In his sermon 'The Four Horsemen,' Scott Brown examines Revelation 6, interpreting the symbolic vision of the four horsemen as representations of various cycles of judgment throughout history. The white horse symbolizes conquest, the red horse represents war and death, the black horse indicates famine and economic imbalance, and the pale horse signifies death and Hades. Brown asserts that these events are not just historical or future occurrences but are visible in present-day global crises such as wars, pandemics, and economic turmoil. He emphasizes that these judgments are orchestrated by God, who is sovereign over all events, using them to fulfill divine purposes and reveal the sinfulness of sin. The sermon highlights key doctrines, including the sovereignty of God and the enduring presence of Christ with His church, offering believers comfort and assurance. Brown encourages listeners to view these events as part of God's redemptive plan, underscoring the security of believers in God's hands and the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ. The sermon calls for repentance and faith in Christ, urging a theological understanding of history and disaster.

Please find verse one in Revelation chapter six and we'll begin reading to verse 8. This is the inerrant, sufficient, sweeter than honey in the honeycomb Word of God. Amen. Verse 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 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. And 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, and 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.

Let's pray. Father, we're so grateful to have your Word of truth before us in the midst of a world of tumult. We're so thankful that you're the one who teaches us history. You're the one who shows us the way things work, the way things are, the way things will be. Lord, we are so thankful to be your children.

Pray that you would open up our eyes to see wondrous things from your law. Amen. Please be seated. What we have just read is more accurate than the news. It's more truthful than your own interpretation of what's going on in the world.

And it's more reliable than what the pundits might say about what's happening in history. And it's even more careful in the history books. So what we have before us here is a marvelous testimony. Why? Well, because When you're watching the news, you're watching the fulfillment of the opening of these seals.

When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, and you hear of national and international conflicts, when you hear about diseases and plagues and murders and famines and earthquakes and tsunamis and volcanic eruptions, you're actually reading the fulfillment of the words that we just read here in Revelation chapter 6. When you read that 400 of the world's largest corporations are endorsing the Equality Act, which absolutely strips the Church of Jesus Christ of its authority and of its freedom, that you're just watching the fulfillment of these verses. And when you see inflation, you're seeing the fulfillment of these verses. And when you see plagues, you're watching the unfolding of Revelation chapter 6. And when you see inexplicable, illogical things going on in the world, you're seeing the unfolding of these things.

I read this week that the CDC has said that A full 54 people have died from ages 1 through 17 in the United States of America since March of 2020 and yet the entire school system is shut down When you see inexplicable things things you just you they just make your head spin you're you're You're actually watching the fulfillment of these things. And these, what you see is the Lord Jesus Christ opening the seven seals. He's sounding the seven trumpets, he's pouring out the seven bowls of wrath and revelation. And what you're seeing is a realistic picture of what's going on in the world. Lloyd-Jones says it like this, it's a book that speaks to our present condition.

I agree with that. And this testimony tells us that your future is secure. Have you wondered if your future is secure? You know I know many mothers, you know this being Mother's Day, are thinking is it is the future going to be secure for my children? Yes, in God's hands.

Your children will be secure. And the Bible tells me so. Revelation 6 tells me so. So in Revelation 6, we find the beginning of the cycles of judgment in Revelation. The first cycle is in seals.

In the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet is launched. At the end of the seven trumpets, the seven bowls are launched. And this is a picture of the repetitive cycles of history. They all end in the second coming. They're not linear in historical frame.

I don't believe they're the last seven years of world history though I'm sure these things are all included in the last seven years of world history. Well, here's the question. Do you think Satan is the mastermind of it all? Or if you could have it your way, Would you rather that Satan would be the one controlling the events on the earth? Or would you rather have it be God?

Well, these verses actually answer this question. What we find are these four horsemen that are galloping across history and the idea is that these horsemen are riding in different parts of the world at different times for different purposes And in this passage there are very very critical doctrines. And it's very important that we as we look at the Word of God we understand what what the doctrines are that are being communicated. Those are the things that we rest our hope on. And you have the doctrine of the church here in this passage.

If you want to understand the experience of the church, you have particular matters of the doctrine of the church here in this text. And Revelation is written in order to comfort an embattled church in the world. Christ is walking among the lampstands of the church. No matter what's happening in the world, the Church of Jesus Christ has Christ himself walking among the lampstands. He will never leave you or forsake you.

This is the doctrine of the power and the authority and the safety and the happiness of the church. It's right here in these words. These events are all being governed from heaven, not hell. And the ultimate aim of all of them every single one of them every single thing that happens is to prepare for the triumph of Jesus Christ it looks like he's not winning He is winning and these events are described here for all of us for our comfort. Everything in Revelation is written to explain the authority and the majesty of Jesus Christ and that's why the church should rest in comfort.

I pray that you're in comfort today, knowing that Jesus Christ is the ruler of the kings of the earth. You know, at our prayer meeting this last week, we sang these words, I loved seeing these words, and I just couldn't wait to get up and preach the sermon why when I Sang them from life's first cry to final breath Jesus commands my destiny No power of hell no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns and calls me home here in the power of Christ I'll stand. So this presents the doctrine of the church and we can sing a song like that with all of our hearts because Jesus Christ is walking among the lampstands of his church and he's singing with his churches, the Bible teaches that, he's teaching his church, he's protecting his church, he's correcting his church, chastising and he's governing everything that is happening around his churches that's why Charles Spurgeon said those unforgettable words I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages how about that I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages.'" How about that?

"'I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages.'" You can't lose, church. There's also the doctrine of God. You can expect that here. God is sovereign over all historical events and our Our text this morning defines the elements of God's sovereignty over every event that happens on the earth. Well, you know that verse.

You love this verse, Romans 8 28. For we know that all things work together for good, for the called according to its purpose. Now, those first two words, we know. The church knows. We know that God is causing all things to work together for good.

We know that and that's so invigorating, that's so helpful. We know what the rest of the world doesn't know and what we know makes us feel a certain way that other people in the world can't feel because we know that God is in control and what seems so hard and so disturbing it always throws us upon the rock of ages always and now it might take some time for us we are so we are such poor sheep but you might not be able to explain the moment You might not explain exactly what's happening to you, but you can know that God is causing it all to work together for good. We know. We know He's causing it. We might not understand where it's all going.

We usually don't understand where it's all going. Guess what? We don't need to know. We're not God. Except we have been told where it is all going.

All things will be summed up in Jesus Christ. And all that stuff that you see and are surrounding the throne, you'll be there. So that's why Spurgeon said, I have learned, I have learned to kiss the rock That throws me against the rock of ages Praise the Lord for that now. We've seen many markers already of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ over everything and but we we encounter in verse 1 now we're entering into the text here the lamb who opens the seals we've talked about the lamb he's the little lamb but he's not that little he presents himself as little The world thinks he's little but he's not little. And he is that little lamb, the dominion of form of lamb that we studied recently.

Now this is a symbolic vision. That's why the very first words in verse one are, now I saw. These are things that he sees and these words describe pictures. They are representations and what does he see? Well he sees Christ's victory and beauty.

He sees Satan's downfall. He's seeing pictures of heaven. That's what he sees. These are visual representations and that's why in the very first three verses of Revelation we learn that these are symbols, these are symbolic representations of realities. Someone described it like looking at a tapestry and your eye catches a central thing and then it moves over to another thing and then it moves over to another thing, and then it moves over to another thing.

These are pictures of realities that are presented there. And it's very much like the Psalms where you have parallelism. You know, the Bible said, you know, in the Psalms, you know, that God covers you with his feathers. Does God have feathers? No, God does not have feathers.

But the feathers of a mother hen, protecting the chicks is the picture that you should come away with that. That you dwell under the shadow of his wings. But he, God doesn't have wings, but he's like that. Remember the symbols here don't tell you what he looks like, but what he is like. And so he sees this scene from the throne of God and notice what's next in the sentence.

When the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice of thunder so there is a lamb and the four living creatures. Wow we haven't even stepped outside of chapter 5 we're still kind of in the scene of chapter 5 This is a picture of the throne of God. We're still at the throne of God. And this language we've already encountered with the lamb and the throne, he's the lamb who was slain. And they're the four living creatures, the same four living creatures that we saw in the previous chapters.

And these guys don't go away. We're going to encounter them later on in Revelation. And this is a picture of the throne. There's disturbance in the world that God has not disturbed. There's a sea of glass completely unruffled because God is ruling from heaven.

And there is praises coming from all the beings of heaven. And it is this lamb, This lamb who is controlling the events of world history. You know, it's very interesting how men think of themselves. You know, we might think, he's a mover and a shaker. Well, guess what?

I heard somebody once say that men may think they're movers and shakers. They're the moved. Men are the shaken, not the shakers. So here is the lamb. Now, in the hand of the lamb is this scene.

He's opening one of the seals. He's taken the seals and now with his hands he's opening The seals. I want you to meditate on the hand of God. My times are in your hands. The Lord's hand is not shortened.

I have written their names on the palm of my hands. God's hands are just, again these are representations, but God holds his people in his hands. But he holds history in his hands. You know the song. He's got the whole world in his hands.

That's a great song. Now one of the most critical matters of the interpretation of this text is found in three different verses. Are you with me? Are you looking at your Bibles? Verse two.

And a crown was given to him. Verse four. And it was granted. Verse eight. And power was given.

In other words, Everything that is happening in the in the world By wicked men is something that was given by God. God is controlling the rulers of the kings of the earth and his hand is opening the seals and his hand is striking the earth even though on the surface it looks like God is losing God is not losing at all. You know, there's a book written a while back called Idols of Destruction by Herb Schlosschenberg, and he says some really great things in this book. I'll quote one of them. "'The kingdom of God moves from triumph to triumph.

All of them are disguised as disasters just like the crucifixion. He goes on, we are not the Lords of history and do not control its outcome but we have assurance that there is a Lord of history and he controls the outcome. We need a theological interpretation of disaster. Do you have that? Do you have a theological interpretation of disaster or are you just kind of working it out in your own head?

One that recognizes that God acts in such events as captivities, defeats, and crucifixions. The Bible can be interpreted as a string of God's triumphs disguised as disasters. Those events seemed to say not only that people and nations have failed, but that God has failed. Only the prophetic word that both explained historical events and provided assurances that God is the Lord of history could dispel the terror borne by such appearance. But we know, We know, we know something that the world doesn't know.

We know that all things work together for good, for those who love him. Not the wicked, it doesn't go well for the wicked, by the way. This is not a Promise for everyone. This is only a promise for those who have repented of their sins Confessed to Jesus Christ only to those who are have been born again only to those Who follow Jesus Christ and obey him? This is a promise only for the elect It's not for the wicked God is going to destroy the wicked.

He's going to roll them up and set them in his place of torment. But we know. We know that God works all things together for good. The world leaders have no explanation of what's happening. They just want to try to manipulate them.

And they think that the things that are happening, you know, toward them are bad. But we know. We know what is happening. We know that the devil is on a short leash. We know his days are numbered.

We know that it won't be long before God completely disarms him. They don't know of final judgment. They don't know of the lake of fire. We know all those things. God is in control of every minute and every event in this earth.

And he's controlling everything. So, and we'll see these elements in this text. So what is John seeing here? He is seeing pictures of the manifestations of the judgment of God. This is God striking the wicked.

All the seals are judgments of God and God is using the wicked to punish the wicked. It's wicked people who kill other wicked people. That's why God is punishing the wicked and God is constantly Through the trials and tribulations of the earth trying to wake people up to say don't you see how evil the devil is? Don't you see that you should turn to Jesus Christ and follow him? Don't you see how harmful it is not to believe and confess and repent and turn to Jesus Christ?

Don't you see how harmful it is not to believe and confess and repent and turn to Jesus Christ? Don't you see how harmful it is? The judgments of the earth are all designed to turn men's heads to God, to the living water, to the true bread, to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And when you see things, if you're not a believer and you see these things happening around, just know God is putting these things before you to terrify you of how bad the devil is. He is a stinkin' lousy rotten snake.

And he's trying to turn you away from him and you'll see the wicked people of this world doing wicked things. He's just showing you the snake. It's all he's doing. So the wickedness is being exposed for all to see when you when you read the news and you say that is horrific You should say Satan is a stinking lousy snake Turn to Jesus Christ drink of the drink of his living water So by the way, I was reading Thomas Goodwin in English Puritan on this. Here's his interpretation.

Heathenism is ruined. No adorers of their gods will be left. That's a great way to explain Revelation. God is destroying the wickedness of the world. And he's punishing all those who will not follow him because he is a consuming fire.

When we get later on in Revelation you'll see he you know God God is unleashing demons and fallen angels to torment the earth. Well they're here now and they're tormenting the earth right now all over the world. We have peace and quiet right here in this church, but it's not like that everywhere. Go to Myanmar, go to China. You can go to 50 places in the world, and it's so dangerous.

This is a scene from the Olivet Discourse. The Olivet Discourse appears in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. Here it is in Matthew 24. Jesus said, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many and You will hear of wars and rumors of wars see that you are not troubled for all these things must come to past But the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famines pestilences and earthquakes in various places in All these are the beginning of sorrows Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Because lawlessness will abound, the love of God, the love of many will grow cold but he who endures to the end shall be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations and then the end shall come now when one theologian made the observation that John doesn't have an Olivet Discourse. And he suggested that the book of Revelation is John's Olivet Discourse. It's in 22 chapters. So then we move to the rest of the verses in chapter 6 and we notice the language of the text comes right out of Daniel, it comes right out of Ezekiel, right out of Zechariah, right out of the Psalms.

This is the interpretive factor that we need to always keep in mind, that these things have been prophesied before. And these trials and tribulations, I believe they are contemporaneous, they happen in cycles throughout world history. It's what they happened during what the Bible calls the last days. The Bible explicitly says that the last days are the days after the resurrection, before the coming of Jesus Christ. The last days are not the last seven years of history in the Bible.

In 2 Timothy 3 verses 1 through 5 we see this very clearly where he says to Timothy, Paul does, but know this that in the last days perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and they're in the church having a form of godliness but denying its power from such people turn away. Second Peter chapter 3 verses 3 and 4 says, knowing this that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, saying, where's the promise of his coming? So what we find here is this picture of judgment. And again, when you watch the news, you're watching a fulfillment of these seals. Now, all of the four horsemen, we have four horsemen before us, and they ride to demonstrate the sinfulness of sin by afflicting the world.

There is not a single natural disaster, there's not a single war that God has not ordained and it's described right here. Now it's very very important as I spoke just a few minutes ago that we understand history. Historiography is the word that describes this. Historiography is the study of the interpretation of history. So, Historiography is the study of how to understand history and how to interpret history and Christians are constantly being instructed in historiography and The book of Revelation is is another one of those brilliant Examples and here's biblical historiography God is smiting the earth and he uses civil wars, he uses insurrections, he uses famine, and He uses all kinds of things.

But we know. We know. We have, by the word of God, an accurate historiography. We know how to interpret what's going on in the world. We don't know all the details, but we know how to interpret it.

So then we turn to the four horsemen. The first is a white horse. The theme of this first horse is conquest. Conquest. You have an outline in front of you.

You have a very simple outline. It just speaks of these four horsemen. But verse 2 is where we read of this horseman. 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.

That's the heart of the matter. He goes out conquering and to conquer. Joel Beeke says that they are all saddled and saddled up and bridled up by the Lamb of God. And he said, I think it was him, he said as a day is as a thousand years this ride across history is only a couple days ride. Well, so each horseman is under God's control, that's absolutely clear from the text.

There are four, four in the word of God and in Revelation is the number of the earth and so they ride about the earth and you know who is it? Who is the horseman? Well there are three possibilities and The first possibility is that he is Jesus Christ. Many theologians hold this position. They connect it with Revelation chapter 19, where the rider on the white horse is one who is faithful and true, and he's the king of kings and lord of lords.

He is also conquering. This word is used of Jesus Christ in conquering. But the word conquer is also used of the beast twice. You can't just hang everything on that. Psalm 45 is another illustration of why many think that this is Jesus Christ.

You can read Psalm 45 verses three and six and you'll see this. And this interpretation posits that this is the spread of the gospel throughout the earth, that Jesus Christ is conquering sinners and he's bringing them to himself. And then the second interpretation is not that he's Christ, but he is the Antichrist or a counterfeit Christ. And the reasons are, for example, he has a bow, but no arrows. That the word for crown is a different word for crown of Jesus Christ.

It's kind of a temporary crown that you get by winning a sports event. And then there are many counterfeits in the book of Revelation. You have a counterfeit trinity in the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. You have in chapters 12 and 13 the beast is also called an angel of light. In chapter 19, Babylon is a bride, but she's also a harlot.

And the beast actually looks like a lamb in chapter 13 as well. So you have this language that's difficult to understand. The third interpretation is that he is a representative conquering kings throughout history. In fact, one author calls these writers a squadron. They're going out throughout all the earth and they're going about greedily conquering.

They're taking territory. They might be governors or business leaders. So, which is it? Is it Christ? Is it the Antichrist?

An imposter? Or is it representative conquering kings? Now my opinion on this has changed a number of times. It'd be like over the last probably four months, if you talk to me, I might have a different opinion on any given month. So I wouldn't push really, really hard on anybody on this.

If he is Christ, he is definitely conquering hearts by the power of the gospel. If it's world leaders dominating, then you can agree with John MacArthur. He says this is a picture of ungodly leaders and they're bringing some level of peace to the world and then and they're in there conquering in that way. So it seems to me that because the four horsemen they ride together and they they do the similar things. I'm not confident.

It's Christ But it could be Christ So if you think it's Christ just praise God for the the way he conquered your heart and he's doing it all over the world. And if he's the Antichrist then just praise God that you can see him. And if he's a ruler that is making peace throughout the earth through his conquering and you know bringing nations together and things like that then you can just open your eyes and realize this is what God is doing in the world. Now the language the language comes out of Zechariah. Zechariah chapter 1 verses 8 through 10.

I saw by night and behold a man riding on a red horse and it stood among the myrtle trees and the hollow and behind him were horses red and sorrel and white then I said my Lord what are these So the angel who talked with me said to me, I'll show you what they are. Now this is the key part right here. And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk to and throw throughout the earth. That's what they are. They're walking to and throw throughout the earth, through the four corners of the earth.

Zechariah chapter 6, verses 1 through 5. Then I turned and my eyes looked and behold, four chariots were coming from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze, and with the first chariot were red horses, with the second chariot black horses, the third chariot white horses, and with the fourth chariot dappled horses, strong steeds. Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, what are these my Lord? And the angel answered and said to me, these are the four spirits of heaven who go out from their station before the Lord of all the earth.

And then he says, and they walked to and fro throughout the earth. And then he said to them, go walk to and fro throughout the earth. So they walked to and fro throughout the earth. Whatever this is, these are all horsemen that are going throughout the whole earth. What is solid?

Jesus Christ is unleashing these judgments. And so whether it's Christ or the rulers of the earth, it's God, it's Jesus Christ himself who is deploying. You decide who it is. Then you come to the red horse, verses three and four. These are killers.

The first were conquerors. The second horse depicts killers in verse 3 and 4. 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.

This is the turmoil in the world of hatred and war and killing And the impact of the horseman is that he will take peace from the earth. And I believe this is at least five things. First, what Jesus spoke about, wars and rumors of wars. Second, Civil War. Third, foreign invasion.

Fourth, World Wars. Fifth, murderous individuals, depicted by, quote, people who kill one another. This is, I think, a manifestation of most men's love will grow cold. And it could include the violence that rages in streets with riots. It could mean a number of things.

And his color is red. That's the color of the dragon in Revelation. And they take peace from the earth. I think, I mean you can look back in history. You know, Take Nero and Genghis Khan and Sennacherib and Alexander the Great and the Roman emperors and the Islamic armies.

And in the Russian Revolution, where they killed 40 million people, the American Civil War killed 640, 000 people. In World War I, 41 million people died. In World War II, 60 million people died. There have been massive, massive killing fields in the world. In Rwanda, just in 1994, Over three quarters of a million were slaughtered in a hundred days and then by 2003, five million died as a result of that conflict.

You know, but here's the reality. In the past century, the Marxist revolutionaries have been the greatest killers. Stalin, 30 to 45 million. Chairman Mao in China, he goes down as the biggest winner killer in the world during the Cultural Revolution. This happened mostly when I was in my teens, in the 60s and the 70s.

And millions and millions were killed in China and they're being killed today. That government is still doing what it always did. People will kill one another and so you know the church is residing in nations where these things will happen. The church will watch it and the church will be caught up in it from time to time. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 verse 12 speaks of this.

Listen to this language. For man does not know his time like a fish taken in a cruel net, like birds caught in a snare. So the sons of men are snared in an evil time when it falls suddenly upon them. It does happen that believers are snared in evil times, like Solomon speaks of here. Well, Jesus already promised this in Matthew 10, verses 34 and 35, where he said, "'Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth.

"'I came not to bring peace, but a sword.'" and he's talking about the conflict of the gospel there the Bible makes it very clear that where the gospel is preached there will be persecution all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution This is just a reality of the world. And in Luke chapter 21 and in Luke's all of it discourse he says that you'll be arrested. He says but it will turn out for you to be an occasion for testimony. In other words, don't kill the one who's trying to arrest you. By the way, if any of you are arrested for some godly thing, don't fight back.

It's a time for testimony. That's what Luke says in chapter Luke 21 13. Therefore, settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand what you will answer for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to contradict and resist. In other words, don't kill the one who's arresting you. Witness to him.

You have words to say. God will give them to you. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends and they will put some of you to death and you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but not a hair of your head shall be lost by your patience possess your souls." You won't need to defend yourself in that kind of situation. You may need to defend your family if someone wants to kill your family. But that's not what Jesus is talking about here.

So there will be outbreaks in the world from time to time. Just yesterday a pastor was arrested in Canada and taken to jail. They dragged him off. Then you come to the black horse, verses five and six, inflation and poverty. We have seen Various manifestations of God striking the world you remember Isaiah says The Lord says to the people he says why should I strike you again?

You'll rebel more and more. But God is striking the earth. God is trying to show you how evil the devil is. He's trying to show you what the dragon is really like so you'll turn away from him. But here you have inflation and poverty.

And don't be deceived by what this is supposed to tell us. It's not to tell you to panic. It's to tell you how evil the world is under the domination of the devil. 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 denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine. Notice their balances. The balances are in his hand. And he's showing that there are measurements that explain a time of poverty. The economic balances are all off.

The numbers are not working. The budget isn't working. And it's an example of inflation cycles in economies. You can read about different inflation cycles in the Bible. They happen all throughout biblical history.

Dennis Johnson says that what you find here represents about an 800% inflation rate in grain prices. The prices of wheat and barley are now eight times more than they were. Now we've seen inflationary items right here in the last couple of months. But the idea here is that a quart of wheat, you have to work all day long just to get enough for your daily food. Your whole day's wages is only enough for a quart of wheat.

But then it gets worse. There's a worse kind of food, barley, and prosperity evaporates. Sustenance is very difficult. Now, he's not saying that there's no food, but he's saying that the food is very, very hard to come by and the worker can barely make enough for food, even though he's working all day long. And there are examples of this in scripture.

I won't go over them, but they're remarkable examples. Inflation, when you experience it, You just have to understand this is a normal thing that happens in the world. Cost of living is a real problem. I mean, if you've ever borrowed money for a home, you know that the lender is going to calculate what percentage of your income is that mortgage. But what happens if all your other expenses double?

You won't be able to make it. That's what inflation does to you. So it's very, very difficult and you have shortages. But this has happened before. In 1923 during the Weimar Republic after World War I, in Germany prices doubled every 3.7 days.

And you have these pictures of people loading German marks into wheelbarrows and they could only buy a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of money. Inflation makes money useless. In Yugoslavia in 1992 one of the most terrifying examples of inflation was that the monthly inflation rate, the monthly inflation rate was 313 percent, I'm sorry, 313 million percent. Okay? How do you survive?

In Venezuela in 2019, it was 200, 000%. In Zimbabwe just recently, prices doubled nearly every 24 hours, finally reaching 79 billion percent inflation. How do you, you can't even comprehend that. What does that mean? It means that's very, very hard to make your way even for food.

Now the most extreme level of this is recorded in Revelation 13, where no one can buy and sell unless they have the mark of the beast. So there are various kinds of controls. But then you come to this phrase, it's kind of cryptic, but do not harm the oil and the wine. Well, okay, what does it mean? Well, it at least means that it's bad, it's really bad, but it's not as bad as it could be.

There's something that's not harmed. Now, Some think that it means that the rich will just be okay. The economic imbalances are such that the rich don't really suffer. Okay, I lost $2 billion. It's not that much.

It's that kind of thing. This happens. This has been happening. Or the oil and the wine could be representative of luxury items. It could mean that they're just, luxury items will only be available to some.

And thirdly, it could indicate God's care for his people. The oil and wine are representative of the work of the Holy Spirit. He could be referring to spiritual sustenance. Do not harm the oil and the wine. Don't harm the thing that brings happiness to the people of God.

The presence of God. The comfort of the Holy Spirit. Don't harm the oil and the wine. Well, by the way, that will never be harmed for the people of God. God, he's already said, I will never leave you or forsake you.

So that kind of oil and wine will never be harmed. But expect poverty, expect inflation, expect to lose your job, expect to lose your house, Expect to lose the value of your investments. Joe Beeke said it like this, don't expect riches or luxuries but poverty. But who's in control of the market? Who's the one that's saddled up this horse?

Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And then you come to the pale horse. The ministry of this horse is death. That's verses seven and eight. When he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come and see and I looked and behold a pale horse and the name of him who sat on it was death and Hades followed with him.

By the way do you remember who has the key to death in Hades? Chapter one. 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. So the fourth horse is a pale horse. The word for pale is chloros where we get our word chlorophyll and the idea here is that he's a pale ghostly deathly color.

You've seen that color from time to time but pale in this context really refers to a rotting molding death look. And it's reflected in this sickly greenish, pale color of death. And his name is death. And hell followed him. And remember, who has the keys to those two things?

There are three forms of death. There's the sword, I'm just going to call that murder. And with murder comes famine. Then you have hunger. And then you have beasts, animals that kill people.

It could be figurative, it could, animals, animals in prophetic literature are often figurative of people, read Isaiah. Most of the animals in Isaiah are actually people. He's telling you what is happening to the ostriches, and the lions, and the cobras, and things like that. That he's talking about people. Now he may be referring to literal animals, but there are examples of literal animals being deployed by God to kill people.

I'll just give you an example out of Isaiah 45. God is speaking to King Cyrus. He's a pagan king and he says to him, I am the Lord, there is no other. I make peace and create calamity. I kill and I heal.

It's remunition of Ezekiel 5, 17. I will send against you famine and wild beasts and they will bereave you pestilence and blood shall pass through you and I will bring the sword against you I the Lord have spoken this is the these are these are the wicked in the among the people of God the fakers who go to the temple, but they also hang around with the temple of Baal. They do both. They think they can do both. It's reminiscent of Ezekiel chapter 14 where God is saying he's going to bring wild beasts and pestilence and he's saying even if Noah and Daniel and Lot were there they could not protect the people from these beasts and this famine.

He says I will send more severe, I will send my four severe judgments, four, on Jerusalem. The sword, the famine, wild beasts, and pestilence to cut off man and beast from it. There's an example of this in 2 Kings 17 where God is punishing Israel for their idolatry. They think they can have it both ways. They think they can go to the temple and make their sacrifices and sing and use God's words, but in their hearts they really are serving bail and and he says they're causing their sons and daughters to pass through the fire they're practicing witchcraft and soosang and they've sold themselves to do evil and And so the account goes like this, the Lord sent lions among them which killed some of them.

He sent lions among them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land. He sends lions in to kill them. So we do know that God controls all the animals. We know that he controlled the fish to swallow Jonah. We know that he gave the poll tax out of the mouth of a fish.

We know that God controls the animals for sure. Then he says here that this happened over one-fourth of the earth. Now that means that the death is partial, it's not complete. We will see these manifestations of limited judgment of in severity in different geographic locations. Most of the time, these things will take place in a small portion of the earth.

You know, in 165 AD, the pestilence in the Roman Empire was so bad, it lasted 15 years, historians say that a quarter to half of the Roman Empire died. In 1696, one third of the population of Finland died. 40% of the population of Europe died in the Black Plague in the 1600s, maybe 100 million people, something like that. But these four seals, they just illustrate the horrors of the world. They are meant to set the expectations of the church until Christ comes.

They are meant to show the wicked how evil the devil is. They are meant to make people repent. Much like the plagues of Egypt. They were meant to show Pharaoh how unprofitable his gods were. Oh, you like the frogs?

We'll put them in your underwear. Oh, you like this, you like that, we'll give it to you. This is what God is doing. He's throwing the plagues of Egypt upon the world. And that's what you're seeing here.

But we know, we know that God causes all things to work together for good, for the called, for the called, for those who have been born again, only. Who've been born again, only. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is assuring his church that he is the one who's opening the seals, he's the one who's saddling up the horses. And by the way, they don't tell us that God is intervening in history. They're telling us that God is inventing history.

And that's why Spurgeon could say, I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages. And I pray that that's what all these things will do for us as we see them rolling out in the world as the horsemen gallop from one end of the earth to another. They're still galloping all over the world. And God has his people as the apple of his eye, and he loves them. And, but such an important question is this, when you see the works of the devil, do you want more of them or do you hate them?

Have you repented of your sins? Have you confessed your sins before a holy God? Have you been born again? Has your heart been changed? Are you following the Lord Jesus Christ as a manifestation of your conversion?

Do you desire the Word of God? Do you desire to be with the people of God? If not, take this message as one more opportunity that God has given you to confess your sins and cry out to God for mercy. The Bible says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He said you must be born again and you must be born again if you would escape these horrors.

What a blessing it is to have a God who would teach you to learn how to kiss the wave that throws you on the rock of ages. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, how it teaches us how to understand history. It teaches us the doctrine of the church.

It teaches us the doctrine of your holy name, your great and mighty sovereignty. You show us that you are God. There is one God and there is no other. There is one Savior and there is one truthful testimony and there's only one way to be saved. Thank you Lord for showing us all these things.

Amen.