Can You Hear the Horsemen Coming?

Well, good afternoon, everyone. Good to see so many here. It's a wonderful Sabbath day to see what's a beautiful Sabbath day here in Cincinnati. Good to see so many people here. I know we have many ABC students who are going to be here this year. We're looking forward to meeting all of you and seeing you through the week. Many visitors and parents I see as I look out there as well. Good to have you all with us here today. Ayl, I want to thank you for the song that you sang. Very, very nice. Always very well performed. Actually, I want to build off of what Ayla said a little bit about God not abandoning us forever. You know, we are in a time of the season here where the fall Holy Days are upon us. They've been on my mind as we are just a month away, as it was mentioned during announcements from the day of the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets is one of those days I used to call it the gateway to the Feast of Tabernacles because it's what you have to go through in order to get the the fabulousness of the Feast of Tabernacles and the reign of Jesus Christ and all that that will bring to this earth. But there will be times that lead up to the Feast of Tabernacles where we may feel like God has abandoned us, but we have to remember through all those things and all those trying times that are going to come upon the earth that He's always there. He always knows what we're going through and everything we're going through is an opportunity for us to grow closer to Him and to trust in Him more and to always keep our eyes on the vision of what He has ahead for us.

You know, as we look ahead at the Feast and as we're a month ahead of it, as you read through the Bible, there's some very difficult times that are mentioned in there. And I want to talk about those a little bit today since many of them occur before the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets itself is a time when God exacts His vengeance on the earth as the plagues, the trumpet plagues that He brings on the earth. Of course, it's all capped by the triumphant return of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the first fruits, the ushering in of the Kingdom of God and the end of this current troubled age. But before that, there's a lot of trouble that goes on. Before that, Satan is at work. He has a short time, we're told, when God casts him down to earth, wherever, whenever that might be, and he brings havoc on the earth in so very many, many, many ways.

And as you read through the Bible and you think about the upcoming Holy Days, and we should focus on the return of Christ, that's the expectation and that's the surety of what is going to come. There are some things that we have to be aware of and prepare ourselves for, so that that trust in God sees us through. If we turn back to Revelation 1, God gives a prophecy or repeats a prophecy, clarifies and more clearly defines a prophecy that Jesus Christ gave back in the Olivet prophecy in Matthew 24.

And that's there in the Old Testament as well when we read through it. But you can see these words that it says in verse 1 of Revelation 1. It says, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants. Now, you and I are his servants, and the book of Revelation and the prophecies that come about, they talk a lot about God's servants.

That would be you and me, but also about the physical nation of Israel as well, the physical descendants of Israel. I know not too long ago there was a sermon given here that talked about the physical identity of modern-day Israel, and it's important to know that.

We can't really understand prophecy and can't really discern the times that we live in unless you understand that truth that God has revealed to us. And if you haven't listened to that sermon, if you knew you go back and review some of those things, I would encourage you to go back and look at booklets. Come and talk. Come and talk, and we can sit down and talk about those things and show from the Bible what that reality is. But much of Revelation and much of the prophecies of the Old Testament will talk about the physical descendants of Israel and the Church of God.

There is the physical nation of Israel that's there in the Old Testament that God was working with. He called them my people. Of course, they're spiritual Israel today, you and me, that God has called out, and he calls us his people. So when we talk about my people, we see two different groups that God is working with, but they are all implicit in there because Satan sees God's people, and he's the enemy of God's people, whether they're just the descendants of Israel that don't know God's truth or the people that do know God's truth that are living his way that God has called out today.

I won't turn to Isaiah 58 verse 1, but you remember the verse. It says, cry aloud, spare not, tell my people their sins and the house of Jacob their transgressions. Let them know, make them aware. It's the commission of the Church of God to make aware what is going on and to bring reality into our lives and an awareness of what it is that prophecy says, an awareness of where we are in prophecy today, as well as getting us ready and keeping us focused on the vision, the hope, I'm calling it expectation anymore, that it's the surety of Jesus Christ's return, that everything will end up good, but there are times to go through ahead.

You know, even at the end of the, I think it's 1 Peter, Peter says, after you have suffered a while, may God strengthen, settle, and establish you. Jesus Christ suffered a while, and he learned much through his suffering that he did while he was on earth. God even said that he was made perfect through his suffering, even though he was perfect before. Everything we go through, everything we endure, teaches us, learns us, should bring us closer in our trust in God ever more full. So let's forward here to Revelation 5. Today I want to talk about one of the more fascinating parts of the Bible, people who don't even understand the Bible.

Look at the four horsemen of Revelation, and they wonder, what does that mean? Who are these four horsemen? What does that mean for the earth? Because it is quite a harrowing thing that they do as they ride across the earth, but in Revelation 5 we see Jesus Christ.

There's the question about, who's going to open these seals? How do we get to the time of joy? How do we get to the time of the kingdom of God? Who will open these seals? And you see, well, there's only one who can open those seals. He's the key to salvation. He's the key to everlasting life.

He's the key to the end of this world and its troubles, and the misery that it brings on mankind, that's Jesus Christ. So he begins to open the seals. And in chapter 6, verse 1, it says, I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice, like thunder, come and see.

Now, when we read, like thunder, the Bible tells us, well, where's that voice coming when it says, a voice like thunder? So if you keep your finger there, even the book of Revelation shows it. If we go back to Revelation 14 and verse 2, it'll define this voice of thunder. I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. I heard a voice from heaven, and I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. In Revelation 19, verse 6, I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns.

And just one verse in the Old Testament, because many times we find those things back there as well that give us the answers in Psalm 18. Psalm 18 and verse 13. The Lord thundered from heaven, the Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice. So we have these voices from heaven, God. God thundering down about these seals that were willing to be opened. And he said, come and see, I'm going to show you what precedes the return of Jesus Christ. I'm going to show you what is going to happen in the world before that time. In verse 2, we are introduced to these four horses that run across the globe. And I'm going to read through those, through the verses now. Then we'll come back and look at those horses one by one and see what we can learn about them and where we might hear their hoofbeats going in the world today. Verse 2 says, I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. He had great authority and he had a weapon, but it wasn't what the other three horses would do. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come and see. Another horse, fiery red, went out, and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another, and there was given to him a great sword. When he opened the third seal, verse 5, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. So I looked, and behold, a black horse. And he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and don't harm, don't harm the oil and the wine. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come and see. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and the name of him who sat on it was death. And Hades followed with him. And power was given to them.

And the them is those four horses, those four horses that ride across the landscape of the earth before Christ returns, the first four seals that are opened by Jesus Christ, the name of him who sat on it was death. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth. That's a lot, that's a lot of, that's a lot of space, and that's a lot of people. Power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, black horse, hunger, or the red horse, the hunger, the black horse, and with death, the pale horse, and by the beasts of the earth.

So what does all that mean?

It kind of conjures a picture up in your mind of horsemen who are riding across the earth and who have this effect on mankind's people or mankind. They have the power to kill. They have the power to wreak all this destruction. How does it happen? How does it happen? And what does it mean? And can we tell what's going on with it? And it all happens, and when you look at the four of those together, it's kind of they're together and a fourth of mankind is killed. And you need to look at them together because, keep your finger there in Revelation 6, but if we go back to Matthew 24, we see Christ, of course, talking about the very same thing. The Bible is completely congruent in everything that it says about this. In chapter 24, of course, we had the Olivet prophecy. The disciples come to Christ and they say, tell us what's the sign of your coming? What's the sign of the end of this age? And the very first thing Jesus Christ says in verse 4 is, take heed that no one deceives you. And then he goes through the next few verses, and he says, many will come in my name saying, I'm in Christ, I am the Christ, and they'll deceive many. Well, that's that first horse we talked about, and you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. That's that fiery red horse. See that you're not troubled, he says. This is meant to be. This is going to happen. It is reality. See that you're not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end isn't yet. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines. Now there's another of those horses. There will be pestilences, and there will be these natural disasters that occur on the earth in various places. And then he concludes that section with all these are the beginning of sorrows. Now if you look at the word sorrows in the Greek, it really shouldn't be sorrows, it's really birth pangs, which should conjure up some similarities to other places in the Bible. All these are the beginning of birth pangs.

Something is about to be born. The delivery is about to happen. The end of the age is about to occur, and the birth of the kingdom of God is about to come, and Jesus Christ will return, and you will have the birth of the firstfruits born into the kingdom of God. The Bible uses that analogy throughout, and Jesus Christ used it as you look at the at the Greek words that he used, or that were used, attributed to him. So all these things happen, but he says this isn't the end yet. This is just the beginning. This is just the beginning parts of labor. But it's good to know when the beginning parts of labor are, and the birth pangs begin, because you know what's about to occur. If you are totally clueless of what's going to occur, not good things could happen.

But God says his people should be completely aware of what is going to happen. We can be turning back to Revelation 6, but one thing that is noted as we read about those four horsemen is this is a global event. This isn't something that just happens in one part of the world. He says those horses are across the entire earth, so that a fourth of the earth feels its plague. Every nation will be touched by what is going on.

You know, before COVID, we had two world wars, and they were called world wars, but really the first true global event where everyone in the world felt the effects of it was COVID. You look back, there have been other pandemics that have hit various parts of the world, but COVID, because of all the communication abilities we have today and the technological capabilities we have today, everyone knew about COVID. Every single part of the world was aware of what was going on. And a lot, as I've said in the past, many times a lot changed as a result of COVID.

And as we see, the globalization of the world began to take effect. But that was the first truly global effect, or first truly global event that came upon the earth.

The four horsemen will be a truly global event. Well, let's go back and let's look at these four horsemen who are the first four seals. They come before the trumpet plagues. They come before the fifth and sixth seals are opened. They continue their ride doubtlessly throughout that time until Christ intervenes. But let's go back and look at these horsemen one by one.

Let's start with the very first one here that we read in verse 2. I looked, behold a white horse. Now, a white horse, white in the Bible, you know, is very much a color of purity. When the saints are identified, when the first resurrection occurs, and the marriage supper occurs, they are dressed in white linen. But this is not Satan, or this is not Christ. I'm sorry, this is Satan's. You read some commentaries and they will say, oh, this must be Christ. This must be Christ. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Satan is a great counterfeiter. He deceives, and his deceit can be so clever that Christ says, if we don't watch out, if we are not discerning, if we don't understand what's going on, if we're not close with God and understand in the Bible what's going on, we could be deceived. So this white horse is a counterfeit religion. I looked, behold a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow, and he had a crown was given to him. And he went out conquering into conquer. So this this horse, the man sitting on it, or whoever is riding this horse, he's got authority. He's got the authority, and his job is to subdue people. I'm here to conquer. I'm here to have you brought into submission to what we want done. Now that might make you think of the beast, the small beast in Revelation 13. It could be the prelude to him, because he has great authority. And he goes about, and he says, he says, you will do this or else. He will cause many. And there's that word in Revelation 13. He doesn't do it. He causes people to be killed. He causes people to bow down to the image of the beast. He causes people to not be able to buy or sell. He causes people to take the mark of the beast. He's got great authority. He can make that happen. He can control what is going on in life. And so this horse precedes all the others. And when God puts things in order, there's a reason for it. You know, we look back over the effect of religion in the history of the world.

When you look it up, they're going to, you know, the history books and all the websites will tell you there's three major reasons that wars have been fought and more people have killed in the name of three main things that wars are fought for. Economics, someone wants what someone else has. I want that territory. I want the revenue that come out of there. Number two, religion. I'm not sure they have it right on number two, that religion, because you don't believe what we believe. And therefore, my mission is to kill you because you don't believe the same way I do. We have religions in the world like this. That's some. I'll just say some in those religions believe that today. You're not worthy to live if you don't believe what I believe. Jesus Christ never said that. The Bible never says that. We know how God calls people. It isn't that his mission today to save and make everyone aware of what the truth is. That's his plan for all of mankind, but it comes in order as the fall holy days will picture us as we are there.

But an awfully lot of wars have been fought in the name of religion, and the other one was just politics. Nations not liking each other or getting along with each other. But religion has a way of dividing people. We've even seen it in the Church of God. Someone has an idea. It's different than what the Bible teaches, maybe different than what the Church teaches, and then all of a sudden there's this division that occurs, and there's this problem that occurs.

It is so, so important that we know the truth, that we cling to the truth, and that we speak from the truth, and all of us are in accord with the truth. Because Satan uses own personal ideas, different factions. When you look at the world around us, you see all the different religions that are everywhere by area. In the East, with China, North Korea, Russia, their religious views are so totally different than ours. You look at some other areas and you see that they are as well. In the Middle East, completely different than the religion that we have today. It has been a cause of of discord, it's been a cause of a lot of problems, and it will be in the time ahead.

He had a bow, he had a crown, he was, he had the authority go out and do this.

Now we get a clue as to what will be going on if we go back to the book of Daniel.

Daniel 11.

And let's pick it up in verse 36. Of course, this is talking of the time of the end. Verse 35 talks about the time of the end. And the rest of the chapter talks about what has yet to occur in our lifetimes. The preceding part of Daniel 11 has all been fulfilled. But let's pick it up in verse 36. This king, it says, in verse 36, shall do according to his own will.

Now that's always a key, right? If someone's doing things to his own will, he's not doing it to God's will. There is a way that seems right to man. The end thereof is the way of death. The king shall do according to his own will. And we get a clue as to what religion he's about. Who does he worship? He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god. Oh, I'm supreme. I'm the one. I make all the rules. Whatever I decide, whatever opinion I have, that's what the rest of the world needs to believe as well.

He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god. He will speak blasphemies against the god of gods. He will be anti-bible. He will be anti-God. He will not want or want to be around anyone who holds the truth of God. He will see that that is something that he would like to wipe out because everyone in his mind needs to be following exactly what he said.

That's what authoritarian governments do. That's what totalitarian governments and dictators do. You must believe what I believe. You must do what I say. And we know that time is coming. We know that time is coming when we read Revelation 13. He'll speak blasphemies against God, and he shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished. He is going to have that authority. He is going to wreak his havoc. He is going to cause many to suffer, many to be put to death, many to succumb and yield to him and to his God.

There's always that caution. Don't bow to another God. Don't take that mark of the beast when that comes. Be loyal to God. So he'll prosper, and he'll be riding across the landscape. People will feel his effect until the wrath has been accomplished, and Jesus Christ returns and ends all the misery that the world has been through at the hand of Satan and at the hand of man himself.

For what has determined, it says here in verse 36, shall be done. In verse 37, it tells us it's not another religion. We might sometimes think, well, this beast power or this white horse is so-and-so. We might have a name attached to it or a position attached to it. Could be, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that person because it says about this religion here that it's a little bit different than any of the religions we see today.

He shall regard neither the God of his fathers, it says. And actually, when you look it up, it shouldn't be the God, capital G-O-D, it should be the God, small G-O-D. He shall regard neither the gods of his fathers. Forget what they taught.

Those standards no longer apply. It's this God that I'm creating. I'm going to create Him in my image. I'm going to create Him with the things that I want to believe. And then it says the next verse, the next phrase there, He won't regard the God of his fathers nor the desire of women. And then He says, nor regard any God. Anything before, I don't want anything to do with it. This is a brand new thing. Other gods have nothing to do with what this religion is. I'm not regarding any of them, and I'm not even going to regard the desire of women.

Now, no one knows exactly what that means, but we could probably think a few things about why that phrase is put in the Bible in describing what religion or the religion of this man will be in the end time. Perhaps it is he's just so hard-hearted and so full of himself that his wife or any woman that might try to talk to him, he has absolutely no empathy, no understanding at all.

I don't care what you say. I don't care how bad people are suffering. I don't care what your intuition tells you. I'm completely disregarding you. It's my way, and I don't listen to anyone, including women. And we know that men listen to their wives. Could mean that. Could mean that he's got, you know, people that approach him and talk about things.

Could mean that it's talking about that. Could be, could be given what we've seen in the last three or four years and the rapid and alarming decline in morality in this country, in the western nations, and in Europe, that he just doesn't have any affinity for women at all. I don't care about women. They're not part of my life. Could be, could be that's that. We do see this alarming trend in the world of a morality that has been natural morality, if you will, for all the time of mankind just completely disappearing. Anything goes. Anyone goes. Today we see a time where those who don't abide by the traditional relationships are almost held up to high honor. They're the ones who are looked at as, you're the heroes. You're standing up for something that's different. That's new. Maybe, I'm not saying it is, I'm saying maybe, that's there to show what this new religion will embrace. It is a time of lawlessness, Jesus Christ says in Matthew 24. Everything has thrown out. Nothing is as the way it used to be. Whatever laws were there before, there's new laws written in the opinion and the feelings and the beliefs that that government and that power wants at that time. A new religion with new standards that you and I would not agree with. The Bible doesn't agree with it. You and I certainly would stand up against it.

What will that new religion look like? It won't look like any of the other gods and many of the other small g gods do have elements of morality in them. But this one says, no, I don't care about women. I don't care about any god before me. I have no use for the Bible. I have no use for the true God. I'm going to write the religion the way I want it to be. And we see that horseman, we see that idea beginning to gallop across the landscape today, not all over the world. Not too long ago, we had the opportunity to be in Europe visiting some of our some of our offices there. It's extant in the United States. It's extant in Europe, but it is not at all accepted in the East. China, Russia, the Islamic States, they don't buy any of it. It is certainly a Western, English-speaking, European-type phenomena that's going on. It's not a worldwide phenomena. You could see the difference beginning in the ideals and the philosophies and ideologies that are beginning to shape up that will separate those powers that be.

So whatever this religion is, it's completely different. It's not going to look like anything we've seen before, and it will prosper till the wrath has been accomplished for what has been determined shall be done. Now this horseman has a bow in his hand, and bows are interesting, interesting weapons. Probably some of you are marksman and bowman that could take the bow and shoot whatever you're aiming for, but many times when you watch movies and you see wartime, you see the arrows flying through the air, they're just flying out there to see wherever they land.

You know, you see the ancient movies and invading or advancing armies and people defending a fort, and the bowmen are there. They're just firing arrows and that some will land and some will kill the people. It's an interesting analogy God has there because arrows have that. You can just shoot them in the air, and wherever they land, they can have an effect. You might not know what effect they have. God talks about the similar analogy back in Psalm, Psalm 64.

Psalm 64.

Let's just read the whole Psalm here because it's an interesting Psalm in relation to this first horseman that rides across the landscape of the earth. Psalm 64, verse 1, Hear my voice, O God, in my meditation, preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the rebellion of the workers of iniquity. You see the setting here and what David is saying. In verse 3, he talks about bows and arrows. These people, the workers of iniquity, the secret plots of the wicked, who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and they bend their bows to shoot their arrows. Bitter words. Or just shoot their arrows. You know, this is a life lesson and a lesson for us in addition to what's going on. Sometimes we can just let arrows fly. We can make our opinion know. We can make comments that just land anywhere and they can be devastating effects. Throwing out a comment to create doubt. Throwing out a comment to cast an aspersion. Throwing out a comment or whatever to kind of lead you in one direction can be a very dangerous thing to do. It wasn't too long ago we had a sermon here about the tongue and the evils of the tongue and how taming the tongue. Sometimes those arrows that just get shot out there. Let me just make this, drop this comment on you. I've been the victim of that in my life and I've begun to realize what happens with those things. But here we have this white horse, this horseman. He's shooting a bow. He's always dropping his things. He's shooting them in the air, wherever they land. And remember, he causes. He causes people to reject God. He causes people to be killed, perhaps by these other three horsemen that come around. Let me read verse three again. Who sharpen their tongue like a sword. Who bend their bows to shoot their arrows bitter words, intended to harm, intended to create havoc. That they may shoot in secret. Did you ever notice the wicked? They always kind of do it in secret. Knowing they don't come out and just tell you what their plan is. They just kind of do it. A little behind the scenes. Drop a little comment here. Drop a little comment there. That they may shoot in secret at the blameless. Suddenly they shoot at him and don't fear. They encourage themselves in an evil matter. They talk of laying snares secretly. They say, who will see them? They devise iniquities. We have perfected a shrewd scheme. We got it. We got it. This is going to work. We have perfected a shrewd scheme. Both the inward thought and the heart of man are deep. And it goes on, but you know, verse seven, God sees what's going on. God is always aware. There's lessons we learn in everything we do, both on one side and the other. But God shall shoot at them with an arrow. Suddenly they will be wounded. So he will make them stumble over their own tongue. All who see them shall flee away. All men shall fear and shall declare the work of God, for they shall wisely consider his doing.

God always. It always comes outright. In this thing, when we wait on God, just like with the four horsemen, the trumpet plagues, wait on God. He's the hope. He's the expectation. But this horseman, this first horseman, has this bow. He's got a completely different religion. He's got a totally different mindset than anyone who came before him. He's riding across the universe. He's causing, he's causing discord. He's causing harm. He's causing people to die. And he uses his words to divide and conquer because it's given him, his job is to conquer, to make sure people, people listen to what's going on.

And again, if I, you know, think back to what we've come through in the last few years, how do you make people listen? Well, you can censor anyone who says anything you don't like.

You can shut them up. You can label it misinformation. You can do whatever you want. Not only here, but across the areas of Europe. The same thing happened not too long ago in the first global, the first global event that occurred in mankind's history, where we found this rise of that's not my truth, that's your truth. We're not listening to that. So we see these elements around us today that are beginning, and if we're listening closely, we can begin to hear those hoofbeats. We can hear the galloping. It's getting a little closer. Not fully here yet, but getting a little closer. So the first, the first horseman has quite an effect, has quite an effect on mankind. Let's go back to Revelation 6. Let's look at the second, second horseman. Verse 3 says, when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, come and see. Another horse, fiery red, was out, and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth. Well, that's war, we say, but peace can be taken away in all sorts of ways. It's not just war. Take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another, and there was given to him a great sword. So there is the, there is the weapons, there is the killing that goes on. There is war, and the world will be enveloped by war. Many history books will tell you that there have been very few days that there hasn't been a war fought somewhere on earth, very few times of peace, but even in those times of peace, the winds of war were beginning to blow. There was always some kind of conflict, always some kind of discord that would lead to a war, those rumors of war. We know where the war is going on today in Ukraine. We understand that. We see what's going on. We see the threats that are going on there. We hear of the rumors of wars all over the world. We could probably name them all off. We can even talk about Russia when they give the rumor of, we're going to just drop that nuclear bomb if that happens. Well, that's a rumor. That kind of takes peace away from people, doesn't it? It may or may not happen. Totally what God's will is and totally what goes on, but just that threat takes away peace, makes people think, makes people realize the world we live in. We have rumors of war in Taiwan, as that is continually jangled before our eyes. This is going to happen if you advance, and we say, no, we're going to do whatever we need to do.

We have things going on in Iran with the problems that are going on there with their development of a bomb that they say they will use if they ever can develop it. We have the threats of war, I mean, just within the last couple days with Israel going on over there and that banter that goes back and forth, those rumors of war. We even have Mexico on our southern border. That's taken peace from the earth. There's a lot of things going on in there. We have other wars that have been fought that haven't gotten as much coverage in the media, but they're everywhere. If we look at it, the world is in a state of conflict. The winds of war are blowing, and you can see the sides developing. If we were to turn back to Daniel 11, you see it with that. Let me make sure we've finished the thought in Daniel 11. Yeah, I was going to read through verse 39. Verse 39, it uses the same word cause as at Revelation 13, small beast, that, that. But as you go through the rest of Daniel 11, you see that here's this king of the north. He's advancing. You got war going on. You got a different religion with him than you do in the king of the south, which is the Islamic nations. So you've got a religious difference between those two. The king of the north tells us he goes down to the south, and he wipes them out. Of course, the king of the south does prompt him into it. And then, as he's doing that, news from the east. News from the east.

Is there? Well, the east, we see that alliance forming today. The war in Ukraine has pushed Russia and China and North Korea close together. They've got a few others who are talking to them, and we begin to see the east become a power bloc. They see things totally different than Europe and America. We see these things that are going on, but curiously in Daniel 11, you don't ever see the west. You don't see the western powers, and today the world looks west to the United States, but in Daniel 11, you don't see the west at all. They're just completely absent. It's the king of the north, the king of the south, the king of the east. Where's the western power? I think when we throw in the time of Jacob's trouble, we see what's going on there and how the world will be in that time before Christ's return. So we have all this trouble and all this that the second beast is stirring up as the wars continue. First beast has something to do with that because false religion does engender discord, hate, and all the conflicts that you can imagine. We've seen it. We've seen it in church. We've seen it in America. We'll continue to see it. The world has seen it in the course of human history and war can be the result and often is the result. So if we go back to 6. Well, before you go back to there, let's go to Matthew 24.

Christ talks about this time and says that peace will be taken. Peace will be taken from the earth. And as I said, it just doesn't have to be wartime. Peace. You know, peace is one of those things that we strive for. When Jesus Christ returns and peace comes on the earth, people will understand for the first time what great peace there is. I'm not sure there is peace on the earth. You know, Christ says and the Bible says the way of peace they have in known. Even in times that are absent from warfare, there's a lot of times of strife and times when peace isn't evident in our lives and relationships. It's a whole lot of things that we will learn and have to learn and the world will have to learn after Jesus Christ returns for that time of great peace to come. Matthew 24, you know, after verse 8, where these are the beginning of birth pangs or the beginning of sorrows, it says in verse 9, they'll deliver you up. Well, why would they deliver us up? Because of what we believe? Yeah? Then they will deliver you up to tribulation. They'll kill you. You will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Christ said, if they hated me, they'll hate you. That religion is not going to tolerate. That new religion isn't going to tolerate the Bible. It's not going to tolerate morality as God stated it. It's going to be a time of lawlessness. A time that as we look ahead, we have to think about these things and determine what do we do. Do we get scared? Do we bury our head? Do we pretend it doesn't want to, that we don't want to think about it? Or do we grow closer to God? We grow closer to God that we have the strength, that we have the relationship with Him at that time, that we can resist these times that are coming. So we have this war and strife and a time of lack of peace. If we go back to Revelation 6, then we have another interesting horse. He rides across the landscape and he's famine. He's famine. But maybe not famine in the way that we think of famine coming. Yeah, Revelation 6, verse 5, when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hands. He's weighing out the grain. Here's something about that. He's rationing it out. You only get so much, and that's the way it is. He had, and he who sat on it, had a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and don't harm the oil and the wine.

So we have with this third horse the effect of economy showing up. There's a lack of food. There is a shortage of food. War sometimes produces famine, as the war in Ukraine has raged on. There is talk of famine over there. Ukraine was seen as the breadbasket of Europe, and they are preparing. In fact, I tuned into one newscast over there, and a European celebrity, you might not know his name, but I had heard of him, was talking with a commentator, and they just talked openly about the coming famine. The coming famine. And I thought that was an interesting thing to say. Not one of them said, what do you mean by coming famine? It was like the coming famine. And they talked a little bit about the war, but they talked a lot about other things, and they talked about how people are openly talking about food shortages, and things that you won't be able to eat anymore, and things that you won't be able to have anymore. And it was an interesting conversation, because I think we've all heard these things in relation to some of the things that are going on, in the world. We might think, oh, those are silly things and whatever, but I've learned over the last few years, pay attention, because if there's something that is being said that seems so outlandish, probably there's those arrows that are flying that are planting, planting the thoughts and planting the seeds. And so you have this coming famine. You have these food shortages that even our president has mentioned in the past, that is talked about in other places, and you do have this element on earth where people are beginning to think we need to sacrifice, because an element of false religion or an element of any religion is sacrifice. And one of the things we might need to sacrifice is the type of foods that we eat or how much food we eat, things like that. Things like that. Now, I was, where we lived in Florida, they had this neighborhood thing or this area thing that people could get in and talk about various whatever they want to talk about. Often, it's just about, I need a repairman for this or whatever. So I never have gotten off of it, and I see, you know, I see a little thing on my email every day. 99% of them I just click off and don't read, but I saw one last week that kind of caught my attention because the lady, you know, she said, my electric bill went up to $500 this month. It's never ever been even close to that before. And so I thought, well, let's see what she's talking about. What has she done? And so she talked about it, and this is unreal, and that what this is what it is, and she didn't do anything other than than she had done before. And when she called the electric company, they said, that's probably what it's going to be. As long as you're running air conditioning and things like that, you can just expect your bill going to be that high. And I thought she was going to rant and rave about everything, but the comment that she made was so interesting. She goes, I guess that's the way life is, and to protect the planet, I'm going to have to sacrifice some other things.

And I thought, that's your conclusion? Because of climate change, I'm going to have to sacrifice. This is just the way life is. And so you see this other part of what is going on in the world today, that some, not my idea, I've heard comment in news programs about it's almost becoming a god that we sacrifice to, and that we would be willing to give up food types for, and be willing to be willing to do with less. Some comments even talk about there's just too many people on the earth. We just don't need this many people on the earth. The planet can't survive if we have this many people on the earth. So anyway, I'm getting off my topic here in the third horse, but all these things play into it as you see these little arrows that get dropped, and then you see economy brought into this famine that is there. There's no mention of drought, and usually famines come as a result of drought, but as you read through here you have these horsemen riding across the planet, and here you have people saying, a quart of wheat for the narius, a day's worth of a day's pay, you've got inflation, you've got this huge amount of money that you're going to pay just to have food. It's part of the sacrifice that you make. It's part of what is going on in this time of the third horsemen. So it could be, just saying, could be, but there may be food out there. No droughts. Could be droughts that cause the problems or whatever, but it could be man-made. Could be man-made famines. Wars are certainly man-made. Famines can be man-made. Things like that can happen, and we could talk on and on about the rest of the economic implications of what would be going on at that time. But grain is a substance. Grain is necessary, or at least in the Bible time, grain was a staple of life. You needed to have it. So people have to buy food. They have to give everything they need for that. Same thing happened to the time of Joseph in Egypt.

People would just, the king would just, it's more and more. You can get grain, but here's how it's going to be. This is what you're going to be, and the king under Joseph accumulated an awfully lot of wealth because people have to have the food. Interesting thoughts when you see it going along, and you hear little things that we put together on how this might come about. And then it says in verse 6, and don't don't harm the oil and the wine. It's always been a phrase that we don't really understand what that means or what it could mean. So I was looking at other commentators to say, what do they say about it? What it could possibly be? Why did God say oil and wine? We know that oil is significant to the Bible. We know that wine has its significant symbolism in the Bible, but don't harm the oil and the wine. One commentator made the suggestion that this is separating the classes. You have the classes who have to have grain that spend all they have for the grain, but you have the elite who use the oil and the wine, the luxury items of that. They have the grain and they have the luxury items that they have access to that the rest of the people don't because all their money goes for the basics of life. And I thought about that, and I thought, well, you know, during the COVID time, the first global event, we did see that happen. You saw the pictures of where the elite did one thing, but the rest of the masses did something else. Could it be? Could it be that that's what that means? And this coming famine would have those elements to it. I'm not going to take the time to read Micah 6 verses 10 through 12. You can mark that down and read that later. It speaks to that as well. But let's go on to the fourth seal here in verse 7. When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come and see. So I looked and behold a pale horse. And this pale horse isn't just pale. I mean, it's a sickly green. Whenever you see it, it is obviously that someone is dying from a disease. It's the kind of grayish green that people have when they're very, very ill or about to die. So I looked and behold a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was death. And Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over the fourth of the earth to kill with sword. We read that already. I'll come back to that in a minute. So here we have pestilence. Here we have pestilence. Again, when you look at the Greek word in other places in the Bible, I didn't write it down. It begins with a t-r. It's translated as pestilence. And Jesus Christ talks about pestilence. So he's talking about those elements that are the beginning of sorrows. You have pestilence. You have disease that's happening around the earth. And you have people who are just dying as a result of all that.

And so you know, so we've recently been through COVID, a worldwide event. It was a real disease. Some people thought it wasn't a real element. It was a real disease. People really did die from it. It was really serious. And there's open talk about the next pandemic.

Again, over in Europe, it was like the next pandemic, the next pandemic, when that occurs. I think that happens here as well, that people see that this is something that's going to occur. And interestingly, about this second part of verse, last part of verse 8, where it talks about a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, hunger, death, and by the beasts of the earth.

You know, I know that you remember that COVID was a coronavirus. And a coronavirus, it emanated from bats, whether it originated, whether it was released from a lab, or whether it came from a food market, makes no difference. It was a coronavirus. It's not something that naturally occurs in man. And so when it doesn't naturally occur in man, it's something that isn't your immune system isn't going to be able to overcome or reject. And so coronaviruses, and there's been others, SARS, MERS, all our coronaviruses, even the common cold is a coronavirus that you can never really, you can never really just completely, your immune system completely do because they kind of recreate themselves every year. And so we hear about these different strains. And just last night I watched the news and they talked about new strains of COVID. Not deadly, not serious, but new strains of COVID I thought was interesting to hear that, hadn't heard anything on the news about that for a long time. But they just recreate themselves.

And they come from beasts of the earth. So you don't have to have a beast that's there. Now, certainly if we look in the Bible, we look at the time when God says, you know, beasts of the earth will kill you, lions. When Israel was taken out of its land when they were conquered by Assyria, lions came in there, real beasts. But we have these things in today's world that are caused by beasts. They are deadly. They do make our streets vacant. We saw Leviticus 26, it says, your streets will be vacant because of these beasts. There are all these things that we could tie in together as we look at these four horsemen that are riding the globe.

And we can relate to some of them today in a way that maybe we couldn't five, ten, twenty years ago as God, as we see the world progressing closer and closer to what God and the elements are. And of these four beasts, the fourth of the earth die.

It's a pretty good population control. Pretty good population control, all at the hand of man, all inspired by Satan. If we turn over to Revelation 11, we see Jesus Christ returning and the hosts in heaven chronicling and praising his return and what he will do in this time that is troubling. Time of trouble that comes on the earth at that time. In verse 18, you can see the 24 elders fell before God. They worshiped God. Verse 18, they say, the nations were angry and your wrath has come and the time of the dead that they should be judged and that you should reward your servants, the prophets, and the saints and those who fear your name small and great and that you should destroy those who destroy the earth.

Their mission is to destroy the earth. Satan's mission is to destroy the earth, to destroy mankind. Jesus Christ will come and save. All this is reality.

There's nothing you and I can do to change it. God says it is reality. It is going to happen.

What you and I do with it is important. Do we wish it weren't so? Do we bury our heads and ignore what Christ said? Watch what's coming. Keep your eyes open what's going to occur.

These four horsemen will ride even more swiftly. More and more as time goes on, we will hear more clearly the galloping noises of those horsemen as they get closer and closer to our lives and wreak the havoc that they're destined to do. Back in Matthew 24, Christ gave us what we should do as those times approach. We don't have to wonder. You know what the answers are. We just have to exercise the self-control, as you heard in the sermonette, to do what we need to do. To not delay, to not just put things off, to not bury our heads, but to prepare for that time.

Verse 43 of Matthew 24. Know this, Christ says, his words, know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you also be ready, be ready. For the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect. Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. Doing his will now, not delaying, not sleeping, waking up, getting it, growing closer to him. Verse 47 assuredly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. That's what God wants for you and me, but we have our part to play. We have to do what we know to do. God's given us the knowledge, he's given us the spirit, he's given us all the tools.

We have to do it. But if that evil servant, verse 48, says in his heart, my master's delaying is coming. Don't have to pay attention to it. I'm not going to worry about it. My master's delaying is coming and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, going along with the world, life the way it used to be. The master of that servant will come on a day when he's not looking for him and in an hour that he's not aware of and he will cut him into and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. Christ is pretty clear what we need to do. He says similar things in Luke 21. Luke's account of what Christ said is also quite illuminating, I guess. Luke 21 and verse 28, again he's quoting Jesus Christ, the inspired word of God that God gives you and me to look at. Verse 28 of Luke 21, when these things begin to happen, when you see these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads. Look to God because your redemption draws near.

Look to God when you see these things beginning to happen in ways they haven't before. Then he spoke to them a parable and he said, look at the fig tree and all the trees. When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away. It is certain it's going to happen. Our job is to be ready for it and trust in God to see us through. He warns, take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing drunkenness and cares of this life and that they come on to you unexpectedly.

1 Thessalonians, I think, is chapter 5 verse 3, talks about suddenly things will happen. Isaiah 30 talks about suddenly things will happen. Take you by surprise. It should never take us by surprise because we're ready and we're close to God. But if we're not, it'll take us by surprise. Verse 36, watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man. That's why you and I are here.

That's what God wants for us to do. That's where God wants us to be. He wants us to succeed. That's why He tells us these things, that He opens our minds so that we can understand what's going on so that we are ready and so that we take the time to be ready. And as we look at the things going on in the world around us, we don't draw closer to it or let their ideas seep into us, but we draw farther and farther away from that and closer and closer to God. Let me close in Isaiah. Isaiah 45.

You know, God, this is part of His plan that was before the foundation of the earth. He knew what Satan would do. He knew what human nature would do.

And He knew what would happen as Satan was allowed to influence people more and more. Verse 21 of Isaiah 45.

He says, I'll break into the middle of the verse here in verse 21, who has declared this from ancient time? The Bible talks about these times. God says, in this chapter, he's talking about proving that he is God and these other gods were never able to predict anything. They weren't able to do anything. But God has said from ancient times, what is going to happen and it's going to happen. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have an eye, the eternal, and there is no other God besides me, a just God, and a Savior. There is none besides me. He is the only Savior. He is the only way to salvation. There is no other route. Look to me, He says. When He says, look to me, it's like, look to me, follow me, do what I say. Follow the example of Jesus Christ. Follow the example of the apostles. Follow the words that you see in the Bible and grow closer and closer ever more, living by every word of God. Look to me and be saved. Don't look the other way. Don't bury your head. Look to me. Look up, Jesus Christ said. Look to me and be saved all you ends of the earth.

Salvation, God has a plan for all of mankind. He wants every man, woman, and child to receive eternal life, not all in this physical lifetime now, but in His plan, as we'll talk about from now, as we go through the fall holy days. But for you and me, realize where we are. Grow closer to God.

There are times that precede the Feast of Trumpets. We're in those times.

Pay attention. Take the time. Grow close to God.