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Revelation 6:9-17 fifth and sixth seals · The TakeAway

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, and welcome to the Takeaway, where we teach through the Bible, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, to help you understand God's Word so that you can have a more intimate relationship with Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Hello, welcome again to the takeaway.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Pastor Harry Barrens, and in today's episode, we will be looking at the fifth and sixth seals that Jesus opens in chapter six.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: In our last episode, we discussed the first four seals and that they are the results of God letting man have his own way without him interfering in their evil intent.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: And as we will see today, God allows them to go pretty far in their own destruction with a clear purpose that they would know his wrath upon them.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: He first wants man to realize that without him they are totally lost and will destroy themselves.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: However, as we will see, God is just and has to judge the unrighteous in this world and their evil deeds.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: He finally says, Enough is enough.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now prepare yourselves for my wrath that is to come upon you.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Just like a parent dealing with unruly children, when you let them beat each other up until one of them starts crying, then you as a parent step in and you put a stop to it, and then bring punishment for their actions.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: God is a loving father, but he has to put an end to the nonsense, and he will.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews chapter 12, verses four through eleven, it says, In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, and you have completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: It says, My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens every one he accepts as his son.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, endure hardship as discipline.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: God is treating you as children, for what children are not disciplined by their father?
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you are not disciplined, and everyone undergoes discipline, then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for it.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: In Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse seven, I said to myself, God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And before we get started, I want to remind you that in our last episode with the first four seals, I shared how in Matthew chapter 24, in Jesus' Olivet Discourse to his disciples, that the events described perfectly line up with the events taking place in the seal judgments.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: In the next two seals, I will continue to give you comparisons between the two so that we can get a much clearer perspective of the events Jesus is sharing with us.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Starting in Matthew chapter 24, verse 9, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake, and then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: In Revelation chapter 6, verse 9, it says, When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Then a white robe was given to each of them, and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you haven't been following along in my past episodes, I showed you that this time period in Revelation is about Israel, and that when Jesus was telling his disciples about these events, the church did not exist as of yet, and the disciples had no thought of the church.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: They would have completely understood Jesus' teaching as being applied to Israel and no one else.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: With that perspective in mind, we can assume that these martyrs under the altar are Jews that came to believe in Jesus as their Messiah.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And because they held to their belief and testimony in him during this time, they were killed just as Jesus said they would be.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: We must not forget that this is all a part of God's plan to bring Israel back to him and to and to discipline them just as he has done throughout history whenever they turn from him.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: However, this will be the last time they will ever turn from him ever again.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Remember what Daniel wrote in Daniel chapter 9, verse 24.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Seventy weeks are decreed about your people, Israel, and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for inequity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and profit, and to anoint a most holy place.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_01: God is harsh with Israel because he loves them and wants them to repent and of their rebellion and turn back to him once and for all.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: God chose Israel to be his anointed people and to bring the Messiah through them.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: God promised that he would never abandon them nor forsake them.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_01: So he has to discipline them to set them straight once and for all.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 6, it says, Be strong and of good courage.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Do not fear nor be afraid of them, for the Lord your God, he is the one who goes with you.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: He will not leave you nor forsake you.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: We have that same promise when we put our trust in Jesus.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: We have been grafted into the promise God gave them, and if we have become a part of that promise, we could be assured he will never leave us or forsake us.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: In Romans chapter 11, verse 13, Paul says, Now I am speaking to you Gentiles.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them, some of them.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: If the dough offered as first roots is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others, and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you are, remember, it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you, then you will say, Branches were broken off, so that I might be grafted in.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: That is true.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: They were broken off because of their unbelief, talking about the Jewish people, but you stand fast through faith.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: So do not become proud, but fear.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: For if God did not spare the natural branches, the Jewish people, neither will he spare you, talking about us.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Note that the kindness and the severity of God, God's severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness, otherwise you too will be cut off, and even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: For God has the power to graft them in again.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: For if you were cut from what was by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: The deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: And this will be my covenant with them when I make away when I take away their sins.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_01: For just as you were at one time disobedient to God, but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too now been disobedient, in order that by my mercy, by the mercy shown to you, they also may now receive mercy.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Moving on to the sixth seal, let's start with Matthew chapter twenty-four, verse twelve.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: And because lawless lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold, but he who endures to the end shall be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: In Revelation chapter six, verse twelve.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I looked when he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island moved out of its place, and the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's important to note that Jesus makes it clear that during this time the gospel will spread around the world, and every nation will hear it.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: In the next chapter, we will see God's plan to accomplish that.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for the events that are taking place in the sixth seal, what are they, what are they, and what's causing them?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Again, keeping with the context of Scripture up to this point, all the destruction has been caused by man, and it won't be until the seventh seal is open that God's wrath begins.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it would be safe to assume that this is the end result of man having his way.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: We know that mankind currently has access to enough destruction power, destructive power to destroy the whole world many times over.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Just to give you a small insight to just how much power we have.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let me read you something.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh let me read something for you from the National WW2museum.org.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: The nuclear arms race that originated in originated in the race for atomic weapons during World War II reached a culminating point on October 30th, 1961, with the detonation of the SAR Bomba, the largest and most powerful nuclear weapon ever constructed.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: The bomb was 26 feet long, almost 7 feet in diameter, and weighed almost 60,000 pounds.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_01: A bomber was designated to deliver the device from 34,000 feet.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: The bomb would be attached to a parachute to slow its descent to detonation at 13,000 feet, giving the bomber and its escort additional time to escape at least 30 miles away before detonation.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Even so, the crewmen were told that they only had about a 50% chance of survival and they barely made it.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: The detonation was astronomically powerful, over 1,570 times more powerful, in fact, than the combined two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Tsar's bomba yield was 50 megatons, 10 times more powerful than all of the ordinance exploded during the whole of World War II.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: The mushroom cloud was 25 miles wide and its base at almost 60 miles wide at the top, and 40 miles high.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: It penetrated the stratosphere.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everything within three dozen miles of the impact was vaporized, but severe damage extended to 150 mile radius, enough to entirely annihilate any modern city, including suburbs.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Windows and far away Norway and Finland were shattered by the force of the blast.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: Said one aerial eyewitness, the clouds beneath the aircraft and in the distance were lit up by the powerful flash.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: The sea of light spread under the hatch, and even the clouds began to glow and began became transparent.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: At that moment, our aircraft emerged from between two cloud layers, and down below the gap, a huge bright orange ball was emerging.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: The ball was powerful and arrogant like Jupiter.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Slowly and silently it crept upwards.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Having broken through the thick layer of clouds, it kept growing.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: It seemed to suck the whole Earth into it.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: The spectacle was fantastic, unreal, and supernatural.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_01: The resulting radioactive fallout might have been catastrophic, not just for the Soviet Union, but for its neighbors.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it would have if the SARS-Bomber original concept yielding an almost inconceivable 100 megatons had been pursued.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, because of the height at which the device was detonated, the accompanying five-mile-wide fireball was repelled away from the surface by the force of its own shockwave and did not make contact with the Earth, thus greatly reducing the amount of fallout.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: But the results might easily have been very different.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Perhaps the only beneficial result of the SARS Bomba, world uh bombas world-threatening display was the partial nuclear test ban treaty on August 5th, 1963, signed by the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Even today, however, the power of the SARS Bomba and much more lies within easy grasp of every nuclear capable nation.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: As you can see, this power was in our hands more than 50 years ago.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: Just imagine what we have available to us today.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_01: Knowing this, it doesn't take much of an imagination to see that the events described in the Sixth Seal could easily be caused by us and most likely will.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: On July 6th, July 26, 1963, in JFK's address to the nation, he talks about the power mankind has and just how fast we could destroy ourselves.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: I would like to share a few clips from that speech today to further help with the context of our teaching today.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Let's listen.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Good evening, my fellow citizens.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I speak to you tonight in a spirit of hope.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Eighteen years ago, the event of nuclear weapons changed the course of the world as well as the war.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Since that time, all mankind has been struggling to escape from the darkening prospect of mass destruction on Earth.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: In an age when both sides have come to possess enough nuclear power to destroy the human race several times over, the world of communism and the world of free choice have been caught up in a vicious circle of conflicting ideology and interest.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Each increase of tension has produced an increase of arms.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Each increase of arms has produced an increase of tension.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So let's play that now.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: A war today or tomorrow, if it led to nuclear war, would not be like any war in history.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: A full-scale nuclear exchange lasting less than 60 minutes with the weapons now in existence could wipe out more than 300 million Americans, Europeans, and Russians, as well as untold millions elsewhere.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And the survivors, as Chairman Khrushchev warned the communist Chinese, the survivors, would envy the dead, for they would inherit a world so devastated by explosion and poison and fire that today we cannot even conceive of its horrors.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: So let us try to turn the world away from war.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let us make the most of this opportunity and every opportunity to reduce tension, to slow down the perilous nucleus nuclear arms race, and to check the world slide towards final annihilation.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: Did you catch what he said that it would only take sixty minutes to cause unprecedented destruction?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'd like to read something to you from Revelation chapter 18, verse 17.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: It says, For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Let me play one more clip from his speech that will reiterate the destruction that we talked about a little bit ago when I read that article to you.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: If only one thermonuclear bomb were to be dropped on any American, Russian, or any other city, whether it was launched by accident or design, by a madman or by an enemy, by a large nation or by a small, from any corner of the world, that one bomb could release more destructive power on the inhabitants of that one helpless city than all the bombs dropped in the Second World War.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: So, unfortunately, because we know and believe what the Bible says, and regardless of man's best efforts, this is not a matter of if, but when these events will eventually occur.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: The when will happen after Jesus removes his restraining spirit from this world.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: What we need to be doing now is winning as many people to Jesus as possible.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Think of all of your loved ones that may have to endure this tragic time in the future, if all because you didn't have the courage to share the good news of the gospel with them.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: We are still here, we have time to make a difference in the world around us and who knows what else.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_01: All you have to do is submit your life to Christ, and he will begin doing the good work in you.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: In Philippians chapter one, verse six, it says, Being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let us not fear the eventual destruction of this world.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Fear the one who has the power to cast you into hell.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's time we all evaluate our lives and allow Jesus into every part of your life.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's not until you surrender the battleground of your heart to Him that He can start using you to fight battles in this world.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Is there something hidden in your heart today that is preventing you from being a useful vessel for Jesus?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the depths of your heart so that you can repent and be healed of the wrongs and hurts that you are holding on to.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: He loves you and wants you to be free, and the only way you will get there is by letting go in confession to him.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: This world is coming to an end, and there is no reason why you need why you need to as well.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: In Luke Chapter 12, verse 5 But I will show you whom you should fear.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: Fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I say to you, fear him.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Father God, it is very scary to think about the destructive power that mankind has available to them today.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we live in the midst of this world where that any moment somebody could hit a button that could decide all of our fates today.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Day, this second, this minute, this month, this year.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: We have no idea.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: We do know that based on your word, that we will go on and that it will come to an end just like that.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: We're just going to go on as life is normal.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray, Father, that we don't get caught up in the fear or the hoopla of the things of this world, but that we can focus on your kingdom and the things that you have done.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you said until that time, we're to press forward.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: We're to put on the full armor of God and to serve you, Jesus, and allow you to work in us and through us in this lost world that in hopes that some would be saved.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we pray that you would use us in a powerful way, God.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Help us to understand the depths of our hearts, the things that are wrong, the things that we're holding on to, the things that we're afraid of, Jesus, and that we could repent and release these things to you so that we could be free and live freely, God, in the power that you've given us in the Holy Spirit to see people saved around us, God.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: We love you and we thank you in your name, Jesus.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us today.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: I hope this message helped you take a step closer in your relationship with Jesus and that you have a better understanding for just how much God loves you and wants you to know Him.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: In our next episode, we will be in Revelation chapter 7, and we will see God's plan to bring the gospel to the whole world and the preparation for his wrath to come.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: God bless you, and we'll see you next time on the takeaway.