This transcript was generated by whisper.ai. Welcome to Revelation chapter 6, day 3. We're looking at God's description, God's picture to John, his revelation of what's going to happen at the end of time. Now I'm sure as we begin to walk through the opening of these seals that your mind is just beginning to run with, when exactly does this happen? Is there anything in here that says this is going to happen in the year 2012 or in the year 2032? Is there something like that in here? No, no there is not. There are indications we're going to see as we walk through these chapters of the fact that these events may be approaching. There's no exact date. Jesus himself said no one can know the exact date. I'm sure your mind is also beginning to think about how exactly does the timing of these events come together? I mean there are three sevens here. There are seven seals and seven trumpets and seven bowls. Is this two years of time? Is this five years of time? We're going to talk about that more as we walk through these chapters. But for right now, I want to encourage you just to focus on the descriptions themselves, the descriptions of what is going to happen. We've seen conquest. The world faces conquest. We've seen war. The world faces war. As we come to the last two horsemen of the apocalypse, as we come to the third and the fourth seal, we find that the world's going to face famine and death. The black horse, Revelation chapter six, verse five and six. When the lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come. " I looked and there before me was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages and three quarts of barley for a day's wages and do not damage the oil and the wine. " The black horse represents famine. I had to have a quart of wheat, just that little amount of wheat for a whole day's wages. People would starve at that cost. People would not be able to keep up with feeding themselves, let alone their own families. It takes a day's wages to earn a single quart of wheat or three quarts of barley. A quart is about enough for one meal, one person for one day, not enough for anybody else. This is a picture of famine that's going to come upon this earth. What does that mean at the end when it says, "Do not damage the oil and the wine"? Those are luxury items in that day, the oil and the wine, the olive oil, the wine. Those would be things that you would buy if you had a little bit more money. It's an interesting picture that you get here, a picture of how things very well may be in these end times that we are already experiencing today. You have those who cannot buy any food, but you also have those who have more than they need. Let's be sure we protect those who have more than they need. Let's make sure that those who are ultra-rich are not hurt, even though there are many in the world who are starving, who don't have enough to eat. Let's make sure that those who have more than enough get even more, and those who are poor, they are ignored. That's a picture of many, many places in the world today. It's an increasing picture in the world today, and we need to do all that we can to change that picture, but we also have to realize it's a picture of the selfishness of man. As God allows the evil of man to have more free reign towards the end of time, obviously that evil heart is going to result in exactly this, the rich get richer, and the poor experience famine. The fourth seal is opened, verses seven and eight. And then the lamb opened the fourth seal, and I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come. " I looked, and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Eth, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. I'm sure you've noticed this fourth horse, the pale horse, is a representation of death. I'm sure you've noticed as we've seen each of these first four seals open that it's broken as one of the four living creatures says, "Come. " What exactly is the meaning of that? It is tying together this worship service that we've seen in heaven to exactly what's happening with the opening of these seals. It's all working together. We are seeing a revelation from heaven to earth of God's truth in what he's going to do. And in this case, it's the revelation of a pale horse. It's the Greek word "chloros," you get the word "chlorine gas," and it's the same sick green color that you would think of. It's about death, death in Hades, death in this world, but also eternal death, eternal separation from God. These first four seals proclaim God's announced method for you and I to face up to the truth, conquest and war and famine and death. As you face those realities in this world, you realize this world cannot be all there is. I've got to stop hiding my head in the sand. I've got to face reality. As the world is allowed to face each of these things successively, the world is going to have to wake up and realize this is what it's like to live without God. This is what it's like to be apart from him. You see, a new heaven and a new earth, it's on the way in these verses. But as this earth is dying, God's going to allow what it's like to live in this earth apart from God to be more and more clear. And what is it like to be apart from God? Conquest and famine and death and war. It's about selfishness. It's about me living the life that I want to live. And in this case, we see that all the earth is affected. A fourth of the population is lost, but it's not like just one quarter of the earth is affected and everybody else is fine. The sense here is that all the earth is affected. As we come to the end of this fourth horseman of the apocalypse, you have to be thinking, wow, this is such encouraging and inspiring stuff. I'm glad I listened to drive time devotions today. I hope you haven't turned this off already, because I just have to share with you that sometimes it is the inspiration of the truth, God's truth, that keeps you from believing a lie, a lie that will eventually eat away your faith. And the truth that we see here exemplified again and again and again as these seals are opened is it's going to get worse before it gets better. If you don't see that, you'll believe that every world crisis shows that somehow God has messed up. He's no longer in control. He no longer cares. You won't believe that God's plan is unfolding as it should, as he's planned. God's going to let the world see what it means to live life without him. God's letting the world see even today. God's going to let the world see that this planet, this earth is not an eternal place. He lets the world see that even today as we see earthquakes and crises around the world. Just for a minute, think with me about this. God allowing us to see the truth that keeps us from a lie. And think about Jesus and his own disciples. Think about the disciples of Jesus as they stood and either from afar or from up close in the case of John, the one to whom this revelation was given, they saw Jesus die on that cross. What if they didn't have the truth? What if they didn't believe the truth? Some of them didn't. Jesus had told them, "I'm going to go and I'm going to die, but after three days I will rise again. " They had the truth. And if only they held onto that truth, they would know even though Jesus is dying, I know that God's plan is not dying. God still has a plan. If they'd understood what Jesus said to them, they'd have hope no matter what they were facing. It would have kept them from a loss of hope. If you believe the truth from the book of Revelation, that even when crises come, even when circumstances come into your life today, or when we come to the end of this world, that make you look at this world and think everything is falling apart, everything stinks, this world does not work. It's the truth. This world doesn't work. God has not planned for this world to work. He's going to give you a new body someday. That's why the body you have now is wearing out. You're going to get a new eternal one someday. He's going to create a new earth someday. That's why this earth that's here now is wearing out. He's going to create a new one someday. God has a plan and His plan is unfolding. As we talk about this plan unfolding, there's an important principle to hold onto in all of this. And the principle is that you and I as believers are to grieve as those who have hope. How does that tie to this truth of the book of Revelation? Well, we're talking here about the end of this world. We're talking here about the end of some people's lives. We're to grieve about that. But we're to grieve as someone who has hope. We don't read the book of Revelation and say, "Oh, this is great. God's getting the bad people and doing bad things to them, and I get to celebrate that, and God's going to give me some good things and I celebrate that. " This is not some cheap Saturday matinee movie. This is the truth of what God's going to do. And I grieve that there's going to be famine. I grieve for the hurt that's going to happen. I grieve that there's going to be death, but I grieve as one who has hope. In fact, Jesus taught us that grief is one of the key components to joy. Same moment with His disciples the night before He died. He's talking to them and He says, "You're going to grieve, but your grief is going to be turned to joy. " You and I as we read through the book of Revelation, we need to grieve. We need to grieve that the world's going to have to face this. We need to grieve that there are going to be some who don't turn to Christ. Some will, but there'll be some who won't. But even as we grieve, we're being real. We're not being fake. We're not pretending the world is something different than it is. And in that reality, the reality of that genuine grief of the loss that's going to happen, that's the only place, that's the only place where I can find the genuine joy. Because the genuine joy is not in this world. It's not in some empire that I've built or some little thing that I have. The genuine joy is in Christ. That's the only relationship that's going to last. All my other relationships are built on that relationship. I'm talking about the difference between false hope and real hope. False hope is this idea, Pollyanna idea, that everything's going to be okay. The sun will come out tomorrow. But you know in your gut that the problems in this world are worse than that. What I need is real hope. I grieve the loss. This world's not going to last. I grieve the hurt. But I pray that everyone that I know will turn to Christ because I know that I can look to God as the one who's in control and he is looking forward to a better eternity. Yes, we go through some tough times on this planet. Yes, this world will go through some tough times as it ends. But I'm looking forward to what he has in all eternity. Let's pray together. And you might just pray, "Jesus, help me to be real. I don't want to live in a bubble of false hope, pretending that if I can keep everything under control seemingly that everything's okay. There are things that are not okay in this world. There is evil in this world. There's hurt in this world. There's pain in this world. I don't see it all the time, but it's there. There'll come a day when everyone will see it. Lord, help me to live in the reality of hope, the reality of the fact that no matter what happens, you have a plan, you have an eternity, and you have a love for us that will never fail us. Help me to lean not on the things in my life or some false impression that I've built in my life or some hope that circumstances will turn out okay today in my life. Help me to lean instead, to learn to lean instead on the hope that I can only find in you, Jesus. I pray this in your name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at the fifth seal, the testimony of God's own witnesses.