Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] For about a year now, I've gotten on this kick where I've been reading and listening to all kinds of different podcasts and books on sleep.
[00:00:15] Now, it began when I had. I went through a time where I was having trouble sleeping, and I just. Anything like that with me, I just dive into it and I read. I immerse myself into those things. And I'm always.
[00:00:27] When we're counseling folks, that seems to be an issue. And so I just want to know more about sleep. And Sarah Ruth sent me this podcast, and it was eight different podcasts that were two hours long. And I started listening to it, and then I just couldn't help myself. I would always be thinking about this and reading about it, and I think I know more than I do. So don't ask me any questions. I'm not an expert. I don't know. I'll probably act as though I do and lecture you on your sleep and all that, but I don't know as much as I think I do. But along the way, I've read some things about how parents should wake their kids up in the morning.
[00:01:08] And you're supposed to wake your kids up in a very gentle way with a low voice, low lights, hey, sweetie, it's time to get up.
[00:01:19] Are you ready to get up? I'll come back later when you're ready to get up.
[00:01:24] And I've learned that you can do a lot of bad things if you're too aggressive with your children in the morning and waking them up.
[00:01:32] And the more I've read, I've thought that's what's wrong with my sons.
[00:01:38] Of all the things and other issues that they have that are my fault, waking them up in the morning, I've done a lot of damage to them. I have raised their cortisol levels, and that's why all of their anxiety. It's the way that I woke them up in the morning. I just got their day started off in the wrong way because there was no gentle, soft waking them up.
[00:02:02] As a matter of fact, our son's room is over our kitchen.
[00:02:07] And so there would be times where I would get up in the morning and they would not be up. They would not be ready for school yet. And I would just stomp around in the kitchen because I didn't want to go down to their room to have to wake them up. And I would just hope they would get up on their own. And that rarely happened. We had some of our sons back home and around the house during the holidays, and I was reminded as they were sleeping below. Yeah, I used to do this all the time, just stomping around, and I realized how futile it was. There'd be no stirring.
[00:02:39] And so by the time I would walk downstairs and get to their room, I will be honest, I was a bit irritated.
[00:02:47] And I would just throw the door open, flip on the lights, get up. What are you doing? Yell out their name and all of that. Actually, if you go to the door of the room where our boys slept, the door handle is still loose and it's coming off the wall. I realized we've never fixed that when some of them have moved out because of the times I would throw it open, get up.
[00:03:12] And they would get up in all kinds of different ways.
[00:03:15] One of them just get up screaming.
[00:03:18] And then I have another son. He would get up, and he just walks around with a smile on his face. He doesn't know where he is. He tries to act. I've been up forever smiling.
[00:03:32] It's odd behavior. I should have known he was off to a bad start right there.
[00:03:40] But we come to Revelation, chapter 6. What Jesus is doing here is he's stirring around and he wants us to wake up.
[00:03:51] There is the stomping of feet.
[00:03:54] And as we will see, the seals begin to pop open.
[00:03:59] And with each seal, we are to listen. Something horrible is coming.
[00:04:05] And compared to what is coming, there's all kinds of gentle shaking. Doesn't seem gentle. It's scary. It seems scary.
[00:04:16] But even the scariest here is just a gentle reminder compared to what those who stand before the Lamb will endure to wake up. And so what do these reminders look like? First of all, we see the world suffering with the Four Horsemen. And there is no Ric Flair here for you wrestling fans, but the first four. Somebody. Wow.
[00:04:43] We'll go with that instead of Amens from now on. So.
[00:04:47] But to begin chapter six, we have the Four Horsemen.
[00:04:52] And as we move through these first four seals, we see that Jesus is sovereign over the world's suffering.
[00:05:01] And he is using the suffering that we see across the world right now to shake us awake.
[00:05:08] Notice verse one.
[00:05:10] Now I watched. Now remember, John has been given this entrance into heaven to see what's going on in heaven, where God is ruling, where. Where Jesus has become this exalted king who is going to issue his rule on the earth. And how does he do it? Opening this book, which begins with this first seal, to notice when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals. Now this begins to initiate this final stage in human history on earth. Jesus is raised from the dead. And he begins to open this book as God's king. And notice when he opens the book, I heard one of the four living creatures. Now remember these powerful creatures who are protecting the throne of God, they represent creation's power. That one has a face, the face like an ox, a lion, a man, an eagle. And so they also represent the four corners of the earth. And here they're going to unleash or execute judgment from the four corners of the earth. And notice one says with a voice like thunder, come now, we don't know if he's referring. It's hard to tell. Is he referring to Jesus or. Or as we're going to see these riders. Either way, it is Jesus who initiates this. And it could even be the calling to Jesus to come that initiates these riders that begin to ride across the earth. Notice verse 2. And I looked and behold a white horse. And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him. And this is a picture of one who comes to conquer with this bow. And notice this, he was given a crown. And that's going to be important with every one of these four horsemen, with every one of these riders is the power that they are given is given to them by Christ.
[00:07:07] And so here he gives this one on a white horse the power and authority to ride across the earth. And notice what he does. He comes out conquering. And to conquer, that is his mission to. To conquer.
[00:07:21] Now, if we go to Zechariah, chapter six, we see these four chariots, and they represent judgment as these horses, as these chariots are patrolling the earth. And this is what is called apocalyptic imagery.
[00:07:38] And what's going on here is John is describing the worst forces that derive from the human heart and begin to move across planet earth.
[00:07:50] And here Jesus is just going to allow these horses to run roughshod on the earth. But he is the one who is doing it.
[00:08:01] He is the one who is in control. And so who is this rider on the white horse? Well, I believe there's three different options.
[00:08:12] Many believe that this is Jesus and the conquest or the conquering of the gospel on earth. Now, and I think there's good reason for that. It's a white horse. Throughout the book of Revelation, most of the time, the large majority of the time, white refers to the good.
[00:08:33] In this battle of good versus evil. In chapter 19, Jesus himself comes on a white horse.
[00:08:42] And all but twice in the book of Revelation, conquering is used of Jesus. So it would make sense to say, this is Jesus, he's raised from the dead, he's ascended to the right hand of God. And the church is conquering on the earth right now through the preaching of the Gospel.
[00:09:00] But I believe these four riders are riders of judgment that he is issuing on the earth. And so a spin off of this being Jesus and the church is that this white rider is the presence of false Christ on the earth who come and they look like Christ, but they're not Christ and they are deceiving. We go back to the Olivet discourse, and to understand this chapter, you really got to know Matthew 24, when Jesus disciples say, what's going to happen before the kingdom comes? And one of the things he says is, there's going to be many false Christ.
[00:09:42] And so that's another option.
[00:09:45] But I think what he's referring to here is the worst desires for power and conquest that come from the human heart and run rampant on the earth that we know throughout human history.
[00:10:00] Caesars, Hitlers, tyrants that we look around and we see that they conquer, that they rule and they destroy people's lives.
[00:10:14] And this leads to the next rider, which is the rider of war. And I believe all of these build on each other. And so we have a conquering that leads to war. Notice verse three. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come.
[00:10:34] And here verse four came another horse, bright red, bright like blood.
[00:10:41] And its rider was. Notice again, the first rider was given a crown. This rider is permitted. And so they're not functioning by their own power and authority. Jesus is allowing this to happen.
[00:10:54] And so he allows peace to be removed from the earth so that the people should slay one another.
[00:11:01] And he was given a great sword. And so with this writer, we see peace is removed from the earth and war begins to break out. It is unleashed on the earth. And we look around and we see evidence of that everywhere.
[00:11:16] Jesus is allowing that to go on as a form of judgment. But then this leads to famine. Notice the next rider. He opened up the third seal, and I heard the third living creature say, come.
[00:11:30] And again, we don't know if this is Come, Lord Jesus, which is a part of this book, or is it just to the horses? Or it could be that the creatures are calling Jesus to come. And then these horses are just kind of scattering like ants in fear of Jesus, but Jesus allows it. And here is a black horse, and its rider had a pair of scales in his hand.
[00:11:57] 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.
[00:12:06] Now this would have been a day's wage for a day's supply of food. So that's extreme inflation. You have to work all day just to eat for the day.
[00:12:19] And three quarts of barley for a denarius. Barley would have been a cheaper version of a day's supply of food.
[00:12:26] But still you have to use all a day's wage, maybe for three days food. Just the point is that this is severe inflation and that the world is being cursed with poverty and that leads to famine. But notice, he says, and do no harm to the oil and wine.
[00:12:48] This is severe poverty across the earth.
[00:12:53] But then you also see with the oil and wine that there are some who live in luxury and there is just this inequality that takes place on the planet.
[00:13:06] The luxury is unattainable by most.
[00:13:10] As we look at the world today, we see that. We see that we in our country live in the lap of luxury. And then we begin to look at the rest of the world.
[00:13:21] Jesus allows this to take place as a form of judgment.
[00:13:26] And then notice the next rider, which is death.
[00:13:29] And he opened the fourth seal and I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come. And I looked and behold a pale horse. This would be a greenish looking horse.
[00:13:40] And its rider was named Death and Hades followed. Now Death in Hades, we've already seen in Revelation, is picture of death and the place of the dead. And here death is coming after the people who live on the earth.
[00:13:55] And notice they were given authority, which we know Jesus has the keys to death and Hades authority over them. But here he allows death to continue on the earth and notice over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword and with famine and with pestilence and wild beasts. This just kind of sums up everything that we're talking about here, from conquering to war to famine. And death begins to run wild on the earth. You can't stop death.
[00:14:28] Now I believe all of these things are connected again. Conquering leads to war, war leads to famine, Famine leads to death. And all of that happens at the same time.
[00:14:40] I was reading about Haiti this week and just thinking about that country where you have natural disasters, you have assassinations, you have extreme violence, and stats say 17% of the country is starving to death right now.
[00:15:01] And here we see Jesus allowing these things to continue to take place on the planet, to wake us up, these things continue to exist.
[00:15:15] This suffering of the world is a shaking for us to wake up for what's coming is much worse.
[00:15:25] And we go Back to the Olivet discourse. And again, I would encourage you to read that this week, Matthew 24, and dive into what Jesus says is going to happen before he comes. His disciples say, tell us.
[00:15:38] And he says, there's going to be wars, rumors of wars. There's going to be these natural disasters, there are going to be tribulation, there's going to be earthquakes, there's going to be persecution. All of these things are going to happen. And he describes them as birth pangs.
[00:15:54] Get ready. As you look around, as you read the news, all of these things are going to happen. Wake up. Tell others to wake up.
[00:16:07] Don't panic.
[00:16:09] Jesus is still ruling and reigning.
[00:16:12] But wake up.
[00:16:14] We open up our phones, we look at the news, we think about Ukraine, Russia.
[00:16:23] Nearly 15,000 people have died since that began.
[00:16:27] Hamas, Israel, Gaza, 72,000 people have died since 2020, 23.
[00:16:36] We read Venezuela, Minnesota, Iran. We go through all of those things on a daily basis.
[00:16:44] And what are we to do?
[00:16:45] How do we make sense out of that? Well, you don't make sense out of it by saying Jesus isn't in control.
[00:16:52] You make sense out of it by saying, no, he is God's sovereign king, who for his purposes is allowing those things to happen. And every time you see an event pop up, you are to consider your own heart.
[00:17:08] You are to wake up, because something even more dreadful is coming than the riders of these horses.
[00:17:17] Jesus is sovereign over world suffering, but he's also sovereign over the Church's suffering. Notice as we continue to the fifth seal, we see persecution.
[00:17:27] And when he opened the fifth seal, Jesus opens it. I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain. Now, this is pre resurrection, those who have died. Now, the word slain is the same word used for the lamb that was slaughtered. And so they're the souls of those who have been slaughtered. Notice for the word of God and for the witness that they had borne. We've talked about this a lot. The word witness comes from the word martyr, which means to tell the truth. But we think about martyrdom, we think about martyrs dying for telling the truth, because that's what it became associated with so many Christians who told the truth about Jesus, that he is Lord, would die for their faith. It became so common.
[00:18:19] And here are the souls of those who have died for their faith.
[00:18:23] Before the Lamb under the altar, in verse 10, they cried with a loud voice, o sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?
[00:18:47] They call out, o sovereign Lord, which we've already talked about, refers to all powerful ruler, Jesus.
[00:18:57] But notice how he's described here. Holy and true, you will do what is right.
[00:19:02] You are set apart from anyone else as lord and ruler.
[00:19:07] And you're true, meaning you're good, you're going to do what's right.
[00:19:11] And so those who have endured the worst suffering, dying for their faith, plead to the Lord.
[00:19:19] Notice he says, avenge our blood.
[00:19:24] Now we would say that doesn't sound very merciful.
[00:19:30] What's going on there?
[00:19:32] Are the martyrs just bloodthirsty? Are they vengeful?
[00:19:37] But notice how long will you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And we're going to see throughout the book, those on the earth, earth dwellers, they are the enemies of the Lamb.
[00:19:48] And here the martyrs are crying that they would be judged. And why is that?
[00:19:55] Because Jesus goodness is at stake, his glory is at stake.
[00:20:02] It's not just about them, but it is about the glory of God. If you are faithful and you are true to your church, how long will you allow this to go on, this sort of persecution, the dying of those who are proclaiming the gospel for their faith?
[00:20:23] Are you good? Will you avenge our blood which would declare your goodness and your commitment to your church?
[00:20:32] Notice verse 11. They were each given a white robe. And first of all we see that they are under the altar and there's sort of imagery that they are covered in the blood of Christ. Here they are given a white robe which represents being in and with Christ and they are called to rest.
[00:20:48] And so the point, the imagery here for the church that's reading to that reading, this is if you have died for proclaiming the gospel or will die for proclaiming the gospel, you haven't lost, you are with Christ.
[00:21:03] You are at rest and peace, covered in the blood of Christ. Actually, what we'll see is to die is gain.
[00:21:12] So don't be scared when the persecution comes.
[00:21:18] Those who have died for their faith, they are at rest. And he calls them to rest here a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been. And we see Jesus sovereignty over martyrdom.
[00:21:36] He refers to a number that needs to be completed of those who will die for their faith.
[00:21:45] So when someone preaches the gospel and dies for their faith, it's not outside of his control.
[00:21:52] And so we consider worldwide suffering that Jesus is sovereign over. And then we see the worst possible suffering that can happen to the church. Jesus is sovereign over this and we go back to the context of this letter.
[00:22:07] It is written to seven churches who are enduring intense persecution.
[00:22:13] In 65 AD, 30 years of the most intense persecution was unleashed upon the church by Rome.
[00:22:21] For those who would not declare that Caesar is Lord, they were tortured, they were killed, they were shunned by society. Christians were used as torches to light the streets at night.
[00:22:35] They were used for entertainment and fed to animals.
[00:22:39] And so as these churches are receiving this letter, they're thinking we're. Some of them might be thinking we're losing.
[00:22:46] And the point is, John said, no, no, I've seen Jesus. Jesus is still in control.
[00:22:51] And there's a plan unfolding here.
[00:22:54] In 70 AD, Paul, Peter and Timothy, all three in that one year were publicly executed.
[00:23:03] So you look, you look at the rocks, you look at the leaders of the church, they're killed for preaching the Gospel.
[00:23:11] And by the time the letter was written, by 96 AD, 40,000 Christians had been killed.
[00:23:19] And so that's why they need this letter, so they understand Jesus is still in control. As we see Caesar's conquering, as we see war, as we see famine, and many of them live in poverty, as we see death continue to march forward, Jesus has the king, the keys. He is the king.
[00:23:44] He's ruling, he's reigning. And the truth is, from this time on, the majority of the church has suffered in some way for being associated with Jesus. Our lives as Christians here is an anomaly in the church.
[00:24:01] Not being outcast, not being persecuted, the way most of the church throughout history has been.
[00:24:09] And Jesus promised it. Go back to the Mount of Olives, Olivet discourse. You will suffer tribulation.
[00:24:16] You will be delivered over to tribulation.
[00:24:20] They will put you to death, he tells his disciples. And it's happened ever since. It still happens.
[00:24:28] It's estimated. And numbers with Christianity are really hard to make sense of with all the different sects and denominations around the world.
[00:24:39] But it's estimated nearly 9,000 Christians are killed annually for their faith in Christ.
[00:24:45] And right now, and I want to encourage you to do research on what's going on in Northern Nigeria, they say that right now, that's where 70% of Christians martyrdom is happening in the world right now.
[00:25:00] Pastors, you have people rushing in, Muslims who are rushing into their church services and dragging them out into their street, burning their Bibles and killing pastors on the spot.
[00:25:14] It still happens. Even though we are separated from it and it doesn't seem to affect us every day, it still happens. And the point is, it's going on right now. And here, Jesus is in control of it.
[00:25:31] He says, rest, trust.
[00:25:35] But I always struggle with this. I don't know if you're like me. When you think about dying for your faith and you think about stories of martyrs, it just kind of seems for us fairy tale ish.
[00:25:50] And we've had instances that pop on the scene and we see it, but for the most part, it's not the primary way in which we live.
[00:26:01] And so the question I have for you today is, how do we live when Jesus says, it's normal? They hated me, they're going to hate you.
[00:26:11] Take up your cross and get ready to die if you're going to follow me.
[00:26:15] And he seems to unpack this as the norm for Christians.
[00:26:21] How do. How do we live out the norm when it's not normal for us?
[00:26:26] What does that look like?
[00:26:28] Well, I would propose maybe we need to look a little more normal when it comes to what Christianity should look like.
[00:26:36] And as we talked about in the Book of Revelation, it begins with worship, with saying, no, Jesus, you are worthy. And what is he worthy of? He's worthy of everything, including your life.
[00:26:47] And if you believe that, you will start strategizing your life in ways that declare that he's worthy of my life, he's worthy of my money and my time and my schedule. And we begin, we have to work really hard at it.
[00:27:05] I got to wake up every morning and say, if Jesus is worthy, how do I live in a way where I'm not holding back from him?
[00:27:13] I'm not trying to carve out my space in my life?
[00:27:17] But it's all his.
[00:27:19] He's worthy of it all. Whatever happens, he's worthy of it all.
[00:27:24] And I think for us, it comes down to this one thing in our life where we began to fold our lives into the norm of what is normal for most Christians.
[00:27:35] And it's speaking the gospel that is the most. For most of us, the most terrifying thing you could imagine doing is talking to someone about Jesus. But if we begin with he's worthy of my life, then as we've described in Revelation, he's worth it, right?
[00:27:57] He's worth my witness.
[00:28:00] The one who's died for my sins and covered me in his righteousness and has given me this eternal kingdom, he is worth my witness. And we think about all these other things that are going on, and there's kind of this shaking in the world around us. Hey, wake up.
[00:28:15] Wake up.
[00:28:17] This isn't paradise.
[00:28:20] The world, the world's bad things are Happening in the world around us, the people we work with, the people in our homes, the people we interact with at the grocery store and the coffee shop, and everywhere we go, the ball field, there's this shaking.
[00:28:35] And you'll notice people are willing to talk about these things.
[00:28:39] All you have to do is say, hey, what do you think about what's going on? And people don't even ask anymore. What do you mean, what's going on? They'll pick a thing that's going on and they'll just elaborate on it and they will talk.
[00:28:54] And I've had more opportunities to share the gospel, I think, now, than any time in my life. And again, I've shared this with you over and over. I learned it a long time ago, maybe 20 years ago in evangelism training. Just asked the question, hey, do you have any spiritual beliefs?
[00:29:14] Oh, yeah, yeah, I know who you voted for. I got all that.
[00:29:17] Do you have any spiritual beliefs?
[00:29:20] And it stops to you. Who is Jesus?
[00:29:26] Would you mind if I told you who Jesus was? I think that's three questions, right?
[00:29:31] Do you have any spiritual beliefs to you? Who is Jesus? Could I tell you who Jesus is? Try it this week.
[00:29:38] Try it this week.
[00:29:40] And Jesus would say, the worst man can do to you is kill your body.
[00:29:46] I don't think that's going to happen at the eye doctor this week.
[00:29:50] But whatever the consequences, that could happen. Someone stop talking to you.
[00:29:59] Defriend you on Facebook, unfollow you on Instagram. Whatever the worst that could happen.
[00:30:06] Oh, he's worthy of giving my life for this message is worth dying for.
[00:30:12] Speak the gospel. Let's be a church that speaks the gospel. As a matter of fact, on January 31st, we're going to have evangelism training. I didn't mean to make this a plug, but Jason and Mary's story are going to do sent evangelism training on January 31st. Sign up for that. Maybe you're scared to death to do it. Let's figure it out. How are we going to be more vocal with our faith and whatever the consequences if he's sovereign over the worst possible thing that could happen, he's sovereign over what might happen if you just speak the gospel. But finally, in this chapter, we see that Jesus is sovereign judge. Now, there's a move in this chapter where we go to generic world suffering, to the prayers of the saint, to the answering of their prayers, and he kind of funnels through the prayers to the final answer of their prayers where Jesus comes to judge all men. Notice verse 12.
[00:31:13] And when he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake.
[00:31:18] So the saints have cried out, and they've been crying out. And as we get to the end of the book of Revelation, we read, come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. Eventually he's going to come.
[00:31:29] And when he comes, notice the earth is going to quake. There's going to be a cracking open of the earth, and all of these labor pains that have been there are going to erupt. And at this point, there's no more warnings. It is too late.
[00:31:47] And notice what happens. The sun became black as sackcloth.
[00:31:53] This would be like bags were made out of this that were dark. And it's the picture of the sun just going out. It turns completely black.
[00:32:02] And the full moon became like blood.
[00:32:05] And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when. When shaken by a wind.
[00:32:15] And so the things that are set the order of the earth, the sun and moon and stars that light up our world, they go dark, they begin to fall.
[00:32:27] And the earth beneath our feet begins to quake. It begins to shake.
[00:32:36] Everything goes dark. Now we know that there are stars that would just crush the earth if it hit it. This is apocalyptic language.
[00:32:43] And the point is, lights out, party over.
[00:32:47] It's over.
[00:32:49] There's no more time.
[00:32:52] Jesus is coming.
[00:32:56] There's the shaking in here.
[00:32:59] He's here.
[00:33:00] It's over.
[00:33:03] Life on earth is done. Notice verse 14. The sky vanished like a scroll. Can you imagine going out, looking up at the sky, and it just opening up like a scroll and vanishing away?
[00:33:20] Earth is shaking, light's out. You look up and notice every mountain and island was removed from its place.
[00:33:31] In chapter 16, we see the description that the islands run from the Lamb or judgment, and the mountains vanish. Now, all of this is a description of what the prophets declared as the day of the Lord, this day when Jesus comes. And whatever your theological background system that you how you interpret this book, we all get to this point where Jesus opens the sky and we stand before him in judgment.
[00:33:59] And it's called the Day of the Lord.
[00:34:02] And it's great and it's awesome and it's terrible and it's a reality.
[00:34:09] It's not a fairy tale, it's not a fantasy.
[00:34:12] Jesus will answer the prayers of his church. He will come and he will rule, and he will reign, and he will do justice on the earth. And notice verse 15. Than the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone slave and free. Here he's pointing out every man, no matter their status, no matter how much power they had, no matter the famous ones, the great ones, no matter what they accomplished on the planet.
[00:34:39] Everybody is standing before the Lamb with the same status.
[00:34:45] Generals and rich and powerful.
[00:34:47] And then to the lowliest slave and even free.
[00:34:53] Notice they hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks and the mountains. And so humanity begins to scramble on the earth again, like roaches when the light's turned on.
[00:35:07] And here their creator is before them. The King of the planet is there, God's Son who rules and reigns and notice what they do. Verse 16. Calling to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne.
[00:35:25] And so you have all of this. Cosmic galactic disturbances, earthquakes, sun, moon, stars falling. But what they are most scared of is the face of the One who sits on the throne. And from the Lamb who comes with wrath of all the things to be terrorized of that's going on around them.
[00:35:51] We don't want to have to face God, and we don't want to have to stand before his son, the Lamb, his king.
[00:36:02] All men everywhere will have to see the face of God and stand before his king and give an account, everyone.
[00:36:13] And it's awesome and terrorizing and we should be awakened to it day after day.
[00:36:21] As we see the world around us, as we suffer for our faith, we should be reminded, yeah, but I will have to stand before the Lamb one day.
[00:36:29] But notice how it's described here, the wrath of the Lamb, that phrase. First of all, we're going to the face of him who is seated, which is God on the throne, and then his king, the Lamb. But notice, what they're terrified of is the wrath of the Lamb. And here in that phrase, we see that Jesus is both our greatest hope and our worst nightmare.
[00:36:55] He's a lamb who was slain for our sin.
[00:37:01] Our greatest hope, the one who is back from the dead, ruling and reigning. Our greatest hope becomes our worst nightmare if we are apart from Him.
[00:37:12] The wrath of the Lamb.
[00:37:15] And that's intentional because Jesus righteousness was proven where?
[00:37:24] On the cross where he was the righteous payment for all sin, where he's raised from the dead. God says this is a sufficient payment. He raises him from the dead. He's proven to be righteous. It is the culmination of his righteousness.
[00:37:39] So him being the Lamb who was slain, he deserves the right to rule all men. And we know because he's righteous, he will do the right thing. He's worthy to judge all men. But we also see in this phrase the culmination of our unrighteousness is we've rejected the Lamb. Those who do not trust in Jesus. It is the culmination of unrighteousness that you would reject the Lamb who would die for your sin.
[00:38:07] You see, the reality is some of us here today, that the wrath of God abides on us is what Jesus said.
[00:38:15] Those who have not believed in Jesus, the wrath of God rests upon your life because you are apart from Jesus and you have earned God's judgment for your sin. And God's judgment is directed towards you.
[00:38:29] But the culmination of such unrighteousness is when you stand before the One who died for sin and you are proven a rejecter of the One God sent to die for your sin.
[00:38:42] Now that's terrible.
[00:38:47] There should be a gravity in our heart for those who are apart from Christ here today.
[00:38:55] It's not just that your sin is abstract.
[00:38:58] Your sin will become very personal on this day.
[00:39:03] And your sin will show up in the face of the One who died for your sin.
[00:39:10] You will have to see the Lamb.
[00:39:13] And here no one wants to see the Lamb. They run from the lamb. Notice verse 17. For the great day of their wrath has come. Now notice, it is the wrath of the Lamb. But then their wrath has come. That means they have stored up the consequences for their sin, their whole life.
[00:39:31] Lawlessness, rebellion, rejecting God.
[00:39:34] They've rejected the Lamb who died for sin.
[00:39:39] And this is their wrath. They own it personally.
[00:39:47] They will have to endure personal wrath for rejecting the Lamb.
[00:39:52] It's not as though there's just a blob of people who will suffer in a Blobbish place in some abstract way of sin. No. Every man will have to stand before the Lamb and him personally. Every woman will stand before the Lamb, her personally, and if she is apart from Christ, will endure personal judgment for their sin forever and ever. In Hell, they stored it up their whole life, every day, storing up wrath, storing up wrath, more wrath, more wrath, until it culminates in the face of the One, the wrath of the Lamb. And here is the important question. Who can stand?
[00:40:34] That's the question for everybody here today. Who can stand?
[00:40:37] You see, the hope isn't in escaping. It's not in the rocks, it's not in the mountains. It's not in running. No one will escape the Lamb. But standing.
[00:40:48] Who is able to stand before the Lamb? And we see in the next chapter, the redeemed are able to stand because they are sealed in the blood of the Lamb.
[00:40:58] Redemption.
[00:41:00] But the question is, who can stand? Will you be able to stand? Because the reality is God is just and God is holy and every sin will be punished.
[00:41:12] Every sin. If God doesn't punish every sin, he is no longer holy and right and true.
[00:41:18] He will punish every single sin. And so the question is, can you stand?
[00:41:24] Will you be able to stand before a holy God who is determined to punish every sin?
[00:41:31] Will you be able to stand before the wrath of the Lamb that will punish every sin?
[00:41:38] Well, you have two options.
[00:41:41] You can stand on your own before the Lamb.
[00:41:46] Some of you think you can do that.
[00:41:50] You think right now I'm going to stand before Jesus one day and yeah, I've done a lot of bad things, but the good things I've done, they're just a little bit more and he's going to be okay with that.
[00:42:01] No, all sin will be punished and you can't cover it up with your righteousness.
[00:42:08] And some of us believe on that day that we have participation trophy theology where everybody's just allowed in, like, surely this is just old timey preaching, right?
[00:42:23] God's not going to function this way.
[00:42:26] He's going to let me in, everything's going to work out. We don't know why or how. We just believe that you will not be able to stand on your own that day. And here's the good news, and it's the good news of the gospel and it's the good news of this book.
[00:42:44] It's not supposed to scare you.
[00:42:47] If you are in Christ, you will stand.
[00:42:52] Can you imagine on that day, the world falling apart, everyone running? There is terror every way. And you're able to stand.
[00:43:01] You're able to stand.
[00:43:03] Because the Lamb died for your sin.
[00:43:07] You can stand, trusting in his death for your sin, the wrath that was poured out on him. For your sin, his righteousness, none that you have. Only in the Lamb will you stand.
[00:43:19] That is your hope.
[00:43:20] And so the question today is, have you believed in the Lamb?
[00:43:25] And that is the hope of this whole chapter, everything that's unfolding, all the scary things, the persecution, the suffering. If you're able to stand on the Day of Judgment, you can stand through it all.
[00:43:38] And you have to keep your mind there. Yeah, it feels like as I suffer here and now, the earth is shaking beneath my feet. No, no, no, the earth will shake. By the way it shook in Berea a few weeks ago. Scared some of you to death.
[00:43:55] No, no, there will be a shaking one day.
[00:43:59] And if you're in Christ, you can stand.
[00:44:03] But if you're not in Christ, here's the warning today before you.
[00:44:08] The book is opening and there is a shaking, there is a moving, there is a stirring, there's the stomping of horses feet and there's a day the planet door will be thrown wide open and on your own you will not be able to stand.
