Good morning, it's good to be with you, good to worship with you. If you would please open your book, your Bible, which is a book to the last book of the Bible, Revelation. We are going to be looking at some chapters from the book of Revelation this morning. I hope that doesn't cause any of you too much anxiety, I know that. Before I'd studied Revelation in depth, I thought, well, and sometimes even after having studied Revelation in depth, I thought, well, this is a bit bizarre and strange and weird stuff in here. And it is. But it is a letter that was written by the apostle John as a pastoral letter for saints that they might grow in their faith. And that's essentially how it works for us as well. So I'm going to be reading chapter six and seven in a little bit, just a little bit of four and five to help provide some context here. Let's listen now to the word of God, beginning in Revelation four. After this, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven in the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the spirit and behold, a throne stood in heaven with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian and around the throne was a rainbow. And that had the appearance of an emerald. And then jumping down to chapter five, verse one, then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals, and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And now going to chapter six. 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 men should slay one another. And he was given a great sword. Then he opened the third seal. I heard the third living creature say, Come. And I looked and behold, a black horse. And this 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 Denarius and three quarts of barley for Denarius. And do not harm the oil and wine. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come. And I looked and behold, a pale horse. And its rider's name was Death. And Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine, with pestilence and by wild beast 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, Oh, 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 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 in 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 is being rolled up in every mountain and island was removed from its place in the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slaving free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the 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 the wrath has come and who can stand? After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth that no wind might blow on the earth or sea or against any tree. 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 to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of the sealed one hundred and forty four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders. and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes and where they come? I said to him, sir, you know, and he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the Great Tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, either thirst no more. The sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to the springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This ends the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Lord. Would you help us? To take and apply these scriptures to understand them. to not look at them as. Simply strange, esoteric, culturally situated in such a way that we can understand them, because your Holy Spirit works through all kinds of cultures and works through all kinds of instruments, even someone like me. And so would you bless me as your herald this morning? To speak the truth. Those who come to worship and to be built up in their faith and to take joy in their king, in their shepherd, Lord, would you give them fuller increase in that? Lord, may their love increase, may their joy and delight in the Savior grow. Those who come beat down, weary, struggling, lift up. Those who come in their pride. Give them humility that comes with the gospel. We pray this asking for your grace and your glory in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. So we look at these two chapters this morning, the question that's laid before us, because it was the question that was laid before the original audience is this. Who can stand in this world of evil? Who can persevere in light of all the messed up things that happen in this life? Who can make it? A few years ago, my father in law, who is very close to me and very dear to me. A good, robust Christian man. Found out that he had cancer and it wasn't just ordinary cancer, it was pancreatic cancer, and if you know anything about pancreatic cancer, you know that it's essentially like getting hit by lightning. Just comes seemingly out of nowhere and it's going to take you. And he found out really in the prime of his life that he was going to be dead within 10 to 15 days. And as we were talking about the things of the Lord on in his sick bed. We had been watching the news previously, and he says, you know. There is a lot in this world I am not going to miss. There is a lot in this world that is just evil and tragic and horrible. And I am so glad to be leaving it behind. You know, in some ways, maybe not because you've been on your deathbed, but because of different things in your life, maybe because you've turned on the news or maybe you've just gone home or maybe because you've gone to work, you have that same sentiment, that same feeling. Man, this world is screwed up. And it seems, doesn't it, that evil has taken the day we see things like war, in poverty, in greed, in sickness, in all of these things. And they just unfurl. They just seem to roll over us and roll through our culture like a great wave. Who can stop it? And the tension is particularly acute for us as Christians, isn't it? Because we want to know, look, where is the victory in all this? I believe in the resurrection. I have trust in Christ. Where is my hope in all this? Where is the power of God? You know, the early Christians, the Christians who John was originally writing to were thinking that because they were undergoing persecution, even to the point of the sword being put to death. They were wondering, where is the victory? Where is the hope? What does all this mean anyway? Well, this is why these chapters were written. They were written to assure us in the midst of a tumultuous time. They were written to give us a sense of understanding that God is in control. So let's just unfurl them here before us and see what's going on and see how God would help build us up this morning in our own walk with him. Well, I started out reading in chapters four and five, and perhaps, you know, from your own reading in the first three chapters, what you have in the first three chapters are essentially these little postcards sent from Jesus through John to these seven different churches, tell them either commending them or condemning them based on their situation. But then after the first three chapters, we move into chapter four. And it's here that John has a vision of the throne room of heaven. And it's here where all the wild stuff that we always associate with the book of Revelation begins to happen. All these weird images, all these strange creatures, all these. amazing circumstances. And the first thing that John sees as he's lifted up in the spirit, as he's taken into the throne room of heaven, as he sees all these angels and these angelic beings who have gathered around the throne of God and they've just lost themselves in praising him. And John gets a glimpse of the grandeur and the awesomeness of the divine spectacle of worship. And if we were able to spend time looking at that this morning, we'd see that the purpose of these chapters four and five is to tell us what is the center of reality? What is it that is supposed to ground you as someone made in the image of God? And it is worship. It is knowing the living and true God. And that's what John gets a glimpse of there in those two chapters. But we move on, and even as we do move into chapter five, we see that in light of all this glorious stuff that's going on. You can almost just imagine how John crunched his eyebrows at the next thing that he saw. He was perplexed. He was troubled. Why? Well, in light of all this, there was a scroll in God's hand and he knew this scroll was somehow important. And yet it was in his hand and no one seemingly could open it up. He wanted to know what is in this scroll. It seems so important. And there's no one there to open it. And it even says he begins to cry. And yet what happens? Well, John's eyebrows don't have to be crunched any longer. He doesn't have to worry because there is someone who can open up the scroll, someone who can explain what is the purpose of all of this. And who is it? Who is the one who has the audacity to come into the very presence of the living God and take this scroll from his hand? It is the Lamb of God. It is Jesus himself who has the authority and the power to take this scroll from his father's hand and begin to open it up. Now, what's the significance of a scroll? We read this and we think, oh, that's just kind of old stuff. Well, you remember, maybe you've seen Robin Hood movies or you saw Shrek or something like that. The scroll is something that gets unfurled. And what happens whenever the scroll is read? The decree of whoever is in charge is laid out. And that's how the scrolls function here. The scroll tells us the decree of God. What is his purpose? What is his plan? What is it that he has laid out? And so we see something important here and something we need to hang our hat on, that Jesus has all the authority and the power to take the decree of God to tell us what is the substance of history. He displays his right to rule history and his right to rule our lives. You see, Jesus is the hinge of history, he is the hinge, the book of Revelation is the hinge of the whole Bible. He is the last prophet, the priest and king, and he is the one who tells us what it is all about. So what is it all about? What's this decree that we have here? Well, what we have in this decree essentially within the structure of the book of Revelation is the content of history. Now, I don't know, as Mark ever talked through book of Revelation, y'all ever done a Sunday school about it, something like that. OK, no one knows. That's all right. What you have in the book of Revelation, whenever you read the book of Revelation, you need to think of it like a diamond. All right. What you have when you have a diamond is you have different facets. And you look through the facets, you get the same perspective on the same thing, or you get different perspectives on the same thing. And the book of Revelation is structured somewhat like a diamond. You have different dramas, seals, you have these scrolls, you have trumpets, you have bowls. And they're all given a different take on the same thing. And the same thing that it's giving us a take of is the history between the first coming of Christ, His first advent and the second. And so it's a very relevant book for all of us because we live in between the first and second coming of Christ. And so what the seals give us is one perspective on what life is going to be like for Christians between now and when Christ returns at the second coming. Well, when you look at these seals, what do you see? What's it look like, is it? Is it like unwrapping a birthday present? You're like, oh, this is the Barbie doll I always wanted. This is good. This is exactly what I wanted. This is perfect. Or is it something else? What we see in these seals is trouble. Absolute trouble. It seems like it is at least the first several is bad stuff, and that's really what Jesus wants us to know, and that's what he wants the original audience to see, that this life, is going to be filled with difficulty and trouble. And what the seals highlight is how this exists and how God deals with it. Now, most of the seals, as I said, paint a pretty bleak portrait of the stuff between the first and second coming, what do we have in the first four seals? Remember the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Y'all thought those were running backs from Notre Dame, right? Well, these are actually that's what a reference from the Book of Revelation. And says this is the stuff that fills history, but we see conquest. What's the second horse war? It's the third horse, famine, poverty, greed, and then the last one, this last horse, we see sickness. So this is some pretty messed up stuff. This is horrible. And you can just imagine the first audience saying, well, Jesus, I already knew this. I already knew this was the case. Well, you know, are you just kind of giving your stamp to this? What's going on? But then as if this roster of calamity was not enough, because you can also think, all right, here's a group of Christians are undergoing persecution. I hear all this stuff's happening and they're probably thinking in these first four horses. Good. God is really going to put it to the unbelievers because they are jerks. They're being cruel to us. They're persecuting us. But lest they should think that unless we should think that what do we have in the fifth seal? Christians are not let off the hook either. You see, the fifth seal gives us this account of the fact that there indeed are martyrs, witnesses, people who go to their death for the sake of the Christian faith. The Lord is teaching us that there will be people and that it is part and parcel of the Christian life to undergo persecution and that there will be some who even die because they have believed in Christ. Let me just ask you a question and you can answer here out loud. When has been the greatest time of persecution in the history of the church? Which century? Y'all are all whispering, say it out loud. 20th century, that's exactly right. So it shouldn't surprise us that we see this in the book of Revelation. So in one sense, whenever we think about the concept of tribulation, and that's a word that gets thrown around a lot, how the Bible understands tribulation is not some time at the end of history, but rather it tribulation for the church is something that ebbs and flows throughout her history. Why? Because a very promise of the gospel is nothing less than as Christians, we would identify with the sufferings of Christ and some even to the point of death. He said a promise of the gospel, I know about the promises of God being with me and blessing me and never leaving me a promise of persecution, that doesn't sound like something I want to be a part of. But listen to what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter eight. Verse 17 says we are heirs with Christ if we share in what in his sufferings in order to share in his glory. But yes, we believe in adoption, we believe that we are sons and daughters of the living God, but part of what that means is to share in Christ's sufferings. Then listen to what Paul writes in Philippians chapter one, verse twenty nine. It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but to suffer for him. It has been granted to you. It's almost grace language, isn't it? Do you ever think of that something that has been granted to you? It's not something we would willingly long for, but it's something that God promises us. Now, yes, we are to glory and we are to rejoice in the good things of Christianity and the other blessings, baptism, the preaching of the word, fellowship, all the all the joy and the laughter, which indeed comes with being a Christian. But there is also hardship. And success in the Christian life is not getting rid of all that stuff because that stuff is getting rid of gotten rid of at the second coming, but rather persevering by faith in the midst of it. And let me really preach at you now. If anyone would try and paint a picture for you of an account of Christianity, that says that what God wants for you, what God intends for you, what God intends for the church is there for there to be no suffering and that your life is just smooth as silk, no problems. And that, in fact, if you have problems, it's only because you have faith. That is a lie. And they are deceiving you and they are not helping you at all. What helps us is stuff like the book of Revelation and the teaching here of a robust faith inducing account of reality. And so you're thinking, great, great. How is this supposed to be a comfort? You know, Mark's supposed to be bringing in good guys in here and then you come in here talking about all this stuff. And frankly, I already knew that the world was twisted and fouled by sin. I already knew my own life was like that, frankly. So how do these five seals encourage me? How does this help me to get by? This is how. And it's as simple as this, that God is in control. That God is in control and God is at work. That nothing happens outside of his will and that he has his purposes as confounding as they may be to us personally, and we have to admit that sometimes they seem confounding. But God is in control. War. poverty, sickness, all the things that are effects of the fall that seem to run rampant. God has a purpose in them. The world is not out of control. Your life is not out of control. As a matter of fact, the Lord holds you in his hand. And we need to hold on to that. Thinking again about my father-in-law. who was really like a father to me. And he was dying even as he knew that his daughter, my wife, was pregnant with a third grandchild who would end up being a son named after him. He would read scripture and he says, you know, in some ways I feel like my time is too short, but I take great comfort in knowing that this is not an accident. God wasn't asleep in this. The devil did something. This is part of the Lord's divine plan. And you know what? You, the things in your life are part of God's divine plan. Even as painful as those things may seem, the Lord is in control and that should be an inducement to you, not so much to try and solve the puzzle of your life, the wise, the house, but rather to offer praise and knowing that someone is in control. That the Lord is in control and he is good and he is personal and he loves you. But you see, this text doesn't just teach us that God is in control. He doesn't just say, yeah, he's got evil on a leash, but he tells us something that really seals the deal. No pun intended. Look at the sixth seal. Verses 12 to 17. What we have there, it's all this strange imagery of the sun and the moon and all these weird, bizarre colors. If you look at Matthew 24, 29 to 31, and you can do that on your own, you'll see that there's a lot of similarity between this sixth seal and what you have there. And what this is in the sixth seal is an account. And over and over you see in the book of Revelation are numerous accounts of the second coming. And what God is teaching us is that he will judge evil and evildoers and he will put all things to right. The effects of the fall and rebellious sinners will be dealt with in extreme measures on that great day of wrath, as it's called in verse 17. that God will put it to rest. He will wipe away the tears. There is that day coming. And I don't mean this in a trite way or in an insincere or flip way, but in a very real sense, the problem of evil is not a real problem because God has dealt with it. And he displayed how he dealt with it first by taking it in himself, in his own flesh, by dying and being punished for evil things on the cross. Around 2000 years ago, he judged evil in his son and he offers amnesty from the consequences of the fall to all who would come and find themselves hidden in his wounds. And he makes that offer to you today. But he also promises that he will fully and finally deal with it at the second coming. He will lay it to rest. He will bury it. But you ask, how am I going to get from now to there? How is God going to get me there? How am I going to make it and endure between now and then? And just very briefly, that's what chapter seven is about. Chapter seven gives us in a very graphic and poetic fashion, the teaching that God will cause his saints to stand. that those who are His, He will keep, and not one of them will He lose. This vision of the 144,000 is a poetic diagram of the church. The Israel of God is the church. The 12 tribes and the 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes is another way of saying to the original audience and to us that the fullness of God's people, not one of them will be turned away. Not one of them will slip through. Likewise, the numberless, numberless multitude. And remember, we're just looking at facets of the diamond here. The numberless multitude that we read about is another angle on the same perspective. And it's the same. It's just in a very imagistic way, making the same point of what Jesus said in John, chapter six. This is the will of him who sent me. That I shall lose none of all that he gave me, but raise them up on the last day. Now, the question that the Lord is asking you is, are you believing it? Are you trusting it? Are you immersing yourself and bathing yourself in the scriptures that remind you again and again what it is that constitutes reality? It is that God has a grip of all the things in your life. And he has purposes in them. And he calls you to persevere in the midst of them. He enables you to grow in the midst of them. That's why he gives them. Will you believe? Will you trust? Because we have a God who will not let us go and who is not letting you go. Let's pray. Father in heaven. Cause us to stand. Because on our own, we cannot stand. Cause us to run in the faith. Because in our own, we cannot even begin to walk. Help us to believe that Your Word is true. And it's true in such a way that it helps reorient us. It helps ground us. Lord, for those who have come this morning and they feel swept away by waves of circumstances which seem to confirm to them that you're not caring about them, that you're letting them go, that perhaps they even think that you're persecuting them. Lord, grant forgiveness and repentance and grant them hope. Lord, if there are those here today who need assurance, then bring that assurance. That you are living and true and active and that you are at work. Lord, we love you and we thank you that your word stands on its own, and we thank you that you communicated the same message of the gospel in a multitude of wonderful and graphic and and pictures and images and words in such a way that you might nail us and nail your word to us that we might be more like Christ. It's in His name we pray and give you thanks. Amen.