We are picking up today where we left off last week in Revelation chapter 6. In Revelation 6 what we find is, that the book that God held in His hands had been opened up by the Lamb, by Jesus and when Jesus opened the scroll, when He opened the book twenty one judgments begin to be released. These twenty one judgments consist of three sets of seven. They begin with seven seals and then the judgments continue with seven trumpets and then it culminates with seven bowls. We are beginning now today looking at the first set of seven. We're looking at the seven seals. Now I don't want you to get bogged down with all the information. I know that this can sound confusing and overwhelming. Don't worry about all the details. Just know this, as you listen to me you're gonna get the main points even if you don't understand how all the details connect together. What you need to understand is this beloved ones, that the judgment of God is gonna fall upon the earth. His judgment's gonna fall upon the earth not because He's a mean spirited God, but because He has given God as much time as He can give them. He has given man rather as much time as He can give man to repent and at this point man has reached the point of no return. In God's end times purpose of cleansing the earth now, he begins to destroy those that have not repented in order to create beloved, a new world order in which God's glory covers the earth, rebellion has ceased and the glory of God will cover the earth just as the seas cover the world right now, even more so. So I want you to look with me in Revelation chapter number 6 as we begin to look at these first seven seals. Hear the word of God. Last time we saw the first seal, was the release of the Antichrist. 6:1, "Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying this with the loud voice of thunder, "Come." And behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer." This first seal beloved, unleashes the power of destruction that will take place and be released on the earth through the Antichrist. Now remember those of you who have been watching this series, the Antichrist rises through power not as someone that is coming to conquer, but as someone that's coming to bring peace to earth. You see the Antichrist is able to arise, because he has such charisma, that everybody trusts him and likes him. The Bible tells us in the book of Daniel for example, that the Antichrist is gonna be anointed by Satan his father. In other words, he is gonna have a power on him that's gonna be so seductive, such a distortion of Godly charisma that everybody that hasn't taken the mark of the beast will fall for him, they'll trust him and like him. We can even think for example, just to try to put this in perspective and flush it out, that there are some people, you probably know some people everybody likes them. I'm not saying that these people that everybody likes are anointed by the devil, I'm just trying to help you to understand the power of charisma and charm. For example, many of you are aware of the politician Bill Clinton, again in no way am I connecting Bill Clinton to being anointed with evil, I'm just trying to point out the charisma that he had. People say of Bill Clinton, that even if you opposed his political views, even if you disliked his political policies, they say, "You couldn't help but like him when you met him. He just had this charisma." So you see the Antichrist beloved ones, he's gonna arise, because he's gonna have such a powerful charisma on him. People will trust him thinking he's gonna bring peace into the world, but in the middle of his reign, three and a half years into his reign he's gonna show who he really is. His true colors will be released and he's gonna begin to take over in power to conquer. We see this type of thing happen in the lives of many political dictators over the years. They arose promising their country peace and solutions, people trusted them and then once they arose to power they're fury was released upon the people and they became political dictators. And so this is what's gonna happen with the Antichrist. He's gonna begin to furiously reign and he's gonna use destruction to do it. Let's look now as the second seal is broken. I'm picking up now in verse 3. "When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come." And another, a red horse, went out." You've heard the four horses of the apocalypse, these are the four horses of the apocalypse. The first four seals represent the four horses of the apocalypse, the Antichrist war and murder, famine and death are the first four horses. So as we get to the second seal we're looking now at the second horse of the apocalypse. "A red horse, went out' and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him." So the second seal, this red horse, the second horse of the apocalypse is the plague beloved, the judgment, get it now, of war and murder. Now we've always seen wars on the earth, but beloved, it's gonna be nothing like the intensity of the wars that will be taking place on the earth during the great tribulation and during the days leading up to it. You see Jesus said concerning the same phenomenon in Matthew chapter 24 that, "Nation would rise against nation and kingdom would arise in conflict against kingdom." And I've asked myself, "Why does Jesus say nation would arise against nation and then go on to tag write on next to it and kingdom against kingdom?" Is there a difference between nation arising against nation versus kingdom arising against kingdom? I believe there's a difference. I believe nation against nation is what we're gonna be able to see with our physical eyes, one country in war with another country. This huge conflict that we can observe that's flesh and blood. But there's a greater dimension of this conflict that's going on in the unseen heavenly places. This is the conflict beloved, of kingdom against kingdom. It's a spiritual conflict of darkness against light. It is a conflict of those forces that are in alignment with the God of Israel, against those religious forces, those spiritual forces that have aligned themselves with other gods. And so we're seeing even now in the world this conflict arising of kingdom against kingdom and this conflict is based, listen now, on different religious, ideological perspectives. And so we're seeing right now in the world conflict taking place with those that have aligned themselves with the philosophy of radical, fundamental Islam. Now once again I'm not saying that all Muslims are people of war, not at all, because many Muslims don't identify with that. But I'm saying there's this movement with the philosophy of the radical Muslim jihadist, where they feel they need to subdue the world for Allah. And these forces that are really spiritual forces are coming against, beloved, those forces of light that are aligned with the God of Israel. And this kingdom against kingdom conflict is going to escalate during the end times. It's gonna be an unseen conflict made up of those once again, that are in alignment with the spirit of God through Jesus. It's gonna be a conflict with that spiritual dynamic against in opposition to that force of darkness that is attacking, that is coming beloved, not just in the natural, but is a supernatural conflict. We're gonna see this thing continue beloved ones, to blow up, even as we're seeing it now on the earth in flesh and blood. Every month we're hearing of a new terrorist attack and where is the terrorist attack coming from? The people that are claiming this terrorist attack are claiming to be radical jihadist associating themselves with this kingdom that is opposed to the kingdom that is in alignment with the God of Israel. RABBI SCHNEIDER>> Now let's look at the next seal that's gonna be released. The third horse of the apocalypse and it is verse number 5 and 6. It is the plague of famine. We read there that during the end times we're gonna see a world wide famine take place on the earth. We've seen things like this take place in the past, when there's great turmoil, where there's great upheaval. Listen, you should understand those of you that think that things are stable, you're wondering how could this ever happen in America? You know back around 2008 we came this close in America to a complete, get me now, financial breakdown, which would have thrown the entire world's economy upside down. You see some of us that are younger we have a hard time relating to this. We never experienced The Great Depression, but I'm telling you something is gonna happen in the world's economy where the rich will remain rich, but there will be a huge division between the people that have money and the vast majority of people that don't have money. And this is illustrated here in verse number 5 and 6 of the book of Revelation. It say there, "When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, a black horse," this is the third horse of the apocalypse, "and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like 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 damage the oil and the wine." Now I know that this is language that's difficult to understand, but here is what He's saying here, that it's gonna cost roughly about seventy five dollars for two pounds of wheat. Hyper inflation, just the basic staples of life are gonna be so unaffordable for the majority of people that populate the world. There's gonna be great famine on the earth. But notice also in this verse, the scripture says here, "But do not damage," get it now, "the oil and the wine." What's this about? Well if you think about it oil and wine are items of luxury. You know oil, you anoint your head with oil. You put oil on your skin. Oil and wine are luxury items. What this means is, the rich will be protected. They're gonna be, they're gonna be separated from this total financial collapse, but the vast majority, the vast population is gonna be thrown into such an economic crisis that they won't even be able to afford beloved, the basic staples of life. Famine beloved is coming upon the world. I travel all over the world. I see it in other nations where people are living on such meager incomes. You've seen picture son humanitarian programs where little babies stomachs are bloated this big, because they're dying of malnutrition. Beloved, we're gonna see a world epidemic during the end times. Let's go to the fourth horse of the apocalypse, death. I'm reading verse number 8. "I looked , and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following him." And so we're gonna see death coming over the world's population in a way that we had never seen before. Let me try to flesh this pout a little bit. The world health authorities tell us that every so many years there is some time of new strand of health epidemic. We hear of the bubonic plague, the black plague. For example in 1968 a million people died of the Hong Kong flu. In 1957 two million people died of the Asian flu. Listen to this in 1918 between forty and fifty million people died of the Spanish influenza. Something like this is gonna happen on the earth where there's gonna be such a death toll, that everywhere we look around we're gonna see dead bodies. We had a scare not long ago with the Ebola in Africa. I was amazed that they were able to contain it. Something like this is gonna happen again as we enter into the end times, but this time we're not gonna be able to contain it and death is gonna be rampant beloved ones, upon the earth. Let's move on to the next seal, the fifth seal. It's the persecution of the saints. Revelation 6 verse 9 through 11. Often times when we think of the persecution of the saints, when we think of the martyrs we think of people that lived often times in times distant past. We think about for example the apostles that were martyred. We hear of others that were martyred, but I want you to know there have been more saints martyred in the last one hundred years than in the nineteen hundred years combined before that. Just because it hasn't happened here in America, it doesn't mean it's not happening in other places upon the world. God's people are being not only persecuted, but martyred on the earth in a way that has never happened before. And when we enter in to the last days beloved ones, this is gonna escalate beyond anything that we ever imagined. Praise God. He gives a special grace to those who are martyred for Him, to those that suffer for Him. Remember Paul was in jail the last years of his life, but while he was in jail he wrote most of the New Testament. So here he was being persecuted for his faith in jail and yet while he was in jail he said that he had learned the secret of learning how to be content in every situation. So even though God's people will be murdered, even though they'll be persecuted, I want you to know the grace of God will be sufficient. Remember when Stephen was being stoned to death, he was being martyred. What happened? As he was being stoned to death he had a vision. He said, "I see the Lord Jesus" and he had a big smile on his face like an angel. He was glowing. And so I want you to know there are gonna be difficult times ahead for God's people, but we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus and when we need God the most His grace is gonna be there the most beloved. God has a special bubble of protection, even joy for His people, even in the midst of such tremendous difficulty of extreme persecution and martyrism. I read a biography not long ago, it was actually an autobiography of a man that was persecuted in China and they beat this man so terribly. He was in prison. They did such horrendous, terrible things to him. I won't even tell you how terribly they tortured him, way that are just so crass, so defiled they subjected him to while he was in prison. Eventually he was released and you know what he said several years after he was released from the prison? He said he actually missed being in prison, because of the incredible glory of God that he was experiencing while he was in prison, right in the midst of the persecution. So to the outer eye it looked terrible and I'm sure it was so, so difficult, so hard, yet in the midst of that there was something going on supernaturally in the unseen world where God was meeting him there. And once again when he was released he actually missed being there, because of the incredible glory of God that was in his life during those times. Persecution and murder is coming to the saints in the end times, but God's grace beloved ones, will be sufficient. This is why Jesus said over a hundred times through both His prophets in the old testament and in the new testament, "Do not be afraid." And then we get to the next seal, the last we'll be able to touch on today. The next seal beloved one is the sixth sealed, is cosmic and ecological disaster. We're gonna see things like the sun and the moon and the stars being affected. We're gonna see massive earthquakes. In other words, the things that have held natural law in order will no longer do so. We're gonna be entering in to extremely difficult times. Here's the word I want to leave with you today, Jesus told us more than a hundred times, "Do not be afraid." Jesus gave us this book so that we would prepare ourselves. I want to encourage you today, get strong in the Lord today while you have the chance. This way when we face the difficult times that are coming down the pipe we're gonna be able to be firmly rooted and stand ground. Jesus said we'll be like a rock and when the waves came and the winds blew we're gonna stand, because we're firmly rooted in Him. This is Rabbi Schneider saying to you I love you and I look forward to joining you by television next week.
