Well, with much joy again this morning I return to the book of Revelation. It’s been a long break since we finished chapter 5. But we find ourselves in the beginning of chapter 6, and this is a notable portion of Scripture. So open your Bible, if you will, to Revelation chapter 6.

As you will remember, the book of Revelation is chronological. The first three chapters deal with Christ moving in His church on the earth. So in chapters 1 to 3, you have the church on earth. In chapters 4 and 5, the church appears in heaven, symbolized by the twenty-four elders, which means that by the time you get to 4 and 5, the church has been raptured and is now in the presence of saints and angels around the throne of God. But then in chapter 6, it comes back to earth, back to earth for the time known as the Tribulation, when everything comes to its final end.

And in chapter 6 there is a picture that is very graphic. It’s laid out in sealed judgments. Wills were sealed in the Roman era so they would only be opened by the one who had the authority to access the will. That’s what you have here. Christ has taken the will of God, the title deed to the universe from the Father’s throne—we saw it earlier—and He is going to open it as the heir to the universe; and with each seal, there’s an element of features that He uses to take back what is rightfully His, as Psalm 2 says.

So starting in chapter 6 is where the Lord in the future will take possession of what has been in the control of the usurper, Satan. Christ the rightful heir, the rightful King, opens the seal which is the will and testament of God, and He is the one who can open the seals and take back the universe.

As we come to chapter 6, the first seal is in the opening two verses. I’m just going to read those two verses for you this morning. “Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures”—those are angels, as we learn from chapters 4 and 5—“one of [those] four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’” “Come.” And that is a call, under this seal, to what occurs in verse 2: “I looked, 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.” That is the beginning of the end. After the church has been removed from the world, that is how the final period of human history begins—the first seal.

Now, we’re going to have to back up to get a running start on this and look at a number of portions of Scripture. But what is being represented there is essentially the arrival of world peace. You have a white horse which was ridden by a conqueror, you have him “conquering and to conquer.” You have him with a bow but no arrows, which means this is not a war. He does not take authority by force. But rather, the white horse and the rider, a bow without arrows, receives from the world “a crown . . . given to him,” and he is therefore installed with full authority. The next event following the removal of the church—the final days of those who belong to Christ when He takes us out of this world—following that, the seals will begin.

Now, we can already see the movement in those directions, so we must be near the return of Christ. And the first thing is going to be this white horse, arrowless conqueror who is given a crown. The best way to understand this is that it refers to peace, peace. And we assume that because in the second seal in verse 4, it says peace was taken from the earth. So what is coming to the earth in the future is world peace. That is correct: world peace. But it doesn’t last very long. Verse 4 says it was taken from the earth and then slaughter began, and then famine, and then death. But for a while there will be peace in the world of a certain kind.

Now this is a very popular desire, world peace. I think we know that. We’re all aware of the fact that people have been talking about global unity, one world government, for a long time; and there are many conspiracy theories about people secretly moving everything in that direction. But there are also realities which are anything but secret, and they’re not theories but are certainly actions being taken by globalists to move the world toward one world government. This is escalating among the elitists—power-hungry people who control the levers of culture and society. They want one world government.

And why do they want that? Well, they give several reasons. One is what they call equity—so that they can redistribute all the assets and all the wealth and all the possessions equally across the planet to everyone. Another one is because of currency. They have a desire for a singular currency, global currency, and they would like that to be cryptocurrency, electronic currency, so that they can control all finances and all spending by everyone.

And then, another one of their motivating desires is environment. They want equal commitment upon every nation of the world, all people of the world, to the environmental plan. Right now, many nations are supposedly doing what they can to achieve environmental goals while many other nations pay no attention.

Another one of their goals is taxation. They want global taxation so that no one, no corporation can escape to some location where the taxation is lower. Another reason for their desire for a global, one world government is immigration. They want to eliminate immigration altogether. They want to eliminate it by simply saying anybody can go anywhere they want to go anytime, any way, free movement of everyone.

Another one of their goals in having a one world government is what they call crisis response, which was illustrated during the lockdown and the pandemic with COVID. They want to make sure the whole world responds the way the World Health Organization thinks they should respond. They want control over the responses to any kind of disease, any kind of pandemic, and they want uniformity.

And then, of course, a big one, war, because nations fight each other, and this seems to go on all the time. They want to eliminate nations so that there are no national wars. And the goal of all of this, if they can create equity, common currency, control the environment, universal taxation, eliminate borders so there’s no illegal immigration, control all crises and end all wars, will bring about world peace.

I don’t know if you know this, but they already have a flag. It’s called the One World Flag. It’s the flag of humanity and the unity of the nations. Part of it is green for the earth, humanity, human progress, and unity, agriculture, and life; part of it is blue for the United Nations, hope, water, atmosphere we breathe, and sky; part of it is black for the darkness of space, hardship that humanity will overcome, and the last frontier of human exploration and settlement of the solar system and beyond; and it has thirteen stars because they’ve divided the globe into thirteen regions. One world government. They are serious about this. This is one of the reasons I told you months ago that they have a problem with America because of the emphasis here on nationalism. That is a threat to their efforts to remove national identity.

Is this a good idea? Is this a reasonable idea? We can find that out very easily by going all the way back to the book of Genesis. So turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 11, Genesis chapter 11. One world system is not a new idea; it’s a very old idea and, by the way, a very satanic idea, an old idea. When I say that, I mean Genesis chapter 11. Not long after God had destroyed the entire world in the Flood, leaving only eight people to reconstitute humanity again. Soon after that, we come to chapter 11, and this is what we read in verse 1: “The whole earth used the same language and the same words.” So there was every reason to assume that they could rather easily pull off one world government, since they all spoke the same language. That would eliminate one formidable barrier.

And “it came about,” in verse 2, that “as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar”—that, by the way is the Mesopotamian Valley between the Tigris and the Euphrates, where the Garden of Eden once was—“and [they] settled there.” Now that sounds innocent enough, but the problem with that is that wasn’t God’s design.

Back in Genesis 1—and they knew this, this was the creation mandate—verse 28, after God made man in His own image, after He created him male and female, verse 28 of Genesis 1, “God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.’” Part of the creation mandate was to spread over the whole earth. They had done that. God drowned that evil society, and they were to start all over again with the descendants of Noah.

But they didn’t want to do that. They wanted to settle in one place. So “they said,” in verse 3, “to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, burn them thoroughly’”—that is to say, so that they would be strong. “And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. And they said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.’” They knew they were supposed to be “scattered . . . over the face of the whole earth.” That was the creation mandate. That was God’s order to them in the original creation.

But they were rebels against God. They did not want to do that. They wanted to stay together, and so they decided that they would build a city, and they would build a tower, and they would make a name for themselves.

“The Lord came down,” verse 5, “to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.” And by the way, the scattering is described in chapter 10. Chapter 10 gives you the scattering, and chapter 11 gives you the reason. God wanted them scattered over the whole earth.

What is going on here? Well first of all, man says, “Come, let us.” “Come, let us.” Same language, same words—literally in Hebrew, “one lip and one set of words.” “We’re all unified”—they were all descendants of Noah. They realized that they were in power, and they wanted to concentrate that power, and concentrated power concentrates and exacerbates evil.

A unified force of sinners with no restraints, as the Lord says in verse 6, they will do anything they purpose to do: “Nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.” There are no restraints. This is concentrated power of evil people. One evil ruler could corrupt the whole world. Nations provide restraint, and the power of sinners is diffused and spread out. World unity is an absolute disaster. It puts too much power in too few sinners, and maybe too much power in even one sinner. World unity is a complete disaster. It is what Satan wants; it is what God does not want, at least until He releases Satan to accomplish His purpose. Satan wants, and showed his hand in Genesis 11, a one world government led by a coterie of sinners who can function without any restraint. This is a picture of Antichrist, a dictator who will rule the world, who will consolidate evil across the entire face of the earth. This is Satan’s desire.

Now looking a little deeper, there was a leader in Genesis. Go back to chapter 10 and verse 8, and you see there the name Nimrod, Nimrod. He was from the line of Ham—Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah. Nimrod was from the line of Ham, and it says in verse 8, “He became a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter.” Literally, the word means “warrior” or “killer.” He was not a killer of animals; he was a killer of people. In other words, he ascended to power by killing people. It’s as if he was next to the Lord, he had assumed such power. It was even said commonly, “Nimrod [is] a mighty killer before the Lord,” meaning he’s a rival, in a sense, to God Himself, he has so much power. And “the beginning of his kingdom was Babel.”

So here we have some very interesting things. This is the first time the word kingdom appears in Scripture. This is the first time there’s a kingdom; it’s the first time there’s a king. He is a fascinating figure.

In verses 8 and 9, three times he’s called mighty, mighty in an evil sense. He is a killer. He’s the great-grandson of Noah, the grandson of righteous Ham. He wielded deadly power. He was ruthless in the Euphrates Valley, no doubt, establishing his kingdom by the means of death. And having established that, he literally could perpetuate his own evil through the entire population of the world because there were no other powers to stop him. But God identified it as Babel because He wouldn’t allow it to happen. It becomes known as the Tower of Babel because God changes their language, and all that comes out of that effort is confusion. And then in verse 9, “the Lord [scatters] them abroad . . . over the . . . whole earth.”

So Nimrod rebelling against the creation mandate of God—evil Nimrod, murderous Nimrod rebelled. Idolatrous Nimrod wanted to build a city. And why a city? Because a city is concentrated humanity; and that, of course, is where you have the greatest concentration and expression of sin and iniquity. We know that from how cities function even today.

And then a tower—essentially, a ziggurat, as it was called in ancient times. At the base would be some kind of idolatry, some kind of worship, and the tower ascending as far into heaven as they could build it—as, in a sense, a figure of their desire to reach the gods. And then having achieved the greatness of a city and such a tower that penetrates even to the heavens and touches deity, they would have made a name for themselves. There was no concern for God, there was no interest in His will or His purpose; it was all about what they could accomplish. This is, clearly, satanic.

As a result, God—and you can see it in verse 7—says, “Let Us go down.” Verse 4, they said, “Let us build.” In response, God said, “Let Us go down and . . . confuse their language.” Very effective, by the way, very effective. Chaos breaks out, the city plan is shattered, the religion is splintered into bits and pieces, they don’t make a name for themselves, and then the Lord scatters them all over the earth—and you can see just where, as you read chapter 10. Human pride, human ambition, power, designing one world government, is thwarted by God. It gives too much power to too few people without balance, without restraint. It’s the worst of all possible human government.

However, in Isaiah—and I want you to turn to Isaiah chapter 2—Isaiah says in the future there will be one world government. There will be one world government. Isaiah chapter 2, verses 1 to 4: “The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” So now we know that this future one world government we’re about to hear about will be connected to Judah and Jerusalem. “Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways.’”

So what do we have here? We have God, in Judah and in Jerusalem in the last days, establishing His house, the house of the Lord. Really, in Jerusalem on the Mount of Zion—it “will be raised [up] above the hills.” That is to say, it will be more powerful than all other nations. “All nations will stream into it, and many people will come.” So this is a one world government in Jerusalem in the future. And people from the world will say, “Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways, that we may walk in His paths.” The whole world will come under the leadership and authority of the King who is none other than Messiah. “He will judge”—verse 4—“between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples”—or “many nations.” So this is a future one world government led by our Lord Himself when He returns.

I want to show you another picture of it in the book of Zephaniah, Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 8: “‘Therefore wait for Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘For the day when I rise up as a witness. Indeed, My decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, to pour out on them My indignation, all My burning anger.’” The future is coming when God is going to collect all the nations for the purpose of final judgment. “All the earth will be devoured by the fire of My zeal.” This is the future judgment.

What follows it is the kingdom, verse 9, “Then I will give to the peoples purified lips . . . all of them may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him shoulder to shoulder.” Wherever they’re from, whatever nation, those who have been purified, who have been cleansed, who have been granted righteousness will come and call on the name of the Lord and stand together. He calls them in verse 10 “My worshipers, my dispersed ones, will bring My offerings. In that day you will feel no shame because of all your deeds by which you have rebelled against Me; for then I will remove from your midst your proud, exulting ones, and you will never again be haughty on My holy mountain. But I will leave among you a humble and lowly people, and they will take refuge in the name of the Lord.” That is the coming kingdom of Christ.

So there is a day coming when all the nations will literally be unrecognized as such, and there will be one government of the world: the government of Messiah. In that day, the city will not be built by men, it will be built by God. It will not be built by men as they attempted to do at Babel, it will be built by God—and I’ll show you that. Revelation 21.

In Revelation 21, we have a glimpse of the future holy city, the capital city, if you will, of the kingdom. John is “carried away,” in verse 10 of Revelation 21, “in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed” all that God has prepared by way of His city. “[He] showed me the holy city, Jerusalem,” not built by men, but “coming down out of heaven from God.” And then he describes this city as “having the glory of God”: “brilliance like a very costly stone,” “a stone of crystal-clear jasper,” like a diamond, with “a great and high wall,” and so forth and so on.

The city in the future, one world government under Messiah will be the city built by God. Before that though, before that city, there will come world peace, a false peace. Real peace comes with the Prince of Peace, but there will come a false peace. Let me show you that. Matthew 24.

Matthew chapter 24 and verse 3. The disciples have come to Jesus, and they ask Him this very pertinent question, verse 3, Matthew 24: “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and the end of the age?” “We want to know about the end. We want to know about the kingdom. We want to know about Your return. When will it happen, and what will be the sign? How do we know we’re getting near Your setting up Your kingdom?” “And Jesus answered”—in verse 4—“and said to them, ‘See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will mislead many.’”

The first sign that we’re getting to the end is a sign of deception, deception. Not just one Antichrist—many false prophets, many false Christs misleading many. The first sign that our Lord identifies of the end is massive global deception, deception.

He describes it even further, verse 11, “Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many.” This will go on across the world. In verses 21 to 24 we read about that same period. And again, if you go down to verse 23, there are going to be people saying, “‘Behold, here is Christ . . . there [is Christ],’ do not believe him. False Christs, false prophets will arise, will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”

So the first sign is massive, massive deception. And what is that deception exactly? Listen to what it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Listen to this. In the end times—Paul is talking about the end times, the day of the Lord, “They [will be] saying”—the false prophets—“‘Peace and safety!’” “‘Peace and safety!’ then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.” What is going to be the deceptive message? “Peace and safety.” Peace and safety. So the first sign of the end is a false peace.

Now, this has a pattern. If you go back to Jeremiah, Jeremiah was warning the people of God of coming judgment. His whole prophecy is just loaded with warnings about the coming judgment. Chapter 6 of Jeremiah, verse 1, “Flee for safety, O sons of Benjamin”—this is an illustration of the kind of thing that he writes—“flee . . . from the midst of Jerusalem!” And then at the end of verse 1, “For evil looks down from the north, and a great destruction.” So Jeremiah is saying, “Destruction is coming. Destruction is coming. Destruction is coming.”

But down in verse 14 of that same chapter, the false teachers are saying, “‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.” “Peace, peace.” There is no peace. Says it again in chapter 8, verse 11: “They heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace.”

Over in chapter 14, verses 13 and 14, “But, ‘Ah, Lord God!’ I said, ‘Look, the prophets are telling them, “You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.”’” Jeremiah is saying, “You’re going to be judged; you’re going to see the sword.” False prophets say, “No. Peace is coming.” And the Lord said to Jeremiah, verse 14, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.” That’s the pattern. God is announcing judgment, and the false teachers are saying, “Peace, peace, peace.”

Now just imagine this. The church has been raptured out. The world is trying to figure out what happened. There is terrifying fear across the face of the earth, and they’re wondering whether or not this is a sign of divine judgment. And all the false teachers and false Christs rise up to say, “No. Peace, peace. You have nothing to worry about.”

Now go back to Matthew 24, the deception, verses 4 and 5, misleading, saying, “Actually, this is the peace of the Christ. This is the peace you’ve been looking for.” But verse 6 says, “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.” The peace doesn’t last too long, does it? It’s over in verse 6. And verse 8, “All these things are merely the beginning of the birth pangs.” There’s going to be peace, false peace immediately followed by war. And from there will come famines, in verse 7. And after that, persecution. “They will deliver you,” verse 9, because “you will be hated by all nations because of My name.” The false prophets are lying to you. They establish a very short-lived false peace.

Now, there is mention in verse 15, “The abomination of desolation . . . spoken of through Daniel the prophet.” That’s a fascinating statement that our Lord puts into this Olivet sermon on His Second Coming. Let me show you how that fits in.

Turn to Daniel 9, Daniel 9. And this is a familiar prophecy. What we read here—and I’m not going to be able to go into the whole thing, but what you need to know is there is a prince that will come in the future, a prince that will come. He is an evil prince, he is the counterfeit Christ, but he is mentioned in verse 26: “the prince who [will] come.” He “will destroy the city and the sanctuary.” In other words, he’s going to literally destroy Jerusalem. But “he will [also] make a firm covenant with the many for one week”—that’s a seven-year period—“but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

I can’t go into the detail, but this is an introduction of the Antichrist, who comes and makes a pact with Israel to be their protector, protector of the world. No doubt he’s the leader of the final world government, the single world government, the government that supposedly brings peace. But halfway through that seven-year period, he himself becomes aggressive, and he commits what Matthew 24:15 calls “the abomination of desolation,” the desecration of the Temple, the sacrifice. He turns on the people of Israel, and he fights against them.

And so, back to Matthew 24, “Those who are in Judea [when this happens] must flee to the mountains.” If you’re on a housetop, don’t even go down to get the things out of the house. If you’re in the field, don’t return to get your cloak. If you’re pregnant, that’s the worst of all situations because you can’t flee fast, or if you’re nursing a baby. “Pray that your flight will not be in the winter” because that’s difficult, or “on a Sabbath,” because “there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world.”

So what happens is this prince that will come in the future makes an alliance with Israel for a while to be their protector and the protector of the world, the leader of this global peace. Halfway into that seven-year period, he violates that, becomes their enemy, and begins this horrendous kind of destruction and slaughter. He literally foments the end of the peace and the war that follows.

Now I know I’ve given you a lot, but understand this: The first seal is false peace. It is brief. It is brief. It’s followed immediately by war and by famine and by death in Matthew 24, and the same sequence in Revelation 6.

So what are the birth pangs, as verse 8 says? What are the beginnings of the end? One, false peace, followed immediately by war fomented by the Antichrist himself, followed by famine, followed by natural catastrophe, followed by persecution, followed by persecution. And in that same message in Matthew 24, after all of that, after all of that, verse 29 says, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heaven will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” So during that period of time there will be a false peace, followed by war, followed by famine, followed by catastrophe, followed by persecution, followed by the return of Christ. And again, the sequence is the same in Matthew as it is in Revelation.

Now with that, go back to our text, if you remember what it was: Revelation 6:1. So “the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and . . . one of the four living creatures”—one of the angels around the throne of God, says—this is in the vision—“as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’” And he calls. And in this vision, John looks, “and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him.” Here comes peace. This is peace. This is peace.

Some people say, “Well, isn’t this Christ riding on a white horse? Isn’t He the one coming to conquer?” This is not Christ—because He opens the seals, He opens the seals; and because He has a true crown, a diadēma, a royal crown, not a stephanos, a lesser crown; and because He comes at the end, not at the beginning; and because He doesn’t have a bow, He has a sword. So this is not Christ.

And some say, “Well, this is Antichrist.” That’s close. But it’s really the force of peace. It’s false peace. The horse is false peace. Certainly, Antichrist is the main man in the picture riding the horse, but the horse is peace. Satan, again, is going to do what he accomplished briefly through Nimrod. He’s going to crown a false king of the world with a false peace, a golden age, a utopia. The whole world complies. There are no arrows—that’s no war. It’s the golden age—deceptive, misleading, false peace.

But it doesn’t last because John immediately saw a second seal, and that was war, “[taking] peace from the earth.” But for a while, there will be world peace, and it will be a Nimrod-type personality who rises to the top. Listen to the description of him in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 8: the “lawless one.” The lawless one. Then verse 9 describes him: “The one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan.” He’s a satanic agent. But he comes “with all power and signs and false wonders.” I used to wonder how that could be perpetrated. Don’t wonder anymore. Have you heard of AI, artificial intelligence?

He comes “with all powers and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.” For the people who aren’t saved, they buy into the deception, and “God [sends] them”—in verse 11—“a deluding influence so they will believe what is false, in order that they . . . may be judged.” He’s going to be effective. The whole world, apart from those who have come to faith in Christ during that time period, will follow Him right into death and judgment.

In the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, it tells us more about him. Verse 12, “He exercises all the authority of the first beast . . . . He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.” The whole world is made to worship him by his accompanying false prophet. “He performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.” And here’s the key verse, 14, “He deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast.” This is a powerful figure. This is Nimrod exponentially defined by modern technology.

Everybody’s saying, “I wish we had peace in the world.” It’ll come. It’ll come, but it’ll be a satanic counterfeit of the true peace which will subjugate the whole world to concentrated evil like the world has never seen. The concentrated evil in the power of the satanic-energized Antichrist will be far beyond anything Nimrod ever knew. It will be evil like the world has never ever known.

So when that global world comes, when that one world government comes, it’s going to be the government of Antichrist, and it’s going to last a very brief time before worldwide slaughter on his part, and then on the part of God who brings about judgment—comes, and then all the judgments of the rest of the book of Revelation will unfold. A peace that won’t last. The only real peace is the peace of the Prince of Peace who comes to establish His kingdom when He returns at the end of this era. Next time, we’ll look at the remaining seals.

Lord, You have opened up the window to the future for us; how marvelous it is. But You always do that. You always tell us when judgment is coming. You’ve told the world that over and over and over. You warn, You warn, and You warn of judgment. And we thank You that by Your grace, some of us have heard the warning and escaped through trust in Christ. But we know the world of people who reject the gospel, who refuse to believe, who are deaf to the warnings, are going to be under the power of Satan in the future in ways that are beyond comprehension.

Lord, we thank You that You have promised us that You have not made us for wrath, that You will take us to glory to be with You at the marriage supper of the Lamb, to receive our rewards. And then on earth will come all the judgments, but we will be taken out before that begins. We also will return with You at the end of the judgments to live out in Your kingdom all the fulfillment of promises given way back in the Old Testament, of Your earthly reign in righteousness, power, and glory; and that will be the real kingdom of peace.

Lord, we are so thankful to know these things. But seeing that we know these things, what kind of people should we be? We should be prepared, unlike the virgins who weren’t prepared when the Bridegroom came, and were left behind. I pray that everyone here would be ready by trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior, to be delivered from the wrath to come and to return for the true and everlasting kingdom of peace. Lord, thank You for Your Word, for Your truth, for Your saving grace, in Christ’s name. Amen.