The Seals, Part 3

Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6, verse number 12. We have the opening of the sixth seal. Revelation chapter 6. Verse number 12. And I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6, verse number 12. We have the opening of the sixth seal. Revelation chapter 6, verse number 12: And 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 the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich, and the strong, and every slave, and freeman, 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?

Down through the years, people have always wondered when Jesus Christ was going to return. There have been many people who have tried to prophesy about his coming, tried to pick an exact date as to when he would arrive. The great day of God's wrath. When will that be? It was a question the disciples asked in Matthew 24. When will be the end of the age? When is the consummation of all things? They would come on the heels of that in Acts chapter 1 after the resurrection of Christ. After he had talked to them for 40 days about things pertaining to the kingdom, they would say, Lord, is it now at this time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Is now the time? And of course, Christ would redirect them and say, It is not for you to know the times nor the epochs that the Father has fixed in his own authority. But You are to be my witnesses, both here in this city and around the world, that people might know of who I am. But people have always asked the question: when will Christ come back? The Bible is very clear about the return of Christ. He's coming back at a time that you don't think he's going to return. That's important to note because when the sixth seal is open, nobody is expect Jesus Christ to return.

No one's looking necessarily for his return. There's a delusion that the Antichrist has given to the world that they have bought into. They have been deceived. So, when the Bible says that Jesus Christ is going to come back at an hour that you don't think he's going to come back at.

It helps us realize the severity of the sixth seal. We'll talk more about that in a moment. But God is going to get their undivided attention. And the sixth seal is the seal that gets their undivided. Attention. Matthew 24, 29 speaks of it. Luke 21, 25 to 26 speaks of it. In fact, Luke says this in Luke 21, verses 25 and And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth, dismay among nations, and perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves. Men fainting from fear and the expect of the things which are coming upon the world.

For the powers of the heavens will be shaken, and then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Men, at the unfolding of the sixth seal, will faint. Apas, which means to lose your breath. They will actually die because of the fear of the sixth seal. Fear is a powerful emotion. And upon the unrolling of this seal or the scroll and the breaking of this sixth seal, John is able to see the Fear comes upon man, so much so that they are willing to pray to Mother Nature to die because they do not want to face Almighty God.

Can you believe that? Amazing. Tonight, I want you to see three things with me. This, by the way, was all just introductory material. Three things. About the sixth seal. Number one, the severity of that seal.

Number two, the scope of that seal. And number three, the summation of that seal. Revelation chapter 6 verse number 12. John says, I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. We'll stop right there. There are six disasters, six monumental things that happened. Listen very carefully. With the first four horsemen.

There was an individual involved. There was a rider of the white horse, there was a rider of the red horse, a rider of the black horse, and a rider of the pale horse. When the fifth seal was broken, there were people involved in that. There were the cries of the martyrs. I want you to notice.

That when the sixth seal is broken, there is no human agent involved, just God. Just God. This is the great day of God's wrath. God uses no other individual, just him, to enact the sixth seal. And the first thing John sees is a great earthquake, a seism.

It's not literally an earthquake as we know them. It's literally a shaking. Now, we would say that when there's an earthquake, there is a shaking. But the word that's used here is a word to describe a terrible shaking. It could mean an earthquake. There's no other way really to translate it in the English but to say there is an earthquake, but this is a literal shaking of the earth. A shaking that is so severe that everything moves, not just in one city. But around the whole world, that's quite a shaking.

Now we know a little bit about shakings here in Southern California. In fact, Whenever there's another earthquake, you always find people saying, you know, I'm moving out of here. I want to get out of here. I want to go to a safer place. So they go to the Midwest so they can die by a tornado, or they go to the East Coast, so they can die with a hurricane. I don't know. I mean, what good is it when God calls your number, you're going to die whether it's a hurricane, tornado, or an earthquake? But people are fearful.

I remember when I was in the hospital with back surgery in 1994 with the with the Northridge quake, I was All hooked up on medication, and I couldn't move out of the bed. And the earthquake came, and the TV above my bed began to shake. I thought that thing's going to fall right on my legs and break my legs right here in the hospital. That thing was. Just moving and shattering, and I didn't. I couldn't go anywhere. I couldn move. I had back surgery. There was no place to hide. I couldn't get to the doorway.

I couldn't get underneath my bed. I just sat there and said, Oh Lord, take me now. Get me home, whatever it takes. Well, it didn't happen. I'm still here. That was six years ago. But we know what earthquakes are like. This one. Is one that produces a greater anxiety and a greater fear than man has ever known. There has never been one like this one. There have been times in which the Lord has shaken the earth to demonstrate his presence. In Exodus 19, he did it when he gave the law to Israel on Mount Sinai.

In 1 Kings 19, when Elijah called upon him, there was an earthquake. In Matthew 27, at the death of his son, there was a great earthquake. In Acts 16, the release of Paul and Silas. From Jalen Philippi, there was an earthquake, but there's been nothing like this one because this one shakes the whole world. There's an earthquake, a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair. Now that's very fascinating because sackcloth was a rough cloth worn by mourners, usually made from the hair of black goat.

And John says, the sun becomes black. Now remember, before the Son of Man appears, it's pitch. Black. There's no light anywhere. There won't be any light anywhere because I believe that this great earthquake will demolish any form of electricity upon the face of the earth. To begin the darkness process, the sun is going to be covered. It's going to become black. Henry Morris, a scientist whose works I've looked at in our study of Genesis, says this in his commentary on Revelation about the great earthquake and the sun.

That becomes black with sackcloth. He says, the great earthquake described here for the first time in history is worldwide in scope.

Seismologists and geophysicists in the recent years have learned a great deal about the structure of the earth and about the cause and nature of earthquakes. The earth's solid crust is traversed with a complex network of faults, with all resting upon a plastic mant, whose structure is still largely unknown. Whether the crust consists of great moving plates is a current matter of controversy among geophysicists, so the ultimate cause of earthquakes is still not known. In all likelihood, the entire complex of crustal instabilities is a remnant of the phenomena of the great flood, especially the breakup of the fountains of the great deep.

In any case, the vast worldwide network of unstable earthquake belts around the world suddenly will begin to slip and fracture on a global basis, and a gigantic earthquake will ensue. This evidently and naturally accompanied by tremendous volcanic eruptions, spewing vast quantities of dust and steam and gases. into the upper atmosphere, it is probably these that will cause the sun to be darkened and the moon to appear blood red. Maybe that's the case. Maybe that's what's going to happen. I don't know.

All I know is the Bible says there's a great earthquake. And then the sun becomes black. And then it says, and the whole moon became like bl. Blood. Ash and smoke produced by volcanic activity because of earthquakes could eclipse the moon and coloring it blood red. If you read Isaiah 13, 10 and Joel 2. 10, they speak of a similar scenario. Every aspect of earth will be affected. Because the daylight cycle will be altered because God is going to alter it all. And then it says, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth.

Asterisk is the word there. Any celestial body other than the sun or the moon. Now, whether this is literal stars that fall to the earth, We don't necessarily know because there are a lot of stars that are bigger than our Earth. And by the time they got here, they would incinerate the Earth. Maybe they are asteroids. Maybe they are our meteors. If you've been to the movies lately, they've had all these new movies out, Deep Imp and Armageddon, an asteroid. To kind of depict the end of time and what's going to happen if some huge meteor or asteroid hits our planet, what will happen to us?

And Hollywood has done its best. To strike fear in the hearts of man, but it's nothing like the fear that God will put in the heart of man as stars begin to fall. From the heavens. In fact, it says, they fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. That's amazing. All this happens at once. But that is not the end either. Because then John says, and the sky will split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up. Isaiah 34, 4, Isaiah speaks of this exact thing. This is not the final dissolving of heaven.

That doesn't happen to Revelation 21, verse number 1. But you can imagine what happens when the celestial bodies begin to roll up like a scroll. God is going to make sure that everything is pitch black. If I was a betting man, I would say that you wouldn't even be able to see your hand in the front of your face. Because it's going to be so black. Because when Jesus Christ returns in a blaze of glory, every eye will see him. See, now how is that going to happen? Could it be that most of the world is dead already?

And there's only a certain portion of the world even yet alive? We'll talk more about that as we go through the book of Revelation. But as you read it, you realize that people are dying right and left. There's hardly anybody left. And then it says, and every mount and island were moved out of their places. Can you imagine that? How it all works itself out, I don't necessarily know. It's enough to know that it's all going to happen just as God has planned it to happen. If you read through the seven trumpets and the seven bowls, they do a lot of parallel with the sixth seal.

Because a lot of them are part of that sixth seal, and when we get into them, you'll begin to understand more of what that means. Let's move on to point number two: the sc.

Of the sixth seal. Back to Revelation chapter 6, verse number 15. And 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. It's going to affect every, every un. For the believer, in Luke 21, 28, Christ says to them, lift up your heads.

For your redemption draweth nigh. The believer will lift up their head, realizing that the redemption will draw nigh, and the unbeliever. They will hide themselves in the clefts of the rocks and the caverns. Which leads us to our summation, the third point in Revelation 6.

It says that 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? Notice what doesn't happen.

There is no rep. None. You'd think that after the five seals, you'd think after this part, the sixth seal, someone would fall on their face before God and say, be merciful unto me, a sinner. But the text doesn't say that. They want to die. They don't want to face God. They don't want to see Him. But you know what? God finally got their attention.

For now they know. Why all these judgments came? It's the great day of their wrath. They know now that the Lamb of God, He's the executioner. They know now that the one who's on the throne, who's that? That's God. They wanted to hide themselves from the one who sits on the throne. They know it's God. They know finally that it's God who is judging them.

And even when they know it, they don't repent. Can you imagine that? Absolutely am. Why is it? Why is it they don't repent of their sin? The Bible tells us. And for this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false. In order that they all may be judged who did not believe in the truth. Are you ready for this? But took pleasure in wickedness. That's why they didn't repent. They refused to believe the truth and they would rather take pleasure in wickedness and God confirmed them in their delusion and confirmed them in their deceit.

And so when he comes, they don't repent. Instead, they cry to Mother Nature. To crush them, to kill them, so that they don't have to face God, but they do not understand. It's appointed unto a man who wants to die, and after that the judgment. That very thing they pray for is going to usher them before the one they don't want to be before, God Himself. See? But you will note as we go through Revelation further. That with all that takes place with the trumpets and the bowls and this as, they are unable to die.

They'll want to die and they can't. God won't let them die. They will see him. They will look upon him. He's not going to let them die. Not this time. No. Those who are going to die, they're dead. But all these unbelievers, he's not going to let them die. We'll read further where there will be demons who come and sting them, and they're like the sting of a scorpion. Have you ever been stuck by a scorpion? You writhe in pain, foam at the mouth, wishing you were dead. They will have this thing for five months.

Five months. And for five months they will wish they were all dead. And God's not going to let them die. And still, they will not rep. It says over in Revelation 9, verse number 21, these words. And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts. They still wouldn't repent. Go over to Revelation 16. Verse number 11. What's it say? And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not rep of their deeds.

God's not going to let them die, but he is going to inflict them with so much pain, they will wish they were dead, and instead of repenting to God, they will blaspheme his name. They will hate him because of what he has done. Thus the great day of their wr is upon them. And the Bible says Who is able to stand?

Answer: Nobody. Nobody. Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? Answer. No one. Nah 1.6. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger? Answer? No one. We read earlier in 1 Thessalonians 5. 3, no one will escape. No one. You might ask, is there any h at all? Is there any hope for me? And I had this answer, not if you go on sinning will. Hebrews 10 says it this way, verse number 26. For if we go on sinning will. After receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will cons the ad. People have questioned me much about whether or not those alive today who hear the gospel, will they have a chance to receive the gospel in the tribulation? And Hebrews 10, 26 and 27 answers that question for you. Not if you go on sinning willfully. Having heard the truth. And you continue to sin will. You love your sin more than you love God. There no longer is a sacrifice available for your sin. And yet, there will be people who are saved in the tribulational period.

In two weeks, we'll talk about those people, the greatest revival of the history of man, Revelation 7. Will take place during the tribulation. Where will all those people come from? Who are they? Well, you'll have to be here in two weeks to figure out who that is. But verse number 31 of Hebrews 10 says, It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is that. And that's putting it mildly, I guess, compared to what we just read this evening, Revelation chapter 6. I guess I could close with this.

The words of Jesus say it well, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body. And after that, have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear. Fear the one who, after he has killed. Has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. People don't fear God. They'd rather deny His existence or distort His character. Rather than to fear him and follow him. I trust that you would be one who would fear him this night and not fall into the hands. Of a terrifying God.