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Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of the Revelation, chapter 6. As we continue our study in this
book, we are going to finish up chapter 6 today. We looked briefly at this text
last week, or two weeks ago, and I'm going to go into more
detail today, beginning in verse 12, which is the opening of the
sixth seal. I looked when he opened the sixth
seal, and behold there was a great earthquake. And the sun became
black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And
the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its
late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded
as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island
was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the
great men, The rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every
slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in
the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks,
fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne
and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath
has come and who is able to stand? When I was a young boy growing
up in southwest Missouri, The church that I attended used
to sing a song that went something like this. This world is not
my home. I'm just a passing through. My
treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon
me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this
world anymore. Now the music was absolutely
awful. And the poetry left a lot to be desired as well. But it
expressed what we as Christians knew then and what we should
know even more today. We are pilgrims on this earth. We are not citizens of this earthly
kingdom. Our citizenship, as the Apostle
Paul so rightly tells us, is in heaven. That was certainly
the attitude of those who lived in the first century and received
this letter that the Apostle John wrote to them. They were
people who had had their worldly goods taken away from them. Many of them lost their lives
as the Jews persecuted them, instigating the Roman Empire
to bring persecution against the Church. Now, by way of contrast
to those who knew that this world was not their home, the Apostle
John refers to unbelievers as he does in verse 10. as those
who dwell on the earth, or as we have translated it, those
who dwell on the land, which as you have heard me say is a
legitimate translation of that phrase. Now, this is the way
John refers to unbelievers throughout the remainder of this book. And
even as here in verse 10 of this chapter, he speaks of those who
have shed the blood of the martyrs. As well, in chapter 11 and verse
10, he places an emphasis upon the unbelievers' persecution
of the saints of God. These unbelievers, those who
dwell on the land, as John calls them, have committed themselves
to forms of idolatry found within the created realm, within the
political, social, economic, or religious structures of their
day. They have made idols of those
things. These land dwellers, as John
might have called them, were perfectly at home in the present
order of life as it existed at that time. They were men whose
vision did not go beyond the current land on which they dwelt. They were not like Abraham, who
sought a city made without hands. They trusted in earthly security. They were unable to look beyond
the things that are seen, but which the Apostle Paul says are
temporal as well. The Jews of the day in which
Christ walked the earth had even made an idol of their system
of worship. You may recall that Jesus condemned
the Jewish leaders because they would actually swear by the temple
They would swear by the altar and the gold upon the altar.
And he referred to them as pious hypocrites. Now as this sixth
seal is opened, John sees the destruction of this idol of the
unbelieving Jews. That temple and that city of
Jerusalem, so revered by the Jews of that day, and as sacred
as it may have been under the old covenant, had been rendered
impermanent by the pollution of sin, the sin of unbelief by
the Jews, it would be and it must be destroyed. Only the eternal
kingdom of which true believers have become the inheritors, John
proclaims, will remain. Now, of this great change that
takes place, the writer of Hebrews speaks in Hebrews chapter 12,
verses 25 through 29. Now, I hope you had your text
of the scripture this morning, because we are going to be looking
at a lot of scriptural text. And this one is close by, so
it kind of gets you warmed up as we go. Hebrews chapter 12,
verses 25 through 29. As the writer of the book of
Hebrews speaks of the superiority of the new covenant in the blood
of Christ over the old covenant system of Judaism, he says, See
that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if they did not escape
who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not
escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose
voice then shook the earth. But now he has promised, saying,
Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now
this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that
are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things
which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving
a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we
may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire."
You see, he is saying those things that were made with hands, the
temple, the altar, they are passing away. But the eternal kingdom,
that which cannot be shaken, that is what remains. Now, as
I noted in our study of this passage in Revelation chapter
6, two weeks ago on the Lord's Day, there is disagreement among
theologians, depending upon their theological perspective, whether
we should understand these descriptive phrases of the opening of the
sixth seal literally or figuratively. Now, I do not like what I believe
is a false dichotomy between this idea of literal or figurative,
because I do not believe that that is even the issue before
us. You see, even those who claim
to interpret literally recognize the usage of symbols and figures
of speech in certain texts. Those of us who are accused of
interpreting figuratively take very literally the meaning of
the author. You see, it is not an issue of
figurative or literal, it is an issue of authorial intent
What did the author intend to portray to us when he wrote these
words? I would argue that anyone who
is familiar with the Old Testament writings, particularly the prophetic
writings, would understand easily the intent of John's words in
this text before us. We must remember that the first
century church did not have the Bible in their hands as we do. Most of you go home, you have
two or three Bibles laying around that nobody ever uses. They didn't
have that. The New Testament books were
not yet put together. Their Bible at that time would
have been the Old Testament books which had been brought together.
John's description of this judgment that is to fall upon the Jews
for their refusal to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, for
their crucifixion of him, and the persecution of his church.
This judgment language is rooted in the Old Testament, particularly
in the passages that speak of judgment to come upon various
nations for their idolatry. Now, as this sixth seal is opened,
the Lamb, who has ridden forth on the white horse, conquering
and to conquer in the early verses of this chapter, death and destruction
following in his wake, the Lamb now reveals the next aspect of
this covenantal judgment against Israel. Salvation, as we noted
two weeks ago, is spoken of throughout the New Testament in terms of
a new creation. If anyone is in Christ, he is
a new creation. That's the words of the Apostle
Paul. Judgment is spoken of in terms of a cosmic disturbance,
or as one writer calls it, de-creation. The ripping apart of the very
fabric of creation. Now, as we saw two weeks ago,
John uses the fundamental structures of creation in describing this
judgment that is to come upon Israel, as if he is going to
say, your world is going to be torn apart. He uses the earth,
the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky or the firmament, the
land and the people. These seven structures point
to the complete and perfect judgment of God. Now, as I said I would
do two weeks ago, I want to take you this morning into the Old
Testament to show you the basis for these descriptions of judgment. And in doing so, I think that
you will see that there is no need to interpret these descriptive
phrases in a woodenly, literal manner. Rather, as we understand
the figurative language We understand that God will literally bring
covenantal judgment upon the nation of Israel for their rejection
of Christ. When the sixth seal is opened,
the first event John relates to us is that, quote, there was
an earthquake. Earthquakes are not common occurrences
in the land of Palestine. If you move farther east to the
land of Afghanistan, and other Middle Eastern countries, they
are much more common than they are in the land of Palestine.
So when an earthquake or the shaking of the earth is mentioned
in the text of Scripture, it normally is to be understood
as coming from the hand of God and having a particular purpose
that we are to understand. The first account that we have
in the text of Scripture of the earth shaking is all the way
back in the book of Exodus chapter 19 and verse 18. In this text,
we find God coming down, His presence coming down upon Mount
Sinai to give the law to Moses. And we read in verse 18, Now
Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended
upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke
of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly." You see, the
mountain quakes here because the Holy Lawgiver, the Holy Judge,
has descended upon this mountain. Now turn with me to Psalm 18. In Psalm 18, David calls upon
God to deliver him and to judge his enemies. Beginning in verse
6, listen to the words that David
uses. In my distress I called upon
the Lord, and cried out to my God. He heard my voice from his
temple, and my cries came before him, even to his ears. Now let
me stop here a moment. Understand that David is calling
upon God to deliver him from his enemies and to bring judgment
upon his enemies. In verse 7, God answers his prayer. Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the hills
also quaked and were shaken. Why? Because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils
and devouring fire from his mouth. Coals were kindled by it. He
bowed the heavens also and came down with darkness under his
feet. And he rode upon a cherub and flew. He flew upon the wings
of the wind." Now, in Isaiah chapter 13, our little walk through
the Bible here. In Isaiah chapter 13, God prophesied
through Isaiah of judgment that is going to come upon Babylon. Babylon was a nation that was
not even yet in existence as a world power when Isaiah writes. And yet God prophesies of destruction
to come upon Babylon. Notice beginning in verse 9,
the description of judgment. And notice how similar this description
is to the text of Revelation chapter 6. Beginning in verse
9, Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel with both wrath
and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate, and he will destroy
its sinners from it. For the stars of heavens and
their constellations will not give their light. The sun will
be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its
light to shine. I will punish the world for its
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. I will halt the arrogance
of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.
I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than
the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens,
and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the
Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger." That is
a prophecy against the nation of Babylon. Now, this motif of
the earth quaking seems to be the overarching description of
what happens when God comes in the fierce wrath as the holy
judge. Now, it's interesting that Matthew,
of all the gospel writers, writing in his gospel specifically to
assert the kingship of Jesus Christ over the Jews, is the
only gospel writer that mentions that when the veil of the temple
is torn in two, as Jesus yields up His Spirit on the cross, bearing
the full weight of God's judgment, God's wrath against the sin of
man, Matthew writes, the earth quaked and the rocks were split. Now, while I would argue that
the event actually happened, I would also argue that it had
far greater significance than the ordinary individual would
understand as he lived through it. This was not just a California-style
earthquake that took place. Now, one of the lessons that
we should take from this is that what we call the forces of nature
are not impersonal forces. The forces of nature move and
work at the command of Almighty God. And while poll-watching
politicians may be ever so hesitant to ever declare that earthquakes
and hurricanes and floods might possibly be the judgment of God,
as Christians we dare not draw back from calling them exactly
what they are. The psalmist says God's judgments
are in all the earth. It's interesting, as I was reading
this morning in my Bible, I came across this verse in the psalm.
The stormy wind fulfilling his word. Now, after this general symbol
of the earthquake, which speaks of God's anger and wrath being
poured out, John then speaks of three events. that relate
to the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Look
again at Revelation chapter 6, he says, The sun became black
as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the
stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late
figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Now, in the text, which we read
just a few moments ago from the book of Isaiah, God's judgment
against Babylon, we encountered these same symbols, the sun,
the moon, and the stars being darkened and falling from the
sky. Now, that was a judgment against
Babylon. Just to remind you again, Isaiah
1310 reads, For the stars of heaven and their constellations
will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its
going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. Now, the question that may be
in your mind as you read of these symbols of judgment is why does
God use the symbols of the sun, the moon and the stars as symbols
that speak of his judgment against the nation? And to answer that
question, we need to go all the way back to the very first book
of the Bible. to the book of Genesis chapter
1 verses 16 and 17. We will begin at least answering
the question there. In Genesis chapter 1 verse 16,
then God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the
day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars
also. Now notice here, the greater
light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night. The idea of the sun and moon
as rulers shows up again in a most unexpected place in the book
of Genesis and in a very unexpected manner. Joseph irritates his
brothers by telling them of a dream in which their sheaves of grain
bowed down before his sheaf of grain. And then he further adds
fuel to the fire by telling them of another dream. Turn with me
to Genesis 37. In this dream, Joseph sees the
sun, the moon, and the stars bowing down before him. The text leaves no doubt that
Jacob, Joseph's father, understood the symbolism of the sun, moon,
and stars. Look at verse 10. So he told
it to his father and his brothers, and his father rebuked him and
said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall
your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the
earth before you? and his brothers envied him,
but his father kept the matter in mind." Now we know of course
that it indeed did happen. Jacob and his sons did end up
bowing down to Joseph when Joseph rose to become prime minister
in Egypt. The ruling authorities in the
family bowed down to Joseph. From these texts, I would argue
that when the prophetic books of the Old Testament, and now
in the New Testament as well, when it uses the imagery of sun,
moon, and stars being darkened, turning black, turning to blood,
it is speaking of judgment coming upon the governing authorities
of that nation. It speaks of the overthrow of
those ruling authorities through the judgment of God. It is the
leadership, you recall, of Israel that rejects Christ as the Messiah,
the chief priest, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees.
Now, not only do the symbols of the sun and the moon and the
stars represent governing authorities, but in that text in Genesis,
we see they also serve as clocks. The sun defines the day. The
moon defines the night. In short, the time clock for
Israel has run out. The time for repentance has come
to an end. And as the Apostle Paul states
in the book of 1 Thessalonians, wrath has come upon them to the
uttermost. Now, this exact imagery is used
as well in the prophecy of Joel and then quoted by Peter. on
the day of Pentecost. And I would like for you to turn
with me to Acts 2, verses 17-21, where Peter quotes verbatim from
Joel 2. Beginning in verse 17 of Acts
2, Peter quoting Joel, And it shall come to pass afterward,
or in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit
on all flesh, Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your
young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on my menservants and on my maidservants I will pour out
my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. I will show
wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and
fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great
and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that
whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Peter
quotes this passage out of Joel in response to the accusation
by the Jewish authorities that the apostles were drunk when
they began to speak in tongues, the languages of the people who
were gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. Peter
says, these men are not drunk. What you are hearing He says,
is the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy. He says, this is that
which was prophesied by Joel. Now there are those who will
assert that verses 17 and 18 were fulfilled on the day of
Pentecost, but that verses 19 through 21 are yet awaiting fulfillment. Now that may be very nice, but
it's arbitrary. Where does the text say that?
And in fact, Peter says the opposite. Peter says, this is that which
was spoken by Joel, and he quotes the whole thing. All of it. Now,
we can only understand that, I think, if we understand the
sun, the moon, and the stars as terminology used as it was
in the Old Testament. The prophet Isaiah, had declared
that one of the signs of judgment to fall upon Israel was the sign
of men speaking to them in strange tongues. The Apostle Paul quotes
that text out of Isaiah chapter 28 in his discourse on tongues
in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. If we understand that the tongues
being spoken on the day of Pentecost were a sign of judgment coming
upon the Jews, the sign that the gospel was now not just a
Jewish thing, but it was going to the nations of the world.
Then we realize that the time is fast approaching when the
lights will go out on Old Covenant Judaism. Peter is declaring that
judgment is beginning to fall upon the apostate nation led
by its leaders who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Now, when John
speaks of the stars falling to the earth, he uses a simile to
give added emphasis and I believe added clarity as well to the
expression. He says they will fall to the
earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by
a mighty wind. The symbol of the prophets of
the Old Testament, the symbol they employed to denote covenantal
blessing upon Israel, was that every man would sit under his
own vine and under his own fig tree. We see that in Hosea 9,
10, Micah 4, 4. By contrast, Jeremiah speaks
of covenantal judgment to come upon Israel with the phrase,
there will be no figs on the fig tree. Jeremiah 8, 13. In Matthew chapter 21, verses
18 through 23, in a context of increasing hostility against
Jesus by the Jewish leaders, Jesus, just prior to his crucifixion,
spends a night outside Jerusalem in the little town of Bethany.
He gets up in the morning, and he's hungry, and he comes upon
a fig tree, and there are no figs. And Jesus curses that fig
tree and it immediately wilts and dies. Now, what was going
on there? Was Jesus just cursing the fig
tree because he was ticked off because he had been denied breakfast?
No. Not at all. Jesus cursed the
fig tree as an illustration of the curse that was about to fall
upon Old Covenant Judaism. The great wind which causes these
figs to fall from the fig tree is brought by the four horsemen,
who in the imagery of Zechariah 6 and verse 5 are depicted as
going out to the four winds of heaven after presenting themselves
before the Lord of all the earth. Now you may recall that in one
of our earlier judgment passages, Psalm 18 and verse 10, when God
came in judgment, the psalmist writes, He flew upon the wings
of the wind. Again, that idea of God using
what we call the natural forces of nature as His judgment. Now, in chapter 7 of the book
of Revelation, and verse 1, John is going to reintroduce us to
four angels who he says are holding the four winds of the earth,
that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or
on any tree. You see, the fig tree is Israel. God, riding upon the wings of
the wind, blows into Israel wreaking devastation and destruction,
bringing judgment upon them as a nation. And finally in verse
14, O covenant Israel ceases to exist as the people of God. The sky, or as many translations
have it, the heaven departed as a scroll when it was rolled
up. Now you say, how in the world
do you understand that of Israel? The phrase heavens and earth
are used by the prophets symbolically of Israel, old covenant Judaism. Turn back with me to Isaiah chapter
51. For those of you who have been around
here for a few years, when we went through the book of Isaiah,
we talked about this back then. And if you want a full discourse
on it, Josh will be more than happy to provide you the CD. He needs some business. Isaiah chapter 51 verses 15 and
16. I am the Lord your God who divided
the sea whose waves roared. The Lord of hosts is his name.
I have put my words in your mouth. I have covered you with the shadow
of my hand that I may plant the heavens lay the foundations of
the earth and say to Zion, you are my people." Now this is spoken
by God long after the actual heavens and earth have been created. He is now using it symbolically
when he takes Israel to be his people, when he says to Zion,
you are my people. Now conversely, in Hebrews chapter
12, Turn there with me if you would, please. Verses 25-27,
as God speaks to His Church of the superiority of the New Covenant
over the Old Covenant, and of the Old Covenant giving way to
the New Covenant, He declares, See that you do not refuse Him
who speaks. For if they did not escape who
refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape
if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice
then shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying," Now
notice this, "...yet once more I shake not only the earth, but
also heaven." Now this, yet once more, indicates the removal of
those things that are being shaken. Well, what are those things that
are being shaken? The entire context of the book of Hebrews
demands that the answer to that is Old Covenant Judaism. So that
the things which cannot be shaken, the kingdom of God brought to
us by the new covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ, that cannot
be shaken, that will remain. Now finally, in our text in Revelation
chapter 6, John declares that every mountain and island was
moved out of its place. Again, the terms mountain and
islands were used in the Old Testament. to speak of the Gentile
nations of the earth. Isaiah speaks of the mountain
of God's house, His church, being exalted above the other mountains
or above the other kingdoms of the earth, Isaiah chapter 2. The islands, or the isles as
Isaiah calls them, were recognized as those peoples who lived in
distance from the covenanted people of God. Of course, the
greatest impact upon them would be that the gospel would come
to them. Yes, those nations would be shaken.
They would be affected, too. When the apostles came into Asia
Minor, preaching the gospel, some of the men of the city said
of these apostles, these who have turned the world upside
down have come here. Also, interesting language, is
it not? A shaking taking place. Now,
you will often hear people speak of faith that moves mountains
or prayer that moves mountains. Now, however, contrary to the
popular interpretation given to that phrase, you should note
that the expression or its equivalent occurs in passages referring
to judgment that is about to come upon apostate Judaism. In that context of Jesus cursing
the fig tree in Matthew chapter 21, Jesus declares to his disciples,
if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what
was done to the fig tree, but also you will say to this mountain,
be removed and cast into the sea, and it will be done. But whatever things you ask in
prayer, believing, you will receive. Now, in Daniel 9.16, the prophet
refers to Jerusalem as that holy mountain. Consequently, I believe
that what we are seeing in the Revelation chapter 6, especially
when that fifth seal is opened and you hear the martyrs crying
out for vengeance for their deaths, You see the martyrs crying out
to God to bring his vengeance upon Old Covenant Judaism, to
cast that mountain into the sea. And it was done, as we will see. Now, why does God bring this
judgment upon Israel? Very simply, Israel no longer
put its trust in Jehovah. They rejected the very Son of
God. They crucified the Lord of Glory. They had made their religious
system an idol. They placed their trust in that
altar sacrifice and all of the trappings that went with offering
the sacrifices upon the altar. They had substituted the thing
that was made for the maker. They had substituted the created
thing for the Creator. And as a result, God's judgment
came upon them. And that judgment was so horrible
that as John notes in these last three verses, they would have
preferred to have been killed by falling mountains and rocks.
There is no escaping the wrath of the Lamb. God says to the
prophet Isaiah, I will not share my glory with another. He jealously guards his glory. He will not allow any created
thing to satisfy the soul of man. Man was created by God and
for God. He was created to experience
the most intimate of fellowship with God. And that fellowship
with God was to bring the joy to his soul that nothing else
could possibly bring. only the eternal will satisfy
your soul. If you place your hope, your
trust for joy, for satisfaction in life, in anything other than
Christ, not only will you be sorely disappointed, you will
experience the judgment of God, who will not share His glory
with another. If your world is falling apart,
decreating, deconstructing, if you want to use the term. Could
it be that you have placed your trust where it should never have
been placed? Could it be that you have placed
your trust in the created thing and now God is bringing judgment
upon it? Do you need to repent of your
unbelief in Jesus Christ as the one alone who can fill the hungering
of your soul? who can quench the thirst that
is deep within your soul. And you need to turn in faith
to Jesus Christ. You see, if Christ and Christ
alone is the hope and the trust of your soul, your world will
never fall apart. Now, I'm not saying you won't
have bad things happen in life. That would be sticking your head
in the sand. There may be circumstances, there may be events that transpire
that make you terribly uncomfortable. But your hope is not in that
which is physical and material. It is not in that which is temporal.
Your hope, then, is in the eternal. And then, when it seems that
externally life is falling apart, then, as the prophet Habakkuk
declared, though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be
on the vine, Though the labor of the olive may fail, and the
fields yield no food. Though the flock may be cut off
from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls." And everybody
is saying, oh, what am I going to do? He says, yet I will rejoice
in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. Why? Because we are not citizens
of this earth. We are not land dwellers. We are citizens of the heavenly
kingdom which will remain, when everything else is falling apart,
the kingdom which has no end. Let's pray together. Father, how we thank you today
that you have called us out of the kingdom of darkness into
the glorious kingdom of the light of your Son. Father, keep us from putting
our hope and our trust in anything of this world. Father, open our
eyes to see the realities of the temporalness of this world. And open our eyes, we plead with
you, Father, to see the glories of the eternal life which is
in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We pray in His name. Amen.
Judgement and Cosmic Disturbance
| Sermon ID | 71606115755 |
| Duration | 42:02 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 6:12-17 |
| Language | English |
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