The Rider of the White Horse!

Before we head into Chapter 6 of the Book of Revelation, a transition has taken place. Let us recap in case you are just joining us today. We have learned up to this point about the revelation of Jesus Christ and His love for us, we have learned about His instruction for the church and what heaven is going to be like regarding worship that is beautiful, challenging, exciting, and personal. From Chapter 6 on out to Chapter 19, the vantage point is solely from heaven looking down on the earth, it is bloody. It is the wrath of God. It is the punishment of the earth for their sins. It is man gone crazy. It is evil unchecked. Chapter 6 through Chapter 19 is the Great Tribulation period. It is horrific and it all begins with the first rider in the famous four horsemen of the apocalypse. We now meet the first rider. This is a time yet coming for all of us. But the question is, will you be here on earth or will you be with us, looking down from heaven?

For some of you that have been following, we are getting into the Great Tribulation and you really want to hear more about this stuff. The dynamic about the Christian faith is that we do not worship some dead God or some token religion. But the fact of the matter is our Lord is risen, He is alive and His book, His love letters given to us in the Bible. In Revelation 5, we saw the glories of heaven and the worship that was taking place there. We saw those whom Christ has purchased through His blood and redeemed by every kindred tribe, tongue, nation and people. They have been raptured up into heaven. Now we come to Chapter 6, where the Tribulation Period begins. It covers all 7 years of it all the way to Chapter 19 around verse 11. The bulk of it, is the last 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation period. By the time we get to the end of the Book of Revelation, you should be an expert on the End Time Events!

We are going to set the plow today to begin to dig in deep into the Scriptures so you might want to gather together your Bible and something to write down what you have learned alongside your Scriptures for easy reference.

Revelation 6:1-2 ~ "I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest."

This is the first of the four riders of the apocalypse and we will be spending some time really studying what they mean, what they are carrying and what it means for the inhabitants of the world. The first rider comes with the loosening of the first seal. Now remember that Jesus Christ was the only one found in heaven, on earth and under the earth, in all the created world both spiritual and physical,  to be worthy to take the scroll and open the seven seals. The word "worthy" meant that Jesus had met all the requirements necessary to take the scroll from God the Father, the Lamb of God, the Root of David. He was the only One to be found worthy to open the seven seals. Once He opens one, He will continue until they are all opened. This all takes place in a very short period of time. Once it begins, it will run its successive course. Once the seven year Tribulation period begins, yet one day in the future, and it will be so clear that those living then, will be able to mark their calendars and count the days as 7 years begins to the day. It will go 7 full years without stopping or pausing, without hesitation, without a comma, until Christ returns in the Second Coming.

We may all remember in high school or college, being on a time table. We enter high school on one day and will graduate on another. It may be two years or four years but there is a predetermined time table that must be followed to go from the beginning all the way to the end. We will have met all the requirements and all that needed to happen to graduate and be free from those institutions. As we approach graduation, there is an increase in the tests, exams and effort. There are finals we have to go through, and we have had to go through all those years to get to the point where we can finally graduate. We have met all the requirements.

The seven year Tribulation Period  must happen, it will happen, because all the requirements in both the Old and New Testament describe, must take place. When it comes to the prophetic Word of God, let alone all the other portions of the Bible, when we fail to take these Scriptures literally, unless otherwise specified by the Bible, we often wind up being in error. Most of the mistakes we often make is when we don't take the Bible literal enough. For example when Jesus says, "All those who come to Me, I will no wise cast out." What does that mean? It means that all those who turn to Him, He will not turn away! When He says, "You must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven," what do you think He meant? If you keep reading John 3, He tells you exactly what He means. God is not mysterious in that He withholds all the information that we need. He gives us all what we need to know. He's a great God!

So in regards to the time table in your life, you are coming to a predetermined graduation so to speak, and so is this world, by the way, everything, politics, economy, ecological issues, are all marching forward in a predetermined moment of time in the mind of God. That is kind of eerie in one point but awesome in another. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow! We often feel that God is not on time. "Where is that predetermined moment in my life?" God is never early and He is never late. He is always on time and God's prophetic Word is one of those truths, about that.

In Chapter 6, this view is from heaven because the church is no longer mentioned from Revelation 4:1 on earth, until it comes back to earth from heaven with Jesus Christ in Revelation 19. That is significant with all the efforts put forth in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, regarding the church on the earth, now there is no church on the earth, and we shall see some of the reasons why as we go further into our study. The events of the 7 Year Great Tribulation Period is those 7 literal years that will usher in the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, in what is called the Second Coming.

These seven years or the seven year time table, is a time reserved specifically by God for global judgments and God's revisitation upon the nation of Israel. Make note of that.You may think Israel is out of the picture, but Israel is in the picture! The Bible tells us that God will re-establish the nation of Israel in the last days, and He will come and visit His people. The nation of Israel must be established and on the earth before the Second Coming of Christ. The 7 year period of the Tribulation deals with God's judgment on the earth for a Christ rejecting world, and the re-establishment and the redemption of the nation of Israel! This is very important. Always keep your eye on Israel! Up until May 14, 1948, we didn't have an Israel to look at. According to the Scriptures of Isaiah 66 and the United Nations, on May 14, 1948, Israel was born as a nation a second time in one day.

The Bible speaks of these 7 years that are coming. They will be commencing on a very specific and certain day. It's a day the Bible tells us that a peace treaty will begin with Israel and its surrounding neighbors, which just so happens are their enemies. When the peace treaty commences, there will be a date when its signed, and does anyone know how long that peace treaty will last in a contract form? 7 years! But in the middle of that time, the man who forges that agreement, breaks that agreement in 3 1/2 years! It will take place with the nation of Israel, not any other nation. This is what the Bible said would happen thousands of years ago! That day will commence a very terrible moment in time! That Jesus said would be unlike any other time on the earth, and unless He shortens those days, no flesh would remain upon the earth. Jesus said, "it will be a time of such tribulation nor shall ever be in the world."

In other words, it will make the Holocaust look like a picnic. One man, the Bible says, will be the one who instigates this process that will lead to earth's last attempt to govern itself in human politics, and that man, the Bible refers to him as the son of Perdition, the beast, the worthless shepherd, and in Zechariah, the Bible refers to him as the Antichrist.

As we look around in the world today, where the Bible says this man will come into the world, seeing and riding on the back of another beast called a religious beast. He will use that pseudo false church system and will come out of the old ancient Roman Empire, and he will come and use religion as a tool. At some point, he will discard that false religious system, and the Bible says, he will stand in Jerusalem in the temple and declare himself to be God, and the world will marvel and worship him.

What I find very interesting about that is even now people have been working and have spent tens of millions of dollars reconstructing the tools and the devices, that they believe will be used in the coming temple of their Messiah. They have already completed the menorah they plan on using that stands four feet tall, made of solid precious metal. It's under lock and key and they are waiting, they have tracked and trace men in their lineage of Levites, to be priests and make offerings and sacrifices because they believe their Messiah is soon to come. The problem is that the Bible says, the Messiah that they are going to receive will come riding upon a white horse. You might say, well what is wrong with that? The Bible says that Jesus will come riding on a white horse? It is not Jesus Christ, but the Antichrist. It is the one that is a false representation of the Messiah!

Revelation 1:17-19 ~ "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now, and what will take place later."

We learned that when He (Jesus) told John to "write the thing you have seen", that is in reference to Chapter 1 of the Book of Revelation, "what is now," that is in reference to Chapters 2 and 3 and "what will take place later." is in reference from Chapter 4 until the end of the Book of Revelation.

The first rider of the apocalypse brings the advent of evil in human flesh. This man will be unlike Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Hussein, and unlike them he will have success in what he plans to take place on the world. There are powers that are sinister and dark that are moving toward the reception of this man. I believe this man is alive in the world today somewhere, biding his time. I believe he is coming. He may be in his 30's, 40's, or 50's, I don't know, but I believe this Antichrist figure is alive. When he comes, the Bible tells us in the book of Daniel and Revelation, how specifically he arises. He will be evil personified. He will be the son of Satan.

As we go from chapter 6 to 19, keep this in mind, that Satan will always attempt to mimic what God has already given. As we have read in the Bible, we read that God told Moses to thrown down his staff and it would become like a serpent. Remember that? What did Pharoah's magicians do? Same thing. They mimicked back and forth, these miracles of God until they reached a point where their gods were exposed. Satan is always mimicking. He can not create anything new. When Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun, that applies to Satan too! He creates nothing! He only steals and manipulates, that which exists. He steals. He rips off. He does that in people's lives. Jesus says "he is the father of lies." The only thing he has ever produced is false lies. Because whenever there is the truth, he comes with a false alternative. He always comes in our life, trying to offer a false alternative.

From Chapter 6 to Chapter 19, these are the chapters in the Book of Revelation that no one wants to read. This is the reason why most people say they won't read the Book of Revelation. It shouldn't be the case. Each of us has the opportunity to choose where we will be viewing this from. If you make the right choice, Jesus being THAT choice, none of this will be yours to inherit. If you just listen to the Word of God, this is heavy stuff, because you don't get these in churches very often. The church in America today is messed up because it has been playing church for far too long. We need to get right with God and get back to the Bible! The first step in doing that is found in John's gospel, where he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." Jesus Christ is your literal ticket to heaven. It's not your smile, your wealth, not your achievements or righteousness, that is all garbage to God. It's what Jesus has done! That is why at the base of the cross, everyone comes at equal footing. Rich man, poor man, beggar, thief. We all come to Him in need of His blood, which He shed upon the cross, Jesus died for us.

If you say to Him, wherever you are at right now, "Jesus save me! Jesus I love You today for what You have done for me. You died on the cross, You rose again from the dead, I declare You today and I receive You today, as my Lord and Savior!"

The Lion and The Lamb, Seven Eyes and Seven Horns?

You will never understand the Book of Revelation unless you view it through the Old Testament Scriptures. Where does a Lamb appear in Scripture? Old Testament. Where does a lion appear in Scripture? The Old Testament. What do horns mean in the Old Testament? All of these things speak of the ministry and the person and the authority of Jesus Christ. It's absolutely thrilling. He is the Lion from the Tribe of Judah. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. How can Jesus be both a lion and a lamb you might ask? Because He represents all of these things! He is both a King and Priest but also the sacrificial offering, and when we talk about the horns throughout Scripture, both Old and New Testament speak of kingship and authority.

Some people might argue that John was seeing some sort of mutation in heaven, when he describes what is written in Revelation 5, what he is seeing is a prophetic, apocalyptic manifestation of Jesus Christ, regarding past, present and future because he is in heaven viewing what was, what is and what is about to happen, meaning the Second Coming, wrath of God. He sees all of this stuff that to a Jewish mind, and remember that John was a Jew, we need to view these things through his eyes and see things historically that way he sees this. Imagine, he's thinking, this is the King, He's the sacrifice, He's the Priest, He's the Authority. The average Jew in that day would understand these things better than we would.

When someone tells you not the read the New Testament, you should. If your Rabbi tells you not to, trust me, there is something there he does not want you to know. Because if a Jew was to read the New Testament, everything talked about in the Old Testament is answered in the New.  When a Jew reads the New Testament, because he knows the Old, during the Tribulation Period, the Jews are going to open the New Testament. They are going to read it and know, that Jesus is the Lamb of God, He is the Lion, He is the King, He's everything and it's all there. He is the One and their eyes are going to be opened.

Jesus has met all the requirements by being obedient to the death on the cross.

Revelation 5:6-7 ~ " Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne."

Don't let the horns and the eyes frighten you. It's symbolic language. It transcends all time and generations. The "having seven horns and seven eyes" is a great and wonderful thing. Seven is the number of completeness or completion, and the horns or horn represent an Authority or King in the Bible. Historically we know all about the lion of Judah in Israel's history.

2 Samuel 22:3 ~ "The God of my strength, in whom I trust, my shield and the horn (king or authority) of my salvation."

The seven horns speaks of absolute authority and now presides over all the kings and rulers over all the earth. 

"and seven eyes" this is the Lamb's perfect scope, vision and knowledge of earthly affairs. He is all seeing and all knowing. This verse means that Jesus Christ will be the Conductor over the events of the Great Tribulation. The vision is everywhere. When the Tribulation period begins, people everywhere will be reading the Bible. These seven seals will only be opened by God's authorized agent, Jesus Christ.

Revelation 6:16-17 ~ "They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"

Why doesn't it say "from the wrath of the Lion?" Because He was rejected as King, but the Lamb came as a sacrifice. That is the issue today. If you are a Jew today, you welcome the Lion, but you will have nothing to do with the Lamb. You can't have the Lion without the Lamb. You can't have the position without paradise. This is none other than Jesus Christ, our Great God and Savior! These are the awesome and sober moments just preceding the opening of the Great Tribulation. As the Lamb, He is sacrificed, and as the Lion, He is King!

Revelation 5: Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne"

Notice now, that the direction in which the elders and the four living creatures fall down toward is in the middle of the throne. God had fulfilled His purpose! Isaac is with Abraham and they are going to worship God. Fire is the symbol of judgment, the knife represents that Jesus would be pierced.

Genesis 22:6-8 ~ "Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?" "Yes, my son?" Abraham replied. "The fire and the wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together."

There is no greater version than the Old King James version of this Scripture. It's called redemption. Isaac willingly laid on this structure and allowed himself to be bound without a word. Sound familiar? By the way, all this took place on Mount Moriah, the high point, today we would call this Golgotha, Mount Calvary. The place of the skull. The place of redemption. Thousands of years ago, we have a father willing to sacrifice his only son, willing to take a knife and plunge it into him, and be consumed by the fire, yet the Angel of the Lord comes and stops him. God knew that Abraham loved Him above all things, but Abraham didn't.

Then thousands of years later, a Father in Heaven puts wood on the back of His Son, and lives it out again, as He makes His way up to the mountaintop, there is the wood, there is the piercing, but where is the Lamb? Jesus never utters a word why? Because He was the Lamb. That is why He fulfilled the Scriptures in Isaiah that He uttered not a word like a sheep being led to the shearers. He did it.

 "as though it has been slain." meaning a mutilated lamb, beaten, torn, rejected, hated. This is exactly what we will see in Heaven when we arrive. Let see if you can identify who this is based on this passage of Scripture, written 743 years before Jesus was born, which for us today, makes it 2800 years old. If there is a skeptic here, let him figure it out.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 ~ "But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard. See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him - his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness - so will he sprinkle many nations and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see and what they have not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root of of dry ground. He had no beauty of majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgement he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, not was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life, and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors."

Every year when the lamb was offered up as a burnt offering, Dr. Eherdershiem, notes that the Leviticial practice was to take the sacrificial lamb and impale it through the rear and through the lower portion of the lower jaw.   The second stave would be used to pass through from left to right just below and behind the lamb's torso and front legs. It was then placed into the fires of sacrifice.

Professor Albert Barnes points out that if you would exalt or raise that lamb up vertically, you would see a lamb crucified on a perfect cross. That's what Jesus did for you and I!

Exodus 12:3-5 "Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. The animals must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats."

A Lamb: Today in your life, Jesus Christ is just a really great man, unless you know Him personally. , Buddha's doesn't have a lamb, Mohammad doesn't have a  Lamb, Joseph Smith doesn't have a lamb. whatever...they don't have a sacrificial lamb.

Until you consider The Lamb: He's the only Lamb! That's kind of tough to handle. You mean like He's the Lamb and all the others are chopped liver?

Your Lamb: Do you have a personalize Lamb? There is only One. He's the Lamb and if you don't have the Lamb, then you don't have a Lamb to trust in.

John 1:29-30 ~ "The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, "A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me."

We are supposed be moved by the sacrificial lamb. It was supposed to mean something. The blood was supposed to have been spread upon the doorposts of the house so that the angel of the death would pass over those homes. It makes you wonder if there wasn't some Egyptian who believed in what Moses said about the Jews and believed in God, and he followed in the message he heard. He would have placed the blood on his doorposts as well and he is spared. Have you taken to yourself, Jesus Christ to be your Lamb? It's hell without Him. Jesus is the only One!