In this sermon, the preacher discusses the opening of the fourth seal in the book of Revelation. The fourth seal reveals a pale horse, symbolizing death, and hell follows with it. The power is given to them to kill a fourth part of the earth with sword, hunger, death, and beasts. The preacher emphasizes that this judgment is a consequence of humanity's rejection of Jesus Christ and their refusal to repent and believe the gospel.

I'm asking you to turn first to Matthew 24, and then I shall have you turn to Revelation chapter 6. But a few verses from our Lord's last declaration concerning the things that were to come from Matthew chapter 24. I begin reading with verse 3. And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my namesake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations. Then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place. Whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which be on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world, to this time no nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even under the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. And I trust that you will read the remainder of this chapter in your own reading in the very near future. Now, please, to Revelation chapter 6, the opening of the six seals. May I suggest to you certain preliminary things that you ought to see about this chapter before we go into it. As these six seals are opened, as John beholds them open, there is nothing read from the book at the opening of each seal. It isn't as though each seal had a certain section of the book which was opened at the time, which was read at the time of the opening. Rather it is as though these six seals are giving for us certain general, broad principles, which are to characterize the entire period from the time that John beheld the vision until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we are not endeavoring by means of these seals to establish a chronology. We are not endeavoring to fit certain periods of history into the pattern of the seals. But we are seeking to understand the relevance of these seals to our day and to our generation, and we are endeavoring to see to what degree they may be particularly applicable now in these days when the ends of the ages have come to focus. But remember John is in the spirit on the Lord's day. He has seen the Lord in the midst of the throne. These four and twenty elders with the seats that have been provided, all of them occupied. We have seen the Lord Jesus Christ surrounded by the beasts that testify to the fullness of his ministry. And now we have the opening of the seals. You recall that when the book was first beheld, it was in the right hand of God upon the throne, and there was no man worthy to open the book. And John wept. And one of the elders said, Weep not, for the lion of the tribe of Judah, of the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book. And we see as we begin reading with the first verse, and I shall read and then comment on through the chapter, but we see as we begin to read the opening of the book by the one that was worthy, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. In studying the reference, the comments that have been made by preachers down across the centuries about this white horse and the one that sat upon it, there have been innumerable analogies drawn. Almost every generation has found some unusual analogy and has applied it to some circumstance and some situation. For everyone from the Antichrist to the Lord Jesus Christ has been pointed out by this Scripture. But may I suggest to you that actually what we are seeing here is that God has an agency that's working through providences. God is moving through the administration of providences in the affairs of men. And in this white horse and the one that is seated upon it, I personally believe that we have a personification of the saving power of the gospel. That is, the whole word of God. The motto of the Christian Missionary Alliance, I believe, is apropos to this when we hear it, the whole Bible for the whole world. Essentially, that is what you have. For you have a white horse, speaking of purity, if you wish to follow the general association throughout the Scripture, and you have one with the bow. And oh, how penetrating has been the arrow of truth as it has come from the bow of the sovereign purpose of God and found its way into the hearts of men. Slain it has its thousands. And we know that it is that arrow of truth that has been driven home to the heart by the Spirit of God that prepares men for grace and brings them the message of grace. And then we see that there is a crown. The crown is given unto him. He went forth conquering and to conquer. I believe that in this you have the finality of the victory of the word over all of the enemies that have been arrayed against it through all the centuries past. Now you meditate upon that. You think about that and see if this does not indicate something of what John saw at the very beginning, the opening of the seal. He sees that there is to be a going forth through of all the ages of the word. And such has been the case. In that first generation after the founding of the church, the civilized world as it was known by those responsible to reach it, had the gospel carried to every corner, to every place. Paul himself could say he had fully preached the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum. And we know that Thomas carried the gospel to India and planted the church in South India. Until today the largest percentage of those that are called Christian by the Indian government are the spiritual descendants of the effort that was established by the apostle Thomas. And so at that beginning time the white horse with the bow went forth conquering and to conquer. And the conquest was complete so that in one generation the world had heard the gospel and that Rome had felt the impact of this new thing that actually shook it to its foundations and caused its disintegration. But what he is seeing is that this white horse is going to gallop on down across the centuries and continue to go. And we would therefore believe that God has had throughout all the ages, even those ages called dark ages, his witnesses and the testimony has gone even as today it is going. We rejoice that God is making the wrath of men to praise him. I think I related to you how when the Russian government, the atheist Russian communist government refused to let Bibles go into the Ukraine, that God turned the wrath of men to praise him. When Hitler invaded Russia and came through the Ukraine, one of the things he did to thwart the communist government was to gather up all of the Bibles in the Russian language that he could find anywhere in Europe and give them out judiciously and wisely to teachers and to people that were leaders in their community. And those Bibles were secreted, were hidden, they were taken apart, the sewings and the threads were carefully removed, the pages were divided, and the individuals would hide that in their shoe or someplace else and memorize it and very tenderly trade it for another page and would memorize that. And so he made the wrath of men to praise him, and the word went on. So he's been doing this. It was Voltaire that said well over a hundred years ago, within one generation the Bible will be a book that has lost all relevance. Isn't it strange? The Bible was going to be destroyed by the criticism of Voltaire. Do you know what has happened? I'm sure you do. That his very house in Paris is a depot for the British and Foreign Bible Society, and throughout the time for these decades it has been the center from which the Bibles have gone into the whole of France. And this is the case. The white horse is riding and has the bow and the crown and will conquer. This is what John was to see at the opening of the first seal, that God's sovereign purpose through his word would be achieved. I'm glad that the first seal revealed this. I'm glad that he saw this. And I'm glad that tonight, in spite of everything that is being done, all the machinations of wicked men to bring to nothing, the plans of Jesus Christ are themselves to be brought to nothing, and that the word of God is going to prosper in the things where to God has sent it. This is the case. This has been the case. And I know that when the crown is there that this one has conquered, you see that finality of victory that is going to be rendered to the Lord Jesus Christ through the word. The second seal begins with verse three. And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red, and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. And there was given unto him a great sword. Undoubtedly, we need not strain or press to find out that which this second seal symbolizes. War. War has characterized the entire period since our Lord Jesus said there shall be wars and rumors of wars. Some historian reported that there had only been a period of seven years since the time of Christ when there had not been war. But, of course, he was not carrying in mind at the time he said that the intertribal war in primitive areas. We will discover that in this entire period, perhaps in all of human history, because of the presence of sin and the power of sin in the lives of men, this red horse has been moving. It characterizes the entire age. John was to see then by the opening of the second seal that while the white horse of the Word of God was to go on accomplishing its purpose, it would do it with the presence of war. It would be there. It was to be expected. It was to be anticipated. Of course, when I say to be expected and anticipated, I want you to understand that God expressly commanded the church to pray for our rulers that we might dwell in peace. And I would like right now to say that I believe it is incumbent upon us to do everything we possibly can to strive with every means we possess to avoid war in our generation. I think that it is only reasonable that any people living should pray that God would so control their leaders and so direct their rulers and so manage the international affairs that that generation and the children that from it come might dwell in peace. I do not believe that we are to acquiesce to it at all. He said it would be. He said there would be wars. But he commanded us to pray that there might be peace. And therefore it is our responsibility for this generation to use every influence we have that's legitimate and right to avoid war, to pray that we may be spared from it, and in no wise contribute by our apathy or our indifference to the bringing on of such. If it is true that we are the salt of the earth, if it is true that we are the light of the world, then it is probably true that the influence and the significance of Christians at prayer is far greater than the calculations of such worthy tribunals as the United Nations would ever guess. I suppose the reading of this little book by Norman Grubb, the Reese Howells intercessor, introduces us to a staggering thought, that at the time the British soldiers were being driven out of Europe and to Dunkirk and were to be evacuated, that the Spirit of God came upon Reese Howells in Wales with a tremendous burden of intercession. Not knowing exactly what it was, for some reason at least he was deeply burdened, greatly concerned that God would do something very specific and very definite. And everyone that had any part in that will testify that the weather that accompanied the evacuation of the soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk was supernaturally, was marvelously modified by the Lord. It was kept calm so that little boats could roll across or go by motors over that otherwise tempestuous piece of water. And those who were close to it would say that not simply through the ministry of Reese Howells, but certainly through the ministry of God's people who were concerned that God's hand had been moved and released to work, that that evacuation should have been completed without tremendous loss of life. And I think that the Church of Jesus Christ must recognize that in every area that it is found, in every place that it is planted, that it is to do all that it can to stop the going forth of the red horse. It will go. In spite of all that men do, Christians do, in spite of all prayers that we would have, we know that there is no promise in the Word of God that would indicate that by our prayers wars will cease from the earth. But we can pray and we can labor that in any given generation, in any given locality, we might be spared. But at the same time, having done that, we must recognize that just as the sun falls upon the just and the unjust, and just as the rain falls upon the just and the unjust, so it could be that war should come with all of its ravaging attack upon the righteous as well as the wicked. And our heart should be prepared knowing that this second seal has said, and our Lord has affirmed, that there shall be wars and rumors of wars. This is the case. And John saw it as characterizing the entire age. The third seal is given to us in verses 5 and 6. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld and lo, a black horse. And he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny. And see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. This has been variously interpreted by preachers across the centuries. They've tried to see it as the scourge of famine. They've tried to associate it with individuals such as Nero and others across the years who have terrorized their generation. But my own personal feeling about this black horse is that it is the failure of just and equitable distribution of earth's products. You see a balance. And you see the balance is awry. And you hear someone say, A measure of wheat for a penny. Now this is not a famine price. A measure of wheat for a penny. A penny was a day's wage at the time this was said. And so what was being stated was a man works a day for a measure of wheat. Now this was not exorbitant. It doesn't certainly speak of a famine situation. But it does speak of a person's being unable to provide for his family properly. That the price of food is out of balance with the total needs of the family. And so this black horse would speak of the judgment of the calamity of dislocation if you please. It has happened across these centuries since the time of Christ. The rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. It has seemed this has characterized the ages. Some have lived in abundance and some have lived in poverty. Some have had more than they needed and could squander it. Others have had less than they needed and have suffered. It has characterized all countries. It has characterized all ages. It has not changed at all. While we are worrying about building granaries to store our corn and our wheat, we know that there are countries that are starving for want of corn and wheat. And this that we see today in the twentieth century is characteristic of the entire period. And this is the black horse. And what does it reveal? It reveals selfishness in the hearts of men. The inequitable distribution of goods and earth's products. And the consequence of this is people have, just as men have tried to eliminate war by various political expediencies and organizational means and power pacts of one sort and another, and have ignored sin, so we have seen individuals and governments try to achieve social equality and economic justice, and ignore sin in the hearts of people. And so what John saw with the opening of this third seal was that all across the ages there would be this inequity, this lack of balance, and this lack of proper distribution that would cause people that were denied to rise up in revolt to secure more for themselves and cause others to become apathetic and indifferent. It's been the history of nations down across the centuries. And John saw it as the black horse, the balance in the hand and gone awry. It was to characterize the whole time that the gospel was being preached. Just as war would be there, so there would be social injustice and there would be economic inequality. And it would be the cause of constant boiling and of dissatisfaction. It would be the black horse riding through the entire age that the church should be ministering. Oh, how contrary this is to what the Lord Jesus said. If you see your brother suffer and have need, give to him. If you have two coats and your brother has none, give him one. The scripture has made it so clear that the ethics of the church are to be entirely contrary. And you know full well, do you not, that it has been when the church has been associated with the black horse or inequality, that it has been brought under such terrific fire. For instance, the history of Russia can never be understood apart from the fact that the church in all of its futile aristocracy and its great possessions was content to live off of the proceeds of an impoverished people. The Lord never intended the church to be that way. This was never his plan, never his thought, and never his purpose. And consequently, it becomes salt without savor to be cast out and trodden underfoot of men. I do not see any significance here relative to the church becoming participant in the nefarious work of the black horse, but it's such has been the case. And whenever it's happened, the hand of God has been taken off the church and he's allowed the gates of hell to sweep over it and to destroy it. Now the fourth seal, we see this in verses seven and eight. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see. And I looked and behold a pale horse and his name that sat on him was death and hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts of the earth. Now there's no need for us to speculate as to the symbolism of this. It's stated expressly that throughout this entire age that the gospel was to be preached, calamitous death by judgment was to characterize the period. It was to be, as you see, by the sword. They were to die. Multitudes were to die. Not that God was causing their death in the sense of willing it, but in their iniquity, in their rebellion, in their sin, the pale horse was sent forth. And this has characterized the entire history since the time of Christ. There has been the killing with the sword. And you think of the devastating scourges that have swept down. You think of Attila the Hun and the hordes that have come out of northern Europe and down across Italy and Rome. And you realize that it was to tear at a system which had become selfish and cruel and brutal. And then when you think of Mohammed raised up sweeping across North Africa, devastating a land that had had the gospel for seven or eight centuries because they'd become salt without savor, you realize that in addition to the natural consequence of the events, the providential events, that it's been necessary for God at times to send the pale horse out in order to deal with that which has had to have on it the stamp of judgment. And so God is here participating. You cannot escape that. He is the one that has sent forth the pale horse because of men's sin and men's rebellion. And as John saw it, he saw that there never would be a time when the pale horse would not need to come, when death by calamitous judgment would not be needed. It characterizes the entire period that the gospel is to be preached. Now the fifth seal, verses 9 through 11. Each of the others have had but two verses. This has three. And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them. And it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled. Unquestionably, this fifth seal symbolizes martyrdom. Martyrdom for the name of Jesus Christ. Martyrdom for the sake of Jesus Christ. Martyrdom because they stood for the word of God. What is John seeing? That from the time that the seal is opened until the consummation of all things, there will be persecution of the people of God. You are not surprised therefore to hear the Apostle Paul say, They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It ought not to surprise you. It ought not to amaze you that this should be the case. Sometimes you hear the question asked, How is the world treating you? Many times you know the answer is one of shame. The world is treating me far better than I deserve and far too good. Is the world a friend of grace today? Do you believe that the wicked men of our generation love Jesus Christ any more than the generation that slew him? Do you think that Christians that are what Jesus Christ intended Christians to be are any more welcome now than they have been in the past? I don't. I don't. The only thing that I can see is that the devil has lost all fear of Christianity in America and we can be tolerated because we have so little spiritual stamina, so little spiritual strength, so little spiritual authority and so little spiritual power. Could it be that this is the reason why? Oh, we are deeply grateful to our forefathers for providing a land where we are allowed to live in this measure of freedom that foes are seeking by every subtle and devious means to take from us and that we must hold far more precious than we do if we are to keep it for our children. But let me ask you, do you really feel that lost men, wicked men are any nearer to loving Jesus Christ than when they stood beside him and cried, crucify him? Oh no, I don't. And I think that the consequence of this is that we in our day and in our generation should recognize that you stand holy for the Lord and you stand holy for the word that there will be persecution. Now, I think also that we should recognize that it is for the good far more terrifying application to other people than to us because we've been more favored than any other people on the face of the earth. I wonder if your heart does not melt within you when you hear the reports out of China. I do not know, I'm not an authority on it by any means. I appreciate the book, Come Wind, Come Weather, that's been written by one of the CIM missionaries, one that you'd do well to read if you want to understand what's going on in China. It's probably the most authoritative text that you can find. But when you think that the government itself says that 20 million people have been deprived of existence and a great many of that number have been Christians who for faith in Christ have been deprived of existence, isn't that a subtle way of saying murdered or martyred deprived of existence for the reason that they love Jesus Christ? And then when you realize that in North Africa of the first 1,000 Muslims that were converted to Christ in the first hundred years' missions in North Africa, 500 of them were died martyrs' deaths. So we are grateful that there have been those across North Africa that have had Christian background. But those that have labored in the Muslim countries have testified that of the first 1,000 that were known to have renounced Islam and had been baptized that the holy war had been taken. You know that one of the pillars of wisdom of Islam is to kill the infidel and that these had died. Now I tell you that in some places it's a very costly thing to believe on Christ. I want to ask you, would you have been baptized as readily as you were if you knew that your family would take a blood oath not to rest until they'd slain you? I wonder. Now I want us to have sympathy given of God for the Church of Jesus Christ as it suffers today. And we must understand that the role of martyrs is not complete. Hebrews 11 didn't stop as though it were finished and there are those today whose names are being added. And there will be more. How long? Oh Lord, holy and true, how long? Oh, how long? This is the cry. And the answer that comes is a little while, a little season, until your fellow slaves and their brethren that should be killed were fulfilled when the number is complete, when the number is complete. Have you ever asked yourself, do you have a martyr's faith in Jesus Christ? Do you? I wonder. I wonder if it shouldn't be well for us to come to the place where we have so identified ourselves with Christ in our union with him in his death that we've made preparation for that time. You know, it's amazing what people will do to protect their lives. You remember what Judas did in betraying the Lord for gain and you remember what Peter did in betraying the Lord for protection. In your heart, mine isn't any different than theirs. I wonder if it shouldn't be that today we come to the place where there's a distance between us and everything we hold dear. How dear is life to you? How dear is life? It seems as though the Lord would have us embrace the cross in such reality that should it be outlawed by some sovereign change of circumstance that we should die martyr's deaths, that we would have been prepared. You say this is a terribly depressing thing. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. Because if we rightly understand it, these were they that were robed in white and to be martyred was to be taken immediately into the presence of the glorious Lord. I wonder if in that day this company that have stood even unto death will not have had a place near the cross nearer to the throne of God than those of us that have lived our days in comparative peace and safety. And theirs may be the better part. Oh, I don't believe that any of us should lose our love for life, but I do think we should lose the whole that it has upon us. What decisions, what motivates your decisions? What moves you? What holds you? What do you count dearer than Christ? This is the question. And when you come to the place now that nothing is dearer than Christ and you're sure of that, then you know that by virtue of your union with him in his death, whatever he allows to come, what did John see? He saw that the entire period of the church would have its martyrs. It's always been thus and it will always be so. Nothing will change it, but the completing of the number and the fulfilling of it. Now the sixth seal. And we turn to the twelfth verse on to the seventeenth. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? And what was the sixth seal? It was the unveiling of this, that all that in their wickedness had rejected him would have him come and reject them. And you see Jesus Christ presents this alternative to the sons of men. The alternative is bow today and live, or refuse to bow now and be forced to bow then and die. When Jesus Christ left heaven's glory and came into the world, the Father made a covenant with the Son. And the covenant was this, that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that he was Lord. Now that covenant must be kept and it will be kept. And as the great white horse carries the gospel out, the message that is brought by the one that rides on the horse is repent and believe the gospel. Repent of your sin, turn from your iniquity, leave your evil way, cast yourself at the feet of Jesus Christ, receive him into your heart as sovereign to rule and savior to deliver from the penalty of sin and its power. But for those that see him thus revealed as the Lamb and despise him and count the blood of his sacrifice an unworthy thing and do despot to the spirit of grace, to such as reject, who know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed in flaming fire with his angels to take vengeance on such. This is the testimony of the scripture. This is what he says. And this is the scene, this is the occasion. And oh the contrast that's here. It is not that they are to flee from the face of the lion, for we would expect the lion to be filled with terrifying anger. But they call to the mountains and the rocks saying fall on us and hide us from the face of the one that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For when the Lamb becomes wrathful, his wrath is exceeding great far beyond that of the lion. The lion has the angry nature for he is a sovereign and in the case of Jesus Christ the analogy demands that he be obeyed. But here is the one that hung on the cross, that reached out and embraced a world of sinners and died for them, that sent the message out to be carried to everyone, to all creatures, this good news of salvation. And those that have rejected Jesus Christ and spurned the gospel and have refused the overtures of his grace and the offer of pardon and the offer of mercy and the offer of peace and the offer of salvation, have gone on in their rebellion, armed against the people of God, serving in Satan's army to destroy and to kill and to cause the roster of the martyrs to be increased. And they thought they have prevailed, only to die and then to be raised again from the dead and to be forced to come before the one that sits upon the throne. And when they see the wrath of the lamb, they're going to hide themselves in the caves and call to the mountains to fall and cover them. So terrifying will be the revelation of Jesus Christ in his judging work. And this is what John saw, this is what he saw, as he beheld the opening of the sixth seal, he saw that all iniquity shall be punished and all evildoers shall be judged, that no one will ever get by with evil, that sin will not go unpunished and sinners will not escape, but it will be called into judgment. And so, as he could see the going forth of the white horse to carry the gospel, he said, has a crown, he's going forth to conquer and conquering, he knew that there would be a final victory of the word. He saw the second seal with war and realized that through the entire period of the church war would prevail upon the earth. He saw the third seal with inequity and dislocation of products so that there would be suffering on the part of many with plenty on the part of others, this failure to share the world's goods, and that this should be the cause of strife and difficulty in raising up of great political efforts that would mean death and sorrow. He saw that this black horse should ride through the entire period. Then he saw that there would be death by judgment, that God would have to come and judge nations and people. He also saw that martyrdom would characterize the entire church age, but he also saw that those that spurn mercy and reject the offer of pardon and forgiveness must one day appear before the lamb that sits upon the throne, whose visage will be so terrifying that seeing him no longer the meek and lowly Jesus, no longer the one that says, come unto me, all ye that labor under heavy laden, no longer the one that holds out nail-pierced hands and says, by these wounds have your sins been remitted, but now the one who in sternness and severity said, you have spurned mercy, you have spurned grace, you have rejected love, and now you must die. And John saw the throne and the one that sat upon it, and he saw the ultimate triumph of Jesus Christ over all evil. This is what was under the six seals. But as I'm speaking tonight, am I speaking to someone that's dared to reject Jesus Christ, spurned him, refused him? Oh, I say to you tonight, if there is the slightest drawing of the Holy Ghost in your heart, eat it, eat it, eat it, for he can be wounded, and his spirit will not always strive with man. You're going to meet Jesus Christ. You're going to meet him someday. You'll either meet him now in time of your own will and bow before him and receive pardon, forgiveness, and eternal life, or you will go out, sin past the day of grace, die in your sins, and meet him at the throne. But you must meet Jesus Christ. Tonight the door of mercy is wide open, and tonight the Lamb is there reaching out to you and drawing you and saying, whosoever will may come. Tonight there's pardon. Tonight there's cleansing. Tonight there's forgiveness. If I'm speaking to someone that's backslidden, once had a profession of faith, but sin has come in, and your heart and life has been corrupted. Your joy is gone. He's saying, come, for he loves to receive the backslider and to pardon and cleanse. Let us bow in prayer. We linger for just a moment to let what you've seen beneath the six seals come again to your mind. Oh, my heart cries out to God for him to make it easy for the needy one to come tonight. For someone, perhaps this is the last time you'll ever feel the drawing cords of love. You'll ever hear the entreating voice pleading with you to come and take the gift of eternal life. No man knows. But oh, how dangerous it is to tread under feet of indifference and procrastination and selfishness. He offered mercy of God in Jesus Christ. For though he's a lamb today, he will be a lamb upon the throne with no possibility of mercy then. You must meet him. You must meet Christ. You must meet him. You can of your choice meet him now and live or meet him then, but it will be too late to live. Everything is drawing you. Everything is moving you. Prayer of God's people. The treaty of the speaker. The wooing of the Holy Ghost. The invitation of the word of God. Everything is moving to you tonight to make this the hour when you come to him. While our heads are bowed and eyes are closed, I wonder if there are not those to whom God is speaking, either never have made profession or backslidden, or whatever it is there's a need in your life. And I wonder if while every other eye is closed and mine alone is open, you by your upraised hand would say, I've heard the voice of Jesus say, come unto me and rest. I'm coming tonight. Pray for me. Would you put your hand up? Would you anyone anywhere put it up and take it down again? God has found me out. I hear his voice and I'm coming. Would you, only taking a moment, our father thou to see this people and know them. Grant, Lord, that thy word shall be to us a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our way. We shall realize that all that we've read and heard has come to focus in these times, the ends of the ages, and that we're nearer to that revelation of the Lamb upon the throne now than any other people in history. Grant, Lord, that those of us that love Christ may have his burden for the unsaved. May this week be characterized by a new sense of concern and passion for the lost around us. Lord, if each one of us that were here had someone for whom we'd prayed and someone to whom we'd witnessed and someone to that knew we cared that we'd brought with us to this service, thou couldst have had those to whom thy word would have found its way in saving love. Grant, Lord, that in the days to come that we shall have a greater burden for the unsaved than we've had in the past, but show us now that it's the Lamb upon the throne, the Lamb that was slain, and help us to see the Lord Jesus dying for us, shedding his blood, that we might be saved, that we might be cleansed, that we might be kept. Oh, Father, we magnify the Lamb that was slain. We would glorify him and praise thee that we still live in the day called now, the day of salvation, because we're here, Lord, because we're here, and thou art here. Oh, God, let the Holy Ghost do that work in our lives that will bring greater glory to Jesus Christ than he's had from us in the past. In his name, for his sake, amen. Let us stand for the benediction. Now unto him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and honor, dominion and majesty now and forever. Amen.