Sevenfold Depiction of Humanity

I'm not entirely sure how far we're going to get this evening, but we will see.

Okay, so we were talking about the seven seals that are being opened currently at this point

in the book of Revelation.

Last week we got through the fifth seal, which was where we saw these people who were at

the foot of the altar of God.

You all remember that?

They're at the foot of the altar, right at the bottom of the altar, kind of beneath it.

And they're martyrs.

They're witnesses for Jesus who have died.

Many were killed because of their faith.

Many were killed or died a natural death, but were heavily persecuted throughout their

lives.

And they were persecuted because of their faith.

And what was interesting, you'll remember, is if we look back, they actually are crying

out.

They're a mix of people crying out and begging and longing for something in heaven, but here

they are in heaven.

And they are crying out and they say, Oh sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will

judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

Now that sounds exactly like the Psalm that we read earlier, right, for our Psalm of the

day.

David was crying out and what was he saying?

How long, oh Lord?

So this is the cry of the martyrs.

They're saying, God, how long until you come and vindicate us?

How long until you avenge our blood?

How long until you pour out your wrath upon the people of earth?

And you remember how God answered them, not the way they wanted him to?

But what does he do?

He gives them a white robe and he tells them to rest just a little longer.

A little longer, right?

That's an interesting phrase.

Is it not?

God says, rest a little longer.

Why is that interesting?

Because what's a little to God?

If you're infinite, what's a little?

Could be a day, could be a thousand years.

As we know, it's been 2000 plus years since John wrote the book of Revelation under the

inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Are the martyrs still crying out how long, oh Lord?

Yeah, they are.

Is God still saying just a little longer?

Yes, he is.

So it really shows us that we have to have a Godward perspective on this, that what might

seem like a little bit of time to God is not always a little bit of time.

So if God tells you, hey, so and so, wait just a little longer before you get all excited

and think, all right, it's going to happen next week.

Just hold on a second.

Let's teach impatience and perseverance.

And so when we come to the sixth girl, we remember that or the sixth seal, rather, we

remember that these follow a pattern, right?

You remember this from last week, the first five, they always occur within the course

of human history.

But with the sixth seal or the sixth trumpet or the sixth ball, it always marks the end

of human history.

That's when things are finally coming to an end.

And it's the precursor to the final judgment.

And so now right after the fifth seal is open, we come to verse 12 and we see that the sixth

seal is going to be opened here.

Look at verse 12, if you will.

When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake and the

sun became black as sackcloth and the full moon became like blood and the stars of the

sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when it is shaken by a gale.

The sky vanished like a scroll.

Actually, we're going to stop.

Well, let's read verse 14.

The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was

removed from its place.

Now this signals the end of human history.

This is a cataclysmic event, as you can tell here.

It's an apocalyptic event, but I want you to notice how it serves as an answer to the martyr's

prayer.

The martyrs pray, how long, oh Lord, until you vindicate us and avenge our blood.

And then what's the very next thing we read right after God gives them the white robe,

tells them to wait a little longer.

You read, okay, now's the time.

The whole of creation is going to dissolve and here comes the wrath of God and the judgment

of God upon the earth.

Now we need to remember that the book of Revelation, what genre is it?

Everybody remember from our first initial studies of this?

Apocalyptic, there we go.

We all got there.

We got there.

Okay, I'm going to give that one to you.

Tip of the tongue.

So it's apocalyptic and if you remember apocalyptic genre, it often uses these wild scenes and

very descriptive language that isn't always meant to be taken literally, but often symbolically,

metaphorically, in a representative type way.

And this is the type of language that's used all throughout the Bible to describe what

it's going to look like in the end, right?

Or what the results of the final of God's judgment and wrath upon the earth is going

to be.

This is the language that's used throughout.

So Joel chapter 2, verse 31, you don't have to turn there, but if you want to write it

Joel 2:31

down, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and

awesome day of the Lord comes.

Now again, that's exactly what Revelation just said.

Let's just pause and think about this for a second.

I don't know if you know this scientifically.

Maybe you do.

What happens to us, spoiler, it's not good.

What happens to the people on earth if the sun goes dark?

Yeah, we all die and it's pretty instantaneous too, right?

I think it'll take like something like eight minutes for us to realize there's no light.

So here's a fun fact for you.

You can look up at the sun at any point in the day and you actually have no idea if the

sun's still shining because that's how long it takes light to get to the earth.

It could have dissolved eight minutes ago.

You don't know.

So that's just a scary thought for you to keep in your mind.

But if the sun goes black, all people on earth die.

That's what happens.

So this might not be meaning that the sun is actually going to lose all its heat and

go black because we would die immediately, but rather that darkness is going to fall

upon the face of the earth.

That light will be taken in some way.

Isaiah 13.10 says, for the stars of the heaven in their constellations will not give their

light, the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light.

So again, it's this picture of darkness coming upon the face of the earth.

Ezekiel 32.7.

When I blot you out, I will cover the heavens and make their stars dark.

I will cover the sun with a cloud and the moon shall not give its light.

And then Isaiah 34.4, all the hosts of heaven shall rot away and the skies roll up like

a scroll and their hosts shall fall as the leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling

from the fig tree.

Now that sounds almost exactly like what we read here in Revelation, right?

So the Holy Spirit is giving John these remembrances of Scripture and he's trying to pull these

scenes together and try to make sense of what the end is going to look like.

And again, you don't have to necessarily understand this language as literal, but apocalyptic.

It's just painting a picture.

Remember Revelation is not a puzzle book for us to try to solve and it's not a clear

map of here's how we're getting from point A to point B. It's a picture book and it's

drawing pictures.

It's just making you feel something.

You know, that's what a good book does.

It makes you feel something.

You don't always try to work out the deep things as when I read a book or I enjoy a

movie and you just get engrossed in the story and then someone comes and they point out

a flaw in the story and you're like, why would you do that?

You know, like someone said Indiana Jones is completely not essential to the plot of

Indiana Jones at all.

Like if you remove him from the movie, the whole movie and the events therein would have

still taken place.

The Nazis would have still found the Holy Grail that opened it, they'd all die even

if Indiana Jones isn't there.

I heard that.

I'm like, why would you say that to me?

I used to really enjoy that movie.

Now you've ruined it for me, right?

So when a movie, a story, a book, when a story is making you feel something, you get engrossed

in it, you're not supposed to just pick out all these little details.

You're just supposed to be immersed in what's happening.

That's what God is doing here in Revelation.

He wants you to understand.

He's painting the picture.

All the natural order of things, what's happening to them?

They're falling apart.

This good creation that God had made in the beginning, what's it doing?

It's dissolving.

Everything is coming undone.

Why?

Because God has arrived and he is laying out his judgments upon the earth.

He is pouring out his wrath upon the earth.

And when that happens, nothing is safe.

Everything is going to fall apart.

And notice the reaction in verse 15, it says, then the kings of the earth and the great ones

and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves

in the caves among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on

us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of

the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and here's the all important question,

who can stand?

So what's happening here?

The first people listed on the list, they would have been especially meaningful to the

original audience, right?

Because what's happening to the original audience?

Do you remember?

They're being persecuted heavily.

I mean, they are being hunted down like dogs.

They're being imprisoned.

Many of them are being killed for their faith.

And who is responsible for all this?

Rome, the kings, the emperors, the rulers, the people in authority.

And so it's no surprise that when God starts listing those upon whom his wrath is falling,

who's listed first?

The kings of the earth, the people in the high places, the generals, all those who have

authority, this would have been incredibly meaningful to this original audience who

were completely harassed and persecuted nonstop.

But here's what's interesting.

Look at this list and depending on how you break it up, it's a seven-fold depiction of

humanity.

Did you notice that?

There's seven.

I don't have room to write there, but it's okay.

So first, you have the kings of the earth, right?

Second, you have the great ones.

Third, you have the generals.

Fourth, you have the rich.

Fifth, you have the powerful.

Six, everyone.

And then seven, the last two are included together, slave and free.

So you have this seven-fold depiction of humanity.

Why would you do that?

What's the significance there?

Are numbers significant in Revelation?

Yeah, highly significant, right?

We're going to especially talk about that next week, we're going to talk about the 144,000

feet here next week.

You don't want to miss that one.

That's going to be a fun one.

Numbers throughout Revelation are highly significant, often symbolic and representative.

So what does seven usually depict or represent?

Completion, right?

And so what would it mean or signify to us that God specifically lists a seven-fold

description of humanity here?

Yeah, it's talking about the comprehensiveness of God's judgment upon the world.

It is a complete judgment.

No one will escape it.

No one can escape it.

His judgment is going to fall upon the entire earth, from people who are great to people

who are not great to the rich, to the poor.

Everyone in between, this is a comprehensive pouring out of God's judgment upon the earth

and notice how it terrifies people.

What is their first response?

Yeah, run and hide.

They go and run and hide as soon as they realize, oh no, God actually is real.

Those Christians were telling the truth the whole time.

I should have listened to them too late now.

God's coming, the sun has been darkened in some way.

Darkness has fallen on the face of the earth.

Stars and all this calamity, creation is coming undone.

What would you do?

You'd run and hide too, right?

It kind of reminds me of another scene in the Bible.

Anybody pick up on what's going on here?

Another scene where I don't want to get too much away.

You have people who realize they mess up and their first response is to run and hide.

Yeah, Tommy, theologian of the night, my man.

All right.

He said Garden of Eden.

Yeah, so it's interesting, right?

You've got parallels at the very beginning of the Bible and the very end of the Bible.

What happens as soon as Adam and Eve sin against God, what do they do?

They say, God, I'm sorry.

We messed up.

We knew we should come to you immediately because that's what we're supposed to do.

We knew you're loving.

You'd forgive us, but we did mess up.

Is that what they did?

What do they do?

Yeah, they run and hide, right?

They go and find some fig leaves.

What was the tree mentioned here?

Did you catch that?

That was a fig, right?

The Bible doesn't make mistakes like that.

There's some very cool interesting things in the Bible.

So they go and run and they hide and they cover themselves with fig leaves.

And what's the great irony of this is they're trying to hide from an omnipresent God.

They're trying to hide from the Almighty in a bush covered by a fig leaf and God's like,

what are you doing in there?

I mean, it's like when the tower of Babel, they're like, oh, we're going to build a

tower in heaven and we're going to meet God there.

We're going to kick him off at some point.

We're going to be God.

And God's like, I'm going to come out of heaven to see what's going on down there.

They're doing something, but it's just hard to see.

You're trying to hide from an Almighty omnipresent God.

You're not going to get anywhere with that.

And so they start running to the mountains and they call out to the mountains and the

rocks, fall on us.

Do you see what's happening here?

They are more terrified than the wrath of God than they are of death.

If only that had happened sooner, right?

I mean, one of the greatest things that Christians tell other people about, non-believers about,

we say, the wrath of God is coming.

You are in sin.

You are condemned because of your sin.

And unless you repent of your sin and turn to Christ, you will endure the wrath of God

forever in hell.

And they laugh at us.

Who's laughing on that last day?

No one.

Because they realize it's too late and that the Christians were right.

And so they see all this happening and they literally fear the wrath of God more than they

are.

They're so terrified they can't even look at His face.

That's what they're hiding from.

They want to hide matters for us today.

One of the first things we need to realize is that since the world and the things of

this world are coming out of the things of this world, we will waste our lives because

this world and everything in it is ultimately...

We're going to find ourselves being like those people on that last day who were running

and hiding because we don't...

Are you telling unbeliever Jesus is coming?

And they will do anything they can to have some parents.

Think about Christian parents today.

I mean when I grew up, go to church, you know, and mom would be like, okay, that's fine.

Sure.

Too sick to go to church.

That's fine.

No, no.

If there's any sort of anything that comes up, baseball game, football game, any sort

of sporting event, anytime the kids just like, I'd rather go to the lake or anything.

What do parents do?

They just let the kids go.

And then what happens here?

We're going to get me on a rant.

I told you all not to do that, but you're going to get me there, okay?

But this is what amazes me is we have adults.

We have literal adults today who are absolutely shocked that we can't get young people in

the church.

Why don't we have any children in the church?

Where are the young people?

And I'm like, what about the generations that have allowed children not to be in church

and haven't prioritized going to church?

They haven't demonstrated what it looks like to be a Christian household at their own house.

They've never read their kids the Bible.

They've never prayed with their kids.

They've never talked to their kids about what Jesus would do.

And then we're going to act like we're shocked that they're not in the church.

That's laughable.

Is it not?

That's exactly right.

That's exactly right.

It's a spiritual life.

We're not investing in their child's walk with Christ.

You have parents who are not reading the Bible to their kids.

They're not praying with their kids.

They're not talking to their kids about Jesus.

They're not prioritizing the church.

They never have their kids in church except when nothing else, literally nothing else

is going on and they can fit it into their schedule.

And then their kids go off to college.

They renounce the faith and they never darken the doors of a church again.

And the parents go, I don't know what happened.

I do.

I know exactly that this world and your child's worldly ambitions and pursuits were worth

more than Jesus.

That's exactly what happened.

You want to blame society.

You want to blame the education system.

What we don't want to do is point the finger back at ourselves and say, maybe I should

have been a better parent.

Maybe I should have actually invested in my children more and invested in their eternity

more and in their souls more because now I'm never going to have them in my house again

and I don't know that they're ever going to be in God's house again.

It's exactly what we're seeing here.

This world and the things of this world are passing away and yet we've got entire generations

of people who are telling their children, pursue your dreams at all costs.

Pursue your ambitions at all costs.

Even if it takes you out of the church, even if it takes you away from Jesus, you follow

your heart.

And then one day they're going to stand before Jesus and Jesus is going to say, I never knew

you.

And the fact that that doesn't terrify parents, the fact that they would rather not hurt their

kids feelings than have that happen, I can't imagine that.

I cannot imagine Judah or Ezra standing before Jesus and Jesus saying to either one of them,

I never knew you.

Because if that's the case, that's on me as a parent.

So there goes, that's my, you know, got me worked up.

But okay, the whole point of that is that this world is passing away and the things that

we're teaching people to pursue and invest in and care about, they are not going to matter

one Iota and eternity.

We think God is ever going to check someone's batting average in eternity.

How many touchdowns he scored.

How many places he visited on earth.

None of that's going to matter.

The only thing that's going to matter is did you know Jesus?

Did you repent of your sins and trust in Christ?

Another thing that I do want you to take away from this passage is that there's a call to

perseverance here.

A big call to perseverance.

I mean again, think about the people to whom this letter was originally written.

They're suffering.

I mean they're being persecuted night and day, day after day.

And they were persecuted at the hands of corrupt leaders, government people and authority.

We still experience that today, don't we?

I mean we still have all sorts of corrupt government, corrupt leaders, people and authority.

And they're often the reason for our persecution.

And really a lot of that time is because they're just changing the rules constantly, calling

someone by the wrong pronouns.

That's where our world is at today.

You can look at someone and go, hey, I know how to tell the difference between a boy and

a girl.

That's a boy.

You say, sir, can I help you today?

And that person says, I'm not a sir.

You've misgendered me.

And now I'm going to call the cops.

And because you called me by the wrong pronouns and whatever else, I'm going to have you arrested.

And that actually happens in our world today.

And it's a denial of truth for all of human existence.

People have said, all right, there are boys and there are girls.

And we know the difference between them.

And then we call people what is appropriate for their gender.

And now the world has said, don't you dare do that?

Don't you act in accordance with the truth?

Don't you speak in accordance with the truth?

Because if you do, we're going to put you in jail.

Because now truth is subjective.

And we get to determine what is true and what's not true.

And we get to determine who is going to abide by our truth and not our truth.

And if you don't follow our rules, well, guess what?

You're going to be put in jail.

I can't even keep up with the rules anymore.

They're calling, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to call this group and that group and anything.

I mean, all the rules are always changing.

It's like playing a game with a toddler.

It's frustrating.

All right?

I mean, the other day, the boys and I, we were outside.

We were hitting some golf balls.

And I found a PVC pipe.

I staked it in the ground.

And I said, all right, boys, we're going to play a game.

Call closest to the pin.

Now Ezra, he had to steal every club that I had, the adult clubs, even though they have

kid clubs.

So he's holding an adult club.

I've got one.

Judah's got kid clubs, right?

And I was like, all right, closest to the pin.

Here's how the game works.

We're going to hit a chip shot.

And it's real simple.

Whoever gets it closest to the pin wins.

Judah's all excited, right?

So I hit one, get pretty close.

Judah hits one and it goes 20 feet past the pin.

I'm like, all right, I win.

He goes, no, no, no, daddy, wait, we're playing whoever hits it farthest wins.

I'm like, hold on, that's not the game that we agreed to.

And he's like, well, that's what we're playing.

So I was like, OK, fine.

So I hit my ball again and it goes further than Judah's ball.

Well, what does he do?

He takes off running to his ball and he goes, I got to my ball first.

I win.

That's what we were playing.

I'm like, hold on.

I realized I was like, I'm never going to win because the rules are just going to keep

changing to where he wins.

And that's exactly what it feels like in our world sometimes, is it not?

I'm never going to win because the government and the leaders and the rulers, they keep

changing the rules so that they're always winning and we're not.

And I mean, I know that we're living in America where we're not suffering too much, but people

are trying to determine what we can and cannot say.

I mean, I've had sermons getting taken off YouTube and Facebook because it doesn't abide

by community standards.

Yeah, Michael, thumbs up for that.

Praise the Lord.

I was a badge of honor if I don't abide by community standards.

But you've got publishers now who aren't publishing Christian books.

You've got Amazon taking Christian books off their website.

You've got California who was trying to ban Christian books.

I mean, they are literally trying to change the rules constantly about what we can and

cannot do.

And meanwhile, we've got brothers and sisters all across this world who are actually suffering,

real suffering, who are still being persecuted and hunted down, who are being imprisoned

for their faith, who are being killed for their faith.

And it's easy when that happens, how many times does that happen and we get frustrated,

right?

Do you think you ever been frustrated by the government?

No, not this group, right?

Never.

You ever been frustrated at how the country is going, what the leaders are saying, what

people are doing and allowing?

I mean, you've got government officials now who are participating in pornography and

making sex tapes and they're just trying to play it off now like, that's fine.

You know, you're just getting a buck.

I mean, it's easy to get frustrated, right?

And especially if you're in those countries where you're being persecuted and killed for

your faith, it's easy to want to give up and say, well, this isn't worth it.

I mean, that's what David was saying in that Psalm.

How long, oh Lord, are you going to allow this to continue?

So the martyrs were saying, it's what the people in the first century were thinking

and what we see here is that one day God is going to make all things right.

That He will vindicate the righteous.

And His judgment is coming and there will be no more evil doers.

There will be no more injustice.

There will be no more sin.

The judge of all the earth will do right.

And so it's a call to perseverance.

Keep pressing forward.

Keep trusting Christ.

Keep praying and praying and praying and saying, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Make the righteous now.

So it's called perseverance.

The last thing very quickly that I want to just tell us to take away is this passage

reminds us that the end could happen at any time.

At any time.

And we've talked about the fact that the first five seals, they've already been open.

They're going on in our world now.

You know what comes after five?

Six.

It could happen at any time.

And for those who have not trusted in Christ, it's a reminder not to waste the time.

To turn from your sins now and turn to Jesus today.

For those who have trusted in Christ, listen to me church, for most of you here, if not

everybody here, it's a call to be mission.

Because one day Jesus is returning and at that point, that's the end.

There is no second chance.

There is no other opportunity.

And he is given the responsibility to share the gospel message to the church.

We are to go and tell others this is actually going to happen.

That God says that you have sinned against him.

You stand condemned before him.

And he is returning one day.

He's going to pour out his judgment upon all the earth and not a single soul will escape

it.

You will run.

You will hide.

But you will still face the wrath of God unless you turn from your sins now in trust in Jesus

for salvation.

When you see him coming, it's too late.

You can't make a decision then.

And like the rich man who said, well if I had known this, if I had known that, well maybe

I could have done something better.

Let me go and tell my family members.

And if they listen to me, then maybe they'll change their mind now.

And Jesus said, listen, they've got the Word of God.

They wouldn't even believe it if a dead man came back and told them.

And so it's a call for the church to take seriously the fact that we've got billions

of people in our world who are dying without knowing Jesus.

And this passage says that one day when he returns, he is going to pour out his wrath.

And that's not a time of rejoicing for the church because we're going to see people that

we talk to, see people that we worked with, see family members, people that we refuse

to say anything to because we didn't want an awkward conversation, because we didn't

want to hurt someone's feelings.

I would rather offend everybody on this earth than be responsible for not telling someone

about Jesus and then having to watch them suffer the wrath of God.

I would hate to find out that I was supposed to be the one to witness to someone and I

didn't do it.

And so they never heard about Jesus.

It's a call to be mission.

You have unbelieving friends and family members and neighbors.

God has put you in their lives for a reason.

So go and tell them about the great grace of God so that they don't suffer the great

wrath of God.

All right, we'll get to the seventh.

Actually the rest of the sixth seal next week and talk about the hundred and forty-four

thousand and it's a fun week.

I encourage you not to miss next week because next week can be real fun.

So how about Gene McKinney, give us a word of wisdom as we close.