The Beginning of the End
Sermon Title: The Beginning of the End
Sermon Text: Revelation 6:3-8
Sermon Purpose: To call the hearer to warn the sinner about the Day of the Lord and to encourage the saint in light of the Day of the Lord.
Sermon Proposition: There are 3 beginning judgments related to the Day of the Lord.
I. The 2nd seal releases tribulational war on the earth. V.3-4 Daniel 11:36
B. The Fervent sense of violence will increase. V.4b
Matthew 24:6 "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
II. The 3rd seal releases tribulational famine on the earth. V.5-6
A. A famine is a logical consequence of worldwide war as food supplies are destroyed and those involved in food production are killed. V.5
B. A famine is a biblical means of judgment in Scripture.
C. A famine produces a necessity for rationing what is left over.
D. A quart of wheat is barely enough to sustain one person for one day, while a denarius represents one day’s wage for an average worker. People’s labor will barely produce enough for themselves, let alone their families. V.6
E. Three quarts will provide food for families, but barley is low in nutritional value and is commonly fed to livestock. Therefore a person’s wages will barely feed 3 people with low quality food.
F. Basic food staples will become priceless luxuries.
Lamentations 5:10 Our skin is hot as an oven, Because of the fever of famine.
Leviticus 26:26 When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.
Deuteronomy 32:24 They shall be wasted with hunger, Devoured by pestilence and bitter destruction; I will also send against them the teeth of beasts, With the poison of serpents of the dust.
2 Kings 8:1 Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had restored to life, saying, "Arise and go, you and your household, and stay wherever you can; for the LORD has called for a famine, and furthermore, it will come upon the land for seven years."
Ezekiel 4:16 Moreover He said to me, "Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread, 17 "that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.
III. The 4th seal releases tribulational death on the earth. V.7-8
A. The pale horse color vividly portrays the pale-green pallor of death characteristic of the decomposition of a corpse. V.8a
B. Death is the inevitable consequences of widespread war and famine. V.8b
C. Hades symbolizes a grave digger, burying the remains of death’s victims. V.8c
D. At the world’s current population of 6 billion plus, that would amount to a staggering total of almost 1.5 billion people. V.8d
E. The four tools of deaths process of deconstruction. V.8e
1. The sword.
2. The hunger.
3. The pestilence (death).
a. More union and confederate soldiers died from diseases during the civil war, than were
b. An estimated 30 million people died during the great influenza outbreak of 1918-19.
c. The potential of chemical and biological warfare.
Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,
Revelation 1:18 "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
Revelation 20:13 The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 14 Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
1 Chronicles 21:12 'either three years of famine, or three months to be defeated by your foes with the sword of your enemies overtaking you, or else for three days the sword of the LORD -- the plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel.' Now consider what answer I should take back to Him who sent me."
2 Chronicles 20:9 'If disaster comes upon us -- sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine -- we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.'
Ezekiel 14:12 The word of the LORD came again to me, saying: 13 "Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. 14 "Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness," says the Lord GOD. 15 " If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they empty it, and make it so desolate that no man may pass through because of the beasts, 16 "even though these three men were in it, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they would deliver neither sons nor daughters; only they would be delivered, and the land would be desolate. 17 " Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, 'Sword, go through the land,' and I cut off man and beast from it, 18 "even though these three men were in it, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only they themselves would be delivered. 19 " Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out My fury on it in blood, and cut off from it man and beast, 20 "even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live," says the Lord GOD, "they would deliver neither son nor daughter; they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness." 21 For thus says the Lord GOD: "How much more it shall be when I send My four severe judgments on Jerusalem -- the sword and famine and wild beasts and pestilence -- to cut off man and beast from it?