All right, well we are, have come to the place where we are ready to open the scroll, start opening the scroll with opening of the seals, excuse me, not Genesis, Revelation, the other end, Revelation chapter six. Now let us not suppose that the events that we will read about as the seals are removed from the scroll are coming to us sequentially, that is in a chronological sequence. The scroll wouldn't even open at all until all of those seals are removed, if you can think of that picture. But of course this is apocalyptic and that's not what we should be held to. Now having said that, logically seal number one, the white horse, does precede the rest, at least in a sense, in which we'll see. logically and somewhat chronologically seals seven and excuse me six and seven will quote-unquote follow the others and again we'll see that as we get to them. Now the Tribulation of the church is pictured here in these seal visions. And what we are to understand is that whenever the church is faithful to its calling, and we saw this with the letters to the churches, whenever we are bearing testimony to and living according to the truth of the gospel, in other words, as long as we are being lampstands, as long as we are bearing light, then tribulation is sure to follow from persecution by the world. The church also is in the world and suffers along with the world such things as war and famine and disease. And again, think COVID. Things which occur as a result of sin that was introduced into the world that leads to common woes. So we have both this tribulation by the world and this tribulation along with the world that will be pictured here. The first seal we'll see in the first two verses of chapter six. Let me just say a word more about this understanding of the way that we suffer by and with the world. Too oftentimes, we think and talk and act as if men were in control of the events and destinies of the world, of the things that we read about every day in the paper, the things that are occurring wherever we are in the world. Last time when we looked at the heavenly perspective vision, chapters four and five, we should have seen a corrective of that. God is the one who is on the throne. God is directing and overseeing all that occurs throughout history since the time of his creation. This is a story also in the book of Daniel that we see throughout those different visions that Daniel had with the interpretations. God is in control. So in the midst of the trial and tribulations that we, the church will go through, that will be pictured to us in these sealed judgments, let us fix our gaze on that heavenly perspective vision that God is the one who is on the throne and he is in control of all of these things. Now, verses one to two. Then I saw when the lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, come. I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Now there are going to be four horses that are presented here and in these four seals. Interestingly, we see this four-three configuration again, four horses followed by three more explanatory type things. So it's this four and three arrangement that John often has. Some see these four horses as all being symbols of tribulations for believers. The white horse signifying, in other words, conquest, war, militarism, the lust to subdue, the Hitler type thing. White signifying victory because in ancient times when a general won a victory, he rode into the town or city on a white horse. But I think it's better to understand the white horse as symbolizing Christ. In the context of this section of the Apocalypse, Christ has already been presented as the victor. You remember in the fifth chapter where we saw him being presented as the victor through the cross. He is presented that way as a conqueror, the one who overcomes in one of the letters to the seven churches. And so we need to understand that Christ is the victor in this section of the apocalypse. White in the apocalypse is always associated with that which is holy or heavenly. Remember the first description of the Son of Man. His hair and his head were white like snow and like wool. Last, well, chapter four last, chapter four, we saw the 24 elders around the throne and they were dressed in white robes. And later on in this chapter, we're going to see the martyrs under the altar and they are dressed in white robes. all in all the word white will appear in in the revelation or in apocalypse 17 times and in every other occurrence it stands for the holy or the heavenly so we ought to understand here this applying to the holy or the heavenly which would make it have to apply to christ as being the rider on the horse this rider receives a crown better wreath. This is the word Stephanos. This is not the word for the royal diadem. If this were the military horse, it would be the word for the royal diadem, but no, it's the word for the victor's wreath that we've seen before. This word occurs eight times in the apocalypse and then all but one of them. That means how many times? Seven, yeah. So all but one, I mean seven times it refers to Christ or to believers. Now we will see pictured on the heads of the dragon and the horns of the beast, the crowns, the royal diadem crowns. And when we get to the end of this revelation in chapter 19, there is a white horse. There is one who sits on a white horse, one who is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and wages war. And at that time he is pictured as what? Wearing the royal diadem with the name King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But here the focus is on the victor and Christ has won the victory through his cross. As we've seen before, the theme of this book is the victory of Christ and his church. And so we see this running throughout the entire apocalypse. Now, before we go into the next three, let me explain the pattern of horses two through four. Remember, first of all, that the symbolism of the apocalypse is rooted in the Old Testament, and we find symbolism of the four horses in Zechariah. Let me read just one verse from Zechariah 1 verse 8. I saw at night and behold a man was riding on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine with a red sorrel and white horse behind him. Now, we also see the picture of one coming or God coming with a sword in judgment in Ezekiel, but I'm not going to read that to you because that comes into play even more later. In Zechariah, notice that the second, third, and fourth riders come in service to the first writer. They are behind him and in service to him. Both here and Ezekiel, we see the oppression or affliction coming upon God's people in Judah, but coming by Babylon at the hand of Yahweh. Yahweh using Babylon to come and purify through affliction, his people in Judah. And so in a similar way, we ought to not miss the pattern here in Revelation that horses two, three, and four are subservient to the first horse. In other words, they are Christ's instruments to refine and strengthen his people. Just as Ezekiel can say Babylon is God's instrument, here in Revelation we can see these horses and the afflictions they bring upon the church. The persecution by the world can be used of Christ to preserve his church and to purify his church. Don't forget that philosophy of history that it is God who is in control of everything. and he uses everything for his purposes and that philosophy of history is important as we move through here. Now we move into the New Testament and we go to Christ eschatological discourse and I'm going to read to you from the one in Luke. What I want you to notice is that there are signs that reference mankind in general, wars, earthquakes, plagues, famines, These are followed by signs that more directly concern believers. They'll lay their hands on you, will persecute you, delivering you to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my namesake. In fact, I'm not going to read that passage. You can read it when you get home because that summarizes what we see there. But again, the affliction or the suffering along with the world as well as the suffering because being afflicted by the world is pictured in Jesus's discourse. So even though the woes of the first kind are experienced by believers along with the rest of mankind, they are used and presented from the aspect of significance for believers. So there are two types of tribulations that we experience, those experienced because we are in the world and suffer along with the world, and those we experience as persecution by the world because we are not of the world. So we find this same pattern in Revelation 6. Second and third riders describe what happens to believers because they remain loyal to their Lord and suffer the persecution by the wicked. The fourth rider will disclose what God's people experience along with the rest of the world. Now listen to or watch for that pattern as we go through here. The second horse verses three and four. he broke the second seal I heard the second living creature saying come and another a red horse went out and to him who sat on it it was granted to take peace from the earth and that they will slay one another or slaughter one another and a great sword was given to him Now here, this refers not to man, not to warfare. In general, this refers to religious persecution. Why do I say that? Well, it doesn't say to kill, it says to slaughter or slay. The word sfatzo is a word that means to sacrifice. It's not the making of war, but the sacrificing that is being talked about here. And following the first horse, Christ, We recall that whenever Christ and His gospel advances, the sword of persecution follows. That they should slaughter one another is not the term for the killing of battle. It is a term that occurs, anybody want to guess how many times? seven times for the death of Christ or the execution of believers in the book of Revelation. Now, there is one exception to that, and that is in chapter 13, where it refers to the slaying or slaughtering or sacrifice of the beast, which is pictured as a parody of the sacrifice of our Lord. So it does, I would suggest, point to a ceremonial or a cultic or religious persecution or sacrifice that's going on. Now, when we see the fifth seal open in a minute, we will see the souls of those who have been slaughtered, same word, for the word of God, and those being slaughtered, that will be slaughtered here on the second seal, have been slaughtered under the fifth seal. The other thing I want to point out is this reference to the great sword. Now, the word great is put on it. It doesn't necessarily mean large. And this word for sword, makaira, is the word that means small sword, knife, dagger. It's the instrument that would have been used in the sacrifices at the altar. We will see the great sword in terms of the war sword pictured in just a minute. So we are not to look for a definite person as being the rider on this horse, but if we place the apocalypse during the reign of Domitian as we have during John's time, The first readers were not experiencing war. They were experiencing the persecution for refusing to worship Domitian. And so, yes, Domitian is a type of the one that rides on the red horse, but he's not the only one. This is not just a picture of Domitian because there's no time in the existence of the church where there's not been a rider on the red horse, so to speak. And remember, this is in God's hands and he's using it to purge and purify his church. He gives authority to the sacrificial knife bearer. It was granted to him. That rider on the red horse didn't do it on his own volition, but it was granted to him that he could do this. And so we must always remember that this is all under the control of Christ. The third horse is the black horse. Look at verses five and six. When he broke the third seal I heard the third living creature saying come. I looked and behold a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hands and I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures. Now remember all the other voices have been one of the four living creatures. This voice is in the center of the four living creatures so we must assume it's the voice of God, Christ, the divine voice, okay? And he says, a quart of wheat for Denarius and three quarts of barley for Denarius, and do not damage the oil and wine. Clear as a bell, right? Well, notice that we have a pair of scales in his hand, which is for measuring the cost of grain by weight is giving. This indicates economic hardship. Okay now some want to say it indicates famine. It's not so much famine and the prices here are prices high enough to be serious but not indicate a significant famine. It would be maybe limited famine if you want to look at it that way. Also the fact that oil and wine are in plenty representing all the comforts of life. It tells us that you know the poor are going to have it hard but the wealthy aren't going to have it hard during this period of time. Now a quart of wheat is enough for one loaf, they tell me. They being people I read. And one loaf being the portion for a day for an adult. One denarius is a day's wage. So that is saying that the person who the laborer will be able to buy his daily portion. Now, the three quarts of barley allows him to get three loaves of barley bread if he wants to have barley bread, which if he has a wife and a kid, he'll take care of all of them. So it's sort of a limited famine, and I don't really like to use that word, but a limited in nature. Also understand that during the times of hardship or famine in the ancient world, the food was distributed or rationed, if you want to say it that way, by using scales. Now the second and third horses, the red and black, both describe tribulation of the church by the world. So in the letters to the churches we see we saw the refusal to worship specific deities. that the guilds had leading to economic hardship. And we will see in chapter 13, the people who refused the market, the beast leading to economic hardship because they couldn't buy and sell. And so this idea of poverty from oppression of the world is something that's been with the church throughout times. Now we don't suffer that and we're blessed because of that, but that doesn't mean we will always be in that situation. It's always, however, in the hand of Christ alone because he's the one who removes the seals from the scrolls, the scroll. Now the fourth seal. When the lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come. I looked and behold an ashen horse. Some of you might have green or light green or something like that. um a pale horse or that okay um and he who sat on it had the name of death and hades was following after him this one's easy they tell us what it is um authority was given to him over a fourth of the earth to kill with a sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth The color here is the color chloros, which is the color that would describe, or actually was figuratively used to describe a sick person, but also would be the color that was used to describe the underneath of a leaf, that pale green as opposed to the bright green at the top of the leaf. Think of a holly leaf, if you will. So it's that kind of a color, and we're told that it indicates death here. We have death that goes through and then it's like Hades is coming behind him scooping it up. You know, I pictured when I was at my grandfather's as a kid and they were cutting the hay. You have the one goes through and cuts the hay and then of course you have the one that rakes it into lines. Then you have that bale that comes through and scoops it up and throws the bales out. So you have death and Hades pictured in that way. Hades being the place, better the state of the disembodied existence that occurs. Now notice that these two, death and Hades, cannot do as they please. They had to be given authority just like we said before. They cannot take it on their own. and they are limited in what they can do to what? Four things and one fourth of the earth. Now listen to this from Ezekiel, see if it sounds familiar. Thus says the Lord God, how much more when I send my four severe judgments against Jerusalem, sword, famine, wild beast, and plague that cut off man and beast from it. This is, again, one of those common sources that is used in apocalyptic literature. Here, the word kill is not the word sfatso that means sacrifice. It's the word that means kill, as with a sword. And the sword that is pictured here is the long sword or the battle sword, the hrumphaya, not the makaira sword. So, if you were to understand the second horse as representing war, there's a problem because now you have another horse representing war. If you have the third representing famine alone, then you have another problem because here famine is specifically related here. So again, I think it's better to see the second as being the religious persecution, the third being economic oppression, and this one then Combines that killing here. However, these are kinds of things that occur Worldwide to everybody and things that we suffer along with the rest of the world throughout this dispensation war among nations there will be wars and rumors of wars the Lord promised us and But unlike unbelievers, the woes have a very specific meaning and purpose for us. They are Christ's instruments for sanctification of his people and the extension of his kingdom. Do you know where the church grows the fastest? Where it's persecuted. That's right. All right, now we get to the fifth seal. When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. They cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there was given to each of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest for yet a little while longer, until their fellow servants and their brethren the rest were that who were to be killed even as they had been would be fulfilled also." Now remember that John is not seeing a heavenly vision but a symbolic vision. The altar that would have to be referred to here with the souls of the martyrs underneath it would have to be the altar of burn offerings. That's the altar that would have the sacrifices upon it. So, since the soul is in the blood. Now, That being said, we need to realize that if John is given a picture of those souls under the altar at his time, oppression was occurring at his time. This is not some future-only event that's being pointed to for that futurist orientation that says none of this is going to happen until the very end. No, these souls are pictured as being there now. We'll see later that, well, we won't get there now. But anyway, oppression is going on in his time. They are the souls, as I said, that were pictured as gonna be slaughtered in the second seal. Now they have been slaughtered, the same word being used here. And of course, this would be this altar, even though it pictures the altar of burnt offering, there can't be an altar of burnt offerings in heaven, why? There is no more sacrifice given there. Incidentally, when we get to chapter eight, we will see instead the golden altar, which is which altar? The altar of incense. So here, the burn off altar kind of morphs into the golden altar. And that can happen because this is apocalyptic. Now some people have a problem with this idea of the souls of the saints asking for revenge. They point out that when Jesus was being killed, when Stephen was being killed, they both asked for forgiveness. But they forget this is apocalyptic. The word used here is not the word for revenge, it's the word for avenge. It's a word that primarily means to procure justice for someone or to inflict punishment for a wrong done. And notice they're asking God to do this, not seeking to do it themselves. In other words, it's retribution, not revenge that they're after. Revenge is a personal retaliatory action for a perceived wrong. Now it might be a wrong, but it's that which is perceived by us and it's something we retaliate against personally. When we ask for God's retribution to come, what we are understanding is that God's righteousness and His sovereignty will never shine forth if this retribution will not fully shine forth, if this retribution does not come. So they are calling for God to do what God has promised to do. They're not seeking retaliation or revenge. These martyrs were given white robes, white symbolizing holiness or heaviness, as we're told, and they're told to rest for yet a little while longer. We've talked about this idea of time is near, I'm coming quickly, and that sort of thing. And remember, chronology is not the significant thing in the apocalypse. The sovereignty of God is the significant thing. God is patient. He is not going to complete His retribution. Until when? Until all of His elect the rest who are to suffer come and join them. Now this number has been fixed since before the foundation of the Lord and we're told that in chapter 13 because their names have been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who's been slain. All right the sixth seal, final judgment. 12 through 17. I looked when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake. Somebody say one. One. And the sun. Two. Became black as sackcloth made of hair and the whole moon. Three. Became like blood and the stars. Four. Of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs shaken by a great wind and the sky. was split open and rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. How do you like that? Then the kings count one of the earth and the great men two and the commanders three, and the rich, four, and the strong, five, and every slave, and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? We see here in the sixth seal an introduction to the final judgment. Now in the first series, the seven lampstands, there was only an announcement that Christ would be coming in judgment. In this second series, final judgment is not merely announced, but it is definitely introduced. We get a glimpse of the coming horror, which feels the wicked when they see the judge coming, the fall on us type of horror that is there. But there's not a full description of this judgment. Similarly, when we get to the next section, chapters eight through 11, the trumpet judgments, we again will have final judgment introduced, but merely introduced. So these three sections, the letters, the seals, and the trumpets make up the first division of the apocalypse that we talked about in the introduction. They contain nothing more than an announcement and introduction to the final judgment. But as soon as we enter the second division in chapter 12, things change and there we start getting a description of the final judgment though first of all only symbolically but there is a description of it here in this um second series as i said the final judgment is is is introduced there's a two-fold symbolism here and that is a crashing universe and then a completely terrorized humanity but this terror only affects the wicked The terror becomes the cause of the judgments that are coming from God. And the language of fleeing from the presence of one occurs here and occurs again in chapter 20, again with the final judgment that fall on us and hide us. That by the way is pictured to us in Hosea and this is probably an allusion to Hosea 10 verse 8 but I'm not going to go there now. You can see that later. Some people want to compare this to the same sort of fear and terror that Adam and Eve had when in the cool of the evening God came walking in the garden after the fall. That same sort of thing and being the presence of God is not welcome to the center. Now, understand that this probably ought to be seen also as the answer of God to the prayers of the saints under the altar of how long. Here, the final judgment coming is the response to those prayers. And we'll see that a little bit more clearly, I think, in just a minute. We've already talked about the seven or alluded to the seven objects of creation that are affected. Be sure that as you read through these descriptions of the universe here, that you don't see heavenly bodies or pictures of what the heavenly body is going to look like at final judgment. This is a symbolic picture of the terror of unbelievers at the time of the wrath of God. It is not presented to picture what things are going to actually look like. It teaches one lesson and that is the final effusion of God's wrath upon the world and his church or on the world for the persecution of a church will be terrible. For example, don't try to read stars as meteorites because stars are too big to fall upon the earth. What's possible in apocalyptic is impossible in reality, or say, what's impossible in reality could be possible in apocalyptic. Now, it might be pointing to the fact that this present heaven and earth are going to be dissolved. It might be, but the primary message here is the terror that will come at the judgment of God. We've mentioned also or pointed to the seven classes of mankind being affected. In other words, the entire goddess world will be seethed with sudden terror when the Lord comes or when God issues forth in final judgment. So any questions, comments about the six seals before we go into chapter seven? Yeah, I think I think in the same way about about what we're going to see now in Matthew 24, we have, of course, a sort of a confluence of 8070 and the end times. And so you're looking at the end through 8070 eyes. And so the part of the end that is in picture being pictured there, I read or pointed to some things from Luke. If you look at Matthew 24, you'll see similar sorts of things being pictured as you do here. All right. Yes, sir. This is apocalyptic or symbolic vision, then does that weaken our argument against the conscious No. No, no. Again, I think with the picture of death and Hades, Hades is that picture of disembodied existence after death. So we have it actually described to us as that character. But no, this would not indicate anything about that. Now, remember that none of them have been thrown into the lake of fire yet. So they're not in that situation yet. That'll come at the end. And that is part of that, in some sense, chronological following after that that we mentioned. Yes. Do you see any evidence of wicked being seized by sudden terror? Today? You I don't know. I mean, I haven't I haven't seen that because of I haven't I haven't been in a part of world where that happens. Now, in the third what do you call it, the third world, in those areas where the church is growing rapidly and we're actually having reports of things like that being reported, those kind of things are reported. is that you do have that terror that is expressed when there is a, for lack of a better term, a miraculous event that takes place that protects the wicked. You know, you hear of people in deep dark Africa talking about how similar to Elisha having the chariots surround them when the people come after them, you know, attacking them and protecting them. And then the terror that is seen in the eyes of those who are attacking them. So I think it does occur. I just never have witnessed it because we're not, You know, we're in a place where I don't know if that's fortunate or unfortunate. We know we don't experience some of this more than we do. But yeah, yeah, I've only heard reports of it. That's all I can say. Sometimes it seems like we transport wickedness to other parts of the world. Oh, the wickedness is here. The question is, is God going to visit us with the types of oppression that have been experienced in those parts of the world? and then use that to cleanse us and we will see some of that. Again, are we blessed by not experiencing it? Or will we be more blessed if we experienced it? It'll be under God's hands. And if we wanna ask the question, why don't we experience it? Then that is the same as saying, why do we experience it? If you live where you're being experienced it. God is in control, we must trust him regardless of that. All right, let's look at the sealed multitude. This time I'm gonna read the entire first eight verses. I almost said chapter right. After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising sun, having the seal of the living God. And he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed. 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. From the tribe of Judah, 12,000 sealed. From the tribe of Reuben, 12,000. From the tribe of Gad, 12,000. From the tribe of Asher, 12,000. From the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000. from the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000. From the tribe of Simeon, 12,000. From the tribe of Levi, 12,000. From the tribe of Issachar, 12,000. From the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000. From the tribe of Joseph, 12,000. From the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 sealed. Now, here we see first of all, an after this report from John. Now the after this is not after the seals, It is a vision that John experiences after the vision he experienced then. So these events don't follow those events. These events are in a vision that follows in John's experience from this. And that the four angels are at the four corners of the earth and over the whole earth. and they control destruction throughout it. But then another angel comes from the rising of the sun, the east, with the seal of the living God. And he does not allow or he proclaims that he will not allow harm to the servants of, notice how the angels claim our God. until the servants have been sealed on their foreheads. Now, notice that the mark of the beast is not the first mark that appears in the apocalypse. The mark of the seal of God is the first one that does. Now the woes that are intended for the godless of the world will not harm those who have been sealed in Christ Jesus. That's the message of that part of this vision. What does the seal do? It do three things in scripture. It protects against tampering, it marks ownership, and it certifies the genuineness of something. So for us to be sealed, we are protected by the Father, the one who is on the throne and in control of everything. The Son has sealed us, purchasing us and redeeming us with His own blood so that we are His possession. He owns us, a picture of the ownership. And the Spirit seals us, certifying that we are truly sons of God, as Paul wrote in chapter eight of Romans. And again, the genuineness of our relationship with God is part of the sealing of the Holy Spirit upon us. Now in the 14th chapter, this same sealed multitude, which will be 144,000 then, just like now, have on the foreheads not a undisclosed seal, but the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father. Now that's not to say that we are to see the seal as being the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father here. This is just a picture of the sealing, i.e. protecting ownership and genuineness that is being pictured here. Notice how John hears the number 144,000. He doesn't count them as if he could, but he hears the number 144,000 and they are throughout the earth. Clearly 144,000 is symbolic. This is not Israel, the nation Israel. Yes, I know it says that every tribe of the sons of Israel, who is a son of Abraham now? Yes. All right. Now, if this were Israel, we'd have a problem with the tribes that are given to us. But before that, let's recall what 144,000 would picture. Probably the 12 tribes and 12 apostles would complete the 10 raised to the divine three. So God's complete people are pictured in this 144,000. Why do we look at these tribes that are given to us and say this is not a picture of the nation Israel? Well, are all the nations of Israel named? No, Ephraim and Dan are missing. Who and Dan? Ephraim and Dan are missing. Now, do any of the tribes occur in the right order? Birth order? Two of them do. Which two? Thank you. Yes, they were the last two, right? But so yeah, and now why in the world are Dan and Ephraim missing from this? Well, the answer, this is apocalyptic, is a very good one. it's not all of them because in apocalyptic there's this understanding and in late judaism a late um pre-new testament judaism there's an understanding um as far back as the time of judges and if you'll have to read back in judges and the tribe of dan and what they do with idolatry and everything but since that time it was um held that that dan uh would be the tribe from which the antichrist would come And then Ephraim, Ephraim, if you remember, is the tribe that was the main tribe of who? The Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam I was from Ephraim. And throughout the prophets, the Lost Ten Tribes are referred to as Ephraim. So we have the lost 10 tribes, not pictured, not named. And we have the tribe that may be associated with the Antichrist, not named. And so again, it's more of a picture of the people of God than it is the nation of Israel. Chapter 21 will confirm that this must indicate the church of both old and new dispensations when we see a similar description. So John hears the number 144,000, but he sees something different. Look at verses nine following. After these things I looked and behold, again the after these things is a visionary after, a great multitude which no one can count. Not that John can't count it, but no one can count it. Somebody counted the 144,000, but nobody can count this one. Which come from every nation all tribes peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb Clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and they cry out with a loud voice saying Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the land and all the angels all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying Amen blessing somebody say one 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 answered saying to me, these who are clothed in the white robes, who are they and where have they come from? I might have said, They must be those martyrs under the altar. They had white robes. He said, you know, Lord. And he said to me, these are the ones who came out of the great tribulation and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. And for this reason, they are before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his temple. And he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will hunger and thirst no longer, nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat, For the Lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to the springs of the waters of life. And God will wipe every tear from their eyes." So he sees an innumerable multitude. And this is from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue. They are clothed in white robes, holiness, heavenliness. They are saints. They have palm branches in their hand. Now the palm represents both victory and peace. Palm Sunday, Christ entering in victory into Jerusalem. They cry salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the land. It's their song of triumph. And of course, give the sevenfold ascription of praise that we talked about, or not numbered, bracketed by the reduplicated amen. They worship, prostate, they fall down singing this song. One of the elders comes and we get the identity of this multitude through him. And this closes out the section whose theme is the church in tribulation. The picture that we get here of the identification of this, those who come out of the great tribulation, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb sounds very familiar with those who have been slain because the Word of God, because the testimony which they maintain back up in the fifth seal. So we can identify this multitude here with that group of martyrs under the altar there. Um, so the church might be in apocalyptic, excuse me, might be in tribulation, but it won't remain. So they're going to come out of this great tribulation and we're going to come out of it and be dressed in white robes that are made white with the blood of lamb. Now I can tell you that having worn plenty of white coats and had plenty of blood on them, that the blood didn't make the white coat white. This is apocalyptic. The cleansing of the blood is a picture that we have here with these white robes that represent holiness and heavenliness. So in the presence of God, we see who we will be serving him night and day. We're going to be protected by him. Notice how he spreads his tabernacle over us. There'll be no more hunger or thirst. This is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 49 10. God will wipe every tear out of their eyes. Now notice he doesn't wipe it off the face. You know, when we wipe the tears off a kid's face, we wipe, I mean, off a kid, we wipe it off his face. We don't go into the eye, that would not feel good. God wipes it out of the eye, I mean, there could be no more tears. All right, yes. You referred to these people being the, Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, the term to be a martyr doesn't necessarily mean to be martyred in the sense you're thinking about it. It includes those another. And the reason we say that is because if we identify this group here with that group there, all of these aren't people who've been martyred. These are just people who have come out of every tribe, nation, and had their robes washed clean by the blood of the Lamb. Again, this is typical apocalyptic where we get a further understanding of something further on in the vision. So it's not just people who lose their lives because of faith that are pictured as crying out to God in the fifth seal. It is all of those who go to be with Him. And that does include us, or will one day include us. All right. We will not get to the seventh seal unless you want to give me three minutes. Will you give me three minutes? You will? All right. Let's read 8, 1 through 5. When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden censer and much incense was given to him so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angels' hands. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Here you see the picture of the end of final judgment. This is final judgment concluded. We see the seventh seal being broken and a silence in heaven. Now if we understand that from the previous seven fold lampstands and the following visions of seven that all conclude with final judgment, then the seventh seal must picture final judgment. Well how does silence Picture final judgment. Well, it's an Old Testament thing. Habakkuk 2.20, the Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him. Zephaniah 1.7, be silent before the Lord God for the day of the Lord is near. Zechariah 2.13, be silent all flesh before the Lord for he is aroused from his habitation. So we see this idea of silence being introduced to prepare us for the terrible nature of the ultimate judgment that is to come. The silence occurs for a dramatic effect. Remember that this 30 minutes of silence don't reflect a chronology so much as they reflect a symbolic nature of how it will be experienced. For example, It's not empty, things are being done. Censors being filled. Prayers being, going before the Lord with the smoke from the censors. The censor being thrown to the earth and the silence is ended by what? When it hits the earth and we have all these four judgments, these four judgments being directly out of Ezekiel, by the way, that we see. So picture this way. If we're in the middle of worship here and all of a sudden for 30 minutes, there's nothing. Would that be impacting? that even though it's 30 minutes it would be impacting and that's the picture we have here so it allows verses 2 through 5 to act as a conclusion to the seals and an introduction to the trumpets because we have these seven angels with the seven trumpets introduced here but not explained until the end of the final judgment and we'll get there next week Lord willing let's pray. Father we thank you so much for this your wonderful picture of how you are sovereign over all how you are in control of all, how you have promised to answer the prayers of your people, praying how long, and you will bring that about, Father, in your time, when all of us have been called to you and have had ourselves washed in the blood of the Lamb, then you will come. Come, Lord Jesus, is our prayer in Christ's name, amen.