Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #5 of Revelation, chapter 6, and we are going to be continuing to read Revelation 6:8:
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
In our last study we were looking at death and how death comes as a result of the breaking of the Law of God and, therefore, it was by the commandment of God that sin entered into the world. Of course, there is nothing wrong with God’s commandment – it is perfectly good and holy. But sin “taking occasion by the commandment,” entered into the world. And then, once sin entered in, death followed and death comes as a result: “The wages of sin is death.”
The believers identify completely with God’s commandments, the Bible, which is the Law Book of God and, therefore, we identify with death. The Bible says of God’s people (His messengers, those that carry His Word and share it with others) that we are a “savour of death unto death in them that perish.”
Now, here, in Revelation 6:8, we find the green horse (pale horse) “and his name that sat on him was Death.” We can understand that the rider on the green horse whose name is Death is the Word of God, the Law of God, which has a close identification with the true believers, and the Law of God is Christ. The Bible tells us that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life,” just as the child of God is the “savour of death unto death,” as we read in 2nd Corinthians 2:15-16:
For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life…
And Christ is the “life” that we are a savour of and, likewise, Christ is the “death,” because it is one and the same Word of God, one and the same Law Book, that God sends forth. And if the Word of God would reach the ears of one of His elect predestinated to receive salvation, then we were a the savour of life unto life, but if His Word reached the ears of one that was not predestinated and not His elect, then they were condemned by it and we were the savour of death unto death. Just as Jesus is “life,” He also identifies with “death,” because it is the “letter that killeth.” The letter of the Law of the Bible kills unsaved mankind. So that is what is in view with this rider on the horse whose name is Death and Hell followed with him.
We were mentioning last time that God has brought the world into judgment and, therefore, He has brought the world into the condition of being ruled over by death and hell. The world has been brought into the condition of hell. The Greek word translated as hell in this verse is hades and it is Strong’s #86. It is also translated as grave. It can be understood as grave or hell and it really points to the “grave.”
We find this word hades in Luke 10:14-15:
But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.
So we can see that to be “thrust down to hell” has to do with the judgment of God –of being under the wrath of God – and that is the condition that the world has entered into since May 21, 2011. The world has been “thrust down to hell;” that is, brought into the condition of being under God’s wrath.
Now also in Luke, chapter 16, we find the Greek word hades in the context of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. I want to read a good portion of this parable in Luke 16:19-26:
There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
And I wanted to read this because this is teaching us about hades. It is teaching us about the condition of being in hades. The Bible is teaching at this time that death and hell, or hades, has come upon the earth. God has cast mankind into this spiritual condition of being under His wrath. It is a spiritual judgment and He has spiritually brought all of the unsaved into the grave or hades, when God shut the door of heaven on May 21, 2011 and ended His salvation program, as a result of having saved all those elect that were to become saved. Therefore, He ended His program of evangelization; the only purpose was to find the elect and to apply the Word to their hearts in order that they become saved; and when that was accomplished, there was no further need for the program of evangelizing the world to seek the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They have all been found.
And when God did that and He shut the door and put out the Gospel light, He brought the world into the condition of death and hell because He sealed everyone’s eternal fate. He guaranteed the destruction of every unsaved individual; anyone who is unsaved today will remain unsaved tomorrow and throughout the period of Judgment Day until it concludes and then that person will be destroyed. Their annihilation, their utter destruction is guaranteed by the action of God in shutting the door to heaven. So He has brought mankind into the condition, spiritually, of death and hell.
So we can learn from this parable…and I am not saying that we are going to go through this parable and match everything up to our present time, but we learn what it means to be in hades.
Now, first of all, we should notice that here in this parable this individual has his “eyes.” That means he has his physical body and, likewise, the unsaved inhabitants of the earth today possess their physical bodies as they are living in hades at this time.
Another thing we want to notice is that there is a fixed separation that God has brought to bear between the “saved” and the “unsaved.” God has Lazarus in “His bosom.” He has Lazarus in a place of comfort, in a place of salvation and in a place of safety and security. And He has the rich man, who is unsaved, in hades and God says, “there is a great gulf fixed” in between these two conditions – in between these two states of these individuals (between the saved and the unsaved). There is an impassable gulf. And that is something else we want to notice: there is no way for any saved individual (typified by Lazarus, who is saved) to cross over the gulf and bring “water,” representing the Gospel of salvation. There is not even a drop of water that can pass over that chasm – that great gulf fixed between the two. There is just no way and there is no possibility at all; it is something that cannot be done.
We can see how that relates to our present situation where we have in the same world the saved and the unsaved brought together into the time period of Judgment Day and we have a chasm – a great gulf fixed. On one hand, we have the saved individuals that will remain saved and comforted by God’s salvation; they are the ones we read about in Isaiah 26 that enter into the chambers and are kept safe and secure until “the indignation be over passed.” These elect individuals are living in the world upon the earth as Judgment Day is occurring and unfolding all around them and as the unsaved are being punished, yet, they themselves are not being punished because it just cannot touch them.
But the unsaved, no matter what they do, cannot cross over to the place of Abraham’s bosom; they cannot be comforted; they must remain in torment and that is something else that identifies with Judgment Day, as Revelation 9 tells us: that the locusts will bring torment for “five months,” and that five months is a figure representing the entire duration of the Day of Judgment. The unsaved are in torment like the rich man. They cannot escape it. They cannot obtain God’s salvation. It is now impossible. There is no allowance made. There is no mercy because God has stated He will have “judgment without mercy.”
And this rich man is finally doing what he ought to have done all his life, but now in this condition of death and hell he desires God’s mercy, and he says in verse 24: “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” And we could relate this to those that are trying to have dialogue with God through His Word, the Bible, and they are trying to prove and to show that there is still mercy today – there is still salvation – and the door is not shut and, certainly, there is mercy and a person can still experience the salvation of God. They are attempting to have the Lord open the door (just as we read in the Gospel accounts) and they are knocking, as it says in Luke 13:24:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
That is exactly the situation we have in Luke 16. He is seeking to enter the kingdom of God – into Abraham’s bosom – but he is not able because that time is past; the day of salvation is over. It is now the Day of Judgment and now he is in hades. And it goes on to say in Luke 13:25:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
That is the answer of God. There is no opening of what He has shut and He has shut the door to heaven. Christ is the door and God shut it. There is no other way in. But the rich man, though, is trying; he is making an attempt to have that door open; he is using the language that certainly will “soften” God and certainly will allow God to open the door just the littlest bit. He is not asking for a sea of water or a river. He is not asking for a stream or even a fountain – just a drop. “Send Lazarus, that beggar! Yes, I know he is the one I had no time for during the day of salvation, but now it is different. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger.” In other words, send just the littlest drop of water; the littlest possibility.
You know, it is not up to God’s people. We are just messengers. We are doorkeepers. We follow instructions as God, the Master and Lord, directs us and as He tells us to close the door because the day has come; it is Judgment Day. So we have to say, “I’m sorry. The door is shut.” But then you will find people that try to say, “Well, what about this instance? What about this particular case? What about little babies and children? Certainly, certainly, there is some mercy. Certainly there is a little bit of mercy somewhere for someone?”
Yet, no, no – the grievously sorrowful news that the people of God have to share is that the door is completely shut. The door is closed. We cannot open it. God, in his program, has shut it and now we are living at that time when there is no mercy. We cannot even allow for the littlest bit of mercy.
You know, that is something else we notice here in Luke 16. Read verse 26 where Abraham is speaking (and Abraham is representing God Himself):
And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed…
Now that great gulf is what Revelation 22:11 is describing when it says, “…he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still…” Your spiritual condition is your permanent condition; your eternal state is settled; it will not change and, yet, notice the statement in the next phrase in Luke 16:26:
… so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
Here, God is describing a two-way desire. There is a desire, on the one hand, from those that are in hades and in the condition of death and hell (the unsaved) and they would desire to pass from that place to the kingdom of God, to heaven, but they cannot. It is impossible. There is complete inability.
But look at the other group. Here God is speaking of those in “Abraham’s bosom,” those that are comforted, and those that have salvation: “they which would pass from hence to you cannot.” The word would is expressing a desire and, certainly, God’s people have this desire; we would, if we possibly could, share the “drop of water” with the poor, lost sinner; we would bring the Gospel to anyone that needed it, if we could – if there were some way.
After all, these are God’s elect people and these are God’s messengers. They had just finished bringing the Gospel in an unparalleled way to all the world – night and day. God’s people brought the message of hope and salvation to all the earth and to all the nations. They gave of their time. They gave of their money. They gave of their very lives to go forth with the Word of God. Some places that God’s people went were very dangerous; they risked their lives. They used and used up their resources to get that Word out. Yes, God’s people loved their neighbors; they loved their fellow man. They desired the very best for them – that they might be saved.
The only thing that is stopping them now is the Word of God. This verse is expressing the desire of a great many people: “they which would pass from hence to you.” Yes, we would go with a drop of water and we would try to bring you encouragement.
You know, EBible is probably identified now primarily with “no more salvation,” and some people like to emphasize that and they say it with such disdain. But, really, you have to be careful with that because this is a teaching of the Word of God and that disdain is really toward God Himself. They are not rejecting us, but they are rejecting the Lord and that is the truth of the matter. But, EBible took great pleasure for many years in bringing the message of salvation through the faith of Christ and encouraging people, as often as we could, to cry for mercy: “Oh, won’t you go to God while it is still the day of salvation and while there is still time.” This was in the days leading up to May 21, 2011 and the closer we got, the more urgent our cries were to people to be reconciled to God.
We did this so much that we were mocked. Personally, I can testify of this, that certain individuals said of me in a ridiculing way: “Oh, he is Cry-For-Mercy-McCann,” because I said it so much. And it was always a pleasure. It was always something I was thankful for – that we could have this hope and that we could encourage people to beseech the Lord and cry for mercy.
And now we do not do it at all. I do not do it and God’s people do not do it and anyone that teaches at EBible does not do it. We have stopped because there is no more mercy. All we can pray is what God allows us to pray: “O, Father, having had mercy, have mercy,” as we hope and pray that maybe this individual was saved before God shut the door.
But we cannot give anyone any false hope or false assurance or false encouragement. That is what the churches do; they tell people a lie in order to comfort them. They are “physicians of no value” because they do lie. And we will not lie. We cannot lie. We will cease to be messengers that God will use, if we lie. We can only speak the truth; and the truth is that there is not even a drop of water any more for someone that is in hades to become saved. This is very grievous and it just shows that we are there; we are living in the Day of Judgment.