Jesus is in the business
of breaking the unbreakable,
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fixing the unfixable,
and preparing His church
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for whatever lies ahead.
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Today we're going
to be talking about
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breaking the unbreakable seals.
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The last time,
just for a quick review,
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we were in chapter 4 and
5 of the book of Revelation.
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And there we saw
Jesus on the throne,
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and He takes this
scroll with seven seals,
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He takes that scroll after
John has just wept bitterly
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because no one could be
found in heaven and earth
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to break those seals.
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And we discovered that
that scroll was perhaps
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the deed to all the righteous
that would get eternal life
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and get the city
and the new earth,
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and all of those
wonderful things.
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So why is this thing sealed?
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Well, we have to
remember that Satan and Jesus
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are in a great controversy.
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And when Jesus went
through Calvary's cross
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and was resurrected, He
was accepted by the Father
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and said that
sacrifice was complete.
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It was good.
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It was just what
heaven had ordered.
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And there's no argument,
the judgment had been passed
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on this and Jesus'
sacrifice was accepted
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by the Judge of the universe
and by the heavenly courts.
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So where does Satan have to go?
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He can't argue anymore
that Jesus hasn't paid it all
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on Calvary's cross.
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He can't argue anymore
that the blood has been paid
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and the sinners can
be freed from their sins.
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But you know, we
still have a long way to go
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to get to the second coming.
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So I'm imagining a
little bit here, in a sense,
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that the devil looks
at Jesus and he says,
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"Okay, okay.
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So You paid the price.
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But let me tell You this.
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You can't bring
Your church through.
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There's going to be many years,
ages, yet before Your coming,
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and You can't bring
Your church through."
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And I think Satan insisted,
insisted perhaps with the
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Judge of the
universe like he did with Job.
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If you go to the book
of Job in the first chapter
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you'll find that Satan
shows up there in heaven.
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And he snarls at God about Job,
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insists that he be
given the right to test Job.
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And so now he's insisting,
as it were, the right to test
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the church that's being
raised up because of what
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Jesus did on Calvary's cross.
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And so he insists
on certain conditions,
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seals, if you please,
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that he doesn't
believe that Jesus can overcome
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and bring His church through.
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By the way, if you can't
bring your church through,
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then what good
is Calvary's cross?
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No, the church
has got to go through.
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And so here are the
conditions, as it were.
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And Jesus, the slain
Lamb, comes to the rescue.
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And He's going to
break these seven seals
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and deliver the deed.
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Deliver the deed to you,
and to me, and to all of us.
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So John's tears are dried up
as he watches the mighty Savior,
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the incomparable Jesus,
take that seal, that scroll,
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and start to break those seals.
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Now Jesus is pictured as
this Lamb having seven eyes
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and seven horns.
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The dragon who
represents Satan has seven heads
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and ten horns.
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It looks like an unequal
match, but I'm telling you
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that Jesus is able to
take on this great red dragon
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with His seven
horns and seven eyes.
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Those horns
represent powers and kingdoms.
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Now both Jesus
and Satan work through
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their agents on the earth.
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Satan is going to fight Jesus,
but He's going to fight him
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using earthly powers.
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And we'll see that as we
see the beast from the sea,
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and the beast from the
earth, and the great red dragon
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and these powers on
earth that oppose God's church.
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But Jesus is going to fight
Satan with His seven churches
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pictured in
Revelation, symbolic,
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His church through time.
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And I want to
emphasize something here.
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There's some
people, you know, that think
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every one of these seals is some
kind of instantaneous thing.
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But we're not looking at that.
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We're looking at ages.
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We're looking from
the start of John's day
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to the coming of Jesus.
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We're going to see what
God's church is up against
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and how God brings
His church through.
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So this is going to take time.
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And the testing is
going to take time.
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And so we have to
be patient and watch.
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That's why we've titled this,
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The Seven Seals:
Opened and Opening.
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Because they're
still opening, as it were,
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before Jesus comes.
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So Jesus has these seven eyes.
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And these seven
eyes, the Bible tells us,
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are the seven Spirits of God.
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So here's the Holy Spirit again.
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He's represented not
only in the candlesticks
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with the seven churches,
but He's also represented
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as these eyes, these
seven eyes, that Jesus has.
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Because the Holy Spirit is
the one who sees His church.
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He reads your heart, He
knows everything about you.
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He knows what's
going on in every church.
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There's not anything
that escapes His attention.
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And He is penetrating His church
and He's empowering His church
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to resist the
devil and His evil angels
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in this great controversy
between Christ and Satan.
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The Holy Spirit also
sends seven mighty angels
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to watch over His church.
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And each church is told
to hear what the Spirit says
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to the churches.
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That is most important.
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Because I think
nowadays we don't listen
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enough to the Holy Spirit.
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And I'm not
talking about impressions
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and I'm not
talking about feelings.
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But the Holy Spirit
speaks through His Word.
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He speaks through
the prophetic gift.
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And that prophetic gift
is what guides the church
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and will guide the
church through the end of time.
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I mean, we can hear
from Revelation chapter 12
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where the saints
overcame the great red dragon
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by the word of their testimony.
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And the woman there
that represents the church,
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she had the testimony of
Jesus, which the Bible says
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is the spirit of prophecy.
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So the Lord guides
His church through time
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using His Word,
and the Holy Spirit
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being the teacher of
truth teaching His Word.
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So we have these seven
seals now that come up,
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and they are going
to present a big problem
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for the Christian church.
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And remember, I think
at least that it's Satan
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who has insisted on these,
so he's thought this through.
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He's going to do everything he
can to keep the blood of Christ
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that paid for our
sins from being effective
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and delivering to us
the deed to the new earth
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and the kingdom of heaven.
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Well we come to that first seal,
and we go to Revelation 6:1-2,
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the first seal, and it
says, "Now I saw the Lamb
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open one of the seals."
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I'm going to stop right
here and just say something
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about the book of Revelation
and about symbolic prophecy
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that Jesus gives.
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Again, this is a
revelation of Jesus,
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but He's giving it in symbols,
according to the first three
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verses of the
book of Revelation.
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And these revelations
about Jesus and His church
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in this great controversy
between Christ and Satan,
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as I mentioned
earlier, take over time.
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But there's a principle
here called, repeat and enlarge.
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You can find it in the
book of Daniel, of course.
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And you can
find it here as well.
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So the seven churches are
symbolic of Christ's church
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through time to
the coming of Jesus.
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And then you have the seven
seals, symbolic of what the
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church is going to
face from the time of John
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to the coming of Jesus.
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And then, of
course, the seven trumpets,
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which we're not going to
have time to get into so much,
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they represent
the judgments of God
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that keeps His church
alive against its enemies
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from the time of John
to the coming of Jesus.
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So this is repeat and
enlarge with a different
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picture each time.
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So these seals, we
want to go back to them.
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So it says that Jesus has
opened, the Lamb has opened
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one of the seals.
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And it goes on to say in
verses 1 and 2 of chapter 6,
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"And I heard one of
the four living creatures
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saying with a voice like
thunder, 'Come and see.'"
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Come and see what's going on.
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It's like this mighty creature,
there are four of these
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marvelous beings
with these unique faces.
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In Ezekiel they're pictured
holding up the throne of God.
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He says, "Come and see."
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It's like he's saying,
"Come and watch the Lamb
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as He breaks these seals.
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"'Come and See.'
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And I looked, and
behold, a white horse.
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And He who sat on it had a bow,
and a crown was given to him,
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and he went out
conquering to conquer."
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What does this represent?
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Obviously this
is in the beginning
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of the Christian church.
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These first four seals
are all tied together by a
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common denominator
called, the horses.
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And these horses
change color as we go through.
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And the riders of these
horses become increasingly
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violent and difficult.
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So we see this first horse
that comes in, and he is white.
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The church is
pure in the beginning.
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But something is
already going on.
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The seeds of something
that the devil is already
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sewing in the church is
coming in the early church.
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And you can hear
it in 1 John 4:3.
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This sometimes
surprises a lot of people.
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But listen, John is telling us
that the spirit of Antichrist...
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Antichrist. That's a big deal.
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...the spirit of Antichrist had
already started in John's day.
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John, we think, died
somewhere about 100 AD.
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So this is very, very early.
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The apostles are still alive.
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Listen to John in 1 John 4:3.
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"And this is the
spirit of Antichrist,
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which you heard was coming, and
now already is in the world."
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What is Antichrist anyway?
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What does that mean?
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Well, the word in the Greek
not only can mean, against,
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but it can also mean something
that puts itself in place of.
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So in order to be
against, as it were,
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substitutes itself
for the real thing.
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And if you remember,
one of the seven churches,
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I think it was the
second one, God says,
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"I'm really proud of
you," my words of course,
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"that you
understand that those people
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who claim to be Jews but
are of the synagogue of Satan
00:12:16.10\00:12:19.63
and are blaspheming Me."
00:12:20.10\00:12:22.00
So one of the blasphemies
is inserting yourself
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to take the place of
God or of the Lord Jesus
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when you have no
right to do that.
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That spirit, that
attitude, was already at work
00:12:32.51\00:12:37.75
in the early church.
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And we're going to
see that through time
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change and become worse.
00:12:44.63\00:12:46.63
This is going to take centuries
for the Antichrist spirit
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in the church to
almost take over the church.
00:12:50.60\00:12:53.90
Now I want to say this.
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That even though
the spirit of Antichrist
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will come into the
church and take over the church,
00:12:57.17\00:13:00.21
it doesn't take
over the whole church.
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It doesn't take
over all the church.
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God always has His faithful
people down through the ages.
00:13:04.95\00:13:08.95
But the Antichrist
spirit is going to assume
00:13:08.98\00:13:11.95
the name of Jesus, it's going
to claim to be God's church,
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when in essence it
goes into terrible apostasy.
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So the spirit of Antichrist
started in John's day.
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It's going to take
centuries to mature.
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Now the second
seal in Revelation 6:4
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tells us about another horse.
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Another horse
that changes color.
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Another horse that
takes peace from the earth.
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Is Jesus going to be able
to open that seal and break it?
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I believe He will.
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