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Well, once again, good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6. We'll be looking at verses 12 through 17 today. Revelation chapter 6. Let me go ahead and read those words. Beginning in verse 12. 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. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were removed out of its place.

Then the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich, and the strong, and every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the caves, and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Well, when the Sixth seal is opened. The nations, the inhabitants of the earth, are terrorized. They're terrorized by what they see, but they also are terrorized by the realization of what it indicates. What do those events, what do these cosmic signs and earthly terrors indicate?

Well, we're going to come to that in a little bit, so I hope you stick around because it's very expressly stated here in our passage this morning. But before we look into this sixth seal, I want to step back and just bring to your mind where we've been.

Remember, with the first seal in Revelation 6 is this picture of this white horse, indicating some movement, some antichrist worldwide global movement. This creates the system of which Antichrist will come, the anti-God forces who oppose the one who is sitting on the throne and his Lamb. Not long after that, or following that, subsequent to that, the world goes into a worldwide conflict, discord.

There is bloodshed. Men will slaughter one another. And as we keep Reading, we realize that certainly among this slaughter is going to be those who are standing firm for the name of Christ. They will be martyred during this time of slaughter. In fact, the same word, they will be slaughtered as a testimony to the nations.

Following this great worldwide discord and war comes a period of famine and pestilence. Following that, you have the green horse, the fourth seal, you have this depiction of death on a global, massive scale. A quarter of the earth's population perishes. Somewhere from that second horse, from the wars, the famines, the diseases, and all that goes along with it, and other things, plagues, wild beasts, all that comes upon the earth, a quarter of the earth's population dies.

We opened up the fifth seal, and we see this altar, this altar with many martyrs at the base of it. This is the altar of incense. And let me just go back and look at verse 9 and read those. When the lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained.

And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord? Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there was given to each of them a white robe, 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.

So there is, with the opening of this fifth seal, we understand that there have been a lot of martyrs. They're crying out. Innocent blood has been shed upon the earth on a massive scale. They are crying out before the Lord, saying, Lord, how long, how long are you going to allow this to go on?

And the response is, rest a little bit longer. There's still some more martyrs to come. There are still those that are going to be slaughtered because of the Word of God. And so, and their identification with Christ. So when this sixth seal is opened, when we come to the sixth seal, it seems that this number is complete.

This number of martyrs is complete, so that the vengeance of the Lord can begin. Now, as you keep going in Revelation, there are certainly more martyrs to come. But certainly. By the seventh seal, by the time it opens in 8.3, there's another angel comes, and he adds a whole lot more prayers to the ones that are being offered.

And so you get the indication, certainly by the sixth seal, or certainly by the beginning of the seventh, that vengeance has begun. Even though more martyrs will come, a time for heavenly wrath and vengeance upon the earth has come. And that is what is depicted in this sixth seal.

It is that global announcement that the day of vengeance has come, that God has said enough, and it comes. And so I want you to see this morning what these cosmic signs and the earthly terrors that they instigate signify so that you and I will live in the anticipation of these truths.

So we're going to look at first the cosmic signs. Let's look back at verse 12. I looked, and 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, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs.

When shaken by a great wind, the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Now that's quite a shaking. An earthquake, a great one, a shaking. It's the word seismic, seismus megas. I think you get the idea.

A seismic activity on a major, major scale, a great shaking, a convulsing. But it's a shaking, as you keep reading, that not only impacts the earth below, but it impacts the sky above. It's a seismic activity that has cosmic or celestial proportions. Let's look first at the impacts to the sky above.

Look at verse 12. And the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair. And the whole moon became like blood. Sackcloth. Notice the simile, as sackcloth of hair. It refers, this sackcloth of hair, it refers to these black coats or black covers or capes, whatever. Made out of goat hair, black goat hair, that would be used in mourning, covering, very thick, coarse, black coat.

Notice what happens. So you can see the sun is going dark. Notice what happens to the moon, like blood. And this, again, is a simile, like blood. There's a deep, you can see it when there's a lunar eclipse. Sometimes you'll, if you watch it, sometimes that moon turns into this deep red copper color.

Well, so the, you can think about what's happening on the earth. There's an earthquake, and may very well be a lot of volcanic activity associated with that earthquake that shoots all kinds of debris into the atmosphere, and it could have an impact on the sun and the moon.

But as we keep reading, we understand that this seismic activity goes beyond just earth and volcanic ash in the atmosphere. Look at verse 13. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The word fell to the earth is the word collapsed.

It's the, they collapsed toward the earth. It would be a very literal expression. The stars collapse. They dropped. They fell earthward. As you think about the word stars here, the stars certainly can refer to the sun or other large celestial bodies like that, but it's not limited to that.

Within its scope, within its range, is certainly that to include all other kinds of large objects or small and large objects that fly or hurtle through space, like meteors. So you can get this idea that something cosmic levels is being brought into view. Notice how it says these stars are collapsing toward the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.

Another word for unripe figs are those late summer figs that maybe spring out, but they don't really go anywhere. And so when a good wind comes, that's the idea that they would then shake violently and fall earthward. Well, that's how John describes the stars. And these Celestial objects.

It's like an intense meteor, it would look like an intense meteor shower. But with the falling of these stars, it becomes evident that this shaking involves a whole lot more than just planet Earth. It's a celestial order shaking. It's interesting that scientists who they, and I've heard many times, state, both creationists and non-creationists say the Earth is the universe is expanding.

We see an expanding happening. But there's also a lot of evidence out there, and I've heard from both sides, that it's slowing. And then I've also heard from both sides that there is a fear of it contracting. And what would happen if things contracted or collapsed, if the universe collapsed upon itself.

Well, whatever, the language that is describing here is that of a collapsing universe. It is collapsing in on itself. This shaking, it's a very intense. But notice this. It doesn't stop there. It also includes the sky. Sky, verse 14, was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up.

Now, there's an image for you. I know we sing the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, and maybe that is a depiction here. But the word is not clouds. The word is sky. The sky, the heavens, the heaven is rolled back. Separated. The word split apart is the word separated.

It's parted. There was a time when Paul and Barnabas separated from each other in Acts 15. The idea of this word is to move away from a normal location. It split apart. In some way, the sky will part company with either itself, which is probably difficult to imagine, or with the earth.

In some way, there is a parting. You can think of it as a couple ways to think about it, like a scroll. Some think of it, it's divided in half and just rolls up. That might involve two scrolls. Another way to look at it is that of the sky receding, kind of like a scroll rolled up.

It's certainly atmospheric. You ever see like a roll of sod? Have you ever wanted your yard? It's interesting to watch how these sod farms have this grass out there, and they go, these big machines, and they roll up the grass. And then they come out and roll it out at your place, and you get green grass.

Well, that's the same kind of thing that's happening here: it's being rolled up. It's like the atmosphere is being rolled up. And so it's very descriptive. It's not rolled out. It's not like it's being rolled out. It's the opposite. It's being rolled up. There's a receding of the sky.

And it's clear that there's impacts to the sky above, but then there's also more impacts to the earth below. Look back at verse 14. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Each and every mountain. It's the plain meaning of the text here. Each and every mountain were moved out of their places.

They were moved. They were set in motion. They were caused to be displaced. They were rocked. They moved. To move. So you've got this comprehensive tectonic plate movement. If you can think about if all the tectonic plates on planet Earth all moved at once, what a shaking that would be, and it would be felt globally, and it would certainly move.

This is major, indescribable tectonic plate movement. And so it's clear that cosmic forces are at work in this shaking. This is a great shaking. And the impression upon those upon the earth, it looks like the universe is beginning to collapse. That's the impression. A collapsing universe. It's beginning to fall apart.

The world and the universe is beginning to fall apart. And so it's no wonder, of course, that these cosmic signs create earthly terror that have never happened before. So we've looked at the cosmic signs. Now I want you to see the earthly terrors that these cause. Look at 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. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of their wrath has come. And who is able to stand? So it's a shaking that will do more than just shake the natural world. It will shake the hearts of all people living upon planet Earth. And it is striking. It impacts humanity. It impacts what they say.

Well, it impacts what they do. It impacts what they say. And it impacts why they say it. It impacts what they do, say, and think. Well, just look at, first of all, we'll look at what happens, but look at who all is involved in this. Look at 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. There are seven designations categorizing human earth, and it's comprehensive. This gets the whole of it. The kings of the earth. This speaks of those supreme political rulers, captains, chiefs.

But they are the political leaders. And this would include the ten that we're going to run into in Revelation 17:12. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they will receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.

So it's clear that they are included in this. But these are all the kings of the earth. Kings, chiefs, captains. But then there's another category, the great men. The great men. These are the high-ranking individuals. We might call them the VIPs of the world. Notice next: the commanders.

This speaks of the military leaders, the military commanders, the captains, the officers, all who have command in military life. So you got the military, kings, military, great men. Then you have the rich. This speaks about the men who are in control of commerce, the merchants, the wealthy class.

You've got the highest, the richest, the ones who control the wealth. And then you have the strong, the strong. These are the influential people of planet Earth, the powerful, the strong. They have a strong influence on public opinion, and they have a huge sway over large segments of the population.

These are the very influential people. So you have the great men, the commanders, the rich, the strong. But then there's a couple more categories: every slave and free man. This is the mass of humanity, and they're lumped in one category. Every slave and free man. This is the lower classes of humanity.

These are the ones who follow the directions of the five: the leaders, the kings, the great men, the commanders, the rich, the strong. And then you have all this mass of humanity. Every slave, every free man. This is the majority of Earth's population, blind, following the blind. But they're not innocent.

They too have taken their part in rejecting the King of Kings, the one who sits on the throne and his Lamb. They too have been party to all that's been propagated against those martyrs. They have been part of. Of the mindset and the system that has shed the blood of Christ's followers.

This is all of them. But this is a comprehensive statement of all the inhabitants upon earth. From top to bottom, the collective whole of humanity is represented here. These are the ones who have collectively worked together against God and against His Anointed One. But then we have Earth's great equalizer, the shaking.

And guess what? All of a sudden, Earth is equalized. They will all be terrorized. They will all flee and mourn and hide and wish for death. So that's who they are. So now I want you to see what they did. And then I want you to see what they said.

And then I want you to see why they said it. First, look at what they did. Verse 15. Notice that 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.

They went into the caves. And certainly, this includes literal caves. But the word is also involved, the caves were looked at as dens at the time, hiding places, places of refuge. So, certainly, there are literal caves involved here, but this is all humanity running for cover wherever they are, looking for covering.

And they hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. These are like ants running for cover. They run for cover. The sight was so terrifying that they didn't want to look at it. What was terrifying about the sight is what it signaled and what they all fully well understood.

They understood it. They saw it. And they knew that this was really what they were seeing and hearing was the coming of the Lord. You remember what Adam and Eve did when they heard the coming of the Lord? Back then, it was just Adam and Eve, but that was all of humanity.

And what did they do when they heard the coming of the Lord? They went and they hid themselves in the bushes, and they covered themselves with fig leaves. You remember that? You remember. Why did they do that? Because they knew they were naked. They knew they could not stand.

The countenance of God Almighty. Remember in Genesis 3, 7? I read the words not long ago, but let me read them again. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called out to the man and said, Where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. And he said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree which I commanded you not to eat? So here we are in Adam and Eve.

This is what sin does. This is what spiritual death looks like. Look, in a world without sin, there would be no reason not to run to your Creator. You think about how good he is. He put Adam in this garden. He gave him all these things. He walked with him.

He loved Adam, and he poured out on Adam and Eve the bounty of his blessing. And goodness. And in a world where there is no sin, there should be absolutely no reason why we wouldn't run directly to God. But what happened? Sin entered into the world and it changed that whole dynamic.

This is what spiritual death looks like: a fleeing from God. Life is fleeing to God. Death fleeing from God. And you see that on the very first pages of Scripture. And what happens, all of humanity in Adam and Eve, when they have sinned against God and they hear God coming, they flee, they run.

And then once again, here we are at the end of human history. And once again, all of mankind realizes that God is drawing near, and so they will hide themselves. So that's what they did. Now I want you to see what they said. Look back at verse 16.

And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Notice in their desperation, they start talking to the mountains and to the rocks. They wanted their help in hiding from the presence of God.

And what a What a thought here. The difference is, Adam and Eve covered themselves with fig leaves. Look at the desperation of these people. These people want to be buried in rocks. Notice why they said it. Look at verse 17. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?

The great day has come. In the Greek, the emphasis is upon the verb has come. It begins the sentence. It has come. Rocks fall on us, mountains hide on us because it has come. What has come? The great day of their wrath. Literal reading, the day, the great one of their wrath.

That's how it. It has come. The day, the great one, the day of their wrath. It has come. Their wrath. Notice the plural. The one who is sitting on the throne and the Lamb. So when these signs appear, they know exactly what's happening. They all of a sudden become aware of what John has just been talking about, the one sitting on the throne and his Lamb.

After everything is rolled back, they know what is upon them. The wrath of the Lamb. You know, the only other time in Scripture when this word wrath is specifically used to speak about Jesus, it's in Mark chapter 3. You certainly see his wrath in the cleansing of the temple, but it's not expressly stated.

There's one place where it is expressly stated, and that is in Mark chapter 3. And you remember, Jesus was in a synagogue. There were these Pharisees who were seeking to accuse Jesus. There was a man with a withered hand. He comes in, and they're trying to trap Jesus, wanting an occasion to accuse him.

And so Jesus, in Mark 3, verse 4, says to them, Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath, to save a life or to kill? Which is what they were doing. But they kept saying, Silent. And then in verse 5, it says, After looking around at them with anger, with wrath, grieved at the hardness of their heart, he said to the man, Stretch out your hand.

And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. It's the time when he, and apparently Peter never forgot that look. He looked around the room with wrath, indignation, and there was a grief associated with it. How could anybody be so hard and so uncaring? You would rather this man walk out of here crippled than be healed.

What is wrong with you? Someone is here that can heal this man, but you have no compassion for him. In fact, you're more interested in bringing me down than you are seeing a good thing happen in your midst. That's how hard and how evil your heart is. And it not only angered him, it grieved him.

But that's the countenance. And you have something happening here as well. But what's interesting, the earth's inhabitants correctly. Interpret the cosmic signs and terrors as the beginning of this day of the Lord. It's interesting that anything, anything would be better than having to face the presence of God.

Even death, even having mountains fall upon you. This is the desperate situation. And this is the condition of the human soul. This is the condition of your soul. If you do not know Christ, when you hear the day of his coming, you will flee. Anything will be better than to stand before the presence and see the countenance of a holy God knowing about your sin.

That is humanity. This is what we do. We flee. In fact, death would be preferred. Even a lake of fire would be preferred to being in the presence of a holy God. That's what the soul does. It flees. It takes flight when it hears the coming of the presence of the holy God.

And all of us are sinners. All of us have been laid bare. Our sin is open before him. And unless something is done about our sin, we will flee. You will flee. In fact, if all of a sudden we started going down the line here and just let's parade your sin up here on this, let's just go down the line and just start and let's just start parading our sin up here for everybody to see.

I guarantee you would all want to flee, okay, before it gets to me. You know, I'm going to be out the door. We would do that just amongst ourselves. Think about what's going to happen in the presence of a holy God when sin is really revealed for what it is and how the tendency of a soul that does not know the truth, that doesn't have faith in the truth, how quickly it flees.

That's, but this is the fate of everyone who does not know Christ. But if you believe in Jesus, you know you have been made right with him. That's what faith does. Like, Lord, I'm able to correctly associate your cross with my sin and your cross with your love for me.

And so I can come before you boldly with joy and excitement, knowing that I will be received. In fact, I'm afraid not to come because such Would be to scorn the greatness of your covering for sin. That's what faith does. Do you see how it totally changes? I don't have to deny that I'm a sinner.

I have to confess that I'm a sinner and know that his blood has covered my sin, and then I can come into a presence with him and I can go through life walking with my creator. That's the power of the cross. That's why we preach the cross. That's why we can say, come to God.

Come to him through Jesus Christ. Well, looked at these cosmic signs and earthly terrors. What do they signify? What do these signify? Well, it's right there in the text that the day of wrath, the great one, associated with the day of the Lord. This is the day of the Lord that is drawing near upon all nations.

And this is that moment in which that vengeance begins, the great day of wrath, which Obadiah says is coming up, drawing near to all nations. Well, this morning I wanted you to, I wanted all of us, really, to be Reminded that this is coming. This great day, a great day of his wrath coming upon all the nations.

Listen, the great day of God's wrath is coming upon all nations. You can look at history and see the day of the Lord shows up in a lot of different places at different times. A day of the Lord, a day of judgment, a day of wrath. Israel experienced it.

And you know why Israel experienced it? It's because they became just like the nations. So if Israel experienced the day of the Lord, a little day of the Lord, because they became like the nations, what's going to happen to the nations if they persist in their ways and they do not learn the lessons from what God has revealed through his people?

What's going to happen to them? They will experience. They will go through the day of the Lord. We need to live in anticipation of this day because it's coming. So then the question is: how do we live? How should this opening of the sixth seal impact us today?

Sometime in the future. Maybe we'll be here, maybe we won't. But how this was given to bless us today. How is this intended to be a blessing to us today? Well, first of all, you can anticipate that the current world order that is bound by sin is going to come to an end.

The current world order in bondage to sin is going to come to an end. Second thing, I've got seven of these quick ones. Not only do we need to anticipate that the current world order bound by sin is going to end, we need to know where sin ultimately takes us.

Where does sin ultimately take us? Well, war and conflict is an inevitable product of our self-centeredness. It is our lust for power, lust for control, lust for independence from God that leads to human misery. And I don't care if you're talking on a global level or on a very personal level, sin always takes us there, ultimately.

Three, we should be comforted in God's sovereignty. Even as we read through these seals, we understand that even Evil is dependent upon God. Even evil begs God, can we have a day? Can we just have a little bit of time? So no matter what happens, we're to be comforted.

And that just not just for the future, but in our days that he gives us. Number four, how should these truths impact us? Well, number four, we should busy ourselves for why God has left us here. He's left us here for a purpose. We should busy ourselves in the purpose for which He left us.

What is our purpose? To witness. To witness. This is the purpose. We see this through with the martyrs. There's one thing that the world needs at this point is people who give a true witness. You know, it's interesting. In Acts chapter 1, verse 6, after Jesus had talked to them a lot about the kingdom of God and the disciples, just before he's ascended.

So when they had come together, they were asking him, the disciples were saying, Lord, is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? You know what he said? I'll tell you what he said. Verse 36. Verse 7. He said to them, It's not for you to know the times or the epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority.

Rats. We were kind of hoping you'd tell us what those times and epics are. He says, No, it's not for you really to know this to his disciples. He says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in both Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth.

We're not to be a people so caught up about what time, what epoch is coming as much as we are to be concerned about witnessing in the time, in the moment that God has given us today. So be busy yourself in the purpose for which he has put you here: to witness.

Witness in word, witness in deed. Number five, we are to understand what victory looks like. And this is the lesson of the martyrs. What do the martyrs teach us? Five in the fifth seal. They taught us to take up our cross, follow him. The very thing that Jesus calls us.

Upon all his disciples. In Mark 8:34, he says, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it.

This is what victory looks like. The one who walks in victory is the one who dies daily. He learns, or she learns, to die daily. This is the victorious one. Number six, not only should you anticipate the current world order is going to come to an end and be comforted by God's sovereignty and busy yourself in why God has left you here and to understand what victory looks like.

Number six, he wants you to realize that the world needs people like this. The world needs the church. The world needs good witnesses. They're not going to come to him unless they hear, unless they see. And they're not going to come unless they see and hear a witness pointing to the true God.

You do have purpose. You say, well, sometimes you think, well, my little corner in life is small. Guarantee you. It doesn't have to do with how small or how large your corner of the world is. But what are you doing in that corner? It needs you. It needs a witness.

They will not come to Christ unless there is a witness. And it is God's good design. He has put you where he has and placed you because he has a purpose for you. Busy yourself in that and know that you are needed there. And number seven, walk by faith.

Walk by faith. These things really are coming. And after all is said and done, the universe and all the creatures in it are going to know that God is God, that Jesus is His Son, and all are going to bow down and worship Him. How blessed are those who realize that by faith now?

Because that's who He is. That day is coming. Can you see it by faith? Do you believe God's Word and walk in faith? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your truth. We thank you that all of these words. Even though they are, they speak of ominous things.

Father, we know that you gave them to us to bless us. You said, whoever reads these words and takes them to heart and heed are the blessed people indeed. So, Father, we thank you for these words and help us to live in the light of their reality. Lord, help this to shape our view of ourselves.

Help us to shape the interactions that we have with the world around us. Father, that you'd give to us that heart that is loyal to you and vocal about you to the end that the world may know and have a clear witness, to the end that many would turn, hear, and find their refuge in you.

For you are good, and you welcome all who will come to you. And so, Father, we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.