Ishmael LaBiosa: Welcome to 40 Days Through the New Testament. This podcast is led by Pastor Rusty Small at Liberty Baptist Church in Appomattox, Virginia. Listen as he guides you through all 27 books of the New Testament in preparation for Easter. Get your Bible ready. Here's today's message. Well, we move into the next section of the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter six through 11. And today, we will see two series of judgments called the seals, S-E-A-L-S, seals on a scroll, that's the symbolic nature of it, and secondly, the trumpets. What I want to make as a general statement here at the beginning is God progressively pours out his judgment on the earth, and in my reading, Revelation 6 is the beginning of the great tribulation, a seven-year period of distress that God pours His judgment out on the earth. Now just in the spirit of clarity, the way in which I get to a seven-year tribulation is not by revelation alone. And that's what makes end time sometimes hard because you have to harmonize more than just one biblical book. but it seems that a harmonization of the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation gets you to a seven year tribulation period. So I believe Revelation chapter six is the beginning of the tribulation talking about a seven year period of distress where God pours his judgment out on the earth. And notice we have this symbolic image, the image of a scroll, which is like the title deed of the earth who is able to unlock the future who is able to bring all things under submission unto himself and who have we been told can do that? The lion who is the lamb. So Revelation chapter 6, six of the seven seals, there are seven seals on the scroll, six of those are opened in Revelation 6 and the first four which is rider on a white horse, which is a person coming in a conquering force. We then have war, the red horse, famine, the black horse, death, the pale horse. These are called from many people, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which is found in the opening chapters of Revelation chapter six. In this context, Christians are being profoundly not just persecuted, martyred, because the fifth seal shows us those who've been martyred and the martyrs who are dead are in heaven crying out, how long, ⁓ Lord, until you judge and avenge our blood from the earth? Like God, when are you gonna bring about judgment? The sixth seal is a great deal of cosmic upheaval, earthquakes, the sun goes black, the stars fall from heaven, a terrible climactic event, but we oughta note that this is not a complete destruction because the book of Revelation is careful to tell us that in this one fourth of the world is affected. Revelation chapter seven, we ought to note there is judgment and interludes for mercy. You say, who can even be able to stand? Will anybody be able to stand? Will the church be completely blotted out? in this day or at the end of human history. And we get this wonderful picture in Revelation 7 of the 144,000, which is 12,000 from every tribe of Israel, basically saying there are still those in Israel who trusted in Jesus the Messiah. And then what about the Gentiles? What about non-Jews? You get a vision of an unnumerable multitude. vast group of people from every nation, tribe, people, and language. And the idea is there will be those who are faithful to Jesus in this difficult moment. There will be people who will trust in Him even when the world system is against God completely. We get to Revelation chapter 8. Now I want you to notice something here. ⁓ Because the way this works, the seals, you get one, two, three, four, five, six, and listen this, the opening of the seventh seal triggers the next round, triggers the first of the trumpets. You say, Rusty, what does that mean? Well, trumpets are warnings. And again, the key idea here is progressive judgment. That's the key. Okay, because one fourth of the world is affected by the first round. Now in the second round, the round of the trumpets like warning, warning, warning, because by the time we get to the third round, it's going to be ball game over. We're not going to look at that today. The trumpet judgments, the seventh seal open in their silence in heaven. And then the first of the trumpets is one fourth of judgment on the earth, the sea, the waters, and the heavens in the seals, it's one fourth. It's one third in the trumpet. So you see again, progressive judgment and it's one third. So we go from one fourth of things being affected to one third in the trumpets, the earth, the sea, the waters, the heavens. And then we get to the fifth and sixth trumpets and we have the locust from the abyss. It appears almost a demonic like army killing a one third of humanity. Quite frankly, things are getting very, very dire. Now, Revelation chapter 10 and 11, which is important for us now, is you say, Rusty, the book of Revelation is judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment. No, no, it's not just judgment. It's judgment and a call to mercy. because in Revelation chapter 10, a mighty angel with a little scroll eats the scroll. You go, rusty, really? And we are told that it's sweet in the mouth, bitter in the stomach. Again, notice just like Ezekiel. Ezekiel, it was sweet in the mouth, bitter in the stomach to eat the scroll. And guess what? Sometimes in ministry, you have to deliver the message. John's got to deliver the message and guess what? Sweet in the mouth. We speak the words of God, it's bitter in the stomach. It's a difficult call. It's a call to mercy, but it's a call if the time of mercy is extended, there will be judgment. We get to chapter 11 and we have two witnesses. This is what I want to point out. God in the darkest days, whether in Old Testament Israel, He raises up an Elijah and Elisha. When things are dark, the prophetic witness burns bright. And in the end of human history, when things are dark, guess what? The prophetic witness burns bright. God raises up two witnesses. You say, who are these witnesses? We don't know. They're Moses and Elijah-like figures. They look like those. They don't necessarily have to be them. And these two witnesses prophesy for 1,260 days. They are protected. They are then killed by the beast and then resurrected. And what is the whole idea here is God is putting out his witness. He's saying world of sin, world set on judgment. God's heart is not to judge us. God's heart is to save us. And in the context of impending judgment, God raises up witnesses. This isn't the last time this will happen to say in the final moments before final judgment falls, God's message from heaven is, repent, turn to me, trust in me, here are my witnesses, follow me. And yet sadly we'll see that the majority, even in the context of receiving The witness of God at the end of human history will raise their fist in defiance and say, God, we will not believe. The darkness of the book of Revelation is not and never has been the judgment of God. It is the darkness of man's heart in light of the mercy of God as he attempts to offer us salvation, not judgment. Thank you for listening to this podcast, A Ministry of Liberty Baptist Church. We pray that this is an encouragement to study God's Word and that you will join us for the next episode.