The Terror and Trouble of the Tribulation, Part 1

Lord, we know that in the midst of a busy week, sometimes there are all kinds of distractions and elements that have happened throughout the day that distract us from listening to the truth And I pray that tonight, because the ones that you want to be here are here, that Lord Jesus, you would calm their spirits, open their hearts, make their ears receptive to your truth May they understand what it is you say about the end of this world and the beginning of the new one that you will create as we come to grips with the tribulation and how the glory of God is put on display

We pray in Jesus' name, amen In Revelation chapter 1, verse number 1, it begins this way, the revelation of Jesus Christ That little phrase, the revelation of Jesus Christ, tells us about what the book of Revelation is about The book of Revelation is not about end times It's about the King who comes at the end and how he orchestrates all the events to come about just as he planned them to come about It truly is the revelation of Jesus Christ It is the apocalypsis, or the unveiling, or the uncovering, or the revealing of Jesus Christ Now the Bible is the revelation of Jesus, it is

And yet there is one particular book which is designed to be the key component in revealing to us Jesus Christ and all of his majesty and all of his glory And that is the book of Revelation No book like Revelation reveals to us the King like the last book of the Bible does That's why it's called the revelation of Jesus Christ If you want to know Jesus, study the book of Revelation Make sure you master the book of Revelation Because if you do, you will understand Jesus unlike you will understand him any other way The book of Revelation is the revelation of Jesus Christ

Now that word apocalypsis is used 18 times in the New Testament The very first time it's used is in a very familiar story to us That is in Luke chapter 2, verse number 29 Remember Simeon? Simeon had been told by the Spirit of God that he would not die until he saw the Lord's Christ So he lived his whole life in anticipation of seeing Jesus Christ, the Messiah

And it says in verse 29, Now, Lord, thou dost let thy bondservant depart in peace according to thy word, for my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light, here it is, of revelation to the Gentiles. I have seen the unveiling of redemption Whenever the word apocalypsis is used in reference to a person, it deals with that person becoming visible So, Simeon was able to see the salvation of God He was able to see in visible form, hold in his hands, the light of revelation to the Gentiles

That word describes for us how Christ himself is made visible, how he is unveiled, uncovered, so we can see him in all of splendor and all of his glory So the book of Revelation is about that In Revelation chapter 1, you have the revelation of Jesus Christ John sees the glory of the Lord Jesus in his glorified form And Jesus Christ is revealed to John in a magnificent way in chapter 1 In chapter 2 and 3, you have the examination of the seven churches In chapter 4, you have the adoration of God in heaven In chapter 5, you have the exaltation of the Lamb in heaven

And in chapter 6, you have the tribulation on the earth This is what the Bible says in Revelation chapter 5 If you have your Bible, turn there with me, if you would, for a moment Revelation chapter 5 and 6 Chapter 6, verse 1, says that I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals We'll stop right there just for a moment Revelation 6 gives us six seals The seventh seal will not be broken until Revelation chapter 8, verse 1

But before it's broken, there is an intermission of inspiration in chapter 7, where John is able to see a vision of the 144,000 Jews that are saved, and a great multitude of people who are saved during the tribulation That's recorded for John in Revelation chapter 6 But there are seven seals And the Bible says in verse number 1 of Revelation 6, and I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals Now, if you just pick it up there, you can become confused as to what's going on

So, go back to chapter 5, and it says in verse number 1, and I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, that is God the Father, a book written, or a scroll written, inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals Now why is this scroll sealed up with seven seals? Simply because Roman law dictated that all wills and testaments be sealed seven times And what God the Father has in His hand is a scroll It truly is the title deed to the earth And that scroll was rolled up, sealed, rolled again, sealed, rolled again, sealed, and rolled again, sealed, seven times

And there will be the breaking of those seven seals That book, in the hand of God the Father, taken by the Lamb of God, who breaks the seals, in His hand is the totality of the Tribulation period Everything in the Tribulation is in His hand Because it's how the Lamb is going to take back what the usurper has in his possession The whole world lies in the lap of the evil one, right? It details for us how the Lord, the Lamb of God, will take back that which is rightfully His and His alone

And so, the text goes on and says this, and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look on it And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals Now this book, this scroll, is the same scroll that Ezekiel and Daniel saw

And Ezekiel says that when he saw the book, all he knew is that it contained lamentations, mourning and woe That's Ecclesiastes 2 verse number 9 He was not able to see all that was in that scroll, but he knew what it contained Mourning, lamentation and woe Daniel was not able to see what was in the book, but John does see what's in the book John does What Jesus said about the tribulation in Matthew 24, John will see in Revelation chapter 6 He was on the Mount of Gethsemane when Jesus, or the Mount of Olives there on Gethsemane, when Jesus gave what is commonly called the Olivet Discourse

So John heard the words of Jesus, but now he's going to see the scroll unfold Because you will note that when the seals are broken, nothing is read that's in the scroll Only revealed what's in the scroll Nothing's read We know that a book says, it says in chapter 1, verse 1 of chapter 5, that the throne, on the throne there was a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals So we know there's writing on the scroll, right? But when the seals are broken, nothing is read Everything is revealed to John So John will see what Jesus said in Matthew 24

And he will see more than what Jesus said in Matthew 24 at the Olivet Discourse Are you with me so far? Folks, this is so crucial This is so important So God the Father hands us this seal, this scroll with seven seals And the angel comes forth and says, who is worthy to break the seals? No one's worthy No one in heaven And John begins to weep Well, somebody's got to break the seals Somebody's got to make it happen Somebody's got to do something And one angel says, stop weeping Stop weeping It's important. I'm sorry One of the elders said to me, stop weeping

Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome, so I must open the book and the seven seals, and I saw between the throne were the four living creatures and the elders, the lamb, standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, and sent out into all the earth And he came, he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne The right hand, the hand of control Because God controls everything And what's in the scroll is the retribution of the ungodly What's in the scroll is the liberation of the universe

What's in the scroll is the redemption of Israel What's in the scroll is the jubilation of all creation It's all there Everything about the end is there The end of the beginning is there Everything about the end is right in that scroll Also that scroll contains the beginning of the end It ends that which began in Genesis 1, and begins eternity forever and ever with a new heaven and a new earth

Because the lamb is able to take the title deed from his father, because the earth is rightfully his, asking me, and I will give you the nations of the world as your inheritance, Psalm 2 says, the world is yours and all that's in it, I will give it to you So he takes what is rightfully his It's now the right time to take it It's now the right time to break it

And that's why when you read in verse number 8, and when you take in the book the four living creatures and the 24 elders, which is the church, fell down before the lamb, having one a heart and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song, worthy art thou to take the book and to break its seals For thou was slain and is purchased for God with thy blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and thou hast made them, or us, to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and we will reign upon the earth

And I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the land that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing, and every created thing which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever

And the four living creatures kept saying amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped 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 There's a great crescendo in chapter 5, because the lamb now has risen to take the title deed from his father, which details for us all of the tribulation and what will take place And heaven erupts in praise with a magnificent crescendo, getting louder and louder and louder and louder, because in the book of Revelation, 84 times the word loud is used

It's a key word of the book of Revelation, loud, great voice That's the key word When God does something that's big, he does it loud for all the world to see And so everything moves the great crescendo, because now the lamb is going to take what is rightfully his And heaven can't help but burst out in praise, because now, now the end of the beginning has arrived And all heaven can't wait to see how it all unfolds with the breaking of the seals And there are seven seals that will be broken The first four cover the first half of the tribulation

The breaking of the fifth seal happens around the midpoint of the tribulation and leads you into the latter half of the tribulation, which is called the great tribulation The tribulation is bad enough, but the last three and a half years is called the great tribulation How do we know that? Well, it says over in Revelation chapter seven, these words, verse 14, and I said to him, my Lord, you know, and he said to me, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, the latter half of the tribulation

Why? Because once the abomination of desolation takes place where the Antichrist rises in the temple in Jerusalem, declares himself as God and declares that the world worships him and Israel begins to flee to the wilderness and Satan goes after them like he's never gone after them before, then the great tribulation begins Tribulation is already happening, but this becomes the great tribulation Jesus speaks of the great tribulation in Matthew chapter 24 as well The latter half after the abomination of desolation, according to Daniel nine, verses 27 and 28 With me so far? Amen

There are seven seals, seven seals Four of them happened in the first half of the tribulation The fifth seal, when broken, takes you from the midpoint to the end Where the sixth seal is broken Once the seventh seal is broken, you're at the end It's the end Because once the seventh seal is broken, seven trumpets blow And once the seventh trumpet blows, the seven vials or the seven bowls are poured in succession So, because the seven trumpets and seven vials flow out of the seventh seal, the seven seals take you all the way to the end They are That's why the scroll is sealed with seven seals

Because it is a combination of all that's going to take place within that tribulation time point And it ends, of course, with the culmination of the king coming to this earth and setting up his kingdom, Revelation chapter 19 And so, that's what it is But before I break these seals for you this evening, let me take you back to Matthew 24 So, if you have your Bible, turn it back there with me, if you would, for a moment Matthew 24. I promised you on Sunday that I would parallel Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, with the breaking of the seven seals Because what Jesus said, John would see

What did John hear Jesus say? Well, Matthew 24, verse number 3 And he was sitting on the Mount of Olives The disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Now, we've already gone over this verse in great detail in weeks past We won't do it again tonight But it's about when will your unveiling be? When will everybody see what we know and come to grips with that? When is the end of the age? When is the end of the beginning? How does it all end? That's important Folks, let me tell you something

Everybody wants to know how it all ends Everybody does You know, you get a TV series You want to know how it's going to end, right? You read a book You want to know how it's going to end, right? Everybody wants to know the end We're all control freaks We all want to know Jesus tells us how it all ends Now, if the president of our country would just listen to what the Word of the Lord says, we'd be okay Because he'd know how it all ends Instead, he's trying to control the present, not understanding that the future has already been written

So we subject ourselves to what God has already said, because we know that it's written in stone It's not going to change Jesus isn't going to change his mind and say, ah, you know, I'm going to do something different Forget about Revelation We'll do something different at the end No This is the way it's all going to end. I want to know how it's all going to end. I'm a control freak. I want to know how it's all going to come out And so Jesus says to his men, I'm going to tell you how it's all going to end Here it goes Ready? Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you

For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many That is the breaking of the first seal in Revelation chapter six The white horse and the rider on the white horse We'll talk about that in a moment Jesus says, be careful because people will want to mislead you who come and say, I'm the Christ No, I'm the Christ No, I'm the Messiah And they're going to lead, they're going to lead you down a primrose path The way you know the end of the beginning is that many will come and try to mislead you

Paul said it this way, second Timothy chapter three, verse number one, in the last days perilous times will come The last days begin with the ascension of Christ to heaven And so when the apostles wrote, they wrote in the last days, those last days have grown worse and worse Second Timothy three 13 says that imposters will grow from bad to worse in the last days They will And Jesus says very simply that many will come and try to mislead you But this is the false peace that will come There will be peace

Contrary to popular demand, the end of the beginning is marked by things getting better before they get worse because somebody will come and they will bring peace They'll be able to do that They'll mislead many Because people like you and people like me will be gone, we'll be translated into heaven We are people who hold the truth, right? Christians are marked by one thing, listen carefully They're marked by a belief in the absolutes of scripture They're marked by the belief in the absolutes of scripture Heaven is an absolute The way to heaven is an absolute

There's not many ways to heaven, there's only one way to heaven, right? There's only one way to salvation, not many ways, just one way And so we're marked by our belief in absolutes That's why I'm so against ecumenicalism, where a bunch of denominations get together for a unifying purpose Why would we do that? That's a mark of the tribulation Because ecumenicalism says we want to unify The church says we want to glorify Big difference Ecumenicalism says we believe in relational unity The church says we believe in biblical veracity We believe in the truth

There is no unity, listen, without truth as the center There is none Ecumenicalism says, you know what, let's set aside the things that we don't agree on And let's gather together on the things that we do believe on And we'll focus and center around the things that we believe on Forget about the things that divide us, let's just focus on the things that we all agree on See? Well, once the rapture occurs and the church is gone, those who stand for absolute truth are gone We are the barrier, listen carefully, we are the barrier to the rise of the Antichrist

Because the Antichrist comes to power because of three things Political oneness, military oneness, and religious oneness The Antichrist cannot rule the world because of his political prowess He must rule the world with religion That's what Revelation 18 is about Revelation 17 is about his political prowess and military prowess And Revelation 18 is about his religious prowess So the Antichrist, the beast, knows that the only way to rule is to bring the world together Not only politically and militarily, he must bring them together religiously as well

That's why there will be a religion that dominates the end times We are a barrier to all that The church, with the presence of the Spirit of God, stands for truth And therefore, once we're gone, the Antichrist then will be able to rise to power Bringing people together for his purposes Well, enough on that, I'll cover that more as time goes on But the first seal is broken in Matthew 24, verse number 5 Then 6 is the second seal that's broken And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars, and see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place But that is not the end

That is not yet the end, Jesus says There will be wars and rumors of wars That's the seal that's broken in Revelation 6 The second seal is broken It's all about war And once the war begins in the tribulation, they never end In fact, they escalate until the great war of God, which we call at Christ Community Church, the Battle of Bozrah, which most other people call the Battle of Armageddon We call the Battle of Bozrah, because that's where it all begins In Bozrah, not Armageddon, as we've already said and will say as time goes on

So all wars, once they begin with the breaking of the second seal, and Jesus talks about the wars and rumors of wars, they will come and they will escalate on into the great war of God in Revelation chapter 19 Okay? And then it says, but that is not yet the end For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes This is the breaking of the third seal, which is the black horse, which is famine Okay? Jesus prophesied there would be famine that would come Well, as a result of wars, there is going to be famine

It's going to take place And that is going to happen on a regular basis And there will be earthquakes, and there will be death Men will die And that is the breaking of the fourth seal The rider and the horse is called death And Hades follows him And men will die because of war, because of famines, because of earthquakes Now listen, folks, please listen to me. I know there's been earthquakes in the last several months. I know there's been a huge volcanic eruption None of that has anything to do with Matthew 24 None of it Wipe it out of your mind None of that has anything to do with Matthew 24

Because this happens after we're already gone The earthquakes you're seeing now are nothing compared to what will happen in the tribulation Nothing Then why do we have them? We have them because they are warnings from God himself Say, you better repent or you too will perish Luke 13, we'll talk about that And so there are warnings that come But don't mistake the earthquakes and the volcanic eruptions and the famines that are happening today as a sign of the end of the times They are not They're not They happen in the tribulational period

After there's already been peace, then there comes wars and rumors of wars Then there comes famines and earthquakes Please understand what the Bible says Don't try to figure out prophecy by watching the news It will not happen It will not happen Don't try to figure out prophecy by doing anything Don't even watch Israel and think, okay, it must be the end times People have been saying that for hundreds of years The only way to figure out prophecy is to keep your finger right here in the book That's it And then it says, but all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs

When you see these things happening, this is just the beginning This is the beginning of the end It's the end of the beginning, but it really is the beginning of the end Okay? These are just birth pangs And you know when a woman's pregnant, she has birth pangs And they grow in frequency and intensity as you get toward the end, right? They might be 15 minutes apart, those contractions And then they might be 10 minutes apart, and 9 minutes, and 8 minutes, and 7 minutes And then they're coming, and coming, and coming, and coming And she's screaming, and screaming, and screaming

And you're saying, oh Jesus, bring that baby quick See? And so this is just the beginning of birth pangs This is just the beginning And then it says this Then they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you And you will be hated by all nations on account of my name That is the breaking of the fifth seal That's the fifth seal Why? Because in the fifth seal, there's an altar Under the altar are the souls of those who have died in the tribulation And they cry, how long, oh Lord, how long until you avenge our blood? And they're told, you've got to wait a little longer

Until all those that have been destined to be saved are saved And all those who have been destined to die because of that salvation have died More are going to die yet That's how long you've got to wait And next week we'll talk to you about that fifth seal And the breaking of that fifth seal And why it plays such a vital part in the transition from the first half of the tribulation to the second half of the tribulation When you come to verse number 29, you have the sixth seal But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light

And the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heaven will be shaken If you read that in conjunction with Revelation 16, in the pouring of the bold judgments You begin to understand that that's the end That's the end Read Revelation 6 and the breaking of the sixth seal That's the end When you come to the sixth seal, you're at the end That's why That's why When they blow the seventh trumpet in Revelation 11 Okay They're already saying the earth, the God who was and is Is here He's come It's time And the bowls haven't been poured yet But because they happen in rapid succession

One after another In a brief moment of time And the king returns in heaven It's already done It's been It's happened And they know that the king is coming to set up his kingdom And so When you come to verse 29 It parallels the sixth seal of Revelation chapter 6 And then of course the seventh seal is broken And within the seventh seal Listen carefully The seventh seal comes The blowing of the trumpets The pouring of the bowls The return of the king Bang, bang, bang Just like that The time element of it all We don't necessarily know It's not important that we know it

But we know that it's definitely going to happen Okay Let me talk to you about the beginning of birth pains Turn back to Revelation 6 Revelation 6. I love the book of Revelation It is my favorite book of the New Testament It is my favorite book because I want to know my lord. I want to understand him. I want to come to grips with his glory Revelation does that unlike any other book So I love to study the book of Revelation So it says in verse number 1 And I saw when the lamb broke one of the seven seals Now we begin to understand that And I heard one of the four living creatures saying

As with the voice of thunder Come And you will notice that in chapter 8, verse number 13, 11 Chapter 11, verse number 15 There's always a loud voice as these trumpets begin to blow These bowls begin to pour These seals begin to break The loudness of it Because what is seen is unbelievable And 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 This is the breaking of the first seal This parallels Matthew 24, verse number 5 It parallels the fact that there will be someone who will mislead them And bring peace

It's not a true peace It's a false peace This is not the same writer of Revelation chapter 19 Who is the king of kings and lord of lords Some people say Well this is the coming of Christ because he's on a white horse Wrong Revelation 19, Christ comes with a sword This one comes with a bow This one has a crown but it's a Stephanos Christ comes with a crown which is a diadem. A crown of royalty Stephanos is a crown that was given to him See And he comes and he brings peace That's why over in the book of 1 Thessalonians 5 it says Now as to the times and the epics brethren

You have no need of anything to be written to you For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come Just like a thief in the night While they are saying peace and safety Then destruction will come upon them suddenly like birth pangs Upon a woman or a child And they shall not escape There's that analogy of birth pangs again There's that analogy of peace and safety The Antichrist will come Now note The rider of the horse These are the four horsemen of the apocalypse The rider of the horse While it could be a person Really is an impersonal force Because war is not a person

Right But that's the next rider Famine is not a person but that's the next rider Death is not a person But it's the next rider Right So this rider comes and brings peace Now how do we know it's peace? How do you know the guy on the white horse is bringing peace? How do you know that? It doesn't say that It says And I looked and behold a white horse He who sat on it had a bow And had a crown was given to him And he went out conquering and to conquer How do you know it's peace? Read verse 4 It says And another red horse went out to him who sat on it

And it was granted him to take what? Peace from the earth Ah That's how you know it's peace Peace is now taken from the earth Peace comes and peace is taken That's how you know that the first seal that's broken is the seal pertaining to peace That's why things at the end will get better before they get worse Because somebody will come and bring peace It won't be a true peace It will be a false peace If you read through the Old Testament The Hebrew prophets were always warning the Israelites of the false priests Who would come and give a false peace to people They always warned them

But Israel will be sucked in Because this one who brings peace It might be an impersonal force We know that the Antichrist brings peace Because we know the 70 weeks of Daniel's prophecy in Daniel chapter 9 That in the 70th week of Daniel's prophecy There is a covenant made between the Antichrist Between the prince who is to come and Israel. A covenant of peace Where Israel is able to go back Build their temple And enact some kind of sacrificial system Because in the middle of their sacrificial system He in the middle of that week After three and a half years Or 1260 days Or 42 months

All three of those phrases are used in Revelation He will come in the middle And he will set himself up as king to be worshipped He will say he is the Messiah He is the king He is the one who is to be worshipped He is God Israel will flee So we know that he comes and he makes a covenant pact with Israel And Israel will buy a hook, line and sinker Notice this He who sat on it had a bow And a crown was given to him What crown was given to him? The Stephanos Who gave it to him? Who gave it to him? Now listen carefully You know I always marvel when our president received the Nobel Peace Prize

For doing absolutely nothing You know it's like him going to the Army-Navy game and being the recipient of the Heisman Trophy Having never played a football game We're going to give you the Heisman Trophy as the greatest football player in college Why? We're going to give you the Nobel Peace Prize Why? He made a speech in the UN And all of a sudden they gave him the Nobel Peace Prize Now I'm not saying our president is the Antichrist What I'm saying is that it's very easy for someone to come and to mislead many And get them to believe

Especially when they are demon possessed and able to convince the world Remember Revelation Chapter 12 Revelation Chapter 12 says this about Satan Revelation Chapter 12 Verse number 9 The great dragon, the old serpent called the devil and Satan who deceiveth the whole world The whole world Satan is the master deceiver And when we're gone, those who are the bearers of truth, those who stand for absolutes When we are gone Then Satan will have a heyday convincing people that he is the ultimate peacemaker That he is the ultimate peace prize

After all if you can win the Nobel Peace Prize without doing anything How easy will it be to you to bring peace to a world where there is no absolutes, there is no truth And there is no spirit in the church And the Antichrist will be able to do that He comes with a bow but the bow has no arrows This is a bloodless victory He has a bow but there are no arrows to shoot This comes with a bow, an empty bow He goes out conquering and to conquer So it's a bloodless victory He reigns supreme He brings peace He's able to bring the Arab nations and the Jewish nations together

He's able to bring Iraq and Iran and America together He's able to bring Russia and all other countries together as one To unify them To bring them to a place of peace That is the first seal that is broken Then the second seal verse 3 And when he broke the second seal I heard the second living creature say Now notice all four living creatures are involved in breaking with the Lamb The first four seals Remember the four living creatures? The standing around the throne And Christ in the middle of them Each of them are involved in calling John to come and see what is happening

And when he broke the second seal I heard the second living creature say Come, come on John, come on over here And another red horse went out And to him who sat on it It was granted to take peace from the earth And that men should slay one another And a great sword was given to him So whoever is the rider of the second horse The red horse The second rider of the four horsemen of the apocalypse It's a red horse Now remember Revelation 12 verse 3 says that Satan is ascribed as the red dragon And so we know that red is not only the color of Satan It's the color of bloodshed as well

And this one comes Takes peace from the earth That men should slay one another And a great sword was given to him This is terrible violence that takes place Battles, assassinations, massacres, rebellion But I want you to notice the phrase a great sword was given to him That phrase a great sword is used to describe the right of the government to execute people So we know there will be executions of people in the tribulation We know according to Revelation 20 that Christians will die by being beheaded So whoever the rider of the red horse is He carries the great sword

The power to execute those who do not fall in line with his peace plan With his desires With the way he wants to go But he brings war And whatever war comes because the middle of the tribulation has yet to happen This antichrist, this pseudo messiah will be able to protect Israel through this process for a time Because he's setting Israel up to be destroyed see So with all the wars and all the rumors of wars With the assassinations, the massacres, the deaths of people

He slowly but surely is protecting Israel to bring them to a place where he will in his mind hopefully be able to destroy them completely Now he can't But he thinks he can The Bible says in Revelation 13, 17 That the coming ruler will have authority over every tribe, every tongue and every nation It says in Daniel 8, 24 That the antichrist will be as skillful at war as he was at promoting false peace He'll be a skilled warrior And then you have the breaking of the third seal And when he broke the third seal I heard the third living creature saying come

So now again the third of the four living creatures is evolved saying come on John come And I looked and behold a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying Now whose voice is that? That's the voice of God How do we know that? Revelation 4, Revelation 5 in the middle of the four living creatures there is God himself So God now speaks and God says a quart of wheat for Denarius and three quarts of barley for Denarius And do not harm the oil and the wine

Black is a symbol of famine and starvation according to Lamentations 5 Verse number 10 This is famine It's an inevitable result of war right? There's going to be famine It's going to be there And so surely there is going to come the breaking of the third seal We are still at the beginning of the birth pangs This is not the end This is just the beginning of the birth pangs And a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales Why? Because they are going to have to ration out everything You think that this past year's economic collapse was bad? Oh no Oh no Don't fool yourself

There will absolutely be rationing Listen to what the Lord God says He says. A quart of wheat for Denarius And Denarius is a day's wage Okay. A quart of wheat is barely enough food Listen To feed one person for one day One day's wage will feed one person in your family Just one Bring the scales You got to measure it out Because famine has run amok in the world And therefore bring the scales Because a quart of wheat for Denarius And three quarts of barley for Denarius In other words Another day's wage will buy you Listen carefully Dog food Barley is food you feed the dogs

You ever ate your dog food? I got two dogs They're chihuahuas Not really dogs They're kind of big rats They don't eat a lot Okay Boy, I wouldn't want to eat their food But one day's wage will buy you What the Bible says Three quarts of barley So With three quarts of barley and one quart of wheat You can feed four people in your family for two days wages That's famine That's hard times And the voice says Do not harm the oil and the wine It's a warning from God Those things you use to cook with The oil and the wine Don't harm that Because if you do You run out of cooking supplies

And things will just even get worse Then comes the breaking of the fourth seal When he broke the fourth seal. I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying Come John, you got to come see this And it looked and behold An ashen horse. A pale green horse. A chlorus horse Where we get the English word chlorophyll Or chlorine from This is an ashen green Pale green horse And he who sat on it Had the name What? Death Death And what was following the horse? Hades The place Of the grave And authority was given to them Over a fourth Of The Earth Listen carefully

Where'd they get the authority from? God God Look at verse number four It was granted to take peace from the earth Who granted The red horse The authority To take peace from the earth God did Folks this is the breaking of the seals God's in complete control Of all that's happening And anybody who gets anything done In the tribulation Gets it done because God gave them the authority to do so Remember the antichrist rose the power Because His power was granted to him By God alone That's amazing to me But the power was granted Authority was given to them Over a fourth Of the earth Now

Let's say there's somewhere between six And seven billion people on the earth We know there's over six billion people You don't necessarily know how many people But let's say for lack of phrase There's six billion people on the earth That means 1.5 billion die If there's seven billion people on the earth By the time this happens That means that 1.75 billion people die How do they die? Well it tells you To kill with the sword Or with famine Or with pestilence And by the wild beasts of The earth That's how they're going to die There's going to be wars People are going to die by the sword

There's going to be famine Pestilence is translated Ha thanatos Thanatos is the word for death The pestilence brings death Disease Disease Listen to this Throughout human history Disease has killed people On a far more massive scale Than war More union and confederate soldiers Died from disease During the civil war Than were killed in battle An estimated 30 million people died During the great influenza epidemic Of 1918 1919 More than three times As many As the estimated 8.5 million soldiers Who died in battle During world war one In addition Several million more died At about the same time

In an outbreak of typhus in Russia Poland and Romania In a world ravaged by war and famine It is inevitable That such disease will be Widespread Famine Disease Sword Cow What Is that Rats You got to be kidding me Rats You know one rat can carry. 35 different diseases In its body Did you know that? Do you know that rats Grow best in populated areas And if you were to kill. 95% of them Are rats Listen to this The most infamous Infamous and devastating occurrence Of rat born disease Was the black death Of the 14th century outbreak Of bubonic plague Which wiped out between one fourth

And one third of Europe's population In a world ravaged by war Famine And disease It would not surprise anyone That rats would be The wild beasts Of the fourth seal Are they? We don't know But we do know the effects Of rats in populated areas But this is just the beginning Of birth pangs You ain't seen nothing yet Nothing Oh there've been earthquakes There've been wars There's been rumors of wars There have been disease There have been people killed By wild beasts Famine Yes All stemming from. A semblance of peace That begins to explain Why thousands And hundreds of thousands of people

Somehow just disappeared Out of thin air Where they went nobody knows They're gone But somebody is going to be able To delude and deceive The entire world To get them to believe how it is Hundreds of thousands just automatically Just disappeared But they'll convince them Because he deceives the entire world And someone comes And takes peace away With war And with war comes famine And death And by the end of the Of the fourth seal Of the world's population is dead Not counting those Who have already died in earthquakes Not counting those who have already died By execution With this great sword

And that's just the beginning of birth pangs So the question comes By way of implication Is there any hope for the world? Answer no There's not This is the way it's going to be There is no hope for the world God's not going to change his plan This is the way There is no hope for the world It's going to happen Just like the book of Revelation says And that's why the Bible says It's a terrifying thing to fall Into the hands of the living God Absolutely terrifying That's why the writer of Hebrews says How shall we escape If we neglect So great salvation Answer you won't You won't No

Is there hope for you? Answer yes There is hope There's no hope for the world This is the end of the beginning Is there hope for you? Yeah there is There is For today is the day of salvation Today is that day And God says that Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Shall be saved There is no other name Is there hope for you as an individual? Yes there is You do not have to go through any of this Not at all You can miss it all You can have a front row Box seat From above But you don't have to go through any of it Why? Because you believe in Jesus

And the most astounding thing about all this Is that when you come to the sixth seal And it's broken The whole world knows it's the Lamb of God They all know But they refuse to repent Can you believe that? They know it's the Lamb Hide us from the Lamb who sits on the throne They ask from mother nature to kill them They still don't get it Rocks fall on us Kill us Only thing that's going to do Is usher them into the presence of almighty God anyway They just don't get it But there is no hope for the world For all the ungodly they will perish There is no peace For the wicked

Peace only comes to those Who believe in the only one who can give True peace And that's the prince of peace Jesus Christ our Lord He's the only one who can give it to you He's the only hope there is And when the people of the world The ungodly people reject the only hope there is There is no hope right? There is no hope But for that one person Who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ He says I want to give my life to him. I want him to take control of my life. I want him to rule my life. I want him to be the king of my life. I want his peace To rule in my life That person

Oh there is hope for him Because he believes in the God of hope Folks this should motivate us To tell people about Jesus This is what's coming Hollywood can't script this They would like to be able to script it They can't do it They can't script biblical truth It's supernatural It's supernatural And everything that takes place in the tribulation Is supernatural And it's going to happen Just like Jesus said But there's still three more seals That must be broken And we'll cover them Next week Let's pray Father thank you Lord for tonight. I had a chance to look into your word

And to study about the future May it motivate us Lord To speak the truth May it motivate us to say Look we know Knowing the terror of the Lord We persuade men We know We know it's a terrifying thing To fall into the hands of the living God But you've reached down To save sinners such as us There is hope For anyone here tonight Who says I want to follow Jesus Christ Till death We pray these things in Jesus name Amen.