That is our answer to the challenge of living in this difficult world behold the Lamb Life in this world is perpetually hard. That's what it says on your sermon outline That's what the Bible says. That's what Christians know as well as Any other life in this world is perpetually hard Just this morning Walking in at the last minute A woman came up to me and was a traffic ticket her husband got in the way to church this morning I actually wanted to church to cover it, you know, we were trying to get the church on time. It's your fault, you know Life is perpetually hard. I got up this morning and I was getting ready for church I looked at my watch and it said quarter to nine Now you don't know this but we have a service to start today 30 and so that wasn't a good thing and I wasn't actually late my watch was broken and Some of you ought to be realizing right now that I don't have a watch on and for you that That's not a good thing Last night I was just falling asleep in the phone rang When the phone rings laid at a pastor's house. That's not usually a good thing and
There was a Kara and Jerry Bryant there left the golf tournament school golf tournament yesterday they're driving to Bring him Alabama because they've gotten word that Gary's mother is in the last stages of her life and they need to rush there right away Life in this world is hard Hard Think of the headline in the paper this week. What do we see just this very week? A switching error and a London train station leaves one Scores the people dead Just making a way to work on like any other day And now many are dead many mothers many fathers Wast Flood in Mexico a horrible rain they're leaving the Worst flooding in decades entire villages buried under mudslides Life in this world is is perpetually hard We had this week in the paper about two brothers in Oregon who were shot in their school last year in one of those horrible school shootings They survived They went out hunting last week and one brother dropped his gun and it went off and killed his brother And it's just stuff like that all the time in there The same paper talked about a little boy on a hike with his parents in the mountains He ran up ahead of his parents and hit in the rocks, you know, they were playing like I'm like his have done Countless times hiking in the woods He'd jump out and say boo, you know, and try to scare his parents Only when they got up to where he was he wasn't there and they had never found it and They fear that maybe a mountain lion got this child
Life in this world Very hard The community of Citrus County paused and took a hell this breath for a few minutes one School day this week didn't they The students stands up in his class was a nice and and claims to have a Explosive device Well just a reminder that what a very far away are very close. There's such a very broken needy people Life in this world is very hard We open the Bible. We come to Revelation chapter 6 and that's exactly what it says and The reason that life in this world is very hard is because man has rebelled against God and Revelation chapter 6 reveals These four things to us clearly the first is this the pervasiveness of evil in our world The pervasiveness of evil look at the first four Fields that are open Seal number one and two reveal what conquest Tyranny lust for power and dominion Domination control that would cause men to attack others Take what's theirs try to control them and slave them possess them seal number two is is about what war Slaying of one another bloodshed think of blood washed beaches in France think of of Programmes think of Auschwitz and Ravensbrook Think of mothers getting telegrams about sons will never come home The horror the pervasiveness of evil could there be a worse I mean Imagine the Bible starts with God making beer and at everything God makes he says and it was what Good and you only have to pay about two pages and you have one boy killing his brother If you talk about a dramatic kind And it was good and it was good and it was good and it was good and then man said to God but out We'll run there and then Kill his brother and so it is gone now for thousands of years Men killing others The pervasiveness of evil seal number three is what famine scarcity Barley wheat the very base essentials of life will be unable to be obtained people will children will go to bed a Hungry You see it's just a picture of of world history of The horrors of living in this World I think of floating Carcasses in North Carolina you see the picture of the first two seals is men fighting with men and seal number three It's that it's that the ground of the earth will not yield its fruit It's the curse of the ground. It's that it's that men will not find it easy easy even to feed their children anymore I read this week in the newsweek my turn column on Nebraska Farmers wife who described their existence when suddenly a storm blew across the plains and hail Stones the size of softballs crashed through the windows of their Farmhouse destroying all their outbuildings and every bit of their crop Just like that Just like that everything gone And all because Nature is turned its fury against the people of the earth seal number four is the worst enemy We have a ball and what's that? What does it say? Yes Yes, I talked to my parents on the phone. We often say Who called these the golden years anyway? Who's sick sad joke was that as they go from one doctor's appointment to another and face The the retirees That when you've actually got time to do whatever you want you can't do anything you want Your body declines and fails and and and so we've got cancer and so we've got AIDS and so we have a handicaps and and multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy and and Bodies that don't work and we have infertility and we have stillborn children and death Sudden death long for long death crowds in the enemy of us friend Revelation chapter six tells the story as bluntly as it can be told The life on this earth is what it's hard because evil and in the effects of man's rebellion against God Are pervasive and let me tell you something Christians are honest about it. They're not escapist about it CS Lewis said that that's one of the reasons we don't sing when we're picking him for worship Some of the worst music you can use is usually music. It was written at the end of the 19th century Because it's just not true It talks all about if you're with God and that would not appear will fall on us not a cloud in the sky These hymns CS Lewis called them 4th rate poetry set the 5th rate music It's you know if you want escapism go to Broadway and see cats But escapism in the church by singing music that isn't true is called idolatry it's a description of life that it's also wonderful if you walk with Jesus Everything's so good and grant that's how it Christians do that's not Christianity. That's not the Bible Bible says it's hard It's a hard way Christians wasn't any other group. I think are honest about it and they can put their finger on the see the image of Christians the stereotypes is that they're They're in their celestial you know Musings that they're oblivious to the pain of this or let me tell you something I think God's people as well as anyone know why we are in the condition. We are So Janice and when he wrote his life's work a history of his people And he went throughout his country and he asked people what has happened to us? What has broken the spirit? What is ruined? We used to be a great people. We were a great culture and It's all gone. We're a nation of of Lazy and a people of drunkenness of people. He only went and he went all through I mean honestly spent his whole life on this work and he asked his people. What's wrong with us? And it was the it was the elderly particularly women in their 70s and in their 80s. They told them they could remember Way back when everything changed They said what's wrong with us? We have forgotten God Now maybe more poignantly it's better to say what's wrong with our world? What's the answer? I am I am that's the only right answer It's a revelation chapter six reveals the pervasiveness of evil secondly Revelation chapter six Reveals that the lamb is on the throne and in control of everything even evil that happens in this world He's in control of history and he's in control of all the evil turns of nature and of men the picture of the Bible isn't of a world that's out of control some people you might view This and get the picture that that the the story of history is really like God is like a jupetto And he's made this this wonderful little doll Pinocchio, but then Pinocchio comes the life and gets a mind of his own start doing his own thing That's that's God's problem. It's like Jurassic Park God's made this wonderful theme park But suddenly the dinosaurs get outside the fences and everything's in peril and God can't get them back in to finally just nuke the whole thing Is that the story of the Bible of a world run a mark of a world that's out of God that's got a way from him and so that's it He's just going to put an end to the whole thing because he's tick Is that what you see in Revelation six or do you see a lamb who's completely in charge? The God who is completely in control A God who when the when the people of God cry out and say how long before your justice is Is expressed against those who are oppressing your people? What does God say? What does the lamb say? Not yet But a day has been set and there is not yet the number so it's been appointed to die as martyrs from me. They haven't all died yet But that day is set. It's coming Everything is completely ordered. There's a day at the great wrath of God. It's coming It's all going exactly As planned Beautiful picture. So you don't have to be a Christian To know the world is rotten but only Christians Understand that all that rottenness has a purpose Only Christians in the midst of the darkness are secure and tethered because they know he has it all in his hand Christianity today had a feature article. It was called how Columbine has changed America They actually sent a report of there talked to all the families who had suffered The most grievous losses of there and I want to say something that articles I opening to me because as much as I've read about that horrible day I didn't I hadn't read something so clearly from a Christian perspective And you ought to know that those Two-teen henchmen who went through that school. Yes, they were trying to shoot black And yes, they were trying to shoot athletes but firing away their beef was with Christians they consciously walked right past kids And we're looking for certain Christian kids outspoken Christians were targeted primarily The father of one of those children A Rachel Scott who was killed listen to what he said could anybody but a Christian say this He quoted from her journal that she wrote just a short time before She died She wrote in a prayer to God I want heads to turn in the halls when I walk by I want them to stare at me watching and wanting the light you put in me I want you to overflow my cup with your spirit I want you to use me to reach the unreached And so her father said I believe this killing was a spiritual event God's powerful enough to have prevented it He protected my son who was in the library and should have been killed Rachel should be alive She was outside the school building But God is never out of control of what happened Who else could say that? Who else could the execution of their beautiful teenage daughter would say God was there God was in control He's not allowing anything to happen except what advances his purpose and plan Revelation 6 evil is pervasive but God is in control and third the church is not spared are they Though there is ill in this world the church is not spared in fact I mean think of the hand it's teaching that so many churches have polluted the minds of followers of Christ with that if you're a Christian life will be easier If you're a Christian you'll receive nothing but bounty from the hand of God And the fact is that if you're a Christian you'll get cancer just the same if you're a Christian your kids can be killed just the same in fact it's more likely The way of the Christian is a harder way if you were here the five of you were here when we showed the video at the beginning of the service um Kids Christian kids in indonesia that were sent to camp and muslim suds broke through and And beat them and threaten them That's not having other kids to go to camp and could beat up because they're Christians around the world Now Revelation 6 reveals that the way the way the heaven is a hard way and it's particularly Christians that are targeted in this world the church is not spared 25-kilombian pastors killed this year Children kidnapped and burned alive in the sedan for refusing to convert To islam i think of tom gorsky becomes a Christian fights against it his whole life refuses To submit and god breaks in captures this guy's heart six months later He's got leukemia and we watch him walk to heaven for seven eight years in the midst of struggling with team up Therapy and ports and hospital visits and and horrible Medicine that he had to take and and he's a Christian This happens to Christian They're not spared not at all and last of all revelation six reveals
The god's character includes wrath He's a god of righteous wrath You might think that Guys when you read this stuff in the paper when you read about this couple the isenbergs and tampa now accused of killing Their little child and you read these other things and you're blood boils inside of you and and listen if you think you're ticked by evil You haven't seen anything In Revelation chapter six we We see a god Who has allowed the stench of the rebellion of man now to reach his nostrils and he says what he not and the picture is of the second Coming of Christ cosmic disturbance the sky is split open the stars are falling and and god and all his glory and power And might is revealed as an avenging god and the bible says it doesn't matter if you're a king or you're a prince or you're a general Or you're a soldier rich poor young old they all run like what
The proudest the my let me tell you something Jeffy venture is gonna weigh his pants on that day
And so all everyone who has deemed to raise their voice a proud and arrogant in this world against the church of Jesus Christ They will run but they cannot hide In fact the bible says so great will be the horror of that day that the only question that remains is what Was chapter six end with what question who could survive Who could survive it when god walked back on the earth who's gonna make it Who's gonna live to tell You know who is gonna escape That day and what's the answer it's the same as before what's the matter with this world we are That's the gospel. That's the awesome truth of the gospel The people who are the problem are gonna be people who escaped we will escape those the church 144,000 stronger gonna stand on and hey that's the answer of revelation chapter seven six seals have been broken open You're waiting for the seventh seal and all of a sudden you come to chapter seven and there's no seven seal The story stops and says all right who's gonna stand we stand We'll stand 144,000 the 12 Patriarchs of Israel the 12 apostles of the New Testament the whole redeem people have got old and New Testament times A thousand representing a multitude so great it can't even be numbered that's who will stand in that day God's children they'll stand on that day because they are sealed at the first point This world is terribly hard But to his own god is good that's the response of revelation chapter seven and his children will stand in the midst of the darkness Because they are sealed looking versus one two and three of chapter Seven it says it's a great winds of harm or to come upon the earth, but the angels says stop Stay where you are until the the people of God have been sealed protected from the wrath of God What an awesome biblical imagery. This is the the sealing of God. I think of um think of most Noah and his family the great storm of God's wrath gonna flood the whole earth, but Noah and his family are where Storm about them night or takes them right But they're safe in the ark and who sealed it Who was outside the ark? Who could put the pitch on the ark who could close the door and seal it up The Bible says God does it God seals them safe in the midst who got rehab out of Jericho who got one out of Sodom and Gomorrah God He seals his people and I think you mean we're gonna get a mark on our forehead We're gonna get I wonder what I'll have I wonder if it'll match my color I wonder you know if it'll be one of my favorite numbers. I first let's or don't spend a time looking in the mirror If you're in Christ, you're sealed sealed with what the Holy Spirit of promise You're sealed People with that's what baptism represents right? We have the mark of God the brand of God the sign of God We've been claimed by God. We have his ownership. It's on us Ezekiel chapter nine is powerful it describes a read it sometime it describes God coming An vengeance against the the people of Judah for their rebellion against him and describes the Executioners coming with their weapons into the city and God calls them before the throne before they they sweep through and he says now wait All those who are who are Agree in their spirit because of the idolatry of the people they have been marked on such them But everyone else old men old lady Little children women Everybody else Kill them every one of them I can't believe God said that If you can't believe God said that Then you don't know the God of the Bible If you don't understand that that's what you deserve
But you've received mercy The kindness and goodness of God You see you'll never understand how great is that mercy unless you understand the danger Your soul was in apart from God The danger of falling who could survive the righteous holy wrath of God only those who are You To dwell under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty Rock of agents clapped for me But behind myself and they love to tell the story of when my family was Younger. We took them to a place in a Bryson city north Carolina called deep Creek Let me tell you the promise deep Creek It's not deep So it's it's like a thing that parents have to do yet take the kids there and and and they float right along the top But if you go tubing with them you could snag them every rock It's a great experience I recommend it if you If you want a day of frustration and cursing in a great Smoky mountain Well, so we want to deep Creek doing my paranormal duty And uh and it must have rained Deep Creek was Deep And so my younger stutter was only about three or four years old So we tied her tube to mine that way of the states and my cowardly life I don't even think was participating and I was responsible So down we went down the river and we came to a waterfall And knowing that was there just a little waterfall But this little waterfall became pretty treacherous in this deeper water And we went over and I'll remember going over that waterfall and the panic that sets in As you feel yourself in the turning water getting pulled underneath I remember striking my head on a rock And you know you're shaking off and and you're you're feeling yourself kind of lose it a little bit And you're that fear that gets when you're underwater and feel like you're drowning And I can remember through piercing through all that was this one thought don't let go of her Whatever you do don't let your grip lose And we you know we sputtered out of there and crawled across the rocks and like two Grotesque beach whales, you know we we up on the rocks and I remember you know Trying to get my senses about me and and make sure she was okay And there she was her eyes were this big And she said daddy daddy I held on to you I thought you little liar
If you children don't even know today We think when we're in The valley and the dark night of the soul It's our faith It's our turning to God. It's our prayer. It's our hanging on to him that sees us through friend It's the father who hangs on to you in those valley you say god where are you
He's right there With a firm grip on you nobody Takes the sheep from the shepherd Not nobody God's people in the midst of the storm they're safe because they're sealed and they're safe because they're healed Look at what does the passage say I think it's verse 9 10 11 These are the people who are doing what they were killing each other right That's what's happening all over the earth What are they doing now? God's people They're killing each other what are they doing? Worshiping They've been made worshipper They're reconciled to God. They're all gathered around the throne. You're not lusting for power and control in the world's things No They're their hearts are filled flush with affection for the lamb who sits on the throne And they appear before him perfectly reconciled and restored to him to their father wearing what clothing They wear white robe when they get those white robes from What they worked in the nursery right they were in a white group they tied to the building fund They they were hospital visitation. They were good people. They were contributing to the red cross That's how you get white with God right Those robes were white because they were what Wash in the blood of the lamp friends get this get this straight Christianity is not another religion. It's the end of religion Man's religion all through the ages is here's how we live so that God will accept us into paradise and Christianity comes along and says That is all idolatry and it is a stench to my nostril That's why Islam. That's why Confucianism. That's why every other world religion is noxious to God Christianity is the only one that says you don't do anything because you can't Because you're helpless I wash your robe I provide it for you So Christianity isn't trying harder to be good for God It's getting used to seeing yourself in this nice new outfit That God has bought for you
Friend of mine wrote me this week because because the picture there in heaven is that we're healed We're reconciled to God and we are now reconciled to each other. So all that bitterness and strife and rivalry We let it go Friend of mine wrote me and and he said when I was six years old my father abandoned the family All my childhood I tried to get his attention and I never got it He was gone A bitter bitter guy He became a Christian in college And now he's a pastor And he started a PCH church in Seattle. I told you about him Tommy said about seven years ago. I got on a plane throughout the Oregon from Florida To try to connect with my dad and he threw me out of the house Until last Christmas when his father called and said Tommy had become a Christian Now I want to come and see you Now Tommy said I didn't want to be reconciled with my father I believe God could change anybody but not my father And now what I preach to those people every week I had to believe myself And he said my father and his wife Head came And he said at the end of our service we have communion and they made their way up to the front to receive communion And I looked over and I realized that they were going in a different line So I stopped the whole service kind of not obviously but I just switched places So that I would I would offer my father communion And he said you know it was very subtle but every person there saw it And they knew See this is the reconciling power of God
The people of God are sealed and they are healed And last of all They are lavishly love Every promise the Bible gives Jesus is come to me and you'll never be thirsty again Come to me I'll give you the bread that will take your hunger away Come to me and I'll never leave you I will live in your midst Every promise here's a picture of it 16 and 17 the Bible says life They shall hunger no more thirst no more The sun will not beat down em anymore So the lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd And shall guide them to the springs of the water of life And God shall wipe every tear from their eye Here is the father of heaven and earth Who should reject us for our simple rebellion Who instead has what Through the provision of the righteousness of Christ and His love for us Is going to welcome us into heaven So every desire of our heart is satisfying Do you believe that?
Is that the first time you've ever heard that? You know what? Everybody in this room virtually knows that That's not the problem is it It's believing it Christians all know that heaven's a place with a shepherd The lamb becomes our our shepherd And he tends us he cares for us he feeds us he loves us we're in his presence And we still live lives of bitterness and anxiety and depression and discouragement Slumping around like the weight of the whole world is on our shoulders
Why kind of like they ever go to a coke machine and you put in four quarters And you don't get a coke I mean all the money's in there, but the machine won't give you the coke What do you do?
Come on You bang it right And then the quarters fall down in there and you take your coke You tell you something Every one of you knows this beautiful glorious picture of heaven But you've got to take the gospel and slap yourself silly Until it falls down and it warms your heart And it sets you free from anxiety And bitterness and anger and fear don't be afraid I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your Savior Yes Revelation chapter eight verse one and the seventh seal was opened And all of heaven became what?
Because the people of God the lamb appeared And the people of God worked totally at rest
Hallelujah Rock of ages You know we say Revelation is I can't figure it out Friends What's so hard? Rock of ages quest for me Let me hide Myself and me Amen