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Indeed, Jesus does reign and
he has given us his word and that word is what we're gonna
go to right now. And so I'm gonna ask you out
of honor for God's word to please remain standing, to take your
Bibles and turn to Revelation, the book of Revelation chapter
six. I'm gonna begin reading in verse
nine and I'll read to the end of the chapter, which is verse
17. And so it's a little bit bigger
portion of revelation today than normally what we have been going
through. But remember what we have here in chapter six. Remember
we saw in chapter five, God is holding in his hand this book,
this scroll, seven sealed scroll. And Jesus is the one worthy to
open it. And so in chapter six, we've
watched as these seals are opened up. We've seen four seals opened
up so far. And each seal was a different
colored horse with a different rider, and symbolized different
things. The four horsemen of the apocalypse,
if you will. Well, now beginning in verse
9, the fifth seal is opened up. And God's word says this, 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. And 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 a
little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants
and their brethren, who were to be killed even as they had
been, would be completed also. I looked when he broke the sixth
seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth
made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars
of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe
figs when shaken by a great wind, and the sky was split apart like
a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island
were moved out of their places. And then the kings of the earth
and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong 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. Let's pray. Father in heaven,
how grateful we are that you have not left us to grope around
in the dark, but you have given us the 66 books of the Bible. Lord, we thank you for your word.
We know your word is truth. And Lord, now, as we come to
this portion of your word, Lord, we ask that you would be merciful
to me, the preacher, that I would handle this text accurately.
Certainly, Lord, it is our prayer that if I do not handle this
accurately, if what I say is not true to your word, we ask,
Lord, that your Holy Spirit would make that known to each one here. And yet, Lord, if what I say
is in accordance with your truth, we pray that your Holy Spirit
would convict us of these truths. For your glory and for the good
of your people, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may please be
seated. And I should tell you all that
this week our church was served with a summons. What that means
is we are being sued. And I should say you are all
being sued. And according to the summons,
the amount we are being sued for is in excess of $2 million. Because I noticed on the last
page that the summons says general damages in excess of $1 million,
and then special damages in excess of $1 million. And if my math
is right, $1 million and $1 million is $2 million. And so this is
quite a hefty amount that we're being sued for. Now you're wondering,
why am I telling you this? Well, it's just my way of saying,
you know, could you put a little extra on the offering plate back
there today? Because, you know, preferably
about $2 million more because of this lawsuit. Well, no, that's
not why I'm telling you that. But this is serious, isn't it? And so you're probably wondering,
well, why are we being sued? Well, here's why. Because on
March 18, 2023, this is a year ago, last March, At the amphitheater right over
here in the park behind us, a lady was going to a concert on a Saturday
night and she was walking down the steps. She slipped and fell
and apparently must have hurt herself quite extensively. And
we're being sued that we didn't keep the steps at the amphitheater
clean and that she slipped on that. Now people, when we read
that, and when I say we, I mean Jeff and myself and coach, when
we read that, you can imagine how we felt. I can't wait. I can't wait for my day in court.
I can't wait to stand before the judge and say to the judge,
say to the jury, we don't own the amphitheater that's in the
park behind the church. And it is not the job of First
Baptist Church to make sure that there's no slippery substance
on the stairs of the amphitheater when they have a concert on a
Saturday night. And so why am I telling you all
of this? Well, the reason I bring it up
is because we have in the text that is before us today a cry
of the martyrs. And it is in a sense, as one
man says, a legal plea in which God is asked to conduct a legal
process. leading to a verdict that will
vindicate his martyred saints. Or we could say it simply, they
want their day in court. They want justice to be done
on their behalf. And so as the fifth seal is opened,
What you are going to see is the martyrs, those who have been
killed because of their faith in Christ. You're going to see
them crying out for God's judgment upon those who have done this.
And that makes the fifth seal very important. Because as Ken
Gentry says, the martyr's vindication is crucial to understanding Israel's
judgment. The martyr's vindication is why
God is bringing his judgment down upon the first century Jews. And once again, people remember
what Jesus said in Mark 23. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her? How often
I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers
her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your
house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you from now on,
you shall not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes
in the name of the Lord. And Jesus came out from the temple,
very next chapter, came out from the temple and was going away
when his disciples came up to point out the temple building
to him. And he answered and said to them, do you not see all these
things? Truly I say to you, not one stone
here shall be left upon another, which will not be torn down.
Jesus is saying Israel will be judged for what they have done. And so here's how we will approach
today's text. You have all heard that when
you're trying to understand something, when you're examining a text,
it's always good to ask those questions, who, what, why, when,
where. Well, that's what we're going
to do. We'll ask those questions. We'll ask who and what and why.
And so we're not necessarily in that order, but we're going
to try to ask some of those questions. And so the first question we're
going to ask is what? Remember in chapter 4, John looks
into heaven. Well, here in this fifth seal,
we see that John once again looks into heaven. And what does he
see? Well, verse nine, look at it.
Verse nine, 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. What does he see? He sees the
souls of the martyrs. underneath the altar. Very significant,
people. And why is that? What happened? What happened
to these people? The text tells you. They were
slain. And that word slain in Greek
is phazo. And it refers to the violent
killing of human beings. These souls are the souls of
those who have been violently killed. And people asked just
what the Jews were doing to the Christians. They were violently
killing them. And by the way, remember, one
of the main perpetrators of the killing of Christians was Paul
himself, before he was converted. And remember, the first martyr
was Stephen. And remember, he was violently
killed by stoning. And I've said to you before,
you know, stoning is a bad way to go. You know, we don't really
realize just how bad that is. When they stone you, they put
you in a pit, they stand around that pit, and they don't just
throw rocks at you, they throw big stones at you. And as those
stones come down, you can imagine bones that are being broken and
the amount of times you're hitting the head. You end up dying by
multiple blunt force trauma. It is a horrible way to go. That's
how Stephen was killed. And Act 7 tells us that Saul
was in hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death. And
Act 7 also tells us that Saul began ravaging the church. entering
house after house and dragging off men and women. These are
Christians. In fact, in Galatians chapter
one, Paul even confesses that he persecuted the church beyond
measure. Think of that, beyond measure,
beyond any reasonableness, he persecuted the church. So just
as Abel's blood cried out from the ground where it was spilled,
so the blood of the martyr slain by the Jews. cries out from beneath
the altar of the Jewish temple. And that takes us to the next
question, and that is why. Why were they slain? Well, you
know why. The text tells you. Because of
the Word of God. It's the second part of verse
9. In fact, John himself, although he wasn't slain, he was suffering.
Well, why was he suffering? He tells you in chapter 1, verse
9. Because of the Word of God. and the testimony of Jesus. Now, people, we should pause
here and ask a very important question. Why did the Jews persecute
the Christians to such an extent, so violently? Why? Well, remember,
we asked that question when we were in Acts. Well, here's why. Because the Christians were going
around telling people that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. And of
course, the Jews didn't believe that at all. So these Christians
are going around lying to people. Not only that, these Christians
are going around telling people that Jesus is God. Well, remember,
Jews are strict monotheists. And, you know, hear, O Israel,
the Lord your God is one God. Okay, so if Yahweh is God, and
now these Christians are saying that Jesus is God, well, that's
at least two gods that these Christians worship. They're saying
there's at least two gods. That's polytheism, and that is
blasphemy, punishable by death. And on top of that, they were
saying that this Jesus, who is God, rose from the dead. And, of course, they didn't believe
that for a second. No, he didn't rise from the dead. Well, all they
had to do is just produce the body. Just take the body of Jesus
and show it, you know, for everybody to see that he didn't rise from
the dead. But they couldn't because the body's missing. And so, therefore,
those Christians must have taken Jesus' body and hid it. And so
not only were they liars, but they're also deceivers. And in
their deception, they're bringing people out of Judaism and into
the church. And so they believe that God
would be pleased for them to violently kill such blasphemers. as these Christians. And that
takes us to the third question we ask. And we just answered
it, but let's ask it anyway. Who? Who were the ones who were
persecuting them? Verse 10 tells you. Look at verse
10. It says, and 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? There's your answer. Those who
dwell on the earth. Remember, we've said it many
times now, remember that word translated earth, in Greek, could
also be translated land. They were the ones who martyred
these people, the ones who dwell on the land. Who's the ones who
dwell on the land? That's the Jews. And so what
do they do? They cry out for justice. More
specifically, they cry out, how long? And notice they say, how
long, O Lord, holy and true. That word for Lord is not the
normal Greek word that we see for Lord, which is kurios. The
word there is not kurios, it's despotis. Is that word sound
familiar to any of you? Despotis? It's where we get the
word despot from. What's a despot? a dreaded sovereign,
one who exercises absolute authority. But Jesus has absolute authority. He is completely sovereign. Ken
Gentry says this, he says, how long? That question, how long,
is a crucial question. And it's significant for understanding
the entire book of Revelation. Because we see it in John encouraging
these readers to persevere. through their trials. We saw
it in chapter 1, verse 9, that they should persevere. We saw
it in chapter 2, verse 2. We'll see it in chapter 13, verse
10, where John says, here is the perseverance and the faith
of the saints. Chapter 14, verse 12, here is
the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of
God and their faith in Jesus. And not only are they encouraged
to persevere, they're also promised that their enemy will be judged
soon. Remember, we've said it before,
all these things take place soon, chapter one, verse one, that
they're near at hand, chapter one, verse three. And remember
in chapter three, verse 10, we saw it. The church in Philadelphia
is encouraged to persevere and they are promised I will keep
you from the hour of testing that is about to come on the
whole world. I'm gonna keep you from this,
this hour testing that is about to come about, he says to a first
century audience. And so the martyrs are crying
out for justice and they ask how long, how long Lord? Men and women, I don't want you
to miss the irony here of that question. I missed it, but fortunately
for us, Ken Gentry didn't miss it, because he points out this.
In Zechariah 1, Israel, Israel themselves, they are in bondage.
And in verse 12 of Zechariah 1, we are told this, that they
said, O Lord of hosts, How long, this is Israel speaking, how
long will you have no compassion for Jerusalem and for the cities
of Judah with which you have been indignant over these 70
years? How much longer, Lord, do we have to go through this?
Israel asks. But now it's the opposite, isn't
it? Now the prophetic vision isn't
for Israel, now it's against Israel. In fact, do you know
what an imprecatory prayer is? Or an imprecatory psalm? They're
fairly common. It's basically a prayer that
God would judge his enemies, that he would vindicate the righteous
and judge his enemies. Psalm 7 is an example. Psalm
7, verse 8. The psalmist says, vindicate
me. Oh Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity
that is in me. Oh, let the evil of the wicked
one come to an end, but establish the righteous. That's basically
what these martyrs are praying for here. Or Psalm 35 verse 24,
let those be ashamed and humiliated altogether who rejoice at my
distress. Let those be clothed with shame
and dishonor who magnify themselves over me. That's why they're praying,
an imprecatory prayer right here. So now we come to the answer. Here's the answer they receive,
it's verse 11, and there was given to each of them a white
robe. And they were told that they should rest for a little
while longer until the number of their fellow servants and
their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been,
would be completed also." What are they told? Rest for a little
while. Once again, it's not far away.
It's just in a little while. Well, why not right now? Why
do I even have to wait a little while? Why not right now? Well,
he tells them, there's some more that need to be martyred. Men
and women, there's something very important for us right here.
Do you see it? First of all, God is sovereign,
despotis, but second, he has a plan and he has a purpose for
the things he does. We don't always understand him.
But God has a purpose. He knows what He is doing. He
knows what He is doing and ultimately He is working all things to His
glory. Well, that's the fifth seal.
Look now as the sixth seal is opened. Look at verses 12 through
14. It says, I looked when he broke
the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. And the sun
became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became
like blood. And the stars of the sky fell
to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by
a great wind. The sky was split apart like
a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island
were removed out of their places. You know, lately, for my personal
Bible reading, you know, just in my devotion time, I've been
using an old Bible. I actually had it rebound, had
a new cover put on it. And so it looks new, it has a
new cover on it, but you know, it's really right around 50 years
old. And what's interesting is I've
been doing my little quiet times. I noticed the comments that I've
written in the margin like 50 years ago, almost 50 years ago. And for example, here in Revelation
in chapter six, in verse one, I have written off in the margin,
the Antichrist. The rider on the white horse,
that's the Antichrist. Remember, I told you a couple of weeks
ago, no, that's Jesus Christ. Big difference between Jesus
and the Antichrist. When you come here to verse 12
of chapter six, I have written in the margin of my Bible, nuclear
holocaust. Why? Well, I know I have Antichrist
written in verse 1 because that's what Hal Lindsey said, and I
wrote that back in the 70s. And if he says it, well, that
must be so. And I wrote Nuclear Holocaust
here probably for the same reason. And I even remember teaching
this. I remember when I was an intern at the church I was ordained
at, First Baptist Church of San Antonio Heights. Rich Freeman,
who has spoken here, he was the pastor. And he had me teaching
a Bible study of college kids, and they wanted to go through
Revelation, so I'm teaching Revelation. And I remember, I remember it
well, I remember saying to them, oh, this is clearly a nuclear
holocaust. I mean, after all, look at this. There was a great earthquake,
and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon
became like blood. I remember saying, you know,
there's this bomb, this nuclear bomb that comes down but it doesn't
hit the ground. It blows up right above the city
or whatever, and it's called the Dirty Bomb. And why is it
called the Dirty Bomb? Because they wrap cobalt around
it, and then it blows up, and it intensifies the force of it,
but the fallout from the dirty bomb is so intense that the sun
becomes dark, and the moon's dark, and so forth. Men and women,
I don't know anything about nuclear bombs. I don't even know what
cobalt is, but you can see I can parrot that off. It just means
I must have heard it somewhere. Probably heard it from Hal Lindsey
or somebody like that, and so I'm just saying, well, this is
clearly a nuclear holocaust. And then notice, what is verse
13? And the stars of the sky fell
to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by
a great wind. And I said, do you ever see those
videos of Bikini Island when they were testing nuclear bombs
and so forth, with the trees swaying over from the wind of
the nuclear test? And verse 14, the sky was split
apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain
has moved out of its place, and you're telling me that's not
a nuclear holocaust? Yeah, I'm telling you it's not
a nuclear holocaust. Well, if it's not a nuclear holocaust,
what is it? Men and women, it's really quite simple. This is
just apocalyptic language. This simply portrays Israel's
world is coming apart under the wrath of the Lamb. And that type
of language, that apocalyptic language, we see it all through
scripture. And it's very common when a government
is cursed by God to use that language. For example, Babylon,
Isaiah chapter 13, verse 10, cursed by God and it says this,
for the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash
forth their light. The sun will be dark when it
rises and the moon will not shed its light. Egypt, cursed by God,
judged by God. Isaiah 32 says this, and when
I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their
stars. I will cover the sun where the
cloud and the moon will not give its light. Yeah, because of this
cobalt nuclear, but no. All the shining lights in the
heavens, I will darken over you and will set darkness on your
land, declares the Lord God. It's just apocalyptic language. Not convinced? Idumea, Isaiah
34 says, so their slain will be thrown out and their corpses
will give their stench and the mountains will be drenched with
their blood. Now listen to this, and all the
host of heaven will wear away and the sky will be rolled up
like a scroll. Where have we heard that before?
And their hosts will also wither away as a leaf withers from the
vine. One more, Judah, when Judah is
judged, Jeremiah 4, verse 14, wash your heart from evil, O
Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will your wicked thoughts
lodge within you? Then a few verses later, he says,
I looked on the earth and behold, it was formless and void and
to the heavens and they had no light. I looked on the mountains
and behold, they were quaking and all the hills moved to and
fro. Milton Terry, in his book, Biblical
Apocalyptics, writes this, the imagery and style of the Old
Testament apocalyptists are most appropriately brought into use.
Sun, moon, and stars, and the heaven itself are pictured as
collapsing, and the crisis of the ages is signaled by voices,
and thunders, and lightnings, and earthquakes. To insist on
literal interpretation of such imagery is to bring prophecy
into contempt and ridicule. It's apocalyptic language, people.
Simply put, as these seals are opened, Israel's world is coming
apart under the wrath of the Lamb. Do you remember Luke chapter
23, verse 28? I referred to it last week. Jesus
has been beaten, he's been scourged, he's a bloody mess. He's now
on his way to be crucified, unable even to continue to carry his
cross beam. And Luke tells us this, and there
were following him a great multitude of the people and of women who
were mourning and lamenting him. But Jesus turning to them said,
daughters of Jerusalem, you Jewish women who live in Jerusalem,
Stop weeping for me, but weep for yourself and for your children. For behold, the days are coming
when they will say, blessed are the barren, and the wombs that
never bore, and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will
begin to say to the mountains, fall on us, and to the hills,
cover us. People finish the text. Verse
15. Then the kings, of the earth
and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong 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. And so that takes us finally
to the application. How do we apply this? You know,
it has been said, well, if these events are not in our future,
if it's not telling us, you know, about this nuclear holocaust
that's going to happen in the future, if it's not telling us about
this antichrist that's coming, well, then this doesn't apply to us
today, does it? Yes, it does. Certainly it does.
In fact, I want you to notice three things that we just saw. First, again, we already saw
it, but God has a purpose in your suffering. Remember that. God has a purpose in your suffering.
And here in Revelation, John repeatedly urges Christians to
be patient in their suffering. Chapter 1, verse 9, John said,
I, John, your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom
and patience of Jesus Christ. Later in chapter 13, verse 10,
John refers to the patience and the faith of the saints. Chapter
14, verse 12, John says, here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. But he also reminds them that
God knows all that is going on on earth. Be patient, people. God has a purpose in your trials. He hasn't left you. It's going
to work for his glory and ultimately for your good. Second, this text
should encourage you in your prayers. What's your prayer life
like? You should be encouraged by this
because you see here that the prayers of these souls rise to
God. And we've seen that before, haven't
we? In chapter 5, we saw that scene in heaven with the 24 elders
that are holding a harp and a golden bowl of incense. And what's that
golden bowl of incense? It's verse 8 of chapter 5. John
tells us. What's the incense? He says,
which are the prayers of the saints. It's the prayers of the
saints. Incense, the smoke rises. It's going up to God. Incense
is sweet. It's a pleasant smell. The prayers
of the saints rise up to God. They are pleasant and pleasing
to God. Men and women, God hears your
prayers. But I want you to notice the prayers of the wicked. You
see the prayers of the wicked right here. Look at verse 16.
We just saw it. 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. They prayed, didn't they? They
prayed to the rocks and to the mountains to hide them. And third,
remember these martyrs are crying for justice, aren't they? And
God tells them to wait a little bit, but he gives them white
robes. And of course the white robes
point to the fact that they are righteous. But here's what you
need to notice. The gift, the gifts of the robes
is distributed to each and every one of the martyrs in verse 11. But notice he doesn't simply
say white robes were given to them, but literally the Greek
reads this way. It was given to them each one white robes. Why is that important? Well, in other words, God doesn't
simply work in mass. It's not even given to the group.
He doesn't work in mass, but he works lovingly with individuals. It was given to them each one. He's concerned about individuals.
He knows you individually. But if the white robes designate
righteousness, How are the people even made righteous? Remember
in verse nine, we're told that the martyrs had been slain. And remember that word is phaso,
which in Greek remembers a violent killing of human beings. But
we had seen that word earlier in this book. Do you know where? We saw it in chapter five, verse
six. The lamb that was slain, slazo, violent killing. Remember Christ was violently
killed. And why? To be a propitiation
for you and me. To satisfy God's wrath. And notice verse 16 refers even
to the wrath of the lamb. You know, Robert Godfrey from
Westminster Seminary makes a very interesting observation about
the book of Revelation. Again, it's one I didn't notice,
but he did. And he says this, do you notice in chapter 5, we
had a description of Jesus, but the name Jesus didn't appear. In fact, in the whole book of
Revelation, the name Jesus appears only 14 times in the whole book.
And most of those are either in the very beginning or the
very end. of the book. However, Jesus is all through
the book, but not by name. But what is highlighted for Jesus
is the word Lamb. 28 times we see that. The notion that Jesus is the
Lamb of God that has become so common for us today. that we
may not recognize that he is only referred to as the Lamb
of God just a few times outside of the book of Revelation. And
of course, famously called the Lamb of God in the gospel. Do
you remember which one? John's gospel. John particularly
wants to communicate to us that Jesus is the Lamb of God. And it is crucial to John because
it connects the work of Jesus. to the whole sacrificial system
of the covenant. The whole Old Testament points
to the work of Jesus to show us what the work of Jesus would
be, that he is the lamb of God, sacrificed on the altar of God
to bear the sins of his people. John particularly wants to highlight
that for us in both his gospel and here in Revelation. And that
is that Jesus has conquered. Let's pray. Father in heaven,
how grateful we are for these words here. How grateful we are
for the Lamb who indeed has conquered. For the Lamb who was foreseen
in the Old Testament, pictured in the Old Testament, fulfilled
in Jesus Christ, who died for us. A violent death for us. Lord, how we thank you for him.
How we thank you that in his blood satisfaction has been made. Your wrath has been satisfied. We thank you, Lord, for so great
a salvation. And we pray, Lord, that indeed
we would flee to Christ and follow him. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Revelation 6:9-17
Series Revelation
| Sermon ID | 811242249556930 |
| Duration | 36:38 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 6:9-17 |
| Language | English |
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