Watching Jesus
break these seven seals,
00:00:02.86\00:00:05.30
we're now looking
at the second seal
00:00:05.33\00:00:07.24
as the spirit of Antichrist,
taking centuries to mature,
00:00:07.27\00:00:10.57
develops even a
deeper hold on the church.
00:00:10.61\00:00:14.54
Revelation 6:4, "Another
horse, fiery red, went out.
00:00:14.58\00:00:18.75
And it was granted
that he who sat on it
00:00:18.78\00:00:21.08
would take peace from the earth,
00:00:21.12\00:00:23.35
and that people
should kill one another."
00:00:23.39\00:00:25.59
In other words, war. A
great sword was given to him.
00:00:25.62\00:00:28.89
You know, if the
church had been faithful,
00:00:29.59\00:00:31.59
if it had resisted
the spirit of Antichrist,
00:00:31.63\00:00:34.56
I think it could have
banished war from the earth.
00:00:34.90\00:00:38.50
But the spirit of Antichrist,
00:00:39.33\00:00:41.30
the spirit of wanting
human power and earthly results
00:00:41.60\00:00:47.21
kept the church from
fulfilling its great destiny.
00:00:47.54\00:00:50.71
So the spirit of
Antichrist gets deeper.
00:00:51.81\00:00:53.62
Yet Jesus preserves His church.
00:00:53.65\00:00:56.22
Still He carries it
through despite this difficulty.
00:00:56.42\00:01:00.32
And then the third
seal, Revelation 6:5-6.
00:01:00.69\00:01:03.59
"So I looked, and
behold, a black horse.
00:01:03.63\00:01:08.30
And he who sat on him had a
pair of scales in his hand."
00:01:08.33\00:01:13.40
Now those scales
represent commerce.
00:01:13.57\00:01:17.34
Somebody is going to do
some trading here, as it were.
00:01:17.37\00:01:19.94
"And I heard a voice in
the midst of the four living
00:01:20.28\00:01:22.58
creatures saying, 'A
quart of wheat for a denarius,
00:01:22.61\00:01:26.41
and three quarts of
barley for a denarius;
00:01:26.45\00:01:28.72
and do not harm
the oil and the wine.'"
00:01:28.75\00:01:30.99
So what is this saying?
00:01:31.02\00:01:32.35
It's saying here that this
power is going to take away
00:01:32.39\00:01:37.13
the ability of the
church to have bread.
00:01:37.16\00:01:39.29
In other words,
there's a famine of bread.
00:01:39.33\00:01:41.86
And bread
represents the Word of God.
00:01:41.90\00:01:44.23
So the church is
going to become so imbued
00:01:44.43\00:01:47.70
with the spirit of Antichrist
that it's going to make
00:01:47.74\00:01:50.64
the Bible, if you
please, God's Word, scarce.
00:01:50.67\00:01:54.31
And that's
exactly what happened.
00:01:54.34\00:01:56.28
As the church
became more political,
00:01:56.31\00:01:58.31
as it became more power hungry,
00:01:58.35\00:02:00.32
as it became more
earthly focused instead of
00:02:00.35\00:02:02.88
heavenly minded, then they
didn't like what the Bible would
00:02:02.92\00:02:06.96
do to their members, because
the Bible shows the truth.
00:02:06.99\00:02:11.99
The truth about what
the church ought to be like.
00:02:12.03\00:02:15.76
The Bible is a great power.
00:02:16.06\00:02:18.30
And so they made
the Bible scarce,
00:02:18.50\00:02:20.97
they made the Word
of God like a famine.
00:02:21.00\00:02:23.41
But you can't stop the blood
of Christ from still working.
00:02:23.61\00:02:27.21
You can't stop the Holy
Spirit from still working.
00:02:27.24\00:02:30.08
And so Jesus still takes
His church through a time
00:02:30.11\00:02:34.28
of terrible famine
of the Word of God.
00:02:34.32\00:02:37.79
So we come to the next one.
00:02:39.05\00:02:40.96
The fourth one is
found in Revelation 6:8,
00:02:41.46\00:02:44.79
and it really breaks your heart.
00:02:44.83\00:02:46.70
And this shows the full
development of what Antichrist,
00:02:46.80\00:02:50.37
the spirit of Antichrist,
will do in the church
00:02:50.40\00:02:54.14
when it's not arrested.
00:02:54.50\00:02:56.71
And here it is, the fourth
seals say in Revelation 6:8,
00:02:57.44\00:03:01.24
"So," John speaking, "I looked,
and behold, a pale horse.
00:03:01.28\00:03:06.98
And the name of him
who sat on it was..."
00:03:07.35\00:03:10.22
This is unbelievable.
00:03:10.25\00:03:11.72
Death and Hades.
00:03:11.75\00:03:14.09
Death and the
grave riding this church,
00:03:14.29\00:03:19.73
this horse, if you please.
00:03:19.76\00:03:21.83
"And power was given to
them over a fourth of the earth
00:03:23.70\00:03:27.04
to kill with sword,
with hunger, with death,
00:03:27.07\00:03:29.27
and by the beasts of the earth."
00:03:29.30\00:03:30.64
It pains my
heart to tell you this.
00:03:31.31\00:03:34.48
But the church, in
the name of Jesus...
00:03:35.08\00:03:37.15
Jesus still had all
of His faithful people.
00:03:37.18\00:03:39.75
But never the less, the
church, the visible church
00:03:40.75\00:03:43.39
that many people saw, not
everybody but most people saw,
00:03:43.42\00:03:47.59
that church became so
corrupt that it actually,
00:03:48.32\00:03:53.29
it actually took the
instruments of torture
00:03:54.13\00:03:57.43
from the old Roman Empire and
began to torture its own members
00:03:57.47\00:04:02.87
that refused to go
along with its own heresies
00:04:02.90\00:04:07.04
and its own apostasy.
00:04:07.08\00:04:09.21
That's why death
and the grave ride this.
00:04:09.64\00:04:12.91
And this horse is pale.
00:04:12.95\00:04:14.48
It's greenish, if you
look it up in the Greek.
00:04:14.52\00:04:17.59
It's sickly.
00:04:17.62\00:04:19.52
That's what the Antichrist
is meant to do, though.
00:04:19.72\00:04:21.96
Satan is trying to
destroy the church from within,
00:04:22.32\00:04:25.09
because he wants to wipe
it off the face of the earth.
00:04:25.29\00:04:27.76
But I want to
ask you a question.
00:04:28.16\00:04:29.50
Through all of this
terrible thing, the rise of the
00:04:29.53\00:04:32.30
inquisition and
all of these things,
00:04:32.50\00:04:34.37
has God been able to
carry His church through?
00:04:34.40\00:04:38.97
And the answer to that
is, yes, amen, and hallelujah.
00:04:39.07\00:04:44.41
If that were not true, I would
not be standing here today.
00:04:44.75\00:04:47.78
The church would not
be alive and well today.
00:04:47.82\00:04:50.62
The church would not
have any power in the earth.
00:04:50.65\00:04:52.65
If the spirit of Antichrist
had been totally successful,
00:04:52.69\00:04:56.42
if it had not met the
power of Jesus to break it,
00:04:56.46\00:05:00.20
it would have destroyed
the church from the inside.
00:05:00.43\00:05:05.40
The next one is the fifth seal.
00:05:06.90\00:05:09.87
And we hear that coming
now from Revelation 6:9.
00:05:09.90\00:05:17.28
"I saw under the altar the souls
of those who had been slain
00:05:18.41\00:05:22.28
for the word of God and
for the testimony they held."
00:05:22.32\00:05:25.25
Now remember, we're
in symbolic prophecy.
00:05:25.29\00:05:28.09
Jesus Himself said
the dead are in the grave
00:05:28.12\00:05:30.86
waiting for the
morning of the resurrection.
00:05:30.89\00:05:32.66
We'll talk about
that sometime later.
00:05:32.69\00:05:34.63
But this is symbolic.
00:05:34.66\00:05:36.13
You know, Abel's
blood, the Bible tells us,
00:05:36.30\00:05:39.03
after he was killed by Cain
cried to God from the ground.
00:05:39.07\00:05:43.71
Well Abel's blood
didn't actually cry.
00:05:43.94\00:05:45.64
It's symbolic.
00:05:45.67\00:05:47.01
God hasn't forgotten.
00:05:47.04\00:05:48.71
Some time ago I stood
in Germany at one of those
00:05:48.74\00:05:51.41
concentration camps where so
many people lost their lives.
00:05:51.45\00:05:54.48
And it just overwhelmed
me as I thought of the
00:05:54.52\00:05:57.12
misery and the suffering,
the death, and the horrors
00:05:57.15\00:06:00.06
that Nazi Germany
had imposed on Jews and
00:06:00.09\00:06:02.56
people that they didn't like.
00:06:02.76\00:06:04.19
It showed the board up there,
it showed how many thousands
00:06:04.46\00:06:07.43
of people would
perish every day.
00:06:07.46\00:06:09.63
And I remember standing
there by myself just thinking,
00:06:09.90\00:06:12.43
"Oh Lord, do not let the
earth cover their blood."
00:06:12.47\00:06:16.77
In other words,
"Oh Lord, remember.
00:06:16.81\00:06:19.74
Oh Lord, do something
about this injustice."
00:06:19.77\00:06:23.95
And God will do that.
00:06:23.98\00:06:25.35
That day of judgment is coming.
00:06:25.38\00:06:27.12
And it's something similar here.
00:06:27.35\00:06:29.12
You know, as the spirit
of Antichrist developed,
00:06:29.88\00:06:34.02
God also sent
something to counter it.
00:06:34.42\00:06:37.29
And we call that the
Protestant Reformation.
00:06:37.49\00:06:40.03
And the thing about
the Protestant Reformation,
00:06:40.06\00:06:42.26
one of its first tenets was that
we have to have Sola Scriptura
00:06:42.30\00:06:45.43
that restored the Bible to
people in the common tongue.
00:06:45.47\00:06:49.77
One of the greatest
things Martin Luther did was
00:06:49.80\00:06:51.47
to translate the Bible into
the common tongue of German.
00:06:51.51\00:06:55.74
And then William Tyndale
translated it into the common
00:06:55.84\00:06:58.45
tongue of the English.
00:06:58.48\00:06:59.81
And when people got the
Bible, they began to be able to
00:06:59.85\00:07:02.55
see things like they
had never seen before.
00:07:02.58\00:07:04.75
And that's really what
caused the reformation.
00:07:04.79\00:07:07.56
But there was a
terrible persecution
00:07:07.89\00:07:10.09
launched against them.
00:07:10.13\00:07:11.46
I don't have time to tell you
about all the persecution that
00:07:11.56\00:07:15.36
went on as a result of
the Protestant Reformation.
00:07:15.40\00:07:18.47
You have the Waldenses.
00:07:18.50\00:07:20.00
You ought to read the story.
00:07:20.04\00:07:21.57
A few years ago the
Pope apologized to them.
00:07:21.60\00:07:24.31
But they met in a
council and they said,
00:07:24.34\00:07:25.77
"We can't accept that apology
because we weren't the ones
00:07:25.81\00:07:28.64
that were
tortured and put to death,
00:07:28.68\00:07:30.41
and our women and
children ran out into the cold
00:07:30.45\00:07:33.15
in the middle of winter to
die on the hills of the Alps."
00:07:33.18\00:07:36.72
The suffering of these
people is incalculable.
00:07:37.59\00:07:41.79
It cannot be calculated.
00:07:41.82\00:07:43.73
And yet, the
Protestant Reformation survived.
00:07:44.39\00:07:47.86
The United States
of America came up and
00:07:48.33\00:07:50.27
made it one of the greatest
influences on the planet,
00:07:50.37\00:07:53.90
on the earth.
00:07:53.94\00:07:55.27
The constitution of the United
States is really a Protestant
00:07:55.30\00:07:57.37
document with those guarantees
of freedom that have been
00:07:57.41\00:08:00.01
exported all over
the world, as it were.
00:08:00.04\00:08:03.55
But God's people have
always been suffering.
00:08:03.58\00:08:05.68
Communism comes along,
and Nazism comes along,
00:08:05.78\00:08:08.78
and God's people
suffer under this.
00:08:08.82\00:08:11.22
And before Jesus comes
with the mark of the beast,
00:08:11.25\00:08:14.62
God's people are
going to suffer again.
00:08:14.66\00:08:16.99
I think that many people
are going to lose their lives.
00:08:17.03\00:08:19.46
Some people think, "Well
you know, we're just going to
00:08:19.56\00:08:21.13
kind of march through this."
00:08:21.16\00:08:22.50
No, a lot of people are
going to lose their lives
00:08:22.53\00:08:25.10
as they face these
terrible, terrible things
00:08:25.13\00:08:28.57
in the end of time.
00:08:28.60\00:08:30.37
So Christians today
are still suffering.
00:08:31.41\00:08:34.18
Sometimes they suffer in
countries that are communist,
00:08:34.41\00:08:38.78
like maybe North
Korea for instance.
00:08:38.81\00:08:41.68
Maybe in Muslim countries.
00:08:41.78\00:08:43.49
Many closed countries
that will not allow the gospel,
00:08:43.52\00:08:46.25
and you can get yourself
in real trouble really quick
00:08:46.45\00:08:49.32
if you try to
share the Word of God.
00:08:49.36\00:08:51.36
But you know, they're not
going to be able to stop it.
00:08:51.46\00:08:53.09
God's Word is
going to go forward.
00:08:53.13\00:08:55.03
You're not going to be
able to stop the word of God.
00:08:55.06\00:08:57.77
How many people have
succumbed their faith
00:08:57.87\00:09:00.37
to the icy fingers of delay?
00:09:00.40\00:09:02.87
They hoped Jesus
had come in their day,
00:09:02.90\00:09:04.34
and yet He hasn't come.
00:09:04.37\00:09:06.84
Many people,
generations, have gone to sleep
00:09:06.88\00:09:08.64
hoping that Jesus would come.
00:09:08.68\00:09:10.28
The icy fingers of delay.
00:09:11.01\00:09:12.81
But can Jesus bring
His Church through delay?
00:09:13.05\00:09:15.82
And the answer to that is, yes.
00:09:16.22\00:09:18.35
Amen and hallelujah.
00:09:18.39\00:09:21.22
Then we come to the sixth seal.
00:09:21.82\00:09:23.59
And it gets very
fascinating here.
00:09:23.63\00:09:25.59
The sixth seal is
found in Revelation 6:12-17.
00:09:25.63\00:09:29.20
And then it says, "Behold,
there was a great earthquake;
00:09:29.86\00:09:32.03
and the sun became
black as sackcloth of hair...
00:09:32.07\00:09:34.80
And the stars of
heaven fell to the earth,
00:09:35.24\00:09:37.84
as a fig tree drops late figs
when shaken by a mighty wind.
00:09:37.87\00:09:41.51
Then the sky receded as a
scroll when it is rolled up,
00:09:42.01\00:09:44.41
and every mountain and island
was moved out of its place.
00:09:44.45\00:09:47.62
And the kings of the earth,
the great men, the rich men,
00:09:47.65\00:09:51.32
the commanders, the mighty men,
every slave and every free man,
00:09:51.35\00:09:55.49
hid themselves in the caves and
in the rocks of the mountains,
00:09:55.52\00:10:00.00
and said to the
rocks and the mountains,
00:10:00.03\00:10:02.46
'Fall on us and hide us
from the face of Him who sits
00:10:02.50\00:10:07.24
on the throne and from
the wrath of the Lamb!'"
00:10:07.27\00:10:10.57
And this heart rendering
cry comes up from the earth,
00:10:11.11\00:10:14.81
"Who will be able to stand?"
00:10:14.84\00:10:18.68
This is a picture
of the stars of heaven.
00:10:18.88\00:10:21.52
And I could talk
about how we have seen
00:10:21.72\00:10:24.19
some of those signs already.
00:10:24.22\00:10:26.19
But they're also symbolic.
00:10:26.29\00:10:28.19
Symbolic of the powers
of heaven being shaken.
00:10:28.29\00:10:32.36
The earth is
headed toward chaos.
00:10:32.39\00:10:35.66
A terrible time of
trouble that no political powers
00:10:35.93\00:10:40.14
will be able to control.
00:10:40.17\00:10:42.00
Chaos!
00:10:42.14\00:10:43.47
And then all of this
ends with the coming of Jesus
00:10:43.51\00:10:46.64
in great glory.
00:10:46.68\00:10:48.08
But people are not ready.
00:10:48.11\00:10:49.98
They're not ready
for Jesus to come.
00:10:50.01\00:10:52.51
He comes in
judgment, as it were.
00:10:52.81\00:10:55.28
And they look and they say,
"Who will be able to stand?"
00:10:55.48\00:10:59.65
We don't have time
to answer that question,
00:10:59.95\00:11:01.69
but we're going to answer that
question in our next session.
00:11:01.72\00:11:04.29
"Who will be able to stand?"
00:11:04.49\00:11:07.73
And then we come to the last
one found in chapter 8 verse 1.
00:11:08.50\00:11:13.50
And it says that,
"There was silence in heaven
00:11:14.24\00:11:17.84
about the space of a half hour."
00:11:18.11\00:11:21.14
What does that mean?
00:11:21.34\00:11:23.78
We have to
understand that through time
00:11:24.08\00:11:26.48
Jesus has been
breaking these seals.
00:11:26.51\00:11:28.82
Satan has been forced
to surrender each time.
00:11:29.02\00:11:33.09
He couldn't prevent,
he couldn't use Antichrist
00:11:33.39\00:11:36.26
to break the
church, and destroy it,
00:11:36.46\00:11:38.53
and make it unready for Jesus.
00:11:38.56\00:11:40.23
He couldn't use the
icy fingers of delay.
00:11:40.73\00:11:43.60
And even the coming of Jesus
with great chaos in the earth,
00:11:44.33\00:11:47.90
there's still a people
ready for Jesus to come.
00:11:47.94\00:11:51.64
So Satan has got his
back up against the wall.
00:11:52.07\00:11:55.28
Where is he
going to go from here?
00:11:55.48\00:11:57.28
He's only got one thing left.
00:11:57.31\00:12:00.68
And that word,
"silence," tells us what it is.
00:12:01.08\00:12:04.69
You see, there's
silence in heaven
00:12:05.25\00:12:08.02
because there's
a shout on earth.
00:12:08.06\00:12:11.39
The graveyards are
Satan's prison house.
00:12:12.19\00:12:16.63
And so he's saying,
"You can't have these.
00:12:16.67\00:12:18.47
You can't have these."
00:12:18.50\00:12:19.83
But when Jesus comes
in the clouds of heaven,
00:12:19.87\00:12:22.97
He comes with a
voice of the archangel.
00:12:23.00\00:12:25.84
He comes with the trump of God.
00:12:25.87\00:12:28.34
And when He blows that trumpet,
when the archangel sounds,
00:12:28.54\00:12:34.05
the dead in Christ
wake up and they come forth
00:12:34.08\00:12:38.79
from the grave, and the
prison house of Satan is broken.
00:12:38.82\00:12:42.46
The last seal is broken.
00:12:42.49\00:12:47.13
And Jesus has His Church
ready, and He delivers them.
00:12:47.76\00:12:53.10
And He gives them the
deed to the new earth,
00:12:53.20\00:12:56.60
to everlasting life.
00:12:56.64\00:12:58.37
What a marvelous Savior!
00:12:58.84\00:13:00.58
What an incomparable
Jesus who is invincible!
00:13:00.61\00:13:05.35
My dear friends, listen.
00:13:05.38\00:13:07.02
If Jesus can break
these seals down through time,
00:13:07.05\00:13:11.09
He can take care of your life.
00:13:11.19\00:13:13.49
He can fix whatever
needs to be fixed in your life
00:13:13.52\00:13:16.52
and in your heart.
00:13:16.56\00:13:17.99
Listen, Jesus,
He's the invincible one.
00:13:18.19\00:13:20.80
He can fix the unfixable.
00:13:21.00\00:13:22.96
And He can
break the unbreakable,
00:13:23.20\00:13:26.47
the seals that keep us,
and deliver to us the deed.
00:13:26.74\00:13:31.94