Is there Any hope for our world? And the answer is No, you ask another question. Is there any hope for me? The answer is, yes, God in human flesh, that's Christ, came into the world to die in your place, to bear your curse that you may never feel the curse of God. Welcome to Race to You with John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Famine. It's an all too familiar tragedy. According to recent statistics, millions upon millions of people still suffer from food shortages worldwide, even with modern advances in technology and infrastructure.
Well, as tragic as conditions are in some places, today John MacArthur will show you a coming food crisis that will make current ones pale in comparison. It's a famine that sets into motion what John calls the beginning of the end. That's the title of John's current study from Revelation 6, The Beginning of the End. It's a look at world history that's yet to play out.
So now take your Bible, and if you're able, follow along as John begins today's lesson. In this chapter, Revelation chapter 6. We are literally transported to the future. The experience of opening the seven sealed scroll Was not only visible to John in his vision, but is now made known to us because God wanted him to write it down. Remember now, there's a little scroll in the scenario here.
It is Mentioned back in chapter 5 as being in the hand of God. And then, of course, it is taken out of the hand of God by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And here in chapter 6, verse 1 says he begins to break the seals. It was rolled a little bit and sealed on the edges, rolled a little bit and sealed. And all of those were to keep it from ever being known or read or revealed until the appropriate time, which Here is revealed to us, and ultimately, will be in actuality unrolled.
As it unrolls, the events of God's wrath unfold.
Now, there are seven seals on this scroll, and we'll go through those seven seals. And they encompass the whole period until the final coming of Christ. The first four seals out of the seven. Take up the first half of the period known as the tribulation. The fifth seal is kind of the bridge in the middle, the event in the middle.
Stretching into the second half, the sixth and seventh seal, are the final. Judgments of the second half of this seven-year period. We know it's seven years because it is identified as a seven-year period back in Daniel chapter 9. It is also identified as to half of it as 42 months, 3.5 years, and 1,260 days in the book of Revelation. Also in Daniel, some of those same numbers are used.
Now, the first four seals depict horsemen.
Now, contrary to what some people have thought in looking at prophecy, the first of these horsemen brings a time period of peace and prosperity. We saw that last time. But the following three are deadly forces. The first one, you remember, was peace. The second rider is not peace.
The second rider is war. War. Let's look at the third seal. Verse 5, here's the same exact introduction. When he broke the third seal, I heard the third living one, the third cherub, say, Come.
And again, the command is given to the horse and rider. And I looked, and here his shock is indicated in the word: Behold, an exclamation: a black horse. And he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard, as it were, a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius. And do not harm the oil and the wine.
So the third seal is opened and the third rider comes. And John's startled response is indicated in the word, Behold, and he sees a black horse, and black is the color of famine. Read Lamentations chapter 5, verses 8 to 10. You will see black identified as the color of famine. Hunger is the effect of worldwide war.
Jesus said this also. Jesus said, following the nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, there will be famine. Matthew 24, 7. This too is God's judgment. He's done it before.
Haggai 1, Ezekiel 4, God has brought famine before, and he'll bring it again. When there is this kind of war all over the globe, people stop producing. The slaughter is massive, as we shall see in a moment. Food supplies are destroyed, and you can imagine. War at this level with the kind of weaponry we have today will be devastating.
And as a result, rationing is going to take place because of the scarcity of food. That's why it says in verse 5 that the rider on the black horse also has a weapon of sorts. It isn't a great sword like the other rider, but it is a pair of scales in his hand, and that is used for measuring. And what it means is that food is going to be rationed, it's going to be measured out. Weighing out food, food lines.
We find that very easy to understand, don't we?
Some of you may even remember food lines in World War II.
Some of you have seen pictures of food lines in Eastern Europe. Starving people all over everywhere getting in line. You've seen third world countries today where there's. rationing of food. Then, right in the middle, this is amazing in verse 6.
I heard, as it were, a voice in the center of the four living creatures. You tell me who is in the center of the four living creatures. Who's in the center? Around whose throne are they? God's throne.
God's throne. So there's no question in my mind but that God is here speaking. Because these Creatures, these four living angels, these four cherubim, are surrounding the throne of God. And in the midst of the throne, the voice of God. And God Sense.
A quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil. and the wine. God is speaking. Again, it's a reminder that this is a judgment from God. He also speaks, by the way, in the fifth seal down in verse 11.
God speaks. And so We shouldn't be Too sure. That he isn't speaking here. He speaks about the fact that this has to go on a little while until everybody who's going to be killed is killed in verse 11. Here it is God who speaks, and God says, Here are the conditions: a quart of wheat for a denarius.
Now, let me tell you what that means: a quart of wheat would sustain one person. who had a very moderate appetite for one day. A quart of wheat would sustain one person with a very moderate appetite for one day. A denarius is one day's wage.
So you would work. Just to eat the bare minimum yourself. which would provide nothing for your family. famine conditions. All your work would only provide food enough for one person.
Then he says, Three quarts of barley. For a denarius. You could get. More food to feed your family if you'd settle for barley, but barley was animal food. Animal food.
It would be like lining up. and taking your choice. Between bread and dog kibble. Basically. Low in nutritional value.
Barley was cheaper. At least a family. Could eat that. But it would take all their money for three quarts, which would feed three people. Animal food.
Those are famine conditions, and that's what war is going to do to the world. And then God says, do not harm. The oil In the wine. There have been a lot of different kinds of interpretations of that. I think if you just read it straightforward, it makes simple sense to say God warns them to be very careful with their wine.
And their oil. because it's so precious. If all you have is raw wheat without any oil to mix with it, without any wine to go with it, It's very, very difficult. Bare staples all of a sudden become luxuries. Oil was used for the preparation of bread.
For cooking. as was the wine. He says you better be careful how you Treat it. Don't hurt it. Don't waste it.
Don't damage it. It is precious. It will be measured out and treated with tremendous care. You can't hurt green, but you can certainly hurt those things by breaking. or tearing whatever Therein or being wasteful.
Real famine. Real famine, global famine is coming. Fast. World peace. World War world famine and you're not even out of the first three and a half years of this period.
Finally, the last writer. And the fourth shield. Verse 7, the same exact scenario when he broke the fourth seal. I heard the voice of the fourth cherub.
Now we know why there were four of them. They each had a role to play here. And he said, Come, he's commanding the next horse and rider. And I looked and behold, this has been translated a number of ways: a pale horse, an ashen horse. You'll be interested to know that the Greek word is chloros, from which we get chlorophyll or chlorine.
And usually it's associated with what color? Green, a sort of yellow, pale green. In fact, that word chloros appears several times in the New Testament in connection with grass or vegetation. such as in Mark 6.39 and Revelation 8 and Revelation 9.
So he sees this Pale green horse. And he who sat on it had the name Death. And Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. Here's the pale ashen ashen Green pallor of death.
Decomposition, a corpse. And fittingly, the one who sat on it has the name Ha Thanatas. Death. Ominous. What follows war is famine.
What follows famine is what? Death. Death. And what follows death? Hades.
That's just another word for the grave. The grave comes, as it were, the grave digger comes with his shovel. The collector. the bodies that death destroys. Hades is the right partner for death.
You find them teamed up in chapter 20, verse 13. Hades is death's hearse. He can keep up with death's ride. They work together. This is the result of the second and the third seal.
But more than that, Look at verse Eight. Authority was given to them by whom again? Who gave the authority? God, because this is the unfolding of his title deed and his scroll, it is his judgment. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth.
to kill them. What this tells us is that 1.5 billion of them will die. unthinkable number of people, it could literally wipe out two continents. Nuclear weapons and sophisticated arms make this possible now in a very brief time, whereas it may have been impossible. In a time of bows and swords.
But Four things are going to do the killing. The sword, and we've already talked about that in connection with the war. Yeah. Famine, we've already talked about that in connection with the third seal. But here are two Other ones, pestilence and the wild beasts of the earth.
This is fascinating. Pestilence and the wild beasts of the earth. By the way, these four are linked together several times in Scripture, and I need to probably. At least draw that to your attention. These four have been predicted by God to be his means of final judgment in a number of Old Testament passages.
Jeremiah 14:12. He says, I'm going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence. There he has three of the four. In Jeremiah 24. Verse 10, I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence upon them.
And then again in the 44th chapter of Jeremiah, These things go together again, chapter 44 and verse 13. I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem with the sword, with the famine, and with pestilence.
Now, what you have is the sword, which leads to famine, which leads to pestilence. Where the sword falls and famine exists, you have pestilence following along. In Ezekiel, for example, just two passages, chapter 6, verse 11, thus says the Lord God. I I will Because of the evil abominations of the house of Israel, they will fall by the sword, by famine, and by plague. There's another word for pestilence: sword, famine, and plague.
Then in Ezekiel chapter 14, probably the most significant one, starting in verse 13, Ezekiel 14, listen to this: Son of man, if a country sins against me by committing unfaithfulness, and I stretch out my hand against it, destroy its supply of bread, send famine against it, and cut off From it, both man and beast. Even though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in its midst, by their own righteousness they could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord God. If I were to cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they depopulated it, and it became desolate, so that no one would pass through it because of the beasts, though these three men were in its midst as I live, declares the Lord God, they couldn't deliver either their sons or their daughters. In other words, the presence of righteous men ultimately won't stop the judgment. If I were to bring a sword on that country and say, Let the sword pass through the country and cut off man and beast from it, even though these three men were in its midst, Noah, Daniel, and Jonah.
For Joe, brother. As I lived, they couldn't deliver their sons or their daughters. Or if I send a plague, there are all four, against that country and pour out my wrath in blood on it to cut off man and beast, even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in its midst as I lived, they couldn't deliver it. For thus says the Lord God, how much more when I send my four severe judgments, sword, famine, Wild beasts and plague to cut off man and beasts from it. In other words, if they couldn't endure when one of them came, what are they going to do when all four hit?
At the same time. They're gonna hit. What is pestilence? Actually, it's the same Greek word as the word for death, thanatos, but here it refers to the cause of death. Jesus said there will be earthquakes following the famine.
It could be a word that encompasses natural disaster. I think that's right. If you have war at the level it's going to be happening in this particular time with the kind of weapons that we have today, there's going to be a cataclysm of earthquakes created by the bombs and the missiles and all of that devastating destruction. It could also, so it could refer to the kind of earthquakes that are the result of that. It could refer to natural disasters that God is going to set loose, such as earthquakes and floods.
It could refer to biological weapons and chemical weapons, which we have in vast abundance, which could wipe out millions of people. One quart of nerve gas can kill a million people. It could refer to diseases. Listen, when you have worldwide war and the devastation that's going to take place with that worldwide war, followed by the famine that's going to take place, you know as well as I do that there's going to be a problem with health. Sanitation.
All of those things. I don't know if you remember this, but 20 million people died in flu epidemics in World War I. Because as nations moved around, they brought viruses with them. Six million more died of typhus in World War I. Mass death, even by some pestilent disease like AIDS.
is possible. And there are more massive killing bacteria around. Typhus, you remember, killed 200 million people in four centuries. We underestimate the power of disease to wipe out whole populations. And then In Revelation 6, he adds not only the pestilence, which could mean all of those things, but he adds wild beasts.
You say, what what is that? We don't have any wild beasts in America.
Well, what's this talking about? Wild beasts are not. You've got to go to Africa to find lions or up in China somewhere, find Siberian tigers or whatever. I mean, what wild beasts? Let me ask you a question.
Do you know the most deadly creature on the face of the earth? The most deadly creature on the face of the earth. Not a snake, not a lion, not an alligator. A rat. Historically, the deadliest creature on the face of the earth.
Why? Rats are annually responsible for the loss of billions of dollars of food in America alone. and death all over the world. Rats infested with bubonic plague killed one-third of the population of Europe in the 14th century. That's Encyclopedia Americana's own figure.
Rats can carry as many as 35 diseases at once. And amazingly, if 95% of the rat population is exterminated in a given area, it will replace itself in less than a year. It has killed more people than all the wars of history. And it always makes its home where men Dwell. With war and famine and earthquakes.
Sanitation goes. No medicine. Living conditions descend to a primitive level in the rats. Maybe the wild beasts that run wild to kill. Awesome.
Divine Judgment. And this is only the beginning. Only the beginning. Far more to come. And sadly, it isn't even until the sixth seal.
That the people recognize that God is the source of this. You would ask a question, right? Is there Any hope for our world? And the answer is Yeah. There's no hope this will come.
This is inevitable. You ask another question. Is there any hope for me? The answer is Yeah. Is it any wonder?
That the writer of Hebrews said. How shall we escape? If we neglect So great. of salvation. And the answer is We won't But Jesus has provided a way of escape.
Father, thank you for the gift of Christ. And his provision. frightening things. terrifying things Await the world. And you've You've spelled it out.
But they won't acknowledge it. This is where it's going. And we don't know how long until it's going to start. But Lord, we thank you that you've delivered us. your fiery wrath.
The day of the Lord. The day of fearful judgment. You have delivered us. Through Christ. We thank you for the salvation that he provides.
that saves us from the wrath to come. including that eternal hell. that eternal judgment. May no one be so foolish as to neglect so great salvation. For only in Christ Can we escape?
We thank you that someday Jesus is going to come. and gather his own to himself, and to his presence. Before this terrible, terrible frightening Final chapter of human history takes place. We thank you that in Christ we can live in hope and not fear. We want to stand.
In that scene in heaven and be singing worthy is the Lamb that was slain to redeem. And be a part. of the blessed and not the cursed. And we thank you that that is provided in Christ through His death and resurrection. for He gave Himself for our sins.
I want you to turn that prayer personally into your own heart. Do you know Christ? If the Lord Jesus were to come and take his church away, Would you go or would you stay? to be lured into this trap of peace. that ultimately will catch you in a devastating and unbearable judgment.
If you know Christ, you're His. Say what what's What's the means to do that? Believe in your heart. He died and rose again for you and confess him as your Lord. Ask him to save you from your sin.
and judgment. God in human flesh, that's Christ, came into the world to die in your place, to bear your curse that you may never feel the curse of God. You need only ask. Father, we do pray that every heart would be turned toward Christ. And we praise you and thank you that you have provided an escape.
Not just an escape. But that you have provided a glorious heaven. in which we will dwell with you. Forever. We thank you in the Savior's name.
Amen. That's John MacArthur, pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. Today, John looked at horrifying days that are ahead, days that mark the beginning of the end. That's the title of John's current study from the book of Revelation here on Grace to You. John, I'm confident that for many people this study is merely wetting the appetite.
The pre-written history in Revelation, so fascinating, so encouraging. We want more, much more than we can cover over these next few days. And the good news is it's within reach.
Well, I know what you're talking about. You're talking about the commentary series. And I have written two volumes on the book of Revelation. I think it totals up to about 800 pages. Don't let that scare you away.
You take it one section at a time. By the way, Read through the commentaries in a year. And you will have the most amazing experience with the book of Revelation. You know, it starts out: Blessed is the one who hears and understands the things that are written in this book. There's a guarantee.
You want a blessing? There's a promise from God to be blessed. The commentaries cover every verse, every feature of this great, immense study of the future called the Book of Revelation. It's far more rich, practical, applicable, encouraging material than most people think. And as you probably know, I've been writing New Testament commentaries, and you can have any of them or all of them if you wish.
But a great place to start would be read the end of the story first, right? Get the two volumes on Revelation and explore the second coming. Explore the things that honor Christ and His church. Take a trip to heaven through the eyes of the Apostle John. Describe the vision of the Lamb.
See what's coming in the world in terms of tragedy and in terms of the glories of Christ's kingdom. Great, great material meant for your joy and blessing. Order the commentaries on Revelation today. Thanks, John. And friend, John's two volumes on Revelation, as well as the rest of his New Testament commentaries, these are great for personal study and sermon preparation, even small group discussion.
To place your order, get in touch today. You can go to our website, gty.org, or you can call us at 800-55Grace. Including the two Revelation commentaries, there are 33 total volumes in John's New Testament commentary series. Covers every book in the New Testament, every verse in the New Testament. And each volume of the MacArthur New Testament commentary costs $19.
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Well, so far in our study, we've seen Christ open four seals that unleash Astonishing judgments. Be back tomorrow to see what happens when he cracks the fifth seal. For John MacArthur and our staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Watch Grace to You television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378, and then join us again for another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on tomorrow's Grace to You.
