Riders in the Sky

There was a song. Anybody remember the song about writers in the sky? Does anybody remember that? Was it Ghost? Ghost writers in the sky. What comes to your mind when you hear that?

Four Horsemen. Very good. You know where I was going. That's exactly what we're going to talk about today, is a Four Horsemen, because it was a definite vision of some type in the sky. Was it really there? What did John see? How did that all come about? Well, I don't plan on answering all those questions today, but I would like to start at a point that I have not done here in all the time that I've been here in my years. I'd like us to go, if you will, to Revelation 1. Start at the beginning.

And I would like to just bring us to the point that we can't understand the book of Revelation without having trepidation or fear, or we don't know what that means. Of course, we don't know what everything means. We're not supposed to know what it means.

Still, a lot of it is actually a bonus, and then you will see. I've had people think they can tell you everything that's in there. Well, guess what? They can't. A lot of stuff that's been said in the past never came to pass. So I would like for us to be, as I said this morning, without fear of the last days, the time of the end, like for us to not be intimidated by the book of Revelation, because it's not that complicated.

It is like a 2,000-pound steer. Okay? How do you eat it? One piece at a time. And when you begin to look at Revelation from that standpoint, which I had to be taught to do that myself by my good friend Gary Beam, who is very knowledgeable, as knowledgeable as anyone in our church about it, he helped me to understand things over the last probably 10 to 12 years that I would never understood on my own or trying to read books.

So let's look at it. If you'll turn there with me, Revelation 1 and verse 1, and this will be a little interaction, not like we will have with our Bible study today. Am I walking outside the picture here too much? I'm okay. Okay, I just don't like those thumbs down. Okay, so let's look at verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things which must shortly or quickly take place, and he sent and signified it by his angel to the servant of God.

Now, I don't know what your Bible says. My Bible says at the heading, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Anybody have that in their Bible? Well, that's a lie. You'll also have in your some of the books says the revelation of John. That's a lie. Okay, because that's not what the Bible says. There are four beings, four distinct beings here, and this revelation that is coming to John, to us, it comes to John by an angel who's given it to him, it, I think, by Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ didn't come up with it.

It comes from the Father. That's what it is. There's a four step process here. The Father. That's what it says, right? Which God gave to him. God gave it to Christ. Christ gave it to his angel, and the angel then gives it to John. So just to clear the page on the very first verse, because of the oh, it's a revelation. No, it's not.

God wanted to make sure that we get this, and so he puts this down. Who was there? John. So we know it's a truth. He was actually given this by an angel. He didn't make it up. These are not visions, strange visions and dreams, because I heard a preacher one time just say, Oh, yes, it was some crazy wonderings and dreams by this man stuck on an island. Oh, this old man stuck in a island that was a prison, and he was just seen now.

Yeah. Not true. In fact, that man got off that island and went back and wrote three other books, if not four, in the scriptures. So let's go on, though, because it said in verse 2, Who bore witness to the Word of God? Who did? Who bore witness? John. Yeah, John. To the testimony of Jesus Christ and to all things that he saw. Go with me, if you will. Won't turn many pages today, but I'd like you to turn to John 12. Let's go back to John 12. John 12, verse 49.

For it says, John, oh, sorry, John 1249. Sorry, John 1249. Says, For I have not spoken on my own authority. Who's saying this? Jesus Christ, right? But who's telling it? John. So he's saying, Christ is saying, For I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me gave me a command. What I should say and what I should speak.

So the Father is in charge from this time all the way to the end, even though Jesus Christ will reign and rule for a thousand years, he's going to hand everything off at the end of a thousand years to his Father.

It's not very complicated that way, but John saw it. He knew it. He spent time with Christ, and then he also had these revelations coming. And in verse three, Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy. So if you read it or if you hear it, God says you'll be blessed. The only time in the entire scriptures from Genesis to Revelation that says if you read this book, you will be blessed.

Kind of makes you think, maybe I should read this book. Maybe I should hear a little bit more. I choose to be blessed by God. How about you? I'll take his blessings. I'll ask him for this blessing. So here's one that always says you want to be blessed. Read it. Not hard, not complicated for us. Read it. And then he says something else. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and look at the word keep. Keep what?

The actual Greek word there is terrao. That's how you pronounce the Greek word. I won't spell it since none of you are well terrao. But you look and others if you go by look at the word it means to obey. We're all into that. Okay, I'm going to keep these words. I'm going to obey these words. Or the other one observe. There's stuff in there to observe. But what's unique is at the foundation of this word keep. In Greek means, and I think it's important to all of us, guard. G-U-A-R-D means to guard. When you guard something, what is it? It's something you guard something because it's valuable. If you don't have anything in your house, leave it open. Right? Keep it unlocked. Because if these want to go, there's something valuable. Okay, this is the same word. This is the same meaning of this word. This is valuable. So you're going to hear it. What do you say? Hear it or read it. And now he's telling us to guard it. It brings us a little greater depth to how important it is for these words. And those who guard those things which are written in it for the time is near.

You'll hear many people say the book of revelations. Nobody can understand it. That's not what God says. So we can not only hear it, understand it, observe it, obey it, but we can also guard it. Because these words may, the way this country is beginning to turn, you'll wonder if there will be Bibles allowed to be sold or even given out down the road. The way things are turning. Let's go on. Verse 4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia.

So this is the message to these seven churches on a route, a mail route. Okay, we're not going to go through those today, but there were seven churches and they were all on a mail route. And so a letter would come and then that letter could be read and then passed on to the next church and the next church and the next church. So it's not like each of these churches got one letter. They each got the letters as they made on this mail route, which you kind of found out if what this base is true. If you've kind of read the letters, one church be going, huh, look, they've got problems. Another one going, oh man, we're sitting pretty good.

So don't want to delve into that here, but it says, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the spirits that are before his throne. Who's he talking about? What's this verse? Who's it talking about? He's bringing grace from what? It says, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and is to come. Who? Well, we had mixed words there. What?

Is it Christ or is it God the Father? Ah, yes! That's as John is correct there. Let's finish reading the verse. Okay, grace to you and peace is from who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ. Christ to distinct beings, isn't it? But yet it says that God the Father, who is, he's alive, who was, always been, and who is to come. Just like Christ, he's coming. He's coming! Just a thousand years later!

You bet he does. Yes, he's going to be with us. We're going to be his children. He's going to be his father. I mean, that's we're talking in the spiritual realm, but that's why I go back to this and want to start here because I want everybody to understand how important it is rather than to just pick a verse out of here and pick a verse out of there and oh, this means, but this is how God set this up with John so that he could explain it to us and it doesn't have to be confusing when you understand all the dynamics in it. Okay? So let's talk about this Jesus Christ. He says the faithful witness. How was Christ the faithful witness? Anybody? Don't know? Uh-huh. He was a...what does a witness do?

A witness exposes things? I see this. He wants his own witness. Yes. He's this faithful witness, not anything else. So what this witness says, because the last thing you want in a trial is a witness who doesn't speak the truth, a false witness, and this book is going to tell us about quite a few false witnesses. So that's why it's important that we get the truth here. From Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead.

Wait a minute. What does that mean? Didn't...wasn't the firstborn from the dead in the New Testament? That wasn't Christ, was it? That was Lazarus. Huh? Wait a minute. Wasn't he raised from the dead? Wasn't he the first? Huh?

Ah, he came back to what? Life, physical life! Christ didn't come back to physical life, did he? We're not coming back. If we die and we're resurrected, we're not coming back to what? Yes! We're going to follow Christ, because, as he even said when Christ was born, how many? Many came out of the grave and said they were saints. Are they still around today? Because, huh? Yeah, they're in the grave, but they're not alive. They're not spirit. They didn't live on, because the spirit's going to live on. Will Christ ever die? Never. Will those who are resurrected in Christ ever die? That's why it's called, what? Eternal life.

Pretty simple here, as he lays this out. The firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. You know what's amazing about that? It doesn't say he's going to be, does he? Because he will be the king of kings, and we know those kings. But this is saying right here, right now, even back 2,000 years ago, when John wrote this, he's a king over all the kings of the earth. Now! Now! Nobody's in Washington that he didn't want there. Nobody's in anywhere. There's no king anywhere. He's over that king. He puts them in their place. We should never, ever forget what's said here. Right? Because it says, and the ruler over the kings of the earth.

Shouldn't be any questions.

When did he qualify to be ruler of the earth?

After what? Three days and three nights when he was resurrected. He is the king. He qualified for it. And you can read Paul's writings. He said, he's it! He did it! He did it!

He said, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.

There is only one person did that. Only one person can take our sins away. And his blood takes them away. His blood doesn't cover. Must always remember that because I hear that misquoted quite a few times even today.

My sins are covered by his blood. No, no, they're not.

They don't cover. They take away the blood of of goats and all the bulls and all the sacrifices. They just covered. They didn't take anything away. Read about that in Hebrews. Okay. So our our sins are not covered. They're taken completely wiped away. As far as east is from the west of the scriptures. Say it right. That means a whole lot more. Blood of goats and bulls can never, never take away our sins. Only the sacrifice of the Lamb of God here. Okay, let's go down to six because we're just doing seven in case you're wondering, is he going to go through this entire book? No, I don't ever hardly ever do that. And then there's this incredible verse. In verse six, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Everybody get that? Kings and priests.

Isn't that a nice, isn't that a nice thought?

That's not in the scripture. That was never in the Greek. Wasn't. If you have a margin like I do in the in the New King James, it has, if you have a margin in there, it has right beside it, this little one, and you go to the middle and it says in you and M right beside it. Now, that means I'll give a give a real short version of it means Nestle's united. You've read that Nestle's as as one, whatever united, but it was a society. But it was a society of Greek translators so they could prove so they could really brought a group together to prove what these scriptures really mean and what they're pulling out of these three thousand four thousand little transcripts. But that was the other one. But yeah, the words that were written in Greek, how they could pull it so you didn't have somebody writing this and somebody just saying this what it means. No. So there's Nestle's united and there's also there's those scholars who looked at the M, which means majority. That means of all those scripts that were put together, the majority of those scripts of the Greek in the New Testament said this. So when you have the NU and the M together, it's ninety nine percent. That's what is in the majority of texts of the Greeks. That's what's written. That's that's what's important. But somebody decided, let's just stop. Let's just it sounds better this way. Or we kind of believe it might be better this way. So what did they put? They put kings and priests. Do you know what the original Greek meant? Anybody have that? Ah, very good. That's exactly what it means in all the majority manuscripts and all the Greeks. A kingdom of priests. What did what did God tell Israel back then when he took them out? I want to make you a kingdom of priests. He's had the same idea all the time. And now it's been translated, if I use that word, from Israel who didn't want to do it, who couldn't live up to it, to those that Christ is called. And so they will be a kingdom of priests. They will rule and teach. So kings and priests, sounds good. I've used it. Man, did I wear it out. It feast on that thing. Yeah, I just like, Oh, that sounds better. But let's talk about what it really says because that's what's important. So has made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And then he goes, Amen. Why?

What's Amen mean? So be it. It's done, settled, in. But then what does he do? He brings verse seven. And he says, Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, and they also who pierced him. Who pierced him? And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, what does he say again? Amen. There's two distinct statements made. That's why he said Amen. Because it's one about what we're going to be and about him, and then the other of what is going to happen. It's going to happen. He's coming back. And every eye will see him. Every eye where? On the entire earth. How was that possible 50 years ago? How was it possible? Might even think 20 years ago. It definitely wasn't possible 2000 years ago when this was written. So this is prophetic. We can now see because we can watch an event happen live anywhere in the world. We have the major companies now flying drones all across Africa, and they're charged by the sun, and they give out Wi-Fi to every individual, and they believe this will happen in the next few years. They're going to fly these things all over the earth so you can have it anytime you want it.

You can watch something in real time.

So will everyone see this? They're going to see him coming? Because wait a minute, if everybody's to see him coming, he's got to be awfully big. If you just look out the sky, and there's a sun, and then all of a sudden, something as big as the sun comes back. He's going to come in the clouds, and everybody's going to see him, and everybody's going to know. Even those it says who pierced him. Well, those guys are dead, aren't they? Do you remember the soldier who stabbed him? Aren't they dead? Isn't that guy dead? So is this a lie? Okay.

So who killed Christ? The Jews or the Romans? Romans.

All of us. Because of our sins, he came for what's John 3 16? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Whoever believes on him may have eternal life. We all did it because of our sins. He died for all of us, and so that also says everybody's going to see him.

Pretty big statement. And then it says all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Why is that? Why are they going to mourn? Oh, he's coming! Why do they hate him, John?

Because what happens before he comes? We're going to look at that. What are we talking about here? We've got four horsemen coming. Okay, and that's just the beginning. And then you have seven seals that have to be opened up, and then at the seventh seal you have trumpets. You have seven trumpets, and at the end of the seventh trumpet, what happens? The dead in Christ will rise. Right? They'll meet Christ in the air, and then you have seven trumpet plagues that's going to be poured out on this entire world. They thought it was bad before. It gets even worse.

Isn't that amazing? Because it's all going to happen, and because we know, because we're blessed by reading this, we know what's going to happen. That's why it's important to know the easy seven seals. We're going to go through two of those today, which the four of the seven seals.

Horsemen of the apocalypse.

And so that's why everybody will see, because the whole, and I want to bring this, because we'll go into it a little bit, the only reason God is going to inflict this on the world is why?

Repent! It's all about repent. All He wants is people to repent and turn to Him. It's all He's ever wanted at the beginning, and all He wants for the world. You don't have to suffer. His two witnesses are going to proclaim it all over the world. All He wants is for you to repent.

They're going to do it?

So let's go on too, because I want to finish what I want to lay out today. If you will go with me to Revelation chapter 6.

Revelation chapter 6. Here we have the four horses. Four horses and four horsemen. Four dudes are riding on this, the four horses. Now, are they real horses? Are they vision? What did he see? Are they the riders in the sky? Well, nobody can tell you that. Only John can. But whatever it was was so vivid, so clear, John had no problem describing it and knowing exactly what they meant. Yes, sir.

Well, let's go to the first horse and see, because when I first arrived, in South Florida, and I went to church the second or third week. In fact, I was hired, but I wasn't even ordained an elder yet. They were waiting on my paperwork to go through. So I got up and gave a sermon about this. I mean, Ampe was probably there, and I had two or three people come back to me at the end and said, You got this all wrong. You don't know what you're talking about. I said, Really? And I said, Well, what did I get wrong? I read straight from the Bible. You got that. You got that first horse wrong.

The first horseman wrong. That's not a bad thing. That's Jesus Christ. And he said it just like that in my face. I said, Really? So of the four horsemen, you got three bad and one really, really good. Is that what you read out of it? And he goes, I'm not coming back to this church. You don't even know what you're talking about. And he never did. Never did come back to church after that time. Didn't ask for me to explain. He just had this in his mind.

But before he left, he said, And I want to tell you one thing also. You're worshiping on the wrong day.

I started asking, Why are you here then? But I didn't. I didn't. I was new. Okay. So let's go. Matter of fact, Mary wasn't even around. She was frolicking in Hawaii while I was working all that time. Okay. Let's go. Let's go to Revelation 4, Revelation 6, verse 1. We will go through 1 through 4, and then I'll wrap this sermon up. Looking at my clock. They took the clock down, didn't they? No? Oh, so you guys don't care how long I go? Okay. All right. Let's go to 1. Now, I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Got to go back to verse 1. Got to go back to Revelation, chapter 1 again. I don't want you to miss this.

Yes, I do. I want you to miss that because I got something. That's for later. Okay. Revelation 6 and verse 1. Now, I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals. Okay, and I'll bring that next time, what it actually looked like or what you'll get into.

Because papers were actually sealed with a seal, and most of you know what they mean, but this was unique because there were seals inside of another seal. So you would open one, and then that would only show you what this is, and then there was another seal you had to cut open to see what the second seal was. And so this is what was kind of given to him for to entice him into what he's looking at. Okay, one of the seals. And I heard one of the four living creatures coming with a voice like thunder saying what? Come and see. Notice how that is said. This is a visual.

We learned from visual. This was a very important visual because he was going to see into the future, and you can tell somebody about the future, but unless they see it, you won't even know it. Try to go back 50 years ago and tell somebody about wi-fi. Oh, let me tell you about it. Let me show you. Okay, this is a great visual. So he said, come and see. See, this is one of the four living creatures. This is not one of the angels. You know how the angel delivered it to him? This is one of the four living creatures who is at the throne of God. And he says, and I look and behold a white horse. There's Bill's horse with Jesus riding on him, right? Get him. Get him. No, no. And he who said on it had a bow. What's that? A weapon for battle. Okay. And a crown was given to him. Who gave him a crown? Was it from God? Doesn't say that, does it? And he went out conquering and to conquer. Why would he say that? Because that horse is riding. That horse has ridden, and it will continue to ride, and it will continue to conquer. Think about it. Now, why do we say that? Because I think if we go and you can easily see that in Matthew about the horse, right? Because one of the things that Jesus Christ talks about in Matthew 24, all of prophecy is what? One of the first things he brings out is religious deception, false ministers, false Christ. Some will even say, I am the Christ.

Kind of big? I think so. Let's go to Matthew. Go back to Matthew 24. I'm gonna have to speed this up. I get fired up about this, and I just can go on and on. Then I become like Gary Beam. Matthew 24. If you listen to this, Gary, you'll know I'm your friend. Matthew, as they say, well, what's gonna happen? How we know the time of the end? And then he goes in verse 4. Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you. Okay? For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. In verse 11, it says, Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. That was about the horse. It's gonna look like Christ. It's gonna talk like Christ, but it's not gonna act like Christ. It's gonna say these words. These religions are gonna go on, but it is going to conquer. Ask yourself. Go back. If you want to check, pull out your Google tonight. Pull out your Google and see how many people were conquered by religion. You want to talk about Islam?

You want to talk about Catholicism? You want to talk about Christianity? Look at the billions. Am I talking about true Christianity? Not authentic Christianity. Not like Christ, but they're fakes. And many people have been deceived and will be deceived, conquered and continue to conquer all the way till Christ returns. This horse has been riding all four of these horses have been riding since the time of Christ, and they will ride up to the time of Jesus Christ's return. The only difference, and how do we know, is the intensity at the end will be unlike anything anyone's ever seen before. We're going to see where, what does it say? Almost the entire world is going to believe the false prophet, the beast power. All the world, almost the entire world is going to be deceived. Will we know it? You do if you know what the true word of God says. Now let's go to the second seal. Verse 3, when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature. So not the same. You got four living creatures, not the first one that brought him the first one. There's a second one. These freaky looking things up there. You read about them later, what they look like when they came to him. But then the second living creature said, come and see, just like before. And he and another horse, not just red, fiery red. What does that mean? It means its color of Bill's tie. Okay, it's not just some light like Christina's back there and kind of red. No, it's a fiery red.

This horse would get your attention. And why is it? Why is it red? Fiery red went out, and it was granted to the one who set on it to take peace from the earth. And that people should kill one another. And there was given to him a sword. What does that mean? War. War. It's kill or be killed. That's what it was. I was sitting there just two nights ago, well, after the Bible study when we had that Thursday night, and I was just kind of wound up. And so I just flipped the TV on it and broke in the middle of that movie. That true story of Heartbreak Ridge of Desmond Doth's true story about a Sabbatarian who would not pick up brutal to watch. And that's what made me think of it. I mean, I was thinking of a sermon anyway. It made me think of it, man. I mean, he what he had to endure. And that's hard to watch. That's been going on for a long time. And it's going to go on. And in such intensity that if Christ did not step in, there would be no flesh alive. That's what he says. This second horse is about war. And he realized for me that since 1945, there's been 26 days of peace on this earth.

Since 1945, when the war ended, there have been 26 days of peace on earth. Hadn't I always said we've had peace here, haven't we? Lately. Okay, but there's not peace. Go to Ukraine. Go to these places as badly. It's out there. And before Christ returns, it's going to be everywhere that you're going to have to. The sword means war. Kill him. So why would God allow these two writers? Because he does. Why would he allow that? Why would he allow false deception? And then why would he allow war to kill billions of people?

God wants what he's always wanted.

Repent and turn to God. And that is why all these things have to happen in the verse. So if you've got that down, you're going to be okay.

But if you don't, and it starts with being deceived, and making sure we're not deceived by no man. So there is a word in Hebrew, and it means to repent. And the word is teshuvah. T-E-S-H-U-V-A-H. Teshuvah. And there are other words for repent. But this one is so powerful because that's what God wants. This teshuvah, which they understand, the Hebrew writers understood it, and the Jews even understand it today. When they use teshuvah, they do it with teshuvah. Because it just doesn't mean repent. It means repent and turn to God. Not just, I'm sorry. Oops! I guess it goofed out. Oh, oh, forgive me for that. But it means no. To repent is what he wants and turn completely to God. That is the core of prophecy. And if you will, your neighbors will, your family will, this world will, God will accept that. And he will eventually bring peace to this entire world. You want peace in the future? You better follow the Prince of Peace. Daily.