Louie Giglio - The Righteousness and Wrath of God
Jesus, The Lamb, who was slain, is worthy to take the scroll from the right hand of Him sitting on the throne. Now, this scroll is sealed with seven seals but Jesus is worthy to break the seals. And, as He breaks the seals, He sets in motion the end of time. And now, we see the seals being broken. And, interestingly, as we read through this, you’re gonna see that this is the point where most people stop reading the book of Revelation. Like the letters to the seven churches, check. God sitting on the throne, Holy, Holy, Holy, got it.
The Lamb is in the midst, worthy is The Lamb who was slain, love it. And then, we shift into chapter six and we see the seals broken and we see God’s purpose for the end of time, which is to bring judgement on all unrighteousness, unfold. And things get pretty crazy, really fast. It says, «I watched as The Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a loud voice,» Or, «Say in a voice like thunder,» in this translation, «Come».
Now, let’s just stop here for a moment, I’ll try not to stop too many times. The Lamb has taken the scroll. The Lamb, now, opens the first of the seven seals and when He opens the first of the seven seals, one of the four living creatures that we’ve seen in chapter four says, «Come». Now, who is this directed towards? Not to John, because John’s already there. So who’s being beckoned to come? Well, who’s being beckoned to come is The Lamb. So, The Lamb opens the seal. We’re gonna see God’s purposes unfolding but as His purposes are unfolding, the cry is, «Come, Lamb of God». And this is the thread that we see through Revelation. We see this all the way to the very end. «Come, Lord Jesus».
So there is a cry in Heaven and their should be a responding cry on earth today, «Come, Lamb of God. Come, bring all this to your conclusion. Come, make it alright. Come put it all back together. Come bring your judgement and come and take us into your forever. Come, Lamb of God». «And I looked and there before me was a white horse. And its rider held a bow and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest». Now, right away people think, «Okay, this first seal, Jesus comes riding out on a white horse and someone gave Him a crown and He has a bow in His hand and He’s riding out to conquer».
But actually it’s more likely, and I can’t say for sure, people’s opinions are all over the map on all of this. But it’s more likely that this is not Jesus. Jesus come later in Revelation, He is riding on a white horse but He doesn’t have a bow and no arrows, He has a sword with which He dispenses judgement. And He’s riding out with matchless glory. Names on Him that no one even knows at this point. I think it’s more likely that this white horse rider is a deceiver, riding on a horse to look as though he is the prince of peace, but who actually has come to bring destruction and to lead what is to follow.
And then, in verse three, «When The Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, 'Come. Come Lamb of God.'» Especially given that somebody’s coming on a white horse to deceive the world. Come, Lamb of God. «And then, another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. When The Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, 'Come.'» 'Cause we got somebody on a red horse who’s taking peace from the earth and causing people to slay each other. He’s got a sword of destruction. Come, Lamb of God.
«I looked and there before me was a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then, I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying, 'A quart of wheat for a days wages and three quarts of barley for a days wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine.'» So, now we’ve got this Lamb. Come, Lamb of God. We got a deceiver in our midst, we have a terror in our midst, we have, now, famine in our midst. «It’s a days wages for a quart of wheat and a days wages for a quart of barley».
What is this meaning? It’s meaning this rider on the black horse is bringing famine to the earth. And, you know, you don’t have to look very far right now to realize that food shortage is one of the great crisis on planet earth right now. Almost a billion people are hungry on this planet right now. Because the seals are being broken and judgement is come on the earth. «But do not damage the oil and the wine». That’s interesting. A lot of people think that this is the connotation of the reality of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
Verse 7, «When The Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature,» and what did that living creature say? «Come». Come, Lamb of God, we’ve got famine on the earth. «I looked and there before me was a pale horse, and its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given the power over a fourth of the earth to kill by the sword, famine and plague and by the wild beasts of the earth». And verse nine, «When He…» So, we’ve left The Lamb and the four creatures now, «When He,» Jesus, «Opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained». These are the martyrs. «They called out in a loud voice, 'How long sovereign Lord, Holy and True until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? '»
Now, this is a key word I want you to think about, that this is the process of the unfolding. It’s basically saying to us right here in the beginning that nothing goes under the rug, nothing is swept under the rug in the great economy of a Holy God. And, certainly not the blood of the martyrs, certainly not men and women on planet earth, through the ages since time of the church being born and the gospel being preached have given up their very lives in some of the most difficult situations and circumstances because of their testimony of the gospel of Jesus. Who are being imprisoned, and being persecuted, and being tortured, even in this moment while we’re worshipping today. And they’re crying out now.
We see in this fifth seal, they’re crying out from underneath the altar. What does that mean? Well, under the altar is where the blood of the sacrifice would flow. And so, under the altar of God, under the very throne of God if you will, and the altar before the throne of God, the blood of the martyrs has flowed. And they’re crying out, «How long until you avenge our blood»? «Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed». In other words, Heaven knows how many people are gonna give their lives for the gospel.
«I watched as He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red and the stars in the sky fell to the earth as late figs drop from a fig tree,» Interesting. we might get back to that a little bit later. «They drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll rolling up and every mountain and island was removed from its place».
And then, when this happened, look what happened, «The kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of The Lamb.' For the great day of their wrath», some translations would say, «His wrath». «Has come, and who can stand»?
Jumping to chapter seven and we see this 144,000 coming out of the tribes of Israel, who are being sealed by God in this season. Chapter nine we see this picture of this, «Great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne and in front of The Lamb». «They were crying in a loud voice, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to The Lamb».
And then, we go to chapter eight. Revelation is not all sequential, necessarily. And we see the seventh seal. «When He opened the seventh seal there was silence in Heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God and to them were given seven trumpets». So we got seven seals and now we got seven angels and the seven angels all have trumpets. So, there’s seven trumpets. «Another angel who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne».
Now, we talked about this last week how our prayers are not bouncing off the ceiling, people, our prayer’s prayed in faith to a mighty God are actually going into the very throne room of God. And now they’re in this censer which is creating incense that this angel is now using to create the aroma of Heaven. «And with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne of God, the smoke of the incense together with the prayers of the saints went up before God from the angles hand».
Now, I don’t know what the 30 minutes of silence is necessarily all about, but I do know that for a moment the angels are not singing. The ten thousand times ten thousand are not singing. But there’s still worship happening at the throne of God. I want you to see this with me today. No, the angels are not antheming, but the worship is still happening. And the worship that’s rising up in this 30 minutes of silence at the throne of God are the prayers of the saints. There is a moment where Heaven is still, except for your prayers prayed in faith. And what prayers? Hopefully, the prayers that we see here. Come, Lamb of God. Come, Lord Jesus, come make this mess right, come set all wrongs right, come bring justice where there has been injustice, come and make right, what is wrong, come and eradicate unrighteousness and bring righteousness.
We’re not just praying, «Oh, Jesus this has been a little bit, could you fix it? I lost this, could you help me find it»? No, we’re praying, «Let your Kingdom come and your will be done on the earth as it is in Heaven». And now, it’s silent in Heaven and all those prayers are rising. «Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus. Let your Kingdom come and your will be down on earth as it is in Heaven». Millions and billions of prayers rising up before God. «Come, come, come Lord Jesus».
And somehow… sit down for this one. Somehow those prayers activate the seventh seal. «And then, the angel,» All these prayers rising up, «Took the censer,» That had been filled with the incense and was praised to God and now, «The angel filled it with fire from the altar, and he hurled it on the earth. And there came peels of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake for the great day of His wrath has come. And who can stand»? Somehow, in this moment, the prayers of the saints usher in the judgement of God on all wickedness on earth. This is why people stop reading Revelation after chapter five. Because we love, Holy, Holy, Holy, and we love worthy is the lamb. But now we see the wrath of God.
And that’s why a lot of people get off the train right here. I think, we could pause right here and put a banner over this section and just say, the reckoning and the reward. The seals are broken. God’s plan is unfolding and there is gonna be a reckoning for every person who turned their back on Him and there’s gonna be a reward for every person who remained faithful to Him. There is a reckoning and a reward. We see this in Roman 1. And, we know that the dominoes are already falling. We see the grace of God, which we all love, but we see that it’s consequential grace and it also has wrath. Paul is writing and he says, «I’m not ashamed of the gospel».
That’s because the wrath of God is always very near the grace of God. «I’m not ashamed of the gospel». The gospel simply means good news because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. First for the Jew, then for the Gentile. In other words, everybody can get in on this. «For in the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed,» I loved making this connection, same word as revelation. It comes from the root word in Greek, apocalypse. So, «A gospel,» a good news, «Of righteousness from God,» «Not from man but from God, has been revealed,» Or uncovered. In the same way, the end times are being uncovered. This gospel has been revealed. It is, «A righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith».
So, this righteousness, getting right with God. You hear that phrase all the time. «Man, you need to get right with God». Well, how do you get right with God? You get right with God because God gives us righteousness through faith. We don’t earn it, we don’t achieve it, God has revealed that it is a gift that comes from God through faith. So, Jesus died, Jesus is buried, Jesus is raised, He paid the price. He was the exchange for our sin, the innocent for the guilty, the righteous for the unrighteous and if we put our faith in what Jesus did, we get the gift of righteousness from God and everybody can get it. This is the good news. And this is the consequence of not receiving the good news.
«The wrath of God is also,» I just added the also because we’re connecting here, «Is also being apocalyptic. It’s also being revealed». The righteousness of God is a gift through faith revealed. But, please understand, the cross is not neutral it’s consequential. It’s consequential to those who believe in for salvation and it’s consequential for those who reject it for judgement. It is everyone’s consequence on planet earth. «The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the Godlessness and the wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them».
Well, how did He do that? «For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse». In other words, all you have to do is open your eyes and your mind and look at the intricacy and the complexity and the miraculous nature of the creation that surrounds us and you come to the conclusion, there is a capital 'C, ' Creator who is intelligent, who is a designer, who is beautiful, who is brilliant. That means I’m not the creator. And if there is a creator who can make stuff like this, I wanna yield my life to know him. But these people had even more revelation.
«For although they knew God, they knew of Him through creation,» And maybe had some other revelation through someone who told them a story about God, or had some access to scripture. «They neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him. But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images. These were made to look like mortal man, and birds, and animals, and reptiles».
These idols but, man, you look around and see all kinds of things that we’ve exchanged God’s glory for in our lives. They exchanged. They did not understand the first command that God wrote on the tablet of stone, «Thou shalt have no other god’s besides me. I am that I am, and I am a jealous God and I’m not gonna share my glory». He says in Isaiah, «I am the Lord, that is my name and I will not give my glory to another or any of my praise to idols». You’re like, «Well man, there’s a lot of praise going to idols around right now».
Oh, it’s all coming back. And when this exchange is made, it takes people out of the gift of being in the righteousness, that we read about a few verses up, and it puts them in the category of being under the wrath that’s coming on the unrighteousness. And, it’s a bad exchange. And praise God that we’re all breathing today. Maybe not all of the seven trumpets have been sounded and certainly the sky hasn’t parted and Jesus just appeared and we all have time to tear down our idols. And that’s the story of the seals being broken. It’s interesting, and this is, I’m gonna change colors because this is just Louie talking for a second.
As I’ve been marinating in these seven seals, I kept thinking about how they all correspond to The Lamb. The Lamb broke the seal. Interestingly in chapter four and five of Revelation, you don’t see any nomenclature there about the resurrection, it’s all about the crucifixion. And when He was slain, I believe that something happened in that moment that was very much related to these seven seals being broken open. For one, the rider of the white horse is a deceiver and Jesus was crucified because of deception. Since that rider, if it was Jesus, which a lot of people believe the rider on the white horse is Jesus, if it was then He did receive a crown.
But in this crucifixion moment, the crown that He received through the deception of men was a crown of thorns. That next rider came and the rider on the red horse set people in motion to kill each other. And at that crucifixion moment, that’s what they did. They killed Him. That next rider came and he brought famine, and I heard Jesus saying right before He died, «I’m thirsty». That next rider came and he brought death. And after Jesus died, the scripture tells us that He went where the departed go, into Hades. That next seal broke, and we saw the blood of who? The martyr, whose blood went down and under the altar. That next seal was broken and the sky turned black, there were earthquakes. And, from noon until 3 o' clock when Jesus died, darkness covered the earth and the scriptures and the gospels say the stars looked like the were falling from the sky and an earthquake split the earth.
People came out of their tombs and then, interestingly, about the people running to the mountains and saying, «Fall on us». As they led Him away they see Simon of Cyrene who was on his way in from the country and they put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. This is Luke, «A large number of people followed Him, including women who mourned and wailed for Him. But Jesus turned to them and He said,» This guy can barely see. He’s been beaten within an inch of His life, He’s steps away from being crucified but he hears these women crying for Him and He decides to prophesy.
«Daughters of Jerusalem. Do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children for the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.' And then, they will say to the mountains, 'Fall on us.' And to the hills, 'Cover us.'»
Hosea, the same text that we just read in Revelation 7, Jesus is quoting and prophesying on the way to His crucifixion. He, in His death, burial, and resurrection, is setting in motion the end of the age. And he’s saying, «Don’t weep for me, cause if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry»? So, right there is the sixth seal in Hosea. And then, that seventh seal, when the judgement of God is hurled down on the earth. I’m telling you, at the crucifixion it landed squarely on the innocent son of God. The Lamb is setting in motion the consequence of the cross.