46
Speaker 1: the dust of death is on us. We have had
2:50
Speaker 1: our little moment in the sun and we have botched it.
2:53
Speaker 1: Doom may be very near. We may be very close
2:57
Speaker 1: to the final frantic antics of a dying man. Jeremiah
3:02
Speaker 1: the prophet, you'll remember, looked at the coming period of
3:05
Speaker 1: God's judgment in reference to Israel and and what they
3:08
Speaker 1: would have to face when He wrote,' Alas, for that
3:11
Speaker 1: day is great! There is none like it, and it
3:14
Speaker 1: is the time of Jacob's trouble.' Jeremiah 30 and verse 7.
3:18
Speaker 1: The Jews are going to face the inevitability of God's wrath,
3:21
Speaker 1: those who have rejected their Messiah. Isaiah, on the other hand,
3:25
Speaker 1: looked also at the final wrath and saw it not
3:29
Speaker 1: so much from the perspective of the Jews who But
3:32
Speaker 1: in chapter 34 of Isaiah, he looked at it with
3:35
Speaker 1: reference to the Gentiles. In verse 1, draw near, O nations,
3:39
Speaker 1: to hear and listen, O peoples. Let the earth and
3:42
Speaker 1: all it contains hear, and the world and all that
3:44
Speaker 1: springs from it. He's engulfing all of humanity. For the
3:48
Speaker 1: Lord's indignation is against all the nations, and His wrath
3:51
Speaker 1: against all their armies.
3:53
Speaker 2: He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over
3:55
Speaker 2: to slaughter.
3:56
Speaker 1: So their slain will be thrown out, their corpses will
3:59
Speaker 1: give off their stench, the mountains will be drenched with
4:02
Speaker 1: their blood, and all the hosts of heaven will wear away,
4:05
Speaker 1: and the sky will be rolled up like a scroll.
4:08
Speaker 1: All their hosts will also wither away as a leaf
4:11
Speaker 1: withers from the vine or as one withers from a
4:13
Speaker 1: fig tree. For my sword is satiated in heaven. Behold,
4:18
Speaker 1: it shall descend for judgment upon Edom and upon the
4:21
Speaker 1: people whom I have devoted to destruction. The sword of
4:24
Speaker 1: the Lord is filled with blood. It is sated with fat,
4:27
Speaker 1: with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat
4:30
Speaker 1: of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a
4:32
Speaker 1: sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the land
4:36
Speaker 1: of Edom. Moving from what will happen in Edom to
4:39
Speaker 1: the wider world of final judgment, the prophet Isaiah looks
4:43
Speaker 1: at the ultimate doom and destruction of humanity. And so
4:47
Speaker 1: we hear from the prophets of old, and not just
4:50
Speaker 1: in those passages, they're merely emblematic, that there will come
4:53
Speaker 1: a final day of judgment. For the Jews, it will
4:56
Speaker 1: be the time of Jacob's trouble, and for the Gentiles,
4:59
Speaker 1: it will be the slaughter of the world. And so
5:03
Speaker 1: when we look at our world, we have to realize
5:05
Speaker 1: that it is headed to doomsday. In fact, we feel
5:09
Speaker 1: like we can hear sometimes the choking of a dying world,
5:12
Speaker 1: the final gasps, as it were. In this chapter to
5:17
Speaker 1: which we give our attention tonight, Revelation chapter 6, we
5:23
Speaker 1: are literally transported to the future. The experience of opening
5:27
Speaker 1: the seven-sealed scroll was not only visible to John in
5:32
Speaker 1: his vision, but is now made known to us because
5:35
Speaker 1: God wanted him to write it down. Remember now, there's
5:39
Speaker 1: a little scroll in the scenario here. It is mentioned
5:42
Speaker 1: back in chapter 5 as being in the hand of God.
5:46
Speaker 1: And then, of course, it is taken out of the
5:48
Speaker 1: hand of God by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And
5:51
Speaker 1: here in chapter 6, verse 1 says, He begins to
5:54
Speaker 1: break the seals. It was rolled a little bit and
5:57
Speaker 1: sealed on the edges, rolled a little bit and sealed.
5:59
Speaker 1: And all of those were to keep it from ever
6:01
Speaker 1: being known or read or revealed until the appropriate time,
6:04
Speaker 1: which here is revealed to us and ultimately will be
6:08
Speaker 1: in actuality unrolled. As it unrolls, the events of God's
6:13
Speaker 1: wrath unfold. Now, there are seven seals on this scroll,
6:19
Speaker 1: and we'll go through those seven seals. And they encompass
6:23
Speaker 1: the whole period until the final coming of Christ.
6:27
Speaker 2: The first four.
6:29
Speaker 1: Seals out of the seven take up the first half
6:34
Speaker 1: of the period known as the tribulation. The fifth seal
6:38
Speaker 1: is kind of the bridge in the middle, the event
6:41
Speaker 1: in the middle period. Stretching into the second half, the
6:44
Speaker 1: sixth and seventh seal are the final judgments of the
6:48
Speaker 1: second half of this seven-year period. We know it's seven
6:50
Speaker 1: years because it is identified as a seven-year period back
6:54
Speaker 1: in Daniel chapter 9. It is also identified as to
6:58
Speaker 1: half of it as 42 months, three and a half years,
7:01
Speaker 1: and 1260 days in the book of Revelation. Also in
7:02
Speaker 1: Daniel chapter Some of those same numbers are used. Now,
7:09
Speaker 1: the first four seals depict horsemen. That's where we get
7:13
Speaker 1: the term, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, which I
7:16
Speaker 1: told you this morning is not an old Notre Dame backfield,
7:19
Speaker 1: but a picture of future judgment. They move through the
7:23
Speaker 1: vision to show the opening four sequences in judgment. The
7:29
Speaker 1: imagery is vivid. The imagery is potent. The imagery is shocking.
7:33
Speaker 1: The imagery is overwhelming. and it is frankly frightening. These
7:38
Speaker 1: are unforgettable scenes that are pulled across our startled minds
7:43
Speaker 1: as we, with the Apostle John, see the first acts
7:45
Speaker 1: by which the Lamb, the Lion, the Lord Jesus Christ
7:48
Speaker 1: restores the universe, takes it back, transferring it from Satan,
7:52
Speaker 1: the usurper, to the Lord, the heir, the rightful king. Now,
7:58
Speaker 1: contrary to what some people have thought in looking at prophecy,
8:01
Speaker 1: the first of these horsemen brings a time period of
8:05
Speaker 1: peace and prosperity. We saw that last time. But the
8:09
Speaker 1: following three are deadly forces. The first one, you remember,
8:14
Speaker 1: was peace. But what is to follow is anything but that. Now,
8:19
Speaker 1: just to remind you also, these four horsemen are what
8:24
Speaker 1: Jesus calls in Matthew 24, the beginning of birth pains.
8:31
Speaker 1: In the anticipation of a birth, there are birth pains.
8:34
Speaker 1: Those birth pains come somewhat infrequently, and then they get
8:38
Speaker 1: more frequent and more frequent and more frequent until the
8:40
Speaker 1: final birth takes place. The same is true of the
8:45
Speaker 1: events that are going to occur during this time period.
8:47
Speaker 1: There is coming a final event, the coming of Christ
8:51
Speaker 1: to establish His kingdom. That is the birth in mind.
8:55
Speaker 1: The birth pains are those events that are preliminary to that,
8:59
Speaker 1: and they begin to go more rapidly and more rapidly
9:02
Speaker 1: and more rapidly as they get to the final event.
9:05
Speaker 2: It's a very vivid analogy.
9:07
Speaker 1: There will be pain and then more pain and then
9:10
Speaker 1: more pain and more pain and more pain faster and
9:13
Speaker 1: faster until the final and ultimate pain occurs. of Christ
9:16
Speaker 1: coming and destroying all the wicked on the face of
9:18
Speaker 1: the earth. The beginning of the birth pains used in
9:22
Speaker 1: Matthew 24, 8, that phrase, then describes the first half
9:26
Speaker 1: of the final period and is really parallel to the
9:29
Speaker 1: first four horsemen that John sees in his vision. The
9:33
Speaker 1: fifth seal is severe and widespread persecution, and that persecution
9:42
Speaker 1: is depicted here in the Fifth seal, as you see
9:45
Speaker 1: in verse 9, underneath the altar are the souls of
9:48
Speaker 1: those who had been slain because of the Word of
9:50
Speaker 1: God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. Obviously,
9:53
Speaker 1: by the midpoint in this seven-year period, people have been saved.
9:57
Speaker 1: People have been converted in that first three-and-a-half-year period. All
10:00
Speaker 1: the church is gone before the period started in the rapture,
10:04
Speaker 1: but in the first half, there will be people redeemed,
10:06
Speaker 1: and they will then be slaughtered. They will be crying
10:10
Speaker 1: out in verse 10, How long, O Lord, holy and true,
10:12
Speaker 1: will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on
10:14
Speaker 1: those who dwell on the earth? And these indicate also
10:18
Speaker 1: in verse 11 and that they have been glorified because
10:22
Speaker 1: they have white robes and they are in their rest,
10:25
Speaker 1: and the number of their fellow servants and their brethren
10:27
Speaker 1: who were to be killed, even as they had been,
10:29
Speaker 1: should be completed also. So more are to be slaughtered.
10:32
Speaker 1: So the midpoint, the fifth seal here, is really the persecution.
10:36
Speaker 1: It also has a very unique event within that persecution
10:40
Speaker 1: called the abomination of desolations. That is that which was
10:43
Speaker 1: spoken of in Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 to 27.
10:46
Speaker 1: That is when the Antichrist desecrates the temple in Jerusalem,
10:51
Speaker 1: starts the persecution of Christians, the persecution of Jews, and
10:55
Speaker 1: sets himself up as God.
10:57
Speaker 2: And then there is worldwide persecution.
11:02
Speaker 1: After that, in the second half, what Jesus called in
11:05
Speaker 1: Matthew 24, the Great Tribulation, that was the name of
11:08
Speaker 1: the second half, the first half, the beginning of the
11:10
Speaker 1: birth pains, the second half, the Great Tribulation. And in
11:13
Speaker 1: that second half, the persecution continues, then comes the sixth seal,
11:18
Speaker 1: and then the final, the coming of the Lord Jesus
11:20
Speaker 1: Christ and the slaughter of the ungodly.
11:23
Speaker 2: The abomination then, effected by the.
11:25
Speaker 1: Antichrist in Jerusalem, according to Daniel 9.27, is at the
11:29
Speaker 1: midpoint of the seven-year period. Daniel says it happens in
11:32
Speaker 1: the very middle of the week. Sometime around the middle.
11:35
Speaker 1: That triggers the great tribulation. That's the switch that throws
11:41
Speaker 1: humanity into the great tribulation, the final three and a
11:44
Speaker 1: half years, 42 months, 1260 days before the coming of Christ.
11:48
Speaker 1: The final two seals are the final trumpets and the
11:52
Speaker 1: final bowl judgments. So the events described in the scroll then,
11:56
Speaker 1: when fully unrolled, will encompass the full seven years of
11:59
Speaker 1: God's wrath. And the last part of it we could
12:02
Speaker 1: call the day of the Lord, the final fury when
12:07
Speaker 1: God Himself comes in the form of Christ and enacts
12:10
Speaker 1: His own judgment.
12:11
Speaker 2: But that final day.
12:13
Speaker 1: Of the Lord is is preceded by divine judgments that
12:17
Speaker 1: we are seeing unfold in these first five seals. Now,
12:22
Speaker 1: as each seal is opened, the sequence of judgment unfolds vividly.
12:26
Speaker 1: Let's remind ourselves of the first seal, verses 1 and 2.
12:29
Speaker 1: He heard one of the four living creatures, you remember
12:31
Speaker 1: the four cherubim who surrounded the throne of God, we
12:33
Speaker 1: discussed them earlier. These four living creatures each have a
12:36
Speaker 1: role to play in The first one says, with a
12:39
Speaker 1: voice that is like that of thunder, which of course
12:42
Speaker 1: fits the.
12:42
Speaker 2: Idea of judgment, he says, come. And he is calling
12:46
Speaker 2: to a rider.
12:47
Speaker 1: In verse 2, a white horse comes, and there is
12:50
Speaker 1: a man sitting upon it, and he has a bow,
12:53
Speaker 1: and a crown is given to him, and he comes
12:54
Speaker 1: to conquer, conquering and to conquer. This, as we noted
12:58
Speaker 1: last time in great detail, symbolizes the deceptive, short-lived world peace.
13:04
Speaker 1: The rider and the horse is not a particular individual,
13:06
Speaker 1: but a force. the force of peace. It will feature
13:10
Speaker 1: many false deliverers, many false messiahs led by the ultimate
13:14
Speaker 1: false messiah, the anti-Christ, the ultimate false Christ, the supreme
13:17
Speaker 1: human tool of Satan. Now, they will be orchestrated by
13:21
Speaker 1: false Christs and false messiahs, and Jesus said in Matthew 24,
13:25
Speaker 1: many of them would come. And they will continue to
13:27
Speaker 1: come through the whole period, but initially they come and
13:30
Speaker 1: they offer world peace. The Antichrist is certainly a key player.
13:33
Speaker 1: Prosperity sets in around the world. The white horse depicts that.
13:37
Speaker 1: The fact that he is white indicates majestic conquering. It
13:41
Speaker 1: indicates even purity and righteousness, a false purity and a
13:44
Speaker 1: false righteousness. You'll notice he has a bow but no arrows,
13:48
Speaker 1: which means he has a certain amount of authority, but
13:50
Speaker 1: he conquers without ever shooting anything.
13:52
Speaker 2: It is a conquering without bloodshed. A crown was given
13:56
Speaker 2: to him. He didn't take it.
13:58
Speaker 1: It was given to him, which means the world crowns
14:00
Speaker 1: peace as king. All over the world, peace becomes the issue.
14:04
Speaker 1: And we told you that that is certainly the mood
14:07
Speaker 1: of the day.
14:07
Speaker 3: Isn't it?
14:08
Speaker 1: World peace, global peace, and peace will be crowned king.
14:13
Speaker 1: And peace will be conquering and come to conquer even more.
14:17
Speaker 1: A series of triumphs leading to a golden age of
14:20
Speaker 1: prosperity with the promise that more prosperity and more peace
14:24
Speaker 1: is to come.
14:26
Speaker 2: All of this, of course, is deceptive, and it's a
14:28
Speaker 2: false security.
14:29
Speaker 1: As we saw even in Matthew 4, 24, 4, and 5,
14:32
Speaker 1: Jesus said, don't let people deceive you with this. It
14:35
Speaker 1: is a deceptive peace that doesn't last long. Why? The
14:40
Speaker 1: prophets have always said there is no peace for the wicked.
14:43
Speaker 1: False teachers say, peace, peace, but there is no peace. Now,
14:48
Speaker 1: that leads us then to the second seal, following the peace,
14:51
Speaker 1: and we don't know the exact timetable, but it's not
14:54
Speaker 1: going to be very long because into the first half
14:57
Speaker 1: you have to have these other three riders occur. So
15:00
Speaker 1: if it's only three and a half years, you can
15:02
Speaker 1: know that the world peace isn't going to last very long.
15:05
Speaker 1: John is still in heaven as you come to verses
15:07
Speaker 1: 3 and 4, transported there at the beginning of the
15:10
Speaker 1: vision in chapter 4 verse 1, but the visions are
15:13
Speaker 1: now depicting events happening on earth. The next beginning birth
15:18
Speaker 1: pain that will increase in intensity toward the final event
15:22
Speaker 1: of God's wrath and the coming of Jesus Christ can
15:25
Speaker 1: clearly be understood if you just look at verses 3
15:27
Speaker 1: and 4. And when He broke the second seal, I
15:32
Speaker 1: heard the second living creature saying, Come. And another, a
15:36
Speaker 1: red horse, went out, and to him who sat on it,
15:40
Speaker 1: it was granted to take peace.
15:41
Speaker 2: From the earth.
15:43
Speaker 1: That, by the way, is another reason we know the
15:44
Speaker 1: first rider is peace, because the second one takes peace.
15:48
Speaker 1: And that men should slay one another, and a great
15:51
Speaker 1: sword was given to him. In a word, the second
15:54
Speaker 1: rider is not peace. The second rider is war. War.
15:59
Speaker 2: Worldwide war.
16:00
Speaker 1: Now, that shouldn't surprise us, because in Matthew 24, Jesus said,
16:04
Speaker 1: following the deceptiveness of peace, chapter 24, verses 4 and 5,
16:08
Speaker 1: He immediately says, you will hear of wars and rumors
16:13
Speaker 1: of wars. And then in verse 7 He says, nation
16:15
Speaker 1: will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. That's going to
16:19
Speaker 1: be the next in the flow in the sequence of
16:22
Speaker 1: precursors to the final day of the Lord. Here the
16:25
Speaker 1: story gets ugly. Here the story gets ugly and stays
16:29
Speaker 1: that way until Christ establishes His kingdom.
16:34
Speaker 2: Now let's look at the details.
16:35
Speaker 1: Verse 3 says, He broke the second seal, the capital
16:38
Speaker 1: H on he indicates you're talking about the Lamb, the
16:41
Speaker 1: Lion of the tribe of Judah, the rightful heir. And
16:43
Speaker 1: He breaks the second seal which unrolls another section of
16:46
Speaker 1: the scroll which describes the events that are going on
16:50
Speaker 1: in this second phase of God's unfolding judgment. I heard
16:55
Speaker 1: immediately the second living creature. John never reads anything. It's
16:59
Speaker 1: as if when you unroll the scroll, whatever is written
17:01
Speaker 1: there is acted out.
17:03
Speaker 2: It becomes a visible drama.
17:07
Speaker 1: And the second living creature, the second living one, cherub, says, come.
17:13
Speaker 1: And again, the same exact scenario, the angel around God's throne,
17:18
Speaker 1: described for us in chapter 4, verses 6 to 9,
17:20
Speaker 1: as one of the four living ones, summons the next
17:23
Speaker 1: rider as the sovereign Lord breaks the seal and judgment unfolds.
17:27
Speaker 1: There is an immediate response by the rider in verse 4,
17:30
Speaker 1: and another, a red horse went out. Now I don't
17:35
Speaker 1: want to take the time to do it tonight, but
17:37
Speaker 1: if you want an interesting study, just look in your
17:39
Speaker 1: concordance for the word horse and trace it through the
17:42
Speaker 1: Old Testament. You'll find that whether you're reading Job 39
17:45
Speaker 1: or Proverbs 21 or Psalm 76 or in Jeremiah 6,
17:49
Speaker 1: Isaiah 43, Zechariah 9, Zechariah 10, horses are associated with triumph,
17:55
Speaker 1: with majesty, with power, with might, with force. We even
18:00
Speaker 1: find them later on in the book of Revelation, quite
18:02
Speaker 1: unusual horses. In chapter 19 and verse 11, here comes
18:06
Speaker 1: the Lord in His second coming on a white horse.
18:09
Speaker 1: And then down in verse 14, the armies which are
18:12
Speaker 1: in heaven, namely believers, are also clothed in fine linen,
18:15
Speaker 1: white and clean, following Him on white horses. Now, it's
18:18
Speaker 1: questionable whether those are literal horses. Certainly, they are symbolic
18:22
Speaker 1: of triumph. They are symbolic of power and majesty and force.
18:28
Speaker 1: Now this force that is coming, you'll notice it's red
18:31
Speaker 1: as opposed to white, and red like fire and red
18:34
Speaker 1: like blood speaks of the holocaust of war. War in
18:39
Speaker 1: its most frightening and devastating form. We know it's war
18:42
Speaker 1: because it says He takes peace from the earth, men
18:46
Speaker 1: slay each other, and a great sword was given Him.
18:48
Speaker 1: We also know it's war because it parallels what Jesus
18:51
Speaker 1: said about war and rumors of wars and nations rising
18:54
Speaker 1: against nations. God then sends as a judgment on the
18:58
Speaker 1: short-lived peace, the false peace, immediate war. You will notice then,
19:04
Speaker 1: it also says, a red horse went out, and to
19:06
Speaker 1: him who sat on it, it was granted.
19:08
Speaker 2: By whom? By God.
19:10
Speaker 1: Please remember this, because it's a very important point. All
19:14
Speaker 1: of these things that are happening are happening at the
19:17
Speaker 1: command of God. Some people will try to tell you
19:21
Speaker 1: that this is not the wrath of God. because they
19:25
Speaker 1: will say, we want to make sure that we are
19:28
Speaker 1: delivered from the wrath of God as Christians, but we
19:30
Speaker 1: also want Christians to go through the tribulation, so we
19:32
Speaker 1: can't call this the wrath of God. And it has
19:35
Speaker 1: been called a number of things, sometimes the wrath of men,
19:38
Speaker 1: sometimes the wrath of Satan. There's only one thing you
19:40
Speaker 1: can call it biblically, and that is the wrath of God.
19:43
Speaker 1: It comes from the throne, in the little scroll, in
19:46
Speaker 1: the hand of God, and is executed by the Lord
19:49
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ Himself. It is God's unfolding wrath. It is
19:52
Speaker 1: God who has granted this red horse the authority and
19:56
Speaker 1: the power to move and bring war. It was God
19:59
Speaker 1: who allowed the false peace. It is God who starts
20:03
Speaker 1: the wars. God allows it. As we read in Matthew 24,
20:09
Speaker 1: they're going to involve nations all over the earth.
20:11
Speaker 2: Nation will rise against nation. Kingdom will rise against kingdom.
20:14
Speaker 1: I don't know how it happens, but just when everybody's
20:17
Speaker 1: sort of breathing in the air of euphoria, war is
20:21
Speaker 1: going to start to break out and it's going to
20:23
Speaker 1: escalate all over every place. In Mark chapter 13... We
20:30
Speaker 1: read in verses 7 and 8, And when you hear
20:33
Speaker 1: of wars and rumors of wars, don't be frightened. Those
20:35
Speaker 1: things must take place. That's not yet the end. This
20:37
Speaker 1: is still in the birth pangs in the beginning of
20:40
Speaker 1: this period. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars,
20:42
Speaker 1: don't be frightened. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom
20:46
Speaker 1: against kingdom. That's the beginning, Mark 13, 8 says, of
20:50
Speaker 1: birth pangs. And he reiterates precisely what our Lord said
20:54
Speaker 1: also in the gospel of Matthew. Then in Luke 21...
20:58
Speaker 1: Just a note, in case you're wanting comparative passages, you
21:02
Speaker 1: find the same thing in verse 9, and when you
21:04
Speaker 1: hear of wars and disturbances, don't be terrified. These things
21:07
Speaker 1: must take place first, but the end doesn't follow immediately.
21:10
Speaker 1: Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there's
21:13
Speaker 1: more to come, and we'll see what the more is. Now,
21:16
Speaker 1: this force of war that comes has three features. Feature
21:20
Speaker 1: number one, to take peace from the earth. Verse 4,
21:25
Speaker 1: to take peace from the earth. Sometime early in the
21:28
Speaker 1: first three and a half years, in the birth pangs,
21:30
Speaker 1: in the beginning, world peace turns into war. That initiated peace,
21:37
Speaker 1: that counterfeit prosperity comes to a fast end. And notice, please,
21:42
Speaker 1: it says to take peace from the earth. That means
21:44
Speaker 1: it's global. War is going to break out everywhere. The
21:47
Speaker 1: whole earth is going to lose its peace. Secondly, Men
21:51
Speaker 1: are going to slay one another. Violent slaughter begins to
21:55
Speaker 1: take place all over the world. And we don't know
21:58
Speaker 1: the specifics of that except to say just exactly what
22:01
Speaker 1: the Scripture says. There will be a slaughter all over
22:04
Speaker 1: the earth. By the way, this war runs pretty much
22:08
Speaker 1: through the whole rest of the tribulation. Certainly runs past
22:12
Speaker 1: the midpoint and on well into the second half. The
22:15
Speaker 1: slaughter runs on beyond this as well.
22:19
Speaker 2: It starts early on. It goes on for a long time.
22:22
Speaker 1: The third feature, a great sword was given to him,
22:26
Speaker 1: a machaira megale. This machaira is the word that is
22:33
Speaker 1: used for the soldier's sword, the one they carried into battle.
22:38
Speaker 1: It also is used often for the assassin's weapon. It
22:42
Speaker 1: depicts war and assassination and rebellion and revolt and massacre,
22:47
Speaker 1: deadly force involving slaughter and death. That is the intent
22:52
Speaker 1: of the Megala Makaira, the great sword. And that is
22:57
Speaker 1: the sword that was used by the soldiers as well
23:00
Speaker 1: as the assassins, the ones not so much the long,
23:02
Speaker 1: broad sword, but the deadly one they carried, the Makaira,
23:06
Speaker 1: the shorter one, like the assassin's dagger, mostly, although it
23:10
Speaker 1: can also refer, that word can, to other kinds of swords.
23:15
Speaker 1: This particular time, whatever positive things have been going on
23:18
Speaker 1: in the world come to a screeching halt. Read Jeremiah 25,
23:22
Speaker 1: if you get a chance, from verses 15 on and
23:25
Speaker 1: you will see something of the unfolding of this horrible war. Now,
23:30
Speaker 1: Antichrist will be a key player in this, as he
23:32
Speaker 1: was a key player in the global peace.
23:36
Speaker 2: We know that from Daniel 8.24.
23:38
Speaker 1: We don't exactly know what his role is going to
23:40
Speaker 1: be at this time, but we know he's going to
23:43
Speaker 1: get involved in it. Daniel 8.24 says this regarding Antichrist.
23:46
Speaker 1: He will destroy to an extraordinary degree. He will destroy
23:52
Speaker 1: mighty men and the holy people. Now, you remember, he
23:56
Speaker 1: is the one who orchestrated a peace treaty with Israel,
23:59
Speaker 1: according to Daniel, right?
24:00
Speaker 2: He made a covenant with them.
24:02
Speaker 1: He probably will be the instrument of world peace. But
24:07
Speaker 1: when war starts to break out all over everywhere, to
24:10
Speaker 1: contain his power and to maintain his authority, he's going
24:14
Speaker 1: to have to turn to war. He slaughters many, including
24:19
Speaker 1: Jews and Christians. He may not initiate the wars. He
24:25
Speaker 1: may be attempting to resolve them toward the midpoint. Then
24:30
Speaker 1: he does his foul deed of abomination, and that is
24:37
Speaker 1: part of, only part of, the holocaust that he creates.
24:43
Speaker 1: Just look for a moment at Daniel 11. I don't
24:45
Speaker 1: want to go on without at least giving you a
24:47
Speaker 1: touch of the scenario that Antichrist gets into. In Daniel
24:53
Speaker 1: chapter 11, verse 36, it says that this Antichrist, called
24:57
Speaker 1: the king who will do as he pleases, or the
24:58
Speaker 1: willful king, The Antichrist will exalt and magnify himself above
25:03
Speaker 1: every god. He becomes a world dictator. He speaks monstrous
25:08
Speaker 1: things against.
25:08
Speaker 2: The God of gods, Daniel 11, 36.
25:11
Speaker 1: He will prosper until the indignation is finished for that
25:15
Speaker 1: which is decreed will be done. God allows this profane
25:19
Speaker 1: man to become sovereign and a dictator, to speak against
25:23
Speaker 1: God and to rise to power. He will show no
25:26
Speaker 1: regard for the gods of his fathers. He is irreligious.
25:30
Speaker 1: He shows no regard for the desire of women. Now
25:33
Speaker 1: that could be a reference to the desire of women
25:36
Speaker 1: being a phrase the Jews used to speak of the Messiah.
25:40
Speaker 1: That is a possibility that he has no regard for
25:43
Speaker 1: the true Messiah, the true Christ. Perhaps a better possibility
25:47
Speaker 1: is when it says he does not have the desire
25:50
Speaker 1: of women, it indicates that he is a homosexual. not
25:54
Speaker 1: an unimaginable thing in our world. He will not show
25:57
Speaker 1: regard for any other god. He will magnify Himself above
26:01
Speaker 1: all of them. He will honor a god of fortresses.
26:05
Speaker 1: That's a god of might, a god whom his fathers
26:08
Speaker 1: didn't know. He will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones,
26:11
Speaker 1: and treasures. He will be extremely wealthy to finance his wars.
26:16
Speaker 1: He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with
26:19
Speaker 1: the help of a foreign god. He will give great
26:21
Speaker 1: honor to those who acknowledge him and he will cause
26:23
Speaker 1: them to rule over the many and will parcel out
26:25
Speaker 1: land for a price. He has his foes and his
26:28
Speaker 1: allies and he starts to fight here and there and
26:31
Speaker 1: gain his allies for the wars. You can see him
26:33
Speaker 1: engaging in a massive war effort. And it all is
26:39
Speaker 1: all over the world surrounding Israel. Initially he's supposed to
26:42
Speaker 1: protect Israel and apparently he does protect Israel. When this
26:46
Speaker 1: all begins, they make a covenant with Him, and He
26:49
Speaker 1: protects them while this worldwide war is unfolding and escalating,
26:53
Speaker 1: and He's trying to position Himself as the world dictator
26:56
Speaker 1: and the great power, and the slaughter is going on,
26:58
Speaker 1: and He continues to protect Israel until the midpoint, and
27:02
Speaker 1: then He does what He does in desecrating the temple
27:04
Speaker 1: and starts to move to slaughter Israel. No doubt the
27:10
Speaker 1: Antichrist comes in peaceably. probably solve some problems in the
27:14
Speaker 1: Middle East and even worldwide global problems. He becomes the
27:18
Speaker 1: protector of Israel with whom he makes a covenant. He
27:20
Speaker 1: heads up the revived Roman Empire, probably a European confederacy,
27:25
Speaker 1: the revived Roman Empire having occupied Europe. He will come
27:29
Speaker 1: as some great leader out of Europe. Israel is under
27:32
Speaker 1: his protective umbrella and under the protective umbrella of the
27:36
Speaker 1: Western confederacy, the European power. And Antichrist will rule the world,
27:42
Speaker 1: and then the world and all of its uprisings will
27:45
Speaker 1: be quelled and squashed. Then verse 40 says, and at
27:51
Speaker 1: the end time, this is probably on into the second half,
27:55
Speaker 1: just to show you the full range of his warring.
27:58
Speaker 1: On into the end of the second half, the time
28:01
Speaker 1: of the end, likely the Great Tribulation, the last half
28:04
Speaker 1: of that seven years. The king of the south will
28:07
Speaker 1: collide with him. Now, we don't know who the king
28:10
Speaker 1: of the south is, but if you go south from
28:12
Speaker 1: the land of Israel, you're in Egypt. And it would
28:16
Speaker 1: not be too hard to believe that Egypt would come
28:19
Speaker 1: against the Antichrist. It would not be too hard to
28:23
Speaker 1: believe that Egypt would come against him since he has
28:26
Speaker 1: now established his throne where? In Israel, in Jerusalem. That's
28:31
Speaker 1: where he set himself up as God to be worshiped
28:33
Speaker 1: by the whole world. That's a strategic place, you know,
28:36
Speaker 1: in the world because it's the very crossroads of the
28:39
Speaker 1: whole world, Asia, Africa, Europe. And he's attacked by the
28:46
Speaker 1: king of the south. Literally, the Hebrew text says to
28:49
Speaker 1: push like a goat, like putting your horns down and
28:52
Speaker 1: coming at an attack. Probably the king of the south
28:55
Speaker 1: is not identified only as Egypt because it's the whole
28:57
Speaker 1: of the south, the whole Muslim world of Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, Africa,
29:02
Speaker 1: the The alliance that comes against him comes from that
29:06
Speaker 1: part of the world. An African army of some kind
29:08
Speaker 1: moves against the Antichrist who is not only ruling the
29:11
Speaker 1: world but has set up his throne as God in
29:14
Speaker 1: the city of Jerusalem. Also you will note in verse
29:17
Speaker 1: 40 that the king of the north will storm against him,
29:21
Speaker 1: chariots and horsemen and many ships and, of course, the
29:24
Speaker 1: modern equivalent of all of that.
29:27
Speaker 2: Here comes the king of the north. Who is that? Well,
29:31
Speaker 2: some believe it is Russia. It could be Russia.
29:33
Speaker 1: I have certainly taught in our study in Daniel that
29:35
Speaker 1: it is well to assume it could be that massive
29:38
Speaker 1: nation of Russia. There's still every reason to think it
29:40
Speaker 1: might be because it talks about it being in the north,
29:43
Speaker 1: and that is north. It is also reasonable to assume
29:47
Speaker 1: that it could be another Arab conspiracy. And the way
29:51
Speaker 1: the Soviet Union is breaking up today, and has broken up,
29:55
Speaker 1: and the way the Arab world seems to be coming
29:57
Speaker 1: together as a common enemy against Israel, it might be
30:00
Speaker 1: reasonable to assume that some kind of Middle East-Arab coalition
30:04
Speaker 1: with Iraq and Iran and the other hostile Arab nations
30:07
Speaker 1: would come together. So you've got a Muslim world pushing
30:10
Speaker 1: at the bottom and another Muslim world.
30:12
Speaker 2: You say, why is it called the.
30:14
Speaker 1: King of the North? Because every conqueror who comes into
30:16
Speaker 1: the land of Palestine and its history comes from the
30:19
Speaker 1: north because you can't get there from the east. The
30:22
Speaker 1: west is water. The south is occupied already. The place
30:25
Speaker 1: to come from is the north because if you're in
30:28
Speaker 1: the south, everything east is below Jerusalem. And below Israel
30:32
Speaker 1: And trying to scale all of that and come up
30:34
Speaker 1: from underneath is very difficult. Coming down from the top
30:37
Speaker 1: is the way every enemy has always come, even to
30:41
Speaker 1: this very time they come down from the north. And
30:45
Speaker 1: so whatever these armies are, here is Antichrist. He's trying
30:48
Speaker 1: to control war all over the place. He abominates in
30:51
Speaker 1: the temple. He sets that up. We move into the
30:53
Speaker 1: second half. War is still going on all over the globe.
30:56
Speaker 1: And now the world is turning on him. The king
30:59
Speaker 1: of the south comes. The king of the north comes.
31:03
Speaker 1: He will also, it says, enter the beautiful land. And
31:11
Speaker 1: many countries will fall, but these will be rescued out
31:14
Speaker 1: of His hand, Edom and Moab and the foremost of
31:17
Speaker 1: the sons of Ammon. Then He will stretch out His
31:19
Speaker 1: hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will
31:22
Speaker 1: not escape. By the way, the northern power seems to
31:26
Speaker 1: be utterly defeated. Antichrist wins. He then goes on to
31:32
Speaker 1: conquer other countries, overflow, pass through them. The beautiful land
31:37
Speaker 1: has reference to Palestine, Israel. He conquers all of that land,
31:41
Speaker 1: of course, all the other lands. Verse 42, He stretches
31:44
Speaker 1: out His hand against other countries. The land of Egypt
31:46
Speaker 1: won't escape. So He's defeated the two kings, the two armies.
31:52
Speaker 1: He moves into the glorious land of Israel. This is the,
31:55
Speaker 1: perhaps this is the place where He does the abomination.
31:59
Speaker 1: We don't really know. Maybe this is the midpoint It's
32:03
Speaker 1: hard to be sure about that. Maybe it's already happened
32:05
Speaker 1: by the time this happens. What reason would the south
32:09
Speaker 1: have to push that way and the north to push
32:11
Speaker 1: that way if he hadn't already established his power in
32:14
Speaker 1: that location? So it's hard to know. But he has
32:18
Speaker 1: desecrated the temple. He has set himself up as God.
32:20
Speaker 1: If you want to read about it, read Revelation 13, 7.
32:22
Speaker 1: We're going to get there. He holds the Middle East
32:26
Speaker 1: in his hands, all of its resources. He is the sovereign,
32:28
Speaker 1: invincible God in his own mind. He consumes the harlot church,
32:32
Speaker 1: the false religion that is remaining in the world according
32:34
Speaker 1: to Revelation 17. He has a partner called the false
32:37
Speaker 1: prophet who calls the whole world to worship him. And
32:41
Speaker 1: it's in that position we find him in verse 42
32:44
Speaker 1: as he moves out from that to conquer other places,
32:47
Speaker 1: continue to overthrow other countries. There is an unending bloodletting
32:51
Speaker 1: going on, Edom, Moab, Ammon. Frankly, that's barren wasteland and
32:56
Speaker 1: he leaves it there. He doesn't do that Instead of
32:58
Speaker 1: moving southeast, move southwest, as the indication of the text is.
33:02
Speaker 1: He gains control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver,
33:05
Speaker 1: the precious things of Egypt, Libyans, Ethiopians will follow at
33:08
Speaker 1: his heels. Then in verse 44, rumors from the east
33:12
Speaker 1: and the north will disturb him, and he'll go forth
33:14
Speaker 1: with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many. The rumors
33:17
Speaker 1: from the east could be the army of 200 million.
33:19
Speaker 1: You remember in the book of Revelation, that army of
33:21
Speaker 1: 200 million that moves coming from the east, from the
33:25
Speaker 1: north again, another conspiracy story. And He moves with great
33:30
Speaker 1: wrath to destroy and annihilate many. He is a powerful,
33:33
Speaker 1: powerful force. He'll pitch the tent of His royal pavilion
33:38
Speaker 1: between the seas. That's the Med and the Dead. And
33:42
Speaker 1: if you put your tent between those places, you're in
33:44
Speaker 1: the land of Israel. He puts His place of power
33:47
Speaker 1: in the very holy mountain of Zion. And yet, He
33:52
Speaker 1: will come to His end. He'll meet His match.
33:56
Speaker 2: He thinks He's conquered the world. As the kids today say, not. Wrong.
34:03
Speaker 1: It isn't going to happen because the Lord is going
34:07
Speaker 1: to come. So wars start in the beginning and they
34:12
Speaker 1: stretch through and at some point the abomination of desolation
34:14
Speaker 1: and all of this war keeps escalating until Christ comes
34:17
Speaker 1: back to conquer Him. Now you can go back if
34:21
Speaker 1: you wish to the book of Revelation. So as you
34:25
Speaker 1: look at this rider, this warring rider, This is the
34:30
Speaker 1: beginning of the birth pains, and it gets much worse.
34:33
Speaker 1: Daniel seems to show us the escalating wars as Antichrist
34:37
Speaker 1: gets involved in them. So the starting of wars in
34:40
Speaker 1: the first half runs right on through to the end.
34:45
Speaker 1: Man's last attempt to save his society ends in worldwide holocaust,
34:49
Speaker 1: the whole thing beginning to disintegrate. War comes, stays, escalates
34:56
Speaker 1: to the end. Let's look at the third seal. Verse 5,
35:02
Speaker 1: here's the same exact introduction. When he broke the third seal,
35:06
Speaker 1: I heard the third living one, the third cherub, say, come.
35:09
Speaker 1: And again, the command is given to the horse and rider.
35:13
Speaker 1: And I looked, and here his shock is indicated in
35:15
Speaker 1: the word, behold, an exclamation, a black horse. And he
35:22
Speaker 1: who sat on it had a pair of scales in
35:24
Speaker 1: his hand. And I heard as it were a voice
35:27
Speaker 1: in the center of the four living creatures saying, a
35:29
Speaker 1: quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of
35:32
Speaker 1: barley for a denarius. And do not harm the oil
35:35
Speaker 1: and the wine. So the third seal is opened and
35:40
Speaker 1: the third rider is comes. And John's startled response is
35:44
Speaker 1: indicated in the word, behold, and he sees a black horse,
35:47
Speaker 1: and black is the color of famine. Read Lamentations chapter 5,
35:51
Speaker 1: verses 8 to 10, and you'll see black identified as
35:55
Speaker 1: the color of famine. Hunger is the effect of worldwide war.
36:02
Speaker 1: Jesus said this also. Jesus said, following the nation rising
36:06
Speaker 1: against nation and kingdom against kingdom, there will be famine,
36:09
Speaker 1: Matthew 24, 7.
36:11
Speaker 2: This too is God's judgment. He's done it before.
36:15
Speaker 1: Haggai 1, Ezekiel 4, God has brought famine before and
36:20
Speaker 1: He'll bring it again. When there is this kind of
36:23
Speaker 1: war all over the globe, people stop producing. The slaughter
36:28
Speaker 1: is massive as we shall see in a moment. Food
36:31
Speaker 1: supplies are destroyed, and you can imagine war at this
36:35
Speaker 1: level with the kind of weaponry we have today will
36:37
Speaker 1: be devastating. And as a result, rationing is going to
36:42
Speaker 1: take place because of the scarcity of food. That's why
36:46
Speaker 1: it says in verse 5 that the rider on the
36:48
Speaker 1: black horse also has a weapon of sorts. It isn't
36:50
Speaker 1: a great sword like the other rider, but it is
36:53
Speaker 1: a pair of scales in his hand. And that is
36:55
Speaker 1: used for measuring things. And what it means is that
36:58
Speaker 1: food is going to be rationed, it's going to be
37:00
Speaker 1: measured out, weighing out food, food lines. We find that
37:07
Speaker 1: very easy to understand, don't we? Some of you may
37:09
Speaker 1: even remember food lines in World War II. Some of
37:13
Speaker 1: you have seen pictures of food lines in Eastern Europe.
37:18
Speaker 1: Starving people all over everywhere, getting in line. You've seen
37:21
Speaker 1: third world countries today where there is rationing of food.
37:27
Speaker 2: Then right in the.
37:27
Speaker 1: Middle, this is amazing in verse 6, I heard as
37:30
Speaker 1: it were a voice in the center of the four
37:32
Speaker 1: living creatures. You tell me who is in the center
37:33
Speaker 1: of the four living creatures? Who's in the center? Around
37:37
Speaker 1: whose throne are they? God's throne. God's throne. So there's
37:42
Speaker 1: no question in my mind but that God is here speaking.
37:47
Speaker 1: Because these creatures, these four living angels, these four cherubim
37:53
Speaker 1: are surrounding the throne of God. and in the midst
37:59
Speaker 1: of the throne, the voice of God. And God says,
38:05
Speaker 1: a quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of
38:08
Speaker 1: barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil
38:12
Speaker 1: and the wine. God is speaking again. It's a reminder
38:15
Speaker 1: that this is a judgment from God. He also speaks,
38:19
Speaker 1: by the way, in the fifth seal down in verse 11,
38:23
Speaker 1: God speaks. And so, we shouldn't be too sure that
38:30
Speaker 1: He isn't speaking here. He speaks about the fact that
38:33
Speaker 1: this has to go on a little while until everybody
38:35
Speaker 1: who's going to be killed is killed in verse 11.
38:38
Speaker 1: Here it is God who speaks and God says, here
38:40
Speaker 1: are the conditions, a quart of wheat for a denarius.
38:43
Speaker 1: Now let me tell you what that means. A quart
38:46
Speaker 1: of wheat would sustain one person who had a very
38:50
Speaker 1: moderate appetite for one day. A quart of wheat would
38:56
Speaker 1: sustain one person with a very moderate appetite for one day.
39:00
Speaker 1: A denarius is one day's wage. So you would work
39:07
Speaker 1: just to eat the bare minimum yourself, which would provide
39:13
Speaker 1: nothing for your family, famine conditions. All your work would
39:21
Speaker 1: only provide food enough for one person. Then he says,
39:28
Speaker 1: three quarts of barley, for a denarius. You could get
39:32
Speaker 1: more food to feed your family if you'd settle for barley,
39:36
Speaker 1: but barley was animal food. Animal food. It would be
39:44
Speaker 1: like lining up and taking your choice between bread and
39:49
Speaker 1: and dog kibble, basically. Low in nutritional value. Barley was cheaper.
39:56
Speaker 1: At least a family could eat that. But it would
40:00
Speaker 1: take all their money for three quarts, which would feed
40:03
Speaker 1: three people animal food. Those are famine conditions, and that's
40:09
Speaker 1: what war is going to do to the world. And
40:12
Speaker 1: then God says,' Do not harm the oil in the wine.'
40:19
Speaker 1: There have been a lot of different kind of interpretations
40:21
Speaker 1: of that. I think if you just read it straightforward,
40:23
Speaker 1: it makes simple sense to say God warns them to
40:26
Speaker 1: be very careful with their wine and their oil because
40:32
Speaker 1: it's so precious. If all you have is raw wheat
40:36
Speaker 1: without any oil to mix with it, without any wine
40:38
Speaker 1: to go with it, it's very, very difficult. Bare staples
40:44
Speaker 1: all of a sudden become luxuries. Oil was used for
40:48
Speaker 1: the preparation of bread, for cooking, as was the wine.
40:55
Speaker 1: He says you better be careful how you treat it.
40:57
Speaker 1: Don't hurt it. Don't waste it. Don't damage it. It
41:01
Speaker 1: is precious. It will be measured out and treated with
41:05
Speaker 1: tremendous care. You can't hurt grain, but you can certainly
41:10
Speaker 1: hurt those things by breaking or tearing whatever they're in.
41:16
Speaker 1: or being wasteful. Real famine. Real famine. Global famine is coming.
41:24
Speaker 2: Fast. World peace, world war, world.
41:29
Speaker 1: Famine, and you're not even out of the first three
41:31
Speaker 1: and a half years of this period. Finally, the last writer,
41:37
Speaker 1: the fourth seal. Verse 7, the same exact scenario when
41:41
Speaker 1: He broke the fourth seal. I heard the voice of
41:44
Speaker 1: the fourth cherub. Now we know why there were four
41:46
Speaker 1: of them. They each had a role to play here.
41:47
Speaker 1: And he said, Come. He's commanding the next horse and rider.
41:50
Speaker 1: And I looked, and behold, this has been translated a
41:53
Speaker 1: number of ways, a pale horse, an ashen horse. You'll
41:56
Speaker 1: be interested to know that the Greek word is chloros,
41:59
Speaker 1: from which we get chlorophyll or chlorine, and usually it's
42:02
Speaker 1: associated with what color? Green, a sort of yellow, pale green.
42:09
Speaker 1: In fact, that word kloros appears several times in the
42:13
Speaker 1: New Testament in connection with grass or vegetation, such as
42:17
Speaker 1: in Mark 6, 39 and Revelation 8 and Revelation 9.
42:21
Speaker 1: So he sees this pale green horse, and he who
42:27
Speaker 1: sat on it had the name Death. And Hades was
42:31
Speaker 1: following with him. And authority was given to them over
42:36
Speaker 1: a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and
42:37
Speaker 1: with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts
42:40
Speaker 1: of the earth. Here's the pale, ashen, green pallor of death. Decomposition,
42:50
Speaker 1: a corpse. And fittingly, the one who sat on it
42:53
Speaker 1: has the name Hathanatos. Death, ominous.
42:59
Speaker 2: What follows war is famine. What follows famine is what?
43:02
Speaker 3: Death. Death.
43:04
Speaker 1: Death. And what follows death? Hades. That's just another word
43:09
Speaker 1: for the grave. The grave comes, as it were, the
43:13
Speaker 1: grave digger comes with his shovel to collect the bodies
43:19
Speaker 1: that death destroys. Hades is the right partner for death.
43:24
Speaker 1: You find them teamed up in chapter 20, verse 13.
43:27
Speaker 1: Hades is death's hearse. He can keep up with death's ride.
43:33
Speaker 1: They work together. This is the result of the second
43:37
Speaker 1: and the third seal. But more than that, look at
43:42
Speaker 1: verse 8. Authority was given to them.
43:46
Speaker 2: By whom again? Who gave the authority?
43:50
Speaker 1: God, because this is the unfolding of His title deed
43:52
Speaker 1: and His scroll.
43:53
Speaker 2: It is His judgment.
43:55
Speaker 1: Authority was given to them over a fourth of the
43:58
Speaker 1: earth to kill them. It is estimated that by the
44:04
Speaker 1: year 2000, in another few years, we will have around
44:07
Speaker 1: 6 billion people on the earth. What this tells us
44:12
Speaker 1: is that 1.5 billion of them will die. Unthinkable number
44:19
Speaker 1: of people. It could literally wipe out two continents. Nuclear
44:24
Speaker 1: weapons and sophisticated arms make this possible now in a
44:28
Speaker 1: very brief time, whereas it may have been impossible in
44:32
Speaker 1: a time of bows and swords. But four things are
44:37
Speaker 1: going to do the killing. The sword, and we've already
44:41
Speaker 1: talked about that in connection with the war. Famine, we've
44:45
Speaker 1: already talked about that in connection with the third seal.
44:48
Speaker 1: But here are two other ones, pestilence and the wild
44:53
Speaker 1: beasts of the earth. This is fascinating. pestilence, and the
44:59
Speaker 1: wild beasts of the earth. By the way, these four
45:01
Speaker 1: are linked together several times in Scripture, and I need
45:04
Speaker 1: to probably at least draw that to your attention. These
45:08
Speaker 1: four have been predicted by God to be His means
45:12
Speaker 1: of final judgment in a number of Old Testament passages.
45:16
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 14, 12, He says, I'm going to make an
45:20
Speaker 1: end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence. There
45:24
Speaker 1: He has three of the four. In Jeremiah 14, 24,
45:29
Speaker 1: verse 10, I will send the sword, the famine, and
45:34
Speaker 1: the pestilence upon them.
45:37
Speaker 2: And then again in the 44th.
45:38
Speaker 1: Chapter of Jeremiah, these things go together again, chapter 44
45:44
Speaker 1: and verse 13, I will punish those who live in
45:47
Speaker 1: the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem with
45:50
Speaker 1: the sword, with the famine, and with pestilence. Now, what
45:53
Speaker 1: you have is the sword, which leads to famine, which
45:56
Speaker 1: leads to pestilence. Where the sword falls and famine exists,
46:02
Speaker 1: you have pestilence following along. In Ezekiel, for example, just
46:07
Speaker 1: two passages, chapter 6, verse 11, thus says the Lord God,
46:11
Speaker 1: I will, because of the evil abominations of the house
46:17
Speaker 1: of Israel, they will fall by the sword, by famine,
46:21
Speaker 1: and by plague. There's another word for pestilence, sword, famine,
46:27
Speaker 1: and plague. Then in Ezekiel chapter 14, probably the most
46:32
Speaker 1: significant one, starting in verse 13, Ezekiel 14, listen to this.
46:37
Speaker 1: Son of man, if a country sins against me by
46:39
Speaker 1: committing unfaithfulness and I stretch out my hand against it,
46:41
Speaker 1: destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it, and
46:44
Speaker 1: cut off from it both man and beast, even though
46:47
Speaker 1: these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in its midst,
46:50
Speaker 1: by their own righteousness they could deliver only themselves, declares
46:53
Speaker 1: the Lord God. If I were to cause wild beasts
46:56
Speaker 1: to pass through the land, and they depopulated it, and
46:59
Speaker 1: it became desolate so that no one would pass through
47:01
Speaker 1: it because of the beasts, though these three men were
47:04
Speaker 1: in its midst as I live, declares the Lord God,
47:06
Speaker 1: they couldn't deliver either their sons or their daughters. In
47:09
Speaker 1: other words, the presence of righteous men ultimately won't stop
47:12
Speaker 1: the judgment. If I were to bring a sword on
47:16
Speaker 1: that country and say, let the sword pass through the
47:18
Speaker 1: country and cut off man and beast from it, even
47:19
Speaker 1: though these three men were in its midst, Noah, Daniel,
47:22
Speaker 1: and Jonah, or Job rather, As I live, they couldn't
47:26
Speaker 1: deliver their sons or their daughters. Or if I send
47:29
Speaker 1: a plague, there are all four, against that country and
47:32
Speaker 1: pour out My wrath in blood on it to cut
47:34
Speaker 1: off man and beast, even though Noah, Daniel, and Job
47:36
Speaker 1: were in its midst as I live, they couldn't deliver it.
47:39
Speaker 1: For thus says the Lord God, how much more when
47:41
Speaker 1: I send My four severe judgments, sword, famine, wild beasts,
47:47
Speaker 1: and plague to cut off man and beast from it.
47:49
Speaker 1: In other words, if they couldn't endure when one of
47:52
Speaker 1: them came, what are they going to do when all
47:54
Speaker 1: four hit? at the same time.
47:56
Speaker 2: They're going to hit. What is pestilence?
48:02
Speaker 1: Actually, it's the same Greek word as the word for death, thanatos,
48:05
Speaker 1: but here it refers to the cause of death.
48:08
Speaker 2: Jesus said there will be earthquakes following the famine.
48:11
Speaker 1: It could be a word that encompasses natural disaster. I
48:14
Speaker 1: think that's right. If you have war at the level
48:17
Speaker 1: it's going to be happening in this particular time with
48:19
Speaker 1: the kind of weapons that we have today, there's going
48:22
Speaker 1: to be a cataclysm of earthquakes created by the bombs
48:26
Speaker 1: and the missiles and all of that devastating destruction. It
48:32
Speaker 1: could also, so it could refer to the kind of
48:34
Speaker 1: earthquakes that are the result of that. It could refer
48:37
Speaker 1: to natural disasters that God is going to set loose
48:40
Speaker 1: such as earthquakes and floods. It could refer to biological
48:44
Speaker 1: weapons and chemical weapons which we have in vast abundance
48:48
Speaker 1: which could wipe out millions of people. One quart of
48:52
Speaker 1: nerve gas can kill a million people. It could refer
48:56
Speaker 1: to diseases. Listen, when you have worldwide war and the
49:01
Speaker 1: devastation that's going to take place with that worldwide war,
49:05
Speaker 1: followed by the famine that's going to take place, you
49:08
Speaker 1: know as well as I do that there's going to
49:10
Speaker 1: be a problem with health, sanitation.
49:15
Speaker 2: All of those things.
49:17
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember this, but 20 million
49:19
Speaker 1: people died in flu epidemics in World War I because
49:25
Speaker 1: as nations moved around they brought viruses with them. Six
49:31
Speaker 1: million more died of typhus in World War I. Mass
49:34
Speaker 1: death even by some pestilent disease like AIDS is possible.
49:41
Speaker 1: And there are more massive killing bacteria around. Typhus, you remember,
49:46
Speaker 1: killed 200 million people in four centuries. We underestimate the
49:52
Speaker 1: power of disease to wipe out whole populations. And then
49:58
Speaker 1: in Revelation 6, he adds not only the pestilence, which
50:01
Speaker 1: could mean all of those things, but he adds wild beasts.
50:07
Speaker 1: You say, what is that? We don't have any wild
50:09
Speaker 1: beasts in America. What's this talking about? Wild beasts are not...
50:14
Speaker 1: You've got to go to Africa to find lions, or
50:17
Speaker 1: up in China somewhere, find Siberian tigers, or whatever.
50:21
Speaker 2: I mean, what wild beasts? Let me ask you a question.
50:24
Speaker 1: Do you know the most deadly creature on the face
50:25
Speaker 1: of the earth? The most deadly creature on the face
50:30
Speaker 1: of the earth. Not a snake, not a lion, not
50:32
Speaker 1: an alligator, a rat. Historically, the deadliest creature on the
50:41
Speaker 1: face of of the earth. Why? Rats are annually responsible
50:45
Speaker 1: for the loss of billions of dollars of food in
50:47
Speaker 1: America alone and death all over the world. Rats infested
50:53
Speaker 1: with bubonic plague killed one-third of the population of Europe
50:58
Speaker 1: in the fourteenth century. That's Encyclopedia Americana's own figure. Rats
51:03
Speaker 1: can carry as many as 35 diseases at once. And amazingly,
51:08
Speaker 1: if 95 percent of the rat population is exterminated in
51:11
Speaker 1: a given area, it will replace itself in less than
51:13
Speaker 1: a year. It has killed more people than all the
51:18
Speaker 1: wars of history, and it always makes its home where
51:23
Speaker 1: men dwell. With war and famine and earthquakes, sanitation goes,
51:32
Speaker 1: no medicine goes. Living conditions descend to a primitive level
51:37
Speaker 1: and the rats may be the wild beasts that run
51:42
Speaker 1: wild to kill. Awesome, divine judgment. And this is only
51:50
Speaker 1: the beginning. Only the beginning. Far more to come. And sadly,
51:59
Speaker 1: it isn't even until the sixth seal that the people
52:03
Speaker 1: recognize that God is is the source of this. You
52:12
Speaker 1: would ask a question, right? Is there any hope for
52:16
Speaker 1: our world? And the answer is no. There's no hope.
52:21
Speaker 2: This will come.
52:22
Speaker 1: This is inevitable. You ask another question. Is there any
52:27
Speaker 1: hope for me? The answer is yes. Yes. Yes. There's
52:35
Speaker 1: hope for you in Jesus Christ. You heard the testimonies tonight,
52:38
Speaker 1: didn't you? These people have not only been delivered from alcoholism,
52:42
Speaker 1: they've not only been delivered from false doctrine, they've not
52:45
Speaker 1: only been delivered from their own sins and their own iniquities,
52:47
Speaker 1: but they've been delivered from all of this. Is it
52:55
Speaker 1: any wonder that the writer of Hebrews said, how shall
53:02
Speaker 1: we escape if we neglect the so great a salvation?
53:10
Speaker 1: The answer is, we won't. But Jesus has provided a
53:15
Speaker 1: way of escape. Father, thank You for the gift of
53:21
Speaker 1: Christ and His provision. Frightening things, terrifying things await the world.
53:32
Speaker 1: And You've.
53:34
Speaker 2: Spelled it out.
53:36
Speaker 1: But they won't acknowledge it. This is where it's going,
53:43
Speaker 1: and we don't know how long until it's going to start.
53:49
Speaker 1: But Lord, we thank You that You've delivered us from
53:53
Speaker 1: Your fiery wrath, from the day of the Lord, the
54:03
Speaker 1: day of fearful judgment. You've delivered us through Christ. We
54:11
Speaker 1: thank You for the salvation that He provides that saves
54:16
Speaker 1: us from the wrath to come, including that eternal hell,
54:21
Speaker 1: that eternal judgment. May no one here be so foolish
54:27
Speaker 1: as to neglect so great salvation, for only in Christ
54:35
Speaker 1: Can we escape? We thank You that someday Jesus is
54:42
Speaker 1: going to come and gather His own to Himself and
54:47
Speaker 1: to His presence before this terrible, terrible, frightening final chapter
54:58
Speaker 1: of human history takes place. We thank You that in
55:02
Speaker 1: Christ we can live in hope and not fear We
55:10
Speaker 1: want to stand in that scene in heaven and be
55:16
Speaker 1: singing worthy is the lamb that was slain to redeem
55:21
Speaker 1: and be a part of the blessed and not the cursed.
55:26
Speaker 1: We thank you that that is provided in Christ through
55:29
Speaker 1: his death and resurrection for he gave himself for our sins.
55:37
Speaker 1: while your heads are bowed as we close in just
55:39
Speaker 1: a moment, I want you to turn that prayer personally
55:41
Speaker 1: into your own heart. Do you know Christ? If the
55:46
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus were to come and take His church away,
55:49
Speaker 1: would you go or would you stay to be lured
55:53
Speaker 1: into this trap of peace that ultimately will catch you
55:58
Speaker 1: in a devastating and unbearable judgment? If you know Christ,
56:02
Speaker 1: you're His. Say, well, what's... What's the means to do that?
56:10
Speaker 1: Believe in your heart that He died and rose again
56:12
Speaker 1: for you and confess Him as your Lord. Ask Him
56:17
Speaker 1: to save you from your sin and judgment. God in
56:24
Speaker 1: human flesh, that's Christ, came into the world to die
56:26
Speaker 1: in your place, to bear your curse that you may
56:29
Speaker 1: never feel the curse of God. You need only ask. Father,
56:39
Speaker 1: we do pray that every heart would be turned toward Christ.
56:43
Speaker 1: And we praise you and thank you that you have
56:46
Speaker 1: provided an escape. Not just an escape, but that you've
56:51
Speaker 1: provided a glorious heaven in which we will dwell with
56:56
Speaker 1: you forever. We thank you in the Savior's name. Amen.
57:09
Speaker 3: For free access to all of John's lessons and a
57:11
Speaker 3: listing of study Bibles and books available for sale, visit
57:15
Speaker 3: Grace2U' s website at gty.org. John MacArthur and Grace2U reserve all
57:22
Speaker 3: copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available
57:27
Speaker 3: at gty.org, and it includes instructions for and limitations on
57:33
Speaker 3: duplicating this digital file.