The Book of Revelation - Part 18

26 Jul 2026 · this lesson on the church site

Taught by Dr. Keith Palmer, Grace Bible Church, Granbury, Texas — from the church’s Sunday School series on Revelation. These are lightly edited transcripts of the audio, posted for personal study; the teaching and its content belong to Dr. Palmer and Grace Bible Church. Listen to the originals and find his notes on the church website. Transcribed from the audio by AI. Edited only where the audio was unclear (all edits marked with *). Errors are possible — the recording is the authority.

Opening and Overview of the Book (00:00)

Let's turn back to the book of Revelation if you haven't already done so, and if you're new, welcome to Sunday School. We're going verse by verse through the book of Revelation, and we find ourselves in chapter 6. I mentioned that the theme of the camp was "the King is coming," so all the sermons and even the music centered around that theme. The very last message we heard was an overview of the book of Revelation by the youth pastor of Grace Community Church, MacArthur's former church, where the youth pastor and his staff run this camp. I thought, awesome, this is great, this is going to save me so much time, so I took copious, meticulous notes. It was actually really the Lord, because as we're in the weeds of Revelation, I think it was really helpful for students to hear the big picture and the overview. Every week we talk about where we are, and he basically did that in 45 minutes.

There's a sermon, and maybe some of you have heard it. It's MacArthur's most famous sermon, by way of dating myself here: tapes sold, CDs sold, and now digital downloads, called "A Jet Tour Through the Book of Revelation." You can find it at Grace to You. If you've never heard it, I assume it's still his most famous message, or at least it was for many years in terms of popularity. Dr. Chow* went over the book of Revelation that last day, and that was really, really good and made us eager to come back and get back in the weeds.

So where are we? Where is Waldo? We are looking at the book of Revelation. Remember this diagram represents the number of chapters, 22 chapters, one of the longest books in the New Testament. This book* opens up a series of visions that Jesus gave. Remember, it's the revelation of Jesus to John the Apostle, given through a series of visions, often mediated by angels. The first part of the book, which we've already seen, is letters from Jesus to seven historic churches. We looked at those, and then there's a transition where Jesus says, now we're going to think about the things after, the things to come. John is immediately taken to see a vision of the throne room of heaven, and that's where we've been over the last several weeks. It's a vision of heaven, and it's a really amazing and awesome spectacle. We see the 24 elders, we see the four living creatures, we see the One sitting on the throne and the Lamb.

Then there's a transition where there is a scroll, and John weeps because there's nobody worthy to open the scroll. That scroll represents the coming judgments, the coming events that need to happen before Jesus returns and the judgment and all the things to come. Of course, the Lamb is found worthy to take the scroll and break its seals. We've now been in the section where, as these seals on the scroll are broken, they open up and initiate successive rounds of judgment, wrath, discord, discipline, and peril on the earth. It's been quite interesting. In fact, one of the things we've seen in those first couple of seals that are broken is the four horsemen, representing different types of events that occur on the earth.

The Ice Cream Contest (04:13)

You'll recall that we've had a contest here. Hang on, clicker's getting excited. Let's back up. You'll recall that today is the deadline, so if you didn't put in an entry, I'm sorry, you're too late. We are competing for an ice cream cone. So these are your choices. We've got that one, and then we've got that one. I can't remember who submitted this, so I'll show you all of them, and then by your applause, hand vote, or mail-in ballots, we'll decide. Here we go. That's pretty good. Then we've got, let's see, one or two more. Oh, there we go. Okay, alright. I think that came in last time, and then I think I got one since the last time I was in Revelation. I think it was Andrew. Is Andrew here? Andrew Helms? I think this was Andrew's entry. So, yeah, alright. Who did this? Was that Andrew? I thought it was Andrew. I was going to ask him about it. I think this is the only non-AI entry. So what's that?

So we'll do this one. There you go. I don't know if Andrew's here today or not, but thank you. You're affirming the decision, so we'll get that Braum's* gift card to Andrew Helms, who I think submitted that. Good job. There will be more art contests. There's plenty more Revelation coming, so get your paint ready, Sherry, okay?

The Four Horsemen (06:16)

Back to the book of Revelation, chapter 6. The four horsemen, as we know, bring about the first four seals, and they bring successive types of judgment. Just by way of review: the white horse comes in, bringing the rider with* a bow who is conquering and conquers. That seems to be related to the red horse, where a peace is taken from the earth so men slay each other. That has made us wonder whether there is something about that first horse that brings some measure of peace on the earth, and then that peace is taken by the rider on the red horse, where men slay each other, so wars are happening. The black horse, of course, represents the famine mentioned in chapter 6, verse 6: "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius." That emphasizes the poverty likely related to famine on the earth. Then the pale horse: death, and Hades, and authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, with famine, with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

So now we have this cataclysmic death. We talked about the extent of that, and history has not even come close. If you think about genocides, world wars, and horrible times, whether it was Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, or your favorite dictator and massive murder, the numbers don't even come close to the death that will happen when the fourth seal is broken: one quarter of the earth.

Then last time we looked at the fifth and sixth seals. Let's zoom in a bit, back to Revelation 6:9: "When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, because of the testimony." This is interesting. As these events are unfolding, as these judgments are unfolding, believers are dying, and in this case many of them are dying for their faith. You can imagine that in a world where judgment is taking root, and remember we saw that humanity, as we'll see here in a minute, has an understanding that these events are God's judgment. If fallen humanity understands that these cataclysmic events (the death, the famine, the war, the pestilence) are God's acts of judgment, and they are conscious that this is God's hand of judgment, what do you think they might do to his followers? We shouldn't be surprised that the fear, anger, and dread of unbelievers, as God unfolds his judgment on fallen humanity, get directed at the people of God.

So we see martyrs here in the fifth seal. The good news is that they're with the Lord, and they await future judgment. In fact, that's their question: "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" We talked about the idea of God's justice and his vengeance, and that sense we have of justice when something bad or wrong happens against the law of God, and that rising up in our hearts that says, that's not right, that's not fair, that shouldn't happen. That's a reflection of God's justice. Mercy, grace, and forgiveness don't mean that there isn't justice that is due. God is just; he is incapable of being unjust. His justice is satisfied in one of two ways. It is either satisfied in the payment of Jesus, who received the wrath of God for sinners, so for those who are trusting in him, justice is satisfied in Jesus, who takes the punishment for Christians, for believers. Or justice is poured out in judgment for all of eternity for those who aren't trusting in Christ. God is a God of justice, and justice will be done.

So we see justice beginning to unfold, but these martyrs are saying, how long until the final judgment, until that final act of justice? They're told to be patient, that it was coming soon.

The Sixth Seal (11:31)

The sixth seal we could just call "peril." Revelation 6:12: "I looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. Is your seat belt fastened? The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place." Again, we're talking about the seismic, tectonic activity happening there. "The kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, and they said to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.'"

This is so helpful, because again, it's showing us that whenever these events happen, and I know some of you are wondering when we're going to talk about chronology, whether this happens, say, in AD 70, or is happening throughout church history, or is yet future, we're going to talk about the three major positions very soon. We're trying to gather all this exegetical data, just letting the book speak for itself. But at some point we're going to pull the car over and say, okay, when does this happen? What are the pros and cons of the different views? Why do godly men disagree on when these events happen? We'll talk about all that, that's coming.

But another clue here is that whenever these events happen, there is a consciousness on the part of the people. They say, we know these events are happening, because what does it say? "Because of the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." They know this is God. They know enough about what's happening to assign the cause to God himself and to his Son, the Lamb. That's really interesting. I think that helps us understand when these things are happening, and the awareness of the people.

The Day of Wrath (13:34)

They are literally asking for mountain murder here. They are asking the mountains to murder them, because they are so fearful of the wrath of God coming against them that they are wishing to die in the rocks and mountains as they try to flee. Notice verse 17: "For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

We talked a little bit about that. What does that great day of wrath represent? I know it's been a while, so remember that from the earliest books of the Bible until the very end here in Revelation, the Bible regularly talks about a day. Often it's called "the day," and sometimes "the day of the Lord." Sometimes it's called "the day of judgment," and, as it's called here, "the day of wrath." Context is really important there. Look at how "the day of the Lord" is used:

Sometimes it refers to a regional event of God's judgment, as in some of the prophets.
Sometimes it looks forward to a future day, God's final judgment.

This is not disputed. No matter what view of Revelation you land on, everybody agrees there is a coming day of the Lord. So this day of wrath, it says here, has come. It started, and it will culminate, as we see in the final chapters of the book of Revelation.

Comparing Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 (17:46)

Last time, a couple of weeks ago, we looked at Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse as it's called. I asked you to remember your homework assignment, which was to read Matthew 24 and compare it to what we are reading in the book of Revelation. I won't put you on the spot, since it's been a while. But one of the principles of biblical interpretation we've been talking about is that Scripture interprets Scripture. We want to let the book interpret itself as much as possible. It's amazing how much of Revelation is self-interpreting. A lot of it isn't, but if we just come to it and let it stand as is, there's a fair amount we can determine by letting the book speak for itself.

Another principle, and you guys know this because you're Bible scholars, is that we want to let the clearer passages help us with the more obscure passages. We don't want to build doctrine on a passage that is vague and general and has some ambiguity to it, where we're not really sure. We want to build our doctrine on the clearest passages of Scripture, the most straightforward and easiest to understand, and then those help us understand the more obscure passages. Again, everybody agrees on this. No controversy there.

So Matthew 24 becomes really important here. In Matthew 24, Jesus is answering two questions. The disciples are walking through and they see the temple and say, "Oh, what a beautiful temple!" Jesus says, "Do you see all these things? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." The disciples ask him two questions: when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus actually answers both of those questions. Depending on your view of eschatology, you may see those as happening in the same event, or you may see them as happening in succession, as different events that happen first and then second. But the point is that Matthew 24 becomes a very important interpretive key to the book of Revelation.

So I'm not going to put you on the spot, but what I want to do is show you some of the parallelism between the two books. If you want to hold your place in Revelation 6 and turn back to Matthew 24, we'll go back and forth here real quick. This is really important, because I think there's enough congruity between Matthew 24 and Revelation 6 to say we're talking about the same things, the same events. Again, this is not controversial. There are questions about the timing and things like that, but in terms of congruity, most commentators are going to agree on this.

Let's compare them. What have we seen in the first four seals of Revelation 6? We've seen wars, famines, earthquakes, and death. We've seen those happening in really all six of the seals. We've seen martyrs in verse 9 of the fifth seal. If you look down at Revelation 7:14, hopefully we'll get at least a few verses into chapter 7 today. All these events are happening, and then John sees a group of people. In Revelation 7:4–8 he sees the 144,000. After those things, he sees a second group, starting in verse 9, a multitude which no one can count, from every nation, tribe, people, and tongue. John asks who these are, and in Revelation 7:14* one of the elders answers, "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation."

This is interesting. Just like the day of the Lord is a historic event we hear talked about, we also hear about this thing called the tribulation, or the great tribulation. Context helps us know how to take that word. There are enough places in Scripture that target a particular season of calamity, a particular season of peril and difficulty. What we see here is the writers telling us that these events we've been talking about, and the people who emerge from them, are called, according to John, the great tribulation. We'll talk about that more in a minute.

We also saw back in Revelation 6:12–13 that the sun, the moon, and the stars are involved. This is not like an eclipse or some ordinary phenomenon, or a falling star. These are cosmic events, unprecedented in history: the sun is black, the moon turns to blood, and the stars fall from the heavens. There are significant astronomical events going on, and then, of course, men are in terrible fear as they ask the rocks and mountains to fall on them.

That's a summary of some of the factors we've seen in Revelation 6 related to these seals and the judgments that come because of them. Now watch the congruity, the similarity between what we saw here and Matthew 24.

Matthew 24 and Luke 21 (21:48)

Remember, Jesus is responding to two questions the disciples asked. I mentioned last time that the parallel is in Luke 21. You have to put Luke's account and Matthew's account together, as in the Synoptic Gospels, to understand the fullness of events. Sometimes you put the narratives together and get a fuller picture of what's going on. When you put Matthew 24 together with Luke 21, you get a fuller picture of Jesus' answer. Luke 21 focuses more on the destruction of the temple, which took place in AD 70, whereas Matthew 24 focuses more on the return of Christ and the signs of his return, which, in my judgment, happen at a future time. Others believe everything happened in AD 70, and we're going to talk about that, because it's an important view.

Shared Events in Matthew 24 (22:51)

Look at Matthew 24, where Jesus talks about wars, famines, earthquakes, and death in verses 5–7. Let's look at that together. Jesus says:

For many will come in my name, saying, "I am the Christ," and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

So you have the same sort of description, similar things: wars, famines, earthquakes, and death. Notice that in verse 9 of both places, martyrs appear first. In Matthew 24:9, "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake." Jesus also talks about many falling away, betraying one another, and hating one another.

Notice also that Jesus calls these things a great tribulation. Look down at verse 21: "for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be." If we take Jesus seriously here, he is saying these events are unprecedented in history. There will be nothing like it. There was nothing like it in the past, there's nothing like it now, and nothing like it beyond. So he also calls these events a great tribulation, very similar to the language John hears in Revelation 7.

Notice also that the luminaries are implicated in these events. In verse 29: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from

"I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be saved."

Chronology in Revelation (25:55)

The events of Revelation seem to follow that chronology. We have a measure of confidence that what we're reading in the book of Revelation is the unfolding of events in a more or less chronological order. We'll talk about some of those things as we go along, but I hope that's helpful, because we're using the clear passages, Matthew 24, to help us understand the more obscure passages, some of the symbolism and whatnot in Revelation 6. Is that helpful to see? All right, questions on that?

To study Revelation, you've got to have about six fingers in your Bible. You've got one in Daniel 7, one in Revelation 1, one in Matthew 24 and Luke 21, and one in Joel 2. That's what you have to do. It makes sense: if this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, this is the final act in God's unfolding of revelation, and we should expect that when we look back at the previous sixty-five books of the Bible, we see connection, congruity, help, and culmination of those things in the book of Revelation. That's exactly what we see.

So any serious effort to interpret the book of Revelation must have a good handle on the previous sixty-five books and what they say about the end times, and also on how Revelation utilizes not just some of that same language and symbolism but is even the fulfillment of some of those things, as we're seeing, for example, in Joel chapter 2.

Joel and the Day of the Lord (26:57)

We're not going to spend a ton of time on this, but it's important to understand that the Day of the Lord we see in the book of Revelation is not a single, uniform idea. When you're going through your Bible, you need to recognize that sometimes, especially when the prophets in the Old Testament talk about the Day of the Lord, they're talking about a regional event of judgment. I put a few passages here so you can study some of those on your own sometime.

Especially with Isaiah. How many were with me when I went through Isaiah several years ago? If you were there, you'll remember that it was incredible, very challenging study. But you'll remember that Isaiah has a pattern:

He would say, "Hey guys, you're committing idolatry, and you need to repent. God's going to bring judgment."
The Babylonians eventually come in as God's agent of judgment, destroy Jerusalem, and carry off the captives. You know the story.
He would announce judgment and call them to repent, but he always would say there's going to be a remnant, a contingent of faithful people who will not die in that judgment.
He would usually say you're going to need God's help, and there's good news: a new covenant is coming, where the Servant, as he's often called in the book of Isaiah, will come and make all things better.

So you have this mode where he's talking about something that's going to happen now or in the future, and you have to figure out which.

Wide-Angle and Zoom Lenses (29:02)

Any photographers here? How do you take pictures? The iPhone has just eliminated the need for photography, but you have a wide-angle lens. I could get the whole room in here. And then I've got a zoom lens. If I'm a sports photographer and I want to see the sweat coming off of that pass rusher's face as he runs into the end zone, I've got a long lens. So you have a short, wide-angle lens, or you have a long lens to get in close.

That's what the prophets do. Sometimes they have that wide-angle lens on, and they're looking at events that are happening right now, in that slice of time. And then sometimes they put on the long lens, the zoom lens, and they're looking way into the future to something that's yet to come. The crazy takeaway from Isaiah in the study is that he doesn't tell you when he switches lenses. He doesn't tell you when he's going from wide to zoom. That's what happens with the Day of the Lord. Sometimes it's a wide-angle view of something that's happening right now, and sometimes he's looking way into the future.

I've given you some passages here. Can I show you some of these? We need to wrap up soon, but let me show you one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. If you're in Matthew or Revelation, just look back to Joel for a minute. Let me show you the one Jesus quoted, in Joel chapter 2.

Joel 2 and Peter's Testimony (31:05)

If you're a bit unfamiliar with Joel, one of his themes is actually the Day of the Lord. He talks about it more than most of the other prophets. So when you remember the book of Joel, you think, "Okay, he's going to talk about the Day of the Lord a lot." That's one of his features. Where is Joel? The big prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, and then you get to the twelve minor prophets, the shorter ones. Hosea, and then Joel, right after Hosea.

Listen to what Joel predicts in chapter 2. He's switching lenses, just like with Isaiah. Sometimes he's talking about a regional judgment that's going to happen, a sort of regional Day of the Lord, and other times he's looking to the future. So watch him switch lenses here. Joel 2, beginning in verse 30:

"I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be saved."

We know Paul uses that in Romans 10. So "I will display wonders," miraculous things in the sky, will be evidence that the Day of the Lord is coming. It's the same passage Jesus quotes, and it's very similar to what we see in the judgments in the book of Revelation.

Go all the way to the other end of your Bible, to 2 Peter. The Day of the Lord is not just something in the Old Testament; it's carried over into the New Testament. The New Testament writers take the Old Testament writers seriously and talk about the same events. Peter is writing to persecuted Christians, and everybody is wondering when the Lord is going to come back and when one of these things is going to happen. Peter wants to remind his persecuted Christians about the signs that will accompany these things. Second Peter 3:10:

"But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up."

Nobody is going to have to guess when the Day of the Lord happens. It is going to be obvious.

Dating the Day of the Lord (33:13)

This also helps us with the dating of the events of Revelation, the timing of Matthew 24, and the timing of the Day of the Lord as mentioned by Joel. These are incredibly unique events that we have not seen in history. You say, "What about the preterists?" We'll talk about that, but taking it at face value, we have not seen the sky split apart like a scroll. We have not seen the sun darken. We have not seen the moon turned to blood. We have not seen the stars fall from the heavens. We have not seen the whole earth burnt up in intense heat. That means the Day of the Lord, the final and ultimate Day of the Lord, is yet future, and that's consistent with what we've seen so far in the book of Revelation.

We've stopped now, and we're out of time. We'll come back and get into chapter 7 next time. That's a good review, I hope. Seat belts fastened, tray tables in their upright, locked positions. We are going into Revelation, and it's going to be awesome.

Closing Prayer (34:14)

Let me pray. Father, thank you for these reminders. While we stand in awe, and are shocked and overwhelmed by these details, like we learned in camp all week, we remember that you are coming back, that there's an urgency, and that it could happen anytime. As Dr. Chow reminded us, we are out of time, for today is the day of salvation. So from our students to adults to our kids, Father, might our whole church take seriously these warnings and these events that have been told to us throughout our Bibles, so that when you appear we will be ready. As John reminds us, we don't want to shrink back as those who aren't ready. As the gospel writers remind us, we want to be found faithful when he returns. And then we have a mission here. So keep us from distraction, keep us focused on what matters, might we be about gospel work, and might we be ready for this day. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

* = the audio was unclear here and the words were reconstructed from context. Scripture read aloud is in red.

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