Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #9 of Revelation, chapter 6, and we are going to be reading Revelation 6:9:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
In order for us to understand what God is saying here as the fifth seal is opened, there is a difference (that should be pointed out) from the first four seals. After each of the first four seals were opened, we would also read concerning one of the four living creatures and they were involved with the first four seals. Now the fifth seal is being opened and we no longer read of the living creature. Now God is going to give us a Biblical teaching; He is going to lay out for us something concerning the “souls of them that were slain for the word of God.”
In order for us to understand what it is that God would have us to know, we have to first look the word altar: “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” Now in order to understand the word altar as we are reading it here in Revelation, the last Book of the Bible, we have to go to an earlier part of the Scriptures in the Book of Leviticus and we will read a lot about the altar (and I will read several verses so we get a good idea) in Leviticus 1:5:
And he shall kill the bullock before JEHOVAH: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And in Leviticus 1:7-9:
And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire: And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto JEHOVAH.
And a little further down in Leviticus 1:11-13:
And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before JEHOVAH: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar. And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and the priest shall bring it all, and burn it upon the altar: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto JEHOVAH.
This is just a sampling. We could read many, many more verses in Leviticus alone which refer to the altar. But we get the idea that the altar completely identifies with the sacrifices that God commanded Israel to perform. All of the sacrifices that the Lord commanded Israel to perform spiritually pointed to the Messiah, the Lamb of God, that would take away the sin of the world and to the Lord Jesus Christ and God Himself. The LORD would provide Himself a Lamb. And that means that the altar, which was an integral part of the sacrificial system, is also pointing to the Lord Jesus. This is the altar that God commanded Moses to build and He also commanded Moses concerning the Laws regarding this altar. Then later when Solomon built the temple, there was an altar placed within the temple, but that basically functioned the same way. The sacrifices that God commanded were to be slain, their blood spilled, and burnt upon the altar. So that altar completely relates to, and identifies with, Jesus Christ.
We read in Hebrews 13:10:
We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle.
This is really referring to Jesus Himself. He is our altar. He is the one that entered into the Holy of holies and sacrificed Himself for the sins of His people. Just as He is the sacrifice, He is the altar that we have. Once we realize that the altar is basically a synonym for the Lord, then we can understand whole passages of the Bible, so let us look at one in the Old Testament in 2nd Kings and will quickly see that Jesus is the altar and, actually, these things are synonymous: Christ or Jesus, the Gospel, the Word of God and the altar. If someone comes up with another “Jesus,” as the New Testament warns about and admonishes not to do, then they have developed “another gospel.” Now what if someone came up with another altar? (That actually happened in 2nd Kings, chapter 16, with King Ahaz.) It says in 2nd Kings 16:10-16:
And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus. And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon. And he burnt his burnt offering and his meat offering, and poured his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings, upon the altar. And he brought also the brasen altar, which was before JEHOVAH, from the forefront of the house, from between the altar and the house of JEHOVAH, and put it on the north side of the altar. And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by. Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
And in 2nd Chronicles 28, we read a little bit more information concerning Ahaz’ apostasy. We read in 2nd Chronicles 28:22-25:
And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet more against JEHOVAH: this is that king Ahaz. For he sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him: and he said, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel. And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of JEHOVAH, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem. And in every several city of Judah he made high places to burn incense unto other gods, and provoked to anger JEHOVAH God of his fathers.
And then it says in verse 27:
Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, even in Jerusalem: but they brought him not into the sepulchres of the kings of Israel: and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.
Here, we see that the evil and wicked King Ahaz saw an altar in Damascus that “caught his eye.” He called it a “great altar” and he had the design of this altar sent to Urijah the Priest and altars were made after the fashion of it, according to what he had seen in Damascus. Really, it is a picture of “another gospel.” It is exactly what individuals in the churches and congregations do. The “plain” or true Word of God is not sufficient; it is not good enough for them. It maybe is not as great or as exciting as “other doctrine.” You know, men can really come up with some elaborate and dramatic things and then say that “this is the working of God.” They can really add to the Gospel and improve upon it (they think). They can make it much more exciting, much more interesting and much more attractive to their fellow man.
That is exactly what the churches have done; they take the simple, plain Word of God which God has said He will not add to or subtract from and they say, “Oh, God can talk to us in a dream or give us a vision. Or, even more exciting, we can speak in a mysterious tongue and God will communicate with us. God will cause us to lift our hands in the air!” Some churches carry it to the furthest extreme and they develop “sign posts” of the Holy Spirit such as “holy laughter” or “falling over backwards” or other very visible, outward things that are exciting and dramatic.
It is just like the “great altar” that Ahaz brought from Damascus to replace the “plain altar” that was in the temple: “This is something great! This is something worthy of our sacrifice.” And this is despicable. This is hated in God’s sight. God has designed His Gospel. He has designed His word and He has explicitly stated that we are not to add or subtract from it. We can learn from it and continue in it, but we dare not to add a single word to it. Those in the churches today have fallen into the trap that Ahaz fell into long ago and they have perverted the Gospel of the Bible and they have changed it and tried to make it palatable and acceptable and more attractive to our modern world.
Can you imagine? Here we live in a day when mankind in some countries (not everywhere, but it is getting more and more like this all over) must be “constantly entertained.” He has to be constantly titillated in his senses and things have to be more and more dramatic and exciting. It has to be “new.” Like the Athenians, man today wants to hear “some new thing” and it has to outdo the previous thing.
How can the churches ever satisfy the world’s desire for entertainment with the Word of God? Well, they are trying…they are trying with their music and they are trying with their doctrines to get “dancing in the pews.” They are trying their best and yet they can never satisfy the world’s constant lust for being entertained, for eating and drinking and making merry. No – the world seeks after those things and no matter how much those that “profess” to be God’s people try to use the world’s tactics in order to garner some of these people of the world and bring them into their congregations, they will always fail. They can never do it as well as the world can do it, even though they have gone beyond the bounds that God has set, the ancient boundaries of His Law. Yet, there are limitations as to just how wickedly they can pervert the things of God, so they can never keep up with the world. And, of course, they should never have even attempted to do so.
God’s people are not of the world. Our Gospel is not of this world. Our kingdom is not of this world. Our music is not of this world. The music and the language of the kingdom of heaven is intentionally meant to be different and to stand apart in sharp contrast to the things of this earth and this world (and not to be made to look as close as possible to the things of the world). No wonder God has finished with the churches and congregations of the world!
The altar points to the Lord Jesus Christ and in our verse in Revelation 6:9, it says:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God…
Once we see that the altar is a type and figure of the Lord, we can quickly see why the souls are “under the altar.” It would be upon the altar that the sacrifice would be laid and the blood would be spilled; it is as though here are the souls predestinated to salvation – the souls of those whose sins were laid upon the great Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ who would die for them. It was as though that blood seeped down from the altar to cover over them, because they were under the altar. It is representative of the atoning work of Christ performed on behalf of His elect people.
These souls are God’s elect “that were slain for the word of God” and the Bible speaks of: “for the Word’s sake, for Christ’s sake or for righteousness’ sake,” and these also are synonymous statements, as the believers identify with the Word of God because God has used His Word to bring salvation to them. He has used His Word to save them and, as a result, they develop a great love for the Bible. God’s people love the Bible. We love the Word of God and that demonstrates our love for Christ because Christ is the Word that was made flesh.
You know, some say, “Oh, I love Jesus! I love Jesus!” They have that on their lips often – how much they love God and how much they love Jesus. And then when you talk to them about the Word of God, you find out as you discuss things with them, there is very obviously no love of the truth. They hold to lies. A child of God learns the truth. We learn that God proves His truth, testifies to His truth, confirms His truth to us and we also learn to “hear” Christ’s voice, which is truth.
So, as we speak with many that profess to be Christians and profess great love for Christ, yet, as they speak of salvation and they talk of adding works to God’s grace through baptism or through “accepting Christ” or numerous ways that churches and congregations have added to the Word of God and put salvation in the hands of man and taken it out of the hand of God, we realize that they are not loving the Word or the truth of God’s Word with those doctrines. And then we speak some more with them and it turns out they have no problem with divorce and we wonder how can they miss God’s Law that “what God hath joined together, let man not put asunder.” Again, where is the “love of the truth?” Where is the love for the Word’s sake? Or we speak with a woman and she is eager and very desirous to teach and to preach and to expound the Word of God to men, contrary to what the Bible says that the woman is “to be silent” and not to “usurp authority over the man,” and, again, we wonder, “Where is the love for the Word of God?”
And this goes on, point, after point, after point. The Bible says that the church age is over and, yet, we speak with many that profess love for Christ and they despise and hate that teaching and, yet, that teaching is true and comes forth from the Bible and you cannot separate the true teaching of the Word of God from Christ. So how can you say that you love Christ and then say how much you “hate” a teaching of Christ, the teaching of Scripture? Of course, they do not see it as the teaching of Christ and that is the sad situation: there is a love, yes, for the doctrine of their church, for the confession of their church, for the creed of their church and for their favorite theologian’s teachings. There is a love for their denominational stance and there is a love for what their pastor preaches, but there is not a love of the truth of the Word of God as the Bible states it. That means there is not a love of Christ ….and God is not fooled by what people say; He is not deceived by the casual remarks that men make and how quickly and easily they profess love for Him and how they glorify Him in words, yet their hearts are far from Him.
These souls that were “under the altar” were true men; they were men and women without guile, without deceit; they were people that had received new hearts and new spirits and truly cleaved to the Word of God in love. They loved the Word of God to the point that they “were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.” They would not separate themselves from God’s Word to deliver themselves or to spare their lives – they would rather die.
Of course, this has a lot of spiritual truth as far as their “death.” It refers to the many that died in the spiritual sense (and we will talk about that more in our next study), but it also had to do with those that died physically because they would not deny the Word of God. They would not deny and move away from the truth of the Scripture in order to save their own lives. And we know of this from the Bible, as God records of certain men that died for the Word’s sake. We also know this from church history, like the time of the Reformation when individuals were even burned at the stake for adhering to, and holding steadfastly upon, the truth of the Bible. And even for the sake of having a Bible, some have died. So we find that God’s people love the Word of God.