[0:00] Good morning. I want to welcome you as well in the name of Jesus.
[0:15] It is good to see so many come out to gather in spite of the weather outside. I know many of you travel far, but it's good to come and to worship.
[0:31] And the Lord has a blessing for us as we do so. So this morning we have quite a full morning. And so Ben has called me to cut short, so I'll try to honor with that.
[0:48] But we're going to continue where we left off, and that is what was read for us in chapter 6. So as we think of the tribulation period now unfolding, I know from my background we're taught that this is a time to fear.
[1:18] It's going to be a very dark, ugly time on earth, and it's to be dreaded. But the consolation that we always had was that it's future, and probably I won't be here.
[1:39] And can anyone identify with that? Probably many of us are familiar with that. The book of Revelations is not to cause fear, but to see the grace of God.
[2:00] Not only as he further reveals himself, and especially to the Jewish people, but also to Gentiles, and then on behalf of the believers, as he executes judgment on those who refuse to believe.
[2:24] And so it is the grace of God from both aspects. And it's not a time for us to fear, but for the ungodly, it will be a time of fear.
[2:40] For those that refuse to bow the knees to Jesus Christ. And so in chapter 5, we had looked at the scroll in the hand of the Father, and at first no one was found worthy to take the scroll and to open it.
[3:02] And it caused John to weep much, it says. He wept a lot. And then Jesus Christ stepped forward and was found worthy to open the scroll.
[3:19] And what gave him his credentials, his worthiness? Why was Jesus worthy to open?
[3:37] He was perfect. He was the Son of God. But more, what we read out of the passage last time. Maybe we have to go back and preach last Sunday's sermon again.
[3:54] Why was Jesus worthy? He shed his blood and redeemed us.
[4:06] Out of every tongue, tribe, nation, every people group, he has redeemed unto himself through his shed blood.
[4:20] And that's what brought worthiness. And yes, he is the Son of God. He was perfect. All those things. But that he went to the cross for us. And now in chapter 6, we're going to see the judgment program of God opened.
[4:39] A bigger word is unleashed. It's revealed. And will be executed now. And we have the seals, the seven-sealed scroll that is going to be opened.
[4:55] And it will reveal God's judgment program from chapter 6 right through to the return of Christ in chapter 19.
[5:06] So from now on, we're dealing with that judgment program. Now there's three sets of judgments mentioned in Revelations.
[5:18] There are the seal judgments, which we're going to start into today. And the next set is the trumpet judgments. And the third set is the bowl or vial, depending which version of Scripture we have, judgments.
[5:36] But the scroll in the hand of the Father that Jesus took and opened contained all three sets.
[5:49] All 21 judgments were embedded within the seven seals. It's maybe a good way to understand that.
[6:00] And so we're going to treat the next chapters as if it was chronological. It seems to not be quite chronological, but I'm going to work through it in that manner.
[6:16] But to realize that the trumpet judgments are embedded within that time period of all the seal judgments. And the bowl judgments as well within the seven.
[6:32] And so with that, let us look at the start of this program. Now I saw, in verse 1 in chapter 6, Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, And I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, Come and see.
[6:56] And behold, And I looked, and behold, A white horse, He who sat on it, Had a bow, And a crown was given to him, And he went out conquering, And to conquer.
[7:13] And so the first four seals Are represented by four horses. And this first one Opens with a white horse.
[7:27] And When we think of Of Of battle or judgment, What does the color white Reflect or resemble?
[7:45] Surrender. Peace. I'm willing to make peace. And so When When in battle You're giving up, You would put up a white flag.
[7:57] And the enemy would then Stop shooting And And probably take you prisoner. And so The white would represent that. I looked, And behold, A white horse, He who sat on it, Had a bow, And a crown was given to him, And he went out conquering, And to conquer.
[8:19] Now Who opened the seal? Jesus did. And the lamb. And we identified that last week As being the Lord.
[8:33] So then When Jesus opened that seal, And John looked, And he saw. And he saw a white horse With a rider on it.
[8:45] And it's, of course, It's symbolic Of what he saw. And, But so the rider On the white horse Cannot be Christ.
[9:01] And so some Have deemed, Well, It's a white horse. Jesus is peace. So it must be Jesus On the seal. But he is the, Or on the horse. But he is the one That opens The seal.
[9:15] And so then, As we look at the scriptures Overall, We know that There will come A time Of peace Or false peace On the earth.
[9:30] And that will bring in The tribulation period. And, Daniel 9 says That The Antichrist Will make a covenant With many.
[9:48] This peace Is going to involve Israel. The most Thought over Peace of land Today Or for years already And especially The last months The fighting there Is horrific And yet What The Jews Long for most Is to be at peace With their neighbors And As As the The first seal Is opened John sees The world Being brought Together In In a Symbolic Type of peace And Getting to Along Getting along Right now Everyone Is fighting And so He will He will bring That about Now I I have been Presenting The church
[10:49] As Having been Raptured Prior to this It is my My understanding From scripture As a Pre Tribulation Point of View You may May not Agree with That And that Is fine But from The majority Of scriptures That is the View That I See That is By far The most Clear As that The lord Will take The church Out And then Resume With his Program With the Jewish People The 70th Week And But as As we Would consider That The church Being Lifted out Taken Caught up in The air To meet the Lord In the Clouds What will Be left Behind It will Be Chaos It will
[11:52] Be Absolute Disorder As All the Believers Will vanish And go Up To heaven Leaving Only Unbelievers Back And The Antichrist Is going To emerge And gather What's Left Together In In a In a Type of Peace That is On the Surface Only And And the Jews are Looking For peace Have been For years And They Will Be deceived With this As well And will Sign A peace Agreement With The World With Their Neighbors So this Is the White Horse And Him Going Out To Conquer Conquering
[12:53] And to Conquer He will Bring The World Together Under His Submission And And Then Only Later Will His True Identity Be Revealed As We Work Through The Tribulation Period So that Is The Nature Of That But I Want Us To Turn To Second Thessalonians Chapter Two Second Thessalonians And We'll Start In Verse Eight We Had Looked At The Previous Verses Before Where
[13:54] The Restrainer The Restraining Force Will Be Removed And We Had Talked About That Being The Holy Spirit Working Through The Church At The Rapture And It Says And After That After The Restraint Is Removed Taken Out Of The Way Verse Eight And Then The Lawless One Will Be Revealed Whom The Lord Will Consume With The Breath Of His Mouth And Destroy With The Brightness Of His Coming The Coming Of The Lawless One Is According To The Working Of Satan With All Power Signs And Lying Wonders And With All Unrighteousness Deception Among Those Who Perish Because They Did Not Receive The Love Of The Truth That They Might Be Saved And For This Reason God Will Send Them Strong Delusion That They Should Believe The Lie And
[14:55] That They All May Be Condemned Who Did Not Believe The Truth But Had Pleasure In Unrighteousness And So As The Antichrist Will Come On The Scene It Says With A Deception Of Lying Wonders Deceptive Miracles To deceive Those that Are left Into Following Him It's Going To Be Like The World Has Never Seen Before As Satan Will Reveal His Power Through The Antichrist And God Has Chosen To Allow That To Happen And Will Allow Satan To Exercise These Kind Of Powers Lying Wonders And The World Will Follow The Antichrist And Marvel At Him And
[15:57] And The Word Antichrist There's Antichrist We Know Christ But Antichrist Can Mean Either Against Or Instead Of It Can Be Taken Either Way And And From From The Scriptures I Believe That Satan Will Come And And Set Himself Up As I Have Come Instead Of I Am The Messiah I Am The Savior To You Guys Needs And As The World Is In Chaos Following The Rapture They Will Bite Into This Including The Jewish People With Lying Wonders Who Did The Jews Reject
[16:57] Two Thousand Years Ago The Real Messiah Whom Are They Waiting For The Messiah And The Antichrist With Lying Wonders Will Come And Say I Am He Follow Me See He Will Set Up An Earthly Kingdom To Rule And And And When Jesus Was On Earth What Did The Jews Expect From Him What Did They Want From Him To Set Up His Kingdom And When Jesus Says I Will Die And Rise In Three Days They Were Let Down This King This Messiah That We Were Hoping He Was Has Let Us Down He Was
[17:57] Supposed To Be Our King And Now He's Going To Allow They Say Pastors Talk Too Much And Now To Their Dismay This Jesus Is Going To Submit Be Meek And Go To The Cross And Die And Allow His Creation To Kill Him That Cannot Be God Was Their Reasoning And So They're Waiting For Someone Who Will Stand Up And Say I Am The King And I'm Going To Rule Your Kingdom And So That Is What Is Being Initiated Here In The First Seal And
[18:58] By And By The Arab Muslim Religion They Are Waiting For The Coming Messiah For The Coming Messiah The 12th Emin They Call Refer To Him And And So All This Will Come Together As As As Many People That Don't Have The True Faith Will Flock To The Antichrist This Is What John Saw And A Time Of Peace On The Earth Let's Go Back To Chapter 6 In Revelations Okay When he Opened The Second Seal I Heard The Second Living Creature Saying Come And See And Another Horse Fiery
[19:59] Red Went Out And Was Granted To The One Who Sat On It To Take Peace From The Earth And That People Should Kill One Another And There Was Given To Him A Great Sword And So Now Introducing With A Time Of Peace It Will Be Followed With War To Take Peace From The Earth And And So War Will Follow This Time Of Peace On The Earth And As We Look At The Signs Of His Coming As Given In The Gospels Matthew 24 And So On What Was One Of The First Signs That Jesus Said Would Come There Will Be Wars And Rumors Of Wars And The End Is Not Yet And And Here Here We See A Time
[20:59] Of War Follows The Peace That Has Been Made I I I I I'm Going To Introduce Here The There's A War Mentioned In Ezekiel Chapter 37 And 38 How Many Of Us Are Familiar With That War A Few Of You It's There's Two Chapters That Ezekiel Spent Writing About That War And And There's There's In That War Why Don't We Turn There Briefly We're We're Just Going To Go As Far As As We Get This Morning And Then Continue Next Time So Let's Go To Ezekiel 37 Sorry 38
[22:01] And 39 And My Chapter Is Mixed Up Here I'll Read A Section Here Starting In Verse 1 Ezekiel 38 Verse 1 Now the word Of the Lord Came to me Saying Son of man Set your face Against Gog The land Of Magog The prince Of Rosh Meshach And Tubal And prophesy Against him And say Thus says the Lord God Behold I am Against you O Gog The prince Of Rosh Meshach And Tubal I will Turn You Around Put hooks Into your Jaws And lead You out With all Your army Horses And horsemen All Splendidly Clothed A great Company With bucklers And shields All of them Handling Swords Persia Ethiopia And Libya
[23:01] Are with Them And all Of them With Shield And helmet Gomer And all Its troops The house Of Tugarmah From the far North And all Its troops Many people Are with you Prepare yourself And be ready You and all Your companies That are gathered About you And be a guard For them After many days You will be visited In the latter days You will come Into the land Of those Who brought back From the Sword And gathered From many People On the mountains Of Israel Which had long Been desolate They were Brought out Of the nations And now All of them Dwell safely You will ascend Coming like a storm Covering the land Like a cloud You and all Your troops And many Peoples With you Thus says The Lord God On that day
[24:02] It shall come To pass That thoughts Will arise In your mind And you Will make An evil Plan And you Will say I will go Up against A land Of unwalled Villages I will go To a peaceful People Who dwell safely All of them Dwelling Without walls And having Neither bars Nor gates To take Plunder And to take Booty To stretch Out your hand Against waste Places That are again Inhabited And against A people Gathered From the nations Who have Acquired Livestock And goods Who dwell In the midst Of the land I'm going to Stop there Briefly It's a description Of Numerous Groups Of people Who will Come Upon Israel And It refers To Israel That in the Latter days I will bring You back Into Your own
[25:02] Land And And you Will live In peace Now Israel has Been brought Back Largely Or many Have come Back To the Land of Israel Almost Half of The Jews In the World Are back In their Home country And But they're Yet They're not Yet living In peace And they're Waiting for That time Of peace But when That comes There's A number Of people Groups Mentioned Who will Come Against Israel And And we Have names Like Magog And Rosh And Meshach And Tubal And As you As you Research These names From Bible Times There's The Front name That comes Out is Russia With all Its Provinces I guess You could Say Which had Different names
[26:02] Back then It's going To be Russia Iran Turkey Libya And Ethiopia Are Specifically The countries Named here That would Be our Modern names Today And They will Gather Together And Says God will Draw Draw Them In With A Hook In The Jaw Anyone Here Like Fishing You Use A Hook And Sometimes You Snag Them But Usually They Bite But There's Going To Be A Hook In Their Jaw And It Will Be God That Hooks Them He's Going To Bring Them Against Israel Why Would God Do That God Is Not The Author Of War Is He Of Conflict God
[27:06] Is Going To Lift Lift Up His Name He Is Going To Be Glorified As He Takes Judgment On These Countries As They Come Against Israel And Overrun Israel God Will Miraculously Fight And Destroy All The Armies And The Whole World Will Know That Was God That Did That And He Will Be Glorified And Israel It Will Catch Israel's Attention As They Are At A Total Loss As They're Surrounded By Armies And Unable To Win This On Their Own They Will Be In Total Defeat And The Lord Will Intervene And
[28:08] So He Will Show His People Israel I Am The Lord And Today Israel Is Fighting Strong In Fact There's Hardly Any Other Nations In The World That Could Fight As Strategically And Well Organized As That Little Nation Is Doing Today And The Last Three Months Four Months Have Shown It We Can Tell God Is With Them He Is On Their Side But There Is Coming A War Where God Will Allow Them To Flounder And To See Their End He's Going To Bring Them To Their Knees And Then God Will Be Glorified Through This So It's It's A War As We Read The Rest Of 38 And 39 It Describes
[29:09] How God Will Intervene And He Will Fight For Them And Just Slay The Armies You Can Read That For Yourself As Just In The Sake Of Time Here But Please Do In Fact It's It's Good To Correspond Old Testament With What We're Reading And Learning In The New Going Back To Revelation 6 The Third Seal When He Opened The Third Seal I Heard The Third Living Creature Say Come And See And So I Looked And Behold A Black Horse And He Who Sat On It Had A Pair Of Scales In His Hand And I Heard A Voice In The Midst Of The Four Living Creatures Saying A Quart Of Wheat For A Danary Or Daneris And Three Quarts Of Barley For A Daneris
[30:09] And Do Not Harm The Oil And The Wine And So The Description Here Is A Time Of Suffering A Time Of Famine Or Of Hunger And Historically When There Is War It Is Always Followed By A Time Of Famine A Time Of Need As War Desolates And Destroys And The Description Here Is That A A Court Of Wheat For A Daneris Is Is Considered In Scripture A Day's Wage How Big Is A Court Four Cups Four Cups Of Wheat For A Day's
[31:09] Wage How Far Would That Go To Feed Your Family And Barley Three Was It Three Three Quarts Twelve Cups Of Barley And I Think That's A Reference To Barley Was Used As Animal Feed So Twelve Cups That Be Like How Many Liters Three Liters Trying To Put This In Proportion But It Would Not Even Keep One Animal Fed Is The Illustration Here A Time Of Suffering That Follows War And Then He Says But Do Not Harm The Oil And The Wine And That Is Believed To Be For The Elite Or The Rich Those In Power They Will Have Plenty And If You Look At History
[32:09] When There Is War And Famine That Follows Always Those In Authority Are Living High On The Hog So To Speak and The And The Rest Of The People Are Starving And We See The World Will See That Again That Repetitiveness When He Opened The Fourth Seal I Heard The Voice Of The Fourth Living Creature Saying Come And See And I Looked And Behold A Pale Horse And The Name Of Him Who Sat On Was Death And Hades Followed With Him And Power Was Given To Them Over A Fourth Of The Earth To Kill With The Sword With Hunger And With Death And By The Beasts Of The Earth Peace War Famine Death And
[33:11] And The Lord Is Saying Here That Through This Progression One Fourth Of The Earth Will Perish How Many People On The Earth Today Eight Billion Somewhere In There I Think In 2023 They Said We We Passed The Eight Billion Mark If I Recall That's A Big Number I Think That's Nine Zeros It's A Big Number According To This And If These Numbers Were True At This Time Two Billion Two Billion People Will Die Of Course The Believers Are Gone So We Don't Know What The Population Of The Earth Will Be But It Will Be Huge As A Result Of This Progression It's
[34:11] And So We're Seeing An Overview Of The Seven Years Here With The Sealed Judgments Whereas The Bull The Trumpet And Bull Judgments Zero In More Detailed Judgments Within That But The Sealed Seemed To Be An Overview Of It We're Going To Stop With The Fourth Judgment And As As We Go Through This What What Do We Take Home How Why Should We Be Studying This And Especially If We Believe The Church Will Be Raptured Are We Wasting Our Time What's That Don't Be Scared But Prepared Yeah That's Probably Maybe A Good Way Of Putting That But
[35:12] Let's Go Back To I'm Going To Close With A Couple Verses In First Thessalonians Five The First Four Verses And We'll Just Close With That But Concerning I'll Give You A Bit Of Time To Turn There First Thessalonians Five Verse One But But Concerning The Times And The Seasons Brethren You Have No Need That I Should Write To You For You Yourselves Know Perfectly That The Day Of The Lord So Comes As A Thief In The Night For When They Say Peace And Safety Then Sudden Destruction Comes Upon Them As Labor Pains Upon A Pregnant Woman And They Shall Not Escape But You Brethren Are Not In Darkness
[36:13] So That This Day Should Overtake You As A Thief He Says Brethren The Times And The Seasons We Are To Know We Are To Know The Season We're In When It Comes To Bible Prophecy And God's Working Here On Earth And As We As We Looked At Russia And Iran And Turkey And Libya And And Those Countries Coming Against Israel Did You Know That In The Last Five Years For The First Time In World History Russia And Turkey And Iran Are Working Together And They Have Always Been Enemies Till Now We Are In The Times And Seasons And We Are To Know Where We're At And So God Is Fulfilling
[37:13] Prophecy As We Live In Our Day We're Seeing This And And When They Say Verse Two For You The Brethren Know Perfectly That The Day Of The Lord Comes As A Thief In The Night For When They The Non-believer When They Say Peace And Safety Then Sudden Destruction Will Come Upon Them The First Seal And The Second Seal And The Third Seal Upon The Non-believer When They Say Peace And Safety And Then Destruction Will Follow And So For Us We're Studying This Because The Lord Wants Us To Know That We're Not Troubled With What We See In The World Today As It's Preparing Or Being Prepared For This Time That We Know
[38:14] The Lord Is Behind This He's Bringing It Together Just Like He Said He Would And So Let's Keep That In Mind And Let's Strive To Know Our Scriptures To Know What Is Coming We're Going To Close The Regular Service With That