Mike Bickle discusses the second, third, and fourth seals from the Book of Revelation, emphasizing that these seals are released by Jesus to reveal the true condition of humanity and to prepare the world for His return. He explains that the second seal brings war, the third seal leads to famine, and the fourth seal results in death, all as part of God's judgment against unrepentant nations. Bickle highlights the importance of understanding the nature of Jesus as both a loving Savior and a righteous judge, and he encourages believers to draw near to God for clarity in these troubling times. He reassures that amidst the chaos, God's ultimate plan is redemptive, leading to a great harvest and the establishment of His kingdom.

We ask you for living understanding, we ask you that you would release the spirit of might upon our mind and our spirit, in Jesus' name, amen. Roman numeral one, as we're looking at the third session again, it's the second, third, and fourth seals. Second, third, and we're gonna look at all three of them tonight. I want to give just a quick review. Paragraph A, the seven seals, all seven of them are released by Jesus. Because when you read them, kind of, and you're new, you kind of assume the Antichrist is releasing them or something, but it's Jesus that's releasing them. That's an easy statement until you start studying them. And then when you start studying them, you say, Lord, I am now in a dilemma. How could you release these? As long as you just say he releases the seals, no problem. But when you start studying them in detail, then we end up, the dilemma we have is we don't really understand the Jesus of the Bible. We mostly are familiar with the Jesus of Western culture. And the Jesus of the Bible and the Jesus of Western culture are not the same. It's very one-sided, the Jesus of Western culture. And so it's the study of the book of Revelation that challenges our thinking to expand so that we say what the Bible says and believe what the Bible says. The book of Revelation, still in paragraph A, describes Jesus's leadership to prepare the nations. It's his leadership that is on display as he is bringing his judgment against the Antichrist and the nations that are in agreement with him. Paragraph B, these seals, they are literal and their future. Meaning, you will find that some scholars want to make them symbolic and historical. In other words, they want to get rid of them. They're already taken place, so there's no reason to concern ourselves with them. There is no dilemma on the Jesus that would release these, because it already happened and everybody's happy. No, they're future and they're literal. Do not explain them away as symbolic. Paragraph C, the book of Revelation, which is the book that highlights Jesus's leadership in transitioning this earth to the age to come. It is the most offensive book to the natural mind, to the mind unaided by the Holy Spirit. It's politically incorrect. It cannot be more politically incorrect to the natural mind. So those of you that speak the truth of this book, you have to settle the issue. You're gonna be rejected and you're even gonna be persecuted. But I'm not saying that so you get into a persecution complex. That's not my point. My point is that you don't get into a self-pity complex. That's the reason, that's the point I'm aiming at. Just settle it. If you magnify this part of Jesus, this part of his leadership and his heart, you will have many people upset with you in the church and outside the church. Now it's not so troubling in 2009, but as a few decades unfold and we get closer to the time where these events will be happening, it will become not just, it will become not just a theoretical discussion, it will become something that's invasive and personal and confrontive in a way that it isn't right now. The Lord's raising up faithful witnesses in the church, forerunners that will begin to eat the scroll and again that's a phrase from Revelation 10 when the angel told John to eat the scroll to digest the message of this book so that we can speak it clearly, tenderly and faithfully that we don't draw back in any way. We cannot domesticate the book of Revelation by by dumbing it down and explaining it away so that there's no offense in it for the future. Paragraph D. Now the seal judgments, they are targeting the nations that have aligned with the harlot Babylon because the first judgment is the raising up of the Antichrist. So it's not the Antichrist against himself, he's actually judging the most powerful political and religious force in the earth at that time and that is the religious harlot Babylon, the religious system, the one world system that has influence with kings, it has influence with the merchants and it has with the wealthy of the earth, the powerful of the earth and it has great influence with the religions of the earth and at the time that the first seal is released, the most powerful force in the earth will be the harlot Babylon because of its political, economic and religious influence and unity and the endorsement that it has and the thing that is always so surprising to the new, those that are new studying the book of Revelation is that the Antichrist is the one that burns the harlot Babylon. He uses her and then he discards her. He helps raise her up before he comes on the world stage while he's still a regional leader and then he has that he has the same evil spirit she has but at the end of the day this system gets in his way so he burns it, removes it and starts another world religion called Antichrist worship which is far more intolerant, I mean which is intolerant and far more focused on his agenda. So these judgments, the Antichrist is actually going forth but Jesus is releasing him to go forth and he's going forth to judge the nations that were in unity with the harlot Babylon religion again that had economic and political overtones to it as well. Paragraph E, each of the first four seals because remember from last week the first four seals they go together as a group, they're grouped together as are the first four trumpets and the first four bowls of wrath. The first four clustered together as a group. The first four they naturally lead one to another. The first one the Antichrist goes forth but he goes forth in political aggression there is no bloodshed at the first seal but the second seal which we're gonna look at tonight leads to world war. Then the third seal what's naturally happens after world war is economic crisis and famine and then after that the fourth one is pestilence and so it's a it's a natural flow of events following one after the other. Paragraph F, the Antichrist is connected to all to each of the four horsemen, the events of the four horsemen. They show four dimensions of his reign of terror against the very nations he's going to take over. Now you would think because you got a clear conscience and the Holy Spirit's blessed you in the grace of God just with common sense you would think you know why would he be nice to the people he's taking over? Well throughout history dictators are rarely nice to the people they conquer to make them serve them. I mean Adolf Hitler was cruel and brutal to the nations he took over that he wanted to serve him so was Stalin so was Chairman Mao and many others they were brutal to the very people that they wanted to serve that they killed them in some cases with no mercy whatsoever cruel bloodshed to the very people that are serving them. They show the four horsemen show four different dimensions of the Antichrist reign of terror. Paragraph G, now what's happening in the seals again and we'll get to them in just a moment here but there's still a little introduction. God is taking his restraining hand off of wicked men. He's gonna allow them to see what's really in their heart. He's gonna allow what's in their heart to come out. Now this has to happen. This is an idea that some believe many believers have never thought through that the evil in man's heart must be manifest. I mean the evil that's truly there because men have an unperceived evil in their heart. They think they're doing well they think they're doing good with God. They think they're okay but if the right context is in place what they really want comes to a surface and it is horrifying what is in man's heart except for the grace of God and the truth of man must be made manifest for the judge for the justice of God to be magnified as he finishes his purposes in this age. The truth of his judgments cannot be seen until the truth of man's heart is seen. The most offensive thing in the church today even in the church is the judgment of God because the church doesn't buy into what God says about the human heart. The church says I know we're a mess but and the Lord says you have no idea. Billions of people they hate me. They hate me beyond what they understand and I'm gonna allow a context for their love for me in the church and their hatred for me to come to the surface and of course in that context the great harvest we're trusting God for a billion people to come into the kingdom from all the tribes and tongues the whole body of Christ working together but the reason God's judgments are so offensive because we don't have clarity about the true condition that he's judging and God's judgments he will not release his judgments upon men that have evil thoughts they have to act out their evil thoughts they have to be deeds he will not release judgment on the musing of evil the pondering of it but only on the acting it out so he's going to give before history transitions to the age to come and we're still on the earth we're not we don't believe in the end of the world we believe in the end of the age because Jesus comes back and sets his kingdom up on the earth so it's not the end of the earth the earth transitions to the age to come we're still on the earth but before that transition will happen the Lord says I will not release my judgments except the truth of man comes to the surface good and bad the body of Christ will love Jesus like no time in history and the wicked will do wickedness like no time in history and God's justice will be magnified and the truth of his justice will be seen and part of that is in God allowing evil men to act against evil men I often draw the analogy of the Antichrist reign of terror because one of the best analogies I can think of parallels is Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany it's not a perfect analogy but it's as good of one as I can see through history I've been a amateur student of World War two for many years but the one of the shocking things and of course it's true in many wars one of the shocking things the historians point out after the war is how this cultured highly intelligent dignified nation and how these nice neighbors when given the right context turned on each other and killed each other I'm talking about the Holocaust right now just the good old guy 30 years old just a normal guy gets a badge the political climate changes and he brutalizes his neighbors that he was good friends with that is in the human heart what God's doing in the seals he's lifting his restraining hand off and he's allowing the truth of the human race to come to the surface that's a important backdrop to understanding the seals so his justice is magnified his justice in his love there's no contradiction in them by the way we don't like really like his love and kind of ghosts shy on his justice his love and his justice are identical he does not suspend one attribute to exercise another he doesn't have to hold his breath on his love to show justice his love is manifest in his justice and his justice is manifest in his love there is no contradiction in anything that he does so in the seals the Lord is in effect I'm in paragraph G saying I will let you have what you want I will let you have I will let the human heart in wickedness go to the full extreme that it wants to go and I will show you the truth and on the other side the grace of God will be poured out the greatest revival in history the body of Christ will come to such a level that the Lord the Holy Spirit will restore the first commandment to first place in the body of Christ he's going to restore the first commandment to first place the church will love Jesus like no time in history worldwide and so under the grace of God that will come to the surface to paragraph H the seal judgments they are redemptive they're they're not just punitive God's not just showing a judgment on those that deserve it it's not just punishment it's actually redemptive he's going to reveal the condition of the human heart good and bad he's gonna magnify his justice he's gonna create a context for the harvest to come forth while he's actually cleansing the earth as well to get ready for Jesus's reign upon the earth and there's a dimension of him purging the earth and he's doing that through the tribulation judgments as well the events in these seals will create the context for the most powerful prayer movement in human history the prayer movement will affect the seals and the seals will strengthen the prayer movement they will go hand in hand as the judgments intensify the prayers will become more focused more unified and the body of Christ will be more pure and in unity together in an agreement with God thought but page two okay we're gonna now we're gonna look at three seals the second third and fourth tonight just real brief and as always we're never gonna finish all the notes give you the notes so you can study them a little bit more on your own okay the second seal bloodshed and world war another world war is coming that will far out I mean the the scope of it will be far greater than the first and second world war Rome Revelation 6 verse 3 when he opened the second seal that's Jesus now Jesus is the one releasing this again this increasingly when you really study this with a heart of devotion with an I love you in your heart towards Jesus I love you Jesus and you start going try to say here this will show you the conflict I love you Jesus I thank you for your leadership in the second seal and then read the second seal and you go I love you and I don't know what you're doing no I mean it there's a conflict comes to a head when you start thanking him for his leadership in the book of Revelation you think hmm I don't get it I'm more of a Westerner than I am a kingdom of God guy but help me renew my mind so I'm first a kingdom of God person and second a Western person that will take time because our minds are far more anchored in Western culture than it is the revelation of the word I mean mine is and I'm sure that many of you were on the same boat it's a challenge so when I begin to thank Jesus for his leadership in these trumpets bows and and seals it's like that's hard to say Jesus why you don't think my leadership is good well no I know it's good well then thank me for it uh well I could say thank you for your leadership because no be detailed actually name the things I'm gonna do and it just creates a conflict and that's where the gap between what the Bible says and our unrenewed mind is that's where the gap is identified right there just by thanking him for these one by one for his leadership now he's allowing the devil to move he's allowing evil men to do so you don't thank you for that part but you thank him for his leadership and it shows the gaps in your thinking and my thinking from how God thinks well anyway verse 3 we'll go back Jesus opened the second seal and I heard the second living creature one of there's four living creatures around the throne and each of the four seals first four seals one of the living creatures they say the same thing one after the other they say to John come and see and as I have in the notes what that means is come near and see clear come near God and see clearly what this is and understand the significance and the implications come and see this and so I've asked the Lord and many of you are I want to come near you Lord because if we don't come near him we won't if we don't come near we won't see clear we'll end up getting distorted in our perceptions and I say Lord I want to see this and then the Lord could whisper I didn't I don't hear the whisper but I imagine he whispers it says okay here's the deal come near I'll let you I'll show you more but you have to say what you see and that will get you in trouble with many people so come and see has a implication to it but it's worth it because anytime you come near and you see clear and it's related to Jesus it's good verse 4 there's another horse because the first one was the white horse we looked at last week this one's a fiery red horse and the fiery red horse it went out okay the Lord Jesus released this fiery red horse it was granted to the one who set on it to take peace from the earth so that the people should kill one another and there was granted to this one on the horse a great sword now this doesn't sound like the Jesus of Christmas take peace from the earth I thought you were bringing peace to the earth and he is but the way he's bringing peace to the earth is by confronting the evil and it's the unrepentant evil that he's after he has tremendous mercy on evil when we repent of it but it's the unrepentant evil that he's targeting that's the part we don't get we all get that people are evil and they need to repent what we don't everyone grasps that concept but what we don't really grasp is the magnitude of how stubborn people will be even in the presence of the power of God because we would think well if God's revealing his power well get with it and it's called the mystery of iniquity in the Bible 2nd Thessalonians called the mystery of iniquity because evil has a power that's mysterious that even in the presence of the glory of God people will still hate him they'll hate him perfectly and it just confuses us because we've been touched by the grace of God so he is gonna bring peace on the earth but first he's going to cause peace to be removed to confront the evil the obstinance the persistent obstinance against his kingdom he's gonna bring it to the surface drive it off the planet then establish peace on earth forever paragraph a fiery red speaks of worldwide bloodshed now at the time of the first seal the harlot church has been prospering worldwide kings which political leaders that's the it says the great merchants so the wealthy leaders of the earth and the and the peoples of the earth have all been really enjoying the system and so the heart of Babylon one world church far beyond how it exists right now it doesn't exist yet there's organizations called that but I'm talking about something far more powerful and pervasive than anything that exists today but there's another thing that's happening is that there's world peace that the powers that be have actually brought the conflict in the Middle East and the globalization processes will work where there will be it's short-term of course they don't believe will be short-term they think it'll be forever there's a short-term world peace and this second seal is what shatters the world peace Paul said first Thessalonians 5 verse 3 he said that when they say that's the nation's peace and safety meaning peace in the nation's and safety the terrorism problem is settled the economic problem is settled their safety we're not worried about bombs going off big buildings being torn down by I mean blown up by terrorists there will be peace and safety in the nations of the earth peace and safety in the nations of the earth peace politically and safety Paul said when the nations are saying that don't don't buy into it because suddenly destruction he's actually talking about the second seal the war breaks out suddenly that temporary short-term superficial counterfeit peace will evaporate it will be shown to be what it really is not real now when that peace process is developing the people that are saying this this is not that it won't last they will say yeah you Christians you pray for peace we finally get it and you're saying it's of the devil I mean I could just imagine what the hell that's going to sound so this red this red horse with the great sword is going to end this temporary time of peace paragraph B the great sword it will that speaks of violence and civil and military areas now it's great it's a great sword because of the numbers great numbers that it kills the great devastation it brings and the great sophistication and the technology of the military equipment and apparatus and all that's involved the firepower it will be great the sword will be great in every way it will it will be surprising to the nation's the word great isn't good right here in terms of the natural it's like this is this is a terrifying word paragraph C Jeremiah the prophet spoke about specifically the second seal Jeremiah 25 he said I will call for a sword this is the Lord speaking in context I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth and all the inhabitants of the earth I will call for a sword verse 30 the Lord will roar against all the inhabitants verse 31 and I abbreviated it in the notes you can it's quite an extensive chapter for the Lord has a controversy with the nation's he will plead his case against all flesh he will give those who are wicked over to the sword behold verse 32 disaster will go from nation to nation verse 33 at that day the slain of the Lord shall be from one end of the earth to the other Jeremiah is actually seeing 600 years before Christ the second seal he's looking 2,500 years into the future 2,500 years plus he is describing the second seal paragraph D excuse me paragraph D this writer will take peace from the earth now this peace it will be removed quite quickly but remember the world's been saying peace and safety until this hour they start getting nervous in the first seal when the Antichrist goes forth conquering and to conquer but it's bloodless conquest it's political aggression without actually killing anybody they're nervous they're going he's he's acting differently than he has in the past and then at the second seal he takes his mask off and he shows more he shows the truth of who he is it's a man of violence peace will be taken from the earth it will start off at civil unrest just social conflict and strife then it will go to oppression by the government your own government well I mean governments will press their own people their own people then it will end up into international conflict peace will be taken from the earth in all these arenas God offered the nation's a lamb and they said no so now God sent them the beast he says you don't want the lamb then you will have the beast I mean it's years later but from the historical point of view from God's point because I will give you what you want paragraph E now Jesus is the one releasing the second seal it just says it he opens the second seal and releases these events now this is contrary to what we believe about Jesus now we all know the famous verse we don't know what to do with it but we know it's there Matthew 10 verse 34 do not think I came to bring peace I came to bring I did not come to bring peace but I came to bring a sword Jesus was actually talking in the full sense there was certainly historical application through of this through through in 70 AD in different parts in history but this says its fullest application at the second seal he's releasing the sword he's lifting his hand off of evil man and allowing them to do what they do because he's gonna bring evil to the surface then he's gonna drive it off the planet and he's gonna do it in a way that magnifies his justice now he says don't think I came to bring peace you know Jesus is you know 30 something and somebody might say hey I remember 30 plus years ago the story when you were born you know I lived in your town I heard the story the angel said peace and goodwill of course you're coming to bring peace what do you mean not to bring peace and it means initially initially in the global sense in the global historical sense it turns globally there will be conflict before there's world peace and of course that conflict has been going on for 2,000 years since the cross but that conflict is going to come to a full manifestation and then the peace will fill the earth afterwards of course we labor for peace and we're mandated to labor for peace from the cross to the second coming but he said I want you to know they'll never be world peace until the sword is released in its fullness we pray for peace we labor for peace but we understand there's coming a plan where he will orchestrate it we don't need to orchestrate it where he will release the red horse the second seal now when Jesus said I did not come to bring peace on the earth he knew he knew he was gonna release the second seal 2,000 years later he knew all about it that wasn't a new idea to him John was surprised about the second seal of the great sword be released but Jesus wasn't he knew when he said this paragraph F he is the Prince of Peace Isaiah 9 the angel said he would bring peace and goodwill on the earth he will but he will actually he needs to confront the evil that's unrepentant of as part of the process of ultimately establishing peace in all nations which will happen in a second coming and then the Millennial Kingdom now this causes this Jesus who's coming releasing a sword on his way to make peace it creates great confusion in believers that don't understand the basics I'm not nobody understands fully what the scripture says about the end times but I mean just the basics you know the 10 or 15 fundamental principles about God's end-time purpose they don't understand that they're in conflict with what Jesus is saying in Matthew 10 because he's the Prince of Peace and we don't know what he's doing in Revelation chapter 6 releasing a sword it just seems like a contradiction but it's not because the Prince of Peace is confronting the issues necessary in order to establish world peace permanently true peace top of page 3 I won't go into detail on this but paragraph H from Daniel chapter 11 Daniel prophesied about the second seal he prophesied about the time the Antichrist would begin to aggressively pursue war in the second seal and the angel told Daniel in Daniel 11 verse 38 this man and in context it's clearly the Antichrist he will honor a god of fortress or God of war he shall honor the God of military power he's going to honor it with money meaning he's going to use unprecedented amounts of money to establish his military agenda and demons will be involved with supernatural power all also operating with him but unprecedented amounts of money to honor the God of war paragraph I Daniel's in the same prophecy he's recording what the angel says he the Antichrist shall enter countries he will overwhelm them he will overthrow them he verse 42 will be against them and he points out Egypt particularly will not escape his oppression so he's described by the angel he's describing the second seal he'll overwhelm overthrow and be against the countries of the earth now he won't take over every country but he will conquer many but not all of them there will be countries resisting him even at the end paragraph K now this writer is granted a sword God is the one that is releasing allowing this situation to take place he's not responsible for it in the sense evil operating in the human heart and demonic the evil in the demonic kingdom are ultimately responsible for the negative but what God's doing he's allowing the situation to take place where that evil can be unrestrained and therefore fully manifest it's granted 22 times in the book of Revelation it says it is granted or it is given and the vast majority of those the implication is clearly by God God is not surprised by these events they've been recorded for the church to study for 2,000 years they're not a surprise at all so then the living creature says paragraph L come and see he goes John he said tells me four times in the first four seals come near to God come close because you're never gonna see clearly if you don't connect with God in a deeper way because without connecting with Jesus in a deeper way or it's not like our intellect won't work it's that our biases will keep us from seeing clearly but when we come near him and our spirits are tenderized and our agendas are laid aside then we can see more clearly we have to come near to see clear because the reason that I and all of us don't see it's because we have agendas and we have biases in our viewpoints so we see and then we say no it's not what it says well what else could it say and we say well give me a minute I'll figure out some way to get rid of that verse but when you come near you see clear because your agendas and your biases become minimized Roman number three the third seal verse 5 when he that's Jesus opened the third seal it's Jesus acting again now this is equally troubling as taking peace from the earth that's famine on the earth like family like what people die of hunger babies die like not famine he opened the seal I heard the third living creature say John come close again see this understand its significance understand its levels of implications don't only think of time think of eternity you have to see clearly not just temporally you have to see from God's the big picture or you'll never ever get what's going on if you can't see if you could only see the here and now you're gonna have a biased and you're gonna have an agenda against this so you have to come near and you have to see clear he says this four times in a row because our temptation is to not come near and not to see clear but to stay in a place where our again our biases our agendas minimize clearly what the word says so I looked this time it's a black horse and he that said upon it had a pair of scales in his hand now I heard a voice now this is the voice of God speaking now it's coming from the midst of the living creatures now the living creatures are around the throne right the four living creatures are the ones saying holy holy holy around the throne night and day so there's a voice coming from where they are in other words it's coming from the throne Revelation 4 8 the living creatures are night and day around the throne so a voice from the throne says this describes the details of the famine a quart of wheat for a denarius three quarts of for denarius but don't harm the oil and the wine paragraph a so the black horse speaks of the sorrow in the morning and the sadness that will come to the earth the red horse spoke a bloodshed this will be sorrow and mourning and of course the most natural thing after a global conflict is famine they go together the time of war there's famine in the nations that are under the attack paragraph be a pair of scales that speaks of economics trade marketplace there's going to be a tremendous shift and what he's going to see when you do the math is the buying power is going to be reduced to one-tenth of what the buying power is normally in the world market it'd be one-tenth of what it's been in the just the last decades around the world just a ballpark ratio there the greatest economic paragraph be the greatest economic crisis of the greatest famine in history is going to yet come the greatest economic crisis and the greatest famine in history is yet to come now in the midst of it Jesus will be in the midst of his church and there will be supernatural provision I don't mean everybody will be eating fine dining that's not what I'm talking about but one of the most prominent miracles in the Gospels was the multiplying of the food it happened three times it's not the same story told three times it's three different occasions he multiplied food and it's recorded it's one of those prominent miracles of Jesus in Moses when he left Egypt when most prominent displays of the power of God was the multiplication of food or the provision of food and water supernaturally when Elijah was confronting Jezebel and the great drought and famine there was supernatural provision of food I believe there will be supernatural provision paragraph a quart of wheat for a denarius that's a simple message it's a bad message but it's a simple one a denarius was one day wages it's what a common worker received for one day of work but here's the problem a quart of wheat you can live on a quart of wheat barely you'll lose weight if all you eats a quart of wheat a day you won't die of starvation you lose you lose a little weight but you'll make it so a guy will work all day and he will only have food for one person to eat at the most meager level well he has a family of five but there's only enough for one to eat and that's they don't pay the house payment the car utilities just enough for one person to eat and the other four there's no provision it's a crisis of beyond what we can even imagine this on a global level paragraph D but three quarts of barley for denarius you can get three times as much barley barley is cheaper it's a inferior grain doesn't taste as good not as nutritious but the guy goes I worked all day I would rather have half the impact I don't know I'm not saying barley is half but I'd rather have less taste and nutrition but three of us in the family get to eat today so you get to have the quality a quart of grain or the sacrificial you have a quart of barley and three of you get a court I mean the options are terrible he goes on in paragraph F and the voice now this voice is coming from the throne the voice is coming with the throne is describing this crisis don't harm the oil and the wine and you can read the notes on that is on your own in essence there will be a very small elite in the Antichrist hierarchy that will have luxury even in the midst of the greatest famine in history now the Antichrist reign of terror by the time the third seal is happening people are I'm talking about the wicked in the nations they are troubled because again he's striking against the nations that were aligning with the harlot Babylon these these things happen one after the other by the way just one event on top of the other and they also hit his own kingdom all of these touch his own kingdom even though they are his acts they are ultimately destroying the resource of his own kingdom they are God's judgments against him and against the in the nations that are resisting his kingdom now this voice paragraph G is in the midst of the living creatures of the voice of God Jesus is the one actually orchestrating this at the highest level though he's using evil man and even the cooperation of demons but at the higher level evil men and demons would do that today if Jesus would let them they let them have their way but he won't let them have their way fully just a little bit but he's gonna take his hand off and let him have their way and this will actually become a judgment against their their own kingdoms and their own empires they're only the the Antichrist actions will come back on him very similar to Adolf Hitler his own actions came back and destroyed his own Empire and what God's doing in the seals he's letting men's actions bring judgment on men I mean if the Lord took his restraining hand right now off the nations we would end up in a mess right now but it's his goodness constantly keeping things in order in ways we don't grasp but on the in eternity we'll see the details of his leadership and we will just be awestruck how many things he kept in order because the nation's crowd if God was real why does he do something and he could easily answer if I took my hand off you wouldn't imagine the chaos the earth would be in if men got to do what they wanted paragraph one under G he's working for the eternal good of his people he's allowing these extreme measures because he's going to bring full blessing to the earth forever and ever and ever he's working from an eternal point of view not only a temporal one you'll never understand Jesus by only thinking of what he's doing for you in the next three months three years or ten years you have to think what he's doing for you and then in the next three million years not only the next three years that's the only way that you can relate to him you will miss out on his leadership because he cares too much about you and me to only let things be released that have an impact right now in the three-year time frame he's thinking of our the global eternal I'm talking about the eternal and the long-term conditions of the nation's he's saying by speaking his voice I will not be distant I will not be uninvolved I will monitor all of this I will be there I understand it I am the one who's who is describing it top of page five the fourth seal behold a pale horse the name of him who said on it was death and Hades followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with a sword to kill with hunger to kill with death and by the beast of the earth so the pale horse some translations instead of the word pale they will put the pale literally or the ashen which is the color of death the color of the decay of death now one fourth of the earth is going to die of unnatural deaths now everybody dies but these are unnatural deaths one-fourth of the earth this is so staggering we can't hardly even get our mind around that this number is so huge we can't grasp it paragraph C now the name of the writer on this pale green or ashen horse his name is death that's the spirit of death so the spirit of death is going to be released in a way that's beyond the normal to a way that the spirit of death operates in a heightened way on a global level spirit of death spirit of death will be in hot pursuit of the victims of the earth it's on a horse chasing the victims of the earth now paragraph C death is what happens to a person's body Hades is the place they go Hades is a place death is what happens when you when a person's spirit leaves their body but the unbelievers go to Hades that's a prison they go to waiting the final judgment so death and Hades are not synonymous they go together when you die your spirit leaves your physical body you go to paradise you go to God's presence an unbeliever a demon spirit will bring them captive to Hades in prison Hades another word for Hades is hell we're familiar with hell but it's often translated Hades which is a prison it's the county jail so to speak because the federal prison the final prison is the lake of fire after the great white throne so all that die unrighteous who die they go to the county jail so to speak they go to Hades until after the Millennial Kingdom then they're cast forever in the federal prison which is the lake of fire that's the big sentence this is only the temporary one Hades because you've read at the end of Revelation 20 where Hades is thrown into the lake of fire it means everybody that's in that temporary prison all of them billions and billions are thrown into the lake of fire that's what it means by Hades is thrown into the lake of fire it back I mean later on in Revelation 20 verse about 11 or 12 something like that so the picture is graphic that the spirit of death is on the horse and the spirit of death takes the person and then Hades the demon responsible to imprison them is keeping pace with the horse the Hades is as eager as death is says I'm keeping pace with you I want to imprison them and bring them to torment right now it's a terrifying picture top of page 6 it says power was given to them over a fourth fourth of the earth this is a staggering concept now to them that's death in Hades but it I believe that them is it only just the four seal but my assumption is I could be wrong on this that it's them is the all four judgments the first second third fourth seals are all coming to a conclusion here in the fourth one my assumption is the one-fourth of the earth is the total of all those that have died in seal one two three four but it might be just the fourth so either way it's really bad news either way it goes it's so big we can't grasp it the power was given to them and is the them the first four seals or is the them death and Hades both and either or paragraph J now these are the same four judgments that God spoke to Ezekiel about look at Ezekiel 14 verse 21 thus says the Lord how much more will it shall it be when I send my four severe judgments the sword famine wild beasts and pestilence the same for the Lord identifies with them in a special way he calls them these are my four severe judgments now the sword number one speaks of the human violence that's the second seal the famine is the third seal death the word death most Bibles translate it and it is the word often translated in the New Testament as disease or pestilence my assumption I'm not a Greek scholar but my assumption having read a number that are scholars they say that this word death is the word translated in the New Testament a number of times disease and pestilence and it ends up if it is the word pestilence which might that is my assumption it ends up being the same for severe judgments that God told Ezekiel about and so my assumption is number three it's it's disease so the uniqueness of the fourth seal is the disease dimension the disease in the wild because the sword of the famine have already been operating from the second and third seal now the wild beasts that's an interesting one well they're all interesting when men die wild beasts multiply disease carries wild beasts so it might not just be the wild beast attacking people it may be the wild beasts as carriers of disease because that's a reality and if you remember the passage in Revelation 12 verse 9 we looked at it last night when there's war in the heavens and Satan and all of his demons are cast to the earth Revelation 12 9 says they will be cast down to the earth and demons in the Gospels are shown to inhabit animals and so there's going to be billions of demons on the earth and wild animals and the two will come together and no doubt there's something related to that as well so it's animals attacking as well as very possible animals as carriers of pestilence so attacking and pestilence are the two main ways that I think of this they're obviously there could be much more mud many more applications than then I could think of or or any of us could at this time okay in conclusion here I want to give you a sense now this you won't relate to this but you'll go like oh and then you'll just cut you don't even know I don't know what to do with this but I want to give you the magnitude of what one-fourth of the earth dying means the projected population in 2025 is 8 billion people I'm not saying the Lord's coming in 2025 that's not remotely saying that I'm just giving a projection 8 billion so I picked it when the number was round because I'm not good at math so that's why I was looking for a date where there was around number one if if it happened to be around that time and it may be a few decades later maybe earlier or later I don't know nobody knows the day of the hour if a fourth of the earth died that would be 2 billion people 2 billion 2 billion like I can't get my brain around 2 billion so instead of 8 billion they would now be 6 billion on the earth paragraph B we find out in Revelation 9 verse 15 that in the sixth trumpet a third of the of the earth dies this is about a year two later after a fourth dies another year two goes by and now a third more die so a third of 6 billion is another 2 billion these are two different waves of death so the total is 4 billion 4 billion people now you understand why people want to make this symbolic they've got to get rid of these numbers somehow it's easier just to make it symbolic and just go on your way but it's not symbolic and the Bible gives a number unless it indicates it is symbolic because there's sometimes the scripture makes it clear it's symbolic but in the book of Revelation we are to take it at face value except it indicates a symbolic which it does maybe 10 or 15 times in the book it tells you the angel says in essence hey this is symbolic then of course you take it symbolic but if not we don't have the liberty to go there we have to take the scripture face value paragraph C the death toll of World War two 50 billion people 50 million I say billion I'd say million 50 million approximately nobody knows the exact number but approximately 50 million 4 billion is about a hundred times the total of that I mean we can't even we can't get our mind around this at all the 4 billion people died in the final three and a half years of the seals trumpets and bowls that means 3 million a day 3 million a day that's approximate that means that's about the death toll of World War two almost double every single month for 42 months in a row we'll end with this prophecy of Jesus Jesus said there will be great tribulation such as never such has not been since the beginning of the world nor shall it ever be unless those days were cut short no human being would be physically saved it's about nobody would survive it on the earth Jesus the Prophet now we love Jesus the Savior we love Jesus the healer Jesus the provider but Jesus the Prophet who said this we don't know what to do with Jesus the Prophet he's the one that gave us the book of Revelation Jesus the Prophet is a trouble we like the Savior the healer the provider the helper the forgiver but Jesus the Prophet is troublesome when I look at this this is should be in our thinking one of the weightiest negative prophecies there's I like the positive ones but in the category the negative this is Jesus this isn't Jeremiah the curse he's moved by the Holy Spirit anyway this is Jesus describing the future the final hours before he comes this is I don't I look at this I say Lord this is you talking I love you I trust you I believe you oh what meaneth all this and he said I want to raise up forerunners I'm gonna raise up those that will be a source of wisdom and a vessel of salvation because the great harvest will come it'll be the hour of the victorious church the church will be the largest number and the greatest purity and the greatest power and the greatest victory any time in history amen let's stand so this is the second third and fourth seal next week we'll look at the fifth and sixth seal now if you're a little bit overwhelmed that means you were listening if you go hey it's cool this is neat stuff you were totally not listening no seriously this isn't Bible Jeopardy stuff you know hey give me that verse I think I got that one verse well you know all the verses in Revelation this is not that this is really Jesus's loving and wise plan to drive evil off the planet to apply the benefit of the cross to history in fullness