SPEAKER_00: You're listening to the road.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor teacher Steve Holmes.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, when all of the earth is heard, when all of the earth is heard the gospel, then the end will come.
SPEAKER_01: So God is studying this thing a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we have to hack school.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we have the road.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we have churches across the city and churches around the world where we need to plan a whole lot more.
SPEAKER_01: Is because God is calling us to preach the gospel to every tribe and every time.
SPEAKER_01: Because by so doing, we're setting up the coming war.
SPEAKER_00: Today, Pastor Steve continues his series of the Book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: We are in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: We've been going through the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: If you're new with us, I want to give you a little bit of a quick overview.
SPEAKER_01: I always have to do this.
SPEAKER_01: I find that, you know, just because of, I think two things.
SPEAKER_01: One, it's America and how fast-paced we are.
SPEAKER_01: But the second is we live in a beautiful state, don't we?
SPEAKER_01: I just got back from a hunting trip, and um I love being in the mountains, and I love being where the aspens are changing, and it's just gorgeous up there.
SPEAKER_01: And so I understand that people get away from time to time and miss church.
SPEAKER_01: So I always go back and do a quick overview.
SPEAKER_01: But we're in Revelation chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there yet, but uh that that is where we're gonna start up today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna actually take you to another place.
SPEAKER_01: But look at, if you have your Bibles, look at Revelation chapter 1, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: This is an overview of the entire book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: This is the outline of the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: And chapter one is seen where it says in verse 19, it says, Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter one is the things which you have seen.
SPEAKER_01: Chapters two and three are the things which are.
SPEAKER_01: That was the seven churches.
SPEAKER_01: That was what was happening in that first century.
SPEAKER_01: And then chapter four onward are those things which will take place.
SPEAKER_01: Now we are already into chapter six, and we're gonna be moving into the bowls of wrath.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna look at the the different trumpets and different aspects of that, but it really, really starts to pick up and get exciting.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I want you to do this morning is turn to Matthew 24.
SPEAKER_01: So turn to Matthew 24, where Jesus is asked by his disciples about his second coming.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I want to start with this is this is gonna lead into actually Daniel chapter 9, which is one of the most famous and one of the most profound, I think it's a good word, the most profound prophetic passages of the coming of the Lord in all of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That's in Daniel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: But look at Matthew 24, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you.
SPEAKER_01: For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many.
SPEAKER_01: So deception is gonna be the word, gang.
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna see this all through Revelation, and you've heard this now for the last few weeks as we've been going through Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Deception will grow.
SPEAKER_01: The deceiving ways of the devil, the deceiving ways of demons will increase in the latter days.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: And you will hear wars and rumors of wars.
SPEAKER_01: Now, men and women, there's always been wars and rumors of wars, but this will be on a whole nother level.
SPEAKER_01: See that you're not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, for nation will rise against nation, ethnos against ethnos.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word where we get ethnic.
SPEAKER_01: We've defined it in English to be nation, but the ethnic grouping.
SPEAKER_01: So make sure you understand as we move through Revelation that when we speak of nations, the tendency is to look at it in terms of political boundaries.
SPEAKER_01: And there is truth to that, but I think we see especially in the Middle East right now, that this is more and more ethnic issues.
SPEAKER_01: So you'll have a boundary, i.e.
SPEAKER_01: Iraq or Iran or places like that, Syria, where ethnic groupings are fighting each other within that.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, nation will rise up against nation, that's what he's speaking of here, and kingdom against kingdom, and there'll be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places, but all these things are just the beginnings of sorrows.
SPEAKER_01: So we've had earthquakes and we've had pestilences and we've had famines and we've had wars and we've had ethnic infighting for thousands of years, but this will be at a level that we've never seen in the past, and it's only the beginning of sorrows, and it's gonna exponentialize.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to increase at such a high level that it's gonna come, as Revelation says, it's gonna come quickly.
SPEAKER_01: And the idea of coming quickly is not kind of what we literally think of coming quickly soon.
SPEAKER_01: It means it will come.
SPEAKER_01: Another translation of the Greek there is it will come suddenly.
SPEAKER_01: So not just quickly, it's the idea that it, and have you, you've probably seen that with a birth of a baby.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you wait nine months.
SPEAKER_01: You're like all the stuff and changes in the in your wife's body and all this stuff going on, and then when it happens, man, it kicks in and everybody's got then you got your bags ready.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you're smart, you got your bags.
SPEAKER_01: So some people do.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't.
SPEAKER_01: But we had home births, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, so you know, and like it's gonna be like that.
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's why Jesus continually talks about it being like birth pangs.
SPEAKER_01: So it's gonna happen suddenly, and things are gonna begin to steamroll fast.
SPEAKER_01: But look at verse 15, because verse 15 is what I want to camp on to go to Daniel 9 with.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by who?
SPEAKER_01: Daniel, the prophet, standing in the holy place, which means the temple is going to be rebuilt on the mount there in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Whoever reads, let him understand.
SPEAKER_01: Most people reading this do not understand it.
SPEAKER_01: And yet he tells us directly, specifically.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: I did so much research this past week on Daniel, and by and large, theologians today completely miss this passage as it relates to Daniel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: So now look at Daniel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: So Daniel's in the Old Testament, so turn to Daniel chapter 9.
SPEAKER_01: Um, kind of if you open your Bible right in the middle, just kind of let it open, it kind of falls open in either Psalms or Proverbs, and then go right.
SPEAKER_01: As you go right, you'll find Daniel as you move toward the end of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the most succinct, if you understand it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not going to go into it, I could spend two hours just on Daniel 9, 24 through 27.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not going to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I actually thought about doing it for Christmas Eve service.
SPEAKER_01: Haha.
SPEAKER_01: That might be kind of fun.
SPEAKER_01: But Daniel 7, I mean Daniel 9, 24 through 27, Gabriel visits Daniel in a very complex prophecy that's super profound, if we get it, based on the solar calendar of the Babylonians and the Jews at that time, a 360-day year solar calendar.
SPEAKER_01: So, I'm not going to go into all the details, and I may leave some of you hanging, and I could cover it through emails or something later, but let me just give it to you as best we can because I really want to get into Revelation chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 24.
SPEAKER_01: Seventy weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, to anoint the most holy.
SPEAKER_01: So this is the scope of the entire prophecy that he's giving, but as you can tell, it's not yet completed.
SPEAKER_01: He says, to bring to an end all sin.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone think there's an end to all sin yet?
SPEAKER_01: So this is this is basically the 70-week, verse 24 is to say, in this 70-week period that he's speaking of 70 weeks of years, there's going to be the end, coming to the end of all time.
SPEAKER_01: And then he breaks it down and gives more of an outline in verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks.
SPEAKER_01: The street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublesome time.
SPEAKER_01: So this verse covers the 69 weeks to the time of the Messiah, Jesus, listen, being presented as the king.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Zephaniah 9.9 talks about the king coming on a donkey into Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: So he's speaking here of this coming of the Lord, this presentation of the king.
SPEAKER_01: Remember how many times Jesus said he left them because they wanted to make him king, but it wasn't the right time yet.
SPEAKER_01: And then there was a right time as he came in with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on his timetable, on God the Father's timetable.
SPEAKER_01: So seven plus sixty two equals sixty-nine weeks of years.
SPEAKER_01: Now listen, I know this is gonna be a little bit hard to understand, but I'm gonna do it really brief.
SPEAKER_01: Solar calendar used by the Jews and Babylonians at the time takes the 360 lunar solar days to make a year.
SPEAKER_01: You multiply them by seven to get a week, and you take 69 of those.
SPEAKER_01: It comes to the exact number of the day.
SPEAKER_01: 173,880 days from when Artaxerxes commanded Israel and also the Assyrians to rebuild Jerusalem to the day of the triumphal entry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's phenomenal, gang.
SPEAKER_01: So Artaxerxes makes, and we have that document, and we have documented historical evidence of when he said, we're gonna rebuild Jerusalem after it had been destroyed, and then 173,880 days later, on the day of the triumphal entry, Jesus the King, entered Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: This is one of the most astounding prophecies in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Now, look at verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why did I bring this up?
SPEAKER_01: Because of verse 26 and 27.
SPEAKER_01: And after these 62 weeks, Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself, and the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, the end of it shall be with a flood, until the ends of the war desolations are determined.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus was crucified then in the city, thirty-eight years later.
SPEAKER_01: Titus Espasian came and destroyed Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Those 69 weeks have occurred, but what about the 70th week, verse 27?
SPEAKER_01: Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.
SPEAKER_01: But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
SPEAKER_01: And on the wing of abominations, remember abomination of desolation, which he said was referred to in Matthew 24, Jesus refers to that in Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: The abomination shall be one who makes desolate the abomination of desolation, even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate.
SPEAKER_01: This is the 70th week of Daniel.
SPEAKER_01: He, look at it again, he shall confirm a covenant.
SPEAKER_01: He shall confirm a covenant with many for one week.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that's a seven-year period where the abomination of desolation, which is the Antichrist, will have a covenant of peace.
SPEAKER_01: And that peace will last about half a week.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it says.
SPEAKER_01: In the middle of the week.
SPEAKER_01: After three and a half years, there will be a change, a transformation, and wars will break out.
SPEAKER_01: But he will come, and we're going to look at that in just a second.
SPEAKER_01: This right applicable to Daniel chapter 6, I mean to Revelation chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: He's going to come on a white horse.
SPEAKER_01: The Antichrist, this one world leader, will come as a peacemaker and a man of peace, and he'll have a covenant.
SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: There's 33 titles in the Old Testament for the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: There's 13 in the New Testament for the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: This is the abomination of desolation that Jesus really wants us to understand.
SPEAKER_01: He says, remember this.
SPEAKER_01: It's what Daniel told you.
SPEAKER_01: Reader, understand, get this.
SPEAKER_01: And it's amazing how the church has missed this through the centuries.
SPEAKER_01: To me, this is exciting, gang.
SPEAKER_01: This is not, and you say, well, I just had, I want to, I want to get married and I want to have kids.
SPEAKER_01: Well, get married and have kids.
SPEAKER_01: You're not supposed to be looking around for the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: You're supposed to be looking at Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But the reality is, is that he's giving us a briefing.
SPEAKER_01: This is a briefing of the last days of the coming of the Lord, so we're not surprised and we're not shocked when things begin to take place.
SPEAKER_01: So Revelation 6 through 19, don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 6 through 19 is about verse 27.
SPEAKER_01: So verse 27 of Daniel 9 that we just read is elaborated on with the specifics of how the enemy's going to work and how God's going to work in the last days from Revelation 6 through 19.
SPEAKER_01: So we're coming in to some of the most exciting parts of the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: God's judgment's going to be poured out through seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of wrath.
SPEAKER_01: And this is just the birth pangs.
SPEAKER_01: This is just the birth pangs.
SPEAKER_01: So Revelation 6 and 7 is the birth pangs.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 8 is the great tribulation period.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to experience that through the seven seals.
SPEAKER_01: And we may be, quite frankly, gang, getting really, really close to this.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know about you, but I can say this in all my years, and we've talked about this before here at the road, how it does seem like there's been so many challenges to the very core values that we've believed in in America and as believers in the church.
SPEAKER_01: We could take America as a cultural issue, but there's also a cultural issue within the church that is radically changing.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is so quick what's been happening.
SPEAKER_01: And the kind of discussions that are online theologically about stuff that, seriously, just five years ago, we would have considered untouchable.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you would have just said that's that for two for 2,000 years, and if we count the Old Testament for some 8,000, 6 to 8,000 years according to how you want to uh date it, those were settled issues, gang.
SPEAKER_01: They are not settled anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And things are steamrolling fast.
SPEAKER_01: So now look at Revelation chapter 6, and let's open there, and we'll go as far as we can in six today, and then we'll pick it up next week.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 6 gets into the seven seals.
SPEAKER_01: I've entitled it Come and See, because every major seal is open, the angel says, Come and see.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're gonna proceed.
SPEAKER_01: That's actually what come means.
SPEAKER_01: It means proceed and watch.
SPEAKER_01: That's another way to say it.
SPEAKER_01: Proceed and watch.
SPEAKER_01: Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, come and see.
SPEAKER_01: So come means to proceed, to watch, be released.
SPEAKER_01: We're about to see the four famous four horsemen of the apocalypse here in Revelation chapter 6.
SPEAKER_01: Horses, you're gonna see horses.
SPEAKER_01: Horses in the Bible always represent judgment.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Kings 6, Jeremiah 46, Joel 2, Nahum 3, Zechariah 1, Zechariah 6, all speak of judgment on horseback.
SPEAKER_01: And I looked, and behold, a white horse.
SPEAKER_01: He who sat on it had a bow.
SPEAKER_01: And a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, because we know that Jesus does come on a white horse in chapter 19, many have thought this is Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not, though.
SPEAKER_01: Look at you as we go through this, you're gonna see these three buddies that he's hanging out with.
SPEAKER_01: Three bad guys.
SPEAKER_01: One is war, one is desolation, and the other is death.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that this is a picture of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: What we just read in verse 27, a peacemaker, a white horse coming with one of peace, coming with one of reconciliation, a covenant, a covenant of peace for three and a half years.
SPEAKER_01: And he's carrying a bow.
SPEAKER_01: The traditional symbol of Nimrod was the bow, and Nimrod was the dictator or the leader over the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget that.
SPEAKER_01: So this bow represents war, it represents desolation, and in a near and far prophetic sense, it represents Nimrod.
SPEAKER_01: And you know about the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_01: There was that desire and that passion to get to God, to gain knowledge from God, and to be God, and to build a temple where the people of the whole earth would come and worship.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to see the rebuilding of the temple through this one world dictator, and he's conquering.
SPEAKER_01: He's on a horse.
SPEAKER_01: He's coming to conquer.
SPEAKER_01: And he's been given a crown.
SPEAKER_01: He's a leader.
SPEAKER_01: He's a worldwide leader.
SPEAKER_01: New agers are looking for this.
SPEAKER_01: Muslims are looking for this.
SPEAKER_01: Jews are looking for this.
SPEAKER_01: Political parties are looking for this.
SPEAKER_01: Someone, a savior, who can get us out of this mess.
SPEAKER_01: The earth is looking for such a man.
SPEAKER_01: And I think as we see the catastrophic days that are ahead of us in the future, more and more we'll be longing for this kind of leader.
SPEAKER_01: The world is clamoring for this kind of leader.
SPEAKER_01: It's only going to increase.
SPEAKER_01: The bow mentioned here is the same word used for the rainbow in Genesis chapter 9 for a covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_01: The rainbow, a covenant of peace, a covenant from God to the people that he would never flood the earth again.
SPEAKER_01: This guy will be carrying this kind of a bow.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll explain in a minute what Antichrist means.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what we think.
SPEAKER_01: He'll be accepted by Jews and Muslims.
SPEAKER_01: He'll be a peacemaker.
SPEAKER_01: He'll be a false Christ, a false Messiah deceiver.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 24, 4 and 5, which we just read, says this take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name.
SPEAKER_01: So he may call himself a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Some have believed he'll come from a large church setting.
SPEAKER_01: Some have believed that he'll come as a media mogul.
SPEAKER_01: I am the Christ, and he will deceive many, is what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_01: He will be a global world leader.
SPEAKER_01: We now have a military in America that basically has to ask permission to go to war from the United Nations.
SPEAKER_01: We are moving increasingly toward a global tax.
SPEAKER_01: You already know about what's happened in Europe with the one European currency that's used there.
SPEAKER_01: Some have said, and I think there's some truth to this, that the rapture of the church may be causative to a one world leader because so many will be gone.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you think about America today, I'm just going to Speak of America, and then I'll say it was definitely true in Japan in the 20th century.
SPEAKER_01: I can't say so much about the 21st century.
SPEAKER_01: I've been gone from Japan for so long.
SPEAKER_01: But it was, yeah, and I know it's true in Thailand.
SPEAKER_01: It's definitely true in Korea.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think it would be true in China.
SPEAKER_01: It's true in certain countries where revival is broken loose in South America, but here's what I'm about to say is that if you took out the believers, those who are spirit-filled, not those who say they're Christians, but those who really are truly living for Christ, most of those kind of people are pretty successful at what they do.
SPEAKER_01: Most of your large companies, most of your most successful people are Jesus people.
SPEAKER_01: They really are.
SPEAKER_01: When we leave this earth, I mean we're talking about a huge gap in America and in Korea and in Thailand.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I mention Japan was because from the beginning of the 20th century, the 19th, 20th century onward, all almost all, I can't say all, because I don't know, there's probably some, but almost all of your major hospitals, schools, and um educational universities.
SPEAKER_01: So elementary school, but also main major universities in Japan were started by Japanese who are Christians, who become believers.
SPEAKER_01: It's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: So if believers were suddenly gone, talk about the causative effect and impact that would have worldwide on ushering in this kind of a leader.
SPEAKER_01: The checks and balances would be gone.
SPEAKER_01: They wouldn't be here.
SPEAKER_01: Think about our city of Colorado Springs if those that are spirit-filled, word-rooted believers were suddenly gone.
SPEAKER_01: We were just out of here.
SPEAKER_01: What would happen in our streets?
SPEAKER_01: What would happen in our schools?
SPEAKER_01: What would happen politically?
SPEAKER_01: So there is reason to believe there's a causative effect of the coming of the Lord through first him releasing believers off the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come and see.
SPEAKER_01: Another horse, fiery red, went out.
SPEAKER_01: And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another.
SPEAKER_01: And there was given to him a great sword.
SPEAKER_01: So red is always a symbol of war and violence.
SPEAKER_01: And this is the restrainer, gang.
SPEAKER_01: This is the restrainer of the Holy Spirit being lifted.
SPEAKER_01: Being lifted.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Thessalonians 2, 5 and 7.
SPEAKER_01: Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things?
SPEAKER_01: And now you know what is restraining that he may be revealed in his own time.
SPEAKER_01: For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work.
SPEAKER_01: Only he who now restrains, listen, will do so until he is taken out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: So God's wrath is being held off by the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I believe it's also political, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that the restrainer is political power and spiritual power.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's both.
SPEAKER_01: Because that's the purpose of government.
SPEAKER_01: We know in Romans 13, we know all through scripture that the purpose of government is actually the protection of the people and the restraining of evil.
SPEAKER_01: Do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Do you guys know that?
SPEAKER_01: It's really important.
SPEAKER_01: The purpose of the government is to restrain evil and protect its people.
SPEAKER_01: That's the number, that's the founding fathers believed that was the most important thing about our government was to restrain evil through laws and to protect us and to have a strong military to protect us from other nations.
SPEAKER_01: Right now, the United States has what we would call, quote unquote, the five-earth arsenal.
SPEAKER_01: The five-earth arsenal, the Russians have a four-earth arsenal.
SPEAKER_01: That means we can, through nuclear weapons, destroy the earth five times over.
SPEAKER_01: So if we didn't do it the first time, we got four more chances.
SPEAKER_01: They, if they miss it the first time, they got three more chances.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're sitting on.
SPEAKER_01: That's what these just these two nations have at their disposal.
SPEAKER_01: And that is under the restraining.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine, church, when the restrainer is lifted?
SPEAKER_01: What could happen?
SPEAKER_01: The best picture I have, and I haven't seen, I mean, I saw Independence Day and all that.
SPEAKER_01: But the picture I have that I guess meant, I guess was the most emotional to me.
SPEAKER_01: I could see it was in the Batman series with Gotham to see where that, where the evil had taken over a city.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine all the cities of the world like Gotham, you know, in the movie Batman, just evil, just taking over everything.
SPEAKER_01: And it's amazing.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the Holocaust Museum.
SPEAKER_01: I've been to the Holocaust Museum in Israel commemorating six million Jews slaughtered.
SPEAKER_01: That's under the restraining.
SPEAKER_01: We believe now there's been a billion children killed through abortion.
SPEAKER_01: That's under the restraining.
SPEAKER_01: There were a million slaughtered in the tribal warfare in Rwanda a number of years ago.
SPEAKER_01: That's with the restrainer.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine when the spirit has pulled back and allows evil to be released, what we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_01: When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, Come and see.
SPEAKER_01: This is like a briefing, in it.
SPEAKER_01: And he's going, now come and see this part.
SPEAKER_01: Now come and see that part.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is amazing that we as believers get to have this bird's eye view into what's happening in the future.
SPEAKER_01: So I looked, and behold, a black horse.
SPEAKER_01: And he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
SPEAKER_01: And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a deneri, and three quarts of barley for a deneri, and do not harm the oil and the wine.
SPEAKER_01: Black is always a picture of famine in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This idea of a deneri was a full day's work.
SPEAKER_01: So a full day's work to feed one person a day.
SPEAKER_01: That shows controlled rationing and famine on the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Someone I found here said you'll be spending around$150 a day for a loaf of bread.
SPEAKER_01: Necessities are ration, and the world economy will be under the control of this man.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 13 says he will have worldwide economic control.
SPEAKER_01: So sickness, malnutrition will be setting in around the world.
SPEAKER_01: When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come and see.
SPEAKER_01: So I looked, and behold, a pale horse.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting, this is the word chloros, where we get the word chlorine.
SPEAKER_01: So it's kind of a ghastly green, kind of a sickly color, this idea of a pale horse.
SPEAKER_01: And the name of him who sat on it was death, and Hades followed with him.
SPEAKER_01: And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beast of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: So one fourth of the world dead.
SPEAKER_01: That would be all of South America, all of Canada, all of Central America, and all of Africa dead.
SPEAKER_01: But look at Revelation, don't look at it.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, let me read it to you.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 5.9 says this.
SPEAKER_01: They sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, When all of the earth is heard, when all of the earth has heard the gospel, then the end will come.
SPEAKER_01: So God is setting this thing up, and that's why we have Act School, that's why we have the road, that's why we have churches across the city and churches around the world, and why we need to plan a whole lot more is because God has called us to preach the gospel to every tribe and every tongue, because by so doing, we're setting up the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's going to be a day coming, church, don't miss this, where it won't be possible.
SPEAKER_01: Things will happen so cataclysmically and so quickly that that opportunity to preach the gospel will be in the past.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to challenge us.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a time to be looking for the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a time to be looking for a one-world leader.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time to be sharing our faith.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time to be prayer-walking.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time to be meeting people and inviting them to church and inviting them to Christ, to know Him in a personal way.
SPEAKER_01: It's coming together this Saturday and Sunday mornings to pray and to ask God for revival and awakening.
SPEAKER_01: I want to work with God, not against God.
SPEAKER_01: How about you?
SPEAKER_01: I've served some in my time.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you served?
SPEAKER_01: How many have any of you surfed?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we're in Colorado, so kind of landlocked here.
SPEAKER_01: But okay, for you that moved here from another place, I surfed a lot in Southern California and then some in South Carolina.
SPEAKER_01: And you can't, listen, you can't make a wave.
SPEAKER_01: But you can know what to do with a wave if you catch it right.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's the hard part.
SPEAKER_01: And I and Deborah and some of my kids here in the room remember last time we were in South Carolina, I took, I got a foam, I got a big foam surfboard, and we went out about this deep with probably about one foot waves, and I would put them on the board.
SPEAKER_01: I showed them how to jump up and get ready, and then when they would catch that wave, I'd push them and they'd ride that thing in.
SPEAKER_01: And it was really fun.
SPEAKER_01: But I can't make the wave, but I can make someone surf.
SPEAKER_01: I can teach someone to surf.
SPEAKER_01: We've got to surf God's wave, but we need God's wave.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, it goes a lot better with revival and awakening than it does doing it just on your own.
SPEAKER_01: And so the reality is God always in history comes in response to people who pray for him to come.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus comes where he's welcome.
SPEAKER_01: And when he's welcome, he does mighty things.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we ride that momentum.
SPEAKER_01: So that's why we're praying on Friday.
SPEAKER_01: Excuse me, on Saturday morning and Sunday night.
SPEAKER_01: We're praying for revival and awakening.
SPEAKER_01: And it's up to him to choose the time and the place he does that.
SPEAKER_01: But I know that he hears our prayers when we cry out to something that's part of his will.
SPEAKER_01: And he desires that.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus says, now when these things begin to happen, look up, lift up your heads because your redemption draws near.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, lift up your heads.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to go into worship in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: And the team's going to come up here.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads and worship.
SPEAKER_01: Come on Saturday morning and Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads and worship in our prayer room.
SPEAKER_01: Lift up your heads.
SPEAKER_01: As a family, regularly come together as a family and lift up your heads because your redemption is near.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't, if you let the culture, if you let depression, if you let the loss of a job, if you let the struggles of your marriage be the focus of your life, you will go down.
SPEAKER_01: God wants us to lift up our heads and see that our redemption is near and cry out to Him for all that we need in every aspect of our life.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna be tested.
SPEAKER_01: We are being tested now.
SPEAKER_01: And this is nothing compared to what's going to happen.
SPEAKER_01: And so if we get tired running from a wolf, what will we do when we have to run against an army?
SPEAKER_01: So God's building endurance into us.
SPEAKER_01: God's building strength into us.
SPEAKER_01: Since it talks about beasts here in our passage, could be viruses, could be supply of diseases and antibodies, HIV, tuberculosis, we don't know.
SPEAKER_01: After World War I, the conditions were so bad in Europe that more people died after World War I than those who had died in World War I.
SPEAKER_01: If you and I know many of you know this about the Civil War.
SPEAKER_01: During the Civil War, more people died of their wounds and the diseases afterwards than actually from the battlefield.
SPEAKER_01: So there will be this catastrophic impact.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing that's gonna be most exciting is God's gonna humble Israel.
SPEAKER_01: I believe God, I believe Israel will sign a covenant with this with this leader, and he will humble them, he will betray them.
SPEAKER_01: Did you guys hear that Netanyahu, about what Netanyahu recently did?
SPEAKER_01: He signed into a, I think it was like an amendment, for everyone in Israel to read the entire Bible this year.
SPEAKER_01: All of the Bible, Old and New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine a president of the United States asking us, saying to the to our country, we're gonna have a year of the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: You know that one did?
SPEAKER_01: Ronald Reagan did.
SPEAKER_01: Ronald Reagan did, I believe, in 1981 or 82 with Bill Bright, um D.
SPEAKER_01: James Kennedy, Jerry Falwell, a number of others, they had a year of the Bible, and that came from the President of the United States.
SPEAKER_01: Well, President Netanyahu, his Prime Minister Netanyahu, is doing that in Israel right now.
SPEAKER_01: And um, that's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01: So God's on the move.
SPEAKER_01: I believe the dry bones are gonna get some flesh on them, and the Spirit of God's coming on Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Remember John 10, 10.
SPEAKER_01: The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
SPEAKER_01: I came that you might have life and might have it abundantly.
SPEAKER_01: Men and women, this is not a time to be worried unless you don't know the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you're not walking with the Lord, if you're not a Jesus disciple, you have everything to be worried about.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thing, here's the deal for you it doesn't get any better for you than what you have right here.
SPEAKER_01: It's only gonna get worse.
SPEAKER_01: You live once, but you die twice.
SPEAKER_01: For we that are Jesus followers, we die once, but we live twice.
SPEAKER_01: That's a pretty good deal.
SPEAKER_01: So I would say if you don't know Christ, you're not walking with Christ today, repent.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the deal for us as believers.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't get any worse than this.
SPEAKER_01: It only gets better.
SPEAKER_01: But for you that are unbelievers, cashing your chips, man, because it doesn't get any better than this, is only going to get worse for you.
SPEAKER_01: So come to Jesus, be smart.
SPEAKER_01: He loves you, he wants to come, transform, and fill you with joy and his presence, and his power, and his love, and his forgiveness in a new and powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: To connect with us further, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Go to theroad.org, click on the ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.