The Dawn of The End (The Second, Third & Fourth Seals) | Revelation 6:3-8 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Revelation Bible Study Series)

Revelation chapter 6. Last week we read from verse one

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

down to verse 8 and we primarily focus on the 1st 2 verses.

Today by the grace of God, we will consider verses 3 down to

verse 8, but I'd like for us to read from the beginning in order

to recenter ourselves in this incredible vision that John

recorded and was given by the Spirit.

Revelation 6 beginning in verse one.

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 it's rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him,

and he came out conquering and to conquer.

When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living

creature say come, and out came another horse, bright red.

It's rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that

people should slay one another. And he was given a great sword.

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature

say come, and I looked and behold, a Black Horse.

And it's right, I 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 4th seal, I

heard the voice of the 4th living creature say, Come.

And I looked and behold A pale horse, and it's rider's name was

Death. And Hades followed him, and they

were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with

sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by wild beasts

of the earth. Father, we are completely aware

that if you do not help us by the power of the Spirit, we will

be left in the dark, we will be confused, and even worse, we

will dare to interpret these things subjectively.

But Lord, you are the great Teacher.

Your Word promises us that you've given us an anointing, an

anointing within to help us know your Word.

So we pray, Lord, that we would sense your guidance, that we

would know the truth, and that it would set us more and more

free. We ask these things in the

matchless name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Hopefully you remember that these 4 horsemen, commonly known

as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, are symbolic

depictions of the events that will mark the beginning of the

Tribulation Period. The Tribulation period is an era

that Jesus Christ himself spoke of in the Gospels.

And in essence, they describe the moments, the episodes, the

events that will precede the bodily return of the Lord Jesus

Christ. And they are characterized by

distress and destruction in a manner that the world has never

experienced. And as we come here to the Book

of Revelation, we are granted by the goodness of God an outline

of the Tribulation period. And what God does in His wisdom

is that He organizes these events in three sets of seven

judgments. Three sets of seven judgments.

We are introduced to the first here with the seven seals, and

we already started studying it beginning last week.

Following the seven seals, we will then explore the seven

trumpets. And then after the seven

trumpets, we will look at the seven bowls of God's wrath that

will be poured out. Leading to what?

The culminating point of Jesus Christ coming back to this

world, confronting his enemies, and claiming everything

victoriously. But there's a long journey ahead

before we get to that climactic moment in our study.

Because we have just begun examining the beginning of the

end. Here's what we learned so far.

Before Christ returns, Antichrist will appear.

We've concluded that the White Horse here in verse 2 is a

representation of the man of lawlessness who will come as a

real man possessed by unusual satanic power.

And he will influence the world while simultaneously opposing

Christ and his followers as he acts as a counterfeit savior for

a chaotic and confused generation.

We are not told the exact timing of the arrival of the

Antichrist, but we can be sure that he will come at the right

time, at a time when there will be such a need for leadership

and while nations are in turmoil.

We will learn much more about the Antichrist in Revelation

Revelation 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13, but what we've discovered so far is that his

desire to eliminate true worship from the earth and receive

worship to himself will be realized in great part due to

his introduction as a universal peacemaker.

He will come to seemingly do what no politician or religious

figurehead has able to accomplish in the past, usher in

global peace and security. He will be loved.

He will be adored. He will be worshipped, and in

great part because he will seem to bring to rest areas and

conflicts that have never known a hint of serenity.

That includes peace. In the Middle East, by the way,

nobody seems to be able to figure out how to bring

reconciliation, how to bring calm Antichrist.

We'll do it, and we'll explore that as we approach Revelation

13. But whatever peace this man will

bring, it will not last, and the reason why it will not endure is

because the Bible on more than one occasion assures us that

there is no peace for the wicked.

Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, puts us in his

own way when he gives a general comment about the last days.

And this is a known passage in First Thessalonians 513.

First Thessalonians 5. Three rather while people are

saying there is peace and security, then sudden

destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a

pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

Paul foresees a time where everybody will be saying there

is peace, there is security, but he tells the believers and us

that whatever peace and tranquility is enjoyed, it will

suddenly be broken by an eruption of violence and

turmoil. And this general comment

perfectly fits the sequence of the seals that we will look at.

Today. We explored the first one.

We will complete the rest of the vision of the four Horsemen as

we continue. So let's come back to Revelation

6. If you're a note taker, be ready

to organize your thoughts by using the horses as your

headings. And it's important to note this

from the outset. Not every rider of these horses

represents an actual human being that will cause these events.

In fact, the second, third, and fourth horses and their horsemen

are much easier to interpret than the first one.

The first one was a little bit difficult to decode, but once we

were able to do some work, we were able to see that it it

perfectly parallels Christ teaching about the last days in

the all about discourse. And that will continue to be the

case. But what we find here as we just

read, is that these horses, these riders symbolize

impersonal agents. They're personifications.

They're not distinct individuals, but they are

representations of forces and of things that will happen.

And the meaning of the bright red horse here in verse 3 and

verse 4 is quite obvious. Let's read it again.

When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living

creature say come, and out came another horse, bright red.

It's rider was permitted to take peace from the earth so that

people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Here's what this horse means. The Lord will permit World Peace

to disappear and be replaced by worldwide conflict.

Again, I can't help but say it. This perfectly corresponds with

Jesus teaching about the signs of the last days in Matthew 24.

After Christ told us that there will be false Christs who will

emerge and deceive the masses, ultimately leading to the

ultimate false Christ. What does he follow it up with?

Well, let me remind you in Matthew 24 verse 6 and 7, and

Matthew 24:6

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

and Kingdom against Kingdom, and there will be famines and

earthquakes in various places. So it's a play by play.

We see it in Matthew 24 and it lines up perfectly with

Revelation chapter 6, wars and rumors of wars, nations against

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

nations. And I know I can hear the

skeptic. We've always had wars.

We've even had world wars. Sure, we're not saying that

that's not the case. We're not saying that leading up

to the Tribulation, there won't be great calamities.

There won't be skirmishes and battles and civil problems.

We know that. But as Jesus qualified, what we

will see in the Tribulation period will be unprecedented.

It'll be things that we've never considered were possible, and

that's what we find here. There are actually things about

what Jesus says and what John sees that indicate to us how

this will be different. Let's consider a couple of

insights. Come back to our main text.

First, consider how swiftly the international violence will

erupt. If you look closely, what you'll

notice is that every time a horse is summoned, John has the

same recorded response. And I looked and behold, let me

prove it. Look at verse 2 and I looked and

behold a White Horse. Scroll down to verse 5.

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature

say come and I looked and behold.

Look down at verse 8 after the 4th seal was opened and I looked

and behold, he does this every time.

Or does he? For some reason this is not

recorded after the second seal is opened.

Look at verse 3 and 4 when he opened the second seal.

I heard the second living creature say come and out came

another horse, bright red. There's no mention of I looked

and behold. Why is that?

I believe it's to suggest just how sudden the violence will

come and crash into the world as it is enjoying supposed peace.

It's as though the red horse is just behind the white one.

What that tells us is this global conflict will not

escalate incrementally. You know, everybody's on edge

today because we we see wars, but we're also concerned.

Not us believers, hopefully, but the general population is is

worried that things can reach a breaking point and it seems to

be boiling in different regions of the world.

I think with this, with the mention of the absence of I look

and behold, because it was so swift, it was just right there,

means that this global war will come explosively, almost like

overnight. It won't even really make sense.

One day, one week, one month, we're all enjoying tranquility.

How is this possible? And then the script will change

in the blink of an eye. It will be alarming.

It will be shocking in a sense. It will only be deemed as

something supernatural to the discerning eye at least.

But a second thing we must highlight is how the rider of

the bright red horse was given. Look at the last part of verse

4. A great sword.

A great sword. Not just a sword, but a great

one. Emphasizing the scale and the

severity of this all inclusive conflict.

This future World War will bring mass carnage.

It will bring battles breaking out in virtually every nation.

There will be civil wars and casualties will be realized on a

massive scale, and no doubt the weaponry that will be developed

by then will make all of this destruction the more possible.

Additionally, this transition from a false peace to all of

this chaos will be the opportunity for the Antichrist

to rear his ugly head and to seek and maintain control by

using and resolving to violence. This is where the evil of this

man, apart from deception, will be realized, and we'll explore

that more in the coming weeks. And while we can spend time

trying to speculate all the human reasons for this outbreak

of World War and trying to determine the Antichrist exact

movements at this stage of the Tribulation, we won't because

there's one truth that is undeniably clear from this.

You ready? God is the source and sustainer

of peace. We want to worship in our series

in Revelation. We want to see the godness of

God, if I may use that terminology.

What do we take from this? That He is the source and the

sustainer of peace. Revisit verse 4 again and notice

the language. And out came another horse,

bright red. It's rider was permitted to take

peace from the earth. Permitted by who?

We don't have to guess. Here's how this truth should

inspire awe and all of us right now.

The only reason why we're not seeing bloodshed in every street

and are not trying to flee for shelter because nuclear weapons

are being shot out into space from coast to coast.

It's because God is gracious. One of the things about God's

common grace that I think we overlook is how humanity is

restrained from their iniquity, breaking out without limit

because of God's grace, without violating human will and the

great mastery of God's sovereignty he restricts.

He holds back from self destruction being a reality on a

global scale in a matter of hours.

Have you considered that about the grace of God that he is able

to extend peace to an undeserving world?

And that while this evil world has incredible potential to

destroy itself and accelerate apocalyptic events, any level of

serenity and security that we enjoy is a result of God's

goodness on any level. And let's not limit this now to

the idea of national security or crimes decreasing in our urban

cities. Let's expand our understanding

of the mercy of God and how He gives peace.

Yes, He supervises the world and He offers peace, but He's also

able to grant it on a personal level.

The God of peace, the Bible calls him the God of peace.

See what I take from this, and I hope you see it as well, is that

there is a spiritual dimension to violence.

Do you see that, That God permits peace to be removed?

And it really exposes our depravity.

God is not necessarily acting directly.

He's just removing His hand and letting us have at it.

And even in this we see that He doesn't let it go too far.

So what we find here is that God himself is peace.

He gives peace. He can take peace.

But for the believer and the one who wants to be a believer,

understand that Christ qualifies the kind of peace that we get to

inherit if we trust Him. This is a famous passage.

Let me remind you of it in John 14 and verse 27.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

I think most people will be content if Jesus had just said

peace I leave with you, but he gloriously goes on to tell us

the quality of this peace. My peace I give to you.

Meditate on that. Jesus says my peace I give to

you. Here's what that means.

The peace that Jesus Christ experienced throughout his

earthly ministry is something available to you and I My peace.

It's almost too good to be true. Are you saying that the calm and

the composure that characterized Christ's attitude and

disposition when faced with threats and slander and danger

and the disappointment of his own disciples and the various

challenges of ministry is something that I can actually

know for myself? Yes, because Jesus said it.

My peace I give to you. Now here's the wonderful thing

about Jesus peace. We learn how we're able to

mature and strengthen it in our own lives.

It's found in John, another famous passage, John 1633.

Jesus says I have said these things to you, that in me you

may have peace, in the world you will have tribulation.

But take heart, I've overcome the world.

We learn here that the peace of Christ isn't automatically

produced in us. It's available, but it's not

automatic. And Jesus here tells us that

this peace that is in Him, that is His, is only experienced and

dependent on knowing what He said to us.

Did you see that I have said these things to you?

Why, that in me you may have peace?

Here's the main point of this, that the channel by which Christ

allows this piece of His to flow into our shaky hearts is by no

other than understanding and believing what He already had

spoken. I have said these things to you

so that in me you may have peace.

You can't have peace unless you know what He said.

And He's given us the full counsel of God before us.

And so the more I expose myself to these truths and digest these

truths and chew on them by faith, it feeds a peace.

What kind of a peace? The same peace that Jesus had

and notice here also that he says in me, you may have peace.

The starting point is by first giving your life to Christ.

There's so much talk about peace these days on podcast political

platforms, even between leaders in the world today.

Peace, peace. How do we achieve peace?

They're tweeting about it. They're interviewing about it.

They're meaning behind closed doors to try to make it happen.

And yet it will never be known unless the Prince of Peace is

embraced. And unfortunately, as we learn

here, that Jesus Christ will continually be rejected by the

world to the point that another will come in His own name and

they will receive him. He will come promising peace,

and they will take the offer, not realizing that it will

suddenly be shattered because there is no peace for the

wicked. And that's what we find here

with a third seal. We come back now to Revelation 6

and read in verse 5 what happens when he opened the third seal.

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

and behold, a Black Horse and it's 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 creature saying a quart

of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a

denarius and do not harm the oil and wine.

So like the red horse, the black 1 is not so difficult to

interpret. He represents famine.

And this is no natural famine. This is a man made economic

collapse. It follows the global war that

that we just read about, that we just looked at.

And so we see that famine and poverty are often companions and

the consequences of war. And that's exactly what we're

being told here. And this will lay an even

greater burden on the wider population, especially ordinary

people. We see here that the

international economy, economy will take a devastating blow

during the early stages of the Tribulation.

That's what's coming. And we've seen this in history,

surely. But the severity of this has to

be understood, and that accompanies the arrival of the

Antichrist. Now before I get there, I want

you to consider how this voice among the living creatures

determines the prices of goods. He gives the prices for wheat,

and he gives the prices here for barley.

Now notice here that a quart of wheat is for denarius, and three

quarts of barley for a denarius. Now, according to Matthew 20,

verse 2A, denarius was the wage for a full days of an average

man's work. So what?

What's happening here that a man will have to work all day to

simplify it, just for a loaf of bread?

We're talking about intense inflammation here.

We're talking about something here that is extreme.

It is radical, it is horrifying. I mean, put yourself in the

position of a father or a husband who has to Labor Day

after day and for all that work every day.

He only gets really a small under nutritional meal.

What kind of decisions does he have to make for his wife, for

his children? Will he eat most of it so that

he can be energized to work the next morning, promising his

family that they will eat the following night?

Will he give it up all together for the for the sake of the

survival of his loved ones? Will we have to succumb to

thievery and violence to try to make it another another week?

We're supposed to think deeper about the implications of these

devastations. And what we find here is that

there will be scarce resources. It will be extremely

challenging. And listen, although there are

places in the world that are suffering today, and I'm sure

and I know that there are times in history when even more severe

famines have been recorded, As I said earlier, what makes this

particular season of inflation unique is that it is accompanied

by the Antichrist and his leadership.

And here's what I want to make known to you.

He will surely capitalize on this growing economic hardship.

He will take advantage of it. It will be leveraged to compel

the people to do what worship him.

This sheds light on how the mark of the beast will gain success

over time. In Revelation 1317, we're told

there that no one is able to buy or sell apart from having this

mark. And you think, how is that going

to happen? Well if you have something like

this, an all out meltdown, people trying to even find a

loaf of bread, long lines, people dying in the streets and

homes, then it makes sense how there will be many who will

consider their physical well-being and giving no thought

to the eternal consequences of their Pledge of Allegiance to

the Antichrist. It's horrific to think about,

it's devastating, it's heart crushing, and if any generation

should have zero doubt of the possibility of this concept,

it's ours. It wasn't too long ago where for

a few short years you and I had to wear certain things and

inject certain things in our bodies if we want to do basic

things in life. Say what you want, argue what

you want. I seek to interpret the world

through the lens of the Bible, and if that period of time was

anything, my conclusion, my conviction is that it was a

wonderful dress rehearsal for the Tribulation period.

This is what we find, and it's not so far fetched now, is it?

It's very possible, we've seen it, especially now as we

consider the advancement of technology, that our resources

globally are so interconnected. What happens in one nation

doesn't just affect that nation, it affects the world, depending

really on the nation. So we understand how things are

becoming more and more connected and we're not so separate as we

thought, and we can't really get off the grid as much as we'd

like to. Things are traceable, things are

interwoven. Things are lining up to the

fulfillment of this book. It's all being prepared.

And what I find so interesting about what we read here is that

the voice that commanded the rider of the Black Horse to

inflate the price of wheat and barley also tells them not to do

what? Don't harm the oil or the wine.

Isn't that interesting? Don't touch the oil of their

wine. Why?

Well, you can imagine the conversations around this, the

ideas that have been generated. Here's my goal and I hope it's

yours. I don't want to speculate.

I don't want to imagine. I want to be as close as

possible to what God intended by it.

And I believe the main point of this is this, that through this

there is a measure of mercy in the midst of judgement.

Do not harm the oil and wine. Why do I say that?

Because this happens more than once in the Book of Revelation.

Let me give you one example. Turn to Revelation 7, verse 2.

Revelation 7:2

This is dealing with another act of judgement that follows what

we're reading here, Revelation 6, if we honor it

chronologically and notice what it said here in Revelation 7,

Revelation 7:2

verse 2. Then I saw another Angel

ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living

God, and he called with a loud voice of the four angels who had

been given power to harm the earth.

And see saying, verse 3, do not harm the earth or the sea or the

trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their

foreheads. Here we have an example of the

Lord withholding judgment, one that comes after what we're

studying here because He first wants to accomplish a redemptive

thing. We still have to seal the

foreheads of those who belong to God before we let these things

loose. And so I bring this up to

suggest that it's possible that similarly as severe as this man

made famine will be, God and his goodness won't allow there to be

a total drought to drive the world into complete extinction.

Touch these basic necessities. Don't touch the oil and the

wine. And I believe it's totally

appropriate to rejoice in the mercy of God in a very unlikely

text. That's what we're supposed to

recognize here, that God here is merciful.

And God here is giving, even in the final lapse of human

history, drops of grace so that people can taste it and have

enough of sensibility to cry out to Him and listen.

As we rejoice in the mercy of God in a text like this, we

should also not lose sight of His sovereignty.

How's the sovereignty shown? It's really shown with every

single horse. God doesn't just give and take

away peace. God also is the supreme manager

of every asset, every item in this world.

God supervises, God sees, God determines.

Even with things that we often take for granted.

Notice how He determines the quantity, right?

He's talking about measurements here.

A quart of wheat, 3 quarts of barley.

I mean, how much more specific can you get than that?

He's talking about the quantity. He's determining the quantity

and the availability. Now listen, here's the point.

It's one thing to talk and counsel and sing about how God

is in control. It's an entirely different thing

when we realize just how much He is in control.

This is so specific, this is so precise, and it's something that

we have to understand as a means to be in constant awe of Him.

And if we don't, if we don't see just how God is in control, is

sovereign, we are one step closer to being idolaters.

Am I exaggerating? I'm not exaggerating because

that is the very reason, at least one of the reasons why God

condemns the people Israel. They lost sight of the true

source of every good. Let me give you the example that

I am thinking about. And Hosea, notice what the Lord

says to the people Israel, chapter 2, verse 8.

And as you're prepared to hear these words, what were the main

resources that he highlights in Revelation?

6 Grain, oil, wine, right? Listen to his words.

And Hosea 28 And she, being Israel, did not know that it was

I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil, and who

lavished on her silver and gold, which they use for bail.

Israel lost sight that I was the one who gave her the grain that

she ate, the oil that they used to prepare their food, the wine

to make their hearts merry and to sanitize.

I am the one who gave it. Isn't that what he says?

And Revelation 6, He's the one who controls it.

But notice what he says in Hosea 29.

Therefore, I will take back my grain and it's time and my wine

and it's season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which

were to cover her nakedness. So he gives it and he can take

it. What does this show?

That both in the Old and New Testaments, God is the one who

influences, who supervises, who brings change and shifts to the

economy of the world, to the things that we see happening.

And here's what else I see. That his control is not a cruel

1. Can you imagine being able to

control absolutely everything? And yet what we find here is

that even while Israel was worshipping Baal, God gave them

grain, oil, and wine. I'm still going to provide for

you. I'm still going to nourish you.

I'm still going to give you meals and joyful feasts, even

though with much of it Israel took it and use it to worship

false gods. That's grace, That's grace.

Keep in mind the holiness of God.

Wouldn't he have taken at the moment that they gave a glance

to Baal, and yet for an extended period of time He still supplied

them with what they needed? But what we learned here is that

God's common grace will not be so common in the Tribulation

period. It will be less and less common.

And one of the ways we see this is how he will let loose a Black

Horse who will strike the economy of the world and

everyone will feel it and Antichrist will take advantage

of it and so many other things will follow, especially what we

see here with the final horse. Let's come back to Revelation 6

as we conclude with these two verses.

Verse 7 when he opened the 4th seal, I heard the voice of the

4th living creature say come. And I looked and behold A pale

horse, and it's 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

with pestilence, and by wild beasts of the earth.

Now we might be tempted to see this horse similar in color to

the first one, a different shade of white, but we have to

understand it in the original text.

When you actually look at the original, the word depicts the

color green. In fact, the only time the

original word chlorose is used in the New Testament is to

describe vegetation. So more accurately, what we're

seeing here is a horse that has a pale green hue, the color of a

sickly corpse of a dying man. This is what this horse looks

like. And immediately we understand

here who the rider is. There's no mystery.

The rider on this horse is death.

That's his name. And this is of importance

because he follows. We see the sequence here, global

war and global famine. What follows those things

inevitably death on a massive scale.

So here's what we learned in the early stages of the tribulation.

There will be incredible death, loss of life, and we're told the

exact amount over a fourth of the earth will be killed.

Now if we use today's number, the population of the world, 8.2

billion, then we're talking about at this point just over 2

billion people will die in a short amount of time.

This is startling, and we're told exactly how it would be

accomplished by sword and through famine.

We already covered that. But there are two things that

are added by pestilence and by the wild beast of the earth.

And perhaps the most curious thing out of the four is the

last one, right? The wild beast of the earth.

Now, I think a surface level reading of that would spur the

thought of big animals running out of forests and jungles and

just chasing people down and devouring them.

But it's a little bit more complex than that.

Consider the transmission of diseases from animals even

today. Consider some of the greatest

plagues in history that have been caused by rodents.

Think about what bugs can do, like mosquitoes, serpents and

dogs, mice. I don't think there's one animal

in view here. I think it's going to be the

collection of catastrophes and calamities.

You have mass war, meaning there will be bodies, you'll have

famine, there will be again, such a lack and and many areas,

including sanitation. So this will invite animals and

beasts to invade and to pollute and to bring even more harm to

the world as we know it. The Bible is so specific, and

whatever way you look at it, it is absolutely astounding.

And listen, we're only in the fourth seal of the first set of

judgments. We're not even finished the

seals yet. And this is what we will see.

No wonder Jesus said there will be tribulation, great

tribulation, like the world has never known.

And this judgment, by the way, is just one of the many reasons

why I hold to a futurist interpretation of the Book of

Revelation. Because others would see this in

a different way. The details of what we just read

in these two verses would be applied and taught much

differently. For example, the preterist.

Remember we talked about this in the intro in the overview of the

Book of Revelation. The preterist sees the events in

the Book of Revelation as something of the past, more

specifically, things that have been happening leading up to

primarily 70AD. And so how would the preterist

interpret a verse like this? Well, well, they say it.

It's no secret. This is just apocalyptic

language. This is just symbolic imagery to

describe the devastation of the Jewish people when they were

surrounded by the Romans and when Rome invaded.

And as I mentioned in the introduction, the problem of

this is that we fail to consider the global scale that is defined

by both Christ and the Book of Revelation.

Even in the Olivet Discourse, you see Jesus talking about

things that will happen on a larger, more widespread platform

and things that will be more narrow pertaining to the Jewish

people. And so all of that is mixed up,

all of that is blurred unless you take it in a historical,

literal sense, unless you just take it plainly.

When, when it says here that a fourth of the earth will die,

it's a fourth of the earth. To interpret it otherwise, to

localize it, to allegorize it, is to minimize the severity and

the enormity of what's to come. Here's how we're going to end.

The last horseman is unlike the first 3 in this, he has no

accessory. The White Horse had what a bow,

the bright red horse. What a great sword.

The Black Horse scale in his hand.

The rider on the White Horse or the pale horse?

Rather nothing. But here is also where this

horse stands out. Though he possesses no

accessory, he is accompanied by someone else.

Hades and Hades followed him. So this is where this vision is

unique. Here's this rider on this pale

horse, and immediately trailing him is Hades.

Was he walking? Was he on his own horse?

We're not told. That's not what's important

here. What's important is how more

than once in Revelation, Death and Hades are paired together.

Why is that? What's death?

Biblically, death is when the spirit is separate from the

body, when it is taken from the body, when the body becomes soul

less, spirit less that is death. What is Hades?

Hades is the realm where these disembodied spirits go as they

await their final resurrection. To say that Hades is simply the

grave miscommunicates the actual reality of it.

It's not you being buried. It's not the graveyard in your

neighborhood. It's it's speaking about a

shadowy realm. If I can use that imagery, it's

speaking about a compartment in the world to come that will

contain the disembodied spirits as they await the sealing of

their eternal faith, the judgment of their everlasting

destination. So this is how we make sense of

death being followed by Hades. It's so profound when you think

about it. What this vision is trying to

communicate is that death will come and he will gather people,

but death is not the final state of man.

Yes, they will cease to live physically, but Hades is right

behind death, meaning 1/4 of the world will not just die, they

will slip into eternity. So if we just read this as wow,

1/4 of the world will die. Yeah, that's tragic.

But it's even more tragic. 1/4 of the world will enter into a

world more real than this one. 1/4 of the world in such a short

amount of time will enter into the next World.

They can't change anything. They can't confess anything,

however, and whatever they did in their lives will seal their

fate. And so we're supposed to sense

the gravity of this death simply escorts you and I to another

world, one that is more real and permanent than this one.

And here's what we have to do as we are studying about the

future, I think it's totally appropriate to pause here and to

reflect on our own mortality. You know, the preacher has many,

many things that he has to do. One of his primary tasks is to

regularly remind people about eternity.

And any faithful church will regularly remind the people that

come to receive the word of God of the world to come and how

transient this world is and not to lose focus.

As I alluded to during the announcements, there's many ways

of comparing this world and the next.

You know, this world is really like a stage as significant, as

important as as wonderful as it is by way of comparison is just

a play. And we all have our costumes and

we all have our roles. But there's a time coming with

where the play will end, where the final scene will be

executed, where you will have your final line.

You will give your final performance, so to speak, and

you will go backstage, you will take off your costume, you'll

remove your makeup, and you will push through a door with an exit

sign above it. And that's the real world.

So it is with eternity. There's a time coming where we

will take off this flesh, where we will leave behind all these

props, all the things that we played with, all the things I

brought laughter, all the things I brought tears, and we will

exit through a back door, so to speak.

And that's where life really begins.

Do you know where you're going when you die?

It's inevitable. Look, I'm not trying to scare

you here. I'll help you.

I'm going to die. Does that help?

You can't do anything about it. And I believe it's one of the

greatest apologetics for the truth of the Bible.

Only the Bible has the most comprehensive explanation of

what death is, what it leads to, where it came from, more

importantly, how it was defeated.

And so here's the thing. I mean, to be honest, you can

get so caught up in the details and trying to be accurate, and

you have to be. When you interpret the Bible,

especially with a book like Revelation, you don't want to

get it wrong, right? You want to be faithful.

You don't be too fanciful. You want to be, you want to be

right, sure. But I praise God that even in

the midst of this, and hopefully and prayerfully by His grace, we

remain with the same heart posture.

I want to take advantage of this study to be as evangelistic as

possible. We're talking about the end

here. We're talking about the fate of

every single one of us, whether it will occur in our generation

or not. Death will visit you and I, and

Hades is right behind him. But here's the beauty of this

book, that we don't have to wonder what will happen with our

souls, with our spirits, when they leave these bodies.

We, because of Christ, will not enter into a shadowy realm.

We don't have to question what's going to happen with our eternal

state. No, if you're in Christ, to be

absent from the bodies, to be present with the Lord, that's

the hope that we have. Surely that is a reason why we

can know the supernatural peace. I know where I'm going, OK?

Whatever my fate might bring. Is it sword?

Is it famine? Is it pestilence?

Is that a wild beast? Is it a snake bite?

I don't know what it is, but if I'm in him, it doesn't matter

because Death will escort me into his loving arms and I will

be with him, and I'll be more alive, more filled with joy,

more captivated by beauty that this world could never portray.

And so death as an advantage to the believer, I, I just wonder,

I really do. And I'm, I'm ending here, I

assure you, even if one person here doesn't know where they're

going, why would you risk it? Why would you gamble with your

soul? As we're studying revelation, I

want to remind you that this is ultimately about the revelation

of Jesus Christ. Do you know him?

Have you made a conscious decision of placing your faith

and trust in Him? Have you said at any point in

your life, I renounce my sin and I choose to be washed by the

blood of Jesus Christ? Do you realize that if you're in

Christ, you're not destined for wrath and nothing can change

your future? I want to give you the gospel of

the grace of God, the good news of Jesus.

Here's what you must do. You must acknowledge that you're

a Sinner. You must realize that in

comparison to God, you fall so short of his glory.

It would be pathetic to even try to open your mouth and defend

your righteousness. And at the same time, you also

realize the depth of his love. We're the same Christ who opens

these seals at a future time before that, long before that

set aside judgment, suspended it, so that He can enter into

this world and drink your judgement and drink the wrath

that deserves to be poured on me.

Why? Because He doesn't want us to

endure these things, and He doesn't want to want to launch

us into an eternal separated state.

He wants to embrace you, receive you, forgive you, renew you, and

give you life. You say, but what?

What do I have to do? You acknowledge your need for

Him, you embrace Him. In that moment you will

understand freedom, you understand forgiveness, and He

will impart and infusing you the Holy Spirit and you will be born

again. That's what is available to you.

And so I invite you at this time as we pray that if you don't

know Christ, that you would call out to Him and believe what He's

done for you and what He can do for you today.

Father, we thank you for helping us thus far.

We ask God with whatever was said, it would be retained and

it would be used to worship you. We pray for the one who doesn't

know you that today would be the day for those who know you that

we would worship You in light of all the things that we saw.

Lord, your absolute sovereignty, how you gave that great sword,

how you determined the economy, how you permitted death in Hades

to only go so far. Lord, thank you that you are our

Father. Thank you that you are not cruel

with your control. Thank you, Lord, that you give

us so much more than we deserve. And for this we sing to you with

glad hearts in Jesus name, Amen. Let's give him thanks.