Revelation 6: The wrath of the lamb

Revelation 6:1-8

Revelation 6:9-17

“The wrath of the Lamb”

Nothing like a bit of Westminster confession of faith to kick us off today!

What is that you say?

A confession that was written in England in 1647 by a bunch of theologians.

A confession which still today, elders of this church sign up to.

The Westminster Confession of faith chapter 3, part 1, says this:

God from all eternity did by the most and holy counsel of his own will, freely and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so as thereby neither is God the author of sin; nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.

Now, what on earth does all that mean?

We would be here a long time, if we exhausted all of that, but a part of that confession means this:

God is not the author of evil but He does permit it.

God is not the author of evil but he does permit it.

The biblical evidence for this truth is overwhelming!

The story of Job highlights this truth perfectly.

If you recall, Job was a righteous man, he loved his family, he made sacrifices for his kids, he feared God, he turned from evil.

God loved Job and knew Job was a good and upright man, so much so, that he asked Satan to consider him…..God said to satan as he entered his courts…..   “Have you considered my servant Job?”

That is remarkable in itself- it is almost like God was bragging to Satan about his servant Job. “Have you seen this guy? He is awesome, he truly loves me”

And as Satan considered Job, Satan thought, what perhaps many other human beings would have thought……. that Job was only faithful to God, because God had blessed him materially and protected him from harm.

Job owned lots of land, lots of animals, lots of servant, he had a big family, and so Satan asked God to remove the hedge of protection that he had put around him, and then see if Job was still faithful to God.

Satan thought that when hardships came, Job would turn from God and curse him.

And so God then did something remarkable, God said this to Satan, which you find in

Job 1:12

“Behold, all that he has in your hand. Only against him, do not stretch out our your hand”

Did you hear that?

God gave everything that Job had into Satan’s hand, apart from the death of Job Himself.

God is not the author of evil, and yet God gave permission for evil to occur and yet he also restrained it.

Now we know in this particular case, God permitted evil to enter Job’s life to test his faith, but there are others reasons why God permits evil and that is what we are going to look at today.

Interestingly when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness by Satan…..Satan promised Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory, if Jesus just bowed down and worshipped him.

Now, Jesus never denied that Satan had the authority of the kingdoms of the earth.

No…..Jesus knew that His father had given the kingdoms of the earth into the hands of Satan.

In Ephesians 2, it tells us that Satan is the ruler of this world.

Friends, God is not the author of evil, but he does permit it, and perhaps more importantly for our sakes, God restrains evil.

As we continue to look through the book of Revelation, you will notice that fractions are often mentioned, and whenever you see a fraction used in the book of Revelation, thank God, because it communicates to us, that God isn’t permitting 100% evil, but in fact it shows, God is restraining evil.

For example,

Here in chapter 6: 8 it says, They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

God restrains the other three quarters.

Revelation 8:7 says, A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

God restrains the other two thirds.

Revelation 8:8 says A third of the sea turned into blood,

Revelation 8:9 says A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

Revelation 12: 4 says Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.

If we think things are bad, thank God, that God is actually restraining evil.

It could be much, much worse!

Now at this point, you may be thinking, OK, Paul, you have made your point:

God is not the author of evil but he permits it and restrains it, but what has that go to do with these four horses in Revelation chapter 6?

This is what Revelation 6 talks about- 4 horsemen.

Well, we are going to get into what these 4 horses represent and when they have been unleashed or when they will be unleashed……and we are going to answer the question of why God would allow this, but before we do, we must know the obvious fact, that these horses only do what they do, because God has permitted it.

In verse 1, we are told that it was the Lamb- The Lamb of God- Jesus who had the authority to open the seal of the scroll in the first place.

All this was done with the permission of God.

These four horsemen were let loose with the permission of God.

In fact look at verse 2

A crown was given to him.

The rider on the white horse was given a crown, given authority to rule, who from?

God

Look at verse 4 with me:

It’s rider was permitted to take peace from the earth

The rider on the red horse was permitted to take pace from the earth, who gave him this permission?

God

Look at verse 8:

And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth

The rider on the pale horse (or sickly green horse) was given authority over a quarter of the earth, who from?

God

And so what do these horsemen represent and why would God give permission for these things to happen?

Let us look at the first horse, the white horse.

This is the horse that is most debated amongst theologians.

Now remember, this is the same heavenly scene from chapter 4. In this vision of heaven, God sat on his throne, with all creation worshipping him, and in his right hand is the scroll of judgement and redemption. Jesus takes that scroll from God’s hand and now in chapter 6, he opens the first seal and reveals bit by bit what is written on the scroll.

And as he opens the first seal, and opens the first part of the scroll, we see this white horse and its rider.

Look at verse 2 with me:

And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.

Now who was this rider on the white horse?

Some people think this rider on the white horse was Jesus.

In Revelation 19, we are introduced to another rider on a white horse who is clearly Jesus, since that rider is called faithful and true, his robe is dipped in blood, He judges the nations with his word- clearly that is Jesus- in Revelation 19.

And so some people think, this white horse in Revelation 6, is also Jesus because this is a picture of Jesus conquering the world by the gospel. This is a picture of Jesus growing his church, as the gospel is preached, hearts are conquered and his kingdom grows.

And I think there is some merit in this view.

However, I don’t think this horseman on the white horse is Jesus.

First of all, this rider is carrying a bow, not a double edged sword, which is the word of God, which the rider in chapter 19 is carrying, but secondly and perhaps more convincingly for me, these four horsemen in Revelation 6, come as a package, who all represent bad things.

It would seem a little odd for me, at least to mention one good horse and three bad horses.

I think all these horsemen represent bad things, evil things which lead from one another.

I think this white horse, is a representation of earthly kingdoms conquering other earthly kingdoms.And as a result of earthly kingdoms conquering other kingdoms, the other horse men naturally follow.

What do I mean?

As kingdoms rise and conquer other kingdoms, there will be war, there will be bloodshed, there will be no peace. This is exactly what the red horse, who is shown as the second seal is opened, represents.

Look at verse 4

⁴ And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

And so as Kingdoms conquer other kingdoms and war breaks out, and people die…..what often follows then……. is economic corruption, which would lead to poverty. This is exactly what the black horse represents.

Sadly many people use wars, for financial gain, there is lots of profit to be made in war.

Look at verses 5- 6 with me:

⁵ When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. ⁶ And I heard what seemed to be 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 wine!”

This black horse, represents economic catastrophe, where the shortage of supplies means prices of staple products like wheat and barley rise exponentially, so people can’t afford to put food on their table, while at the same time, the rich seem unaffected by it all, as they continue in their luxurious lifestyle of oil and wine.

And so there is conquest, followed by bloodshed, followed by economic catastrophe, which is finally followed by disease, famine and death. This is what the pale or sickly green horseman represents.

Look at verse 8 with me:

⁸ And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

And so here we have these four horsemen that have been given permission by God, to conquer, to shed blood, to cause economic turmoil, to bring disease, but why would God allow this evil to occur?

Well, partly, the answer is the same as it was for Job, for God to test his people through suffering, but in this case, the reason why God allows this evil to happen is to carry out his judgement on this sinful world.

And by the way, I don’t think these things, these horsemen point to a particular time in history, I think these things have been going on since the resurrection of Jesus in AD 33 and they will continue until Jesus returns.

We have seen these thing on repeat for the last 2,000 years, conquests, war, bloodshed, economic devastation, disease, it has been going on and on, and it will continue until Jesus returns.

It appears in Revelation that not only will these things continue, but they will get more intense, until as we see from the opening of the sixth seal in this chapter, the world as we know it, will come to an end and Christ will return.

Just listen to the unravelling of creation when the sixth seal is open in verses 12-17

There was a great earthquake

The sun became black as sackcloth

Moon became as blood

Stars of the sky fell to the earth

The sky vanished, like is was rolled up

Every mountain and every island was removed from its place

This opening of the sixth seal, sounds pretty final doesn’t it?

By the way, this is why I don’t think we can read Revelation in some sort of chronological order. We can’t think that God will first open the seven seals, and then God will blow the seven bowls of trumpets which are found in chapter 8, and then pour out the seven bowls of wrath which are found in chapter 16.

No, it is clear, that after the sixth seal is open, there is not much left.

No, I think we must read the visions of the seven seals, the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of God’s wrath, as a picture of the same events, but all told from a different angle.

Lots of the language of the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls is very similar.

Now, since I believe these things are happening now, and have been happening for last 2,000 years, that means that God is permitting evil to occur in this world now, to bring his judgement now.

Now, I am not a prophet, and so I am not going to claim that specific evil happens because of specific sins. For example, we can’t claim that the fires in Australia in 2019 were God’s judgement on this nation for allowing the sin of same sex marriage to be celebrated, or we can’t say that we have moments of drought because God is judging us for a particular sin, but we can say with confidence that God allows, permits evil to occur as part of his judgment on mankind.

A specific example we can definitely give is when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586BC. God permitted Jerusalem to be destroyed by Babylon, as judgement for their sin.

How do we know this?

The scriptures tell us in Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah.

Friends, I haven’t got time today to talk about souls under the altar after the 5^th seal is open, you can ask me about that after, but today, I just want to finish where this passage finishes.

Look at verses 15-17 with me:

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, ¹⁶ calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, ¹⁷ for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

Amazing to think, that after all this carnage, wars, bloodshed, economic disaster, disease, it wasn’t these things that all people were frightened of, it was the face of God that people were frightened of, it was the wrath of the lamb, the wrath of Jesus, that people were frightened of.

All people, rich and poor, powerful, salve- all people were dreading the face of God, the and the wrath of the Lamb.

And John leaves us with this question, which Matt will answer more fully for us next Sunday…..Who can actually stand?

Who can survive all this carnage?

Who can survive the righteous, true judgement of God?

Now, without going too much into the next chapter.

Let me give you a quick clue.

Wealth, money and power are not going to save you from the wrath of the lamb.

Building a bunker one mile underground isn’t going to save you from the wrath of the lamb

Storing up food supplies and military stocks is not going to save you from the wrath of the lamb

No, the only thing that will save you from the wrath of the lamb…..is the lamb himself.

Friends, we are either shielded in the lamb, shielded by his blood which paid for our sins and absorbed the wrath of God for us, or we are not.

Friends, who can stand?

Only those who have been covered by the blood of the lamb.

Let us pray.