Christmas in Revelation: Sovereign Over the Tribulation

All right, it's good to worship with you guys all this fine Advent season.

If you have your Bibles, let's open them up to Revelation chapter 6.

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

We are continuing on in the series.

We're doing a mini-series right now as we preach through the book of Revelation.

But right now for the Advent season, for the month of December,

we're doing this mini-series called Between the Advents.

And I think although our passage may not be, quote-unquote,

a very Christmassy passage, we think that it's going to be very relevant

for us to turn our eyes to God and wait for him for the second Advent of Christ.

If you don't have a Bible, please, you could just raise your hand

and we would be happy to gift one to you.

That's our Christmas gift to you, so you could keep it and use it for this time

and read it for yourself as well.

Let's pray for the reading and preaching of God's word

before we read Revelation chapter 6.

Revelation 6 · chapter mention

Oh, Holy Father, we come before you knowing that we are empty-handed,

we are poor, we are naked, we are exposed,

but it's only your grace that covers us so that we can stand on that final day.

God, I pray that you would speak through your word,

address us through your word, so that we would have a bigger vision of you and your glory.

God, that we would be transformed to see all that you are,

that you are completely, wholly sovereign over our entire lives,

and that we would trust you.

We would trust you with all of it, God.

So I pray you would show us the things that we don't see,

to the things that we don't see, show us.

To the things that we don't know, teach us.

To the things that we have yet to believe,

make us, Lord.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Let's stand, if you are able, for the reading of God's word.

I'm going to read the whole chapter together.

Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals,

and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder,

Come.

And I looked, and behold, a white horse,

and its rider had a bow,

and a crown 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.

Its 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 its rider had a pair of scales in his hand,

and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures

saying,

A quart of wheat for a Daenerys,

and three quarts of barley for a Daenerys,

and do not harm the oil and the wine.

When he opened the fourth seal,

I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say,

Come.

And I looked, and behold, a pale horse,

and its rider's name was Death,

and Hades followed him.

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.

When he opened the fifth seal,

I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain

for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.

They cried out with a loud voice,

O sovereign Lord, holy and true,

how long before you will judge and avenge our blood

on those who dwell on the earth?

Then they were each given a white robe

and told to rest a little longer

until the number of their fellow servants

and their brothers should be complete,

who were to be killed

as they themselves had been.

When he opened the sixth seal,

I looked, and behold,

there was a great earthquake,

and the sun became black as sackcloth,

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 shaken by a gale.

The sky vanished like a scroll

that is being rolled up,

and every mountain and island

was removed from its place.

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

and 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 who can stand?

This is God's holy

and authoritative word.

You may be seated.

In his early 20s,

famous author John Green,

before he went on to write

the young adult novel,

The Fault in Our Stars,

I'm sure many of you guys

have heard of it,

which would go on to sell

over 20 million copies,

have multiple movie adaptations,

he was preparing for himself

to devote his life to ministry.

Did you guys know that?

I didn't know that.

He was prepping for seminaries,

prepping to go into full-time ministry,

so he worked as a student chaplain

in a children's hospital.

And in one of the hardest nights

of his life,

on a night shift,

he suddenly had a three-year-old boy

who was shuttled into the emergency room

with severe third-degree burns.

He recounts the smell,

the sights,

the screams,

the sobbing.

He later recalls that

the doctor who was tasked with

help saving that boy's life,

he remembered meeting her

in the employee break room,

and she was throwing up

into the trash,

saying,

that boy is gonna die,

and I know his last words.

John would never forget that night.

He would never forget

how absent God felt to him that night.

So he not only left the track to ministry,

but he abandoned his faith altogether.

But that curiosity of the boy

never left him.

It bothered him,

nagged after him,

day after day after day.

He always thought of him.

And so one day,

20 years later,

he actually Googled him

and see what he could find.

And he actually found that

this boy,

he was alive.

And his name is Nick.

And so on a podcast

that I listened to,

he ends up on a video chat

with this same three-year-old boy

just 20 years later.

He finds out that

he's an MBA student.

He just finished his undergrad degree.

He's doing a live,

he's alive and well,

as much as someone could be

with severe third-degree burns

as that young of an age.

But the amazing thing

is that he found out

that Nick was a faithful Christian.

Despite being in chronic pain

from the accident,

Nick explains to John

the awesome truth

of Romans 8, 28,

how God used this

absolutely horrific incident

to drive him

and his nominally Christian family

finally to devote

their entire lives

to Christ.

I think this story

is such a powerful example

of the importance

of interpreting

the suffering

that we have in our lives

through the lens

of Scripture.

Because the reality is,

suffering will either

drive us away

or to God.

It's very polarizing.

It's hard to stay neutral

about God

when you're experiencing suffering.

Both John and Nick

saw and experienced

the exact same incident

of tragedy,

but in the end,

they came to very

different conclusions.

Nick was able to see

that God was completely

sovereign over his life,

which didn't take away

the experience of his

chronic pain altogether,

of course,

but assured him

that his pain

is neither indiscriminate

or just by chance.

Instead,

it's all,

he had hope,

he had faith

that it was all

part of a greater plan

for good.

And we need to learn

to do the same,

brothers and sisters,

because Scripture teaches us,

it makes us very clear

that suffering

is part and parcel

of the Christian life

as we identify

with Christ,

the slain lamb.

without remembering

the one who is in control

over it all,

then suffering

and pain,

that's gonna swallow us up.

Our text in Revelation 6,

however,

shows us

the God who was,

the God who is,

and the God who is to come

is sovereign.

So that's the main point

of my sermon today.

We can,

we must endure

the suffering

of the tribulation

because God is sovereign

over it all.

We'll see how God

is sovereign

over the current woes

of the world

in the first

to the fourth seals,

how he's sovereign

in giving rest

to the resolute

in the fifth seal,

and he's sovereign

over the future judgment

of the wicked,

the future wrath

of the wicked.

That's the sixth seal.

As we remember last week,

Sean powerfully preached

on how the slain lamb

of Jesus Christ,

he alone is worthy

of opening up these seals.

So he begins to do

what only he has

the authority to do.

Each time the risen lamb

opens up

one of these first four seals,

there's a repeating pattern.

First,

one of the four living creatures

cries out

with a booming thunderous voice,

come.

And immediately,

a horse with a color

that's related

to its tribulation,

like blood, red,

and war,

and its rider,

so the horse

and its rider,

they come out

and afflict the earth.

So by opening

these first four seals,

Jesus unleashes

onto the world

the four horsemen

of the apocalypse,

who are God's

spiritual instruments

to unleash

onto the earth

conquest,

war,

famine,

and death

in that particular order.

And in that order,

you can see

just the natural

clear progression, right?

You can see

that conquest leads to war,

war,

and conquest,

they can lead

to famine,

and then all these

ultimately culminate

in death.

And while you might

be excited

or scared

to hear all about

the four horsemen

of the apocalypse,

as if this is

something new

in scripture,

this is some kind

of new doctrine

to comfort you

and maybe to burst

your bubble

a little bit,

this is not anything

new in scripture.

Because first,

any Hebrew familiar

with their Old Testament

would recognize

the influence

of the four horsemen

from Zechariah 1

and 6.

And on top of that,

more clearly,

Jesus,

when he was asked

about the end times,

signs of the end times,

he remarkably

spoke very similarly

about war,

famine,

and death

as things to expect.

That's Matthew 24,

and I encourage you

to read that on your own

because it's remarkable

how close

that chapter is,

that discourse is

with Revelation 6.

Therefore,

these four horsemen

are just a recapitulation

of Jesus'

end time predictions.

And it's helpful

to see this connection

to Matthew 24 as well

because both Jesus

and John,

they give us clues

that we're in the

end times already.

So how do we know that?

So in Matthew 24,

14,

Jesus clues us in

that these signs

of famine,

of death,

of war,

of persecution,

they come alongside

with the evangelization

of the entire world.

That's the fulfillment

of the Great Commission,

right?

And we know that

that's happening today.

The church,

it's on its mission

and we're evangelizing

the entire world.

So that means

we're in the end times now.

And as Sean explained

last week too,

the opening of these

first six seals

in our passage,

they've been inaugurated

by the death,

the resurrection,

and the ascension

of Christ.

So that means

that these four horsemen,

they're roaming

the four corners

of the earth today.

And we've seen

evidence of their work

for centuries

upon centuries.

And as we see

in the fifth seal

and as we observe

in our world today,

the church of Christ

is not immune

to the tribulation

of these four.

Later in the chapter,

we find a comparison,

a juxtaposition

between two groups

of people

in the fifth seal

and in the sixth seal.

In the fifth seal,

we encounter

dead Christian martyrs.

But in the sixth seal,

we witness

the living earth dwellers.

The Christian is dead,

the wicked alive.

Jesus himself predicts

this too

in Matthew 24 and 9.

They will deliver you

up to tribulation

and put you,

meaning his disciples,

put you to death.

And you will be hated

by all the nations

for my name's sake.

While the general world

is plagued

and judged

because the world

is evil

by these four,

God is using them.

Let us not forget

the church

is also not exempt

from the suffering

of the tribulation

for better purposes.

And we're gonna talk

about that.

A week before Christmas,

I'm sure you didn't expect

to hear a sermon like this,

but I assure you

that this isn't just

gonna be doom and gloom,

so let's turn to our text

to find out.

So in verses 1 to 2,

a white horse

with its rider

equipped with a bow

and crown

is given temporary authority

to conquer the world

through spiritual deception

and physical persecution.

Now there are some

who identify

the rider,

the identity of this rider

to be Christ,

mostly because

he's riding on

a white horse.

And this is a strong allusion

to Revelation 19.

And Revelation 19,

it's very clear,

for this is Jesus

who is called

faithful and true.

The word of God

equipped with a sharp sword

from his mouth

comes out from heaven

and conquers his enemies

on what?

On a white horse.

While that allusion

to the white horse

is strong,

the rider in our text today

I believe isn't Christ,

but is a satanic rider

used by God

for his purposes.

There are a lot

of different clues

in our text,

but I think

the most convincing reason

is that these four horsemen

are clearly grouped together.

There are clear literary parallels

that we've already talked about

between all four

that are consistent,

but it's also the grouping

of the four living creatures

that are calling

the grouping

of the four horsemen.

And how demeaning

it would be

to group Christ

with three other

satanic horsemen.

So this sheds light,

I think,

just on how crafty Satan is

by the very fact

that Christians

can be confused

by who this person is.

Back to Matthew 24

in Jesus' discourse,

he warns us,

see that nobody

leads you astray.

For many will come

in my name saying,

I am the Christ,

and they will lead

many astray.

I don't think

it's a coincidence

that one of these horses

is white

for that exact reason.

Therefore,

I think this horseman

is representative

of messianic pretenders.

There have been

many heroes,

world leaders

engaged in conquest,

promised utopia,

at least a glorious kingdom,

like Alexander the Great,

Napoleon Bonaparte,

Genghis Khan,

Cyrus the Great,

the list goes on and on.

But these so-called

great conquerors,

they're just mere pawns.

They're mere pawns.

They're mere pawns

in the hands

of our sovereign Lord.

So we need to hear

the words of the Lord

and see that nobody

leads us astray.

No matter how much power

or influence

or wealth

they may have,

there's only one

sovereign Lord.

That also means

that we need

not to be anxious

about the current

state of our worlds,

and we don't have to

take things

into our own control.

If rumors of wars

and pandemics

of nuclear weapons

or terrorist attacks

are swirling

all around us,

we need not to be anxious,

brothers and sisters,

because nothing falls

out of the scope

of our sovereign Lord.

Next is a second seal

with the blood red horse

and its rider.

Authority was given

to him to take away

peace from the earth,

given his release

onto the world

and his theft of peace

since Jesus' ascension.

It's no wonder

that there have been

just war after war,

upheaval after upheaval,

genocide after genocide

throughout history.

Keeping peace

is the most important task

for the United Nations.

And they reported

just one year ago

that globally

we're facing

the highest number

of violent conflicts

since 1945,

which is World War II.

and at least

a quarter

of the entire

global population,

that's two billion people,

live in conflict-afflicted areas

like Syria, Yemen,

South Sudan,

or Myanmar.

And global military expenditures,

it rose up to

two trillion dollars

in 2020.

You see, war,

conflict,

death,

these come with the times.

And we need not

to be surprised

by the world around us.

Even with the wars

in Ukraine

and in Palestine today,

that's evidence

of this horseman

galloping around.

We've seen him

for centuries now.

But all the while,

brothers and sisters,

I encourage you,

don't forget the words

of Paul

in Ephesians 6, 12.

He says this,

for our struggle

is not against flesh

and blood,

but against cosmic powers

of the present darkness,

against the spiritual forces

of evil

in the heavenly places.

We are bombarded daily

with news of conflict

and war.

And it's easy

to lose sight

of who our true enemy is.

Our text today

makes it clear

that we fight each other

because,

because spiritual forces

have stolen the peace.

Our text says

its rider was permitted

to take peace

so that,

so that people

should slay one another.

So we mustn't forget

our primary fight

as Christians.

It's not against

our fellow man,

even along ideological

or partisan lines,

but against a greater evil.

And I ask you,

if you are in conflict

in your life

with someone else today,

there's no peace

between you two.

Who is your true enemy?

Next,

from the summons

of the third living creature

comes the rider

on the black horse.

He comes with a pair

of scales in his hand.

And I used to think

that this was

the prototypical scale

of justice

held high by Lady Justice.

You guys are all familiar.

But,

actually,

this scale

is a symbol

of scarcity

and famine

because when

you're in famine,

a scale is used

to carefully

measure out

the ration portions

of food.

So that's exactly

what the rider brings.

It's a famine

so severe

it nearly breaks

the economic system.

And I'm definitely

no expert

in macroeconomics,

but I know enough

that the less supply

that you have,

the price of stuff

just drives up,

right?

Because of the famine,

a voice in the midst

of the four living creature

cries out

a quart of wheat

for a Daenerys

and three quarts

of barley

for a Daenerys.

Now,

to make that

a little bit more digestible,

a Daenerys

was around

the price

of one day's wage

for a common laborer.

And a quart of wheat

is enough food

to sustain

one man

for one day.

So if you do the math,

talk about

living hand to mouth.

If you had a family,

then you likely

had to turn

to the cheaper stuff,

the barley,

which would then

feed a couple mouths

for one day,

but still talk about

living paycheck

to paycheck.

Historians say

that this was

about 10

to 12 times

the cost

of normal food.

That's like

our dozen eggs

costing 50 bucks.

50 bucks.

If you know anything

about me,

if you know anything

about, you know,

our brother

Josh Henderson

over there,

if you know

how frugal we are,

we would never

touch an egg again.

Yet still

a voice

from the midst

of the four

living creatures,

who is Jesus?

He's calling out,

do not harm

the oil

and the wine.

This honestly

is a tough

phrase to decipher,

but I think

the best interpretation

is that agriculturally,

the grapevine

and the olive tree,

they're more resistant

to famine

than barley

or wheat.

But I think

the main point,

the main idea

is that Jesus

is establishing

a limitation

on this famine.

This horseman

could do

no more

than the exact

limitations

that Jesus

placed on him.

Just as God

says to the seas

in Job 38,

thus far

you shall come

and no further

and here

shall your proud

ways be stayed.

The apostle John,

he tends

to be cyclical

in his writing

and the book

of Revelation

is a really

good example

of that.

First,

we have

the seven seals

that steadily

ramp up

in the intensity

and severity

until the sixth seal

which is the apex.

It's the culmination.

It's the judgment day.

But later on,

this same pattern

is just recapitulated.

It's repeated

with the seven bulls

and then the seven,

or the seven trumpets

and then the seven bulls.

So,

I think this pattern

is much like

a recurring

intensifying theme,

a musical theme

in a movie soundtrack.

Each time it's played,

you recognize it.

But as you progress

on in the movie,

it becomes

more and more intense.

Maybe it speeds up

a little.

Maybe more instruments

are being added

until it reaches

its final climax.

As we go on

in Revelation,

tune your ear

just to hear

how this theme

is repeated

but intensified

because, frankly,

this is just

the first go-around.

This is the tamest.

There are limitations

placed.

Finally,

we get to

the fourth seal

where a personified death,

inseparable

from his grim

companion,

Hades,

mounts a pale

green horse

as a fitting

color for death,

I think,

as the CSB

translation

rightly has it.

And in the OT,

in the Old Testament,

Hades would be

most closely

aligned with

Sheol,

the idea of Sheol,

the Hebrew

understanding

of the realm

of the dead.

The Lord

then bestows

upon these two

the horrifying

power to afflict

the whole earth

with sword,

famine,

pestilence,

and wild beasts,

summarizing,

I think,

all these first

four seals.

So these

first four

horsemen,

they're meant

to be taken

together as a

holistic unit,

representing the

suffering of the

entire world

of the times.

just as the

four living

creatures,

as we heard

about in

Revelation 4

and 5,

they symbolize

the praise

of all

redeemed

creation.

But while

these four

horsemen are

given authority

over the

entire earth,

their power,

again,

is constrained

to put to

death only

one-fourth.

This isn't

meant to be

an exact number,

it's not meant

to be a

precise,

particular group

of people,

but this is

just a

qualitative measure

of understanding

how much power

has been given

to them.

If there are,

I don't know,

60 of us

here today,

that's 15

people.

That's not

little power.

That's,

I'd consider

that a

decimation.

This,

frankly,

is a

frightening

passage.

It's a

hard passage,

especially

keeping in

mind that

many faithful

Christians

would be

the target

of these

afflictions.

Just imagine

what the

seven churches

in Asia Minor

would have

felt

reading this

letter.

Because remember,

Revelation,

it's a letter,

it's not an

end-time

encyclopedia.

But,

I think there's

a big but here,

the line of hope

is that while

we see evidence

of these

four horsemen

galloping around,

terrorizing the

earth,

the text

makes it

clear that

these belong

to God.

God is the

one who's

called them

to action.

God is the

one who's

put chains

around the

necks of

death and

Hades,

limiting how

far they can

go.

I want you to

look down with

me,

because I want

you to see

all these

divine passives

in the

scriptures for

yourselves.

A divine

passive is a

common literary

feature where a

verb is written

in the passive

form with the

implied doer of

said action as

God.

So see,

a crown was

given to him

in verse 2.

A rider was

permitted to

take peace,

and he was

given a sword

in verse 4,

and they were

given authority

over a fourth

of the earth

in verse 8.

Even for the

third seal,

you hear not

the voice of

just a living

creature,

but this is

the voice of

Jesus who

stands in the

midst of the

four living

creatures,

calling out the

limitations of

that famine.

And we know,

we know that

scripture is

absolutely clear.

God cannot

commit any

evil.

He is never

responsible for

any evil.

He tempts no

one, and he is

light without

any darkness.

But John makes

it clear that

this evil still

is under his

sovereignty and

control.

But why?

Why would

God authorize

such suffering

upon the

world, and

especially upon

his children

whom he loves?

Why do bad

things happen

to good people?

These are hard

questions, but we

can find our

answers in

scripture.

Well, first, I

think, I think it's

really important to

establish this.

The Bible does

affirm that bad

things happen to

good people.

people.

And thank God

it does.

That sounds

odd and sounds

hard, but hear

me out.

You're all

familiar with the

story of Job,

right?

Rich and

righteous Job, he

has everything

that he wants, but

because Satan was

permitted, right,

hear that sound

familiar, he was

permitted to

afflict Job and

take away

everything from

him in a short

span of time.

Job is

mourning, he's

lamenting, and

pretty much the

rest of the

book is Job

going back and

forth with his

three friends.

And while they're

arguing about Job's

circumstances, they're

actually agreeing upon

base presuppositions

that a just God

should treat people

with what they

deserve.

So therefore, his

friends, they come to

this conclusion that

Job must have done

absolutely something

horrifically wrong to

be able to deserve

this.

Whereas Job, his

response, he

maintains his

innocence and

demands a fair

trial before a

judge who

should be fair.

But then, at the

end of the book, a

fourth friend, Elihu,

he kind of pops out

really out of

nowhere, but he

gives this profound

answer that I think

is so important for

us to understand, that

he says that God can

bring hard things, not

as a direct result of

someone's actions, but

to ultimately save

them from sin.

This conclusion is

extremely important to

understand, because if

we don't, then we end

up with a theological

system no different

than karma or even

the prosperity gospel.

Every time we suffer, it's

because we would have

deserved it.

Every time we aren't

healthy or wealthy, it's

because we didn't name it

or claim it or we didn't

give enough money to our

church.

How painful is that truth

instead, when you suffer

loss, death, tragedy, it's

because the only right

theological conclusion is

that you deserved it.

The book of Job flips all

of that on its head.

Good things can happen to

good people, or bad things

can happen to good people

for good reasons.

And that's good news, because

God can and does wield the

tool of suffering for good.

In the hands of our good

God, suffering is the

blaring microphone for those

who are slumbering in

contented worldliness, for

them to wake up.

Suffering is the glassy

mirror that reflects our

true spiritual makeup, warts

and all, leading us to

repentance.

Suffering is the surgeon's

scalpel, cutting out heart

diseases of idolatry and

sin.

Suffering is the great pride

crusher, the loving rod of

discipline, steering us back

onto the right path of

humility and righteousness.

Suffering is God's gymnasium,

his classroom, where we learn

probably more about God in

that setting than in any

other in our lives.

And there's one last good

that comes with suffering.

We can experience just a

taste, just a taste of how

much Jesus, our Lord and

Savior, suffered for our sin

on the cross.

This Advent season, we

remember that the infinite,

the infinite God, he became

an infant for our sake.

He became the one not to be

served.

He didn't come to be served, but

to serve and to give his life

as a ransom for many.

And for as much as we suffer,

we will never know how much it

cost for Jesus to bear all our

sin, bear all the wrath of the

Father on him.

And while terrible things can

happen to righteous Christians,

we can trust that we are not

alone.

Jesus can empathize with us.

That's why the late pastor

Tim Keller explains God takes

our misery, our suffering, so

seriously that he is willing to

take it on himself.

And for those who suffer in this

life and they pattern their lives

after Christ, the sovereign Lord

bestows upon them rest in the

next life as we encounter the

fifth seal.

So moving on to the fifth seal,

when in verses 9 to 11, we get a

break in the pattern.

So no more evil horses, thank God.

But instead, we are transported

back to the heavenly realm.

And here we see the souls who have

been slain for the word of God and

for the witness they had borne.

Because Christians don't play by the

rules of the world, because we

refuse to scheme and bribe and

cheat and battle our way to victory,

because we turn the other cheek,

because we trust that God will

uphold justice so that we don't

have to.

Because we have conformed our lives

to the slain lamb in life and

death, we have suffered between the

two advents of Christ.

And their blood was spilt upon the

heavenly altar of God.

Even the great apostle Paul saw his

own death similarly, like a drink

offering to be poured out.

And while they are in the Sabbath rest

of God, this rest is not fully

consummated.

I think it's clear in our text, but

John hints that he uses a specific

word, souls.

He says souls, they're not, they're

still waiting for their final glorified

body.

But even more clearly, they're still

waiting for God to judge and avenge

their blood on those who dwell on the

earth.

But again, notice God's awesome

response to their plea.

He's not a military general that's

freaking out in his camp, wondering,

am I losing too many men?

Am I going to lose this battle?

But his answer shows that he is in

complete control of the situation.

He is, after all, what they call and

know him to be.

He is the sovereign Lord, holy and true.

So he gives them white robes, symbolizing

purity and blessedness, and he tells

them to rest a little longer.

Rest a little longer because their

number is still yet completed.

Under the reign of Nero, Domitian,

Shapur II, Adolf Hitler, Stalin, Kim

Irsung, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Boko

Haram, God is sovereign over the millions

and millions of saints' lives throughout

history that are to be added to their

number.

More and more are joining in this choir,

even to this very own day.

How long before you will judge and avenge

our blood on those dwelling on the

earth?

When you hear this, I understand if you

might feel a little uneasy about this

prayer because it sounds like something a

Christian shouldn't say.

After all, this seems like the polar

opposite of Jesus and Stephen's request

before they were martyred.

Forgive them for they know not what they

do.

But as faithful students of Scripture, as

we all are in this church, we must be

careful not to absolute ties, either

response of forgiveness only or justice

only when we experience injustice.

We find both responses in Scripture and

both can be appropriate means of glorifying

God.

Now, this isn't the case for everyone, but

I wonder if our main objection to this, please,

it's ultimately because we have a small view of

God and his glory and we have a large view of

people, even those who hate God.

We uphold the value of our fellow man, which is a

good Christian impulse, but it should never be

done at the expense of God's glory.

Our world, we've lost our nose.

We've lost the ability to smell how foul sin is

because we've just gotten so accustomed to living in

it.

That's why David rhetorically asks in Psalm 138,

do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And to an appropriate degree, do we have righteous

anger to preserve the glory of our Lord?

And moreover, in defense of these saints, the reality is

that the majority, the vast majority of martyrs to this

day are voiceless and their murders are done in secret.

So many, millions upon these killings don't make the

headlines.

We don't know anything about them.

And that's precisely the reason why Richard Wurmbrandt, a

Lutheran priest in the 1940s, he would go on to find the

organization, The Voice of the Martyrs.

I'm sure you've heard of it.

It's an organization that lives up to its name and gives a

voice to the voiceless.

In his book, Tortured for Christ, he goes on to write this.

I tremble because of the sufferings of those persecuted in

different lands.

I tremble thinking about the eternal destiny of their

torturers.

I tremble for Western Christians who don't help their

persecuted brethren.

In the depth of my heart, I would like to keep the beauty of my

own vineyard and not to be involved in such a huge fight.

I would like to so much to be somewhere in quietness and rest, but

it is not possible.

The quietness and rest for which I long would be an escape from

reality and dangerous for my soul.

The West sleeps and must be awakened to see the plight of the

captive nations.

So church, we shouldn't stifle the questions of how long, oh Lord, but

we should join in on this pleading with righteous anger, an anger that's

not primarily motivated by personal revenge, but an anger defending God's

glory.

So we must ask how long, oh Lord, will our brothers and sisters in

this world suffer?

We can't bear.

We can't bear to see it anymore.

We want you to come.

We want you to come, oh Lord, and make all that is wrong right.

This Advent season, as we remember the first coming of Christ, we must also

remember to wait for his coming.

When his name will finally stop being besmirched.

His glory will fully be known.

His enemies crushed under his feet and the slain will rise to reign.

And when we pray like that, we don't pray as if we don't know what's going to

happen.

We know what's going to happen.

God is, but God is going to answer.

This suffering and these deaths are never meaningless because they are, they're

gas, they're gasoline to spark the advancement of God's kingdom, just like

Christ's suffering was.

And these deaths are victories.

They're never losses.

And that's why we can and we must endure the suffering of this tribulation because

God is sovereignly using all of it to launch into the sixth seal to bring about his

kingdom, the consummation of his kingdom.

Finally, the lamb opens up the sixth seal.

And you could tell that things are really ramping up here.

Once the seal is opened, there is a great earthquake.

Sun turns black, moon turns red, falls, the stars fall to the earth when overripe, like

overripe figs when shaken.

And these signs are all taken from a smattering of different places in scripture, but really

all of them are signaling to you something on the cosmic, on the earth shattering, sky

splitting level is about to happen.

These are all clear signs in the Bible that the foretold day of the Lord has come.

An answer to, this is an answer to the martyr's prayer.

Those who killed and abused Christians will await their final judgment that day.

And while John does include everyone, including the poor, the majority of these descriptors

in our text, they're the high and the mighty.

He says they're kings, great ones, generals, rich and powerful, yet they will find out that

final day that they are poor, they're weak, and they're naked.

When I was a kid in high school, in my idolatry to try to prove myself by my grades, there was

a situation that I decided that I needed to cheat on one of my exams.

It was a history exam.

And so what I decided to do, and thought this was a really smart plan at that point, but

I wrote all the information on a little cheat sheet.

It was like a little cheat sheet this big, but I quickly found out that there was a lot

of information on the test, and so I had to write it super, super small, probably like

font size two or three.

And so I realized I could only read it when I was like holding it up like this, but I

didn't take that into account when I was actually taking my exam.

I needed a place to hide it, right?

So I was just sitting there, and I decided to put this little cheat sheet in between my legs.

And so at that distance, I couldn't read a single thing that I wrote.

And so it was for, I don't know, a good 10 minutes.

I was just staring in between my legs, not writing anything.

And so I decided to abandon that plan, ditch plan A, go to plan B, which I whipped out my

iPod Touch, which maybe you guys remember those.

And I thought that I could furiously type it into Google, all the information that I needed.

So I also decided to put that in between my legs.

So I was just sitting there, looking in between my legs, trying to furiously type and look

up things.

Anyone could tell that I was acting super strangely.

And so it didn't take long for my professor to ask me, Ed, what are you doing?

What are you doing?

And I looked up after looking in between my legs for like a good 20 minutes, and I saw

everybody in the classroom staring at me.

Every single person was looking at me, and he confiscated my device, my little cheat sheet,

and he told me to meet me after class.

And I felt, that's probably the most, the moment in my life where I felt the most exposed,

the most naked I've ever felt.

I wanted to hide.

I wanted to run.

But I just had to sit there waiting for these kids to finish their exam.

But that was just a high school exam.

That's just a high school exam.

How can you imagine just how naked and exposed these people feel on that day of the Lord?

I want you to hear the absolute fear in their voices when they cry, fall on us, hide us.

What do we do?

Where can we run?

Who can stand on this day?

But the earth dwellers in verse 17, they're right.

Who can stand?

For we were all part of this adulterous and sinful generation.

No one can stand before God that day, not from their own obedience.

When we have suffered, we have all turned to our own ways to cope.

We have turned to substances, sexual sin, food, self-reliance, relationships, money,

and a plethora of other idols just to cope with the suffering of this world.

We did not submit nor trust the sovereignty of our God.

We have even accused God of evil and blamed him and hated him.

But there is one.

There is one who did submit perfectly.

There is one who submitted to his father's plan, even when it cost him everything.

And it's only by Jesus' perfect submission to death on a cross that we could stand on that day.

Only because of Jesus' obedience do we observe the great reversal of fate between those two groups that I mentioned earlier,

between the Christian martyr and the earth dweller.

Before, we noticed that the Christian martyr was dead, but the earth dweller was alive.

But now it's all upside down.

It's the faithful martyr at rest.

But the earth dweller in complete panic and fear.

The wicked plead for the mountains to cover them,

but the Christian rests secure that they are covered by the perfect righteousness of Christ.

The Christian is justified.

The wicked receive wrath.

The wrath of the Lamb for eternal punishment in hell.

And on that final day, what we knew of the power and the sovereignty of the Lord,

only by faith and not by sight,

it'll all be fully revealed for the whole world to see and tremble.

Therefore, today, with the four horsemen wreaking havoc on this world and discouraging Christians,

brothers and sisters, I urge you, I plead with you,

hold the line.

Keep the faith.

Fight the good fight.

Trust in the good plan of our Lord by remembering that God is sovereign over the totality of our lives now,

and he is sovereign over the rest that you will receive in the next.

Richard Wurmbrandt and his wife Sabina, they're faithful examples of this.

Again, in his book, Richard writes back in 1945, when the Soviet Union was still around.

It took over Romania.

This is Richard's country.

And the leaders of the Union forced Christian leaders to all gather together.

And they forced them to hail the atheistic state and pledge their allegiance to the Soviet Union.

And Richard and Sabina, his wife, they attended and they witnessed one church leader after another compromise their faith.

So, Sabina, being the faithful helper that she is, she whispered to her husband,

Richard, stand up.

Wash away the shame from the face of Christ.

They're spitting in his face.

And he replied, if I do so,

you lose your husband.

And she faithfully and boldly said,

I don't wish to have a coward for a husband.

Now, with a wife like Sabina, no wonder he obeyed God.

But it's also because he trusted, Richard trusted,

that God is in control of everything.

God would never leave him.

So he bravely stood up in front of 4,000 delegates

and declared that the church must glorify God in Christ alone.

And he would go on to pay the price for that.

He was kidnapped by the secret police.

He was thrown into a sensory deprived jail for three years.

That means no light, no sound.

The prisoner guards, they even wore felt on the bottom of their boots

so that they wouldn't make any sounds.

But he lived to tell the tale.

He survived the jail time and he claimed that it was worth it.

Richard and Sabina are faithful examples of those

who trusted in God with their lives

and that spurred them on to obedience,

even through suffering.

While not all of us are going to be martyrs

and suffer physical persecution,

we are all called to have the same spirit of endurance,

of perseverance, and self-sacrifice.

Again, we can only do this by trusting that God is with us now

and will give us rest for the future.

Remember, when you feel like you're losing in life

because of your faith, you are not.

But your devotion to Christ is a humble investment that explodes,

that'll explode on its return.

There's no better investment in your life

more than a graduate degree,

more than a relationship,

more than a house,

more than your own health.

If you think that you're losing

because your friends think you're weird

because of your faith,

because you tithe

so you can't save up money as quickly,

because you faithfully support your family

and give up opportunities

to launch into a lucrative and successful career,

because you speak up to defend Christ

and the Christian faith,

because you give up your own life.

Fear not.

Because God has promised that the last will be first.

He never reneges on his promises.

When we go through tragedy and suffering,

and I know that some of you guys

are going through really hard things right now.

We wrestle with God by learning the language of lamentation

as these saints had done

and which we learned not too long ago

from this very pulpit.

We invite brothers and sisters into our lives,

into our pain,

and we pray and we weep with them.

And we do ultimately what Nick did

by interpreting our suffering

through the lens and the truths of scripture,

seeing that God is still sovereign for our good.

Finally, let me close with a plea.

This tension of waiting for God's deliverance

can be extremely long.

And I know that it feels long for a lot of you.

So why is he seeming to wait so long?

If you turn to 2 Peter 3,

he tells us,

Peter tells us in verse 9,

the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise

as some count slowness,

but is patient towards you,

not wishing that any should perish,

but that all should reach repentance.

Now, if you are here today

and you haven't put your faith in Christ,

the message is clear.

God is waiting for you.

The Lord's patience endures

because of amazing grace,

even when his glorious name

is temporary defiled,

which, by the way,

he hates far more than any of us could,

but he wants all sinners

to come and find life in him.

The reality is the opportunity

to repent will not always be here.

We do not know when this day will come.

Today is the day to come

and put your faith in him.

God is waiting for you.

Let's pray.

God, we thank you.

We thank you.

We thank you for the grace

of our Lord Jesus

because we know that we do not

deserve to stand on that day.

Thank you, Lord Jesus,

for the perfect obedience

that you endured temptations from Satan

for the joy that was set before you,

despising the shame.

You died a death you did not deserve.

Thank you, God,

in that you display your sovereignty

and using all the bad in our lives

to use it for good.

Help us to see that.

Whatever is going on in our lives,

each one of us,

speak to us and help us to see

that this is truly for your glory

and for our good.

Help us to see this, Lord.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.