Participants: Dr. David Klinedinst
Series Code: DPR
Program Code: DPR000011A
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00:07 I want to invite you to take your Bibles
00:11 and just go right to Revelation chapter 5 00:15 and I saw in the right hand of him 00:19 who sat on the throne a scroll, 00:23 written inside and on the back, sealed with (what?) 00:27 7 seals then i saw a strong angel 00:31 proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open 00:35 the scroll and to loose its seals 00:39 and no one in heaven or on earth 00:43 or under earth was able to open 00:47 the scroll or to look at it. verse 4. So I 00:51 wept much because no one was found 00:55 worthy to open and read the scroll or look at it 00:59 but one of the elders said to me do not weep for behold 01:03 the lion of the tribe of Judah and the root of David 01:07 has prevailed to open the scroll and loose 01:11 its seven seals. Now Let's stop there for second 01:15 the vision opens up by 01:19 focusing on a picture of God the father 01:23 sitting on his throne and in the right hand 01:27 of God the father is (what?) a scroll 01:31 sealed with 7 seals and 01:35 that seems to be the focus and emphasis of this vision 01:40 this scroll sealed and that cannot be opened 01:43 it then says one of the angels voices calls out 01:47 very loudly, who is worthy to open this scroll 01:51 to unloose the seals and reveal the contents 01:55 and it says no one is found in heaven or earth 01:59 or under the earth that can open 02:03 the seals. And it causes great concernation in heaven 02:07 so much so that in verse 4 John does John actually do 02:11 in the vision? Does what it says I 02:15 weep much it disturbed him 02:19 see this tells us that whatever is written in those scrolls 02:24 must be something very important for the church of Jesus 02:28 to know. but finally 02:32 some one says one of the Elders says there is someone is found worthy 02:36 to open the scroll it is the lion of the tribe 02:39 of Judah the root of David who has prevailed 02:44 now who would that be you think. That's Jesus Christ 02:48 those are Old Testament terms that refer to the Mssiah. 02:52 so what Revelation it is telling us is Jesus is the one 02:56 who is worthy to open the scroll because 02:59 he prevailed over sin on the cross of calvary can you say amen 03:03 and the next thing John sees is a slain lamb 03:07 in the middle of the throne room, an obvious reference to Jesus 03:11 death on the cross. The rest of that chapter 03:15 goes on to say why Jesus is worthy to open 03:20 the seals. It is because he is the one who shed 03:24 his blood He is the Lamb of God that came to this 03:28 earh to save fallen mankind and so because 03:32 of that he is the the only one He is the perfect saccrifice that 03:36 is worthy to open the scrolls and so see 03:40 what this is telling us is that whatever is in 03:44 those scrolls must have something to do with the church of Jesus. 03:47 because not only has he died for the world he is 03:51 the head of the church so in those scrols, in those 03:55 seven seals, it is going to reveal things that will 03:59 happen to the church of Jesus all through out history 04:03 in fact here is what we're gonna discover as we read this 04:07 Jesus opens the seals and these seals 04:11 will begin to describe the history of the church through the christian age 04:15 it is gonna discover the past the present 04:19 and the future and this will become very obvious as we go through 04:23 it for example we are gonna discover the first four seals cover 04:27 church history from the first century to the middle ages 04:31 the 5th seals gives us imagery of the persecuation 04:35 that came in the dark ages and the 6th and 7th seals 04:39 are signsof the end and coming of Jesus 04:44 revelation chapter 6 and going to start in 04:48 verse 1 through 2 Now I 04:52 saw when the lamb opened one of the seals 04:56 and I heard one of the four living creatures saying 05:00 with a voice like thunder come and see 05:04 and I looked and behold a white horse 05:08 (What Color?) white he who sat 05:11 on it had a bow and a crown was given to him 05:15 and he went out conquering and to conquer 05:19 so here is the picture we are given thus far 05:23 a rider on (what color of a horse?)a white horse 05:27 he has a bow and arrow in his hand and is wearing a crown 05:31 and in the Greek it is a stephanos crown which is a 05:35 victor crown and the horse and rider are described 05:39 as conquering everything in their path. 05:44 that is rather impressive dont you think? now our first question 05:48 is ok is this meant to be literal or symbolic 05:52 does this mean we are gonna see a rider with a white horse in the sky 05:56 obviously revelation is trying to represent 06:00 something, so here is what we need to do the first question would be 06:04 who is the rider on the horse? now we cound go around 06:08 the romm and we could try to guess I think it this or I think that 06:12 some theology perspective say this is the antichrist 06:16 i can absolutely guarantee you this is not antichrist 06:20 because no where in the Bible is antichrist ever represented 06:24 by white. White always rpresents what in the bible 06:28 truth, purity, and righteousness. 06:32 in fact what we are gonna discover is the rider on the white horse 06:36 is Jesus Christ. You say how do we know that? 06:40 references from the old testament let me take somewhere in 06:44 the book of Habakuk, the propohet Habakuk actually 06:48 wrote and pictured God as riding a horse 06:52 notice what it says. 07:16 So see here is a reference in the Old Testament God riding on a horse 07:20 being victorious He has a bow and arrow see 07:24 the first seal is borrowing this imagery from Habakuk 07:28 and it is giving us the clue that clearly the rider 07:32 is Jesus Chrsit more definitive than that 07:36 there is another picture of a white horse in the book of revelation 07:40 now i wanna take you there it isnt in the chapter about 7 seals but in revelation 07:44 19, notice the clue that this chaper give us 08:08 now let me ask you does that osund like a description of antichrist? 08:12 who is the one that is faithful and true. Christ? 08:16 who is the one who is the righteous judge? Who is the 08:20 king who wears many crowns. I'm even later on in that chapter 08:24 it describes the rider as king of kings and lord of lords 08:28 and that pretty much settles that the rider is Jesus 08:32 Christ and so what we have here is a 08:36 picture of Jesus and His early 08:40 new testament church conquering the world 08:44 because that early new testament church followed the pure 08:48 word of God they followed the righteousness 08:52 of Jesus you see all through the scripures 08:56 even in history tells us the early new testament church 09:00 literally turned the world upside down with the gospel 09:04 they took the gospel to all the then known world 09:08 conquered everything in their path just like 09:12 this horse and its rider because Jesus Christ is the head 09:16 of the church and that crown that stephanos crown 09:20 is the greek word that would be used for the crown 09:24 given to the winner of the ancient greek olympiads the actual word 09:28 stephanos Jesus conquers all 09:32 so in that first seal we see a beautiful 09:36 and a positive glorious picture of the early first century 09:40 church a powerful and pure faith 09:44 that is conquering the world witht he gospel can you say amen 09:48 however I have bad news seal number 1 09:52 is about as good as it gets because 09:56 after seal number 1, youre gonna see 10:00 depicted a steady decline 10:04 in the church. Youre gonna see pictured 10:08 a slipperly slope where through the centuries the church starts to 10:12 gradually fall away from the pure word of God 10:16 and his truth I'm glad for the first seal 10:20 but as you know from chistian history it doesnt stay that way 10:24 so lets now go to the second seal the second seal 10:28 the second seal is depicted in revelation 6 verses 10:32 3 through 4 The Bible says 10:36 And when He had opened the second seal 10:40 I heard the second living creature say, Come 10:44 and see another horse (What color?) 10:48 fiery red went out. And was granted to the 10:52 one who sat on it to take peace from the earth 10:56 that people should kill one another and was given to him 11:00 a great sword. Now let me ask you a question 11:04 just from reading the literal description without 11:08 interpreting it yet does that sound positive description 11:12 or negative one. negative that doesn't good does it? 11:16 So here is a rider coming out on a red horse the 11:20 rider has a sword in his hand and he take peace from the earth 11:24 people slay on another by the Greek word 11:28 slay or kill you find this passage actually refers 11:32 to martyrdom it refers sacrificial killing 11:36 see what we are going discover is this is referring 11:40 to a time of when there would be great violence against the church 11:44 on earth because see the horse is red 11:48 and in the Bible red represents what? it represents blood 11:52 and in other words the church of Jesus is going to enter an era 11:56 of bloody persecution a time when the sword 12:00 would be used peace be taken from the earth 12:04 people slay one another there will be many martyrs who give there 12:08 lives for Jesus and the interesting things is 12:12 that is perfectly correlated 12:16 with the second phase of christian history which is the 2nd 12:20 and 3rd centuries that was the era of persecuation 12:24 see in the 2nd and third centuries remember who ruled the world? 12:28 Rome and see at that time 12:32 it was illegal to be a christian to be a christian 12:36 meant you were an enemy of the state you could lose house 12:40 you could lose home you could lose everything you were considered 12:44 to be a criminal and during the second and third century 12:48 the roman empire had determined that they were going 12:52 to stamp out christianity forever no matter what the cost 12:56 and it indeed entered a time of bloody persecution 13:00 in fact let me read to you some references 13:04 from history at that time now you will probably 13:08 recognize this picture it is very representative of events 13:12 in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Yo know what that is thake a guess 13:16 that is the roman colloseum now how many people 13:20 here have been to Rome could I see your hands 13:24 anyone ever seen the colloseum? If you have been in there 13:28 it is an impressive structure 13:32 it was said that it could seat 60-70,000 13:36 people i mean it would rival any modern stadium 13:40 today. I had the privilege a few years ago Marquita 13:44 and I went on a study tour of the reformation and got to go 13:48 in that roman colleseum and see what would happen 13:52 is this is where Rome threw all their criminals 13:56 all the enemies of State they wanted to get rid of 14:00 they would be throne into the middle of this colosseum where they were forced 14:04 to defend themselves against armed gladiators and wild 14:08 ravenous beasts and since christians 14:12 were considered enemies of the state 14:16 they were thrown into this colosseum with 60000 14:20 sreaming fans wanting to see 14:24 the blood of a christian shed applauding when thier vile 14:28 was taken from them when they but yet 14:32 stood their ground all these christians 14:36 and remained faithful to Jesus Christ I want you to notice what one 14:40 church historian description of this time period 14:44 this comes from the church historian Eusebius He says an I quote 15:28 you see 15:32 church history describes for us these second and third century 15:36 christians who would look gladiators in the eye 15:40 look wild beasts in the face 15:44 they knew they were going to die yet they chose to 15:48 stay faithful to the pure word of God 15:52 they chose that they would not deny Jesus nor his teachings 15:56 can you say amen that is why 16:00 that first century church changed the world and now 16:04 in the 2nd and 3rd centuries they are persecuted 16:08 oh that the 21st century church could be like th early church 16:12 if we were we would 16:16 change this modern world but you know so often 16:20 it happens that when we face some persecution or 16:24 when we face trials or difficulties 16:28 we whine and complain oh God why did you let this happen to me 16:32 oh God why didn't you stop this from accruing 16:36 sometimes it means being made fun of because I'm a christian 16:40 or it means I'm not going to being in the majority I think twice 16:44 about following Jesus or someone might laugh at me 16:48 and all of sudden we all sorts of excuses or 16:52 reason to straddle the fence and to compromise 16:56 but these early century christians in a sense are an example to us 17:00 that no matter what the cost would be, they stayed 17:04 faithful to Jesus my prayer is that you and I 17:08 and the church in the modern age would be just a little like them 17:12 that we would not say Lord ill follow You when its easy 17:16 Lord I'll obey you when it is convenient 17:20 but Lord dont ask me to do so when it costs me something 17:24 dont ask me to follow you when it is going 17:28 to be inconvenient its one thing to follow Jesus in good times 17:32 its another to stay faithful in bad times 17:36 and see the second seal causes me to have to ask 17:40 myself a very tuff question 17:44 am I a fair weather christian 17:48 who will only follow Jesus when it is easy 17:52 or have I truly chosen to love him with all my heart 17:56 with all soul and all mind 18:00 is there is a lot of practical lessons 18:04 even among the seven seals now lets move on in christian history 18:08 and lets go to the third seal 18:12 revelation chatper 6 and verse 5 The 18:16 bible says and When He opened the third 18:20 seal I heard the third living creature say, "Come 18:24 and see." So I looked, and behold, 18:28 What color of house do we have now? a black house 18:32 and he who sat on it had a pair of scales 18:36 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living 18:40 creatures saying,"A quart of wheat for a denarius, 18:44 and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and 18:47 and do not harm the oil and the wine." 18:51 well i suppose we ought to pause there is some imagery 18:55 in that passage that maybe we don't understand at first take 18:59 but let's take a look at what we see from the third seal 19:03 comes a black horse. The rider is carrying scales 19:07 which means he is going to measure something in 19:11 some way now if we think this through 19:15 the first seal had a white horse which represented truth purity 19:19 and righteousness. If that is white represents, 19:23 What does black represent in the Bible? 19:27 the exact opposite. Compromise and error 19:31 darkness. And so what we are 19:35 gonna discover is that in the third seal time period 19:39 the church is going to enter an age when it begins to compormise 19:43 God's word when it begins follows the errors and traditions 19:47 of men and slowly but the church begins to fall away 19:51 from the truth of scripture 19:55 you see the progression that has happen thus far 19:59 the first seal a faithful chruch, you have the second 20:03 seal a persecuted church, now you have the third 20:07 seal a compromised church 20:11 following error, walking away from the Word of God. 20:15 now before we see if that actually happened in history 20:19 there is a couple other symbols of imagery we have to look at 20:26 because notice there is a voice from heaven saying something 20:30 we dont understand the voice says 20:38 in the 21st century we would look at that and say great what does 20:42 that mean a denarius was the currency of that day 20:46 that is how much you would earn for one days 20:50 worth of work it is one days wages a quart of 20:54 wheat was a days worth of bread. That is what you'd need 20:58 just to make enough food for yourself. This is famine conditions 21:02 that means you make barely enough money in one day 21:06 just to be able feed yourself. Not to mention 21:10 the rest of your family and all your other bills it is describing famine 21:14 conditions but it is not describing it literaly 21:18 it is being symbolic. You say well where 21:22 does that imagery where do those phrases come from? 21:26 Revelation is drawing from another part of the old testamnet 21:30 did you know that all the way back in the book of Amos 21:34 Amos used some of the same phrases 21:38 that give us a clue into what God 21:42 is talking about here lets go back to Amos 8. 21:46 The Bible says, 22:11 Now notice Old Testament Israel 22:15 is not listening to the God says they are listening to the prophets 22:19 so he says them there going be a famine from the Word of the lord 22:23 you have turned away from the Word of the Lord I'm not going to speak to you 22:27 through the prophets and so when you realize that Amos is talking 22:31 about a famine of God's Word when you take 22:35 when you take that imagery and put it back into revelation it makes lot more sense 22:39 because what revelation is telling us is now the church 22:43 is gonna enter a period where it is not going to follow the Word of God anymore 22:47 there is gonna be a famine for the truth of scripture 22:51 because they have started following the errors and the traditions of men 22:55 and that perfectly correlates 22:59 with the third part of christian history 23:03 from about about AD 313-538 it is decribing 23:07 the compromised faith and 23:11 a compromised church that fell from the word of God 23:15 now i want to share a few things that happened during that 23:19 time period that will help illustrate why God uses this imagery 23:23 in the third seal. around 313 23:27 the catalyst that caused great compromise was this 23:31 the Roman emperor Constantine 23:35 became a christian. Now at first you think thats 23:39 a good thing right? because Constantine was a pagan 23:43 He participated in the pagan ceremony pagan religion pagan teaching 23:47 but when he became a christian, 23:51 Christianity went from being illegal religion 23:55 to being an accepted regligion.actually it became the official 23:59 state religion and as a result 24:03 Constantine began to take many of pagan teachings 24:07 and ceremonies he was familiar and started bring them 24:11 into the Christinanity and mixing them with the truth 24:15 of Gods Word and it began this slippery slope of 24:19 error and compromise. 24:23 To illustrate let me share with you some things that happened during that time 24:27 during this third seal time period, the teachings of men 24:31 are substituted for the teaching of God 24:35 salvation through Jesus is replaced 24:39 be the requirements of the church do what the church says pay indulgence 24:43 do penance look to you hierarchical leaders 24:47 you don't need to worry about the Cros of Christ those were the 24:51 some of the themes that came into christianity during that time period 24:55 now here are things that practically took place 24:59 in the book development of christian doctrine, history 25:03 records this. It says in page 372 25:07 we are told by Eusebius 25:15 so what was his new religion? Christianity 25:19 so in order to recommend christianity to the heathens 25:23 he transferred into it, that is into it 25:27 that is into christianity the outward ornaments to which they 25:31 had been accustomed in their own. In other words, he brought into 25:35 christianity many pagan ideas that the pagans 25:39 were familiar with because he wanted to unite his empire 25:43 and bring pagans into the christian church and so slowly 25:47 but surely the teachings and traditions of men 25:51 became mixed with the word of God 25:55 and conmpromise and error set in. That is why 25:59 God symbolizes the third seal as a black horse 26:03 here are things that happened. In exodus 26:07 20 we studied the ten commandments 26:11 and the second commenadment said this 26:27 so here is God Holly Law and He clearly 26:31 forbids the use of images and statues and such 26:35 because God is saying why do you want something made with human hands 26:39 when you can have a real relationship with a real God who loves you 26:43 and wants to be involved in your life can you say amen well that makes sense 26:47 but it was during this balck horse period that 26:51 statues and images came into the church 26:55 let me show you some examples now this may be a sensitive subjuct 26:59 im not doing this to be negative towards a particular group 27:03 but only to show how the prophecies of the Bible have been fulfilled 27:07 and how this error and compromise came in 27:11 if you've been to Rome perhaps you have been in St. Peter's cathredral 27:15 or bascilica tha is in Rome. There is a popular image 27:19 that is depicted on the screen, said to be Saint Peter 27:23 now I've been there and I have seen it myself in fact Saint Peter 27:27 his right toe is pretty much rubbed off because everyone come in there 27:31 wants to kiss it and receive grace of some sorts. 27:35 but you know when you do the research? That that not St. Peter. 27:39 that is Jupiter. 27:43 That is the pagan god Jupiter 27:47 because what happened is this is the example of taking some of 27:51 the pagan intuition of the god Jupiter 27:55 and literally bring into St. Peter's 27:59 Catheddral and renaming it as Saint 28:03 Peter it is an illustration of paganism 28:07 creeping into the pure word of God and 28:11 the christianity coming from scripture 28:15 now the question may be well if the ten commandments clearly forbid 28:19 the use of images how did the church explain 28:23 that to people? its hard to explain that when ten commandments said 28:27 you shall not use any graven images I want to share something with you 28:31 that is a little sensitive but something that happened in history 28:36 do you know that Rome's version of the Ten commandments 28:40 is differnt from the Bible version 28:44 written Exodus 20 You say what do you mean 28:48 if you look at Rome's version in a catacism, 28:52 the second commandment about graven images is totally blotted out 28:56 it doesn't existent so what was done is 29:00 the ninth commandment that talks about coveting was split in two 29:04 so there could still be 10 commandments and so the way you explain 29:08 to people why you're bringing images into the church is 29:12 you simply use your power and blot out one of those commandments 29:16 that is what was done 29:20 pagan institutions coming into the church error and compromise 29:24 see God was trying to warning His people 29:28 what was coming down the pipe through these seven seals 29:32 there are other examples. In an early apostolic 29:36 creed discovered, it said 29:48 that is biblically correct. This is an early apostolic 29:52 creed where early christians realized that the sabbath 29:56 was eternal institution and pointed back as memorial 30:00 to creation and realy it just basically quoting 30:04 Genesis 2. now we studied that a couple of nights ago Genesis 2 30:08 says 30:19 Now that is what the Bible says but it was during this black horse 30:23 period when the sabbath lost sight of and the pagan 30:27 institution of sunday was came in in fact you 30:31 can read about this in history this age of compromise 30:35 the pagan day of the sun now i want to quote a historical source 30:39 it's a book called the histroy of the eastern chruch 30:43 it says 31:07 so you see here is another example 31:09 of pagan teaching, the day of the sun, 31:14 coming into christianity replacing one of God's commandments error and 31:18 compromise set in see that is why the sabbath is 31:22 important it is not because I like to harp on it 31:25 but see when you realize it has to do with pagan teachings 31:29 coming into christianity now im realizing this isnt 31:33 about to day its about following the tradition of men 31:37 or the truth of the Word of God 31:41 it is either about being faithful to scripture 31:45 or going with error and compromise 31:49 these are only two examples of many things that happened in that black horse period 31:53 but the seals go on 31:57 now we come to seal number 4. thus far 32:02 We have seal number 2 a conquering church and pure faith, 32:05 seal number 3 a persecuted church and bloodstained faith, 32:10 seal number brings in ab an age of compromise 32:14 but now notice seal number 4 32:17 it begins in verse 7. Revelation 6 32:21 versee 7 and 8 The Bible says, 32:26 When He opened the fourth 32:30 seal, I heard the voice of the fourth 32:34 living creature saying,"Come and see." So I looked, 32:38 and behold, (What color hourse?) 32:42 pale horse. And the name of him who sat 32:46 was Death, and Hades (or other verison 32:50 say hell) followed with him and power was given 32:54 to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword 32:58 with hunger with death and by the beasts of the earth 33:02 by the way do you see all four curses of the covenant mentioned there 33:06 sword, hunger, death, beasts of the earth. 33:10 speaking symbolically now before we go in to figure out 33:14 what this means just looking at the description let me 33:18 ask you once again. Does that sound like something good that is happening 33:22 or sound like something bad. what od you think? This doesnt sound good 33:26 you have a pale horse. Pale is the color 33:30 of death. In fact the greek word behind pale here in revelation 33:34 is chloris. That's the word used to describe 33:38 someone who has already got one foot in the grave 33:42 so the theme here in the fourth seal is about death! 33:46 The riders death hades or hell is behind him 33:50 he is given power over the earth and now it brings back 33:54 an intensification of violence that 33:58 does not sound good you say well what does it mean 34:02 here is what you are going to discover it 34:06 is describing a time in church histroy 34:10 when the church would be spiritually dead 34:14 see the theme is death in this seal 34:18 it describes an age of history when there was physical death for the true believer 34:22 and spiritual death for the church 34:26 it is really describing the apostacy of the middle ages because 34:30 if you've ever read the history of the middle ages what happened is this and we're gonna 34:34 talk about it in detail one night what happened is 34:38 if you chose to follow the Bible and the Bible alone 34:42 if you that he Bible was above the church 34:46 or religious leaders you were a heretic. Just to own 34:50 a Bible to translate it, to share any 34:54 portion of scripture with someone, the Bible was forbidden book 34:58 if you chose to believe it you were a heretic. You coul dbe burned at the stake 35:02 you coul dbe tortured at the rack you could lose everything 35:06 thats shy this pale horse period is described 35:10 not only as an intensification of violence, 35:14 but the church is spiritually dead. When you leave the truth of the 35:18 word of God, when the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Cross 35:22 of Calvary behind and you start focusing on human leaders 35:26 and human doctrines you are going to spiritually 35:30 die and that is what happened to the church in the pale horse 35:34 period. That is a period from about 35:38 538 to 1798. The Middle age persecution 35:42 now to kind of illustrate why God symbolizes it that way 35:46 let me share with you some things that happened 35:50 during that time period. There have been dissertations written about this 35:54 we're just gonna scratch the surface. the steps to compromise 35:58 that happened in the pale horse period was this traditions 36:02 of men continued to come in. Then came the invention 36:07 of penances. Now are you familiar with what penances are? 36:11 Penances is things that you had to do acts you had to 36:15 preform in order to recieve forgivens for whatever sins that 36:19 you've committed instead of going to Jesus Christ on your knees who is 36:23 the only mediator. What does the bible say? If we confess 36:27 our sins He is faithful and just to (do what?) forgive 36:31 us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 36:35 . Who is the one that does the cleansing Jesus or me? 36:39 Jesus Who is the one that does the cleansing Jesus or the earthly 36:43 religious leader? Jesus is! so men 36:47 were taught by their acts they received forgiveness 36:51 Indulgences came in, if you have read about the reformation period on Martin Luther 36:55 He was highly against indulgences because indulgences 36:59 indulgences taught that you could pay money to pull a loved one out of purgatory 37:03 or perhaps buy your way to haven now I know 37:07 you and I would think how could anybody believe that but you have to understand 37:11 this was a time period when the Bible was hidden form people 37:15 they didn't have the privilege you and I have just getting 37:19 our bible out of the shelf and read it for them selves 37:23 they had to trust in religious leader 37:27 they had to trust human teaching 37:31 and the Word of God was lost sight of and with that Jesus was lost sight of 37:35 in that period images continued to come in 37:40 focus was on the church hierarchy human dogma 37:44 the scripture were totally 37:48 completely lost sight of I hope we realize the privilege we have 37:52 to be able to read the Word of God in freedom and in peace 37:56 Can you say Amen? So here is what the first foru seals tell us. 38:01 seal number 1 is a white horse a pure conquering christian 38:05 faith, first century. Seal Number 2 is a red horse 38:09 a persecuted a bloodstained church, second and third 38:13 century seal number 3 is a black horse period 38:17 bringing in a time of compromise that is about 313 38:21 to 538 and then seal 4 number is a pale 38:25 horse representing a dead that is going into the time of 38:29 persecution through out all of the middle ages for over a 38:33 thousand years but it goes on 38:37 now comes the fifth seal 38:41 now in the fifth you will stop seeing horses and 38:45 horsemen. The fifth 38:49 pauses and focuses ont he persecution of the middle ages 38:53 you'll see that. So lets go to revelation 6 38:57 and we read verses 9 through 11. 39:01 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the 39:05 altar the souls of those who had been slain for 39:09 the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 39:13 And they cried with a (What?) loud voice, 39:17 "How long, O Lord, holy and true, 39:21 until You judge and avenge our blood 39:25 on those who dwell on the earth?" Verse 11 39:29 Then a white robe was given to each of them 39:33 and it was said to them that they should a little 39:37 while longer, until both the number of their fellow 39:41 servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, 39:45 were completed. Now that's a fascination 39:49 description is in it ? it is describing souls who are under the altar 39:53 they are crying for God to do justice and avenge their blood they are given 39:57 white robes and told to hold on for a little longer because 40:01 more martyrs are coming. Now let's pause there 40:05 you have to understand this is not to be taken literally 40:09 it does not mean there are literally people under some altar in haeven 40:13 who are crying for God to do the right thing this is 40:17 symbolic it is using imagery coming from 40:21 the old testamnet sanctuary. Now hear what I say because 40:25 it is key to understanding the fifth seal. In the old testament 40:29 sanctuary in the courtyard there was something 40:33 called the bronze altar you see picture on the screen here 40:37 when the lamb would be slain on the bronze altar the blood 40:41 would flow to the bottom and be caught in a pan, 40:45 and of course the blood of that lamb represented the 40:49 sacrificial death of Jesus Christ so when it talks 40:53 about souls being under the altar here in Revelation it is 40:57 referring to their sacrificial killing 41:01 it is referring to marytrs whos blood would be shed during the middle ages 41:05 because that is where seal 4 left off 41:09 And these souls are crying out Lord when are you going to avenge our blood. 41:13 In fact the imagery that's here 41:17 actually comes all the way from the book of Genesis did you know that? 41:21 I want to read you something in the book of Genesis. You know what 41:25 happened between Cain and Abel. When Cain shed Abel's blood, 41:29 God said this to him now notice the phrase God uses. 41:34 Genesis 4:10 the Bible says 41:45 now did God literally mean that Abel's blood had actually formed a mouth 41:49 and was crying out to him it is symbolic. 41:54 What God was saying is I know what has happened 41:57 I know the in the justice that was done to Abel 42:01 and I am going to make that wrong right and Cain was punished. 42:05 And so what God is revealing in the fifth seal He is saying he 42:09 knows about those who have given their life for the gospel 42:13 he knows about those who have sacrificed for Jesus CHrist 42:17 who have stayed true no matter what the cost is he knows 42:21 about the martyrs in the middle ages when millions of people died 42:25 and were burned at the stake 42:29 but it is not just limited to the persecution of the middle ages 42:33 God is speaking of all those who would give their life for Christ all throughout 42:37 the ages He is talking about all those 42:41 who would have to sacrifice family or friends or jobs or 42:45 money or something else because they wanted to remain true to Jesus 42:49 and faithful to His word he is talking about all 42:52 those believers who have had in justices done to them 42:57 because they chose to follow Jesus God is telling them 43:00 I haven't forgetten I remember 43:05 and one day when I come one day in the judgement 43:08 all wrongs will be made right 43:12 can you imagine how comforting that would be 43:16 to those martyrs and there families not just in the middle ages but all 43:21 through out time bother and siste if you are suffering 43:25 because you follow Jesus, I want you to know that God knows 43:29 if you have lost something important because you want to be faithful to God 43:33 he knows and he has made record of it 43:36 and though there may be injustice in this world and though 43:40 I may never be able to fight against my persecutors here God says 43:44 the day is coming. All wrongs will be made right 43:48 God knows what has happen to His people He knows 43:52 has been done to his church he will avenge their blood 43:56 on top of that something that 44:00 should thrill us is in in a symbolic way. 44:04 these martyrs in the fifth seal what are they martyrs? White robes 44:08 it signifies that they are going to be saved Jesus 44:12 assured them of salvation because see in the Bible 44:16 only those who are saved wear white robes 44:20 it represents righteousness of Jesus Christ 44:24 but there is one more part to this seal right at every end 44:28 in verse 11 something fascinating is said 44:32 These marytrs are told to rest 44:36 a little while because 44:40 what the number of their fellow servants 44:44 who would be killed had not yet been completed. 44:48 In other words God is daying that the martyrs will not be limited to the middle 44:52 ages there will be others who are called 44:56 to give their lives for Jesus Christ 45:00 and folks as you and I stand here tonight 45:04 there are people who live in countries who have no religious liberty 45:08 places in a sense where church and state are not 45:12 separated christians today 45:16 who are giving thier lives and still being martyred 45:20 for Jesus you read it in the news paper 45:24 you read it in CNN persecution is still 45:28 going on today and 45:32 it should cause me to ask the question that even though right now 45:36 we live in a place of religious liberty 45:40 am I willing to die for Christ? 45:44 amI willing to give my live for 45:48 truths of Gods word It make ask 45:52 myself just how serious am I 45:56 about being christian? 46:00 or am I fairweather christians? 46:04 who will only follow Jesus when it's convenient 46:08 for me that's tough a question to have to answer 46:12 we can only answer in the privacy of our own hearts 46:16 but that is one of the lesson that comes for the fifth 46:20 seal. But now we make are way to he sixth 46:24 seal this is the longest of all as far as description in 46:28 Revelation 6 verse 12 now the sixth 46:32 seal time period ushers in 46:36 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, 46:40 and behold, there was a (What?) great earthquake; 46:44 and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, 46:48 and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven 46:52 fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs 46:56 when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the 47:00 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, 47:04 and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 47:08 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, 47:12 the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every 47:16 free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks 47:20 of the mountains, and they said to the mountains and rocks (what?) 47:24 "Fall on us and hide us from the face of 47:28 Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 47:32 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who 47:36 is able to stand?" 47:40 There is a lot in that one, clearly the sixth 47:44 seal time period ushers in the second coming of Jesus 47:48 because that is what is being described here the sky receding like a scroll 47:52 but before that the sixthe seal opens up 47:56 with 4 interesting signs did you catch in verses 48:00 12 and 13 can you name them well I guess now because I have it on the screen 48:04 a great earthquake, the sun becomes black 48:08 moon beomes like blood, stars 48:12 are falling. Now I guess the first question 48:16 is, are we supposed to take that ltierally 48:20 or are they symbolic of something now almost all 48:24 of Revelation is symbolic but you know how gives us the answer 48:28 to this question? Jesus does 48:32 becasue when Jesus described the signs of the end do you know 48:36 he used those exact same four signs 48:40 but he described them literally way notice what Jesus said in Matthew 24 48:44 I want to read this to you because I want Jesus to be our enterpreter. Can you say amen? 49:08 Now follow this. This is cooming after the persecution 49:12 of the fourth and fifth seals in the latter middle ages 49:16 if these signs occur after the great of the middle ages 49:20 that means these signs should have already have been fulfilled 49:24 because the tribulation of the middle ages ended around 1798 49:28 because in 1798 is when 49:32 Papal Rome lost its power an its government for a period 49:36 of time there was no longer a combination of church and state 49:40 it was separtaed so the persecution stopped 49:44 if these signs come after the great tribulation that means 49:48 some were around 1798 a little before or a little after we 49:52 should have seen these signs occur you say wow did they? 49:56 the answer is yes actually 50:00 you won't here it talk much about it in the secular world 50:04 but when you look up historically reference it is amazing 50:08 let me show you some things quick I wish we had more time on it 50:12 1755 the history tells us about the Lisbon 50:16 earthquake how many people have ever heard of the Lisbon earthquake it was the worst 50:20 earthquake as far as I know in modern times up to that point 50:24 it recorded 8.5 to 9 magnitude 50:28 on the rictor scale. 18000 buildings were 50:32 destroyed in Lisbon Portugal that's 85% of the city, 50:36 the death toll was estimated at 90,000 the 50:40 shockwaves were felt for 1.3 million square miles 50:44 and even 400 miles south Algiors and other cities 50:48 were adestroyed and the records say a 50:52 Tsunami followed did as much damage as the earthquake 50:56 isn't it interesting that the 6th seal opens with an great earthquake 51:00 and right around that time the Lisbon earthquake 51:04 occured we could go on 51:08 ever hear of the dark day in New England you probably never about it on CNN 51:12 but that was a day when things when completely dark 51:16 in the middle of the day and it wasn't an eclipse this how the Conneticut 51:20 historical society records this now I'm just quoting ok? 52:05 see what happened during that time settled in 52:09 from about 8am to noon it began it lasted about 52:13 14 to 15 hours in the middle fo the day, day can you imagine? 52:17 it was so bad that the Conneticut state legislature had to adjourn 52:21 and it was recorded that the darkness went from New jersey 52:25 up to Portland, Maine, parts of Canada, and 52:29 shockingly enough in the evening the moon had the appearance of 52:33 (What?) blood just like is described 52:37 in the sixth seal. But there is yet one more 52:41 the sixth seal said the stars from heaven would fall 52:45 in 1833 notice what was recored 52:49 history says, 53:33 1833. Millions of stars fell 53:37 from the heavens you couldn't miss it people at that time thought this it 53:41 an omen this must be the end of the world maybe Jesus was be coming 53:45 but it was simply one of those signs that ushered 53:49 in the beginning of the sixth seal time period 53:53 here you see them summarized. great earthquake Lisbon 1755, 53:57 Darking of the sun, Moon is like blood 1780 54:01 Stars falling 1833 and the 54:05 next event that would come in the sisth seal 54:09 is the coming of Jesus Christ 54:13 see Revelation tells us we are living in the sixth 54:17 seal time period Jesus is 54:21 soon to come 54:25 but the part that is really something that ought to make us think 54:29 is how His coming is describe here now we already 54:33 verse 14 to 17 it describes people running 54:37 to the mountains and the hills saying fall on us hide 54:41 us from the wrath from the lamb. People running away 54:46 from Jesus because they are not ready 54:50 to me I can only imagine 54:54 what that would be like. But to me the worst 54:58 thing in the world would be to look up into the sky 55:02 and to see Jesus coming 55:06 and knowing in my heart that I'm not ready 55:10 and instead of embracing Him 55:14 I'm running away 55:18 see the sixth seal ought to cause me to ask myself this question 55:22 today am I living 55:26 for christ becasue if I am not living for him 55:30 today chances are strong I may not be living 55:34 for him tomorrow am I ready 55:38 for Jesus to come 55:42 becasue the 6th seal ends with the coming of Jesus 55:46 then lastly is the seventh seal 55:50 now the seventh seal won't take ever long becasue it is only one 55:54 sentence long. But before I read it 55:58 you will notice the seventh seal doesn't come until chapter 8 there is awhole chapter 56:02 in between the sixth seal and the seventh sealyou say why is that 56:06 chapter 7 is like an interlude. 56:10 at end of chapter 6 there is question that asked in the sixth seal 56:14 the question is, For the great day of His wrath has come, 56:18 and who is able to stand?" asking who can stand before Jesus 56:22 who can be saved? chapter 7 is answering that question 56:26 because it is describing the 144 thousand 56:30 now we don't have time to get on that tonight but is very clearly 56:34 a symbolic number the 144,000 are describing 56:38 those who would be saved at the end of time bcasue after 56:42 it talks about 144,000 the second part of chapter 7 56:46 says there is a multitude standing around the sea of glass 56:50 numberless as the sand of the sea and then it goes on 56:54 to descrbes the character of the 144,000 56:58 they had the character of Jesus Christ, so after 57:02 that little interlude then comes the seventh seal in chapter 8 57:06 Revelation 8 verse 1 the Bible says 57:10 and When He opened the seventh seal, 57:14 there was silence in heaven for (how long?) 57:18 about half an hour. Well 57:22 doesn't give us very many clues for that does it. It says 57:26 there is silence in heaven for space of an half an hour 57:30 what does that mean? Apparently the seventh seal 57:34 happens during the coming of Jesus christ 57:38 now I have heard different ideas to what in the world is this silence 57:42 in heaven but you know the one that make the most 57:46 biblical sense is this one 57:50 the silence of Heaven becasue Jesus and the heavenly 57:54 host have left heaven to come to earth to rescue 57:58 his people. Can you say amen? see when the bible 58:02 describes the return of Jesus it says the Lord himself is coming he is 58:06 coming with all the angels He is coming with the angelic host and the armies 58:10 of heaven all the resource of heaven are being emptied 58:14 to come save his people. |
Revised 2018-07-12