The Seals are Broken

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI…

I wonder if you’ve ever had that feeling of being out of control, out of control. Whether it’s in the ocean, and you get taken out by a wave, and you start to panic a little bit, or whether you’ve ever been driving a car and then it skids out. You’re, you’re walking along an edge, and you, you feel the sort of ground give way under you, that sense of being out of control. It’s quite, it’s quite scary, isn’t it? You, you don’t know what’s gonna happen on the other side. Am I gonna be okay? What’s gonna happen? The sense of chaos erupting around you. Wh- what do you do when, when you feel like everything around you is like quicksand? You know, everything just gives way, and you’re filled with fear, and you wonder if there is anybody really in control of anything.

And, and the temptation for us as believers and the temptation for the Christians that John was recording this for in the first century, the temptation is for us to lose sight of the fact that there is someone in control, that when, when our lives fall apart, when we face challenges, difficulties, pain, persecution, oppression, death, that there is someone on the throne, that there is someone in control of history, that there is, as we sing, a potentate of time, a lord of time.

That was the, the big struggle for the early church. You see, for, for us, we’re used to governments that change pretty quickly, right? We live with this comfort, if you can call it a comfort, of knowing that every few years you get to vote for another government. And if you don’t like the present one, you can try and do something about it. And if you’re really keen, you can become a politician and try and become one yourself. You can do something, right?

Now, you imagine living in a land where you have an emperor, you have a dictator, you have a sovereign lord, one who would call himself God, who has ultimate authority over everything and no one can do anything about it, and he, he hates Christians. That’s a terrifying prospect, isn’t it? And then you live in a world where earthquakes are relatively common, but you don’t have earthquake proofing on buildings, and, and famines happen pretty regularly because you’re bound by seasons and you don’t have refrigerators, you don’t have freezer systems. You can’t just pop down to the local supermarket to stock up your shelves. You know, the, the COVID problem of running out of toilet paper is the least of your concerns, a world where everything is fickle and everything can change in the blink of an eye.

And, and the lord of your earthly reality is a man that hates the Church. He has no love for you. He has no love for the purposes of Christ. This is the world that the Christians of the first century dwell in. And, and though it’s not exactly the world we live in, we have the same struggles, don’t we? It might look different, but we have the same struggles. We have the same temptations to doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ is sovereign over all.

And as John is drawn into the vision of Revelation 6, one of the major themes that I want us to focus on We could do 7 We could do 6 sermons on this, but we’re just gonna do one overall sermon, and I just want us to see the sovereignty of Christ over history, the way that Christ is sovereign and in control of the entirety of your existence, the entirety of your life, the entirety of the lives of every person on the face of this globe, every square inch of the universe.

You see, we come into Revelation 6 with fresh in our mind the, the Lamb who has taken the scroll, right? A couple of weeks ago, we saw the Lamb ascending to the throne, taking the scroll of the purposes of God, the plan of God, the redemptive purposes of God, the, the, the plan of God to un- to work out His will in this Earth. And as he took that, he took it because he was the only one worthy to open up the scroll, to break the seals, and, and all of creation took up that song, worthy is the Lamb that was slain Why? Because he sacrificed himself and he’s worthy to receive the scroll, to action the plan of God with all sovereignty.

And as we come into chapter 6, the breaking of those seals begins. And you have to understand that there is a, there is a grouping here, and it’s a grouping we’re going to see over and over again, all the way through the sevens. You remember. don’t you? That we’ve talked about these sevens, there’s the 7 seals and there’s 7 bowls, and there’s 7 trumpets, and there’s 7 thunders, and all of these seals follow the same pattern. There is a group of 4 at the beginning, and then there are individuals after that. And the same here, there are 4 seals that go together. You’ve probably heard of them before, the 4 horsemen. It’s pretty famous in pop culture, you know? There’s bands named after it, there’s songs named after it, there’s movies named after it, there’s computer games that have it. There’s just, they’re everywhere, the famous 4 horsemen of the apocalypse.

And as Christ begins to open his seals, we’re confronted with these 4 horses. And, and what we have to see is that these 4 horses are not consecutive one after the other, like one horse is going to come, and then a little bit later on, a second horse is gonna come, and then a few centuries later, another horse is going to come. They’re all coming at the same time. It’s a reference to now. It’s a reference to the time between the leaving and the returning of Christ. In other words, what it’s showing us is the sovereignty of Jesus Christ over today, and over yesterday, and over tomorrow.

And as we see the sovereignty of Christ playing out, we, we see 4 aspects of life under the sun that perpetuate in our presence, and the first of these is represented with the first horse, which was white. Now, there’s a bunch of debate that we don’t need to go into as to who the rider on the horse is. Is it Jesus himself? Is it the devil? Is it the Antichrist? Is it a representation of something else? Given that the 4 horses go together, and that all 4 horses represent the reality of life in a cursed and fallen world, the reality of God’s judgment upon a sinful world, I think it’s best that we just understand the first horse are the same of all, as all the other horses. Every horse is a judgment of God upon the present world.

We sometimes forget this. We sometimes forget that this world is under the judgment of God. Do you remember what the curse of God was when, when Adam and Eve ate of the tree? “You will die.” And then he cursed them, and he cursed their labor, and he cursed the Earth, and he cursed life under the sun. And this leads to problems, and so the first of these he points to is the reality of conquering despots, you might call them. And so this rider comes forth with a bow for war, and victory, and a crown to conquer. In conquering to conquer, it’s the representation of what we commonly see all the way throughout history, which is sovereigns in this Earth that rise up and cause carnage. W- whether it’s Attila, whether it’s Hitler, or Stalin, all throughout history, what do we find? We find despotic rulers who rise up, who are, all of a sudden, and it feels like out of nowhere, they just pop up, and they receive power and authority to conquer, to take over nations, which is exactly what’s going on here.

And notice, though, where the conqueror gets his authority from. It’s given to him by command of Christ and his living creature. You see, Christ opens the seal, and at the sovereign breaking of the seal, the living creature at his presence then goes forth and says, “Come.” And what John is seeing is that God himself, in Christ, is in control of every ruler, authority, and power that is raised up in this universe. And so if you’re in the first century and you’re suffering under an emperor who is persecuting Christians, what John is seeing, and what the believers are being reminded of, is that Christ has put them there. Christ has raised that ruler up. Christ is in control of the rise and fall of that very emperor that you are afraid of. And it’s amazing how they crop up one day and disappear the next, don’t they? Especially in emperors in Rome, they had a habit of getting assassinated quite frequently. Christ would raise up rulers and he would cast them down.

It’s like in Romans 13. He raises up governments, he appoints rulers, he appoints magistrates, and this should be a comfort to us. Should be a comfort to us when we look at the world stage, and we consider everything that’s going on around us, and maybe you’re tempted to be afraid, and maybe you follow things like the World Economic Forum, or other things, and you, and you’re concerned about the trajectory of nations, and, or maybe the trajectory of the UN, or something else, and, and you’re fearful. But brothers and sisters, do you realize that not one government can appoint anybody, and no king can raise up without the complete sovereign authority of the Lord Jesus Christ? which means you don’t need to be afraid, which means you don’t need to be fearful or anxious. It means you can be at peace.

And so, in this first seal, we see the reality of governments and rulers and authorities under the sovereign hand of our king. That’s why he’s called the king of kings, right? And Lord of Lords.

The second one we see is, is, is a red horse, a bright red, verse 4. Its ri- its rider was permitted to take peace from the Earth so that the people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword. What’s this the representation of? It’s a representation of war, right? It’s the representation that when, when wars come upon us, now this is maybe a little bit harder for us to understand, because I’m n- I don’t think any of us were alive in World War II. Maybe John and Carol. Were you alive during World War II? Just. Just. But not many of us remember war, right? Now, our, our, our grandparents, my grandparents, they lived in Holland during World War II. It was a hard time to be alive, and if you ask them about war, it’s a very fearful reality. War is terrifying, war is ugly, and wars happen everywhere.

And Jesus is saying, “I’m in control of them. No war happens outside of my control. I give the authority for wars to take place.” It’s like he says in Matthew chapter 10, “I did not come to bring peace, but to bring the sword.” Uh, now is not the time of the removing of weaponry. That’s prophesied, isn’t it? In Isaiah, do you remember that? In Isaiah, I think in Jeremiah and Ezekiel as well, that a day is coming when they will take swords and spears and they will beat them into plows, and into farming utensils because there will never be war again. That day is coming, but it’s not here yet. And now, we live in a time of war. War will come, and war will go, and yet Jesus will still be upon the throne, and no war happens outside of his control, so we need not fear. When we hear of rumors of war, when we see armies posturing, and nations threatening other nations, because Christ is in control.

But then the third seal is broken, and out comes, out comes another horse, a black horse, and its rider seems to do something maybe a little bit strange to us. He, he comes out with scales, and then he says, strangely, “A, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and 3 quarts of barley for a denarius, and don’t harm the oil and wine.” Now, what is that about? I mean, what does that mean? Well, to, to the re- early church readers, they, they would have understood what this meant immediately. You see, a denarius was, if you’ve got a footnote it will probably tell you this. If you’ve got a denarius, it’s about a day’s work, right? It’s what you get paid for one day’s work. And a quart of wheat is just enough to feed a man. And so, what’s the picture? Picture is a man working a whole day and just scraping by enough to eat. And the second picture of 3 quarts of barley is just enough, if you’re lucky, to feed your family. And so, it’s this picture not of complete barren famine, but no one being able to provide for themselves, no one being able to store up for the future, no one being able to have a savings account.

But what is true for the poor is not necessarily true for the rich, because then on the other side we get the statement, “Do not harm the oil and the wine.” And so there are some people who get to enjoy the lovely things, oil, wine. And we’re getting painted a picture of the reality of there being rich and poor in the world, and yet even this is under the authority of Christ.

Now an element of this is the natural reality of war. War always leads to poor. War always leads to hunger. War always leads to famine. But it’s far more than that. It’s the reality that in this life, under the sun, there is always going to be po- Do you remember that saying Jesus says? Says you’ll always have the poor with you. You’ll always have the poor with you. I mean, we can look around our church, right? Some of us are more affluent than others. Some of us have enough to set some aside for the future, and others wonder if they’re gonna get to tomorrow. Some of us will be wondering how we’re gonna pay our bills next month, and some of us won’t really be concerned about that. And yet Christ is sovereign over this too. Christ apportions different lots to different people according to his sovereign choice.

And to the first-century church, this was a wonderful comfort, because one of the common persecutions that they faced was being pillaged. Burn the house, take the stuff, leave the Christian. Jesus is saying, “I, I can provide. I’m the Lord of Heaven and Earth. I have the cattle of the 1000, a thousand hills.” And so we see him, sovereign over conquering rulers and war and famine and hunger and riches, but then fourthly, as the 4th seal opens up, this pale, or maybe better, like a livid green color. If you’ve ever seen a decomposing animal, you know that, that insipid green color that dead things go? It’s that type of a colored horse. And he comes forth. His rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. horse of Death.

Why? Well, is, is there anything anyone fears more than death? It’s the great unknown, right? I mean, fear is, fear is found in many places. Um, my wife is terrified of cockroaches. I, I, I won’t say it’s an irrational fear, but it’s pretty close. Terrified of cockroaches. But the unknowing of death, especially for an unbeliever, but for all of us. What, what I mean, do you, do you happen to know anyone that’s done it, so we can talk to them and see what it’s like? ‘Cause I don’t. I’m n- not talking about the, the reality of, like, life after death, but just the experience of dying. There’s no one we can ask what it’s like. And people, people are terrified of death, right? I mean, have you seen how the world interacts with death? What do they do? They either ignore it as a non-reality, pretend like it doesn’t exist, or they use all of their energy and resources to keep it as far away as possible, right?

And yet Jesus says, “I am in control of death.” Not just, not just he’s sovereign, he sends death as he pleases. Christ is the one that causes people to live or die. Every breath of your mouth, every heartbeat in your chest is at the sovereign beckoning of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus says to his disciples, you know, “Can you add one day to your life? Can you add one hour to your life? No? Then don’t worry.” But Jesus can. Jesus adds hours and minutes to your life. The reason you are here this Sunday is because Christ willed you to live for another week. And so, church, Jesus says, “Trust me even in death. Whether it be death or as, as a result of a conquering king, or a war, or famine and hunger, or pestilence, it makes no difference. Trust me.”

And what’s striking is if you compare these 4 horsemen to the words of Jesus Christ in, in the Gospels, th- there’s a moment in each, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where he talks about, uh, the, the coming age and also his return, about the destruction of the temple. It’s Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21. And Jesus says, “There will be wars and rumors of wars. There will be famine and pestilence. There will be earthquakes. But the end is not yet. Don’t be anxious. Don’t be worried. Don’t be alarmed.” And that’s the message of these 4 seals.

See, the world is doing everything it can to get rid of these things, right? The world adamantly convinced that if we put all of our technology together, if we put all of our wisdom together, if we put all of our resources together, we can get rid of hunger forever. You know, we just kill off a third of all the people on the world, and there’ll be lots of resul- lots of food. I mean, that’s, that’s the plan of many of them. And, and if we just work hard with things like the UN, we can have global peace, and there won’t be war anymore. And, you know, through AI and cloning and everything else, I can live forever. I can just live. there’ll be robots that can go into my body, micro little robots that’ll get rid of cancers and everything. And I’ll be able to live forever.

The world is laboring to try and undo the reality of the judgment of God upon this world, while Christ is declaring, “I am sovereign over it. You don’t need to fear these things. Trust me in them.”

And I think there’s 2 really important exaltations and lessons for us in this. Firstly, for the world, it is a constant reminder of the need to repent. Every earthquake- Uh-huh. every famine, every war, every sickness, every death is a constant reminder of the heavy hand of the Lord Jesus Christ upon this world. It is a reminder of the sovereign judgment of God upon this world, and it is a reminder: repent, for a greater judgment is coming.

But for you who are believers, it’s a wonderful invitation to trust your sovereign Lord in whatever you’re going through. Times will come and go. Ooh. Death will happen. Wars will come. Sovereign dictators will rise up, and yet Christ will never be removed from the throne. And Christ will always care for you, and Christ will always sovereignly do what is for your very best. And so John is seeing the great comfort that comes to believers in the midst of great trials and temptations, that they can trust the Lord who is sovereign over history. And it’s just as true for you and I.

And these 4 seals go hand-in-hand over a fourth of the earth, we’re told in verse 8. It’s gonna intensify. This is just the beginning. The next set of seals, it’ll be a third, and eventually it’ll get to a whole as we follow the story, as it unpacks and intensifies each time.

And then, and then all of a sudden the 5th seal is broken, and it’s broken with a bang. Do you remember those crackers that you get at Christmas? Great find. You grab one and pull them. Boof! Pops. The seal of the 5th cracks with a big bang. Have a look at verse 9. The seal cracks and a noise, a great noise, arises from the altar. The crying out of a loud voice. It’s very emphatic. The bang is the voice of the martyrs. He opened the 5th seal. I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for their witness they had borne, and they cried out with a loud voice, “O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of the fellow servants and their brothers should be complete who were to be killed as they themselves had been killed.

Now, did, did you notice where the martyrs are? Under the altar. And the altar is right by the throne. This, this seal is about Christ’s sovereignty over persecution, over martyrdom. Now, for you and I, maybe that’s not as relevant, but for the early church, that was a real, real situation, wasn’t it? Th- they’ve all lost loved ones. They’ve all suffered under persecution. Persecution is almost a daily or weekly reality for the early church, and Jesus declares that he is Lord over it, and this cry erupts, but what is this cry for? They cry out for justice. This is not the cry for revenge, by the way. This is not the, the martyrs saying, “Lord, would you take revenge on them?” No, it’s a cry for justice, “Lord, your justice is not being done. Your justice is not being met. How long until your holy justice is established upon the Earth?”

That’s the request. Why? Because they’re seeing the blood of the innocent shed. They are the innocent. And, and brothers and sisters, this is still true today, right? Uh, I was talking to my good friend, Jeff, this week, and h- and No, Luke, I was talking to Luke. I talk to a lot of people. I was talking to Luke, and he was telling me he met a man from a, a little country in Africa. I’ve forgotten the name, because I’ve only ever heard it th- once. I forgot the name of the country. Um, and, and he was preaching, so they threw him in jail, and he wouldn’t stop preaching in jail, and so they cut his tongue out. well, it’s And we just got no idea, right? And, and he, and he, and he talks with this very high-pitched voice because they couldn’t quite get the whole tongue out. And, and he was just like, “And so they tried cutting my tongue out, so I just carried on preaching. They couldn’t stop me.”

The, the, the martyrs of the Church of Christ, they’re there, and they’re crying out for justice. They want God to return. They want the King to come back and settle things finally so that the innocent martyrs of God no longer have to suffer at the hands of this world.

But did you notice God’s response? Did you notice the response of the Lamb? They were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer. They’re told to wait until the number is full. And you might think to yourself, “Well, what kind of love is that?” I mean, you’d never do that w- to your children, would you? If one of your children was suffering, and they came to you and said, “Mum, Dad, help, I’m suffering, help me,” would you say to them, “Else I’ll help you later. I don’t want to help you now.” You wouldn’t say that. What kind of answer is that? What kind of god says no to the suffering of his people?

No, you have to understand why the Lord says no. You see, it’s love that causes God to say, “Rest and wait.” It’s, it’s love for those that have not been gathered in yet. If God returns in justice today to avenge His church and save them, what happens to those that aren’t saved They perish. It’s like, it’s like Peter says in 2 Peter 3. He says, “You need to understand. The Lord is patient. He’s not returning. He’s patient as he waits for the salvation of the elect.” You see, God is unwilling that one of His children would be left behind. And so he tells them to wait, but he doesn’t ignore them. He says, “Give them a white robe.” It’s a picture of sanctity. It’s a picture of peace. It’s a picture of righteousness. He provides for them what they need and says, “Now just rest a while longer, because I need to save all my martyrs. I need to save all my people. I don’t want one of my martyrs to miss out on the privilege of joining me in eternal life.”

It’s a great comfort. It’s also a comfort because it means the number of martyrs is sovereignly set by Christ Himself. We think of martyrs having their lives taken away from them, right? Christ sovereignly chooses those that will lay down their lives for His church and for His glory. It’s not the devil who takes martyrs. Yeah, the devil kills them, but Jesus sovereignly ordains the blood of His martyrs. He numbers them, and He remembers them, and He puts with objects of wrath in order to redeem them because He loves them. It is His love that causes His delay.

And I know sometimes we tire, don’t we? We grow tired of waiting, whether it’s the suffering of persecution or the suffering of sickness or the suffering of the reality of this world, and we go, “Lord, how long?” How long are we gonna have to witness the abominations in this world? How long are we gonna have to suffer? How much more of this do I have to put up with? And God, because of his love for his covenantal people, says, “No.” It’s not because he’s miserly. It’s not because he’s unloving. It’s not because he’s enjoying watching everybody living in chaos. Paul says in Romans that he endures objects of wrath. I mean, you’ve gotta think, right? Think about the amount of blasphemy in our world. I don’t mean just words. I mean the, the lives of utter blasphemy and abomination towards our God. I mean, if you’ve ever heard of the Sparkle Creed, well, firstly, don’t go look it up, ’cause it’s not worth the time in your hand. Someone sent it to me 0 And it’s the most abhorrent blasphemy I have probably ever seen. It’s the LGBQT, effectively, mockery of God, as they refer to him in the most blasphemous terms known to man.

And, you know, God has every right to just step down immediately and wipe everybody out, right? He could just do it now. He could just, “I’ve actually, I’ve had enough. I know I had a bunch of elect I was gonna save, but I’ve had a gutsful of these people just heap scorn upon me, who made them, had gave them life. I sent my son to redeem them and they spit in his face over and over and over again. I’ve had enough. You know what? I’m just ending it now. I’m wiping out the world.” ” He could just do the flood immediately, right now, and soak, soak the entire world and kill everything within it. And he would be completely just and right to do so, but he doesn’t. He puts up with the slander. He endures the objects of wrath who heap scorn upon them because he loves you. Because if he came back in wrath in the 1900s, none of us would have the joy of entering into the joy of our Master, would we? If he came back last century, where would we all be? We wouldn’t exist.

But God is faithful, isn’t he? He’s faithful to his covenant. He’s faithful to his people. And so he says, “Not one of my children will miss out on eternal life. And so, I will endure the scorn of this world. I will put up with the Pharaohs and the Hitlers and the Attila Huns and the Stalins and, and the abortionists and the LGBQT movement people. I will put up with the persecutors of my church and everybody else so that I can bring my people safely” And that’s a comforting thought, isn’t it? That God loved you so much that he endured thousands of years of people who hate him. Not just here, but around the face of the globe. 6,000-plus years of the hatred of his creation so that he could save you, so that he could save me.

You know, Jesus, Jesus is sovereign over the persecution of his church, which is a great comfort to us, because it reminds us, as the Psalm says, that “he keeps every one of our tears in a bottle.” The Lord Jesus Christ will not forget one drop of blood shed in his name. And he cares infinitely more about the church than you do. And it breaks our heart when we see the persecution of our brethren, doesn’t it? God does not say, “Rest a little while longer until the full number is gathered in,” nonchalantly, uncaringly. I would imagine, reverently speaking, that the Lamb would say this with tears in His eyes. Such is our Lamb.

The other comfort here is that there is a fixed number. It doesn’t go on indefinitely. Sometimes we can be tempted to think, “It’s already been 2,000 years since Jesus left.” Do you ever think this sometimes? It’s already been 2,000 years, what if it’s another 5,000? What if it’s, what if it’s just gonna carry on like this forever? What if it is just a fairytale? Well, John is being reminded that there is a set number of martyrs, which means a day is gonna come when the last martyr sheds his blood. Can you imagine being that guy? Imagine being that woman. You’re taken to the gallows and hung, and the second you die, a trumpet sounds, and you rise to eternal life. That day will come one day.

And with the last seal, the 6th seal, I shouldn’t say the last ’cause there’s a seventh coming later on. When the 6th seal comes, that is the sign that it is the end. We have these 4 seals that represent life here and now. We have the 5th seal, which represents the persecuted Church, and then we have the 6th seal, which represents the judgment day of Christ.

And so, in v- verse 12, we read these words, “There was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth. The full moon became like blood. The stars of the sky fell as fig trees in winter shed their fruit. The sky vanished like a scroll. Every mountain was removed.” It’s cosmic signs, right? You might call it decreation. Remember, God put everything in place. He put the stars in place. He put the moon in place. He put the sun in place. He crafted the mountains and got them to come up out of the earth. And all of a sudden, the mountains are thrown into the sky, and the stars crash down, and the moon turns into blood, and the sun goes black. It’s the picture of everything that you consider to be firm and sure in this world vanishing. The very earth, which we call firmament, the very earth becomes soft. Everything shakes. There’s nothing solid anymore. And all you’re left with is, is a barren wasteland upon the earth. And the wicked.

And it’s an ugly picture, isn’t it? As all of the comforts are stripped away, we’re left with a barren wasteland, kings, great ones, rich, poor, powerful, slave, free. And what do they do? They cry out to the mountains that have just been ripped out of their place and cast away, and say, “Come back.” They try and hide in the caves that are left behind from the mountains being torn away, and they scream, “Come back. Land on us. Cover us from the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb.” They’re terrified, because the day of wrath, the day of judgment has come, and they cannot escape.

It’s striking, isn’t it? Because they’ve spent all of their life denying the existence of the Lamb, haven’t they? That’s what the world does, right? Generation after generation, they deny the existence of Christ. They deny His sovereignty. They deny God exists. They live their lives, even if they say it with their mouths, they live their lives as atheists. They say, “I am God.” And then the 6th seal comes, and all of a sudden, what is painfully clear is that He who they have denied, they cannot hide from. They’ve tried to hide Him away, haven’t they? They’ve tried to hide Him away in church buildings. They’ve tried to hide Him away from society. They’ve removed Him from prayers in schools and prayers in governments. They’ve said, “No, that’s a personal thing. You keep that within your heart and keep it to yourself. I want nothing to do with it.” And for years and years, they’ve shunned and they’ve said, “We want nothing to do with Him.” And so, when He returns, He will say, “Fine, your will be done. You will have nothing to do with me.” And He comes in wrath and terror. Such is the face of the Lamb.

This flies full in the face of those that would say that the God of the Old Testament is angry, but the God of the New Testament is loving, doesn’t it? It is meek and mild Jesus, who takes children in His hands, who comes with a morning star of judgment and wrath. It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. And it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the Lamb, who is seated upon the throne and breaking the seals. And they ask the most terrifying question. The great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand? Who can stand? And the question is, no one, right? Who can stand up and bear the wrath of the Lord Jesus Christ? No one.

And yet, in the next chapter, we’re gonna be confronted with a whole host of people standing in the presence of the Lamb. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the wrath of God. The Lord Jesus Christ came and suffered under the wrath of God so that we might be able to stand, so that all who trust in Him might be able to stand at the judgment day of God. As men and women and children are cast down in terror before the face of God and the wrath of the Lamb, we who have trusted in Christ will stand with bold confidence, not in ourselves, but in Christ, because Christ has borne our judgment. He has borne our wrath. And so, we have confidence in the day of judgment, which means you need not fear the judgment day of God if you’re a believer. If you have put your trust in God, this terror is not your terror.

But, my dear listener, if you have not trusted in God, if you have not put your trust in Christ, then terror is all that awaits you. You will be with those who cry out, “Hide me from the face of the Lamb!” But there’s nothing to hide you, because everything’s been taken away. And so, this is a, this is an important challenge for us. It’s important for us to remember that, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6, “Today is the day of salvation.” Today is the day of salvation. But tomorrow is coming. When the 6th seal is broken, it is no longer the day of salvation. When the Lamb returns, it will be too late. Too late. And too late will be your call forever. As you suffer under the judgment of Christ for all eternity, one phrase that will echo from your lips will be, “It’s too late. It’s too late.”

Eh, now, if you’ve ever been really late for something really important, if you’ve missed it, you know that dreaded feeling, don’t you? I can remember being a tiny little child, it’s pathetic, but I remember being a little child and my mum said to me, “Do you wanna come to town with me?” A- and I said, “No, I don’t wanna come to town.” I was quite small back then. You left your children at home when they were small. I was quite small. And my mother said to me, “Do you want to come to town?” I said, “No.” She said, “Are you sure? This is your last opportunity. Do you want to come to town with me?” I said, “No, I don’t.” She said, “Fine, I- I’m gonna go by myself.” She hopped in the car, and I changed my mind. I changed my mind as I heard, it’s funny, I can still feel the emotional toll this took on me. I c- I can still remember the sound of the car starting, and my mum reversing out. And I ran down the driveway, yelling, “Wait, wait, I’ve changed my mind! I’ve changed my mind!” And she drove off, and she left me behind and I broke down in tears.

Brothers and sisters, it was too late for me. I missed out. But can you imagine eternity? The wrath of God appears, the, the lamb arises, and you look, and you think of the preacher who stood before you, week in and week out, pleading with you, “Please, turn to Christ before it’s too late.” And you think of parents who prayed for you and urged you, “Come to Jesus.” And you think of the evangelists that gave you Gidean’s Bibles and tracts, and the Gospel messages on the internet, and you think of all of it, and you go, “I’ve changed my mind! I’ve changed my mind! I see you now. I want to be saved.” And the echoing sound will be, “It’s too late. It’s too late.” And you’ll break down in terror and fear, wondering, “What will be, what will be for me? It’s too late.” And you will be cast into eternal torment where fire never stops, and the worm never ceases to bore into your flesh, that you suffer internally under the wrath of an almighty God.

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