Four Horsemen Begin the Apocalypse

Transcript

GR 1524
03-29-09
Four Horsemen Begin the Apocalypse
Revelation 6:1-8
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of Revelation together and I'd invite you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation 6. The last book of our Bibles and the culminating book because it brings together and to a conclusion what began in the opening chapters of Genesis when God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden. And God would come and walk with them in the cool of the evening. What a beautiful setting that would have been, and then sin entered the picture as Adam and Eve rebelled against God and brought the curse of sin, the judgment of God upon His creation. Now with the book of Genesis, we will have a completion in the book of Revelation because God's intended purpose for His creation will not be frustrated by sin. He has sent His Son to be the Savior and what the book of Revelation does is show how the work of Christ enables the plan of God in creation to be brought to its intended fulfillment.

The first five chapters of the book of Revelation which we've already examined are really an introduction to what takes place beginning in chapter 6. If you turn back to Revelation 1 you'll note the purpose of this book. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ, verse 1, which God gave him to show to His bond servants the things which must soon take place. Now these are the events that are to soon take place, this is what is coming in the plan of God. In chapter 1 we had the vision of the resurrected Christ as John was privileged to see. In chapters 2-3 we saw the messages to the churches. In chapters 4-5 we were taken to the throne room in heaven and saw the preparation there for the events that were about to unfold on the earth, beginning in chapter 6.

With the beginning of chapter 6 we enter into the final seven-year phase of God's program for this earth. With that seven years, at the end of that Christ will return to earth, He will establish a kingdom on the earth. His return is in Revelation 19, His kingdom is established in chapter 20, the first phase of which is what we call the millennium, the thousand years. But it goes on into eternity and we'll see this as we move into chapters 21-22.

This seven-year period is known as the 70th week of Daniel. Come back to your Old Testament, Daniel 9. Some of you have the chart that we've given out, you have that set out there. Remember in the Old Testament the period of time in which we live is never seen in the prophetic announcements. The Old Testament prophets prophesied about the first coming of Christ to earth to suffer and die, and the Second Coming of Christ to earth to rule and reign in glory. But the prophets didn't know there would be two comings to earth by Christ. They just saw He would come and suffer and die, as Isaiah wrote about in Isaiah 53; they saw that He would rule and reign in glory as Isaiah wrote about in the closing chapters of his prophecy. But they didn't know there would be 2000 years or so in between those two events.

So when we come to Daniel 9:24, we've noted that this prophecy is a foundational prophecy for understanding God's program for the nation Israel. Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city. Daniel is a Jew, his people are the Jews, his holy city is Jerusalem. Six things will be accomplished in this seventy-week period. Now remember it is 70 sevens. So it is 70 weeks of years, not weeks of days. It literally says 70 sevens. As we move along in Revelation we'll look at the clear evidence that we're talking about seven-year periods here, not anything else, a literal seven years. So it's 70 sevens, 490 years are decreed for your people and your holy city. Six things will be accomplished by the time you get through that 490 years. You'll finish the transgression, make an end to sin, make atonement for iniquity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up vision and prophecy, and anoint the most holy place. Then as we've seen he gives the breakdown. From the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, a total of sixty-nine weeks or a total of 483 years. That brings us up to just about a week before Christ is crucified.

Then we are told in verse 26, after the sixty-two weeks, which remember were after the seven because he said seven weeks and then sixty-two weeks. The after the sixty-two weeks which were after the seven, or a total of sixty-nine weeks, 483 years, the Messiah will be cut off. Note he didn't say in the 70th week because as the Spirit of God directed the prophet, obviously God in His sovereign plan had planned for the interval between the first and second coming. But after the conclusion of 483 years, Messiah will be cut off, He is crucified, He has nothing. He didn't rule and reign, He didn't establish the kingdom, He's not ruling on the earth. And the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. You'll note the destruction of Jerusalem will occur at the hands of the people of the prince who is to come. Key person here. The prince who is to come carries us to the distant future. The Romans will destroy the city and there is coming a person out of the line of the Romans because he is of the people of the prince who is to come who will destroy the city. So it tells us. There is some debate, what will be the nationality of the coming world ruler, the antichrist as we refer to him. He is Roman. How do we know? Well he will be of the people who destroyed Jerusalem. Who destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.? The Romans. So the coming world prince will be a Roman.

Note verse 27. He, referring to the prince who is to come, will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, one seven. So there we are. So after sixty-nine weeks, 483 years the Messiah will be cut off. Now we just have an indication here. Then the 70th week, the last seven-year period, will start when the prince who is to come makes a covenant with the man, referring to the Jews, the people of Daniel, for one week, one seven-year period. In the middle of the week he'll put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction. One that is decreed is poured out on the one who makes desolate. So ultimately this prince who makes the agreement with Israel will come to his own end.

That is God's overview for His plan for the nation Israel. With the coming and rejection of Christ, we've had the conclusion of the 483 years, the first sixty-nine weeks. We're living in that period not revealed in the Old Testament. We call it the church age. It will come to an end with the rapture of the church as we have studied in our last couple of studies, where believers in Jesus Christ are part of this period of the church from Acts 2 down until the rapture, when the removal of the church from the earth takes place. Then we have the events unfolding, that final seven-year period is divided into two 3½ year segments. If you have the chart we've given out, you have it divided there. Because we're told in the middle of the week, in the middle of the seven, 3½ years in he breaks his covenant with the Jews, puts a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. Here we know the temple has been rebuilt, there will be other indications in Revelation of the rebuilding of the temple. And sacrifices are under way. And we have that final phase of God's program.

Come to Matthew 24-25. This is called the Olivet Discourse. Why is it called the Olivet Discourse? Because it was given, verse 3 tells us, as He, Christ, was sitting on the Mount of Olives. So it's the discourse given on the Mount of Olives, the Olivet Discourse. The great prophetic unfolding. It is also recorded in Mark 13 and Luke 21, but we'll focus our attention in Matthew for simplicity here. It covers Matthew 24-25. You'll note the context here in verse 3. The disciples asked Him, tell us, when will these things happen, what will be the sing of your coming and of the end of the age? Chapter 23 ended with Jesus pronouncing judgment on the Jews and Jerusalem. He told them in verse 38, your house is being left to you desolate. Behold from now on you will not see Me until you say, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Then He has told them in the opening verses of chapter 24 that the temple is going to be destroyed. Not one stone will be left upon another. And if you traveled to Jerusalem today, you can go and visit the ruins of the temple, and you can see the stones that have been rolled down back in 70 A.D. as the Romans destroyed it. Jesus' disciples' question is when all these things happen? What will be the sign of the end of the age, your coming? The Jews divided time into two segments—the present age and the age to come. The present age, the age in which we live; and the age to come is the age of the Messiah in Jewish thinking. So they want to know, what will be the sign of your coming. If you're going away until the nation says blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, and the temple is going to be destroyed and so on, how do we know when you are coming and this age will be brought to a conclusion, and we'll be having the kingdom. So that's what He goes on in Matthew 24 to talk about. And that will parallel where we are in Revelation 6.

Come over to Revelation 6. Revelation 6-19, basically, and then get into chapter 20 as well, they are about the 70th week of Daniel. Chapter 20 will carry us into the kingdom. With chapter 19 Christ returns to earth with great glory to establish His kingdom. It's then when that prince who is to come that we read in Daniel 9 is destroyed. And his destruction is recorded in Revelation 19 at the Second Coming of Christ to earth. The judgments of this seven-year period, beginning in Revelation 6, are divided into three sets of seven. We'll start out with seven seals. Remember we saw a scroll rolled up in chapters 4-5 and in chapter 5 in particular we have the seal presented, the scroll, and Christ comes to take it. Seven seals on it. We start out with the seven seals. Each time a seal is broken the scroll is unrolled further and a judgment takes place on the earth. And these seals will be recorded basically in chapter 6. Then when you come to chapter 8 verse 1 you have the seventh seal broken. Out of the seventh seal comes the next series of judgments. So everything will be contained within the seven seals because remember it was a seven-sealed scroll and sealed on the ends. You could see the seven seals and then they would roll it further, then they would seal it, then they would roll it further. But once you open all seven seals, it contains everything that is to come. So when he breaks the seventh seal, verse 2, I saw the seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them. Out of the seventh seal come seven trumpets, and each time a trumpet is sounded another judgment is poured out on the earth. And the trumpets and these judgments are found in chapters 8-9. Then when you come over to chapter 11 verse 15 the seventh angel sounded. So here you have the last of the seven trumpets blown. And what will happen is we're going to have the bowls. Now we have to come over to chapter 15. And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had the seven plagues, which are the last because in them the wrath of God is finished.

You see these judgments are sequential. The seven seals, one follows another. The seven seals are followed by the seven trumpets, the seven trumpets are followed by the seven bowls. That's important. So these are spread out through this seven-year period. The seven bowls are the last of the judgments, as we just read. So when you come to chapter 16, then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. So just like you started out with the seals, every time a seal was broken, a judgment was poured out on the earth. Out of the last seal, when it was broken, came seven trumpet judgments. So every time a trumpet was blown a judgment came on the earth. Then when the seventh trumpet was blown, out come the seven bowls. What happens is every time a bowl is turned over on the earth, out is dumped the judgment. And by the time we get to the seventh bowl, the last one poured out, we are at the end of the tribulation. We will have Armageddon with the return of Christ in chapter 19. So spread over this seven-year period are these series of judgments. And we'll note as we go through, each series gets worse. The seven seals are the mildest, and we're going to look at some of those in a moment. And it's hard to call them mild. They are mild, not in the sense of our word mild, but they are not as severe as the trumpets, and the trumpets are not as severe as the bowls.

So over this seven years you have judgments being poured out and things are getting worse and worse and worse. And that's why Jesus said in Matthew 24 if He did not intervene at the end of the seven years, things are getting so bad, there wouldn't be a person left alive on the face of the earth. People are dying at that rate. And we'll see as we start out in the seals an unbelievable number of people are going to die and we've just started. So it is going to be a terrible time.

So that's the flow. Now chapter we didn't look at will fill in material that is necessary for us to understand what is taking place. For example, chapters 10-14 deal with some marvelous and interesting material on what is going to take place in this seven years. We're going to find out a lot more, for example, about the antichrist and his activity and so on. And we'll have this unfolding series of judgments, but we will also get much additional material that helps explain further what was prophesied in Old Testament scriptures.

All right, come back to Revelation 6. The chapter opens up, then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals. Here we have the beginning of the tribulation. What takes place on the earth is that prince who is to come we saw in Daniel 9 signs an agreement, a covenant with Israel for one seven-year period. What happens in heaven is the Lamb of God opens the first seal and we are ready for judgment like has never been poured out on the earth and will bring about a great destruction and the salvation of the nation Israel.

Christ is the Lamb, He is the One worthy because He is the One who has provided redemption. Because at the conclusion of these judgments we have a redeemed earth populated by a redeemed people. So He alone is worthy. Back up to chapter 5 verse 1, I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne, that's God the Father, a book written, and that was a scroll. Inside and on the back sealed with seven seals. And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book. And then we are told in verse 5, behold the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David has overcome to open the book and its seven seals. And Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, the descendant of David that can fulfill the covenant God made with David, that his descendant would sit on the throne, ruling over the earth forever.

So you come down to verse 9, they sang a new song saying, worthy are you. And this is a song sung to the Lamb. Worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And He is the One, then, that can make them a kingdom and priests. And they will reign upon the earth. We're talking about an earthly kingdom on this earth, not a spiritual kingdom in hearts. We're talking about the Son of God, the descendant of David ruling on this earth and the redeemed people ruling with Him.

Down in verse 12, they were saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. Now we come to chapter 6, the Lamb has taken the scroll from the hand of His Father on the throne in heaven. We are ready for the unfolding of the final events. And the only One worthy to open up and pour out the judgments that will culminate in redemption is the Lamb that was slain.

So He took the scroll, He opens it, the first seal is broken. And I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, come. The four living creatures, remember, the four cherubim, one on each side of the throne of God the Father in heaven that we saw in chapter 4-5. They surround the throne, one on each side. One of them cries out with a loud voice, come. And what he is doing is summoning the judgment. So as the Lamb opens the seal and the One who stands at the throne calls forth the judgment out now. There is nothing read from the scroll, but the opening of the seal brings out the judgment and it is time for it to come forth on the earth.

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. The first four seals that are opened are closely connected. There are four cherubim around the throne of the Father in heaven as we have seen in chapters 4-5. Each time a seal is broken, for the first four seals, another cherubim calls for the judgment to come forth on the earth. Each of these first four judgments is represented by a rider on a horse and each horse is of a different color. So these first four judgments have become known as the four horsemen of the apocalypse, because the first four judgments are four riders on various colored horses, depicting the judgment. And we begin the final seven years leading up to the return of Christ to earth.

This first judgment, a white horse and someone sitting on the horse. Now a white horse was often a symbol of victory and triumph. And that picture would still hold even in our day. The context of this verse is picturing the conquering that is going on. And it says he went out conquering and to conquer. Now in chapter 19 verse 11 we are ready for the Second Coming of Christ to earth and he said, I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and He who sat on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. And He descends from heaven and the armies of heaven follow Him. But that's not the same event we're reading in chapter 6 because in chapter 6 we are at the very beginning of the seven years. In chapter 19 we are at the very end of the seven years. In chapter 19 we have the Son of Man, the descendant of David coming in victory to destroy the rest of His enemies and establish His kingdom. In chapter 6 we have a counterfeit version, false christ, if you will, coming. He has a bow but he has no arrows, symbolic of conquering without war. Here you have the great diplomacy going on. And there will be a variety of these kinds of events taking place, but they will come to focus in one man, the man we read about in Daniel 9, the prince who is to come. He is the man who will ultimately rise to power, but there will be others in these opening phase. But among them is the man who will solidify his power and come to be ultimately world ruler, by the time we come to the latter part of this 70th week of Daniel.

Come back to Daniel 7. You have the series of world empires unfolded, and we've been back to look at this in our prior study in Daniel 7. Same material that is covered under a different image in Daniel 2. But coming world empires, beginning with the empire that is ruling when Daniel was prophesying—the empire of Babylon. You come down culminating with Rome and the Roman Empire pictured in verse 7 as a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong. And it had large iron teeth. This is the Roman Empire, the mightiest, strongest empire that has existed. It had ten horns, and we'll get to this as we move along in Revelation. The final phase of the Roman Empire will be a ten-nation confederacy. While I was contemplating the horns, behold another horn, a little one, came up among them and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it. This horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great boasts. This is the same individual that in chapter 9 is called the prince who will come. You see he becomes the dominant figure in these final days. So that's what we're talking about. So we refer to the little horn of Daniel 7, or the prince who is to come of Daniel 9, or the lawless one of II Thessalonians 2. All names referring to this individual, and there are a number of names by which he is referred to in scripture. We sometimes just call him the antichrist, as John would refer in his epistle.

Come back to Revelation 6. He had a bow, verse 2, and a crown was given to him. A crown, a stephanos. There is a diadem, the ruler's crown; the stephanos, the victor's crown. And sometimes the king would wear both. And here is a man who has conquered and so he has a crown, and he has been the victor and has secured his power. This man will be the most powerful man who has ruled on the earth until Christ comes to rule. He is Satan's counterfeit Christ, so we call him the Antichrist, the one who is opposed to Christ and comes as a false Christ. So when he comes and signs an agreement with Israel as though he is its friend, bringing peace and so on, resolves the conflicts in the Middle East, is able to bring the world together. He is the kind of man we've been looking for. And we've just had an election and what did we want? A president that promised hope. We don't have to give you the details, you just tell me you bring hope. What does he do if someone comes on the scene and is able to solve the problems in the Middle East or much of the problems in the world fret out from and is able to bring nations together. That's what this man will do. He starts out a little horn which indicates he is not significant, but he's a man of brilliance unheard of because he is satanically empowered and enabled. And it's Satan's intention to unite the world under his rule, and Satan is the god (small “g”) of this world, the Bible tells us. And this is his man, and we'll see him as we get into the middle chapters of the book of Revelation in some detail.

I want you to note here, a crown was given to him. This expression is going to be repeated a number of times in the book of Revelation. We'll see it down in the middle of verse 8, authority was given to them. Turn over to chapter 9 verse 1, the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. Verse 3, out of the smoke came locusts upon the earth, power was given to them. Verse 5, they were not permitted. You see it was given, not permitted. God rules over all that is going on here. The ultimate power determining what is happening is the God of heaven, the One we saw enthroned in chapter 4 in particular. He's in charge, and it is His purposes that are being accomplished.

Come over to chapter 13 verse 5, and authority to act for 42 months, that's the last half of the seven-year period, was given. You see was given. Verse 7, it was also given to him to make war with the saints. Verse 14, he deceived those who dwell on the earth because of the signs it was given him to perform. Verse 15, it was given to him to give breath to the image. It is God's intention to bring His judgment on this world. He is sovereign in it all. We need to remember that as things seem to be spiraling. And as we move through the book of Revelation you think things are out of control, the world has moved to chaos. And it has, except not from God's perspective. Everything is under control. And even the activity of demons is being brought about by the plan of God, using the sinfulness of His rebellious creation to accomplish His purposes.

Come back to Revelation 6. He went out conquering and to conquer. So what we have in this first judgment is the solidifying of power by diplomatic means. This is not so amazing to us today. We get concerns about our own government solidifying power, we can see what goes on with diplomatic means. We look around the world, we start talking about a world currency. You see discussions like that, you see the right people, the right person in the right position with the right abilities which solidify tremendous power as people are weary of the problems. And they can bring peace, they can bring prosperity. I mean why wouldn't we follow him.

I shared with you an article from Time Magazine many years ago that I put in my file with the leaders of Europe meeting together in the early days of the European Union and saying if we could find a man who could unite us and bring peace, we would follow him if it were the devil himself. That's like a prophecy! You're going to get it and it will be the devil. But here is a man who has no religious connection, he was just talking about it from his political perspective, and that was back in the '70s. So that's where we are going, the first judgment.

The second horse, verse 3, he broke the second seal. You see there is rapidity here, there is no detail expanded. Verse 3, he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature, the second cherubim of the four around the throne of God cry out, come. Out comes the judgment, the horse. And another, a red horse went out and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth that men would slay one another. And a great sword was given to him. So don't get confused, this solidifying of power in the Antichrist consolidation doesn't mean we're going to have world peace in any kind of true sense, because the second judgment coming is the loss of peace. And this red horse, a color that depicts the bloodshed associated with this seal, the warfare. So you have war and bloodshed, peace taken from the earth. So the peace didn't last long as problems come out in various places in the world. Doesn't mean that every single place is in turmoil, but it is a deteriorating situation.

The third seal is broken quickly. When he broke the third seal I heard the third living creature saying, come. I looked and behold a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hands. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius. Do not damage the oil and the wine. The black horse represents the sorrow and grief that comes from the famine. And often associated with famine is war, and war brings famine. We saw the second seal with the red horse and peace taken from the earth and the bloodshed, and you have famine spreading, not just caused by warfare but you know we're concerned about climate and what that could do. I don't know what's going to bring it about on the human level, we know the power behind it. God can quickly bring famine in a variety of ways.

And when it talks about the rider on this horse had a pair of scales in his hands, it pictures the fact that food is going to be so scarce it will have to be carefully weighed out. We live in such prosperity, one of the big things is the diet plans for us. And we're thankful for those. But there will come a time when food will be so scarce, you just don't go to the cupboard and eat what you want. Food has to be weighed out because we have to ration it so carefully because there just is not enough. Those kinds of conditions we've not experienced, but depicting serious famine.

Come back to Ezekiel 4:16. And Ezekiel, remember, is a prophecy during the time of the Babylonian captivity and some of the judgments there anticipate what God will do in final days. Verse 16, moreover He said to me, son of man, behold I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror because bread and water will be scarce. They will be appalled with one another and waste away in their iniquity. You see what is coming, a time when food is going to be so scarce. We know what it was like in Old Testament history, they even got to eating their own children. And now we think how could they get that appalling? Here he is saying they are going to get to a point in Jerusalem, they're going to be weighing the food out, rationing the water. That's what we have under the third seal. With the famine the scarcity of food and the disaster that comes with that.

Come back to Revelation 6. When it says a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius. A denarius was the pay for one day's work for average pay. A quart of wheat was the amount it would take to feed one person for one day. And you see what has happened here. A man works all day, he just got enough to feed one person. What happens if you have a family of four, a family of five. Well now you have to ration the food that would normally be enough to sustain one person, you have to divide it among a number of people. So that's the picture. Or you can get more barley for a denarius—three quarts of barley. The problem was barley was cheaper, but it was less nutritious. So you can get more of the food that doesn't sustain you, or less of the food that is more nutritious. And yet in this, one person has noted that the cost will have increased so that food costs between 8 and 12 times what it would normally cost in comparison to the figures here what you could have bought with a denarius in normal days. You get ideas of how the famine has tightened things up.

But the oil and wine are not harmed. And this seems to picture the fact that the rich will have adequate for themselves. As the food gets scarce and resources are tightened, the wealthy and powerful still maintain enough. And we have this in countries of the world where you look and see the people starving, and yet the people with wealth and power are living lavishly. And that will be going on in the world in those days. So you have the masses experiencing starvation and famines but you have the rich and the wealthy still doing well. That hasn't changed.

Then we come to the fourth seal. Verse 7, when the Lamb broke the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come. So you see now there are only four living creatures around the throne in heaven as we saw in chapters 4-5. So these first four judgments are joined together in a special way by each one is called forth by the voice of one of these cherubim around the throne of the Father in heaven as a result of the Lamb breaking the seal. And then each one is pictured by a rider on a horse. The fourth horse refers to death. When he broke the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. And I looked and behold an ashen horse, this pale green, sickly color is the color of this horse. That off-green, pale, sickly color still can convey that kind of picture to us. The name of the rider is death.

Now in the second seal and the third seal you have the kind of conditions with war and bloodshed and famine, but now it is even getting worse. This is a horse that is death itself. And Hades was following with him. So you have the personification of death here, and Hades is following behind to gather the victims that died, because Hades is where they go upon death. Remember in Luke the rich man died and in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. So here you have multitudes of people dying and they are being gathered into Hades. And when we get to the Great White Throne in Revelation 20, these who have been in Hades will be called out of Hades to stand before the Great White Throne to be sentenced to hell. That will be in Revelation 20.

What is striking here, the end of verse 8, authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth. Now we just started, these are the first four seals. There are seven seals, followed by seven trumpets, followed by seven bowls and it gets worse as we move along. And you get here to the fourth seal and you have one-quarter of the earth's population dying. So what's the population of the earth, how many billions of people on the earth divided by four. By this point we have one-quarter of the earth's population destroyed.

Several years ago I wrote down one commentator, he said that would be the total population of South America and Europe. That's a lot of people. Now we don't know, we're not told, is this going to be spread throughout the world or is it going to be a section of the world. People wonder what happens to the United States, maybe we're part of that quarter. Maybe early in the judgments of the 70th week of Daniel North America ceases to exist. We don't know, we're not told. There will be parts of the world where life is going on rather normally because as we see as we move along, Jesus said, right up to the end people will be marrying and giving in marriage and living life. And we can understand that, there are people starving in the world today. We see the pictures on the news and different programs, but we went out and probably had to guard what we ate and if we didn't guard what we ate we overate, right? It's too bad people are starving, but we can understand. Well one-quarter of the earth's population, over a billion people are going to die by this time. We're going to watch the news and say, that's terrible, I'm glad it's not happening here. That's what happened in parts of the world. But you see the severity of the judgments. We've just started and this is going to multiply to where we have over half the world's population said to be dead. We're talking about a scale that is hard to conceive in the seriousness of the judgments.

These are judgments, these first four are reminiscent of what God promised and threatened against Jerusalem for unfaithfulness. Come back to Ezekiel 14:12, the word of the Lord came to me saying, to Ezekiel the prophet. Son of man, if a country sins against me by committing unfaithfulness I will stretch out my hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, set famine against it and cut off from it both man and beast. So you see there the famine, what God promises for those who rebel and are rebellious against Him. Verse 15, if I were to cause wild beasts to pass through the land and they depopulated it and it became desolate so that no one would pass through it because of the beasts. All of a sudden you have this pouring out of animals and the lack of fear of humans. You see this in parts of the country where people die from wild beasts. Well, you multiply that, the Lord turns the beasts of the earth, takes away their fear and makes them aggressive. And then you have famine and the beasts. But we saw that under the fourth horse with the wild beasts of the earth. Look at verse 17, or if I should bring a sword on that country and say let the sword pass through the country and cut off man and beast. We saw that under one of the horsemen, he goes out to take peace from the earth and bring bloodshed. Verse 19, or if I should send a plague against that country, pour out my wrath in blood on it to cut off man and beast from it, the plagues we saw with the fourth horseman. Verse 21, thus says the Lord God, how much more when I send my four severe judgments against Jerusalem. That's what I'll do to the countries. What do you think is going to happen to Jerusalem when I call them to account for their unfaithfulness. So you see the four horsemen of the apocalypse have had their anticipation in the prophets of the Old Testament, in Ezekiel. How much more when I send my four severe judgments against Jerusalem—sword, famine, wild beasts and plague—to cut off man and beast from it. Yet God will have mercy. By the end of time when we get to the end of the seven years there will be survivors.

But remember we saw God promise during this time He would make mankind more scarce than the pure gold of Ophir, that if it weren't for the gracious intervention of Christ in returning to earth, there wouldn't be anybody left. These events we've just started. After you get to seven years down the line and the judgments get worse and worse and worse, people are dying at a rate that is unimaginable. This is God's judgment on a sin-cursed world that has rejected Him, that opposes Him. We take lightly men mocking God, but God stores up His judgment. People think that because God hasn't done anything it's not so bad. You know what God says, they are storing up wrath for the day of wrath. Nothing gets by. It's like somebody who commits a crime and thinks they got away with it, but they didn't get away with it. And justice catches up to them. So sinners don't get away with anything, justice is being stored up at the hands of God.

The wonderful thing in this is this is not necessary. God has provided a way of escape, He has provided a Redeemer, a Savior who offers to cleanse us from our sin, cause us to be born again as the children of God. And He promises to deliver us from the wrath which is to come. That's the hope that we have as the people of God.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your grace, even as we contemplate what is ahead for our world, our country, the people of this world. Lord, it is awful, it is frightening. And yet, Lord, you still hold out mercy and grace and love to sinners who have rejected you. Yet, Lord, sin has such a hold. We persist we will do it our way, we will do it the way we think is best, we will follow our religion, our conviction. We will do what we think is right, and all manifestation of rebellion against you and your grace, your patience. Lord, we thank you that these are days of salvation. We are privileged to hear the message of salvation by faith in your Son in these days, but these days will pass and we will come to days of judgment. We thank you that you have promised your people, the church, deliverance from wrath to come. We don't look forward to the coming time of destruction on this earth, we look forward to the coming deliverance that our Savior will bring when He calls us to meet Him in the air and be gathered in the glory of your presence. May we be faithful in our service for you in the days of the week before us. We pray in Christ's name, amen.