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Revelation chapter 6 verses 1 to 8. This is the Word of God. Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, Come. And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow and a crown, and was given to him.

And he came out conquering and to conquer. And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come. And out came another horse, bright red. And its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that people should slay one another as he was given a sword.

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come. And I looked and behold, a black horse. and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand, and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine. 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. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by wild beasts of the earth.”

So far the reading of God’s word, may he add his blessing upon it at this time. The great Saint Augustine I was asked a question once, what was God doing before creation? And Augustine’s somewhat humorous answer was, he was creating hell for the curious. And then he said, actually, it’s an illogical question because there is no before with God. Others have rightly discouraged speculative theology, as we all should.

But people are uneasy with mystery. They’re uneasy with unknowing, especially with regard to the future. It’s very human in man’s fallen state to be fearful of the unknown, of the future, what it will hold, how things will work out. And often it’s born out of a lack of or belief in and trust of our God, in a God who is almighty and who is sovereign and powerful and good.

Many preachers are also very uncomfortable with not only the future, but the things going on in our own day, sadly missing the whole point of the book of Revelation. And they seek to coordinate and explain all of current events in light of this book, sensationalistic and worldly and fleshly. It is true that Revelation deals with the future, not by predicting events in the Middle East or other global matters. Revelation gives us the big picture of the future by reminding us that God is sovereign over all things of this world, all of creation.

And that however it works out, it does so because God has decreed it to work out in that way. And so throughout Revelation, Christ’s church is reminded that God is bringing all of human history to the great and glorious goal. And that goal is what? It’s that Christ is coming again. The goal is the second coming of Christ to judge the world and to raise the dead and to renew all things. A glorious promise and a glorious future indeed for those who believe.

We are in the second vision given to John, which takes us from Revelation 6 to Revelation 8, verse 5. And that vision tells us about the opening of the scroll and its seven seals, which were sealed until the time of the end. And that scroll unveils God’s purposes during the last days. What are the last days? That’s the time between Christ’s first advent and his second coming. The unsealing of this scroll begins a pattern where God reveals the future development of redemptive history.

But Revelation is not written to predict specific future events. The Apostle John is not a fortune teller. He’s not a poem reader. He’s not a medium pretending to see the future. Apocalyptic literature, such as Revelation, isn’t meant to be understood literally, as far as it goes. That’s not its genre.

What’s going on is that John paints rich and important word pictures showing the flow of redemption and the continuing struggle between Christ and his conquered enemy, the devil. And that enemy, the devil, though defeated, is like a wounded animal, increasing in intensity and attack and lashing out before his full and final decreed destruction.” This means that the book of Revelation is not a commentary on the events of our day But it’s in essence a divinely revealed commentary upon all of history, certainly of the Old Testament.

And so in order to understand this book rightly, I’ll remind you, as we’ve said in the past, we need to understand John’s symbolic language in light of the Old Testament. The visions of Revelation are meant to explain, not to confuse, not to strike terror into your hearts. They’re meant to explain how Jesus fulfills Old Testament prophecy, how God will bring all things into submission under His Lordship. And so when we read through the letters to the churches of Christ, we see how especially important this was to those Christians in the first century.

And you’ll remember they faced what? They faced the sword of the beast, which is the state. They faced being forced to acknowledge Caesar as Lord on threat of life and living. They faced full-orbed Greek and Roman paganism. They face false apostles and prophets working to compromise the purity of the gospel, introducing destructive heresies. In the face of all this confrontation, God gives His struggling people, what, a perspective of heaven by way of these visions in this book. And so it’s crucial that they know their struggles are not in vain, and that when all is said and done, they will be vindicated by their God who loves them. We have to remember as well that though John speaks to those churches then and there, he also speaks to us, living right now, today, to you and to me.

This becomes clear in the second vision when it moves the focus right from the throne in heaven to the scroll and those covenant blessings and curses that will unfold throughout the millennial age. Again, what is that, the millennial age? It’s the time between the two comings of Christ. Scripture speaks of it in other places as the last days. Let’s get a big picture of what we’re moving into in this next section of Revelation. When the Lamb opens the scroll, God reveals much about the final epoch, the final section of human history. Those days before God brings redemptive history to its grand and glorious climax. Before we look at the text, a few things to prepare us regarding how to understand what’s coming in the chapters before us. Because from here and going forward, we’ll find a series of judgments given in a cyclical way.

There are seven sealed judgments, Revelation 6 to 8. There’s seven trumpet judgments from Revelation 8 to 11, and then seven bowl judgments in Revelation 16. And when we read these, we shouldn’t read them as historical chronological narrative, right? Seal judgments, then trumpet, then bowls at the end. It’s not how they’re given. In apocalyptic literature, each of these cycles of judgment overlaps.

So what is described in the seal judgments covers the entire period between Christ’s first and second advents. The same is true of the trumpet and the bowl judgments. And although there is amplification in the bowl judgments at the end, and as we move from the seals to trumpets to bowls, we do see that intensification of God’s judgment on the dragon, that is Satan, and on the beast, and on the false prophet, and on those who serve them, as well as a progressive and progressively violent reaction from them as they wage war on the saints prior to their decree to end. And so each of these series of judgments covers the entire church age. But as these three cycles of judgment are revealed, the intensity going from the seals to trumpets to bowls intensifies with increasing degree prior to the end of the age, right before the Lord’s return.

And so what does that mean? It means that we have every reason to believe that while these cycles of judgment characterize the present age, they will intensify greatly immediately before the end. And this retelling of the course of history is told from multiple perspectives, and that’s a key characteristic of apocalyptic literature. It’s called technically, if you’d like to know, recapitulation. It’s told again in cycles, and we see this not uncommon in scripture. One of my professors described each of these cycles of judgment, these recurring visions as different camera angles on the same event, right?

In the first vision, John looks at what? The present age from the perspective of Christ’s continuing presence with his people. Remember the letters to the seven churches. He is with them. He knows them intimately. He knows their failings. He knows what they need to do. He knows their accomplishments.

And then in Revelation 4 to 5, John describes the scene before the heavenly throne, that glorious picture, and the heavenly choir. And then in Revelation 6, John describes the course of the present age through the lens of a series of ongoing judgments which climax in the return of Christ the Lord. And to understand this pattern more fully, it’s helpful to remember the Gospels. Remember Jesus.

He addresses this topic in the Olivet Discourse. And there the Lord speaks of the signs of the end of the age. When he answers his apostles, the disciples question regarding the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. And so in Matthew 24, he says, it says this, starting in verse 3, speaking of Christ, as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when these things will be and what will be the sign of your coming, of the end of the age. And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ.

And they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place. But the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. The birth pains. And so this sounds amazingly similar to our text this morning, right? Jesus describes the cycle of wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and famines and so forth that will happen throughout the church age before his return. And he says they will be like what? Like birth pains.

And while intense pain is a reality for the whole of the process of giving birth, when the process starts, as you know, the mother has contractions, and then there’s relief. Contractions and relief. But as labor progresses to delivery, the pain gets more and more intense, and the periods of relief between those contractions disappear. And right before delivery, the pain gets so severe, and the contractions are so intense, it becomes impossible to know which one will be the last.

Similar to that is an intensifying cycle, says Jesus, of signs of the end coming before the Lord’s return. Christ makes this analogy to the pains of birth. And we need to remember this when we look at the cycles of judgment that we’re reading here in the book of the Revelation. The cycle, they begin when the scroll is open, and they continue throughout the unfolding of the present age, and they reach their climax with the return of Christ, come to judge the world and raise the dead and make all things new. And another point that we should remember before we turn to our text is the parallel construction of these judgments, particularly the seals and the trumpets, and how they are arranged. Each starts off with an opening scene explaining the judgment that is to come.

There are seven seals and seven trumpets. Why is that? It shows that when these judgments are complete, God’s wrath is concluded. And that wrath is poured out against the earth and its inhabitants and all of its fury. When both the seal and the trumpet judgments begin, there’s six separate cycles of judgment unfold, followed by a dramatic interlude where God’s care for his people is reaffirmed before that seventh and final judgment begins. In both cases of seven judgments, they bring us to Christ’s return at the end of the age. The perfection and fullness symbolized, of course, by the number seven. And so while it’s not predicting a specific war or famine or earthquake, these cycles of judgment and revelation portray all future wars, all future famine and plagues, and all the cataclysms of the earth as judgments of God pointing to that final judgment yet to come.

And as Christians, as believers in Christ with eyes of faith, we’re not to be alarmed when these kinds of things happen. In fact, we should expect them to happen because they remind us that creation has been corrupted by sin. and that the world groans until the day of redemption. But one day Christ will return and remove the curse and renew the heavens and the earth. Because we know and believe in faith, there is no solution to suffering and turmoil of the nations, or even the turmoil of our own hearts, except for God’s final action in the person of his Son.

And that’s the very thing that all of these signs and cycles of judgment points us to. So with that fresh in our minds, let’s turn now to our text from this morning, Romans 6, 1 to 8. This vision of Revelation in chapter 6 to 8 is a continuation of that which began in Revelation 4 to 5. That’s why we read Revelation 5 for our New Testament reading. And as the vision of the heavenly throne unfolds in Revelation 4, John shifts his focus from the glory of the one seated on the throne and the creatures attending him to the scene in Revelation 5, the Lamb. who is slain, who is alone worthy to open the scroll that was sealed until the time of the end.

The Lamb is worthy because he purchased with his blood men and women from every tribe, tongue, and nation and race to be what? To be a kingdom of priests and fulfillment of all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. Because Jesus Christ, we read, is the Lion of Judah and the Root of David, has died for his people and removed the guilt of their sins. He’s kept God’s law perfectly.

The Lamb has fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the law to perfection, making him alone worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. And though John wept, right, John wept, although he did when he thought that no one was worthy to open the scroll, he’s reminded by one of the elders that the Lamb is indeed quite worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. And so the lamb approaches the one seated on the throne, and he takes the scroll.

And when he does, all of heaven worships him. All of heaven worships him. It’s truly an awesome scene. It’s an awesome scene. The heavenly choir sings praise to the lamb who has redeemed his people through the shedding of his blood. And it’s the one seated on the throne. And so as revelation continues.

It goes on in 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 I looked, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow and a crown, and was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer.

To understand the significance of this vision, and of the four horsemen here, we need to recall Zechariah, his words in chapter six, when he saw those four colored horses and their chariots, by symbolizing the four winds of heaven. In Zechariah’s prophecy, the horses represent God’s judgment on the enemies of Judah, going to all four corners of the earth. And as we mentioned before, in the book of Revelation, the number four symbolizes the earth. And therefore John’s vision of the four horsemen, they go forth to the very ends of the earth to bring God’s judgment on all those nations who oppose God’s rule and who oppress Christ’s church. All the earth is affected by the devastation that come because of the horsemen.

The four horsemen bring not only the vindication of God’s people through this series of judgments, that are found in the first four seals judgments. These judgments essentially mirror signs of the end of Christ that he mentioned, the end that Christ mentioned in Matthew 24 that we read. The final three seals we’ll see next time we’re together describe the fifth seal, which is the cry of the martyrs, and the sixth seal, which is the return of Christ, and then the seventh. And what happens in the seventh seal, those of you who’ve read ahead and don’t know your Bible? It’s absolute silence in heaven. Why is that? Why is silence in heaven after the seventh seal?

It’s showing that when God’s judgments are complete, there’s nothing left to say, as all of heaven stands in awe of God and of the Lamb. Because the Lamb is worthy to open the scroll, He is the one who empowers the writers to go forth and bring desolation on the earth. And since the first rider goes forth to conquer and rides on a white horse, there have been some commentators that connect this to Revelation 19, this imagery of Jesus riding on a white horse coming in judgment. And so the interpretation by some is that the white horse and the rider here, it’s Christ, going forth to conquer unbelief through the power of his word. But there are good reasons to believe that this horse, and its rider in Revelation 6 in this first seal judgment is not directly connected to Revelation 19 in that vision of Christ. Because why? In Revelation 19 Jesus wields what? A sword. He wears many crowns. In Revelation 6 the rider has a bow and a single crown. Just as one piece of information.

And therefore, it’s most likely that the rider is not Christ, but Christ’s agent, sent at his command, at his bidding, who leads the three riders who follow in bringing devastation of war, famine, hardship, and death upon the earth as God’s judgment. In the ancient world, white horses were often a symbol of conquest. So when the rider of the white horse goes forth to conquer, he unleashes all of the horrible judgments that follow.

And because he is the conqueror, nothing can stop his hand. And once the first rider goes forth, the others immediately follow. Verse 3, when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come. And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that the people should slay one another. And he was given a great sword.

So the rider of the white horse symbolizes conquest. The rider of the red horse symbolizes bloodshed and warfare that breaks out upon all the earth until Christ returns at the end of the age to bring peace to all of creation. So regarding the relationship between the first and second seals, the main point is that together these two remove peace from the earth. And with peace removed from the earth, ever-increasing turmoil and bloodshed and warfare follow.

You may know, some of you, the statistic of historians who say that the 20th century, in that century, more lives were lost in war and massacres than all of previous human history combined. And we kind of intuit this, right? We had two world wars that killed millions upon millions, and there were innumerable other conflicts as well, all of the time, right? We think of the Holocaust. Six million Jews were killed, along with millions of Christians and other ethnic minorities.

There’s a genocide in 1950 and before that that killed millions of Armenians. or the killing fields of the 1970s where a million Cambodians are wiped out, not to mention the Soviets who killed millions upon millions upon millions in the decades of the 30s and the 40s and the 50s, as well as the murder of countless millions of babies slaughtered by abortion that continues today. Clearly, the white horse and the red horse have gone forth and removed peace from the earth. And though there have been wars from the first century all the way to the present age, the cycles of judgment are clearly intensifying. There will be no genuine peace on earth until Christ returns. And as we’ll read, as we go, and as we know, he’s coming, and he will return.

And then John sees what? He sees the Lamb open the third seal. And he says, when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come. And I looked, and behold, a black horse. And its rider had a pair of scales in its hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius. And do not harm the oil and the wine.” What does this mean? This seems odd, this odd judgment. What is he saying?

Well, we know that in John’s day, a quart of wheat was an average day’s need, supply, right, for a soldier. And that amount of wheat usually costs a typical worker about an eighth of a denarius. But after the black horse goes forth, the price of grain is inflated 800%. Barley was much cheaper, and it was eaten mostly by the poor because it didn’t have the same qualities, the same properties of wheat. Three quarts of barley for a day’s wage was an outlandish price as well.

But notice that the supply of oil and wine are not affected. Don’t touch the oil and the wine. And you see what’s symbolized here by the black horse is famine and the resulting economic havoc that follows. But notice the famine of God’s judgment by the third rider on the black horse is not total.

God is holy and he will punish all human sin, but God is also gracious in long-suffering and this tells us that God’s judgments are restrained in some sense and are limited until the time of the end. This is what’s known as common grace. Common grace is restraint not only of evil in the world but his own judgment upon the earth until the end. Truly things could be very much worse if God was not restraining his wrath and judgment upon the earth. But one day he will no longer restrain his righteous anger, and these cycles of wrath will reach their climax when Christ returns in judgment, and the world will face the wrath of the Lamb.

In verse 7-8, John sees the Lamb open the fourth seal, and it says, 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 the sword, and with famine and pestilence, and by wild beasts on the earth.” The pale horse. The word literally means green. Green is the color of sickness. He’s named Death, and Hades closely follows him when he goes forth.

But remember, we’ve encountered before Death and Hades. Revelation 1 has already told us that it is Christ who holds in his hands the keys of Death and Hades, symbolizing his power to liberate people from death and the consequences of death. And now the rider on this pale horse is given the power to kill, to bring war, famine, plague on the earth. And he also possesses the power to cause the beasts of the earth to rebel against man’s dominion of the beasts. And when the fourth horseman goes forth, all of the earlier tragedies swell in intensity.

So what of it? What of all of this for us? The vision of the four horsemen going forth in judgment. when the land opens the scrolls. We see in part the future flow of redemptive history. The seals take us from John’s day to our present age and all the way to the end of time at the coming of Jesus Christ and the consummation. The seven seal judgments are the first of three cycles of judgment, which intensify as we move forward from the seals to trumpets to bowls. And these cycles of judgment each cover the entire time between Christ’s first and second coming. They do so from different perspectives, different camera angles. And with these judgments described, as they do the entire time between Christ’s comings, the intensity of the judgments increases dramatically with each cycle as we come closer to the end of time. And this fits perfectly with what Jesus said about the signs of the end with war and famine and earthquakes that he calls birth pains of the end.

The original audience, think of it, persecuted Christians living in the first century. To them, John’s vision of the seven seals would have provided great comfort to them, great comfort. For all intents and purposes, remember, the Roman Empire seemed invincible. Its military power, its economic power, the cultural advancements and achievements, and the cities they built were the wonder of the ancient world.

And when empowered by Satan, the Roman Empire became the beast, that arch enemy of Christ’s church, which demanded what? Caesar is Lord, not Christ. And would put Christians who refused that in prison, and to forbid them from buying and selling, and even put them to death because of their faith in their Savior. John’s vision of the seals reminds the persecuted church that not even Rome was able to withstand the seal judgments of the Lamb.

And just as God brought, remember, Pharaoh and the mighty Egyptian empire to its knees through Moses, the great mediator of the old covenant, so Jesus, the one to whom the mediation of Moses pointed, the greater Moses, the greater mediator, will bring Rome to its knees. Truly, war and famine and pestilence, along with the increasing wickedness and paganism, was the undoing of the empire, And the lesson for Christ’s church is that as God brings down empires and as God brings calamity on the earth, earthquakes and famines and so forth, oh, he too will bring all human rebellion to a final end.

And the present God restrains his judgments. But one day he will let loose that restraint. And there is for certain a coming final judgment when all will give account and all the evildoers punished. And the vindication of Christ’s people Hearing what God has given us here today, believers in Christ know the way that the drama of redemption will end.

It is Christ, you see, and you know, and I hope you believe, not the beast, not the devil, not death. It is Christ, Jesus, who wins in the end. And therefore, when you or I are persecuted by the beastly state and hated because we are followers of Christ, and when the earth shakes beneath our feet, economic suffering comes, and all manner of evil and wickedness comes and comes and comes and escalates, or even when a power-mad, bloodthirsty government, when they war and war and war, these are not a sign that God doesn’t care, or he’s unable to aid his church. Never.

Rather, this points us forward to the truth that one day God will bring all things into submission to Christ and put an end to all of it. And in fact, these successive judgments are intrusions, they’re foretastes of the final judgment yet to come. So when your hearts, brothers and sisters, are breaking from the evil and the devastation of the world all around, and even in our own country from the state of things, or the mass of humanity bearing the image of God, suffering loss without hope in this world, and from the reality of whole civilizations hell-bent against our Savior and hating His person and His hope and His people and His freedom. And when your heart breaks even from the sin and failures of your own still sin-stained hearts, all of us who truly deserve God’s wrath and punishment to be poured out upon us, crushing you, crushing me, let us not forget that the Father has poured that wrath out upon his own dear Son for you and for me. He did so when Jesus suffered for our sins on Calvary’s cross.

And because of that blessed event, we need never to fear that final judgment yet to come. Never to fear that terrible day to which the seven seals of judgment point us. Because wars and earthquakes and rumors of wars and famine and pestilence are the sign that all is not right with the world, and that one day Jesus Christ himself will return to raise the dead, to judge the world, to make all things new. And only then there will be peace on earth. And only then will creation no longer groan under our feet.

He’s coming, brothers and sisters. He’s coming. Believe it. Trust it. All will be made right, and all will be renewed. What an incredible and wonderful and awesome promise and truth that we have from our loving Lord. Let us live like we mean it. Let us live like we believe it and trust this one who is coming. And may we all say with the Apostle on Patmos, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come. Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father, we do thank you and praise you. We praise you for the gospel, for giving us life through Christ. And Lord God, we pray that as your word goes forth, that you would feed your people and would have its full effect here and around the world. We pray, dear Lord, that you would work through those whom you’ve sent out in the mission field here and across the planet, work to bring people to life through the proclamation of the good news and the finished work of Jesus. We pray protect them, protect your servants far and near.

We do pray, Lord, give us a true sense of the victory that is ours in Christ. We’ve been raised to walk in newness of life, no longer in bondage to sin, no longer shackled and sailed by those sins that held us. Help us to see who we are, united to Christ, dead to sin, once and for all. And Lord God, may we walk increasingly in that newness of life.

We pray, help us to have hearts filled with your love, caring and loving each other. Work through us to bear testimony to the love that you’ve shown us in Christ, that we, to the outside world, would have a strong spiritual aroma of life and peace and forgiveness and grace and hearts that care and live for you, all for your glory. We do pray for those who suffer in our midst. We pray, encourage them. our Heavenly Father, even through us. We thank you that we can do so. May you grant to us as we endure the comfort of your spirit and the peace that transcends all human understanding.

We pray for the children of this church, dear Father, that you would bless them and that they would love you, Lord, with all their hearts, and that as they struggle in this life and as they suffer, and even as they sin and fail, that the gospel will become all the more real to them and truly become good news. Indeed, as they embrace it by faith, time and time again, protect them, Lord. We do pray for their parents here today, that they would love their children and raise them according to your word and the true and holy faith. We pray, Father, grant them husbands and wives to love one another with a Christ-like love, in sacrificial service to one another, and even for all of us, Lord, whatever station we are in, married or single, young or old, help us to have swelled hearts, filled with your love, so caring and loving each other that the outside world would see and wonder.

Use us in our lives to witness to your glory. We praise you that you have fed us afresh this day as we have heard your word to us. May we see that this is our life and our sustenance, even in this time of sojourning away from our true homeland with you in glory, even in sorrow and difficulty and affliction. Lift us above and beyond. Set our eyes to glory. Use us in this world. Strengthen us and be with us, we pray. We bring all these things to you in the name of our mighty Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.