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Four Riders with Bad News
Revelation 6:1-8
Skip Heitzig

Revelation 6 (NKJV™)
1 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see."
2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come and see."
4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.
5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."
7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come and see."
8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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66 Revelation - History's Last Chapter - 1996

The book of Revelation exalts Jesus Christ as the soon-coming Lord over the earth. Skip Heitzig explains the amazing and mysterious prophecies that form God's final word to mankind.

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I am so grateful that God is not a politician. God always tells the truth, not that politicians are always shady and I don't want to tread on too thin of ice here because this is a sensitive time of the year with the elections coming up, but God always tells you like it is. The truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. Because He's not trying to get your vote. He's not trying to sway you on His side and have you vote for Him as Messiah in the next election. There will be no election. There will be a takeover. And chapter six begins this period of history where things get very, very dark but it eventuates in the takeover of Jesus Christ ruling and reigning upon the earth. You know it seems as we look at our newspapers or watch television reports or listen to news on the radio, it seems like things get bleaker as weeks and months go on. Just when you think it was bad enough, things get worse. A woman was in a store and she was looking at a toy that she couldn't quite figure out what it was. She looked at it, it was very complicated and she said to the salesman, isn't this toy rather complicated for little kids? And he said, well this is an educational toy. You see, this is meant to get a child to cope and to adjust to living in the modern world. No matter how you put it together it doesn't work. And it seems that no matter who's trying to put the world back together, it just doesn't work. Things get bad--they're worse.

Chapter six begins what you might call the action part of the book of Revelation. It sounds sort of like a western as it opens up. Four riders ride their horses through town, so to speak. And they bring with them some evil tidings that come upon the earth. And you might picture cowboys riding the range as we go through this. And I'll tell you right now, we're entering into some scary territory. But there's a purpose behind it. A cowboy was applying for insurance and he walked into the insurance agent's office and he went through the routine questioning. The agent said, have you had any accidents in your life? He said, no, I haven't had any accidents. He said, though a steer kicked me in the ribs once and broke two of them and a rattlesnake bit me on the ankle. And the agent said, well wouldn't you consider those accidents? He said, no, I think they did it on purpose. You might think going through the book of Revelation, this is just haphazard, random accidents. No, there's purpose behind all of the judgments. Well let's read the first eight verses. That's what we're going to deal with today--the four riders that come in this chapter.

"Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see." And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come and see." Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine." When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth."

In chapter one we see the vision of the Lamb in glory. In chapters two and three we see the churches of the Lamb, seven of them. In chapters four and five we have the glory of the Lamb in heaven before the throne. And in chapter six all the way now through chapter nineteen, we have the wrath of the Lamb. And it gets pretty severe. And you will notice that these judgments are progressive and they intensify. There are seven seals that are broken and each seal has a judgment. The seventh seal ushers in seven more judgments, called trumpet judgments. The seventh trumpet judgment then ushers in seven more final judgments called bowls of wrath that are poured out upon the earth. It's the complete judgment of God and when all of these are finally poured out upon planet earth, then it's over. When the last bowl is poured out, judgment has finished. God is finished judging the earth. And then comes the takeover. When Jesus returns and ushers in the millennial kingdom, not the millennial falcon, the millennial kingdom. A thousand years of peace upon the earth. Now I want to give you, since we're starting chapter six this morning, sort of a chronological development of these chapters. Sort of an outline for you. There is a chronology; there is not a haphazard smattering of events. Chapter six begins with the opening of seven seals. But there's an interruption in chapter seven, a parenthesis you might say, and in that parenthesis extra information is given to fill in the gaps and the questions. Then the next chapter, chapter eight and chapter nine, resumes the chronology. As trumpets are blown and each trumpet brings a judgment. But in chapters twelve through fifteen, there's another parenthesis, additional information is given. Then the chronology continues once again in chapter sixteen as the bowls of wrath, or the vials of wrath, are poured out upon the earth. But then there's another parenthesis and that's in chapters seventeen and eighteen, special information is given. Then chapter nineteen continues and concludes with the wrath of the Lamb. And that's the chronology of these chapters.

Let's begin with looking at how this tribulation begins, how it commences. I want you to notice the word 'when' in verse one. "Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals," and again in verse three, "When He opened the second seal," in verse five, "When He opened the third seal," verse seven, "When He opened the fourth seal". I draw your attention to those words because it's a very specific 'when.' It's a special time in history called the tribulation period. It is a when that is unlike any other period of history. The world has not yet seen it. If you think it's been bad in the past, it can't hold a candle to what's coming. It's a very dark period.

Now think for a moment of all of the dark periods in history that you can think of. Perhaps you think of the Dark Ages. That was the age when enlightenment and progress was sort of stifled. We think of the Civil War in our country or World War I, World War II, when nations of the whole world were embattled against each other. We think of the Great Depression perhaps. But all of those were troublesome times but again, they pale in comparison to what is coming. I don't know if you knew this or not but more space in the Bible is given to the tribulation period than even the Second Coming of Christ. It's written about in more places throughout the Scripture. It's called the tribulation, it's called the wrath of the Lamb, it's called the Day of the Lord, it's called the seventieth week of Daniel. There are many names given to it. Let me give you a smattering of descriptions of this day. Jeremiah predicted it in 30:7. He said, "Alas, for that day is great so that none is like it, it is a time of Jacob's trouble." Daniel 12 tells us, "There shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time." Jesus said in Matthew 24, "For then there will be great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." That's quite a statement. He said it's the worst period of human history. You might look around at the world today and say, could it get any worse? It's pretty bad right now. How could it possibly get any worse than all the revolutions, war, terrorism, carnage? Well you read the book of Revelation, and if you've read it before you know there are things like fire, lightning, smoke, heat, darkness, beasts, falling stars, earthquakes. In Revelation 16, heaven and earth are shaken to the core. In Revelation chapter three, the whole human race that is left upon the earth during this time will be affected. Not one person will be unaffected by this tribulation period.

In chapter 12, the devil and his angels are seen as cast to the earth, where they wreak havoc. In Revelation 6, people hide in caves and under rocks from the wrath of God. In Revelation 16, unclean spirits gather men together for the battle of Armageddon. It's bad. Really bad, as we're going to see as we go through these chapters. However, if you're a believer this morning, you don't have to be afraid. Now I know there are various views of the tribulation and the rapture, but I'll tell you. I am not looking for the tribulation; I'm not looking for the Antichrist. Everybody's out trying to figure out who the Antichrist is. I'm looking for Jesus Christ to come. Not the Antichrist. Jesus will come and if you know Him you'll be with Him. As John was caught up into heaven and he sees these things from heaven looking down, not from the earth looking up, that's where you'll see this tribulation period if you belong to Jesus Christ. But there is today in our world a groaning, so to speak. This undercurrent of expectancy that I think we've never really had with such intensity as we have today. A writer from US News and World Report, David Lawrence, wrote, "A climax of some kind seems to be approaching the world over." I'd agree with that. Polling was taken of people under the age of thirty and they asked them about the future. Almost everyone who was polled, the majority, said they believe that they will see an all-out nuclear exchange coming very soon, certainly in their lifetime. These are people who, day in and day out, live with 'somebody could push buttons soon and affect the world.' The Prime Minister of Canada said, "We are teetering on the brink of disaster."

Well the period is called the tribulation period and we begin, I believe, seeing that in chapter six verse one. Let's look at those verses a little closer and see what I call the triumphant counterfeit in verses one and two. "Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, "Come and see." And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." If you went to the store and you tried to pass off a twenty dollar bill with a face of Bill Clinton on it or Senator Dole on it, I want to be very bipartisan here, you wouldn't get very far, would you? If you wanted to pass it off, you would at least superficially make the counterfeit look as much like the real as you can. Well, as the first seal opens there is such a good counterfeit that some commentators say that this is Jesus Christ. Why? Because he's riding a white horse. Remember the westerns? The good guys were on white horses. The bad guys on black horses. The good guys wore the white hats. John Wayne, I think, had a light-colored hat--he was the good guy. Well if you want to rob a bank then, you're going to get on white clothes, a white horse, and a white hat because at least in the black and white movies, nobody would suspect you. If the rider in these two verses is Jesus Christ, we have a chronology problem and we have a purpose problem. It doesn't fit within the purpose of the tribulation. It would seem odd for John to be raptured up into heaven, see the glories of the Lamb, and then have the chapter open with the Lamb, Jesus, opening the seal and then saying, just a minute, getting on a horse, and riding out into the world only to be followed by death and destruction. It doesn't fit. We do see Jesus Christ on a white horse in chapter 19 when He comes back, not to start war but to end war. But I believe this is not Jesus Christ. In fact, I'd like you to turn with me to chapter 19 for just a moment. And let's look at Jesus Christ coming after the tribulation is finished. The great thing about chapter 19 is we don't have to guess who it is. The names are given. Verse 11: "Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire [reminiscent of the vision in chapter one], and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS."

Now you see the difference there. The rider in chapter 19, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, Faithful and True, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, He's called, has many crowns on His head. The word in Greek, diadem, the diadems--many diadems. This is the crown of a sovereign Ruler. The crown of the one in chapter 6 is the stephanus in Greek. It would be the crown that a runner of a marathon would get, a little laurel wreath, a temporary victor, a crown that would fade. Moreover, in chapter 19, Jesus Christ has a sword that He goes after His enemies with and puts war completely out of the picture after this. Whereas in chapter 6, the rider has a bow, not a sword. He has no arrows with him but he comes with a bow. The first mention of bow takes us back to the book of Genesis, a guy by the name of Nimrod, the mighty hunter who defied God and was the first world monarch. And he set up the Tower of Babel which eventually became Babylon. Also we read in Ephesians 6 that we should take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one. What would those arrows be shot with? Metaphorically, a bow. So I don't think this is Jesus Christ, this is the Antichrist with a good mask. On the white horse. With a little white necktie and the little white hat, riding through town so people think, the hero has come! The Messiah has come! One who will come to bring peace! The Bible tells us that he will come and he will bring what no ruler has ever been able to bring--world peace. Now it won't last long but he will bring this semblance of peace until 3 ½ years are finished, the middle of the tribulation period, he takes off his mask and everybody sees that he's a wolf in sheep's clothing. So clothes don't make the man in this case. He might look like the right one, but he's not the right one. He's going to help the Jews rebuild their temple. He's going to get a confederation of ten nations, the Bible tells us, that will give him political power, military power. By the way, when you think of the Antichrist, people tend to think of this ghoulish creature with horns. I think he'll be very good-looking; I think he'll be very appealing to people. I think the world will want him. They'll look at him and think, finally! Somebody who will fix things around here! Somebody who will tell us the truth! Our friend! The one who will bring peace to the world!

One commentator said he will have the oratorical skill of a John Kennedy, the inspirational power of a Winston Churchill, the determination of a Joseph Stalin, and the vision of a Karl Marx. He will have the respectability of a Gandhi, the military prowess of a Douglas MacArthur, the charm of a Will Rogers, the genius of a King Solomon. But he will be designed to be a counterfeit Second Coming. The messiah to replace Jesus Christ. In the middle of the tribulation, he'll come at a time of peace, bring peace. In the middle of it will come the abomination of desolation. Daniel spoke of it; Jesus spoke of it. He'll take off the mask and the Apostle Paul said of this man, "He opposes and will exalt himself above all that is called God and he will demand that people worship him worldwide." There was a man who was on an airplane as I was this last week and yesterday afternoon, and the airplane got up off the tarmac and took off the runway and it was at cruising altitude and they brought by the food, which I think is sort of an oxymoron: airplane food. But nonetheless, they brought him the food and it was all wrapped up in the little cellophane and he opened it up and was about to eat his salad but he noticed this huge cockroach sitting on his salad. Yeah, that's what he said. He was appalled. He wouldn't eat it, of course, you lose your appetite when those things happen. When he got home he wrote a long letter of protest to the president of the airlines thinking, they won't do anything with this. He got this letter back from the president. He said, Dear Sir, this was very unusual, but don't worry. I want to assure you that this particular airplane has been fumigated. In fact, all of the seats and all of the upholstery have now been stripped out. We've taken disciplinary action against the stewardess who served you that meal and she may get fired. It's highly probable that this particular aircraft will be taken out of service. I can assure you that it will never happen again and I trust that you will continue to fly with us." This man was very impressed. Wow! Just a letter did all that! That's pretty amazing--these are great guys! But then he noticed, attached to this little response letter, was his original letter that just accidentally got stuck to it. And he turned it over, where he had written the letter of protest, at the bottom of the letter, in ink were written the words, reply with the regular roach letter. Fumigated. Out of commission.

You know the Antichrist will come and he'll have great words and people will go, yes! I like this guy; I'm impressed with this guy! But he'll be dishing out the same old stuff. The same old jargon that the devil's been dishing out for many, many years. And yet many will see him as the ultimate leader, the messiah. They'll be taken by him. Jesus made a frightening prediction. He said to the Jews of His time, "I have come in My Father's name and you did not receive Me. Another will come in his own name and him you will receive." I think He was speaking of this world ruler--the Antichrist who will sway the nations and especially the nation of Israel. They will say, finally! Messiah has come! You see, it wasn't Jesus the first time, this is our messiah! That's why when I go to Israel and I stand there, right in front of the western wall with all of the Jewish worshipers and the Dome of the Rock on top of the Temple Mount and you're surrounded by the Jewish quarter. I get excited but a little scared when I read signs, and you can see them if you go today, huge banners on the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem that says, Get Ready--the Messiah is Coming! Well which one? Who are they looking for?

An article from Christian Century, citing what Jews in Israel were saying, said, "Recent world events such as the fall of the Iron Curtain, the influx of Ethiopian and Soviet Jews into Israel, and the Gulf War, is evidence that Messiah's arrival cannot be far off." The Wall Street Journal was interviewing Moshe Schloss in Jerusalem and he said, "What's going on now is like [listen to this] labor pains. It looks pretty messy but in the end what will come out is a new and a living light, the Messiah may be just an eye-blink away." Now that rabbi used an interesting phrase. It caught my attention when I read it. 'This is like labor pains.' Paul the apostle said this, "When they say peace and safety then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child and they shall not escape."

This Antichrist will come on a white horse and sway the world. Folks, Satan is a fake--he's an imitator! He was the one who said in Isaiah, "I will lift my throne above the stars of God and I will be like the Most High." I want a little notoriety around here. I want a little worship. And the Antichrist will be his man, his messiah, his Christ. And just like there were magicians in Pharaoh's court who could duplicate the tricks, the miracles, of Moses with their own little tricks, this guy will stand in the court of world politics and world economy and world military arenas and he will perform tricks, miracles. But he will demand that people worship him. All of this, however, is going to backfire. He's going to come with the peace plan. However, we read here that three more riders follow him. Peace, peace, I come with a bow; there are no arrows, peaceful takeover. But then suddenly war comes and famine comes and widespread death comes over all the world. It's going to backfire on the world. Oh, this is our man--oh no he won't be. Like Jimmy Brown. Jimmy Brown found out when it was too late. A little poem says, "Shed a tear for Jimmy Brown/Poor Jimmy is no more/For what he thought was H2o/Was H2so4" That's sulfuric acid, I believe. There's a big difference between water and acid. It might look the same, but you drink it and death happens. They will take this Antichrist to themselves as ruler but then sudden destruction will come upon them.

Let's read about this sudden destruction. Beginning in the next verse we have the tragic consequences that follow this Antichrist. Now let me interrupt this for just a minute. Jesus was asked a question by His disciples and I think we should sort of remember it right about here. Jesus predicted the end of the world and the disciples said, well, tell us, when will these things be? What will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus listed several things that if you put them here, fit. He said, "First of all many will come in My name and say I am the Christ." There will be spiritual counterfeits and it will culminate in the ultimate counterfeit--the Antichrist. The second thing He said is there will be wars and rumors of wars. And that's the second horse that we read about in the next few verses. The third, He said, there will be famines. And the black horse is the horse of famine. And fourth, there will be pestilence and there will be earthquakes in different places. And that's the widespread death, at least part of what He's talking about in the next verse. Let's look at this second horse in verse 3: "When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come and see." Another horse, fiery red, went out." Now red is the color associated with terror and carnage, at least in Revelation. We see a red horse here, we see a red dragon in chapter 12, and in chapter 17 a red beast. All of them are not good. It's the color of terror. It says in verse four: "And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword."

Our methods of international peace, the United Nations, the people that we send across the world to negotiate peace, will ultimately fail. I don't want to be the bearer or bad news, this is just the truth. It will ultimately fail. There will come a peace, and people will say, see? The bumper stickers worked! But it will be very short-lived and all the visualizing world peace will not help, as the second rider comes in on a red horse and brings in war. You know, every candidate that I've read about, political candidate, promises peace. Vote for me and I'm going to bring peace. That's what we need. And this world is in a bad place because of the other guy. And after WWI, the presidential candidates said, if you vote for me, never again will our troops have to go overseas and fight a war. Then WWII happened. Another war subsequent to that. And then as soon as the bombs were dropped, the President who dropped them started talking about peace. You say where is the peace? Well actually if you tally up history, 8% only, only 8% of history has been a time of peace--the rest has been a time of war. 8%! There's been more war than there's been peace as long as man has been on the earth. In 3,100 years, 8,000 peace treaties, formal agreements, have been broken. Now we've always had war but Jesus said it will be like a woman giving birth. That wars will happen with more frequency and intensity and we watch the Gulf War on television and I stayed in the Al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad last year where CNN filmed all of what you saw. And we saw how a war can be very intense, how just in a short period of time we can muster so much firepower, smart bombs, to hit their targets, that just can wipe out a military army. But is it getting more frequent? I wanted to read an article I found from USA Today. Richard Starr, International Studies Director at the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution, and Peace in Palo Alto, California said, "There are more wars with more people killed all over the world than ten years ago. True it's been several years since the world major powers last bombed and shelled each other, but on any day soldiers are firing in 30-40 nations or more. Wars of liberation, territorial disputes, religious principals, the Center for Defense Information estimates that the number killed since early 1970s is at anywhere from a conservative 4.5 million to a more realistic 7.1 million. Body counts vary. But most participants agree peace is unlikely." The bottom line is this: 1.56 billion people, 1 in 3 of the world's 4.84 billion people, now this is an article written a while back, because there are now about 6 billion people on earth, 1 out of 3 live in lands enduring armed conflict. What's ahead? Starr says, regional conflicts will only increase.

Now that's not even to mention drug wars, gang wars, that claim 22 million Americans every year. 22 million! That's within our borders. And it's going to intensify in the tribulation period. Let's look at the next horse, the black horse of famine in verse 5. "When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." At this point you'd say, no. I don't want to see anymore. "So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quarter of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine." War and famine go together. When war breaks out, if there are bombs involved, food supplies are contaminated. Jesus said there will be wars, and there will be rumors of wars, nation will rise against nation, and there will be famine. But what a famine this is! A quart of wheat for a denarius. A denarius is a day's wage. At that time, all of the world relief will fail. It will take a working man a day's wage to buy a little over a loaf of bread. Famine will get worse.

But notice that there's no scarcity of oil and wine which are idioms for the rich. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer and the middle class fall into the poverty class. In the tribulation, the already poor conditions of the earth will be heightened. Now we don't see it in this country as much, living in a middle-class country, what we call poverty here is very, very different from what I've seen in many countries. One-third of our world is well-fed--that's us. Another third of our world is poorly fed. Another third of our world is starving to death daily. 460 million people are on the brink of starvation daily, one report says. Now that's only going to intensify. Now what factors would add to this condition besides war? Let me give you a few factors: oil in the Middle East. You know, when somebody seizes oil or oil prices go up, it is a big deal. For us it's just an inconvenience. Some people will say, the oil, it's unimportant. Just think about. For us, it's like, ok, a few more cents at the gas pump. But think of those people living in already famine conditions. Where they need oil to run tractors to work in the fields with their crops and oil for fertilizers. You increase oil prices and it could kill more people. Very, very critical. And then there's pollution. Chemicals, acid rain. Science tells us that food today has less nutritional value than the same food twenty years ago. Then there's population. You know that it took from the beginning of history to 1850 to produce 1 billion people? That's a long time. From the beginning of man to 1850. But it took from only 1850 to 1930 to produce 2 billion. From 1930 to 1960 to give us 3 billion. And only 15 more years, up till 1975, to give us 4 billion. Now there are about 6 billion people on the earth and there's an exponential increase of people, which means conditions will worsen. That is just fact. Add to that a fourth factor: tribulation and Antichrist turned wild, bringing in carnage and war and perhaps even nuclear war. Do you remember Chernobyl? When that explosion happened at that plant up in the Soviet Union? Cows that produced milk in Europe were contaminated. They had to throw away milk in Europe! Imagine what nuclear bombs would do if they were released to different parts of the earth.

Then there is the fourth horse and we'll conclude with this, the widespread death, pestilence. Verse seven: "When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come and see." And of course there has to be a command because John wouldn't want to anymore. "So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth." Can you imagine? A fourth of the world's population, well over one billion people, being killed. It goes from very bad to worse. The result of famine is death on many fronts. There's actually kind of four things that will contribute to this over one billion people being killed. Notice: sword, hunger, death, beasts. With famine comes malnutrition; with malnutrition comes the breakdown of the immune system. And I found something interesting here. It says people will be killed by the beasts of the earth. Now I don't know what that means. Maybe beasts will attack people at random perhaps, but I was reading an article the other day in the Charlotte Observer, how scientists are very heightened, they're frightened now because people are not donating their organs when they die. Corresponding to the number of people who need them who are alive. And so scientists are turning to animals to take the organs of the monkeys and baboons to transplant in human beings. Well you can see the problems that would create--viruses, bacteria. They said the thing that scares us the most is a strain of the Ebola virus being transmitted from animal to human. Or the Simian-Immuno-Deficiency virus which is very similar to AIDS in human beings. Scientists are afraid of this. Widespread death during this period of time.

Now all of this was unthinkable. If you were to read this and have a sermon like this 100 years ago, I think people would sort of be amused--at best. Unthinkable that you could have weapons of mass destruction 100 years ago that could ever produce something like this. Even 80 years ago. But today it's not unthinkable, it's very real, it's at our doorstep. Now I want to sort of close with a prophecy. The guy who wrote this, said this, didn't know he was prophesying. But it's very profound. It was written in 1860 by a French chemist and scientist named Pierre Berseault. He said, "Inside of one hundred years of physical and chemical science, man will know what the atom is. It is my belief that when science reaches this stage, God will come to earth and He will say to humanity, "Gentlemen? It's closing time." He said that in 1860. He predicted the unleashing of the atom and that God will have enough and say, "It's over." Well in chapter six we see the curtain sort of closing. The first part of that closing scene, closing time's starting. Now I realize this isn't the kind of a message that you think, gosh that comforted my heart this morning. I'm going to memorize those passages and make them my life verses! But I'll tell you this: I'm glad I'm a Christian. I don't look with fear to the future. It's scary now, it will get scarier. God has the future--it's under control. Satan will come in; he will bring in all of this carnage. God ultimately is overseeing it as sovereign God, as a means to purge the earth and judge the earth, but you know what I take rest in today? The word Antichrist. Instead of Christ. Against Christ. Contrast the Antichrist with Jesus Christ. Think of that as you leave this morning. Everything the Antichrist is, Jesus is not. And everything the Antichrist is not, Jesus is. The Antichrist is a fake, he's an impostor--Jesus is called faithful and true. You can rely on Him. The Antichrist brings a false peace followed by war and destruction. Jesus Christ is called the Prince of Peace. He will give you peace even when circumstances around you are chaotic. In the wake of the Antichrist comes famine and death. Jesus said I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me will never hunger.

The Antichrist will be everything the world says it wants. Jesus Christ is everything the world truly needs. And you might say, I don't want Jesus. You're set up for this guy who's coming. The good news is that those who know Jesus Christ not only have this peace, but are saved from the future wrath. God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation. I rejoice that I'm found in Jesus Christ. He's everything I need. He's everything you need. And maybe you don't know Him personally today, but I'm going to ask you after this service if you'd go to the prayer room and meet with some of the pastors and counselors and give your life to the Prince of Peace.

Additional Messages in this Series

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6/9/1996
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Good News from a Bad Place
Revelation 1:1-8
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6/16/1996
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Catapulted into the Future
Revelation 1:9-20
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6/23/1996
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When Love Grows Cold
Revelation 2:1-7
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6/30/1996
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Postcard to Those in Pain
Revelation 2:8-11
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7/7/1996
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The Curse of Compromise
Revelation 2:12-17
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7/14/1996
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Corruption without Discernment
Revelation 2:18-29
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7/21/1996
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Church of the Living Dead
Revelation 3:1-6
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7/28/1996
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Body Building - God's Way
Revelation 3:7-13
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The human body has become the obsession of our modern culture. Much like the ancient Greeks, people are madly trying to fit the contemporary ideal of what is an acceptable shape and size. The church is metaphorically called the "Body of Christ" and His desire is to see it built up spiritually. The church of Philadelphia is a good model of a healthy, faithful church. Their example provides for us a template to follow in building up the Body - God's Way!
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8/19/1996
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Taking Your Spiritual Temperature
Revelation 3:14-22
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Ever since we were kids our moms stuck thermometers in our mouths whenever she suspected that we were sick. If our body temperature of 98.6 had climbed up just a few notches, it was always a good indication that an unhealthy condition was present. There is also a spiritual temperature that reveals the condition of our souls, and when the thermometer reads Lukewarm it indicates that something is wrong; it indicates the presence of danger. Let's see how Jesus, the Great Physician, treats his patient with this malady.
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8/25/1996
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Peeking into the Portals of Heaven
Revelation 4
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9/1/1996
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History's Greatest Real Estate Deal
Revelation 5:1-7
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9/8/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 1
Revelation 5:8-10
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In heaven there won’t be just three services in the morning and one at night with a midweek tacked on. There will be no need to be sensitive to time so we can go to lunch. Words will not have to be printed nor projected. Worship leaders will have no need prompting people to sing. It will be an all-consuming experience that will involve our total cooperation and enthusiasm.
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9/15/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 2
Revelation 5:11-14
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10/6/1996
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The Cries of Heaven and Earth
Revelation 6:9-17
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10/13/1996
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A Blessed Interruption in a Tough Time
Revelation 7
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10/20/1996
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Trumpets of Doom
Revelation 8
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10/27/1996
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When All Hell Breaks Loose
Revelation 9:1-12
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11/3/1996
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Angels of Mass Destruction
Revelation 9:13-21
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11/10/1996
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A Big Angel with a Little Book
Revelation 10
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11/17/1996
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Two Powerful Preachers
Revelation 11:1-14
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11/24/1996
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Light at the End of the Tunnel
Revelation 11:15-19
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12/1/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 1
Revelation 12:1-6
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12/8/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 2
Revelation 12:7-17
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There aren't many people who like to fight. Confrontation is something most would like to avoid. But in the spiritual realm it's unavoidable. The question isn't, "Will I engage in spiritual warfare?" Rather, the question is, "How well will I fight?" As we saw last week, the war in the heavens makes its way to the theater of the earth. Let's see what else it entails.
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12/15/1996
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The Coming Global Leader
Revelation 13:1-10
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12/22/1996
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Evil's Right-Hand-Man
Revelation 13:11-18
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12/29/1996
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The Lamb Who Shepherds His People
Revelation 14:1-5
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After all that john has seen in his apocalyptic vision, seeing the docility of a lamb standing with his overcoming sheep is a welcomed sight. Although the dragon pursues god's people relentlessly, although the beasts are bent on ruling the earth, the ultimate winner will be the lamb and his followers.
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1/5/1997
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Angels Set The Record Straight
Revelation 14:6-13
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1/12/1997
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It's Harvest Time!
Revelation 14:14-20
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One of the most common ways to make a living in ancient times was to "work the land." The early rains of October/November and the soft latter rains produced the wheat and barley harvest later on. Also, when vintage season began, almost the whole village could be found in the fields harvesting the crop. Such images would also provide a poignant way of depicting the final judgment of the earth, as in this section.
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1/17/1997
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Getting Ready for the Grand Finale
Revelation 15:1-8
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1/26/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 1
Revelation 16:1-11
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We now come to the "seven last plagues" of God in the Great Tribulation that is coming upon planet earth. These judgments come in the form of "bowls" being poured out swiftly and completely-the judgment will be swift and thorough. Yet through all the mercy as Well as wrath of this awesome era, people will persist in having a hardened heart. Open your heart 'right now to these truths.
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2/2/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 2
Revelation 16:12-21
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What will the end of the world be like? What are the final events just before Jesus returns and takes over to set up His millennial reign? That's what this section tells us. There will be increased warfare activity in the Middle East, massive deception, and unheard of destructive cataclysms on earth. In the midst of foretelling these events, Jesus has a word of encouragement.
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2/9/1997
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The Coming World Religion
Revelation 17
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It was Karl Marx who stated, no doubt cynically, that religion was the opiate of the masses. The fact is, he was right-it is! People are driven to worship something or someone. This desire will be exploited to the hilt in the Tribulation period and will be under the umbrella of the world dictator-the Antichrist. What are its roots and how does it end?
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2/16/1997
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Get out of Babylon!
Revelation 18
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Someone once said, "Money can't buy you friends but your enemies treat you a little better." Though meant to be tongue-in­cheek, that won't happen when the entire world economy collapses. God's shakedown of the earth will include everything that the Antichrist's kingdom will embody, from the sacred to the secular.
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3/2/1997
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Marriage Made in Heaven
Revelation 19:1-10
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3/9/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 1
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of our capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "One far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." It is that event which we will be studying in the next two weeks. This is what all Christians of all ages have looked forward to - His return and reign of His creation.
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3/16/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 2
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of the capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "one far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." it is that event, that Christians of all ages have looked forward to-his return and reign of his creation. We will conclude our study of the return of Jesus Christ, today.
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4/6/1997
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Paradise Regained
Revelation 20:1-3
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4/13/1997
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The Devil's Last Stand
Revelation 20:1-10
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A typical question is, "Will evil ever get its reward?" What ever happened to ethics and justice? Well, we see here that God will not turn His back on this issue. He will deal with the source of all evil (the devil himself) and then judge those who revel in it. This section gives tremendous hope to anyone concerned about injustice in our world.
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4/20/1997
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Life, Death, and Resurrection
Revelation 20:5-6; 20:11-15
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5/4/1997
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All Things New - Part 1
Revelation 21:1-3
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5/11/1997
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All Things New - Part 2
Revelation 21:4-8
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"It's like nothing you've ever seen or experienced before." That's how John describes the emotional experience of heaven. So that we can relate, he tells us that all of the pain, sorrow, and moaning we've endured here won't be there. By the way, only those who want to go there will go there. Heaven is not a destination by default, reservations are made here and now!
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5/18/1997
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The City of the Future
Revelation 21:9-22:5
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There is no architect or builder like God himself. Even the patriarch Abraham "was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Heb. 11:10) he didn't find it in his lifetime. "You won't find you're "happily ever after" here either, but the New Jerusalem will be God's answer for man's longing to live in a perpetually peaceful stare.
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5/25/1997
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He's Coming - Now What!?
Revelation 22:6-21
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There are 43 additional messages in this series.
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