Revelation Chapter 7, Midweek study

This chapter is what's known as a parenthetical or pause chapter

between the opening of the 6th and the 7th seals of the scroll.

Remember the scroll Chapter 5. God the Father holds the scroll

out in his right hand. Who is worthy?

Taped scroll. No one is no one in the universe

anywhere. John begins to weep.

Hey, John, stop weeping. Look over there.

There's a land that as as it has been slain, as it has been

butchered, as it has been slaughtered.

The word slain means Jesus steps forward, grabs the scroll.

He is now going to redeem the world back that Adam lost to

Satan when he disobeyed God and obeyed Satan.

And as he begins to break the, the scroll, the seals on the

scroll, it's it, it opens and, and the events and the

redemption of our nation and the judgement of God upon a fallen

wicked world begins. And so we got now up to Chapter

7. And here we have this, this

pause in Chapter 7. You could say it's the the eye

of the storm in Chapter 8 when the 7th seal is broken.

And then we begin the seven trumpets and they're they're

massive. I think it's the first four deal

with the world's climate. And so if you're a climate

activist, bad things are happening.

It doesn't matter what you do, how much arbitrary things are

going to change and the world's going to be just whacked and the

oceans and everything. And then the last three of the

seven trumpets, they deal with humanity.

So the judgments that fall upon the people left after the

rapture. And so things really begin to go

down South after the breaking of the 7th seal, and the judgments

of God really turn up during this time.

In Chapter 7 of the massive fallout, the period of

judgments, the cataclysmic happenings, they're going to

occur. Who's going to be able to stand

for God during that period, during the Tribulation period?

We'll see two groups of people in our study tonight who will

stand for Christ during the Tribulation period.

It says in verse one, and after these things, I saw 4 angels

standing at the four corners of the earth, holding by their

power the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not

blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.

A dead stop, silence. 4 angels powerful hold the four winds NE

South and West, and a stillness, eeriness that the world has

never experienced totally settles eerily.

As I said, on the planet Earth, it's always the calm before the

storm. When that happens, you go, oh,

what's what's going on here? Then a fifth Angel steps on the

heavenly stage. There's two, John said.

I saw another Angel ascending from the east.

He has in his hand having the seal of the living God.

And he cried with a loud voice. So he's a powerful Angel to the

four angels. So there's a there's a a rank

and a power and a command. And he says to the four angels

who are holding back with their power the winds of the four

corners of the earth. He says to the four angels whom

have been granted to harm the earth and the sea.

He says do not harm the earth, the sea or the trees till we

have sealed. And he's going to be the one who

seals the servants Duoi bond servant bond slave of our God on

their foreheads. It's interesting that the

Antichrist is going to copy. Remember he's, he's going to

copy everything God does. And so these who are about to be

sealed during the tribulation period period will have a seal

of God upon them. 4 angels told what to do by the 5th Angel.

And when there's no wind upon planet earth, there's a problem.

We kind of don't think about it, but as much as we live in one of

the windiest cities in the coast in the world, I mean, how often

are you complaining about you go to the beach in summer, It's

beautiful. And next minute sea breeze comes

in and everyone says we're all going home and the beach is

everyone decamps the beach when the wind is stopped and there's

this calm. All the world's pop pollution.

Remember, think of Beijing, China, Los Angeles.

It just stays in Los Angeles. When we've been to Los Angeles,

when the wind comes, it comes from the ocean and blows up over

the mountains. And you think, oh, the clouds

coming. No, it's, it's the pollution

coming up from the mountains to blow over the ocean, over the

mountains. Particularly when we've been in

San Bernardino in China, we see it and they pray for the wind to

blow the the pollution away. Well, the pollution's not going

to move. It's just going to sit there.

Think of Mumbai. The world chokes on it.

Without the wind, what else is there?

There's no rain. There's no rain because it's the

the Lord who causes the evaporation over the ocean,

which I I'm still astounded how he does that.

News, millions of leaders, billions of litres of water up

there. I'll put it over there, drop it.

No man can do that. God does that.

And so there's going to be no rain because as the the Ocean's

evaporating and it goes up, the clouds ain't going to move.

They're just staying there. No rain coming up on the land.

So therefore what's going to happen during this period is

there There's going to be a worldwide drought because you

need rain to grow anything. And a great famine will result

just on this and without the water.

What else do you need? You need to drink, so there's

going to be a a lack of good drink drinkable potable water.

So God basically, when he holds the winds with these 4 angels

has turned the engine off that runs the world's weather

pattern. As you look at the world and you

look at weather and you study weather and I think it's

fascinating. It just shows the hand and of

God, the creator of God in charge of the world and how he

moves the winds and how they work and how the ocean currents

all move with this and that. When that all stops, basically

God's just gone. No pause and we're in danger.

It says in verse 4 John and I heard the number of those who

were sealed. So now the Angel, the 5th Angel,

he's gone. Now the judgments haven't come

from the other angels as yet, which going to happen in the

seven trumpets. He's gone and he sealed this

group because he's been sent the Smith Angel to seal servants.

And I heard the number of those who were sealed 144,000 and

we're told great detail who they are of all the tribes of the

children of Israel was sealed. And you can read into that

whatever you like and a lot of people have.

But if you just read it, it pretty much tells you who they

are. But even to go into more detail,

so we're aware who they are, of the tribe of Judah, 12,000 was

sealed. Of the tribe of Reuben, 12,000

was sealed. The tribe of Gad 12,000 Asha

Neftali, the tribe of Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Isaca, Zebulun,

Joseph, the tribe of Benjamin, so 12,000 So we brought to the

most spoken about group of all the cults in the world, 144,000

Seventh Day Adventists go, that's us.

The Jehovah Witnesses go, no, that's us.

This pause by God, you could say, was a moment in time of

God's mercy. Why?

Because God is about to use this group during a very particular

time for a great reason. For God sends his Angel, the 5th

Angel, to seal his 144,000 Jewish believers for a special

service that they will have during the Tribulation period.

Their tribes and the numbers from each tribe is clearly

detailed so no one can confuse who they are.

The only way you confuse at how they are is to go no black is

white, white is black and to take it out of context and to

call it something else that it isn't.

Revelation 7 three says do not harm the earth the seal the

trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their

foreheads. Again, that word servants is the

Greek word du loy where we get our bondservant.

It means they are already believers.

They were not saved. However, let me clarify this

prior to the rapture of the church.

Otherwise, they would have gone up with the church during the

rapture, correct? Instead, they came to faith in

the early part of the tribulation and are now sealed

by God by the Lord for this special service whereby He will

use them during the tribulation period 15 times.

We're told that they are His servants.

From verse 3 to verse 8, you go this group, how will the Lord,

you ask, protect this group of 144,000 during this time of

tribulation and all the wide world judgements are happening

and you know this is going on and this is going in.

When you read through the Book of Revelation, you'll see the

judgements are very pointed because it's not there, not

there, only them, not them. It happens now we also we have

previous example examples detailed in God's Word where God

has done this very thing and protected people during

judgement. Noah at the time of the great

flood, Noah found grace in the size in the eyes of God.

One lot. We can't pour judgement out upon

Sodom and Gomorrah until we get lot out of the city.

Remember, Abraham prayed if there'd be 50, but yeah, 4030

ten and down on it wasn't 10. And so the Angel said like you

got to come with us. We can't do the judgement here

until you're out of it. Rahab, the children of Israel

circle Jericho. She was told what to do, put a

sign outside the wall where her house was built into the walls

as where she lived, and that that sign showed that she could

stand under the judgement of God.

When the walls fell down upon Jericho.

She was saved and her family, the Israelites themselves in

Egypt at the time of the 10 plagues sent by God.

You can do it here, here, here, but not them.

These 144,000 are Jews. They are not the Jehovah

Witnesses who have long claimed that this is them.

When the membership of the Jehovah Witness cult surpassed

the 144,000 mark, they were forced to revise, as did the

Mormons when they said we can no longer isolate black people from

becoming Mormons. If you go back and just study

their history, you'll find out. And so they revised because

prior you, you couldn't be a black person and be a Mormon.

So the Jehovah Witnesses, so they revised the theology.

That's a man made theology. You can't, you can't go.

Well, you know what, we need to change it.

Anyone who barracks for the West Coast Eagles has got to come out

of here and we tear it. We change the word of God.

You can't do that. Man doesn't pick and choose.

So when the membership of the Jehovah Witnesses surpassed the

144,000 mark, they were forced to revise this theology.

So they said the 144,000, which has been filled for quite a

while now, were elite members who'd go to heaven and the rest

who come around knocking on doors selling you the Awake

would live in bliss on the earth.

So there's this and this, sad. No, they, as the Bible states

extra clearly, the 144,000 are Jews and they are not the

church. They're not spiritual.

This is This Is Us. No, they're Jews.

Tells you in detail. Now importantly, only God knows

from which tribe each Jew is descended.

How's that? Because when the temple was

destroyed in 70 AD under the Roman general Titus and every

stone, remember Jesus said not a stone's going to be left, which

just pulled down all the records, which was a very big

deal in Israel. In Judaism all the records and

who's who's who's what tribe you're from and everything were

destroyed, burnt because God Now he's the only one who knows the

genealogical records. But also question who would want

to be one of the 144,000 really. If you do, you are plainly

stating that now you're not a Christian because every genuine

believer, the Bible tells us, Jesus tells us John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

Paul tells us in One Thessalonians chapter 4 and then

in One Corinthians 15 every genuine believer will be

raptured to meet the Lord and remain with Him during the seven

year tribulation period in heaven as we saw with John as

the type in chapter 4. Then we see us in chapter 5

worshipping and praising God only as believers could do.

So to be part of 144,000, you would have to be an unsaved Jew.

You would have to miss the rapture.

Therefore, you don't know Christ until during the tribulation

period. You would come to faith in the

tribulation period and be chosen by God for this special service.

Now God is providing Israel. And remember the tribulation

period, when you take a step back, it's not about the church.

The church is taken out. One Thessalonians chapter 2 and

we see the restraining forces gone and we're out.

We're out of the out of what our our mission is because we were

the the unnatural branch grafted in.

And now the clock, the 60, the 70th year of the of of Daniel

clicks in that last seven year period and Israel, which is now

on the world focus comes into being who they are, what they

should be God's chosen people. So God during the tribulation

period is providing Israel in this period of time to be what

he intended them to be all along when they fell down to be what

Gods missionaries. That's why they were chosen to

be his salt and his light in a fallen world before Christ

returns in Revelation chapter 19 and sets up his rule and reign

Revelation 19 · chapter mention

in Jerusalem for 1000 years. So what will their service be

you ask? Well, verse 9, after these

things, I looked and behold, a great multitude which no one

could number. So here's a different group of

all nations, tribes, people's tongues standing before the

throne. So they're not the Jews and

before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches

in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying,

salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the

Lamb. All the angels stood round the

throne, and the elders and the four living creatures fell on

their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying Amen,

blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving, honour and power,

and might be to our God forever and ever.

Verse 13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, who are

these? Who's this group?

Not 144,000 Who's this other group we're looking at in the

white robes, palm branches, praising the Lord?

Who are these arrayed in white robes?

Where do they come from? And I said to them, Sir, you

know, he said to me, these are the ones who came out of notice

the great Tribulation. So they get saved during the

Great Tribulation, but they die for their faith during the Great

Tribulation because they won't take the mark of the beast,

won't worship the Antichrist, and they'll die for their faith

and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the

lamb. So the second group, not the

144,000, but this other group, and I spoke about them in length

at length on Sunday is we see in this chapter we covered these

again are the tribulation martyrs.

You know, we read so often and and it is a a very stark book,

the prophecy, the the Book of Revelation, the things that's

going to happen upon the earth. And the question is who's going

to get saved during the tribulation period?

Who will stand for Christ in this period of tribulation?

Because there will be those who will stand for Christ, who will

reject the Antichrist, reject the mark of the beast.

Who realised, man, I have been a fool.

I remember I was told the events, I missed the rapture,

but now I'm not taking the mark of the beast because that I

don't want to lose salvation. So who's able to stand two

groups, 144,000 sealed by God and this multitude of martyrs?

The second group is so large in number, so vast that John can't

calculate how many there are. He says in verse 9, a great

multitude which no one could number.

That tells us that during the tribulation period, though, all

these horrific things are happening and the judgement of

God is falling, that there are literally millions going to come

to Christ, which is a good thing for us because we know people

that we share the gospel with. We tell them about the rapture

and they go, you're an idiot. Don't believe that.

Praise the Lord for God's grace, for God's wonderful salvation,

for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,

that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have

everlasting life. That salvation will be found

even during the Tribulation period by so many.

The greatest number of converts in the history of the planet

will occur at this time. And Billy Graham preached in

South Korea to an audience of 1.1 million people at a crusade

in in in one city, not just over a number of days, but at one

time. Saw the film of it.

It's just like mind blowing. And they're able to actually

number the people that were there because being a very

organised society, you went into a an area that was squared off

and only a certain number went into each square.

So they knew exactly how many people came out to see Billy

Graham. And so the 144,000 Jews are

often referred to as God's elite evangelist during this time.

Why? Because of the number of

converts that come to Christ, because of their witness,

they're sealed by God, they love God, they serve God, they

proclaim the gospel, God protects him during this period.

And many, many people remember we read all tribes, different

tongues, different countries come to Christ because of the

witnessing of the 144,000 of these Jews in Matthew 2414.

Jesus said this was happen, He said, and this gospel of the

Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all

the nations and then the end will come.

So this great multitude unable to be numbered, the martyrs who

will die for their faith, come to Christ, die for their faith.

During the Tribulation period. They wear white robes.

What's that symbolic of symbolising the righteousness of

God? Palm branch is in their hands.

What does that symbolise victory.

And remember Palm Sunday, just go back there.

Celebration and celebration of the palm branch waved was a

celebration symbol of victory. Which reminds us again on Palm

Sunday when Jesus wrote into Jerusalem, What did they cry

out? Hosanna, save now son of David.

Hosanna, this group in verse 10 in Chapter 7 here singing out,

What do they cry out? Salvation belongs to our God,

same as Hosanna. We the Church join them in

heaven in verses 11 and 12, praising the Lord together.

Verse 15. Therefore they are before the

throne of God. Serve him day and night in His

temple. He who sits on the throne will

dwell among them. That's a beautiful thing.

God will be with these who have come out of the Tribulation

period. But notice the 16 Because these

are the things that this martyred group who died for

their faith have experienced during the tribulation period

and the judgements that fall upon the world.

They shall neither hunger anymore.

Why? Because did they hunger?

Because they couldn't buy or sell?

Because they refused take the mark of the beast on their right

hand or upon their forehead. The sun shall not strike them.

There's a period there where the sun is going to beat down upon

the planet earth and cook everyone basically.

Nor any heat. For the Lamb who was in the

midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to

living fountains of waters. Isn't that Psalm 23?

The Lord is my shepherd shall want, he shall lead me when he's

going to lead these but notice and then says and God will wipe

away every tear from their eyes. I cannot imagine I'm not going

to because I'm not going to be there, but the tears that will

have been shed by those who died for their faith during the

tribulation period difficult time.

And it says and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

And so the choir grows. Notice in verse 13, the elder

makes the point that this group is completely different from

those already in heaven. Chapter 5 and 4, the church, who

are they? These are they that came out of

the tribulation period. Therefore, they are before the

throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.

How will we be serving God? It's an interesting thing we're

not told in detail here. I've thought about that, you

know. How will we be serving God?

If you've been serving the Lord here and now, you'll know the

joy and wonder that we will experience to be able to do this

in the very presence of God Himself.

There's something unique that when you're serving God and I

spoke to many of you about that that serve here at Calvary and

you go, I love doing this. This is how I I, I worship the

Lord. This is the way that I, I find

this joy by teaching the Sunday school or I make the copies or

I, I help the elderly ones or I'm, I, I, I look after the

little ones in the crash and oh, it's a blessing to do that.

Or I play in part of the worship team or I, I vacuum my sweep or

something. I do that or it's something, we

have a spring cleaning here once a year and you know, massive,

you turn up and we, we do the whole place and clean it right

up. And there's, there's not a sad

person serving. There's something about serving

the Lord. Well, just amp that up again

that we will be serving the Lord.

You know, you're just pleased to do that.

We're going to be doing that in heaven.

Whilst the words are directly related to the martyrs who have

suffered during the tribulation period about what they've

suffered and their tears being wiped away, for each and every

one of us here tonight, you too and those watching, we've all

suffered some degree as a result of our own sins.

You know this thing, Oh man, why did I do that?

I just, you know, and we suffer because of our sinfulness would

cause grief, sorrow to others and to ourselves.

Well, when we get to heaven, no more suffering, no more going.

Oh man, you know I met you. But every now and then I think

what an idiot I was when I was growing up, how I said those

things and how I did. I just can't believe myself.

Sometimes I'm embarrassed as I look back on my old self.

Well that all that's all going to be gone.

No more tears, no more suffering.

In verse 17 it says Christ our Good Shepherd will continue to

love and guide us. My favourite chapter I think in

the Bible is John chapter 10. And there it talks about many of

John 10 · chapter mention

you would know it, the Good Shepherd, Jesus being the Good

Shepherd and how he calls us by name, how he gave his life for

us, how he holds us in his hands, how no one will be able

to take us out of his hands. How he loves us, cares for us.

We he's gets the sheep, he calls a man and he puts him in a safe

place and then he he sleeps across and protects us from

anything evil and bad. That's our shepherd.

That's Jesus. Well, when we get to heaven,

we'll experience the Lord being our shepherd personally in a far

greater way. You and I are living in the last

days when the Christian faith is being debated.

Less and less churches actually open Bibles.

Less and less people gather for prayer.

Churches are closing, falling down, and if they're not closing

or falling down, they become diluted and preaching everything

else but Jesus Christ. Anything goes no matter what.

We're living in that time. Penny Wong and our Prime

Minister came out today in support of 27 other nations.

They get back to parliament and they just slammed Israel, just

slam them. And they things that they said

were not factual about what has happened with the food supplies

and everything you've had. We've had young Eve here from

Israel. You know, Israel supplied all

the utilities to Gaza, water, the electricity, the power, all

the Gazans when they came across, they would come in and

they would work. They had all good jobs in

Israel. We just go to Bethlehem.

And I remember the person in Bethlehem coming to me because

all the Christians, we were going to visit Bethlehem on the

side of the the shepherd's field and also the place where Christ

was born in The Cave, Bethlehem there.

And he said to me, and he was an Arab and he was a Muslim.

He said, this is despicable. He says, I've sent my kids away.

We can't live in Bethlehem. I can't survive.

No Christians come here anymore. That's how we lived.

And he said Hamas dictate to us what we can do, what we how we

live. He said I have to get out of

here myself and I'm a Muslim. You see the facts aren't getting

out. The media and our government are

using the figures from the UN and Hamas on their public

expressions. It's wrong.

You and I, we're believers in Christ and we can become

discouraged. I do.

When I read such things and I see our government acting in

such a way, you know, there's still hostages kept it, it, it

would be resolved in a, in an instant.

Release the hostages, remove Hamas, let the Gazans live how

they want to live, be done in an instant.

But no, now what's happening is, as the number of hostages are

dying and they still haven't released them.

Now what's happening with the IDF, the IDF put out, Hamas are

now trying to every time a soldier comes into the air, they

don't want to kill them, they want to capture them.

I want to get some more soldiers.

They need leverage. They need leverage.

We can become discouraged when we read these things, but the

greatest outpouring of salvation is going to come upon the earth

after we're gone, after the rapture of the church.

The wonderful blessing of heaven lays and awaits for us, and it

will bring us joy unspeakable, Peter said, And we should be

encouraged as we look and listen.

Jesus said, watch and pray in these days.

What for? For the trumpet call.

And that's why the Book of Revelation finishes with that

word Maranatha. God is coming short.