God’s Judgments Unsealed

Guest (Male): Hello podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God’s word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here’s today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I’m glad to study God’s word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today’s edition of Pathway to Victory.
David: Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. In recent years, we’ve witnessed a number of terrible calamities around the world. But while tragic, none of these disasters comes even close to the catastrophes that will befall mankind during the Great Tribulation. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress opens to Revelation chapter six to explore what will happen when God’s judgments are unsealed. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. First, a quick reminder that in May 2027, I’ll be hosting the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. And we’d love to have you join us. You’ll come home physically and spiritually renewed. On this wonderful 10-day journey, we’ll get to experience several Greek islands. And we’ll also stop in Ephesus, where the early church began to flourish. You can reserve your spot today by going to ptv.org. Well, it’s impossible to watch current events and to ignore the obvious warning signs God is sending our way. Clearly, the time of his coming is drawing near. And that’s the reason we’re digging into the book of Revelation together in a teaching series I’m calling Final Conquest. Given the current events in our world, many believers are filled with fear about the future. And yet we don’t need to fear. The end that is coming has already been written. The conclusion is secure and Jesus is going to win. That’s the major theme in my commentary on Revelation. It’s called Final Conquest, and I want you to add Final Conquest to your personal collection of Bible prophecy books. When you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory today, I’ll make sure that you receive a copy right away. All right, it’s time to step into the next section of John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ. So let’s get started. I titled today’s message: God’s Judgments Unsealed. On November the 10th of 1942, Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons in Great Britain to offer just a glimmer of hope. In the midst of World War II, England had so far lost every battle. It looked as though Adolf Hitler might succeed in conquering the entire world. But then the tide began to turn. Britain suffered a victory at the battle of Egypt. In talking about the victory they had experienced in the battle of Egypt, Churchill said, "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning." You know, I thought about that phrase as I prepared today’s message. It describes accurately where we are not only in the book of Revelation, but in human history right now as well. We are not in the end times literally. This is not the beginning of the end yet. But it is the end of the beginning. We see the lightning flashes signaling that there is a great storm on the horizon. It’s the storm of God’s final judgment against the earth. And that’s where we’ve come in our study of Revelation 6. So far we’ve seen the church raptured into heaven. We’ve seen the flashes of lightning around the throne of God signaling that something big is about to happen. The beginning of the end begins in Revelation 6. The beginning of the seven-year period of judgment in which God will pour out his wrath on the earth. When we come to Revelation 6, we come now to these first of three judgments during the seven-year period of time. You have the seal judgments in chapter six, the trumpet judgment in chapters eight and nine, and the bowl judgments in chapter 16. This is the seal judgment in Revelation 6. Look at verses one and two. Then I saw when the Lamb, remember Jesus the Lamb has that seven-sealed scroll that contains the final judgments against the earth. And when I saw the Lamb break one of the seven seals, I heard one of the four living creatures, remember that's one of the angels, saying with a loud voice of thunder, "Come." I looked and behold, a white horse and him who sat upon it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer. A horse was a war machine. And the white horse was especially symbolic. Now we’re going to see three other horses: the red horse, the black horse, the pale, the ashen horse. We call this the four horsemen of the apocalypse who bring these judgments against the earth. But the first one is riding a white horse. Who is it that is riding this white horse? He had a bow, he had a crown that was given to him, he went out to conquer. The rider of this white horse, I believe, is the Antichrist. Now the question is, who gives him that crown that allows him to reign over the world? Who gives him permission to do the terrible things he is going to do? God himself. God’s the one who gives the Antichrist the authority to rule over the earth. That shouldn’t surprise us. Romans chapter 13 says there is no governing authority that has not been established by God. He has a purpose that he’s working out and he will be the one to give the Antichrist this final authority over the earth. And notice he will do it without any bloodshed. He assumes power without any bloodshed at all. The bow without the arrow. We understand that after we look at what happens in the rapture, there’ll be such chaos in the world after millions of Christians are taken from this planet. The world will beg for somebody to bring order out of chaos. And that’s why 1 Thessalonians 5:3 says while people are saying "peace and safety," then destruction will come upon them. He will be the peace candidate, the one who promises to bring peace. That is the beginning of the tribulation, the rise of the Antichrist. The second seal then is broken, which represents warfare. Look at verses three and four. When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come." And another red horse went out and to him who sat upon it, it was granted to take peace from the earth and that men would slay one another and a great sword was given to him. Now my own personal belief is it’s all, all four of these horses are ridden by the same rider. It’s the Antichrist who is mounting a different horse to bring a different judgment. In this case, he is bringing warfare. He’s taking peace from the earth. Remember 2 Thessalonians 2 describes the Antichrist as the man of lawlessness. Right now he’s being restrained by the Holy Spirit of God, but when the Spirit is removed, he will be unleashed to bring lawlessness into the world. And part of this lawlessness will include murder, civil wars in nations, and ultimately wars between nations. There is not just one war, the battle of Armageddon. There will be a series of wars. Jesus said wars and rumors of wars. And with those wars will come great, great destruction. Warfare is inevitable. There will be no lasting peace in this world until the Prince of Peace returns. The third seal, the third seal judgment is famine. Look at verses five and six. And he broke the third seal and I heard the third living creature say, "Come." I looked and behold a black horse representing famine and he who sat upon it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures say, "A quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius and do not damage the oil and the wine." Now what in the world is that all about? Famine is always the result of war. And with famine comes hyperinflation and a destruction of the economic system. And that’s what you’re going to see during the Great Tribulation. You’re going to see a great famine and you’re going to see sky-high inflation. So what happens in those situations? It always happens. Government steps in and says, "We’re going to try to equalize things. We’re going to try to give from those who have and give to those who don’t have. After all, that’s the only fair thing to do." And that’s why this rider on this horse, the Antichrist, has scales in his hands. He’s going to balance out the economic system through socialism. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that never works either. If you want to make sure that only a few have money, go to a socialist structure. It always happens. It even further limits the number of people who have and increases those who have not. Centralized government, control of trade is the economic system of the Antichrist. And that’s what we’re going to see in days ahead. The Antichrist says, "I will control who buys and who isn’t able to buy." And that is going to be a judgment against the earth. And again, that is why you’re going to have famine in these last days upon the earth. We see the corruption of the economy. The fourth seal that is unleashed is death. Look at verses seven and eight. When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." And I looked and behold an ashen horse. That word ashen, chloros in Greek, we get our word chlorine. It sometimes says a pale horse. And him who sat upon it had the name Death and Hades was following after him. Apparently this is a picture, this ashen horse, of a decomposing body. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth. In other words, there is going to be death for over a fourth of the planet’s population. How will they be killed? Notice the four sources of death. They will be killed with the sword. The idea here is that there will be some large instrument of death that will account for millions of deaths. It could be nuclear exchanges between nations, perhaps. But that’s the kind of warfare that will occur. A second source of death will be famine that we already talked about. The third is pestilence or disease. Just think about 1.9 billion corpses in the world. There won’t be an ability to handle all of that. And we know of all of the diseases associated with decomposing bodies that are not properly handled. And then finally it says wild beasts will be a source of death. Now he could be speaking literally here. Having their food system, the food chain disrupted, it may cause wild beasts to become more predatory, killing human beings. Another explanation is that this seems to best fit with some pandemic animal-born disease, like bubonic plague, swine flu, bird flu. Whatever it is, it’s going to be effective in killing millions of people. The fifth seal, martyrdom. Look at verse nine. And when the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar, he’s looking in heaven, the altar of God, the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. John says this fifth seal is the martyrdom of millions and millions of Christians who will be persecuted and martyred for their faith. Now if you’ve been listening to my series on Revelation, you ought to have a great question in your mind right now. Wait a minute, Christians killed during the tribulation? I thought you said all Christians are going to be taken out of this world at the rapture. Who are these Christians? How did they become Christians? Why are they being martyred? You think those are good questions? Come next week and I’ll answer them. Because that’s Revelation 7 explaining who these martyrs are and how they were saved. But there will be a multitude of people saved during the tribulation and they will pay a steep price for doing so. It will cost them their lives. And here they are in heaven, the souls of those who have been martyred. And what do they say to God? "God, how long are you going to put up with this on earth? Why don’t you judge what is happening on the earth and avenge our blood?" And notice the answer given: And there was given to each one of them a white robe. That represents their righteousness given by Christ. And they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been would be completed also. And the final judgment, the sixth seal, before the beginning of the trumpet judgments is cosmological disturbances. Now I want you to stay with me very carefully for these next final minutes. These are the most terrifying judgments to date. I looked when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair. And the whole moon became like blood. What’s happening here? Perhaps this earthquake is also a volcanic activity that spews the soot into the air. There’s so much of it that it causes a solar or a lunar eclipse that appears to change the color of both the sun and the moon. Verse 13: And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The word stars could literally mean stars, but we know so many of our stars in our solar system are bigger than the earth. If it fell to the earth, it would destroy the earth. This word stars can also refer to meteors, asteroids that start pummeling the earth. The stars fell out of the sky to the earth. Verse 14: The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up. Perhaps this is a reference to some great nuclear exchange between nations. Verse 15: Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. Up to this point, the tribulation judgments have affected mainly the poor, but at this point, nobody is exempt. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us." In other words, "Kill us and thus hide us. This is so awful. We want to be hidden. We would rather be dead than face what we’re about to face." What is it that caused them to say that? What were they so fearful of that they would rather die than experience it? Are they saying "hide us from the earthquakes"? "Hide us from these natural elements"? No, that’s not what they’re afraid of. They say, "Fall on us, rocks, and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." When they look up into the sky that has been ripped in two, they see something that no one on earth has ever seen before. They see the Lamb sitting on the throne. I thought of these verses. Amy and I had been invited into the Oval Office. There is something about walking into the most powerful room in the world and looking at the man seated behind that desk, whoever it is, and realizing that one command from him could set into motion a nuclear exchange that would destroy the world as we know it. But that experience pales in comparison to what the kings of the earth are going to see and feel when they look up into the sky and see the Lord Jesus Christ, not as a baby in a manger, but as the sovereign King of kings and Lord of lords. And when the world sees that, they see the Lord Jesus Christ, what is their response? They begin praying to the rocks. They begin praying to the mountains, saying, "Hide us. Protect us from the presence of the one who is on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb. Hide us, for who is able to stand in face of the wrath of God?" You see, that is the response of every unbeliever once he catches a glimpse of who Jesus Christ really is. Even believers, when they understand who Christ is, remember Peter, when he realized who the Lord was, he fell down and said to Jesus, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man." Isaiah, when he looked up in a vision and saw the angels around the throne of God, he said, "Woe is me, for I’m a man of unclean lips." The unbeliever when he sees God revealed in heaven, he is also going to say, "Hide us from his presence, for who can stand against the wrath that is yet to come?" What is so interesting to me is what he could have said, the unbeliever. When the kings of the earth look up and see the Lamb of God, they could have said, "Save us, Lord Jesus, save us. We confess our sins. We repent. We accept your free gift of salvation." But instead of saying that, their hearts are so hardened, they start praying to the rocks. And they say to the rocks, "Destroy us, kill us. We would rather be dead than face the presence and the judgment of God." But the fact is, death exempts nobody from the judgment of God. Did you know there are people out there, perhaps you’re one of them, that thinks it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. If there is a God, and I’m not sure there is, when I die, God’s going to welcome me into heaven. There are people who believe in the doctrine of what I call justification by death. They think all you have to do is die and then God is going to be gracious to you and invite you into heaven. I think of what my old professor Dr. Walvoord said, "As is often the case with desperate people, instead of availing themselves of the grace of God, they attempt to hide from his wrath by seeking escape in death." But their hope is futile, for death is not an escape, but merely a change of one state to another. Those who escape through death from the immediate judgment of God are destined for eternal judgment at the Great White Throne. Even the unbeliever understands that they are deserving of the wrath of God. And that’s why they cry out, "For the day of God’s wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" Who is able to withstand the certain coming judgment of God? No one. Nobody can survive that judgment except those who have put on the white garment of forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers today. That’s why the Bible says today is the day of salvation. Do not harden your hearts. As we’ll see over and over again, the message of the Revelation is clear. You can accept Jesus’ gracious offer of salvation today or you will face the certain wrath of Jesus someday.
Dr. Robert Jeffress: I truly wish we had more than 30 minutes to go deeper into this important subject. My original presentation was abbreviated so that it would fit into the half-hour program. But in a moment, David will explain how you can receive the unedited collection of messages in the Final Conquest teaching series. As we close today, let me remind you that Pathway to Victory is entirely dependent on friends like you who give voluntary gifts. We could not pay for airtime or the many other expenses required of a broadcast ministry without supportive partners like you. And today, I’m saying thanks for your generous gift by providing my best-selling book called Final Conquest. In this commentary on Revelation, I focus on speaking the truth of God’s word into the turbulent times in which we’re living. Well, God gave us the book of Revelation not to strike fear into our hearts, but to assure us that our hope is secure in the glorious return of Jesus Christ. After all, the return of Jesus Christ is the most hope-filled event in human history. And my book explains why that’s true. So when you give a generous gift, be sure to request a copy of Final Conquest. Plus, when you give a gift today, I’ll also include my full-color 56-page booklet called The Major Characters of the End Times. Please, take down our contact information and request these resources while there’s still time. Here’s David with all the details.
David: You’re invited to request your very own copy of the book Final Conquest along with the booklet Major Characters of the End Times when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Call 866-999-2965, visit ptv.org or text PTV to 78800. And when you give an especially generous gift of $125 or more, we’ll also send you the complete Final Conquest teaching series on DVD video and MP3 format audio disc along with Dr. Jeffress’s book Mysteries of the End Times. That’s a clear guide to your questions about the rapture, the tribulation, and the return of Christ. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or make your request online at ptv.org. You could write to us if you’d like. Here’s that address: PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. That’s PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I’m David J. Mullins. Throughout history, there have been many great movements of God. But the greatest revival of all will occur during the tribulation. Join us when Dr. Jeffress presents a fascinating study in Revelation chapter seven. That’s Wednesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we’re so glad you’re here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in his word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or you can follow the link in our show notes. We hope you’ve been blessed by today’s podcast from Pathway to Victory. Oh, and one last thing before we go. Don’t forget to reserve your spot on the 2027 Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. You’ve heard me and Dr. Jeffress talk about it, and cabins are going quickly. Just picture yourself aboard the beautiful Celebrity Infinity, sailing round trip from Athens, standing where the Apostle Paul stood in Ephesus, and taking in the breathtaking Greek islands. Nine unforgettable nights with stops in Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, and more. Every meal prepared, every detail taken care of, plus fellowship with like-minded believers. There’s also an optional pre-cruise extension to Athens. To book your spot, go to ptv.org.