Attempting to Demystify Revelation: Week 4

Now, when I was a kiddo, probably about five or six years old,

wrestling was just as popular on Saturday morning as the cartoons. So you

would get up and you would watch a couple episodes of your favorite cartoons,

and then you would watch wrestling. Now, for me, I loved it.

That doesn't mean that I loved all the wrestlers. Okay, in particular,

there was one group that I hated, and they were called the Four

Horsemen, and the Four Horsemen was led by a guy called nature Boy Rick

Flair, and I could not stand them. Now, at the same time,

I'm this little boy watching this, not knowing that wrestling is, you

know, a fixed thing. I also went to church Sunday morning, Sunday

night, and Wednesday night, like a lot of you did growing up,

so I was in a lot of adult services, which meant every once in

a while I would hear about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and I would

be like, three pastor, they're here, They're on television every week and

they're trying to destroy the world through a figure four laylock. And I would

be in the back of a satuary in my little mind and I'd be like,

Holy Spear empower Hawk Cogan and American Dream Dusty Rose to overpower these evil

four horsemen as they try to take over the world. Now, that might

seem ridiculous to you, but I can honestly say that, you know what,

Revelation is not easy to interpret. Now, I doubt there's been any

theologian or anybody who I don't know can read a book who would ever come

to the same conclusion that I did in my little five or six year old

mind. And that's why we humbly walk through Revelation together. And so it's

okay for us to disagree and not see the same interpretation on these passages.

The one thing that we need to agree on is that Jesus Christ is Lord

and that he is coming back someday. Other than that, it's okay.

We can still have fellowship if we don't agree on Revelation. Why, it's

apocalyptic language. It's a different language written two thousand years ago, so it's

gonna have a myriad of interpretations. So here's what we're gonna do today.

We're gonna look at Revelation chapter six, Chapter seven. John is gonna witness

Jesus opening up the Seven Seals. Now, here's what's gonna happen as we

look at this passage. Jesus is pulling back the curtain, okay, and

we are gonna get to see the spiritual world. We live in the natural

world. Jesus is gonna pull back the curtains so we can see the spiritual

world. Not only will we see the spiritual world, but we will see

the spiritual warfare that you and I are coming up against throughout our whole life.

Okay. And here's what we need to understand is that throughout this we

will see that this passage are these four horsemen and that we are gonna look

at today. It's not an end time's passage. No, it's a passage

that simply shows us the battle the East generation of Christians will fight until the

second coming of Jesus Christ. Now, these two chapters also answered the main

question that is posed by the Book of Revelations. Let's look at the main

question of the book Revelation six' ten. Talking about the Saints, the

people of God, it says they cried out in a loud voice, how

long, Sovereign Lord, Holy and True, until you adjudge the inhabitants of

the earth and avenge our blood. In other words, Lord, how much

longer are you gonna allow us to suffer? And then each of them was

given a white robe and they were told to wait a little longer. So

the saints of God they go to Jesus and they say, Jesus, how

much longer you go allow us to be persecuted? How much longer you're going

allow us to suffer under this horrible spiritual warfare? And then Jesus answers this

question. So the U and simply this, how much longer shall we suffer?

And the answer from Jesus a little while longer. But here's the good

news. We win in the end. So here's what we're gonna do today.

Today we're gonna continue to pull back that curtain, and we're gonna look

at the spiritual warfare that you and I endure throughout our lifetime. And then

at the end of the message today, we're going to ask this simple question,

who can stand against all the things that are coming against us? So

let us look at the first horse and rider here we go. Revelation six,

it says I watched talking about John as the lamb talking about Jesus opened

the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living

creatures say in a voice like thunder come. I looked, and there before

me was a white horse. I'll pay attention to these details. Its rider

held a bow, he was given a crown, and he rode out as

a conqueror bent on conquest. Here's what you need to understand. It's important

to remember that these horses, Okay, they're not some future event. This

passage cannot mean something different than it meant to the original audience in eighty ninety

six. So here's what you need to understand it before we interpret what each

of the horsemen are. Collectively, the four horsemen, they are the major

players of pain and suffering in our world. Okay, so collectively these four

horsemen are. They're the major players of pain and suffering in this world.

So let's look at the four horsemen of the pockets. Number one, the

very first horse, the white horse represents false gospels, false gospels. See

the first rider says that he has a bow and a crown, and he

came out conquering and to conquer. Now, this rider on this horse looks

very similar to someone else that we see in Revelation. He looks almost identical

to Jesus that we see in Revelation nineteen. White horse, white robe source.

So let's look at what Jesus looks like. In Revelation nineteen, it

says I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse,

whose rider is called Faithful and True. His eyes were like blazing fire,

and on his head was many crowns. He has a name written on

him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe

dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. And coming

out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which he strikes down the nations.

On his robe and on his thigh he has the name written King of

Kings, Lord of Lords. Now, if you pay attention, the horse

that we just read about in chapter six looks very similar to Jesus in Revelation

nineteen. But they're not the same. The first Horseman of the Apocalypse is

it is an impostor. Okay, it's an imitation of Jesus. It's not

the real thing. It's kind of like Jesus, but the fake version of

Jesus. See the white horse and the rider, are they wreak havoc by

laying out false gospels both outside the church and heresies inside the church. Now,

our world is full of fake gospels and false gospels. The most powspar

one right now is the Gospel of self Love. The Gospel of self Love

says, you know what, what Christ really wants for me and my life

is for me to live whatever life I want as long as I'm happy and

fulfilled, okay, Meaning that I don't need to conform my life to the

image of Jesus Christ. I need to conform my life to the life that

would make me truly happy. There's several of these false gospels out there.

We're gonna look at you this morning. The first one is the prosperity Gospel.

Now, the prosperity Gospel is the gospel that says, for you to

be truly fulfilled in life, you need to be blessed by God with money

and health, okay. And it promised you that you will become rich if

you will sacrifice and give money to the church first. So you pony up

first, you give money to the church, you will get rich. And

here's what you need to understand about this. This is a pyramid scheme.

Okay, everybody gives money with the promise of getting rich. Someone does get

rich the pastor obviously we are not in a pyramid scheme here. Okay,

but here's a sad thing. Okay. This preaching is mostly preached to those

who are in poverty, and so they're so desperate for some relief. They're

so desperate for a payday that the offering basket is almost like a spiritual lottery

ticket being passed around. This, my friend, is a false gospel.

The second big false gospel that's going on in our culture today is the progressive

gospel. And let's talk a moment about the progressive gospel. The progressive gospel

is a false gospel that says that your identity is in your sexual preference instead

of your identity being in Jesus Christ. So you're gonna find fulfillment and shaping

your life to your desires instead of shaping your life to God's will and God's

word. Now, I had a front road to the invasion of this false

gospel of my seminary degree is from a PCUSA school, and this school happens

to be one of the leading ones in the nation for the last twenty years.

In moving this agenda forward. Now, let me tell you how they

got there. Okay, so they didn't just land on it one day by

saying, you know, your identity is in your sexual preference. They didn't

land there one day. Here's how it happened. As they move forward in

their study, they came to a lot of them came to a conclusion.

And it's called universalism. And here's what universalism is. It means that everyone

eventually is going to get to go to heaven. And this doc and comes

from a scripture that says, since all of us are condemned, are we're

condemned through the sin of one man, Adam, then surely all of us

will be saved through the righteousness of Jesus. And so you get to this

point where you say, all right, I believe that Jesus's salvation covers everywhere.

And when you get to the point where you believe in universalism, here's

what happens. Instead of fighting for people to become like Jesus and to shape

their life according to God's word, well, in order for everyone to fit

into your universalistic theology and everyone goes to heaven, here's what you gotta start

doing. You got to start saying, well, that's not a sin,

that lifestyle is not a sin, that lifestyle is not a sin, because

then you're the main call for Universalist is to include everyone, So it starts

including instead of calling people to live a holy, righteous life. I was

also in the United Methodists for ten years, and I'm not running my mouth

today. Everything about Ray say you can read in the paper because it's all

over the news right now. That denomination is in shambles right now. Okay,

it is in absolute shambles. Millions of people have left that denomination here

in the last couple of years. As as a lot of the churches what

they do. They started grabbing a hold of it and honing in and accepting

this heresy of the progressive Gospel. And here's what's happened. Churches have split,

families, have split lawsuits like crazy over who owns the property. And

let me tell you something. They are. You look at it and it's

like a worn war torn denomination. And let me tell you, if you

have eyes, you can simply look at this denomination that has lost millions of

people, everyone's fighting, everyone's mad, and you can just simply look at

it and ask the question, does it look like God has bled us this?

No, it's a mess. It's an absolute mess. Why because they

follow the heresy of the progressive Gospel. Now, at the end of the

day, what does the progressive gospel do? The progressive Gospel says that Jesus

is not enough. I need Jesus plus my richest or I need Jesus plus

my sin. It's Jesus. And all right. Let's look at the second

Horse of the Apocalypse. It says, when the lamb opened the second seal,

I heard the second living creature say come. Then another horse came out,

a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from

the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a

large source. So the red horse represents rage and war, the red Horse

of the Apocalypse. And it's bloody, it's violent, it brings war,

but mostly it brings anger and rage. It stirs up war. See the

red Horse. It stirs up hatred and anger in people's souls until it bubbles

up so much so that there's a consensus in society to where there's a consensus

that we need to go to war. We see that happening today. Look

at Ukraine, Look at Russia, look at Israel, look at Gaza.

Now you might ask James, what's going on with the red horse? Whenever

there's not a war, No, does he stop riding? No? No,

No, He's always riding. But this horse mostly is a behind the

scene horse. It is constantly stirring up anger, rage and hatred. Look

at our culture today in America. This horse is riding all over our country.

We have become a country of rage and anger. We don't know what

to do with our anger here in our country. And here's a sad thing.

So many of us we snap at somebody that we dearly love and then

only to feel like trash. After we snap out, we're like, where

did that come from? And here's what you need to understand about those emotions,

anger and rage. They're not the primary emotions. No, they come

from sadness. See, anger and rage grow out of sadness. There's something

deep in your soul that hasn't been healed, and so when something doesn't go

your way, there's anger in his rage. So instead of mourning or layman

something, when something doesn't go your way, we snap or we jump out,

instead of taking time to find out what's really bothering us? Do you

ever fly into a rage? Do you ever snap? What is the sadness

going on in your heart? See? This is what the red writer does.

Red writers. I believe the finest moment in history for the red Rider

was the twenty years in between the end of World War One and the start

of World War Two. At the end of World War One, the superpowers

came together and they made Germany sign what they call the Treaty, the Versise

Treaty basically said Germany says, it's our fault. We're the ones who started

this war, We're the ones who brought this instruction. And so the superpowers

made Germany pay for the you know, the repairs. This sunk the German

culture into a depression and poverty. And as a result of this, this

this deep sadness, this deep hate, they started becoming people rage. And

so they divide it into all kinds of political parties because they used to be

a monarch, So now they have all kinds of political parties. And this

group paints the communists, this group paints the Democrats, this group paints those

who signed the pack of the superpowers. Because the soldiers believe they really won

the war, so they felt like they were betrayed by some of their politicians.

So everybody hates everybody in the country just is full of hate. It's

full of rage, it's full of anger. And then one man comes along

and he says, why are we mad at at each other? It should

be us versus the world? We should love our country. And so we

start promoting a thing called nationalism or Germany first. And then to bring the

people together. What did he do. He had to find a common enemy.

So they blamed it on the Jews. And the next thing, you

know, this country that had been fighting and tearing each other apart and hating

each other, they were united. It was then versus the world. And

guess what happened with that rage and that anger that build up over twenty years.

Over the next six to seven years, what do we see seventy eighty

five million people killed. This is what the Red Rider of the Apocalypse does.

He stirs up anger and rage in the heart of humankind. Let's look

at the third Rider that says, when the lamb opened the third seal,

I heard the third living creature say, come. I looked, and there

before me was a black horse Now you're gonna have to pay close attention to

this. This is the hardest one to interpret, but I think you'll get

it. It says this rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.

Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures,

saying, two pounds of wheat for a day's wages and six pounds of barley

for a day's wages. But check this out, do not damage the oil

and the wine. I believe that the black horse represents spiritual famine. Now

let me break this down for you. If we look here at the phrase

was this say. It says, you know, two pounds of wheat for

a day's wage or six pounds of barley for a day's wage. Now,

what we're talking about here is food commerce. But back then this was poverty

level food. It was just enough food so you wouldn't die. You're definitely

not gonna thrive. You're definitely not gonna grow and be strong. You're gonna

be malnurshed. But you're just gonna have barely enough of what you actually need

to thrive. But the thing that you're gonna have plenty of, well,

the oil and wine. The luxuries of this life. Now, what does

that mean. It means that the black Horse and Rider they take from the

world what we actually need, true spiritual, emotional, and relational flourishing,

and then he leave us with the luxuries that we actually don't need. And

the luxuries are the things we chase. Check out this quote from this author,

and I think this describes America wonderfully today. Elijah del Mediego says,

the brutal, painful fact is this. The average person living in a Western

country increasingly has nothing to live for. He has little family, few friends,

no neighborhood, no community, and no God. He exists mostly as

a ritual of economic activity, a number on a balance sheet. So what

does this writer do? The writer of the Black Horse gives you nothing you

need, but all the luxury you want. Little to new friends, few

you know, fruit, just very few family members that you're close to,

no real community, certainly no Christ. Basically we become just a cog and

economic engine. Now another place we see this in our culture today is the

iPhone. We all have this luxury item. We love our luxury item.

It's become everybody's best friend. It's our social life, it's our entertainment.

It's our stress relief. Yeah, it leaves us empty. We replace real

relationships with our Facebook or Instagram feed. Go out to lunch today, when

you go out to lunch, observe tables. You'll see people there on their

phone, ignoring everyone else at their table. So what we've done is we've

grabbed a hold of this luxury item. We love this luxury autum, but

this luxury item has taken away the things that we truly need in our life,

these relationships. So we have the luxury items, but we're relationally famished.

So no wonder we're depressed or we have anxiety and fear, no one.

Depression marks our world and our life. Day the black writer has come

and our souls are famished. Now, I'm an observer of people. That's

what I do. I observe people. I've been here in this area for

about six and a half years, North Indy and Hamilton County, and well,

one thing that's known about this area is it is one of the wealthiest

areas in America's one of the nicest areas to live in all of America.

Now that's not even talking about the world like I mean, we're Disney World

compared to the rest of the world, okay, and our culture here we

chase after the luxuries of this world in my own little call to sack,

my own little nook in my community. Everybody, everybody in my little nook

there has a nice home, a nice car. But here's one thing that

they don't have. They don't have relationships. A lot of them moved here

for a job, left their family behind, but they haven't replaced it.

And so here's what I watch day in and day out the last six years.

I watch them leave. The groage door opens up in the morning,

they leave, They go to work all day so they can afford the beautiful

home that they have. They come back in the evening, they close the

garage door with their beautiful car in it, and no one comes out the

rest of the evening. And this goes on day after day after day after

they they are giving their whole life away, chasing the luxuries of this world.

Yet they don't have what truly brings joy, relationships with each other and

relationships with Christ. And this is what the black horse has. The black

horse says, hey, you know, here's what you need to be really

happy. You need to work a lot of extra hours to get that boat.

To be really happy, you need to work a lot of extra hours

to get that second home, or to be really happy, you need that

extra luxury vehicle. So here's what you need to do. Work, work,

work, work, go get these luxury things. But all the while,

what are you doing while you're working all these extra hours to get all

these extra luxuries. You're forsaking the things that truly matter relationships, relationships.

Let's look at the last Horse today. It says when the lamb opened the

forth sill, or heard the voice of the forth living creature say, come,

I looked in. There before me was a pel horse. It's rider

was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given

power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague,

and by the wild beast of the earth. So the pel horse represents

disease and death are basically disease that brings death. When we look at the

Greek word for pell, it actually has translated a greenish yellow, which represents

kind of like when someone's really really sick and they're fighting for their life,

they have this kind of like this look or this collar of death. And

basically what This is what this rider brings throughout history. It brings plagues,

it brings diseases, but mostly the pel horse brings disease unto death. Not

only doesn't bring disease, but it brings the type of diseases that break down

our bodies and to the point where we die. And what it does is

it mocks our huge hospitals. It mocks all of our medical innovations, it

mocks all of our discoveries. For the past twenty five years, I've been

a pastor, and let me tell you something. I have led many funerals

where I look out at somebody who was a strong, strong person just months

before, but disease led them to death. See, this horse is an

evil horse that rise out to destroy families, to destroy lives. You know,

think about the last century. Okay, about one hundred years ago,

we had polio. Then what do we do. We cured polio, right,

all right, and then cancer came along. Well, you know,

we've not cured all the cancers, but we've cured a lot of the cancer,

so we're doing pretty good. All right. Now, let's go on

a little bit. Remember the AIDS epidemic, and everybody's like that's it.

There's nothing we're gonna be able to do. Now. You can get a

vaccine, you can pretty much live with AIDS. Never thought that was gonna

happen. And then, I don't know, do you guys remember something happened

about three four years ago COVID And you know, and I know some of

you don't think it's real, some of you think it's real and whatever,

it is something we can pretty much live with nowadays. Now pay attention.

Okay, ready, let's go backwards. Had a disease ricked HAVOC. We

fixed it, we had a cure, and then we had another disease.

We pretty much have fixed it. Then we had AIDS, pretty much fixed

it COVID. We've learned to live with it. Each time something has come

out that's new, we figure out how to overcome it. But this is

what this horse does. The pel Rider will bring another disease, and then

bring another disease, and bring another disease. It's out to destroy people,

all right. That's the end of the four horses. If you do not

like the four horses, it's pretty good I don't like them either. There's

what you need to understand about those four horses in your life. They are

constantly battling you and your family. They're wanting to bring deception to your life,

give you false gospels. They are wanting to lead you to illness.

They're constantly at battle. It's a spiritual battle for your soul. Now,

is that the end of them? No, matter of fact, we got

a couple other things that happen. We see as the chapter goes on,

it actually gets worse because we have religious persecution, and then we also have

these natural disasters. Now, here's the thing about religious persecution and natural disasters.

They kind of happen sporadically from time to time. The horses are always

riding, the horses are always destroying. But these other two, they happen

from time to time. Matter of fact, let's look at this quote.

Religious persecution and natural calamities are bound to specific times and places. Now check

this passage out as we continue reading. Okay, towards the end of Revelation

six, here's what I want you to imagine. The four horsemen combined with

religious person and natural disasters. Now look at how the people react. It

says, then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals,

the rich, the Mighty and everyone else, both slave and free. They

hidden caves among the rocks and mountains, and they called out to the mountains,

and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him

who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the lamb. And

then they say, for the great day of their wrath has come, and

who can withstand it? So here's what we're doing. We're looking at a

day where what happens when there's persecution, natural calamities, And the four horsemen

are riding and they say, who can save us? Who can stop this?

Who could do something about this? And we look at this text here,

and can the kings and the government save us? No, they're hiding

in the mountains, They're crying, mountains fall on us. What about those

great influence? What about our celebrities, Can they deliver us No? What

about our nation's military. We have the best military in the world. Can

they save us from spiritual warfare? Absolutely not? Can the rich people deliver

us No? Everywhere we naturally look for hope, none of them can deliver

us. So what are we going to do? See, they wish that

they can go deeper into the cave. Did you read it? They want

the mountain to collapse on them. And then we get this question. They

ask for the great day of their wrath is calm? Who can withstand it?

So, all of a sudden, now we just switch, and now

we must ask the question, who can stand? Who can stand against this

religious persecution? Who can stand against the natural disasters of the world, Who

can stand against this day after day after day, spiritual warfare that goes in

our lives. Well, all of a sudden, our Lord turns his attention.

Once he do, he turns his attention to you and me. Matter

of fact, we see here that he focuses on one hundred and forty four

thousand Christians, the followers of Christ. Now that number just means completeness or

countlessness. Okay, it means the countless followers of Jesus and those who live

their life for Jesus. So I ask again who can stand? And then

Jesus answers. We can now check out this here that happens in chapter seven.

Okay, now check this out, and says, after this, I

look talking about John, and there before me was a great multitude. I

was talking about us, the followers of Christ. And no one could count

from every nation tried people in language standing before the throne and before the lamb,

and they were wearing white rose, and they were holding palm branches in

their hands, and they cried out in a loud voice, salvation belongs to

our God who sits on the throne, and to the lamb. All the

angels were standing around the throne and around the elders of the four living creatures.

They fell down on their faces before the throne, and they worshiped God,

saying Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power

and strength be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Now here's a

quote I think that helps sum up our whole passage today. Eugene Peterson says

this, these people talk about us, we're not only secure, but also

exuberant. This is curious but holy biblical phenomenon. Those frightening representations of evil

happen in Revelation six. They're set alongside extravagant praise. Why because Christians sing.

We sing in the desert, we sing in the nine, and we

sing in prison, we sing in a storm. Any evil, no matter

how fearsome, is exposed as weak and panantic before such songs. As So,

when the question is asked, who can stand in light of the four

writers, who can stand against the sorrows of religious persecution and natural calamities?

Jesus says this. He says, my people can stand. And not only

can they stand, but they'll sing in the face of the writers. See

we stand why because we are followers of Christ. We have been bopped by

the blood of Jesus Christ. We have the spirit of the Living God inside

of us. Now let's go back and look at what these writers have been

doing for two thousand years. One of them has been bringing plagues. Has

a plague wiped out the church? No? Has any army knocked out the

Church of Jesus Christ. No has any government over power the people of Jesus

Christ. Know what scheme, false doctrine, or terrible heresy has eradicated God's

people? No one. We still stand today after two thousand years of spiritual

warfare and persecution. So what do we do? We stand? We sing

when we lose our job. We stand when we get a diagnosis. We

sing. We stand when we're at the funeral of a loved one. We

sing when we have a broken heart. We sing when we can't make ends

me. We sing when life kicks the trash out of us. We see

when people lie about us and trash us to talk behind our back. We

sing because we have victory. Why. Because we follow Jesus Christ. He

is the king of kings, he is the Lord of lords. He's on

the white horse he is riding. This name is Lord, his name is

Savior. He's all powerful. So what do we do when we face trials,

when we face times in our life where life is just overwhelming? What

do Christians do? We stand, We sing, we shout because we serve

Jesus Christ.