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Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190007A
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00:01 Jesus is in the business of breaking the unbreakable,
00:05 fixing the unfixable, and preparing His church 00:09 for whatever lies ahead. 00:35 Today we're going to be talking about 00:37 breaking the unbreakable seals. 00:40 The last time, just for a quick review, 00:42 we were in chapter 4 and 5 of the book of Revelation. 00:45 And there we saw Jesus on the throne, 00:48 and He takes this scroll with seven seals, 00:53 He takes that scroll after John has just wept bitterly 00:56 because no one could be found in heaven and earth 00:59 to break those seals. 01:01 And we discovered that that scroll was perhaps 01:06 the deed to all the righteous that would get eternal life 01:11 and get the city and the new earth, 01:13 and all of those wonderful things. 01:15 So why is this thing sealed? 01:19 Well, we have to remember that Satan and Jesus 01:22 are in a great controversy. 01:24 And when Jesus went through Calvary's cross 01:25 and was resurrected, He was accepted by the Father 01:28 and said that sacrifice was complete. 01:31 It was good. 01:33 It was just what heaven had ordered. 01:36 And there's no argument, the judgment had been passed 01:40 on this and Jesus' sacrifice was accepted 01:43 by the Judge of the universe and by the heavenly courts. 01:46 So where does Satan have to go? 01:47 He can't argue anymore that Jesus hasn't paid it all 01:51 on Calvary's cross. 01:52 He can't argue anymore that the blood has been paid 01:57 and the sinners can be freed from their sins. 02:00 But you know, we still have a long way to go 02:02 to get to the second coming. 02:04 So I'm imagining a little bit here, in a sense, 02:07 that the devil looks at Jesus and he says, 02:10 "Okay, okay. 02:12 So You paid the price. 02:15 But let me tell You this. 02:16 You can't bring Your church through. 02:19 There's going to be many years, ages, yet before Your coming, 02:23 and You can't bring Your church through." 02:26 And I think Satan insisted, insisted perhaps with the 02:31 Judge of the universe like he did with Job. 02:34 If you go to the book of Job in the first chapter 02:36 you'll find that Satan shows up there in heaven. 02:40 And he snarls at God about Job, 02:43 insists that he be given the right to test Job. 02:47 And so now he's insisting, as it were, the right to test 02:52 the church that's being raised up because of what 02:55 Jesus did on Calvary's cross. 02:57 And so he insists on certain conditions, 03:00 seals, if you please, 03:03 that he doesn't believe that Jesus can overcome 03:07 and bring His church through. 03:08 By the way, if you can't bring your church through, 03:12 then what good is Calvary's cross? 03:15 No, the church has got to go through. 03:17 And so here are the conditions, as it were. 03:20 And Jesus, the slain Lamb, comes to the rescue. 03:25 And He's going to break these seven seals 03:29 and deliver the deed. 03:32 Deliver the deed to you, and to me, and to all of us. 03:36 So John's tears are dried up as he watches the mighty Savior, 03:40 the incomparable Jesus, take that seal, that scroll, 03:45 and start to break those seals. 03:48 Now Jesus is pictured as this Lamb having seven eyes 03:52 and seven horns. 03:55 The dragon who represents Satan has seven heads 03:58 and ten horns. 04:00 It looks like an unequal match, but I'm telling you 04:04 that Jesus is able to take on this great red dragon 04:08 with His seven horns and seven eyes. 04:12 Those horns represent powers and kingdoms. 04:16 Now both Jesus and Satan work through 04:18 their agents on the earth. 04:20 Satan is going to fight Jesus, but He's going to fight him 04:23 using earthly powers. 04:25 And we'll see that as we see the beast from the sea, 04:28 and the beast from the earth, and the great red dragon 04:31 and these powers on earth that oppose God's church. 04:37 But Jesus is going to fight Satan with His seven churches 04:42 pictured in Revelation, symbolic, 04:45 His church through time. 04:47 And I want to emphasize something here. 04:49 There's some people, you know, that think 04:51 every one of these seals is some kind of instantaneous thing. 04:55 But we're not looking at that. 04:57 We're looking at ages. 04:58 We're looking from the start of John's day 05:01 to the coming of Jesus. 05:02 We're going to see what God's church is up against 05:05 and how God brings His church through. 05:10 So this is going to take time. 05:13 And the testing is going to take time. 05:16 And so we have to be patient and watch. 05:18 That's why we've titled this, 05:20 The Seven Seals: Opened and Opening. 05:24 Because they're still opening, as it were, 05:27 before Jesus comes. 05:30 So Jesus has these seven eyes. 05:32 And these seven eyes, the Bible tells us, 05:35 are the seven Spirits of God. 05:37 So here's the Holy Spirit again. 05:38 He's represented not only in the candlesticks 05:41 with the seven churches, but He's also represented 05:44 as these eyes, these seven eyes, that Jesus has. 05:48 Because the Holy Spirit is the one who sees His church. 05:51 He reads your heart, He knows everything about you. 05:54 He knows what's going on in every church. 05:56 There's not anything that escapes His attention. 05:59 And He is penetrating His church and He's empowering His church 06:04 to resist the devil and His evil angels 06:06 in this great controversy between Christ and Satan. 06:10 The Holy Spirit also sends seven mighty angels 06:13 to watch over His church. 06:15 And each church is told to hear what the Spirit says 06:20 to the churches. 06:22 That is most important. 06:23 Because I think nowadays we don't listen 06:26 enough to the Holy Spirit. 06:27 And I'm not talking about impressions 06:29 and I'm not talking about feelings. 06:31 But the Holy Spirit speaks through His Word. 06:33 He speaks through the prophetic gift. 06:36 And that prophetic gift is what guides the church 06:40 and will guide the church through the end of time. 06:42 I mean, we can hear from Revelation chapter 12 06:45 where the saints overcame the great red dragon 06:49 by the word of their testimony. 06:51 And the woman there that represents the church, 06:53 she had the testimony of Jesus, which the Bible says 06:57 is the spirit of prophecy. 06:58 So the Lord guides His church through time 07:03 using His Word, and the Holy Spirit 07:05 being the teacher of truth teaching His Word. 07:09 So we have these seven seals now that come up, 07:13 and they are going to present a big problem 07:18 for the Christian church. 07:20 And remember, I think at least that it's Satan 07:23 who has insisted on these, so he's thought this through. 07:28 He's going to do everything he can to keep the blood of Christ 07:33 that paid for our sins from being effective 07:36 and delivering to us the deed to the new earth 07:41 and the kingdom of heaven. 07:43 Well we come to that first seal, and we go to Revelation 6:1-2, 07:52 the first seal, and it says, "Now I saw the Lamb 07:56 open one of the seals." 07:58 I'm going to stop right here and just say something 08:00 about the book of Revelation and about symbolic prophecy 08:04 that Jesus gives. 08:05 Again, this is a revelation of Jesus, 08:07 but He's giving it in symbols, according to the first three 08:10 verses of the book of Revelation. 08:13 And these revelations about Jesus and His church 08:16 in this great controversy between Christ and Satan, 08:19 as I mentioned earlier, take over time. 08:21 But there's a principle here called, repeat and enlarge. 08:25 You can find it in the book of Daniel, of course. 08:27 And you can find it here as well. 08:30 So the seven churches are symbolic of Christ's church 08:34 through time to the coming of Jesus. 08:37 And then you have the seven seals, symbolic of what the 08:40 church is going to face from the time of John 08:45 to the coming of Jesus. 08:48 And then, of course, the seven trumpets, 08:50 which we're not going to have time to get into so much, 08:53 they represent the judgments of God 08:57 that keeps His church alive against its enemies 09:02 from the time of John to the coming of Jesus. 09:06 So this is repeat and enlarge with a different 09:09 picture each time. 09:12 So these seals, we want to go back to them. 09:14 So it says that Jesus has opened, the Lamb has opened 09:17 one of the seals. 09:20 And it goes on to say in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 6, 09:23 "And I heard one of the four living creatures 09:27 saying with a voice like thunder, 'Come and see.'" 09:36 Come and see what's going on. 09:39 It's like this mighty creature, there are four of these 09:42 marvelous beings with these unique faces. 09:46 In Ezekiel they're pictured holding up the throne of God. 09:49 He says, "Come and see." 09:51 It's like he's saying, "Come and watch the Lamb 09:55 as He breaks these seals. 09:59 "'Come and See.' 10:01 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. 10:04 And He who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, 10:08 and he went out conquering to conquer." 10:14 What does this represent? 10:15 Obviously this is in the beginning 10:17 of the Christian church. 10:19 These first four seals are all tied together by a 10:25 common denominator called, the horses. 10:28 And these horses change color as we go through. 10:34 And the riders of these horses become increasingly 10:38 violent and difficult. 10:42 So we see this first horse that comes in, and he is white. 10:48 The church is pure in the beginning. 10:52 But something is already going on. 10:54 The seeds of something that the devil is already 10:59 sewing in the church is coming in the early church. 11:03 And you can hear it in 1 John 4:3. 11:08 This sometimes surprises a lot of people. 11:10 But listen, John is telling us that the spirit of Antichrist... 11:14 Antichrist. That's a big deal. 11:17 ...the spirit of Antichrist had already started in John's day. 11:23 John, we think, died somewhere about 100 AD. 11:27 So this is very, very early. 11:28 The apostles are still alive. 11:30 Listen to John in 1 John 4:3. 11:33 "And this is the spirit of Antichrist, 11:36 which you heard was coming, and now already is in the world." 11:41 What is Antichrist anyway? 11:44 What does that mean? 11:47 Well, the word in the Greek not only can mean, against, 11:51 but it can also mean something that puts itself in place of. 11:55 So in order to be against, as it were, 12:00 substitutes itself for the real thing. 12:05 And if you remember, one of the seven churches, 12:07 I think it was the second one, God says, 12:09 "I'm really proud of you," my words of course, 12:12 "that you understand that those people 12:16 who claim to be Jews but are of the synagogue of Satan 12:20 and are blaspheming Me." 12:22 So one of the blasphemies is inserting yourself 12:26 to take the place of God or of the Lord Jesus 12:30 when you have no right to do that. 12:32 That spirit, that attitude, was already at work 12:37 in the early church. 12:39 And we're going to see that through time 12:44 change and become worse. 12:46 This is going to take centuries for the Antichrist spirit 12:50 in the church to almost take over the church. 12:53 Now I want to say this. 12:55 That even though the spirit of Antichrist 12:57 will come into the church and take over the church, 13:00 it doesn't take over the whole church. 13:03 It doesn't take over all the church. 13:04 God always has His faithful people down through the ages. 13:08 But the Antichrist spirit is going to assume 13:11 the name of Jesus, it's going to claim to be God's church, 13:15 when in essence it goes into terrible apostasy. 13:20 So the spirit of Antichrist started in John's day. 13:22 It's going to take centuries to mature. 13:25 Now the second seal in Revelation 6:4 13:30 tells us about another horse. 13:33 Another horse that changes color. 13:36 Another horse that takes peace from the earth. 13:42 Is Jesus going to be able to open that seal and break it? 13:46 I believe He will. |
Revised 2019-07-15