Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to challenge you to think through the issue of the four horsemen of the apocalypse that we find in the book of Revelation in chapter six. And what meaning and application do they have to our world today, to the world and to the church, and not in some far-off end-time scenario. It just might be that God intended the book of Revelation to be applicable through all generations of the church, beginning with John's own generation.

Oh, that might just be the case. But first, let me invite you to our Bible study on the book of Revelation that we're having week by week now. We've been rolling for quite a while, and we meet on Thursday nights at Starbucks on 17th Street in Idaho Falls. And we have been looking at the apocalypse. We are doing a community Bible study on the apocalypse.

This is not sponsored by New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, per se, because I'm team-teaching it also, then, with Pastor Mike Gilea of Share the Sun Ministries. So it's been a team effort, and it's been so fun. We've been having people from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, anywhere from eight or nine to 15 or 16 people in the evenings at Starbucks on Thursday night, beginning at seven o'clock. And we run that class until about 8.15, 8.15 sharp, by the way, so that we can get everybody in bed on time.

So it's been fun, and we've been answering a lot of questions, raising a lot of questions, and also gaining some good insight into the apocalypse, into the book of Revelation. So I would just invite you to join us on Thursday evenings at seven o'clock at Starbucks for our community Bible study on the book of Revelation, 7 p.m. on Thursday evenings. Well, let's turn then to Revelation chapter six and the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Oh, one of the favorite chapters in the book of Revelation, filled with a great deal of meaning. And last week, we looked at the first two of the horsemen as they came out.

First one came out conquering, and to conquer, right? And then the second one, on the second seal, when the second seal was opened, there was a red horse, a bright red horse. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, given a sword he was. Well, let's look at the final two of those horsemen, shall we? The third and the fourth horsemen.

But before we do, let's go ahead and read our text, shall we? Revelation chapter six, verses one to eight. Now I watched when the lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, come. And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him. And he came out conquering, and to conquer.

When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come. And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another. And he was given a great sword. When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come.

And I looked, and behold, a black horse. And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius. And do not harm the oil and wine. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, come.

And I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And its rider's name was Death. And Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence by wild beasts of the earth. Oh, ominous, isn't it?

And ominous it should be. Now, we saw last time, those first two riders, did we not? The action of our scene originates in heaven, but issues upon the earth, right? And we saw that this is the principle of oscillation. It's prompted by all that we've seen transpire before us.

Oh, the seven-sealed scroll has initiated all of this, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. The seven-sealed scroll, which we saw over the weeks, is the will and testament of the father to a son who is worthy to open it and receive the promised inheritance. And this is what we see transpiring before us as these seals are cracked and opened and revealed. We know this because we know that a seven-sealed document in the ancient world could be none other than a will and testament, right?

As the scholar Zahn says, he says, the word biblion itself permits of many interpretations, but for the readers of that time, it was designated by the seven seals on its back beyond possibility of mistake. The most simple member of the Asiatic churches knew that a biblion made fast with seven seals was a testament that is a will, right? Unquote. Oh, and we saw that the only one worthy to open that seven-sealed scroll was the lion of the tribe of Judah, who, when John looked to cast his eyes upon him, saw instead a lamb looking as if it had been slain.

And he was the one found worthy then to take the scroll from the one seated on the throne and then begin to open it, right? And so he begins then to take that scroll and to open it. And from here on, our narrative kicks into warp drive in the model of Joshua and the conquest. We saw that last time too, didn't we? We see Yeshua now, that is Jesus.

Yeshua, whose name is the same as Joshua of the Old Testament. Yeshua is the new Yeshua. Oh, the new Joshua. And then we have also seen that from here on in as the riders go out and the one on the white horse goes out conquering and to conquer. That conquest is the new paradigm, just as the conquest of Canaan was the paradigm for Joshua and Israel.

So now all of creation is in the paradigm of conquest and creation. And not just Canaan is our inheritance. Oh, this is what we saw then. And we see then the one opening after opening the verse, the first seal, excuse me, the first seal, we see that this one is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Lord Jesus Christ himself is the one who rides out conquering and to conquer, isn't he?

Oh, John erases any doubt then that this is the one who is conquering. We see in chapter 19, uh, recapitulation to that the rider on a white horse, Jesus Christ in chapter 19, uh, is the one who will be conquering all. And it's beyond a shadow of a doubt. We have here then, uh, one who's riding out to conquer is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we saw as well, the second horseman, uh, as we opened the second seal, the lamb opens the second seal and there is a red, bright red horse that rides out with a rider.

And red is the color for bloodshed in apocalyptic. And as this rider does deliver this, doesn't he? Just as Zechariah's horse and rider in chapter one had a mission to take peace from Israel's enemy. So this rider does upon the lamb's claim to, to take peace from his claim. God is bringing war upon his enemies.

Those who presume to, uh, sit on his land and to their squatters on his property, on his, our inheritance. We are co-heirs with Christ. It is a characteristic of a land about to be subdued by a foreign enemy. And indeed, just as Canaan was thrown into conflict and confusion at the appearance of Joshua in Israel. So now the world is going to be thrown into confusion and into conflict at the appearance of Jesus and his people.

That is the church. This happened in Jerusalem when it fell in AD 70. It happened to the entire Roman empire then, which revelation will prophesy about as well. So we see these riders and their horses one by one as the seals are broken. What happens when the third seal is broken?

This is in verses five and six, uh, issued from God's throne. A measure of economic deprivation awaits the suffering poor in verses five through six. When the third rider appears all through the apocalypse, the destiny of all things proceeds with an ineluctable order that majestically portrays God's outer sovereignty. Oh, if you don't believe in God's outer sovereignty by the time we're done with the book of Revelation, then you don't believe in his utter and complete sovereignty. History is determined by God.

It's not developed randomly by man. After reading any revelation, how can any sane person with his reading wits about him not be a Calvinist? Oh, this ineluctable order from God proceeds as the third seal is opened and boom, the third living creature sitting in state upon the heavenly council calls forth a black horse and rider. Third creature calls forth a black horse and rider. Black is the color of death and famine in apocalyptic.

See, John is using all these standard measures, standard features of apocalyptic. Black is the color of death and famine in apocalyptic. And just as we do today, scales were employed to weigh out portions of food to sell. And the price is given for bare subsistence. These prices seem to echo conditions almost as bad as those of Venezuela today.

A quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius. Now, in the ancient world, this would have been barely enough to feed one man for a day, much less a family or the provision of other needs beyond. Even though a denarius was the average daily wage of a working man in the ancient world. So these prices are 10 to 12 times higher than they should have been. Famine and starvation also characterized the siege of Jerusalem in its latter stages.

We are seeing how the book of Revelation plays out in the day of John. John said all of these things are soon to transpire. And indeed, they did in the siege of Jerusalem beginning in AD 66, culminating in the destruction of the temple and the entire city in AD 70. So famine and starvation, as you read the book of Josephus, Josephus and his book, The Jewish Wars. Josephus relates several vignettes to illustrate the depths of depravity to which the Jews sunk and how famine and starvation haunted the entire city.

For example, he recounts how one woman cooked and ate her infant child and then in an act of generosity offered part of that baby to her neighbors who were completely repulsed and revulsed by her actions. But this is what happened. This is the depths to which Jerusalem sunk in the siege of AD 70. Famine and starvation indeed haunted the entire city. And John is recounting that for us here.

And famine and starvation was also widespread during the Dark Ages and the collapse of the Roman Empire, which the apocalypse also predicts and foreshadows for us in these chapters. So the black horse, the dark horse, the famine and starvation horse does indeed characterize the siege of Jerusalem and the fall of Rome. And famine and starvation always characterizes a people about to be conquered. Witness Venezuela. Venezuela conquered.

Make no mistake about this. And it's been characteristic all through history as the church conquers. But in its place, we will find peace and plenty with the people of God. This is so very elegantly indicated in what is protected in our text to the oil and the wine. The horse and the rider are commanded.

Do not harm the oil and the wine. This has apocalyptic significance, brothers and sisters. These are regular features of blessing for the true people of God. And that is what revelation is indicating here for us. Not some far future event in the end times.

No. Psalm 104, for example, says, wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen man's heart. Oil and wine. It would have also triggered in the minds of that first century audience the remembrance that oil and wine were used in the rights of the church as well. For example, James says, is anyone among you sick?

Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And then in 1 Corinthians 11, too. In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it, that is, wine in remembrance of me.

So all through the history of the church, I'm submitting to you, dear listener, not in some far-off future Great Tribulation event, but right there in that first century, all through the history of the church, from there on in as well, God has protected, nurtured his people, the church, causing them to triumph over the long haul. Ah, he protected his church by warning them of the coming fall of Jerusalem. When Jesus warned of the coming fall of Jerusalem in the temple, when not one stone would be found upon another, that he warned way back in Matthew chapter 24. Do you remember? And he warned them, when you see this day coming, don't wait.

Don't go back to the house to collect your things. No, flee immediately. So the church took this as a warning. When the siege came, they ran. The Christians fled Jerusalem for the village of Pella.

All the early church historians, in fact, described the flight to Pella. And you don't hear in Josephus' account of the fall of Jerusalem, of Christians being slaughtered because they weren't there. They had left. They were not there for the fall of Jerusalem. And then God has also prospered his church.

That is, the oil and the wine figured here in this chapter, chapter 6 of the book of Revelation. He also prospered his church by building Western civilization on the ashes of the Roman Empire. Did he not? This happens throughout history, even as these four horsemen come sweeping through redemptive history, destroying God's enemies, clearing the way for the building of the church. He prospered his church by building Western civilization on the ashes of the Roman Empire, where we witnessed the most prosperous civilization in history.

All the West, indeed, the church did begin to foster, plant the seeds of civilization as we know it now, the advancements, whether in science or in culture or in society or even in politics. We can make a claim that the greatest document ever written in government, that is, the Constitution of the United States of America, is indeed a product, and we can say a direct product of Christian culture, brothers and sisters, the envy of the world, the political establishment of the envy of the world, that is, a constitutional republic as found in the United States of America.

Not perfect for sure, but indeed, the model of Western civilization is a direct product of Christian culture, which indeed grew and was built on the foundations then of the destroyed Roman Empire, the destroyed temple. The church would not have flourished as it has unless that temple had been destroyed. So in all of these things, we can say that God has protected his church through all of these times. He conquers. That rider on the white horse has conquered, and he's still continuing to conquer, is he not?

Well, what happens then is the fourth seal is broken. Let's look to it.

The fourth seal, verses 7 and 8 of chapter 6, and we see that this horseman issued from God's throne, we see when it is all hell breaks loose to purge Christ's inheritance of its squatters, and that we can say, indeed, that on the earth, in all of creation, all pagans, all of those who are fighting against Christ and his church, all of those who hate God and hate Christ and fight against him, indeed, are squatters on his inheritance, even as the Canaanites were squatters on the land of Canaan when Israel and Joshua, the first Joshua, and then Israel came in to take the land, right?

So we see here, then, in regular order, the fourth seal is open, and the fourth living creature, sitting in session with the sons of God, he commands the fourth horse and rider, whose name is charmingly death. Oh, isn't it? His entourage is equally charming, right? Hell, Hades, all its companions. Oh, this pale horse, this pale rider, you remember, perhaps one of my favorite Westerns, pale rider, with Clint Eastwood, who indeed symbolized and represented a death, did he not, to this village, this particular town that he came into?

Well, in any case, here before us, then, as the fourth seal is broken, this pale horse, this pale rider, foreshadow much of what is to come. That's meant to be. He foreshadows, and Revelation will later recapitulate what we see going on here. As the tendency of apocalyptic in general is to do, Revelation in particular, we have things that foreshadow what is to come. That is, we will see soon, demonic hordes will ascend from hell in chapter 9, and we'll see beasts from land and sea.

They, too, will emerge in chapter 13, all of them bringing death in their wake, even as this fourth rider does. The consequences that this rider brings for judgment, they are characteristic of God, too, when his fury is turned upon his enemies. Sword, famine, pestilence, wild beasts. Oh, the law and the prophets all predict these things, do they not? Behold, they transpire before us.

And here we see, in the book, a quarter of the land is so judged. That is what's going on here, a quarter of the land. And remember, then, brothers and sisters, numbers are symbolic in apocalyptic. They are symbolic and not literal. That is what is characteristic of apocalyptic.

And the genre we have before us in the book of Revelation, or the apocalypse, is precisely that apocalyptic. The very book is named after genre that is apocalyptic. And when we come to apocalyptic, we've seen this all through the book so far. We've seen it in the book of Daniel. We've seen it in the book of Ezekiel.

We've seen it in the book of Zechariah, that numbers are symbolic. And so, it means that when we say that a quarter of the land is so judged, that means that God's hand is measured in judgment. It's not total. It's not total destruction. Here, God is calling to repent by his judgments.

We'll see, upcoming, that in the trumpets, a third of the land will be destroyed and judged. But we'll see in the bowls, indeed, as we see a pace, the earth does not repent. The men of the earth do not repent, but rather harden their hearts like Pharaoh and the Egyptians did. We'll see, then, in the bowl judgments, that all of the land is therefore judged. Numbers are symbolic and apocalyptic.

Death and Hades here have no inherent authority. You see, they're given keys, right? It was granted them by the one with the keys of death and Hades hearkening back to chapter one, where, indeed, it is Christ who has the keys of death and Hades. And, indeed, keys are symbolic. Are they not of authority?

That was so in the ancient world. The one who possessed keys possessed access and egress to important places, like the temple or the throne room of the king, these kinds of things. So, then, death and Hades, they have been granted authority by the one with the keys of death and Hades. So, keep in mind that God is not only merely allowing and permitting these awesome events. No, he is carefully and sovereignly and majestically ordaining all of these events, dear brothers and sisters, even as he did throughout the conquest of Canaan.

Indeed, we have seen, once again, that conquest. The conquest is the new paradigm, right? Joshua, the book of Joshua and the conquest of Canaan is the new paradigm now for the book of Revelation. And this has now been kicked into warp drive with the breaking of the first four seals, and especially that first one. The rider on the white horse is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who went forth conquering and to conquer.

That idea of to conquer anticipates the entire book of Revelation, as we see this book unfolding now before our eyes. And these are one of the means of conquering. Are they not? And this is one of the consequences of conquering, is that you have pestilence, you have famine, you have death as well. And these things all transpired in the fall of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70.

And they also transpired then in the fall of Rome over the centuries, all of which the book of Revelation will predict. But we can see the pattern developed in Canaan as well. All these things transpired in Canaan as the first Joshua. Joshua and Israel went forth in the land of Canaan conquering. So this is what we're seeing transpire before our eyes.

Christ is now about subduing his inheritance. That's the sense of the breaking of the first four seals here, that Christ rides forth and he begins now to subdue his inheritance. As one commentator puts it, the holy war begins. God is about his holy war in the life of his church. He's been doing this now for millennia.

He conquers in order to conquer. And if you cast your eyes over redemptive history, you see indeed how the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered. And he's meant to conquer in every single generation. We are meant to conquer in every single generation. This is our inheritance too.

We are heirs with Christ, co-heirs with him, are we not? Since we are indeed sons of God, we, indeed the church, are sons of God by adoption. We are sons by virtue of being united to the Son by nature, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are his, and we are consequently heirs, co-heirs with Christ, as Paul says. And so we are conquering with the Lord Jesus Christ.

This book is not meant for some far-off future day. Rather, it is meant for our day. It was meant for the first century saints to ride forth and to begin to conquer and to take the inheritance of all creation. It is not meant for some far-off future generation. And we're meant to just fold our arms and tap our foot on the ground saying, oh, I'm going to wait for the rapture, maybe save a few souls here, but wait for the rapture.

And then in some future thousand-year, literal thousand-year kingdom, these things will transpire. No, these things are to transpire now and today. And if you are not about taking possession of all of creation for Christ now, then you are not fulfilling the Great Commission. Because indeed, all of creation is ours, and ours to take and conquer, even as our forefathers did, all the way from Charlemagne to now, all the way from the Reformation to now. The Reformers indeed saw this as their mission as well.

And the weapons of our warfare, how about those? What are we supposed to do? Then send in the Marines to take all of creation? No, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but rather they are mighty. They are spiritual to the pulling down of strongholds.

Indeed, the book of Revelation has already hinted and shown us what the weapons of our warfare are. Indeed, they are the powerful weapons of the blood of the cross. Four, Mao said famously that political power comes out of the barrel of a gun, but we say spiritual power comes out of the blood of the cross. The weapons of our warfare are the word of our testimony. We will defeat the beast with the word of our testimony and the blood of the saints.

Oh, we'll see, and we've already seen as well that worship is one of the weapons of our warfare. As we worship on Sunday mornings, we are taking dominion of the creation around us. Indeed, as we participate in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, we take further possession of creation around us. We take dominion. And brothers and sisters, dominion is our destiny, even as we have seen here unfolded for us in these four horsemen as the four seals are broken.

Oh, brothers and sisters, join us for worship on Sunday morning as we go over these things, as we recount these things. We're preaching through the book of Revelation, and I look forward to seeing you with us on Sunday morning. New Geneva Meets for Holy Worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Please come and join us for worship on Sunday, 10 a.m., 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard, and you can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.