We were gonna be studying Revelation 6 today. Please open your Bible and leave it there I'm gonna it's a long text. I'm gonna read it as Kind of as I need to The the first snowstorm of the winter is was forecast for tomorrow. They they're downgraded to rain. Sorry But it's coming. We know it's coming. So I always get I don't know about you But I always get ready for snowstorms and the way I get ready for them is we decide you know what movie marathon is going to be this year Last year we did about 14 hours of Star Wars and by the end it was clear that everyone dressed in With mask on their head they were bad and everybody's face you could see they were good. That was the thing So you know this year however, I'm gonna kind of delve into history a little bit I'm gonna do a World War II a year. I think we're gonna do sea kins burns as documentary maybe band of brothers some other things I'm not sure But that's kind of what I want to take the boys through this year. I think they're old enough and should be fun and I want to kind of draw an illustration out of that for you tonight this morning During World War II as you know from history Germany invaded France in 1940 and In just a matter of weeks they took Paris and they completely established control of France and for the next four years Germany occupied France and
They set up a government a Vichy called the Vichy government and they are rewarded certain French people who would kind of take control for them Who would be kind of there men on the post and would help enforce their laws and And many of the French who didn't hate France, but they weren't they weren't being traitors. They were just being realistic an opportunistic They started helping the Germans They were on their side. They they realized the war had been lost and so they might as well go ahead and make a little money and and get a little extra rations And even though they were occupied and even though they were under Germany and and they were Basically for all practical intents and purposes slaves not free They were more or less at peace They weren't being bombed and then on this on January 6th I mean July June 6th. I'll get it right. It's my anniversary. I should remember that on June 6th 1944 The allies invaded France again And they brought three million troops And they started four months of non-stop fighting and bombing and they drove the Germans out Now ask yourself this question When was it more Peaceful to live in France under the occupation or under the liberation It's clearly more safer more peaceful During the occupation But there know they knew there was no hope unless they were liberated. They ultimately wanted to be liberated from their oppressors That picture is very important because that is The picture that we're studying today See, this is what has happened. This is what we call world history Satan through death and sin death and sin Have taken this world captive Death has gotten in and it rains over us And sin keeps us enslaved through power Through pleasure Through wealth Through fear Through false religion sin keeps us enslaved And we were firmly enslaved until Jesus came and defeated death. That's what the cross and the resurrection were Jesus was defeating our enemy. He defeated death And at the defeat of death he is sending forth He's sending forth his spirit. He's calling all of his powers to liberate the earth He's liberating us from sin and from death. That's what all the songs we're just saying we're about God resty Mary gentleman. Let nothing you dismay for you. No Christ your Savior was born on Christmas day Why to set us free from Satan's power It's a liberation Okay It's good news The revelation is good news It's not easy news Okay, it's not easy It means there's gonna be hard days in front of us But you knew that It means that we're gonna be at struggle with the world And it means that we're gonna have to to not give in and not just indulge our flesh and not just do everything we want to do It means we're gonna have to to fight That's why God has two words to describe Christians in the book of Revelation martyr One who died for their faithful testimony and conqueror The ones who struggled and kept their faith pure It's gonna be hard It's not easy news, but it's good news The news that the allies had landed on the beaches of Normandy that was good news It wasn't easy news. It means there was gonna be a summer filled with war and bloodshed But it was good news because freedom had a chance I want you to understand as we today. We're gonna study the four horsemen of the apocalypse four horsemen Hear those hoofbeats They're coming coming after you
They are the Calvary Another Calvary They are bringing hope They are bringing freedom They're the it's good news They're coming from Jesus That's the message we're gonna study today, okay, and I want you to understand that There's so many of these pictures in Revelation that have been turned and twisted and manipulated to scare us And they're supposed to be exciting us I mean to come from Jesus we're gonna look at this in just a second But they give it like this where the horsemen coming from they're coming from Jesus You remember the good guy right He's the one who died to save the world you think all of a sudden he thought after he died and got up to heaven He's like, you know, I hate those people I want to send some horsemen to go kill him all I mean, of course not this is good news They're coming from Jesus Well and before I get into the specifics of it I want to do just a little bit of general work on On understanding the book of Revelation and that question the first question I want us to ask is this if these things are clear And I think they are clear and if it is filled with good news Why don't we have so many false misunderstandings of Revelation that only served to kind of drive us crazy and scare us And I think the answer is this we're asking the wrong question We're asking the wrong question when I was I mean, I am a dad. I have two wonderful children Two average ones and um Just kidding. They're all wonderful none of my children average. Don't be very clear about that Um Now I have a four great boys and part of being a dad is answering questions and she's getting peppered with questions all the time Can we go get ice cream can we go to the store when we're gonna go see grandma when we're going on vacation one day I got 15 questions in a row accounted and all I remember were the last three were something about volcanoes to when do volcanoes erupt Daddy can I have a hamster daddy are ninjas even real
And it's definitely when I just said stop And so I'm kind of feel like an expert in answering questions and I'm also an expert in not answering them If you're a parent you know this sometimes your kids over here is something they're not supposed to over here You're talking about something serious something that is not Offer children something that shouldn't be repeated and that's when the questions get problematic or hank Well, he's talking about what's going on? What do you mean? You know, you have to say not forget it never mind. I'm not gonna tell you and Sometimes the questions keep coming and you have to do this and dad's or experts at this You get this look in your eyes that fire may be short sporting out at any second And you say I'm not telling you stop asking Hit to work on that voice work on that voice when you have kids um Because it works Well the disciples were like that with Jesus They had one question that kept asking when When will your visible kingdom when will your kingdom be on the earth when is it gonna be now is it gonna be then When is it now is it now And he kept telling them not I'm not gonna tell you. I'm not gonna tell you I'm not gonna tell you and then after his death and after his resurrection the very last time They're ever gonna see him when Jesus is preparing his apostles to establish the church on earth. They ask him again Is it now is now the time when you're gonna set up your kingdom on this earth And he says this It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority
This is a divine none of your business
It is not your business and no win I'm never gonna tell you and listen. I want you to understand this. He told this to his apostles Right before he sent the Holy Spirit upon them and sent them out to to establish the church Jesus loves you dearly But he loved them more That's not really fair to say he loved them as much If it would be possible for him to love anybody more he loved them more actually knew them If he's not gonna tell them he's not gonna tell you
And we get misunderstood we misunderstand revelation because we're trying to squeeze it and twist it to tell us when When when is Jesus coming back If he didn't tell his apostles he's not gonna tell you and if he didn't tell his apostles He's not gonna tell you in some weird mystical code that you're never gonna get right all right Some weird kind of Wow far out there stuff is gonna say that nobody's gonna understand for thousands of years Uh, and that's that's why we have so many misunderstandings and revelation I think most of the the misunderstandings just the the false stuff that is taught about revelation is all gets back to that one question They're trying to answer when and yet God's not gonna tell them when
And there's two major schools that try to use revelation to answer the question when the first is called the future of school They think everything in revelation is set off into the future And do these signs you have to figure out exactly when this is gonna happen when that's gonna happen and you have to see the signs And a I almost completely reject that school. There's about three chapters in revelation their future I'll give you a hint. It's the last three But what's wrong with that school is that make everything in the book of revelation irrelevant for the first 2000 years of church history Which is exactly contrary to chapter one it can't they can't be right The other school is called the historic school and they kind of think that revelation is tribes all of history And some people in and reformers did thought this and they all thought kind of Some of these people think that you can find the exact place in verse in the book of revelation where you presently are Again, I think that's the success of the question win. I think that's the wrong question I am I believe when I'm gonna be teaching for the next a couple of months is what's called the ideal to school Which is that revelation teaches us not when but why It explains what is happening Why it's happening what's going on in heaven what the purpose of God's work is what where he's trying to do on the earth and
Because that's a question that God does like to answer And that's that's what we're gonna be that's how we're gonna be interpreting it now I do want to just to kind of solve this question in this segment up I want you to understand that there's the reason why there's confusion about the wind question That Jesus foretells about two different events There is one event Uh, that he's very specific about telling wind and that's the destruction of Jerusalem He describes that in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and he actually tells disciples very clearly Study these signs know this. I want you to know exactly when it's happening because I don't want all of you to get killed And when you see these signs flee to the hills But that's not talking about his return He goes on to tell parables about a long pause before the master comes back to describe his return And the whole point of those parables is nobody knows when We know he's not talking about his return because he says and there are people standing here who will not die before they see this day And if you need to know understand more about that. I'd be glad to explain it Jesus is describing two different things and when he's telling people you have to know when he's getting them ready for the tribulation He's getting them ready for the Roman invasion He doesn't want his people to all get killed with all the Jews who were destroyed in 80 60 80 70 if you care um He uh he wants them to be safe so his church will thrive But when it comes to us and our generation asking the question when he tells us very thoroughly with divine authority That is none of your business So what does he tell us well? Let's open the Bible revelation chapter 7 Here's the word of the Lord chapter 6. I'm sorry about my number just one Just assume if I give you number it's wrong and I'll come back and correct it All right revelations chapter 6 Now I watched when the lamb opened one of the seven seals and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder come And they looked and behold a white horse and it's right or had a bow and a crown was given him and he came out conquering and to conquer When he opened the second seal I heard the second living creatures say come And out came another horse bright red and it's Hort rider was permitted to take peace from the earth So that people should slay one another and he was given a sword And then we open the third seal and I heard the third living creature say come And I looked and behold a black horse and it's rider had a pair of scales in his hand And I heard what seemed to be the voice and a mist of the four living creatures saying Accord of wheat for a day's pay and three quarts of barley for a denarius And do not harm the oil and wine And when he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say come And I looked and behold a pale horse and its rider's name was death and Hades followed him And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beast of the earth Let's stop there for a second Three questions we're going to answer today are why why has Jesus sent the horseman Why is he are they bringing judgment with them and then thirdly why Why does he wait so long why does he wait so long first we're going to say why does he send the horseman He gives us a hint and Matthew 10 Jesus says through disciples Don't think I've come to make everything easy for you Don't think I've come so that you can be happy wealthy and healthy Don't think that I've come to make everything right for you Don't think that I've come to bring peace. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword And whoever does not take it but his cross and follow me is not worthy of me Whoever finds his life will lose it And whoever loses his life for my sake or find it As Jesus describing his ministry So what are we having this tax we have The Lamb of God Remember last two weeks ago when I was preaching on this we have the Lamb of God who was slain Who's opening the divide the the scroll he's opening God's plan for the earth This the lamb is the one sending the the horseman to us It's a benefit. It's a result of his being slain and defeating death And as a result now he is he's he's defeated death He's defeated our enemies and he is sending out his army sending out his cavalry And this letter is first written to the first century Asians right And they're under Roman Empire they're under the Roman oppression And the Christians have to kind of hide And you can't go out in the marketplace and and publicly proclaim that you're a Christian because that would make you An infidel You wouldn't respect Caesar you wouldn't pray to Caesar So you couldn't open up your you couldn't practice your trade you couldn't sell your goods because you weren't a worshiper of Caesar And they lived in fear and they lived in oppression And Jesus is saying I'm going to send my cavalry I'm going to liberate you from Rome I'm going to send conquest and there's going to be Leader after leader taking over nation and taking over nation and it's going to it's going to weaken the walls of Rome And I'm going to raise up war Rome is going to continually be spending their the resources on battles and defense And we would say the same thing to every other nation Germany, France whatever nation France under Napoleon not recently Whatever nation is trying to conquer the earth. I'm going to weaken them And I'm going to send scarcity I'm going to send what that is an interesting picture right this black horse comes and the result of his coming is Is a whole days pay is cost is the cost for just enough bread for one day And yet there's plenty of oil and wine. What does that mean? It means the poor people are going to be struggling to just eat out their Survival and the wealth. They're going to have plenty of oil and wine And if you know history you know that this will is what went on in the last days of the Roman Empire. That's great struggle between the wealth and the poor and that's why the poor wouldn't come and defend the borders And the Visigoths came in He's going to send these things to weaken them and he's going to send death and pestilence to come in and weaken our enemies That's the message of the of the horsemen of the apocalypse the Calvary's on the way God has the greatest army of all time He raises up other Humans to battle against humans the book of Isaiah talks about Cyrus the Persian and God says I'm raising him up. He's my tool. He doesn't know that he's doing my will but he is And that's what Jesus is going to do. He's going to liberate him And I aren't the message for us two thousand years later living in the United States with great freedom is this You are free to worship Tim Tibo is free to bow down and thank God for his touchdowns Not because of George Washington Not because of Thomas Jefferson But because the Calvary has come God sent his Calvary two thousand years ago and he's been sending it ever since and he is liberating this earth and the church is growing As you've got to understand that Every time somebody on the radio comes and talks about how the life is getting so much worse and this country's about to fall Everything's just going to hell in the handbags get turned it off. It's a lie The church used to have 11 people in it
Study some history study history The gospel is growing the church is growing Yes, Rome is going to fall. Yes France is going to fall. Yes, Germany is going to fall. Yes, the United States is going to fall one day Yes, of course, but the church will never fall And that's our kingdom that is our kingdom That is our citizenship because the Calvary has come and it is still coming That is why he has sent the horseman That is what he's doing. He's going to liberate us. I love that song. We sing last week Actually, I may not have been here. I can't remember where it was um song 139 It talks about the liberation that Christ is bringing us and it says he will it last his people free from all their sin and sorrow That's why he's sending the horseman to free us from all Our sin and sorrow Well, what question is that naturally bring them on
What is taking you so dang long Isn't that the next question? Must be the next question because the next question that text answers um So what what happens next verse 9 when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who'd been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had born And they cried out with a loud voice oh sovereign lord holy and true How long before you will judge and avenge your blood on those who dwell in the earth And they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little while longer Until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete Who were to be killed as they themselves had been This is the first picture the revelation gives us of what our loved ones are doing in heaven right now They are under the altar of Christ and they're pleading with the Lord Don't get them how much longer And God is comforting them he is saying to them I'm saying just a little while longer He's telling us exactly when it's how long it's going to take is the question that bow answered last week Do you remember last week sermon on the wheat and the weeds And Satan had come and and planted weeds in the good field among all the wheat And the servants came to the master and said do you want us to go pull out the weeds what do you say He said no why not Because if you pull out the wheat the weeds you're going to harm the wheat We will wait until every grain of wheat is ready and when every grain of wheat is ready then we'll harvest the mom will sort them But I'm not going to let you pull the weeds out too early because it would damage the wheat And and God is saying to the martyrs. I'm not going to go back and judge the earth too early all of my children aren't here yet And I will wait until the very last one is here I'm not going to miss one I want you to understand this because it's an important question If you never ask yourself the question why does God tolerate so much evil why does God continue to tolerate so much pain Then you're just not a very honest person It's okay to ask that question the martyrs are asking it in heaven right now How long when are you going to bring justice You need to understand the answer When my very last child has put faith in my son And by faith has been made a son of God then I will go and get them How does that work for you? Well You all heard me talk about my dad before um And I you know and I've used the phrase that growing up poor before and I dig rope poor But I don't want you to have in mind kind of you know working poor honest poor, you know farmer who just can't scratch out in existence I'm a descendant of what we call the irresponsible for the um the undeserving poor When my dad worked hard made a lot of money and he gambled every penny of it away He was an addicted gambler And we knew about the problem we kept praying for him and pleading with him to stop and as a young boy 10 years old I go to church prayer meetings and I would stand up and pray at every church prayer meeting God help my daddy help my daddy But he didn't my dad stayed irresponsible Until he just left home from the shame and left my mom 20 years later I've gotten some insight into that You see I went to Vanderbilt University, but not on an academic scholarship. I wasn't that smart good heavens those people were smart Now I worked hard And I went to Vanderbilt on a poverty scholarship And there were a lot of middle-class people who didn't get near the financial aid that I got Vanderbilt the education I got calls me $900 for four years And I was not that smart and while I was at Vanderbilt I heard the gospel And while I was at Vanderbilt I heard the reformed faith and I became interested in being a reformed pastor Of a Presbyterian minister and while I was there I met Bianca And while I was there I met the girl I met so therefore I was there I met the girl I was married and my children would not exist My children would not exist if my dad had not been so irresponsible That unbeknownst to him he qualified me for a poverty-based scholarship If my dad had been honest hard-working poor I would have gone to UTM and history would be different And my children would not have existed and I wouldn't be here preaching the gospel to you That did he mean to do that? Of course not But was God using him to do what he wanted to do? Yes Why did God tolerate my father's irresponsibility and sin so that I would be here explaining this to you right now That's why he's doing it And sometimes the questions are just so big all we can do is go I have no idea why you're allowing this But maybe in 20 years we will Maybe in 50 years we will Maybe in 10,000 years we will And that's going to answer our questions God is it work because he is allowing evil to exist so he can get his children in That's how long That's how long God is saying to the martyrs the exact same thing he says to you in your pain Trust me I know you don't and know it doesn't look like it, but I know what I'm doing Trust me So if we if that's what he's doing And what is he going to do He said the text goes on to show us his patience one last forever First Peter says many have lost the faith because they think God has waited too long And he's saying God's not slack has some calm slackness But he's patient waiting for all to come to repentance waiting for all his children to be in But it won't last forever then what Then he opened the sixth seal and I looked and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sack cloth And the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree sheds It's winter fruit when shaken by a gale The sky vanished like a scroll that has been rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free Hidden themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains calling to the mountains and rocks Fallen us and hide us from the face of him who was seated on the throne And from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of the wrath has come who can stay He's coming Justice will come Justice will come And no one will escape it You're gonna try to escape it. You're gonna beg don't don't make me see him I don't want to see those pure eyes. I don't want to feel that judgment if you're not Excited to see him if you're not delighted to see him if you're not longing to see him right now And you'll be terrified to see So what should we do until then The final question this text answers what should we do till then Well, first thing you need to do is you need to join the liberation You need to join now you need to join now You need to join the lamb's army How do you do that? Well, where were the martyrs? Go back to the fourth seal. Where were the martyrs? They were under the altar of Christ Isn't that a beautiful picture? The altar in the Old Testament was a place in the temple where you would walk up to Is it eye level and you would walk up to it to meet God But being unholy being uh Being dirty Being shameful You couldn't just walk in and tell God what you wanted Because your sin had to be paid for And so the the priest would take a lamb and would slaughter the lamb and put the lamb's blood on the altar So when you walked in your eye level with the lamb who'd been slain And the message was I deserve that But God has graciously accepted the blood of a sheep So that I could come and be a son
If you want to join the lamb's army then you have to come and get under the altar We have to become one of his children We have to go the The picture of the last seal being open there is a picture of of worldwide destruction and the Lord's wrath being poured out upon the earth And you can think of it like a fire if you're in a forest fire And you're and you find yourself surrounded in the the wisdom is to go where the fire is already burned Go find a place where the fire is already burned because it can't burn there twice If you go up under the altar because that's where the God's wrath has already fell it's already fell on his son And their safety there we don't we get up under the altar and we resist the world think back So when the French were under German occupation some of them were traders They went and they helped the Germans why well because it was prudent Because they would get extra rations And we live in a time when we know yeah, yeah, we know this world is bad and there's some bad things out there And sure the world calls the death of Christ, but money is nice Pleasure feels good. That's the definition of pleasure It probably be more fun to be a little bit bad wouldn't We're not being bad. We're not traders. We're not you know We're not committing treachery against the lamb. We're just enjoying the benefits of the world a little bit until he gets back
And Jesus says no, you're either forming or against me. You're either fighting for the liberation Or you're fighting against me Resist the bribes of the world and join by faith I think from believers The real temptation is to say well if God would just make himself obvious, I would believe Well, yeah, I mean, that's fair. I mean you would. I agree with that When you see him when he comes to meet you you'll believe then But that's all well and good. I mean, what does that require view That would be like those who are traders in France When when the allies forces came back they went you know what I thought I said to myself if you ever came and saved me I'm gonna be faithful to you The whole time I was serving Germany. I was saying that saying the back of my mind the second those allied troops come deliberate me I'll be faithful to them That's what I meant Well, of course you would that's not loving them. That's loving yourself If you're saying the second I see God coming judgment then I'm gonna believe in him. Well, yeah Of course you would That's not loving him. That's loving you that self-preservation He asked you to come and believe him by faith He's asking you to love him unseen not out of a desire to save yourself But out of a desire to love him We have to join now by faith and we have to fight alongside the lamb We have to always be asking ourself why do we exist? What is our mission? What is your purpose? We exist to glorify the land we exist to tell people of his love to bring people in to tell them That I know you think you're getting life out of the world you think you're getting life out of your job You think you're getting life out of the pleasure that That sim brings but it will not last Let me tell you where true life is to be found That that's why we exist and that's why we that's that's what we have to be thinking we are part of the cavalry And we've got to be Living deliberately. I would have had a great just a wonderful retreat with the elders and the deacons this weekend And that was one of the main things we talked about coming to church is coming to work You're not here to be entertained you're here to do ministry You're here to reach people and you go out into the world to go do ministry and to serve people and to love people And to liberate them from the bondages of sin and poverty and heartbreak Be it work Join the lamb Join the lamb and the days after the liberation People would line up for the rations and And there was always kind of evaluations that would go on and you were given kind of papers to prove that you've been you know Faithful to the The French government and if you'd served in the army or whatever then you get greater rations sometimes and Some of the soldiers would lose their papers and Our story after story if people coming to get Their rations and they didn't have the proof that they had served the military But they would show them an arm that was blown off They would show them the scars and they would say I think it's pretty obvious I was faithful if you're serving the lamb If you're not giving in to everything the world offers you and You're not living the life of indulging your pleasures and indulging yourself It'll be obvious Do you have those scars Is he your love if he's not I want you to know there's a cycle that we all tend to get into And it's the cycle of kind of feeling bad about ourselves And doing something to make ourselves feel good Can be anything can be drinking a little too much can be eating a little too much. You can be flirting a little too much It can be working a little too hard just get everything just perfect so you feel like you're a good human It can be over-discipline your children so that you make them just perfect just right so you feel good about the parenting you're doing The problem with all those things is they make you feel good for about an hour or a day And then you're ashamed of yourself and you feel worse than you did in the first place And it's a slavery and the way to be free from that slavery is to come to the lamb And to let his love for you be what erases how bad you feel about yourself To define yourself by how much he loves you That God himself would love you so much And he would die for you and I invite you to make that What make that the thing that he races yourself hatred? I invite you to make that the thing that erases yourself disappointment I invite you to put faith in that today And to gather with me under the altar You don't understand that please come talk to me I'll be back in the back by the welcome table We'll give you a free book. I'll talk to you as long as you want to talk now pray with him But I pray that you come today